This striking Art Deco bookplate entitled “Creation” and used by a certain David Adams is by Chicago-born Lynd Ward (1905 – 1985), the American artist and illustrator best known for his wood engraving and his work in launching the graphic novel in the United States.
Whilst not all the famous names – “authors, poets, statesmen, theologians, orators, financiers and educationalists” – listed in Clifford N. Carver’s 1911 book celebrating the ‘Book-Plates of Well-Known Americans’ may be household names today, the text is still a fascinating source of interest to the modern ex libris collector and an excellent illustrated catalogue of bookplate design.