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AUBREY BEARDSLEY AS A 
 DESIGNER OF BOOK-PLATES 
 ^ ^ ^ BY A. E. GALLATIN 
 
 • •, 
 
 t . ) , > 
 
 
 London : Elkin Mathews : Mdccccii 
 Boston: Charles E. Peabody & Q). 
 
This foot-note to the bibliography of the book-plate 
 has been reprinted from the December, 1902, Reader 
 Magazine, and is copyrighted by The Reader Pub- 
 lishing Company. 
 
 UBRA«< 
 8CH00L 
 
AUBREY BEARDSLEY AS A 
 DESIGNER OF BOOK-PLATES 
 
 f 
 : ; - , r . C , ,. „ 
 
 . . . •« 8 > • 
 
 lO arttst- has shbwrf 
 greaXef versatility 
 in his work than 
 Aubrey Beardsley^ 
 His designs include illustra- 
 tions for many of the classics, 
 scenes from the operas, purely 
 decorative drawings, portraits, 
 posters, caricatures, drawings 
 keenly satirical, book-covers, 
 title-pages,book-plates» Know- 
 ing that he was a musical prod- 
 igy, an amateur actor, the 
 writer of considerable prose 
 and poetry of much merit, and 
 
 3 
 
 ?26586 
 
that his knowledge of books 
 was very, great, we may say 
 that the variety shown in his 
 work was a reflection of the 
 versatility of the artiste 
 
 The really essential view- 
 point for considering Beards- 
 ley ^s drawings is the purely 
 technical one of the artist and 
 the connoisseur* The decora- 
 tive qualities in his work have 
 never been surpassed by any 
 artist whose work has been in 
 black and white* Beardsley is 
 primarily an ^^ artist's artist/' 
 and the qualities of his won- 
 derful and beautiful line and 
 perfect arrangement of his 
 
 4 
 
masses are the elements in his 
 work which will make it im- 
 mortal. The aesthetic qual- 
 ities in his drawings are not 
 those which mean mere popu- 
 larity. It is true his drawings 
 had a greater vogue than those 
 of any other artist of his age, 
 but just why they had seems 
 difficult of explanation, unless, 
 as one critic holds, his ignor- 
 ing of perspective and propor- 
 tion, and his freedom, to a 
 certain extent, of convention, 
 caused his works to meet with 
 a succes de scandale. 
 
 It seems strange that Beards- 
 ley is not better known than 
 
 5 
 
he is as a designer of Ex Libris^ 
 In what I suppose may be 
 called an exhaustive and monu- 
 mental work, *^ Artists and En- 
 gravers of British and Ameri- 
 can Book-Plates'' (London: 
 Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner 
 & Co^, Ltd-, I897),byHenry W. 
 Fincham, about 5,000 book- 
 plates by more than J, 500 
 artists are catalogued* Mr» 
 Fincham, however, only knew 
 of the plate Beardsley designed 
 for John Lumsden Property 
 
 While it is true that Beards- 
 ley designed but comparatively 
 few book-plates, this phase of 
 his art is a very interesting one* 
 
 6 
 
Not taking rank with his very 
 finest work, his book-plates 
 nevertheless compare very fa- 
 vorably with the best examples 
 of the pictorial style of plate^ 
 
 The first book-plate Beards- 
 ley designed was the one for 
 Dr» John Lumsden Propert, 
 the famous collector of minia- 
 tures* It was executed in 1 893, 
 as we can see from the date 
 on the drawing placed beneath 
 the artistes signature device* 
 The plate is a characteristic 
 example of one of Beardsley^s 
 various manners — the phase 
 of his work in which he de- 
 lighted in depicting pierrots and 
 
 7 
 
candles guttered by unseen 
 gusts of air* 
 
 Another book-plate designed 
 by Beardsley at this time was 
 merely one of his elaborate 
 border designs for ^^ Le Morte 
 d' Arthur'' (J893-4), convert- 
 ed into an Ex Libris* The 
 late Gleeson White made note 
 of this, in a paragraph or so 
 devoted to Beardsley's book- 
 plates in his essay on British 
 book-plates* (Vide ''Modern 
 Book-Plates and their Design- 
 ers/' London and New York : 
 John Lane, 1898-90 This 
 is all the data he gave, and 
 I am unable to add to this 
 
 8 
 
meagre information. In the 
 same way Mr* White listed a 
 Savoy Magazine prospectus 
 made into a plate* There 
 were two Savoy prospectuses, 
 and they were printed in J 895* 
 Unlike several other drawings 
 made into book-plates, these 
 two may be authorized, says 
 Mr. White. Another design 
 of this nature I know of, which 
 has never been mentioned in 
 print, is the drawing ^^ The 
 Scarlet Pastoral'' with ''The 
 Book-Plate of H. F. W. Man- 
 ners-Sutton '' written on it. I 
 do not know whether this was 
 added by Beardsley or not. 
 
 9 
 
Aside from its value as a 
 book-plate, Beardsley^s ^* Ex 
 Libris Olive Custance ^^ is per- 
 haps the most notable of his mi- 
 nor drawings^ As a book-plate 
 it is certainly most charming* 
 
 The drawing entitled ^^ Au- 
 brey Beardsley^s Book-Plate/^ 
 reproduced in the first ^^ Book 
 of Fifty Drawings by Aubrey 
 Beardsley/^ is in reality no 
 book-plate at alL It is even 
 doubtful if Beardsley ever used 
 it as such* 
 
 Gleeson White, in the essay 
 I have already referred to, also 
 speaks of book-plates designed 
 by Beardsley for Alaister Crow- 
 
 10 
 
ley and Gerald Kelly, adding 
 that they have not been repro- 
 duced — probably using this 
 word as meaning published* 
 A short time ago I came into 
 possession of these plates, and 
 find they are reproductions of 
 the portrait of Madame Re- 
 jane drawn by Beardsley in 
 1893, and reproduced on page 
 78 of ^^The Early Work of 
 Aubrey Beardsley'' (t899) 
 and of the drawing represent- 
 ing Flosshilde (J 896). To 
 these drawings have been 
 added, with a pen, ^^ Ex Libris 
 Alaister Crowley'' and ^^Ex 
 Libris Gerald Kelly/' 
 
 II 
 
J^ Eighty-five copies of this 
 book have been printed on 
 hand-made paper and three on 
 Japanese vellum duringDecem- 
 ber, 1902, at the De Vinne 
 Press, New York, United 
 States of America. 
 
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