-----+----------------------------------+---------+-----------
| Forward | |L3761 7 8
+--------- 27th December. ---------+ |
| A. Brown, | |
| 492 New Street, Walworth-- | |
471 | 2 doz. V.C. port 31/- | L3 2 0 |
| 1 " A.C. pale brandy 49/- | 2 9 0 |
| | |
-----+--------- 28th December. ---------+---------+ 5 11 0
| Fredk. Newton, | |
| Farleigh House, Epsom-- | |
216 | 1 gall. E. Pale sherry 13/6 | L0 13 6 |
| 2 doz. O.B. Heidsieck 1892 160/- | 16 0 0 |
| 2 gall. P. Scotch 21/- | 2 2 0 |
-----+----------------------------------+---------+ 18 15 6
| Robert French, | |
| 214 High Road, Sutton-- | |
408 | 6 doz. F.D. Pommard, 1899 30/- | L9 0 0 |
| 1 " M.F. Margaux, 1893 66/- | 3 6 0 |
| 2 " A. Niersteiner 24/- | 2 8 0 |
| +---------+ 14 14 0
| | +-----------
| | |L3800 8 2
| | +-----------
| | |
| | | 100
| | |
-----+----------------------------------+---------+-----------
With a view still further to split up the work, thus enabling a large
staff to be simultaneously engaged, the ledger itself is now generally
kept in sections. Thus the cash account and the bank account are
frequently bound together in one separate book called the _cash book_,
showing in parallel columns the movements of office cash and of cash at
the bank, and by the addition of a third column for discounts the
necessity of keeping an additional book of first entry as a _discount
journal_ may also be avoided. Of late years, however, most businesses
pay all moneys received into their bankers without deduction, and pay
all accounts by cheque; the necessity of an account for office cash thus
no longer exists, save in connexion with petty payments, which are
recorded in a separate book called the _petty cash book_. With regard to
the remaining ledger accounts, personal accounts--which are the most
numerous--are frequently separated from the real and nominal accounts,
and are further subdivided so that customers' accounts are kept separate
from the accounts of trade creditors. The customers' accounts are kept
in a ledger (or, if need be, in several ledgers) called _sales ledgers_,
or _sold ledgers_; while the accounts of trade creditors are similarly
kept in _purchases ledgers_ or _bought ledgers_. The nominal and real
accounts, if together, are kept in what is called the _general ledger_;
but this may be further subdivided into a _nominal ledger_ and a
_private ledger_. This last subdivision is, however, rarely made upon a
scientific basis, for such accounts as the profit and loss account and
trading account are generally kept in the private ledger although
strictly speaking nominal accounts; while the bills receivable account
and the bills payable account are generally kept in the nominal ledger,
so as to reduce to a minimum the amount of clerical work in connexion
with the private ledger, which is kept either by the principal himself
or by his confidential employee. By the employment of _adjustment
accounts_, which complete the double-entry record in each ledger, these
various ledgers may readily be made self-balancing, thus enabling
clerical errors to be localized and responsibility enforced.
Tabular book-keeping.
Of recent years considerable attention has been devoted to further
modifications of book-keeping methods with a view to reducing clerical
work, increasing the speed with which results are available, and
enabling them to be handled more quickly and with greater certainty.
_Tabular book-keeping_ is a device to achieve one or more of these ends
by the substitution of books ruled with numerous columns for the more
usual form. The system may be applied either to books of first entry or
to ledgers. As applied to books of first-entry it enables the same book
to deal conveniently with more than one class of transaction; thus if
the trading of a business is divided into several departments, by
providing a separate column for the sales of each department it is
possible readily to arrive at separate totals for the aggregate sales of
each, thus simplifying the preparation of departmental trading accounts.
As applied to ledgers, the application of the system may be best
described by the aid of the above example (the proceedings of the
columns being given only), which shows how a very large number of
personal accounts may be recorded upon a single opening of a ledger
provided the number of entries to be made against each individual be
few.
-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------
(a) | (b) | (c) | (d) | (e) | (f) | (g) | (h) | (i) | (j) | (k) | (l)
-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------
| |L s. d.|L s. d.|L s. d.| |L s. d.|L s. d.|L s. d.|L s. d.|L s. d.|
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
(a) Reference No. (b) Name of Debtor.
(c) Amount due on 1st Oct. 1906 (d) Charges for Current Quarter.
(e) Total Debit. (f) Date received.
(g) Amount Received. (h) Discounts.
(i) Allowances. (j) Bad Debts.
{k} Amount due on 31st Dec. 1906 (l) Remarks.
[Illustration: FIG 1.--Card-Ledger Tray (Librry Bureau System).]
Slip system.
Another important application of modern methods consists of what may be
described as the _slip system_, which is in many respects a reversion to
the method of keeping records upon movable slabs or tablets, as in the
Babylonian accounts referred to at the beginning of this article. This
system may be applied to books of first-entry, or to ledgers, or to
both. As applied to books of first-entry it aims at so modifying the
original record of the transaction--whether it represents an invoice for
goods sold or an acknowledgment given for money received--that a
facsimile duplicate may be taken of the original entry by the aid of a
carbon sheet, which instead of being immovably bound up in a book is
capable of being handled separately and placed in any desired order or
position, and thus more readily recorded in the ledger. Postings are
thus made direct from the original slips, which have been first sorted
out into an order convenient for that purpose, and afterwards resorted
so that the total sales of each department may be readily computed;
after which they are filed away in a form convenient for reference.
Sometimes the process is carried a step further, and the original slips,
filed away with suitable guide-cards indicating the nature of the
account, themselves constitute the ledger record--which in such cases is
to be found scattered over a number of sheets, one for each transaction,
instead of, as in the case of the ordinary book ledger, a considerable
number of transactions being recorded upon a single page. This
adaptation of the slip system is impracticable except in cases where the
transactions with each individual are few in number, and is not worth
adoption unless the exceedingly large number of personal accounts makes
it important as far as possible to avoid all duplication of clerical
work. The more usual adaptation of the slip system to ledgers is to be
found in the employment of _card ledgers_ or _loose-leaf ledgers_. With
card ledgers (fig. 1) each ledger account is upon an independent sheet
of cardboard suitably arranged in drawers or cabinets. The system is
advantageous as allowing all dead matter to be eliminated from the
record continuously in use, and as permitting the order in which the
accounts stand to be varied from time to time as convenience dictates,
thus (if necessary) enabling the accounts to be always kept in
alphabetical order in spite of the addition of new accounts and the
dropping out of old ones. An especial convenience of the card system is
that in times of pressure any desired number of book-keepers may be
simultaneously employed, whereas the maximum number that can be usefully
employed upon any bound book is two. The loose-leaf ledger (fig. 2) may
be described as midway between card and bound ledgers. It consists of a
number of sheets in book form, so bound as to be capable of being
readily separated when desired. The loose-leaf ledger thus embraces most
of the advantages of the card ledger, while remaining sufficiently like
the more old-fashioned book ledger as to enable it to be readily handled
by those whose previous experience has been confined to the latter. Both
the card and loose-leaf systems will be frequently found of value for
records in connexion with cost and stores accounts, quite irrespective
of their advantages in connexion with the book-keeping records pure and
simple of certain businesses.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Loose-Leaf Ledger (Library Bureau System.)]
Legislative Requirements.
All book-keeping methods rest upon the same fundamental principles, but
their development in practice in different countries is to some extent
influenced by the manner in which business is there conducted, and by
the legislative requirements imposed by the several states. In France
traders are required by the Code of Commerce to keep three books--a
journal, an inventory and a letter book, somewhat elaborate provisions
being made to identify these books, and to prevent substitution. The
compulsory journal makes the employment of numerous books of first-entry
impossible without an undesirable amount of duplication, and wherever
this provision obtains the book-keeping methods are in an accordingly
comparatively backward state. The inventory book comprises periodical
lists of ledger balances and the balance sheet, records which are
invariably kept under every adequate system, although not always in a
book specially set aside for that purpose. In Germany the statutory
requirements are similar to those in France, save that the journal is
not compulsory; but there is an additional provision that the accounts
are to be kept in _bound_ books with the pages numbered consecutively--a
requirement which makes the introduction of card or loose-leaf ledgers
of doubtful legality. A balance sheet must be drawn up every year; but
where a stock-in-trade is from its nature or its size difficult to take,
it is sufficient for an inventory to be taken every two years. In
Belgium the law requires every merchant to keep a journal recording his
transactions from day to day, which (with the balance book) must be
initialled by a prescribed officer. All letters and telegrams received,
and copies of all such sent, must be preserved for ten years. The
Commercial Code of Spain requires an inventory, journal, ledger, letter
book and invoice book to be kept; while that of Portugal prescribes the
use of a balance book, journal, ledger and copy-letter book. The law of
Holland requires business men to keep books in which are correctly
recorded their commercial transactions, letters received and copies of
letters sent. It also provides for the preparation of an annual balance
sheet. The law of Rumania makes the employment of journal, inventory
book and ledger compulsory, a small tax per page being charged on the
two first named. There are no special provisions as to book-keeping
contained in the Russian law, nor in the United States law, but in
Russia public companies have to supply the government with copies of
their annual accounts, which are published in a state newspaper, and in
the United States certain classes of companies have to submit their
accounts to an official audit. In general terms it may be stated that at
the present time the employment of card and loose-leaf ledger systems is
more general in the United States than in Great Britain.
Education.
Apart from the organizations of professional accountants, there is none
of note devoted to the scientific study of book-keeping other than
purely educational institutions. Among the universities those in the
United States were the first to include accounting as part of their
curriculum; while in Great Britain the London School of Economics
(university of London), the university of Birmingham, and the Victoria
University of Manchester have, so far, alone treated the subject
seriously and upon adequate lines. Quite recently Japan has been making
a movement in the same direction, and other countries will doubtless
follow suit. In England there have for a number of years past been
various bodies--such for instance as the Society of Arts, the London
Chamber of Commerce and Owens College, Manchester--which hold
examinations in book-keeping and grant diplomas to successful
candidates, while most of the polytechnics and technical schools give
instruction in book-keeping; these latter, however, for the most part
regard it as a "craft" merely.
AUTHORITIES.--Those interested in the bibliography of book-keeping are
referred to the catalogue of the library of the Institute of Chartered
Accountants in England and Wales, which probably contains the most
complete collection in existence of ancient and modern works on
accounting, both British and foreign. The following short list
comprises those most likely to be found of general interest: G. van de
Linde, _Book-keeping_ (1898); L.R. Dicksee, _Book-keeping_ (5th ed.,
1906) and _Advanced Accounting_ (2nd ed., 1905); _Encyclopaedia of
Accounting_, ed. by G. Lisle (1903); _Accountants' Library_, ed. by
the editor of _The Accountant_ (1901); J.W. Heaps, _The Antiquity of
Book-keeping_ (1898); _History of Accounting and Accountants_, ed. by
R. Brown (1905). (L. R. D.)
BOOK-PLATES. The book-plate, or _ex-libris_, a printed label intended to
indicate ownership in individual volumes, is nearly as old as the
printed book itself. It bears very much the same relation to the
hand-painted armorial or otherwise symbolical personal device found in
medieval manuscripts that the printed page does to the scribe's work.
The earliest known examples of book-plates are German. According to
Friedrich Warnecke, of Berlin (one of the best authorities on the
subject), the oldest movable _ex-libris_ are certain woodcuts
representing a shield of arms supported by an angel (fig. 1), which were
pasted in books presented to the Carthusian monastery of Buxheim by
Brother Hildebrand Brandenburg of Biberach, about the year 1480--the
date being fixed by that of the recorded gift. The woodcut, in imitation
of similar devices in old MSS., is hand-painted. In France the most
ancient _ex-libris_ as yet discovered is that of one Jean Bertaud de la
Tour-Blanche, the date of which is 1529; and in England that of Sir
Nicholas Bacon, a gift-plate for the books he presented to the
university of Cambridge (fig. 2). Holland comes next with the plate of
a certain Anna van der Aa, in 1597; then Italy with one attributed to
the year 1622. The earliest known American example is the plain printed
label of one John Williams, 1679.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Gift-plate of Hildebrand Brandenburg of Biberach
to the Monastery of Buxheim (c. 1480).]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Book-plate of Sir Nicholas Bacon (slightly
reduced).]
A sketch of the history of the book-plate, either as a minor work of
symbolical and decorative art, or as an accessory to the binding of
books, must obviously begin in Germany, not only because the earliest
examples known are German, but also because they are found in great
numbers long before the fashion spread to other countries, and are often
of the highest artistic interest. Albrecht Durer is known to have
actually engraved at least six plates (some of very important size)
between 1503 and 1516 (fig. 3), and to have supplied designs for many
others. Several notable plates are ascribed to Lucas Cranach and to Hans
Holbein, and to that bevy of so-called Little Masters, the Behams,
Virgil Solis, Matthias Zundt, Jost Amman, Saldorfer, Georg Hupschmann
and others. The influence of these draughtsmen over the decorative
styles of Germany has been felt through subsequent centuries down to the
present day, notwithstanding the invasion of successive Italian and
French fashions during the 17th and 18th centuries, and the marked
effort at originality of composition observable among modern designers.
The heavy, over-elaborated German style never seems to have affected
neighbouring countries; but since it was undoubtedly from Germany that
was spread the fashion of ornamental book-plates as marks of possession,
the history of German _ex-libris_ remains on that account one of high
interest to all those who are curious in the matter.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Book-plate of Lazarus Spengler, by Albrecht
Durer, 1515 (reduced).]
It was not before the 17th century that the _movable ex-libris_ became
tolerably common in France. Up to that time the more luxurious habit of
stamping the cover with a personal device had been in such general
favour with book-owners as to render the use of labels superfluous. From
the middle of the century, however, the _ex-libris_ proper became quite
naturalized; examples of that period are very numerous, and, as a rule,
are very handsome. It may be here pointed out that the expression
_ex-libris_, used as a substantive, which is now the recognized term for
book-plate everywhere on the continent, found its origin in France. The
words only occur in the personal tokens of other nationalities long
after they had become a recognized inscription on French labels.
In many ways the consideration of the English book-plate, in its
numerous styles, from the late Elizabethan to the late Victorian period,
is peculiarly interesting. In all its varieties it reflects with great
fidelity the prevailing taste in decorative art at different epochs. Of
English examples, none thus far seems to have been discovered of older
date than the gift-plate of Sir Nicholas Bacon; for the celebrated,
gorgeous, hand-painted armorial device attached to a folio that once
belonged to Henry VIII., and now reposes in the King's library, British
Museum, does not come under the head of book-plate in its modern sense.
The next is that of Sir Thomas Tresham, dated 1585. Until the last
quarter of the 17th century the number of authentic English plates is
very limited. Their composition is always remarkably simple, and
displays nothing of the German elaborateness. They are as a rule very
plainly armorial, and the decoration is usually limited to a symmetrical
arrangement of mantling, with an occasional display of palms or wreaths.
Soon after the Restoration, however, a book-plate seems to have suddenly
become an established accessory to most well-ordered libraries.
Book-plates of that period offer very distinctive characteristics. In
the simplicity of their heraldic arrangements they recall those of the
previous age; but their physiognomy is totally different. In the first
place, they invariably display the tincture lines and dots, after the
method originally devised in the middle of the century by Petra Sancta,
the author of _Tesserae Gentilitiae_, which by this time had become
adopted throughout Europe. In the second, the mantling assumes a much
more elaborate appearance--one that irresistibly recalls that of the
periwig of the period--surrounding the face of the shield. This style
was undoubtedly imported from France, but it assumed a character of its
own in England. As a matter of fact, thenceforth until the dawn of the
French Revolution, English modes of decoration in book-plates, as in
most other chattels, follow at some years' distance the ruling French
taste. The main characteristics of the style which prevailed during the
Queen Anne and early Georgian periods are:--ornamental frames suggestive
of carved oak, a frequent use of fish-scales, trellis or diapered
patterns, for the decoration of plain surfaces; and, in the armorial
display, a marked reduction in the importance of the mantling. The
introduction of the scallop-shell as an almost constant element of
ornamentation gives already a foretaste of the _Rocaille-Coquille_, the
so-called Chippendale fashions of the next reign. As a matter of fact,
during the middle third of the century this rococo style (of which the
Convers plate [fig. 4] gives a tolerably typical sample) affects the
book-plate as universally as all other decorative objects. Its chief
element is a fanciful arrangement of scroll and shell work with
curveting acanthus-like sprays--an arrangement which in the examples of
the best period is generally made asymmetrical in order to give freer
scope for a variety of countercurves. Straight or concentric lines and
all appearances of flat surface are studiously avoided; the helmet and
its symmetrical mantling tends to disappear, and is replaced by the
plain crest on a fillet. The earlier examples of this manner are
tolerably ponderous and simple. Later, however, the composition becomes
exceedingly light and complicated; every conceivable and often
incongruous element of decoration is introduced, from cupids to dragons,
from flowerets to Chinese pagodas. During the early part of George
III.'s reign there is a return to greater sobriety of ornamentation, and
a style more truly national, which may be called _the urn style_, makes
its appearance. Book-plates of this period have invariably a physiognomy
which at once recalls the decorative manner made popular by architects
and designers such as Chambers, the Adams, Josiah Wedgwood, Hepplewhite
and Sheraton. The shield shows a plain spade-like outline, manifestly
based upon that of the pseudo-classic urn then so much to the fore. The
ornamental accessories are symmetrical palms and sprays, wreaths and
ribands. The architectural boss is also an important factor. In many
plates, indeed, the shield of arms takes quite a subsidiary position by
the side of the predominantly architectural urn. From the beginning of
the 19th century, until comparatively recent days, no special style of
decoration seems to have established itself. The immense majority of
examples display a plain shield of arms with motto on a scroll below,
and crest on a fillet above. Of late years, however, a rapid impetus
appears to have been given to the designing of _ex-libris_; a new era,
in fact, has begun for the book-plate, one of great interest.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Book-plate of P.A. Convers, 1762.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Book-plate of Francis Gwyn of Lansanor, 1698.]
The main styles of decoration (and these, other data being absent, must
always in the case of old examples remain the criteria of date) have
already been noticed. It is, however, necessary to point out that
certain styles of composition were also prevalent at certain periods.
Many of the older plates (like the majority of the most modern ones)
were essentially pictorial. Of this kind the best-defined English genus
may be recalled: _the library interior_--a term which explains
itself--and _book-piles_, exemplified by the _ex-libris_ (fig. 6) of W.
Hewer, Samuel Pepys's secretary. We have also many _portrait-plates_, of
which, perhaps, the most notable are those of Samuel Pepys himself and
of John Gibbs, the architect; _allegories_, such as were engraved by
Hogarth, Bartolozzi, John Pine and George Vertue; _landscape-plates_, by
wood engravers of the Bewick school (see Plate), &c. In most of these
the armorial element plays but a secondary part.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Book-plate of William Hewer, 1699.]
The value attached to book-plates, otherwise than as an object of purely
personal interest, is comparatively modern. The study of and the taste
for collecting these private tokens of book-ownership hardly date
farther back than the year 1875. The first real impetus was given by the
appearance of the _Guide to the Study of Book-Plates_, by Lord de Tabley
(then the Hon. Leicester Warren) in 1880. This work, highly interesting
from many points of view, established what is now accepted as the
general classification of styles: _early armorial_ (i.e. previous to
Restoration, exemplified by the Nicholas Bacon plate); _Jacobean_, a
somewhat misleading term, but distinctly understood to include the heavy
decorative manner of the Restoration, Queen Anne and early Georgian days
(the Lansanor plate, fig. 5, is typically Jacobean); _Chippendale_ (the
style above described as _rococo_, tolerably well represented by the
French plate of Convers); _wreath and ribbon_, belonging to the period
described as that of the urn, &c. Since then the literature on the
subject has grown considerably. Societies of collectors have been
founded, first in England, then in Germany and France, and in the United
States, most of them issuing a journal or archives: _The Journal of the
Ex-libris Society_ (London), the _Archives de la societe francaise de
collectionneurs d'ex-libris_ (Paris), both of these monthlies; the
_Ex-libris Zeitschrift_ (Berlin), a quarterly.
Much has been written for and against book-plate collecting. If, on the
one hand, the more enthusiastic ex-librists (for such a word has
actually been coined) have made the somewhat ridiculous claim of science
for "ex-librisme," the bitter animadversion, on the other, of a certain
class of intolerant bibliophiles upon the vandalism of removing
book-plates from old books has at times been rather extravagant.
Book-plates are undoubtedly very often of high interest (and of a value
often far greater than the odd volume in which they are found affixed),
either as specimens of bygone decorative fashion or as personal relics
of well-known personages. There can be no question, for instance, that
engravings or designs by artists such as Holbein and Durer and the
Little Masters of Germany, by Charles Eisen, Hubert Francois
Bourguignon, _dit_ Gravelot, D.N. Chodowiecki or Simon Gribelin; by W.
Marshall, W. Faithorne, David Loggan, Sir Robert Strange, Francesco
Piranesi; by Hogarth, Cipriani, Bartolozzi, John Keyse Sherwin, William
Henshaw, Hewitt or Bewick and his imitators; or, to come to modern
times, that the occasional examples traced to the handicraft of Thomas
Stothard, Thackeray, Millais, Maclise, Bell Scott, T.G. Jackson, Walter
Crane, Caldecott, Stacy Marks, Edwin Abbey, Kate Greenaway, Gordon
Browne, Herbert Railton, Aubrey Beardsley, Alfred Parsons, D.Y. Cameron,
Paul Avril--are worth collecting.
[Illustration: PLATE.
BOOK-PLATE OF ROBERT PINKNEY. By Thoma Bewick.
BOOK-PLATE OF FREIHERR V. LIPPERHEIDE. By Karl Rickelt.
BOOK-PLATE OF CHARLES DEXTER ALLEN. By E.D. French.