Description
The Hon Mountstuart Elphinstone FRSE (6 October 1779 – 20 November 1859) was a Scottish statesman and historian, associated with the government of British India. He later became the Governor of Bombay (now Mumbai) where he is credited with the opening of several educational institutions accessible to the Indian population. Besides being a noted administrator, he wrote books on India and Afghanistan.
Bookplates reached the height of their popularity domestically in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Not only was it considered the height of fashion for you or your institution to own your very own ex-libris, but, following the publication in 1880 of J. Leicester Warren’s Guide to the study of Book-plates, there emerged a certain vogue in collecting them.
