The LunchBook

Snack on this: An international recipe book with "paper plate" pages to eat on. LunchBook is  designed by Italian design team Sebastiano Ercoli and Alessandro Garlandini for the Expo Milano 2015 world exposition dedicated to food, sustainability and nutrition. This culinary world book contains international recipes encouraging the visitor to use its pages as plates and taste the many dishes from Expo Milano food stands. Once a page is used it can be easily removed. The pages have been coated with a waterproof biopolymer film and are 100% recyclable and compostable. An added feature is having each paper plate's border based upon the traditional designs of the recipe's country of origin. 

Ummm...LunchBook...it will leave you hungry for more great design.

Further noted, is architectural student Andrea Puppa's dynamic winning design for the Expo 2015 logo competition. Puppa's design was one of two chosen from over 700 student submissions by a panel of judges chaired by Giorgio Armani. His design was then selected by a popular vote on May 22, 2011 after the 2 works were posted on the event's official website. 
:: Via Taxi and cross-posted today over at Book Patrol.

A Signmaker's Textbook

Der Praktische Schildermaler (The Practical Signmaker), Series 2, by Hans J. Jedlitschka, 1910, printed by Friedrich Wolfrum and Co., of Vienna and Leipzig. This volume is a portfolio of 32 color lithographed plates which are particularly decorative examples of advertising signs from stationery, floral shops, craftsman, photo studios, restaurants and more. I have been unable to track down much information about the designer, Herr Jedlitschka, but Damon of New Bohemia Signs wrote an enlightening piece on him and his work about 18 months ago. He was also kind enough to post a number of images from his own set of Jedlitschkas' prints on Flickr, as he feels they should be made available so others might equally appreciate them. The multi-colored plates are lavishly printed, often combined with gold and silver. Images here are only from Volume 2, which I first discovered when doing some light window-shopping here not too long ago. Hans Jedlitschka was indeed quite an accomplished designer, illustrator, and typographer. I would so love to see all of his original prints in analog time someday. I get weak in the knees just thinking about it. ; )  

Below are just a few examples of Der Praktische Schildermaler from daemonsquire's Flickrset.

Mayflower Power, Part 2

In my earlier research on the late 19th C horticulturist John Lewis Childs (1856-1921), I came across a few of his illustrated bookplates in a collection at the Harold T. Clark Library in Cleveland. An astute library volunteer by the name of Rebecca Molton-de-Greeff had discovered a collection of Childs' books on ornithology and noticed they each had a different bookplate attached with hand-lettered and hand-painted images of birds. Her research lead her to Childs colorful career as "a successful businessman and politician whose love of nature influenced both his business and leisure pursuits".
      As I mentioned in my previous post, Childs began the first seed catalog business in the US and published The Mayflower magazine which were both widely distributed. He also had one of the finest private ornithology libraries in the US which included Audubon's rare Birds of America. Molton-de-Greeff's research also lead her to the blog of Lew Jaffee, who is a self-confessed bookplate junkie. He has 3 of Childs' scarce bookplates in his own collection: they contain a flower, and insect and a frog seen here. Jaffee speculated that the artists Childs hired to illustrate his colorful seed catalogs were likely responsible for the bookplate illustrations as well. His assumption was also confirmed by a contact at the Floral Park Historical Society on Long Island where Childs' seed and bulb business first began. Although this bookplate artist is long forgotten, they claimed there were many artists employed by Childs over the years, including one who lived on-site to help publicize his botanical merchandise.
      These unnamed illustrators and letterers were some of the first and finest commercial artists in the US. When Childs created one of the very first publishing empires in NY, he likely provided these gifted artists their first start at a career. (I give Childs credit for recognizing and encouraging their talents too.) I suspect many were untrained, but may have been influenced by sign makers, printers and typesetters of the day. The late 19th century was truly the golden age of typography and printing in the US and I do wish there was more of a public record of these amazing artists who helped make it so. I am however, very grateful for the beautiful archive of some of their work seen below. This and more are now included in the incredible digital archive of the Smithsonian. 

Paul Rand Goes Goth

Paul Rand's bookplate from a copy of Das Buch der Werkzeichen by Imre Reiner. Found in the Flickrstream of Katranpress. A short post today, but I encourage you to check out the great book designs of Kat Ran Press and their especially wonderful post on postage stamp designs by type designers. BTW, I admit I took a little liberty to tone down the vibrancy of this bookplate. The unnaturally bright yellow was hurting my eyes. ; ) 

Fashionplates For Books

Now if I had some fashionable bookplates like these from Mac and Ninny, instead of my casually dressed yellow postnotes tacked on the front boards, I might never have to think twice about my books finding their way home from borrowers.
      Just launched in January in the UK, the duo at Mac and Ninny Paper Company hope to find wider distribution in the US and elsewhere soon. The left and right brains behind M and N are Tony and Victoria Jarratt. Tony creates the lovely illustrations and package designs while Victoria manages the day-to-day operations from their location in Cheltenham. Together they have launched over 60 different bookplate designs and labels which come nicely packaged in colorful paper folders. These handsome bookplates will dress up any cookbook, gardening book, children's book, and more. Available soon here if you are in Boston, and elsewhere in the UK; or maybe in your neighborhood soon.  

Fashion Plates for Rare Books

Flickr continues to amaze me. Some fine images frequently turn up there. Recently I came upon The Penn Libraries wonderful and historic collection of rare books. They have documented thousands of images from many of these fine books which span over 5 centuries. I've handpicked some of my favorite bookplates from some of their collections. Above is one I find especially intriguing. It is a German anagram bookplate circa 1840 designed by Karl Emich Leiningen-Westerburg for Abraham Emanuel Fröhlich (Froehlich), 1796-1865. The notation further explains how the shading of L I C H has some significance (I presume to the pronunciation). Anagrams were far more experimental than most of your typical mid-19th century bookplates which is why this one appeals to me so greatly I guess. Below is a beautiful engraving (undated) of a monogrammed bookplate with the initials M L C. 

This Ex Libris is unidentified.  

This is a beautiful monogram and marbled endpaper, but also unidentified.

Ex Libris for writer and scholar Giovanni de Bizzaro, 1782-1833. Great name!

Bookplate of French book collector Tobie-Gustave Herpin, 1820?-1900.

I included this 1804 label as a beautiful copperplate engraving example of hand-rendered script. It records the purchase by Ludwig Friedrich, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, of Carl Gerhard von Ketelhodt's library of 16,000 volumes. 

This monogrammed bookplate is unidentified. My guess is it is French, based upon another French book with similar endpapers. 

This bookplate makes me smile. It's unidentified. Just a mermaid with a mirror, and a comb, and Mason. 

Stamped Ex Libris Victoris Aemilii Tiranti. No date or positive ID.

Bookplate with the interlocking initials of Gilbert Mainssonnat. Undated.

Bookplate Looking for Owner

Decorative script C. Comes with fancy cap. Available within.
Taken!

Who Doesn't Like Books?

          





















Top: Bookplate from Library Mistress' Photostream. Middle: From Los Angeles Public Central Library, Bookplate Collection. Designed by "Binner".  Lastly: Ex Libris from Los Angeles Public Central Library, Bookplate Collection. Design by A.R., 1919.

Boss Bookplate

My guess this bookplate was found in a copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The sixties were very unkind to Cooper Black, but somehow it seems fitting here. Talk about being typecast in a decade! 

:: From the Crossett Library Bennington College.  

Experimental Ex Libris

There is no date on this great bookplate for Frederic J. Libbie, but it is from a Flickr set of the Pratt Institute Libraries Special Collection and most others in this set range in date from 1730 to 1901. I found one other bookplate for Mr. Libbie in this set which is dated 1895, although it is far more ornate. If you look carefully at the Garamond type pattern on this one, the designer, or printer for that matter, began in the center of the diamond shape and spelled out his name so it is right-reading, and then reversed the order of the letters to the left. They then repeated this pattern reading up and down from the center until an E creates the entire border of the diamond-shaped pattern. Probably designed by a printer who had a lot of E's and I's at his disposal or they just couldn't bear doing another Victorian style bookplate with fat cherubs sitting atop a stack of books. One thing about typographical patterns...they seldom go out of style.

Czech Bookplates

From my own bookplate collection. Wish I knew the artists, but sadly do not. I just bought them from a paper dealer several years ago.

Update: I received a message on good authority that the Vancura bookplate is designed by an artist named Dvorak (sorry, don't have a 1st name), and the third one for Pleskot was by an artist named Frantisek Vincenc Danijelka (1911- ) who was well known as an oil painter.

This Book Belongs To_______

Ex Libris bookplates printed by young Japanese children. Sorry I cannot provide more detailed information and credits. Does anyone happen to know more?