Getting a Read on Bookmark Treasures

A recent inquiry from a Los Angeles free-lance writer into whether there were any other souls interested in collecting bookmarks brought us into contact with Ruth Zieke of Centerville, Iowa, who has more than 3,000 bookmarks in her collection.

“I started collecting bookmarks in 1977,” the retired high school teacher said in a recent telephone interview.

Unfortunately, she said, there don’t appear to be any clubs or newsletters for bookmark collectors.

A book on the subject, however, is “Collectors Bookmarkers,” a British publication (the British add an er to the word) by A. W. Coysh (1974, Drake Publishers, New York, indexed, $8.95), which may be out of print, Zieke said.

The book lists one of the oldest-known bookmarks of early 19th-Century vintage--a long, narrow bookmark of Italian origin discovered in an 18th-Century English volume.

“I have one like it,” Zieke said.

She said her two most unusual bookmarks are one made of braided human hair, and a tin bookmark displaying a tobacco ad with a person whose elbow can be raised, thus marking the page.

The “Rolls Royces” of bookmarks, she said, are the Stevengraph bookmarks, named after a British individual who fashioned them out of silk about a century ago.

Zieke said if anyone is interested in bookmark collectibles, she can be reached at 804 W. Maple St., Centerville, Iowa 52404.

Mailbag

On Sunday, the American Society of Camera Collectors will hold its Spring 1988 Used and Collectible Camera Show at Machinists Hall, 2600 W. Victory Blvd., Burbank.

“Collectors from all over the world will congregate on that date, searching for old wooden turn-of-the-century-type cameras as well as the more recent Leicas, Zeiss and other exotic equipment,” writes the society’s president, Gene Lester.

“With camera collecting growing by leaps and bounds, attendance at these shows has been increasing each year. At the last show more than 2,000 people came through the doors, many loaded down with cameras and photo gadgets that they found in their closets, cellars or attics, and some found ready buyers in the crowd.

“The most sought-after equipment is the subminiature camera, which takes half-frame 35mm and smaller pictures; also popular are the old-time motion picture cameras from the Silent Era.”

Show hours are 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $4, with $1 discount coupons available at many camera shops and photo labs. For further information, call (818) 769-6160.

Southern California collectors of tokens and medals are invited to attend a meeting of the California Assn. of Token Collectors on Saturday in the Mercury Room at Mercury Savings & Loan, 22939 Hawthorne Blvd., Torrance. Admission is free.

Tokens and medals may be brought in for free identification and evaluation, the sponsors say, adding that thousands of tokens will be on display and available for trade.

“What do we collect?” collector Stephen Alpert writes. “Most of us like those old reliable transportation tokens, but many are in love with trade tokens, particularly those of California.

“Then, of course, we have our share of medal collectors, vending-machine-token specialists, tax-token accumulators and devotees of foreign tokens.”

For further information on the meeting, call (213) 478-7405.