American Book-Plates. Allen Charles Dexter
them did so without strict heraldic authority, and when it became the fashion to use coats-of-arms in various ways, the herald painters of those days, who had but slight knowledge of heraldry and who were possessed of a copy of Guillim or some other writer on the subject, would find therein the arms of some family bearing the name of their prospective customer, and without further research would proceed to produce the coat as described. Not always were these arms so ordered correctly borne; indeed, there is much uncertainty about the arms used after about 1730 when our native engravers and painters took up the work of producing arms upon orders. Such seals as were brought by the colonists from England, and such as were used by their descendants are undoubtedly correct, but the questionable arms are those which, as mentioned above, were looked up in this country only, by means of such heraldic works as were at hand. The presence of the arms then on some book-plates cannot be relied upon as sufficient and indisputable proof of their owners’ right to them.
A list of the book-plates signed by Hurd is appended.
Of James Akin, who signs the Coffin and Browne plates, nothing is learned. The Hector Coffin book-plate is also signed by Francis Kearney, which would seem to indicate that Akin was associated with him. The Browne is a Philadelphia plate, and Akin may have been employed by the firm of Tanner, Vallance, Kearney and Company, which was in successful operation in Philadelphia for some years.
S. Allardice was apprenticed to Robert Scott, who had been a pupil of Robert Strange, and who, coming to America, was made die-sinker to the Mint. He had previously made the architectural plates for Dobson’s Encyclopædia.
Only one example of the book-plate work of Allardice is now at hand, and that is simply an engraved label for the Library Company of Baltimore. Ornamented with flourishes, and some fancy work, it is yet of no merit as a book-plate or an example of art.
Alexander Anderson, who was the first American wood-engraver, was born in the city of New York, April 21, 1775, and lived to the advanced age of ninety-five years, dying, in 1870, in Jersey City, N.J., on the 17th of February.
At the age of twelve, with the spring of a pocket-knife, sharpened for the purpose, he tried to engrave on copper pennies rolled thin. In this way he made his first plate, which was a head of Paul Jones; and his first impression from it was made in red oil paint by a rude kind of a press of his own contrivance. With tools made by a blacksmith, he went on to cut little ships and houses on type metal for the newspapers. Being in some way led to take an interest in certain medical works, he copied many of the plates, and his father, feeling that this was a true sign of his fitness for the profession of medicine, and not discerning the talent for engraving, placed him with Dr. Joseph Young, as a student of medicine.
This step was taken with great reluctance by the youth; but he found time for both the cares of his new study, and for the pleasures of his old pastime. Various successes encouraged him, and in 1793 he cut a tobacco-stamp on wood, which appears to have been his first use of that material. Soon after this, he obtained a copy of Bewick’s “Quadrupeds,” and with the cuts found therein he was delighted. They had a strong influence upon his later work, and he has been well called the “American Bewick,” for his small wood-cuts closely resemble those of the English master in design, and his prominence in this country was equal to Bewick’s in England.
A life of Dr. Anderson has lately (1893) been issued in New York; but, to the disappointment of book-plate collectors, not a word is said of his making book-plates.
Of the seven plates by Anderson known at present, four are on wood, and three are on copper.
Only one of those on wood is signed. The Lot Tripp and Josh. Russell plates are simple labels, and the Typographical Society of New York and the John Pintard, LL.D., which is signed, are pictorial. In the former, the emblems and implements of the printing trade are prominent, and in the Pintard, which is a fine example
of Anderson’s best work on wood, the shield of arms is shown with a landscape for background.
The plates on copper are the Anderson, which is a Chippendale, the Apprentices’ Library, and the Columbia College, which are allegorical.
All the above will be found described in the List.
There is a plate of the Apprentices’ Library Company of Philadelphia which strongly resembles the wood-cut work of Anderson, but as it is not signed it is not safely attributed to him. In the plate of A. Griggs of Philadelphia, an even more marked resemblance to his little designs on wood is seen, but this, too, is not signed.
Annin and Smith. This firm consisted of W. B. Annin and George C. Smith, and they were established in Boston from 1820 to 1837. Annin died in 1839, in Boston, and Smith, who lived to quite an advanced age, died in 1878. They engraved a number of plates for the “Token,” and for other annuals so popular sixty years ago.
The plates of Richard Taylor Auchmuty, A. L. Peirson, William H. Prescott, John Lowell, Jr., and an armorial plate for the Boylston Medical Library are signed by them, and will be found described in the List.
Abel Bowen, whose name appears on one of the plates of Harvard College, was the first wood-engraver in Boston. He was born in New York state in 1790, and he took up engraving before he was of age. In 1812 he was a printer in Boston, probably attracted thither by his uncle, who was the proprietor of the Columbian
Museum. Nathaniel Dearborn claims to be the first engraver on wood in Boston, but the honor is usually accorded to Bowen. He issued, in 1816, the “Naval Monument,” and in 1817 was associated with Dearborn in engraving for Shaw’s “History of Boston.” In 1834 Bowen, with others, founded “The Boston Bewick Company,” which was an association of engravers. In the following year they issued a map of Boston, and undertook the publishing of the “American Magazine.” They were burned out in this same year. Bowen died in 1850.
John Boyd, who engraved the plate of Samuel Chase, which is taken to be the plate of the signer of the Declaration, was a Philadelphia engraver. This is the only specimen of his work on book-plates which we have, and it is a very pretty Chippendale design, delicately engraved.
In Dunlap, a J. Boyd is simply mentioned, who was engraving in Philadelphia in 1812. This, if the engraver of the Chase plate, would make him rather young at the time of doing it, and it is very good work, and not the experiment of a novice. Whether this is the same engraver, I do not know.
Joseph Callender was born in Boston, May 6, 1751. Very little is known about him, but he is reported to have acquired the plates of Peter Pelham, who was presumably the first to engrave on copper in America, and to have destroyed them. Callender made most of the dies for the second Massachusetts Mint, at a cost of £1 4s. each. This was considered an exorbitant price by the superintendent, who made a contract with a Newburyport artisan, Jacob Perkins. Callender received £48 12s. for making thirty-nine dies, and repairing three others, while Perkins received but £3 18s. 10d. for his work. Callender died in Boston, Nov. 10, 1821, and was buried in the Granary Burying Ground.
The only Chippendale plate by Callender is a copy of the Atkinson plate by Hurd, and is for a member of the same family. As compared with its model, this plate shows very little difference, it is so close a copy, but the motto ribbon which is added is more graceful than those of Hurd usually were, the heraldic drawing is quite as good, and the lettering of the name is better. Callender, of course, would not have begun to engrave much before Hurd’s death; indeed, the preponderance of the Ribbon and Wreath style in his designs goes to show that his work dated towards the close of the century.
His plates in this style are very light and graceful, with no overloading; and a faithful use of the usual features of the style is apparent.
In the Russell plate he was again a copyist, using for his model the Joseph Barrell plate. The plates for the American Academy of Arts and