C.W SHERBORN 1831-1912
Bookplate for Robert Cutting c.1900,
Etching, Australian Library of Art,
State Library of Queensland Acc. 7227.
In the beginning - early bookplates
The earliest bookplates used in the Western world were armorial designs which featured a family crest or coat of arms. Just as a person of wealth and peerage would have their insignia on their stationery, linen and silverware, it was also displayed on their books.
German artist Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), is regarded as the first great bookplate designer. He used copper-engraving and wood-engraving processes. When bookplates crossed the channel to England 100 years later, English engravers such as Charles W. Sherborn (1831-1912) and George W. Eve, R.E. (1855-1912) continued the armorial bookplate tradition.
Armorial bookplates were expensive to produce. An artist was commissioned to design and engrave the copper printing plate, which was then printed by a high-class stationery firm. In 1917, London firm Messrs John & E. Bumpus charged between 20 and 40 guineas to design and print an engraved bookplate. This is between $7,500 to $15,000 in today’s money.
From the 1790s, armorial bookplates began to decline in popularity. One of the lesser-known consequences of the French Revolution was that French aristocrats rushed to conceal their elaborate bookplates with understated designs which identified their name but not their title.
After 400 years of use, armorial bookplate designs were seen to be stale and lacking artistic merit. They were derogatorily called ‘die-sinkers’, which refers to the process of sinking ink into the engraved copper plates.
These two trends, along with the development of Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts Movement of the late nineteenth century, led to the flowering of pictorial bookplates. In the early 1900s, both armorial and pictorial bookplates co-existed. However, by the late 20th century, pictorial designs, which reflected the book owners’ interests and not their genealogy, had usurped the armorial tradition.
Last updated: 23rd November 2011
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