EDWARD ROWE MORES
Metal-Flowers
From a Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders and Foundries by Edward Rowe Mores. London 1778. Reprinted by The Grolier Club, 1924.
Metal-flowers were the firſt ornaments uſed in printed books, to be ſet at the head of the firſt page and the tail of the laſt page, as well as at the head and tail of any ſeparate part of the whole work, and they were ſometimes uſed as an edging to the matter according to the taſte of the author or the printer, they were uſed ſparingly and with ſmall variety, but in time they became more numerouſ, and were cut in ſeveral ſhapes, forms and devices, and continued in reputation till Cutters in Wood ſupplanted them, when Mr. Moxon wrote they were accounted old-fashioned. but the uſe of them was revived by the French and Germans and the variety of them conſiderably encreased by the Two Mr. James's in England.
The flower-matrices in their foundery have been divided into old and new, which to be ſure is a diviſion, but ſuch as conveys nothing or a falſe idea to the underſtanding.
We are to obſerve then that the latter, though moſtly now in vogue, are mere figures of fancy, made up of circular oval and angular turns, contrived to look light, airy and unmeaning, and to try the genius or patience of a compoſitor.
But the former expreſſed ſome meaning and were adapted to other purpoſes than barely to dress and decorate a page. they were formed from real objects natural and artificial, civil and military, as from weeds and flowers of the field and garden, leaves, branches, fruits, flower-baſkets, flower-pots, urns, croſſes, banners, launces, ſwords, and tilting ſpears, and other ſamples culled from the fields of nature and of heraldry; yet germane to the ſubject matter of the work.
They were frequently emblematical and monitory; as cherubs' faces for the hymns of charity girls, hour-glaſſes for lugubrious orators, and mort-heads for the pariſh-clerks. they were ſymbolical of nations; as the crown and roſe, the crown and lyz, the crown and harp;—of dignities and orders; as diadems, crowns, mitres and coronets; the red hat called at Camb. the Cardinal's cap, where too the mitre is called the golden night-cap; the courtelass; the arms of Ulſter, and the anchor of hope; the Scotch-thiſtle and ſprigs of rue; both ſub-ſymbolical; the former rendered more ſo by the cry de guerre "Noli me Tangere";—of ſtates and conditions; as the myrtle, the weeping willow, and the bugle-horn. with many others which to enumerate would be tedious here.