Part 23 (2/2)
The style of a book-plate may be taken as some indication of the tastes and nature of the owner, and this is particularly true of modern French ex-libris, in which artistic fancy and originality have full swing. From this point of view a collection may have more value than might at first be supposed. It would be claiming too much to a.s.sert that no great man ever had an ugly or an inappropriate ex-libris, yet it may be safely a.s.sumed that few but men of taste and culture possess really artistic book-plates.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF MARTHE DE BORNIOL.
Designed by M. Georgel.]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER XVII.
ARTISTS AND ENGRAVERS WHOSE SIGNATURES ARE FOUND UPON FRENCH BOOK-PLATES.
In the following list no attempt has been made to enumerate every separate ex-libris signed by each artist; such works as would best ill.u.s.trate their style, or the period they worked in, only have been selected, or plates possessing other features of interest, literary, artistic, or personal.
It must be borne in mind that a large proportion of the early French plates bore no owners' names, although they were frequently signed by the engraver. Many of these plates have been identified by the arms, the mottoes, or other peculiarities in design, but some still remain unidentified.
Where engraved dates appear on the ex-libris these have been mentioned, but no notice has been taken of dates inserted in ma.n.u.script, these, as is well known, being quite unreliable.
For certain engravers, on whose work no date has been found, a century has been named approximately from an examination of the plates they produced.
Some of this information must necessarily be conjectural, and Mons.
Poulet-Mala.s.sis mentions certain artists and engravers of book-plates of whose work it has not been possible either to obtain copies, or any information whatever.
For facility of reference a strictly alphabetical arrangement of the names has been adopted.
Wherever it was possible, the inscriptions and signatures have been copied from the book-plates themselves, carefully preserving the arbitrary contractions, the obsolete orthography, and even the errors and the faulty accentuation found on many of them.
It will be observed that Mr. as a contraction for _Monsieur_ was formerly more generally used in France than it now is, whilst Escuyer, Escuier, or Ecuyer (for Esquire) was occasionally added after a gentleman's name, a custom which has, since the Revolution, become quite obsolete.
One of the latest examples of the use of this t.i.tle will be found on the ex-libris of Jean Francois-Gillet, dated 1778, of which a reproduction appears on p. 96.
A List of Artists and Engravers.
ABOT.
Engraved a plate for M.
Greppe. Designed by Giacomelli.
Modern.
TANCReDE ABRAHAM.
Chateau de Ruille. (De la Planche, Comte de Ruille.) 1874. Armorial.
ADELINE, JULES.
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