Ex libris - personalized decorative bookplates by Franz Stassen
Ex libris is today still sometimes used to mark the page where a reader interrupted reading of the book but most people hardly use it at all. To be honest, the idea of ex-libris was aimed at the higher class of society from the very beginning. It was used to mark ownership of the book without writing in it and it was also a kind of prestigious personification of the reading experience.
Don't forget, books were way more expensive a century or so ago than today and they were not competing with so many media. Franz Stassen was a skilled artist with a pretty good circle of wealthy friends. He got several orders from that basin and when people saw his work for their acquaintances, they often ordered ex libris for themselves too.
So this was probably a nice additional income in the range of pocket money for Franz Stassen which served as publicity as well. Such creations probably didn't take him too much time, so he could still fulfill his other creative obligations. Today such ex libris are especially popular among collectors and we can find many in museums as documents of past times.
We will present 10 ex libris by Franz Stassen, all with his favorite motifs from mythological worlds, each of them tailored to its owner, Stassen's customer. If you find this collection interesting, send me a note and I will try to add some more in the future.
This one was made for Dr. Renkun.
Ex-libis for Eduard Stucken.
This one was made for Friedrich Bonte.
Sometimes a quote was added to design, like in the case of Hedwig Schaad's order where the scene from Icarus by Goethe is portrayed.
Design for Lina Muller-Borner has a decorative border and cherubs, typical influence of Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) design.
Institutions like Museum Magdeburg were among Ftassen's customers too.
This one, with Homer and Schiller, done for Realgymnasium in Hamburg, is another example.
The famous scene from the Piper of Hamelin is alluding to the surname of the customer.
Ex libris for Margarethe Strauss depicts a scene from Wagner's Niebelung.
The bookplate was not necessarily personalized to a person, personalization could be used for the title of the book as well, as we saw at the Bible ex libris above. The artist left some space for the owner's name, so in case of borrowing, the borrower should easier find to whom he has to return the book.
Such bookplates could be printed and sold to everybody who might be interested, or offered gratis to all the buyers of te latest edition of the Bible, etc.
