BOOK-PLATES of TO-DAY
Edited By WILBUR MACEY STONE
NEW YORK
TONNELÉ & COMPANY
1902
Copyrighted 1902 by Tonnelé & Co.
BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY
TONNELÉ & COMPANY
NEW YORK
TABLE OF CONTENTS
| Book-plate of Mrs. Amy Ivers Truesdell, in colors. Designed by Jay Chambers. | [Frontispiece] |
| Book-plate of Arnold William Brunner, in colors. Designed by Thomas Tryon. | [Facing 3] |
| American Designers of Book-plates: William Edgar Fisher. By W. G. Bowdoin. | [3] |
| Book-plate of William Frederick Havemeyer, from the copper. Designed by Thomas Tryon, engraved by E. D. French. | [Facing 9] |
| Nineteen Book-plates by British Designers. | [9] |
| Book-plate of T. Henry Foster, in colors. Designed by Jay Chambers. | [Facing 19] |
| The Artistic Book-plate. By Temple Scott. | [19] |
| Book-plate of Miss Henrietta M. Cox, in colors. Designed by Thomas Tryon. | [Facing 23] |
| Thirty-two book-plates from various sources. | [23] |
| Book-plate of Robert Fletcher Rogers, in colors. Designed by Homer W. Colby. | [Facing 33] |
| Book-plates and the Nude. By Wilbur Macey Stone. | [33] |
| Book-plate of Willis Steell, in colors. Designed by Thomas Tryon. | [Facing 39] |
| The Architect as a Book-plate Designer. By Willis Steell. | [39] |
| Book-plate of William A. Boland, in colors. Designed by Homer W. Colby. | [Facing 45] |
| A Check-list of the Work of Twenty-three Book-plate Designers of Prominence. Compiled by Wilbur Macey Stone. | [45] |
BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY
TONNELÉ & COMPANY
NEW YORK
AMERICAN DESIGNERS of BOOK-PLATES: WM. EDGAR FISHER
By W. G. BOWDOIN
THE book-plate designers of to-day are legion because they are many. Almost every one who can draw, and many who cannot, have ventured into the field of book-plate designing; and the result has been that many of the book-plates that are current have little to commend them to critical observers. The present increasing interest in these little bits of the graver’s art has greatly encouraged the production of them, and new ones arise daily. It is desirable, therefore, if we are to have book-plates at all, that they shall be as artistic as may be; and it is important, from an art standpoint, to all those who are about to adopt the use of these marks of ownership that they shall have, as they may have, the artistic flavor about them.
By Wm. Edgar Fisher
By Wm. Edgar Fisher
Most of our leading designers have hitherto been grouped in the eastern section of our country, or at least not much further west than Chicago. Some few designs, it is true, have been produced in California, but for the most part the book-plates of note have been marked with an eastern geographical origin.
In William Edgar Fisher we have a designer who has strikingly departed from geographical conditions of book-plate designing heretofore prevailing, and in faraway Fargo, North Dakota, has set up his studio from whence have come designs that are fresh, original and very pleasing. Mr. Fisher loves to work in a pictorial field. He makes a plate that tells a story, and in his best plates there is artfully placed something bookish that harmonizes with the design-form selected; and, because of art coherence and harmony in design that go hand in hand, his plates are more than satisfactory. The general eastern notion in regard to North Dakota is that nothing artistic can come out of the State, but the work done there by Mr. Fisher quickly dispels such an idea. The plates he has drawn are acknowledged as highly meritorious by the best American masters of book-plate designing. In all the plates from the hand of this artist that are here grouped, and which may be regarded as quite typical of him, there are only two that do not contain a book as a detail somewhere in the finished plate.
By Wm. Edgar Fisher
One of the exceptions is the plate of the Studio Club that gains infinitely by the omission of a book in the plate as produced. The grouping of the five observers (symbolic of the members of the Studio Club) around the feminine portrait is most charming, and to the writer it appears one of the happiest of recent productions in appropriate book-plates.
Mr. Fisher’s feminine figures that he introduces into many of his plates are likewise exceedingly effective. This is particularly the case when to the charms of femininity he has added those of symbolism, as in the case of the plate for Miss Winifred Knight, in which the graceful female masker appears at the shrine of the idealized god Pan, who writes, it may be something oracular, in her proffered album. The figure is gracefully posed and the lines of the arms and neck are marked by pleasant curves.
By Wm. Edgar Fisher
In the plate of Maie Bruce Douglas, Mr. Fisher may have been influenced by Hans Christian Andersen. At any rate, whether or not this is so, [!-- original location of illustrations --] he has neatly and most effectively grouped the old-time jester with his cap and bells, the pointed shoes from whence came our modern samples, and the maiden with the quaintness of head-dress and drapery, that at least suggests the fairy and the incidental sacred stork, making this plate with its shelf of books and the panel of repeated heraldic shields very attractive even to the chance observer.
In the plates for the Misses Mary N. Lewis, Elizabeth Langdon, Leila H. Cole and Elizabeth Allen there are several diverse methods shown in which convention has been pleasingly utilized. The vine and tree forms that are motifs are very effective, and in all of these we see suggestions of treatment similar to that which stands out perhaps a little more pronouncedly in the plate of Miss Douglas. Costume quaintness, charm of pose, graceful outline, the tendency toward lecturn detail and delicacy of touch, are in each instance here seen to be characteristic of the artist.
The plate of John Charles Gage has in it the atmosphere of the monastery. Two friars are busy with a folio manuscript that has been beautifully illuminated. The one reads the lessons for the day from the book of hours. The other has a pleasing bit of gossip that he is telling to his brother friar as he reads, and the reader hears with eagerness with his ears while he reads without absorption with his eyes.
By Wm. Edgar Fisher
Into the plate of Samuel H. Hudson the atmosphere of the monastery is also introduced. The cordelier sits absorbedly reading his matins. Through the open window of the monkish cell is seen the morning medieval landscape whose charms exercise no influence upon the solitary recluse, solitary save for the monkey who plays sad havoc with the vellum volume that lies upon the cell floor and the destruction of which the Franciscan is too absorbed to notice. The monkey as a foil for the ascetic in this plate shows that Mr. Fisher has a strong appreciation of the most delicate humor, which here crops out most delightfully. The border makes the plate a trifle heavy, but this can easily be excused because of the charm of the plate otherwise.
By Wm. Edgar Fisher
The dog is given a prominent place in the plate of Miss Lula Thomas Wear. He dominates even the books, and it may be that the owner prefers her dachshund to her library, although it is evident that her books have some place in her esteem.
The design on the plate of Stanley Shepard suggests a derivation from an old print. The caravel rides upon the waves according to the conception of the old-time engravers. The anchor, the sword fish of the deep sea, and the sea-stars all suggest the ocean voyager who has deep down in his heart a love of books.
By Wm. Edgar Fisher
In contrast with the plate of Mr. Shepard’s appears that bearing the name of Silvanus Macy, Jr. The love of hunting stands out right boldly here, and in the fox hunt does Mr. Macy undoubtedly revel. He could not have such a book-plate otherwise, and live with it every day, let it be in all his books and have it stand for him as it does, unless it was fairly representative of the man’s personality. That is what makes a book-plate so eminently interesting, aside from the art work put upon it. Books appeal to all sorts and conditions of men, as the work of Mr. Fisher’s here grouped clearly indicates.
The plate from the books of Miss Edna B. Stockhouse is a trifle shadowy in motif notwithstanding which there can be no doubt the owner loves books. The face in the book-plate reads. There is also a love of the beautiful in ceramics indicated as an incident in the plate. No wonder the head wears an aureole.
The “Bi Lauda” plate is that of a secret society at Wellsville, N. Y., and we, therefore, forgive if we cannot forget its poverty of bookish design.
By Wm. Edgar Fisher
In the personal plate of the designer, of all those here reproduced, we catch glimpses of the artist’s own personality. We see him as a book-lover and something of his inspiration is spread out before us. He goes reading along, carrying reserve volumes in case the one that engages his attention in the portraiture is happily finished. Mr. Fisher has been producing book-plates only since 1898, since which time he has to his credit some forty examples of work in this field. He is perhaps happiest in his rendition of the plate pictorial, and he has sometimes tinted his plates most charmingly. Mr. Fisher prepared for Cornell at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. At Cornell he studied architecture for two years, with especial attention to drawing. He also studied, for six months, at the Art Institute, Chicago, Ill., whither he went from Cornell. He has been largely self-taught in the matter of designing, but his work indicates that his teacher was a good one. He has privately but carefully studied the work of the best modern pen-and-ink draughtsmen, and from this he has formed his personal style. The methods and craftsmanship of reproduction were the subject of special study on his part while he was with one of the large Chicago engraving houses. Anything that comes from his hand will be sure of the most kindly reception, so long as his work is maintained at the present high standard.
By Wm. Edgar Fisher
BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY
TONNELÉ & COMPANY
NEW YORK
NINETEEN EXAMPLES OF DECORATIVE BOOK-PLATES BY MODERN BRITISH DESIGNERS
From THE LONDON “STUDIO”
By J. W. Simpson
By Byam Shaw
By R. Anning Bell
By Walter Essie
By E. H. New
By J. W. Simpson
Four Designs by Gordon Craig
By J. Williams
By J. Williams
By W. B. Pearson
By S. A. Lindsey
By Enid M. Jackson
By Anna Dixon
By Arthur H. Verstage
From Drawing after Etching
By D. Y. Cameron
By Harold Nelson
BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY
TONNELÉ & COMPANY
NEW YORK
THE ARTISTIC BOOK-PLATE
By TEMPLE SCOTT
A BOOK-PLATE, in its simplest expression, is a printed indication of the ownership of a book. It may take the form of the unadorned visiting card, or it may be embellished with heraldic and other designs explanatory of the owner’s name, ancestry, tastes, or predilections. Primarily, however, it is intended to fix ownership. How far it satisfactorily serves its purpose, is, perhaps, of little moment to the average book-collector; for the book-plate has emerged from the stage of practical utility and become a thing in itself, so to speak. It has taken its place beside the many articles de vertu which are godsends to the weary of brain and heart, inasmuch as they become the objects of a passion so delightful in its experience, as to make us forget the little trials and worries of life that make pessimists of us in this “bleak Aceldama of sorrow.” Nay, they may even become the one sun, shining and irradiating for us all the dark places of our wanderings, and cheer us with the hopes for newer and finer acquisitions than we already have.
When, however, we come to a consideration of the artistic book-plate, we enter upon a new field of enquiry entirely. It indicates that a simple usage of a necessary and harmless convention has developed into a complex expression—an expression not merely of the individual to whom the book belongs, but also of the artist whose business it is to give pictorial form to the desires and wishes and tastes of his patron.
From the crude, if sufficient, paste-board stuck on the end-paper, to the heraldic display, was, surely, no very far cry. In the countries of the Old World, where pride of ancestry touches the worthy and unworthy alike, it was to be expected that so valuable an opportunity for flaunting the deeds of “derring do” of one’s forefathers as a sign of one’s own distinction, such as the book-plate offers, was certainly not to be neglected. So we find that the coats of arms which once served as inspirations, and which once had a genuine meaning to their owners and retainers, now do service in the more peaceful realms of Bookland. And, assuredly, there are certain books in a library, which are more worthily acknowledged after this ancient and martial fashion. We cannot but believe that a Froissart from the press of Caxton or Wynkyn de Worde, would be handled with more reverence if one saw on the verso of its front cover a glorious display of the arcana of heraldry, in all its magnificence of mysterious meaning. This feeling would also be aroused in turning the leaves of, say, Philippe le Noir’s edition of the “Gesta Romanorum” (1532), or of Hayton’s “Lytell Cronycle” from the shop of Richard Pynson, or of Mandeville’s “Voyages and Travailles,” issued by T. Snodham in 1625, or of Pliny’s “Historia Naturalis” from the Venetian press of Nic. Jenson in 1472, or of Rastell’s “Pastyme of People,” “emprynted in Chepesyde at the Sygne of the Mermayd” in 1529. To these and their like a book-plate of heraldic story comes as a fitting and graceful complement.
But the average mortal of this work-a-day world and age has not the means wherewith to acquire such treasures of the bibliophile. Nor, perhaps, has he the necessary pedigree with which to adorn them, if acquired; though on this latter consideration, we suspect that the Herald’s College in the purlieus of Doctors’ Commons, and the more amenable, though not less expensive Tiffany on this side of the Atlantic, would, no doubt, prove excellent aids to a full satisfaction.
But we are not here dealing with the pomp and glorious circumstance of Heraldry. In dealing with the artistic book-plate, we are considering a matter which concerns itself not with past stories or past individuals, but with the present tale and the particular living personage who has the laudable and humble ambition to distinguish his copy of a book from his friend’s copy of the same book. A taste in books may be easily whitewashed, but a taste in a book-plate flares its owner’s heart right into the eyes of the demurest damsel or the simplest swain. It may be that our collection is but a series of Tauchnitz editions carefully garnered on a European tour, or a handful or two of Bohn’s Library, accumulated from our more studious days, or a treatise on golf, chess, gardening and photography, or a history of the state or town in which we live—it matters little what—these are the treasures we most prize, and we wish to hold them. Now, how best shall the collector mark them as his own?
He writes his name on the title-page. Ugh! What a vandal’s act! The man who could so disfigure a book deserves to have it taken from him, and his name obliterated. He who could find it in his heart to write on title-pages could surely commit a murder. We’d much rather he turned a leaf down to mark the place where he had left off in his reading; though to do that is bad enough, in all conscience. Nor does he save his soul by writing on the fly-title, or even end-paper. Moreover, this will not save his book either. A visiting card can easily be taken out—it looks too formal, nondescript, meaningless, common, to inspire any respect in a would-be thief. But an artistic book-plate! Ah! that’s another thing altogether.
An artistic book-plate is the expression in decorative illustration of the proprietor’s tastes, made by an artist who has sympathetically realized the feeling intended. It should objectify one, and only one, salient characteristic, either of temperament, habit, disposition, or pleasure, of its owner. If it does less, it is not individual; if it does more, it is not satisfying.
Now each one of us has some characteristic trait that is not common to us all—then let that be the aim of the artist to embody in decorative form. And let that embodiment be simple and direct—the simpler and more direct it is, the more will it appear; and the more beautiful it is the more will it soften the kleptomaniacal tendencies of the ghoulish book-hunter. For nothing touches him so nearly to the finer impulses of nature than the contemplation of beauty; and he would be less than human did he fail to respond. We would even go to the length of giving as an admirable test of the book-plate artist’s powers, the lending of a book (whose loss would give no qualms) containing the plate. If it come not back, there’s something the matter with your plate; or, you can libel your friend as a beast of low degree, which suggests a good way of finding out your friend’s true character. But then, there’s no limit to the powers of a beautiful book-plate.
Now there are a great many coy people who don’t care to wear their hearts on their sleeves; these would naturally feel indisposed to post themselves thus before the public eye, be the book-plate never so beautiful. To these we would say: Give us what you prize best—your home, your wife, your sweetheart, your motto (though that’s giving yourself away too), your baby, anything that is truly yours. (Babies are quite à propos, and should be characteristic, though it does not always follow. Some babies have a habit of taking after quite other people.) The idea is, to embody something individual, something special and particular.
If he can afford a large library, or is a collector of the works of one or two authors, there’s a way out of the difficulty for the coy person, by having the book-plate represent the characteristic of the author and have his name as an addition. That may be taking a liberty—but authors are accustomed to that; and, besides, you are appreciating them, and that should exorcise the spirit of an indignant “classic” from the four walls of your library. Have the original of the design framed on the wall; it may save you a lot of explanation should the spook even get “mad.” You can always lay the blame on the artist. Of course, this means a book-plate for each author; but as book-plates are not, after all, such very expensive luxuries, this consideration need be a matter of but small moment.
Yet another idea is to have an artistic treatment of a representation of your library, your “den.” That sounds very inviting and certainly can hurt no one’s feelings. If you don’t happen to possess a special apartment, give an apartment such as you would like to possess. Or show your favorite chair, or nook, or greenwood tree, or running brook, or garden plot. There are thousands of ways in which to fashion a book-plate, and an artistic book-plate, too. We thus can see what an advance the modern artistic book-plate is on the old style article—so formal, so characterless, so inchoate and so amorphous.
Indeed the artistic book-plate is a genuine inspiration, or it may be made so. How charming, or delight-giving, or valuable, or intoxicating it is, depends largely on the artist. But it also depends on the individual who desires it. It should be planned with care and executed with feeling. It should be like no other book-plate in the sense that it possesses some flavor that is private and personal. It should be as much an indication of the owner’s taste as is his library—and no man can hide his nature from the friend who has had access to that. There are many things a book-plate should not be—but these may be summed up in the advice—it should not be a mask. You may order your books by the hundredweight from your bookseller, but that won’t stand you in any stead when your friend handles them and turns to you for a criticism, or an opinion. You may also commission your artist for a book-plate; but you are in a worse plight if you fail in the more direct explanation you will be required to make to the insistent inquiries as to its meaning or appositeness. No! Be it ever so humble, let it be yours. It may be a poor thing, but it is your own; but it may be also a very rich thing, and your own also.
By J. W. Simpson
BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY
TONNELÉ & COMPANY
NEW YORK
THIRTY-TWO EXAMPLES OF BOOK-PLATES from PRIVATE COLLECTIONS and Other Sources
From Steel Engraving By E. D. French
By Geo. Wharton Edwards
By T. B. Hapgood, Jr.
By Charles Selkirk
By T. B. Hapgood, Jr.
By Louis H. Rhead
By B. G. Goodhue
By W. S. Hadaway
From Steel Engraving
By E. D. French
By H. E. Goodhue
By H. E. Goodhue
By B. G. Goodhue
By Fernand Khnopff
By Hans Thoma
By Bernhard Wenig
By Julius Diez
By Charles E. Eldred, of English Navy
From Steel Engravings by Wm. Phillips Barrett
From Steel Engravings by Wm. Phillips Barrett
Four designs by Thomas M. Cleland
BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY
TONNELÉ & COMPANY
NEW YORK
BOOK-PLATES AND THE NUDE
By WILBUR MACEY STONE
LOVERS of the beautiful have been burdened with endless talk and writing and many quarrels on the nude in art, and now I have the temerity to open a new field of battle and throw down the gauntlet for strife. The Eternal Feminine is a prominent factor in the picture book-plates of the day, and she is showing some tendencies to appear minus her apparel. Question: is it wise and in good taste?
Of course, to start with, I am quite free to admit that good taste is a movable feast and is much influenced by the point of view. Your taste is good if it agrees with mine; otherwise it is bad taste or no taste. At any rate, there are a few things we can agree upon, I think. For instance, that there is a wide distinction between the nude and the naked. Also, that the human form divine is most beautiful, but that to remain most beautiful it must deviate not one jot or tittle from the divine, for any deviation is to tend to the earthy and gross, which is vulgar and—bad taste. We can also agree, I think, that partially draped figures can be, and often are, sensual and repulsive beyond the frankly nude, and this without the direct intent or knowledge of the artist.
“A hair perhaps divides the false and true,
Yes; and a single slip were the clue—”
But above all things a nude figure should never carry the idea of a consciousness of its nudity! Also, clothing or drapery used simply to hide portions of the figure is execrable and more suggestive than any entire absence of clothing; while to add, as I have seen done, a hat and French-heeled shoes to a nude figure is abominable beyond condemnation.
But all this is of broad application and is sawing upon the same old and frayed strings. Abstractly, a beautiful nude is as beautiful on a book-plate as in a portfolio or in a frame, and some of the most beautiful book-plates I have ever seen have been nudes. Nevertheless, to me the nude seems out of place and in questionable taste on a book-plate; the simple matter of repetition is enough to condemn it.
The partially draped figures by R. Anning Bell are chaste and beautiful, and one never thinks of them other than as clothed; so they can hardly be considered in this discussion. Many of the book-plates by Henry Ospovat contain partly draped figures which are always beautifully drawn, pure and a constant delight. But really, I think it would jar me to meet even an angel—the same one, mind you—in each of a thousand volumes. Emil Orlak, in Austria, has made some fairly pleasing nudes, but they lack that purity of conception without which they are common. Armand Rassenfosse, of Belgium, has etched a number of dainty, faultlessly drawn and really most beautiful nudes, but many of them have been ruined by the needless addition of shoes and fancy head-dresses. Pal de Mont, of Antwerp, has a plate by Edmond van Oppel which he probably thinks a work of art, but which is surely the height of vulgarity; while in “Composite Book-Plates” is a design by Theodore Simson containing a large figure of a nude woman with her hair done in a pug, seated in a grove amid dandelions and poppies, and diligently reading a book. The figure is treated in broad outline, which is ill adapted to the subject, and it lacks that refinement without which nothing is beautiful. She is absolutely at variance with her environment, and the whole is a tour de force quite unforgivable.
By H. Nelson
Miss Labouchere, in her volume on ladies’ plates, shows a rather amusing pair of designs for Miss Nellie Heaton. These plates both bear the legend, “Gather ye roses while ye may.” In the first, the designer, Mrs. Baker, has a fair creature in all the glory of entire nudity plucking blossoms from a rose-vine. In the other, she used the same design throughout, but has fully clothed the figure. Evidently Miss Heaton protested.
These designs by a woman call to mind the fact that among the book-plates of over one hundred and fifty women designers with which I am familiar, I know of but one other nude. This other is by Miss Mary Florence, and is of a large full-length angel entirely undraped.
By H. Ospovat
By A. Rassenfosse
Fritz Erler, a German designer of much strength, has made a number of symbolic book-plates. All, I believe, have the feminine as motif, and in several the figures are nude. The design for Emil Gerhäuser is inoffensive and well-drawn, but surely is not beautiful, and lacks a good excuse for existence. In a generally pleasing decorative arrangement for Robert H. Smith, Harold Nelson, an English designer, shows a rather attenuated nude maiden looking with envy at a gorgeous peacock on the opposite side of the design; while the peacock in turn seems to say, “Why don’t you grow some feathers?”
We naturally expect to find well-drawn, if not always pleasing, nudes in the French school. Henry André, one of the best known French designers of book-plates, uses the nude quite freely in his work; in some instances pleasingly, but in one or two with marked vulgarity. Octave Uzanne has the most pleasing nude plate that I have ever seen. It is designed by Guérin, and represents a tortoise bearing the implements of the artist, and coaxed along by the hot torch of knowledge in the hand of a light-winged cupid. By Sherborn, the great, I have seen but one nude in a book-plate, and that a poor thing but innocuous, for Mr. Harris Fahnestock of New York. Mr. E. D. French has made but one nude that I have seen, that for Mr. E. H. Bierstadt; the design shows a nude shepherd boy piping to his flock. The plate Mr. French engraved for Mr. De Vinne, from the design by Geo. Fletcher Babb, has nude termini for bearers, and is elegant and beautiful, an ideal plate.
By H. Ospovat
American artists have essayed the nude but little in book-plate design, perhaps through wisdom, perhaps through [!-- original location of illustrations --] fear; but the fact remains that they have thereby avoided the perpetration of at least some crimes. Judging by the examples we have been able to cite, and they are representative, it would seem that the best advice we can give those tempted to use the undraped beautiful in their book-plates is—don’t.
From Drawing after Etching
by A. Rassenfosse
After Etching by Guérin
By Fritz Erler
BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY
TONNELÉ & COMPANY
NEW YORK
THE ARCHITECT AS A BOOK-PLATE DESIGNER
By WILLIS STEELL
By Thomas Tryon
AMONG the book-plate designers of the present day the architect may, if he choose, take a high place. He is one whose studies have led him through the paths of artistic training where his eye and hand have learned to see color and form and balance of parts, and while the usual media of his profession are wood, stone, terra cotta and iron, there are many by-paths through which he must travel to appreciate the value of his pencil lines upon the flat.
No more delightful by-way than the book-plate route will open before him, hedged in as it is by purely artistic shrubbery and leading constantly to pretty and even beautiful designs in which the genius of architecture has played a great part. Moreover, all his preceding journey through the hard conventional country to which architecture at first seems limited, has equipped him thoroughly to give expression to his fancy. That the gift of imagination is among his endowments should be taken for granted, however, if the architect is to succeed in the line of drawing book-plates.
Fancy and imagination being in his mental equipment the architect can “rest” his mind in no more delightful fashion than by giving them full scope in this gem-like art. His experience, his collections of drawings, the work of others of his craft which he has studied, all tend to render his fund of information large, and if he has the key to book-plate art, inexhaustible, since nothing comes amiss to the pen of one whose facile fancy can grasp a good motive and direct it to a purpose other than that originally intended.
JAMES SEYMOUR TRYON
By Thomas Tryon
In the early days of art the architect was not only a designer of buildings but was also a sculptor and sometimes a decorative painter. He was called upon by his patrons to design whatever was needed at the moment, and these men were “all-round” artists, the day of specialization and the speculator not having dawned.
Buonarotti is an awesome name to call up, but this great painter, sculptor, architect and builder touched nothing that he did not adorn, and in many of the hundreds of crayon sketches and cartoons that he left behind him, the feeling of the book-plate artist is clear. Had Lorenzo the Magnificent wanted a book-plate for use in his library, the great Michael Angelo could have filled the want from his own notes, with very little of either suppression or expansion. It may seem strange to think of this Titan of art, the creator of the sweeping “Last Judgment” turning his pencil to the delicate lines, the imperceptible nuances demanded by a book-plate, yet it may be repeated, in his work may be found a myriad of suggestions for these gem-like products.
By Thomas Tryon
Buonarotti was not, however, first and last an architect. Painter and sculptor also, these sides of his artist soul would have been drawn on for the book-plate. Therefore the statement that not every architect can design so fanciful and dainty a work as a book-plate becomes a truism patent to everybody. The architect’s profession calls for a two-fold nature, the one side tending toward that of the engineer with its eminently practical and very necessary tables of stress and strain, its mathematical calculations for loads and disposition of carrying walls, while the other side leans to a nice discernment of color and proportion. The laying out of vistas and the arrangement of surfaces and lines, so that the eye is aided in receiving the best impression from all points of view. Of this turn of mind is the one who can and does design book-plates. The very practical architect, if he wishes the glory, which is doubtful, has one of his draftsmen make the design and then signs the drawing and gets the glory. It would be amusing if such an one through some luck charm received constant application for such work. His draftsmen would change and his drawings be as dissimilar as the men who drew them. Possibly the signature would lead the long-suffering public to think him very versatile.
It is not of this class of architect that we write. It is of him who is half painter or sculptor, and who loves his pen and pencil and delights in the personal expression of his ideals. He finds that his way of seeing things is more to his liking than any way of any other man. He sees the infinite beauty of nature and loves her shifting pictures in the clouds. Then too, he must have the ability to clearly comprehend the half-formed ideas of him whose plate he undertakes to draw. This is not always an easy matter. There are but few in the world who can formulate their ideas, much less invent a picture without first seeing it. Here the architect has, perhaps, an advantage over the purely imaginative artist, since the average man does not know the difference between the Classic period and the Gothic, the Napoleon era and the modern German renaissance.
Of the architects who have obtained unquestioned recognition in this exquisite art, Thomas Tryon is among those whose work is especially prized. His adaptation of architectural forms to the confined space of the book-plate shows the work of a man who has command of his tools and knowledge, and despite the narrow confines of the field his work is not at all “cabined or cribbed.” The illustrations accompanying this essay are taken rather at random from among Mr. Tryon’s designs, but they will convey to those unfamiliar with his work, a fair idea of its scope and treatment. His first design was a plate for his father, an ornate armorial design, the name being set up in type at the base. The plate for Miss Annah M. Fellowes is quite elaborate. A long-haired and bewhiskered knight stands before us in a suit of rich armor, his right hand bearing his sword and helmet, and his left resting upon his shield. His helmet is surmounted by a pair of spreading wings. The design is backed by a rambling rose bush on which is hung the motto ribbon.
By Thomas Tryon
By Thomas Tryon
Mr. Frank Pool is obviously a lover of the drama. In an oval window set in masonry, is a Roman gentleman, laurel crowned, reading from a large volume, while at the upper right and left sides are comedy and tragedy masks from which hang a gracefully festooned wreath. Palms, ribbon and name plate finish the design. For Mr. Farragut, the son of our old admiral, Mr. Tryon has made a very “salt water” arrangement of arms. The shield is surmounted by a quaint ship and the bearers are dolphins, which on one side encircle a trident and on the other a sword. The conventional acanthus leaves give body and decoration to the whole. Perhaps one of the most distinctively beautiful of Mr. Tryon’s designs is the fleur-de-lis for Mr. Marcus. In this the artist has blended most delightfully the natural and the heraldic flower and has produced a gem of which one never tires. For his sister and her children Mr. Tryon has made a light and airy design, distinctively feminine and graceful. The main feature of the design is an ornate cypher of the letters S T. On the ribbon below the name is shown. This is changed to the names of Mrs. Stone’s three daughters for their individual use. The plate reproduced here is that of one of Mrs. Stone’s daughters. The design for “The Boys Club” is surmounted by the American eagle perched upon the globe, and the flag of our country is draped over the tablet bearing the lettering. This plate has been reproduced both by photo-process and copper plate.
By Thomas Tryon
By Thomas Tryon
Of the three color plates reproduced the first was made for Mr. A. W. Brunner, and has for “piece de resistence” a very ingenious monogram set in an oval frame. For bearers there are two graceful palms and the keystone is surmounted by a pile of books and a classic student’s lamp. The base of the design is relieved by a pleasing arrangement of acanthus leaves. The plate for Miss Cox is a seal-like design, dignified yet dainty, and would be entirely in place in all kinds of volumes. The plate for Mr. Steell quite speaks for itself and makes the sportsman feel wildly for the trigger of his gun. The buck and doe silhouetted against the yellow of evening and the reflection in the stream are a delight.
Three of Mr. Tryon’s designs have been engraved by Mr. E. D. French. The famous Sovereign plates being two, and one for Mr. Havemeyer being the third. This plate for Mr. Havemeyer is indicative of the owner’s collection of Washingtoniana, and is surrounded by several of the well-known portraits of the father of his country, while at the top is a small view of Mount Vernon. The portraits and view are interwoven with foliage and ribbon and form a frame in which Mr. Havemeyer’s arms are displayed. The “Sovereign” plates, which were made in 1895 for the library of Mr. M. C. D. Borden’s yacht, are of great richness, the first or “crown” design being especially so. This one did not please the owner, who had a second one made surmounted by an eagle instead of a crown. This is simpler in treatment and not so decorative as the earlier design. These plates were both cut on the copper by Mr. French who treated them in a very sympathetic manner and brought out in clear relief the ideas of the designer.
Mr. Tryon’s production has not been great, reckoned by the number of plates made, but as his work is never done hurriedly or slightingly it carries an air of finished dignity and worth that gives it lasting qualities. As he usually has one or two plates in hand to which he adds a few lines and a few thoughts from time to time, we may still expect pleasant surprises in this miniature art from his workshop.
By B. G. Goodhue
By B. G. Goodhue
By E. D. French
By B. G. Goodhue
BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY
TONNELÉ & COMPANY
NEW YORK
A CHECK-LIST of the WORK of TWENTY-THREE BOOK-PLATE DESIGNERS of PROMINENCE
Compiled by WILBUR MACEY STONE
IT WAS thought that interest and value would be added to this book by the inclusion of lists of the book-plates made by the more prominent artists whose work is reproduced here. These lists are the nearest complete of any that have ever been published, and as they have been verified in many instances by the artists themselves, and in others carefully collated from the actual book-plates, they may be relied upon as highly accurate. The sundry notes, bibliographical and otherwise, by which the individual lists are prefaced, are in no way exhaustive, but just a cursory gathering to relieve the bareness of the lists and to give some little additional assistance to the amateur. The lists are arranged alphabetically under the artists’ names as follows:
William Phillips Barrett
Robert Anning Bell
D. Y. Cameron
Thomas Maitland Cleland
Gordon Craig
Julius Diez
George Wharton Edwards
Fritz Erler
William Edgar Fisher
Edwin Davis French
Bertram G. Goodhue
Harry E. Goodhue
T. B. Hapgood, Jr.
Harold E. Nelson
Edmund H. New
Henry Ospovat
Armand Rassenfosse
Louis Rhead
Byam Shaw
Joseph W. Simpson
Hans Thoma
Thomas Tryon
Bernhard Wenig