Book Plates in Pen and Ink (Alice Horodisch-Garman)

Here’s one of the most delightful things we’ve ever come across. It’s a portfolio of twenty-one bookplates by Alice Horodisch-Garman, a German-Dutch designer and illustrator. Each was designed for her husband Abraham, an antiquarian, bookseller, and publisher—and he required a lot of bookplates for his collections. Madame Alice believed that one’s bookplate should reflect a specific collection and collector and not simply be a name plate. So, here are plates for bibliographical periodicals, books about papyrus, facsimiles, bibliographies, Russian bibliographies, Jewish bibliographies, books abut books, French bibliographies, old books, fine press books, calligraphic books, and so on. (We’re losing interest in typing.) Each is a perfect little showing of lettering, calligraphy, and iconography in red and black. Too sweet.