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.