Bookplates are small labels, marks of ownership which people like to paste into their books. The phrase 'ex libris' which some like to include means 'from among the books of' so the label says 'This book belongs to me'. Wood engraving is a particularly suitable medium for these small, compact designs.
All those shown here are personal to the individual for whom they were made. The pleasure of doing bookplates is that one is trying to sum up in the design something of a person's character and interests, and sometimes one person's love for another - bookplates are often gifts. In this case it is to try to put into visual form feelings or ideas which the clients are full of but are not able to articulate visually for themselves.

Barry Jackson is a surgeon with a passion for Wagner. Here, Parsifal heals the wound of Amfortas, bearing on his shield the emblems of St. Thomas's Hospital and the Royal College of Surgeons. The shape beneath the name is a fleam, the device of the Company of Barber-Surgeons to which Mr. Jackson also belongs.

Liesel Schwab was a distinguished collector of graphic art. Her design combines the European tradition (Kathe Kollwitz) with that of her adopted country (Thomas Bewick)

.Mr. Dudley's Watch. Nicholas Dudley collects clocks and watches. As a surgeon he operates on very small babies. His profession is reflected in the decoration of the escapement of this watch, adapted from one in his collection.

The Rutherfords met at Oxford. This is their college and indeed the very step on which they met. The martlet is a heraldic allusion. Mrs. Rutherford does embroidery.

Richard Leach. Another doctor; this one enjoys wine and cricket as well as Wagner and Jane Austen, and lives in a converted schoolhouse. Lohengrin meets the Bennett sisters.

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