Open Collections

[Bookplate for James M. Wishart by Leslie Victor Smith]

1940

1 bookplate : intaglio printing ; 8.7 x 12.1 cm

Canada

Prints

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Owner was Dr. James 'Jim' Melrose Wishart (c. 1917-2005), M.D., F.R.C.P.S. Wishart graduated from the University of Toronto's medical school in 1943 and was an anaesthetist at hospitals in Peterborough, ON, for over 45 years. During WWII, Wishart served as a Major in the Canadian Army Medical Corp until 1945. According to an obituary in The Globe and Mail, Wishart was also 'a generous patron of the arts in Peterborough, an avid bird watcher and prolific rug hooker.' Wishart died on September 7, 2005 at Peterborough Regional Health Centre at the age of 88 leaving behind three children and ten grandchildren, having predeceased his wife of over 60 years, Evelyn Mossop Wishart. The bookplate design is by Leslie Victor Smith (1880-1952). A painter, printmaker, and watercolorist, Smith studied at what is now known as the Ontario College of Art and Design and later in London at St. John's Wood School of Art. During his life, his artworks were exhibited at the Royal Canadian Academy, the Ontario Society of Artists, the Montreal Art Association, the Canadian National Exhibition, and the Canadian Society of Graphic Arts. The 1947 book The Bookplates of Leslie Victor Smith notes that Smith's 'conceptions of design are fresh and individual, his lines clear, sensitive and precise, and the impression consequently clean and sharp and brilliant'.Whether heraldic or pictorial [the bookplates] are significant of the owner's tastes and preoccupations and richly suggestive intellectually, humanistically and esthetically.' A copy of this ex libris is also available in the Philippe Masson Ex Libris Collection at McGill University.
References:
1) Artists in Canada. (2008). Smith, Leslie Victor. Retrieved April 4, 2012, from http://www.pro.rcip-chin.gc.ca/bd-dl/aac-aic-eng.jsp?emu=en.aich:/Proxapp/ws/aich/user/wwwe/Record&upp=0&m=1&w=NATIVE%28%27ARTIST+ph+words+%27%27Leslie+victor+smith%27%27%27%29&order=native%28%27every+AR%27%29
2) Canadian Medical Association. (2006). Deaths. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 174(1), 127.
3) Colgate, W. (1947). The bookplates of Leslie Victor Smith. Weston, ON: Old Rectory Press.
4) GlobeLife: Deaths. (2012). WISHART, Dr. James (Jim) Melrose M.D., F.R.C.P.S. Retrieved April 4, 2012, from http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/Deaths.20050909.92998552/BDAStory/BDA/deaths
5) In Memoriam: Lives Well Lived. (2005). MAA Matters: University of Toronto Medical Alumni Association Magazine, 18
6) The Philippe Masson Ex Libris Collection at McGill University, from http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/bookplates/

RBSC Bookplates

2012

Images provided for research and reference use only. Permission to publish, copy, or otherwise use these images must be obtained from Rare Books and Special Collections: http://rbsc.library.ubc.ca

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