Part 2
BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY TONNELÉ & COMPANY NEW YORK
BOOK-PLATES AND THE NUDE
By WILBUR MACEY STONE
Lovers of the beautiful have been burdened with endless talk and writing and many quarrels on the nude in art, and now I have the temerity to open a new field of battle and throw down the gauntlet for strife. The Eternal Feminine is a prominent factor in the picture book-plates of the day, and she is showing some tendencies to appear minus her apparel. Question: is it wise and in good taste?
Of course, to start with, I am quite free to admit that good taste is a movable feast and is much influenced by the point of view. Your taste is good if it agrees with mine; otherwise it is bad taste or no taste. At any rate, there are a few things we can agree upon, I think. For instance, that there is a wide distinction between the nude and the naked. Also, that the human form divine is most beautiful, but that to remain most beautiful it must deviate not one jot or tittle from the divine, for any deviation is to tend to the earthy and gross, which is vulgar and--bad taste. We can also agree, I think, that partially draped figures can be, and often are, sensual and repulsive beyond the frankly nude, and this without the direct intent or knowledge of the artist.
"A hair perhaps divides the false and true, Yes; and a single slip were the clue--"
But above all things a nude figure should never carry the idea of a consciousness of its nudity! Also, clothing or drapery used simply to hide portions of the figure is execrable and more suggestive than any entire absence of clothing; while to add, as I have seen done, a hat and French-heeled shoes to a nude figure is abominable beyond condemnation.
But all this is of broad application and is sawing upon the same old and frayed strings. Abstractly, a beautiful nude is as beautiful on a book-plate as in a portfolio or in a frame, and some of the most beautiful book-plates I have ever seen have been nudes. Nevertheless, to me the nude seems out of place and in questionable taste on a book-plate; the simple matter of repetition is enough to condemn it.
The partially draped figures by R. Anning Bell are chaste and beautiful, and one never thinks of them other than as clothed; so they can hardly be considered in this discussion. Many of the book-plates by Henry Ospovat contain partly draped figures which are always beautifully drawn, pure and a constant delight. But really, I think it would jar me to meet even an angel--the same one, mind you--in each of a thousand volumes. Emil Orlak, in Austria, has made some fairly pleasing nudes, but they lack that purity of conception without which they are common. Armand Rassenfosse, of Belgium, has etched a number of dainty, faultlessly drawn and really most beautiful nudes, but many of them have been ruined by the needless addition of shoes and fancy head-dresses. Pal de Mont, of Antwerp, has a plate by Edmond van Oppel which he probably thinks a work of art, but which is surely the height of vulgarity; while in "Composite Book-Plates" is a design by Theodore Simson containing a large figure of a nude woman with her hair done in a pug, seated in a grove amid dandelions and poppies, and diligently reading a book. The figure is treated in broad outline, which is ill adapted to the subject, and it lacks that refinement without which nothing is beautiful. She is absolutely at variance with her environment, and the whole is a _tour de force_ quite unforgivable.
Miss Labouchere, in her volume on ladies' plates, shows a rather amusing pair of designs for Miss Nellie Heaton. These plates both bear the legend, "Gather ye roses while ye may." In the first, the designer, Mrs. Baker, has a fair creature in all the glory of entire nudity plucking blossoms from a rose-vine. In the other, she used the same design throughout, but has fully clothed the figure. Evidently Miss Heaton protested.
These designs by a woman call to mind the fact that among the book-plates of over one hundred and fifty women designers with which I am familiar, I know of but one other nude. This other is by Miss Mary Florence, and is of a large full-length angel entirely undraped.
Fritz Erler, a German designer of much strength, has made a number of symbolic book-plates. All, I believe, have the feminine as motif, and in several the figures are nude. The design for Emil Gerhäuser is inoffensive and well-drawn, but surely is not beautiful, and lacks a good excuse for existence. In a generally pleasing decorative arrangement for Robert H. Smith, Harold Nelson, an English designer, shows a rather attenuated nude maiden looking with envy at a gorgeous peacock on the opposite side of the design; while the peacock in turn seems to say, "Why don't you grow some feathers?"
We naturally expect to find well-drawn, if not always pleasing, nudes in the French school. Henry André, one of the best known French designers of book-plates, uses the nude quite freely in his work; in some instances pleasingly, but in one or two with marked vulgarity. Octave Uzanne has the most pleasing nude plate that I have ever seen. It is designed by Guérin, and represents a tortoise bearing the implements of the artist, and coaxed along by the hot torch of knowledge in the hand of a light-winged cupid. By Sherborn, the great, I have seen but one nude in a book-plate, and that a poor thing but innocuous, for Mr. Harris Fahnestock of New York. Mr. E. D. French has made but one nude that I have seen, that for Mr. E. H. Bierstadt; the design shows a nude shepherd boy piping to his flock. The plate Mr. French engraved for Mr. De Vinne, from the design by Geo. Fletcher Babb, has nude termini for bearers, and is elegant and beautiful, an ideal plate.
American artists have essayed the nude but little in book-plate design, perhaps through wisdom, perhaps through fear; but the fact remains that they have thereby avoided the perpetration of at least some crimes. Judging by the examples we have been able to cite, and they are representative, it would seem that the best advice we can give those tempted to use the undraped beautiful in their book-plates is--don't.
BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY TONNELÉ & COMPANY NEW YORK
THE ARCHITECT AS A BOOK-PLATE DESIGNER
By WILLIS STEELL
Among the book-plate designers of the present day the architect may, if he choose, take a high place. He is one whose studies have led him through the paths of artistic training where his eye and hand have learned to see color and form and balance of parts, and while the usual media of his profession are wood, stone, terra cotta and iron, there are many by-paths through which he must travel to appreciate the value of his pencil lines upon the flat.
No more delightful by-way than the book-plate route will open before him, hedged in as it is by purely artistic shrubbery and leading constantly to pretty and even beautiful designs in which the genius of architecture has played a great part. Moreover, all his preceding journey through the hard conventional country to which architecture at first seems limited, has equipped him thoroughly to give expression to his fancy. That the gift of imagination is among his endowments should be taken for granted, however, if the architect is to succeed in the line of drawing book-plates.
Fancy and imagination being in his mental equipment the architect can "rest" his mind in no more delightful fashion than by giving them full scope in this gem-like art. His experience, his collections of drawings, the work of others of his craft which he has studied, all tend to render his fund of information large, and if he has the key to book-plate art, inexhaustible, since nothing comes amiss to the pen of one whose facile fancy can grasp a good motive and direct it to a purpose other than that originally intended.
In the early days of art the architect was not only a designer of buildings but was also a sculptor and sometimes a decorative painter. He was called upon by his patrons to design whatever was needed at the moment, and these men were "all-round" artists, the day of specialization and the speculator not having dawned.
Buonarotti is an awesome name to call up, but this great painter, sculptor, architect and builder touched nothing that he did not adorn, and in many of the hundreds of crayon sketches and cartoons that he left behind him, the feeling of the book-plate artist is clear. Had Lorenzo the Magnificent wanted a book-plate for use in his library, the great Michael Angelo could have filled the want from his own notes, with very little of either suppression or expansion. It may seem strange to think of this Titan of art, the creator of the sweeping "Last Judgment" turning his pencil to the delicate lines, the imperceptible nuances demanded by a book-plate, yet it may be repeated, in his work may be found a myriad of suggestions for these gem-like products.
Buonarotti was not, however, first and last an architect. Painter and sculptor also, these sides of his artist soul would have been drawn on for the book-plate. Therefore the statement that not every architect can design so fanciful and dainty a work as a book-plate becomes a truism patent to everybody. The architect's profession calls for a two-fold nature, the one side tending toward that of the engineer with its eminently practical and very necessary tables of stress and strain, its mathematical calculations for loads and disposition of carrying walls, while the other side leans to a nice discernment of color and proportion. The laying out of vistas and the arrangement of surfaces and lines, so that the eye is aided in receiving the best impression from all points of view. Of this turn of mind is the one who can and does design book-plates. The very practical architect, if he wishes the glory, which is doubtful, has one of his draftsmen make the design and then signs the drawing and gets the glory. It would be amusing if such an one through some luck charm received constant application for such work. His draftsmen would change and his drawings be as dissimilar as the men who drew them. Possibly the signature would lead the long-suffering public to think him very versatile.
It is not of this class of architect that we write. It is of him who is half painter or sculptor, and who loves his pen and pencil and delights in the personal expression of his ideals. He finds that his way of seeing things is more to his liking than any way of any other man. He sees the infinite beauty of nature and loves her shifting pictures in the clouds. Then too, he must have the ability to clearly comprehend the half-formed ideas of him whose plate he undertakes to draw. This is not always an easy matter. There are but few in the world who can formulate their ideas, much less invent a picture without first seeing it. Here the architect has, perhaps, an advantage over the purely imaginative artist, since the average man does not know the difference between the Classic period and the Gothic, the Napoleon era and the modern German renaissance.
Of the architects who have obtained unquestioned recognition in this exquisite art, Thomas Tryon is among those whose work is especially prized. His adaptation of architectural forms to the confined space of the book-plate shows the work of a man who has command of his tools and knowledge, and despite the narrow confines of the field his work is not at all "cabined or cribbed." The illustrations accompanying this essay are taken rather at random from among Mr. Tryon's designs, but they will convey to those unfamiliar with his work, a fair idea of its scope and treatment. His first design was a plate for his father, an ornate armorial design, the name being set up in type at the base. The plate for Miss Annah M. Fellowes is quite elaborate. A long-haired and bewhiskered knight stands before us in a suit of rich armor, his right hand bearing his sword and helmet, and his left resting upon his shield. His helmet is surmounted by a pair of spreading wings. The design is backed by a rambling rose bush on which is hung the motto ribbon.
Mr. Frank Pool is obviously a lover of the drama. In an oval window set in masonry, is a Roman gentleman, laurel crowned, reading from a large volume, while at the upper right and left sides are comedy and tragedy masks from which hang a gracefully festooned wreath. Palms, ribbon and name plate finish the design. For Mr. Farragut, the son of our old admiral, Mr. Tryon has made a very "salt water" arrangement of arms. The shield is surmounted by a quaint ship and the bearers are dolphins, which on one side encircle a trident and on the other a sword. The conventional acanthus leaves give body and decoration to the whole. Perhaps one of the most distinctively beautiful of Mr. Tryon's designs is the fleur-de-lis for Mr. Marcus. In this the artist has blended most delightfully the natural and the heraldic flower and has produced a gem of which one never tires. For his sister and her children Mr. Tryon has made a light and airy design, distinctively feminine and graceful. The main feature of the design is an ornate cypher of the letters S T. On the ribbon below the name is shown. This is changed to the names of Mrs. Stone's three daughters for their individual use. The plate reproduced here is that of one of Mrs. Stone's daughters. The design for "The Boys Club" is surmounted by the American eagle perched upon the globe, and the flag of our country is draped over the tablet bearing the lettering. This plate has been reproduced both by photo-process and copper plate.
Of the three color plates reproduced the first was made for Mr. A. W. Brunner, and has for "piece de resistence" a very ingenious monogram set in an oval frame. For bearers there are two graceful palms and the keystone is surmounted by a pile of books and a classic student's lamp. The base of the design is relieved by a pleasing arrangement of acanthus leaves. The plate for Miss Cox is a seal-like design, dignified yet dainty, and would be entirely in place in all kinds of volumes. The plate for Mr. Steell quite speaks for itself and makes the sportsman feel wildly for the trigger of his gun. The buck and doe silhouetted against the yellow of evening and the reflection in the stream are a delight.
Three of Mr. Tryon's designs have been engraved by Mr. E. D. French. The famous Sovereign plates being two, and one for Mr. Havemeyer being the third. This plate for Mr. Havemeyer is indicative of the owner's collection of Washingtoniana, and is surrounded by several of the well-known portraits of the father of his country, while at the top is a small view of Mount Vernon. The portraits and view are interwoven with foliage and ribbon and form a frame in which Mr. Havemeyer's arms are displayed. The "Sovereign" plates, which were made in 1895 for the library of Mr. M. C. D. Borden's yacht, are of great richness, the first or "crown" design being especially so. This one did not please the owner, who had a second one made surmounted by an eagle instead of a crown. This is simpler in treatment and not so decorative as the earlier design. These plates were both cut on the copper by Mr. French who treated them in a very sympathetic manner and brought out in clear relief the ideas of the designer.
Mr. Tryon's production has not been great, reckoned by the number of plates made, but as his work is never done hurriedly or slightingly it carries an air of finished dignity and worth that gives it lasting qualities. As he usually has one or two plates in hand to which he adds a few lines and a few thoughts from time to time, we may still expect pleasant surprises in this miniature art from his workshop.
BOOK-PLATES OF TO-DAY TONNELÉ & COMPANY NEW YORK
A CHECK-LIST of the WORK of TWENTY-THREE BOOK-PLATE DESIGNERS of PROMINENCE
Compiled by WILBUR MACEY STONE
It was thought that interest and value would be added to this book by the inclusion of lists of the book-plates made by the more prominent artists whose work is reproduced here. These lists are the nearest complete of any that have ever been published, and as they have been verified in many instances by the artists themselves, and in others carefully collated from the actual book-plates, they may be relied upon as highly accurate. The sundry notes, bibliographical and otherwise, by which the individual lists are prefaced, are in no way exhaustive, but just a cursory gathering to relieve the bareness of the lists and to give some little additional assistance to the amateur. The lists are arranged alphabetically under the artists' names as follows:
William Phillips Barrett Robert Anning Bell D. Y. Cameron Thomas Maitland Cleland Gordon Craig Julius Diez George Wharton Edwards Fritz Erler William Edgar Fisher Edwin Davis French Bertram G. Goodhue Harry E. Goodhue T. B. Hapgood, Jr. Harold E. Nelson Edmund H. New Henry Ospovat Armand Rassenfosse Louis Rhead Byam Shaw Joseph W. Simpson Hans Thoma Thomas Tryon Bernhard Wenig
WILLIAM PHILLIPS BARRETT
In Great Britain every family of rank has its arms suitably emblazoned on its harnesses, carriages, table-plate, dining-chairs, and, of course, in its library. When a new coach is ordered, or a new set of harnesses, the coach-builder or the harness-maker furnish the proper trimmings. So milord's stationer fixes up the family letter-paper _and_ the family book-plate. Somebody has to lick into some semblance of artistic unity the records of prowess of our medieval ancestors. In the workshops of Messrs. "Bumpus Limited," Mr. William Phillips Barrett performs this more or less genial task. He has signed some ninety to one hundred designs, which were cut by the workmen in the Bumpus establishment. Mr. Barrett's designs are not wholly without merit, but they so apparently lack the spark of vitality and their execution is in many cases so hard and mechanical that one is inclined more to pity than to praise. In the pages of the London Ex Libris Journal, that industrious encourager of the ordinary and banal in book-plate design, Mr. Barrett's work is exploited at length. Vol. II., page 81, et seq.
1896
Lady Gerard Hon. E. Byng Mr. Jack Cummings Lord Manners Lady Sarah Wilson Lady Charles Bentinck H. Somers Somerset, Esq. Lady K. Somerset
1897
J. Watson Armstrong, Esq. Lady Angela Forbes Mrs. Panmure Gordon Hon. Mrs. Charles Harbord Miss Beatrice Dudley Smith The Marchioness of Headfort Miss Audrey Battye Lady Beatrix Taylour Miss Rachel Duncombe J. S. Forbes, Esq.
1898
Lady Maud Warrender Lady de Trafford Hon. Marie Hay The Countess Mar and Kellie Mrs. Brocklebank The Viscountess Wolseley Robertson Lawson, Esq. Baron Königswarter Baroness Königswarter Miss Van Wart Reginald Nicholson, Esq. Lady Sybil Carden The Countess of Lathom
1899
The Duchess of Bedford Miss Eadith Walker (Australia) The Countess of Wilton The Viscountess Chelsea Mrs. Duff J. E. Ballie, Esq. Lord Bolton Lady Margaret Levett Miss Howell Basil Levett, Esq. Mrs. Harcourt Powell Lady Ampthill J. & E. (Mr. and Mrs. Muller) Bishop Lefroy of Lahore Mrs. McCalmont Miss Gabrielle de Montgeon
1900
Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Great Britain The Earl of Lathom The Duke of Beaufort Hon. Mrs. Gervase Beckett The Countess of Gosford The Marchioness of Bath Mrs. Lee Pilkington Freda and Winifreda Armstrong Mrs. Wernher Miss Freda Villiers Miss Muriel Dudley Smith Lord Kenyon Lady Savile Crossley Hon. Hilda Chichester Lady Dickson-Poynder Sir John Dickson-Poynder Gervase Beckett, Esq. Canon Stanton The Duke of Portland Mrs. Alfred Harmsworth Mrs. Arthur Wilson J. Hutchinson, Esq. Hon. Mrs. G. Kenyon Captain Noble Edward Hubbuck, Esq. R. L. Foster, Esq. Royal Naval and Military Will Watson Armstrong Masonic Supreme Council, 33° (Large and small) The Earl of Shaftesbury Miss Barclay (Wood block Armorial) H. A. Harben, Esq.
1901
Ivor Fergusson, Esq. Harold Harmsworth, Esq. Lord Haddo Lady Mary Cayley Mrs. Sheridan (Frampton Court) The Marchioness Anglesey Sir Charles Cust The Countess of Derby Lady Hillingdon Lady Alice Stanley Lady Clementine Walsh R. C. Donaldson-Hudson, Esq.
ROBERT ANNING BELL