Read Ebook: Book-plates of To-day by Stone Wilbur Macey Editor

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 158 lines and 19249 words, and 4 pages

Book-plate of Mrs. Amy Ivers Truesdell, in colors. Designed by Jay Chambers. Frontispiece

Book-plate of Arnold William Brunner, in colors. Designed by Thomas Tryon. Facing 3

Book-plate of William Frederick Havemeyer, from the copper. Designed by Thomas Tryon, engraved by E. D. French. Facing 9

Nineteen Book-plates by British Designers. 9

Book-plate of T. Henry Foster, in colors. Designed by Jay Chambers. Facing 19

Book-plate of Miss Henrietta M. Cox, in colors. Designed by Thomas Tryon. Facing 23

Thirty-two book-plates from various sources. 23

Book-plate of Robert Fletcher Rogers, in colors. Designed by Homer W. Colby. Facing 33

Book-plate of Willis Steell, in colors. Designed by Thomas Tryon. Facing 39

Book-plate of William A. Boland, in colors. Designed by Homer W. Colby. Facing 45

A Check-list of the Work of Twenty-three Book-plate Designers of Prominence. Compiled by Wilbur Macey Stone. 45

BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY TONNEL? & COMPANY NEW YORK

The book-plate designers of to-day are legion because they are many. Almost every one who can draw, and many who cannot, have ventured into the field of book-plate designing; and the result has been that many of the book-plates that are current have little to commend them to critical observers. The present increasing interest in these little bits of the graver's art has greatly encouraged the production of them, and new ones arise daily. It is desirable, therefore, if we are to have book-plates at all, that they shall be as artistic as may be; and it is important, from an art standpoint, to all those who are about to adopt the use of these marks of ownership that they shall have, as they may have, the artistic flavor about them.

Most of our leading designers have hitherto been grouped in the eastern section of our country, or at least not much further west than Chicago. Some few designs, it is true, have been produced in California, but for the most part the book-plates of note have been marked with an eastern geographical origin.

In William Edgar Fisher we have a designer who has strikingly departed from geographical conditions of book-plate designing heretofore prevailing, and in faraway Fargo, North Dakota, has set up his studio from whence have come designs that are fresh, original and very pleasing. Mr. Fisher loves to work in a pictorial field. He makes a plate that tells a story, and in his best plates there is artfully placed something bookish that harmonizes with the design-form selected; and, because of art coherence and harmony in design that go hand in hand, his plates are more than satisfactory. The general eastern notion in regard to North Dakota is that nothing artistic can come out of the State, but the work done there by Mr. Fisher quickly dispels such an idea. The plates he has drawn are acknowledged as highly meritorious by the best American masters of book-plate designing. In all the plates from the hand of this artist that are here grouped, and which may be regarded as quite typical of him, there are only two that do not contain a book as a detail somewhere in the finished plate.

One of the exceptions is the plate of the Studio Club that gains infinitely by the omission of a book in the plate as produced. The grouping of the five observers around the feminine portrait is most charming, and to the writer it appears one of the happiest of recent productions in appropriate book-plates.

Mr. Fisher's feminine figures that he introduces into many of his plates are likewise exceedingly effective. This is particularly the case when to the charms of femininity he has added those of symbolism, as in the case of the plate for Miss Winifred Knight, in which the graceful female masker appears at the shrine of the idealized god Pan, who writes, it may be something oracular, in her proffered album. The figure is gracefully posed and the lines of the arms and neck are marked by pleasant curves.

In the plate of Maie Bruce Douglas, Mr. Fisher may have been influenced by Hans Christian Andersen. At any rate, whether or not this is so, he has neatly and most effectively grouped the old-time jester with his cap and bells, the pointed shoes from whence came our modern samples, and the maiden with the quaintness of head-dress and drapery, that at least suggests the fairy and the incidental sacred stork, making this plate with its shelf of books and the panel of repeated heraldic shields very attractive even to the chance observer.

In the plates for the Misses Mary N. Lewis, Elizabeth Langdon, Leila H. Cole and Elizabeth Allen there are several diverse methods shown in which convention has been pleasingly utilized. The vine and tree forms that are motifs are very effective, and in all of these we see suggestions of treatment similar to that which stands out perhaps a little more pronouncedly in the plate of Miss Douglas. Costume quaintness, charm of pose, graceful outline, the tendency toward lecturn detail and delicacy of touch, are in each instance here seen to be characteristic of the artist.

The plate of John Charles Gage has in it the atmosphere of the monastery. Two friars are busy with a folio manuscript that has been beautifully illuminated. The one reads the lessons for the day from the book of hours. The other has a pleasing bit of gossip that he is telling to his brother friar as he reads, and the reader hears with eagerness with his ears while he reads without absorption with his eyes.

Into the plate of Samuel H. Hudson the atmosphere of the monastery is also introduced. The cordelier sits absorbedly reading his matins. Through the open window of the monkish cell is seen the morning medieval landscape whose charms exercise no influence upon the solitary recluse, solitary save for the monkey who plays sad havoc with the vellum volume that lies upon the cell floor and the destruction of which the Franciscan is too absorbed to notice. The monkey as a foil for the ascetic in this plate shows that Mr. Fisher has a strong appreciation of the most delicate humor, which here crops out most delightfully. The border makes the plate a trifle heavy, but this can easily be excused because of the charm of the plate otherwise.

The dog is given a prominent place in the plate of Miss Lula Thomas Wear. He dominates even the books, and it may be that the owner prefers her dachshund to her library, although it is evident that her books have some place in her esteem.

The design on the plate of Stanley Shepard suggests a derivation from an old print. The caravel rides upon the waves according to the conception of the old-time engravers. The anchor, the sword fish of the deep sea, and the sea-stars all suggest the ocean voyager who has deep down in his heart a love of books.

In contrast with the plate of Mr. Shepard's appears that bearing the name of Silvanus Macy, Jr. The love of hunting stands out right boldly here, and in the fox hunt does Mr. Macy undoubtedly revel. He could not have such a book-plate otherwise, and live with it every day, let it be in all his books and have it stand for him as it does, unless it was fairly representative of the man's personality. That is what makes a book-plate so eminently interesting, aside from the art work put upon it. Books appeal to all sorts and conditions of men, as the work of Mr. Fisher's here grouped clearly indicates.

The plate from the books of Miss Edna B. Stockhouse is a trifle shadowy in motif notwithstanding which there can be no doubt the owner loves books. The face in the book-plate reads. There is also a love of the beautiful in ceramics indicated as an incident in the plate. No wonder the head wears an aureole.

The "Bi Lauda" plate is that of a secret society at Wellsville, N. Y., and we, therefore, forgive if we cannot forget its poverty of bookish design.

In the personal plate of the designer, of all those here reproduced, we catch glimpses of the artist's own personality. We see him as a book-lover and something of his inspiration is spread out before us. He goes reading along, carrying reserve volumes in case the one that engages his attention in the portraiture is happily finished. Mr. Fisher has been producing book-plates only since 1898, since which time he has to his credit some forty examples of work in this field. He is perhaps happiest in his rendition of the plate pictorial, and he has sometimes tinted his plates most charmingly. Mr. Fisher prepared for Cornell at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. At Cornell he studied architecture for two years, with especial attention to drawing. He also studied, for six months, at the Art Institute, Chicago, Ill., whither he went from Cornell. He has been largely self-taught in the matter of designing, but his work indicates that his teacher was a good one. He has privately but carefully studied the work of the best modern pen-and-ink draughtsmen, and from this he has formed his personal style. The methods and craftsmanship of reproduction were the subject of special study on his part while he was with one of the large Chicago engraving houses. Anything that comes from his hand will be sure of the most kindly reception, so long as his work is maintained at the present high standard.

BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY TONNEL? & COMPANY NEW YORK

NINETEEN EXAMPLES OF DECORATIVE BOOK-PLATES BY MODERN BRITISH DESIGNERS

From THE LONDON "STUDIO"

BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY TONNEL? & COMPANY NEW YORK

THE ARTISTIC BOOK-PLATE

From the crude, if sufficient, paste-board stuck on the end-paper, to the heraldic display, was, surely, no very far cry. In the countries of the Old World, where pride of ancestry touches the worthy and unworthy alike, it was to be expected that so valuable an opportunity for flaunting the deeds of "derring do" of one's forefathers as a sign of one's own distinction, such as the book-plate offers, was certainly not to be neglected. So we find that the coats of arms which once served as inspirations, and which once had a genuine meaning to their owners and retainers, now do service in the more peaceful realms of Bookland. And, assuredly, there are certain books in a library, which are more worthily acknowledged after this ancient and martial fashion. We cannot but believe that a Froissart from the press of Caxton or Wynkyn de Worde, would be handled with more reverence if one saw on the verso of its front cover a glorious display of the arcana of heraldry, in all its magnificence of mysterious meaning. This feeling would also be aroused in turning the leaves of, say, Philippe le Noir's edition of the "Gesta Romanorum" , or of Hayton's "Lytell Cronycle" from the shop of Richard Pynson, or of Mandeville's "Voyages and Travailles," issued by T. Snodham in 1625, or of Pliny's "Historia Naturalis" from the Venetian press of Nic. Jenson in 1472, or of Rastell's "Pastyme of People," "emprynted in Chepesyde at the Sygne of the Mermayd" in 1529. To these and their like a book-plate of heraldic story comes as a fitting and graceful complement.

But the average mortal of this work-a-day world and age has not the means wherewith to acquire such treasures of the bibliophile. Nor, perhaps, has he the necessary pedigree with which to adorn them, if acquired; though on this latter consideration, we suspect that the Herald's College in the purlieus of Doctors' Commons, and the more amenable, though not less expensive Tiffany on this side of the Atlantic, would, no doubt, prove excellent aids to a full satisfaction.

But we are not here dealing with the pomp and glorious circumstance of Heraldry. In dealing with the artistic book-plate, we are considering a matter which concerns itself not with past stories or past individuals, but with the present tale and the particular living personage who has the laudable and humble ambition to distinguish his copy of a book from his friend's copy of the same book. A taste in books may be easily whitewashed, but a taste in a book-plate flares its owner's heart right into the eyes of the demurest damsel or the simplest swain. It may be that our collection is but a series of Tauchnitz editions carefully garnered on a European tour, or a handful or two of Bohn's Library, accumulated from our more studious days, or a treatise on golf, chess, gardening and photography, or a history of the state or town in which we live--it matters little what--these are the treasures we most prize, and we wish to hold them. Now, how best shall the collector mark them as his own?

He writes his name on the title-page. Ugh! What a vandal's act! The man who could so disfigure a book deserves to have it taken from him, and his name obliterated. He who could find it in his heart to write on title-pages could surely commit a murder. We'd much rather he turned a leaf down to mark the place where he had left off in his reading; though to do that is bad enough, in all conscience. Nor does he save his soul by writing on the fly-title, or even end-paper. Moreover, this will not save his book either. A visiting card can easily be taken out--it looks too formal, nondescript, meaningless, common, to inspire any respect in a would-be thief. But an artistic book-plate! Ah! that's another thing altogether.

An artistic book-plate is the expression in decorative illustration of the proprietor's tastes, made by an artist who has sympathetically realized the feeling intended. It should objectify one, and only one, salient characteristic, either of temperament, habit, disposition, or pleasure, of its owner. If it does less, it is not individual; if it does more, it is not satisfying.

Now each one of us has some characteristic trait that is not common to us all--then let that be the aim of the artist to embody in decorative form. And let that embodiment be simple and direct--the simpler and more direct it is, the more will it appear; and the more beautiful it is the more will it soften the kleptomaniacal tendencies of the ghoulish book-hunter. For nothing touches him so nearly to the finer impulses of nature than the contemplation of beauty; and he would be less than human did he fail to respond. We would even go to the length of giving as an admirable test of the book-plate artist's powers, the lending of a book containing the plate. If it come not back, there's something the matter with your plate; or, you can libel your friend as a beast of low degree, which suggests a good way of finding out your friend's true character. But then, there's no limit to the powers of a beautiful book-plate.

Now there are a great many coy people who don't care to wear their hearts on their sleeves; these would naturally feel indisposed to post themselves thus before the public eye, be the book-plate never so beautiful. To these we would say: Give us what you prize best--your home, your wife, your sweetheart, your motto , your baby, anything that is truly yours. The idea is, to embody something individual, something special and particular.

If he can afford a large library, or is a collector of the works of one or two authors, there's a way out of the difficulty for the coy person, by having the book-plate represent the characteristic of the author and have his name as an addition. That may be taking a liberty--but authors are accustomed to that; and, besides, you are appreciating them, and that should exorcise the spirit of an indignant "classic" from the four walls of your library. Have the original of the design framed on the wall; it may save you a lot of explanation should the spook even get "mad." You can always lay the blame on the artist. Of course, this means a book-plate for each author; but as book-plates are not, after all, such very expensive luxuries, this consideration need be a matter of but small moment.

Yet another idea is to have an artistic treatment of a representation of your library, your "den." That sounds very inviting and certainly can hurt no one's feelings. If you don't happen to possess a special apartment, give an apartment such as you would like to possess. Or show your favorite chair, or nook, or greenwood tree, or running brook, or garden plot. There are thousands of ways in which to fashion a book-plate, and an artistic book-plate, too. We thus can see what an advance the modern artistic book-plate is on the old style article--so formal, so characterless, so inchoate and so amorphous.

BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY TONNEL? & COMPANY NEW YORK

BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY TONNEL? & COMPANY NEW YORK

BOOK-PLATES AND THE NUDE

Lovers of the beautiful have been burdened with endless talk and writing and many quarrels on the nude in art, and now I have the temerity to open a new field of battle and throw down the gauntlet for strife. The Eternal Feminine is a prominent factor in the picture book-plates of the day, and she is showing some tendencies to appear minus her apparel. Question: is it wise and in good taste?

Of course, to start with, I am quite free to admit that good taste is a movable feast and is much influenced by the point of view. Your taste is good if it agrees with mine; otherwise it is bad taste or no taste. At any rate, there are a few things we can agree upon, I think. For instance, that there is a wide distinction between the nude and the naked. Also, that the human form divine is most beautiful, but that to remain most beautiful it must deviate not one jot or tittle from the divine, for any deviation is to tend to the earthy and gross, which is vulgar and--bad taste. We can also agree, I think, that partially draped figures can be, and often are, sensual and repulsive beyond the frankly nude, and this without the direct intent or knowledge of the artist.

"A hair perhaps divides the false and true, Yes; and a single slip were the clue--"

But above all things a nude figure should never carry the idea of a consciousness of its nudity! Also, clothing or drapery used simply to hide portions of the figure is execrable and more suggestive than any entire absence of clothing; while to add, as I have seen done, a hat and French-heeled shoes to a nude figure is abominable beyond condemnation.

But all this is of broad application and is sawing upon the same old and frayed strings. Abstractly, a beautiful nude is as beautiful on a book-plate as in a portfolio or in a frame, and some of the most beautiful book-plates I have ever seen have been nudes. Nevertheless, to me the nude seems out of place and in questionable taste on a book-plate; the simple matter of repetition is enough to condemn it.

Miss Labouchere, in her volume on ladies' plates, shows a rather amusing pair of designs for Miss Nellie Heaton. These plates both bear the legend, "Gather ye roses while ye may." In the first, the designer, Mrs. Baker, has a fair creature in all the glory of entire nudity plucking blossoms from a rose-vine. In the other, she used the same design throughout, but has fully clothed the figure. Evidently Miss Heaton protested.

These designs by a woman call to mind the fact that among the book-plates of over one hundred and fifty women designers with which I am familiar, I know of but one other nude. This other is by Miss Mary Florence, and is of a large full-length angel entirely undraped.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet