A BIT OF HIS-STORY ABOUT BOOKMARKS

Bookmarks or bookmarkers as they are sometimes called have been used for hundreds perhaps thousands of years to mark the place of a reader.

One can imagine the Scribes of ancient times inserting a straw or strip of papyrus in one of the sacred scrolls to mark a point of reference as he rolled the scroll to another point.

Certainly it would be necessary to use a material of gentle character to mark a place in the hand written and illuminated manuscripts produced in the medieval scriptoria. Soft parchment, vellum or silken ribbons would have been preferred to protect the text and images.

One can speculate that paper, cardstock and leather may have followed as readily available materials for making markers for books. 

It was much later when books were printed in volume that  heavier more rigid materials such as wood, plastic and metals came into use as bookmarks.

RIBBON STYLE BOOKMARK

This style of bookmark comes in a variety of types. These may be plain strips of silk or other fabric, handpainted or printed, enclosed in lace tating or woven with various images or text. Their soft pliable nature has little effect on the paper and aids in holding them in place within the pages of the book. Thin, soft leather bookmarks are included in this group. [See some examples]

RIBBON BOOKMARKS WITH ATTACHMENTS

 Some ribbon bookmarks have attached tassels, decorative items  or other symbolic objects. Within this group are multiple ribbons attached to a single headpiece. [See some examples]

 PAPER, CARDSTOCK, CARDBOARD AND PLASTIC STRIPS

This is the most abundant of all bookmarks to be found and the size may vary greatly. One half inch wide up to three inches wide are common. The length will vary from about four inches up to eight inches or even more. The decoration may be very simple to very artistic and may carry a variety of advertisments or messages.[See some examples]

PAPER, CARDSTOCK, CARDBOARD AND PLASTIC STRIPS WITH PAGE CLIPS

There is a variation on the simple strip that one may miss and that is a simple vee cut or simicircular slit near the top of the strip intended to slip over the top of the page to hold the bookmarker in place. This is a useful innovation that has prevented the frustration of lost bookmarks.

On the heavier cardstock and plastic the page clip may be a more obvious inovation with a portion of the area cutout to form a heart or other shape. [See some examples]

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