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Concerning Book Plates 
 
 THEODORE W. KOCH 
 
 Preprinted fri 
 
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Concerning Book Plates 
 
 THEODORE W. KOCH 
 
 Preprinted from 
 
 BlBLIOGSAfHICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA — PaPEM, Vol. DC, NoS. 1-2, I9IS 
 
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CONCERNING BOOK PLATES 
 
 BY THEODORE W. KOCH 
 Librarian, University of Michigan 
 
 A BOOK plate has been described as a name plate 
 **■ decorated, not a decoration defaced by a name plate. 
 The essential point is that it is a name-label, a means of 
 identification for lost, strayed, or stolen volumes. Con- 
 sequently anonymous book plates are anomalous. This 
 name-label may be printed or engraved and the name 
 may be expressed heraldically or otherwise, but its prime 
 object is, or was, when pasted inside the covers of a book 
 or added to its title or fly-leaves, to proclaim the owner- 
 ship of the book. 
 
 The origin of the book plate is found in the desire of the 
 owner of a book to retain possession of his property. 
 Many estimable people find a difficulty in distinguishing 
 between mine and thine in books as well as in umbrellas. 
 Therefore, both should be marked for identification. 
 
 Books in the early libraries were chained. When they 
 became cheaper and multiplied rapidly, the chains were 
 done away with, but marks of ownership were placed 
 either inside the covers or on the covers of books to 
 prevent their straying. The marks of ownership on the 
 covers usually consisted of monograms or coats-of-arms 
 done in gold on the leather sides, and there are many 
 ornate bindings in which such devices, called super 
 libros, have been most attractively tooled. As books 
 
 306997 
 
Bibliographical Society of America 
 
 in the early libraries were laid flat on their sides, these 
 devices showed up most efifectively. 
 
 The book plate, like the printed book, had its origin 
 in Germany. Both date from the middle of the fifteenth 
 century. Albrecht . Diirer is known actually to have 
 engraved six plates between 1503 and 15 16, and to have 
 made designs for many others. Most of the larger and 
 more wealthy monasteries used more than one plate. 
 The advent of each new lord abbot was celebrated by the 
 creation of a new plate for the library. With indi- 
 viduals it grew out of the various armorial bearings of 
 the family. Frederick August, duke of Brunswick-6ls, 
 had, in 1789, sixteen plates. More recently, Count 
 Leiningen-Westerburg had twenty-one plates, all in use, 
 and the Countess had eight for her own use. I have no 
 data as to the size of the family library. The Count 
 was an authority on the subject of book plates, had 
 written a book on German ex-libris, and many of the 
 twenty-nine different plates used by him and his wife 
 were complimentary plates from well-known artists. 
 
 A book plate is in no sense a part of the book. Its 
 removal can be ordinarily effected without harming the 
 book in any way. Many book plates are removed in 
 order to give place to the new owner's plate, or to add to 
 the collector's store. The ethics of this procedure has 
 been questioned. It must be granted that there are cases 
 when it would be almost an act of vandalism to remove 
 a book plate, as in the case of a certain copy of the first 
 edition of Pope's Dunciad, 1729, well preserved in the 
 

 
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Concerning Book Plates 
 
 original binding, with the Chippendale book plate of 
 David Hume, above which is the autograph signature 
 of John Home, the oldest friend and executor of Hume. 
 Remove the historian's book plate and the chain of asso- 
 ciation linking Pope, Hume, and Home is broken. A 
 collector who would remove a coat-of-arms stamped in 
 gold on the leather or vellum binding of a fine old book 
 has been compared to the miser depicted by Hogarth 
 in the act of cutting from the cover of the family Bible 
 a piece of leather with which to mend his shoe. Book 
 plates have not always been regarded as giving added 
 value to the books they adorn. A writer in 1757, in 
 speaking of a library ofifered for sale, says: "The books 
 are in good order, and are little the worse for use, and have 
 no arms in the best of them." 
 
 Book plates, being intended to go into books, must 
 appeal to book-lovers and will continue to interest those 
 who like fine books well bound and properly cared for. 
 The man who is insensible to the influence of a good book 
 plate is probably insensible to the claims of good printing, 
 the beauty of good book-making, and all the seductions 
 to which the bibliophile yields himself. Putting a har- 
 moniously designed, well-executed plate into a book 
 shows that the owner thinks enough of it to treat it with 
 respect. "I urge upon all lovers of books to provide 
 themselves with book plates," said Eugene Field. 
 "Whenever I see a book that bears its owner's plate, I 
 feel myself obligated to treat that book with special 
 consideration. It carries with it a certificate of its 
 
Bibliographical Society of America 
 
 master's love; the book plate gives the volume a certain 
 status it would not otherwise have." 
 
 Miss Agnes Repplier says that when she was a girl she 
 had access to a small and well-chosen library, each volume 
 of which was provided with a book plate containing a 
 scaly dragon guarding the apples of Hesperides, and the 
 motto "Honor and obligation demand the prompt 
 return of borrowed books." These words, she con- 
 tinues, ate into her innocent soul and lent a pang to the 
 sweetness of possession. Doubts as to the exact nature 
 of "prompt return" made her painfully uncertain as 
 to whether a month, a week, or a day was the limit which 
 honor and obligation had set for her. Other and older 
 borrowers were, however, less sensitive and, books being 
 a rarity in that little southern town, most of the volumes 
 were eventually absorbed by the gaping shelves of 
 neighbors, where perhaps some may still be found, 
 "forgotten in dark and dusty corners, like gems that 
 magpies hide." 
 
 "Some people have an instinctive aversion to anything 
 plated," said a recent writer in the Contributors' Club 
 of the Atlantic Monthly, adding that he disliked plated 
 books. He saw no apology for the person addicted to the 
 substitution of a book plate for his genuine signature 
 and was sure that no man with poetry in his soul would 
 use a plate to record his ownership of a volume. "To 
 establish that immortal communication between author 
 and reader, that sense of intimate personal relation," 
 said he, " the reader must not refuse the author his hand^ 
 
Concerning Book Plates 
 
 and try to meet him, as it were, by proxy." "A book 
 plate," in the mind of this critic, "indicates a certain 
 love of ostentation. Is it fitting," he asks, "that an 
 individual should suggest that his library is so volumi- 
 nous that he cannot undertake the physical fatigue of 
 writing his name in each book he possesses? Public 
 Hbraries, large and abstract collections, may make use 
 of this mechanical means of identifying property, but 
 the private library should be more modest, more 
 personal." 
 
 The defender of the book plate will answer that there 
 is a decided objection to having names written into books, 
 especially modem books, where the ink is almost sure to 
 run and produce a blurred result. An autograph is 
 usually inconspicuous and, with poor penmanship, it 
 is ineffective. Unless it be in ink on the title-page, it is 
 more easily removed than the book plate. The latter is 
 the silent witness against the book thief. "To have a 
 book plate," says Edmund Gosse, "gives a collector great 
 serenity and confidence." A book plate not only testi- 
 fies to the owner's appreciation of his books, but, if of 
 his own choosing, also reflects something of his character. 
 A good book plate gives also a certain unity to what 
 might otherwise be a very miscellaneous library. 
 
 The use of coats-of-arms as an indication of ownership 
 was very common in bygone days. Arms were cut in 
 stone on the front of a house to indicate the family name 
 of the owners, carved in furniture, woven in hangings, 
 or engraved on the family silver, to carry out the same 
 
Bibliographical Society of America 
 
 idea within the house, or emblazoned on the family- 
 carriage to declare to the world at large who it was that 
 was going forth on one errand or another. Originally 
 the arms would not have the name appended. When 
 a knowledge of heraldry was widespread the addition of 
 the name to a coat-of-arms was unnecessary. The arms 
 were as well known as the family name; ill fact, it was the 
 name heraldically expressed. Many retainers who could 
 not read could easily recognize the family coat-of-arms. 
 So, in the earliest armorial book plates, the arms alone 
 were engraved. The names appear only in the later 
 plates. ' v . 
 
 In the simple armorial plates, up to about 1720, the 
 shield is surmounted by a helmet on which are the wreath 
 'and crest. With the decay of J^eraldry, more and more 
 attention was paid to the ornamentation or mantling 
 and eventually the heraldic interest became of very minor 
 importance. 
 
 Some collectors limit their attention to armorial plates, 
 as others limit their interests to those of other periods, 
 or to those by special designers. Armorial plates are 
 in questionable taste for most American families. The 
 use of them reminds one of a question put to a certain 
 gentleman who had assumed what appeared to be a 
 veritable coat-of-arms. "Are those really your arms?" 
 he was asked. "They ought to be," was the reply, 
 "for I made them myself." 
 
 I know of librarians who scoff at the idea of a book 
 plate, and many people smile at those who take a serious 
 

 
Concerning Book Plates 
 
 interest in collecting book plates. A writer in the London 
 Daily News stirred up a "tempest in a tea-pot" some 
 twenty years ago by an article entitled "The Burden of 
 Book Plates." "Let infancy froUc and senile fatuity 
 count its two-penny treasures," said this scribe, "but 
 why, of all things, collect book plates? Are there not 
 door-knockers which a man may collect, or visiting cards 
 of all ages, or muflSn bells, or old books, or political walk- 
 ing sticks, or the decayed hairbrushes of celebrities, all 
 of which are instructive and amusing, compared to book 
 plates?" Mr. Hardy writes about the propriety of 
 reinoving book plates from books "for the purpose of 
 study and comparison." "Study ^nd comparison of 
 warming pans ! Even an old warming pan is an enviable 
 piece of portable property compared with a book plate. 
 .... It seems about as agreeable a possession as an 
 old postage stamp." Well, we know of those who put 
 a great deal of time, money, and enthusiasm into the 
 collecting of postage stamps and dignify their hobby by 
 calling it philately. The collector of ex-libris is not to 
 be lightly put aside. He is only one kind of a biblio- 
 phile. Anyone with a hobby is to be envied, not de- 
 rided. "Here lies Smith, who was nothing, not even a 
 collector of postage stamps," would not be the epitaph 
 of a cheerful man. 
 
 The size of a collector's library, it must be confessed, 
 is usually in inverse ratio to the number of personal plates 
 which he owns. An amateur with too many individual 
 plates is to be looked upon with suspicion. "A fool and 
 
lo Bibliographical Society of America 
 
 his book plate are soon parted," said Thomas Bailey 
 Aldrich, in characterizing those who have a book plate 
 primarily for purposes of exchange with other collectors. 
 There are collectors who have had new plates made or new 
 impressions of old plates struck off on a different colored 
 paper, expressly for the purpose of adding another plate 
 to their exchange list. They resemble the Central and 
 South American principalities which have new issues of 
 postage stamps struck off every little while, seemingly 
 for the purposes of revenue through their sale to collectors. 
 It is this class of collectors who have brought down some 
 of the more severe criticisms upon the whole subject of 
 ex-libris collecting. 
 
 Then, too, there have been unprincipled dealers who 
 have attached ex-libris (generally counterfeits or reprints) 
 to inferior volumes in order to promote their sale. The 
 plate of George Washington is thus far the only American 
 one thought worthy of counterfeiting. Some years ago 
 a number of volumes purporting to have come from 
 Washington's library were offered for sale at auction. 
 They all had what claimed to be his book plate, but a 
 comparison of it with the original showed it to be clearly 
 a forgery. The purpose of the forger was defeated by 
 the cheat being cried out in the auction room. 
 
 The natural desire to protect his own book property 
 is seen in the schoolboy, who is given to writing the 
 simplest form of an ex-libris on the fly-leaf of his text- 
 book: "Bill Jones, his book." This plain statement of 
 fact is elaborated into a variety of forms. The following 
 
Concerning Book Plates ii 
 
 is copied from an old schoolbook found in Canterbury, 
 England: 
 
 This book is mine 
 
 By right divine 
 
 And if so be, it go astray 
 
 Please be so kind 
 
 My desk to find 
 
 And stow it safe away. 
 
 Schoolboys in old England were fond of inscribing in 
 their books these verses : 
 
 Steale not this book for fear of shame 
 For here you see ye owner hys name 
 And when you dye ye Lord will sa;^ 
 Where is that boke you stole away ? 
 Then if you saye, you cannot telle, 
 Ye Lorde will saye, then go to helle. 
 
 Variant forms of versified prophecies of what will 
 happen to the book thief are quite plentiful. The follow- 
 ing was at one time popular with youths fond of scribbling 
 over the fly-leaves of their books: 
 
 My Master's name above you see. 
 Take heede ther fore you steale not mee; 
 For if you doe, without delay 
 Your necke for me shall pay. 
 Looke doune below and you shal see 
 The picture of the gallowstree; 
 Take heede ther fore of thys in time, 
 Lest on this tree you highly clime. 
 
12 Bibliographical Society of America 
 
 Another doggerel manuscript ex-libris used to be made 
 up in this fashion: 
 
 THIS BOOK 
 Belongs to 
 John Doe 
 
 If thou art borrowed by a friend, 
 
 Right welcome shall he be 
 To read, to study, not to lend, 
 
 But to return to me. 
 
 Not that imparted knowledge doth 
 
 Diminish learning's store; 
 But books, I find, if often lent, 
 
 Return to me no more. 
 
 Sometimes there was appended the following advice 
 and caution: 
 
 Read slowly, pause frequently, 
 
 Think seriously. 
 Keep cleanly, return duly. 
 With the corners of the leaves not turned down. 
 
 Some book-owners have gone to Scripture for their 
 book-plate inscriptions. Mr. George N. Noyes uses the 
 following: "And if a man borrow aught of his neighbor 
 and it is hurt he shall surely make it good" (Exod. 22 : 14). 
 An apprentice's library has used the following: "Take 
 fast hold of instruction, let her not go; keep her, for she 
 is thy life" (Prov. 4:13). 
 
 There is a wide range from the generous and 
 dignified legend on the plate of Grolier "Jo. Grolierii 
 
Concerning Book Plates 13 
 
 et Amicorum" (the property of John Grolier and his 
 friends) to such as: 
 
 I'm stingy grown 
 What's mine's my own. 
 
 An anonymous plate has: "This book was bought at 
 the sign of the Shakespeare Head. Borrowing neighbors 
 are recommended to supply themselves in the same 
 manner." 
 
 Dr. Holmes once said mottoes should be given in pairs 
 so that one might ofifset the other. I therefore give the 
 following as an antidote to the last quoted: 
 
 I'm not one of those selfish elves 
 Who keep their treasures to themselves. 
 I like to see them kept quite neat, 
 But not for moth or worm to eat. 
 Thus willingly to any friend 
 A book of mine I'll freely lend 
 Hoping they'll mind this good old mean, 
 Return it soon and keep it clean. 
 
 We have seen that the use of a book plate is no modern 
 fad, though the collecting of the book plates is of com- 
 paratively recent origin. Various interests center around 
 book plates. These might be listed as follows: 
 
 I. The personal interest. — ^This would be called forth 
 by the plates of such men as George Washington, 
 William Penn, Gladstone, Gambetta, Horace Walpole, 
 Samuel Pepys, David Garrick, Hogarth, Sir Henry Irving, 
 
14 Bibliographical Society of America 
 
 all of whom used book plates which have been reproduced 
 in the literature of the subject. 
 
 2. The genealogical interest. — This is exemplified par- 
 ticularly in the sequence of plates belonging to old fam- 
 ilies given to book-collecting for several generations. 
 
 3. The heraldic interest. — Heraldry is a conspicuous 
 element in the older plates, the majority of which are of 
 armorial design. In no way can one get a better or more 
 comprehensive survey of the changes in heraldic design. 
 
 4. The historical interest. — Something of the history 
 of engraving and the arts of illustration is sure to be 
 imbibed by those who dip into the history of book plates. 
 Even if one only learns to distinguish between a copper 
 plate and a steel engraving, an etching and a zinc plate, 
 he has acquired valuable information. When he is able 
 to distinguish between a Jacobean and a Chippendale 
 plate, he has made a considerable advance. Before long 
 the amateur is able to judge of the approximate date of a 
 plate and to characterize its style in proper fashion. A 
 dated plate may help to give definite information in regard 
 to the history of a particular style of engraving or design, 
 or otherwise throw light on the book it adorns. 
 
 5. Artistic interest. — Diirer, Holbein, Lucas Cranach 
 the younger, Piranesi, Bartolozzi, Hogarth, and Bewick, 
 among the old engravers, did not think the designing of 
 book plates beneath their dignity. Among modern 
 artists of note who have designed book plates, mention 
 may be made of Sir Frederick Leighton, Sir John Millais, 
 Aubrey Beardsley, Edwin A. Abbey, Miss Kate Greena- 
 
Concerning Book Plates 15 
 
 way, Walter Crane, Louis Rhead, and Randolph Calde- 
 cott. These names should sufl5ce to arrest the attention 
 of the carping critic, if only long enough to see how these 
 artists have handled the problem. Many plates by artists 
 of no great note are worthy of study on account of the 
 beauty of design or artistic workmanship. 
 
 In 1880 there appeared A Guide to the Study of Book 
 Plates, by the Hon. J. Leicester Warren, who later became 
 Lord de Tabley. In classifying book plates he divided 
 them into broad classes, such as Jacobean, Chippendale, 
 allegorical, and the like. His classification has been 
 accepted by later writers and is now so generally followed 
 that we must pause for a moment to study it. 
 
 The term Jacobean, as applied to a book plate, is some- 
 what misleading, but it is understood to mean the heavy 
 decorative style in vogue during the Restoration, Queen 
 Anne, and early Georgian days. This style was in vogue 
 approximately from 1700 to 1750. The book plate had 
 by that time become a recognized essential in a well- 
 ordered private or public library. The plates of the 
 period are armorial in type, the decoration is limited to 
 a symmetrical grouping of the mantling and an occasional 
 display of palms and wreaths. The mantling surrounds 
 the face of the shield as the periwig of the portraits of 
 the period surrounds the face of the subject. It springs 
 from either side of the helmet into elaborate patterns. 
 The manner had been imported from France but soon 
 assimied EngUsh characteristics of its own. The decora- 
 tion was conventional, remarkable for its soUdity rather 
 
1 6 Bibliographical Society of America 
 
 than its gracefulness. The design was strictly sym- 
 metrical, massive, and imposing from its heaviness. The 
 plates of the period have a carved appearance. 
 
 During the middle third of the eighteenth century a 
 flamboyant rococo style of engraving was in vogue which 
 was named Chippendale, after the designer of furniture, 
 many of the patterns in his books being reflected in the 
 book plates of the period. The distinguishing feature of 
 the Chippendale book plate is a fanciful arrangement of 
 scroll and shellwork with acanthus-like sprays. The 
 grouping was usually unsymmetrical so as to give a freer 
 scope for a great variety of counter-curves. Straight 
 and concentric lines were avoided. The Chippendale 
 plates are lacking in variety of design. The type was 
 in vogue only for a score of years, but during that time 
 it was the fashion in copper-plate engraving generally. 
 The characteristic of the style is the frilled border of open 
 scallop shellwork set close to the escutcheon, and more 
 or less inclosing it. George Washington's plate is a good 
 example of the Chippendale style. 
 
 The similarity of the Chippendale patterns reminds 
 one of the story of the traveling artist who was employed 
 by an innkeeper to paint a blue boar for a sign. "I'll 
 try the boar," said the man, "but I have never painted 
 anything else than a red lion, and so don't be surprised 
 if your blue boar turns into a red lion when I've done." 
 It seems equally impossible for the designer of a par- 
 ticular period to get away from the characteristics of 
 that period. 
 
Concerning Book Plates 17 
 
 During the latter third of the eighteenth century, new 
 styles were adopted by the engravers. Among these 
 mention may be made of the simple and chaste design 
 known as the ribbon and wreath style. Originahty began 
 to assert itself and a great variety of motifs appeared — 
 pastoral scenes, landscape effects, pictorial compositions, 
 and library interiors of all kinds. When steel engraving 
 came into use in the beginning of the nineteenth century, 
 it had the effect of continuing the formahty of the previous 
 century. It was also used later in connection with the 
 copper-plate designing, by furnishing the plate-maker 
 with a harder surface with which to cover the copper. 
 With the development of photo-mechanical processes in 
 the latter half of the century came greater freedom 
 and ease in the reproduction of the original sketch. 
 Etching had not only rivaled copper-plate engraving, 
 but had come to be used with it. Photo-engraving, or 
 the half-tone process, is hardly a legitimate means of 
 reproducing a book-plate design. While it is the most 
 common method of reproducing a photograph or wash 
 drawing, neither of these media furnishes satisfactory 
 designs for book plates, although they have sonletimes 
 been used fairly satisfactorily in connection with line 
 work. Line work is the basis of ninety-nine out of 
 every hundred book plates, whether done on copper, 
 steel, or zinc. 
 
 The success of an engraved plate depends, not only 
 on the skill of the designer, but also upon that of the 
 engraver. In the case of such men as C. W. Sherborn, 
 
1 8 Bibliographical Society of America 
 
 E. D. French, and J. W. Spenceley, both the design and 
 execution were done by themselves or under their close 
 supervision. This brings engraved plates by men of note 
 up to a high cost. Consequently recourse is had to 
 cheaper methods of reproduction, and the one most in 
 vogue is the zinc cut. The danger of this lies in its cheap- 
 ness. For a doUar or two one can have reproduced an 
 india-ink sketch by an amateur designer, and as there 
 are manv people with a cert-^m amount of skill in pen-and- 
 iiik drawing who are quite willing to present their friends 
 with what they think are appropriate designs for book 
 plates, there are a great many inside covers of books being 
 plastered over with cheap zinc cuts from cheap designs 
 that had better not have been perpetuated through this 
 or any other process. 
 
 Anyone who owns a book plate is likely to be interested 
 in the subject. So also is the person who hopes some day 
 to have his or her own book plate. The latter may wel- 
 come a few suggestions. A book plate ought not, accord- 
 ing to all precedent and the canons of good taste, to try to 
 rival a poster, or a book-wrapper, or ornate end papers. 
 It ought not to be much larger than two by three inches. 
 It should be small enough to go easily on the inside of the 
 cover of any volume without crowding. Japan vellum 
 or plate paper are good papers on which to print plates. 
 Too thick a paper is difficult to paste down. Do not 
 have the plates gummed. The name" should be clearly 
 drawn, not in hieroglyphics, and should not be run in 
 on the bias, nor in any fanciful way. 
 
Concerning Book Plates 19 
 
 The motif should be appropriate to the general run of 
 books the plate is to adorn. A jester is permissible in 
 the ex-libris of a comedian like Francis Wilson, but would 
 hardly be suitable for a philosophical library. Humorous 
 plates are in general to be avoided. The humor will be 
 sure to pall upon you and your friends. Designers are 
 often called upon to do things against their best judgment. 
 One designer was asked by a patron of considerable 
 avoirdupois to include in the plate he had ordered the 
 representation of an elephant, as that was the nickname 
 by which he was known among his friends. Another 
 wanted "a girl, with sandals on, standing by the sea, 
 over which the moonlight was streaming; bulrushes or 
 something in the foreground. And," he added, "give 
 me plenty of moonlight." 
 
 Portrait plates are not at all common. Most of those 
 that have been made date from the latter half of the 
 nineteenth century. Diirer's friend, Bilibald Pirkheimer, 
 is known to have had a plate of this kind which he pasted 
 on the back covers of his books. Good old Bishop John 
 Hacket, of Lichfield, presented a number of books to 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, in each of which was 
 pasted his portrait and the motto "Serve God and 
 be cheerful." 
 
 The tendency to overload a plate with details with a 
 view to suggesting the procUvities of the owner is to be 
 decried. As Mr. Charles Dexter Allen says, "One some- 
 times sees a plate that has so much of the life-history of 
 the owner within its small compass that at a glance it is 
 
20 Bibliographical Society of America 
 
 evident to all that he glories in golf, has a regard for 
 roses, rides a wheel, esteems Omar Khayyam very highly, 
 reads Scott and Lowell, can quote Shakespeare, has been 
 to Switzerland, collects butterflies, and lives in New 
 Jersey." 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
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