Part 2
It is, however, to be admitted that at first glance, the general reader who has not developed a special liking for the things of the past in history, art, or biography, may see no especial interest in book-plates. But let him examine a collection of good plates with their intelligent owner, who can point out to him the facts worthy of note; let him once understand that celebrated artists like Albrecht Durer, Jost Amman, William Hogarth, William Marshall, George Vertue, Bewick, Bartolozzi, and even Raphael Morghen were willing to devote time and taste to the designing or engraving of the book-plate; let him handle some of their work, and reflect upon the effort the master considered so small a design worthy of; let him see the plates of some of the noted names in history, art, letters, medicine, the sciences, and the professions; let him take in his hands the plates of William Penn, the friend of the Indian and benefactor of his race, of Laurence Sterne, of David Garrick, of Horace Walpole, of Samuel Rogers, of Charles Dickens, or of George Washington, of John Adams, and Charles Carroll, signers of the Declaration; let him see a plate engraved by Paul Revere whose services in the Revolution he has known of from his schooldays;--let him see these and scores more of similar interest, and he cannot fail to respond to the enthusiasm of their owner. But indeed it is a pursuit, the delights of which are discernible to those only who bring to it the capacity for such pleasures.
[Illustration: _John Adams._]
NAME-LABELS AND MOTTOES.
[Illustration: O]f all forms of book-plates the simplest possible is the printed name of the owner, unaccompanied by either motto, device, or ornamentation of any kind. Such a plate had _Philip Hone_, one of the founders of the Mercantile Library, and in the early twenties a mayor of the city of New York. His plate is merely a bit of paper with his name in bold script printed upon it from an engraved copper-plate.
This style of plate is not chronologically the earliest, but is taken as our starting-point because of its unrelieved simplicity; this fulfils the mission of the book-plate,--it proclaims the ownership of the book in which it is seen; not in delicate language, to be sure, not with any invitation to dip into the volume in hand, not with any evidence of the owner’s taste in reading, but with a directness not to be misunderstood.
The essential part of the book-plate is the name of the owner; and while this is sufficient of itself, it is found profitable and pleasant to accompany it with an apt quotation from a favorite author, with a caution against the improper
[Illustration: James Eddy Mauran.]
handling of books, with a warning of the sad result of declining Wisdom’s guidance, or with an invitation to enjoy the beauties of literature and to share the benefits of careful reading. In addition to these mere typographical adjuncts an opportunity is offered for the display of those more decorative garnishments which have led to the development of the handsomer styles of plates.
[Illustration: _Hannah Reynolds._]
_Alexander Stedman’s: Thomas Thaxter’s, 1791: William W. Potter’s Book: Aaron Woolworth’s, Ex Dono Rev. S. Buell, D.D._ These plates use the possessive case, are embellished with borders of ornamental type, and supply some further information by showing the date of their being used, or by naming the giver of the volumes. Other styles of expressing book-ownership are afforded by the following: _Nicolas Pike His Book 1768_: _Hannah Adams, Medfield 179-_: _The Property of John Clap, Roxbury 1791_: _Davidis Dickinson Liber, A.D. 1796_: _Lieut. E. Trenchard, U. S. Navy_: _Simeon Baldwin, Owner_: _Ex Libris I. G. Thomas_: _Library T. W. Curtis, No._: _Belonging to the Library of Thomas Forrest Betton, Germantown Pa._: _The Property of John Weld native of Pomfret, Conn. Resident of Pomfret, Bo’t of Mr. James Steele of Hartford, January 12, 1796_: _W. Lewis, Ejus Liber_: _Johann Christoph Kunze, Prediger in Philadelphia_: _Emmanuel Jones e Coll; Gul; et Ma: 1756_.
[Illustration: THOMÆ HOLT.]
These old type-set labels with their quaint borders of ornamental type,--scrolls, flourishes, stars, vines, and even grammatical signs,--are usually found to be printed on good white handmade paper, which was seldom trimmed with care; occasionally a tinted paper is found,--yellow more often than any other, but sometimes a blue or green; these served the less pretentious of our ancestors in lieu of the coats-of-arms and family mottoes of those of higher lineage, and are found in quantities throughout the New England and Middle States: even farther south they are not uncommon, but are not so numerous.
[Illustration: JOHN CAMPBELL,
Charles County.]
In making up these ornamental borders the type was usually set in the form of a parallelogram, occasionally in a square, oval, circle, or diamond, and seldom in fanciful shapes. The most ambitious plate of this kind which has come under my observation is that which once graced the books of Mary McGinley; this is a rather large plate, and the type is set in the form of an urn, within the lines of which are given the motto and the owner’s name.
A step in advance of these wholly typographical examples are those which employ a woodcut border to surround the name, and instances can be given of such a border enclosing the name printed from type; festoons of flowers or of cord, and draperies of cloth, were also used as a simple setting for the owner’s name. In this connection mention may be made of the work of T. Sparrow, an obscure engraver of Maryland; no heraldic or pictorial examples of his workmanship have been identified, and he probably confined himself to the simple woodcut designs of which but a small number are known. Always using a border of floriated scrolls, he never omitted an original contrivance which is the characteristic mark of his work,--a group of thirteen stars surrounded often by a wreath. This is always found in a prominent place, and is an indication of his patriotism as well as that of the owner of the plate.
[Illustration: RICHARD SPRIGG, jun.]
It must not be supposed that the heraldic book-plate was an outgrowth or development of the name-label: not at all; they were contemporaneous and were both used in England long before they were here.
Coming now to the subject of mottoes, we find a wide field to travel over, many languages to read, many quotations to recognize, with hints and warnings, and even threatenings, by the score, from jealous book-lovers. Mottoes readily fall into two classes: those which are chosen by the owner for some personal reason, and those which are family mottoes, and which are used without thought because they are a family inheritance, or with a commendable pride in such legacies from an honorable ancestry. Latin is the language most often used probably, though English is a strong rival, while German, French, Greek, and even Hebrew and Welsh are also found upon our book-plates. Sentiments opposing the habit of book-borrowing are of frequent occurrence, and in some instances are of such severity as to leave no doubt of their effectiveness. For brevity and pointedness the following example can hardly be exceeded:--
_This book was bought and paid for by_ _D. C. Colesworthy._ _Borrowing neighbors are recommended_ _to supply themselves in the same manner._ _Price seventy-five cents._
On the book-plate of _D. W. Jayne_ the following verse from the Bible is used:--
_Go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves. Matt. Chap. xxv. ver. 9._
[Illustration: Thomas O. Selfridge,
_BOSTON_,
1799.]
Verses from Holy Writ are quite frequently used on plates, and the style of expression found in the Psalms and Proverbs is borrowed as adding an authoritative emphasis to the words of caution and advice,--
_The wicked borrow, and returneth not: do thou not like unto them._
_Return what thou borroweth with the most sacred punctuality, and withhold it not._
On the plate of a book-lover in Charleston, S.C.,--
_And ye shall keep me until the fourteenth day. And it shall be when thou hast made an end of reading this book. Send me away unto my master. Ex. xii. 6: Jer. li. 63: Gen. xxiv. 54._
[Illustration: THE PROPERTY OF THE
Worcester Circulating Library Company.]
Every one has suffered from book-borrowers, even from school-day times, when the rude doggerel,--
_Steal not this book for fear of shame,_ _For here you see the owner’s name_,
or its variant,
_Steal not this book for fear of strife,_ _For its owner carries a huge jack-knife_,
was printed in coarse letters across the cover of the books most likely to go astray. How irritating it is to find the very volume one needs at the moment, missing from its accustomed place on the shelf; if anything is lacking to complete the torment of the discovery, let it be impossible to find out who has taken the desired volume, or to get any clew as to when it went or where!
_Private Library of J. N. Candee Cole, This book is not loaned. Matt. xxv. 9._
_Read not books alone: but men, and be careful to read thyself. The property of John Lambert, South Reading._
_To Borrowers of Books._ YOU _remember, my friend, I freely comply’d With the favour you asked me, and fully relied On a favour from you, which, tho’ promised, I find, As it hasn’t been granted, is out of your mind, To return in due time what I’ve wanted to see, The Book, which ’tis long since you borrow’d of me. Another I now with reluctance implore, ’Tis only to ask that you borrow no more._
_Stolen from J. W. Houx_,
_Book-keeping taught in three words, Never lend them._
The would-be borrower who finds these sentiments in the book he was about to ask for will scarcely be encouraged to do so, and for directness they are exceeded by only one example, in which the owner’s name is followed by the simple declaration, _He does not lend books_. The motto on the plate of the late _George Ticknor_--_Suum cuique, To every man his own_--was also calculated to discourage the borrower.
But some people do lend books, and have them returned too,--in good second-hand condition. And so it comes about that the proper use of books is made the subject of another class of mottoes.
_My Friend! Should you this book peruse,_ _Please to protect it from abuse:_ _Nor soil, nor stain, nor mark its page,_ _Nor give it premature old age:_ _And, when it has effected all,_ _Please to return it ere I call._
[Illustration: Daniel Greenleaf]
The following verse is common property and is found on several plates:--
_If thou art borrowed by a friend,_ _Right welcome shall he be_ _To read, to study, not to lend,_ _And to return to me._
_Not that imparted learning doth_ _Diminish learning’s store,_ _But books, I find, if often lent,_ _Return to me no more._
_Read slowly,_ _Pause frequently,_ _Think seriously,_ _Return duly with the corners of the leaves not turned down._
_Neither blemish this book, nor the leaves double down,_ _Nor lend it to each idle friend in the town:_ _Return it when read,--or if lost please supply_ _Another, as good to the mind and the eye._ _With right and with reason you need but be friends_ _And each book in my study your pleasure attends._
_If through respect or love I lend_ _This book unto my worthy friend,_ _He must not soil, abuse, nor tear,_ _But read with diligence and care;_ _And when its contents you have learned,_ _Remember, it must be_ RETURNED.
On the plate of _Samuel W. Francis_ appear the following lines:--
_Any one may borrow,_ _But a gentleman returns._
* * * * *
_The property_ _of_ _Thomas C. Cowan._
_Borrower,_ _read, mark, and_ AVOID _the former part_ _of_ _Psalm xxxvii. 21_.
* * * * *
IF _you borrow, freely use it,_ _Take great care and don’t abuse it:_ _Read, but neither lose nor lend it,_ _Then unto the owner send it_.
_Never open a book farther than to bring both sides of the cover on to the same plane. Never lend a borrowed book, but return it as soon as you are through with it, so that the owner may not be deprived of its use. You may think this a strange request, but I find that although many of my friends are poor arithmeticians, they are nearly all of them good book-keepers._
[Illustration: TIMOTHY MANN.]
In strong contrast to all the preceding are those mottoes of generous souls who find no pleasure in withholding their treasures, but who wish to have it understood that they are for the use of all; not very many are bold enough to thus advertise their willingness to lend, but a few do so, and generally by the use of the Latin, _Sibi et amicis_, or _et amicorum_.
Sentiments in praise of books and reading are not uncommon, and quotations from classic writers both in prose and poetry do good service on book-plates. Pope’s well-known lines--
_A little learning is a dangerous thing,_ _Drink deep or taste not the Pierian Spring;_ _Where shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,_ _But drinking largely sobers us again._
are found on an old American plate.
On a recent New York plate,--
_Far more seemly were it for thee to have thy Study full of Books than thy purse full of money. Lilly._
On a Maine plate,--
_Who learns and learns but does not what he learns,_ _Is one who plows and plows but never sows._
* * * * *
_Weigh well each thought, each sentence freely scan,_ _In Reason’s balance try the works of man._ _Be bias’d not by those who praise or blame,_ _Nor, Servile, Yield opinion to a name._
On a recent Boston plate,--
_Un bon livre est un bon ami._
On a recent Western plate,--
_A jolly goode booke,_ _Whereon to looke,_ _Is better to me than golde._
On a recent Washington plate,--
_A trusty villain, sir, that very oft when I am dull with care and melancholy lightens my humour._
[Illustration: EX LIBRIS A. L. HOLLINGSWORTH.]
The mottoes on the plates of those who have achieved distinction have a peculiar interest, especially when chosen by the owners themselves. The plate of _Henry W. Longfellow_ bears the following line:--
_Non clamor sed amor_,
which is from an unknown author and is found in the following verse:--
_Non vox sed votum,_ _Non chordas sed cor,_ _Non clamor sed amor,_ _Sonat in aure Dei._
_Not voice but vow,_ _Not harp-string, but heart-string,_ _Not loudness but love,_ _Sound in the ear of God._
The motto of _George Washington_,--_Exitus acta probat_, is not given in the accepted lists as the family motto of his ancestors, but it may have been such. The meaning of it has brought out criticism recently because of its Jesuitical sound,--“_The end shows the deed_.” But this may also be taken as a patriotic utterance in view of the part of the illustrious owner of this plate in the Revolution.
On the plate of _William Penn_ we see a motto most fitting for the character he sustained, _Dum clavum rectum teneam_--“_While I hold to glory, let me hold to right_.” In the plate the third word is omitted, as the engraver found the motto too long for the space reserved, and through some
[Illustration: George Bancroft]
blunder the _r_ in _clarum_ is changed to a _v_, which makes no sense at all.
On the plate of _George Bancroft_, the late historian, a chubby cherub bears a panel on which is the motto, _Sursum corda_. Another plate was also used by Mr. Bancroft which was in all respects like the above, except that the motto was changed to ΕΙΣ ΦΑΟΣ.
The plate of the late _Mr. George W. Childs_ has the following motto whose appropriateness is evident at once,--_The pen is mightier than the sword_. Above this a second motto of equal appropriateness is given,--_Nihil sine labore_.
On the plate of _Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes_, _Per ampliora ad altiora_ is given upon a ribbon under a beautiful drawing of the “chambered nautilus.”
[Illustration: WILLIAM PRESCOTT]
Instances of mottoes which are cleverly made to carry some meaning, or some word, which will be seen at a glance to be taken from the name of the owner, are found often.
On the plate of _Harold Clarence Ernst_ this motto is given, _Ernst ist das Leben_.
On the plate of _George Curry, D.D._,--_Sic curre capias_.
On the plate of _Edward Spencer Dix_,--_Quod dixi id feci_.
[Illustration: HENRY BLACKWELL]
In concluding this list of mottoes two from the Welsh can be instanced, one on the plate of a New York collector of Welshiana, which is _Cared Doeth Yr Encilic_, meaning, “_The learned love the things of the past_.” The other is on a Washington plate, and reads thus, _A fynno Dwy y Fydd_, meaning, “_What God wills, will be_.”
In the list of languages used on book-plates, we must now include the Volapük, for we have the first instance of its use already in a New York plate; the motto reading, _Menad bal pukbal_, and meaning, “_One humanity, one language_.”
[Illustration: Edward Penington.]
[Illustration: Eugene Field.]
ARMORIAL BOOK-PLATES.
[Illustration: B]ook-plates admit of many kinds of extraneous ornamentation, and wholly apart from the special function of recording the ownership of books, they serve as expressions of artistic taste; they lend themselves readily to many forms of design, and have passed through several changes or “styles” in the three hundred years of their existence; they can be dignified or flippant, serious or punning, of artistic beauty or positive deformity; they can express the owner’s choice of reading and can preserve lines from his favorite authors; can convey warning or invitation, and can, in short, be made a very personal affair.
The first book-plates were heraldic. In those early and, in some senses, good old days, before the schoolmaster was abroad in the land, when learning was the possession of the aristocrats and the churchmen only, and consequently when handwriting was not in use among the people, families were distinguished by emblems which were known of all. These heraldic devices were painted on their shields, carved upon their walls, engraved upon their breast-plates, woven upon their banners and their tapestries, displayed upon their own persons, upon those of their dependents, and even upon their animals and the furniture and books of their homes; even the purely ornamental and ephemeral luxuries came to be adorned with the family coat-of-arms.
[Illustration: Gabriel Jones, Attorney at Law, in Virginia.]
The armorial bearings, stamped upon the back or sides of a book, or printed upon paper and pasted within the cover, were sufficient, without a name, to identify the family to which it belonged. Libraries descended from father to son, and were kept intact for generations; and the family arms and motto were the most appropriate label possible.
Warren, one of the first to study book-plates and to give to others the benefit of his researches, has divided the armorial plates into general classes, and has given them suitable names, which are accepted the world over. A considerable number of subdivisions has been made; and while they may be serviceable where book-plates are plentiful, they are but an incumbrance to the collector of the early plates of America, for our examples are few in number, and are quite sufficiently distinguished--for the purpose of the present work, at least--by the following styles: Early English, Jacobean, Chippendale, Ribbon, and Wreath. Distinctive, easily remembered characteristics pertain to each of these, and fairly accurate dates of their adoption and continuance can be given.
Adopting then the nomenclature of Warren, and following his lead, we come now to consider the meaning of the different styles and the diversity of their designs.
The very earliest class is the Early English, in which the shield of arms is present with all its accessories. In these plates the mantling is very profuse, and in large full-rounded curves surrounds three, and often all four, sides of the shield. This is the only ornamentation, nothing incidental being added as yet; the name of the owner is usually or often accompanied by a title and address, and quite frequently also by the date.
[Illustration: Joseph Dudley
1754]
We have but few examples of this style; perhaps the most satisfactory as an example of the class will be the plate of _Joseph Dudley_, dated 1754. (This plate was really engraved much earlier than this. Hurd erased the original name, and cut the present one with the date in its place.) In this the mantling, running out beyond the edges of the shield, curls both upward and downward, and completely envelops three sides; the design takes on a strong resemblance to oak leaves, and a single leaf of this is engraved upon the helmet: the background, or space enclosed within the scroll-work, is filled in with perpendicular lines which might be taken for the tincture _gules_; in the name-bracket, the oak-leaf pattern is again made use of, forming a neat finish to the ends.
[Illustration: Jer. Dummer
Anglus Americanus]
In the plate of _The Honourable Wm. Carmichael, Esqr._, the mantling is not so completely transformed into the oak-leaf design, although the latter is here apparent. The plate of _Jer. Dummer, Anglus Americanus_ is peculiar in that the space enclosed by the scroll-work is lined with the solid brick wall of the later Jacobean style; in this the
[Illustration: Minot]
mantling is less striking than in the _Dudley_, but it surrounds the shield well, and curves upward about the crest. In the _Minot_ plate, which is very peculiar and rather difficult to classify, the mantling is very unworthy of the name; it does not proceed from the helmet, nor indeed from anywhere in particular, but in wild and very eccentric fashion, envelops the crest and most of the shield; the field of the shield is tinctured _azure_, and it is enclosed within a border or moulding which nearly surrounds it, but leaves a portion at the base unprotected; a further peculiarity of this moulding is that it is an integral part of the helmet, for it curves over at the top of the shield and actually proceeds from the helmet.
A very fine example of this style is the _Francis Page_ plate.
The next style is the Jacobean, commonly spoken of as existing from about 1700 to about 1745; the styles overlap naturally, and no hard-and-fast period can be established within which only one particular style of plate was used. Examples of the Jacobean plate are found in England which would date later than 1745, and the style which succeeded this was used somewhat before the year which begins its accepted period: the dates of the periods, then, are approximate. The names by which the different styles are known have all a good reason for their acceptance, although each one was suggested by differing circumstances.
The style of book-plate in vogue at the time of the last James is designated as Jacobean; and, while it continued in use long after the death of the deposed monarch who gave it its name, any change in its designation would be misleading. The principal features of this style are its heavy, carved appearance, the evenly balanced proportions, and the exact coincidence of the two sides of the design. The shield, always of regular outline, is usually placed upon an ornamental frame whose background, or lining, is either filled in
[Illustration: _FREDERIK·PHILIPSE ESQ^{r}._]