Soon after Thomas Maitland Cleland left school, at the age of 16, he taught himself to set type, bought a small Gally Universal, and began making books in his basement. In 1900, he moved to Boston and published under the imprint Cornhill Press, named after the street where he lived. D. B. Updike of Merrymount Press was an early mentor, who provided commissions and endless criticism, leaving Cleland chronically unsatisfied with anything less than perfection.
Cleland went on to work as art designer for McClure’s Magazine, the Locomobile Company of America, the Westvaco Corporation, the Cadillac Motor Car Company, and Fortune Magazine, although he wrote “I am not, and never have been, particularly interested in advertising and have done much of my work for it only because it was, or seemed to be, necessary in order to make a living.”
In the 1930s, he made a series of calendar illustrations for the Harris, Seybold, Potter Company of Cleveland Ohio, which manufactured high-quality sheet-fed offset lithographic printing presses. The company tried to convince the printing world that sheet fed-offset presses could produce quality 4-color process work and Cleland’s prints were meant to provide the proof. “God Bless America,” seen below, is one of these prints.
In between commercial work, Cleland illustrated fine press editions, often using a series of stencils. Writing to Merle Armitage about his process, Cleland explained “It is made entirely with stencils which I cut myself by hand in thin metal (thirteen of them in all) and which I then printed successively by brushing through them with pure water colours. … so far as I know, no one has attempted before to make a complete picture with them as a medium, and I hope no one will try it again. It was an insane amount of work for such a trifling result, and took about four months work to make a hundred of them—fifty for the special edition of Adler’s book of my work, and fifty for sale.” (GAX Oversize NE539.C57 A3 1929q)
One of his most complex projects was Jonathan Wild, seen above, printed under Cleland’s supervision by the Marchbanks Press and published by the Limited Editions Club. In a letter to editor George Macy in 1942, Cleland wrote, “I am anxious to have this large line drawing photographed for the plate so … I should have proofs of the plate on which I can paint in the color for each stencil … so that they will have only the actual coloring of the edition to do after the book is off the press.” The coloring was accomplished by Charlize Brakely, who charged $10 per thousand pages. The book has 30 pages with color in an edition of 1,500, so that means a total of 45,000 pages to color.
I have a lithograph that claims to be "the arrival of the Diligence" by T.M. Cleland.
Apparently printed by S.D. Warren Company, Boston.
I wonder if you may have any knowledge of this item or where I may locate relevant information.
Thanks,
Ed
we found several posters of TM Cleland's in our attic......is there any worth??? thanks
I am an avid fan of Cleland. I have a rather large collection of prints, advertisements, books, speeches, and magazines, but know little more about him than what I've read in "The Decorative Work of T. M. Cleland". How can I learn more about him?
We have four prints by T.M. Cleland and would like to know the dollar value. They are in excellent condition in the original frames. The names of these prints are (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall) Thank You
we have the same prints,winter,summer spring and fall.Do they have dollar amount?
i have an oil painting we call girl with cherry in her ear. the painting is signed tm cleland. 1891. i would appreciate any information in regards to this painting it has been in my family for over 50 years. thank you. julie
I have 4 prints of Winter, Fall, Spring and Summer in original frames and in excellent condition. Do they have any value?
i have a 1941 lithograph of god bless american by t m cleland...it is a ciuntry farm picture in summer with animals a grandmother etc..
if you haved any info on would like to have thank you..
I have a large framed lithograph, "The Homecoming" printed by Harris Offset Press copy-write 1947 with an inscription to to ... (my father's name) kind regards signed TMCleland.
What kind of value might this have?
Thanks you.
Carol
Does anyone answer these questions? I also have a Spring TM Cleland print. Am looking for some kind of value information. Thank you.
I have a print titled Theatre with the subtitle "From a color drawing by T.M. Cleland."
That info is in the center, and over to the right is "Copyright 1945 by T.M. Cleland." This print was purchased at the Huntington Library in Pasadena, CA in the early 1970's. Two questions: (1) do you know anything about this print? I don't imagine it has any particular value (other than I love it), but one never knows. And (2) Are other Cleland prints available anywhere? I'm not finding them online.
Thank you.
I have the same 4 prints. Winter,Spring,Summer and Fall, do they have a dollar value?
I have Autum and Spring; is there value?
Same. I have the Winter, Spring Summer and Fall prints and I want to sell them. How much are they worth. Does any one know the answer?
I also have the collection Winter,Spring,Summer,Fall
in orginal packaging.Could you please let me know the worth?
Thank You
I have the same 4 prints,winter spring summer and fall, do they have a dollar value, and from what time period were they from.