|
|
The plate of John Vassall, who was so rich a loyalist and who
died in England, whose mansion-house at Cambridge became the
headquarters of General Washington, and subsequently the home
of the poet Longfellow (who himself used a modest bookplate
with a Latin inscription), is interesting in itself as well
as on account of its owner; for it may with considerable
certainty be ascribed to Hurd, which fact is interesting as
showing the willingness of this wealthy Britisher to employ
an American engraver. The plates of the Vaughans, too, are
interesting as being of a wealthy family and a generous one,
Benjamin giving his library to Bowdoin College. The
Winthrops, too, used book-plates, and one very old one which
was used by John Winthrop, who was born in 1681 and who died
in England in 1747, is known. Old Thomas Coram, who in 1694
was a shipwright in Taunton, Mass., and who gave land and
books for a library in that town, used £ book-plate
which shows his crest and his name below it enclosed within
an oval wreath of vines. The plate is rather crude in design
and execution, as befits its earlv date. He it was who
established the Foundling Hospital near London, where one
hundred and seventeen infants were cared for, it is said, on
the first day it was opened, and where Handel used to play
annually. The red-coated boys and the white-capped girls may
still be seen playing in the enclosure, and the visitor may
see within the buildings some very interesting relics of the
bygone glory of the place, — among other things,
paintings by Hogarth, Kneller, and West; a bust by Roubillac;
and the pulpit in which Laurence Sterne preached.
Massachusetts, too, had many libraries which used book-plates
which are worthy of notice and which the collector will
prize. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences used an
elaborate plate engraved by Callender, the Boston
Architectural Library, Boston Circulating Shakespeare
Library, Boston Social Law Library, Bowdoin College,
Boyl-ston Medical Library, Dartmouth College and its Society
of Social Friends, the Dedham Scripture Study Society,
Harvard College and the Hastv Pudding and Porcellian
societies, the Haverhill Library, Massachusetts Historical
Society, Newburyport Athenaeum, and the Worcester Circulating
Library are among these. As one glances over the plates of Massachusetts, it may occur to him that their owners lived with less repose than did the New Yorkers or the Philadelphians. There was money and culture, but there was not the air of leisure about the life of the inhabitants of this Northern state that impresses one in turning over the records of the more southern colonies. There must have been in their blood some inclination to take things seriously, to give themselves to unremitting labor, and an intense love of country and liberty. These things worked together to prevent the full enjoyment of ease and luxury in so general and widespread a fashion as was observable among their Southern neighbors. It will occur to some, undoubtedly, that the early engravers offer a most inviting field for investigation, and so they do; but, unfortunately, very little can be found in old records and books concerning them. The " interview " was not then so elaboratean affair as it is to-day, and the lives of these humble artisans, with one or two exceptions, have not been made the subject of magazine articles or the longer biography which would fill a book. In New England there were Abel Bowen, Joseph Callender, Nathaniel Dearborn, John Mason Furnass, S. Harrris, Samuel Hill, Nathaniel Hurd, Paul Revere, Thomas Johnson, and James Turner, all of Boston; Amos Doolittle and Gideon Fairman, of Connecticut; and Edward and Elisha Gallaudet, Abraham Godwin, Charles P. Harrison, the Mavericks, Alexander Anderson, and Charles P. Rollinson, in New York; with John Boyd, Henry Dawkins, Francis Kearney, J. Smithers, T. Sparrow, James Thackara, James Trenchard, and John Vallance in the cities farther south. Here is a handful of early engravers whom it would be most interesting to know more of than we now do, and all additions to our knowledge of them is most welcome. Before taking leave of the early plates of our country, mention should be made of a few very excellent examples of engraving which the book-owners of the West Indies used in their volumes. Among these are Charles Ashwell of Grenada; William Assheton, Provost Marshal of Barbadoes; Joseph Beete of Demerary; William Blanc of Dominica, who was educated at the Middle Temple; Jonathan Blenman, Attorney-General and Judge of the Admiralty in Barbadoes; Francis Byam of the island of Antigua; Donald Campbell of Jamaica; Bryan Edwards of Greenwich Park, Jamaica, who was not only a very wealthy merchant, but a historian of ability; Samuel Heming of the parish of Santa Anna in Jamaica; Robert Hunter, who was sometime Governor of Jamaica, in 1728 the Bishop of Jamaica; William George Knox of the island of Trinidad; Charles Pinfold, Governor of Barbadoes; Eben Robertson of Kingston, Jamaica, who belonged to that family of Robertsons below whose shield of arms depends the man in chains; Samuel Vaughan, the wealthy planter in Jamaica; and William Williams of Antigua, who had one of the most beautiful plates used in this country, and which was engraved in Paris. Leaving now the old plates, we turn for a moment to speak of some of the recent examples. No historical memories as yet enrich these plates, but very possibly the collector of the next century will look back to many of them with great delight and find in them many a reason for their preservation; and as generations come and go, the day will probably come when they will be written about as old plates, scarce and valuable. I do not intend here to mention many plates, indeed, only those which are illustrated in this volume, and whose owners have kindly placed their coppers in my hands for this purpose. They have been selected with care and not without good reason. They represent the newest work of the best engravers of the day. There is just now a very widespread interest in the subject of book-plates; a very general renascence is under way. The book-plate is again coming into use as a useful and charming bit of bookish property. This pleasing fashion, which was at its height about a century ago, is now, after an interval of decline, showing signs of vigorous life. Just as the early use of the book-plate in America was introduced from England, so to-day this revival of interest in the subject follows a similar revival in old England. To the very flourishing Ex Libris Society of London, and all the active members it now numbers, is due this new condition of interest. In casting about for a design for his book-plate, the American does not feel that need of introducing the shield of arms which the Englishman does. Heraldry is not an American institution, and few are the Americans whose descent from the armorial families of the older countries is such as to permit the use of arms, should the exact letter of the laws of this exact science be applied to them. To the American who is fond of books and history, it will at once occur that a design appropriate to the purpose of the book-plate and indicating, by some of its features, an event of historical importance, either to the individual or the country, can be devised. Many such plates are being engraved to-day, and in them are many bits of history, personal or national, to discover and understand which is the delight of the collector. Among such, three are illustrated in this volume, —the plates of Dr. Walker, of Mrs. Gallaudet, and Mr. Buck. Dr. George Leon Walker, pastor-emeritus of the old First Church in Hartford, records upon his book-plate an incident in the life of his first ancestor on American soil, —Richard Walker of Saugus (or Lynn), in the year 1632. In the first part of the twenty-fifth chapter of Edward Johnson's Wonderworking Providence of Sions Saviour in New England, may be found the story the plate commemorates, Lieutenant Walker was out on sentinel duty against the Indians when, in the discharge of his duty, he fired at the savages. The gun burst, a fact which is suggested in the book-plate by the non-belligerent manner in which he holds his disabled "caliver". Upon examination, it was discovered that the Lieutenant's coat had been pierced by two arrows, though he himself had escaped injury. This sturdy Puritan was an officer in the little army which went out against the Pequots, became a Captain, in the Massachusetts troop, and was one of the earliest members of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. He died in Lynn at an advanced age, The design which so pleasingly records the hairbreadth escape of the intrepid sentinel was drawn by the wife of Dr. Walker's son, Professor Williston Walkers and the plate was etched by Hoffman of Rockville, Conn. Continued on this page |