Tag: Ephemera

Recent Bookplates: Second Installment

Here’s the second chunk from my recent batch of bookplate acquisitions.

First this Thomas Balmer plate engraved by J. Winfred Spenceley Frederick Spenceley in 1912 found in London Films By W. D. Howells (Harper 1905).


Next this plate belonging to Madge Carr Cook (an actress with a few Broadway credits around 1900) . This one is signed. Looks like “H. Badirian 19XX” but is way too tiny to make out. Found in History of Frederick the II (Chapman 1859)


This one belonging to Leoh Waldman is perhaps the strangest I’ve encountered. It features an Ostrich with a globe body hiding its head while a horse in a checkered jockstrap looks on smugly. Found (appropriately) in Freud’s Psychopathology of Everyday Life (Macmillan 1920).

These last two plates belonging to and designed by George Gates Raddin, Jr., historian and bibliographer, were both found in The Bedouins by Huneker (Scribner’s 1922).

The first plate was on top:


pasted over this one (which is the first bookplate I’ve encountered that should be labeled NWS).


I wonder if Mr. Raddin became ashamed of his “money shot” design or if he suddenly became more besotted with Rockwell Kent than Aubrey Beardsley.

1919 Electrical Engineer’s Notebook, Abstract Plumbing Poster and 1950s Telefilm Pressbooks

I posted a few unique items on eBay last night that are worth a mention.

First this leatherbound notebook dated 1919 containing the field notes of an Electrical Engineer / Electrician. The author had an engineer’s perfect handwriting and he illustrated the notebook with precise and intricate color-coded diagrams covering radio, fire and burglar alarms, the properties of batteries and much more. It looks like he was compiling this with an intent to publish given his preface:

In view of the fact that most books on electricity contain much elementary and theoretical explanation unnecessary to the journeyman in the trade, I am endeavering [sis] herewith to compile useful data and drawings, giving the same as simply as possible, making this a handy reference book. — Carl Weimer Schwarz, July 1919

but I wasn’t able to find anything more about him. Here’s a few images:

and more here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10

Along the same lines this fascinating poster from “United Plumbers Supply Company, Inc, New York City” which is a full graphic “Interpretation of the Plumbing and Drainage Code of the City of New York, Copyright B. Hoffman, Domestic Sanitary Engineer, NYC”.

I don’t see a date but it’s c1950-60.

Basically it shows all of the possible variations in NY Plumbing in one apartment building cutaway.

I love looking through Edward Tufte’s Envisioning Information and this poster belongs in there. Because of its size and delicacy I wasn’t able to get a decent shot of the whole thing but here’s a section.


Lastly this 1950s-era binder from National Telefilm Associates called “Rocket 86” which is a collection of the pressbooks of 86 films from the 30s and 40s packaged for television. It contains classic film noir (Laura, The Dark Corner), horror (Chamber of Horrors, The Human Monster), westerns (Riders of the Purple Sage, My Darling Clementine), etc together with the ads and promo spots that were suggested for TV and newspaper use.

This is an interesting archive of early television and film history and probably layed-out the way many cineastes originally encountered these films during their television broadcast.



A full title list here.

These items all end next Sunday evening (May 11, 08).

New Plates and Tickets

Here’s a new batch of plates and tickets from the Donnell sale and some cheap tables.

First this nautical silhouette bookplate that manages to include a heavy-limbed tree, kids, and a sailing ship, all popular bookplate themes. From an undated decorative volume of Virgil (c 1910) owned by “R. Savadge”.


Next this crude but attractive library-themed plate belonging to “Elizabeth Kimball”. Forgot to note where this one came from (crap!).

The last and best plate is this aviation combat-themed plate belonging to “Edward E. Greiner” from a 1927 biography of Napoleon. This one is signed but I can’t make it out. Here’s a blow-up of the sig.


Here’s a ticket from the “Polish Book Import Company, Inc. – 38 Union Square, New York, NY”. Found in a translated children’s book (c1940)


Finally this “Chicago Booksellers Row” belly-band. Probably c 1980. I like this method of promoting a bookselling district.

Possessed: Documentary on Hoarding


POSSESSED from Martin Hampton on Vimeo.

An eloquent twenty-minute documentary on hoarders. Explores the lives of four people through their obsessive relationship with possessions (mostly grocery bags, used cotton balls, old porn and empty toothpaste tubes).

Depressing but fascinating. I partially depend on these people to accumulate inventory for me (which I eventually purchase from overwhelmed relatives). I also know that I would only have to be tuned a couple of degrees to go down this road myself.

Link via BoingBoing

New Bookplate and Ephemera

Here’s a few newly acquired pieces of ephemera. No theme, I just accumulated a pile.

First this personalized 1939-1940 school library pocket from the Boulevard School (likely in Gloversville, NY but I’m not sure).


I wonder if the aloof-looking girl sketched on the pocket was the crush object of one of the boys on the check-out slip.

Next this beautiful plate that was one of the few prizes collected at the FOL sale I bitched about recently.


I found this using the Bookplate Junkie’s tip of looking through foreign language sections because they generally contain a heavier concentration of plates. I guess since the owners cared enough about their libraries to transport them overseas, it’s more likely that they would attend to niceties like bookplates

The plate’s signed but I don’t recognize the mark. This is the best it will scan. It was in a volume from 1931.


Lastly this fairly plain ticket from Almy’s Book Shop, Salem Massachusetts, found in a 1921 volume.


Can’t find much about the store, except that at some point it may have been replaced by a Burlington Coat Factory (or maybe that was the department store of the same name).

Tijuana Bibles: Fritzi Ritz of Nancy

I just received another nice lot of Tijuana Bibles. These ones found me because of my previous Betty Boop TJ scan so–to keep building the karma–I’m going to post another one.

My favorite of this lot stars Fritzi Ritz, the saucy flapper and parental figure in Ernie Bushmiller’s sublimely dumb, Nancy.

Click on the image to read (NWS).


Though Nancy doesn’t appear in this (thankfully), the technique of having two characters stare over a wall at off-stage action feels like a nod to Bushmiller’s minimalism.

More Tjs for sale from my ABE store here.

And while you’re at it, new 60s sleaze in the Pulp Fiction Cover Gallery.