Armorial devices stamped on the outsides of books occur in England from the end of the fifteenth century onwards, and very fine examples are found of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries particularly. Towards the end of the seventeenth century the popularity of the book-stamp was diminished by the growth of the use of adhesive book-plates. It may be mentioned that, especially during the reign of Elizabeth, many fine armorial woodcuts are found in English books, the arms being generally those of the patron to whom the book was dedicated. The succession of English Royal coats-of-arms on books is complete from the time of Henry VII. to that of Edward VII., and they will all be found in this book. The usual authorities for Royal armorials are great seals and coins, but the books which belonged to our sovereigns supply an equally fine and equally accurate collection. Every change of bearings, supporters, mottoes or badges is duly represented, and there are very few old private libraries in England which have not some Royal books upon their shelves. These books have either been given away by the sovereigns themselves, or acquired as official perquisites. With regard to the identification of coats-of-arms or crests on books, this is a process of exhaustion, and it will be found easiest to begin with accessories, if there are any. These accessories are found either as augmentations _on_ the shield or additions _outside_ it, and by their help it is often easy to narrow down the limits within which the owner must come. By the help of coronets it is possible to fix the exact rank of the owner, and this alone, together with the date of the book, ought to make the identification easy, by help of a Peerage of the same date. The decorations which surround a shield are often of great use; the coat-of-arms and coronet of an Earl, for instance, may be easily identified, but there may nevertheless be three or four persons who succeeded each other rapidly, and bore the same coat, to whom the book may have belonged. But round such a coat perhaps there is the Garter, or the collar of the Bath, or the insignia of some other order, and this will very likely decide which Earl was the actual owner. The date of the printing of a book is of some use, if everything else fails, but it must be understood that as a rule it only means that the binding belonged to somebody at a later date. Even that is not quite certain, because old stamped bindings have too often been transferred to newer books. Such a transfer would be evident to a binder, but it may well deceive any one else.