His titled plates were mounted on gold and silver paper; and the ladies’ plates on bits of silk, damask, satin, or old pieces of brocade and other things pertaining to ladies’ wear. The American plates were mounted on the older styles of marbled papers, and on fancy patterns and colors in use years ago. They were numbered on the back, and were kept in alphabetical order. Very often the back of the mount was covered with notes about the owner of the plate. Portraits, autographs, views of houses, and sketches of the owners from newspapers, were also mounted and placed with the plate they were identified with. The plates were kept in old book-covers of fine, polished calf, beautifully tooled on the back and edges. An interesting history is connected with these covers. Mr. John Austin Stevens, of New York, had made a fine collection of the poetry, ballads, and romances of the mediæval ages, which was bound in the sumptuous style mentioned. Upon the occasion of a visit to Europe, Mr. Mauran, who was a friend of Mr. Stevens, saw them carefully packed in boxes, which were deposited in the vaults of the Chamber of Commerce building in New York, and insured for ten thousand dollars. During the absence of the owner, the negro janitor of the building broke open the boxes, and, tearing out the insides of the treasured volumes, sold them for waste paper! Portions were recovered; but the covers were of no further use as originally intended, and they fell to Mr. Mauran, who used them to hold his book-plates. This collection was quite rich in the early plates of America; for Mr. Mauran, being well-nigh the first in the field, had the cream of collecting for some time, and was able to secure plates which now are not to be had. Not very long ago, this collection changed hands again, as the first purchaser, having no time to make use of the plates, was willing to sell them to some collector who could make them of greater use among others interested in the same topic. In some way the collection became disrupted, and parts of it are owned by different collectors. Mr. E. N. Hewins is one of the older collectors among us. Mr. Hewins has a very interesting album of American plates, in which a goodly number of the rarer specimens find a resting-place. Other albums are used for the foreign examples, and the number of plates in the collection places it well up towards the head of the list of large and valuable collections. The plates are classified by styles. Mr. Richard C. Lichtenstein, of Boston, has a large collection of book-plates. A part of his collection is arranged alphabetically in a large quarto bound in brown morocco, with gold tooling, and made especially for the purpose with leaves of very thin tinted paper. Individual mounts are also used. This collection is one of the largest and probably the best, as regards Americana, of all in the United States.