French Book-plates Part 11

He had learnt nothing and forgotten nothing during his exile, and notwithstanding the strong advice of the Powers who had set him up in business as a monarch, he encouraged a steady reaction against the improvements that had been so liberally encouraged in the State by Napoleon and his ministers.

The French nation had but little loyalty or affection for this gouty, gluttonous, fat old man, but they ridiculed him, and bore with him, till his death in 1824.

His brother, the Comte d'Artois, who succeeded him as Charles X., a narrow-minded, obstinate, and priest-ridden man, persevered in the same course as Louis XVIII., and was even more unpopular.

Under these two Bourbons, who strove hard to undo all the reforms that the Revolution had effected, those of the old n.o.bility who had survived the Terror and the Wars were encouraged to return to France, and once again the refrain was:

"Chapeau bas, chapeau bas!

Gloire au Marquis de Carabas."

They resumed their ancient t.i.tles, estates, and family arms, but the bulk of the French nation declined to consider them, or their claims, seriously. Both Louis XVIII. and Charles X. created new n.o.bles from amongst their personal and political adherents, but few men of worth or importance were willing thus to be enn.o.bled.

The rules of heraldry devised by Napoleon were annulled, and the old system revived. But though the wealth of the nation had greatly increased during the few years of peace, whilst the taste for literature and the formation of large collections of books had once again come into fashion, the book-plates of this period show no improvement in taste, and no originality in design. They are either overladen with meretricious ornamentation, or simple name labels possessing no artistic interest whatever.

One of the very few plates of the time worth naming is that of the d.u.c.h.esse de Berry for her library at Resny, on which we find the lilies of the French royal family. The d.u.c.h.ess also used a simpler plate similar to a book-binding stamp.

Probably Berryer the famous advocate, had his plate engraved about this time; it is in the Louis XVI. style. (See page 149.)

The pretentious plate of Victor, Duc de Saint Simon Vermandois, Pair de France, Grand d'Espagne, is an example of the want of taste of the Restoration, as is also that of the _Bibliotheque de La Motte_ which is dest.i.tute of grace or finish.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE d.u.c.h.eSSE DE BERRY.]

At length, in July, 1830, the French, weary of the reactionary rule of Charles X. and of his breaches of faith, drove him from the throne, and he sought refuge in England.

His cousin Louis Philippe was elected king of the French, and for eighteen years the country enjoyed comparative peace, and great commercial prosperity.

Then at last was France released from the nightmare pressure of the _ancien regime_, and free to choose a const.i.tutional government suited to her requirements and the progress of modern civilization.

During his reign Louis Philippe created a number of new n.o.bles, the chosen men being for the most part politicians who supported the government in parliament, rich tradesmen, office holders, and a few literary men.

Two of the greatest men of the day, Thiers and Guizot, bluntly refused to be enn.o.bled, as later on did Mons. Rouher. The a.s.sumption of false t.i.tles still continued, whilst the prefix _de_ which had formerly indicated gentle birth or landed estates, came to be so commonly employed as to carry no signification whatever. Book-plates of this period have little to distinguish them from those of the Restoration, except that the seal pattern, or the plain shield within a belt or garter became more common, whilst some artists affected a revival of a kind of Gothic ornamentation, with the inscription in archaic phraseology.

Of this latter style a beautiful example is the plate designed for himself by the late Mons. Claude E. Thiery, of Maxeville.

It represents the interior of a mediaeval library, the walls of which are decorated with the arms of Lorraine. A reader is seated in front of two open folios, and above the design the inscription is:

"Cestuy livre est a moy Claude Thiery ymaigier de moult haust et puissant Seigneur Mon seigneur Francoy Joseph empereur," etc.

It is unnecessary to quote the whole of the somewhat lengthy inscription, as prints from the original plate were issued with the "Archives de la Societe Francaise des Collectionneurs d'Ex Libris,"

January 1895, together with a somewhat indignant letter from its owner pointing out several inaccuracies which had been made in an article describing the plate in "Ex Libris Ana," page 73.

The description was certainly curiously inexact, but that these laborious imitations of the crabbed handwriting, the archaic phraseology, and the miniature painting to be found on ancient ma.n.u.scripts are lacking in originality, and out of place on modern book-plates, as says the writer in "Ex Libris Ana" (and herein lay the sting of his remarks), is a conclusion in which many collectors will certainly agree.

Other well-known plates of this period are those of Aime Leroy, A.

Mercier, Viollet Le-Duc, Gabriel Peignot, Milsan, Ambroise Firmin-Didot, Desbarreaux Bernard, Pixerecourt, and Bazot, Notaire a Amiens. Yet even these present few points of interest, literary or artistic.

Aime Leroy had a Gothic window, through which a student is seen reading.

Motto: _Mes livres sont ma joie_. The plate of Gabriel Peignot was also what we should style a library interior, as was appropriate to its owner who had been for years connected with the libraries of Vesoul and Dijon, and had made bibliography the study of his life which extended to the good old age of eighty-two. He died in 1849.

Bazot, Notaire Amiens, had an imitation of the old style of armorial plate, with a ribbon on which the dates 1548 and 1848 appear. There is no explanation known of the first date, 1548.

Milsan attempts a weak pun on his name, bank notes for 1,000 and 100 francs represent the words _Mille cent_. This is the kind of joke that even a virtuous man might make in the seclusion of his own family circle, but that any sane man should engrave, revise it, print it, and finally paste it in all his books is something which almost destroys our faith in human nature.

A member of the famous publishing house, Mons. Ambroise Firmin-Didot (author of a "History of Wood-Engraving") had an original and very appropriate design printed in gold on red morocco. In allusion to the date of the foundation of his firm, and their ancient sign, it bore the device: _a la bible d'or_ 1698, and the inscription _Bibliotheca Ambrosii Firmini Didoti_, whilst in the centre was an open bible. This is just one of the few plates of this period, interesting for its owner's sake, and for its originality, which collectors would wish to have, but it is rather difficult to obtain.

R. C. G. de Pixerecourt is found on the book-plate of the prolific dramatic author whose real appellations were Rene Charles Guilbert. As he was born at Pixerecourt he enn.o.bled himself by calling himself _de Pixerecourt_, a piece of vanity which probably deceived no one. If the State were to tax all these a.s.sumptions of n.o.bility, a good addition would be made to the French revenue. In other respects his ex-libris was modest enough; he did not steal a coat-of-arms, but had the simple Cross of the Legion of Honour with two branches of oak, and for motto the last line of the following charming sonnet by Desbarreaux Bernard.

SONNET.

Mes livres sont ma joie! aussi sur eux je veille Comme veille l'avare aupres de son tresor; Et mon esprit charme, qui rarement sommeille, Les prend, les lit, les quitte et les reprend encor.

Ne menageant pour eux, ni prix, ni soins, ni veille, Toujours prompt, toujours pret a prendre mon essor; Aux timides conseils fermant surtout l'oreille, Nouveau Jason, je cours, ravir ma toison d'or!

Tout nous trompe ici-bas, les hommes et les choses, La vipere et le taon s'abritent sous les roses, Le peuple a la vertu ne crois plus desormais,

Le trompeur, le trompe, conspirent a portes closes, Du s.e.xe on sait la ruse et les metamorphoses, _Un livre est un ami qui ne trompe jamais_.

THE SECOND EMPIRE.

Owing to a variety of circ.u.mstances Louis Philippe became unpopular, and at length in 1848 there were serious disturbances in Paris. It is probable that a man of strong will might have put these down with some little bloodshed, but Louis Philippe was a kindly, peace-loving man, and rather than face the horrors of a civil war he abdicated, and the second Republic was proclaimed, to be quickly changed into the Second Empire, under Napoleon III.

Par le temps renverse, quand cet empire immense, Chef-d'uvre de genie autant que de puissance.

Un jour n'offrira plus aux siecles a venir Que de grandes lecons et qu'un grand souvenir.

These lines were written about the First Empire, but are still more appropriate to the Second, which is now, indeed, nothing more than a name connected with the saddest of souvenirs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF MONSIEUR RISTON.

Engraved by D. Collin.]

Under the Second Empire book-plates began to have a distinctly personal character, more originality in conception, together with much greater freedom and _abandon_ in execution. Humorous designs also occasionally appear, where all had hitherto been formal, cold, pompous, or severe.

The simple heraldic plate falls into disfavour amongst those who are ent.i.tled to bear arms, though curiously enough the a.s.sumption of false arms and t.i.tles goes on exactly as before.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE VICOMTE BEUGNOT.]

In 1857 the Minister of Justice addressed a report on this topic to the emperor, a.s.serting "que jamais peut-etre la tendance a sortir de sa position et a se parer de t.i.tres auxquels on n'a pas droit ne s'est manifeste d'une maniere plus regrettable que depuis ces dernieres annees."

But the evil had existed, still exists, and will continue so long as the vanity of human nature prompts men to lay claim to ancient descent, and to a.s.sume arms and t.i.tles either stolen, ready made, or purchased at the _Bureaux de Genealogistes_ which abound in Paris as in London.

It is no new crime, this sn.o.bbism--Moliere jested at it two centuries ago:

"Je sais un paysan qu'on appelait Gros-Pierre, Qui n'ayant pour tout bien qu'un seul quartier de terre, Y fit tout a l'entour faire un fosse bourbeux, Et de Monsieur de l'Isle en prit le nom pompeux."

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF M. LE COMTE LANJUINAIS.]

As for the real heraldry of the Second Empire, such as there was of it, the fashion of the First Empire was revived by Napoleon III., whose constant endeavour it was to make the French people recognize in him the nephew of his uncle, whilst they, on the other hand, would not seriously believe that he was even the son of his reputed father. "Vous n'avez rien du grand Empereur Napoleon," said his cousin Plon-plon to him one day. "You are mistaken, I have all his poor relations," replied the easy, good-natured Louis Napoleon, who was in addition hampered by the descendants of the courtiers of the first Napoleon.