In three previous blog posts, I have featured bookmarks from the collections of libraries and museums in various countries.  These are bookmarks held by museums, libraries, archives and historical societies.  It is so great to see that there are some bookmarks being collected and preserved by our wonderful public institutions.  

Typically, these bookmarks are donated by people (sometimes famous) as part of their larger donation or bequest of books, documents and other items.

You can catch up with, or again read these earlier posts by clicking on the following links:

Australia (posted 20 July 2019)

Britain (posted 27 July 2019)

United States of America (posted 2 August 2019)  


In this post, I now share some of the bookmarks I have discovered in the collections of public institutions in New Zealand.  Click on the institution name to view the bookmark in its original location and to read more about it.

01: Maori chief. (Shows head and shoulders portrait of Maori man with moko and feather cloak).
02: Maori whare, N.Z. Book mark
03: Tomtit (bird), N.Z.

National Library of New Zealand
Wellington

National Library of New Zealand
Wellington

Museum of New Zealand
​Wellington

Museum of New Zealand
Wellington

Museum of New Zealand
Wellington

Donation - Robyn Williams (Claire Williams Collection)

Sometimes, many times actually, a bookmark comes along and you just feel and say Wow!  because for various reasons it is a real stand-out from the crowd! For me, this is one of them - a striking design, die-cut, and representing a very interesting and historical place.

​The Sainte-Chapelle (Holy Chapel) is a royal chapel in the Gothic style, within the medieval Palais de la Cité, the residence of the Kings of France until the 14th century, on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine in Paris, France.
 
Construction began sometime after 1238 and the chapel was consecrated on 26 April 1248. The Sainte-Chapelle is considered among the highest achievements of the Rayonnant period of Gothic architecture. It was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his collection of Passion relics, including Christ's Crown of Thorns – one of the most important relics in medieval Christendom, later hosted in the nearby Notre-Dame Cathedral until the 2019 fire, which it survived. 
 
Along with the Conciergerie, the Sainte-Chapelle is one of the earliest surviving buildings of the Capetian royal palace on the Île de la Cité. Although damaged during the French Revolution and restored in the 19th century, it has one of the most extensive 13th-century stained glass collections anywhere in the world.

Donation - Asim Maner Award

A very striking bookmark!

In Greek mythology, Medusa ("guardian, protectress") also called Gorgo, was one of the three Gorgons, generally described as winged human females with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those who gazed into her eyes would turn to stone. Most sources describe her as the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, although the author Hyginus makes her the daughter of Gorgon and Ceto. 

Medusa was beheaded by the Greek hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion.

According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived and died on an island named Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene. The 2nd-century BC novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Libya, where Herodotus had said the Berbers originated her myth, as part of their religion. She remained a priestess to Athena after her death and was risen with fresh hair.

Medusa has always been a heroine of mine, especially when later in my life I discovered an alternative story or explanation of her.  After making a SoulCollage® card about her, I received this wisdom:
 
I am Medusa the Serpent-Goddess.
I am guardian and protectress.
I am sovereign female wisdom.
But beware! If you are my enemy, if you are evil, if you want to harm me
I am one who has the destructive power to turn you into stone. 
I am not monster, I am Righteous Rage!  I am Righteous Feminine Rage!
 
I give you righteous rage, righteous feminine rage.  I give you wisdom and strength and power.  I give you a sense of justice.
 
I want you to hear and respond to my call to arms!  I want you to claim your feminine power. I want you to be a strong woman.  I want you to speak out where and when you see the patriarchy at work.  I want you to hiss!!!

Purchased on eBay

Bookmarks come into my collection in various ways - via donations, exchanges / swaps, gifts, finds, and through my purchases from stores or online.  

I have an email alert set-up on eBay so that when antiquarian or vintage bookmarks are put up for sale I am alerted to them.  These four bookmarks recently came up and I purchased them.  They tick a lot of boxes for me:  they are in a favourite category - bookmarks that promote books, reading and literacy; they are a great design; and they are in 'as new' condition which is marvellous considering their age.  Another nice bonus is they are from my home country of Australia.

Each year since 1945 the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has brought children and books together across Australia through CBCA Book Week. During this time schools and public libraries spend one glorious week celebrating books and Australian children's authors and illustrators. Classroom teachers, teacher librarians and public librarians create colourful displays, develop activities, run competitions and tell stories relating to a theme to highlight the importance of reading. You will often see parades with students dressed as their favourite book character.

Donation - Asim Maner Award.

These four beautiful, glossy, gold-edged bookmarks were issued by Turnowsky's Art (date unknown).  Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, the House of Turnowsky, is a global brand well -known for its luxury paper products, unique designs and original gifts, including bookmarks.  I have about 50 Turnowsky bookmarks in my collection.

1. Spring by Sandro Botticelli (detail)
2. The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli (detail)
3. Spring by Sandro Botticelli (detail)
​4. Woman with Parasol by Claude Monet (detail)

This beautiful bookmark from France was issued by Chevalier Conservation, a company who conserve and restore ancient, oriental and European tapestries and textiles.  They showcase some of their projects in their Galerie Chevalier.

This particular bookmark features a section of a tapestry that shows a woman playing the tambourine.  I am drawn to it because I have always felt drawn to images of women playing tambourines and frame drums.  One of my all time favourite books, which features such images and more, is When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm by Layne Redmond.  For millennia, the sacred drummers of pre-Christian Mediterranean and western Asia were women. In this inspiring book, Layne Redmond, herself a renowned drummer, tells their history.

Tambourine - History

Tambourines originated in the Near East. They came into being when bells and other rattles of various kinds were attached to the shell of a frame drum. Initially though, frame drums without bells were also commonly referred to as tambourines. The instrument was already known to the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians: in Egypt it was used in religious ceremonies by female temple dancers. Women were the principal players of tambourines in other early civilizations, too. Apart from being used to accompany dances, tambourines were also played in processions, at festivities and at funerals.

Although the size of the instrument and the shape of the jingles have undergone numerous changes over the centuries the structure has always remained the same; the tambourines used by the Greeks and Romans looked very much the same as the modern instrument.

The instrument of angels and traveling entertainers

In the Middle Ages the tambourine was already common all over Europe. In medieval Britain it was known first as the tymbre, and until the 18th century as the tabret or timbrel. In France, Spain (where it is called the pendereta) and in southern Italy its importance as a folk instrument has never diminished. But the tambourine as a part of folk entertainment is not confined to Europe; it is also found in many other cultures, for instance in China, India, Peru, Greenland, the Caucasus and central Asia.

The medieval tambourine consisted of a rectangular or round flat wood frame with a single head; the underside was open. Four or more pairs of jingles were let into the shell at regular intervals. These jingles were somewhat larger and thicker than today’s. In addition to or instead of the jingles small bells or other objects that produced a rattling noise were fixed to the frame. The tambourine was struck either with the flat of the hand or with the fingers in the same way as its ancient predecessor. Medieval paintings and carvings, as well as religious manuscripts, often portray the instrument being played by angels. On the other hand, the tambourine was also a favorite instrument of itinerant entertainers and minstrels.

Donation - Asim Maner Award

I have always wanted to walk the Camino de Santiago (Northern Spain route) but have not yet managed to do so.  I have read many books by people who have walked it (and other routes) and I loved the movie The Way starring Martin Sheen, which I have now watched several times on video after having first seen it at the cinema.

So, I was delighted to receive this bookmark which shows a pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago in Palencia, a region and city in northern Spain on the northern pilgrimage route.  The back of the bookmark lists towns and cities in Palencia which are on the pilgrimage route.

Donation - Asim Maner Award

I have long loved the surrealist art of Salvador Dali, so I was thrilled to receive these three bookmarks issued by the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA.

Donation - Asim Maner Award

These Dover Bookmarks are colourful and striking.  Each bookmark comes from and promotes one of the Dover Publications titles.  The Rudolph Valentino paper doll bookmark is rather chic... or is that sheik 🤣😂.

There is no information on the bookmarks to indicate their publication dates.

Donation - Asim Maner Award

Here are 14 colourful bookmarks from BahriSons Booksellers of New Delhi, India, A family-run bookshop since the opening in 1953 of its first store in the Khan Market.

No information is given on the back of the bookmarks in relation to the designs.

... and here are two earlier bookmarks.  The quality of these is superb. The surface of each is slightly raised and they thus have a lovely tactile quality to them.

Donation - Asim Maner Award

Two bookmarks featuring beautiful sculptures by Yves Le Pape (1926-2016).  Look at those sublime faces!  I particularly love the subtle smiles.

Yves Le Pape, of Breton origin , was born in February 1926 in Pont-l'Abbé , in Finistère, France.
 
His studies lead him to Tours , where he was a student at the School of Fine Arts (although some reports say he was self-taught.
 
His favourite specialty was the Virgin and Child, of which he sculpted several thousand copies, in sixty-five years. 
 
The wood he used was mainly from oak, chestnut or iroko , an African wood. He polished his works with a gouge and a clasp, without sandpaper, and with a wax finish. He also sculpted in stone.
 
He exhibited in 1979 at the Orangerie of the Palais du Luxembourg.
 
A number of churches like that of the Augustins of Marseille , chapels, abbeys like Notre-Dame de Venière , and monasteries have one or more works by Le Pape.  Numerous of his sculptures are also in private collections.

Donation - Asim Maner Award

Four beautiful bookmarks featuring the illustrations of Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840).  

Pierre-Joseph Redouté, was a painter and botanist from Belgium, known for his watercolours of roses, lilies and other flowers at Malmaison, many of which were published as large, color stipple engravings. He was nicknamed "the Raphael of flowers" and has been called the greatest botanical illustrator of all time.

Redouté was an official court artist of Marie Antoinette, and continued painting through the French Revolution and Reign of Terror. He survived the turbulent political upheaval to gain international recognition for his precise renderings of plants, which remain as fresh in the early 21st century as when first painted. He combined great artistic skills with a pleasing, ingratiating personality which assisted him with his influential patrons. After Queen Marie-Antoinette, his patrons included both of Napoleon's wives -- Empress Joséphine and Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma—as well as Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily wife of Louis Philippe I, the last king of France.

​Redouté collaborated with the greatest botanists of his day and participated in nearly fifty publications depicting both the familiar flowers of the French court and plants from places as distant as Japan, America, South Africa, and Australia. He worked from live plants rather than herbarium specimens, which contributed to his fresh, subtle renderings. He was painting during a period in botanical illustration (1798 – 1837) that is noted for the publication of outstanding folio editions with coloured plates. Redouté produced over 2,100 published plates depicting over 1,800 different species, many never rendered before.

Donation by Robyn Williams (the Claire Williams Collection)

On 2 October 2018 on this blog, I posted a story about a generous donation from  Robyn Williams on behalf of her mother Claire.  You can read that post HERE.

One year later in September 2019, Robyn contacted me to say she had found more of her mother's bookmarks and would I like them.  Yes please!

Robyn kindly posted them to me in the original two folders her mother had housed them.  Some of the bookmarks were loose but most of them were stuck onto paper using double-sided tape and placed in the plastic sleeves of the folders.  On many of the pages were Claire's handwritten annotations with information such as who had gifted her the bookmarks, or where she herself had got them from.  Many of the bookmarks were acquired in Australian or overseas travels, so going through the bookmarks is also like going travelling!  Delightful.

As for the first donation to me from Claire through Robyn, I feel blessed and honoured to now be the custodian of these bookmarks, which were obviously loved and treasured by their previous collector.  Thank you.

​Here is a selection of the bookmarks.

On 25 February 2020, World Bookmark Day, I was delighted and thrilled to receive the news from Laine Farley of the International Friends of Bookmarks that I had been selected as the second Asim Maner Award winner, an annual award for promoting bookmarks.  I am honoured to receive this award in the name of the late Asim Maner, who was an avid bookmark collector, promoter of bookmark collecting and a manufacturer of unique and beautiful bookmarks. 

While I have been very tardy in writing this blog post, one year after receiving the award, I continue to cherish my award certificate and its accompanying letter, along with the fabulous bookmark prizes I received.  At the time of receiving these I thanked each person individually and privately for their generous donations.  With this blog post, I also now thank them publicly.  Thank you Laine Farley, Georg Hartong, Frank X. Roberts, Ana Matos, and Gaby Dondlinger.

Long live bookmarks, bookmark collecting and the promotion of both!

​- Debrah Gai Lewis