Golden plates

“ Some twenty years later, a still larger and more ornate book-plate (10 × 7 inches) was designed for use in the same library. Here the arms are in an oval frame, surrounded by the Golden Fleece; on the right and left are inverted cornucopiæ, and the crown is held aloft by four cherubs. All the book-plates of this library exist in a great variety of design, and nearly all the varieties are found in different sizes.
These examples are typical of many other German book-plates; the conception of the design is excellent, and its working out is equally good. ”

“ Some of the festoons are rich with blossoms, others, more slender, are of leaves only, while a few are made of cloth; the full garlands are usually hung from above the shield, while the thinner style is draped in any place and manner acceptable to the designer, and with more or less of gracefulness, as his skill permitted. This style of plate calls for nothing more than its legitimate features to render it effective and satisfactory, and in general the plates are in the pure style ”

“ On the back of this plate are five letters, either in the Phœnician or Assyrian cursive character.
Nos. 7. and 8.; covered with groups of small stags, surrounding an elaborate star, one plate containing above 600 figures; the animals are formed by three blows from a blunt instrument or punch. These plates are ornamented with small bosses of silver and gold let into the copper.
No. 9., diameter, 75⁄8 inches; depth, 11⁄2 inch, of fine workmanship; the centre formed by an incised star, surrounded by guilloche and tulip bands. ”

“ Modern Plate in the East.—Though little plate of real artistic merit is now made in Europe, in the East among the Moslem and Hindu races there still survive some real taste in design and skill in execution. Delhi, Benares, Lucknow, Cutch and other places in India and Kashmir still produce a quantity of beautiful silver and gold work—chiefly ewers, basins, rose-water sprinklers, salvers, coffee-pots and the like. These are of graceful form, covered with rich repoussé work, or more often with very delicate chased patterns. ”

“ Beneath this, a pile of books is covered by a scroll, which bears upon it the motto, Amici et amicis. The Rev. Morgan Dix, of Trinity Church, New York City, uses an heraldic plate, in which also the crest only is given. This is surrounded by a circular garter, on which the motto, Quod dixi factum est, is printed. This ends our list of plain armorial plates.
Whatever sarcasm and disgust may be stirred up by the assumption of arms by persons not entitled to them, no word can be said against the display of authenticated arms upon the book-plate. ”

“ Early Medieval Plate.—The Gothic, Gaulish and other semi-barbarian peoples, who in the 6th century were masters of Spain, France and parts of central Europe, produced great quantities of work in the precious metals, especially gold, often of great magnificence of design and not without some skill in workmanship. The Merovingians encouraged the art of the goldsmith by spending immense sums of money on plate and jewelry, though only two examples of their great wealth in church vessels have survived—the gold chalice and paten of Gourdon, now at Paris. ”

“ In England, where the heraldic features of a lady’s plate are required to be in some respects very different from those of the gentleman, they may be said to constitute a class by themselves. But with us, while of equal interest, they do not show any marked difference in their design from the gentlemen’s. Indeed,{373} most of them, if not all, would serve just as well for one as for the other. The plate of Charlotte Cushman, which is heraldic, is incorrect, if judged by the rules of the art. The arms are not in a lozenge, the crest is given, and the motto is displayed. ”

“ Many coats-of-arms run back for several centuries, and an honored ancestry has borne them. A rightful pride in such memorials of past family history induces many who are entitled to them to use their arms thus; and while the plain armorial plate has had its day, and has passed the stage of wide popularity, it is still in use.
Coming, now, to the Library Interior style of book-plates, we mention first the finest example of recent work in this style,—the plate of Richard C. Lichtenstein, of Boston. Mr. ”

“ As compared with its immediate predecessor, the differences in this style of plate are seen to be principally the liberating of the decorative features from the stiffness which thralled them in the Jacobean. Not now resembling ponderous carvings in oak and mahogany, but rising free and unrestrained, the rose branches and sprigs seem to be copied from Nature herself; not arranged with careful nicety and labored uniformity as formerly, but springing from any convenient niche, they add grace and delicacy to the whole design. ”

“ The old nobility, or what remained of them, returned to France and resumed their ancient titles and armorial bearings, but the general public refused to treat them seriously, and heraldic book-plates have been on the wane ever since. Of late years nearly all men celebrated in arts or letters have adopted either allegorical, pictorial, or humorous ex-libris, whilst modern plates which contain the grandest coats-of-arms frequently belong to those who are least entitled to bear them. ”

“ Another, and without doubt the highest type of the Chippendale plate which Hurd made, is seen in the John Chandler, Jr., the Dana, the{109} Philip Dumeresque, the Vassall, and the Wilson plates. In these the shield becomes larger, the whole scheme of decoration shows more fine detail work, and the effect is lighter, more graceful, and seems at once the work of a master. ”

“ The plate of Daniel Webster is a plain armorial{98} with the motto, Vera pro gratis, on the ribbon below the shield.
The etched plate of the late James Eddy Mauran, the early collector of American and other book-plates, was an armorial of very handsome appearance. The shield is surrounded with the style of decoration used on the Chippendale examples, oak leaves being used in lieu of mantling.
An earlier plate in two sizes shows some differences in the design.
The plate of the late George W. Childs seems wholly in keeping with the career of its distinguished owner. ”

“ Gilding or plates of gold or silver are applied to every available surface—to tables, chairs, footstools, and bedsteads; even silver night-urns are essential to the comfort of the fastidious plutocracy. ”

“ AGENTS $10 a day at home selling LIGHTNING PLATER and plating Jewelry, Watches, Tableware, Bicycles, etc. Plates finest jewelry good as new, and on all kinds of metal with gold, silver or nickel. No experience. Anyone can plate the first effort. Goods need plating at every house. ”

“ Eagles, lions, termini, cherubs, and sometimes cornucopiæ of fruit or flowers, angels blowing upon trumpets, and stiff stalks of flowers are introduced into the ornamentation. But these do not succeed in enlivening the style of the plate materially, for it is essentially heavy, conservative, and formal in design and spirit. No graceful airiness rests upon it, and it provokes no joyous sentiment, but rather rouses respect and enforces stateliness. The general appearance of the Jacobean plate is as if carved{44} from wood. ”

“ Convenience of form as well as long usage have so accustomed us to round plates, that we may well be surprised they should ever have been made angular; yet they were frequently copies, in a more precious material, of the square wooden trencher of the kitchen: at the same time circular plates are often represented in old drawings of feasts. ”

“ Mons. L. P. Couraud, of Cognac, designed his own armorial plate; the motto (a translation from Virgil) is appropriate to one who has won success by his own energy and skill.
Mons. Couraud, who is an enthusiastic collector of prints, medals, and ancient furniture, thus describes the origin of his book-plate: “Dans une vieille édition du ‘Roman du Renart’ je recontrai cette devise, ‘Fortune secort les hardiz,’ dès lors mon ex-libris était trouvé. ”

“ His name is well known by his invention of the buckled plate, which he patented in 1852. These plates form the best flooring ever made, combining the maximum of strength with the minimum of depth and weight ”

“ In the 15th century a large quantity of secular plate was produced of beautiful design and skilful workmanship. Tall covered cups on stems, modelled with a series of bosses something like a pineapple, beakers and tankards, enriched with Gothic cresting and foliage, are among the most important pieces of plate. During the 16th century Augsburg and Nuremberg, long celebrated for their silver work, developed a school of craftsmen whose splendid productions have often been ascribed to the great Cellini himself. ”

“ Not, as formerly, are we controlled as to the style which we shall adopt, but each book-lover can,{368} without appearing eccentric, place whatever design he chooses within his book-covers.
The plate of the well-known litterateur, W. Irving Way, of Chicago, is simply a very small bit of paper with his initials in cipher upon it. The plate of Fred J. Libbie, of Boston, one of the largest collectors of plates, is a cryptogrammic arrangement of the letters forming his name. ”

“ Little need be said concerning modern French armorial plates, they are neither numerous nor especially characteristic. Some of the neatest amongst them are signed Stern, graveur, Paris, and in their formality and clearness resemble our own modern heraldic work.
BOOK-PLATE OF G. MALET.
But it is in the light, graceful plates of to-day that we find the fullest development of French art and originality. They style them Ex-Libris de Fantaisie. They illustrate the transient humour of the owner, his caprices, his studies, or his recreations ”

“ In the plate of Eugene Field we have a beautiful example of the plain armorial, unaccompanied by motto or ornamentation of any kind.
Of similar character is the plate of Richard Grant White. This is armorial, but the motto, The right and sleep, is given, and the shield is decorated in a conventional manner, with mantling and scrolls.
A pleasing library interior is used by Arlo Bates. This represents an Oriental interior; a youth in scull-cap and flowing hair is reading a large book; a lily stem rises from a vase of striped Tyrian glass at his side; rows of books are seen at his back ”

“ Pictorial plates, introducing bits of landscape, interiors of libraries, or allegorical subjects, are sought for, as are plates which are accepted as particularly good types of the different styles. In addition to these technical reasons for valuing one plate more highly than another may be given others which will appear more reasonable perhaps to the general reader. All articles belonging to the noted men of the past have a certain antiquarian value greater than attaches to the kindred belongings of their contemporaries of lesser or no fame. ”

“ All of our early American plates can fairly be called scarce when compared with the foreign examples of the same period, for they outnumber ours, fifty to one; but many among ours are rarer than others. The John Franklin, brother of Benjamin, signed by Turner, is an exceeding rare plate; the Thomas Dering, signed by Hurd, is very rare. The plates of Stephen Cleveland, Samuel Chase, Francis Kinloch, Edward Augustus Holyoke, John Vassal, Lewis De Blois, Lenthal, Apthorp, the John Pintard, by Anderson, and many others are not seen in many collections. ”

“ With old china, and probably with old furniture, the taste for collecting is oftentimes an acquired one, but it is in the Englishman’s blood to ruminate over his old plate, and the hall-marks of the assay offices in London and in the provinces, in Scotland and in Ireland, have been placed thereon with aforethought. The plate closet is cousin to the strong-box, inasmuch as the coin of the realm and gold and silver plate have been subjected to stringent laws extending over a period of five hundred years. ”

“ The sword, broken into pieces by the quill, is depicted within an oval garter which bears the motto, Nihil sine labore. The words from Lytton’s Richelieu, The pen is mightier than the sword, are also given just within the frame.
Coming now to mention a few plates of our well-known men of letters, we naturally accept the plate of Oliver Wendell Holmes as worthy of the chiefest place. ”

“ The design seems to reach perfection in the Wentworth plate; every feature is markedly better, the water still flows out of the scallop shell, the same shaped shield is used and the motto is placed upon a graceful ribbon with ends which run off into fancy foliations. ”

“ Very few of the Southern plates were engraved by American engravers. They were nearly all done in London, when some member of the family was over, or by order from the Colony; for this reason the Southern plates are better in heraldry, design, and execution than those of New England and New York. They were the product of men experienced in such work ”

“ At a time when banking was unknown, property was converted into plate, as a most convenient mode of retaining it. Decorative plate increased the public state of its owner, was a portable thing, and could be easily hidden in time of danger, or pledged in time of want. Hence the nobility and gentry of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries gave abundant employment to the goldsmith. Cellini, in his Memoirs, has noted many fine pieces of ornamental plate he was called upon to design and execute ”

“ Yet, before making this, it was necessary to reduce the whole to ingots of a uniform standard, for the spoil was composed of an infinite variety of articles, in which the gold was of very different degrees of purity. These articles consisted of goblets, ewers, salvers, vases of every shape and size, ornaments and utensils for the temples and the royal palaces, tiles and plates for the decoration of the public edifices, curious imitations of different plants and animals. ”