Ex libris van László Milch 1935

Kornél Révész created this bookplate for László Milch using etching. Bookplates, or ‘ex libris’, served as a mark of ownership, but also as a display of personal identity. The central image in this etching is a large shield, marked with a bold ‘B’, which might be a reference to the owner’s family name. A figure of a nude woman holding a lamp sits atop the shield, while a young boy sits to the side, engrossed in a book. This work was created in Hungary. It is a product of a time when printed materials were becoming increasingly accessible to the rising middle classes. Bookplates allowed individuals to assert their status and cultural capital through customized designs that reflected their tastes and interests. To fully understand bookplates like this, we need to consider the changing social value of books and reading, the rise of print culture, and the institutional history of libraries and private collections.