English printers' ornaments

by Henry R. Plomer

Another good example of a built-up border is seen in a volume of Year Books of the reign of Edward III., printed by Pynson in 1518. Preceding the title-page is his large device (McKerrow, 44) surrounded by a border of various ornaments. At the top is a block measuring 118 by 9 mm., much the same in design as the one just mentioned above. At the bottom two much smaller blocks are placed side by side. In one the principal features are a dragon and a monkey; in the other a man and woman, the man impaling a bird that is seated in the centre between two sprays of flowers. These look French in style, both are criblé, and they bear a close resemblance to those in use by Notary. On the left-hand side of the device are two narrow blocks, each measuring 65 by 11 mm. The upper one has a spiral of fruit and leaves, and the lower a human figure holding a leaf. As these two blocks did not fill up the space required to be filled, two pieces of the ribbon ornament were placed between and below them. On the opposite side are two more blocks, both very narrow, and they have printed badly. There is nothing striking in their design.

Another of Pynson’s borders is seen in the edition of Sallust printed in 1520.

In 1523 Richard Faques printed Skelton’s Goodly Garland in quarto. On the title-page is a cut of a student at his desk, and this has on three sides a border of printers’ ornaments. The outer border was made up of what are probably variations of the fleuron, each unit being about 13 mm. in length. The inner border of the two sides is made up of a series of units which, I think, is intended to represent the heraldic tincture ‘Ermine.’ They were evidently a reproduction on a very small scale of the half ornament that alternates with the half fleur-de-lys, in one of the blocks used in Pynson’s Shyp of Folys.

Again, on the last leaf of this book is Faques’ device surrounded by a border built up with whole or portions of the lozenge ornament arranged within borders of the fleuron unit seen on the front page. These lozenge ornaments are slightly smaller than those in Pynson’s hands.

Altogether this is a rather effective border. Another example of a ‘mixed border,’ to use a gardening term, is found in the Greate Herball, printed by Peter Treveris in 1526. Two of these blocks, the side pieces, certainly belonged to Wynkyn de Worde, who had used them in 1519 on the front page of the Orcharde of Syon.

As it is manifestly impossible to describe in detail all the border pieces in use in the sixteenth century, I must confine myself to a rapid survey of the remaining seventy years. For the reason already given, I pass over the elaborate one-piece borders used in the various editions of the Bible and Common Prayer Book, and also all those elaborate architectural borders seen in folio books, which began to make their appearance about 1540. These last generally contain in their design the initials, monograms or device of the printers, whether as a mark of ownership or simply as advertisement is not clear; and the most important of them have been reproduced by Mr McKerrow in his valuable book on English Printers’ Devices. But attention must be drawn to the delightful window frame borders found on the title-pages of some of the smaller books printed by Thomas Berthelet, particularly to that seen in the edition of the Modus Tenendi, printed in 1537, and that in Lyttleton’s Tenures in 1545.

Some very interesting borders are also found in the books printed by John Oswen, both at Norwich and Worcester, between the years 1548 and 1551. While not altogether endorsing Mr Duff’s opinion that they were “very much superior to the material used by most of the contemporary printers,”[7] they were certainly unlike anything found in other books, and were probably of foreign origin, though it would be rash to speculate as to what part of the Continent they come from.

I take as an example the title-page of Certayne Sermons appointed by the Kinges Majestie ... printed by him at Worcester in 1549. In this no less than seven distinct pieces are used—one at the top, two at the bottom, and two more on each side. The groundwork of all these is alternately black and white, sometimes arranged in bands, sometimes in triangular form, and there are the usual collection of birds, flowers and human beings.

About the year 1570 English printers began to use the ‘fleuron’ as a material for borders. What has been termed ‘lace’ borders were nothing less than a number of fleurons built up together in the shape of a frame, but the variations in them are infinite. Sometimes they were used singly, sometimes in two rows, but the most effective consisted in a combination of four or eight units repeated over and over again to form a frame, sometimes left with rough edges, sometimes enclosed within rules or other printers’ ornaments. Some of the most delicate and beautiful of these lace borders are to be seen on the title-pages of books printed by Henry Bynneman, Thomas Creede, Henry Denham and Thomas East, although they were adopted by all the English printers of the second half of the sixteenth century, and have continued in popularity to the present day.

This review of the borders found in sixteenth century books may fittingly close with a notice of some used by Henry Denham. In the years 1581–82 he printed for Abraham Fleming two little duodecimos, one called the Footepath to Felicitie, and the other A Monomachie of Motives in the Mind of Man. Both these were devotional works that could be slipped into the pocket, and in each the pages were surrounded by a four-piece border of exquisite design. In the Footepath all the borders were the same, and they may best be described as a chain border, a square alternating with an oval and linked together by a ring, the top and bottom pieces being finished off with a star at either end. In the other book the design is made up of the rose, fleur-de-lys, and portcullis linked together with a delicate flower.