It is noteworthy that there is no trace of heraldry in this remarkable book-plate. Book-plates free from anything armorial were not the rule in England in 1730, and Vertue was certainly proficient in heraldic engraving, or ought to have been so, since his earliest task in life was engraving coats of arms on plate, and his second engagement was with Michael Vandergucht, who, we know, executed a good deal of armorial work. It is probable, therefore, that the idea of the book-plate was Lady Oxford's own.
From this delightful specimen of a lady's book-plate in which heraldry is entirely absent, we may appropriately turn our attention to two examples which combine heraldry with a fanciful design—the book-plates of Lady Pomfret and the Honourable Mrs. Damer. The first of these is that which 'S. W.,' probably Samuel Wale, the Royal Academician, engraved for 'The Rt Honble Henrietta Louisa Jeffreys, Countess of Pomfret, Lady of the Bed-chamber to Queen Caroline,' and is a very unusual piece of work, both in shape, design, and heraldry. There is a clear indication of 'Chippendaleism' about the shield and sprays of flowers and leaves, which is certainly curious in view of what we must consider the approximate date of the book-plate; but the arms are in a Jacobean frame, which stands in a garden. On one side we have a cupid bearing aloft the lady's family crest, and on the other the husband's crest and helmet, situated just within the opening of a tent. Lady Pomfret was the granddaughter of James II.'s infamous Lord Chancellor. She married Lord Pomfret in 1720, and was Lady of the Bed-chamber to Queen Caroline from 1713 to 1737, so that we are enabled to fix the date of this plate within seventeen years, indeed, probably within four years, for she had a less ambitious, and no doubt earlier, book-plate engraved for her, which bears the date 1733.
As might be expected, the book-plate of 'Selina, Countess of Huntingdon,' forms a striking contrast to that last described. Here we have a plain representation of a coat of arms in a lozenge, and supported in the orthodox manner. No cupids or other vanities intrude themselves into this sombre and coarsely executed work, which may be dated, after the owner became a widow, in 1746, and therefore, after her 'call'—which is, I believe, the correct expression for a sudden conversion to the form of religion she embraced.
Probably of about the same date as Lady Huntingdon's book-plate is that of another famous woman of her day, Lady Betty Germain, about whom Swift has plenty to say in his Journal to Stella. On this book-plate a somewhat funereal effect is produced by the dark background, against which is the lozenge containing the arms Berkeley impaling Germain; but the ornamentation of the lozenge, of the name-scroll, and of the frame enclosing the design, is light and elegant. Poor Lady Betty! she had a good deal to live down: her girlhood had not been so moral as it might have been, and the Duchess of Marlborough did her best to make her friend's misfortunes as public as possible. But for all that, Elizabeth Berkeley made a good match in point of money, marrying—as his second wife—Sir John Germain, a soldier of fortune and repute. He left her a widow in 1718, with Drayton as her home and a vast fortune. Her widowhood lasted very nearly fifty years, during which she gave away large sums in charity, as well as spending them on amassing curios: these, in 1763, Walpole went to look at, and admired.
But we have been digressing, and have not yet spoken about the second of the two book-plates just now mentioned, that of the Hon. Mrs. Damer, which, in design and execution, certainly surpasses any ladies' book-plate yet noticed; it is really a beautiful picture. First let me speak of Mrs. Damer and her surroundings; her book-plate becomes the more interesting as we call these to mind. The daughter of Field-Marshal Henry Seymour Conway, she made for herself, at an early age, a name, both in England and Italy, as an accomplished sculptress. From infancy—she was born in 1749—she was the pet of Horace Walpole, and throughout her life his intimate friend, living, after her husband's[14] suicide, close to him at Strawberry Hill, which he bequeathed to her by his will, and where, by the way, the work of her artistic fingers might be seen in profusion. Friends of herself and of Walpole were Robert Berry and his daughters Mary and Agnes—'my twin wives,' Walpole calls them. Mrs. Damer's book-plate is the work of the latter of these two ladies—Walpole's 'sweet lamb, Agnes.' It shows us a kneeling female figure, pointing to a newly-cut inscription on a block of stone, 'Anna Damer';[15] above is a shield bearing the arms of Damer, with those of Seymour-Conway on an escutcheon of pretence, and on the right and left of this are elegantly drawn dogs. The work was engraved by Francis Legat, and is dated '1793.' Miss Mary Berry's book-plate has been already spoken of ([p. 177]).
As an illustration to this chapter on ladies' book-plates, I have taken one which is both artistic and interesting, from the fact that it shows us—in the figure contemplating the bust—what is presumably a picture of the owner. I fear, however, that proof of its authenticity as a likeness sufficient to allow of its incorporation as a 'Portrait' book-plate (see [pp. 216-220]) will not be forthcoming; but whether it is one or not, it is certainly a pleasing book-plate. Frances Anne Acland, the owner, was born in 1736, became the wife of Richard Hoare of Barne Elms in 1761 and thus stepmother to Richard Colt Hoare, the future antiquary and the historian of Wiltshire; she died in the year 1800, and was buried at Beckenham.
But all that has been said, so far, concerns the book-plates of English women. Foreign dames of various nationalities, and our feminine cousins across the Atlantic (see [p. 150]), have made a very generous use of these marks of book-possession. French women of the eighteenth century have, as the reader of Miss Labouchere's interesting pages on this part of her subject will see, for the most part, used book-stamps, many of the most beautiful French bindings gaining an additional interest and beauty from the coats of arms of their fair owners impressed upon them. There are, however, a fairly large number of book-plates known which have belonged to French women, or, at all events, to women resident in France, and amongst them one to which attaches pathetic interest from the tragic fate of its owner. I mean that of the Princesse de Lamballe, who fell a victim to her attachment to the reigning house of France during the revolting massacres of 1792.
There are such things as 'joint' book-plates—book-plates which have belonged both to husbands and wives. We meet with some such in England, though not at a very early date; but in Germany they exist as far back as 1605. In England the first example, only a printed label, is in 1737—'Mr. Thomas and Mrs. Anne Pain.' Examples of this dual ownership occur frequently in modern book-plates.