Bibliophemera

Bookplates are gaining significant traction with regard to my bibliophemera collecting interests. Last week, I went around the house to the various rooms where I have old books shelved and scanned all the inside covers and first few pages for bookplates. They're not alway affixed to the front endpapers. Some wind up on the half-title page or the facing blank page. And I found a pretty good batch right under my nose. It was exciting to open up old, familiar books as if I'd never seen them before and find old bookplates I didn't know were there. At a few antique shops over the weekend, I browsed for older books stuffed away in the nooks and crannies more for decoration it seemed than anything else. And again I found a few intriguing bookplates. I bought the books. I've been researching and cataloging my new collection and will display a few here. This is from one of the antique shop finds over the weekend. Waldron of what... Gent? Kent? The Waldron family shield or crest ...

So demands a label found in a 1938 children's book from a Minneapolis school library. What would you call this piece of ephemera? Not a book label, I wouldn't think. That denotes ownership. It was pasted in like a label or bookplate. I guess it just falls under miscellaneous labels or something to that effect. I'm new to collecting bookplates and labels, but have encountered many over the years browsing and collecting books. I've never see one like this. And I wonder how many kids saw this label, put the book back down, and ran to wash their hands before proceeding? Not much information on this label to determine its origin. The book's publication date helps place it circa 1938 or later. The cartoonish figures are reminiscent of the Tin Man from the film, The Wizard of Oz , which premiered in 1939. If that likeness was "borrowed" to connect with the kids, the labels would have been printed around 1939 or 1940. There is a copyright mark and an indicator tha...

Normally, I buy these billheads and other ephemera in hand-picked, single lots. But this one showed up unexpectedly in a lot of 30 or 40 assorted billheads from late 19th-century New York. It had not been advertised, featured, or otherwise mentioned as being a part of the lot. Probably only has value to a bookish wonk like me. Actually, this company called itself "publishers, booksellers and importers." Not sure what they imported, but probably related to the other two aspects of their business. The thing I like best about this billhead is the company logo--a skull resting on a book. I guess the full cadaver holding up Gray's Anatomy would have been a bit over the top. The skull/book connotation to medical publishing and bookselling is more subtle and effective, I think.

The Leggat Brothers, in New York City, 1888, claimed to own and operate the cheapest book store in the world, with a million new and second-hand titles in stock. All this as advertised on their letterhead for that year. Located at 81 Chambers Street, third door west of City Hall Park, Leggat offered the following catalogs for free: The Book Case (miscellaneous books), Medical (new and old), Scientific (new and old), Angling & Sporting (new and old), and Theological (new and old). In this letter of May 9th, 1888, the bookseller acknowledges receipt of the customer's letter and claims to have had no knowledge about a recent shipment of a "set of Arnold" being shopworn. Evidently, the customer had written to complain that the books arrived in less than advertised condition. From the tone of the response from Leggat, it appears the customer had asked for a bit of a discount in light of the condition. Leggat allows one dollar off the $15 set, as reflected on an enclosed bi...

A 1914 billhead from Italian papermakers and booksellers Giulio, Giannini & Figlio of Firenze (Florence). This firm was established in 1856 and is still in business today, known primarily for their paper ( www.giuliogiannini.it ). Some interesting things to note on this old billhead: First, the red initial letters of the names in the title give it an appearance reminiscent of a medieval illuminated manuscript. Second, the order, or invoice is all in English. I assume this is so because the customer appears to be English or American. I also like the bookplate depiction in the upper left corner with the lamb and the books on the ground. There is a Latin phrase across a banner that reads: Usque dum vivam et ultra . Also noteworthy is the long list of items purchased--two pages worth totaling $168 (amount given in dollars). Most billheads I see include only one or two items on the invoice.