1 files changed, 5722 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/41142-0.txt b/41142-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ec378c9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/41142-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5722 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41142 ***
+
+[Transcriber's Notes: Two letters had macrons above them in the orginal
+these have been marked as: [=i] and [=m].
+
+A carot ^ before bracketed letters indicated that the letter or letters
+were superscripted in the orginal: Hon^{ble}.]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+Book-Plates
+
+By W. J. Hardy, F.S.A.
+
+_SECOND EDITION_
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    London
+    Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd.
+    MDCCCXCVII
+
+
+
+
+    _First Edition published 1893 as Vol._ II. _of 'Books about Books.'_
+
+
+
+
+Preface
+
+
+HAVING vindicated in my introductory chapter the practice of collecting
+book-plates from the charge of flagrant immorality, I do not think it
+necessary to spend many words in demonstrating that it is in every way a
+worthy and reasonable pursuit, and one which fully deserves to be made
+the subject of a special treatise in a series of _Books about Books_. If
+need were, the Editor of the series, who asked me to write this little
+hand-book, would perhaps kindly accept his share of responsibility, but
+in the face of the existence of a flourishing 'Ex Libris' Society, the
+importance of the book-plate as an object of collection may almost be
+taken as axiomatic. My own interest in this particular hobby is of long
+standing, and happily the appearance, when my manuscript was already at
+the printer's, of Mr. Egerton Castle's pleasantly written and profusely
+illustrated work on _English Book-Plates_ has relieved me of the dreaded
+necessity of writing an additional chapter on those modern examples, in
+treating of which neither my knowledge nor my enthusiasm would have
+equalled his.
+
+The desire to possess a book-plate of one's own is in itself commendable
+enough, for in fixing the first copy into the first book the owner may
+surely be assumed to have registered a vow that he or she at least will
+not join the great army of book-persecutors--men and women who cannot
+touch a volume without maltreating it, and who, though they are often
+ready to describe the removal of a book-plate, even from a worthless
+volume, as an act of vandalism, do infinitely more harm to books in
+general by their ruthless handling of them. No doubt, also, the decay of
+interest in heraldry, which is mainly responsible for the eccentricities
+of modern 'fancy' examples, has taken from us the temptation to commit
+certain sins which were at one time attractive. Our ancestors, for
+instance, may sometimes have outraged the susceptibilities of the
+heralds by using as book-plates coats-of-arms to which they had no
+title. Yet their offence against the College of Arms was trivial when
+compared with the outrage upon common-sense committed by the mystical
+young man of to-day, who designs, or has designed for him, an
+'emblematic' book-plate, or a 'symbolic' book-plate, or a 'theoretic'
+book-plate, in which the emblem, or the symbol, or the theory, is far
+too mystical for any ordinary comprehension, and needs, in fact, a
+lengthy explanation, which, however, I am bound to confess, is always
+very willingly given by either owner or designer, if asked for.
+
+It is, perhaps, needless to say that I am very far from including all
+modern book-plates under this condemnation. The names of the
+artists--Sir John Millais, Mr. Stacy Marks, Randolph Caldecott, Mr.
+Walter Crane, Miss Kate Greenaway, and others--who have found time to
+design, some of them only one, some quite a considerable number of
+really interesting marks of ownership, suffice to rescue modern
+book-plates from entire discredit. Here and there, too, a little-known
+artist, like the late Mr. Winter of Norwich, has produced a singularly
+fine plate. Above all, the strikingly beautiful work of Mr. Sherborn, as
+seen in the book-plates of the Duke of Westminster, in that of Mr.
+William Robinson, and in many other fine examples, forms a refreshing
+oasis in the desert of wild eccentricity. But the most ardent admirer of
+modern book-plates cannot pretend that amid the multiplicity of recent
+examples any school or style is observable, and as I have aimed at
+giving in this little hand-book an historic sketch, however
+unpretentious, of the different styles adopted in designing book-plates
+from their first introduction, I hope I may be excused for not having
+attempted to trace their history beyond the early years of the present
+century, after which no distinctive style can be said to exist.
+
+As I have said elsewhere, it has been no part of my object in writing my
+book to advocate indiscriminate collecting. But for those who are
+already collectors I have one word of advice on the subject of the
+arrangement of their treasures. Some enthusiasts advocate a
+chronological arrangement, others a genealogical, others a
+topographical: and the advocates of each theory paste down their
+specimens in scrap-books or other volumes in adherence to their own
+views. Now there is a great deal to be said in favour of each of these
+classifications: so much, indeed, that no system is perfect which does
+not admit of a collection being arranged according to one plan to-day
+and another tomorrow--_i.e._ no arrangement is satisfactory which is
+necessarily permanent. Let each specimen be lightly, yet firmly, fixed
+on a separate sheet of cardboard or stout paper, of sufficient size to
+take the largest book-plates commonly met with. These cards or sheets
+may be kept, a hundred or a hundred and fifty together, in portfolios or
+boxes, which should be distinctly numbered. Each card or sheet should
+also be paged and bear the number of the portfolio to which it belongs.
+The collector can by this means ascertain, when he pleases, if all his
+portfolios contain their proper number of cards or sheets, and he can
+arrange his specimens according to the particular point of interest in
+his collection which from time to time he may desire to illustrate. In
+addition to this, the system of single cards has obvious advantages for
+the purpose of minute study and comparison.
+
+In conclusion, it only remains for me to express my warm thanks to Lord
+De Tabley and to Mr. A. W. Franks, C.B.; to the former for allowing me
+to make use, without oft-repeated acknowledgment, of the matter
+contained in his _Guide to the Study of Book-Plates_, a second, and much
+amplified edition of which we may hope will, before long, make its
+appearance; to the latter, not only for constant advice and assistance,
+but also for the loan from his collection of nearly all the book-plates
+with reproductions of which this volume is illustrated.
+
+                                                         W. J. H.
+    1893.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+Preface to the Second Edition
+
+
+A FEW words are, perhaps, needed by way of introduction to the present
+revised and enlarged edition of this work. Some slips of my own have
+been rectified, and there has been added a considerable amount of
+additional information, brought to light since 1893; for much of this I
+am indebted to the researches of Mr. Egerton Castle, Mr. Charles Dexter
+Allen, Miss Norna Labouchere, and Mr. Walter Hamilton, as well as to Mr.
+Fincham and various other contributors to the pages of the _Ex Libris
+Journal_.
+
+During the three years that have elapsed since the first publication of
+my book, the ranks of those taking an intelligent interest in
+book-plates have been largely increased; yet they have suffered some
+serious losses, and foremost amongst these must be placed the death of
+Lord De Tabley. That he died ere the completion of the promised new
+edition of his _Guide to the Study of Book-Plates_ is a matter of
+sincere regret to every student of the subject; all we can now hope for
+is that Sir Wollaston Franks--the one man really capable of bringing out
+a new edition of Lord De Tabley's book--will some day undertake the
+task.
+
+As before, I have again to express my sincere gratitude to a great
+number of collectors for the kindly help they have given me; and I must
+not pass without special thanks the kindness of Mr. Everard Green,
+F.S.A., Rouge Dragon, for allowing me to illustrate this preface with
+his own book-plate, designed and engraved for him by Mr. George W. Eve;
+it is in every way an excellent specimen of modern work in book-plates,
+being both appropriate and artistic, and, above all, rational.
+
+                                                         W. J. H.
+    ST. ALBANS, 1896.
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+                                                            PAGE
+
+  CHAPTER I.
+  INTRODUCTORY,                                               1
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+  THE EARLY USE OF BOOK-PLATES IN ENGLAND,                   20
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+  'STYLES' IN ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES,                           48
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+  ALLEGORY IN ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES,                           72
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+  ENGLISH 'PICTURE' BOOK-PLATES,                             98
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+  GERMAN BOOK-PLATES,                                       114
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+  THE BOOK-PLATES OF FRANCE AND OTHER COUNTRIES,            135
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+  AMERICAN BOOK-PLATES,                                     150
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+  INSCRIPTIONS ON BOOK-PLATES IN CONDEMNATION OF
+  BOOK-STEALING OR BOOK-SPOILING, AND IN PRAISE OF
+  STUDY,                                                    162
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+  PERSONAL PARTICULARS ON BOOK-PLATES,                      178
+
+  CHAPTER XI.
+  LADIES' BOOK-PLATES,                                      186
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+  THE MORE PROMINENT ENGRAVERS OF ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES,      200
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+  ODDS AND ENDS,                                            216
+
+  INDEX,                                                    231
+
+
+
+
+List of Illustrations of Book-Plates
+
+
+  RICHARD TOWNELEY, 1702,                         _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                           PAGE
+
+  EVERARD GREEN, ROUGE DRAGON. By G. W. Eve,                  x
+
+  PLATE
+
+  I. SIR THOMAS ISHAM. By Loggan,                             9
+
+  II. FRANCIS DE MALHERBE,                                   25
+
+  III. SIR NICHOLAS BACON,                                   27
+
+  IV. SIR THOMAS TRESHAM, 1585,                              29
+
+  V. GORE. By Burghers,                                      35
+
+  VI. MARRIOTT. By Faithorne,                                37
+
+  VII. ST. ALBANS GRAMMAR SCHOOL,                            41
+
+  VIII. CHARLES JAMES FOX,                                   45
+
+  IX. THOMAS KNATCHBULL, 1702,                               51
+
+  X. SIR THOMAS HARE, 1734,                                  61
+
+  XI. JAMES BRACKSTONE, 1751,                                63
+
+  XII. BISHOP OF KILMORE, 1774,                              67
+
+  XIII. BIRNIE OF BROOMHILL,                                 71
+
+  XIV. GIFT BY GEORGE I. TO CAMBRIDGE, 1715,                 77
+
+  XV. GEORGE LAMBART. By Hogarth,                            80
+
+  XVI. JOHN WILTSHIRE,                                       83
+
+  XVII. DR. WILLIAM OLIVER,                                  85
+
+  XVIII. DR. THOMAS DRUMMOND. By Sir R. Strange,             89
+
+  XIX. LADY BESSBOROUGH. By Bartolozzi,                      93
+
+  XX. WILLIAM HEWER, 1699,                                  101
+
+  XXI. THE RECORD OFFICE IN THE TOWER OF LONDON,            105
+
+  XXII. SOUTHEY. By Bewick,                                 111
+
+  XXIII. GIFT-PLATE TO BUXHEIM MONASTERY,                   115
+
+  XXIV. EBNER. By Albert Dürer. 1516,                       119
+
+  XXV. PAULUS SPERATUS,                                     123
+
+  XXVI. 'È BIBLIOTHECA WOOGIANA,'                           129
+
+  XXVII. ELECTORAL LIBRARY OF BAVARIA, 1618,                133
+
+  XXVIII. CHARLES DE SALES,                                 139
+
+  XXIX. AMADEUS LULIN. By B. Picart, 1722,                  145
+
+  XXX. MICHAEL LILIENTHAL,                                  165
+
+  XXXI. DAVID GARRICK,                                      169
+
+  XXXII. LADY BATH, 1671,                                   187
+
+  XXXIII. COUNTESS OF OXFORD AND MORTIMER. By Vertue,       191
+
+  XXXIV. FRANCES ANNE HOARE,                                197
+
+  XXXV. BISHOP HACKET. By Faithorne (Portrait),             201
+
+  XXXVI. SIR CHRISTOPHER MUSGRAVE,                          205
+
+  XXXVII. FRANCIS CARINGTON, 1738,                          207
+
+  XXXVIII. BENJAMIN ADAMSON, 1746,                          209
+
+  XXXIX. WILLIAM OLIVER, 1751,                              211
+
+  XL. SAMUEL PEPYS. By R. White (Portrait),                 217
+
+  XLI. FRANCIS PERRAULT (Portrait),                         219
+
+  XLII. ROBERT BLOOMFIELD, 1815,                            229
+
+
+
+
+BOOK-PLATES
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+BOOK-PLATE collecting, at least in this country, is a thing of
+yesterday. On the Continent, particularly in France, it attracted
+attention sufficiently serious to induce the publication, in 1874, of a
+monograph on French book-plates by M. Poulet Malassis, which in the next
+year obtained the honours of a second edition. In England, prior to
+1880, we had no work devoted to the study; but, in that year, the
+Honourable J. Leicester Warren--afterwards Lord De Tabley--published _A
+Guide to the Study of Book-Plates (Ex Libris)_. How little was then
+generally known about these marks of ownership is shown by the allusions
+to them--very few in number--that find place in the pages of such
+publications as _The Gentleman's Magazine_ or _Notes and Queries_: for
+that reason, the skilful handling of the subject by the late Lord De
+Tabley, and his zeal in compiling the treatise, are all the more
+conspicuous.
+
+One of the most useful works which has yet appeared in the journal of
+the _Ex Libris_ Society--a society intended to promote the study of
+book-plates--is a compilation by Mr. H. W. Fincham and Mr. J. Roberts
+Brown, _A Bibliography of Book-Plates_, arranged chronologically. A
+glance at this compilation emphasises the truth of the statement, just
+made, as to the scantiness of recorded information on book-plates prior
+to the year 1880; it also shows what a great deal about them has been
+written since.
+
+Writing to _Notes and Queries_ in 1877, Dr. Jackson Howard, whose
+collection is now one of the largest in England, says that he began
+collecting forty years before that date, and that the nucleus of his own
+collection was one made by a Miss Jenkins at Bath in 1820. It is
+probably, therefore, to this lady that we should attribute the honour of
+being the first collector of book-plates, for their own sake. No doubt
+the collector of engravings admitted into his portfolios book-plates
+worthy a place there as interesting engravings, for stray examples are
+often found in such collections as that formed in the seventeenth
+century by John Bagford, the biblioclast, which is now in the British
+Museum. No doubt, too, heraldic painters or plate engravers collected
+book-plates as specimens of heraldry, but this was not collecting them
+as book-plates--viz. as illustrations of the custom of placing marks of
+ownership in books, which, I take it, was evidently Miss Jenkins's
+object.[1]
+
+Still, though little was written on the subject of book-plates prior to
+1880, it by no means follows that for some years before that date there
+had not been a considerable number of persons who took an interest in
+the subject. The fact is, that the book-plate collector of earlier days
+was wiser in his generation than are those of his kind to-day. He kept
+his 'hobby' to himself, and was thus enabled to indulge it economically.
+My father had a small collection; and I can well remember how, as a boy,
+I used to help him to add to it. We used to go to a shop in a dingy
+street, leading off Oxford Street, and there select from a large
+clothes-basket as many book-plates as were new to our collection. The
+price was one penny a piece,--new or old, dated or undated, English or
+foreign, that of Bishop Burnet, or David Garrick, or Mr. Jones, or Mr.
+Brown,--all alike, a penny a piece; and I have no doubt, though I do not
+remember the fact, there was the usual 'reduction on taking a quantity.'
+I think this shop was almost the only one in London where you could buy
+book-plates at all. Well, those days are past now; and, whilst we regret
+them, because book-plate collecting is no longer an economical pursuit,
+we cannot allow our regret to be unmingled with satisfaction. The
+would-be collector of to-day can, if he pleases, know something about
+the collection he is undertaking; he can tell when he meets with a good
+specimen; he knows the points which render any particular book-plate
+interesting; and he can, at least approximately, affix a date to each
+example he obtains.
+
+As to the morality of book-plate collecting, I suppose something ought
+to be said here. There is but one objection to it, but that is,
+undoubtedly, a serious one: taking a book-plate out of a book means the
+possible disfigurement and injury of the volume from which it is taken;
+yet, for the purpose of study and comparison, the removal is a distinct
+advantage. To confess this seems, at first sight, to bring collecting at
+all under a sweeping condemnation; and such, indeed, would be the case,
+were it not for the fact that damage to, or even the actual destruction
+of, very many books is really a matter of no consequence whatever.
+Book-plates are found quite as often in the worthless literary
+productions of our ancestors as in the worthy; and it is puerile to
+cavil over the removal of a book-plate from a binding which holds
+together material by the destruction of which the world would certainly
+not be the poorer. So much for the book-plates in valueless books. As
+regards those in valuable or interesting ones, it is certainly unwise to
+remove them at all. This is a golden rule which cannot be too forcibly
+impressed upon collectors and booksellers. The case does not occur very
+often; and when it does, the book itself, with the book-plate in it, can
+be easily fetched and placed beside the 'collection' when needed for
+comparison. It may happen that the book-plate in this valuable book is
+interesting from the fact that it belonged to some man of note, or that
+it is unique; if so, we have only a further reason against taking it out
+of the volume. The value of a very early book-plate, when preserved in
+the volume in which it is discovered, is lessened almost to a vanishing
+point if separated from that volume. Pasted into a book as a mark of
+ownership, it is an undoubted book-plate; whereas, if taken out and
+fastened into a collection of book-plates, it at once loses the proof of
+its original use, so essential to its value and so material to the
+student of book-plates.
+
+On the other hand, as I have said, there is no harm in removing, from
+some uninteresting and valueless volume, the book-plate of a famous man.
+Everybody knows that Bishop Burnet or David Garrick had plenty of what
+they themselves regarded as 'rubbish' in their libraries; so that
+Burnet's book-plate in an actually valueless volume does not prove that
+the Bishop's shrewd eye ever scanned its pages, or that his episcopal
+hand ever held it. Besides, I know as a fact that it is a not uncommon
+trick for the possessor of the book-plate of some famous man to affix
+that book-plate in a worthless volume, and then offer the whole for sale
+at a price much higher than would be asked or obtained for the
+book-plate itself, though the value of the book may be _nil_!
+
+Without quarrelling with the name book-plate,--as applied to the marks
+of ownership pasted into books,--and without wasting time with
+discussion of suggestions for a better one, it may be admitted that the
+word is not altogether happily chosen. It perhaps suggests to the mind
+of the 'uninitiated' an illustration in a book rather than a mark of
+possession. But then at the present day there are not many 'uninitiated'
+amongst either buyers or sellers of books and prints, so that the
+inappropriateness of the name need not concern us.
+
+As to its antiquity, that is doubtful; but probably one of the earliest
+instances of its use, in print, occurs in 1791, when John Ireland
+published the first two volumes of his _Hogarth Illustrated_. In this
+work he says that the works of Callot were probably Hogarth's first
+models, and 'shop bills and _book-plates_ his first performances.'
+Again, in 1798, Ireland refers to the 'book-plate' for Lambert the
+herald-painter, which Hogarth had executed. In 1823, a certain 'C. S.
+B.,' writing in the pages of the _Gentleman's Magazine_, refers to what
+'are generally called' book-plates. His letter was suggested by an
+article--a review of Thomas Moule's _Bibliotheca Heraldica_--in the
+previous number of the magazine, the writer of which was evidently not
+familiar with the term book-plate as we now apply it, for he calls
+book-plates 'plates of arms.' We shall see, later on, that this is quite
+an inappropriate name; some of the most interesting and the most
+beautiful book-plates have nothing armorial about them.
+
+On the Continent, the term _ex libris_ is generally applied to
+book-plates. This is, perhaps, even less appropriate than book-plate. It
+is taken from the two first words of the inscription on a great many
+book-plates, when the inscription is written in Latin--_e.g._ 'ex libris
+Johannis Stearne, S.T.P. Episcopi Clogherensis.' A moment's reflection
+will show that this inscription is not intended as a declaration by the
+book-plate (should it ever become severed from the book in which it was
+fastened) that it came out of a book belonging to Bishop Stearne; but
+that it is a declaration by the _book_ in which the book-plate is found
+pasted, that that particular book is from amongst the books of a
+particular library, and ought to be restored to it. It would be as
+rational to call book-plates '_libri_,' because the inscription on them
+often begins--as in a very famous German book-plate--'_Liber Bilibaldi
+Pirckheimer_.' It may, indeed, be laid down as a general rule, that
+whatever the sentiment expressed on a book-plate, it is clearly intended
+to be uttered by the book in which the book-plate is fixed, not by the
+book-plate itself.
+
+There are but two instances, quoted by Lord De Tabley, of the
+inscription directly referring to the _book-plate_. Both are foreign,
+and date about the middle of the last century. One is _Symbolum
+Bibliothecæ_ of John Bernard Nack, a citizen and merchant of
+Frankfort;[2] and the other, _Insigne Librorum_, etc., quoted from the
+work of M. Poulet Malassis. Lord De Tabley thinks that the _Symbolum_ of
+Herr Nack is simply a trade card; but he founds this conclusion on the
+supposition that Herr Nack was a book-dealer, and that the scene
+depicted on his book-plate was, in fact, his shop. In my opinion, we
+have in this book-plate a representation of a portion of Herr Nack's
+library, in which Minerva(?) is seated, using the books thereof. A
+gentleman in eighteenth century dress, who may, likely enough, be Herr
+Nack himself, addresses himself to the goddess, and explains--as he
+points to the outer scene, which shows us ships and merchandise--that,
+whilst following his trade as a merchant, he still has time to devote
+some attention to literature. In any case, these and the few other
+instances there may be of the inscription referring to the book-plate
+and not to the book, seem hardly sufficient to make _ex libris_ a good
+name for book-plates in general.
+
+Our ancestors, of degrees more remote than grandfather, do not appear to
+have referred to book-plates at all, so we are unable to learn by what
+name they would have called them. Pepys, in 1668, speaks of going to his
+'plate-maker's,' and there spending 'an hour about contriving' his
+'little plate' for his books. This 'little plate' still exists, and is a
+characteristic one; it shows us the initials 'S. P.,' with two anchors
+and ropes entwined. But we shall speak again of this, and Sam's other
+book-plates, later on.
+
+[Illustration: SIR THOMAS ISHAM'S BOOK-PLATE, BY DAVID LOGGAN.]
+
+David Loggan, a German born, and an engraver of some note, has, in
+writing to Sir Thomas Isham in 1676, a no more concise name for Isham's
+book-plate than 'a print of your cote of arms.' Loggan, as a return for
+many favours, had sent Sir Thomas a book-plate designed and executed
+by himself. 'Sir,' he says, in the covering letter, 'I send you hier a
+Print of your Cote of Armes. I have printed 200 wich I will send with
+the plate by the next return, and bege the favor of your keind
+excepttans of it as a small Niew yaers Gift or a aknowledgment in part
+for all your favors. If anything in it be amies, I shall be glade to
+mend it. I have taken the Heralds painter's derection in it; it is very
+much used amongst persons of Quality to past ther Cotes of Armes befor
+ther bookes instade of wreithing ther Names.'
+
+The 'Heralds painter' was, unfortunately, wrong in his treatment of the
+Isham 'coat,' and so Loggan's work, artistic as it might be, could not
+be acceptable to Sir Thomas, to whom a mistake in the family escutcheon
+was no light matter. This he evidently told David, who, a few days
+after, writes to him again:--
+
+'I ame sorry that the Cote is wronge; I have taken the herald's
+derection in it, but the Foole did give it wrong. . . . The altering of
+the plate will be very trubelsom, and therfor you will be presented with
+a newe one, wich shall be don without falt, and that very sudenly. And
+if you plase, Sir, to give thies plate and the prints to your Brothers,
+it will serve for them.'
+
+These Isham book-plates are really very beautiful pieces of work. A
+reproduction of one of them may be seen on the foregoing page. This is
+evidently the one first executed, the omission of the mark of
+baronetcy--the 'bloody hand of Ulster'--and the helmet of an esquire
+instead of a knight or baronet clearly constituting the blunder into
+which Loggan had fallen. By the kindness of Sir Charles Isham, the
+present baronet, I have been enabled to see a copy of the corrected
+design sent by Loggan, which is in all respects accurate. This was doing
+duty as a book-plate in a volume in which it had evidently been placed
+at the time it was received by Sir Thomas.
+
+Nicholas Carew, afterwards Sir Nicholas Carew, Baronet, records in his
+accounts, on the 19th February 1707, a payment for his book-plate, which
+is dated in that year, as follows:--'For coat of arms impressing, 1_l._
+1_s._ 6_d._;' and a few months later is a payment 'For 300 armes, 7_s._
+6_d._'
+
+'The mark of my books,' is the phrase which Andrew Lumisden applies to
+the book-plate engraved for him by his brother-in-law, Sir Robert
+Strange, about the year 1746. The plate is an interesting one, and by an
+interesting man, of whom we shall speak later on. Lumisden thought well
+of it, and thus refers to the work in a letter written from Rouen, in
+June 1748:--'I am very anxious to know if my brother continues his
+resolution of coming to this country. If he does, I can luckily be of
+use to him in the way of his business, from the acquaintance I have of a
+very ingenious person, professor of the Academy of Design here . . . I
+show'd him, a few days ago, _the mark of my books_, from which he
+entertains a high notion of Robie's abilities.'
+
+There is a curious advertisement, quoted by Thomas Moule in his
+_Bibliotheca Heraldica_, of a certain Joseph Barber, a Newcastle-on-Tyne
+'bookseller, music and copper-plate publisher,' who, in 1742, resided in
+'Humble's Buildings.' In that year he engraved the 'Equestrian Statue of
+King James [II.],' which once stood in the Sandhill Market. If a
+moment's digression be allowed, the history of this statue is worth
+telling. On 16th March 1685, the Town Council voted £800 for the
+erection of 'a figure of His Majesty in a Roman habit, on a capering
+horse, in copper, as big as the figure of His Majesty, King Charles I.,
+at Charing Crosse, on a pedestal of black marble.' A certain Mr. William
+Larson executed it; Sir Christopher Wren expressed his approval, and
+everybody was very pleased, for a year or two. But popular feeling soon
+changed in Newcastle, as elsewhere, and the prevalence of sentiments
+which threw the king off his throne threw his metal representation into
+the Tyne, where it rested till fished out to be melted down and used to
+make a set of church bells. The drawing of the luckless statue was safe
+in the keeping of Sir Hans Sloane; and from this, Barber made his
+engraving, which he sold for 5s. The fact that in 1742, three years
+before the second Scotch rebellion, this Newcastle printseller found it
+worth while to issue the engraving at all, is not without political
+significance. With his engraving, Barber issued two large plates of the
+arms of all the subscribers to it, each coat of arms being 1-3/4 inches
+in length, and 1-1/4 inches in breadth; and a few years later, it seems
+to have occurred to him that he might turn an honest penny by cutting up
+these large sheets of the subscribers' arms, so that each coat of arms
+became a separate plate. Having done this, he issued an advertisement to
+the subscribers, in which he sets forth that he is 'the sole proprietor
+of each of their plates,' and is willing to part with it, to the lady or
+gentleman whose arms are engraved thereon, 'together with one hundred
+prints of it on a good paper,' for the modest sum of half-a-crown. These
+plates, suggests Mr. Barber, might be advantageously used as what we now
+call book-plates, and he continues: 'The design of this proposal is a
+useful and necessary embellishment, and a remedy against losing books by
+lending, or having them stolen; by pasting one print on the inside of
+the cover of each book, you have the owner's name, coat of arms, and
+place of abode; a thing so useful and the charge so easy, 'tis hoped
+will meet with encouragement. To have a plate engraved will cost 10_s._
+6_d._'
+
+From all which it may be inferred that Mr. Joseph Barber thought--or
+wanted other people to think--that the idea of using a book-plate was
+his own. Newcastle people, in 1743, must have been very unobservant of
+the habits of their neighbours if they believed Mr. Barber; for the
+fashion of using a book-plate--which in England came in some forty years
+before--was by that time general throughout the country. That some of
+the subscribers accepted the offer, and got their 'hundred plates on a
+good paper' for half-a-crown, is demonstrated by the existence of copies
+of the plates published with the 'equestrian statue,' being still found
+in books, doing duty as book-plates. Very poor productions they are,
+reflecting but slight credit on the designer or engraver. But what
+Joseph lacked in art, he atoned for in enterprise; we see this in his
+ingenious way of getting rid of his old copper-plates, and the
+postscript to his advertisement demonstrates the fact even more plainly,
+for on a day near at hand, the advertisement tells us, was to be fought,
+at a neighbouring cock-pit, 'a Welsh main,' and the prize was to be
+nothing less than one of the advertiser's engravings, 'a pretty piece of
+work, worthy the observation of the curious.' If the term book-plate had
+been known in Barber's day, it would probably have found its way into
+his advertisement, which is clumsy from the want of a word to express
+the very thing he is advertising.
+
+William Stephens, who engraved a good many book-plates in his time,
+could find no better expression than 'print of your arms' to describe
+the 800 book-plates which, for half-a-guinea, he sent to Dr. Samuel
+Kerrich, the Shakespearian student, in 1754.
+
+Horace Walpole, again, would, I think, have used the phrase 'book-plate'
+had he known it. In his _Catalogue of Engravers_--the edition of
+1771--he speaks of George Vertue having engraved 'a plate to put in Lady
+Oxford's books'; and in his _Anecdotes of Painting_, he refers to the
+'plate' which Hogarth 'used for his books.' One of his own
+book-plates--that engraved soon after 1791--Walpole describes as his
+'seal': _Sigillum Horatii Comitis de Orford_; but this phrase is, I
+think, used simply because the book-plate itself is the representation
+of a mediæval seal. Bartolozzi--giving, in 1796, a receipt for a
+book-plate which he had just completed--refers to it as a 'ticket-plate'
+(see p. 94); but he was a foreigner, and may not have known the English
+name for such things, for we have seen that, some five years before,
+Ireland refers to Hogarth's 'book-plate.' Charles James Fox, in a note,
+dated at Leicester on 2nd August 1801, speaks of the 'book-plate' of his
+great-great-grandfather, Sir Stephen Fox.
+
+But, though the phrase 'book-plate' may have been occasionally used at
+the close of the last century and the beginning of the present, it was
+then by no means widely used; and although the writer quoted on page 6
+refers in 1823 to what are 'generally called' book-plates, William Wadd,
+in 1827, can find no direct term by which to refer to these marks of
+ownership. Speaking in _Mems., Maxims, and Memoirs_, he says: 'In the
+Library of the Royal College of Surgeons, there are many volumes,
+formerly the property of the celebrated Douglas, having his arms
+embellished with various kinds of surgical instruments, which was by no
+means an uncommon practice, as in the Library of the College of
+Physicians there are many examples of volumes where the former possessor
+has not only blazoned his own arms, but borrowed the arms of the
+college and super-added supporters, as Apollo, Mercury, Æsculapius, and
+his daughter Hygeia.'
+
+Lord Byron, too, did not, I fancy, know the word 'book-plate' in its
+now-used sense; writing to a fair admirer, who had apparently designed
+one of these for him, he says: 'I received the arms, my dear Miss ----,
+and am very much obliged to you for the trouble you have taken. It is
+impossible I should have any fault to find with them. The sight of the
+drawing gives me great pleasure for a double reason: in the first place
+they will ornament my books, and in the next they convince me that you
+have not entirely forgot me.'[3]
+
+So the term book-plate is only a century old, and the fashion of
+collecting book-plates much more modern still; but the use of
+book-plates is really of respectable antiquity, and is a matter on which
+we may now appropriately speak. Whether, in the first instance, the use
+of book-plates was suggested by a desire to commemorate a gift, or as a
+mark of ownership, seems to be a matter on which a variety of opinions
+exist. Some of the earliest mechanically produced book-plates are
+certainly commemorative of gifts (see p. 114); but I think we must
+accept as book-plates, to all intents and purposes, the six fourteenth
+century examples mentioned by Herr Warnecke in his _Die Deutschen
+Bücherzeichen_, an excellent work on German book-plates. These are
+heraldic coloured drawings on the parchment leaves of Italian
+manuscripts, which also bear an inscription of possession by the
+particular individuals whose arms are represented.
+
+But, of course, the real necessity for book-plates, whatever may have
+been their original use, began when the printing-press gave to the world
+not two nor three, but a hundred or more copies of a particular book.
+Then it was that the different owners needed to distinguish their
+respective copies of a work; for the professional book-borrower, who
+would gladly have retained the manuscript volume lent to him by an
+unsuspecting friend, could he have done so without his crime being
+detected, doubtless saw in the multitude of copies a greater opportunity
+of carrying out his nefarious designs. The existence of book-plates is,
+therefore, largely due to the literary enthusiast who amasses a library
+by retaining volumes received on loan; the inscriptions on some of the
+earlier book-plates prove this to be so.
+
+The earliest printed book-plates are certainly German, and there is
+little doubt that some of these are nearly contemporary with the very
+early printed books on the oak covers of which they may still be found
+pasted. By the commencement of the sixteenth century book-plates were
+frequently fine examples of the wood-engraver's art. Albert Dürer
+himself designed book-plates; and of these, one of the most elaborate
+and the best known is that of his friend Bilibald Pirckheimer, the
+Nuremberg jurist, whose portrait he engraved on copper in 1524. The
+book-plate is still earlier.
+
+England can now--thanks to recent investigations--claim the second place
+in the chronological sequence of countries in which book-plates have
+been used. Cardinal Wolsey's book-plate (see p. 24) is probably not
+later in date than 1525. France can boast of a book-plate dated in 1574;
+Sweden of one dated in the following year, and Switzerland of one in
+1607; Italy in 1623: in other European countries, dated examples do not
+appear, nor does the practice of using book-plates seem to have been
+adopted until considerably later.
+
+In concluding this opening chapter, let me say a word about the position
+in a book in which a book-plate should be looked for. The usual place
+was certainly on the front cover of a volume; sometimes another copy of
+the same plate was fastened to the back cover; and sometimes--as in
+Pirckheimer's case, just noticed, and in that of Samuel Pepys (see p.
+216)--the same person would use a different book-plate at the back of
+the volume to that used at the front. Another plan, less frequent, but
+by no means uncommon, was to insert the book-plate on the title-page,
+often on the back of it; and another, to fasten the book-plate into the
+volume, by pasting its right-hand margin about a quarter of an inch on
+to the title-page, so that the book-plate would fold over and face it.
+This is a plan that leads to a book-plate being most easily overlooked.
+
+Collectors should also note that, in many instances, book-plates are
+found in a variety of sizes; this should certainly be borne in mind
+when setting aside any particular specimen as a duplicate. In the
+present day, most people are content to have a book-plate small enough
+to go into a volume of any size; its dwarfed appearance on the cover of
+a full-sized folio is no eyesore to them, or, if it is, the pleasure of
+economy makes them bear with it. But in days gone by it was--especially
+in Germany--certainly otherwise. The possession of a large library would
+necessitate, in the owner's mind, the possession of a number of
+differently sized book-plates, in order to get one which would neither
+look too small in the largest volume, nor be too large for the smallest!
+Some of the most noble foreign examples, rich in detail and bold in
+general effect, are those that belonged to men who liked to have for
+their folios a book-plate of proportionate size. There are no very large
+English book-plates, but plenty of library owners in this country had
+two or three different sized book-plates, and the late Sir William
+Stirling-Maxwell boasted of over a hundred varieties!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Among the late Sir Bernard Burke's papers there was discovered a
+collection of book-plates said to have been formed in Ireland in the
+middle of the last century; but there is nothing to show that the
+collection was formed as a collection of book-plates _qua_ book-plates.
+
+[2] There are two varieties of this book-plate.
+
+[3] Moore, vol. i. p. 87.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE EARLY USE OF BOOK-PLATES IN ENGLAND
+
+
+IN a short paper, which in 1882 I contributed to the _Antiquarian
+Magazine and Bibliographer_, I wrote this passage:--'It is difficult to
+believe that the general use of book-plates should have been a hundred
+and fifty years in reaching this country from the Continent; and yet
+there is rather more difference than that between the date on the
+earliest-known German example (1516) and the time when English-dated
+specimens appear at all plentifully. Surely the many English men of
+letters who amassed large libraries in the sixteenth century, and the
+first half of the seventeenth, must have possessed book-plates; and yet,
+where are their book-plates now?
+
+'Many, no doubt, have perished with the bindings to which they were
+fastened, but some are doubtless still extant; and we may yet hope that,
+when the interest in these labels becomes more widely diffused, more
+than one or two specimens will be brought to light, bearing an engraved
+date sufficiently early to dispel the idea that this country was a
+century and a half behind its German neighbours in the general practice
+of using book-plates.'
+
+Mr. Daniel Parsons, who may be properly called the father of book-plate
+literature,--his contribution, in 1837, to 'The Third Annual Report of
+the Oxford University Archæological and Heraldic Society,' was certainly
+the first paper on the subject that ever appeared,--commented on this
+hope of mine in the number of the same magazine issued in the following
+January, and was despondent as to evidence being forthcoming to prove
+the early use of book-plates in England.
+
+Well, in that I expressed the belief that investigation would bring to
+light a number of sixteenth and seventeenth century _dated_ book-plates,
+I was perhaps wrong--early English dated book-plates have not been found
+in anything approaching plenty; but I was also wrong in suggesting that
+proof of the early use of book-plates in this country could only be
+proved by dated examples; the existence of examples which, from internal
+evidence, are proved to be of early date is really equally valuable; and
+as these have certainly come to light in considerable numbers, I think a
+good case has been made out on behalf of our fellow-countrymen.
+
+I do not pretend that early English book-plates are so plentiful as
+those of Germany. Some individual specimens are known to exist; but
+there are very few that are recorded as existing in more than a few
+collections, and some are unique. From some cause or other, early
+English book-plates are a rarity; and I propose, therefore, to speak
+individually of the majority of them,--that is to say, of those
+executed prior to the close of the seventeenth century.
+
+But before doing this, let me say a word as to the date at which the
+colours intended to be shown on the shield of arms were first
+represented by lines or points. For instance, perpendicular lines from
+the top to the bottom of the shield, thus:
+
+[Illustration]
+
+to express _gules_--red.
+
+A number of small dots or points, thus:
+
+[Illustration]
+
+to express _or_--gold; and so on.
+
+To whom may be attached the credit of inventing this useful system,
+matters little; what we are now interested in--for the purpose of
+considering the approximate dates of book-plates--is the time at which
+it was first employed in heraldic engravings. Mr. Walter Hamilton, in
+the pages of the _Ex Libris Journal_, realises the importance of the
+subject. He speaks of the work by Father Silvester Petra-Sancta,
+published at Rome in 1638, in which the proposal is advocated, and
+refers to M. Henri Bouchot's allusion to a work by Vulsson de la
+Colombière, written in 1639, which advocates the system.
+
+That, at an earlier date, lines running all in one direction were used
+only as shading, is shown over and over again. Take, for instance, the
+book-plate of Francis de Malherbe (reproduced over leaf), which, as the
+owner died in 1628, was engraved, probably, soon after the opening of
+the century. In this case we have a statement by De Malherbe that his
+arms are 'D'argent à six roses de gueules, et des hermines de sable sans
+nombre,'--a description obviously inaccurate. De Malherbe was a poet,
+and could no more be expected to describe a coat of arms than 'Garter'
+could be expected to write a poem. The proper blazoning of his family
+arms is: ermine, six roses gules. But, according to the lines depicted
+on his book-plate, the 'field' would be _azure_: clearly, in this case,
+the lines mean nothing at all.
+
+The late Mr. J. E. Bailey points out that in the 1562, 1568, and 1576
+editions of Gerard Legh's _Accedens of Armory_, sable (black) is
+expressed, as it would be now, by horizontal and perpendicular lines
+crossing each other; whilst the other colours are represented by the
+initials of their names. It is possible that this form of expressing
+sable may be merely the result of an attempt on the part of the engraver
+to produce as dark a tint as possible to represent it. In Vincent's
+_Discovery of Brooke's Errors_, 1622, such lines are certainly used as
+shading, or to distinguish colour from white; but, as shown from his
+verbal description of the arms he represents, these lines are used
+without any system whatever, perpendicular lines sometimes representing
+gules, and sometimes azure. Again, in the second edition of Guillim's
+_Display_, 1632, lines are used to denote the darker colours, though
+they are used without system. But in 1654, we find, in Bysshe's heraldic
+tracts, gules, azure, sable, and the rest expressed in the now orthodox
+manner, and an explanatory plate showing what colours are represented by
+the respective dots or lines, a conclusive proof of the novelty of the
+system in England. I think the reader will see, as he proceeds, that
+this has been a useful digression.
+
+[Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF FRANCIS DE MALHERBE.]
+
+We have said that the earliest English book-plate yet come to light is
+Cardinal Wolsey's. This is not a printed book-plate at all, but a
+carefully drawn sketch of the Cardinal's arms, with supporters, and
+surmounted by a Cardinal's hat, the whole coloured by hand. How many of
+these book-plates the Cardinal possessed, we do not know; but that
+this--the only example known--is undoubtedly a book-plate, is proved
+from the fact that it may now be seen in a folio volume which once
+belonged to Wolsey, and subsequently to his royal master. It bears no
+date, and may have been designed any time after the minister's elevation
+to the cardinalate in September 1514. It is a splendid affair in every
+way, and gorgeously coloured. The shield of arms rests on a platform
+(gold), the front of which is red, ornamented with an arabesque pattern,
+also red; pillars on the platform support a canopy, ornamented as the
+front of the platform, with the addition of Tudor roses; over the shield
+is the Cardinal's hat, and above that again the holy dove descends. The
+shield is supported by two dingy-looking griffins, whose wings and heads
+are red, and whose beaks, claws, and tail-tips are gold; the background
+is blue.
+
+[Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF SIR NICHOLAS BACON.]
+
+Next in date, after Wolsey's book-plate, comes that which was, I
+believe, engraved at least contemporaneously with the date upon it,
+1574, to place in the volumes given in that year by Sir Nicholas Bacon
+to the University of Cambridge. Bacon died five years after this date;
+he is familiar to us all as 'the father of his country and of Sir
+Francis Bacon.' This book-plate is engraved on wood; like Wolsey's, it
+is found coloured, but it is also--amongst the odds and ends in the
+Bagford Collection--found uncoloured, and without the inscription which
+records the gift to Cambridge. A facsimile of that in the Bagford
+Collection appears opposite: can it be the book-plate of Bacon himself,
+to which, on the copies used for the books that he gave to Cambridge,
+was added the donatory inscription? A close comparison shows that both
+shields of arms are struck from the same block. The arms shown are Bacon
+quartering Quaplode. The variety of this book-plate which bears the
+inscription belongs to what are termed 'gift' or 'legacy' book-plates,
+the dates on which--as they refer to the date of the 'gift' or 'legacy'
+commemorated--are considered _earlier_ than the engraving. In the case
+of 'legacy' book-plates they may often be so, but they are not, I think,
+in many cases of 'gift' book-plates. For instance, if (as from the
+Bagford example seems probable) this was Bacon's own book-plate, the
+date upon it, 1574, may even be many years _later_ than the time at
+which it was made for him. That the date on one of these 'gift'
+book-plates must be, within a very short space of time, the date of its
+engraving, will be shown presently when I come to speak of that
+recording a donation made by Lady Bath.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The next English book-plate which bears upon it an engraved date is that
+of Sir Thomas Tresham. On this the inscription reads 'June 29, 1585,'
+which no doubt refers to the date of engraving, or, probably, to the
+date at which the design for the engraving was finished by the artist.
+As a work of art it is poor, but its interest as a book-plate to
+collectors is not lessened on that account. Tresham was knighted by
+Queen Elizabeth ten years before the date of his book-plate. We know not
+much of him, save what Fuller tells us that he was famous for 'his skill
+in buildings.' One of his sons, Sir Francis, was involved in the
+Gunpowder Plot, and another, Sir Lewis, was made a baronet in 1611.
+
+These three examples are all the sixteenth century English dated
+book-plates yet brought to light. Those in the seventeenth century are
+far more numerous. We find one bearing the date '1613,' which was
+prepared to place in the volumes given, in that year, by William
+Willmer, a Northamptonshire squire, to his college library. The
+inscription on it reads: 'Sydney Sussex Colledge--Ex dono Wilhelmi
+Willmer de Sywell in Com. Northamtoniæ, Armigeri, quondam pentionarii in
+ista Domi (_sic_), viz. in Anno Dñi 1599; sed dedit in Ano Dñi 1613.'
+The book-plate is clearly early, and shows us fine bold heraldic work.
+In style it nearly resembles the Bacon plate, and that of Sir Thomas
+Tresham; but the mantling here descends to the base of the shield. The
+Willmer plate is in Dr. Howard's Collection; a reproduction of it is
+given in Mr. Griggs's _Examples of Armorial Book-Plates_.
+
+Early in the reign of Charles I. may be placed a very beautiful example
+of heraldic engraving, which Sir Wollaston Franks satisfactorily assigns
+to a certain John Talbot of Thorneton, who died in 1659. It is inscribed
+'Coll. Talbott,' and this John Talbot is called 'Colonellus ex parte
+Regis'; the quarterings are those of the families of Ferrers, Bellars,
+and Arderne.
+
+In strange contrast to this fine work is the wood block book-plate of
+'William Courtenay of Treemer, in the county of Cornwall, Esquire,'
+who, in 1632, inherited the Treemer estate. We may note that, not only
+is this book-plate, like all those yet described, free from any
+indication of lines or dots to express the colours in the armorial
+bearings, but below the shield is given a verbal blazon of the coat: 'He
+beareth _or_, 3 Torteauxes.'
+
+This seems to be the place to speak of a very puzzling pair of
+engravings, which certainly appear to have been used as book-plates,
+dated in 1630. They represent the armorial bearings of Sir Edward
+Dering. One of these book-plates which I take to be the earlier, shows a
+less number of quarterings, and contains no indication of a really
+systematic expression of the metals and tinctures in the arms; but the
+other and later example does. The same date appears upon each. The
+second of the two plates occurs bound up in a volume of the Harleian
+Collection of MSS.; and 'Mr. Humphrey Wanly, library-keeper to Robert
+and Edward, Earls of Oxford,' in his description of the specimen in the
+Harleian Collection, calls it 'A printed cut of the Arms or Atchievement
+of Sir Edward Dering, Baronet, dated A.D. 1630, with a fanciful motto in
+misshapen Saxon characters; but by the hatching of the arms in order to
+show the colours, according to the way found out by Sir Edward Bysshe, I
+guess that it is not so old.'
+
+Now, the Harleian volume, in which this engraving occurs, is a copy,
+written in 1645-46, of the Heralds' Visitation of Kent in 1619; and in a
+later, but certainly seventeenth century, handwriting, is a description
+of the numerous quarterings as they appear on the engraving; so that,
+whilst rejecting the claim of this variety of the plate to be an
+engraving of 1630, we may, I think, accept it as at least an early
+example of the indication of the colours and tinctures by lines and
+dots. As for the first of the two varieties, I do not see why it should
+not be as early as the date upon it; there was no particular reason in
+selecting that date; for I do not find that it refers to any special
+event in Sir Edward's life. A writer to _Notes and Queries_, in 1851,
+states that there were several 'loose copies' of the plate--which
+variety, he does not say--in the Surrenden Collection, and Dr. Howard
+saw it 'inserted' in several folio volumes of that collection, when it
+was disposed of by Messrs. Puttick and Simpson. Very good facsimiles of
+these book-plates have been given by Dr. Howard in his _Miscellanea
+Genealogica et Heraldica_.
+
+Another early instance of the expression of the metals and tinctures
+occurs in the book-plate of Lord-Keeper Lyttelton, a plate which derives
+additional interest from the fact of its being the work of William
+Marshall, the famous frontispiece engraver. Sir Edward Lyttelton, the
+owner of the book-plate, was made Lord-Keeper in 1641, under the title
+of Baron Lyttelton of Mounslow. This book-plate, which shows us the arms
+of Lyttelton of Frankley, was evidently engraved before Sir Edward's
+elevation to the peerage. The book-plate, which is the earliest English
+example bearing an engraver's signature, may be dated about 1640.
+
+We know from the arms on dedication plates, and the like, that the
+expression of colours on shields did not become at all general for many
+years after 1640. Take, for instance, Hollar's cuts of arms in the
+illustrations to Dugdale's _Monasticon_, or his _History of St. Paul's_.
+Thus, we must not date every book-plate we find, on which the colours
+are not shown in the new fashion, as before 1640. The small and
+unpretentious book-plate of John Marsham of Whom's Place, near Cuxton,
+in Kent, is an illustration of this. A representation of it is given by
+Mr. Griggs in his _Facsimiles_. Marsham was made a baronet in 1663; so
+the plate is earlier than that, but as it is exactly in the style of the
+dedicatory plates in the works just noticed, we may place it somewhere
+about 1655. It is perhaps by Hollar. Likely enough, other examples will
+come to light.
+
+After the Restoration, the number of English book-plates perceptibly
+increases, though we must remember that the active supporters of
+Cromwell did not object to a little heraldic display--there was a fair
+amount of heraldic work one way and another, executed both with pen and
+pencil, during the twelve years that the king was kept off his throne.
+Two of the earliest post-Restoration book-plates are those of Sir Edward
+Bysshe and his brother-in-law, John Greene. Sir Edward Bysshe became
+Garter King-at-Arms, and John Greene was of Navestock, Essex. Both are
+curious oblong plates, having fancifully shaped shields surrounded by
+palm branches, and held up by ribbons. There is no crest shown in
+either. They are evidently by the same artist, which, as Bysshe and
+Greene were brothers-in-law, is perhaps natural. A somewhat similar,
+though plainer, form of ornamentation surrounds the shields on two other
+anonymous book-plates, one bearing the arms of Southwell, and the other
+those of Eynes or Haynes.
+
+[Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF THOMAS GORE BY MICHAEL BURGHERS.]
+
+Thomas Gore of Alderton, Wilts, the author of _Catalogus de Re
+Heraldicâ_, is a man who might be expected to use a book-plate, and he
+did. Three varieties are known. The first, which dates about 1660,
+though a more elaborate piece of work than those last described, is
+somewhat similar in style, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say
+dissimilar to the style in which other book-plates prior to the
+Restoration were designed. Whoever engraved this plate for Gore also
+engraved the arms of Edward Waterhouse--most probably the engraving was
+intended for Waterhouse's book-plate--which appear as a frontispiece to
+his _Discourse and Defence of Arms and Armory_, 1660. In his second
+book-plate Gore called to his aid the foreigner's art, employing Michael
+Burghers, a Dutch artist, who had recently come from Holland and settled
+at Oxford. Michael produced the book-plate figured opposite, which
+introduces some rather wild allegory, singularly plain cupids seated on
+the backs of flying eagles. Perhaps Gore did not care for this
+allegory,--allegory seems never to have been popular with English
+book-plate owners (see Chapter IV.),--and for his third plate went to an
+Englishman, and to a no less eminent one than William Faithorne. The
+famous portrait-engraver produced as beautiful and bold a book-plate in
+the Simple Armorial style as could well be: the peculiar 'depth' of his
+touch is apparent here and in his other book-plates, of which there are
+several.
+
+[Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE MARRIOTT FAMILY BY FAITHORNE]
+
+It is interesting to note that Faithorne reverts to the pre-Restoration
+style, and improves upon it. The mantling is much richer than that shown
+in earlier examples in the same style, and it more completely surrounds
+the shield. To Faithorne may be assigned two other magnificent
+book-plates, that of Sir George Hungerford of Cadenham (anonymous), and
+the one here reproduced of a member of the family of Marriott of
+Whitchurch, Warwickshire, and Alscot and Preston, Gloucestershire.[4]
+The Hungerford book-plate is noteworthy. The name of Sir George
+Hungerford, its possessor, does not occur in any list of baronets, yet
+he evidently considered himself to possess that dignity, as the 'bloody
+hand of Ulster' figures on his arms. Dugdale, too, in speaking of Sir
+George's marriage, refers to him as 'baronet.' Faithorne also produced a
+book-plate to commemorate a gift of books made by Bishop Hacket, who
+died in 1670--it is particularly curious as showing us the Bishop's
+portrait. I shall speak of it later on, under the heading 'Portrait
+Book-Plates' (pp. 216-220); such plates are comparatively few in number.
+
+Dated, and most probably engraved, in the following year, 1671, is
+another 'gift' book-plate, prepared to place in books presented by the
+then Countess-Dowager of Bath. The inscription reads: 'Ex dono Rachel
+Comitissæ Bathon: Dotariæ An: Dom. MDCLXXI.' This lady was born in 1613;
+she was a daughter of Francis Fane, first Earl of Westmoreland, and
+became the wife of Henry Bourchier, Earl of Bath, who died in 1654; and
+soon afterwards of Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, who died in
+1674; she herself dying in 1680. There is no reason to doubt the date on
+this book-plate, 1671, though, at first sight, it may look a little
+suspicious. True, she had become the wife of the Earl of Middlesex (a
+title only dating from 1622) in 1654, and was still his wife in 1671;
+but she had apparently little reason to be proud of him or his title,
+for he left her and made hay of her fortune, spending it to use the
+words of a contemporary letter,[5] 'in play and rioting.' We cannot,
+therefore, feel much surprised at her desire to pass by her former title
+which would give her rank at court as the widow of an Earl whose
+creation was hard on a century earlier. 'Our cousin, Lady Bath,' writes
+Lady Newport, in April 1661, 'hath got her place of being Lady Bath
+again; it cost her 1,200_l_ . . . her Lord is very angry at her changing
+her title; he says it is an affront to him.' That is why she calls
+herself, on the book-plate under notice, Countess-Dowager of Bath in
+1671. A curious feature about the book-plate is, that it does not seem
+to have been prepared to place in books included in one particular gift
+to a particular person or institution, but rather to have been the
+outcome of my lady's fancy to place such a remembrance of herself in any
+volume she gave away at that or at any subsequent date. The Countess
+also used a book-stamp of the same design as the _ex libris_, but
+without the inscription.
+
+Whilst speaking on the subject of gift book-plates, reference may
+appropriately be made to a curious woodcut used as a book-plate by the
+St. Albans Grammar School, which is figured opposite the next page. It
+is a quaint bit of, no doubt, local work, and, as pointed out to me by
+the Rev. F. Willcox, the headmaster, during a long and dusty hunt,
+occurs only in the volumes given to the school by Sir Samuel Grimston.
+The plate shows us a combination of the arms of the city of St. Albans
+and the motto of the Bacon family, adopted by the Grimstons.
+
+I have no doubt that, if a thorough investigation of the too often
+neglected libraries of our old foundation grammar schools were made,
+other early and curious book-plates might be discovered.
+
+Between 1670 and 1680 quite a number of book-plates were designed,
+evidently by the same man. The work is feeble, but it is very distinct.
+The most interesting of these book-plates, from its possessor, is that
+of Samuel Pepys. Altogether, I know of eight examples: Charles Pitfield,
+Sir Robert Southwell, William Wharton, Sir Henry Hunloke, Samuel Pepys,
+Justinian Pagit, Walter Chetwynd, and Randolph Egerton.
+
+A point of interest about them all is that, as well as expressing
+heraldically the blazon of the different shields, they also indicate
+with an initial letter the colour intended to be shown: 'a' for argent,
+'g' for gules, and so on. The initial of the heraldic term is used in
+every case except that of 'azure,' when 'b' for blue is used; 'a,' as we
+have seen, standing for argent.
+
+Though they differ in the arrangement of the mantling, there can be
+little doubt that all these book-plates are by the same hand, and that
+whoever engraved the plates in Blome's _Gwilim_, engraved these also.
+
+The book-plate of 'Fettiplace Nott,' which bears the date 1694, is a
+fair type of the book-plate that was in use in England for the next
+twenty years; indeed, these might all be the work of half a dozen
+artists.
+
+[Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE ST. ALBANS GRAMMAR SCHOOL, SEVENTEENTH
+CENTURY.]
+
+I have not yet mentioned a very numerous and very uninteresting class of
+early English book-plates--I mean those which are nothing more than
+'name-tickets'--the owner's name and date printed within a border more
+or less ornate. These occur quite early in the seventeenth century, and
+run all through it. Of course, it may be that the owner is an
+interesting person, and then his or her name-ticket becomes interesting
+by reflection, but in themselves these tickets are merely dull. Of
+English Armorial plates, I have referred in detail to the majority of
+those bearing an engraved date--when that date is not obviously
+misleading--prior to the year 1698. I have also spoken of several,
+though by no means all, of the undated examples, which have been proved
+to belong to the seventeenth century. To this second list a patient
+working out of the internal evidence on early-looking, but undated,
+book-plates would, no doubt, add very considerably; and the
+illustrations, verbal and otherwise, that I have given may, I hope, be
+sufficient to indicate the kind of book-plates that are worth such
+investigation.
+
+I have used the date 1698 as a stopping-point, because from that year we
+have dated examples of English book-plates, yearly, down to the
+commencement of the present century. Here let me say a word on the
+subject of dated book-plates generally. The date is certainly an
+advantage, especially when it clearly refers to the date of the
+engraving, and not, as we have seen it sometimes does, to an event in
+the owner's career; but I cannot understand why the 'market value' of a
+book-plate should be enhanced to such an extent as it is by the presence
+on that book-plate of an engraved date. There are probably few
+book-plates which do not bear some mark by which an approximate date can
+be safely affixed to them, and the study of these marks is a very
+desirable undertaking. The great value of a printed date on a book-plate
+is that one can see from it the style of decoration in vogue at a
+particular period, and thus obtain the means for arranging,
+chronologically, undated examples. For there were during certain years
+certain marked styles of decoration adopted by book-plate engravers; but
+of these I propose to speak later on under the heading of 'Styles.'
+
+Let me also mention _misleading_ dates on book-plates, and for this
+purpose it will be sufficient if I take principally the examples cited
+by Mr. J. Paul Rylands, F.S.A., in his Notes on Lancashire and Cheshire
+examples. The date on Sir William St. Quintin's book-plate, 1641, is
+that at which the baronetcy was created; the book-plate was engraved in
+the last century. Sir Francis Fust's book-plate, one remarkable for its
+size and ugliness, is inscribed 'S^{r} Francis Fust of Hill Court in the
+county of Gloucester, Baronet, created 21st August 1662, the 14 year of
+King Charles 2d.' Now this plate cannot be earlier than 1728, the year
+in which the first 'Sir Francis' succeeded to the baronetcy. Here,
+however, the context of words, 'created 21st August 1662,' renders the
+inscription less likely to mislead people into supposing that 1662 was
+the year in which the plate was executed. In other instances we have not
+this help.
+
+The date 1669, on the book-plate of Gilbert Nicholson of Balrath, merely
+refers to the date at which Gilbert acquired his Irish estates; the
+example itself must be later than 1722, as the same copper was employed
+for it as that on which the book-plate of Thomas Carter, dated in that
+year, had been engraved. Again, some collectors hold, and have
+maintained in print, that the book-plate of Sir Robert Clayton, of which
+we must speak again hereafter, was not really engraved in 1679--the date
+which appears upon it. 1679 is the year in which Sir Robert was Lord
+Mayor of London, and it is thought probable that the book-plate was
+engraved later--perhaps in the early years of the eighteenth century,
+when, as we have seen, the fashion of having a book-plate was so
+prevalent--and that Sir Robert placed the date 1679 upon it in order to
+commemorate the date of his mayoralty. For my part, I see no particular
+reason for holding this view; the style in which the plate is executed
+does not seem to me contradictory to the date upon it. Still, as the
+doubt exists, it is better to mention it.
+
+Attention has been called to a book-plate of 'David Paynter of Dale
+Castle, Pembrokeshire, 1679,' which is probably nearly a century later.
+The book-plate of 'William Twemlow of Hatherton, Cheshire, Esquire,
+1686,' was engraved for a Mr. William Twemlow, who died in 1843.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+On the other hand, there are certain book-plates which were engraved
+earlier than the dates which appear upon some impressions of them. The
+book-plate of the statesman Charles James Fox (see opposite) is one
+instance of this. It is inscribed 'The Hon^{ble} Charles James Fox,' and
+was used by the great statesman, but the plate was engraved in 1702--as
+its style suggests--for his half-uncle, and the inscription, before its
+alteration, read:--'Charles Fox of the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields,
+Esq., 1702.'
+
+There is a large book-plate, shown by its style to have been engraved in
+the early years of the eighteenth century, but which is inscribed
+'Martin Stapylton, Esq. of Myton, in the county of York, A.D. 1817.' The
+book-plate was evidently engraved for Sir Bryan Stapylton, who died in
+1727. The Martin Stapylton who altered and used it was one Martin
+Bree--nephew of the last baronet, who died in 1817--who succeeded to his
+uncle's property, but not to his baronetcy; hence he was not justified
+in leaving the helmet of a knight or baronet upon it; he removed the
+'bloody hand of Ulster' from the shield, but the mistake in the helmet
+does not seem to have struck him. On a small variety of this book-plate,
+the inscription on which is similarly altered, the 'bloody hand'
+remains.
+
+Again, the book-plate of 'S^{r} Will^{m} Robinson, Baronett, of Newby,
+in the county of York, 1702,' was altered--by turning the '0' into a
+'6'--into 1762, and was used by his grandson; that inscribed 'John
+Peachey, 1782,' designed in the Chippendale style, is quite twenty years
+earlier; and that of 'Fr. Dickens Armig. 1795,' was certainly engraved
+half a century before.
+
+During the ten or twelve years immediately following the year 1698, the
+number of English dated book-plates is exceedingly large. Taking the
+list printed for private distribution by Sir Wollaston Franks in 1887,
+we find sixteen examples in 1698; seven in 1699; fifteen in 1700;
+sixteen in 1701; forty-four in 1702; fifty-eight in 1703; twenty-seven
+in 1704; and many, but not so many, in the succeeding years.
+Something--what, I have failed to discover--must have given a stimulus
+to the fashion of using book-plates just at the close of the seventeenth
+and opening of the eighteenth century; and not only to using them, but
+also to putting a date on those used. It is a fact that it is more rare
+to find book-plates engraved in this particular style without dates than
+with them.
+
+The fashion of 'dating,' as a rule, went out about the year 1714, about
+the time at which, as we shall see, a new 'style' in book-plates became
+generally adopted. Anonymous book-plates are rare after this date,
+though, both in England and on the Continent, they were, in early times,
+certainly common--a fact which bears silent testimony to the much
+greater intimacy which people in the good old days had with their
+neighbours' armorial bearings. The coat of arms of a man of position was
+almost as well known to those dwelling about him as were the features of
+his face; and if a volume, having within it an Armorial book-plate,
+happened to be found in wrongful custody, the finder might recognise the
+heraldry of the owner, even if he could not read the inscription
+recording that ownership.
+
+So much for the early use of book-plates in England. In the next chapter
+I propose to say something about the leading styles of decoration
+employed by their designers.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[4] There are two sizes of this book-plate.
+
+[5] Report by the Historical MSS. Commission on the papers of the Duke
+of Rutland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+'STYLES' IN ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES
+
+
+LORD DE TABLEY has given us names for nearly all the styles met with in
+English book-plates, and it is perhaps better to accept these
+descriptions in the present work, adding to them another--'Simple
+Armorial'--for the earliest plates, and, indeed, for the great majority
+of those anterior to 1720.
+
+It is not only in book-plates that we see this style adopted: it is used
+in almost every representation of shields of arms in the sixteenth and
+seventeenth centuries, be it on a memorial brass, in sculpture, or on a
+stained glass window. The style is simple and effective. The shield,
+nearly always symmetrical, is surmounted by a helmet, on which is the
+wreath and crest. From the helmet is outspread more or less voluminous
+mantling. In the earlier examples this terminates, generally in tassels,
+before reaching the base of the shield. In later examples its heavy
+folds descend quite to the base, and often ascend upwards from the
+helmet to the level of the top of the crest. Below the shield is a
+narrow scroll for the motto, which is not always given, and at the
+bottom of all is a bracket (on which the owner's name is inscribed),
+having indented edges. Occasionally, but not often, the mantling,
+instead of being foliated, hangs from the helmet in stiff folds at the
+back of the shield, its upper corners being tied up and tasselled. The
+book-plate of Thomas Knatchbull, dated in 1702 (shown on p. 51), is a
+very fair, though not a very early, example of this style. In some
+instances the shield is placed on one side--its right hand upper corner
+being thus brought to the centre of the helmet. The Simple Armorial
+style was, roughly speaking, not much used after 1720.
+
+Besides the book-plates described in the foregoing chapter, nearly all
+of which belong to the 'Armorial' style, there are sundry others worthy
+of particular observation, should the reader meet with them. There is,
+for instance, the book-plate of 'The Right Hon^{ble} James, Earl of
+Derby, Lord of Man and ye Isles, 1702'; the grandson of _the_ James,
+seventh Earl, who suffered for his loyalty, and of the gallant Charlotte
+Trémouille. This is a large and very striking book-plate in every way;
+its size makes possible the introduction of some fine bold work, which
+is rendered even more effective by the fact that the arms portrayed are
+simply those of Stanley; so that there is no crowding in of quarterings.
+The decoration is that common to the book-plates of peers, or of other
+persons entitled to use supporters at the time: the mantling spreads
+from the helmet, and terminates at the heads of the supporters; these
+stand upon the motto-scroll. There is a smaller variety of this
+book-plate--one of the ordinary size--which is not so pleasing. When
+Earl James died, in 1736, the Earldom of Derby devolved on his kinsman,
+Sir Edward Stanley, Bart., whose book-plate, larger and finer than that
+just described, is really a very beautiful piece of work in the Jacobean
+style; the arms are Stanley impaling Hesketh, and the size of the
+book-plate is 6-5/8 × 5-1/4 in.
+
+Similar examples of large-sized book-plates are furnished by those of
+'The Honourable Iames Brydges of Wilton Castle, in Hereford Shere'
+(where the effect is somewhat marred by the number of quarterings
+displayed); 'Sir William Brownlowe of Belton, in the County of Lincoln,
+Baronet, 1698,' and his wife 'Dame Alice Brownlowe;' Lord Roos and his
+wife, Lady Roos; 'Paul Jodrell of Duffield, in y^{e} County of Derby,
+Esq^{r}, Clerk of y^{e} Hon^{ble} House of Commons'--a particularly bold
+piece of work; and 'S^{r} John Wentworth of North Elmeshall, in the West
+Rideing of Yorkshire, Baronet.' It is probable that all these, and other
+large-sized English book-plates, also exist, or existed, in the ordinary
+size (see pp. 18, 19). The largest English book-plate, and one which,
+from its unusual size, is certain to attract attention, is that of
+'Simon Scroope of Danby-super-Yore, in com. Ebor., Esq., 1698'; here,
+too, much of the good effect is lost by the number of quarterings (no
+less than twenty-seven) introduced upon the shield.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+I referred, at the close of the previous chapter, to the large number of
+English book-plates engraved during the last two years of the
+seventeenth century and first ten of the eighteenth. The great majority
+of these book-plates are in the 'Simple Armorial' style, and there is
+upon these a very great similarity in the way in which that style is
+represented; indeed, they may well have been, all of them, the work of
+less than a dozen artists. Any distinctive feature that exists is to be
+found in the treatment of the mantling. For instance: it is finely cut
+on the book-plates of Nicholas Penny, Lord Cornwallis, Lord Roos, and
+'John Sayer of Hounslow, in the County of Midd., Esq^{r},' all dated in
+1700; on the Sayer plate the inscription is enclosed in a Jacobean
+scroll; it is heavy, and stiffly cut in the book-plates of James
+Bengough, Richard Newdigate, Sir William Hustler, and John Godfrey, all
+dated in 1702; it is leaflike and graceful on the book-plates of William
+Thompson and Francis Columbine, dated in 1708, and of Thomas Rowney,
+dated in 1713, whilst the book-plate of 'Gostlet Harington of
+Marshfield, in the Coun. of Glocester, Gent., 1706,' is unique, the
+mantling being cut like strawberry leaves. There is a peculiar effect
+produced by the way in which this example is printed, and the lettering
+of the inscription is also unusual.
+
+There is one of these book-plates which the reader should notice from
+the peculiar arrangement of the decorative accessories, occasioned by
+the fact that the owner was both a spiritual and temporal peer. I refer
+to that of 'Nathanael Crewe, Lord Bishop of Durham and Baron Crewe of
+Stene, 1703.' Here the mantling springs from the helmet, rises to the
+level of the crest, and terminates at the heads of the supporters; a
+baron's coronet appears instead of a mitre, and behind the shield are a
+crozier and sword in saltire, the decoration of the head of the crozier
+being so like the form of the mantling that it seems, at first sight, to
+be part of it.
+
+The 'Jacobean' style is far more ornate than that last mentioned, and
+the book-plate of 'John Reilly of the Middle Temple, Esqr.,' is a fair
+example of the best kind of Jacobean work. The escutcheon is raised on
+an elaborate and richly-carved Jacobean sideboard; mantling is still
+there, but it is curtailed, and seems almost resting on the top of the
+sideboard, on either side of which are columns, given in high relief; on
+each is carved a perpendicular festoon of leaves. Below the shield,
+crouched on the ledge of the sideboard, are two eagles with expanded
+wings; each holds in its beak one end of the ribbon which ties into a
+bunch the corners of a fringed cloth bearing the inscription already
+quoted; below the eagles, inverted cornucopiæ pour out books upon the
+floor on which the sideboard stands.
+
+This plate may probably be dated very early in the eighteenth century,
+or even late in the seventeenth, since it is recorded that John Reilly's
+signature, with the date '1679,' occurs in a book in which it is
+fastened. To whichever date it belongs, the Simple Armorial style was
+then in general use,--that is to say, so far as the book-plates of
+private individuals are concerned. These, as we have just seen, nearly
+all bear a helmet, varying according to the owner's social rank, and
+from that falls the mantling, more or less elaborate. But if we look at
+the book-plates, dated in or about the year 1700, of certain colleges at
+Oxford or Cambridge, at ladies' book-plates of the same period,--none of
+which, of course, display a helmet,--and at some others in which the
+arms are given in an oval, we see that the blank on either side of the
+shield (consequent upon the absence of the helmet from which the
+mantling would fall) is supplied by work distinctly Jacobean. Lord De
+Tabley, whose descriptions in justification of the names he has bestowed
+upon the several styles we shall not hesitate to quote in this chapter,
+thus describes this work:--
+
+'To supply this void in decoration, a distinct frame was placed round
+the escutcheons, and this framework was ornamented with ribbons, palm
+branches, or festoons.
+
+'The prominent or high-relief portions of this frame were not set close
+to the edges of the escutcheons, but between it and them; an interval of
+flat-patterned surface nearly always intervened, in which, as upon a
+wall, the actual shield was embedded. This we shall call the lining of
+the armorial frame; and we shall find this lining is usually imbricated
+with a pattern of fish-scales, one upon another, or diapered into
+lattice-work. The scale-covered or latticed interval of lining is the
+characteristic of the style. . . . Another step in the external
+decoration was to add a bracket, distinct from the frame, upon which the
+shield, in its frame, was supposed to rest. This bracket naturally
+initiated the decorative art and surface arrangement of the
+shield-frame.'
+
+As a rule, too, an escallop-shell forms the centre of the bracket in
+Jacobean book-plates. In some instances it is placed in the centre
+below, but more usually in the centre above; and then in the centre
+below we have the head of some mythical and uninviting monster. Either
+as quasi-supporters on the ledges of the bracket, right and left, or on
+the side ledges of the shield, if the bracket is amalgamated with the
+frame, are 'things' selected from the following miscellaneous
+collection--lions; cherubs, male and female; term-figures; busts of
+fairies, with butterfly wings; angels, generally engaged in
+trumpet-blowing, etc.
+
+The student should notice this escallop-shell, because we shall see it
+introduced into the style of decoration that succeeded the
+Jacobean--there it became a shelly border rather than a distinct shell.
+
+On the whole, then, the usual ornamentation of a Jacobean book-plate
+renders it easily recognisable. The decoration is stiff and
+conventional, displays more solidity than grace, and altogether seems
+less appropriate to a book-plate than the heavy rolls of mantling,
+which, as we have seen, surrounded the shield during the prevalence of
+the preceding style. As for the title 'Jacobean' which has been bestowed
+upon it, it should be explained that the reference is rather to the
+style of decoration in vogue in the days of James II. than to anything
+in the days of James I. Lord De Tabley has pointed out that, as compared
+with the woodwork preserved in churches of the latter half of the
+seventeenth century, and as compared with the mouldings on monuments of
+the same period, a practical identity of decoration cannot fail to
+strike the antiquary, and his choice of the name 'Jacobean' for this
+class of book-plates is thus abundantly justified.
+
+Examples of Jacobean book-plates are numerous in most English
+collections, for the style continued long in fashion; indeed, it lasted,
+in more or less purity, down to 1745, or even later, and I think it
+quite likely that some of the evidently early undated examples may
+really have been executed during the last quarter of the seventeenth
+century. The similarity, to which we have just alluded, between the
+ornamentation shown upon Jacobean book-plates and that displayed in
+ecclesiastical decoration of the time of Charles the Second as well as
+James the Second, makes it very probable that this is so.
+
+The few book-plates which are known to have been designed or executed by
+Hogarth (see p. 79) are in the Jacobean style; but, with the exception
+of that eminent artist and George Vertue, the men who worked upon
+Jacobean book-plates were not distinguished engravers. Nevertheless,
+some of their productions are distinctly good, though the decoration
+was, perhaps, too often overdone. The touch, in many, suggests that the
+artist was accustomed to engrave on gold or silver plate. This is
+notably the case in the book-plate of 'Charles Barlow, Esq., of Emmanuel
+College, Cambridge,' engraved in, or immediately after, 1730. This
+book-plate is worthy of observation, should the reader meet with it, as
+a particularly exaggerated example of the Jacobean style: the framework
+seems scarcely able to support the decorative accessories with which it
+is laden, and which include representations of birds, beasts, mythical
+figures, stony flowers in festoons or baskets, heads, shells, and what
+not!
+
+The earliest dated Jacobean example is that of 'William Fitz Gerald,
+Lord Bishop of Clonfert,' which is inscribed '1698.' Here the escutcheon
+is of the 'Simple Armorial' shape, but set in a Jacobean framework,
+decorated with leafy sprays, and surmounted by a mitre, the ribbons of
+which terminate in tassels. Next we have the book-plates of five
+Cambridge Colleges,--Jesus, Pembroke, Queens', St. John's, and Trinity
+Hall; all bear the same engraved date--1700. These, and many like them
+dated in subsequent years, are no doubt the work of one man: the design
+consists of an escutcheon, on which are the College arms, set in a
+finely-drawn, scale-patterned frame, bedecked with hawk-bells, ribbons,
+wreaths, and sprays of flowers. Other College plates--except that of New
+College, Oxford, which is 'Simple Armorial' in its style--are Jacobean.
+
+In 1701 comes the book-plate of Dame Anna Margaretta Mason. Here the
+lozenge, in which she bears her arms, appears with decoration very
+similar to that just described, though slightly more elaborate. In 1703
+the book-plate of Philip Lynch shows how similar decoration is bestowed
+upon an oval escutcheon; whilst, in 1713, the book-plate of Henry, Duke
+of Kent, furnishes an early dated example of the introduction of the
+bracket, which is, as we have seen, a leading feature in Jacobean
+ornamentation.
+
+This is really a remarkably fine book-plate. The escutcheon, indented in
+a somewhat peculiar fashion, is surrounded by the Garter, and fastened
+to the front of the bracket, a highly ornamented piece of work, on which
+stand the two supporters. Above is the ducal coronet; below, in an
+oblong Jacobean frame, is the inscription. The family of Grey, Dukes of
+Kent, is prolific in book-plates; that, dated five years later, of
+'Mary, Countess of Harrold,' daughter-in-law to Henry, Duke of Kent, is
+a more elaborate, though less finely executed, piece of Jacobean work.
+Her arms, and those of her husband, appear side by side in separate oval
+shields; angels hold aloft an earl's coronet over both, while below,
+between the shields, is the head of a cherub, whose wings are arranged
+as a collar.
+
+Other conspicuous Jacobean book-plates are those of Ellerker Bradshaw;
+Dr. Philip Bisse, Bishop of St. David's; Richard Massie of Coddington,
+Cheshire; 'James Hustler,' 1730; 'Sir Thomas Hare, Baronet, of Stow
+Hall, in Norfolk,' dated in 1734 (see p. 61); 'Francis Winnington, of
+Lincoln's Inn, Esq.,' dated in 1732; 'Saml. Goodford of ye Inner Temple,
+Esq.,' dated in 1737; 'John Robinson, M.D.,' dated in 1742; 'St.
+Thomas's Hospital Library;' and 'Lucius Henry Hibbins, of Gray's Inne,
+Esqe.'
+
+A little before, and a little after, 1720 there was a fashion in English
+book-plates, which may almost be called a style: it was to place the
+shield of arms in a medallion, the background of which is shaded.
+Beneath, is the owner's name and description. The term 'Tombstone Style'
+might not sound an agreeable designation for these book-plates, but it
+would be very accurate; for, really, there is a strong likeness between
+them and the monumental slabs placed over deceased persons, whose social
+status rendered them eligible for interment in positions where they
+would be walked over by future generations of church-goers. We may
+mention three such book-plates: Edward Haistwell, dated in 1718, Sir
+John Rushout and John Lethieullier, Remembrancer of the City.
+
+So far the shape of the shield used has been perfectly symmetrical. We
+now come to speak of the third style adopted by English book-plate
+designers, the leading feature of which is an absence of symmetry. This
+style has been christened 'Chippendale'; and when its characteristics
+have been described, and the leading features in Chippendale furniture
+remembered, we shall see the appropriateness of the name.
+
+'The mark and stamp of a Chippendale _ex libris_,' says Lord De Tabley,
+'is a frilling or border of open shell-work, set close up to the rounded
+outer margin of the escutcheon, and, with breaks, more or less enclosing
+it. This seems to be a modification of the scallop shell, so normal at
+the base either of frame or bracket on a Jacobean plate. It is, in fact,
+a border imitating the pectinated curves and grooves on the margins of a
+scallop-shell. Outside this succeed various furniture-like limbs and
+flourishes, eminently resembling the triumphs of ornate upholstery which
+Chippendale about this time brought into vogue.' The helmet and mantling
+are quite exceptional in book-plates of this style, except in examples
+which were probably designed and executed by Scotch artists.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Although it was not until 1754 that Chippendale published, in folio,
+_The Gentleman's and Cabinetmaker's Director_, 'being a large Collection
+of the most useful Designs of Household Furniture in the most
+fashionable taste, with 160 Plates of elegant designed Furniture,' there
+was probably by that time a good deal of Chippendale furniture already
+in the market, and we are therefore not surprised to find a book-plate
+designed in the Chippendale style, dated in 1714--that of 'East
+Apthorpe.' True, the style there shown is not at all 'advanced,' yet
+there are decided indications of it, and for that reason it deserves
+attention. Although the shield is shell-shaped and ornamented with
+flowers, yet there are upon the plate indications of a horizontally-hatched
+Jacobean lining to the frame. We may, I think, consider this one of the
+earliest attempts at designing a Chippendale book-plate.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The style improved during the next ten or fifteen years, and then began
+to deteriorate. As an escutcheon, the shell-shaped or non-symmetrical
+shield is unnatural and even ugly, but it lends itself to an artistic
+treatment which the previous styles in English book-plates certainly did
+not. For example, flowers--of which there are always many in this style
+of book-plate--can be represented as in nature; roses blossom on sprays
+or branches, instead of being woven closely together in conventional
+festoons, lilies are left to droop their heads, whilst bunches of
+grasses or leaves are bound so loosely together that they forfeit
+nothing of their natural elegance. Allegoric figures also find place in
+Chippendale book-plates, but they are of a much more attractive kind
+than those displayed in the Jacobean plates. Cupids or nymphs are
+sometimes really graceful bits of drawing when depicted in the better
+specimens of the style of which we are now speaking. The book-plate of
+'James Brackstone, Citizen of London,' dated in 1751--figured opposite
+this page--is as good a specimen of a pure Chippendale book-plate as
+could be found; whilst that of John Ord of Lincoln Inn, dated ten
+years later, betrays some signs of a decadence which soon afterwards
+became general.
+
+'The fashion,' as Lord De Tabley remarks, 'began to be vulgarised in the
+hands of weak designers, who bestowed floral embellishments upon the
+framework of the shields, without any moderation whatever, endeavouring
+by a crowded decoration to mask the real weakness and poverty of their
+powers of design.' As a consequence, we have in the later Chippendale
+book-plates, those, say, from 1760 to 1780 or 1785, some very terrible
+productions. Shell-work and flowers are retained, but they are regarded
+as inadequate, and cherubs, dragons, 'nymphs in kilted petticoats,'
+sheep, cattle, trees, fruit, fruit-baskets, portions of buildings,
+fountains, books, implements of husbandry, and a host of other
+miscellaneous objects appear as decorations. Indeed, it is wonderful
+what a strange medley a designer in the later days of Chippendaleism
+could produce for a customer willing to pay for it!
+
+We may as well here point out a few interesting examples of English
+book-plates designed in the Chippendale style. A prolific worker in it
+was J. Skinner of Bath (see pp. 81-86; 203-212), who followed the
+excellent plan of dating nearly all his work, which should, therefore,
+be carefully observed when met with. In one of his book-plates, that
+which, in 1743, he produced for 'Charles Delafaye, Esq., of Wichbury,
+Wilts.' it is curious to note with what evident diffidence the designer
+uses the graceful sprays of natural flowers in ornamenting the shelly
+shield. Yet in another book-plate, that of Benjamin Hatley Foote,
+engraved in the same year, the anonymous artist uses these ornaments
+without hesitation, and produces a book-plate which might have been
+engraved many years later. Two very noticeable examples are also
+supplied by the fully developed Chippendale book-plates of Richard
+Caryer and Joseph Pocklington. In each the crest is placed on a
+miniature representation of the shield, which contains the arms. Of the
+debased Chippendale book-plates, of which we have had to speak, it is
+hard to select examples for particular reference, for they are sadly
+numerous, and seem to vie with each other in ugliness and vulgarity; the
+prize may, however, be claimed by 'C. Eve', who, conscious, perhaps, of
+the atrocity he was committing in using such a book-plate, makes an
+attempt at disguising his name. To describe his plate is nearly
+impossible; suffice it to say that, built on to the frame are sundry
+stages on which a variety of pastoral scenes are depicted, and that any
+beauties which the floral embellishments might in themselves possess are
+effectually obliterated by overcrowding.
+
+Before Chippendaleism had died out, another marked style in English
+book-plates had already come in, and was getting to be generally
+adopted. We will call this the 'Wreath and Ribbon' or 'Festoon' style,
+and probably one of the earliest examples of it is that figured
+opposite, which shows us the book-plate of George Lewis Jones, Bishop of
+Kilmore, dated in 1774. There is a good deal of grace in these 'Wreath
+and Ribbon' book-plates. The shield is again symmetrical, and of a shape
+that a shield might possibly be; the flowers and leaves that decorate it
+are for the most part still left free and unconfined, and even when
+woven into festoons they are somewhat less conventional than those which
+compose the festoons of the Jacobean period. These festoons, and a
+labyrinth of floating ribbons, were intended to compensate for the loss
+of the shelly border and its adjuncts of the 'Chippendale' style.
+
+Just in the same way as the Chippendale book-plates very closely
+resembled in their decoration the furniture with which Chippendale
+filled the fashionable drawing-rooms of his time, so in their turn those
+designed in what we have christened the 'Wreath and Ribbon' style very
+closely resembled the decoration which Thomas Sheraton suggested for
+contemporary furniture. This the reader may see for himself, if he will
+turn to Sheraton's work, _The Cabinetmaker and Upholsterer's Drawing
+Book_.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+I do not know that there are many examples of the 'Wreath and Ribbon'
+book-plates which call for special attention. Though several are pretty,
+there is a strong family likeness between all. Perhaps the most
+conspicuous is that of 'John Symons, Esq^{r}.' In this, prettily drawn
+cherubs, descending from the sky, hold the corners of a mantle, which
+surrounds the shield. The book-plates of 'Sir Thomas Banks I'Anson, of
+Corfe Castle, Dorset'; of the 'Rev. George Pollen'; and of 'John
+Holcombe, New Cross,' are useful for comparison, on account of the
+engraved dates which they bear--1783, 1787, and 1799 respectively;
+whilst that of 'Robert Surtees, Mainsforth,' is interesting both from
+its possessor, the historian of Durham, who was also its designer, and
+from its unusual hatched background.
+
+By degrees the festoons of flowers and entanglement of ribbons were
+discarded, and the shield, similarly shaped, appeared destitute of
+ornamentation. The helmet was omitted, and the 'wreath' on which the
+crest should properly rest was placed, in a meaningless way, the
+fraction of an inch above the upper line of the shield, and entirely
+without support. After this, quite early in the nineteenth century, and
+during its first fifteen or twenty years, there came into fashion a
+design in English book-plates which we may term the 'Celestial' style.
+In this the shield is depicted as suspended in mid-air, with a
+background of sky or clouds, or else resting upon a cloud-built bank. It
+gave the designer very slight opportunity for the display of artistic
+taste; had it done so, the opportunity would probably have been
+neglected, for the designers and engravers of book-plates in this style
+were men of whom the world at large knows nothing. The shield, in
+book-plates of the time of which I am now speaking, was entirely
+without ornament, and of this shape--
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The helmet was seldom introduced, so that the crest was placed in the
+same absurd position as that just described. The shield figured above is
+a fair specimen of that in vogue between 1810 and 1830. From the latter
+date to within a few years ago, the arms, in the majority of English
+book-plates, were represented in a more ornate shield. The helmet was
+reintroduced, and from it fell a slight mantling, somewhat similar to
+that which appears in our earliest examples. It is hardly necessary to
+indicate any particular specimens designed in these last-mentioned
+styles.
+
+Before closing this chapter, I ought, perhaps, to say a word about
+Scotch and Irish book-plates. It cannot be said that in these there was
+ever a style distinctively national. The style fashionable in England at
+a particular time was also fashionable in Scotland and in Ireland; yet
+there is a perceptible difference in the way in which its details were
+carried out, especially in Scotland. In Edinburgh there were several
+book-plate engravers, and their work possesses a characteristic
+touch;[6] the 'Simple Armorial' style is rendered much more stiffly, and
+the shield is often round. 'Jacobean' book-plates are very uncommon, but
+the 'Chippendales' are an odd mixture of that style as we know it in
+England and the 'Jacobean.' The presence of a helmet and mantling in a
+'Chippendale' book-plate engraved in Scotland is not unusual, and the
+shield is always very soberly placed. I do not know of a 'Library
+Interior' plate that hails from north of the Tweed; but, if one ever be
+discovered, depend upon it no Cupids will frolic there. A few Scotch
+book-plates are, perhaps, emblematic; that is, display emblems of the
+possessor's art or trade. Dr. John Bosworth's, in which are figured the
+staff of Æsculapius, a cock, a serpent, and an owl, is an instance of
+this; but allegory is almost unknown. No mythological figures sit among
+the floral decorations of Scotch Chippendale book-plates, as they do so
+frequently in later Chippendale work in England. The only instance that
+I can call to mind of the introduction of figures at all into the
+decoration of a Scotch book-plate, is that of 'Birnie of Broomhill'
+(_circa_ 1715), reproduced opposite, and in this the figures are sombre
+enough,--two ministers of 'the kirk' kneeling at their desks. Irish
+book-plates have even less individuality than Scotch, and are chiefly
+recognisable by the coarseness of their work, and their dark printing.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[6] A list of some Scottish book-plate engravers, compiled by Mr. J.
+Orr, is printed in the _Ex Libris Journal_, ii. p. 41.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ALLEGORY IN ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES
+
+
+IN the last chapter I spoke of the leading styles followed in designing
+English book-plates, in, as far as possible, chronological sequence,
+though the reader will have noticed that such styles overlapped each
+other, often by a considerable number of years. Concurrently with these
+distinct styles, or with nearly all of them, there are to be found many
+English book-plates which may be appropriately called 'picture'
+book-plates, and which may themselves be divided into two classes: those
+which, quite apart from the heraldry upon them, show things unreal, or
+combinations of things real and unreal; and those which, apart from the
+heraldry, show things wholly real. Let us speak, first, of the former of
+these divisions--'Allegoric' book-plates we will call them.
+
+The collector will soon discover that in England allegory formed at no
+period, except, perhaps, in the days of Bartolozzi and Sherwin, a really
+national style in book-plates, but rather an occasional fancy indulged
+in by a particular individual here and there. Whilst in France
+book-plates on which was displayed allegory, and the wildest allegory,
+were actually abundant, in England they are decidedly rare; and it is
+indeed interesting to see how our English artists set to work when
+called upon to design them.
+
+So far as I am aware, the earliest example of an English Allegoric
+book-plate as yet brought to light, is that of Thomas Gore of Alderton,
+which is fully described on p. 34. This may be dated somewhere about
+1675, and was, as the signature shows us, the work of a Dutch artist,
+Michael Burghers; so that we may, perhaps, regard the allegory upon it
+rather as the outcome of Michael's brain than the carrying out of
+instructions given him by a Wiltshire squire!
+
+The date of the next English book-plate I have noticed, in which
+allegory is introduced, is also the work of a foreigner,--a
+Frenchman,--Louis du Guernier, who, at the age of thirty, came over from
+Paris in 1708, and who died here in 1716. Soon after his arrival he
+executed a book-plate, decidedly foreign in appearance, for Lady
+Cairnes, wife of Sir Alexander Cairnes of Monaghan. The Cairnes arms,
+impaling Gould, are on a round shield in a scaly frame; this is placed
+on steps, at the back of which is classical masonry. The shield is kept
+from falling by three cupids,--two seated and one standing,--whilst two
+flying ones hold aloft a ribbon bearing the owner's name, thus: 'Lady
+Elizabeth Cairnes.' She was a sister of Sir Nathaniel Gould, so that her
+description on the book-plate as 'Lady' is clearly wrong; she should
+have been called 'Dame.' The error arose, most likely, from the
+engraver's imperfect knowledge of English titles,--a very general
+stumbling-block to foreigners. The book-plate is an exceedingly pretty
+piece of work. There is some of the Jacobean scale work used in it which
+English engravers were beginning to introduce into their designs; but
+the employment of allegory is certainly the most striking feature it
+possesses. I do not know of any other book-plates executed by Louis du
+Guernier while in England, and probably the people of this country were
+not yet quite prepared to confide--as Lord De Tabley puts it--their
+family escutcheons 'to the care of Minerva or the Delian Phoebus
+himself.'
+
+But though Michael Burghers's somewhat unbeautiful allegory may not have
+pleased Thomas Gore or his other English clients in 1675, nor the
+prettier allegory of Louis du Guernier have generally commended itself
+to people in this country in 1710, allegory, if not in the work of these
+artists, was bound sooner or later to come into fashion on English
+book-plates, seeing that it was, and for long had been, fashionable
+across the Channel. There have been few outbreaks of disease on the
+Continent that have not infected this country,--at all events, slightly.
+The foreigners whom the foreign king, on his arrival in England in 1688,
+brought with him engendered foreign ways and foreign fashions at Court,
+and these ways and fashions were in turn adopted by people who did not
+go to Court, and that is how allegory crept into the book-plates of the
+rank and file of Englishmen.
+
+The first English engraver, born and bred, to execute an Allegoric
+book-plate was John Pine, himself a man of letters, and one with whose
+features Hogarth has made us familiar. In 1736 he was employed to design
+and engrave a book-plate to place in the thirty thousand volumes of
+Bishop Moore's library, which George I. had bought, in 1715, to present
+to the University of Cambridge, but which were not suitably housed till
+1734. No doubt Pine was fully impressed with the munificence of the
+gift,--a mass of volumes which the heavy-headed king would have never
+opened had he kept, and never understood had he opened them. His task
+was to design a book-plate commensurate with the royal munificence, and
+he probably considered he had been equal to the occasion when he
+produced what we see opposite the next page. Lord De Tabley's words so
+accurately describe this pompous production, that I will quote them:--
+
+'The design represents a vast structure, rather like an ormolu
+chimney-piece clock, of which the arms of the University of Cambridge,
+in a plain, solid frame, represent the face. Behind this towers up a
+vast pyramid, on which the brick work is distinctly marked. As dexter
+supporter stands Phoebus Apollo in person, reaching out a wreath. A
+clouded sun rays out behind him. At his feet are deposited samples of
+the book collection of late so munificently bestowed. As sinister
+supporter sits Minerva with helm and spear and Gorgon-headed shield. Her
+feet are wrapt in cloud. In the centre of the bracket, beneath these
+gods, is inserted a medallion portrait of royal George, reading round
+its exergue, _Georgius D.G., MAG. BR. FR. ET HIB. REX F.D._ This is
+flanked by a laurel and a palm branch.' Pine--who had submitted proofs
+of this book-plate before August 1736, for at that date he offers to
+make George's portrait more accurate--engraved four sizes of this plate.
+The design is similar in three, but in the fourth, and smallest, the
+artist evidently felt that, in so limited a space, he could not do
+justice to Apollo and Minerva, and discreetly omitted them. He signs
+this smallest plate in full, 'J. Pine, Sculp.'
+
+There may now be seen at Cambridge, in many of the books which George I.
+presented, book-plates which at first sight appear to be modern
+impressions from Pine's plates, but, on examination, prove to be copies,
+though not exact copies, of Pine's work, and on these the signature is
+'J. B.' The late Mr. Henry Bradshaw discovered that these copies were
+the work of John Baldrey, a Cambridge engraver, at the close of the last
+century. At the time that he was working for the University, a large
+number of the volumes given by George I. required re-binding, and, as
+Pine's plates were worn out or lost, Baldrey was commissioned to execute
+a copy of the earlier design, in order to supply a book-plate for the
+re-bound volumes.
+
+[Illustration: BOOK-PLATE FOUND IN BOOKS GIVEN BY GEORGE I. TO THE
+UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.]
+
+Very soon after the 'Munificentia Regia' to Cambridge in 1715, the
+loyalty of Oxford to the 'illustrious House of Hanover' was seriously
+doubted, and the King sent a squadron of horse into the city, whereupon
+an Oxford 'varsity wit composed the following epigram:--
+
+    'The King, observing with judicious eyes,
+     The state of both his Universities,
+     To one he sends a regiment;--For why?
+     That _learned_ body wanted _loyalty_;
+     To th' other books he gave, as well discerning
+     How much that _loyal_ body wanted _learning_.'
+
+Which drew from a champion of Cambridge the reply:--
+
+    'The King to Oxford sent his troop of horse,
+     For Tories own no _argument_ but _force_;
+     With equal care, to Cambridge books he sent,
+     For Whigs allow no _force_ but _argument_.'
+
+Though much later in date than the design just noticed, it may be as
+well to mention here another book-plate--also 'Allegoric'--which, was
+engraved by John Pine. This was executed by him from a drawing by
+Gravelot, for Dr. John Burton, about the year 1740. It shows us the
+interior of a library, presumably the doctor's, with a couple of cupids
+supporting a shield bearing the Burton arms. This design, which was
+subsequently appropriated by 'Wadham Wyndham, Esq.,' as his
+book-plate,[7] is a very 'slight' affair after the Cambridge plate; but
+Pine no doubt possessed a fitting sense of the difference to be observed
+in designing a book-plate for a mere Doctor of Divinity and in
+commemorating the gift of a royal donor.
+
+After John Pine, the next designers of English book-plates in the
+Allegoric style are both famous men,--William Hogarth and George Vertue.
+We will speak of the works of the greater man first: they consist of two
+undoubted book-plates and of a few more possible ones, and were executed
+quite at the outset of Hogarth's career, say, about 1720. The first is
+described as done for the books of John Holland, herald painter. Minerva
+is seen seated among cupids, four in number, with her hand placed upon a
+shield bearing the family arms. The chief interest in Hogarth's other
+undoubted book-plate--that of George Lambart, the landscape painter, one
+of Hogarth's convivial crew--lies in the female figures, which sit right
+and left of the shield. It is figured over leaf, from the copy in Sir
+Wollaston Franks's collection, which is the only original example known
+to exist--other copies are from the plates in Ireland's work, and bear
+his initials. The collector is cautioned against certain plates signed
+'W. H.,' which have been attributed to Hogarth, but are in reality the
+work of William Hibbart, a Bath engraver, working about the middle of
+the eighteenth century.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Turning now to the work of George Vertue in designing English Allegoric
+book-plates, we come to a very beautiful and very interesting example,
+which was probably engraved in, or very soon after, 1730--the book-plate
+of Henrietta, Countess of Oxford. I have already called attention to
+this engraving in speaking of old-time allusions to book-plates (p. 14),
+and do not here intend to do more than make passing reference to it,
+since I have spoken fully of it later on in what I have to say about
+'ladies'' book-plates (pp. 186-199). It is only mentioned now in order
+to give a reference to it in its proper chronological position.
+
+We have now to travel for some distance along the road of time before
+coming to another example of allegory on an English book-plate.
+
+We find it, in 1740, on a plate which one J. Skinner engraved from a
+design by 'T. Ross.' This is really a very beautiful book-plate, as its
+reproduction (p. 83) shows. A shield--the shape and ornamentation of
+which is Chippendale--bearing the Wiltshire arms, is placed upon a
+platform and against a cippus, or small monumental column; Shakespeare
+stands on the right, and listens, with a pleased expression, to the
+music of a rustic piper, whose head appears at the back of the cippus,
+whilst, on the left, Pope weighs the eloquence of an orator, whose head
+and upraised hand also appear from behind the cippus. A medallion of
+Augustus is on a pedestal above. Lying on the platform are a globe and
+books and many emblems of the painter's and musician's arts, and amongst
+these sits Cupid thinking, perhaps, with which he will play next, and
+holding the end of a ribbon inscribed: 'John Wiltshire, Bath, 1740.' The
+design is certainly original, and makes us interested as to the identity
+of the owner.
+
+It is quite possible that we have here not only an interesting
+book-plate, but the book-plate of an interesting man. When Gainsborough,
+the painter, moved to Bath in 1760 he found that the 'Pickford' of the
+day, who had the carrying trade of the Bath road, was no ordinary
+carrier, but a man of taste and culture, and ready to do anything he
+could to help art and artists. He was a certain John Wiltshire, and
+before Gainsborough had been long a resident at Bath he was Wiltshire's
+fast friend, and in the enjoyment of a very tangible proof of
+friendship: for Wiltshire carried to London, _gratis_, every picture
+that Gainsborough needed to send thither. Not a penny would he take for
+carriage. 'No, no,' he would say, when the painter's modesty led him to
+protest against such generosity, 'I admire painting too much for that.'
+No doubt he did, and it must be said that, in return for his goodness,
+Gainsborough gave him many a charming bit of work on which to feast his
+eyes. Let us hope we have before us the book-plate of this 'kind of
+worthy man,' as Allan Cunningham called him, who loved Gainsborough and
+admired his works.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Of course the plate is twenty years earlier than the commencement of
+Gainsborough's residence at Bath and of his friendship with Wiltshire;
+but what of that? Wiltshire had been, likely enough, a lover of things
+beautiful and the owner of books, long before; there is no necessity for
+imagining that his was a sudden conversion to a self-sacrificing love
+for art, produced by intimacy with Gainsborough.
+
+Another interesting English book-plate, in which allegory plays a part,
+is that, also by J. Skinner, of William Oliver,[8] doctor of medicine,
+philanthropist, and inventor of biscuits. It is, judging from the form
+of the engraver's signature, of about the same date as the Wiltshire
+book-plate. The shield, bearing the Oliver coat-of-arms, rests upon a
+platform on which stand two figures, as in the example last described;
+but instead of these figures being representative of the drama and of
+literature, they are an ancient and a modern medical practitioner: the
+former, perhaps, even the god of medicine himself. This was quite
+appropriate, for Oliver, though a man of cultured tastes in varied walks
+of life, and one who might have appropriately committed the care of his
+family escutcheon to the allegoric representatives of many arts, was
+first and foremost a doctor of medicine. The modern doctor is arrayed in
+cap and gown, and stands on the left of the shield, with hand
+outstretched towards his fellow of old time. Below the platform, on a
+triangle, is a club, around which the serpent of Æsculapius entwines
+itself.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Oliver's life lasted for hard on seventy years--1695 to 1764; after
+settling at Bath and commencing practice, his rise to fame was
+remarkable for its rapidity, and, as quite early in his career he busied
+himself with hospital building, hospital management, and other good
+works, he soon made for himself a number of enemies amongst his
+fellow-practitioners less capable and less energetic than himself. As a
+physician and philanthropist he is now forgotten; as the inventor of a
+biscuit he is remembered--for the 'Bath Oliver' still holds its own
+against the multitude of modern competitors, and is still--so the makers
+say--prepared from Dr. Oliver's original receipt. That receipt he
+confided, when on his death-bed, to his coachman, giving him £100 in
+money and ten sacks of the finest flour wherewith to continue the
+production of the then already popular biscuits. With the money the
+coachman opened a shop in Green Street, Bath, and so got together a
+comfortable fortune. Of Skinner, to whom we owe these two plates, we
+shall have more to say presently (pp. 203-212), in referring to the
+engravers of English book-plates.
+
+Ten years after the Wiltshire plate comes our next distinctly Allegoric
+book-plate, engraved by a second-rate engraver for 'John Duick.' I have
+not seen this plate, but Lord De Tabley, whose word-pictures are always
+good, thus describes it:--'Apollo with a broad ray effect round his
+head, playing the lyre to the nine Muses, who are grouped around him;
+the musical ones also assist in the concert with various instruments.
+Below are clouds, above them appear the abrupt cliffs of Helicon, with
+Pegasus launching himself into the air therefrom; the fountain
+Hippocrene, tapped by his galloping hoofs, descends the cliff-side in a
+cascade.'
+
+Allegory also appears in the two book-plates engraved by Sir Robert
+Strange about the middle of the eighteenth century; those of his
+brother-in-law, Andrew Lumisden, secretary to Prince Charlie, and of a
+Dr. Thomas Drummond. The circumstances under which the former was
+engraved have been already referred to (p. 11). It is a sombre
+book-plate, showing us, before a dark background, a slab with a bust at
+either end; 'Cupid' plays on the ground before the centre of the slab;
+the Lumisden arms are on a shield that lies in the left-hand corner; and
+a heavy curtain hangs over the upper part of the design, which is signed
+'_R. Strange, sculpt._'
+
+Dr. Drummond's book-plate (see p. 89) is a less heavy, but not so
+finished a production, and is drawn by T. Wale: Aurora soars at the top
+of the design, and with her left hand pulls aside a curtain, thus
+disclosing a view of the doctor's library. In the centre is placed a
+table covered with cloth, except at the right-hand corner; here the
+drapery is raised so as to display the ornate workmanship of the
+table-leg. On the cloth are a number of books, some music, and a flute;
+before the table a globe, and, leaning against that, a violoncello. The
+general decoration of the room is classical, and busts and statues are
+introduced, though not with sufficient detail to be recognisable. In
+Aurora's right hand is a flaming torch, held in dangerous proximity to
+the curtain.
+
+After the date of these two plates comes another long interval--twenty
+years or so--before we reach the next truly Allegoric book-plate
+designed in England. We then find a decidedly graceful piece of work. A
+hooded Sibyl, seated at the foot of a pyramid, peruses attentively an
+open volume. She leans her cheek upon her right hand, whilst the left
+rests upon the book. A caduceus, against which rests a shield of arms,
+lies at her feet. The whole is contained in an oval wreath of berried
+laurel. Below is written: 'E libris Joh[=i]s Currer de Kildwick, Arm.'
+This book-plate was afterwards altered for 'Danson Richardson Currer, de
+Gledston, Ar[=m],' and an inferior copy was used by a certain R. H.
+Alexander Bennet; this is a much commoner book-plate than the Currer--in
+either form.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Of much the same date is the far less graceful representation of
+allegory, which appears on the book-plate of 'T. Gascoigne, Parlington,
+in Yorkshire.' Here we have a representation of what, we must presume,
+is the interior of the Parlington Library; but neither 'T. Gascoigne,'
+nor yet any other eighteenth century Yorkshire gentleman, is tasting the
+sweets of his literary collection; the library is tenanted by a couple
+of mythological females, of such substantial forms that Lord De Tabley
+thinks they must represent two Yorkshire damsels masquerading, one as a
+muse and the other as Apollo. The muse writes down either notes or words
+from Apollo's dictation. Columns support the roof of the library, and in
+a niche in the wall stands a small statue of Minerva. If Mr. Gascoigne
+obtained the services of some Yorkshire relatives to stand as models for
+the figures on his book-plate, he probably did so when they were in town
+for the season, for the work is signed by a Bond Street engraver.
+
+About the year 1775, English Allegoric book-plates became more numerous,
+and the allegory upon them assumes a grace in conception and execution
+not before known. Cipriani, Bartolozzi, and his pupil Sherwin, were
+showing Englishmen how allegory could be represented on book-plates
+without being clumsy and ridiculous, and the lesser artists were
+imitating their work with more or less success.
+
+One of Bartolozzi's earliest book-plates was executed for Sir Foster
+Cunliffe, Bart., the descendant of a very famous Liverpool merchant. The
+Cunliffe arms appear in mid-air, resting upon a bank of clouds; two
+exquisitely drawn cherubs support the shield, over which is folded
+drapery. The cherub on the dexter side is seated, and holds a caduceus
+in his right hand. The one on the sinister side is furnished with two
+trumpets, and is blowing that in his left hand. On a medallion above the
+shield is the Cunliffe crest, with the motto _Fideliter_. The plate,
+which was afterwards altered for Sir Robert H. Cunliffe, Bart., is, in
+all probability, Cipriani's design, for that artist signs his name as
+designer of an almost similar book-plate for Jean Tommins, which was
+engraved by Ford several years before. A very coarse imitation of the
+design was also used by Thomas Anson of Shughborough, who intrusted the
+imitation to Yates.
+
+Sir Foster Cunliffe was a grandson of Foster Cunliffe, King Charles the
+Second's godson, the Liverpool merchant, who, according to Foster's
+_Lancashire Families_, 'became not only the first man in Liverpool, but
+was supposed to have a more extended commerce than any merchant in the
+kingdom, and declined all solicitations that he should represent
+Liverpool in Parliament.'
+
+The remarkably large example of Bartolozzi's work which has often been
+described as the book-plate of George III., does not appear ever to have
+been used as such. In the previous edition of this book I alluded to it
+(at p. 67) as, possibly, a gift to the King, in which, at the expense of
+utility, Bartolozzi sought to display his gratitude to, and admiration
+for, the sovereign, under whom he had come to reside; it does not,
+however, seem that Bartolozzi intended the engraving for a book-plate at
+all, but designed it for the title-page of a folio volume, issued in
+1792, which contained engravings of thirty-six statesmen of the reign of
+Henry VIII., from drawings by Holbein. I will give a short description
+of the engraving in question, so that it may be more easily recognised
+by the collector, if offered to him as a book-plate. It shows us the
+arms of England, as borne by George III., prior to the Union with
+Ireland, upheld in mid-air by three inhabitants of the skies. Above the
+shield a fourth celestial being is flying, and at the same time holding
+aloft His Majesty's crown. On the left side of the plate is the figure
+of Fame, who, on a long trumpet placed to her lips, is evidently giving
+a sonorous blast. This is perhaps the most uncomfortable part of the
+design, for the whole weight of this somewhat massive young lady is upon
+the shield, which we have said is in mid-air, and only supported by
+three cherubs, whose united muscular powers strike one as totally
+inadequate to bear the burden imposed upon them.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+In 1796, Bartolozzi, then a Royal Academician, executed his most
+beautiful book-plate. It is inscribed 'H. F. Bessborough,' and was made
+for Lady Henrietta Frances Spencer, who, in 1780, married Frederick,
+third Earl of Bessborough. The design shows us a Roman interior with an
+exquisitely drawn Venus, seated, and holding in her left hand--which is
+uplifted--a burning human heart, and in her right, a dove. Behind her is
+a vase of flowers. The other inmates of the room are two cupids, who
+hold above the goddess a long scarf bearing Lady Bessborough's name. The
+design is Cipriani's. Besides his signature and that of the engraver,
+there is also on the book-plate, 'Published Dec. 30, 1796, by F.
+Bartolozzi.' It will be remembered that in 1735 Hogarth, by his own
+exertions on behalf of his brother artists, managed to get an Act
+through Parliament--a body that then probably cared little for art or
+artists--by which designers and engravers obtained a copyright in their
+own works; and it is a singular testimony to the popularity of
+Bartolozzi's work, that on so trivial a work as a book-plate it was
+found necessary to adopt this formula of publication. By the kindness of
+the Hon. Gerald Ponsonby, I am enabled to state that Bartolozzi's
+receipt for this 'ticket plate,' as he calls it, bears as its date the
+29th December 1796, the day before the date of 'publication.' It is
+noteworthy that Bartolozzi received £20 for his work. The book-plate is
+given on the previous page.
+
+Quite distinct from this 'joyous' book-plate is another, executed by the
+same artist for a Spanish lady, which we may class as English, since it
+was no doubt engraved by him in England. Isabel de Menezes, the lady for
+whom this book-plate was designed, was, as she tells us on it, in the
+seventy-first year of her age. Allegoric figures disporting themselves
+in youthful frolic would, perhaps, have been out of keeping on the
+book-plate of a lady at that sombre time of life, and so the designer
+has run to the other extreme. Gloominess predominates in this
+book-plate. A partly ruined square-built tomb is erected on a promontory
+above the sea; briars and other creepers have grown round it and had
+covered it, till the kneeling female figure drew them down in order to
+place upon the tomb a commemorative inscription. Beside the figure is a
+Cupid, who points to the newly-cut words. It has been thought that this
+may have been designed for a visiting card; it is quite in the fashion
+of such things at the date, and it is likely enough that Isabel de
+Menezes used the plate both as a card and as a mark of ownership for
+her books.
+
+There are, besides those described, a number of English book-plates
+which in style much resemble Bartolozzi's work. If they are his, they
+probably date before 1796, for the adoption of the publication formula,
+before noticed, makes it improbable that he executed any work, whilst in
+England, that he did not thus protect. After his departure from this
+country, he produced, from a drawing by Signeira, a book-plate for Sir
+Thomas Gage, Bart., of Hengrave Hall, Suffolk. In this, a female figure
+sits upon a stone, against which is a plain shield bearing the Gage
+arms. The plate is signed 'Bartolozzi, Lisbon, 1805.' There is a
+distinct resemblance in this book-plate to that which was engraved,
+either in 1786 or 1787, for Richard Hoare, eldest son of the Lord Mayor
+of London. He was created a baronet in the former year, and died in the
+latter. In this we have a seated female, classically draped, who rests
+her left elbow on a cippus, on which is engraved a shield bearing the
+arms of Hoare. Richard Hoare married the heiress of Stourhead, and his
+son was Sir Richard Colt Hoare, the famous antiquary and author. The
+date at which this plate must have been executed, 1786 or 1787, does not
+allow the absence of the engraver's name and formula of publication to
+tell against the work being Bartolozzi's; his fame was not then so
+great, and he found it less necessary to protect his engravings from
+piracy (see p. 197).
+
+Beautiful as are Bartolozzi's book-plates, it cannot be said that his
+capabilities as a designer or an engraver are demonstrated in these;
+works of a larger kind showed forth his talents far more.
+
+So, then, allegory at length came to be almost popular with English
+book-plate owners, and various lesser artists--Henshaw, Roe, Pollard,
+and some others--produced it in imitation of Bartolozzi, with only
+indifferent success. But before ending this chapter, we must say
+something about the book-plate work of Bartolozzi's chief English pupil,
+John Keys Sherwin. In 1773, the year after he gained the Royal Academy's
+gold medal for drawing, he executed an extremely pretty Allegoric
+book-plate for John Mitford of Pitt's Hill. It represents an infant
+Neptune, with his trident, seated on a large shell, which is upon the
+back of a sea-horse. Young Neptune's drapery forms a graceful canopy,
+and he supports in his right hand a small shell, which displays the
+Mitford arms and crest. A dolphin, spouting water in fountain-like
+sprays, swims by his side. There are two states of this plate, one
+having the arms incorrectly shaded: both are signed by Sherwin.
+
+In closing our remarks on English book-plates, designed after this
+fashion, notice--though only a passing one, for it is spoken of fully
+later on--must be taken of the charming book-plate which Agnes Berry
+designed in 1793 for her friend Mrs. Damer. I mention it here only to
+associate it in the reader's mind with 'Allegoric' book-plates.
+
+So much for allegory on English book-plates. It is to the credit of
+Englishmen that Allegoric work did not become popular until something
+really artistic in this particular style was produced, and that, even
+before that time, allegory never ran quite so wild on English
+book-plates as it did on foreign examples. M. Poulet Malassis assures us
+that into one French book-plate of the last century were crowded the
+whole _personnel_ of Olympus!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[7] The design has been more recently used by Thomas Gainsford.
+
+[8] William Oliver's plate from _Bibliographica_, vol. ii. p. 434.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ENGLISH 'PICTURE' BOOK-PLATES
+
+
+IN turning now to consider English book-plates which show us, apart from
+the heraldry upon them, things wholly real, we find much that is
+interesting. First, we have 'Portrait' book-plates, those which, either
+combined with heraldry or entirely without it, show us the features of
+the owner of the volume. There are but few of such book-plates, but they
+are so interesting that we shall speak of them by themselves later on
+(pp. 216-220); they are common to all periods, and the fashion of using
+them has increased lately.
+
+Then we have book-plates in which books themselves--book piles or book
+shelves--are the predominating feature in the design; with these, Sir
+Arthur Vicars, in the pages of the _Ex Libris Journal_, has dealt
+exhaustively. Though the book-plates which show us library interiors
+would seem naturally to come into this class of examples, I have been
+forced to except the majority of them, and to speak of them in the
+previous chapter, as being in nearly every case at least tinged with
+allegory. Even in the _sanctum_ of a doctor of divinity, Cupid frolics
+about as happy, and as busy, as in a maiden's boudoir. Still there are a
+few 'Library Interiors' entirely free from allegory. Take, for instance,
+the book-plate of Sir Robert Cunliffe. Here we have the interior of a
+library with a window to the right. Every ornament is thoroughly
+'Chippendale' in character; the legs of the table, the cartouche (which
+contains the name), the shield, and the woodwork surrounding the window.
+On the table is a globe, upon a stand, the supports of which terminate
+in Chippendale scrolls, an inkstand with a pen on it, and two books, one
+closed, and the other open. There are numbers of books confusedly
+disposed on the shelves, the ceiling of the room is plain, and there is
+only a plain line for a cornice. The arms occupy the centre of the
+plate, and appear to be suspended in mid-air, the foot of one of the
+scrolls only resting on the table.
+
+Again, the book-plates of 'The Manchester Subscription Library,' 'The
+Manchester Circulating Library,' and 'The Rochdale Circulating Library'
+all show interiors of libraries, but free from allegoric inmates. These
+three book-plates are nearly identical. There are shelves of books at
+the sides, a tiled floor, a table in the foreground, a panelled ceiling
+with a cornice; and, at the end of the room, perhaps a passage. There is
+a round arch containing a window of three lights, the centre one having
+a round top. The general appearance of the room is classical Very
+similar is the book-plate of the Liverpool Library. Here we have a
+complicated Chippendale bookcase, with ten columns upon square bases,
+and ornamental capitals of no particular style. The shelves are filled
+with books, and the two central divisions of the bookcase are all
+cupboards. In the centre of the case, among Chippendale scrolls, is the
+crest of the town, and below the central division of the bookcase are
+the words 'Liverpool Library' in two lines. Below the whole is a large
+cartouche, in the same style as the rest of the plate, inscribed,
+'Allowed for reading . . . . days. Forfeiture, . . . d. per day.' Mr.
+J. Paul Rylands, in his interesting _Notes on Book-Plates_, tells us
+that this library, now the Lyceum, was founded on the 1st of May 1758;
+the book-plate was, no doubt, engraved soon afterwards, as all the
+ornamentation introduced is certainly 'Chippendale.' So, too, is that on
+the book-plate engraved by John Pine in 1750, which the Benchers of
+Gray's Inn used for their volumes. Here a shell-shaped shield, bearing
+the arms of the 'Learned and Honourable Society,' is apparently fastened
+on to a background of book-shelves filled with books. So much for the
+'Library Interiors.' The arrangement of the volumes in the other
+book-plates in which books form the chief feature of decoration, is
+generally like that shown opposite in the book-plate of William Hewer, a
+Commissioner of the Navy, and the friend and secretary of Samuel Pepys.
+How the scroll, on which are either the owner's arms or his name, is
+supported, is not clear.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The book-plate of Sir Philip Sydenham, dated 1699, when he was, as he
+tells us, twenty-three years of age, offers another interesting example
+of the Book-Pile design; Sir Philip shows us his coat of arms on the
+face of the scroll, on the lower roll of which, in very small letters,
+is written the inscription. Apparently neither this nor any of his other
+book-plates completely satisfied him, for during the remaining forty
+years of his life he had more than half-a-dozen different plates
+designed, and nearly all of these are found in various 'states.' There
+are, Mr. Fincham tells me, some sixteen varieties of Sir Philip's
+book-plate; many of his books are now in Sion College Library. In the
+book-plate of White Kennett, who filled the See of Peterborough from
+1718 to 1728, we see how the emblems of episcopacy are treated when
+introduced into book-plates of this type. White Kennett had other
+book-plates; the rarest and earliest, engraved when he was at college,
+is in the 'Simple Armorial' style. These 'Book-Pile' plates appear at
+intervals down to the close of the century, and the style has been
+recently revived by book-plate designers; it is simple and certainly
+appropriate. The approximate date of each example may be generally
+gathered from the shape of the shield containing the arms, or the style
+of decoration around it.
+
+We have yet to speak of by far the most numerous class of those English
+book-plates, which may be properly brought into our second division of
+'Picture' book-plates--I mean the examples which represent upon them a
+landscape, either real or imaginary. The real landscapes represented
+have, of course, some direct reference to the plate; being a view,
+either of the owner's house, his park, his parish church, his town or
+village, of some particular spot in the immediate vicinity of his
+residence, or of some incident connected with his career or
+occupation--be it business, profession, or pleasure. For instance,
+Horace Walpole, in one of his book-plates, shows us a view of his
+'Palace of Varieties' at Strawberry Hill (see p. 106). Again, Thomas
+Gosden, the angler sportsman and collector of angling literature,
+introduces into his book-plate all sorts of angling and sporting gear,
+even to a capacious whisky flask. 'The Hon^{ble} Robert Henry Southwell,
+Lieut. 1st Regiment of Horse, 1767,' flanks his shield with various
+kinds of military weapons and trophies; whilst 'Captain William Locker,
+Royal Navy,' shows us the swelling bosom of a man-of-war 'foretop
+gallant' sail, on which is figured his coat of arms.
+
+We will speak first of those book-plates on which the landscape is real,
+and we will call them 'View' plates. Probably the earliest of these is
+the very interesting one (see p. 105), which was engraved by Mynde about
+1770 for the Library of the Public Record Office, then in the Tower of
+London; here we have a remarkably faithful representation of the
+historic building. The date at which the Tower book-plate was probably
+engraved adds to its interest. Plates in this style hardly appear at all
+before 1778 or 1780, and do not become common till five or six years
+later.
+
+The book-plate of 'Peter Muilman of King S^{t.}, London, and Kirby Hall,
+Castle Hedingham, Essex,' is one which, I think, may be classed among
+'View' plates, since the ruins depicted on it have certainly the
+appearance of having been sketched from the remains of some feudal
+stronghold, perhaps from Castle Hedingham itself. In front of the ruins
+is a wooded lawn, on which two robust cupids are wrestling for the
+Muilman escutcheon. Kirby Hall is not shown: no doubt this was a
+comfortable Georgian house round the corner, where Peter and his family
+spent their summer holidays away from the bustle and smoke of King
+Street. Presumably, the ruins of the castle were left standing in the
+park for ornament's sake, to give a tone of feudalism to the Muilman
+domain, whose owner, save by his book-plate, is not known to fame. The
+plate was engraved by Terry of Paternoster Row, probably about 1775, so
+that this again is an early example of its kind.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Among other notable specimens of these 'View' book-plates may be
+mentioned that which Pye, a Birmingham engraver, executed for 'T. W.
+Greene' of Lichfield. Here we have an oval-shaped shield, bearing the
+arms of Greene, resting against a tree-stump. In the distance is a
+river, and Lichfield Cathedral. Later on, Pye engraved a very similar
+book-plate for another Lichfield man--an attorney named Nicholson, who
+went to live at Stockport. This shows Nicholson's residence on the
+margin of a sheet of water. The arms rest against a shattered oak-tree.
+A local view--one of Darlington--also appears on the book-plate of
+George Allen, who describes himself as of that town.
+
+Collectors are wont to reckon as the most interesting example of a view
+book-plate the vignette of Horace Walpole's house at Strawberry Hill,
+with his arms hanging on a shield from a withered tree. Mr. Wheatley,
+however, who is inclined to attribute the design to Walpole's friend,
+Bentley, has suggested (_Bibliographica_, vol. iii. p. 88) that the
+vignette was never used as a book-plate, but was exclusively reserved as
+a kind of printer's device for the adornment of the books printed at the
+Strawberry Hill Press. Sir Wollaston Franks has four varieties of the
+vignette, one engraved on wood and three on copper; and I have certainly
+seen at least one of them doing duty as a book-plate, but whether
+rightfully or not it is impossible to say.
+
+Modern examples of View book-plates were, till quite recently, rare. One
+of the quaintest is furnished by that used by the late Dr. Kendrick of
+Warrington, and engraved for him in 1855; here we have a view of the
+doctor's town as it was in 1783 and a picture of a 'loyal Warrington
+Volunteer' of 1798. Quite a useful historical print!
+
+Now let me say a word about the Picture book-plates on which the
+landscape is a fancy one. Prominent amongst these is that of 'Gilbert
+Wakefield,' which shows us a pretty scene: a stag stoops to drink from a
+rivulet that trickles through a wood. Very much later in date is a
+charming vignette, representing a rock, over which a stream of water
+trickles and sparkles as it falls into a pool below. Ferns and flags
+grow in the pool. The book-plate belonged to Joseph Priestley, and on
+that account we mention it after Wakefield's. Priestley was quite as
+bitter a Dissenter and as ardent a controversialist as Gilbert
+Wakefield, though it is more as a man of science that most people
+remember him. His name is so intimately associated with Birmingham
+politics at the time of the French Revolution, that the fact of his
+book-plate being engraved by a Birmingham man--it is signed 'Allen sct.
+Birming^{m}'--becomes the more interesting, and enables us to assign the
+engraving to a marked period in the owner's life--the time when his
+friendship with Lord Shelburne began to cool, and when, settling down at
+Birmingham, he began work on his _History of the Corruptions of
+Christianity_. James Yates, who edited Priestley's collected works, used
+the same book-plate, after altering the name upon it.
+
+Another delightfully rural scene is depicted on the book-plate of 'John
+Hews Bransby.' His motto reads, _Breve et irreparabile tempus_; and he
+shows a rustic landscape, in which the figures represented have
+evidently learnt the truth of the assertion. The sower scatters seed,
+the ploughboy is engaged with his team,--all are making the most of
+their time, yet there is no sign of hurry or bustle. The day is fine,
+but clouds hover in the sky. On the left, a cottage nestles in the
+trees, and the smoke from its chimney tells of the housewife within
+preparing a meal for those who are earning it by their labour without.
+
+So much for landscapes having direct reference to the book-plates on
+which they appear. Often, however, the landscape is purely a fancy one,
+as that on the book-plate of Gregory Louis Way. A river flows through
+fields, and beside it sits an armour-coated knight, who is either
+wearied with the fight, or bowed down by the fickleness of his lady. His
+shield rests beside him, and on it are depicted the arms of Way. The
+moon sheds upon the scene what light she is able, but the sky is
+overcast and stormy.
+
+I must not close this chapter without reference to the book-plates
+produced by Thomas Bewick, many of which are familiar enough--as
+examples of Bewick's art--to those who know little about book-plates,
+and do not collect them. His are certainly for the most part 'Landscape'
+plates; but I do not know whether to class them with these examples of
+'View' book-plates, or with those which I have christened 'Fancy
+Landscapes.' They were chiefly engraved for northern book-owners, but
+one can hardly say that the particular bit of scenery on each--though,
+doubtless, in most cases drawn from nature--has any special
+applicability to the owner. I will therefore speak here of Bewick's
+book-plates as forming a class by themselves. His first was prepared for
+Thomas Bell, and is dated 1797, so that it is inaccurate to speak of
+Bewick as the originator of the Landscape style in book-plates; he found
+the style already followed by many engravers, and his taste and skill
+brought it to perfection. The Bell plate is not uncommon, as the books
+for which it was engraved were sold in 1860. It shows, in the foreground
+of a landscape, an oval shield, inscribed 'T. Bell, 1797,' and resting
+against a decayed tree. In the distance are trees, and above them rises
+the tower of St. Nicholas's Church, in Newcastle--a favourite object
+with Bewick. It is also introduced by Ralph Beilby into the book-plate
+of Brand, the antiquary.
+
+Out of the hundred or so book-plates designed or engraved by Bewick, it
+is difficult to know which to select for comment; but from the interest
+which attaches to its owner, that of Robert Southey (figured on p. 111)
+suggests itself. Here we have a rock, thickly crowned with shrubbery,
+from which a stream of water falls into a brook below. Against the face
+of the rock leans an armorial shield, bearing the Southey arms--a
+chevron between three crosses crosslet. On the ground to the right of
+the shield, and in contact with it, is the helmet, supporting on a
+wreath the crest--an arm vested and couped at the elbow, holding in the
+hand a crossed crosslet. Across the sinister chief corner of the shield,
+and trailing thence to the ground, is thrown the riband bearing the
+motto _In labore quies_. The date of the book-plate is probably about
+1810.
+
+Not only Newcastle itself, but the whole line of country along the river
+thence to Tynemouth, seems to have been Bewick's sketching ground, and
+many of his sketches he used for book-plates. Jarrow and Tynemouth
+itself were particularly favourite spots. Of the latter place his views
+were mostly taken from the sea, and afford us delightful pictures of
+water, shipping, and the ruins of Tynemouth Priory. The book-plate of
+'Charles Charlton, M.D.,' is one of these.
+
+[Illustration: SOUTHEY'S BOOK-PLATE BY BEWICK.]
+
+A great many of the ordinary bits of landscape which Bewick used for
+book-plates he afterwards utilised as tailpieces for various books
+illustrated by him. The book-plate of the 'Rev. H. Cotes, Vicar of
+Bedlington, 1802,' which shows us the reverend gentleman busily engaged
+in fishing, doubtless a favourite sport with him, is an instance of this
+diverted use; but in this case we know the history of the plate. Mr.
+Cotes had practically edited the artist's second volume of _British
+Birds_, and, as a slight return, Bewick prepared for him the book-plate
+in question; but, owing to a subsequent quarrel, the artist never gave
+the parson the block, turning it instead to his own account.
+
+There are a great many more copper-plate book-plates by Bewick than is
+generally supposed. One of the most elaborate is that of 'Buddle
+Atkinson,' which represents a bubbling trout-stream, into which an
+angler casts his line: in the foreground is a crest enclosed in a
+shield. Other copper-plate work by Bewick is found in the book-plates of
+'Edward Moises, A.M.'--a shield of arms, with books, pens, artists'
+tools of all kinds, and musical instruments; 'James Charlton' and 'A.
+Clapham'--Tyneside scenes; 'J. H. Affleck, Newcastle-upon-Tyne'--a
+shield of arms, in the midst of flowers and foliage; 'Tho^{s} Carr,
+Newcastle'--a spring of water flowing from a rock; and some few others.
+
+Examples of the more unusual designs in Bewick's book-plates, _i.e._
+those in which scenery is not depicted, are found in the book-plates of
+'John Anderson, St. Petersburgh'--a sportsman on horseback, which was
+afterwards utilised as a vignette in _British Birds_; 'Mr. Bigges'--a
+figure of liberty; 'Alex^{r} Doeg, shipbuilder'--a just-completed ship,
+still standing on the stocks; and several others, which simply show the
+shield of arms and owner's name.
+
+One reason why Bewick was so successful as an engraver of book-plates
+lay in the fact that his ability was most conspicuous in a small design.
+The work of such men as Hogarth or Bartolozzi seems cramped when it
+appears on the small scale which alone a book-plate can admit; but with
+Bewick, the smaller the size of the scene he desired to represent, the
+greater was his skill in introducing into it both originality and
+beauty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+GERMAN BOOK-PLATES
+
+
+I HAVE said that the use of book-plates, whether as commemorative of
+gifts or as marks of ownership, originated in Germany. Here, well before
+the close of the fifteenth century, we find at least three undoubted
+book-plates, examples of which have survived until the present day, and
+have recently been discovered fulfilling the function for which they
+were originally intended.
+
+Fastened to the cover of an old Latin vocabulary was discovered the most
+ancient of these book-plates. It is printed from a wood-block, and is
+rough in execution. It shows us a hedgehog carrying a flower in its
+mouth, trampling over fallen leaves; above is the inscription, '_Hans
+Igler, das dich ein igel kuss_.'
+
+[Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF HILDEBRANDE BRANDENBURG.]
+
+Following, in point of date, closely after this curious book-plate,
+comes a small woodcut, representing an angel who holds a shield, on
+which is displayed a black ox, with a ring passed through its nose--the
+arms of the Brandenburg family. A written inscription beneath it states
+that the book for which it was intended, and in which it was found,
+belonged to Hildebrande Brandenburg of Biberach, who presented it to
+the Carthusian monastery of Buxheim, of which he was a monk. This
+book-plate, which is rudely coloured, is struck off on scraps of paper,
+printed on one side; a curious illustration of the then scarcity of that
+material. Oddly enough, another very early book-plate--probably of
+almost the same date as the last--was also found in a book which
+belonged to the same monastery, and which had been given to it by
+Wilhelm von Zell. This book-plate also is anonymous; but the volumes
+that contained it, as in the last case, bear a written inscription,
+recording the fact that they belonged to the monastery in question, and
+were the gift of the person whose arms are figured in the book-plate
+inserted.
+
+From the fact that two of the three known fifteenth century book-plates
+are connected with the monastery at Buxheim, it would seem as if the use
+of a book-plate commended itself to the librarian of that monastery, who
+commemorated the gifts of volumes by a book-plate bearing the donor's
+arms.
+
+In the sixteenth century, German book-plates became numerous, and of
+their beauty there can be no doubt. There is a difficulty, however, in
+accepting many of the early armorial woodcuts which one finds; and it is
+this: Suppose the example is no longer doing duty in a volume as a
+book-plate, there is really no means of being assured that the cut of
+arms is a book-plate at all; for very many of these plates are void of
+any inscription, save perhaps a text or motto. Some of these
+book-plates are probably the work, or from the design, of Albert Dürer.
+He certainly produced some undoubted examples; the earliest, actually
+dated, in 1516. This is the Ebner book-plate (see p. 119). The
+inscription on this leaves us in no doubt as to its intended use: 'Liber
+Hieronimi Ebner, 1516.'
+
+Eight years after completing the Ebner plate, Dürer engraved on copper a
+Portrait plate of Bilibald Pirckheimer, a Nuremberg jurist of some note,
+who became councillor to Maximilian I., and was the owner of a library,
+whose subsequent history has been told in 'Books about Books' by Mr.
+Elton in his _Great Book Collectors_. Now this Portrait plate, which is
+dated 1524, was undoubtedly used by Pirckheimer as his book-plate. There
+are plenty of known instances in which it may be still found fastened in
+at the end of a volume. Whether or not it was intended for any other
+purpose than that which I have here mentioned, we cannot say, for it
+bears no inscription expressing its use. However--very possibly at the
+same date--Dürer designed for Pirckheimer what was, without doubt,
+intended for a book-plate, since it bears the inscription, 'Liber
+Bilibaldi Pirckheimer.' This is, in many instances, found on the front
+cover of volumes which also contain the book-plate last described
+fastened on the back cover.
+
+It is a very striking book-plate. A strangely large helmet, on which is
+placed an equally large crest, surmounts a pair of shields. The dexter
+one bears the arms of Pirckheimer--a _birke_ or birch-tree; whilst the
+sinister bears those of his wife, Margretha Rieterin--a crowned mermaid
+with two tails, each of which she holds in her hands. Pirckheimer's arms
+show the curious punning heraldry of the time, the _birke_ being, no
+doubt, a playful allusion to the jurist's name. Clasping the helmet are
+two angels. On either side of the shield is a large cornucopia
+apparently filled with grapes and vine leaves, and amongst these stands
+a smaller angel holding one end of a heavy festoon, the other end of
+which is fastened to a ram's head, the centre of the design. Angels,
+apparently at play, are also represented below the shield. Examples of
+this plate are not uncommon in English collections, many of
+Pirckheimer's books having passed into the Library of the Royal Society,
+and some of these having been sold as duplicates, when they were bought
+up by collectors for the sake of the book-plate. Sir Wollaston Franks
+points out to me that there is yet a third variety of Pirckheimer's
+book-plate, which is signed 'J. B. 1529,' and is not the work of Dürer.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The book-plate of Hector Pömer, provost of the Church of St. Laurence at
+Nuremberg, dated in 1525, is also ascribed to Dürer, though it is signed
+with the initials 'R. A.' This signature is probably that of the artist
+who cut the design upon wood, for it is now maintained that Dürer
+himself only made the drawings for the woodcuts known as his; the
+mechanical operation of cutting being handed over to assistants. The
+Pömer plate is the earliest dated book-plate which bears a signature
+either of the designer or the engraver.
+
+The size of this really fine example of early wood-engraving is 13
+inches by 9. On the principal shield in the design we have what are no
+doubt the arms of the monastery, the gridiron of St. Laurence,
+quartering those of Pömer. The gridiron is on the first and fourth
+quarters, whilst the second and third contain what is heraldically
+described as _per bend sable (?) and argent, three bendlets of the
+first_. We say 'sable,' because the dark mass which the artist has here
+shown is probably meant to represent this, but any dark colour may have
+been intended, as I have already endeavoured to show (see p. 23). These
+last arms are very probably Pömer's, for, in one of the small shields
+which appear in each of the four corners of the design, they occur
+again--the other three shields being most likely filled with arms
+quartered by the Pömer family. The helmet surmounting the principal
+shield is without wreath, and the crest is a demi-nun. The motto, 'To
+the pure all things are pure,' is given, as in other of Dürer's
+book-plates, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. In charge of the shield stands
+St. Laurence himself, dressed in a monk's garb, and holding in his right
+hand the instrument of his martyrdom, and in his left the palm of
+martyrdom. The nimbus appears around his head. The beauty of the design
+is apparent at the first glance, and it becomes more apparent as we
+look into it.
+
+Dr. Hector Pömer was the last Prior of the Abbey of St. Laurence in
+Nuremberg. To him Erasmus gave a copy of his edition of the works of St.
+Ambrose, issued from Froben's press. That very copy is in the possession
+of the Rev. H. W. Pereira, and in each of the two thick volumes in which
+the work is contained is Pömer's book-plate. One is struck with the
+exquisite detail and treatment; as Mr. Pereira says, in describing the
+plate, the expression and figure of St. Laurence is full of sweetness
+and tender pathos.
+
+The list of 'Armories' by Dürer, as printed by Bartsch in vol. vii. of
+the _Peintre-Graveur_, gives us some twenty examples, any of which may
+have been used as book-plates. Some idea as to whether or not an early
+armorial plate is really a book-plate may, however, be gained by taking
+its measurement. A very large engraving should be regarded with
+suspicion, though not necessarily rejected as a book-plate on account of
+its size. Sir Wollaston Franks possesses a magnificent book-plate,
+measuring no less than 14 × 10 inches, which is at this moment still
+fulfilling its original functions. This is certainly the largest example
+yet discovered. It has been known to collectors for some time in what
+was believed to be a perfect state, but the copy just mentioned shows
+that what was thought to be the whole was in reality only a portion of
+the design, since it lacked the elaborate framework, which is richly
+embellished with weapons and ensigns, as well as with musical
+instruments of every description. This book-plate belonged to Count
+Maximilian Louis Breiner, a distinguished official of the Emperor of
+Austria in Lombardy. A striking feature in it is the introduction, above
+the arms of the owner of the plate, of those of Austria, surmounted by
+the imperial crown, supported by a couple of cherubs. Both the design
+and engraving are the work of Giuseppe Petrarca, who probably produced
+them during the closing years of the seventeenth century.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Quite in a distinct style from the other German book-plates mentioned is
+that figured opposite, which may be dated about the year 1530. It is
+interesting from its owner, one Paulus Speratus, an ardent preacher of
+the Lutheran doctrine at Augsburg, Württemberg, Salzburg, and Vienna,
+and afterwards Bishop of Pomerania, who proved himself ready to undergo
+suffering in the cause he imagined to be right. He was born in 1484, and
+died in 1554. The shading in the arms is very peculiar, expressing as it
+does, on the first and fourth divisions of the shield, _argent_ and
+_vert_ at a period, as we have seen, long anterior to the use of lines
+or dots to express the metals or tinctures in heraldry. An explanation
+is no doubt to be found in the fact that the artist only intended to
+represent some light colour in the shaded parts, in the same way as in
+the second and third divisions of the shield he desired in the thickly
+inked parts to represent _sable_. The book-plate is now preserved in a
+copy of the Psalms translated into Russian by Francis Skorina, and
+printed at Wilna about the year 1525. The peculiar inscription on this
+book-plate is referred to on p. 166.
+
+We have spoken somewhat fully about these early examples of German
+book-plates, because, both from the fact that they are the earliest
+known to us, and that several of them are the designs of Albert Dürer,
+they have a very special interest. Space precludes the possibility of
+alluding in detail to later German examples, though they are, many of
+them, exceedingly beautiful specimens of the engraver's art, as indeed
+they may well be considering the men who engraved them--Lucas Cranach,
+Jost Amman, Hans Troschel, Wolffgang Kilian of Augsburg, and the uncle
+and nephew Giles and Joseph Sadeler.
+
+Let me, however, speak very tersely of a few examples of the productions
+of these artists, in order that the reader's attention may be attracted
+should he come across a specimen of their work.
+
+Two woodcuts by Lucas Cranach have certainly been used as book-plates,
+though not designed by the artist as such, for they both appear among
+other cuts in a work illustrated by him. Sir Wollaston Franks possesses
+both varieties. In one, we have a half-length figure of St. Paul. He is
+seated, and reading a book, the lines of which he follows with his
+finger. His head is surrounded with the nimbus, whilst a shaggy beard
+nearly covers the face. The right hand holds a double sword with the
+points upwards; beneath this is the shield of the Elector of Saxony.
+Above the upper line of the plate is an inscription, showing that it was
+intended to mark the volumes belonging to the 'preachership'
+('Predicatur') at Oringen. The other woodcut by Cranach is very similar
+in design, but the figure represented is that of St. Peter, and it bears
+the inscription 'Stadt Orngau.'
+
+It is worth remarking that in one instance at least, on removing the
+book-plate portraying St. Paul, a smaller hand-drawn book-plate was
+found, which consisted of a shield half red and half white, and upon it
+a key, placed in pale, countercharged. There is no inscription on this
+book-plate, nor is there any margin shown--the paper being cut close to
+the design.
+
+Jost Amman is another German artist who leaves us in a difficulty as to
+deciding as to which of his many armorial engravings were really
+intended for book-plates. One undoubted book-plate by him, however,
+exists, and this was designed for a member of the Nuremberg family of
+Holzschuher--'Wooden shoes.' Wooden shoes, or sabots, appear as charges
+on the shield, and afford another example of the punning heraldry which
+was then fashionable in Germany. This is a fine book-plate, engraved on
+copper, and signed 'J. A.'; its size, 7-3/4 × 6-1/8 inches. The shield
+is supported by two angels and a lion.
+
+Hans Sibmacher or Siebmacher was another Nuremberg engraver; he worked
+there quite at the close of the sixteenth century and in the early years
+of the seventeenth. He also executed a book-plate for a member of the
+Holzschuher family. This is a more elaborate piece of work than Amman's,
+though smaller (4-1/2 × 3-3/8 inches). Its characteristic feature is a
+closely-woven wreath of leaves, with clusters of fruit and ornaments
+introduced at intervals. Seated on this wreath, at the top of the
+design, are two reading cherubs clothed in 'nature unadorned.' Below the
+design is an oblong and indented bracket.
+
+Hans Troschel's work as a book-plate engraver is illustrated by the
+book-plate of yet another Nuremberg man--John William Kress of
+Kressenstain, dated in 1619. In this we are shown a shield set in an
+oval wreath of leaf-work. The helmet which surmounts it displays some
+elaborate work; finely-cut mantling extends itself from this on the
+right side and on the left; and above is a cornet, which encircles the
+crest. The whole is enclosed in a circle of leaves and berries, somewhat
+similar to that just described in speaking of Sibmacher's work; but
+outside this, at each of the four corners of the plate, are small
+shields surmounted by helmets and crests, and containing the arms of the
+four families from which he immediately descended, their names being
+given. Nestling amongst the mantling on the left side of the design is a
+distinct shield, on which are depicted the arms of Susanna Koler, wife
+of the owner of the book-plate.
+
+Wolffgang Kilian (born 1581, died 1662) was an Augsburg man, and the
+book-plate which bears his signature and the date, 1635, is that of an
+Augsburg church dignitary--Sebastian Myller, suffragan-bishop of
+Adramytteum, and Canon of Augsburg. In its ornamentation it bears some
+resemblance to an English Jacobean book-plate. Above the shield is the
+head of a cherub, on which the episcopal mitre is made to rest in a
+somewhat comical manner; the cherub's wings protrude over the top of,
+and into, the shield. The inscription is contained in an oval band;
+outside this is an oval leaf-wreath, and outside this again an indented
+frame. Wolffgang was a younger brother of the more noted Lucas Kilian.
+Both brothers studied at Venice, and were pupils of their stepfather,
+Dominick Custos, who was himself a designer of book-plates.
+
+Of Giles Sadeler's work--the Count of Rosenberg's book-plate--I shall
+speak directly (pp. 130, 131). An example of his nephew's engraving is
+afforded by the book-plate of Ferdinand von Hagenau, dated in 1646.
+
+In later times--the eighteenth century--other distinguished German
+artists 'stooped' to book-plate engraving. Amongst them was Daniel
+Nicholas Chodowiecki (the son of a Dantzig drug merchant), born in 1726.
+Chodowiecki is best known as a book-illustrator, in which his great
+knowledge of costume--at a period when the point was little
+studied--stood him in good stead. His book-plates are probably few; only
+four or five are known. One of the most elaborate in design is that of a
+German doctor of medicine, dated in 1792, nine years before the artist's
+death.
+
+In this example much of the sensational style of the generality of his
+work manifests itself. 'The book-plate,' says Lord De Tabley, 'in its
+motive reminds us much of those allegoric framed certificates of
+membership which various sick clubs and benefit societies accord to
+their members at the present day. In the foreground, Æsculapius is
+pushing out a skeleton draped in a long white sheet, with a scythe
+across its shoulder. The god is sturdily applying his serpent-twined
+staff to the somewhat too solid back of the terrible phantom. Behind,
+beneath a kind of pavilion, lies a sick person in bed; his hands are
+upraised in silent thankfulness as he watches the prowess of the healing
+deity.' The book-plate was engraved for Dr. C. S. Schintz. Besides this,
+Chodowiecki engraved, about 1770, a book-plate for himself, and, about
+ten years later, one for the French seminary at Berlin.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The book-plate of Dr. Schintz calls to mind a somewhat earlier German
+example, engraved by Boetius from a design by Wernerin (whose signature
+appears on some varieties of the plate), about the middle of the last
+century. It is figured opposite, and is perhaps the most gloomy
+book-plate that it ever entered into the mind of man to conceive. A
+skeleton sits upon a coffin, or a coffin-shaped tomb, holding in his
+right hand a pair of scales, and in his left a scythe; in the lighter
+balance of the scales is a scroll, bearing the inscription, 'Dan. v. 25,
+_Mene Tekel_'; in the background we see monuments, Lombardy poplars or
+cypress-trees, and a distant landscape. This uninviting picture is
+contained in a frame, inscribed, in a medallion above, 'E Bibliotheca
+Woogiana,' and below, _Nominor â libra: libratus ne levis unquam
+Inveniar, præsta pondere, Christe, tuo_,--a motto in which the owner
+makes a play upon the derivation of his name from _wage_, the German for
+a weight or balance, and asks the bestowal of divine weight on the day
+of soul-weighing.
+
+As compared with German book-plates, those of other countries are sadly
+deficient in artistic composition. The former, particularly examples of
+the seventeenth century, are ornate and well designed.
+
+Take, for instance, the really magnificent book-plate of Peter Vok,
+Ursinus, Count of Rosenberg, dated '1609.' It is engraved on copper, and
+measures 10 inches by 6. In a central circular medallion, 3-2/3 inches
+in diameter, is depicted the owner, arrayed in armour, and seated on a
+richly caparisoned war-horse, plumed, and going at full speed across a
+landscape of hillocks. On his breastplate is an escutcheon bearing his
+arms; a knight's sword is in his hand. Round the margin of the medallion
+runs a wreath of roses. Platforms come out on either side of the
+medallion, and on each of these there stands a figure about 5 inches in
+height; the one on the left is a female symbolical form, clad in flowing
+drapery, and holding in one hand the cup of the Eucharist, and in the
+other a cross. A somewhat similar figure stands on the right, holding in
+her hand a tablet, inscribed _Verbum Domini manet in eternum_.
+
+The medallion rests upon two bears--an allusion, of course, to the
+family name of the owner, _Ursinus_--crouching between the two female
+figures described. The face of the altar-like platform below is divided
+into one central and two lateral compartments, of which the side ones
+project forward. On the right lateral slab is an escutcheon, charged
+simply with the Rosenberg rose; whilst on the left we see the family
+arms, as on the breastplate, but surmounted with an ermine-faced crown.
+On the central slab is a skull resting on two shin-bones.
+
+Reaching across the upper portion of the design is an oblong tablet,
+with indented shelly scroll-work edges, and a background border of large
+full-blown roses, with thorny stems. With the inscription, which is
+appropriately pompous, I need not trouble the reader; but I have thought
+it worth while to give here (following Lord De Tabley's example, and
+using sometimes his words) a very full verbal picture of this truly
+magnificent book-plate, in order that the pitch of elaboration to which
+a German book-plate can be carried may be understood. Suffice it to add
+that this work of art was engraved by Giles Sadeler, the Antwerp-born
+engraver, who, after studying in Italy, was invited by the Emperor
+Rudolph II. to enter his service at Prague; in short, to become what he
+styles himself in his signature to this book-plate--'Engraver to His
+Imperial Majesty.'
+
+Less elaborate, yet very beautifully engraved, are the book-plates used
+in the Electoral Library of the Dukes of Bavaria at Munich. On one,
+dated in 1618, the largest variety of which is 7 inches high and 5-1/2
+broad, we have the arms of the Duchy enclosed by the collar of the
+Golden Fleece. Winged Caryatides support the Electoral crown, whilst
+below is an arabesqued platform, on which is the inscription: _Ex
+Bibliotheca Serenissimorum Utriusque Bavariæ Ducum_, 1618. A smaller
+variety of this plate is figured opposite. Some twenty years later, a
+still larger and more ornate book-plate (10 × 7 inches) was designed for
+use in the same library. Here the arms are in an oval frame, surrounded
+by the Golden Fleece; on the right and left are inverted cornucopiæ, and
+the crown is held aloft by four cherubs. All the book-plates of this
+library exist in a great variety of design, and nearly all the varieties
+are found in different sizes.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+These examples are typical of many other German book-plates; the
+conception of the design is excellent, and its working out is equally
+good. In later times, the work on book-plates perhaps deteriorated,
+because it fell, to a large extent, into inferior hands. Yet Germany
+can show several very creditable examples in the eighteenth century.
+Some of those which give the view of a library interior are decidedly
+pleasing; they appear soon after the commencement of the century. The
+libraries represented have usually one or more mythological inmates;
+but, in one instance, the owner is in possession, and is seen hard at
+work amongst his volumes.
+
+In concluding this chapter, it may be noted that examples of
+name-tickets are found in Germany as in other countries. Perhaps the
+earliest is one (first noticed, I believe, by Mr. Weale) in a copy at
+the Bodleian Library of a German Psalter printed at Augsburg in 1498.
+This reads, 'Sum Magistri Georgii Mayrii Monacencis' [_i.e._ of Munich],
+with the motto, 'Melius est pro veritate pati supplicium, quam pro
+adulatione consequi beneficium.' The same inscription has been written
+in ink on the title-page, with the added date 1513, and afterwards--no
+doubt a few years later when the label was printed and placed in the
+book--crossed through.
+
+The most complete work on German book-plates that has yet made its
+appearance is Herr Warnecke's _Die Deutschen Bücherzeichen_, Berlin,
+1890; but a work properly classifying the different styles of German
+book-plates, and affixing to these styles covering dates, has yet to be
+written.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE BOOK-PLATES OF FRANCE AND OTHER COUNTRIES
+
+
+FRANCE, so far as a generally descriptive account of her book-plates is
+concerned, is certainly more fortunate than her neighbour Germany.
+French book-plates received attention, in the shape of a capital work
+upon them, before those of any other country were similarly honoured. M.
+Poulet Malassis's _Les Ex libris Français_ made its first appearance in
+1874, and bears evident testimony to the fact that the author had for
+many years previously made an attentive study of his native book-plates.
+
+Since the appearance of M. Poulet Malassis's work, book-plate collecting
+in France, as well as in other countries, has been vigorously carried
+on, and earlier examples of dated French book-plates than those then
+known have come to light. The most ancient of these is one dated 1574
+(the same year, it will be noted, as that of the plate of Sir Nicholas
+Bacon), but it is simply typographical, having no kind of design
+whatever. It reads: 'Ex bibliotheca Caroli Albosii E. Eduensis. Ex
+labore quies.' No Armorial book-plate bearing an engraved date appears
+in France until thirty-seven years later, when we, at last, meet with
+that of Alexandre Bouchart, Vicomte de Blosséville, engraved by Léonard
+Gaultier, and, in the copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale, dated 1611. A
+variety of this book-plate, undated, unsigned, and probably not by the
+same hand, exists in the collection of Sir Wollaston Franks. The field
+in the Bouchart arms is gules, though the lines shown in the engraving
+of the undated plate would, according to the present system, represent
+it as azure (see remarks on this point at p. 22). After the Bouchart
+book-plate, we have, in 1613, that of Melchior de la Vallée, Canon of
+Nancy, given by M. Poulet Malassis as dated in 1611, and then, in 1644,
+a roughly-executed anonymous book-plate signed 'Raigniauld Riomi, 1644.'
+The arms are untinctured, and leaflike mantling falling from the helmet
+surrounds the shield; there is no crest. Raigniauld--or, as the modern
+spelling of the name is, Regnault--is not a known engraver. Riomi is an
+old-fashioned town of Auvergne.
+
+Other French book-plates of the seventeenth century, both dated and
+undated, exist; but France is undeniably behind Germany both in the
+number of her early book-plates and in their beauty; for instance, we do
+not in France find those numerous book-plates of ecclesiastical
+corporations which so much swell the list of early German examples. The
+subject of French ecclesiastical book-plates has, indeed, received
+special treatment from Father Ingold, himself a French ecclesiastic; and
+he is compelled to admit that such book-plates are not numerous and not
+ancient. The old way seems to have been for the monastic official in
+charge of the convent library to inscribe each volume with some
+appropriate inscription. These are in themselves interesting; but
+book-plate lovers must regret the existence of the fashion. The earliest
+French ecclesiastical book-plates belong to the middle of the eighteenth
+century, and, like the 1574 example already noticed, they are mere
+typographical labels, possessing little more artistic merit than is
+usually displayed in a post-mark.
+
+With regard, however, to the book-plates of ecclesiastical individuals,
+the case is different; some of them engraved during the seventeenth
+century are ambitious and interesting. A particularly quaint example is
+found in the book-plate which an Annecy engraver, named Sinton, executed
+for Charles de Sales, the energetic labourer in the cause of religion,
+brother of St. Francis de Sales, and his successor in the Bishopric of
+Annecy. Lord De Tabley thus describes the book-plate:--'The family arms
+are shown in a shield, which appears very gigantic, in a frame of heavy
+curves, which is set in the centre of a huge sideboard-like monumental
+structure. On the top ledges of this, two full-grown, long-skirted
+angels, seated right and left, uphold the episcopal hat (with its usual
+knotted ropes and tassels) in air above the escutcheon.
+
+'At the base of the structure, to the right, appears a figure of St.
+Francis de Sales, seated, holding an olive branch in one hand, while
+beneath his other arm is a profuse cluster of fruit. To the left, also
+seated, is a portrait of St. Jane Frances De Chantal, holding a
+palm-branch, also with fruit beneath her other arm. Each portrait is
+realistic, and not in the least flattered. Between them is a medallion
+bearing the crossed papal keys.'
+
+The probable date of this very curious book-plate is 1642. It appears
+earlier, but this may be accounted for by the fact that the work is
+provincial. Students will do well to remember that provincially executed
+book-plates, English or foreign, are often misleading in this respect.
+
+There is a somewhat elaborate book-plate, engraved in several sizes, and
+dated in 1692, which introduces the cardinal's hat, mitre, and crozier,
+and which was prepared to place in the books given by Dr. Peter Daniel
+Huet to the Paris Jesuits. Huet is himself an interesting figure in
+French literature. In 1670 he was made tutor to the Dauphin, and whilst
+so employed he assisted in bringing out the sixty-two volumes of
+classics, specially prepared for his pupil, known as the _Delphin_
+edition. He became Bishop of Avranches in 1689, but ten years after
+resigned his see in order to devote the remainder of his life to
+literature, which he did, completing amongst other voluminous works a
+defence of the doctrine of Christianity.
+
+[Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF CHARLES DE SALES.]
+
+It is from their possessors that French book-plates derive their chief
+interest; and these possessors are for the most part persons who lived
+at a late date. Amongst the few early celebrities is the soldier-poet of
+France, Francis de Malherbe, of whom it has been said that he was as lax
+in morals as he was rigid in his zeal for the purity of his native
+language. His book-plate is figured at p. 25, and is interesting as
+showing that no reliance can be placed on lines, apparently expressing
+the colour of the shield in early Armorial book-plates (see pp. 21-22).
+He died in 1628. The books containing this very pleasing book-plate
+passed after De Malherbe's death to Vincent de Boyer, in whose family
+they remained till the Revolution; after that they were dispersed.
+
+Coming to later times, we find a charming book-plate, engraved by Le
+Grand for the unfortunate Countess Dubarry. Her books were well chosen
+and well bound, but they were few in number; hence her book-plate is
+rare, but it may be seen in the library at Versailles, where most of her
+books are preserved. Though she could not read, she seems to have felt
+in duty bound to follow 'La Pompadour' in getting together a library to
+amuse her royal master.
+
+From the book-plate of the countess--a woman who, after aiding in the
+general degradation of the French court, was willing to risk her life
+for those whose downfall she had in a measure assisted in bringing
+about--we may appropriately turn to that of Cardinal Maury; the
+inscription on which reads: _Bibliothèque particulière de son Eminence
+Mgr. le Cardinal Maury_. This book-plate calls to mind a famous figure
+in the French Revolution,--a fervent preacher, the spokesman of his
+fellow-clergy before those who were but little inclined to listen to
+argument; the calm-minded man, who would turn round and give a witty
+retort to a cry raised by the mob which followed through the streets of
+Paris, clamouring for his blood.
+
+The mention of these names leads one naturally to speak generally of
+book-plates engraved about the time of the French Revolution,--a period
+which is immortalised in a singular manner on French book-plates. M.
+Poulet Malassis remarks that many a noble library owner took good care
+to alter his book-plate in those troublesome times, and to replace the
+coronet which had surmounted the family escutcheon by the Phrygian cap
+of liberty. For instance, the Viscount de Borbon-Busset in 1793 changed
+his Armorial book-plate to a simple inscription--in which he calls
+himself 'Citoyen François'--surrounded by a leafy garland. The same
+fashion is exemplified even in clerical examples. Father le Mercier in
+his first book-plate displays the coronet which he either was, or at
+least considered himself to be, entitled to bear; but between 1789 and
+1792 we find a second example of his book-plate, with a simple
+decorative finish to the top of the design in lieu of the coronet. At
+that time there was in France, as Mr. Walter Hamilton puts it, 'an
+awkward fashion of putting heads accustomed to coronets under the
+falling knife of the guillotine.'
+
+As far as the classifying of the leading styles in French book-plates
+goes, M. Poulet Malassis does not really help us much; and we cannot but
+hope that ere long some enterprising French collector will undertake the
+task. There is certainly, as M. Poulet Malassis observes, a
+resemblance--as the reader will see by turning back to the illustration
+of De Malherbe's book-plate--between the style of the first French
+book-plates and that of the first English; and it is noteworthy that the
+style disappeared in both countries much at the same time. Again, French
+book-plates of 1720-1730 bear distinct traces of what we have called
+'Jacobean' work in speaking of English examples.
+
+The French _Rococo_ book-plate is really analogous to our 'Chippendale.'
+There is, however, a greater variety both of subject and treatment in
+each French style than one finds in England.
+
+Allegory is, as I stated in Chapter iv., more frequent and more wild in
+French book-plates than in those of England. The follies of his own
+countrymen in this respect are fully recognised by M. Poulet Malassis,
+who, in most amusing style, deals with some of the more pronounced
+examples; as for instance the rollicking allegory displayed in the
+book-plate of M. Hénault, President of the French Academy. The date of
+this remarkable production may be fixed at 1750; it is designed by
+Boucher and engraved by Count de Caylus, and we see that Minerva has
+honoured M. le Président by placing his family arms upon her shield.
+Very wonderful, too, is the book-plate of the Abbé de Gricourt, whose
+arms are borne heavenwards by a vast company of angels. This example,
+which is approximately of the same date as the last, is the work of the
+Abbé's brother, A. T. Ceys, who was himself an ecclesiastic. Often the
+allegory displayed has allusion to the owner's business or his tastes,
+as on that of M. Gueullette, a French novelist and dramatist of the
+first half of the last century, the popularity of whose writings,
+although those writings are numerous, has not outlived him. This
+book-plate is the work of H. Becat, and is inscribed after the
+Pirckheimer manner, 'Ex libris Thomæ Gueullette et Amicorum.' The family
+arms are supported by an Italian harlequin, a Chinese mandarin, a
+Cyclops holding an infant, and a Tartar. Now the presence of these
+strange inhabitants of a book-plate is accounted for thus. Gueullette
+wrote farces for the Paris stage, and he also wrote 'Contes Tartares'
+and 'Les Aventures du Mandarin Fum Hoam.' Below the shield water pours
+from a satyr's mouth into a basin containing a mermaid, and above soars
+Cupid in clouds, bearing aloft a scroll and motto. This, says 'W. H.' in
+the _Ex Libris Journal_, is probably one of the earliest book-plates on
+which appear allegoric allusions to its owner's tastes and literary
+labours.
+
+The _Typical_ or _Personal_ book-plate is also found in France in that
+of the Chevalier de Fleurieu, described by Mr. Egerton Castle. During
+the _ancien régime_ he was a naval officer, who, whilst still low in the
+service, was intrusted with the testing of various new marine
+appliances. On the book-plate we get the bird's-eye view of an island,
+on which are strewn the said marine appliances, and behind them stands
+the Chevalier's coat of arms.
+
+A recent writer on French book-plates, M. Henri Bouchot, goes so far as
+to think a book-plate may be of service as exhibiting a man's character.
+It may be so with regard to Frenchmen and French book-plates, but if
+this principle of argument be applied to English book-plates, all I can
+say is, that the possessors of English book-plates in the closing years
+of the seventeenth century and the opening years of the eighteenth must
+have been singularly alike in their personal characteristics!
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The 'Library Interior' book-plate is found in France as early as 1718,
+in an anonymous book-plate described by Mr. Walter Hamilton in the _Book
+Worm_ for May 1892. It shows us, in the background of a library, two men
+working a printing-press. In the foreground are five little winged
+cupids at play with books and mathematical instruments, whilst a female
+figure, representing peace and plenty, appears seated on what Mr.
+Hamilton conjectures to be a Pegasus. The engraving is by Bernard
+Picart, an eminent engraver, who, though a Frenchman by birth, settled
+at Amsterdam in 1710 (he died in 1733) and was evidently much influenced
+by the then prevailing style in Dutch art. He executed another very
+beautiful 'Library Interior' plate (figured opposite) for Amadeus
+Lulin, a Savoyard. Here we have the interior of a French library of the
+period, with a curved roof. At the end of the room is a window and
+beneath this a Louis XV. table. In the foreground the same cupids 'play
+with books,' which, by the way, they are treating exceedingly badly.
+Caryatides at the sides form a frame for the plate. On the breast of one
+is a sun; the other holds a heart. A globe surmounts each. The arms are
+shown in the centre of the design at the top.
+
+Other examples of French book-plates of this kind are found quite late
+in the century, and any one who feels specially interested in the
+subject of these, and indeed of 'Library Interior' book-plates as a
+whole, will do well to study Sir Arthur Vicars's valuable treatise and
+lists in the pages of the _Ex Libris Journal_.
+
+About the book-plates of countries other than Germany and France there
+is not very much to be said. Sweden has given us an insight into its
+native book-plates.[9] Herr Carlander tells us that the earliest date on
+a Swedish book-plate is 1595, which occurs on that belonging to Thure
+Bielke, a senator who, having mixed himself up in political strife, lost
+his head by a stroke of the executioner's axe five years later. Senator
+Bielke was evidently far in advance of his fellow-countrymen as regards
+such matters; for no other dated Swedish book-plate occurs for a
+considerable number of years. In the eighteenth century, however,
+Swedish book-plates became much more numerous, and some of the more
+prominent native engravers appear to have worked upon them, producing a
+few singularly fine examples in the _Rococo_ style; library interiors
+also appear occasionally on Swedish book-plates. One of the most
+interesting late examples of book-plates of this country is that of King
+Charles XIII. On this we have the royal arms of Sweden, surmounted by
+the collar and cross of the order of the Seraphim, and the king's motto,
+'Folkets wäl mint hogsta lag'--'The people's weal my highest law.' I
+imagine that this book-plate may be placed at the close of the last
+century. Charles died in 1818.
+
+Swiss book-plates are numerous and early. The first dated example occurs
+in 1607. Their general style is not pleasing, since it presents a
+stiffness and awkwardness in the arrangement of the decoration. Italian
+book-plates, again, possess few remarkable features. Perhaps their
+leading characteristic is the extreme coldness of their engravers'
+touch. One of these engravers was, however, a famous man, whose work
+deserves more than passing mention. I mean Raphael Morghen, the
+Florentine artist, who died in 1833, and who is said to have been able
+to engrave a plate when he was only twelve years old. It is curious to
+turn from his large engravings of the chief works in the gallery at
+Florence, to the unusually small work which enables us to reckon him
+here among the engravers of book-plates. This is a representation of
+the arms of the Duke of Cassano Serra, framed in a shelly frame,
+somewhat 'Chippendale' in appearance, but with the stiff, heavy
+'Jacobean' wreath clinging closely to it. In a scroll which winds in and
+out of this wreath is the inscription: 'Il Duca Cassano Serra'; it is
+signed 'R. Morghen f[ecit].'
+
+A careful investigation of the Vatican and other Italian libraries would
+probably lead to the discovery of some more papal book-plates. Sir
+Wollaston Franks tells me that amongst his numerous engravings of the
+papal arms, there is only one which he feels sure was ever used as a
+book-plate. The late Sir George Dasent, in _Notes and Queries_,[10]
+describes what he considers the book-plate of Maffeo Barberini, Urban
+VIII.; but he does not tell us what leads him to the belief that the
+engraving is really a book-plate.
+
+About Spanish book-plates not much is yet known, and it seems likely
+that the majority of examples usually classed as Spanish were designed
+and executed in Flanders. The family of Bouttats--the original Bouttats
+had, says Walpole, twenty sons, of whom twelve became engravers--executed
+some of these book-plates. Amongst their work is one which Lord De
+Tabley styles 'a gloomy yet striking heraldic study'; it is signed 'P.
+B. Bouttats, sculp.,' and was probably engraved about the middle of the
+seventeenth century. It shows us the arms of a bishop surmounted by a
+plumed helmet, above which again is a bishop's hat, with pendent ropes
+and tassels; beneath is the motto: 'Por la Leÿ Bezerra ÿ por el Rëy.' A
+particularly fine example of Flemish heraldic art is furnished by the
+book-plate engraved and signed by J. Harrewyn, of Brussels, and dated
+1723; the inscription gives us quite a biographical sketch: 'Messire
+Charles Bonaventure, Comte vander Noot, Baron de Schoonhoven et de Mares
+&c^{a}; Conseiller de sa Ma^{te} Imp^{le} et Cath^{e} au souverain
+Conseil de Brabant par patante du 9 Mars 1713, Reçu aux Etats nobles de
+Brabant, fils de Messire Rogier Wouthier, en son vivant Baron de Carloo
+&c^{a}; et deputez ordinaire au dit corps de la noblesse des Etats de
+Brabant, et de Dame Anne Louÿse vander Gracht, née Baronne de Vrempde et
+d'Olmen, &c^{a}.'
+
+Our knowledge of Russian or Polish book-plates is chiefly derived from
+the illustrations shown in Monsieur S. J. Siennicki's work, entitled
+_Les Elzevirs de la Bibliothèque de L'Université Impériale de Varsovie_.
+Here we have some examples of the book-plates both of distinguished
+laymen and ecclesiastics. The probability is that none are of an early
+date, and they are certainly not conspicuous as works of art. The
+Russian style is perhaps the more distinct, though in many respects
+resembling the French, especially that shown in the more pronounced
+examples of the Louis XV. epoch.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[9] _Svenska Bibliotek och Ex Libris antecknigar af C. M. Carlander, med
+84 illustrationer._ Stockholm, 1889, and Supplement, 1891.
+
+[10] Sixth series, vol. i. p. 2.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+AMERICAN BOOK-PLATES
+
+
+WHATEVER an American collects, he collects well: he works with a will
+and energy that loosens his purse-strings in a manner which makes the
+acquisition of valuable specimens a comparatively easy matter. It is
+well, therefore, that book-plate collecting has found its way over the
+Atlantic, and that there is now a goodly body of American book-plate
+collectors who are giving the requisite amount of attention to American
+examples, and who are not keeping to themselves the result of their
+labours. In the first edition of this book I wrote: 'No doubt, ten years
+hence, we shall know a great deal more about American book-plates'; and
+already the appearance of Mr. Charles Dexter Allen's[11] interesting and
+carefully composed account of them has enabled me materially to improve
+this chapter, which I have devoted to them.
+
+The majority of book-plates which bear upon them American addresses,
+especially those belonging to the Southern States, many of which appear
+with the opening of the eighteenth century, are, without doubt, the work
+of engravers in the then mother-country.[12] The library owners of
+Virginia sent to England for these book-plates, or their sons ordered
+them there, whilst paying the orthodox visit to one of the universities,
+and brought them home, either for their own use or for the use of their
+fathers. The northern book-plates, though much later, are mostly the
+work of artists born and bred, or at least settled, in America.
+
+Foremost in interest and earliest in date of these American
+address-plates is that of William Penn, on which he styles himself
+'Proprietor of Pensylvania.' This is designed in the ordinary 'Simple
+Armorial' style then common in England, and is dated in 1702. It is
+therefore subsequent to Penn's last visit to his 'plantation,' and
+cannot have been the work of an engraver on that side of the Atlantic.
+After his death, the inscription on this book-plate was altered, for his
+son's use, to 'Thomas Penn of Stoke Pogeis, in the county of Bucks,
+first proprietor of Pensilvania (_sic_).' The expression 'first' must
+here be evidently read as 'chief' or 'principal.' The fact of this
+alteration is important for collectors to note, as copies of William
+Penn's book-plate are frequently offered for sale, which--they are
+palpably recent impressions--are said to be struck from the original
+plate; a statement which, from the fact mentioned, may be at once
+discredited.[13]
+
+Next in point of date is a much more ornate book-plate, the inscription
+on which reads: 'William Byrd of Westover, in Virginia, Esquire.' It is
+an elaborate piece of work, excellently engraved in the style of the
+majority of English book-plates of 1720 or thereabouts, 'Simple
+Armorial,' but with indications of Jacobean decoration. William Byrd was
+born in Virginia, 28th March 1694; he was sent to England to be
+educated, and returned to his native country, having his mind 'stored
+with useful information to adorn its annals, his manners cultivated in
+royal Courts,' and with this book-plate, as a mark of his devotion to
+literature.
+
+The famous Westover mansion, which may to-day be viewed from the James
+River, two hours' sail below Richmond, was for long the viceregal Court
+of Virginia. It was erected about the year 1678, by William Byrd, who
+left England when very young, and was father to his namesake, whose
+book-plate has just been described, the author of the famous _Westover
+Manuscripts_, compiled in 1732-33.
+
+Some five years before the probable date of the Byrd book-plate, we have
+note of that belonging to 'Robert Elliston, gent., Comptrol^{r} of His
+Majestie's Customs of New York in America MDCCXXV.' This book-plate is
+quite 'Jacobean' in style, and was no doubt executed in England, and
+sent out to the colony. It is too fine a piece of work to be the
+production of any colonial engraver of that date.
+
+But the interest attaching to book-plates bearing upon them American
+addresses, and used by residents in America, is obviously not so great
+as that awakened by examples which were also actually produced in
+America,--examples which at once give us an insight into the state of
+the engraver's art, and of the artistic feeling then existing there.
+
+The earliest of these is the book-plate of the 'Rev. John Williams,'
+first minister of Deerfield, Mass., dated in 1679. The next, in 1704,
+that of Thomas Prince, an American born and bred, who graduated from
+Harvard College in 1707, and paid his first visit to England in 1709, so
+that his book-plate may be taken as genuinely American. In design it
+resembles dozens of English examples,--a rough woodcut border of
+national emblems, within which is the inscription, 'Thomæ Prince Liber,
+Anno Domini, 1704'; the sequence of the words in the inscription, the
+reader will notice, being somewhat unusual. The Prince Library was
+bequeathed to a Society, which became known as 'the New England
+Library,' and which itself had a similar label prepared recording the
+gift. A part of the collection is now in the Boston Public Library.
+
+But these two examples stand by themselves; it is not until the middle
+of the eighteenth century that any number of book-plates of American
+execution are found; after that, there are a really considerable
+quantity. Their style is not particularly distinctive; it is at first
+either Jacobean or 'Chippendale,' or a combination of the two styles;
+later, the 'wreath and ribbon,' and landscape and pictorial styles are
+introduced and treated much as in England. In execution, American
+book-plates are perhaps a trifle coarse. The more prominent of their
+engravers seem to have been--Hurd, Dawkins, Anderson, Johnson,
+Callendar, Doolittle, the Mavericks, Revere, and Turner. Revere is the
+best known; he was a picture engraver of some merit; but for the most
+part the names quoted are those of men of little artistic reputation.
+Nathaniel Hurd was probably the earliest of these engravers, and not the
+worst. He was born at Boston in 1729, the son of an American, who was a
+goldsmith in that town. Nathaniel was his father's apprentice; he
+devoted himself to working on copper, and so naturally would turn his
+attention to book-plates. Probably the earliest example, signed by him
+as 'N. H.,' and dated in 1749, was designed for Thomas Dering. This is
+the earliest signed and dated American book-plate yet brought to light;
+Hurd was barely twenty when he produced it. As a seal and book-plate
+engraver he worked hard and well; he died in 1777. One of his most
+original book-plates is that of Harvard College. A curiously short and
+wide shield, bearing the college arms, is encircled by a band bearing
+the inscription, 'Sigill. Coll. Harvard. Cantab. Nov. Angl. 1650.'
+Outside this circle are two leaf sprays, tied at the base and nearly
+meeting at the top. Both in conception and execution this is a very
+peculiar book-plate. The Dering plate, on the other hand, is interesting
+as showing how exactly the style of the mother-country at that period
+was copied in America. Here we have a pure 'Chippendale' book-plate of
+an unpronounced type.
+
+Henry Dawkins (who began life by designing metal buttons) had been for a
+long time resident in America, when, in 1754, he engraved the book-plate
+of 'John Burnet of New York.' Like the Dering plate, Burnet's is
+interesting, and for the same reason; it is 'Chippendale,' but
+distinctly _later_ Chippendale, with cupids and other figures
+introduced. Dawkins was found guilty of counterfeiting, and begged to be
+hanged rather than suffer the imprisonment to which he had been
+condemned. Whether or not his request was granted we do not know.
+
+That the heraldry on some of these American book-plates should be
+startling, is only to be expected. Take, for instance, the very
+interesting book-plate of Robert Dinwiddie, Deputy-Governor of Virginia
+from 1751-58, which was probably engraved a few years before the earlier
+date. Here we have the shield divided fesse-fashion, and in the upper
+and lower divisions landscapes,--the first introducing an Indian archer
+shooting at a stag, and the lower a fort or castle with a ship at sea
+sailing towards it. Dinwiddie was a good servant to the English Crown
+both in Barbadoes and Virginia, and is said, like most successful people
+of his day, to be descended from an ancient family, though his immediate
+ancestors were Glasgow merchants. We are, however, not asked to believe,
+and we should not, if we were, that the arms are more ancient than
+Governor Dinwiddie himself, or that they _originated_ elsewhere than in
+his mercantile brain, though they may have been legally _granted_ by the
+Scotch College of Arms. The plate looks 'Scotch'--it is 'Chippendale,'
+and, I suspect, was engraved in the mother-country by a Scotch engraver.
+We may date it about 1750.
+
+There are, of course, some American book-plates specially interesting
+from their possessors, and foremost amongst them is that of George
+Washington. For its description I cannot do better than quote Mr. Allen:
+'The arms are displayed upon a shield of the usual shell-like form, and
+the sprays and rose-branches of this style [Chippendale] are used in the
+ornamentation of the sides of the escutcheon. The motto, _Exitus acta
+probat_, is given upon its ribbon at the base of the shield, and the
+name is engraved, in script, on the bracket at the bottom of the design.
+In general appearance the plate is like scores of Chippendale plates of
+the period.' I am sorry to take, somewhat, from the interest which
+attaches to this book-plate, by saying that, as I look more closely into
+it and study the details of its ornamentation and its execution, I am
+convinced it was engraved in England and not in America; it must
+therefore be of an earlier date than that attributed to it. I do not
+think it is subsequent to 1760. Of course there is a forgery of this
+plate, though it was prepared, not because of the value of the
+book-plate, but to sell a number of books which were said to have
+belonged to George Washington himself, and to have been captured in
+Virginia. The fraud was, however, discovered. No doubt these forgeries
+are now palmed off as the great man's book-plate. Mr. Lichtenstein's
+words about the real book-plate and the sham are therefore important:--
+
+'Original examples are noticeable for their sharp black impressions on
+dampened plate paper of a buff colour mellowed by age. Those of the
+imitation are printed from a plate which has the appearance of having
+seen considerable wear; besides being printed on a dry paper of a thin
+quality, and a bluish colour; by its modern appearance it is easily
+recognised, the engraving of the name being poorly done.'
+
+I do not know if a series of 'Presidents'' book-plates could be shown to
+exist, but Washington's successor, John Adams, certainly used one,
+introducing into it a certain number of national emblems. The American
+eagle with outspread wings overshadows the whole design.
+
+Of American women, in the early days of independence, only one is known
+to have used a book-plate. This lady was Elizabeth Græme, the youngest
+child of Dr. Thomas Græme, member of the Provincial Council, and in
+other ways a distinguished and wealthy citizen, who owned Græme Park, an
+estate lying some twenty miles from Philadelphia. Elizabeth was born in
+1737. At seventeen she was engaged to be married, but her engagement was
+suddenly--why, we learn not--broken off. To divert her mind, she set to
+work to translate _Télémaque_. She carried out the task, but it was
+never published, and lies to-day, as she wrote it, in the Philadelphia
+Museum. Her next engagement was to a man ten years her junior--a Mr.
+Ferguson; him she married, but, her husband taking the Crown's part,
+they separated. By the time of her death, in 1801, she had grown needy,
+despite the fact that she received money from her literary productions,
+which were numerous. Though evidently a staunch Republican, she was the
+bearer of the famous letter from the Rev. Jacob Duché to Washington, in
+which the writer begged his correspondent to return 'to his allegiance
+to the King.' The book-plate, which is, in every way, curious and
+interesting, is Armorial.
+
+An interesting point about American book-plates--which illustrates a
+distinctive feature in social life there--is the existence of a large
+number belonging to Friendly Societies, Mutual Improvement Societies,
+and institutions akin to them; for the books forming the libraries of
+these bodies contain some of the most curious and characteristic
+American book-plates. Amongst the number may be mentioned those of the
+New York Society Library, the Farmington Library, the Hasty Pudding
+Society and the Porcellian Club in Harvard College, the Linonian Society
+and the Brothers of Unity in Yale, and the Social Friends in Dartmouth
+College.
+
+None of these are particularly early, indeed the majority must be dated
+after the establishment of independence, but they are well worthy of
+study. Allegory runs wild in the book-plates--there are three mentioned
+by Mr. Dexter Allen--of the first-named Society, and Minerva is
+prominent in all. Let me endeavour to describe two, both the work of
+Maverick. In one she hands a volume of the Society's Library to an
+Indian, whose attitude in receiving it suggests that he had never seen a
+book before; in which case its contents cannot have done him much good.
+In the other she has just descended from Olympus, entered the library,
+and seized a volume from the book-shelf, which she presents to an
+apparently more appreciative red-skin. I say appreciative, for in return
+he hands the goddess his tomahawk. Minerva with a tomahawk! Can anything
+be more delightfully absurd?
+
+One might go on with many pages of these descriptions, but enough has
+been said to show the burlesque spirit in which allegory is treated,
+doubtless quite unintentionally, on American Society book-plates. In
+that fact lies much of their interest. More happy in conception and
+execution is the homelier design appearing on the book-plate of the
+Village Library in Farmington, which, if not a beautiful piece of
+engraving, is at least free from grotesqueness.
+
+'In this,' says Mr. Allen, 'we see the interior of a room in which a
+young lady patron of the library is storing her mind with those choice
+axioms which, if put in practice, far exceed the attractiveness of mere
+personal beauty; so says the couplet beneath the picture:--
+
+    'Beauties in vain, their pretty eyes may roll;
+     Charms strike the sense, but merit wins the soul.
+
+A writer in the _Ex Libris Journal_ points out that, after the
+Revolution, till about the year 1810, there were scarcely any American
+armorial book-plates. Perhaps one of the earliest is that of 'Samuel
+Elam, Rhode Island,' which appears to have been engraved about 1800. It
+is 'Pictorial' in style, and shows a shield, bearing arms, resting
+against a tree-stump, with a landscape background. The majority of
+American book-plate possessors, from 1810 until the fashion of using a
+book-plate became common some little time back, seem to have been
+members of the legal profession.
+
+During the last few years many American book-plates have been as wild
+and meaningless in design as the majority of those recently produced in
+England; although, as Mr. Allen's illustrations show us, a few truly
+artistic and appropriate examples have appeared. One modern book-plate
+from across the Atlantic is sure to attract English eyes; for the
+owner's works are read as eagerly, and appreciated as fully, here as in
+the States,--I mean that of 'Oliver Wendell Holmes.' This, too, is
+appropriate for the man, consisting simply of a motto-scroll, on which
+is written _Per Ampliora ad Altiora_, and a nautilus--'the ship of
+pearl,' as he calls it; 'the venturous bark that flings
+
+    'On the sweet summer winds its purpled wings
+     In gulfs enchanted where the siren sings,
+     And coral reefs lie bare,
+     Where the cold sea maids rise to sun their streaming hair.'
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[11] _American Book-Plates._ By Charles Dexter Allen. Bell and Son,
+1895.
+
+[12] The same remark applies to other book-plates bearing colonial
+addresses, such as that of 'Isaac Royall, Esq., of Antigua.'
+
+[13] It may be remarked as curious that William Penn does not, on his
+book-plate, impale the arms of Hannah Callowhill, to whom he was married
+in 1695.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+INSCRIPTIONS ON BOOK-PLATES IN CONDEMNATION OF BOOK-STEALING OR
+BOOK-SPOILING, AND IN PRAISE OF STUDY
+
+
+I PROPOSE now to speak about the inscriptions on book-plates, and I will
+divide them as follows:--(1) Sentiments in condemnation of book-stealing
+or book-spoiling; (2) sentiments in praise of books or of study; and (3)
+personal particulars of the owner of the book-plate, which last class
+shall receive attention in a separate chapter. In all three cases
+illustrations may be appropriately drawn both from English and foreign
+examples.
+
+Let me begin by calling the reader's attention to the fact, which I
+commented upon in my first chapter, that in nearly all inscriptions on
+book-plates it is the volume in which the book-plate is placed, and not
+the book-plate itself, that is spokesman. Take the inscription on one of
+the earliest examples: 'Liber Bilibaldi Pirckheimer, Sibi et amicis.'
+Bilibald Pirckheimer's book for himself and his friends! Here is an
+amiable intention; but the plan did not work, and we do not find the
+sentiment often repeated. In the good jurist's day printed books were
+not numerous, and they were costly. Then might a man be reasonably
+regarded as a dog in the manger, who shut the door of his bookcase
+against those anxious to benefit by the work of the printing-press; then
+mankind at large had not demonstrated the fact that general morality
+does not extend to returning borrowed books. Hence, I say, it was that
+on this early book-plate we have the expression 'Sibi et amicis.'
+
+School-boys--and I dare say, if one could only learn the truth in such
+matters, school-girls too--have a habit of inscribing their school-books
+with verses, denouncing in decidedly forcible language the school-fellow
+who steals--_i.e._ borrows and forgets to return--any particular volume,
+and at the end of these verses is depicted a gallows from which hangs
+the lifeless body of the thief. When did school-boys first thus protect
+their possessions? Few school-books survive for use by many successive
+generations, so we have no means of answering the question
+satisfactorily; but in a book--not a school-book--published in 1540,
+there are written (so a correspondent of _Notes and Queries_ informs
+us), in writing more than three centuries old, these lines below the
+owner's signature:--
+
+    'My Master's name above you se,
+     Take heede therefore you steale not mee;
+     For if you doe, without delay
+     Your necke . . . for me shall pay.
+     Looke doune below and you shal see
+     The picture of the gallowstree;
+     Take heede therefore of thys in time,
+     Lest on this tree you highly clime.'
+         [Drawing of the gallows.]
+
+So the school-boy's doggerel is at least founded on an ancient model,
+which we have quoted, though not actually appearing on a book-plate,
+because it was clearly intended to do duty as one.
+
+Of exactly the same date is a very pompous declaration, on a German
+book-plate, of a donor's intention that certain volumes given by him
+should remain for ever in the library to which they are presented. The
+owner of the book-plate was John Faber, Bishop of Vienna, who died in
+1541, and who, in the previous year, presented his books to the College
+of St. Nicholas in that city. Here is a translation given by Lord De
+Tabley, in which mark how in kingly fashion the bishop refers to himself
+as 'we':--
+
+'This book was bought by us, Dr. John Faber, Bishop of Vienna, and
+assistant in the Government of the New State, both as councillor and
+confessor to the most glorious, clement, and pious Ferdinand, King of
+the Romans, Hungary, and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria. And since,
+indeed, that money (which purchased this volume) did not arise from the
+revenues and properties of our diocese, but from our own most honest
+labours in other directions. And therefore it is free to us to give or
+bequeath the book to whomsoever we please. We accordingly present it to
+our College of St. Nicholas. And we ordain that this volume shall remain
+there for ever for the use of the students, according to our order and
+decree. Done in our Episcopal Court at Vienna, on the first day of
+September in the year of Grace 1540.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Dr. Faber was famous for his orthodoxy and his fervour in enforcing it;
+so much so, that he earned for himself the title _Malleus hereticorum_.
+He does not trust himself to express his opinion of the too eager
+student who should take to himself a volume from amongst these books;
+which is perhaps well.
+
+More polite than the English verses of 1540, and therefore not half so
+serviceable, are those printed on an actual book-plate, by which Andrew
+Hedio, a Königsberg professor of philosophy, who lived about the middle
+of the seventeenth century, sought to insure the safe return to his
+library of any volume which was out on loan. The arms of Hedio--the head
+and shoulders of an old bearded man in a fish-tailed nightcap--appear on
+the book-plate, and below, supposed to be spoken by the volume, are
+Latin verses, which in free translation may be rendered:--
+
+    'By him who bought me for his own,
+     I'm lent for reading leaf by leaf;
+     If honest, you'll return the loan,
+     If you retain me, you're a thief.'
+
+If you turn back to p. 123 and look at the book-plate of Speratus, you
+will see that he had expressed very much this sentiment more than a
+century before.
+
+It is not till the beginning of the eighteenth century that we find any
+decided expression of possession on an English book-plate. Then it
+occurs on that of John Reilly (described on p. 53). At the very bottom
+of the design is printed: 'Clamabunt omnes te, liber, esse meum.' Here
+you see it is John Reilly himself and not his book that speaks. It is a
+mild and decidedly gentlemanly way of expressing ownership, free from
+threats for not returning the volume; indeed, hardly contemplating the
+possibility of so dishonest an act.
+
+About the same date as Reilly's book-plate is a very graceful German
+one, executed for Michael Lilienthal (figured on p. 165). It shows us a
+group of growing lilies, around which bees are hovering or tasting their
+sweetness, and below--
+
+    'Use the book, but let no one misuse it;
+     The bee does not stain the lilies, but only touches them.'
+
+From this graceful book-plate and the pleasantry of its inscription, we
+turn to a heavy declamatory sentence, devised, _circa_ 1730, by the
+librarian of the Benedictine monastery of Wessenbrun, in Bavaria, for
+the books in his charge to speak when a theft had been actually
+committed or was in contemplation: 'I am the rightful possession of the
+Cloister of Wessenbrun. Ho there! Restore me to my master, so right
+demands!'
+
+Sherlock Willis, whose book-plate--a decided 'Chippendale'--is dated in
+1756, flies to Scripture for his aid against immoral borrowers, and
+places on his book-plate the familiar quotation from the 37th Psalm:
+'The ungodly borroweth, and payeth not again.' Various other English
+book-plates bear the same quotation, or some other taken from the Bible.
+On that in use at the Parochial Library of Tadcaster, which shows us St.
+John in the isle of Patmos receiving from the angel the book which he
+was to eat, we read: 'Accipe librum et devora illum' (Rev. x. 9); advice
+which it was not, we may presume, intended that the borrower should
+follow literally.
+
+There is something very businesslike and to the point about the
+inscription on the book-plate of Charles Ferdinand Hommeau, which is
+dated six years after that of Sherlock Willis. The inscription reads in
+translation: 'If you do not return the loan within fourteen days, or do
+not keep it carefully, on another occasion [when you ask to borrow it or
+some other book] I shall say I have not got it.' So M. Hommeau will not
+mind telling a lie to protect his library; and what is more, does not
+mind telling the world of his intention to do so. Truly he was an honest
+liar.
+
+David Garrick (whose book-plate is figured opposite) selected as an
+appropriate quotation for his book-plate the following, taken from the
+fourth volume of _Menagiana_:--'La première chose qu'on doit faire quand
+on a emprunté un livre, c'est de le lire afin de pouvoir le rendre
+plutôt.' Very good advice, no doubt; but I wonder if 'Davy' was careful
+enough to confine his loans to those who would follow it? This reminds
+me of a very nicely put passage of Lord De Tabley's, _à propos_ of the
+subject of book-borrowing in general:--
+
+[Illustration]
+
+'Now this batch of mottoes raises the point, whether valuable books
+should be lent to persons who treat volumes like coal scuttles; who
+perpetrate such atrocities as moistening their thumbs to turn a page
+over; who hold a fine binding before a roaring fire? who, _horribile
+dictu_, read at breakfast, and use, as a book-marker, the butter-knife.
+Ought Garrick to have lent the cream of his Shakespeare quartos to
+slovenly and mole-eyed Samuel Johnson? We think emphatically not! Many
+full-grown folks have no more idea of handling a book than has a
+school-boy.'
+
+So far the 'caveats' on book-plates have been either original
+compositions or quotations, specially selected by the owner; but, as
+time went on, people did not trouble to compose their own verses or
+inscriptions, or to hunt up appropriate quotations. The same lines or
+words appear fastened beneath, or printed upon, the book-plates of many
+different persons; in the latter case the book-plate is generally little
+more than a name ticket. Here is one, composed early in this century,
+which could be bought of C. Talbot, at 174 Tooley Street, and on it the
+purchaser could write his name before affixing it in his volumes:--
+
+                     'THIS BOOK
+                      BELONGS TO
+             .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .
+            If thou art borrowed by a friend,
+              Right welcome shall he be
+            To read, to study, not to lend,
+              But to return to me.
+
+            Not that imparted knowledge doth
+              Diminish learning's store;
+            But Books, I find, if often lent,
+              Return to me no more.
+
+            Read slowly, Pause frequently,
+                Think seriously,
+            Keep cleanly, return duly,
+    With the corners of the leaves not turned down.'
+
+Of about the same date is another little effusion, which clearly does
+not contemplate the purchaser being the possessor of a _unique_ volume,
+or of one for any cause irreplaceable, if lost:--
+
+    'THIS BOOK BELONGS TO
+
+      .    .    .    .    .    .    .   .    .    .
+
+    Neither blemish this book, nor the leaves double down,
+    Nor lend it to each idle friend in the town;
+    Return it when read, or, if lost, please supply
+    Another as good to the mind and the eye.'
+
+In these last quoted examples are certainly many stipulations, but they
+are as nought when compared with what we find on the book-plate of the
+Cavalier Francesco Vargas Macciucca, who was in the habit of pasting on
+the fly-leaf of the book, opposite his book-plate, _fifteen_ rules,
+written in Latin, to be observed by those who borrowed books from his
+library. If he enforced them, he can have been seldom troubled with a
+borrower!
+
+On the face of them,--since most of them have a blank space left for the
+owner's name, etc.,--these poetic or prosaic threats against
+book-stealers and the ill-usage of books do not pretend to be the
+compositions of those that used them. Jones or Brown went to the nearest
+stationer or bookseller, and purchased his admonitions all ready
+composed. But even after the introduction of ready-made admonitions, we
+find the man of independent mind rebelling against saving his library
+from spoliation by anybody's words save his own. Such a person was Mr.
+Charles Clark, of Great Totham Hall, near Witham, in Essex, who can at
+least claim originality for his composition, which, if lengthy, has
+occasional gleams of humour. Here it is:--
+
+  'A PLEADER TO THE NEEDER WHEN
+             A READER
+
+  As all, my friend, through wily knaves, full often suffer wrongs,
+  Forget not, pray, when it you've read, to whom this book belongs.
+  Than one Charles Clark, of Totham Hall, none to 't a right hath better,
+  A _wight_, that same, more _read_ than some in the lore of old _black_
+         letter;
+  And as C. C. in _Essex_ dwells--a shire at which all laugh--
+  His books must sure less fit seem drest, if they're not bound in
+         _calf_!
+  Care take, my friend, this book you ne'er with grease or dirt besmear
+         it;
+  While none but awkward _puppies_ will continue to "dog's-ear" it!
+  And o'er my books, when book-"worms" "grub," I'd have them understand,
+  No marks the margin must de-_face_ from any busy "_hand_"!
+  Marks, as re-marks, in books of Clark's, whene'er some critic spy
+         leaves,
+  It always him so _waspish_ makes though they're but on the _fly_-leaves!
+  Yes, if so they're used, he'd not de-_fer_ to _deal_ a fate most meet--
+  He'd have the soiler of his _quires_ do penance in a _sheet_!
+  The Ettrick _Hogg_--ne'er deem'd a _bore_--his candid mind revealing,
+  Declares, to beg a _copy_ now's a mere pre-_text_ for stealing!
+  So, as some knave to grant the loan of this my book may wish me,
+  I thus my book-_plate_ here display lest some such _fry_ should _dish_
+         me!
+  But hold!--though I again declare with-holding I'll not brook,
+  And "a _sea_ of trouble" still shall take to bring book-worms to "book."
+                                                              'C. C.'
+
+A certain Cheshire clergyman, who died not very long since, sought
+euphony in a string of commands to intending borrowers, which he had
+printed on his book-plate; 'Borrow bravely; Keep carefully; Peruse
+patiently; Return righteously.' What a pity he did not spell 'carefully'
+with a 'k' whilst he was about it!
+
+The Plymouth architect and author, George Wightwick, or, as he evidently
+pronounced it, _Witick_, used to affix in his books:--
+
+    'To whomsoever this book I _lend_
+      I _give_ one word--no more;
+    They who to _borrow_ condescend
+      Should graciously _restore_.
+    And whosoe'er this book should find
+      (Be't trunk-maker or critick),
+    I'll thank him if he'll bear in mind
+      That it is mine,
+                 GEORGE WIGHTWICK.'
+
+See, too, how a certain Mr. Charles Woodward protected, or thought he
+protected, the volumes which good nature may have prompted him to lend.
+His plate shows an opened volume, on one page of which is written:
+'Narrative--promising to send me home at the appointed time. Finis.'
+Evidently Mr. Woodward, like the honest liar before mentioned, was not a
+man to lend his volumes for an indefinite period.
+
+Having quoted various recent English examples of this kind, we are in
+duty bound to cite some from other component parts of the United
+Kingdom.
+
+Under the name 'H. Macdonald' we find:
+
+    'Tear not, nor soil not;
+     Read all, but spoil not.'
+
+      'A good book is a good friend; he who would injure the
+      one deserves not the respect of the other.'
+
+There is something almost pathetic in the exclamation which Mr. John
+Marks makes his volumes utter: 'Gentle reader, take me home; I belong to
+John Marks, 20 Cook Street, Cork'; and then the evil-minded borrower is
+reminded of the scriptural condemnation of his kind by reference to
+'Psalm xxxvii. ver. 21.' Before this comes--
+
+    'ADVICE FOR THE MILLION
+
+    Neither a borrower or a lender be,
+    For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
+    And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
+            True for you, Mr. Shakespeare!
+
+    MORAL
+
+    Of all books and chattels that ever I lent,
+    I never got back five-and-twenty per cent.
+                      Fac, my Bredern!'
+
+We may presume from this that Mr. John Marks tried to be funny, and from
+his composition getting into print he may flatter himself that he
+succeeded.
+
+One more example of these warnings to borrowers and we have done with
+the subject. Lord De Tabley fixes the date of it as 1820, but surely it
+must be the composition of some eleventh century reprobate, who on his
+death-bed richly endowed a neighbouring monastery, and threatened any
+one who should ever disturb his endowment. The words appear on the
+book-plate of O. M[oore], and they read in translation: 'If any one
+steals this book, and with furtive hand carries it off, let him go to
+the foul waves of Acheron, never to return.'
+
+Now, let us look at some of the eulogies of books or of study which are
+found on book-plates. These do not appear until a much later date. The
+text on Pirckheimer's book-plate, '_The fear of the Lord is the
+beginning of wisdom_,' can hardly be called one in praise of study,
+though it is a wholesome truth that should be borne in mind by every
+student. Indeed, we have to pass over more than two centuries after the
+invention of book-plates before one which, in the inscription upon it,
+yields an example of the kind now under consideration. This appears at
+last in 1697, in a sentiment expressed by an Austrian lawyer, John
+Seyringer by name. Here it is:
+
+    'He that would learn without the aid of books
+     Draws water in a sieve from running brooks.'
+
+We have again to pass over many years for our next example. Peter de
+Maridat, who was, he tells us, a senator in the Great Council of Louis
+XIV. of France, used for a book-plate, which may therefore be dated
+before 1715, the figure of a negro, who stands with one hand resting on
+a shield of arms, and holds in the other a pair of scales. The arms on
+the shield are azure, a cross argent, and below is written:
+
+    'Inde cruce hinc trutina armatus regique deoque
+       Milito, Disco meis hæc duo nempe libris,'
+
+which may be construed: 'Armed on one side with the cross [the cross on
+the shield], and on the other with the pair of scales, I fight for my
+king and for my God. These two things I indeed learn from my books,'
+_libris_; but _libris_ may also be translated 'balances,' and herein is
+the pun!
+
+Taking them chronologically, our next examples are on English
+book-plates; one is dated 1730, and the other evidently belongs to the
+same period. On the first, the Rev. John Lloyd writes: 'Animus si æquus,
+quod petis hic est'; and on the other, Thomas Robinson, a Fellow of
+Merton, quotes from Cicero: 'Delectant domi non impediunt foris.'
+Perhaps 'Herbert Jacob, Esq. of St. Stephen's, in Kent,' had a generally
+troublesome wife, who did not penetrate the sacred region of his
+library; however it may have been, he placed on his book-plate, _circa_
+1740: 'Otium cum libris,' a sentiment expressed in a great variety of
+ways on later book-plates.
+
+Some ten years later than the last example is the book-plate of a German
+cleric, Gottfried Balthazar Scharff, Archdeacon of Schweidnitz, a town
+in Prussian Silesia, on which his books are praised in some not
+ungraceful verses; in these the owner asks divine help in understanding
+aright the teaching of his volumes.
+
+On the Flemish book-plate of Lewis Bosch (spoken of elsewhere in this
+volume, p. 218), we read beneath the representation of the prelate's
+library, in which he is shown hard at work among his books: 'A hunt in
+such a forest never wearies.' The allusion to a forest of books recalls
+the motto on the much later English book-plate of Mary Berry. On this is
+depicted a wild strawberry plant, its fruit half hidden by leaves, and
+below is written, 'Inter folia fructus.' Probably Miss Berry, besides
+alluding to the fruit of knowledge which she found amongst the leaves of
+her books, intended a mild play upon the strawberry and her own family
+name.
+
+Besides these, a host of further mottoes in praise of books or about
+books are to be met with. Some recommend the collection of as large a
+library as possible; others point out that the mind is distracted by a
+multitude of books; some advocate the careful handling of a volume, even
+at the expense of not getting so well acquainted with its contents;
+whilst others tell us that well-thumbed books are monuments of the
+owner's industry and constant study. Nor are the consoling powers of
+books forgotten. On a very pretty rustic vignette, executed by Bonner
+after Bewick, 'W. B. Chorley of Liverpool' has the words: 'My books, the
+silent friends of joy and woe.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PERSONAL PARTICULARS ON BOOK-PLATES
+
+
+HOW much more communicative, in the matter of personal particulars, are
+some people, upon their book-plate, than others! What a contrast, for
+instance, between the inscription on Walpole's book-plate--'Mr. Horatio
+Walpole'--and that on one of Pepys's, on which he styles himself
+'Esquire,' and states that he is of Brampton in Huntingtonshire,
+'Secretary of the Admiralty of his Mat^{y} King Charles the Second,' and
+'Descended of y^{e} ancient family of Pepys of Cottenham in
+Cambridgeshire.'
+
+Of course Sam Pepys was a vain man--that we all know; but the difference
+between the two inscriptions has more to do with the fashion of the time
+than with the characteristics of the two men. In enlarging on his
+pedigree, social position, and secretaryship to the Admiralty, Pepys was
+only following the custom of his day. There are many examples of similar
+inscriptions on book-plates contemporary with Pepys's:--'Charles
+Pitfeild of Hoxton, in the Parish of St. Leonards, Shoreditch, in
+Middlesex, Esq^{r.,} descended of the ancient family of the Pitfeilds of
+Symsbury in Dorsetshire, and is now married to Winifred, one of the
+daughters and Coeheyrs of John Adderley, of Coton in Stafordshire,
+Esq^{r.}' And again:--'S^{r}. Henry Hunloke of Wingerworth, in
+Derbyshire, Bart. In y^{e} escocheon of pretence is y^{e} Armes of
+Katherine his Lady, who was sole daughter and heyre of Francis Tyrwhit
+of Kettleby, in Lincolnshire, Esq^{e}, y^{e} last of y^{e} Eldest branch
+of y^{t} great and ancient family.' Equally proud of his ancestry is
+'Thomas Windham of Sale in Devonshire, Esq^{r.,} one of the Grooms of
+his Majesties Bed-chamber, third son of S^{r} Edmund Windham of
+Cathanger in Somersetshire, Kt., Marshall of his Majesties most
+Hon^{ble} household,' who concludes the inscription on his book-plate by
+telling us that he was 'lineally descended from the antient family of
+the Windhams of Crown-Thorpe, in the County of Norfolk.'
+
+But this habit of expressing pride in ancestry, though it became less
+frequent, certainly survived Pepys's time. Mr. J. Paul Rylands, F.S.A.,
+has a copy of the _Eikon Basilike_, printed in 1649, on the title-page
+of which is written, 'Dan. Mercator.' Within the book is an armorial
+book-plate engraved in the Jacobean style, and, since it belonged to a
+man born in 1640, one of the early examples of that style. The owner was
+the eminent mathematician, Nicholas Mercator, who was born at Holstein,
+and afterwards settled in England, where his mathematical ability was
+recognised by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society. Nicholas
+was proud of his ancestors' efforts in the cause of Protestantism, and
+also wished his English friends to be aware of them; he therefore
+inscribes his book-plate, 'Nicholas Mercator, a Descendant of the
+Kauffmans of Prague, in Bohemia, Coadjutors with Luther in the
+Reformation.'
+
+On the Continent, lengthy eulogies of ancestors are common, and they
+commence at an early date. Here is one, which is also a sigh for the
+purity of nobility in ages past. It is uttered, in 1565, by John Giles
+Knöringen, who writes, below his shield of arms, given in colour:--
+
+    'These are the famed insignia of my sires,
+       Which in their proper colour you may see;
+     Not bribes, as is the fashion in these days,
+       But virtue, raised them to nobility.'
+
+It is, however, most frequently in an enumeration of his offices or
+degrees that the owner of a book-plate allows himself to get wordy. Let
+us take, for instance, the already mentioned book-plate of Sir Edward
+Dering (see pp. 31, 32), which bears date 1630, and displays a shield of
+twenty coats of arms; it has a proportionately impressive description of
+Sir Edward's many offices--Lieutenant of Dover Castle, Vice-Chancellor,
+and Vice-Admiral of the Cinque Ports, etc. Sir Robert Southwell, Knight,
+tells us that he is 'one of the Clerkes attending His Majesty King
+Charles the Second in his most Honourable Privy Councell, etc.'
+
+William Wharton, who was killed in a duel, in 1689, calls himself
+'fourth son to the Right Honourable Philip Lord Wharton of Wharton, in
+Westmoreland, by Ann, Daughter to William Carr, of Fernihast, in
+Scotland, Esq^{r.,} one of the Groome (_sic_) of the Bedchamber to King
+James'; whilst Randolph Egerton, in the inscription on his book-plate,
+recalls the time when the unhappy Duke of Monmouth was yet a trusted
+officer in the royal army: 'Randolph Egerton of Betley, in Staford
+Shire, Esquire, Lieutenant of his Majestyes own Troop of Guard, under
+the comand of his Grace James Duke of Monmouth, etc.'
+
+The book-plates of Thomas, Earl of Wentworth, contain a curiously
+lengthy enumeration of the offices enjoyed by that distinguished soldier
+and diplomatist, who, at a critical time, steered his country through a
+great many difficulties. The first is dated in 1698, and on it the owner
+describes himself as 'The Right Honourable Thomas Wentworth, Baron of
+Raby, and Colonell of his Maiesties owne Royall Reg^{mt} of Dragoons,
+1698.' In 1703 Wentworth was sent as envoy to Berlin, and two years
+later was advanced to the post of ambassador. On this appointment he had
+a second book-plate engraved, bearing the following inscription:--'His
+Excellency The R^{t} Hon^{ble} Tho. Wentworth, Lord Raby, Peer of
+England, Coll^{o} of her Ma^{tys} Royal Reg^{t} of Dragoons, Lieu^{t}
+General of all her Ma^{tys} Forces & her Ma^{tys} Embassador Extra^{ry}
+to y^{e} King of Prussia, 1705;'--size 4 × 3. On the face of it, this is
+foreign work, and the expression 'Peer of England' could hardly have
+been put on it by an English engraver.
+
+Wentworth's later diplomatic post has been made famous by Swift's
+allusion to it, in reference to his being associated with Mat Prior.
+'Wentworth,' says the Dean, 'is as proud as hell, and how he will bear
+one of Prior's mean birth on an equal character with him I know not.'
+Proud as hell, was he? Well, he certainly was proud of his advance in
+title and his many high offices, all of which he sets out in his third
+and last book-plate, also, I think, foreign work, dated in 1712. Here is
+the inscription: 'His Excellency the Right Honourable Thomas Earl of
+Strafford, Viscount Wentworth of Wentworth Woodhouse, and of
+Stainborough, Baron of Raby, Newmarch, and Oversley, Her Majesty's
+Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the States General of
+y^{e} United Provinces, and also at the Congress of Utrecht; Colonel of
+Her Majesty's own Royal Regiment of Dragoons, Lieutenant-General of all
+Her Forces; First Lord of the Admiraltry (_sic_) of Great Britain and
+Ireland; one of the Lords of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy
+Council; and Knight of the Most Noble Order of y^{e} Garter.' On the
+accession of George I., an attempt was made to impeach this busy Lord,
+but it failed, and he retired into private life for the rest of his
+days. His memoirs, published a few years back by Mr. Cartwright, F.S.A.,
+give an excellent picture of life at the time he lived.
+
+Some book-plate owners, not boastful of their titles, let us into their
+confidences as to their place of birth, age, and the like. The German
+book-plate, dated in 1618, of John Vennitzer, a knife-smith or cutler by
+trade, tells us that he was born at Nuremberg, at 22 minutes past 5 in
+the afternoon on the 14th day of May, 1565. Vennitzer made money by his
+trade, and founded the Library of St. Lawrence in his native city;
+perhaps the date on the book-plate is that of the foundation of the
+library. No doubt, as Lord De Tabley remarks, the cutler conscientiously
+believed that the condition of his whole life depended on the particular
+moment at which he entered the world; for he was probably well versed in
+the mysteries of horoscopy.
+
+'John Collet' makes us really quite familiar with all his relations, and
+with his own religious feelings. His book-plate--it is only a printed
+label--reads: 'Johannes Collet filius Thomæ Collet. Pater Thomæ,
+Gulielmi, ac Johannis, omnium superstes. Natus quarto junii, 1633.
+Denasciturus quando Deo visum fuerit; interim hujus proprietarius John
+(_sic_) Collet.'
+
+Even more obliging is 'Thomas Tertius Okey, medicinæ Professor, 1697.'
+He was, he tells us, 'great grandson to William Okey (usually cal'd
+Okely) of Church Norton, betwixt Gloucester and Tewxsbury, gentelman;
+grandson to Thomas Primus Okey of Church Norton, the Devizes and
+Taunton, Professor of Theology; eldest son to Thomas Secundus Okey, of
+the Devizes and London, Professor of Physick, and father to Thomas
+Quartus Okey, of London, gentelman. The above mentioned Thomas Tertius
+Okey, Professor of Physick, now liveth in London near the Bodys of his
+deceased relations.' Before such details as these, even John Collet
+seems reticent.
+
+Sir Philip Sydenham--whose peculiarities in the matter of book-plates
+are elsewhere commented upon--in one of his first examples, dated in
+1699, tells us his age: 'Sir Philip Sydenham, Bart., of Brympton in
+Somerset, and M.A. of the University of Cambridge, Æta. Suæ 23.' Richard
+Towneley in 1702 does the same. The inscription on his book-plate reads,
+as we see by the frontispiece:
+
+    'Ex libris Bibliothecæ Domesticæ Richardi Towneley de
+     Towneley In Agro Lancastrensi Armigeri Anno {Ætatis: 73
+                                                 {Domini: 1702.'
+
+One cannot help wondering why Mr. Towneley--the owner, and in a great
+part the collector, of the vast library with which the family name is
+connected--should have waited till he was seventy-three years of age to
+have a book-plate engraved. Some of the volumes in that library had a
+curious stamp in silver of the Towneley arms, with the date 1603 on
+their bindings, but there does not seem to have been an earlier
+book-plate. Richard Towneley died at York in 1707. Besides being an
+astronomer and a mathematician, he was a keen antiquary; and Thoresby,
+the historian of Leeds, tells us of the pride with which he showed him a
+wondrous and just completed pedigree of the Towneley family, on the
+occasion of their meeting during the year in which the book-plate was
+engraved.
+
+'John Fenwick of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Attorney at Law,' leaves us in
+ignorance as to his age at the time his book-plate was engraved, because
+he does not date it; but he states that he was 'born at Hexham, 14th
+April 1787,' and 'married at Alnwick, 9th June 1814.'
+
+One lady--and only one--lets us into what, with those of her sex, is
+usually a secret. Isabel de Menezes inscribes her book-plate by
+Bartolozzi (see p. 94), 'Ætatis 71 anno 1798.'
+
+I have given, in this chapter, no foreign examples of book-plates on
+which minute personal particulars appear; but some of the examples of
+which I have spoken elsewhere--notably the Flemish book-plate of Count
+vander Noot--will show that they exist.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+LADIES' BOOK-PLATES
+
+
+THERE seem to be really several good and logical reasons why we should
+separate, for consideration by themselves, the book-plates which have
+been used by ladies. To mention two: there are certain differences (such
+as the shape of the shield in which the arms are borne) which, by the
+rigid laws of heraldry, ought to appear on these book-plates when
+belonging to a maid or widow; moreover, ladies' book-plates, though
+sometimes mere printed labels, are generally more fanciful in design
+than the majority of those owned by the sterner sex.
+
+The whole subject of ladies' book-plates has been so exhaustively
+treated by Miss Norna Labouchere that it need not take up much space in
+the present chapter. When, however, in this work, Miss Labouchere asks
+where are book-plates of the English feminine bibliophiles of the
+fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries--Dame Juliana Berners,
+Margaret Roper, Lady Jane Grey, Mary Stuart, and the ladies of Little
+Gidding--the answer, I am afraid, is: they had none. Had they possessed
+them, they would, in this book-plate-spying age, have been discovered.
+
+[Illustration: LADY BATH'S BOOK-PLATE.]
+
+But, be it said to the credit of the ladies, some of the earliest
+dated English book-plates belonged to them. It is true these are merely
+name-tickets, such as that of Elizabeth Pindar, 1608, in the Bagford
+Collection, kindly pointed out to me by Mr. W. Y. Fletcher; but the fact
+of their existence deserves notice, because it shows the readiness of
+the fair sex to lay hold of a new fashion; and having a book-plate in
+the early years of the seventeenth century was a new fashion, at least
+in England.
+
+The first Armorial ladies' book-plate is that of the Countess-Dowager of
+Bath, already very fully described. I will only add that readers who
+refer back to what I have said about her matrimonial arrangements
+(_vide_ p. 38), will see that she is heraldically accurate in not
+bearing her arms in a lozenge. The laws of heraldry do not allow ladies,
+while married, to place their arms in lozenge-shaped shields; and this
+fact enables some feminine book-plate owners to demonstrate the
+possession of a virtue which women are often taxed with
+lacking--economy. Ladies frequently made the same designs do duty as
+their own book-plates which had served for their husbands. But,
+according to Miss Labouchere, the husband sometimes used his wife's
+book-plate; for the book-plates--identical, save for the
+inscriptions--of the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort, Lord and Lady Roos,
+and some others, show, on examination, that the words indicative of
+ownership by the lady have been erased, and over-engraved by those
+indicative of possession by her lord.
+
+The lozenge really looks very well on a book-plate; and lends itself
+readily to the decoration usually bestowed upon it. Take, for instance,
+that of Dame Anne Margaretta Mason, dated in 1701. Her maiden name was
+Long, and the shield shows us Mason impaling Long. Lady Mason's is a
+fair sample of a lady's book-plate of that date. The arms are contained
+in a lozenge, set in a Jacobean frame, which is lined with scale work,
+and adorned with ribbons and leafy sprays. There is no motto-scroll, but
+the name bracket comes up close to the base of the design (see also p.
+52).
+
+Indeed it may be said that the Jacobean style of ornamentation is that
+best suited to ladies' book-plates, especially when the arms are
+depicted on a lozenge-shaped shield. The book-plate of the 'Hon. Anne
+North,' by Simon Gribelin, is another instance to prove this. I do not
+think that Chippendale decoration suits them at all, and, in the use of
+ornaments of that style, Englishwomen were as immoderate as Englishmen.
+Lady Lombe's book-plate, designed in the later days of Chippendalism, is
+quite appalling from its over-ornamentation. The wreath of ribbon, or
+festoon, style of the close of the last century is more suitable for
+ladies' book-plates, and some very charming examples are known; equally
+suitable, it seems to me, would have been the picture or landscape
+style--the style in which, at the close of the last century, Bewick, and
+some few other English artists, were working with conspicuous success,
+and it seems strange that the ladies of Great Britain did not adopt it
+more extensively.
+
+When we come to modern times we find ladies have run as wild as their
+lords over book-plates; there is the same peculiarity, the same
+mysticism, the same inappropriateness for book-plates in the designs of
+many book-plates of _fin de siècle_ English ladies. The few really
+artistic and appropriate book-plates stand out in marked contrast in
+Miss Labouchere's excellent little book, and amongst them may be noted
+Lady Mayo's, designed in 1894 by Mr. Anning Bell, which shows us a
+musician and a songstress within a frame composed of spring flowers and
+the national emblem of Ireland.
+
+But let us go back a little in date, and look at a ladies' book-plate
+designed in the Allegoric style; what more striking example could be
+found than that furnished by George Vertue's charming piece of work
+engraved for Lady Oxford?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It represents the interior of the library either at Brampton or Welbeck,
+probably the latter, which was Lady Oxford's own inheritance. Through a
+doorway, flanked by Corinthian columns, the curtain in front of which is
+drawn back, we obtain a view of a country house standing back in a
+well-kept park; a river crossed by a three-arched bridge meanders
+through this. But it is the occupants of the room that call for most
+attention. The prominent figure is that of Minerva, who has laid aside
+her arms, and stands sandalled and helmeted. She is busily engaged in
+instructing six cupids, who appear to be industriously following her
+injunctions. One of these is painting in oils, with an easel before
+him and a palette on his thumb; the goddess with her left hand points
+out some defect in his work, and apparently explains how it may be
+remedied. Another cupid plays the harp; two more sit on the frame of the
+design, weaving flowing festoons; another, also on the frame, near a
+celestial globe, copies the picture of a flute-playing satyr which a
+sixth cupid holds in position.
+
+On the frame which surrounds the picture sit two figures--one of which
+is Mercury, with caduceus and winged hat--who act as supporters to a
+medallion bearing Lady Oxford's monogram; above is an urn, and from the
+sides fall bunches of grapes. Below the design is engraved 'Henrietta
+Cavendish Holles, Oxford and Mortimer. Given me by'--and then the
+donor's name and last two figures of the date, filled in by Lady Oxford
+herself.
+
+Lady Oxford was the sole heiress of John Holles, last Duke of Newcastle
+of the Holles family, and was the wife of Edward, second Earl of Oxford,
+son of Queen Anne's minister, and the continuator and completor of the
+Harleian collections. Vertue's love of studying all kinds of antiquities
+brought him, at an early date, into contact with Lord Oxford, who proved
+one of his warmest patrons. The artist himself speaks of 'the Earl's
+generous and unparalleled encouragement of my undertakings.' Harley
+would take his friend with him on his various 'hunting' tours in
+England, getting him to sketch the numerous objects of interest that
+they came across. No wonder that the Earl's death, in 1741, was a heavy
+loss, in every way, to George Vertue.
+
+It is noteworthy that there is no trace of heraldry in this remarkable
+book-plate. Book-plates free from anything armorial were not the rule in
+England in 1730, and Vertue was certainly proficient in heraldic
+engraving, or ought to have been so, since his earliest task in life was
+engraving coats of arms on plate, and his second engagement was with
+Michael Vandergucht, who, we know, executed a good deal of armorial
+work. It is probable, therefore, that the idea of the book-plate was
+Lady Oxford's own.
+
+From this delightful specimen of a lady's book-plate in which heraldry
+is entirely absent, we may appropriately turn our attention to two
+examples which combine heraldry with a fanciful design--the book-plates
+of Lady Pomfret and the Honourable Mrs. Damer. The first of these is
+that which 'S. W.,' probably Samuel Wale, the Royal Academician,
+engraved for 'The R^{t} Hon^{ble} Henrietta Louisa Jeffreys, Countess of
+Pomfret, Lady of the Bed-chamber to Queen Caroline,' and is a very
+unusual piece of work, both in shape, design, and heraldry. There is a
+clear indication of 'Chippendaleism' about the shield and sprays of
+flowers and leaves, which is certainly curious in view of what we must
+consider the approximate date of the book-plate; but the arms are in a
+Jacobean frame, which stands in a garden. On one side we have a cupid
+bearing aloft the lady's family crest, and on the other the husband's
+crest and helmet, situated just within the opening of a tent. Lady
+Pomfret was the granddaughter of James II.'s infamous Lord Chancellor.
+She married Lord Pomfret in 1720, and was Lady of the Bed-chamber to
+Queen Caroline from 1713 to 1737, so that we are enabled to fix the date
+of this plate within seventeen years, indeed, probably within four
+years, for she had a less ambitious, and no doubt earlier, book-plate
+engraved for her, which bears the date 1733.
+
+As might be expected, the book-plate of 'Selina, Countess of
+Huntingdon,' forms a striking contrast to that last described. Here we
+have a plain representation of a coat of arms in a lozenge, and
+supported in the orthodox manner. No cupids or other vanities intrude
+themselves into this sombre and coarsely executed work, which may be
+dated, after the owner became a widow, in 1746, and therefore, after her
+'call'--which is, I believe, the correct expression for a sudden
+conversion to the form of religion she embraced.
+
+Probably of about the same date as Lady Huntingdon's book-plate is that
+of another famous woman of her day, Lady Betty Germain, about whom Swift
+has plenty to say in his _Journal to Stella_. On this book-plate a
+somewhat funereal effect is produced by the dark background, against
+which is the lozenge containing the arms Berkeley impaling Germain; but
+the ornamentation of the lozenge, of the name-scroll, and of the frame
+enclosing the design, is light and elegant. Poor Lady Betty! she had a
+good deal to live down: her girlhood had not been so moral as it might
+have been, and the Duchess of Marlborough did her best to make her
+friend's misfortunes as public as possible. But for all that, Elizabeth
+Berkeley made a good match in point of money, marrying--as his second
+wife--Sir John Germain, a soldier of fortune and repute. He left her a
+widow in 1718, with Drayton as her home and a vast fortune. Her
+widowhood lasted very nearly fifty years, during which she gave away
+large sums in charity, as well as spending them on amassing curios:
+these, in 1763, Walpole went to look at, and admired.
+
+But we have been digressing, and have not yet spoken about the second of
+the two book-plates just now mentioned, that of the Hon. Mrs. Damer,
+which, in design and execution, certainly surpasses any ladies'
+book-plate yet noticed; it is really a beautiful picture. First let me
+speak of Mrs. Damer and her surroundings; her book-plate becomes the
+more interesting as we call these to mind. The daughter of Field-Marshal
+Henry Seymour Conway, she made for herself, at an early age, a name,
+both in England and Italy, as an accomplished sculptress. From
+infancy--she was born in 1749--she was the pet of Horace Walpole, and
+throughout her life his intimate friend, living, after her husband's[14]
+suicide, close to him at Strawberry Hill, which he bequeathed to her by
+his will, and where, by the way, the work of her artistic fingers might
+be seen in profusion. Friends of herself and of Walpole were Robert
+Berry and his daughters Mary and Agnes--'my twin wives,' Walpole calls
+them. Mrs. Damer's book-plate is the work of the latter of these two
+ladies--Walpole's 'sweet lamb, Agnes.' It shows us a kneeling female
+figure, pointing to a newly-cut inscription on a block of stone, 'Anna
+Damer';[15] above is a shield bearing the arms of Damer, with those of
+Seymour-Conway on an escutcheon of pretence, and on the right and left
+of this are elegantly drawn dogs. The work was engraved by Francis
+Legat, and is dated '1793.' Miss Mary Berry's book-plate has been
+already spoken of (p. 177).
+
+As an illustration to this chapter on ladies' book-plates, I have taken
+one which is both artistic and interesting, from the fact that it shows
+us--in the figure contemplating the bust--what is presumably a picture
+of the owner. I fear, however, that proof of its authenticity as a
+likeness sufficient to allow of its incorporation as a 'Portrait'
+book-plate (see pp. 216-220) will not be forthcoming; but whether it is
+one or not, it is certainly a pleasing book-plate. Frances Anne Acland,
+the owner, was born in 1736, became the wife of Richard Hoare of Barne
+Elms in 1761 and thus stepmother to Richard Colt Hoare, the future
+antiquary and the historian of Wiltshire; she died in the year 1800, and
+was buried at Beckenham.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+But all that has been said, so far, concerns the book-plates of English
+women. Foreign dames of various nationalities, and our feminine
+cousins across the Atlantic (see p. 150), have made a very generous use
+of these marks of book-possession. French women of the eighteenth
+century have, as the reader of Miss Labouchere's interesting pages on
+this part of her subject will see, for the most part, used book-stamps,
+many of the most beautiful French bindings gaining an additional
+interest and beauty from the coats of arms of their fair owners
+impressed upon them. There are, however, a fairly large number of
+book-plates known which have belonged to French women, or, at all
+events, to women resident in France, and amongst them one to which
+attaches pathetic interest from the tragic fate of its owner. I mean
+that of the Princesse de Lamballe, who fell a victim to her attachment
+to the reigning house of France during the revolting massacres of 1792.
+
+There are such things as 'joint' book-plates--book-plates which have
+belonged both to husbands and wives. We meet with some such in England,
+though not at a very early date; but in Germany they exist as far back
+as 1605. In England the first example, only a printed label, is in
+1737--'Mr. Thomas and Mrs. Anne Pain.' Examples of this dual ownership
+occur frequently in modern book-plates.
+
+For other points of interest in and about ladies' book-plates the reader
+must consult Miss Labouchere's work; all I will do, in concluding my
+remarks upon them, is to say that--as might perhaps be expected--in
+phrases of book-possession ladies are even more outspoken than
+gentlemen; few, however, are so much so as Lady Dorothy Nevill, who
+protects her books with the words 'stolen from' placed before her name:
+surely she can be no more troubled by borrowers than was the Cavalier
+Macciucca (_vide_ p. 171).
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[14] She married, in 1767, the Hon. John Damer, a son of Lord Milton.
+
+[15] A variety of this book-plate exists on which the inscription reads:
+'Anna Seymour-Damer.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE MORE PROMINENT ENGRAVERS OF ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES
+
+
+WILLIAM MARSHALL heads our list of engravers of English book-plates. We
+know of but one specimen of his work, but it is exceedingly fine--the
+anonymous plate of the Lyttelton family, described on p. 32. Marshall's
+works are dated between 1591 and 1646. Next after him comes the
+well-known engraver of portraits, William Faithorne (b. 1633; d. 1691),
+whose Portrait book-plate of Bishop Hacket is figured opposite. David
+Loggan, the engraver of the Isham book-plates in 1676, is the artist
+next on our roll. How many book-plates he designed and engraved I do not
+know, but there are two or three early English examples which, in their
+arrangement and touch, resemble somewhat closely his work for Isham.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+About this same date Michael Burghers was engraving book-plates in
+England; he appears to have left Holland in 1672, and to have settled in
+Oxford. The earliest book-plate of his that I have seen is that of
+Thomas Gore, already described; perhaps he found the allegory with which
+he embellished it was not popular with Englishmen, and his other
+book-plates--we know of two or three--are in the 'Simple Armorial' style
+usual in English book-plates of the period. Lord De Tabley suggests that
+Christopher Sartorius, who worked at Nuremberg between 1674 and 1737,
+may be connected with the James Sartor who signed a fine English
+'Jacobean' book-plate at the opening of the eighteenth century; of this
+James we know nothing except this piece of work, which is certainly
+good. After Sartor comes John Pine, whose pompous book-plate, engraved
+about the year 1736, to commemorate George I.'s gift of books to the
+University of Cambridge, has been described and figured (p. 75). He was
+born in 1690, and died in 1756. His engravings of the Tapestry in the
+House of Commons became so popular, that he was the subject of a special
+Act of Parliament securing to him the emoluments arising from the sale
+of the work. Pine, as we have seen, engraved other book-plates later on
+in the century.
+
+Michael Vandergucht, the famous Antwerp engraver, was also working in
+England before the close of the seventeenth century, but his first
+book-plate is dated in 1716. This was engraved for Sir William Fleming,
+of Rydal, and is in many respects a striking piece of work. The style is
+quite English of the period: heavy mantling descends to the base of the
+shield; but the inscription--'The Paternal Arms of Sir William Fleming
+of Rydal in the county of Westmoreland, Baronet,' with a description of
+the heraldry--savours much of being the work of a foreigner. It should
+be mentioned of this artist that he was pupil of one of the many Boutats
+who were active as engravers of foreign book-plates. He (Vandergucht)
+died in Bloomsbury in 1725.
+
+After him we may appropriately mention his principal pupil--George
+Vertue. His most conspicuous book-plate is certainly that of Lady
+Oxford, which is already familiar to the reader.
+
+Simon Gribelin is well known as a book-illustrator, and finds frequent
+mention by Walpole. He was born at Blois in 1661, came to England when
+nineteen, and worked here till his death in 1733. Perhaps the earliest
+book-plate he engraved is that of Sir Philip Sydenham, which shows us
+the shield and crest encircled with snakes and other ornaments,--a
+book-plate decidedly foreign in appearance, though Gribelin must have
+been nearly twenty years in England when it was engraved. He did two
+other book-plates for Sir Philip. He also engraved some of the Parochial
+Library plates described later on (pp. 225-227), and some others.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Though 'J. Skinner'[16] (see pp. 81-86), an engraver who worked at Bath,
+does not find mention in any dictionary of engravers, yet he deserves
+notice from the student of book-plates for the great quantity of his
+work in that field--nearly all dated, and some really very excellent. Of
+Skinner, Lord De Tabley writes:--'I would gladly learn some biographical
+details'; but he failed to find any, and I have been equally
+unfortunate. At the British Museum there is no Bath newspaper or
+directory sufficiently early to contain either an advertisement by
+Skinner or a mention of his place of residence; in the _Bath Directory_
+of 1812 the name is represented by two grocers, a publican, a gardener,
+and one private resident--a Miss Skinner who lived at 3 St. James's
+Parade. Sir Wollaston Franks tells me that, amongst the engravers who
+vouched for the perfection of _Sympson's New Book of Cypher_--'the most
+perfect and neatest drawn of any performance of the kind hitherto
+extant'--was one Jacob Skinner, and it is very likely this was our
+friend the engraver of book-plates, who laboured at Bath from 1739 to
+1753. He worked in three successive styles of English book-plate
+engraving--the Armorial, the Jacobean, and the Chippendale; a fact which
+renders his plates of special interest to collectors, since it enables
+them to see how the same hand treats the succeeding styles when fully
+developed, and during their gradual change from one style into the
+other. His earliest dated book-plate that we know is that for the
+library of Sir Christopher Musgrave (figured opposite), and the next,
+five years later, that of 'John Conyers of Walthamstow in Essex, Esq.'
+Here the ornamentation is quite Jacobean; the shield is oval, with
+wing-like excrescences at the top and on either side--that at the top
+forming a background to the helmet which supports the crest. Next year
+(1738) Skinner produced the book-plate of 'Francis Carington, Esq., of
+Wotton, Warwickshire'--in appearance even earlier than that of Musgrave.
+Some of this early appearance is perhaps due to an absence of indication
+of the tinctures on the shield--a habit which, as we shall presently
+see, Skinner followed in one or two other instances. A slight mantling
+falls from an esquire's helmet and descends a little way down the shield
+till it joins the Jacobean scroll-work, and the owner's name and
+description are upon a fringed cloth. But the feature to note in this
+book-plate is the monogrammatic form of the engraver's signature:
+'[Illustration: JS symbol].' It is the first time he uses it, and in his
+subsequent dated work he appears always to have adopted some similar
+form, this being the most frequent:--'[Illustration: JS symbol]kin^{r}.'
+
+[Illustration]
+
+I have spoken of J. Skinner as a Bath engraver, but the reader will
+observe that none of the book-owners, whose book-plates by him I have as
+yet named, are specially connected with Bath, and on none has the
+engraver mentioned it as his place of residence; but insomuch as
+then--in the palmy days of the reign of King Nash--all roads led to
+Bath, it is probable that, at the fashionable season, the Cumberland
+baronet, as well as the Essex and Warwickshire squires, found his way
+thither, and followed the fashion by having a book-plate engraved, just
+as he would follow it, during his sojourn in the ancient city, by
+squandering his time and injuring his digestion with late hours and a
+surfeit of generally unwholesome gaiety. The next dated book-plate by
+Skinner bears this out; on this, engraved in 1739, he gives Bath as his
+place of abode; but this book-plate is that of Francis Massy of Rixton,
+Lancashire; it is similar in design to the Carington just mentioned and
+figured.
+
+But earlier in style than any of Skinner's work yet mentioned is the
+book-plate of 'William Hillary, M.D.,' dated in 1743; here the mantling
+descends nearly to the base of the shield, quite in the 'Armorial'
+style. This seems to be his latest work in early fashion. In 1741 he had
+designed a book-plate for 'John William Fuhr,' in which there are clear
+indications of Chippendale ornamentation. This is indeed a transitional
+book-plate; it has a Jacobean shield, which the artist has adorned with
+Chippendale ornament; the tinctures are only partially expressed and the
+shield remains symmetrical, though the floral sprays and shell-work give
+it, at first sight, the appearance of not being so. Identical, almost,
+with this book-plate is that done by Skinner for 'Henry Pennant,' and
+dated in 1742; and like it, but weaker, is that of 'Tho^{s.} Haviland,
+Bath,' dated in the same year.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Skinner's next book-plates are those of 'Charles Delafaye, Esq., of
+Wichbury, Wilts' (1743); 'Johnson Robinson' (1744); 'John Hughes of
+Brecon, Esq^{re.}'; and 'Benja: Adamson' (1745); 'Hen. Toye Bridgeman,
+Esq., of Princknash, Gloucestershire' (1746); 'Henry Walters, Esq.,' and
+'John Wodroofe' (1747), and 'Tho^{s.} Fitzherbert, Esq.,' (1749). All
+these last-named book-plates are much on a level as regards artistic
+merit, and that level is not a high one; Benjamin Adamson's book-plate,
+figured on p. 209, is a fair example of it, though it is not so good as
+the Bridgeman book-plate of the same year. In 1750, however, we find a
+more noteworthy specimen of Skinner's work in the book-plate of 'Francis
+Fleming.' There is a Scotch look about this, which suggests that the
+owner, and not the engraver, was responsible for its design; the shield
+is oddly shaped and is on a medallion, whilst musical instruments of
+various kinds are figured beneath; Sir Wollaston Franks points out to me
+that the Fleming coat of arms here represented is borne only by the
+family of the Earls of Wigtown. The same year (1750) Skinner did an
+ordinary Chippendale book-plate for Dr. Robert Gusthart, whose name
+appears in the _Bath Guide_ as a doctor in practice there in 1773.
+
+In 1751 Skinner engraved a pleasing Chippendale book-plate for William
+Oliver, a son of his more famous namesake, whose book-plate, also by
+Skinner, has been already described in these pages (p. 85). Young
+Oliver's plate shows a remarkable fineness of touch, and is altogether
+in very good taste--not over-ornamented. Two years later we have the
+latest known example of Skinner's work: the book-plate of 'The Rev^{d}
+I. Dobson, A.M.,' which is coarse in execution, and suggests that the
+artist's skill as an engraver was diminishing.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Of the twenty-two known book-plates by Skinner only two are undated,
+Dr. Oliver's, already described (p. 85), and that of Sir John Smyth,
+Bart., LL.D. This last he must have executed early in his career. The
+shield bearing the arms stands upon a platform, and is Jacobean in shape
+and ornamentation; the background is shaded. Clumsily drawn and clumsily
+posed female figures, partly draped, stand upon bracket-like
+excrescences that spring from the shield, whilst cupids recline below it
+and hold it aloft.
+
+What happened to Skinner after 1753 I have failed to discover. He is
+certainly an interesting person from a book-plate collector's point of
+view, and it is to be hoped something more about him may some day be
+brought to light. In considering his identity it is worth remembering
+that a little after his disappearance, viz. in 1755, another West of
+England engraver named Skinner--Matthew Skinner of Exeter, is found
+working on book-plates. He signs three examples, all designed in the
+Chippendale style--'Jean Eli Jaquéri de Moudon en Suisse, Né en 1732';
+'S^{r} Edm^{d} Thomas, Bart.,' and 'Peregrine Fra^{s} Thorne.' The two
+first are ordinary Chippendale examples, but in the third many
+implements of the soldier's art are introduced.
+
+Another very prolific engraver of book-plates--unknown except in that
+capacity--was 'Robert Mountaine.' His book-plates are frequently dated,
+but the dates are placed in the most obscure positions, and in the
+smallest of figures, so it needs a careful study of the engravings to
+discover them. He laboured wholly in the Chippendale style; his touch
+is peculiar, and his treatment graceful. Roughly speaking, he worked
+from 1740 to 1755. His signature varies--sometimes it is 'R.M.,'
+sometimes 'Mountaine.'
+
+The following are a few of his book-plates:--
+
+    Henry Bowles.
+    W. Harrison, D.D., Fellow of C. C. C. Oxon.
+    R. C. Cobbe.
+    S. J. Collins.
+    C. Blackstone.
+    Ed. Gore, Kiddington, Oxon.
+    John Duthy.
+    John Hoadly, LL.D. [This is Dr. Hoadly, the versatile
+        author of oratorios and comedies.]
+    Sophia Penn.
+    Jos. Portal.
+    C. S. Powlet, Itchen.
+    Geo. Powlet, Esq.
+    John Sturgis.
+
+A list of nearly sixty book-plates by Mountaine is given in the _Ex
+Libris Journal_, ii. p. 46.
+
+Hogarth's book-plates have been already described in this volume. The
+'W. H.' who signs certain examples, once wrongly ascribed to Hogarth,
+was a certain William Hibbart, who, like Skinner, was a Bath artist, and
+etched portraits after the manner of Worlidge. Lord De Tabley mentions
+that Worlidge himself executed a book-plate--that of the Honourable
+Henrietta Knight--which he signs in full. Worlidge was certainly a
+distinguished engraver; his etchings after Rembrandt are excellent and
+highly prized. He died in 1766.
+
+The work of Sir Robert Strange as a book-plate engraver has been already
+referred to. Both Lumisden's and Dr. Drummond's book-plates were
+probably executed after Strange's departure from England, and therefore
+after 1745. His continental visit was rendered necessary, or at least
+expedient, by the manner in which he had identified himself with the
+Stuart cause during the then recent troubles. He had joined the Jacobite
+Life-Guards, and employed his artistic ability in designing pay-notes
+for the Jacobite soldiers. After studying some time in Paris under Le
+Bas, he returned to England, where he remained till 1760. He then went
+back to the Continent, where his ability was freely appreciated, and
+where he was loaded with decorations at Rome and Florence. England at
+length recognised his merit, and in 1787 the King conferred upon him a
+knighthood, which he lived for five years to enjoy. His devotion to the
+House of Stuart never altered; the inscription beneath one of his most
+celebrated portraits reads 'Charles James Edward Stuart, _called_ the
+Young Pretender.'
+
+After the days of Strange, an innumerable number of artists sign their
+names to English book-plates; yet, with three exceptions, the names of
+none are known to fame till we come to those of a comparatively recent
+date. The exceptions are Francis Bartolozzi, John Keys Sherwin, and
+Thomas Bewick. Bartolozzi, the man of whom Sir Robert Strange displayed
+such ill-concealed jealousy, began to work in England about four years
+after the accession of George III., though it was some years before his
+worth was appreciated by the people with whom he came to reside. None of
+his book-plates belong to a date prior to 1770 or 1780. He removed to
+Lisbon in 1802 to take charge of the National Academy, and while there,
+it will be remembered, engraved an Englishman's book-plate in 1805 (see
+p. 95). His death took place at Lisbon in 1815. Sherwin was born in
+poverty, and, owing largely to his own folly, died in it, after having
+at one time amassed a considerable sum of money. He was a pupil of
+Bartolozzi, gained the Royal Academy gold medal in 1772, and was
+appointed Engraver to the King in or about 1785. His book-plate work is
+referred to at p. 72.
+
+Thomas Bewick, who, as we have seen (pp. 108-13), was the most prolific
+of any English engraver of book-plates, was born at Cherry Burn, in
+Northumberland, in 1753, and died in 1828. The incidents in his history
+are too well known to need repetition here, and his work upon
+book-plates has been already mentioned. It may be, however, noticed that
+his earliest book-plate is dated in 1797, the year in which he published
+the first volume of his _British Birds_.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[16] See Article in _Bibliographica_, vol. ii. p. 422.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+ODDS AND ENDS
+
+
+ODDS and ends! The compiler of a volume of this sort is sure to find
+plenty of these,--scraps worth putting in somewhere, yet not coming
+precisely under any particular head. In the first place, 'Portrait'
+book-plates claim attention. We have seen that they exist, but, alas!
+that they are so few; for, to any reasonable person, members of the
+Heralds' College, of course, excepted, a man's features are certainly
+more interesting than his armorial bearings. In England, Sam. Pepys
+adopted the style, which was not then unknown on the Continent.
+Pirckheimer perhaps originated it, by placing, as I have already said, a
+portrait of himself at the end of the volumes, which contained his now
+familiar book-plate by Dürer on the front cover; and there are many
+other early foreign examples. One of the most conspicuous is the
+bust-portrait of John Vennitzer, of Nuremberg, engraved by Pfann, and
+dated in 1618, to which I have already alluded (p. 140). Pepys used to
+place the small variety of his portrait book-plate--that figured
+opposite--at the commencement of many of his books, and that showing his
+interwoven initials ('the little plate for my books') at the end. Both
+his portrait book-plates are by White. I have failed to find any
+allusion in his _Diary_ to the engraving of these book-plates, though,
+as we have seen, he refers to the preparation of another (see p. 8). He
+very likely took the idea of a 'Portrait' book-plate from that which
+Faithorne, either in or soon after 1670, prepared to place in the
+volumes left by good Bishop Hacket to Cambridge (see p. 201).
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It is possible that we have a portrait in the figure on the book-plate,
+already noticed, of Louis Bosch, a clergyman of Tamise, near Antwerp;
+but the head is too small to afford an interesting likeness. The priest
+sits at a table in his study, the walls of which are lined with volumes,
+and beneath him is written in Latin: 'A hunt in such a forest never
+wearies,'--the 'forest being,' as Lord De Tabley observes, 'the rows and
+ranks of his reverence's books.' In France the 'Portrait' book-plate is
+not uncommon; that of a French clergyman, Francis Perrault, figured
+opposite, is a nice piece of work, and bears the date 1764; but
+portraits, possibly or indeed probably, of the owners occur on French
+book-plates at an earlier date. In Italy there is an example in 1760,
+the book-plate of Filippo Linarti.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+An instance of the use of the 'Portrait' book-plate in England during
+the last century is afforded by that of 'Jacobus Gibbs, Architectus,
+1736,' which is found in the architectural books bequeathed by the
+possessor to the Radcliffe Library at Oxford, a building which he
+designed. James Gibbs was born at Aberdeen in 1674, but came south early
+in his career, and Londoners may see examples of his work in the
+churches of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and St. Mary le Strand. He also
+built the Senate House at Cambridge. He died in 1754. On his book-plate,
+which is oblong in shape and might well form the head-piece to a
+preface, the portrait appears in a medallion, surrounded by shell and
+scroll-work. The engraver, who signs his initials B. B., was Bernard
+Baron, a Frenchman, who came to England in 1736 and engraved Hogarth's
+portrait of Gibbs.
+
+The resuscitator of 'Portrait' book-plates in England in recent times
+was the late Mr. Thoms. That veteran antiquary tells, in a letter to the
+_Athenæum_, how he came to use, as a book-plate, a photograph of himself
+taken by Dr. Diamond in the very early days of photography. Beneath this
+he placed an inscription setting forth that the volume in which it was
+fastened was for the use of himself and his friends--a repetition of the
+sentiment on one of the Pirckheimer book-plates, 'Sibi et amicis.' We do
+not, of course, know how far Pirckheimer meant what he said; but we do
+know, any of us who ever asked the loan of a volume from Mr. Thoms, that
+the sentiment was by him really meant. No worthy book-borrower ever met
+with refusal from that ever courteous literary enthusiast.
+
+After considering 'Portrait' book-plates, the collector may turn his
+attention to the study of the book-plates that have belonged to
+interesting men. I have spoken of many of these in reaching this point
+in my volume, but to the names already mentioned may be added some more:
+Charles, Earl of Dorset and Middlesex, who, as Lord Buckhurst, was a
+prominent figure at the dull court of Dutch William, saved Dryden from
+ruin and introduced Mat Prior to society. Then there is Robert
+Harley--great minister, great statesman, and underminer of the Whig
+power; founder of the collection of books and manuscripts which now
+bears his name. The inscription on his book-plate reads: 'Robert Harley
+of Brampton Castle in the county of Hereford, Esq^{re}'; it is found in
+two sizes--one for folio volumes, and another for those of smaller size.
+Its date may be fixed at the very close of the seventeenth century.
+
+Then we have the book-plate of Sir Thomas Hanmer, the Speaker, a bold
+piece of work, in the 'Simple Armorial' style, dated 1707. Hanmer was
+born in 1676, so that his book-plate was executed when he was in his
+thirty-first year--that is, six years prior to his first entry of the
+House of Commons, and probably before he had made much use of the
+library with which his name was afterwards associated, when towards the
+close of his life he ceased to be a man of politics and became a man of
+letters. He died in 1746, leaving, completed, his edition of
+Shakespeare's works in half a dozen volumes.
+
+With the book-plate of Sir Thomas Hanmer we may, appropriately,
+consider that of Sir Paul Methuen, the soldier and minister of Anne and
+George I., with whom Hanmer must have been frequently brought in
+contact. Methuen's book-plate is altogether more exceptional in style
+than Hanmer's; the mantling, after being blown about by a strong wind,
+ends regularly in tassels; curious creatures figure in the design, and
+the bracket, on which rests the shield, is upheld by a male and a female
+angel.
+
+Methuen's book-plate was engraved about 1720. Five years later we find
+that of John, Lord Boyle, who, though by means of the quarrel with his
+father he was robbed of the Boyle library, had, whilst yet a young man,
+a sufficient stock of volumes of his own to necessitate the use of a
+distinguishing mark for them. His book-plate is by John Hulett, an
+indifferent engraver.
+
+Matthew Prior's book-plate now claims attention; indeed, if these
+book-plates of celebrities were taken in strictly chronological order,
+it should have been considered before that of Sir Paul Methuen. In style
+it is early Jacobean, so that we may date it at, say, 1718, though there
+is nothing in the inscription--'Matthew Prior, Esq.'--to show to what
+particular period in the 'thin hollow-looked' man's life it belongs. But
+it is tempting to place it at the close of his career as a diplomatist,
+when he was settling down on the small country property that Harley had
+bought for him, and was rich on the proceeds of the subscription to his
+huge volume of _Occasional Poems_.
+
+After Prior's book-plate we do not meet with another of a celebrity for
+a considerable number of years. One appears at last in that
+engraved--probably by a Scotch engraver, about the year 1740--for the
+luckless Lord Lovat, who lost his head on Tower Hill after the second
+Scotch rebellion. The inscription deserves consideration, because it is
+characteristic of the man: 'The Right Honourable Simon Lord Fraser of
+Lovat, Chief of the Ancient Clan of the Frasers, Governor of Inverness,'
+etc. Mark the way in which he emphasises his headship of the clan! Can
+he, in those early days, have heard whisperings of a story that he had
+an elder brother who was in hiding lest the law should mete out to him
+its penalty for murder? Anyhow, it is a fine bold book-plate, more in
+the style of English book-plates of a dozen years earlier; a heavy
+ermine-lined mantle of estate falls from the back of the helmet and
+encloses both shield and supporters.
+
+John Wilkes had three book-plates, and what is remarkable, they all make
+display of the Wilkes armorial bearings. One would fancy that the great
+demagogue would, at least in the decoration of the shield, display
+bombs, kegs of gunpowder, Phrygian caps, or other emblems of the
+manifestation and enjoyment of liberty; but it is not so. Lawrence
+Sterne's book-plate is certainly more appropriate. Here we have the bust
+of a young man, whom Lord de Tabley considers to be either Juvenal or
+Martial, placed on a slab, on either side of which are closed volumes,
+one inscribed, 'Alas! poor Yorick,' and the other, 'Tristram Shandy.' No
+doubt this book-plate was engraved in or about the year 1761, when
+Sterne had bought--as he told a correspondent--seven hundred books, 'dog
+cheap, and many good,' which he was then busy arranging in the 'best
+room at Coxwould.' Samuel Rogers's book-plate is in the 'wreath and
+ribbon' style. William Cowper's is a little later, and shows us a plain
+shield without the festoon-decoration. His must become a scarce
+book-plate, for he had but few books--only 177 at his death, and the
+book-plate does not appear in all; perhaps he began to insert it, but
+was stopped by loss of reason. Mr. Bolton suggests that the book-plate
+may be the work of Thomas Park, an engraver who, he reminds us, offered
+to do anything for Cowper in the way of his art as a labour of love, so
+much did he appreciate the poet's writings. Byron's book-plate, alluded
+to elsewhere, is without one remarkable feature; whether or not it is
+that sent him by the fair admirer already referred to (p. 16) one cannot
+say. Thomas Carlyle's book-plate was engraved, in 1853, by H. P. Walker.
+
+One might extend a list of celebrities who have used book-plates _ad
+infinitum_; but there is no need to attempt that process here, though it
+might be as well to point out that certain book-plates, inscribed with
+the names of celebrities, which have induced collectors to speak of
+them as the book-plates of these distinguished persons, cannot really
+have been made for them. There is, for instance, an early Chippendale
+book-plate inscribed 'William Wilberforce,' which is, or perhaps I
+should say, used to be, constantly spoken of as the book-plate of the
+famous man who was bold enough to suggest that England's colonies could
+get on very well without the presence of slavery. Now this book-plate is
+very little, if any, later than 1750, and the great emancipator was not
+born till 1759; as a matter of fact it was probably engraved for his
+grandfather, William Wilberforce of Hull. A great many specimens bear
+his signature written at the top of the book-plate. Then, to give one
+more instance, there is the book-plate inscribed 'Capt. Cook,' and in
+this you are told to see the mark of ownership which the once popular
+hero placed in the volumes that composed his library; but, so far as the
+evidence of this book-plate goes, Captain Cook may never have had a
+library at all. It bears arms highly appropriate to a navigator; but
+they were not granted to the Cook family till 1785, and, as every reader
+of travel knows, Captain Cook was murdered in 1779. In all probability
+this book-plate was engraved for the navigator's son, James Cook, who,
+in 1793, attained to the rank of commander in the Navy; 1793, be it
+said, is--to judge from its style and decoration--about the date of the
+book-plate.
+
+Book-plates of English parish libraries and institutions deserve some
+notice for several reasons. In these days, when enthusiasm for the
+erection of free libraries is so great, it is curious to be reminded of
+the past and long-forgotten efforts of our ancestors to civilise their
+neighbours by the use of books. Gloomy affairs most of these 'parish'
+libraries are now! You still sometimes find them locked in a damp
+vestry, or in a country vicarage, where their existence is a secret to
+the parishioners, and, indeed, to most other people. The book-plates of
+some of them are interesting. There is a neat design in the Jacobean
+style, which shows us the shield divided, and contains on the sinister
+side two crossed keys, and on the dexter two crossed swords. This is
+inscribed 'Swaffham Library. T. Dalton, F. Rayner, churchwardens, 1737.'
+At least two designs for these parish book-plates are by Simon Gribelin.
+In one, we have St. John in the isle of Patmos; and in the other, an
+unidentifiable figure kneeling in prayer. To each the artist has placed
+his initials, 'S. G.,' and both belong to about the same date--1723.
+
+A great many of these parochial libraries were founded early in the last
+century by Dr. Thomas Bray, during his lifetime, and by a body calling
+themselves the 'Associates of Dr. Bray,' after his death. It was at
+Bray's instance that the Act of 7 Anne, 'for the better Preservation of
+Parochial Libraries,' was passed by Parliament. One of the earliest of
+the foundations under it was in 1720.
+
+It is probable that the 'Associates' issued book-plates for placing in
+the volumes of the different libraries established; for there is, in
+the design, a space left blank for the insertion, with pen and ink, of
+the name of the particular library using the book-plate. These
+book-plates generally bear texts or some appropriate words, such as,
+'Accipe librum et devora illum' (Rev. x. 9), the scene depicted being
+St. John, in the isle of Patmos, receiving the book from the angel; or
+sometimes a reminder to the borrower that he needs to do more than
+borrow the volume in order to profit by its contents, such as _Tolle,
+Lege_, which appears on the book-plate of the parish library of Weobley!
+
+Grotesque heraldry is not often met with in England on genuine
+book-plates. We have seen that on many examples the decorative
+accessories of the shield have a certain appropriateness to the owner;
+besides this, the arms borne have frequently a direct reference to the
+bearer's name. But grotesque heraldry, such as that which Hogarth was so
+fond of designing, is certainly rare in engravings prepared for
+book-plates. There is, however, one example of such heraldry on an
+English book-plate, which is worth referring to--I mean the very
+interesting example figured on p. 229. This belonged to the
+shoemaker-poet, Robert Bloomfield, and certainly the arms upon it are
+both grotesque and appropriate to the owner, since they commemorate his
+only really successful literary effort, _The Farmer's Boy_. Look for a
+moment at the details, for they repay inspection. A figure on cow-back
+holding a shoe on the end of a stick, does duty as a crest, two
+ploughmen act as supporters, whilst the bearings on the shield represent
+every variety of agricultural implement, every occupant of a farm-yard
+ordinarily met with, and various tools connected with the owner's craft;
+besides, on the sinister half of the shield, is a cobbler in an attitude
+suggestive of his having done full justice to a feast in honour of St.
+Crispin--not conducted on total abstinence principles. The quarterings
+also include three open volumes, and across the pages of one is printed
+'Farmer's Boy.' The whole--even to its motto, 'A fig for the
+Heralds'--is most characteristic of Bloomfield, and was engraved for
+him, in 1813--ten years before his death--by a Cheapside engraver.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With this gathering together of scraps and clippings I will bring my
+volume to a close. Most of what I have said, and a very great deal
+besides, is well known to the students of book-plates; but to them, I
+fancy, this work is not intended to appeal. It is meant for the public
+at large, to the majority of whom book-plates are unconsidered trifles.
+To promote wholesale book-plate _collecting_ in albums and portfolios is
+certainly not my intention. If it were, it would be a very undesirable
+intention, for so far as it succeeded it would unquestionably lead to
+the wholesale disfigurement and destruction of books, without regard to
+their value. What I have aimed at is to awaken a wider interest in
+book-plates, and a wider observation of them in their abiding places, by
+those who either possess them already, or acquire them hereafter. If I
+have succeeded in doing this, my work will, I am vain enough to believe,
+be not altogether unsuccessful; for book-plates possess really an
+artistic and general interest, which will be heightened the more our
+stock of knowledge concerning them is increased.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  ACLAND, FRANCES ANNE, 196.
+  Adams, John, 157.
+  Adamson, Benjamin, 208, 210.
+  Adderley, John, 178.
+  Adramytteum, Suffragan-Bishop of, 127.
+  Æsculapius, represented on a book-plate, 84, 128.
+  Affleck, J. H., 112.
+  Allegory, in English book-plates, 34, 36, 72, 97, 190, 200.
+  ----, wildness of on French book-plates, 142.
+  ----, ---- on American book-plates, 159, 160.
+  Allen, ---- 107.
+  ---- Charles Dexter, 150, 156, 159, 160.
+  ---- George, 106.
+  American book-plates, 150-161.
+  Amman, Jost, 124, 125, 126.
+  Ancestry, pride in, expressed on book-plates, 179.
+  Anderson, 154.
+  ---- John, 112.
+  Anson, Thomas, 91.
+  Apthorpe, East, 60.
+  'Armorial style,' the, 52.
+  Atkinson, Buddle, 112.
+  Avranches, Bishop of, 138.
+
+  B., B., 220.
+  Bacon, Sir Francis, 26.
+  Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 26-28, 135.
+  Bagford, John, his collections, 2, 26, 28, 188.
+  Bailey, J. E., 23.
+  Baldrey, John, 76.
+  Barber, Joseph, 12-14.
+  Barlow, Charles, 57.
+  Baron, Bernard, 220.
+  Barberini, Maffeo, 148.
+  Bartolozzi, F., 15, 72, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 112, 214, 215.
+  ---- his receipt for engraving Lady Bessborough's book-plate, 94.
+  Bath, Countess-Dowager of, 28, 38, 39, 188.
+  ---- Earl of, 38.
+  ---- book-plate engravers at, 203-212.
+  'Bath Oliver' biscuits, 86.
+  Bavaria, Ducal, library of, at Munich, 132.
+  Beaufort, Duke and Duchess of, 188.
+  Beilby, Ralph, 109.
+  Bell, Anning, 190.
+  ---- Thomas, 109.
+  Bengough, James, 52.
+  Bennet, R. H. Alexander, 88.
+  Bentley, engraver, 106.
+  Berry, Agnes, 96, 196.
+  ---- Mary, 177, 196.
+  ---- Robert, 196.
+  Bessborough, Earl of, 92.
+  Bessborough, Lady, 92.
+  Bewick, Thomas, 108-113, 177, 189, 214, 215.
+  ---- book-plates engraved on copper by, 112.
+  Bielke, Thure, 146.
+  Bigges, Mr., 112.
+  Birnie of Broomhill, 70.
+  Bisse, Dr. Philip, 59.
+  Blackstone, C., 213.
+  Blazon, heraldic, method of representing, 22-24.
+  ----, ---- expressed by initials, 40.
+  ----, ---- verbal, 30.
+  Bloomfield, Robert, 227-228.
+  Blosséville, Viscomte de, 136.
+  Boetius, 128.
+  Bolton, William, 224.
+  Bonner, engraver, 177.
+  Book-plate, antiquity of the name, 6.
+  ---- appropriateness of the name, 5.
+  ---- collecting, early days of, 1-5.
+  ---- ----, morality of, 54.
+  ---- the largest English, 50.
+  Book-plates, dates on, 42-47.
+  ---- the earliest, 17.
+  ---- ---- English, 18.
+  ---- ---- French, 18
+  ---- ---- Italian, 18.
+  ---- ---- Swedish, 18.
+  ---- ---- Swiss, 18.
+  ---- early use of in England, 20-47.
+  ---- necessity for the use of, 17.
+  ---- sizes of, 19, 121.
+  ---- where to be sought for in a volume, 18.
+  ---- English, prominent engravers of, 200-215.
+  ---- first used in Germany, 114.
+  ---- of famous people, 221-228.
+  Book-stealing or spoiling, condemned on book-plates, 162-175.
+  Books represented in book-plates, 99-102.
+  Borbon-Busset, Viscount de, 141.
+  Bosch, Lewis, 177, 218.
+  Boston Public Library, the, 153.
+  Bosworth, Dr. John, 70.
+  Bouchart, A., 136.
+  Bouchot, Henri, 23, 144.
+  Bouttats family, the, 148, 203.
+  Bowles, Henry, 213.
+  Boyle, John, Lord, 222.
+  Brackstone, John, 62.
+  Bradshaw, Henry, 76.
+  Brampton, 190.
+  Brand, the Antiquary, 109.
+  Brandenburg family, arms of, 114.
+  ---- Hildebrande, 114.
+  Bransby, J. H., 107, 108.
+  Bray, Dr. Thomas, 226.
+  Bree, Martin, 46.
+  Breiner, Count M. L., 122.
+  Bridgeman, Henry Toye, 208, 210.
+  Brownlowe, Dame Alice, 50.
+  ---- Sir William, 50.
+  Brydges, the Hon. James, 50.
+  Burghers, Michael, 34, 73, 74, 200.
+  Burke, Sir Bernard, 2, _note_.
+  Burnet, Bishop, 3, 5.
+  ---- John, 155.
+  Burton, Dr. John, 78.
+  Buxheim, 116.
+  Byron, Lord, 16.
+  Byrd, William, 152.
+  Bysshe, Sir Edward, 31, 33.
+
+  CAIRNES, SIR ALEXANDER, 73.
+  ---- Lady, 73.
+  Callot, the works of, 6.
+  Callowhill, Hannah, 152, _note_.
+  Callendar, an American book-plate engraver, 154.
+  Cambridge University, 26, 75.
+  ---- George I.'s gift to, 75, 202.
+  Carew, Sir Nicholas, 11.
+  Carington, Francis, 206, 208.
+  Carlander, Herr, 146.
+  Carlyle, Thomas, 224.
+  Carr, Anne, 181.
+  ---- Thomas, 112.
+  ---- William, 181.
+  Cassano-Serra, Duke of, 148.
+  Carter, Thomas, 43.
+  Castle, Egerton, 143.
+  ---- Hedingham, 104.
+  Cartwright, J. J., 182.
+  Caryer, Richard, 65.
+  'Celestial' style, the, 68.
+  Ceys, A. T., 143.
+  Charles I., statue of, at Charing Cross, 12.
+  Charles XIII., book-plate of, 147.
+  'Charlie, Prince,' 87.
+  Charlton, Charles, 110.
+  Chetwynd, Walter, 40.
+  Chinese Mandarin, figured on a book-plate, 143.
+  Chippendale style, the, 59-65.
+  Chodowiecki, D. N., 127.
+  Chorley, W. B., 177.
+  Cipriani, 90, 92.
+  Clapham, A., 112.
+  Clark, Charles, 172.
+  Clayton, Sir Robert, 44.
+  Clonfert, Bishop of, 57.
+  Cobbe, R. C., 213.
+  College book-plates, 54, 57.
+  Collet, John, 183.
+  ---- Thomas, 183.
+  ---- William, 183.
+  Collins, S. J., 213.
+  Colonial book-plates, 151.
+  Columbine, Francis, 52.
+  Conway, Field-Marshal, 195.
+  Conyers, John, 204.
+  Cook, Captain, 225.
+  ---- James, 225.
+  Cornwallis, Lord, 52.
+  Cotes, Rev. H., 110.
+  Courtney, William, 30.
+  Cowper, William, 214.
+  Cranach, Lucas, 124, 125.
+  Crewe, Nathanael, Bishop of Durham, 52.
+  Cunliffe, Foster, 91.
+  ---- Sir Foster, 90, 91.
+  ---- Sir Robert H., 90, 99.
+  Cunningham, Allan, 82.
+  Currer, Danson Richardson, 88.
+  ---- John, 88.
+  Custos, Dominick, 127.
+
+  DALTON, T., 226.
+  Damer, Anne Seymour, 96, 193, 195, 196.
+  ---- Hon. John, 195, _note_.
+  Dawkins, Henry, 154.
+  Darlington, view of, 106.
+  Dartmouth College, 159.
+  Dasent, Sir George, 148.
+  Dates on book-plates, 42-47.
+  De Fleurieu, Chevalier, 143.
+  Delafaye, Charles, 64, 208.
+  Delphin edition, the, 138.
+  De La Colombière, Vulsson, 23.
+  De La Vallée, Melchior, 136.
+  De Malherbe, Francis, 23, 140, 142.
+  De Maridat, Peter, 175.
+  De Menezes, Isabel, 94, 185.
+  Derby, James, Earl of, 49-50.
+  Dering, Sir Edward, 31, 180.
+  ---- Thomas, 154, 155.
+  De Sales, Charles, 137.
+  De Tabley, Lord, 1, 7, 48, 54, 60, 74, 75, 86, 88, 128, 131, 137, 148,
+      164, 168, 174, 183, 202, 203, 213, 218, 224.
+  Diamond, Dr., 220.
+  Dickens, Fr., 46.
+  Dinwiddie, Robert, 155, 156.
+  Dobson, Rev. I., 210.
+  Doctors of Medicine, represented on a book-plate, 84.
+  Doeg, Alexander, 112.
+  Doolittle, Amos, 154.
+  Dorset and Middlesex, Charles, Earl of, 221.
+  Douglas, Dr., 15.
+  Drummond, Dr. Thomas, 87, 214.
+  Dual ownership of book-plates, 198.
+  Dubarry, Countess, 140.
+  Duché, Rev. Jacob, 158.
+  Du Guernier, Louis, 73, 74.
+  Duick, John, 86.
+  Dürer, Albert, 17, 117, 118, 121.
+  Duthy, John, 213.
+
+  EBNER, HIERONIMUS, 117.
+  Edinburgh, book-plate engravers at, 69.
+  Egerton, Randolph, 40, 181.
+  Elliston, Robert, 152.
+  Elton, C. I., 117.
+  Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 57.
+  Erasmus, 121.
+  Eve, C., 65.
+  _Ex Libris_ Society, the, 1.
+  ---- appropriateness of the words for book-plates, 6-8.
+  Eynes or Haynes, 34.
+
+  FABER, JOHN, Bishop of Vienna, 164.
+  Faithorne, William, 36, 200, 218.
+  'Farmer's Boy,' the, 227, 228.
+  Farmington Library, the, 159, 160.
+  Fenwick, John, 184, 185.
+  'Festoon Style,' the, 65.
+  Fincham, H. W., 2, 102.
+  Fitzherbert, Thomas, 208.
+  Fleming, Francis, 210.
+  ---- Sir William, 202.
+  Flemish book-plates, 148-149.
+  Fletcher, W. Y., 188.
+  Foote, Benjamin Hatley, 65.
+  Ford, H., engraver, 90.
+  Fox, Charles James, 15, 44-46.
+  ---- Sir Stephen, 15.
+  Franks, Sir A. Wollaston, 30, 46, 79, 106, 118, 121, 124, 136, 148,
+      204, 210.
+  French book-plates, 97, 135-146.
+  ---- their chief interest, 138-139.
+  ---- styles in, 141-142.
+  ---- Revolution, effects of the, displayed on French book-plates, 141.
+  Froben's press, 121.
+  Fuhr, John William, 208.
+  Fust, Sir Francis, 43.
+
+  G., S., 226.
+  Gage, Sir Thomas, 95.
+  Gainsborough, anecdote of, 82.
+  Garrick, David, 168-170.
+  Gascoigne, T., 88, 90.
+  Gaultier, Léonard, 136.
+  George I., his gift to Cambridge University, 76, 202.
+  George III., arms of, by Bartolozzi, 91.
+  Germain, Lady Betty, 194.
+  ---- Sir William, 194.
+  German book-plates, 114-134.
+  Gibbs, James, 218, 219.
+  Gift book-plates, 26, 28, 30, 36, 38, 39.
+  Godfrey, John, 52.
+  Goodford, Samuel, 59.
+  Gore, Edward, 213.
+  ---- Thomas, 34, 73, 200.
+  Gosden, Thomas, 103.
+  Gould, Sir Nathaniel, 73.
+  Græme, Elizabeth, 157-8.
+  ---- Dr. Thomas, 157.
+  Gravelot, 78.
+  Gray's Inn Library, the, 100.
+  Greene, John, 33.
+  ---- T. W., 104.
+  Gribelin, Simon, 189, 203, 226.
+  Gricourt, Abbé de, 143.
+  Grimston, Sir Samuel, 39.
+  Grotesque heraldry on book-plates, 227.
+  Gueullette, Thomas, 143.
+  Gusthart, Dr. Robert, 210.
+
+  H., W., 79, 143, 213.
+  Hacket, Bishop, 36, 200, 218.
+  Haistwell, Edward, 59.
+  Hamilton, Walter, 22, 141, 144.
+  Hanmer, Sir Thomas, 221.
+  Hanover, House of, Oxford's suspected disloyalty to, 78.
+  Hare, Sir Thomas, 59.
+  Harington, Gostlet, 52.
+  Harleian Collections, the, 192.
+  Harley, Robert, 221, 222.
+  Harrewyn, J., 149.
+  Harrison, W., 213.
+  Harrold, Countess of, 58.
+  Harvard College, 153, 154, 159.
+  Hasty Pudding Society, the, 159.
+  Haviland, Thomas, 208.
+  Haynes or Eynes, 34.
+  Hedio, Andrew, 166.
+  Hénault, M., 142.
+  Henshaw, the engraver, 96.
+  Hesketh family, arms of, 50.
+  Hewer, William, 100.
+  Hibbart, William, 79, 213.
+  Hibbins, Lucius Henry, 59.
+  Hillary, William, 208.
+  Hoadly, Dr. John, 213.
+  Hoare, arms of, 95.
+  ---- Frances Ann, 196.
+  ---- Richard, 95, 196.
+  ---- Sir Richard Colt, 95, 196.
+  Hogarth, William, 6, 14, 56, 75, 79, 92, 112, 213, 220, 227.
+  Holbein, drawings by, 91.
+  Holcombe, John, 68.
+  Holland, John, 79.
+  Hollar's armorial work, 33.
+  Holles, Henrietta Cavendish, 192.
+  Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 161.
+  Holzschuher family, 125, 126.
+  Hommeau, C. F., 168.
+  Howard, Dr. Jackson, 2, 30, 32.
+  Huet, Dr. P. D., 138.
+  Hughes, John, 208.
+  Hulett, John, 222.
+  Hungerford, Sir George, 36.
+  Hunloke, Sir Henry, 40.
+  ---- Henry, 179.
+  Huntingdon, Selina, Countess of, 194.
+  Hurd, Nathaniel, 154.
+  Hustler, James, 59.
+  ---- Sir William, 52.
+
+  I'ANSON, Sir T. B., 68.
+  Ingold, Father, 136.
+  Ireland, John, 6.
+  Irish book-plates, 69-70.
+  Isham, Sir Charles, 11.
+  ---- Sir Thomas, 8-11, 200.
+  Italian MSS., heraldic decoration of, 16.
+  ---- book-plates, 147-8, 218.
+
+  JACOB, HERBERT, 176.
+  Jacobean style, the, 53-59.
+  Jacobite Life-guards, the, 214.
+  Jaquéri, Jean Eli, 212.
+  James II., statue of, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 12.
+  Jeffreys, Henrietta Louisa, Countess of Pomfret, 193.
+  Jenkins, Miss, 2.
+  Jesus College, 57.
+  Jodrell, Paul, 50.
+  Johnson, engraver, 154.
+  Jones, G. L., Bishop of Kilmore, 66.
+
+  KENDRICK, DR., 106.
+  Kennett, White, Bishop of Peterborough, 102.
+  Kent, Henry, Duke of, 58.
+  Kerrich, Dr. Samuel, 14.
+  Kilian, Lucas, 127.
+  ---- Wolffgang, 124, 127.
+  Kilmore, Bishop of, 66.
+  Kirby Hall, 104.
+  Knatchbull, Thomas, 49.
+  Knight, Hon. Henrietta, 213.
+  Knöringen, John Giles, 180.
+  Koler, Susanna, 127.
+  Kressenstain, J. W., 126.
+
+  LABOUCHERE, MISS NORNA, 186, 188, 190, 198.
+  Ladies' book-plates, 186-199.
+  Lamballe, Princess de, 198.
+  Lambart, George, 6, 79.
+  Landscape book-plates, 103.
+  Larson, William, 12.
+  Le Bas, engraver, 214.
+  'Legacy' book-plates, 28.
+  Legh, Gerard, 23.
+  Le Grand, engraver, 140.
+  Leicester Warren, Hon. J. B., _see_ De Tabley, Lord.
+  Le Mercier, Father, 141.
+  Lethieullier, John, 59.
+  'Library Interiors,' 99, 100, 144, 146.
+  Libraries, Public, 99.
+  Lichfield Cathedral, view of, 106.
+  Lilienthal, Michael, 167.
+  Linarti, Filippo, 218.
+  Liverpool Library, the, 99, 100.
+  Lloyd, Rev. John, 176.
+  Locker, Capt. William, 103.
+  Loggan, David, 8-11, 200.
+  Lombe, Lady, 189.
+  Lovat, Lord, 223.
+  Lulin, Amadeus, 146.
+  Lumisden, Andrew, 11, 87, 214.
+  Lynch, Philip, 58.
+  Lyttelton book-plate, 200.
+  ---- Sir Edward, 32.
+
+  M., R., 213.
+  Macciucca, Francesco Vargas, 171, 199.
+  Macdonald, H., 174.
+  Malassis, _see_ Poulet-Malassis.
+  Manchester Circulating Library, the, 99.
+  ---- Subscription Library, the, 99.
+  Mantling, style of, 52.
+  Marks, John, 174.
+  Marlborough, Duchess of, 195.
+  Marriott book-plate, the, 36.
+  Marshall, William, 32, 200.
+  Marsham, John, 33.
+  Mason, Dame Anna Margaretta, 58, 189.
+  Massie, Richard, 59.
+  Massy, Francis, 208.
+  Maury, Cardinal, 140.
+  Mavericks, the, engravers, 154.
+  Mayo, Lady, 190.
+  Mercator, Daniel, 179.
+  ---- Nicholas, 179, 180.
+  Methuen, Sir Paul, 222.
+  Middlesex, Lionel, Earl of, ill-treatment of his wife, by, 38.
+  Minerva, presented with a tomahawk, 159.
+  Mitford, John, 96.
+  Moises, Edward, 112.
+  Monmouth, James, Duke of, 181.
+  Moore, Bishop, library of, 75.
+  ---- O, 175.
+  Morghen, Raphael, 147, 148.
+  Mottoes, punning, 176.
+  ---- repeated in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, 120.
+  Moule, Thomas, 6, 12.
+  Mountaine, Robert, 212-213.
+  Muilman, Peter, 104.
+  Musgrave, Sir Christopher, 204.
+  Myller, Sebastian, 127.
+  Mynde, H., 103.
+
+  NACK, J. B., 7, 8.
+  'Name Tickets,' 40, 134.
+  ---- used in France, 135.
+  ---- ---- Germany, 135.
+  Nash, 'Beau,' 206.
+  Neptune, figured on a book-plate, 96.
+  Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 12.
+  ---- St. Michael's Church, view of, 109.
+  New College, Oxford, 58.
+  Newdigate, Richard, 52.
+  New England Library, the, 153.
+  Newport, Lady, 38.
+  New York Society Library, 159.
+  Nevill, Lady Dorothy, 199.
+  Nicholson, Gilbert, 43.
+  Nicholson, ----, an attorney at Lichfield, 106.
+  North, Hon. Anne, 189.
+  Nott, Fettiplace, 40.
+  Nuremberg, Library of St. Laurence at, 183.
+
+  OKEY, family book-plate, 183.
+  Oliver, Dr. William, 84, 86, 212.
+  ---- William, 210.
+  Ord, John, 64.
+  Oringen, 125.
+  Orr, J., 70, _note_.
+  Oxford, Earl of, 192, 193.
+  ---- Henrietta, Countess of, 14, 79, 81, 190, 193, 203.
+  Oxford, suspected disloyalty of, to the House of Hanover, 78.
+
+  PAGIT, JUSTINIAN, 40.
+  Pain, Anne, 198.
+  ---- Thomas, 198.
+  Paper, its ancient scarcity, 116.
+  Park, Thomas, 224.
+  Parlington, library at, 88.
+  Parochial Libraries, 167, 168, 203, 225, 226, 227.
+  Parsons, Daniel, 21.
+  Paynter, David, 44.
+  Pembroke College, 57.
+  Penn, Sophia, 213.
+  ---- Thomas, 151.
+  ---- William, 151, 152, _note_.
+  Pennant, Henry, 208.
+  Penny, Nicholas, 52.
+  Pepys, Samuel, 8, 18, 40, 100, 178, 216-218.
+  Pereira, Rev. H. W., 121.
+  Perrault, Francis, 218.
+  Personal particulars on book-plates, 178.
+  Petrarca, Giuseppe, 122.
+
+  Petra-Sancta, Father, his system of expressing metals and tinctures in
+      heraldry, 23.
+  Pfann, engraver, 216.
+  Physicians, College of, 15.
+  Picart, Bernard, 144.
+  'Picture' book-plates, 98-113.
+  Pindar, Elizabeth, 188.
+  Pine, John, 75, 76, 78, 79, 100, 202.
+  Pirckheimer, Bilibald, 7, 17, 18, 117, 118, 162, 175, 220.
+  Pitfield, Charles, 40, 178.
+  Pocklington, Joseph, 65.
+  Polish book-plates, 149.
+  Pollard, engraver, 96.
+  Pollen, Rev. George, 68.
+  Pömer, Hector, 118, 120, 121.
+  Pomfret, Lady, 193, 194.
+  Pompadour, La, 140.
+  Ponsonby, Hon. Gerald, 94.
+  Pope, figured on a book-plate, 81.
+  Porcellian Club, the, 159.
+  Portal, Joseph, 213.
+  Portrait book-plates, 36, 98, 196, 200, 216-220.
+  Poulet-Malassis, M., 1, 7, 97, 135, 136, 141, 142.
+  Powlet, C. S., 213.
+  ---- George, 213.
+  Priestley, Joseph, 107.
+  Prince Library, the, 153.
+  ---- Thomas, 153.
+  Prior, Matthew, 182, 222.
+  Punning Heraldry, instances of, upon book-plates, 125.
+  Pye, engraver, 104, 106.
+
+  QUEENS' COLLEGE, CAMB., 57.
+
+  RABY, LORD, 181.
+  Radcliffe Library, J. Gibbs's gift to, 218.
+  Raigniauld, engraver, 136.
+  Rayner, F., 226.
+  Red-skins figured on book-plates, 159.
+  Reilly, John, 53, 166, 167.
+  Restoration, increase in number of book-plates, after the, 33.
+  Revere, engraver, 154.
+  Rieterin, Margretha, 118.
+  Roberts-Brown, J., 2.
+  Robinson, John, 59.
+  ---- Johnson, 208.
+  ---- Thomas, 176.
+  ---- Sir William, 46.
+  Rochdale Circulating Library, the, 99.
+  'Rococo' style, the, 142, 147.
+  Roe, engraver, 96.
+  Rogers, Samuel, 224.
+  Roos, Lady, 50, 188.
+  ---- Lord, 50, 52.
+  Rosenberg, Count of, 127, 130, 131.
+  Ross, T., 81.
+  Rowney, Thomas, 52.
+  Royal Society, Library of, 118.
+  Royall, Isaac, 151, _note_.
+  Rushout, Sir John, 59.
+  Russian book-plates, 149.
+  Rylands, J. Paul, 43, 100, 179.
+
+  SADELER, GILES, 124, 127, 132.
+  ---- Joseph, 124.
+  St. Albans Grammar School, 39.
+  St. David's, Bishop of, 59.
+  St. Frances de Sales, 137.
+  St. John figured on a book-plate, 167, 226, 227.
+  St. John's College, Camb., 57.
+  St. Paul figured on a book-plate, 124, 125.
+  St. Peter figured on a book-plate, 125.
+  St. Quintin, Sir William, 43.
+  St. Thomas's Hospital, 59.
+  Sartor, James, 202.
+  Sartorius, Christopher, 202.
+  Sayer, John, 52.
+  Scharff, Gottfried Balthazar, 176.
+  Schintz, Dr. C. S., 128.
+  Scotch book-plates, 69-70.
+  ---- rebellion, the second, 12.
+  Scripture, quoted in condemnation of book-stealing, 167.
+  Scroope, Simon, 50.
+  Seyringer, John, 175.
+  Shakespeare represented on a book-plate, 81.
+  Shelburne, Lord, his quarrel with Priestley, 107.
+  Sheraton, Thomas, 66.
+  Sherwin, John Keys, 72, 90, 96, 214, 215.
+  Sibmacher, Hans, 126.
+  Signeira, drawing by, 95.
+  Sinton, engraving by, 137.
+  Sion College Library, 102.
+  Skeleton, one represented on a book-plate, 129.
+  Skinner, J. [Jacob?], 64, 81, 84, 203-212.
+  ---- Matthew, 212.
+  Skorina, F., 124.
+  Sloane, Sir Hans, 12.
+  Smyth, Sir John, 212.
+  Southey, Robert, 209-210.
+  Southwell (anon.), 34.
+  ---- Sir Robert, 40, 180.
+  ---- Hon. R. H., 103.
+  Spanish book-plates, 148.
+  Speratus, Paulus, 122, 166.
+  Stanley, Sir Edward, 50.
+  Stapylton, Sir Bryan, 46.
+  ---- Martin, 46.
+  Stearne, Bishop John, 7.
+  Stephens, William, 14.
+  Sterne, Laurence, 223, 224.
+  Stirling-Maxwell, Sir William, 19.
+  Stourhead, 95.
+  Strafford, Earl of, 182.
+  Strange, Sir Robert, 11, 87, 214, 215.
+  Strawberry Hill, 103, 106, 195.
+  Study, praise of, on book-plate, 175-177.
+  Sturgis, John, 213.
+  Surgeons, College of, 15.
+  Surtees, Robert, 68.
+  Swaffham, parish library of, 226.
+  Swedish book-plates, 146-147.
+  Swift, Jonathan, 194.
+  Swiss book-plates, 147.
+  Sydenham, Sir Philip, 102, 184, 203.
+  Sydney Sussex College, 30.
+  Symons, John, 66.
+
+  TADCASTER LIBRARY, 167.
+  Talbot, Col. John, 30.
+  ---- C., 170.
+  Tapestry in the House of Commons, 202.
+  Terry, engraver, 104.
+  Thomas, Sir Edmund, 212.
+  Thompson, William, 52.
+  Thoms, Mr., 220.
+  Thoresby, the historian of Leeds, 184.
+  Thorne, Peregrine Francis, 212.
+  Titles, English, a stumbling-block to foreigners, 74.
+  'Tombstone Style,' the, 59.
+  Tommins, Jean, 90.
+  Tower of London, library of the Public Record Office in, 103, 104.
+  Towneley, Richard, 184.
+  Trémouille, Charlotte, Countess of Derby, 49.
+  Tresham, Sir Francis, 28.
+  ---- Sir Lewis, 28.
+  ---- Sir Thomas, 28, 30.
+  Trinity Hall, 57.
+  Troschel, Hans, 124, 126.
+  Turner, engraver, 154.
+  Twemlow, William, 44.
+  Tynemouth Priory, view of ruins of, 110.
+  Tyneside, the, Bewick's sketching ground, 110-112.
+  Tyrwhit, Francis, 179.
+
+  URBAN VIII., book-plate of, 148.
+
+  VANDERGUCHT, MICHAEL, 193, 202-203.
+  Vander Noot, Count, 149, 185.
+  Vennitzer, John, 183, 216.
+  Venus figured on a book-plate, 92.
+  Versailles, library at, 140.
+  Vertue, George, 14, 56, 79, 192-193, 203.
+  Vicars, Sir Arthur, 98, 146.
+  Vienna, College of St. Nicholas at, 164.
+  Von Hagenau, Ferdinand, 127.
+  Von Zell, William, 116.
+
+  WADD, WILLIAM, 15.
+  Wakefield, Gilbert, 107.
+  Wale, Samuel, 193.
+  ---- T., 87.
+  Walker, H. P., 224.
+  Walpole, Horace, 14, 15, 103, 106, 178, 195, 196, 203.
+  Walters, Henry, 208.
+  Wanly, Humphrey, 31.
+  Warnecke, Herr, 16.
+  Warrington, local volunteers, picture of one, 107.
+  Warrington, view of, 106.
+  Washington, George, 156, 157, 158.
+  Way, G. L., 108.
+  Welbeck, 190.
+  Wentworth, Sir John, 50.
+  ---- Thomas, Earl of, 181, 182.
+  Weobley Parish Library, 227.
+  Wernerin, designer, 128.
+  Wessenbrun, monastery of, 167.
+  Westmoreland, Francis Fane, Earl of, 38.
+  Wharton, Philip, Lord, 180.
+  ---- William, 40, 180.
+  Wheatley, Henry, 106.
+  White, engraver, 218.
+  Wightwick, George, 173.
+  Wigtown, Earl of, 210.
+  Wilberforce, William, 225.
+  Wilkes, John, 223.
+  Willcox, Rev. F., 39.
+  William III., effect of his invasion upon English fashions, 74.
+  Williams, Rev. John, 153.
+  Willis, Sherlock, 167, 168.
+  Willmer, William, 30.
+  Wiltshire, John, 81, 82, 86.
+  Windham, Sir Edmund, 179.
+  ---- Thomas, 179.
+  Winnington, Francis, 59.
+  Wodroofe, John, 208.
+  Wolsey, Cardinal, 18, 24.
+  Woodward, Charles, 173.
+  Worlidge, 213.
+  'Wreath and Ribbon Style,' the, 65.
+  Wren, Sir Christopher, 12.
+  Wyndham, Wadham, 78.
+
+  YALE COLLEGE, 159.
+  Yates, engraving by, 91.
+  ---- James, 107.
+
+
+    Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to her Majesty
+    at the Edinburgh University Press
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+Page xv, "Bromhill" changed to "Broomhill" (BIRNIE OF BROOMHILL)
+
+Page 144, "th" changed to "the" (perhaps the most gloomy)
+
+Page 150, missing marker "1" added to footnote.
+
+Page 184, the inscription on Sir Philip Sydenham's book was moved out of
+the end of the paragraph to allow the
+
+      {Ætatis: 73
+      {Domini: 1702.'
+
+to be lined up at the end as they are in the original text.
+
+Page 184, "mathematican" changed to "mathematician" (astronomer and a
+mathematician)
+
+Page 195, "y" changed to "yet" (and have not yet)
+
+Index:
+
+Page 233, "Chadowiecki" changed to "Chodowiecki" and moved to new
+alphabetical position (Chodowiecki, D. N., 127.)
+
+Page 233, "Maridal" changed to "Maridat" (De Maridat, Peter)
+
+Page 235, "Henault" changed to "Hénault" (Hénault, M.)
+
+Page 235, "I'ANSON" changed to "I'ANSON" (I'ANSON, Sir T. B.)
+
+Page 236, this text uses both Jaquéri in the text once and Jacquéri in
+the index once. The index was changed to reflect what was in the text,
+but the reader should be aware that the name appears both ways in other
+texts and often with "Elie" instead of "Eli."
+
+Page 235, "Kaler" changed to "Koler" and move to new alphabetical
+position (Koler, Susanna)
+
+Page 236, "Linasti" changed to "Linarti" (Linarti, Filippo)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Book-Plates, by William J. Hardy
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41142 ***