SERIOUS BOOKPLATE LOVERS

Bookplate of WWll  Australian Chief Censor, Edmund Garnet Bonney, a  prominent journalist  who , after a send off  party in Canberra,  in  March l948 ,  took  over  directorship  of  the  New York  Bureau  of  News  and  Information to spread  the  word  about  Australia in  America .

It depicts a cloven-hoofed ,satyr-like  figure, perhaps a printer's devil, wearing  an  editor's night shade with  a huge quill behind its  ear, pounding away on a  typewriter . Impaled in  its tail,is a large Who's Who.

A  post   Little  Darwin  ran  about  the  art  treasures, including  some of  the bookplates   in  the   superb   Special Collections  section  at   the  Eddie  Koiki  Mabo  Library , James  Cook University ,  Townsville , was  picked  up  by  The   New  Australian  Bookplate  Society.

 As a  result,  Special Collections  has  been  asked  to  write an  article   about  the   bookplates  in  its  extensive ,  interesting   trove.   

The Society was informally launched at a bookplate exhibition held at Stop Laughing , This is Serious Gallery, Blackheath, in the NSW  Blue Mountains,  in October 2005. The gallery name was inspired by the l933 Stan Cross  drawing - described as Australia's funniest cartoon .

The exhibition  was attended by artists and other lovers of bookplates.  A  meeting was held a year later at the Royal Australasian College of  Physicians, Sydney,  to officially form  the Society .

The purpose of the Society is to raise awareness of the art of bookplates among printmakers, collectors and the general public. At present there are approximately 80 personal and institutional members distributed in almost all Australian states as well as New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

It has a webpage  and  is on  Facebook and Instagram.