Bookplates. This is the somewhat awkward English name for labels of ownership frequently placed on the inside covers of books. Abroad these labels are styled ex libris. The use of bookplates is of some antiquity, and mention has been made of one dated in the middle of the 15th century, but at present the fine bookplates of Bilibaldus Pirckheimer (1470-1530), designed by Albert Dürer, hold the foremost place in point of time. Engraved English bookplates are not found of so early a date, but an old folio volume from Henry VIII.'s library, now in the British Museum, contains an elaborately emblazoned drawing which formed the bookplate of Cardinal Wolsey, with his arms, supporters, and cardinal's hat. The earliest English engraved bookplate at present known is that of Sir Nicholas Bacon, father of Lord Chancellor Bacon, which is dated 1574. The number of English examples dated previous to the Restoration which have come down to us are singularly few, but after this period the series is well represented, and some of these plates are of considerable historical interest. Samuel Pepys had several bookplates; those with his own portrait could not have been engraved before 1685, because he is described therein as Secretary to the Admiralty under Charles II. and James II., but the one with his initials and the crossed anchors was probably engraved as early as 1668. The bookplate of Pepys's faithful friend, William Hewer (in whose house at Clapham the diarist died), is dated 1699. The date on the plate of the well-known alderman and Lord Mayor, Sir Robert Clayton, is 1679. The names of Bishop Burnet, William Penn, Robert Harley, Matthew Prior, Lawrence Sterne, David Garrick, Horace Walpole, John Wilkes, and Charles James Fox, may be mentioned among those found on the highly prized bookplates of the collectors.
The styles of design adopted by book-collectors for their bookplates have been very diverse. Some of these labels have contained merely the name of the possessor, but the majority are armorial, some are allegorical in design, and others are ornamented with miniature landscapes. Many distinguished artists have condescended to produce bookplates. The name of Albert Dürer has already been mentioned as the designer of Pirckheimer's two plates—one in which the allegorical and the armorial elements are united, and the other consisting of a large and bold portrait of the once celebrated senator of Nuremberg. Of English engravers, William Marshall and Robert White may be specially mentioned. Hogarth engraved a bookplate for John Holland, heraldic artist, and another for George Lambert the scene-painter. George Vertue and Thomas Worlidge also produced bookplates, and Thomas Bewick was at one time fully employed in their production. One of the prettiest of bookplates is that designed by Agnes Berry in 1793 for the Hon. Mrs Damer. This was engraved by Francis Legat. The earliest bookplates were of large size, as if made specially for folios, but a smaller size soon became general, a size which was used for both large and small books. Sir William Stirling Maxwell used a variety of sizes for differently sized books, and some of these bookplates were of gigantic proportions. The fashion of collecting bookplates is a very modern one, and not many years ago little attention was paid to them. A label of special interest might be retained in a book, but in most instances the bookplate of the latest owner was placed over that of the former one. The existence of these labels in books adds much to their interest, but the craze for collecting bookplates, apart from the books they once adorned, has little to be said in its favour. In 1837 the Rev. Daniel Parsons published an article on bookplates in the Third Annual Report of the Oxford University Archæological and Heraldic Society, and in 1851 he announced his intention of writing a history of bookplates, but this work was never produced.
The Hon. J. Leicester Warren published in 1880 the first English work on the subject (A Guide to the Study of Bookplates), and in 1884 Mr Griggs printed privately a very small edition of a work entitled Eighty-three Examples of Armorial Bookplates. See also, among others, the following works: Egerton Castle, English Bookplates (1893); Walter Hamilton, French Bookplates (1893); Poulet-Malassis, Les Ex-libris Français (2d ed. 1875); Dexter Allen, American Bookplates (1895); Vinycomb, The Processes for the Production of Ex-libris (1894); Sauler, Art in Bookplates (1895).