Bookplates,
also known as ex-libris, have since the 15th century been placed
in books to declare ownership. Many artists, some famous such as
William Hogarth, Aubrey Beardsley and John Piper, have designed
bookplates, and many significant people
(e.g. Samuel Pepys and Rudyard Kipling) have used them, but a personal
bookplate has been available to anyone owning a library and wishing
to place in the books a printed design as a mark of possession.
Founded in 1972, The Bookplate Society is the direct descendant
of the world's first such organisation, the Ex Libris Society, 1891-1908,
and its creation and successor, the Bookplate Exchange Club. Our
purpose is to encourage the production, use, collecting, and study
of bookplates. We achieve this through our publications, lectures,
visits to collections, members' auctions, social meetings, and exhibitions.
THE FRANKS CATALOGUE IS NOW DIGITIZED AND AVAILABLE ONLINE
Library staff in Toronto have earned our warmest thanks by converting into digital form the Catalogue of the Franks Collection of British and American Bookplates in the
British Museum Department of Prints and Drawings. Rather than paying out £400 or more for ever-scarcer copies of this important reference work, you can now find it online.
Each of the three volumes can be downloaded free of charge, without copyright restriction, in PDF format, which is partly searchable. Alternatively, you may flip through
the pages online (but not downloadable). The links to the three volumes are VOL.1 A-G ,
VOL.2 H-R and VOL.3 S-W, Bookplates of Institutions, and Heraldic Index
RECENT CHANGES TO THIS WEBSITE
A list of items offered for sale to members in the second auction of 2008 is posted in the Members Area of this website. It is also to be found in the June 2008
Newsletter, which has been mailed to members, together with the members' book for the two years 2007/08 - East Anglian Ex-Libris, by Dr John Blatchly FSA.
A new link on our Resources page is to a recently launched American website
The Collectors Weekly which deals with antique bookplates and carries links to items currently on offer on eBay.
Members will be interested to know that there exists a vibrant market in bookplates on eBay.
Our 2006 book, SCOTTISH BOOKPLATES, is described on the Publications page. In August 2006 an International
Exlibris Congress took place in Switzerland, and it is still worth visiting Benoît Junod's FISAE website , where
details are are also given of past Congresses, and where there is a comprehensive set of links to other ex-libris societies and
websites of interest. Anthony Pincott's illustrated talk entitled Creating an ex-libris database: the example of the Franks Collection at the British Museum
is available at FISAE Talks.Our indefatigable bookplate enthusiast Lewis Jaffe has established a
blog spot page, to which he is frequently adding new notes - well worth a visit.
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