Bookplates, such as this one produced by Sadie Irvine (ca.1915), have a long history. Since the introduction of printing in the fifteenth century, bookplates have marked ownership of books, and have also shown readers something of a book's provenance.

Scholars have noticed that a bookplate transforms a book from an item of exchange into an object of personal attachment. The design of any bookplate, therefore, must reflect on the book's owner. Sadie Irvine here incorporates the traditional tall urn of a New Orleans courtyard and the flowered dress reminiscent of both girlhood and fabrics of the arts and crafts movement.

Sadie Irvine's work as a printmaker was well known. Several of her studies of children were sold to St Nicholas Magazine. The bookplates themselves can be found in various New Orleans libraries.

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