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Title: English printers' ornaments
Author: Henry R. Plomer
Release Date: April 11, 2023 [eBook #70528]
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH PRINTERS'
ORNAMENTS ***
ENGLISH
PRINTERS’ ORNAMENTS
_This Edition is limited to 500 copies only_
[Illustration]
ENGLISH
PRINTERS’ ORNAMENTS
BY
HENRY R. PLOMER
AUTHOR OF “A SHORT HISTORY OF
ENGLISH PRINTING,” ETC.
[Illustration]
LONDON, W.C.1
GRAFTON & CO.
COPTIC HOUSE
1924
_Printed in Great Britain
by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh_
PREFACE
The subject of printers’ ornaments can be defined in its stricter
meaning as the decoration of books as apart from book illustration,
the aim of both decoration and ornamentation being to heighten the
attraction of the letterpress, although the one is not in any way
dependent upon the other.
In the following pages an attempt has been made to give an outline
history of the introduction of ornaments into books printed by English
printers and the subsequent growth and development of the art down to
the present day.
Printers’ ornaments include head and tail pieces, initial letters,
borders to title-pages or text, and decorative blocks such as those
which were used freely by the sixteenth century printer, Henry
Bynneman, and others. Printers’ devices, being in the nature of trade
marks, have no place in this volume, as, although decorative in
themselves, they were not used simply for the sake of embellishing the
page.
Although it is generally believed that English printers were on the
whole inartistic, and that many of the best designs were borrowed
from foreign countries, there is no lack of good material for a work
on English printers’ ornaments from the fifteenth onwards to the
nineteenth century. Many famous names of special printers come to
mind in early English books of the sixteenth century, such as Denham,
Bynneman, Wolfe, and John Day.
It only remains to acknowledge the courtesy of those who have helped in
the production of this book by granting permission for the reproduction
of illustrations and for the loan of blocks.
To Mr E. Gordon Duff and the Cambridge University Press for permission
to reproduce the Machlinia border; to Prof. A. W. Pollard, C.B., both
for kindly suggestions and for the loan of illustrations; to Mr C.
Sayle of Cambridge University Library for permission to reproduce
initials; to Mr Ralph Straus for permission to use the block of the
Baskerville ornaments from his book on the well-known printer, and
to the Cambridge University Press for the loan of the block; also to
Messrs Bowes & Bowes for the loan of blocks; to Messrs Maggs Bros. for
two whole-page illustrations, and to the Oxford University Press for
past and present ornaments.
For illustrations to the chapter on Modern Work we have to thank
Messrs Charles Whittingham & Griggs, Ltd.; Messrs H. W. Caslon & Co.,
Ltd.; Messrs R. & R. Clark, Ltd., of Edinburgh; the Trustees of the
Kelmscott Press, and Messrs Emery Walker, Ltd.; The Curwen Press;
The Morland Press, Ltd.; The Pelican Press; Messrs P. M. Shanks &
Sons, Ltd., and Messrs Stephenson, Blake & Co., Ltd. The additional
illustrations in the Edition de Luxe which do not appear in the
ordinary edition are two especially representative lace borders of
the sixteenth century, a beautiful ornamented page reproduced by kind
permission of the Trustees of the Kelmscott Press in red and black, and
one of the rare early coloured decorative titles.
H. R. PLOMER
LONDON
_Xmas 1923_
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
_The Genesis of Printers’ Ornaments_ 1
CHAPTER II
_English Printers and their Ornaments_ 15
CHAPTER III
_Borders_ 31
CHAPTER IV
_Head and Tail Pieces--Small Ornaments_ 53
CHAPTER V
_Head and Tail Pieces--Decorative Blocks_ 65
CHAPTER VI
_Miscellaneous Ornaments_ 81
CHAPTER VII
_Initial Letters and Factotums_ 87
CHAPTER VIII
_Modern Work_ 101
ILLUSTRATIONS
_Descriptive Catalogue_ 119
_Borders_ 149
_Head-pieces_ 191
_Tail-pieces_ 211
_Ornaments_ 229
_Initials_ 239
_Modern Work_ 249
INDEX 287
THE GENESIS OF
PRINTERS’ ORNAMENTS
Referring to the books printed in Venice by Erhard Ratdolt in
the years 1476 and 1477, Mr G. R. Redgrave writes: “They are
plentifully enriched with initial letters, sometimes printed
in red ink, and they have all of them the gracefully designed
title-borders for which the books of Ratdolt are so deservedly
famous.”
_Erhard Ratdolt and His Work at Venice_, p. 13
(Bibliographical Society’s Monograph, No. 1).
* * * * *
“The typography and illustrations of Vérard’s books, though
justly celebrated, are distinctly inferior to the best
productions of certain Parisian printers--for instance Jean
Dupré; but in one respect he is without a rival--in the
sumptuous illuminated copies on vellum produced for his royal
and other distinguished patrons.”
_Antoine Vérard_, by John Macfarlane, 1900
(Bibliographical Society’s Monograph, No. 7).
* * * * *
On a certain day in the year 1530 or thereabouts, the following
dialogue took place between Robert Copland, a printer in London
at the sign of the Rose Garland in Fleet Street, and a customer
of his, who desired him to print a quaint conceit which he
called the _Seven Sorrows that Women have when their Husbands
be Deade_.
The printer naturally wanted to see the manuscript, but the
author replied that it was in his brain and not in his pocket.
_Quidam._
“I have no boke, but yet I can you shewe
The matter by herte and that by wordes fewe,
Take your penne, and wryte as I do say
But yet of one thyng, hertely I you praye.
Amende the Englysh somewhat if ye can
And spel it true, for I shal tel the[e] man
By my soule ye prynters make such englyshe
So yll spelled, so yll poynted, and so pevyshe
That scantly one can rede lynes tow
But to fynde sentence, he hath ynoughte to do.”
To which the printer replies thus:
“Well, brother, I can not it amende,
I wyl no man ther of dyscommende,
I care no[t] greatly, so that I now and than
May get a peny as wel as I can.”
This confession of Copland’s, coupled with the fact that the
author had a moment before expressed the opinion that a ‘penny’
was enough to spend on books, shows how great was the gap that
separated the Continental from the English printer in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and accounts for the paucity
of borders and ornaments found in English books up to 1500,
noted by Mr E. G. Duff in the chapter which he added to Mr A. W.
Pollard’s work on _Early Illustrated Books_.
Chapter I
_The Genesis of Printers’ Ornaments_
The decoration of books had reached the summit of excellence a century
before the art of cutting letters and printing with movable type was
discovered. By the middle of the fifteenth century Europe had a store
of books in all its great cities that for beauty of design, richness of
colouring, and excellence of craftsmanship have never been surpassed,
while in this country the meanest parish church could show one or more
service books of this character, the gift of pious benefactors, some
of which had been produced in the scriptoriums of Canterbury, York, or
Durham.
The first printers naturally turned to these manuscripts, not only for
the models of their types, but for other hints--and what did they find?
They found that the scribes generally began on the second leaf of the
vellum or paper, and that sometimes the vellum or paper was ruled with
faint red lines for margins and for evenness of line. They found that
the title of the work was put at the head of the text, and that the
first page of the text was enclosed within a richly illuminated border,
sometimes merely decorative or conventional, but more often consisting
of exquisitely drawn and coloured pictures, illustrating, if it were
a service book, scenes in the life of Our Lord or fragments of sacred
history.
They further found that at the commencement of the text was a richly
illuminated initial letter. The blank spaces at the ends of paragraphs
were sometimes filled with decorative ornament.
The scribe, moreover, placed no dividing line between the various parts
of the text. If he was beginning a new chapter he started at the top of
a new page, leaving a blank space at the bottom of the preceding one,
although, very rarely, illuminated head-pieces are found. Again, at
the end he simply put the colophon, often a most illuminating little
paragraph, not only notifying when and where he finished his task,
even to the hour, but very often giving the name of the person who
had commissioned the book, and returning thanks to God for giving the
writer health and strength to finish it.
The only other ‘ornaments’ they found were the paragraph marks, the
reversed [symbol] or ¶ still in use at this day, which can be traced
back to the fourteenth century and perhaps earlier, and the cross or
Maltese cross, generally met with in manuscript Books of Hours, and
probably quite as old as the paragraph mark.
All this the first printers followed as closely as they could. Their
books had no title-pages; they put the title above the first page of
text, which they began as high up on the paper as they could.
They sometimes put a border partially round this first page, and they
tried as far as possible to imitate the richly illuminated initial
letters--but with poor results at first. They left the spaces between
the divisions of the work blank, but they generally put on the last
leaf below the colophon or on a leaf by itself a woodcut embodying
their name or initials or the sign of the house in which they carried
on their trade. They also adopted the paragraph mark and the Maltese
cross, which for many years remained the only small ornaments they
possessed, unless indeed we can claim for the asterisk, or, as Luckombe
called it, the ‘asterism,’ an equal antiquity with the other two, which
is quite possible.
This was in the infancy of the art; but as it gradually emerged from
its swaddling clothes, printers discovered various ways of increasing
the beauty of the printed book. First they adopted a title-page,
quite a modest thing at first, which for its brevity has been called
a ‘Label’ title. Next they conceived that the appearance of the
title-page would be improved if it had a border like the first pages
of the old manuscripts. Then it occurred to them that it would look
better if the printed matter were begun lower down on the page, leaving
a blank space above. In course of time these blank spaces, and those
which generally followed at the end of dedicatory epistles and such
like, were ornamented, whatever was used for that purpose being called
by the names of head or tail piece. Occasionally the printers even went
so far as to fill up the spaces at the ends of paragraphs with small
ornaments, a wholly unnecessary labour which was soon dropped.
For these and other purposes new designs had to be found, and amongst
them, early in the sixteenth century, appeared the fleuron. Nature was
the mother of this very beautiful little ornament--a common object
of the roadway--a leaf torn by a rough wind from some tree, possibly
a willow. Centuries before printing was ever dreamt of, such a leaf
fell at the feet of one with a soul for the beautiful, who took it
home and drew it and drew it again and again, placing it in various
positions and finding a hundred different treatments of the subject,
and so discovered its possibilities for artistic decorations. In this
way it became the basis of most of the designs in Greek and Arabesque
pattern books. The architect sculptured it in stone, the lace-worker
turned it into a dream of delicate beauty, the bookbinder fashioned
it into a tool to stamp his bindings, and in due time the printers
cut it in wood and cast it in metal, and it became a stock ornament
in every printing office. In a happily inspired moment the fleuron
has been used as the title of a recently published magazine dealing
with typographical matters, and in an admirable article contributed to
its first number by Messrs F. Meynell and S. Morrison, which I trust
they will forgive me for quoting,[1] they say: “What is common to them
(i.e. fleurons), what makes the system, is the fact that the unit of
decoration is itself an ordinary metal type, of the varying type
sizes, cast by the type-printer, set as type, and bearing, instead of
a letter symbol, a formal design.... This simple tool was originally
used on an Aldine binding as early as 1499, but not until 1515 have the
writers discovered its first usage as a printing surface. This occurs
in the title-page of Tornandes’ de Rebus Gothorum, printed by Miller
of Augsburg in 1516.... Variations of the stalk developed at Augsburg
(1517), Strasbourg (1519), Antwerp (1532), Paris (1537).”
In the course of the following pages it will be seen in all sections
how infinite is the variety of design and treatment that this single
ornament is capable of.
It is interesting to find an 18th-century view of the origin and use of
flower ornaments, and therefore I am quoting a passage from Luckombe’s
_History of the Origin and Progress of Printing_, 1770. “Metal
flowers,” says the author, “are cast to all the regular bodies of
letter, from great primer to nonpareil included; besides several sorts
that are to the size of small pica.
“Flowers were the first ornaments which were used at the head of such
pages that either began the main work, or else a separate part of it.
“Though they formerly had no great variety of flowers; yet were the few
of them contrived to look neat and ornamental; being deep in body, and
cast so that no bearings-off could be discovered, but looked as one
solid row.
“But with the growth of printing, and when letter-cutters strove to
excel each other, they introduced also flowers of several shapes and
sizes, which were received, and variously employed, till cutting in
wood was come to perfection; when that art was eagerly encouraged, and
flowers not regarded. From that time till very lately, nothing has been
thought to grace the first page of a work so well as head-pieces cut in
wood; of which some have such a coarse look, that even mourning rules
would look neater, were they put in the room of them.
“The invention of cutting in wood, is claimed by the Germans, though
the Italians seem to have a prior right to stile themselves the
authors. Nevertheless, though the former may have had their worthies of
the said art, it is apparent that they have taken their knowledge with
them to the grave. And this has also been the case in France, where the
masters of the art of cutting in wood made a secret of their method of
working and left no disciples of their abilities. Hence it was, that
while Mr Jackson, an Englishman, was at Paris, he was wholly employed
in furnishing printers there with head-pieces and other ornaments of
his drawing and cutting. But it being above thirty years since he went
to Rome, it must be supposed that his work in France is worn down
before this time, which may be the reason that flowers are come into
fashion again in France. But this, perhaps, would not have been so
readily effected, had it not been for the particular genius and fancy
of a compositor at the King’s printing-house in Paris, who restored
the credit of flowers, by making them yield to every turn which is
required to represent a figure answerable to the rules of drawing.
Hence it may be guessed what great variety of florid sorts were used to
exhibit cyphers of names, forms of crowns, figures of winged and other
creatures, and whatever else fancy presented to this typographical
florist. But it must be observed, that the King of France paid for this
whim; the compositor having a salary and free access to the King’s
founding-house, to order the cutting and casting every thing that could
conduce to make his conceptions mature and the performance of them
admirable.
“Thus has the use of flowers been revived in France, and has stimulated
the Germans to improve their fusil ornaments, whereby they have been
instrumental to the considerable augmentation made here in flowers,
by all which we shall be enabled to make flower-pieces of oval,
circularly, and angularly turns, instead of having hitherto been
confined either to square or to circular flowers. But it is feared,
that head-pieces, fats, and tail-pieces of flowers will not long
continue, either in England, France or Germany, considering that the
contriving and making them up, is attended with considerable trouble
and loss of time; and as no allowance is made for this, it will not be
strange, if but few shall be found who will give instances of their
fancy. But this might be remedied, were printers to recompense the
compositor for his painful application; and then to preserve the
substance of his invention intire, for occasional use.
“The use of flowers is not confined to ornaments over head pages only,
but they serve also, each sort by itself, upon several other occasions.
Thus they are used in miscellaneous work, where a single row of flowers
is put over the head of each fresh subject, but not where two or more
are comprehended under the same title, which commonly have, another, by
the same, &c., for their head. As therefore flowers appertain to heads,
it ought to be a rule, that a single row of them should be put over
a head that begins a page, be it part, chapter, article or any other
division, in work that has its divisions separated by flowers.
“Flowers being cast to the usual bodies of letter, their size should
be proportionable to the face of the characters; since it would be as
wrong to use great primer flowers with long primer letter, as it is
improper to embolden the look of great primer by long primer flowers.
“Flowers being either of a rectilinear, angular, circular, or square
shape, they are used accordingly in making them up for head-pages, of
whom we have in this work introduced a few specimens.
“But as the construction of flower head pieces entirely depends upon
the fancy of a compositor, it would be presumption in us to direct him
in this point: we therefore leave the displaying of flowers to his own
judgment, and to the variety of materials for this purpose.
“For want of flowers, references and other sorts belonging to a
fount, are sometimes made use of to serve as well at the beginning as
conclusion of work of a small size.”[2]
Printers’ ornaments then consist of two broad groups--(1) Small
ornaments such as those mentioned by Luckombe, which we may suppose the
compositor to have had close at hand in his case, and (2) ornamental or
decorative blocks, either cut in wood or metal, of all sizes, which, as
we know from the inventory of the printing office known as the Sun in
Fleet Street in 1553, were described as pictures, and kept on a shelf
in the printing-house.
With regard to the first of these an interesting question arises: Did
the early printer cast his own ornaments, or did he obtain them from
a letter foundry?--a question that involves the genesis of letter
foundries.
It is self-evident that, until there were enough printers at work in
Europe to keep them going, letter foundries, as such, did not exist.
Besides, we know from early descriptions and drawings of printing
offices that they each contained a ‘casting-house,’ probably a small
ante-room in which type could be recast, and therefore in which on
emergency small ornaments could be cast.
This is what Mr T. B. Reed says on the question[3]: “Respecting the
developement of letter-founding as an industry there is little that
can be gathered in the history of the fifteenth century. At first the
art of the inventor was a mystery divulged to none. But the Sack of
Mentz in 1462 and the consequent dispersion of Gutenbergh’s disciples,
spread the secret broadcast over Europe.... For the most part printers
were their own founders.... But type depots and markets, and the
wanderings of the itinerant typographers, as the demands of printing
yearly increased, brought the founts of various nations and presses to
various centres and thus gave the first impulse to that gradual divorce
between printing and type founding which in the following century left
the latter the distinct industry it still remains.” This is not very
helpful to us. Taking the fleuron as an example, what seems to have
happened was this. Without speculating as to when it made its first
appearance in a book, we may safely say that its earliest form was
large, and that this large form was as often as not cut in wood. But
whether it was wood or metal, it was made by the printers themselves.
In its smaller form it made its appearance as a metal type early in the
sixteenth century, where unity of design and uniformity in size and
general adoption point to a common source.
As regards the second group of printers’ ornaments--viz., engraved
blocks--there is a conflict of opinion as to whether such blocks are
legitimate printers’ ornaments. There are those who contend that
they are ‘engravings’ and not ‘ornaments’; but however feasible such
an argument may be in the case of one-piece borders or title-pages
engraved in wood or metal, all modern writers on printing include
them as ‘ornaments.’ The German writer, Butsch, reproduces many of
them in his great work. Arthur Warren included them in his history of
the Chiswick Press. To take a more modern instance, Dr W. W. Greg, in
his article on Berthelet ‘Ornaments’ in the _Library_, mentions
several which were one-piece borders. Again, Mr McKerrow, in his work
on _Printers’ and Publishers’ Devices_, refers (p. xlv.) to
‘ornament devices,’ and instances three, the largest of which measured
37 × 37 mm., and represented a two-tailed mermaid (259), and refers
to it again as a common ornament bought from a type-founder. Other
blocks reproduced in that book were assuredly not devices. If, then,
these were ‘printers’ ornaments,’ the borders and head and tail pieces
composed of engraved blocks, whether of merely conventional designs or
pictorial, or whether cut on wood or metal, are legitimate ‘ornaments,’
especially when they were actually designed and cut for that purpose.
ENGLISH PRINTERS AND
THEIR ORNAMENTS
Chapter II
_English Printers and their Ornaments_
In the five and twenty years that elapsed from the discovery of the
art of printing in Mentz, to Caxton’s establishment of his press
in Westminster, the printers on the Continent had by these means
brought the decoration of the printed book to an astonishing degree of
excellence. They could never hope to attain the results produced by
the monastic rubricator or colourist, but they learnt to equal them
in beauty of design and delicacy of treatment. For, in its way, the
problem that faced the printers, in the ornamentation of the printed
book, was rather more difficult than that presented to the illuminator.
With the latter a wealth of colour might cover a multitude of sins; but
the printer had to see that his decoration did not overshadow his type,
which after all was his chief pride, and that the decoration of the
book did not distract the reader’s attention from the subject-matter.
Moreover, woodcutting was a very difficult art to learn. The mysteries
of cross-hatching and shading were not to be mastered without many
failures; in fact, the master wood-engraver was born, not made.
Such men as E. Ratdolt and N. Jenson in Venice, Pigouchet and Jean du
Pré in Paris, Gerard Leeu, of Gouda and Antwerp, and many others, were
turning out books that for beauty of typography and artistic decoration
have never been surpassed. It might have been supposed that with such
examples before them Caxton and his contemporaries in this country
would have been spurred to emulation. English printers were in constant
intercourse with Continental printers and booksellers, and had the
opportunity of attending the great annual fair at Frankfort, where they
could see all the latest productions of the Continental presses and
where they could buy anything they wanted in the way of type, ornaments
or binding tools. Yet so far were they from attempting to produce fine
books, whenever such were called for--as Missals, Books of Hours,
Psalters or Breviaries--they handed the work over to some foreign
printer, with this result, to use the words of Mr E. Gordon Duff: “The
poverty of ornamental letters and borders is very noticeable in all the
English presses of the fifteenth century.”[4]
There are several reasons to account for this. In the first place, in
1471, the year in which it is believed that Caxton began to learn the
art of printing in Cologne, the decoration of books was in its infancy,
and few of the printers in that city had, up to that time, issued any
books in which decorative blocks, other than perhaps an initial or two,
were used. But what is of more importance, we know that Caxton’s chief
object in, at a late period of his life, working in a Cologne printing
office, was to save himself the labour and weariness of copying by
hand the various works which he translated for the pleasure of others.
He recognized that by the art of printing copies could be multiplied
easily and quickly: that they would be easier to read than manuscript,
and, provided that type, ink and paper were of good quality, would
endure indefinitely. Caxton’s concern was to make his countrymen
acquainted with the best literature--books of literary value, that
would please readers, not by their prettiness, but for the matter that
was in them. Hence all he wanted to know about printing was, how to set
up type and how to ink and pull a clean and clear impression, and we
know that he paid very little heed to decoration or ornament throughout
his career as a printer.
Wynkyn de Worde was probably only just out of his apprenticeship when
he entered Caxton’s service, and during his master’s lifetime he would
naturally conform to Caxton’s rule and opinions in the matter of the
make-up of the books.
Lettou and Machlinia, both foreigners, who came to this country in
1480, were chiefly concerned with printing law books, which did not
lend themselves readily to decorative work, and their office was not a
school in which to learn it. Hence we should not expect to find Richard
Pynson, who was on friendly terms with Machlinia, and possibly learnt
the rudiments of the art of printing in his office, and who certainly
succeeded him, getting much knowledge as to the use of ornaments from
such a master.
It is true that Theodoric Rood at Oxford used a decorative border as
early as 1481, and that ten years later Caxton made a notable departure
from his usual methods by surrounding every page of the _Fifteen
Oes_ with a border; but these were solitary exceptions.
The second reason for this was certainly lack of enterprise on the
part of the English printers. This was largely due, no doubt, to the
want of art training. The foreign printer had been taught the value of
unity of design--a lesson for which the English printer had to wait
until the nineteenth century. He designed his border to harmonize with
his letterpress, and his initials to harmonize with his borders and
beautify his letterpress.
But the English printers who followed Caxton would not concern
themselves with these things. They were not actuated by the same motive
that led Caxton to abstain from the use of ornament--that is, the
belief that literature came before decoration. They viewed the matter
from a purely commercial standpoint. To quote once again the words of
Robert Copland, half a century later, in the Prologue to _The Seven
Sorrows that Women have when their Husbands be Dead_, referring to
the printing of the book he says:
“I care not greatly, so that I now and then
May get a peny as wel as I can.”
Consequently they took no pride in the appearance of their books, but
used the first block that came to hand regardless whether it harmonized
with the type or not.
A third reason for this paucity of ornament in books of the fifteenth
century was assuredly lack of encouragement on the part of the English
buyer. Caxton and his successors worked for many royal and noble
patrons, as King Edward IV., Henry VII. and Henry VIII., Margaret,
Duchess of Richmond, Earl Rivers, the Earl of Arundel, some of whom, we
may be sure, were acquainted with such Continental masterpieces as the
_Fior de Virtu_, _Mer des Hystoire_, or the _Hypnerotomachia_, and many
similar works. If they had called upon De Worde or Pynson to produce
books of that kind the printers would certainly have done so, and we
may therefore ascribe their absence as much to lack of support on the
part of the reading public of that day as to lack of enterprise or want
of skill on the part of the printers. Here again we may quote from the
_Seven Sorrows_, where Quidam pronounced the opinion, “A peny I trow is
enough on books.”
This theory receives strong confirmation from the fact that when a rich
book-lover like Cardinal Morton was willing to pay for the work to be
done, it was done, and was a credit both to the printer and the nation,
for, leaving out of account the service books printed by foreign
printers for the English market, Morton’s _Missal_, printed by
Richard Pynson in 1500, may be said to be the first artistic book
produced in this country.
Foreign influence as to design is there, no doubt--possibly that of
Rouen rather than Paris--but the workmanship was English. Pynson
was, in fact, a far better printer than Wynkyn de Worde, and while we
know that he obtained material from Basle and Rouen, he used it with
better effect. Down to the date of Caxton’s death the ornaments found
in English printed books were singularly few. Caxton began to use
paragraph marks with his type 4 and 4^a, _i.e._ between 1480 and
1485; then in 1486 he began to use type 6, in which the Maltese cross
is found. These were the only two small ornaments he possessed; but in
addition to these one or two woodcut initial letters and one border are
found in his books.
Wynkyn de Worde, immediately after his master’s death, obtained a fount
of type and various blocks from a printer in Gouda, Govaert van Os. The
type he used once, the blocks he used until they were worn out, and
there is no doubt that he obtained border-pieces from other printers
on the Continent. Julyan Notary procured decorative blocks from a
foreign source before 1500; but it may safely be said that the paucity
of ornament in English books referred to by Mr Duff continued to the
opening of the sixteenth century.
The Reformation gave a stimulus to book decoration. The great folio
Bible and Books of Common Prayer were ordered to be placed in every
church throughout the kingdom, and editions were put on the market
as fast as the presses could turn them out. Their title-pages were
surrounded by specially engraved borders, and every printing office
in Europe was ransacked to provide ornamental initials, of which
great numbers were required. How far native talent was employed in
this work we have no means of knowing, but there is very little doubt
that Richard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch did employ English workmen.
Thomas Berthelet, who succeeded Pynson as King’s printer, printed
some notable books, but he seldom used illustrations, though most
of his ornaments were good. Richard Tottell and Reyner Wolfe both
used decorative blocks with the best effect; but it was left to John
Day, with the help of Archbishop Parker, to bring English Printers’
Ornaments to their highest excellence.
John Day was a native of the old town of Dunwich in Suffolk. His father
is believed to have been a ‘stringer’ or bow-string maker. Nothing is
known with any certainty as to his apprenticeship, but he is found in
possession of a device previously in the hands of Robert Gibson, a
protégé of Cromwell, and he may have served his term with Gibson.
The first heard of him as a printer is in 1546, when he was in
partnership with William Seres at the sign of the Resurrection in
Holborn.
Their work was much as other men’s and their printing material was
no better. This partnership was dissolved in 1548, Day moving to
Aldersgate, and in the following year he printed an edition of the
Bible which contained some good initials.
But it was not until after the accession of Queen Elizabeth, and the
appointment of Archbishop Parker as Primate, that Day’s work attained
its best. For Parker he cut a fount of Saxon types in metal which Mr
Talbot Reed, in his _Old English Letter Foundries_, says was cast
with such accuracy and regularity as was highly creditable to his
excellence as a founder. So that John Day had a foundry at which he
could have cast any small ornaments he required. Some of the blocks
found in his books bear the initials I.D., but it has never been
satisfactorily established that he cut them; but there is no doubt that
he obtained the aid of the best artists and woodcutters available.
After Day’s death there was a marked falling-off in the decoration of
English books, and the work was only redeemed from mediocrity by such
men as Henry Bynneman and Henry Denham, both of whom, as we shall see,
used the fleuron with effect, and introduced some light and graceful
head and tail pieces. Henry Denham also used a set of initials which
Mr C. Sayle,[5] of Cambridge University Library, who has made this
branch of ornaments his own, has declared to be “quite unlike any other
work in England, and as high as the work of Sylvius, if not, indeed,
in some respects still higher.” Henry Denham was succeeded by Peter
Short, and he in turn by Humphrey Lownes, and thus furnished one of the
links between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and carrying the
traditions of one century into the other.
Another notable link between these two centuries was formed by the
establishment of the Eliots Court Press. This was a syndicate of young
printers, who upon the death of Henry Bynneman, the London printer,
acquired most of his stock of letter and ornaments, and set up for
themselves in premises in Eliots Court, near the Old Bailey. The most
important members of this syndicate were Edmund Bollifant, Arnold
Hatfield and Ninian Newton, all of whom had served their apprenticeship
with Henry Denham. Later members of the firm were Melchisidec Bradwood,
who printed the Eton _Chrysostum_, Edward Griffin the first and
second, George Purslowe and John Haviland, who carried on the work of
the firm until late in the seventeenth century.
The only presses outside London in the sixteenth century were those
of the two Universities. Oxford’s second press was short-lived, and
though two printers were connected with it--John Scolar from 1517–18,
and C. Kyrforth in 1519--its output was very small, and the printers
seem to have obtained their material from Wynkyn de Worde in London.
The third Oxford press was set up by Joseph Barnes in 1585. Very little
is known about this printer’s history, but from what we do know he
does not appear to have been a man who would concern himself about the
ornamentation of his books. He opened his career with a disgraceful
act of piracy and did his best to ruin a young London printer. We are
not surprised to find that his ornaments show no originality, and were
either copies from those of London printers or were bought from them.
The first printer in Cambridge was a foreigner, John Lair of Siberch
or Siegburg, near Cologne, who called himself John Siberch. His first
book, a speech of Doctor Henry Bullock’s printed in the early part of
1521, has no ornaments; but in _Cujusdam fidelis Christiani epistola_,
printed a month or two later, a couple of border-pieces, evidently from
a Book of Hours, are seen on the title-page. Siberch also possessed
some good initials and a border which will be dealt with in their
proper places. His successors,Thomas and John Legat, would appear to
have obtained their ornaments, excepting, of course, the block of the
University arms, from London. At any rate they were all quite common in
London books of the sixteenth century.
The seventeenth century was a period of decline in the art of printing
in England. During the first forty years woodcut ornaments are found
in almost all books, and though woodcut borders to title-pages are
sometimes met with, they gave place in the early part of the century to
engraved title-pages of very elaborate character. The fleuron, worked
up into borders, etc., retained its popularity. The Civil War, while it
stimulated the printing of controversial tracts and news-sheets, killed
all artistic effort. Some notable books, it is true, appeared during
the Commonwealth, such as Dugdale’s _Monasticon Anglicanum_, a
handsome folio with engravings by Wenceslaus Hollar, the same author’s
_Antiquities of Warwickshire_, while between 1654 and 1657 the six
folio volumes of Walton’s _Polyglot Bible_ were printed, and it is
said that the types for this last were supplied by the four licensed
type-founders in London.
But the ornaments found in these books consisted of a few initials and
tail-pieces of no special merit or originality of design. The four
type-founders in question could not make a living. Either for want of
training, lack of capital or lack of encouragement, they could not
compete with the type-founders of Holland, from whence came most of
the type, and presumably the ornaments, found in English books for
the next seventy years. Joseph Moxon, who in 1659 added type-founding
to his other professions, had spent some years in Holland, and his
foundry was stocked with a large assortment of letters, mostly Dutch.
James Grover was another type-founder at work in the second half of the
seventeenth century, and he cast the types for the folio editions of
_Cicero_ and _Herodotus_, printed in 1679, for a syndicate of
London booksellers. Both these works were amongst the best specimens
of typography of that period, but the only ornaments used in the first
were initial letters. In the _Herodotus_ there is a tail-piece, to
which I shall return when dealing with those ornaments.
Before passing away from the work of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries a word or two must be said of the ‘copyist,’ who played a
very large part in the production of printers’ ornaments. Whether
the printers were their own copyists, or whether they employed some
one else to do this part of the work, we cannot say, but quite early
in the sixteenth century, and from thence onwards to the close of the
seventeenth, almost every head and tail piece and initial letter was
copied and copied again without limit, and it must not be assumed,
without the most careful examination and comparison, that any blocks,
found in books having no printer’s name, show them to have been
published by a certain printer. For example, Richard Jugge used some
large initials in the various editions of the Bible that he printed,
and no less than six varieties of those letters can be traced in the
hands of other men, the resemblance between them being so close that
only by putting them side by side and examining them with great care
can the points of difference be distinguished. Another instance is
furnished by a set of initials used by the Eliots Court Press in the
seventeenth century. These were probably copies of a set in the hands
of Henry Middleton, while several other printers had letters like them,
and the only way to distinguish between them is by counting the number
of beads or circles in the framework.
In the same way other ornaments were closely copied, and it is
frequently very hard to distinguish between them.
With the opening of the eighteenth century a marked change is
noticeable in the character of the decorative blocks used by English
printers. Borders to title-pages are rarely found, and, in place of
the single block woodcut head and tail pieces, that had done duty for
a century and a half, were substituted metal blocks of a more ornate
character, and this was the case also with the initial letters. It
would be interesting if one could trace the causes of this change, but
one can only surmise. I may be wrong, but I am inclined to attribute it
to the influence of the Oxford University Press, and to the work for
it of Michael Burghers, who between 1680 and 1725 designed some very
remarkable head and tail pieces.
It would be interesting also to know whether the printers employed
their own artists to design and engrave these blocks, or whether they
obtained them from the type-founders. I offer my own opinion for what
it is worth, and it is in favour of the first suggestion. Judging from
the type specimen sheets issued before 1780, the type-founders only
supplied the smaller ornaments such as the fleuron, with suggestions
as to their effective use. On the other hand, we find William Bowyer
at one end of the century having a special tail-piece designed for him
commemorative of the great fire that destroyed his premises in 1712,
and at the other end Thomas Bewick, the engraver, drawing and cutting
suitable head and tail pieces to go with his illustrations.
The nineteenth century opens the era of Modern work, which forms the
closing chapters of this book.
BORDERS
Chapter III
_Borders_
The earliest important ornament found in a book printed in England is
a woodcut border to a title-page. Borders, then, shall be our first
subject of study, but it has been decided that this study shall be
confined as far as possible to built-up borders, i.e. those made up of
small printers’ ornaments, such as the fleuron, or such as consisted
of two or more decorative blocks. It has been considered, and perhaps
rightly, that borders of one piece, such as that which surrounds the
title-page of the 1561 edition of Chaucer’s Works, whether cut in wood
or metal, belong rather to a history of engraving than to a work on
printers’ ornaments.
Title-pages did not make their appearance on the Continent until 1476,
but once adopted their decoration by the means of ornamental borders
quickly followed. The early Venetian printers, who were perhaps the
finest artists in the world as regards the decoration of books, began
by placing a strapwork ornament that went partly along the bottom
and partly up the left-hand side of the first page of text, and
this they were in the habit of printing with red ink. From this it
was an easy transition to borders round title-pages, or round the
colophon and device on the last leaf, and the practice quickly spread
over the Continent. For Books of Hours and Missals blocks were cut
representing scenes from the life of Christ or other Bible subjects,
but more decorative and lighter borders were designed for such books as
_Ariosto_ or the _Decameron_ of Boccaccio. Splendid examples
of such borders are met with in books from the presses of Aldus, Jenson
and Ratdolt in Venice, of Pigouchet, Vostre and du Pré in Paris,
and in the books of the printers at Lyons, Basle, Cologne and other
Continental cities in which printing had been established.
Nor was it long after Caxton’s settlement in Westminster before borders
appeared in England, although, as has already been seen, he cared for
none of these things. The printer who introduced them was a foreigner,
Theodoric Rood of Cologne, who set up a press in Oxford in the latter
part of the year 1478. In 1481 he printed an edition of the Commentary
on Aristotle’s _De Anima_, made by Alexander of Hales, and this
title was surrounded by a woodcut border.
Only some copies of this book have the border, and the Bodleian Library
has no copy in which it is found. Mr E. G. Duff, in his _English
Provincial Printers, etc._ (Cambridge, 1912), suggests that its
insertion was an afterthought of the printer; but it is a curious
circumstance that he used it again in John Lathbury’s _Commentary on
the Lamentations of Jeremiah_, which he printed in 1482, but again
only certain copies of the book are found to have it.
Fortunately a leaf of the _Jeremiah_ is in the Bagford collection,[6]
and from this I am able to describe it. The border is made up of four
blocks, each of a different width. That at the top measures 199 by 34
mm., and it will be seen that the bottom piece is the largest. The
design is the same in all four pieces, and consists of spirals of
flowers, fruit and foliage amidst which are a number of birds. It makes
a handsome border, the drawing and the cutting both being good, but it
was probably of foreign origin.
The next border of which we have any trace in an English book was in
the hands of William de Machlinia, another foreigner who had settled
in London. Between 1483–85 he printed a small Book of Hours according
to the Sarum use, of which only a few leaves remain. Seven of these
are in the British Museum, and they show that some parts of the work
were ornamented with a woodcut border to each page, probably of French
origin. The design is somewhat similar but much more simple than that
used by Theodoric Rood, consisting of spirals of flowers and foliage
only. This border passed into Richard Pynson’s hands when he took over
Machlinia’s business. In the last year of his life William Caxton made
a notable departure from his usual custom by placing a decorative
border, consisting of four pieces, round each page of _The Fifteen
Oes_, a collection of prayers intended to be issued with a Book of
Hours.
These blocks have met with unmerited censure in some quarters. They
appear to me to be both cleverly designed and to show no little skill
on the part of the woodcutter. They were probably French work, as
blocks similar to them may be seen in service books printed by Jean du
Pré in Paris. As stated above, each border consisted of four pieces,
each different, and no less than eight separate sets of designs were
used throughout the book. Their main features were spirals of flowers
and foliage, varied by the introduction of birds and grotesque animals,
as though the artist had gone to some bestiary, as books on natural
history were then called, for inspiration.
In some of the smaller cuts a grotesque human face is seen, such
as masons were fond of carving on the misericords of churches and
cathedrals. In one instance a child is shown holding the spray, and
the pose of the figure is quite good. Another of the blocks shows a
winged figure kneeling on one knee and holding a huntsman’s horn with
both hands, and here again the attitude is not without grace. Again,
take the drawing of the passion flower in the same block, which shows
feeling as well as a desire for truth on the part of the artist.
Moreover, he was a born humorist, as witness the block showing the
gryphon and the bird, which reminds one of passages in _Alice Through
the Looking Glass_.
It was the printer’s workman--for I decline to believe that Caxton
set up these pages--not the artist who was at fault, and who was
responsible for their clumsy and slovenly appearance. No attempt was
made to space them out in order to make them meet, and not a few were
put in upside down. Had the printer shown as much skill as the artist
there would be little to find fault with. This border passed into the
possession of De Worde, who used it as a whole, or parts of it, in
several books.
The next fifteenth century border found in English printed books occurs
in an edition of the _Horæ ad usum Sarum_, printed in 1497 by
Julian Notary, Jean Barbier, and an unidentified printer whose initials
were I. H., and who is supposed to have been Jean Huvin of Rouen.
These three printers had set up in London the previous year, and the
_Horæ_ in question was commissioned by Wynkyn de Worde. All that
remains of this book is a fragment of four leaves preserved in the
Bodleian Library, but they show that each page was surrounded by a
border of printed ornaments. These were part of a stock of some twenty
or five and twenty blocks which the printers would appear to have
obtained from France, nearly all of them being afterwards used in two
remarkable borders found in books printed by Notary early in the next
century, and a description is therefore postponed until I come to that
period.
To the printer Richard Pynson belongs the credit of producing the most
sumptuously decorated book that appeared in England in the fifteenth
century. Pynson’s excellent work as a printer had brought him to the
notice of many learned men, and amongst his patrons was Cardinal John
Morton. Morton was an Oxford man, and filled many high offices before
he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1486. He was a lover of books,
and in 1500 he commissioned Pynson to print a Missal that should equal
in beauty of letterpress and decoration anything of that kind that had
been produced on the Continent. We cannot doubt that he financed Pynson
during the preparation of this work, and we may go even further and say
that the decorative work seen in it is largely English. By the kindness
of Dr Cowley, librarian of the Bodleian, and with the help of the
Oxford University Press, a page from this splendid specimen of Pynson’s
craftsmanship forms the frontispiece to the present volume. The Missal
was a small folio, printed in a bold, handsome type of black letter in
double columns. Each page was surrounded by a border which, as will be
seen from the illustration, consisted of four pieces. In some respects
this border resembles that of Theodoric Rood, to which indeed Pynson
may have gone for his model. On the other hand, the work is somewhat
reminiscent of certain French service books.
The bottom panel, with its rebus of Morton, was probably of native
work. Not only are the spirals differently treated to those in the side
panels, but the flowers and fruit are also of a different character.
The page is, in fact, as nearly perfect as the skill of the printers
and woodcutter could make it.
During the first eighteen years of the sixteenth century some
interesting borders are met with in books printed in England.
In the year 1503 Wynkyn de Worde printed an edition of Æsop’s
_Fables_ in quarto, and he surrounded the title with a made-up
border that is typical of the slovenly way in which he often did his
work. The outer border consists of two pieces, evidently parts of what
had at one time been one block, of which the left-hand portion retained
its original form, but the other half had at some time been damaged,
and a part of the lower corner had gone altogether, giving the whole an
uneven appearance. Further, in order to fill up the space between the
illustration at the top and outer border, two smaller pieces, but of
different sizes and design, were inserted. The general design in these
blocks is spirals of flowers and foliage, the flowers being apparently
pinks, or carnations, and daisies.
The printer used this border in exactly this same state on the
title-page of _Nychodemus Gospell_, which he printed in 1511; but
in the edition of 1518 of that work the border had undergone a strange
transformation. The whole of the top and the right-hand portion had
gone, the top being occupied with a heavy block upon which the title
was cut in white letters on a black ground, while the right-hand side
was filled up with (1) A block from the _Fifteen Oes_; (2) Four
lozenges; (3) Two pieces of ‘ribbon’ ornament; (4) One piece of twisted
ornament; (5) A fleuron.
The printer’s device, which in the earlier edition is seen below the
cut of the Crucifixion, is also absent from this, its place being
filled by another cut of the Crucifixion, evidently from a Missal
or Book of Hours; but the printer either forgot (or did not trouble
himself about the matter) that the device in the earlier edition was
set horizontally, whereas the block of the Crucifixion, which he chose
to replace it, had to be set upright, and although it was to all
practical purposes the same size, placing it upright left a vacant
space under the inner top block and a space all round, which he filled
with odds and ends of small ornaments, including two lozenges and two
six-petalled flowers.
In the same year, 1503, Julian Notary printed the first of the two
books alluded to above, a folio edition of the _Legenda Aurea_. On
the last leaf he placed his device, and made a border for it with no
less than eighteen of the decorative blocks that he had obtained from
France. In the following year he printed an edition of _St Albans
Chronicle_, again in folio.
This work had no title-page, but in the place of one Notary arranged,
on the recto of the first leaf, five of the cuts used in the text,
and, to heighten their appearance and make the page more effective, he
put round them a border of fifteen of these same decorative blocks.
Altogether some two and twenty separate designs are seen in these
two collections, and as, after Notary’s retirement from business or
death, they appear frequently in the books of other printers during the
sixteenth century, it may be helpful if I tabulate them.
In this list the letters L. and C. stand for _Legenda_ and
_Chronicle_; the depth measurements are taken from the centre
and not the ends of the blocks. All of them are criblé, and each is
enclosed within rules.
1. Sprays of flowers and fruit, birds and a butterfly. 120 by 12
mm. L. and C.
2. Three monkeys and trees. 120 by 10 mm. L. and C.
3. Spirals of flowers and leaves; two birds. 120 by 11 mm. L.
and C.
4. Spirals of leaves and stems; various animals; in centre a man
blowing horn. 120 by 11 mm. L.
5. Spirals of foliage, birds, and various animals. 120 by 10 mm.
L. and C.
6. Leaves only. 120 by 5 mm. L. and C.
7. Wavy line with half flower. 120 by 6 mm. L.
8. Spiral of leaves; two grotesque animals. 120 by 6 mm. L. and
C.
9. Spirals of leaves and flowers; three grotesque animals and
butterfly. 120 by 6 mm. L.
10. A thick wavy stem, flowers and fruit. 120 by 6 mm. L.
11. Sprays of conventional foliage; bird in centre with
outstretched wings. 62 by 15 mm. L. and C.
12. Spiral of leaves and flowers. 62 by 15 mm. L. and C.
13. Man and two monkeys with basket; spiral of foliage. 62 by 15
mm. L. and C.
14. Hunting scene; dog pursuing stag; forest of trees. 62 by 15
mm. L. and C.
15. Two figures mounted on fighting cocks and armed with
quintain; spiral of foliage. 62 by 15 mm. L. and C.
A variation of this is seen in a block used by Wynkyn de Worde
at a later period. In this the two figures become two monkeys,
their weapons a broom and a pitchfork and their steeds a dog
and a goat. It is much more coarsely cut than Notary’s and
was slightly larger. This is one of a number of blocks with
which De Worde surrounded his device on the last page of the
_Chronicles of England_, which he printed in 1528.
16. Thick spiral, with leaves and flowers; two figures, one
naked. 62 by 15 mm. L. and C.
17. Spiral of flowers and foliage, with a dog in centre. 62 by
15 mm. L.
18. Spirals of conventional foliage issuing from mouth and tail
of grotesque animal. 62 by 15 mm. L. and C.
19. Spiral of foliage and flowers. 120 by 5 mm. C.
20. Chain ornament. 120 by 5 mm. C.
21. Spiral of conventional foliage. 62 by 6 mm. C. (Description
of England.)
22. Spiral of leaves and flowers. 62 by 6 mm. C. (Description of
England.)
In another edition of this _Chronicle_, printed at a later date,
either by Richard Pynson or Wynkyn de Worde, the printer, following
the plan of Julian Notary, placed five blocks on the front page and
surrounded them with a border. The largest block measures 118 by 99
mm., and represents a king on horseback riding through an archway.
This is a variant of the block seen in the _Polychronicon_. At
the top are two smaller blocks, one representing St George and the
Dragon and the other the royal arms crowned with angels as supporters.
Down the outer side of the large cut are two other blocks, the upper
one possibly an odd cut from a Book of Hours, measuring only 40 by 25
mm., representing a priest at the bedside of a sick man; and the lower
one the soldier with the pike which De Worde had used in the play of
_Hickscorner_. The border was made up by the repetition of five
small ornaments--(1) The ribbon; (2) The cable; (3) A variant of the
fleuron; (4) A flower or star; (5) A Maltese cross. Altogether 126
separate units went to make up this very singular border.
In 1504 William Faques printed the Statutes of the 19th Henry VII.
in folio, and placed round each page a neat but not very striking
chain border, and in 1508 Pynson printed a quarto edition of Petrus
Carmelianus with a title in a border, built up with a series of small
ornaments somewhat resembling two narrow strips of ribbon plaited
at the ends, with a fleuron introduced here and there. As similar
ornaments are found in books printed at Rouen, it is very likely that
Pynson obtained them from thence, but they appear to have been a stock
pattern, as Wynkyn de Worde had an identical set.
A curious set of border pieces was used by Pynson in 1509 in his
edition of Sebastian Brant’s _Shyp of Folys_. Each illustration
throughout the book had a border piece on either side. The first two
are seen on sig. _b_ 5, and are not unlike those used by Caxton
in the _Fifteen Oes_. They were not long enough to reach the
bottom of the cut, so the printer filled the intervening space with
a lozenge-shaped ornament. Throughout the remainder of the book he
rang the changes on four blocks. Two of these measured 112 by 14 mm.,
and the design of one was a naked figure in the midst of flowers and
foliage, with a bird at the top and some fabulous animal at the bottom;
the second showed spirals of flowers and foliage with three birds. The
other two blocks measured 112 by 12 mm. and were both alike, their
design being a series of half fleur-de-lys alternating with halves of
some other pattern and divided from each other by double white lines.
All these blocks were criblé and within double rules.
Another good example of a built-up border is seen in a volume of Year
Books of the reign of Edward III., printed by Pynson in 1518. Preceding
the title-page is his large device (McKerrow, 44) surrounded by a
border of various ornaments. At the top is a block measuring 118 by 9
mm., much the same in design as the one just mentioned above. At the
bottom two much smaller blocks are placed side by side. In one the
principal features are a dragon and a monkey; in the other a man and
woman, the man impaling a bird that is seated in the centre between
two sprays of flowers. These look French in style, both are criblé,
and they bear a close resemblance to those in use by Notary. On the
left-hand side of the device are two narrow blocks, each measuring
65 by 11 mm. The upper one has a spiral of fruit and leaves, and the
lower a human figure holding a leaf. As these two blocks did not fill
up the space required to be filled, two pieces of the ribbon ornament
were placed between and below them. On the opposite side are two more
blocks, both very narrow, and they have printed badly. There is nothing
striking in their design.
Another of Pynson’s borders is seen in the edition of _Sallust_
printed in 1520.
In 1523 Richard Faques printed Skelton’s _Goodly Garland_ in
quarto. On the title-page is a cut of a student at his desk, and this
has on three sides a border of printers’ ornaments. The outer border
was made up of what are probably variations of the fleuron, each unit
being about 13 mm. in length. The inner border of the two sides is
made up of a series of units which, I think, is intended to represent
the heraldic tincture ‘Ermine.’ They were evidently a reproduction
on a very small scale of the half ornament that alternates with the
half fleur-de-lys, in one of the blocks used in Pynson’s _Shyp of
Folys_.
Again, on the last leaf of this book is Faques’ device surrounded by a
border built up with whole or portions of the lozenge ornament arranged
within borders of the fleuron unit seen on the front page. These
lozenge ornaments are slightly smaller than those in Pynson’s hands.
Altogether this is a rather effective border. Another example of a
‘mixed border,’ to use a gardening term, is found in the _Greate
Herball_, printed by Peter Treveris in 1526. Two of these blocks,
the side pieces, certainly belonged to Wynkyn de Worde, who had used
them in 1519 on the front page of the _Orcharde of Syon_.
As it is manifestly impossible to describe in detail all the border
pieces in use in the sixteenth century, I must confine myself to a
rapid survey of the remaining seventy years. For the reason already
given, I pass over the elaborate one-piece borders used in the various
editions of the Bible and Common Prayer Book, and also all those
elaborate architectural borders seen in folio books, which began to
make their appearance about 1540. These last generally contain in their
design the initials, monograms or device of the printers, whether as a
mark of ownership or simply as advertisement is not clear; and the most
important of them have been reproduced by Mr McKerrow in his valuable
book on _English Printers’ Devices_. But attention must be drawn
to the delightful window frame borders found on the title-pages of some
of the smaller books printed by Thomas Berthelet, particularly to that
seen in the edition of the _Modus Tenendi_, printed in 1537, and
that in _Lyttleton’s Tenures_ in 1545.
Some very interesting borders are also found in the books printed by
John Oswen, both at Norwich and Worcester, between the years 1548 and
1551. While not altogether endorsing Mr Duff’s opinion that they were
“very much superior to the material used by most of the contemporary
printers,”[7] they were certainly unlike anything found in other
books, and were probably of foreign origin, though it would be rash to
speculate as to what part of the Continent they come from.
I take as an example the title-page of _Certayne Sermons appointed
by the Kinges Majestie_ ... printed by him at Worcester in 1549. In
this no less than seven distinct pieces are used--one at the top, two
at the bottom, and two more on each side. The groundwork of all these
is alternately black and white, sometimes arranged in bands, sometimes
in triangular form, and there are the usual collection of birds,
flowers and human beings.
About the year 1570 English printers began to use the ‘fleuron’ as a
material for borders. What has been termed ‘lace’ borders were nothing
less than a number of fleurons built up together in the shape of a
frame, but the variations in them are infinite. Sometimes they were
used singly, sometimes in two rows, but the most effective consisted
in a combination of four or eight units repeated over and over again
to form a frame, sometimes left with rough edges, sometimes enclosed
within rules or other printers’ ornaments. Some of the most delicate
and beautiful of these lace borders are to be seen on the title-pages
of books printed by Henry Bynneman, Thomas Creede, Henry Denham and
Thomas East, although they were adopted by all the English printers
of the second half of the sixteenth century, and have continued in
popularity to the present day.
This review of the borders found in sixteenth century books may
fittingly close with a notice of some used by Henry Denham. In the
years 1581–82 he printed for Abraham Fleming two little duodecimos,
one called the _Footepath to Felicitie_, and the other _A Monomachie
of Motives in the Mind of Man_. Both these were devotional works that
could be slipped into the pocket, and in each the pages were surrounded
by a four-piece border of exquisite design. In the _Footepath_ all
the borders were the same, and they may best be described as a chain
border, a square alternating with an oval and linked together by a
ring, the top and bottom pieces being finished off with a star at
either end. In the other book the design is made up of the rose,
fleur-de-lys, and portcullis linked together with a delicate flower.
All these borders passed into the hands of Peter Short, Denham’s
successor, and afterwards into those of Humfrey Lownes. They thus
form an interesting link between the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, as in 1602 another of Fleming’s books, _The Diamond of
Devotion_, was printed by Peter Short, and each page of this, like
its predecessor, had a border, and these show variations from those
used before: (1) a border of flowers in an interlaced design, seen on
sig. M 2 and elsewhere throughout the book, and (2) a design with the
letters E. R., i.e. Elizabeth Regina, with a fleur-de-lys at either end.
In other respects the seventeenth century has little to show in the
way of borders, and what it has are neither original nor striking.
The engraved title-page came into fashion, but as these belong rather
to a History of Engraving than a book on Printers’ Ornaments, they
are not dealt with in the present volume. What woodcut borders are
met with had done duty in the preceding century, and were generally
the worse for wear. But there are one or two uncommon ones to which I
should like to draw attention. Amongst the Bagford fragments in the
British Museum (Harl. 5927, 155) is a title-page to the second part of
Thomas Scot’s _Philomythie_, or _Philomythologie_, with the
imprint, “Printed at London for Francis Constable, 1616.” This title is
surrounded with a light and graceful geometrical border. None of the
editions of 1616 in the British Museum appear to have this second part
of _Philomythie_.
In 1641 a curious border resembling a twisted skein of wool, printed
white on a black ground, is seen on the title-page of the Rev. T.
Denison’s sermon, _The White Wolf_.
The fleuron borders still continued to be popular, but no such
effective use was made of them as in the days of Bynneman and East.
An interesting example of the combination of the two classes of
ornament--i.e. the fleuron and the decorative block--is found in the
early part of this century. In 1613 the printer John Beale, whose
material and work were notoriously bad, printed the second edition of
William Martyn’s _Youth’s Instructor_, and he made up a border
to the title-page in the following manner: At the top he built up a
gable end of various units of fleuron, enclosed between printers’
rules. Below this he placed a decorative head-piece, the double A, with
two naked children. On either side of the title he built up a column
of fleurons and other ornaments, and at the bottom he placed another
decorative block in which the prominent features are two winged figures
blowing horns, and two birds, evidently intended for peacocks, are
perched on the filials at the bottom. The whole is a curious medley,
and I know of no other like it. Both the decorative blocks used in
this border, or copies of them, are found in the hands of other
printers at this time. Other small ornaments came into use during the
sixteenth century. The national emblems the rose, the thistle, and the
harp crowned, each a separate unit, but generally used together; the
acorn, the fleur-de-lys, stars and various other forms to which it
is difficult to give a name, are found, and towards the close of the
century we come upon a border made up of ten printers’ rules set close
and printed in red and black, which has a novel if not very artistic
appearance. The use of rules, not only on the title-page, but on every
page of a book, dates back to the sixteenth century, and was probably
a relic of the days when all manuscripts were rubricated, and it was
adopted by the sixteenth century printers as an adornment for all
manner of service books, particularly Bibles.
In the eighteenth century borders of any kind are rare, but two are
here reproduced: that to Dodsley’s edition of Gray’s _Elegy_,
printed in 1751, and the border used by John Wilson of Kilmarnock, when
printing the first edition of _Burns’s Poems_ in 1786.
Although, as we have seen, it was at Oxford that the earliest use of a
border in English books is found, the University printers of that city
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were content to follow in
the footsteps of the London men, and until we come to the work of M.
Burghers, late in the seventeenth century, there is nothing that calls
for special notice.
Burghers’ engraved title-pages do not come within the scope of this
work, for reasons already stated.
Cambridge has a somewhat better record: Siberch, the first printer
there, had a woodcut border which is found in most of his early books.
It is either German or Dutch in character. Its design is architectural,
showing an arch supported by curiously decorated columns, with
children, one of whom has wings, playing round them. Two other winged
figures are seen on the arch, and two more in the bottom compartment,
are acting as supporters to the Royal Arms. As Siberch’s sign was the
_Arma Regia_, this bottom block is said to represent it. As a
specimen of the woodcutters’ art this border is of no great merit; it
is a one-piece border, and it has been reproduced scores of times. But
as being the earliest border used in Cambridge it calls for mention
in this volume, and we give a reproduction of it. In the seventeenth
century the Cambridge printers built up some effective borders with
small ornaments. An extremely pretty one is seen round the title-page
of the _Clavis Apocalyptica_, printed by Thomas Buck in 1632. In
this instance thirty-nine units are used in a space of 110 mm. and
placed within rules, giving the whole a neat and pleasing appearance.
In 1633 Roger Daniel printed an octavo edition of _Dionysius_, and
used as a border to the title-page a flower perhaps meant for a rose,
with stalk and leaves, measuring only 4 × 2 mm., and he placed the
units in a double row.
In another case the ornament looks like a fleur-de-lys rising from a
slender stem with a leaf on either side. The unit measures 5 × 4 mm.,
and a double row is made with them.
HEAD AND TAIL PIECES--SMALL ORNAMENTS
Chapter IV
_Head and Tail Pieces--Small Ornaments_
This part of our subject is almost wholly unexplored. In dealing with
borders we not only had the large collections of title-pages made by
Bagford and Ames to draw upon for illustration, but also the studies of
such able writers as Mr E. G. Duff and Mr A. W. Pollard. When we come
to deal with initial letters we shall also find the writings of Mr C.
Sayle and Mr Pollard and others of great value to us; but in dealing
with the ornaments known as head-pieces and tail-pieces we have no
guidance. No collections of them are known, and no bibliographer has
ever made them a special subject of study.
Under these circumstances it will be best to deal with these two
classes of printers’ ornaments together, because although there were
special blocks designed and cut as head-pieces and tail-pieces which
were never used except in their rightful places, on the other hand
the early English printers frequently used the same block without
distinction.
As their name implies, the object of these blocks or ornaments was
to fill blank spaces at the beginning and end of divisions in the
text, such as Dedicatory Epistles, Prefaces, Sections of a work, or
Chapters. They were also frequently placed above and below a colophon.
Whatever may have been the custom amongst Continental printers with
regard to the use of such ornaments, the sixteenth century was well
advanced before they began to make their appearance in English books.
So far as I know, no book of Caxton’s exhibits any ornament of this
kind. He followed the habit of the scribes and began his letterpress
high up the page and did not leave a space that required filling up,
and was content to leave other spaces unfilled. Both Wynkyn de Worde
and Pynson had a varied assortment of blocks, which, as we have seen,
they used as borders to title-pages or to their devices, but neither
of them during the fifteenth century placed any ornaments at the head
of the text or at the end of any of their books, and even as late as
1525 Pynson’s folio edition of _Froissart_ was entirely devoid of
head-or tail-pieces, and so was the folio Bible of 1539.
This at least we may say, with confidence, that the use of some
kind of ornament at the bottom of a chapter, or the end of a book,
preceded the use of head ornaments, and we may go even further and
say that the earliest form of tail-piece used by any English printer
was a single fleuron of especially large size, and perhaps cut in
wood and not metal, three of which arranged as a reversed triangle is
frequently seen in books at an early date in the sixteenth century. We
may date the adaptation of the fleuron for the decoration of blank
spaces as between 1560 and 1570, and an exceedingly good specimen
of its adaptability for this purpose is here reproduced. Bound up
with a copy of the Book of Common Prayer, printed by Richard Jugge
in 1573, is, _A Treatise made by Athanasius ... in what manner ye
may use the Psalmes_. This consisted of four leaves only, the
first of which is missing, signed A [1]--A iiij, and on the verso of
A iiij is this elaborate tail-piece. The centre, as will be seen, is
formed of a fleuron ornament surrounded by a ‘lace border’ of other
fleurons, and flanked at each of the four corners by two pieces of the
same ornament. Below this again is a block of a semi-architectural
character, with a human head in the middle and a lion’s head at either
end, with bunches of fruit in between--the whole design measuring 135
× 122 mm. The ornament in the centre of this tail-piece is a single
block and not formed of separate units like the frame; but it is none
the less the fleuron worked into an arabesque design. These blocks
had been in use some years and became very popular, and a few more
that have been met with may be mentioned. Three found in Sophocles’
_Antigone_, printed in 1581, illustrate the manifold ways in which
the fleuron could be treated. The first is triangular in form, while
the other two are square but set cornerwise. John Day used several in
the _Cosmographical Glasse_, 1559. Another fine example is to be
seen on the title-page of John Bodenham’s _Garden of the Muses_,
printed in 1610 by E. A.--that is, Edward Allde--for John Tap. Both
in shape and design this differs altogether from the others. In this
instance it becomes an ornament, but it was no doubt used elsewhere as
a tail-piece.
Equally when built up to form head and tail pieces the individual
fleuron was worked into bewildering variations: to attempt to mention
or illustrate them all would be impossible; but an example or two from
the sixteenth century books are illustrated. The first is a single row
of a single unit, set as a pair back to back. It is taken from sig. F
6 of Vautrollier’s _De Rep. Anglorum_ of 1579. It will be noticed
that the original form of the fleuron--the single leaf and stalk--has
undergone considerable variation, particularly by the introduction of
a heavy cross-piece, perhaps intended as a development of the second
piece of stalk, which was a feature of the early unit, but introduced
with a purpose, as this example shows. The second and third of our
illustrations are taken from the title-page of the first edition of
Shakespeare’s _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, printed in London in 1598,
and from Waldegrave’s edition of the _Basilicon Doron_, printed in
Edinburgh in 1599. The contrast between the two is worth noting. The
units in the Shakespeare measure 9 × 6 mm. each; portions of the stem
are shaded, and they are arranged in sets of four and two. Waldegrave’s
fleurons were a shade larger, i.e. 9 × 7 mm. The arrangement is the
same, but the stem, being entirely black, imparts a totally different
appearance to the ornament. In another instance in this book the same
units are used, but in this case they are placed horizontally, thus
giving a complete alteration in appearance.
A fourth example is built up of two units only--arranged as seven
central groups of four, with a border top and bottom consisting of
seven pairs; and by leaving out the bottom row yet another change was
wrought. Indeed, the possible combinations were endless. No wonder that
the fleuron ornament has kept its place in the compositor’s box until
the present day.
Another ornament used as a tail-piece in the sixteenth century may be
best described as the ‘lozenge’ ornament. Like the ‘fleuron’ it was
apparently a stock pattern, supplied to all printers alike from quite
the beginning of the sixteenth century. It is found on the Continent,
and also in the offices of Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, Richard Faques, and
others.
Robert Redman used seven of them, no doubt part of Pynson’s stock,
to form a tail-piece at the end of his _Year Book for Michaelmas
Term_, 11th Henry VI., believed to have been printed about 1540,
and with them another of Pynson’s border pieces [B.M. 504, f. 16
(8)]. Another curious example of its use is seen at the end of _An
Enterlude called Lusty Juventus_, printed by John Awdeley, without
date, but not earlier than 1560, where no less than twenty-seven half
lozenges arranged as an inverted triangle are found beneath his imprint
on the last page.
An ornament quite common in the sixteenth century, which on occasion
served both as head-and tail-piece, may perhaps be described as a
‘ribbon’ ornament, as in appearance it resembles two pieces of ribbon
interlaced into circles and squares, a five-pointed star being placed
in the centre of the circles and a flower in the centre of the squares.
This is all one piece, and was probably metal and could be cut to any
length. In 1579 it is found in a book printed by Vautrollier. During
the seventeenth century the small ornaments already noticed as used for
borders to title-pages--the star, the rose, the crown, the thistle,
the fleur-de-lys and the acorn, cast in various sizes--shared with
the fleuron the duty of supplying head and tail pieces, or dividing
sections of a book.
In 1662 we come upon another example--an urn with a flower growing in
it, used in the _Liber precum publicarum_, printed in 1662, where
at the head of the licence fifteen of them are used at the head of the
page and again on the verso of the same page; but, whether purposely or
not, in each case units of a different design are introduced.
Some further varieties of these small printers’ ornaments, not easily
describable--they may be meant for flowers or urns or anything
else--are found in a volume of Parliamentary Declarations, etc., of the
time of the revolution. When they happened to be new, or were used by a
careful printer, these small ornaments were effective, but when, as too
often happened during the period between 1640 and 1660, they were old,
badly arranged, and badly inked, they often spoilt the book or document
in which they were used. By the time the eighteenth century was
reached, the compositor’s box had become crowded with small printers’
ornaments. Like all other printers’ materials at that time, these were
the production of type-founders in Holland. But in 1720 William Caslon,
an engraver of gun-locks, was introduced to the printers William
Bowyer and John Watts, and was by them taken to the foundry of James
in Bartholomew Close. Bowyer and Watts also advanced him sums of money
to enable him to set up as a type-founder. Caslon’s superiority over
all other letter-cutters, English or Dutch, was quickly recognized. The
shape and proportion of his Roman letter, combined with its wonderful
regularity in height, was such as had not been seen in England since
the days of Pynson, while his italic founts were also remarkable for
their beauty and regularity.
That it was printed with Caslon’s letter was the best advertisement
a book could have in the eighteenth century, and his foundry soon
eclipsed all others in this country.[8]
His first specimen sheet was issued in 1734, but it shows only five
examples of fleuron ornament and two rows of stars. The first of
these examples was not a common pattern, although it may have had
a predecessor in the seventeenth century. The other four showed no
originality--they had been in use for a couple of centuries--but they
were cast clearly. If these were all the flowers which Caslon thought
it necessary to show after fourteen years’ experience, the inference
is that he was more concerned with the cutting of type-faces than
ornaments. In the specimen book of 1764 the flowers fill no less than
four pages, and in addition to the fleuron, which is shown in many
sizes and some new variations, the type-founder had introduced several
new designs, such as minute circles that could be arranged in many
decorative ways--an hour-glass and skull and cross-bones, no doubt for
use as head or tail pieces in funeral sermons--and had also, in one
instance at least, reverted to a fifteenth century ribbon pattern. Many
single-line castings were also shown. In the specimen book of 1785
many new designs and their possibilities as head and tail pieces were
illustrated by artistic and novel arrangement of the various ornaments,
some of which we know were adopted by printers throughout the country.
Further specimen books were issued by the firm from time to time.
Some examples of the use of small ornaments in the decoration of books
in the eighteenth century in which Caslon’s influence is evident are
here shown. The first is seen on sig. B of the Rev. William Gardner’s
Sermon, preached at the Assizes at Kingston-upon-Thames on August
4, 1726, and is an extremely effective combination of several units
of different design surrounded by what may best be described as a
bead border, the beads being arranged in groups--an oval between two
round--and each group being separated by a star. [B.M. 226, f. 3 (9).]
The next, which shows several new forms of the treatment of the
fleuron as a decorative unit, is also remarkable for the very artistic
way in which they are arranged, the whole forming what, to use the
language of that day, would probably have been called a ‘very elegant’
head-piece. It is seen at the head of the text of _A Sermon preached
at Stafford at the Assizes held there on August 22nd_, 1756, by
the Rev. Joseph Crewe. In neither of the above cases do we know the
printer. [B.M. 225, f. 3 (5).]
Finally we may notice one or two from a little book called _The
Lover’s Manual_, published by a country bookseller, S. Silver of
Sandwich, but printed in London, possibly at the same press as the
preceding, as the ornaments are very similar.
John Baskerville, who shared with Caslon the merit of being one of the
best type-founders of the eighteenth century, made a very sparing use
of ornaments; but such as he did use we may suppose him to have cast
in his own foundry. Messrs Straus & Dent in their life of this eminent
printer have reproduced fourteen of his ornaments. Nos. 14 and 4 differ
only as regards size. This flower ornament with circle in the centre
was a departure from the old model. Indeed, all these ornaments are
light, graceful, and in keeping with the character of the fine types
of which he was the founder. Nos. 6 and 7, reproduced by Messrs Straus
& Dent, are very beautiful variations of the old-fashioned fleuron,
the nearest approach to which are the feathery examples, Nos. 2 and 8,
which, however, lack both the firmness and the grace seen in those
of the sixteenth century. The ribbon ornament, No. 5, seems to be a
survival, or perhaps revival would be the better word, of the ornament
found in the hands of Pynson and Wynkyn de Worde.
Altogether the printers of the eighteenth century could obtain a wealth
of small ornaments such as they had never possessed before.
HEAD AND TAIL PIECES--DECORATIVE BLOCKS
Chapter V
_Head and Tail Pieces--Decorative Blocks_
In the foregoing chapter I have dealt with head and tail pieces, more
or less built up of small single printers’ ornaments. These did all
very well until the advent of something better; but the English printer
had to wait until between 1570 and 1580 before what may be termed
legitimate head and tail pieces--that is, blocks of a decorative or
pictorial design, especially cut for the purpose--were put in his
hands. These ran to all sizes, from blocks measuring 139 by 34 mm. for
head-pieces in folio books to others measuring only 47 by 12 mm., these
last being used independently as head-or tail-pieces, or as ornaments
for the title-page. The larger ones are rarely found used elsewhere
than in their rightful places.
Before their advent, any odd blocks that had done duty in books of
hours or primers on the Continent, and had been bought by some English
printer on his annual visit to the Frankfort Fair, were pressed into
service as head and tail pieces.
One of the earliest examples of the use of an odd block as a tail-piece
is found in Middleton’s edition of the _Statutes_ of the 7th Henry
6th, printed between 1530 and 1540, at the end of Michaelmas term
(sig. K 2), where a geometrical and architectural block, measuring 119
by 19 mm., is very effective. This had previously belonged to Wynkyn de
Worde.
Another may be seen at the end of _A Newe Booke--An Exhortation to
the Sicke_, printed by John Oswen at Ipswich in 1548, where above
and below the imprint are the two blocks here reproduced. They were
clearly not specially cut for the purpose--indeed, I have a shrewd
suspicion that I have seen the lower one in books printed by Robert
Wyer. Nor can we accept the two blocks placed above and below the
colophon to the Sarum Missal, printed by Kingston & Sutton in 1555, as
genuine head and tail ornaments. They obviously belong rather to the
class of border-pieces from some foreign book of hours.
An example of the miscellaneous tail-pieces to be found in sixteenth
century books was brought to my notice recently by Miss Murphy. It
turned up unexpectedly in the second edition of Harman’s _Caveat or
Warneing for Common Cursetors, vulgarly called Vagabones_, printed
by William Griffith in 1567, and it would, I think, be difficult to
match it.
The centre is a cut of the Virgin and Child forming the centre of a
rose. Outside this is a circle of beads, and outside that again a
circle of flowers on a single stem with five roses placed at equal
distances round the circle. The whole measures 95 mm. in diameter. It
may be one block, and the association of the rosary, the beads and the
picture of the Virgin seems to point to its having been cut for some
Roman Catholic book. At the end of the Preface is a good tail-piece of
arabesque design.
Specially designed decorative head and tail pieces began to make their
appearance in English books about the year 1570. One of the earliest I
have met with is a head-piece found in the hands of Thomas Vautrollier,
whose printing office was one of the best equipped in England. It
appears on sig. A of Chaloner’s _De Rep. Anglorum instauranda libri
decem_, a quarto printed in 1579. [B.M. 1070, m. 31.]
The block measures 102 by 22 mm. The design is an elaborate one, the
main feature being two spirals that look like capital A’s. On these
are resting two naked boys with a bowl between them containing fruit
and flowers. Below is a grotesque head. From these large spirals issue
smaller ones with a squirrel on one side and a rabbit at the other, and
two filials of grotesque animals at each of the bottom corners.
This may be a metal block, but it was light and graceful in treatment,
and was in every way suitable to the beautifully printed book in which
it is found. In another book, _M. T. Ciceronis Epistolæ_, printed
at the same press in the same year, is found Vautrollier’s well-known
tail-piece of the Gorgon’s head, with his initials T. V. on either side.
There were, no doubt, similar blocks in use in folio books before 1580,
but the earliest I have met with is the artistic head-piece seen in
sig. A of Bynneman’s edition of Morelius’ _Verborum Latinorum_,
printed in 1583. In the centre we see a figure holding in each hand a
bird with long tail feathers. On either side is an archer with a drawn
bow and arrow, with rabbits sitting behind him, while at each of the
lower corners is an animal with very long and curving horns. This block
measures 139 by 34 mm. It was afterwards in the hands of the Eliots
Court Press, and can be traced in use until about 1650.
Before the close of the sixteenth century specially designed head
and tail pieces of all sizes were in general use, and continued so
throughout the following century. When I add that every good block was
immediately copied, and frequently copied so faithfully that it needs
almost microscopical examination to discover the difference, some idea
will be gained of the wide field of illustration thrown open in this
branch of our subject. In the dainty little devotional works of Abraham
Fleming, already alluded to in my chapter on Borders, are found several
delightful little head and tail pieces, all of which passed into the
hands of Henry Bynneman, and from him to the Eliots Court Press.
Holinshed’s _Chronicles_, first printed in 1577, also contain
some very fine examples. At the head of the Dedication to the first
volume is seen the block with a bear sitting on his haunches holding
spirals of foliage. Two dogs, two men with staves, and two serpents are
also parts of this design. It seems possible that these large folio
head-pieces were lent by one printer to another, as this one is found
in many books. Again, at the head of the “First Booke of the Historie
of England,” in these _Chronicles_, is a semi-architectural
head-piece with the Royal Arms in the centre. At the head of sig. K
6 in the “Chronicles of Ireland” is another good decorative block,
which is sufficiently like that at the head of the Dedication to the
first volume to suggest a common origin, as indeed do those in use by
the Eliots Court Press. Another good example of these blocks is that
found at the head of Geoffrey Fenton’s _History of Guicciardini_,
printed by Richard Field in 1599. The same spirit seems to run through
them all, and they deserve more notice than they have hitherto
received. The charming little tail-piece, showing a boy playing two
drums, is also from the _Chronicles_, and is found at the end of
the Preface to the “Chronicles of Ireland” in the third volume. In some
respects it is reminiscent of the eighteenth rather than the sixteenth
century. At the opening of the seventeenth century the decorative
blocks used by the Eliots Court printers call for special notice, and
by the kind permission of the Bibliographical Society one or two of
those that appeared in my article in _The Library_ a short time
ago are here shown. It was not possible at that time to illustrate any
of the head-pieces that appeared in books printed in folio. No such
restriction bars us now, and consequently three of these characteristic
head-pieces from an edition of the _Workes_ of Homer, printed
at that press, are here shown. The first, which measures 142 by 36
mm., consists of spirals of flowers, radiating from a central stem,
with caterpillars and various winged insects dotted all over it. This
was also used in the folio edition of Bishop Jewell’s _Works_,
published by John Norton in 1609, and two years later M. Bradwood, who
succeeded Arnold Hatfield in the management of the office, used it in
Queen Anne’s _New World of Words_, and as late as 1639 it was in
the hands of Edward Griffin the second.
The second of these large head-pieces has as its design the sun in
glory and four horsemen between sprays of flowers and foliage. It
is found again in the folio edition of _Montaigne_, printed by
Bradwood, and was in constant use down to the year 1638.
The third, in which the principal features are two large cornucopiæ
and two lions holding shields, was also used by all the Eliots Court
printers down to 1640, and there was also another block something like
it in the hands of other printers.
Passing to the smaller blocks of this press, one of the most artistic
is that of the two cherubs blowing horns, used as head-piece in _A
Copy of a Letter written by E. D._, a pamphlet printed in 1606 by M.
Bradwood. It was of Continental origin, and it has served as a model
for printers down to our own day, a variation of it being amongst those
in use by the Chiswick Press.
In the same book is found the ‘fleur-de-lys’ head-piece. It was
used by all the Eliots Court printers without exception; but Felix
Kingston, another London printer, had a block so similar that it is
almost impossible to tell one from the other. It makes a very handsome
head-piece.
The other two examples here shown are also from _A Copy, etc._,
and both were in use, the one as late as 1644 and the other to 1650.
The one with the squirrels was copied repeatedly, and several variants
of it are met with in other books. The blocks of the national emblems
when used together formed an effective head-piece, but they were
sometimes used in pairs to form side-pieces to other blocks. There was
also a smaller set without the decorative spirals.
When George Purslowe joined the firm he brought with him several
ornaments that had belonged to Simon Stafford, and in 1620, when he
printed the Rev. Elnathan Parr’s _Exposition on the Epistle to the
Romans_, he used as a head-piece a block which is found in the hands
of Henry Bynneman as far back as 1581, and it was a curious medley of
part of one of Simon Stafford’s and part of the ‘fleur-de-lys’ block,
and shows that the designs of both those blocks had their origin in
sixteenth century work.
These Eliots Court head-pieces are very typical of seventeenth century
work; but such printers as Robert Barker, Adam Islip, Humfrey & R.
Lownes, Miles Fletcher, and others had a large and varied stock, from
each of which an equally good collection might be made.
A good decorative head-piece was that used by H. Lownes in J. Dowland’s
_Pilgrimes Solace_, printed in 1612, embodying the national
emblems.
Passing over the period of the Revolution and Commonwealth, in which
most of the blocks used were old ones, a word or two must be said of
the work done by Mr Burghers at Oxford during the last years of the
seventeenth century and the opening years of the eighteenth century.
It is somewhat remarkable that so little attention has been paid to M.
Burghers and his work by Oxford students. For upwards of fifty years
he must have been a well-known figure in the University town. For many
years he designed the allegorical illustration for the Oxford Almanac.
There is no question as to his ability both as artist and engraver.
Yet Bryan, in his _Dictionary of Engravers_, dismisses him curtly
without even mentioning the period during which he worked, and refers
to his work as ‘stiff and tasteless.’ _The Dictionary of National
Biography_ accords him just twenty-three lines, and finishes off by
saying, “He died, according to Hearne’s _Reliquæ_, on the 10th
January 1726–7.” As a matter of fact, Hearne gives the best memoir of
him, but has very little to say about the vast amount of work he did
and his skill as an artist. On these points all he says is, “He was
looked upon as the best general engraver in England, and had always
till very lately, within these last two or three years, a vast deal of
business, so that being withal a very industrious man, he got a vast
deal of money and purchased a pretty estate in Oxford.”
This is a poor account of a man whose work was not confined by any
means, as the _Dictionary of National Biography_ would lead one
to think, to the engraving of portraits, but who executed engravings
for many books. None of his biographers call attention to the wonderful
series of head and tail pieces and initial letters which Burghers
designed and engraved for the folio edition of Clarendon’s _History
of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England_ ... printed at the
Theater, An. Dom. MDCCII. (-IV.).
Amongst the many things collected by John Bagford were specimens of
Burghers’ work.[9] Unfortunately he gave no clue as to what books they
appeared in, but some of them were from this work, and the beauty
of the designs no less than the excellence of the engravings places
them in the very first rank of English Printers’ Ornaments. None
of these deserve Bryan’s censure. They are not only spirited; but
they are worthy of the great work in which they appeared. No. 234 in
Bagford’s volume is a head-piece, the design of which is classical in
treatment--spirals of flowers and foliage of a highly ornate character
springing from a central stem, which consists of the body of a child
emerging from foliage with his hands uplifted in terror of the two
lions who are apparently coming for him on either side. This is the
head-piece to the thirteenth Book, vol. iii., p. 285. No. 207 in the
same volume was evidently designed for an English book on Science,
printed about 1696. In the centre is seen Britannia, with shield and
trident, looking out over the sea. Beneath her is the date 1696, the
whole being surrounded by a laurel wreath. On either side are open
books, that on the left apparently dealing with Euclid and that on
the right with architecture. Other books and rolls and mathematical
instruments have also a background of laurel, and the design is
surrounded by a decorative frame.
The tail-pieces designed by Burghers are even more splendid than the
head-pieces. The two we have chosen for illustration are entirely
different in character, but are both remarkable for their grace and
beauty. No. 310 in Bagford’s collection consists of spirals emanating
from a central sun-like flower. These dancing figures and two birds
form part of the design, which measures no less than 152 by 120 mm.,
and has the signature “M. Burge, sculp.” at the bottom. No. 322 is
a classical design figuring Hercules. Both appeared in Clarendon’s
_History_.
With the opening of the eighteenth century the character of these
decorative head and tail pieces other than the fleuron changed entirely.
In the first place the old wood block was superseded by metal ones, and
no doubt the change gave greater clearness of impression and longer
life. Then with Caslon’s advent as a type-founder native talent began
to assert itself; but the alteration went even further than this, and
heralded a change in taste on the part of printers, who seem to have
been captured by a different school of designers altogether. We suspect
that this was largely due to the influence of the Oxford engraver, M.
Burghers. Whether the blocks produced during this century were or were
not more artistic than those they supplanted must be left to experts to
decide. My work is to record the change and show its development.
In 1712 William Bowyer printed a great folio, Atkyn’s _Ancient
and Present State of Gloucestershire_, in which we find a large
head-piece signed I. L., which is a good example of the head-piece that
had come into fashion.
The centre shows a basket piled with fruit, with some kind of drapery
hanging from it and the letters I. L. f. below this. On either side of
the basket the ornament takes the form of sprays or spirals of flowers
or foliage, somewhat resembling the designs of M. Burghers at Oxford.
Indeed, baskets of fruit and flowers became a feature in nearly all
head and tail pieces of the eighteenth century. In the same volume is a
tail-piece which is equally typical of eighteenth century work.
Some very beautiful examples of the decorative head and tail pieces
of the early eighteenth century are found in the octavo edition of
Lucretius’ _De rerum natura_, printed by J. Tonson and J. Watts
in 1713. While some of these head-pieces are pictorial, they are in
some measure called forth by the text, and perhaps more in the nature
of illustrations; the tail-pieces have a character of their own,
especially the one at the end of the fourth book and that at the end of
the sixth book, and the final one.
Another fine head-piece is seen in the first volume of the _Works of
Sir William Temple_ (sig. B ij), printed in folio in 1720, and is
matched by the tail-piece on the verso of B 3 in the second volume.
Another example of a signed head-piece occurs on a block found in the
octavo edition of the _Works of George Farquhar_, published by
Knapton and other booksellers in London in 1728. Whether it is meant to
be emblematical or not it is hard to say, but in the foreground is seen
a lion pointing with his right foreleg to a plant in front of him, two
of the leaves of which bear the initials F. H. and M. M. Round about
are several trees. The work of F. H. was evidently a favourite as late
as 1738, when we meet with another example of it in a sermon printed
for J. Roberts in Warwick Lane. In this case not only is the block
larger, but the design consists of vegetable growths, ornately treated
with a vase of flowers in the middle and a bird with outstretched wings
at the top.
The various parts of James Thomson’s poem on Liberty, printed in 1735,
have head-pieces, none of them of great merit, of which one is here
shown as a contrast with that just noticed, while, as an example of
how thoroughly bad some eighteenth century work could be, we show a
tail-piece representing a fountain, found in a volume of translations
of the _Odes of Horace_, printed in 1743. [B.M. 11375, c. 17.]
The provincial printers probably stocked themselves from the London
foundries, and consequently their ornaments followed the prevailing
fashion. We have already seen specimens of the work of M. Burghers at
Oxford, and while the sister University cannot show anything quite
so gorgeous, the printers in Cambridge had a good selection, many of
which are shown in R. Bowes’ Catalogue of Books printed at Cambridge
from 1521 to 1893. From these has been chosen a head-piece used by
Cornelius Crownfield between 1698 and 1743 as being typical of the
period, and two tail-pieces used by the same printer [Nos. 81, 82 in
that Catalogue], while a tail-piece from a work by an unknown printer
illustrates once again the innumerable ways in which the fleuron could
be treated. In this case twenty-eight units are arranged so as to form
an inverted triangle.
Moving further northwards we find John White, the printer at
Newcastle-on-Tyne, with a good stock of ornaments, which he used with
effect in Bourne’s _History of Newcastle_, which he printed
in 1736. The head-piece here shown is a characteristic example of
eighteenth century work (note the baskets of flowers and fruit, the
birds and the cherubs), and Mr Welford, in his _Early Newcastle
Topography_, describes the larger of the two tail-pieces as
‘gorgeous.’
Coming south again, the printer at Truro, from whose press came the
unfinished work called the _Compleat History of Cornwal_, used the
head-and tail-piece here reproduced.
MISCELLANEOUS ORNAMENTS
Chapter VI
_Miscellaneous Ornaments_
In addition to the forms treated of in the foregoing chapter, the
early English printers sometimes filled up the space at the end of a
paragraph with small printers’ ornaments. In his edition of Johannes de
Garlandía, _Multorum Vocabulorum_, printed in 1514, Pynson placed
at the end of the last line of the colophon two units of a fleuron
reversed. This is not shown by Messrs Meynell and Morison in their
article in the _Fleuron_, and nothing exactly like it is shown
by Mr D. B. Updike in his numerous illustrations of specimen sheets
English and Foreign. It consisted of a spiral with two leaves, and
measures about 10 mm. in length. It also proves that the fleuron or
‘petit fer’ was known in this country in 1514, and probably earlier.
He used these again in the Year Books of Edw. III. But on what system,
if any, he worked it is not easy to understand. In the first five
sheets of this book, although there were many vacant spaces that could
have been filled, no ornaments were used, but on signature F iiij they
begin to appear; but still there seems no uniformity. At the end of
one paragraph three such ornaments are placed: in the next nothing,
although the space at the end of the paragraph was just as large. Then
we find one with five; but the average number was three. Nor were they
all of the same kind. One arrangement was ribbon, fleuron, ribbon;
another, one plait and two ribbon; a third, three ribbon and one
fleuron, and so on; but why the compositor should have wasted his time
putting in these ornaments here and there only, is inexplicable.
Robert Redman was equally arbitrary in his use of them, the only
difference he made being to place a colon between each unit. This
custom very soon died out.
But the miscellaneous ornaments I have in mind are usually found on
the title-pages of books, and even there they are only occasionally
met with in the sixteenth century, when it was usual for the printer
to place his own device above the imprint. As these devices were often
very artistic, they served their purpose of decoration very well.
Vautrollier’s fine series of the _Anchora Spei_ may be cited as an
instance.
But there was at least one printer in the sixteenth century who did not
follow this custom, and that was Henry Bynneman. It was not that he
had no small block of the Mermaid to put on his title-pages, because
we know that he used such a block at the end of one of his books. From
the care he took in the printing of his books we may suppose him to
have taken a pride in their appearance, and this probably arose from
his chief patron being Sir Christopher Hatton, who at that time was the
most powerful of Elizabeth’s favourites, and was the friend and helper
of literary men. At any rate Bynneman frequently placed the crest of
that nobleman, a hart surrounded by the motto, “Cerva charissima et
gratissimus hinnulus,” with a very elaborate frame, on his title-pages.
It is seen in the fourth part of Gabriel Harvey’s _Gratulationis
Valdinensis_, the other three parts of which have on the title-page:
the first, the royal arms; the second, the crest of the Leicester
family--the bear and ragged staff; and the third, the crest of the
Burleighs--a sheaf of corn with two lions rampant as supporters, and
the motto, “Cor unvm via una,” within a border of fleurons.
Several of the blocks reproduced by Mr McKerrow in his _Printers’ and
Publishers’ Devices_ were not devices at all, but merely ornaments.
Such a one is No. 248, which he describes as a “two-tailed mermaid
blowing two horns. A fringe of tassels below.” In fact, he admits that
it is an ornament. Another was No. 244, which he describes as a wreath
enclosing armorial bearings found in A. Broke’s _Tragical History of
Romeus and Juliet_, printed by R. Robinson in 1578. A third that was
certainly not a device, though it was associated with the Eliots Court
Press, was the “Veritas felix temporis” block, a copy from a foreign
source, which, in spite of the bad workmanship, retains much of its
original grace and beauty.
John Windet placed on the title-page of H. Swinburne’s _Briefe
Treatise of Testaments and Wills_, 1590, a curious little decorative
block, in which two happy-looking cherubs sitting under overhanging
sprays of foliage that are part of the contents of an urn or basket of
fruit and flowers are busily playing, one a guitar and the other a viol
or violin, but whether they are serenading the lady whose head forms
part of the design one is left to guess. This block was perhaps in
reality a tail-piece.
The title-page of the first edition of _King Lear_, published by
Simon Stafford in 1605, had as an ornament a block that was used on
occasion both as head and tail piece, and came afterwards into the
possession of George Purslowe and so to the Eliots Court Press. That
seen on the title-page of Cyril Tourneur’s _Atheist’s Tragedie_,
published for John Stepneth and Richard Redmer in 1611, also belongs
to the same category, as does also the one placed on the title-page
of _A Description of New England_, printed by Humfrey Lownes in
1616. The fleur-de-lys placed above his imprint by William Jones in
Gerard Malynes’ _Center of the Circle of Commerce_ is familiar in
several seventeenth century books, while that seen on the title-page of
_Euphues, his Censure to Philautus_, printed by Elizabeth Allde in
1634, had a counterpart amongst the blocks of Felix Kingston, and is
frequently found as a head-piece.
Indeed, one can never be sure whether they are dealing with the
original or only a copy, as most of these blocks were copied over and
over again.
INITIAL LETTERS AND FACTOTUMS
Chapter VII
_Initial Letters and Factotums_
Nothing tends to heighten the artistic beauty of a book so much as the
initial letters. This fact was recognized by the monastic scribes, who
lavished all their skill in the production of beautifully illuminated
letters in the Missals and Books of Hours upon which they spent their
time in the scriptorium.
For some time after the introduction of printing, with certain rare
exceptions, the early printers left the space to be filled by the
initial letter blank for the illuminator to fill in. But before long
they began to cut the initials for their books in wood, and they
went to the manuscript books for their earliest model, hence the
ecclesiastical character of the first woodcut initials; and although
they could never hope to obtain the beauty of the illuminated letter,
which was due as much to the colouring as the design, the printers soon
learnt to produce very striking and effective decorative initials.
For an illustration we need go no further than Paris, where in the
fifteenth century the books of Antoine Verard were decorated with a
grand series of woodcut L’s, copied from the decorative script of that
period, while it is only necessary to glance through Mons. A. Claudin’s
magnificent history of printing in France to see many other examples;
while M. Butsch’s _Bücher-Ornamentik_ and Castellani’s _Early
Venetian Printing_ show that the presses of other countries were
equally prolific in this field of book decoration.
The early English printers in this, as in every other, branch of their
work were content to copy or to borrow from foreign sources rather than
to create, consequently the initials found in their books before 1500
show little originality. They borrowed chiefly from France, or perhaps
it would be more correct to say that they _bought_ chiefly from
France. There was so much material in the market, and it saved so much
time and trouble to buy from others. Or was it that there was no man
in England sufficiently skilled to draw or design initial letters, and
no craftsman skilled enough in woodcutting to produce them? Whatever
the reason, this foreign trade in initials continued throughout the
sixteenth century, as blocks that had come from Paris, Lyons, Basle,
Venice, Florence, the Low Countries, and even Spain are frequently
met with in books of that time. Matters improved as time went on, and
English gravers began to turn out some very creditable work, so that,
regarded as printers’ ornaments, whether their origin be native or
foreign, the initial letters found in English books from the fifteenth
to the twentieth century are of sufficient artistic merit, as well as
sufficiently numerous, to deserve a book or books to themselves. The
publication of such a book is long overdue. Too much good material has
already been wasted in the piecemeal treatment of the subject and in
the needless repetition of the same illustrations. What is needed is a
comprehensive study of the whole subject, tracing as far as possible
the birthplace of various alphabets, and what is no less interesting,
pointing out the variations in certain alphabets due to the copyist.
In the hope that such a work may not be much longer delayed, I think
it as well to say as little as possible on this branch of English
printers’ ornaments, and in this section merely to whet the appetite of
the reader for that full study of the subject that is bound to come.
Fortunately there is no lack of material. The studies of Mr Charles
Sayle, of Cambridge University Library, which have extended over
several years, supplemented by those of Mr A. W. Pollard, Dr Oscar
Jennings, and recently of Mr Percy Smith, make the task a light one
as far as the initials of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are
concerned. With Mr Sayle’s kind permission two or three examples
have been chosen from his paper on the subject read before the
Bibliographical Society in November 1902. To these I have added a few
others of that period that, so far as is known, have not hitherto been
reproduced, and I have further supplemented them with some examples
from my recent paper on the Eliots Court Press and other sources to
illustrate the work of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
For the purposes of this section I have divided the letters into
groups, according to their subjects, such as ecclesiastical, biblical,
classical, grotesque, heraldic, and finally miscellaneous, embracing
designs not otherwise groupable.
An early example of the ecclesiastical initial is the letter T found
on the verso of the title-page of the _Legend Aurea_. Those seen
in the Morton Missal of 1500, some of which embody Cardinal Morton’s
rebus, also belong to this class, and have the additional merit of
being, it is believed, English workmanship.
The highly decorative L found in some of the books of R. Faques about
1530 is another good example, while the F used in 1540 by William
Middleton in the Year Books of Henry VI., showing a bishop with a
mitre, is also worth notice.
The Reformation and the printing of Bibles and Common Prayer called for
large numbers of initial letters of all sizes, and it is not surprising
that Biblical scenes should have formed the subject of many of these.
Here again the English printer had no need to create. The large number
of service books, printed by the various printers on the Continent
ever since the first establishment of the art in Europe, had flooded
the market with a quantity of such blocks, of which he was not slow to
avail himself. As Mr Sayle remarks, the Great Bibles of 1540 and 1541
are a mine in themselves. The magnificent letter I, illustrating the
Creation, is sufficiently well known. The H, representing Samuel and
Eli, first used by Herford in 1544, is another familiar example.
Reginald Wolfe also had a very interesting set, illustrating scenes in
the life of St Paul, used in an edition of the New Testament, and in
his _Chrysostum_ is a Q, the subject of which is the Judgment of
Solomon.
In Bullinger’s _Sermons_, printed by Ralph Newberrie in 1577, is
a letter D that I think belongs to this division, and represents the
death of the firstborn in Egypt.
Classical subjects begin to appear in English books about the middle of
the sixteenth century, although as early as 1521 Siberch at Cambridge
used a letter C, representing St George and the Dragon, white on a
black ground, which Mr Sayle thinks is local work.
A very fine outline letter S, measuring 64 by 63 mm., shows two figures
appealing to a satyr, with a background of flowers and foliage, was
used by T. Berthelet in the _Bibliotheca Eliotæ_ in 1559. This
printer also used an artistic alphabet which clearly came from Basle.
Another S of the same group, but a different subject, is seen in
Day’s _Cosmographical Glass_, one of the finest examples of that
printer’s work, in which are many artistic initials signed I. B., I.
C., and I. D. The last two are supposed to stand for John Day, but
there is little to support the attribution. But the most famous of
these signed initials were those attributed to Anton Sylvius: examples
of these are found in books printed by Reginald Wolfe, John Day, and
others. As Mr Sayle very rightly says, these initials are worth a
monograph in themselves.
Grotesques were of many kinds. They were popular on the Continent in
the fifteenth century, and an early example of their use in England is
the letter A found in Notary’s hands in 1504, which he had obtained
from Bocard of Paris. Another early set were those in which the human
face formed a part of the design. These are clearly of French ornament,
and sets are found in the hands of Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, Faques, and
many others. Wynkyn de Worde also obtained a fine alphabet of this kind
from Gottfried van Os, a printer of Gouda, the only letter that he used
being an H, seen in _Catherine of Siena_. They continued in use
until the middle of the century.
Heraldic and personal initials are a fairly numerous class. One of the
finest is a large decorative letter P, bearing the initials of Edward
Whitchurch, and used in the Bible of 1539. In another Bible is found
an initial showing the arms of the See of Canterbury. These arms are
sometimes found with Archbishop Parker’s initials added to them. In the
_Chaucer_ of 1542 is a letter A, with the initials of John Reynes.
A fine example of an heraldic letter was a letter D showing the arms
of the Earl of Leicester, used by John Day in the _Cosmographical
Glass_, printed in 1559. Christopher Barker, in the Prayer Book of
1580, introduced an A and a T bearing his initials, and in many of his
books are found other initial letters bearing the crest and arms of
his patron, Francis Walsingham.
The group I have called Miscellaneous is so vast that the examples here
noted are barely a fraction of them. They range from all sizes, and are
chiefly ornamental--that is, their design illustrates no particular
subject.
The E used by Siberch in 1521, in the _Libellus de Conscribendis_,
consists of decorative spirals, white on a black ground, and is very
effective. The O and S from the same alphabet are equally fine. These
letters bear some relation to those used by Pynson at this time.
Stipple work and ornament of a different kind are the main features
of the fine H used on sig. A 2 of Pynson’s _Libello huic regio hæc
insunt_, printed in the same year.
Still more striking is the V seen in the Year Books of Edward III.,
printed by Robert Redman in 1540, and which was probably part of
Pynson’s material. This may have come from Italy.
Vautrollier, the Huguenot printer in London, had some beautiful
initials, amongst them the E here shown, and which figures in many of
his books. A contrast to this is the outline letter C from the 1562
edition of Foxe’s _Book of Martyrs_. Decoration of an arabesque
kind is seen in a fine set of initials used by Christopher Barker in
the Prayer Book of 1580, mentioned above.
Some of the small initials in the sixteenth century are equally as good
as the large ones. Hundreds of them call for illustration, but there
is only room here to include one of two exquisite little examples that
were amongst Denham’s stock, and which he used in _The Footepath
to Felicitie_ in 1581. These are two T’s, both the same size but
differing in design.
Passing on into the seventeenth century we come at once upon the work
of the Eliots Court Press. Many of their large stock of decorative
initials came to them through Henry Bynneman, and can be traced back
to the presses of Henry Denham, Reginald Wolf, and Richard Jugge. But
there was one alphabet that I have called the Apostle series, as each
letter showed a figure round whose head was a nimbus, some of which
have the emblems of the apostles, but other personages, such as King
David, are now and again substituted. These initials were enclosed in
a frame each side of which shows a certain number of circles, or they
may be intended for studs. This alphabet made its first appearance
in books printed at the Eliots Court Press in 1603, when it was used
in the folio _Plutarch_, which bears Arnold Hatfield’s imprint;
but both George Robinson and Henry Middleton had previously used a
similar alphabet. In fact, there is no doubt that here we see the
copyist at work, and it seems probable that the Eliots Court ‘Apostle’
alphabet was a direct copy from that used by Henry Middleton; but
there was one feature of the Middleton letters that, fortunately for
the bibliographer of modern times, the copyist did not consider it
necessary to follow strictly, and that was the number of circles that
were to appear in each section of the frame. So when copying the letter
F, instead of putting twelve circles at the top and thirteen at the
bottom, as shown in the Middleton letter, he only put nine at the top
and ten at the bottom, and it is only by noting this difference in the
number of circles in the frame that one can tell the difference between
the Eliots Court letters and those of Robinson, Middleton, and various
other printers of the seventeenth century who used similar alphabets.
By the kindness of Professor A. W. Pollard I am enabled to show two
of these Apostle letters which appeared in my article; also two other
decorative letters that are found in books issuing from that press.
Probably the I was designed to commemorate the accession of King James,
in honour of the king of that name, as it embodies the rose and thistle
crowned.
Mr Sayle, in a footnote to his paper mentioned above, calls attention
to the heraldic initials found in Thos. Fuller’s _Church History_,
1655, each section of which was dedicated to a nobleman, whose arms are
shown in the initial of the opening paragraph.
The work of the University presses at this time also provide some good
initial letters. M. Burghers of Oxford designed some very fine ones for
the Clarendon’s _History of the Rebellion_, and Buck and Daniel at
Cambridge used a somewhat ornate but very decorative alphabet, examples
of which are reproduced in Bowes’ _Catalogue of Cambridge Books_.
In the _Lucretius_ of 1713, already referred to in the section on
head and tail pieces, the initials carry on the unity of design and are
in every way suitable. Though small in size they fit in with the type
admirably and add to the charm of what was undoubtedly one of the best
productions of the eighteenth century press, as may be seen from the
two examples here reproduced.
Of another character altogether is the initial A taken from a tract
written by the Rev. Elisha Smith in 1719, and the T found in a sermon
printed at Edinburgh in 1740.
_Factotums_
Where a printer had but a small stock of decorative initial letters he
frequently made use of an ornamental frame, in the centre of which he
placed an ordinary capital. This practice seems to have arisen about
the middle of the sixteenth century, and it probably had its origin on
the Continent.
These borders for initials have come to be known as ‘factotums,’
because they were called to do duty on all occasions, and they have
been heartily condemned as destructive of all artistic feeling. When,
as they often do, they occur throughout a book, they become monotonous.
On the other hand, these factotums, to give them their modern name,
are not without merit, and in the case of large ones they could be
made artistic or decorative. They were made both in metal and wood,
and certain patterns were apparently turned out by the foundries in
large numbers and supplied to all printers alike. Two of the commonest
and perhaps the earliest forms were small frames measuring 22 × 21 mm.
and were of classic design, in one case the filials rising from two
cornucopiæ apparently fastened together with bows and ends of rope (?).
In the other instance the cornucopiæ are more floral in treatment. In
one the filials consist of a female head at the end of an elongated and
curved neck and are both alike, but in the other the upper portions of
a male and female are seen. Another feature of these two factotums is
some kind of drapery and they were enclosed within single rules. Both
of them are found in the hands of many printers in London and of those
at Oxford and Cambridge at the same time.
Equally familiar in books of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
are two larger forms, one of which shows a man and woman plucking
thistles and tufts of thistles in the foreground. Needless to say this
was of Scottish origin, and is first found in the books of Waldegrave
when he was printing in Scotland. It afterwards was used by the Eliots
Court Press and other printers in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. The smaller of the two represents the story of Salome.
A series of factotums found in Grover’s printing office in 1679 and
used by him in the folio _Herodotus_ are evidently woodcuts and
are not without merit. A very similar factotum which may possibly have
migrated from Grover’s foundry was in use by the Clarendon Press in
1759.[10] They are evidently by the same hand that cut the tail-piece
seen in the same volume.
The use of these borders continued throughout the eighteenth century,
and a good example is seen in a sermon printed in 1738, which is partly
geometrical and partly floral.
They were frequently made up of fleurons and very cleverly arranged. We
reproduce one taken from _The Lovers’ Manual_, 1753.
MODERN WORK
Chapter VIII
_Modern Work_
Preceding chapters of this book have dealt with the various kinds of
printers’ ornaments met with in English books down to the end of the
eighteenth century. We have now reached our last port of call on this
eventful voyage of discovery, viz., Modern Work, which may be said to
have taken its rise from the nineteenth century and the Whittingham
Press. Although many fine books have been printed by William Bulmer,
Archibald Hamilton, and others at the close of the eighteenth century,
and by Charles Whittingham the elder during the early part of the
nineteenth century, their attraction lay chiefly in the clearness
of the type with which they were printed and the beauty of the
illustrations, for they were wholly devoid of printers’ ornaments of
any kind, so that when in 1844 the _Diary of Lady Willoughby_ made
its appearance, it may be said to have swept away all the preconceived
notions as to book decoration that had been in vogue before its advent.
Charles Whittingham the younger, the printer of this book, was the
nephew and successor of Charles Whittingham, the founder of the
Chiswick Press in 1809, at which a library of pretty books had
been printed before Charles Whittingham the younger was out of his
apprenticeship.
For a time the two men were in partnership, but their natures differed
so widely that in 1828 they dissolved partnership, and while the
elder Whittingham continued to print at Chiswick, Charles Whittingham
the younger came to London and started as a printer in Tooks Court,
Chancery Lane, where the business is still carried on under the same
title, though no Whittingham is now connected with it. At the same
time he was ready to help his uncle in emergencies and was frequently
at Chiswick. But it was while he was at Tooks Court that Charles
Whittingham the younger was introduced to William Pickering, the
publisher. They quickly became friends. Pickering, to quote from
Mr Warren’s book,[11] was one of the very first publishers of his
century to make the production of fine editions a particular branch of
enterprise. “He was not only a bookseller, but a book lover. He had a
taste for old books.” And again, to quote from Mr Warren, “He had a
notion that if an old author were a good one, he deserved to be dressed
well.” Pickering was a well-read man, of good judgment and rare taste.
Charles Whittingham the younger was a man of ideas. Liberally educated,
he turned his education to good account. He also was a book lover
as well as a printer, and consequently there sprang up a life-long
connection between the two that resulted in the production of some
notable books. Whereas Whittingham the elder had been noted for his
printing of pictures, Whittingham the younger made it the peculiar
“grace of his craft to bedeck books with borders, comely head-pieces,
and other alluring devices. He carried this branch of his work to such
an extent that you shall find nothing lovelier between book-covers
until you turn back to the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages.”
For these ornaments for his books Charles Whittingham the younger
went back to the printers of the eighteenth century--to Geoffrey Tory
of Paris, to Henry Bynneman and Henry Denham of London. He taught
his family to appreciate their beauty and to perpetuate it, and his
daughters Charlotte and Elizabeth copied and designed head and tail
pieces, borders and initial letters, while another lady, Mary Byfield,
who came of a family of engravers, engraved them. It is said that
Pickering and Whittingham would spend their Sunday afternoons studying
sixteenth century books, and the ornaments to be found in them which
they afterwards adapted for the decoration of their publications.
But the _Diary of Lady Willoughby_ was as remarkable for the type
as its ornaments. Whittingham the younger wanted something better than
the founts of type then in vogue, and he found it in the old face
type of the Caslon foundry, i.e. the beautiful fount that had been
cut by the elder Caslon more than a hundred years before, and which
had aroused the admiration of that generation. It was no easy task to
find the matrices, and this caused some delay in the publication of
the book; but when it appeared about the middle of 1844 the _Diary
of Lady Willoughby_ was hailed as one of the best specimens of
typography seen in England since the days of Baskerville and the elder
Caslon. From that day to the present old face type has retained its
popularity, and has been adapted by many other modern firms. Both
the type and ornaments designed by Whittingham the younger are still
largely used by the present proprietors of the Chiswick Press, and
may be seen in two notable books published during the year 1923.
The first is the fine edition of the _Works_ of William Blake,
printed for the Grolier Club of New York, in itself a testimony of
the high position gained in the printing world by this press, while
the collotype reproductions throughout the work are excellent. The
other book is the _History of St Bartholomew’s Hospital_, issued
to commemorate the foundation of that institution. The Whittingham
ornaments and old face type are especially suitable to the character of
the work.
The influence exercised by the Chiswick Press was continued until there
arose on the horizon of the book world one greater than either of the
Whittinghams--William Morris. Educated at Marlborough School and Exeter
College, Oxford, this gifted man became a weaver of wonderful tales in
prose and verse, a painter of pictures and frescoes, a designer of art
tapestries, the founder of a decorating firm in which artists such as
Rossetti and Burne-Jones were partners. Towards the close of his life
he turned his attention to the art of printing, and founded, in the
Upper Mall, Hammersmith, the Kelmscott Press.
The first book that came from that press was _The Story of the
Glittering Plain_, one of his own writings, which appeared on April
4, 1891. It was a small quarto printed with the Golden Type, and the
issue was limited to 200 ordinary copies and six on vellum.
It was at once evident that Mr Morris had gone back to the fifteenth
century for both his type and ornaments. The first page of the text
was surrounded by a border designed by Mr Morris himself and showing
traces of the Venetian school. It was printed in a specially cast fount
of Roman letter, modelled on that of Nicholas Jenson, the printer in
Venice, in the fifteenth century. It was not quite rigidly Roman, some
of the letters showing a trace of Gothic.
On September 24, 1891, another quarto was issued, _Poems by the
Way_, and during the next twelve months five more books from
the Kelmscott Press made their appearance--_Love-Lyrics and
Songs of Proteus, and other Poems_, by Wilfred Blunt; _Of the
Nature of Gothic_, by John Ruskin; William Morris’s _Defence
of Guenevere_, and other poems, followed by the same author’s
_Dream of John Ball_, and in September Caxton’s edition of the
_Golden Legend_, in three large quarto volumes, with woodcuts by
Burne-Jones. This was intended to be the first issue of the Press, but
was delayed by an accident. The initial letters, which in the earlier
books appeared to be somewhat too large for the page, were exactly
right in this. Here, too, appeared for the first time the woodcut
frontispiece title that afterwards became a feature of the Kelmscott
Press. Sometimes these were printed in white letters on a ground of
dark scroll-work, sometimes in black letters on a lighter ground, and
they were surrounded by a border of the same design as that to the
first page of the text, it being William Morris’s principle that the
unit, both for arrangement of type and for decoration, is always the
double page. The type used in this was the same as that seen in the
first production of the Press: but from its use in this book it was
afterwards distinguished as the _Golden type_.
Beautiful as the _Golden Legend_ was as an example of the
printer’s craftsmanship, it was immediately followed by another book
that eclipsed it, a reprint of Caxton’s _Recuyell of the Histories of
Troy_ in two volumes in large quarto. For this Morris had designed
a new fount of type, a handsome Gothic letter, which recalled that of
the fifteenth century printer, Anton Koberger of Nuremberg, and was not
unlike a fount of type used by Thomas Berthelet. This type came to be
known as the Troy types; but it was not alone the type that attracted
attention. The decoration of these two volumes was equally remarkable.
Another book printed in the Troy type was _Godefrey of Bologne_,
and by the courtesy of the Trustees of the Kelmscott Press, one of
the borders designed by Morris for this book is here reproduced. The
boldness of execution no less than the simplicity of the design and its
uniformity with the text, show the skill of the woodcutter. Another
notable departure from stereotyped pattern was introduced by Morris.
His fleuron became a perfect leaf--a black leaf with white ribs, which
took the place of the reversed P or D used for paragraph marks.
The type in which these books were printed was afterwards recut in
a smaller size for the folio edition of the works of Chaucer, which
issued from the Kelmscott Press in 1895, and with its magnificent
illustrations by Burne-Jones, is its crowning glory.
William Morris died in 1896 after he had printed fifty-three books.
Short as his career as a printer was, his influence spread in
ever-widening circles and still remains with us. In a few words, which
cannot be too often quoted, he set out his ideal of what a printer
should do and what a printed book should be: “The whole duty of
Typography is to communicate to the imagination, without loss by the
way, the thought or image intended to be conveyed by the author. And
the whole duty of beautiful typography is not to substitute for the
beauty or interest of the thing thought and intended to be conveyed
by the symbol a beauty or interest of its own, but on the one hand
to win access for that communication by the clearness and beauty of
the vehicle, and on the other hand to take advantage of every pause
or stage in that communication to interpose some characteristic and
restful beauty in its own art.”
In this spirit William Morris’s immediate disciples--Mr Emery Walker,
Mr Cobden Sanderson, and Mr St John Hornby--founded the Doves Press and
the Ashendene Press.
The Doves Press was founded in 1900 and closed its doors in 1916. In
that time was produced a Bible in five quarto volumes, as well as
plays of Shakespeare, poems of Milton, Shelley, Wordsworth, Keats, and
others, and prose works by John Ruskin and Emerson.
Mr St John Hornby attained success at his Ashendene Press with a fount
of Greek adapted from the fount used by the first printers in Italy,
but the books produced at these two presses contribute nothing to the
history of English Printers’ Ornaments. Apart, however, from the work
of the private enthusiasts, the trade as a whole was purified and
immensely improved by their example.
In the early part of the present year the Directors of the Medici
Society arranged an exhibition of Twentieth Century Books at the
Grafton Galleries in London. More than half the exhibits were
from English presses, and the general impression conveyed by that
exhibition was, that a great improvement in craftsmanship had taken
place all round in the last five and twenty years. What our printers
and type-founders can do at the present day in the way of book
decoration will be seen by a study of the following pages, in which,
by the kindness of the various firms, we are able to bring together a
representative collection of modern Printers’ Ornaments.
The modern Caslon foundry still carried on by H. W. Caslon & Co.
in Chiswell Street, to which William Caslon the first transferred
his business in 1734, is still one of the leading foundries in this
country. After his death his son William the second reigned in his
stead and carried on the traditions of the foundry, and was in due
course succeeded by his son William the third, who in 1792 gave up his
interest in the business to his mother and his brother Henry’s widow.
On the death of Mrs William Caslon her will was disputed, and as a
result the business was put up to auction and secured by Mrs Henry
Caslon for the modest sum of £520. Seven years before a one-third
share in the business was worth £3000. The cause of this drop was,
says Mr J. F. McRae, in his _Two Centuries of Type-founding_:
(1) Depreciation in the value of the stock; (2) competition; (3) a
reluctance to run up the price against a widow.
Undoubtedly the main cause was a change in public taste. Even beauty
palls after a time, and the public had taken up with Bodoni and other
much inferior faces, and this neglect lasted for nearly a century.
In 1844 Messrs Charles Whittingham the younger and Thomas Longman
brought about a revival of interest in the Caslon Old Face type by
their publication of _The Diary of the Lady Willoughby_. To quote
again from Mr Warren’s book: “Matrices that had been reposing in the
vaults of the Caslon foundry for nearly three generations were refitted
to moulds, and made to serve for the casting of type” (p. 238).
But the firm was not yet through its difficulties. In 1865 a strike of
some of the workmen, on a question of wages, was followed by a lock-out
that lasted for eight months and brought its fortunes to their lowest
ebb. Then in 1872 Mr Thomas W. Smith, who had for some years acted as
traveller to the foundry, was asked to take over the management. His
position was a difficult one. Old fashions die hard, and the foreman
and many of the workmen had been with the firm all their lives and
resented change. But Mr Smith persevered, his object being, as he
himself declared, to work up arrears of production and to rescue the
Specimen Book from the miserable and degraded state to which it had
fallen.
His success was complete, and the firm to-day stands as high as ever
it did, thanks mainly, no doubt, to the great popularity of the Caslon
Old Face. In the matter of ornaments it is only necessary to compare
the Specimen Book of 1842 with that of 1910 to show how great had been
the improvement in the interval, an improvement that the examples have
shown of the firm’s work at the present day fully bear out.
Between the years 1883 and 1900 the English Illustrated Magazine
made a feature of its ornaments. These included reproductions of
famous head and tail pieces and initials by various foreign masters
of the sixteenth century belonging to the French, German, and Dutch
schools, the work of Aldus, Theodoric de Bry, and Holbein; nor were
native artists neglected. Between 1883 and 1887 we find some excellent
head-pieces by A. P. Hughes. In July 1889 appeared a tail-piece from
the pencil of Sir E. Burne-Jones, followed by a good decorative
head-piece by Matilda Stokes. In 1893–94 the work of Lawrence Housman
begins to appear. The initials used in _Bibliographica_ and in the
various monographs, etc., of the Bibliographical Society down to the
present time were designed by him, and are worthy to rank with the best
art work of the early Italian school.
Walter Crane and Emery Walker were other well-known contributors to the
English Illustrated Magazine, and by the kindness of Messrs R. & R.
Clark one of Mr Crane’s decorative blocks is here reproduced.
Akin to the Caslon Foundry, and also linked up with that of John
Baskerville of Birmingham, is the firm of Stephenson, Blake & Co.,
of Sheffield, Manchester, and London, which had its origin in the
firm of Blake, Garnett & Co., founded in 1819. It was from the office
of Stephenson, Blake & Co. that Mr T. W. Smith passed to the Caslon
Foundry, and it was on his suggestion that a branch of the firm was
established in London. The firm has to-day a large assortment of
flowers, borders, and ornaments, both well designed and well cast.
Many of the old forms are retained and some variations of the fleuron
introduced.
Messrs Shanks, of Red Lion Square, have sent some head and tail
pieces shown in their most recent specimen. These, both in design and
treatment, recall French work of the sixteenth century, while the
Cubist idea that marks their Athenian border brings us back to the
twentieth century.
The productions of the Curwen Press are well known to all bookmen. Much
of its art work came from the pencil of the late Claude Lovat Fraser,
who also designed many of the ornaments and tail-pieces. His successor,
Mr P. J. Smith, was the designer of the conventional fleurons, here
reproduced.
The Morland Press in Ebury Street is another of the modern presses
whose craftsmanship is highly esteemed, and much of its art work is by
the well-known artist F. Brangwyn.
The specimen sheet of the Pelican Press, which was established in 1917,
is an ambitious one. It reproduces for the consideration and choice
of its customers borders designed after those of Ratdolt of Venice,
Geoffrey Tory of Paris, and some of the printers of Lyons.
In ornaments it produces a large selection modelled on the old forms
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, one of which resembles
very closely an ornament used on the title-page of John Bodenham’s
_Garden of the Muses_, printed in 1610, and in addition to all
kinds of fleurons, they reproduce the fleur-de-lys, the acorn, and
various stars. They also show a fine collection of initials, French and
Italian, that they claim are modelled on the best work of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries.
No account of Modern Printers’ Ornaments would be complete without
a record of the work done by the University Presses. Marching with
the times the Oxford University Press, still familiarly known as the
Clarendon Press, has long since relegated the once famous Fell and
Junius types to the vaults as curiosities, and has availed itself
of the best founts that a modern foundry can produce. In 1766 the
University had an account with William Caslon, from whom it bought both
English and Foreign sorts, and at the present day no firm in England
can show better craftsmanship. Whether in its many editions of the
Bible and Prayer Book, its classical books, or the great dictionaries,
its work in all departments--composition, excellence of spacing and
presswork, and in clearness of type--is beyond all praise. Book-lovers
were at one time known to complain of it as uninteresting, but under
Mr Horace Hart the work of the Press became distinctly richer and more
individual.
As regards ornaments the Clarendon Press still retains in use those
that have served it so well. The Phœnix is one of the original Fell
ornaments, as are also the following units, which are seen in a little
book printed in 1922, called _Some Account of the Oxford University
Press_. Amongst these is the triple flower, which had its origin
in Augsburg in the sixteenth century. In this book also some of M.
Burghers’ head-pieces are seen in a reduced form.
In 1923 Cambridge celebrated its fourth centenary of printing.
Its development has been slower, perhaps, than that of the sister
University. It has been hampered largely by its constitution, but
in the early nineteenth century many improvements were carried out,
including the erection of the Pitt Press in 1833, and to-day its work
is in every way worthy of its great traditions. In the foregoing pages
we have watched the growth of endeavour on the part of the printers of
England to reach the highest standard in the art of book-decoration. We
have seen the small printers’ ornaments grow, not only in variety of
design, but also in regularity of face and clearness in reproduction.
The ugly ornament, like the old-fashioned, fat-faced type, has given
place to artistic and tasteful designs, coupled with growing knowledge
on the part of the printers of the present day as to how they should be
used, and it is a notable thing how one printer is vying with another,
not only in reproducing ‘old face’ type, but in seeking their ornaments
in the best productions of the fifteenth and sixteenth century presses.
* * * * *
Boswell was once arguing with Dr Johnson on Goldsmith’s merit as an
author, and in the course of the argument Johnson said:
“Besides, Sir, it is the great excellence of a writer to put into his
book as much as his book will hold....”
If _English Printers’ Ornaments_ is not as full as it might be, we
hope the reader will find enough in it to please his eye and feed his
mind.
DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE
OF THE
ILLUSTRATIONS
BORDERS
1. Machlinia. Border used by R. Pynson. William de 1483
Machlinia printed a _Book of Hours_ with borders
which later passed into Pynson’s hands. The
design consists of spirals of flowers and foliage.
2. Caxton. _Fifteen Oes._ A decorative border of which 1494
the main features were spirals of flowers and
foliage varied by the introduction of birds and
grotesque animals.
3. Pynson. _Morton Missal._ One of the fine borders 1500
of the Morton Missal, consisting of four
pieces introducing spirals of flowers and fruit.
The bottom panel contains Cardinal Morton’s
rebus. The reproduction, which is slightly reduced,
also shows one of the beautiful initials
designed for this Missal. (_See_ Frontispiece.)
4. Notary. _Chronicle of England._ Border made up of 1504
flowers, animals, and various other designs, all
separate.
5. Pynson. _Petrus Carmelianus_, which is built up with 1508
a series of small ornaments resembling narrow
strips of ribbon introducing fleurons.
6. Pynson. Sebastian Brant’s _Shyp of Folys_. These 1509
border pieces were used by Pynson on either side of
his illustrations. The one reproduced is formed
by a series of half fleur-de-lys alternating with
another pattern and divided by double white lines.
7. De Worde. Design from Nicodemus Gospel made N.D.
up of all kinds of odd ornaments. (_c._ 1515)
8. Pynson. Built-up border from _Year Books of 1518
Edward III_. This design included spirals of fruit
and leaves, human figures, a dragon and a monkey.
9. Pynson. _Sallust._ An effective border appears on 1520
each side of the illustration. Note also the
initial R. This illustration is here reproduced by
the courtesy of Messrs Maggs Bros.
10. Siberch. The first border printed at Cambridge is 1521
a one-piece border of architectural design, introducing
an arch supported by columns, and, below,
two children acting as supporters to the Royal
Arms. The border is here reproduced by the
courtesy of Messrs Bowes & Bowes of Cambridge.
11. Faques. Skelton’s _Goodly Garland_. A border made 1523
up of small ornaments representing the heraldic
tincture “ermine.”
12. Faques. Skelton’s _Goodly Garland_. On three sides 1523
of the illustration are printers’ ornaments made
up of variations of the fleuron.
13. Treveris. Border from the _Greate Herball_, two pieces 1526
of which formerly belonged to Wynkyn de Worde.
14. Siberch. Border design from some foreign Missal 1521
or Book of Hours. Reproduced by the courtesy
of Messrs Bowes & Bowes of Cambridge.
15. Myddylton. Lyttleton’s _Tenures_. A one-piece 1545
border of elaborate design introducing scroll-work
and cupids.
16. Siberch. Border design from some foreign missal 1521
or Book of Hours. Reproduced by the courtesy
of Messrs Bowes & Bowes of Cambridge.
17. Berthelet. Gower’s _De Confessione Amantis_. A 1554
window-frame border slightly reduced in size.
18. Bynneman. John Grange’s _Golden Aphroditus_. 1577
Curious fleuron border.
19. Bynneman. _Palace of Pleasure_, vol. ii. A typical 1567
fleuron border.
20. Denham. _Palace of Pleasure_. A very delicate flower 1566
design enclosed in rules.
21. Bynneman. _A Sermon preached before the Queene’s 1573
Maiestie._ Fleuron border.
12. Denham. _The Monomachie of Motives._ Four-piece 1582
chain border, a square alternating with an oval
and linked together by a ring, the top and bottom
pieces being finished with a star.
23. Short. _Footepath to Felicitie_ is in a new style showing 1602
the transition stage between the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries.
24. _The Lanterne of Lyghte_ is a one-piece window-frame _c._ 1600
border composed of rules with a small running
design.
25. Jackson. Greene’s _Arbasto: The Anatomie of Fortune_. 1584
A made-up design of ornaments confined in a
lattice-work of white lines.
26. Bishop. Border made up from a head-piece used 1585
by G. Bishop. This is one of the most usual
forms of the fleuron. (_See_ Title-page.)
27. Waldegrave. The _Basilikon Doron_ made up of two 1599
illustrative side pieces linked top and bottom
by four small printers’ ornaments of different
designs.
28. Beale. William Martyn’s _Youth’s Instructor_, second 1613
edition. A curious medley combining the fleuron
and the decorative block. The effect is not good,
and, perhaps fortunately, it is unusual.
29. Barker. A section of a bold fleuron border reproduced 1630
from the _Incomparable Treasure of Holy
Scripture_, which was printed in large folio.
30. Printer unidentified. An effective small border of 1664
separate ornaments of common design used in
Hilton’s _Discovery_.
31. Same, reversed.
32–33. Printed for Dodsley. Two curious border pieces 1751
on the title-page to Gray’s _Elegy_. The design is
the same, in each case the implements of Time
and Death--the scythe, the hour-glass, the crown,
skull and cross-bones.
34. Wilson of Kilmarnock. Border used on the 1786 1789
edition of _Poems by Robert Burns_. The reproduction
is taken from the volume of poems by
David Sillar.
35. Printer not identified. A grass and flower design 1840
border used on W. Baxter’s _British Phænogamous
Botany_, vol. v., published by the author. In all
probability the design was specially drawn for the
book in order to harmonize with the subject.
36. Printer not identified. Late eighteenth century _c._ 1795
border of rose design which may be regarded as
essentially English. The reproduction is made
from _The Artist’s Repository_. So well has this
border stood the test that it may be found to-day
amongst the designs of Messrs Stephenson, Blake &
Co., Ltd., one of our premier type-founders.
HEAD-PIECES
37. Kingston & Sutton. _Missale ad usum Sarisburiensis._ 1555
Flowers and figures.
38. Oswen. _Exhortation to the Sicke._ Triangular design 1548
with fox in centre.
39. Printer unidentified. _The Treasury of Health._ 1585
Flowers and foliage.
40. Denham. _School of Skill._ Conventional design: 1581
flowers.
41. Denham. _Footepath of Felicitie._ Conventional 1581
flowers.
42. Denham. _Guide to Godlinesse._ Conventional design, 1581
showing rose.
43. Head-piece from _Philip Sidney_. Twisted ribbon 1580–90
design.
44. Denham. Head-piece from Holinshed’s _Chronicles_, 1579
vol. i. Bear holding sprays. Men and dogs.
Conventional foliage.
45. Holinshed’s _Chronicles of Ireland_. Conventional 1579
sprays: satyrs, animals, insects, etc.
46. Field. _History of Guicciardini._ Conventional design: 1599
sprays and flowers, two winged figures playing on
flutes.
47. Waldegrave. _Basilikon Doron._ Arabesque design. 1599
48. Bynneman. _Morelius._ Conventional design, with 1583
two archers.
49. Vautrollier. _De Rep. Anglorum._ Head with cornucopia 1579
of fruit.
50. Vautrollier. _De Rep. Anglorum._ Composite design: 1579
spirals resembling letter A. Boys with bowl of
fruit and flowers, animals and grotesques.
51. _The Journall or Daily Register._ Similar design to 1601
foregoing, but smaller.
52. Eliots Court Press. _Copy of a Letter._ Composite 1606
design: spirals of foliage, grotesque fish, winged
snakes, winged figures with javelins.
53. Eliots Court Press. Spirals of foliage. National 1606
emblems: lion and unicorn.
54. Eliots Court Press. National emblems, crowned and 1606
separate.
55. Eliots Court Press. Fleur-de-lys with figures and 1606
scrolls.
56. Eliots Court Press. Cherubs blowing horns, from 1606
which issue spirals of fruit and flowers. Copy of
French block.
57. Macham. _Homer, Prince of Poets._ Composite design: 1610
two cornucopiæ. National emblems: lion and
unicorn.
58. Printer not known. _A Pilgrime’s Solace._ Zig-zag 1612
ribbon, with national emblems.
59. Haviland. Fruit and flowers issuing from a jar. 1634
60. Macham. _Homer, Prince of Poets._ Architectural, 1610
with royal arms.
61. Macham. _Homer, Prince of Poets._ Composite design: 1610
spirals of fruit and flowers with insects.
62. Macham. _Homer, Prince of Poets._ Composite 1610
design: four horsemen.
63. Barker. Architectural, with royal arms. _c._ 1620
64. Printer unknown. _Book of Prayers._ Urns with 1662
flower ornaments.
65. Printer unknown. Double row of national emblems _c._ 1680
and fleur-de-lys.
66. For Busbie. _O per se O._ Fleurons arranged as 1612
headpiece.
67. Printer unknown. Double row of acorns. 1620
68. Printer unknown. Double row of fleurons. 1630
69. Oxford University Press. Head-piece by Burghers of 1702
Oxford, designed for Clarendon’s _History of the
Rebellion_.
70. Do. do. do. 1702
71. Bowyer. Atkyn’s _Ancient and Present State of 1712
Gloucestershire._ Head-piece signed J. L. Basket of
fruit, spirals of flowers and foliage.
72. Printer unknown. _The Compleat History of Cornwall_, 1750
Part II., printed at Truro. Spirals of flowers and
foliage, two eagles.
73. Crownfield, Cambridge. Fruit and flowers in basket, _c._ 1730
four birds and conventional ornament.
74. Knapton. _Works of Farquhar._ Head-piece signed 1728
F. H. and M. H.
75. Printed for Dodsley. _Irene, A Tragedy._ Spirals of 1749
foliage, squirrel in centre.
76. Silver of Sandwich. _Lovers’ Manual._ Fleurons 1753
arranged in geometrical form.
77. Printer unknown. _Ode of Horace._ 1719
TAIL-PIECES
78. Middleton. _Statutes II. Henry VI._ Long narrow _c._ 1540
architectural block, formerly De Worde’s.
79. Kingston & Sutton. _Missale ad usum Sarisburiensis._ 1555
Design: human figure, sprays of flowers, animal
and bird. Criblé. Probably French.
80. Redman. _Year Book II. Henry VI._ Seven lozenge _c._ 1540
ornaments.
81. Oswen, Ipswich. _Exhortation to the Sicke._ Two 1549
figures with stars.
82. Berthelet. _Castle of Health._ Ornament on dark 1539
background from French sources.
83. Printer unknown. _Treasury of Health._ Flower and 1585
bird.
84. Redman. _Year Book II. Henry VI._ Half fleur-de-lys _c._ 1540
and half feathers divided by zigzag white lines.
85. Denham. Holinshed, vol. iii., _Chronicles of Ireland._ 1579
Boy beating two drums.
86. Jugge. _Book of Common Prayer._ Elaborate fleuron 1573
border in four sections, showing three designs.
87. Griffith. _Caveat or Warneing._ Arabesque design. 1567
88. Griffith. _Caveat or Warneing._ Virgin and child in 1567
circle surrounded by floral borders.
89. Wolfe. Sophocles, _Antigone_. A fleuron tail-piece. 1581
90. Vautrollier. _De Rep. Anglorum._ Arabesque design. 1579
Single block.
91. E. Allde. Bodenham’s _Garden of the Muses_. Arabesque 1610
design with architectural detail.
92. W. W. for Cuthbert Burby. _Love’s Labours Lost._ 1598
Arabesque design. Single block.
93. E. Allde. _Basilikon Doron._ Fleuron ornament. 1603
94. John Day. Ascham, _Scholemaster_. Circular arabesque 1579
design. Single block.
95. Islip. _Wit’s Miserie._ Square arabesque design. 1596
Single block.
96. An arabesque tail-piece from Shakespeare’s _c._ 1615
_Pericles_.
97. Vautrollier. _Ciceronis Epistolæ._ Gorgon’s head. 1579
98. Printer uncertain. Cambridge. Tail-piece of seven _c._ 1700
rows of fleurons arranged as reversed triangle.
Reproduced by courtesy of Messrs Bowes & Bowes.
99. Wolfe. Sophocles, _Antigone_. A fleuron tail-piece 1581
showing a different design from No. 89.
100. Printed for B. Lintott. _Odes of Horace._ Tail-piece 1719
to Book IV. Ornate design: cherubs holding
birds, sprays of foliage.
101. Printed for Knapton. _Works of Farquhar._ Tail-piece 1728
of florid design, showing bird in centre
flanked by baskets of flowers.
102. Tonson & Watts. Lucretius, _De rerum natura_. A 1713
specially designed tail-piece to Book IV.
103. Tonson & Watts. Lucretius, _De rerum natura_. A 1713
specially designed tail-piece to Dedication.
104. Crownfield, Cambridge. Bird with outstretched _c._ 1730
wings. Reproduced by courtesy of Messrs Bowes
& Bowes of Cambridge.
105. Clarendon Press, Oxford. Clarendon’s _History of 1702
the Rebellion._ Tail-piece designed and engraved
by M. Burghers.
106. Clarendon Press, Oxford. Clarendon’s _History of 1702
the Rebellion._ Tail-piece designed and engraved
by M. Burghers.
107. Welsh Bible. Architectural design with crowned 1620
rose and cherubs in centre.
108. _Odes of Horace._ Fountain and mermaids. Sprays 1743
of foliage.
109. Crownfield, Cambridge. Tail-piece. Two cornucopiæ _c._ 1730
with fruit and flowers. Tied together with
ribbon and with bunch of flowers suspended from
them. Reproduced by courtesy of Messrs Bowes
& Bowes of Cambridge.
110. Printer unknown. Truro. History of Cornwall. 1750
Figure of Mercury in frame with conventional
sprays of foliage and arch. Flanked with long-tailed
birds holding flowers in their beaks.
ORNAMENTS
111. Pynson & De Worde. Chain ornament. 1500–30
112. Pynson & De Worde. Three designs used to fill up 1500–30
spaces in the text.
113. Printer unknown. _Song of Solomon._ Three acorns. 1620
114. Printer unknown. _A Declaration of Favourable 1583
Dealing of Her Majestie’s Commission._ Arabesque
design.
115. Printer unknown. _History of London._ N.D.
116. Field. E. Nicholas, _Apologia_. Fifteen fleuron units 1649
and acorn arranged as reversed triangles.
117. Grafton. _Actes of Edward VI._ Early form of 1560–70
fleuron arranged on either side of word “Finis.”
118. Allde (Eliz.). Greene’s _Euphues, His Censure to 1634
Philautus._ Female head. Sprays of foliage.
Woman’s head in centre.
119. Printed for R. Dodsley. _Irene: A Tragedy_, by 1749
Saml. Johnson. Basket of flowers. Sprays of
foliage. Two birds. Could be used as tail-piece
if desired.
120. For Stepneth & Redmer. _Atheist’s Tragedie_, by Cyril 1611
Tourneur. Small ornament. Conventional sprays,
with head in centre.
121. Lownes. _Description of New England._ Small ornament. 1616
Lion’s head in centre. Festoons of flowers.
Mark at either end.
122. Buck, Cambridge. _Locustæ._ Small ornament. 1627
Conventional sprays and flowers.
123. Stafford, for John Wright. _King Leir._ Small 1605
ornament. Conventional sprays and flowers.
Differing from preceding.
124. Cotes, for Bellamie. Wm. Wood’s _New England’s 1634
Prospect._ Small ornament. Crowned rose. Conventional
sprays.
125. Jones. Gerald Malynes’ _Center of Circle of Commerce_. 1623
Small ornament. Fleur-de-lys centre. Conventional
sprays.
126. E. A., i.e. Edward Allde, for John Tap. Bodenham’s 1610
_Garden of the Muses_. Very beautiful arabesque
ornament. Reproduced by kind permission of
Messrs Maggs Bros.
127. Adlard & Browne. A flower ornament of unusual _c._ 1770
design, reproduced from Luckombe’s _History of
Printing_.
128. Do. do. do.
129–134. Caslon. Six of the border designs used on the 1734
first specimen sheet issued by this famous type-foundry.
They were more delicate and graceful
than those used in England by his predecessors
and are still in vogue. Compare the modern
specimens manufactured by the same firm.
135–148. Baskerville. Fourteen single line ornaments _c._ 1750
and flowers designed by John Baskerville. Reproduced
from _John Baskerville_ by R. Straus and
K. Dent, by kind permission of Mr R. Straus and
the courtesy of the Cambridge University Press.
INITIALS
149. =T= De Worde. _The Golden Legend._ Large ornamental 1493
letter of ecclesiastical design with decorative
sprays.
150. =P= Whitchurch. Great Bible. Black with white 1540
strap ornament. Bird in centre. With printer’s
initials.
151. =S= Redman. _Statuta._ In imitation of script. Probably 1540
of French origin.
152. =F= Middleton. _Year Book of Henry VI._ 1540
153. =H= De Worde. Reproduced by kind permission 1519
from Mr Sayle’s article, Nov. 1902 (Bibliographical
Society).
154. =Q= Faques. _Manuale Sarum._ Reproduced by kind 1530
permission from Mr Sayle’s article, Nov. 1902
(Bibliographical Society).
155. =A= Notary. _Chronicles of England._ Obtained 1504
from Bocard of Paris.
156. =H= Pynson. _Libello huic regio hæc insunt._ White 1521
on black ground, criblé.
157. =P= Notary. _Golden Legend._ Obtained from Bocard 1503
of Paris. Reproduced by kind permission from
Mr Sayle’s article, Nov. 1902 (Bibliographical
Society).
158. =T= H. Middleton. Apostle series. 1584
159. =F= Barker. Prayer Book. Arabesque design with 1580
Walsingham Crest.
160. =T= Barker. Prayer Book. Arabesque design with 1580
printer’s initials.
161. =F= Eliots Court Press. _Plutarch._ Apostle series. 1603
Seated figure.
162. =V= Redman. _Year Books, Edward III._ White on 1540
dead black ground.
163. =H= Eliots Court Press. _Plutarch._ Apostle series. 1603
Figure with nimbus. Staff in left hand; book
in right.
164. =S= Berthelet. _Bibl. Eliotæ._ Classical. Two 1559
figures and satyr.
165. =H= Printer unknown. _Philip Sydney._ Factotum. _c._ 1596
Arabesque design.
166. =W= Waldegrave. Factotum from _Basilikon Doron_. 1599
Two figures plucking thistles.
167. =S= _Morley Canzonets._ Pictorial. Previously in 1600
the hands of John Day.
168. =T= Eliots Court Press. Especially used by Bradwood. 1603–27
Decorative sprays.
169. =T= Denham. _Footepathe to Felicitie._ Conventional 1577
sprays.
170. =I= Eliots Court Press. Especially used by Bradwood. 1603–27
Rose and thistle crowned.
171. =E= Vautrollier. _Ciceronis Epistolæ._ Outline letter. 1579
Conventional sprays.
172. =D= Barker. Prayer Book. Arabesque design. 1580
173. =D= Newberrie. _Bullinger’s Sermons._ Outline letter. 1577
Pictorial. Probably scene from Bible.
174. =S= Siberch. Erasmus. _De conscribendis epistolis._ 1521
Reproduced by kind permission of Messrs Bowes
& Bowes of Cambridge.
175. =C= Day. Fox, _Book of Martyrs_. Outline letter. 1562
Conventional sprays. Bird with outstretched
wings. Two grotesque figures.
176. =A= Siberch. Erasmus. _De conscribendis epistolis._ 1521
Reproduced by kind permission of Messrs Bowes
& Bowes of Cambridge. White on black. Ecclesiastical
with decorative sprays.
MODERN WORK
177–187. H. W. Caslon & Co., Ltd. Old English 18th
borders. century
188. The Morland Press, Ltd. Border design by Claud 1890–1921
Lovat Fraser. Reproduced from the title-page
re-arranged by Haldane Macfall for _The Lovat
Book_.
189. The Morland Press, Ltd. Tail-piece by Frank _c._ 1920
Brangwyn, R.A., representing an initial F
rising from tulip design.
190. The Morland Press, Ltd. Head-piece basket of _c._ 1920
flowers from design by Frank Brangwyn, R.A.
191. The Morland Press, Ltd. Initials M. P. Design _c._ 1920
by Ludovic Rodo.
192–197. Chiswick Press. Six head-pieces. Conventional 1830–1923
designs.
198–200. Chiswick Press. Three head-pieces, floral. 1830–1923
201–202. Chiswick Press. Two tail-pieces. 1830–1923
203–214. Chiswick Press. Twelve initials. Various 1830–1923
designs.
215. University Press, Oxford. Phœnix ornament 17th
reproduced from Hart’s _Century of century
Typography_.
216. University Press, Oxford. =B.= Blooming initial 17th
reproduced from Hart’s _Century of Typography_. century
217. University Press, Oxford. =I.= Initial reproduced 17th
from Hart’s _Century of Typography_. century
218. University Press, Oxford. Head-piece reproduced 17th
from Hart’s _Century of Typography_. century
219. P. M. Shanks & Sons, Ltd. Border design. 1920
220. Do. do. do. 1920
221. University Press, Oxford. Circular ornament, floral 18th
design. century
222. P. M. Shanks & Sons, Ltd. Border design, same 18th
as 220. century
223. University Press, Oxford. Fleuron tail-piece. 18th
century
224. University Press, Oxford. Fleuron tail-piece of a 18th
different design. century
225. P. M. Shanks & Sons, Ltd. Bold foliage design for 1920
border.
226. P. M. Shanks & Sons, Ltd. =B.= White initial on 1920
black background.
227. P. M. Shanks & Sons, Ltd. =T.= White initial with 1920
foliage on black background.
228. P. M. Shanks & Sons, Ltd. Bold foliage design for 1920
border same as 225.
229. P. M. Shanks & Sons, Ltd. Head-piece, spirals of 1920
foliage. White on black ground.
230. R. & R. Clark, Ltd., Edinburgh. Decorative head-piece 1875
designed by Walter Crane.
231. P. M. Shanks & Sons, Ltd. Tail-piece, triangular, 1920
white on black ground.
232. Pelican Press. Border design with centre ornament. 1920
Copy of early arabesque design.
233–240. Pelican Press. English flowers, seven designs. 1920
241. Pelican Press. Border design after Geoffrey Tory. 1923
242. Kelmscott Press. Design from Godefroy of 1893
Boulogne.
243–251. Curwen Press. Nine decorations designed by 1920
Claud Lovat Fraser.
252–260. Curwen Press. Nine flowers and decorations 1922
designed by Percy J. Smith.
261–273. Stephenson, Blake & Co., Ltd. Fourteen designs _c._ 1790
of delicate flower borders, ornaments, and the
famous rose border.
274–284. Stephenson, Blake & Co., Ltd. Various designs _c._ 1780
for borders, and initial =S= and two fine
tail-pieces designed and executed by Bewick.
ILLUSTRATIONS
_Borders_
[Illustration:
APHTHONII SOPHISTAE
PRAE EXERCITAMENTA
INTERPRETE
VIRO DOCTISSIMO.
IMPRESSA Londini per Richardum
Pynson regiū impressorem
cum priuilegio a rege indulto/
ne quis nunc in regno
Angliæ imprimat/
aut alíbí impressum/
importatūue in eo
dē regno Anglie
vendat.
1
]
[Illustration:
re mei dū tēpus est miserendi ne perdas
me ī tēpore tui tremē]di iudicii/ O bone
ihesu si merui miser prtōr de vera tua iusticia
penā eternā [per] pctīs meis grauissimis
Adhuc apello gfisus de tua iusticia
vera ad tuā mīam ineffabilē/ Utiqz misereberis
mei ut pi[us] pater et misericorsdn̄s/
O bone ihesu que enī vtilitas ī sāguine
meo dū descēdero in corruptionē
eternā Nō enī mortui laudabūt te/ neqzoēs
qui descendūt in infernū O misericordissīe
ihesu miserere mei O dulcissime
ihesu libera me O püssie ihesu [pro]picius
esto michi pctōri/ O ihesu admitte
me miserū pctōrm̄ inter numerū electo[rum]
tuo[rum][symbol] O jhesu salus in te sperantiū O
jhesu salus in te credȳriū miserere mei
dulcis remissio oīm pctō[rum] meorum
O ihesu fili [vir]ginis marie insūde
in me gr̄am tuā sapienciā caritatē castitatē
& hūilitatē ac etiā in oībz aduersitatibus
meis pacienciā scām vt possi te [per]
2
]
[Illustration:
¶ Thys Emprynted
at temple barre
be me: Julyan
Notary Dwellynge
in saynt clemētys
parysshe.
4
]
[Illustration:
¶ Petri Carmeliani Carmen.
Anglia perpetuos: tibi darrola rubra triūphos.
Perpetuum nomen: perpetuumq[ue] decus.
Her tua Celaceis: redolēs rosa crescit in hortis.
Itoq[ue] aquuam lignis: iungit vtranq[ue] suis.
Septimus hēricus: sapiēs rex Regula morum.
Celeste ingenium: cum probitate tenens.
Ad tantos solus: vigilans ie verit honores.
Ergo abs te debet: iure volente coli.
5
]
[Illustration: 6]
[Illustration: Nychodemus gospell
7]
[Illustration: 8]
[Illustration: 9]
[Illustration: 10]
[Illustration: ¶ Skelton Poeta.
Eterno mantura die dumlidera fulgent
Equora dumq; tument hec lainea nostra virebit.
Hinc nostrum celebre et nomē referetur ad astra.
Vndiq; Skeltonis memorabitur altera donis.
11]
[Illustration: R F
Richard Fakes
12]
[Illustration: 13]
[Illustration: 14]
[Illustration: 15]
[Illustration: 16]
[Illustration: 17]
[Illustration: 18]
[Illustration: 19]
[Illustration: 20]
[Illustration: 21]
[Illustration: 22]
[Illustration: 23]
[Illustration: 24]
[Illustration: 25]
[Illustration: 27]
[Illustration: 28]
[Illustration: 29]
[Illustration: 30]
[Illustration: 31]
[Illustration: 32]
[Illustration: 33]
[Illustration: 34]
[Illustration: 35]
[Illustration: 36]
_Head-Pieces_
[Illustration: 37]
[Illustration: 38]
[Illustration: 39]
[Illustration: 40]
[Illustration: 41]
[Illustration: 42]
[Illustration: 43]
[Illustration: 44]
[Illustration: 45]
[Illustration: 46]
[Illustration: 47]
[Illustration: 48]
[Illustration: 49]
[Illustration: 50]
[Illustration: 51]
[Illustration: 52]
[Illustration: 53]
[Illustration: 54]
[Illustration: 55]
[Illustration: 56]
[Illustration: 57]
[Illustration: 58]
[Illustration: 59]
[Illustration: 60]
[Illustration: 61]
[Illustration: 62]
[Illustration: 63]
[Illustration: 64]
[Illustration: 65]
[Illustration: 66]
[Illustration: 67]
[Illustration: 68]
[Illustration: 69]
[Illustration: 70]
[Illustration: 71]
[Illustration: 72]
[Illustration: 73]
[Illustration: 74]
[Illustration: 75]
[Illustration: 76]
[Illustration: 77]
_Tail-Pieces_
[Illustration: 78]
[Illustration: 79]
[Illustration: 80]
[Illustration: 81]
[Illustration: 82]
[Illustration: 83]
[Illustration: 84]
[Illustration: 85]
[Illustration: 86]
[Illustration: 87]
[Illustration: 88]
[Illustration: 89]
[Illustration: 90]
[Illustration: 91]
[Illustration: 92]
[Illustration: 93]
[Illustration: 94]
[Illustration: 95]
[Illustration: 96]
[Illustration: 97]
[Illustration: 98]
[Illustration: 99]
[Illustration: 100]
[Illustration: 101]
[Illustration: 102]
[Illustration: 103]
[Illustration: 104]
[Illustration: _MBurg. sculp._
105]
[Illustration: 106]
[Illustration: 107]
[Illustration: 108]
[Illustration: 109]
[Illustration: 110]
_Ornaments_
[Illustration: 111]
[Illustration: 112]
[Illustration: 113]
[Illustration: 114]
[Illustration: 115]
[Illustration: 116]
[Illustration: FINIS
117]
[Illustration: 118]
[Illustration: 119]
[Illustration: 120]
[Illustration: 121]
[Illustration: 122]
[Illustration: 123]
[Illustration: 124]
[Illustration: 125]
[Illustration:
THE
GARDEN
OF THE
_Muses_.
_Quem reserent Musa vtuet dum robor & tellus,
Dum cœlum stellas, dum vehet amnis aquas._
Printed at London by _E. A._ for _Iohn Tap_, and are
to be sold at his shop at Saint Magnus
corner. 1610.
126]
[Illustration: 127]
[Illustration: 128]
[Illustration: 129]
[Illustration: 130]
[Illustration: 131]
[Illustration: 132]
[Illustration: 133]
[Illustration: 134]
[Illustration: Ornament 1
Ornament 2
Ornament 3
Ornament 4
Ornament 5
Ornament 6
Ornament 7
Ornament 8
Ornament 9
Ornament 10
Ornament 11
Ornament 13
Ornament 12
Ornament 14
135–148]
_Initials_
[Illustration: T
149]
[Illustration: P P
E.W
150]
[Illustration: S
151]
[Illustration: F
152]
[Illustration: H
153]
[Illustration: Q
154]
[Illustration: H
155]
[Illustration: H
156]
[Illustration: P
157]
[Illustration: T
158]
[Illustration: F
159]
[Illustration: T
160]
[Illustration: F
161]
[Illustration: V
162]
[Illustration: H
163]
[Illustration: S
164]
[Illustration: H
166]
[Illustration: W
165]
[Illustration: S
167]
[Illustration: T
168]
[Illustration: T
169]
[Illustration: I
170]
[Illustration: E
171]
[Illustration: D
172]
[Illustration: D
173]
[Illustration: S
174]
[Illustration: C
175]
[Illustration: A
176]
Modern Work
[Illustration: 177]
[Illustration: 178]
[Illustration: 179]
[Illustration: 180]
[Illustration: 181]
[Illustration: 182]
Old English Borders from the Foundry of Messrs H. W. Caslon & Co.,
Ltd.
[Illustration: 183]
[Illustration: 184]
[Illustration: 185]
[Illustration: 186]
[Illustration: 187]
Old English Borders from the Foundry of Messrs H. W. Caslon & Co.,
Ltd.
[Illustration:
DESIGNS BY
CLAUD
LOVAT FRASER
[1890–1921]
THE MORLAND PRESS
190 Ebury Street
London SW 1
188
A Border from The Morland Press, Ltd.]
[Illustration: 189]
[Illustration: 190]
[Illustration: 191]
Ornaments from The Morland Press, Ltd.
[Illustration: 192]
[Illustration: 193]
[Illustration: 194]
[Illustration: 195]
[Illustration: 196]
[Illustration: 197]
Head-pieces from The Chiswick Press
(Messrs Charles Whittingham & Griggs Ltd.)
[Illustration: 198]
[Illustration: 199]
[Illustration: 200]
[Illustration: 201]
[Illustration: 202]
Head and Tail Pieces from The Chiswick Press.
[Illustration: M
203]
[Illustration: C
204]
[Illustration: O
205]
[Illustration: S
206]
[Illustration: P
207]
[Illustration: Z
208]
[Illustration: E
209]
[Illustration: Y
210]
[Illustration: M
211]
[Illustration: L
212]
[Illustration: T
213]
[Illustration: H
214]
Initials from The Chiswick Press.
[Illustration: 215]
[Illustration: B
216]
[Illustration: I
217]
[Illustration: 218]
Ornaments from The University Press, Oxford.
[Illustration: 219]
[Illustration: 220]
[Illustration: 221]
[Illustration: 222]
[Illustration: 223]
[Illustration: 224]
Designs from the Foundry of Messrs P. M. Shanks & Sons, Ltd. (219, 220,
222), and from The University Press, Oxford (221, 223, 224).
[Illustration: 225]
[Illustration: B
226]
[Illustration: T
227]
[Illustration: 228]
Designs from the Foundry of Messrs P. M. Shanks & Sons, Ltd.
[Illustration: 229
Messrs P. M. Shanks & Sons, Ltd.]
[Illustration: 230
Messrs R. & R. Clark, Ltd., Edinburgh.]
[Illustration: 231
Messrs P. M. Shanks & Sons, Ltd.]
[Illustration: 232
Ornamental Border from The Pelican Press.]
[Illustration: 233–240
Designs from The Pelican Press.]
[Illustration: 241
A Border from The Pelican Press.]
[Illustration:
eche other lettres and messages for taccorde to goo
to gydre, apoynted the tyme of departyng, and of
the waye that they sholde holde.
AND whan Marche was come, ye sholde
haue seen horses arrayed, with sommyers,
palfroyes, and stedes, tentes
and pauyllons, and to make armures.
Ye maye wel knowe that there was
moche to doo of many thynges, ffor
the barons were acorded that they shold not goo
alle to gydre, ffor no contre myght suffyse ne fynde
that which shold be nedeful for them, ffor whiche
cause alle the hoostes neuyr assembled, as ye shal
here, tyl they cam vnto the cyte of Ntycene. The
mene peple charged them self not moche with tentes
ne armures, ffor they myght not bere it, & therfor
euery man garnysshid hym aftir that he was with
242
A Design from The Kelmscott Press. Reproduced by kind permission of the
Trustees from a block by Emery Walker, Ltd.]
[Illustration: Printers’ Decorations Designed by the late Claud Lovat
Fraser, for the Curwen Press in 1920
243–251]
[Illustration: Printers’ Flowers and Decorations, designed by Percy J.
Smith, for the Curwen Press in 1922
252–260]
[Illustration: 261–274
Old English Designs from the Foundry of Messrs Stephenson, Blake & Co.,
Ltd.]
[Illustration: 275–284
Old English Designs from the Foundry of Messrs Stephenson, Blake & Co.,
Ltd.]
INDEX
A
Acorn ornament, 60
Aldus, 34, 113
Allde, Eliz., 86
Ames collection of title-pages, 55
_Ancient and Present State of Gloucestershire_, 77
_Antigone_, Sophocles, tail-piece, 57
Antiquities of Warwickshire, 27
‘Apostle’ alphabet, 96, 97
Arundel, Earl of, 21
Ashendene Press, 110
_Atheist’s Tragedy_, 86
B
Bagford collection of title-pages, 55
Barbier, J., 37
Barker, R., 73
Barnes, Joseph, 25
Baskerville, J., 63
Basle, Material obtained from, 22
Beale, J., 50
Berthelet, T., 13, 23, 46
Initials used by, 93
Bewick, T., 29
_Bibliotheca Eliotæ_, 93
Blake, Garnett & Co., 113
Bocard, J., Initials of, 94
Bodoni Press, 111
Bollifant, Ed., 25
Borrowings by English printers, 90
Bourne’s _History of Newcastle_, 79
Bowes, R., _Catalogue of Books printed at Cambridge_, 79
Bowyer, Wm., 29, 61, 77
Bradwood, M., 25, 72
Brangwyn, F., 114
_Briefe Treatise of Testaments and Wills_, 85
Bry, T. de, 113
Buck, T., 52
Buck, T. & J., 97
Bullock, H., 26
Burghers, M., Influence of, 29
Head and tail pieces designed by, 74, 75
Initials designed by, 97
Burghers, M., 51, 77
Burleigh family crest as ornament, 85
Burne-Jones, Sir E., 113
Burns, _Poems_, Border to, 51
Butsch’s _Bücher Ornamentik_, 90
Bynneman, H., 24, 25, 48, 70, 73, 84, 96
C
Cambridge Univ. Press, 116
Carmelianus, Petrus, 43
Caslon, W., 61, 115
Caslon foundry, modern history, 111
Casting-house, 11
_Catherine of Siena_, 94
_Caveat or Warneing, etc._, tail-piece described, 68
Caxton, 18, 19, 20, 21, 35, 36, 56
_Center of the Circle of Commerce_, 86
Change in character of head and tail pieces, 76
Chaucer’s Works, 33
_Chrysostum_, 25
Ciceronis, _Epistolæ_, 69
Clarendon’s _History of the Rebellion_, 75
Clark, R. & R., 113
_Clavis Apocalyptica_, Border to, 52
Classical designs of initials, 93
Combination of fleuron and decorative block, 50
_Commentary_, Lathbury’s, 34
_Complete History of Cornwall_, 80
Copland, R., 20
_Copy of a Letter, etc._, 72, 73
Copyists, Work of, 27
_Cosmographical Glasse_, 57, 93
Cowley, Dr, 38
Crane, W., 113
Creede, T., 48
Crown ornament, 60
Crownfield, C., 79
Curious head-piece design, 73
Curwen Press, 114
D
Daniel, R., 52
Day, J., 23, 93, 94
_De Anima_, Aristotle’s, 34
Decorative blocks, date of introduction, 67
Eighteenth century, 28
used by Eliots Court printers, 71
Decorative head and tail pieces, 69
Denham, H., 24, 25
Borders used by, 48
Initials used by, 96
_De Rep. Anglorum_, 69
_Description of New England_, 86
_Diary of Lady Willoughby_, 105, 112
_Dionysius_, Border in, 52
Doves Press, 110
Duff, E. G., quoted, 18, 47, 55
Du Pré, 17, 34
Dutch ornaments in English books, 27
E
Early English printers of fifteenth century, 18
Early Newcastle typography, 80
Early printers, Methods of, 4, 5
_Early Venetian Printing_, 90
East, T., 48
Ecclesiastical character of first initials, 89
Edward IV., patron of Caxton, 21
Eliots Court Press, 25, 28, 70, 85, 86
Eliots Court printers, Initials of, 91, 96
Elizabeth, Queen, 24
English Illustrated Magazine, 113
Engraved borders to Bibles, 22
Engraved title-pages, 49
_Enterlude called Lusty Juventus_, 59
_Euphues, his Censure to Philautus_, 86
Exhibition of twentieth century books, 110
_Exposition on Epistle to Romans_, 73
F
Factotums, 98, 99
Faques, Border used by, 43, 45, 59, 92
Fenton, G., 71
Field, R., 71
_Fifteen Oes_, 35, 39
_Fior de Virtu_, 21
Fletcher, M., 73
Fleuron, 6, 7, 26 _et passim_
borders, 47
Date of introduction of, 57
as head and tail piece, 63
its use for factotums, 100
Variations of, 58, 59
Fleur-de-lys ornament, 60
_Footepath to Felicitie_, 48, 96
Foreign border-pieces, 22
Foxe, J., _Book of Martyrs_, 95
France, Use of flowers in, 9
Fraser, C. L., 114
Fuller’s _Church History_, 97
G
_Garden of the Muses_, 57
Garlandea, J. de, 83
Germany, Use of flowers in, 9
Gibson, Robert, 23
_Goodly Garland_, Borders in, 45
Grafton, R., 23
_Gratulationis Valdinensis_, 85
Gray’s _Elegy_, Border to, 51
_Greate Herball_, 46
Greg, Dr W. W., 13
Griffin, Edw. (I.), 25
Griffin, Edw. (II.), 25, 72
Grotesque initials, 94
Grover, J., 27
H
H. F., designer of ornaments, 78
Hales, Alex. of, 34
Hart, H., 115
Hatfield, A., 25
Hatton, Sir C., 84
Haviland, John, 25
Henry VII., King, 21
Henry VIII., King, 21
Heraldic and personal initials, 94
_Hickscorner_, 43
_History of Guicciardini_, 71
_History of Origin and Progress of Printing_, 7
_History of the Rebellion_, 97
Holbein, 113
Holinshed’s _Chronicles_, 70, 71
Hollar, W., 27
Homer, _Workes_, 71
Hornby, St John, 110
Housman, L., 113
Hughes, A. P., 113
Huvin, J., of Rouen, 37
_Hypnerotomachia_, 21
I
Illuminator, his advantage over printer, 17
Improvement in decoration of printed books, 17
Initial letters, their value as ornaments, 89
Initials in Bibles and Books of Common Prayer, 92
Islip, A., 73
J
Jackson, wood-engraver, 8
Jennings, Dr Oscar, 91
Jenson, N., 17, 34
Jewell, B., _Works_, 72
Johnson, Dr, and Goldsmith, 116, 117
Jones, W., 86
Jugge, R., 28, 57, 96
K
Kelmscott Press, 106–110
King Lear, 86
Kingston, F., 86
Kingston and Sutton, 68
Kyrforth, C., 25
L
Lair, _see_ Siberch
Leeu, G., 17
Legat, J., 26
_Legenda Aurea_, 40, 41, 42
Initial from, 92
Leicester, Earl of, Arms of, 94
Leicester family, Crest of, 85
Lettou and Machlinia, 19
_Libellus de Conscribendis_, 95
_Liber precum publicarum_, 60
Longman, T., 111
Lownes, H., 24, 73, 86
Lownes, R., 73
Lozenge ornament, First use of, 59
Luckombe, 7, 8, 9
Lucretius, _De rerum natura_, 77
Lyttleton’s _Tenures_, 47
M
M. M., designer of ornaments, 78
Machlinia, Border used by, 35
McKerrow, R. B., on ornamental device, 13, 44, 46
McRae, J. F., 61, 111
Maltese cross as ornament, 22
Malynes, G., 86
Manuscripts, Decoration of, 3, 4
Margaret, Duchess of Richmond, 21
_Mer des Hystoires_, 21
Miscellaneous ornaments, 83
Missal, Border to Morton’s, 38
_Modus Tenendi_, 47
_Monasticon Anglicanum_, 26
_Monomachie of Motives_, 48
_Montaigne_, 72
Morland Press, 114
Morris, William, and the Kelmscott Press, 106–110
Morton, Cardinal John, 21, 37, 38
Morton Missal, Initials from, 92
Moxon, Joseph, 27
_Multorum Vocabulorum_, 83
N
Newberrie, R., 93
_Newe Booke--An Exhortation, etc._, 68
Newton, N., 25
_New World of Words_, 72
Norton, J., 72
Notary, J., 22
Borders used by, 37, 40, 41, 42
Initials of, 94
O
Odd blocks used for head and tail pieces, 67
_Odes of Horace_, 79
_Old English Letter Foundries_, 24
_Orcharde of Syon_, 46
Ornaments, Definition of, 12
in Caslon’s specimen sheets, 61
Os, G. van, 22, 94
Oswen, John, 68
Borders used by, 47
Oxford University Press, 25, 115
P
Paragraph marks, 4, 22
Paragraph ornaments, 6, 83, 84
Parker, Archbishop, 24, 94
Parr, Rev. E., 73
Pelican Press, 114
_Philomythie_, Border in, 49
Pictures, ornamental blocks so described, 11
Pigouchet, 17, 34
_Pilgrimes Solace_, 74
Pollard, Prof. A. W., 55, 91, 97
Poverty of ornament in sixteenth century English books, Reasons
for, 18, 19, 20, 21
_Printers’ and Publishers’ Devices_, 13, 85
Purslowe, G., 25, 73
Pynson, R., 19, 35, 37, 38, 43, 56, 59, 61, 83, 94, 95
Q
_Quidam_, 21
R
Ratdolt, E., 17, 34, 114
Redman, R., 59, 84
Initial of, 95
Redmer, R., 86
Reed, T. B., 24
Reformation, its effect on book decoration, 22
Reynes, John, Initial of, 94
Ribbon ornament, 60
Baskerville’s, 64
Rivers, Earl, 21
Rood, T., 20, 34, 38
Rose ornament, 60
Royal Arms as ornament, 85
S
_St Albans Chronicle_, 40, 41, 42, 43
_Sallust_, Border to, 45
Sanderson, Cobden, 110
Sarum Missal, 68
Saxon type cut by J. Day, 24
Sayle, C., 24, 55, 91, 97
Scolar, John, 25
Seres, W., 23
_Sermon preached at Stafford_, 63
_Seven Sorrows that Women have, etc._, 20, 21
Shanks, Messrs, 114
Short, P., 24
_Shyp of Folys_, Borders in, 44, 45
Siberch, John, 26
Border used by, 51
Initials used by, 93, 95
Siegburg, _see_ Siberch
Silver, S., of Sandwich, 63
Small ornaments of the eighteenth century, 62, 63
Smith, P. J., 91, 114
Smith, T. W., 112
Stafford, S., 73
Star ornament, 60
_Statutes 7th Henry VI._, 67
_Statutes 19th Henry VII._, 43
Stephenson, Blake & Co., Ltd., 113
Stepneth, 86
Stokes, M., 113
Sun Printing Office, 11
Sylvius, Anton, 24, 93
T
Tail-piece in 1679 _Herodotus_, 27
Thistle ornament, 60
Thomas, T., 26
Thomson, J., _Poem on Liberty_, 78
Tonson, J., and J. Watts, 77
Tory, G., 114
Tottell, R., 23
_Treatise made by Athanasius_, 57
Treveris, P., 46
_Two Centuries of Type-founding_, 61, 111
Type-founders in England, 27
U
Urn ornament, 60
V
Vautrollier, 60, 69, 84
Initials used by, 95
Venetian printers, 33
Vérard, A., 89
Vostre, 34
W
Waldegrave, 99
Walker, Emery, 110, 113
Walsingham, F., Crest and Arms of, 95
Watts, John, 61
Whitchurch, Ed., 23, 94
White, John, 79
_White Wolf_, 49
Whittingham, C., the elder and younger, 103, 104, 111
Windet, John, 85
Window frame borders, 46
Wolfe, R., 23, 93, 96
Woodcut borders, seventeenth century, 26
Worde, W. de, 19, 37, 39, 43, 56, 59, 68, 94
_Works of George Farquhar_, 78
_Works of Sir W. Temple_, 78
Wyer, Robert, 68
Y
_Year Books_ of Edward III., Border in, 44
_Year Book_, 11th Henry VI., 59
_Youth’s Instructor_, Border in, 50
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _The Fleuron_, a journal of typography, edited by Oliver
Simon, 1923.
[2] _A Concise History of the Origin and Progress of Printing_,
with practical instructions to the trade in general. London, 1770, pp.
287–90.
[3] T. B. Reed, _A History of the Old English Letter-Foundries_,
1887, p. 28.
[4] A. W. Pollard, _Early Illustrated Books_, 1893, p. 228.
[5] C. Sayle, “Initial Letters in Early English Printed Books”
(_Transactions of the Bibliographical Society_).
[6] Harl. 5915 (45).
[7] _English Provincial Printers, Stationers and Bookbinders to
1557._ Sandars Lectures, 1911. Cambridge, 1912, 8vo.
[8] _Two Centuries of Type-founding._ [By J. F. McRae.] 1920.
[9] Harl. 5929.
[10] H. Hart, _Notes on a Century of Typography_, 1900, p. 145.
[11] _The Charles Whittinghams Printer_, 1896.
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
corrected silently.
2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the
original.
3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
been retained as in the original.
4. Italics are shown as _xxx_.
5. Bold print is shown as =xxx=.
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