The plate of _Brander Matthews_, designed by Edwin A. Abbey, represents the discovery of a mask of the old Greek comedy by an American Indian. With feathers stuck in his scanty hair, and his tomahawk laid on the ground beside him, he appears to deliberate upon the possible use of the enormous face which grins at him from his knee. On a circular frame surrounding this picture the following words from Molière are given, _Que pensez vous de cette comedie_. The appropriateness of the design is apparent for one who is a collector of the literature of the French drama, and the author of several books relating to the stage both in America and France. [Illustration: STEDMAN] In the plate of _Edmund Clarence Stedman_, the author of “The Poets of America,” we see Pan piping in the sylvan glades; the shepherd and the nymph are charmed by the music, and the god is apparently at the height of his effort. The frame surrounding the design bears the words, _Le Cœur au Metier_, which were suggested by the address of Matthew Arnold to the Authors’ Club in 1883. This plate is made in three sizes. The plate of _Thomas Bailey Aldrich_ presents within a square frame a picture of a black bird resting upon a comic mask; the heavy panelled frame bears the owner’s name and the words, _His Mark_. In his essay on American Book-plates, Mr. Laurence Hutton questions whether this black bird is representative of the Daw, and symbolic of Margery of that name. In the plate of _Eugene Field_ we have a beautiful example of the plain armorial, unaccompanied by motto or ornamentation of any kind. Of similar character is the plate of _Richard Grant White_. This is armorial, but the motto, _The right and sleep_, is given, and the shield is decorated in a conventional manner, with mantling and scrolls. A pleasing library interior is used by _Arlo Bates_. This represents an Oriental interior; a youth in scull-cap and flowing hair is reading a large book; a lily stem rises from a vase of striped Tyrian glass at his side; rows of books are seen at his back; and out of the arched window the distant fields are seen, with the palm and cypress trees on the hillside. This plate is produced in a new manner, being a gelatine print or half-tone direct from the pencil sketch. It preserves a very soft and pleasant effect; indeed, one feels sure it will smirch if rubbed. _Laurence Hutton_ in his plate places a full-length statue of Thackeray within a canopy, which seems to be a niche within a book-case. Volumes flank both sides, and the amiable face of the drastic writer looks directly at the beholder. The name of the owner is given on a ribbon at the bottom of the design. [Illustration: LAURENCE HUTTON] The books of the lamented actors, _Edwin Booth_ and _Lawrence Barrett_, were marked with book-plates, the former using a plain armorial with no name engraved upon it, and the latter showing the mask of Tragedy upon an open volume, with the motto, _Esto quod esse videris_.