That’s MY book! The William Augustus Brewer Bookplate Collection

By David Cardillo, Digital Collections and Preservation

 

In the days before digital catalogs and barcodes, many book lovers had a much more personal—and artistic—way of marking ownership: the bookplate. For those who had personal libraries, bookplates were used to identify a book as belonging to an individual or an individual’s library.  Bookplates often had a sketch or picture with the owner’s name in some sort of calligraphy or script.  This was to ensure a borrowed book would make its way back to its owner.

The William Agustus Brewer Bookplate Collection is a remarkable window into this world. Housing 12,870 printed bookplates from 1700 to 2000 by a variety of artists and from several personal collections, this collection offers a stunning variety of subjects, styles and artistic signatures.  With contributions from designers such Thomas Bewick, Edward Burne-Jones, Kate Greenaway, William Hogarth, Howard Pyle, Rudolf Ruzicka and James A. M. Whistler, the collection showcases how diverse and expressive these small artworks could be.

There is a PDF organizing this collection of over 12,000 items by subject, artist and artist and exploring recurring themes like birds, death’s heads, medicine, music, rebuses, science and portraits of historical and literary figures.The collection also contains additional material relating to Brewer’s collection, including Mrs. Augusta LaMotte Brewer’s address book and printing plates and blocks, as well as reference material relating to bookplates. 

One subject featured in these bookplate images is architecture. 

 

 

Another, more specific sub-collection is chess.

 

 

Apparently, dancing was another subject that was used for bookplates.

 

 

Here is one of the bookplates used for books in the Medical Library of the Teachers College at Columbia University.

 

 

Mythology has always been a popular theme for art, including on bookplates.

 

 

And of course, what book or library-themed collection of images would be complete without cats?

 

 

Another bookplate collection is the Carol Hoffecker Bookplate Collection, also in Quartex.  Both that and the William Augustus Brewer Bookplate Collection contain numerous examples of niche artwork with a diverse number of subjects.