It’s one of those strange coincidences.
I was online perusing vintage bookplates yesterday, and I just happened to stumble across this image. I found the design highly amusing, of course, but what really caught my attention is the name on the plate, which looks an awful lot like “J. Montsalvatje.” On Friday, out of the blue, I had just played the “Cinco canciones negras” by Catalan composer Xavier Montsalvatge (note the variant spelling). Montsalvatge also composed an opera, “El gato con botas,” on the subject of Puss in Boots.
But that’s not all. I once found myself at a party in Philadelphia – this was a number of years ago – and at a point struck up a conversation with an artist by the name of… Javier Montsalvatje. I couldn’t believe it. Of course, I had to ask if he knew of the composer. If anything, he was more astonished than I. How the hell would anyone in Philadelphia know about Xavier Montsalvatge? It turns out he was his grandson or his nephew or his cousin. I can’t remember, I was drinking.
Some quick research turns up the fact that Xavier Montsalvatge was credited in some of his film work as… you guessed it, Javier Montsalvatje.
So what’s the deal with this bookplate? I emailed his descendant this morning.
Montsalvatge, ““Cinco canciones negras”