We will speak first of those book-plates on which the landscape is real,
and we will call them 'View' plates. Probably the earliest of these is
the very interesting one (see p. 105), which was engraved by Mynde about
1770 for the Library of the Public Record Office, then in the Tower of
London; here we have a remarkably faithful representation of the
historic building. The date at which the Tower book-plate was probably
engraved adds to its interest. Plates in this style hardly appear at all
before 1778 or 1780, and do not become common till five or six years
later.
The book-plate of 'Peter Muilman of King S^{t.}, London, and Kirby Hall,
Castle Hedingham, Essex,' is one which, I think, may be classed among
'View' plates, since the ruins depicted on it have certainly the
appearance of having been sketched from the remains of some feudal
stronghold, perhaps from Castle Hedingham itself. In front of the ruins
is a wooded lawn, on which two robust cupids are wrestling for the
Muilman escutcheon. Kirby Hall is not shown: no doubt this was a
comfortable Georgian house round the corner, where Peter and his family
spent their summer holidays away from the bustle and smoke of King
Street. Presumably, the ruins of the castle were left standing in the
park for ornament's sake, to give a tone of feudalism to the Muilman
domain, whose owner, save by his book-plate, is not known to fame. The
plate was engraved by Terry of Paternoster Row, probably about 1775, so
that this again is an early example of its kind.
[Illustration]
Among other notable specimens of these 'View' book-plates may be
mentioned that which Pye, a Birmingham engraver, executed for 'T. W.
Greene' of Lichfield. Here we have an oval-shaped shield, bearing the
arms of Greene, resting against a tree-stump. In the distance is a
river, and Lichfield Cathedral. Later on, Pye engraved a very similar
book-plate for another Lichfield man--an attorney named Nicholson, who
went to live at Stockport. This shows Nicholson's residence on the
margin of a sheet of water. The arms rest against a shattered oak-tree.
A local view--one of Darlington--also appears on the book-plate of
George Allen, who describes himself as of that town.
Collectors are wont to reckon as the most interesting example of a view
book-plate the vignette of Horace Walpole's house at Strawberry Hill,
with his arms hanging on a shield from a withered tree. Mr. Wheatley,
however, who is inclined to attribute the design to Walpole's friend,
Bentley, has suggested (_Bibliographica_, vol. iii. p. 88) that the
vignette was never used as a book-plate, but was exclusively reserved as
a kind of printer's device for the adornment of the books printed at the
Strawberry Hill Press. Sir Wollaston Franks has four varieties of the
vignette, one engraved on wood and three on copper; and I have certainly
seen at least one of them doing duty as a book-plate, but whether
rightfully or not it is impossible to say.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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