[Transcriber's Notes: Two letters had macrons above them in the orginal
these have been marked as: [=i] and [=m].
A carot ^ before bracketed letters indicated that the letter or letters
were superscripted in the orginal: Hon^{ble}.]
[Illustration]
Book-Plates
By W. J. Hardy, F.S.A.
_SECOND EDITION_
[Illustration]
London
Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd.
MDCCCXCVII
_First Edition published 1893 as Vol._ II. _of 'Books about Books.'_
Preface
HAVING vindicated in my introductory chapter the practice of collecting
book-plates from the charge of flagrant immorality, I do not think it
necessary to spend many words in demonstrating that it is in every way a
worthy and reasonable pursuit, and one which fully deserves to be made
the subject of a special treatise in a series of _Books about Books_. If
need were, the Editor of the series, who asked me to write this little
hand-book, would perhaps kindly accept his share of responsibility, but
in the face of the existence of a flourishing 'Ex Libris' Society, the
importance of the book-plate as an object of collection may almost be
taken as axiomatic. My own interest in this particular hobby is of long
standing, and happily the appearance, when my manuscript was already at
the printer's, of Mr. Egerton Castle's pleasantly written and profusely
illustrated work on _English Book-Plates_ has relieved me of the dreaded
necessity of writing an additional chapter on those modern examples, in
treating of which neither my knowledge nor my enthusiasm would have
equalled his.
The desire to possess a book-plate of one's own is in itself commendable
enough, for in fixing the first copy into the first book the owner may
surely be assumed to have registered a vow that he or she at least will
not join the great army of book-persecutors--men and women who cannot
touch a volume without maltreating it, and who, though they are often
ready to describe the removal of a book-plate, even from a worthless
volume, as an act of vandalism, do infinitely more harm to books in
general by their ruthless handling of them. No doubt, also, the decay of
interest in heraldry, which is mainly responsible for the eccentricities
of modern 'fancy' examples, has taken from us the temptation to commit
certain sins which were at one time attractive. Our ancestors, for
instance, may sometimes have outraged the susceptibilities of the
heralds by using as book-plates coats-of-arms to which they had no
title. Yet their offence against the College of Arms was trivial when
compared with the outrage upon common-sense committed by the mystical
young man of to-day, who designs, or has designed for him, an
'emblematic' book-plate, or a 'symbolic' book-plate, or a 'theoretic'
book-plate, in which the emblem, or the symbol, or the theory, is far
too mystical for any ordinary comprehension, and needs, in fact, a
lengthy explanation, which, however, I am bound to confess, is always
very willingly given by either owner or designer, if asked for.
It is, perhaps, needless to say that I am very far from including all
modern book-plates under this condemnation. The names of the
artists--Sir John Millais, Mr. Stacy Marks, Randolph Caldecott, Mr.
Walter Crane, Miss Kate Greenaway, and others--who have found time to
design, some of them only one, some quite a considerable number of
really interesting marks of ownership, suffice to rescue modern
book-plates from entire discredit. Here and there, too, a little-known
artist, like the late Mr. Winter of Norwich, has produced a singularly
fine plate. Above all, the strikingly beautiful work of Mr. Sherborn, as
seen in the book-plates of the Duke of Westminster, in that of Mr.
William Robinson, and in many other fine examples, forms a refreshing
oasis in the desert of wild eccentricity. But the most ardent admirer of
modern book-plates cannot pretend that amid the multiplicity of recent
examples any school or style is observable, and as I have aimed at
giving in this little hand-book an historic sketch, however
unpretentious, of the different styles adopted in designing book-plates
from their first introduction, I hope I may be excused for not having
attempted to trace their history beyond the early years of the present
century, after which no distinctive style can be said to exist.
As I have said elsewhere, it has been no part of my object in writing my
book to advocate indiscriminate collecting. But for those who are
already collectors I have one word of advice on the subject of the
arrangement of their treasures. Some enthusiasts advocate a
chronological arrangement, others a genealogical, others a
topographical: and the advocates of each theory paste down their
specimens in scrap-books or other volumes in adherence to their own
views. Now there is a great deal to be said in favour of each of these
classifications: so much, indeed, that no system is perfect which does
not admit of a collection being arranged according to one plan to-day
and another tomorrow--_i.e._ no arrangement is satisfactory which is
necessarily permanent. Let each specimen be lightly, yet firmly, fixed
on a separate sheet of cardboard or stout paper, of sufficient size to
take the largest book-plates commonly met with. These cards or sheets
may be kept, a hundred or a hundred and fifty together, in portfolios or
boxes, which should be distinctly numbered. Each card or sheet should
also be paged and bear the number of the portfolio to which it belongs.
The collector can by this means ascertain, when he pleases, if all his
portfolios contain their proper number of cards or sheets, and he can
arrange his specimens according to the particular point of interest in
his collection which from time to time he may desire to illustrate. In
addition to this, the system of single cards has obvious advantages for
the purpose of minute study and comparison.
In conclusion, it only remains for me to express my warm thanks to Lord
De Tabley and to Mr. A. W. Franks, C.B.; to the former for allowing me
to make use, without oft-repeated acknowledgment, of the matter
contained in his _Guide to the Study of Book-Plates_, a second, and much
amplified edition of which we may hope will, before long, make its
appearance; to the latter, not only for constant advice and assistance,
but also for the loan from his collection of nearly all the book-plates
with reproductions of which this volume is illustrated.
W. J. H.
1893.
[Illustration]
Preface to the Second Edition
A FEW words are, perhaps, needed by way of introduction to the present
revised and enlarged edition of this work. Some slips of my own have
been rectified, and there has been added a considerable amount of
additional information, brought to light since 1893; for much of this I
am indebted to the researches of Mr. Egerton Castle, Mr. Charles Dexter
Allen, Miss Norna Labouchere, and Mr. Walter Hamilton, as well as to Mr.
Fincham and various other contributors to the pages of the _Ex Libris
Journal_.
During the three years that have elapsed since the first publication of
my book, the ranks of those taking an intelligent interest in
book-plates have been largely increased; yet they have suffered some
serious losses, and foremost amongst these must be placed the death of
Lord De Tabley. That he died ere the completion of the promised new
edition of his _Guide to the Study of Book-Plates_ is a matter of
sincere regret to every student of the subject; all we can now hope for
is that Sir Wollaston Franks--the one man really capable of bringing out
a new edition of Lord De Tabley's book--will some day undertake the
task.
As before, I have again to express my sincere gratitude to a great
number of collectors for the kindly help they have given me; and I must
not pass without special thanks the kindness of Mr. Everard Green,
F.S.A., Rouge Dragon, for allowing me to illustrate this preface with
his own book-plate, designed and engraved for him by Mr. George W. Eve;
it is in every way an excellent specimen of modern work in book-plates,
being both appropriate and artistic, and, above all, rational.
W. J. H.
ST. ALBANS, 1896.
Contents
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY, 1
CHAPTER II.
THE EARLY USE OF BOOK-PLATES IN ENGLAND, 20
CHAPTER III.
'STYLES' IN ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES, 48
CHAPTER IV.
ALLEGORY IN ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES, 72
CHAPTER V.
ENGLISH 'PICTURE' BOOK-PLATES, 98
CHAPTER VI.
GERMAN BOOK-PLATES, 114
CHAPTER VII.
THE BOOK-PLATES OF FRANCE AND OTHER COUNTRIES, 135
CHAPTER VIII.
AMERICAN BOOK-PLATES, 150
CHAPTER IX.
INSCRIPTIONS ON BOOK-PLATES IN CONDEMNATION OF
BOOK-STEALING OR BOOK-SPOILING, AND IN PRAISE OF
STUDY, 162
CHAPTER X.
PERSONAL PARTICULARS ON BOOK-PLATES, 178
CHAPTER XI.
LADIES' BOOK-PLATES, 186
CHAPTER XII.
THE MORE PROMINENT ENGRAVERS OF ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES, 200
CHAPTER XIII.
ODDS AND ENDS, 216
INDEX, 231
List of Illustrations of Book-Plates
RICHARD TOWNELEY, 1702, _Frontispiece_
PAGE
EVERARD GREEN, ROUGE DRAGON. By G. W. Eve, x
PLATE
I. SIR THOMAS ISHAM. By Loggan, 9
II. FRANCIS DE MALHERBE, 25
III. SIR NICHOLAS BACON, 27
IV. SIR THOMAS TRESHAM, 1585, 29
V. GORE. By Burghers, 35
VI. MARRIOTT. By Faithorne, 37
VII. ST. ALBANS GRAMMAR SCHOOL, 41
VIII. CHARLES JAMES FOX, 45
IX. THOMAS KNATCHBULL, 1702, 51
X. SIR THOMAS HARE, 1734, 61
XI. JAMES BRACKSTONE, 1751, 63
XII. BISHOP OF KILMORE, 1774, 67
XIII. BIRNIE OF BROOMHILL, 71
XIV. GIFT BY GEORGE I. TO CAMBRIDGE, 1715, 77
XV. GEORGE LAMBART. By Hogarth, 80
XVI. JOHN WILTSHIRE, 83
XVII. DR. WILLIAM OLIVER, 85
XVIII. DR. THOMAS DRUMMOND. By Sir R. Strange, 89
XIX. LADY BESSBOROUGH. By Bartolozzi, 93
XX. WILLIAM HEWER, 1699, 101
XXI. THE RECORD OFFICE IN THE TOWER OF LONDON, 105
XXII. SOUTHEY. By Bewick, 111
XXIII. GIFT-PLATE TO BUXHEIM MONASTERY, 115
XXIV. EBNER. By Albert Dürer. 1516, 119
XXV. PAULUS SPERATUS, 123
XXVI. 'È BIBLIOTHECA WOOGIANA,' 129
XXVII. ELECTORAL LIBRARY OF BAVARIA, 1618, 133
XXVIII. CHARLES DE SALES, 139
XXIX. AMADEUS LULIN. By B. Picart, 1722, 145
XXX. MICHAEL LILIENTHAL, 165
XXXI. DAVID GARRICK, 169
XXXII. LADY BATH, 1671, 187
XXXIII. COUNTESS OF OXFORD AND MORTIMER. By Vertue, 191
XXXIV. FRANCES ANNE HOARE, 197
XXXV. BISHOP HACKET. By Faithorne (Portrait), 201
XXXVI. SIR CHRISTOPHER MUSGRAVE, 205
XXXVII. FRANCIS CARINGTON, 1738, 207
XXXVIII. BENJAMIN ADAMSON, 1746, 209
XXXIX. WILLIAM OLIVER, 1751, 211
XL. SAMUEL PEPYS. By R. White (Portrait), 217
XLI. FRANCIS PERRAULT (Portrait), 219
XLII. ROBERT BLOOMFIELD, 1815, 229
BOOK-PLATES
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
BOOK-PLATE collecting, at least in this country, is a thing of
yesterday. On the Continent, particularly in France, it attracted
attention sufficiently serious to induce the publication, in 1874, of a
monograph on French book-plates by M. Poulet Malassis, which in the next
year obtained the honours of a second edition. In England, prior to
1880, we had no work devoted to the study; but, in that year, the
Honourable J. Leicester Warren--afterwards Lord De Tabley--published _A
Guide to the Study of Book-Plates (Ex Libris)_. How little was then
generally known about these marks of ownership is shown by the allusions
to them--very few in number--that find place in the pages of such
publications as _The Gentleman's Magazine_ or _Notes and Queries_: for
that reason, the skilful handling of the subject by the late Lord De
Tabley, and his zeal in compiling the treatise, are all the more
conspicuous.
One of the most useful works which has yet appeared in the journal of
the _Ex Libris_ Society--a society intended to promote the study of
book-plates--is a compilation by Mr. H. W. Fincham and Mr. J. Roberts
Brown, _A Bibliography of Book-Plates_, arranged chronologically. A
glance at this compilation emphasises the truth of the statement, just
made, as to the scantiness of recorded information on book-plates prior
to the year 1880; it also shows what a great deal about them has been
written since.
Writing to _Notes and Queries_ in 1877, Dr. Jackson Howard, whose
collection is now one of the largest in England, says that he began
collecting forty years before that date, and that the nucleus of his own
collection was one made by a Miss Jenkins at Bath in 1820. It is
probably, therefore, to this lady that we should attribute the honour of
being the first collector of book-plates, for their own sake. No doubt
the collector of engravings admitted into his portfolios book-plates
worthy a place there as interesting engravings, for stray examples are
often found in such collections as that formed in the seventeenth
century by John Bagford, the biblioclast, which is now in the British
Museum. No doubt, too, heraldic painters or plate engravers collected
book-plates as specimens of heraldry, but this was not collecting them
as book-plates--viz. as illustrations of the custom of placing marks of
ownership in books, which, I take it, was evidently Miss Jenkins's
object.[1]
Still, though little was written on the subject of book-plates prior to
1880, it by no means follows that for some years before that date there
had not been a considerable number of persons who took an interest in
the subject. The fact is, that the book-plate collector of earlier days
was wiser in his generation than are those of his kind to-day. He kept
his 'hobby' to himself, and was thus enabled to indulge it economically.
My father had a small collection; and I can well remember how, as a boy,
I used to help him to add to it. We used to go to a shop in a dingy
street, leading off Oxford Street, and there select from a large
clothes-basket as many book-plates as were new to our collection. The
price was one penny a piece,--new or old, dated or undated, English or
foreign, that of Bishop Burnet, or David Garrick, or Mr. Jones, or Mr.
Brown,--all alike, a penny a piece; and I have no doubt, though I do not
remember the fact, there was the usual 'reduction on taking a quantity.'
I think this shop was almost the only one in London where you could buy
book-plates at all. Well, those days are past now; and, whilst we regret
them, because book-plate collecting is no longer an economical pursuit,
we cannot allow our regret to be unmingled with satisfaction. The
would-be collector of to-day can, if he pleases, know something about
the collection he is undertaking; he can tell when he meets with a good
specimen; he knows the points which render any particular book-plate
interesting; and he can, at least approximately, affix a date to each
example he obtains.
As to the morality of book-plate collecting, I suppose something ought
to be said here. There is but one objection to it, but that is,
undoubtedly, a serious one: taking a book-plate out of a book means the
possible disfigurement and injury of the volume from which it is taken;
yet, for the purpose of study and comparison, the removal is a distinct
advantage. To confess this seems, at first sight, to bring collecting at
all under a sweeping condemnation; and such, indeed, would be the case,
were it not for the fact that damage to, or even the actual destruction
of, very many books is really a matter of no consequence whatever.
Book-plates are found quite as often in the worthless literary
productions of our ancestors as in the worthy; and it is puerile to
cavil over the removal of a book-plate from a binding which holds
together material by the destruction of which the world would certainly
not be the poorer. So much for the book-plates in valueless books. As
regards those in valuable or interesting ones, it is certainly unwise to
remove them at all. This is a golden rule which cannot be too forcibly
impressed upon collectors and booksellers. The case does not occur very
often; and when it does, the book itself, with the book-plate in it, can
be easily fetched and placed beside the 'collection' when needed for
comparison. It may happen that the book-plate in this valuable book is
interesting from the fact that it belonged to some man of note, or that
it is unique; if so, we have only a further reason against taking it out
of the volume. The value of a very early book-plate, when preserved in
the volume in which it is discovered, is lessened almost to a vanishing
point if separated from that volume. Pasted into a book as a mark of
ownership, it is an undoubted book-plate; whereas, if taken out and
fastened into a collection of book-plates, it at once loses the proof of
its original use, so essential to its value and so material to the
student of book-plates.
On the other hand, as I have said, there is no harm in removing, from
some uninteresting and valueless volume, the book-plate of a famous man.
Everybody knows that Bishop Burnet or David Garrick had plenty of what
they themselves regarded as 'rubbish' in their libraries; so that
Burnet's book-plate in an actually valueless volume does not prove that
the Bishop's shrewd eye ever scanned its pages, or that his episcopal
hand ever held it. Besides, I know as a fact that it is a not uncommon
trick for the possessor of the book-plate of some famous man to affix
that book-plate in a worthless volume, and then offer the whole for sale
at a price much higher than would be asked or obtained for the
book-plate itself, though the value of the book may be _nil_!
Without quarrelling with the name book-plate,--as applied to the marks
of ownership pasted into books,--and without wasting time with
discussion of suggestions for a better one, it may be admitted that the
word is not altogether happily chosen. It perhaps suggests to the mind
of the 'uninitiated' an illustration in a book rather than a mark of
possession. But then at the present day there are not many 'uninitiated'
amongst either buyers or sellers of books and prints, so that the
inappropriateness of the name need not concern us.
As to its antiquity, that is doubtful; but probably one of the earliest
instances of its use, in print, occurs in 1791, when John Ireland
published the first two volumes of his _Hogarth Illustrated_. In this
work he says that the works of Callot were probably Hogarth's first
models, and 'shop bills and _book-plates_ his first performances.'
Again, in 1798, Ireland refers to the 'book-plate' for Lambert the
herald-painter, which Hogarth had executed. In 1823, a certain 'C. S.
B.,' writing in the pages of the _Gentleman's Magazine_, refers to what
'are generally called' book-plates. His letter was suggested by an
article--a review of Thomas Moule's _Bibliotheca Heraldica_--in the
previous number of the magazine, the writer of which was evidently not
familiar with the term book-plate as we now apply it, for he calls
book-plates 'plates of arms.' We shall see, later on, that this is quite
an inappropriate name; some of the most interesting and the most
beautiful book-plates have nothing armorial about them.
On the Continent, the term _ex libris_ is generally applied to
book-plates. This is, perhaps, even less appropriate than book-plate. It
is taken from the two first words of the inscription on a great many
book-plates, when the inscription is written in Latin--_e.g._ 'ex libris
Johannis Stearne, S.T.P. Episcopi Clogherensis.' A moment's reflection
will show that this inscription is not intended as a declaration by the
book-plate (should it ever become severed from the book in which it was
fastened) that it came out of a book belonging to Bishop Stearne; but
that it is a declaration by the _book_ in which the book-plate is found
pasted, that that particular book is from amongst the books of a
particular library, and ought to be restored to it. It would be as
rational to call book-plates '_libri_,' because the inscription on them
often begins--as in a very famous German book-plate--'_Liber Bilibaldi
Pirckheimer_.' It may, indeed, be laid down as a general rule, that
whatever the sentiment expressed on a book-plate, it is clearly intended
to be uttered by the book in which the book-plate is fixed, not by the
book-plate itself.
There are but two instances, quoted by Lord De Tabley, of the
inscription directly referring to the _book-plate_. Both are foreign,
and date about the middle of the last century. One is _Symbolum
Bibliothecæ_ of John Bernard Nack, a citizen and merchant of
Frankfort;[2] and the other, _Insigne Librorum_, etc., quoted from the
work of M. Poulet Malassis. Lord De Tabley thinks that the _Symbolum_ of
Herr Nack is simply a trade card; but he founds this conclusion on the
supposition that Herr Nack was a book-dealer, and that the scene
depicted on his book-plate was, in fact, his shop. In my opinion, we
have in this book-plate a representation of a portion of Herr Nack's
library, in which Minerva(?) is seated, using the books thereof. A
gentleman in eighteenth century dress, who may, likely enough, be Herr
Nack himself, addresses himself to the goddess, and explains--as he
points to the outer scene, which shows us ships and merchandise--that,
whilst following his trade as a merchant, he still has time to devote
some attention to literature. In any case, these and the few other
instances there may be of the inscription referring to the book-plate
and not to the book, seem hardly sufficient to make _ex libris_ a good
name for book-plates in general.
Our ancestors, of degrees more remote than grandfather, do not appear to
have referred to book-plates at all, so we are unable to learn by what
name they would have called them. Pepys, in 1668, speaks of going to his
'plate-maker's,' and there spending 'an hour about contriving' his
'little plate' for his books. This 'little plate' still exists, and is a
characteristic one; it shows us the initials 'S. P.,' with two anchors
and ropes entwined. But we shall speak again of this, and Sam's other
book-plates, later on.
[Illustration: SIR THOMAS ISHAM'S BOOK-PLATE, BY DAVID LOGGAN.]
David Loggan, a German born, and an engraver of some note, has, in
writing to Sir Thomas Isham in 1676, a no more concise name for Isham's
book-plate than 'a print of your cote of arms.' Loggan, as a return for
many favours, had sent Sir Thomas a book-plate designed and executed
by himself. 'Sir,' he says, in the covering letter, 'I send you hier a
Print of your Cote of Armes. I have printed 200 wich I will send with
the plate by the next return, and bege the favor of your keind
excepttans of it as a small Niew yaers Gift or a aknowledgment in part
for all your favors. If anything in it be amies, I shall be glade to
mend it. I have taken the Heralds painter's derection in it; it is very
much used amongst persons of Quality to past ther Cotes of Armes befor
ther bookes instade of wreithing ther Names.'
The 'Heralds painter' was, unfortunately, wrong in his treatment of the
Isham 'coat,' and so Loggan's work, artistic as it might be, could not
be acceptable to Sir Thomas, to whom a mistake in the family escutcheon
was no light matter. This he evidently told David, who, a few days
after, writes to him again:--
'I ame sorry that the Cote is wronge; I have taken the herald's
derection in it, but the Foole did give it wrong. . . . The altering of
the plate will be very trubelsom, and therfor you will be presented with
a newe one, wich shall be don without falt, and that very sudenly. And
if you plase, Sir, to give thies plate and the prints to your Brothers,
it will serve for them.'
These Isham book-plates are really very beautiful pieces of work. A
reproduction of one of them may be seen on the foregoing page. This is
evidently the one first executed, the omission of the mark of
baronetcy--the 'bloody hand of Ulster'--and the helmet of an esquire
instead of a knight or baronet clearly constituting the blunder into
which Loggan had fallen. By the kindness of Sir Charles Isham, the
present baronet, I have been enabled to see a copy of the corrected
design sent by Loggan, which is in all respects accurate. This was doing
duty as a book-plate in a volume in which it had evidently been placed
at the time it was received by Sir Thomas.
Nicholas Carew, afterwards Sir Nicholas Carew, Baronet, records in his
accounts, on the 19th February 1707, a payment for his book-plate, which
is dated in that year, as follows:--'For coat of arms impressing, 1_l._
1_s._ 6_d._;' and a few months later is a payment 'For 300 armes, 7_s._
6_d._'
'The mark of my books,' is the phrase which Andrew Lumisden applies to
the book-plate engraved for him by his brother-in-law, Sir Robert
Strange, about the year 1746. The plate is an interesting one, and by an
interesting man, of whom we shall speak later on. Lumisden thought well
of it, and thus refers to the work in a letter written from Rouen, in
June 1748:--'I am very anxious to know if my brother continues his
resolution of coming to this country. If he does, I can luckily be of
use to him in the way of his business, from the acquaintance I have of a
very ingenious person, professor of the Academy of Design here . . . I
show'd him, a few days ago, _the mark of my books_, from which he
entertains a high notion of Robie's abilities.'
There is a curious advertisement, quoted by Thomas Moule in his
_Bibliotheca Heraldica_, of a certain Joseph Barber, a Newcastle-on-Tyne
'bookseller, music and copper-plate publisher,' who, in 1742, resided in
'Humble's Buildings.' In that year he engraved the 'Equestrian Statue of
King James [II.],' which once stood in the Sandhill Market. If a
moment's digression be allowed, the history of this statue is worth
telling. On 16th March 1685, the Town Council voted £800 for the
erection of 'a figure of His Majesty in a Roman habit, on a capering
horse, in copper, as big as the figure of His Majesty, King Charles I.,
at Charing Crosse, on a pedestal of black marble.' A certain Mr. William
Larson executed it; Sir Christopher Wren expressed his approval, and
everybody was very pleased, for a year or two. But popular feeling soon
changed in Newcastle, as elsewhere, and the prevalence of sentiments
which threw the king off his throne threw his metal representation into
the Tyne, where it rested till fished out to be melted down and used to
make a set of church bells. The drawing of the luckless statue was safe
in the keeping of Sir Hans Sloane; and from this, Barber made his
engraving, which he sold for 5s. The fact that in 1742, three years
before the second Scotch rebellion, this Newcastle printseller found it
worth while to issue the engraving at all, is not without political
significance. With his engraving, Barber issued two large plates of the
arms of all the subscribers to it, each coat of arms being 1-3/4 inches
in length, and 1-1/4 inches in breadth; and a few years later, it seems
to have occurred to him that he might turn an honest penny by cutting up
these large sheets of the subscribers' arms, so that each coat of arms
became a separate plate. Having done this, he issued an advertisement to
the subscribers, in which he sets forth that he is 'the sole proprietor
of each of their plates,' and is willing to part with it, to the lady or
gentleman whose arms are engraved thereon, 'together with one hundred
prints of it on a good paper,' for the modest sum of half-a-crown. These
plates, suggests Mr. Barber, might be advantageously used as what we now
call book-plates, and he continues: 'The design of this proposal is a
useful and necessary embellishment, and a remedy against losing books by
lending, or having them stolen; by pasting one print on the inside of
the cover of each book, you have the owner's name, coat of arms, and
place of abode; a thing so useful and the charge so easy, 'tis hoped
will meet with encouragement. To have a plate engraved will cost 10_s._
6_d._'
From all which it may be inferred that Mr. Joseph Barber thought--or
wanted other people to think--that the idea of using a book-plate was
his own. Newcastle people, in 1743, must have been very unobservant of
the habits of their neighbours if they believed Mr. Barber; for the
fashion of using a book-plate--which in England came in some forty years
before--was by that time general throughout the country. That some of
the subscribers accepted the offer, and got their 'hundred plates on a
good paper' for half-a-crown, is demonstrated by the existence of copies
of the plates published with the 'equestrian statue,' being still found
in books, doing duty as book-plates. Very poor productions they are,
reflecting but slight credit on the designer or engraver. But what
Joseph lacked in art, he atoned for in enterprise; we see this in his
ingenious way of getting rid of his old copper-plates, and the
postscript to his advertisement demonstrates the fact even more plainly,
for on a day near at hand, the advertisement tells us, was to be fought,
at a neighbouring cock-pit, 'a Welsh main,' and the prize was to be
nothing less than one of the advertiser's engravings, 'a pretty piece of
work, worthy the observation of the curious.' If the term book-plate had
been known in Barber's day, it would probably have found its way into
his advertisement, which is clumsy from the want of a word to express
the very thing he is advertising.
William Stephens, who engraved a good many book-plates in his time,
could find no better expression than 'print of your arms' to describe
the 800 book-plates which, for half-a-guinea, he sent to Dr. Samuel
Kerrich, the Shakespearian student, in 1754.
Horace Walpole, again, would, I think, have used the phrase 'book-plate'
had he known it. In his _Catalogue of Engravers_--the edition of
1771--he speaks of George Vertue having engraved 'a plate to put in Lady
Oxford's books'; and in his _Anecdotes of Painting_, he refers to the
'plate' which Hogarth 'used for his books.' One of his own
book-plates--that engraved soon after 1791--Walpole describes as his
'seal': _Sigillum Horatii Comitis de Orford_; but this phrase is, I
think, used simply because the book-plate itself is the representation
of a mediæval seal. Bartolozzi--giving, in 1796, a receipt for a
book-plate which he had just completed--refers to it as a 'ticket-plate'
(see p. 94); but he was a foreigner, and may not have known the English
name for such things, for we have seen that, some five years before,
Ireland refers to Hogarth's 'book-plate.' Charles James Fox, in a note,
dated at Leicester on 2nd August 1801, speaks of the 'book-plate' of his
great-great-grandfather, Sir Stephen Fox.
But, though the phrase 'book-plate' may have been occasionally used at
the close of the last century and the beginning of the present, it was
then by no means widely used; and although the writer quoted on page 6
refers in 1823 to what are 'generally called' book-plates, William Wadd,
in 1827, can find no direct term by which to refer to these marks of
ownership. Speaking in _Mems., Maxims, and Memoirs_, he says: 'In the
Library of the Royal College of Surgeons, there are many volumes,
formerly the property of the celebrated Douglas, having his arms
embellished with various kinds of surgical instruments, which was by no
means an uncommon practice, as in the Library of the College of
Physicians there are many examples of volumes where the former possessor
has not only blazoned his own arms, but borrowed the arms of the
college and super-added supporters, as Apollo, Mercury, Æsculapius, and
his daughter Hygeia.'
Lord Byron, too, did not, I fancy, know the word 'book-plate' in its
now-used sense; writing to a fair admirer, who had apparently designed
one of these for him, he says: 'I received the arms, my dear Miss ----,
and am very much obliged to you for the trouble you have taken. It is
impossible I should have any fault to find with them. The sight of the
drawing gives me great pleasure for a double reason: in the first place
they will ornament my books, and in the next they convince me that you
have not entirely forgot me.'[3]
So the term book-plate is only a century old, and the fashion of
collecting book-plates much more modern still; but the use of
book-plates is really of respectable antiquity, and is a matter on which
we may now appropriately speak. Whether, in the first instance, the use
of book-plates was suggested by a desire to commemorate a gift, or as a
mark of ownership, seems to be a matter on which a variety of opinions
exist. Some of the earliest mechanically produced book-plates are
certainly commemorative of gifts (see p. 114); but I think we must
accept as book-plates, to all intents and purposes, the six fourteenth
century examples mentioned by Herr Warnecke in his _Die Deutschen
Bücherzeichen_, an excellent work on German book-plates. These are
heraldic coloured drawings on the parchment leaves of Italian
manuscripts, which also bear an inscription of possession by the
particular individuals whose arms are represented.
But, of course, the real necessity for book-plates, whatever may have
been their original use, began when the printing-press gave to the world
not two nor three, but a hundred or more copies of a particular book.
Then it was that the different owners needed to distinguish their
respective copies of a work; for the professional book-borrower, who
would gladly have retained the manuscript volume lent to him by an
unsuspecting friend, could he have done so without his crime being
detected, doubtless saw in the multitude of copies a greater opportunity
of carrying out his nefarious designs. The existence of book-plates is,
therefore, largely due to the literary enthusiast who amasses a library
by retaining volumes received on loan; the inscriptions on some of the
earlier book-plates prove this to be so.
The earliest printed book-plates are certainly German, and there is
little doubt that some of these are nearly contemporary with the very
early printed books on the oak covers of which they may still be found
pasted. By the commencement of the sixteenth century book-plates were
frequently fine examples of the wood-engraver's art. Albert Dürer
himself designed book-plates; and of these, one of the most elaborate
and the best known is that of his friend Bilibald Pirckheimer, the
Nuremberg jurist, whose portrait he engraved on copper in 1524. The
book-plate is still earlier.
England can now--thanks to recent investigations--claim the second place
in the chronological sequence of countries in which book-plates have
been used. Cardinal Wolsey's book-plate (see p. 24) is probably not
later in date than 1525. France can boast of a book-plate dated in 1574;
Sweden of one dated in the following year, and Switzerland of one in
1607; Italy in 1623: in other European countries, dated examples do not
appear, nor does the practice of using book-plates seem to have been
adopted until considerably later.
In concluding this opening chapter, let me say a word about the position
in a book in which a book-plate should be looked for. The usual place
was certainly on the front cover of a volume; sometimes another copy of
the same plate was fastened to the back cover; and sometimes--as in
Pirckheimer's case, just noticed, and in that of Samuel Pepys (see p.
216)--the same person would use a different book-plate at the back of
the volume to that used at the front. Another plan, less frequent, but
by no means uncommon, was to insert the book-plate on the title-page,
often on the back of it; and another, to fasten the book-plate into the
volume, by pasting its right-hand margin about a quarter of an inch on
to the title-page, so that the book-plate would fold over and face it.
This is a plan that leads to a book-plate being most easily overlooked.
Collectors should also note that, in many instances, book-plates are
found in a variety of sizes; this should certainly be borne in mind
when setting aside any particular specimen as a duplicate. In the
present day, most people are content to have a book-plate small enough
to go into a volume of any size; its dwarfed appearance on the cover of
a full-sized folio is no eyesore to them, or, if it is, the pleasure of
economy makes them bear with it. But in days gone by it was--especially
in Germany--certainly otherwise. The possession of a large library would
necessitate, in the owner's mind, the possession of a number of
differently sized book-plates, in order to get one which would neither
look too small in the largest volume, nor be too large for the smallest!
Some of the most noble foreign examples, rich in detail and bold in
general effect, are those that belonged to men who liked to have for
their folios a book-plate of proportionate size. There are no very large
English book-plates, but plenty of library owners in this country had
two or three different sized book-plates, and the late Sir William
Stirling-Maxwell boasted of over a hundred varieties!
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Among the late Sir Bernard Burke's papers there was discovered a
collection of book-plates said to have been formed in Ireland in the
middle of the last century; but there is nothing to show that the
collection was formed as a collection of book-plates _qua_ book-plates.
[2] There are two varieties of this book-plate.
[3] Moore, vol. i. p. 87.