Jellinek’s bookplate
An obsolete piece in the times of electronic publications, a bookplate was designed by an artist, usually on commission, to show ownership of a book. With a sketch, caption, or both relating to the owner, the bookplate or “ex libris” generally consists of an image followed by an inscription such as “from the books of…” or “from the library of…” the book's owner.
Discovered accidentally among a stack of unrelated documents in the Mark Keller Collection at the Center of Alcohol Studies Archives in 2012, this yellowing image encapsulates the mystery of E. M. Jellinek, an eccentric and globetrotting pioneer of alcohol science.
An unorthodox 4×5-inch ex libris marked with the initials E.M.J. features a perplexed ape contemplating a human skull while sitting on a book entitled “Darwin.”
The original sculpture often attributed to Francisco Ramo, reflecting on Rodin’s Thinker and Darwin’s evolution theory, was very popular in the 20th century, and replicas show up for sale all over the Internet. However, the “Philosophizing Monkey Statuette,” as it’s also known, was actually created by a late-19th-century German sculptor Wolfgang Hugo Rheinhold. This bronze statuette, entitled Affe, einen Schädel betrachtend (“Monkey contemplating a skull”), was first exhibited at the Große Berliner Kunstaustellung (Great Berlin Art Exhibition) in 1893.
The bookplate replaces the word “Evolution” with “Darwin,” and the book in the front reads “EX LIBRIS E.M.J.” in block capitals. The sketch was drawn by Vera Efron, who ran the indexing and abstracting services at the Yale Center of Alcohol Studies (later the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies).
A talented artist, she illustrated seminal books and pamphlets of early alcohol studies, such as Alcohol Explored by Howard Haggard and E. M. Jellinek, and Drinking and intoxication by Raymond McCarthy. Her doodles and artwork show up in various archival documents, including her famous sketches of E. M. Jellinek and Mark Keller.
Jellinek's bookplate, sometimes accompanied with his signuture, can be found in seven books of the Rare Books Collection of the Center of Alcohol Studies as evidence of his ownership before he donated them.