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Ex Libris 
 
 Essays of a Collector 
 
 By 
 Charles Dexter Allen 
 
 WnU TWENTT-ONE COPPERPLATE PRINTS 
 
 I VTCRESCIT 
 
 Boston and New York 
 
 Lamson, WolfFe, and Company 
 
 London 
 M DCCC XCVI 
 
Copyright, 1896, 
 By Lamson, WolfFe, and Company. 
 
 All rights reserojed. 
 
 LIBRARY 
 SCHOOL 
 
 The Norivood Press 
 
 J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith 
 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 
 
 GIFT 
 

 To Frances 
 
 132 
 
Preface 
 
 In putting forth this little book it is not my 
 intention to furnish complete lists of the works of 
 different engravers, lists of the book-plates of any- 
 given period or nationality, or indeed any kind of a 
 reference book for the collector. 
 
 My purpose is merely to set down in somewhat 
 desultory and rambling fashion certain facts and 
 incidents in history and biography which are asso- 
 ciated with the users of some book-plates of partic- 
 ular interest, and to show by such means in what 
 the charm of the book-plate consists. In addition 
 to the rich stores of historical and biographical lit- 
 erature which the noteworthy book-plates inspire 
 one to delve in, there are interesting features which 
 the student of genealogy and the lover of heraldry 
 will recognize. These, as pertaining rather to the 
 scientific and technical side of the subject, I leave 
 untouched in these pages, as the investigation 
 
Vlll 
 
 Preface 
 
 and publication of those branches belong to the 
 specialist. 
 
 In the preparation of these remarks my own 
 collection has been principally drawn upon and has 
 furnished the greater part of my material, while in 
 the published works of other writers upon this 
 subject I have found both confirmation of many of 
 my own theories and suggestions which have led 
 to further research. 
 
 C. D. A. 
 
 Hartford, October, 1896. 
 
Contents 
 
 Introduction ........ 
 
 (An Address delivered before the Graduates' Club, New Haven, Conn., 
 March i6, 1895.) 
 
 Page 
 
 xiii 
 
 Remarks upon Some Book-plates of Special Interest : 
 
 
 Germany ....... 
 
 I 
 
 France ....... 
 
 • »3 
 
 England ..,.,,. 
 
 • 33 
 
 America ..,,... 
 
 • 87 
 
 Conclusion ....... 
 
 • 139 
 
 Index ........ 
 
 • 149 
 
A List of the Illustrations 
 
 Charles H. Taylor, Jr. By Edwin D. French 
 
 Joseph Pollard, By Thomas Bewick 
 
 Isaiah Allen ..... 
 
 Henry Troth. By Samuel Tiller . 
 
 George Leon Walker, By Hoffman 
 
 Susan Denison Gallaudet. By Howard Sill 
 
 John H. Buck, By J, Gill . 
 
 William H, Gaylord , . . , 
 
 James M. Thompson. By Richard Cathie 
 
 Harris C. Fahnestock, By Charles William Sherboi 
 
 J. Winfred Spenceley, By J. Winfred Spenceley 
 
 M. M. Sands. By J. Winfred Spenceley 
 
 E. G. Stoddard. By W, F, Hopson , 
 
 Josephine E, S. Porter, By W. F, Hopson . 
 
 Stewart Means. By W, F, Hopson 
 
 Florence Sylva Wheeler, By Edmund H, Garrett 
 
 Mary E. Norcross, By Edmund H, Garrett , 
 
 William H, Chase, By Sydney L. Smith 
 
 J. B. Troy, By Sydney L, Smith 
 
 Theodore L. De Vinne. By Edwin Davis French 
 
 Robert Sedgwick, By Edwin Davis French 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 Facing page 
 xii 
 
 zx 
 
 XXX 
 
 I 
 
 12 
 
 20 
 
 28 
 
 32 
 42 
 
 52 
 60 
 70 
 78 
 
 86 
 98 
 1 10 
 122 
 130 
 138 
 148 
 
. ''\^^v/'.c^'rsTI.lS , 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 GERMANY, the fatherland of the art of 
 printing from movable type, and of the 
 industry of wood-cutting for making im- 
 pressions in ink on paper, is likewise the 
 home-land of the book-plate. 
 
 The earliest dated wood-cut of accepted authen- 
 ticity is the well-known "St. Christopher of 1423," 
 which was discovered in the Carthusian monastery 
 of Buxheim in Suabia ; this rough and primitive 
 piece of wood-cutting was probably the work of one 
 of the monks, undoubtedly familiar with the use of 
 the pen in transcribing, and of the use of colors in 
 illuminating. It so happens that the plate which 
 until recently has held the honor of being the 
 earliest book-plate known, was also found in this 
 same monastery. This plate, which pictures an 
 angel with outspread wings, carrying a shield in his 
 hands, upon the field of which is depicted an ox 
 with a ring passed through its nose, was pasted into 
 either a book or a manuscript given to the monas- 
 tery by Hildebrande Brandenburg (aus Biberach), 
 and the date of it is probably past the middle of the 
 fifteenth century. An earlier and much uglier plate 
 both in design and execution — the picture, pos- 
 sibly heraldic, being of a bristly hedge-hog carry- 
 
xiv Introduction 
 
 ing a flower in his mouth and trampling upon fallen 
 leaves — has been brought to light, however, still 
 doing duty upon the cover of an old Latin vocabu- 
 lary. One other example is also known which be- 
 longs to this century ; and as it too is associated with 
 the same Carthusian monastery, we are led to conject- 
 ure that the monks who in the privacy of their cells, 
 or within the quiet cloister, where the muttering 
 brothers as they passed could stop and watch them, 
 practised the new art, were the first to devise and 
 employ a pictorial label to indicate the ownership 
 of books. These designs are of course cut in 
 wood ; the heavy black lines, clumsy designing, and 
 utter freedom from artistic finish, perspective, or 
 chiaro-oscuro effects, so familiar to all who examine 
 old prints, are exemplified in these plates. Several 
 of these are printed on the reverse side of pages 
 from some block-book of an earlier date. 
 
 Without meaning to devote any time here to a 
 discussion of the probable origin of the book-plate, 
 we may call to mind, in passing, the activity which 
 this century saw in the manufacture of prints from 
 wood-cuts ; on single sheets, maps, and pictures 
 of saints ; the block-book with its archaic pictures, 
 and the work of the Kartenmaler as well as that of 
 the Formschneider. The cities along the Rhine were 
 full of artisans, both among the clergy and the laity, 
 who were clever at this kind of work, and the num- 
 ber of wood-workers in Italy and France was also 
 very large. The introduction of printing from 
 movable type seemed at first to aim a severe blow 
 at the industries of the various guilds, so widely 
 supported, and the new art was regarded with 
 
Introduction xv 
 
 the greatest jealousy. At Augsburg the feeling 
 amounted to open and positive antagonism. Could 
 it be that in casting about for a new use for the old 
 art, that the book-plate was hit upon as a promising 
 subject .'' 
 
 Albert Diirer designed and very possibly en- 
 graved book-plates. For his friend Wilibald Pirck- 
 heimer, the Nuremburg jurist, whose big, bulbous 
 face is familiar to all, he made an heraldic plate, 
 now of great interest and some rarity ; indeed, 
 Diirer's portrait of the great book-collector is some- 
 times found used as a book-plate. Among the 
 much-prized examples of early German plates are 
 those by Holbein, Hans Sebald Beham, Jost 
 Amman, Lucas Cranach, Johann Troschel, Wolf- 
 gang Kilian of Augsburg, Virgil Solis, and Hans 
 Siebmacher, artists all, whose work is of interest not 
 only to the book-plate collector, but to all inter- 
 ested in the history of engraving. Indeed, one of 
 the delights of the humble book-plate coUectdr is 
 to point out to his more ambitious brother, the col- 
 lector of prints, that these old masters whose works 
 he prizes so highly did not despise the book-plate, 
 trifle though it be, but condescended to bestow 
 labor and time and to use their talents in its de- 
 signing and engraving. Diirer, who could celebrate 
 the triumphs of Maximilian in a series of blocks 
 which made a complete picture some seven feet by 
 one and one-half, did not disdain to design a little 
 print to indicate the ownership of a book. I do 
 not intimate that the old book-plates were insignifi- 
 cant in size ; far from it. Those old tomes, bound 
 in sole leather, sided with stout boards, and clasped 
 
xvi Introduction 
 
 and chained with iron, demanded an ample label to 
 set forth with proper dignity the fact of ownership. 
 Books were few, valuable, and often very large. 
 Thus it happens that one old book-collector had 
 some twenty different sizes of his plate, to satisfy 
 his critical eye, as he carefully regarded the width 
 of the margins while pasting in the plates, — and 
 this, too, in an age that knew nothing of process- 
 reproduction and when each separate plate had to 
 be engraved by hand. Place a plate four inches by 
 two in a quarto ? By no means ! Cover the whole 
 side of a dainty i2mo with a plate of equal size? 
 Perish the thought ! A special plate for each sized 
 book ! 
 
 The largest plate thus far unearthed is about 
 fourteen inches by ten. It once graced the books 
 of Count Maximilian Louis Breiner, a distinguished 
 official in Lombardy, of the Austrian Emperor. 
 The centre of the plate is taken up with the family 
 arms of the noble count, while all about the orna- 
 mental framework, representing a carved stone 
 canopy, are disposed musical instruments in profu- 
 sion, ancient armor, and munitions of war, as well as 
 graceful garlands of roses and lions' heads ; and on 
 an imposing scroll, a long legend in Latin sets 
 forth the services and offices of the owner. De- 
 signing and engraving are both the work of 
 Giuseppe Petrarca, and it probably dates towards 
 the middle of the seventeenth century. 
 
 All these early book-plate designs are heraldic. 
 The family coat-of-arms was the distinguishing mark 
 used to identify the belongings of the great families. 
 In those old days, when libraries were kept intact as 
 
Introduction xvii 
 
 they passed from generation to generation, the he- 
 raldic emblem was the natural and fitting label with 
 which to mark the books. Beginning with the 
 simple shield of arms with its legitimate supporters, 
 the designs gradually extended to the placing of the 
 shield within an ornamental border. This border 
 grew in elaborate detail until it became heavy and 
 over-wrought. Too many figures were introduced, 
 the ornamentation was superabundant, and not 
 always in good taste. At length, as time went on, 
 the heraldry was forced into a subordinate position, 
 or wholly disappeared. Allegory came in to take 
 its place ; the gods and goddesses of Greece and 
 Rome, as well as the heroes of the Nibelungenlied^ 
 were represented on German book-plates : the armed 
 Minerva is very frequently met with as well as 
 Thor and the dwarfs. Finally, the pursuits, occu- 
 pations, and pleasures of the owners came to be con- 
 sidered a proper feature of book-plate designing, 
 and it is the development of this idea that brings 
 us to the artistic examples of the present day, which 
 in Germany are principally made by Joseph Sattler 
 and Ad. M. Hildebrandt. 
 
 As the direction of the strong wind is indicated 
 by the passing of the insignificant bit of straw, so in 
 these " unconsidered trifles," book-plates, one may 
 easily note the differences in the characters of the 
 Northern and Southern inhabitants of Europe. 
 The sturdy, muscular, active Teuton, practical and 
 little given to taking his ease, used a cheap paper 
 label, rough, frank, and sufficient, in his books ; it 
 was in him to cultivate, not the arts that please, 
 but the forces that move : his book-plate was like 
 
xviii Introduction 
 
 him. The delicate Southron, fanned by warm 
 breezes, falls to making music, to devising the ele- 
 gancies of life, the things that please and are a 
 delight to the eye, the ear, and the palate. His 
 book-plate, when he adopted the fashion, partook of 
 his nature ; but before he had the book-plate he had 
 something far more elegant, expensive, and satisfac- 
 tory, — the beautiful binding with its tooling in gold, 
 and its intricate inlay of colored moroccos. We 
 know that in Germany the book-plate began to be 
 used towards the close of the fifteenth century, while 
 in France we find it very nearly a century later that 
 the first plate of that country has a date, — 1574. 
 Very probably this is not the first book-plate used 
 in France, but it is somewhat difficult to identify as 
 positive book-plates many of the earlier armorial 
 prints. Very few examples are known which can 
 confidently be assigned to a date previous to 1650. 
 Such as were in use, were, nearly without exception, 
 heraldic in character and so sufficient was the coat- 
 of-arms as a means of identification that not over 
 one-half of these have a name engraved upon them. 
 These few plates are of great rarity and interest. 
 Among the most prized are those of Emeric Bigot, 
 the eminent bibliophile who collected some forty 
 thousand volumes, and Alexander Petau, in whose 
 library were many splendid manuscripts which at his 
 death were purchased by Christina of Sweden and 
 by her bequeathed to the Vatican. But not until the 
 opening of the eighteenth century do French book- 
 plates become numerous, or take on the diverting 
 fancies and show the excellence of execution or deli- 
 cacy of invention and detail which make them so 
 
Introduction xlx 
 
 charming. Up to 1790 when the First Republic 
 suppressed all the existing titles and abolished armo- 
 rial bearings, the heraldry is fairly correct and very 
 commonly used upon the book-plates preserved to 
 us. A large plate of folio size engraved by Audran 
 was used by Louis XV. : the royal crown, trophies, 
 and the double L in monogram on a shield are the 
 prominent features. Madame Victoire de France 
 (Louis' daughter) and the Chateau de la Bastille 
 had book-plates bearing the French arms, Azure^ 
 three fleurs-de-lys^ orgeant. In this century books 
 began to multiply, elegant bindings grew rarer, and 
 eminent artists gave attention to the designing of 
 book-plates : even Boucher engraved a few, of which 
 a single signed specimen is now known. Court 
 beauties read, or at least owned, books. Diane de 
 Poitiers had many books beautifully bound by Le 
 Faucheux, and on them was stamped her monogram, 
 intertwined with that of her royal lover, Henri II., 
 and in the design was the crescent of the fair goddess 
 Diana. Scarron's widow, the Marquise de Main- 
 tenon, formed a valuable library which contained 
 many hundred volumes stamped with her arms. 
 The books of the Marquise de Pompadour were 
 stamped with her arms, in addition to which she 
 had a book-plate. Last, and least in many respects 
 came Louis XV. 's last favorite, the Comptesse du 
 Barry who survived royalty and died on the scaffold. 
 Scarcely able to read or to spell, she owned beauti- 
 fully bound books of a sort calculated to dissipate 
 the ennui and to engage the mind of the debauched 
 old monarch : she too, had a pretty book-plate. 
 It is interesting to note that when the Republic 
 
XX Introduction 
 
 came in and the old nobility was shelved, that even 
 the arms on so trivial a piece of property as a book- 
 plate were in many instances pasted over with 
 hastily made designs in which the coronet gave way 
 to the cap of liberty and the old titles were succeeded 
 by the plain word Citoyen. Napoleon made many 
 changes in the heraldry of France and among the 
 most interesting book-plates of his time are those 
 of his brother Lucien, whom he made Prince de 
 Canino; and that of Marechal Suchet, the hero of 
 many battles and, in the opinion of his chief, his 
 second bravest officer. The Emperor himself used 
 no book-plate, but the books in the National Li- 
 brary were stamped with his arms ; and in like man- 
 ner were the books of Josephine marked. From the 
 downfall of the " man of fate " to the middle of the 
 present century we find nothing interesting in 
 the book-plates of France ; then a renascence set in, 
 and with heraldry a secondary consideration, we find 
 the owners of plates adapting their designs to the 
 expression of their individual tastes : statesmen, 
 artists, scientists, authors, began to mark their 
 books in this way. Gambetta, Victor Hugo, Theo- 
 phile Gautier, Prosper-Merimee, Charles Monselet, 
 the brothers de Goncourt, and Octave Uzanne 
 are among the prominent men whose plates are 
 valued by collectors. 
 
 Of the other European countries a word only is 
 necessary. The earliest dated plate of Sweden bears 
 the figures 1575; Switzerland follows, with one in 
 1607; and Italy has one dated 1623. All these 
 countries have large numbers of book-plates, both 
 old and recent, to help fill the collector's cases ; and 
 
Introduction xxi 
 
 although in form and appearance the examples of 
 one country very greatly resemble those of the 
 others, there are differences controlled by national 
 characteristics and the height attained by art in 
 each country which assist the practised eye to judge 
 accurately of the nationality of a specimen. 
 
 Crossing now to England we find ourselves in 
 the country in which the book-plate has been most 
 widely used, which has the greatest number of 
 interesting examples and in which the design reflects 
 more of the spirit of the times possibly than in any 
 other ; here too, unless America be admitted to 
 have achieved the distinction, the book-plate had 
 reached its highest art. 
 
 In a folio volume once the property of Cardinal 
 Wolsey and afterward belonging to his royal master, 
 we can still see the gorgeous ecclesiastical book-plate 
 done in colors, of its first owner. This is supposed 
 to have been made about 1520, and it is the earliest 
 English plate thus far found. But two others are 
 known which belong to this century : one by the 
 name of Tresham whose owner was made a knight 
 by Queen Elizabeth and whose son was connected 
 with the Powder Plot ; and the other, of Sir Nicholas 
 Bacon, known as " the father of his country and of 
 Sir Francis Bacon." 
 
 The earliest mention of the book-plate in Eng- 
 lish literature is in the compendious diary of the 
 gossipy Pepys. Under date of July 16, 1688, he 
 mentions spending an hour at the plate-maker's 
 planning the little plate for his books. He, one 
 remembers, really loved his books and used to over- 
 haul them, re-number and weed them out, once a 
 
xxii Introduction 
 
 year; and Into this bothersome but unquestioned 
 service the whole family was impressed ; the job 
 was put through in a hurry, and as to despatch and 
 neatness was compared with the record of the pre- 
 vious year, and a new note was made in the diary. 
 Pepys had several book-plates. We find that in most 
 of his books now preserved in Magdalene College 
 Library, Cambridge, he used two kinds, one at each 
 end, — his magnificent portrait plate on the front 
 cover and the official Navy-yard plate at the tail. 
 He had at first an armorial plate, but his love of 
 personal display led him to make use of his portrait 
 as a book-plate : in this, engraved in two sizes by 
 Robert White, we see the vain old babbler arrayed in 
 his much-loved finery, — velvet, lace, and imposing 
 wig ! Possibly the very wig he bought in the Plague 
 Year because it was so cheap for so fine a one, and 
 which he was afraid to wear for a long time there- 
 after, fearing that the maker might have cut the hair 
 from the head of a victim of the dread disease ! 
 
 But we cannot linger to mention individual exam- 
 ples of particular interest. It is not until the begin- 
 ning of the eighteenth century that the plates really 
 begin to thicken; but from 1725 up to the present 
 day, the output from engravers, good, bad, and in- 
 different, steadily grows. In picking up an old book, 
 and noticing its quaint old heraldic book-plate, one 
 would not naturally think of its possibilities for 
 amusement, instruction, and absorbing interest. 
 Little would one think that hundreds of persons, 
 ladies as well as gentlemen among the number, in 
 all parts of the world, are taking a great interest in 
 the collection and classification of these bits of en- 
 
Introduction xxiii 
 
 graving ; but so it is. An enormous amount of the 
 time and money which the collecting spirit demands 
 of its victims is now devoted to this pursuit. The 
 very first collector of book-plates as book-plates — 
 for they must have strayed into the collections of 
 prints before this time — was a lady, — a Miss Jen- 
 kins of Bath, England, who in 1820 was forming the 
 little group which ultimately became the nucleus of 
 the mammoth collection of over one hundred thou- 
 sand specimens which Dr. Joseph Jackson Howard 
 now owns. From this time on, the book-plate was 
 regarded as of some interest by various antiquarians 
 and heraldic students. At length, in the fulness of 
 time, in the year 1 880, the information that had gradu- 
 ally been gathered was assembled and put into book- 
 form by the Hon. J. Leicester Warren (the late 
 Lord de Tabley), a scholar and poet of high repu- 
 tation. This bot)k remains to this day absolutely 
 the best work on the subject, although scores of 
 writers have followed the path he blazed. In this 
 book the reader was shown how to classify his plates 
 intelligently, was informed of the literary, historical, 
 biographical, and artistic material which clustered 
 round them, and was furnished with descriptions of 
 the different styles and illustrations of them, that 
 he might be able to appreciate and understand the 
 charm of the book-plate to the genuine collector. 
 These were new ideas, for hitherto only the heraldry 
 or the engraver had been of interest to any one. 
 To Lord de Tabley also is due the nomenclature 
 universally adopted by which we distinguish the 
 styles. The great body of English plates display 
 armorial bearings, and while the plain armorial plate 
 
xxiv Introduction 
 
 unadorned and bare continues in unbroken sequence 
 from the earliest day up to the present, the plates 
 with more artistic pretensions have followed certain 
 vogues which may be described and chronologically 
 placed with sufficient accuracy. The plates, then, 
 which were in use from about 1700 to about 1745, 
 and which may easily be recognized as having many 
 features in common, are called Jacobean : this name 
 is given them because they came into use during 
 the reign of the last James. In these plates the 
 shield of arms is set in the centre of a stiff and 
 formal frame, which often resembles wood-carving. 
 Heavy garlands of flowers, bunches of fruit, stiff 
 and conventional arrangements of leaves and blos- 
 soms, faces of animals, term-figures, and quite an 
 assortment of architectural and allegorical embellish- 
 ments, were superimposed upon the frame. Latticed 
 or diapered backgrounds were common, and a 
 scallop shell or a grinning, grotesque face was often 
 placed at the bottom as a finishing touch. The two 
 sides of the frame exactly coincided, and the whole 
 effect of the style was massive, severe, and classical. 
 This style was at its height about 1730, 
 
 About the middle of the century the famous T. 
 Chippendale introduced a certain airy and graceful 
 manner of designing furniture and upholstery. The 
 designers of book-plates as well as the artisans in 
 other lines at once made use of its principles in 
 their line of work ; and as the style of the book-plate 
 was greatly modified by this new conception, and 
 became so faithful a reproduction of the spirit of 
 Chippendale's work, such plates came to bear his 
 name as their distinctive title. At once the stiffness 
 
Introduction xxv 
 
 and conventionality of the Jacobean style dis- 
 appeared : in the new style the two sides of the 
 shield were seldom symmetrical ; the shield of arms 
 was enclosed within an escutcheon of graceful design 
 not unlike the human ear in general outline, and the 
 surrounding decoration is full of pretty and dainty 
 touches, varying of course according to the ability 
 of the engraver. Lord de Tabley says that the 
 mark and stamp of the Chippendale book-plate is 
 its border or frilling of open shell-work, set close 
 up to the outer edge of the escutcheon. The plates 
 in this style are very taking. One likes them at a 
 glance ; whereas the Jacobean needs acquaintance to 
 be fully understood and appreciated. Closely suc- 
 ceeding the Chippendale, and indeed coming into 
 use before it went out, is the style going by the 
 name of Ribbon and Wreath or Festoon. As the 
 name indicates, these plates depend upon wreaths 
 (mostly of roses, sprays of holly or of palm) and 
 floating ribbons for their simple but pleasing deco- 
 ration. More pleasing perhaps to the general 
 observer are the plates of a pictorial or allegorical 
 character : the library interiors showing the student 
 surrounded by his long rows of books ; the portrait 
 plates, which give us a chance to see the looks of 
 the book-owner ; or the glimpses into the abode of 
 the gods, with many an old acquaintance bringing 
 knowledge to man, or sitting upon the clouds in 
 superintendence of the actions of those below; and 
 those which, by their use of differing accessories, 
 indicate the angler, the hunter, the book-lover, the 
 specialist in one branch or another of learning, art, 
 or amusement : indeed, as we escape from the load 
 
xxvi Introduction 
 
 Dame Heraldry lays upon the designer, the greater 
 variety and charm of the designs at once impresses 
 one. 
 
 In looking over the field to pick out a few plates 
 to mention, one is embarrassed by the great number 
 really worthy of attention, but it will probably suf- 
 fice to give in alphabetical order the names of 
 some of the celebrated Englishmen who use or 
 have used book-plates. Such a list of names gives 
 a good idea of the kind of people likely to use 
 with appreciation such a mark of ownership : 
 Richard Bentley, Walter Besant, John Brand, 
 Henry Thomas Buckle, Richard Burton, Thomas 
 Carlyle, Charles Cowden Clarke, Lord Chesterfield, 
 Thomas Frognall Dibdin, Charles Dickens, Ben- 
 jamin Disraeli, Richard Lovell Edgworth, Forster, 
 the biographer of Dickens, Garrick, Edmund Gosse 
 (who objects to the exchange of plates, and it must 
 be acknowledged with much reason ; for why, after 
 all, should a man give away copies of that which 
 he uses for the purpose of designating his own 
 private property ?), Gibbon, historian of Rome, 
 Gladstone, Harley, founder of the Society which 
 bears his name, Ireland, Henry Irving, Andrew 
 Lumisden, Mahoney (" Father Prout "), Matthews 
 the wit, Mitford, Priestley, Southey the poet. Lord 
 Tennyson, Anthony Trollope, Tupper, Horace 
 Walpole, Wilberforce, Edmund Yates ; and not 
 by any means least in this array, the following : 
 Lady Oxford, friend of Walpole, the Hon. Mrs. 
 Damer, also friend of Walpole (whose plate, by 
 the way, was designed by Agnes Berry), Princess 
 Sophia, Duchess of Richmond, Lady Blessington, 
 
Introduction xxvii 
 
 Duchess of Beaufort, Countess of Pomfret, Selina, 
 Countess of Huntingdon, Lady Betty Germain, of 
 whom Swift makes mention in the Journal of 
 Stella; and of the present day, — Miss Prideaux, 
 ihe widely known amateur binder of books, Hon. 
 Frances Wolseley, daughter of General Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley, and Miss Greene, the designer of plates. 
 Thackeray, whose powers as an artist would not 
 seem to promise well when it came to designing 
 book-plates, did however, make one for Fitzgerald, 
 which is very pretty and quite rare to-day. 
 
 A word as to the old engravers in England 
 whose work the collector prizes. Very many old 
 examples owe their whole value to the signature at 
 the foot of the plate. One plate only is known 
 which was engraved by William Marshall, and cop- 
 ies are very seldom seen: this was done about 1640. 
 Then come William Faithorne, David Loggan, John 
 Pine, George Vertue, Simon Gribelin, Skinner, 
 Mountaine, William Hogarth, Sir Robert Strange, 
 Bartolozzi, who made the beautiful and rare plate 
 of Lady Bessborough, Sherwin, Lambert, and 
 Thomas Bewick, who made many a plate in the 
 delightfully quaint style of landscape picturing which 
 is so closely associated with his name. 
 
 Of recent workers we may mention the excellent, 
 almost unequalled work of William Sherborn. Very 
 rich and elaborate in all details, beautifully brilliant 
 in the cutting, and when well printed wholly delight- 
 ful, these plates have ranked for some years above 
 all others. Mr. John Leighton the artist has also 
 designed many a plate, notably the gift-plate which 
 was among the wedding presents of Duke George 
 
xxviii Introduction 
 
 and Princess Mary. Another artist whose book-plate 
 work is eagerly sought after, and whose style differs 
 wholly from all the others, is Mr. H. Stacy. Marks. 
 His plates are always processed, and the drawing, as 
 he makes it, comes out beautifully : generally the 
 interior of a study or a laboratory, sometimes grew- 
 some as when skulls and bones lie about, they are 
 always pleasing in design. Now and then some 
 artist who does not make a business of book-plate 
 work will present his friends with clever designs. 
 Such dainty pieces are used by Edmund Gosse and 
 Brander Matthews, both done by Edwin A. Abbey. 
 Throughout England the interest in the subject of 
 book-plates is very large, as the successful establish- 
 ment of a society of enthusiastic collectors proves. 
 The literature of the subject grows daily, new designs 
 constantly appear, and the whole machinery of the 
 hobby is in full swing. 
 
 Leaving the best until the last we at length 
 come to speak a word upon American book-plates ; 
 and among collectors, at least upon this side of the 
 ocean, it is customary to regard all plates used by 
 residents of America as American plates even if 
 made in a foreign country. A very strict applica- 
 tion of the term might limit us to those made by 
 Americans. In the early days some of the plates 
 used here were made bv native artisans, and some 
 were imported from England. The Southern plates, 
 to which locality came men of wealth and some 
 aristocratic pretensions, were mostly ordered from 
 
Introduction xxix 
 
 England ; while the Northern examples, on the 
 contrary, are with few exceptions by home talent. 
 These latter are the most interesting to us, as they 
 are proofs of what self-taught engravers working 
 under hard circumstances can do. As in the older 
 countries, so with us, the early plates were nearly 
 all heraldic, but the arms as given upon some of 
 these may not perhaps be absolutely correct. It 
 was at that time rather unlikely that a man would 
 boldly make public use of a coat not properly his; 
 but errors naturally crept in, as in the plate of 
 Luther Martin, who displays the band of the 
 baronet upon his shield. 
 
 At the very beginning, however, and all along 
 through the progress of the book-plate in all coun- 
 tries, there was a large body of plain typographical 
 name-labels accompanying the more fanciful styles 
 through their development, remaining the same 
 from age to age and always plentiful. While these 
 have no particular interest as book-plates, they 
 were often made the vehicle of a bitter sarcasm and 
 a wholesome bit of advice which we must turn 
 aside to take note of. To be sure, people do not 
 agree as to whether books should be loaned or not : 
 some think they should ; others will not think of 
 doing so. Grolier had stamped upon the choice 
 bindings of very many of his books, these words : 
 Jo. Grolierii et Amicorum^ while a book-owner of 
 no very distant date In this country had immedi- 
 ately succeeding his name upon his book-plate, 
 these very different words, " This book is not 
 loaned. Matt. xxv. 9." (The passage of scripture 
 referred to is that verse occurring in the parable of 
 
XXX Introduction 
 
 the Wise and Foolish Virgins, which says, " Not so, 
 lest there be not enough for us and you : but rather, 
 go ye to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.") 
 Wholesome advice as to the care of books, the 
 choice of reading, and the quick return of borrowed 
 volumes is often met with. When reading such 
 lines, one recalls the slovenly habits of Johnson : 
 how he would use the butter-knife to hold his 
 place in a fine book borrowed from a friend, while 
 he stopped reading and eating to quaff the favorite 
 beverage. Much that is quaint and clever occurs 
 upon these motto-bearing plates. 
 
 The earliest dated plate that we know of belonged 
 to Governor Dudley, and the full inscription reads, 
 " His Excellency, Joseph Dudley Esq^ Governor 
 of New England, 1702." In the following year we 
 have two plates dated : William Penn, proprietor 
 of the colony, and Thomas Page of Virginia. All 
 three of these plates are of English make, and all 
 are in the so-called " Early English " style, — which 
 is briefly, the shield of arms surrounded on three 
 sides with rich, full-rounded mantling, bearing but 
 little resemblance, it is true, to the original mantling 
 which hung about the shoulders of the knight, but 
 being its conventional historical development. Our 
 early plates followed closely the styles of England, 
 and many of our early engravers came over from 
 that country. Among such were Dawkins, who 
 worked wholly in the Chippendale style, and of 
 whose end we know nothing; Maverick, the New 
 York engraver, who was at once the most prolific of 
 all, and one of the very best both as designer and 
 cutter ; Rollinson, who made the gilt buttons which 
 

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Introduction xxxi 
 
 ornamented the coat which General Washington 
 wore when inaugurated as President, and who made 
 many pretty plates in the Ribbon and Wreath 
 style ; and Smither, who had been a gun-engraver 
 in the Tower of London, and whose name we find 
 upon a few goodish plates. 
 
 But of greater interest to us are the American- 
 born engravers, — those who began or founded the 
 art in our country. Of these, four stand out as 
 especially noteworthy : Nathaniel Hurd of Boston, 
 the best engraver of them all ; Alexander Anderson 
 of New York, the first to engrave upon wood in 
 this country ; Amos Doolittle, the Connecticut en- 
 graver ; and Paul Revere, patriot, worker in silver 
 and brass, and engraver of book-plates which are 
 to-day the rarest of any in our country — that is, 
 the known copies of his plates are fewer than those 
 of the others. 
 
 Hurd occupies the chiefest place because of the 
 excellence of his work, the evidence of carefully 
 trained ability, and his faithful adherence to the pure 
 style. He did not overload his designs as Dawkins 
 continually did, nor was he a lazy engraver, a regu- 
 lar copyist, as Callender seems to have been. Of 
 his work we know about thirty signed examples 
 and a dozen more which can be safely attributed to 
 him. He made the Thomas Dering plate, which is 
 dated 1749, and is the earliest plate, engraved by an 
 American artist, bearing a date. 
 
 The story of Alexander Anderson's hardships in 
 getting started as an engraver, — his chosen occupa- 
 tion, — against the preference of his father, who 
 wished him to become a physician, is well known 
 
xxxii Introduction 
 
 and of particular interest. It seems odd that his 
 father, observing the deHght with which the youth 
 began to copy, with a rude home-made graver, some 
 anatomical plates he had gotten hold of, should 
 claim to see in this the evidence of a predilection 
 for the medical profession instead of recognizing the 
 genius of the lad for using the graver. But after 
 numerous discouragements he became a settled en- 
 graver, and in 1793 he cut a tobacco-stamp on wood, 
 which seems to have been his first attempt on that 
 substance. In Bewick's ^ladrupeds he found the 
 work of a master who so charmed him, that all 
 his future work was influenced by the manner of 
 that famous engraver, and in fact Anderson was 
 given the title of the " American Bewick," so simi- 
 lar was his work to that of Bewick himself He 
 made book-plates on both wood and copper, of 
 which about twenty are now known. 
 
 Amos Doolittle, who was born in Cheshire in 
 1754, and who died in New Haven, Conn., in 1832, 
 was one of the first engravers of historical scenes in 
 America : four views of the early battles of the Rev- 
 olution earned him much fime. As a book-plate 
 maker, he was fond of the allegorical, I should say ; 
 for certainly his plates for the societies of Yale Col- 
 lege display a wealth of imagination which could not 
 have been wholly that of those who ordered them. 
 He was one of the self-instructed engravers of whom 
 we had so many. Those early beginners in the art 
 made their own tools, often out of the springs of old 
 knives, rolled copper cents very thin in order to get 
 a plate to work on, used thinned paint as an ink in 
 a press of their own contriving, in order to see the 
 
Introduction xxxiii 
 
 result of their labors ; used to cut designs on the 
 silverware of their friends, as it was easy to work 
 and convenient to the hand. Many of them began 
 by working modestly in making silver spoons, but- 
 tons, buckles, and fashioning more pretentious pieces 
 of plate as their ability permitted ; but to engrave 
 on copper was the ambition of many, and in this 
 they were of necessity self-taught. 
 
 Paul Revere was one of these workers in silver, 
 who tried his hand at the book-plate. Four different 
 plates are now known which he signed, and of one 
 of them, the Epes Sargent, but one copy was known 
 for a long time. The rarest book-plate in America 
 is probably that of John Franklin, the brother of 
 Benjamin of greater fame. This plate was engraved 
 by Turner of Boston during the years when that city 
 was Franklin's residence : only one example of this 
 plate has been discovered. 
 
 Probably the most valuable plate of all our early 
 examples is General George Washington's. This 
 was engraved in England without doubt. It is of 
 the Chippendale style, and in appearance is no more 
 pleasing than many others ; but when this plate is 
 found in an old book which has also the famous sig- 
 nature on the title-page, the price of the book bounds 
 up by fifty-dollar skips. This is the onlv plate 
 which has had the honor (?) of being thought worth 
 counterfeiting. The thing was done in order to 
 sell at a higher price than they would otherwise have 
 brought, a lot of books at an auction sale in the 
 city of Washington. The fraud was exposed, and 
 the buyers paid the actual worth of the volumes, and 
 not an inflated price. The plate of Bushrod Wash- 
 
xxxiv Introduction 
 
 ington, to whom the General bequeathed Mt. Vernon, 
 bears the same arms, but is a plate of more preten- 
 sion. Both of these are of extreme interest. 
 
 Hastening on to the plates of to-day, we stop to 
 mention a few of special interest or beauty ; the 
 plate of the late Dr. Holmes depicting the cham- 
 bered nautilus is one of the finest, and is the one 
 most sought for by collectors over the sea ; the 
 chubby cherub on George Bancroft's plate holds a 
 panel on which is carved the motto ; the plate of 
 Laurence Hutton is very attractive (in a niche of 
 the bookcase stands Thackeray in the Donnybrook 
 Fair attitude ; flanking this imposing statue are the 
 works of the old writers of fiction, while a death- 
 mask lies on the shelf above) ; the plate of Thomas 
 Bailey Aldrich shows a skull on which a daw (?) is 
 perched ; and the plate of the late Edwin Booth was 
 a plain armorial design. 
 
 New plates are constantly being published, and 
 one cannot easily select a few from the great supply 
 of excellent ones, to speak of. It is hoped that the 
 display on the walls will be of interest, as showing 
 the development of the art of the book-plate. It is 
 a long and eventful journey from the plates of Al- 
 bert Diirer to that of Dr. Holmes ; and while the 
 old Pirkheimer plate rouses our interest, we cannot 
 deny that the great day of the book-plate is just at 
 hand. In this country a number of well-known 
 artists and engravers are lending their aid to the 
 great object of the artistic expression of the tastes 
 of the owner in his book-plate. The foremost 
 engraver of plates to-day is Mr. Edwin Davis 
 French, whose designs are so very pleasing, and 
 
Introduction xxxv 
 
 who is running away with the laurels long worn by 
 Mr. Sherborn of England. Essentially the same in 
 their treatment and conception, these gentlemen both 
 owe the foundation of their success to a study of the 
 old German masters. Mr. W. F. Hopson of New 
 Haven has made some very handsome plates; Mr. 
 Edmund H. Garrett, the illustrator of books, is the 
 leader in the etched plate ; and Mr. George Wharton 
 Edwards has certainly made the most artistic designs 
 for process reproduction. 
 
 The interest in the subject of book-plates is 
 rapidly spreading over this country : new collectors 
 continually arise, and where there were a dozen when 
 in 1886 Mr. Hutton wrote his articles in the Book- 
 Buyer on our early plates, there are now well over 
 one hundred, and it is difficult to keep pace with 
 newspaper, pamphlet, and book as they are rapidly 
 published, containing more or less of interest to the 
 collector. 
 
 Exhibitions have been held at the Grolier Club, 
 in Nev/ York City, the first in the country ; at the 
 Rowfant Club in Cleveland by the Buffalo Society 
 of Artists ; and one has been open for the past few 
 days at Brentano's in New York : the latest event 
 to be added to this list is the present attempt to 
 interest the Graduates' Club. 
 
Germany 
 
 Voll Kreuz und Trubsal ist der Weg, 
 Darauf ich hier muss gehen, 
 
 Und leiden viel geheime Schlag, 
 
 Das macht zu end der lange Kampf und Streit, 
 So geh ich ein zur stillen Ewigkeit. 
 
 1791 
 

GERMANY 
 
 IN looking over the albums of the book-plate 
 collector one naturally turns first of all to the 
 plates of Germany ; for here the book-plate had 
 its birth, here the printing of books was in- 
 vented, and here too the science of heraldry, an 
 important adjunct of the early book-plate, was first 
 made use of; for one can hardly claim that the lion 
 of the tribe of Judah or the owl of Athens or the 
 crocodile of Egypt, associated with these tribes or 
 nations as a particular sign though they were, shall 
 be called heraldic in the sense in which we under- 
 stand the term. The old German plates are ex- 
 ceedingly quaint in conception, rough in design, and 
 heavy in general appearance. Wood-cuts of course 
 they are, executed with the skill of the wood-cutters 
 of the blocks used in the books of the period. It 
 is true that they will not interest on account of any 
 artistic quality, but how interesting, indeed how 
 precious, do they become as they bring one into 
 touch with those old days when the art of printing 
 was young, when the craft of the wood-cutter was 
 nearing the end of its unquestioned reign, and when 
 the clumsy wood-covered tome was to give way to 
 the daintily wrought leather with its intricate and 
 
2 Ex Libris 
 
 becoming designs. The beginnings of things are 
 always of importance and interest; for even if in 
 themselves they offer little to the eye, the mind 
 finds meanings in them. So these uncouth prints 
 which have in themselves nothing to recommend 
 them still possess the charm of an icon of the times. 
 There is this characteristic to be observed about the 
 German book-plate : It has a strength both of de- 
 sign and execution that some others lack. There is 
 boldness, surety, and purpose in it, while in so many 
 of later date, and of other countries especially, there 
 is weakness, diffuseness, and a want of purpose which 
 is made up for by prettiness of detail and over- 
 abundance of ornament. The very hardness of the 
 German plates brings to mind the conditions of the 
 times, and gives a suggestion of power and life which 
 is fulfilled in the vitality and strength of present- 
 day German art. Out-of-door scenes are largely 
 pictured upon these plates ; strong-limbed goddesses 
 of the hunt, merchants, scholars, students, phy- 
 sicians, astronomers, are imaged upon them. The 
 instruments they used in the pursuit of their studies, 
 and the surroundings with which they were familiar, 
 are given, and one learns from them not a little of 
 contemporary life. Immense libraries there were in 
 those days ; princely gifts of books were made to 
 them, and plates to commemorate the munificence 
 of a patron are not infrequently met with. One of 
 the finest of these is the old plate of the Electoral 
 Library of Bavaria, in which the arms of Bavaria 
 are placed within a richly designed shield with cary- 
 atids to support the frame. This is dated 1618. 
 In another plate of somewhat later date one sees 
 
Germany 3 
 
 the interior of the book-room, with tiers of shelves 
 filled with books running along the walls, and lead- 
 ing out upon the tree-lined court within which plays 
 a fountain. Surely a desirable spot in which to sit 
 with one's favorite book. Upon a very dainty plate 
 coming from the city of Ulm, in Wiirtemberg, there 
 is a delightful little vignette giving a picture of St. 
 Christopher bringing the Christ-child through the 
 stream as the legend relates. One sees the strong- 
 framed Offerus pushing his way through the tide 
 with the child upon his shoulder. This bearing of 
 the child in safety won for the giant the name of 
 Christopher, which possessing three days, he died 
 and was canonized. 
 
 One of the most interesting of the early dated 
 wood-cut book-plates thus far discovered, and one of 
 the largest in size, is that of Baldasser Beniwalt de 
 Walestat, who was known as Episcopus I'rojanus in 
 Phrygia as early as 1491, so that the collector has 
 good reason to believe the date 1502, which appears 
 in a curious combination of Arabic and Roman 
 numerals upon the plate, is authentic and correct. 
 The date is given like this, I50II. The plate has 
 an invocation to Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
 and to Santa Anna, while their initials appear upon 
 the flaming trees which form the heraldic charges of 
 the shield. From these charges it is deduced that this 
 Bishop Balthasar belonged to the patrician family 
 of Brennwald, which since the fourteenth century 
 has been settled in Zurich. The arms come under 
 the term canting^ as they stand for the burning 
 forest, representative of the name, — Brennwald 
 {brennen^ to burn, and IVald^ a forest). Over the 
 
4 Ex Libris 
 
 shield the mitre of the bishop is placed, and upon 
 either side are figures of Santa Anna and the Virgin 
 supporting the Child. The plate is spirited in 
 design and execution, and is an excellent and rare 
 specimen of the early ecclesiastical book-plate. But 
 two copies of this are thus far unearthed, and these 
 are in the library of Lausanne. 
 
 There is an attractive plate belonging to a lady 
 of the family of Vander Aa, among whom were 
 some famous engravers and printers, members of 
 that branch following these arts for two centuries. 
 This plate is dated 1597, and it has a heavy wood- 
 cut border with bears, wyverns, flowers, and fruit 
 showing in the abundant scroll-work. Movable 
 type was used in the printing of the name, and 
 the 97 of the date, which is in old Roman numerals, 
 is queerly expressed thus, 100 — 3. This family 
 has branches at Antwerp, Delft, and Leyden ; and 
 the Anna Vander Aa, whose plate is described, was 
 probably the wife or the daughter of one of the 
 wealthy burghers who carried on the engraving 
 and printing trades. 
 
 One of the most notable plates of early Germany 
 is the large one — it measures thirteen inches by 
 nine — which was used by the prior of St. Law- 
 rence's Church in Nuremberg, Dr. Hector Pomer. 
 The plate is a remarkably fine specimen of early 
 engraving on wood, and bears some resemblance 
 to the celebrated Death's Head Coat-of-Arms en- 
 graved by Albrecht Diirer. Indeed, there are some 
 features of workmanship displayed in it which excel 
 that print. This Pomer plate shows the arms of 
 the prior's family quartered with the gridiron, the 
 
Germany 5 
 
 instrument of martyrdom upon which the patron 
 saint of the abbey ended his life. There is the 
 usual accompaniment of rich mantling, and above 
 the helmet is a demi-nun in hood and cloak. A 
 figure of St. Lawrence, some eight inches high, 
 stands at one side of the shield as a supporter, and 
 the expression of his face is at once tender, lofty, 
 and pathetic. He bears upon the right shoulder 
 the palm of victory, while the gridiron is again 
 visible at his side, the handle in his hand. A 
 nimbus encircles the noble head. 
 
 Christoph Jacob Trew, M.D., was a botanist of 
 distinction, a resident of Nuremberg, and the author 
 of several important works as well as the possessor 
 of a valuable library in which were some thirty 
 thousand volumes and seventeen thousand pam- 
 phlets, which at his death he bequeathed, along 
 with his large collection of physical and chirurgical 
 instruments, his herbarium, and his natural history 
 cabinets, to the University of Altdorf, where he re- 
 ceived his education and his degree. He had no less 
 than seven book-plates engraved. The differences 
 between them are slight, and the description of one 
 will suffice. This plate was engraved about 1760, 
 and is in the best manner of the rococo style, show- 
 ing the arms of the learned owner within a fancifully 
 designed border of shell-work, below which is ap- 
 pended the cartouche, which adds no little interest 
 to the plate, for within its graceful outline sits 
 contentedly a very peaceable looking member of the 
 canine family. The doctor's name Trew, which may 
 have had the variant Treu, signifies the quality of 
 loyalty ; and it may be supposed that the dog here 
 
6 Ex Librls 
 
 depicted stood not only for a representation of the 
 favored pet of the scholar, but as well for a play 
 upon his name. This plate is handsomely engraved, 
 the background being filled in with what is some- 
 times termed the " brick wall pattern." 
 
 Among German plates there is one of extreme 
 rarity and value which was the property of one 
 Johann Bernard Nack, a citizen and merchant of 
 Frankfurt. This gentleman conceived the idea of 
 having a very elaborate book-plate, and entrusted 
 its designing to one Osterlander and its engraving 
 to St. Hilaire. In the print, as finally completed 
 by these artists, we see the library of the owner, 
 with its shelves of goodly books before which sits 
 the Goddess of Learning, and to whom the master 
 himself presumably addresses himself. The ships 
 of this prosperous merchant lie in the offing, and 
 his employees are landing from them the boxes 
 and bales containing the goods in which he deals. 
 The drawing of the picture one can hardly judge 
 of, as its execution is so far from satisfactory. At 
 any rate the merchant himself found fault with it, 
 for it is known that he commissioned a lady en- 
 graver by the name of Wicker to re-engrave the 
 plate. Copies of the first plate are not easily found, 
 and copies of this second one, while not so rare, have 
 an added value in that they are printed on the back 
 of the old one. From this it would seem that 
 having used a few of the first lot, M. Nack be- 
 came so dissatisfied that he gave his order for the 
 others, and having a quantity of the first unused 
 he had the new engraving printed upon their backs. 
 As the paper of those days was tough and thick, 
 
Germany y 
 
 it was able to take the second impression without 
 damage. Those who are so fortunate as to have 
 copies of these prints in both states in their col- 
 lections may well believe that they have some of 
 the rarest of German plates. The second engrav- 
 ing of the plate is much superior to the first. The 
 date is about 1760. 
 
 A plate of a little later date, and engraved by a 
 famous artist, is that of C. S. Schinz, a doctor of 
 medicine. This is by Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, 
 who was an engraver and miniature-painter of renown. 
 He found employment in Berlin, where he did a 
 great amount of work for the book-men, and his 
 work is regarded as of great merit for its originality 
 and spirit. In his work he displayed a strong touch 
 of satire which won for him the title of " the 
 Hogarth of Germany." The plate of Dr. Schinz is 
 a very interesting example of his work, affording 
 within its small compass effective proof of his abil- 
 ity in designing and engraving. In the foreground 
 the successful physician, clad in academic robes, is 
 chasing from the door of a tent, within which lies 
 the convalescent patient, the very angel of death 
 himself, who, with an expression of fear and rage 
 upon his bony, fleshless features, hastens with his 
 reaping-knife over his shoulder to escape the de- 
 scending blow of the symbolic rod of i^sculapius, 
 with which the doctor threatens him. This is con- 
 ceived in the spirit of satire for which its engraver 
 was noted. The conception of the successful defeat 
 of the messenger of death, when even at the bedside 
 of his patient, is well calculated to please the doctor 
 and to increase his practice among such sufferers as 
 
8 Ex Libris 
 
 might happen to see it. Chodowiecki died in Berlin 
 in iSoi, and this plate, which is dated 1792, was en- 
 graved when he was about sixty-six years of age. 
 
 Chodowiecki had a book-plate himself, of an alle- 
 gorical character, which showed a figure of the god- 
 dess Cybele, with two children, one with wings, at 
 her many breasts ; foliage sweeps above, while the 
 palette, brushes, and other accessories of the studio 
 are gathered below. Although the plate is not 
 signed, it is known to have been the work of the 
 famous engraver himself. 
 
 Coming down to present times and glancing at 
 the plates of to-day in Germany, one finds far fewer 
 engravings than formerly, and discovers that the 
 majority of plates there are now produced by lithog- 
 raphy. Although Senefelder, the inventor of the 
 art of lithography, was born an Austrian, the devel- 
 opment of the art was carried on upon German soil, 
 so that this art may properly be added to the list of 
 important inventions which Germany has giv^en the 
 world. The plates of recent date in Germany do 
 not compare favorably with those of the older times, 
 when engraving either on wood or copper was 
 always employed in their production. There is a 
 deal of color employed, which is not always to the 
 taste of the book-plate collector, and then, too, in 
 the very abundance of the plates, there would seem 
 to be a reason for their weakness. Designers are 
 too prolific. There is too much sameness to interest 
 the collector, and as the lithographic process does 
 not admit of the individuality of the engraved plate, 
 they suffer in this lack of that desirable character- 
 istic of the individual personal touch. Of present- 
 
Germany 9 
 
 day designers there are none to compare with Joseph 
 Sattler, a native of Schrobenhausen in Bavaria, and 
 who has studied at the Academy in Munich. Here 
 he revolted from the routine, however, feehng that 
 copying from the classic antique was valueless to 
 him; and leaving the institution, he turned his atten- 
 tion to the striking emblematic imagery of ancient 
 German art, and when he found the revival of the 
 art of the book-plate invading Germany, he was pre- 
 pared to furnish an effective impetus. His work is 
 characterized by extraordinary fertility of invention, 
 his designs having the merit of separate creations, 
 and not being, as is the case with many workers, a 
 mere rearrangement of old motives, of used-up 
 features. The mediaeval is strong in all his work, 
 and while heraldry plays but a small part in it, it yet 
 has the rich appearance of the old heraldic drawing. 
 hie depicts with great success the face and figure of 
 the reader or the student, whether in caricature or 
 from fancy, and all the accessories which the idea of 
 the book-plate necessarily implies are so skilfully 
 managed as never to seem hackneyed or in any way 
 outworn. When he employs color, it is always sub- 
 dued and exactly suited in tint to the subject in hand. 
 Another important feature of his designs lies in his 
 felicitous disposition of the name and the motto of 
 the owner. So often do these necessary adjuncts 
 embarrass the designer, that to find one with whom 
 their arrangement is easy and satisfactory one cannot 
 but remark it. He has published a book of forty- 
 two designs, which is valuable as a work of art as 
 well as an indication of what the book-plate may be 
 when designed by a master. 
 
lO Ex Libris 
 
 Of present-dav German plates that of H.I.M. 
 the Empress of Germany is interesting from its pos- 
 sessor, as well as because of the design itself, which rep- 
 presents two shields held upon either arm of an angel ; 
 the shield upon the right arm bears the arms of the 
 Fatherland, while those of England occupy the first 
 and third quarters of the other. The royal crown 
 rises above the head of the angel, who stands upon 
 a cloudy platform. 
 
France 
 
 J'appartiens a Marie-Elisabeth-Joseph Weigel, rue de Baudimont, 
 
 Hotel de Carnin 
 
 De Plaire a ma chere Maitresse 
 Pour moi est un bien charmant ; 
 Et plus iidele qu'un Amant, 
 J'ai plus de droit a sa tendresse. 
 
 Lu de ma Maitresse avec zele 
 J'aime mon Etre tel qu'il est ; 
 
 Si jamais elle me perdoit, 
 
 Je perdrois encore plus qu'elle. 
 
 Perdu, si vous me retrouviez, 
 Manez-moi vers celle que j'aime ; 
 Si Ton m'avoit donne des pieds, 
 J'y retournerois de moi-meme. 
 
 Voudrois-je etre a d'autres? oh non! 
 De peur d'un nouvel esclavage, 
 Je veux que toujours son Nom 
 Brille sur ma premiere page. 
 
SD.Gallaudet 
 
 89 
 
II 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 THE collectors of ex libris in France include 
 under this term not only the engraved 
 labels which were pasted into the cover of 
 the book, but as w^ll the heraldic marks 
 of ownership which are stamped upon the binding. 
 To these the English-speaking collectors have usu- 
 ally given the term, super libros. 
 
 Richelieu and Mazarin had large collections of 
 books upon the covers of which their arms were 
 stamped, and Mazarin was very particular as to the 
 binding of his volumes, and put them in the hands 
 of only the most skilful, Le Gascon, Saulnier, and 
 Petit among them. The binders were, in fact, con- 
 stantly employed in his library under his personal 
 supervision, and upon some of these he had the 
 conceit to place the lines, Anna Julii ornant Fran- 
 cianiy " The arms of Jules, the ornament of France," 
 The books of Jean Grolier, the veritable prince 
 of bibliophiles, were not marked with a book-plate, 
 but by gold stamping upon the elegant binding with 
 which his treasures were so richly furnished. His 
 library numbered fully three thousand volumes, which 
 was indeed a large one for the days of early printing, 
 and all of them were bound sumptuously. At his 
 
 13 
 
14 Ex Libris 
 
 death this collection passed into the hands of Emeric 
 de Vic, who was Keeper of the Seals, and who left them 
 to his son, upon whose death they were finally dis- 
 persed, many of the books flilling into the hands of 
 appreciative collectors. 
 
 The earliest dated French book-plate has upon it 
 the following legend : — 
 
 Ex Bibliotheca 
 
 Caroli Albofij E. Eduenfis 
 
 Ex labore quies 
 
 1574- 
 
 For some time this plate was thought to belong 
 to some one of the name of Charles d'Alboise ; but 
 it is well established now that it was the plate of 
 Charles d'Aileboust, Bishop of Autun, whose father 
 had been the physician of Francis I., and who died 
 at Fontainebleau in the year 1531. This Bishop of 
 Autun is mentioned in history as a man of distin- 
 guished appearance, of great learning, of courtly 
 manners, and of an amiable disposition. While 
 connected with the Church he was also favored with 
 Court appointments, and he died in the town of 
 Autun at the very end of the year 1585, and was 
 buried in the Church of St. Jean-de-la-Grotte. 
 
 Another early plate, and one which brings to 
 mind a magnificent library and an owner of note in 
 the history of his times, is that of Pierre Seguier, 
 Comte de Gien, Chancclier de France. He was 
 born in 1588 and he died in 1672, having spent a 
 long life and an active in the service of his country 
 and in the numerous studies and pursuits which 
 appealed to him. The law, science, and literature 
 
r ranee 1 5 
 
 were favorite subjects, and the friendship of the 
 most scholarly and polite circles of his times was 
 his delight. With abundant wealth he was enabled 
 to get together a most magnificent collection of 
 printed books and choice manuscripts, and on account 
 of his position of power and influence there were 
 many who, to gain his good graces, made him pres- 
 ents of valuable literary treasures. Antiene Ruette 
 was the binder of most of these precious volumes, 
 and Seguier, who lived in the Rue de Bouloi, had 
 his salons decorated by the celebrated artist Simon 
 Vouet. Here his receptions were crowded by men 
 of letters and by those holding high positions in 
 State and Church, and it may be remembered that 
 among his most distinguished visitors was Christina 
 of Sweden. After his death his books were carefully 
 cared for by his widow ; but they were sold upon 
 her death, although the manuscripts were preserved 
 and are now to be seen in the Bibliotheque Natio- 
 nale. The book-plate which adorned many of his 
 books shows his arms within an architectural frame 
 of good design, and over this is thrown the ermine- 
 lined cloak his rank entitled him to wear. 
 
 Two very interesting plates, dating nearly at the 
 end of the seventeenth century, were used by the 
 College of Jesuits in Paris to record the gifts of 
 two munificent benefactors who were as well book- 
 collectors of the greatest renown. The first of 
 these was to record the gift of some eight thousand 
 volumes^ and many manuscripts from Pierre Daniel 
 Huet, Eveque d'Avranches. The good Bishop 
 presented these books during his lifetime, and the 
 Jesuit fathers gave permanent expression to their 
 
l6 Ex Libris 
 
 gratitude in the book-plate which shows the arms 
 of the Bishop, and which they had made in four 
 sizes. The other plate was for the legacy of some 
 two thousand volumes from the library of Gilles 
 Menage, Doyen de St. Pierre d'Angers. The plate 
 recording the gift of the Dean is not so elaborate 
 as the other, but it carries with it the distinction of 
 bearing a good date, 1692. Neither of these good 
 churchmen seem to have used book-plates, for the 
 bindings of their books were stamped with their 
 arms. An account of these libraries may be found 
 in U Armorial du Bibliophile. 
 
 The three daughters of Louis XV. had books of 
 their own which were bound by Vente, binder and 
 librarian to the king. Probably the books of 
 Madame Adelaide entitle her alone of the three to 
 a place among book-lovers, though the others cer- 
 tainly owned some books. All their books had 
 stamped upon the binding the same design, but 
 each had her books bound in a different color, — 
 those of Madame Adelaide being in red, those of 
 Madame Victoire in green, and for those of the 
 youngest, the Princess Sophie, citron was chosen. 
 The Princess Adelaide was the most intellectual of 
 them all, while to her next sister belonged the 
 largest measure of personal beauty and charm of 
 manner. Sophie was considered dull and silent, 
 but in reality her manner was due more to reflec- 
 tion than to a natural lack of pleasing qualities. 
 She used to read, before all other books, the lives of 
 the Saints and such moral essays as came her way. 
 
 There is a very charming plate, once the property 
 of M. de Joubert, about which little is known, but 
 
France 17 
 
 which belongs to the Louis XV. period, and which 
 shows the interior of the Hbrary of the owner. The 
 books are ranged in this case behind a rich curtain, 
 and only the top rows are to be seen ; these are in 
 curved shelves fitting the dome which crowned the 
 library. The arms of M. de Joubert are on the 
 curtain, and the usual rich ornamentation of flowers 
 and ribbons is displayed to good advantage. In a 
 copy of VEtat de la France published in 1749, 
 M. de Joubert is called Chevalier, which explains 
 the De on his book-plate, and shows him by its 
 record to have been holding at that date the office 
 of Tresorier des Etats de Languedoc. 
 
 There is a little group of three book-plates extant 
 which, to the student of French history, should seem 
 of special importance, inasmuch as they owe their 
 existence to the career of that most remarkable 
 woman Joan of Arc. It is true that she used no 
 book-plate herself and that she can hold no place 
 with the women bibliophiles of her country, but 
 it is interesting to find her arms as designed by 
 Charles VII. himself used upon these plates of her 
 descendants. The hand holding the sword was the 
 device borne by the Maid and hers was the motto, 
 Consilio firmata Dei^ " Strengthened by consent of 
 God." Her third brother bore among other titles 
 those of Chevalier du Luys and Seigneur de I'lle- 
 aux-Boeuf. The first of the three plates is anony- 
 mous, and consists of two shields accolle bearing the 
 arms of Gauthier and Hordal du Luys with crest, 
 helmet, and mantling above, as usual. This is in 
 the German style. The second is very rare, and 
 dates from the time of Louis XVI., being that of 
 
1 8 Ex Libris 
 
 Claud Francois Pagel de Vautoux, whose family 
 was connected with the Maid's by marriage. The 
 arms of the two families are supported by no less a 
 personage upon the dexter side than Charles VII. 
 himself, while Joan grants similar service upon the 
 sinister side. There is also some ornamentation, 
 and a landscape at the foot shows in its distance 
 trees and a castle, perhaps in remembrance of the 
 exploits of the Maid on the field of battle and be- 
 fore the walls of castles. The third of these plates 
 is simpler than the others, and shows the arms of 
 Du Luys with the coronet above. This belonged 
 to Nicolas Francois Alexandre de Haldat du Luys. 
 Surely, all will admit the deep interest which 
 attaches to these plates, with their plain indebted- 
 ness to the famous deeds of one of the most 
 remarkable personages of history, for their very 
 being. 
 
 A little plate dated 1772 bearing the legend, 
 Livres de Mr. T'erray Maitre des Reqiietes^ brings 
 to mind the scandalous corruption of morals and 
 politics of the times of Louis XV. Terray was 
 one of the boldest and most dissolute of those men 
 who by their conduct of public affairs, and the profli- 
 gacy of their private life, were in no small measure 
 responsible for the sad condition of France, and for 
 the Revolution which succeeded her wrecked credit 
 and general distress. Surely he did collect a fine 
 library of books, and employed not a few good book- 
 binders ; but as these are the only good traits one 
 finds recorded of him, it cannot be thought that the 
 books were properly his, or the bindings paid for with 
 money rightfully his to be used on private matters. 
 
France 1 9 
 
 In Ouerard's La France Litter aire there are a few 
 biographical details of Thomas Simon Gueulette, a 
 dramatist of some renown towards the close ot the 
 eighteenth century. This distinguished author used 
 a striking book-plate engraved by H. Becat, and 
 by the legend upon it we judge the learned writer 
 to have been a generous lender of books. It reads 
 as do so many of that and earlier periods, Ex Libris 
 Thorns Gueulette et Amicorum. But the design it- 
 self is worth a moment's notice as showing more 
 invention and originality than was common among 
 his contemporaries. The arms are shown of course, 
 and about them for supporters are four figures which 
 by their dress are seen at once to represent an Ital- 
 ian Arlequin, a Tartar, a Chinese Mandarin, and a 
 Cyclops in whose arms reposes, or more properly 
 struggles, an infant. A familiarity with the writings 
 of this dramatic master shows these figures to be 
 representative of his works. Up in the sky above 
 the figures there is a figure of Cupid bearing, as he 
 flies, a streaming ribbon on which are these words, 
 Duke est desipere in loco^ and which have been trans- 
 lated in the following happy manner, by a lover of 
 books and book-plates in London : — 
 
 " Dulce^ — Delightful says the poet. 
 Est — is it, and right well we know it, 
 Desipere — to play the fool, 
 In loco — when we're out of school." 
 
 The next plate of historic interest brings vividly 
 to mind that day in November, 1793, when the tum- 
 bril, having made many trips to the guillotine, came 
 at last for its final load of two condemned mortals, 
 
20 Ex Libris 
 
 Lamarche, a trembling old man, and Madame Ro- 
 land, still young and winsome. Unnoticed alike by 
 the crowd were her youth and beauty, and the tears 
 of her weaker companion. They shouted, " A la 
 guillotine," and to her gay rejoinder that she was 
 going there, they retorted with language of the vilest 
 and grossest sort. Arrived at last at the Place de la 
 Concorde, they see the instrument of death set up 
 under a huge clay figure of Liberty, noticing which 
 the brave little woman stepped to her fate with the 
 words " Oh ! Liberty, Liberty ! how many crimes are 
 committed in thy name." Firmly she walked to 
 the place of death, and in a few moments her head 
 rolled into the waiting basket. Thus at the age of 
 thirty-nine died Marie-Jeanne Phlippon Roland, one 
 of the most noble and highly gifted women her 
 country ever saw, and whose husband, unwilling to 
 live without her, was found dead the next week with 
 his stiletto still sticking in his heart. The book- 
 plate of Madame Roland was prettily designed and, 
 in addition to the shields of arms, was embellished 
 with cupids, with figures of Religion and Justice, 
 and with the representation of two hearts and a 
 celestial crown above the pyramid which formed 
 the background of the whole design. It is of 
 extreme interest, not only to the collector of book- 
 plates, but to those who find something worthy of 
 attention in the story of the persecuted Huguenot 
 families. 
 
 Lavoisier, the chief founder of modern chemistry, 
 and whose lamentable execution could not be de- 
 layed in the interests of science, used a handsomely 
 engraved heraldic plate giving his name with the 
 
France 21 
 
 titles conferred upon him. The plate is signed De 
 la Gordette fecit. It has no motto. 
 
 A little collection of books still preserved with 
 loving care was once the property of Charlotte 
 Corday. No engraved book-plate adorns their 
 simple covers, it is true ; but as they contain what 
 may be called a manuscript plate, they are eligi- 
 ble to mention here, particularly as their owner's 
 life history makes them of rare interest and value 
 to all with the least interest in history or biography. 
 This is the inscription which one at least of these 
 books contains, C. Corday d' Armont^ Sainte Trinite 
 de Caen 20 Decembre lygo. The name " Charlotte " 
 in monogram also accompanies this. It is quite 
 likely that the book came into her possession very 
 soon after she had come to the Grand Manoir of 
 old Madame de Bretteville to live, and from which 
 place she set forth upon her errand of death. She 
 was a granddaughter of Corneille, the great dramatic 
 author, the founder indeed of the French drama, 
 and as a child she was taught to read from an old 
 copy of his works. It was for some three years 
 that she stayed quietly in the convent at Caen, and 
 she had many books then, although when she finally 
 set out for Paris, she gave them to her friends, saving 
 only a favorite copy of Plutarch's Lives. Among 
 her intimate friends she was always known as Marie, 
 her full name being Marie Anne Charlotte, and in 
 the very few letters now known in her handwriting 
 she signs herself Marie de Corday. There is some 
 surprise that her name has come down to us as 
 Charlotte only. The death of Marat, which she 
 accomplished, doomed her to the scaffold, and some 
 
22 I'.x Libris 
 
 five months before the beheading of Madame Roland 
 she ended her young life. In writing of her Lamar- 
 tine says, " There are deeds so mingled with pure 
 intentions and culpable means that we know not 
 whether to pronounce them criminal or virtuous." 
 
 The Chevalier d'Eon, who performed so many 
 services for France in the diplomatic service and 
 whose latter years were so strangely occupied, used 
 a book-plate of handsome appearance. The arms 
 are on an oval shield, and the cross of his order 
 depends therefrom, while skin-clad men carrying 
 weapons support it. A helmet and the motto, 
 Vincit amor patri^e^ are above the shield. 
 
 One occasionally comes across a small book-plate 
 of oblong form Vv'hich in itself is not especially at- 
 tractive, but which printed from the genuine copper is 
 of the greatest interest to the collector of books and 
 book-plates. This plate shows for arms eight red 
 balls upon a silver field and the shield is supported 
 by griffons, while the crests and banners displayed 
 above assist in the identification of the plate. The 
 legend below runs as follows, Bibliothlque de Coppet. 
 This is the book-plate of Madame de Stael. This 
 estimable lady, the most celebrated authoress of 
 modern times, was born in Paris on the 22d of 
 April, 1766, and the name given her was Anne 
 Louise Germaine Necker, her father being the 
 Switzer, Jacques Necker, the celebrated statesman 
 and minister of finance who did so much for poor 
 Louis XVL Her home was the meeting-place of 
 the literary celebrities of the day, and with the rarest 
 opportunity for acquaintance and culture this lively 
 girl grew up. Married to the Swedish minister at 
 
France 23 
 
 the Court of France, Eric Magnus Stael ,von Hol- 
 stein, in 1786, a man whom she did not love but 
 who was preferred to all others by her parents be- 
 cause he was a Protestant, she received an immense 
 dowry from her father, and within two years of her 
 marriage her first literary production was given to 
 the world. Banished from Paris in 1802, she spent 
 some time in travelling and finally settled in her 
 father's castle, Coppet, on the banks of Lake Leman, 
 the haunt of genius, where, by the words upon her 
 book-plate, we conclude the greater part of her 
 library was assembled. Here came those valiant 
 supporters of her ideas to condole with her, here 
 also the hordes of exiles, here later that gay assem- 
 blage of her best friends when the beautiful Recamier 
 listened to the love-making of the dashing Prince 
 August of Prussia. Not beautiful itself, with the 
 chateau so situated as not to command a view of 
 the lake, it was still a quiet place in which to work, 
 although the gifted writer much preferred the excite- 
 ment of the Rue de Bac. 
 
 Such magic names as Byron, Gibbon, Shelley, 
 Rousseau, and Voltaire are associated with Lake 
 Leman, and as one comes across the book-plate of 
 Madame de Stael and ponders upon the eyes which 
 have perchance glanced at it as the hands of famous 
 men or women opened the book it ornamented, he 
 can but feel a new thrill of emotion as it recalls to 
 him the history of those times of terror and perse- 
 cution to its owner. 
 
 Under the First Empire, when Napoleon by edict 
 made sweeping changes in the heraldic customs of 
 his people, the book-plates are not very interesting, 
 
24 Ex Libris 
 
 but there are two which in themselves show some 
 pleasing conceits. These are of Antoine Pierre 
 Augustin de Piis, a dramatist, whose plate shows 
 his monogram placed on a palm tree, every branch of 
 which carries the name of a well-known singer, as 
 Panard, Colle, Fevart, etc., and below appears a 
 list of vaudevilles from his own pen, and that of 
 M. Dubuisson, which is dated 1805, and represents 
 a chubby cherub carving the name and date upon 
 an overhanging rock. 
 
 The plate of Napoleon's own brother, Lucien, is 
 worthy of mention here, as it represents that gifted 
 man at about the period of his greatest glory. The 
 plate is quite small, and displays the arms in an oval 
 shield with an ermine mantle surmounted with the 
 crown, behind it. The inscription below reads. Ex 
 Bibliotheca Principis Canini. 
 
 In his book on the French book-plates Mr.Walter 
 Hamilton regards the interesting plate of Alphonse 
 Karr, the author and editor, as marking the "division 
 line between the old engraved copper-plates with 
 their stiff and formal heraldry, and the modern etched 
 plate with designs free and graceful, allegoric, pic- 
 torial, allusive, humorous — anything, in fact, that is 
 not heraldic or in which at least if there be anything 
 of an armorial nature, it is made subservient to the 
 general design and as little conspicuous as possible." 
 The plate of M. Karr represents a wasp busily writ- 
 ing on a large sheet of parchment. Very probably 
 the design on the book-plate was to conform to the 
 title of his satirical periodical monthly, entitled Les 
 Giiepes. This plate dates about 1837. Another 
 plate by this same designer deserves mention if for 
 
France 25 
 
 no other reason than on account of its motto, Nun- 
 quam amicorum^ the spirit of which is decidedly op- 
 posite to that of his fellow-countryman, Jean Grolier, 
 upon whose many beautiful bindings was stamped 
 the words, Jo. Grolierii et amicorum. Thomas Maioli 
 also used this formula upon his books, but he seems 
 to have suffered from his book-loving friends ; for 
 upon some of his bindings the generous offer of his 
 library is modified by the addition of the following, 
 Ingratis servire nefas. 
 
 Upon a small plate showing the arms of Mexico 
 enclosed within an oval frame and supported by 
 griffons and showing the royal crown above, the 
 monogram M.I.M. is seen. To this plate no little 
 interest attaches, as it was used by the ill-fated but 
 estimable Maximilian, Archduke of Austria and 
 Emperor of Mexico. The sad story of the un- 
 happy ending of the two lives which were begun 
 together with such brilliant promise of happiness 
 and prosperity is still fresh in the minds of many. 
 Oh, that the temptations of Napoleon III. had not 
 been listened to, and that Maximilian could have 
 remained within reach of his beloved Miramar ! 
 He did not understand the conditions which faced 
 him in the new country; he was possessed of per- 
 sonal bravery and integrity, but he lacked the in- 
 sight of the general, the power of the conqueror. 
 How can one read with anything but pity of the 
 landing of this misguided man and his expectant 
 wife upon the inhospitable shores where death 
 awaited him ? With what pleasure did they look 
 forward to the landing, with what pomp and evi- 
 dence of welcome and rejoicing did they expect to 
 
26 Ex Librls 
 
 be received, and with what bare civility were they 
 handed from the boat and escorted by a few officials 
 to the palace ! Disappointment from the first, and 
 still no comprehension of the meaning of events and 
 circumstances ! With what peculiar power of hope 
 must he have been endowed to have been able dur- 
 ing the long weeks of that disastrous experience to 
 keep himself within doors and spend his time devis- 
 ing uniforms for the royal guard, charts of prece- 
 dence, and orders of chivalry ! Perhaps even this 
 book-plate was designed during these momentous 
 days. But at length, with the withdrawal of the 
 French troops and the more threatening attitude of 
 the soldiers under Juarez, came the understanding 
 that he must take the field. With nothing to sup- 
 port him, disaster soon overtook him, and upon the 
 19th day of June, 1867, the life of Maximilian was 
 ended by the bullet of the executioner. A tender 
 and cherished memorial of him is this book-plate. 
 
 The plate of the Duchesse de Berry shows two 
 oval shields with sprigs of lilies tied about them 
 with the lac d'amour. Underneath are the words 
 Bibliotheque de Resney. By this plate and the 
 shields of arms upon it Italy and France are con- 
 nected, and one allows the mind to run back over 
 the events which brought this daughter of Ferdi- 
 nand I. of Italy to be the bride of the son of 
 Charles X. The assassination of the Duke and the 
 Legitimist support of the claims of her infant son, 
 the Duke of Bordeaux, and the rising in favor of 
 the Duchesse which took place in Brittany in 1832 
 only to be ended by the treachery which sent her 
 to Sicily, are events too well known to need ex- 
 
France 27 
 
 tended mention. The book-plate is a pretty bit, 
 and with its memories forms a desirable addition to 
 the collector's album. 
 
 Among the interesting plates of French celebri- 
 ties that of Leon Gambetta should be mentioned. 
 This design represents the dawn, chanticleer crow- 
 ing with might and main in one corner, while above 
 is the gallant motto, Vouloir c est Potivoir. This 
 was designed and engraved by INI. Alphonse Legros 
 about the year 1874, when he was in Paris upon the 
 commission of Sir Charles Dilke to secure a portrait 
 of Gambetta, and the suggestion is supposed to 
 have come from M. Poulet-Malassis. The curious 
 thing about the plate is that M. Gambetta himself 
 asserted that he never used it in a book ! Proofs of 
 the plate are known in four states and all very rare, 
 while the original copper itself is now in the posses- 
 sion of the President of the Societe Fran9aise des Col- 
 lectionneurs d'Ex Libris in Paris. It is hardly to be 
 expected that M. Gambetta had many books or had 
 much leisure in which to enjoy them. The instincts 
 of the bibliophile are not to be credited to him. 
 
 Curious and interesting in a very similar way is 
 the plate of M. Victor Hugo, in which the towers of 
 the cathedral of Notre Dame are seen in the black- 
 ness, relieved by a jagged flash of lightning which 
 passes before them and upon which is the name of 
 the owner of the plate. A monogram is also given 
 upon the front of the building. This design came 
 from the mind of M. Aglaus Bouvenne and was 
 drawn in 1870. 
 
 There is in the possession of a French collector 
 an original letter from M. Hugo to M. Bouvenne 
 
2 8 Ex LIbrls 
 
 in which he thanks him for the plate, with which he 
 expresses himself as charmed, and adds, " Votre ex 
 libris marquera tous les livres de la Bibliotheque a 
 Hautville House." The letter is dated from Haut- 
 ville House, lo Juillet, '70. The events which 
 occurred shortly after this letter was written are well 
 remembered, and in the troubles of the years that 
 followed may probably be found an explanation of 
 the fact that the plate was little used in the few 
 books (less than threescore) of which the noted 
 novelist and historian died possessed. 
 
 M. Bouvenne was also the designer of the plate 
 of M. Theophile Gautier, who was not only a novelist 
 and dramatist, but a lover of books and who had a 
 library of considerable worth, which was sold after 
 his death at the Hotel Druout. For some reason 
 these books containing the plate of this widely 
 known litterateur brought but a small sum. Pros- 
 per- Merimee, distinguished as a novelist, used a 
 book-plate of very diminutive proportions, which was 
 designed by no less a hand than that of Viollet- 
 le-Duc. 
 
 Paul Lacroix, eminent as a bibliographer, novelist, 
 and historian of the arts, sciences, and literature of 
 the Middle Ages, used a very simple plate to denote 
 his ownership of a book. A little over one inch 
 wide by a little less than two long, it contained a 
 picture of a pile of books with nude children about, 
 an inkstand, lamp, etc. On the pages of an open 
 book were the initials and nom-de-plume of the 
 famous librarian, P. L. Jacob Bibliophile. The 
 suitable motto read, Livres vielz et antiques Livres 
 nouveaux Etienne Do let. 
 
HACC SrVDIA PCHMOCTANT /^OBISCUM.OELCfTANT DOMI. fiOIS IMPEDIUNT FORIS. 
 
France 29 
 
 Devambez designed a very pleasing plate for 
 Charles Monselet, in which a corner of the latter's 
 library is revealed : a curtain drawn back holds the 
 owner's name, richly bound books lie upon the 
 floor, — it is assumed for the purpose of showing 
 their handsome sides and not as an indication of 
 the usual appearance of the room, — and rolls of 
 manuscript are gathered under a handsome table. 
 
 The Vicomtesse de Bonnemains, whose influence 
 over the late General Boulanger is said to have 
 been the means of preventing the establishment of 
 the Comte de Paris on the throne of his ancestors, 
 uses a book-plate of the usual modern French 
 armorial character. Crowned lions support the 
 shields accolle, and a coronet is placed above, the 
 design being enclosed within a circle and its back- 
 ground being bespattered with the devices of Diane 
 de Poitiers, so well known upon her book-bindings. 
 
 The book-plate of modern France is characterized 
 by a certain quality of lightness and gracefulness 
 which, while pretty in its way, does not hide the fact 
 that it is rather meaningless and empty. Mere 
 ornament, however delicate and fanciful, hardly serves 
 as a satisfactory book-plate. It may be clever as 
 a piece of designing, but as the mark of ownership 
 in so important and solid a thing as a good book 
 it is not in keeping. There are quantities of these 
 to be seen in the collectors' albums, in which very 
 graceful cupids and very prettily disposed books 
 are over and again the hackneyed features, but they 
 do not make the sensible and pleasing book-plate 
 which the more purposeful designs of the English 
 and American engravers do. Exceptions there are. 
 
30 
 
 Ex Llbris 
 
 of course, to this rule and among them is an exceed- 
 ingly tasteful plate for Madame L. B., which shows 
 this woman bibliophile in her library enjoying some 
 favorite volume : this is a portrait plate, and is one 
 of the most satisfactory that I have ever seen. The 
 reader sits near her well-filled shelves, which are 
 seen through the glass door of the cabinet, and with 
 an air of unconscious absorption reads from the 
 good-sized book held upon the arm. The design 
 is simple and pleasing, the etching remarkably good, 
 so that in this plate one feels that the modern 
 French book-lover may find a model and an inspir- 
 ation that may lead him to draw designs which shall 
 be at once pretty in a good sense while effective and 
 adapted to its purpose. 
 
England 
 
 "What projitieth a man for a lie his toyle 
 Under ye Sunne,^^ atte Schole or Colledge, 
 
 To slave and burn ye mydnyght oyle. 
 
 And cramme hys hede wyth uselesse knoUedge! 
 
 "Of makynge bokes there ys no ende,''^ 
 Saythe ye wyze and wittie Soloman; 
 
 A truer worde was never penned 
 By hym or anie other man! 
 
 For knolledge ys butte "Fanitie 
 
 Of Vanities, ^^ ye chiefeste ende 
 Andde buyinge bokes withouten ende 
 
 There ys no greater foUie, man. 
 
 Butte yfF thatte bookes ye sure must have 
 
 (Instede off spendynge monie on). 
 To save your sowl, and conscience salve, 
 
 r faith thenne goe and borrowe one! 
 
 (Im-)Moral: Never buy a boke iff thatte ye can cozen one from 
 a friend, and then be sure to stikke your boke-plate on, — on top off 
 hys! J. V. 
 
Ill 
 
 ENGLAND 
 
 GILBERT BURNET, the bold, frank, boast- 
 ful, noisy, and talented man who landed 
 at Torbay with Dutch William and who 
 
 showed ability yet much indiscretion, and 
 who was honest in spite of every excuse for not 
 being, merciful when all around him were full of 
 bitterness and spite, had a book-plate in the ec- 
 clesiastical style, which is rare and valuable to-day. 
 The plate bears the following inscription, Gilbert 
 Burnet Lord Bishop of Salisbury Chancellor of the most 
 Noble Order of the Garter ; and behind the arms are 
 the crosier and key with above them the mitre of 
 his office. The royal motto of England, Honi 
 soit qui mal y pense^ is given upon the garter en- 
 circling the arms. The date of this plate is about 
 1690. 
 
 Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, 
 founder of the Harleian Society and collector of 
 that vast accumulation of literary treasure which 
 was purchased by Parliament and now under the 
 name of the Harleian Collection may be seen in 
 the British Museum, used a book-plate of the 
 highest style of the art as developed in his day, 
 in which his arms are shown along with nineteen 
 
 D 33 
 
34 Ex Libris 
 
 other quarterings. The plate dates somewhere 
 about 1695, ^^^ '^ "°^ readily obtained to-dav. 
 
 It will be remembered that when Dean Swift 
 used to take his exercise about the park in order 
 to reduce his growing girth there often accompanied 
 him, for the purpose of adding to his sparseness, 
 that "thin, hollow looked" man, Matthew Prior, 
 the wit, politician, and diplomatist, of whom Swift 
 wrote : " If his poetry be generally considered, his 
 praise will be that of correctness and industry rather 
 than of compass of comprehension, or activity of 
 fancy. He never made any effort of invention." 
 Rather lukewarm praise this for one who aspired 
 to some fame as a maker of verse and who had a 
 fine wit which surely must have brought him some 
 measure of "invention." Anyway, Prior had a book- 
 plate in which he called down Mars and Apollo and 
 an angel blowing on the trumpet of fame to sit 
 about his shield of arms, and this plate in good 
 Jacobean style is one of considerable rarity and 
 consequently of considerable value to the collector. 
 
 John Bagford, it must be admitted, has rather an 
 odious memory even among those who allow the 
 followers of Granger some little claim to distinction 
 as lovers and collectors of literary memorabilia. 
 This man, who began life as an apprentice to a 
 shoemaker, developed a desire for knowledge which 
 took him from so humble a calling and sent him off 
 on a tour through Germany and the Low Countries 
 in search of material for a book on printing, which, 
 however, he never wrote. The name " biblioclast " 
 has been angrily bestowed upon him, and there 
 seems to have been good reason for it ; for not 
 
England ^^ 
 
 less than twenty thousand volumes passed through 
 his hands, from which he tore title-pages, frontis- 
 pieces, wood-cuts, portraits, and ornamental letters, 
 wholly destroying some volumes and mutilating, 
 to an extent which was actual destruction, a great 
 many others. When one thinks of the rare books 
 that were thus put beyond the reach of the pre- 
 serving hand of the collector, of the bindings which 
 were executed for the great bibliophiles of the past, 
 and of the engravings of the masters now wholly 
 gone, this destruction makes the blood boil. Among 
 the collections of this book-killer was found the earli- 
 est known specimen of a book-plate used by an Eng- 
 lish lady. This is the plate of Elizabeth Pindar, 
 which dates about 1608. The motto she chose 
 was, Goifs Providence is mine inheritance. 
 
 There is a book-plate bearing the inscription 
 William Cowper, Clerk of the Parliaments^ which is 
 sometimes erroneously attributed to the poet, him of 
 Olney, the William of a greater fame. The way in 
 which the office of clerk fell to this William Cowper, 
 who was an uncle of the poet, is rather curious and 
 interesting. When George I. ascended the throne, 
 the office was held by a certain Mr. Johnson. One 
 of the despicable creatures of the court was a man 
 named Robethon, who succeeded in getting the office 
 promised to him in futuro. No sooner was he pos- 
 sessed of this grant in certainty, than he sold the 
 right for I9000 ! Upon the death of said Johnson 
 the actual grant was made out, and the name to be 
 placed upon it was " anybody that Robethon should 
 name." The price named was paid by Spencer 
 Cowper, as may be certified in the diary of his sister- 
 
^6 Ex Libris 
 
 in-law (Lady Mary Cowper, wife of the Chancellor, 
 and Lady of the Bedchamber to Princess Caroline), 
 where the transaction is entered under date of Dec. 
 25, 1 7 14. Spencer Cowper gave the post to his 
 eldest son, who held it until 1740, in which year he 
 died. The book-plate is one of real interest in 
 itself, being well engraved, and in the pure Jacobean 
 style. 
 
 All lovers of books will recall the witty lines by 
 Dr. Trapp, and the even more witty rejoinder they 
 brought forth from Sir William Browne, the founder 
 of the prizes for odes and epigrams at Cambridge, 
 upon the occasion of the gift in November, 17 15, 
 from King George L to the University of Cambridge, 
 of some books, and the sending at the same time of 
 a troop of horse to Oxford. Dr. Trapp wrote as 
 follows: — 
 
 "The King, observing with judicious eyes 
 The state of both his universities, 
 To one he sent a regiment: for why? 
 That learned body wanted loyalty. 
 To th' other he sent books, as well discerning 
 How much that loyal body wanted learning." 
 
 To which Sir William made answer: — 
 
 "The King to Oxford sent his troop of horse, 
 For Tories own no argument but force; 
 With equal care to Cambridge books he sent, 
 For Whigs allow no force but argument." 
 
 This gift of books was the greatest benediction 
 the library of Cambridge ever received, and it con- 
 sisted of 28,965 volumes of printed books and 1790 
 
England 37 
 
 manuscripts. This liberal gift cost the royal treasury 
 the pretty sum of ;^6ooo, the price paid to the heirs 
 of John Moore, D.D., Lord Bishop of Ely, to 
 whom the library had belonged. This munificent 
 act was suggested to the king by his Secretary of 
 State, Townshend, in acknowledgment of the loy- 
 alty of the university which, through its senate, had 
 voted an address in which expressions of its attach- 
 ment to the person and government of the king 
 were introduced. Beyond question this trifling act 
 pleased the monarch, who knew of the Jacobite ten- 
 dency manifested at Oxford. Some nineteen years 
 after the books were received, they were given suita- 
 ble housing in rooms especially prepared for them. 
 The fact which makes this bit of history worthy of 
 mention in the present connection is that, at this 
 time, the celebrated engraver, John Pine, made a 
 book-plate for these books which was intended to 
 commemorate the gracious generosity of the royal 
 giver. This plate is very handsome in appearance 
 and bold in execution. There were four sizes en- 
 graved to fit the folios, quartos, octavos, and books 
 of lesser size. In all 28,200 copies were printed, as 
 appears from the receipted bill dated July 8, 1737. 
 The three larger plates are alike in design, and may 
 be described as follows: upon an architectural base 
 upon the front of which is a medallion of King 
 George, rises a pyramid, whose fore-front is nearly 
 concealed by a large oval shield which gives the arms 
 of the university; upon the right sits Minerva, and 
 upon the left stands Apollo. Piles of books lie 
 about, and the ornamental touches of the period are 
 used to good advantage. There is extant a letter 
 
38 Ex Libris 
 
 from Pine in which he discusses some proposed 
 alterations in the plate, and offers to make the pro- 
 file of the king "more like." In the smaller-sized 
 plate many of the features of these larger ones are 
 omitted, notably the figures of Apollo and Minerva, 
 the sun, clouds, and pyramid. 
 
 Lady Betty Germain, friend of Sarah, Duchess 
 of Marlborough, used a dainty book-plate made 
 after the death of her husband in 17 18. The Ger- 
 main arms appear in the proper lozenge impaling 
 those of Berkeley, and surrounding the shield is the 
 widow's knot, the whole upon a hatched back- 
 ground whose blackness throws the graceful design 
 into effective prominence. 
 
 One of the very early families of England went by 
 the musty name of Fust, and various of its mem- 
 bers have crept into history at one time or another, 
 having been in the train of some valiant prince, 
 expatiated some horrible crime at the stake, or at- 
 tained to rank and fortune. There is a book-plate 
 used by a certain member of this family going by 
 the name of Sir Francis Fust of Hill Court in the 
 County of Gloucester^ Baronet^ which is of note on 
 account of the immense number of armorial bear- 
 ings it shows. No less than forty coats are bla- 
 zoned upon this plate. There is one large shield 
 which is divided down the centre, and upon the 
 dexter side are shown the marriages in the male 
 line and on the sinister the marriages in the female 
 line. So says the inscription itself. The date of 
 this remarkable plate is about 1730. 
 
 A very interesting plate, both on account of its 
 appearance and the memories it stirs, is that of -the 
 
England 39 
 
 Rt. Honble. Henrietta Louisa Jeffreys Countess of 
 Pomfret, Lady of the Bed-chamber to ^een Caroline. 
 This is the inscription as it reads upon the largest 
 and most interesting of her three notable plates. 
 This lady was the granddaughter and heiress 
 of that " monster in ermine," Lord George Jef- 
 freys, Baron of Wem, the infamous minion of 
 James II. As this large and rare plate falls under 
 the eye of the collector, he cannot but remember the 
 atrocious deeds committed by Jeffreys, his inhuman- 
 ity and his terrible cruelty in the high position in 
 which he was allowed to display these traits of his 
 character. His son succeeded to the title of Baron 
 Wem and was the last to hold it, a title bestowed 
 by a despicable specimen of royalty for a despicable 
 ingenuity in the trials of the adherents of Mon- 
 mouth. His daughter married Thomas, first Earl 
 of Pomfret, and was made Lady of the Bedcham- 
 ber, as the plate indicates. This office she was re- 
 leased from upon the death of the Queen in 1737, 
 and the plate was probably made within three or 
 four years of that date. The motto on the book- 
 plate is in Welsh and reads, Pob dawne O dduw. 
 The armorial bearings shown are Fermor and Jef- 
 freys with supporters and coronet : at either side the 
 Fermor and Jeffreys crests are seen, and a distant 
 view of the open field appears at one end. This 
 plate, which is signed S. W., is of a very unusual 
 shape, being long and narrow and quite large, not 
 at all of the dimension or form one would pick out 
 for the use of a lady. 
 
 There is a very bold bit of engraving which 
 seems to represent huge tomes lying upon a table 
 
40 Ex Libris 
 
 near the grating of an unglassed window, which was 
 used by the Earl of Aylesford as a book-plate. 
 The plate has this peculiarity that while very strong 
 and massive in appearance, the exact meaning of the 
 design cannot be understood. Another interesting 
 point which this plate presents for solution relates 
 to the person who engraved it. The work very 
 strongly suggests the touch of Giovanni Battista 
 Piranesi, and if one did not know that the Earl had 
 been a student of the art of engraving under this 
 very master and prided himself in no small measure 
 upon the ability he possessed, it would be at once 
 assigned to the graver of Piranesi, But as the Earl 
 may very possibly have executed the plate himself, 
 the question is one not to be decided until further 
 proof is adduced for one side or the other. 
 
 William Wilberforce, the abolitionist, used a book- 
 plate of no very handsome design and which is 
 thought to have been drawn originally for his 
 grandfather, of the same name. However, as it was 
 used by the great philanthropist and statesman, it 
 may well be included here as having much interest 
 attaching to it ; for the bravery and eloquence of his 
 speeches and the finally triumphant persistence with 
 which he urged his abolition measures before the 
 House of Commons made him of world-wide repu- 
 tation. The plate shows the arms without motto 
 enclosed in a neat frame in the rococo style. 
 There are three varieties of this plate, which are so 
 nearly alike as to make it quite likely that their dif- 
 ferences will be overlooked without close examina- 
 tion. It is conjectured that the plate was used first 
 by the original William Wilberforce, then by his 
 
England 41 
 
 son of the same name, an uncle of the following, 
 and finally by the owner who achieved greatest 
 distinction. 
 
 Thomas Bewick engraved many book-plates, and 
 his style is so well known as to require no descrip- 
 tion. The charming little bits of landscape and 
 water-side are found in profusion throughout the 
 books he illustrated, as well as on many book-plates. 
 Among these dainty bits there is one which bears 
 under the picture the name Joseph Pollard. This 
 plate is illustrated here with a print from the very 
 copper upon which Bewick traced the design. This 
 represents a view of Newcastle, to which town Bewick 
 belonged, and whose natural beauties and the ruins 
 in the neighborhood of which, furnished the great 
 engraver with not a few motives and ideas. This 
 print shows the sky line of the town from up the 
 Tyne, with the towers of St. Nicholas and the Old 
 Castle showing faintly. It is of interest to record 
 that this plate was in all likelihood a gift from 
 Bewick to his friend Pollard, between whom there 
 were strong bonds of affection. The Pollard family 
 is perhaps even older to Newcastle and the Tyneside 
 than the Bewick, and Mr. Percival Pollard of New 
 York, who furnished these data, tells me that the 
 original owner of the plate was his great-grandfather. 
 
 Mark Lambert was a pupil, indeed an apprentice, 
 of Bewick's, and many of his book-plates have been 
 erroneously attributed to his master, so closely do 
 they follow the style and manner of the great wood- 
 engraver. Indeed In even so authentic a work as 
 Hugo's Catalogue of Bewick's Works^ some few 
 things by Lambert are unconsciously Included, and 
 
42 Ex Libris 
 
 it is curious to learn that the plate of Buddie 
 Atkinson, which was at first accredited to Bewick, 
 and then to Lambert, now turns out to be the 
 design and the engraving of Mr. George F. Robin- 
 son, who was with the firm of M. and M. W. 
 Lambert for a long time, and who is now living at 
 Gosforth, not far from Newcastle. The collector 
 who can number a dozen plates by Lambert can 
 feel assured that he has well over half the total num- 
 ber of plates which Lambert ever made. 
 
 Bartolozzi is known to have engraved a few book- 
 plates, and among the most pleasing of them is the 
 one for Lady Bessborough. In this the interior of 
 what seems a Roman villa is pictured, the female 
 figure seated in the chair in the foreground being 
 probably intended to represent Venus, who holds in 
 one hand a flaming human heart and in the other 
 the dove of purity. Two cupids hover near, bearing 
 in their hands a floating scarf, upon which the name 
 of the owner, H. F. Bessborough^ is seen. The 
 workmanship here is of the finest order, the draw- 
 ing is faultless, the engraving most beautiful. The 
 plate bears the signature of Cipriani as its designer 
 and that of F. Bartolozzi as its engraver, and it is 
 dated 1796. It may be that the distinguished lady 
 who used this beautiful plate in her books also made 
 use of it as a visiting-card, for which purpose it was 
 quite in keeping with the fashions of the day. This 
 is a plate not often met with in the collector's 
 albums, and one that is highly prized by those who 
 have it. 
 
 To William Blake, student of engraving under 
 Basire, and honored with the friendship and pat- 
 
England 43 
 
 ronage of Flaxman, is attributed a small and most 
 delicately engraved book-plate for one Charles Con- 
 way. This is decidedly monumental in character, 
 with its figures of an old man with a flowing beard, 
 and the students upon either side in affectionate atti- 
 tude, all resting upon a stone sepulchre of oblong 
 form and simple design. On the very bottom of 
 the pedestal is carved the motto. Liberty of Opinion. 
 
 There is a very rare and particularly interesting 
 plate once gracing the books of Robert Dinwiddle, 
 sometime Lieutenant-Governor of the colony of Vir- 
 ginia, which is a very fine bit of engraving and is of 
 especial interest to American collectors on account 
 of his connection with the early history of this 
 country. The Chippendale style in its most ornate 
 period is employed here, and the frame has two 
 cartouches, one holding the arms and the other the 
 name in ornamental script. The arms are peculiar; 
 they represent, in the upper half of the shield, an 
 Indian archer shooting his arrow at a deer, and in 
 the lower, a single-masted, port-holed vessel making 
 for a formidable fort which floats the English flag. 
 The motto is, Ubi liber tas ibi patria^ and is the one 
 used by the Baillie, Hugar, Beverly, Darch, and 
 Garrett families, as well as the Dinwiddies. It is 
 also the motto which Edmund Ludlow placed over 
 his hut in Switzerland. Ludlow was obliged to flee 
 England at the Restoration, but he was one of the 
 men of whom Macaulay wrote in high terms of 
 praise, calling him, indeed, " the most illustrious 
 survivor of a mighty race of men, the judges of a 
 King, the founders of a republic." 
 
 The Dinwiddle folk are of ancient Scotch extrac- 
 
44 Ex Libris 
 
 tion, and on the Ragman's Roll, which Sir Walter 
 Scott describes as the list of barons and men of 
 note who subscribed submission to Edward I. in 
 1296, when that sovereign invaded Scotland and 
 despoiled it of historical records and of the sacred 
 coronation stone, which last is still preserved in 
 London, appears the name of AUeyn Dinwithie, 
 who is considered to be the progenitor of the family. 
 There were some daring and bloody deeds in the 
 days back of the Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia and 
 his immediate family, when peaceable and prosperous 
 merchants living in Glasgow took no little pride in 
 the records of their ancestors, Robert was born in 
 1693 at Germiston, a seat his father owned, and was 
 brought up in the counting-room and was in all 
 likelihood a merchant as were his forbears. For 
 some eleven years after 1727 he held the office of 
 Collector of Customs in Bermuda and was given his 
 appointment as Surveyor-General of Customs of 
 the southern ports of the Continent of America in 
 acknowledgment of his ability and zeal. Defalca- 
 tions were not unknown in those days, and it needed 
 such a man as Robert Dinwiddie to discover the 
 purloiners of the government moneys and to set 
 matters upon a proper basis. After this he seems 
 to have had a residence in London and came out to 
 Virginia in 1751 with his wife and two daughters, 
 Elizabeth and Rebecca. He set sail in the latter 
 part of the month of July and landed just four 
 months afterward to the very day. It was under 
 Dinwiddie's administration that the attempt was 
 made to expel the French from the Ohio and Fort 
 Duquesne, in which campaign George Washington 
 
England 45 
 
 distinguished himself and Braddock fell. It will be 
 remembered that it was Governor Dinwiddle who 
 recognized the worth of Washington and who sent 
 him on the commission to the French settlement 
 upon the Ohio. However, things were not all 
 smooth sailing for Dinwiddle, and when at last he 
 left this country, he was not in the best of favor 
 with the colonists. He had recommended the taxa- 
 tion of the colonies, and was charged with having 
 converted to his own use something like $100,000, 
 which should have been distributed to the Virgin- 
 ians as compensation for their over-contribution to 
 the public service. When he embarked he declared 
 himself " worn out with vexation and age." His 
 book-plate, which was without doubt engraved in 
 England, bears witness to his American residence in 
 unmistakable manner. 
 
 Perhaps no family has borne a more famous name 
 for so many years in the " north countree " than 
 have the Delavals, and of this interesting family, 
 among whom were numbered a cousin of William 
 the Conqueror, knights who fought for the Holy 
 Sepulchre, a baron who was among those forcing 
 from King John the great foundation of English 
 national liberty, patrons of literature and of art, 
 heroes on the seas and in the battles of the land, 
 statesmen and companions of royalty, hardly any 
 equalled Sir Francis Drake Delaval in natural abil- 
 ity and in those winning graces which make friends 
 and attract wide notice. Sir Francis was a states- 
 man of no mean order, and it is related of him that 
 upon one occasion his claims to election were em- 
 phasized by the procuring of a cannon from which 
 
46 Ex Libris 
 
 five hundred guineas were discharged among the 
 electors of the particular town he wished to carry ! 
 This method proved exceedingly satisfactory, as Sir 
 Francis was returned at the head of the poll. Val- 
 iant in war, he swam half a mile to be the first to 
 land on French soil when the expedition was sent 
 to make a descent upon St. Cass, and for his bravery 
 he was made by George III. a Knight of the 
 Bath. Among other amusing anecdotes of this 
 brilliant man is that upon one occasion he hired 
 Drury Lane Theatre and gave a performance of 
 Othello, with himself and other members of his 
 family in the principal roles. Even the House of 
 Commons adjourned some two hours earlier than 
 usual to be present, and no less a critic than Garrick 
 praised the acting. When he settled down in 1750 
 in his beautiful seat in Northumberland with his 
 bride, the relict of Lord Nassau Paulet, his hall and 
 parks are said to have resembled fairy-land, and 
 every sort of gaiety and splendor was indulged while 
 the charities of the neighborhood suffered no lack. 
 Sir Francis used a book-plate which is now rare, 
 and interesting because of his remarkable history. 
 The plate is of the Chippendale style, showing the 
 arms of Sir Francis and those of his wife in separate 
 shields. In his own shield the arms of Delaval and 
 Blake are quartered, and in his wife's those of Paulet 
 and Thanet are impaled. The plate is very ornate, 
 and under the two shields the mottoes of the fami- 
 lies appear, Dieu me conduise, " God guide me," for 
 the Delaval, and Aymez loyaulte^ " Love loyalty," 
 for the Paulet. There is a bit of interesting history 
 connected with this motto which adds to the interest 
 
England 47 
 
 of the plate. John Pauletus, the Marquis of Win- 
 chester, garrisoned his house during the civil wars 
 in the reign of Charles I. and held it against the 
 Parliamentary forces for nigh two years. In honor 
 of the principles which actuated him in this enter- 
 prise the Marquis called his house "Aymez Loy- 
 aulte," and he caused these words to be written with 
 a diamond upon every glass window in the house ! 
 Ever since this show of loyalty and pugnacity these 
 words have been used by the descendants of the 
 house as their motto. 
 
 Sir John Hussey Delaval, Bart., known as Lord 
 Delaval, was the second son of Sir Francis, and was 
 in his way quite as remarkable a man as was his 
 father. An apt business man and a lover of 
 architecture, he did much to beautify the old estates 
 and the ample additions he made to them. By 
 the publication of the Delaval Papers the con- 
 spicuous position taken by this gentleman as a 
 patron of the arts is made noticeable, and one reads 
 with interest of his favors to the needy poet of 
 Grub Street, to the penniless opera singer, and the 
 broken-down member of the dramatic profession. 
 Legends of his open-handed generosity and benevo- 
 lence are still related upon the old northern estates. 
 By the marriage of his favorite daughter to the 
 second Earl of Tyrconnel, the historic Ford Castle 
 and estate, including the field of Flodden, event- 
 ually came into the possession of the Beresford 
 family ; for the daughter and only child of the 
 Countess of Tyrconnel married the second Marquis 
 of Waterford. Sir John Delaval, after seeing his 
 daughters married to high positions, received a great 
 
48 Ex Libris 
 
 blow in the death of his only son a few months be- 
 fore coming of age, and by this sad event he was 
 the last of his family to wear the robes of a peer. 
 His book-plate, around which so many interesting 
 memories cluster, is a brilliant specimen of the 
 Jacobean style. 
 
 Laurence Sterne, to whom the title of Reverend 
 is properly, yet withal it seems improperly prefixed, 
 was in all probability the designer of the book-plate 
 he used in his own collection of books. The centre 
 of the design is filled with a stone slab, upon which 
 the bust of Juvenal, perhaps, is placed. Closed 
 books lie at either side, upon one of which is the 
 title Tristram Shandy, and upon the other Alas, poor 
 Torick ! At the bottom the name Laurence Sterne 
 is written in a flowing hand. Sterne added the 
 talents of an artist and a musician of the ordinary 
 level to his accomplishments as a lover of literature 
 and a writer of books, and this design is not prob- 
 ably beyond his powers or above his imagination. 
 He wrote a letter towards the end of July, 1761, 
 to John Hall Stevenson, the satiric poet who figures 
 in Tristram Shandy as " Eugenius," in which he 
 tells him, 
 
 " I have bought seven hundred books at a purchase, dog 
 cheap, — and many good, — and I have been a week get- 
 ting them set up in my best room here." 
 
 Quite possibly this purchase inspired the book- 
 plate, which bears not a little resemblance to that 
 of his dear friend, David Garrick, upon whose 
 library as well as that of " Eugenius," on whose 
 shelves there seem to have been collected some store 
 
England 49 
 
 of "facetiae," Sterne depended a good deal for his 
 reading, particularly perhaps before the purchase 
 recorded in the letter. 
 
 The book-plate of David Garrick is of pleasing 
 design. The name is engraved upon a graceful 
 cartouche around which are disposed such emblems 
 as indicate the tastes of Garrick. There is the 
 mask of comedy, the bauble of the fool, the lyre of 
 poetry, and such "properties" of the stage as the 
 goblet, crown, sceptre, and sword. The bust of 
 Shakespeare crowns the whole design and below 
 runs the motto, — 
 
 La premiere chose qu'on doit faire quand on a emprunete' un 
 Livre c'est de le lire afin de pouvoir le rendre plutot. {^Men- 
 agiana^ Vol. IV.^ 
 
 Garrick's library contained many rich and price- 
 less Shakespearian quartos, which this plate was well 
 fitted to adorn. No wonder that " the great Cham 
 of literature," as Warren dubs Dr. Johnson, was not 
 allowed to make use of Garrick's volumes, although 
 the refusal made cause of troublesome complaint. 
 
 There is a very handsome book-plate of which 
 but few copies are known and which bears the name 
 Capt. Cook. The design exhibits a shield upon 
 which the globe is seen showing the Pacific Ocean, 
 and round the shield flags and guns are disposed in 
 graceful arrangement. This at a glance one would 
 take for the plate of that famous Captain Cook 
 whose surname was James and among whose 
 famous exploits was the discovery of the Sandwich 
 Islands, upon the shores of which he lost his life 
 at the hands of the natives. But the great circum- 
 
5© Ex Libris 
 
 navigator probably was not the owner of this plate, 
 which was in all probability made for his son, who 
 was not really a captain, but whose title was prop- 
 erly Commander. 
 
 William Hogarth was apprenticed by his own 
 preference to a silversmith, and there studied the 
 arts of designing and engraving to good purpose. 
 In addition to the book-plate made for himself, 
 there are three others which are supposed to have 
 been from his graver. These are for Ellis Gamble, 
 his master, John Holland, the heraldic artist, and 
 George Lambart, the scene-painter. These must 
 be accounted early endeavors of the future expert 
 and they display little of the ingenuity his celebrated 
 pictures are so famous for. Heraldic in treatment, 
 they introduce a few allegorical features, the plate 
 of Holland being especially favored in this way. 
 Here Minerva is seated evidently in the studio of 
 the artist and about her are four cupids who disport 
 themselves upon the floor with books and the shield 
 and crest of arms for toys. 
 
 John Wilkes, of fascinating manners and dissolute 
 conduct, founder of the North Briton^ the thorn in 
 the flesh of the Bute administration, the clever, 
 courageous, unscrupulous scamp whose conversa- 
 tion could charm all and whose repartee was full of 
 delicious wit, scholar and orator, had three book- 
 plates to denote his ownership of a library in which 
 one fancies must have been some of the works of 
 the old wits and the poetry and novels of his time. 
 Hogarth drew his picture, a picture of Jack Wilkes 
 sitting in jaunty posture and leering beneath his 
 liberty cap, which will never fade from the memory. 
 
England 51 
 
 The book-plates date between the years 1755 and 
 1770, and they all show the arms with accessories 
 corresponding to the style of the period in which 
 the plates were engraved. 
 
 Horace Walpole, eminently fitted to be remem- 
 bered by the book-lover as the writer of many 
 charming epistles, as the owner of a private press 
 from which charming books were issued, and as a 
 collector, indiscriminate yet by no means objectless, 
 used one or two book-plates which are considered 
 an important addition to the book-plate collector's 
 album. The first of these is an armorial arrange- 
 ment with the words Mr. Horatio Walpole upon 
 a festoon at the bottom. The design is very 
 simple, and one wonders at it somewhat when he 
 considers the lurid style of architectural ornament 
 with which Strawberrv Hill was embellished and 
 which brought its builder such generous measure of 
 ridicule and criticism. But the glory of the col- 
 lector is that while the world outside may fail to 
 understand the purposes or the delights of his ways, 
 he himself is gathering about him for his own 
 delectation and that of the few choice spirits able to 
 appreciate them with him those bits which event- 
 ually prove even to the sceptical world to have had 
 a value beyond their conception. I presume that 
 if the various collections contained in Strawberry 
 Hill and which were sold in the months of April 
 and May, 1 842, were to be sold to-day they would 
 bring well toward $750,000. The sale was not well 
 conducted; George Robins, the well-known auction- 
 eer, managed it, and his catalogue of the library 
 is a lamentable piece of work. This rare collec- 
 
52 Ex Libris 
 
 tion of books, manuscripts, engraved portraits, etc., 
 brought about $40,000, and the miniatures (which 
 were extremely good), the pictures, coins, drawings, 
 porcelains, stained glass, armor, furniture, plate, 
 etc., were sold for something like $166,000. Wal- 
 pole lived fifty years in his villa at Twickenham, 
 enjoying his collections, his roses and lilacs, his 
 nightingales, and, of course, his friends. We may 
 believe with certainty that these book-plates were 
 used in the books gathered there. Towards the 
 end of his life he succeeded his nephew George as 
 Earl of Orford, and he had a new book-plate to 
 commemorate the fact. This is a circular design, 
 with the arms in the centre and the words StziUum 
 H or at a Cojnitis de Orford around the edge. There 
 has been some idea that he may have used the 
 delightful vignette of Strawberry Hill as a book- 
 plate, but recent investigation leads to the con- 
 clusion that it was never so used. The picture 
 of the life which Walpole enjoyed, as so delight- 
 fully set forth by Austin Dobson, comes anew to 
 the mind as one turns in the hand these old 
 marks of book-ownership used by this famous 
 dilettante. 
 
 One cannot help wishing that Walpole had con- 
 tinued that parody on the Letters of Lord Chester- 
 field to his son, which he commenced under the 
 title of the New Whole Duty of Woman, and which 
 was intended to be a series of letters from a mother 
 to a daughter. This vivacious and witty gentleman, 
 whose personal appearance in no wise fitted his in- 
 tellectual gifts, is described by Lord Hervey as 
 being, 
 
;i3jintrrii3pmmri^ 
 
England ^j 
 
 "as disagreeable as it was possible for a human figure 
 to be without being deformed. He was very short, dis- 
 proportioned, thick, and clumsily made ; had a broad, 
 rough-featured, ugly face, with black teeth, and a head big 
 enough for a Polyphemus. One Ben Ashurst, who said a 
 few good things, though admired for many, told Lord 
 Chesterfield, once, that he was like a stunted giant, — which 
 was a humorous idea and really apposite." 
 
 This strong picture is one not easily forgotten, 
 although one hardly likes to have it in mind when 
 reading those choice epistles in which the manners 
 of the times were reflected for the improvement of 
 that son, who died before reaching the position he 
 was intended to fill, leaving his father a disappointed 
 and broken-down man. The book-plate of Philip 
 Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, shows the 
 arms, the Earl's coronet, the ermine mantle, the 
 royal motto on the encircling garter, but no name. 
 
 Perhaps the most beautiful ladies' plate known to 
 the collector, is the one designed by Miss Agnes 
 Berry for Mrs. Anna Damer, and which was en- 
 graved by Francis Legat. In this the designer has 
 drawn a scene which is most perfectly adapted to 
 the charming and gifted person who was to use it. 
 The scene is out of doors. Before a stone pedestal 
 of imposing proportions, upon the top of which in 
 beautiful carving stands out the shield of arms in 
 a curved lozenge of delightful form, having two 
 hounds as supporters, kneels a female figure clad in 
 classic robes, who with one hand resting upon the 
 coping, with the other points to the emblems of the 
 sculptor's trade, which are carved upon the base and 
 are surrounded with the wreath of the victor. The 
 
54 Ex Libris 
 
 distant view is of the mountains in dim outline, 
 while near at hand are the protecting trees. This 
 plate is one of the most beautiful known to the col- 
 lector, and one of exceeding interest from its asso- 
 ciation with the lives of delightful and gifted ladies, 
 brilliant and worthy men. It is related that Anna 
 Conway, not then Mrs. Damer, walking one day 
 with David Hume about the streets of London and 
 meeting a vendor who bore upon his head a board 
 containing plaster dogs and shepherdesses and the 
 like images, some remark made by the light-hearted 
 young lady caused the historian to say, " Be less 
 severe. Miss Conway. Those images at which you 
 smile were not made without the aid of both science 
 and genius. With all your attainments now, you 
 cannot produce such works." Hume was a bit 
 heavy in conversation, and the seriousness with 
 which these words were delivered led Miss Conway 
 to determine to show Hume that, if she chose, she 
 could make images equal to those of the vendor's 
 collection. 
 
 Thus, at the age of eighteen, she received from a 
 playful remark her first incentive to take up that 
 serious study of art in which she attained such emi- 
 nence. Her portrait by Cosway, which hung at 
 Strawberry Hill, shows her to have been of a beau- 
 tiful and refined appearance, with something of genius 
 in the pretty oval face and the look of mastery in the 
 very hands which grasp the chisel and mallet as she 
 leans upon the pedestal of a completed bust. Gay 
 and witty in society, she yet had opinions of her own 
 which she held with good reason and would not lose. 
 She was especially well read, and in all ways was 
 
England ^^ 
 
 fitted to adorn any circle of society in which the 
 wits and queens made merry sport or discussed, in 
 heavier moments, questions of import and weight. 
 However, the remark of Hume, which led her to 
 retire by herself and practise with wax and clay, was 
 the means of deciding her to devote herself with 
 assiduity to what was now a chosen profession. 
 Her first production Hume laughed at, and told 
 her that to model in yielding substances was a very 
 different thing from chiselling in marble. After an 
 argument with her obstinate critic, she decided to 
 attempt some work in marble, and, procuring tools 
 and the stone, she set to work privately upon her 
 task. Having ample means at her command, she 
 was able to have the best of instruction, and very 
 soon she became the pupil of Ceracchi and Bacon, 
 the former being her instructor in modelling, and 
 the latter in the use of the chisel. Ceracchi lost his 
 life for plotting against Napoleon, and Bacon made 
 a justly celebrated monument to Lord Chatham, 
 which is in Westminster Abbey. Cruikshank, too, 
 was one of her teachers, and from him she learned 
 enough of anatomy to draw figures with accuracy. 
 Married at nineteen to George Damer, a young and 
 foolish spendthrift, whose chief pleasure lay in ap- 
 pearing in three new suits a day, her married life 
 was not pleasant ; but she bore with her husband's 
 folly, while losing the love he had at first enkindled. 
 Things went from bad to worse with him and he 
 blew his brains out in August, 1776, at the Bedford 
 Arms, leaving a wardrobe worth some $40,000. 
 With renewed interest his widow turned her atten- 
 tion to her art, and travelled extensively on the 
 
^6 Ex Libris 
 
 Continent in order to study the best models. A 
 number of her groups of animals, Walpole chival- 
 rously declared to be equal to those of the ancient 
 masters, and Darwin wrote the following lines, which 
 may be taken to express the common opinion of 
 this gifted lady of noble rank. 
 
 " Long with soft touch shall Darner's chisel charm, 
 With grace delight us, and with beauty warm; 
 Forstcr's fine form shall hearts unborn engage. 
 And Melbourne's smile enchant another age." 
 
 Mrs. Damer was greatly interested in the ideas of 
 that peculiar person, Charles James Fox, who, in spite 
 of his widely known habits and his unpleasant appear- 
 ance and manners, could be so fascinating to the fair 
 sex, and she with other noble women, dressed in the 
 Continental colors of blue and buff (in which Fox 
 then appeared in the House of Commons), went forth 
 electioneering for the champion of the liberties of 
 the American colonists. In 1797, upon the death 
 of Walpole, Mrs. Damer entered into possession of 
 Strawberry Hill, and here gathered about her those 
 friends she admired and loved. Among the amuse- 
 ments of the place, amateur theatricals held no un- 
 important part, and in them Mrs. Damer showed 
 herself to have considerable ability. For a full 
 score of years she occupied the charming old estate 
 and had for her particular friends the Misses Berry 
 and the widow of David Garrick. Among her 
 famous works of sculpture are a statue of George 
 III. and a bust of Nelson. Very fittingly does her 
 delightful book-plate commemorate her achieve- 
 
England 57 
 
 ments in her art, and very properly is it given a 
 choice place among the treasures of the collector. 
 
 Very suggestive of this delightful plate of Anna 
 Darner is the plate of Charles Hoare, Esq., of whom 
 and whose plate, however, but little is known. The 
 design cannot but suggest the pencil of Agnes Berry, 
 nor is the engraving not unlike to that of Legat, 
 who engraved the other. In this plate, which is 
 enclosed within an oval frame, a muse, presumably 
 Calliope, sits in an attitude of reflection before a 
 marble monument upon which stands a bust of 
 Homer, which is evidently from a well-known marble 
 of antique workmanship, and upon the side of 
 which are the arms of the said Charles Hoare. The 
 family of Hoare has attained prominence in art and 
 letters through several of its members, and it may 
 very possibly be that this plate belonged to the 
 half-brother of that Sir Richard Colt Hoare who 
 wrote the Ancient and Modern History of Wiltshire. 
 
 Charles James Fox used a book-plate also. In 
 the inscription he terms himself the Honorable^ etc., 
 showing that the plate was made previous to his 
 appointment as Secretary of State in 1782, which 
 office he held but a few months on account of the 
 death of the premier, Rockingham. His plate is of 
 the ordinary sort used by the folk of his day, and of 
 no interest save for the accident of ownership. 
 
 There is a bit of a record preserved regarding 
 some books from the cabinet of the gay actress Peg 
 Wofiington. There was a library sold in England 
 somewhere in the early forties in which several of 
 her books were dispersed. Among the interesting 
 items was this of a religious character, Catechisme 
 
58 Ex Librls 
 
 du Diocese de Boulogne^ Boulogne^ ^73^- Not only- 
 does this item from the sale catalogue interest us 
 because of its remarkable ownership, but more 
 particularly because of the delicious scribbling in the 
 hand of the fair Margaret herself which several pages 
 reveal and which reads as follows : Miss IVojfington^ 
 her book, God give her grace therein to look. Ce livre 
 appartien a Mademoiselle Woffington. Garrick, who 
 survived the fascinating performer some thirty odd 
 years, became possessor of this volume and regarded 
 it with no little affection as a juvenile book of his 
 favorite Peggy. It will be interesting to note that 
 at this sale the book mentioned brought only seven 
 shillings and sixpence, and that a second one owned 
 by the same fair reader and which had her autograph 
 within its covers brought but two shillings. 
 
 Another plate, which must be grouped with those 
 which draw some interest from the association of 
 their owners with Horace Walpole, is that of Lady 
 Hervey, the " fair Molly Lepel " of the ballad 
 written by Lords Chesterfield and Bath. In itself 
 the plate attracts no particular notice, as is the case 
 with many a book-plate; but when one knows some- 
 thing of the story of the times and the society in 
 which Lady Hervey moved, even so small a bit as 
 this receives its quota of value. The plate is 
 armorial in form with the motto, Je n oublierai jamais, 
 on a ribbon below. The name Mary, Lady 
 Hervey, is below this again. Lady Hervey was one 
 of those three Marys — Lady Mary Wortley Mon- 
 tagu, Mary Bellenden, and Mary Lepell — who were 
 so famous for their beauty, their intelligence, their 
 wit, and their savoir faire: women of the gay and 
 
England 59 
 
 fashionable world they were and they wielded the 
 powers granted them over no small or insignificant 
 number of adherents. Upon Lady Hervey's death 
 in 1768, Walpole wrote more feelingly than was his 
 wont upon such occasions. The following extract is 
 from his voluminous letters : — 
 
 " My Lady Hervey, one of my great friends, died in 
 my absence. She is a great loss to several persons : her 
 house was one of the most agreeable in London, and her 
 own friendliness and amiable temper had attached all that 
 knew her. Her sufferings with the gout and rheumatism 
 were terrible, and never could affect her patience or divert 
 her attention from her friends." 
 
 One of the treasures of Strawberry Hill was a 
 portrait of Lady Hervey by Allan Ramsay, in which 
 she is represented in what was probably her ordinary 
 dress, laced in front, a fichu of muslin upon the 
 shoulders, the sleeves falling in abundant folds over 
 the arms but being caught back at the elbow. 
 There is a hood upon the head tied becomingly 
 under the chin with a tiny ribbon. The expression 
 is attractive, while the features cannot be called 
 perfect. In the year 1758 Walpole printed at the 
 Strawberry Hill Press a thin volume called An 
 Account of Russia as it was in the Year lyio^ by 
 Charles Lord Whitworth, and among his letters to 
 Lady Hervey is one dated October 17 of that year, 
 in which, towards the end, he says: "A book has 
 been left at your house. It is Lord Whitworth's 
 account of Russia." It so happens that through 
 the generosity of a book-collector now dead, a large 
 number of choice books from his collection were 
 left to the Watkinson Library of Hartford, Conn., 
 
6o Ex Libris 
 
 and among them is the very copy of this book 
 which Walpole presented to Lady Hervey. Her 
 book-plate is still intact upon the front cover, and 
 what is perhaps of even greater interest and im- 
 portance in establishing the identity of the book, 
 the name M. Hervey is written by Walpole himself 
 in two places, once upon the cover above the book- 
 plate and again on the title-page. This volume, 
 the fifth issue of the famous press, thus bears an 
 added value to the book-lover. The name of the 
 former owner of this precious volume, George D. 
 Sargeant, is also penned upon the title-page. 
 
 Mary Berry, the eldest of the " twin wives " of 
 Horace Walpole, had a charming little book-plate 
 the design of which Walpole himself must have had 
 something to do with. It represents a strawberry 
 plant with the motto. Inter folia fructus^ and the 
 name under it. The choice of this design for her 
 book-plate is, of course, in plain allusion to her 
 home and her name, and it calls to mind at once 
 that verse from a poem which Walpole addressed 
 to her, and which he himself printed upon his pres^, 
 having it ready for the sisters to see as a surprise 
 when he took them out to see the press-room. 
 
 " To Mary's lips has ancient Rome 
 Her purest language taught ; 
 And from the modern city home 
 Agnes its pencil brought. 
 
 " Rome's ancient Horace sweetly chants 
 Such maids with lyric fire ; 
 Albion's old Horace sings nor paints, 
 He only can admire. 
 
England 6i 
 
 " Still would his press their fame record, 
 So amiable the pair is ! 
 But, ah ! how vain to think his word 
 Can add a straw to Berry's." 
 
 The interesting history of the delightful Countess 
 of Blessington is brought to mind by a very un- 
 obtrusive little book-plate which occupies the 
 corner of a page in the album which contains most 
 of the plates these pages describe. There is simply 
 the coronet of the earl and the letters, M. B. When 
 one thinks of the books in which these plates were 
 placed and of the hands which may have handled 
 them, when he recalls the visitors they looked down 
 upon from their shelves in Gore House and the con- 
 versations carried on before them, as if they had no 
 life, he regards the plate with something more than 
 interest. Perhaps the very hands, the models of 
 whose beauty in wax, ivory, and marble were to be 
 seen at that house in Kensington Gore, had deftly 
 pasted these bits of paper within the covers of the 
 precious volumes. Here to this house, once the 
 residence of William Wilberforce, where the rooms 
 were large and lofty and whose garden was one of 
 extraordinary beauty, with its extensive lawns, its 
 terraces, and its flower-pots, came such people as 
 the Prince Louis Napoleon, then a refugee ; Count 
 d'Orsay of course, who indeed made the place his 
 home in order, for one reason, to escape the punish- 
 ment due him for contracting debts amounting to 
 $500,000; the old friend of Lady Blessington, the 
 Countess Guiccioli, no longer the charming creat- 
 ure who captivated the famous poet; Dickens, and 
 John Forster. Misfortune overtook Lady Blessing- 
 
6i Ex Libris 
 
 ton, and her house was sold under the hammer, the 
 price it brought just about paying her debts, which 
 amounted to some $60,000. She went to Paris, 
 where the d'Orsays and the Countess GuiccioH, now 
 the wife of the Marquis de Boissy, an old French 
 nobleman who boasted of his wife's intimacy with 
 Byron, received her kindly. When she died in 1839, 
 d'Orsay raised a beautiful mausoleum in her memory 
 in the churchyard of Chambourcy pres de St. Ger- 
 main-en-Laye. The ground around it was covered 
 with turf and ivy brought from her old home, and 
 within were two sarcophagi, one for her and the other 
 for d'Orsay, who survived her but three years. 
 
 Some of the poets of England used book-plates 
 which, in themselves of no especial interest, become 
 of value to the collector from their association with 
 men of bygone fame. There was Lord Charles 
 Halifax, whose plate is not uncommon and whose 
 fame would seem to rest more upon his career as a 
 statesman than upon his few efforts in verse, yet 
 as Dr. Johnson, in his Lives of the Poets, makes 
 room for Halifax, shall any quarrel with this distinc- 
 tion being granted him ^ His chief poetical work 
 is his reply to Dryden's Hind and Panther, and 
 as Johnson himself is forced to remark, " a short 
 time withered his beauties." But his book-plate 
 has an interest in itself, as it bears an early date, 
 1702, and I believe at the time this engraving was 
 made Lord Charles was for the moment out of royal 
 favor, as well as out of the Council. However, at 
 his accession George L made him an Earl and a 
 Knight of the Garter, so that in some later plates 
 we find these titles added. 
 
England 6^ 
 
 Born in poverty and knowing it as a constant 
 companion all his days and at the last dying in its 
 arms, Robert Bloomfield, the uneducated shoemaker 
 poet of London, had sufficient imagination to design 
 for himself a coat-of-arms, and sufficient pride to 
 have it engraved for a book-plate. His motto, yf 
 Jig for the heralds^ was a plain indication of the ficti- 
 tious character of the arms he used, in which were 
 represented the tools of his trade and what seems 
 upon the other side of the shield to be a shoe- 
 maker about to beat his wife. This was designed 
 in some moment of playfulness or hate, and while it 
 makes a welcome addition to the collector's albums, 
 poor Bloomfield could not have had much use for 
 it, as circumstances never favored him with many 
 books. 
 
 William Cowper made use of the libraries of his 
 friends and of those open to the public, and had 
 but few volumes he could call his own. In fact, he 
 had but nine books in all between the years 1768 
 and 1788, and when he died a dozen years later his 
 library consisted of 177 volumes, many of which 
 were thin, trifling i2mos hardly worthy the name of 
 book. However, he had a book-plate, and for this 
 reason his books are of interest here. The plate is 
 a plain armorial, and from its style is judged to have 
 been made somewhere about the year 1790, towards 
 the completion of his happy labor of translating 
 Homer into blank verse. The nervous fever which 
 caused the last few years of his life to be passed in 
 hopeless dejection came on him about this time, and 
 as these book-plates have never been seen in more 
 than four books, it may be that, having begun the 
 
64 r^'X Libris 
 
 pleasant task of pasting them into his books, he was 
 not able to complete it. 
 
 Christopher Anstey had a book-plate in the Rib- 
 bon and Wreath style, which was made about the 
 year 1780. He was a poet of no mean order and one 
 who, according to Cary, " had the rare merit of dis- 
 covering a mode of entertainment which belonged 
 exclusively to himself" This is in reference to his 
 famous Nezv Bath Guide^ which hit off the fashion- 
 able follies of the day in a manner which took at 
 once with the reading public and which caused the 
 presses of Dodsley to run to their fullest capacity 
 and which really brought in a larger recompense 
 than did Johnson's Rasselas. Edition after edition 
 was sold, and it is not untrue to say that Smollett 
 is indebted in no small degree to Anstey not only 
 for the motive but the incidents of Humphrey Clinker. 
 The suddenly and worthily famous writer of the 
 clever satire upon the dissipation and frivolity of 
 the Beau Nash regime died in 1805 and was buried 
 in the city which gave him the materials for his 
 famous work. A monument in the Poet's Corner 
 at Westminster Abbey commemorates the man and 
 his work. The armorial bearings carved upon the 
 stone which is set up against the central pillar of 
 that splendid memorial will look to the collector of 
 book-plates like a book-plate in stone. 
 
 Robbie Burns had no book-plate as far as is 
 known to-day, but as he invented for himself a coat- 
 of-arms which he used as a seal and which might 
 have served as well for a book-plate, it will be of 
 some interest to give here a letter which he wrote to 
 a friend in March, 1793, mentioning his new seal. 
 
England 6^ 
 
 "One cominission I must trouble you with, — I want 
 to cut my armorial bearing (on a seal). Will you be so 
 obliging as to inquire what the expense will be ? I do not 
 know that my name is matriculated, as the heralds call it, 
 but I have invented arms for myself, and by courtesy of 
 Scotland, will likewise be entitled to supporters. These, 
 however, I do not intend to have on my seal. I am a 
 bit of a herald, and shall give you my arms. On a field 
 azure, a holly bush, seeded, proper, in base ; a shepherd's 
 pipe and a crook, saltierwise; also proper in chief on a 
 wreath of the colors, a woodlark perching on a sprig of a 
 bay tree proper, for crest. Two mottoes, round the top 
 of the crest, ff^ood notes wild ; at the bottom of the shield, 
 in the usual place. Better a wee bush than nae b'leld. By 
 the shepherd's pipe and crook I mean a stock and a horn 
 and a club." 
 
 This seal was made (indeed, he had three or four) 
 and was used by Burns until his death. When the 
 Chevalier James Burnes was invested with the Guel- 
 phic Order of Hanover by William IV., he incorpo- 
 rated the poet's seal with other devices in his arms 
 as registered in the office of Lyon King of Arms. 
 
 " Then to the well-trod stage anon, 
 If Johnson's learned sock be on. 
 Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child. 
 Warble his native wood-notes wild." 
 
 (^11 Penseroso, 131-4.) 
 
 It may have been from this verse of Milton's 
 that Burns took one of his mottoes. The words 
 frequently occur in Burns' writings. 
 
 Henry James Pye, Poet-Laureate of England 
 from 1790 to i8i3,used a book-plate of the middle 
 Chippendale style, which is of some interest on ac- 
 
 F 
 
66 Ex Libris 
 
 count of the distinguished office held by its owner, 
 which, however, by all accounts was not graced by 
 his holding ; for he was the maker of but dull verse 
 and, while a respectable member of Parliament and 
 loyal to the interests of the government, was not 
 thereby fitted to be its chosen songster. 
 
 Robert Southey immediately succeeded Pye, and 
 he too had a book-plate which is of as much more 
 interest than Pye's as his verse is of better quality. 
 The family of Southey traces its line back a consid- 
 erable distance, and among those ancestors was a 
 follower of Monmouth, who, had he not in some 
 way escaped the vigilance of Judge Jeffreys, would 
 have lost his life and with it the possibility of 
 continuing the line in which the poet was born. 
 Southey tried to read law, but found it like 
 " thrashing straw," and turned his attention with 
 redoubled energy to the literary passions already 
 enkindled within him. His book-plate is one of 
 the dreamy landscapes of Bewick, and was engraved 
 by that master in the year 1810. It shows the shield 
 of arms nestling against a rock, while above and about 
 the guarding shrubbery is thick and abundant. 
 
 The plate of Thomas Campbell, which is not 
 dated but which is probably not later then 18 10, 
 shows the arms of the Argyllshire Campbells with 
 the well-remembered " gyronny of eight" with the 
 boar's head crest, anent which the following verses 
 may be read : — 
 
 " So speed my song, marked with the crest 
 That erst th' adventurous Norman wore, 
 Who won the Lady of the West, 
 
 The daughter of MacCullom Moore. 
 
England 67 
 
 " Crest of my sires ! whose blood it sealed 
 With glory in the strife of swords, 
 Ne'er may the scroll that bears it yield 
 Degenerate thought or faithless words." 
 
 It is to be remembered that the Campbell family 
 sprung from the union of a Norman warrior of the 
 twelfth century and the heiress of Lochow, to whom 
 there is reason to fear the marriage was not welcome. 
 Campbell expressed in these lines a hope to which 
 he was loyal, for no written line of his could he wish 
 to change or lose. 
 
 And Rogers, Samuel Rogers, he who impressed 
 every one with the elegance of his taste, he used a 
 book-plate of elegant simplicity, as one would expect 
 him to do. Designed in the chaste Ribbon and 
 Wreath style, his plate dates not far from 1790, prob- 
 ably. Surely then this plate must have been in the 
 books which were in the beautiful bookcase " painted 
 by Stothard in his very best manner, with groups 
 from Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Boccaccio," as 
 Lord Macaulay relates. In speaking further of the 
 delights of this famous house of Rogers', at 11 St. 
 James Place, to which the banker-poet came in the 
 year 1800, the same writer says: "What a delight- 
 ful house it is ! It looks out on the Green Park 
 at just the most pleasant point. The furniture has 
 been selected with a delicacy of taste quite unique. 
 Its value does not depend on fashion, but must be 
 the same while the fine arts are held in any esteem." 
 In a similar strain is the following from Proctor's 
 Recollections of Men of Letters : " Upon the whole, I 
 never saw any house so tastefully fitted up and 
 decorated. Everything was good of its kind and 
 
68 Ex Libris 
 
 in good order. There was no plethora, no appear- 
 ance of display, no sign of superfluous wealth. 
 There was not too much of anything, not even too 
 much welcome, yet no lack of it." Again, to quote 
 from the diary of Byron : " If you enter his house, 
 his drawing-room, his library, you of yourself say 
 this is not the dwelling of a common mind. There 
 is not a gem, not a coin, a book thrown aside on the 
 chimney-piece, his sofa, his table, that does not be- 
 speak an almost fastidious elegance in the posses- 
 sor." And to have a copy of Rogers' book-plate 
 in his collection, to handle the very paper which he 
 may have pasted with exquisite care into some 
 selected volume, how real the pleasure, how rich the 
 sense of companionship ! 
 
 Lord Byron, admirer of Campbell, Moore, and 
 Rogers, reckless in his choice of friends, he too had 
 a book-plate, but it is with not a little disappoint- 
 ment that it is found to show the Noel arms. One 
 cannot but wonder how this plate came to be made. 
 Byron himself seems hardly likely to have ordered 
 so slight a matter attended to while busy in Italy 
 with his schemes with Hunt and Shelley ; perhaps 
 it was done upon the order of Burdett, the arbiter, 
 or again, as conjecture is our only aid in solving the 
 interesting question, may we not believe it was the 
 gift of his affectionate half-sister, Augusta Leigh ? 
 And again, had Byron any or many of these plates 
 with him in Italy ? Amid all the excitement of the 
 strange things there done, at Pisa, at Leghorn, at 
 Genoa, at Ravenna, one wonders if a book-plate 
 could have claimed the least attention. Deeply 
 affected for a time by the dreadful death of Shelley 
 
England 69 
 
 and the burning of his body on the sands of 
 Spezzia, within a few months he quarrelled with 
 the fascinating Countess Guiccioli, and the journey- 
 to Greece was shortly afterwards undertaken. What 
 with the monkeys and the other impedimenta, was 
 there chance for a book-plate to have been thought 
 of ? Little do we know, little can we guess, of the 
 origin or the use of this bit of paper engraved with 
 the arms of the Wentworth-Noels. In itself the 
 plate is uninteresting, being one easily passed over 
 in any collection of ordinary armorials, but when 
 viewed from the standpoint of the informed col- 
 lector with what interest it is invested ! 
 
 Charles Kingsley may with some considerable 
 reason be classed among the poets, and his plate 
 find mention here. It is another example of the 
 common and undesirable kind, which but for its 
 owner would never be retained by him who elects 
 to have a choice collection of plates. However, 
 this simple armorial plate ranks high among his 
 treasures when once the collector is so fortunate as 
 to secure it ; for it is not widely distributed or indeed 
 very widely known. 
 
 In the writings of the late Lord Tennyson one is 
 somewhat surprised to find upon examination very 
 scanty reference to the science of heraldry. Upon 
 first thought the tales of the chivalrous knights of 
 the Table Round will occur to the reader, and he 
 may think the lines descriptive of their prowess to 
 be full of heraldic emblazonry and the pomp and 
 state the lists suggest. Not so ; Arthur himself is 
 clad in the silken garment, ornamented with a 
 dragon, and the shield of Sir Lancelot is mentioned 
 
yo Ex Libris 
 
 as bearing " azure lions crowned with gold, ram- 
 pant," while Gareth has one " blue, and thereon the 
 morning star," and these are about all the passages 
 that can be thought of that refer with anything like 
 certainty to heraldry. And the book-plate which 
 the poet-laureate made use of shows the arms of 
 the commoner, and not the special grant, with its 
 somewhat different blazoning, given when he was 
 raised to the peerage. Truth to tell, it is but a 
 common-looking plate, which, save for the autograph 
 beneath it, would never attract notice. But that bit 
 of scrawled penmanship makes the plate one the 
 collector is proud to have within his cases. 
 
 Although Alfieri was not an Englishman, he is 
 classed here among the poets. Vittorio Alfieri was 
 born of a noble family in 1749, at Asti, in Pied- 
 mont. He lived many years in England and in 
 France, and wrote some fine tragedies and a quantity 
 of minor poems. His career was romantic, though 
 not worthy of imitation, and his attachment for the 
 Countess of Albany is of course familiar to every 
 reader of history. He used a book-plate of exceed- 
 ing beauty, and it is unfortunate that the name of 
 its engraver is not preserved. The design repre- 
 sents Father Time casting down his scythe and with 
 the gesture of despair regarding the works of the 
 poet, which lie in a pile upon a stone pedestal. The 
 Italian motto helps one to understand the motive 
 of the designer, which was to record the fact that 
 even Time himself was unable to obliterate the fame 
 of their author. Rather a vain motto this, one 
 would think, for a man to select for use upon his 
 own book-plate, even if its verdict should subse- 
 
England 71 
 
 quently be that of a nation upon the works of the most 
 celebrated poet of his age, and the one who raised 
 the Italian tragic drama from its degraded condition. 
 
 The name of Thomas Frognall Dibdin must ever 
 remain to the book-lover as that of a prince among 
 bibliographers and book-collectors. Founder of 
 the famous Roxburghe Club and writer of several 
 important and much-prized works relating to the 
 love and collecting of books, he used a book-plate 
 upon which he recorded his tastes with a manner at 
 once pleasing and characteristic. Without attempt- 
 ing the difficult feat of blazoning the arms in her- 
 aldic terminology, let it suffice to say that the shield 
 is quartered and that in the first quarter there is 
 upon the azure field a lion rampant debruised by a 
 bendlet of silver, over which is a label of three points 
 having the same color. In the second quarter, with 
 which begins the bookish flavor of the design, a 
 chapman clad in gold walks before a red field. 
 Within the third, upon a silver field, the colophon 
 mark of Fust and Schoefi'er is given, and in the 
 last the printer's mark of William Caxton. For 
 crest a hand upholds an open book, which is seen 
 to be an early illuminated volume with metal clasps. 
 Perhaps no plate has yet been devised by a biblio- 
 maniac which equals this for the quality of its 
 appropriateness and apparent conformity to the 
 style of the period. It is a plate not easily picked 
 up to-day and one to value when found. 
 
 There is a very curious plate, which probably dates 
 in the first quarter of the present century, in which 
 the profession of the owner is apparent at a glance. 
 This is the plate of J, Wilson, a professor of phre- 
 
72 Ex Libris 
 
 nologv, who, to make sure that his exceedingly 
 obvious design should not be misunderstood, has 
 recorded his occupation along with his name. The 
 plate pictures some half-dozen skulls tumbled in a 
 little group upon the ground. The expression of the 
 fleshless facial bones is grotesque to a degree. The 
 various bumps are labelled, and it may be supposed 
 that these skulls represented here are samples of 
 the best specimens the professor examined in his 
 whole experience ! 
 
 The original copper of the book-plate of Thomas 
 Carlyle is on view at the South Kensington 
 Museum, London, and many prints of it are about. 
 There is a letter from Carlvle himself to H. T. 
 Wake, the designer of the plate, which, dated 24 
 November, 1 853, expresses the great writer's pleasure 
 in the design by the following words : — 
 
 *■'■ The new plate is exquisitely finished and very excel- 
 lent as an arabesque. Nevertheless we will stand by the 
 first one, and on the whole if you have it at the right size, 
 and know a good engraver, I will request you to have it 
 engraved for me without further delay. We are going out 
 of town in a week till about New Year's Day. I hope you 
 may have it ready about that time." 
 
 By this and the word of Mr. Wake himself, it 
 appears that there were three or four designs sub- 
 mitted before the one chosen was finally decided 
 upon. This is somewhat suggestive of a grave- 
 stone in form as well as in the style of the lettering. 
 It bears two dolphin's heads for crest, with the motto 
 Humilitate on a ribbon above, while the name of 
 the owner occupies the carved base. 
 
England 73 
 
 Investigation has not yet revealed that Sir Walter 
 Scott used a book-plate ; but there are reasons to 
 hope that such a delightful bit may yet be numbered 
 among the memorabilia of this loved writer, and if 
 it really is discovered, it may possibly have upon it 
 the Scott motto, The moon renews her horns, the 
 meaning of which Is not clear unless explained, but 
 upon explanation becomes of no little interest. This, 
 it seems, v/as one of the sayings of the Lowland bor- 
 derers, and was a hint to the laird that the larder 
 needed replenishing. It was when the horns of the 
 moon became visible that those marauding expedi- 
 tions which make border history so interesting to read 
 were undertaken, and the speaking of the words was 
 as effective as the placing of the spurs within the 
 larder ! 
 
 Among modern plates of special interest the 
 striking plate of Rudyard Kipling, designed by 
 his father, holds an important place. Its prin- 
 cipal feature is an enormous elephant, reminding 
 one of " ould obstructionist " himself, as he fills 
 completely the framework of the design. Seated 
 within the howdah, easily reclines one who may 
 be supposed to be the interpreter of the ways of 
 the jungle himself, while upon the massive head 
 of the willing beast sits his guide, the rear oc- 
 cupied by the servant holding the hubble-bubble 
 which the occupant of the howdah smokes with 
 apparent comfort as he reads his little volume. 
 
 John Couch Adams, who shares with Leverrier 
 the honor of having discovered the planet Neptune, 
 used a book-plate of a very simple and pleasing 
 design. It is of especial interest perhaps, be- 
 
74 Ex Llbr'is 
 
 cause it presents a fairly accurate portrait of this 
 distinguished scholar. The portrait is enclosed 
 within a circle, while around it lie some stars and 
 there is by them a branch of the victor's palm. 
 Abundant honors were heaped upon Professor 
 Adams when his rich discovery was known to the 
 world, and when he died, in 1892, a monument was 
 erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey, 
 although he was buried in Cambridge. 
 
 Sir J. E. Millais has designed just one book- 
 plate, and that was for Mr. Christopher Sykes, and 
 represents the legend of the saint of that name 
 with the arms of the Sykes family in a conspicuous 
 place. It is a plate of beauty and yet of utter 
 simplicity. 
 
 Thackeray designed one book-plate ; this was for 
 his friend Edward Fitzgerald, and in which the 
 likeness is supposed to be that of Mrs. Brookfield. 
 Mr. Edmund Gosse has given out the following 
 note from Fitzgerald relative to the plate : — 
 
 "Done by Thackeray one day in Coram Street in 1842. 
 All wrong on her feet, so he said, — I can see him now. 
 — E. F. G." 
 
 The device itself is simple, being that of an angel 
 holding before her a shield of arms. As to the 
 feet, one would say that they were tiny and in the 
 picture are pressed very closely together, so that 
 the figure looks in danger of tipping over. 
 
 The collector looks with peculiar interest upon 
 the book-plate which bears the name The Hon. 
 J. B. Leicester Warren. This is the plate of the 
 late Lord de Tabley, who, before he succeeded in 
 
England 75 
 
 the later years of his life to the title of de Tabley, 
 had endeared himself to many friends by the un- 
 assuming gentleness and the marked sweetness of 
 his character, and whose work as a poet was of such 
 merit as to have won the regard of the critics best 
 suited to judge its value. To book-plate collectors 
 he will always be known as the first student who 
 considered these little bits of engraving worthy of 
 a treatise. His Guide to the Study of Book-plates 
 will ever remain as an enduring monument. Writ- 
 ten in the most scholarly manner, with every evidence 
 of leisure and of ripe judgment, with indications of 
 a poetical mind and of one well stored with the 
 knowledge which marks the man of culture, the 
 book has no small merit surely as a literary pro- 
 duction. His system of classifying and naming 
 plates is likely to endure for all time, and as his 
 book grows rarer and rarer, the more will it be 
 prized by its owners. His plate was designed 
 by his friend William Bell Scott, and it most fitly 
 indicates the tastes of its owner : The shelves of 
 books for his love of the printed page, the coin 
 drawers to hold his medals and coins, the branch of 
 the bramble, — for Lord de Tabley was fond of bot- 
 any and had made the genus Rubus a special study, 
 — the sketch of the dock-weed, — for the Rumex was 
 again one of his favorites, — and the manuscript verses 
 to indicate his position as a poet. The plate was 
 a surprise to its owner, whose modesty, had he been 
 allowed to have his say, would very probably never 
 have permitted so many personal suggestions to 
 creep in. The plate is one of real beauty, and 
 when the collector can accompany it with some 
 
76 Ex Libris 
 
 autograph letters from its lamented owner, he may- 
 well feel proud of his possessions. 
 
 The plate of Mr. Gladstone was a gift to him 
 from Lord Northbourne in 1889, on the occasion 
 of the celebration of the golden wedding of Mr. 
 and Mrs. Gladstone, and the dates 23d, July, 1839, 
 and 23d, July, 1889, appear in the design. This 
 date, if memory serves, is not the exact one of the 
 wedding, but is a few days later, the reason for 
 which 1 do not know. The original form of the 
 name, " Gledstane," is played upon in this design 
 in having kites [gleds] and stones introduced. 
 The helmet is made rather prominent to empha- 
 size the fact that Mr. Gladstone remains a com- 
 moner. The plate is handsome and successful 
 as a bit of allegorical work, but it hardly seems 
 to be the style of plate that its owner would have 
 chosen himself. 
 
 Austin Dobson uses a plate which was originally 
 a tail-piece in his volume of verses, entitled, Ai the 
 Sign of the Lyre. Alfred Parsons designed it, and it 
 represents the inn sign with the lyre painted on it, 
 and the initials A. D. 
 
 The plate of Mr. Edmund Gosse represents a 
 gentleman of the seventeenth century walking in 
 his garden, and reading a little volume of verses. 
 This graceful little picture is from the pencil of 
 Edwin A. Abbey. 
 
 Laurence Alma-Tadema employs a large plate, 
 circular in form, and in which the pictorial arts find 
 representation. A large monogram fills the fore- 
 ground. This was designed by Elmsly Inglis. 
 
 The book-plate of Sir Henry Irving is a curious 
 
England 77 
 
 affair printed in black and red, and which seems to 
 represent a dragon bearing aloft a scroll with the 
 name of the owner upon it. By the way, Sir Henry 
 has said something about the plate in a note which 
 is to the following effect : — 
 
 " I think that it was designed by Bernard Partridge, 
 though there is nothing of that bird in the composition. 
 The occult meaning — so far as I know there is none; 
 but Partridge may have intended his ' dragon ' to be a sort 
 of glorified sandwich man with the Lyceum play-bill ! " 
 
 Frederick Locker-Lampson, the lamented poet, 
 used a pleasing design which was made by Walter 
 Crane, who has devised some plates of great beauty. 
 For some of the children of the Locker family, 
 Kate Greenaway has made some fetching plates. 
 
 The plate of Sir Walter Besant shows the interior 
 of the study of the scholar, with rows of books 
 about, the hour-glass upon the writing table, and the 
 globe at one side. 
 
 Anthony Trollope, a novelist who gave the world 
 some delightful stories, used a very simple book- 
 plate of the plain armorial style, showing the arms 
 of the family, and having his name engraved below. 
 No motto is given which might indicate the novel- 
 ist's favorite author, or his chosen words of comfort 
 or inspiration. 
 
 A modest little plate, whose design and legend 
 indicate little to the average observer, was used by 
 Reginald Heber, the hymn-writer. This plate is 
 simply the bishop's mitre with the words R. Calcutta 
 below it. Heber was the second Bishop of Cal- 
 cutta, and, while he may not have had so many 
 
78 Ex Libris 
 
 books as did his brother (who, be it remembered, 
 had a Hbrary in Hodnet, one at Oxford, an im- 
 mense one at Paris, two in London, one at Antwerp, 
 one at Ghent, and others still in Flanders and 
 Germany), he still must have had a considerable 
 collection. He was among the worthies honored 
 with the friendship of Sir Walter Scott, and the 
 sixth canto of Marmion is dedicated to him in token 
 of this friendship. 
 
 The Right Honorable Benjamin Disraeli is the plain 
 inscription upon a simple armorial design which 
 shows the arms of his family impaling those of his 
 wife. The motto, Forti nihil difficile^ " Nothing is 
 difficult to the brave," seems well chosen in view of 
 the successful career of this author and statesman, 
 whose ups and downs of political life came with 
 something like regularity. This plate was made 
 previous to his elevation to the peerage with the 
 title of Earl of Beaconsfield, which honor was con- 
 ferred in the year 1876. 
 
 The plate of Rider Haggard, designed by Rev. 
 W. J. Loftie, is one that few can read, as it is com- 
 posed of strange hieroglyphics, but it gives one the 
 impression of being well suited to the writer of 
 She and the recorder of the amazing adventures 
 of Umslopagaas. 
 
 Mrs. Humphry Ward employs a book-plate, 
 but not by herself alone. Upon her design, which 
 represents books and an hour-glass with the old 
 motto style On bookes for to rede I me delyte^ the in- 
 scription shows that it marks the books of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Humphry Ward. The number of joint plates 
 of this character is large, and is increasing. 
 
England 79 
 
 A year or two ago the Literary World of Lon- 
 don related a curious fact in connection with the 
 rehearsal of Mr. Wilson Barrett's play T^he Manx- 
 man^ founded upon the novel of the same name 
 by Mr. Hall Caine, in which a forgotten book- 
 plate played a peculiar part. In the third act of 
 the play Philip Christian is made Deemster and his 
 house is surrounded by a tumultuous crowd shout- 
 ing and cheering for " the Deemster Christian." 
 Philip then steps to the window and addresses the 
 people outside in a speech which readers of the 
 novel will remember. It seems that upon the occa- 
 sion referred to the young actor who was to make 
 this speech showed considerable nervousness and 
 uncertainty, seeing which Mr. Barrett called out 
 from the footlights, " Bring him a book ; let him 
 hold it open in one hand and seem to have been 
 reading." The stage-manager then shouted to the 
 property-man in the wings to bring a book quickly. 
 Presently out of the property-room an old dusty 
 leather-bound book was brought by the call-boy. 
 As it was handed to the actor who was to use it, he 
 opened it and chanced to observe a book-plate 
 pasted within the front cover which read, " The 
 Deemster Christian — Isle of Man." At the next 
 instant the supers outside were shouting, " The 
 Deemster Christian, the Deemster Christian." It 
 is claimed that some years ago the book was bought 
 with a job lot of other things for the use of the 
 theatre at the sale of a former Deemster's effects, 
 but had never happened to have been brought into 
 use until the moment it was put into the hands of 
 the Deemster's namesake on the mimic stage. The 
 
8o Ex Libris 
 
 author himself is said to have been unconscious that 
 there had been a Deemster Christian when he so 
 named his character. If this story is quite true, it 
 adds a very curious bit to the agenda of the book- 
 plate collector ; but it seems to need some confirma- 
 tion, even were it in so small a matter as the naming 
 of the theatre in which the event occurred. 
 
 A very noticeable plate is that of Miss Ethel 
 Selina Clulow, in which the lamp of knowledge forms 
 the conspicuous feature, as it stands upon the table 
 shedding its bright beams upon the interesting pile 
 of books at one hand and the implements of the 
 writer as they lie about the board. A bunch of 
 fruit-laden branches fills the upper part of the frame, 
 expressive probably of the fruit of knowledge, and 
 the motto, My book s my worlds is given upon a rib- 
 bon which floats among the leaves. A feature 
 likely to be overlooked is the neatly designed scroll 
 which forms the initials of the lady's name. 
 
 It is almost impossible to describe to one's satis- 
 faction the beautiful work by which Mr. Charles W. 
 Sherborn has endeared himself to lovers of engraved 
 pictures. His book-plates are marvels of skill in 
 design and execution. The brilliancy of the prints, 
 the intricacy of the design, the fitness of all parts to 
 each other and to the central purpose and idea of 
 the plate, render all his pieces attractive even to him 
 who looks casually and without the knowledge of 
 the expert. Among the most prized of his plates 
 are that for the Burlington Fine Arts Library; the 
 plate of All Souls' College, Oxford ; the plate of 
 William Robinson, in which the delightful vignette 
 of Erasmus is reproduced ; the plate of Samuel S. 
 
England 8i 
 
 Joseph, with its reproduction of a striking bit by 
 Rembrandt ; the very ornate plate for General 
 Wolseley, and the less fanciful though equally well- 
 adapted design for his daughter, the Honorable 
 Frances G. Wolseley; a handsome heraldic plate for 
 Arthur Vicars, Ulster King of Arms ; the plate for 
 Sidney Colvin, friend and biographer of the la- 
 mented Robert Louis Stevenson ; and a plate made 
 for his own books, in which the allegorical figures 
 represent the passage of the soul from birth to im- 
 mortality. All of Mr. Sherborn's work is eagerly 
 sought by the collectors, but few on this side of the 
 ocean have any considerable number of the plates he 
 has made. They number well over one hundred 
 now. 
 
 Closely resembling the work of Mr. Sherborn in 
 some respects, yet distinguished from it by a per- 
 sonal touch which not merely saves it from the 
 charge of copy-work, but is its real recommenda- 
 tion, is that done by Mr. G. W. Eve, a younger 
 worker but one of well-nigh equal ability. To the 
 American collector there is little in the mere heral- 
 dic book-plate to attract him. He sees nothing 
 but an arrangement of crosses, dots, circles, and 
 various queerly drawn members of the animal king- 
 dom, with some allowance of fabled monsters thrown 
 in. So that while an American may have a proper 
 pride in the heraldic bearings of his ancestors, he 
 will not use them in a too conspicuous position upon 
 his book-plate. . Mr. Eve has chosen for the par- 
 ticular field in which to show his art, the heraldic 
 form of the book-plate, and it is safe to say that no 
 artist of the present day succeeds so admirably in 
 
82 Ex Libris 
 
 giving the hackneyed arrangements of the shield of 
 arms a touch of hfe and lucidity which once more 
 recommends them to the tired observer. All his 
 designs are etched, and the workmanship displayed 
 is something to admire. Unfortunately for the col- 
 lectors, the owners of plates by this artist are not 
 lavish in bestowing them upon known members ot 
 their guild. 
 
 The work of H. Stacy Marks is of so personal 
 and peculiar a sort as to be recognized at once. 
 His peculiarities consist chiefly in a noble disdain 
 of the merely ornamental : all his plates bear the 
 mark of the trained artist who depends upon accu- 
 rate drawing and the correct lighting and shading, 
 rather than the intricacy or the variety of his pat- 
 terns, for his success. The plate for Mr. James 
 Roberts Brown, sometime President of the Sette of 
 Odd Volumes of London, is one of the most char- 
 acteristic of his delightful bits. In this we see the 
 learned chemist (the portrait, by-the-by, is a carica- 
 ture with no little resemblance to Mr. Brown, who 
 is something of a chemist) sitting before his study 
 table watching some process of vaporization which 
 is going on within the crucible which, upon its tripod, 
 receives the hot flame of the alcohol lamp. Indica- 
 tions of the literary tastes and the heraldic knowledge 
 of the owner are not wanting, but they are shown 
 with a directness and an intentional lack of posing 
 for effect which one recognizes with a sort of grati- 
 tude. The merely " pretty " plates are so common 
 and so unsatisfactory that when one comes across a 
 strong bit of masculine work it is a relief and a 
 delight. Mr. Marks has made many plates, and in 
 
England 83 
 
 them all may be found these merits of individuality 
 and simplicity. In his recent volume of reminis- 
 cences, Pen and Pencil Sketches^ he says some perti- 
 nent things regarding the art of the book-plate, from 
 which the following lines are quoted. 
 
 " I have looked through many collections, and, generally 
 speaking, found in them more that appealed to the herald 
 and the genealogist than to the artist. Yet there are many 
 admirable examples by the old men, to mention only Diirer, 
 Holbein, and lesser artists influenced by them, while to-day 
 there is an almost unlimited list of men capable of design- 
 ing beautiful and artistic work. . . . But examples of 
 those artists are comparatively rare in the folios of collec- 
 tors compared with ' Armorials,' namely, heraldic book- 
 plates of coat-of-arms and crests commonplace in character, 
 without design, without taste, without feeling, the common 
 or garden book-plate, which is seen in the windows of seal 
 engravers or die-sinkers, and which have even less relation 
 to art than the humble attempts of the individual who 
 decorates the pavement of our streets. So when a man 
 resolves on having a book-plate of his own, in nine cases 
 out of ten he takes the aid of a tradesman rather than of 
 an artist. There is much to be done in elevating the 
 taste, it appears to me, both of those who collect and those 
 who commission book-plates." 
 
 His latest plates are for G. A. Storey, in which 
 Orpheus is seen piping to the assembled animals, 
 and for Mary H. Marks, in which the birds of the 
 forest appear in great profusion, making a veritable 
 jungle picture. 
 
 To Mr. R. Anning Bell belongs the credit of suc- 
 cessfully initiating a new style of book-plate design- 
 ing. In England, a country where artists abound 
 
84 Ex Libris 
 
 who continually attempt the development of some- 
 thing new with painful lack of foundation to build 
 upon or education to second them, this is an achieve- 
 ment. Mr, Anning Bell, however, outranks his 
 competitors and gives to the designing of the book- 
 plate sincere attention with thorough training and a 
 true artistic perception to aid him. There is an 
 elegance in these bits which wins for them high 
 praise from capable critics, and in his designs may 
 be found all the qualities which make for the per- 
 fect work ot art. Here is beauty of form, exquisite 
 composition, a just appreciation of line and mass 
 work, and in addition to these too often neglected 
 features, fitness for the purpose intended and letter- 
 ing well designed and skilfully placed. It is true 
 that not all his designs will please, but surely such a 
 delightful bit as the plate for Christabel A. Frampton, 
 showing two young ladies in the open air enjoying 
 the cool of the evening, with guitar and song, cannot 
 fail to commend itself. The seated figure has been 
 borrowed, it may be said in passing, to decorate the 
 handsome plate of Madeline C. Chevalier, which is, 
 were it needed, but added proof of the charm of 
 the drawing. 
 
 Other makers of plates there are in great pro- 
 fusion, but those which are here mentioned are the 
 recognized leaders, and in the number of their plates 
 will be found many more interesting examples than 
 in the works of all the others combined. 
 
America 
 
 This is Hannah Moxon Her book 
 
 You may just within it Look 
 
 You had better not do more 
 
 For old black Satan's at the Door 
 
 And will snatch at stealing hands 
 
 Look behind you ! There He stands. 
 
 (/« an old New England book.^ 
 
))i,(rTcvc TOO A u V L oo hcli 
 -fx.fj.circ ruj TToiruj aoc.'''' 
 
 I xi^3 
 
IV 
 
 AMERICA 
 
 A GLANCE at a good collection of early 
 American book-plates shows, to one some- 
 what familiar with the history of our 
 country, the names of many famous 
 families and distinguished individuals. The num- 
 ber of known and listed plates of the colonial 
 and early statehood periods is now well over one 
 thousand, and as the researches of the ardent col- 
 lector are further and further extended, it may well 
 be that this number will constantly increase. To 
 turn the pages of the album holding these memorials 
 of a time not so very far back in history is to recall 
 to the mind the conditions of life in those days, the 
 ways and means employed by our ancestors in their 
 domestic economy, the amusements which were per- 
 mitted, the manners and customs which obtained, 
 and the quiet serenity with which for long periods 
 in many sections of the country these worthies 
 could look out upon life, enjoy its quiet blessings, 
 and cultivate their simple tastes. Political and 
 religious history, with its strife and woe, as well as 
 the quieter sort of the home and the plantation, is 
 vividly recalled as one turns from one plate to 
 another, remembering the story of the life of its 
 
 87 
 
88 Ex Libris 
 
 original owner, the progress of events around him, 
 the persons he came in contact with, and the posi- 
 tion he took in different scenes which were epoch- 
 making. 
 
 Here, for instance, as one turns the page, comes 
 into view the plate of George Washington, and 
 what memories it stirs ! There rises before the 
 mind the picture of the intrepid young Virginian 
 surveyor, the General of the army, the first Presi- 
 dent. The career of this truly great man is 
 brought to mind, and many stories about him will 
 quicken into life. If Napoleon was the Man of 
 Fate, Washington was the Man of Providence. 
 To hold in the hand a book once the property 
 of General Washington, having the well-known 
 signature in its accustomed place at the right-hand 
 upper corner of the title-page, and the book-plate 
 pasted within the front cover, is for the book-lover, 
 to gain a double sensation of delight, a double thrill 
 of pleasure. 
 
 The plate is one which of itself would not at- 
 tract attention, being merely a modest design in the 
 prevailing style, and bearing no ornamentation be- 
 yond what is common to thousands of others. 
 This is true of the book-plates of many famous 
 men. It is not the plate itself, it is its association 
 which endears it, which makes it of value and im- 
 portance to the collector. The plate was engraved 
 in England, probably between the years 1765 and 
 1775. It has been counterfeited, so that the col- 
 lector has need of caution in accepting what may be 
 offered as the genuine plate. The plate is so im- 
 portant, and the location of the volumes from Gen- 
 
America 89 
 
 eral Washington's library is so well known, that 
 should a copy come into the market it would cause 
 something of a sensation among collectors, and it is 
 quite likely that if sold in open auction, and un- 
 doubtedly genuine, it would bring two hundred dol- 
 lars. As one strolls over the grounds at Mount 
 Vernon, or walks through the house which once saw 
 the state in which the rich Virginian lived, which 
 witnessed elaborate dinners served to foreign digni- 
 taries, which covered with its protecting roof many 
 a party in which vivacious maidens and courtly 
 youths were present in the splendid attire of the 
 period, and during all which occasions of pleasant 
 intercourse the library must have been sought by 
 some at least, he peoples the place with these by- 
 gone faces and forms, hears again the sound of 
 merrymaking, sees the impressive person of the 
 President, and lingers in fancy over these scenes with 
 delight unspeakable. But the book-plate awakens 
 these memories as readily, and one sees the shelves 
 on which the books rested, witnesses the entrance 
 of some seclusion-seeking couple, who, to escape 
 from the light and the immediate presence of com- 
 pany, have stolen into the dark library now lighted 
 only by the moon. With these rows of calf-bound 
 utterances for background, with the sound of the 
 distant dance and viol, not too strongly borne in, 
 and with the weird light of the moon falling upon 
 objects not well known, how delicious the moment, 
 how favorable the opportunity for confidences ! 'Tis 
 thus with books. They have that about them 
 which begets confidences. 
 
 Somewhat similar to the plate of General Wash- 
 
go Ex Libris 
 
 ington is that of his nephew, Judge Bushrod 
 Washington, to whom the estate of Mount Vernon 
 was left. A trifle later, one would say, in execution, 
 it is still Chippendale in treatment, with ornamenta- 
 tion of a more pretentious character than is seen 
 upon the other. A fork-tailed griffin with barbed 
 tongue guards the upper side with fierce and threat- 
 ening mien, while roses entwine the carved wood- 
 work of the frame. The library which this plate 
 graced must have been principally of books of law, 
 — solid and necessary, yet a bit too heavy and pon- 
 derous for so dainty a plate to ornament. 
 
 There were other Virginia gentlemen who had 
 libraries in which they used book-plates, and as 
 their names will bring many historical facts to mind 
 connected closely or remotely, as the case may be, 
 with General Washington, and the events with 
 which he was concerned, we will mention here a few 
 of them. Of the Fairfax family we know the plate 
 of Bryan, the eighth and last baron, between whom 
 and Washington there existed a close affection, in 
 spite of the loyalty of the latter to England. The 
 family motto. Fare fac^ is given on the plate. This, 
 too, is of English make, and it may well be that the 
 plate of Washington was ordered from England along 
 with this or with that of his closer friend, George 
 William, who undoubtedly had such a popular and 
 convenient possession, even if it be unknown to-day. 
 Then there were the Randolphs, — Peyton, first 
 President of Congress, and after him John of Roa- 
 noke, whose fiery tongue made friends of foes and foes 
 of friends, and whose will, it must be remembered, 
 manumitted some three hundred slaves. William 
 
America 91 
 
 Stith, brother-in-law of Peyton, who was President 
 of WilHam and Mary College, and who wrote a his- 
 tory of Virginia, and John Marshall, of whose 
 talents Washington thought so much, who became 
 Chief Justice of the United States, and who wrote 
 so memorable a life of his friend, were among those 
 who used the armorial book-plate in their books. 
 
 George Washington Parke Custis, the last of the 
 General's family, used a plate in which the engraver 
 unfortunately omitted the final e from his third 
 name. Other names which should be recorded here 
 as of those linked in one way or another with the 
 history of the state are as follows : Archer, Armis- 
 tead, Beverly, Boiling (descendants of Pocahontas), 
 Cabell, Cary, Dove, and Fitzhugh. 
 
 Two governors of the old colony figure in the 
 book-plate collector's album : Francis Fauquier, who 
 immediately succeeded Dinwiddle and whose plate 
 is a neatly engraved Chippendale design, and before 
 him John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, descendant of 
 the house of Stuart, whose attitude towards the 
 colonists was insufferable. One thinks of him with 
 satisfaction as he flees to his ships after exciting the 
 populace ; but with extreme disgust as he burns the 
 city of Norfolk, and carries on his predatory war- 
 fare. It was really a handsome bit of designing 
 he used in his books, with all its marks of aristoc- 
 racy, with the supporters and the crown of an 
 English earl. 
 
 Lee, Lightfoot, Ludwell, McKenzie, Mackay, 
 Mercer, Murray, Page, Parke, Power, Skipwith, 
 Spotswood, Turberville, Tucker, Waller, Wormeley 
 of Rosegill, and Wythe are names among which 
 
92 
 
 Ex Libris 
 
 students of history will find many that have been 
 raised to places of eminence in the state of Virginia 
 by the representatives of these families, who were 
 distinguished in various professions and prominent 
 in varying circumstances. Old Colonel Byrd, who 
 was such a patron of arts, science, and literature in 
 Virginia, used a very interesting book-plate, and, as 
 one notices the air of grandeur and hospitality worn 
 by his spacious house, he feels that the books were 
 well housed and often read. Indeed, evidence of 
 this, and of many a quiet yet important conference 
 in the library at Westover, can be found. 
 
 Other plates there were in the mansions of old 
 Virginia, — plates which the collector would gladly 
 possess, but which are beyond the reach of his pre- 
 serving hand. To consider those large estates, v»^ith 
 their substantial manor-houses, their immense parks, 
 their elegance of furnishing and ornamentation, to 
 see the shining plate, the retinue of servants, the 
 silks and taffetas imported from London, and the 
 fields of tobacco which supported this luxury, is to 
 be assured that life in the new country was not 
 wholly lacking in those enjoyments which the socially 
 inclined find need of, or the opportunity for retire- 
 ment and study which some among the number of 
 the household were likely to care for. 
 
 But not all the fine houses were in Virginia. 
 Maryland, New Jersey, the Carolinas, Delaware, 
 Kentucky, and Georgia had their wealthy families 
 as, of course, had the more northern states. Among 
 the interesting plates of Maryland are those of John 
 Leeds Bozman, the historian ; the Hon, William 
 Carmichael, who was born in the state, and who was 
 
America 93 
 
 a delegate to Congress, 1778-1780; Charles Carroll, 
 of Carrollton, who signed the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence in such a manner as to leave no doubt of 
 his identity ; Samuel Chase, another signer of that 
 immortal document ; General Forman, whose estate 
 " Rose Hill " was so delightful a spot ; and An- 
 thony Stewart, of Annapolis, whose plate was one 
 of the handsomest of any used at that time. Others 
 there were of the families of Calvert, Chalmers, 
 Duvall, Kerr, McTavish, Maxcy, and Sprigg, who 
 used book-plates which are to-day prized by the 
 collector. 
 
 Over in Delaware the plates of the Bayards and 
 the Fishers were good of their kind, and are now 
 among the desiderata. In New Jersey was that in- 
 trepid soldier. Major Joseph Bloomfield, who fought 
 in the war of the Revolution and was Governor of 
 his state, an officer in the War of 18 12, and a mem- 
 ber of Congress after that. David Brearly was 
 another soldier of the Revolution from this state, 
 and he used a plate which is thought to have been 
 engraved by Vallance, an engraver who was associ- 
 ated with Thackara, in making plates for Dobson's 
 Encyclopedia. Of others who in this state used 
 plates which are prized to-day, should be mentioned 
 William Edgar, Peter Kemble, Charles Read, Rich- 
 ard Stockton, signer of the Declaration, Lieutenant 
 Trenchard of the navy, and the Hon. Joshua Maddox 
 Wallace of Burlington. 
 
 In North Carolina the plates of Isaac Edwards, 
 William Hooper, signer of the Declaration, Colonel 
 Innes, James Iredell, the jurist, and the plate of the 
 University of North Carolina, are among the few 
 
94 Ex Libris 
 
 which have been discovered to swell the collector's 
 list. 
 
 The South Carolina list is much longer, and 
 includes such names as Richard Beresford ; Jacob 
 Drayton ; John Walters Gibbs ; Thomas Hall, first 
 postmaster under Washington, in Charleston ; Isaac 
 Hayne, the patriot, who was hanged by the British 
 in the same city in 178 1 ; Thomas Hayward, a 
 signer of the Declaration; Alexander Inglis, who 
 employed a poor engraver and one who little under- 
 stood heraldry ; Robert Johnston of Turkey Island ; 
 Peter Manigault, who studied law at the Inner 
 Temple, and whose very beautiful book-plate was 
 engraved in London in the year 1754; John Izard 
 Middleton, second son of Arthur Middleton, the 
 signer of the Declaration, born at Middleton-Place- 
 on-the-Ashley, and who was himself an author of 
 no mean abilities, and who spent the last twenty- 
 five years of his life in Paris, where he was an 
 intimate friend of Mesdames De Stael and Recamier ; 
 Thomas Pownall, who was Governor not only of 
 this state, but also and previously of New Jersey 
 and Massachusetts, and who, after returning to 
 England, entered Parliament ; Thomas Shubrick, 
 Colonel in the Revolutionary War ; Thomas Waties, 
 an eminent judge ; and Dr. J. B. Whitridge, whose 
 emblem of Hope makes a very pretty plate, as well 
 as an appropriate one, for a physician. 
 
 An interesting plate from Georgia is that of James 
 Wright, Esq., the last Royal Governor of the colony, 
 he who was such an able executive, but whose loyalty 
 to the king cost him his liberty for a time, and 
 finally the confiscation of his estates. 
 
America 95 
 
 One of the early American plates around which 
 historical memories gather is that of William Penn^ 
 Esq., Proprietor of Pennsylvania, as the name and 
 address appear upon the plate itself. This plate 
 shows the arms of the Penn family, one of dis- 
 tinction in England, with the motto, Dum clarum 
 rectum teneam, " May I keep the line of right as 
 well as of glory." There have been a number of 
 books in auction sales within a few years having 
 this plate in them ; and as there is some reason to 
 doubt the authenticity of many of these, the col- 
 lector is warned to be careful lest he purchase what 
 may prove a disappointment instead of a treasure. 
 While it is not probable that the Penn plate was 
 ever forged in the manner of the George Washing- 
 ton plate, it is possible that an engraver took some 
 prints from the old copper, before altering it to suit 
 the needs of Thomas Penn (as was done), and that 
 the prints thus produced are about. Or it may 
 be that a second plate will some day come to light. 
 Certainly, the incentive to forgery to the extent of 
 so careful a reproduction on copper of the really 
 genuine design as this supposed fraudulent plate is, 
 is too little to admit of the theory. There is no 
 demand for the books of Penn as there is for those 
 of Washington ; and in the case of the Washington 
 forgery, the plate from which the deceptive prints 
 were made was not a careful reproduction, although 
 those who purposed using it may well have wished 
 it to be such. The two Penn plates coincide exactly 
 in so many particulars as to leave no doubt of their 
 being printed from the same copper. Some re- 
 touching the plate had, of course, to account for 
 
96 Ex Libris 
 
 the very slight differences ; but that there was ever 
 a deHberate purpose to forge the plate of William 
 Penn seems quite improbable. There is, in the 
 rooms of the Pennsylvania Historical Society in 
 the city of Philadelphia, the Bible used by Han- 
 nah Callowhill Penn, the second wife of William 
 Penn ; and the plate, undoubtedly genuine, is 
 pasted within its cover. When the plate was 
 made over for Thomas Penn, he was styled First 
 Proprietor of Pensilvania^ which title seems hardly 
 justifiable, and the spelling of the last word rather 
 bungling. 
 
 Among the most famous men of his times was 
 Dr. Benjamin Rush, who was born on the banks 
 of Poquestion Creek, not far from Philadelphia, 
 and who rose to a distinguished position in his 
 native land, and received substantial proof from 
 foreign lands of the esteem in which he was there 
 held. Successful in his profession, he was attacked 
 by enemies, who suffered the defeat they merited. 
 It is said that during a scourge of yellow fever he 
 saved not less than six thousand persons from death. 
 His position in the government of the state and the 
 nation was conspicuous. He was a signer of the 
 Declaration of Independence. His plate still exists, 
 but in poor condition and in a very limited number ; 
 it is supposed because he destroyed all copies of it 
 he could lay his hands on. The exact reason for 
 this is not known ; but it will be surmised that it 
 was due to his intense patriotism during the events 
 of 1875 ^'"^^ 1876, when so much feeling against 
 the British was shown in his city, and when, to him, 
 the use, even within the covers of his own books, 
 
America 97 
 
 of armorial bearings granted by England, may have 
 been distasteful. 
 
 Another doctor of medicine whose useful life 
 added to the fame of his native city was John 
 Morgan, one of the founders of the American 
 Philosophical Society, a strong patriot and a physi- 
 cian of an uncommon education and experience. 
 He used a book-plate of the Chippendale style, 
 which, from its appearance, one is inclined to think 
 was engraved by Henry Dawkins. Dr. Morgan 
 married the beautiful Mary Hopkinson, and has 
 left a letter in which he speaks most courteously of 
 her. It is written to the mother of Mrs. Morgan, 
 and in the letter the doctor says : — 
 
 "She is an excellent companion at all times, but if 
 possible excels herself on the road. It would delight you 
 to get a glimpse of us just now, Colonel Kirkbride at the 
 violin and she at the harpsichord and sings most blithely 
 and most sweetly." 
 
 That good old Dr. James Abercrombie, of Phila- 
 delphia, who was the rector of two important 
 churches in the city, Christ and St. Peter's, is the 
 subject of a story which shows him to have loved 
 the good things supplied in this world, while travel- 
 ling through it to a higher. The story, as told by 
 Mr. George Ord, a raconteur of no small ability, 
 was to the effect that, having occasion to visit a 
 small town in New Jersey, the good doctor was 
 cheered with some choice old Madeira wine, which 
 not expecting to find in that sparse country, he was 
 mightily pleased. His appropriate text for the 
 sermon of the following Sabbath was from that 
 
98 Ex Libris 
 
 verse in the Acts of the Apostles in which it is 
 recorded that " the barbarous people showed us no 
 little kindness." In his books, this genial soul pasted 
 a book-plate on which was the motto, Vive ut vivas, 
 the spirit of which may be variously understood. 
 
 Francis Hopkinson, skilled in an astonishing 
 number of accomplishments, a wit of no mean 
 order, able to make music, to paint, to compose 
 popular airs, and to discuss the weighty affairs of 
 government, the latest developments in science, or 
 the intricacies of politics, used a very delightful 
 book-plate, the design of which is very similar to 
 that of Bushrod Washington. It has the same 
 horrid griffin hissing from behind the roses, and the 
 same arrangement of flowers and ornamentation is 
 observed. This plate was done by Dawkins, that 
 scamp of tried ability whose very talent landed him in 
 prison, and from which his wit likely enough released 
 him. John Adams liked Francis Hopkinson, but 
 he left a saying about the latter's head which cannot 
 be forgotten. He declared it was not larger than a 
 good-sized apple ! He was a member of the Philo- 
 sophical Society, married Ann Borden, and w'as, of 
 course, prominent in all the social gatherings of the 
 day. One little adventure is worthy of record. He 
 was one of the three young men who, by means of a 
 rope ladder, released pretty Miss Shewell from the 
 high room her brother had confined her in to pre- 
 vent her taking the ship which would carry her to 
 London to be the wife of the painter Benjamin 
 West. Fate was against the brother, and the wed- 
 ding took place in the chapel of St. Martin's-in-the- 
 Fields. 
 
America 99 
 
 Joseph Hopkinson, who wrote Hail Columbia^ 
 and who was the son of Francis, used the same 
 copper that his father before him had used, only- 
 having the first name erased and his own substi- 
 tuted. The work was entrusted to a poor engraver, 
 for the name Francis can be plainly seen under the 
 Joseph, even in the prints. 
 
 The only armorial book-plate of the early days 
 known to have been used by a lady, was used by 
 Elizabeth Graeme, daughter of Dr. Thomas Grasme, 
 whose lovely estate, " Graeme Park," situated a score 
 of miles from Philadelphia, was a very favorite meet- 
 ing-place of the cultured people to whom its hospi- 
 tality was warmly extended. Miss Graeme was quite 
 literary in her tastes, and among her accomplishments 
 was the translation of 'Telemachus into English, the 
 writing of many original poems and no small amount 
 of prose which, according to the judgment of Dr. 
 Rush, showed " strong marks of genius, taste, and 
 knowledge." She married Hugh Fergusson, the 
 British Commissioner of Prisoners, which union 
 seems, unfortunately, not to have brought her much 
 happiness, so that she occupied herself much with 
 those literary occupations she loved so well. 
 
 Conspicuous among the early Pennsylvanians and 
 coming to be known as the greatest of American 
 botanists, was John Bartram, whose fine gardens were 
 planted near to Gray's Ferry. In this delightful 
 spot was that study over the window of which those 
 two lines were painted which testified to his faith in 
 the Almighty. The books in this little secluded 
 spot were marked with an armorial book-plate of the 
 Chippendale style of ornamentation, which bore the 
 
lOO Ex Libris 
 
 mottoes Foy en Dieu and J'avance. The home of 
 Bartram, which was near to "Woodlands," the resi- 
 dence of -Alexander Hamilton, still stands sur- 
 rounded by some of the trees beneath which Jefferson 
 and Adams, Wistar, Rush, and Rittenhouse have 
 reclined and conversed with the royal botanist. 
 
 Elias Boudinot (the wealthy and studious Presi- 
 dent of Congress who was a bit surprised at the 
 dance which he saw at the Macomb House in New 
 York, upon the occasion devised by the Comte de 
 Moustier in 1778, to celebrate the French alliance) 
 used in his books a simple but well-engraved plate, 
 the work of Maverick, the famous New York en- 
 graver, who came to America from his native land 
 just before the Declaration of Independence sepa- 
 rated the tv/o countries forever. 
 
 Those old dwellers in the City of Brotherly Love, 
 Quakers though many of them were, and so, to our 
 thinking, of necessity somewhat distant toward gaie- 
 ties of the " world outside," had their good times, 
 lived upon fine estates, and enjoyed life as fully as 
 did their far-away neighbors at the lower end of 
 Manhattan Island. There was old Isaac Norris, who 
 directed the placing of the motto upon the Liberty 
 Bell. He was a Quaker, and he lived in a delight- 
 ful old home going by the name of " Fair Hill," 
 which lay between Philadelphia and Germantown. 
 A student he was by nature, and he gathered a good- 
 sized library in which he pasted a neat but small 
 book-plate bearing heraldic devices. Ultimately his 
 books went to Dickinson College in the city of 
 Carlisle, Penn. 
 
 When General Washington came to the city of 
 
America loi 
 
 Philadelphia in 1790, the house of Robert Morris 
 was considered the fittest for his use within the city, 
 and so it was placed at his disposal. It is related 
 that the house of the Morris family had more of the 
 luxuries than had any other house in America. In- 
 deed, in all the appointments of his estate, even to 
 his equipage, this brilliant financier and statesman 
 was fond of the best and had it ; and yet in his old 
 age he was imprisoned for debt. There is a small 
 and exceedingly interesting book-plate which bears 
 the inscription Rob. et. Tho. Morris fratres, Phila- 
 delphiciy which has rather recently come to light, 
 and which is regarded by collectors as of the high- 
 est interest on account of the position of its owners, 
 as well as by reason of the unique manner of record- 
 ing the fact of common ownership in the books the 
 plates were destined for. It was Robert Morris who 
 persuaded old Mr. Head, the Quaker, whose con- 
 science would not let him do anything active towards 
 the support of the war of the Revolution, to pass 
 into an adjoining room while he, Morris, left alone 
 with key to the strong box, should take from it 
 such an amount as was needed at the moment. 
 Then, too, it was at the elegant home of Robert 
 Morris that the Prince de Broglie drank twelve 
 consecutive cups of tea, not knowing how to refuse 
 the different ladies who offered him the thin bev- 
 erage! Books there must have been in plenty 
 among the furnishings of this attractive house whose 
 very hospitality had that quality of abundance which 
 is well-nigh a luxury. The kindly and earnest face 
 of Mr. Morris is well known from his portraits, and 
 one can easily picture him in his elegant home en- 
 
I02 Ex Libris 
 
 tertaining the President, always an imposing figure, 
 with round them a little company of delegates and 
 men of affairs. 
 
 Edward Shippen, a descendant of the first mayor 
 of Philadelphia and the father of the Misses Ship- 
 pen, who were quite the gayest of the gay young 
 ladies of the " Neschianza," used the old book-plate 
 which his father before him had used in England. 
 This plate belongs to a style not used very much in 
 America, in which the shield of arms is surrounded 
 with elaborate mantling. 
 
 Among others who used book-plates and who 
 made for themselves a name in the affairs of Penn- 
 sylvania were William Augustus Atlee; Dr. John 
 Beatty; Robert Aitkin, who printed the early and 
 historic American edition of the Bible ; Bancker, 
 the merchant, who instead of the arms used his old 
 " merchant-mark," a figure 4, upon the shield of his 
 book-plate; Albert Gallatin, who rejected the family 
 motto, and adopted for himself the one word Perse- 
 vere; William Hamilton, who became the owner of 
 the fine estate " Woodlands," which is now the 
 Woodland Cemetery of Philadelphia ; old William 
 Keith, the Governor of the colony in the early part 
 of the eighteenth century, and who was so " desper- 
 ate an intriguer"; Lynford Lardner, grandson of 
 the Councillor ; Morgan Lewis, who was on the staff 
 of General Gates ; Joseph Priestlev, theologian, 
 chemist, and philosopher ; Sir John St. Clair, a 
 British soldier associated with Braddock, but who 
 had a book-plate engraved by Turner ; and Joseph 
 Wood, a colonel in the revolutionary army. 
 
 Another Pennsylvanian of distinguished name 
 
America 103 
 
 was James Logan, founder of the Loganian Library 
 in Philadelphia, and who was first persuaded to 
 come to the colony by his friend, William Penn. 
 His plate was made in England, and is a very 
 graceful design, of the Chippendale style. Mr. 
 Logan was strict in some of his ideas, agreeing with 
 Penn as to simplicity in religious forms and cus- 
 toms. He was a friend to the Indian, was promi- 
 nent in the government of the colony, and was 
 possessed of uncommon abiliiiy united to great 
 wisdom and a singularly dignified disposition. He 
 had a charming seat, " Stenton," to which the 
 Indians came in such numbers that they were 
 encamped upon its spacious lawns a good share of 
 the time, and he had a goodly collection of books 
 in his comfortable library. He left about two 
 thousand volumes of a valuable character, for the 
 use of the public. This bequest was the beginning 
 of the library which bears his name. 
 
 Early in the present century, Henry Troth came 
 to Philadelphia, and engaged in the drug business. 
 He was a man of enterprise, forethought, and execu- 
 tive ability ; and it is owing to his efforts that the 
 Philadelphia College of Pharmacy was established. 
 He was a member of the Orthodox branch of the 
 Society of Friends, and was active in numerous 
 charities, as well as prominent in the advancement 
 of scientific researches. During the first quarter 
 of the present century, his book-plate was engraved 
 by Samuel Tiller, an engraver of whom little is 
 known, the design being Mr. Troth's own. It is 
 a library interior, and represents the student in his 
 book-room, deep in thought. In its use of serious 
 
I04 Ex Libris 
 
 reflections as a motto, it resembles the Village 
 Library plate (Farmington, Conn.), but it is said 
 that the line of thought they indicate is a correct 
 reflection of the habitual attitude of the owner's 
 mind. The plate is one of uncommon beauty, and 
 the collector will regret the meagreness of informa- 
 tion concerning its engraver. Tiller was in part- 
 nership with a man named Winship in 1832; and 
 in that year they engraved a portrait of Washington, 
 and some bits of ornamentation for use on a silk 
 badge commemorating the celebration in honor of 
 the centennial anniversary of Washington's birth. 
 Subsequently, he was in business with his own 
 brother, and finally dropped out of sight in Mexico. 
 His work is so good that one hopes other book- 
 plates by him will come to sight. 
 
 Among other interesting plates which are worthy 
 the attention of the collector are those of the Ap- 
 prentices' Library, the Carpenters' Companv, and 
 the Library Company, all of them numbering 
 among the early semi-public libraries of the city of 
 Philadelphia, and each of them having an interesting 
 history. 
 
 In the city of New York, during the last quarter 
 of the last century, lived and worked the famous 
 engraver, Peter Rushton Maverick ; and to his 
 skill in the art of engraving on copper must be laid, 
 to a considerable degree, the large number of book- 
 plates which that period of the history of the city 
 reveals. He was a rapid worker and a skilful. It 
 seems to have been quite the thing to have a book- 
 plate by Maverick ; and so the richest of the city's 
 citizens employed him ; and, not to be outdone by 
 
America 105 
 
 those above them in social grade, some of those 
 whom fortune had not so plentifully blessed used 
 plates by this noted copper-plate engraver. Among 
 these was a very popular hairdresser. 
 
 The richest man in the colony of New York was 
 Frederick Phillipse, who carried on so profitable a 
 trade with the Five Nations, and whose ships sailed 
 to the East as well as the West Indies. Perhaps 
 his wealth was in some measure due to the fortune 
 his wife must have had ; for she, who had been the 
 widow of the rich trader, Rudolphus de Vries, had, 
 during the period of her widowhood, carried on with 
 considerable sagacity the business her late husband 
 had built up. Just how much Mr. Phillipse in- 
 clined to books, we do not really know ; but he had 
 a book-plate of an early style of ornamentation. It 
 was his daughter Mary who, tradition says, had the 
 honor of being an early love of George Washington, 
 and it v/as at the old Phillipse Manor that these 
 two met. In this interesting spot the family for 
 many years exercised jurisdiction over immense 
 estates lying in three counties. They were known 
 among their tenants as the Junkers (pronounced as 
 if spelt Yonkers), and around their homestead grew 
 up the village now going by the name of Yonkers. 
 But the charming Mary finally married Colonel 
 Roger Morris, who built a noble house on the banks 
 of the Harlem River, which has passed through 
 many hands and has had several names, and which 
 still stands upon its wooded height. Long known 
 as the Roger Morris house, it passed, after the 
 war of the Revolution, into various hands, before it 
 was bought by Stephen Jumel, and was known as 
 
io6 Ex Libris 
 
 the Jumel Mansion. At the age of seventy-eight, 
 the still gallant Aaron Burr married the widow 
 of the French wine-merchant, when the place be- 
 came known as the residence of Aaron Burr ; and, 
 as is well known, it was not very far from its site 
 that Alexander Hamilton received his fatal wound. 
 This house is one of the most interesting in New 
 York history, and its appearance has been preserved 
 by the Society of Iconophiles, of New York, in an 
 excellent engraving by Edwin D. French. Colonel 
 Morris used an interesting book-plate of the popu- 
 lar Chippendale pattern ; and so did Lewis Morris, 
 brother of Gouverneur, whose fine estates were 
 destroyed by the British. The great estate of 
 Morrisania, in Westchester County, was founded 
 by an ancestor of these patriots in the seventeenth 
 century. Another daughter of Frederick Phillipse 
 married the dashing Colonel Beverly Robinson, who 
 was so stanch a loyalist, and whose estate was the 
 headquarters of Arnold while negotiating with the 
 British officers in the matter of his contemplated 
 treason. Colonel Robinson had a son of the same 
 name, who was an officer in the English army ; and 
 this family was one of the largest losers by reason 
 of its loyalty. The book-plate bearing the name of 
 Beverly Robinson was probably used by the son. 
 
 Old Cadwallader Colden, the friend of Benjamin 
 Franklin (and what a pity no plate of the latter 
 has ever been discovered), was a man of powerful 
 intellect, from whom his son, Cadwallader David, 
 must have inherited no little ability. The son was 
 a great friend of De Witt Clinton, and was active 
 with him in pushing numerous improvements in 
 
America 
 
 107 
 
 the city and state of New York, notably the Erie 
 Canal. 
 
 Colden's book-plate was a plain armorial, while 
 Clinton's was in the height of style, and was 
 engraved by the fashionable engraver, Maverick, 
 in the simple but elegant Ribbon and Wreath 
 
 arrangement. 
 
 In looking over the names of the families in 
 whose homes there were enough books to induce 
 the possession of a book-plate, one comes across 
 many which have been familiar since the days when 
 the study of United States history was a school 
 task. In some cases, the plates themselves are of 
 interest, but the collector values them mostly for 
 their associations. For instance, the plate of Van 
 Cortlandt is not particularly striking ; but who that 
 knows something of the story of the old manor- 
 house at Croton can look at this plate, with its 
 military emblems surrounding the shield, and not 
 consider it a bit of most interesting memorabilia? 
 
 Then, too, there was the Van Rensselaer family, 
 which held its rights as patroons until well into the 
 present century, a long-lived relic of the West India 
 Company, and before the door of whose manor- 
 house stood the cannon whose loud intonation was 
 only heard when a new member of the family was 
 ushered into the world, or when one of them de- 
 parted this life. Numerous book-plates were used 
 by members of this noted family, and Kilain K. 
 Van Rensselaer had a handsome design in the Rib- 
 bon and Wreath style by Maverick. Probably no 
 family in the country had so many or such interesting 
 plates, taken collectively, as had the Livingstons: 
 
io8 Kx Libris 
 
 Brockholst Livingston, the scholar and hiwyer, 
 Edward, Maturin, and Judge Robert R., who had 
 plates by Maverick, and Walter, William S., and 
 Robert R., the Chancellor, who had plates by the 
 same engraver. 
 
 Many and interesting are the anecdotes of this 
 extremely interesting family, which has been of such 
 prominence in the history of their state and the na- 
 tion. The British destroyed the old home of Judge 
 Robert R. in the year 1777; but not until from it 
 had come a notable family of sons and daughters. 
 It was the Chancellor who was sent to the court of 
 Napoleon, and to whom was given the snuff-box 
 with the portrait by Isabey painted upon it, and it 
 was the deafness of this distinguished man, and 
 the inability to speak French of his brother-in- 
 law. General Armstrong, who succeeded the future 
 Chancellor as minister to France, that caused Napo- 
 leon to make the celebrated remark, " What strange 
 people these Americans are ! First they send me a 
 deaf man, and then one who is dumb ! " 
 
 When old Philip Livingston died, in the year 
 1749, there was a funeral of a most aristocratic 
 nature. Some account of it is still preserved, and 
 among the noteworthy facts recorded in a contem- 
 porary journal are that spiced wine was passed to 
 the eight bearers, who were presented not only with 
 gloves and handkerchiefs, but also with mourning 
 rings and monkey spoons. It is also stated that 
 the cost of this function must have reached the tidy 
 sum of ^500. 
 
 Samuel Provost, the first Bishop of New York, 
 used a book-plate which was engraved by Maverick, 
 
America 109 
 
 and which, in addition to the arms and mitre, carried 
 the motto Pro libertate. This learned churchman 
 had a rural retreat at East Camp in Dutchess (now 
 Columbia) County, and there he enjoyed not only 
 his literary pursuits, but the garden and farm there 
 pleasantly located. The Bishop was a lover of 
 books, and had among his treasures some fine speci- 
 mens of the printing of Baskerville, a rare Venetian 
 Dante of 1547, Rapin's England^ in five noble folios, 
 a collection of Americana, and one of Elzevirana, as 
 well as some notable specimens of incunabula, among 
 the last a Sweynheym and Pannartz imprint of 1470. 
 He was a remarkable man in a good many ways, 
 and, being heartily in sympathy with the American 
 patriots, he resigned his position at Trinity Church, 
 and betook himself to the country seat mentioned 
 above, where he spent some years. Upon the de- 
 parture of the British from New York in 1783, he 
 came out from his retirement and was made Bishop. 
 He was chaplain to the Continental Congress in 
 1785, and to the United States Senate in 1789. 
 He died in 181 5. 
 
 Colonel William Duer (who had been aide-de- 
 camp to Lord Clive in India, and who married Cath- 
 erine, daughter of Lord Stirling, and was thus with 
 his wife able to lend quite an aristocratic and English 
 flavor to the polished gatherings of the day) used 
 a simple book-plate with the crest of his family for 
 design, and the motto Esse quam videri. What 
 munificent entertainments, what charming society, 
 what rustle of silks and laces, what titterings between 
 the lovely young ladies, what gallantries on the part 
 of the perfectly dressed beaux these names recall ! 
 
I lo Ex Libris 
 
 The wedding of Colonel Duer and the bright Lady 
 Kitty, whom John Ouincy Adams, with the proper 
 amount of polish, referred to as "one of the sweet- 
 est-looking women in the city," was a very cele- 
 brated event ; and, as it occurred while General 
 Greene had his headquarters in the house and there 
 were plenty of soldiers about, it took on a decidedly 
 military character. The bride was given away by 
 the Commander-in-chief himself, the loud calls of 
 the soldiers for a sight of the lady were listened to, 
 and she stepped upon the lawn to receive the ring- 
 ing cheers and hearty congratulations of the throng. 
 Surely the old manor-house of Lord Stirling held 
 never a gayer company than this. 
 
 Christopher Mildeberger, who was of the family 
 once owning the land on a part of which the Fifth 
 Avenue Hotel now stands, used a small pictorial 
 book-plate. 
 
 William Constable came of a family owning large 
 
 tracts of land near the city of Utica, and he used a 
 
 book-plate evidently made by an engraver who was 
 
 not an expert. Myles Cooper, who was the second 
 
 President of King's College (now Columbia), used a 
 
 very handsome Chippendale book-plate. The story 
 
 of the hasty flight he was obliged to make through 
 
 a window of the college buildings to escape rough 
 
 handling at the hands of those who were infuriated 
 
 " . . . . 
 
 at his Loyalist inclinations, is well authenticated. 
 
 Among other families of New York using book- 
 plates in the earlier days were the Cuttings, the 
 Cuylers, the De Peysters, the De Witts, the Duanes, 
 the Fishes, the Fraunces, the Goelets, the Grades, 
 the Harisons, the HofFmans, the Jaunceys, the 
 
America 1 1 1 
 
 Jays, the Kips, and the Kissams. Among them, 
 too, were such names as Ogden, Paulding, descend- 
 ants of the captor of Major Andre, Pierce, Pintard, 
 Popham, Roome, Rutgers, Schuyler, Sedgwick, 
 Smith, Stewart, Stone, Ten Broeck, TomHnson, 
 Van Berkel, Van Buren, Van Ness, Varick, Wall, 
 Watkins, Wetmore, Wisner, Wynkoop, and Yates. 
 The collector who desires to make a specialty of the 
 early plates of the city and state of New York has 
 a rich field to work in, and one that in historical 
 interest almost surpasses any other our country offers. 
 As one looks back to those old families and visits 
 the old manor-houses, he can picture the scenes 
 there enacted, can hear the hum of voices, see the 
 bright faces of the ladies and richly colored velvets 
 of the gentlemen, hear the clink of the glasses, see 
 the smoke rising from fragrant cigars towards the 
 beams of the ceiling, and may, now and then, see 
 the Continental uniform, hear the harsh word of 
 command, and witness the march of troops, the 
 skirmish, or the battle itself The study of the 
 times and the people brought to mind by a good 
 collection of book-plates will carry the enthusiastic 
 student into many lines of research, will unravel 
 some difficult things, will lead him into many unsus- 
 pected pleasant spots, and cannot fail to increase his 
 interest in the history of his country, whatever it 
 may happen to be. 
 
 Just off the coast of Connecticut, and lying in a 
 snug position, is Gardiner's Island, once known 
 as the Isle of Wight. In a graveyard of New 
 London may be seen a stone bearing the following 
 inscription: — 
 
112 Ex Libris 
 
 "Here lyeth buried ye body of his excellency John 
 Gardiner, Third Lord of ye Isle of Wight, He was born 
 April 19th 1661 and departed this life June 25th 1738." 
 
 It was in the year 1686 that this island was set 
 off to old Lion Gardiner, the founder of this most 
 interesting estate, by Governor Dongan of New 
 York. Lion Gardiner came to America under the 
 patronage of Lord Saye and Sele and the younger 
 John Winthrop, for whom he was to build a fort at 
 the mouth of the Connecticut River; and he it was 
 who gave to this first stronghold erected in New 
 England, outside of Boston, the name of Saybrook. 
 The old manor-house on Gardiner's Island, as it is 
 now called, remains to this day, and the few visitors 
 who get to it are shown the relics of long-ago times, 
 including uniforms, furniture, and the various small 
 possessions which are usually included in such lists 
 of memorabilia. The graveyard, with its table mon- 
 uments bearing the Gardiner arms cut in the stone, 
 the old weather-beaten windmill, the house itself 
 behind its closed gates, the open space called " the 
 Common," where the sheep graze, and, indeed, all 
 the surroundings, speak with force to the historical 
 student. One of the treasures kept with great care 
 is the Geneva Bible (1599) in which is the record of 
 the coming of old Lion Gardiner. Several of the 
 lords used book-plates, and they are of the greatest 
 interest to the collector, possessing the charm of 
 those old times when this American lordship was 
 maintained in the style it deserved. 
 
 Samuel Bard, eminent physician, author of medi- 
 cal works of value, and a skilful horticulturist, used 
 a book-plate in the Chippendale style. His life was 
 
America 113 
 
 an eventful one, and shows him to have been an in- 
 teresting man. He was educated in Edinburgh, and, 
 on his passage thither from this country in 1761, he 
 was captured by the French ; and after five months 
 was released through the efforts of Dr. Franklin. 
 He organized a medical school upon his return to 
 New York, which was united to King's College, and 
 he ultimately became dean of the faculty. He mar- 
 ried his cousin, had a lucrative practice, was Presi- 
 dent of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
 and while the seat of government was in New York 
 he was the family physician of General Washington. 
 Going up to Connecticut next, the collector will 
 find in that land of steady habits many Interesting 
 book-plates used by the good people who gave the 
 state its good name. Of the men who fought in 
 the Revolution, there was John Chester, who com- 
 manded the elite corps at the battle of Bunker 
 Hill, and whose home was In Wethersfield; Jacob 
 Sargeant, who was a noted maker of watches and 
 tall clocks, and who was one of the last of the 
 " gentlemen of the old school." He was seen upon 
 the streets of Hartford, in which city was his home, 
 attired in breeches and hose long after their use was 
 generally discontinued. Alsop, the wit and poet 
 who lived down the river at Middletown; Deacon 
 Bull, who was perhaps the busiest man in the village 
 of Farmington; Goodwin, who was at one time the 
 publisher of the Hartford Courant, the oldest news- 
 paper in our country; Isaiah Allen of Enfield, who 
 used a simple device engraved by a relative ; Ingersoll 
 of New Haven ; Jarvis of the bishop's family ; Lord of 
 East Haddam; Musgrave of New Haven; Reed of 
 
114 Ex Libris 
 
 East Windsor; Thomas Robbins, whose library served 
 
 as the foundation and beginning of the library of the 
 Connecticut Historical Society; Waldo, the "fight- 
 ing parson " who suffered such cruelties while con- 
 fined in the New York Sugar House; and Oliver 
 Wolcott, sometime Governor of the state, and long 
 before that a signer of the Declaration, — are among 
 the names to which the book-plate hunter attaches 
 importance. Beside the plates of individuals, Con- 
 necticut is rich in the plates of early libraries which 
 the industrious inhabitants contrived to support. 
 Among these, the plate of the Theological Institute 
 with its representation of an old pulpit; the East 
 Windsor Literary Association; the three plates of 
 the Farmington Library, and the smaller but no less 
 pleasing library interior used by the Village Library 
 of the same town ; the Guilford Library plate, very 
 probably engraved by Doolittle; the old engraved 
 label of the Hartford Library Company, and the 
 Social Library of Wethersfield, which is signed by 
 Doolittle, — are perhaps the best. Besides these, there 
 are the exceedingly interesting plates of Yale College 
 Library, and the curious plates used by the various 
 literary and social societies supported by the students 
 and the alumni, the Brothers in Unity, and the 
 Linonian Society. 
 
 In the year 1686 the city of Boston had four 
 book-sellers, and from the old records it appears that 
 they were men of some wealth and position in soci- 
 ety ; while the most successful of them all, Mr. 
 Usher, left an estate of some ^20,000. When 
 we read that New York had but one book-shop in 
 17 1 9, we feel that the literary ascendency of Boston 
 
America 115 
 
 is no new thing, no empty claim, and as the collector 
 of book-plates gathers together the plates of the 
 book-owners of Boston and other towns in the state 
 of Massachusetts, he finds that they equal those of 
 New York in number, and surpass them in at least 
 one point of interest. The plates of the aristocratic 
 New Yorkers were engraved by Maverick, who was 
 an importation from England; while the wealthy 
 and book-loving people of Boston and vicinity em- 
 ployed such engravers as Nathaniel Hurd and Paul 
 Revere, who were not only self-taught in the art of 
 engraving on copper, but were native-born Ameri- 
 cans. To the collector of book-plates, these exam- 
 ples of the early American engravers are of surpassing 
 interest. It is true that in comparison with some of 
 the plates by Maverick they suffer, and that they 
 have not the excellence of finish noticed in the 
 plates done by the professional copper-plate engrav- 
 ers of London, which were used by many American 
 families, particularly in the states and cities south of 
 New York. 
 
 Hurd did not engrave as many plates as Maverick 
 did, but his career was much shorter, as he died in 
 1777, while Maverick lived some thirty years longer. 
 But all the work which Hurd did showed him fitted 
 by nature to excel in the line of work his enterprise 
 led him to take up, and, had he been spared to con- 
 tinue the development of the art of the book-plate, 
 he would undoubtedly have made many which would 
 have stood the most careful comparisons. At the 
 present time, the collector knows nearly fifty plates 
 which were made by him; and among his customers 
 were such men as Theodore Atkinson, who was a 
 
1 1 6 Ex Libris 
 
 person of no small importance in the colony of 
 New Hampshire, holding various offices which the 
 Revolution deprived him of, and who at his death 
 left £,100 to his church, the interest to be spent for 
 bread to be given to the poor; Francis Dana, a 
 statesman and jurist of distinction, who served his 
 country in many offices, and was Secretary of Lega- 
 tion when Mr. Adams went to Paris in 1779, and 
 who was a founder of the American Academy of 
 Arts and Sciences, and whose son, Richard Henry 
 Dana, the essayist and poet, was a member of the 
 club which started the North American Review. 
 Francis Dana married a daughter of William Ellery, 
 and Ellery Street in Boston was so named to com- 
 memorate her family. And there were Dr. Samuel 
 Danforth, who practised until he was eighty years of 
 age, and whose judgment was so highly thought of 
 that in every difficult medical case he was appealed 
 to with the feeling that his opinion reached the limit 
 of human skill ; Philip Dumeresque, who was one 
 of the founders of old Trinity Church in Boston, yet 
 in whose home on Summer Street Peter Pelham, 
 who is known to-day as the earliest engraver we 
 have any account of in New England, taught not 
 only writing and arithmetic, but dancing; Benjamin 
 Greene, a wealthy Boston merchant ; Robert Hale 
 of Beverly, a leading man in the province, and com- 
 mander of a regiment under Pepperell at Louisburg ; 
 Harvard College, for which Hurd made several 
 plates ; the Rev. William Hooper, father of the signer 
 of the Declaration, from North Carolina; Hon. Jon- 
 athan Jackson, who dined with General Washington 
 upon the occasion of that visit to Boston when 
 
America 117 
 
 Governor Hancock acted with rudeness to the Pres- 
 ident, and who at the table discussed the matter, 
 freely condemning the Governor for his action ; 
 Robert Jenkins, who collected the money to buy 
 the chime of bells which hung in the steeple of Christ 
 Church, Boston; Peter R. Livingston, of the family 
 for whom Maverick made several plates ; John 
 Lowell, who inserted in the "Bill of Rights" the 
 phrase "all men are born free and equal," with the 
 express purpose of suppressing slavery ; Joshua 
 Spooner, whose plate must have been intended to 
 convey a pun on the owner's name, as it shows two 
 doves billing and cooing ; Andrew Tyler, a gold- 
 smith of Boston ; and the Wentworths of New 
 Hampshire. 
 
 Such interest, however, clusters about the name 
 of Paul Revere, the stanch patriot of Massachu- 
 setts, that the few book-plates he made are esteemed 
 of the highest importance, ranking in the collector's 
 regard next to the plate of General Washington. 
 There are four plates which bear the signature of 
 Revere as engraver, and one of them, the Epes Sar- 
 gent, is quite rare. The others belonged to Gardiner 
 Chandler, David Greene, and William Wetmore, all 
 members of families whose names are well known 
 in Massachusetts, although these individual owners 
 may not themselves have earned enduring fame. 
 There is another plate, bearing the name Paul 
 Revere^ which was Revere's own, and which was in 
 all probability his own handiwork, although it is not 
 signed. This little group of five plates, with one 
 or two others which are sometimes attributed to 
 him, complete the list of known book-plates by this 
 
it8 Ex Libris 
 
 celebrated man. He attained a rough proficiency 
 in the art of engraving on copper, and his book- 
 plates are engraved with more care and finish than 
 were the cartoons and historical scenes from his 
 graver. In connection with the Epes Sargent plate 
 there is an interesting story: For a long time only 
 one copy of this plate was known, and, as it bore 
 the signature of Revere and was considered unique, 
 it was practically above valuation. Early in the 
 year 1895 I had a letter from a portrait painter 
 living in the city of Providence, R.I., asking if the 
 book-plate of Epes Sargent, engraved by Paul 
 Revere, had any value. Realizing at once the im- 
 portance of the " find," and feeling that the plate 
 should bring as much as possible, 1 communicated 
 the news to a book auctioneer of Boston, who, after 
 some correspondence with the writer of the letter of 
 inquiry, bought the two volumes, with the plates in 
 them, for something like thirty-five dollars. The 
 painter, upon this happy conclusion of the matter, 
 wrote me, saying he was pleased to have received so 
 much for the plates, which some years before had 
 cost him ten cents, and which he had bought simply 
 because he admired Copley's portrait of Revere, and, 
 happening one day in an old bookstore in Boston 
 to come across these two volumes containing exam- 
 ples of the work of Revere, was inclined to own 
 them. One of the plates now adorns the collection 
 of a Boston book-plate enthusiast, while the other, 
 which was put up at auction, brought the handsome 
 sum of seventy-five dollars. This is now owned by 
 a lady collector who has one of the finest collections 
 of really good plates in the country. 
 
America 119 
 
 But when we have collected all the plates made by- 
 Revere or Hurd, the list of notable plates in Massa- 
 chusetts is by no means exhausted. A few names 
 will be recognized at once as of distinguished per- 
 sons and families. There was John Adams, the sec- 
 ond President of the United States ; John Quincy 
 Adams, the sixth President ; members of the Ap- 
 thorp family — East Apthorp, the Episcopal divine, 
 who was a missionary of the Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (which itself 
 had a curious pictorial plate), and who occupied a 
 very elegant house which was dubbed " the palace 
 of one of the humble successors of the Apostles " ; 
 Joseph Barrell, the rich Boston merchant and pio- 
 neer in the northwest coast trade ; Jonathan Belcher, 
 Governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, 
 1 730-1741 ; Hon. James Bowdoin, the benefactor 
 of the college which bears his name ; Stephen Cleve- 
 land, whose pictorial plate showing a British man-of- 
 war under full sail is very unusual and very pleasing, 
 and who is said to have received the first commission 
 in the United States Navy; Hector Coffin of Bos- 
 ton, a descendant of old Sir Isaac Coffin, and com- 
 ing from the Pine Coffin family of England (of so 
 suggestive a name) ; Richard Cranch, brother-in-law 
 of John Adams, who lived in Braintrec ; Samuel 
 Dexter, the Secretary of War, and later Secretary of 
 the Treasury ; Joseph Dudley, the Governor of the 
 Colony of Massachusetts, whose plate bore the date 
 1702, and which is the earliest dated plate in Amer- 
 ica thus far discovered ; Jeremiah Dummer, a gold- 
 smith and father of the Governor ; Rev. William 
 Emerson, father of Ralph Waldo Emerson; J ere- 
 
I20 Ex Libris 
 
 miah Everts, father of the senator; Edward Everett, 
 scholar and orator ; Edward Augustus Holvoke, 
 the eminent physician and surgeon, whose abihties 
 did not fail at an advanced age ; John Jeffries, an- 
 other physician and surgeon, and one who rendered 
 service to the British and was the man who recog- 
 nized the body of General Warren at the battle 
 of Bunker Hill ; Minot, the historian ; Timothy 
 Newell, who used an elaborate wood-cut which was 
 printed by Isaiah Thomas, and which represented 
 the patriotic feelings of its owner in the military 
 accoutrements displayed in the ornamentation; An- 
 drew Oliver, eldest son of the famous stamp dis- 
 tributor under Hutchinson, and whose house was 
 mobbed and he himself hung in effigy ; James Otis, 
 whose daughter Mercy married James Warren, 
 sometime President of the Provincial Congress of 
 Massachusetts, and his son of the same name, who 
 was so distinguished an orator and patriot ; Sir Wil- 
 liam Pepperell, grandson of the first Sir William, 
 who assumed his name and was created a baronet 
 Oct. 29, 1774, and whose vast estates were confis- 
 cated because of the intense loyalism of the family. 
 This Sir William married Elizabeth Royal and died 
 without leaving heirs, by which means the name 
 became extinct in this country, the family being rep- 
 resented by Sparhawks, Huttons, Tylers, Snows, and 
 others. A granddaughter of Sir William married a 
 Colonel Williams, and upon her death the Colonel 
 consoled himself with a second wife, and she dying 
 before very long, a third consort was taken. The 
 following spicy record of these matrimonial ventures 
 was written by some witty friend : — 
 
America 1 2 1 
 
 "Colonel Williams married his first wife, Miss Miriam 
 Tyler, for good sense, and got it ; his second wife, Miss 
 Wells, for love and beauty, and had it ; and his third wife. 
 Aunt Hannah Dickinson, for good qualities, and got 
 horribly cheated." 
 
 Thomas Handasyd Perkins was a rich merchant 
 of Boston, who used an armorial plate; and, among 
 others whose plates are interesting, on account of the 
 prominence of their owners in one way or another, 
 should be mentioned: Samuel Phillips, founder of the 
 Academy at Andover which bears his name ; Josiah 
 Quincy, the Mayor of Boston in whose administra- 
 tion several important public works were completed ; 
 Isaac Royall, benefactor of Harvard College (after- 
 wards of Antigua) ; Thomas O. Selfridge, who killed 
 Charles Austin on State Street in Boston, in 1806, 
 and who was defended at his trial by Samuel Dexter 
 and Christopher Gore, and was acquitted, it being 
 explained by some one that the cause of the dispute 
 in which the tv/o were engaged was owing to a misun- 
 derstanding about " seven roast pigs and ten bushels 
 of green peas." The real cause was a political disa- 
 greement. For a long time this Monday of August 
 was known in Boston as " Bloody Monday." 
 
 James Swan, who was a member of the " Boston 
 Tea Party," used an interesting pictorial book-plate 
 which gave a clue to his Scotch descent, and John 
 Barnard Swett of Newburyport used a plate which 
 was full of emblems which no one could mistake, 
 indicating the disciple of iEsculapius. As the early 
 printers of Massachusetts hold a prominent place in 
 the history of the state, the plate of Isaiah Thomas 
 is one that the collector is glad to add to his list. 
 
122 Ex Libris 
 
 The plate of John Vassall, who was so rich a loyal- 
 ist and who died in England, whose mansion-house 
 at Cambridge became the headquarters of General 
 Washington, and subsequently the home of the 
 poet Longfellow (who himself used a modest book- 
 plate with a Latin inscription), is interesting in itself 
 as well as on account of its owner; for it may with 
 considerable certainty be ascribed to Hurd, which 
 fact is interesting as showing the willingness of this 
 wealthy Britisher to employ an American engraver. 
 The plates of the Vaughans, too, are interesting as 
 being of a wealthy family and a generous one, Ben- 
 jamin giving his library to Bowdoin College. The 
 Winthrops, too, used book-plates, and one very old 
 one which was used by John Winthrop, who was 
 born in 1681 and who died in England in 1747, 
 is known. Old Thomas Coram, who in 1694 was 
 a shipwright in Taunton, Mass., and who gave 
 land and books for a library in that town, used a 
 book-plate which shows his crest and his name 
 below it enclosed within an oval wreath of vines. 
 The plate is rather crude in design and execution, 
 as befits its early date. He it was who established 
 the FouHdling Hospital near London, where one 
 hundred and seventeen infants were cared for, it is 
 said, on the first day it was opened, and where Han- 
 del used to play annually. The red-coated boys and 
 the white-capped girls may still be seen playing in 
 the enclosure, and the visitor may see within the 
 buildings some very interesting relics of the bygone 
 glory of the place, — among other things, paintings 
 by Hogarth, Kneller, and West ; a bust by Roubillac ; 
 and the pulpit in which Laurence Sterne preached. 
 
!'AM;^l),^M^M^M I »<'^ ' ',HM!M!/,^iMU^M'-jMtt^ijA'Hj'M^ . t' i ■ ia 
 
America 123 
 
 Massachusetts, too, had many hbraries which used 
 book-plates which are worthy of notice and which 
 the collector will prize. The American Academy 
 of Arts and Sciences used an elaborate plate en- 
 graved by Callender, the Boston Architectural 
 Library, Boston Circulating Shakespeare Library, 
 Boston Social Law Library, Bowdoin College, Boyl- 
 ston Medical Library, Dartmouth College and its 
 Society of Social Friends, the Dedham Scripture 
 Study Society, Harvard College and the Hasty 
 Pudding and Porcellian societies, the Haverhill 
 Library, Massachusetts Historical Society, New- 
 buryport Athenaeum, and the Worcester Circulating 
 Library are among these. 
 
 As one glances over the plates of Massachusetts, 
 it may occur to him that their owners lived with 
 less repose than did the New Yorkers or the Phila- 
 delphians. There was money and culture, but there 
 was not the air of leisure about the life of the in- 
 habitants of this Northern state that impresses one 
 in turning over the records of the more southern 
 colonies. There must have been in their blood 
 some inclination to take things seriously, to give 
 themselves to unremitting labor, and an intense 
 love of country and liberty. These things worked 
 together to prevent the full enjoyment of ease and 
 luxury in so general and widespread a fashion as 
 was observable among their Southern neighbors. 
 
 It will occur to some, undoubtedly, that the early 
 engravers offer a most inviting field for investiga- 
 tion, and so they do; but, unfortunately, very little 
 can be found in old records and books concerning 
 them. The " interview " was not then so elaborate 
 
124 Ex Libris 
 
 an affair as It is to-day, and the lives of these hum- 
 ble artisans, with one or two exceptions, have not 
 been made the subject of magazine articles or the 
 longer biography which would fill a book. In New 
 England there were Abel Bowen, Joseph Callender, 
 Nathaniel Dearborn, John Mason Furnass, S. Har- 
 ris, Samuel Hill, Nathaniel Hurd, Paul Revere, 
 Thomas Johnson, and James Turner, all of Boston; 
 Amos Doolittle and Gideon Fairman, of Connecti- 
 cut; and Edward and Elisha Gallaudet, Abraham 
 Godwin, Charles P. Harrison, the Mavericks, Alex- 
 ander Anderson, and Charles P. Rollinson, in New 
 York; with John Boyd, Henry Dawkins, Francis 
 Kearney, J. Smithers, T. Sparrow, James Thackara, 
 James Trenchard, and John Vallance in the cities 
 farther south. Here is a handful of early engravers 
 whom it would be most interesting to know more 
 of than we now do, and all additions to our knowl- 
 edge of them is most welcome. 
 
 Before taking leave of the early plates of our 
 country, mention should be made of a few very ex- 
 cellent examples of engraving which the book- 
 owners of the West Indies used in their volumes. 
 Among these are Charles Ashwell of Grenada; 
 William Assheton, Provost Marshal of Barbadoes; 
 Joseph Beete of Demerary; William Blanc of Do- 
 minica, who was educated at the Middle Temple; 
 Jonathan Blenman, Attorney-General and Judge of 
 the Admiralty in Barbadoes; Francis Byam of the 
 island of Antigua; Donald Campbell of Jamaica; 
 Bryan Edwards of Greenwich Park, Jamaica, who 
 was not only a very wealthy merchant, but a histo- 
 rian of ability; Samuel Heming of the parish of 
 
America 125 
 
 Santa Anna in Jamaica; Robert Hunter, who was 
 sometime Governor of Jamaica, in 1728 the Bishop 
 of Jamaica; WiUiam George Knox of the island of 
 Trinidad; Charles Pinfold, Governor of Barbadoes ; 
 Eben Robertson of Kingston, Jamaica, who be- 
 longed to that family of Robertsons below whose 
 shield of arms depends the man in chains; Samuel 
 Vaughan, the wealthy planter in Jamaica ; and Wil- 
 liam Williams of Antigua, who had one of the most 
 beautiful plates used in this country, and which was 
 engraved in Paris. 
 
 Leaving now the old plates, we turn for a mo- 
 ment to speak of some of the recent examples. No 
 historical memories as yet enrich these plates, but 
 very possibly the collector of the next century will 
 look back to many of them with great delight and 
 find in them many a reason for their preservation ; 
 and as generations come and go, the day will prob- 
 ably come when they will be written about as old 
 plates, scarce and valuable. I do not intend here to 
 mention many plates, indeed, only those which are 
 illustrated in this volume, and whose owners have 
 kindly placed their coppers in my hands for this 
 purpose. They have been selected with care and 
 not without good reason. 
 
 They represent the newest work of the best en- 
 gravers of the day. There is just now a verv wide- 
 spread interest in the subject of book-plates; a very 
 general renascence is under way. The book-plate 
 is again coming into use as a useful and charming 
 bit of bookish property. This pleasing fashion, 
 which was at its height about a century ago, is now, 
 after an interval of decline, showing signs of vigorous 
 
126 Ex Libris 
 
 life. Just as the early use of the book-plate in 
 America was introduced from England, so to-day 
 this revival of interest in the subject follows a simi- 
 lar revival in old England. To the very flourish- 
 ing Ex Libris Society of London, and all the active 
 members it now numbers, is due this new condition 
 of interest. 
 
 In casting about for a design for his book-plate, 
 the American does not feel that need of introducing 
 the shield of arms which the Englishman does. 
 Heraldry is not an American institution, and few 
 are the Americans whose descent from the armorial 
 families of the older countries is such as to permit 
 the use of arms, should the exact letter of the laws 
 of this exact science be applied to them. To the 
 American who is fond of books and history, it will 
 at once occur that a design appropriate to the pur- 
 pose of the book-plate and indicating, by some of 
 its features, an event of historical importance, either 
 to the individual or the country, can be devised. 
 Many such plates are being engraved to-day, and in 
 them are many bits of history, personal or national, 
 to discover and understand which is the delight of 
 the collector. Among such, three are illustrated in 
 this volume, — the plates of Dr. Walker, of Mrs. 
 Gallaudet, and Mr. Buck. 
 
 Dr. George Leon Walker, pastor-emeritus of the 
 old First Church in Hartford, records upon his 
 book-plate an incident in the life of his first ancestor 
 on American soil, — Richard Walker of Saugus (or 
 Lynn), in the year 1632. In the first part of the 
 twenty-fifth chapter of Edward Johnson's Wonder- 
 working Providence of Sions Saviour in New England^ 
 
America 127 
 
 may be found the story the plate commemorates. 
 Lieutenant Walker was out on sentinel duty against 
 the Indians when, in the discharge of his duty, he 
 fired at the savages. The gun burst, a fact which is 
 suggested in the book-plate by the non-belligerent 
 manner in which he holds his disabled " caliver." 
 Upon examination, it was discovered that the Lieu- 
 tenant's coat had been pierced by two arrows, though 
 he himself had escaped injury. This sturdy Puri- 
 tan was an officer in the little army which went 
 out against the Pequots, became a Captain in the 
 Massachusetts troop, and was one of the earliest 
 members of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery 
 Company. He died in Lynn at an advanced age. 
 The design which so pleasingly records the hair- 
 breadth escape of the intrepid sentinel was drawn by 
 the wife of Dr. Walker's son. Professor Williston 
 Walker, and the plate was etched by Hoffman of 
 Rockville, Conn. 
 
 The plate of Mrs. Susan Denison Gallaudet of 
 Washington, D.C., which represents an old door- 
 knocker, also refers to a matter of personal history 
 which is of interest. Colonel George Denison, an 
 ancestor in the eighth generation, was the builder of 
 a fort at Stonington, Conn., the purpose of which 
 was to supply a place of refuge for his family and 
 his neighbors in case of hostilities on the part of the 
 Indians. Some fifty years after the fort was built, a 
 house was erected upon its site, and on its western 
 side shingles were placed which had been previously 
 used on the demolished fort. The old house is 
 standing to-day, or at least it was a dozen years ago, 
 and on its front door is a curious old iron knocker. 
 
128 Ex Libris 
 
 whose antique appearance caught Mrs. Gallaudet's 
 attention upon the occasion of a visit to this inter- 
 esting locahty. From the sketch which she then 
 made, several reproductions in brass were formed, 
 which adorn the homes of various members of the 
 family. It occurred to Mrs. Gallaudet that this old 
 knocker would make a fitting emblem for a book- 
 plate, not only on account of its historical and family 
 associations, but also because the knocker at the 
 door of the book makes quite a happy device, and 
 an uncommon one. The plate is etched by Mr. 
 Howard Sill, of the Washington Book-plate Society. 
 Mr. John H. Buck of New York City, an au- 
 thority on old plate and stained glass, and the 
 author of a valuable work entitled Old Plate (New 
 York, 1888), uses a book-plate of charming design, 
 which needs a word of explanation to bring out its 
 historic interest. Mr. Buck is by birth a Devon- 
 shire man, and his father was, at the time of his 
 birth, the second master of the old school founded 
 by Peter Blundell, and within whose venerable walls, 
 John Ridd, as all who have read Lorna Doone will 
 remember, learned the rudiments. In his book- 
 plate, Mr. Buck, who is familiar with all the legends 
 of the school and its vicinity, has had pictured the 
 present appearance of this noted school. One who 
 looks for them will find the spot in the walk where 
 the founder's initials are sunk in big cobblestones, 
 and the triangle upon which John Ridd put up so 
 brave a fight. It will be interesting also to relate 
 that the author of Lorna Doone attended this school 
 at the time when the owner of the plate was born, 
 and that he, with the other scholars, was granted a 
 
America 129 
 
 half-holiday in honor of the occasion. The tall 
 cupola which is seen in the plate once crashed 
 through the roof into the rooms below, narrowly- 
 missing putting an end to the little life so famously- 
 begun under its insecure foundations. The letters 
 P. B. stand for the founder of the school, and the 
 date 160^ records the date of the founding ; while 
 in other parts of the frame are disposed the arms of 
 Blundell, the seal of old Tiverton, the arms of the 
 state of New York, and those of the owner. The 
 design has been most successfully engraved by Mr. 
 J. Gill of New York City. 
 
 Some book-lovers consider with good reason that 
 the book-plate should record their own personal 
 likes and bents, their own interesting bits of personal 
 history, or even their own features for future, as 
 well as present-day, collectors to prize. Indeed, the 
 portrait plate is altogether too uncommon. Public 
 libraries sometimes commemorate the donor of an 
 alcove by using his features on the book-plate, and 
 now and then one comes across an individual owner 
 who uses a portrait plate. It is a custom that 
 should be encouraged ; for as the book-plate is seen 
 to reach its highest type when made to convey 
 some meaning, it surely is fully permissible to have 
 the face and autograph of the bookman on his 
 own plate, which is to mark his own books. Mr. 
 William H. Gaylord, President of that flourishing 
 association of book-lovers, the Rowfant Club of 
 Cleveland, Ohio, uses a plate which not only shows 
 his features, but indicates in no uncertain way his 
 favorite habit of reading in bed. It was the late 
 Eugene Field, in his delightful Love Affairs of a 
 
130 Ex Libris 
 
 Bibliomaniac^ who said, " I piled at least twenty 
 chosen volumes on the table at the head of my bed, 
 and I dare say it was daylight when I fell asleep," 
 which he did, with a copy of Villamaria's fairy sto- 
 ries in his hands. Going on to enlarge upon the 
 delights of reading in bed, the author says : — 
 
 "... observation has convinced me that all good and 
 true book-lovers practise the pleasing and improving avoca- 
 tion of reading in bed. Indeed, I fully believe with Judge 
 Methuen that no book can be appreciated until it has been 
 slept with, and dreamed over." 
 
 He goes on to show that Cicero (not Kikero) was a 
 great bed-reader, and he deduces the fact from a 
 quotation in which occurs the word pernoctant. 
 
 Mr. Gaylord, in casting about for a subject, de- 
 cided upon testifying to his personal endorsement of 
 the views of Field and Cicero, and he has shown in 
 his exceedingly interesting plate the attitude beloved 
 of Field and himself, and the words of Cicero by 
 Field believed to prove the attraction this habit of 
 reading in bed had for that worthy orator. Field 
 pictures him unrolling scroll after scroll of his favor- 
 ite literature, as, propped up on his couch, he only 
 stops to mutter maledictions upon the slave who has 
 let the lamp run low, or has neglected to trim the 
 wick. In his plate, Mr. Gaylord shows that he is 
 his own torch-bearer, and, as one glances about the 
 little nook, its unmistakable snugness and cosiness 
 cannot fail to be apparent. The books of his choice 
 are within reach, the fragrant weed offers its solace, 
 and the black night stays outside the leaded window, 
 peeping through at the flickering flame of the dip. 
 
America 131 
 
 In the plate of Dr. J. M. Thompson of Boston, 
 Mass., the observer will at once note those accesso- 
 ries which plainly denote the student of medicine, 
 the man devoted to science. Here again is an 
 example of a design which carries with it some 
 indication of the owner's bent of mind, which is a 
 pleasing thing to do upon the book-plate. This 
 is engraved by Richard Cathie. 
 
 Mr. Charles William Sherborn, who is the most 
 celebrated living English engraver, has made many 
 very charming book-plates, and among his many 
 customers have been a very few Americans. Of 
 the few plates Mr. Sherborn has made for our coun- 
 trymen, one of the most satisfactory is that for Mr. 
 Harris C. Fahnestock of New York City. In this, 
 the spirit of literature stands by the pedestal on 
 which lies the roll about to be written upon, while 
 all about are emblems which indicate the lover of 
 art, of music, and of books. The motto, which 
 in translation reads, " Among the leaves the fruit," 
 is one of the most fitting for a book-plate. 
 
 In several little etchings, Mr. J. Winfred Spenceley 
 of Boston has shown himself adept at catching the 
 spirit of the book-plate, and of the especially strik- 
 ing ones is that used by Miss M. M. Sands, whose 
 home is by the shores of Pine Lake, Wisconsin, and 
 in which is depicted just a glimpse, not unlikely a 
 favorite view, of the lake through the swaying 
 boughs of an old overhanging pine. In his own 
 plate, Mr. Spenceley has used the heraldic form 
 with chaste and simple ornamentation. 
 
 Among the designers, etchers, and engravers of 
 book-plates who have attained especial prominence 
 
iji Ex Libris 
 
 in this country, are Mr. W. F. Hopson of New 
 Haven, Conn,, Mr. Edmund H. Garrett of Win- 
 chester, Mass., Mr. Sidney L. Smith of Boston, and 
 Mr. Edwin Davis French of New York. City. 
 
 Three designs by Mr. Hopson are given here, 
 each one of them of striking interest and eminently 
 suited to the purpose of the book-plate, while well 
 calculated to indicate sufficiently some branch of the 
 owner's literary interests. In the plate of Mr. Stod- 
 dard, the medallion of Napoleon, the rows of well- 
 filled book-shelves, the horse, the dog, and the 
 glimpse of the sea furnish a clue to the varied tastes 
 of the owner; while in the plate of Mrs. Josephine 
 E. S. Porter of Hartford, Conn., the showily dressed 
 dame of bygone years, with the peacock of vanity, 
 will tell to shrewd eyes of the owner's interest in 
 the costumes of olden days. Indeed, the plate was 
 specially designed to be placed in the owner's large 
 and valuable collection of books upon the subject 
 of costume. In the plate of the Rev. Stewart 
 Means, Mr. Hopson shows the study of the rector 
 of St. John's Church in New Haven with the roll- 
 ing clouds now and then disclosing sufficient moon- 
 light to enable one to see the church itself. In the 
 lower panel is the motto, which in translation would 
 say, " Trust in the Lord and abide in thy drudg- 
 ery." The books of the student are seen, and in 
 the procession just below the book-shelf the de- 
 signer has indicated the march of the centuries before 
 the eye and mind of the student. First, is the 
 primitive man, then Roman soldiers, a monk, a 
 pope, Luther the reformer. Queen Elizabeth with 
 her cavaliers, Puritans, Indians, and so on to the 
 
America 
 
 ^33 
 
 slave, and the bicycle rider of the end of this cen- 
 tury. A most delightful moonlight effect is diffused 
 over the whole plate. 
 
 Mr. Garrett is very dainty in his imagination, 
 very pleasing in his designing, and very effective in 
 his manner of etching his designs. In the two plates 
 given here, these qualities are well indicated. In 
 the plate of Miss Wheeler of Medford, Mass., the 
 love of books of artistic merit is evidenced; while 
 in the plate of Miss Norcross of Winchester, Mass., 
 one reads that the owner of the plate is fond of 
 flowers, and that she has a library of books devoted 
 to horticulture. 
 
 The two charming plates designed and etched by 
 Mr, Sidney L. Smith of Boston, show a really de- 
 lightful use of the emblems of the book-lover and 
 the student. Mr. Chase is a book-collector of Bos- 
 ton, and this effective bit of designing and etching 
 is a most pleasing bit with which to prove his owner- 
 ship in many choice volumes. Rev. J. B. Trov is 
 a book-loving priest of the Roman Catholic Church, 
 living at Norwood, Mass., and in his plate are in- 
 corporated not only the book-lover's emblems, but 
 those of the church as well. The radiant design 
 upon the window will explain itself to the close ob- 
 server as indicating the life of faith, the need of 
 love, and the surety of reward, as well as the 
 almighty power of the Most High. On the table 
 lie the biretta and the stole, indicating the practi- 
 cal side of the owner's life, while the globe, the lilies, 
 and the skull are adjuncts of easily understood 
 meanings. The reverend gentleman is a devoted 
 book-collector, and has now a library of over three 
 
134 Ex Libris 
 
 thousand volumes, embracing all branches of learn- 
 ing, science, art, and fiction. 
 
 Of the three plates by Mr. Edwin Davis French 
 of New York City which are here represented, but 
 one is his own design, and that is the plate of Mr. 
 Robert Sedgwick of the same city. While the 
 heraldic form is not very generally used in this 
 country, there are, as has been said, a few who have 
 an unquestioned right to show armorial bearings, 
 and among these are Mr. Sedgwick and his wife, 
 whose arms (Renwick) are impaled with his. In 
 the designing of heraldic plates, it is more than a 
 knack that enables the engraver to relieve the plate 
 from being simply and barely armorial, and yet to 
 keep his ornamentation from overburdening the 
 design. This plate is most successful in this very 
 particular, and furnishes a most rich and handsome 
 appearance. 
 
 The plate of Mr. Charles H. Taylor, Jr., of the 
 Boston Globe ^ while engraved by Mr. French, is 
 after a design by Mr. E. B. Bird, a widely known 
 artist of the same city. The silhouette landscape at 
 the top represents Copley Square, — a typical Boston 
 view, — and, as Mr. Taylor is especially interested 
 in books on Boston, on nautical matters, and those 
 relating to "the art preservative of arts," the special 
 fitness of the hermaphrodite brig, the old Franklin 
 press, and the well-bound books will be appreciated. 
 
 The plate of Mr. Theodore L. De Vinne, the 
 famous printer of New York City, was designed by 
 Mr. George Fletcher Babb, the architect, who says 
 of his design that " the idea is the motto, with the 
 books placed as has been the custom in a cartouche." 
 
America 135 
 
 The decorative presentment is furthered in all details, 
 and, while the exact purpose of the design may be 
 sHght, it has a decidedly sixteenth-century appear- 
 ance, and will lead the observer at once to think 
 of Plantin and the Elzevirs, of Tory, Wechel, and 
 the Stephens. The caryatides were much used by 
 Christopher Plantin on his title-pages, and in this 
 plate for Mr. De Vinne they are intended to repre- 
 sent History and Prose, while the face at the top is 
 that of Minerva, and at the foot peers Pan. This, 
 too, is engraved by Mr. French. 
 
Conclusion 
 
 Give away a precious book — 
 
 'Tis hard to do it. 
 Trust it even for a time — 
 
 Too oft you rue it. 
 Lend it to the first that asks. 
 
 Should you care about it. 
 Is worse than giving it away 
 
 And doing once for all without it. 
 Hence, sirs, you see, I scarce pretend 
 My books to trust or give, still less to lend. 
 
 (Inscription from the library of 
 
 Don Juan Arbel of Mexico. ) 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 HE who would own a collection of book- 
 plates to-day can choose among several 
 ways of going about it. He can buy en 
 bloc in the auction room when some large 
 collection comes under the hammer; he may arrange 
 with some willing collector to take over the entire 
 results of his long-continued effort ; he may purchase, 
 as opportunity offers, from the dealer in plates ; or 
 he may eschew all these modes of advantaging him- 
 self upon the labors of others, and, despising the 
 aid of the pocket-book, may elect to rummage for 
 himself among the old books of the second-hand 
 shop or in the library of his friend. The true instinct 
 leads one to rummaging as the most enjoyable, as well 
 as the most satisfactory, method. No one who is 
 not a lover of books will have the proper relish for 
 the book-plate. Only he who knows the delights 
 of the book-hunter will appreciate those of the 
 hunter after plates, and why it is so much more to 
 be desired that one should discover for himself than 
 that he should buy the discoveries of others. Not 
 that the collection purchased is necessarily of less 
 actual value than the one brought together by patient 
 and industrious effort, but that in the latter there is 
 somehow a reason for pride and satisfaction not 
 
 139 
 
140 Ex Librls 
 
 easily expressed, perhaps, though understood in- 
 deed by many. 
 
 To know some quiet little shop on a back street, 
 whose front displays naught save a few boxes of 
 dilapidated volumes labelled " These for five cents," 
 and never-washed windows full of books and maga- 
 zines, whose floors and walls, however, are filled with 
 dusty rows of books seldom opened, almost forgotten 
 by their owner, whose probable business it is to sell 
 them, but who apparently has no other purpose in 
 life than to stack them upon his floors and shelves, 
 — to know such a place where quiet reigns, where 
 the smell of powdered leather mingles with the cloud 
 of dust upraised by each overturning of a volume, and 
 to be allowed to go through the piles of ponderous 
 tomes, the packs of little i2mos, and the boxes of 
 loosened prints, is to know a rare delight, and one ap- 
 preciated of the few. Here, in this quiet sanctum, 
 one may revel to his heart's content, unmindful of 
 the passing hours, as with eager hands he opens 
 cover after cover, peering at title-page and fly-leaf 
 in search of some coveted volume or some hoped- 
 for book-plate. 
 
 There is something in the very air of such a place 
 from which one takes in delight and inspiration. 
 Stufiy it may be, hot well-nigh to sufix)cation, and 
 yet free from that enervating influence the most 
 costly decorated drawing-room may diffuse. Here 
 lying about are the works of the old masters of the 
 pen or of the graver; here lie in close friendship 
 great souls whose very books seem to edge up to- 
 gether with a fondness for congenial company not 
 to be overlooked. And here, among those old vol- 
 
Conclusion 141 
 
 umes, with the sentiments they cause to rise filHng 
 the heart, the book-hunter resorts daily until he has 
 turned over the entire stock and has found every 
 treasure the place contains. Not a book untouched, 
 not a box of prints unnoticed, and, in the end, the 
 satisfaction of having dug up for himself some 
 treasures he will never lose his interest in. He 
 comes out of his lair with black hands and soiled 
 coat, with pockets bulging, and arms filled with 
 books which leave their mark upon his sleeve; but 
 of how little consequence, how trifling the incon- 
 venience, when he thinks of what he has found, and 
 of what it means to him. 
 
 Hunting here one day, it may be that he has turned 
 up an old volume of sermons, the work of a New 
 England divine of bygone years and memory, but of 
 sometime reputation; for within its cover lies pasted 
 the book-plate of a man of fame in the old colonial 
 times. His was the book now brought to light, and 
 his was the plate now first to be made known to the 
 world of collectors. With what a trembling of de- 
 light the hunter discovers the real worth of what he 
 has upturned! Not Columbus, in his moment of 
 victory, knew a richer feeling than this which warms 
 the heart of the bibliophile. Ah, this delight of the 
 book-lover, which only the initiated can understand ! 
 This thrill which mounts in his heart when, having 
 gotten his treasures together and finding them suffi- 
 cient to fill a case, he has one made to suit his taste, 
 and then stands before it — the holder of his precious 
 store of books — and runs his eyes over the well- 
 known titles, taking in an epitome of its contents, or 
 recalling some favorite lines from its pages as he 
 
142 Ex Librls 
 
 recognizes each particular volume ! On the upper 
 shelves mayhap some volumes labelled " Facetias " 
 in the booksellers' catalogues, i2mos black and 
 ragged with age, thumbed if you will with years of 
 reading, find resting-place, and on the lower ranges 
 chosen editions of classic writers, — Horace, Petrarch, 
 and Shakespeare, Chaucer, Goethe, and De Foe, — 
 some choice bindings, a book once owned by Grolier, 
 another of Maioli's, — princes among collectors they, 
 
 — rich devises of the early centuries as well as of the 
 later, in gold tooling and blind, romance and poetry, 
 samples of printing by Aldus Manutius and Caxton, 
 an early Bible or two, and some works on art, and 
 books of reference here and there, with engravings 
 by famous men, — Diirer, Piranezi, or Bartolozzi, 
 
 — old maps too, and often within the book-covers a 
 book-plate telling of the aforetime owner, — George 
 Washington perchance, matchless Davy Garrick, or 
 book-devouring Dibdin. 
 
 This ready surge of delectation never fully sub- 
 sides. It reaches its lowest ebb when sleep over- 
 takes the tired bibliophile, but in his dreams it is 
 still with him. It rises with him in the morning, 
 and, warm comforter, accompanies him through all 
 the daylight hours, returning with him at night to 
 his study, there again to mount to its fullest tide. 
 Other pleasures there be, — of friends, of converse, of 
 seeing and listening, — but under them all, tempering 
 all and finally excluding all, lies this love of books. 
 It so takes hold of its marked victim that he can 
 hardly tarry for his morning meal, and the affairs 
 of the world, as narrated in newspaper and magazine 
 or as related to him by those of his own household, 
 
Conclusion 143 
 
 appear so inconsequential as to seem a strange oc- 
 cupation for any mind. Forgetful of engagements, he 
 hurries to the auction room that he may measure a 
 " tall copy " of Malory, revels in the old morocco 
 and calf bindings, the rough edges of the really 
 hand-made paper, and the elegant " states " of the 
 engravings within these exquisite covers, and enters 
 into an exciting contest for the possession of an 
 early edition of Poe, a rare Franklin imprint, or a 
 book containing a book-plate by Paul Revere, with 
 all the zest of the competitor for the highest honors. 
 
 Little regarding the flight of time, he piles his 
 purchases before him, excitedly marks the prices in 
 his catalogue, and bids with belligerent gesticulation 
 as the struggle for the chef-d' ceuvre thickens and 
 rolls about him. Finally, the sale ended, with 
 pocket and arms full, with spots of rubbed sheep- 
 skin on overcoat and face, he gaily trudges home- 
 ward, pleasure depicted upon his countenance, and 
 a keen delight making his heart glad within him. 
 These be the delights into which the lover of books 
 and the real appreciator of book-plates becomes 
 initiated, — preoccupation and inward reflection; vis- 
 ions of shelves which the future will fill; the smell 
 and the feeling of levant or full russia, the quip and 
 the jape of the old raconteur. The passer-by may 
 fail to comprehend; those may be found who spurn 
 the quiet and unsubstantial appearance of his pleas- 
 ures, and to whom his rows of folios, quartos, octa- 
 vos, and duodecimos seem but stufi^ and lumber. 
 Let be. Vita sine Uteris mors est. 
 
 These, then, are the means by which collections 
 are formed, and be it known when one has begun 
 
144 Ex Libris 
 
 collecting, he quickly finds himself with some du- 
 plicates on hand which immediately bring him into 
 contact with other collectors, opening the way for 
 exchanges to their mutual advantage. And it may 
 be said that among collectors there are not a few 
 who affect to despise the notion of selling a plate, 
 and who augment their collections only by personal 
 and oft-repeated search among the book-shops, or 
 by the exchange of specimens. As the hobby is 
 fully established, there is now no need to apologize 
 for it, as once there may have been; still one can 
 hardly pass the fling of Mr. Andrew Lang without 
 a word of protest. Mr. Lang, a prince of objec- 
 tors, writes as follows : " The antiquarian ghoul 
 steals title-pages and colophons. The aesthetic 
 ghoul cuts illuminated initials out of manuscripts. 
 The petty, trivial, and almost idiotic ghoul of our 
 own days sponges the fly-leaves and boards of 
 books for the purpose of cribbing the book-plates." 
 With all the interests which cluster about book- 
 plates, with their long line of descent ranging 
 through four hundred years, and with the daily in- 
 creasing number of scholars and gentlemen of edu- 
 cated and refined tastes who number themselves 
 among the collectors of book-plates in mind, one 
 feels that these sour words are unmerited and un- 
 harmful. 
 
 Among the faults of the owner of the book-plate 
 may be mentioned a fondness for appropriating 
 what he deems desirable in the plate of another. 
 This kind of piracy extends to the use of designs 
 made by the engravers of past centuries, to the 
 actual use of title-pages, frontispieces, illustrations. 
 
Conclusion 145 
 
 and vignettes found in books of present or past 
 times which are of sufficient artistic merit to recom- 
 mend themselves for the purpose named. There is 
 known a plate used by one G. Fage which was 
 either made over upon the very copper engraved 
 by William Marshall as a frontispiece to the second 
 part of Quarles' Emblems^ published in 1635, ^'^ ^^^ 
 copied from it in a very accurate manner. Then, 
 too, there is the charming little interior book-plate 
 of J. Burton, D.D,, who was Professor of Greek at 
 Oxford, — designed by the great French designer and 
 engraver Gravelot, undoubtedly during the term of 
 his residence in London, and which was engraved 
 by John Pine, who made the large and handsome 
 gift-plate for Cambridge University Library, which 
 was copied by one Wadham Wyndham, who took 
 the design entire and reversed it. This plate was 
 again borrowed by a gentleman by the name of 
 Thomas Gaisford, who restored it to its original 
 form as used by Burton. In these alterations to 
 suit its different owners, there was of necessity some 
 change in the lettering on the plate, but the design 
 itself was adopted in toto. This branch of plagia- 
 rism is one of extreme interest, and the history of 
 which could be extended to fill many pages; for the 
 designs which have done service for different fan- 
 ciers of their appearance are many. There is a 
 plate of one Guilbal, dated 1775, which was bor- 
 rowed by some one of the name of D'Artus. There 
 was a very fine medical plate used by Lamarre, 
 which Dr. Clouet considered worthy of using in his 
 books, and the library interior plate of Amaderi 
 Lullin has been conveyed by many delighted book- 
 
146 Ex Libris 
 
 lovers. There is a plate generally ascribed to Ho- 
 garth, which has been used many times over, and is 
 even now in use by a prominent collector in Eng- 
 land, whose initials happen exactly to fit those of its 
 first owner. A curious, and not easily explained, 
 duplication of a book-plate design occurs in the 
 plate of John Franklin. This exceedingly inter- 
 esting and rare plate was engraved by James Turner, 
 the American engraver, of whose life we have but 
 the most meagre details, but who is known to have 
 engraved as early as 17 15, for there are books of 
 music printed by J. Franklin which he engraved, 
 and who, about the year 1730, went to Philadelphia 
 and there continued in his chosen profession. Re- 
 cently there came to notice the English book-plate 
 of one William Strode, dated 1730, which is exactly 
 like the Franklin, except in the heraldic emblems 
 and in one or two minor points in the ornamenta- 
 tion of the frame. Evidently the Strode plate is 
 of later date than the Franklin, but the interesting 
 question arises as to how it came to follow so 
 closely the other. Did Strode come to America 
 and while here employ Turner to make his book- 
 plate, or are both of these plates copied from some 
 earlier and not yet discovered design? Quite re- 
 cently in this country, a very handsome plate was 
 suppressed because of its strong resemblance to the 
 cover of a magazine drawn by Will H. Low. 
 
 In the foregoing pages, he who reads may find 
 some bit of information, not necessarily new, but 
 here in a new connection and which by this very 
 fact may appeal with an added interest. Many 
 names have been brought together here, and the 
 
Conclusion 147 
 
 only bond between some is the simple one of hav- 
 ing used a book-plate. It must be confessed that 
 to see these words gives one a feeling that, after all, 
 it forms but a delicate line upon which to string 
 what has been written. Still, to the collector of 
 whatever kind, his own particular point of view is 
 the one from which he views the world, and into 
 the focus of which he draws all that appeals to 
 him. So with the book-plate collector; from his 
 point of view the book-plate links countries, gov- 
 ernments, and individuals between whom in the life 
 may have been bitterest feeling, strongest opposi- 
 tion. It is from a calm and consciously safe retreat 
 that the collector looks out over the world as he 
 turns the pages of his albums, and brings to mind 
 the faded beauties of the court, the dead wits, the 
 buried monarchs. For him, they live again ; for him, 
 they once more enact the bloody deed, the splendid 
 pageant; for him, they once again display their loves 
 and crimes, their faults and graces, once more their 
 voices utter sweet nothings, command armies, pro- 
 voke gay laughter. Thus, then, does the collector 
 find a true delight in preserving his memorials of 
 the past, and a pleasure in showing to such others 
 as care to see, the charm of the book-plate. 
 
 Charles Dexter Allen his my name 
 America my nation. Hartford 
 is my dwelling Place and Christ 
 is my Salvation, the grass is green 
 the Rose is Red and here is my 
 Book when I am Ded. 
 
ROliERT SEDGWICK. | 
 
 ~.T>.Tr>'ti^/rrf. IBJ 
 
Index 
 
 Abbey, Edwin A., xxviii. 
 
 Abercrombie, Dr. James, 97. 
 
 Adams, John, 98, 100, 119. 
 
 Adams, John Couch, 73. 
 
 Adams, John Quincy, no, 119. 
 
 Adelaide, Madame, 16. 
 
 d'Ailebout, Charles, 14. 
 
 Aitkin, Robert, 102. 
 
 Albany, Countess of, 70. 
 
 d'Alboise, Charles, 14. 
 
 Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, xxxiv. 
 
 Aifieri, 70. 
 
 All Souls' College (Oxford), 80. 
 
 Allen, Isaiah, 113. 
 
 Alsop, 113. 
 
 Altdorf, University of, 5. 
 
 American Academy of Arts and Sci- 
 ences, 116, 123. 
 
 American Philosophical Society, 97. 
 
 Amman, Jost, xv. 
 
 Anderson, Alexander, xxxi, 124. 
 
 Andr6, Major, in. 
 
 Anstey, Christopher, 64. 
 
 Antwerp, 4. 
 
 Apprentices' Library (Philadelphia) , 
 104. 
 
 Apthorp, East, 119. 
 
 Archer, 91. 
 
 Armistead, 91. 
 
 Armstrong, General, 108. 
 
 Arnold, 106. 
 
 Ashurst, Benjamin, 53. 
 
 Ashwell, Charles, 124. 
 
 Assheton, William, 124. 
 
 Atkinson, Buddie, 42. 
 
 Atkinson, Theodore, 114. 
 
 Atlee, William Augustus, 102. 
 
 Audran, xix. 
 
 August, Prince of Prussia, 23. 
 
 Austin, Charles, 121. 
 
 Autun, Bishop of, 14. 
 
 Aylesford, Earl of, 40. 
 
 B 
 
 B., Madame L., 30. 
 
 Babb, George Fletcher, 134. 
 
 Bacon, 55. 
 
 Bacon, Sir Francis, xxi. 
 
 Bacon, Sir Nicholas, xxi. 
 
 Bagford, John, 34. 
 
 Baillie, 43. 
 
 Bancker, 102. 
 
 Bancroft, George, xxxiv. 
 
 Barbadoes, Governor of, 125. 
 
 Bard, Dr. Samuel, 112. 
 
 Barrel!, Joseph, 119. 
 
 Barrett, Wilson, 79. 
 
 Bartolozzi, xxvii, 42, 142. 
 
 Bartram, John, 99. 
 
 Basire, 42. 
 
 Bastille, Chateau de la, xix. 
 
 Bath, Lord, 58. 
 
 Bavaria, 9. 
 
 Bavaria, Electoral Library of, 2. 
 
 Bayard, 93. 
 
 Beaconsfield, Earl of, 78. 
 
 Beatty, Dr. John, 102. 
 
 Beaufort, Duchess of, xxvii. 
 
 Becat, H., 19. 
 
 Beete, Joseph, 124. 
 
 Beham, Hans Sebald, xv. 
 
 Belcher, Jonathan, 119. 
 
 Bell, R. Anning, 83, 84. 
 
 Bellenden, Mary, 58. 
 
 Beniwalt, Baldasser de Walestat, 3. 
 
 Bentley, Richard, xxvi. 
 
 Beresford, Richard, 94. 
 
 Berkeley, 38. 
 
 Berlin, 7. 
 
 Berry, Agnes, xxvi, 53, 57. 
 
 Berry, Mary, 60. 
 
 de Berry, Duchesse, 26. 
 
 Besant, Sir Walter, xxvi, 77. 
 
 Bessborough, Lady, xxvii, 42. 
 
 Beverley, 43, 91. 
 
 Bewick, Thomas, x.wii, 41, 42, 66. 
 
 Bibliotheque Nationale, 15. 
 
 Bigot, Emeric, xviii. 
 
 Bird, E. B., 134. 
 
 Blake, 46. 
 
 Blake, William, 42. 
 
 Blanc, William, 124. 
 
 Blenman, Jonatlian, 124. 
 
 Blessington, Lady, xxvi, 61. 
 
 149 
 
I50 
 
 Index 
 
 "Bloody Monday" (Boston), 121. 
 
 Bloomfield, Major Joseph, 93. 
 
 Bloom field, Robert, 63. 
 
 Blundell, Peter, 128. 
 
 Boccaccio, 67. 
 
 de Boissy, Marquis, 62. 
 
 Boiling, 91. 
 
 Bonaparte, Lucien, xx, 24. 
 
 de Bonncmains, Vicomtesse, 29. 
 
 Borden, Ann, 98. 
 
 Boston Architectural Library, 123. 
 
 Boston Shakespeare Circulating Li- 
 brary, 123. 
 
 Boston Social Law Library, 123. 
 
 " Boston Tea-party," 121. 
 
 Boucher, xix. 
 
 Boudinot, Elias, 100. 
 
 Boulanger, General, 29. 
 
 Bouvenne, Aglaus, 27. 
 
 Bowdoin, James, 119. 
 
 Bowdoin College, 122, 123. 
 
 Bowen, Abel, 124. 
 
 Boyd, John, 124. 
 
 Boylston Medical College, 123. 
 
 Bozman, John Leeds, 92. 
 
 Brand, John, xxvi. 
 
 Brandenburg, Hildebrande, xiii. 
 
 Brearly, David, 93. 
 
 Breiner, Count Max Louis, xvi. 
 
 de Brettville, Madame, 21. 
 
 de Broglie, Prince, loi. 
 
 Brookficld, Mrs., 74. 
 
 Brothers in Unity (Yale College), 114. 
 
 Brown, James Roberts, 82. 
 
 Brown, Sir William, 36. 
 
 Buck, John H., 126, 128. 
 
 Buckle, Henry Thomas, xxvi. 
 
 Buffalo Society of Artists, xxxv. 
 
 Bull. 113. 
 
 Burdett, 68, 
 
 Burlington (England) Fine Arts So- 
 ciety, 80. 
 
 Burnes, Chevalier James, 65. 
 
 Burnett, Gilbert, 33. 
 
 Burns, Robert, 64. 
 
 Burr, Aaron, 106. 
 
 Burton, J., D.D., 145. 
 
 Burton, Richard, xxvi. 
 
 Bute, Lord, 50. 
 
 Byam, Francis, 124. 
 
 Byrd, Colonel William, 92. 
 
 Byron, Lord, 23, 68. 
 
 Cabell, 91. 
 Caen, 21. 
 Caine, Hall, 79. 
 
 Calcutta, Bishop of, 77. 
 Callender, Joseph, xxxi, 123, 124. 
 Calvert, 93. 
 
 Cambridge University, 36. 
 Cambridge University Library, 145. 
 Campbell, Donald, 124. 
 Campbell, Thomas, 66, 68. 
 de Canino, Prince, xx. 
 Carlyle, Thomas, xxvi, 72. 
 Carmichael, Hon. William, 92. 
 Caroline, Princess, 36. 
 Carpenters' Co. Library (Philadel- 
 phia), 104. 
 Carroll of CarroUton, 93. 
 Cary, 64, 91. 
 Cathie, Richard, 131. 
 Caxton, 142. 
 Ceracchi, 55. 
 Chalmers, 93. 
 " Cham of Literature," 49. 
 Chandler, Gardiner, 117. 
 Charles L, 47. 
 Charles Vn., 17, 18. 
 Charles X., 26. 
 Chase, Samuel, 93. 
 Chase, William H., 133. 
 Chatham, Lord, 55. 
 Chaucer, 142. 
 Chester, John, 113. 
 Chesterfield, Lord, xxvi, 52, 53, 58. 
 Chevalier, Madeline C, 84. 
 Chippendale, T., xxiv. 
 Chodowiecki, Daniel Nikolaus, 7, 8. 
 Christina of Sweden, xvii, 15. 
 Clarke, Charles Cowden, xxvi. 
 Cleveland, Stephen, 119. 
 Clinton, De Witt, 106. 
 Clive, Lord, log. 
 Clouet, Dr., 145. 
 Clulow, Ethel Selina, 80. 
 Coffin, Hector, iig. 
 Cotiin, Sir Isaac, 119. 
 Coffin, Pine, 119. 
 Golden, Cadvvallader, 106, 107. 
 Colle, 24. 
 
 Colvin, Sidney, 81. 
 Comte de Paris, 29. 
 Connecticut Historical Society, 114. 
 Connecticut Theological Institute, 114. 
 Constable, William, no. 
 Conway, Anna (Darner), 54. 
 Conway, Charles, 43. 
 Cook, Captain, 49. 
 Cooper, Myles, no. 
 Copley, 118. 
 
 de Cojjpet, Bibliotheque, 21. 
 Coram, Thomas, 122. 
 
Index 
 
 MI 
 
 Corday, Charlotte, 21. 
 Corneille, 21. 
 Cosway, 54. 
 
 Cowper, Lady Mary, 36. 
 Cowper, Spencer, 35. 
 Cowper, William (poet), 63. 
 Cowper, William (Clerk of Parlia- 
 ments), 35. 
 Cranach, Louis, xv. 
 Cranch, Richard, 119. 
 Cruikshank, 55. 
 
 Custis, George Washington Parke, 91. 
 Cutting, no. 
 Cuyler, no. 
 
 D 
 
 Darner, Anna, xxvi, 53-57. 
 
 Damer, George, 55. 
 
 Dana, Francis, 116. 
 
 Dana, Richard Henry, 116. 
 
 Danforth, Dr. Samuel, 116. 
 
 Darch, 43. 
 
 Dartmouth College, 123. 
 
 D'Artus, 145. 
 
 Darwin, 56. 
 
 Dawkins, Henry, xxx, xxxi, 97, 98, 124. 
 
 Dearborn, Nathaniel, 124. 
 
 Dedham Scripture Study Society, 123. 
 
 De Foe, 142. 
 
 De la Gordette, 21. 
 
 Delaval, Sir Francis Drake, 45. 
 
 Delaval, Sir John Hussey, 47. 
 
 Delft, 4. 
 
 Denison, Colonel George, 127. 
 
 De Peyster, no. 
 
 Dering, Thomas, xxxi. 
 
 De Vinne, Theodore L., 134, 135. 
 
 De Witt, no. 
 
 Dexter, Samuel, 119, 121. 
 
 Dibdin, Thomas Frognall, xxvi, 71, 142. 
 
 Dickens, Charles, xxvi, 61. 
 
 Dickinson, Aunt Hannah, 121. 
 
 Dilke, Sir Charles, 27. 
 
 Dinwiddle, Sir Robert, 43-45, 91. 
 
 Dinwithie, Alleyn, 44. 
 
 Disraeli, Benjamin, xxvi, 78. 
 
 Dobson, Austin, 52, 76. 
 
 Dodsley, 64. 
 
 Dongan, Governor, 112. 
 
 Doolittle, Amos, xxxi, xxxii, 114, 124. 
 
 Dove, 91. 
 
 Drayton, Jacob, 94. 
 
 Drury Lane Theatre, 46. 
 
 Drj'den, 62. 
 
 Duane, no. 
 
 du Barry, Comptesse, xix. 
 
 Dubuisson, 24. 
 Dudley, Joseph, xxx, 119. 
 Duer, Colonel William, 109, no. 
 Dumeresque, Philip, 116. 
 Dummer, Jeremiah, 119. 
 Dunmore, Murray, Earl of, 91. 
 Diirer, Albrecht, xv, xxxiv, 4, 142 
 Duvall, 93. 
 
 East Windsor Literary Association, 
 
 1:4. 
 Edgar, William, 93. 
 Edgworth, Richard Lovell, xxvi. 
 Edward L, 44. 
 Edwards, Bryan, 124. 
 Edwards, George Wharton, xxxv. 
 Edwards, Isaac, 93. 
 Elizabeth, Queen, xxi. 
 Ellery, William, 116. 
 Ely, Lord Bishop of, 37. 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 119. 
 Emerson, Rev. William, 119. 
 Empress of Germany, 10. 
 d'Eon, Chevalier, 21. 
 Evarts, Jeremiah, 120. 
 Eve, George W., 81. 
 Everett, Edward, 120. 
 Ex Libris Society (London), 126. 
 
 Fage, G., 145. 
 
 Fahnestock, Harris C, 131. 
 
 Fairfax, Bryan, 90. 
 
 Fairfax, George William, 90. 
 
 Fairman, Gideon, 124. 
 
 Faithorne, William, xxvii. 
 
 Farmington (Conn.) Library, 104, 114. 
 
 " Father Prout," xxvi. 
 
 Fauquier, Francis, 91. 
 
 Ferdinand L, 26. 
 
 Ferguson, Hugh, 99. 
 
 Fermor, 39. 
 
 Fevart, 24. 
 
 Field, Eugene, 129. 
 
 Fish, no. 
 
 Fisher, 93. 
 
 Fitzgerald, Edward, xxvii, 74. 
 
 Fitzhugh, 91. 
 
 Flaxman, 43. 
 
 Forman, General, 93. 
 
 Forstcr, John, xxvi, 61. 
 
 Fox, Charles James, 56, 57. 
 
 Frampton, Christabel A., 84. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 113, 143. 
 
152 
 
 Index 
 
 Franklin, John, xxviii, 146. 
 
 Fraunces, no. 
 
 French, Edwin Davis, xxxiv, 106, 132, 
 
 134. 135- 
 Furnass, [ohn Mason, 124. 
 Fust, Sir Francis, 38. 
 
 Gaisford, 145. 
 
 Gallaudet, Edward, 124. 
 
 Gallaudet, Elisha, 124. 
 
 Gallaudet, Susan Denison (Mrs. E. M.) 
 
 126-128. 
 Gambetta. Leon, xx, 27. 
 Gamble, Ellis, 50. 
 Gardiner, John, 112. 
 Gardiner, Lion, 112. 
 Gardiner's Island, in, 112. 
 Garrett, Edmund H., xxx, 43, 132, 
 
 133. 
 Garrick, David, xxvi, 48, 49, 56, 58, 
 
 142. 
 Gates, General, 102. 
 Gautier, Th6ophile, xx, 28. 
 Gaylord, William H., 129. 
 George L, 35-37. 
 George IIL, 46, 56. 
 Germain, Lady Betty, xxvii, 38. 
 Gibbon, xxvi, 23. 
 Gibbs, John Walters, 94. 
 Gill, J., 129. 
 Gladstone, xxvi, 76. 
 Godwin, Abraham, 124. 
 Goelet, no. 
 Goethe, 142. 
 
 de Goncourt, the brothers, xx. 
 Goodwin, 113. 
 Gore, Christopher, 121. 
 Gosse, Edmund, xxvi, xxviii, 74, 76. 
 Gracie, no. 
 
 Graduates* Club (New Haven), xxxv. 
 Graeme, Elizabeth, 99. 
 Graeme, Ur. Thomas, 99. 
 Gravelot, 145. 
 Greenaway, Kate, jj. 
 Greene, Benjamin, 116. 
 Greene, David, 117. 
 Greene, General, no. 
 Greene, Miss, xxvii. 
 Gribelin, Simon, xxvii. 
 Grolier, Jean, xxix, 13, 25, 142. 
 Grolier Club, xxxv. 
 Gueulctte, Thomas Simon, 19. 
 Guiccioli, Countess, 61, 62, 69. 
 Guilbal, 145. 
 Guilford (Conn.) Library, 114. 
 
 H 
 
 Haggard, Rider, 78. 
 
 Hale, Robert, n6. 
 
 Halifax, Lord Charles, 62. 
 
 Hall, Thomas, 94. 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander, 100, 106. 
 
 Hamilton, Waiter, 24. 
 
 Hamilton, William, 102. 
 
 Hancock, Governor Thomas, 117. 
 
 Handel, 122. 
 
 Harison, no. 
 
 Harley, Robert, xxvi, 33. 
 
 Harris, S., 124. 
 
 Harrison, Charles P., 124. 
 
 Hartford (Conn.) Library Co., 114. 
 
 Harvard College, 116, 121, 123. 
 
 Hasty Pudding Club, 123. 
 
 Haverhill (Mass.) Library, 123. 
 
 Hayne, Isaac, 94. 
 
 Hay ward, Thomas, 94. 
 
 Head, loi. 
 
 Heber, Reginald, "jj, 
 
 Heming, Samuel, 124. 
 
 Henri II., xix. 
 
 Hervey, Lady, 58-60. 
 
 Hervey, Lord, 52. 
 
 Hildebrandt, Ad. M., xvii. 
 
 Hill, Samuel, 124. 
 
 Hoare, Charles, 57. 
 
 Hoare, Sir Richard Colt, 57. 
 
 Hoffman, 127. 
 
 Hogarth, William, xxvii, 50, 122, 
 
 146. 
 Holbein, xv. 
 Holland, John, 50. 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, xxxiv. 
 von Holstein, Eric Magnus Stael, 
 
 23- 
 Holyoke, Edward Augustus, 120. 
 Hooper, William, 93, 116. 
 Hopkinson, Francis, 98, 99. 
 Hopkinson, Joseph, 99. 
 Hopkinson, Mary, 97. 
 Hopson, W. F., xxxv, 132. 
 Horace, 142. 
 
 Howard, Dr. Joseph Jackson, xxiii. 
 Huet, Pierre Daniel, 15. 
 Hugar, 43. 
 Hugo, Victor, xx, 27. 
 Hume, David, 54. 
 Hunt, 68. 
 
 Hunter, Robert, 125. 
 Huntington, Selina, Countess of, xxvii. 
 Hurd, Nathaniel, xxxi, 115, 119, 122, 
 
 124. 
 Hutton, Laurence, xxxiv, xxxv, 120, 
 
Index 
 
 ^53 
 
 I 
 
 Iconophiles, Society of (New York), 
 
 io6. 
 Ingersoll, 113. 
 Inglis, Alexander, 94. 
 Inglis, Emsley, 76. 
 Innes, Colonel, 93. 
 Iredell, James, 93. 
 Ireland, xxvi. 
 
 Irving, Sir Henry, xxvi, 76, 77. 
 Italy, XX. 
 
 J 
 
 Jackson, Jonathan, 116. 
 
 Jamaica, Bishop of, 125. 
 
 James II., 39. 
 
 Jarvis, 113. 
 
 Jauncey, no. 
 
 Jay, III. 
 
 Jefferson, 100. 
 
 Jeffreys, Lady Henrietta Louisa, 39. 
 
 Jeffreys, Lord George, 39, 66. 
 
 Jeffries, John, 120. 
 
 Jenkins, Miss, xx, iii. 
 
 Jenkins, Robert, 117. 
 
 Jesuits, College of (Paris), 15. 
 
 Joan of Arc, 17, 18. 
 
 Johnson, Edward, 126. 
 
 Johnson, Dr. Samuel, xxx, 49, 62, 64. 
 
 Johnson, Thomas, 124. 
 
 Johnston, Robert, 94. 
 
 Joseph, Samuel S., 81. 
 
 Josephine, Empress, xx. 
 
 de Joubert, 16, 17. 
 
 Jumel, Stephen, 105. 
 
 K 
 
 Karr, Alphonse, 24. 
 
 Kearney, Francis, 124. 
 
 Keith, William, 102. 
 
 Kemble, Peter, 93. 
 
 Kerr, 93. 
 
 Kilian, Wolfgang, xv. 
 
 Kingsley, Charles, 69. 
 
 Kip, III. 
 
 Kipling, Rudyard, 73. 
 
 Kissam, in. 
 
 Kneller, 122. 
 
 Knox, William George, 125. 
 
 Lacroix, Paul, 28. 
 Lake Leman, 23. 
 Lamarche, 20. 
 Lamarre, 145. 
 
 Lamartine, 91. 
 Lambart, George, 50. 
 Lambert, Mark, xxvii, 41, 42. 
 Lang, Andrew, 144. 
 Lardner, Lynford, 102. 
 Lausanne, 4. 
 Lavoisier, 20. 
 Lee, 91. 
 
 Le Faucheux, xix. 
 Le Gascon, 13. 
 Legal, Francis, 53, 57. 
 Legros, Alphonse, 27. 
 Leigh, Augusta, 68. 
 Leighton, John, xxvii. 
 Lepel, Molly, 58. 
 Leverrier, 73. 
 Lewis, Morgan, 102. 
 Leyden, 4. 
 Lightfoot, 91. 
 
 Linonian Society (Yale College), 114. 
 Livingston, 107. 
 Livingston, Brockholst, 108. 
 Livingston, Edward, 108. 
 Livingston, Maturin, 108. 
 Livingston, Peter R., 117. 
 Livingston, Philip, 108. 
 Livingston, Robert R. (Chancellor), 108. 
 Livingston, Robert R. (Judge), 108. 
 Livingston, Walter, 108. 
 Livingston, William S., 108. 
 Locker-Lampson, Frederick, 77. 
 Loftie, Rev. W. J., 78. 
 Logan, James, 103. 
 Loggan, David, xxvii. 
 Longfellow, H. W., 122. 
 Lord, 113. 
 Lorna Doone, 128. 
 Louis XV., xix, 16. 
 Louis XVI., 17, 22. 
 Lowell, John, 117. 
 Ludlow, Edmund, 43. 
 Ludwell, 91. 
 Lullin, Amadin, 145. 
 Lumisden, Andrew, xxvi. 
 du Luys, Gauthier, 17. 
 du Luys, Hordal, 17. 
 du Luys, Nicholas Francois Alexander 
 de Haldat, 18. 
 
 M 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, 43, 67. 
 
 Mackay, 91. 
 
 McKenzie, 91. 
 
 McTavish, 93. 
 
 Magdalene College Library, xxii. 
 
 Mahoncy, xxvi. 
 
154 
 
 Index 
 
 de Maintenon, Marquise, xix, 
 
 Maioli, Thomas, 25, 142. 
 
 Maloy, 143. 
 
 Manigault, Peter, 94. 
 
 Manutius, Aldus, 142. 
 
 Marat, 21. 
 
 Marks, H. Stacy, xxviii, 82. 
 
 Marlborough, Sarah, Duchess of, 38. 
 
 Marshall, VVilliam, xxvii, 145. 
 
 Marshall, John, 91. 
 
 Martin Luther, xxix. 
 
 Mary, Princess, xxviii. 
 
 Massachusetts Historical Society, 123. 
 
 Matthews, xxvi. 
 
 Matthews, Brander, xxviii. 
 
 Maverick, Peter Rushton, xxx, 100, 
 
 104, 107, 108, 115, 117, 124. 
 Maximilian, xv. 
 
 Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, 25. 
 Maxcy, 93. 
 Mazarin, 13. 
 
 Means, Rev. Stewart, 132. 
 Menage, Gilles, 16. 
 Mercer, 91. 
 " Meschianza," 102. 
 Middleton, Arthur, 94. 
 Middleton, John Izard, 94. 
 Mildeberger, Christopher, no. 
 Millais, Sir J. E., 74. 
 Minot, 120. 
 Mitford, xxvi. 
 Monmouth, 39, 66. 
 Monselet, Charles, xx, 29. 
 Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 58. 
 Moore, 68. 
 
 Moore, John, D.D., 37. 
 Morgan, John, 97. 
 Morris, Lewis, 106. 
 Morris, Gouverneur, 106. 
 Morris, Robert, loi. 
 Morris, Colonel Roger, 105, 106. 
 Morris, Thomas, loi. 
 Mountaine, xxvii. 
 de Moustier, Count, 100. 
 Moxon, Hannah, 85. 
 Munich, 8. 
 Murray, 91. 
 Musgrave, 113. 
 
 N 
 
 Nack, John Bernard, 6, 
 Napoleon L, xx, 23, 88, 108. 
 Napoleon II I., 25. 
 Napoleon, Prince Louis, 61. 
 Nash, Beau, 64. 
 Necker, Jacques, 22. 
 
 Nelson, 56. 
 
 New York, Bishop of, 108. 
 
 Newburyport Athenasum, 123. 
 
 Newell, Timothy, 120. 
 
 Noel, 68. 
 
 Norcross, Mary E., 133. 
 
 Norris, Isaac, 100. 
 
 Northboume, Lord, 76. 
 
 North Carolina, University of, 93. 
 
 Nuremberg, 4. 
 
 O 
 
 Ogden, III. 
 Oliver, Andrew, 120. 
 Ord, George, 97. 
 Orford, Earl of, 52. 
 d'Orsay, Count, 61, 62. 
 Osterlander, 6. 
 Otis, James, 120. 
 Oxford, Lady, xxvi. 
 Oxford University, 36. 
 
 Page, 91. 
 
 Page, Thomas, xxx. 
 
 Panard, 24. 
 
 Paris, 21, 22, 23. 
 
 Parke, gi. 
 
 Parsons, Alfred, 76. 
 
 Partridge, Bernhard, 77. 
 
 Paulding, iii. 
 
 Paulet, Lord Nassau, 46. 
 
 Pauletus, John, 47. 
 
 Pelliam, F^eter, 116. 
 
 Penn, Hannah Callowhill, 95. 
 
 Penn, Thomas, 95, 96. 
 
 Penn, William, xxx, 94, 96, 103. 
 
 Pepperell, Sir William, 116, 120. 
 
 Pepys, xxi. 
 
 Perkins, Thomas H., 121. 
 
 Petau, Alexander, xviii. 
 
 Petit, 13. 
 
 Petrarca, Guiseppe, xvi, 
 
 Petrarch, 142. 
 
 Philadelphia Library Company, 104. 
 
 Phillips, Samuel, 121. 
 
 Phillipse, Frederick, 105. 
 
 Pierce, in. 
 
 de Piis, Antoine Pierre Augustin, 24. 
 
 Pindar, Elizabeth, 35. 
 
 Pine, John, xxvii, 37, 145. 
 
 Pinfold, Charles, 13, 125. 
 
 Pintard, in. 
 
 Piranezi, Giovanni Battista, 40, 142. 
 
 Pirckheimcr, Wilibald, xv, xxxiv. 
 
 Place, James, 67. 
 
 Pocahontas, 91. 
 
Index 
 
 SS 
 
 Poe, 143. 
 
 de Poitiers, Diane, xix, 29. 
 
 Pollard, Joseph, 41. 
 
 Pomer, Hector, 4. 
 
 Pomfret, Countess of, xxvii, 39. 
 
 de Pompadour, Marquise, xix. 
 
 Popham, III. 
 
 Porcellian Society (Harvard College), 
 
 123. 
 Porter, Josephine E. S., 132. 
 Poulet-Malassis, 27. 
 Power, 91. 
 
 Pownall, Thomas, 94. 
 Prideaux, Miss S. T., xxvii. 
 Priestley, Joseph, xxvi, 102. 
 Prior, Matthew, 34. 
 Prosper-M6rim6e, xx, 28. 
 Provost, Samuel, 108. 
 Pye, Henry James, 65, 66. 
 
 Quarles, 145. 
 Quincy, Josiah, 121. 
 
 Ragman's Roll, 44. 
 
 Ramsay, Allan, 59. 
 
 Randolph, John, of Roanoke, 90. 
 
 Randolph, Peyton, 90. 
 
 Read, Charles, 93. 
 
 R6camier, Madame, 23, 94. 
 
 Reed, 113. 
 
 Renwick, 134. 
 
 de Resney, Bibliotheque, 26. 
 
 Revere, Paul, xxxi, xxxiii, 115, 117, 
 
 118, 119, 124, 143. 
 Richelieu, 13. 
 
 Richmond, Duchess of, xxvi, 
 " Ridd, John," 128. 
 Rittenhouse, 100. 
 Robbins, 114. 
 Robertson, Eben, 125. 
 Robethon, 35. 
 Robins, George, 51. 
 Robinson, Colonel Beverley, 106, 
 Robinson, George F., 42. 
 Robinson, William, 80. 
 Rockingham, 57. 
 Rogers, Samuel, 67, 68. 
 Roland, Madame, 20, 22. 
 Rollinson, Charles P., 124. 
 Rollinson, William, xxx. 
 Rome, m. 
 Roubillac, 122. 
 Rousseau, 23. 
 Rowfant Club (Cleveland), xxxv, 129. 
 
 Roxburghe Club (London), 71. 
 
 Royal, Elizabeth, 120. 
 
 Royal, Isaac, 121. 
 
 Ruette, Antiene, 15. 
 
 Rush, Dr. Benjamin, 96, 99, 100. 
 
 Rutgers, iii. 
 
 St. Christopher, 3. 
 
 " St. Christopher of 1423," xiii. 
 
 St. Clair, Sir John, 102. 
 
 St. Hilaire, 6. 
 
 St. Lawrence, 5. 
 
 Sands, Miss M. M., 132. 
 
 Sargeant, Jacob, 113. 
 
 Sargeant, George D., 60. 
 
 Sargent, Epes, xxxiii, 117, 118. 
 
 Saltier, Joseph, xvii, 9. 
 
 Saulnier, 13. 
 
 Saye and Sele, Lord, 112. 
 
 Schinz, C. S., 7. 
 
 Schrobenhauser, 9. 
 
 Schuyler, iii. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 44, 73, 78. 
 
 Scott, William Bell, 75. 
 
 Sedgwick, in. 
 
 Sedgwick, Robert, 134. 
 
 Seguier, Pierre, 14, 15. 
 
 Selfridge, Thomas O., 121. 
 
 Senefelder, 8. 
 
 Sette of Odd Volumes (London), 82. 
 
 Shakespeare, 67, 142. 
 
 Shelley, 23, 68. 
 
 Sherborn, Charles William, xxvii, xxxVj 
 
 80, 131. 
 Sherwin, xxvii. 
 Shewell, Miss, 98. 
 Shippen, Edward, 102. 
 Shippen, the Misses, 102. 
 Shubrick, Thomas, 94. 
 Siebmacher, Hans, xv. 
 Sill, Howard, 128. 
 Skinner, J., xxvii. 
 Skipwith, 91. 
 Smith, III. 
 
 Smith, Sidney L., 132, 133. 
 Smithers, James, xxxi, 124. 
 Snow, 120. 
 Social Friends' Society (Dartmouth 
 
 College), 123. 
 Society for Propagating the Gospel in 
 
 Foreign Parts, 119. 
 Solis, Virgil, xv. 
 Sophia, Princess, xxvi. 
 Sophie, Princess, i6. 
 Southey, Robert, xxvi, 66. 
 
,56 
 
 1 iidex 
 
 Sparhawk, 120. 
 Sparrow, T., 124. 
 Spenceley, J. Winfred, 131. 
 Spooner, Joshua, 117. 
 Spotswood, 91. 
 Sprigg. 93- 
 
 dc Stael, Madame, 21, 23, 94. 
 Stanhope, Philip Dormer, 53. 
 Sterne, Laurence, 48, 49, 122. 
 Stevenson, Robert Louis, 81. 
 Stevenson, John Hall, 48. 
 Stewart, in. 
 Stewart, Anthony, 93. 
 Stirling, Catharine, 109. 
 Stirling, Lord, 109. 
 Stith, William, 91. 
 Stockton, Richard, 93. 
 Stoddard, E. G., 132. 
 Stone, III. 
 Storey, G. A., 93. 
 Stothard, 67. 
 
 Strange, Sir Robert, xxvii. 
 Strawberry Hill, 51, 54, 56, 59. 
 Strode, William, 146. 
 Suchet, Mar^chal, xx. 
 Swan, James, 121. 
 Sweden, xx. 
 
 Swett, John Barnard, 121. 
 Swift, Dean, xxvii, 34. 
 Switzerland, xx. 
 Sykes, Christopher, 74. 
 
 de Tabley, Lord, xxiii, xxv, 74. 
 Tadema, L. Alma, 76. 
 Taylor, Charles H., Jr., 134. 
 Ten Broeck, in. 
 Tennyson, Lord, xxvi, 77. 
 Terray, 18. 
 
 Thackara, James, 93, 124. 
 Thackeray, xxxiv, 74. 
 Thanet, 46. 
 
 Thomas, Isaiah, 120, 121. 
 Thompson, Dr. James M., 131. 
 Tiller, Samuel, 103, 104. 
 Tomlinson, in. 
 
 Townshend, Secretary of State (Eng- 
 land), 37. 
 Trapp, Dr., 36. 
 Trenchard, James, 93, 124. 
 'I'resham, xxi. 
 Trew, Christopher, 5. 
 Trollope, Anthony, xxvi, 77. 
 Troschel, Johann, xv. 
 Troth, Henry, 103. 
 Troy, Rev. J. B., 133. 
 
 Tucker, 91. 
 
 Tupper, xxvi. 
 
 Turberville, 91. 
 
 Turner, James, xxxiii, 102, 124, 146. 
 
 Tyler, 120. 
 
 Tyler, Andrew, 117. 
 
 Tyler, Miriam, 121. 
 
 Tyrconnel, Earl of, 47. 
 
 U 
 Ulm, 3. 
 
 Ulster King of Arms, 81. 
 Usher, 114. 
 Uzanne, Octave, xx. 
 
 Vallance, John, 93, 124. 
 
 Van Berkel, in. 
 
 Van Buren, in. 
 
 Van Cortlandt, 107. 
 
 Van Ness, in. 
 
 Van Rensselaer, 107. 
 
 Vander Aa, Anna, 4. 
 
 Varick, in. 
 
 Vassall, John, 122. 
 
 Vaughan, Benjamin, 122. 
 
 Vaughan, Samuel, 125. 
 
 de Vautoux, Claud Fran9ois Pagel, 18. 
 
 Vente, 16. 
 
 Vertue, George, xxvii. 
 
 de Vic, Emeric, 14. 
 
 Vicars, Sir Arthur, 81. 
 
 Victoire, Madame, xix, 16. 
 
 Viollet-le-Duc, 28. 
 
 Voltaire, 23. 
 
 Vouet, Simon, 15. 
 
 de Vries, Rudolphus, 107. 
 
 W 
 
 Wake, H. T., 72. 
 
 Waldo, 114. 
 
 Walker, Rev. George Leon, 126. 
 
 Walker, Richard, 126, 127. 
 
 Walker, Prof. Williston, 127. 
 
 Wall, III. 
 
 Wallace, Joshua Maddox, 93. 
 
 Waller, 91. 
 
 Walpole, Horace, xxvi, 51, 56, 58-60. 
 
 Ward, Mrs. Humphry, 78. 
 
 \V'arren, General, 120. 
 
 Warren, James, 120. 
 
 Warren, Hon. J. B. Leicester, xxiii, 
 
 xxv. 49, 74. 
 Washington, Bushrod, xxxiii, 90, 98. 
 Washington Book-plate Society, 128. 
 
Index 
 
 157 
 
 Washington, George, xxxi, xxxiii, 44, 
 88, 95, 100, 104, 105, 116, 117, 142. 
 
 Waterford, IVlarquis of, 47. 
 
 Waters, Thomas, 94. 
 
 Watkins, iii. 
 
 Watkinson Library (Hartford), 59. 
 
 Weigel, Marie-Elizabeth Joseph, 12. 
 
 Wells, 121. 
 
 Wem, Baron of, 39. 
 
 Wentworth, 117. 
 
 Wentworth-Noel, 69. 
 
 West, Benjamin, 98, 122. 
 
 West Indies Book-plates, 124, 125. 
 
 Wethersfield (Conn.) Social Library, 
 114. 
 
 Wetmore, iii. 
 
 Wetmore, William, 117. 
 
 Wheeler, Florence S., 133. 
 
 White, Robert, xxii. 
 
 Whitridge, Dr. J. B.. 94. 
 
 Whitworth, Charles, Lord, 59. 
 
 Wicker, 6. 
 
 Wilberforce, William, xxvi, 40, 61, 
 
 Wilkes, John, 50. 
 
 William IV., 65. 
 
 William the Conqueror, 45. 
 
 Williams, Colonel, 120. 
 
 Williams, William, 125. 
 
 Wilson, J., 71. 
 
 Winchester, Marquise of, 47. 
 
 Winthrop, John, 112, 122, 
 
 Wisner, iii. 
 
 Wistar, 100. 
 
 Woffington, Peg, 57. 
 
 Wolcott, Oliver, 114. 
 
 Wolseley, Hon. Frances G., xxvii, 81. 
 
 Wolseley, Gen. Sir Garnet, xxvii, 81. 
 
 Wolsey, Cardinal, xxi. 
 
 Wood, Joseph, 102. 
 
 Worcester Circulating Library, 123. 
 
 Wormeley of Rosegill, 91. 
 
 Wright, James, 94. 
 
 Wurtemberg, 3. ^ 
 
 Wynkoop, iii. 
 
 Wythe, 91. 
 
 Yale College Library, 114. 
 
 Yale College Societies, xxxii, 114. 
 
 Yates, III. 
 
 Yates, Edmund, xxvi. 
 
 Zurich, 3. 
 
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