BOOKPLATES IN AMERICA
Sixty years ago the intelligent European reader would have rubbed his
eyes and looked at his feet to be sure that they were not where his head
ought to be, if told that American readers formed, in a marked degree, a
very large class to whom publishers and authors should look for sympathy
and encouragement. That is all changed now, and there is probably no
country in the world where books, and all that is implied in that magic
word, arouse so keen an interest.
It will not be out of place to pause and think of the honoured names of
a few of those who have helped to prepare the road for this change. Of
course, some seeds of good fruit were sown many generations before.
Passing over Sir Walter Raleigh, colonist and author, we reach, in a few
years, George Sandys, poet and colonist, one of the brave companions of
Captain John Smith.
John Smith was a member of the council of the 105 emigrants who on
December 19th, 1606, set out from Blackwall to found a colony in
Virginia. Combining prudence with intrepid enterprise, he became the
trusted founder and leader of the colony. In one expedition inland in
December, 1607, he was taken prisoner by the Indians, and is said to
have been rescued by the intervention of Pocahontas, the Indian
Princess.
George Sandys, son of the Archbishop of York, born in 1578, two years
before John Smith, was, in 1611, named as one of the “Undertakers” in
the third Virginia charter, and in 1621 was made Treasurer of the
Virginia Company, not very long before the colony was taken over by the
Crown. What is to the point of our story is that, in his colony home on
the banks of James River, he translated Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_,
dedicated to Charles I., and published in folio in London in 1626.
In 1623 the Rev. William Morrell, armed with a commission to superintend
the churches there, went out in Captain Robert Gorges’ expedition to
Massachusetts, lived at Plymouth there one year, and, returning to
England, published in London, in 1525, in quarto, Latin hexameters, with
a translation into English heroic verse, and entitling the book:
“New-England, or a briefe Enarration of the Ayre, Earth, Water, Fish,
and Fowles of that Country. With a Description of the ... Habits and
Religion of the Natives.”
In 1629 William Wood emigrated from England to Massachusetts, and after
staying there about four years, he came back to England, and in 1634
published his “New England’s Prospect: A true, lively, and experimentall
Description of that part of America commonly called New England:
Discovering the State of that Countrie, both as it stands to our
new-come English Planters and to the old Native inhabitants: Laying
downe that which may both enrich the Knowledge of the mind-travelling
Reader, or benefit the future Voyager, London, by Thomas Cotes for John
Bellamie. 1634.”
The author soon went back to the colony, became a representative in the
State Legislature, became the chief founder of Sandwich in Plymouth
Colony, and died there in 1639.
Of the youth of Roger Williams, the next colonist author, a curious
incident is recorded: “He attended trials in the Court of Star Chamber,
in order to take down notes of them in a shorthand.” Many will recall at
once, how often working as a reporter, has led to a literary career. In
this connection the name of Charles Dickens, and a host of other
authors, occur at once.
In 1626 Roger Williams took his B.A. degree from Pembroke College,
Cambridge; and on December 1st, 1630, he embarked from Bristol in a ship
named the _Lyon_, and after a voyage of over two months, reached
Nantasket February 5th, 1631. He had been ordained in England; but
neither in the old country nor the new did his ideas of a Church and
Church government generally agree with the views of those in authority.
In January, 1636, he was cited by Boston, but declining to appear,
Captain John Underhill was despatched to Salem with a sloop to arrest
him and put him aboard ship for England. Receiving a hint from Winthrop
“to arise and flee into the Narrohiganset’s country, free from English
Pattents,” with a few companions he “steered his course for the land of
the Narragansett Indians, being sorely tossed for one fourteen weeks in
a bitter winter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean.” In 1639
he became an Anabaptist, was duly immersed, and founded the first
Baptist church in Providence--the mother of 18,000 Baptist churches in
America. In a few months he completely separated from the Baptists, and
became a “Seeker.” His whole life and journeys to and from the old
country cannot be followed here. He lived till 1683, “preaching the
Gospel of Christ, not only to his own people, but to the Children of the
Forest, who received the Missionary, and loved the Man.” Some of his
chief published works were:--
“A key into the Language of America, or an Help to the Language of the
Natives in that Part of America called New England; together with Briefe
Observations of the Customes, Manners and Worships of the aforesaid
Natives in Peace and Warre, in Life and Death, London, Gregory Dexler,
1643.”
“The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience, discussed in
a Conference ... 1644.”
“Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health and their Preservatives.
London 1652.”
“George Fox digg’d out of his Burrowes, or an Offer of Disputation on
fourteen Proposals made this last Summer, 1672, (so call’d) unto G. Fox,
then present on Rode Island, in New England. Boston. Printed by John
Foster 1676.”
John Winthrop, born on January 12th, 1588, at Edwardston in Suffolk,
was one of the twelve signatories at Cambridge on August 26th, 1629, to
the document which practically made Massachusetts self-governing. Those
who signed undertook to set sail with their families to inhabit and
continue in New England, provided that the whole government, together
with the patent for the plantation, be first by an order of court
legally transferred and established, to remain with us and others which
shall inhabit upon the said plantation. Shortly John Winthrop was
elected to be governor, and in March of the next year sailed from
England. His literary character was in evidence even throughout the
voyage, as the famous diary was then begun, and also in his journey
across the seas he wrote a little manual, the manuscript of which now
belongs to the New York Historical Society, and is called _Christian
Charitie. A Modell hereof_.
Now we come to talk of a man who is perhaps the most interesting figure
in early American authorship. John Eliot, the Indian apostle, born in
Herefordshire in 1604, took his degree at Cambridge in 1622, and
afterwards entered Holy Orders. He landed at Boston, New England, in
1631. On November 5th, 1632, he was made a “teacher of the Church at
Roxbury, and held this post until his death at Roxbury on May 20th,
1690.” In the meanwhile, between 1632 and 1690, John Eliot had, amongst
other vast labours, translated the whole Bible into native Indian; but
to be more precise: First came the New Testament in 1661, and a second
edition in 1680. In 1663 the whole Bible, first edition, and in 1685 the
second edition. These wonderful works were published at Cambridge, in
New England. He also helped in the preparation of the English Metrical
version of the Psalms, the first book printed in New England. This was
known as the Bay Psalm-book, and was printed by Stephen Daye in 1640.
Everett declared of him: “Since the death of the Apostle Paul, a nobler,
truer, and warmer spirit than John Eliot never lived.”
Again, Mather wrote of him: “He that would write of Eliot, must write of
Charity, or say nothing.”
Richard Baxter, another contemporary, recorded: “There was no man on
earth whom I honour’d above him.”
The credit for the first really original work published in America seems
to belong to Anne Bradstreet, whose maiden name was Anne Dudley, her
father, Thomas Dudley, becoming Governor of Massachusetts. She was born
in Northamptonshire, and at the early age of sixteen married Simon
Bradstreet, and in 1630 went with him to America. Her husband became
Governor of Massachusetts in 1680.
Mrs. Anne Bradstreet’s poems were first published in 1640, under the
title of “Several Poems, compiled with great variety of Wit and
Learning, full of delight; wherein especially is contained a compleat
Discourse and Description of the Four Elements, Constitutions, Ages of
Man, and Seasons of the Year, together with an exact Epitome of the
Three first Monarchies, viz: The Assyrian, Persian, and Grecian; and the
beginning of the Roman Commonwealth to the end of their last King, with
divers other pleasant and serious Poems: by a Gentlewoman of New
England.”
This is not a treatise on history, and we must pass on to later days,
and soon find firm ground with American-born literary men and women.
Jonathan Edwards, born at Windsor, in Connecticut, became a student at
Yale College in 1716. Already, at thirteen years old, he was reading
Locke on _The Human Understanding_, “with a keener delight than a miser
feels when gathering up handfulls of silver and gold from some
newly-discovered treasure.” The greatest of his many writings was “A
careful and Strict Inquiry into the modern prevailing notion that
Freedom of Will is supposed to be essential to Moral Agency,” and this
work has been described as undoubtedly the great bulwark of Calvinistic
theology. Edwards’ father had been fifty years minister of a church in
America, and his ancestors first emigrated from England in Queen
Elizabeth’s days; but the origin of Benjamin Franklin, to whom we come
now, was much humbler.
His father, Josiah Franklin, came from England, and started in Boston as
a tallow chandler. Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17th, 1706, and
when ten years old his father took him home from school to cut wicks for
the candles! The boy became anxious for the life of a sailor; but the
father, with what now, looking back, we may call happy instinct,
apprenticed Benjamin to his elder brother, James, who, just returned
from a voyage to London, had, in 1717, set up a printing-press in
Boston.
This change brought Benjamin at once within reach of reading, and as
what is here written relates wholly to books, the following words of
Benjamin Franklin, written to a son of Cotton Mather in his later
years, are worth repeating: “When I was a boy, I met a book entitled
_Essays to do Good_, which I think was written by your father. It had
been so little regarded by its former possessor that several leaves of
it were torn out, but the remainder gave me such a turn of thinking as
to have an influence upon my conduct through life; for I have always set
a greater value on the character of a doer of good than any other kind
of reputation: and if I have been, as you seem to think, a useful
citizen, the public owes all the advantage of it to that book.”
In 1724, with aid from Sir William Keith, Governor of Pennsylvania,
Benjamin Franklin came to England with the object of obtaining and
bringing over a printing-press and all materials for himself; but not
succeeding in this, he stayed two years in London, working at his trade,
and at this time, 1725, he published _A Dissertation on Liberty and
Necessity, Pleasure and Pain_. This publication is not in any old
collection of Franklin’s writings, and even now only one copy seems to
be known.
In 1730 Benjamin founded the Public Library in Philadelphia. In 1753 he
became Postmaster-General for British America. In 1743 he had originated
the American Philosophical Society, and in 1749 he became the real
founder of the University of Pennsylvania. The year 1752 saw the
verification of his theory identifying lightning with electricity. After
the Declaration of Independence Franklin was, in 1776, appointed
Minister Plenipotentiary to France. In 1785 he became President of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and in 1787 sat with Washington and
Hamilton in the Federal Convention which framed the Constitution of the
United States. On his death, on April 17th, 1790, Mirabeau announced in
the General Assembly of France: “The genius which had freed America, and
poured a flood of light over Europe, had returned to the bosom of the
Divinity.”
Nicolas Trübner, in the interesting Introduction to his _Guide to
American Literature_, London, 1859, points out that until 1793 no
American devoted himself exclusively to literature as a profession. In
this year Charles Brockden Brown’s first novel appeared. The title of
this was _Wieland; or, the Transformation_. The author was born in
Philadelphia in 1771.
The great historian William Hickling Prescott, whose grandfather,
Colonel William Prescott, commanded at Bunker’s Hill, was born at
Salem, in Massachusetts, in 1796. In 1814 he graduated from Harvard with
honours, although in 1811, his first year at Harvard, he had lost the
sight of one eye, and shortly afterwards the other eye was seriously
affected in sympathy with it. This unfortunate accident was caused by a
blow from a crust of bread thrown at random at a college dinner. The
years from 1815 to 1817 he spent in England, “delighting not the less in
the charms of nature because by him they could be seen only” as through
a glass, darkly. He returned, resolved “that the ample page of
knowledge, rich with the spoils of time,” if obscured to his external
organs, should be no stranger to his intellectual vision.
In 1837 his first great work, _The History of Ferdinand and Isabella_,
was finished. With inborn modesty he did not mean it to be published;
but his father, Judge William Prescott, of course insisted on its
publication, and soon it was published, not only in the author’s own
tongue, but in Germany, France, Spain, and Italy, in the respective
languages of those lands. In 1843 appeared _The History of the Conquest
of Mexico_, and in 1847 his _History of the Conquest of Peru_. Next came
the first volumes of the great work which Prescott was never destined
to finish. In 1855 were published the two first volumes of _The History
of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain_, and in December,
1858, appeared the third volume. Early in the year he had been attacked
by a slight stroke of paralysis. Early in the next year this was
followed by a second, and he passed away on January 28th, 1859. In a
conversation only forty-eight hours before his death he spoke of various
friends, and particularly of George Ticknor, whom he described as
“having shortened and brightened what, but for him, must have been many
a sad and weary hour.” Asked if he was not coming to New York, he said:
“No; I suppose that the days of my long journeys are over. I must
content myself, like Horace, with my three houses. You know I go at the
commencement of summer to my cottage by the seaside at Lynn Beach; and
at autumn to my patrimonial acres at Pepperell, which have been in our
family for two hundred years, to sit under the old trees I sat under
when a boy; and then with winter come down to hibernate in this house.
This is the only travelling, I suppose, that I shall do until I go to my
long home.”
George Ticknor, to whom the dying historian Prescott made such
interesting allusion, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, on August 1st,
1791, and from early childhood displayed a passion for books. He became
a barrister, but could not long keep away from literature and learning.
In 1815 he came to Europe, and haunted some of the best libraries and
universities of the Old World. Actually, before his return home to
America, he was, in 1817, appointed Smith Professor of Modern Languages
and Literature in Harvard College. In 1819 he returned to America, and
for fifteen years held this chair of teaching, delivering all the while
the most valuable courses of lectures. In 1835 he gave up his
professorship in order to go again to Europe and study for preparing his
great book. After three years he came back to his native land, and, in
1849, _The History of Spanish Literature_ was first published in New
York by Harper and Brothers, in London by John Murray.
Of it Washington Irving wrote to the author: “No one that has not been
in Spain can feel half the merit of your work, but to those who have it
is a perpetual banquet. It is well worth a lifetime to achieve such a
work.”
Washington Irving, almost the first author noticed as a native of the
city of New York, was born on April 3rd, 1783. His father was a Scot,
and his mother English. Passing over interesting publications like
_Salmagundi; or, The Whim-Whams_, and Diedrich Knickerbocker’s _History
of New York_, we come to _The Sketch Book_, first issued in 1819.
Curiously enough, Washington Irving, as a fact, wrote the MS. for this
in England; but it was at first only printed and published in New York.
Incidentally, Lockhart, in _Blackwood’s Magazine_, February, 1820, paid
a high compliment:--
“We are greatly at a loss to comprehend for what reason Mr. Irving has
thought fit to publish his _Sketch Book_ in America earlier than in
Britain; but, at all events, he is doing himself great injustice by not
having an edition printed here of every number after it has appeared in
New York. Nothing has been written for a long time for which it would be
more safe to promise great and eager acceptance.”
Washington Irving’s fame was now secure, and these few concluding words,
from Allibone, must suffice: “When _Bracebridge Hall_ was ready for the
press, in 1822, Mr. Murray was ready to offer 1,000 guineas for the
copyright without having seen the MS. He obtained the coveted prize at
his offer, and subsequently gave the same author £2,000 for the
chronicle of _The Conquest of Granada_, and 3,000 guineas for the
_History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus_.”
Very few words here must be written of John Lothrop Motley, born in
Massachusetts in 1814. It is enough to mention his splendid work, _The
History of the Rise of the Dutch Republic_. Now, from what is gone
before, it will readily be granted that America was well prepared, by
the work of her own sons, to take a proud position in Literature, and in
concluding these introductory remarks only one honoured name shall be
mentioned further.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, on February
27th, 1807, and was descended from William Longfellow, who, born in
Hampshire, England, in 1651, emigrated to Massachusetts. The chief
incidents of the life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow are like household
words, and to think of all that is pure and noble in America without
naming him, is impossible. All his writings are instinct with the breath
of a pure and noble life.
“Softly the Angelus sounded, and over the roofs of the village
Columns of pale blue smoke, like clouds of incense ascending,
Rose from a hundred hearths, the homes of peace and contentment.
Thus dwelt together in love those simple Acadian farmers,--
Dwelt in the love of God and of man. Alike were they free from
Fear, that reigns with the tyrant, and envy, the vice of republics.
Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their windows;
But their dwellings were open as day and the hearts of the owners;
There the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in abundance.”
Naturally we turn, at first, to look at books taken to America by early
English and Dutch settlers. They and their near descendants, when using
a bookplate at all, mostly adopted an armorial plate. Copper-plate
engraving was, of course, in vogue then, and most of their _ex libris_
are from copper-plates. There are a few from wood-blocks. Of
comparatively late plates, some are steel plates; but the copper are
usually the more satisfactory; the steel being so difficult to work. In
comparing a number of the earlier specimens of bookplates in America an
interesting point involuntarily arises. From which of two views is an
_ex libris_ the more interesting? Is it a work of art or a piece of
history? In spite of all that skilled designers and cunning workers in
metals may say, the majority will probably value most what for want of a
better name may be called the historical aspect. When the Tudor, Stuart,
and Guelph Exhibitions were held in London, somewhat unfortunately so
many of the expert critics, in writing of portraits, groups, or
historical scenes, seemed only able to write from a pure art point of
view. As an instance, not connected with any exhibition, I had, but am
afraid that I have lost it, a somewhat seedy-looking oil painting,
perhaps 18 × 12 inches, which depicted an earnest, bent old figure on
horseback returning the salute of a wonder-struck old countryman and his
good dame. Following the keen old horseman is another horse, bearing the
groom with despatch-bag. The scene is, in fact, a contemporary
representation from life of “The Duke” just before passing out of
Birdcage Walk for Apsley House. In the left background is the Wellington
Monument, as many of us remember it, and on the right the Hercules
statue. These accessories fix the date as in the last few years of the
great Duke’s life.
What thousand-guinea portrait, plastered with elaborate uniform and
robes and saturated with a learned artist’s technical postures and
perfections, could have so perfectly pourtrayed the most interesting
figure ever seen in London half a century ago? Field-Marshal Moltke was
respected throughout Germany as Der Schweiger--the Silent. Wellington,
too, and the late Lord Salisbury as well, did not revel in long-winded
talk. Once, in the Duke’s last years, he had become very unpopular with
the ignorant crowd. Stepping out of the House of Lords into Old Palace
Yard, he was met by the howls and threats of an angry mob. His groom was
there with the aged Duke’s horse for him to ride home as usual. By a
sign, sending away horse and groom, the calm old veteran walked into and
with the mob. Before he and they came to Apsley House, the wild threats
and jeers had become good British cheers. The old man spoke no single
word, but only pointed to his study windows, which had lately been
barred up owing to a mob breaking the glass.
I bought this painting from Charles Dickens’ friend, old Mrs. Haines, as
it hung in her inner parlour or sanctum. I also bought from the old lady
an old crockery clock-case, depicting the young Pretender and Flora
MacDonald; also a separate figure of Flora MacDonald. The old dame
talked the while of her recollections of uninteresting (!) folk, such as
Lord Byron and Charles Dickens. To hear her talk of her own father, a
Thames waterman, landing Byron at the Tower stairs, carried one in fancy
almost back to Wenceslaus Hollar’s London, with its picturesque
quaintness. Describing Dickens’ appearance when first he came to London,
she spoke of him as having somewhat the look of a groom. Then she
pointed with pride to the plain chair in which Dickens, in later years,
spent many an hour of many a day reading her husband’s library books.
This house, No. 24, Fetter Lane, has long been pulled down, and the
foregoing remarks are from my memory of my last call there about
nineteen years ago. In an article shortly afterwards (5th January, 1884)
in the _Pall Mall Gazette_--I have just looked it up in one of my
commonplace books--are many curious particulars, and two good
illustrations: “The walls are lined all round with books that have long
been forgotten by the world, all arranged with some attention to
regularity. A little angular counter protects them from the profane
touch of curio-hunters. This is covered with old books, prints,
tarnished silver, glass cases, tattered engravings, and paintings
cracked and stained. In one corner Dame Haines sat down. ‘Here,’ she
said, ‘I have seen Dickens sit many hundreds of times, and here he used
to lean his shoulder on the counter. Ah!’ she went on, making a movement
with her hands, and with ecstasy expressed on every one of her wrinkled
features, ‘I can see him now, with his pleasant face, his quiet,
rippling laugh and his gentle ways.”
Now, the earlier bookplates hailing from the more northern colonies of
America differ generally from those of southern colonies. Most of the
early northern families were of stern, unimaginative mettle, rather
despising as unholy anything so “worldly” as an _ex libris_, and
bringing few such _gewgaws_ with them in their trunks. On the other
hand, what bookplates they in time adopted were home-made, and if not
fine works of art, they were of essential interest as a bit of history.
The southern colonies, on the other hand, were frequented by a more
polished and wealthy class, bringing along with them the trappings and
social trinkets of their old society.
Mr. E. N. Hewins, in his extremely valuable treatise on American
bookplates, gives the book-label of the Rev. John Williams, dated 1679,
as the earliest dated example. This is particularly interesting, as the
said John Williams was a native. He was born at Roxbury, in
Massachusetts, his grandfather having settled there in about the year
1638.
John Williams graduated at Harvard in 1683, was ordained in 1688, and
became the first pastor of Deerfield, a frontier town. On the night of
February 28th, 1704, Deerfield was attacked by about 300 French and
Indians. A great number of citizens were captured; two of John Williams’
children and a negro servant were killed; and then he, with his wife and
remaining children, were forced to march for Canada. On the second day
out, his wife, falling exhausted, was at once slain with a tomahawk.
Urged on, they marched 300 miles to their destination.
After a long while John Williams was ransomed, and came back to his
faithful charge of Deerfield in 1706. One daughter, Eunice, was still
kept a captive, and her after history was very remarkable. She was only
a child of eight when captured; but in time she forgot the English
language, became a Roman Catholic, and married an Indian. She lived to
a great age, and several times visited her relations, but refused to
give up any of the habits or dress of Indian life.
Another early native-wrought label _ex libris_ is that dated 1704 for
the books of Thomas Prince. He, too, was of an old stock, his
grandfather having emigrated from Hull in 1633.
Thomas Prince became pastor of the Old South Church in Boston. A fine
scholar and linguist, he made valuable collections, both manuscript and
in print. Some of these stored in the tower of the Old South Church, of
great interest for the early history of America, were unfortunately
destroyed by the British forces in 1775.
Now we find a bookplate known to have been engraved on copper by a
native engraver.
Nathaniel Hurd, whose grandfather, emigrating from England, settled in
Charlestown, Massachusetts, was probably the first American who engraved
copper-plates. His best designs had humour and character. One of his
well-known plates represents Hudson, the forger, in the pillory. He
engraved a seal for Harvard University. Hurd was born in 1730, and only
lived to 1777.
Hewins gives Hurd’s plate of Thomas Dering, 1749, as the first American
plate by an American engraver which is both signed and dated.
Much interest among bookplate collectors has, of course, centred round
the plate of George Washington, both on account of its being George
Washington’s, and being rare. It is a good armorial Chippendale plate.
Learned inquirers have failed to establish who engraved it, and on which
side of the broad Atlantic!
The plate of the next worthy to be named is a fine armorial _ex libris_
with the motto: “nec elatus nec dejectus.” The owner of this plate was
Isaiah Thomas, born in Boston in 1749, and dying at Worcester, also in
Massachusetts, in 1831; he was, at six years old, apprenticed to
Zachariah Fowler, ballad printer. In 1770 Thomas became partner with his
former master. Together they issued the _Massachusetts Spy_, “open to
all parties, but influenced by none.” Thomas was soon left alone in his
undertakings. A few days before the battle of Lexington, in which he
bore his part, he packed up his press and types, and took them by night
to Worcester. There he resumed the issue of the _Spy_, which, at all
events in 1888, was still being regularly issued. In 1786 he got from
Europe the first fount of music ever used in New England. In 1788 he
opened a book store in Boston. In 1791 he issued the Bible in folio. He
gave his own fine collection of books, amounting to 8,000 volumes, to
the Worcester Antiquarian Library.
Of him William Lincoln wrote; “His reputation will rest on manly
independence, which gave through the initiatory stage and progress of
the Revolution, the strong influence of the press he directed, towards
the cause of freedom, when royal flattery would have seduced, and the
power of government subdued, its action.”
The wreath and armorial bookplate of John Quincy Adams, sixth President
of the United States, is almost more pleasing to behold than one could
expect to have been chosen by one of the very sternest old Puritans that
ever breathed; but, after all, John Quincy Adams was a scholar and man
of affairs, who from early boyhood had travelled much, and in good
company. All this would give him some ideas of good taste. “J. Q. A.”
seems to lead involuntarily to the thought of another wreath and
armorial bookplate of a not less interesting character.
The lawyer, Josiah Quincy, was born in 1744, in Boston, and died at sea
in 1775; but much happened in that short spell of years. He was one of
the first to say in plain terms, “that an appeal to arms, followed by a
separation from the mother-country, was inevitable.” Early in 1773, when
already suffering from consumption, he took a voyage under doctor’s
orders; but, returning to Boston, he was present in the Old South
Meeting-house on December 16th, and as the men, disguised as Indians,
rushed past the door on their way to the tea-ships, he exclaimed: “See
the clouds which now rise thick and fast upon our horizon, the thunders
roll and the lightnings play, and to that God who rides on the whirlwind
and directs the storm, I commit my country.”
The plate, with armorial shield and crest, of Dr. John Jeffries may be
remembered, though no draughtsman or engraver’s name is tied to it, as
the bookplate of the man who, in Boston, in 1789, delivered the first
lecture on anatomy ever given in New England.
We may turn now from surgeons to a doctor of divinity. The plate of
Samuel Farmar Jarvis, D.D., here reproduced from my copy of Bingley’s
_Voyagers_--in which Jarvis has written: “To my dear Edrica Faulkner a
small token of regard from her affectionate
[Illustration]
friend Saml Farmer Jarvis. Siena, Septemb, 24. 1832.”--is described by
Hewins as: “Armorial. Literary. Mottoes ‘Hora e sempre,’ and ‘Sola salus
servire Deo.’ The shield rests against a pile of books, and, above, the
cross and crown are seen in a blaze of glory.”
S. F. Jarvis, son of the bishop, was born at Middletown, in Connecticut,
in 1786, and from his tastes and scholarship his name is well worthy of
record where books are concerned. In 1826 he sailed for England, and
spent nine years in literary study, exploring many of the great
libraries of Europe. The fruit of these labours may be seen in some
valuable works afterwards published. His fine collection of paintings
and interesting library were sold after his death in 1851.
Leaving now the armorial plates, and coming to a literary name which is
almost as familiar a sound in London as in New York, we find the
bookplate of Oliver Wendell Holmes, a charming original design--a
nautilus shell, with the motto “per ampliora ad altiora.”
“If you will look into Roget’s _Bridgewater Treatise_,” said the
autocrat one morning, “you will find a figure of one of these shells and
a section of it. The last will show you the series of enlarging
compartments successively dwelt in by the animal that inhabits the
shell, which is built in a widening spiral.”
“Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, as the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea.”
A very curious plate is that of Laurence Hutton, the author. The plate
consists mainly of a full-length portrait of William Makepeace
Thackeray, with “Laurence Hutton” inscribed under it! The author of
_Vanity Fair_ stands in an arched doorway, which leads to bookcases and
books. Laurence Hutton was born in the city of New York in 1843. As a
writer he is well known on both sides of the ocean, and for twenty years
he always spent the summer months in England.
Turning from peace to war, the bookplate of Lieutenant E. Trenchard, of
the United States Navy, represents another side of life. In this plate,
as, happily, in almost all bookplates of American origin, the name is
there clear and unmistakable. Behind the horizontal oval bearing the
name, are flags, cannon, cannon-balls, and an anchor. The owner of this
plate was born in New Jersey in 1784, and on April 30th, 1800, he was
appointed a midshipman in the United States Navy, and became lieutenant
on February 18th, 1807. In the war of 1812 to 1815 he commanded the
_Madison_ in some of her engagements on Lake Ontario, and also rendered
distinguished service at the blockade of Kingston. These were stirring
times, and the following exact quotation from, not improbably, the only
copy in existence of a tiny printed manual, is of real interest.
Following Article II. are many other regulations. Then, _Firelock Manual
of the Sergeants_, and the full name of every member of this patriotic
band.
CONSTITUTION.
Instituted March 7, 1805. Revised February 24, 1807.
PREAMBLE.
At the present crisis, when war is spreading its ravages over the
European world, and states and empires are buried in its ruins, and
whilst all Governments must depend upon their military strength for
their existence, it becomes indispensably necessary to every young
man to make the art of war a study, that he may be ever ready to
turn out in defence of the honour and independence of his country.
WE the undersigned Non-Commissioned Officers of Infantry of the
third Brigade, first Division, Massachusetts Militia, impressed
with a sense of the above remarks, have associated for the purpose
of meeting and practising the Manual Exercise, and all such Company
Manœuvres as we can unitedly collect, that are necessary for us to
understand; thereby forming a Military School, which we hope will
ever be a source of improvement to its members. We have, therefore,
subscribed to the following articles as our Constitution, and do
most solemnly pledge our honours to abide and be governed by them
in every respect.
_Article_ I.
This Association shall be styled “THE SOUL OF THE SOLDIERY.”[B]
_Article_ II.
No one shall be a member unless he actually holds a Warrant in the
Infantry of the third Brigade, first Division, Massachusetts
Militia.
A splendid non-armorial and naval plate is the bookplate with the name
“Stephen Cleveland” under the engraving of a fine man-of-war of the old
time in full sail.
Stephen Cleveland went to sea in 1756, being seized in Boston, and
pressed for a British man-of-war. His father, a clergyman, founded, in
1750, at Halifax, the first Presbyterian church in Canada. On the
Declaration of Independence Stephen Cleveland was given a captain’s
commission, and brought over from Bordeaux valuable munitions of war.
His commission is said to have been the earliest issued by the American
Government.
Of quite modern plates a good specimen is that of a well-known New York
collector, Mr. Eduard Hale Bierstadt. The style is allegorical; a piping
shepherd, naked, but for a sergeant’s sash! Books and flowers, with the
motto: “nunc mihi mox aliis.”
A very pleasing, particularly because unpretending, plate is that of
“Melvin H. Hapgood. Hartford, Conn. U.S.A.” It is but little more than a
very finely ornamented label including a very small shield-of-arms.
“Thomas Bailey Aldrich His Mark” is the inscription on the frame
bordering a rectangular modern bookplate. Inside is a bird over a mask,
and, failing more serious emblems, the idea of the bird as a young rook
is not inappropriate to the familiar expression “his mark.”
A more pretentious plate, and well illustrated by Mr. Hewins, is that of
the Rev. Dr. Joseph Henry Dubbs, professor in Franklin and Marshall
College. In the middle is a shield-of-arms fastened in front of a
spreading oak tree. The several inscriptions are: “1880 Joseph Henry
Dubbs D:D:--ex recto decus--” and the migrations of the family noted as
follows: “Styria 1446; Helvetia 1531; America 1732.”
Of modern American library interior _ex libris_ may be mentioned James
Phinney Baxter’s, with an easy-chair, a table, an old clock, and rows of
books. Louis J. Haber’s plate bespeaks ease and comfort. Here, as usual,
are the rows of books, and the old motto: “My silent but faithful
friends are they.”
Albert C. Bates’s bookplate reproduces an early woodcut of a Leyden
University old library, with its chained books.
A beautiful plate, mentioned by Mr. Hewins, is the coloured _ex libris_
of Gerald E. Hart, of Montreal, representing the interior of a cell in
some medieval monastery, with a tonsured monk sitting on his stone
bench, illuminating a manuscript. The Gothic window admits light through
its highly coloured design, and rows of vellum lie beside the desk of
the old monk.
Leaving library interiors, we note, amongst scores of other good
literary bookplates, that of the Rev. Wm. R. Huntington, Rector of Grace
Church, New York City, a design adapted from a frontispiece by Walter
Crane for the Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, and in which a
curly-locked youth is, with a huge key in hand, opening the door of a
house. Upon the roof are seen two cupids, making pleasant sounds with
lyre and voice. With this plate is the charming motto: “In veritate
victoria.”
Many pleasing American _ex libris_ are not personal at all. The
bookplate of the Grolier Club is in itself a beautiful object, befitting
a society which, although only founded in New York less than twenty
years ago, occupies such a unique position in literary circles.
Of a far different style is the allegorical plate inscribed: “This Book
belongs to the Monthly Library in Farmington. Laws. 1. Two pence per day
for retaining a Book more than one Month. 2. One penny for folding down
a Leaf. 3. 3 shillings for lending a book to a Nonproprietor. Other
Damages apprais’d by a Committee. 5. No Person allowed a Book while
indebted for a Fine.”
The following lines probably refer to the allegorical drawing:--
“The youth who Led by Wisdom’s guiding Hand
Seeks Virtue’s Temple, and her Law Reveres:
He, he alone in Honour’s Dome shall stand,
Crown’d with Rewards, and rais’d above his Peers.”
At the foot of the plate is “M. Bull’s and T. Lee’s sculp.” This said
Martin Bull was an interesting village character. For thirty-nine years
he held the post of clerk of probate, and for eight years was town
treasurer. He also worked as a goldsmith, manufactured saltpetre for the
army, and conducted the church choir! This interesting local library was
founded in 1795, and then was called “The Library in the First Society
in Farmington.” In 1801 it acquired the name engraved over the
bookplate.