For other points of interest in and about ladies' book-plates the reader must consult Miss Labouchere's work; all I will do, in concluding my remarks upon them, is to say that—as might perhaps be expected—in phrases of book-possession ladies are even more outspoken than gentlemen; few, however, are so much so as Lady Dorothy Nevill, who protects her books with the words 'stolen from' placed before her name: surely she can be no more troubled by borrowers than was the Cavalier Macciucca (vide [p. 171]).
CHAPTER XII
THE MORE PROMINENT ENGRAVERS OF ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES
William Marshall heads our list of engravers of English book-plates. We know of but one specimen of his work, but it is exceedingly fine—the anonymous plate of the Lyttelton family, described on [p. 32]. Marshall's works are dated between 1591 and 1646. Next after him comes the well-known engraver of portraits, William Faithorne (b. 1633; d. 1691), whose Portrait book-plate of Bishop Hacket is figured opposite. David Loggan, the engraver of the Isham book-plates in 1676, is the artist next on our roll. How many book-plates he designed and engraved I do not know, but there are two or three early English examples which, in their arrangement and touch, resemble somewhat closely his work for Isham.
About this same date Michael Burghers was engraving book-plates in England; he appears to have left Holland in 1672, and to have settled in Oxford. The earliest book-plate of his that I have seen is that of Thomas Gore, already described; perhaps he found the allegory with which he embellished it was not popular with Englishmen, and his other book-plates—we know of two or three—are in the 'Simple Armorial' style usual in English book-plates of the period. Lord De Tabley suggests that Christopher Sartorius, who worked at Nuremberg between 1674 and 1737, may be connected with the James Sartor who signed a fine English 'Jacobean' book-plate at the opening of the eighteenth century; of this James we know nothing except this piece of work, which is certainly good. After Sartor comes John Pine, whose pompous book-plate, engraved about the year 1736, to commemorate George I.'s gift of books to the University of Cambridge, has been described and figured ([p. 75]). He was born in 1690, and died in 1756. His engravings of the Tapestry in the House of Commons became so popular, that he was the subject of a special Act of Parliament securing to him the emoluments arising from the sale of the work. Pine, as we have seen, engraved other book-plates later on in the century.
Michael Vandergucht, the famous Antwerp engraver, was also working in England before the close of the seventeenth century, but his first book-plate is dated in 1716. This was engraved for Sir William Fleming, of Rydal, and is in many respects a striking piece of work. The style is quite English of the period: heavy mantling descends to the base of the shield; but the inscription—'The Paternal Arms of Sir William Fleming of Rydal in the county of Westmoreland, Baronet,' with a description of the heraldry—savours much of being the work of a foreigner. It should be mentioned of this artist that he was pupil of one of the many Boutats who were active as engravers of foreign book-plates. He (Vandergucht) died in Bloomsbury in 1725.