Cornell HtuuersUg Stbtarg Strata, Kern fork FROM THE BENNO LOEWY LIBRARY COLLECTED BY BENNO LOEWY 1854.1919 BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY ^SB^rtrrasTTjf The date shows when thi s volume was taken. HOME USE RULES ■ *» — — — All books subject to recall ah Dorrowers must regis- ter in the library to borrow books for home use. All books must be re- turned at end of college year for inspection and repairs. Limited books must be returned within the four week limit and not renewed. Students must return all books before leaving town. Officers should arrange for the return of books wanted during their absence from town. v Volumes of periodicals and of pamphlets are held in the' library as much as 1 possible. For special pur- poses they are given out for a limited time. Borrowers should not use their library privileges for the benefit of other persons. Books of special value and gift books, when the giver wishes it, are not - allowed. to circulate. Readers are asked to re- port all cases of books marked or mutilated. Do not deface books by marks and writing. Cornell University Library Z994.E5 C35 English book-plates ^f? 'IiiiSjE^if^fiiifi'iHl"* 1 olin 3 1924 029 546 599 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029546599 ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES (EX-LIBRIS). * # * This Edition consists of 935 ordinary copies Imperial i6mo, and 65 numbered copies on Japanese Vellum, Demy 8vo. iCREO-fN-XKSIEfr IM^^SK'W^ai&mj^ss^^ .. MAP* BYf/tLQ i Her Majesty's Book-plate for the Windsor Library. {Reproduced by Gracious Permiss:on.) English Book-Plates An illustrated handbook for Students of Ex-Libris by Egerton Castle M.A., F.S.A. London : George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden, & New York. Mdcccxcij. /{■GlO fr 6>9f CIIISWICK PRESS:— C. WH1TTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. SJnfctt&b to l.cpaut (K^Canbe/ <8 fq./ Jf.g.21 * '.^■i ^spygpr*" s^jji ji^gs*! FffcPr^ Kw,t^ fefeiiS !§P w^Slsl] F§jjft aS *Sfefi«i« ^^3 jK^i^fcA. lyjH PREFACE. ANY are the interesting facts connected with book-plates, known to students and collectors, yet little dreamed of by the :II| .„,,.,.. „ greater number even of those who hold themselves curious of everything connected with " The Book." Indeed, the chief difficulty in pre- senting these facts to the reader is to reduce them to sufficient order, chronologically or other- wise. There is so much multifarious information capable of being "tacked on" to the subject, that every specialist writing about ex-libris is prone to make them vehicles for his own favourite snippets of information. This is more particularly notice- able in those numerous disquisitions on book-plates contributed to antiquarian periodicals. On the other hand, of the very few works, existing in volume form (half-a-dozen at the most), which deal with the subject at hand, only two treat of English Book-plates. These latter, which have long been out of print, rich mines of information though they be, and indispensable to the regular collector, are for that very reason not sufficiently xii Preface. popular in their scope to meet the requirements of the general reader. In the present volume I have attempted to make a rapid survey of the history of English book-plates qua book-plates; to trace the origin of these marks of ownership and the gradual spread of their use from the Continent to this country; to concatenate the successive "styles" in their ornamentations, and the various "classes" of devices that have been most in vogue up to the present time. This short history, supported by a general record of sundry facts that bear more or less immediately on the study of book-plates, and by reference to the existing literature of the subject, should, I imagine, prove interesting, not only to collectors, but to anyone who owns a book-plate, whether personal or handed down with an ances- tral library. It may also be of use to those who — impressed with the idea that a token destined to record for ever their transient ownership should be both original and artistic in design — may wish to know something of the ex-libris of many distin- guished contemporaries. Some of the examples here reproduced are very rare, many are very good of their kind, many again are of interest on account of their owner's personality. But most of them have been selected mainly as types; and for this purpose, whenever possible, several examples of each class have been grouped together, in order that common features might be discriminated by comparison. It is well to state that, with the exception of a Preface. xiii few instances (among which the four ex-libris engraved by Mr. Sherborn, my own and two or three others, which it has been possible to print direct from the copper plate or wood block), the illustrations being reproduced by "process" and on modern paper, cannot convey all the charac- teristics of the original engravings. This draw- back, however, is unavoidable in a book where copious illustration is of paramount importance. Modern specimens have in all cases been given for copy by their owners. For the loan of sundry rare examples, also for valuable advice, I am in- debted to the courteous interest shown in this work by well-known collectors, Miss E. Chamberlayne, Lord de Tabley, the Hon. Gerald Ponsonby, Mr. C. W. Sherborn, (that typical "little master" of modern days), Mr. Arthur Vicars, Mr. J. R. Brown (the present chairman of the Ex-libris Society), and Mr. J. P. Rylands, in whose genial company I first learned something of the many interests that may lurk about a book-plate. I must also express my obligation to Mr. Glee- son White (an "eclectic" collector like myself), without whose active help in attending to the numerous details connected with the bringing out of an illustrated book, I do not think I could have completed the present work within the very short time available for its compilation. E. C. 49, Sloane Gardens, S.W. CONTENTS. l'AGE Introduction i First Group — Early Armorial 37 The Tudoresque Style (1590-1625) 38 The Carolian Style (1625-1660) 43 The " Restoration " Style 47 •Group the Second. Eighteenth Century : — The Queen Anne and Early Georgian Style ("Jaco- bean ") 58 The Middle Georgian, " Chippendale " or " Rococo " Style 70 The Later Georgian (Festoon) Style 87 Pictorial Plates : — I. "Literary" (Book-piles and Library In- teriors) 97 II. Portrait Book-plates 107 III. Allegoric Book-plates no IV. The " Landscape " Book-plate . . . . 116 Group the Third — Modern Plates: — ■ Modern Armorial — Die-sinker's Style 125 Seals and Vesicas 137 Printer's Mark Style 142 Heraldic-allegoric 149 Heraldic-symbolic 159 Pictorial Non-Heraldic Plates 169 The Choice of a Book-plate and Book-plate Collecting 195 The Book-plate's Petition 222 Bibliography of English Book-plates 235 Index 243 ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES. (ex libris.) INTRODUCTION. HERE are still men of books (makers, vendors, and buyers, I mean,) who actually do not know the meaning of the word book-plate, or of its jargon equivalent ex-libris. " Did I possess a book-plate, as you call it," writes one of the most distinguished men of letters of the day, "it would be much at your service; but I am so far from being the owner of such a thing that I do not know what it is, nor have I ever heard of it." More than once, when breaking new ground in book-stall land, intent on discovering ancient and cheap volumes still garnished with valuable but possibly unconsidered ex-libris, have I been referred by a not up-to-date and otherwise unsophisticated bouquiniste to a box of miscellaneous illustrations and engravings, labelled " this lot of plates, from four pence." One particularly testy person of that calling on one occasion even argued the point and, in answer to my unreasonable insistence that B 2 English Book-plates. such were not book-plates, in the ex-libris sense, aired unexpected latinity : " they were plates," he asseverated, " and they were out of books ; ergo book-plates ex-libris " thus once more testifying to the etymological inadequacy of the word book- plate, and in a way also, to that of ex-libris. For the use of my friends and acquaintances, whom of late I have taken to catechizing with reference to their possession of a personal book- plate, I have found it necessary to have a stereo- typed phrase of explanation. All this would tend to prove that notwith- standing the increased interest lately shown for " those charming personalities that we find affixed within the covers of books by their owners" (to use Mr. John Leigh ton's fond description), there are still some men of books, as I said, (and women also), who do not even know of their existence. As this volume is not set forth for the use, nor I fear for the delectation, of established collec- tors (who no doubt, both in the general and the particular, have a much more complete knowledge of the matter than I can boast of), but rather for the guidance of the average book-lover who may or may not have heard that there are such things as book-plates and that these are occasionally interest- ing, it seems fit to define from the outset what is an ex-libris, what a book-plate. One of the first cares, as a rule, of the regular book-buyer on returning home of an evening, the pleased possessor of a new volume, or yet after sorting the parcel sent by his bibliopole, is to Introduction. 3 affix on each recruit some special mark of owner- ship before passing him to the rank and file of his library. This branding may be done in many ways, and for various reasons. First, concerning the ways. — Many men simply enter their names in ink or pencil on the fly leaf, or more ruthless, on the actual title-page; or yet again, in school-boy fashion, on the edge. Some have been known to stamp with monogram or crest the verso of a book cover in wax or wafer, scooping out an adequate hollow for the perpetra- tion ; others of very latter-day philistinism accom- plish a similar defacement of a fair volume by means of a stencil or a rubber stamp and endors- ing fluid. A great number, however, with somewhat higher notions of the neatness which befits a printed volume, affix on their books a more or less ornamental name-ticket ; a certain misguided sub- section of these latter utilise visiting cards for this purpose. But your real book-lover goes some way beyond these modest means of heralding ownership in his silent yet eloquent, his ever-ready, instructive or amusing, moral-teaching or vice-flattering slaves. He considers that any volume worth preserving, in the book-pride sense, should have no adjunct but such as could enhance its appearance, increase its value. In his mind the master's badge must be a thing of beauty, a token of satisfaction. This is the man who devises, or causes others more crafty than himself to devise for him, speaking labels, works of art, which to the world at large 4 English Book-plates. will proclaim something of the owner's position or personality, and in the. owner himself will evoke a recurring sense of self-congratulation. Among the more wealthy or ardent bibliolaters, a mere label, however artistic, is often not held a sufficient token of love for their books ; their mark of possession must form a still more integrate j&nd decorative part of the cherished tomes. Their ex-libris must be embodied in the very ornamen- tation of a costly binding, tooled or stamped on the cover itself. The study of these super-libros y as such luxurious marks have been specially termed, is however a subject by itself. 1 -■ Now, all tokens of ownerships in books, whether they be careless signature, or seal or stencil mark ; whether they be modest printed name-labels, superb heraldic plates, or allegorical compositions signed by some "little master," or yet again gorgeous super-libros as above described, all these are known in the modern bibliophile's jargon as ex-libris. The accepted English equivalent is . " book- plate." It may be pointed out that the two expressions are not really synonymous, for although all book-plates proper enter into the: category, iof ex-libris, all ex-libris, as we have seen, are -not necessarily book-plates. But as, of all marks of book possession, printed or engraved labels :are not only the most distinctive and numerous, but also, to a certain extent, the most interesting, it is 1 A subject which has been practically exhausted (as far as French books are concerned) by Johannis Guigard, in his "Armorial du Bibliophile," Paris, Bachelin Deflorenne, 1870-73; 4to. : with illustrations in the text. Introduction. 5 expedient to dismiss the autograph and the armorial binding as not belonging to the present . subject, and to consider the terms ex-libris and book^ plate as practically interchangeable. Neither the Latin nor the vernacular expression is satisfactory ; but they are both consecrated by usage, and it is obvious that none of the terms that have been suggested to replace them, such as "owner-plate" or "book-label," are more explicit or more elegant. The Latin words, ex-libris, are of international use, and have been admitted as technical in Larousse's " Grand Dictionnaire Universel du' XlXeme siecle : — "Ex-libris, mots latins qui signifient litterale- ment : des livres, d'entre les livres, faisant partie des livres, avec le nom du proprietaire. Ces mots s'inscrivent ordinairement en tete de chaque volume d'une bibliotheque, avec la signature du proprietaire." The definition is not very exact, or, at least, it is too general. " As to the word book-plate itself, it has been until very lately ignored by English lexicographers. Cassell's "Encyclopaedic Dictionary," 1888, was, I believe, the first to notice it, and as follows : — "Book-plate, a piece of paper stamped or en- graved with a name or device and pasted in a book to show the ownership." " The American Dictionary of Printing and Book-Making" (Part iv., Jan. 1892) published by Howard, Lockwood and Co., New York, takes a little more trouble about the word : — 6 English Book-plates. "Ex-libris — Book-plates ; the ornamental designs inserted on the inside of the cover of a book, or upon one of the fly leaves, to indicate possession. They are usually something after the manner of heraldry, but often with the name and residence at full length. The use of book-plates is one of the fashions of the present day, and is likely to continue. Specimens occur in books printed as early as 1516, but in England, France, and Germany they became very common in the last century. Many eminent engravers were called upon to execute this class of work, and among the examples of that day still extant are a great number which bear evidence of superior skill. In America, owing to the rarity of engravers before the year 1800, we have few ex-libris; but since 1840 they have been tolerably numerous. Several books have lately been written upon this subject, and long series of articles have been written for the magazines upon it." This explanation, although a trifle more explicit than Larousse's notice, is hardly correct as to facts. I give the two extracts to show that however un- satisfactory as definitions, the two terms are now recognized and must be adhered to. The Latin expression, it is well to add, is distinctly foreign in origin, and rarely occurs on any but comparatively modern English plates. 1 With reference to the English name, the student 1 The earliest occurrence seems, according to Warren, to be on the book-plate of Richard Towneley, of Towneley, Lancashire, dated 1702. The term never came into common use before this century. Introduction. 7 can only speculate on what such labels may have been called in the early days of their existence. As far as we know at present, the earliest approach to the word book-plate is discoverable in the "Diary of Mr. Samuel Pepys," who, on the 21st day of July, 1668, made the following entry in his book : — " Went to my plate maker's and there spent an hour about contriving my little plates for my books of the King's four yards." Horace Walpole, in his "Anecdotes of Painting," and again in his " Catalogue of Engravers " (1 77 1), approximates to the word book-plate ; in the first he adverts to Hogarth's engraved cypher label as " a plate he used for his book ; " and in the second speaks of the allegoric design engraved by George Vertue for Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holies, as "a plate to put in Lady Oxford's books." The first use of the actual word itself seems to occur in John Ireland's "Hogarth Illustrated," the first volume of which was published in 1791. Here the biographer gives it as his opinion that "the works of Callot were probably his (Hogarth's) first models, and shop-bills and book-plates his first performances." And now concerning the reasons for a custom which may be said to be almost as old as the printed book itself, and which is anything but on the wane at the present time. — Books are not consumable goods, but chattels intended to endure; they are at all times invested with definite intrinsic 8 English Book-plates. value, often with fanciful preciousness. But, to fulfil their destiny, they must consort with many people, and, during the inevitable changing of hands, may easily lose their way back to the rightful owner. This dread fate may overtake them even without any intermeddling of the traditional malice prepense of book-borrowers, for, after all, all books have numerous brethren singularly like unto themselves. And, having once lost their way, they might lightly find them- selves established in new colonies, were it not for the safeguard of some unmistakable mark of ownership. Thus it may be said that the primary object of an ex-libris, is precautionary against loss, by accident or through the negligence of borrowers ; (whether a book-plate has ever fulfilled that pur- pose is, however, an open question still). A second, closely connected with the first, is to secure the identification of a valued tome as part of a collec- tion. A third and universal object of the book- plate is, as I have said before, to gratify the sense of possession by giving some kind of personal character to chattels which in themselves are only specimens of more or less copious batches, or (by a curious, though intelligible reversal of the same idea) by giving this character to a work which the present owner believes to be almost unique of its kind. From this peculiar feeling, difficult to express, but which can be recalled no doubt by all book- lovers, this desire to invest books with some more "personal" character, depends the custom notice- Introduction. 9 able in so many ex-libris ancient and modern, of dovetailing with the plain statement of ownership some original "sentiment," or some bibliophilic motto which denotes a prevailing taste or bias of thought in the owner. Albeit the ex-libris, as a bibliognostic institution, can thus be traced in its origin to an appreciation of book property, it must be admitted that, on the other hand, many, perhaps the bulk, of the enormous number of book-plates already known to the collector undoubtedly owe their character to mere fashion. This applies more particularly to the legion of purely armorial plates. For some three centuries it has been considered " correct " to have a book-plate for use in the library in very much the same fashion as it was, and is, "correct" to have silver, and livery, and note paper adorned with monogram, crest, or escutcheon. It will be seen that, with the excep- tion of a few persons of specially artistic, scholarly, or otherwise original taste, fashion has, until com- paratively latter days, had as undisputed an influence on the composition and ornamentation of people's ex-libris, as upon the shape of their clothes or the decoration of their silver ware. The question of fashion's sway upon the character of book-plates, exemplified by the singularly de- finite •" styles " into which they can historically be arranged, introduces a fresh consideration. What are the heads of attractiveness discoverable in a study of book-plates ? These are of varied kinds. In the first place, book - plates have a general interest covering io English Book-plates. nearly four centuries ; they appeared in some form or other almost as soon as printed books began to be articles of commerce ; they may therefore be studied from the antiquarian-historical point of view. Again, insomuch as a great many of them are dis- tinctly things of beauty in themselves, they may be regarded with curiosity and pleasure by purely aesthetic eyes. In a representative collection of these tokens, the student of Art will be able to trace, in an almost regular chain, the development and changes in decorative fashion at various periods ; the evolution of style in " Ornamentik." Ever and anon, also, among the crowd of unsigned specimens, or of specimens signed by names un- known to fame, he may light upon the handiwork of some little master : for in the past such men as Albrecht Diirer and Jost Amman, Cipriani and Bartolozzi, Boucher and Gravelot, Hogarth and Bewick, George Vertue, and Sir Robert Strange, thought the miniscule frame of a book- plate not unworthy of their skill ; and their example is happily imitated by a few modern artists of standing. The Herald and Genealogist will of course recognize on book-plates the achievements and the pride of connection, at different epochs, of innumerable families of note, expressed in the fashion of successive periods. Indeed many keen ex-librists consider the heraldry of book-plates quite their paramount interest. At any rate, from its very essence, the ex-libris lends itself with singular appropriateness to symbolism and allegory, Introduction. i i and is a fit subject of research and study to the connoisseur of such " conceits." Furthermore, from the thickly pressing ranks of armorial labels telling of wealthy and otherwise excellent book-owners who, however, may be utterly unknown to Biography, there will occasion- ally shine forth the book-plate of some famous man or woman— long since dust. Here, then, is a record ; for the ex-libris was personal ; no doubt it was submitted to the owner for approval or criticism before completion ; it was finally accepted, possibly in many instances it was jealously affixed by him, or her, on the covers of a library — long since dispersed. And coming forward after so many years, the book-plate may help to impress on us the ultimate philosophy of Book- pride, nunc mihi, mox aliis ! x And if the book- plate of a man of note in history or literature is out of the common ruck, if it bear quaint mottoes or cunningly devised allegories, if it show us a "library interior" or a "book pile" displaying the names of favourite authors, it remains as a memorial (only known, be it noted, to the " ex- librist ") of his private tastes and aspirations. Many specimens are either dated or signed by recognizable hands, or both. Thus can the study of a number of genuine examples often lead to the discovery of certain criteria of style, based on internal evidence, which can, after a time, be applied to fix the origin of other work, unsigned or undated. In such guise is the study of book- 1 The motto characteristically chosen by Mr. A. W. Franks (our premier collector of ex-libris), for his own book-plate. 12 English Book-plates. plate distinctly profitable as well as attractive in itself. The would-be " Kernoozer " in matters of virtu can make it a peg upon which to hang much and valuable bye-knowledge. It might finally be urged that an understanding of book-plates is a brarteh of general bibliology. The book-plate appertains to books and bookmen, both in the past and the present ; it is therefore worthy of investigation. After all, to use Warren's apt phrase, the "ex-librist is but a humbler class of bibliophile." The historical interest does not, of course, appertain to quite modern plates except in the case of late examples completing a long list of family ex-libris. I do not, however, share the contempt expressly or tacitly shown for con- temporary book-plates by almost every writer on this subject ; if such devices do not reflect, as more venerable specimens do, the leading fashions or the ruling affectations of their age, their very freedom from conventionality affords scope for more original treatment, for compositions in many cases highly interesting and which will no doubt be peculiarly so to the ex-librist of advancing centuries. In fine, whatever may be the general opinion con- cerning the amount and the special nature of the interest discoverable in book-plates, it is a matter of fact that they are and have been for many years considered worthy of study by men of recognized culture ; the taste, however, for collecting ex- libris is of comparatively modern growth. 1 1 In the appendix will be found a condensed Bibliographic account of what has been written in England on the subject of Introduction. 1 3 They were considered worthy of an essay in the " Gentleman's Magazine," as early as 1822, and they frequently crop up in the pages of " Notes and Queries," " Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica," " The Antiquary," and other periodicals specially devoted to antiquarian and book-lore. In the year 1837, a certain Rev. Daniel Parsons published an article on this subject in the third annual report of the Oxford University Archaeo- logical and Heraldic Society, and at a later date, in "Notes and Queries," (1st Series, iii. 495), he announced his intention to write a " History of Book-plates." This, unfortunately, he did not live to publish. So far English writers seem to have been the first in the field of ex-libris. But it was reserved for the French, ever most keen in every matter of Bibliographic interest, to produce the first two actual books on the subject. One is the " Armorial du Bibliophile," above mentioned, 1 dealing with super libros, the other " Les Ex-libris Francais, depuis leur origine jusqua nos jours," by M. Poulet- Malassis, published in 1875, which does the same Book-plates. For a more complete and detailed Bibliography, arranged in chronological order, see the series of articles contributed by Messrs. H. W. Fincham and James Roberts Brown to the " Ex-Libris Journal " (vol. i. parts 6, 7, and 8, Dec. '91 — Feb. '92), published by A. & C. Black, London, Soho Square. This useful work has been reprinted, but only for' private circulation. 1 See p. 4. M. Guigard has since then issued a " Nouvel Armorial du Bibliophile, Guide de l'Amateur des Livres Armories, contenant la reduction de 2,500 Armoiries et riches reliures armoriees. Paris, 2 vols., Emile Rondeau, 1890. 14 English Book-plates. office practically, but with lesser wealth of illustra- tion, for French book-plates proper. What M. Poulet-Malassis, with national exclu- siveness, had done for French ex-libris, Mr. Leicester Warren (now Lord de Tabley), under- took a few years later, with greater breadth of knowledge and appreciation, for ex-libris at large. His work, 1 with its pleasantly set forth, dis- criminating survey of the whole subject, was of course hailed with delight by English collectors. From the first it took its place as an accepted and trustworthy book of reference. Haurit aquam cribris quivult sine discere libris, isthe motto selected by the author for this fascinating manual,' 2 one without which it were indeed as futile as " drawing water in sieves," to hope for real proficiency in ex-libris lore. " Warren's Guide " in fact is, as Mr. Rylands appropriately puts it, " to the lover of ex-libris such a companion as Walton and Cotton's ' Complete Angler ' is to the contemplative fisherman." Warren — to use the popular way of adverting to one whose work has long been acknowledged — will remain princeps among writers on the present subject, were it only for the one fact, that he was the first to classify book-plates in " styles " from which their age can be deducted, and thus to lay the foundation of an intelligible nomenclature. 1 "A Guide to the Study of Book-plates," (ex-libris,) by the Hon. J. Leicester Warren, M.A. 8vo. London, John Pearson, 46, Pall Mall, 1880. Culled from the ex-libris, dated 1697, of a certain old Austrian lawyer, J, Seyringer. Introduction, 15 For there is little doubt that, whatever criticisms may be passed on such terms as "Jacobean," "Chippendale," and others patented in "The Guide," they are now accepted and destined to endure by convention ; they were found useful at a time when none better were brought forward, and by this time all English collectors know pre- cisely what, rightly or otherwise, these words are meant to describe. All the terms moreover, of subsequently devised classifications have remained based on his general scheme. A special feature in Warren's book is the series of lists, carefully and almost exhaustively compiled by the author himself, of English and Foreign book-plate engravers. These lists are to a cer- tain extent supplemented by a very precious pam- phlet, printed in 1887 by Mr. A. W. Franks, of the British Museum (now President of the Society of Antiquaries), for private distribution, under the name " Notes in Book-plates. No. 1, English Dated Book-plates, 1574- 1800." " Warren's Guide " is now unfortunately out of print, and has already become a prize to the book- hunter. Speedy exhaustion, it may be remarked, is a fate which has hitherto overtaken the few English works on Ex-libris, (and therein may per- haps be found sufficient justification for the present volume) ; it is now even more difficult to discover a copy for sale of Mr. Griggs' " Examples" or of Mr. Rylands' "Notes." The first of these, " Eighty-three Examples of Armorial Book-plates from various Collections," privately printed and issued (only to the extent 1 6 English Book-plates. of sixty copies) by Mr. W. Griggs in 1887, albeit only an annotated Album of facsimilies, formed a most valuable adjunct to " Warren's Guide," which was no doubt insufficiently illustrated. It is a very excellent reproduction of rare plates, ranging in date from 1574 to the first years of this century, marked preference being given to very early speci- mens. 1 The second, under a very unassuming title, and notwithstanding its modest proportions, ranks next only to Warren's work. These " Notes on Book- plates (ex-libris), with special reference to Lanca- shire and Cheshire Examples, and a proposed No- menclature for the Shapes of Shields," by J. Paul Rylands, F.S.A., were likewise privately printed at Liverpool in 1889; they were reproduced the following year among the " Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire." While selecting his examples more particularly from the Counties Palatine, Mr. i Rylands makes his monograph deal with English ex-libris gene- rally, and follows with great discrimination the development of the various national styles. The work is of course based on Warren's foundations ; but, as might be expected after the lapse of many years not wasted for the study of book-plates, it shows a certain advance in systematic classifica- tion. Three more books, of great interest to ex-librists, have appeared since the publication of Mr. Rylands' 1 A Second Series of " Examples of Armorial Book-plates " has lately been published by Mr. Griggs, 1891-92 (See Biblio- graphy Appendix). Introduction, 1 7 " Notes," but as they treat mainly of foreign plates, 1 need only mention them here pour mimoire. The " Svenska Bibliotek och ex-libris auteck- ningar med 84 illustrationer," by M. C. M. Car- lander (Stockholm, Adolf Johnson, 8vo., 1889). Herr F. Warnecke's " Die Deutschen Biicher- zeichen (ex-libris), von ihren Ursprunge bis zur Gegenwart," containing 21 illustrations in the text, and 20 plates (Berlin), T. V. Stargardt, 8vo., 1890. A most admirable work. M. Henri Bouchot's " Les Ex-libris et les mar- ques de possession du livre," with 15 plates (Paris E. Rouveyre, 8vo., 1891). M. Bouchot, a leading authority on bibliognostic matters, has taken the trouble to write this essay in a brilliant style — apparently, however, for the definite purpose of dis- paraging the interest of ancient book-plates. 1 The appearance of Warren's book undoubtedly gave a general impetus to the study of book- plates. Since then a good deal of learned dis- putation on the subject of these minor works of art has had ephemeral publicity in newspapers and periodicals, only to remain all buried in the great Necropolis of Back Numbers. Many such valuable contributions by learned specialists, hew- ever, such as Mr. W. J. Hardy, Mr. Walter Hamilton, Mr. John Leighton, Mr. Robert Day, Mr. W. H. K. Wright in this country, and Mr. Lawrence Hutton, and Mr. R. C. Lichtenstein, 1 For critical notices of these three works, see the "Journal of the Ex-Libris Society," vol. i., July and Aug. '91. D 1 8 English Book-plates. the two best-known authorities in America, have happily been (or are being) resurrected and col- lected, so as to make them accessible to the Stu- dent, in what has become the recognized organ of English book-plate collectors, the "Journal of the Ex-Libris Society." The history of this very flourishing Association, (already counting some three hundred members, amongwhom many of the best "authorities" known, not only in this country, but also in America and on the Continent), is briefly this : — " The scheme," to use the Hon! Secretary's own wording, " originated with a few ardent collectors who convened a meeting in London on February the ioth, 1891, the initiatory steps being taken by the present honorary secretary of the Society. 1 " The chair was taken by Mr. J. R. Brown, who was supported by Mr. John Leighton, F.S.A., Mr. Walter Hamilton, F.R.H.S., Mr. C. W. Sherborn, Mr. W. C. Jackson, Mr. H. W. Fin- cham, Mr. J. F. Meehan, Mr. Harry Soane, Mr. James Tregaskis, and others." In this sitting, the constitution of the Society was settled. At a subsequent gathering, Mr. John Leighton was elected Chairman of the Coun- cil, Mr. Walter Hamilton, Treasurer, and Mr. W. H. K. Wright, (of the Public Library, Plymouth,) Honorary Secretary, as well as general editor of the contemplated Journal. At a later meeting, Mr. Arthur J ewers, F.S. A., was appointed Heral- 1 Mr. W. H. K. Wright, F.R.H.S., Borough Librarian, Ply- mouth. Introduction. 19 die Assistant Editor, and within a month of the final constitution of the Society the first number of the Journal appeared, and met with a success which has never failed it since. It is meet, however, to state that a modest look- ing forerunner of the " Ex-Libris Journal," contain- ing a great quantity of interesting information, was at that time in existence, being then in fact more than a year old. But its origin was provincial, and its publication, therefore, was not generally known. It was started as a monthly supplement to the "Western Antiquary," under the style of "The Book-plate Collector's Miscellany," and edited by Mr. Wright. Its last number was issued simul- taneously with the first Part of the " Ex-Libris Journal," which, it should be stated, during the period of its infancy undoubtedly derived much nourishment from the defunct parent publication. " The Book-plate Collector's Miscellany" is now unobtainable, and the original numbers may in time, when "early book-plate literature" has be- come an antiquarian subject, come to be quoted at preposterous prices. The latest work published on the subject of ex- libris, is a learned monograph by Mr. Walter Hamilton. 1 This is distinctly the work of a specialist, addressed to specialists, and as far as copiousness and accuracy of information go, is more complete than either that of Bouchot or Poulet-Malassis. 1 "French Book-plates (Ex-Libris)," by Walter Hamilton, F.R.G.S., F.R.H.S., London, George Bell and Sons 1892 imp. i6mo., with about 100 illustrations. 20 English Book-plates. Hand-books on Italian, Spanish, and Nether- landish book-plates are still, presumably, in the lap of the gods. The plan of the present work is not ambitious. As I have stated in the preface, its object is simply to give the reader a general idea of the history of the Book-plate, as a mark of .possession, in England, with reference especially to the relation of the various " styles " with each other, and to their various "classes " of composition ; and to support this by disquisitions on such cognate topics as may be of interest to any one proposing to investigate the subject further by himself. The question of foreign ex-libris will therefore only be touched upon in so far as it may introduce that of English plates, or as foreign influence affected English fashions. I have found it necessary to divide book-plates somewhat more minutely than has hitherto been generally done, and to draw a distinction between "styles" and "classes." Neither of these terms, I am aware, are really apt, but I have not been able to excogitate anything better ; the former, moreover, is already fixed by prescription. By " style " we are to understand style of orna- mentation, which, in book-plates, is very generally found to reproduce (somewhat in arrear as to time) the prevailing taste for decoration in such things as manuscript or typographic illuminations, architec- tural details, and furniture, dress, gold- and silver- smith's work, and so forth. By means of "classes" we can discriminate Introduction. 21 between the different modes of composition, such as " Library Interiors," "Allegories," "Landscapes," or pure " Genre," applied to book-plates. The arbitrary classification of ex-libris in "styles " is convenient (although necessarily not accurate, considering that styles overlapped each other at most periods,) and is happily more practical in the case of English than of foreign examples. The number of "classes " must be restricted, and cannot of course be made to admit all known varieties with anything like precision ; (one might almost be tempted to erect one especially as a home for the " Sports " that are so numerous in large collections) ; but it will be found that, until the first quarter of this century at least, the regular "classes," enumerated further on, are tolerably adequate for purposes of description. Up to that time both "styles "and "classes" may be held to have some kind of chronological meaning — a very important quality. The nomenclature I propose (in answer to re- peated requests piteously expressed by ex-librists for a revision of technical terms) is based on that of Warren, as expanded by Rylands, but modified and with alternative expressions which may perhaps be found acceptable and may help to bring English classification chronologically in line with that of the Continent. Heraldry has always been and [pace M. Bouchot and his sarcasms on the modern use of blazon) should rightly be an important feature on a book- 22 English Book-plates. plate. M. Bouchot, with characteristically national inability to understand anything essentially English, does not realize that family traditions in this country have been preserved where, under similar social conditions, they have been in most cases irretriev- ably lost in his own. From its very essence coat armour must ever be the most speaking personal symbol. As a matter of fact a number of plates, both ancient and modern, display nought but ar- morial bearings ; and indeed there was a time when, as a mark of proprietorship, such a display fulfilled its purpose better than any printed statement could have done. It would, however, perhaps be assuming a little too much to reckon nowadays on unassisted blazon as an unmistakeable, indisputable token of owner- ship. And, even in theory, it is a chief drawback to this noble simplicity that marks of cadency not being really practical ad infinitum, a purely heraldic plate, without a more special inscription, could scarcely in the majority of cases be sufficiently personal. The greater number of ex-libris, previous to the present half-century, being distinctly heraldic in character, it seems fit therefore to consider first : Armorial Plates, that is, plates in which the owner's armorial bearings are the features para- mount. These can be best classified with reference to the manner in which the escutcheon is set forth and to the style of its ornamental surroundings. Introduction. 23 Armorial Plates. Group I. Early Armorial (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries). Group II. Georgian (eighteenth century). Group III. Modern Armorial (nineteenth century). The Early Armorial group may conveniently be sub-divided into three styles : — Tudoresque, covering the sixteenth and the early seventeenth centuries. Carolian, ranging from about 1625 to the Resto- ration. Restoration, during the last four Stuart reigns. The Georgian group includes the three styles discriminated by Warren as Jacobean, Chippen- dale, and Festoon, and can historically be divided into Early Georgian, Middle Georgian, Later Georgian. Early Georgian : (Jacobean) or " Grinling Gib- bons," ranging mainly from the first years to the middle of the century. Middle Georgian : Rococo (Chippendale). Later Georgian: " Urn," "Wreath and Ribbon," (Festoon), "Adams." In the group, Modern Armorial, I place all purely heraldic plates of this century ; they can hardly be classified otherwise than by reference to the shield forms. The leading characteristics of these " styles " will be separately noticed under their proper headings. It will be remarked that, chronologically, they all 24 English Book-plates. more or less overlap each other ; there is no really hard and fast line of demarcation between them, and it was of course always open to engravers to hark back to older-fashioned designs. But still these styles correspond tolerably to the successive decorative fashions that prevailed most popularly during the periods mentioned. As a matter of fact, " Archaic " tastes in decoration are quite of modern growth ; book-plate engravers of old almost invariably followed the prevalent mannerism in art of their own days. 1 1 is possible to fix approximately the date when a definite fashion came in for decora- tion, but not when it went out ; for no style that has had any general vogue, can be said to have been abandoned altogether at any particular time. Many book-plates display, besides the owner's arms, other features more or less conventional or realistic, symbolical or merely picturesque ; many again dispense with heraldry altogether. These I shall call Pictorial. The various " classes " into which Pictorial Plates may be grouped are too eclectic to admit of any satisfactory chronological arrangement. Many, however, were decidedly more popular at certain definite periods than at others, and the following classification may be said to be con- catenated to a certain extent. " Book-piles." " Library Interiors." "Portraits." " Allegories." Introduction. 25 " Landscapes," or " Vignettes." " Symbolic," or " Emblematic." " Seals." " Printer's Marks." " Genre." " Adaptations." All these classes, excepting perhaps the Land- scape, which is hardly known earlier than the last quarter of the last century, and the pure Genre, which is essentially modern, are found in every age of the book-plates. The greater number of these make a show of heraldry in some form or another, and many are enhanced by bibliophilic mottoes or personal " sentiments." Into classes by themselves must be ranged modern non-heraldic pictorial plates, and also printed or engraved, non-heraldic and non-pictorial labels bearing the owner's name, with or without book-loving phrases and admonitions (amiable or the reverse) to. book-borrowers. Such labels are also found at all periods ; indeed, some of the very oldest ex-libris known belong to that category. Before beginning to anatomize the English book- plate more particularly, that is, to describe the leading characteristics of each of the so-called " styles " and " classes," and their mutual relations, it will be necessary to briefly recall the early history of book-plates on the Continent ; for, as far as our present knowledge enables us to see, these personal tokens did not become common in England until long after their regular establishment in foreign libraries. 26 English Book-plates. The hypothesis that what is now meant, broadly speaking, by an ex-libris is as old as the book it- self would perhaps not be too bold a one to ad- vance ; we may well imagine that whenever a col- lection of such valuable chattels as Books was brought together, some definite mark of possession was affixed to them. Concerning Egyptian, Greek and Roman libraries, however, no information of the kind is obtainable nor likely to be brought forward. Those more immediate predecessors, however, of the modern, that is the printed Book, the laborious productions of the mediaeval monastic scriptoria embodied in the character of their illu- mination every mark necessary to declare their identity, and by implication the name of their rightful owners. It might even be said that im- portant manuscript books of later date in history, especially the gorgeous works of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, bore a formal " ex-libris " on almost every sheet. There illuminated heraldic devices, ornamented initials and other personal emblems proclaimed with ever-recurrent pomp the owner's family name. When the invention of movable type had, far and wide, revolutionized the physical nature of books and the character of their ornamentation, the pride of ownership had to assert itself in a different manner. From this necessity were born those special adventitious tokens which it is now agreed to call ex-libris. " Libraries," says M. Bouchot, 1 in one of the 1 " Lex Ex-Libris et les marques de possession du Livre," (see Biblio). Introduction. 27 happiest pages of his work, "were not then, as now, formed of superposed shelves where books stood upright so as to display their backs only. Round the walls, as a rule, were arranged long desks, whereon the volumes lay flat, showing the side of the binding. The idea of decorating this ex- posed part with special magnificence seems to have occurred to the Italians very early. From them it passed to the French, who in a short time asserted themselves as masters in that style. The substitution of personal arms and mottoes and monograms to foliage and flowers, and all the commonplace artistic economy of primitive bind- ing, was effected within a very brief period. From the inside the symbol of ownership passed to the outside and assumed a recognised status. Conceived in such a spirit the ex-libris was an unlooked-for good fortune ; it helped to foster an inimitable art in which men such as Geoffroy Tory and Roffet tried their power, an art which found connoisseurs such as Grollier and Francis I. in France, and Maioli in Italy, ready to appreciate and promote it. Everything that could enhance their work was drawn upon by these artists. They interlaced cunning strap patterns with the title of the book and the name of the owner, combined these with his badges and mottoes ; in fact they ' realized the ideal ' of a perfect fanciful decoration, at the same time asserting with precision the owner's rights." To such aristocratic conceptions of possessive marks does M. Bouchot attribute the compara- tively late appearance in France of the book-plate 28 English Book-plates. proper, which in the birth-land of printing arts had come into existence almost as soon as books began to be freely disseminated. "In Germany," asseverates the French expert, (under the pulse, no doubt, of merely bibliophilic antipathy), "where the binding art was tram- melled by a ponderous, ungraceful taste, utterly commonplace and lacking in personality, the want was early felt of some internal mark of proprietor- ship. Reasons of economy pure and simple pro- moted the invention of the German ex-libris." This was possibly one of the causes at work ; but it might with perhaps better reason be sug- gested that book-buying (and therefore book- collecting) was earlier and more generally practised in the country where the earliest and most numer- ous printers were at work ; and that therefore the advantages of a practical and not too ruinous mark of possession were sooner realized in Germany than elsewhere. For, after all, magnificent biblio- philes of the Grollier and Maioli type can hardly be held out as representative of the community of book buyers even in their respective countries. Be all this as it may, the book-plate, as we understand it now, — that is the label, printed or engraved, heraldic or otherwise, intended to pro- claim the ownership of a book when affixed to its board or fly leaf — undoubtedly made its first ap- pearance in Germany. " The oldest ex-libris of this kind known," writes Herr Warnecke, 1 " is that of one Johannes Kna- bensperg, alias Jgler. Its date, on various conside- 1 " Die Deutschen Biicherzeichen " (see Bibliography). Introduction. 29 rations, has been fixed at about 1450. It is a rough woodcut showing a hedgehog engaged in disporting itself with a flower in its mouth, among strewn leaves. Above the picture is the punning note of warning to would-be borrowers, Hansjgler das (sic) dick ein Jgel kuss." According to the same authority, the oldest GIFT-PLATE OF HILDEBRAND BRANDENBURG OF BIBERACH TO THE MONASTERY OF BUXHEIM. Circa 1480. ex-libris actually connected with a printed book, is a small woodcut dating from 1480 or there- abouts. It shows an angel bearing a shield, (azure charged with an ox argent, ringed sable). Whether this was actually designed as a book- plate, may be an open question ; but that it was used as such (or at least as a "gift-plate," which 30 English Book-plates. is the same thing in essence) is proved by a manuscript inscription in Latin recording that Brother Hildebrand Brandenburg of Biberach had presented the books in which this plate is found to the Carthusian Monastery at Buxheim. Curiously enough, some of the earliest known examples in England are also gift-plates. It is quite allowable to suppose that the desire of establishing a record of a donor's generosity in the books themselves, may have been one of the most active factors in the evolution of the label ex-libris. By the beginning of the sixteenth century, the German book-plate seems to have attained a singularly complete development ; to have, in fact, become already fully accoutred to meet all the re- quirements, artistic and practical, of a good mark of possession. There can be no doubt, for instance, about the purpose of the two early plates of this kind which experts have attributed to Albert Dtirer. They are book-plates, explicitly ; they can be nothing else. Both of these are worthy of careful study, especially the larger of the two, likewise the earliest, which was designed by Dtirer for his friend Bilibald Pirckheimer, the Nuremberg jurist. This woodcut (to which Herr Warnecke ascribes the date 1503) combines almost all the conven- tional elements of ex-libris composition into one effective picture. It is boldly Armorial, and even without the legend, Liber Bilibaldi Pirckheimer, would proclaim the owner's name at a glance. It is ornamented in a style typical of the age and country. Its pleasing appearance is heightened Introduction. 31 by an amiable motto : Sibi et Amicis, and by an unimpeachable " sentiment " (repeated in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, for Bilibald was a scholar of the first class) to the effect that, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom} The second, which bears the inscription, Liber Hieronymi Ebner, whilst less eloquent in treat- ment, is of special interest as being the first dated ex-libris on record, 15 16. Both these designs having already been reproduced in standard works, 2 I have selected as a model of early sixteenth-cen- tury book ownership device, the plate designed by Diirer for Doctor Hector Pomer (last Prior of St. Lawrence in Nuremberg) engraved on wood by one R. A., in 1521. The learned repetition in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin of St. Paul's maxim : to the pure all things are ptire, is worthy of notice ; it recalls at once the composition of the Pirckheimer ex-libris. This is the oldest specimen known which is both dated and signed. Diirer is supposed to have designed at least some twenty book-plates. He most decidedly set a definite fashion in the composition of these tokens, one that has had a lasting influence. Nor was he singular in his estimation of an ex-libris as 1 Diirer also engraved a likeness of Pirckheimer which (we have it on the authority of Mr. Wheatley), was also used as a book-plate. This is an interesting example of the "portrait " class. 2 The first appears as a frontispiece in Warren's "Guide"; the second occurs among M. Bouchot's illustrations; both are given in Herr Warnecke's work (see Bibliography). 3 2 English Book-plates. z. fit subject for the artist's graver. Holbein did not disdain it altogether ; Lucas Cranach, Hans Sebald Beham, Virgil Solis, Jost Amman, and .many other " little masters " have left their marks -vrw Sa s™rrd7 TANTA KAeAPA TOLS KA0APOIX'* OMNIA MVN DA MVND1S D.HI.CTOR POMERPRCPC& & LAVR* BOOK-PLATE OF HECTOR POMER, LAST PRIOR OF ST. LAWRENCE, NUREMBERG. Designed by Albert Diirer, engraved by R. A., 1521. 1 on numerous authenticated book-plates, and in this department have firmly established that " old 1 For the loan of this plate I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Elliot Stock, publisher of "The Antiquary," in which it originally appeared. Introduction. 33 German style," curvetting yet heavy, at times overcharged, but always magnificently heraldic, which is felt in German work to this day. It seems now clearly established that the use of ex-libris was already adopted almost everywhere by German book-collectors before it found its way to any perceptible extent in other countries. THE MARK (REDUCED) OF RICHARD PINSON, Naturalized in this country in 1493. Appointed King's Printer in 1503, died about 1529. In France, for instance, the first indubitable book-label of this kind that has yet been discovered dates from 1574. And this is but a modest printed ticket, bearing in conjunction with a personal " sen- timent " the name of Charles d'Alboise d' Autun. " Ex bibliotheca Caroli Albosii Eduensis. Ex labore quies. 15 74." l In spite of his contempt for this German inven- 1 This date, it is curious to notice, is also that of the oldest dated English example at present known. No doubt, however, F 34 English Book-plates. tion " these little rags of paper, so easy to displace and replace," 1 M. Bouchot feels bound to record that, in France, a goodly number of very fine heraldic plates, known to belong to the sixteenth century, and the existence of which never has been quite clearly accounted for, may have really been designed as ex-libris. This is a very likely hypothesis which may some day be borne out. THE MARK OF RICHARD FAWKES. Circa 1521. Italy, it would appear, did not take kindly to the book-plate before the seventeenth century. there have been earlier English book-plates, which may be brought to light in due course of time. 1 It ought to be pointed out that a great number of early German book-plates, besides being the work of great artists, are of noble proportions, having been devised for the broad boards of folios and quartos. Introduction. 35 As for poor Inquisition- ridden Spain, notwith- standing her close German connections, she never had much chance of developing a national curiosity for literary and typographical matters. At any rate the subject of Spanish ex-libris is still fallow. With reference to the early history of book- plates, it must again be remarked that almost from the first they seem to have been singularly perfect and definite. M. Bouchot fancies he sees the prototype of the French Armorial book-plate in the heraldic illuminations of the " eloges mor- tuaires," an institution which was in vogue during the latter part of the sixteenth century. These mortuary panegyrics of great men (that is, men of rank) came into very general fashion just before the time when the French heraldic book-plates are observed to have made their first appearance. The connection very likely existed ; at any rate, M. Bouchot's hypothesis is but in accordance with the noticeable fact that at any definite period heraldic composition remains the same on whatso- ever object it be applied for ornamental purposes. But I should point out that there were models of much earlier date than these armorial head- ings to deeds and other calligraphic rolls, which may very likely have had a direct influence on the composition of personal book-plates, armorial or otherwise. I mean the Printers Marks. The subject is worthy of further investigation. The early printer was, as a rule, also an editor ; in other words a scholar, a man of parts. He was fond and jealous of his work, and stamped it with a mark meant to be as personal and as unmis- 36 English Book-plates. takable as possible. Now the greater number of these marks show all the leading characteristics of the first German book-plates ; they are emble- matic, they are treated in a definitely heraldic manner, they bear a personal name, and as often THE MARK OF JOHN SCOTT, Printer, whose work ranges from 1521 to 1537. as not a " sentiment," or a scholarly motto. Thus, in spirit and intention, they are similar, ceteris paribus, to the most typical ex-libris. The examples here reproduced in support of this suggestion are selected from the earliest English printers. ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES. FIRST GROUP. EARLY ARMORIAL. HE term, Early Armorial, was fixed by Lord de Tabley and Mr. Rylands, but it was really meant by them to apply to that "style" which in this work will be more particularly described under the head Restoration. Under this broad heading must, however, be considered all English plates of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and a certain number ex- tending in date as late as the second quarter of the eighteenth. This at first flush may seem a very long period for a single group ; but, long as it is, until a greater number of early examples have been brought to light, it can only be made to include, as a matter of fact, a comparatively small number of plates. Critical analysis of the leading features of such early plates, has shown, as I have said, that, " for ex-libris purposes," this lengthy span of time can be subdivided into three periods, corresponding to 38 English Book-plates. three "styles," the characteristics of which (although not very sharply defined) are perceptibly distinct. These are : The Tudoresque, which, with tolerable closeness, covers the interval between the establishment of our first English printing presses and the second quarter of the seventeenth century. The Carolian, which applies to the remainder of the century previous to the return of the King to England, and The Restoration, which is practically limited to the last four Stuarts. THE TUDORESQUE STYLE (1590-1625). Future searches for early English examples will, no doubt, bring to light, at least, a small number of genuine book-plates older than that of Nicholas Bacon. Hand-painted blazons and illuminated initials proclaiming ownership of course abound in MSS., but, although such emblems may be looked upon as ex-libris after a manner, they do not rightly come within the scope of the present study. One of the most magnificent examples of this kind, however, deserves passing notice, namely, that which was designed for Cardinal Wolsey, still attached to a folio- volume that once belonged to Henry VIII., and now re- poses in the King's Library, British Museum. 1 As might be expected in anything that ever ap- pertained to the pompous Primate, it is a very 1 This plate is reproduced in Mr. Griggs' " Second Series of Armorial Examples." See Biblio. The Tudoresque Style. 39 gorgeous affair indeed. It is, however, as I have said, not a book-plate in the ordinary sense, but an illuminated armorial composition, displaying the Cardinal's arms, duly supported, under the tasselled hat. It is difficult to believe that our early printers, who, as a rule, had such very excellent personal marks of their own, singularly Teutonic in charac- ter, should not, in some manner or other, have imported the wide -spread German custom of movable ex-libris for the printed book. But, with the exception of one dated 1 5 1 8, said to have been discovered in the Bodleian Library, the sixteenth century is only known at present to have produced two specimens, which both belong to the latter half of Elizabeth's reign. One, dated 1574, is the above-mentioned gift plate of Sir Nicholas Bacon to the University of Cambridge. As the traditional school-boy knows, Nicholas Bacon, the " father of his country and of Francis Bacon," an attorney of the Court of Wards and a Cambridge man, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in the first year of her reign, and made Lord Keeper. He died in 1579. The very handsome device he had engraved on wood for the books pre- sented to his Alma Mater is hand-coloured, and displays on a square-pointed shield the arms of Bacon quartering Quaplode (Quaplade ?), with a crescent at the Honour Point for a difference (Nicholas was a second son of Robert Bacon of Drinkston). The Mantlet, denticulated in acanthus-leaf fashion, but in a strong and sober style, with rather heavy tassels, is symmetrical ; a THE TRESHAME BOOK-PLATE 1585. The Tudoresque Style. 41 scroll beneath, close to the escutcheon, bears the motto Mediocritas firma. U nder all is the legend : N. Bacon eques auratus et magni sigilli Anglics Custos librum hunc bibliothecce Cantabrig dicavit. 1574- This ex-libris is extremely interesting in itself, and also because it bears an early and authentic date. The other Elizabethan plate (which, I believe, was discovered by Mr. James Tregaskis, the well- known bibliopole of the Caxton's Head, Holborn), was devised for Sir Thomas Treshame in 1585. The Treshams, explains Mr. Arthur Jewers, F.S.A., in" The Book-plate Collector's Miscellany," were an old Northamptonshire family who, in Re- formation times, strenuously adhered to the an- cient faith. The particular Tresham for whom this plate was engraved, was knighted at Kenilworth on the 18th of July, 1585. He married Muriel, daughter of Sir Robert Throckmorton, of Cough- ton. His eldest son, Sir Francis, was implicated in the Gunpowder Plot ; the second son, Sir Lewis, was created Baronet ; with the son of the latter, Sir William, 2nd Bart., the line ended. Concerning the motto Fecit mihi magna qui potens est, Mr. Jewers suggests this ingenious commentary: "the est shows that the 'doer of great things ' was then living, and the qui that it was a man and not Queen Elizabeth. In 1585 the Earl of Leicester was occupying a high posi- tion, and the motto may perhaps allude to him." It seems, howeyer, much more probable that this portion of a verse from the Vulgate (Luke, chap. G 42 English Book-plates. i., 49 ; in the authorized version : He that is mighty hath done to me great things), was purely and sim- ply a pious "sentiment." This can be taken as a representative example of the Tudoresque plates, all of which present the same characteristics, as far as heraldic arrangements are concerned, as a certain type of private seal belonging to that period. These arrangements are generally as follows : a plain shield (that is, one without adventitious ornament) surmounted by the wreathed, crested and mantled helmet, the mantlet being comparatively slender, deeply cut, acanthus- edged and blown about symmetrically ; a scroll underneath for the motto, and sometimes (as in the present case) another for names and qualification. Very often, however, the legend is simply under- scribed without a scroll. In plates of this style, previous to about 1640, a date after which they become very rare, tinctures are not shown in the engraving. Closely similar to this is the well-known plate be- longing to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, on which figures the legend : Ex dono Willielmi Willmer de Sywell in Com : Northamp n JtycdLJ^fDraaoonsy BOOK-PLATE OF THOMAS WENTWORTH, Baron of Raby, 1698. by the so-called " Jacobean ") until early Georgian days. Very typical, in two "manners" of this very definite style are the plates of Gwyn of Lansanor and Lord Raby on the one hand, and of St. John Brodrick and Archibald Campbell on the other. The Restoration Style. 5i The number of book-plates treated more or less after these two fashions, ranging in date between 1665 and 1 7 1 5, is considerable. They all show the "legend inscribed on a broad scroll (precursor of the "napkin" of later days) generally cut-and-eared ; BOOK-PLATE OF ST. JOHN BRODRICK. 1703. the plain shield, square sided ; the crested, torced, and mantletted helm. In the case of arms unac- companied by supporters, the deeply foliated, denticulated and elaborately curled mantlings are ample, and embrace three sides of the shield, 52 English Book-plates. sometimes even meeting under the base ; when, however, supporters are in attendance, the mant- lings assume necessarily somewhat lesser propor- BOOK-PLATE OF THE HON. ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL. Grandson of Archibald, eighth Earl of Argyle. Made Bishop of Aberdeen in 1721. tions, and spread themselves aloft on either side of the helm. 1 1 These two types of the Restoration style, {e.g., Gwyn and Brodrick, have more than once been reproduced in modern adaptations. Compare the first with that of the Rev. D. Parsons, and the latter with the ex-libris drawn by the Countess of Mayo for her husband. The Restoration Style. 53 The ' Lining " (as the shading within the mantlet edges has been called) in the Brodrick plate, and also the legend scroll in all these examples, should be noticed, as these characteristics are precursors GIFT-PLATE OF THE DOWAGER COUNTESS OF BATH. 1671. The original is 4$ by 5^ inches. of some of the factors in the coming "Jacobean " manner. On account of its early date, 1671, although not really typical of the style now under considera- tion, being in fact rather Carolian in character (all the more so as the tinctures are not shown), I have added here an example of a feminine plate. In such a case, correct heraldry does not, of course, admit of the manly helm, nor of its paraphernalia, 54 English Book-plates. torce, crest, or mantlings. In this gift-plate of Rachel, Dowager Countess of Bath, the arms of Bath, empaling Fane are simply surmounted by a coronet of somewhat outlandish form. On an endless scroll are spread the four mottoes : Non est mortale quod opto ; Bon temps viendra ; Ne vile fano ; Semper eadem, together with the legend : " Ex dono Rachael Comitissae Bathon Dotariae. An. Dom. MDCLXXI." I have not been able to ascertain who was the recipient of this plate, which, I should state, in the original is of very large size, and no doubt intended for quartos or folios. Another very large ex-libris of the same period, is the printed label of one Martha Simcox, with whom the thirtieth of August, 1670, seems to have been a red letter day with reference to book ownership. The Restoration type had a certain simplicity, withal a stateliness of its own, which kept it long in favour. It endured, in fact, to some extent, as I have said, until the second third of the eighteenth century. It seems to have been at the height of favour with engravers during the last years of the dying, and the first of the new century. After the reign of Queen Anne specimens of this style become exceptional. I give here the ex-libris of Gilbert Nicholson of Balrath, as an example, first, of what the Restoration style had become in early Georgian THE BOOK-PLATE OF GILBERT NICHOLSON OF BALRATH. Probable date, 1722. 56 English Book-plates. days, and secondly, as an instance of a misleading date, rendered all the more misleading by the style of the plate itself. Considered as a " Restoration " design it is un- usual in character ; the escutcheon itself with its foliated edges differs from the general type. This ornamentation, however, as well as the meaning- less roses under the helm and the scrolling of the -gorget and beavor might pass for " Carolian ; " BOOK-PLATE OF MARTHA SIMCOX. 1670. The size of the original is about 5 by 3 inches. but as a matter of fact, the probable date of the plate is somewhere about 1722. Mr. Franks, after criti- cal comparison with other ex-libris of Georgian date has come to the conclusion that Gilbert Nicholson simply recorded the date at which the Balrath property was acquired ; the book-plate, which is identical in arrangement with that of one Thomas Carter (1722), was evidently engraved by the same hand. Another very celebrated plate, really of Georgian Later Restoration Style. 57 times, yet bearing a misleading Restoration date, is that of Sir Francis Fust, who fancifully claimed to be a descendant of Schoeffer's associate at Mainz. Although dated 1622, the Fust ex-libris can be shown not to have been engraved earlier than 1728 ; this latter being the date at which its owner succeeded to the Baronetcy. GROUP THE SECOND. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. QUEEN ANNE AND EARLY GEORGIAN STYLE ("JACOBEAN"). jjE have now arrived at a period in the history of the English Book-plate, the style of which is, by common deference to Lord de Tabley's special authority, designated as " Jacobean." Notwithstanding its singularly inappropriate derivation (almost, it might be said, of the lucus a non lucendo order,) the word has become sanc- tioned by prescription as it were ; I only suggest the above alternative terms as an attempt to in- troduce some kind of historical symmetry in our nomenclature. But it is difficult to understand exactly how Warren came to choose as applicable to that period an adjective which cannot fail to suggest the age of Inigo Jones rather than that of Christopher Wren. " The artistic style of English ex-libris decora- tion," says the author of " A Guide to the study of Book-Plates," "which we propose to distinguish as The Queen Anne Style. 59 Jacobean, is first found, so far as our present materials carry us, accompanied by a date on certain college book-plates of a.d. 1700. Like ornaments recur in the ex-libris of Dame Anna Margaretta Mason, relict of Sir Richard Mason, K 1 ., late Clerke Comtroler (sic) of the Green Cloath to King Charles and King James the Second, 1701. 1 Now it sounds natural enough to stamp as Jacobean the book-plate of a lady whose husband served the last James, yet this style of Jacobean decoration continued to appear on book-plates until about 1745, long after the name ceased to be strictly applicable. Still, as the art of the Mason book-plate in 1701 is practically the same with that of Francis Winnington's ex-libris in 1732, we presume it will be allowable to call the last, no less than the first, Jacobean, although de- signed during the reign of George II. To affix any fresh name to the Winnington plate would be to assume a solution of continuity between the art of the two specimens which does not exist." For such reasons, it seems, came a very definite style to be called by a most indefinite name. The purpose, however, of a word is fulfilled when it is generally accepted as applying to certain things, and these certain things only. Now there is no vagueness about the style to which the term "Jacobean" has hitherto been applied, and for which I suggest the name " Early Georgian." It is exemplified by the five characteristic plates Given in Griggs' "Armorial Examples," ist Series. (See Biblio.) 6o English Book-plates. I have chosen, which correspond, up to a certain point, to those selected by Warren. The ex-libris of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, albeit undated, bears internal evidence of belonging to the same period as the " certain College Book- BOOK-PLATE OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD. Circa 1700. plates of a.d. 1700." At any rate, it is repre- sentative of the class. Again, the ex-libris of Lady Henrietta Somerset, although of later date than that chosen as typical by Warren, shows a very close imitation in all essentials of the Margaret Mason design. The Queen Anne Style. 61 The book-plates of Henry Maister, of Kingston- upon-Hull, and Edgerton Smith (one of my own forefathers), are good instances of "Jacobean" treatment in its more gorgeous and in its quiet BOOK-PLATE OF LADY HENRIETTA SOMERSET. 1712. manifestations respectively. They are both nearly of the same date. The Bedford plate, dated 1736, may, in a similar manner, be taken (although less complete than the Winnington ex-libris quoted by Warren) BOOK-PLATE OF HENRY MAISTER, OF KINGSTON-UPON-HULL. 1712. (Slightly reduced from the original.) Early Georgian Style. 63 as tolerably typical of the Jacobean treatment towards the end of that special period. As Warren was the original expositor of this style, I think it better, for the purpose of describing BOOK-PLATE OF EGERTON SMITH, of Preston, Lancashire. Circa 1725. its main characteristics, to quote that author's own words: " In the beginning of the eighteenth century occur dated ex-libris of certain colleges who placed above their escutcheon neither helmet or crest, and who, consequently, had no mantling wherewith to decorate the bare flanks of the shield. To supply this void in decoration, a distinct frame 6 4 English Book-plates. was placed round their escutcheons, and this frame- work 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 THE BOOK-PLATE OF JOHN 4TH DUKE OF BEDFORD. escutcheon, but between it and them an interval of flat-patterned surface nearly always intervened, in which, as upon a wall, the actual shield was im- bedded. This we shall call the " lining " of the armorial frame, and we shall find this lining usually Early Georgian Style. 65 imbricated into a pattern of fish scales one upon the other. This scaled-covered or latticed or hatched interval of lining is characteristic of the style More rarely simple horizontal lines replace the cross-barred pattern : and on the latest and roughest specimens the lining simulates the bricks upon a wall Now the earlier book- plates of Anne l have merely the Jacobean frame. But another step in the external decoration was to add a bracket distinct from the frame upon which the shield with the frame is supposed to rest." This description, examined with reference to actual examples, is sufficiently definite. It may be summed up thus : — The main characteristic of the Queen Anne and Early Georgian style is an ornamental frame, suggestive of carved-work, rest- ing as often as not upon some kind of conventional support ; the ornamentation of both frame and support being of the interior architectural order, making frequent use of fish scales and trellis or diaper patterns for the decoration of plain surface. Indeed the style of some of the more imposing Jacobean compositions might aptly be called " Grinling Gibbons" (in the same manner as it has become usual to speak of " Chippendale "), after the carver and designer of those decorated door- frames, brackets, mantel-pieces, and wall-panels so well appreciated by Sir Christopher. In short, in the same way as the " Early Armorial " styles recall the heraldic arrangements of seventeenth 1 [Not being of the Restoration type. — E. C] K 66 English Book-plates. century seals and parchment emblazoning, in the same way as the so-called " Chippendale " and " Festoon " styles of later days reproduced the then prevalent taste in furniture and silversmith work, so the "Jacobean" style recalls the wood- work and florid mouldings, the heraldic carved panel wall-tablets and " compartments," the heavy mirror frames, festooned and " scolloped," of Queen Anne and George I. domestic architecture. Warren mentions the very frequent presence of escallop shells as factors in the ornamentation of shield frames and brackets as typical of the style. The "shell," no doubt, (although, in point of fact, frequently absent from the Queen Anne and Early Georgian design,) was a very special feature in the wood-work and stone-carving of the period. Its combination with the bombs and roll-mouldings of the special decorative style, known as " Louis Quatorze " gives a strong foretaste of the coming "Rococo." It must be pointed out that some of the charac- teristics of what we call in England "Queen Anne," (among others the frame cartouche and the bracket as supports for the escutcheon) are observable in sundry French plates belonging to the latter part of the seventeenth century, notably those of Sebas- tien le Clerc. Among the multifarious decorative elements drawn upon to make up a " Jacobean " design, con- ventional figures are of frequent occurrence, amo- rini, term-gods, angels, "fames," "victories," and such like. In the latter days of the style these figures will often assume increasing importance in Characteristics of Early Georgian. 67 the composition of book-plates, which will then be- come somewhat irregular in disposition and more especially "Allegorical." THE BOOK-PLATE OF THE REV. J. LLOYD, 1730. Engraved by Bickam. The ex-libris, for instance, designed by Bickam for the Reverend John Lloyd, A.M., displays some of the main features of this later "Jacobean " style, already infected by Louis XV. mannerism. The oval escutcheon on its bombs cartouche, the 68 English Book-plates. fanciful shells, the cupids already semi-allegorically occupied with books, are characteristic; indeed,, this particular example might almost belong to, the "Allegoric" class. THE BOOK-PLATE OF CHARLES, 5TH BARON CORNWALLIS, of Eye, Suffolk. Circa 1730. The Cornwallis book-plate is unfortunately not dated, but it is presumably nearly of the same age as the above, and may be taken as a good in- stance of the transition style between "Jacobean" and " Chippendale ; " in other words, between the Early and Middle Georgian. It was devised for Transition to Rococo. 69- Charles, fifth Lord Cornwallis, who came to the title in 1722, and was created Earl in 1753. It displays the purest early RSgence style, and was probably drawn by some French artist, in which case its date might quite well be as early as 1725. In England, the general expanding of the escallop- shell into a shelly border, and its combination with bombd wood-work curves after the early French "rocaille" manner, never came much in vogue before the " forties " of the century. The tolerably symmetrical decorative arrangement, however, in this case, would point to a somewhat earlier date. The name-label of John Banks, engraved by Bickam, is a good example, with its simple " curled endive" ornamentation, of the spreading influence of the " Rococo " mannerism about that period. THE BOOK-PLATE OF JOHN BANCKS, 1 740. Engraved by G. Bickam. 70 English Book-plates. THE MIDDLE GEORGIAN, "CHIPPEN- DALE" OR "ROCOCO" STYLE. |T must be borne in mind that all leading styles in decorative art from the middle of the seventeenth century until the beginning of this one have had their origin in France, an inevitable result of the cen- tralized splendour of the French courts. It was, therefore, but natural that the next definite style in book-plate ornamentation, the Rocaille or Rococo, should find its way to England within a few years of its universal adoption in France. The Rocaille, so long as it was dealt with by tactful hands, has never been excelled for decora- tive purposes. Warren remarks that we may regard this style, (i.e. the Chippendale, which is by some people supposed to be synonymous with Rococo) as " thoroughly national." On this point, I take it, it is hardly possible not to differ, even from so respected an authority. As a matter of fact the style is essentially French in all its stages. True, the leading ideas of this ornamental conception came originally from Italy, being based on the pierced scroll, volute-head work of Renascence character. But it is in France, during the years Chippendale. 7 1 of Louis XIV.'s most flamboyant ostentation, that we find the first manifestation of a general ten- dency towards that peculiar mood which in early Louis XV. days developed into the full-blown Rococo. Many are the French artists who, during the second quarter of the century, vied with each other to evolve out of " rock and shell " elements the most surprising and fascinating combinations. Designers like Toro and Oppenort ; architects like Blondel, Cottes, Cuvillier ; painters like Watteati and Boucher; " vignettists " like Babel, Eisen, Bellay, Choffard, Perotte, Gravelot, found in them endless materials for original designs. But the great masters of this decorative system were un- doubtedly le Sieur de la Joue, and Juste Aurile Meissonnier, both " Painters and Architects to the King," the latter, moreover, being " Official Gold- smith and Designer." Now, the earliest English work dealing system- atically with the rock-and-shell manner is an album of " 33 Sheilds (sic) and Compartments," published by James Gibbs, (the architect of St. Martin-in-the- Fields, St. Mary-le-Strand, and of the Ratcliffe Library, Oxford), about the year 1731, that is, several years after the appearance of the leading French works on the same topic. Similar collec- tions of designs by A. Heckell, and/. Collins, (all more or less open adaptations of La Joue and Meissonier's creations), were engraved by H. Roberts and J. S. Miller about 1750. But the man who no doubt most contributed to bring what he himself is careful to call " the new French style " '72 English Book-plates. in vogue on this side of the channel was Thomas •Chippendale. As applied to the ornamentation of Middle •Georgian Ex-libris the word, "Chippendale" is hardly legitimate ; it is English and more eupho- rriluam /7ulwr/vrc& BOOK-PLATE OF WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, THE ABOLITIONIST. Presumably designed for his grandfather, W. Wilberforce, about 1750. •nious than Rococo. But it is not exact. Chippen- dale created a certain style of furniture and decora- tion that was very charming and original ; but that . style, which was particularly his own, with its symmetrical light fret-work, and its Chinese clois- sonn6 arrangements, is as different as anything . can be from the curly Rococo. Nevertheless, in Characteristics of "Rococo." 73 ex-libris parlance, Chippendale is and will no doubt remain the popular name for the style that pre- vailed most between 1740 and 1770. The physiognomy of a Chippendale or Rococo plate is unmistakable. Its chief characteristic is a fanciful, unrestrained treatment of scroll-work, which became, very early in the history of the style, studiously asymmetrical (no doubt, in order to give freer scope for variety of counter-curves). Another " mark and stamp of the Chippendale ex- libris," again to make use of a graphic description in Warren's Guide, " is a frilling or border of open shell-work set close to the rounded outer margin of the escutcheon. This seems to be a modification of the scallop-shell so normal at the base of frame or bracket on a Jacobean plate. It is, in fact, a border imitating the pectinated curves and grooves on the margin of the scollop-shell." A Rococo frame, in fact, is always a medley of these shell edges fancifully combined with acan- thus or "curled endive" leaves and bombi scrolls. Straight or concentric lines, and all appearance of a flat surface, are carefully avoided. From the numerous nooks and ears created by such an arrangement sprout flowerets and spriglets, depend festoons, wreaths, and ribbands. In later ex- amples the composition is often complicated by the introduction, as ornamental elements, of cupids and doves and hoc genus omne, and, in more than usually dishevelled specimens, of hispid beasts, such as dragons, wyverns, and similarly congruous objects. This accumulation of adventitious factors in the decoration, belongs, however, rather to the BOOK-PLATE OF ROBERT NASH. 1 735. Engraved by T. Hillyard. Early Rococo. 75 days of decadence in " Chippendalism ", to use yet another jargon term introduced by students of ex-libris. At the beginning there is a great preponderance in book-plates of that less extravagant design in which the bomb£ and volute work, somewhat heavy, predominates over the lighter, ragged, rock-and- shell, tenuous flower arrangement of 1 750. The ex-libris of William Wilberforce is typical of the early and purer style. 1 It must never be forgotten, however, that in ex- libris engraving, as well as in every department of decorative art, styles and fashions not only overlap each other for some considerable time, but by borrowing from each other's elements form a tran- sition mode. Typical of this transition kind, yet more kin to Jacobean than to Chippendale, was the Cornwallis plate I noticed on p. 68. The ex-libris of Robert Nash, (the probable date of which is 1735,) on the other hand, is more Rococo in character, but it still retains something of the previous taste in the trellis work, and the " lining " of its outer frame, as well as in the broad detached scroll on which figures its legend. There seems hitherto to have been a general tendency among book-plate collectors to ascribe 1 Although this plate belonged to the great philanthropist and abolitionist, and consequently was used for his books during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, it was un- doubtedly engraved early in the second, and, in all probability, for his grandfather, William Wilberforce (of Kingston-upon- Hull). See a notice of this plate by Mr. J. R. Brown, Ex-libris Journal, vol. ii. p. 62. t^Ajf.r/#a>?n= BOOK-PLATE OF HENRY WALTERS. Engraved by J. Skinner, in Bath. 1747- combination of natural shells with conventional "scollop edging." Possibly this Mr. Matthew Smith had conchological tastes which he liked to have recorded in this improved rock-and-shell decoration. Early Rococo. 79 Mantlings as a general rule, are absent from pure rococo heraldic arrangements. The book- plate, therefore, of Sir Charles Frederick, K.B., BOOK-PLATE OF MATTHEW SMITH. Circa 1750. has a somewhat unusual physiognomy. _ I give it here as an instance (on the whole rare in English ex-libris) of the "Trophy" class : Sir Charles was at one time Surveyor-General of Ordnance. It 8o English Book-plates. must be admitted that the uncompromising straight lines and the unamiable, fishbone-like array of military implements, are little in harmony with Chippendale graces. liJStiitit2irlin. tPS.Ti'ms JruO>/-j BOOK-PLATE OF SIR CHARLES FREDERICK, Surveyor-General of Ordnance. Circa 1750. During the third quarter of the century, a culti- vated lightness came into fashion, which consider- ably modified the physiognomy of Rococo plates. This excessive tenuity of build in good examples remained graceful, but in many cases became singu- Later Rococo. 81 larly weak-looking. The T. Campbell plate (which to judge from its character would seem to have been engraved later than its professed date) is a T. Campbell AJ3. it&&- BOOK-PLATE OF T. CAMPBELL. 1756. (This is perhaps too early a date for the engraving.) case in point. I have selected it partly on account of the spiny dragon — considered an ornamental sort of beast at that time — partly in order to afford a wide-spanning and interesting comparison be- tween two book-plates in the same family, one M 82 English Book-plates. designed in early Queen Anne, the other in late George II. manner. 1 In decorative art the Rococo is always quite unmistakable at the very first glance. Yet it un- ^ y6o. ^ BOOK-PLATE OF JAMES VERE. 1760. doubtedly admits of many different modes of treatment (witness, for instance, the strong con- trast between early and late specimens of the 1 See the Archibald Campbell plate. Later Rococo. 83 style), which it would be exceedingly difficult to classify. But there is one particular " variety " in which the ornamental factors (unlike those of the LuicoLns Inn 1 7 &i — BOOK-PLATE OF JOHN ORD. 1 761. Showing transition to the "landscape" manner. common ruck, which have a definitely upward tendency,) have a singular drooping look, as though the rock- work were dripping wet, and the adjunct limp, dangling weeds. As this treatment (artisti- 84 English Book-plates. cally very effective) is frequently met with on Scotch plates of the Middle Georgian period, many collectors class the latter under the rubric " Scotch Chippendale." I have pointed out that one of the most care- fully cultivated characteristics of the genus Rococo in art, was asymmetry on opposite sides of the main axes. Perfection was most nearly approached, when, with the most complete dissimilarity on op- posite corresponding sides, there was the closest ap- proach to regular balance of apparent masses. As an exceptional instance (which accentuates the generality of this rule,) I have selected the ex- libris of James Vere, Junr., engraved at a period when " Chippendalism " in book-plates was at the height of fashion. Here there is almost absolute symmetry on both sides of the vertical axis, and although the work is good, even refined, it cannot be said to bring out the best potentialities of the style. Compared with the cunningly unsymmetri- cal, yet accurately poised frames of the Ord or the Hubbald plates, it is decidely tame and mean- ingless. These two latter, besides being artistic and otherwise pleasing in themselves, may serve as good examples of the natural transition from the Floral-Rococo to the Heraldic-Bucolic, the Heraldic-Ruinous and such varieties of the "land- scape " class. But, before dealing at greater length with this coming fashion in ex-libris, one so essentially English, it is necessary, in order to adhere, as far as the subject admits it, to some kind of chrono- Later Rococo. 85 logical sequence, to examine another very definite style of heraldic treatment, now usually known as the " Festoon." It will also be advisable to say a BOOK-PLATE OF HUBBALD OF STOKE, SURREY. Showing transition to the "landscape" and " architectural " manner. Circa 1760. few words concerning certain other classes of ex- libris which, at least in their early instances, are older than the " landscape " proper. The ex-libris of Elize Gulston may be taken as a good instance of a feminine plate in the purely 86 English Book-plates. heraldic style of latter Chippendalism. Its date is probably circa 1765. To conclude this cursory account of a style, the examples of which are exceedingly numerous, it may be said that it began to be cultivated in the "thirties," (when it was cotemporary with a lighter kind of Jacobean) ; that it was quite the vogue in the "fifties;" at its height in the "sixties;" and that it fell in rapid decadence, about 1770. BOOK-PLATE OF ELIZE GULSTON. Circa 1765. 87 THE LATER GEORGIAN (FESTOON) STYLE. HIS style, also denominated by various people as " Wreath and Ribbon," "Wreath and Spray," might as appro- priately be termed "Urn," or "Spade," or better still, (to balance the "Chippendale" ap- BOOK-PLATE OF THE HATFIELD HOUSE LIBRARY. Engraved circa 1 790. 88 English Book-plates. pellation, 1 ) " Adams " style. It is a " neat and chaste " decorative mode which came in, no doubt, as a reaction from the extravagance, the tormented BOOK-PLATE OF THE REV. W. BARROW, LL.D. Engraved by Thornthwaite, 1789. ■dishevelment into which Rococo art had drifted in its moribund days. To a certain extent it corre- sponds with the Louis XVI. style in France, which is also simpler, and again admits symmetry 1 Also to be symmetrical with " Grinling Gibbons " should .ever this term be accepted as synonmous with "Jacobean." Chambers and Adams. 89 and straight lines. Its essence is simplicity, elegant slenderness, and low relief. In book-plates of this style, whether the orna- mentation consist of festoons or sprays, wreaths of ribbons, or any combination of such elements ; f^^r^z^tdiwwcvi Cifa BOOK-PLATE OF CHARLES DICKINSON, ESQ. Circa 1785. whether it display simply a shield of " urn " or "spade" pattern, or an oval outer frame, it has invariably a physiognomy which at once recalls the special style of architectural decoration of furniture brought into fashion during the latter N 90 English Book-plates. half of the century by architects and designers such as Sir W. Chambers, Robert Adams, Josiah Wedgwood, Hepplewhite and Sheraton. In the pseudo-classic designs which under the influence of these men took a firm hold of public taste, urns X) A BOOK-PLATE OF JOHN LARKING, Of Clare House, East Mailing. Circa 1794. and urn-like shapes, are ubiquitous elements and play a singularly important part in ornamentation. The so-called Georgian shield itself, when sim- ply "cusped" and more especially when "wedged " is unmistakably based on the urn outline. The Spade Shield. 9i "Adams" 1 or "Festoon" plates, began to make their appearance about 1770, and the style en- dured until the beginning of this century. The greater number belong to the 1 780-90 decade. " ASTJJ9I»4~~" ^ftO CHOU** BOOK-PLATE OF GENERAL MACGREGOR. Circa 1795, The leading characteristic of the " later Geor- gian " is really not the festoons or the wreath, but rather the shape of the shield (hence my sugges- tion of "spade" as a suitable designation) which in heraldic designs of that period is almost always 1 I prefer "Adams " to " Sheraton" (which has been suggested by some) as the more descriptive appellation. Sheraton's name is as quite as much associated with the later (and very different) so-called "Empire" fashion in furniture, as with the early style he cultivated in common with Adams, Chambers and others. 92 English Book-plates. of the plain Georgian pattern, as above described. The classicality of the style does not well admit of helmet or mantling ; with rare exceptions (the Salisbury plate for example), the crest is supported BOOK-PLATE OF SAMUEL ROGERS. Circa 1795. by a plain torce after the fashion which had already gradually asserted itself with later Chip- pendalism. The ornamental concomitants may be hanging festoons sustained by rings or wall-pins, or en- closing wreaths, or palms, sprays and "slipped" Festoons and Sprays. 93 branches, crossing under the base, generally tied with a knot of fluttering ribbon, and rising sym- metrically on either side of the shield. The door-panel arrangement selected, with some showofclassicaltaste.bytheRev.W. Barrow, LL.D., S.A.S., the earliest in date among my examples, displays the urn shield, the festoon, the ribbon and the sprays in a very typical, Adams-like manner. The book-plate of Charles Dickinson, on the other hand, is a charming example of the simple festoon and spray combination : and of the plain palm or spray arrangement the next three figures are typical. The first, that of John Larking, cannot be earlier than 1793, the year in which this particular Larking (of Clare House, East Mailing, Kent) married Dorothy Styles, and was thus able to em- pale her arms on his escutcheon. In the second it is quaint and pleasing to recog- nize, blazoned on so peaceable a token as a book- plate, the arrogant charges once borne by civili- zation-despising Rob Roy, quartered with the achievements of Mac Donald. The third, designed for Samuel Rogers, is pre- sumably contemporary with that epoch in the poet's life which was marked by the appearance of the " Pleasures of Memory ; " in other words, with the last ten years of the century. As for the anonymous little plate which seems to have belonged to one James Tyers, I have not been able to ascertain its exact date ; but it is very characteristic of the general taste in the last decade of the century. There we see what is really a 94 English Book-plates. "festoon" frame on which is displayed the favourite shield of the times, but meant to suggest at first flush the inevitable urn. I have selected this example and the next to show how the beauteous utensil seems to have been impressed on the minds of later Georgian engravers. The ex-libris of Charles Dyer, with its blasted tree (representing the spray) growing out of a ANONYMOUS BOOK-PLATE TYPICAL OF THE URN FASHION. Circa 1795. gravestone; with its inane weeping willows (no doubt in lieu of festoon) ; with its funeral urn of hideous proportions, actually stamped with a mark of cadency, and its spade shield in the act of col- lapsing, may be held up as a " dreadful example." 1 It is difficult to understand what it was that in 1 I can put no exact date to this, but would ascribe it to the very first years of this century, a time when national taste was at a most deplorable ebb. The Decorative Urn. 95 those days so often suggested tombstone arrange- ments as suitable for insertion among books. This Mr. Dyer was, perhaps, devoid enough of decency to think that his book-plate was appropriate to his name ; but this is no rare example ; as a matter BOOK-PLATE OF CHARLES DYER. Circa 1800. of fact, funereal ex-libris are almost numerous enough to fill a class by themselves. Of spade shape are the shields that figure in heraldic " landscape " or otherwise pictorial plates belonging to the last quarter of the century. It must also be noted that in many cases shields of this pattern are found, unattended by sprays or festoons, but surrounded by an elliptical frame, 96 English Book-plates. beaded at the edge, sometimes shaded, but gene- rally plain. 1 In the simple escutcheon of urn pattern, which also occurs on book-plate of late Georgian days, utterly unadorned, left in severe nakedness, we are to see the immediate predecessor of that very uninteresting book-plate for which I have sug- gested the term " Modern Die-sinker." 1 This "silver tray" arrangement was specially cultivated by an engraver (1780-95) who signed 6". Neele, Sculp*. Some collectors class this special style separately. 97 PICTORIAL PLATES. i. "literary" (book-piles and library interiors). GAVE it as a broad fact that with the exception of mere name-labels and until recent times, book-plates have generally been more or less heraldic in character. In short, the number of plates in which Armorial Devices do not figure in some guise or other is comparatively small. Hence the advisability of distinguishing first, as far as such a thing is feasible, the different modes of heraldic treatment. This was all the more requisite, as to a great extent the so-called " styles " must be referred to, to qualify the " classes," such as the "Literary," "Allegorical," "Landscape," and " Architectural." We may, for instance, have a " Literary " book-plate ornamentally treated in Rococo or in later Georgian style, and so forth. Perhaps the oldest definite class of pictorial book-plates, is the " Book-pile " (the special mean- ing of the word is now consecrated). Some kind of arrangement of books for decora- tive or symbolic purposes is, of course, a most obvious element in the composition of a book- plate. The word "book-pile" having been applied 98 English Book-plates. to a certain well-known conventional display of volumes, it is necessary to "distinguish and divide" among literary ex-libris, between Book-piles pro- per and piles of books otherwise disposed. BOOK-PLATE OF WILLIAM HEWER. Showing the typical " book-pile " arrangement. 1699. The Book-pile is a very specially English de- vice. The oldest dated example known is that of Sir William St. Quintin, Bart. ; but the date it bears (1641) is misleading, and records, in fact, The "Book-Piter 99 the creation of the baronetcy, not the year of the engraving, which was, in all probability executed a score of years or two later. Next in date are the plates of Sir Philip Syden- ham and of William Hewer (Samuel Pepys' friend and secretary, at whose house in Clapham the im- mortal gossiper drew his last breath in 1703). Both these plates bear the date 1699. That of William Hewer, albeit non-heraldic, is in every other sense typical. The man who designed it adopted an arrangement which, in all essentials, has endured unchanged ; three tiers of bound volumes rising one on the other in the fashion of a modern overmantel, adorned with a bundle of documents and other articles of stationery a-top, pediment-wise, forming a kind of frame for a scroll which may bear heraldic charges, cyphers, or merely wise mottoes. William Hewer, en bon bourgeois, was satisfied with a very excellent mono- gram of his name. Book-plates of this pattern, varying but in the most trifling'details, but made personal by heraldry or legend, occur sporadically throughout two cen- turies. One of our keenest and most learned collectors, the Honble. Gerald Ponsonby, has adopted the regulation book-pile as his mark. The expression "piles of books" is applied to a display of volumes more freely disposed. 1 When the books are represented in their proper habitat, 1 The term is certainly awkward and otherwise unsatis- factory ; but it is certainly better than that of "loose-books" which some collectors propose, and which is, to say the least, ambiguous and unsuited to this grave subject. IOO English Book-plates. that is, indoors (not, like those of Mr. Sam well for instance, resting damply and unprotected on heather), such devices, however, may be classed among "Library Interiors." 111 §t am BOOK-PLATE OF THOMAS BOLAS. Copied from a design by Gravelot. Circa 1740. The "Literary" device, notwithstanding all its pleasing and artistic potentialities, has not, until recent times, found as much favour in England as in other countries. More is the pity, for there "Library Interior." 101 are charming elements of quaintness and personal adaptability available for such compositions, as, indeed, a great number of French and German plates testify. BOOK-PLATE OF WADHAM WYNDHAM, ESQ. Adapted from design by Gravelot, engraved by Pine. Circa 1740. The earliest examples belong to the eighteenth century, and are, as a rule, rather foreign in charac- ter; the national taste was for more purely armorial devices. As mere ornamental adjuncts books are often present in Chippendale, even in Jacobean plates, but there certainly was a want of 102 English Book-plates. fertility in the conception of such designs by- English engravers. There is hardly more than a score or so of "Library Interiors" previous in date to this century known in England, and curi- 'X<#l'/'7>- J^ BOOK-PLATE OF H. ASHTON, ESQ. Engraved by Billinge. Circa 1760. ously enough many of these are mere adaptations of earlier or contemporary compositions by foreign artists. Such is the case, for instance, with the ex-libris of Thomas Bolas, which shows us a singularly un- " Library Interior!' 103 stable erection of volumes (on the cover of one being a literary motto) as a basis for an escutcheon with scroll. This plate (says Mr. Vicars, a collec- tor who has made the study of " library interiors " a speciality) is copied from one signed and en- graved by Gravelot for Charles Bolingbroke, sur- geon, and the probable date of which is 1 740. BOOK-PLATE OF T. S. W. SAMWELL, ESQ. Circa 1810. In the same manner the Wadham Wyndham plate is a copy (adapted as to heraldry) of another plate signed by Gravelot, engraved by J. Pine for J. Burton, D.D. Again, there are extant at least two plates which are adapted copies of the Ashton ex-libris, signed by Billinge. The book-plate of Gray's Inn Library is a fine example of rampant Rococo, possibly also de- signed by Gravelot, who certainly was active in BOOK-PLATE OF GRAY'S INN LIBRARY. Engraved by J. Pine, 1750. " Pile of Books:' 105 propagating French mannerism in this minor de- partment of British art. The records of Gray's Inn inform us that the label was " ordered of Pine the engraver, 24th November, 1750. 1 " BOOK-PLATE OF THE REV. W. T. BREE. Circa 1830. I have not been able to ascertain the date of the Samwell book-plate ; but, to judge from the 1 Gray's Inn now uses a smaller modern copy of this plate, done by A. Moring, London. P io6 English Book-plates. character of its escutcheon, it must have been en- graved during the first decade of this century. The plate of the Rev. W. T. Bree is still a more modern instance, and a pleasing one, of the con- ventional "Pile of books" device. It belonged (says Mr. Vicars) to the father of the present Arch- deacon Bree, and was drawn by his grandfather. BOOK-PLATE OF SAMUEL PEPYS. 1668. 107 II. PORTRAIT BOOK-PLATES. HE idea of using a likeness of the owner as a personal mark in books is, on the whole, a very obvious one. We have seen that Diirer's friend, Bilibald Pirck- heimer, is known to have had a plate of this kind. Portraits also occur on sundry printer's marks ; on that of our own Richard Fawkes for instance. But portrait examples, anterior to modern times, are rare ; it may even be said they can be counted on the fingers. The oldest known instance of an English por- trait ex-libris, is the gift plate 1 of John Hacket, engraved by W. Fairthorne in 1670. The donor's likeness appears in an oval frame with the inscrip- tions : " Inservi Deo et l.^tare " and Ex dono Joannis Hacket LickfieldenS et Coventrjens Episcopi, 1 6 jo. W. Fairthorne, Sculp. It is, perhaps, allowable to include in this class a certain handsome plate found in sundry MSS. volumes of the Ashmolean library. This engrav- ing, which measures seven inches by five, repre- sents a niche in a wall* in front of which a bust, inscribed Elias Askmole, stands, resting upon a number of books symmetrically piled to form a 1 Reproduced in Mr. Griggs' Second Series of "Armorial Examples," No. 3. 108 English Book-plates. sort of plinth. On one of the volumes to the left figures the Ashmole crest, whilst on another, cor- respondingly placed to the right, is displayed the coat, which, being tinctured in the conventional dots and lines, would alone suffice to fix the date as posterior to 1640. Over the central pile hangs a " napkin," left blank, apparently for manuscript numbering. It must be admitted that this is a very book- plate-like arrangement, yet it hardly seems to have been used as such, but rather as a frontispiece or title-page to the MSS. Elias Ashmole used, as a regular book-plate, a plain typographic label, dated 1635. The most notable examples of this kind in the eighteenth century are the two ex-libris engraved by Robt. White, reproducing a portrait of Samuel Pepys himself, after Kneller. They are of diffe- rent sizes. 1 In the larger one the portrait appears in an oval frame bearing the words : Sam Pepys Car. et Jac. Ang. Rtgib A. Secretis Admiralice. Under the picture is the motto : Mens cujusque is e'st qiusque. The smaller plate displays the portrait on a scroll of paper in an oval medallion, with the same motto Overhead. 2 . 1 The smaller one is reproduced in Mr. Griggs' " Eighty- three Examples," No. 23 (see Biblio.). ' 2 Two other plates engraved for Mr. Pepys are known to collectors. One has the initials S. P., combined with the Admiralty crossed anchors : this is the one to which he refers in his diary (July 21, 1668); the other is heraldic, and displays Pepys' quartering Talbot of (Tottenham with the legend : Samuel Pepys, of Brampton in Httntingdo?ishire, Esq., Secretary of the Portrait Plates. 109 In Mr. J. P. Rylands' " Notes" is given an ac- count of certain hand-painted ex-libris by Thomas Barritt, the sadler-antiquary, and of etched copies of the same, dated 1794. Barritt is represented in the midst of "antiquarian" surroundings — old armour, parchment rolls, coins and clasped books — his arms are displayed on a shield, and there is a motto in Old English characters : IProfert^nttQUa in apricum. Portrait plates are few and far between. 1 From every point of view it is regrettable that more English men and women of note should not have adopted this form of token, which is of all kinds the most personal, and therefore the most interest- ing to posterity. Admiralty to his Majesty King Charles the Second. Descended of y' ancient family of Pepys of Cottenham in Cambridgeshire. Re- produced in Mr. Griggs' "Examples," First Series, No. 27. 1 Among modern instances I may quote the book-plates of Mr. W. T. Thorns, the founder of " Notes and Queries," and Mr. Ashbee. 1 10 English Book-plates. III. ALLEGORIC BOOK-PLATES. JN the more pretentious book-plates of "Jacobean" style, in addition to the usual decorative factors, festoons, scol- lops, and wreath mouldings, cornucopias and pilasters, we often meet with others of a more statuesque kind, such as masks, term figures, satyr heads, cherubs, and similar creations of artistic fancy. These form the irregular element which is sometimes introduced to enhance an otherwise symmetrical decoration. In the same manner we see cupids or fairies, or short-skirted shepherdesses a la Watteau on "Chippendale" frames. The translation of these figures from mere sub- ordinate into leading characters, is easy to trace. The artist had only to adopt the realistic treatment instead of the conventional, and to give ostensible life to his figures by ascribing to them some appo- site action with reference to the escutcheon they support : the result was an " allegoric " plate. The ex-libris of the Rev. John Lloyd, which as to "style" was included among the Jacobean, may in this sense be classed among Allegoric plates. Animus si aequus quod petis hie est, says the inscription on the bracket, whilst attendant on the shield are two lively cupids ready to present the book required. Allegoric plates, it may be stated, are as a rule rather ridiculous. In this particular Allegoric Plates. 1 1 1 case, it were difficult to conceive a composition more inappropriate to the library of an equable- minded divine, although it might, perhaps, have suited well enough the more frolicsome volumes of some erotic collection. In a similar manner the book-plate of Wadham Wyndham, with its cherubs discussing some point of literary lore, might be (and is indeed, by some collectors,) classed among " Allegories " instead of " Library Interiors." On the whole, Allegoric plates are not numerous in England. Warren holds them to represent an obvious, yet never very widely popular deviation of the more precious "Jacobean" mode, which gradually lost all apparent connection with the parent style ; but the same may be said of those emblematic arrangements that are affiliated with the Chippendale designs. " Whether we take," says he (the first to define this class and trace its connections), "the Allegoric plate of the period of Hogarth, Pine, and George Vertue, or consider the later groups of mythologi- cal engravers such as Bartolozzi and his scholars, Sherwin, Henshaw and the like, it must be con- ceded that in England, during the eighteenth century, Allegoric book-plates were never a nume- rous class. In France, however, during the same period, such ex-libris were, on the contrary, pro- fusely abundant." I have already pointed out that the appearance of a given ornamental style in book-plates is always, and naturally so, somewhat in arrear of its prevalence in general decoration. Such was certainly the case with the " Jacobean " and the 1 1 2 English Book-plates. " Chippendale," and we have seen how either of these lent themselves to modification in the direc- tion of "Allegory." Now about the year 1730, "acres of ceiling frescoes were being done, by the yard, and Allegory began to sprawl in all its dizzy con- tortions and aerial foreshortenings on many palaces and public buildings of the period. Sir James Thornhill had just received forty shillings a yard for the Cupola of St. Paul's and Greenwich Hospital, and twenty-five shil- lings a yard for the staircase of the Southsea House at Blenheim, besides embellishing the Princess's apartment at Hampton Court at a rate not recorded. Vanderbank, Laguerre and a dozen others had been daubing away in all directions with much public applause and private emolument. That Allegory should, therefore, reach even the British Book-plate was inevit- able." 1 One may add to this, that Allegory had likewise already run riot on the engraved title- page of the period, and that designers would naturally feel tempted to adapt the manner to private book-plates. Prominent among engravers who cultivated this style, stands George Vertue, who cut the celebrated plate of Henrietta Cavendish Holies, Countess of Oxford, in 1733; John Pine, who executed the gift plate, inscribed Munificentia Regia, for the use of the books presented by .King George I. to the University of Cambridge 1 Warren. Visiting Cards. 113 (both of which interesting specimens are repro- duced in " Warren's Guide " ) ; William Hogarth, who worked in both Jacobean and Chippendale style; Cipriani and Bartolozzi, whose manner is more of " spade and urn " description. >0. '7 BOOK-PLATE OF JAS. NEILD. Circa 1790. An excellent specimen is the ex-libris engraved by Barlow for William Boteler, which gives a view of Eastry Church in Kent, whilst the arms on a conventional shield (Boteler empaling Harvey) proclaim the owner's name. In some cases the armorial element is alto- gether absent from the landscape plate. In such 120 English Book-plates. instances, the owner's name (for after all an ex- libris must record book-ownership somehow or other) may be engraved on a rock (as in the plates of John Anderson, Junior, and of C. E. Bainbridge), or writ in the clouds after the fashion of a latter day advertisement. This, however, is not more incongruous than the introduction of BOOK-PLATE OF WILLIAM BOTELER. By Barlow. Circa 1800. tilting lances and targes in a quiet fishing scene where an angler, in 1 790 attire, is placidly lifting a stout perch out of the water ; but, as Warren remarks with reference more specially to the charming Bewick vignettes, the owners, not the designers of landscape plates were responsible for the intrusion of these jarring elements. In the design made by T. Bewick for Horace Armorial Landscapes. 121 Walpole, Lord Orford, about the year 1 8oo, show- ing a distant and rather artificially aged view of Strawberry Hill, heraldry is not so obtrusive, and there is a certain conventionality about the ar- THE " STRAWBERRY HILL " BOOK-PLATE OF HORACE WALPOLE, Earl of Orford. By T. Bewick, 1800. rangement of trees in the foreground which suits the style of a book-plate. The ex-libris of John Anderson, Junior, which is representative of the non-armorial class and gives us Bewick at his best, is a charming little picture in which, however, it is difficult to recog- R 122 English Book-plates. nize much suitability as a mark of possession unless, indeed, it were destined to a library of specially piscatorial lore. Be this as it may, the pure landscape ex-libris of the last decades of the eighteenth century and the first of this, formed a very definite category, one of which examples are not only numerous, but BOOKPLATE OF JOHN ANDERSON, JUN. By Thomas Bewick. Circa 1800. in many cases particularly pleasing. The vignette plate of C. Bainbridge, by Howitt (a loving designer of sporting subjects) with its keen-nosed setter coming round a boulder on a moor, is also an in- stance of the kind. We are, indeed, far from the Book-pile and the Rococo frame ! This style frequently took the character of ruins (symbol of the instability of human affairs in Non-armorial Landscapes. 1 23 general, and of book possession in particular). The taste for deserted temples, frowning mediaeval remains, broken arches and overturned columns endured even longer than that for forest glades and rustic scenes. All these structures, it is well BOOK-PLATE OF G. C. BAINBRIDGE. By S. Howitt. Circa 1810. to note, offered surfaces temptingly inviting in- scription, and it may be said that " Ruin " book- plates are almost a class in themselves. The Towneley card is tolerably typical of the genus ; so is the Caulfield ex-libris. " This plate," says Mr. R. Day in a paper on Book-plates engraved 124 English Book-plates. by Cork artists, " when first used by Dr. Caulfield was signed Augustus Colthurst and dated 1820. I have some early examples of it in books purchased at the sale of the Caulfield library, and have no doubt about the accuracy of the date, which has since for some cause been obliterated." BOOK-PLATE OF RICHARD CAULFIELD, LL.D. By A. Colthurst, 1820. GROUP THE THIRD. MODERN ARMORIAL. |T is almost impossible to divide this group into very definite styles, for on the one hand, a chief characteristic of the purely Armorial Modern plate is a singular absence of adventitious ornamentation, and on the other, the different methods of setting forth armorial bearings adopted by different die- sinkers and engravers are too numerous to classify. Again, in the majority of modern plates com- bining heraldry with other artistic elements, there is such wide eclecticism in composition, the tran- sitional forms between " mainly heraldic " and " mainly pictorial " designs are so infinite that it is almost useless to attempt any chronological specification of styles and classes. Of nineteenth-century plates, the pure and simple Armorial label (by which I mean that very correct, very arid, quite unmistakable work of the modern " die-sinker and engraver,") however inte- resting it may sometimes prove to the genealogist, is a perfect nuisance to the ex-librist who looks for 126 English Book-plates. more in a book-plate than merely correct blazoning. Unfortunately its name is legion. It floods ex-libris albums and drawers ; it clogs the wheels of classifi- cation ; the collector has often to issue a warning XTST78 EX L1BRXS JV?. (Ilralielmt $atkg > /, /) 7 JieZfasticTisis . IS23 BOOK-PLATE OF WILLIAM BAILEY OF BELFAST, 1 823. that it will not be acceptable in exchange for artistic specimens. Still it is a book-plate, and no doubt, if not otherwise interesting, it fulfils its purpose with great precision. I propose, for want of better imagination, to christen this style " Modern Die-sinker." This Modern Die-Sinker Style. 1 27 may sound frivolous, but it is tolerably descriptive. A short inspection of any respectable stationer's stock of specimens will suffice to fix its main characteristics in the mind. " Modern Die-sinker" plates, then, can only be classified, when they display a whole escutcheon, BOOK-PLATE OF HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE. Circa 1850. by reference to the shapes of the latter. 1 To a certain extent there has been some kind of chrono- logical succession in the vogue enjoyed by parti- cular shapes ; but as each of these has endured in some manner contemporaneously with subse- quent designs, the classification is almost futile. 1 See the " Types of Shields " plates at the end of this book. 128 English Book-plates. The shield which succeeded the Georgian in the general favour of heraldic engravers was the square -sided, eared, scribed or angular based escutcheon so plentiful on book-plates about the years 1810-20. It is a shape which, whilst it was most common during the first third of this century, has retained some favour till now. Such, for in- fe^ 7 1?- BOOK-PLATE OF ANTHONY TROLLOPE. Circa i860. stance, was that which Mr. William Bailey of Belfast adopted for his ex-libris in 1823. I have, however, chosen this example more particularly as one of a tolerably definite genus (that might, per- haps, be termed "Aerial ") in which family preten- sions are always raised to the skies and heralded among the clouds. No doubt the very many stars Mock-Heraldry. 1 29 quartered by Mr. Bailey suggested the appropriate- ness of the arrangement to his case ; but Aerial book-plates are on the whole fairly numerous. The escutcheon of Henry Thomas Buckle, the historian of Civilization; of Anthony Trollope, novelist; of Thomas Frognall Dibdin, Biblio- BOOK-PLATE OF THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN, Circa 1812. grapher, belong to that numerous tribe of square eared shapes, hundreds of which are turned out yearly in our own days. No doubt the historian and the novelist, busy men more curious of book- matter than of book-form, relied upon their cus- tomary stationer to supply them with fitting per- sonal tokens for their volumes. But not so the author of " Bibliomania." His coat is a quaint s 130 English Book-plates. specimen of mock heraldy, meant to record his own well-known tastes. It is not easy to blazon, but here is at least an attempt towards so doing. Quarterly. \st Azure, a lion rampant debruised by a bendlet argent, a label of three points of the BOOK-PLATE OF JOHN WINGFIELD LARKING. of Lea, Kent. same ; 2nd Gules a Chapman passant, proper, vested ■or ; 2,rd Argent, the colophon mark of Fust and Schoeffer in fesse ; \th the printer s mark of William C ax ton covering the field. — Crest, a cubit arm, vested azure cuffed or, the hand proper grasping an early illuminated book with clasps, also proper. Forms of Modern Shields. 131 This bogus blazonry was not, of course, in- tended to deceive anyone ; and, under this very " Modern Armorial" form, the great Bibliographer's ex-libris was really personal in the highest degree. A very great variety of shapes of shield- forms were more or less in fashion at different periods (many of them imitated from ancient examples), among which the " Victorian," the " College of Arms," modified forms of "Stuart," of "Queen Anne," even of " Gothic," and of foreign shapes. The helm and mantling made a general reap- pearance, but with much loss of heraldic feeling. To select one instance only — during its long se- cession from the helmet, the torce or wreath had assumed unto itself such importance as sole sup- porter of the crest on English plates, that when we find it again reinstated in its proper place it seems to have lost all sense of fitness. This is very perceptible in the Wingfield Larking plate, (tolerably representative of much " Modern Die- sinker" work), where the torce, dry as a chip, is balanced meaninglessly stiff and rod-like atop of the helm. 1 Besides these technical mistakes the Modern Die- Sinker plate is generally graceless. Compare this with one of the older Larking plates and see what havoc a short lapse of some fifty years has made in the taste of book-plate engravers. All modern purely-armorial plates are not, how- ever, so bad. Some indeed, but they are the ex- ception, are decidedly fine in heraldic execution. 1 Mr. Wingfield Larking's motto, it is curious to note, is identical with that chosen by Leon Gambetta as expressive of France's genius and destiny. 132 English Book-plates. Among such we may reckon the ex-libris of Mr. J. Paul Rylands, F.S.A., which figures above the dedication of the present opuscule. It was de- BOOK-PLATE OF THE LATE LORD TENNYSON. signed and drawn on the block by Father Anselm, a monk of Mount St. Bernard's Cistercian Abbey, Leicestershire, 1 of whom an obituary notice in the 1 His name was Anselm Baker. He died nth January 1885, aged 52. Father Anselm. 133 "Academy," (21st Feb., 1885), truly said, "As a heraldic artist he has had no equal in our age. About two thirds of the coats of arms in " Foster's Peerage" were by him. Many calendars, books of hours and other liturgical books, brought out either by the late Mr. Fhilp, or by firms at Mechlin and Tournay, bear witness to his inventive genius." YJS~ZE«EZIllI5IZ7 BOOK-PLATE OF THOMAS CARLYLE. Indeed it may be said that Father Anselm possessed the real mediaeval spirit in heraldic art ; his work was equal to that of the fifteenth century at its best. 1 Other modern engravers have produced good work even on the most conventional purely-ar- 1 It will be noticed that Mr. Rylands' plate, being composed in this fifteenth century style, does not display the conven- tional marks of tinctures, as do too many modern plates designed after mediaeval models. 134 English Book-plates. modal lines. But it must be admitted that, as a rule, the only interest of ex-libris of this kind de- pends on the personality of their owners. The coat of arms appertaining to our late Laureate, for instance, is not in itself a thing of beauty, yet what value must be attached to it by the most casual collector, even in the absence of the auto- graph motto, Prospiciens, respiciens, and the sig- nature, Alfred Tennyson. A mere crest resting on a simple torce, but with a well-known name under it, assumes, at once, a startling importance. BOOK-PLATE OF CHARLES DICKENS. How sharply would even such jejune designs as those of Thomas Carlyle and of Charles Dickens' ex-libris, elicit attention, when discovered on the cover of a book. Despite the hopelessness of the task, I have attempted some classification of plates belonging to the Modern Armorial Group ; "Die-sinker Style" (purely-armorial) — Plain Shield (with or without crests resting on plain torces) to be again distinguished according to shape of escutcheon. Shields with Supporters. Modern Armorial Plates. 135 Shields with Helm and Mantling, (with helm alone or with mantling alone). Mantles of Estate. Crests or Coronets, without arms. Garter Ribbons (round arms, round crest alone). Other Armorial " styles," might be thus sub- divided : — " Seals or Vesicas!' " Printers Marks." " Adaptations." A further selection made : Heraldic and Allegoric. Heraldic and Symbolic or "Rebus." The latter styles and classes, unlike the " purely heraldic," admit of any amount of artistic fancy in composition, and include many of the most charm- ing designs in existence. It seems hitherto to have been the habit among those few English writers who have taken up the subject, to consider that most of the interest in book-plates ceases with the close of the last cen- tury. I venture, however, to submit that many of the designs I have been able to collect in these pages to illustrate modern types would only re- quire the glamour of age to enable them to com- pare favourably with the best examples of bygone days. BOOK-PLATE OF EDMUND YATES. By J. Vinycomb. 137 SEALS AND VESICAS. T is expedient to class under this head most book-plates of vesica or of circular outline (others, of course, than conven- tional garters) ; they may not be al- ways ostensibly designed as seals, but in most BOOK-PLATE OF J. E. CUSSANS, ESQ. By Robinson. T 138 English Book-plates. cases their general physiognomy recalls at once the heavy seals of mediaeval days. BOOK-PLATE OF ROBERT DAY, F.S.A. . By J. Vinycomb. This style is eminently adapted to book-plate composition. Its very essence is heraldic. It admits of much and nice discrimination in the "Seal" Plates. 139 ordering of ornamental elements and affords suit- able room for inscription. Among the best ex- amples extant are the ex-libris of Mr. J. E Cus- sans, the distinguished writer on heraldy and cog- nate subjects, engraved by Robinson, and that of BOOK-PLATE OF ETON COLLEGE LIBRARY. Mr. Robert Day, signed J. Vinycomb. In the same manner, but perhaps not so masterly in treatment, is the vesica used by Mr. Edmund Yates. The plate bearing the inscription Liber Col- legii Regalis Beate Marie de Etona, a handsome izj-cr English Book-plates. specimen, is of the gothic tracery type ; as for the unpretending seal-plate of the Althorpe Library books, M. Bouchot would no doubt see in it a corroboration of his satirical and sweeping state- ment that, " the greater the bibliophile the plainer is the book-plate." There can be no doubt that were it not that this insignificant little label is the mark chosen for the finest private collection of books in the world it would attract little attention. BOOK-PLATE OF THE ALTHORP LIBRARY. The last specimen of this kind, interesting as a Collegiate composition, is the plate of the Archaeo- logical Society of the County Kildare. The three coats therein displayed show, firstly, the arms of the town of Naas, Co. Kildare, secondly, those of the Duke of Leinster, first President of the Society, and thirdly, those of the Earl of Mayo,- who is virtually the founder of the Society. - In the seal class may, perhaps, best be included that somewhat uncommon kind of ex-libris, the Stamped Leather Ex-libris. 1 4 1 ''leather label," stamped (generally in gold or silver, but sometimes blind-blocked), with armorial compositions or other devices, the colour of the leather generally being (as it should always be), selected so as to suit that of the cover lining. BOOK-PLATE OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, CO. KILDARE. This sort of personal token, which is sometimes exceedingly beautiful, and which recalls in almost every characteristic, except its mobility, the super- libros patronised by more ostentatious bibliophiles, belongs to a very distinct catagory, and is only applicable to the covers of more or less gorgeously bound volumes. 142 English Book-plates. PRINTER'S MARK STYLE. jlKE the foregoing, this style, which I propose to name with reference to a very frequent type of early printers' mark, is chiefly Armorial. In general composition, plates of this kind recall both the mark BOOK-PLATE OF HAMILTON AIDE. of Richard Fawkes, with " pounced " or pointilli background, and that of John Scott, with escut- The " Pounced" Style. 143 cheon, crested helmet, and name, filling a square panel. The four examples I have chosen as representa- tive were executed by Mr. Harry Soane, the well- BOOK-PLATE OF THE REV. S. BARING-GOULD. known heraldic engraver of Hanway Street. They are all good of their kind, and belong, moreover, to distinguished men. The ex-libris of Dr. Evans, (now Sir John Evans, K.C.B.), LL.D., D.C.L., whilom President of the Society of Antiquaries, and Secretary of the Royal Society, might, how- BOOK-PLATE OF SIR JOHN EVANS, K.C.B. By Harry Soane. The Bookseller's Tree. 145 ever, almost as appropriately be classed as em- blematic. For, in addition to the achievements and scrolls and pounced background common to the printers' mark, are displayed ancient coins, stone and bronze implements, symbolic of some of this great savant's special works of research. BOOK-PLATE OF THE REV. C. H. MIDDLETON-WAKE. Designed by the Rev. J. Loftie. Engraved by Soane., The three others, all belonging to men of letters — Mr. Hamilton Aide, the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, and the Rev. C. H. Middleton-Wake, are more typical examples. The latter (designed by the Rev. J. Loftie, the historian of London), with its escut- u 146 English Book-plates. cheon hanging to a bole of the Tree of Knowledge after a very typical printers' mark manner, and the "Wake Knot" as main badge cunningly utilized for the owner's initials, is a singularly well-balanced composition. Another ex-libris, belonging to Mr. J. P. Rylands, albeit not strictly armorial, is included as a final example. The symbol displayed on the escut- cheon is a merchant's mark engraved on a fifteenth century seal used by one Nicholas del Rylands, an ancestor of the present Owner. The Windsor book-plate which forms the frontis- piece of this volume, designed by West and en- graved by Mary Byfield, notwithstanding its noble dimensions, must be placed from its general character (recalling to a certain extent Messrs. Bell's device) in the Printer's Mark class. I:PAVL:KyLflNDS:FSA: BOOK-PLATE OF J. PAUL RYLANDS, F.S.A. BOOK-PLATE OF SIR CHRISTOPHER SYKES. By Sir J. E. Millais. 149 HERALDIC-ALLEGORIC AND HERALDIC- SYMBOLIC. ST is impossible to draw any really logical lineofdemarcationbetween "Allegoric" and "Symbolic" or "Emblematic" com- positions. For the purpose of book-plate definition, however, I propose to class as " Alle- goric " all designs where the attendants on the shield are human or celestial beings acting some part with reference to the owner's personality, name, tastes, or pursuits. This would place the modern class somewhat in line with that already similarly defined by Warren. It seems, however, necessary to use the double terms with reference to modern examples, as of course there are many plates that are allegoric without being in any way armorial. When, on the other hand, the emblematic con- comitants are simply animal or material objects, the term "symbolic" has seemed to me more suitable. In any case a division on these lines is to some extent practical. HERALDIC-ALLEGORIC. One of the most interesting specimens of this class is the plate designed by Mr. (now Sir John) 150 English Book-plates. Millais, for the present Sir Christopher Sykes. The allegory bears on the owner's Christian name, and illustrates the legend of St. Christopher ferry- ing Christ through the waters, whilst the arms on the unconventional escutcheon (argent, a- chevron sable between three sykes or fountains) are suffi- ciently canting to proclaim the patronymic. Sir BOOK-PLATE OF SAMUEL ANGELL. By Sir W. Boxall, R.A. Christopher Sykes is happy in the possession of a plate which, at once personal and eminently artistic, seems to fulfil all the requirements of the perfect ex-libris, and the future collector will consider him- self in luck who comes across this original piece, and recognizes the well-known Millais type in the delicious head of the Infant Saviour, and on the rim of the seal-like frame the unmistakable initial. The plates of Samuel Angell and of Edward, Design by Thackeray. 151 Fitzgerald are very similar in composition. In the first, the angelic supporter of the shield, (de- signed by Sir W. Boxall, R.A.), is easily inter- preted. The second, however, bears no obvious meaning. But this unpretending device, which might so easily fail at first glance to attract atten- tion, is nevertheless as interesting as any in exis- BOOK-PLATE OF EDWARD FITZGERALD. By W. M. Thackeray. 1 tence. In the first place, it was drawn by William Makepeace Thackeray, and in the second it was designed for his friend, Edward Fitzgerald, the poet and translator, who introduced to the Western World a work still held by sundry enthusiasts to be worth a hundred volumes of verse, the Rubaiyat, of Omar Khaiyam. It is supposed that in the 1 For the loan of this block I am indebted to Mr. Bain, the well-known bibliopolist in the Haymarket. BOOK-PLATE OF MR. SEAMAN OF MANCHESTER. By Randolph Caldecott. Design by Caldecott. 153 Angel Thackeray intended to pourtray Mrs. Brook- field. 1 Another unique plate is one designed by Ran- dolph Caldecott. Says Mr. Blackburn in his re- collections of that most delightful of humourists and draughtsmen : — " The book-plate was drawn for an old and in- timate friend in Manchester [Mr. Seaman] and it is curious to note how closely the style of the family crest 2 is followed in its various details. If it were not for certain satirical touches, this in- genious design might easily pass for the work of other hands ; the touch and treatment have little in common with Caldecott as he is known ; the artistic completeness of the little book-plate is another evidence of his power as a designer." It is, I think, quite allowable to place this quaint composition in the present class — a pious seaman apparently preparing himself, in accordance with his motto, by diligent reading of the Book of Psalms, for the watery grave to which his frail 1 On the subject of this ex-libris Mr. Edmund Gosse has sent me the following interesting detail : — " I have just come across a note I copied out of a letter by Edward Fitzgerald, dated March 19th, 1878, referring to the book plate. '■Done by Thackeray one day in Coram {/or am) Street in 1842. All wrong on her feet, so he said — I can see him now.'— E.F.G." 2 The block from which this example is printed was kindly furnished by Mr. Blackburn's publishers, who, however, have omitted to include with it a delicately-drawn coat of arms, of minuscule proportion, which on the actual ex-libris figures im- mediately underneath the name: a "college of arms" shield displaying Barry-wavy of six, argent and azure, a crescent or. Crest : a demi sea-horse salient, argent. ^FREDERICK** BOOK-PLATE OF FREDERICK LOCKER. By H. Stacy Marks, R.A. Locker- Lampson Plates. 155 craft will presently abandon him, is no doubt a speaking allegory. The author of " London Lyrics," Mr. Frederick Locker- Lampson, has had a variety of book-plates UWPiiaeraMHSaiC imiii BOOK-PLATE OF FREDERICK LOCKER. By Walter Crane. drawn by well-known hands at different times for himself and his family. In the first of the four which I have the privilege of reproducing, Mr. Stacy Marks, R.A. 1 has selected for allegorical 1 Mr. Marks has designed some forty book-plates. It were a boon to many lovers of art if his example were followed by more limners of similar standing. GODFREY LOCKER-LAMPSON BOOK-PLATE OF GODFREY LOCKER-LAMPSON. By Kate Greenaway. Designs by Kate Greenaway. 157 purposes a favourite subject of his — the professional ' ' Fool " absorbed in thoughts of melancholy wisdom. The second, in which a muse-like young woman watches over a rather roughly set forth achieve- ment with a motherly gaze, is not signed, but bears all the characteristics of Mr. Walter Crane's manner. BOOK-PLATE OF FREDERICK LOCKER. By Kate Greenaway. The two juvenile ex-libris destined to proclaim the book ownership of Frederick Locker and Godfrey Locker- Lampson, are designed by that recognized specialist, Kate Greenaway. The variations in the heraldry of these four plates are no doubt due to grants and a change of name. OLD WOOD T rt WINE I V/ BURN DRINK CO Q Z LU DC Q Z < CO O O DO ■n m • o o o o * 1 r\ BOOKS "I" f\ READ L L/ FRIENDS * Vi/ TRUST /3loim Heig&tbn. JF.%.3. \ BOOK-PLATE OF JOHN LEIGHTON — " LUKE LIMNER." By the owner. i59 HERALDIC-SYMBOLIC. jjYPICAL of the book-plate arrangement intended to record personal tastes and occupations is the design made by W. Bell Scott, poet and painter, for Henry Aylorde. We are at once made aware, by the open muniment chest, the big folios and clasped books, the seals and parchments, the classical lamp, the chalice and the background of ruined romanesque architecture, that Henry Aylorde was an Antiquary. Among the most copious and imaginative de- signers of the present time is Mr. John Leighton, F.S.A., 1 — " Luke Limner," — one of our keenest ex-librists. Mr. Leighton has composed a number of book-plates both for himself and his friends. I am able to reproduce here one perhaps less well- known than many others, in which an artist's palette, slightly couchie, is used to fit (after the manner of some old-fashioned German shields) the proportions of a vigorously heraldic lion. The " sentiments " on the border are terse English adaptations of Spanish proverbs. 1 The student of book-plates will derive much benefit from, and find great general interest in, the perusal of one of Mr. Leighton's works, " Suggestions in Design," with descriptive and historical letter press by J. K. Collings. (Blazon, Heraldry, Rebuses, plates 50-54.) London. Blackie and Son. 4to. 1880. i6o English Book-plates. The palette is of course a very sufficient symbol of a limner's avocation. It again appears suitably in another of Mr. Leighton's compositions, the book- plate, to wit, of Sir Oswald Brierley, marine painter to Her Majesty. Here the symbolisation of the owner's pursuits is pushed further, and the palette •\:~ ■ BOOK-PLATE OF HENRY AYLORDE, F.S.A. By William Bell Scott. is cunningly used as a background to an admirably conventional ship, one mast of which passes, in maul-stick fashion, through the thumb-hole, flying a scrolled pennant charged with a motto (on the reverse with a date), whilst the mainsail of the other serves as a field argent for Sir Oswald's ■cross-crosslet and fleur-de-lys. The crest graces Designs by " Ltike Limmer." 161 the " top-garland " mast, the garland appositely playing the part of torce. " Here," as Mr. Leigh- ton says in his paper on "Ship Ex-Libris," 1 " the porpoise plays on its own waverley sea whilst a lanthorn-lighted prow cleaves the course." BOOK-PLATE OF SIR OSWALD BRIERLEY. By John Leighton. The Brierley plate is a singularly improved version of the idea embodied in an older symbolic ship-device, thus described by Mr. Leighton, in the same paper, as " The ex-libris of John Scott 1 Journal of the Ex-Libris Society, vol. i, part 5. Y 1 62 English Book-plates. Russell, F.R.S., the naval architect who con- structed the Leviathan, afterwards the Great Eastern (now no more). In this you will per- ceive an old style of barque medisevally treated, BOOK-PLATE OF JOHN SCOTT RUSSELL. the sails being reefed, whilst the shield — out of all proportion — is hoisted on the mast ; the motto flying from a pennon on the prow, whilst on the poop is painted a monogram, J. S. R., a spouting dolphin blowing away on the waves that are made to float the owner's name in full." BOOK-PLATE OF WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. By T. Erat Harrison. 164 English Book-plates. A very distinct genus of the Heraldic-Em- blematic class of design, is that which deals in Rebus on names or heraldic charges, and the artist who has perhaps achieved the greatest success in this description of book-plate is Mr. Thomas Erat Harrison. Mr. Harrison has created, in this minor department of his artistic pursuits, a style which is essentially his own. His theory on the composition of a book-plate is very definite : such a token should be as " unmistakable as a trade mark," and should bear some distinctive reference, armorial or personal, to the owner. Such ends are best secured in his opinion by decorative and conventional rather than pictorial and realistic treatment. The three plates I am able to repro- duce, interpreted by Mr. Harrison himself, will fully illustrate his method and style, which is as characteristic, in its way, as that of Mr. Sherborn. " The first is a gift of Lord Northbourne to Mr. Gladstone on the occasion of that statesman's golden wedding; it bears the dates, 23rd July 1839, 23rd July 1889. The Kites and Stones are a rebus on Gledstanes, the original form of the name, (gled = kite) ; and it will be observed that the shield hangs on a holly bush, the reason for this being that the griffin of the crest issues from a wreath of holly leaves. The helmet is rather prominent to show that Mr. Gladstone is still a commoner. The second, belonging to Mr. Matthew Ridley Corbett, is thus explained : , " The Angel is em- blematic of Matthew ; the squirrels show that one was formerly used as a crest ; the ravens allude to Designs by Erat Harrison, 165. the motto, ' Deus pascit Corvos' The space on the stone under the shield is for the date on which the book was procured." BOOK-PLATE OF M. R. CORBET. By Erat Harrison. The book-plate of Mr. Henry Folkard, Libra- rian of the Wigan Free Library, is open to much interpretation, chiefly, it must be said, of the 1 66 . English Book-plates. dismal order. It was designed by Mr. Gordon Browne, son of the immortal " Phiz " and known besides by much excellent work of his own. Here we have, in company with a closed book, lenry ®. folkarfl. BOOK-PLATE OF H. F. FOLKARD. By Gordon Browne. the spectacles of. advancing age and withering flowers, what is presumably meant to represent the bitter cup of life (under the form of a German Romer). As a support to this bowl which bears the melancholy philosophical inscription : " Ich Designs by C. W. Sherborn. 167 habe gelebt und geliebet" are various emblems of life and death, graceful feminine forms, with the symbol of their soul — the psychic butterfly — over their brows, enslaved by the Implacable Fiend, who lies half hidden behind them in gruesome, bony company, whilst round the base the serpent biting his tail emphasises an endless allegory. This is indeed a book-plate offering congenial food for reflection to those disabuses in whom M. Bouchot sees a special category of book-lovers. Among engravers who have devoted care to emblematic compositions, Mr. C. W. Sherborn occupies a leading position. This artist, whose work with the graver has never been surpassed, has an unmistakable style of his own. It is not too much to say that his book-plates are valued by connoisseurs and collectors as highly as any chef cP&uvre of the kind belonging to past and present. He is jealous of his work, and rightly so, and has a strong objection to " process " reproductions which can never do justice to the delicacy and firmness of the originals. I have, however, happily obtained leave from the owners to print some of his plates direct from the copper. Of these, the ex-libris of Mr. Cyril Flower, now Lord Battersea and of Sir Frederick Pollock are fully illustrative of Mr. Sherborn's method of heraldic treatment, whilst Mrs. Flower's and Mr. Sidney Colvin's (to be noticed further on), are given as examples of his emblematic designs. They are all worthy of close inspection. In the Cyril Flower plate, the rose and the lily of the crest, treated naturally, and reappearing 1 68 English Book-plates. under the conventional form of " charges " on the •escutcheon are, of course, symbolical of the owner's name. In the smaller plate, belonging to Sir Frederick Pollock, one of the most distinguished members of a singularly distinguished family, the small pile of volumes, the quills and the inkstand, lying around the escutcheon are certainly modest symbols for a man of such profound and varied learning ; but they are, nevertheless, sufficiently speaking to justify my classing the device out of the purely Armorial. In. omnibus rebus requiem sui>pcaoq pun sui^yaou^gj BOOK-PLATE OF GLEESON WHITE. By Alan Wright. 169 PICTORIAL NON-HERALDIC PLATES. "emblematic" and "genre." ROADLY speaking, the great majority of Non- Heraldic book-plates are Em- blematic (that is, Allegorical or Sym- bolic) in some way or another. In fact, they could hardly be. " personal " without some kind of representative device. The twenty-five modern examples I give of this category contain specimens of almost every class, Allegoric, Sym- bolic, Library- Interior, Landscape,etc, which as they have already been descanted upon in connec- tion with Armorial Styles, need not be further dis- tinguished. Among them I include two other plates by Mr. Sherborn. That devised for Mrs. Flower might almost be described as a mere ornamental cypher ; but the conventional flowers, enhanced by the motto, " Flores curat Deus," selected for decora- tion, distinctly point towards symbolism. And the same may be said of the exquisitely drawn prints and picture which figure under the interlaced initials in the ex-libris of Mr. Sidney Colvin, Keeper of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. In Mr. Folkard's Cup-and-Book device we had 170 English Book-plates. a good instance of wide-reaching symbolism. I imagine, however, that the extraordinary-looking design made by Mr. Charles Ricketts for Mr. Gleeson White claims quite the most universal scope of any in existence. BOOK-PLATE OF GLEESON WHITE. By Charles Ricketts. " The tree of Creation (Igdrasil)," says Mr. Ricketts in explanation of his mystic picture, "springs from a swirl of water and flame which breaks into little gems ; the flame, continuing, flows through the trunk of the tree, which branches on ^3fl HFSrh! W^/ fct^-^JLXlt ■ j* tilr Cififc^J ¥j)jml- ■ ft LSIDNEY COI.VIN. 1 Symbolic Plates. 1 7 1 each side into composite boughs suggesting the different plant kingdoms. This central flame en- velopes the figure of man, placed in the midst of the tree in the action of awakening. The fruit on the eastern end of each bough represent in embryo the fish and water fowl, the reptile and creeping insects, the larger animals, and finally the creatures with wings. The rainbow shooting through the centre composition signifies the atmosphere ; the two figures under one cloak in the lower part of the design represent night and day, i.e., the planets." Now, at first flush, one might well wonder what all this cosmogonic symbolism can possibly have to do with a book-plate, and feel inclined to com' pare the designer to Racine's Plaideur with his celebrated exordium : "Avant done La naissance du monde et sa creation . . ." But the owner of this characteristic if rather fan- tastic device is ready however with a compara- tively simple interpretation. "The tree," explains Mr. White, "whether under this particular shape of Igdrasil in Scandi- navian mythology, or under that of the Tree of Knowledge in the Mosaic tradition, has always been a favourite symbol for Literature. It is therefore a felicitous choice as an emblem of knowledge, eternal, yet needing daily nourishment, and always growing. In fact, the various inter- pretations of this mystical tree are as all-embracing as literature itself." 172 English Book-plates. The ex-libris of Mr. John Lane might well strike a would-be interpreter with dismay, but Mr. Alan Wright, the designer, whose characteristic beetle- BOOK-PLATE OF JOHN LANE. • By Alan Wright. like cypher figures on many an illustrated periodi- cal of the day, and who is also a prolific designer of book-plates, has kindly explained some of its meaning. There is the "Lane of Life " (which Designs by Alan Wright. 173 also stands for the initial letter of the owner's name), with the " Trees of Knowledge, Fame, Crime, and Pleasure " on either side ; and the curious may amuse themselves by disentangling at their pleasure and leisure " Love and the Flowers of Youth," " the Lion of Circumstance," good and bad Angels, together with our old friend Charon BOOK-PLATE OF MRS. CAMPBELL. By Alan Wright. and the river Styx. ' To pursue the Allegory still further, I point out (on my own responsibility) that the cheerfully disposed may descry a gleam of hope for the poor beset way-farer in a minute " Sunrise " at the extreme corner, while on the other hand it is quite open to the pessimist to recog- nize in a sinking orb an emblem of Eternal Night Here is another proof of the immense amount of 174 English Book-plates. " food for reflection " that can be compressed with- in the compass of an emblematic book-plate. The two others by the same hand are less complicated, — Mrs. Campbell's ex-libris is plainly musical and literary, besides being a pleasing and inspiriting kind of device to meet constantly in BOOK-PLATE OF L. T. MEADE, Editress of " Atalanta." By Alan Wright. favourite books. The lesson it aspires to teach is that, were the book closed and the inkpot dry, the span of life would be death-like. Mrs. Campbell is known in the musical world as Madame Perugini. The staves partly hidden by the Death's Head show a few bars of a favourite air. " Rebus " Designs. 175 The Allegory, which shows us two working sisters, the first engaged, apparently, in pruning the Tree of Knowledge, whilst the second, seated at its foot, with the Lamp of History by her side, BOOK-PLATE OF OSCAR BROWNING. By Simeon Solomon. absorbs herself in theoretical study, was drawn for Mr, Oscar Browning, by Simeon Solomon, a Pre- Raphaelite who once gave promise of a brilliant artistic career. A very distinct genus of the Emblematic plate 176 English Book-plates. might be separately classed under the rubric Punning or " Rebus." Such plates are of course very personal, and often excessively quaint. As I have stated before, Mr. Erat Harrison is a special (Mqu-E/Doble BOOK-PLATE OF MR. CHARLES E. DOBLE. adept at this sort of composition, and has pror duced some of the most artistic and interesting ex- libris of modern times. The rebus on the name of Charles E. Doble is typical of his system, and is thus to be interpreted, by the designer himself. ' ' Rebus ' ' Designs . 1 7 7 " The stars are Charles Wain for Chas. The note E is on the bell, which, with the doe, makes Doble (Dobell). The imp is a mere accessory, alluding to the dread such spirits have of the sound of bells." Another musical rebus appears on the book- BOOK-PLATE OF C. SHARP. By K. M. Skeaping. plate of Mr. Charles Sharp, of the Liverpool Institute, where under a charming "interior" by K. M. Skeaping, the note C sharp, on a small canton ruled for music, figures as a simple legend. Mr. Henry Tait's artistic device displays, like that of Mr. Browning, the allegory of Labour and Study, with an Anglo-French pun (somewhat far- A A 178 English Book-plates. fetched it must be admitted) on the family name as a motto. , Far better as a rebus, if not as a picture, is the spirited Turnbull plate, executed in Mr. Crane's best manner. To a certain extent the device ft -a°[gi MaE »a3HaB Mg«Bg& BOOK-PLATE OF HENRY TAIT. By J. D. Batten. composed by the Apostle of Socialism and Deco- rative Art, for his own books, may also be con- sidered as a rebus on his name, for I assume that the two-handled wine jug stands for an initial W before the Crane. But it is also elaborately sym- bolic ; and, with pen, pencil and palette, and the Designs by Walter Crane. 179 quatrain from the " Rubaiyat," descriptive of the owner's pursuits and literary tastes. Very illustrative of Mr. Walter Besant's capa- city for unrelenting work is the "Library Interior" «a»>p»w»1HM^f»o||'^>i<«- , 11'^*\f»-')l"»ir»t/| I €UBR15AL€X:HTURTiBllll: } roire^NfrFAveT-Auajicri I g«». c ^ r JU-^Jlr^JL^>llf»-'L^,llr»JL-^U / ^JL» :jo ^ BOOK-PLATE OF A. H. TURNBULL/ By Walter Crane. designed for that powerful and prolific writer'by Mr. R. Crane and engraved by Marcus Ward and Co., of Dublin, in which we see the sage man of the pen amidst studious surroundings, absorbed in his work yet fearful of the flight of time, and making i8o English Book-plates. right good use of the hours as they fall through the glass. BOOK-PLATE OF WALTER CRANE. By the Owner. The three following plates belong to other -well- known men of letters : Mr. Austin Dobson's (designed by Alfred Parsons), easily interpreted as Design by IV. Bell Scott, 181 " At the Sign of the Lyre ; " l and Mr. Warren's, by William Bell Scott, are both distinctly emblematic. The latter is, of course, particularly interesting BOOK-PLATE OF WALTER BESANT. By R. Crane. to ex-librists, revealing as it does some of the special tastes of a poet and scientist, who, withal, remains the best known authority on the subject of book-plates. 1 It was originally used as a tail-piece in that charming volume of verse so entitled. 1 82 English Book-plates. " Imay tell you," writes Lord de Tabley, " that, as you suppose, the design refers to some of the leading hobbies of my life. It may seem some- what egotistical to have had J:hem heralded there ; but Mr. Scott very kindly designed the plate without consulting me. The plant is a bramble bush (as I have made the genus Rubus my prin- cipal study), the lowest scroll is inscribed Rumex, with the portrait of a Dock, also a favourite genus ^% ',- '■■' fei ill It Ptjf ■ IHft^L22ti£*iCg5^Say BOOK-PLATE OF AUSTIN DOBSON. By Alfred Parsons. of mine ; the upper scroll is inscribed with some MS. poetry, in which I have made several obscure attempts. In the background is a coin cabinet which has been my earliest and perhaps my most absorbing hobby." Lord de Tabley's over-modest reference to his verses is incidentally corrected by no less an authority than Mr. Edmund Gosse in the following quaint paradoxical excerpt from " Gossip in a BOOK-PLATE OF THE HON J. B. LEICESTER WARREN. By W. Bell Scott. Design by E. A. Abbey. 185 Library," which I quote here, not only in explana- tion of the charming design of Mr. E. Abbey for the writer, but as giving a decidedly novel view of the uses of a book-plate. 1. " The outward and visible mark of the citizen- ship of the book-lover," says Mr. Gosse, himself a lover and connoisseur-of books sil en fut, " is his BOOK-PLATE OF EDMUND GOSSE. By E. A. Abbey. book-plate. There are many good bibliophiles Who abide in the trenches and never proclaim their loyalty by a book-plate. They are with us but not of us ; they lack the courage of their opinions ; they collect with timidity or carelessness ; they have no heed for the morrow. Such a man is liable to great temptations. He is brought face B B 1 86 English Book-plates. to face with that enemy of his species the borrower, and dares not speak with him in the gate. If he had a book-plate he would say, ' Oh ! certainly I will lend you this volume, if it has not my book- plate in it ; of course one makes it a rule never to lend a book that has ! ' He would say this, and BOOK-PLATE OF JAMES ROBERTS BROWN. By H. Stacy Marks, R.A. feign to look inside the volume, knowing right well that this safeguard against the borrower is there already. To have a book-plate gives a collector great serenity and self-confidence. We have laboured in a far more conscientious spirit since we had ours. A living poet, Lord de Tabley, Designs by Stacy Marks. 187 wrote a fascinating volume on book-plates some years ago with copious illustrations. There is not, however, one specimen in his book which I would exchange for mine, the work and gift of one of the BOOK-PLATE OF ROBERT JACKSON. By H. S. Marks, R.A. most imaginative American artists, Mr. Edwin A. Abbey. It represents a very fine gentleman of about 1 6 10, walking in broad sunlight in a garden, reading a little book of verses. The name is 1 88 English Book-plates. coiled around him with the motto Gravis cantan- tibus timbrci. I will not presume to translate this tag of an eclogue, and I venture to mention such a very uninteresting matter, that my indulgent BOOK-PLATE OF WALTER MARKS. By H. S. Marks, R.A. readers may have a more vivid notion of what I call my library." To what extent the vividly original book-plate, of the representative actor of our modern English BOOK-PLATE OF HENRY IRVING. By Bernard Partridge. " Genre " Designs. 189 stageis really emblematic I have not been able to ascertain. I have made several futile guesses, and finally requested Mr. Irving's own interpreta- tion. The information received, if not definite, is at least as characteristic as the design itself. " I think," said the owner, " that it was designed by Bernard Partridge, though there is nothing of that bird in the composition. The occult meaning, so far as I know, there is none ; but Partridge may have intended his " dragon " to be a sort of glorified sandwich-man with the Lyceum play- bill ! " The next five plates are illustrative of the difficulty of classing many modern " pictorial " examples. They might be called pure Genre, and yet they are all more or less Emblematic; one is certainly a " Library Interior," and another equally so a " Portrait " plate. Three of the five are signed by Mr. Stacy Marks. The first of these, composed for Mr. James Robert Brown, gives a portrait of the owner, in the character of Alchymist, this being the title of the Chairman of the Ex-libris Society bears among the Sette of Odd Volumes; it might, however, as I have said, be described as symbolic, in consideration of some of the surrounding emblems, masonic and others. I do not know whether the old gentleman depicted in Mr. Robert Jackson's plate is also in any way meant to be a portrait, but, at any rate, as Mr. Jackson is a known virtuoso, a collector of prints, china, drawings and such like, all the accessories to this picture are certainly intended 190 English Book-plates. to be symbolic. The third, one of the latest of Mr. Mark's productions in this line, belongs to his BOOK-PLATE OF E. J. WHEELER. Designed by the Owner. eldest son. It is difficult to discover any symbolism in this charming little piece of genre. Mr. E J. Wheeler, the "Punch" artist, who occasionally signs his humorous sketches with the Designs by E. /. Wheeler. 191 conventional presentment of a four-wheeler, has designed several ex-libris for himself and his friends, all of which are charming compositions. BOOK-PLATE OF WALTER BRINDLEY SLATER. By E. J. Wheeler. For his own beloved volumes Mr. Wheeler has delineated the unalloyed happiness of an obvious bibliophagist — a lover and devourer of books 19? English , Book-plates. in favourable circumstances, deep in the glut- tony of an intellectual meal, with many heavy -courses awaiting his attention in the shape of .curious old tomes. BOOK-PLATE OF JAMES WINTERBOTHAM. By J. D. Batten. The label character is happily introduced under the shape of a fantastic bolt and strap cartouche, over which, however, the full-face helmet unsuited to a commoner is an incongruous element. The ex-libris devised by the same artist for his Designs by J. D. Batten. 193 friend Walter Brindley Slater, is quaintly illus- trative of another form of bibliophilic delight — a lucky find by the book-stall hunter. As examples of what can be termed more BOOK-PLATE OF MONEY COUTTS. By J. D. Batten. specially " sentiment " plates, I reproduce two de- signs of Mr. J. D. Batten. On that which belongs to Mr. Winterbotham lurks unobtrusively in the back-ground, behind a well-laden strawberry plant, a wise old saw — Inter folia fructus — which has c c 194 English Book-plates. done duty on many a book-plate of various countries, from the sixteenth century down to present times. This is a general bibliophilic sentiment ; but below the design and significantly close to the book- owner's address, appears, in the cosmopolitan language of the learned, the sen- tentious warning that it is only The wicked who borrometh and retwneth not again. The second, composed for Mr. Money Coutts, has a humbly pious motto in explanation of a pure symbolic figure — Da mihi, Domine, scire quod sciendum est. This example, which, of course, can be classed either among " Interiors "or "Allegories," accord- ing to the taste and fancy of the collector, is re- presentative of a very personal category of book- plates, in which a suitable blank space is left for the owner's name in autograph. The last is one of Mr. Gleeson White's nume- rous designs for symbolic plates. THE CHOICE OF A BOOK-PLATE. BOOK-PLATE COLLECTING. jT cannot, of course, be claimed that in the foregoing pages every style and class of existing ex-libris has been passed in review. Such a task, to be complete, would require many thick volumes — -and then remain nugatory after all, for "exhaustive knowledge in the matter of book-plates, as in everything else, can only be acquired by frequent and careful scrutiny of the objects themselves. As the number of examples available for study becomes multiplied, disquisition on general rules and broad facts becomes less and less requisite. In any good representative collection (provided the same be arranged on historical lines), the student can make his own observations, and classify them for his own purposes according to his own ideas. But large, and especially well-arranged col- lections, are not accessible to every one ; the amateur of ex-libris who has not time to ride his 196 English Book-plates. mild hobby with the necessary regularity, and thus gather for himself all that is to be gathered of general information, can have the task lightened for him by a compendium of examples recognised as typical, arranged in recognised categories. As I have said in the introduction to this opuscule, the interest taken by various people in personal tokens of book-ownership is of varied kind. A great number of book-owners not other- wise keen about " ex-librism," feel at one time or another a transient curiosity in the subject, because they would have a book-plate of their own and therefore wish to know something of their fore- fathers' and of their contemporaries' taste in such a matter. No doubt the study of past fashions in design is suggestive and otherwise useful. Indeed, it sometimes even leads to a misplaced apprecia- tion of past work ; I mean it inclines book owners to forego the trouble of original conception, and to adopt ancient devices which are certainly good of their kind, but to a great extent inappropriate to modern volumes ; for it can certainly be questioned whether it is justifiable, in an artistic and biblio- philic sense, to use in nineteenth century books a composition especially created for a very different age. Be this as it may, " adaptations " form a numerous and definite class of modern plates, one, it is curious to note, selected by many regular collectors. Four examples will, I think, suffice to illustrate this category. The oldest of these is a purely heraldic ex-libris used by the Rev. Daniel Parsons A daptations. 197 (who was one of the first in England to write about book-plates as objects worthy of study). Comparison with the early armorial example on page 48 shows pretty conclusively that the model selected by that gentleman was the plate of Gwyn of Lansanor, or at least one by the same engraver BOOK-PLATE OF THE REV. D. PARSONS. Circa 1837. (for the study of ancient ex-libris reveals the fact that adaptation was likewise much practised in olden days). True, the "napkin" of the original has been dispensed with, but in all other res- pects the ornamental character of the seventeenth century design has been closely copied. Mr. Parsons was one of those who, in good heraldic fashion, see no use in a legend on a book-plate, holding that a paternal coat, quartering a maternal 198 English Book-plates. one and impaling conjugal arms is amply suffi- cient to fix beyond doubt the owner's personality. This simplicity would no doubt be " highly cor- rect" if only an exact knowledge of blazon formed Ourwr-n, PuHut, BOOK-PLATE OF THE EARL OF MAYO. Drawn by Lady Mayo, engraved by Curwen, of Dublin. an indispensable part of a sound and liberal educa- tion. But, as matters stand in this respect, it is on the whole more practical to underscribe a name even to a well known coat such as that of the Earl of Mayo, whose book-plate is also an adaptation from a " Restoration " design. Adaptations. 199 With reference to this plate, it must be pointed out that however compact and otherwise excellent in design, the ancient model was not quite judi- ciously chosen. The achievement of arms of a 4&88. c_y BOOK-PLATE OF THE HON. GERALD PONSONBY. Engraved by Curwen. nobleman should include the Supporters, and for this purpose a plate composed after the manner of the Archibald Campbell ex-libris, for example, shown on p. 52, would have perhaps been more suitable. Lady Mayo's father, the Hon. Gerald Ponsonby, possessor of one of the most complete collections in England, has, for his latest ex-libris, chosen 200 English Book-plates. the " Book-pile " arrangement, in all its time- honoured conventionality. To judge from the •character of the rococo frame surrounding the arms, the model adopted belonged to the middle of the last century. The monogram cartouche which proclaims the book ownership of Mr. Walter Hamilton, another "authority" on the subject at hand, is, with the exception of the motto on the scroll, an exact copy of a design ascribed by Mr. Austin Dobson to William Hogarth, and supposed to have been devised as an ex-libris. The harmoniously woven initials served Mr. Hamilton's purpose very naturally ; Hogarth's composition, however, seems to have been more than once appropriated as a frame for totally different monograms. Such adaptations are hardly legitimate, and reveal a paucity of imaginative resources. In fact, adapta- tions of all kinds, besides never being really personal, are not, as I have already said, suited to this age. In the case of ancestral libraries many succes- sive styles of plate are oftentimes to be found in the slowly accumulated collection, giving a cha- racter of its own to each various accession, and representing distinct phases in their history. It would seem almost a matter of duty, in a senti- mental spirit, to continue the chain of records by affixing to such modern volumes as may be added to the goodly company a book-plate representative of modern taste. The choice of an ex-libris now-a-days, however, is no simple matter. It is easy enough to Adaptations. 201 light on an emblem which may be personally highly pleasing ; but not so to find one suited to the general purpose of a modern library. The fact cannot be waived that the Victorian book ? 1572. BOOK-PLATE OF WALTER HAMILTON. buyer has, as a rule, to provide marks of owner- ship for libraries vastly different in every way from those of his Georgian ancestors and their forefathers. On the book-shelves of the past two centuries D D 202 English Book-plates. were aligned nought but substantial volumes, most uniformly clothed in rich, strong brown calf, and the least important of which was no doubt a much more consequential chattel than would now be a work of similar standing. In libraries so com- posed the old-fashioned engraved plate, more or less sumptuous and armorial, suited all books almost equally well. But in our days of cheap editions and of" publishers' cloth," ex-libris matters bear perforce a very different complexion. A superbly decorative achievement of arms engraved by Sherborn ; an elaborate and elegant composition of Erat Harrison, could but look inconsistent on the white lining paper of a five shilling book. Yet this cheap and plain volume may, nevertheless, be worthy of a settled place in the bibliotheca and therefore of its owner's badge. On the other hand, what an insult to a precious tall copy, habited in choicest binding of Morell or Zaehnsdorf, to stamp its board with any little abomination such as one of our every-day die- sinker's "crest within a garter." In the same manner as a poor book (poor in the typographical sense), can be made absolutely piteous if arrayed in a magnificence unsuited to its status in the book world, so can the most exquisite plate lose all its significance when mated to an unworthy or unapt companion. In short there is as much con- sistency required in the choice of a book-plate as in that of a binding. What then is the way out of this latter day difficulty ? The answer is simple : for a modern library several plates at least — certainly more than Choice of a Plate. 203 one, — are required, that is if the ex-libris be in- tended as anything more than a mere utilitarian statement of ownership. Tokens of this latter kind fulfil, of course, only one (the most matter- of-fact) purpose of an ex-libris, but so long as their statement is explicit, fulfil it satisfactorily ; but if ex-libris had never gone beyond that purpose the book-world would have lost many charming crea- tions, and there would have been no scope for " ex-librism." From the Library of CHARLES DICKENS, Gadshill Place, June, 1870. Of this category the label used as a distinctive record of Charles Dickens' own books at Gadshill Place, albeit somewhat special in its purpose, 1 may be taken as a sufficient example. There could be nothing inconsistent in its appearance on any class of books ; it professes to state that the volume to which it is affixed belonged to the Gadshill Place Library, nothing more — but a suffi- cient record of interest withal. In a conjuncture of this kind the most rigorous simplicity was, of course, in the best taste. But in ordinary cases there is no doubt that the simple name-label, by means of a little judicious ornamen- 1 Charles Dickens died in June, 1870. 204 English Book-plates. tation, may be made not only more pleasing to BOOK-PLATE OF MR. J. S. MARTIN. Of Edinburgh. the eye but actually less obtrusive. Very " chaste " and practical is the little label of Mr. John Martin, BOOK-PLATE OF THE LATE CHARLES KEENE. Designed by Frederick Conway Montagu. the well-known Edinburgh bibliophile, whilst that Choice of a Design. 205 designed in the same old-fashioned "pounced" style by F. C. Montagu for the late Charles Keene, is decidedly artistic ; this last, in fact, is perhaps the best example I know of the class ; such a device would quietly enhance the most modest and could not disparage the most preten- tious volume. The more " typographic " the character of an ex-libris, the more universal is its suitability. For this reason I would say that when only one device is used for a general library, plates of the " printer's mark " class have the widest range of applicability. They have no very obtrusive aris- tocratic pretensions, no special gorgeousness, yet can be made of most attractive appearance, and from their appositeness to printing of every kind, can consistently figure as the personal element in all sorts and conditions of books. If, moreover, the design is reproduced in different sizes, every acquirement of a perfect ex-libris is fulfilled. The heraldic monogram, on pounced background, in Printer's Mark style, adopted by Mr. Harry Rylands as his book device, exists in two sizes, of which the present example is the smaller. Next to this class, seals are perhaps most congruous to a miscellaneous collection. With other categories of designs, whether " ar- morial " or " pictorial," the difficulty of application increases, and much discrimination has to be exer- cised. On my own shelves repose many books, even of the most estimable, on which, for instance, the exquisite " library interior " in the Rococo manner, designed for me by my wife, would look 206 English Book-plates. almost ridiculous. How completely out of place, for instance, would this dainty composition look with its cosy corner by the hearth, where a pensive gentleman of the olden time is seen falling into a firelight reverie, on the boards, shall I say, of Simienowicz's " Art of Artillerie," a very magnifi- BOOK-PLATE OF MR. HARRY RYLANDS. By Menestrier. cent volume, with all its pride of the seventeenth century military plates, or on those of Sir Charles Lyell's " Elements of Geology," or yet again in a " Micrographic Dictionary," which happens to be a superbly bound book. The fact is, that this ex- libris is intended to herald ownership in works, not only fit in appearance to receive an artistic a^M^tHc.ld.n Special Plates. 207 plate,^ but works of poetic or romantic interest, especially books with an ideal world or on old world flavour about them — the books, in fact, I love best. Herein lies the chief drawback to the pictorial classes of book-plates, one which is felt even more persistently than with over-proud heraldic arrangements : they cannot suit the majority of volumes in a "working" library. For these, some simpler, more conventional design is wanted, such as an ornamental label, a small seal, or modest crest with name underscribed. Special collections, of course, are provided for with greater ease. For such, an ex-libris can be devised which will stand much in the same relation to the subject as a canting charge in heraldry to the owner's name. Mr. Edmund Gosse, (to take only one instance in point,) a poet himself, is by inclination an his- torian of poetry, and the main character of the books he collects with greatest zest, and opens most frequently, is in good keeping with the reciting cavalier in the sunlight, of Mr. Abbey's design. This is an instance of what was adverted to in the Introduction concerning the interest attaching to a book-plate which remains as a record of special tastes and pursuits. But even in the general working library there will often exist special collections more or less jealously segregated from the rest. Most men of books have a bibliographical hobby or two. Of course the gorgeous way to honour this conclave, this favoured clique of friends, is to have each member thereof specially bound and stamped 208 English Book-plates. distinctively. But the stiper-libros method is not financially within the reach of all book-collectors ; indeed, in many cases, where the original bindings BOOK-PLATE OF EGERTON CASTLE. Designed by Agnes Castle. are worth preserving, it is impracticable. A special ex-libris, however, is always available, and is a sufficiently distinguishing mark. Special Plates. 209 As a specimen of the special collection book- plate, one designed for me by the same hand that drew the Regence " interior " and intended for the covers of works on the " Art Dimicatorie," is here reproduced. It has seemed suitable to select as emblematical of the Art of Fence, an ideal view of the Inner Sanctum of that sublimely confident expositor of the " philosophy of arms," Master Girard Thibault of Antwerp, who flourished in the days of the " Three Musketeers " — that dread room where, with the help of diagrams, logical, anatomical, and geo- metrical, the author of that astounding work, IJ Acadimie de I ' EspSe professed to teach any number of ineluctable and infallibly mortal strokes. Thibault undoubtedly held the highest grade in the legion of theorists who during the last three centuries have " anatomised " the art of fight, and he may therefore fitly be taken, on his own ground, in his own costume and attitude, as a sufficiently Allegorical figure. The motto inscribed on the beam overhead Bostcum De armis quaerere, is that of the Kernoozers Club, a close and select little body of connoisseurs in Arms and Armour, and in anti- quarian matters connected therewith ; whilst the sentiment Qui porte espee porte paix is meant to qualify what might be held as too pugnacious and sanguinary in an excessive devotion to cold steel. About the choice of a personal ex-libris, general advice or general rules are really of little use ; the whole matter is so obviously dependent on E E 210 English Book-plates. personal tastes and circumstances. It has been seen that, in the past, the prevailing fashion at different times had an almost all pervading in- fluence on private taste ; whilst, on the other hand, the tendency of modern designers is towards unrestrained originality. But originality of con- ception can, in a certain way, be pushed too far, and actually lose sight of the main object of a book-plate, which is to herald ownership. Designers would do well to bear in mind that that the ex- libris should be a label, not merely a pretty " conceit." This fact need in no way detract from its artistic perfection ; all that is required is, that the treatment should always be to some extent conventional and symbolic (heraldry is but a special form of symbolism, and armorial designs must needs be conventional). In theory, pure "landscape" or pure "genre" plates, however precious artistically, cannot be said to suffice for a good ex-libris ; in practice they are but irrelevant illustrations. When the ex-libris is meant to be personal, it were well that it should record in unmistakable fashion the name of the owner. Statements of distinguishing and honourable titles can never be incongruous on a personal token. The date at which the design was adopted may also fitly and properly appear in the composition. The modern fashion is in favour of some definite " phrase of book-possession," which, it should be pointed out, is, on the whole, a foreign invention. The immense majority of English plates anterior to this century (excepting gift-plates, which Phrases of Book-possession. 2 1 1 required, of course, a special statement to that effect), bear no proprietary remark before the owner's name, an ommission which is generally found still in the " Modern Die-sinker " style. I myself incline to the bibliophilic phrase as being conducive to the completeness of the con- ventional arrangements. The somewhat inapt appearance of a mere name under a little genre sketch, will no doubt suggest itself at once by reference, to choose only these instances out of many, to the two otherwise charming compositions drawn for Mr. Jackson and Mr. Walter Marks. The choice of suitable phrases already sanc- tioned by long custom is tolerably large. The words Ex-libris, (which have long been of so general occurrence on foreign book-plates as to have become consolidated into a conventional substantive, and under that guise recognized as a technical term), the words ex-libris, it may be urged, are not only so very definite in meaning, but also so universally accepted, that they must remain the best and least pretentious. Some people prefer varieties, as Unus ex-libris before, or E libris suis after, their names. Ex bibliotheca is a little more aspiring, and no doubt tends to suggest a collection of some importance. The number of proprietary formulae sanctioned by precedent is very great. Warren has collected a great many of these book-phrases in the intro- duction to the " Guide " ; many more may be gleaned among the leaves of the " Book-plate Collector's Miscellany." With a view to personal adapta- 2 1 2 English Book-plates. tion, the following few examples are offered for consideration. — Liber Bilibaldi Pirckheimer, (1503). Sibi et Amicis. — Thomcz Prince Liber, (1 704). — E Bibliotheca Baronis du Baltimore, (1751). - — Ex Catalogo Bibliothecce Caumartin, (1750). ■ — Unus ex collectione librorum Domini Johannis Georgii Eimbeckenii, ( 1 720). — Grolierii et amicorum. — Mei Golierii Lugdunens. et amicorum. — Michaeli Begon et amicis. — Ex bibliothec Reg. in Caste/. Windesor. —Pro Bibliotheca . — Pertinet ad Bibliothecam . — Ex Museo D. Clandii Ruffier, (1690). — Bibliotheca Palatina, (1730). — Bibliotheca M. H. Theodori Baron. (1720). — Ad Bibliothecam Jo. Jac. Reinhardi, (1695). — Insigne Librorum . — Symbolum Bibliothecce Johannis Bernardi Nack, (i759)-. — Ex supellectile librana Bened. Giul. Zahnii, — Sigillum Horatu Comitis de Orford, (1791). — Ex-lib7'is Bibliothecce personalis , (1750). — Ex-libris Bibliothecce domesticce Ricardi Towneley de Towneley in Agro Lancastrensi Armigeri. A IsEtatis, T\. Anno, ,-, • ' /J ! Domini, 1 702. — E libris Hen. Aston, (1740). — Bibliotheccs Gerhardinoe Pars sum. — Sum Johannis Martini. English Formula. 213 It will be seen that a good number of the fore- going types are of foreign extraction ; being Latin, however, they are equally available for English plates. On this point, it may with advantage be remembered that a pedantic translation and con- sequent declension of proper names is not really necessary, and is, in fact, often productive of a grotesque effect. Vernacular phrases do not seem to have been evolved in great number, no doubt on account of the more prevalent habit among English engravers of simply stating the owner's name under the design without further specification. — This book belongs to Charles Edward Thompson, (1816). — A. Gray s Private Library, (1820). — Edward Audley oweth ipwnetfi) this Booke, (1633)- — I belong to . — This is Giles Wilkinson his book. — Logonian Library [i.e. of John Logan]. — Attstin Dobson his book. Besides the statement of ownership, a great number of plates, aiming more or less at originality, display, as I pointed out in the Introduction, senti- ments and mottoes of the most miscellaneous character. Many are decidedly amiable and pro- fess a readiness in their owners to admit friends to the free use of their libraries. I think there can be but one opinion among book-lovers on this subject : the Sibi et Amicis, the M or N et ami- corum formulae are either rank affectation, or if 2 1 4 English Book-plates. peradventure sincere, unworthy of any member of our fraternity. The majority of book-plate senti- ments, however, are more honest, and are meant either to warn away all borrowers uncompromi- singly, or at least to rise as a standing reproach to the wicked who do not speedily return a lent volume. Statements of this kind are for all practical pur- poses nugatory, but a legend in the style either of John James Webster. (He does not lend books.), or of the Nunquam Amicorum of a certain fierce bibliophile, may at times prove useful in facilitating the refusal of a loan. The mottoes directed against book-borrowers to be found in an extensive collection of plates are sometimes very quaint. For these as well as for the more or less pithy verses and aphorisms on the joys of reading, in praise of study ; for truisms on the subject of literature ; for pious or humorous sentiments, I must refer the reader to the stan- dard work, Warren's " Guide," to Mr. Walter Hamilton's copious contributions in the " Book- Plate Collector's Miscellany " and to the " Ex-Libris Journal." The subject would fill a long chapter in itself. All that need be said here is that in a matter of this kind, the most absolute freedom from conventionality should be cultivated ; no adaptation of "sentiments" having already done duty is acceptable any more than would be an allegory or rebus devised for another person. Such Family Plates. 215 adjuncts to a plate must be strictly personal or they lose all meaning. Although this personal character is one which should, as a rule, be kept in view in designing a token of book ownership, there are circum- fcCTP lOMjl lilifl fM ilfM flJlJ - Blundell of Crosby. BOOK-PLATE OF THE CROSBY HALL LIBRARY. stances in which it is not required — in collegiate plates, for instance — and some, indeed, in which there is actually a greater fitness and a certain grandeur in the simple statement of the sole patronymic. This is the case with the ex-libris of 2l6 English Book-plates. an ancestral library forming part of entailed pro- perty. Such a collection is no particular person's absolute property ; it is an heirloom, and should bear the family name and family arms only {i.e., without quarterings, which would at once make the plate personal). Of this kind is the Salisbury Hatfield plate, which belongs to the past century, and as another example of modern die-sinker j- g-r LI BRIS ♦ 3IHN3H BOOK-PLATE OF FREDERICK HENRY HUTH. Reduced to one-third linear dimensions. style, illustrating this special category, may be taken the ex-libris of the Crosby Hall Library. It is evident that all the books accumulated yearly in this reading age do not find their way to the family library, they remain the private pro- perty of the different members, and it is quite open to them, perfectly legitimate, and in fact advantageous (if they wish to preserve a distinc- tion between meum et tuum), to maintain their private tokens. The available choice of composi- ' ' Process ' ' Reproductions. 2 1 7 tions is, as we have seen, adequate to meet the greatest variety of tastes. The multiplication of very perfect photographic " processes " for the fac-simile reproduction of de- signs, their enlargement or reduction, has rendered 6oWynnstayGardensKensington| BOOK-PLATE OF ARTHUR SOMERVELL. By L. Leslie Brooke. the cost of all but line-engraved plates a matter of small consideration in comparison with what it used to be. The great variety of devices in which so many amateurs of the present day indulge their fancy would have been thought a decided extrava- F F 218 English Book-plates. gance not so many years ago. Photographic pro- cess has given rise to a characteristic class of design, in which the original drawing can be made with freedom, even with dash, on a con- veniently large scale, and reduced to the required dimension without loss of distinctness. The mi- nuscule reproduction here given of a book-plate belonging to Mr. F. H. Huth, which would suit the smallest tome, whereas the original would have been quite too large for these pages, is an instance of the manner in which a given design can be made to do duty for books of all sizes. The genuine wood or copper- plate engraver looks, of course, with unconcealed disdain upon the achievements of process engraving. Process will never supplant hand-work, which must ever retain its intrinsic value, but it has come as a boon to the general artistic public, who can now obtain, with trifling cost and in briefest time, 1 prints of charm- ing designs, such as that with which I conclude my series of illustrations — the book-plate devised by Mr. Leslie Brooke for Mr. Arthur Somervell, trie musician, a very personal composition of the " Allegoric " class. Book-plate collectors have been subjected to much bibliophilic abuse from people who know something about books, and to elaborate sneering from others who do not know quite so much. A book-plate, say the first, is part of a book 1 See note, page 228. The Removal of Book-plates. 219 and should not be removed, — such an act is rank Biblioclasm. What sort of interest can be found in a collec- tion of such things as book-plates ? ask the latter. This question has, I think, been sufficiently answered in the Introduction to the present volume, and in every work devoted to ex-libris lore. Concerning the contention that it is not 1 * • legitimate to remove a book-plate from a book, the only general answer possible is, that we should not push sentimentalism about books, however much we may love them, to the ridicu- lous, nor apply a sound, broad principle, to petty and inadequate instances. When a book-plate really forms part of the history of a valuable volume, it were foolish to remove it, for "in the volume to which it properly belongs, the ex-libris is living ; apart from it it is but a dead leaf," as M, Bouchot pithily (but a little speciously) points out- Asa matter of fact, such a deed is rarely done ; a fine book-plate may be a valuable chattel, but its money's worth must ever remain insignificant in comparison with that of a precious volume. And in any case, the process of removal, which is to convert the living plate into the "dead leaf," if performed with the requisite tenderness, need never injure a well-bound book. In short, the book-plates which fill collectors' cases and albums, do not come out of rare and valuable works, but rather from the numberless odd tomes, which form the waste and rubbish of second hand bookshops all over the world ; from the discarded covers of books sent to be 220 English Book-plates. rebound ; from the libraries of men who are so full of pride in, and solicitude for, their new purchases that they hasten to replace the tokens of previous owners (about whom, as a rule, they know nothing, and care less), by their own mark of possession. Such men, certainly, do not " de- stroy " their books by the removal of an old label, and, when all is said and done, the process is doubtless more legitimate than the pasting of a new plate over an old one, according to a not uncommon practice. Large collections of ex-libris, it is well known, can only be accumulated either by the purchase of numerous smaller ones, or through the agency of dealers, who certainly are the last persons to discount the value of precious wares for the sake of such sums as even in these days are obtainable for ex-libris. Much more could be added on this topic, to show even that far from being destructive of books, the modern infatuation for book-plates has perhaps been the means of saving many a comparatively worthless tome from the paper- mill ; but I imagine that enough has been said at least to refute the opprobrious accusation levelled at ex-librists indiscriminately. Such denouncement coming from irresponsible and generally obscure persons, can, as a rule, be neglected. But what are we to say when no less an authority on library matters than Mr. Andrew Lang finds its necessary to devote a page of his crispest writing to the wholesale defamation of book-plate collectors. The Removal of Book-plates. 221 " The antiquarian ghoul," asseverates Mr. Lang, 1 after giving a smart stab of his pen (whereat we must, of course, all be at one with him) to the " moral ghoul," who defaces those passages in precious volumes which do not meet his idea of propriety, "the antiquarian ghoul steals title pages and colophons. Thesesthetic ghoulcutsilluminated initials out of manuscripts. The petty trivia', and almost idiotic ghoul of our own days, sponges the fly-leaves and boards of books, for the purpose of cribbing the book-plates." Are we then to include in the fraternity of trivial and idiotic ghouls, all the bookmen and book- lovers I have mentioned in this book as authori- ties on ex-libris, because they have accumulated and jealously treasure collections of book-plates ? I myself (if I may compare the small with the great) repudiate the accusation of ghoulishness, and yet hope in due course to be owner of many more " dead leaves " than at the present time. And whilst on this topic, I would further point out, that it is strictly illogical to compare the " theft " of book-plates, which are essentially adventitious to a volume, with that of title pages and colophons which are integral parts of the same. But perhaps the writer only used this uncom- promising language for the purpose of introducing easily, and with appositeness, a certain quaint Ballad of Books ; for he goes on to say : " An old 'Complaint of a Book-plate,' in dread of the wet sponge of the enemy, has been discovered by Mr. Austin Dobson." 1 "The Library," by Andrew Lang. Macmillan, 1881. 222 English Book-plates. This charming conceit, which appeared some twelve years ago in "Notes and Queries," 1 has now become in a way classical in Book-plate literature, and I have, therefore, obtained Mr. Dobson's permission to reprint it in this volume. THE BOOK-PLATE'S PETITION. By a Gentleman of the Temple. While cynic Charles still trimm'd the vane 'Twixt Querouaille and Castlemaine, In days that shocked John Evelyn, My Firs': Possessor fix'd me in. In days of Dutchmen and of frost, The narrow sea with James I cross'd, Returning when once more began The Age of Saturn and of Anne. I am a part of all the past ; I knew the Georges, first and last ; I have been oft where else was none Save the great wig of Addison ; And seen on shelves beneath me grope The little eager form of Pope. I lost the Third that own'd me when The Frenchmen fled at Dettingen ; The year James Wolfe surpris'd Quebec, The Fourth in hunting broke his neck ; The Fifth one found me in Cheapside The day that William Hogarth dy'd. This was a Scholar, one of those Whose Greek is sounder than their hose ; He lov'd old books and nappy ale, So liv'd at Streatham, next to Thrale. 1 "Notes and Queries," 6th S. III. Jan. 8, '8i, p. 31. The Removal of Book-Plates (6th S. ii. 445, 491). "As indigna- tion appears to have prompted verses in one of your contribu- tors, perhaps the following old-fashioned performance on this theme may be of interest " The Removal of Book-plates. 223 'Twas there this stain of grease I boast Was made by Dr. Johnson's toast. He did it, as I think, for spite ; My Master call'd him Jacobite. And now that I so long to-day Have rested post discrimina, Safe in the brass-wir'd book-case where I watch'd the Vicar's whit'ning hair. Must I these travell'd bones inter In some Collector's sepulchre ? Must I be torn from hence and thrown With frontispiece and colophon ? With vagrant £s, and /s, and Os, The spoil of plunder'd Folios ? With scraps and snippets that to Me Are naught but kitchen company ? Nay, rather, Friend, this favour grant me : Tear me at once ; but do?ii transplant me ! Cheltenham, Sepf. 31, 1792. Ex-Libris. This is pathetic, and I hope it may not be thought too sudden an anti-climax if I reveal forthwith the best method of removing Book- plates from boards and fly-leaves. There is no necessity for the sponging alluded to above ; the sponging in many cases would be as tedious and inefficacious as it sounds brutal in connection with a book ; it would in many cases injure the plate itself, and always leave unneces- sarily large traces on the lining of the book. No, the dealing adopted by experts is as follows : — A piece of flannel or woollen cloth is cut of the size of the plate which it is required to eradicate, and wetted thoroughly in water. It is then applied with tender care to the plate so as to cover it 224 English Book-plates. exactly, and pressed firmly with a smoothing-iron, heated to about the scorching point of paper. The rapid vaporization of the water in the rag prevents all possible injury from heat to the book itself, whilst the bubbling and hissing steam per- meates the plate irresistibly, and softens gum or paste (it would even soften glue) so satis- factorily that the label, if gently raised at one corner with a penknife, can be lifted away with no more than a slight unctuous resistance. The process is as expeditious as it is simple. There is a certain dull discoloration left on the boards (if the latter be coloured), where the late ex-libris had rested, but this slight blemish can easily be kept out of sight by the application of a new and personal plate. So much for the alleged " destruction" of books due to the " theft " of book-plates. And now to conclude this very elementary handbook may be added a few brief words on the management of a collection. So long as it remains small and select, there can be no difficulty in its arrangement ; from the moment, however, that it has to be reckoned in hundreds and in thousands, it becomes imperative on the collector to select one definite scheme of array. As the orderly disposal of plates always necessitates cataloguing, the most obvious arrange- ment seems at first to be the alphabetical pure and simple. This plan has certain advantages, espe- cially in the eyes of the " genealogist," who cares chiefly for the heraldic matters embodied in book- plates ; it also brings all the different tokens of a Arrangement of a Collection. 225 given family, or of families bearing the same name under the same rubric, a conjunction which is to some extent curious. But for the average ex- librist, the strictly alphabetical muster is insupport- able ; it gathers the most heterogeneous elements together into a hopeless jumble, in which ancient, artistic, or otherwise specially interesting examples are smothered among the most commonplace pro- ductions of the Modern Stationer. True, that given the name of a particular ex-libris, it can be found under such circumstances with special facility, but this result can almost as easily be secured by means of a carefully kept-up index ; and an index is always necessary, whatever be the system of classification adopted. The more usual, and no doubt the more ra- tional arrangement, is according to "styles" and "classes." This, as I have said, corresponds to some extent to a chronological order, otherwise impossible to obtain (except in the case of dated plates — and dated plates are in the minority). The chief difficulty seems to be in the actual definition of styles and classes. On these matters, however, albeit almost every collector has a system and a nomenclature of his own, there is a certain general understanding as to the broad categories into which book-plates can be mustered. These it has been my object to set forth as simply as possible. Concerning what might be called the mechanical arrangements of an extensive collection of " dead- leaves " (which, unless methodically dealt with, is very liable to become unwieldy, not to say GO 226 English Book-plates. bewildering) it may from the first be argued that perhaps the worst possible system is their hard and fast pasting down in albums. To the possible accumulation of specimens there is practically no end ; they should therefore remain movable, or at least removable, either to make room for fresh members among their ranks and files, or for the purpose of new or temporary classification. When the album or scrap-book arrangement is preferred to that of the loose-box, it is most suitable to fix each plate lightly in its place which can be but temporary unless the collector, (most rare and fantastic instance !) has quite done with collecting, by means of thin strips of gummed paper. The leaves of the book should be tolerably stout, numbered, and toned in colour. According to> the extent of the collection, one or several volumes can be allotted to each group, style or class, particular members of which can be then found by reference to an index ; or conversely more than one category may be consigned to a particular tome. Book-plates may also, and with great advantage, be kept in, and distributed among, various boxes- or pamphlet-cases, according to any special classi- fication. This gives, of course, the maximum of mobility. For the sake of special neatness, the specimens may be mounted lightly on pieces of thin cardboard, of suitable and uniform size ; thisj, of course, increases the bulk of the collection, but to a certain extent facilitates its handling;-. Even, on these mounts, the plates should not be pasted hard and fast, but merely secured by one edge, — Cleaning and Mending. 227 ex-libris never can be sure of any long resting- place, but may have to be removed and sent else- where, as gifts or exchanges ; and repeated soak- ings are not good for any paper that was ever made. The disposition of collection is a matter which of course depends on the special fancy, as well as on the circumstances of the owner ; but I believe the movable arrangement in historical and artistic categories, assigned to separate receptacles, scrap- books, pamphlet-cases, or nests-of-drawers, is on the whole favoured by the majority of collectors. Book plates rescued from the boards of waif and stray volumes in second-hand dealers' shops often require cleaning and mending. The preliminary process is best effected by laying the wetted leaf on some marble slab and gently rubbing it on both sides with pure soap which can subsequently be washed off (and with it the accumulated grime of destitution) by a stream of hot water. A certain amount of bleaching is in some cases required. For this purpose Mr. Vicars recommends a lotion compounded of a tablespoonful of " Permak's Bleacher " in a quart of water. This drug can be obtained of most chemists, but in its absence many other equally efficient preparations are obtain- able. Care is required not to overdo the bleaching operation. For the mending of torn plates any kind of clean tracing paper can be advantageously used. The most convenient material, however, is a certain tenacious tegument, ready gummed for application, prepared by Seabury and Johnson, known as "Music Mender." 228 English Book-plates. The identification of book-plates is a subject requiring generally wide and peculiar information. Some clue to the period of a particular specimen is as a rule suggested at once to an experienced eye, by the nature and treatment of the design, the lettering, the character of the paper, etc. In heraldic compositions the charges, and the mar- shalling of combined coats in a shield can be interpreted by experts almost with certainty. Among the numerous books of reference indispens- able to this department of investigation, stands first of all Papworth and Morant's "Ordinary," 1 a marvellously complete index enabling the student to trace the name of a bearer of arms, from any given charge on his coat. Equally indispensable are Sir Bernard Burke's monumental heraldic and genealogical works. There are also numbers of similar works, covering the same ground in different manners, besides County and Family Histories in plenty, disquisitions on the special usefulness of which, however, are not within the limits of this work. 2 Definite evidence of place and date is often derivable from the signatures of designers and 1 "An Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms belonging to families in Great Britain and Ireland, forming an extensive Ordinary of British Armorial " — by the late J. W. Papworth, F.R.I.B.A. Edited from p. 696, by Alfred W. Morant F.S.A., F. G. S., London, T. Richards, 37, Great Queen Street, 4to. 1874. It is for similar reasons that I have refrained from dwelling in these pages on specially heraldic matters. Technicalities of blazonry, on the one hand, being unintelligible to the uninitiated, whilst the expert, on the other, requires no accompanying text to interpret the heraldry displayed under his eyes. Identification of Plates. 229 engravers. Of these latter a voluminous general list exists in Warren's " Guide," and various special accounts of Scottish, Irish, local, and "contem- porary " artists connected with book-plate engrav- ing, are being periodically contributed to the Journal of the Ex-libris Society, by sundry specialists. From their very nature, however, these lists are rather barren ; but their information may, in many cases, be supplemented by reference to Bryan's "Dictionary of Painters and Engravers" — espe- cially the new edition, 1886, enlarged by R. E. Graves. This work is an almost indispensable companion to ex-librists whose special interest in book-plates is of the artistic order. As- a kind of envoy in tail of this little hand- book, it has seemed to me suitable to quote what is apparently the latest literary allusion to book- plates artistically considered. In a curious volume, published by Messrs. Chatto and Windus, entitled, "Where Art Begins," Mr. Hume Nisbet devotes a paragraph on the subject at hand which I reproduce here without comment. " Book-plates. " This is an old art or taste, which is being once more revived with great activity, through the timely efforts of the ' Ex-Libris Society.' It is a pursuit which is most educative to the lover of books, because it is filled with symbols, and leads on to the noble art of Heraldry, and the spiritual intellectualism in which such men as Albert 23° English Book-plates. Diirer stand so pre-eminent. At first sight, it may appear like pandering to the vanity of book- ;« Gibson, 196. 1888. Vol. III., illustrated. Examples of Armorial Book- plates : Burfoot, 396, Barton, 18S ; Rachel, Duchess of Beaufort, 1706, 276; Conduit, 188; Darwin, 1737, 17; Darwin, 1771, 17; Dering, 1630, 56; Dering, 56; Hopkins, 261 ; Keith, 88; Monypenny, 56 ; Shuckburgh, 256; Toilet, 72 ; Taddy, 261 ; Webster, 37. 1889. Vol. IV., illustrated. Examples of Armorial Book- plates : N. D'Eye, 25 ; Ball, R. Ball Dodson, 41 ; Paul Jodrell, 89; Vassall, 120; Cooke, 17 12, 136; Sir G. Cooke, 1727, 152; Harrison, 1698, 168; Langley, 184; Wyndham, 201 ; Prentice, 216; Yardley, 1721, Yardley, 1739. 232. Vol. V, illustrated. Richard Pritchett, 89 ; John Benson, 104. London, 8vo, 1892. Vol. VII. Book-plates, early reference to, 231. 4to, 1883. THE ANTIQUARY. Vol I. Notes on Book-plates, 75-77 ; Book-plates (W. Hamilton), 117-118; Book-plates, 189; Notes on Curious Book-plates, 236-237 ; another Chapter on •Book-plates (Alfred Wallis), 256-259. 1880. Vol. II. A Supplementary Chapter on Book-plates, 6-10; An Essay on Book-plates (E. P. Shirley), 115- 118 ; Book-plates, 133, 272. 1880. Vol. III. Reviews : " A Guide to the Study of Book- plates," 77. 1 88 1. Vol. IV Last Words on Book-plates, 106-111. 4to, 1 88 1. . Vol. V. Book-plates, 85-86. 4to, 1882. • Vol. XIII. Book-plate, 231. 4to, 1886. 238 English Book-plates. The Antiquary — continued. Vol. XIX. Book-plates, proposed magazine for, 39. 1889. Vol. XXIII. A notice of the Ex-Libris Society, 142. 4to, 1 89 1 PALATINE NOTE BOOK (Manchester). Vol. I. Book-plates, 15, 16, 30, 52-53, 69, 114, 195; illustrated, 217; of Jesus Coll., Camb., 128; Walpole's, 209. 1 88 1. Vol.11. Book-plates, 18; illustrated. 1882. Vol. III. Bookplates, 51, 97, 237, 191, illustrated. 1883. ANTIQUARIAN MAGAZINE AND BIBLIOGRAPHER. E. Walford, M.A. Vol. I. Notes on English Book- plates, No. I. (W. J. Hardy), 173-177, illustrated. Vol. II. Notes on English Book-plates, No. II. (J. Harrop), 53-55, illustrated; on Book-plates (F. J. Thairlwall), 277-280, illustrated; Book-plates, 48, 106, 161, 322. 1882. Vol. III. Book-plates (D. P[arsons]), 2-7, 53-56, illus- trated (R. Day), 272-273 ; Book-plates, 104, 161, 274. Vol. IV. Book-plates (W. Hamilton), 1 10-1 1 1. 1883. Vol. V. A Bibliography of Book-plates (W. Hamilton). 78-80; Book-plates, 106, 107, 162, 217. 1884. THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE LIBRARY. Literary Curiosities. Book-plates, 82, 85, 325. London, Elliot Stock, 1888. The BOOKWORM. Book-plates and their mottoes, 205. London, Elliot Stock, 8vo, June, 1889. Bibliography. 239 The Library. Record of Bibliography. Reviews of " Die deutschen Biicherzeichen " (Warnecke) and "Les Ex-Libris" (Bouchot), iii., 17-19. Book-plates (by W. J. Hardy, F.S.A.), 47-53, 93-98. London, Elliot Stock, 8vo, 1891. Chambers's Encyclopedia. New Edition, Vol. II., 309. Book-plates. London, W. and R. Chambers, 8vo, 1889. WESTERN ANTIQUARY. W. H. K. Wright, Plymouth. Vol. I. Book-plates, Francis Drake's, 32, illustrated ; proposed work on, by Walter Hamilton, 174. 1881. Vol.11. Book-plates, local, 197; armorial, 211,212, illustrated. 1882. Vol. IV. Book-plate of J. O. H. Glynn, 38, illus- trated. " 1885. Vol. VII. Curious Book-lines, by George Wightwick, 160-161. ' 1888. The Book-plate Collector's Miscellany, a monthly supplement to the "Western Antiquary," illus- trated. Edited by W. H. K. Wright, F.R.H.S. Plymouth, W. H. Luke, 4to, 1 890-1 891. Journal of the Ex-Libris Society. Illustrated. Edited by W. H. K. Wright. In Progress. London, A. and C Black, for the Society. fT^i r^Tn r-gri rianrTTr^^i I^J^ 1 r ^14^ 1 Hf£"1 il6T°l I X I U&J l^j k20JL^J^JV23/ U24J 25/ 26. 27.1 28. ag 32 J(33.)/3*\J35 30/ 31 00 5?@5P©@©S 57 (& 2ii- Montagu, F. C, 205. Morell, 202. Moring, A., 105. Naas, Co. Kildare, 140. "Napkin," 51, 108, 197. Nash, Robert, 75. Neele, S., 95. Neild, Jas., 1 18, 119. Nicholson, Gilbert, 54, 55. Nisbet, Hume, 229. Nomenclature of book-plates, 21, 25, 134. Northbourne, Lord, 163. " Notes and Queries," 13. Oppenort, 71. Ord, John, 83. Papworth and Morant, 228. Parsons, Alfred, 180, 182. Parsons, Rev. Daniel, 13, 196, 197. Partridge, Bernard, 189. Pepys, Samuel, 7, 99, 106, 109. " Periwig" style, 49. " Permak's Bleacher," 227. Perotte, 71. " Perugini, Madame," 174. Petra Santa, Sylvester de, 42, 49. " Phiz," 166. " Phrases of Book-possession," 210, 211. " Pictorial " Plates, 169, 205. " Pile of Books," 99, 105. Pine, J., 103, 104, 105, in, 112. Pirckheimer, Bilibald, 30, 107. Pollock, Sir Fred., 167, 168. Pomer, Dr. Hector, 31, 32. Ponsonby, Hon. Gerald, xiii, 99, 114, 199. " Portrait " plates, 107. Poulet-Malassis, 13, 14, 19. "' Pounced " style, 142. Printers' marks, 35. " Printers' mark " style, 142, 205. " Process " reproduction, xiii. "Processes," 217, 218, 234. Proprietary formulae, 211. Punning plates, 176. "Queen Anne" style, 63, 65. Raby, Baron, 5. " Rebus " plates, 163, 176. " Regence " style, 69, 209. Removal of book-plates, 219, 223. "Restoration" style, 37, 38, 48, 198. Ricketts, Charles, 170. Roberts, H., 71. Robinson, 137. "Rocaille," 69, 70, 71, 73. "Rococo," 66, 72, 73. early, 75. drooping, 83. later, 81. Roffet, 27. Rogers, Samuel, 92, 93. "Rubaiyat," 179. "Ruin " plates, 123. .Russell, John Scott, 162. Rylands, Harry, 206. 248 English Book-plates. Rylands, J. Paul, ix, xiii, 14, '5. x6 > 37, io 9. tS 2 , J 33> 149, 205. St. Quintin, Sir W., 98. Salisbury, Hatfield plate, 87, 216. Sara well, T. S. W., 100, 105. Scollop shell, 66. "Scotch Chippendale," 84. Scott, John, mark of, 36, 142. Scott, W. Bell, 159, 160, 181, 182. "Seal" class, 137. plates, 139. Seaman, Mr. 152, 153. " Sentiment " plates, 9, 193. " Sette of Odd Volumes," 189. Seyringer, J., 14. Sharp, Charles, 177. Sheldon, 45. Sheraton, 90, 91. Sherborn, C. W., xiii, 18, 167, 169, 202, 234. Sherwin, in. Shields, forms of modern, 131, 233. "Ship Ex-libris," 161. Shorter, Clement, 242. "Silver Tray" plates, 94, 95. Simcox, Martha, 54, 56. Skeaping, K. M., 177. Skelton, John, 114. Slater, W. Brindley, 191, 193. Smith, Edgerton, 61, 63. Smith, Matthew, 78, 79. Soane, Harry, 18, 143, 145. Solis, Virgil, 32. Solomon, Simeon, 175. Somerset, Lady Henrietta, 60, 61. Somervell, Arthur, 217, 218. Southwell, 46. " Spade " Style, 87. " Special " plates, 207. "Sports," 21. Strange, Sir Robert, 10. Strawberry Hill Plate, 118, 121. "Styles," 20. "Super-libros,"4,35, 141, 208. Sweetman, Henry, 77. Sweetman plate, 230. Sydenham, Sir Philip, 99. Sykes, Sir Christopher, 143, 150. " Symbolic " plates, 149. Sywell, W. W. de, 42. Tabley, Lord de (see also Warren, Hon. J. L.), xiii, 37, 46, 58, 182, 186. Tait, Henry, 177, 178. Tanrego, 116. Taylor, J. 117, 118. Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 132, 134- Thackeray, W. Makepeace, Thibault, Master Girard, 209. Thorns, W. T., 109. Thornhill, Sir James, 112. Thornthwaite, 88. Tinctures, 49. Toro, 71. Tory, Geoffroy, 27. Towneley, 6. Townley, Charles, 114-115, 123. "Tree, bookseller's," 145. of Knowledge," 173, 175. ■ of Literature," 171. Index. 249 Tregaskis, James, 18, 41. Treshame, Sir Thos., 40. Treshams, 41. Trollope, Anthony, 128. "Trophy" plates, 79. " Tudoresque " style, 38, 42. Turnbull, A. H., 178, 179. Tyers, James, 93, 94. Types of shields, 232. "Urn" style, 87, 95. Vanderbank, 112. Vere, James, 82, 84. Vertue, George, 7, 10. Vicars, Arthur, xiii, 103, 106, in, 112, 227, 137. Vinycomb, J., 136, 139. Visiting cards, pictorial, 113. Wake Knot, 146. Walpole, Horace, 7, 121, 146. Walters, Henry, 77, 78. Ward, Marcus, 179. Warnecke, F. 17, 28. Warren, Hon. J. Leicester (see also Tabley, Lord de), 12, 14, 15, 17, 21, in, 113, 149, 181, 183, 211, 214, 229, 234, 235. Watteau, 71. Wedgwood, Josiah, 90. Wentworth, Thomas, Baron Raby, 50. " Western Antiquary," 19,241. Wheatley, 31. Wheeler, E. J., 190, 191. " Where Art Begins," 229. White, Gleeson, xiii, 170, 171, 194. White, Sir Robert, 108. Wilberforce, William, 72, 75. Wilson, John, 115. Windsor plate, 146. Winnington, Francis, 59. Winterbotham, 192, 193. Wolsey, Cardinal, 38/ "Wreath and Ribbon," 87. "Wreath and Spray," 87. Wren, Christopher, 58. Wright, Alan, 168, 172, 173, 174. Wright, W. H. K., 17, 18, 241. Wyndham,Wadham, 101, 103. Yates, Edmund, 135, 139. Zaehnsdorf, 202. CHISWICK PRESS :— C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. BY THE SAME WRITER. SCHOOLS AND MASTERS OF FENCE. George Bell and Sons. 4to. 1884. Reprinted in Crown 8vo. 1892. Translated : VEscrime et les Escrimeurs. Paris : P. Ollen- dorff. 1888. BIBLIOTHECA ARTIS DIMICATORI^E. In "Fencing, Boxing, and Wrestling." Badminton Library. Longmans and Co. 1889. CONSEQUENCES. A Novel. Richard Bentley and Son. 1891. "LA BELLA" AND OTHERS. Studies of Character and Action. Cassell and Company. 1892.