BOOKPLATES

For many years I have been interested in Bookplates, or as they are also called, Ex Libris (Latin ' from the Library of ... ' ). My uncle, Archibald John (known as Jack) Peake, designed a number of plates for members of the family in the late 1940 ' s early 1950s. My father as a result had his own bookplate , which he placed inside books in his library. When I obtained a Grant of Arms from the College of Arms, London, I had a bookplate designed with the coat of arms. More recently I have taken up the study of bookplates in Australia. I joined the Bookplate Society , London  and commissioned a number of additional bookplates for books in my library. In the meantime an Australian society form the promotion of bookplates was established, the New Australia Bookplate Society .

I am interesting in exchanging bookplates, so if any of these illustrations interest you, please let me know.

After a number of years of research, in 2000 I published a register of Australian bookplates known to exist. This involved inspecting bookplate collections in libraries and art galleries in New South Wales, Canberra and Victoria. Over 5700 plates were identified and registered. The details appear in Australian Personal Bookplates (Tudor Australia Press, Adelaide, 2000). Details of the book appear elsewhere on this web site. An Addendum and Corrigendum is in the process of preparation and over 1500 additional plates have been identified to date.

In 2012 I prepared, Bookplate Artists and their Bookplates (Adelaide, 2012) to highlight the principal bookplate artists in Australia with examples of their art. Many of these artists such as Norman and Lionel Lindsay, Adrian Feint and George Perrottet have been deceased for many decades, however, there are modern artists continuing the tradition.