Part 22 (1/2)

In this plate the exigencies of s.p.a.ce have compelled the artist, M.

Aglaus Bouvenne, to so divide the name that it reads as though M. Uzanne were in the act of courteously saluting himself!

Well, why not? AVE UZANNE!

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF OCTAVE UZANNE, 1882.

By Aglaus Bouvenne.]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER XVI.

MODERN EX-LIBRIS.

From the downfall of the first Napoleon, and the restoration of the Monarchy, until about 1850, art, as shown in ex-libris, appears to have slumbered; scarcely anything can be found but a dreary repet.i.tion of heraldic plates, without character and without style, or slavish imitations of designs of the pre-Revolution character, such as those of F. des Robert and Du Puy de Belveze (see pages 276, 277).

As Poulet-Mala.s.sis observes, they appear to have been turned out to pattern indiscriminately by the Parisian engravers. The pattern most in request was a kind of strap, or sword-belt, which surrounded the s.h.i.+eld or monogram of the owner.

Even in this dreary waste, without art, without originality, there is just one plate which calls for remark. It is that of Alphonse Karr, the author, and represents a wasp (the symbol he chose) busy writing on a long parchment. Probably this was designed for him by Grandville, the caricaturist. This plate almost marks a division line between the old engraved copper-plates with their stiff and formal heraldry, and the modern etched ex-libris, with designs free and graceful,--allegoric, pictorial, allusive, humorous, anything, in fact, that is not heraldic, or in which, at least, if there be anything of an armorial nature, it is made subservient to the general design, and as little conspicuous as possible.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF F. DES ROBERT, 1878.]

Some well-known artists of the day having set the fas.h.i.+on, it became ”the thing” with literary men--plebeian people, of course--to discard heraldry, and to have ex-libris emblematical of their studies, their tastes, or their princ.i.p.al works, as in the plates, for instance, of Victor Hugo, Theophile Gautier, Manet, the Brothers Goncourt, Octave Uzanne, Paul Lacroix, and others.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF G. DU PUY DE BELVEZE.]

Apart from what may be termed the original and characteristic book-plates of some of the leading men in arts and letters, French ex-libris of the first fifty years of this century may be divided into three leading styles: 1. The plain armorial s.h.i.+eld, or seal, with heraldic bearings. 2. The plain printed label, either in modern type, or in imitation of that of the fifteenth century. 3. Type-printed, surrounded by a wreath of flowers, a belt, or a strap.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF LOUIS MOHR.]

All, or nearly all, come under these headings, and are about as artistic as the label on a bottle of champagne, or a box of bonbons. They accomplish their object, for they proclaim the owners.h.i.+p of the volume, but tell us nothing of the owner's personality.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF LEON GRUEL.]

A new fas.h.i.+on which arose in ex-libris, almost synchronous with the rise of the Second Empire, dispelled much of this formality and monotony. Individuality and originality were displayed, often weak and puerile, but infinitely superior to the dull uniformity which had prevailed in the previous generation. Statesmen, literary and scientific men, even artists, began to mark their books in this way, and their plates were almost as varied as their tastes and characters. Their designs may not always please, may sometimes even shock, as does that of _Niniche_, but at least they do not weary with their sameness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE COMTE DE BUREY.]

But of all the modes in ex-libris there is one, at least, which always pleases, whether French or English, namely, the photographic portrait of the owner carefully reproduced by a cunning engraver, and furnished with bookish surroundings.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE COMTE DE BUREY.]

This portrait ex-libris has great interest for the collector, but the simple photograph, in all its detestably scientific truth and brutal exact.i.tude, cannot be considered as a respectable or desirable member of the ex-libris family.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF HENRI TAUSIN, OF ST. QUENTIN.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF J. E. SYLVESTRE.