Book-Plates

By W. J. Hardy, F.S.A. SECOND EDITION
London Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd. MDCCCXCVII

First Edition published 1893 as Vol. II. of 'Books about Books.'

Having vindicated in my introductory chapter the practice of collecting book-plates from the charge of flagrant immorality, I do not think it necessary to spend many words in demonstrating that it is in every way a worthy and reasonable pursuit, and one which fully deserves to be made the subject of a special treatise in a series of Books about Books . If need were, the Editor of the series, who asked me to write this little hand-book, would perhaps kindly accept his share of responsibility, but in the face of the existence of a flourishing 'Ex Libris' Society, the importance of the book-plate as an object of collection may almost be taken as axiomatic. My own interest in this particular hobby is of long standing, and happily the appearance, when my manuscript was already at the printer's, of Mr. Egerton Castle's pleasantly written and profusely illustrated work on English Book-Plates has relieved me of the dreaded necessity of writing an additional chapter on those modern examples, in treating of which neither my knowledge nor my enthusiasm would have equalled his.
The desire to possess a book-plate of one's own is in itself commendable enough, for in fixing the first copy into the first book the owner may surely be assumed to have registered a vow that he or she at least will not join the great army of book-persecutors—men and women who cannot touch a volume without maltreating it, and who, though they are often ready to describe the removal of a book-plate, even from a worthless volume, as an act of vandalism, do infinitely more harm to books in general by their ruthless handling of them. No doubt, also, the decay of interest in heraldry, which is mainly responsible for the eccentricities of modern 'fancy' examples, has taken from us the temptation to commit certain sins which were at one time attractive. Our ancestors, for instance, may sometimes have outraged the susceptibilities of the heralds by using as book-plates coats-of-arms to which they had no title. Yet their offence against the College of Arms was trivial when compared with the outrage upon common-sense committed by the mystical young man of to-day, who designs, or has designed for him, an 'emblematic' book-plate, or a 'symbolic' book-plate, or a 'theoretic' book-plate, in which the emblem, or the symbol, or the theory, is far too mystical for any ordinary comprehension, and needs, in fact, a lengthy explanation, which, however, I am bound to confess, is always very willingly given by either owner or designer, if asked for.