The Vicomte de Rougé, who died in 1873, was a famous Egyptologist, whose
translations from the papyri and inscriptions on the Egyptian monuments
were considered of the highest philological value. In 1860 M. de Rougé
was installed in the chair of Egyptology in the College of France, where
for some years he expounded the principles of careful analysis, upon
which his own successful studies had been based. He left a son, who
shared his father’s enthusiasm for research, and was also a frequent
contributor to the “Revue Archéologique.”
The device of Ferdinand de Lesseps was a Hercules with the motto
“Aperire terram gentibus,” in allusion to his great work on the Isthmus
of Suez. He did not then foresee his defeat and ruin in the Panama
Canal.
The Comtesse de Noë possesses a name which permits her to represent the
prehistoric ark as a kind of rebus; whilst Mons. Eugène Jacob, notary of
Angerville, possesses a small ex-libris, designed by his nephew, Mons.
Métivet, which represents a Jacob’s ladder crowded with book-loving
angels.
[Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE VICOMTE DE ROUGÉ.]
Albert Tissandier, the learned aëronaut, proclaims his specialty on his
circular book-plate, which shows an inflated balloon soaring aloft to
the realms of thought and ideality.
Whilst Prince Roland Bonaparte, who possessed one of the largest and
most valuable libraries of modern collectors, was content to use nothing
more elaborate than the Napoleonic eagle.
One of the most interesting and also one of the scarcest book-plates of
modern French men of letters is the tiny ex-libris of Prosper-Mérimée,
whose library was burnt during the troubles of the Commune in 1871.
[Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF EUGÈNE JACOB.
Designed by Métivet.]
It is, as nearly as possible, the size of a penny postage-stamp, but it
was designed and engraved by no less a man than Viollet Le Duc. The
Gothic letters P. M. are surrounded by a scroll in the shape of a
horse-shoe, with the opening directed upwards. The motto, in Greek, may
be thus translated, “Do not forget to doubt.” Here, too, is the
unpretentious plate of the bibliophile Jacob, with angels bringing him
his favourite volumes; whilst that of Charles Monselet, the author, has
been inserted already in the chapter on punning plates.
A well-known plate is that designed by Gavarni for the brothers Edmond
and Jules de Goncourt, and engraved by Jules de Goncourt himself. These
brothers have written much on French art, and, in allusion to their
literary partnership, the plate shows a sheet of paper on which are the
letters E. J. held down by the two outstretched fingers of a hand. The
design is at once simple and striking, but it has the great demerit of
not proclaiming its owner’s name, which is, after all, the _raison
d’être_ of a book-plate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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