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MAJOR EDWARD WILLIS [John Edward Whitridge Linneus Willis] : LATE 19th EARLY 20th C. RENOWNED 140+ DECORATIVE & HISTORICAL BOOKPLATE COLLECTION INCLUDING EX LIBRIS STAMPS AND ARMORIAL CRESTS OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO COLLECTORS OF RARE AMERICANA EPHEMERA

8 x 11 Inches Approx. On offer is an extraordinary bookplate collection assembled by Major Edward Willis [John Edward Whitridge Linneus Willis though he rarely used his full name] of Charleston, South Carolina. Major Willis' collection was renowned drawing scholars of the art to his home. This one-of-a-kind album contains 143 bookplates, many original and valuable representing the Landgraves who settled South Carolina, with grants of Land from the Crown, and French Huguenots who were refugees in Charleston South Carolina to escape the Massacre after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Further ex-libris stamps and book plates in this work represent many colleges, libraries, institutions, etc; and other notable ex-libris from various states, most American; several rare signatures. Most plates are mounted, a small number have become detached, some with moderate wear, some cello-taped into album, however, for the most part the tape has dried. A high concentration are South Carolina oriented: Coat of Arms, armorial crests, decorative book plates and ex-libris plates include; Daniel Ravenel, Della Torre, Henry Laurens (see biography of Henry Laurens by Dr. Duncan Wallace), Errol Hay, Frederick Tupper Jr. (an ancestor was a Crusader), E. Horry Frost, Louis Manigault, Peter Manigault, Thomas Hayward, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (famed for the quote: Millions for Defense But Not One Cent For Tribute), James Louis Petigru (famous jurist), Thomas G. Prioleau, John Ashe Alston, Francis Simmons Holmes, W. G. Hinson of James Island, SC, C. E. Stewart, Allen Smith Izard, John M. Huger, Library of Confederate Widows' Home [3], College of Charleston with signature of Hugh S. Legare, C. Cotes Esq., and J. Northrop [3] and many, many more. All of the above are very valuable South Carolina plates and all are considered rare. Further valuable plates from various states include, Calvin Coolidge, Daniel Webster, William Penn, George Washington [1798], Headquarters of The Army, Lloyd Aspinwall, Robert W. Adam, William A. Hammond (related to Maj. Gen. John Hammond of Annapolis, MD). Founding father R. B. Bradford, a "Handmade" plate of John Schnierle [1823], Mary E. Rath Merrill of Columbus, OH, W. J. Booth, W. G. Haywood M.D., Kenwith Lodge, Harold Day Foster, John Walker Gibb-Charleston, SC, Edith E. Fraine, Anna Randolph Darlington Gillespie, Hugh W. Diamond, Surgeon, Julia Andrews Bruge (daughter of the railroad magnate of Youngstown, Ohio), Francis Simmons Holmes, Scientist and Co-founder of Charleston Museum and many more. Colleges and Institutions represented; Harvard, Radcliffe, Yale, Public Library of Boston, MA, College of William and Mary, Princeton, Bowdoin, Smith College, U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD, Charleston Library Society (oldest in America) ++. An accompanying archive contains handwritten letters, one signed by the son of Prioleau [1903], another signed by A. G. Palfrey of New Orleans, LA [1934], and another from The Library of The College of Charleston signed by the librarian Emma A. Bull [1905]. Further contents of the archive identify the plates (rare, original, or duplicate), and are either hand written by Miss Eola Willis the daughter of Maj. Willis, or typed with further notations and descriptions on the bookplates and ex-libris stamps. Hardcover black album measures approximately 10 ½ x 12 ½ inches, shows some shelf wear but overall G+.. Book Condition: Good+

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