Through your eyes

This story was published in the spring 2024 issue of 12th & Marshall. You can find the current and past issues online.

When LOUIS KURITZKY, M’72, purchased an oversize two-volume set of piano music in Aspen, Colorado, he didn’t know that it would lead to an antique store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a lifelong hobby.

“I had never been in an antique store until 1989,” Kuritzky says. “I was looking for bookends to hold the two gigantic piano music volumes.”

In the first antique shop, Kuritzky inquired about the price of a set of sturdy cast iron elephant-themed bookends. When he heard $200, he was incredulous. After visiting multiple shops with multiple bookend sets, Kuritzky found a $35 set designed to hold up encyclopedias. At that point, he had seen pieces portraying everything from elephants to soldiers to Abraham Lincoln — and prices just as diverse. 

A curious Kuritzky asked the final shop owner how he sets pricing for bookends. Familiarity with the value of antiques helps, the owner shared, along with consulting reference books. “But there is no book for bookends,” he added.

Hearing an opportunity, Kuritzky began what turned into a 35-year journey of seeking, identifying, photographing and cataloging antique bookends. In 1996, he co-authored the first book on bookends, followed by “Collectors Guide to Bookends” in 2000 and “Collectors Encyclopedia of Bookends” in 2006.

Kuritzky came to see bookends — all 1,500 sets in his collection — as art objects, things of beauty, instead of strictly functional pieces. “I grew up in a generation where books are valuable treasures,” he says. “I owe my past, present and future to books.”

An assistant professor emeritus in the University of Florida College of Medicine, Kuritzky has shared his bookend expertise by gifting graduating residents sets of bookends personal to them: dog bookends for canine enthusiasts, ballerina bookends for dancers and the like — always making sure that the mementoes are tied to each resident’s interests.

“Residency involves quite a mix of struggle and success,” Kuritzky says. “I hope these small personalized tokens from a faculty member will remind the residents of the good experiences we shared. Bookends, put in a safe environment, have the potential for great longevity. After all, many of these sets were made in the early 1900s and still serve their function as miniature sculptural artworks 100 years later!”

Typically, people don’t really notice bookends until they have a reason to look for them. Kuritzky’s many trips to antique shops and flea markets since 1989 have provided opportunities to learn about art, metallurgy, sculptors and history, the latter an interest since his medical school days. “I’m grateful and blessed and lucky to have experienced Richmond’s rich heritage while living and training in the city.”

He cherishes the history behind the bookend sets; World War II diverted essentially all foundries into creation of war materials, and after the war, few survived — leaving the majority of bookend collectors to focus on acquiring sculptural pairs made in the 1910-45 era. 

“For a time, I thought I was the only one in the world collecting bookends,” Kuritzky says. “While still a relatively new area of interest among collectors, the proliferation of bookends for sale on websites and auctions around the world attests to their growing appeal."

Check out an expanded photo gallery of Kuritzky’s bookend collection.