It is, however, to be admitted that at first glance, the general reader who has not developed a special liking for the things of the past in history, art, or biography, may see no especial interest in book-plates. But let him examine a collection of good plates with their intelligent owner, who can point out to him the facts worthy of note; let him once understand that celebrated artists like Albrecht Durer, Jost Amman, William Hogarth, William Marshall, George Vertue, Bewick, Bartolozzi, and even Raphael Morghen were willing to devote time and taste to the designing or engraving of the book-plate; let him handle some of their work, and reflect upon the effort the master considered so small a design worthy of; let him see the plates of some of the noted names in history, art, letters, medicine, the sciences, and the professions; let him take in his hands the plates of William Penn, the friend of the Indian and benefactor of his race, of Laurence Sterne, of David Garrick, of Horace Walpole, of Samuel Rogers, of Charles Dickens, or of George Washington, of John Adams, and Charles Carroll, signers of the Declaration; let him see a plate engraved by Paul Revere whose services in the Revolution he has known of from his schooldays;--let him see these and scores more of similar interest, and he cannot fail to respond to the enthusiasm of their owner. But indeed it is a pursuit, the delights of which are discernible to those only who bring to it the capacity for such pleasures. [Illustration: _John Adams._] NAME-LABELS AND MOTTOES. [Illustration: O]f all forms of book-plates the simplest possible is the printed name of the owner, unaccompanied by either motto, device, or ornamentation of any kind. Such a plate had _Philip Hone_, one of the founders of the Mercantile Library, and in the early twenties a mayor of the city of New York. His plate is merely a bit of paper with his name in bold script printed upon it from an engraved copper-plate. This style of plate is not chronologically the earliest, but is taken as our starting-point because of its unrelieved simplicity; this fulfils the mission of the book-plate,--it proclaims the ownership of the book in which it is seen; not in delicate language, to be sure, not with any invitation to dip into the volume in hand, not with any evidence of the owner’s taste in reading, but with a directness not to be misunderstood. The essential part of the book-plate is the name of the owner; and while this is sufficient of itself, it is found profitable and pleasant to accompany it with an apt quotation from a favorite author, with a caution against the improper [Illustration: James Eddy Mauran.]