Bibliophemera

This is the bookplate for Clare Ryan Talbot (1899-1981), an avid collector of bookplates, who devoted her professional life to collecting, appraising, selling, writing, and researching bookplates. She also ventured into allied enterprises with bookselling, antiques, and publishing—each incorporating bookplates into the mix. This bookplate was reserved for her books about California only, as she noted in pencil on the back of the bookplate. Below that note, she also translated the Spanish above the illustration on the front, “La Candela del Señor” to “Candles of the Lord.” Her bookplate was engraved by James Elwood Webb (1884-1940), a Los Angeles artist and owner of an engraving and stationery shop, who painted in addition to designing and engraving bookplates. Interestingly, another Californian, Margaret Ely Webb (1877–1965) has been linked with James Webb as the designer of a bookplate residing in a collection at Kent State University’s Special Collections and Archives Library (...