Book Plates (48831)

A bookplate is commonly a printed piece of paper pasted on one of the pages of the book, mostly found on the inside front cover, and shows the ownership of the book. A bookplate is also called ex libris. more...

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Some owners stamp their names on flyleaves, while others have heraldic or other designs tooled on the outside covers (supra libros) or engraved on the title page. The latter practice is a logical development of the use of a shield in early illuminated manuscripts to show ownership.

History

Bookplates originated in Germany about the time printed books appeared. The earliest known bookplates include three that were made in Germany between 1459 and 1470. Two of them (Brother Hildebrand Brandenburg's and Wilhelm von Zell's) were in gifts of books to the Buxheim Monastery. The third is the so-called hedgehog plate of Hans Igler (whose real name was Johannes Knabensburg), a copy of which is in the British Museum.

Early bookplates frequently expressed gratitude from the recipient of the books to the donor. (An example of this type of plate is found in the books King George I gave to Cambridge University.) They were also used to assert ownership, which was often indicated by a motto such as "Me jure possedit."

Bookplates were gradually adopted outside Germany. The earliest recorded English ex libris is that of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey in the early 1500s; Wolsey had his coat of arms painted in one of his books. England's first conventional bookplate was made in 1574 to commemorate Sir Nicholas Bacon's gift of books to Cambridge University. It consists of an armorial engraving borrowed from Gerard Legh's Accedens of Armory (1562). Joseph Holland's plate (dated 1585) comes from an altered engraving that allowed space for filling in the owner's arms, motto, or date. A very rare plate from the same year is that of "Sr. Tho. Treasame, Knight," dated "1585 Jun. 29."

The earliest recorded French plates are those of Jean Bertaud de la Tour-Blanche (1529) and Charles Ailleboust, bishop of Autun (1574). However, bookplates were not popular in France before 1650. Elsewhere in Europe, the first bookplate appeared in Switzerland in 1498; in Sweden in 1575; in the Netherlands in 1579; and in Italy in 1548, although the earliest dated Italian plate is 1575.

The earliest plates used in America were made in England for Henry Dunster, and were dated "Mar 27, 1629." Of particular interest is the first plate known to be made in colonial America—that of Stephen Day, a printed label dated "Jan. 11, 1642," of which only one copy is believed extant. Other early American plates are those of the Rev. John Williams (1679), Joseph Dudley (1702?), and William Penn (1703).

Art

Bookplate design is an art form that has been practiced by some of the world's finest artists. Albrecht Dürer was an early German designer of quality bookplates. Among his contributions to the art are the Pirckheimer (Pirkheimer), Pomer, and Ebner plates. Other important German artists who designed bookplates were Hans Holbein, Hans and Barthel Beham, Virgil Solis, Lucas Cranach, and Jost Amman.

Read more at Wikipedia.org