A Dove, a Book, and an Idea: An Early ILAB Emblem

A couple of weeks ago, ILAB Past President Sally Burdon very kindly sent me an original artwork, an early design for what would become the ILAB emblem. It had been given to her by bookseller David Lilburne when she became ILAB President, and it carries with it not only a sense of continuity, but also a quiet weight of memory and responsibility.

The image itself is simple: a dove resting on a book. Yet its meaning feels anything but simple. It speaks directly to the moment in which ILAB was founded: 1948, just three years after the end of the Second World War. A time when the idea of international cooperation was not abstract, but urgent and necessary.

Looking back at the minutes of that very first ILAB committee meeting in Copenhagen in September 1948, one can almost hear the founders thinking aloud. They were building something from nothing: “everything is to be done,” as the chairman, W. S. Kundig, put it. And very early on, the question arose: should the League not have an emblem? Something that would express its purpose?

Percy Muir suggested a dove of peace - “or something like it” - combined with a symbol of the book trade.

Reynolds Stone, the British wood engraver, was proposed to develop the design. He remains one of the finest letter-cutters and illustrators of his generation, whose work is rooted in the long tradition of British book arts.

While the final ILAB logo would later emerge through a broader process and competition, this early artwork remains a fascinating glimpse into the League’s first ideas about itself.

What is perhaps most compelling is how little that original idea has aged. The notion of books as a means of connection across borders, and of the antiquarian trade as something inherently international, feels just as relevant today. The dove on the book is not merely decorative, it is aspirational.

As we celebrate World Book Day, it seems a fitting moment to pause over this image. Not just as a historical memento, but as a reminder of what ILAB set out to be: an international community shaped by shared values, by exchange, and by a belief that books can carry something of peace within them.

Angelika Elstner