Before the days of lending libraries, cheap paperb...  ...building one’s own personal library was an expensive but fulfilling accomplishment. Those precious boo...  ...ark one’s ownership, there were bookplates, ex libris . The first bookplates displayed coats-of-arms of...  ...s us how they became m...

Will at A Journey Around My Skull asked readers to create bookplates in the style of the early-20th century magazine Der Orchideengarten (previously at Netaorama) for a contest. They were to include orchids and other flo...