Anony­mous armo­r­ial book­plate of Sir Edward Bysshe (1615–1679).
Arms: Bysshe and Clare, quar­terly dimidi­ated, impal­ing Green. Sir Edward Bysshe, Garter King of Arms, mar­ried Mar­garet, daugh­ter of John Green of Boyshall, co. Essex; died 1679. Motto: Pru­dens Simplicitas.

Egerton Cas­tle, in his Eng­lish Book-Plates (Lon­don, 1893; p. 52) cat­e­go­rizes this plate as of the Car­o­lian style, dates it to 1655, and describes it as “an indented, cusped and slightly scrolled shield, encom­passed by palms tied together, wreath-like, by rib­bands that inter­lace with the motto scroll, the whole con­tained within a line frame.” He illus­trates it on p. [49].

This exem­plar (11 x 6 cm) is mounted on the recto of front free end­pa­per fac­ing the titlepage of Sir William D’Avenant (1606–1668), Gondib­ert: an Hero­ick Poem, Lon­don, Printed by Tho. New­comb for John Holden, and are to be sold at his Shop at the sign of the Anchor in the New-Exchange, 1651. Call num­ber: RHT 17th-149