Our Lady of the Bookshop, 1782

 Beauty in Search of Knowledge
London: Printed for R. Sayer & J. Bennett 30th Decr. 1782.
Single sheet mezzotint hand-colored in gouache.
Artist unknown.

It's a story not found in any collection of classic fairy tales. Forget the beast, this is Beauty and the Bookshop.

One of the most attractive and informative illustrations of an eighteenth century bookshop, Beauty in Search of Knowledge serves as a keen reminder that going to a bookshop - many of the period doubling as  circulating libraries - was the place to go to cultivate one's mind; it was the smart thing to do. It still is.

"Circulating libraries were privately run, usually by booksellers or publishers and were a primary outlet for much of the popular fiction of the period and were often viewed with suspicion by the church and with some snobbery by the literati. This separately-issued print, in the popular ‘posture’ format and its provocative title, is clearly not without a degree of satire;" the idea that a woman could be as intelligent as a man was, at the time (and for far too long afterward), something of a joke, and their education beyond domestic skills and arts considered something of a royal waste of time. Women who spent too much time with books were considered oddballs sabotaging their marriage prospects. No man wants a brain in bed with them. Unless, of course, the man is smart enough to not be intimidated; beauty and brains make for a very alluring woman, and our Lady of the Bookshop clearly has sex appeal.

The shelves in the window are filled with an attractive and tempting selection of books of various sizes, in bindings in various formats, and small and large prints; the typical stock of a contemporary book shop. Our fashionably dressed Beauty holds in her left hand what appears to be an octavo volume bound in red leather with gilt tooled borders. The lady has fine taste.

The print is fairly common. Yet this example is most certainly not: the fine quality of the mezzotint and the contemporary hand-coloring in gouache make this one very special. Most in private and institutional collections are uncolored or, if so, executed in dull, muted tones. You will likely never see another so vivid, fresh, and attractive.

In this world of Internet dating, where success is dependent upon a n optimistic click of the mouse, let us not forget that book shops and libraries are great pick-up spots for intelligent, book-loving people seeking same. They beat bars and the produce section of a supermarket. We will gloss over shenanigans in the stacks. Who knows, perhaps our beauty, with such a coy, knowing smile, is preparing for an assignation - a Booktryst - with a paramour?

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Image courtesy of Justin Croft Antiquarian Books. Quoted text from the Croft catalog description.
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Virginia Library Serves Up Bookplate Special

Bookplate Designed By Mrs. Kennedy,
And Printed By Tiffany & Co., in 1961.
(All Images Courtesy Of University Of Virginia.)

By 1500, printing presses in Western Europe had already produced more than twenty million volumes. It 's impossible to know how many of these were lent by their rightful owners to friends who somehow "forgot" to return them. Even though it was the double-dealing Polonius who advised his son, "Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend," anybody who's ever had an awkward conversation with a pal over an unreturned book knows the old hypocrite was on to something.

This Authentic George Washington
Bookplate Is Worth Roughly $3,000.

It's no surprise that readers as early as 1450 figured out that if they wanted to get the books from their private libraries back from errant borrowers, they needed an easy way to indicate their ownership of each volume. But who wants to spoil the binding or pages of a beautiful book with stamps or ink? Enter the bookplate.

Nelson Rockefeller's Bookplate,
Designed By Pablo Picasso.

Bookplates are an art form in their own right. A small rectangle, usually about 4x3 inches, gently fastened to the inside front cover of the book, and bearing the owner's name. Early plates often featured the coat of arms or crest of the book's owner (armorials), along with the Latin phrase, ex-libris. But, over the centuries, bookplate design became more and more personalized. Bookplates featured art commissioned from many of the finest designers of their day, such as Albrecht Dürer, Thomas Bewick, Paul Revere, Kate Greenaway, Aubrey Beardsley, Marc Chagall, M.C. Escher, Rockwell Kent, Leonard Baskin, Barry Moser. Book owners used the plates to convey their interests, hobbies, personal histories, careers, or even a pun based on their name. (This last is known as "canting " bookplate.)

The Images On Gloria Swanson's Bookplate
Illustrate Her Surname.

Soon these miniature works of art became collectible. Fine designs, on the best quality paper, and rendered by woodcut, engraving on metal, silk-screen, etching or pen and ink made them a desirable and impressive acquisition. Bookplates from distinguished owners are sought after, and plates from the libraries of George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles DeGaulle, Greta Garbo, Douglas Fairbanks, Sigmund Freud, Jack Dempsey, Jack London, and Charles Dickens to name just a few, have all made it into the hands of eager collectors.

Hemingway's Bookplate Reflects His
Love Of Nature And Bullfighting.

The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library and the Rare Book School in Alderman Library of the University of Virginia are hosting an exhibition of some of the finest bookplates from a distinguished collector. Through July 29, 2010 the show Three Centuries of American Bookplates, will display the results of a lifelong passion for collecting by James Goode, a former curator of the original Smithsonian Institution building in Washington, D.C. "James Goode’s collection of bookplates is perhaps one of the finest in the country, and we are privileged to have a portion of it on exhibit," says Michael Suarez, director of the Rare Book School.

The University Of Virginia Produced A Short Video Of James Goode Discussing His Collection.

Mr. Suarez further notes that the humble bookplate "can teach us all a great deal about collecting, graphic arts, provenance and fine printing." What's not to love? Those little plates can even make it a little more likely that those volumes you lend will actually end up safely back on your shelves, where they belong. If not, there's always that old saw from Polonius to justify refusing to lend them in the first place.

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Of related interest:

The Man With The Bookplate Jones.

Authentic G. Washington Bookplate Comes To Auction.

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