Bibliophemera

Booksellers throughout the centuries have advertised their books in various print forms from broadsides and newspapers to the most popular medium of the last few centuries--the catalogue. Until recently, though, I'd never come across anything that advertised the advertisement. That appears to be what Dutch bookseller Menno Hertzberger (1897-1982) did with this 14 X 18-inch poster. I say appears because this could have been a poster created from the catalogue cover by someone who just liked the cover and wanted a large copy suitable for framing. However, the trademark on the reverse side of the poster is Fotorite, a company that produced print processing products, including the paper upon which this catalogue image was printed. Fotorite is or was owned by the Belgian company Agfa-Gevaert . A U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for the trademark above in 1966, but the company may have been in existence well before the trademark filing. Given the proximit...

Regarding bibliophiles, I have come across the word "steward" in conjunction with collections of fine books. Those privileged enough to own fine, rare books are not only collectors, but stewards of these treasures. They preserve and maintain individual books and viable collections until it is time to transfer both the books and the stewardship to another collector or entity. However, until I came across the Canadian publisher's letterhead below, I had never seen the title of Book Steward formally conferred upon an individual. Meet Rev. William Briggs of Toronto. I have a batch of business correspondence here between William Briggs of Methodist Book & Publishing House of Toronto and a Mr. John A. Glasby of Canfield, Ontario. Three billheads and the letter comprise about two months of bookselling for Briggs with Mr. Glasby--December 1902 to February 1903. I found Briggs' title with the publishing house on the letterhead along with an interesting book sale ...