Philip Greely Brown ex libris
Scouting books in a second-hand shop a few months ago, I pulled from a shelf this copy of Uncle Bernac , by A. Conan Doyle, better known as Arthur Conan Doyle and as the author of the Sherlock Holmes books. As I customarily do with older books, I checked the endpapers for a bookseller's label, or ticket, and a bookplate. Uncle Bernac had no labels from previous book shops where the book had resided during its life, but I found something more interesting--a book plate that introduced me to a fairly well-known book collector from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century--Philip Greely Brown. The provenance of the book begins with Brown. Above his bookplate in the upper-left corner are his initials and the date June 97, which is the publication date for this copy of Uncle Bernac. That makes sense--a bibliophile would want to purchase first editions. Then in 1951, somebody named Dave bought the book and presented it to his father for a Christmas present. Fast forward t...