I just turned up this uncut set of two bookplates and a bookmark from the Globe Wernicke Co., long-time manufacturers of legal / barrister glass-fronted bookcases. The Art Nouveau-style art looks a bit like Mucha.
I guess I officially collect bookplates now. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good display book?
Found these ads for Sapolio and Vitalized Phos-Phites in the rear of Bulwer Lytton’s Last Days of Pompeii (The Caxton Edition, 1884). Click on image for larger version.
They really had the shame/ostracizing pitch down pat in those days….and I think “Vitalized Phos-phite” is the same substance–“Nerve giving principles of the ox brain and the embryo of wheat and oat”–they give to cows to make mad cows. “I have not had a severe headache since I began its use.”…”Thanks to all the heathful and invigorating holes in my brain.”
Just found this special discount sticker for men in uniform on a digest-size paperback of Erle Stanley Gardner’s Murder Up My Sleeve (Bestseller Mystery / Lawrence E. Spivak B29). I’ve seen many variations on the ASEs but this is the first time I’ve encountered a sticker as an indicator. I wonder if this is the way they were “remaindered” since these were digests instead of mass markets?
Usually any changes an owner makes to a book are cringe-inducing: inane inscriptions scrawled with a sharpie, underlining every sentence on a page, “yes!!!” declaimed in the margins…
I could do a whole series of posts on egregious sins committed against a book (in fact I think I will. Like the Gatsby 1st I sold with a modern phone number inked on the flyleaf. Grrr).
But this post is about those rare occasions when a book is altered in a good way: Interesting clippings (or ephemera) layed-in, evocative and revealing inscriptions (in pencil), helpful corrections to a plan or recipe. Additions that increase your appreciation or the usefulness of a book.
I saw a term for this once. “Babbittism”, I think? It ain’t Googling so I probably have it wrong. It was definitely taken from the name of a character in an American fiction classic, likely by Sinclair Lewis….(little help?).
Anyway here are a couple of my favorite examples:
First, a nice 1896 edition of Thackery’s History of Henry Esmond in which all of the plates (by artist T. H. Robinson) have been neatly and skillfully hand painted in what looks like water color or some kind of ink wash:
Nice, right? A well-chosen color palette, texture highlights in the clothing, subtle tone variation. This person could “colorize” all my books.
Next a plain and anonymously written pseudo-Victorian sex memoir entitled: Amorous Adventures of a Gentleman of Quality altered by a co-worker to make a bawdy bachelor party or going-away present.
I hope you had a fun night Mr. Frank Martino.
Anyone have any other examples of books artfully altered?
I found this great cartoon captioned “O poor man’s life in International House” in a 1933 yearbook (click on image for larger version). I believe it was the work of Maurice F. Bilton (who appears in the student gallery).
International House is a graduate and professional residence hall shared by several prominent NY universities. It’s meant to foster cross-cultural relationships and understanding. Looks like it was a madcap, screwball place in the 1930s.
Reader Nathan just sent in this great image of a formidable 1940s-50s era bookmobile that he found in a batch of old estate sale photos. He hazards that it’s from Silver Springs, MD judging from the “Montgomery County” stenciled on the side of the truck and some details in accompanying photos.
According to Wikipedia the first Bookmobile in the United States was conceived and deployed in Washington County, Maryland so this beast of a vehicle has a long pedigree.
If Clint Eastwood was playing a tough-as-nails librarian in The Gauntlet this would have been his ride.
Anyone have any old photos from inside one of these behemoths of literacy?
Just found this beautiful and homey bookplate inside a collection of short film scripts called One-Reel Scenarios from 1938.
Looks like it was drawn from a photo. I love that the owner info “The Library of Elizabeth and Ben Lieberman, est 1941” appears backwards since it’s written on the outside of the library window. I played with this on my bookmark/logo but I wasn’t brave enough to force people to read it backwards.
I haven’t Googled too deeply, but it looks like the Liebermans were the proprietors of the Herity Press that specialized in books about printing. Also they were the one time owners of the Kelmscott/Goudy Albion iron hand printing press that was used by famed designer William Morris.
Marty Weil over at Ephemera Blog has posted an open question re: taking apart vintage magazines for the contents, or keeping them intact. Book dealers and collectors are sure to have strong opinions, so visit and make yourself heard.
Found two more nice items for my ephemera wall. Both were from a copy of Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp (famed for The Rescuers).
The first is an advertising/memorial postcard for Norman Ray Lambert (1933-1996). Lambert was the owner and mascot of LAMBERT’S CAFE “Home of Throwed Rolls”, a small chain of restaurants in Missouri and Alabama where apparently you can still have hot rolls hucked at you.
The second item is a nice pencil portrait of a nun–“Sister Luke”–that earned the artist an A-.
Here are a few illustrations from my clip-art file that I thought were worth sharing. The first came from a hollow Earth text called Phantom of the Poles by William Reed (Rockey Co., 1906):
I forgot to record the source of this second one but I love the image of a foggy New York skyline rolling out from the pages of a newspaper.
Hang Fire Books 