Part 5
The books of the lamented actors, _Edwin Booth_ and _Lawrence Barrett_, were marked with book-plates, the former using a plain armorial with no name engraved upon it, and the latter showing the mask of Tragedy upon an open volume, with the motto, _Esto quod esse videris_.
The reading monk, with the nimbus and star over his head, is seen in the plate of _Edward Eggleston_. The sentiment, _Flie fro’ the presse and dwell with sothfastnesse_, is given in old English letters.
_Mr. Rossiter Johnson_ uses a very plain but effective label bearing the initials _R. J._ printed within a plain ruled border: all in red ink.
The patriotic motto of _General Winfield Scott_ is the family motto of the Scots of Whitislaid, Scotland, and well did the character of the man who used the book-plate depicted below coincide with its meaning.
It would be interesting to extend this list of plates used by men well known throughout the length and breadth of our land, but, unfortunately, many whose names will occur to the reader do not use a book-plate.
[Illustration: Winfield Scott.]
EARLY AMERICAN BOOK-PLATE ENGRAVERS.
[Illustration: N]athaniel Hurd, who was born in Boston, Feb. 13, 1730, and who died in 1777, was the best of our early engravers of book-plates. Very little is now known of him, the principal source of information being an article in the third volume of “The New England Magazine,” published in Boston in 1832 by J. T. and E. Buckingham. The only known portrait of Hurd, which is copied from an original painting of him by Copley, and which in 1832 was owned by a descendant of Hurd in Medford, Mass., also accompanies this article, and shows him as a young man with smooth face, very pleasing and intelligent features, and wearing a cap, white neck-cloth, and clothes of a pattern which give him a decidedly clerical appearance.
The only book-plate work mentioned in this article is the large plate for Harvard College. It is said that the prints done in red ink were for use in the highly valuable books which the students were not allowed to take from the library. Several brilliant caricatures, a portrait of the Rev.
[Illustration: W. F. HOPSON]
Dr. Sewell of the Old South Church, done in 1764, and a few other examples of his art are mentioned. He is (probably inaccurately) claimed to be the first person who undertook to engrave on copper in the United States. He was a man of natural talent and real genius, was self-instructed in his art, and was regarded as the foremost seal-cutter and die-engraver of his time, in this country.
The following advertisement from the Boston “Gazette” of April 28, 1760, is of some interest:--
“Nathaniel Hurd Informs his Customers he has remov’d his shop from Maccarty’s Corner on the Exchange to the Back Part of the opposite Brick Building, where Mr. Ezekiel Price kept his Office, where he continues to do all Sorts of Goldsmiths Work. Likewise engraves in Gold, Silver, Copper, Brass, and Steel, in the neatest Manner, and at reasonable Rate.”
Hurd worked principally in the Chippendale style; he made some plates in the Jacobean and a few in the Ribbon and Wreath styles, but he died before the latter was much in use, and the former was really going out when he took up the making of plates. Judging from the appearance of his work, his first attempts were in the Chippendale style, and the few Jacobeans he made were done after he had attained considerable efficiency.
One of his earliest specimens was undoubtedly the plate of _Edward Augustus Holyoke_, the famous doctor of Boston, who lived to be one hundred years old, and who was but a year or two the senior of Hurd. In this plate he used a design which he evidently believed he could improve upon, and in which he felt there were good features, for we find a number of future plates of very similar design but much better execution. In the Holyoke plate the work is very crude, the lines are stiff, the drawing is poor, and the lettering of the motto and name are not good. An ugly scroll is placed under the name, and the festoon of cloth which is draped at the bottom of the frame and around the motto ribbon is especially poor; the shell at the base of the escutcheon which figures so often in future plates is here used, and the queer little flow of water from it would not be recognized as such were this the only specimen in which it occurs; the arrangement of the rose sprays, the form of the shield, and the employment of the shelly edge show a thorough study of the elements of this style. Very likely this design was copied in great part from some foreign example which had come into his possession.
In the _Thomas Dering_ plate, which is the earliest plate dated and signed by an American engraver, this same design is improved upon; it is more compact in appearance, a little freer in execution, and the drawing is improved. The name is still not very well engraved, and top-heavy flourishes weigh down the capitals.
In the _Theodore Atkinson_ plate the same design is still further improved upon; the flow of water from the scallop shell is here caught in a little bowl, a little additional flowery ornamentation is added, and the heraldic drawing is better. The name is again embellished with graceless flourishes.
The design seems to reach perfection in the _Wentworth_ plate; every feature is markedly better, the water still flows out of the scallop shell, the same shaped shield is used and the motto is placed upon a graceful ribbon with ends which run off into fancy foliations. The name is neat in appearance, but still there are too many scrolls.
[Illustration: Robert Hale Esq^{r}. OF BEVERLY]
In the plate of _Robert Hale of Beverly_, the old festoon of cloth noticed in the Holyoke plate is seen again, and no motto is given. The name is fairly well engraved.
Later developments of this style are seen in the plates of _Henry Marchant_, _Danforth_, _Nathaniel Tracy_, and _John Marston_; in these some of the features of the former are wanting, but they are evidently a legitimate progeny in the matter of style.
[Illustration: John Chandler Jun^{r}. Esq^{r}.]
Another, and without doubt the highest type of the Chippendale plate which Hurd made, is seen in the _John Chandler, Jr._, the _Dana_, the _Philip Dumeresque_, the _Vassall_, and the _Wilson_ plates. In these the shield becomes larger, the whole scheme of decoration shows more fine detail work, and the effect is lighter, more graceful, and seems at once the work of a master. The names are engraved in large bold type, with a characteristic dash after the last period.
[Illustration: Lew.^{s.} De Blois]
In the Jacobean style, the earliest of Hurd’s work is undoubtedly the _Lewis De Blois_. This is crude in workmanship, not very good in drawing, but excellent in design, and faithful to the characteristics of the style; the shield is placed against a frame which is lined with the regulation fish-scale pattern; the sides are richly foliated, the mantling is profuse and very well drawn, and the name is placed upon a fringed curtain which is tied up at the ends with ribbon.
[Illustration: Joshua Spooner.]
The handsomest Jacobean plates by Hurd are the _Robert Jenkins_, the _Spooner_, and the _Andrew_ Tyler. In the former the lining is diapered, the scroll work at the side of the arms is very fine, and at the bottom, under the shield, a small vignette of a ship under full sail is very pretty. At the top of the scrolls on either side two turbanded female heads peer at each other across the crest.
In the _Tyler_ plate the frame is very similar to the Jenkins, the lining is diapered, and the scroll at the side are the same. The little vignette at the bottom, however, is displaced by a sour face with gray hair. The two faces are replaced by urns filled with flowers, and the old cloth festoon is draped below the whole design. The _Spooner_ plate bears no resemblance to the others, and is a more graceful design. The lining is latticed, the Sphinx head under the shield is enclosed within a frame of its own, and at either side are term figures from whose hands depend bouquets of flowers; the crest is overarched with a bit of the old scallop shell, and the motto is on a ribbon, which, wholly unsupported, maintains a curved position under the frame.
The Jacobean plates of _Benjamin Greene_ and _Peter R. Livingston_ are almost identical in design; the small frame which encloses the shield is lined with the fish-scale pattern, the mantling is handsome and profuse, and the motto ribbon is stretched in rather stiff manner below the frame.
Only two examples of the Ribbon and Wreath style are known as Hurd’s work, the _John C. Williams_ and the _Jonathan Jackson_. These are both signed, and are very similar in design. Garlands of roses depending from rings above follow closely the outline of the heart-shaped shield, and the ribbon for the motto is placed beneath, and is ornamented with fancy ends.
In the “detur” plate for _Harvard College_ Hurd conformed to the English manner and adopted the seal-shaped design. The arms are displayed upon a heart-shaped shield which is enclosed within a circle which bears the name and motto, and this again is enclosed by a wreath of holly branches.
[Illustration: Harvard College]
Hurd’s work is the most interesting found in our early days, and a study of it shows him to have been progressive as well as painstaking. The Ribbon and Wreath style did not come into general use in England until about 1770, yet Hurd, who died in 1777, had used it. The colonies could not be expected to adopt the new styles of the old country immediately, and the condition of things from 1770 on to the time of Hurd’s death was not such as to encourage the introduction of “fads” or to allow much time for the development of the fine arts.
A word must be said about the heraldry on Hurd’s book-plates. This science, heraldry, was not held in such general esteem among the New Englanders as it was further south, and while many of the governors and men of high standing in the Northern colonies brought armorial seals with them, a great many who used them did so without strict heraldic authority, and when it became the fashion to use coats-of-arms in various ways, the herald painters of those days, who had but slight knowledge of heraldry and who were possessed of a copy of Guillim or some other writer on the subject, would find therein the arms of some family bearing the name of their prospective customer, and without further research would proceed to produce the coat as described. Not always were these arms so ordered correctly borne; indeed, there is much uncertainty about the arms used after about 1730 when our native engravers and painters took up the work of producing arms upon orders. Such seals as were brought by the colonists from England, and such as were used by their descendants are undoubtedly correct, but the questionable arms are those which, as mentioned above, were looked up in this country only, by means of such heraldic works as were at hand. The presence of the arms then on some book-plates cannot be relied upon as sufficient and indisputable proof of their owners’ right to them.
[Illustration: John Vassall Esq^{r}.]
A list of the book-plates signed by Hurd is appended.
[Illustration: John Lowell]
A LIST OF BOOK-PLATES SIGNED BY NATHANIEL HURD.
Theodore Atkinson Chippendale. Thomas Brown John Chandler, Jr. Chippendale. Rufus Chandler Francis Dana Chippendale. Danforth Chippendale. Lewis De Blois Jacobean. Thomas Dering Chippendale. Philip Dumeresque Chippendale. Isaac Foster Jacobean. Benjamin Greene Jacobean. Thomas Greene, Jr. Jacobean. William Greenleaf Robert Hale, Esq., of Beverly Chippendale. Harvard College Seal. Harvard College Pictorial. William Hooper Chippendale. Jonathan Jackson Ribbon and Wreath. Robert Jenkins Jacobean. Peter R. Livingston Jacobean. John Lowell Chippendale. Henry Marchant Chippendale. John Marston Chippendale. Samuel Osborne Chippendale. Henry Pace Joshua Spooner Jacobean. Nathaniel Tracy Chippendale. Andrew Tyler Jacobean. Wentworth Chippendale. John C. Williams Ribbon and Wreath.
A LIST OF PLATES ATTRIBUTED TO HURD, ALTHOUGH NOT SIGNED.
Thomas Child Chippendale. Henry Courtenay Chippendale. Edwd. Augs. Holyoke Chippendale. By the name of Hurd Plain Armorial. Loring Chippendale. Lucretia E. Newton Ribbon and Wreath. (Same copper as the John C. Williams.) Andrew Oliver Chippendale. Samuel Page Label: Chippendale frame. Phillips Academy Chippendale. Ezekiel Price Chippendale. John Simpson Chippendale. John Vassall Chippendale. David Wilson Chippendale.} One copper. James Wilson Chippendale.}
Of JAMES AKIN, who signs the _Coffin_ and _Browne_ plates, nothing is learned. The _Hector Coffin_ book-plate is also signed by Francis Kearney, which would seem to indicate that Akin was associated with him. The _Browne_ is a Philadelphia plate, and Akin may have been employed by the firm of Tanner, Vallance, Kearney and Company, which was in successful operation in Philadelphia for some years.
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S. ALLARDICE was apprenticed to Robert Scott, who had been a pupil of Robert Strange, and who, coming to America, was made die-sinker to the Mint. He had previously made the architectural plates for Dobson’s Encyclopædia.
Only one example of the book-plate work of Allardice is now at hand, and that is simply an engraved label for the _Library Company of Baltimore_. Ornamented with flourishes, and some fancy work, it is yet of no merit as a book-plate or an example of art.
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ALEXANDER ANDERSON, who was the first American wood-engraver, was born in the city of New York, April 21, 1775, and lived to the advanced age of ninety-five years, dying, in 1870, in Jersey City, N.J., on the 17th of February.
At the age of twelve, with the spring of a pocket-knife, sharpened for the purpose, he tried
[Illustration: Peter A. Browne]
to engrave on copper pennies rolled thin. In this way he made his first plate, which was a head of Paul Jones; and his first impression from it was made in red oil paint by a rude kind of a press of his own contrivance. With tools made by a blacksmith, he went on to cut little ships and houses on type metal for the newspapers. Being in some way led to take an interest in certain medical works, he copied many of the plates, and his father, feeling that this was a true sign of his fitness for the profession of medicine, and not discerning the talent for engraving, placed him with Dr. Joseph Young, as a student of medicine.
This step was taken with great reluctance by the youth; but he found time for both the cares of his new study, and for the pleasures of his old pastime. Various successes encouraged him, and in 1793 he cut a tobacco-stamp on wood, which appears to have been his first use of that material. Soon after this, he obtained a copy of Bewick’s “Quadrupeds,” and with the cuts found therein he was delighted. They had a strong influence upon his later work, and he has been well called the “American Bewick,” for his small wood-cuts closely resemble those of the English master in design, and his prominence in this country was equal to Bewick’s in England.
A life of Dr. Anderson has lately (1893) been issued in New York; but, to the disappointment of book-plate collectors, not a word is said of his making book-plates.
Of the seven plates by Anderson known at present, four are on wood, and three are on copper.
[Illustration: JOHN PINTARD, LL. D.]
Only one of those on wood is signed. The _Lot Tripp_ and _Josh. Russell_ plates are simple labels, and the _Typographical Society of New York_ and the _John Pintard, LL.D._, which is signed, are pictorial. In the former, the emblems and implements of the printing trade are prominent, and in the _Pintard_, which is a fine example
[Illustration: Alex^{r} Anderson.]
of Anderson’s best work on wood, the shield of arms is shown with a landscape for background.
[Illustration: APPRENTICES’ LIBRARY.]
The plates on copper are the _Anderson_, which is a Chippendale, the _Apprentices’ Library_, and the _Columbia College_, which are allegorical.
All the above will be found described in the List.
There is a plate of the _Apprentices’ Library Company of Philadelphia_ which strongly resembles the wood-cut work of Anderson, but as it is not signed it is not safely attributed to him. In the plate of _A. Griggs_ of Philadelphia, an even more marked resemblance to his little designs on wood is seen, but this, too, is not signed.
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ANNIN AND SMITH. This firm consisted of _W. B. Annin_ and _George C. Smith_, and they were established in Boston from 1820 to 1837. Annin died in 1839, in Boston, and Smith, who lived to quite an advanced age, died in 1878. They engraved a number of plates for the “Token,” and for other annuals so popular sixty years ago.
The plates of _Richard Taylor Auchmuty_, _A. L. Peirson_, _William H. Prescott_, _John Lowell, Jr._, and an armorial plate for the _Boylston Medical Library_ are signed by them, and will be found described in the List.
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ABEL BOWEN, whose name appears on one of the plates of _Harvard College_, was the first wood-engraver in Boston. He was born in New York state in 1790, and he took up engraving before he was of age. In 1812 he was a printer in Boston, probably attracted thither by his uncle, who was the proprietor of the Columbian
[Illustration: WILLIAM ASHMEAD COURTENAY]
Museum. Nathaniel Dearborn claims to be the first engraver on wood in Boston, but the honor is usually accorded to Bowen. He issued, in 1816, the “Naval Monument,” and in 1817 was associated with Dearborn in engraving for Shaw’s “History of Boston.” In 1834 Bowen, with others, founded “The Boston Bewick Company,” which was an association of engravers. In the following year they issued a map of Boston, and undertook the publishing of the “American Magazine.” They were burned out in this same year. Bowen died in 1850.
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JOHN BOYD, who engraved the plate of _Samuel Chase_, which is taken to be the plate of the signer of the Declaration, was a Philadelphia engraver. This is the only specimen of his work on book-plates which we have, and it is a very pretty Chippendale design, delicately engraved.
In Dunlap, a J. Boyd is simply mentioned, who was engraving in Philadelphia in 1812. This, if the engraver of the Chase plate, would make him rather young at the time of doing it, and it is very good work, and not the experiment of a novice. Whether this is the same engraver, I do not know.
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JOSEPH CALLENDER was born in Boston, May 6, 1751. Very little is known about him, but he is reported to have acquired the plates of Peter Pelham, who was presumably the first to engrave on copper in America, and to have destroyed them. Callender made most of the dies for the second Massachusetts Mint, at a cost of £1 4_s._ each. This was considered an exorbitant price by the superintendent, who made a contract with a Newburyport artisan, Jacob Perkins. Callender received £48 12_s._ for making thirty-nine dies, and repairing three others, while Perkins received but £3 18_s._ 10_d._ for his work. Callender died in Boston, Nov. 10, 1821, and was buried in the Granary Burying Ground.
The only Chippendale plate by Callender is a copy of the _Atkinson_ plate by Hurd, and is for a member of the same family. As compared with its model, this plate shows very little difference, it is so close a copy, but the motto ribbon which is added is more graceful than those of Hurd usually were, the heraldic drawing is quite as good, and the lettering of the name is better. Callender, of course, would not have begun to engrave much before Hurd’s death; indeed, the preponderance of the Ribbon and Wreath style in his designs goes to show that his work dated towards the close of the century.
His plates in this style are very light and graceful, with no overloading; and a faithful use of the usual features of the style is apparent.
In the _Russell_ plate he was again a copyist, using for his model the _Joseph Barrell_ plate. The plates for the _American Academy of Arts and Sciences_, and for the _Massachusetts Medical Society_ are practically alike; the curtain, and the
[Illustration: Thomas Russell]
ribbon and festooning are very similar, while the view within the oval frame is, of course, adapted to the use of the books of the respective societies. Callender would seem by these signs to have been a lazy engraver, or to have considered his designs so perfect as to call for no further effort.
A LIST OF BOOK-PLATES SIGNED BY CALLENDER.
---- Andrews Pictorial. William King Atkinson Chippendale. Jonathan Baldwin Luke Baldwin Boylston Medical Library Plain armorial. John Callender Pictorial. Thomas Cary Ribbon and Wreath. William Erving Ribbon and Wreath. John Francis Plain armorial. Hasty Pudding Library Pictorial. Massachusetts Medical Society Allegorical. Thomas Russell Allegorical. Daniel Sargent, Jr. Ribbon and Wreath. John Sullivan Ribbon and Wreath. James Swan Plain armorial. Dudley Atkins Tyng Ribbon and Wreath. Solomon Vose Ribbon and Wreath.
A LIST OF PLATES ATTRIBUTED TO CALLENDER, ALTHOUGH NOT SIGNED.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences Allegorical. William Emerson Ribbon and Wreath. Gray Ribbon and Wreath. Dr. John Jeffries Plain armorial. Porcellain Library Allegorical.
[Illustration: AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES]
CEPHAS G. CHILDS, who engraved the plate of _Henry D. Gilpin_, was born in Pennsylvania, in 1793. In the years 1827 to 1830, he published a set of views of the city of Philadelphia and its vicinity (Baker).
[Illustration: Henry D. Gilpin.]
HENRY DAWKINS was an engraver of but few original ideas, if we may judge him rightly by his book-plate work. In this he was very largely a copyist. Working altogether in the Chippendale style, his designs for the most part are variations of one general plan, which seems to have been borrowed from an English-made plate. In his plates we see “Chippendalism run wild.” Here are introduced the love-sick swains who play upon the flute; the dandy shepherds in stiff clothes of the most fashionable cut, flowing curls, and large felt hats; the flirting young damsels in very low-cut bodices, who play at being shepherdesses for the sake of following the above-mentioned gentle keeper of sheep. Here are the music-loving Cupids, the scantily clad females who are attended by the Cupids, and who are far from home among the trees of the wood. In the _James Duane_ plate we find a fountain is fixed to the side of the frame, and is spouting water from the mouth of a man’s head.
But the plates of _Samuel Jones_, _Samuel Stringer_, and _Peter W. Yates_ are proof that Dawkins could confine himself to the legitimate features of good Chippendale plates. In these no outside objects are introduced, and the design is good.