One of the side benefits of membership in various Bookish Organizations (see the several dozen listed under this heading in the sidebar to your left), is that it becomes relatively easy to amass, in a short period of time, all types of printed ephemera. Such organizations frequently promote and reward membership, for example, by publishing keepsakes:
Keepsakes are printed to commemorate these organizations' special programs or events, significant anniversaries, festive occasions, and much, much more:
But many of these keepsakes also are printed simply as a way of saying "thank you" for your membership. (The item depicted below right is a keepsake that was printed for distribution by Paul Romaine, American Printing History Association, to commemorate a presentation by Matthew Carter at The Grolier Club):
Some of these keepsakes are quite simple: a broadsheet or poster, for example, oft times made more special by being printed letterpress. (The broadside below was printed by Lead Graffiti as a keepsake for the 33rd annual conference of the American Printing History Association:)
More often, though, such keepsakes take the form of booklets or pamphlets:
These booklets and pamphlets often sport covers that belie the substance within:
Whether one prefers to collect broadsides and posters, or booklets and pamphlets, enough keepsakes are printed annually to keep the average book collector quite busy trying to keep up with it all:
To manage the deluge, some book collectors deliberately restrict their collecting efforts to keepsakes produced by one or two entities. Folks who collect Californiana, for example, frequently make it a habit to collect the long-running series of keepsakes produced by the Book Club of California. Likewise, folks who collect book arts titles often make a habit of collecting the long-running series of keepsakes produced by The Typophiles.
If you love letterpress and can afford a subscription, one of the best ways to amass some truly outstanding keepsakes is to subscribe to the deluxe edition of publications like Parenthesis (Fine Press Book Association)...
...or Matrix, the much-beloved annual publication of The Whittington Press (the deluxe edition of Matrix 23 [Winter 2003], below, is by way of Vamp and Tramp):
Whether you collect such ephemera broadly or deeply, you'll likely be richly rewarded for your time and effort....
Recent Comments