Series 1: Engravers of Bookplates, 1831-1943, inclusive

Bookplates designed and engraved by Edwin Davis French (1851-1906), who engraved the personal bookplate of Emma Toedteberg. Born in New England, French attended Brown University for one year before finding work as an engraver of silverware for the Whiting Company in Massachussetts. In 1876, French relocated to New York City and studied at the Art Students' League, where he later served as President. He was introduced to the art of bookplates by his sister-in-law, Helen Elvira Brainerd, who organized a collection of American and European ex-libris for the library of Columbia University. In addition to the over 200 bookplates French engraved and designed for collectors and institutions, French designed plates for his personal collection of international language books, with an emphasis on Volapuk, a constructed language devised in 1879 by a German priest. Among French's work are bookplates for St. Paul's Chapel, on Lower Broadway in Manhattan; Fraunces' Tavern, a Revolutionary War eatery and museum; and the New York Police Department's Central Booking, known as 'The Tombs."

Sources:

The Autobiography of Edwin Davis French (1901)

Edwin Davis French, A Memorial (1906) by Mary Brainerd French

Born in London, Charles Sherborn (1831-1912) began work as a goldsmith, chiefly engraving jewelry, but after problems with his business in 1872, Sherborn turned to etching and engraving reproductions of other artist's works. Sherborn began engraving bookplates late in his career, and between the early 1880's and 1912 the artist produced over 350 bookplates, the bulk of his work in the armorial style.

Sources:

http://www.pietafineart.com/sherborn.htm (last accessed August 30, 2011)

Aikman (1857-1939) lived at 133 Macon Street in Brooklyn, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and studied in Paris. In A Directory of Bookplate Artists, with notes concerning their work (1921), edited and compiled by Alfred Fowler, Aikman provided the following statement: "I engrave bookplates on copper and wood and also etch them. I do not specialize. The cost depends on the time a given design takes to complete. I have been making bookplates for about eight or ten years."

Born in England, G.W. Eve (1855-1914) also published books and pamphlets on the subject of heraldry.

Evans (1855-1943) was an award-winning artist and wood-cut engraver who lived on St. Marks Avenue in Brooklyn. A distinguished Freemason, Evans provided illustrations for turn of the century weekly magazines, and was noted as the last of a generation of flourishing woodcut artists from the late nineteenth century.

Source: Scrapbook Collection, Brooklyn Historical Society,

One of the most highly-regarded line-engravers of his time, Smith (1845-1929) often designed the bookplates he engraved. Working from Boston, Mass, Smith also designed stained-glass for church buildings, and designed the seal for The Society of Iconophiles, a private New York club of book and print collectors.

In "A Visit to Mr. Spenceley's Study," published in The Book-Plate Booklet (vol 1, no 3, ed. by Sheldon Cheney Nov.1906 - Nov. 1907), the engraver (1865–1908) is profiled:

"A three-mile ride over the hills from the railroad station brings one to the summer studio of Mr. J. W. Spenceley of Boston, who has etched and engraved many notable book-plates during the last dozen years. The cottage is on a hillside, just above the quiet New Hampshire village of Chocorua…. I found him sitting beneath an apple tree, making studies of a grape vine that climbed over a boulder near by…. We passed through the spacious living-room, where hung water-colors, and prints from the book-plate work of some of the noted engravers, and continuing upstairs, reached the studio…. Mr. Spenceley placed four copper plates before me, each different in design. 'You see the variety, but each holds my interest. Perhaps I like landscape plates best, and grace and treatment of the sixth-century French designs appeal to me especially. However, to incorporate artistically the ideas of my clientele, I find it better to use various forms of design rather than to hold to any one style'…. It is small wonder one feels the exquisite harmony in his book-plates, for he is one of Nature's most earnest lovers, and only embodies in his work the happiest and most beautiful aspects of life."