French Book-plates Part 9

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER VII.

THE FIRST REPUBLIC.

In Great Britain political changes have had comparatively little effect upon the development of art, whereas in France the great events of her history have left their impress deeply on her arts, and during the last hundred years especially, nearly every political convulsion (and there have been many) has been rapidly followed by some great change in the fas.h.i.+on of her book-plates. It therefore becomes absolutely necessary to refer to some of the leading features in French history in order properly to appreciate the ex-libris of the various periods.

For the antiquary, the prints produced in France before the Revolution must ever possess the greatest interest, indicating as they do so clearly the tastes, the vanity, the luxury of that _beau monde_ which was the France of those days when the lower orders counted for nothing, being but the hewers of wood, the drawers of water, and the _chair-a-canon_ with which her kings and marshals won glory.

No attempt was made to hide the corruption and immorality which prevailed at Court--the amours of the kings were openly acknowledged, the highest t.i.tles were bestowed upon their mistresses, and the royal arms of France were borne by their almost innumerable offspring.

Although some of these women were of the humblest origin they affected a taste for literature and art, and the names of Diane de Poitiers, d.u.c.h.esse de Valentinois; Gabrielle d'Estrees; Marie Touchet; la d.u.c.h.esse de la Valliere; la Marquise de Maintenon; Madame de Montespan; la Marquise de Pompadour; la Comtesse du Barry, with many others of lesser note, remind us that they formed extensive libraries. Books bearing their arms and ciphers on the bindings, or their book-plates, are still those most eagerly sought for by collectors of to-day. But what a _bagatelle_ was all this as compared with the vast sums these courtesans drained from the nation, and the degradation they inflicted upon the aristocracy into whose ranks they and their children were elevated.

Whilst on the other hand, the arrogance of the old n.o.bility, their selfishness, their cruelty to their dependants, and their refusal to forego any of their pay or privileges in the black days of famine and national bankruptcy towards the close of the eighteenth century, hastened their fall and that of the monarchy.

Sir Walter Scott states that at the outbreak of the Revolution there were about eighty thousand families enjoying all the rights and privileges of n.o.bility; and the order was divided into different cla.s.ses, which looked on each other with mutual jealousy and contempt.

On this point let us quote the reports of two acknowledged authorities.

M. de Saint-Allais, in his book "L'Ancienne France," observes: "Nos historiens les plus accredites ont remarque qu'il existait en France, _avant la Revolution_, environ soixante dix mille fiefs, ou arriere-fiefs dont a peu pres 3,000 etaient eriges en d.u.c.h.es, marquisats, comtes, vicomtes et baronies, et qu'ils comptaient aussi en ce royaume environ 4,000 families d'ancienne n.o.blesse, c'est-a-dire de n.o.blesse chevaleresque et immemoriale, et environ 90,000 familles qui avaient acquis la n.o.blesse par l'exercice de charges de magistrature et de finances ou par le service militaire ou par des an.o.bliss.e.m.e.nts quelconques." Whilst in his "n.o.bles et Vilains," M. Cha.s.sant states: "Il y avait en France, en 1788, au moins 8,000 marquis, comtes, et barons, dont 2,000 au plus l'etaient legitimement, 4,000 bien dignes de l'etre, mais qui ne l'etaient que par tolerance abusive."

From these statements it is evident that the number of n.o.bles, or soi-disant n.o.bles, was enormous; that their privileges (many of them grossly immoral) caused them to be extremely unpopular; that to keep up some kind of state and show made them exacting as landlords, whilst the etiquette of their rank prevented them from embarking in any kind of trade or business, so that employments in the Court, the Church, the Army, Law and the Civil Service, were almost entirely monopolized by this cla.s.s. These offices, though highly paid, were, of course, totally unproductive, and created still further burdens to fall on the shoulders of the overtaxed lower orders.

Nor were the n.o.bles themselves altogether to be envied--many of them were miserably poor, and were yet compelled to support the dignity of their rank, and to appear in state at a court, at once the most splendid and most improvident in the world.

They had not the resources possessed by the poorer scions of the British n.o.bility, who are free now to act as directors of public companies, stock-brokers, wine merchants, or railway managers; who may own collieries, or hansom cabs, or breed cattle without loss of caste or privilege.

As to the king, Louis XVI., he was a man of no decision of character, incapable of reading the signs of the times, or of realizing that the future of the monarchy, of France itself, depended on the reforms required in the State. So little did he appreciate the serious position that when, in 1788, his ministers were discussing where the Etats Generaux (n.o.bles, clergy, and tiers etats) should a.s.semble in the following May, Louis suddenly cut short all their arguments by exclaiming that they could only meet at Versailles because of the hunting (_a cause des cha.s.ses_).

"C'etait bien de cha.s.ser qu'alors il s'agissait."

At length the storm, which had long been foreseen, burst over their heads, and in less than two years a decree was proposed (on June 20th, 1790) by Lameth, that the t.i.tles of duke, count, marquis, viscount, baron, and chevalier should be suppressed. This was carried by a large majority in the French a.s.sembly, and all armorial bearings were abolished at the same time.

When all around was in a state of turmoil and revolution, armorial book-plates became dangerous to their owners. Many were torn out and destroyed, others were altered and adapted to the feelings of the time by changing high-sounding t.i.tles into the simple style of a French citizen.

The ex-libris of the Citizen Boyveau-Laffecteur may be cited as an example. Before the Revolution he used an allegorical plate on which was shown a young calf drinking at a fountain (Boyveau); on his s.h.i.+eld he carried a stork, as an emblem of prudence and wisdom, and the whole was surmounted by the handsome coronet of a count. Now, Monsieur Boyveau-Laffecteur was a doctor of medicine, and the inventor of useful medical receipts, but whether he ever was a count, or ent.i.tled to carry the coronet of one, is more than doubtful. These are minor details, however, for when the Doctor found that coronets, and the heads that wore them, were going strangely out of fas.h.i.+on, he effaced the obnoxious emblem of n.o.bility, placing in its stead an enormous and aggressively prominent cap of liberty. This altered plate is found less frequently than the former; it may be that on the restoration of the monarchy he replaced the coronet, and re-elected himself a count.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE VICOMTE DE BOURBON BUSSET, 1788.]

Another altered plate is rather less striking in its political inconsistency: "De la Bibliotheque de Nic. Franc. Jos. Richard, avocat en Parlement, President a St. Diez." Simple and inoffensive as was this label, the owner thought it safer during the Revolution to cover it with another, thus: "De la Bibliotheque de Nicholas Francois-Joseph RICHARD, _Citoyen de St. Die_."

But a far more interesting souvenir of the Reign of Terror is the second book-plate of the Vicomte de Bourbon Busset.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF L. A. P. BOURBON BUSSET, 1793.]

The first, which is signed "Fme. Jourdan sculp., 1788," shows his armorial bearings surmounted by his coronet, whilst beneath are enumerated his t.i.tles and offices.

Over this plate is generally found pasted a much simpler design, showing how that the grand n.o.ble of 1788 under the monarchy had, in 1793, become plain Bourbon Busset, a French citizen.

Now the Vicomte de Bourbon Busset was an aristocrat (even if an illegitimate one), for on his first book-plate he bore the royal arms of France, (debruised by a baton), with the cross of Jerusalem in chief, and his two supporters the angels. .h.i.therto carried only by members of the royal family. Yet he managed to escape the horrors of the revolutionary period, and survived the Reign of Terror, probably by studying the signs of the times, and by casting his lot in with the _sans-culottes_. In any case, he lived in Paris until the 9th of February, 1802. The bindings on his books were stamped with the arms, as on his book-plate, but without the supporters.

His library was sold in Paris; the catalogue was headed, "Catalogue des livres de la bibliotheque de feu le citoyen Bourbon Busset, 20, nivose an XI."

Another curious souvenir of the reverses sustained during the revolutionary period exists in the plate of "Andre Gaspard Parfait, Comte de Bizemont-Prunele". Dessine et grave par Ch. Gaucher, de l'Acad.

des Arts de Londres, 1781.

In the same year the Comte de Bizemont-Prunele etched an ex-libris for his wife, Marie Catherine d'Hallot, with a design of a somewhat remarkable nature considering the period. He represented himself amongst some ruins carving their arms on a pedestal. Thirteen years later we find this n.o.bleman, a refugee in England, earning his living as a drawing master. His business card, of ornamental design, bears the words: "M. Bizemont, Drawing Master, No. 19 Norton Street, near Portland Street. Bizemont Sc. London, 1794."

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF THOMAS PAPILLON, ESQ.]

Alexis Foissey, of Dunkirk, removed the coronet from his ex-libris to make way for "Equality"; P. M. Gillet, deputy from Morbihan, adopted the cap of liberty, with the motto, "Liberte, Egalite"; and J. B. Michaud, on his plate, dated 1791, also has the Phrygian cap, with a ribbon inscribed, "La Liberte ou la Mort."

Above is the book-plate of Thomas Papillon, Esq., evidently engraved in England within the last century, bearing on the first and fourth quarters the canting arms of the old French family of Papillon (b.u.t.terfly).

The last Papillon of whom we read in French history was one Denis-Pierre-Jean Papillon de la Ferte, intendant des Menus-plaisirs du Roi, who was born in 1727, and guillotined on the 7th of July, 1794, by the Republicans. Probably Thomas Papillon was a relative who managed to escape, or one of his descendants, as the arms are very similar, being thus blazoned by Guigard: _D'azur, au chevron d'argent accompagne en chef de 2 Papillons d'or, et en pointe d'un coq hardi du meme_. The last charge being the only dissimilarity.

A short time since, a collector in Paris purchased a cover on which was a small mean-looking, printed book-label, under which showed the edges of another. On putting the cover to soak no less than three plates were found, the lowest one being as follows; an armorial plate, below the s.h.i.+eld "Bibliotheque de Mr. de Villiers du Terrage, Pr. Commis des Finances." This plate, signed _Branche_, had been covered during the revolutionary period by a simple typographical label, reading "Bibliotheque du Citoyen Marc-Etienne Villiers," omitting all t.i.tles, and heraldic decorations, subst.i.tuting the word "citoyen" in their place, and the whole surrounded by plain border lines.

Later on the book pa.s.sed into other hands, and a still more humble plate was placed upon it, a small label having only the words "Bibliotheque Le Cauchoix Ferraud." This democratic individual, who suppressed even the word "citoyen" on his label, does not live in history, nor would he have been mentioned here but that his poor little ticket probably saved two interesting plates from destruction.

"Ex libris Rihan de la Forest" with arms and coronet; then over that was a plain label with the simple inscription, "Ex libris la Forest"; that again covered by a lugubrious-looking plate, "Ex libris la Forest,"

surmounted by a cap of liberty, on a pike, and "La liberte ou la mort"

printed around it.

To these many others may be added, such as the ex-libris of "Le Prince de Beaufond," which was altered to "Charles-Louis Le-prince," and the elaborate heraldic book-plate of the Marquis de Fortia, which was covered by a simple printed label: "Ce livre fait partie de la bibliotheque de M. de Fortia d'Urban, demeurant a Paris, rue de la Rochefoucaud (_sic_), No. 21, division du Mont Blanc."

M. Pigou covered his arms and coronet of a Marquis with a plain label in which the name _Pigou_ was surrounded by a garland of roses.

But in those troubled times most men of any position had far more serious topics to occupy their minds than the planning of ex-libris for their books, and indeed the poor heraldic engravers found their business coming to an end, and one of them, M. Crussaire, finding himself without work, advertised that he would gladly execute "tout espece de sujets serieux ou agreables relatifs aux diverses circonstances de la Revolution, pour boites, bon-bonnieres, boutons, medaillons."

One of the last ex-libris belonging to the period of the First Republic, and carrying republican emblems, is that bearing the name of Adjudant General Villatte, who was promoted to that rank on February 5, 1799. His plate bears the Roman fasces surmounted by the cap of liberty, and, oddly enough for a military man, a shepherd's crook and hat, whilst two doves, or pigeons, complete this incongruous design.

From 1789 to the coronation of Napoleon I. as Emperor in 1804, the use of book-plates was considerably restricted.

Pauline Burghese, a sister of Napoleon, rose superior to heraldic or t.i.tular pretensions. She was a sister of Napoleon, that was enough, and her gift book-plate, dated 1825, is but a plain little label:

EX LEGATO Sororis Napoleonis _Paullinae Burghesiae_ A.D. MDCCCXXV.

Charles Ambroise Caffarelli, whose plate is in what has been called _le style panache de l'Empire_, was Canon of Toul in 1789, but took the oath to the Const.i.tution on the outbreak of the Revolution. He suffered imprisonment in 1793, gained favour under Napoleon, who created him a prefet. He afterwards devoted himself to the study of political economy, and died in 1826 (after seeing many changes of government), under the rule of the Bourbons, his first patrons.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF CH. AMB. CAFFARELLI.]

Jean Baptiste Jourdan, who was one of the most famous marshals of Napoleon's army, began life as a private soldier; under the First Republic he obtained promotion, and swore that his sword should always be drawn in defence of the rights of the people, and against all kings.

Yet he afterwards accepted t.i.tles and honours from Napoleon, whom he deserted to serve under Louis XVIII., and issued a manifesto to his soldiers asking their fidelity to the restored Bourbons. For this he was rewarded by being created a Chevalier of the Royal and Military Order of St. Louis. When Napoleon returned to Paris from Elba the Marechal Jourdan was again ready to do him service, and his fidelity was rewarded by an imperial decree dated 4 June, 1815, creating him a Count and Peer of France. Jourdan was born at Limoges in 1762; he died in 1833.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE MARSHAL JOURDAN.]