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Title: Bookplates
Author: Almack, Edward
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Bookplates" ***
LITTLE BOOKS ON ART
GENERAL EDITOR: CYRIL DAVENPORT
BOOKPLATES
LITTLE BOOKS ON ART
_Demy 16mo. 2s. 6d. net._
SUBJECTS
MINIATURES. ALICE CORKRAN
BOOKPLATES. EDWARD ALMACK
GREEK ART. H. B. WALTERS
ROMAN ART. H. B. WALTERS
THE ARTS OF JAPAN. MRS. C. M. SALWEY
JEWELLERY. C. DAVENPORT
CHRIST IN ART. MRS. H. JENNER
OUR LADY IN ART. MRS. H. JENNER
CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM. H. JENNER
ILLUMINATED MSS. J. W. BRADLEY
ENAMELS. MRS. NELSON DAWSON
FURNITURE. EGAN MEW
ARTISTS
ROMNEY. GEORGE PASTON
DÜRER. L. JESSIE ALLEN
REYNOLDS. J. SIME
WATTS. MISS R. E. D. SKETCHLEY
HOPPNER. H. P. K. SKIPTON
TURNER. FRANCES TYRRELL-GILL
HOGARTH. EGAN MEW
BURNE-JONES. FORTUNÉE DE LISLE
LEIGHTON. ALICE CORKRAN
REMBRANDT. MRS. E. A. SHARP
VELASQUEZ. WILFRID WILBERFORCE AND A. R. GILBERT
VANDYCK. MISS M. G. SMALLWOOD
DAVID COX. ARTHUR TOMSON
HOLBEIN. BEATRICE FORTESCUE
COROT. ETHEL BIRNSTINGL AND MRS. A. POLLARD
MILLET. NETTA PEACOCK
CLAUDE. E. DILLON
GREUZE AND BOUCHER. ELIZA F. POLLARD
RAPHAEL. A. R. DRYHURST
[Illustration: (_see page 11_)]
BOOKPLATES
BY
EDWARD ALMACK, F.S.A.
WITH FORTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS
METHUEN & CO.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
1904
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
General remarks--Various modes of engraving--Styles in bookplates
_page_ 1
CHAPTER II
BOOKPLATES CHRONOLOGICALLY
Very early plates--Albrecht Dürer--Other German artists--Early
English 11
CHAPTER III
BOOKPLATES CHRONOLOGICALLY
Lucas Cranach--Charles V.--Hans Holbein--Early French and
English bookplates--Sir Nicholas Bacon--Queen Elizabeth--Bookplates
that are not armorial--Bookplates in Switzerland,
Sweden, and Italy 20
CHAPTER IV
BOOKPLATES CHRONOLOGICALLY
The seventeenth century begins--German plates--William Marshall--Lord
Littleton--Huet, Bishop of Avranches 30
CHAPTER V
BOOKPLATES CHRONOLOGICALLY
Some French and some German plates--The cap of liberty--Buonaparte--Alsace
and Lorraine 38
CHAPTER VI
BOOKPLATES WITH MANTLING
Viscount Cholmondeley--James Loch of Drylaw--William Pitt of
Binfield 44
CHAPTER VII
SOME SPECIMENS INSERTED IN A BOOK KEPT IN THE
BRITISH MUSEUM FOR THAT PURPOSE
Some bookplates kindly lent by Mr. G. F. Barwick--Wrest Park
plates--Sir John Lubbock 53
CHAPTER VIII
CHIPPENDALE AND CRESTPLATES
William Sharp the engraver--The Rev. John Watson--Edward
Trotter--Patrick Colquhoun 62
CHAPTER IX
MODERN BOOKPLATES
Remarks on examples given in _The Studio_, special winter number,
1898-9 69
CHAPTER X
VARIOUS BRITISH BOOKPLATES
The proper place for a bookplate is in a book--Gordon of Buthlaw--Spencer
Perceval--William Wilberforce--A bookplate for a
special purpose--George Ormerod--Robert Surtees--Cathedral
plates 76
CHAPTER XI
BOOKPLATES IN AMERICA 121
CHAPTER XII
INSCRIPTIONS IN BOOKS
John Collet of Little Gidding--A book that was in the Battle of
Corunna--Henry Howard--Sir Percivall Hart--John Crane
and the Battle of Naseby 155
BIBLIOGRAPHY 172
INDEX 175
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
SAINT BENEDICT _Frontispiece_
PAGE
NOVACELLA 16
MARIDAT, P. 38
MALDEN, PAUL DE 40
MERCATOR, NICHOLAS 44
PEPPER, PRESCOTT 46
VAUGHAN, FRA. 48
THROCKMORTON, SIR ROBERT 50
MORS, SOLA RESOLVIT 51
BECKWITH, THOMAS 52
BUNSEN, C. C. 56
EARL DE GREY 57
LUBBOCK, SIR J. W. 58
CARRUTHERS, WILLIAM 60
SHARP, WILLIAM 62
WATSON, THE REV. JOHN 63
TROTTER, EDWARD 64
GORDON OF BUTHLAW 76
PERCEVAL, THE HONBLE. SPENCER 77
EARL OF GUILDFORD 78
WILBERFORCE, WILLIAM 80
CONSTABLE, THE REV. JOHN 86
BATEMAN, WILLIAM 88
DUKE OF BEAUFORT 90
CONDUITT, JOHN 91
WHEATLEY, HENRY B. 92
RAINE, JAMES 93
FIOTT, JOHN 96
DUKE OF SUSSEX 98
CAMPBELL, THE HONBLE. ARCHIBALD 100
CAMPBELL OF SHAWFIELD 102
GURNEY, HUDSON 104
CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL 105
NEWCOME, THE REV. T. 106
WOOD, THE REV. MANLEY 107
PRINCESS SOPHIA 109
BANDINEL, BULKELEY 109
BLISS, PHILIP 110
DENHOLM, SIR JAMES STEWART 112
OUSELEY, SIR GORE 116
HEATHCOTE, GEORGE PARKER 118
JARVIS, SAMUEL FARMAR 146
BOOKPLATES
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
General remarks--Various modes of engraving--Styles in bookplates.
Of course some people have exaggerated the importance of bookplates, and
on the other hand some have affected to ignore them. Now the simple fact
is that bookplates belong to books, and anything that has to do with
books will assuredly charm cultivated minds until time shall be no more.
If this essential point were oftener remembered, the exaggerations of
both sides would be avoided.
In Germany, a country where bookplates very early found a home, the word
_bibliothekzeichen_, or library label, is used. Germans also use the
name _ex libris_, and in France the Latin expression _ex libris_ is the
only term in use. Naturally the owner’s name in the genitive case is
always understood. In France manuscript inscriptions of ownership are
very fittingly included as _ex libris_.
It is too late to change now; but, at all events, whether included or
not under any special word, manuscript inscriptions in books by their
owners will always be a very interesting study.
What, as explained above, are in France included under _ex libris_, were
known long before the days of printing, as personal inscriptions with or
without the delineation of armorial bearings are often to be found
forming part of the text of books in manuscript. In fact the various
relationships of wealthy patron, learned scribe, and skilled
illuminator, gave much scope for these.
To come to what may be said to be known everywhere as _ex libris_, is to
treat of those wonderful days when the earliest printed books were still
a novelty. Directly several people or institutions each had copies of a
certain printed book, each copy being a duplicate of the other, a wish
arose to distinguish ownership.
Before treating further of bookplates, it will be well to clearly point
out the different kinds of blocks or plates. The woodcut block, known
in some manner to the Chinese 400 years before, was first cut in Europe
early in the fifteenth century. The St. Christopher engraved in Germany
in 1423, is probably the earliest. The piece of wood to be engraved was
cut longwise with the grain, as a plank is cut to-day. A thin piece of
some soft wood, such as pear, apple, or lime, was chosen, the design
drawn upon it, and then with a knife the engraver cut away to a certain
depth everything except the drawn design.
In modern times--about 1785--a revolution took place in wood engraving,
when Bewick began to engrave on a piece of wood cut endwise, and with a
graver instead of a knife. Bewick chose some very hard wood, usually
box. This manner has been continued to this day; and sometimes to
distinguish the old art from the new, as the one is so different from
the other, the former is called a woodcut and the latter wood-engraving.
Next as to etchings. To produce an etching a copper plate is covered
with wax, then with an etching-needle the design is drawn through the
wax to the copper. Acid is then applied, which, of course, only eats out
the copper where the design has been etched.
Now as to copper-plate line engravings. The engraver first traces on
the plate the outline of his design, and then with the
triangular-pointed graver he furrows out the lines, inclining his graver
deeper or shallower according as he wishes to produce varying effects.
Copper-plate engraving has been practised ever since early in the
fifteenth century. About 1820 engraving on steel came into vogue. More
impressions can be taken from a steel than from a copper plate; but
steel is more difficult to engrave upon. By a new process, however, a
copper plate can now be strengthened with a steel film.
Mezzotint engraving is an art by itself, and of great interest to
English readers, because of the many charming mezzotint engravings after
England’s great portrait-painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds; and also by
reason of Prince Rupert, the brave cavalier’s, close connection with the
art. He has often been said to have invented mezzotint; but the first
credit for this is now given to another gallant soldier, Ludwig von
Siegen, who engraved a plate in 1642, and kept his discovery a profound
secret until, in 1654, he found himself in Brussels with Prince Rupert.
The two kindred spirits meeting, the secret was soon unfolded. Rupert
became as eager in another field as if he were leading a cavalry charge,
and in four years’ time appeared his splendid mezzotint engraving, The
Executioner of John the Baptist. As the object of this book is not to
give a serious treatise on elaborate methods of engraving, it will best
express mezzotint to state that it is in general terms produced by the
opposite process from a line engraving, A very smooth copper-plate
surface is, as it were, engraved all over. Then the design is wrought on
this by a scraping process.
A kind of stipple or dotted engraving was known early in the sixteenth
century; but what is really famous as stipple and dotted engraving, only
came into vogue in the eighteenth century. The copper plate was first
covered with wax, and a dotted outline of the subject pricked through
the wax with an etching-needle. Then the shadows were filled in, and
finally acid used, as with an etching, Francesco Bartolozzi’s is
probably the name best known in this connection, though in masterly
ability, William Ryland, who was hanged for forgery, far surpassed him.
In aquatint engraving, the plate to be engraved is covered with a
solution made of resin and spirits of wine; this process produces a
surface more or less open to the action of acids when applied. In the
hands of a skilful manipulator, a fine engraving results from this
“more or less” condition.
Here, in beginning to record the succeeding styles of _ex libris_, let
us refer to the varieties which have prevailed at different times
amongst Deutschland bookplates. In the first place careful note must be
made regarding six coloured drawings of the fourteenth century which
Herr Warnecke includes as bookplates, in his splendid work--_Die
Deutschen Bücherzeichen_. Now if once it be admitted that something
inscribed in a book as in fact a necessary integral part of that book,
is a bookplate, then it becomes impracticable to draw a distinguishing
line.
Next, if like the old preachers, we divided the description into three
headings, firstly, secondly, and thirdly, we should on this subject
record: firstly, German _ex libris_ are armorial; secondly, they are
armorial; thirdly, they are armorial. Especially in the earlier plates,
the crest is always in its proper place over a helmet, and the helmet
over the shield of arms. It would be well if with just an artistic frame
to enclose the whole the bookplate stopped there; but alas, there is
only too often besides a multitude of fantastic accessories, which give
a confusing instead of a pleasing impression. Coming down towards the
seventeenth century, you are sometimes favoured (?) with a fantastic
maze of the quarterings and emblems of the owner’s relatives to the
fortieth generation.
Predominant in the seventeenth century is what is known as the Baroque
style, with designs of endless curves and contortions, drawn in a very
heavy manner.
Some of the plates which are most pleasing, are those where the arms are
surrounded by light wreaths of leaves and flowers.
Reaching the eighteenth century, the Rococo or Shell style, begun in
France, becomes common in German bookplates. Late in the century there
are, too, some curious and pleasing allegorical plates.
Of early nineteenth-century German _ex libris_, perhaps the less said
the better; but a few are good and all help in making history, so that
it is interesting to know that the famous author and collector, Karl
Emich Count zu Leiningen-Westerburg, had between seven hundred and eight
hundred specimens.
Since then, with the union of Germany, has come, as all the world knows,
an artistic and literary development in _ex libris_, as well as in other
branches of art. All this, and a million other points about German
bookplates, are admirably told in the late Karl Emich Count zu
Leiningen-Westerburg’s book, translated into English for the _ex libris_
series.
In the styles of French bookplates, the more or less simple armorial is
most often met in the earlier examples, although one of the best
known--that of Charles Ailleboust, Bishop of Autun, had nothing armorial
about it.
Heraldry, of course, took an early and masterful hold of the French
aristocracy, although even in France, in quite early years, it was found
necessary to fix fearful fines and penalties for people assuming
insignia to which they had no lawful claim.
Up to about 1650, the almost rectangular shield prevailed in French
bookplates; but soon after this, oval shields predominate, and not
seldom capped by coronets to which the owners had no title. There is
often at the base of the shield a solid plinth, usually bearing the
chief inscription.
Then in the latter half of the eighteenth century comes the Rococo or
Shell style of bookplate. At the same time, too, there are of course
Field-Marshals’ _ex libris_, defended by guns, and Lord High Admirals’
bookplates reclining amongst anchors.
In 1790 the French Assembly passed a decree annulling the titles of
duke, count, marquis, viscount, baron, and chevalier; also doing away
with all armorial bearings.
In regard to the styles of English bookplates we cannot do better than,
for the most part, to refer to the learning of Mr. W. J. Hardy--a man
steeped to the finger-tips in ancient lore.
Up to about 1720, “Simple Armorial” is the best brief record. The shield
is surmounted by a helmet, on which are the wreath and crest. From the
helmet is outspread mantling, more or less voluminous. In earlier
examples this terminates generally in tassels, before reaching the base
of the shield. In later examples its heavy folds descend quite to the
base, and often ascend from the helmet to the level of the top of the
crest. Below is a scroll for the motto, and below that, the owner’s
name. Next we come to what is known as the Jacobean style, but to which
the much more fitting name of “Queen Anne and early Georgian” should be
given. The style includes mainly an ornamental frame, suggestive of
carved work, resting as often as not upon some kind of conventional
support; the ornamentation of both frame and support being of the
interior architectural order, making frequent use of fish scales and
trellis or diaper patterns for the decoration of plain surface.
Next we find the Rococo style introduced from across the Channel, and
this before long time, merging into the well-known Chippendale style, so
closely associated with English bookplates. After this, in English
bookplates comes the festoon, or wreath-and-ribbon style, in which
certainly many charming _ex libris_ were engraved. As Mr. Egerton Castle
points out, one of the surest ways of knowing this later Georgian style
is by the spade shape of the shields, and altogether a manner which
calls up memories of designers and architects such as Sir W. Chambers,
Adams, Wedgwood, or Sheraton.
CHAPTER II
BOOKPLATES CHRONOLOGICALLY
Very early plates--Albert Dürer--Other German artists--Early English.
The bookplate here given as a frontispiece, may be the oldest in the
world. At all events, it remains to this day a fifteenth-century
bookplate in a fifteenth-century book. The work is a Latin treatise on
logic, in a German hand. Mr. W. H. J. Weale has very kindly looked at
the book, and writes: “The binding is German, I think Bavarian; but
although the same stamps, or rather, to be accurate, some of them, occur
on several bookbindings I have copied, I have never been able to locate
them. The S. Benedict with the book, and glass with the serpent issuing
from it, is evidently German; the arms have nothing to do with the
Saint, or the order, nor are they the arms of an abbey, but no doubt
those of a layman to whom the book belonged.”[A]
Now to come to the real or almost personal story of engraved bookplates
or _ex libris_, as we may call them indifferently. First we will talk of
the oldest, and then gradually come down to our own time. Germany was
the fatherland of bookplates, and it is of great interest to remember
that it was, too, the fatherland of printing and of wood-engraving.
The earliest known engraved bookplate is that of Hildebrand Brandenburg,
a monk of the Carthusian Monastery at Buxheim, near Memmingen, to which
he was evidently in the habit of presenting books. The woodcut shows an
angel holding a shield on which are displayed the arms of the
Brandenburg family, a black ox with a ring passed through its nose.
The late Karl Emich Count zu Leiningen-Westerburg, the great authority
on German _ex libris_, suggests that either Biberach or Ulm was the
birthplace of this bookplate, and in or about the year 1470, which is a
year before Albert Dürer was born.
Another bookplate, also armorial, of about the same date, and found in a
book given to this same monastery at Buxheim, is that of Wilhelm von
Zell. Lastly, there has as yet been found one other which is grouped
with these two, as of about the same date. It represents a hedgehog with
a flower in its mouth, on grass strewn with flowers. It was engraved
for Hans Igler. Igel means a hedgehog, and at the head of the _ex
libris_ is cut the inscription: “Hanns Igler das dich ein Igel Küs.”
After this there may be mentioned the following six plates before we
turn over the leaf of a new century. The inscribed armorial _ex libris_
of Thomas Wolphius, Pontificii Juris Doctor, and that of Rupprecht
_Muntzinger_, a block of South German origin, and ascribed by some to
the hand of M. Wohlgemuth. Two anonymous plates, both armorial, and in
saying anonymous it must not be supposed that the owner was not well
known in his day, and probably long afterwards. One represents the head
of a bull caboshed, with a sickle issuing from it. The other, the
fleur-de-lis, is on a shield, and for crest, the half figure of a man
with a battle-axe. Then two bookplates, the body of which has been
engraved and space left for one or another person to use them.
Passing now into the sixteenth century, and still keeping to chronology
as our main guide, we can turn at once to Albrecht Dürer as a designer
of _ex libris_, and we now move on to safer ground, as we begin to find
dates, and then soon names or monograms of engravers.
Albrecht Dürer, the second son of Albrecht Dürer, goldsmith, was born
in the good city of Nuremberg on the 21st May, 1471.
Like Benvenuto Cellini, born some thirty years later, young Albrecht
Dürer’s first experience of handiwork was in the goldsmith’s craft; but
with a difference, as Benvenuto Cellini learned the goldsmith’s art
against his father’s will. On St. Andrew’s Day, 1486, young Albrecht had
the joy of inducing his father to apprentice him for three years to
Michel Wohlgemut. This step, important in the young artist’s life, is
especially important in our consideration, as, with the aid of Anton
Koburger, the princely printer, who was Albrecht Dürer’s godfather,
Michel Wohlgemut founded the great Nuremberg school of wood-engraving.
From 1490 to 1494 Dürer was on his travels, and spent some while in
Venice, where he was again in 1505 to 1507. On the 14th July, 1494,
after his home-coming from his first wanderings, he was married to
Agnes, the daughter of Hans Frey. For the rest, this is not the place
for a history of his works. His noble life was closed on the 6th of
April, 1528, and thus before he had reached the age at which many
artists have done their best work; but what vast treasures he had
wrought within those fifty-seven years!
The following five _ex libris_ have been, on good authority, distinctly
ascribed to Albrecht Dürer’s art: two varieties of a woodcut made for
Willibald Pirckheimer, of Nuremberg, one with and one without the
well-known motto “Sibi et Amicis.” This is a fine armorial plate with
helmet, and arms of himself and his wife. One of three _ex libris_ used
by Johann Stab, a learned mathematician and poet, a friend of Albrecht
Dürer. This is an armorial plate, and is distinguished by having a
laurel wreath; but no inscription. In the Albertina Museum at Vienna is
Dürer’s original drawing in violet ink for the armorial woodcut
bookplate of his friend Lazarus Spengler, Recorder of Nuremberg. The
armorial woodcut _ex libris_ of Johann Tscherte, exhibiting a satyr and
dogs. Tschert, in Bohemian, means a satyr or devil.
Besides the foregoing, there exist several sketches by Dürer which can
hardly have been intended for anything but bookplates; and also, before
passing from Dürer, the large bookplate for Dr. Hector Pömer, the last
Prior of the Abbey of St. Laurence in Nuremberg, must be mentioned. In
itself a beautiful work of art, it bears a date, 1525, and the
wood-engraver’s initials, “R. A.” The drawing is worthy of the hand of
Dürer himself, and “R. A.” probably cut the block in Dürer’s studio,
from the great master’s own design. On the chief shield are the arms of
the monastery, the gridiron of St. Laurence quartering the arms of
Pomer. By the shield, stands St. Laurence holding in one hand a
gridiron, and in the other the martyr’s palm. The motto: “To the pure
all things are pure,” is given, as was Dürer’s wont, in Hebrew, Greek,
and Latin. At the bottom of all is the owner’s name, “D. Hector Pomer
Praepos S. Lavr.”
Before quite leaving Dürer, the earliest dated German bookplate should
be named, as some think that he had a hand in it, especially as it was
for a friend of his, Hieronymus Ebner von Eschenbach, born in Nuremberg
on the 5th of January, 1477, educated at Ingolstadt, and afterwards in
the household of the Emperor Maximilian, he became a learned lawyer and
judge. He was a friend and ally of Martin Luther, and engaged in a
cultivated correspondence with many of the leaders of that age.
Following the start given by Albrecht Dürer, Nuremberg continued to be
the home of bookplate engraving; but very soon copper-plate engraving
took the place of woodcuts.
[Illustration]
Two of the best engravers were two brothers, Hans Sebald Beham, born in
1500, and Barthel Beham, born in 1502. Both were skilful engravers, and
both were expelled their native city as heretics. The elder engraved the
plate for one of Dr. Hector Pomer’s smaller _ex libris_, and the younger
brother engraved the two varieties of bookplates for Luther’s friend,
Hieronymous Baumgartner. He also engraved a plate for Melchior Pfinzing,
provost of a church in Mainz.
Here we will turn aside from Germany for a moment just to refer to an
undoubted English bookplate of this early period. It remains to this day
in a book known to have belonged to Cardinal Wolsey, and afterwards to
Henry VIII. This, though not an engraving, is none the less a bookplate.
Mr. W. J. Hardy, our best authority on English _ex libris_, has
described it: A carefully drawn sketch of the cardinal’s arms, with
supporters, and surmounted by a cardinal’s hat, the whole coloured by
hand.
Thus the very earliest English _ex libris_ of which we know was used by
the more than princely Thomas Wolsey, and at some time between 1514 and
his death in 1530, in which interval he was the arbiter of empires,
sometimes journeying attended by a personal retinue of two hundred
gentlemen in crimson velvet, and then, later, what a contrast--“He was
without beds, sheets, table-cloths, cups and dishes!”
Matthias Jundt, born at Nuremberg in 1498, and died in 1586, engraved a
good number of _ex libris_. He produced several for members of the
Nuremberg family of Pfinzing, and in one of them, that of Seyfried
Pfinzing von Henfenfeld, there is used one of those fanciful conceits so
common of old; the motto “Saluti Patriæ Vixisse Honestat” is used to
show the owner’s initials. Virgil Solis, born at Nuremberg in 1514,
engraved both on copper and on wood, working mostly from his own
designs. The engravings known to be by him number eight hundred. He
engraved an _ex libris_ block for Gundlach of Nuremberg in 1555. It
represents Pomona, with the arms of Gundlach and Fürleger, in a
beautiful landscape. In the same year he engraved an armorial and
landscape plate for Andreas Imhof, another Nuremberger. This is our
first mention of landscape bookplates, but it will be by no means the
last. The last of this set of engravers whom we will mention was not a
native of Nuremberg, but came there from Zurich, at the age of
twenty-one, in 1560, and died there in 1591. His best work was in
woodcuts. The curious in calligraphy will find that he signed his
initials in twelve different forms. His name was Jost Amman.
In _German Bookplates_, translated for George Bell and Sons’ _ex libris_
series, nearly twenty bookplates engraved by Jost Amman are enumerated,
and good reproductions are given of several. There is the usual armorial
shield, but a large amount of richly decorative renaissance engraving
outside it. In the plate engraved for Veit August Holzschuher, the owner
has evidently signed his name in a space at the foot of the block left
for it. His arms fittingly display a pair of wooden shoes to fit his
name. One cannot help wishing that more of these early private _ex
libris_ had such a space, bearing the ancient owner’s autograph.
CHAPTER III
BOOKPLATES CHRONOLOGICALLY
Lucas Cranach--Charles V.--Hans Holbein--Early French and English
bookplates--Sir Nicholas Bacon--Queen Elizabeth--Bookplates that
are not armorial--Bookplates in Switzerland, Sweden, and Italy.
In the _ex libris_ which Jost Amman made for “Johann Fischart genannt
Mentzer” the initial letters J.F.G.M. are the initial letters, too, of
the owner’s motto: “Jove fovente gignitur Minerva.”
Leaving now the Nuremberg school, we come to Lucas Cranach the elder. He
is just one of those figures of old time of whom one would like to know
much more. His chivalrous attachment to Frederick the Magnanimous, the
last of three Electors of Saxony, all of whom he served, points to noble
traits of character. He shared all the sufferings of Frederick the
Magnanimous in the five years that he was in the hands of Charles V.,
although himself an old man, went with him to Weimar on his release in
1552, and died there in his eighty--first year, on the 16th October,
1553. His paintings and engravings are without number, the latter mostly
woodcuts. One special interest of his work is that he was fond of
introducing homely portraits of his friends, and portraits always give
great interest to _ex libris_.
Among the _ex libris_ from the hand of Lucas Cranach the elder are the
woodcuts, in four different sizes, engraved for the Library of
Wittenberg University, and each bearing the portrait of Frederick the
Magnanimous.
At the foot of each is the inscription--
“Et patris, et patrui, famam, virtutibus, æquat.
Sui patris et patrui, nobile nomen habet.
Adserit, invicto divinum pectore verbum,
Et Musas omni dexteritate juvat.
Hinc etiam ad promptos studiorum contulit usus,
Inspicis hoc præsens quod modo Lector opus.”
Hans Holbein has been credited with the designs for two woodcuts _ex
libris_.
With the great amount and variety of work done by Holbein it would be
most natural that he should have designed some _ex libris_. We of to-day
can only deal with what has survived. For instance, scores of precious
works printed three hundred years ago have wholly passed out of
knowledge.
What a charming bookplate Hans Holbein would have invented--who knows
that he did not?--say, for his noble martyr friend Sir Thomas
More--perhaps depicting sweet Margaret Roper reading to her father,
adding at foot of the plate some quaint motto from Erasmus! Hans Holbein
lived scarcely forty-six years.
Next we will mention Hans Burgkmaier, born, too, at Augsburg in 1473,
and a son of Hans Holbein the elder’s father-in-law. Several _ex libris_
have been assigned to his hand; but with no certainty. The Emperor
Maximilian I. was his patron, and Albrecht Dürer his friend.
Now we reach about the time of what, until lately, was accounted the
earliest French bookplate with a date. This bears the brief but
comprehensive inscription: “Ex bibliotheca Caroli Albosii. E. Eduensis.
Ex labore quies.” The earliest known dated English _ex libris_ is also
of 1574; but we always, in courtesy, put our friends before ourselves,
and remember Napier’s splendid remark on hearing that Lord Mahon had
contemptuously spoken of Napier’s History as the best “French” history
of the war: “I always thought that to be generous to a noble foe was
truly English, until my Lord Mahon informed me it was wholly French.”
Sir Nicholas Bacon’s bookplate bears his arms with helmet surmounted by
crest; the crest being, of course, the only crest that could belong to
Bacon. The Germans very properly never dreamt that a crest ought to
appear anywhere but on a helmet. We have not been so correct. This
recalls the blank amazement of a German on beholding a British officer
in plain clothes. I remember thirty years ago, in Germany, my friend
FitzRoy Gardner happening to show a photograph of Field-Marshal Sir John
Burgoyne in plain clothes. The exclamation came at once, “He cannot be
an officer, he is not in uniform.” This was, of course, the chivalrous
old warrior who, in his yacht, brought the lovely Empress of the French
safely to our shores.
This very interesting and early English bookplate has at the foot Sir
Nicholas Bacon’s motto: “Mediocria Firma,” and we need not go here in
full into the point of its date, which is fairly established. It is with
an inscription in books given in 1574 by Sir Nicholas Bacon to Cambridge
University. Sir Nicholas, perhaps best known for being the father of
Francis, was the close friend of Cecil, Lord Burleigh, and Matthew
Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, fellow-ministers with him of Queen
Elizabeth. Queen Bess often made herself his guest, and after her visit
of six days in 1577, her host had the door by which she had passed under
his roof nailed up, so that no one, after her, might cross the same
threshold. Oh for the picturesque days of old! Lord Beaconsfield alone,
in our day, might have thought of such a graceful act.
The second dated engraved English bookplate known at present is that of
Sir Thomas Tresham, knighted by Queen Bess in 1575. The plate is
armorial, with a huge array of quarterings; helmet surmounted by crest
in proper style. Inscription: “Fecit mihi magna qui potens est. 1585.
Jun. 29.”, and below the arms: “S Tho: Tresame Knight.”
Sir Thomas married Muriel, daughter of Sir Robert Throckmorton, and
their son was Francis, “a wylde and unstayed man,” who first engaged in,
and then revealed, the Gunpowder Plot. The father’s dying, in 1605, was
probably the cause of the son’s not going forward in the plot, as he
inherited property which would steady his aspirations. Sir Thomas left
interesting memories of himself in fine buildings; and particularly in
his own county of Northampton, the market-house at Rothwell, and the
triangular lodge at Rushton.
A characteristic German plate of about 1570 is that of Johann Hector zum
Jungen, with his name thus engraved in full under his arms, and the
Latin motto: “Memorare nouissima tua,” at the top of the plate. In the
earliest _ex libris_ we did not find the owners’ names engraved.
So far almost everything has been purely armorial, and now we will turn
to something different. This is a 1588 German plate; certainly it bears
a small shield of arms, but most of the plate is occupied with the
following engraved inscription: “Reverendus et Nobilis Dominus
Wolfgangus Andreas Rem à Ketz, Cathedralis Ecclesia August: Sum:
Præpositus, librum hunc unà cum mille et tribus aliis, variisque
instrumentis Mathematicis, Bibliothecæ Monasterii S. Crucis Augustæ, ad
perpetuum Conventualium usum. Anno Christi M.D.LXXXVIII. Testamento
legauit.”
We have noticed 1574 as the date of the earliest English dated
bookplate, the next dated is not until 1585, and in France the gap is
still wider; 1574 is the earliest dated French plate, and the next that
has been found is dated 1611.
In Sweden, too, many years passed after the 1595 example without a dated
successor. In Switzerland, also, where the earliest dated _ex libris_
was in 1607, a long interval followed, in which we do not find dated
Swiss _ex libris_. In Italy we do not find any dated _ex libris_ before
1623.
This 1611 plate is that of Alexandre Bouchart, Viscount de Blosseville.
This was found in a folio copy of the works of Ptolemy printed at
Amsterdam in 1605, in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. The
graver-work and probably the design, too, was done by Leonard Gaultier,
who also executed an engraved portrait of Alexandre Bouchart. Leonard
Gaultier was born at Mayence in about 1561, and died in Paris in 1641,
having engraved above eight hundred plates.
Herr Carlander, the chief authority for Swedish bookplates, finds 1596
the earliest date, and this on the plate of Senator Thure Bielke, of
whom we do not know much more than that to his own cost he took the
wrong side in politics, was beheaded in 1600, and had therefore no
further use for his dated _ex libris_.
A German _ex libris_ of near this date is interesting, as, like a good
many others, it is to be found in three sizes. This is the _ex libris_
of Johann Baptist Zeyll, designed by P. Opel, and cut on wood by C. L.
in 1593.
Of course now in the days of photography it is easy to have your
bookplate in several sizes; but it was far otherwise in these old
times.
Next must be named a plate engraved in 1613 for placing in the books
presented by William Willmer, a Northamptonshire gentleman, to his
college library in Cambridge. Mr. Griggs reproduced it among his
eighty-three armorial examples. It is inscribed “Sydney Sussex Colledge
Ex dono Wilhelmi Willmer de Sywell in Com. Northamtoniæ, Armigeri,
quondam pentionarii in ista Domi. Vizin Anno Domini 1599 seddedit in Anº
Dñi 1613.”
In France, as likewise in England, there are hardly any dated bookplates
at this period. Mr. Walter Hamilton, in writing of French _ex libris_
before 1650, refers to three in different sizes, all engraved for Jean
Bigot, Sieur de Sommesnil; and somewhat later, another set differing
from the former, and with the owner’s name engraved as Johannes Bigot.
After that we read of three bookplates engraved for the son, L. E.
Bigot. In this connection the late Mr. Walter Hamilton is drawn on to
give particulars of a family of ardent book collectors, thus
incidentally illustrating very happily how the possession of one dirty
scrap of paper--an old _ex libris_--may lead on from one fascinating
inquiry to another.
A fine characteristic German ecclesiastical _ex libris_ of 1624 is the
plate given--page 330, George Bell and Sons--of Otto Gereon von Gutmann,
Doctor of Theology, Electoral Councillor, and Suffragan Bishop of
Cologne.
A very fine armorial plate, of which we do not know the designer, the
engraver, nor the date, is that of Alexandre Petau. His father, Paul
Petau, Conseiller au Parlement de Paris, died in 1613, bequeathing to
his son a fine library of manuscripts and printed books.
A bookplate in two sizes, engraved for Claude Sarrau, Councillor to the
Parliament of Paris. He died in 1651, and his son Isaac, in 1654, edited
his father’s correspondence with the learned of his time. The larger
Sarrau plate, and probably the smaller as well, were engraved by Isaac
Briot, who was born in 1585, and died in Paris in 1670.
Reaching the seventeenth century, we find German _ex libris_ multiplying
greatly, but not improving in design.
Armorial bookplates still predominate, but the shield is often in one
way or another surrounded by wreaths of leaves and flowers. It can
hardly be insisted on too clearly that there is nothing mysterious,
though much that is interesting, about the varying modes and manners of
_ex libris_. They, in fact, represented the art, customs, learning, and
taste of successive ages.
Thus turn to Johann Sibmacher’s Wappenbüchlein, published in 1596, and
you will find plenty of illustrations of these wreaths, though with no
reference to bookplates.
CHAPTER IV
BOOKPLATES CHRONOLOGICALLY
The seventeenth century begins--German plates--William Marshall--Lord
Littleton--Huet, Bishop of Avranches.
In 1604 Egidius Sadeler of Munich engraved for Arnold von Reyger a plate
which is both signed and dated. At the top of the plate is the Latin
motto “Ad Deum Refugium,” and in another part of the plate are the
letters “Z. G. M. Z.,” standing for “Zu Gott meine Zuflucht,” the German
version of the Latin motto.
In 1619 Hans Hauer designed and Hans Troschel engraved a characteristic
and very elaborate _ex libris_ for Johann Wilhelm Krep von Krepenstein,
of Nuremberg. Both designer and engraver were natives of Nuremberg, the
former born in 1582, and the latter about six years later.
In about the year 1623 Raphael Sadeler engraved a bookplate in three
sizes for the Electoral Library of the Dukes of Bavaria at Munich. He
also engraved a plate for the Elector Palatine’s libraries in
Heidelberg and in Rome.
Raphael Sadeler and his elder brother Jan, and their nephew Gillis or
Egidius Sadeler, were all skilful with the graver. Raphael was born at
Brussels in 1555, and with his elder brother travelled through Germany,
producing many engravings, and afterwards settling at Venice. Egidius,
the nephew, was born at Antwerp in 1575; taught by his uncles Jan and
Raphael, he lived to far surpass his teachers. After spending some time
in Italy, he was invited to Prague by the Emperor Rudolph II. He died at
Prague in 1629.
In 1640, or a little earlier, William Marshall engraved a bookplate for
Edward, Lord Littleton, born in 1589 at Munston, in Shropshire, his
father being Sir Edward Littleton, Chief Justice of North Wales, and his
mother being a daughter of Edmund Walter, Chief Justice of South Wales.
From Christ Church, Oxford, Littleton, in 1608, entered the Inner
Temple. On his father’s death, in 1621, he became Chief Justice of North
Wales. In 1625 he became member of Parliament for Leominster. He became
counsel to the University of Oxford, Reader to the Inner Temple, and
Recorder of London. In 1634 he was made Solicitor-General. In the
meantime his great learning and high character made him much respected,
and the City Aldermen sent him a courteous gift of two hogsheads of
claret and a pipe of canary. Next, he became Chief Justice of the Common
Pleas, and soon Lord Chancellor. In February, 1641, he was created Lord
Littleton of Munston. Happily for him he died young, as in those stormy
times he was too just a man to be a good party politician. It is
interesting to note that on May 21st, 1644, he was commissioned to raise
a regiment of foot soldiers, consisting of gentlemen of the Inns of
Court and Chancery and others, himself becoming colonel. The great Lord
Clarendon wrote of Littleton as a “handsome and proper man of a very
graceful presence, and notorious for courage, which in his youth he had
manifested with his sword.”
Above all, Littleton was incorruptible, winning, and keeping the respect
of such opposite men as Clarendon and Bulstrode Whitelocke. Here we get
a glimpse of his library, as it is recorded that when the Commons seized
his books Whitelocke interceded and got the books given into his own
care, so that, as he expressed it, “when God gave them a happy
accommodation” he might restore them to rightful hands. The arms on the
bookplate are the arms of Lyttelton of Frankley.
Littleton’s first wife was a daughter of John Lyttelton (spelt as you
please) of Frankley, Worcestershire. Littleton died at Oxford on August
27th, 1645, and is buried in Christ Church Cathedral.
Not the least interesting point about this Littleton plate is that it
was engraved by William Marshall, a name or initials found on such a
great number of portraits and other book illustrations of this period.
Not very much is known about him. The dates of his works range from 1591
to 1649.
A characteristic German plate, dated 1645, is, by the good authority of
Warnecke, the work of the engraver Raphael Custos of Augsburg, eldest
son of Dominicus de Coster, painter and engraver, and grandson of Pieter
De Coster or Balten, poet and painter. This plate, engraved for Wilhelm
and Clara Krep von Krepenstein, embraces the coats-of-arms of the small
number of thirty-one ancestors.
“curæ numen habet justu move 4° eneid.
inde cruce hinc trutina armatus regique deoque
milito disco meis hæc duo nempe libris
ex libris Petri Maridat in magno Regis
consilio Senatoris”
are the inscriptions on the plate here illustrated of Theophilus Raynaud
or Raynald, born in Piedmont, and died at the age of eighty in Lyons on
October 31st, 1663. He was a learned Jesuit, and a most untiring student
all his life, but, unlike most inveterate readers, he was bitter and
morose of temper. Perhaps this was caused by his reading excesses, as it
is told that he thought fifteen minutes almost too much to give to any
meal. His portrait is in his: “tractatus depileo, cœterisque capitis
tegminibus tam sacris quam profanis. D. D. Petro de Maridat, in magno
Regis Christianissimi Consilio Senatori dicatus.” Under the portrait is
the shield-of-arms, as on the bookplate, and above it the motto:
“Dextera Domini fecit virtutem.” Below is: “Non potuit cœlum Capiti par
addere, tegmen, Hoc Cœli effigiem perficientis erit.” The engraving is
signed “L Spirinx fecit.” Nagler gives Ludwig Spirinx as an engraver
born at Lyons or Dijon, and working in Brussels from about 1640 to 1660.
Coming once more to Nuremberg, there is the 1674 plate engraved by D.
Krüger for Colonel Georg Christof Volckamer. There is no inscription on
the plate, which shows a cherub sitting on a hill and holding a
shield-of-arms. The colonel was not content to choose between helmet and
coronet; he has elected to have both.
One of the many plates of which the engraver is not known is that of
Franz Ludwig Anton Freiherr von Lerchenfeld-Prennberg. The shield is
borne on two flags crossing one another. At the foot of the plate is
engraved “Ex Libris, Francisci Ludovici,” etc., giving all the owner’s
titles. He was Chamberlain of the Munich High Court of Appeal.
A well-known plate is that of Pierre Daniel Huet, Bishop of Avranches,
and probably the best-remembered holder of that ancient See, and tenant
of the famous Bishop’s Palace. He was Bishop of Avranches from 1689 to
1699, but, born at Caen in 1630, he was already, in 1650, a renowned
savant, and twelve years later founded the Academy of Sciences at Caen.
He did not become a priest until he was forty-six years old; but all his
life he was an enormous reader, and gifted with a wondrous memory. Of
course he wrote books as well as reading the lore of others.
At Avranches visitors, calling for advice from their bishop, were told
“He cannot see you, he is studying”; and in vain they claimed that they
wanted to see a diocesan who had finished his studies.
The plate was engraved in four sizes for the Jesuits’ College in Paris,
to which he gave his library in 1692. As he spent the latter years of
his long life with the Paris Jesuits he was not long separated from his
books, and lived ninety-two years, so that none might say that in him
much study had produced a weariness of the flesh.
In 1692 another library, left this time by will, and accordingly, too,
another _ex libris_, came to the Jesuits of Paris, and from a friend of
Huet, Gilles Ménage. Like Huet, his appetite for study was vast and his
memory unfailing. Born at Angers in 1613, he died in Paris in 1692. Thus
he spent some eighty years among the shrewd litterateurs of that day,
and the following conversation need not be taken as a sign of want of
veracity on his part. Angers seems, like Crete of old, to have had a
lying reputation. He, asking a lady to define untruthfulness, received
for reply, that as for defining lying she did not quite know, but liar
she would define as “Monsieur Ménage!”
It will be seen how little it had yet become the custom for bibliophiles
to have bookplates. Neither Huet nor Ménage used _ex libris_ for
themselves, and to this day no bookplate of Molière, or Racine, or La
Fontaine, or of many other leaders of that age has been found.
After about 1650 a change is seen in the styles of French _ex libris_.
Helmets go out of use, and, for lack of better ideas, coronets are
assumed, often by those who had not the faintest right to them. The
square shield, in time, gives place to the oval form.
CHAPTER V
BOOKPLATES CHRONOLOGICALLY
Some French and some German plates--The cap of
liberty--Buonaparte--Alsace and Lorraine.
As a date is always a signal advantage, the bookplate “Petri Antonii
Convers Laudonensis. L Monnier Divione. 1762” may be mentioned. It is,
of course, topped by the irrepressible coronet. Louis Gabriel Monnier
was born at Besançon in 1733, and died at Dijon in 1804. The Convers
plate is wholly Rococo; but taking from Walter Hamilton another French
_ex libris_ engraved but nine years later, we see that with some artists
the heavy brigade is already on duty. Here we have a big gun, an
armorial shield flanked by three flags on each side, but without any
graceful design. Still the inevitable coronet, and below all, the
inscription: “Le Chᵉʳ. Dé Bellehache officier de Cavalerie au Regᵗ
D’artois / 1771.” Here, after all, there is no possibility of mistaking
for whom this plate was engraved,
[Illustration]
and thus, though not beautiful, it quite fulfils its duty.
Sixteen years later we have a plate which also has these essential
points, but is in the shell-work mode, light and elegant. Round the
upper part is a label inscribed: “Ex libris Ant. Franc Alex Boula de
Nanteuil,” and at the base: “Libellorum suplicum Magister. à mandatis
Regiæ &ᶜ &ᶜ--et in supremà Galliarum curià senator ad horrorem. 1777.”
The shield is azure, three bezants.
Here is an instance of an _ex libris_ not inserted, but impressed,
seemingly a copper-plate engraving. The design is simple; but quite
serves its purpose. It is an oval frame surmounted by a ribbon tied in a
bow, and in the oval the words “Ex Bibliotheca Ecclesia Aug. Conf.
Posson.” The book is a copy of Prodromus idiomatis ... adparatus
criticus ad linguam Hungaricam ... auctore Georgio Kalmar ... Posonii,
... 1770. The copy bears also another ownership inscription--in other
words, another _ex libris_: “Obtulit / Frider. Frank. / Posen. / 1789.
/”
A curious plate here illustrated is that of Peter Mairdat.
Of about 1780 is the copper-plate of Klemens Wenzel, Duke of Saxony,
Prince of Bland, Elector-Archbishop of Trier, and Bishop of Augsburg.
The plate represents the arms of Augsburg, of Trier, of Saxony, and also
of Poland.
This is not the place to write the story of the first great French
Revolution; but it is to the point of our subject in hand to note that
on June 20th, 1790, a decree was proposed and passed in the French
Assembly suppressing the titles of duke, count, marquis, viscount,
baron, and chevalier, and at the same time all armorial bearings were
done away with. Now followed a bad time for bookplate artists and
engravers. The cap of liberty and the bloody guillotine do not breathe
high artistic inspiration.
The plate of Marshal Jourdan consists chiefly of a shield wholly
occupied with the simple inscription “Bibliothèque du Maréchal Jourdan.”
Coming to the days of the first Empire, Buonaparte, the despot, ruled
armorial insignia with the same iron hand as he regulated anything else.
His orders and restrictions were numberless, and in particular he
introduced the various forms of a headdress denominated _une toque_.
Cities under Buonaparte’s sway bore certain badges according to whether
he ranked them as cities of the first, second, or third order.
[Illustration]
Those of the first order had the honour of bearing the Napoleon
badge--three golden bees on a chief gules.
The bookplate of the Bastille is well illustrated in _French Bookplates_
(Walter Hamilton), but must not be quite passed over here. It represents
a shield on a bracket, bearing the fleur-de-lis. The shield is ensigned
with a crown and enclosed by the collars of the orders of S. Michel and
the Sainte Esprit. Above all is the name “chateau royal de la bastille.”
In July of 1789 the Bastille was destroyed by the Paris mob.
I give a reproduction of the characteristic French “Ex libris du Comte
Paul de Malden de la Bastille.”
In the _ex libris_ of Claude Martin, cannon, cannon-balls and flags,
tents and scaling-ladders, are to the fore; whilst on a rock in the
middle there is a lion rampant, holding up a sword in one fore paw and
an ensign in the other. Since the Belgians disfigured the field of
Waterloo with a huge mound to celebrate the tiny devotion of their race,
a lion on a hill does not stand for much! At the head of this plate is
the motto “Labore et constantia,” and at the foot “Ex libris Claudii
Martin.”
In 1814 Napoleon Buonaparte abdicated, and in the same year Louis
XVIII., the younger brother of Louis XVI., became king. In 1824 Louis
XVIII. died, and his younger brother, Charles X., came to the throne,
which he held until 1830, when he was deposed, and his cousin Louis
Philippe sat on this unstable throne. In 1848 he in turn abdicated, and
a Republic was proclaimed, with Louis Napoleon as President. During
these foregone thirty years the old nobility, after a manner, recovered
their ancient titles, and many new nobility were created; but it cannot
be said to have been an age productive of fine or interesting _ex
libris_.
A variety from the sometimes too stern formality of _ex libris_ designs
is found in the plate engraved by D. Collin for Monsieur Riston. A
fantastic R., or perhaps A. R., is figured on an oval, with child
figures, a few books, and a pen and ink, all apparently in the open-air
around.
The _ex libris_ of Pierre Antoine Berryer is not of any striking
character, but is a fair specimen. In 1855 he was elected to the
Académie Francaise; but he was best known for his great defence of Count
Montalembert before the French Courts in 1858.
Alsace and Lorraine have given us some good specimens of bookplates, and
as might be expected, the manners and styles of several nations are here
included. In some an interesting feature is the introduction of a view
of the owner’s parish church.
CHAPTER VI
BOOKPLATES WITH MANTLING
Viscount Cholmondeley--James Loch of Drylaw--William Pitt of Binfield.
Mr. G. F. Barwick, to whom the Mercator _ex libris_ belongs, has kindly
sent me the following:--
“Nicholas Mercator was born at Cismar, Holstein, about 1620, and after
completing his studies in Copenhagen he continued to reside there until
1660, when he came to England. His fame as a mathematician was already
well established, and he was almost immediately elected a member of the
Royal Society, which had recently been founded. Some years later he
entered the service of Louis XIV., and superintended the construction of
the fountains at Versailles. For this work, however, he could not obtain
payment, in consequence of his refusal to become a Catholic, and the
trouble which it caused him is said to have shortened his life. He wrote
a number of
[Illustration]
small treatises and contributed to the _Philosophical Transactions_, but
his fame chiefly rests upon his _Logarithmotechnia_, London, 1668-74,
4to, in which he developed the well-known formula which bears his name.
A portrait of him was formerly in the possession of Mr. T. D. F. Tatham
of Althorne, Essex, a collateral descendant of the Mercators, and passed
at his death into the possession of his nephew, Mr. W. Tatham-Hughes of
Chelsea Hospital.”
A bookplate with fine mantling and supporters is that of “The Right
Honourable Hugh Lord Viscount Cholmondeley.” It occurs in a copy of “The
causes of the Decay of Christian Piety ... London, Printed by R. Norton
for T. Garthwait, in S. Bartholomew’s Hospital, near Smithfield, 1667.”
This copy--it belongs to Mr. E. F. Coates--has been finely bound,
probably by Charles Mearne. Hugh, first Earl of Cholmondeley, succeeded
his father, Viscount Cholmondeley, in 1681. Objecting to the arbitrary
measures of James II., he was soon honoured by William and Mary, who, in
1689, created him Lord Cholmondeley of Nantwich. In 1706 Queen Anne made
him Viscount Malpas and Earl of Cholmondeley. Later he held the
appointments of Comptroller and Treasurer of Her Majesty’s household.
The book has underneath one another, both in old but different hands,
two signatures--“Elizabeth Cholmondeley.” It has also an
inscription--“Wm. Lemon, 1855”; since then it has travelled far, as it
has twice inscribed on it “W. A. Rebello, Sylvan Lodge, Simla. October,
1864.”
“John Stansfeld,” an armorial plate with mantling. The arms are sable,
three goats trippant argent. Crest a demi-lion rampant argent. An
ancient family settled in Yorkshire at the Conquest. This modern plate
is in a fine copy, belonging to Mr. E. F. Coates, of _The Yorkshire
Library_, by William Boyne, 1869. I think that this John Stansfeld,
Esq., was a collector of fine books, and especially about Yorkshire.
A nice plate here illustrated is that of Prescott Pepper.
A plate with good mantling is that of “James Loch of Drylaw.” Given by
Burke as arms or, a saltire engraded sable, between two swans naiant in
fesse proper. Crest, a swan with wings endorsed, devouring a perch, both
proper. Motto, “Assiduate non desidia.” This is in a copy of _A Short
Introduction to Moral Philosophy_ ... Glasgow, Printed by Robert &
Andrew Foulis, printers to the University. 1764. James
[Illustration]
Loch of Drylaw, born in 1612, was treasurer of Edinburgh, and in 1851
his descendant was James Loch of Drylaw, M.P., son of George Loch of
Drylaw, and his wife a daughter of John Adam of Blair Adam. The arms
were confirmed in 1673 by Sir Charles Erskine of Cambo, Knight, Lyon
King-of-Arms.
“William Pitt of Binfield, Berks Esqʳ--” here reproduced, has very full
mantling and no crest, unless the Satyr-looking head in the top of the
mantling be meant for a crest. This plate is taken from a copy of a 1648
edition of _Eikon Basilike_.
A good Scotch _ex libris_ with mantling, and engraved by Lizars, is that
of “Brown of Waterhaughs,” evidently connected with some scion of the
clan Campbell. The crest is a lion holding a fleur-de-lis. The motto is
“Tandem licet sero.” This is in a copy of a scarce little volume,
Baxter’s _Anacreon_--“Londini Augustæ Imprimetatur Impensis Matthæi
Hawkins, prostatque venalis ad Angelum in Areâ Paulinâ.” 1710. The
“errata” note at the end contains some facetious expressions--in English
thus: “Correct if you please, friendly reader, those heavy printers
errors, which were printed when we were off our guard, and fell out when
we were intent on blackberries.”
A plate with fine mantling is that of Richard Boycott. It is altogether
a good plate. In an ornamental frame below the shield of arms is the
engraved inscription: “Pro Rege et Religione / Richard Boycott.”
Gules, on a chief argent, three grenadoes proper, and the motto, “Pro
Rege et Religione,” are of peculiar interest. These arms were granted by
Charles II., in 1663, to Sylvanus Boycott of Hinton, and Francis Boycott
of Byldwas, sons of William Boycott of Byldwas. The father had furnished
Charles I. with grenadoes and other supplies. The sons had aided Charles
II. when a fugitive wanderer. The family claim to descend from the
ancient Norman house of Bygod. This worthy plate is in a rich red
morocco bound copy of Sermons, by George Stanhope, D.D., preached at the
Boyle Lectures in 1701.
A bookplate with rather curious mantling is that of “Rowland W. D.
Collett.” The arms seem to be intended for those borne by Collett, who
was Lord Mayor of London in 1486,--Sable, on a chevron between three
hinds trippant argent, as many annulets of the first. The motto is
“virtutis præmium honor.”
An armorial plate with heavy mantling--“Thomas Maitland, Dundrennan.”
Burke’s
[Illustration]
Armorial gives quarterly, first and fourth or, a lion rampant,
déchaussé, within a bordure embattled gules; second and third argent,
the ruins of an old abbey on a mound proper. Crest a demi-monk vested
grey, holding in the dexter hand a crucifix argent, in the sinister a
rosary proper. The motto is “Esse quam videri.”
In the same volume, the round armorial plate “Johannis Whitefoord
Mackenzie Armigeri.”
It is most fitting that the book holding these Scottish bookplates is a
fine copy of the first edition of the great Montrose’s Book, the book
which the canting Covenanters hung round that hero’s neck as he proudly
trod the bloody scaffold. It is clothed in fine contemporary morocco,
richly gilt.
A modern bookplate with nice mantling is that of “Charles Lilburn.” The
family hails from the county of Durham. The arms argent, three
water-bougets sable. Crest, a dexter arm in armour proper, holding a
truncheon or. The motto is “Vis viri fragilis.”
This is in a copy of Montrose Redivivus, or the Portraicture of James,
late Marquess of Montrose, ... London: Printed for Jo. Ridley at the
Castle in Fleet Street, near Ram-alley, 1652. The water-bouget was a
mediæval vessel for carrying water, and was made of two leather pouches
appended to a yoke or crossbar.
The “Hampson” plate is, in its way, as good a bookplate as one need wish
to see. The clearly cut mantling is tastefully decked with light sprigs
of evergreen. The arms are argent, three hemp-brakes sable. The crest is
out of a mural crown argent, a greyhound’s head sable collared of the
first, rimmed or. Motto: “Nunc aut nunquam.”
Thomas Hampson, the son of Sir Robert Hampson, Knight, and Alderman of
the City of London, was created a baronet on June 3rd, 1642. He died in
1655, leaving four sons and five daughters.
The hempbrake, or hackle, was an instrument used for bruising hemp.
The royal plate of Charles I. needs some explanation, as it is not a
bookplate. It occupies the first leaf in the full-sized octavo issues in
1649 of _Eikon Basilike_. In photographing the Throckmorton bookplate
the photographer, seeing this also at the beginning of the book, not
unnaturally thought that it was a bookplate, and to be illustrated. This
need not be regretted. It is a characteristic copy of an _Eikon_. The
surrounding lines are old red ink, and the old ownership signature--
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
“Fra: Vaughan”
“:1656:”
is as true and perfect an _ex libris_ as the finest draughtsman and
engraver could ever produce.
The very fine armorial plate of Sir Robert Throckmorton, Bart.--“Virtus
sola nobilitas”--is here reproduced from the above-named 1649 copy of
_Eikon Basilike_.
The armorial plate, with supporters, of Sir James Stewart Denholm,
Bart., of Coltness and Westshiel, is here illustrated.
I do not know the history of the plate with the two oval shields here
illustrated. The motto, “Mors sola resolvit,” seems rather to suggest a
funeral hatchment.
The illustration here given of the plate of “Thoˢ. Beckwith, of York
Painter & F.A.S.” is, of course, a piece of his own workmanship, and is
inserted in a small, thick volume of manuscript genealogies, no doubt
the work of T. Beckwith, and now in the library of Mr. Edward F. Coates.
Thomas Beckwith was of an ancient, if not distinguished, Yorkshire
family. He was born at Rothwell in 1730, “and served his time to George
Fleming, an ingenious man and house painter, from whom he acquired his
skill in drawing and painting, and imbibed a love for antiquities.” By
means of his great knowledge of genealogies he composed manuscript
pedigrees for some of the leading families of the North of England. He
was not only an unwearied collector, but very generous in imparting
information. He died at York on February 17th, 1786.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VII
SOME SPECIMENS INSERTED IN A BOOK KEPT IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM FOR THAT
PURPOSE
Some bookplates kindly lent by Mr. G. F. Barwick--Wrest Park plates--Sir
John Lubbock.
The following are all in a small collection of _ex libris_ in a book
kept for the purpose in the British Museum. The press mark is C 66 f3:--
“Frhr. v. Barckhaus Wiesenhütten Bibliotheck” is the inscription on the
ornamental bracket of an elaborate armorial plate, with two most
amiable-looking young lions holding up the shield.
On the same page in the same collection is a plate of somewhere near the
same date, and hardly armorial. The form of the plate is, for the most
part, a representation of carved stonework. In the middle is a sort of
oval shield, and within that a shield with a figure of a man with a
child on one shoulder. Along the base of the structure are the words:
“Ex libr Chro TheopChristoff Ulme.” A few books are standing on the
ground against the stonework, and, as oftens happens in looking at such
plates, one hopes they are not rare books or in interesting bindings, as
one would like to take more care of them.
In the same collection is a remarkable plate giving a view of a library
interior, enclosed in a richly decorated oval frame. At foot the
inscription: “Ex libris d. zach: conr: at uffenbach, m.f.”, and above:
“non omnibus idem est quod placet petron fragm.” At the very bottom, in
tiniest letters, is “J U Kraus sculp.”
Johann Ulrich Kraus was born at Augsburg in 1645, and died there in
1719. He was a pupil of Melchior Küsel; he imitated the manner of
Sebastien Le Clerc and did a large amount of engraving for the
booksellers.
A handsome plate is that “Ex Bibliotheca J. S. Ochs, at Ochsentein.” It
is a plate with heavy mantling to the shield. An ox is, of course,
prominent in arms and crest. “P Feber sc” is in the corner. There is
another very much smaller, but almost identical plate.
From the same collection, and of rather uncertain date, is a plate
subscribed: “Ex bibliotheca rosenbergiana.” A rose tree is appropriately
prominent in arms and crest.
Another example is simply a Chippendale fancy shell frame enclosing the
words: “Ex supellectile libraria Bened: Guil: Zahnii.”
A bookplate very roughly engraved, and with some very curious-looking
heraldry, is that subscribed “malmendier. = de malmedye,” and “solum
forti patria est.”
There is a circular plate with a Library view, and the library itself is
evidently circular, the plate being engraved “Bibliotheca regia
parmensis.” Apollo, looking very cold, stands on a pedestal in the
middle, holding his garment instead of putting it on, and sitting down
quietly to read the books. Round the upper part is inscribed “Apollini
palatino sacram.”
An armorial plate with fine mantling, then a helmet: on that a crown,
and over that, for crest, a man girdled, holding in right hand a mallet,
and in left a flag. Under the shield is the name engraved: “A. W.
Schlegel von Gottleben.”
Pasted on to the same page is a plain small _ex libris_--arms, a
fleur-de-lis; name, “Franz Salmon Wüss.”
Here is a plate which appears to be round. In the middle is placed what
seems to be meant for a tomb, with a book placed open at the words:
“vita lux hominum Joh I v 4.” Near, and on the vault is engraved: “adhuc
stat terminus.” Round the outside circle of the plate is engraved: “lex
est non poena mort.”
Other plates of interest in this collection are those of Christian
Gottlieb Joher, on page 5, Godefrid J. F. Thomas, on page 23, and on
page 27 a plate dated 1757.
Mr. Barwick’s plate of a Baron Bunsen is, he assures me, not that of the
Baron Bunsen so familiar to, and appreciated by, cultivated English
readers, not a generation ago. The plate is nice, as any approach to
simplicity is always pleasing. The shield, hung from the coronet by the
ribband of some order, is not loaded with charges. Dexter, a lion
between two fleur-de-lis, sinister, three heads of barleycorn. The
motto, too, is reverential and in keeping: “In spe et silentio.” Below
all is the legend, “ex libris christiani caroli bunsen. Uratislaviæ ad
eadem S. Elis Ecclesiastes.” J. B. Stracchusky Sc Urat.
Uratislavia spells Breslau, but very curiously the name Uratislavia
seems to have some fitness on a bookplate; as in Zedler’s wonderful
_Lexicon_, of some sixty-six volumes, it is recorded of Jacob de
Uratislavia, a Benedictine monk who died in 1480, that his literary
labours were so vast that seven powerful steeds could scarce drag his
load of books.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Mr. G. F. Barwick has lent me three quite different Wrest Park
bookplates. In an ornamental frame, which forms the lower part of one,
is engraved “Thomas Philip, Earl de Grey, Wrest Park.” Two
fearful-looking dragons support the shield, or rather seem bent on
devouring the shield and then each other. Above is an earl’s coronet,
and below the motto, “Foy est tout.”
Thomas Philip, Earl de Grey, was born in 1781, and was the elder son of
Thomas Robinson, second Baron Grantham, and his wife the second daughter
of Philip York, second Earl of Hardwicke. He was therefore a descendant
of Henry Grey, ninth Earl of Kent. In 1833 his maternal aunt, Amabel
Hume Campbell, Countess de Grey of Wrest, in Bedfordshire, dying, he
became second Earl de Grey and Baron Lucas of Crudwell, Wiltshire. From
1841 to 1844 he was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and achieved great
success in his administration there. In 1844 he was made a Knight of the
Garter.
The second of these plates consists of two crests, a dragon and a stag,
encircled by the garter. Above is the earl’s coronet, and over that the
inscription “Wrest Park.” Neither of the other plates has the garter.
In what, for distinction, may be called the third plate, the outspread
and double-headed black eagle holding the shield-of-arms is the most
prominent object, and in each beak it holds what, as argent, no doubt is
a silver coin, but looks rather like an Osborne biscuit.
Mr. Barwick has also two bookplates of “Sir John William Lubbock. Bart.”
Below the shield is the happy motto: “Auctor pretiosa facit.” John
William Lubbock was born in 1803, and in 1840 succeeded his father in
the baronetcy. He died in 1865. His scientific tastes and cultivated
habits were just such as his own son, Sir John Lubbock, has pursued
happily for so many years, in the knowledge of many now living. The
other plate is evidently what he used for his books in his earlier
years. The bloody hand of Ulster is absent from the shield, and below
the shield is simply the monogram “J. W. L.”
The Sir John Frederick, Bart., plate of Mr. Barwick’s is quite a change
from the customary conventions. The shield fills a very small part of an
oblong oval frame. The arms are by Burke, or on a chief azure, three
doves argent. Crest on a chapeau azure turned-up ermine, a dove, within
the beak an olive branch.
Mr. Barwick has two _ex libris_ of Thomas
[Illustration]
James Tatham, Esq., a gentleman of Bedford Place, Russell Square,
London, and a third which has belonged to some near kindred. It agrees
with that which has merely the crest, but has engraved underneath: “T.
D. F. Tatham.” His chief plate has dexter, argent a chevron gules
between three swan’s necks, coupled sable. Sinister are presumably his
wife’s arms. Crest on a trumpet or, a swan’s wings displayed sable.
Mr. Carruthers has, with great kindness, contributed the following in
reference to his interesting bookplate:--
“The notion of the plate was to introduce two plants named by botanists
after me. Many genera of plants have received their names in this way.
“The outside plant was called _Carruthersia scandius Seem._ by Dr.
Seemann in his _Flora Vitiensis_, London, 1865-73. I described the ferns
in this work (pp. 331-378), and otherwise had given assistance. The
plant is described on pp. 155, 156, and figured on Table XXX. Appended
to the description of the genus is this note: ‘I have named this new
genus in honour of my esteemed friend William Carruthers, Esq., F.Z.S.,
of the Botanical Department, British Museum, to whom I am indebted for
much kind assistance in working up the South Sea flora.’
“The inner flower was named by Otto Kunze _Carruthia Capensis, O.K._ It
was originally called _Aitonia Capensis_ by Linnæus the younger, but a
different plant had been previously named _Aitonia_. Botanists do not
allow the same name to be applied to different plants that are widely
separated. O. Kunze wished to associate the plant with my name, and,
following an example set by Linnæus, he cut off the last syllable and
formed a generic name which could not be confounded with Seemann’s
generic name. This arose from a curious accident. O. Kunze called on me
at the Natural History Museum, and asked me to let him see the specimens
of _Aitonia_. I inquired which _Aitonia_, and, showing him a seal I was
wearing which belonged to Aiton, who had engraved on it the Cape plant
named after him, I asked if that was the plant. He exclaimed ‘How
strange! that is the plant.’ I showed him the specimen that the younger
Linnæus had named, which was in the Herbarium. When Kunze published the
results of his work on these plants he gave it the name _Carruthia
Capensis_. The seal was oval, and the drawing in the
[Illustration]
centre is taken from the seal. I used for separation of the two plants
an ornamental border of an early Edinburgh printer, I believe, for I got
it in the binding of an old Edinburgh book. And the motto belongs to the
section of the Carruthers tribe to which we belong.
“The drawing was made by W. G. Smith, F.Z.S., a good botanist and an
excellent draughtsman.”
CHAPTER VIII
CHIPPENDALE AND CRESTPLATES
William Sharp the Engraver--The Rev. John Watson--Edward
Trotter--Patrick Colquhoun.
The few following bookplates are all in the manner known as
Chippendale:--
The Chippendale bookplate here given, with “Wm. Sharp” engraved at the
foot of it, was one, we may suppose, engraved by William Sharp, the
engraver, for himself. He was the son of a gunmaker, in days when
gun-barrels and other parts of guns were often finely engraved.
William Sharp was born in 1749, died at Chiswick on July 25th, 1824.
Seeing that he became an engraver of very great skill and originality,
the main points of his life are well worth recording. Born in Haydon
Yard in the Minories, his father apprenticed him to Barak Longmate, an
engraver and genealogist. Out of his indentures, he
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
soon married a Frenchwoman, and set up in Bartholomew Lane as a writing
engraver.
About 1782 he sold this business and migrated to Vauxhall, where he now
pursued the higher branches of his art. True to the prophet’s fate, he
was in due course elected an honorary member of the Imperial Academy at
Vienna and of the Royal Academy at Munich. In early days he had been a
friend of Thomas Paine and Horne Tooke, and was, in fact, examined
before the Privy Council on treasonable charges, but soon dismissed as a
harmless enthusiast. After becoming a convert to Swedenborg, he became a
brave upholder of Joanna Southcott, and was the very last of her
adherents to admit the reality of her death.
A good Chippendale plate is that of “The Rev. John Watson.” He was born
on March 26th, 1725, at Lyme Handley in the parish of Prestbury,
Cheshire, and became a learned antiquary. He was elected F.S.A. in 1759,
and contributed six papers to _Archæologia_. In 1775 appeared his
best-known work. _The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Halifax_,
Yorkshire, where he had held a curacy from 1750 to 1754. In 1782 he
brought out two fine quarto volumes, _Memoirs of the Ancient Earls of
Warren and Surrey_. He died at Stockport on March 14th, 1783.
A good Chippendale bookplate is that of “Edward Trotter, A.M.”
In the Lyon Register the arms are given as of Trotter of Gatchibraw, in
Scotland, argent a chevron gules between three boars’ heads, couped
sable. Crest a horse trotting proper.
This is in a copy of _Essay sur l’histoire générale, et sur les mœurs et
l’esprit des nations, depuis Charlemagne jusqu’à nos jours_. 1756.
A pleasing plate of late Chippendale style is that with the monogram “J.
B. W.” at the foot. On the title-page of the book “Six Discourses” ...
“Temple Church” ... “Thomas Sherlock ... 1725,” is the autograph “J. B.
Watkin.” Burke’s _Armoury_ gives azure a fesse between three leopard
faces, jessant de lis or.
An unpretending little Chippendale bookplate, with crest only, is that
of “Patk. Colquhoun.” A stag’s head, with above it the motto “si je
puis.” Patrick Colquhoun, Minister of the Hanse-towns, was born at
Dumbarton on March 14th, 1745, and died at Westminster on April 25th,
1820.
The following are a few crest bookplates named together:--
[Illustration]
The Marshall crest, a man in armour proper, holding in the dexter hand a
truncheon or, forms the very picturesque modern _ex libris_ of “F. A.
Marshall.” The motto is fitting: “Nunquam sedeo.” This in a collection
of Actes, printed by Pynson in 1512-1514,
“concernynge--Archerye--Crossbows--Mummers,” and other quaint subjects.
As a specimen of a crest bookplate there is the “Beavan,” which is
simply the name Beavan under two crests, one a dove with outspread wings
and a ring in its beak, the other a lion. This can hardly be called a
satisfactory plate. It is in a volume of _The Edinburgh Review_ of 1826.
A pretty crestplate is that of “Henry St. Clair Feilden.”
The crest is a nuthatch feeding on a hazel branch. The crest is enclosed
in an oval belt inscribed with the motto, “virtutis præmium honor.” This
plate is in a copy of Benjamin Thorpe’s _History of England under the
Norman Kings_. Oxford, 1857.
Another crest bookplate, that of “Walter Farquhar.” The crest is an
eagle rising, proper. The motto, “mente manuque.” This plate is in a
copy of Sermons preached in the Parish-Church of Olney, ... By John
Newton, Curate of the said Parish ... 1767.
A good crestplate is “John Savill Vaisey”’s, presumably of the race of
the Viscounts de Vesci. The crest is a hand-in-armour, holding a laurel
branch, all proper. Over the crest is the motto, “sub hoc signo vinces.”
“Brownlow William Knox”’s bookplate is simply the Knox crest, a falcon
close on a perch, all proper. It is in a copy of that work, which is so
curious to study now, “Catalogue of five hundred celebrated authors of
great Britain, now living; ... London 1788.”
“Burns, Robert. A ploughman in the county of Ayr in the kingdom of
Scotland.” A good simple plate, merely a crest, below that a motto, and
then at the foot of all, the name,--is the _ex libris_ of “William J E
Bennett.” The crest is in a mural crown, or, a lion’s head, gules. The
motto is “de bon vouloir servir le roy.”
There was a nice bookplate in the volumes of the first work which I ever
bought. _Don Esteban_ was the title, and the date 1825. I was thirteen
years old, and bought this in an auction in Mr. A. H. Beesley’s, House
Class-room, in that fine old home of the Seymours, then and now a part
of Marlborough College. The _ex libris_ is a simple name, crest, and
motto: “Champion,” a family belonging to Berkshire and Essex. The crest
is an arm embowed and erect, in armour proper, garnished or, holding in
the gauntlet a chaplet of laurel, vert. Motto: “Vincit veritas.”
Marlborough, with the glorious beech avenues of Savernake Forest, is the
home of the Ailesburys, and in this connection the family bookplate
should always be remembered, with its pathetic motto at the foot of it.
They are Bruces, and the motto is “Fuimus.”
One day the then Marquis, alighting from his carriage and pointing to
the motto beneath the arms, asked a small boy to translate it.
“Fui, I was; mus, a mouse,” was the ready reply.
No Bruce of old could have behaved more honourably than the Marquis of
those days, for when some boys had worried some of the deer, and Bradley
said that he was afraid he would have to put the forest out of bounds,
the Marquis replied: “No; Savernake Forest shall always be free to every
boy of Marlborough College.”
A modern neat _ex libris_, with only the two family crests and mottoes,
is that of the late Sir “Wroth Acland Lethbridge,” Baronet. The
baronetcy was created in 1804. The crests are: First, out of a mural
crown, or, a demi-eagle displayed proper; and second, out of a ducal
coronet, two arms in armour, holding a leopard’s face. Mottoes: “Truth”
and “Spes mea in Deo.” The owner of this plate was born in 1831, and,
after serving in the Rifle Brigade, succeeded his father as fourth
baronet on 1st March, 1873.
A pretty crestplate of perhaps about 1770 is the _ex libris_ of “Thoˢ Wᵐ
Plummer.” The crest is a bird’s head, and the bird seems very properly
to be about to devour a plum. The crest is framed by two branches,
presumably of plum trees.
CHAPTER IX
MODERN BOOKPLATES
Remarks on examples given in _The Studio_, special winter number,
1898-9.
Modern bookplates are not easy to discuss satisfactorily. The following
are some of the plates which were named or illustrated in _The Studio_
special winter number, 1898-9, which went out of print at once. Mr.
Gleeson White, who was by no means blind to the failings of up-to-date
_ex libris_, wrote this, and gave with it the large number of one
hundred and forty-nine illustrations.
On page 3 is given the _ex libris_, “T. Edmund Harvey,” a gruesome
jumble of sticks and bones. This plate is by Cyril Goldie. In any
comments now written no injurious reflections are intended; as, for one
thing, it is impracticable, and probably undesirable, to know whether,
and in what proportions, owner, artist, or manufacturer, are
responsible. Besides these three, there is a fourth and
oft-predominating partner to be considered, namely, fashion. Probably
the only value of the impressions here written is that they are formed
by one who is an entirely independent critic and a true lover of
beautiful _ex libris_. The phrases of professionals will not therefore
be expected.
On page 4 is given the _ex libris_ “Eduard John Margetson,” by W. H.
Margetson. This plate seems simple and pleasing enough. On the other
hand, it is not exhilarating to find in this evidently very fair sample
volume no less than twenty-seven bookplates, each depicting a female and
a book.
On page 5 the _ex libris_ “Richard Trappes Lomax,” by Paul Woodroffe, is
very refreshing to look upon. It has all the familiar points of a
bookplate, in that it is armorial, with mantling, and flowery foliage.
At the same time the plate is not common, crowded, or eccentric. Now, on
the other hand, turn to page 7, where is a plate “From among the books
of Fred. W. Brown.” In this there is doubtless some good work, but in
looking at the plate the eye and brain at once feel tired and
bewildered; you seem to long to turn from a crowded hotch-potch, if
only, it might be, to stare for a while at a blank barn door.
On page 9 are three plates by W. R. Weyer. These are distinctly good to
look at; there seems a wholesome taste about them; there is plenty of
decoration, without any attempt to crowd a volume of emblems and a
market-gardener’s flower-show into two inches by one and a half. In each
the owner’s name is clearly given, and, of course, no bookplate ought to
want this. In addition, two are dated--that of Richard Chapman, 1892,
and Reginald Balfour’s, 1898.
On page 12 is a distinctly satisfactory modern plate. It is a
portrait-plate, and is by J. W. Simpson, for himself. He has depicted
himself enjoying a long clay pipe. Beneath is the simple record in the
plainest of letters: “J. W. Simpson His Book.”
On page 14 are the presumably portrait-plates of “Mary A. Bridger” and
“Julia Eustace,” both by M. E. Thompson. These may be pretty, but seem,
as in so many modern bookplates, to lack simplicity.
On the next page is a portrait-plate, “Edith E. Waterlow,” by J. Walter
West. This, although the portrait is only a face in an oval, and outside
the constant florist’s paraphernalia, still the plate has some saving
simplicity.
On page 16 is what seems a sensible bookplate. It is by E. H. New, for
Edward Morton, and seems to give simply a view of Edward Morton’s home,
a modern house built in old style, and named Kingsclere.
On page 48 is shown a plate to which we would gladly give the palm for
ugliness. We suppose it is meant for a bookplate, as it is given in this
volume, and the words _ex libris_ are distinguishable through the gloom.
On page 49 is a plate, Aubrey Beardsley, inscribed _ex libris_ “Olive
Custance.” It is not much to be admired.
On pages 50 and 51, where we are among the French _ex libris_, may be
seen at one glance some half-dozen plates, which all happen to
illustrate what is a marked eyesore in many bookplates, but has not been
seriously noticed. A bookplate is naturally designed for use in a book.
Now, with books should always be associated the idea of something to be
valued and taken care of. How does this agree with the plates here
shown? I think that symbolism should avoid this disturbing element.
There is water to drown the precious volumes, and there are beasts to
devour them. In one a poor disconsolate-looking tome is shown trying to
float on the dark cold waters of the deep, and as if that were not a
sufficiently uncomfortable position for a book, a bird seems to be
flying down, with open beak, to have a peck at it. In another cheerful
composition, an angry tiger is in charge of the library of precious
volumes, and has the talons of one paw on a beautiful binding, while it
sticks the talons of its other paw into the leaves of an open volume.
In a third plate, a wolf is in a library, and, of course, behaving there
as a wolf would. In yet another plate, a wolf is playing with a fine
folio, and forming altogether as incongruous a picture as a bull in a
china shop.
On page 54 is reproduced a plate, by Léon Lebègue. This may be, in
disguise, a lovely creation of modern art; but the ordinary observer
would take it to be a muddled map of everything or nothing, and would
not paste it inside the cover of any book he or she hoped ever to open
again.
As another painful instance of bookplates exhibiting books in the very
last position anyone would care to see them in, on page 56, is shown a
book being drowned in a pond. This is by Bracquemond.
From page 58 to page 60 some American _ex libris_ are pourtrayed. Among
these generally there is, as should be where books are thought of, a
feeling of rest and refinement.
Between pages 61 and 68 are given a number of plates of modern German
_ex libris_, thanks, as we are reminded, to the inspiriting influence of
Warnecke, Leiningen-Westerburg, Doepler, and Hildebrandt. Germany, and
to some extent Austria, too, have produced some very original and
interesting bookplates within the last few years.
Illustrated on pages 61 and 65 are two plates which should surely come
under the category of the error of associating books with incongruous
surroundings. In the one, by Doepler for the Bibliothek des Koeniglichen
Kunstgewerbe Museums, Berlin, the centre represents an open book--that
would be well enough; but the leading feature of the plate is a great,
rough, brawny hand holding a big hammer and pressing on the open volume.
In the plate on page 65, by Sattler, the design pictures a human
skeleton bearing a pile of books.
Between pages 64 and 65 is a leaf bearing three pleasing plates, by Paul
Voigt. One of the three is apparently for his own books. It depicts a
room with, of course, some very old books, and the most prominent is in
a position which would break the back of a modern book; but not much
fault need be found. In those good times books were not bound in a day
or for a day. The hides were well chosen, well seasoned, and good
workmanship was put into the binding.
Facing Paul Voigt’s own plate is a good plate by him for W. L. Busse.
This has a fine smell of the sea about it. Tossing in the frothy deep is
an ancient ship, which but for masts and sails might be a nautilus
shell. Below is a rugged anchor, and around all a stout cable serves to
frame a pleasing picture.
On page 68 is a cleverly designed plate by Joseph Sattler. There is an
altogether pleasing absence of misty, mystic, mythological allusions and
complications. On the other hand, an hour-glass indicates the sands of
time, and the simple word “Jetzt” (now) points a simple moral,
irresistibly apt for the book-lover. There is no pursuit of which it can
be more truly said--that he (the book-collector) who hesitates is lost.
CHAPTER X
VARIOUS BRITISH BOOKPLATES
The proper place for a bookplate is in a book--Gordon of
Buthlaw--Spencer Perceval--William Wilberforce--A bookplate for a
special purpose--George Ormerod--Robert Surtees--Cathedral plates.
In the pages here following are recorded many British bookplates, none
of them very early; but they are referred to here, as, after all, this
book must chiefly appeal to readers in our own tongue.
If in this and other parts of this book the writer be thought to mention
too much of books and owners, it must be borne in mind that to the
writer a bookplate is first of interest as connected with a book, and a
book is of interest for its subject and its owner’s identity.
Gordon of Buthlaw. In the _General Armoury_ Gordon of Lessmoir,
Aberdeenshire, is described as descended from William, second son of
John Gordon of Scudargue, Baronet, 1625, and title dormant since 1839.
The arms
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
are given as azure, a fess chequy argent and of the first, between three
boars’ heads erased or. Then the Gordon of Buthlaw arms are
distinguished from Lessmoir, with a mullet argent in chief for
difference. Crest a Doric pillar or. Motto: “In recto decus.” This old
bookplate here given is in a lately unearthed contemporary manuscript,
headed: “Observations upon the arise and progresse of the late
Rebellions against King Charles the first: In so far as they were
carried on by a male contented party in Scotland, under the pretext of
Reformation.” This is really the Memoirs of Henry Guthry, Bishop of
Dunkeld, and differs in some points from the printed version. On the
first leaf, down the margin, is written “Joannis Gordonii Buthlæi 1761.”
The Perceval arms, given by Burke, are argent on a chief indented gules,
three crosses pattée of the field. Crest a thistle erect, leaved proper.
The Wilson arms are sable, a wolf salient or; in chief three estoiles of
the last.
Spencer Perceval, born in Audley Square, London, in 1762, was the second
son of the second Earl of Egmont. At only ten years old he was sent to
Harrow School, and then to Trinity College, Cambridge, where in
December, 1781, he graduated M.A. In 1790 he married Jane, second
daughter of Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, and then had six sons and six
daughters. Mr. Spencer Walpole, son of the fourth daughter, wrote, in
1874, a full biography of Spencer Perceval. When first married Spencer
Perceval and his wife lived in lodgings in Bedford Row; but in about
1793 they bought a good house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and it is just a
little curious that I bought this book, with his bookplate in it, but a
few yards from Lincoln’s Inn Fields close on thirty years ago. Spencer
Perceval, England’s Prime Minister during the Peninsuula War, was shot
dead as he passed through the lobby to the House of Commons on May 11th,
1812, and Bellingham, his assassin, was hanged a week afterwards.
The _ex libris_ here reproduced looked at first a puzzle; but Mr.
Procter, at the British Museum, soon read the riddle. He made it an Earl
of Guildford, and then it was very easy sailing for me to come to anchor
at Frederick North, fifth Earl of Guildford, born 7th February, 1766,
Chancellor of the University of the Ionian Islands, and Knight Grand
Cross of the Ionian Order. There is a good account
[Illustration: THE EARL OF GUILDFORD]
of him by J. M. Rigg in the _D. N. B._ At Oxford he became an
accomplished Grecian, and an enthusiastic Philhellene. In 1791, on the
conclusion of the peace of Galatz, he evinced his accomplishment in
classical Greek by a scholarly and spirited Pindaric ode in honour of
the Empress Catherine.
In 1814 he was elected the first president of a society for the
promotion of culture, founded at Athens. Later he was active in the
formation of the British Protectorate over the Ionian Islands, in the
scheme to form an Ionian University. In 1824 the University, with him as
Chancellor, was established in Corfu. He lived there, spending money on
the University, and giving valuable printed books, manuscripts, and
other treasures to it.
In 1827 his state of health caused his recall to England. As a child he
had been exceedingly delicate. In England he still wore constantly the
classical costume, which had been adopted as the academic dress. He died
on October 14th, 1827. “He was a brilliant conversationalist, and ...
wrote and spoke German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Romaic with ease;
he read Russian, and throughout life maintained his familiarity with the
classics unimpaired.”
The next surname we come to in bookplates has been most familiar to the
present and immediate past generation, in the person of Samuel
Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford. These few following remarks are from
private recollections. In the power of getting through a day of hard
labour, of mind and body, he was unequalled, and to the end of the hard
day’s work, with similar laborious days preceding and following, he
could display a marvellously ready wit. One evening at a dinner-party at
Cuddesdon Palace, the two lady guests on each side of the Bishop were
suddenly startled by the crashing fall of a pile of plates. The Bishop,
utterly unmoved, instantly remarked, “Oh, it’s nothing; it’s only the
coachman going out with the brake.” It was the coachman, and the brake
was the vehicle in frequent use. He would do some hours’ work no doubt
after his guests had retired, and do some good work before breakfast the
next morning. At Bisham Abbey, meeting at dinner two irrepressible
spinsters who would argue of ages, he drily remarked, as if addressing
the moon, the extraordinary fact in nature, that ladies’ ages always ran
thus: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 18,
18, 18, 18, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 23, 23, 23, 23, 23, and so on.
The bookplate of William Wilberforce is
[Illustration]
from a fine large volume all in manuscript, giving a very full account
of the Yorkshire election contest, the poll opening on 20th May, 1807,
and only finally closing on the 5th June. This volume belongs to Mr.
Edward Feetham Coates, as does also an exquisite volume in pen-and-ink,
the work of the late Dr. Howard, who has taken Glover’s visitation of
Yorkshire, from MSS. Harl., No. 1,394, and besides drawing the arms most
exquisitely, and “Wilberforse” among the rest, has given most ample
pedigrees and an index. Dr. Howard gives the field argent and the eagle
sable; but otherwise Old Guillim’s account of Cotton would nearly hold
good:--
“The field is sapphire, an eagle displaied; Pearle, Membred Gules. These
armes appertaine to the Right worthy Sir Robert Cotten, of Connington,
Knight, a learned Antiquary, and a singular fauorer and preseruer of all
good learning and antique monuments. The eagle ... continually
practiseth that course of life whereunto nature hath ordained her: ...
her sharpnesse and strength of sight is much commended; and it is a
greater honour to one of noble offspring to be wise and of sharpe and
deepe understanding, then to be rich or powerfull, or great by birth.”
William Wilberforce, the owner of this plate, was born in the High
Street, Hull, on the 24th August, 1759, and came of a family settled at
Wilberfoss, eight miles from York, for many centuries. The election
which this volume above-named commemorates was very remarkable.
Wilberforce had a few months earlier had the satisfaction of seeing his
Bill for the abolition of the slave trade finally passed into law. Lord
Milton and Mr. Lascelles, who had been Wilberforce’s colleagues from
1796 to 1806, opposed him. A subscription of £64,455 was voluntarily
raised to pay his expenses. At the end of fifteen days he had scored
11,806 votes against his opponents’ 11,177 and 10,989. The story of Miss
Wilberforce recognised driving through York at election time is too
redolent of Wilberforce’s ready humour and Yorkshire heartiness to be
forgotten. The crowd welcomed her with the cry: “Miss Wilberforce for
ever!” She rejoined: “Not _Miss_ Wilberforce for ever, thank you!”
A fine plate is the circular armorial _ex libris_ of “Charles, Marquis
of Northampton.” The owner of this plate came of a noble house, worthy,
indeed, of a fine bookplate. A few notes about his forefathers may be
recorded.
Edmund de Compton’s son, Sir William Compton, Knight, was employed about
the household of bluff Harry the Eighth when Duke of York, and thus
winning his confidence, became the king’s companion in tournaments. Sir
William held high offices under the king, and fought with great bravery
in the Battle of Spurs. He died in 1528, leaving one son to succeed him,
who again left a son, Sir Henry Compton, Knight, who, in 1572, was
summoned to Parliament as Baron Compton of Compton. He married first a
daughter of the Earl of Huntingdon, and secondly a daughter of Sir John
Spencer of Althorp. By his first wife he left a son, William, who
inherited the title, and was in 1618 created Earl of Northampton and
installed Knight of the Garter. A letter bearing date 2nd July, 1630,
tells of his death: “Yesterday se’nnight the Earl of Northampton, lord
president of Wales, after he had waited on the king at supper and had
also supped, went into a boat, with others, to wash himself in the
Thames; and so soon as his legs were in the water but to his knees, he
had the colic, and cried out--Have me into the boat again, for I am a
dead man.” His son, Spencer Compton, the second Earl of Northampton,
risked and gave all for his sovereign’s cause. On March 19th, 1643, he
marched his men out of Stafford and fought the Parliament forces on
Hopton Heath. Although he had so few troops he routed the enemy’s
cavalry and took from them eight guns; but their infantry stood firm,
and finally he was himself killed, proudly refusing to surrender to base
rogues and rebels. He left three sons to nobly emulate, as brave
cavaliers, their father’s loyalty and valour. The second of them was at
Edgehill and Hopton Heath; and later, after engaging in many fights, he,
disguised and with only six men, surprised Beeston Castle in Cheshire,
cut down the drawbridge, seized the governor’s troop-horse, and took
thirty soldiers prisoners in their beds.
There is also a Northampton monogram bookplate. Above is an earl’s
coronet, and below a vast “N,” with the name “Castle Ashby” engraved
across it. In 1695 King William III. visited the Earl of Northampton at
Castle Ashby.
The following is an instance of a bookplate printed for a special
purpose. The block measures about five inches by two and a quarter, and
represents an ornamental frame enclosing the following printed
inscription:--
“Daily take Care to spend your Time and Breath
In right preparing for the Hour of Death.
So wish’d your deceas’d Friend,
S. MOORE.”
It suits the size of the book into which it is pasted in its proper
place inside the front cover. On the last page of the book is printed a
list of “Some Books proper to be given at Funerals,” and lower down the
page, as a good catalogue note: “We may say of a Book, given at
Funerals, what the Divine Herbert says of a Verse. A Book may find him
who a Sermon flies, and turn a Gift into a Sacrifice.”
The leaf before the title-leaf is engraved with the tomb of the author:
“Edward Pearse, a servant of Jesus Christ. Obiit 1673: Ætat 40.” The
title reads: “The Great Concern: or, a Serious Warning to a timely and
Thorough Preparation for Death with Helps and Directions in Order
thereunto. By Edward Pearse. John ix. 4.... Recommended as proper to be
Given at Funerals. The twenty-eight Edition. London: Printed for R.
Robinson, at the Golden Lion in St. Paul’s-Churchyard. 1735.”
The author, a Nonconformist Divine, matriculated as a servitor from St.
John’s College, Oxford, in 1652, and graduated B.A. on 27th June, 1654.
In June, 1657, he was appointed Morning Preacher at St. Margaret’s,
Westminster. _The Great Concern_ was reprinted as lately as 1840.
A good characteristic English, or shall we say Welsh, plate is that of
“Morgan Thomas,” “Palmer sculpsit,” with a floral-wreath decoration. The
arms were granted 8th September, 1768, to Thomas of Lettymaur, in
Carmarthenshire. Rees Thomas of Lettymaur died in 1759, leaving three
sons, one of whom was Morgan Thomas of Llanon, in the parish of
Lettymaur. He, in 1768, married Frances, the only child of Henry Goring,
of Frodley Hall, Staffordshire. Their grandson was Rees Goring Thomas of
Llanon, and of Tooting, Surrey, who was High Sheriff of Carmarthenshire
in 1830. This family, besides having a wreath in their crest and flowers
round their shield, perhaps had fine tastes, as the book in which I have
this Morgan Thomas plate is a very beautiful piece of English dated
binding. It is a 1660--Henry Hills and John Field--Bible, bound in black
morocco, beautifully blindtooled in Mearne style, and with initials “M.
M.” and date “1673” in the middle of each cover. The four outside
corners of the binding are covered
[Illustration]
with silver on which are engraved flowers similar to those designed on
the leather.
The bookplate over the inscription--“The Revᵈ John Constable,
Ringmer”--is simply a ship in full sail, and this is the crest of one of
the families of Constable. This plate is in a copy of Parson’s--_His
Christian Directory_, London, 1754. The volume also contains the
autograph “William Constable.” It so happens that another crest borne by
the Constables was a dragon’s head, and this may be seen on the
bookplate of William Constable, F.R.S. and F.S.A., pasted into an old
volume of manuscript escheats and inquiries in the county of York, which
belongs to Mr. E. F. Coates, and is probably one of the Dodsworth
volumes, which posterity owes to the thoughtfulness of the great Lord
Fairfax, who, when war was raging and devastation threatening, had
copies made of many old manuscripts for fear that the originals might be
lost.
It always adds to the interest when there is the owner’s signature to
his own bookplate. This is the case with a volume of a small
topographical work. The bookplate represents the arms and crest of the
famous clan Macintosh, with “C. C. M.” below, probably standing for
Charles Calder Macintosh. The owner and donor has made it read, “From
C. C. Macintosh to Charles Forbes. Bombay, 17th April, 1811.” This
would, of course, be Sir Charles Forbes, of Indian fame.
The arms of the ancient clan Macintosh are: Quarterly, first, or, a lion
rampant gules; second, argent, a dexter hand fesseways, couped at the
wrist, and holding a human heart gules; third, azure, a boar’s head
couped, or; fourth, or, a lymphad sable, surmounted by two oars in
saltire, gules. Crest a cat-a-mountain salient guardant proper. Over the
crest the motto: “Touch not the cat, but a glove.” The charge or, a lion
rampant gules, is on account of the descent from MacDuff. The third,
azure, a boar’s head couped, or, is for Gordon of Lochinvar. The fourth,
a lymphad, oars erect in saltire, sable, is for Clan Chattan. The lion
rampant of the ancient MacDuffs may be well accounted for, as King
Malcolm III. gave to MacDuff and his descendants the privileges of
leading the van of the Scottish army whenever the royal standard was
unfurled, and of placing the crown on the heads of the kings at their
coronation.
George Ormerod, well known as the historian of Cheshire, was the only
son of George Ormerod of Bury, Lancashire, and his wife
[Illustration]
Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Johnson of Tyldesley, and was born in High
Street, Manchester, 20th October, 1785.
In 1803 Ormerod matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford. In 1807 he
received the honorary degree of M.A., and in 1818 was made a D.C.L.
Becoming the owner of Sedbury Park on the beautiful peninsula of
Beachley, between the Severn and the Wye, he lived there until his death
in 1873, nearly ninety years of age. In 1808 he married the eldest
daughter of John Latham, M.D., F.R.S., of Bradwall Hall, Cheshire. His
library was sold in 1875.
Arms as Ormerod of Ormerod (or three bars and a lion passant, in chief
gules), quartering Johnson of Tyldesley, Wareing of Walmersley, Crompton
of Hacking Hall, and Nuttall of Walmersley. Crest a wolf’s head couped
at the neck, barry of four, or and gules, holding in the mouth an
ostrich’s feather erect proper. This plate is in a book, the fine black
morocco gilt binding of which was reproduced by Griggs for the
Bibliography of _Eikon Basilike_.
In May, 1893, Sothebys sold the Bateman Heirlooms, the valuable library
of Printed Books and Manuscripts formed by the late Mr. W. Bateman, and
Mr. T. Bateman, of Lomberdale House, Youlgrave, Derbyshire. The books
had been well cared for, and sometimes annotated and extra illustrated.
Such was the case with the copy of _Reliquiæ Sacræ_, 1651, with armorial
bookpile bookplate: “Wm. Bateman, F.A.S., of Middleton by Yolgrave in
the County of Derby.”
Another plate is armorial. Burke gives the arms as or, three crescents,
within the horns of each an estoile gules. Crest a crescent and estoile,
as in the arms, between two eagles’ wings or. Motto: “Sidus ad sit
amicum.”
William Bateman, of Middleton-by-Youlgrave, married Mary, daughter of
James Crompton of Brightmet, Lancashire. He died on 28th August, 1861,
at Lomberdale House, near Bakewell. William Bateman’s father and
grandfather had both done much towards founding the family library and
museum.
A fine plate here illustrated is that of the Duke of Beaufort, from a
fine copy of the first edition of _Eikon Basilike_.
Mr. H. B. Wheatley, of Pepys fame, has kindly written me the following
notes regarding Conduitt bookplate:--
John Conduitt was born in the year of the Revolution, and was at
Westminster School in 1701, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, in
[Illustration: THE DUKE OF BEAUFORT]
[Illustration]
1705. He was M.P. for Whitchurch 1715-34, after which he was elected for
Southampton. He was Master of the Mint 1727-37. He succeeded Sir Isaac
Newton, but previously to the death of Newton he relieved him of his
most onerous duties for some years. He married Mrs. Catherine Barton,
Newton’s niece, on 20th August, 1717.
“His only daughter married Viscount Lymington, son of the first Earl of
Portsmouth, which accounts for the fact that Newton’s MSS., etc., are in
the possession of the Portsmouth family; also the magnificent portrait
of Newton by Kneller.
“Conduitt wrote, in 1730, _Observations on the Present State of our Gold
and Silver Coins_, which came into the possession of Dean Swift, and
after remaining many years in MS. was published in 1774. Jevons praised
the work very highly.
“Conduitt was buried in Westminster Abbey, close by Newton’s grave.
“There is a scandal connected with Mrs. Catherine Barton which
biographers of Newton have generally agreed to ignore. She is known to
have kept house for Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax (who died in May,
1715), and is generally spoken of as his mistress by the gossips of the
day. Augustus de Morgan wrote a book on the subject, which was published
after his death, and entitled, _Newton, his Friend, and his Niece_.
1885. In this De Morgan argued for the opinion which he had formed that
Lord Halifax (who died May, 1715) married Mrs. Barton privately about
April, 1706. He made out a fair case, but he could obtain no actual
evidence, and when Mrs. Barton married Conduitt she was described as a
spinster.”
Of his own bookplate, here reproduced, Mr. Henry B. Wheatley, F.S.A.,
kindly writes to me:--
“I gave Hamilton an account of its origin, which he printed in the
little book on members of the Society of Odd Volumes. The room
represented was on the back first floor of the house in Caroline Street,
Bedford Square, which had been built out for John Philip Kemble to
accommodate his fine collection of plays, now in the library of the Duke
of Devonshire. I used the room as my library during the six years I
lived in the house, and a very pleasant room it was, looking out upon
trees which occupied an open space between Caroline and Charlotte
Streets. It, with other houses, was pulled down soon after I left in
1889, and the
[Illustration]
[Illustration: JAMES RAINE]
Bedford Mansions have been built on the site. Kemble lived in the house
from 1787 (when he married) to 1799, when he removed to a larger house
in Great Russell Street.”
A good plate is the _ex libris_ of Robert Surtees of Mainsforth, the
well-known antiquary and topographer. It was drawn by himself, and
engraved by Samuel John Neele, who was born in 1758 and died in 1824.
Surtees was born in the South Bailey of the ancient city of Durham in
1779. On 28th October, 1796, he matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford,
and took his M.A. in 1803. His father had just died, so he now settled
at Mainsforth, the family home. As an undergraduate at Oxford he was
already planning to record the history of his native shire.
Settled at Mainsforth, he used to drive about the county with a groom;
and his friend and kindred spirit, James Raine, whose plate I give from
a book kindly lent me by the Rev. Prebendary Deedes, has recorded the
groom’s testimony that it was “weary work, for Master always stopped the
gig, and we never could get past an auld beelding.” Surtees suffered
from constant ill-health, but his house was always open to scholars and
antiquaries. He died at Mainsforth on February 11th, 1834.
This plate is in a volume of two tracts--one about Marston Moor, 1650.
On the inside of the end cover is a plate in the Bewick style: “T. Bell,
1797,” and the autograph facsimile “Thomas Bell.” This is no doubt the
bookplate of Thomas Bell, the antiquary, born at Newcastle-on-Tyne in
1785. He died in his native place in 1860, and his library, rich in
antiquarian lore, printed and in manuscript, was sold there after his
death.
An armorial plate of the palm-branch manner is that of “Thomas Langton”
in a book of sermons by Richard Hurd, D.D., 1788. As given by Burke, the
crest is an eagle displayed with two heads, vert, charged on the breast
with a trefoil, or. The motto is “Loyal au mort.”
A curious succession of bookplates connected one with another is shown
in two volumes before me. One work is “_Vindiciæ Pietatis_: ... By R. A.
London: Printed in the year 1663.” The other is a book as far asunder as
the poles. It is catalogued “Des Livres, Estampes & Desseins, du
Cabinet.... Appartenent Au Baron Tessin, Marèchal de la Cour du Roy &
sur-intendent de Batiments & Jardins Royaux de Suede.... Stockholm,
1712.”
The first volume has three bookplates, all armorial. First, the plate
of Sir William Lee, Knight, with the motto “verum atque decens.”
“Mutlow, sculp., York Street, Covent Garden.” Then a smaller and
different plate, but by the same engraver, and with the same arms,
crest, and motto, but pertaining to “William Lee Antonie, Esqʳ.” After
this, again, comes the third _ex libris_ in the book, and this is
without name engraving, but is evidently Lee quartering Fiott.
John Fiott, a London merchant who died at Bath in 1797, married Harriet,
second daughter of William Lee, of Totteridge Park, Hertfordshire. Their
son John, fifth wrangler at St. John’s College, Cambridge, in 1805, and
LL.D. in 1816, assumed, in 1815, by royal licence, the name of Lee under
the will of William Lee Antonie, of Colworth House, Bedfordshire, his
maternal uncle. At the same time he acquired the estates of Colworth in
Bedfordshire, and Totteridge Park, Hertfordshire. He lived eighty-four
years, and in 1863, at the age of eighty, he was admitted a barrister of
Gray’s Inn. Between 1807 and 1810 he held a travelling bachelorship from
Cambridge, and made a learned tour through the Ionian Isles and other
parts. In 1828 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries,
and he left valuable collections to the Society. He was even more
interested in science than in antiquities, and in 1830 built an
observatory in the south portico of Hartwell House. Leaving no children,
his property passed to his brother, the Rev. Nicholas Fiott, who took
the surname of Lee. The Lee crest is a bear with a chain.
Guillim has recorded: “Hee beareth Sable, a Beare passant, Argent....
The Shee Beare is most cruelly imaged against any that shall hurt her
yong, or dispoile her of them: as the Scripture saith, in setting forth
the fierce anger of the Lord, that he will meete his aduersaries, as a
Beare robbed of her whelps. Which teacheth vs how carefull Nature would
haue vs to bee of the welfare of our children, sith so cruell beasts are
so tender harted in this kind.”
“Vindiciæ Pietatis: ... By R. A. London: Printed in the year, 1663.” The
author of this precious volume was Richard Alleine, born in 1611 at
Ditcheat, in Somersetshire. In 1641 he became Rector of Batcombe in the
same county. The _Dictionary of National Biography_ is for once induced
to warmly clothe the dry skeleton, with which it has usually tried to
make us content. “For twenty years Alleine
[Illustration]
remained at Batcombe, and was idolized by his parishioners.... Vindiciæ
Pietatis ... refused license by Sheldon ... was published without ...
was rapidly bought up and did much to mend this bad world. Roger Norton,
the royal printer, caused a large portion of the first edition to be
seized on the ground of its not being licensed, and to be sent to the
royal kitchen. But, glancing over its pages, he was arrested by what he
read, and on second thoughts it seemed to him a sin that a book so holy
and so saleable should be killed. He therefore bought back the sheets,
says Calamy, for an old song, bound them, and sold them in his own
shop.”
The closing lines of _Vindiciæ Pietatis_ are: “But by the grace of God,
whilst God is a God of holinesse, whilst holinesse is the Image and
Interest of God, whilst these words of the Lord, Be ye holy, follow
holinesse, live righteously, soberly, and godly in this present world,
whilst these and the like words of the Lord, stand unrepeal’d, by the
Grace of God, I will be a Friend, an Advocate, a Confessor, a
Practitioner of Holinesse to the end of my days. This is my resolution,
and in this resolution I commit myself to God, and so come on me what
will.”
So much for the first book of the two. The second--Baron Tessin’s
_Catalogue_--has two _ex libris_. The first is that of John Fiott before
he took the name of Lee. It is the plate of “John Fiott, B.A. / St.
John’s College, Cambridge, / 1806 /.” The plate shows a globe floating
in the air, with the Fiott arms engraved on it, and the crest, a horse
coupé, over it. Of course, as a wrangler he could not help being an
astronomer; but this indicates his early taste for studying the heavens.
Of this crest Guillim tells us:--
“A horse erected boult vpright may bee termed enraged, but his noblest
action is expressed in a saliant forme. This of all beasts for mans
vses, is the most noble and behoofefull either in Peace or Warre. And
sith his service and courage in the Field is so eminent, it may bee
maruelled why the Lion should be esteemed a more honourable bearing. But
the reason is because the horse’s seruice and strength is principally by
helpe of his Rider, whereas the Lion’s is his owne: and if the Horse be
not mounted, he fights auerse turning his heeles to his aduersary, but
the Lion encounters affront, which is more manly.”
The Duke of Sussex used two plates amongst
[Illustration: THE DUKE OF SUSSEX]
his books in Kensington Palace, one “Perkins and Heath. Patent Hardened
steel plate.” The main feature of this plate is a Knight of the Garter’s
chain forming a circle enclosing a lion on a coronet at the base of the
plate, a helmet on one side, and an owl on the other. The other plate is
here reproduced.
A pretty armorial plate of about this time, the shield resting on
flowers, and a palm branch at each side, is the _ex libris_ of “Charles
Gordon Esqʳ of Beldorny and Wardhouse.” Below the shield is engraved a
ribbon, but without any inscription. The motto--“in hoc spes mea”--is
fittingly over the crest, which is described as a cross crosslet
fitchée. The arms of Gordon of Beldorny are quarterly, first and fourth,
azure, a lion rampant argent between three boars’ heads erased of the
second; second and third, azure, three boars’ heads within a bordure
engrailed argent.
Now for old Scotland--“Fraser of Ledeclune”; this is a splendid modern
_ex libris_. This plate is worthily found in a fine, large-paper copy of
“poems by goldsmith and parnell. london: printed by W. Bulmer and co.
Shakspeare Printing Office, cleveland row. 1795”. “To raise the art of
Printing in this country from the neglected state ... to combine the
various beauties of Printing, Type-founding, Engraving, and
Paper-making; as well with a view to ascertain the near approach to
perfection which those arts have attained in this country, as to invite
a fair competition with the best Typographical Productions of other
nations.... The whole of the Types, ... are executed by Mr. William
Martin, in the house of my friend Mr. George Nicol, whose unceasing
endeavours to improve the art of Printing &c.... The ornaments are all
engraved on blocks of wood, by two of my earliest acquaintances, Messrs.
Bewicks, of Newcastle upon Tyne and London, ... I may venture to say,
without being supposed to be influenced by ancient friendship, that they
form the most extraordinary effort of the art of engraving upon wood,
that ever was produced in any age, or any country....” Of the paper it
is only necessary to say that it comes from the manufactory of Mr.
Whatman.
* * * * *
Burke’s _General Armoury_ gives:--
“Quarterly, first and fourth, azure, a bend engrailed between three
cinquefoils (or frasiers), argent, a canton gyronny of eight or and
sable; second and third, argent, three antique crowns gules (the latter
quartering was given
[Illustration]
to Sir Simon Frazer for having thrice saved the life of Robert Bruce at
the battle of Methven). Crest a buck’s head, erased gules. Supporters,
two stags proper, attired and unguled or, collared azure, pendent
therefrom an escutcheon gyronny of eight gold-and-sable, each resting
one foot on an anchor of the last. Motto: ‘Je suis prêt.’ The branches
of yew in the bookplate are the ancient badge of the clan Fraser. This
book has been beautifully bound, evidently by Kalthoeber.”
“The Honourable Archibald Campbell Esqʳ. 1708” is engraved at the base
of an armorial plate, with mantling, and lions for supporters. This is
the plate of Archibald Campbell, second son of Lord Niel Campbell, who
was second son of Archibald, Marquis of Argyll. The owner of this plate
had a remarkable life. First, he is said to have taken part in the
rebellion headed by his uncle, the ninth Earl of Argyll, in 1685, and
then to have made his escape to Surinam.
That fine old Tory, Dr. Samuel Johnson, says of him, that after his
youthful whiggish days “he kept better company and became a violent
tory.” On the 25th of August, 1711, he was consecrated a bishop at
Dundee by Bishops Rose, Douglas, and Falconer. He died in London in
1744. This plate is in his interleaved and copiously annotated copy of
the New Testament in Latin: “Theodore Beza’s, Londini excudebat Thomas
Vautrollerius, Typographus, 1581.” It belongs to Mr. E. F. Coates.
The nice plate of “Campbell of Shawfield” gives a shield-of-arms, not
just corresponding with Burke’s _General Armoury_, which records:
Gyronny of eight or and sable, within a bordure of the first, charged
with as many crescents of the second. Crest a griffin erect, holding the
Sun between the forepaws. Motto: “Fidus amicis.”
Campbell of Shawfield might be dubbed doubly Campbell, as being a time
back represented by Walter Frederick Campbell, of Islay and Shamfuld,
son of Colonel John Campbell and his wife Charlotte, youngest daughter
of John, Duke of Argyll.
Guillim wrote: “This forme of helmet, placed sidelong and close, doth
Ger Leigh attribute to the dignity of a Knight, but in mine
understanding, it fitteth better the calling of an Esquier ... of these,
each Knight had two to attend him in the warres, withersoeuer he went,
who bare his helmet and shield before him; forasmuch, as they did hold
certaine lands
[Illustration]
of him in scutage, as the Knight did hold of the King by Military
seruice.”
This Campbell of Shawfield plate is in a copy of _The History of the
Siege of Toulon_.... Done from the French Copy, Printed at Paris, and
Dedicated to the French King. London ... at the Raven in Pater Noster
Row. 1708.
“Hudson Gurney” was born in Norwich on the 19th of January, 1775, his
father being Richard Gurney, of Keswick Hall, Norfolk. Hudson Gurney was
indeed a proper man to have a bookplate, and he had several. He gave his
money generously to help the publication of works of antiquarian
interest. From 1822 to 1846 he was a Vice-President of the Society of
Antiquaries. He had a library of from ten to fifteen thousand volumes,
and was not content merely to have his books, but was an ardent reader.
He was also very ready to help others: he was kind, liberal, and
hospitable. He died on the 9th November, 1864. His family, as the
ancient Norman family of De Gournay, owned Keswick Hall and West
Barsham, both in Norfolk, for many centuries. The arms (see Burke):
Argent, a cross engrailed gules. The smaller bookplate, not reproduced
here, represents one crest of the family, namely, on a chapeau gules,
turned-up ermine, a gurnet fish in pale, with the head downwards.
The Hastings bookplate is simply armorial with supporters, and
underneath it the inscription “Hastings.” The barony of Hastings,
created by Edward I. in 1290, having fallen into abeyance, the House of
Lords reported that Henry L’Estrange Styleman Le Strange, Esq., of
Hunstanton, Norfolk, and Sir Jacob Astley, Bart., were co-heirs to the
barony. Whereupon Sir Jacob had the abeyance terminated in his favour,
and was summoned to Parliament by writ in 1841 as Baron Hastings. On his
death, in 1859, he was succeeded by his elder son, Jacob Henry Delaval,
Baron Hastings, who died in 1871, and was succeeded by his brother, the
Vicar of East Barsham, in Norfolk. He died in September, 1872, and was
succeeded in the barony by his eldest son, who, however, dying in 1875,
unmarried, was succeeded by his next brother, George Manners. The arms
are: Quarterly, first, azure a cinquefoil pierced ermine within a
bordure, engrailed, or for Astley; second, argent a lion rampant gules
ducally crowned, or for Constable; third, argent two lions passant,
gules for L’Estrange; fourth, or a maunch, gules for Hastings.
Supporters, on either side a
[Illustration]
[Illustration: CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL]
lion gules, ducally crowned, and gorged with a collar or, therefrom
pendent an escutcheon of the arms of Hastings. The motto is “Justitiæ
tenax.”
Old Guillim illustrated the maunch, and wrote: “The Field is Topaze, a
Maunch Ruby. This Coat armour pertained to the honourable Family of
Hastings, Earles of Pembroke, and is quartered by the right Honourable
Henry Gray, now Earle of Kent. Of things of Antiquity, saith Leigh, that
are growne out of vse, this is one, which hath beene, and is taken for
the sleeue of a garment.”
The view bookplate of the library of the Dean and Chapter of Winchester
is interesting. Beriah Botfield described the library as a long room
over the only remaining portion of the cloisters attached to that noble
building. It is curious to note that this bookplate is in a folio copy
of the _Reliquiæ Sacræ_, or writings of Charles I., and that many of the
chief books in the library were the generous bequest of Bishop Morley,
the friend of Charles I., and who, tradition says, helped the issue of
_Eikon Basilike_. The books are in the old open oak bookcases in which
they stood in the good bishop’s palace of Wolvesey. In the library is in
manuscript “A Catalogue of all the Bookes in his Lordship’s Library,
bequeathed by his Lordship’s Will to the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity
of Winchester; and which the longer his lordship lived, he declared by
his letters should be the more and not the fewer.”
The bookplate in the Bewick style of the “Revᵈ T. Newcome. Brook sculp.
302 Strand.” is in an imperfect volume of an eighteenth-century
duodecimo edition of Samuel Butler’s _Hudibras_.
Of cathedral libraries an interesting bookplate, and lent to me by Mr.
G. F. Barwick, is that of the Dean and Chapter of Chichester. The Rev.
Prebendary Deedes, of Chichester, has very kindly written to me the
following note:--
“This is the earlier of the two bookplates used in the Cathedral
Library. That at present in use, which is substantially the same design,
has no embellishment and is not so well engraved.
“See a paper on ‘The Arms of Chichester Cathedral’ in _Sussex Arch.
Transactions_, vol. xi., with illustrations from seals, now in the
possession of the Bishop or the Dean and Chapter. The design is intended
to represent our Lord as described by St. John the Divine in Revelation
i.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The heralds of the seventeenth century mistook it for ‘Prester John,’
the mythical Emperor of Abyssinia in the Middle Ages, and it is
sometimes so described in Heraldic Manuals. There is a difference of
treatment as to tinctures. The ‘field’ is, I believe, uniformly blue,
the throne gold, the figure usually gold, but occasionally white, which
my friend Dr. Codrington maintains is correct. The earlier seals
generally give a badge of the Holy Trinity, which is the Dedication of
the Cathedral. The motto--‘Liber monumente coram eo’--is the Vulgate
version of part of Malachi iii. 16.”
Of about this date, with a garland surrounding the shield and crest at a
little distance, and two palm branches crossed, is the bookplate of the
“Revᵈ. Manley Wood. Middle Temple.” The family is of North Taunton,
Devon, and the arms, as given by Burke: Sable, three bars or; on a
canton gules, a demi-woodman, holding a club over the dexter shoulder
or. Crest a woodman proper, wreathed about the temples and loins vert,
holding in the dexter hand an olive branch of the last. This bookplate
of a Devon man is in a Devon book, and it is “down along” all over. It
bears the inscription: “W. Beal ex dono authoris. Plymouth.” The book
is “the Plain Truth: ... By John Agate M.A.... Exon: Printed by Jos.
Bliss, and Sold by the Booksellers in Exon MDCCVIII.” I have only quoted
about a twentieth part of the title-page, but must give a scrap or two
from “To the Reader”: “Be it known, that supposing Mr. Wither had not
(as ’tis shamefully notorious he has) first broken the Peace, by drawing
me to the Press, yet his Harangue about Union and Moderation, is all
Banter and Grimace: for how ridiculous is an everlasting Cant and Din
about Peace and Union, from One who, ... if he does not Love, yet
manifestly lives by Divisions!...”
The armorial bookplate with large margin of “The Rᵗ Honᵇˡᵉ The Earl of
Suffolk, is in a splendid folio large-paper copy of The Book of Common
Prayer.... Printed by Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel, printers to the
Universitie of Cambridge. Anno Dom. 1638. The latter half of the volume
is the Whole Book of Psalmes, Collected into English metre, by Th.
Sternhold, John Hopkins, and others, ... with apt notes to sing them
withall:”--the same printer and date. The whole volume being ruled in
red lines in the very effective way used with special copies, and bound
in fine
[Illustration]
old black morocco, gilt extra, evidently by good Thomas Buck of
Cambridge town.
The arms, with an earl’s coronet above, and lions for supporters, are
first, gules, a bend between six cross crosslets, fitchée, argent; on
the bend an escutcheon, or, charged with a demi-lion, rampant, pierced
through the mouth with an arrow, within a double tressure, flory-counter
flory, gules, for Howard; second, gules, three lions passant-guardant,
in pale or, and a label of three points, argent, for Thomas of
Brotherton; third, chequy, or and azure, for Warren; fourth, gules, a
lion rampant, argent, for Mowbray. Below the shield is the motto, “Nous
Maintiendrons.” The family of the Earls of Suffolk and Berkshire comes
from the famous house of Howard, springing from Thomas, fourth Duke of
Norfolk and his second wife.
In the _ex libris_ of “HRH Princess Sophia” there seems something
delightfully simple and suitable to a virgin Princess. The Princess
Sophia, one of the numerous family of George III., was born in 1777, and
lived until 1848. This bookplate is a lesson in the art of simplicity.
It is in “Memoires du Prince Eugénie de Savoie ... A Londres 1811.”
Here, also, is the bookplate of “Bulkeley Bandinel DD Bodleian
Librarian, Oxford.” This little plate tells all that could be wished. It
is in a copy of the 1720 edition of Wishart’s _Montrose_, and has
Bandinel’s autograph. It has lately belonged to Mr. William Twopeny.
I give also the plate of Philip Bliss, another famous custodian of
Bodley’s. In any of his books which had not his bookplate he had a
playful habit of marking the B sheet signature.
The _ex libris_ now mentioned is in a curious copy of a curious work.
“The North Briton ... London: Printed for J. Williams, near the Mitre
Tavern, Fleet Street. MDCCLXIII.” Two volumes bound in one, and
including all the forty-five numbers. The volume is bound in calf and
lettered “_poison for the Scotch_.” Inside is an armorial bookplate with
two winged monsters for supporters. It is evidently the bookplate of a
Fletcher. The arms that Burke gives are sable, a cross flory argent
between four escallops. Crest a bloodhound azure, ducally gorged or. The
motto is “Dieu pour nous.”
“Robert Plumptre”’s bookplate gives argent, a chevron between two
mullets pierced in chief, and an amulet in base sable, the arms of
Plumptre; and the crest a phœnix or out
[Illustration]
of flames proper. The motto given is “turpi secernere honestum.” Another
small shield-of-arms is placed over the Plumptre shield,
Nottingham has been the chief abiding-place of the Plumptres for many
centuries.
This bookplate is in a copy of œuvres de Mr. Pavillon de C’Academie
Francoise. a la Haye, ... 1715.
There are two _ex libris_ in a copy belonging to Mr. E. F. Coates, of
“Report of Proceedings ... Oyer & Terminer and Gaol Delivery. County of
York. held at the castle of York ... 1813.” The first is that of
“William Stretton Lenton Priory,” which words are engraved under a
simple armorial shield. Arms: argent, a bend engrailed sable, cotised
gules. The second plate has the inscription “Sempronius Stretton Lenton
Priory.” In this plate the shield, with different bearings from the
other, is represented as held by an eagle. This Sempronius Stretton of
Lenton Priory, in Nottinghamshire, was, I fancy, a colonel in the army;
and hanging just below the shield are two objects looking like war
medals.
In a fine copy of Baxter’s _Anacreon_--a rare little work--is the
armorial plate “Brown” (Waterhaughs, County Ayr, 1806). Burke gives:
Quarterly, first and fourth, gules, on a chevron between three
fleur-de-lis or, a ship sails furled sable, a bordure of the second;
second and third, gyronny of eight wavy, ermine and gules, for Campbell.
Crest a demi-lion proper, holding in his dexter paw a fleur-de-lis or.
A good plate here given is that of Sir J. S. Stewart, Baronet.
In a 1649 _Eikon Basilike_ is a modern round bookplate of “John Bailey
Langhorne.” The arms were granted to the Langhornes of Bedfordshire 20th
January, 1610. Sable a cross argent; on a chief of the second three
bugle-horns of the field, stringed gules. Crest a bugle-horn sable,
stringed gules, between two wings expanded, argent.
“John Warren, BA, LLB.” The name and, to some extent, the arms will
remind incidentally bookplate collectors of the first historian of
English bookplates. The motto is “tenebo.” The arms are chequy or and
azure; on a canton gules a lion rampant argent. Crest on a chapeau
gules, turned-up ermine, a wyvern argent, wings expanded, chequy or and
azure.
“Thomas James Tatham,” an _ex libris_ about fifty years old. Thomas
James Tatham lived in Bedford Place, Russell Square, and bore for
[Illustration]
his own arms, argent, a chevron gules between three swans’ necks couped
sable. Crest, on a trumpet or, a swan with wings displayed sable. The
motto: “perseverance.”
A bookplate very interesting from the identity of its owner is that of
“Henry Crabb Robinson,” the warm friend of Lamb, Coleridge, Wordsworth,
Southey, and a host of other interesting characters. He died at his
house, 30, Russell Square, on February 5th, 1867, at the good age of
ninety-one years.
A sensible armorial plate is that inscribed at foot as “Right Honᵇˡᵉ.
Sir Robert Peel Bart,” and across the top “Drayton Manor.” The arms, as
granted to Robert Peel of Manchester, father of the first baronet, were:
Argent three sheaves of as many arrows proper, banded gules; on a chief
azure a bee volant or. Crest a demi-lion rampant argent, gorged with a
collar azure, charged with three bezants, holding between the paws a
shuttle or. Motto: “Industria.”
“Robᵗ D Mayne,” a facsimile signature, is under a modern plate, where,
of course, both arms and motto have something to say about hands. The
arms are: Ermine, on a bend sable, three dexter hands couped argent. The
motto runs: “manus justa decus.”
Of martial mottoes, “militavi non sine gloria” is a good specimen. It is
on the bookplate, about forty years old, which has under it the engraved
signature of “J Knight.” The crest is a spur between two wings.
“Wynfield.” This is a shield with Wynfield arms--vert on a bend argent,
three crosses patonce sable, and a host of quarterings; also two crests,
one a lion’s head, and the other a falcon. The motto is “aut vincere aut
mori.”
“William Holgate.” This is a plain armorial bookplate. Or, a bend
between two bulls’ heads, couped sable. The crest is, out of a mural
coronet argent, a bull’s head sable, gorged with a collar of the first,
charged with two bends gules.
“T. A. Dale.” A very small shield, with simply the name underneath. Arms
of Dale of Rutlandshire, confirmed in 1602: Paly of six argent and
gules, on a chief azure three garbs or. Crest three Danish battle-axes
erect, handled or, headed argent, enfiled with a chaplet of roses of the
first.
The bookplate, also armorial, with two palm leaves, of “Honᵇˡᵉ Edmund
Phipps.” The arms are, of course, the Normandy coat. Quarterly first and
fourth, sable, a trefoil slipped between eight mullets argent, for
Phipps; second and third, paly of six argent and azure; over all a bend
gules for Annesley. Crest, a lion’s gamb erect sable holding a trefoil
slipped argent. This in a 1648 copy of _Eikon Basilike_.
A pleasant variety in style is the plate of “George Cardale.” It is
evidently a real bookman’s bookplate. In good large letters on a scroll
around the shield are the words, “studendo et contemplando indefessus.”
In the arms and crest is seen the Cornish chough.
An _Eikon Basilike_, 1648, with a bookplate, “Revᵈ Charles Chester.”
Below and beside the armorial shield is a neat design of two palm
leaves. The arms, ermine, on a chief sable a griffin passant or, armed
argent. Crest, a dragon passant argent, are those of Chester of Blabie
in Leicestershire, descended from an uncle of the first Sir Robert
Chester of Royston, who, as one of the gentlemen of the Privy Chamber to
King Henry VIII., received from that monarch a grant of the monastery of
Royston.
“Fothergill sc” is on the _ex libris_ of “Cecil D. Wray, A.M. / F.C.C.
Manchester.” Arms: azure, on a chief or, three martlets gules. Crest an
ostrich or. Motto: “et juste et vray.” The Rev. Cecil Daniel Wray,
Canon of Manchester Collegiate Church, was son and heir of the Rev.
Henry Wray, of Brogden House, in Kelfield, Lincolnshire, and his wife
the daughter of George Lloyd, of Holm Hall, near Manchester.
The Wrays come from Sir Christopher Wray, Lord Chief Justice of the
Court of Queen’s Bench in the days of Queen Bess.
A pretty little plate, and not armorial, is that of “John T. Beer.” The
centre represents an open mouth of a well, with an owl perched on the
further edge of it. At each side of the well rise tropical palms.
Besides the name ribbon are these three inscriptions: “knowledge is
high,” “truth is straight,” “wisdom is wealth.”
An unpretending _ex libris_ is that of “Robert Buchanan Stewart.” These
words are inscribed on a circular strap enclosing a fancy monogram.
Below is “ubi thesaurus ibi cor.” Below are spaces for filling in
number, class, and case.
As a good specimen of a Society’s bookplate may be given one engraved
for the “Royal Institute of British Architects. Tite Donation 1868.” Sir
William Tite, the architect of the Royal Exchange and of many great
buildings,
[Illustration]
was born in 1798 in the parish of St. Bartholomew the Great, London, and
died at Torquay in 1873. He represented Bath in the House of Commons
from 1855 until his death. His valuable library of early English books
and other rarities was sold at Sotheby’s after his death.
The Right Honorable Sir Gore Ouseley, Baronet, Grand Cordon of the
Persian Order of the Lion and Sun, and Grand Cross of the Imperial
Russian Order of St. Alexander Newski--a famous Oriental scholar, Fellow
of the Royal Society, and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries--was born
in 1770, and created a baronet in 1808. His wife was Harriott-Georgiana,
daughter of John Whitelocke, Esq. In 1810 Sir Gore Ouseley became
Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of
Persia, and afterwards at St. Petersburg. He died in 1844 at Hall Barn,
Beaconsfield, which had belonged to Edmund Waller, the poet, and which
he had twelve years before purchased from the poet’s descendant, Mr.
Waller of Farmington.
“Whalley Hamerton” is a good idea in bookplates. It looks like unto a
picture of some fine old seal. Whale’s heads for Whalley. It is in a
scarce book: Marshal Ney. Report of the trial ... Paris: Printed and
sold at Galignani’s ... 1815.
“A fenwyke! a fenwyke” is the motto at the foot of a Fenwick bookplate,
probably Fenwick and Robinson. First and fourth, six martlets
counterchanged, three cinquefoils. The Fenwicks were an intrepid race
haunting the northern borders, and the proud House of Percy never went
to battle without the valiant Fenwicks to help them.
“Richard Clark Esqʳ. Chamberlain of London.” Such are the words engraved
below the plain armorial plate. Argent on a bend gules three swans
proper, between as many pellets, a canton sinister azure charged with a
demi-ram mounting of the first, armed or between two fleur-de-lis in
chief of the last; on it a baton dexter of the field. The motto is “est
modus in rebus.”
Guillim remarks: “The Swan is a Birde of great Beautie, and strength
also: and this is reported in Honour of Him, that hee vseth not his
strength, to Prey or tyrannize ouer any other Fowle, but onelie to be
reuenged on such as first offer Him wrong; in which case he often
subdueth the Eagle.”
A good _ex libris_, engraved perhaps about 1820, and in an 1824 copy of
_Eikon Basilike_, is
[Illustration]
the bookplate of “Harry Kerby Pott.” The motto is “fortis et astutus.”
The arms are: azure, two bars or, over all a bend of the last. The crest
a leopard, or ounce, sejant proper, collared, lined and ringed azure.
According to the Herald’s College, these arms were granted in 1583.
The quite modern, fantastic plate of “Thomas Bradshaw. Stackhouse.
Settle.” seems to represent Father Time with his scythe; and Father Time
seems to be expressed as an old man in a hurry, who has learnt to fly
without wings. This plate is in a Yorkshire West Riding poll-book of
1838, belonging to Mr. E. F. Coates.
A very pleasing modern non-armorial plate is “George Parker
Heathcote”’s. In a prettily formed rectangular frame is seen an angel
holding a shield and pointing to the monogram “G P H”, which occupies
the shield. The names in full are round the framework. This plate is in
a volume of the Camden Society.
Appropriately, in a copy belonging to Mr. E. F. Coates, of Poulson’s
Holderness, Hull, 1840, is a bookplate of a member of a family that
hails from Knaresborough. “John Rhodes” is the facsimile signature at
the foot of the plate, below the motto “ung durant ma vie.” The arms
are: argent on a cross engrailed, between four lions rampant gules, as
many bezants. Crest a leopard sejant or, spotted sable, collared and
ringed argent.
Two nineteenth-century _ex libris_--one of “Thomas Tindal Methold,” and
the other of “Henry Methold.” The Methold arms are: azure six escallops
or. The crest is a goat’s head erased argent, attire and beard sable.
The Metholds, or Methuolds, are an old Norfolk family.
A simple nineteenth-century _ex libris_ is that of “Christopher
Roberts,” with the motto “un roy une foy une loy.” The arms, granted on
2nd June, 1614, to Roberts of Truro, Cornwall, are: azure, on a chevron
argent, three mullets pierced sable. Crest a demi-lion azure holding a
mullet argent, pierced sable.
CHAPTER XI
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.
CHAPTER XII
INSCRIPTIONS IN BOOKS
John Collet of Little Gidding--A book that was in the Battle of
Corunna--Henry Howard--Sir Percivall Hart--John Crane and the
Battle of Naseby.
In a work treating of bookplates some space devoted to the subject of
inscriptions in books can hardly be out of place. In the view of the
real book-lover--and no others are asked to look at this volume--a book,
until actually destroyed, is a very living reality. As he takes it
carefully into his hands he thinks of the wondrous thoughts and deeds
that may be unfolded between its covers. He also thinks, if it be an old
book, of the host of scenes of other days through which the book has
passed. Bookplates in it of former owners are of interest; but so, too,
in a very striking manner, are any manuscript names and notes of former
owners.
After these few words, the following few notes will probably speak for
themselves.
The following curious inscription is at the beginning of a precious
Little Gidding large folio volume in the British Museum. The pressmark
is l 23. e 2:--
“Johannes Collet,
Filius
Thomæ Collet,
Pater
Thomæ Gulielmi Johannis,
Omnium superstes,
Natus
Quarto Junii 1633,
Denasciturus,
Quando Deo visum fuerit,
Interim hujus proprietarius.
----------
John Collet.”
The armorial bookplate of Robert Chambers is of interest, as I have it
in a copy of the Bible which has passed through terrible experiences, as
related in _The Times_, 23rd October, 1902, and given more fully
below:--
“The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments: translated
out of the original tongues, and with the former translations
diligently compared and revised.
By His Majesty’s Special Command.
Appointed to be read in Churches.
“Edinburgh, Printed by Sir J. H. Blair and J. Bruce, Printers to
the King’s Most Excellent Majesty. 1799.”
It carries the following inscriptions:--
“this Bible
is a token of respect to
Wᵐ Chambers
from his Sister Mary
on the 23ᵈ of Septr 1805
and hopes he will esteem it
and By the Grace of it’s Author
find in it a faithfull
Companion a Wise Counseler
a Comfortable and Sure Guide
through every Dispensation
of Life that it may Please
the Almighty to Place
--him in--”
“Wᵐ Chambers his Book / Gibralter Octʳ 24ᵗʰ 1806”
“In case of Death By Accident I trust the Person Whoever this Book may
fall in their hands that will send a Line to the Person mentioned in the
above hand. Intimating the same Octʳ 24 1806 Wᵐ Chambers”
Then, happily, in another inscription, signed “R. Chambers,” we get the
story completed:--
“Wᵐ Chambers of the 42ⁿᵈ
Lost his Life by Accident Feby
20ᵗʰ 1807 at Gibralter this Bible
fell to the care of his Comrade
Andrew Leach and became
his Companion through many
troubles they landed at Lisbon
Sept 2ᵈ 1808 and from their
they Marched to Salamanca
in Spain from which they
retreated under the greatest
hardships to Coruna
where on the 16ᵗʰ of Jany 1809
they were preserved in a most
dreadfull Conflict with the
Enemy and on the 27 landed
Safe in England he sent
this object of his Care and
Consolation to me April 10ᵗʰ
1809
R Chambers”
On a fly-leaf at the end of the Bible are the three following separate
inscriptions:--
“Col Wild, Malta
Servᵗ Name John Bacchens”
“William Chambers
Born Anno Domini
Sepᵗ 13ᵗʰ 1782”
-----------
“Mary Chambers
her Book April 19 1809”
Robert Chambers has cut the printed name off the foot of his bookplate
and pasted it above, so as not to cover the earlier inscription: “Wᵐ
Chambers his Book, Gibralter Octʳ 24ᵗʰ 1806.” I have just bought this
relic of Corunna--where Sir John Moore ended his glorious life amid the
fires of victory--from Mr. William Harper, a second-hand bookseller of
the true old-fashioned type, a man to whom a book is an object of
reverence. He catalogued the late Edward Solly’s interesting library.
His old chief, Andrew Clark, bought it at the sale, of which I quote the
catalogue title in full, from good Andrew Clark’s own marked copy:
“removed from Gray’s Inn. A catalogue of the valuable Library of 3000
vols. containing several excellent works on Topography, Theology, Law,
History, and Miscellanies; many of the best editions of the classics, a
very curious collection of old Bibles, In nearly all languages,
illuminated missals, breviaries, and old MSS. in good preservation, And
various works, in nearly all classes of Literature, many being
exceedingly curious and scarce, Which will be sold by Auction by Mr.
Geo. Berry at the auction rooms, Quality Court, Chancery Lane, on
Thursday, June 29th, 1854, and Following Day, at 11 for 12 oclock, each
day, without reserve, By direction of the Executors of the late Robert
Chambers Esq. Barrister at Law. May be viewed the day prior and Morning
of Sale; and Catalogues had at the place of Sale; And of the Auctioneer,
no. 8a, Motcomb Street, Belgrave Square. H. D. Pite, Printer, 37 Cheyne
Walk, Chelsea.”
“Q. F. F. Q. S.
Hunc librum pro summo suo in Tyrones apud eum Literas discentes studio,
D Robertus Spence Ludimagister in Schola illustri Edinburgensi Jacobi
Regis Scotorum ejus nominis Sexti, Gulielmo Binning discipulo suo, hoc
anno Syntaxi Latine operam navanti, tanquam latæ a condiscipulis
victoriæ palmarium, & futuræ diligentiæ & industriæ incitamentum, dono
dedit.
Prid: Id: Ian:
MDCCXXVIII”
is inscribed at the beginning of a copy of phrases “linguae latinæ, ab
aldo manutio p.f, conscriptæ: ... londini excusum pro Societate
Stationariorum. 1636.”
“M.DC.VIII
Illustrissimo Northamtoniæ Comiti Dno Henrico Howarde
regiæ Maiestati a secretis et sanctiaribus consiliis.
Quinque Portuum præfecto vigilantissimo
in noui formosissimi ineuntis Anni
auspitium Perceuillas Harte
LL: MM. DD:”
This inscription was in a book in splendid English sixteenth-century
binding, which belonged then to the Royal Society, and has the
well-known old bookplate of the Royal Society. Nothing now remains but
one cover and three fly-leaves.
The Henry Howard of this interesting inscription was born at Shottesham,
in Norfolk, on February 25th, 1539, being the second son of Henry
Howard, Earl of Surrey, and the younger brother of Thomas Howard, fourth
Duke of Norfolk. His father dying when he was but seven years old, he
was left to the care of his aunt, the Duchess of Richmond, and lived at
Reigate, a manor of the Duke of Norfolk’s, under the tutorship of John
Foxe, the martyrologist. On Queen Mary’s accession the Duke of Norfolk,
the grandfather, was released from prison, and he dismissed Foxe. Howard
was now put under the care of a zealous Catholic, John White, Bishop
first of Lincoln and then of Winchester. Soon came another turn of the
wheel--Mary died! Elizabeth turned White out of his bishopric, herself
took charge of Howard’s education and sent him to King’s College,
Cambridge, where he graduated in 1564.
In 1572 his brother, now Duke of Norfolk, was accused of plotting to
marry Mary Queen of Scots, and Banister, the Duke’s confidential agent,
declared in his confession that Henry was the subject first proposed for
the hand of Mary Queen of Scots. Henry Howard was at once seized, but
proving his innocence to Elizabeth’s satisfaction, he was released, and
a pension assigned to him. To follow him would be to write an elaborate
book; but, in short, his life of seventy-four years was too full of
variety to be peaceful or pleasant. He was constantly suspected of
strong Roman Catholic sympathies, and he was often in close
correspondence with Mary Queen of Scots, although, as regards the
tendency of his influence, he himself at least said that he gave her the
prudent advice to “abate the sails of her royal pride.”
At all events, much romance must always attach to the name of anyone
who, like Henry Howard, was oft exchanging tokens with Mary Queen of
Scots. In the latter years of Queen Elizabeth he entered into a secret
correspondence with James of Scotland, who wrote to him often on
intimate terms, and who, on hearing of Elizabeth’s death, sent Howard a
ruby as a token. On January 1st, 1604, Howard became Lord Warden of the
Cinque Ports, and soon afterwards Baron Howard of Marnhull,
Dorsetshire, and Earl of Northampton. In the next year he was made a
Knight of the Garter, and in 1608 he was appointed to the office of Lord
Privy Seal.
Sir Percivall Hart, Chief Server, and Knight Harbinger to Henry VIII.,
Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, died in 1580, leaving a son, Sir
Percivall Hart, who married twice, first to Anne, daughter of Sir
Richard Manwood, Knight, Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, by whom
he had a son, William; and his second wife was Jane, daughter of Sir
Edward Stanhope of Grimston, Knight, by whom he had issue Sir Henry
Hart, Knight of the Bath, who died in his father’s lifetime, having
married Elizabeth, daughter of---- Burdet, and a widow of Sir Simon
Norwich, by whom he left Percyval, Francis, George, and Elizabeth, who
died young; Percyval and Jerome, who died without issue; and George, who
married Elizabeth, daughter of---- Berisford, and left two sons,
Percival and George, and two daughters, Jane and Elizabeth.
William Hart, only son of Sir Percyval by his first wife, succeeded his
father in the possession of Lullingstone, and died on March 31st, 1671,
aged seventy-seven, and was buried there. He married Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir Anthony Weldon, of Swanscombe, Knight, who died in 1677,
and lies buried there, by whom he had no issue, upon which the Manor of
Lullingstone descended to Percyval Hart, Esq., eldest son of Sir Henry
Hart, Knight of the Bath, eldest son of Sir Percyval Hart, Knight, by
his second wife as abovementioned. He was afterwards knighted, and left
issue by Anne, his wife, one son, Percyval Hart, Esq., who was of
Lullingstone, was sheriff in 1707, and Member of Parliament for the
county in the ninth and twelfth years of Queen Anne. He died October
27th, 1738, aged seventy, and was buried in Lullingstone Church, having
by Sarah, his wife, youngest daughter of Henry Dixon of Hilden, Esquire,
an only daughter and heir, Anne, then married to her second husband, Sir
Thomas Dyke of Hexham, in Sussex, Baronet.
The notes given below, and many more, all evidently in the hand of John
Crane, are in a 1649 copy of _Reliquiæ Sacræ Carolinæ_:--
Look back in the Record Office to the time of Naseby fight. There is
written as follows:--
1645, June 23ʳᵈ.--Ordered in the Comon’s House this day that the 23
members here named are added to the committee where Mr. Tate hath the
chaire, and are to meete tomorrowe morning att 7 of ye clocke in ye
Queenes Court, and to appoint persons to transcribe those particulars
(in the several letters and papers taken at Naseby field) that are most
materiall, and to consider what shall be done with the Portugall Agent,
and to examine Mr. Browne & his sonne (if ye House sitt not) when they
are brought up.
This Mr. Tate has been indexed as Zouch Tate, M.P. for Northampton,
chairman of the committee for regulating the armies.
Baker’s _Northamptonshire_ relates that John Crane, of Loughton, Bucks,
Clerk of the Household to James the First and Charles the First, was
living in 1651 at the age of seventy-five and lived long after that. He
married Mary, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Tresham. They had many
children, including a son John and a daughter Anne; the latter marrying
Francis Arundell of Stoke Park.
On the blank lower half of the page preceding the _Eikon_, and on the
title of the _Eikon_:--
“Some tyme after the King was murtherd by accident I was in ye company
of one of Mr. Tate’s servants (with my wife & several others) whose
master was one of those appoynted to examine the kings letters I asked
him whether he ever saw aney of ye kings writing, he told me that his
master tate committed severall of those letters to his custodie, and
that those letters ye Parlt. put forth in print were written with ye
king’s own hand, I asked him whether they printed all they had, he said
no they burned maney, I asked ye reason, he said because they vindicated
the king from maney things they charged upon him & that if those letters
had bin printed they would have bin very much for the kings advantage &
that they caused to be printed only those they thought would make
against him, and that it was pittie they were burned. This my cosin
Zouch Tats man spake at my sister Arundells at Stoake in ye company of
maney with me John Crane junior. This he had told me before, but I loved
to hear him againe.”
“Ex libris Joannis Holleri Brixi:
In Domino confido
Quisquis es inuentor nostri
te quæso libelli
Huic reddas cujusque nomen adesse”
is the contemporary inscription over the bookplate reproduced on another
page:--
“Bibliothecæ”
“Novacellensis.”
“T”
It appears in a copy of D. Radvlphi Ardentis Pictavi, Doctoris Theologi
per antiqui illustriss. Aquitaniæ Ducis Gulielmi huius nominis quarti,
Concionatoris disertiss in Epistolas et Euangelia (et vocant) Sanctorum,
Homiliæ, Ecclesiastis omnibus animarum curam gerentibus plurimum
necessariæ, et ante annos propè quingentos ab Auctore conscriptæ, nunc
primum in lucem editæ.
Quibus annecti curauimus eisusdem Homilias in Epistolas et Euangelia,
quæ in communi Sanctorum legi consueuerunt. Then the printer’s block of
two birds in fighting attitude between an upright staff separating them,
with the motto: “Resparia crescunt concordia,” and the date 1560. Below
the printer’s block: “Antverpiæ, In ædibus Viduæ & Hæredum Joan.
Stelfii. M.D.LXX. Cum Priuilegio.”
Nova cella, or Newstifft, a beautiful Bavarian cloister of the
Præmonstratensian Order in the diocese of Freysing, near the junction of
the Moselle and Iser, was, in the year 1141, founded by three brothers:
Otho, Bishop of Freysing; Henry, Margrave of Austria, and Conrad of
Salzburg. They dedicated it to the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul.
Alas! in the time of the Thirty Years’ War it was quite destroyed. On
one blank leaf is pasted the bookplate here given, and on another is
written, “Ex libris/T. H. Foster/In Festi Purificationis/ B.V.M. 88/+”.
The book is in its original stamped binding, with clasps.
Now this short gossip on _ex libris_ must draw to a close.
In one sense--that of variety--the study of bookplates can be elaborated
in a never-ending course. You can set your mind on collecting,
arranging, and studying the bookplates of lawyers. Again, you can limit
that, and collect only the bookplates of barristers, as distinguished
from solicitors; you can limit your attention to judges; you can confine
it to a century, a country, or even a county; you can strive to put
together all the Chippendale bookplates ever made; you can strive to
collect every portrait-plate, every plate with a ship, every
landscape-plate, every military bookplate, or collect military
bookplates, at the same time excluding every aspirant below a general!
The varieties are endless; it is merely a question of ringing the
changes. Perhaps one of the most sensible divisions, in a small way, is
that of collecting the plates of the various members of certain
families.
Memorable words were spoken in March, 1891, by John Leighton, F.S.A.,
the first chairman of the Ex Libris Society: “The Society should be
select, and in no way connected with profit, other than the pleasure to
be derived in making the past patent to the present and future.”
The present writer is not a bookplate collector; but an honoured member
of the Council of the Ex Libris Society has kindly lent most of the
numbers of the Society’s Journal, from the date of its foundation. One
or two of several years he had lost, and very many of the numbers had
not, till now, made the acquaintance of a paper-knife. There is, I need
hardly say, much in the Journal of interest, and reflecting highly on
the ingenuity of Mr. W. H. K. Wright, fellow of the Royal Historical
Society.
In turning over the numbers of the Journal a fond, vain wish seizes one;
and it is this--Oh! that I could strike out the trade journal element,
or relegate it to certain pages, wholly apart from the interesting
historical and antiquarian portions. Alas! how could this be expected,
seeing that leading members of the Society were professionally busied
with bookplates? Perhaps this has all been remedied.
Then, too, in turning over numbers one cannot help thinking that a
bookplate of simple taste was sadly discouraged. In the first place, a
“fanciful” design was directly recommended; and in the second place, by
constantly urging that each member of the Society must sport at least
one bookplate of his own, and must be ready to exchange. Thus anyone who
has joined the Society, and whose own library may be limited to
_Bradshaw_ and the _Stock Exchange Year Book_, must start an _ex
libris_, not to place in the primary proper place for bookplates, but to
post to Dick, Tom, and Harry, similarly placed. Again, unless he wish to
be ignored, he must make every effort to have as grand and fantastic a
plate as his neighbour.
A volume has just, on going to press, come into my hands, which,
although printed as late as 1850, is deliciously redolent of old-world
life. The work is the Life of James Davies, a village schoolmaster,
written by Sir Thomas Phillips. London: John W. Parker, West Strand,
1850. On the inner cover, facing the half-title, is a most charming
black silhouette profile portrait of a lady of some ninety years ago,
subscribed “ever your sincere Friend Sarah Jones.” Above is written, “S
Jones born 9ᵗʰ April 1771.” In, of course, another hand, is written at
the foot, “Died July 18ᵗʰ: 1852.” The portrait is of the wife and widow
of the Rev. William Jones, as shown by several marked passages of the
book. Her husband was in pastoral charge, and she his devoted helper,
where James Davies was the earnest and evidently very unpedantic
pedagogue: “It was in the summer of 1815 that James Davies removed from
Usk to the Devauden, and received the charge of rude, ragged, and
boisterous mountain children, whom he long instructed by precept and
example.”
This biography, the work of Sir Thomas Phillips, a neighbouring squire,
is illustrated with very good engravings, and altogether recalls at
every turn, scenes worthy of good George Herbert and Nicholas Ferrar.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
_Les Ex Libris Français_, by A. Poulet-Malassis. Paris, 1874.
_A Guide to the Study of Bookplates_, by the Hon. John Byrne Leicester
Warren. J. Pearson, London, 1880. pp. iii. and 238.
_Revue des Ex Libris Alsaciens_, by A. Stoeber. Mulhouse, 1881.
_Die Deutschen Bücherzeichen_, by F. Warnecke. Berlin, 1890. pp. 255.
_Composite Bookplates_, by E. B. Ricketts. London, 1890.
_Les Ex Libris_, by H. Bouchot. Paris, 1891. pp. 104.
_Bibliography of Bookplates_, by H. W. Fincham and J. R. Brown.
Plymouth, 1892. pp. 24.
_Heraldic Bookplates_, by A. M. Hildebrandt. Berlin, 1892.
_French Bookplates_, by W. Hamilton. London, 1892. pp. 175. Also in
Bell’s _Ex Libris Series_, 1896. pp. 360.
_English Bookplates_, by Egerton Castle. London, 1893.
_Rare Bookplates of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries_, by F.
Warnecke. London, 1893.
_Dated Bookplates_, by W. Hamilton. London, 1894.
_The Processes for the Production of Bookplates_, by J. Vinycomb.
London, 1894. pp. 96.
_Illustriertes handbuch de Ex Libris kunde_, by G. A. Seyler. Berlin,
1895. pp. 88.
_Wardour Press Series of Armorial Plates._ London, 1895, etc.
_Ex Libris Series_, J. W. G. White. London, 1895, etc.
_American Bookplates_, by C. D. Allen. London, 1895.
_Bookplates_, by W. J. Hardy, F.S.A. London, 1897.
_Artists and Engravers of British and American Bookplates_, by H. W.
Fincham. London, 1897.
_Bookplates Old and New_, by J. A. Gade. New York, 1898.
_Bookplates and their Value_, by J. H. Slater. London, 1898.
_Die Schweizerischen Bibliothekzeichen_, by L. Gerster. Kappelen, 1898.
_Odd Volumes and their Bookplates_, by W. Hamilton. London, 1899.
INDEX
Adams, J. T., 15
Agate, J., 107
Ailleboust, C., 8
Ailesbury, Marquis, 67
Albosius, C., 8
Aldrich, T. B., 151
Alleine, R., 96
Amman, J., 19, 20
Antonie, W. L., 94
Architecture, Royal Institute of, 116
Arundell, F., 165
Bacchus, J., 158
Bacon, Sir W., 23
Bandinel, B., 109
Bartolozzi, F., 5
Barwick, G. F., 44, 53, 56, 57, 58, 106
Bastille, The, 40
Bates, H. C., 153
Bateman, T., 89
Bateman, W., 89
Baumgartner, H., 17
Baxter, _Anacreon_, 47, 111
Baxter, J. P., 152
Beall, W., 107
Bardsley, A., 72
Beaufort, Duke of, 90
Beavan, 65
Beckwith, T., 50
Beer, F. T., 115
Beesly, A. H., 66
Beham, H. S., 17
Beham, B., 17
Bell, T., 93
Bell, G., and Sons, 28
Benedict, St., 11
Bennett, W. J. G., 66
Berry, G., 159
Berryer, P. A., 42
Bewick, 3
Bewick, Messrs., 100
Bielke, T., 26
Bierstadt, E. H., 151
Bigot, J., 27
Bigot, L. E., 27
Binning, W., 160
Bliss, P., 109
Bouchart, A., 26
Boycott, R., 47
Boycott, S., 48
Bradshaw, T., 118
Bradstreet, A., 127
Brandenburg, H., 12
Bridges, Mary A., 71
Briot, J., 28
Brook, 105
Brown of Waterhaughs, 47, 111
Boulais de Nanteuil, A. F. A., 39
Bulmer, W., and Co., 99
Bull, M., 153
Bunsen, Baron, 56
Burgkmaier, H., 22
Burgoyne, Sir J., 23
Burns, R., 66
Busse, W. L., 75
Campbell, A., 101
Campbell of Shawfield, 101
Cardale, G., 114
Carlander, Herr, 26
Carruthers, W., 59
Castle, E., 10
Chambers, C., 156
Chambers, M., 157
Chambers, W., 157
Champion, 67
Chester, C., 114
Chichester Cathedral, 106
Cholmondeley, H., Viscount, 45
Christoff, T., 53
Clark, A., 159
Clark, R., 117
Cleveland, S., 150
Coates, E. F., 45, 46-51, 80, 87, 101, 110, 118, 119
Collet, J., 156
Collett, R. W. D., 48
Collins, D., 42
Colquhoun, P., 64
Compton, C., 82, 83
Conduit, J., 90
Constable, J., 86
Constable, W., 86
Convers, P. A., 38
Coster, D. de, 33
Coster, P. de, 33
Corunna, 159
Crane, J., 164
Crane, W., 152
Cranach, L., 20, 21
Custance, O., 72
Custos, R., 33
Dale, T. A., 114
Davies, J., 170
Deedes, Prebendary, 93, 106
Denholme, J. S., 51
Dering, T., 144
Dickens, C., 124
Dubbs, J. H., 151
Dudley, A., 127
Dürer, A., 14, 15, 16, 131
Edwards, J., 128
_Eikon Basilike_, 165
Eliot, J., 126
Elizabeth, Queen, 24
Eschentach, H. E. von, 16
Eustace, J., 71
Ex Libris Society, 169
Farquhar, W., 65
Farrington, 153
Faulkner, E., 146
Feilden, H. St. C, 65
Fenwick, 117
Fischart, J., 20
Fiott, J., 94-97
Forbes, C., 87
Fothergill, 115
Foster, T. H., 168
Franklin, B., 129
Frederick, Sir J., Bart., 58
Fraser of Ledeclune, 97
Gardner, F., 23
Goldie, C., 69
Gordon, C., 98
Gordon of Buthlaw, 76
Georges, R., 172
Grey, T. P., Earl de, 57
Griggs, 27
Grolier Club, 153
Gualther, L., 26
Guildford, Earl of, 78
Gumey, H., 102
Guthry, H., 77
Gutman, O. G. von, 28
Haines, M., 20, 138
Hamerton, W., 117
Hamilton, H., 27
Hamilton, W., 38, 41
Hampson (Family), 50
Hapgood, M. H., 151
Hauer, H., 30
Hardy, W. J., 9
Harper, W., 159
Hart, G. E., 152
Hart, Sir P., 163
Hart, W., 163
Harvey, T. E., 69
Hastings (Family), 103
Hearn, E. N., 141
Heathcote, G. P., 119
Holbein, H., 21, 22
Holgate, W., 113
Holler, J., 166
Holmes, O. W., 147
Howard, H., 60
Holzschuher, V., 19
Huet, P. D., 35
Huntington, W. R., 152
Hurd, N., 143
Hutt, L., 148
Igler, H., 13
Imhof, A., 18
Irving, W., 134
Jarvis, S. F., 146
Jeffries, J., 146
Joher, C. G., 56
Jones, W., 171
Jourdan, Marshal, 40
Jund, L. M., 18
Jungen, J. H. zum, 25
Knight, J., 113
Knox, B. W., 66
Kolrirger, A., 14
Kraus, J. O., 54
Krep von Krepenstein, 33
Krüger, D., 34
Langhorne, J. B., 111
Langton, T., 94
Leach, A., 158
Lebegue, L., 73
Lee, T., 153
Lee, Sir W., 94
Leighton, J., 168
Leiningen-Westerburg, Count, 7, 12
Lemond, W., 46
Lerchenfeld-Prennberg, von, 35
Lethbridge, Sir W., 68
Lilburn, C., 49
Littleton, Edward, Lord, 31, 32, 33
Lizars, D., 47
Loch, J., 46
Lomax, R. T., 70
Longfellow, H. W., 136
Longmate, B., 62
Lubbock, Sir J. W., 58
Macdonald, Flora, 140
Macintosh, C. C., 87
Mackenzie, J. W., 49
Mahon, Lord, 22
Maitland, T., 48
Malden, P. de, 41
Manwood, Sir R., 163
Margetson, E. J., 70
Margetson, W. H., 70
Maridat, P., 39
Marshall, F. A., 65
Marshall, W., 31, 33
Martin, C., 41
Martin, W., 99
Mayne, R. D., 113
Ménage, G., 36
Mercator, N., 45
Methold, T. T., 119
Monnier, L., 38
Montrose, Marquis, 49
More, Sir T., 22
Moore, Sir J., 159
Moore, S., 84
Morrell, W., 122
Morton, E., 72
Mors sola resolvit, 50
Motley, J. L., 136
Muntzinger, R., 13
Napier, Sir W., 22
Naseby, 164
Neele, S. J., 92
New, E. H., 72
Newcome, Rev. T., 105
Newstift, 167
Nicol, J., 99
North, F., 78
Northampton, Earl of, 160
Novacella, 16
Northampton, Marquis of, 82, 83
Nuremberg, 14
Ochs, J. S., 54
Opel, P., 26
Ormerod, G., 88
Ouseley, Sir G., 116
Palmer, 85
Parker, J. W., 170
Pearce, E., 85
Peel, Sir R., 112
Percival, S., 77
Petan, A., 28
Pfinzing, M., 17
Phillips, Sir T., 170
Phipps, E., 114
Pirckheimer, 15
Pitt, W., 47
Plummer, T. W., 68
Plumptre, R., 110
Poison for the Scotch, 110
Pomer, S. H., 15, 171
Pott, H. K., 118
Prescott, W. H., 131
Prince, T., 143
Procter, R., 18
Quincy, J., 145
Raine, R., 93
Raleigh, Sir W., 121
Raynard, T., 34
Rebello, W. A., 46
Reyger, A. von, 30
Reynolds, Sir J., 4
Rhodes, J., 119
Riston, 42
Roberts, C., 119
Robinson, H. C., 112
Roper, Margaret, 22
Rosenberg, 54
Royal Society, 161
Rupert, Prince, 4
Ryland, W., 5
Sadeler, E., 31
Sadeler, J., 31
Sadeler, R., 30
Sandy, G., 121
Sarrau, C., 28
Sarrau, I., 28
Sattler, J., 74, 75
Sharp, W., 62
Sibmaker, J., 29
Sieger, E., 4
Simpson, J. W., 71
Smith, J., 121
Solis, V., 18
Solly, E., 159
Sophia, Princess, 109
Soul of Soldiery, 149, 150
Spence, R., 160
Spengler, L., 115
Spiring, L., 34
Stansfeld, J., 46
Stab, J., 15
Stewart, Sir J. D., 116
Stewart, Sir J. S., 112
Stretton, S., 111
Stretton, W., 111
Suffolk, Earl of, 108
Surtees, R., 92
Sussex, Duke of, 98
Tate, Z., 165
Tatham, F. D. F., 59
Tatham, T. J., 59, 112
Thackeray, W. M., 148
Thomas, J., 44
Thomas, M., 85
Thomas, T. J. F., 56
Thompson, N. E., 71
Throckmorton, F., 24
Throckmorton, Sir R., 24, 51
Ticknor, G., 133
Tite Donation, 116
Trenchard, E., 148
Tresham, Sir T., 24
Trotter, E., 64
Troschet, H., 30
Trübner, N., 131
Tschert, J., 15
Twopeny, W., 109
Vaughan, F., 50
Vaisey, J. S., 66
Voigt, P., 74. 75
Volckamer, G. C., 34
Walpole, S., 78
Wappenbüchlein, 29
Warnecke, Herr, 6, 33
Warren, J., 112
Washington, G., 142
Waterlow, E. E., 11
Watson, J., 63
Watson, J. B., 64
Wray, C. D., 115
Weale, W. H. J., 11
Wellington, Duke of, 138
Wenzel, C., 39
West, J. W., 71
Weyer, W. C., 71
Wheatley, H. B., 90
Wiesenhutten, B., 53
Wilberforce, S., 80
Wilberforce, W., 80
Wild, Colonel, 158
Williams, J., 142
Williams, R., 122
Willmer, W., 27
Winchester Cathedral, 105
Winthrop, J., 125
Wittenberg University, 21
Wohlgemuth, M., 13, 14
Wolphins, 13
Wolsey, Cardinal, 17
Wood, M., 107, 123
Wood, W., 123
Woodroffe, P., 70
Wrest Park, 57
Wright, W. H. K., 169
Wuss, F. S., 55
Wynfield, 113
Zahn, B. G., 55
Zell, W. von, 12
Zeyll, J. B., 26
PLYMOUTH
WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON
PRINTERS
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Where not otherwise specified, the book or bookplate is in my own
library.--E. A.
[B] The name given to the non-commissioned officers of the Continental
Army by Baron Stuben.
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