otherwise have been obtained. These gentlemen detected the fraudulent plate, and denounced it as such in the auction-room, and the books brought only their actual value as books. Copies of this plate turn up now and then, and the unsuspecting are still deceived by it. It is readily detected if one is forewarned. The work is manifestly inferior to the good plate, the alignment of the name is poor, the quality and appearance of the paper belie its professed age, and the printing is of decidedly different appearance, being bold and strong in the genuine, and weak and thin in the forgery. A further difference is noted in the crest, which is tinctured gules in the forgery and sable in the genuine. These plates are sometimes claimed to be genuine and to be an early and unsatisfactory piece of work, which Washington rejected, and which was replaced with the other and accepted plate. This idea is plausible perhaps to some, but to any who had information from Dr. Poole it is an impossible theory. Another source of confusion is in the reproductions of the plate which have been made from time to time to illustrate works on the life of Washington, some of these being quite faithful duplicates of the genuine plate with its trifling flaws; but the paper and the printing are usually conclusive proof of the age of the print. It is safe to say that there is but one genuine Washington plate. It is true that the re-strikes of the original copper are about, but these, too, are readily distinguishable by the printing and paper.
The plate of Bushrod Washington, nephew of George, is also of much interest, and the manifest similarity of its design to some of the plates by Dawkins has led to the suggestion that he made this plate. But to the mind of the writer, Dawkins was not a man of originality, and was a regular copyist when it came to book-plates; the similarity of the plate of James Samuels to this plate is rather to his mind a further evidence of the clever adoption of a reasonably good design by Dawkins, than of his having been chosen by Judge Washington to engrave his book-plate. The design of this plate is more spirited than any of the authenticated work of Dawkins; indeed, it surpasses the plate of the General in that respect.
