The International Association of Amateur Heralds

We haven't looked at armorial bookplates for a long time. Here's a small selection, from several countries, reflecting a variety of styles over a period of more than two centuries.


An example of the 'Chippendale' style, which was popular in the British Isles in second half of the 18th century -- and apparently in overseas colonies too. I'm sure you'll recognise the name of this Virginia landowner.


The style didn't work too well with lozenges. though. The arms are those of De Burgh.


The 'Chippendale' style was followed by a style which featured a spade-shaped shield, often with festoons and wreaths or branches around it. Wikipedia describes Irish-born Laurence Hynes Halloran (1765-1831) as "a poet, unordained clergyman, and felon ... schoolteacher, journalist and bigamist." Quite a CV !

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Reginald C. Vanderbilt (1880-1925), scion of a famous New York family.


The Anglo-Canadian press baron Lord Beaverbrook (1879-1964)'s bookplate must date from after he was created a peer in 1917. His friend Rudyard Kipling suggested the motto.


American heraldic designer and man of letters Pierre de Chaignon la Rose (1871-1940).


The bookplate of the Dutch heraldist Col J.C.P.W.A. Steenkamp (1865-1955), dated 1930.
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The arms of one of Beaverbrook's employees, Evelyn Waugh (1903-66), and his wife Laura Herbert. Although the bookplate must date from after their marriage in 1937, it's in the style of a much earlier period.


Ian Fleming (1908-64) -- yes, that one -- opted to display only his crest on his bookplate.


American film actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr (1909-2000). His arms date from 1951.


And to wrap up with a bookplate in colour, which shows the owner's banner rather than his shield : Robert Pichette, who has been Dauphin Herald Extraordinary at the Canadian Heraldry Authority since 1995.

You'll find thousands of images of bookplates, armorial and otherwise, online at :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/prattinstitutelibraries/albums/72157613160345964
https://www.flickr.com/photos/houghtonmodern/albums/with/72157633504356464
http://www.bookplate.info/Bookplate/index.htm.

Most interesting - Thanks!!

I found the Vanderbilt arms to be quite interesting - a barred helmet suggesting nobility, which as an American he certainly wasn't. That, and the wreath & crest floating above the helmet, suggest it was designed and/or executed by someone with limited heraldic knowledge.

Also curious re: the arms themselves...

Michael F. McCartney wrote:Most interesting - Thanks!!

I found the Vanderbilt arms to be quite interesting - a barred helmet suggesting nobility, which as an American he certainly wasn't. That, and the wreath & crest floating above the helmet, suggest it was designed and/or executed by someone with limited heraldic knowledge.

Also curious re: the arms themselves...

As far as I can see from a quick look at the Vanderbilts' CVs these arms are entirely fictitious. The original Vanderbilt was a Dutch indentured servant who emigrated to what was then the Dutch colony of New Netherland in 1650. So there was no European nobility to hark back to. The Vanderbilts were New Yorkers, but seem to have had much the same cavalier attitude towards their family history as Boston Brahmins like the Crowninshields.

Rietstap's Armorial General reveals that quarters I & IV are the arms of the Van der Bilts of Zeeland, in reversed tinctures.

http://boutique.genealogie.com/v4/genealogie/Blasons.mvc/ListOfBlasons?name=Bilt

Borrowed plumes, probably, but differenced.

The barred helmet is the norm in the Netherlands -- or was in the 17th and 18th centuries, at any rate -- so the Vanderbilts may have used it for that reason.

barred helm is still the most common helmet used in the Netherlands.

Washington's bookplate was actually engraved in England, but it is true (and predictable) that American engravers at the time followed British styles, with a few years' time lag.

On Vanderbilt: "fictitious" seems severe. Someone knew they had to difference the arms they found in Rietstap--these surely weren't used before the late 19th century, after the Commodore had made his millions--and the quarterings may be shaky (or they might represent family. But the arms don't strike me as any more fictitious than any other assumed arms, unless the family represented them as ancient and inherited.