W J Hardy

Book-Plates W J Hardy

As I have said elsewhere, it has been no part of my object in writing my book to advocate indiscriminate collecting. But for those who are already collectors I have one word of advice on the subject of the arrangement of their treasures. Some enthusiasts advocate a chronological arrangement, others a genealogical, others a topographical: and the advocates of each theory paste down their specimens in scrap-books or other volumes in adherence to their own views. Now there is a great deal to be said in favour of each of these classifications: so much, indeed, that no system is perfect which does not admit of a collection being arranged according to one plan to-day and another tomorrow-i.e. no arrangement is satisfactory which is necessarily permanent. Let each specimen be lightly, yet firmly, fixed on a separate sheet of cardboard or stout paper, of sufficient size to take the largest book-plates commonly met with.