D from up-state sends me a pair of American bookends in frosted glass with a turquoise blue bust of a woman, her hair as a bouquet of flowers. I put the date of creation at 1920’s–30’s, the Art Deco period.
Art Deco possesses a fascinating stylistic history. Between World Wars I and II America saw unprecedented growth in technology. At the same time, travel and exploration exposed us to exotic cultures. Artists such as Matisse, Klee and Picasso discovered African sculpture. To the European eye, these appeared abstract and flattened. Craft arts of non-European cultures finally entered the “art” museums of Europe and America by the 1920’s.
In the 1930’s the over 10,000 island material culture of the Pacific Ocean was collected. In the oncoming technological boom, antique artifacts from prehistoric cultures became a welcome fantasy. The cult of the noble savage, including nostalgic images of the First Americans entered the design lexicon.
Rediscovery of the geometry inherent in Greek and Roman (Classical) design and a love for glamour led to Art Deco, a very American innovation. D’s bookends reflect exoticism, flatness, color, glamour, symmetry, abstraction and high technology in the use of the glass medium.
Why Bookends?
Bookends originated in and for the private home libraries of middle America in the late 19th and early 20th century. The “bookend” as a simple tool acquired a patent in the 1870’s. Almost every material of some weight was used to create almost any conceivable design. Here’s some of my favorites:
- a daschund cut in half with books in the middle
- a pair of fish heads
- a sword cut in half with books in the middle
- Hans Solo and Mos Eisley Catina bookends
- the book worm bookend (a headless man leaning into the book)
- Mike Myers Ghoul faces bookends
- and the opposition of a Medieval flail and bludgeon bookend of chainmail. Nice, because many movie killers bashed their victims heads with a bookend.
D, your bookends are nice, worth $200 to a bookend collector. Double check this in
Collector’s Encyclopedia of Bookends, Identification & Values by Louis Kuritzky and Charles DeCosta.
Nothing in the book world is perhaps stranger than the booksellers Diagram Prize each year for the oddest book title. Here’s a few:
- Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich
- Reusing Old Graves
- The Changing World of Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- Crocheting Adventures in the Hyperbolic Planes
- How to Poo on a Date
- How to Avoid Huge Ships
- Bondage for Beginners
- The Origin of Feces
- The Genghis Khan Workplace Manual
My three favorites are, over 30 years of winners, which are exhibited annually at the huge Frankfurt Book Fair:
- Greek Rural Postmen and their Cancellation Numbers
- Afterthoughts of a Woman Hunter
- Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice
Book people are weird!