The story of Alexander Anderson's hardships in getting started as an engraver, - his chosen occupation, - against the preference of his father, who wished him to become a physician, is well known and of particular interest. It seems odd that his father, observing the delight with which the youth began to copy, with a rude home-made graver, some anatomical plates he had gotten hold of, should claim to see in this the evidence of a predilection for the medical profession instead of recognizing the genius of the lad for using the graver. But after numerous discouragements he became a settled engraver, and in 1793 he cut a tobacco-stamp on wood, which seems to have been his first attempt on that substance. In Bewick's Quadrupeds he found the work of a master who so charmed him, that all his future work was influenced by the manner of that famous engraver, and in fact Anderson was given the title of the " American Bewick," so similar was his work to that of Bewick himself. He made book-plates on both wood and copper, of which about twenty are now known. Amos Doolittle, who was born in Cheshire in 1754, and who died in New Haven, Conn., in 1832, was one of the first engravers of historical scenes in America: four views of the early battles of the Revolution earned him much fame. As a book-plate maker, he was fond of the allegorical, I should say; for certainly his plates for the societies of Yale College display a wealth of imagination which could not have been wholly that of those who ordered them. He was one of the self-instructed engravers of whom we had so many. Those early beginners in the art made their own tools, often out of the springs of old knives, rolled copper cents very thin in order to get a plate to work on, used thinned paint as an ink in a press of their own contriving, in order to see the result of their labors; used to cut designs on the silverware of their friends, as it was easy to work and convenient to the hand. Many of them began by working modestly in making silver spoons, buttons, buckles, and fashioning more pretentious pieces of plate as their ability permitted; but to engrave on copper was the ambition of many, and in this they were of necessity self-taught.
Paul Revere was one of these workers in silver, who tried his hand at the book-plate. Four different plates are now known which he signed, and of one of them, the Epes Sargent, but one copy was known for a long time. The rarest book-plate in America is probably that of John Franklin, the brother of Benjamin of greater fame. This plate was engraved by Turner of Boston during the years when that city was Franklin's residence: only one example of this plate has been discovered.
Probably the most valuable plate of all our early examples is General George Washington's. This was engraved in England without doubt. It is of the Chippendale style, and in appearance is no more pleasing than many others; but when this plate is found in an old book which has also the famous signature on the title-page, the price of the book bounds up by fifty-dollar skips. This is the only plate which has had the honor (?) of being thought worth counterfeiting. The thing was done in order to sell at a higher price than they would otherwise have brought, a lot of books at an auction sale in the city of Washington. The fraud was exposed, and the buyers paid the actual worth of the volumes, and not an inflated price. The plate of Bushrod Washington, to whom the General bequeathed Mt. Vernon, bears the same arms, but is a plate of more pretension. Both of these are of extreme interest.
Hastening on to the plates of to-day, we stop to mention a few of special interest or beauty; the plate of the late Dr. Holmes depicting the chambered nautilus is one of the finest, and is the one most sought for by collectors over the sea; the chubby cherub on George Bancroft's plate holds a panel on which is carved the motto ; the plate of Laurence Hutton is very attractive (in a niche of the bookcase stands Thackeray in the Donnybrook Fair attitude; flanking this imposing statue are the works of the old writers of fiction, while a death-mask lies on the shelf above); the plate of Thomas Bailey Aldrich shows a skull on which a daw (?) is perched; and the plate of the late Edwin Booth was a plain armorial design.
New plates are constantly being published, and one cannot easily select a few from the great supply of excellent ones, to speak of. It is hoped that the display on the walls will be of interest, as showing the development of the art of the book-plate. It is a long and eventful journey from the plates of Albert Durer to that of Dr. Holmes; and while the old Pirkheimer plate rouses our interest, we cannot deny that the great day of the book-plate is just at hand. In this country a number of well-known artists and engravers are lending their aid to the great object of the artistic expression of the tastes of the owner in his book-plate. The foremost engraver of plates to-day is Mr. Edwin Davis French, whose designs are so very pleasing, and who is running away with the laurels long worn by Mr. Sherborn of England. Essentially the same in their treatment and conception, these gentlemen both owe the foundation of their success to a study of the old German masters. Mr. W. F. Hopson of New Haven has made some very handsome plates; Mr. Edmund H. Garrett, the illustrator of books, is the leader in the etched plate; and Mr. George Wharton Edwards has certainly made the most artistic designs for process reproduction.
The interest in the subject of book-plates is rapidly spreading over this country: new collectors continually arise, and where there were a dozen when in 1886 Mr. Hutton wrote his articles in the Book-Buyer on our early plates, there are now well over one hundred, and it is difficult to keep pace with newspaper, pamphlet, and book as they are rapidly published, containing more or less of interest to the collector.
Exhibitions have been held at the Grolier Club, in New York City, the first in the country; at the Rowfant Club in Cleveland by the Buffalo Society of Artists ; and one has been open for the past few days at Brentano's in New York: the latest event to be added to this list is the present attempt to interest the Graduates' Club.


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