For those interested in the study of «old» bookplates and bibliography, the «Internet Archive» has been building a digital library of Internet sites, namely of books in digital form providing free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.
It is an outstanding instrument of work for researchers and bookplate lovers who like to deepen the study of bookplates of earlier epochs put forward by this corporation in cooperation with Google and several Universities and Libraries which hold copies of these works, mainly American and Canadian.
A tremendous amount of work which deserves our appraisal and gratitude and which ought to set an example to Universities and Libraries in Europe holding important bookplate collections, but inaccessible to the public living elsewhere.
The Internet, computers and global communications systems have set the pace for a new world where information must be at hand and access to information and knowledge be easy.
Among the books made available on-line in digital form, sponsored by the University of Toronto, we can find the precious E. R. J. Gambier Howe, Franks Bequest : Catalogue of British and American book plates bequested to the Trustees of the British Museum by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks : 3 vols., London : The British Museum : (1903-1904), which many of us are not lucky to possess in their libraries.
Vol. 1 can be consulted at http://www.archive.org/details/franksbequestcat01brituoft.
Other valuable reference books on Bookplates hard to find are also available, namely:
U.K.
· 147 Examples of Armorial Book Plates: From Various Collections : W. Griggs & Sons : 1892
· William John Hardy. Book Plates : London : K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & co., : 1893
· Egerton Castle. English book-plates; an illustrated handbook for students of ex-libris : London & New York : G. Bell : 1892
· Egerton Castle. English Book-Plates : ancient and modern : London : New York : G. Bell & Sons, 1893
· Sir Arthur Edward Vicars, Book-plates (Ex-Libris) : Series 1, Library Interior Book-Plates, Plymouth, For Private Circulation : Printed at the Frankfort Press : 1893
· John Vinycomb. On the Processes for the Production of Ex Libris (book-plates) : A. & C. Black : 1894
· Walter Hamilton. Dated book-plates (Ex libris) with a treatise on their origin and development : London : A. & C. Black, 1895
· Walter Hamilton, French Book-Plates : 2nd ed. : London : G. Bell & sons : 1896
· Norna Labouchere. Ladies' Book-plates: An Illustrated Handbook for Collectors and Book-lovers : London : G. Bell & sons, 1895
· Henry Walter Fincham. Artists and engravers of British and American book plates : London, K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & co., ltd.: 1897
· John Byrne Leicester Warren, Lord de Tabley. A Guide to the Study of Book-plates (Ex-Libris): London & New York : John Lane : 1900
· Frederick James Thairlwall. An Index to "A Guide to the Study of Book-plates": (ex-libris), by Lord de Tabley, Plymouth, W. F. Westcott, "Frankfort Press" : 1894
· Edward Almack. Bookplates, London : Methuen & Co., 1904, from University of California Libraries and with several different copies on-line.
· Cyril Davenport. English heraldic book-stamps, figured and described : London : A. Constable & co., ltd : 1909
· Herbert M. Vaughan, The Welsh book-plates in the collection of Sir Evan Davies Jones, bart.; a catalogue, with biographical and decriptive notes : London : A. L. Humphreys, 1920
USA
· Charles Dexter Allen. A Classified List of Early American Book-plates : De Vinne Press : 1894
· Charles Dexter Allen. Ex libris : essays of a collector ... : Boston : Lamson, Wolffe & Co. : 1896
· Charles Dexter Allen. American book-plates, a guide to their study : New York, The Macmillan Company : 1905
· Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Book-plates and Super-libros: Held by Club of Odd Volumes at the Museum of Fine Arts (1898) : Boston : Alfred Mudge & Son , Printers : 1898
· W. G. Bowdoin. The rise of the book-plate; being an exemplification of the art, signified by various book-plates, from its earliest to its most recent practice : New York, A. Wessels Company : 1901
· Wilbur Macey Stone. Women designers of book-plates : New York, Published for the Triptych by R.R. Beam : 1902
· Wilbur Macey Stone (ed.). Book-plates of to-day : New York : Tonnelé & Company, 1902
· Zella Allen Dixson. Concerning Book-plates: A Handbook for Collectors : Wisteria cottage press : 1903
· Loan exhibition of colonial book-plates, Society of colonial dames, state of New York : [New York, The De Vinne Press : 1908
· Alexander Winthrop Pope. Remarks on some masonic book plates in America and their owners : [Boston] : 1908; Remarks on some masonic book plates in America and their owners : vol. 2 : [Boston] : 1911
· Alfred Fowler. Lincolniana book plates and collections : Kansas City : Alfred Fowler : 1913
· Winward Prescott. Book-plate literature : Kansas City, H. Alfred Fowler : 1914
· Harry Parker Ward & Winward Prescott. Some American college bookplates; a presentation of plates, old and new : Columbus, Ohio : The Champlin Press : 1915
· Theodore Wesley Koch. : Concerning book plates : [Chicago] : 1915
· A catalogue of an exhibition of angling book plates held by the Grolier Club of the city of New York, June 6 to September 7, 1918 : [New York, The De Vinne Press] : 1918
· Alfred Fowler, ed. A directory of bookplate artists, with notes concerning their work : Kansas City, A. Fowler : 1919
Austria, Germany & Switzerland
· Gustav A Seyler. Illustriertes handbuch der ex-libris-kunde : Berlin, Verlag von J. A. Stargardt : 1895
· Ludwig Gerster. Die Schweizerischen Bibliothekzeichen(ex-libris) : Ct. Berm, Im Selbstverlage des Verfassers : 1898
· Karl Emich zu Leiningen-Westerburg. German Book-plates: An Illustrated Handbook of German & Austrian Exlibris : London : George Bell & Sons : 1901; Deutsche und oesterreichische bibliothekzeichen exlibris : Stuttgart, J. Hoffmann : 1901
· Walter von Zur Westen. Exlibris: (Bucheignerzeichen) : Verlag von Velhagen & Klasing : 1901
· Richard Braungart. Das moderne deutsche Gebrauchs-exlibris. Mit 400 abbildungen : Munchen : F. Hanfstaengl : 1920
· Richard Braungart. Deutsche exlibris und andere kleingraphik der gegenwart : München, H. Schmidt, 1922
Monographies on Bookplate Artists:
· The book plates of Amy M. Sacker : Boston, Printed at the Troutsdale Press : 1903
· F. Arthur Jacobson and his book plates : Boston, Printed at the Troutsdale Press : 1903
· Paul Lemperly. A List of Book-plates Engraved on Copper by Mr. Edwin Davies French : Cleveland, Ohio, Printed for subscribers : 1899
· Ira Hutchinson Brainerd. Edwin Davis French; a memorial; his life, his art : New York, Priv. Print. [The De Vinne Press] : 1908
· Edwin Davis French, 1851-1906: A Catalogue of an Exhibition of His Engraved Work… held at the Grolier Club, New York, 1909 : New York : De Vinne Press : 1909
· Thomas Moring. One hundred book plates engraved on wood : London, The De La More press : 1901
· A. E. Gallatin. Aubrey Beardsley as a designer of book-plates : London, E. Mathews; Boston, C.E. Peabody : 1902
· William Howe Downes. Book-plates selected from the works of Edmund H. Garrett & a notice of them : Boston, The Troutsdale press : 1904
· Elisha Brown Bird. E. B. Bird: his book plates : Boston, Printed at the Troutsdale Press : 1904
· Joseph Winfred Spenceley & Pierre de Chaignon la Rose. A Descriptive Checklist of the Etched & Engraved Book-plates by Joseph Winfred Spenceley: Troutsdale Press : 1905
· Richard Clipston Sturgis. Book Plates by Frederick Garrison Hall : Trovtsdale Press : 1905
· Albert Carlos Bates. An early Connecticut engraver and his work : Hartford : [The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company] : 1906
· Ex Libris: A Collection of Book-plate Designs by Herbert Gregson : Boston : W.P. Truesdell : 1907
· A collection of book plate designs by Louis Rhead : Boston : W.P. Truesdell, 1907
· Charles Dexter Allen. The book-plates of William Fowler Hopson : Berkeley, At the sign of the Berkeley oak : 1910
· George Heath Viner . A Descriptive Catalogue of the Bookplates Designed and Etched by George W. Eve : The American Bookplate Society : 1916
· Gardner Callahan Teall. Bookplates by Sidney L. Smith: With a Check-list of the Bookplates : Kansas City : Alfred Fowler : 1921
· The Boston Public Library sponsored a digital on-line version of an Album dated 1930, containing bookplates, drawings and sketches by artist Robert Cairns Dobson (1881 - 1916), born in Scotland. Our fellow member Lewis Jaffe published a post on R. C. Dobson at his Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie
