7 MARCH 1896, Page 24

Falconer Madan, whose experience at the Bodleian makes him an

authority of the first order, describes the work of the Biblio- graphical Society. Mr. Austin Dobson discourses pleasantly on " Puckle's 'Club," an obscure but by no means uninteresting volume dated 1711, dealing with various social matters. John Raster was a printer of the first half of the sixteenth century. Mr. Henry R. Plomer writes about him and his contemporaries. Finally, we have articles of a more technical character in "The Decoration of Book Edges," by Cyril Davenport, "Chinese Illus- trated Books," by Robert K. Douglas, and "The Book-Plates of J. Skinner, of Bath," by Mr. W. J. Hardy. This last gives us some information about a man whose name survives in an article more generally appreciated than book-plates, Dr. William Oliver (1695-1764), the inventor of the famous "Bath Oliver" biscuit.