'The mark and stamp of a Chippendale _ex libris_,' says Lord De Tabley, 'is a frilling or border of open shell-work, set close up to the rounded outer margin of the escutcheon, and, with breaks, more or less enclosing it. This seems to be a modification of the scallop shell, so normal at the base either of frame or bracket on a Jacobean plate. It is, in fact, a border imitating the pectinated curves and grooves on the margins of a scallop-shell. Outside this succeed various furniture-like limbs and flourishes, eminently resembling the triumphs of ornate upholstery which Chippendale about this time brought into vogue.' The helmet and mantling are quite exceptional in book-plates of this style, except in examples which were probably designed and executed by Scotch artists. [Illustration] Although it was not until 1754 that Chippendale published, in folio, _The Gentleman's and Cabinetmaker's Director_, 'being a large Collection of the most useful Designs of Household Furniture in the most fashionable taste, with 160 Plates of elegant designed Furniture,' there was probably by that time a good deal of Chippendale furniture already in the market, and we are therefore not surprised to find a book-plate designed in the Chippendale style, dated in 1714--that of 'East Apthorpe.' True, the style there shown is not at all 'advanced,' yet there are decided indications of it, and for that reason it deserves attention. Although the shield is shell-shaped and ornamented with flowers, yet there are upon the plate indications of a horizontally-hatched Jacobean lining to the frame. We may, I think, consider this one of the earliest attempts at designing a Chippendale book-plate. [Illustration] The style improved during the next ten or fifteen years, and then began to deteriorate. As an escutcheon, the shell-shaped or non-symmetrical shield is unnatural and even ugly, but it lends itself to an artistic treatment which the previous styles in English book-plates certainly did not. For example, flowers--of which there are always many in this style of book-plate--can be represented as in nature; roses blossom on sprays or branches, instead of being woven closely together in conventional festoons, lilies are left to droop their heads, whilst bunches of grasses or leaves are bound so loosely together that they forfeit nothing of their natural elegance. Allegoric figures also find place in Chippendale book-plates, but they are of a much more attractive kind than those displayed in the Jacobean plates. Cupids or nymphs are sometimes really graceful bits of drawing when depicted in the better specimens of the style of which we are now speaking. The book-plate of 'James Brackstone, Citizen of London,' dated in 1751--figured opposite this page--is as good a specimen of a pure Chippendale book-plate as could be found; whilst that of John Ord of Lincoln Inn, dated ten years later, betrays some signs of a decadence which soon afterwards became general.