O'Dell, Dr Ilse: Deutsche und Osterreichische Exlibris 1500-1599 im Department of Prints and Drawings im Britischen Museum, published 2003 by British Museum Press (regrettably just in German).

Do you hold a copy of this book, either personally or in your library ? - Please check.

To make this German text accessible to English-speaking would-be readers, the Autumn 2013 issue of The Bookplate Journal reprints in English the extensive introduction, plus some improved illustrations. Please send orders & enquiries to publications@bookplatesociety.org.

Of the 72 pages in this well-produced journal, 38 pages are devoted to the English translation of Dr O’Dell’s important introductory explanation and historical overview, accompanied by 43 illustrations of which 16 are full page, a number of which are in colour. These illustrations have been chosen to match references in the text. Original 16th century German exlibris from the remarkable Franks and Rosenheim collections in the British Museum have been re-photographed and, where possible, are shown at actual dimensions (except where the originals are larger than the journal's 185x245mm page size). In the 2003 book, images were unfortunately manipulated in size to fit four to a page.

A second major article in this Autumn 2013 issue of The Bookplate Journal is Brian North Lee’s well-informed piece on “Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks as a Bookplate Collector”. This originally appeared as Chapter 17 (pages 308-316) in Caygill & Cherry’s A.W. Franks – Nineteenth-Century Collecting and the British Museum, BM Press, 1997 (now out of print). To this essay are now added further notes dealing with some aspects that Lee was unable to research.

This journal sells to non-members of The Bookplate Society for £14/$22.50 plus postage (less 35% on quantity for the book trade, but again postage extra). Additional copies are being printed so that libraries and other owners of the O’Dell book can access the English text. Available end-October 2013. Please send orders to publications@bookplatesociety.org.

Go to www.bookplatesociety.org for details about subscription to The Bookplate Journal, published by The Bookplate Society, a not-for-profit association of collectors, bibliophiles, artists, and others dedicated to promoting bookplate study.