JAY CHAMBERS BOOKPLATES

A collection of 19 hand-signed bookplates designed by Jay Chambers (1877-1929), a graduate of Philadephia's Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry who studied under the famous book illustrator and author Howard Pyle. The large paper proofs in this collection are indicative of Chamber's pictorial style, many with idealized figures in historical dress. Chambers is the father of writer Whittaker Chambers, the former Communist and Russian spy whose testimony helped bring down Alger Hiss. Chambers was a sought-after bookplate illustrator at the turn of the last century. A survey of his work is found in Wilbur Macy Stone's books "Jay Chambers: His Book-Plates, With XXVII Examples and an Essay Concerning Them" (1902). Stone and Chambers were two of the three partners in the Triptych Designers of New York, which produced bookplates, published this work, and other small-press publications. After graduating from Drexel, Chambers moved to New York to take a job as a graphic artist at the New York World, a position he landed due to the influence of his father, James Chambers, a well-known journalist of the era. He met Laha Whittaker at a diner he frequented. They married in 1900, moved to the suburbs, and had two sons. In his memoirs, Chamber's eldest son, Whittaker (born Jay Vivian), recalled a difficult home life due to his father's coldness and absence, behavior biographers later attributed to the fact that his father was bisexual and led a double life. The bookplate proofs in this collection, printed in black, include one done in 1902 for Whittaker using his given name Jay Vivian Chambers. Another example, dated 1900, was executed for Florence Audubon (1853-1949), the granddaughter of John James Audubon, and features a squirrel. The collection also includes the bookplate of Winfred Porter Truesdell, an art book publisher and himself a bookplate collector. Examples of Chambers' bookplate work is collected by a variety of institutions. The proofs in this collection are all are in fine condition.…