Biblio: Ex Libris Stamps

Oh, home libraries. As they say in the dating world, if you want to figure out if someone is worth sleeping with just do a quick browse of their books. 

I have a million and one thoughts on home library collections, which we won't really be getting too deeply into today. It sometimes seems like home libraries are often about people hoarding every book they've ever touched (and dozens or hundreds they still haven't read!) to try to show off their intellect for visitors. 


In the first installment of our Biblio series, I want to talk about Ex Libris stamps. Up until about 75 years ago, it was completely common to stamp the books in a personal home library with a family or individual Ex Libris stamp. This makes sense when you consider that books were harder to come by in terms of the financial investment involved, plus home libraries were found in wealthier homes. And we know how much wealthy people like to tag their stuff. 

For awhile, you seemed to only see Ex Libris stamps in elementary school teacher's classrooms, but with sites like Etsy making it absurdly affordable to buy your own personalize stamp, they've started to make a big come back. Think of that Ex Libris seal as a way of saying it belongs to my family and it's part of us.

I'd argue that you should use Ex Libris as a seal of significance, which is not the same as the hoarding instinct that seems to affect many book owners. Save Ex Libris for the books that matter. The ones that you'll never be ready to part with, the childhood favorite that's survived decades in your family, the books that you combined when you moved in with a new partner and melted to realize you had duplicates of. This isn't so you can buy up every book you can find and be surrounded by hundreds of books you've never even read just to show how smart you are.

The Art of Manliness did an amazing round up of Ex Libris stamps from famous writers and they are just stunning works of art. I love the way you can easily tell H.G. Wells' stamp from Einstein's because they're such great representations of each owner. 

Ex Libris stamps seem to have almost any design, but I've especially loved the mythologically inspired and the art deco pieces. Of interesting note is the sheer number of book plates that have tons of black space. These days, Ex Libris are generally stamps instead of physical bookplates so it would have to be perfectly crisp each time to get the right effect. 

Wondering where you can get your own stamp? Etsy is overflowing with stamps that can be customized, but I especially like The Asspocket Productions Shop (umm yep, that's the real name) because of the mix between cuter child friendly stamps and intricate stamps inspired by antique woodcuts.

 Not everything needs to be possessed (yay free flow of knowledge via public library) so this isn't about being a hoarder. But is is about honoring the special pieces in your collection that you can't imagine ever getting rid of. I'm thinking that getting a family stamp designed just might be on my to do list.