Seventeenth-Century Book Labels

The terms “book label” and “bookplate” are often used interchangeably to describe ex libris (labels inside books), but the terms have slightly different meanings. Whereas bookplates are usually engraved and ornately embellished, book labels are more utilitarian than decorative. With simple designs and modest borders made from pieces of ornamental type, these austere labels included the book owner’s name, sometimes a date, and language clarifying ownership. AAS preserves fifteen of the twenty-seven known book labels printed in the American colonies before 1701.

The labels described in the gallery below include references to Elizabeth Caroll Reilly’s A Dictionary of Colonial American Printers' Ornaments and Illustrations to identify the printer who made each label.