'The mark and stamp of a Chippendale ex libris,' says Lord De Tabley, 'is a frilling or border of open shell-work, set close up to the rounded outer margin of the escutcheon, and, with breaks, more or less enclosing it. This seems to be a modification of the scallop shell, so normal at the base either of frame or bracket on a Jacobean plate. It is, in fact, a border imitating the pectinated curves and grooves on the margins of a scallop-shell. Outside this succeed various furniture-like limbs and flourishes, eminently resembling the triumphs of ornate upholstery which Chippendale about this time brought into vogue.' The helmet and mantling are quite exceptional in book-plates of this style, except in examples which were probably designed and executed by Scotch artists.
Although it was not until 1754 that Chippendale published, in folio, The Gentleman's and Cabinetmaker's Director, 'being a large Collection of the most useful Designs of Household Furniture in the most fashionable taste, with 160 Plates of elegant designed Furniture,' there was probably by that time a good deal of Chippendale furniture already in the market, and we are therefore not surprised to find a book-plate designed in the Chippendale style, dated in 1714—that of 'East Apthorpe.' True, the style there shown is not at all 'advanced,' yet there are decided indications of it, and for that reason it deserves attention. Although the shield is shell-shaped and ornamented with flowers, yet there are upon the plate indications of a horizontally-hatched Jacobean lining to the frame. We may, I think, consider this one of the earliest attempts at designing a Chippendale book-plate.
The style improved during the next ten or fifteen years, and then began to deteriorate. As an escutcheon, the shell-shaped or non-symmetrical shield is unnatural and even ugly, but it lends itself to an artistic treatment which the previous styles in English book-plates certainly did not. For example, flowers—of which there are always many in this style of book-plate—can be represented as in nature; roses blossom on sprays or branches, instead of being woven closely together in conventional festoons, lilies are left to droop their heads, whilst bunches of grasses or leaves are bound so loosely together that they forfeit nothing of their natural elegance. Allegoric figures also find place in Chippendale book-plates, but they are of a much more attractive kind than those displayed in the Jacobean plates. Cupids or nymphs are sometimes really graceful bits of drawing when depicted in the better specimens of the style of which we are now speaking. The book-plate of 'James Brackstone, Citizen of London,' dated in 1751—figured opposite this page—is as good a specimen of a pure Chippendale book-plate as could be found; whilst that of John Ord of Lincoln Inn, dated ten years later, betrays some signs of a decadence which soon afterwards became general.
'The fashion,' as Lord De Tabley remarks, 'began to be vulgarised in the hands of weak designers, who bestowed floral embellishments upon the framework of the shields, without any moderation whatever, endeavouring by a crowded decoration to mask the real weakness and poverty of their powers of design.' As a consequence, we have in the later Chippendale book-plates, those, say, from 1760 to 1780 or 1785, some very terrible productions. Shell-work and flowers are retained, but they are regarded as inadequate, and cherubs, dragons, 'nymphs in kilted petticoats,' sheep, cattle, trees, fruit, fruit-baskets, portions of buildings, fountains, books, implements of husbandry, and a host of other miscellaneous objects appear as decorations. Indeed, it is wonderful what a strange medley a designer in the later days of Chippendaleism could produce for a customer willing to pay for it!
We may as well here point out a few interesting examples of English book-plates designed in the Chippendale style. A prolific worker in it was J. Skinner of Bath (see [pp. 81-86]; [203-212]), who followed the excellent plan of dating nearly all his work, which should, therefore, be carefully observed when met with. In one of his book-plates, that which, in 1743, he produced for 'Charles Delafaye, Esq., of Wichbury, Wilts.' it is curious to note with what evident diffidence the designer uses the graceful sprays of natural flowers in ornamenting the shelly shield. Yet in another book-plate, that of Benjamin Hatley Foote, engraved in the same year, the anonymous artist uses these ornaments without hesitation, and produces a book-plate which might have been engraved many years later. Two very noticeable examples are also supplied by the fully developed Chippendale book-plates of Richard Caryer and Joseph Pocklington. In each the crest is placed on a miniature representation of the shield, which contains the arms. Of the debased Chippendale book-plates, of which we have had to speak, it is hard to select examples for particular reference, for they are sadly numerous, and seem to vie with each other in ugliness and vulgarity; the prize may, however, be claimed by 'C. Eve', who, conscious, perhaps, of the atrocity he was committing in using such a book-plate, makes an attempt at disguising his name. To describe his plate is nearly impossible; suffice it to say that, built on to the frame are sundry stages on which a variety of pastoral scenes are depicted, and that any beauties which the floral embellishments might in themselves possess are effectually obliterated by overcrowding.
Before Chippendaleism had died out, another marked style in English book-plates had already come in, and was getting to be generally adopted. We will call this the 'Wreath and Ribbon' or 'Festoon' style, and probably one of the earliest examples of it is that figured opposite, which shows us the book-plate of George Lewis Jones, Bishop of Kilmore, dated in 1774. There is a good deal of grace in these 'Wreath and Ribbon' book-plates. The shield is again symmetrical, and of a shape that a shield might possibly be; the flowers and leaves that decorate it are for the most part still left free and unconfined, and even when woven into festoons they are somewhat less conventional than those which compose the festoons of the Jacobean period. These festoons, and a labyrinth of floating ribbons, were intended to compensate for the loss of the shelly border and its adjuncts of the 'Chippendale' style.