The morning times., 1896-05-11
BOOK PLATES.
Fair Sex Has Gone Gently Mad on
Collecting Them.

The thing women go in for these days
is book plate collections. No woman yet
ever felt genuine interest in stamps, and
mighty few OF them care for picking up
specimens OF good book-lnakiug. but lust.
mention book plates at anybody's after
noon tea, and half dozen pairs of pretty
pink ears viii be pricked up IN u most i'll
Jelligent fashion.
IL is the custom now not only to collect
old, rare examples of sixteenth. seven
ttenth aud eighteenth century ex-Iibris
but to have a book plate OF one own. ANY
woman at an afternoon tea can tell YOU
what book plate or eX-libris is meant
for, II is a richly engraved medallion
shield or square. bearing an armUrial pat
tern or mere graceful figure. ones initials
aud suitable motto, all printed off on
squares OF the best bank note paper and
used TO paste as a mark of ownership on
the inside covers Of ones highly-prized
books.
Now. nobody eau tell whence the book
plate mania comes or why it seems to
fasten itself on some Of the most unlikely
sort Of women, but she VINO is bitten with
the fancy for owning or collecting these
pretty scraps OF paper goes gently mad 0u
the subject. II is an expensive sort of
fad, like amateur photography aud buy
ing old laces, and to extract all possible
fun out Of the mauia iEatrons and dam
sells hunt down the rare plates in clubs OF
eight, ten aud fourteen members, and take
them as tremendously and as seriously as
ever they treated womau's rights or Ibseu.
They go to lectures on the question. sub
scribe for a little journal devoted to the
discussion Of book plates, root in old
shops to find odd specim eus, bid reckleSsly
over each other when a pretty eXampleof
late century engraving is nosed out, and
nearly all OF them correspond with Miss
Norma Labouchere, who is an oracle, high
priesteSS and leading authority on book
plates for women.
she is the daughter of the famous Radi-
cal LabOuchere and owns one of the fin
est collections OF plates possessed by any
woman. Some of her specimens are not
20 bc duplicated and fill the modest col
lector with envy and despair. She owns
book plate from the Duchess of Teck's
Gie and one from that of her imperial
hghness, the Empress OF Germany, who
are both ardent collectors and will pay
fabulous prices for fine old ex-libris.
go make up "a nice collection of book
plateS,' explained one woman, who al
ways carries Il little magnifying glass
in her pocket in case anything should be
submitted her for examination. "You
must buy a big book for pastiug them
in Your own coat of arms must be
stamped in gold on the outside cover and
inside the first proof from your engraved
die on rice paper. delicately pasted. Your
personal plate can cost anywhere from So
10 $500. For it all depends on what sort
! OF design you want and who you ask to
make t for you. The most celebrated artists
Of today cOudcSCcnd TO design book plates
and lots of women, clever at decorative
pen and ink work, have found the drawing
Of eX-lihris a very paying branch Of their
profession"
1t is a woman, Fraulein Lena Burger,
who has Just made the amorial shield,
trefoil and oak decorations for Prince
Rismarck's book plate and liz this cOun-
try $50 is the bottom price a clever
artist viii take when an ex-libris is ordered
Of her We'll. after the collector has secured
her book and her own plate she Joins
club and exchanges plates with her
friends. 1t isn't long before her interest
draws her into correspondence with col
lectors in London. Paris. Berlin, ETC., and
there are lots of women ] know who deny
! themselves all sorts Of small vanties. to
cxuItartiy hid in some iCnred-for specimen
no other woman in her club possesses.
Over in England book plate making is
vastly cheaper. because the engravers
charge less than oTrs, and very nice one
can he had for $40 or $40. OF course
when Kate Greena way or the president of
the roval academy draws the pattern a
book plate is costly enough. and English
women are tremendously particular as to
the design employed. NOBODY Dretends
to use armorial bearings to which they
can't put uD strong claim and have their
doubts decided at the "Herald's" office.