Almost nine years ago I published a blog about the problematic dating and the different versions of a bookplate that Ricketts designed for Gleeson White: Blog 95. The Bookplate for Gleeson White. The problem arose that reference works published different versions of the design: with the title 'Igdrasil' partly in mirror image in Ricketts' script, or not in mirror image and in a different handwriting; with or without dating under the image, and with or without the inscription 'Ex libris Gleeson White'.
By now, thanks to images available online, I think the riddle has finally been solved. No less than four versions of the bookplate exist.
Version 1
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| Charles Ricketts, 'Igdrasil' (1890) [British Museum, 1962,0809.12] [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license] |
153x152 mm.
No inscription.
No date.
Monogram in reverse.
Title ‘IGDRASIL’: letters ‘DR’ are in reverse, the extended leg of ‘R’ points to the left.
Location: British Museum.
Version 2
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| Charles Ricketts, 'Igdrasil' (1890) [British Museum, 1912,0819.6] [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license] |
175x150 mm.
Includes inscription: “Ex Libris Gleeson White”.
No date.
Monogram in reverse.
Title ‘IGDRASIL’: letters ‘DR’ are in reverse, the extended leg of ‘R’ points to the left.
Locations: British Museum: 1912,0819.6; Bodleian Library: John Johnson Collection; V&A: EW 149. E.2559-1929.
Version 3
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| Charles Ricketts, 'Igdrasil' (1890) |
78x76 mm (image), 85x80 mm (including inscription “Ex Libris Gleeson White”] [leaf: 109x99 mm].
Includes inscription: "Ex Libris Gleeson White".
No date.
Monogram in reverse.
Title ‘IGDRASIL’: Letters ‘DR’ are in reverse, the extended leg of ‘R’ points to the left.
Location: Private collection.
Version 4
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| Charles Ricketts, 'Igdrasil' (1890) |
79x69 cm.
Includes inscription: “Ex Libris Gleeson White”.
Dated: 'MDCCCXC'.
Monogram in reverse.
Title ‘IGDRASIL’: inscription has been redrawn; ‘IGDRASIL not written in CR’s script; letters are not in reverse, the leg of the R is not extended.
Location: Private collection, pasted in a book from the library of Gleeson White.
This was the version Gleeson White himself used in some of his books. The year has been added and the title corrected so that it is easy to read, although some of Charles Ricketts's distinctive script is sacrificed in the process.
