Bookplate of the week: A bookplate collector’s bookplate
May 17th, 2012 by houghtonmodern
Most collectors might have just one bookplate for their entire collection. Rhode Island collector and merchant Daniel Butler Fearing (1859-1918) had a number of different bookplates for his many collections. This week’s plate is the one designed for Fearing’s collection of bookplates on watercraft:
This particular plate was designed by Boston artist Elisha Brown Bird (1868-1943), and may have been commissioned for a Grolier Club exhibition of Fearing’s collection just before his death.
Fearing’s bookplate collection now makes up a significant portion of the bookplate collection at Houghton Library. Along with bookplates on watercraft, Fearing also collected bookplates relating to angling, and heraldic bookplates with fish- and watercraft-related elements. His bookplate collection contains over 3,000 plates, along with numerous extra-illustrated volumes and reference works relating to bookplates.
Fearing gave more than bookplates to the library – his large collections of books on angling, fish, whaling, and related topics are also at Houghton.