Modern examples of View book-plates were, till quite recently, rare. One
of the quaintest is furnished by that used by the late Dr. Kendrick of
Warrington, and engraved for him in 1855; here we have a view of the
doctor's town as it was in 1783 and a picture of a 'loyal Warrington
Volunteer' of 1798. Quite a useful historical print!
Now let me say a word about the Picture book-plates on which the
landscape is a fancy one. Prominent amongst these is that of 'Gilbert
Wakefield,' which shows us a pretty scene: a stag stoops to drink from a
rivulet that trickles through a wood. Very much later in date is a
charming vignette, representing a rock, over which a stream of water
trickles and sparkles as it falls into a pool below. Ferns and flags
grow in the pool. The book-plate belonged to Joseph Priestley, and on
that account we mention it after Wakefield's. Priestley was quite as
bitter a Dissenter and as ardent a controversialist as Gilbert
Wakefield, though it is more as a man of science that most people
remember him. His name is so intimately associated with Birmingham
politics at the time of the French Revolution, that the fact of his
book-plate being engraved by a Birmingham man--it is signed 'Allen sct.
Birming^{m}'--becomes the more interesting, and enables us to assign the
engraving to a marked period in the owner's life--the time when his
friendship with Lord Shelburne began to cool, and when, settling down at
Birmingham, he began work on his _History of the Corruptions of
Christianity_. James Yates, who edited Priestley's collected works, used
the same book-plate, after altering the name upon it.
Another delightfully rural scene is depicted on the book-plate of 'John
Hews Bransby.' His motto reads, _Breve et irreparabile tempus_; and he
shows a rustic landscape, in which the figures represented have
evidently learnt the truth of the assertion. The sower scatters seed,
the ploughboy is engaged with his team,--all are making the most of
their time, yet there is no sign of hurry or bustle. The day is fine,
but clouds hover in the sky. On the left, a cottage nestles in the
trees, and the smoke from its chimney tells of the housewife within
preparing a meal for those who are earning it by their labour without.
So much for landscapes having direct reference to the book-plates on
which they appear. Often, however, the landscape is purely a fancy one,
as that on the book-plate of Gregory Louis Way. A river flows through
fields, and beside it sits an armour-coated knight, who is either
wearied with the fight, or bowed down by the fickleness of his lady. His
shield rests beside him, and on it are depicted the arms of Way. The
moon sheds upon the scene what light she is able, but the sky is
overcast and stormy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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