Two bookplates, one inscribed Elihu Vedder His Book

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Two bookplates sit side by side here, and one of them carries an inscription naming the American painter Elihu Vedder as its owner. Ex libris plates like these were pasted inside the front cover of a book to mark who owned it, and artists of the late 1800s often designed their own as small works in their own style. Vedder, who lived and worked largely in Rome, is best known for his illustrations of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, so a plate bearing his name is a useful glimpse of how a collector's identity was expressed in print. Looking closely, the pairing invites comparison between the two designs and the personal tastes they signal.

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