'STYLES' IN ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES
LORD DE TABLEY has given us names for nearly all the styles met with in
English book-plates, and it is perhaps better to accept these
descriptions in the present work, adding to them another--'Simple
Armorial'--for the earliest plates, and, indeed, for the great majority
of those anterior to 1720.
It is not only in book-plates that we see this style adopted: it is used
in almost every representation of shields of arms in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, be it on a memorial brass, in sculpture, or on a
stained glass window. The style is simple and effective. The shield,
nearly always symmetrical, is surmounted by a helmet, on which is the
wreath and crest. From the helmet is outspread more or less voluminous
mantling. In the earlier examples this terminates, generally in tassels,
before reaching the base of the shield. In later examples its heavy
folds descend quite to the base, and often ascend upwards from the
helmet to the level of the top of the crest. Below the shield is a
narrow scroll for the motto, which is not always given, and at the
bottom of all is a bracket (on which the owner's name is inscribed),
having indented edges. Occasionally, but not often, the mantling,
instead of being foliated, hangs from the helmet in stiff folds at the
back of the shield, its upper corners being tied up and tasselled. The
book-plate of Thomas Knatchbull, dated in 1702 (shown on p. 51), is a
very fair, though not a very early, example of this style. In some
instances the shield is placed on one side--its right hand upper corner
being thus brought to the centre of the helmet. The Simple Armorial
style was, roughly speaking, not much used after 1720.
Besides the book-plates described in the foregoing chapter, nearly all
of which belong to the 'Armorial' style, there are sundry others worthy
of particular observation, should the reader meet with them. There is,
for instance, the book-plate of 'The Right Hon^{ble} James, Earl of
Derby, Lord of Man and ye Isles, 1702'; the grandson of _the_ James,
seventh Earl, who suffered for his loyalty, and of the gallant Charlotte
Trémouille. This is a large and very striking book-plate in every way;
its size makes possible the introduction of some fine bold work, which
is rendered even more effective by the fact that the arms portrayed are
simply those of Stanley; so that there is no crowding in of quarterings.
The decoration is that common to the book-plates of peers, or of other
persons entitled to use supporters at the time: the mantling spreads
from the helmet, and terminates at the heads of the supporters; these
stand upon the motto-scroll. There is a smaller variety of this
book-plate--one of the ordinary size--which is not so pleasing. When
Earl James died, in 1736, the Earldom of Derby devolved on his kinsman,
Sir Edward Stanley, Bart., whose book-plate, larger and finer than that
just described, is really a very beautiful piece of work in the Jacobean
style; the arms are Stanley impaling Hesketh, and the size of the
book-plate is 6-5/8 × 5-1/4 in.
Similar examples of large-sized book-plates are furnished by those of
'The Honourable Iames Brydges of Wilton Castle, in Hereford Shere'
(where the effect is somewhat marred by the number of quarterings
displayed); 'Sir William Brownlowe of Belton, in the County of Lincoln,
Baronet, 1698,' and his wife 'Dame Alice Brownlowe;' Lord Roos and his
wife, Lady Roos; 'Paul Jodrell of Duffield, in y^{e} County of Derby,
Esq^{r}, Clerk of y^{e} Hon^{ble} House of Commons'--a particularly bold
piece of work; and 'S^{r} John Wentworth of North Elmeshall, in the West
Rideing of Yorkshire, Baronet.' It is probable that all these, and other
large-sized English book-plates, also exist, or existed, in the ordinary
size (see pp. 18, 19). The largest English book-plate, and one which,
from its unusual size, is certain to attract attention, is that of
'Simon Scroope of Danby-super-Yore, in com. Ebor., Esq., 1698'; here,
too, much of the good effect is lost by the number of quarterings (no
less than twenty-seven) introduced upon the shield.
[Illustration]
I referred, at the close of the previous chapter, to the large number of
English book-plates engraved during the last two years of the
seventeenth century and first ten of the eighteenth. The great majority
of these book-plates are in the 'Simple Armorial' style, and there is
upon these a very great similarity in the way in which that style is
represented; indeed, they may well have been, all of them, the work of
less than a dozen artists. Any distinctive feature that exists is to be
found in the treatment of the mantling. For instance: it is finely cut
on the book-plates of Nicholas Penny, Lord Cornwallis, Lord Roos, and
'John Sayer of Hounslow, in the County of Midd., Esq^{r},' all dated in
1700; on the Sayer plate the inscription is enclosed in a Jacobean
scroll; it is heavy, and stiffly cut in the book-plates of James
Bengough, Richard Newdigate, Sir William Hustler, and John Godfrey, all
dated in 1702; it is leaflike and graceful on the book-plates of William
Thompson and Francis Columbine, dated in 1708, and of Thomas Rowney,
dated in 1713, whilst the book-plate of 'Gostlet Harington of
Marshfield, in the Coun. of Glocester, Gent., 1706,' is unique, the
mantling being cut like strawberry leaves. There is a peculiar effect
produced by the way in which this example is printed, and the lettering
of the inscription is also unusual.
There is one of these book-plates which the reader should notice from
the peculiar arrangement of the decorative accessories, occasioned by
the fact that the owner was both a spiritual and temporal peer. I refer
to that of 'Nathanael Crewe, Lord Bishop of Durham and Baron Crewe of
Stene, 1703.' Here the mantling springs from the helmet, rises to the
level of the crest, and terminates at the heads of the supporters; a
baron's coronet appears instead of a mitre, and behind the shield are a
crozier and sword in saltire, the decoration of the head of the crozier
being so like the form of the mantling that it seems, at first sight, to
be part of it.
The 'Jacobean' style is far more ornate than that last mentioned, and
the book-plate of 'John Reilly of the Middle Temple, Esqr.,' is a fair
example of the best kind of Jacobean work. The escutcheon is raised on
an elaborate and richly-carved Jacobean sideboard; mantling is still
there, but it is curtailed, and seems almost resting on the top of the
sideboard, on either side of which are columns, given in high relief; on
each is carved a perpendicular festoon of leaves. Below the shield,
crouched on the ledge of the sideboard, are two eagles with expanded
wings; each holds in its beak one end of the ribbon which ties into a
bunch the corners of a fringed cloth bearing the inscription already
quoted; below the eagles, inverted cornucopiæ pour out books upon the
floor on which the sideboard stands.
This plate may probably be dated very early in the eighteenth century,
or even late in the seventeenth, since it is recorded that John Reilly's
signature, with the date '1679,' occurs in a book in which it is
fastened. To whichever date it belongs, the Simple Armorial style was
then in general use,--that is to say, so far as the book-plates of
private individuals are concerned. These, as we have just seen, nearly
all bear a helmet, varying according to the owner's social rank, and
from that falls the mantling, more or less elaborate. But if we look at
the book-plates, dated in or about the year 1700, of certain colleges at
Oxford or Cambridge, at ladies' book-plates of the same period,--none of
which, of course, display a helmet,--and at some others in which the
arms are given in an oval, we see that the blank on either side of the
shield (consequent upon the absence of the helmet from which the
mantling would fall) is supplied by work distinctly Jacobean. Lord De
Tabley, whose descriptions in justification of the names he has bestowed
upon the several styles we shall not hesitate to quote in this chapter,
thus describes this work:--
'To supply this void in decoration, a distinct frame was placed round
the escutcheons, and this framework was ornamented with ribbons, palm
branches, or festoons.
'The prominent or high-relief portions of this frame were not set close
to the edges of the escutcheons, but between it and them; an interval of
flat-patterned surface nearly always intervened, in which, as upon a
wall, the actual shield was embedded. This we shall call the lining of
the armorial frame; and we shall find this lining is usually imbricated
with a pattern of fish-scales, one upon another, or diapered into
lattice-work. The scale-covered or latticed interval of lining is the
characteristic of the style. . . . Another step in the external
decoration was to add a bracket, distinct from the frame, upon which the
shield, in its frame, was supposed to rest. This bracket naturally
initiated the decorative art and surface arrangement of the
shield-frame.'
As a rule, too, an escallop-shell forms the centre of the bracket in
Jacobean book-plates. In some instances it is placed in the centre
below, but more usually in the centre above; and then in the centre
below we have the head of some mythical and uninviting monster. Either
as quasi-supporters on the ledges of the bracket, right and left, or on
the side ledges of the shield, if the bracket is amalgamated with the
frame, are 'things' selected from the following miscellaneous
collection--lions; cherubs, male and female; term-figures; busts of
fairies, with butterfly wings; angels, generally engaged in
trumpet-blowing, etc.
The student should notice this escallop-shell, because we shall see it
introduced into the style of decoration that succeeded the
Jacobean--there it became a shelly border rather than a distinct shell.
On the whole, then, the usual ornamentation of a Jacobean book-plate
renders it easily recognisable. The decoration is stiff and
conventional, displays more solidity than grace, and altogether seems
less appropriate to a book-plate than the heavy rolls of mantling,
which, as we have seen, surrounded the shield during the prevalence of
the preceding style. As for the title 'Jacobean' which has been bestowed
upon it, it should be explained that the reference is rather to the
style of decoration in vogue in the days of James II. than to anything
in the days of James I. Lord De Tabley has pointed out that, as compared
with the woodwork preserved in churches of the latter half of the
seventeenth century, and as compared with the mouldings on monuments of
the same period, a practical identity of decoration cannot fail to
strike the antiquary, and his choice of the name 'Jacobean' for this
class of book-plates is thus abundantly justified.
Examples of Jacobean book-plates are numerous in most English
collections, for the style continued long in fashion; indeed, it lasted,
in more or less purity, down to 1745, or even later, and I think it
quite likely that some of the evidently early undated examples may
really have been executed during the last quarter of the seventeenth
century. The similarity, to which we have just alluded, between the
ornamentation shown upon Jacobean book-plates and that displayed in
ecclesiastical decoration of the time of Charles the Second as well as
James the Second, makes it very probable that this is so.
The few book-plates which are known to have been designed or executed by
Hogarth (see p. 79) are in the Jacobean style; but, with the exception
of that eminent artist and George Vertue, the men who worked upon
Jacobean book-plates were not distinguished engravers. Nevertheless,
some of their productions are distinctly good, though the decoration
was, perhaps, too often overdone. The touch, in many, suggests that the
artist was accustomed to engrave on gold or silver plate. This is
notably the case in the book-plate of 'Charles Barlow, Esq., of Emmanuel
College, Cambridge,' engraved in, or immediately after, 1730. This
book-plate is worthy of observation, should the reader meet with it, as
a particularly exaggerated example of the Jacobean style: the framework
seems scarcely able to support the decorative accessories with which it
is laden, and which include representations of birds, beasts, mythical
figures, stony flowers in festoons or baskets, heads, shells, and what
not!
The earliest dated Jacobean example is that of 'William Fitz Gerald,
Lord Bishop of Clonfert,' which is inscribed '1698.' Here the escutcheon
is of the 'Simple Armorial' shape, but set in a Jacobean framework,
decorated with leafy sprays, and surmounted by a mitre, the ribbons of
which terminate in tassels. Next we have the book-plates of five
Cambridge Colleges,--Jesus, Pembroke, Queens', St. John's, and Trinity
Hall; all bear the same engraved date--1700. These, and many like them
dated in subsequent years, are no doubt the work of one man: the design
consists of an escutcheon, on which are the College arms, set in a
finely-drawn, scale-patterned frame, bedecked with hawk-bells, ribbons,
wreaths, and sprays of flowers. Other College plates--except that of New
College, Oxford, which is 'Simple Armorial' in its style--are Jacobean.
In 1701 comes the book-plate of Dame Anna Margaretta Mason. Here the
lozenge, in which she bears her arms, appears with decoration very
similar to that just described, though slightly more elaborate. In 1703
the book-plate of Philip Lynch shows how similar decoration is bestowed
upon an oval escutcheon; whilst, in 1713, the book-plate of Henry, Duke
of Kent, furnishes an early dated example of the introduction of the
bracket, which is, as we have seen, a leading feature in Jacobean
ornamentation.
This is really a remarkably fine book-plate. The escutcheon, indented in
a somewhat peculiar fashion, is surrounded by the Garter, and fastened
to the front of the bracket, a highly ornamented piece of work, on which
stand the two supporters. Above is the ducal coronet; below, in an
oblong Jacobean frame, is the inscription. The family of Grey, Dukes of
Kent, is prolific in book-plates; that, dated five years later, of
'Mary, Countess of Harrold,' daughter-in-law to Henry, Duke of Kent, is
a more elaborate, though less finely executed, piece of Jacobean work.
Her arms, and those of her husband, appear side by side in separate oval
shields; angels hold aloft an earl's coronet over both, while below,
between the shields, is the head of a cherub, whose wings are arranged
as a collar.
Other conspicuous Jacobean book-plates are those of Ellerker Bradshaw;
Dr. Philip Bisse, Bishop of St. David's; Richard Massie of Coddington,
Cheshire; 'James Hustler,' 1730; 'Sir Thomas Hare, Baronet, of Stow
Hall, in Norfolk,' dated in 1734 (see p. 61); 'Francis Winnington, of
Lincoln's Inn, Esq.,' dated in 1732; 'Saml. Goodford of ye Inner Temple,
Esq.,' dated in 1737; 'John Robinson, M.D.,' dated in 1742; 'St.
Thomas's Hospital Library;' and 'Lucius Henry Hibbins, of Gray's Inne,
Esqe.'
A little before, and a little after, 1720 there was a fashion in English
book-plates, which may almost be called a style: it was to place the
shield of arms in a medallion, the background of which is shaded.
Beneath, is the owner's name and description. The term 'Tombstone Style'
might not sound an agreeable designation for these book-plates, but it
would be very accurate; for, really, there is a strong likeness between
them and the monumental slabs placed over deceased persons, whose social
status rendered them eligible for interment in positions where they
would be walked over by future generations of church-goers. We may
mention three such book-plates: Edward Haistwell, dated in 1718, Sir
John Rushout and John Lethieullier, Remembrancer of the City.
So far the shape of the shield used has been perfectly symmetrical. We
now come to speak of the third style adopted by English book-plate
designers, the leading feature of which is an absence of symmetry. This
style has been christened 'Chippendale'; and when its characteristics
have been described, and the leading features in Chippendale furniture
remembered, we shall see the appropriateness of the name.
'The mark and stamp of a Chippendale _ex libris_,' says Lord De Tabley,
'is a frilling or border of open shell-work, set close up to the rounded
outer margin of the escutcheon, and, with breaks, more or less enclosing
it. This seems to be a modification of the scallop shell, so normal at
the base either of frame or bracket on a Jacobean plate. It is, in fact,
a border imitating the pectinated curves and grooves on the margins of a
scallop-shell. Outside this succeed various furniture-like limbs and
flourishes, eminently resembling the triumphs of ornate upholstery which
Chippendale about this time brought into vogue.' The helmet and mantling
are quite exceptional in book-plates of this style, except in examples
which were probably designed and executed by Scotch artists.
[Illustration]
Although it was not until 1754 that Chippendale published, in folio,
_The Gentleman's and Cabinetmaker's Director_, 'being a large Collection
of the most useful Designs of Household Furniture in the most
fashionable taste, with 160 Plates of elegant designed Furniture,' there
was probably by that time a good deal of Chippendale furniture already
in the market, and we are therefore not surprised to find a book-plate
designed in the Chippendale style, dated in 1714--that of 'East
Apthorpe.' True, the style there shown is not at all 'advanced,' yet
there are decided indications of it, and for that reason it deserves
attention. Although the shield is shell-shaped and ornamented with
flowers, yet there are upon the plate indications of a horizontally-hatched
Jacobean lining to the frame. We may, I think, consider this one of the
earliest attempts at designing a Chippendale book-plate.
[Illustration]
The style improved during the next ten or fifteen years, and then began
to deteriorate. As an escutcheon, the shell-shaped or non-symmetrical
shield is unnatural and even ugly, but it lends itself to an artistic
treatment which the previous styles in English book-plates certainly did
not. For example, flowers--of which there are always many in this style
of book-plate--can be represented as in nature; roses blossom on sprays
or branches, instead of being woven closely together in conventional
festoons, lilies are left to droop their heads, whilst bunches of
grasses or leaves are bound so loosely together that they forfeit
nothing of their natural elegance. Allegoric figures also find place in
Chippendale book-plates, but they are of a much more attractive kind
than those displayed in the Jacobean plates. Cupids or nymphs are
sometimes really graceful bits of drawing when depicted in the better
specimens of the style of which we are now speaking. The book-plate of
'James Brackstone, Citizen of London,' dated in 1751--figured opposite
this page--is as good a specimen of a pure Chippendale book-plate as
could be found; whilst that of John Ord of Lincoln Inn, dated ten
years later, betrays some signs of a decadence which soon afterwards
became general.
'The fashion,' as Lord De Tabley remarks, 'began to be vulgarised in the
hands of weak designers, who bestowed floral embellishments upon the
framework of the shields, without any moderation whatever, endeavouring
by a crowded decoration to mask the real weakness and poverty of their
powers of design.' As a consequence, we have in the later Chippendale
book-plates, those, say, from 1760 to 1780 or 1785, some very terrible
productions. Shell-work and flowers are retained, but they are regarded
as inadequate, and cherubs, dragons, 'nymphs in kilted petticoats,'
sheep, cattle, trees, fruit, fruit-baskets, portions of buildings,
fountains, books, implements of husbandry, and a host of other
miscellaneous objects appear as decorations. Indeed, it is wonderful
what a strange medley a designer in the later days of Chippendaleism
could produce for a customer willing to pay for it!
We may as well here point out a few interesting examples of English
book-plates designed in the Chippendale style. A prolific worker in it
was J. Skinner of Bath (see pp. 81-86; 203-212), who followed the
excellent plan of dating nearly all his work, which should, therefore,
be carefully observed when met with. In one of his book-plates, that
which, in 1743, he produced for 'Charles Delafaye, Esq., of Wichbury,
Wilts.' it is curious to note with what evident diffidence the designer
uses the graceful sprays of natural flowers in ornamenting the shelly
shield. Yet in another book-plate, that of Benjamin Hatley Foote,
engraved in the same year, the anonymous artist uses these ornaments
without hesitation, and produces a book-plate which might have been
engraved many years later. Two very noticeable examples are also
supplied by the fully developed Chippendale book-plates of Richard
Caryer and Joseph Pocklington. In each the crest is placed on a
miniature representation of the shield, which contains the arms. Of the
debased Chippendale book-plates, of which we have had to speak, it is
hard to select examples for particular reference, for they are sadly
numerous, and seem to vie with each other in ugliness and vulgarity; the
prize may, however, be claimed by 'C. Eve', who, conscious, perhaps, of
the atrocity he was committing in using such a book-plate, makes an
attempt at disguising his name. To describe his plate is nearly
impossible; suffice it to say that, built on to the frame are sundry
stages on which a variety of pastoral scenes are depicted, and that any
beauties which the floral embellishments might in themselves possess are
effectually obliterated by overcrowding.
Before Chippendaleism had died out, another marked style in English
book-plates had already come in, and was getting to be generally
adopted. We will call this the 'Wreath and Ribbon' or 'Festoon' style,
and probably one of the earliest examples of it is that figured
opposite, which shows us the book-plate of George Lewis Jones, Bishop of
Kilmore, dated in 1774. There is a good deal of grace in these 'Wreath
and Ribbon' book-plates. The shield is again symmetrical, and of a shape
that a shield might possibly be; the flowers and leaves that decorate it
are for the most part still left free and unconfined, and even when
woven into festoons they are somewhat less conventional than those which
compose the festoons of the Jacobean period. These festoons, and a
labyrinth of floating ribbons, were intended to compensate for the loss
of the shelly border and its adjuncts of the 'Chippendale' style.
Just in the same way as the Chippendale book-plates very closely
resembled in their decoration the furniture with which Chippendale
filled the fashionable drawing-rooms of his time, so in their turn those
designed in what we have christened the 'Wreath and Ribbon' style very
closely resembled the decoration which Thomas Sheraton suggested for
contemporary furniture. This the reader may see for himself, if he will
turn to Sheraton's work, _The Cabinetmaker and Upholsterer's Drawing
Book_.
[Illustration]
I do not know that there are many examples of the 'Wreath and Ribbon'
book-plates which call for special attention. Though several are pretty,
there is a strong family likeness between all. Perhaps the most
conspicuous is that of 'John Symons, Esq^{r}.' In this, prettily drawn
cherubs, descending from the sky, hold the corners of a mantle, which
surrounds the shield. The book-plates of 'Sir Thomas Banks I'Anson, of
Corfe Castle, Dorset'; of the 'Rev. George Pollen'; and of 'John
Holcombe, New Cross,' are useful for comparison, on account of the
engraved dates which they bear--1783, 1787, and 1799 respectively;
whilst that of 'Robert Surtees, Mainsforth,' is interesting both from
its possessor, the historian of Durham, who was also its designer, and
from its unusual hatched background.
By degrees the festoons of flowers and entanglement of ribbons were
discarded, and the shield, similarly shaped, appeared destitute of
ornamentation. The helmet was omitted, and the 'wreath' on which the
crest should properly rest was placed, in a meaningless way, the
fraction of an inch above the upper line of the shield, and entirely
without support. After this, quite early in the nineteenth century, and
during its first fifteen or twenty years, there came into fashion a
design in English book-plates which we may term the 'Celestial' style.
In this the shield is depicted as suspended in mid-air, with a
background of sky or clouds, or else resting upon a cloud-built bank. It
gave the designer very slight opportunity for the display of artistic
taste; had it done so, the opportunity would probably have been
neglected, for the designers and engravers of book-plates in this style
were men of whom the world at large knows nothing. The shield, in
book-plates of the time of which I am now speaking, was entirely
without ornament, and of this shape--
[Illustration]
The helmet was seldom introduced, so that the crest was placed in the
same absurd position as that just described. The shield figured above is
a fair specimen of that in vogue between 1810 and 1830. From the latter
date to within a few years ago, the arms, in the majority of English
book-plates, were represented in a more ornate shield. The helmet was
reintroduced, and from it fell a slight mantling, somewhat similar to
that which appears in our earliest examples. It is hardly necessary to
indicate any particular specimens designed in these last-mentioned
styles.
Before closing this chapter, I ought, perhaps, to say a word about
Scotch and Irish book-plates. It cannot be said that in these there was
ever a style distinctively national. The style fashionable in England at
a particular time was also fashionable in Scotland and in Ireland; yet
there is a perceptible difference in the way in which its details were
carried out, especially in Scotland. In Edinburgh there were several
book-plate engravers, and their work possesses a characteristic
touch;[6] the 'Simple Armorial' style is rendered much more stiffly, and
the shield is often round. 'Jacobean' book-plates are very uncommon, but
the 'Chippendales' are an odd mixture of that style as we know it in
England and the 'Jacobean.' The presence of a helmet and mantling in a
'Chippendale' book-plate engraved in Scotland is not unusual, and the
shield is always very soberly placed. I do not know of a 'Library
Interior' plate that hails from north of the Tweed; but, if one ever be
discovered, depend upon it no Cupids will frolic there. A few Scotch
book-plates are, perhaps, emblematic; that is, display emblems of the
possessor's art or trade. Dr. John Bosworth's, in which are figured the
staff of Æsculapius, a cock, a serpent, and an owl, is an instance of
this; but allegory is almost unknown. No mythological figures sit among
the floral decorations of Scotch Chippendale book-plates, as they do so
frequently in later Chippendale work in England. The only instance that
I can call to mind of the introduction of figures at all into the
decoration of a Scotch book-plate, is that of 'Birnie of Broomhill'
(_circa_ 1715), reproduced opposite, and in this the figures are sombre
enough,--two ministers of 'the kirk' kneeling at their desks. Irish
book-plates have even less individuality than Scotch, and are chiefly
recognisable by the coarseness of their work, and their dark printing.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTE:
[6] A list of some Scottish book-plate engravers, compiled by Mr. J.
Orr, is printed in the _Ex Libris Journal_, ii. p. 41.