Eight years after completing the Ebner plate, Dürer engraved on copper a Portrait plate of Bilibald Pirckheimer, a Nuremberg jurist of some note, who became councillor to Maximilian I., and was the owner of a library, whose subsequent history has been told in 'Books about Books' by Mr. Elton in his _Great Book Collectors_. Now this Portrait plate, which is dated 1524, was undoubtedly used by Pirckheimer as his book-plate. There are plenty of known instances in which it may be still found fastened in at the end of a volume. Whether or not it was intended for any other purpose than that which I have here mentioned, we cannot say, for it bears no inscription expressing its use. However--very possibly at the same date--Dürer designed for Pirckheimer what was, without doubt, intended for a book-plate, since it bears the inscription, 'Liber Bilibaldi Pirckheimer.' This is, in many instances, found on the front cover of volumes which also contain the book-plate last described fastened on the back cover. It is a very striking book-plate. A strangely large helmet, on which is placed an equally large crest, surmounts a pair of shields. The dexter one bears the arms of Pirckheimer--a _birke_ or birch-tree; whilst the sinister bears those of his wife, Margretha Rieterin--a crowned mermaid with two tails, each of which she holds in her hands. Pirckheimer's arms show the curious punning heraldry of the time, the _birke_ being, no doubt, a playful allusion to the jurist's name. Clasping the helmet are two angels. On either side of the shield is a large cornucopia apparently filled with grapes and vine leaves, and amongst these stands a smaller angel holding one end of a heavy festoon, the other end of which is fastened to a ram's head, the centre of the design. Angels, apparently at play, are also represented below the shield. Examples of this plate are not uncommon in English collections, many of Pirckheimer's books having passed into the Library of the Royal Society, and some of these having been sold as duplicates, when they were bought up by collectors for the sake of the book-plate. Sir Wollaston Franks points out to me that there is yet a third variety of Pirckheimer's book-plate, which is signed 'J. B. 1529,' and is not the work of Dürer. [Illustration] The book-plate of Hector Pömer, provost of the Church of St. Laurence at Nuremberg, dated in 1525, is also ascribed to Dürer, though it is signed with the initials 'R. A.' This signature is probably that of the artist who cut the design upon wood, for it is now maintained that Dürer himself only made the drawings for the woodcuts known as his; the mechanical operation of cutting being handed over to assistants. The Pömer plate is the earliest dated book-plate which bears a signature either of the designer or the engraver.