The Mark of William Norton, 1570-93, whose shop was at the King’s Arms,
St. Paul’s Churchyard, was in a double sense a pun on his name,
consisting as it did of a representation of a Sweet-William growing
through a tun inscribed with the letters “NOR”; and something of the
same kind may be said of that employed by Richard Harrison, 1552-62,
whose Mark is described by Camden as “an Hare by a sheafe of Rye in the
Sun, for Harrison.” In this connection we may also here refer to the
Mark employed by Gerard (or Gerald) Dewes, 1562-87, whose shop was at
the sign of the Swan in St. Paul’s Churchyard; this is described by
Camden thus: “and if you require more [_i.e._ in reference to the
prevailing taste for picture-writing such as the designs of Norton and
Dewes] I refer you to the witty inventions of some Londoners; but that
for Garret Dewes is most remarkable, two in a garret casting Dewes at
dice.” In the same category also may be included the Mark of Christopher
and Robert Barker, the Queen’s Printers, who used a design of a man
barking timber, with the couplet
“A Barker if you will,
In name but not in skill.”
From these and many other instances which might be cited, it will be
seen that by the end of the sixteenth century the Printer’s Mark in
England had declined into a very childish and feeble play upon the names
of the printers, and the subject therefore need not be further pursued.
[Illustration: FELIX KINGSTON.