Description
Book SynopsisA lavishly illustrated volume showcasing some of the most important bookplates produced in America from the collection of the Grolier Club.
A miniature work of art, a bookplate may be viewed as a metaphorical portrait of a collector or library, using the designer’s personal graphic style. It also tells a story about the relationship between the artist and the patron. Illustrious collectors ranging from Eleanor Roosevelt to Harry Elkins Widener, J.P. Morgan and Paul Mellon come to life through bookplates by such celebrated figures as Dorothy Sturgis Harding, Eric Gill, Walter Crane, Rudolph Koch, and Rockwell Kent. Grolier Club Bookplates, Past & Present is a veritable who’s-who of both book collectors and the graphic artists who created their personalized ex-libris over the past 130 years, down to the present day. This carefully researched and amply annotated book not only provides a feast for a bibliophile’s eyes but also explores the meaning behind bookplates and their legacy as cultural indicators in book history.
Table of ContentsPreface “Refinement, Taste, & Book Culture”: The Place of the Bookplate in Book History by Alexander Lawrence Ames
Bookplate Collecting & Commissioning: An Introduction by William E. Butler
The Curiosity of Bookplate Collecting: Irene D. Andrew’s Pace, Within and Beyond the Book by Molly E. Dotson
Bookplates of Past Grolier Club Members
Bookplates of Current Grolier Club Members
Notes
Index of Owners, Collectors, Designers & Printers
