_Head and Tail Pieces--Small Ornaments_
This part of our subject is almost wholly unexplored. In dealing with
borders we not only had the large collections of title-pages made by
Bagford and Ames to draw upon for illustration, but also the studies of
such able writers as Mr E. G. Duff and Mr A. W. Pollard. When we come
to deal with initial letters we shall also find the writings of Mr C.
Sayle and Mr Pollard and others of great value to us; but in dealing
with the ornaments known as head-pieces and tail-pieces we have no
guidance. No collections of them are known, and no bibliographer has
ever made them a special subject of study.
Under these circumstances it will be best to deal with these two
classes of printers’ ornaments together, because although there were
special blocks designed and cut as head-pieces and tail-pieces which
were never used except in their rightful places, on the other hand
the early English printers frequently used the same block without
distinction.
As their name implies, the object of these blocks or ornaments was
to fill blank spaces at the beginning and end of divisions in the
text, such as Dedicatory Epistles, Prefaces, Sections of a work, or
Chapters. They were also frequently placed above and below a colophon.
Whatever may have been the custom amongst Continental printers with
regard to the use of such ornaments, the sixteenth century was well
advanced before they began to make their appearance in English books.
So far as I know, no book of Caxton’s exhibits any ornament of this
kind. He followed the habit of the scribes and began his letterpress
high up the page and did not leave a space that required filling up,
and was content to leave other spaces unfilled. Both Wynkyn de Worde
and Pynson had a varied assortment of blocks, which, as we have seen,
they used as borders to title-pages or to their devices, but neither
of them during the fifteenth century placed any ornaments at the head
of the text or at the end of any of their books, and even as late as
1525 Pynson’s folio edition of _Froissart_ was entirely devoid of
head-or tail-pieces, and so was the folio Bible of 1539.
This at least we may say, with confidence, that the use of some
kind of ornament at the bottom of a chapter, or the end of a book,
preceded the use of head ornaments, and we may go even further and
say that the earliest form of tail-piece used by any English printer
was a single fleuron of especially large size, and perhaps cut in
wood and not metal, three of which arranged as a reversed triangle is
frequently seen in books at an early date in the sixteenth century. We
may date the adaptation of the fleuron for the decoration of blank
spaces as between 1560 and 1570, and an exceedingly good specimen
of its adaptability for this purpose is here reproduced. Bound up
with a copy of the Book of Common Prayer, printed by Richard Jugge
in 1573, is, _A Treatise made by Athanasius ... in what manner ye
may use the Psalmes_. This consisted of four leaves only, the
first of which is missing, signed A [1]--A iiij, and on the verso of
A iiij is this elaborate tail-piece. The centre, as will be seen, is
formed of a fleuron ornament surrounded by a ‘lace border’ of other
fleurons, and flanked at each of the four corners by two pieces of the
same ornament. Below this again is a block of a semi-architectural
character, with a human head in the middle and a lion’s head at either
end, with bunches of fruit in between--the whole design measuring 135
× 122 mm. The ornament in the centre of this tail-piece is a single
block and not formed of separate units like the frame; but it is none
the less the fleuron worked into an arabesque design. These blocks
had been in use some years and became very popular, and a few more
that have been met with may be mentioned. Three found in Sophocles’
_Antigone_, printed in 1581, illustrate the manifold ways in which
the fleuron could be treated. The first is triangular in form, while
the other two are square but set cornerwise. John Day used several in
the _Cosmographical Glasse_, 1559. Another fine example is to be
seen on the title-page of John Bodenham’s _Garden of the Muses_,
printed in 1610 by E. A.--that is, Edward Allde--for John Tap. Both
in shape and design this differs altogether from the others. In this
instance it becomes an ornament, but it was no doubt used elsewhere as
a tail-piece.
Equally when built up to form head and tail pieces the individual
fleuron was worked into bewildering variations: to attempt to mention
or illustrate them all would be impossible; but an example or two from
the sixteenth century books are illustrated. The first is a single row
of a single unit, set as a pair back to back. It is taken from sig. F
6 of Vautrollier’s _De Rep. Anglorum_ of 1579. It will be noticed
that the original form of the fleuron--the single leaf and stalk--has
undergone considerable variation, particularly by the introduction of
a heavy cross-piece, perhaps intended as a development of the second
piece of stalk, which was a feature of the early unit, but introduced
with a purpose, as this example shows. The second and third of our
illustrations are taken from the title-page of the first edition of
Shakespeare’s _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, printed in London in 1598,
and from Waldegrave’s edition of the _Basilicon Doron_, printed in
Edinburgh in 1599. The contrast between the two is worth noting. The
units in the Shakespeare measure 9 × 6 mm. each; portions of the stem
are shaded, and they are arranged in sets of four and two. Waldegrave’s
fleurons were a shade larger, i.e. 9 × 7 mm. The arrangement is the
same, but the stem, being entirely black, imparts a totally different
appearance to the ornament. In another instance in this book the same
units are used, but in this case they are placed horizontally, thus
giving a complete alteration in appearance.
A fourth example is built up of two units only--arranged as seven
central groups of four, with a border top and bottom consisting of
seven pairs; and by leaving out the bottom row yet another change was
wrought. Indeed, the possible combinations were endless. No wonder that
the fleuron ornament has kept its place in the compositor’s box until
the present day.
Another ornament used as a tail-piece in the sixteenth century may be
best described as the ‘lozenge’ ornament. Like the ‘fleuron’ it was
apparently a stock pattern, supplied to all printers alike from quite
the beginning of the sixteenth century. It is found on the Continent,
and also in the offices of Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, Richard Faques, and
others.
Robert Redman used seven of them, no doubt part of Pynson’s stock,
to form a tail-piece at the end of his _Year Book for Michaelmas
Term_, 11th Henry VI., believed to have been printed about 1540,
and with them another of Pynson’s border pieces [B.M. 504, f. 16
(8)]. Another curious example of its use is seen at the end of _An
Enterlude called Lusty Juventus_, printed by John Awdeley, without
date, but not earlier than 1560, where no less than twenty-seven half
lozenges arranged as an inverted triangle are found beneath his imprint
on the last page.
An ornament quite common in the sixteenth century, which on occasion
served both as head-and tail-piece, may perhaps be described as a
‘ribbon’ ornament, as in appearance it resembles two pieces of ribbon
interlaced into circles and squares, a five-pointed star being placed
in the centre of the circles and a flower in the centre of the squares.
This is all one piece, and was probably metal and could be cut to any
length. In 1579 it is found in a book printed by Vautrollier. During
the seventeenth century the small ornaments already noticed as used for
borders to title-pages--the star, the rose, the crown, the thistle,
the fleur-de-lys and the acorn, cast in various sizes--shared with
the fleuron the duty of supplying head and tail pieces, or dividing
sections of a book.
In 1662 we come upon another example--an urn with a flower growing in
it, used in the _Liber precum publicarum_, printed in 1662, where
at the head of the licence fifteen of them are used at the head of the
page and again on the verso of the same page; but, whether purposely or
not, in each case units of a different design are introduced.
Some further varieties of these small printers’ ornaments, not easily
describable--they may be meant for flowers or urns or anything
else--are found in a volume of Parliamentary Declarations, etc., of the
time of the revolution. When they happened to be new, or were used by a
careful printer, these small ornaments were effective, but when, as too
often happened during the period between 1640 and 1660, they were old,
badly arranged, and badly inked, they often spoilt the book or document
in which they were used. By the time the eighteenth century was
reached, the compositor’s box had become crowded with small printers’
ornaments. Like all other printers’ materials at that time, these were
the production of type-founders in Holland. But in 1720 William Caslon,
an engraver of gun-locks, was introduced to the printers William
Bowyer and John Watts, and was by them taken to the foundry of James
in Bartholomew Close. Bowyer and Watts also advanced him sums of money
to enable him to set up as a type-founder. Caslon’s superiority over
all other letter-cutters, English or Dutch, was quickly recognized. The
shape and proportion of his Roman letter, combined with its wonderful
regularity in height, was such as had not been seen in England since
the days of Pynson, while his italic founts were also remarkable for
their beauty and regularity.
That it was printed with Caslon’s letter was the best advertisement
a book could have in the eighteenth century, and his foundry soon
eclipsed all others in this country.[8]
His first specimen sheet was issued in 1734, but it shows only five
examples of fleuron ornament and two rows of stars. The first of
these examples was not a common pattern, although it may have had
a predecessor in the seventeenth century. The other four showed no
originality--they had been in use for a couple of centuries--but they
were cast clearly. If these were all the flowers which Caslon thought
it necessary to show after fourteen years’ experience, the inference
is that he was more concerned with the cutting of type-faces than
ornaments. In the specimen book of 1764 the flowers fill no less than
four pages, and in addition to the fleuron, which is shown in many
sizes and some new variations, the type-founder had introduced several
new designs, such as minute circles that could be arranged in many
decorative ways--an hour-glass and skull and cross-bones, no doubt for
use as head or tail pieces in funeral sermons--and had also, in one
instance at least, reverted to a fifteenth century ribbon pattern. Many
single-line castings were also shown. In the specimen book of 1785
many new designs and their possibilities as head and tail pieces were
illustrated by artistic and novel arrangement of the various ornaments,
some of which we know were adopted by printers throughout the country.
Further specimen books were issued by the firm from time to time.
Some examples of the use of small ornaments in the decoration of books
in the eighteenth century in which Caslon’s influence is evident are
here shown. The first is seen on sig. B of the Rev. William Gardner’s
Sermon, preached at the Assizes at Kingston-upon-Thames on August
4, 1726, and is an extremely effective combination of several units
of different design surrounded by what may best be described as a
bead border, the beads being arranged in groups--an oval between two
round--and each group being separated by a star. [B.M. 226, f. 3 (9).]
The next, which shows several new forms of the treatment of the
fleuron as a decorative unit, is also remarkable for the very artistic
way in which they are arranged, the whole forming what, to use the
language of that day, would probably have been called a ‘very elegant’
head-piece. It is seen at the head of the text of _A Sermon preached
at Stafford at the Assizes held there on August 22nd_, 1756, by
the Rev. Joseph Crewe. In neither of the above cases do we know the
printer. [B.M. 225, f. 3 (5).]
Finally we may notice one or two from a little book called _The
Lover’s Manual_, published by a country bookseller, S. Silver of
Sandwich, but printed in London, possibly at the same press as the
preceding, as the ornaments are very similar.
John Baskerville, who shared with Caslon the merit of being one of the
best type-founders of the eighteenth century, made a very sparing use
of ornaments; but such as he did use we may suppose him to have cast
in his own foundry. Messrs Straus & Dent in their life of this eminent
printer have reproduced fourteen of his ornaments. Nos. 14 and 4 differ
only as regards size. This flower ornament with circle in the centre
was a departure from the old model. Indeed, all these ornaments are
light, graceful, and in keeping with the character of the fine types
of which he was the founder. Nos. 6 and 7, reproduced by Messrs Straus
& Dent, are very beautiful variations of the old-fashioned fleuron,
the nearest approach to which are the feathery examples, Nos. 2 and 8,
which, however, lack both the firmness and the grace seen in those
of the sixteenth century. The ribbon ornament, No. 5, seems to be a
survival, or perhaps revival would be the better word, of the ornament
found in the hands of Pynson and Wynkyn de Worde.
Altogether the printers of the eighteenth century could obtain a wealth
of small ornaments such as they had never possessed before.
HEAD AND TAIL PIECES--DECORATIVE BLOCKS