Book investigating - step 4 - Bookplates

from Valerius Maximus. Valere le grant. Paris, betw. 1499 and 1503

In the early days, people often marked their ownership of books by drawing their coats of arms as in the example shown left. Later, they had printed bookplates designed for them, sometimes with their names, sometimes not.

This illustrated page shows the owner Claude d'Urfé being presented with this book. The illustration includes his coat of arms. Can you spot it? Click here to see if you're right!



The David Hume Mystery.

Here are two bookplates with the name David Hume. One of them is that of the Scottish philosopher and one dates from after his death in 1776.

Can you spot the small differences between them?

 from vol. 30 of the Henderson Smith Collection of bookplatesfrom vol. 30 of the Henderson Smith Collection of bookplates


from Falle, Philip. An account of the Island of Jersey, with an appendix of records. Jersey, 1837 This bookplate belonged to the 5th Earl of Rosebery. He had it made when he became Prime Minister in 1894. One might hope that he didn't have too many printed, however, as he was defeated by the Conservatives a few months later, in the landslide election of 1895.
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