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Concerning Book Plates
THEODORE W. KOCH
Preprinted in
Concerning Book Plates
THEODORE W. KOCH
Preprinted from
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA PAPERS, Vol. IX, Nos. 1-2, 1915
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CONCERNING BOOK PLATES
BY THEODORE W. KOCH
Librarian, University of Michigan
A BOOK plate has been described as a name plate
** decorated, not a decoration defaced by a name plate.
The essential point is that it is a name-label, a means of
identification for lost, strayed, or stolen volumes. Con-
sequently anonymous book plates are anomalous. This
name-label may be printed or engraved and the name
may be expressed heraldically or otherwise, but its prime
object is, or was, when pasted inside the covers of a book
or added to its title or fly-leaves, to proclaim the owner-
ship of the book.
The origin of the book plate is found in the desire of the
owner of a book to retain possession of his property.
Many estimable people find a difficulty in distinguishing
between mine and thine in books as well as in umbrellas.
Therefore, both should be marked for identification.
Books in the early libraries were chained. When they
became cheaper and multiplied rapidly, the chains were
done away with, but marks of ownership were placed
either inside the covers or on the covers of books to
prevent their straying. The marks of ownership on the
covers usually consisted of monograms or coats-of-arms
done in gold on the leather sides, and there are many
ornate bindings in which such devices, called super
libros, have been most attractively tooled. As books
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Bibliographical Society of America
in the early libraries were laid flat on their sides, these
devices showed up most effectively.
The book plate, like the printed book, had its origin
in Germany. Both date from the middle of the fifteenth
century. Albrecht . Diirer is known actually to have
engraved six plates between 1503 and 15 16, and to have
made designs for many others. Most of the larger and
more wealthy monasteries used more than one plate.
The advent of each new lord abbot was celebrated by the
creation of a new plate for the library. With indi-
viduals it grew out of the various armorial bearings of
the family. Frederick August, duke of Brunswick-6ls,
had, in 1789, sixteen plates. More recently, Count
Leiningen-Westerburg had twenty-one plates, all in use,
and the Countess had eight for her own use. I have no
data as to the size of the family library. The Count
was an authority on the subject of book plates, had
written a book on German ex-libris, and many of the
twenty-nine different plates used by him and his wife
were complimentary plates from well-known artists.
A book plate is in no sense a part of the book. Its
removal can be ordinarily effected without harming the
book in any way. Many book plates are removed in
order to give place to the new owner's plate, or to add to
the collector's store. The ethics of this procedure has
been questioned. It must be granted that there are cases
when it would be almost an act of vandalism to remove
a book plate, as in the case of a certain copy of the first
edition of Pope's Dunciad, 1729, well preserved in the
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Concerning Book Plates
original binding, with the Chippendale book plate of
David Hume, above which is the autograph signature
of John Home, the oldest friend and executor of Hume.
Remove the historian's book plate and the chain of asso-
ciation linking Pope, Hume, and Home is broken. A
collector who would remove a coat-of-arms stamped in
gold on the leather or vellum binding of a fine old book
has been compared to the miser depicted by Hogarth
in the act of cutting from the cover of the family Bible
a piece of leather with which to mend his shoe. Book
plates have not always been regarded as giving added
value to the books they adorn. A writer in 1757, in
speaking of a library offered for sale, says: "The books
are in good order, and are little the worse for use, and have
no arms in the best of them."
Book plates, being intended to go into books, must
appeal to book-lovers and will continue to interest those
who like fine books well bound and properly cared for.
The man who is insensible to the influence of a good book
plate is probably insensible to the claims of good printing,
the beauty of good book-making, and all the seductions
to which the bibliophile yields himself. Putting a har-
moniously designed, well-executed plate into a book
shows that the owner thinks enough of it to treat it with
respect. "I urge upon all lovers of books to provide
themselves with book plates," said Eugene Field.
"Whenever I see a book that bears its owner's plate, I
feel myself obligated to treat that book with special
consideration. It carries with it a certificate of its
Bibliographical Society of America
master's love; the book plate gives the volume a certain
status it would not otherwise have."
Miss Agnes Repplier says that when she was a girl she
had access to a small and well-chosen library, each volume
of which was provided with a book plate containing a
scaly dragon guarding the apples of Hesperides, and the
motto "Honor and obligation demand the prompt
return of borrowed books." These words, she con-
tinues, ate into her innocent soul and lent a pang to the
sweetness of possession. Doubts as to the exact nature
of "prompt return" made her painfully uncertain as
to whether a month, a week, or a day was the limit which
honor and obligation had set for her. Other and older
borrowers were, however, less sensitive and, books being
a rarity in that little southern town, most of the volumes
were eventually absorbed by the gaping shelves of
neighbors, where perhaps some may still be found,
"forgotten in dark and dusty corners, like gems that
magpies hide."
" Some people have an instinctive aversion to anything
plated," said a recent writer in the Contributors' Club
of the Atlantic Monthly, adding that he disliked plated
books. He saw no apology for the person addicted to the
substitution of a book plate for his genuine signature
and was sure that no man with poetry in his soul would
use a plate to record his ownership of a volume. "To
establish that immortal communication between author
and reader, that sense of intimate personal relation,"
said he, " the reader must not refuse the author his hand,
Concerning Book Plates
and try to meet him, as it were, by proxy." "A book
plate," in the mind of this critic, "indicates a certain
love of ostentation. Is it fitting," he asks, "that an
individual should suggest that his library is so volumi-
nous that he cannot undertake the physical fatigue of
writing his name in each book he possesses? Public
libraries, large and abstract collections, may make use
of this mechanical means of identifying property, but
the private library should be more modest, more
personal."
The defender of the book plate will answer that there
is a decided objection to having names written into books,
especially modern books, where the ink is almost sure to
run and produce a blurred result. An autograph is
usually inconspicuous and, with poor penmanship, it
is ineffective. Unless it be in ink on the title-page, it is
more easily removed than the book plate. The latter is
the silent witness against the book thief. "To have a
book plate," says Edmund Gosse, "gives a collector great
serenity and confidence." A book plate not only testi-
fies to the owner's appreciation of his books, but, if of
his own choosing, also reflects something of his character.
A good book plate gives also a certain unity to what
might otherwise be a very miscellaneous library.
The use of coats-of-arms as an indication of ownership
was very common in bygone days. Arms were cut in
stone on the front of a house to indicate the family name
of the owners, carved in furniture, woven in hangings,
or engraved on the family silver, to carry out the same
Bibliographical Society of America
idea within the house, or emblazoned on the family
carriage to declare to the world at large who it was that
was going forth on one errand or another. Originally
the arms would not have the name appended. When
a knowledge of heraldry was widespread the addition of
the name to a coat-of-arms was unnecessary. The arms
were as well known as the family name; in fact, it was the
name heraldically expressed. Many retainers who could
not read could easily recognize the family coat-of-arms.
So, in the earliest armorial book plates, the arms alone
were engraved. The names appear only in the later
plates.
In the simple armorial plates, up to about 1720, the
shield is surmounted by a helmet on which are the wreath
and crest. With the decay of J^eraldry, more and more
attention was paid to the ornamentation or mantling
and eventually the heraldic interest became of very minor
importance.
Some collectors limit their attention to armorial plates,
as others limit their interests to those of other periods,
or to those by special designers. Armorial plates are
in questionable taste for most American families. The
use of them reminds one of a question put to a certain
gentleman who had assumed what appeared to be a
veritable coat-of-arms. "Are those really your arms?"
he was asked. "They ought to be," was the reply,
"for I made them myself."
I know of librarians who scoff at the idea of a book
plate, and many people smile at those who take a serious
Concerning Book Plates
interest in collecting book plates. A writer in the London
Daily News stirred up a "tempest in a tea-pot" some
twenty years ago by an article entitled "The Burden of
Book Plates." "Let infancy frolic and senile fatuity
count its two-penny treasures," said this scribe, "but
why, of all things, collect book plates? Are there not
door-knockers which a man may collect, or visiting cards
of all ages, or muffin bells, or old books, or political walk-
ing sticks, or the decayed hairbrushes of celebrities, all
of which are instructive and amusing, compared to book
plates?" Mr. Hardy writes about the propriety of
removing book plates from books "for the purpose of
study and comparison." "Study and comparison of
warming pans ! Even an old warming pan is an enviable
piece of portable property compared with a book plate.
.... It seems about as agreeable a possession as an
old postage stamp." Well, we know of those who put
a great deal of time, money, and enthusiasm into the
collecting of postage stamps and dignify their hobby by
calling it philately. The collector of ex-libris is not to
be lightly put aside. He is only one kind of a biblio-
phile. Anyone with a hobby is to be envied, not de-
rided. "Here lies Smith, who was nothing, not even a
collector of postage stamps," would not be the epitaph
of a cheerful man.
The size of a collector's library, it must be confessed,
is usually in inverse ratio to the number of personal plates
which he owns. An amateur with too many individual
plates is to be looked upon with suspicion. "A fool and
io Bibliographical Society of America
his book plate are soon parted," said Thomas Bailey
Aldrich, in characterizing those who have a book plate
primarily for purposes of exchange with other collectors.
There are collectors who have had new plates made or new
impressions of old plates struck off on a different colored
paper, expressly for the purpose of adding another plate
to their exchange list. They resemble the Central and
South American principalities which have new issues of
postage stamps struck off every little while, seemingly
for the purposes of revenue through their sale to collectors.
It is this class of collectors who have brought down some
of the more severe criticisms upon the whole subject of
ex-libris collecting.
Then, too, there have been unprincipled dealers who
have attached ex-libris (generally counterfeits or reprints)
to inferior volumes in order to promote their sale. The
plate of George Washington is thus far the only American
one thought worthy of counterfeiting. Some years ago
a number of volumes purporting to have come from
Washington's library were offered for sale at auction.
They all had what claimed to be his book plate, but a
comparison of it with the original showed it to be clearly
a forgery. The purpose of the forger was defeated by
the cheat being cried out in the auction room.
The natural desire to protect his own book property
is seen in the schoolboy, who is given to writing the
simplest form of an ex-libris on the fly-leaf of his text-
book: "Bill Jones, his book." This plain statement of
fact is elaborated into a variety of forms. The following
Concerning Book Plates n
is copied from an old schoolbook found in Canterbury,
England :
This book is mine
By right divine
And if so be, it go astray
Please be so kind
My desk to find
And stow it safe away.
Schoolboys in old England were fond of inscribing in
their books these verses :
Steale not this book for fear of shame
For here you see ye owner hys name
And when you dye ye Lord will saye
Where is that boke you stole away ?
Then if you saye, you cannot telle,
Ye Lorde will saye, then go to helle.
Variant forms of versified prophecies of what will
happen to the book thief are quite plentiful. The follow-
ing was at one time popular with youths fond of scribbling
over the fly-leaves of their books :
My Master's name above you see,
Take heede ther fore you steale not mee;
For if you doe, without delay
Your necke for me shall pay.
Looke doune below and you shal see
The picture of the gallowstree;
Take heede ther fore of thys in time,
Lest on this tree you highly clime.
12 Bibliographical Society of America
Another doggerel manuscript ex-libris used to be made
up in this fashion:
THIS BOOK
Belongs to
John Doe
If thou art borrowed by a friend,
Right welcome shall he be
To read, to study, not to lend,
But to return to me.
Not that imparted knowledge doth
Diminish learning's store;
But books, I find, if often lent,
Return to me no more.
Sometimes there was appended the following advice
and caution:
Read slowly, pause frequently,
Think seriously,
Keep cleanly, return duly,
With the corners of the leaves not turned down.
Some book-owners have gone to Scripture for their
book-plate inscriptions. Mr. George N. Noyes uses the
following: "And if a man borrow aught of his neighbor
and it is hurt he shall surely make it good" (Exod. 22 : 14).
An apprentice's library has used the following: "Take
fast hold of instruction, let her not go; keep her, for she
is thy life" (Prov. 4:13).
There is a wide range from the generous and
dignified legend on the plate of Grolier "Jo. Grolierii
Concerning Book Plates 13
et Amicorum" (the property of John Grolier and his
friends) to such as:
I'm stingy grown
What's mine's my own.
An anonymous plate has: "This book was bought at
the sign of the Shakespeare Head. Borrowing neighbors
are recommended to supply themselves in the same
manner."
Dr. Holmes once said mottoes should be given in pairs
so that one might offset the other. I therefore give the
following as an antidote to the last quoted:
I'm not one of those selfish elves
Who keep their treasures to themselves.
I like to see them kept quite neat,
But not for moth or worm to eat.
Thus willingly to any friend
A book of mine I'll freely lend
Hoping they'll mind this good old mean,
Return it soon and keep it clean.
We have seen that the use of a book plate is no modern
fad, though the collecting of the book plates is of com-
paratively recent origin. Various interests center around
book plates. These might be listed as follows:
1. The personal interest. This would be called forth
by the plates of such men as George Washington,
William Penn, Gladstone, Gambetta, Horace Walpole,
Samuel Pepys, David Garrick, Hogarth, Sir Henry Irving,
14 Bibliographical Society of America
all of whom used book plates which have been reproduced
in the literature of the subject.
2. The genealogical interest. This is exemplified par-
ticularly in the sequence of plates belonging to old fam-
ilies given to book-collecting for several generations.
3. The heraldic interest. Heraldry is a conspicuous
element in the older plates, the majority of which are of
armorial design. In no way can one get a better or more
comprehensive survey of the changes in heraldic design.
4. The historical interest. Something of the history
of engraving and the arts of illustration is sure to be
imbibed by those who dip into the history of book plates.
Even if one only learns to distinguish between a copper
plate and a steel engraving, an etching and a zinc plate,
he has acquired valuable information. When he is able
to distinguish between a Jacobean and a Chippendale
plate, he has made a considerable advance. Before long
the amateur is able to judge of the approximate date of a
plate and to characterize its style in proper fashion. A
dated plate may help to give definite information in regard
to the history of a particular style of engraving or design,
or otherwise throw light on the book it adorns.
5. Artistic interest. Diirer, Holbein, Lucas Cranach
the younger, Piranesi, Bartolozzi, Hogarth, and Bewick,
among the old engravers, did not think the designing of
book plates beneath their dignity. Among modern
artists of note who have designed book plates, mention
may be made of Sir Frederick Leighton, Sir John Millais,
Aubrey Beardsley, Edwin A. Abbey, Miss Kate Greena-
Concerning Book Plates 15
way, Walter Crane, Louis Rhead, and Randolph Calde-
cott. These names should suffice to arrest the attention
of the carping critic, if only long enough to see how these
artists have handled the problem. Many plates by artists
of no great note are worthy of study on account of the
beauty of design or artistic workmanship.
In 1880 there appeared A Guide to the Study of Book
Plates, by the Hon. J. Leicester Warren, who later became
Lord de Tabley. In classifying book plates he divided
them into broad classes, such as Jacobean, Chippendale,
allegorical, and the like. His classification has been
accepted by later writers and is now so generally followed
that we must pause for a moment to study it.
The term Jacobean, as applied to a book plate, is some-
what misleading, but it is understood to mean the heavy
decorative style in vogue during the Restoration, Queen
Anne, and early Georgian days. This style was in vogue
approximately from 1700 to 1750. The book plate had
by that time become a recognized essential in a well-
ordered private or public library. The plates of the
period are armorial in type, the decoration is limited to
a symmetrical grouping of the mantling and an occasional
display of palms and wreaths. The mantling surrounds
the face of the shield as the periwig of the portraits of
the period surrounds the face of the subject. It springs
from either side of the helmet into elaborate patterns.
The manner had been imported from France but soon
assumed English characteristics of its own. The decora-
tion was conventional, remarkable for its solidity rather
1 6 Bibliographical Society of America
than its gracefulness. The design was strictly sym-
metrical, massive, and imposing from its heaviness. The
plates of the period have a carved appearance.
During the middle third of the eighteenth century a
flamboyant rococo style of engraving was in vogue which
was named Chippendale, after the designer of furniture,
many of the patterns in his books being reflected in the
book plates of the period. The distinguishing feature of
the Chippendale book plate is a fanciful arrangement of
scroll and shellwork with acanthus-like sprays. The
grouping was usually unsymmetrical so as to give a freer
scope for a great variety of counter-curves. Straight
and concentric lines were avoided. The Chippendale
plates are lacking in variety of design. The type was
in vogue only for a score of years, but during that time
it was the fashion in copper-plate engraving generally.
The characteristic of the style is the frilled border of open
scallop shellwork set close to the escutcheon, and more
or less inclosing it. George Washington's plate is a good
example of the Chippendale style.
The similarity of the Chippendale patterns reminds
one of the story of the traveling artist who was employed
by an innkeeper to paint a blue boar for a sign. "I'll
try the boar," said the man, "but I have never painted
anything else than a red lion, and so don't be surprised
if your blue boar turns into a red lion when I've done."
It seems equally impossible for the designer of a par-
ticular period to get away from the characteristics of
that period.
Concerning Book Plates 17
During the latter third of the eighteenth century, new
styles were adopted by the engravers. Among these
mention may be made of the simple and chaste design
known as the ribbon and wreath style. Originality began
to assert itself and a great variety of motifs appeared
pastoral scenes, landscape effects, pictorial compositions,
and library interiors of all kinds. When steel engraving
came into use in the beginning of the nineteenth century,
it had the effect of continuing the formality of the previous
century. It was also used later in connection with the
copper-plate designing, by furnishing the plate-maker
with a harder surface with which to cover the copper.
With the development of photo-mechanical processes in
the latter half of the century came greater freedom
and ease in the reproduction of the original sketch.
Etching had not only rivaled copper-plate engraving,
but had come to be used with it. Photo-engraving, or
the half-tone process, is hardly a legitimate means of
reproducing a book-plate design. While it is the most
common method of reproducing a photograph or wash
drawing, neither of these media furnishes satisfactory
designs for book plates, although they have sorrfetimes
been used fairly satisfactorily in connection with line
work. Line work is the basis of ninety-nine out of
every hundred book plates, whether done on copper,
steel, or zinc.
The success of an engraved plate depends, not only
on the skill of the designer, but also upon that of the
engraver. In the case of such men as C. W. Sherborn,
1 8 Bibliographical Society of America
E. D. French, and J. W. Spenceley, both the design and
execution were done by themselves or under their close
supervision. This brings engraved plates by men of note
up to a high cost. Consequently recourse is had to
cheaper methods of reproduction, and the one most in
vogue is the zinc cut. The danger of this lies in its cheap-
ness. For a dollar or two one can have reproduced an
india-ink sketch by an amateur designer, and as there
are manv people with a cert" ; n amount of skill in pen-and-
iuk drawing who are quite willing to present their friends
with what they think are appropriate designs for book
plates, there are a great many inside covers of books being
plastered over with cheap zinc cuts from cheap designs
that had better not have been perpetuated through this
or any other process.
Anyone who owns a book plate is likely to be interested
in the subject. So also is the person who hopes some day
to have hisor her own book plate. The latter may wel-
come a few suggestions. A book plate ought not, accord-
ing to all precedent and the canons of good taste, to try to
rival a poster, or a book-wrapper, or ornate end papers.
It ought not to be much larger than two by three inches.
It should be small enough to go easily on the inside of the
cover of any volume without crowding. Japan vellum
or plate paper are good papers on which to print plates.
Too thick a paper is difficult to paste down. Do not
have the plates gummed. The name" should be clearly
drawn, not in hieroglyphics, and should not be run in
on the bias, nor in any fanciful way.
Concerning Book Plates 19
The motif should be appropriate to the general run of
books the plate is to adorn. A jester is permissible in
the ex-libris of a comedian like Francis Wilson, but would
hardly be suitable for a philosophical library. Humorous
plates are in general to be avoided. The humor will be
sure to pall upon you and your friends. Designers are
often called upon to do things against their best judgment.
One designer was asked by a patron of considerable
avoirdupois to include in the plate he had ordered the
representation of an elephant, as that was the nickname
by which he was known among his friends. Another
wanted "a girl, with sandals on, standing by the sea,
over which the moonlight was streaming; bulrushes or
something in the foreground. And," he added, "give
me plenty of moonlight."
Portrait plates are not at all common. Most of those
that have been made date from the latter half of the
nineteenth century. Diirer's friend, Bilibald Pirkheimer,
is known to have had a plate of this kind which he pasted
on the back covers of his books. Good old Bishop John
Hacket, of Lichfield, presented a number of books to
Trinity College, Cambridge, in each of which was
pasted his portrait and the motto "Serve God and
be cheerful."
The tendency to overload a plate with details with a
view to suggesting the proclivities of the owner is to be
decried. As Mr. Charles Dexter Allen says, "One some-
times sees a plate that has so much of the life-history of
the owner within its small compass that at a glance it is
20 Bibliographical Society of America
evident to all that he glories in golf, has a regard for
roses, rides a wheel, esteems Omar Khayyam very highly,
reads Scott and Lowell, can quote Shakespeare, has been
to Switzerland, collects butterflies, and lives in New
Jersey."
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