Just in the same way as the Chippendale book-plates very closely resembled in their decoration the furniture with which Chippendale filled the fashionable drawing-rooms of his time, so in their turn those designed in what we have christened the 'Wreath and Ribbon' style very closely resembled the decoration which Thomas Sheraton suggested for contemporary furniture. This the reader may see for himself, if he will turn to Sheraton's work, The Cabinetmaker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book.
I do not know that there are many examples of the 'Wreath and Ribbon' book-plates which call for special attention. Though several are pretty, there is a strong family likeness between all. Perhaps the most conspicuous is that of 'John Symons, Esqr.' In this, prettily drawn cherubs, descending from the sky, hold the corners of a mantle, which surrounds the shield. The book-plates of 'Sir Thomas Banks I'Anson, of Corfe Castle, Dorset'; of the 'Rev. George Pollen'; and of 'John Holcombe, New Cross,' are useful for comparison, on account of the engraved dates which they bear—1783, 1787, and 1799 respectively; whilst that of 'Robert Surtees, Mainsforth,' is interesting both from its possessor, the historian of Durham, who was also its designer, and from its unusual hatched background.
By degrees the festoons of flowers and entanglement of ribbons were discarded, and the shield, similarly shaped, appeared destitute of ornamentation. The helmet was omitted, and the 'wreath' on which the crest should properly rest was placed, in a meaningless way, the fraction of an inch above the upper line of the shield, and entirely without support. After this, quite early in the nineteenth century, and during its first fifteen or twenty years, there came into fashion a design in English book-plates which we may term the 'Celestial' style. In this the shield is depicted as suspended in mid-air, with a background of sky or clouds, or else resting upon a cloud-built bank. It gave the designer very slight opportunity for the display of artistic taste; had it done so, the opportunity would probably have been neglected, for the designers and engravers of book-plates in this style were men of whom the world at large knows nothing. The shield, in book-plates of the time of which I am now speaking, was entirely without ornament, and of this shape—
The helmet was seldom introduced, so that the crest was placed in the same absurd position as that just described. The shield figured above is a fair specimen of that in vogue between 1810 and 1830. From the latter date to within a few years ago, the arms, in the majority of English book-plates, were represented in a more ornate shield. The helmet was reintroduced, and from it fell a slight mantling, somewhat similar to that which appears in our earliest examples. It is hardly necessary to indicate any particular specimens designed in these last-mentioned styles.
Before closing this chapter, I ought, perhaps, to say a word about Scotch and Irish book-plates. It cannot be said that in these there was ever a style distinctively national. The style fashionable in England at a particular time was also fashionable in Scotland and in Ireland; yet there is a perceptible difference in the way in which its details were carried out, especially in Scotland. In Edinburgh there were several book-plate engravers, and their work possesses a characteristic touch;[6] the 'Simple Armorial' style is rendered much more stiffly, and the shield is often round. 'Jacobean' book-plates are very uncommon, but the 'Chippendales' are an odd mixture of that style as we know it in England and the 'Jacobean.' The presence of a helmet and mantling in a 'Chippendale' book-plate engraved in Scotland is not unusual, and the shield is always very soberly placed. I do not know of a 'Library Interior' plate that hails from north of the Tweed; but, if one ever be discovered, depend upon it no Cupids will frolic there. A few Scotch book-plates are, perhaps, emblematic; that is, display emblems of the possessor's art or trade. Dr. John Bosworth's, in which are figured the staff of Æsculapius, a cock, a serpent, and an owl, is an instance of this; but allegory is almost unknown. No mythological figures sit among the floral decorations of Scotch Chippendale book-plates, as they do so frequently in later Chippendale work in England. The only instance that I can call to mind of the introduction of figures at all into the decoration of a Scotch book-plate, is that of 'Birnie of Broomhill' (circa 1715), reproduced opposite, and in this the figures are sombre enough,—two ministers of 'the kirk' kneeling at their desks. Irish book-plates have even less individuality than Scotch, and are chiefly recognisable by the coarseness of their work, and their dark printing.