Ownership, Identity, and the Private Library
Lanting Xu (“Orchid Pavilion Preface”) is a piece of Chinese calligraphy generally considered to have been written by the renowned calligrapher Wang Xizhi (303–361) during the Eastern Jin dynasty (317–420).1
A Personal Printing Project
One of the most interesting printing jobs I have done was making bookplates for a client of mine. He had purchased an original piece of art and asked me to incorporate this totem into bookplates in various sizes for his extensive book collection. A book lover from a family of book lovers, he has books that are both contemporary and antique, which he values dearly. Many books came from his mother and grandmother, both of whom he was very close to and had previously documented their ownership with plates of their making. Soon after printing, there commenced a bookplate affixing party, labeling all sizes, types, and styles, including his ‘elephant’ book collection, massively-sized rare folios that can measure up to 39” in height.
Ex Libris and the Culture of Ownership
This project reacquainted me with book plates, also known as Ex Libris (Latin for “from the books”), which are typically pasted on the front endsheet, serving many purposes, the most important of which is ownership of the book. The plate can also provide the provenance of a book over time and can be a delightful piece of art and a personal expression of the book owner. Plates are a part of literary culture that still exists today in some circles and celebrates the cultural life of books and reading. Independent print culture continues in many forms today, including artist books, small press publishing, and zines.
The Earliest Bookplates: China
The earliest historical records of bookplates can be traced to the Han Dynasty in China. One account of this history tells us a story about the Chinese literary figure, Liu Xiang, who had acquired the classic, Dengqian Suilu, and loaned it to his friend, Jia Yi. When Jia Yi refused to return the book despite Liu’s repeated requests, an inscription was created declaring, “The love of books and the love of wealth are both forms of greed; the scholar’s greed is for books.”2
Bookplates in Medieval Europe
While inscriptions and marks of ownership in books were also common in the Middle Ages in Europe, the creation of a physical object that would be adhered to a book to mark ownership in that part of the world has been ascribed to a later medieval period, fourteenth-century Germany. The Hildebrand Brandenburg of Biberach bookplate is perhaps the most well-known Western example from this era (see illustration below). In this bookplate, we see the use of an icon or totem, a custom that may have grown from family crests or shields that were ubiquitous and culturally significant during this period.3
Hildebrand Brandenburg of Biberach bookplate. 3
The Enduring Life of the Bookplate
Indeed, over the arc of civilization, bookplates stand as a testament to literary culture, knowledge that is shared, and both cultural and social norms. Print has long carried not only ownership and memory, but public argument and civic discourse as well (Still Essential: Printing for Public Argument). When we pick up a book that rested in the hands of a distant relative or someone unknown except by their bookplate, we get to share an experience across years, decades or even centuries.
May It Be Passed Down Without Damage
Today, printing of bookplates is still an artform of its own, often they are engraved, which is a form of intaglio printing. That formality reflects the enduring role of the bookplate itself, which is to be a permanent marker placed inside an object intended to outlast its original owner. A bibliographer from the Qing dynasty is known to have printed his own wish for books that contained his special bookplate. His message to would-be borrowers and perhaps future owners was, “May it be passed down without damage.”4
Archival Collections and Further Reading
YALE
With an estimated one million individual specimens, dating from the 15th to the 21st century, the Yale Bookplate Collection is one of the largest such collections in the world.
https://guides.library.yale.edu/bookplates
NYPL
Click here for the NYPL Bookplate Collection where you can view numerous bookplates including those of: Jack London, Margaret Sanger, Charles Dickens, Anita Loos, and Hilprand Brandenburg von Biberach.
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?q=Bookplates
THE SCHOMBERG
See the bookplate that Arturo and read about his history as a bibliophile
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2022/01/20/arturo-schomburg-bookplates
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE
See a more obscure collection entitled Bookplates of Medical Men and Institutions. The New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) Library was founded in 1847 and has grown to become the largest private medical library in the United States.
https://nyamcenterforhistory.org/tag/bookplates
Notes
1 Wendan Li. Chinese Writing and Calligraphy. Honolulu. University of Hawai’i Press, 2009. p. 145.
2 Wang Chun, “The Mediating Function of Bookplates in Ancient Chinese Bibliophilia,” Journal of Law, Policy and Globalization 128 (2025): 53.
3 “The First Bookplate,” Brandeis University, Robert D. Farber Archives and Special Collections, accessed May 21, 2026, https://www.brandeis.edu/library/archives/essays/special-collections/first-bookplate.html.
4 The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. “Bookplate of Hilprand Brandenburg von Biberach” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 21, 2026. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/61400510-e090-0132-c1f1-58d385a7bbd0.
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