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CHARLES F. NEWCOMBE .
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LIBRA RIAN, NORTH CAMBERWELL LIBRARY. < -r? '^ . .
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BO OK -PLATES: TH EIR BEAUTY AND UTILITY.
BY
CHARLES F. NEWCOMBE, LIBRA RIAN, NORT H CAMB ERWELL LIBRA RY.
( Read before The Library Association at their Monthly Meeting., held at 20, Hano ver Square, W., on 8th February, 1909.)
LONDON. 1909.
“ Beauty is truth, truth beauty,”—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. —Keats.
BOOK-PLATES : THEIR BEAUTY AND UTILITY. By CHARLES F. NEWCOMBE, Libraria n, North Camberw ell Library.
HAT I have to say this evening on the question of book-plates must be a very modest contri bution to a subject which of late years has attracted many votaries, and which must always be a source of attraction to book-lovers and to librarians. The Library Association has on its roll of member ship many who have contributed in some measure to the interest in these beautiful things, notably Mr, H. W. Fincham, Dr. W. E. A. Axon, Mr. Cyril Davenport, and Mr. W. H. K. Wright, the energetic Secretary of the Ex-Libris Society. There are so many points of view from which the study of book-plates may be approached that it opens up numerous other interesting studies, indeed the bibliography of the subject has assumed considerable proportions since the publication of Lord De Tabley’s famous Guide to the Study of Book-Plates. One is an authority on the great engravers and designers of book plates from Albrecht Durer onwards to Mr. Sherborn in our own day ; another on the various processes, whether photogravure, photo-etching, or intaglio, by which they are reproduced ; another approaches the subject from
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Book-Plaets : their Beauty and Utility.
the point of view of the. collector, while the close con nection of book-plate collecting with the study of heraldry has made it a subject of keen interest to the antiquarian and student of heraldry ; and I must con fess that such an antiquarian, for example, as Mr. W. J. Hardy, brings a learned and delightful treatment of the subject to the book which comes from his pen. One of the latest writers, Mr. Edward Almack, in the little volume on book-plates, which forms one of a series edited by Mr. Cyril Davenport, approaches the study not from the point of view of the collector but as one who is mainly interested in the plate as a part of the book—inseparable from it, and mainly of value by the close association of the owner of the book, more especially if the owner is a personage of very great distinction himself. There have always been those, notably Mr. Andrew Lang, who have poured scorn on the craze for collecting, but collectors have long ago lived down the ill-natured epithets applied to them by so genuine a book-lover as Mr. Lang, and have long since justified by the collections they have made the raison Petre, of their hobby. Now, I maintain that we as librarians are able to place ourselves in a position of sympathy with both aspects of the subject. We value the book-plate as a part of the book, consider that every corporate collec tion of books is enhanced in value and dignity by the possession of a book-plate, and are proud to be the custodians of the spoil collected in scrap-books or boxes by the enthusiastic collector, of which we may cite the Wollaston Franks collection as the most princely and sumptuous. Book-plates, or to use the more accurate French term Ex-Libris, are then both beautiful and
Book-Plates : their Beauty and Utility.
5
useful ; beauty is, of course, a relative term ; there may be a certain beauty of association quite apart from the merely beautiful in artistic design, and I must confess that many book-plates that I have handled can by no stretch of imagination, judged from a purely artistic point of view, be termed beautiful. When a book-plate is distinctly ugly we say it is “ interesting,” and to be “ interesting ” covers a multi tude of artistic defects. On the whole, the eternal maxim that “ a thing of beauty is a joy for ever” applies very much to a book-plate when you have got hold of the thing of beauty. The first great authority on book-plates, Lord De Tabley, or, as he then was, Hon. J. Leicester Warren, to whom all who have since written on the subject go as their one source of inspiration,, find, I might almost say, in him the one true and only guide, for none of our later authorities, although they have considerably added to our knowledge, quite possess the charm and fresh enthusiasm of this true book-lover and poet. He has told us that from their earliest origin book-plates became heraldic, and they have, in the majority of in stances, so continued to the present day. As Germany is the fatherland of printing and wood engraving, so Germany is the fatherland of the book-plate. The year 1470 is now given as the date of the first German book plate—the year preceding the birth of Albrecht Dürer —and of German book-plates it has been wittily said they are firstly armorial, secondly armorial, and thirdly armorial ! Perhaps the most learned modern authority on English book-plates is Mr. W. J. Hardy, and Mr. Hardy gives a description of what is now generally accepted as the first known English book-plate,
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Book-Plates : their Beauty and Utility.
discovered in a book known to be owned by Cardinal Wolsey. This magnificent plate, though not an engraving, was executed some time between the years 1514 and 1530. The modern book-plate, speaking generally, may be represented by all produced subsequent in date to 1830, and Mr. Egerton Castle has been able to reproduce some admirable examples in the volume on English Book-Plates which forms one of the well-known series produced by Messrs. Bell with such excellent taste. It is with the modern English book-plate and some recent examples that I am more concerned, and I propose to illustrate from the nucleus of a small collection of my own one or two examples of (#) Book-plates of Librarians, (^) Book-plates of Libraries, and (c) Book-plates of Men of Letters or Bookmen. The heraldic and antiquarian aspect of the study of book-plates does not interest me very much. With the mediaeval mind I cannot greatly sympathize. It is with the present that I am mainly concerned. We live in the present, and there is every reason why modern artists and engravers should continue to produce ap propriate designs for book-plates and bring their best X work to the embellishment of book ownership. Among artists who have enlisted their art in the service of book plate designing the names of Walter Crane, H. Stacy Marks, T. Erat Harrison, Kate Greenaway, and Gordon Browne will occur to many. But there are beautiful examples in every " style ” of book-plate. The leading styles, taking as a basis Lord De Tabley’s classification, may be roughly given as the Jacobean (1700-1745), the Chippendale, the chief fashion in England after 1750, allegoric plates, land-
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Book-Plates : their Beauty and Utility.
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scape plates, which we mainly associate with the de lightful work of Bewick, festoon plates, riband plates, English-dated plates of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Mr. Egerton Castle classifies the book-plate of our own day in the following serviceable fashion :— Armorial—Die Sinker Style Seals and Vesicas Printer’s Mark Style Pictorial plates are subdivided under the headings H erald ic—Allegoric „ Symbolic Pictorial—Non-Heraldic Pictorial plates again may be arranged under the headings of Book-piles Library Interiors Portraits Allegories The few modern plates which I propose to use for purposes of illustration are pictorial non-heraldic. As an illustration of a modern book-plate about which opinions may differ as to its beauty, let me take that of Mr. T. Edmund Harvey, who was for some time an assistant at the British Museum. This book-plate, which was reproduced in the special winter number of The S tu d io for 1898-99, is designed by Cyril Goldie. Mr. Almack frankly calls it “ a gruesome jumble of sticks and bones,” but the beauty of the symbolism, however wide-reaching that symbolism may be, becomes clear when we know that the owner of this plate is a man to whom inner spiritual meanings have
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Book-Plates : their Beauty and Utility.
a very deep significance, and who is also a true book lover ; his own interpretation makes the book-plate live with a new force, and the uninitiated forego their criticism. “ Borne down upon the eddying stream of Time, the us* ^4^0
skulls of the great Dead. Away along the stream are seen the hands of little writers raising for a brief moment their books above the engulfing waters in the vain hope that they may survive them. On a branch of the tree a little lamp hangs burning—it may be, per haps, the Lamp of Truth—difficult of access—smoke mingled with the flame. Far above, one sign of hope— there is the winged sign of the old Egyptian hieroglyphs —the symbol of immortality.” A book-plate, very much akin to this in style, is Mr. Gleeson White’s plate, designed by Mr. Charles Ricketts, which also requires a good deal of explanation. It is the Tree of Creation Igdrasil, and, as Mr. White has reminded us, “ The Tree,” whether under the particular shape of Igdrasil in Scandinavian mythology or under that of the Tree of Knowledge in the Mosaic tradition, has always been a favourite symbol for literature. It is, therefore, a felicitous choice as an emblem of knowledge eternal, yet needing daily nourishment and always grow ing ; in fact, the various interpretations of the mystical tree are all-embracing as literature itself. On the whole, I think a book-plate should be as simple and clear as possible in design and treatment, and tell its own story, and yet there is an endless source of amusement to be gained from studying the various puzzles which encircle the mysteries of some plates. There is a certain amount symbolism in Mr.
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Book-Plates : their Beau ty and Utility.
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Ballinger’s plate. Here you get a little boat or Ballinger most appropriately laden with books, steered by the eagle of St. John, with the owl as figure-head, and the Cardiff port-mark Cf. on the sail ; while the whales denote the possible derivation of the English Ballinger from the French Baleiner, a whale boat—a mediaeval name for a small sloop of war, and later of small vessels. The design and symbolism of this plate are by Mr. Goscombe John, A.R.A., and the drawing by Mr. T. Erat Harrison. Mr. Erat Harrison’s designs are peculiarly happy, and he is responsible for the charm ing rebus book-plate of Mr. Charles E. Doble reproduced in Mr. Egerton Castle’s book. Another librarian’s book-plate, which comes under the classification of “ Heraldic symbolic,” is that of Mr. Henry T. Folkard, Librarian, Wig an Public Library. It is the work of Mr. Gordon Browne. The interpretation of this plate has been given by Mr. Egerton Castle as follows : “ Here we have in company with a closed book the spectacles of advancing age, and withering flowers, what is presumably meant to repre sent the bitte r cup of life (under the form of a Germ an ‘ Rom er ’). As a support to this bowl, which bears the melancholy philosophic inscription : ‘ Ich habe gelebt und geliebet,’ are various emblems of life and death, graceful feminine forms, with the symbol of their soul, the psychic butterfly over their brows, enslaved by the Implacable Fiend, who lies half hidden behind them in gruesome bony company, while round the base the serpent biting his tail emphasizes an endless allegory.” Let us now turn from a book-plate which, although beautiful in design, has so melancholy an interpretation to one where allegory and symbolism are thrown to the
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Book-P lates : their Beauty and Utility.
winds, and the open air of heaven surrounds the gallant youth who is reclining under a tree reading a book in a delightful bit of open country. The owner of this charming book-plate is Mr. Bernard Kettle, Sub Librarian of the Guildhall Library, and the design is by Mr. Charles G. Harper, so well known to us all as the illustrator and writer of the numerous road books which bear his name. The date of this plate is 1890, and the branches of the tree encircle the favourite if somewhat hackneyed motto of the true book-lover : “ Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” The book-plate of Mr. W. FI. K. Wright, Secretary of the Ex-Libris Society, and Librarian of the Plymouth Public Library, is designed by Mr. Will Foster, and is a portrait book-plate. Over a row of books is a scroll bearing the injunction: “ Wear the old coat, and buy the new book.” A very charming design is the book-plate of Mr. William Edward Armytage Axon, of Manchester, so well known to the library profession. The motto : “ In a nook with a book,” has been tracked to Thomas à Kempis as the original source of the say ing, though opinions may differ as to whether this really is so. This simple and beautiful modern interior is designed by Mr. James Canning. The book-plate of Mr. Archibald Sparke, Librarian, Bolton Public Library, represents a monk reading, and is dated 1900. Mr. Sparke is fortunate in possessing a plate which is designed by his wife. My own book plate is designed by Mr. W. F. Meason, and engraved by Mr. Arthur Leverett, and I think you will agree with me that it is a very delicate and graceful concep-
Book-Plates : their Beauty and Utility.
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tion. It represents a young man reading, behind him are three shelves of books, and the plate is bordered by sprays of Iris. The figure is, however, much too large, and might convey the impression—to posterity at any rate !—that it was a portrait-p late, which it certainly is not. Passing now from these short notices of some recent Librarian ’s ex-libris, let us turn our attention to one or two modern Library book-plates. Every municipal Reference library worthy of the name should have a book-plate. It should not be looked upon as an un necessary luxury, and the work of producing a suitable plate in which the Borough arms and motto may be incorporated can sometimes be entrusted to a local artist and possibly a local engraver. I wish now to take as examples two very beautiful and successful book plates of two important London Reference Libraries, designed by the late Mr. W. W. Burgess, of the Society of Painter Etchers ; they are the book-plates of the City of Westminster Public Libraries and the Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea Public Library. I have two im pressions of these taken direct from the copper. The Chelsea plate has the Borough coat of arms as granted by the College of Heralds, with the Council’s motto and well-known Carlyle motto: “ The true University of these days is a collection of books.” The date of the adoption of the Acts, 1887, and of Chelsea becoming a borough are also added. This plate, which cost 8s., including 100 signed proofs, is the one now mostly used for books in the Chelsea Reference Library ; but Chelsea is fortunate in having had a previous plate of even greater distinction engraved by the most eminent of modern book-plate engravers, Mr. C. W. Sherborn.
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Book-Plates : their Beauty and Utility.
With regard to the Sherborn interior book-plate I am indebted to Mr. Quinn for kindly supplying me with the following particulars : “ Mr. Sherborn, being a local artist, was asked to do the plate, which he executed for the nominal sum of 17s. ; this included twenty-five signed India proofs, after which the plate was altered, and then 500 ordinary prints taken, all printed by Goulding. These prints were all included in the sum just mentioned. The design is taken from the interior of the Chelsea Reference Library as it was some years ago ; the portraits are the two Chelsea worthies, Sir Thomas More and Carlyle ; the date of this plate is that of the adoption of the Libraries Acts, 1887, and the anchor is the Chelsea pottery mark. The motto again is the appropriate Carlyle dictum : ‘ The true University of these days is a collection of books.’ This being a Sherborn plate was much sought after by col lectors, and the price of 5s. per print was placed upon it, and as the Chelsea Library Committee have sold A20 worth up to the present, it will be seen that they have more than repaid themselves the original outlay of the cost of the plate. It is said that proof prints have sold at 70s. each. Lithographs from the plate have been produced for putting in the books, and its use is now limited for donations.” The plate designed by Mr. Burgess is now the one most generally used, and, in my opinion, these two Burgess plates designed for Westminster and Chelsea respectively are a model for any Municipal Reference Library. They are both dignified, appropriate, and beautiful. Now, let me take as an example of a library plate on a humbler scale, the cost of which would be consider-
Book-Plates : their Bea uty and Utility.
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ably less, a quite recent exam ple designed for one of the newest of the Carnegie Libraries—a very pretty plate used by the Carnegie Library at Torquay. It is the work of a student of the Torqua y Science and Art School, Miss C. Mary Higgs. The palm trees represent the tropical vegetation of Torquay, and the natural arch, which is one of the features of the landscape in Torquay. The re is a graceful figure of a girl reading, resting on the arms of the town. This is a very pleasing modern composition. I have in my little collection a very interesting exam ple of an eighteenth-century book-plate which I bought only the other day, that of the Stourbridge Library, instituted in 1790. It is engraved by Howe, and the picture represents a library interior with the graceful figure of a learned lady— a veritable blue -sto ck ing— seated at a table reading. Through an arch is a distant view of the Tem ple of Minerva perched on a hill. We have in the library profession a young libraria n who is also a clever draughtsman and designer of book plates. I refer to the work of Mr. G. H. McCall, which is, I imagine, familiar to most of us. I have one or two specimens of Mr. McC all’s work, and the book-plate which he designed for the Limehouse Dis trict Public Library some years ago, with its bold and appropriate ship, is a successful exam ple of his talent. Many well-known men of letters who are familiar to the reading public by the books they have themselves produced are also collectors of books, and I do not think I can remind you of a finer book-lover than the late Fred eric k Locker-Lam pso n, the inheritor of books and the owner of the famous Row fant Library. There
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Book-Plates : their Beauty and Utility.
are three plates which at various times have been designed for him or members of his family by H. Stacy Marks, R.A., Walter Crane, and Kate Greenaway, and the exquisite little juvenile plate by Kate Greenaway, which is used as a vignette in the Golden Treasu ry edition of Locker-Lamp son’s London Lyrics, with the family motto : “ Fear God, fear Nought,” is a charming examp le of Kate Greenaway’s work. One always turns with delight to the lines which Mr. Andrew Lang contributed to the Rowfant catalogue in 1886 But when the skies of shorter days Are dark and all the “ ways are mire,” How bright upon your books the blaze Gleams from the cheerful study fire. On quartos, where our fathers read, Enthralled, the Book of Shakespeare’s play, On all that Poe could dream of dread, And all that Herrick sang of gay ! Fair first editions, duly prized, Above them all, methinks I rate The tome where Walton’s hand revised His wonderful receipts for bait ! Happy, who rich in toys like these Forgets a weary nation’s ills, Who from his stud^ window sees The circle of the Sussex hills.
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Anothe r interesting book-plate of a present-day man of letters is that of Mr. Edmun d Gosse, the possessor of a fine collection of belles-lettres, and who, by the way, is also Librarian of the House of Lords, designed for him by the American artist, Mr. E. A. Abbey. Mr.
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Gosse writes of book-plates in general and his own in particular :— “ The outward and visible mark of the citizenship of the book-lover is his book-plate. “ There are many good bibliophiles who abide in the trenches, and never proclaim their loyalty by a book plate. They are with us, but not of us ; they lack the courage of their opinions ; they collect with timid ity or carelessness ; they have no heed for the morrow. Such a man is liable to great temp tation s—he is broug ht face to face with that enemy of his species, the borrower, and dares not speak with him in the gate. If he had a book-plate he would say : ‘ Oh ! certainly, I will lend you this volume, if it has not my book-plate in it ’ ; of course one makes it a rule never to lend a book that has ! “ He would say this and feign to look inside the volume, knowing right well that this safeguard again st the borrower is there already. To have a book-plate gives a collector greater security and self-confidence,” and then Mr. Gosse goes on to describe his own book plate as “ the work and gift of one of the most imagin ative American artists, Mr. Edwin A. Abbey. It represents a very fine gentleman of 1610, walking in broad sunlight in a garden, reading a little book of verses. One of Mr. Austin Dobson’s book-plates was also designed by Mr. E. A. Abbey, and is dated March, 1883. It is an eminently suitable plate for this great autho rity of the eighteenth century, and is entwined with a ribbon border bearing the simple device : ‘ Austin Dobson, his book.’ ” As I have pointed out, there are many who hold the view that a book-plate should not be divorced from the
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Book-Plates : their Beauty and Utility.
volume to which it rightly belongs, but the Ex-Libris Society, which was established in 1891, and has now closed its most honourable career, has done much to weld togeth er those who in the common pursuit of book plate collecting find pleasure in arranging, classifying, and studying these marks of book ownership, and the Society has proved, I think, that there is a very good case for collecting. And librarians will find it a pleasure in more ways than one to become collectors. I believe that Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson, Bodley’s Librarian, has a craze for collecting luggage labels, so that what is sometimes styled the “ mania ” for collecting may take many forms. Most of us, I presume, are not only engaged in organizing the distribution and circularization of books among a heterogeneous public. We have our own little collection of books, and sometimes have a few moments to spare, let us hope, to give them the attention they deserve. Mr. John Galsworthy in one of his recent novels has defined the modern organization or over-organization of to-day as something which consists mainly in the asking of questions. In those intervals, then, when the librarian of to-day is not engaged in forming questions for other people to answer, or in answering questions propounded to him, book-plate collecting should become a refreshing hobby, and the beauty of book-plates and the utility of book-plates become appare nt to those who are inclined to look upon the study with little interest, for the study of book-plates is very closely allied to all those branches of knowledge which form a part of our daily work.
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