About Bookplates : Friendly Spirit's Booklovers Shop

Friendly Spirit's Booklovers Shop : About Bookplates

Encourage book reading! Give bookplates What is a Bookplate?

NOTE: These are sold in our BOOKPLATES store - you CANNOT order them from this shop. Please go to our other website!

Personalized Bookplate Whitmore Tree Set of 12 Little Boy in Blue Bookplates Set of 12 Library Scene Bookplates

What Are Bookplates?

Bookplates are labels put inside books, to clarify ownership of the books.

Before the printing press was invented, books were handwritten for the church and the wealthy. Ownership may have been handwritten in the book or the books protected by chains.

After the printing press, books were more available to those who could read. Books were still valuable - mass productions were not available and books were a valuable part of an estate.

Special crests were sometimes woodburned or otherwise placed in the book to declare family or church ownership. Eventually bookplates became available. Churches, businesses and individuals might have their own bookplates designed and placed inside the books.

Bookplates today are used for many reasons. Some are given as gifts, to encourage readership in babies and young children. They are given as rewards to children who are becoming readers. Authors like to use bookplates at booksignings. People who donate a loved one's book collection or give books in a loved one's name often use bookplates In Memory Of.... College students use them to avoid the confusion of books in dorm or apartment living with other students who may have the same books. People with large book collections, and those who lend out books, like to have their names in the books for easy return

NOTE: These are sold in our BOOKPLATES store - you CANNOT order them from this shop. Customer service here will not know what you are talking about! Please go to our other website!