More Exlibris on Finn.no

It’s been a while since I last updated you on exlibris in books on Finn.no, THE Norwegian second-hand market app.

Lists and Favourites

I mentioned before that I have an ongoing search for certain exlibris-related terms, and there’s almost daily something popping up, and rarely is it actually exlibris stuff. The ads are mostly from antiquarian booksellers operating from Finn.no and pushing hundreds of themed books per ad, with all titles and publishers mentioned in the description. And it’s usually Exlibris publishing house (not active anymore) which triggers the search.

Sometimes it’s the mention of exlibris mounted somewhere in the book that is sold, but again, this is not data for me as I cannot see the exlibris; and its owner and creator aren’t mentioned either.

Which leaves us with the last, and rarest, hits: the ones where an exlibris is not only mentioned but also documented with one or more photos. Only these go in my “list” of favourites, where I track them (sometimes the books get sold, but there’s an immense backlog of old finn.no ads with the pictures and descriptions still intact).

I add the links to the ads and reference photos to my Zotero library and my Tropy project. Very, very rarely I consider buying a book just for the exlibris in it, but that happens only once in a blue moon…

My list of favourites has 92 ads; here are some examples from my latest finds.

A Christogram Exlibris

In the book Eldjarstad by Barbra Ring from 1931 (Aschehoug publishing house), the exlibris for Hanna Hansen is mounted. Her exlibris also appears in these books from the same seller on Finn.no: Odd Hølaas Nederst ved Bordet (1936; Gyldendal) and Ronald Fangen Om Frihet og Andre essays (1947; Gyldendal).

The exlibris, which prominently features the Chi-Rho ☧ Christogram and the Alpha ɑ and Omega ω symbols next to it, in front of a row of books on a simple shelf, has strong Christian symbolism, which we do not often see in mid-20th-century Norwegian exlibris. Perhaps Hanna Hansen was very devout?

Her exlibris is not listed in the 1974 Norwegian Exlibris Catalogue, which might mean that the exlibris is much younger – or that it was just not known to the catalogue’s editor, Thor Bjørn Schyberg and the Oslo-based collectors and enthusiasts who would eventually form the Norwegian Exlibris Society (1945–1961).

A Couple’s Exlibris

This couple’s exlibris is mounted in a 1917 book, Halvard Torgersen’s Asker, with a bold, daunting title illustration by Otto Vastind. Berg Lions Club, which sells quite a few nice antiquarian books (if you’re into that kind of stuff), has had a few books from the Heber’s collection; I have seen this exlibris before. It may not be the most artistic one, but it is endearing: the couple walking together along endless bookshelves towards a world globe.

A Mermaid Exlibris

Another seller has the two-volume book Norges Håndverkere (Norway’s Craftspeople) by Victor Prydz from 1938 for sale, and both volumes carry the small exlibris for Erik Spæren, featuring a mermaid holding a flag with the letter S.

Candlelight

We go on with an exlibris for Aksel Sævik in the Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Ancient Monuments yearbook from 1980. The exlibris has another common motif: the candle (light) and the open book.

Interestingly, this exlibris carries a handwritten number in the upper right corner, 3335. I have seen numbers written on exlibris before, and they often indicate a running number counting the books in the collection. Should we assume this book was no. 3335 in Aksel Sævik’s collection? That’s quite an impressive number of books!

Another Yearbook, Another Exlibris

In the yearbook for the Norwegian Tourist Association DNT from 1924, we find the exlibris for Arne Kaarø, signed “meum” (mine).

Featuring a landscape and hunting motif, one of the more common motifs in Norwegian mid-century exlibris, it fits well with the theme of the yearbook. Kaarø’s exlibris isn’t listed in the Norwegian Exlibris Catalogue either.

Stamp It

An interesting example of a stamp exlibris can be found in the book Under en hårdere himmel (Beneath a Harsher Sky) by Jens Bjørneboe, published with Cappelen in 1957. The book is beautifully and boldly bound in a blue and red half-cloth; the exlibris doesn’t really match the vibe.

The rather simplistic stamp is elliptical, with ornamentation around four lines of text. The book – and stamp – owner is Rolf Røstal from the Berge area in Søgne, near Kristiansand in Southern Norway. I wonder what the very long number 10051744301 means.

Do It Yourself

In an art book from 1964, we can see an example of a homemade exlibris. H. M. Gram’s heraldic exlibris, perhaps a photocopy of an original exlibris printed from a drawing via cliché. The exlibris is mounted in Dr Traudel Seifert’s De skjønneste kunstskatter (The finest art treasures), the Norwegian translation of a German book. The Berg Lions Club also sells this book; they almost always include photos of exlibris in the books they sell online.

Tempus Fugit

The last exlibris for today’s post is mounted in the Norwegian translation of Erich Maria Remarque’s Flotsam (Du skal elske din neste), published in 1948. According to the ad, the exlibris belongs to the Norwegian book collector Hans Christian Wennevold. It shows the Milky Way and planet Earth, with an owl sitting on a winged hourglass (time flies) below. Wennevold’s exlibris isn’t listed in the Catalogue either.

There’s plenty more where these come from!

Into the Unknown

The main takeaway from collecting exlibris data from Finn.no is that many of the ones documented there are not documented anywhere else, especially not in the Norwegian Exlibris Catalogue. Which is odd, I think. The Catalogue lists 8.500 Norwegian exlibris, most of which were created during the 1940s, when Nazi Germany occupied Norway.

Thor Bjørn Schyberg, perhaps the most knowledgeable collector of contemporary Norwegian exlibris estimated about 10.000 exlibris up until the early 1970s; that’s when exlibris making and trading had vanished almost completely. There are still some newer ones here and there, but exlibris are no longer the everyday commodity they were during the mid-century.

Keep an eye open when you go book hunting in antiquarian book shops or at flea markets: you might find a nice exlibris that makes buying the book worthwhile!

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