The first English engraver, born and bred, to execute an Allegoric book-plate was John Pine, himself a man of letters, and one with whose features Hogarth has made us familiar. In 1736 he was employed to design and engrave a book-plate to place in the thirty thousand volumes of Bishop Moore's library, which George I. had bought, in 1715, to present to the University of Cambridge, but which were not suitably housed till 1734. No doubt Pine was fully impressed with the munificence of the gift,—a mass of volumes which the heavy-headed king would have never opened had he kept, and never understood had he opened them. His task was to design a book-plate commensurate with the royal munificence, and he probably considered he had been equal to the occasion when he produced what we see opposite the next page. Lord De Tabley's words so accurately describe this pompous production, that I will quote them:—
'The design represents a vast structure, rather like an ormolu chimney-piece clock, of which the arms of the University of Cambridge, in a plain, solid frame, represent the face. Behind this towers up a vast pyramid, on which the brick work is distinctly marked. As dexter supporter stands Phœbus Apollo in person, reaching out a wreath. A clouded sun rays out behind him. At his feet are deposited samples of the book collection of late so munificently bestowed. As sinister supporter sits Minerva with helm and spear and Gorgon-headed shield. Her feet are wrapt in cloud. In the centre of the bracket, beneath these gods, is inserted a medallion portrait of royal George, reading round its exergue, Georgius D.G., MAG. BR. FR. ET HIB. REX F.D. This is flanked by a laurel and a palm branch.' Pine—who had submitted proofs of this book-plate before August 1736, for at that date he offers to make George's portrait more accurate—engraved four sizes of this plate. The design is similar in three, but in the fourth, and smallest, the artist evidently felt that, in so limited a space, he could not do justice to Apollo and Minerva, and discreetly omitted them. He signs this smallest plate in full, 'J. Pine, Sculp.'
There may now be seen at Cambridge, in many of the books which George I. presented, book-plates which at first sight appear to be modern impressions from Pine's plates, but, on examination, prove to be copies, though not exact copies, of Pine's work, and on these the signature is 'J. B.' The late Mr. Henry Bradshaw discovered that these copies were the work of John Baldrey, a Cambridge engraver, at the close of the last century. At the time that he was working for the University, a large number of the volumes given by George I. required re-binding, and, as Pine's plates were worn out or lost, Baldrey was commissioned to execute a copy of the earlier design, in order to supply a book-plate for the re-bound volumes.
BOOK-PLATE FOUND IN BOOKS GIVEN BY GEORGE I. TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.
Very soon after the 'Munificentia Regia' to Cambridge in 1715, the loyalty of Oxford to the 'illustrious House of Hanover' was seriously doubted, and the King sent a squadron of horse into the city, whereupon an Oxford 'varsity wit composed the following epigram:—
'The King, observing with judicious eyes,
The state of both his Universities,
To one he sends a regiment;—For why?
That learned body wanted loyalty;
To th' other books he gave, as well discerning
How much that loyal body wanted learning.'