Rest Your Shield Now and Again

Remember to rest your shield now and again

It's a rather busy time at the moment with several other writing projects on the go, and I spent my weekend toiling away to meet a scholarly publisher's deadline instead of digging through the boxes of bookplates and other book related ephemera that patiently awaits my attention.  As I'm unlikely to get away from work to write up a proper blog this week, I thought I'd just share a bookplate with you that I've currently set on my desk.  This little ex libris reminds me that at some point everyone should rest their shield for a moment and take a break.  As one who researches and writes extensively every day in my career, it's easy to forget this.  It's a good reminder for me - it's good for your physical and mental health, and gives you the energy needed to return to the work at hand.

I've liked this ex libris for other reasons as well, and appreciate its unconventional approach to displaying a family coat of arms.  If you have a bookplate that makes you think, please feel free to share it with me.  Perhaps we can post some other people's favourites up here on the site.  Until next time....    

The Bookplate of Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine

Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine (1807-1864) 

It's been a rather busy year for me, and always the hobbies must come last.  That said, however, there's nothing like a cold rainy Sunday in October to create some downtime for casual collecting and research.

One area of my bookplate collection that has been growing nicely lately is my section on Canadian political leaders.  Fortunately, many of these men were originally merchants, lawyers, doctors, businessmen or similar professionals, which meant that they often had reference libraries and thus a tendency to have bookplates made for themselves.  One that I recently acquired from Tomas G. Boss Fine Books was a bookplate for the great Canadian politician Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine.

Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, 1st Baronet, KCMG, was the first Canadian to become Prime Minister of the United Province of Canada and the first head of a responsible government in Canada.  Born in Boucherville, Lower Canada in 1807, he was a jurist and statesman, being first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada in 1830. He was a political supporter of Louis Papineau and member of the Parti canadien. After the severe consequences of the Rebellions of 1837 against the British authorities, Lafontaine advocated political reforms within the new Union regime of 1841.  He has been immortalized in statue more than once, and is perhaps one of the most significant political figures in early Canadian history.

Lafontaine's bookplate

Lafontaine lived, worked, and acquired books for his library at at time when, according to Prescott's study on Canadian bookplates, "the most tiresome and inartistic style, the die sink armorial, was popular in England."  Prescott also suggested that there were practically no pictorial plates produced in Canada for book owners during this period but as my own collection continues to grow I would begin to argue that his assessment may have been incorrect.

Lafontaine's bookplate is a classic example of an early nineteenth century die-sunk Canadian pictorial label.  It is possible he chose a pictorial rather than an armorial de-sink simply as a reflection of the mood of the period - in post-revolutionary France any references to royalty and heraldry were out, even on bookplates (see Walter Hamilton's book on French bookplates for more detail on this trend). Nevertheless, it is a very attractive plate for its age and it does stand out nicely against my other Canadian political armorial ex libris.

I'm always on the look out for other Canadian bookplates like these, so if you have something you want to part with don't hesitate to get in touch.  Until next time....

The Eatons

Timothy Eaton (1834-1907)

When Timothy Eaton sold his small dry good business in 1869 and opened a new general purpose and Haberdashery, he probably did not realize that he had embarked on a path that would make his name a common household brand, as well as one of the largest department store and retailers in Canadian history.

Needless to say, the Eaton family were the holders of substantial libraries and produced a number of bookplates for their collections.  The Phillipe Masson Ex Libris collection at McGill University has a number of the Eaton family bookplates in their collection.  I recently acquired one for my own collection from fellow collector Lew Jaffe who writes the ' Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie' blog.  This led me to explore not only the history behind the Eaton's empire, but also their libraries.  The result was a plethora of interesting and diverse pictorial and armourial bookplates.  In no particular order I've included a number of these below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see there was a broad diversity not only in the style of bookplate (pictorial, armourial, labels, and memorial) but also the composition.  Lady Eaton's full colour bookplate is an interesting departure from the others, for example.  As of note are the clearly Canadian icons - the maple leaf, the beaver - all of these are the hallmarks of a legendary Canadian family.