THE FRONTIER PROVINCES.
In June, 1881, M. Auguste Stoeber wrote some articles on Alsatian
book-plates which were published in the “Express de Mulhouse.” In
response to the persuasion of his friends he re-published these notes in
a pamphlet entitled “Petite Revue d’Ex-Libris Alsaciens, par Auguste
Stoeber, avec un facsimile de l’Ex-Libris de C. Wolfhardt, dit
Lycosthenes, de Rouffach.” Mulhouse, Veuve Bader et Cie, 1881. M.
Stoeber died a few years later, and his little pamphlet is now very
rare.
We have already seen that 1574 is the year of the earliest known dated
French ex-libris; M. Stoeber claims for Alsace a more ancient ex-libris,
which is not dated, but from its history must have been engraved before
1561. It belonged to Conrad Wolfhardt, who pedantically translated his
family name into _Lycosthenes_. He was born at Rouffach in 1518, studied
at Heidelberg, and became a professor at Basle, where he died on the
25th March, 1561. His book-plate appears to have been engraved on some
soft metal, either lead or pewter; there is no attempt to show the
tinctures on the shield, which is surmounted by a death’s head and
hour-glass. The design is surrounded by Latin mottoes, and beneath is
the inscription “Symbolum Conradi Lycosthenis Rubeaquensis.”
[Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF MESSIEURS A. AND L. BENOIT, 1846.]
[Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF MONSIEUR BENOIT, 1894.]
M. Auguste Stoeber describes a large number of ex-libris of Alsace,
formerly the frontier province of France, but now, owing to the terrible
fortune of war, incorporated with Germany. The greater portion of these
book-plates bear names of distinctly German origin, and their style is
totally dissimilar to that of French art. Take, for example, the modern
plate (it is dated 1846) designed by Mons. Arthur Benoit, of
Berthelming, to be used by himself and his brother Louis, for their
Saargovian collection, in which the artist has represented an Alsatian
peasant woman, in the ancient costume of the province, wearing the
quaint head-dress called the _Winterkappe_, which was made of black silk
for the Protestants, white silk for the Catholics. The spire of the
church of Berthelming rises in the background, and the _tout ensemble_
has a far more German than French character. The brothers Benoit had two
other book-plates, different in design, but not more French in
appearance.
[Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF ALBERT METZGER, OF MULHOUSE.]
The plates of Albert Metzger, of Mulhouse (by Ch. Delâtre), and of
Jacques Flach, of Strasbourg (by Groskost, of Strasbourg), are equally
German in style, although the pretty motto on the latter is essentially
French in thought and word. A reproduction of it will be found in