Book Plates Part 1

Book-Plates.

by William J. Hardy.

Preface

HAVING vindicated in my introductory chapter the practice of collecting book-plates from the charge of flagrant immorality, I do not think it necessary to spend many words in demonstrating that it is in every way a worthy and reasonable pursuit, and one which fully deserves to be made the subject of a special treatise in a series of _Books about Books_. If need were, the Editor of the series, who asked me to write this little hand-book, would perhaps kindly accept his share of responsibility, but in the face of the existence of a flourishing 'Ex Libris' Society, the importance of the book-plate as an object of collection may almost be taken as axiomatic. My own interest in this particular hobby is of long standing, and happily the appearance, when my ma.n.u.script was already at the printer's, of Mr. Egerton Castle's pleasantly written and profusely ill.u.s.trated work on _English Book-Plates_ has relieved me of the dreaded necessity of writing an additional chapter on those modern examples, in treating of which neither my knowledge nor my enthusiasm would have equalled his.

The desire to possess a book-plate of one's own is in itself commendable enough, for in fixing the first copy into the first book the owner may surely be a.s.sumed to have registered a vow that he or she at least will not join the great army of book-persecutors--men and women who cannot touch a volume without maltreating it, and who, though they are often ready to describe the removal of a book-plate, even from a worthless volume, as an act of vandalism, do infinitely more harm to books in general by their ruthless handling of them. No doubt, also, the decay of interest in heraldry, which is mainly responsible for the eccentricities of modern 'fancy' examples, has taken from us the temptation to commit certain sins which were at one time attractive. Our ancestors, for instance, may sometimes have outraged the susceptibilities of the heralds by using as book-plates coats-of-arms to which they had no t.i.tle. Yet their offence against the College of Arms was trivial when compared with the outrage upon common-sense committed by the mystical young man of to-day, who designs, or has designed for him, an 'emblematic' book-plate, or a 'symbolic' book-plate, or a 'theoretic'

book-plate, in which the emblem, or the symbol, or the theory, is far too mystical for any ordinary comprehension, and needs, in fact, a lengthy explanation, which, however, I am bound to confess, is always very willingly given by either owner or designer, if asked for.

It is, perhaps, needless to say that I am very far from including all modern book-plates under this condemnation. The names of the artists--Sir John Millais, Mr. Stacy Marks, Randolph Caldecott, Mr.

Walter Crane, Miss Kate Greenaway, and others--who have found time to design, some of them only one, some quite a considerable number of really interesting marks of ownership, suffice to rescue modern book-plates from entire discredit. Here and there, too, a little-known artist, like the late Mr. Winter of Norwich, has produced a singularly fine plate. Above all, the strikingly beautiful work of Mr. Sherborn, as seen in the book-plates of the Duke of Westminster, in that of Mr.

William Robinson, and in many other fine examples, forms a refreshing oasis in the desert of wild eccentricity. But the most ardent admirer of modern book-plates cannot pretend that amid the multiplicity of recent examples any school or style is observable, and as I have aimed at giving in this little hand-book an historic sketch, however unpretentious, of the different styles adopted in designing book-plates from their first introduction, I hope I may be excused for not having attempted to trace their history beyond the early years of the present century, after which no distinctive style can be said to exist.

As I have said elsewhere, it has been no part of my object in writing my book to advocate indiscriminate collecting. But for those who are already collectors I have one word of advice on the subject of the arrangement of their treasures. Some enthusiasts advocate a chronological arrangement, others a genealogical, others a topographical: and the advocates of each theory paste down their specimens in sc.r.a.p-books or other volumes in adherence to their own views. Now there is a great deal to be said in favour of each of these cla.s.sifications: so much, indeed, that no system is perfect which does not admit of a collection being arranged according to one plan to-day and another tomorrow--_i.e._ no arrangement is satisfactory which is necessarily permanent. Let each specimen be lightly, yet firmly, fixed on a separate sheet of cardboard or stout paper, of sufficient size to take the largest book-plates commonly met with. These cards or sheets may be kept, a hundred or a hundred and fifty together, in portfolios or boxes, which should be distinctly numbered. Each card or sheet should also be paged and bear the number of the portfolio to which it belongs.

The collector can by this means ascertain, when he pleases, if all his portfolios contain their proper number of cards or sheets, and he can arrange his specimens according to the particular point of interest in his collection which from time to time he may desire to ill.u.s.trate. In addition to this, the system of single cards has obvious advantages for the purpose of minute study and comparison.

In conclusion, it only remains for me to express my warm thanks to Lord De Tabley and to Mr. A. W. Franks, C.B.; to the former for allowing me to make use, without oft-repeated acknowledgment, of the matter contained in his _Guide to the Study of Book-Plates_, a second, and much amplified edition of which we may hope will, before long, make its appearance; to the latter, not only for constant advice and a.s.sistance, but also for the loan from his collection of nearly all the book-plates with reproductions of which this volume is ill.u.s.trated.

W. J. H.

1893.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Preface to the Second Edition

A FEW words are, perhaps, needed by way of introduction to the present revised and enlarged edition of this work. Some slips of my own have been rectified, and there has been added a considerable amount of additional information, brought to light since 1893; for much of this I am indebted to the researches of Mr. Egerton Castle, Mr. Charles Dexter Allen, Miss Norna Labouchere, and Mr. Walter Hamilton, as well as to Mr.

Fincham and various other contributors to the pages of the _Ex Libris Journal_.

During the three years that have elapsed since the first publication of my book, the ranks of those taking an intelligent interest in book-plates have been largely increased; yet they have suffered some serious losses, and foremost amongst these must be placed the death of Lord De Tabley. That he died ere the completion of the promised new edition of his _Guide to the Study of Book-Plates_ is a matter of sincere regret to every student of the subject; all we can now hope for is that Sir Wollaston Franks--the one man really capable of bringing out a new edition of Lord De Tabley's book--will some day undertake the task.

As before, I have again to express my sincere grat.i.tude to a great number of collectors for the kindly help they have given me; and I must not pa.s.s without special thanks the kindness of Mr. Everard Green, F.S.A., Rouge Dragon, for allowing me to ill.u.s.trate this preface with his own book-plate, designed and engraved for him by Mr. George W. Eve; it is in every way an excellent specimen of modern work in book-plates, being both appropriate and artistic, and, above all, rational.

W. J. H.

ST. ALBANS, 1896.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

BOOK-PLATE collecting, at least in this country, is a thing of yesterday. On the Continent, particularly in France, it attracted attention sufficiently serious to induce the publication, in 1874, of a monograph on French book-plates by M. Poulet Mala.s.sis, which in the next year obtained the honours of a second edition. In England, prior to 1880, we had no work devoted to the study; but, in that year, the Honourable J. Leicester Warren--afterwards Lord De Tabley--published _A Guide to the Study of Book-Plates (Ex Libris)_. How little was then generally known about these marks of ownership is shown by the allusions to them--very few in number--that find place in the pages of such publications as _The Gentleman's Magazine_ or _Notes and Queries_: for that reason, the skilful handling of the subject by the late Lord De Tabley, and his zeal in compiling the treatise, are all the more conspicuous.

One of the most useful works which has yet appeared in the journal of the _Ex Libris_ Society--a society intended to promote the study of book-plates--is a compilation by Mr. H. W. Fincham and Mr. J. Roberts Brown, _A Bibliography of Book-Plates_, arranged chronologically. A glance at this compilation emphasises the truth of the statement, just made, as to the scantiness of recorded information on book-plates prior to the year 1880; it also shows what a great deal about them has been written since.

Writing to _Notes and Queries_ in 1877, Dr. Jackson Howard, whose collection is now one of the largest in England, says that he began collecting forty years before that date, and that the nucleus of his own collection was one made by a Miss Jenkins at Bath in 1820. It is probably, therefore, to this lady that we should attribute the honour of being the first collector of book-plates, for their own sake. No doubt the collector of engravings admitted into his portfolios book-plates worthy a place there as interesting engravings, for stray examples are often found in such collections as that formed in the seventeenth century by John Bagford, the biblioclast, which is now in the British Museum. No doubt, too, heraldic painters or plate engravers collected book-plates as specimens of heraldry, but this was not collecting them as book-plates--viz. as ill.u.s.trations of the custom of placing marks of ownership in books, which, I take it, was evidently Miss Jenkins's object.[1]

Still, though little was written on the subject of book-plates prior to 1880, it by no means follows that for some years before that date there had not been a considerable number of persons who took an interest in the subject. The fact is, that the book-plate collector of earlier days was wiser in his generation than are those of his kind to-day. He kept his 'hobby' to himself, and was thus enabled to indulge it economically.

My father had a small collection; and I can well remember how, as a boy, I used to help him to add to it. We used to go to a shop in a dingy street, leading off Oxford Street, and there select from a large clothes-basket as many book-plates as were new to our collection. The price was one penny a piece,--new or old, dated or undated, English or foreign, that of Bishop Burnet, or David Garrick, or Mr. Jones, or Mr.

Brown,--all alike, a penny a piece; and I have no doubt, though I do not remember the fact, there was the usual 'reduction on taking a quant.i.ty.'

I think this shop was almost the only one in London where you could buy book-plates at all. Well, those days are past now; and, whilst we regret them, because book-plate collecting is no longer an economical pursuit, we cannot allow our regret to be unmingled with satisfaction. The would-be collector of to-day can, if he pleases, know something about the collection he is undertaking; he can tell when he meets with a good specimen; he knows the points which render any particular book-plate interesting; and he can, at least approximately, affix a date to each example he obtains.

As to the morality of book-plate collecting, I suppose something ought to be said here. There is but one objection to it, but that is, undoubtedly, a serious one: taking a book-plate out of a book means the possible disfigurement and injury of the volume from which it is taken; yet, for the purpose of study and comparison, the removal is a distinct advantage. To confess this seems, at first sight, to bring collecting at all under a sweeping condemnation; and such, indeed, would be the case, were it not for the fact that damage to, or even the actual destruction of, very many books is really a matter of no consequence whatever.

Book-plates are found quite as often in the worthless literary productions of our ancestors as in the worthy; and it is puerile to cavil over the removal of a book-plate from a binding which holds together material by the destruction of which the world would certainly not be the poorer. So much for the book-plates in valueless books. As regards those in valuable or interesting ones, it is certainly unwise to remove them at all. This is a golden rule which cannot be too forcibly impressed upon collectors and booksellers. The case does not occur very often; and when it does, the book itself, with the book-plate in it, can be easily fetched and placed beside the 'collection' when needed for comparison. It may happen that the book-plate in this valuable book is interesting from the fact that it belonged to some man of note, or that it is unique; if so, we have only a further reason against taking it out of the volume. The value of a very early book-plate, when preserved in the volume in which it is discovered, is lessened almost to a vanishing point if separated from that volume. Pasted into a book as a mark of ownership, it is an undoubted book-plate; whereas, if taken out and fastened into a collection of book-plates, it at once loses the proof of its original use, so essential to its value and so material to the student of book-plates.

On the other hand, as I have said, there is no harm in removing, from some uninteresting and valueless volume, the book-plate of a famous man.

Everybody knows that Bishop Burnet or David Garrick had plenty of what they themselves regarded as 'rubbish' in their libraries; so that Burnet's book-plate in an actually valueless volume does not prove that the Bishop's shrewd eye ever scanned its pages, or that his episcopal hand ever held it. Besides, I know as a fact that it is a not uncommon trick for the possessor of the book-plate of some famous man to affix that book-plate in a worthless volume, and then offer the whole for sale at a price much higher than would be asked or obtained for the book-plate itself, though the value of the book may be _nil_!

Without quarrelling with the name book-plate,--as applied to the marks of ownership pasted into books,--and without wasting time with discussion of suggestions for a better one, it may be admitted that the word is not altogether happily chosen. It perhaps suggests to the mind of the 'uninitiated' an ill.u.s.tration in a book rather than a mark of possession. But then at the present day there are not many 'uninitiated'

amongst either buyers or sellers of books and prints, so that the inappropriateness of the name need not concern us.

As to its antiquity, that is doubtful; but probably one of the earliest instances of its use, in print, occurs in 1791, when John Ireland published the first two volumes of his _Hogarth Ill.u.s.trated_. In this work he says that the works of Callot were probably Hogarth's first models, and 'shop bills and _book-plates_ his first performances.'

Again, in 1798, Ireland refers to the 'book-plate' for Lambert the herald-painter, which Hogarth had executed. In 1823, a certain 'C. S.

B.,' writing in the pages of the _Gentleman's Magazine_, refers to what 'are generally called' book-plates. His letter was suggested by an article--a review of Thomas Moule's _Bibliotheca Heraldica_--in the previous number of the magazine, the writer of which was evidently not familiar with the term book-plate as we now apply it, for he calls book-plates 'plates of arms.' We shall see, later on, that this is quite an inappropriate name; some of the most interesting and the most beautiful book-plates have nothing armorial about them.

On the Continent, the term _ex libris_ is generally applied to book-plates. This is, perhaps, even less appropriate than book-plate. It is taken from the two first words of the inscription on a great many book-plates, when the inscription is written in Latin--_e.g._ 'ex libris Johannis Stearne, S.T.P. Episcopi Clogherensis.' A moment's reflection will show that this inscription is not intended as a declaration by the book-plate (should it ever become severed from the book in which it was fastened) that it came out of a book belonging to Bishop Stearne; but that it is a declaration by the _book_ in which the book-plate is found pasted, that that particular book is from amongst the books of a particular library, and ought to be restored to it. It would be as rational to call book-plates '_libri_,' because the inscription on them often begins--as in a very famous German book-plate--'_Liber Bilibaldi Pirckheimer_.' It may, indeed, be laid down as a general rule, that whatever the sentiment expressed on a book-plate, it is clearly intended to be uttered by the book in which the book-plate is fixed, not by the book-plate itself.

There are but two instances, quoted by Lord De Tabley, of the inscription directly referring to the _book-plate_. Both are foreign, and date about the middle of the last century. One is _Symbolum Bibliothecae_ of John Bernard Nack, a citizen and merchant of Frankfort;[2] and the other, _Insigne Librorum_, etc., quoted from the work of M. Poulet Mala.s.sis. Lord De Tabley thinks that the _Symbolum_ of Herr Nack is simply a trade card; but he founds this conclusion on the supposition that Herr Nack was a book-dealer, and that the scene depicted on his book-plate was, in fact, his shop. In my opinion, we have in this book-plate a representation of a portion of Herr Nack's library, in which Minerva(?) is seated, using the books thereof. A gentleman in eighteenth century dress, who may, likely enough, be Herr Nack himself, addresses himself to the G.o.ddess, and explains--as he points to the outer scene, which shows us ships and merchandise--that, whilst following his trade as a merchant, he still has time to devote some attention to literature. In any case, these and the few other instances there may be of the inscription referring to the book-plate and not to the book, seem hardly sufficient to make _ex libris_ a good name for book-plates in general.

Our ancestors, of degrees more remote than grandfather, do not appear to have referred to book-plates at all, so we are unable to learn by what name they would have called them. Pepys, in 1668, speaks of going to his 'plate-maker's,' and there spending 'an hour about contriving' his 'little plate' for his books. This 'little plate' still exists, and is a characteristic one; it shows us the initials 'S. P.,' with two anchors and ropes entwined. But we shall speak again of this, and Sam's other book-plates, later on.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SIR THOMAS ISHAM'S BOOK-PLATE, BY DAVID LOGGAN.]

David Loggan, a German born, and an engraver of some note, has, in writing to Sir Thomas Isham in 1676, a no more concise name for Isham's book-plate than 'a print of your cote of arms.' Loggan, as a return for many favours, had sent Sir Thomas a book-plate designed and executed by himself. 'Sir,' he says, in the covering letter, 'I send you hier a Print of your Cote of Armes. I have printed 200 wich I will send with the plate by the next return, and bege the favor of your keind excepttans of it as a small Niew yaers Gift or a aknowledgment in part for all your favors. If anything in it be amies, I shall be glade to mend it. I have taken the Heralds painter's derection in it; it is very much used amongst persons of Quality to past ther Cotes of Armes befor ther bookes instade of wreithing ther Names.'

The 'Heralds painter' was, unfortunately, wrong in his treatment of the Isham 'coat,' and so Loggan's work, artistic as it might be, could not be acceptable to Sir Thomas, to whom a mistake in the family escutcheon was no light matter. This he evidently told David, who, a few days after, writes to him again:--

'I ame sorry that the Cote is wronge; I have taken the herald's derection in it, but the Foole did give it wrong... . The altering of the plate will be very trubelsom, and therfor you will be presented with a newe one, wich shall be don without falt, and that very sudenly. And if you plase, Sir, to give thies plate and the prints to your Brothers, it will serve for them.'

These Isham book-plates are really very beautiful pieces of work. A reproduction of one of them may be seen on the foregoing page. This is evidently the one first executed, the omission of the mark of baronetcy--the 'b.l.o.o.d.y hand of Ulster'--and the helmet of an esquire instead of a knight or baronet clearly const.i.tuting the blunder into which Loggan had fallen. By the kindness of Sir Charles Isham, the present baronet, I have been enabled to see a copy of the corrected design sent by Loggan, which is in all respects accurate. This was doing duty as a book-plate in a volume in which it had evidently been placed at the time it was received by Sir Thomas.

Nicholas Carew, afterwards Sir Nicholas Carew, Baronet, records in his accounts, on the 19th February 1707, a payment for his book-plate, which is dated in that year, as follows:--'For coat of arms impressing, 1_l._ 1_s._ 6_d._;' and a few months later is a payment 'For 300 armes, 7_s._ 6_d._'

'The mark of my books,' is the phrase which Andrew Lumisden applies to the book-plate engraved for him by his brother-in-law, Sir Robert Strange, about the year 1746. The plate is an interesting one, and by an interesting man, of whom we shall speak later on. Lumisden thought well of it, and thus refers to the work in a letter written from Rouen, in June 1748:--'I am very anxious to know if my brother continues his resolution of coming to this country. If he does, I can luckily be of use to him in the way of his business, from the acquaintance I have of a very ingenious person, professor of the Academy of Design here ... I show'd him, a few days ago, _the mark of my books_, from which he entertains a high notion of Robie's abilities.'

There is a curious advertis.e.m.e.nt, quoted by Thomas Moule in his _Bibliotheca Heraldica_, of a certain Joseph Barber, a Newcastle-on-Tyne 'bookseller, music and copper-plate publisher,' who, in 1742, resided in 'Humble's Buildings.' In that year he engraved the 'Equestrian Statue of King James [II.],' which once stood in the Sandhill Market. If a moment's digression be allowed, the history of this statue is worth telling. On 16th March 1685, the Town Council voted 800 for the erection of 'a figure of His Majesty in a Roman habit, on a capering horse, in copper, as big as the figure of His Majesty, King Charles I., at Charing Crosse, on a pedestal of black marble.' A certain Mr. William Larson executed it; Sir Christopher Wren expressed his approval, and everybody was very pleased, for a year or two. But popular feeling soon changed in Newcastle, as elsewhere, and the prevalence of sentiments which threw the king off his throne threw his metal representation into the Tyne, where it rested till fished out to be melted down and used to make a set of church bells. The drawing of the luckless statue was safe in the keeping of Sir Hans Sloane; and from this, Barber made his engraving, which he sold for 5s. The fact that in 1742, three years before the second Scotch rebellion, this Newcastle printseller found it worth while to issue the engraving at all, is not without political significance. With his engraving, Barber issued two large plates of the arms of all the subscribers to it, each coat of arms being 1-3/4 inches in length, and 1-1/4 inches in breadth; and a few years later, it seems to have occurred to him that he might turn an honest penny by cutting up these large sheets of the subscribers' arms, so that each coat of arms became a separate plate. Having done this, he issued an advertis.e.m.e.nt to the subscribers, in which he sets forth that he is 'the sole proprietor of each of their plates,' and is willing to part with it, to the lady or gentleman whose arms are engraved thereon, 'together with one hundred prints of it on a good paper,' for the modest sum of half-a-crown. These plates, suggests Mr. Barber, might be advantageously used as what we now call book-plates, and he continues: 'The design of this proposal is a useful and necessary embellishment, and a remedy against losing books by lending, or having them stolen; by pasting one print on the inside of the cover of each book, you have the owner's name, coat of arms, and place of abode; a thing so useful and the charge so easy, 'tis hoped will meet with encouragement. To have a plate engraved will cost 10_s._ 6_d._'

From all which it may be inferred that Mr. Joseph Barber thought--or wanted other people to think--that the idea of using a book-plate was his own. Newcastle people, in 1743, must have been very un.o.bservant of the habits of their neighbours if they believed Mr. Barber; for the fashion of using a book-plate--which in England came in some forty years before--was by that time general throughout the country. That some of the subscribers accepted the offer, and got their 'hundred plates on a good paper' for half-a-crown, is demonstrated by the existence of copies of the plates published with the 'equestrian statue,' being still found in books, doing duty as book-plates. Very poor productions they are, reflecting but slight credit on the designer or engraver. But what Joseph lacked in art, he atoned for in enterprise; we see this in his ingenious way of getting rid of his old copper-plates, and the postscript to his advertis.e.m.e.nt demonstrates the fact even more plainly, for on a day near at hand, the advertis.e.m.e.nt tells us, was to be fought, at a neighbouring c.o.c.k-pit, 'a Welsh main,' and the prize was to be nothing less than one of the advertiser's engravings, 'a pretty piece of work, worthy the observation of the curious.' If the term book-plate had been known in Barber's day, it would probably have found its way into his advertis.e.m.e.nt, which is clumsy from the want of a word to express the very thing he is advertising.