irving lew catalog

  The bookplates for children that Wilma Hall Fowler collected may have been found in a catalog like the one below. 

Irving Lew was a lawyer and a dealer of rare books who had arrived in America in 1916 and learned to speak English while attending a Brooklyn public school.
(courtesy of The Jewish Daily Forward, http://forward.com/articles/169402/jack-lews-life-shaped-by-faith-and-service/?p=all#ixzz2pH99buBt, accessed Jan 2, 2014.)

Irving Lew was an avid collector and published catalogs featuring bookplates, typography, and book-binding, among other subjects. (see LEFT) He sold books on a mail-order basis.

Much like Alfred Fowler, Lew sought out "want lists" from his subscribers, to keep himself relevant in their eyes (see page 4, ABOVE). Always on the lookout for the next great thing. In this case, bookplates. What follows BELOW were the books he offered in his 1953 catalog. You will notice number of publications listed were by Alfred Fowler of Kansas City. This is to give you a taste for the public demand.    

Double click on images to enlarge. Page 5, LEFT.

Pages 6 and 7, LEFT.

Pages 8 and 9, RIGHT.

Pages 10 and 11, RIGHT.

Pages 12 and 13, LEFT.

Pages 14 and 15, LEFT.








Read more on Lew's publishing business, CLICK on http://books.google.com/books?id=x-6PBX7crnQC&pg=PA125&lpg=PA125&dq=irving+lew,+new+york,+rare+books&source=bl&ots=ygnOdfH-bm&sig=dVUz3tSOzdFNsXgAIz97rNl8tOE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9M7FUsSBOOblyQHl1oDYCw&ved=0CGUQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=irving%20lew%2C%20new%20york%2C%20rare%20books&f=false, scroll down pages 125 and 126.
 

Cover of mail order 
catalog, RIGHT.

(images from Irving Lew Catalog, courtesy of Robert M. Snyder Jr. Collection, LaBudde Special Collections, UMKC Miller Nichols Library, 5100 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, M0, accessed Aug 8, 2013.)

wilma hall fowler plate by Antonio de Guezala

Wilma Hall Fowler (Mrs. Alfred Fowler) was a member of the American Bookplate Society in 1918.

Her given address was 3606 Paseo, Kansas City, Missouri.

She exchanged bookplates.
Her particular interest was in bookplates for children.

On page 43 of The Bookplate Annual of 1921 is a bookplate of a woman standing beside a stack of books, click HERE. It mostly likely is of Wilma Hall Fowler, H. Alfred Fowler's wife. 

 "Spanish painter and printmaker Antonio Guezala y Ayrivié (1889-1956) was active in Bilbao. This ex-libris, which Guezala designed for Alfred Fowler in 1920, was exhibited the following year at the Grolier Club as part of the American Bookplate Society’s Sixth Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Bookplates. Alfred Fowler (b. 1889) was a charter member and Secretary-Treasurer of the American Bookplate Society as well as a member of the Grolier Club and the editor of several bookplate publications."  

(courtesy of the Yale Bookplate Collection, http://web.library.yale.edu/arts/news/bookplate-fowler, accessed Dec 15, 2013)

In later years, Wilma Hall Fowler helped her husband manage The Woodcut Society, The Miniature Print Society and The Society of Print Connoisseurs. Between 1942 and 1947 she wrote correspondence to the Australian wood engraver Lionel Lindsay, in regard to his commissioned prints. Her letters are held in the State Library of Victoria, in Melbourne. (According to emails from Jayson Althofer,
Bolton Library Services Officer, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Australia, Sept 17, 2011)

(Wilma Hall Fowler (Mrs. Alfred Fowler) listing courtesy of Archive. Org, The Bookplate Annual of 1922, page 53, http://archive.org/stream/22bookplateannua00fowluoft#page/52/mode/2up; Bookplate by Antonio Guezala courtesy of Archive. Org, The Bookplate Annual, page 43; detail photos of Guezala bookplate, http://archive.org/stream/21bookplateannua00fowluoft#page/42/mode/2up; bookplate closeups courtesy of Robert M. Snyder Jr. Collection, LaBudde Special Collections, UMKC Miller Nichols Library, 5100 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, M0, accessed Aug 8, 2013. Reference to artist Antonio Guezala courtesy of the Yale Bookplate Collection, http://web.library.yale.edu/arts/news/bookplate-fowler, his biography, http://www.bd-arteder.com/cgi-bin/BRSCGI?CMD=VERDOC&CONF=BRSCGI_ing.cnf&BASE=ARTI&PIECE={ARTI}&DOCR=52&SORT=APE1,APE2,NOMB,PSEU&SEPARADOR=&&IAPE=%27G%27  his paintings, http://www.bd-arteder.com/cgi-bin/BRSCGI?CMD=VERDOC&CONF=BRSCGI_ing.cnf&BASE=ARTI&PIECE={ARTI}&DOCR=52&SORT=APE1,APE2,NOMB,PSEU&SEC=OB_CAS&SEPARADOR=&&IAPE=%27G%27, accessed Dec 15, 2013)

exchange with Dr. Howard N Moses

(correspondence courtesy of Robert M. Snyder Jr. Collection, LaBudde Special Collections, UMKC Miller Nichols Library, 5100 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, M0, accessed Aug 8, 2013)

fowler plate by stanley harrod

Double click on image to enlarge.


(LEFT) The 'Ex-Libris Militaribus Major Harry Alfred Fowler Signal Corps U.S.' bookplate by Stanley Harrod was one of the six entries Harrod displayed at the National Arts Club in New York City. Harrod was one of seventy-five artists featured in the Seventh Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Bookplates. (close up details, BELOW)

This bookplate is numbered # 80 in the Robert M. Snyder Collection.
(courtesy of LaBudde Special Collections, UMKC Miller Nichols Library, 5100 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, M0, accessed July 2013)

It was featured on page 49 of The Bookplate Annual 1922, which H.A. Fowler published. Click on
http://archive.org/stream/22bookplateannua00fowluoft#page/48/mode/2up 

(accessed Dec 15, 2013)

H.A. Fowler published the bookplates of Stanley Harrod in 1919

 (courtesy of LaBudde Special Collections, UMKC Miller Nichols Library, 5100 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, M0, accessed Aug 8, 2013)