Bookplate of the week: Frank E. Lane
May 24th, 2012 by houghtonmodern
Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to find information on the collector whose bookplate we have. This is one such example: the striking woodcut plate of Frank E. Lane. Was he a book collector? A man who enjoyed rowing to a secluded spot to read and do a little fishing?
He was most likely Australian, as his bookplate was designed by Phillip Litchfield, a printmaker in Sydney active in the 1920s and 30s.
We might never know who he was, or why Litchfield was commissioned to design this plate – but if you have any ideas, please let us know!
This bookplate is part of the Daniel Butler Fearing collection at Houghton Library. Fearing collected several thousand bookplates related to angling, watercraft, and other related subjects. To access the bookplate collection at Houghton, email houghton_modern AT harvard.edu.
Found some info on ancestry.com about Frank E. Lane, hopefully its helpful. Would love to learn more about him myself.
http://records.ancestry.com/Frank_E_Lane_records.ashx?pid=53770859
Nicholas J.
I know this post is very old but I came across a copy of this bookplate in my collecting activities. In my copy unlike the image above, the book closest to the quill clearly says LAW.
Doing some further research, I know that there is a law graduate from University of Sydney in 1922 with the name Frank Lane. I suspect this is the same man. See https://alumniarchives.sydney.edu.au/as/
Further,
Page 606 of 1922 calendar at
http://calendararchive.usyd.edu.au/browse.php gives his middle name as Edwin which matches the E. In the plate. That would be quite a coincidence.
Having the middle name, we find more info, like military record documents (note law student)
https://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/browse/person/239169
I’ll stop spamming you now 🙂