DOI issue:
No. 48 (March, 1897)
DOI article:White, Gleeson: Some recent book-plates, mostly pictorial
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18388#0119
Some Recent Book-plates
BENJAAMN
AND JANET
HAVGHTON
BOOK-PLATE BY J. WALTER WEST
as the bars of the stencil-plate make it imperative
they should be. But monograms can be devised
readily enough, wherein these " ties" are very
useful factors in the scheme. A good stencilled
monogram, with or without any purely extraneous
ornamentation, might be a very satisfactory substi-
tute for a pasted-in ex libris.
It would be impossible to delete a stencil worked
in permanent pigment without betraying the efface-
ment; and this should be a point in its favour.
Now, a piece of wet rag and a hot iron suffice to
remove a label with no trace of the change, unless
the lining paper of the book chance to be one that
is affected by the mucilage used to affix the plate.
If we cling to the "name-label" as our ideal, there
is no reason why we should make the inscription
entirely complete in itself. Many collectors would
welcome a space to add the date when the book
came into their possession ; some might even like
a convenient panel to inscribe their autograph
anew each time in lieu of its printed version. An
expert has recently published his opinion that a
portrait of the owner is the best of all decorations
for a non-armorial plate. For one who intended
to distribute his books among his friends, this
device might possibly be justified ; but to contem-
plate two or three thousand portraits of oneself,
lying ready to expose themselves any moment you
needed to refer to a book, is too ghastly a night-
mare for a person of average modesty to dwell
upon. Indeed, the skeleton lately so popular upon
ex libris, would be a less irritating memento morithan
a portrait of one's dead youth confronting one in
middle age. For it is hardly to be supposed that
the plates already inserted should be renewed at
intervals, or that you should have a progressive set of
portrait book-plates that would do to illustrate your
future biography in a Strand Magazine. At the
same time if—but the if is a very important reserva-
tion—a portrait is rendered in the simple convention
i f. Vallatton employs so well, or that which Mr. E.
H. New used in the well-known portrait of his
father, it might fitly take its place as a legitimate
part of the decoration of a label.
Among designs reproduced here, that for Ralph
H. Bayley seems most new in its plan, and if not
peculiarly bookish, is fresh in its idea and distinctly
a label.
In the plate for Amy Frances Burgess, by E. K.
BOOK-PLATE BY R. H. BAYLEY
"5
BENJAAMN
AND JANET
HAVGHTON
BOOK-PLATE BY J. WALTER WEST
as the bars of the stencil-plate make it imperative
they should be. But monograms can be devised
readily enough, wherein these " ties" are very
useful factors in the scheme. A good stencilled
monogram, with or without any purely extraneous
ornamentation, might be a very satisfactory substi-
tute for a pasted-in ex libris.
It would be impossible to delete a stencil worked
in permanent pigment without betraying the efface-
ment; and this should be a point in its favour.
Now, a piece of wet rag and a hot iron suffice to
remove a label with no trace of the change, unless
the lining paper of the book chance to be one that
is affected by the mucilage used to affix the plate.
If we cling to the "name-label" as our ideal, there
is no reason why we should make the inscription
entirely complete in itself. Many collectors would
welcome a space to add the date when the book
came into their possession ; some might even like
a convenient panel to inscribe their autograph
anew each time in lieu of its printed version. An
expert has recently published his opinion that a
portrait of the owner is the best of all decorations
for a non-armorial plate. For one who intended
to distribute his books among his friends, this
device might possibly be justified ; but to contem-
plate two or three thousand portraits of oneself,
lying ready to expose themselves any moment you
needed to refer to a book, is too ghastly a night-
mare for a person of average modesty to dwell
upon. Indeed, the skeleton lately so popular upon
ex libris, would be a less irritating memento morithan
a portrait of one's dead youth confronting one in
middle age. For it is hardly to be supposed that
the plates already inserted should be renewed at
intervals, or that you should have a progressive set of
portrait book-plates that would do to illustrate your
future biography in a Strand Magazine. At the
same time if—but the if is a very important reserva-
tion—a portrait is rendered in the simple convention
i f. Vallatton employs so well, or that which Mr. E.
H. New used in the well-known portrait of his
father, it might fitly take its place as a legitimate
part of the decoration of a label.
Among designs reproduced here, that for Ralph
H. Bayley seems most new in its plan, and if not
peculiarly bookish, is fresh in its idea and distinctly
a label.
In the plate for Amy Frances Burgess, by E. K.
BOOK-PLATE BY R. H. BAYLEY
"5