Introduction
The coats-of-arms and crests which are figured and described in the following pages do not exhaust the number of stamps of this kind that must exist on bookbindings throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland. Perhaps some day I shall go on my travels and search for unrecorded coats, but the present collection, even if it should prove to have been only a first instalment, will not easily be equalled in interest.
Little attention has been hitherto paid to English coats-of-arms outside books. For French coats of the same kind an excellent and comprehensive handbook has been compiled by M. J. Guigard, Nouvel Armorial du Bibliophile, Paris, 1890.
Two short papers have already been written about my present subject, and both of these are illustrated with drawings by myself. The earlier paper is by Mr. W. Y. Fletcher, and appeared in vol. iii. of Bibliographica in 1897; it is called "English Armorial Book-Stamps and their Owners." The second paper is by Mr. A. W. Pollard, and appeared in The Library of April 1902; it is called "The Franks Collection of Armorial Book-Stamps." The drawings I made for these two papers were carefully drawn exactly as the stamps were cut, and consequently look very black; in my newer drawings, however, I have in many cases only given the outlines of supporters, crests, helmets, and accessories generally, the effect of which is less heavy and equally useful for identification.
Armorial devices stamped on the outsides of books occur in England from the end of the fifteenth century onwards, and very fine examples are found of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries particularly. Towards the end of the seventeenth century the popularity of the book-stamp was diminished by the growth of the use of adhesive book-plates. It may be mentioned that, especially during the reign of Elizabeth, many fine armorial woodcuts are found in English books, the arms being generally those of the patron to whom the book was dedicated.
The succession of English Royal coats-of-arms on books is complete from the time of Henry VII. to that of Edward VII., and they will all be found in this book. The usual authorities for Royal armorials are great seals and coins, but the books which belonged to our sovereigns supply an equally fine and equally accurate collection. Every change of bearings, supporters, mottoes or badges is duly represented, and there are very few old private libraries in England which have not some Royal books upon their shelves. These books have either been given away by the sovereigns themselves, or acquired as official perquisites.
With regard to the identification of coats-of-arms or crests on books, this is a process of exhaustion, and it will be found easiest to begin with accessories, if there are any. These accessories are found either as augmentations on the shield or additions outside it, and by their help it is often easy to narrow down the limits within which the owner must come. By the help of coronets it is possible to fix the exact rank of the owner, and this alone, together with the date of the book, ought to make the identification easy, by help of a Peerage of the same date.
The decorations which surround a shield are often of great use; the coat-of-arms and coronet of an Earl, for instance, may be easily identified, but there may nevertheless be three or four persons who succeeded each other rapidly, and bore the same coat, to whom the book may have belonged. But round such a coat perhaps there is the Garter, or the collar of the Bath, or the insignia of some other order, and this will very likely decide which Earl was the actual owner.