The book presents sheetbooks extracted from many British Museum collections, including works created by some of the most talented artists of their time, such as Albrecht Durer, Edward Burne-Jones, Aubrey Beardsley and Eric Gill, showing how the content of the sheet has evolved over the years. -often incorporating a pun on the owner's name - uniquely relevant to that individual. For example, the bookplate for a professor of Sanskrit features Hindu imagery, while a Venetian publisher is associated with a lion, the symbol of his city.