DOI issue:
No. 201 (December, 1909)
DOI article:Newbolt, Frank: Etched book-plates
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20968#0240
Etched Book-Plates
ETCHED BOOK-PLATE
BY SIR CHARLES HOLROYD, R.E.
would have given the Mr. Eve of the time an
opportunity of creating a delicate design of the
gilded dragon of Britain in the days of chivalry,
when a coat of arms was almost as necessary for a
knight as a coat of mail. The invention of gun-
powder has much to answer for. Until the four-
teenth century heraldry gave the only clue by
which a man, prince, baron, knight, or servant,
could be distinguished in the field, and an intimate
acquaintance with the principal blazons, marks,
and terms was much commoner than an elementary
knowledge of letters. It is now a mere survival,
but it still remains a symbol of family, and a better
one than a name itself, because, while a tinker may
call himself Norfolk Howard, ihe right to arms
must be legally established, as those who receive
titles of honour sometimes discover to their cost.
There is more than one blank shield in the Inner
Temple Hall, and doubtless in the halls of other
Inns also, where the arms of successive treasurers
are emblazoned in order round the walls.
After the battle of Agincourt heraldic emblems
218
ceased to be seen in war, though it is only within
living memory that standards have fallen out of
use as rallying points in the melee. Khaki has
taken the place of scarlet, guns have a range of
three thousand yards, and the frontal attack is as
much out of date as the naval tactics of Actium.
Book-plates are the product of democracy, and
afford evidence of the spread of education. They
give an opportunity for the use of arms akin to
their original object, but the modern appreciation
of design, and the consequent existence of a
number of designers, supply an incentive to the
production, of special symbols for individuals who
are attracted by the prevailing fashion. They are
ETCHED BOOK-PLATE BY SIR CHARLES HOLROYD, R.E.
inexpensive, useful, and a graceful addition to the
most modest library. They may be printed from
any kind of block or plate, and each kind has
some special quality to recommend it, but etched
book-plates appeal to the taste of many as the
most interesting, and it is with these alone, saving
one slight exception, that we have here to deal.
It is difficult to lay down exact rules for anything
in art. Each new movement bursts the bonds of
tradition, and where tradition is paramount, art
decays. When Whistler, himself a genius and an
outlaw, dogmatically insisted upon the criminality
ETCHED BOOK-PLATE
BY SIR CHARLES HOLROYD, R.E.
would have given the Mr. Eve of the time an
opportunity of creating a delicate design of the
gilded dragon of Britain in the days of chivalry,
when a coat of arms was almost as necessary for a
knight as a coat of mail. The invention of gun-
powder has much to answer for. Until the four-
teenth century heraldry gave the only clue by
which a man, prince, baron, knight, or servant,
could be distinguished in the field, and an intimate
acquaintance with the principal blazons, marks,
and terms was much commoner than an elementary
knowledge of letters. It is now a mere survival,
but it still remains a symbol of family, and a better
one than a name itself, because, while a tinker may
call himself Norfolk Howard, ihe right to arms
must be legally established, as those who receive
titles of honour sometimes discover to their cost.
There is more than one blank shield in the Inner
Temple Hall, and doubtless in the halls of other
Inns also, where the arms of successive treasurers
are emblazoned in order round the walls.
After the battle of Agincourt heraldic emblems
218
ceased to be seen in war, though it is only within
living memory that standards have fallen out of
use as rallying points in the melee. Khaki has
taken the place of scarlet, guns have a range of
three thousand yards, and the frontal attack is as
much out of date as the naval tactics of Actium.
Book-plates are the product of democracy, and
afford evidence of the spread of education. They
give an opportunity for the use of arms akin to
their original object, but the modern appreciation
of design, and the consequent existence of a
number of designers, supply an incentive to the
production, of special symbols for individuals who
are attracted by the prevailing fashion. They are
ETCHED BOOK-PLATE BY SIR CHARLES HOLROYD, R.E.
inexpensive, useful, and a graceful addition to the
most modest library. They may be printed from
any kind of block or plate, and each kind has
some special quality to recommend it, but etched
book-plates appeal to the taste of many as the
most interesting, and it is with these alone, saving
one slight exception, that we have here to deal.
It is difficult to lay down exact rules for anything
in art. Each new movement bursts the bonds of
tradition, and where tradition is paramount, art
decays. When Whistler, himself a genius and an
outlaw, dogmatically insisted upon the criminality