Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Franks Bequest, Vol. 1: Catalogue of British and American Book Plates Bequeathed to the Trustees of the British Museum
Sir Wollaston Franks in the first instance took up the collecting of book plates as a sort of light supplement to his other and graver antiquarian labours. The pursuit had the further advantage that it was one relatively inexpensive compared with other kinds of collecting to which he was devoted. The very high prices commanded, for instance, by fine mediseval works of art and curiosity rendered it difficult for a collector of his comparatively moderate, although comfortable, means to compete for them in the open market on any but rare occasions. But of book plates, as his interest in them grew, he could look forward to forming a really comprehensive and all but complete collection; and from the side of heraldry, genealogy, and family history, on which subjects he was an authority of the first rank, the study very strongly appealed to him.
Other amateurs, as Dr. Joseph Jackson Howard, Maltravers Herald Extraordinary, the Hon. Gerald Ponsonby, and the Hon. Leicester Warren, afterwards Lord de Tabley, had begun collecting book plates in England earlier than Sir Wollaston. But when he had once taken up the pursuit, he carried it on with charac teristic energy, and before the end had outstripped practically all competitors. The nucleus of his collection was a small volume which passed into his hands from those of his old friend Mr. C. V. Bailey, one of a coterie of collectors and amateurs in England which included such men as Mr. W. Tw0peny, Mr. Albert Way, the Marchese d'azeglio, John Henderson, and Felix Slade. His interest in heraldry and English history had made him pay a certain amount of attention to this volume from the first; but he seems never to have regarded it as having any Special value until about the year 1878, when the Hon Leicester Warren borrowed it for use in the compilation of his Guide to the Study of Book Plates. This gentleman was a friend of old standing, with whom Sir Wollaston shared many tastes and pursuits. The fresh interest aroused on this occasion led Sir Wollaston to throw into this new study the same enthusiasm and concentration of purpose which made the secret of his success in other fields.
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