Book review
The Art of The Bookplate
| Book title: The Art of The Bookplate |
From the foreword of George Plimpton:
“In this delightful book James P. Keenan, Director of the American Society of Bookplate Collectors & Designers, shares many of his favorite bookplates. He explains the history behind each, and discusses the artists – some as famous as Rockwell Kent and Claes Oldenburg, others as unknown as their patrons. But whether well known or not, ex libris owners are passionate about keeping their book collections intact. As one very old bookplate proclaims, “Steal not this book for fear of shame, For here you see the owner’s name.”
Cover: The Art of the Bookplate
Caption says:
James P. Keenan – American (1951-)
Executive director of the American Society of Bookplate Collectors
& Designers and the author of this book, James P. Keenan has
commissioned a number of bookplates from his favorite designers.
This handsome wood engraving by Russian-born artist Anatoli Kalashnikov,
represents its owner’s longtime passion for jazz. Keenan collects
books about jazz and the artists who perform it, particularly from
the 1950s and ‘60s. Bookplates relating to the Jazz Age are
a popular subject for collectors, who frequently specialize in a
particular genre and eagerly trade with other collectors.
Caption says:
Rudyard Kipling – British (1865-1936)
Rudyard Kipling is best known for his collections of verse and romantic
animal stories, including Kim, The Jungle Book, and the Just So
Stories, but his taste for adventure is evident in this bookplate
designed in 1909 by his father, John Lockwood Kipling, an artist
and teacher. The character pictured here, riding in an ornate carriage
on the back of an elephant, is said to be the author himself.
Contents
Thoughts of a Bookplate Lover, by George Plimpton
The Art of the Bookplate, by James P. Keenan
- The Golden Age of the Bookplate
- Bookplates in the Americas
- Classification of Bookplate Design
- Bookplates in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centurier
- The “Little Masters”
- The Flowering of Art Nouveau and Art Deco Bookplate Designs
- Bookplate Artists of the Twentieth Century
- A Brief History of Bookplate Collecting
- Collecting Bookplates Today
A Treasury of Bookplates
American Society of Bookplate Collectors & Designers
Ex libris shown
The ex libris shown in the book are indexed alphabetically by owner.
Author identifies only a few artists. Among the included ex libris
there are those of:
- Paul Revere
- George Washington
- Otto von Bismarck
- Enrico Caruso
- Charles Chaplin
- Charles de Gaulle
- Cecil B. DeMille
- Walt Disney
- Albert Einstein
- Sigmund Freud
- George II
- Herbert Hoover
- Harry Houdini
- Nikita Khrushchev
- Jack London
- Benito Mussolini
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Rudolph Valentino
- Queen Victoria
- H. G. Wells
- Kaiser Wilhelm II
