Rebecca Eschliman has has written two articles about the Antioch bookplate company.The first article is about David Sallume and can be seen by following this link
David Sallume , Antioch Bookplate Co.
Creation of a Custom
Bookplate (Institutional)
By Rebecca Eschliman
One of the common methods of creating a custom bookplate,
particularly for an institution, was to take an existing design and alter it.
What follows is the David Sallume's corrspondence with Alton G. Sadler regarding
a custom bookplate for the Chapel Hill Public Library. (More on David Sallume
can be found at http://www.yshistory.org/?p=3939.)
July 23, 1967 (Sadler)
My wife and I are interested in having some bookplates
engraved for the Willard J. Graham Collection which is to become a part of the
Chapel Hill Public Library when it opens, we think in September.
If you will, please quote us a price of engraving two sizes
of bookplates about 4-1/4" x 3" and 3-1/2" x 2'1/4" fo the
following:
WILLARD
J. GRAHAM COLLECTION
(Picture
of the Sower)
Chapel
Hill Public Library
We would want 750 copies of each on white paper, abnd would
like to know colors of ink you would
suggest, with thinks fo two colors of engraving for each plate. Both
plates will be the same colors and content, but the sizes would be different,
approximately the sizes suggested above.
One of my clients, The Book Exchange in Durham, N. C.
handles your products.
July 27, 1967 (Sallume)
Thank you for your letter of July 25th looking toward
preparation of a special bookplate design.
I am not sure just what you mean by "picture of the
sower." Do you refer to one of the two discontinued bookplate designs of
which I am enclosing samples or do you have something else entirely in mind? If
you can clarify this point for us we can speak with a good deal more assurance
about costs, and also about recommendations for color.
 |
| Original Design was by Lynd Ward |
I am enclosing a copy of our brochure on the preparation of
private bookplate designs, and this will provide just about all the information
we can furnish on the basis of our present knowledge of your requirements.
August 6, 1967 (Sadler)
Thank you very much for your letter of July 28 and the
enclosures.
I like the sample on yellow paper or background of the sower
very much. It is the man and the seed falling from his hand that is important
to me, to have engraved for the bookplate, I do not want the background or EX
LIBRIS on this plate.
This week I talked with the local librarian, who advised me
to have only one engraved bookplate made, since the size suggested would be all
right for all sizes of books. I am
enclosing a Xerox copy of the size and wording for an engraved bookplate for
the Willard J. Graham Collection. The sower, I think should be centered. Please
advise me of the cost to have 1,000 or 1,500 bookplates engraved, the quality
of paper, and the colors suggested, and the length of time for delivery.
Also advise me of the cost of having "Mary Newby
Doherty Memorial" printed on your bookplate which reads "Books are
keys to wisdom's treasure, etc." for about 300 or 500 copies. In addition,
please quote me a price on having this same bookplate printed ion a different
background, possibly light blue.
August 10, 1967 (Sallume)
Thank you for your letter of August 6th with further
reference to the Willard J. Graham memorial bookplate. Before we get down to
cases about this project I want to say just a word about the term
"engraving" which recurs frequently in your letters. If what you mean
by this is the old fashioned steel engraving or intaglio work then I should
call to your attention that besides being extremely costly and slow to come by,
the process is not well suited for reproducing the particular piece of art in
question, since it is incapable of rending a black solid more than about 1/16
of an inch wide.
The most practical way to reproduce the art we are dealing
with is about one half of the original size is by the photo-offset process. All
of the samples which I am enclosing were done by this prodcess except for the
Laurie bookplate which is a genuine steel engraving, stamped from a die made
perhaps 50 years ago. You will note that the photo-offset process is, like the
intaglio process, capable of reproducing extremely fine detail.
Working by photo-offset we could prepare bookplates in one
color, printed to your specifications at $26.00 for the first 100 and $2.00 for
each additional 100 ordered at the same time. For work in two colors the price
would be $34.00 for the first 100 and $4.00 for each additional 100.
For work in one color I would suggest a brown something like
the ink used on the sample marked W-3 but lighter in color since the heavier
solids on the art we will be using would make this particular brown look almost
black. Notice the lettering across the face of the book. If you want to use two
colors, the green used on the Luther Norris sample would combine very
satisfactorily with the brown.
We could imprint bookplate #67X-21 (Books are keys) with the
wording Mary Newby Doherty Memorial at $5.00 for the first 100 and $2.50 for
each additional 100 ordered at the same time. This bookplate could be specially
manufactured using two shades of blue ink instead of two shades of brown at
$29.00 for the first 100 and $4.50 for each additional 100 ordered at the same
time. We could furnish it in two shades of blue ink on blue paper, which we
would have to order specially, at$34.00 for the first 100 and $4.50 for the
additional 100.
To help you visualize the Graham bookplate I am enclosing a
rough proof of the dark brown portion only of bookplate X-54; to help you
visualize the letterng possibilities I enclose a copy of our type specimen
sheet.
August 28, 1967 (Sadler)
Enclosed is my
personal check in the amount of ninety-dollars to cover the cost of having
1,500 bookplates made in accordance with your letter of August 10, 1967. Also
enclosed is a copy of the proposed bookplate to be printed in garnet and black,
on gum paper. I think that you should
use your cut of the sower and take out the mountains and Ex Libris, leaving
only the man, or a hairline as a background. The sower and the Chapel Hill
Public Library are to be in garnet, with the Willard J. Graham and verse in
black.
Please have these 1500 bookplates mailed directly to:
Mrs.
William Geer, Librarian
Chapel
Hill Public Library
W.
Franklin Street
Chapel
Hill, North Carolina, 27514
We are leaving for a three and a half week vacation on Sept.
7., and we would like for Mrs. Geer to have these 1,500 bookplates before the
end of September, if possible, as the new library building should be dedicated
sometime about October 1.
 |
completed bookplate
============================================================================================= |
In the Summer 2013 issue of The
German Quarterly Dr.Nick Block wrote an article
entitled
"Ex Libris and Exchange: Immigrant
Interventions in the German-Jewish Renaissance."
 |
| Dr.Nick Block |
You can read the article by following this
link:
Appendix B
"Most
Popular Bookplate Image" at Hebrew Union College’s Jewish Bookplate Collection
was of particular interest.
Here are the
images Dr. Block sent to me.
Emanuel Elzas.
Meir Lipman
Neshamah Ehrlich
Leyzer Ran
Lewis Browne
Rabbi Joseph Gitin
From my own collection I have added
these images :
 |
The Leo Winz bookplate by E.M. Lilien (above left) was the one from which all the others were copied
|
.
“ I mentioned a
new book by Martin Hopkinson , ExLibris
The Art Of The Bookplate.
My copy has arrived and it is most
informative. The A E Carthew bookplate was purchased several months ago and no
one recognized it .It is illustrated and described on page 99.. Here is what I
learned : The plate was designed by Joseph Hecht for Alice Grace Elizabeth
Carthew .The inscription in an old Celtic language is Let us be wise without
guile and the bird standing on a rock is an
Auk."
I just received two copies of the Carthew bookplate from Jacques Laget.Both were pencil signed by the etcher A.Williams.
Does anyone out there know who this might be ?
I now have one extra unsigned copy of the smaller plate for possible exchange.
Here is a link to a bookplate article from 1915.
Some of the artists mentioned are not too well known and for that reason they are of interest to me.
