The image contained above is of a bookplate that I found a few years ago in a book first published in 1917. The author, and the book itself would seem on the surface inconsequential, but the bookplate, well, that would appear to be an entirely different story.
For those who don't know, a bookplate is a small, printed label, used to show ownership and often glued to the inside front cover of a book. Book lovers, and dedicated book collectors throughout the world, have commissioned their own bookplates since the fifteenth century. Many are plain, and mostly functional. Other plates are elaborate, impressive works of art and were, in fact, created by some of the most famous artists of the time.
Some are merely the indulgence of the rich and famous, while others were used to convey the status of the prominent family, be it in business, or other areas. Some, it would seem, were also used to convey a message, obvious, or otherwise. I believe this bookplate to be of the latter kind.
I have called it "the mysterious illuminated bookplate of the New World Order". With Poetic License applied. Because I could.
Yet, though the title is mine and entirely made up, it does seem appropriate for what little I know of such things. The bookplate itself is just a small, ephemeral thing, with a physical size of about 3" x 4". But in it I see an entire world history conveyed in some pretty obvious symbolism to those so initiated.
I've seen several hundred thousand books in my time as a book dealer, and probably many more than that if the truth be known. I've studied a few bookplates along the way; even collected some for my own satisfaction. But I never saw one that struck me so squarely, deep near the solar plexus, or activated that electric sense of subconscious awareness we usually tend to ignore.
What it all truly means I don't really know.
I will let you be the judge if it is simply my overactive imagination, or if perhaps I only read too much into some harmless creative representations.
But then again, perhaps not.
I would love to hear what you might have to say about it....
By Michael Patrick McCarty
