I love dogs. Especially my dog. But I do love all dogs—whether real, painted, sculpted or photographed. I also love books. And I love sculpture. Thus, it will be no surprise, that bookends are a large and cherished part of the collection at LEO Design. Bookends tick many boxes for me.
The "Golden Age of American Bookends" flourished between the wars, in the Twenties and Thirties. This is the era in which art and good taste, combined with accelerating industrial mass production, resulted in the country's biggest and most-varied output of excellent bookends. Cast iron was the most common material employed. Solid bronze was used, to a lesser extent. Hollow cast spelter (white metal) was used sparingly (though it would experience a lift after World War II). And "bronze-clad" offerings were a popular, "high-end" alternative.
Although these bookends were, in truth, a mass production item, they were produced with a great degree of integrity. Most importantly, the best bookend foundries worked hard to get the original sculptural modeling (of each new design) just right. The foundries hired excellent sculptors (and spent money and time) to properly craft their original models (usually in wax or clay). These companies realized, and rightly so, that if they were going to produce several thousand units of one particular model, they should be certain that they sweated-the-details at this initial point. It costs the same to produce one thousand poorly-sculpted bookends as it does to produce one thousand beautifully-sculpted bookends. This "excellence mindset" was common (at that time): design it well, produce it in abundance, and profit from the resulting economies of scale. In a different industry, Heinz and Coca-Cola spent extra time and money designing their perfect bottles, when any generic bottle would have sufficed. But, knowing that they would be producing billions of such bottles in the future, they had the foresight to spend the money and do it right at the beginning.
Why were the Twenties and Thirties the Golden Age of bookends? Most importantly, it was because the early Twentieth Century witnessed an enormous expansion of the American Middle Class—people who could afford to collect books. In the Nineteenth Century (and before that), large book collections were a luxury, strictly the privilege of the aristocrat. Working people (who formed the bulk of Pre-Industrial populations) might own only a handful of books—a Bible, a cookbook, perhaps some poetry. A tiny merchant class might aspire to a small library. But the mass-production of bookends was not, yet, necessary. The Twenties and Thirties marked the confluence of increased book collecting and the economy of increasing mass-production.
Were bookends made before the Twenties? Yes, of course. But they would probably have been produced on a smaller, more artisanal scale. Wealthy aristocrats had libraries—rooms with bookcases—to hold their books. Bookends would have been less useful where vast collections of books filled the bookcases, end-to-end.
This pair of cast iron bookends was made in New York City in the Twenties. The sculptor captured the taut energy and quizzical attitude of a curious terrier pup. The artist also delivered a tremendous sense of three-dimension in the dog, considering how very little depth he had to work with. The cast iron was finished with a bronze patina, lightly highlighted with a touch of verdigris. Click on the photo above to learn more about this handsome (and useful) pup.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
To arrange a visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only), please call 917-446-4248.