Membership

We focus on British bookplates, but membership is worldwide. Some of our members are bookplate artists, and we maintain a list of British designers who are currently willing to accept commissions. Many of our subscribers are not bookplate collectors at all, but have diverse interests in kindred fields of heraldry, genealogy, biography, bibliography, printing & engraving, and graphic art. They find the range of bookplate design, technique and history to be fascinating.

Anyone can join the Society. You are most welcome. Just fill the form below, print it and send it to us with your cheque for £30 (for members outside the UK the rate is £34 or US$70, or remit €50). We are a UK registered charity, run by volunteers who dedicate their personal time. We therefore ask that members residing in the UK please complete a Gift Aid declaration and pay future subscriptions by standing order.

If you wish, before joining, to see a sample copy of the Bookplate Journal please send £4 to the Society's Hon. Treasurer (details on contacts page).

Membership benefits
The annual subscription entitles members to the following benefits:

In 2003 the Bookplate Journal (ISSN 0264-3693) commenced its 2nd Series in enlarged format. It is now a 72-page journal published in March and September each year.

The Bookplate Society Newsletter (ISSN 0309-7935) appears twice a year in June and December. It gives news of meetings, auction lists, membership changes, sales and wants, and items of interest not covered in the Bookplate Journal. Occasionally there is an extra bonus - our June 2003 Newsletter included an original print of C.W. Sherborn's armorial bookplate for Montagu Knight of Chawton, and with our December 2005 Newsletter we were pleased to be able to distribute originals of J.A.C. Harrison's fine seal armorial for Herbert Walter Plews Harrison.

At the end of each year, members have received a free book. For 2002 this was John Blatchly's Bookplates of George Wolfe Plank. In succeeding years this was followed by two books by Brian North Lee: Some Bookplates of Heralds, and Some Bookplates of Church of England Parochial and Cathedral Libraries. For 2005 the subject of our book was Bookplates in the Trophy Style, which provided an interesting view of the ex-libris of military men. We have an ongoing plan to publish studies of the work of artists, and to cover bookplate history by styles, themes and by different areas of the British Isles, such as the book by Sir Ilay Campbell and Brian Lee on Scottish Bookplates, our members' book for 2006 and now available for purchase by non-members. Books now in the pipeline are mentioned on the Projects page. Please note that in order to avoid any increase in the £30 UK subscription we have decided to issue books once every two years with effect from 2007/8, but this does not preclude the provision of bonus items from time to time.

The Society holds two bookplate study meetings (usually in central London) and two auctions each year in which our overseas members participate keenly by post.

From time to time the Society holds public exhibitions of bookplates

If you would like to join online and pay by credit card through PayPal please click here.
For postal/cheque payments please read below.

Joining the Society
Application Form: If you live in the UK, you can join the Bookplate Society and receive a year's publications and join in our activities for only £30 sterling. This £30 subscription has been held unchanged since 1995 (although the dollar rate has had to be adjusted in line with the exchange rate) and is payable on 1st January each year. Members outside the UK pay £34, $70 US or
€ 50, because we need to cover the cost of extra postage. Payment can be made by a cheque drawn on a UK or US account, or online by credit card through PayPal. Please download and print the application form, fill in your details and mail the completed form to us, together with your payment. The information in this form will be published in our Newsletter, the Members' Directory and the Directory published by the International Association of Bookplate Societies (FISAE) unless you ask us not to.

Standing order form: The officers of the Society give their time voluntarily, and we ask that all members with UK bank accounts please pay by bank standing order. Please download, print and use the standing order form.

Gift aid: The Bookplate Society is a registered charity (UK Regd. Charity No. 295678), so we ask all UK taxpayers to sign a gift aid declaration, please. This enables us to recover 22p for every 78p of subscription (shortly to drop to 20p for every 80p), thus helping to keep subscriptions at the present level. Higher rate taxpayers may recover their higher band tax.