Bookplates at Auction

We've got several lovely bookplates at auction this week. One is by the noted engraver and bookplate designer Edwin Davis French, one is designed by children's book author and illustrator Winifred Bromhall and the others are by unknown artists. Here are their images for your delight:

Some Interesting Bookplates

I recently sold some bookplates which I had extracted from some of our bookstore books and thought others might be interested in this visual selection.



The Charlotte Hamm bookplate looks like it might be the work of Rockwell Kent or certainly an imitator:




The Bartlett Arkell bookplate was engraved by Tiffany and Co. for the philanthropist and founder of the Beechnut Company:

Bibliophile Celebrity Sighting

I was delighted to have fellow blogger, bibliophilic celebrity and self-confessed bookplate junkie Lew Jaffe in our bookshop a few days ago. I have been taking note of some of the gorgeous bookplates he posts pix and information about on his blog. The latest entry showcases engraved bookplates designed by Tiffany and there is even a Book Trout to be seen there, which now graces this post. Well worth checking out this graphically interesting and entertainingly educational blog.

From a Bibliophile's Library

It always interesting to see what books end up in a bibliophile's library and the following details a book on the shelves at Old Saratoga Books owned by William Lyons Phelps:

The Cure of Souls: Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale University, by Ian MacLaren, NY: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1895, first edition. Good condition.
Green cloth boards with gold-stamped lettering on front boards and spine. Top edges gilt. 301 pages.

This volume belonged to Phelps, and contains lectures given at Yale University in 1895 through the annual Lyman Beecher lectureship on Preaching, where Phelps was on the Faculty of Theology, in addition to being a literary critic, ordained minister, and bibliophile. He was also the author of many books, including "Autobiography with Letters", "The Advance of the English Novel", "Essays on Modern Novelists", "Memory", and "Browning: Now to Know Him".

My favorite Phelps quote is "A bibliophile of little means is likely to suffer often. Books don’t slip from his hands but fly past him through the air, high as birds, high as prices."

Phelps' elegant bookplate adorns the front pastedown and is an engraving by W. F. Hopson with William Shakespeare at the top crest, an open book with what appears to be the likeness of Alfred Lord Tennyson and a middle library scene replete with blazing fireplace, books aplenty and a contemplative cat. Graced with the quotation "Here are God’s Conduits". Phelps’ foot appears poking out from a wing chair to complete this paradise.

Puns and Polar Bears

Lately we've been going through the many boxes of books purchased throughout our tenure in the old open shop and categorized as "to be dealt with later". After ten years, we're not exactly sure where the majority of these books come from. On a busy Saturday of book trading and selling we might have someone drive up with a pick up truck load of books to offer and they go down in the basement so as not to clog up the aisles. Alternately, we might have bought a large private collection or hauled away a gargantuan load from a fantastic library, church, estate or garage sale and they get tucked away.

My New Year's Resolution was to mine through the stepped pyramid of book boxes in the cellar and the following treasure of unknown provenance comes from this biblio fritto misto. It was part of a particularly dusty batch of children's books and unreadable older novels. Three soft rags later, I knew that it was a great book because it had pictures and rhymes by Edward Lear and many other charming poems and illustrations by other clever types. I was flipping through it carefully, because children's books tend to have a lot of wear and tear and I wanted to be sure all pages were present and unblemished.

Everything looked alright and I got out my pencil to write in the price on the front free endpaper when I my eyes roved over to the polar bear bookplate on the front pastedown. Polar bears are unusual subjects for bookplates and teddies are the usual bears of choice for children's books. Then I noticed the owner's name: Marie Peary Stafford. Hmmm. Peary, polar. The image of my high school social studies teacher floated above my head knocking me with a blackboard pointer. It finally clicked. Robert Peary is credited with discovering the North Pole! Maybe Marie Peary Stafford is related to him. A little book and Internet research later and the mystery unfolded...

This book is available for sale in the shop and online at our bookstore website. Here are the particulars:

Such Nonsense: An Anthology, edited by Carolyn Wells, NY:
NY George H. Doran Company, 1918, first edition. Decorative grey cloth binding. 249 pages, index of titles, index of authors. Many whimsical illustrations accompanying this compendium of humorous verse, drawings, stories and other tidbits, intended for younger readers. Boards splayed, soiled and rubbed, several pages lightly soiled. Polar bear bookplate of Marie Peary Stafford on front pastedown endpaper. Gift inscription to Stafford on front free endpaper from her Uncle and Aunt Bobby.

Marie Peary Stafford (1893-1978) was the Arctic-born baby of Rear Admiral Robert Peary, nicknamed the "Snow Baby" by the Greenlanders of her birthland. Robert Peary is the persistent discoverer of the North Pole in 1909, ably assisted by African-American explorer Matthew Henson and many Inuit guides. The Snow Baby grew up to champion the plight of Denmark and Greenland during World War II, when German blockades threatened food and other supplies to these icebound areas. She also helped lead an expedition to the Arctic to erect a monument memorializing her father's North Pole discovery. $125.00