DOI Heft:
No. 201 (December, 1909)
DOI Artikel:Newbolt, Frank: Etched book-plates
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20968#0241
Etched Book-Plates
ETCHED BOOK-PLATE BY D. Y. CAMERON
of large etched plates, he was too shortsighted or
too vain to foresee the development of their
decorative value, and other instances might be
given from mediaeval or Eastern art. It may,
however, be safely stated that book-plates should
not be too large for convenient use in books, and
they should possess either some striking individu-
ality or some special beauty of design, and of
course the execution should be of the best.
The modern label often suggests that the owner is
fond of books. Thus in one of our reproductions
we see Labour storing up great piles of volumes.
But in Mr. Frank Brangwyn's design for Mr. Victor
Singer, the prominent feature is not really the
books, but the virile force of the designer who
loves to design virility. This example suggests
another side to the question of ideas for book-plates.
The owner admires the work of an artist, and
desires to possess an etching of his, which is to be
all his own, but not, like a portrait, a plate from
which only a few impressions will naturally be
required. A book-plate satisfies the wish, and the
design may be of any kind so long as it recalls, as
it must generally do, the individuality of the etcher.
The perfect label suggests at once the owner and
the designer. The old heraldic engraving sug-
gested nothing except that the owner claimed the
right to bear arms. In the unnamed book-plate
by Mr. Brangwyn, which we are also allowed to
reproduce, the idea of the owner was to suggest
the soaring spirit of intellectual development over-
riding all material obstacles to mental progress.
A symbolical figure rises wingless above a city;
though I confess that the object of the cymbals is
not apparent.
The other example of this artist's book-plates is a
combination of several ideas. It is heraldic, though
ETCHED BOOK-PLATE. BY GEORGE W. EVE, R.E.
not in the manner of Mr. Eve, who, like Mr.
Sherborn, seems devoted to what is exclusively
knightly, and it suggests an interest on the part ot
both the owner and the etcher in ships, and it is a
beautiful, free, and characteristic design. Like the
other two, it is primarily an etching, and in its
original state almost unsuitable, for reasons of size
and expense, to be used as a book label; but it has
been well reproduced on a small wood block, and
the comparatively cheap impressions of the latter
219
ETCHED BOOK-PLATE BY D. Y. CAMERON
of large etched plates, he was too shortsighted or
too vain to foresee the development of their
decorative value, and other instances might be
given from mediaeval or Eastern art. It may,
however, be safely stated that book-plates should
not be too large for convenient use in books, and
they should possess either some striking individu-
ality or some special beauty of design, and of
course the execution should be of the best.
The modern label often suggests that the owner is
fond of books. Thus in one of our reproductions
we see Labour storing up great piles of volumes.
But in Mr. Frank Brangwyn's design for Mr. Victor
Singer, the prominent feature is not really the
books, but the virile force of the designer who
loves to design virility. This example suggests
another side to the question of ideas for book-plates.
The owner admires the work of an artist, and
desires to possess an etching of his, which is to be
all his own, but not, like a portrait, a plate from
which only a few impressions will naturally be
required. A book-plate satisfies the wish, and the
design may be of any kind so long as it recalls, as
it must generally do, the individuality of the etcher.
The perfect label suggests at once the owner and
the designer. The old heraldic engraving sug-
gested nothing except that the owner claimed the
right to bear arms. In the unnamed book-plate
by Mr. Brangwyn, which we are also allowed to
reproduce, the idea of the owner was to suggest
the soaring spirit of intellectual development over-
riding all material obstacles to mental progress.
A symbolical figure rises wingless above a city;
though I confess that the object of the cymbals is
not apparent.
The other example of this artist's book-plates is a
combination of several ideas. It is heraldic, though
ETCHED BOOK-PLATE. BY GEORGE W. EVE, R.E.
not in the manner of Mr. Eve, who, like Mr.
Sherborn, seems devoted to what is exclusively
knightly, and it suggests an interest on the part ot
both the owner and the etcher in ships, and it is a
beautiful, free, and characteristic design. Like the
other two, it is primarily an etching, and in its
original state almost unsuitable, for reasons of size
and expense, to be used as a book label; but it has
been well reproduced on a small wood block, and
the comparatively cheap impressions of the latter
219