The International Miniature Book Society


Regarding a recent acquisition of ephemera collected and preserved by the Rasmussens of California, here is another sampling of what that sight-unseen purchase contained.


This is the very first issue of the Newsletter of the IMBS, published by the International Miniature Book Society in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, August 1984. It was edited by Dr. Martin Žnideršič and designed by Kazimir Rapoša. The editor starts the newsletter with the following:
Dear Lovers of miniature books, In front of you is the newsletter of the new international organisation which wants to bring together the interests of lovers of miniature books from all over the world. 
The stated goal is for a quarterly issue for the months of August, November, February, and May. The editor states that this first issue is an experimental one and that the final shape of the newsletter, with member collaboration, will gradually become clear. 

For anyone interested in miniature books, I have scanned the contents of this newsletter and presented the pages below (page 1 is above). Click on a page for an enlarged view. 

Articles include the following: First International Exhibition of Miniature Books in Ljubljana, Bibliography of Miniature Books, How the Symbol of the International Miniature Book Society Originated, Miniature Books in America, The Greatest Miniature Book Artist (Károly Andruskó), and In the Olympic Year, Three Olympic Miniature Books.  






Back on the first page, the concluding paragraph states:  
With the first number of our newsletter we are enclosing some information about the kind of plans we have for the society's future work. 
The first of those enclosures (below) is a single paper, folded, and printed on both sides with information about the IMBS, its founding, its aims, and a brief membership application section.



The other enclosure is a five-page list (List No. 1), folded catalog-style, of miniature books available for sale through the International Miniature Book Society (see below). The books are listed by country--Yugoslavia, Eastern Germany, and Hungary.





And there you have it--the complete inaugural package from the fledgling IMBS to members and prospective members. The society does not appear to exist today in its original form. The complete lack of information available on the current status of the society supports that assumption. The latest reference I can find is from 2004--The Distinguished Book Award from the International Miniature Book Society.

 The Miniature Book Society, on its About MBS page, offers, perhaps, a clue to the demise of the IMBS. It indicates that it (the MBS) began in 1983 in the United States and now enjoys a worldwide membership. So, possibly, the IMBS was eventually folded into the MBS, as the need or interest in a segregated international society eventually gave way to an all-encompassing organization.

 If my assumption of the IMBS' demise is inaccurate  I'm sure I will be corrected sooner or later. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to open a book

Image
Cataloging books the other day, I came across an 1890s multivolume set called Messages and Papers of the Presidents . Inside one of the volumes was a slip of printed paper with a bookbinder's message: How to Open a Book . The set was published by the Government Printing Office, so they are the likely source of this piece of paper, which reprints a passage from a publication titled, Modern Bookbinding . No other bibliographical detail is included for that title, but I have found a magazine from that era, Modern Bookbinding and Their Designers . No clue, though, as to the author of this particular piece. You might wonder (I did) why there would be a need for instructions to open a book. And if you put those instructions inside the book, doesn't that defeat the purpose somewhat? Opening a book is not as easy as you might think. At least if you read these instructions and try to follow them. Here's the gist of it in the opening run-on sentence: Hold the book with its back on a
Read more

A Bookaholic and Bibliophile in Ukraine

Image
A favorite piece in my Bibliophemera collection is an unused postcard illustrated by Ukrainian artists Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv. It features two interesting, whimsical creatures embracing each other while maintaining engagement with their books. Cat-like and bird-like, one in high heels and one barefoot, one with a long tail and prominent ears and one with tail feathers and no visible ears, both with beaks, and both with books. They can’t put their books down even in this intimate moment. Appropriately, they are labeled Bookaholic and Bibliophile. Might they even be an imaginative rendering of the artists themselves? Romana and Andriy were both born in Lviv, Ukraine in 1984 and continue to live and work there. The illustration on the postcard is a fitting depiction of their artistic lives where books and their illustrations comprise their passion for illustration, book design, and writing. Together, they started Art Studio Agrafka in Lviv where they have produced award-win
Read more

F.F. Hansell & Bro., New Orleans 1900

Image
But for the winds of fate that first weekend in September of 1900, the building pictured above (and below), may have crumbled and the publishing & bookselling firm of F.F. Hansell in New Orleans would not have had produced the billhead above. What if the Great Storm of 1900 that leveled Galveston on September 8, 1900--America's worst natural disaster--had caught steering currents that took it north well before a Texas landfall? Hansell's billhead, dated September 28, 1900, owes its existence to the elements of nature, whatever they were at the time: High pressure over New Orleans pushing the storm west? A weak front approaching the Texas coast, pulling the storm toward it? Whatever, this storm could just as easily have veered north with a change in conditions and destroyed New Orleans. A lot of these storms that enter the Gulf of Mexico seem to make that right turn before striking the Texas coast. We (Houston-Galveston area) got lucky last summer with Gustav. Not so lucky w
Read more