Antiquarian Bookplates: 55 Bookplates to Personalize Your Library

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Holland comes next with the plate of Anna van der Aa, in 1597; then Italy with one attributed to the year 1622. They commission numbered and signed editions of bookplates to their name which are never pasted into books but only serve for exchange purposes.

In the end, it’s a word or phrase that refers to a label of some sort that has been attached inside a book. These classic book plates are the perfect way to personalise your books, journals, folders and diaries. The earliest English bookplate appears to be the gift plate of Sir Nicholas Bacon; it adorns a book that once belonged to Henry VIII, and now is located in the King's library, British Museum. Book plates are full page illustrations, pictures, or photographs that are printed separately from the text of the book, but they are bound in during production.The engraved copper matrix is then printed with an intaglio press on paper, and the resulting print can be pasted into the book to indicate ownership. always be accurate, especially as regards dating of bookplates, their condition and the attribution of ownership. They are as a rule very plainly armorial, and the decoration is usually limited to a symmetrical arrangement of mantling, with an occasional display of palms or wreaths.

In 2010 John Blatchly asked whether the hand-painted armorial device attached to a folio of the first volume of Quatuor concilium generalium belonging to Cardinal Wolsey should be regarded as the first English bookplate. Personalised advertising may be considered a “sale” or “sharing” of information under California and other state privacy laws, and you may have a right to opt out.Let’s say you found a rare book you want to add to your collection, and the bookseller’s description says it has a bookplate. Keep in mind that anyone can view public collections - they may also appear in recommendations and other places. Some collectors attempt to acquire plates of all kinds (for example, the collection of Irene Dwen Andrews Pace, now at Yale University, comprising 250,000 items).

However, a bookplate in an otherwise rare book can lower the value of the text if the bookplate indicates ownership of an ordinary reader. We have also many portrait-plates, of which, perhaps, the most notable are those of Samuel Pepys himself and of John Gibbs, the architect; allegories, such as were engraved by Hogarth, Bartolozzi, John Pine and George Vertue; landscape-plates by wood-engravers of the Bewick school, etc. The term "ex-libris", used as a noun ( Exlibris (written in one word) in German) originated in France. Such plates could be very elaborate, or very simple in their design, reflecting the character of the awarding institution.The various styles of English bookplates from the Tudor period to the late Victorian period reflect the prevailing taste in decorative art at different epochs—as bookplates do in all countries. There are still substantial numbers of collectors for whom the study of bookplates spanning 500 years is a fascinating source of historical, artistic and socio-cultural interest. The ornate and elaborate German style does not seem to have affected neighbouring countries; but as it was undoubtedly from Germany that the fashion for ornamental bookplates spread, the history of German ex-libris remains relevant to all those who are interested in their development. At the turn of the 20th century, however, bookplate design diversified and flourished beyond traditional armorials.