Bookends

About Antique and Vintage Bookends

A good book can enrich a mind, spur a life-changing epiphany, or transport a reader to a minutely detailed universe hatched from an author’s imagination. A good pair of bookends can’t promise all that, but they can sure add a lot of character to a room. Bookends are like punctuation marks on a shelf, proclaiming the importance their owners place on the tomes in between.

Many antique and vintage bookends share a key trait—they're heavy, often made of weighty materials such as wrought iron, ceramic, carved stone, or cast metal. Solid bronze bookends are especially popular and collectible, sometimes resembling small, paired pieces of sculpture rather than utilitarian devices to keep books from sliding off a shelf...

Bronze was a favorite material of Art Deco-era artists and designers, who used everything from female nudes to reproductions of Rodin’s “Thinker” for bookends. From the 1920s through the 1950s, a New Jersey company called Marion Bronze, as well as its predecessor, Pompeian Bronze, was famous for its painted bronze bookends.

Of the ceramic bookends, collectible examples include pieces by Roseville and Rookwood in the United States, and Clarice Cliff and PenDelfin in the U.K. The Roseville bookends from the 1930s shaped like open books, with a pine bough and cone propping open the “book,” are particularly prized.

Metal bookends ranged from hammered copper pieces made by Roycroft craftsmen during the Arts and Crafts period to cast brass animal figures. Then there were the stone bookends, which were sometimes paired with metals (bronze and marble was a typical combination in the 1920 and ’30s) or used solo—onyx and alabaster are just two examples of stones favored by artisans from Mexico to Asia.

About our sources | Got something to add?

▼ Continue reading

Post an Event

Upcoming Events

See all 80 Books events


Interviews & Articles

An Interview with Rare Book Collector and Appraiser Ken Sanders

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t read books. In grade school, I devoured library books. I also loved comic boo… [more]

An Interview on First Editions with Vintage Book Appraiser Matthew Haley

Strictly speaking, a book’s edition refers to the setting of the text. So the first time you set the text and print… [more]

An Interview With American Cookbook Expert and Rare Book Curator Peter Berg

Special collections is where we keep non-circulating rare materials which have to be used in the reading room. Our … [more]

An Interview With Children’s Book Curator Rita Smith

I started working as the curator of the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature in 1994, but I’d worked… [more]



Best of the Web (“Hall of Fame”)

Google Book Search

Google Book Search

Want to do one quick search and pull up the mother lode of vintage books? Try Google Book Search, a database filled… [read review or visit site]

Baldwin Library of Childrens Literature

Baldwin Library of Childrens Literature

If you’re interested in collectible childrens books, check out this special digital collection from the Universit… [read review or visit site]

Feeding America

Feeding America

This archive of 76 influential American cookbooks from the late 1700s to early 1900s, assembled by the Michigan St… [read review or visit site]

Gallery of Book Trade Labels

Gallery of Book Trade Labels

Greg Kindall's collection of over 2100 colorful and historic book labels, pasted into books by publishers, printers… [read review or visit site]

Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves

Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves

This great blog, by an anonymous mom in Texas, is an ongoing bibliography of hundreds of vintage childrens books, c… [read review or visit site]

Vintage Cookbooks Photo Pool

Vintage Cookbooks Photo Pool

This Flickr photo pool features over 2,000 photos and scans of vintage cookbooks and old recipes from the 1940s to … [read review or visit site]

Rare Karate Book Collection

Rare Karate Book Collection

This visually interesting and highly specialized collection from the Hawaii Karate Museum focuses on rare and histo… [read review or visit site]

Czech Book Covers

Czech Book Covers

This Smithsonian microsite showcases Czech avant-garde book cover designs from the 1920s and 30s, complete with hig… [read review or visit site]

Bookscans.com

Bookscans.com

Bruce Black's gallery of paperback book covers from the 1940s and 50s. With help from numerous contributors, he's a… [read review or visit site]


Got a site to suggest? Let us know.




Clubs & Associations: Books


Other Great Reference Sites: Books

Are we missing one? Tell us.

Top eBay Auctions  Help | Get weekly Bookends email

Sorted by        
Pr Hammered Copper Bookends Inset With Grueby Scarabs$511.50 Ends Saturday 7 bids 49 watchers
1928 Rookwood Pottery Green Elephant Bookends Mint Pair$264.00 Ends Sunday 8 bids 47 watchers
2006 Federal Reserve Ladder Note With Bookends$237.06 Ends in 2 hours 4 bids 3 watchers
Rookwood Pottery Egyptian Isis Polychrome Bookends $155.51 Ends Sunday 2 bids 31 watchers
C1920 Judd Cast Iron Mermaid Book Rack Bookend Nr $200+$122.50 Ends Sunday 20 bids 32 watchers
Pompeian Bronze Old Antique Pedistal Statue Book Ends$112.50 Ends Sunday 14 bids 34 watchers
1948 Lalique France Crystal Reverie Nude Woman Bookend$102.00 Ends Tuesday 20 bids 28 watchers
Vintage 60's Murano Glass Spiral Bookends~venini? Pair$99.99 Ends Wednesday 1 bid 3 watchers
1940's Pair Of Bronze Signed Book Ends Dep. Nude Woman$99.00 Ends Monday 1 bid 17 watchers
Rare Bleeding Heart Roseville Bookends$82.99 Ends in 20 hours 4 bids 13 watchers
Scarce Old Jb Jennings Bros Three Musketeers Bookends$79.89 Ends Sunday 6 bids 13 watchers
Robotech Macross N.g. Masterpiece Collection Bookends$71.00 Ends Thursday 8 bids 7 watchers
1920's Bronze? Bookends Indian Teaching Boy Weidlich$68.99 Ends in 6 hours 9 bids 32 watchers
Rare Roycroft Hammered Copper Bookends Signed$67.50 Ends in 3 hours 5 bids 31 watchers
Martin Boyd Book Ends - Dancers$66.89 Ends in 10 hours 10 bids 28 watchers
Wolfhound Borzoi Glass Dog Bookends Figurine Statue Pr.$56.00 Ends in 9 hours 3 bids 5 watchers
Waterford Crystal Bookends In A Fan Shape$55.00 Ends Wednesday 2 bids 4 watchers
Green Lantern Hal Jordan Power Battery Bookends$51.00 Ends in 17 hours 2 bids 17 watchers
Rookwood Owl Bookend, C1945, Perfect Buy it Now$51.00 Ends Sunday 3 bids 10 watchers
Franklin And Washington Masonic Goebel Bookends $51.00 Ends in 21 hours 4 bids 14 watchers
I Love Lucy Book Ends$50.00 Ends Sunday 1 bid 6 watchers
Vintage Metal Terrier Puppy Dogs On The Fence Bookends$49.99 Ends in 23 hours 1 bid 5 watchers
Antique Black Forest Wooden Carved Bears Bookends$49.00 Ends Thursday 1 bid 11 watchers
Vintage 5 7/8" Polished Petrified Wood Bookends$47.50 Ends Sunday 1 bid 3 watchers
New Martinsville Glass Large Tiger Head Up Bookend 1940$46.00 Ends in 5 hours 7 bids 17 watchers
Vintage Indian Bookends With Dog- Native American$43.00 Ends Sunday 1 bid 9 watchers
Vintage H/painted Ceramic Kookaburra Bookends$41.40 Ends Wednesday 1 bid 26 watchers
Dante- Beatrice Open Book Bookends Jennings Bros C1935$40.00 Ends in 23 hours 7 bids 8 watchers
Ben Seibel Jenfred Raymor Midcentury Brass Bookends$39.99 Ends Thursday 1 bid 5 watchers
Fab Art Nouveau Figural Women Bust Bookends$39.99 Ends Sunday 1 bid 11 watchers
Brass Frog Toad Bookends Book Ends Children Stunning$38.12 Ends in 22 hours 8 bids 16 watchers
Vintage Roseville Art Pottery Clematis Bookends - Nr!$37.65 Ends Sunday 2 bids 4 watchers
Rare 1920's-30's Armor Bronze Figural Red Monk Bookends$36.00 Ends in 5 mins 8 bids 21 watchers
Sis: Petrified Wood Bookends -stunning Stinking Water!$36.00 Ends Monday 4 bids 24 watchers
Heisey Animal Fish Bookend$35.00 Ends Thursday 1 bid 15 watchers
1950s Ben Seibel Jenfred-ware Raymor Modernist Bookends$35.00 Ends Tuesday 1 bid 17 watchers
Antique Bronze John Harvard Book Ends Bookends$33.00 Ends Monday 3 bids 35 watchers
Vintage Cast Charles Lindbergh Lindy Airplane Bookends$31.13 Ends Sunday 7 bids 19 watchers
Antique Owl Pair Cast Iron Figural Bookends Door Stop$31.00 Ends Tuesday 3 bids 11 watchers
Bronze Covered Wagon Oxen Pulled Bookend Set$31.00 Ends Tuesday 1 bid 2 watchers
Art Deco Scottish Terrier Bookend~copper Or Bronze~$29.99 Ends Tuesday 1 bid 2 watchers
Canada Historic Hamilton Ontario Metal Brass Book Ends$29.95 Ends Wednesday 1 bid 5 watchers
Antique Cast Iron Door Stop/bookend"coach" $29.00 Ends Sunday 1 bid 4 watchers
Vintage English Cottage Cast Iron Bookends Jersey 15$28.99 Ends Sunday 3 bids 5 watchers
Mcclelland Barclay Bronze Scottie Dog Bookends - Mint$27.49 Ends Sunday 3 bids 31 watchers
Discworld Clarecraft Figurine Death's Bathroom Bookend$26.77 Ends Monday 5 bids 27 watchers
Argonath Bookends Lord Of The Rings Collectibles $26.00 Ends Wednesday 3 bids 10 watchers

»» Get our weekly Bookends email
Right now on eBay

Books

See also

Tools