A bookplate – or, Ex Libris – is a book-owner’s identification label that is usually pasted to the inside front cover of a book.  Such labels not only signify ownership of a prized volume, but are intended as deterrents to theft and safeguards against loss.  Probably the most common method of showing book ownership is for the owner to simply write his/her name on the inside front cover or endpaper of a book; of course, there are those who feel obliged to print their names with thick, dark marker on all three exposed edges of the text block – a detestable practice.  Some owners use rubber stamps of their names, or, perhaps, name and address; or, affix return-address labels.  A few have the abominable habit of embossing their ownership label, or using perforation devices; bibliophiles eschew any of these abhorrent practices that destroy the integrity of the paper fibers.  Here, for example, is the title page of Wright’s The Methods of Petrographic-Microscopic Research (Washington, D.C., 1911), with the perforation stamp of the Library Association of Portland, Oregon disfiguring the author’s name (Figure 1); but what is worse is that every plate at the back of the book has also been perforated in some of the most critically useful portions of the graphical aids (Figure 2).

click image to enlarge (102K) Figure 1

click image to enlarge (162K) Figure 2

In rare instances, it is possible to tell the book’s owner by the cover.  Here, for example, is the front cover of the Imperial Almanac for the year 1855 (from the Gibson Craig sale, 1887), displaying the crest of Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie (Figure 3).  The books in Napoleon’s library are leather-bound, and bear the French Royal Arms.   Inside (Figure 4), the books have moiré silk end papers, leather hinges, and extensive gold tooling – notice, by the way, the leather Durdans bookplate.  The Durdans is a great house in Epsom, near the Downs; it was the home of the Earl of Rosebery (1847—1929), who succeeded Gladstone as Prime Minister.

click image to enlarge (176K) Figure 3

click image to enlarge (173K) Figure 4