N. Asherson

Date: 1937

Paper size: 101 x 96 mm

Design size: 86 x 84

Signed: Mervyn Peake

Notes: This bookplate was designed by Mervyn Peake for Dr Nehemiah Asherson, an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. Asherson had treated the Peake family and the drawing was provided in part payment. The design shows the three bones in the middle ear, the malleus, incus and stapes, or hammer, anvil and stirrup.

Leo Wyatt

Date: unk

Paper size: 130 x 92 mm

Design size: 95 x 63 mm

Notes: This bookplate was designed by engraver and bookplate designer Leo Wyatt (1909-1981) for himself. He was born in South Africa.

Philip Sassoon

Date: unk

Paper size: 97 x 67 mm

Design size: 88 x 57 mm

Signed: PT (lower right corner)

Notes: This bookplate was desgned by Philip Tilden for Philip Sassoon. The book in which I found it had a label for Port Lympne, Sassoon's house.

Maurice Baring

Date: June 1897

Paper size: trimmed 63 x 51 mm

Design size: 52 x 44 mm

Notes: This tiny and rather crudely engraved bookplate was designed and signed to the right by the writer and poet Hillaire Belloc for Maurice Baring. It was found underneath the bookplate of Philip Sassoon, above, which was a nice surprise.

Mary Hunter

Date: unk

Paper size: 114 x 81 mm (trimmed)

Design size: 69 x 105 mm

Notes: Weird: a vampire bat holding onto an inverted heart. Do you think she had a bad experience in love?

Mary Hunter (1856-1933) was described as a 'society hostess'. She was sculpted in white marble by Auguste Rodin and painted by John Singer Sargent, both of which are in the Tate. Her husband died in 1916 leaving her with £270,000, which is equivalent to about £19.5 million in terms of simple purchasing power in 2021, but she got through it and was forced to leave Hill Hall and sell her possessions. The sale is described in the letters of Virginia Woolfe.

H. Clifford Mortimer

Date: 1904

Paper size: 144 x 101 mm (trimmed)

Design size: 124 x 80 mm

Notes: A bookplate designed by Bernard Partridge, a famous cartoonist for Punch magazine, for Clifford Mortimer, the father of John Mortimer.

Walter Dexter

Date: unk

Paper size: 138 x 101 mm

Design size: 115 x 75 mm

Notes: Walter Dexter may have been a literary editor, but I'm not sure. The hook intrigued me. I don't know who designed the plate, which is initialled R.A.M.

Osbert Salvin and Frederick Ducane Godman

Date: unk

Paper size: 149 x 88 mm

Design size: 127 x 67 mm

Designer: unk

Notes: Osbert Salvin (1835-1898) and Frederick Ducane Godman (1834-1919) were both biologists who studied the flora and fauna of South America. They are linked by the Godman-Salvin medal for ornithology which was instituted in 1919 in their memory. This engraving may be associated with that medal. I don't know who the designer was, but it's quite fine.

Bradley Martin, Junr

Date: 1905

Paper size: 131 x 104 mm

Design size: 113 x 90 mm

Designer: H.S.

Notes: Bradley Martin (1841-1913) was an American financier and industrialist who rented Balmacaan House and its estate overlooking Loch Ness for many years from the 1880s. The bookplate shows the ruins of Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness and indicates Mr Martin's past times during his visits to Scotland.

Sara Holmes Grant

Date: 1908

Paper size: 122 x 78 mm

Design size: 63 x 42 mm

Designer: Frederick Spenceley.

Notes: This plate is signed by the American bookplate designer and engraver, Frederick Spenceley (1872-1947)

D.R.H. Williams

Date: 1924

Paper size: 159 x 97 mm

Design size: 131 x 72 mm

Designer: Henry Rushbury.

Notes: This is one of only three bookplates designed by Sir Henry Rushbury (1889-1968), according to his catalogue raisonné. It is stained; someone taped the edge of the dustjacket over the bookplate, which was on the front pastedown.

No 49 in: Henry Rushbury Prints. A catalogue raisonné. (2010). London: The Royal Academy of Arts.

Duff Cooper

Date: 1930s

Paper size: 115 x 85 mm

Design size: 97 x 69 mm

Designer: Rex Whistler

Notes: Duff Cooper (1890-1954) was a Conservative politician, diplomat and historian. In 1919 he married Diana Manners a famously glamorous woman. She is depicted at the top of this bookplate, designed by Rex Whistler (1905-1944), who died during the invasion of Normandyin World War II, aged 39. He painted the wonderful murals in the restaurant of the Tate Gallery at Millbank in London when he was only 22.

Kenneth Rae

Date: 1931

Paper size: 109 x 79 mm

Plate size: 95 x 68 mm

Design size: 86 x 63 mm

Designer: Rex Whistler

Notes: Kenneth Rae (1890-1954) was Editor of the Sunday Times and Secretary to the Board of the National Theatre. Rex Whistler (1905-1944) designed this bookplate for him to thank him for lending some skiing equipment. The proof in the Victoria and Albert Museum states that it is a soft ground etching.

Francis Meynell

Date: 1914

Paper size: 112 x 92 mm

Design size: 80 x 64 mm

Designer: Eric Gill

Notes: It is a wood engraving. Francis Meynell (1891-1975) was a poet and printer. The bookplate was designed for him by Eric Gill an artist and designer of type faces. The proof in the British Museum is dated 1914.

June Moore

Date: 1926

Paper size: 187 x 125 mm

Design size: 150 x 113 mm

Designer: William Evelyn Chappel

Notes: This interesting bookplate from the mid-1920s was designed for June Moore (1898-1964), born June Langley, who in 1918 married a man named John Sugden Moore and took the name June Langley Moore. June's younger sister, Doris (1902-1989), married John's brother Robert, and took the name Doris Langley Moore. Doris was a historian of fashion and founded the Fashion Museum in Bath. She also wrote books about Lord Byron and a biography of E. Nesbit. In 1933 Doris and June published a guide for society hostesses called The Pleasure of Your Company (1933). This book (and the bookplate) were illustrated by William Chappel (1907-1994) who was a ballet dancer, designer and director. It must have been fun to be in your 20s in the 1920s.

Charles H. Athill

Date: 1870?

Paper size: 114 x 76 mm

Design size: 100 x 61 mm

Designer: Harry Soane

Notes: I have included one armorial design by Harry Soane of London W.C., as an example of his work. The design was for Charles Harold Athill who was Richmond Herald at the Royal College of Arms from 1889 to 1919, so presumably knew how to design a coat of arms.

Nathan of Churt

Date: 1941

Paper size: 128 x 103 mm

Design size: 101 x 82 mm

Designer: H J F Badeley

Notes: This an example of the work of Henry John Fanshawe Badeley (1874-1951), 1st and only Baron, who was Clerk of Parliament and an amateur engraver. He studied under Sir Frank Short and was Honorary Secretary of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers.

This plate was for Harry Louis Nathan (1889-1963), a lawyer and politician. He served during World War 1 as a Major in the 1st London Regiment and was wounded. He was an MP from 1929 until 1940, when he stepped aside to make way for Ernest Bevin, and was created Baron Nathan of Churt in Surrey. The pineapples on the supporters are in fact stylised hand grenades.

Eric M Fraser

Date: 1930?

Paper size: 103 x 83 mm

Plate size: no plate mark

Design size: 103 x 83 mm

Designer: unknown

Notes: This bookplate was designed for Eric Malcolm Fraser (1896-1960), the youngest of eight sons of Professor Sir Thomas Richard Fraser, a Scottish medical physiologist. He also had three sisters.

When he left Edinburgh Academy in July 1915 he was awarded Dux of the whole school, the Clyde and Millar Greek Prize, a prize for bagpipe playing and 3rd prize in a shooting competition. He joined the Seaforth Highlanders and was immediately appointed as a temporary Second Lieutenant. Fraser was mentioned in despatches in December 1917 as a Lieutenant.

After the war Fraser joined Brunner, Mond & Co. Ltd (later ICI) in 1919. On 8th May 1929 he married Joy Frances Pease (1906-1981) of Darlington at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster (see photograph, below left). She was 23, he was 33. They had no children.

During the Second World War he was appointed Director of Investigations and Statistics at the War Office in 1939; Director-General of Equipment Production in the Ministry of Aircraft Production in 1942; and in 1943 became Director-General of Aircraft Production. He was awarded a CBE in 1946. After the war he worked for Imperial Chemical Industries as a Personnel Manager from 1946 to 1958. He lived at Radnor House, New Street, Henley-on-Thames. He died in 1960, aged 64 y, presumably before enjoying retirement.

I removed the bookplate from a copy of The Gothick North. The Fair-Haired Victory (1930) by Sacheverell Sitwell.

Louise J Sassoon

Date: 1908

Paper size: 112 x 198 mm

Design size: 74 x 65 mm

Designer: INV F.G.H., actually J.A.C. Harrison

Notes: This is an example of a bookplate 'invented' by Frank George House, who was the manager of bookplate printers Truslove and Hanson. It was not engraved by House, but by John Augustus Charles Harrison (1872-1955). I thank Anthony Pincott of The Bookplate Society for this information.

This plate was for Louise Judith Sassoon (1873-1964), the daughter of businessman Reuben David Sassoon. At the age of 40 in 1914, she married Sir Charles Cavendish Boyle, a colonial adminstrator, who was then aged 65 years. He died during an operation two years later, and his widow survived him for another 48 years, dying in 1964 aged 91. She was awarded an OBE for her work in Hove with the Red Cross during World War 1.

Ernest Dawson

Date: c 1900

Paper size: 116 x 84 mm

Plate size: 95 x 78 mm

Design size: 85 x 60 mm

Designer: none stated

Notes: This bookplate is for Major Ernest Nathaniel Dawson (1864-1949), a younger brother of Alec John Dawson who wrote a book on dogs that was illustrated by Edmund Blampied.

Ernest Dawson was a Major in the British army and became a District Judge of Moulmien, Burma, based in Akyab (see signed title page of the book in which this plate was found). Akyab is now called Sittwe and Burma is now called Myanmar. I have been to Sittwe and visited the Lawkarnada Pagoda, which is shown through the open window with the leaves of what I think is a Frangipani tree. At the top the sword and the scales represent the army and the law, Ernest's two occupations. An emblem of the Freemasons is shown in the circle above the name. The Latin motto means 'For King and Country' with the Union flag to the left and possibly the royal arms of England to the right. There is a butterfly on the arm of the chair, which is a nice touch.

He married Alice Mary Dawson at Christ Church in Rangoon in May 1895 and she divorced him in May 1924 for reasons of 'desertion and misconduct', as he had been found in bed with another woman at a hotel in Euston, usually a contrivance to provide grounds for divorce. He retired to Hastings-on-Sea.

Ernest Dawson knew Rudyard Kipling and Joseph Conrad and gave talks or wrote articles about them.

Sylvia Earl

Date: 1915

Paper size: 128 x 96 mm

Plate size: 116 x 85 mm

Design size: 103 x 75 mm

Designer: J. Grosvenor 1915

Engraver: Emery Walker Ph. sc

Notes: This bookplate was engraved by Sir Emery Walker, an engraver and printer who, I suspect, was a friend of Sylvia Earl.

According to newspaper articles, Sylvia Earl wrote plays for her friends, which is what the artist, J. Grosvenor, indicates in his design for this bookplate. One of her plays, a four-act comedy called A Surplus Man, was performed as a single matinee at the Court Theatre in London on Monday 21st July 1924 in aid of the Disabled Soldiers' Embroidery Industry. The eminent cast included Ernest Thesiger, Mary Brough, Irene Rooke, Aubrey Mather and Stella Arbanina. The play was reviewed in The Sketch, The Daily Mirror and The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. I can find nothing more about her.

Lily Antrobus

Date: 1896

Paper size: 96 x 59 mm

Plate size: not known

Design size: 67 x 47 mm

Designer: CWS 1896

Engraver: Charles Sherborn

Notes: This bookplate was designed and engraved by Charles William Sherborn in 1896 for Elizabeth 'Lily' Antrobus (b c1867, d 16th November 1944, aged 77). His initials and the date are engraved on the spine of one of the books. Lily was the daughter of Hugh Lindsay Antrobus, a Director of Coutts, a bank. When he died in 1899 he left her £10,000, equivalent to about £1,150,000 today in terms of purchasing parity. In 1903 she lived at Cadogan Square in London. In 1907 she was a member of both the Ladies Automobile Club and the London Automobile Club and drove a Hotchkiss 29-31 h.p. car, possibly the 2-door tourer. In 1908 she had a house built for her a French style in nearly 18 acres of land at Tilford in Surrey called Charles Hill Court. She collected English pottery and gave many pieces to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Andrew & Mary Henderson Bishop

Date: 1920s

Paper size: 165 x 114 mm

Plate size: not known

Design size: 95 x 71 mm

Designer: Unknown

Engraver: See detail

Notes: This bookplate was for Andrew Henderson Biship (1874-1957), who was Chairman of Cooper & Co., Glasgow, a large general shop, and his wife Mary Gibb Henderson Bishop (1870-1935), daughter of Sir Robert McAlpine, whose building company still exists today. She was 13 years younger than her husband when they married but died aged 64. He lived for another 22 years to die in 1957, aged 83.

The design seems to be a woodcut but the artist, probably Scottish, is not known. The designer's initials or motif are shown in the detail. They could be letters or an anchor on its side. If you know who this is, please let me know.

Victoria Wemyss

Date: 1930s

Paper size: 117 x 85 mm

Plate size: not known

Design size: 101 x 77 mm

Designer: William Evan Charles Morgan

Engraver: William Evan Charles Morgan

Notes: This bookplate was designed and engraved by William E.C. Morgan in the late 1930s for Lady Victoria Alexandrina Violet Erskine-Wemyss née Cavendish-Bentinck, who was a god child of Queen Victoria. She was the only daughter of the sixth Duke of Portland and was brought up as a vegetarian. During the First World War she worked in an aircraft factory in London where she was unknown until the King visited the factory, he spotted her in the crowd, and greeted her by name. In November 1918 she married Captain Michael John Erskine Wemyss. They lived at Wemysss Castle in Fife, Scotland, which is depicted in the engraving. She died in 1994 aged 104.

This is one of only five known bookplates by William E.C. Morgan (1903-1979), an exceptionally fine engraver.