The Can-You-Help? database was created to help to identify a book plate, a binding stamp, a library label or stamp, or to read and identify an owner's inscription. The first two iterations of these service have now been suspended.
The Can-You-Help? forum has found a new home in the CERL Provenance Digital Archive. Click on this link to Can-You-Help? in the CERL PDA to see all provenance evidences where we could use your help to identify the former owner. If you have the solution or perhaps a suggestion for further research, please click on the image. In the record that is then shown, you can leave your comments in a text box which you find in the top right of your screen.
Queries posted on the Can-You-Help? database until 2009 are available. For further information, go here. CERL plans to migrate queries posted on the Can-You-Help? database between December 2009 - August 2018 to the CERL Provenance Digital Archive. Because of GDPR concerns, CERL can only migrate this information with the expres permission of those who originally posted the query. As you can imagine, this is a slow process.
The original queries submitted to the CERL web site up to November 2009 can be viewed below. CERL aims to migrate queries posted between December 2009 - August 2018 to the new CERL Provence Digital Archive.
Click on image to enlarge | Description | Further information | Contact |
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18 October 2009 | |||
Identification of binding stamp, possibly French or Italian. The two works in the volume are printed by Aldus. | Petro Bembo, Gli Asolani (1515) bound with Jacopo Sannazaro, Arcadia (1514). | Bella Neyman | |
12 October 2009 | |||
The distinctive gold tooling at the top of the armorial shield is known as a “Capo d'Angio” (in French: “Chef d'Anjou”) – a chief of allegiance that was associated with the Guelphs. | The binding itself is Roman (it was bound by the so-called “Enigmatic Binder” (see Count Viani Tolomei, “Un atelier de reliure à Rome au XVIIe siècle: l'atelier dit `Enigmatique'” in: Bulletin du Bibliophile 1993, no. 2, pp. 322-343). | Michael Laird Michael Laird Rare Books P.O. Box 299 Lockhart, TX, 78644-0299 Pietro Giacomo Bacci Aretino, Vita di S. Filippo Neri Fiorentino Fondatore della Congregatione dell' Oratorio (Rome, 1646). |
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12 October 2009 | |||
Book plate found in a German travel book printed in 1774. | Bernhard Wirth (Universitaetsbibliothek, Frankfurt am Main) points to similar emblems in Prussian regimental standards, c. 1700. | Annelen Ottermann, Abteilungsleiterin Handschriften, Rara, Alte Drucke, Wissenschaftliche Stadtbibliothek, Mainz |
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24 September 2009 | |||
Whose bookplate is this, showing a bird, with the initials “AF“ | On the front pastedown of a copy of the Cuala Press edition of Poems by Lionel Johnson, edited by William Butler Yeats (1904)? | Tim Johns James Cummins Bookseller 699 Madison Avenue New York |
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24 September 2009 | |||
Temple West, early 19th cent. | Details needed concerning the former owner of two bindings of sheet music, chiefly glees, catches, rounds, etc. from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Watermark on binder's flyleaf “J Whatman 1813.” | “T. West Esqr.” lettered in gilt on binding cover label, apparently of the West family of Twickenham, which included Gilbert West, d. 1756, Temple West, d. 1757, and Temple West, d. 1783. | Stephen H. Cape Lilly Library Indiana University |
21 September 2009 | |||
EB (or BE) monogram stamped on a2r of a copy of Isidorus Hispalensis, Etymologiae (Venice: Peter Löslein, 1483). The curved parts of the B end in curls that enter the counters. | In the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College Library, Northampton, Massachusetts | John Lancaster Curator of Special Collections, Emeritus, Amherst College Library |
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10 September 2009 | |||
Joseph Fenton (1565/70–1634) was a London surgeon. Items from his substantial library are easily identified by his signature, usually accompanied by his motto 'Sustine abstine', or an alternative motto 'Sors mea mors' and a number, often in a rectangle, at the top of the title page. | Many volumes were acquired by Sir Hans Sloane and are now in the British Library. (see http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/sloane, where over 300 Fenton items are listed). | Sloane did not acquire the whole library and I am interested in locating Fenton books in other collections. I would be particularly interested to know if they have manuscript annotations. Alison Walker British Library, London |
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7 September 2009 | |||
Arms stamped on both covers of Palmerino d'Oliva, Venice, Tramezino, 1552. Related arms (engraved) are printed on the front free endpaper of the volume (see below). | The book is in the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College Library | John Lancaster Curator of Special Collections, Emeritus, Amherst College Library |
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Not exactly a bookplate, these arms are printed on one leaf of a bifolium that was used as endpapers; the arms are on the recto of the front free endpaper. They are related to the gilt-stamped arms on the cover of the volume (above). | On Palmerino d'Oliva, Venice, Tramezino, 1552. The book is in the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College Library | John Lancaster Curator of Special Collections, Emeritus, Amherst College Library |
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18 August 2009 | |||
Inscription on the verso of the front free endpaper of Charles Rogers's translation of Dante's Inferno (London, 1782). “W. Cotton” is William Cotton (1794–1863), whose grandfather was Rogers's brother-in-law. But who is “JD”? | The book is in the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College Library, Northampton, Mass. USA | John Lancaster Curator of Special Collections, Emeritus, Amherst College Library ———————— Christopher Edwards tentatively identifies “JD” as John Disney (1779–1857); Disney's papers are held at Dr Williams’s Library, London (closed at present). ————————- Maureen Attrill (Keeper of Art, Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery, UK) suggests Rev. James Dallaway, topographical writer (1763–1834), who was a friend of William Cotton. |
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19 July 2009 | |||
Identification the book stamp of a European ducal (?) library on flyleaf. | Arabia, seu Arabum vicinarumq[ue] gentium Orientalium leges, ritus, sacri et profani mores, instituta et historia, Amsterdam, Jan Jansson, 1633. | John Lancaster (Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies, Amherst, Mass.) |
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16 July 2009 | |||
Sum Barnardi Hampton eiusque amicorum Hast[e] not to[o] hastely | Books with the inscription and/or motto of Barnard Hampton, mid-16th-century clerk to the Privy Council. | Dennis Rhodes has so far traced five books which belonged to Hampton's library. | Please send further examples of books with Barnard Hampton's signature or motto to David@djshaw.co.uk on behalf of Dennis Rhodes. |
14 July 2009 | |||
Bibliotheca Windhagiana | The library of the mid-17th-century Austrian aristocrat Johann Joachim Entzmüller (1600–1678), Freiherr von und zu Windhag, which was later given to the University Library in Vienna in 1787. | Dennis Rhodes has traced over 30 books which once belonged to this important collection. Dennis Rhodes, ‘Bibliotheca Windhagiana’, Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 2009, p.307–312. | Please send further examples of books from the Bibliotheca Windhagiana to David@djshaw.co.uk on behalf of Dennis Rhodes. Dr Klaus Graf has discovered a number of additional items from the Bibliotheca Windhagiana at http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/5866759. |
29 June 2009 | |||
Can anyone identify the Discalced Carmelite house in this inscription? Ex libris conuentus Carmelit. discalceat | L'histoire ethiopique de Heliodore, Paris, Toussaincts du Bray, 1609. | francesca.galligan@ouls.ox.ac.uk, Bodleian Library, Oxford —————————– Chris Coppens suggests Haughton-le-Skene (Nottinghamshire, England) but David Shaw thinks that this Carmelite house was no longer in existence when the book was printed (1609). |
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12 May 2009 | |||
Two armorial shields with lions and thistles, from two Aquinas editions, Catena aurea, Rome: Sweynheym & Pannartz, 1470 and Quaestiones de xii quodlibet, Rome: G. Lauer, c. 1470 in the Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum, Den Haag. | Photos from Vroege boekdrukkunst uit Italie, Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum (1987) afb. 6 and 9. The arms are 'azure, in chief a lion’s head guardant or, from its mouth three thistles proper inverted'. | The same arms appear on vol. 2 of the Sweynheym and Pannartz Jerome, Rome 1468, in the British Library (C.13.e.2). Martin Davies |
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1 April 2009 | |||
complete image | Can you identify this library stamp from the following book? Rodrigo de Zamorano, Compendia de la arte de navegar, Sevilla: Andrea Pescioni, 1581. | Search for “Zamorano” on the catalogue: Middle Temple Library, London | Renae Satterley |
26 February 2009 | |||
624 MSN Aukt. Nn 6/8 06. (pencil note in an incunable at the Stadtarchiv Olpe) | Can you help to identify the auction house which sold this book, probably in August 1906 (“8 06”) | Johannes de Turrecremata, Quaestiones…, Köln: Petrus in Altis de Olpe, 23. August 1478 | Thomas Wilhelmi |
13 February 2009 | |||
Blind-stamped binding dated 1598 with the initials FSMA (or ESMA) | Late 13th-century Psalter. Continental binding? | Morten Dahl Kirkenes Norway |
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4 December 2008 | |||
Bibliotheca Parchensis: Research on the present location of incunables from the library of Park Abbey near Leuven | Bibliotheca Parchensis | Christian Coppens | |
We can display your query here. | David Shaw |
Description | Further information | Contact | Solved | |
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17 October 2009 | 5 May 2010 | |||
Identification requested for this armorial binding on a book of 1627 purchased in Innsbruck. Click for larger image of stamp | Matthaeus Rader S.J., Ad. M. Valerii Martialis epigrammaton libros omnes, plenis commentariis, nouo studio confectis, Moguntiae : sumptibus Ioannis Kinckii, bibliop. Colon. : excudebat Hermannus Meresius, 1627. | Roberto Rossi | David Pearson has identified the Arms of A.-B. Hinlopin of Amsterdam. The same arms can found on a Bookplate at the University of Virginia Library, shelfmark Gordon 1600.M44. | |
18 August 2009 | 21 October 2009 | |||
Title-page inscription : “Coll. Nobil. Neap.”, On the title page of Lodovico Domenichi's Dialoghi (Venice: Giolito, 1562). Is this the Jesuit college at Naples? | The book is in the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College Library, Northampton, Mass. USA | John Lancaster Curator of Special Collections, Emeritus, Amherst College Library | Chris Coppens confirms that this is the Collegio dei Nobili in Naples | |
23 September 2009 | 12 October 2009 | |||
Engraved bookplate with the name M. de Lançon and the motto Fortitudine et charitate in Antoine Godeau, Histoire de l'eglise (Paris, 1678). The title page has the ownership inscription “J de pouilly De Lancon”. | The motto is that of the noble family Mensdorff-Pouilly from Lorraine. Internet searches suggest that the owner is Jacques Pouilly de Lançon who served as mestre de camp (colonel) in the Royal Navarre cavalry regiment in 1672/1. | Annelen Ottermann, Abteilungsleiterin Handschriften, Rara, Alte Drucke, Wissenschaftliche Stadtbibliothek, Mainz | Has anyone encountered further examples of this bookplate in their collections? | |
1 April 2009 | 21 July 2009 | |||
Are these binding stamps from a prize binding? Johann Friedrich Burg, Chrestomathia patristica Graeca, Vratislaviae: Apud Joannem Jacobum Kornium, 1742-1756 | Chris Coppens identifies the arms of Frederick II of Prussia (1712–1786), probably Poznan-related, and notes that the binder applied the stamp with the keys upside-down. | Goran Proot Catalogue entry: Historical Collections, University Library, Antwerp | The arms identified by Chris Coppens. Not yet confirmed as a prize binding. |
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4 April 2009 | 14 June 2009 | |||
1472 Latin Bible printed by Peter Schoeffer in Mainz. Pigskin binding with a gilt, armorial stamp (episcopal or abbatial) with 'I. I. G. P. S.' | The stamp is apparently as recorded by Walsh, Harvard (15th Century Books) no. 810 in a copy of Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea [Nuremberg: Georg Stuchs, 1 October 1488]. | Anthony Tedeschi Dunedin Public Libraries, New Zealand | I. I. G. P. S. has been identified in a collective effort by Klaus Graf, Manfred Huiskes and Bernd-Christoph Kämper (Archivalia) as Johann Joseph Glätzl, Propst zu Sternberg, mid-18th century | |
4 April 2009 | 5 April 2009 | |||
Harleian style binding. Coat of arms very similar to that of Henrietta Cavendish Harley (1694-1755) | Book of Common Prayer, London, 1687 Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Leipzig Image of whole cover | Bettina Rüdiger Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum | Philip Oldfield (University of Toronto Library) confirms that these are the arms of Henrietta Harley. He is creating a database of British armorial bindings, based on work commenced by the late John Morris. | |
5 February 2009 | 1 April 2009 | |||
royal or ducal book stamp? | Middle Temple Library, London | Renae Satterley | Identified by John Goldfinch: book stamp from the library of the Earls of Guilford, probably Frederick North, 5th Earl. See the Guilford Project at the British Library. |
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9 February 2009 | 13 February 2009 | |||
armorial binding stamp. A. Du Chesne, Historiae Normannorum scriptores antiqui. Paris, 1619. From the library of William Somner. | Paly of 6 or and az. a canton erm. A crescent for diff. Impaled. Canterbury Cathedral | David Shaw | Tobias Abeloff identifies the arms of Sir Thomas Shirley from Woodfield's Ordinary of British Armorial Bookbindings, page 55. See also: D. Pearson, Provenance Research, pl. 4.6. |
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9 February 2009 | 10 February 2009 | |||
red velvet binding with blind-stamped arms of a Cardinal | Book of Hours, Paris, 1500 | Marieke van Delft | Identified by Chris Coppens: The binding is from François de Mamez (d. 1648), canon and cantor at Ypres (Ieper). See de Jonghe d'Ardoye, Havenith & Dansaert, Armorial belge du bibliophile, I, p.271. |
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25 January 2009 | 5 February 2009 | |||
book stamp on title page: KÖNIGLICHES STAATS= EIGENTHUM Identified from Bibliotheksstempel (Berlin, 1998) p. 64, no. 1 | Mendham Collection, Canterbury Cathedral Library. Title page | David Shaw | This stamp was put on books from libraries of secularised religious houses in the Dillingen area c.1830 before their incorporation in the Studienbibliothek Dillingen or disposal as duplicates. Identified by Chris Coppens via the Provenienz discussion list. |
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7 December 2008 | ||||
armorial binding stamp of a (French?) cardinal. | Canterbury Cathedral | David Shaw | Cardinal Charles-Maurice Le Tellier (1671-1710) (information from Nicolas Malais) Four examples in red morocco (British Library) |
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7 December 2008 | 30 December 2008 | |||
armorial book stamp (Welsh?) | Canterbury Cathedral | David Shaw | Philip Oldfield identifies this as the arms of the city of Rotterdam. “Dutch arms appear frequently on prize books bound in vellum.” Same stamp in St John's College, Cambridge. |
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We can display your query here. | David Shaw |