Month: July 2012

Paul Elder “Postage Stamps”

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The eight known Paul Elder bookseller stamps

Pick up a book that was sold at Paul Elder’s bookshop, and open to the inside back cover. Quite often, in the lower-left corner, you will find—for want of a better term—a “postage stamp.” The size of an actual postage stamp and moistened in the same manner, they were affixed to all books sold in the shop, not just Elder’s own publications. The practice seems to have been far from universal, though, because it’s common to find Elders without stamps in the back. The stamps were probably affixed by the salesman while wrapping up the book. 

The earliest known stamp (A) dates from 1899, before Elder and Shepard began to use the tomoye. At this time, Elder was still calling himself “D. P. Elder.” The significance to Elder & Shepard of the seahorse-and-arrow design is unknown, but an interesting variant appears on the title page of Charles Ferguson’s Religion of Democracy, checklist #258. A seahorse appears over a vertical arrow, but with a village scene in the background and the motto “Maturandum” printed above. Literally, maturandum is Latin neuter singular gerundive of maturo and means for “that which is to be matured,” or “something requiring haste or maturing,” but is often coloquially rendered as “carefully” or “cautiously.”

Seahorse-and-arrow design on the title page of The Religion of Democracy

The image may ultimately derive from Emblematum liber, a book of emblems published in Augsburg, Germany in 1531. Here a mollusc is shown on a flying arrow with the text:

Maturare iubent propere et cunctarier omnes
Ne nimium praeceps neu mora longa nimis
Hoc tibi declaret connexum echneide telum
Haec tarda est, volitant spicula missa manu.

…which translates as: “Everyone tells us to deal with things quickly, but they also tell us to hold back – not to be impetuous, nor yet to wait too long. A missile linked with a sucking-fish can demonstrate this for you: the fish is slow, but arrows fly fast when they leave the shooter’s hand.”

Page C6 verso of Emblematum liber, with a seashell on a flying arrow

In any case, the seahorse-on-arrow era did not last very long. Elder and Shepard switched to the tomoye design in February 1900, principally on the title pages of their books and Impressions magazine. The earliest known example of the first tomoye stamp (B) is from 1901. 

Stamp C dates from 1902, when Elder began calling himself “Paul Elder.” This stamp was discovered in 2023 and is known from just this one example.

The San Francisco stamp had two variants, which I’m calling D1 and D2. I have seen only one example of D1 and assume therefore that it is the earlier of the two. The Santa Barbara branch bookstore (E) also had its own stamp. It’s possible, though unlikely, that the New York store had had a stamp, as one has never been found.

Stamp F, featuring a tomoye surrounded by delicate tracery, had the longest lifespan; it has been seen as early as 1911 and as late as 1946.

Page C7 recto of Emblematum liber, with the accompanying text to the emblem at top

By the 1950s, much had changed. Paul Sr. died in 1948, and Paul Jr. moved the bookstore to the corner of Sutter & Stockton. The company now used self-adhesive stickers (G) with a decidedly modern look to match the decidedly modern store.

Updated 2026-03-27

Animal Analogues

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Animal Analogues cover
Cover of Animal Analogues

If you liked How To Tell the Birds From the Flowers, then you’ll love Animal Analogues. That’s what Paul Elder thought too, and so in 1908 he published Robert Williams Wood’s sequel to similar acclaim. As any author can tell you, sequels are notoriously difficult to write, but Wood pulled it off, with poetry and drawings to delight old and young alike.

The cover says “Denatured Series No. 24”, but this is a joke, as was the “Nature Series No. 23” on the cover of How To Tell the Birds From the Flowers. Wood wrote no further books in this series.

Updated 2026-01-18

Animal Analogues title
Title page of Animal Analogues

Animal Analogues p10
Pages 10-11 of Animal Analogues

Animal Analogues p14
Pages 14-15 of Animal Analogues

Animal Analogues p20
Pages 20-21 of Animal Analogues

Animal Analogues p28
Page 28 of Animal Analogues

How To Tell the Birds From the Flowers

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How to Tell Birds cover
Cover of How To Tell the Birds From the Flowers

As with animated cartoons, the best children’s books are ones that satisfy both the children and the adults. Paul Elder published a number of innovative children’s books, but perhaps the most delightful is How To Tell the Birds From the Flowers by Robert Williams Wood, which appeared in 1907.

There is no traditional typesetting in the book; everything was drawn and lettered by Wood. Each page contains drawings of a bird (for example, the catbird) and a flower (the catnip), plus an amusing poem on how to distinguish them. It’s a perfect bedtime storybook.

The California quail is said
To have a tail upon his head,
While contrary-wise we style the Kale,
A cabbage head upon a tail.
It is not hard to tell the two,
The Quail commences with a queue.

How to Tell Birds alt cover
Alternate binding of How To Tell the Birds From the Flowers

Robert Williams Wood (1868-1955) was a professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University from 1901 until his death. He specialized in optics and was a pioneer in both infrared and ultraviolet photography. In 1903, Wood invented an optical filter glass which allows ultraviolet and infrared light and pass through, but blocks most visible light. He used this special glass to make a device called a “Wood’s lamp,” for use in dermatology to diagnose certain skin conditions which fluoresce under ultraviolet light. Today we call these lamps “black lights,” though because of technology improvements black lights now use different filter materials in the glass. Wood also published many papers on spectroscopy, phosphorescence, and diffraction.

How to Tell Birds title
Title page of How To Tell the Birds From the Flowers

Although the cover says “Nature Series No. 23”, that name was concocted for this book and there are no earlier titles. Wood subtitled his 1908 sequel Animal Analogues as “Denatured Series No. 24.”

Instead, Wood co-wrote two prescient science fiction books with Arthur Cheney Train. The first, The Man Who Rocked the Earth (1915), is known for describing the effects of an atomic explosion thirty years before the first atomic bomb was created. Its sequel, The Moon Maker (1916), describes interplanetary space travel, including a plan to send a spaceship to destroy an asteroid that’s on a collision course with Earth.

Update, April 2017: In 1917, Dodd, Mead and Company copyrighted a new edition entitled “How To Tell The Birds From The Flowers, and Other Wood-cuts.” Your editor has seen a 19th edition of this title from 1939, so it was clearly a very popular title for Dodd Mead. Paul Elder was still publishing his own books in 1917, so it seems he either lost, or more likely sold, the publishing rights.

Updated 2026-01-18

How to Tell Birds p16
Page 16-17 of How To Tell the Birds From the Flowers

How to Tell Birds p20
Page 20-21 of How To Tell the Birds From the Flowers

How to Tell Birds p28
Page 28 of How To Tell the Birds From the Flowers