'A PLEADER TO THE NEEDER WHENA READER
As all, my friend, through wily knaves, full often suffer wrongs,Forget not, pray, when it you've read, to whom this book belongs.Than one Charles Clark, of Totham Hall, none to 't a right hath better,Awight, that same, morereadthan some in the lore of oldblackletter;And as C. C. inEssexdwells—a shire at which all laugh—His books must sure less fit seem drest, if they're not bound incalf!Care take, my friend, this book you ne'er with grease or dirt besmear it;While none but awkwardpuppieswill continue to "dog's-ear" it!And o'er my books, when book-"worms" "grub," I'd have them understand,No marks the margin must de-facefrom any busy "hand"!Marks, as re-marks, in books of Clark's, whene'er some critic spy leaves,It always him sowaspishmakes though they're but on thefly-leaves!Yes, if so they're used, he'd not de-fertodeala fate most meet—He'd have the soiler of hisquiresdo penance in asheet!The EttrickHogg—ne'er deem'd abore—his candid mind revealing,Declares, to beg acopynow's a mere pre-textfor stealing!So, as some knave to grant the loan of this my book may wish me,I thus my book-platehere display lest some suchfryshoulddishme!But hold!—though I again declare with-holding I'll not brook,And "aseaof trouble" still shall take to bring book-worms to "book."'C. C.'
A certain Cheshire clergyman, who died not very long since, sought euphony in a string of commands to intending borrowers, which he had printed on his book-plate; 'Borrow bravely; Keep carefully; Peruse patiently; Return righteously.' What a pity he did not spell 'carefully' with a 'k' whilst he was about it!
The Plymouth architect and author, George Wightwick, or, as he evidently pronounced it,Witick, used to affix in his books:—
'To whomsoever this book IlendIgiveone word—no more;They who toborrowcondescendShould graciouslyrestore.And whosoe'er this book should find(Be't trunk-maker or critick),I'll thank him if he'll bear in mindThat it is mine,George Wightwick.'
See, too, how a certain Mr. Charles Woodward protected, or thought he protected, the volumes which good nature may have prompted him to lend. His plate shows an opened volume, on one page of which is written: 'Narrative—promising to send me home at the appointed time. Finis.' Evidently Mr. Woodward, like the honest liar before mentioned, was not a man to lend his volumes for an indefinite period.
Having quoted various recent English examples of this kind, we are in duty bound to cite some from other component parts of the United Kingdom.
Under the name 'H. Macdonald' we find:
'Tear not, nor soil not;Read all, but spoil not.'
'A good book is a good friend; he who would injure the one deserves not the respect of the other.'
'A good book is a good friend; he who would injure the one deserves not the respect of the other.'
There is something almost pathetic in the exclamation which Mr. John Marks makes his volumes utter: 'Gentle reader, take me home; I belong to John Marks, 20 Cook Street, Cork'; and then the evil-minded borrower is reminded of the scriptural condemnation of his kind by reference to 'Psalm xxxvii. ver. 21.' Before this comes—
'ADVICE FOR THE MILLION
Neither a borrower or a lender be,For loan oft loses both itself and friend,And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.True for you, Mr. Shakespeare!
Moral
Of all books and chattels that ever I lent,I never got back five-and-twenty per cent.Fac, my Bredern!'
We may presume from this that Mr. John Marks tried to be funny, and from his composition getting into print he may flatter himself that he succeeded.
One more example of these warnings to borrowers and we have done with the subject. Lord De Tabley fixes the date of it as 1820, but surely it must be the composition of some eleventh century reprobate,who on his death-bed richly endowed a neighbouring monastery, and threatened any one who should ever disturb his endowment. The words appear on the book-plate of O. M[oore], and they read in translation: 'If any one steals this book, and with furtive hand carries it off, let him go to the foul waves of Acheron, never to return.'
Now, let us look at some of the eulogies of books or of study which are found on book-plates. These do not appear until a much later date. The text on Pirckheimer's book-plate, 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,' can hardly be called one in praise of study, though it is a wholesome truth that should be borne in mind by every student. Indeed, we have to pass over more than two centuries after the invention of book-plates before one which, in the inscription upon it, yields an example of the kind now under consideration. This appears at last in 1697, in a sentiment expressed by an Austrian lawyer, John Seyringer by name. Here it is:
'He that would learn without the aid of booksDraws water in a sieve from running brooks.'
We have again to pass over many years for our next example. Peter de Maridat, who was, he tells us, a senator in the Great Council of LouisXIV.of France, used for a book-plate, which may therefore be dated before 1715, the figure of a negro, who stands with one hand resting on a shield of arms, and holds in the other a pair of scales. The arms onthe shield are azure, a cross argent, and below is written:
'Inde cruce hinc trutina armatus regique deoqueMilito, Disco meis hæc duo nempe libris,'
which may be construed: 'Armed on one side with the cross [the cross on the shield], and on the other with the pair of scales, I fight for my king and for my God. These two things I indeed learn from my books,'libris;butlibrismay also be translated 'balances,' and herein is the pun!
Taking them chronologically, our next examples are on English book-plates; one is dated 1730, and the other evidently belongs to the same period. On the first, the Rev. John Lloyd writes: 'Animus si æquus, quod petis hic est'; and on the other, Thomas Robinson, a Fellow of Merton, quotes from Cicero: 'Delectant domi non impediunt foris.' Perhaps 'Herbert Jacob, Esq. of St. Stephen's, in Kent,' had a generally troublesome wife, who did not penetrate the sacred region of his library; however it may have been, he placed on his book-plate,circa1740: 'Otium cum libris,' a sentiment expressed in a great variety of ways on later book-plates.
Some ten years later than the last example is the book-plate of a German cleric, Gottfried Balthazar Scharff, Archdeacon of Schweidnitz, a town in Prussian Silesia, on which his books are praised in some not ungraceful verses; in these the owner asks divine help in understanding aright the teaching of his volumes.
On the Flemish book-plate of Lewis Bosch (spoken of elsewhere in this volume,p. 218), we read beneath the representation of the prelate's library, in which he is shown hard at work among his books: 'A hunt in such a forest never wearies.' The allusion to a forest of books recalls the motto on the much later English book-plate of Mary Berry. On this is depicted a wild strawberry plant, its fruit half hidden by leaves, and below is written, 'Inter folia fructus.' Probably Miss Berry, besides alluding to the fruit of knowledge which she found amongst the leaves of her books, intended a mild play upon the strawberry and her own family name.
Besides these, a host of further mottoes in praise of books or about books are to be met with. Some recommend the collection of as large a library as possible; others point out that the mind is distracted by a multitude of books; some advocate the careful handling of a volume, even at the expense of not getting so well acquainted with its contents; whilst others tell us that well-thumbed books are monuments of the owner's industry and constant study. Nor are the consoling powers of books forgotten. On a very pretty rustic vignette, executed by Bonner after Bewick, 'W. B. Chorley of Liverpool' has the words: 'My books, the silent friends of joy and woe.'
PERSONAL PARTICULARS ON BOOK-PLATES
Howmuch more communicative, in the matter of personal particulars, are some people, upon their book-plate, than others! What a contrast, for instance, between the inscription on Walpole's book-plate—'Mr. Horatio Walpole'—and that on one of Pepys's, on which he styles himself 'Esquire,' and states that he is of Brampton in Huntingtonshire, 'Secretary of the Admiralty of his MatyKing Charles the Second,' and 'Descended of yeancient family of Pepys of Cottenham in Cambridgeshire.'
Of course Sam Pepys was a vain man—that we all know; but the difference between the two inscriptions has more to do with the fashion of the time than with the characteristics of the two men. In enlarging on his pedigree, social position, and secretaryship to the Admiralty, Pepys was only following the custom of his day. There are many examples of similar inscriptions on book-plates contemporary with Pepys's:—'Charles Pitfeild of Hoxton, in the Parish of St. Leonards, Shoreditch, in Middlesex, Esqr.,descended of the ancient family of the Pitfeilds of Symsbury in Dorsetshire, and is now married to Winifred, one of the daughters and Cœheyrs of John Adderley,of Coton in Stafordshire, Esqr.' And again:—'Sr. Henry Hunloke of Wingerworth, in Derbyshire, Bart. In yeescocheon of pretence is yeArmes of Katherine his Lady, who was sole daughter and heyre of Francis Tyrwhit of Kettleby, in Lincolnshire, Esqe, yelast of yeEldest branch of ytgreat and ancient family.' Equally proud of his ancestry is 'Thomas Windham of Sale in Devonshire, Esqr.,one of the Grooms of his Majesties Bed-chamber, third son of SrEdmund Windham of Cathanger in Somersetshire, Kt., Marshall of his Majesties most Honblehousehold,' who concludes the inscription on his book-plate by telling us that he was 'lineally descended from the antient family of the Windhams of Crown-Thorpe, in the County of Norfolk.'
But this habit of expressing pride in ancestry, though it became less frequent, certainly survived Pepys's time. Mr. J. Paul Rylands, F.S.A., has a copy of theEikon Basilike, printed in 1649, on the title-page of which is written, 'Dan. Mercator.' Within the book is an armorial book-plate engraved in the Jacobean style, and, since it belonged to a man born in 1640, one of the early examples of that style. The owner was the eminent mathematician, Nicholas Mercator, who was born at Holstein, and afterwards settled in England, where his mathematical ability was recognised by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society. Nicholas was proud of his ancestors' efforts in the cause of Protestantism, and also wished his English friendsto be aware of them; he therefore inscribes his book-plate, 'Nicholas Mercator, a Descendant of the Kauffmans of Prague, in Bohemia, Coadjutors with Luther in the Reformation.'
On the Continent, lengthy eulogies of ancestors are common, and they commence at an early date. Here is one, which is also a sigh for the purity of nobility in ages past. It is uttered, in 1565, by John Giles Knöringen, who writes, below his shield of arms, given in colour:—
'These are the famed insignia of my sires,Which in their proper colour you may see;Not bribes, as is the fashion in these days,But virtue, raised them to nobility.'
It is, however, most frequently in an enumeration of his offices or degrees that the owner of a book-plate allows himself to get wordy. Let us take, for instance, the already mentioned book-plate of Sir Edward Dering (seepp. 31,32), which bears date 1630, and displays a shield of twenty coats of arms; it has a proportionately impressive description of Sir Edward's many offices—Lieutenant of Dover Castle, Vice-Chancellor, and Vice-Admiral of the Cinque Ports, etc. Sir Robert Southwell, Knight, tells us that he is 'one of the Clerkes attending His Majesty King Charles the Second in his most Honourable Privy Councell, etc.'
William Wharton, who was killed in a duel, in 1689, calls himself 'fourth son to the Right Honourable Philip Lord Wharton of Wharton, in Westmoreland,by Ann, Daughter to William Carr, of Fernihast, in Scotland, Esqr.,one of the Groome (sic) of the Bedchamber to King James'; whilst Randolph Egerton, in the inscription on his book-plate, recalls the time when the unhappy Duke of Monmouth was yet a trusted officer in the royal army: 'Randolph Egerton of Betley, in Staford Shire, Esquire, Lieutenant of his Majestyes own Troop of Guard, under the comand of his Grace James Duke of Monmouth, etc.'
The book-plates of Thomas, Earl of Wentworth, contain a curiously lengthy enumeration of the offices enjoyed by that distinguished soldier and diplomatist, who, at a critical time, steered his country through a great many difficulties. The first is dated in 1698, and on it the owner describes himself as 'The Right Honourable Thomas Wentworth, Baron of Raby, and Colonell of his Maiesties owne Royall Regmtof Dragoons, 1698.' In 1703 Wentworth was sent as envoy to Berlin, and two years later was advanced to the post of ambassador. On this appointment he had a second book-plate engraved, bearing the following inscription:—'His Excellency The RtHonbleTho. Wentworth, Lord Raby, Peer of England, Colloof her MatysRoyal Regtof Dragoons, LieutGeneral of all her MatysForces & her MatysEmbassador Extraryto yeKing of Prussia, 1705;'—size 4 × 3. On the face of it, this is foreign work, and the expression 'Peer of England' could hardly have been put on it by an English engraver.
Wentworth's later diplomatic post has been made famous by Swift's allusion to it, in reference to his being associated with Mat Prior. 'Wentworth,' says the Dean, 'is as proud as hell, and how he will bear one of Prior's mean birth on an equal character with him I know not.' Proud as hell, was he? Well, he certainly was proud of his advance in title and his many high offices, all of which he sets out in his third and last book-plate, also, I think, foreign work, dated in 1712. Here is the inscription: 'His Excellency the Right Honourable Thomas Earl of Strafford, Viscount Wentworth of Wentworth Woodhouse, and of Stainborough, Baron of Raby, Newmarch, and Oversley, Her Majesty's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the States General of yeUnited Provinces, and also at the Congress of Utrecht; Colonel of Her Majesty's own Royal Regiment of Dragoons, Lieutenant-General of all Her Forces; First Lord of the Admiraltry (sic) of Great Britain and Ireland; one of the Lords of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council; and Knight of the Most Noble Order of yeGarter.' On the accession of GeorgeI., an attempt was made to impeach this busy Lord, but it failed, and he retired into private life for the rest of his days. His memoirs, published a few years back by Mr. Cartwright, F.S.A., give an excellent picture of life at the time he lived.
Some book-plate owners, not boastful of their titles, let us into their confidences as to their placeof birth, age, and the like. The German book-plate, dated in 1618, of John Vennitzer, a knife-smith or cutler by trade, tells us that he was born at Nuremberg, at 22 minutes past 5 in the afternoon on the 14th day of May, 1565. Vennitzer made money by his trade, and founded the Library of St. Lawrence in his native city; perhaps the date on the book-plate is that of the foundation of the library. No doubt, as Lord De Tabley remarks, the cutler conscientiously believed that the condition of his whole life depended on the particular moment at which he entered the world; for he was probably well versed in the mysteries of horoscopy.
'John Collet' makes us really quite familiar with all his relations, and with his own religious feelings. His book-plate—it is only a printed label—reads: 'Johannes Collet filius Thomæ Collet. Pater Thomæ, Gulielmi, ac Johannis, omnium superstes. Natus quarto junii, 1633. Denasciturus quando Deo visum fuerit; interim hujus proprietarius John (sic) Collet.'
Even more obliging is 'Thomas Tertius Okey, medicinæ Professor, 1697.' He was, he tells us, 'great grandson to William Okey (usually cal'd Okely) of Church Norton, betwixt Gloucester and Tewxsbury, gentelman; grandson to Thomas Primus Okey of Church Norton, the Devizes and Taunton, Professor of Theology; eldest son to Thomas Secundus Okey, of the Devizes and London, Professor of Physick, and father to Thomas Quartus Okey, of London, gentelman. The above mentioned Thomas TertiusOkey, Professor of Physick, now liveth in London near the Bodys of his deceased relations.' Before such details as these, even John Collet seems reticent.
Sir Philip Sydenham—whose peculiarities in the matter of book-plates are elsewhere commented upon—in one of his first examples, dated in 1699, tells us his age: 'Sir Philip Sydenham, Bart., of Brympton in Somerset, and M.A. of the University of Cambridge, Æta. Suæ 23.' Richard Towneley in 1702 does the same. The inscription on his book-plate reads, as we see by the frontispiece:
'Ex libris Bibliothecæ Domesticæ Richardi Towneley de Towneley In Agro Lancastrensi Armigeri Anno {Ætatis: 73{Domini: 1702.'
One cannot help wondering why Mr. Towneley—the owner, and in a great part the collector, of the vast library with which the family name is connected—should have waited till he was seventy-three years of age to have a book-plate engraved. Some of the volumes in that library had a curious stamp in silver of the Towneley arms, with the date 1603 on their bindings, but there does not seem to have been an earlier book-plate. Richard Towneley died at York in 1707. Besides being an astronomer and amathematician, he was a keen antiquary; and Thoresby, the historian of Leeds, tells us of the pride with which he showed him a wondrous and just completed pedigree of the Towneley family, on the occasion of their meeting during the year in which the book-plate was engraved.
'John Fenwick of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Attorneyat Law,' leaves us in ignorance as to his age at the time his book-plate was engraved, because he does not date it; but he states that he was 'born at Hexham, 14th April 1787,' and 'married at Alnwick, 9th June 1814.'
One lady—and only one—lets us into what, with those of her sex, is usually a secret. Isabel de Menezes inscribes her book-plate by Bartolozzi (seep. 94), 'Ætatis 71 anno 1798.'
I have given, in this chapter, no foreign examples of book-plates on which minute personal particulars appear; but some of the examples of which I have spoken elsewhere—notably the Flemish book-plate of Count vander Noot—will show that they exist.
LADIES' BOOK-PLATES
Thereseem to be really several good and logical reasons why we should separate, for consideration by themselves, the book-plates which have been used by ladies. To mention two: there are certain differences (such as the shape of the shield in which the arms are borne) which, by the rigid laws of heraldry, ought to appear on these book-plates when belonging to a maid or widow; moreover, ladies' book-plates, though sometimes mere printed labels, are generally more fanciful in design than the majority of those owned by the sterner sex.
The whole subject of ladies' book-plates has been so exhaustively treated by Miss Norna Labouchere that it need not take up much space in the present chapter. When, however, in this work, Miss Labouchere asks where are book-plates of the English feminine bibliophiles of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries—Dame Juliana Berners, Margaret Roper, Lady Jane Grey, Mary Stuart, and the ladies of Little Gidding—the answer, I am afraid, is: they had none. Had they possessed them, they would, in this book-plate-spying age, have been discovered.
Bath'sLADY BATH'S BOOK-PLATE.
But, be it said to the credit of the ladies, some of theearliest dated English book-plates belonged to them. It is true these are merely name-tickets, such as that of Elizabeth Pindar, 1608, in the Bagford Collection, kindly pointed out to me by Mr. W. Y. Fletcher; but the fact of their existence deserves notice, because it shows the readiness of the fair sex to lay hold of a new fashion; and having a book-plate in the early years of the seventeenth century was a new fashion, at least in England.
The first Armorial ladies' book-plate is that of the Countess-Dowager of Bath, already very fully described. I will only add that readers who refer back to what I have said about her matrimonial arrangements (videp. 38), will see that she is heraldically accurate in not bearing her arms in a lozenge. The laws of heraldry do not allow ladies, while married, to place their arms in lozenge-shaped shields; and this fact enables some feminine book-plate owners to demonstrate the possession of a virtue which women are often taxed with lacking—economy. Ladies frequently made the same designs do duty as their own book-plates which had served for their husbands. But, according to Miss Labouchere, the husband sometimes used his wife's book-plate; for the book-plates—identical, save for the inscriptions—of the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort, Lord and Lady Roos, and some others, show, on examination, that the words indicative of ownership by the lady have been erased, and over-engraved by those indicative of possession by her lord.
The lozenge really looks very well on a book-plate;and lends itself readily to the decoration usually bestowed upon it. Take, for instance, that of Dame Anne Margaretta Mason, dated in 1701. Her maiden name was Long, and the shield shows us Mason impaling Long. Lady Mason's is a fair sample of a lady's book-plate of that date. The arms are contained in a lozenge, set in a Jacobean frame, which is lined with scale work, and adorned with ribbons and leafy sprays. There is no motto-scroll, but the name bracket comes up close to the base of the design (see alsop. 52).
Indeed it may be said that the Jacobean style of ornamentation is that best suited to ladies' book-plates, especially when the arms are depicted on a lozenge-shaped shield. The book-plate of the 'Hon. Anne North,' by Simon Gribelin, is another instance to prove this. I do not think that Chippendale decoration suits them at all, and, in the use of ornaments of that style, Englishwomen were as immoderate as Englishmen. Lady Lombe's book-plate, designed in the later days of Chippendalism, is quite appalling from its over-ornamentation. The wreath of ribbon, or festoon, style of the close of the last century is more suitable for ladies' book-plates, and some very charming examples are known; equally suitable, it seems to me, would have been the picture or landscape style—the style in which, at the close of the last century, Bewick, and some few other English artists, were working with conspicuous success, and it seems strange that the ladies of Great Britain did not adopt it more extensively.
When we come to modern times we find ladies have run as wild as their lords over book-plates; there is the same peculiarity, the same mysticism, the same inappropriateness for book-plates in the designs of many book-plates offin de siècleEnglish ladies. The few really artistic and appropriate book-plates stand out in marked contrast in Miss Labouchere's excellent little book, and amongst them may be noted Lady Mayo's, designed in 1894 by Mr. Anning Bell, which shows us a musician and a songstress within a frame composed of spring flowers and the national emblem of Ireland.
But let us go back a little in date, and look at a ladies' book-plate designed in the Allegoric style; what more striking example could be found than that furnished by George Vertue's charming piece of work engraved for Lady Oxford?
Countess of Oxford and Mortimer's bookplate
It represents the interior of the library either at Brampton or Welbeck, probably the latter, which was Lady Oxford's own inheritance. Through a doorway, flanked by Corinthian columns, the curtain in front of which is drawn back, we obtain a view of a country house standing back in a well-kept park; a river crossed by a three-arched bridge meanders through this. But it is the occupants of the room that call for most attention. The prominent figure is that of Minerva, who has laid aside her arms, and stands sandalled and helmeted. She is busily engaged in instructing six cupids, who appear to be industriously following her injunctions. One of theseis painting in oils, with an easel before him and a palette on his thumb; the goddess with her left hand points out some defect in his work, and apparently explains how it may be remedied. Another cupid plays the harp; two more sit on the frame of the design, weaving flowing festoons; another, also on the frame, near a celestial globe, copies the picture of a flute-playing satyr which a sixth cupid holds in position.
On the frame which surrounds the picture sit two figures—one of which is Mercury, with caduceus and winged hat—who act as supporters to a medallion bearing Lady Oxford's monogram; above is an urn, and from the sides fall bunches of grapes. Below the design is engraved 'Henrietta Cavendish Holles, Oxford and Mortimer. Given me by'—and then the donor's name and last two figures of the date, filled in by Lady Oxford herself.
Lady Oxford was the sole heiress of John Holles, last Duke of Newcastle of the Holles family, and was the wife of Edward, second Earl of Oxford, son of Queen Anne's minister, and the continuator and completor of the Harleian collections. Vertue's love of studying all kinds of antiquities brought him, at an early date, into contact with Lord Oxford, who proved one of his warmest patrons. The artist himself speaks of 'the Earl's generous and unparalleled encouragement of my undertakings.' Harley would take his friend with him on his various 'hunting' tours in England, getting him to sketch the numerous objects of interest that they came across. No wonderthat the Earl's death, in 1741, was a heavy loss, in every way, to George Vertue.
It is noteworthy that there is no trace of heraldry in this remarkable book-plate. Book-plates free from anything armorial were not the rule in England in 1730, and Vertue was certainly proficient in heraldic engraving, or ought to have been so, since his earliest task in life was engraving coats of arms on plate, and his second engagement was with Michael Vandergucht, who, we know, executed a good deal of armorial work. It is probable, therefore, that the idea of the book-plate was Lady Oxford's own.
From this delightful specimen of a lady's book-plate in which heraldry is entirely absent, we may appropriately turn our attention to two examples which combine heraldry with a fanciful design—the book-plates of Lady Pomfret and the Honourable Mrs. Damer. The first of these is that which 'S. W.,' probably Samuel Wale, the Royal Academician, engraved for 'The RtHonbleHenrietta Louisa Jeffreys, Countess of Pomfret, Lady of the Bed-chamber to Queen Caroline,' and is a very unusual piece of work, both in shape, design, and heraldry. There is a clear indication of 'Chippendaleism' about the shield and sprays of flowers and leaves, which is certainly curious in view of what we must consider the approximate date of the book-plate; but the arms are in a Jacobean frame, which stands in a garden. On one side we have a cupid bearing aloft the lady's family crest, and on the other the husband's crest andhelmet, situated just within the opening of a tent. Lady Pomfret was the granddaughter of JamesII.'s infamous Lord Chancellor. She married Lord Pomfret in 1720, and was Lady of the Bed-chamber to Queen Caroline from 1713 to 1737, so that we are enabled to fix the date of this plate within seventeen years, indeed, probably within four years, for she had a less ambitious, and no doubt earlier, book-plate engraved for her, which bears the date 1733.
As might be expected, the book-plate of 'Selina, Countess of Huntingdon,' forms a striking contrast to that last described. Here we have a plain representation of a coat of arms in a lozenge, and supported in the orthodox manner. No cupids or other vanities intrude themselves into this sombre and coarsely executed work, which may be dated, after the owner became a widow, in 1746, and therefore, after her 'call'—which is, I believe, the correct expression for a sudden conversion to the form of religion she embraced.
Probably of about the same date as Lady Huntingdon's book-plate is that of another famous woman of her day, Lady Betty Germain, about whom Swift has plenty to say in hisJournal to Stella. On this book-plate a somewhat funereal effect is produced by the dark background, against which is the lozenge containing the arms Berkeley impaling Germain; but the ornamentation of the lozenge, of the name-scroll, and of the frame enclosing the design, is light and elegant. Poor Lady Betty! she had a good dealto live down: her girlhood had not been so moral as it might have been, and the Duchess of Marlborough did her best to make her friend's misfortunes as public as possible. But for all that, Elizabeth Berkeley made a good match in point of money, marrying—as his second wife—Sir John Germain, a soldier of fortune and repute. He left her a widow in 1718, with Drayton as her home and a vast fortune. Her widowhood lasted very nearly fifty years, during which she gave away large sums in charity, as well as spending them on amassing curios: these, in 1763, Walpole went to look at, and admired.
But we have been digressing, and have notyetspoken about the second of the two book-plates just now mentioned, that of the Hon. Mrs. Damer, which, in design and execution, certainly surpasses any ladies' book-plate yet noticed; it is really a beautiful picture. First let me speak of Mrs. Damer and her surroundings; her book-plate becomes the more interesting as we call these to mind. The daughter of Field-Marshal Henry Seymour Conway, she made for herself, at an early age, a name, both in England and Italy, as an accomplished sculptress. From infancy—she was born in 1749—she was the pet of Horace Walpole, and throughout her life his intimate friend, living, after her husband's[14]suicide, close to him at Strawberry Hill, which he bequeathed to her by his will, and where, by the way, the work of her artistic fingers might be seen in profusion. Friends of herself and ofWalpole were Robert Berry and his daughters Mary and Agnes—'my twin wives,' Walpole calls them. Mrs. Damer's book-plate is the work of the latter of these two ladies—Walpole's 'sweet lamb, Agnes.' It shows us a kneeling female figure, pointing to a newly-cut inscription on a block of stone, 'Anna Damer';[15]above is a shield bearing the arms of Damer, with those of Seymour-Conway on an escutcheon of pretence, and on the right and left of this are elegantly drawn dogs. The work was engraved by Francis Legat, and is dated '1793.' Miss Mary Berry's book-plate has been already spoken of (p. 177).
As an illustration to this chapter on ladies' book-plates, I have taken one which is both artistic and interesting, from the fact that it shows us—in the figure contemplating the bust—what is presumably a picture of the owner. I fear, however, that proof of its authenticity as a likeness sufficient to allow of its incorporation as a 'Portrait' book-plate (seepp. 216-220) will not be forthcoming; but whether it is one or not, it is certainly a pleasing book-plate. Frances Anne Acland, the owner, was born in 1736, became the wife of Richard Hoare of Barne Elms in 1761 and thus stepmother to Richard Colt Hoare, the future antiquary and the historian of Wiltshire; she died in the year 1800, and was buried at Beckenham.
Frances Anne Hoare's
But all that has been said, so far, concerns the book-plates of English women. Foreign dames ofvarious nationalities, and our feminine cousins across the Atlantic (seep. 150), have made a very generous use of these marks of book-possession. French women of the eighteenth century have, as the reader of Miss Labouchere's interesting pages on this part of her subject will see, for the most part, used book-stamps, many of the most beautiful French bindings gaining an additional interest and beauty from the coats of arms of their fair owners impressed upon them. There are, however, a fairly large number of book-plates known which have belonged to French women, or, at all events, to women resident in France, and amongst them one to which attaches pathetic interest from the tragic fate of its owner. I mean that of the Princesse de Lamballe, who fell a victim to her attachment to the reigning house of France during the revolting massacres of 1792.
There are such things as 'joint' book-plates—book-plates which have belonged both to husbands and wives. We meet with some such in England, though not at a very early date; but in Germany they exist as far back as 1605. In England the first example, only a printed label, is in 1737—'Mr. Thomas and Mrs. Anne Pain.' Examples of this dual ownership occur frequently in modern book-plates.
For other points of interest in and about ladies' book-plates the reader must consult Miss Labouchere's work; all I will do, in concluding my remarks upon them, is to say that—as might perhapsbe expected—in phrases of book-possession ladies are even more outspoken than gentlemen; few, however, are so much so as Lady Dorothy Nevill, who protects her books with the words 'stolen from' placed before her name: surely she can be no more troubled by borrowers than was the Cavalier Macciucca (videp. 171).
THE MORE PROMINENT ENGRAVERS OF ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES
William Marshallheads our list of engravers of English book-plates. We know of but one specimen of his work, but it is exceedingly fine—the anonymous plate of the Lyttelton family, described onp. 32. Marshall's works are dated between 1591 and 1646. Next after him comes the well-known engraver of portraits, William Faithorne (b. 1633; d. 1691), whose Portrait book-plate of Bishop Hacket is figured opposite. David Loggan, the engraver of the Isham book-plates in 1676, is the artist next on our roll. How many book-plates he designed and engraved I do not know, but there are two or three early English examples which, in their arrangement and touch, resemble somewhat closely his work for Isham.
Hacket's
About this same date Michael Burghers was engraving book-plates in England; he appears to have left Holland in 1672, and to have settled in Oxford. The earliest book-plate of his that I have seen is that of Thomas Gore, already described; perhaps he found the allegory with which he embellished it was not popular with Englishmen, andhis other book-plates—we know of two or three—are in the 'Simple Armorial' style usual in English book-plates of the period. Lord De Tabley suggests that Christopher Sartorius, who worked at Nuremberg between 1674 and 1737, may be connected with the James Sartor who signed a fine English 'Jacobean' book-plate at the opening of the eighteenth century; of this James we know nothing except this piece of work, which is certainly good. After Sartor comes John Pine, whose pompous book-plate, engraved about the year 1736, to commemorate GeorgeI.'s gift of books to the University of Cambridge, has been described and figured (p. 75). He was born in 1690, and died in 1756. His engravings of the Tapestry in the House of Commons became so popular, that he was the subject of a special Act of Parliament securing to him the emoluments arising from the sale of the work. Pine, as we have seen, engraved other book-plates later on in the century.
Michael Vandergucht, the famous Antwerp engraver, was also working in England before the close of the seventeenth century, but his first book-plate is dated in 1716. This was engraved for Sir William Fleming, of Rydal, and is in many respects a striking piece of work. The style is quite English of the period: heavy mantling descends to the base of the shield; but the inscription—'The Paternal Arms of Sir William Fleming of Rydal in the county of Westmoreland, Baronet,' with a description of the heraldry—savours much of being the work of aforeigner. It should be mentioned of this artist that he was pupil of one of the many Boutats who were active as engravers of foreign book-plates. He (Vandergucht) died in Bloomsbury in 1725.
After him we may appropriately mention his principal pupil—George Vertue. His most conspicuous book-plate is certainly that of Lady Oxford, which is already familiar to the reader.
Simon Gribelin is well known as a book-illustrator, and finds frequent mention by Walpole. He was born at Blois in 1661, came to England when nineteen, and worked here till his death in 1733. Perhaps the earliest book-plate he engraved is that of Sir Philip Sydenham, which shows us the shield and crest encircled with snakes and other ornaments,—a book-plate decidedly foreign in appearance, though Gribelin must have been nearly twenty years in England when it was engraved. He did two other book-plates for Sir Philip. He also engraved some of the Parochial Library plates described later on (pp. 225-227), and some others.
Musgrave's
Though 'J. Skinner'[16](seepp. 81-86), an engraver who worked at Bath, does not find mention in any dictionary of engravers, yet he deserves notice from the student of book-plates for the great quantity of his work in that field—nearly all dated, and some really very excellent. Of Skinner, Lord De Tabley writes:—'I would gladly learn some biographical details'; buthe failed to find any, and I have been equally unfortunate. At the British Museum there is no Bath newspaper or directory sufficiently early to contain either an advertisement by Skinner or a mention of his place of residence; in theBath Directoryof 1812 the name is represented by two grocers, a publican, a gardener, and one private resident—a Miss Skinner who lived at 3 St. James's Parade. Sir Wollaston Franks tells me that, amongst the engravers who vouched for the perfection ofSympson's New Book of Cypher—'the most perfect and neatest drawn of any performance of the kind hitherto extant'—was one Jacob Skinner, and it is very likely this was our friend the engraver of book-plates, who laboured at Bath from 1739 to 1753. He worked in three successive styles of English book-plate engraving—the Armorial, the Jacobean, and the Chippendale; a fact which renders his plates of special interest to collectors, since it enables them to see how the same hand treats the succeeding styles when fully developed, and during their gradual change from one style into the other. His earliest dated book-plate that we know is that for the library of Sir Christopher Musgrave (figured opposite), and the next, five years later, that of 'John Conyers of Walthamstow in Essex, Esq.' Here the ornamentation is quite Jacobean; the shield is oval, with wing-like excrescences at the top and on either side—that at the top forming a background to the helmet which supports the crest. Next year (1738) Skinner produced the book-plateof 'Francis Carington, Esq., of Wotton, Warwickshire'—in appearance even earlier than that of Musgrave. Some of this early appearance is perhaps due to an absence of indication of the tinctures on the shield—a habit which, as we shall presently see, Skinner followed in one or two other instances. A slight mantling falls from an esquire's helmet and descends a little way down the shield till it joins the Jacobean scroll-work, and the owner's name and description are upon a fringed cloth. But the feature to note in this book-plate is the monogrammatic form of the engraver's signature: 'JS symbol.' It is the first time he uses it, and in his subsequent dated work he appears always to have adopted some similar form, this being the most frequent:—'JS symbol.kinr.'