DOI Heft:
No. 356 (November 1922)
DOI Artikel:Guthrie, James: The modern spirit in the modern art of the bookplate
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21396#0270
THE MODERN BOOKPLATE
FROM A PLATE PRINT
BY JAMES GUTHRIE
upon the delights of collecting, upon the
personal note, upon the obvious differences
between heraldic plates and those that were
more or less innocent of design, uneasily
aware of a sort of exhaustion from lack of
meat. The more doubtful conclusions,
with the humours and offences, which real
judgment must stir up, were, and still are,
left to take care of themselves. Neither
bookmen nor artists, however, are in need
of such protection in our time. They
realise more frankly that the centre of any
given study is distinct from personal con-
siderations, and that, in fact, a loyal and
mutual regard for knowledge constitutes a
better bond than does any nervous fear of
giving or receiving offence. 0 0
Learning (so far as it is pedantic), tradi-
tion (so far as it is suffered to stand in the
way, hindering the expression which each
succeeding age must find for itself), may
still have a charm for the historian; but
they are the enemies of any art whose
business is with living emotions, not with
dead facts. a a 0 a a
Thus when we contrast old and new
ideas about bookplates we are both inter-
ested and comforted to discover that the
common factor remains the same for those
who keep a simple love of good design.
Social values and the achievement of arms
may be seen to lose nothing of their
interest by being a warrant of sound
craftsmanship or, as it sometimes happens,
a provision against a loose sense of origin-
ality. For, in our modern freedom from
" fabulous beasts and storied utensils,"
there is no doubt about us being set a
harder task if we would find for each
person some device as truly his own as
the old science of heraldry was able to
construct by means of established and
systematic blazonry. The living continu-
ation of tradition is found, that is to say,
in the recognition of common ground,
rather than in departures having no
visible structure of their own. The justice
of this is shown as soon as draughtsmen
FROM A COLOURED PLATE
PRINT BY JAMES GUTHRIE
250
FROM A PLATE PRINT
BY JAMES GUTHRIE
upon the delights of collecting, upon the
personal note, upon the obvious differences
between heraldic plates and those that were
more or less innocent of design, uneasily
aware of a sort of exhaustion from lack of
meat. The more doubtful conclusions,
with the humours and offences, which real
judgment must stir up, were, and still are,
left to take care of themselves. Neither
bookmen nor artists, however, are in need
of such protection in our time. They
realise more frankly that the centre of any
given study is distinct from personal con-
siderations, and that, in fact, a loyal and
mutual regard for knowledge constitutes a
better bond than does any nervous fear of
giving or receiving offence. 0 0
Learning (so far as it is pedantic), tradi-
tion (so far as it is suffered to stand in the
way, hindering the expression which each
succeeding age must find for itself), may
still have a charm for the historian; but
they are the enemies of any art whose
business is with living emotions, not with
dead facts. a a 0 a a
Thus when we contrast old and new
ideas about bookplates we are both inter-
ested and comforted to discover that the
common factor remains the same for those
who keep a simple love of good design.
Social values and the achievement of arms
may be seen to lose nothing of their
interest by being a warrant of sound
craftsmanship or, as it sometimes happens,
a provision against a loose sense of origin-
ality. For, in our modern freedom from
" fabulous beasts and storied utensils,"
there is no doubt about us being set a
harder task if we would find for each
person some device as truly his own as
the old science of heraldry was able to
construct by means of established and
systematic blazonry. The living continu-
ation of tradition is found, that is to say,
in the recognition of common ground,
rather than in departures having no
visible structure of their own. The justice
of this is shown as soon as draughtsmen
FROM A COLOURED PLATE
PRINT BY JAMES GUTHRIE
250