“Cestuy livre est a moy Claude Thiery ymaigier de moult haust et puissant Seigneur Mon seigneur Françoy Joseph empéreur,” etc.
It is unnecessary to quote the whole of the somewhat lengthy inscription, as prints from the original plate were issued with the “Archives de la Société Française des Collectionneurs d’Ex Libris,” January 1895, together with a somewhat indignant letter from its owner pointing out several inaccuracies which had been made in an article describing the plate in “Ex Libris Ana,” page 73.
The description was certainly curiously inexact, but that these laborious imitations of the crabbed handwriting, the archaic phraseology, and the miniature painting to be found on ancient manuscripts are lacking in originality, and out of place on modern book-plates, as says the writer in “Ex Libris Ana” (and herein lay the sting of his remarks), is a conclusion in which many collectors will certainly agree.
Other well-known plates of this period are those of Aimé Leroy, A. Mercier, Viollet Le-Duc, Gabriel Peignot, Milsan, Ambroise Firmin-Didot, Desbarreaux Bernard, Pixérecourt, and Bazot, Notaire à Amiens. Yet even these present few points of interest, literary or artistic.
Aimé Leroy had a Gothic window, through which a student is seen reading. Motto: Mes livres sont ma joie. The plate of Gabriel Peignot was also what we should style a library interior, as was appropriate to its owner who had been for years connected with the libraries of Vésoul and Dijon, and had made bibliography the study of his life which extended to the good old age of eighty-two. He died in 1849.
Bazot, Notaire Amiens, had an imitation of the old style of armorial plate, with a ribbon on which the dates 1548 and 1848 appear. There is no explanation known of the first date, 1548.
Milsan attempts a weak pun on his name, bank notes for 1,000 and 100 francs represent the words Mille cent. This is the kind of joke that even a virtuous man might make in the seclusion of his own family circle, but that any sane man should engrave, revise it, print it, and finally paste it in all his books is something which almost destroys our faith in human nature.
A member of the famous publishing house, Mons. Ambroise Firmin-Didot (author of a “History of Wood-Engraving”) had an original and very appropriate design printed in gold on red morocco. In allusion to the date of the foundation of his firm, and their ancient sign, it bore the device: à la bible d’or 1698, and the inscription Bibliotheca Ambrosii Firmini Didoti, whilst in the centre was an open bible. This is just one of the few plates of this period, interesting for its owner’s sake, and for its originality, which collectors would wish to have, but it is rather difficult to obtain.
R. C. G. de Pixérecourt is found on the book-plate of the prolific dramatic author whose real appellations were René Charles Guilbert. As he was born at Pixérecourt he ennobled himself by calling himself de Pixérecourt, a piece of vanity which probably deceived no one. If the State were to tax all these assumptions of nobility, a good addition would be made to the French revenue. In other respects his ex-libris was modest enough; he did not steal a coat-of-arms, but had the simple Cross of the Legion of Honour with two branches of oak, and for motto the last line of the following charming sonnet by Desbarreaux Bernard.
SONNET.