The lozenge really looks very well on a book-plate; and lends itself readily to the decoration usually bestowed upon it. Take, for instance, that of Dame Anne Margaretta Mason, dated in 1701. Her maiden name was Long, and the shield shows us Mason impaling Long. Lady Mason's is a fair sample of a lady's book-plate of that date. The arms are contained in a lozenge, set in a Jacobean frame, which is lined with scale work, and adorned with ribbons and leafy sprays. There is no motto-scroll, but the name bracket comes up close to the base of the design (see also [p. 52]).
Indeed it may be said that the Jacobean style of ornamentation is that best suited to ladies' book-plates, especially when the arms are depicted on a lozenge-shaped shield. The book-plate of the 'Hon. Anne North,' by Simon Gribelin, is another instance to prove this. I do not think that Chippendale decoration suits them at all, and, in the use of ornaments of that style, Englishwomen were as immoderate as Englishmen. Lady Lombe's book-plate, designed in the later days of Chippendalism, is quite appalling from its over-ornamentation. The wreath of ribbon, or festoon, style of the close of the last century is more suitable for ladies' book-plates, and some very charming examples are known; equally suitable, it seems to me, would have been the picture or landscape style—the style in which, at the close of the last century, Bewick, and some few other English artists, were working with conspicuous success, and it seems strange that the ladies of Great Britain did not adopt it more extensively.
When we come to modern times we find ladies have run as wild as their lords over book-plates; there is the same peculiarity, the same mysticism, the same inappropriateness for book-plates in the designs of many book-plates of fin de siècle English ladies. The few really artistic and appropriate book-plates stand out in marked contrast in Miss Labouchere's excellent little book, and amongst them may be noted Lady Mayo's, designed in 1894 by Mr. Anning Bell, which shows us a musician and a songstress within a frame composed of spring flowers and the national emblem of Ireland.
But let us go back a little in date, and look at a ladies' book-plate designed in the Allegoric style; what more striking example could be found than that furnished by George Vertue's charming piece of work engraved for Lady Oxford?
It represents the interior of the library either at Brampton or Welbeck, probably the latter, which was Lady Oxford's own inheritance. Through a doorway, flanked by Corinthian columns, the curtain in front of which is drawn back, we obtain a view of a country house standing back in a well-kept park; a river crossed by a three-arched bridge meanders through this. But it is the occupants of the room that call for most attention. The prominent figure is that of Minerva, who has laid aside her arms, and stands sandalled and helmeted. She is busily engaged in instructing six cupids, who appear to be industriously following her injunctions. One of these is painting in oils, with an easel before him and a palette on his thumb; the goddess with her left hand points out some defect in his work, and apparently explains how it may be remedied. Another cupid plays the harp; two more sit on the frame of the design, weaving flowing festoons; another, also on the frame, near a celestial globe, copies the picture of a flute-playing satyr which a sixth cupid holds in position.
On the frame which surrounds the picture sit two figures—one of which is Mercury, with caduceus and winged hat—who act as supporters to a medallion bearing Lady Oxford's monogram; above is an urn, and from the sides fall bunches of grapes. Below the design is engraved 'Henrietta Cavendish Holles, Oxford and Mortimer. Given me by'—and then the donor's name and last two figures of the date, filled in by Lady Oxford herself.
Lady Oxford was the sole heiress of John Holles, last Duke of Newcastle of the Holles family, and was the wife of Edward, second Earl of Oxford, son of Queen Anne's minister, and the continuator and completor of the Harleian collections. Vertue's love of studying all kinds of antiquities brought him, at an early date, into contact with Lord Oxford, who proved one of his warmest patrons. The artist himself speaks of 'the Earl's generous and unparalleled encouragement of my undertakings.' Harley would take his friend with him on his various 'hunting' tours in England, getting him to sketch the numerous objects of interest that they came across. No wonder that the Earl's death, in 1741, was a heavy loss, in every way, to George Vertue.