Allegory is, as I stated in [Chapter iv.], more frequent and more wild in French book-plates than in those of England. The follies of his own countrymen in this respect are fully recognised by M. Poulet Malassis, who, in most amusing style, deals with some of the more pronounced examples; as for instance the rollicking allegory displayed in the book-plate of M. Hénault, President of the French Academy. The date of this remarkable production may be fixed at 1750; it is designed by Boucher and engraved by Count de Caylus, and we see that Minerva has honoured M. le Président by placing his family arms upon her shield. Very wonderful, too, is the book-plate of the Abbé de Gricourt, whose arms are borne heavenwards by a vast company of angels. This example, which is approximately of the same date as the last, is the work of the Abbé's brother, A. T. Ceys, who was himself an ecclesiastic. Often the allegory displayed has allusion to the owner's business or his tastes, as on that of M. Gueullette, a French novelist and dramatist of the first half of the last century, the popularity of whose writings, although those writings are numerous, has not outlived him. This book-plate is the work of H. Becat, and is inscribed after the Pirckheimer manner, 'Ex libris Thomæ Gueullette et Amicorum.' The family arms are supported by an Italian harlequin, a Chinese mandarin, a Cyclops holding an infant, and a Tartar. Now the presence of these strange inhabitants of a book-plate is accounted for thus. Gueullette wrote farces for the Paris stage, and he also wrote 'Contes Tartares' and 'Les Aventures du Mandarin Fum Hoam.' Below the shield water pours from a satyr's mouth into a basin containing a mermaid, and above soars Cupid in clouds, bearing aloft a scroll and motto. This, says 'W. H.' in the Ex Libris Journal, is probably one of the earliest book-plates on which appear allegoric allusions to its owner's tastes and literary labours.
The Typical or Personal book-plate is also found in France in that of the Chevalier de Fleurieu, described by Mr. Egerton Castle. During the ancien régime he was a naval officer, who, whilst still low in the service, was intrusted with the testing of various new marine appliances. On the book-plate we get the bird's-eye view of an island, on which are strewn the said marine appliances, and behind them stands the Chevalier's coat of arms.
A recent writer on French book-plates, M. Henri Bouchot, goes so far as to think a book-plate may be of service as exhibiting a man's character. It may be so with regard to Frenchmen and French book-plates, but if this principle of argument be applied to English book-plates, all I can say is, that the possessors of English book-plates in the closing years of the seventeenth century and the opening years of the eighteenth must have been singularly alike in their personal characteristics!
The 'Library Interior' book-plate is found in France as early as 1718, in an anonymous book-plate described by Mr. Walter Hamilton in the Book Worm for May 1892. It shows us, in the background of a library, two men working a printing-press. In the foreground are five little winged cupids at play with books and mathematical instruments, whilst a female figure, representing peace and plenty, appears seated on what Mr. Hamilton conjectures to be a Pegasus. The engraving is by Bernard Picart, an eminent engraver, who, though a Frenchman by birth, settled at Amsterdam in 1710 (he died in 1733) and was evidently much influenced by the then prevailing style in Dutch art. He executed another very beautiful 'Library Interior' plate (figured opposite) for Amadeus Lulin, a Savoyard. Here we have the interior of a French library of the period, with a curved roof. At the end of the room is a window and beneath this a Louis XV. table. In the foreground the same cupids 'play with books,' which, by the way, they are treating exceedingly badly. Caryatides at the sides form a frame for the plate. On the breast of one is a sun; the other holds a heart. A globe surmounts each. The arms are shown in the centre of the design at the top.
Other examples of French book-plates of this kind are found quite late in the century, and any one who feels specially interested in the subject of these, and indeed of 'Library Interior' book-plates as a whole, will do well to study Sir Arthur Vicars's valuable treatise and lists in the pages of the Ex Libris Journal.
About the book-plates of countries other than Germany and France there is not very much to be said. Sweden has given us an insight into its native book-plates.[9] Herr Carlander tells us that the earliest date on a Swedish book-plate is 1595, which occurs on that belonging to Thure Bielke, a senator who, having mixed himself up in political strife, lost his head by a stroke of the executioner's axe five years later. Senator Bielke was evidently far in advance of his fellow-countrymen as regards such matters; for no other dated Swedish book-plate occurs for a considerable number of years. In the eighteenth century, however, Swedish book-plates became much more numerous, and some of the more prominent native engravers appear to have worked upon them, producing a few singularly fine examples in the Rococo style; library interiors also appear occasionally on Swedish book-plates. One of the most interesting late examples of book-plates of this country is that of King Charles XIII. On this we have the royal arms of Sweden, surmounted by the collar and cross of the order of the Seraphim, and the king's motto, 'Folkets wäl mint hogsta lag'—'The people's weal my highest law.' I imagine that this book-plate may be placed at the close of the last century. Charles died in 1818.
Swiss book-plates are numerous and early. The first dated example occurs in 1607. Their general style is not pleasing, since it presents a stiffness and awkwardness in the arrangement of the decoration. Italian book-plates, again, possess few remarkable features. Perhaps their leading characteristic is the extreme coldness of their engravers' touch. One of these engravers was, however, a famous man, whose work deserves more than passing mention. I mean Raphael Morghen, the Florentine artist, who died in 1833, and who is said to have been able to engrave a plate when he was only twelve years old. It is curious to turn from his large engravings of the chief works in the gallery at Florence, to the unusually small work which enables us to reckon him here among the engravers of book-plates. This is a representation of the arms of the Duke of Cassano Serra, framed in a shelly frame, somewhat 'Chippendale' in appearance, but with the stiff, heavy 'Jacobean' wreath clinging closely to it. In a scroll which winds in and out of this wreath is the inscription: 'Il Duca Cassano Serra'; it is signed 'R. Morghen f[ecit].'
A careful investigation of the Vatican and other Italian libraries would probably lead to the discovery of some more papal book-plates. Sir Wollaston Franks tells me that amongst his numerous engravings of the papal arms, there is only one which he feels sure was ever used as a book-plate. The late Sir George Dasent, in Notes and Queries,[10] describes what he considers the book-plate of Maffeo Barberini, Urban VIII.; but he does not tell us what leads him to the belief that the engraving is really a book-plate.