Ex Libris: The Art of Bookplates Paperback – 23 May 2011

Sadly, I found this little book rather disappointing and dull in extreme. Full of rather dingy, depressing images. The best part of this book is the cover which I was attracted by - I should have remembered 'You can't judge a book . . . .'!

Lovely cover but a bit disappointing as it did not containing more wood-engravings. I suppose that's not a valid critcism. just a personal preference.

Great book to dip into

C'est un ouvrage basé sur une expo au british muséum.Il est assez intéressant mais assez limité dans l'étude et la présentation de cette activité artistique ,et enfin très centrée sur le royaume uni.

After a short intro, there are 100 pages with a bookplate per page, plus notes (partly on size and technique; partly a short explanation on personalities and meaning). The earliest is from about 1520, the most recent from 1979, with the bulk on the 1890-1920s period.A lost art? It shouldn't be - with modern techniques it is easy enough to organize your own bookplate, and there are several websites (not in this book, but easily findable) which offer a service varying from woodcuts to sticky labels to your (or their) design - and that is what I mean by inspirational, because a look though this booklet gets your ideas going!Not much use for the Kindle - but for anyone with nice oldfashioned books, a very nice tradition to be followed.