Book Plates Part 11

Henry Bowles.

W. Harrison, D.D., Fellow of C. C. C. Oxon.

R. C. Cobbe.

S. J. Collins.

C. Blackstone.

Ed. Gore, Kiddington, Oxon.

John Duthy.

John Hoadly, LL.D. [This is Dr. Hoadly, the versatile author of oratorios and comedies.]

Sophia Penn.

Jos. Portal.

C. S. Powlet, Itchen.

Geo. Powlet, Esq.

John Sturgis.

A list of nearly sixty book-plates by Mountaine is given in the _Ex Libris Journal_, ii. p. 46.

Hogarth's book-plates have been already described in this volume. The 'W. H.' who signs certain examples, once wrongly ascribed to Hogarth, was a certain William Hibbart, who, like Skinner, was a Bath artist, and etched portraits after the manner of Worlidge. Lord De Tabley mentions that Worlidge himself executed a book-plate--that of the Honourable Henrietta Knight--which he signs in full. Worlidge was certainly a distinguished engraver; his etchings after Rembrandt are excellent and highly prized. He died in 1766.

The work of Sir Robert Strange as a book-plate engraver has been already referred to. Both Lumisden's and Dr. Drummond's book-plates were probably executed after Strange's departure from England, and therefore after 1745. His continental visit was rendered necessary, or at least expedient, by the manner in which he had identified himself with the Stuart cause during the then recent troubles. He had joined the Jacobite Life-Guards, and employed his artistic ability in designing pay-notes for the Jacobite soldiers. After studying some time in Paris under Le Bas, he returned to England, where he remained till 1760. He then went back to the Continent, where his ability was freely appreciated, and where he was loaded with decorations at Rome and Florence. England at length recognised his merit, and in 1787 the King conferred upon him a knighthood, which he lived for five years to enjoy. His devotion to the House of Stuart never altered; the inscription beneath one of his most celebrated portraits reads 'Charles James Edward Stuart, _called_ the Young Pretender.'

After the days of Strange, an innumerable number of artists sign their names to English book-plates; yet, with three exceptions, the names of none are known to fame till we come to those of a comparatively recent date. The exceptions are Francis Bartolozzi, John Keys Sherwin, and Thomas Bewick. Bartolozzi, the man of whom Sir Robert Strange displayed such ill-concealed jealousy, began to work in England about four years after the accession of George III., though it was some years before his worth was appreciated by the people with whom he came to reside. None of his book-plates belong to a date prior to 1770 or 1780. He removed to Lisbon in 1802 to take charge of the National Academy, and while there, it will be remembered, engraved an Englishman's book-plate in 1805 (see p. 95). His death took place at Lisbon in 1815. Sherwin was born in poverty, and, owing largely to his own folly, died in it, after having at one time ama.s.sed a considerable sum of money. He was a pupil of Bartolozzi, gained the Royal Academy gold medal in 1772, and was appointed Engraver to the King in or about 1785. His book-plate work is referred to at p. 72.

Thomas Bewick, who, as we have seen (pp. 108-13), was the most prolific of any English engraver of book-plates, was born at Cherry Burn, in Northumberland, in 1753, and died in 1828. The incidents in his history are too well known to need repet.i.tion here, and his work upon book-plates has been already mentioned. It may be, however, noticed that his earliest book-plate is dated in 1797, the year in which he published the first volume of his _British Birds_.

FOOTNOTE:

[16] See Article in _Bibliographica_, vol. ii. p. 422.

CHAPTER XIII

ODDS AND ENDS

ODDS and ends! The compiler of a volume of this sort is sure to find plenty of these,--sc.r.a.ps worth putting in somewhere, yet not coming precisely under any particular head. In the first place, 'Portrait'

book-plates claim attention. We have seen that they exist, but, alas!

that they are so few; for, to any reasonable person, members of the Heralds' College, of course, excepted, a man's features are certainly more interesting than his armorial bearings. In England, Sam. Pepys adopted the style, which was not then unknown on the Continent.

Pirckheimer perhaps originated it, by placing, as I have already said, a portrait of himself at the end of the volumes, which contained his now familiar book-plate by Durer on the front cover; and there are many other early foreign examples. One of the most conspicuous is the bust-portrait of John Vennitzer, of Nuremberg, engraved by Pfann, and dated in 1618, to which I have already alluded (p. 140). Pepys used to place the small variety of his portrait book-plate--that figured opposite--at the commencement of many of his books, and that showing his interwoven initials ('the little plate for my books') at the end. Both his portrait book-plates are by White. I have failed to find any allusion in his _Diary_ to the engraving of these book-plates, though, as we have seen, he refers to the preparation of another (see p. 8). He very likely took the idea of a 'Portrait' book-plate from that which Faithorne, either in or soon after 1670, prepared to place in the volumes left by good Bishop Hacket to Cambridge (see p. 201).

[Ill.u.s.tration]

It is possible that we have a portrait in the figure on the book-plate, already noticed, of Louis Bosch, a clergyman of Tamise, near Antwerp; but the head is too small to afford an interesting likeness. The priest sits at a table in his study, the walls of which are lined with volumes, and beneath him is written in Latin: 'A hunt in such a forest never wearies,'--the 'forest being,' as Lord De Tabley observes, 'the rows and ranks of his reverence's books.' In France the 'Portrait' book-plate is not uncommon; that of a French clergyman, Francis Perrault, figured opposite, is a nice piece of work, and bears the date 1764; but portraits, possibly or indeed probably, of the owners occur on French book-plates at an earlier date. In Italy there is an example in 1760, the book-plate of Filippo Linarti.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

An instance of the use of the 'Portrait' book-plate in England during the last century is afforded by that of 'Jacobus Gibbs, Architectus, 1736,' which is found in the architectural books bequeathed by the possessor to the Radcliffe Library at Oxford, a building which he designed. James Gibbs was born at Aberdeen in 1674, but came south early in his career, and Londoners may see examples of his work in the churches of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and St. Mary le Strand. He also built the Senate House at Cambridge. He died in 1754. On his book-plate, which is oblong in shape and might well form the head-piece to a preface, the portrait appears in a medallion, surrounded by sh.e.l.l and scroll-work. The engraver, who signs his initials B. B., was Bernard Baron, a Frenchman, who came to England in 1736 and engraved Hogarth's portrait of Gibbs.

The resuscitator of 'Portrait' book-plates in England in recent times was the late Mr. Thoms. That veteran antiquary tells, in a letter to the _Athenaeum_, how he came to use, as a book-plate, a photograph of himself taken by Dr. Diamond in the very early days of photography. Beneath this he placed an inscription setting forth that the volume in which it was fastened was for the use of himself and his friends--a repet.i.tion of the sentiment on one of the Pirckheimer book-plates, 'Sibi et amicis.' We do not, of course, know how far Pirckheimer meant what he said; but we do know, any of us who ever asked the loan of a volume from Mr. Thoms, that the sentiment was by him really meant. No worthy book-borrower ever met with refusal from that ever courteous literary enthusiast.

After considering 'Portrait' book-plates, the collector may turn his attention to the study of the book-plates that have belonged to interesting men. I have spoken of many of these in reaching this point in my volume, but to the names already mentioned may be added some more: Charles, Earl of Dorset and Middles.e.x, who, as Lord Buckhurst, was a prominent figure at the dull court of Dutch William, saved Dryden from ruin and introduced Mat Prior to society. Then there is Robert Harley--great minister, great statesman, and underminer of the Whig power; founder of the collection of books and ma.n.u.scripts which now bears his name. The inscription on his book-plate reads: 'Robert Harley of Brampton Castle in the county of Hereford, Esq^{re}'; it is found in two sizes--one for folio volumes, and another for those of smaller size.

Its date may be fixed at the very close of the seventeenth century.

Then we have the book-plate of Sir Thomas Hanmer, the Speaker, a bold piece of work, in the 'Simple Armorial' style, dated 1707. Hanmer was born in 1676, so that his book-plate was executed when he was in his thirty-first year--that is, six years prior to his first entry of the House of Commons, and probably before he had made much use of the library with which his name was afterwards a.s.sociated, when towards the close of his life he ceased to be a man of politics and became a man of letters. He died in 1746, leaving, completed, his edition of Shakespeare's works in half a dozen volumes.

With the book-plate of Sir Thomas Hanmer we may, appropriately, consider that of Sir Paul Methuen, the soldier and minister of Anne and George I., with whom Hanmer must have been frequently brought in contact. Methuen's book-plate is altogether more exceptional in style than Hanmer's; the mantling, after being blown about by a strong wind, ends regularly in ta.s.sels; curious creatures figure in the design, and the bracket, on which rests the shield, is upheld by a male and a female angel.

Methuen's book-plate was engraved about 1720. Five years later we find that of John, Lord Boyle, who, though by means of the quarrel with his father he was robbed of the Boyle library, had, whilst yet a young man, a sufficient stock of volumes of his own to necessitate the use of a distinguishing mark for them. His book-plate is by John Hulett, an indifferent engraver.

Matthew Prior's book-plate now claims attention; indeed, if these book-plates of celebrities were taken in strictly chronological order, it should have been considered before that of Sir Paul Methuen. In style it is early Jacobean, so that we may date it at, say, 1718, though there is nothing in the inscription--'Matthew Prior, Esq.'--to show to what particular period in the 'thin hollow-looked' man's life it belongs. But it is tempting to place it at the close of his career as a diplomatist, when he was settling down on the small country property that Harley had bought for him, and was rich on the proceeds of the subscription to his huge volume of _Occasional Poems_.

After Prior's book-plate we do not meet with another of a celebrity for a considerable number of years. One appears at last in that engraved--probably by a Scotch engraver, about the year 1740--for the luckless Lord Lovat, who lost his head on Tower Hill after the second Scotch rebellion. The inscription deserves consideration, because it is characteristic of the man: 'The Right Honourable Simon Lord Fraser of Lovat, Chief of the Ancient Clan of the Frasers, Governor of Inverness,'

etc. Mark the way in which he emphasises his headship of the clan! Can he, in those early days, have heard whisperings of a story that he had an elder brother who was in hiding lest the law should mete out to him its penalty for murder? Anyhow, it is a fine bold book-plate, more in the style of English book-plates of a dozen years earlier; a heavy ermine-lined mantle of estate falls from the back of the helmet and encloses both shield and supporters.

John Wilkes had three book-plates, and what is remarkable, they all make display of the Wilkes armorial bearings. One would fancy that the great demagogue would, at least in the decoration of the shield, display bombs, kegs of gunpowder, Phrygian caps, or other emblems of the manifestation and enjoyment of liberty; but it is not so. Lawrence Sterne's book-plate is certainly more appropriate. Here we have the bust of a young man, whom Lord de Tabley considers to be either Juvenal or Martial, placed on a slab, on either side of which are closed volumes, one inscribed, 'Alas! poor Yorick,' and the other, 'Tristram Shandy.' No doubt this book-plate was engraved in or about the year 1761, when Sterne had bought--as he told a correspondent--seven hundred books, 'dog cheap, and many good,' which he was then busy arranging in the 'best room at c.o.xwould.' Samuel Rogers's book-plate is in the 'wreath and ribbon' style. William Cowper's is a little later, and shows us a plain shield without the festoon-decoration. His must become a scarce book-plate, for he had but few books--only 177 at his death, and the book-plate does not appear in all; perhaps he began to insert it, but was stopped by loss of reason. Mr. Bolton suggests that the book-plate may be the work of Thomas Park, an engraver who, he reminds us, offered to do anything for Cowper in the way of his art as a labour of love, so much did he appreciate the poet's writings. Byron's book-plate, alluded to elsewhere, is without one remarkable feature; whether or not it is that sent him by the fair admirer already referred to (p. 16) one cannot say. Thomas Carlyle's book-plate was engraved, in 1853, by H. P. Walker.

One might extend a list of celebrities who have used book-plates _ad infinitum_; but there is no need to attempt that process here, though it might be as well to point out that certain book-plates, inscribed with the names of celebrities, which have induced collectors to speak of them as the book-plates of these distinguished persons, cannot really have been made for them. There is, for instance, an early Chippendale book-plate inscribed 'William Wilberforce,' which is, or perhaps I should say, used to be, constantly spoken of as the book-plate of the famous man who was bold enough to suggest that England's colonies could get on very well without the presence of slavery. Now this book-plate is very little, if any, later than 1750, and the great emanc.i.p.ator was not born till 1759; as a matter of fact it was probably engraved for his grandfather, William Wilberforce of Hull. A great many specimens bear his signature written at the top of the book-plate. Then, to give one more instance, there is the book-plate inscribed 'Capt. Cook,' and in this you are told to see the mark of ownership which the once popular hero placed in the volumes that composed his library; but, so far as the evidence of this book-plate goes, Captain Cook may never have had a library at all. It bears arms highly appropriate to a navigator; but they were not granted to the Cook family till 1785, and, as every reader of travel knows, Captain Cook was murdered in 1779. In all probability this book-plate was engraved for the navigator's son, James Cook, who, in 1793, attained to the rank of commander in the Navy; 1793, be it said, is--to judge from its style and decoration--about the date of the book-plate.

Book-plates of English parish libraries and inst.i.tutions deserve some notice for several reasons. In these days, when enthusiasm for the erection of free libraries is so great, it is curious to be reminded of the past and long-forgotten efforts of our ancestors to civilise their neighbours by the use of books. Gloomy affairs most of these 'parish'

libraries are now! You still sometimes find them locked in a damp vestry, or in a country vicarage, where their existence is a secret to the parishioners, and, indeed, to most other people. The book-plates of some of them are interesting. There is a neat design in the Jacobean style, which shows us the shield divided, and contains on the sinister side two crossed keys, and on the dexter two crossed swords. This is inscribed 'Swaffham Library. T. Dalton, F. Rayner, churchwardens, 1737.'

At least two designs for these parish book-plates are by Simon Gribelin.

In one, we have St. John in the isle of Patmos; and in the other, an unidentifiable figure kneeling in prayer. To each the artist has placed his initials, 'S. G.,' and both belong to about the same date--1723.

A great many of these parochial libraries were founded early in the last century by Dr. Thomas Bray, during his lifetime, and by a body calling themselves the 'a.s.sociates of Dr. Bray,' after his death. It was at Bray's instance that the Act of 7 Anne, 'for the better Preservation of Parochial Libraries,' was pa.s.sed by Parliament. One of the earliest of the foundations under it was in 1720.

It is probable that the 'a.s.sociates' issued book-plates for placing in the volumes of the different libraries established; for there is, in the design, a s.p.a.ce left blank for the insertion, with pen and ink, of the name of the particular library using the book-plate. These book-plates generally bear texts or some appropriate words, such as, 'Accipe librum et devora illum' (Rev. x. 9), the scene depicted being St. John, in the isle of Patmos, receiving the book from the angel; or sometimes a reminder to the borrower that he needs to do more than borrow the volume in order to profit by its contents, such as _Tolle, Lege_, which appears on the book-plate of the parish library of Weobley!

Grotesque heraldry is not often met with in England on genuine book-plates. We have seen that on many examples the decorative accessories of the shield have a certain appropriateness to the owner; besides this, the arms borne have frequently a direct reference to the bearer's name. But grotesque heraldry, such as that which Hogarth was so fond of designing, is certainly rare in engravings prepared for book-plates. There is, however, one example of such heraldry on an English book-plate, which is worth referring to--I mean the very interesting example figured on p. 229. This belonged to the shoemaker-poet, Robert Bloomfield, and certainly the arms upon it are both grotesque and appropriate to the owner, since they commemorate his only really successful literary effort, _The Farmer's Boy_. Look for a moment at the details, for they repay inspection. A figure on cow-back holding a shoe on the end of a stick, does duty as a crest, two ploughmen act as supporters, whilst the bearings on the shield represent every variety of agricultural implement, every occupant of a farm-yard ordinarily met with, and various tools connected with the owner's craft; besides, on the sinister half of the shield, is a cobbler in an att.i.tude suggestive of his having done full justice to a feast in honour of St.

Crispin--not conducted on total abstinence principles. The quarterings also include three open volumes, and across the pages of one is printed 'Farmer's Boy.' The whole--even to its motto, 'A fig for the Heralds'--is most characteristic of Bloomfield, and was engraved for him, in 1813--ten years before his death--by a Cheapside engraver.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

With this gathering together of sc.r.a.ps and clippings I will bring my volume to a close. Most of what I have said, and a very great deal besides, is well known to the students of book-plates; but to them, I fancy, this work is not intended to appeal. It is meant for the public at large, to the majority of whom book-plates are unconsidered trifles.

To promote wholesale book-plate _collecting_ in alb.u.ms and portfolios is certainly not my intention. If it were, it would be a very undesirable intention, for so far as it succeeded it would unquestionably lead to the wholesale disfigurement and destruction of books, without regard to their value. What I have aimed at is to awaken a wider interest in book-plates, and a wider observation of them in their abiding places, by those who either possess them already, or acquire them hereafter. If I have succeeded in doing this, my work will, I am vain enough to believe, be not altogether unsuccessful; for book-plates possess really an artistic and general interest, which will be heightened the more our stock of knowledge concerning them is increased.

THE END.