The plate of Mons. Jan des Vignes is a singular design. The owner, a poet and journalist, is a native of Cluny, in Burgundy, famous for its abbey, and as having given birth to the painters, Greuze and Prud’hon, and to the celebrated poets Lamartine and P. Dupont. The view of the ancient abbey, surrounded by the vine, proclaims at once the owner’s birthplace and his name, whilst the exquisite sonnet reveals his poetical genius.
The Docteur Jules Le Bayon is a Breton, a native of Carnac, where are to be seen the wonderful Druidical stones, a few of which are depicted on his ex-libris. Mons. Le Bayon is a doctor of medicine by profession, but he is also an enthusiastic amateur of music, hence the introduction of a peasant clad in the old Brittany costume, playing on the rural pipes. The sprig of mistletoe, the sacred plant of the Druids, completes an engraving which is full of picturesque allusiveness.
And lastly, we have that of Mons. Abel Picard, an eminent bibliophile holding a high official position in Paris. The ribbon, that so ingeniously curves itself into the owner’s initials, enfolds a view of the quays along the Seine, with their stalls of second-hand books, and the flaneurs on the look-out for bargains. In the distance may faintly be descried the towers of Notre Dame. Below we have indications that the owner’s tastes in reading are varied: Michelet, the historian, is near a volume on art; whilst the novels of Daudet and Zola are only separated by a sliding partition from a bulky and well thumbed tome on the “Droit Administratif,” surely a suggestive contrast. As for the perky little Parisian sparrow (for such I am informed is the bird), c’est un plat de supplément à cinquante centimes that I do not feel called upon to describe.
Mons. L. P. Couraud, of Cognac, designed his own armorial plate; the motto (a translation from Virgil) is appropriate to one who has won success by his own energy and skill.