The first, which is signed “Fme. Jourdan sculp., 1788,” shows his armorial bearings surmounted by his coronet, whilst beneath are enumerated his titles and offices.
Over this plate is generally found pasted a much simpler design, showing how that the grand noble of 1788 under the monarchy had, in 1793, become plain Bourbon Busset, a French citizen.
Now the Vicomte de Bourbon Busset was an aristocrat (even if an illegitimate one), for on his first book-plate he bore the royal arms of France, (debruised by a baton), with the cross of Jerusalem in chief, and his two supporters the angels hitherto carried only by members of the royal family. Yet he managed to escape the horrors of the revolutionary period, and survived the Reign of Terror, probably by studying the signs of the times, and by casting his lot in with the sans-culottes. In any case, he lived in Paris until the 9th of February, 1802. The bindings on his books were stamped with the arms, as on his book-plate, but without the supporters.
His library was sold in Paris; the catalogue was headed, “Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de feu le citoyen Bourbon Busset, 20, nivose an XI.”
Another curious souvenir of the reverses sustained during the revolutionary period exists in the plate of “André Gaspard Parfait, Comte de Bizemont-Prunelé”. Dessiné et gravé par Ch. Gaucher, de l’Acad. des Arts de Londres, 1781.
In the same year the Comte de Bizemont-Prunelé etched an ex-libris for his wife, Marie Catherine d’Hallot, with a design of a somewhat remarkable nature considering the period. He represented himself amongst some ruins carving their arms on a pedestal. Thirteen years later we find this nobleman, a refugee in England, earning his living as a drawing master. His business card, of ornamental design, bears the words: “M. Bizemont, Drawing Master, No. 19 Norton Street, near Portland Street. Bizemont Sc. London, 1794.”
Alexis Foissey, of Dunkirk, removed the coronet from his ex-libris to make way for “Equality”; P. M. Gillet, deputy from Morbihan, adopted the cap of liberty, with the motto, “Liberté, Egalité”; and J. B. Michaud, on his plate, dated 1791, also has the Phrygian cap, with a ribbon inscribed, “La Liberté ou la Mort.”
Above is the book-plate of Thomas Papillon, Esq., evidently engraved in England within the last century, bearing on the first and fourth quarters the canting arms of the old French family of Papillon (Butterfly).