Austen Knight family bookplates
The library at Chawton House was the heart of our home in so many ways.
As a girl growing up at Chawton House, on my family’s ancestral estate where my fifth great-aunt, Jane Austen, lived and wrote, the family library was one of my favorite rooms in the house. With hundreds of years of books added by various family members, the books and bookplates brought my ancestors to life. Portraits can be cold and a little sterile—books are not.
My grandparents, Edward Knight III and Elizabeth used the library as their sitting room and my grandfather, Edward Austen’s great great grandson and the 15th Squire of Chawton, could usually be found sitting in his armchair with the newspaper or watching the afternoon's horse-racing on BB2 television.
I don’t have a good photo of the library from when we lived at Chawton House, but I do have this of my parents, Jeremy and Carol Knight, having a quick bite of supper in the library before my Uncle Robert’s 21st birthday party. The bookshelves you can see wrapped all the way around the room, as they do today.
Wall to wall, floor to ceiling shelves housed the Knight family collection; an eclectic array of over 3000 books compiled over hundreds of years. Tales of foreign travel, brightly coloured natural history illustrations, books of letters, politics, law, sport, history, estate management, art, religion and poetry were interspersed with estate records, family history and our Chawton heritage. Many of the books were complete with a bookplate inside the front cover showing which of my ancestors had originally owned it.
Each bookplate included an artistic representation of the Knight family's heraldic symbols (diagonal lozenges, the crest 'The Greyfriar',and the motto 'Suivant Saint Pierre' - Follow Saint Peter), often with quarter arms showing the introduction of new bloodlines through marriage or adoption. The same Knight arms, crest and motto are proudly displayed above the front entrance to the house.
I was fascinated by the choice of bookplate design as it seemed to be an indication of the personality of each Squire, as was their choice of books. On the shelves sitting side by side were the personalities and choices of generations. I knew the faces of each Squire from their portraits; the book plates bought them to life.
In Jane Austen's time bookplates, or 'ex libris', were a popular way of displaying the owner of the book. Books were scarce and expensive and if books were loaned or circulated, there was no confusion as to who it should be returned to. I'm sure that some Squires also wanted to leave their mark for future generations to enjoy.
These are the bookplates of Jane’s father, George Austen, and her brother Edward who changed his (and my) name to Knight as a condition of his inheritance of Chawton:
Jane would have been familiar with heraldry and bookplates from a very young age. George Austen's arms display a chevron with three bears paws, a crest (a sitting stag) and a motto (Qui Indevit Minor Est - 'To envy is inferior'). Interestingly his bookplate is a much plainer image, simply showing his crest. Was this an indication of his taste or a lower design budget I wonder?
Jane enjoyed abundant access to the library in Chawton House and I'm sure she would have enjoyed the vast selection of topics and reference books, and the decorative bookplates. With the sale of the Knight family's other grand estate in Godmersham Park (where Jane was a frequent visitor from 1798 to 1813) towards the end of the 19th century, my family's two libraries were consolidated at Chawton House. Over the years some of the books that Jane would have referenced in the libraries have been disposed of or sold, but many remain.
My own bookplate is inspired by the bookplates of Montagu Knight, Edward Austen’s grandson and the 13th squire of Chawton House.
The four quarters of my arms represent my Austen bloodline and the Knight name I carry as a consequence of Edward’s inheritance. Tradition dictates that instead of displaying the symbols of battle, a knight's helmet and crest, as a woman my arms are surrounded by ribbons. I choose to use the Austen motto 'Qui Invidet Minor Est' (to envy is inferior).
Bookplates were important in Jane’s time, as books were expensive, precious and often lent to family and friends. In an age of digital reading and easy access to books in community libraries, bookplates are no longer in general use.
It is a tradition I love, however, and that’s why the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation offers a range of bookplates, designed exclusively for the Foundation by artists, personalised with your (or a friend’s) name in Jane Austen’s handwriting.
Bookplates make the perfect gift for yourself, or for the book lovers in your life. Simply select your favourite, tell us what name you would like on the bookplate and it will be in your inbox in 72 hours.
I hope you enjoy your bookplate as much as I enjoy mine!
Loved the old photos! Such an insiders look at bookplates. Thanks for sharing.