David Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (52mm x 28mm, 1762).



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Anyone who handles old books will have come across these small and sometimes beautiful labels pasted discreetly (more or less) into the endpapers. Booksellers, binders, printers, publishers, importers, and distributors of books used to advertise in this way their part in bringing the book to market. Most of the earliest examples shown here belong to binders (e.g., the Marcus Ward ticket, ca.1841); these were a continuation of binders' earlier practice of sewing into the binding a small ticket with their signature.

This collection began with labels found in our own books, but now it is mainly a virtual collection -- each entry is digitally scanned from books found in the excellent research library to which we repair in our spare time. We must admit to having gone from "coming across" the labels in our book-browsing to actually searching for them. Contributors from around the world have added a wonderful diversity to the collection.

User note: Images here (and in the thematic pages) link to the label in the alphabetical catalog. Label images in the alphabetical catalog link to larger images. Higher resolution images may be had by contacting us. We also welcome comments and suggestions, as well as submissions for inclusion in the collection.

Recent Acquisitions:

David Mostardi, who runs a site devoted to Paul Elder, sends a Santa Barbara variant label from 1906 or so:

Paul Elder & Co., Santa Barbara, California (19mm x 23mm, ca.1906). Courtesy of David Mostardi.



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Steve Trussel, who has a wonderful site devoted to Paris guidebooks, sent along a variant label from Galignani (found in a 1905 L. Guilmin guide):

The Galignani Library, Paris & Nice, France (28mm x 15mm). Courtesy of Steve Trussel.

More from Steve:

Brentano's, Booksellers & Stationers, Paris, France (25mm x 11mm). Courtesy of Steve Trussel. W.B. Clarke Co., Boston, Massachusetts (27mm x 13mm, ca.1914). Courtesy of Steve Trussel. Ireland & Allan, Books & Stationery, Vancouver BC, Canada (24mm x 10mm). Courtesy of Steve Trussel.
John W. Graham & Co., Spokane, Washington (46mm x 16mm). Courtesy of Steve Trussel. George Greenwood, Sydney, Australia (39mm x 17mm). Courtesy of Steve Trussel.
Kondo Book Store, Tokyo, Japan (25mm x 15mm). Courtesy of Steve Trussel. Kyoku-to Shoten (Far East Book Shop), Tokyo, Japan (31mm x 16mm). Courtesy of Steve Trussel. W. Newman & Co., Calcutta, India (24mm x 13mm). Courtesy of Steve Trussel.



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Michael Kunze sent some new labels awhile back (sorry for the delay, Michael!:

J. Kasalicky, Vienna, Austria (21mm x 28mm, ca.1928). Courtesy of Michael Kunze. Karl Konig, Vienna, Austria (24mm x 30mm). Courtesy of Michael Kunze. Eckart, Vienna, Austria (17mm x 27mm). Courtesy of Michael Kunze.
H.M. Gilbert & Son, Southampton, England (27mm x 10mm). Courtesy of Michael Kunze. Gotz, Hagen, Germany (25mm x 14mm, ca.1950). Courtesy of Michael Kunze. H. Maegli, Biel, Switzerland (24mm x 12mm, ca.1925). Courtesy of Michael Kunze.
Georg Kapp, Constantinople/Istanbul, Turkey (31mm x 8mm, ca.1915?). Courtesy of Michael Kunze. Walter Beyer, Hamburg, Germany (24mm x 20mm, ca.1925). Courtesy of Michael Kunze. Urano [mail-order bookseller], Frankfurt, Germany (29mm x 16mm, ca.1952). Courtesy of Michael Kunze.



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Three interesting labels from new contributor Nicholas Forster:

Harry Greenwood, Halifax, England (36mm x 12mm). Courtesy of Nicholas Forster. Percy, Lund, Humphries & Co. [binders], Bradford & London, England (12mm x 10mm, ca.1898). Courtesy of Nicholas Forster. Willmer & Smith, Booksellers &c., Liverpool, England (23mm x 15mm, ca.1852). Courtesy of Nicholas Forster.



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Here are some of my most recent finds:

The Poole Book Store, Montreal, Canada (30mm x 7mm).
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, India (56mmx 24mm, ca.1970s). Courtesy of Third Place Books.
The English Book Shop, Chandigarh, India (42mm x 16mm). Metaphysical Town-Hall Book Shop, San Francisco, California (42mm x 16mm, ca.1960s). Mysell & Rollins, Stationery Manufacturers - Printers - Bookbinders, San Francisco, California (24mm dia., ca.1880s). The Popular Book Depot, Bangalore, India (inkstamp, 32mm x 21mm, ca.1971). Sperling & Kupfer, Libreria Internazionale, Milan, Italy (50mm x 22mm, ca.1966).



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Bibliography:

"It's the Ticket: Nineteenth-Century Bookbinding in the British Isles and the United States" (Mirabile Dictu #2, April 1998; Mirabile Dictu is the newsletter of the Bryn Mawr College Library.)

Larry Dingman, Booksellers Marks: An Illustrated Book (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Dinkytown Antiquarian Bookstore, 1986).

Harold C. Holmes, Some Random Reminiscences of an Antiquarian Bookseller. (Oakland, Ca.: Holmes Book Co., 1967). See also the Oakland Tribune article "Bookseller saves rare old labels" (4 Jan 1959).

Gary Kurutz, "Pioneer California Booksellers' Labels". Quarterly Newsletter of the Book Club of California, vol.43 (1978) pp.40-45.

Robert W. Mattila, "Booksellers' Labels". Quarterly Newsletter of the Book Club of Washington, vol.10 no.4 (1992) pp.11-13.

Marcus A. McCorison, Book Trade Labels at the American Antiquarian Society (Worcester, Mass.: American Antiquarian Society, 1973).

William Smith Mitchell, "Bookbinder's Tickets" The Durham University Journal Vol.XLVI.No.1 (New Series Vol.XV.No.1) December 1953, pp.1-4, plate. This article is online.

Reinhard Öhlberger, Wenn am Buch der Händler klebt (Wien: Verlag Löcker, 1999 [or 2000?]).

Piero Piani, Questioni di etichetta (Bologna: Libreria Naturalistica, 2002).

Jim Rainer, "Collecting Bibliophemera: Bookseller's Tickets" (Originally published in the Alcuin Society's journal Amphora.

Maurice Rickards, Collecting Printed Ephemera (New York: Abbeville Press, 1988).



Links:

James Burn & Co.: Signed Bindings, a website devoted to one bindery's labels.

Howard Prouty of ReadInk, an online bookshop, has some very nice bookseller labels, displayed here.

A Museum of Booksellers Labels at Plurabelle Books of Cambridge (UK).

Ephemera Society of America.

And thanks to Coudal Partners for including us in their Museum of Online Museums, where we've whiled away more time than we care to admit.



Our deep appreciation goes to the following individuals for their various contributions to this web project: Robert Behra, Jim Bisso, Ken Bosman, Charlie Breunig, Brian Busby, Benjamin Clark, J.C. & P.C. Dast, Carollyn Dieter, Larry Dingman, Sarah Faragher, Nicholas Forster, Donald Francis, Pablo Herrero Hernández, Lewis Jaffe, Leon Koll, Michael Kunze, Stephen Loreck, David Lowrance, Pierre MacKay, Albert Mendez, Mark Mohr, David Mostardi, Peter Christian Pehrson, Edouard Pinon, Howard Prouty, Jim Rainer, Pierre Rastoul, Bruce Shyer, Steve Trussel.

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