French Book-plates

THE EX-LIBRIS SERIES. EDITED BY GLEESON WHITE. FRENCH BOOK-PLATES.
THE FIRST EDITION OF THIS BOOK WAS PUBLISHED IN 1892, AND WAS EXHAUSTED ALMOST IMMEDIATELY. THE PRESENT ISSUE IS LIMITED TO 750 COPIES OF THE ORDINARY EDITION, AND 38 COPIES ON TALL JAPANESE VELLUM (OF WHICH 35 ONLY ARE FOR SALE).
London: George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden, & New York. Mdcccxcvi CHISWICK PRESS:—CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
Societies devoted to the collection and study of ex-libris have been founded by eminent genealogists and heraldists, not only in Great Britain, but also in Germany, France, and the United States, all of which are in a flourishing condition, numbering many active and enthusiastic members. Each of these societies publishes an illustrated Journal in which the book-plates of all ages and countries are being reproduced and described from almost every point of view. Whilst the ever-widening circle of literature on the topic shows that the taste has now also spread to Sweden, to Italy, to Belgium, to Switzerland, and to South America.
Such intense literary activity has led to the recent publication of many interesting records of French ex-libris, and in order to keep my readers au courant with the present state of knowledge, it has been found necessary to increase the number of chapters, to add materially to the others, and to include nearly a hundred facsimiles, in addition to those in the former edition.
The writings of Poulet-Malassis, Henri Bouchot, Octave Uzanne, le Père Ingold, Auguste Castan, A. Benoit, Henri Jadart, and H. Jardère, are all well-known to French collectors, but they have not been translated, and what is even more serious for the British collector, the original editions are now for the most part unobtainable.
I have therefore attempted to embody all the principal facts to be gleaned from these authorities with the information derived from my own collection, so as to produce a succinct history of French book-plates from 1574 (the year named on the first known dated French book-plate) to the present day. In the alphabetical list of artists and engravers will be found such a concentration of information useful to collectors as does not exist in any other work on the subject.