2. How did you start collecting bookmarks?  Do you remember your first bookmark?

That’s one of the most difficult questions 😉. I have never really been sure when the first one appeared. In fact, these passions have been with me for as long as I can remember. For about 20 years, I have been collecting different random things that I simply liked. I had similar objects in my childhood or remembered them from my grandparents’ shelves and drawers. Over the years, I collected medals, decorations, fossils, stamps, coins, sugar cubes, Kinder toys, postcards, and many other things.

While working at school, I tried to encourage children and teenagers to develop interests and also involve their parents or grandparents in cooperation. That is why I created a series of meetings called “Share Your Passion.” Together with invited guests, I presented most of my collections at school for people who were interested or still searching for their own hobbies. At that time, I realized that you cannot collect everything, and bookmarks take up “little” space. There were so many beautiful ones that I decided to start collecting them seriously. That was about 10 years ago, and at that time I already had around one thousand bookmarks.

As for the very first bookmark, I honestly have no idea. There were always a few or even dozens at the same time, and every single one of them seemed unique and beautiful.

3. Do you have any favorite types or special emphasis in your collection?

My collection includes many different types of bookmarks. I collected everything — and I think it will probably stay that way. However, I especially like nature-themed and travel bookmarks. I also enjoy bookmarks from museums. Nowadays, I try to collect historical pieces in order to preserve them from being forgotten.

4. What is the most unusual bookmark in your collection?
This is probably the oldest Polish bookmark currently in my collection, which I acquired together with a letter from the 1920s. It is unique because it carries a message about respecting books.

5. How do you acquire your bookmarks

Many of my friends already know about my hobby, and they often bring me bookmarks from their holiday trips. I also cooperate with many institutions that regularly provide me with new or historical bookmarks (unfortunately mostly modern ones, but still equally valuable). I buy commercial bookmarks directly from producers. I also visit the biggest book fairs in Poland, where I can find even more bookmarks for my collection. Duplicate bookmarks are used for international exchanges. I also buy bookmarks on eBay, Vinted, and Allegro in Poland.

6. How many bookmarks do you have (an estimate)?

At the moment, I have stopped counting because I am reorganizing the entire collection, but I estimate that it contains more than 40,000 bookmarks.

7. How do you organize, display and store your collection?

I store the bookmarks in binders, in special sleeves designed for banknotes. Unfortunately, many of them are still kept in cardboard boxes, where they are already sorted into sleeves by publishers or types.

8. What has been your experience in using the IFOB Swap List, if any?

Thanks to the lists from iFOB, I was able to obtain many beautiful bookmarks from different parts of the world. However, I was invited to participate in exchanges only a few times. Most of the exchanges were initiated by me. This is an additional advantage of collecting and having hobbies — contact with other people.

9. What do you enjoy about IFOB?  Is there anything you would like to see IFOB do in the future?

Contact with people who share similar interests, the knowledge I can gain through conversations with collectors from different countries, interesting articles, and seeing the same object from completely different perspectives. And I think also the fact that IFOB has given bookmarks and the people who collect them a new meaning.

11. Do you collect anything else?

As I mentioned earlier, I used to collect many different things, but at the moment I am moving away from that. I am able to present over 30 different collections. Among the larger and more interesting ones are sugar cubes (4,000 pieces), Kinder toys (3,500 pieces), military and civilian badges (over 2,000 pieces), and cinema lobby cards/postcards from films (collected for 20 years, over 6,000 pieces).

13. Do you have any advice for those who are just beginning to collect?

Sometimes it’s worth listening to the advice of people who already know something about it, so don’t ask me — I’m still learning all the time 😉

14. As a winner of the Asim Maner Award, tell us more about what you have done to promote bookmarks for World Bookmark Day or in general.

The most important thing was founding the Bookmarks Museum and honoring Asim by naming the museum after him.

10. Do you have any plans to celebrate World Bookmark Day next time?

I have many plans. I will certainly continue organizing exhibitions related to the history of bookmarks in new places and promoting the Bookmarks Museum.

​The Bookmark Gala will also continue, and I hope it will include greater participation from my exchange friends. I would like to encourage Polish artists to send bookmarks to WOBODA. Perhaps it would also be possible to organize a scientific conference for people from different parts of the world, combined with a large exhibition of bookmarks. But for now, these are just loose ideas.

D: I'm 70 years old and from Catalonia, currently retired. Montse is my partner.

M: I'm from Catalonia, an Autonomous Community of Spain. My city is small with just under 70,000 inhabitants. It's called Girona and has a lot of history. We have it all: to the east, the Mediterranean Sea with a beautiful coastline called the Costa Brava, and to the north, the Pyrenees mountain range that separates us from France.
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I'm 67 years old and currently retired, but I've dedicated many years to extracurricular education. I'm an outdoor activities director, a children's sports coach, and a basketball coach, among other things...

D: I especially like the early 20th-century Art Nouveau or Modernist bookmarks.

M: I have several favorites in the collection, but one is very simple. It was made to raise money for the Sarajevo library, which was destroyed during the Bosnian War.

This one is also a religious bookmark that was probably made as a complement to the book, Volume II of the Letters of Saint Teresa of Avila, according to what can be read on the bookmark. We can date it to 1752.

D. & M: Yes, we've had several contacts with collectors on the IFOB list, but we've always been the ones who contacted them to arrange exchanges. Some have been and continue to be very positive, but with others we've only done one exchange. We like to have bookmarks from all over the world, but since we have so many, we prefer specific themes from a specific country, which are sometimes difficult to find.

D: I especially like the articles on the history of bookmarks, as it's a topic I research and am passionate about.

M: I like that IFOB promotes bookmarks worldwide.
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I would like them to encourage collectors to make duplicate albums so they can make more equitable exchanges. We don't mind the 1-for-1, but we do care about knowing what we're getting in return.

D.& M: Yes, we'll continue asking friends to make a bookmark for this day. We'll try to hold an exhibition at a library or community center. Of course, we'll hold a mega-meeting where we'll give away bookmarks, and we'll hold a talk at a library or school with young people.

D.& M: We'd like to say that collecting has helped us make many friends. To begin with, we met through collecting bookmarks at a difficult time in our lives. We've had great friends who are no longer with us, but we still remember them fondly, and we have many others with whom we remain in touch. We always say we're a big family and we help each other. The exchanges allow us to stay in touch physically and enjoy a good day, since we almost always end them with a good meal.

D: Don't get overwhelmed and choose a main topic. Also, know that collecting is about sharing knowledge and friendship.
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M: I'm not much for giving advice, since now when I see someone starting to collect, they do the same thing I did when I started: grab everything that came my way, regardless of the topic. I think it would be better to start with the topics you like the most, but I'm aware that there are so many attractive (I don't like to say pretty) bookmarks that you can't refuse.

2. How did you start collecting bookmarks?  Do you remember your first bookmark?

​I started collecting bookmarks in 1974, when we were first married and started to travel together.  We had little money and leather bookmarks were a cheap but pleasant souvenir of the places we visited.  I was working as a clerk in a local history museum at the time and instigated a set of bookmarks linked to the museum, which became very popular.  

We started to look in charity and second hand shops to widen the collection and that was where I found the first Stevengraphs of my collection.  I thought it was particularly beautiful and also had a young son called Steven.  Eventually, when we both had better jobs, these were the type of bookmarks that I looked for, but continued to collect, and be given, lots of other types.  In one job lot I found two memorial bookmarks which started me on another part of the collection, along with sets from Scottish Widows, local Weymouth ones and old advertising ones (these last two because of my job at the museum).'  ​

Thomas Stevens also went to the United States of America and I have found quite a few American ones.  An example is the one with the Star Spangled Banner.  When you think that the loom was using hole punched cards for each detail and look at the music on this one, it must have taken the designers a long time to set up the loom for each design.  There are hundreds of designs for Stevens' company.  ​

I have used the Stevengraph silks site and have contributed examples that were not previously photographed.  I also used the site to download information pages about bookmarks that I have to add to my knowledge.  
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The Stevengraph Collectors also deal with his pictures, and postcards.  I have one or two examples of these, but I have not used the site a great deal.  I always look through the Bookmark Collectors quarterly magazine and have contributed to that twice.  

Note: Stevengraph Silks is a site illustrating bookmark designs by Stevens and other weavers; Stevengraphs and the Stevengraph Collectors Association also has information and examples on bookmarks. 

5. How do you acquire your bookmarks?

Most of my bookmarks are now acquired online on sites such as eBay.  Sometimes friends and family find them and give them to me.​

7. How do you organize, display and store your collection?

The collection is in plastic folders and then in ring binders.

8. What do you enjoy about IFOB?  Anything you would like to see IFOB do in the future?

I just like browsing other people's collections and interests.  It is always good to know that there are others out there with similar interests.  My family think I am barmy!

9. What did you do to celebrate World Bookmark Day this year? Any plans for next year?

I plan to try Zoom again and perhaps get a few more folk involved.  There were only four of us last year.  Easier for me than travelling.  I don't like driving.​

10. Anything else you would like to share?

I belong to the UK Bookmark Society which I find very interesting.  

I also give talks to local groups about bookmarks which is why I have kept lots of other types as examples to pass around. ​To lighten the mood a little (as I try to do when I preach in church or give talks) when I start a bookmark talk I usually start with a rubber banana!  I have lots of examples of different materials but this one always gets a laugh!  I also tell the story that a local librarian told me.  They always give books a shake before putting them back on the shelf and the most unusual one she ever discovered was a dry rasher of bacon!  Not recommended as it tends to spoil the page somewhat.

11. Do you have any advice for those who are just beginning to collect bookmarks?

Advice, find bookmarks that you really like to look at, otherwise they are just filed away.  Keep them out of the light.  Only buy what you can afford.  Stevengraphs range from about £10 to £100s.  It can become an expensive habit if you just buy everything.​

Editor's Note: Gintautas is interested in using bookmarks to educate about the history of his country, Lithuania.  These brief posts will showcase interesting facts and events as conveyed on bookmarks.  

In order to introduce the culture of the Republic of Lithuania in more detail, let me present a collection of bookmarks about Mykalojus Kosntantinas Čiurlionis, regarded as the most famous Lithuanian painter and composer who ever lived. Having started his career as a composer (among his best-known musical works are the symphonic poems "Miške" and "Jūra"), at the age of 27 (1902) he entered the Warsaw School of Drawing and began to actively paint. Among the more than 200 completed paintings, some of the most famous are "The Tale (The Tale of the Kings)" (1909), "Rex" (1909), "Sonata No. 5 (Sea Sonata)' (1908).

Ninety years ago, in 1933. Lithuanian pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas decided to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Flying from New York to Kaunas in an orange plane, which they named "Lituanica", they wanted to encourage Lithuanians for future journeys. Even though the plane did not reach the final destination of the flight, these planes and their mission remained in memory as one of the brightest symbols of a united nation.

Meet: two bookmarks and the Lithuanian award marking the importance of this panel.

Below is a collection of works given to me by my colleague, vocational teacher Rūta Urbelienė and her students.

While actively communicating (conducting training) with audiences of various profiles, I also constantly present bookmarks as permanent inseparable friends to the validity of the analyzed topic, giving them new definitions.

Therefore, this small collection, reflecting the traditions of linen production, is an integral part of Lithuania's national heritage. Linen products belong to the category of Lithuanian traditional crafts and perfectly represent their country.

- Are there any bookmarks you have identified (e.g., from a catalog) but haven't yet acquired?

There are a few from the 1888 Gorham catalog that I would still like to acquire but they are very rare and don’t come up for purchase very often. I am always on the lookout for them.

- Since you specialize in those made by Gorham, have you ever tried to contact the company for information or just to let them know about your collection? 

I have never contacted Gorham. I didn’t think they were still in business, but they are. They are now owned by the Lenox Corp.

- Your website and the CW interview show that you have done a lot of research about silver bookmarks in general and specifically for each one.  How did you learn where to research, and what do you usually do when you acquire a new bookmark?

Most of the information I get from a bookmark comes from the hallmark. I have several books on silver hallmarks and when I get a new one, I immediately look up the hallmark (if one exists). If there is no hallmark, or it is only marked sterling, I try to estimate its date and origin. I’ve seen so many I have a good feel for its age and origin.

- What reference source do you wish you had that doesn't yet exist?
​
I wish there was a source of all the old silversmith catalogs online in one place. I have reproduction copies of some old catalogs but if there were more of them it would make identifying them easier.

- The wooden cabinet you use to store your bookmarks is fantastic!  How are the bookmarks organized within it? Since you have so many, how can you find an individual bookmark?

I recently rearranged all of them (it took 3 days) to put them in numbered order. Each drawer now has a label of the range in number of the bookmarks and those are in that drawer. They may not be in exact order within the drawer, but it is close and if I need one I can go to the drawer that it is in and find it quickly.

​- Do you have any advice for those beginning to collect silver bookmarks?

Acquire what you like and if you can, haggle!

When actively reading scientific and fiction literature, I need a book accessory - a marker to mark the reading place. Having worked in the field of protocol for many years, I realized that a bookmark can also serve well as a souvenir. So I started to organize their production. Here is one of the first bookmarks:

While evaluating bookmarks of various nature and material structure, I focus more on those made of paper (and packaged).

​For exhibitions and presentations the most important principle is that I appreciate the bookmark. Some bookmarks leave room for their holistic development, development or perspective of the content provided, while others say nothing but coded information. I try to work with publishers who tend to print bookmarks that have a value base. I am still searching for reserves of perspective within myself. I really love life, unrequited but balanced, which I see in the bookmarks I select.

​I include the gifts of nature in this category, an example in the photo below:

Lately, I've been focusing my collections on quality along three parameters: bookmarks with regular value, bookmarks with special value, and bookmarks with personal value. According to this, the individual topics combine close to 3 thousand. bookmarks. I don't place a particular priority on the amount of bookmarks. I appreciate the holistic uniqueness of bookmarks. 

The personal bookmark basket stores bookmarks with normal value (institutions, advertising, organizations, etc.).
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Thematic bookmark collections are stored in binders (originals), but all bookmarks are digitized. It's a great gift to the audience.

I haven't accumulated enough bookmarks for the day yet to exchange. But this type of activity should be encouraged.

Several years of activity in the IFOB have highlighted community spirit. This, I think, is the strong and main form of club activity, chosen for sincere communication, uniting into one family on the principle of volunteerism, responding to everyone's strong and versatile activities and experiences. That is precious.

In addition to bookmarks, I collect historical postcards, but not as actively. But together with the bookmarks, they also serve during creative meetings.

​12. Do you have any advice for those who are just beginning to collect bookmarks?

First, it is necessary to realize that direct accumulation of bookmarks is not a prerequisite for collections, and secondly, it is necessary to love them.

In order to spread the creative process and share the result (Process Art), I would be happy to share my paintings by sending them to your exhibition in various countries around the world. My original works are presented in two formats: in frames and 3 mm panels (plastic).

Recently, I have been writing for many different creative meetings of audiences of various ranks, not only as a lecturer, but to a greater extent as a collector of bookmarks or the author of exhibitions about them. This is the collective result of all of us, including IFOB.

I'm currently on a creative sabbatical, during which I've committed to finishing an authored book about bookmarks.
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I am truly grateful.

My events are for my area. The most famous is "Poetry in blooming gardens" where we read poetry and play music while the 140-hectare apple orchard is in full bloom. 

​Since my work is related to books, bookmarks were always there. I don't remember the first one. Once I saw an advertisement for a girl's bookmark exhibition, and I thought that I also need to collect what I have.  I collected from all the books and a lot appeared in the drawers. That’s how the first exhibition was born.

I keep my regular bookmarks in binders, organized by country, in clear document pockets. I mark the contents with a special soldering iron so that the bookmarks do not fall on top of each other. In the binders, each part begins with notes. Unfortunately, it is difficult to see how I solder the places of the marks.  It's quite a big job, so there is still a big pile of marks received this year waiting for their order. And the handmade ones are still in the box. They are of very different shapes, made of different materials, so it is difficult to keep them in binders, and I often want to show them to others, so I haven't thought of another way to organize them yet. 

​This is a very good place for like-minded people to meet, that there is a list and we can find each other and who wants to exchange bookmarks. I do that too, but not very often.

​Kaunatava Library marks this day every year with events, educations, bookmark exhibitions. This year we held book mark workshops, I prepared an exhibition and presented a video of photos of book marks and covers that I drew called "Book Dress".

​Yes, quite by accident, little by little, souvenir hedgehogs started to "come" to the house, and that's how 484 of them accumulated in a few years. I even had to make a separate shelf for them. And it started quite unexpectedly - I got lost on a trip and the name hedgehog in the fog stuck, based on Sergej Kozlov's book "Hedgehog in the Fog". 

​Maybe if I just started collecting bookmarks now, I would choose one area according to the topic, production method, specialty or hobby. Bookmarks are endless and it can't end... how to set a limit or have a goal for how many to collect. After all, you can't have all the bookmarks in the world, but if you think you can, I will help you as much as I can!

I would like to be glad that I was able to get involved in joint activities and participate in IFOB events, sharing bookmarks with the whole world. Until then, I only collected on my own. Thanks to this page I got to know collectors not only from other countries, but also from my own country. Lithuania is a very small country, and I live in a small village in a small country, but now I am open to make my country known to the whole world through bookmarks.

Here is another example from my collection on the theme of States and Cities. 

And here is a personal bookmark from a banquet I hosted where the bookmark served as a guest card.

​A special interest in my bookmark collection is for those that serve the dual purpose of greeting cards.  As the greeting card industry developed, it was natural for similar themes and designs to be used for bookmarks.  By far, the most common occasion was Christmas bookmarks, often with a calendar for the new year included, with Easter and Valentine bookmarks following not far behind.  Halloween bookmarks, however, are rare.  Their scarcity reflects the relatively short period when Halloween greeting cards were produced.  The book The Romance of Greeting Cards, edited by  edited by James D. Chamberlain, University Press of Cambridge, 1956, devotes a very short chapter to Halloween cards, noting on p. 109:

​The earliest ones in my collection are undated but probably from the 1920s-1930s based on the design.

​Recently, I acquired a set of reproductions with graphics that appear to be from the same time period.  These examples are small and a bit fuzzy, but one has a verse as follows:

​Although more recent examples typically do not have verses or greetings, they do carry lively (or deadly?) graphics for the season. ​Some publishers feature Halloween related titles or images as well. 

The back of this bookmark has a place for children (or even adults) to record their Halloween activities, thereby increasing the chance that the bookmark will be saved.

Of course, nowadays it is easy to find Halloween bookmarks.  They feature the usual themes of witches, ghosts, skeletons, jack-o-lanterns, cats, bats and scarecrows, as well as literary and movie themes.  It is possible to find those with vintage graphics, and even a few with actual greetings, although they mostly just have a wish for a Happy Halloween.

​Anyone can make clever bookmarks with some stiff colored paper (or even old file folders) adorned with stamps and stickers, as these from an office party with the theme “Spooky Books” illustrate.

​Sending Halloween bookmarks as greeting cards is a practice that will probably not be resurrected.  They still can be used for trick or treaters, parties, and decorations (one suggestion was to put them in potted plants).  However they are used, they will continue to  appeal to collectors who like to reflect the range of holidays and celebrations from this time of year.

I specially treasure those bookmarks with my favorite idols. One is the famous singer  Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing  and the other one is  the artist Andy Lau Tak Wah.   When I was still in secondary school, I couldn’t afford to buy many bookmarks and so I could only select two or three from the full set. It’s a pity that I can't collect a full set.   

11. Do you collect anything else?

I used to collect the McDonald’s Toys in the past, however, I didn’t collect them for long.  Puzzles is another good leisure game. It makes me relax and focus on solving puzzles.  But I didn’t collect much as there was limited space, so I only kept those with special designs and with high difficulties.

12. Do you have any advice for those who are just beginning to collect bookmarks?

I would say that when you start to collect bookmarks, record if there is any story about the bookmark, no matter if it's a gift from friends, a souvenir from a tour, or picked up from any exhibition or bookstore.  When there is a story embedded into the bookmark, it seems to grant them life. 

See "Bookmark Collection Notes": Today, why do we still need bookmarks?" from Orange News for more about Man's collection and a video where she shows more of her collection (text can be translated but not video).