ON THE BINDING OF THIS VOLUME BY CYRIL DAVENPORT HE books bound for Charles I. while he was yet Prince are very similar to those made for his brother Prince Henry, and largely decorated with the same stamps, used by the same binder, having usually as a chief ornament either the royal coat-of-arms with the distinguishing silver label of the eldest son, or the ostrich plume. The emblem most used by such of our Royal Princes as have had a love for bindings made specially for themselves, is certainly the triple ostrich plume within a princely coronet and bearing the motto ` Ich dien.' This badge is usually associated with the dignity of ` Prince of Wales,' but it had not originally this limitation. For instance, it is often found on books that belonged to Prince Edward, afterwards Edward VI., who never was Prince of Wales. Indeed, the badge itself seems to have been used by all the sons of Edward III. and their descendants, by virtue of their descent from Philippa of Hainault, the feathers being the cognizance of the Province of Ostrevant, a district situated between Artois and Hainault, which was the appanage of the eldest sons of that House. Burke says that the motto ' Ich dien' was, however, really the motto of the King of Bohemia, to whom the badge itself is popularly referred. The ostrichplume, with themotto, has been used on bookbindings by all our subsequent Princes of Wales as well as by Prince Edward ; Henry Prince of Wales alone had the plume always stamped in silver, ál the others always used it in gold ;I> Prince Henry also sometimes used the plume as an ornament for the { corners of his books ; the other ¡firs ua Princes never used it except as a centre-piece. Prince Charles usually added the initials C. P. to his brother's stamp as a distinguishing mark, but instances exist where this has not been done. One of the small books bound for Prince Charles, in which he often wrote his name, is covered in vellum and has a curious centre ornament composed of four small stamps of the triple ostrich plume arranged so as to form a kind of star. Both as Prince and as King, Charles liked small thin vellum books, a style which had also been favoured by QueenElizabeth and James I. These books are usually in wonderfully good condition, and the gilding on them remarkable for its brilliancy. The taste for white and gold binding was, how- ever, not new, as several were made for HenryVIII. by Thomas 3
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