Provenance

Merriam-Webster Online defines provenance as "the history of ownership of a valued object or work of art or literature." For a book, this would include personal or library bookplates, notes made by an owner, or things left between the pages (flowers, notes, photographs, receipts, etc.).

My personal copies of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland will probably never have provenance, as I don't make a habit of writing in my books. A few of my books have my name written in them because I loaned them to a friend once upon a time. Some of my picture books have crayon scribbles in them because four year old me thought it was okay to color in ALL the books.

I did write in my copies of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events because they have built-in bookplates. It seemed kind of silly not to, since there was a line right there, telling you to put your name on it.

This is in Spanish Neato.

Each bookplate varied slightly between volumes. The picture of Count Olaf at the bottom changed to reflect his disguise in the book, as you can see in the two images above. Just a fun fact. ;)

I also have a Big Book of Beatrix Potter that has both a built-in bookplate and a matching bookplate with a nice note from my neighbor on it.

The Big Book of Beatrix Potter!

The matching bookplate with a nice note from Ms. Logan, who moved to Florida.

The built-in bookplate and my younger self's terrible handwriting

I did, however, find a few copies of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland online that have provenance. This copy, found at AbeBooks, is inscribed to "Edith Mary Alice Berkeley from the Author May 15/80" on the half title and includes Caroll's bookplate on the front pastedown. This past lot from Christie's is for Alice's Adventures Under Ground (a facsimile of the original manuscript that was later developed into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) that is inscribed on the half title "Mrs Standen from the Author Jan 1887." Carroll noted in his diaries that he spent a forenoon at Macmillan's inscribing copies. Forty-four of these copies are known to exist. I also found several more recent copies of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that have been signed by the illustrators.