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Bookplate Ink

Bookplates, or ex libris, are decorative labels, or stickers, to identify book ownership and for authors to sign.

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Search Results for: map

B116NT – Map of the World bookplate without text, non-personalized

May 24, 2017

B116 – Map of the World bookplate, non-personalized

May 23, 2017

B116 – Map of the World bookplate

May 23, 2017

Bookplates have personal meaning

August 25, 2023

Traditionally, bookplates consist of small, personalized artwork that are pasted into books as marks of ownership. They are usually placed on the endpaper. As stated by the Princeton Architectural Press and shown online at the Literary Hub website, “A bookplate is sometimes called an ex libris in reference to the Latin inscription meaning ‘from the books of’ found on most examples. The earliest known example, dated to 1480, is the bookplate of Hilprand Brandenburg, a Carthusian monk.”

Here at Bookplate Ink, we print many personalized bookplates by adding names to our own designs, most of which originated with Antioch Bookplate Company. But we also print numerous bookplates  with custom artwork that customers submit. These designs often have very personal elements and meaning. We asked a few customers about their bookplate artwork and found the answers very interesting.

Ed Poliakoff, a Columbia, South Carolina, attorney whose hobbies include collecting antique South Carolina maps and stewarding family artifacts, writes about his bookplate as follows: “My bookplate, composed in a few iterations with Karen Gardner’s patient assistance, has several personal design elements, including my home state’s outline and palmetto state tree; a crest that is colored and shaped to invoke my undergraduate college and placed on the area of my hometown; a loblolly pine to represent the trees around my childhood home; a stylized border to invoke some of my favorite 19th century South Carolina maps; and with space above and below the images for placement of labels identifying the maps, books and other objects to which the bookplates are attached.

Dr. Efrain Miranda, the CEO of Clinical Anatomy Associates, Inc. and devoted bibliophile, wrote about his bookplates in the blog “A Moment in History.”: “My bookplate, also known as an Ex-Libris, is a design based on images by Andreas Vesalius. It also contains the portraits of four famous anatomists: William Harvey, Andreas Vesalius, Adrian Van Der Spigelius, and Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, all of them highlighted in our blog “A Moment in History”. The bookplate was printed by Bookplate Ink, a USA-based company. They are self-adhesive, acid-free, and very high quality paper. I strongly support and recommend them.” There are several fascinating posts on the blog about books and bookplates, including https://clinicalanatomy.com/mtd/842-interesting-discovery-in-an-ex-libris.

We have printed the elegant, square-shaped bookplate shown on the left several times over the years to be placed in the books at Bill and Marcia Levy’s library.

Marcia wrote: “The plate was designed by our daughter, the ceramicist Rachel Levy, who was influenced by the feather etched on the sign of our main lodge on our ranch in western Colorado. The sign’s design graphic with hanging feather was done in the 1980s by Nick Zarkades of Seattle, Washington. We LOVE our bookplates.”

 

 

Ryan Lawson, an interior designer, had his custom design printed with us by letterpress. This striking design by German artist David Schmitt, has a lot of personal meaning for Ryan. In his own words: “I’ve always loved falcons and the art of falconry — my grandmother taught me all about birds of prey when I was younger. And, ever since I moved to NYC in 2004, when I visit the Metropolitan Museum, my first stop is this incredible sculpture. And, so I thought it would be a good idea to base my bookplates on that piece.”

 
 
 
 
 
 

Too many choices?

June 14, 2012

I read a marketing book recently that discussed the idea that when it comes to making a purchasing decision, too many choices can be so overwhelming that a potential customer won’t make any choice.

I found a New York Times article that discusses the same phenomenon. In “Too Many Choices: A Problem That Can Paralyze,” Alina Tugend states, “Although it has long been the common wisdom in our country that there is no such thing as too many choices, as psychologists and economists study the issue, they are concluding that an overload of options may actually paralyze people or push them into decisions that are against their own best interest.”

Tugend goes on to discuss a study in California where customers were given samples of Wilkin & Sons jam. When given a greater assortment of jams to sample, more people were enticed to try some, but less actually made a purchase. Similarly, in choosing a 401(k) retirement plan, “studies have shown that if more fund options are offered, fewer people participate. And the highest participation rates are among those employees who are automatically enrolled in their company’s 401(k)’s unless they actively choose not to.”

What does this have to do with bookplates?? Bookplate Ink offers over 150 choices of bookplate designs, more than any other company we have found. We have ships, tomatoes, a rhinoceros, fairies, owls, flowers, musical instruments, a frog, boys, girls, maps, oh! and books. Perhaps the choices are overwhelming for our customers. This is a concern.

On the other hand, there is sometimes a design that doesn’t sell very well, but is perfect for one customer. Like the mustang horse, which was a wonderful bookplate for an elementary school whose mascot is a mustang. Or the now out-of-print Kermit the Frog bookplate for that Sesame Street lover. How about the biplane design for books donated from an aviation lover’s library?

Everytime I think we should take some designs off our website, one of these orders comes in. And the truth is, we have designs in our archives that aren’t even on the website. What’s your opinion? Is more better or is less easier? Should we streamline our offerings?

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