London, GB | Formerly of New York, Buenos Aires, Fife, and the Western Cape. | Saoránach d’Éirinn.

A new bookplate for the NYG&B

Fr. Guy Selvester reports on his resurrected Shouts in the Piazza blog that the great Marco Foppoli has designed a new bookplate for the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society. Mr. Foppoli is the most highly-regarded heraldic artist of our day, and the influence of the style of his mentor, the late Archbishop Bruno Heim, is apparent in his work.

The new bookplate depicts a XIXth-century Knickerbocker grafting a branch of an apple tree — representing New York, the Big Apple — onto an oak which is the symbol of history in general but of genealogical studies particularly. The Knickerbocker stands on a pile of books adjacent to the exposed roots of the great oak. The shield depicts the arms of the G&B, which are the arms of the Empire State dexter, impaled sinister with three open books. The dexter half of the G&B arms obviously represents the geographic home of the society, while the sinister half represents the scholarly aims and pursuits of the society.

“I think it’s a clever design,” Fr. Selvester says, “and Marco’s ability as an artist is above reproach.” Marco Foppoli also rendered the arms of the Cardinal Duke of York for the committee convened to organise commemorations of the two-hundredth anniversary of the death of the last Stuart claimant. We have also previously displayed some of his work in our report on Fr. Selvester’s talk organised by the College of Arms Foundation.

Published at 12:42 pm on Thursday 19 March 2009. Categories: Books Design Heraldry New York Tags: , , , , .
Comments

How ironic! Expel all your members, give away all your books, all your genealogical records, sell your headquarters, betray the history and work of your predecessors, but commission a bookplate while you’re at it!

Now that the “G&B” has given away its books….. what books are they going to put this bookplate in?

— Liz Smith 19 Mar 2009 1:51 pm

Miss Smith’s question is apposite. Are you able to tell us, Mr Cusack, what is the current state of play regarding that once great institution?

— Benjamin Tredwell Van Nostrand 19 Mar 2009 3:30 pm

As for the bookplate: I’m a bit underwhelmed. Give me Rockwell Kent any day.

— kd 20 Mar 2009 4:47 pm

So far as is my understanding, the G&B has given its genealogical collection to the New York Public Library. I had previously thought that it was only be handed over to the NYPL for preservation and research access but that actual ownership would remain with the G&B but this is not the case. The G&B no longer owns the great collection they built up over the years. They instead say they will concentrate on organizing walking tours and building awareness of genealogical issues.

I believe they still own their handsome portrait collection, which will probably be displayed in their new office space.

— Andrew Cusack 21 Mar 2009 11:38 am

Since Rockwell Kent has been dead since 1971 just how are we supposed to “give you” him? De gustibus…

— Fr. Guy Selvester 14 Apr 2009 6:38 am
Leave a comment

NAME (required)

EMAIL (required)

WEBSITE (not required)

COMMENT

Home | About | Contact | Paginated Index | Twitter | Facebook | RSS/Atom Feed
andrewcusack.com | © Andrew Cusack 2004-present (Unless otherwise stated)