CHAPTER IX.
THE FRONTIER PROVINCES.
We have already seen that 1574 is the year of the earliest known dated French ex-libris; M. Stoeber claims for Alsace a more ancient ex-libris, which is not dated, but from its history must have been engraved before 1561. It belonged to Conrad Wolfhardt, who pedantically translated his family name into Lycosthenes. He was born at Rouffach in 1518, studied at Heidelberg, and became a professor at Basle, where he died on the 25th March, 1561. His book-plate appears to have been engraved on some soft metal, either lead or pewter; there is no attempt to show the tinctures on the shield, which is surmounted by a death’s head and hour-glass. The design is surrounded by Latin mottoes, and beneath is the inscription “Symbolum Conradi Lycosthenis Rubeaquensis.”
M. Auguste Stoeber describes a large number of ex-libris of Alsace, formerly the frontier province of France, but now, owing to the terrible fortune of war, incorporated with Germany. The greater portion of these book-plates bear names of distinctly German origin, and their style is totally dissimilar to that of French art. Take, for example, the modern plate (it is dated 1846) designed by Mons. Arthur Benoit, of Berthelming, to be used by himself and his brother Louis, for their Saargovian collection, in which the artist has represented an Alsatian peasant woman, in the ancient costume of the province, wearing the quaint head-dress called the Winterkappe, which was made of black silk for the Protestants, white silk for the Catholics. The spire of the church of Berthelming rises in the background, and the tout ensemble has a far more German than French character. The brothers Benoit had two other book-plates, different in design, but not more French in appearance.
The plates of Albert Metzger, of Mulhouse (by Ch. Delâtre), and of Jacques Flach, of Strasbourg (by Groskost, of Strasbourg), are equally German in style, although the pretty motto on the latter is essentially French in thought and word. A reproduction of it will be found in Chapter XIV.
Coming to the adjoining frontier province, we find that the plates engraved in Lorraine are rather less influenced by German art and the ponderous German heraldry. Many beautiful ex-libris bear on their faces the name of the city of Nancy as their birthplace, and well-known artists for their fathers.