Vintage Bookplates at the State Library Victoria

A few months ago I was in Melbourne for a short holiday and thought I'd make the best use of my time by seeing the bookplate/ex libris collection held at the State Library Victoria (SLV)! Specifically I wanted to see the Margaret Ely Webb bookplates held there - it might just be the only publicly accessible collection for Webb's bookplates in Australia. Previously I've made a checklist of her bookplates here and wondered if the collection at SLV would have any that I hadn't seen before.

The bookplates had to be in their archival sleeves so I was battling the overhead light/glare. The SLV had a collection of 15 bookplates and a lot of them I had seen before except I hadn't seen the above colouring for the Billy bookplate!

If you're wondering how you can see this for yourself, or other bookplates in the SLV, all you have to do is sign up for a library membership (free, even if you don't live in the state). In the digital catalogue of whichever bookplate/s you'd like to see, under Location it will have a phone number or details on how you can arrange to see it. For Webb's bookplates I had to call up 2 days beforehand to reserve them and also reserve a time to see it. You have a 3 hour window either in the morning or afternoon and you can come in within anytime of that window. I'm sure this would be similar to other state library collections so I would highly encourage you to seek these out!