The present writer is not a bookplate collector; but an honoured member of the Council of the Ex Libris Society has kindly lent most of the numbers of the Society’s Journal, from the date of its foundation. One or two of several years he had lost, and very many of the numbers had not, till now, made the acquaintance of a paper-knife. There is, I need hardly say, much in the Journal of interest, and reflecting highly on the ingenuity of Mr. W. H. K. Wright, fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
In turning over the numbers of the Journal a fond, vain wish seizes one; and it is this—Oh! that I could strike out the trade journal element, or relegate it to certain pages, wholly apart from the interesting historical and antiquarian portions. Alas! how could this be expected, seeing that leading members of the Society were professionally busied with bookplates? Perhaps this has all been remedied.
Then, too, in turning over numbers one cannot help thinking that a bookplate of simple taste was sadly discouraged. In the first place, a “fanciful” design was directly recommended; and in the second place, by constantly urging that each member of the Society must sport at least one bookplate of his own, and must be ready to exchange. Thus anyone who has joined the Society, and whose own library may be limited to Bradshaw and the Stock Exchange Year Book, must start an ex libris, not to place in the primary proper place for bookplates, but to post to Dick, Tom, and Harry, similarly placed. Again, unless he wish to be ignored, he must make every effort to have as grand and fantastic a plate as his neighbour.
A volume has just, on going to press, come into my hands, which, although printed as late as 1850, is deliciously redolent of old-world life. The work is the Life of James Davies, a village schoolmaster, written by Sir Thomas Phillips. London: John W. Parker, West Strand, 1850. On the inner cover, facing the half-title, is a most charming black silhouette profile portrait of a lady of some ninety years ago, subscribed “ever your sincere Friend Sarah Jones.” Above is written, “S Jones born 9ᵗʰ April 1771.” In, of course, another hand, is written at the foot, “Died July 18ᵗʰ: 1852.” The portrait is of the wife and widow of the Rev. William Jones, as shown by several marked passages of the book. Her husband was in pastoral charge, and she his devoted helper, where James Davies was the earnest and evidently very unpedantic pedagogue: “It was in the summer of 1815 that James Davies removed from Usk to the Devauden, and received the charge of rude, ragged, and boisterous mountain children, whom he long instructed by precept and example.”
This biography, the work of Sir Thomas Phillips, a neighbouring squire, is illustrated with very good engravings, and altogether recalls at every turn, scenes worthy of good George Herbert and Nicholas Ferrar.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Les Ex Libris Français, by A. Poulet-Malassis. Paris, 1874.
A Guide to the Study of Bookplates, by the Hon. John Byrne Leicester Warren. J. Pearson, London, 1880. pp. iii. and 238.
Revue des Ex Libris Alsaciens, by A. Stoeber. Mulhouse, 1881.
Die Deutschen Bücherzeichen, by F. Warnecke. Berlin, 1890. pp. 255.