没事玩收藏 "纸上宝石"的藏书票

藏书票是一种小众收藏品,愈来愈受到一些收藏者的追捧.作为艺术品,藏书票在欧美各国非常流行,在19世纪末20世纪初传到我国,被爱书的人称为"纸上宝石"。

Reporter:

Bookplates have existed since the first printed books appeared, in mid-15th Century Germany. They are pasted into a book on the inside front cover to indicate the owner. A bookplate bears a name, motto, device, coat-of-arms, crest and badge, showing the book is a private collection.

Compared to Chinese traditional masterpieces, bookplates are cheaper. But bookplate collections have become a black horse in the collection market for price hikes in recent years.

Chen Yadan is the deputy president of the Bookplate Seminar of Chinese Artist Association. She has worked on graphic arts and bookplates for decades. She says the prices of bookplates vary.

"For example, the price of the Chinese print artists' works. A 50 to 100 yuan bookplate in the past can sell 200 to 800 yuan right now, based on recognition of the artist and market disciplines."

Bookplates are precious originals of graphic artists, because all of them are hand made and printed in small numbers. One copy of print produces no more than 100 bookplates.

Liu Yanhai, curator of the International Graphics Collection, introduces his experiences of collecting bookplates.

"I've been collecting bookplates for more than 10 years. At that time, a bookplate was only 2 to 3 yuan. But now the price has grown a hundred-fold."

Early bookplates often bear the family badge, old myths and legends, and heroes and beauties. Later the motif spreads to beautiful sceneries, or any subject related to the owners' personal life. In recent bookplates collection market, works of a few veteran artists, like Li Hua, and Gu Yuan, sell well and are worth collecting. A bookplate of Li Hua printed in the 1980s sold for 15,000 yuan in 2008.

Why do these veteran artists' works sell at a good price? Wu Xingwen, a collector, gives the answer.

"Their techniques can be easily understood by Chinese people. Collecting them has less risk."

Apart from domestic bookplates, works of foreign artists who won international awards are in fresh demand. A collector must make a reservation and wait 2 to 3 years before they can get one.

Where to buy bookplates? Recently some book stores, private companies and art collectors got involved in the bookplates business, and each bookplate sells for 20 to 80 yuan. You can exchange your bookplates with others to enlarge your collection.

But for bookplate collection novices, experts suggest only wood block printed bookplates are worth collecting.

"Bookplates, made by Jung-Pao Printing House, are produced by a watercolored wood block. Right now the bookplates are made by modern printing machines. The prices of these two kinds vary largely. Only wood printed bookplates have profit potential."

For CRI, I'm Damin.