French Book-plates. Walter Hamilton
the balance of advantages appears to incline in favour of the alphabetical classification under surnames, keeping each family as distinct as the information, heraldic and other, on the plates will allow.
Plates of royalty and nobility should be kept apart from the commoners, and arranged, first, in order of rank, second, alphabetically by name. The method most generally in use at present for preserving the plates, when arranged, appears to be what is known as the ex-libris case. If this arrangement be adopted, then each plate must be separately mounted on a card of the correct size. These cases and cards can be purchased ready for use from Mr. W. H. Batho, of 7, Gresham Street, London, and the advantages of this arrangement are that any plate or plates can be withdrawn without injury, and additions can at any time be made, whilst the backs of the cards may be utilized for MS. information about either the plate or its former owner, and newspaper cuttings can be affixed. If the plates are to be inserted in albums, the following regulations should be carefully observed:
Arrange the plates on one side only of each leaf in the album, allowing ample room for additions in each division of the alphabet. On no account fasten the plate down firmly on the paper, fix it only at one or two corners with a hinge made of gummed paper, or of the outside strip which surrounds sheets of postage stamps.
This method allows of the easy removal of any plate without damage, either to the plate or the album, as often as may be desired. The convenience of this will be readily appreciated by veteran collectors, who know how often one wants to exchange one plate for another, and how many good examples have been damaged in the attempt to remove them when once they have been firmly fixed down with gum or “stickphast” paste.
Albums are more convenient for large plates than the cases. They are also better adapted for showing off several varieties of a plate on one page, whilst, for collections in large numbers, they are certainly rather cheaper.
CHAPTER III.
A FEW NOTES ON FRENCH HERALDRY.
To show, first of all, the close family resemblance in nomenclature, an amusing copy of verses may be given from an old work (carefully preserving the quaint orthography of the original), of which the title was: “La Sience de la Noblesse ou la Nouvelle Metode du Blason,” par le P. C. F. Menestrier. A Paris, chez Etiene Michallet, premier Imprimeur du Roi, rue S. Jaque, a l’Image S. Paul, MDCXCI.
ABRÉGÉ
du Blason en vers.
“Le Blason composé de diferens emaux,
N’a que 4 couleurs, 2 panes, 2 metaux.
Et les marques d’honeur qui suivent la naissance,
Distinguent la Noblesse, & font sa recompense. Or, argent, sable, azur, gueules, sinople, vair, Hermine, au naturel & la couleur de chair, Chef, pal, bande, sautoir, face, barre, bordure, Chevron, pairle, orle, & croix de diverse figure. Et plusieurs autres corps nous peignent la valeur, Sans metal sur metal, ni couleur sur couleur. Suports, cimier, bourlet, cri de guerre, devise, Colliers, manteaux, honeurs, & marques de l’Eglise, Sont de l’art du Blason les pompeux ornemens, Dont les corps sont tirés de tous les Elemens, Les astres, les rochers, fruits, fleurs, arbres & plantes, Et tous les animaux de formes differentes, Servent à distinguer, les fiefs & les maisons, Et des Communautés composent les Blasons. De leurs termes precis enoncez les figures, Selon qu’elles auront de diverses postures. Le Blason plein echoit en partage à l’ainé, Tout autre doit briser comme il est ordonné.”
The deux panes in the second line refers to furs (pannes in modern heraldry). This book is illustrated, and in it the tinctures are correctly represented by lines and dots, and the remark is made “Autrefois on marquoit les Emaux par des lettres,” but the author does not allude to the invention of the system of dots and lines attributed to Father Silvestre Petra Sancta.
The introduction states that the author, the Reverend Father Claude François Menestrier, was born in Lyons in 1631, and had been for many years a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He wrote many other learned treatises on heraldry.
For the tinctures the French use the same terms as ourselves, except that for green they employ sinople, because vert, properly pronounced, is not easily to be distinguished from the fur vair. This is a sensible distinction, as is also their expression, contre hermine, to describe what British heralds call ermines, in contradistinction to ermine, a difference so little marked in our case as easily to pass unnoticed and give rise to errors.
The conventional system above mentioned of engraving the tinctures is also the same in France as in Great Britain, and these devices may be easily fixed on the mind of the merest novice by a short study of Mr. J. Ashby-Sterry’s entertaining (proposed) work on “Heraldry made Easy:”
“If Argent, my friend, you would wish to attain, You’ll do it by leaving your paper quite plain. If metal more tempting you wish to seek for, Deck paper with dots, it will represent Or. Perpendicular lines, by armorial rules, Convey to the herald the notion of Gules. But lines horizontal and perfectly true Mean Azure, best known to the vulgar as blue. For Vert take your pencil—I beg you’ll attend— Draw parallel lines to the course of the bend. The sinister bend you must follow, I’m sure, To give to the eye the idea of Purpure. Lines crossing each other and forming a plaid Will simulate Sable, so sombre and sad. For Tenne your pencil should cunningly blend The lines of the fess and the sinister bend. Lines crossing each other and forming a net, Will signify Sanguine, you must not forget!”
As most of the principal heraldic devices used on British arms were adopted when Norman French was our courtly language, and are described in that tongue, it does not require much study to enable anyone who can decipher a British coat-of-arms to do the same with an ordinary French shield, or even to understand the written description of one.
Yet coming to more advanced heraldry, dealing with such questions as descents, marriages, arms of assumption, of succession, of concession, and the proper marshalling of arms, the difficulties increase, and many apparent contradictions arise.
Until the downfall of Louis XVI., the aristocracy of France was not only the most ancient and the proudest in Europe, but, speaking generally, possessed higher hereditary privileges and greater power than the nobility of any other civilized nation in the world.
One of their most cherished rights was that of bearing coat armour, but little by little a rich middle class sprung up (the despised bourgeoisie), which misappropriated coronets and coats-of-arms, and shortly before the outbreak of the Revolution, heraldry in France was in a most confused and chaotic condition.
As to the origin of French heraldry, little is known with any certainty. That tournaments were first held in Germany about 938 is generally admitted. At these the fundamental rules of all heraldry must, no doubt, have been formulated, whence they gradually passed into France, through the north-eastern provinces. Then followed the Crusades, which gave a great impetus to the science of heraldry, as is shown by the vast number of crosses in early arms; the crescents and stars, which were copied from the captured standards of the Saracens; and the fabulous monsters of the East, which became the heraldic devices of many noble families descended from ancient warriors who fought