The other two examples here shown are also from A Copy, etc., and both were in use, the one as late as 1644 and the other to 1650. The one with the squirrels was copied repeatedly, and several variants of it are met with in other books. The blocks of the national emblems when used together formed an effective head-piece, but they were sometimes used in pairs to form side-pieces to other blocks. There was also a smaller set without the decorative spirals.
When George Purslowe joined the firm he brought with him several ornaments that had belonged to Simon Stafford, and in 1620, when he printed the Rev. Elnathan Parr’s Exposition on the Epistle to the Romans, he used as a head-piece a block which is found in the hands of Henry Bynneman as far back as 1581, and it was a curious medley of part of one of Simon Stafford’s and part of the ‘fleur-de-lys’ block, and shows that the designs of both those blocks had their origin in sixteenth century work.
These Eliots Court head-pieces are very typical of seventeenth century work; but such printers as Robert Barker, Adam Islip, Humfrey & R. Lownes, Miles Fletcher, and others had a large and varied stock, from each of which an equally good collection might be made.
A good decorative head-piece was that used by H. Lownes in J. Dowland’s Pilgrimes Solace, printed in 1612, embodying the national emblems.
Passing over the period of the Revolution and Commonwealth, in which most of the blocks used were old ones, a word or two must be said of the work done by Mr Burghers at Oxford during the last years of the seventeenth century and the opening years of the eighteenth century.
It is somewhat remarkable that so little attention has been paid to M. Burghers and his work by Oxford students. For upwards of fifty years he must have been a well-known figure in the University town. For many years he designed the allegorical illustration for the Oxford Almanac. There is no question as to his ability both as artist and engraver. Yet Bryan, in his Dictionary of Engravers, dismisses him curtly without even mentioning the period during which he worked, and refers to his work as ‘stiff and tasteless.’ The Dictionary of National Biography accords him just twenty-three lines, and finishes off by saying, “He died, according to Hearne’s Reliquæ, on the 10th January 1726–7.” As a matter of fact, Hearne gives the best memoir of him, but has very little to say about the vast amount of work he did and his skill as an artist. On these points all he says is, “He was looked upon as the best general engraver in England, and had always till very lately, within these last two or three years, a vast deal of business, so that being withal a very industrious man, he got a vast deal of money and purchased a pretty estate in Oxford.”
This is a poor account of a man whose work was not confined by any means, as the Dictionary of National Biography would lead one to think, to the engraving of portraits, but who executed engravings for many books. None of his biographers call attention to the wonderful series of head and tail pieces and initial letters which Burghers designed and engraved for the folio edition of Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England ... printed at the Theater, An. Dom. MDCCII. (-IV.).
Amongst the many things collected by John Bagford were specimens of Burghers’ work.[9] Unfortunately he gave no clue as to what books they appeared in, but some of them were from this work, and the beauty of the designs no less than the excellence of the engravings places them in the very first rank of English Printers’ Ornaments. None of these deserve Bryan’s censure. They are not only spirited; but they are worthy of the great work in which they appeared. No. 234 in Bagford’s volume is a head-piece, the design of which is classical in treatment—spirals of flowers and foliage of a highly ornate character springing from a central stem, which consists of the body of a child emerging from foliage with his hands uplifted in terror of the two lions who are apparently coming for him on either side. This is the head-piece to the thirteenth Book, vol. iii., p. 285. No. 207 in the same volume was evidently designed for an English book on Science, printed about 1696. In the centre is seen Britannia, with shield and trident, looking out over the sea. Beneath her is the date 1696, the whole being surrounded by a laurel wreath. On either side are open books, that on the left apparently dealing with Euclid and that on the right with architecture. Other books and rolls and mathematical instruments have also a background of laurel, and the design is surrounded by a decorative frame.
The tail-pieces designed by Burghers are even more splendid than the head-pieces. The two we have chosen for illustration are entirely different in character, but are both remarkable for their grace and beauty. No. 310 in Bagford’s collection consists of spirals emanating from a central sun-like flower. These dancing figures and two birds form part of the design, which measures no less than 152 by 120 mm., and has the signature “M. Burge, sculp.” at the bottom. No. 322 is a classical design figuring Hercules. Both appeared in Clarendon’s History.
With the opening of the eighteenth century the character of these decorative head and tail pieces other than the fleuron changed entirely.