Have you ever considered doing an exhibit of your art collection at one of the shows like the MAX, or the SOS? No doubt it would be well received. To the best of my knowledge I can't recall having ever seen a presentation of German graphic art at one of the big collector events.. mostly weapons. Personally, I feel it'd be a big success, you have so many great images to share, no kidding.
If one enjoys the political/military graphics it seems natural that that person would enjoy the artwork found on these lovely bookplates. The subject-matter, themes and topics that are depicted are so diverse, they certainly present a wide selection of single, and sometimes multi-color, printing techniques.
The two 'ex libris' plates that you've posted are both printed on high-quality cover stock. This was handmade and specially prepared for various types of 'art printing.' Those ornate borders of the stock are what's known as 'deckle-edges,' each having a subtle beauty of their own. Another interesting fact about these bookplates is that the processes used to print 'most' of these images is that each one was printed individually in short, limited runs by hand-operated presses - not printed in the thousands on more automated systems.
Each time the original plate (stone, metal or woodcut) had to be precisely coated with ink and perfectly, evenly transferred to whatever stock was chosen, faithfully preserving all of the details the artist intended for us to see. That first engraving has a much finer intaglio-look to the artwork, holding much detail, whereas the second has that bold, positive-negative feel of a woodcut to me. Both are brilliant, well executed prints. One of the best monsters I've seen in a long while on that second plate, scarey little bugger.
The leitmotif throughout many of the library plates is that of bringing pox and curses down, "on whosoever fails to return this book!" Simple and right to the point, heh. I've had a couple more bookplate images stashed away that I thought you might like, too?
Thanks to one and all for your continuing interest.
