Bookplates --- Ex Libris

A cloudy February morning is a perfect time to sort through my books. Not one of them has an original bookplate that is really mine. By this time in my life, I should have designed my own bookplate. I am an artist after all and a book lover.

Doing a little research, I found that a bookplate is also known as “ex-librīs” [Latin, "from the books of..."]. It’s usually a small print or decorative label pasted into a book, often on the inside front cover, to indicate its owner. The earliest known examples of printed bookplates are German, and date from the 15th century.

Bookplates typically bear a name, motto, device, coat-of-arms, crest or a badge. None of these ideas would appeal to me. But art would. The image above is a collection of vintage bookplates that I digitally collaged together just for fun.

This a clip of that utterly charming film called "84 Charing Cross Road" with Anne Bancroft.  Of course, Netflix has it