American Book-Plates

American Book-Plates
Charles Allen

Charles Dexter Allen

American Book-Plates / A Guide to their Study with Examples

PREFACE

IN a few years Book-plate literature will have a place in the catalogues of the Libraries, as it now has in those of the dealers in books. The works of the Hon. J. Leicester Warren (Lord de Tabley), Mr. Egerton Castle, and Mr. W. J. Hardy on the English plates, Mr. Walter Hamilton, M. Henri Bouchot, and M. Poulet-Malassis on the French, Herr Warnecke on the German, and M. Carlander on the Swedish, are all the work of master hands, and are recognized as authorities. In our own country the lists and essays of Mr. Richard C. Lichtenstein and Mr. Laurence Hutton have long been of invaluable service, and occupy a position both at home and abroad of undisputed eminence.

A large number of articles has also been contributed to periodical literature by those well informed upon the subject, and numerous monographs testify to the growth of interest in this fascinating study, and by the names of their authors, to the class of scholars and students of antiquarian lore who deem the humble book-plate worthy of their attention.

In view of what has been and of what will be written, this present modest attempt to introduce more fully than has yet been done, the book-plates of America, needs to be understood as simply a pioneer work; a great deal of information will reward the patient and painstaking investigator of the future, which is now inaccessible, and without doubt, too, much will be found even within the present to supplement these pages.

This book could not have been undertaken nor carried to completion had the writer been denied the generous assistance and hearty sympathy of our collectors, to whom he desires to express his appreciation of the kindnesses shown him.

Especially to Mr. R. C. Lichtenstein, Mr. E. N. Hewins, and Mr. Fred J. Libbie of Boston, does he feel under deep obligation for the generous loan of their splendid collections, for ready advice and counsel, for cheerful assistance whenever asked for, and for that tangible sympathy and lively interest which are worth so much to one engaged in such work. To many others also is he indebted, both for the loan of plates and for kindly words of encouragement.

To Mr. S. P. Avery, Mr. Beverly Chew, Mr. E. H. Bierstadt, Mr. Henry Blackwell, Mr. D. McN. Stauffer, Mr. Edward D. Harris, Mr. Laurence Hutton, and Mr. E. W. Nash, of New York City; to Mr. W. G. Brown of Washington and Lee University at Lexington, Va.; Mr. H. E. Deats of Flemington, N.J.; Dr. C. E. Clark of Lynn; Hon. W. A. Courtnay of Charleston, S.C.; Miss Helen E. Brainerd of the Columbia College Library; Mr. Pickering Dodge of Washington, D.C.; Mr. Charles T. Martin, Mr. Frank B. Gay, Mr. A. C. Bates, and Mr. John C. Parsons, of Hartford; Dr. Henry C. Eno of Saugatuck; Dr. J. H. Dubbs of Lancaster, Penn., President of Franklin and Marshall College; Mr. D. V. R. Johnston of the State Library at Albany; Mr. Nathaniel Paine of Worcester; Mr. Daniel Ravenel of Charleston, S.C.; Mr. Howard Sill of Glendale, Md.; Mr. R. A. Brock of Richmond, Va.; Mr. Howard Edwards of Philadelphia; Dr. Swan M. Burnett of Washington, D.C.; Mr. Richard Wijnkoop of Brooklyn; Mr. Bisbee of Dartmouth College; Mr. William Kelby of the New York Historical Society; and to Mr. Lyon G. Tyler of Williamsburg, Va., President of William and Mary College, does he wish to make acknowledgment for the favors which have contributed so much to the value of the work. From over the sea, particularly kind assistance has come from Rev. T. W. Carson, the veteran collector and eminent authority of Dublin.

To all others who by letter, gift, or advice have assisted him, the writer wishes hereby to make suitable and hearty acknowledgment.

The writer’s thanks are also extended to those who have so kindly permitted him the use of their plates for the illustrating of the book.

A word more is due to Mr. E. N. Hewins, who very kindly, at the writer’s request, accepted the labor of preparing the excellent Bibliography which appears in the volume.

    CHARLES DEXTER ALLEN.

Hartford, Conn., June, 1894.

INTRODUCTORY

WE cannot venture to guess which was the first book-plate made in America, nor to say with absolute certainty whence came the first plate used in our country; but undoubtedly the latter came over already pasted into some book of a Dutch or English settler.

The larger part of our books came from England, and very few plates are found with arms of other nationalities. The colonists who came from England bringing books, brought also the home ideas concerning books, and the book-plate was a natural piece of property to acquire. Their descendants, who continued the connection with the mother-country, used plates more generally, and the fashion spread naturally. It never became very general, but was confined to those of gentle birth; the clergy, the lawyers, and men of education. We shall see that it was not confined to the men alone, but that the women of literary accomplishments also used plates.

By far the greater part of the plates are cut on copper, but there are some woodcuts as will be seen in an examination of the list; also, there are some which look as if cut in silver, which was an easier metal to work, or perhaps in type-metal. One example is known in which brass was used, and this old plate is now in the possession of the writer. The steel engravings are of rather recent date; and while there are a number of these, the new plates are mostly on copper. The simple labels are printed from type.

The larger part of our early plates are armorial in character; and while heraldry forms so prominent and important a feature, it is left practically untouched in the present volume. The number interested in the science is small, the authorities on coats-of-arms and on blazoning differ, and the present writer had not the time to make the thorough investigation necessary to a satisfactory treatment of this interesting branch. Upon consultation with other collectors, and with their advice, it was decided to leave this subject for a future volume should any call for it arise.

A decided difference is noticed between the book-plates of the Northern and the Southern Colonies. In the South, to which came men of wealth and leisure with cultivated tastes, we would expect to find the little superfluities and niceties of daily life sooner in vogue and more generally used. Bringing books and musical instruments with them, retaining their connection with the far-away home by correspondence and visits, sending their sons to the great Universities to be educated, and to the Law Schools for a finishing course, and ordering their clothes, books, furniture, and all of the luxuries of life from England, they would naturally be the first to use the book-plate. Very few of the Southern plates were engraved by American engravers. They were nearly all done in London, when some member of the family was over, or by order from the Colony; for this reason the Southern plates are better in heraldry, design, and execution than those of New England and New York. They were the product of men experienced in such work; they were all armorial and in the prevailing English mode.

The earliest comers to New England had a prejudice against coats-of-arms and trinkets of such-like character, which their descendants, however, soon forgot. Pride of ancestry and love of the display of aristocratic claims developed when the hard circumstances of the former years had worn off, and we find the prominent families of the North using book-plates, and having their arms upon their coaches. In one important feature, however, these Northern plates differ from the Southern, – they are mostly the work of our native engravers, very few being done in England.

The work of these native artisans, who were mostly self-taught in this art of engraving on copper, is confessedly inferior to that of the London experts found upon the Southern plates, both in drawing and execution, but their work is of more value to the collector from this very fact of their being American work. They furnish examples of native skill, both in engraving and in copper-plate printing.

The ornamentation of buttons, spoons, tableware, and other articles of silver was already practised when the demand for the book-plate arose, so that there were skilful men ready to turn their attention to this new branch of their art.

The War of the Revolution naturally affected the native production of book-plates, but a few years after its close, when Boston, New York, and Philadelphia were active in publishing books, the engraver found work more plenty, and very many who were employed upon the plates for the illustration of books also produced book-plates.

Nathaniel Hurd was the principal engraver of book-plates in the North before the war, though Thomas Johnson, who was born before him and who also died before he did, made some plates, while Turner and Paul Revere were also working at this period.

Henry Dawkins, in Philadelphia, came over from England, and so did the elder Maverick, who made so many plates for the New Yorkers.

The literary plates are smaller in number than we could wish, and they do not show a wide range of ideas either. Very probably some of the designs were borrowed from English plates, and were produced over again for different customers, or were freely copied by other engravers who liked, or who found customers who liked, the design of others. The plate used by George Goodwin is one of four of this same design. The shelf of books is also seen in the plate of G. C. M. Roberts, M.D., Thomas Robbins, and the

Elijah F. Reed, which is a direct reproduction of the Robbins. Piles of books, but not the regulation “Book-pile,” are seen in the Brown and Lewis plates, while the only real library interiors are the Tayloe plate, the Moral Library and the Village Library (Farmington, Conn.). John Allan, the old-book lover of New York, used a plate with an open book against an anchor, and the plate of Edmund Penn shows a love for books in the dainty volumes disposed about the frame.

The patriotism of our book-lovers is shown in very many designs, which use the American flag or the eagle. The thirteen stars also, the motto of the United States, and various private mottoes of a very patriotic nature, are frequently used.

It is noticeable that as compared with the Southern plates there are but few of the Northern examples which give the address or residence of the owner; that is, speaking of the armorial plates, the printed name labels give these particulars quite often.

The Jared Ingersoll plate gives New Haven as the residence of the owner, while Rhode Island follows the name on the plate of Samuel Elam. Other Northern plates which are so engraved are the Colonel Eustace of New York, Comptroller Elliston also of New York, Lenox of Philadelphia, Atlee of Lancaster, John Franklin, Boston, New England, and Robert Hale of Beverly. Of the Southern plates, Wormeley, Waller, Tuberville, Tazewell, Skelton, Randolph, and Ludwell

give Virginia as their residence; Drayton names South Carolina, the Dr. Cabell plate names Richmond, and the John Walters Gibbs names Charleston, S.C. The plates used in the West Indies also show the residence quite often. There, too, as well as in the Southern colonies, the profession or position of the owner, as well as the London law school in which he was educated, are often given. Thus we have William Blanc, Middle Temple, Dominica; Chas. Pinfold, LL.D., Governor of Barbadoes; Peyton Randolph of the Middle Temple, London; Francis Page of the Inner Temple Esqr.; William Assheton of Gray’s Inn. In the Northern examples we find John Gardiner of the Inner Temple, and Jonathan Belcher, E Societate Medij Templi.

We note also in running through the List that the occupations most often noted on the book-plates are those of the medical and the legal profession. Barristers, lawyers, and attorneys are often so named, and the initials M.D., or the full word Doctor, are seen.

The abbreviations of other degrees are found also, and the plates of clergymen are not uncommon.

Several plates remain unnoticed in the following pages, which are probably American, but which, for lack of positive information, it is thought best not to include. Among these is an early Dutch plate which, if it could be accurately traced to its original owner, might prove to be one of the earliest plates used in America.

It seems that a word is needed in defence of the perfectly legitimate and gentle pursuit of collecting book-plates. A great deal of sarcasm and indignation have found their way into the columns of periodical literature, particularly in England, the especial purpose of which is to trouble the humble collector, and to discredit him in the eyes of the world. He is pointed out as a destroyer of valuable books, as an animal so greedy in the pursuit of his insignificant prey as to ruin elegant bindings that he may secure worthless bits of paper, and as actually so devoid of good sense as to remove such of these as are interesting – for it is reluctantly admitted that some interest does attach to the plates used by certain men of fame in historical annals – from their rightful place within the covers of the very books read and handled by these illustrious owners.

Let it be remembered that but a small part of the many books published have a permanent value, and that a book once eagerly sought may outlive its usefulness, and come to have a commercial value of so much a pound as old paper, instead of so much a copy in different styles of binding. Surely, no one can quarrel with the collector who removes the book-plate, found within it, from such a worn-out specimen, even if the removal necessitates the ruin of the cover. But to remove a book-plate does not necessarily mean to ruin the cover; it requires some skill and considerable patience to remove a valuable plate without injury to either itself or the cover upon which it was pasted, but it is done daily. Surely no one can find fault with this – a skilful operation resulting satisfactorily to the plate-collector and to the book-owner.

Again, no intelligent book-plate collector will separate the plate of a famous man from the book which has been its home for years, and which was once handled and read by its famous owner. Even a worthless book will thus be saved by the collector, which was fit but for the fire or the ash-heap, and which would have gone thither, plate and all, save for his discriminating eye, while a valuable book no one would think of despoiling. Would an intelligent collector, having a book from the library of George Washington, with his plate upon the cover and his autograph in its accustomed place, think of soaking off the plate and cutting out the signature? Not at all; no matter how worthless the book might chance to be, the fact that it was Washington’s is sufficient to insure it from any harm, while the presence of the autograph and the book-plate but adds to the value as establishing beyond peradventure the original ownership.

The book-plate collector is naturally a book-lover. He must not be accused or suspected of crimes against his own kith and kin. He is a harmless and useful specimen of the genus collector, who with assiduity, perseverance, and intelligence seeks to preserve these memorials of past days, which in the rage for indiscriminate collecting were overlooked, and are but now beginning to receive the attention they are worthy of.

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.

NAME-LABELS AND MOTTOES

OF 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

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.

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.

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.

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.