After the Restoration, the number of English book-plates perceptibly increases, though we must remember that the active supporters of Cromwell did not object to a little heraldic display—there was a fair amount of heraldic work one way and another, executed both with pen and pencil, during the twelve years that the king was kept off his throne. Two of the earliest post-Restoration book-plates are those of Sir Edward Bysshe and his brother-in-law, John Greene. Sir Edward Bysshe became Garter King-at-Arms, and John Greene was of Navestock, Essex. Both are curious oblong plates, having fancifully shaped shields surrounded by palm branches, and held up by ribbons. There is no crest shown in either. They are evidently by the same artist, which, as Bysshe and Greene were brothers-in-law, is perhaps natural. A somewhat similar, though plainer, form of ornamentation surrounds the shields on two other anonymous book-plates, one bearing the arms of Southwell, and the other those of Eynes or Haynes.
BOOK-PLATE OF THOMAS GORE BY MICHAEL BURGHERS.
Thomas Gore of Alderton, Wilts, the author of Catalogus de Re Heraldicâ, is a man who might be expected to use a book-plate, and he did. Three varieties are known. The first, which dates about 1660, though a more elaborate piece of work than those last described, is somewhat similar in style, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say dissimilar to the style in which other book-plates prior to the Restoration were designed. Whoever engraved this plate for Gore also engraved the arms of Edward Waterhouse—most probably the engraving was intended for Waterhouse's book-plate—which appear as a frontispiece to his Discourse and Defence of Arms and Armory, 1660. In his second book-plate Gore called to his aid the foreigner's art, employing Michael Burghers, a Dutch artist, who had recently come from Holland and settled at Oxford. Michael produced the book-plate figured opposite, which introduces some rather wild allegory, singularly plain cupids seated on the backs of flying eagles. Perhaps Gore did not care for this allegory,—allegory seems never to have been popular with English book-plate owners (see [Chapter IV.]),—and for his third plate went to an Englishman, and to a no less eminent one than William Faithorne. The famous portrait-engraver produced as beautiful and bold a book-plate in the Simple Armorial style as could well be: the peculiar 'depth' of his touch is apparent here and in his other book-plates, of which there are several.
BOOK-PLATE OF THE MARRIOTT FAMILY BY FAITHORNE
It is interesting to note that Faithorne reverts to the pre-Restoration style, and improves upon it. The mantling is much richer than that shown in earlier examples in the same style, and it more completely surrounds the shield. To Faithorne may be assigned two other magnificent book-plates, that of Sir George Hungerford of Cadenham (anonymous), and the one here reproduced of a member of the family of Marriott of Whitchurch, Warwickshire, and Alscot and Preston, Gloucestershire.[4] The Hungerford book-plate is noteworthy. The name of Sir George Hungerford, its possessor, does not occur in any list of baronets, yet he evidently considered himself to possess that dignity, as the 'bloody hand of Ulster' figures on his arms. Dugdale, too, in speaking of Sir George's marriage, refers to him as 'baronet.' Faithorne also produced a book-plate to commemorate a gift of books made by Bishop Hacket, who died in 1670—it is particularly curious as showing us the Bishop's portrait. I shall speak of it later on, under the heading 'Portrait Book-Plates' ([pp. 216-220]); such plates are comparatively few in number.
Dated, and most probably engraved, in the following year, 1671, is another 'gift' book-plate, prepared to place in books presented by the then Countess-Dowager of Bath. The inscription reads: 'Ex dono Rachel Comitissæ Bathon: Dotariæ An: Dom. MDCLXXI.' This lady was born in 1613; she was a daughter of Francis Fane, first Earl of Westmoreland, and became the wife of Henry Bourchier, Earl of Bath, who died in 1654; and soon afterwards of Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, who died in 1674; she herself dying in 1680. There is no reason to doubt the date on this book-plate, 1671, though, at first sight, it may look a little suspicious. True, she had become the wife of the Earl of Middlesex (a title only dating from 1622) in 1654, and was still his wife in 1671; but she had apparently little reason to be proud of him or his title, for he left her and made hay of her fortune, spending it to use the words of a contemporary letter,[5] 'in play and rioting.' We cannot, therefore, feel much surprised at her desire to pass by her former title which would give her rank at court as the widow of an Earl whose creation was hard on a century earlier. 'Our cousin, Lady Bath,' writes Lady Newport, in April 1661, 'hath got her place of being Lady Bath again; it cost her 1,200l ... her Lord is very angry at her changing her title; he says it is an affront to him.' That is why she calls herself, on the book-plate under notice, Countess-Dowager of Bath in 1671. A curious feature about the book-plate is, that it does not seem to have been prepared to place in books included in one particular gift to a particular person or institution, but rather to have been the outcome of my lady's fancy to place such a remembrance of herself in any volume she gave away at that or at any subsequent date. The Countess also used a book-stamp of the same design as the ex libris, but without the inscription.