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Showing posts with the label trade stamps

The Sin-Eater's Hallowe'en

To get any sort of information out of me you have to suffer the ignominy of ME. Which means you get the process with the product. I can't help it. This is why I can never get anything done! While I was on my Halloween kick (I'm not off it yet!) I requested a copy of this book The Sin-Eater's Hallowe'en by Francis Nielson from MELCat despite the bad reviews it received as a foolhardy polemic. Which was politics, at the time (1924), just as it is now and in time immemorial. Clee-shay (That's phonetics, not some haughty word to guess at)! So I requested it to scan for posterity's sake because I feel like that's my job since universities and institutions are corrupt and tyrannical. As soon as I received the book I noticed the two ex-libris bookplates and knew there was a reason for my request. Things will pursue you when you pursue them. Just don't do it with people. Run away as fast you can and you might be saved from them and yourself. But I digress. Be...

The Sign of the Mermaid Trade Stamp & The Ex-Libris Bookplate of Elsie and Dick Thomas

Bear with me on this post because I'm indulging in one of my obsessions that doesn't really pertain to Nankin but does concern the Detroit area. John King Books, like most reputable book stores, has free book racks in the atrium of their colossal warehouse. After I purchased my ephemera I partook of the offer to take as many free books as I wished. Within the books The King's Minion by Rafael Sabatini (1930) and Treading the Winepress by Ralph Connor (1925) was the book trade label "The Sign of the Mermaid".  Intrigued, I did some research. It traces to a bookshop at 1014 E. Jefferson Avenue of Detroit. The bookstore by that same name opened on October 26, 1926 and was operated by Doris McMillan Pittman (later Hoover), granddaughter of Senator James McMillan, in the converted home of her late grandfather. Detroit Free Press , October 22, 1925 Detroit Free Press , January 21, 1934 The store relocated to 17925 Kercheval Avenue, in Grosse Pointe in 1938. Detroi...