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Collecting and Collections
Heralds, family
historians and biographers, print collectors, graphic artists, and bibliographers all
view bookplates from different angles. Many of our subscribers do not actively collect
bookplates. There is such a wide range of bookplate work that no two collections are
quite alike. Some collectors are firmly restricted to specific themes or styles of bookplate,
others limit themselves to the work of particular artists and engravers, or to the bookplates
of a particular era or locality.
In Continental Europe there is rather limited availability of pre-1900 bookplates, so
collectors are more active in commissioning modern works for themselves, for the purpose of
exchange.
Apart from collections in private hands, the top ten institutional holdings in the United
Kingdom and Ireland are to be found at:
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London |
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1. British Museum Dept. of Prints & Drawings (AW Franks & GH Viner)
2. Society of Antiquaries (CH Crouch and RG Rice) |
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Liverpool |
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Liverpool Public Libraries (JC Stitt, H Harben, Sligo and others)
Access is not possible at present because the Central Library is closed for major refurbishment and is not due to re-open until 2013. |
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Edinburgh |
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National Library of Scotland (J Henderson Smith and others) |
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Aberystwyth |
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National Library of Wales (Sir Evan Davies Jones and others) |
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Dublin |
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National Library of Ireland (W Chamney, N Wilkinson, M Dorey) |
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Oxford |
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Bodleian Library (John Johnson and Walter Harding)
Access is not possible at present because the Weston Library (formerly known as the New Bodleian) is closed for major refurbishment and will not re-open until 2015. |
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Manchester |
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1. John Rylands Library (as a Society we visited this collection in June 2008) (Lord de Tabley, Rylands, Perez and others)
2. Chethams Library (The Heraldry Society's WW Porteous collection) |
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Cambridge |
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The Fitzwilliam Museum (as a Society we visited this collection in June 2005) (VM Turnbull) |
An almost uniform requirement for these and other smaller collections is that visits
should be arranged in advance. Librarians sometimes require references and identification.
The John Johnson Collection website is
worth visiting, to see an interesting virtual exhibition of trade cards and other ephemera.
Also, over 3,000 bookplates have been catalogued by a volunteer, who is halfway through the
Johnson sequence. Her records can be seen under Catalogue in the menu on the left of
the JJColl homepage.
Links to Websites about Collecting
Benoît Junod's Advice to a Beginner Collector
and at the same site is the
FISAE list of symbols for techniques used in printed ex-libris
Ex-libris or the Mark of Possession of Books, by Benoît Junod
Anne Fine examines bookplates; other pages cover children's bookplates
Notes to an Exhibition of Bookplates, University of Calgary Library
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