Traditionally, bookplates consist of small, personalized artwork that are pasted into books as marks of ownership. They are usually placed on the endpaper. As stated by the Princeton Architectural Press and shown online at the Literary Hub website, “A bookplate is sometimes called an ex libris in reference to the Latin inscription meaning ‘from the books of’ found on most examples. The earliest known example, dated to 1480, is the bookplate of Hilprand Brandenburg, a Carthusian monk.”
Here at Bookplate Ink, we print many personalized bookplates by adding names to our own designs, most of which originated with Antioch Bookplate Company. But we also print numerous bookplates with custom artwork that customers submit. These designs often have very personal elements and meaning. We asked a few customers about their bookplate artwork and found the answers very interesting.
Ed Poliakoff, a Columbia, South Carolina, attorney whose hobbies include collecting antique South Carolina maps and stewarding family artifacts, writes about his bookplate as follows: “My bookplate, composed in a few iterations with Karen Gardner’s patient assistance, has several personal design elements, including my home state’s outline and palmetto state tree; a crest that is colored and shaped to invoke my undergraduate college and placed on the area of my hometown; a loblolly pine to represent the trees around my childhood home; a stylized border to invoke some of my favorite 19th century South Carolina maps; and with space above and below the images for placement of labels identifying the maps, books and other objects to which the bookplates are attached.
Dr. Efrain Miranda, the CEO of Clinical Anatomy Associates, Inc. and devoted bibliophile, wrote about his bookplates in the blog “A Moment in History.”: “My bookplate, also known as an Ex-Libris, is a design based on images by Andreas Vesalius. It also contains the portraits of four famous anatomists: William Harvey, Andreas Vesalius, Adrian Van Der Spigelius, and Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, all of them highlighted in our blog “A Moment in History”. The bookplate was printed by Bookplate Ink, a USA-based company. They are self-adhesive, acid-free, and very high quality paper. I strongly support and recommend them.” There are several fascinating posts on the blog about books and bookplates, including https://clinicalanatomy.com/mtd/842-interesting-discovery-in-an-ex-libris.
We have printed the elegant, square-shaped bookplate shown on the left several times over the years to be placed in the books at Bill and Marcia Levy’s library.
Marcia wrote: “The plate was designed by our daughter, the ceramicist Rachel Levy, who was influenced by the feather etched on the sign of our main lodge on our ranch in western Colorado. The sign’s design graphic with hanging feather was done in the 1980s by Nick Zarkades of Seattle, Washington. We LOVE our bookplates.”
Ryan Lawson, an interior designer, had his custom design printed with us by letterpress. This striking design by German artist David Schmitt, has a lot of personal meaning for Ryan. In his own words: “I’ve always loved falcons and the art of falconry — my grandmother taught me all about birds of prey when I was younger. And, ever since I moved to NYC in 2004, when I visit the Metropolitan Museum, my first stop is this incredible sculpture. And, so I thought it would be a good idea to base my bookplates on that piece.”