_Mr. H. E. Deats_, of Flemington, N.J., has a most beautiful specimen of steel engraving which he uses in his numismatic library. In this, we see a female figure clad in classic costume, with a diadem on her brow, sitting on the clouds, and having at her side an oval shield, on which a very important peacock is depicted as using the globe for his perch. On either side, cornucopiæ of fruit and flowers barely hold their quantities of produce. The motto, _Instauratio saeculi felicis_, is placed upon the edge of the shield. The plate of _Frances Louise_ and _Charles Dexter Allen_ represents a female figure in classic robes seated upon a stone bench at the foot of tall trees. It is twilight, and the glint of the weakening light is seen through the leaves. Books, manuscript, and scrolls are strewn around the solitary figure. The motto, _Sapientiam veram petimus_, is carved along the top of the wall behind. One arm of the figure is thrown across the top of an open book, on which the names of the owners are given. This plate was suppressed at the request of the publishers of a magazine in New York City, as it so closely resembled the design on their cover. [Illustration: SAMUEL·WESLEY·MARVIN] A very effective plate is that of _F. W. Hoyt_, of Albany, N.Y. In this an Ionic column forms the whole design. Very beautifully engraved: the lamp of Knowledge is continually burning, and continually fed on the top of the capital, while the names of the “Immortals” are bound around the shaft on a ribbon,--_Homer_, _Dante_, _Cervantes_, _Shakespeare_, _Shelley_. The name of the owner is carved upon the base. In the plate of _Samuel Wesley Marvin_, is depicted the sleeping knight, to whom come [Illustration: F.W. HOYT. ] Pleasure and Knowledge, each with her offer of satisfaction and reward. The motto, _Courage le diable est mort_, is seen on the broad ribbon which is laid about the picture. [Illustration: V A] The plate of _Adam Van Allen_, of Albany, is copied from the plate of the brothers Goncourt, and represents the left hand with a pair of dividers held by the third and fourth fingers, while the first and second are placed upon a sheet of paper bearing the initials _V A_. Several peculiar plates remain to be mentioned, which belong to no style, but are examples of the individual taste of the owners, which is now so marked a feature of book-plate designing. Not, as formerly, are we controlled as to the style which we shall adopt, but each book-lover can, without appearing eccentric, place whatever design he chooses within his book-covers. The plate of the well-known _litterateur_, _W. Irving Way_, of Chicago, is simply a very small bit of paper with his initials in cipher upon it. The plate of _Fred J. Libbie_, of Boston, one of the largest collectors of plates, is a cryptogrammic arrangement of the letters forming his name.