The book-plate designers of to-day are legion because they are many.
Almost every one who can draw, and many who cannot, have ventured into
the field of book-plate designing; and the result has been that many
of the book-plates that are current have little to commend them to
critical observers. The present increasing interest in these little
bits of the graver's art has greatly encouraged the production of
them, and new ones arise daily. It is desirable, therefore, if we are
to have book-plates at all, that they shall be as artistic as may be;
and it is important, from an art standpoint, to all those who are
about to adopt the use of these marks of ownership that they shall
have, as they may have, the artistic flavor about them.
[Illustration: {Book-plate of Library of the Studio Club.} By Wm.
Edgar Fisher]
[Illustration: {Book-plate of Winifred Knight.} By Wm. Edgar Fisher]
Most of our leading designers have hitherto been grouped in the
eastern section of our country, or at least not much further west than
Chicago. Some few designs, it is true, have been produced in
California, but for the most part the book-plates of note have been
marked with an eastern geographical origin.
In William Edgar Fisher we have a designer who has strikingly departed
from geographical conditions of book-plate designing heretofore
prevailing, and in faraway Fargo, North Dakota, has set up his studio
from whence have come designs that are fresh, original and very
pleasing. Mr. Fisher loves to work in a pictorial field. He makes a
plate that tells a story, and in his best plates there is artfully
placed something bookish that harmonizes with the design-form
selected; and, because of art coherence and harmony in design that go
hand in hand, his plates are more than satisfactory. The general
eastern notion in regard to North Dakota is that nothing artistic can
come out of the State, but the work done there by Mr. Fisher quickly
dispels such an idea. The plates he has drawn are acknowledged as
highly meritorious by the best American masters of book-plate
designing. In all the plates from the hand of this artist that are
here grouped, and which may be regarded as quite typical of him, there
are only two that do not contain a book as a detail somewhere in the
finished plate.
[Illustration: {Book-plate of Maie Bruce Douglas. Book-plate of Mary
N. Lewis.} By Wm. Edgar Fisher]
One of the exceptions is the plate of the Studio Club that gains
infinitely by the omission of a book in the plate as produced. The
grouping of the five observers (symbolic of the members of the Studio
Club) around the feminine portrait is most charming, and to the writer
it appears one of the happiest of recent productions in appropriate
book-plates.
Mr. Fisher's feminine figures that he introduces into many of his
plates are likewise exceedingly effective. This is particularly the
case when to the charms of femininity he has added those of symbolism,
as in the case of the plate for Miss Winifred Knight, in which the
graceful female masker appears at the shrine of the idealized god Pan,
who writes, it may be something oracular, in her proffered album. The
figure is gracefully posed and the lines of the arms and neck are
marked by pleasant curves.
[Illustration: {Book-plate of John Charles Gage. Book-plate of
Elizabeth Allen. Book-plate of Leila H. Cole. Book-plate of
Elizabeth Langdon.} By Wm. Edgar Fisher]
In the plate of Maie Bruce Douglas, Mr. Fisher may have been
influenced by Hans Christian Andersen. At any rate, whether or not
this is so, he has neatly and most effectively grouped the old-time
jester with his cap and bells, the pointed shoes from whence came our
modern samples, and the maiden with the quaintness of head-dress and
drapery, that at least suggests the fairy and the incidental sacred
stork, making this plate with its shelf of books and the panel of
repeated heraldic shields very attractive even to the chance observer.
In the plates for the Misses Mary N. Lewis, Elizabeth Langdon, Leila
H. Cole and Elizabeth Allen there are several diverse methods shown in
which convention has been pleasingly utilized. The vine and tree forms
that are motifs are very effective, and in all of these we see
suggestions of treatment similar to that which stands out perhaps a
little more pronouncedly in the plate of Miss Douglas. Costume
quaintness, charm of pose, graceful outline, the tendency toward
lecturn detail and delicacy of touch, are in each instance here seen
to be characteristic of the artist.
The plate of John Charles Gage has in it the atmosphere of the
monastery. Two friars are busy with a folio manuscript that has been
beautifully illuminated. The one reads the lessons for the day from
the book of hours. The other has a pleasing bit of gossip that he is
telling to his brother friar as he reads, and the reader hears with
eagerness with his ears while he reads without absorption with his
eyes.
[Illustration: {Book-plate of Samuel H. Hudson. Book-plate of Silvanus
Macy Jr.} By Wm. Edgar Fisher]
Into the plate of Samuel H. Hudson the atmosphere of the monastery is
also introduced. The cordelier sits absorbedly reading his matins.
Through the open window of the monkish cell is seen the morning
medieval landscape whose charms exercise no influence upon the
solitary recluse, solitary save for the monkey who plays sad havoc
with the vellum volume that lies upon the cell floor and the
destruction of which the Franciscan is too absorbed to notice. The
monkey as a foil for the ascetic in this plate shows that Mr. Fisher
has a strong appreciation of the most delicate humor, which here crops
out most delightfully. The border makes the plate a trifle heavy, but
this can easily be excused because of the charm of the plate
otherwise.
[Illustration: {Book-plate of Stanley Shepard.} By Wm. Edgar Fisher]
The dog is given a prominent place in the plate of Miss Lula Thomas
Wear. He dominates even the books, and it may be that the owner
prefers her dachshund to her library, although it is evident that her
books have some place in her esteem.
The design on the plate of Stanley Shepard suggests a derivation from
an old print. The caravel rides upon the waves according to the
conception of the old-time engravers. The anchor, the sword fish of
the deep sea, and the sea-stars all suggest the ocean voyager who has
deep down in his heart a love of books.
[Illustration: {Book-plate of Edna B. Stockhouse.} By Wm. Edgar
Fisher]
In contrast with the plate of Mr. Shepard's appears that bearing the
name of Silvanus Macy, Jr. The love of hunting stands out right boldly
here, and in the fox hunt does Mr. Macy undoubtedly revel. He could
not have such a book-plate otherwise, and live with it every day, let
it be in all his books and have it stand for him as it does, unless it
was fairly representative of the man's personality. That is what makes
a book-plate so eminently interesting, aside from the art work put
upon it. Books appeal to all sorts and conditions of men, as the work
of Mr. Fisher's here grouped clearly indicates.
The plate from the books of Miss Edna B. Stockhouse is a trifle
shadowy in motif notwithstanding which there can be no doubt the owner
loves books. The face in the book-plate reads. There is also a love of
the beautiful in ceramics indicated as an incident in the plate. No
wonder the head wears an aureole.
The "Bi Lauda" plate is that of a secret society at Wellsville,
N. Y., and we, therefore, forgive if we cannot forget its poverty of
bookish design.
[Illustration: {Book-plate of Wm. Edgar Fisher.} By Wm. Edgar Fisher]
In the personal plate of the designer, of all those here reproduced,
we catch glimpses of the artist's own personality. We see him as a
book-lover and something of his inspiration is spread out before us.
He goes reading along, carrying reserve volumes in case the one that
engages his attention in the portraiture is happily finished. Mr.
Fisher has been producing book-plates only since 1898, since which
time he has to his credit some forty examples of work in this field.
He is perhaps happiest in his rendition of the plate pictorial, and he
has sometimes tinted his plates most charmingly. Mr. Fisher prepared
for Cornell at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. At Cornell he studied
architecture for two years, with especial attention to drawing. He
also studied, for six months, at the Art Institute, Chicago, Ill.,
whither he went from Cornell. He has been largely self-taught in the
matter of designing, but his work indicates that his teacher was a
good one. He has privately but carefully studied the work of the best
modern pen-and-ink draughtsmen, and from this he has formed his
personal style. The methods and craftsmanship of reproduction were the
subject of special study on his part while he was with one of the
large Chicago engraving houses. Anything that comes from his hand will
be sure of the most kindly reception, so long as his work is
maintained at the present high standard.
[Illustration: {Book-plate of Bi Lauda. Book-plate of Lula Thomas
Wear.} By Wm. Edgar Fisher]
BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY
TONNELÉ & COMPANY
NEW YORK
[Illustration: {Book-plate of William Frederick Havemeyer.}]
NINETEEN EXAMPLES OF DECORATIVE BOOK-PLATES BY MODERN BRITISH
DESIGNERS