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THE BOOKMARK: A BIBLIOPHILE'S
ACCESSORY
1
by Beryl Kenyon de Pascual
courtesy of
The Ephemerist - No. 124, Spring 2004
This article is abridged in parts where reference was made to
original illustrations of the printed paper which cannot be shown here.
Not all illustrations are identical to those appearing in the printed
version.
What do we understand today by the word 'bookmark'? One definition that
has been proposed is as follows: 'An object of paper, metal, or any
other material, which has been made industrially, or by hand, for the
purpose of placing in a book to indicate a page for future reading.'
This definition obviously includes the plain ribbons of silk or other
material attached to the spine or headband of a book, but excludes bits
of newspaper, old bus tickets and similar items. Unlike book bindings,
not all bookmarks form an integral part of a book, but in their own way
they serve the same purpose, namely to protect the pages. As far back as
the Middle Ages the need to indicate the page where the reader had to
interrupt his reading or to mark an important passage for future
consultation had led to bad habits that could damage books. Richard of
Bury in his Philobiblion, which he finished writing in 1344,
explained in Chapter XVI how to treat and care for books. He censured a
thoughtless youth who "when he tires of studying carelessly folds
the page so as to remember where he stopped. Or it occurs to him to mark
with his dirty nail a passage that amused him. Or he fills the book with
straws as reminders of the interesting chapters. These straws, which the
book cannot digest and which no one bothers to remove, break the joints
of the book or end up rotting away inside the volume".
Strangely enough, Richard of Bury did not specifically recommend the use
of a bookmark. Should we conclude that bookmarks, in the strictest sense
of the term, did not exist in Richard of Bury's days? Not at all!
Between the pages of codices and incunabula stored in European libraries
and archives quite sophisticated bookmarks of monastic origin from the
thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries can be found. Examples of these
appear in a medical dictionary from the fifteenthcentury belonging to
the Biblioteca Capitular y Colombina (cat. no. 5-7-16) in Seville 2.
One of them consists of a revolving parchment disc of 25 mm diameter
inside a cover that is also of parchment. The disc bears the numbers
I,II,III, IIII, corresponding to the four columns of the two pages seen
when the book is open. By turning the disc, the number of the relevant
column appears in a 'window'. As an additional refinement the reader can
indicate the height of the desired passage in the column by moving the
bookmark up or down a cord or leather thong attached to the head of the
book.
From the mid fourteenth century onwards bookmarks can be found in
paintings. Jan van Eyck (d. 1441) is a well-known artist from the
fifteenth century who sometimes included this detail. The more luxurious
examples consist of one or more cords or ribbons with a jewel at one end
in the form of a small ball or button made of silver or gold, sometimes
set with pearls or gems. The jewel is placed at the head of the book
while the cord is placed between the pages. If the cord is attached to
the spine, the jewel may be found at the lower end of the cord. More
modest examples were also made and some are still in existence. They
took the form of plain or embroidered ribbons or of one or more strips
of leather joined at the top.
Another type of bookmark used in the past - and still to be found today
- is similar to a paper clip. It consists of a piece of paper or
parchment (sometimes heart-shaped) cut to a point and with a v-shaped
slit. By fixing it to the side of a page by means of the tongue thus
formed it could even serve to indicate a specific line of text (but not
the column if there was more than one to a page). Some hand-painted
bookmarks of this type can safely be dated to the eighteenth century 3.
Others are made from pieces of parchment cut from medieval manuscripts
but this does not guarantee that they were made in the Middle Ages.
Bookmarks following the 'clip' principle continue to be made today.
Until the mid-nineteenth century decorated bookmarks used to be
hand-made, usually embroidered or painted. The industrial revolution and
the invention of chromolithography enabled illustrated and coloured
bookmarks to be produced cheaply in large quantities and thus to be used
for publicity. At the same time the spread of education to a larger
proportion of the population increased the number of readers and
consequently the use of bookmarks.
As bookmarks are small, useful and often decorative, they became common
gifts. As a result of industrialization people who did not wish to spend
time sewing and embroidering a bookmark as a gift could, from the
mid-nineteenth century onwards, buy silk bookmarks woven in a factory.
Prepared cards pierced with holes to facilitate cross-stitch embroidery
and for attachment to ribbons were also available.
When looking for a bookmark as a gift for a lady in high society it was
possible to find luxurious examples in the shops of silversmiths and
jewellers. A finely carved and gilded example is one bookmark in
mother-of-pearl that was sold by a jeweller in the elegant Rue de Rivoli
in Paris probably towards the end of the nineteenth century. Like many
others from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries this example served
two purposes. It could be used as a paper-knife to cut the pages of
books, which sometimes used to be sold uncut. At the same time it had a
'tongue' so that it could be used as a clip bookmark. Silver, ivory and,
to a lesser extent, gold, tortoiseshell, and mother-of-pearl were the
materials used for high quality bookmarks.
In a different social context producers of consumer goods and services,
such as insurance companies, began in the second half of the nineteenth
century to distribute free paper or card bookmarks that advertised their
products. Fig 1 is an English example from the 1880s. The artistic quality varied according to the public at which
they were aimed. At one extreme one can find publicity in the form of a
simple text without illustrations and with vulgar typography. At the
other extreme advertisers employed the talent of well-known illustrators
or at least competent professional artists. Famous examples from the art
nouveau period are the series illustrating the twelve months of the year
designed c. 1912 for the Scottish Widows' Fund insurance company by the
Englishman, Walter Crane, and the series of bookmarks distributed
together with a German monthly literary magazine by Velhagen and Klasing
designed by Hugo Hoeppener, known as 'Fidus'. In the twentieth century
some publicity bookmarks were produced cheaply in metal of the less
expensive kinds, such as brass.
During the first decade or two of the twentieth century a special type
of a bookmark was produced in various countries: the postcard bookmark.
Although the dimensions were those of a bookmark they were officially
accepted for delivery by the postal services. The majority consisted of
photographs of famous people or 'decorative' ladies, or pictures of
tourist sites. ...
From the nineteenth century onwards the range of materials used in the
production of bookmarks has grown. As Richard of Bury pointed out, not
all materials are ideal. Artistic and attractive bookmarks can sometimes
be too bulky for practical use. The best materials - those that are not
only of a convenient size and shape but also least likely to spoil the
pages or the binding - are thin and flexible. Today, in addition to the
more usual paper and card, we can find bookmarks made of textiles, wood,
metal, leather, various types of plastic, cork, papyrus, dried leaves
and flowers encased in plastic, etc. The use of more resistant materials
has enabled double-purpose bookmarks to be produced: bookmark-torches,
bookmark-magnifying glasses, bookmark-ballpoint pens, and even
bookmarks with a dictionary at the head (printed and incorporating a
magnifying glass in the nineteenth century; electronic in modern times).
Among the latest innovations are magnetic bookmarks. Many of these more
durable bookmarks cannot truly be classed as ephemera. The same may be
said of those produced by living artists and craftsmen either in signed
and numbered limited editions or as single works.
Modern bookmarks may be divided into two main categories: publicity
bookmarks and personal bookmarks (bought, received as presents or
home-made). The chief considerations to bear in mind when designing a
bookmark for advertising are how best to interpret the commercial
message and how to attract the public's attention -
by means of a design that is elegant, striking, humorous, or artistic?
The Galician Craft and Design Centre in Lugo chose elegance (Fig. 2) to
present the work of the regional glass workshops. Die-cut bookmarks
immediately draw attention as a result of their unusual shape. ...
Shops, companies, and institutions related to books naturally constitute
the sector which makes most use of bookmarks for its publicity. Nowadays
Spanish publishers are flooding the bookshops with free bookmarks
advertising their latest publications.
... In the mid-twentieth century the Spanish publishing firm Aguilar
produced a series of books by the writers who had been awarded the Nobel
prize for literature. Every book in the series was accompanied by a
bookmark, ... , that was specially designed for each title by an
anonymous artist. Bookshops, libraries, and the organizers of book fairs
also issue publicity bookmarks. In addition, British readers will be
familiar with book-token bookmarks. In Spain, particularly in Catalonia,
literally hundreds of bookmarks, both advertising and non-advertising,
industrial and handcrafted, are now produced each year to celebrate 23
April, declared World Book Day by UNESCO in 1996. Apart from being the
anniversary of the deaths of Shakespeare and Cervantes, 23 April is also
rose day and St George's day in Catalonia, and has been celebrated there
as Book Day since 1931
4.
Although not directly related to books, other commercial sectors have
used bookmarks to advertise their products and services since the
mid-to-late nineteenth century: foodstuffs, medicines, clothes, light
bulbs, insurance, hotels - the list is never-ending. Official
institutions, including ministries and local councils, have not
disdained this medium for disseminating their advice or information to
the man in the street, e.g. advice on health and road safety, and
information about transport. ...
Some organizers of cultural and leisure activities use bookmarks (not to
be confused with 'flyers') to announce concerts, exhibitions, etc.
Within the second category of bookmarks, viz. the non-advertising type,
there has been a boom in supply and sales in many countries during the
past two decades. In countries which did not have a native bookmark
tradition the growth of international tourism has stimulated the
industrial and craft production of bookmarks not only as a means of
publicity but also as tourist souvenirs ... . Papyrus, the bark from
trees, batik-dyed silk, leather, and wood are among the materials used
in various regions of the world to produce souvenir bookmarks, while
typical costumes, historical figures, native art, and indigenous plants
and animals are some of the motifs with which they are decorated. Many
museums and art galleries sell bookmarks showing objects from their
collections. Because they are cheap, attractive, and easy to transport,
bookmarks are ideal items to bring back from one's travels.
Bookmarks in the field of art comprise not only artistic designs and
reproductions of famous paintings but also original works of art. These
are numbered series of engravings, silk-screen prints, etc. in addition
to single drawings or watercolours. ...
An exhibition of monotype bookmarks created by the Chilean artist Victor
Ramirez was held in a Barcelona art gallery ten years ago. The numbered
and limited edition of the catalogue, with facsimile reproductions of
some of the monotypes, is much sought after by bibliophiles, bookmark
collectors, and art libraries
5.
As far as amateur, handmade bookmarks are concerned, there are still
some ladies who embroider examples in cross stitch or juggle lace
bobbins, among other traditional techniques. The use of computer
graphics may be noted as an example of more modern techniques.
Sometimes I am asked what will happen to bookmarks if computers finally
replace books. If such a situation is indeed reached probably no
more bookmarks (in the sense used in this article) will be produced and
they will become simply objects for collectors of antiques and ephemera.
Notes:
1. This is an adaptation of a Spanish article by Beryl Kenyon de Pascual
titled 'El Marcapáginas: Accesorio de los libros' that first appeared
in two parts in Encuadernacion de Arte, No. 20 (vol.2, 2002), pp.
27-30, and No. 21 (vol. 1, 2003), pp. 57-60.
2. This bookmark is described in greater detail in an article by Klaus Wagner: 'Una señal de libro desconocida', Gutenberg-Jahrbuch,
1977, pp. 19-21.
3. Some eighteenth-century clip bookmarks as well as medieval bookmarks
are illustrated in the article by Gunther Franz: 'Drehbare Lesezeichen
und Stecklesezeichen aus der Trierer Kartause und aus anderen
Klosterbibliotheken',
Ars et Ecclesia, Trier, 1989, pp. 119-134.
4. St. George is the patron saint of Catalonia as well as of England,
Russia, Portugal, and other countries.
5. Victor Ramirez: Punts de Llibre Monotips, Barcelona, 1993.
Addendum
Another brief history of the bookmark, written by Peter Standley, can be
found on pages 59-60 of The Encyclopedia of Ephemera, edited by Maurice
Rickards and published by the British Library, London, in 2000.
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Fig.
1
Advertising bookmarks from
the Victorian era in UK, 1880s
 Fig.
2
Advertising bookmark of The Galician
Craft and Design Centre in Lugo, Spain
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