Read Ebook: Bookplates by Almack Edward

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 759 lines and 41436 words, and 16 pages

CAMPBELL, THE HONBLE. ARCHIBALD 100

CAMPBELL OF SHAWFIELD 102

GURNEY, HUDSON 104

CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL 105

PRINCESS SOPHIA 109

BANDINEL, BULKELEY 109

BLISS, PHILIP 110

DENHOLM, SIR JAMES STEWART 112

OUSELEY, SIR GORE 116

HEATHCOTE, GEORGE PARKER 118

JARVIS, SAMUEL FARMAR 146

BOOKPLATES

INTRODUCTORY

General remarks--Various modes of engraving--Styles in bookplates.

Of course some people have exaggerated the importance of bookplates, and on the other hand some have affected to ignore them. Now the simple fact is that bookplates belong to books, and anything that has to do with books will assuredly charm cultivated minds until time shall be no more. If this essential point were oftener remembered, the exaggerations of both sides would be avoided.

It is too late to change now; but, at all events, whether included or not under any special word, manuscript inscriptions in books by their owners will always be a very interesting study.

Before treating further of bookplates, it will be well to clearly point out the different kinds of blocks or plates. The woodcut block, known in some manner to the Chinese 400 years before, was first cut in Europe early in the fifteenth century. The St. Christopher engraved in Germany in 1423, is probably the earliest. The piece of wood to be engraved was cut longwise with the grain, as a plank is cut to-day. A thin piece of some soft wood, such as pear, apple, or lime, was chosen, the design drawn upon it, and then with a knife the engraver cut away to a certain depth everything except the drawn design.

In modern times--about 1785--a revolution took place in wood engraving, when Bewick began to engrave on a piece of wood cut endwise, and with a graver instead of a knife. Bewick chose some very hard wood, usually box. This manner has been continued to this day; and sometimes to distinguish the old art from the new, as the one is so different from the other, the former is called a woodcut and the latter wood-engraving.

Next as to etchings. To produce an etching a copper plate is covered with wax, then with an etching-needle the design is drawn through the wax to the copper. Acid is then applied, which, of course, only eats out the copper where the design has been etched.

Mezzotint engraving is an art by itself, and of great interest to English readers, because of the many charming mezzotint engravings after England's great portrait-painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds; and also by reason of Prince Rupert, the brave cavalier's, close connection with the art. He has often been said to have invented mezzotint; but the first credit for this is now given to another gallant soldier, Ludwig von Siegen, who engraved a plate in 1642, and kept his discovery a profound secret until, in 1654, he found himself in Brussels with Prince Rupert. The two kindred spirits meeting, the secret was soon unfolded. Rupert became as eager in another field as if he were leading a cavalry charge, and in four years' time appeared his splendid mezzotint engraving, The Executioner of John the Baptist. As the object of this book is not to give a serious treatise on elaborate methods of engraving, it will best express mezzotint to state that it is in general terms produced by the opposite process from a line engraving, A very smooth copper-plate surface is, as it were, engraved all over. Then the design is wrought on this by a scraping process.

A kind of stipple or dotted engraving was known early in the sixteenth century; but what is really famous as stipple and dotted engraving, only came into vogue in the eighteenth century. The copper plate was first covered with wax, and a dotted outline of the subject pricked through the wax with an etching-needle. Then the shadows were filled in, and finally acid used, as with an etching, Francesco Bartolozzi's is probably the name best known in this connection, though in masterly ability, William Ryland, who was hanged for forgery, far surpassed him.

In aquatint engraving, the plate to be engraved is covered with a solution made of resin and spirits of wine; this process produces a surface more or less open to the action of acids when applied. In the hands of a skilful manipulator, a fine engraving results from this "more or less" condition.

Predominant in the seventeenth century is what is known as the Baroque style, with designs of endless curves and contortions, drawn in a very heavy manner.

Some of the plates which are most pleasing, are those where the arms are surrounded by light wreaths of leaves and flowers.

Reaching the eighteenth century, the Rococo or Shell style, begun in France, becomes common in German bookplates. Late in the century there are, too, some curious and pleasing allegorical plates.

In the styles of French bookplates, the more or less simple armorial is most often met in the earlier examples, although one of the best known--that of Charles Ailleboust, Bishop of Autun, had nothing armorial about it.

Heraldry, of course, took an early and masterful hold of the French aristocracy, although even in France, in quite early years, it was found necessary to fix fearful fines and penalties for people assuming insignia to which they had no lawful claim.

Up to about 1650, the almost rectangular shield prevailed in French bookplates; but soon after this, oval shields predominate, and not seldom capped by coronets to which the owners had no title. There is often at the base of the shield a solid plinth, usually bearing the chief inscription.

In 1790 the French Assembly passed a decree annulling the titles of duke, count, marquis, viscount, baron, and chevalier; also doing away with all armorial bearings.

In regard to the styles of English bookplates we cannot do better than, for the most part, to refer to the learning of Mr. W. J. Hardy--a man steeped to the finger-tips in ancient lore.

Up to about 1720, "Simple Armorial" is the best brief record. The shield is surmounted by a helmet, on which are the wreath and crest. From the helmet is outspread mantling, more or less voluminous. In earlier examples this terminates generally in tassels, before reaching the base of the shield. In later examples its heavy folds descend quite to the base, and often ascend from the helmet to the level of the top of the crest. Below is a scroll for the motto, and below that, the owner's name. Next we come to what is known as the Jacobean style, but to which the much more fitting name of "Queen Anne and early Georgian" should be given. The style includes mainly an ornamental frame, suggestive of carved work, resting as often as not upon some kind of conventional support; the ornamentation of both frame and support being of the interior architectural order, making frequent use of fish scales and trellis or diaper patterns for the decoration of plain surface.

BOOKPLATES CHRONOLOGICALLY

Very early plates--Albert D?rer--Other German artists--Early English.

The bookplate here given as a frontispiece, may be the oldest in the world. At all events, it remains to this day a fifteenth-century bookplate in a fifteenth-century book. The work is a Latin treatise on logic, in a German hand. Mr. W. H. J. Weale has very kindly looked at the book, and writes: "The binding is German, I think Bavarian; but although the same stamps, or rather, to be accurate, some of them, occur on several bookbindings I have copied, I have never been able to locate them. The S. Benedict with the book, and glass with the serpent issuing from it, is evidently German; the arms have nothing to do with the Saint, or the order, nor are they the arms of an abbey, but no doubt those of a layman to whom the book belonged."

The earliest known engraved bookplate is that of Hildebrand Brandenburg, a monk of the Carthusian Monastery at Buxheim, near Memmingen, to which he was evidently in the habit of presenting books. The woodcut shows an angel holding a shield on which are displayed the arms of the Brandenburg family, a black ox with a ring passed through its nose.

Albrecht D?rer, the second son of Albrecht D?rer, goldsmith, was born in the good city of Nuremberg on the 21st May, 1471.

Like Benvenuto Cellini, born some thirty years later, young Albrecht D?rer's first experience of handiwork was in the goldsmith's craft; but with a difference, as Benvenuto Cellini learned the goldsmith's art against his father's will. On St. Andrew's Day, 1486, young Albrecht had the joy of inducing his father to apprentice him for three years to Michel Wohlgemut. This step, important in the young artist's life, is especially important in our consideration, as, with the aid of Anton Koburger, the princely printer, who was Albrecht D?rer's godfather, Michel Wohlgemut founded the great Nuremberg school of wood-engraving. From 1490 to 1494 D?rer was on his travels, and spent some while in Venice, where he was again in 1505 to 1507. On the 14th July, 1494, after his home-coming from his first wanderings, he was married to Agnes, the daughter of Hans Frey. For the rest, this is not the place for a history of his works. His noble life was closed on the 6th of April, 1528, and thus before he had reached the age at which many artists have done their best work; but what vast treasures he had wrought within those fifty-seven years!

Before quite leaving D?rer, the earliest dated German bookplate should be named, as some think that he had a hand in it, especially as it was for a friend of his, Hieronymus Ebner von Eschenbach, born in Nuremberg on the 5th of January, 1477, educated at Ingolstadt, and afterwards in the household of the Emperor Maximilian, he became a learned lawyer and judge. He was a friend and ally of Martin Luther, and engaged in a cultivated correspondence with many of the leaders of that age.

Following the start given by Albrecht D?rer, Nuremberg continued to be the home of bookplate engraving; but very soon copper-plate engraving took the place of woodcuts.

BOOKPLATES CHRONOLOGICALLY

At the foot of each is the inscription--

"Et patris, et patrui, famam, virtutibus, aequat. Sui patris et patrui, nobile nomen habet. Adserit, invicto divinum pectore verbum, Et Musas omni dexteritate juvat. Hinc etiam ad promptos studiorum contulit usus, Inspicis hoc praesens quod modo Lector opus."

What a charming bookplate Hans Holbein would have invented--who knows that he did not?--say, for his noble martyr friend Sir Thomas More--perhaps depicting sweet Margaret Roper reading to her father, adding at foot of the plate some quaint motto from Erasmus! Hans Holbein lived scarcely forty-six years.

Sir Nicholas Bacon's bookplate bears his arms with helmet surmounted by crest; the crest being, of course, the only crest that could belong to Bacon. The Germans very properly never dreamt that a crest ought to appear anywhere but on a helmet. We have not been so correct. This recalls the blank amazement of a German on beholding a British officer in plain clothes. I remember thirty years ago, in Germany, my friend FitzRoy Gardner happening to show a photograph of Field-Marshal Sir John Burgoyne in plain clothes. The exclamation came at once, "He cannot be an officer, he is not in uniform." This was, of course, the chivalrous old warrior who, in his yacht, brought the lovely Empress of the French safely to our shores.

This very interesting and early English bookplate has at the foot Sir Nicholas Bacon's motto: "Mediocria Firma," and we need not go here in full into the point of its date, which is fairly established. It is with an inscription in books given in 1574 by Sir Nicholas Bacon to Cambridge University. Sir Nicholas, perhaps best known for being the father of Francis, was the close friend of Cecil, Lord Burleigh, and Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, fellow-ministers with him of Queen Elizabeth. Queen Bess often made herself his guest, and after her visit of six days in 1577, her host had the door by which she had passed under his roof nailed up, so that no one, after her, might cross the same threshold. Oh for the picturesque days of old! Lord Beaconsfield alone, in our day, might have thought of such a graceful act.

The second dated engraved English bookplate known at present is that of Sir Thomas Tresham, knighted by Queen Bess in 1575. The plate is armorial, with a huge array of quarterings; helmet surmounted by crest in proper style. Inscription: "Fecit mihi magna qui potens est. 1585. Jun. 29.", and below the arms: "S Tho: Tresame Knight."

Sir Thomas married Muriel, daughter of Sir Robert Throckmorton, and their son was Francis, "a wylde and unstayed man," who first engaged in, and then revealed, the Gunpowder Plot. The father's dying, in 1605, was probably the cause of the son's not going forward in the plot, as he inherited property which would steady his aspirations. Sir Thomas left interesting memories of himself in fine buildings; and particularly in his own county of Northampton, the market-house at Rothwell, and the triangular lodge at Rushton.

We have noticed 1574 as the date of the earliest English dated bookplate, the next dated is not until 1585, and in France the gap is still wider; 1574 is the earliest dated French plate, and the next that has been found is dated 1611.

This 1611 plate is that of Alexandre Bouchart, Viscount de Blosseville. This was found in a folio copy of the works of Ptolemy printed at Amsterdam in 1605, in the Biblioth?que Nationale in Paris. The graver-work and probably the design, too, was done by Leonard Gaultier, who also executed an engraved portrait of Alexandre Bouchart. Leonard Gaultier was born at Mayence in about 1561, and died in Paris in 1641, having engraved above eight hundred plates.

Of course now in the days of photography it is easy to have your bookplate in several sizes; but it was far otherwise in these old times.

Next must be named a plate engraved in 1613 for placing in the books presented by William Willmer, a Northamptonshire gentleman, to his college library in Cambridge. Mr. Griggs reproduced it among his eighty-three armorial examples. It is inscribed "Sydney Sussex Colledge Ex dono Wilhelmi Willmer de Sywell in Com. Northamtoniae, Armigeri, quondam pentionarii in ista Domi. Vizin Anno Domini 1599 seddedit in An? D?i 1613."

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet