GUILLAUME CHAUDIÈRE.
Printers’ marks in which the pictorial embellishments partake of a rustic nature, such as bits of landscape, seed-sowing, harvesting, and horns of plenty, are numerous, and in many cases exceedingly pretty. J. Roffet, Paris, 1549, employed the design of the seed-sower in several of his Marks; and of about a dozen different Marks used at one time or another by Jean De Tournes the first, Lyons, 1542, one of the most successful is a clever one having for its central figure a sower; the same idea, in a very crude form, was contemporaneously employed also by De Laet, Antwerp. The Cornucopia, or horn of plenty, was a very favourite emblem, and it appears in a manifold variety of designs, sometimes with a Caduceus (the symbol of Mercury) which is held by two clasped hands, as in the case of T. Orwin, London, 1596, in a cartouche with the motto: “By wisdom peace, by peace plenty;” four of the eight marks used by Chrestien Wéchel, Paris, 1522, differ from Orwin’s in being surmounted by a winged Pegasus; and André Wéchel, of the same city, 1535, employed one of the smaller devices of Chrestien, with variations and enlargements of the same; in the Mark of J. Chouet, Geneva, 1579, the caduceus is replaced by a serpent, the body of which is formed into a figure 8; in that of Gislain Manilius, Ghent, the horns appear above two seated figures. In each of the foregoing examples two horns appear. Georg Ulricher von Andlau, Strassburg, 1529, used the cornucopia, and in one of his Marks the figure is surrounded by an elaborate array of fruit and vegetables; single horns appear also in the clever and elaborate marks of R. Fouet, Paris, 1597, whose design was a very slight deviation from that of J. De Bordeaux, Paris, 1567. The oak-tree, sheltering a reaper and with the motto “Satis Quercus,” was employed by George Cleray, Vannes, 1545; and the fruit of this tree—the acorn—by E. Schultis, Lyons, 1491. The thistle appears on the marks of Estienne Groulleau, Paris, 1547; the Rose on the more or less elaborate designs of Gilles Corrozet, Paris, 1538; a rose-tree in full flower occupies the centre of the beautiful mark of the first Mathieu Guillemot, Paris, 1585; a solitary Rose-flower was the simple and effective mark of Jean Dallier, Paris, 1545; and a flowering branch of the same tree is one of the items on the charming little Mark on the opposite page of Mathurin Breuille, Paris.
JACQUES ROFFET.
JEAN DE TOURNES.
| MATHURIN BREUILLE. |
In the category of what may be termed extinct animals, the Unicorn as a subject for illustrating Printers’ Marks enjoyed a long and extensive popularity. The most remarkable thing in connection with these designs of the Unicorn is perhaps their striking dissimilarity, and as nearly every one of the many artists who employed, for no obvious reasons, this animal in their Printer’s Marks had his own idea of what a Unicorn ought to have been like, the result, viewed as a whole, is not by any means a happy one. Still, several of the examples possess a considerable amount of vigour and have a distinct decorative effectiveness. But apart from this its appearance in the Marks of the old printers is a very striking proof of the fact that the mediæval legends died hard. Curiously enough, the proverbial “lion and unicorn” do not often occur together. The family of printers with whose name the unicorn is almost as closely associated as the compass is with Plantin, is that of Kerver, for it has been employed in over a dozen different forms by one or other members from the end of the fifteenth century to the latter part of the sixteenth. Sometimes there is only one Unicorn on the mark, at others there is a pair. Le Petit Laurens, Paris, was using it contemporaneously with the first Thielman Kerver, and possibly the one copied the other. Sénant, Vivian, Kées, and Pierre Gadoul, Chapelet, and Chavercher, were other Paris printers who used the same idea in their marks before the middle of the sixteenth century. It was long a favourite subject with the Rouen printers, one of the earliest in that city to use it being J. Richard, whose design is particularly original, inasmuch as the shield is supported on one side by a Unicorn, and on the other by a female, possibly intended to represent a saint, an idea which was apparently copied by Symon Vincent, Lyons; the Unicorn was also used in the marks of L. Martin and G. Boulle, both of Lyons; and also in the very rough but original design employed by H. Hesker, Antwerp, 1496; whilst for its quaint originality a special reference may be made to the Mark of François Huby, Paris, of the latter part of the sixteenth century, for in this a Unicorn is represented as chasing an old man. The origin of the Unicorn Mark is essentially Dutch. The editions of the Printer, “à la licorne,” Deft, 1488–94, are well known to students of early printing. The earliest book in which this mark is found is the “Dȳalogus der Creaturen” (“Dialogus Creaturarum”) issued at that city in November, 1488. Henri Eckert de Hombergh and Chr. Snellaert, both of Delf, used a Unicorn in their Marks during the latter years of the fifteenth century.