DOI Heft:
No. 48 (March, 1897)
DOI Artikel:White, Gleeson: Some recent book-plates, mostly pictorial
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18388#0115
Some Recent Book-plates
doubt, because a book-plate seems such an easy
subject, designers are apt to undertake its produc-
tion too lightly. But, although true simplicity is
the highest virtue here as elsewhere, it is not likely
to be encountered in the kingdom of the common-
place. Therein dwell and grow fat two most
deadly foes of the book-plate, both distinguished
by ornate and extravagant manners ; the one, the
inappropriate picture which is forced to do duty by
reason of the arbitrary addition of the formal
legend " ex libris," and the owner's name; the
other, the ultra-symbolic design which aims to
express a sort of Liebig's extract of the secrets of
the universe and half-a-dozen of its creeds in a
few square inches. The plainly printed type-label
appears distinguished and artistic when contrasted
with many of these two varieties.
Yet, although destructive criticism, easy as it is,
may reveal some new indictments against atrocious
designs, constructive criticism is likely to be vague
and without novelty. But the advice before re-
peated in these pages, if no longer new, is still as
true as it ever was. And this advice to study the
limitations of material and the utility of object, be
it a book-plate or a building, is never likely to be book-plate
3SI
EX LIBRIS fsfl
Easy*
V
ALICE «««
EMM AGS <s
WILKINSON
by r. an.ning bell
book-plate , . . by h. ospovat
opposed by artists. Now the limitations of a book-
plate are :—firstly, that the designer must never lose
sight of the fact that it is a name-label decorated,
and not decoration with a name-label defacing it;
secondly, that the owner's name must be legible
and yet not unduly obtrusive ; and thirdly, that its
design is one that does not pall by repetition. The
limitations of its technique are also important, but
these differ in no way from those it shares with
pen-drawings, lithographs, etchings, or other
branches of the graphic arts employed for ordinary
illustration. All other qualities are debatable, and
belong to that disputed domain of Taste which
every man in his secret heart believes to be his by
right, and often that he is not merely a councillor
of the State of Perfection but its absolute autocrat.
If Taste be in one sense an abstract and per-
fectly indefinable quality, good taste is generally
found to be capable of demonstration, for it never
clashes with the laws of mechanics or common
sense. Indeed, if common sense with good taste
is freely bestowed on a thing so trivial as a book-
plate, the result will be most probably a design
which is entirely satisfactory of its sort.
Of the examples sent in lately to The Studio
for a competition, not a few are admirable ; but
others betray a confused intention. Ideas which
would have made good title-pages, book-covers, or
in
doubt, because a book-plate seems such an easy
subject, designers are apt to undertake its produc-
tion too lightly. But, although true simplicity is
the highest virtue here as elsewhere, it is not likely
to be encountered in the kingdom of the common-
place. Therein dwell and grow fat two most
deadly foes of the book-plate, both distinguished
by ornate and extravagant manners ; the one, the
inappropriate picture which is forced to do duty by
reason of the arbitrary addition of the formal
legend " ex libris," and the owner's name; the
other, the ultra-symbolic design which aims to
express a sort of Liebig's extract of the secrets of
the universe and half-a-dozen of its creeds in a
few square inches. The plainly printed type-label
appears distinguished and artistic when contrasted
with many of these two varieties.
Yet, although destructive criticism, easy as it is,
may reveal some new indictments against atrocious
designs, constructive criticism is likely to be vague
and without novelty. But the advice before re-
peated in these pages, if no longer new, is still as
true as it ever was. And this advice to study the
limitations of material and the utility of object, be
it a book-plate or a building, is never likely to be book-plate
3SI
EX LIBRIS fsfl
Easy*
V
ALICE «««
EMM AGS <s
WILKINSON
by r. an.ning bell
book-plate , . . by h. ospovat
opposed by artists. Now the limitations of a book-
plate are :—firstly, that the designer must never lose
sight of the fact that it is a name-label decorated,
and not decoration with a name-label defacing it;
secondly, that the owner's name must be legible
and yet not unduly obtrusive ; and thirdly, that its
design is one that does not pall by repetition. The
limitations of its technique are also important, but
these differ in no way from those it shares with
pen-drawings, lithographs, etchings, or other
branches of the graphic arts employed for ordinary
illustration. All other qualities are debatable, and
belong to that disputed domain of Taste which
every man in his secret heart believes to be his by
right, and often that he is not merely a councillor
of the State of Perfection but its absolute autocrat.
If Taste be in one sense an abstract and per-
fectly indefinable quality, good taste is generally
found to be capable of demonstration, for it never
clashes with the laws of mechanics or common
sense. Indeed, if common sense with good taste
is freely bestowed on a thing so trivial as a book-
plate, the result will be most probably a design
which is entirely satisfactory of its sort.
Of the examples sent in lately to The Studio
for a competition, not a few are admirable ; but
others betray a confused intention. Ideas which
would have made good title-pages, book-covers, or
in