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 11 
 
OMPARATIVELY speaking the designs of 
 Mr* Bird show a marked tendency towards the 
 photogravure or copper plate rather than the 
 zinc etching. The primary motive of all artists 
 is to have their work reproduced in a manner 
 best calculated to bring out truthfully the va- 
 rious details of the design, and the photogravure 
 process seems to be perhaps the best method, as, 
 if the drawing is in wash it will give the same 
 subdued coloring, with a certain richness in the 
 tones, or if in pen and ink will, while giving the 
 bright line of the pen, add to it a softness that 
 is approached by no other method except pos- 
 sibly by the dry point etching. Two of his de- 
 signs have been engraved on copper and make 
 very handsome finished plates, but in both cases 
 the feeling of the design instilled from the indi- 
 viduality of the artist is lost through hand en- 
 graving by another who has consciously or un- 
 consciously incorporated more or less of his own 
 
idcsLS into the design in the rendition of the artist's ^ - 
 
 color, which in the original drawing was in wash 
 while in the finished engraved plate it h hatched 
 without the fine gradation of color which the 
 original called for. This can be readily seen 
 by glancing over the plates shown in the fol- 
 lowing pages ; take any of the photogravures, 
 for instance, and compare it with the Whiting 
 plate, and it will at once be seen that the indi- 
 viduality of the artist is somewhat lessened and 
 merged into that of the engraver, the mere shell 
 of the artist's work remaining, while the engrav- 
 er is practically but the reproducer, in much the 
 same manner as is the photo-engraven 
 
 By this I do not mean to say that a design 
 cannot be executed in an acceptable manner. 
 The Whiting plate is a beautiful piece of engrav- 
 ing, and shows the hand of a master in this 
 respect, but it does not reflect the full individ- 
 uality and color effect of the artist's original 
 drawing, rather it gives one the impression that 
 it had been engraved from a pen and ink design 
 which had very little color in it. 
 
 The foregoing does not mean that Mr, Bird 
 draws only for the photogravure process and 
 engraved copper plate. That is merely his 
 preference, and not everybody cares to go to the 
 expense of a copper plate, but must be contented 
 
with a zinc etching, of which there arc some 
 few in the following pages* 
 
 Mr. Bird is really a decorative artist as distin- 
 guished from an illustrative artist. All his 
 designs have a strong decorative feeling, as well 
 as his lettering* The designs all exude decor- 
 ation, but without being flagrant ; his idea of 
 this is that decoration has a definite place in a 
 book-plate if only for its enriching power, if 
 not used in such a way as to make the salient 
 features of the design subservient to it. The 
 application of this can best be seen in the plates 
 for Frank Wood, Charles H. Taylor, Harold 
 D. Holmes and some others. 
 
 In a cursory glance over the book-plate field 
 here in America it seems to me that the plates 
 are largely the work of so-called decorative de- 
 signers, most of whose work is strictly in the 
 mercantile line, and it is a question whether a 
 man the bulk of whose work is for mercantile 
 purposes can be as effective in the designing of 
 book-plates which require idealism and person- 
 ality, as well as strong inventive powers. From 
 the knowledge that I have of the plates of this 
 country, I should take the negative side, with 
 but few exceptions. It must be borne in mind, 
 however, that the artist is not always free to 
 use his own ideas on a plate, but is hampered by 
 
too many suggfestions from the prospective own- 
 er* In this connection compare the plate of 
 Frank Wood with the landscape plate of the 
 writer* In the former, the designer was held 
 down to certain things, the ttse of the books, in 
 their peculiar position, the arms and quotation, 
 etc*, while in my plate there were no suggestions 
 from me whatever, and the result is that as an 
 artistic book-plate it is one of the best if not the 
 best Mr*Bird has made* There is a freedom about 
 it and a sincerity quite refreshing, and it is per- 
 sonal in the introduction of the woodland dale, 
 the reader in the fork of the tree and the jester 
 fooling with art* The Wood plate is not so 
 free and lacks the life of the other* There is 
 no necessity for laborious displays of books on 
 a book-plate, and Mr* Bird has not introduced 
 them except where compelled to do so by the 
 owner, or as an ornamentation, as in the Holmes 
 plate* The lettering on all the plates is pretty 
 much the same, but it is readable which is the 
 principal thing; freakish letters have no proper 
 place on a book-plate* 
 
 Mr* Bird is a Boston man, and a graduate of 
 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and 
 from his experience there gained his first knowl- 
 edge of light and shade, the handling of color, 
 and systems of pen work* After his graduation 
 
he became head designer fot the Boston Photo- 
 gtavure Gjmpany and later was with the Art 
 Publishing Company, which he left to go into 
 business for himselL His first large order was 
 the embellishment of '^Famous Composers and 
 Their Work*^ 
 
 While at the Institute he was always asso- 
 ciated with the college publications, and has 
 assisted in the illustration, and superintended the 
 issue of many college annuals throughout the 
 country* During the recent poster craze he was 
 one of the foremost designers, his bold style be- 
 ing very convincing* He has also an enviable 
 reputation as a cartoonist, being at the head of 
 this branch of art on football matters* 
 
 His ideas in book-plate making are to get 
 away from the old rectangular shape and gen- 
 eral ideas taken by most designers and turn out 
 something new both in shape and handling of 
 the subject. 
 
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