Volume 1

Catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the British Museum by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks / by E.R.J. Gambier Howe.

  • E. R. Howe
Date:
1903-1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the British Museum by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks / by E.R.J. Gambier Howe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    IVIr. Gambler Howe that the workshop in which the series was produced may possibly have been that of John Senex, who had a bookseller's establishment at the Globe, in Salisbury Court, rieet Street. The number of plates of members of the Temple and Lincoln's Inn in Brighton seems to point to an engraver in that neighbourhood : and the signature of Senex is found on a very close copy of the plate of Anthony Hammond of Somersham, 1700 ( Brighton, No. 227) which is without other inscription and is probably a dedication plate. The plate of Major-General John Tidcomb occurs in Brighton vdthout signature; on another impression in the main series is found a signature reading A. or perhaps J. A.; but this seems to be the only trace of an actual signature known to exist on any book plate belonging to the Brighton series. Though every considerable collection contains a certain number of these same plates which are brought together in Brighton, there are in this album many plates hitherto absolutely unknown to collectors, as well as known plates in early states not previously described. The series shows five or six distinct patterns of shields, helmets, and mantlings, which seem to have been kept in stock ready to be filled up with the arms and inscription as customers demanded them. In some instances, where no crest was required, the continuation of the mantling over the helmet has been added apparently by a different hand: this is very noticeable in the plates of The Eight Hon. Sir Edward Ward, John Ward of Capesthome, and The Eight Hon. Sir Owen Buckingham. The earliest date on any plate in the volume is 1679, on the plate of Sir Eobert Clayton. This was the year in which Clayton was Lord Mayor, but the plate itself was probably not engraved till nearly twenty years later. The next date is 1687, also occurring on the plate of a Lord Mayor, Sir John Shorter, and as Sir John died in September 1688, during his mayoralty, this may be taken as the actual date of the plate. In 1688 we have the plate of Sir Basil Firebrace, Knight, Alderman, and Sherijff of London ; but this again may not be the real date, though the plate must have been engraved before July 28, 1698, when Sir Basil was created a Baronet. After this there is an interval of six years, when we get the plate of Fettiplace Nott, dated 1694. No plate is dated in the next three years ; but from 1698 the series continues regularly till 1709. No later dated plate is in the volume, but plates evidently by the same hands occur in the general collection till 1720. It was the intention of Sir Wollaston Franks and Lord de Tabley to publish this volume
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