Rex Whistler.
Privately Printed. [1933]. Book plate printed in sepia, reproduced in collotype by Emery Walker Ltd. English. 135 x 96mm. 0.1kg. . Very good; very slight abrasions to rear.
The ex libris bookplate designed by Rex Whistler for Dame Adelaide Livingstone. Livingstone was born in America but spent the majority of her life in Britain. During and after the First World War she channelled her energies into repatriating displaced persons and tracing those who had died or been taken prisoner abroad. She was given her Damehood in 1918 and in later years she organised the Peace Ballot. Whistler's bookplate design for Livingstone is filled with symbolic objects. The sea and ship beyond the curtained window signal her trans-Atlantic origin. The books, hunting horn and flowers denote pre-War pursuits. The smoking classical urn perhaps denotes the fire for peace and public duty.
[Further reading: North Lee, Brian, 'The Bookplate Designs of Rex Whistler', 1973, p. 21, 31, plate 24; Whistler, Laurence & Ronald Fuller, 'The Work of Rex Whistler', 1960, no. 593]
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