ISSN 1833-766X SOCIETY BOOKPLATE AUSTRALIAN book-plates The Sunday Mail Sunday The Courier-Mail The history: social as Bookplates of study the to guide A de Lord and Dillman Tabley’s Rowell,G M Gretta Louis travel:will Havebookplate Club Bookplate the and Australian Gartner John history: bookplate in Australian Characters CONTENTS [email protected] DulwichHill NSW2203 POBox 555 Keep Mary Designer [email protected] Bronwyn Vost Secretary [email protected] 029428 2863 RiverviewNSW2066 Sofala4 Ave Ferson DrMark Editorial happenings and Notes Competition Gardens Editor/President (England),forGartner,J Calligraphicdesign by NEW

AudreyHutchinson THE 1983

Sand and

collectors,bibliophiles, andothersdedicated artists topromoting bookplates

3 1 6 6 4

By Mark J Ferson,Sydney J Mark By Club the Bookplate Australian and Gartner John history: in bookplate Characters Australian He undertook training in printing at the the spent also at and printing College Technical Melbourne in training undertook He (1914-1998).GartnerJohn wasMelbourne printer club the of activities and formation the members. States United three and Australian South five Society, Libris and in addition Ex eight Australian New South the Wales, to belonged had 13 whom of members,Victorian23 had club the months, six After subject. publication the on literature of and exhibitions of holding the artists, of involvement the exchanges, and use bookplate of promotion the being as society new the of objects the specified 18 earlier, years devised Society Libris Ex of Australian that the replicated which constitution, The committee. small a and secretary assistant an as well as vice-president, as Hewett S V and Croll as president, withGartner as secretary-treasurer elected, were Officers Club. Bookplate ‘organiser’AustraliantheformJohn Gartnerto November25on meeting1941acalled was by continued to motivate Melbourne collectors, and earlier.Croll’syears‘fascinating pursuit’five as level same the at membership its maintain to managed had branch Victorian the Mullins, Lane of death the following Society Libris Ex end of 1939, despite the demise of the Australian thepresidentHenderson RobertByviceCroll. sizeableMelbourne contingent ledbyVictorian high membership a in the mid-1930s, gained including a and Depression Great the survived Society The vanguard. the in Barnett Neville P other with of promoters, and group collectors a passionare and Mullins Lane John president founding of connections society the been had establishedfanfarethroughmuch1923within Society Libris Ex Australian The pr fo Col te rvn fre behind force driving the Croll, from Apart www.bookplatesociety.org.au/ bookplatefor himself, and began corresponding year,sameThe Gartnertypographicdesigned a years. four previous the for Society Libris Ex Australian the of member a and Melbourne, SpecialtyPress,the at productionmanager the through contact with probably fellow-printer V S bookplates, Hewett, who was in interested printingbusiness. Around 1936 hehad become commercial a over took he when 1945, until in privatefunctionedwhichpress1937a solely as Press Hawthorn the established Gartner ofthe Printing Industry Craftsmen of Australia. influencedhim tofound the VictorianDivision who Fryer Ben with contact into came 1933 in andcraft the ofleaders thecorrespond with privatepresses.thetobegan Heofwork the to FoxcroftB A librarianassistant by guided was Melbournethetimeat Public Librarywhere he Wood-engravingby FeintA for Newsletter No.Newsletter J Gartner,J 1941 38, September 2015 September

and exchanging with Barnett, Croll, Eric Thake, Adrian Feint and other Sydney collectors. When I interviewed Gartner’s widow, Zelma, in 2000, she described her late husband as ‘a people person’ and recalled that he had been a collector all his life, especially of anything to do with printing, and was also most interested in Australian art and with the technique of wood engraving. The latter interest led to Gartner approaching Adrian Feint in 1939 to design Gartner’s first pictorial bookplate, after which they struck up a close friendship. The next year Gartner wrote, and published at the Hawthorn Press, a booklet outlining Feint’s bookplate work, and in 1941 he wrote ‘Adrian Feint’s bookplates’ for Ure Smith’s Australia National Journal which he reprinted at the Hawthorn Press in a limited edition of 200 copies. Feint visited Gartner Wood-engraving bookplate by Allan Jordan for J Gartner, 1944 on many occasions during the war years and from 1942 he was engaged to produce decorations for a number of Hawthorn artist Eric Thake and a second published letter from the beginning of 1943 from Press books, beginning with its printer’s under the Australian Bookplate Club aegis collector Sydney Blake to Jane Windeyer, device. Gartner also utilised the services of was devoted to Eirene Mort. Between these in which he expresses the same sentiments: Melbourne teacher and commercial artist two booklets, Gartner published under Right up to the time of the War, I was Allan Jordan (1898-1982), whose wood his own name a checklist of the designs interested in the collection of continental engraved illustrations and other decorations of Victorian etcher William Hunter. All bookplates and was corresponding with enhance more than a dozen Hawthorn Press comprised a preface, checklist and 5-7 a number of European artists. Since books from the 1940s. Jordan executed tipped-in, original bookplates and they the outbreak of war however I have a series of wood-engraved bookplates were raffled or sold to club members or completely given up all thoughts of between 1939 and 1958, including designs others interested in bookplates. Gartner collecting bookplates, books, and the for Gartner dated 1944 and 1950. Gartner’s considered these illustrated checklists an graphic arts all of which interested me. other bookplates from this period by innovation in Australia, although the first Melbourne artists comprised designs by W of these works had in fact been produced in An alternate or additional reason is the Hunter (1943), C H Crampton (1944) and respect of the bookplates of Adrian Feint by illness and death of Victorian figurehead R Thake (1944). the artist himself in 1928. H Croll, and this is certainly the opinion With the founding of the Australian The idea and format of the two of club member and veteran bookplate Bookplate Club, Gartner marshalled his Hawthorn Press checklists were taken up designer Eirene Mort, who noted in organisational abilities in the direction of by Adelaide collector and Club member December 1947 in a letter to fellow artist- strengthening the club’s membership and Harry Muir who published checklists of the collector Ella Dwyer, after Croll’s death: its activities, and utilised his typographic bookplates of Norman Lindsay and George The Bookplate Club seems to have faded abilities and the Hawthorn Press to the Perrottet at his Wakefield Press in 1942 and out. It went into recess during Mr Croll’s benefit of the club’s bright if brief publication 1944. Despite the apparently successful long illness, & though they hoped to start program. Following the Constitution and list beginnings of the Club marked by its talks again with renewed vigour, I wonder of foundation members, he edited two issues to members, publications and an increase whether they will. I always liked that Club of the club newsletter, dated April 1943 in new bookplate designs in 1942-1944, it – it was so friendly and enterprising … (with a tipped-in Feint bookplate) and does not appear to have survived beyond May 1944. The more important Hawthorn 1944. In retrospect, both John and Zelma Despite the cessation of organised Press publications were the checklists of the Gartner felt that the war killed off interest bookplate collecting activities in Australia bookplates of prominent artist-members. in bookplates. This view is supported by with the fading away of the Australian The first of these concerned Melbourne contemporary evidence, in the form of a Bookplate Club, Gartner continued to

2 commission and swap bookplates, and plates (ex-libris). Published by John Pearson, John Byrne Leicester Warren (1835-95) turned towards Europe as a source of book- London, in 1880, this was the first English who became third and last Lord de Tabley, plate designers, but that is another story. book on bookplate collecting, coming just and was a gentleman of strong friendships before (and perhaps stimulating) the great and broad interests including as a poet, an References are available from the author. fashion for bookplate collecting which observer of natural history, and a collector erupted with the formation in 1891 of the of coins and books. It is perhaps worth Have bookplate will travel: London-based Bookplate Society. quoting one of those friends, Edmund Gretta G Rowell, Louis M The presence inside the book’s front Gosse: cover of a nautical bookplate - one of Dillman and Lord de Tabley’s His love of books extended to a study my bookplate collecting themes - sealed A guide to the study of of those marks of ownership which are the deal and US $95 changed hands. The book-plates known as ex-libris, and in 1880 he bookplate is a pen and ink design of a By Mark J Ferson, Sydney published A guide to the study of book- fully-rigged sailing ship by prize-winning plates, a handsomely illustrated volume cartoonist C K Berryman with text ‘Gretta In conscientious preparation for my wife’s which has been the pioneer of many G Rowell, Oct. 1925’. I have been unable and my holiday to North America last interesting works, and of a whole society to find out anything substantial about the September, I sought advice from some of students and annotators. He was led to owner except that in 1930 she was residing Sydney book collectors regarding good the historical study of bookplates by his with her husband and adult children in secondhand bookshops in Los Angeles, love of heraldry … (Gosse, Critical kit- Pasadena, and had a further bookplate our point of arrival where we were to stay kats, London, 1896; p. 192) designed in 1932 by J W Jameson, also for a few days with a long-lost cousin. featuring a sailing ship. In A guide, Warren took a systematic Ronald Cardwell firmly recommended the Once home, I looked at my acquisition approach, and established a vocabulary Caravan Book Store in downtown LA, more carefully and found some other of bookplate styles, including Jacobean and my very helpful cousins found time to tantalising clues to its provenance in the and Chippendale armorials, allegorical deposit us there for half an hour whilst they form of a small pencil note inside the and landscape styles. He paid particular unsuccessfully sought a completely legal back cover ‘Dillman Sale 3/21 07’. The attention to dated bookplates, as evidence car-parking space. internet is a wonderful thing; a search led of the historical development of the My enquiry of the owner as to the me to a digitised version of the University artform, and included a chapter of quaint whereabouts of bookplate books led me to of California’s copy of the catalogue of quotations, referred to as ‘Mottoes directed a shelf of desirables and, as a token of my The private library of Louis M Dillman agains borrowers’. Some mottoes are long request and visit as much as anything else, of Chicago … for sale at auction Thursday and in Latin, and my schoolboy learning is I settled on a copy of The Hon J Leicester afternoon and evening, March 21, 1907, of no use to me, but brevity is also valued, Warren’s A guide to the study of book- by The Anderson Auction Company, 5 West and ‘Peruse and return’ appears on various 29th Street, New York. An unknown hand, bookplates in either Latin or English. The but possibly a staff member of the auction last chapters of the book give various tables house, has marked the catalogue, and at of English engraved designs and foreign the top of the front cover a manuscript dated bookplates. The author concludes notation reveals that 614 lots comprising with: ‘The novelties of this work will soon 1055 volumes were sold for some cents over become the commonplaces of the science $14,658. Page 9 lists six bookplate books, of bookplates.’ Truly a collector after my of which lot 79 was Warren’s A guide to own heart! the study of book-plates, described as ‘First *** Edition, and very scarce’, and the same Almost inevitably, after we returned home hand records its sale for $4.20. Mr Dillman from holidays, I had a chance to re-examine is regrettably an unknown quantity to me my own library - like de Tabley’s, my except that the catalogue introduction ‘books lie strewn over sofas and armchairs’ intimates that he was a great book collector (Gosse, p. 193) - and found my own copy - this sale was of only a portion of his of A guide; thankfully it was of the second private library - and other internet sources edition, 1900, in much poorer condition reveal him as the president of the American than my new acquisition and devoid of Book Company (founded 1890), which those wonderful clues to provenance which specialised in educational books. can make the ‘science’ of bookplates such a Pen and ink design by C K Berryman Now to turn to A guide and its author rewarding pursuit. for Gretta G Rowell, 1925 3 Louis M Dillman auction catalogue, 21 March 1907 (Digitised by Internet Archive, original from University of California) 4 Martin Hambleton (pseudonym of Thomas E Martin), who conducted a children’s page for the Brisbane Daily Mail and later the Sunday Mail, and these newspapers supported the competition as event organisers and with prizes, as did the various coastal municipal councils responsible for the beaches where the competitions were held. In addition to promoting a healthy lifestyle, the idea of the organisers was to encourage creative design, originality and sense of beauty among the participants who were children aged up 14 or 15 years. Each year, the coming competition, held during the summer holiday period from around Christmas to the middle of January, was advertised in the newspaper in early December. An initial competition round was held at a large number of south-eastern Queensland beaches (and occasionally in northern New South Wales) and finalists from this preliminary round were entitled to compete in the grand final. The first year of the competition was held over the 1921-22 summer and from the later years of the decade, the competition was heavily promoted by the Courier-Mail (formed after the amalgamation of the Daily Mail and the Brisbane Courier) and Sunday Mail, and each event appears to have attracted hundreds or, in the case of the grand finals, thousands of visitors to the beaches where they were Engraved bookplate by C W Sherborn for Lord de Tabley, 1888 held. They created such an impact that in (Wikimedia Commons) 1936 the Courier-Mail backed a proposal from the Queensland Amateur Swimming Association that beach swimming classes be held in conjunction with the sand gardens competitions, reflecting the concern Bookplates as social history: The Courier-Mail and The Sunday Mail expressed at the time by the mayor of Sand Gardens Competition Southport Council that many visitors to the By Mark J Ferson, Sydney beaches, often attracted from inland parts of the State, could not swim. It was perhaps not the most artistic The sand garden competition was a now Monetary prizes were awarded to the bookplate, lying seemingly forlorn among forgotten Queensland institution that began winner and place-getters in the preliminary the shelves of Brisbane’s Archives Fine not long after the end of World War I and grand finals, whilst books were awarded Books on an endpaper torn out of a long and only faded out in the early 1940s to 2 or 3 children considered runners up. forgotten discarded book - although its as anxiety about World War II overtook The bookplate shown here must have been decided 1930s look did immediately engage the community. The competitions grew pasted into one of the book prizes awarded the Art Deco part of my collecting brain, out of the movement which focussed on to Mary Urton. Through the wonders of the and so I had to buy it (for $5) - but it improving the health of the children living National Library of Australia ‘Trove’ on-line introduced me to a previously unfamiliar in our towns and cities, and exposure to access to the collection of digitised Australian story of sun, sand and child health; where sun and clean air played an important newspapers, the name Mary Urton can be else but Queensland! role. The promoter of this activity was found a number of times in connection with

5 ‘Seaside mayors welcome swimming scheme. Popularising the beaches. QASA president is pleased’. Courier-Mail, 20 Aug. 1936, p. 19 ‘Holiday beach competitions. Attractions for children. Sponsored by “The Telegraph”’. Telegraph 5 Dec. 1936, p. 14

Notes and Happenings Recent publications

Ex-libris - from the shelves of a Mechanics’ library. Useful knowledge (Magazine of the Mechanics’ Institutes of Victoria Inc.), no. 37, Winter 2015, p. 33 Shows bookplates for the Mechanics-Mercantile Library, San Francisco

Andrea Curr. The Book Nook Library: a family affair. Biblionews and Australian Notes & Queries, no. 387, Sept. 2015, pp. 121-7 Shows the bookplate for the Book Nook Library, Liverpool

Ex-libris – from the shelves of a Mechanics’ library. Useful knowledge, no. 38, Spring Prize bookplate for the Sand Gardens Competition, 2015, pp. 31-3 Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail, c. 1935 Shows two versions of bookplates for the Echuca Mechanics Institute Library in situ in the sand gardens competition. The first the Brisbane Telegraph newspaper, in an six books still extant from the Library. One was of these is in the Saturday 30 December obvious attempt to seize the initiative from from 1877, printed by R G Foyster of Echuca, and the other from c. 1886, printed by Mackay 1933 edition of the Courier-Mail where it is its rival the Courier-Mail, in the issue of and Foyster, Echuca. reported that Mary won second prize in the Saturday 5 December 1936, announces competition held at Sutton Beach, Redcliffe a series of competitions to be held at (a Brisbane suburb) on the previous day, major beaches in which children will with a reduced number of entrants due to make maps of Queensland in relief in Editorial the rain. One year later, on Boxing Day the sand, using only materials that can 1934, Mary won the competition held at be found on the beach. Presumably using Just a brief editorial note on this occasion Woody Point, whilst the following year, the skills she honed in the sand gardens as I have written all the material for this again on Boxing Day and again at Woody competition, Mary Urton, aged 14 years, number of the Newsletter. But I record this Point, Mary won a book prize. So it seems won the map modelling competition held fact by no means grudgingly as to write for very likely that the bookplate dates from at Sutton’s Beach, Redcliffe, two days before pleasure is an enjoyable pursuit and two of the 1935-36 competition round. One other Christmas. No book prizes were awarded … the items reflect the fun of both acquisition interesting point relates to the photographic of and research about a new bookplate image which forms the bookplate’s lower Further reading discovery. I anticipate that the December panel; an article in the 21 January 1934 issue will have some very interesting articles Elizabeth Nunn. Sunshine and shadow: edition of the Sunday Mail reporting the sand written by others. And I should take this a study of the well-being of Queensland’s garden competition grand final held the day opportunity to apologise for the lateness of children during the inter-war years. Master before at Sandgate Beach includes an almost this September number. MF of Philosophy thesis, Griffith University, identical photograph of the scene shown on 2009; pp. 99-117 the bookplate – so the 1933-34 season image became the 1935-36 season bookplate! ‘Sand craft at Sandgate. Championship contest. Pursuing Mary’s name in Trove reveals Won by a Paddington girl’. Sunday Mail, 21 a further chapter to her story; in 1936 Jan. 1934, p. 4 6