Lauren Roberts

              

You don’t see them much anymore, but bookmarks as holiday greetings were common in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I own a number of them, and they are real bookmarks, not thin cards that open up to display a greeting. I find this a great idea because a bookmark is more likely to be kept and used for many years.

One of my favorites (above, left) makes a point of noting it is a bookmark first. The illustration shows part of a wall bookcase filled with colorful books; two lighted candles with ribbons and holly border it. Above it are the words “HERE IS THE PLACE.” Beneath the illustration, the greeting continues:

Though but a
humble
Book Mark.
I know a thing
or two:
I know the way
to keep my place
Is to keep
yours for you.

Though aged and now fragile to the point where I don’t use it, I love this one. To me, it combines the best of two of my favorite things: books and Christmas. It’s a bookmark that emphasizes books, and that is something you don’t see much. (Many bookmarks are just inexpensive vehicles used to advertise things other than reading so those that do promote books and reading—without marketing a particular book—are uncommon. And they are a favorite of mine.) I also like the sense of an old-fashioned holiday implied by the design untainted by piles of brightly wrapped packages or gaudy commercialism. It exudes peace and quietude.

Next to it is another bookmark with that same feeling. The richness of the illustration with its intricate design and intense coloring makes a wonderful backdrop to the greeting. Damage has rendered a couple of the words unreadable, but most of it can still be made out:

To the greeting
“Merry Christmas”
E’er should follow
“Bright New Year!”-
This is what the
Robin’s singing
To the little boys
In there.

What I especially like is that these bookmarks were heavily used after being received. I wonder what kind of books they marked. I wonder if daughters or sons of the original recipients used them too or if the last books they marked found their way to used bookstores with the bookmarks hidden inside. I’ll never know, but that fact doesn’t stop my imagining their journeys from their original owners to me. Both are extremely fragile, and so their days of marking pages are over. Now they are treasured parts of my collection. But there is a tinge of sadness as I write that. Ephemera was never meant to last so much of it has been lost and what hasn’t been lost or destroyed through use is now protected as much as if it was in a museum.

These four images (above) are more modern, being interesting representations of the twentieth century. The two on the left likely come from the 1940s (or thereabouts) because of the quality. The one with the blue flowers has been carefully made; the coloration seems expensive, and the care lavished on the reproduced painting is obvious. This might be due to the fact that it was made in Germany rather than the U.S. Despite its likely mass production, it comes from an era when mass market products still contained a strong sense of beauty. Nearly the same care can be seen on the one to its left, the snow scene of the horse and carriage. What’s interesting about this one is that it is designed to look like a needlepoint bookmark. The “stitchmarks” are part of the whole design but only the holly leaves, branches and red berries have a texture to them. Neither of these bookmarks carries advertising for a particular company or product so they were made to be given as gifts, possibly in lieu of Christmas cards.

The newest one, the white “Christmas Greetings” one is taller and slimmer than the others. It’s probably the newest design, but nicely made. I would place its age as no older than the 1960s and possibly later.

Ribbon bookmarks were common in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but this particular bookmark’s age is uncertain. The ribbon—here, a gold one which has faded to a dull, almost olive green—would be strung through a heavyweight paper bookmark at the top and bottom. Because of that fading I deem it likely to be of early twentieth-century manufacture. Yet the paper itself is scarcely faded and in excellent condition. That could be due to its having spent much of its life, forgotten, in a book. It’s as lovely as is its sentiment:

Whatever
page this
book mark
marks,
One thing
is surely true,
’Twill mark
a time
this Christmas
Day
When I
shall
think
of
you!

This bookmark (above) is the only one of this bunch that represents advertising. The Penn’a Company of New Castle appears to be, from what little I can find online, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company or at least part of it. There are reports in legal journals of a fire and of land issues so it is presumable that the company was not without its woes. C.C. Sankey, in addition to being an agent of the company and an officer in the Greenwood Cemetery in New Castle, was also a cousin to Ira David Sankey, evangelist and hymn writer at whose funeral he sung four of the deceased songs in August 1908.

It is a gorgeous bookmark of the early twentieth century and probably issued in the first decade. Such exquisite workmanship was the hallmark of advertising vehicles even relatively inexpensive ones such as bookmarks. Because its brilliant coloring has not faded, it probably was used as a bookmark almost immediately upon receipt and soon thereafter forgotten in a book. Now it too is a treasured item in my collection.

Excluding the more delicate and damaged ones, I enjoy using these holiday bookmarks for reading at this time of year. They are a nice reminder that the traditions of Christmas can be easily found in an old bookmark as easily as in A Christmas Carol.

Bookmark specifications: HERE IS THE PLACE
Dimensions: 5" x 2 1/4"
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Early- to mid-twentieth century
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Merry Xmas
Dimensions: 6" x 2 1/2"
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Late nineteenth or early-twentieth century
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: A Happy Christmas
Dimensions: 6" x 2"
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Early- to mid-twentieth century
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Fond Christmas Wishes
Dimensions: 6" x 2"
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Early- to mid-twentieth century
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Christmas Chimes
Dimensions: 7 3/4" x 1 3/4"
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Late twentieth century (?)
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Christmas Book Mark
Dimensions: 11" x 1" (including ribbon)
Material: Paper and silk
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Early-twentieth century (?)
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Dimensions: 5" x 2"
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: Penn’a Company
Date: Late nineteenth or early-twentieth century
Acquired: eBay


Almost since her childhood days of Mother Goose, Lauren has been giving her opinion on books to anyone who will listen. That “talent” eventually took her out of magazine writing and into book reviewing in 2000 for an online review site where she cut her teeth (as well as a few authors). Stints as book editor for her local newspaper and contributing editor to Booklist and Bookmarks magazines has reinforced her belief that she has interesting things to say about books. Lauren shares her home with several significant others including three cats, nearly 1,300 bookmarks and approximately 1,200 books that, whether previously read or not, constitute her to-be-read stack. She is a member of the National Books Critics Circle (NBCC) as well as a longtime book design judge for Publishers Marketing Association’s Benjamin Franklin Awards. Contact Lauren.