What happens when your reading is interrupted before you’ve finished? If you’re like me, you grab whatever is handy to mark your place. The result is a plethora of markers where you live and work. If a book or magazine is lucky, it has a real bookmark in it; otherwise, a paper scrap, piece of string, paper clip or something more inventive is recruited to service.
Recently, a woman I was in touch with because of my work on Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power, sent me a lovely handcrafted bookmark, part of a line she creates for sale in select stores. Her thoughtful gift, gracing the book currently on my nightstand, got me thinking about bookmarks.
Bookmarks of some sort must have been employed since ancient times when the written word was on scrolls that stretched 130 feet or more. Historians can date bookmarks back to medieval times when books were rare, extremely valuable and vulnerable to damage. Some of the earliest bookmarks, usually made of vellum or leather in various shapes (some quite inventive), date back to the 13th century, often used to hold the place in religious books. One would not dare lay a book on its spine or turn down the corner of a page.
The evolution of bookmarks mirrored advances in printing. In the 16th century, the most valuable books continued to be religious and the reader’s place was kept by “bookmarkers”. Accordingly, designs were exquisite, using valuable materials. The Royal Museum of Brunei displays an ivory bookmark that was made in India in the 16th century, embellished with a geometrical pattern of pierced holes, which was used in illuminated Korans. In 1584, the printer who held the sole rights to print the Bible in the British empire, presented Queen Elizabeth I with a fancy, fringed silk bookmark.
Taking their inspiration from the Queen’s bookmarks, books of the Edwardian and early Victorian eras commonly had narrow silk ribbons bound into them at the top of the spine, long enough to project just past the lower edge of the page.
Commercially-produced, machine-woven detachable bookmarks began to appear in the 1850s. Silk was a favorite material, frequently designed to celebrate special events. Young ladies in the Victorian age were taught embroidery, often showing their skill by producing elaborate bookmarks as gifts for relatives and friends.
As books became more widely available by the 1880s, bookmarks made of stiff paper saw a dramatic rise. Their popularity was helped by companies producing attractive bookmarks as promotional giveaways to advertise their brand. Specialized companies manufactured bookmarks of such diverse materials as gold, brass, bronze, copper, celluloid, pewter, mother of pearl, leather and ivory. Many were shaped like knives or swords, to be used as paper cutters because books in that period often contained many pages that were not completely separated.
Contemporary bookmarks continue to be made in all variety of materials (celluloid has been replaced by plastic) and are as popular as ever. They are such a fixture in our lives that even in the Internet era, we use the term “bookmark” to denote a page or location we want to easily refer back to.
Everyone can use and appreciate a bookmark. If you’re an author, consider giving people bookmarks that promote your books. If you’re looking for a gift that’s always the right fit, you can’t go wrong with a well-made bookmark. Mark my words!