Old Cadwallader Colden, the friend of Benjamin Franklin (and what a pity no plate of the latter has ever been discovered), was a man of powerful intellect, from whom his son, Cadwallader David, must have inherited no little ability. The son was a great friend of De Witt Clinton, and was active with him in pushing numerous improvements in the city and state of New York, notably the Erie Canal.
Colden's book-plate was a plain armorial, while Clinton's was in the height of style, and was engraved by the fashionable engraver. Maverick, in the simple but elegant Ribbon and Wreath arrangement.
In looking over the names of the families in whose homes there were enough books to induce the possession of a book-plate, one comes across many which have been familiar since the days when the study of United States history was a school task. In some cases, the plates themselves are of interest, but the collector values them mostly for their associations. For instance, the plate of Van Cortlandt is not particularly striking; but who that knows something of the story of the old manor-house at Croton can look at this plate, with its military emblems surrounding the shield, and not consider it a bit of most interesting memorabilia?
Then, too, there was the Van Rensselaer family, which held its rights as patroons until well into the present century, a long-lived relic of the West India Company, and before the door of whose manor-house stood the cannon whose loud intonation was only heard when a new member of the family was ushered into the world, or when one of them departed this life. Numerous book-plates were used by members of this noted family, and Kilain K. Van Rensselaer had a handsome design in the Ribbon and Wreath style by Maverick. Probably no family in the country had so many or such interesting plates, taken collectively, as had the Livingstons: Brockholst Livingston, the scholar and lawyer, Edward, Maturin, and Judge Robert R., who had plates by Maverick, and Walter, William S., and Robert R., the Chancellor, who had plates by the same engraver.
Many and interesting are the anecdotes of this extremely interesting family, which has been of such prominence in the history of their state and the nation. The British destroyed the old home of Judge Robert R. in the year 1777 ; but not until from it had come a notable family of sons and daughters. It was the Chancellor who was sent to the court of Napoleon, and to whom was given the snuff-box with the portrait by Isabey painted upon it, and it was the deafness of this distinguished man, and the inability to speak French of his brother-in-law, General Armstrong, who succeeded the future Chancellor as minister to France, that caused Napoleon to make the celebrated remark, " What strange people these Americans are ! First they send me a deaf man, and then one who is dumb!"
When old Philip Livingston died, in the year 1749, there was a funeral of a most aristocratic nature. Some account of it is still preserved, and among the noteworthy facts recorded in a contemporary journal are that spiced wine was passed to the eight bearers, who were presented not only with gloves and handkerchiefs, but also with mourning rings and monkey spoons. It is also stated that the cost of this function must have reached the tidy sum of £500. Samuel Provost, the first Bishop of New York, used a book-plate which was engraved by Maverick, and which, in addition to the arms and mitre, carried the motto Pro libertate. This learned churchman had a rural retreat at East Camp in Dutchess (now Columbia) County, and there he enjoyed not only his literary pursuits, but the garden and farm there pleasantly located. The Bishop was a lover of books, and had among his treasures some fine specimens of the printing of Baskerville, a rare Venetian Dante of 1547, Rapin's England,, in five noble folios, a collection of Americana, and one of Elzevirana, as well as some notable specimens of incunabula, among the last a Sweynheym and Pannartz imprint of 1470. He was a remarkable man in a good many ways, and, being heartily in sympathy with the American patriots, he resigned his position at Trinity Church, and betook himself to the country seat mentioned above, where he spent some years. Upon the departure of the British from New York in 1783, he came out from his retirement and was made Bishop. He was chaplain to the Continental Congress in 1785, and to the United States Senate in 1789. He died in 1815.
Colonel William Duer (who had been aide-de-camp to Lord Clive in India, and who married Catherine, daughter of Lord Stirling, and was thus with his wife able to lend quite an aristocratic and English flavor to the polished gatherings of the day) used a simple book-plate with the crest of his family for design, and the motto Esse quam videri. What munificent entertainments, what charming society, what rustle of silks and laces, what titterings between the lovely young ladies, what gallantries on the part of the perfectly dressed beaux these names recall! The wedding of Colonel Duer and the bright Lady Kitty, whom John Quincy Adams, with the proper amount of polish, referred to as " one of the sweetest-looking women in the city," was a very celebrated event; and, as it occurred while General Greene had his headquarters in the house and there were plenty of soldiers about, it took on a decidedly military character. The bride was given away by the Commander-in-chief himself, the loud calls of the soldiers for a sight of the lady were listened to, and she stepped upon the lawn to receive the ringing cheers and hearty congratulations of the throng. Surely the old manor-house of Lord Stirling held never a gayer company than this.


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