Stainforth’s Bookplates & the Hunt for Original Copies from His Library

Lately, Team Stainforth has been on a winning streak of finding books that we believe were part of Francis John Stainforth’s original collection. This is just a fun side project right now, since our main task is to finish transcribing his manuscript catalog. (We have almost completed raw transcription of the 508 acquisitions pages.) After he died in 1866, the auction house Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge sold his library and dispersed it among many new owners. What enables us to identify these books as belonging to Stainforth are his bookplates. Each time we come across a book with a “Stainforth” plate, we check the title against his catalogs to confirm that the title and edition appears in his lists. We don’t know if he placed bookplates in every one of his books. However, having studied the collection and its catalogs, we anticipate that Stainforth aimed to be as complete and thorough in marking his copies with bookplates as he was in his other collecting-related endeavors. Here are the titles and locations of Stainforth’s books that we have located thus far. Each title is linked to its record where the specific copy with the bookplate lives or was found. If you happen to find one, or think you might have a candidate, please contact us: sca@colorado.edu or kirstyn.j.leuner@dartmouth.edu. Thanks!
Stainforth Book Plate copy
Current # (as of 12/2/14): 23 Examples:

 

You Might Also Like