Coming to the days of the first Empire, Buonaparte, the despot, ruled armorial insignia with the same iron hand as he regulated anything else. His orders and restrictions were numberless, and in particular he introduced the various forms of a headdress denominated une toque. Cities under Buonaparte’s sway bore certain badges according to whether he ranked them as cities of the first, second, or third order.
Those of the first order had the honour of bearing the Napoleon badge—three golden bees on a chief gules.
The bookplate of the Bastille is well illustrated in French Bookplates (Walter Hamilton), but must not be quite passed over here. It represents a shield on a bracket, bearing the fleur-de-lis. The shield is ensigned with a crown and enclosed by the collars of the orders of S. Michel and the Sainte Esprit. Above all is the name “chateau royal de la bastille.”
In July of 1789 the Bastille was destroyed by the Paris mob.
I give a reproduction of the characteristic French “Ex libris du Comte Paul de Malden de la Bastille.”
In the ex libris of Claude Martin, cannon, cannon-balls and flags, tents and scaling-ladders, are to the fore; whilst on a rock in the middle there is a lion rampant, holding up a sword in one fore paw and an ensign in the other. Since the Belgians disfigured the field of Waterloo with a huge mound to celebrate the tiny devotion of their race, a lion on a hill does not stand for much! At the head of this plate is the motto “Labore et constantia,” and at the foot “Ex libris Claudii Martin.”
In 1814 Napoleon Buonaparte abdicated, and in the same year Louis XVIII., the younger brother of Louis XVI., became king. In 1824 Louis XVIII. died, and his younger brother, Charles X., came to the throne, which he held until 1830, when he was deposed, and his cousin Louis Philippe sat on this unstable throne. In 1848 he in turn abdicated, and a Republic was proclaimed, with Louis Napoleon as President. During these foregone thirty years the old nobility, after a manner, recovered their ancient titles, and many new nobility were created; but it cannot be said to have been an age productive of fine or interesting ex libris.