January 2010 Archives

John Baskerville (1706-1775) was forty-four when he gave up engraving to establish his own printing business. He developed a beautiful typeface and new recipes for ink. To print his delicate new font, Baskerville needed a “kiss impression,” that is, a clean image on the paper made with the least amount of pressure possible from the plate. This required a smooth, uniform surface and so, Baskerville had James Whatman the Elder (1702-1759) refine his paper moulds and papermaking process to create such a paper. The first book to use Baskerville’s refined type and Whatman’s new wove paper was a book of Virgil’s poetry published in 1757.

For whatever reason, part of the Virgil was printed with laid and part with these new wove papers. Click on the image of a page of notes above to see laid paper. Then, click on the text page below, from further into the volume, to see an example of wove paper.

As my predecessor Dale Roylance pointed out, Baskerville “created 54 of the most beautifully printed books in the English language.” In 1981, the graphic arts collection was the grateful recipient of 43 of Baskerville’s 54 books, given by Archibald S. Alexander, class of 1928. In total, Princeton now holds six copies of the first edition of the Baskerville Virgil, along with five of the second edition including two in the graphic arts Baskerville collection.

Note, Philip Gaskell’s bibliography of Baskerville books has been updated, at least concerning his Virgils, by Craig Kallendorf in his A Catalogue of the Junius Spencer Morgan Collection of Virgil in the Princeton University Library (New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Press, 2009) Classics Collection (Clas). Firestone Oversize Z8932 .K36 2009q.

See also Frank Ernest Pardoe, John Baskerville of Birmingham: letter-founder and printer (London: F. Muller, 1975) Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Z232.B2 P37 1975

A wonderful exhibition on the development of Whatman paper was mounted by Yale’s Center for British Art; see the press release http://ycba.yale.edu/information/pdfs/mediakits/06-whatman.pdf

The British writer Emily Morse Symonds (1860-1936) published under the pen name George Paston, in the same spirit as George Sand and George Eliot. After a series of novels, culminating with A Writer of Books, Symonds turned to theory and criticism. Her first and best effort was this book on caricature. A review in a the Saturday Review of Books begins:

“Although a keen satirical tendency may be noticed in certain expressions of Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman art, it is significant rather of the class of ithyphallic drollery than that of the ironical grotesque… It remained for the English of the eighteenth century to invent the ironical grotesque… Paston’s book deals textually and pictorially with the various phases of social caricature and of the social groups which inspired the pens of the artists.”

Graphic Arts is fortunate to hold an extra-illustrated edition of Symonds’ book that includes 140 original prints in addition to the 200 reproductions printed within the text. Here are a few examples.

The French painter and draftsman, Jean Louis Prieur, the younger (1759-1795) is principally known for his drawings, a few shown here, of the French revolution. Engraved by Pierre Gabriel Berthault (ca. 1748-ca. 1819) these images were published by L’imprimerie de Pierre Didot in several editions under the title Collection complete des Tableaux historiques de la Révolution française. They sold originally in sets of two for six livres each and in 1802, a three-volume deluxe edition was published that included portraits.

Like Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War in the next generation, Prieur and several other artists created these images from 1789 to 1792 as the revolution was taking place. In the final volumes, the engravings are each accompanied by extensive commentaries written by Sébastien Roche Nicolas de Chamfort and Abbé Claude Fauchet.

For more information, see Amy Freund, “The Legislative Body: Print Portraits of the National Assembly, 1789-1791,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 41, no. 3 (Spring 2008): 337-58.

Claudette Hould, L’Image de la Révolution française (Québec: Musée du Québec, 1989)

This amazing etching was designed by William Heath (not to be confused with Henry Heath), one of the most underappreciated of the British caricaturists. According to the DNB, from 1825 to 1826, “Heath was in Scotland, writing and illustrating the first magazine in the world to be given over, predominantly, to caricatures: The Glasgow Looking Glass, later the Northern Looking Glass….” (Ex Oversize Item 3584659q)

When Heath returned to London in 1827, he began signing his prints with a drawing of the actor Liston in the role of Paul Pry from John Poole’s 1825 comedy. However the signature (and his engaging designs) attracted so many plagiarists that Heath was forced to abandon it in 1829.

Among the prints that attracted so much attention in the spring of 1829 were a series of satires on the question of Catholic emancipation featuring King George IV, Prime Minister Wellington, and Lords Eldon and Brougham. Titles included The Slap-Up Swell Wot Drives When Ever He Likes, The Guard Wot Looks After the Sovereign, The Man Wot Drives the Opposition, The Cad Wots Been Appointed Rat-Catcher to the Sovereign, and The Man Wot’s Been Made Foreman to the British, among others.

This print, The Man Wots Got the Whip Hand of ‘Em All, depicts a Stanhope Press with the legs of King George. It wears a cap of Liberty inscribed Free Press and holds a giant pen with fire-spitting serpents. Prime Minister Wellington’s departing legs and hat are seen at the top right, while the legs and buckled shoes of Lord Eldon are seen at the left. A print titled The Man Wot Drives the Sovereign (another by Heath) is about to be burned by the flames of the ‘free press.’ Note the printer’s devil with an ink ball bottom lower left.

The Graphic Arts division several dozen prints by Heath, along with his illustrated books. Here are a few others.

Cooper designed this political cartoon in response to Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) and his 1913 “triple wall of privilege,” which sought to reorganize the tariffs, the banks, and the trusts in the United States. During the first year of his presidency, Wilson proposed the Underwood Tariff Bill to help lower the general rate from about 40% to 26%. This led to the first American income tax, based on a graduated scale that started on incomes over $3000. Wilson also put into place the Federal Reserve Act, with a Federal Reserve Bank in each of twelve regions. Finally, he focused on the reorganization of trusts and after much convincing, the Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914 was passed banning price discrimination.

Fred G. Cooper was born in Oregon and educated at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute in San Francisco, before moving to New York City in 1904 to find work as a freelance artist. He created designs for New York Edison (or ConEd), Westinghouse, and the U.S. War Department, among many others. This cartoon was probably for Life magazine, where he contributed drawings from 1904 to the 1930’s, although I have not yet found the issue.

(btw: The year after this cartoon was published, Cooper was one of fourteen graphic artists to form the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), along with Frederic W. Goudy, Hal Marchbanks, and William Edwin Rudge. The only membership requirement, besides $25 dues, was that each member had to buy his own Windsor chair.)

Alling & Cory Company, Book Jacket Papers (New York: Alling & Cory Co., [19—?]). [24] pages with 28 sample booklets. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2010- in process

British painter Joseph Wright of Derby is best known for two oil paintings, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture on the Orrery in which a Lamp is put in Place of the Sun (ca. 1764-1766) and Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768). Each employs a strong, realistic light source to produce a dramatic scene with heightened areas of light and shadow; the age of enlightenment made visible. These scenes of bright whites and rich blacks were nicknamed candlelight compositions and their popularity was amplified when large-scale mezzotint reproductions were printed and sold.

We call the artist Wright of Derby to distinguish him from artists Richard Wright (1735-ca. 1775) and Joseph Wright (1756-1793), also exhibiting around the same period. Wright of Derby’s Philosopher (Art Gallery at Derby, Derbyshire, England) presents a lecture on the movement of the planets around the sun, using a mechanical model called an orrery. The figures may represent the collector who bought the painting, Washington Shirley, 5th Earl Ferrers, along with his friends and family. The lecturer is reminiscent of Isaac Newton, whose theories on the movement of the planets and universal gravitation were published in 1687. There is a portrait of Newton by Godfrey Kneller that may have been the inspiration for this figure (http://www.newton.ac.uk/art/portrait.html).

Graphic Arts’ impression of this print, along with an orrery, will be on view in the Milberg Gallery beginning February 7 in the exhibition: Envisioning the World.

For more information, see Elizabeth E. Barker, “New Light on The Orrery: Joseph Wright and the Representation of Astronomy in 18th-century Britain,” British Art Journal 1, no. 2 (Spring 2000): 29-37.

Inscribed: “At this important crisis, the soul of Washington rose superior to danger, seizing a standard he advanced uncovered before the columns and reigning his steed towards the emeny with his sword flashing in the rays of the rising sun, he waved on the troops behind him to the charge. Inspirited by his example the Militia sprang forward and delivered an effective fire which stopped the progress of the enemy.”

See also: Currier & Ives: a Catalogue Raisonne (Detroit: Galer Research, 1983). No. 5420. Graphic Arts Oversize GA NE2312.C8 A4 1983q

This pastel represents one of Audubon’s early attempts at drawing the various species of the birds of America. He began by using pastels, moved to watercolors, and the final published albums contain hand-colored aquatints. A later watercolor version (in the New York Historical Society) was used for the engraving by Robert Havell that became plate 56 of the Birds of America. The descriptive text for this plate reads: “Red-shouldered Hawk, Falco Lineatus, Gmel., Male, 1. Female, 2.; issued in 1829” as listed in Ornithological Biography, I, 296-99.

Inscribed “Falls of the Ohio, 29th November, 1809,” Princeton’s drawing was eliminated from the final selection by 1824, the year when Audubon sold it and others to his newly discovered friend Edward Harris (1799-1863). Harris not only paid Audubon $30 for the drawings but gave the artist an extra $100, saying “such men ought not to want for money.”

For an extended essay about this pastel, see The Princeton University Library Chronicle 15, no. 4 (Summer 1954): 169-78. http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visualmaterials/pulc/pulcv15n_4.pdf

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Preparation of Illustrations pamphlet (1920) suggests “For relief shading on small black and white maps Ross’s hand-stipple drawing paper may be used. By rubbing a black wax crayon or pencil over the surface of the paper the desired effect is produced in fine dots or in stipple, which may be varied in density of shade at the will of the draftsman.”

The inventor and distributor of these papers or scratch boards that helped commercial artists add shade and dimension to their illustrations was Charles J. Ross. According to Peterson’s Entomological Techniques (1953), “we find little on Ross’s company, which apparently operated in both New Jersey and at the “Ross House” in North Philadelphia. As late as 1959, we find that company was apparently still active servicing the medical illustrator/graphic artist community and operating as C.J. Ross at 1925 Fairmount Avenue, Philadelphia.”

These two scrapbooks, now in the graphic arts collection, provide a concentrated overview of Ross’s activities in the late 1880’s. Included is correspondence with artists, publishers, booksellers, lithographers, photography suppliers, zinc etchers, art stores, paper suppliers, and so on. There are also pricelists and paper samples demonstrating the variety of effects that were possible with variations of dots, horizontal lines, diagonal lines, and an overall pattern similar to an aquatint.

A U.S. government patent for his “relief stipple paper” was granted on October 3, 1882. In it Ross states “The object of my invention is the production of a drawing paper or equivalent material having a surface of fine uniform dotted stipple-points in relief, on which drawings in crayon or ink may be made, more especially for reproduction by photolithographic or phototypographic processes …”

He continued to work on new methods of drawing and reproducing images, such as these directions for the placing and management of the line-ruling machine below:

Founded in 1247, Bethlem was a priory for the sisters and brothers of the Order of the Star of Bethlehem. It was first used as a hospital in 1330 and first housed patients recorded as “lunatics” in 1403. During the 18th century, the asylum, now nicknamed Bedlam, was opened to public visitors, a penny each and free on the first Tuesday of the month. 96,000 visitors were recorded in 1814.

One such visitor that year was the philanthropist, Edward Wakefield (1774-1854). He was shocked to see James (reported as William) Norris (17??-1814), once an American seaman, now chained to his bed. Norris had been admitted in 1800 and so terrorized the small staff that in June 1804 he was permanently confined in an iron harness. Ten years later when Wakefield visited, Norris was still in the same spot.

Norris’s isolation and constraints were described at the time:

A stout iron ring was riveted round his neck, from which a short chain passed through a ring made to slide upwards and downwards on an upright massive iron bar, more than six feet high, inserted into the wall. Round his body a strong iron bar about 12 inches wide was riveted; on each side of the bar was a ring; which was fashioned to and enclosed each of his arms, pinioned them close to his sides.

Wakefield was joined by William Hone (1774-1854) and James Bevans (1780-1842) to campaign for change in the conditions for patients, not only in Bedlam but throughout England. Their work led to the formation of the Committee on Madhouses in April 1815. Cruikshank was hired to etch Norris’s portrait, including the inscription: Sketch from the Life in Bethlem, 7th June 1814, by G. Arnald, Esq., A.R.A. Etched by G. Cruikshank from the Original Drawing Exhibited to the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Madhouses, 1815.

Although Norris was removed from his shackles, he died within a few months. Bedlam was closed and the facility moved to a new home in Lambeth (today the home to the Imperial War Museum). For more on the history of the Bethlam hospital, see: http://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/history-heritage/exhibitions/Past-exhibitions/inside-bedlam/Pages/Overview.aspx

In 1849, Henry Noel Humphreys (1810-1879) wrote a guide for illustrators on the art of illumination, which begins: “Considering the prevalent taste for the beautiful art of Illumination, it is somewhat extraordinary that the fine monuments of this branch of art … have either not been sought as models or, the very worst examples have been slavishly copied … The object of the present little volume is, therefore, to offer a few suggestions to modern students of the beautiful art of enriching books with painted ornaments.” (Marquand (SA) ND2920 .H92e)

Like many Victorians, Humphreys loved all things medieval and enriched even his simplest texts with bright chromolithography printed by Owen Jones (1809-1874) to recall hand-painted illuminated manuscripts. His bindings were elaborate reliefs molded in papier-mâché and painted black, imitating carved ebony. Here are a few examples from Princeton’s collections.

The Stamp Act of 1765 generated intense opposition with the American colonists, who called for a boycott of British imports. Needing the revenue from American trade, the British Parliament voted to repeal the Stamp Act in 1766.

The Marques of Rockingham, only recently named Prime Minister, had the difficult job of convincing Parliament of the benefits of this repeal. To help sway public opinion, he commissioned the artist Benjamin Wilson (1721-1788) to draw two satirical prints. The first, published in February 1766, was titled The Tombstone and showed leading “hard liners” dancing on the tomb of the Duke of Cumberland. The second, seen here, was published on March 18, the day Parliament voted the repeal.

The main focus of the print is a funeral procession of Stamp Act supporters carrying a child’s coffin (the Act was only four months old). At the lead is William Scott or Anti-Sejanus, who reads from a sermon. Scott is followed by Solicitor-General Wedderburn and Attorney General Fletcher Norton, carrying flags that display the vote against the repeal; then George Grenville, Lord Bute, Lord Temple, Lord Halifax, and Lord Sandwich. They walk along a harbor that represents the Rockingham ministry with three ships labeled “Conway,” “Rockingham,” and “Grafton.”

Benjamin Franklin was a friend of Wilson and when he received a copy of the print, Franklin wrote, “I think he was wrong to put in Lord Bute, who had nothing to do with the Stamp Act. But it is the Fashion to abuse that Nobleman, as the Author of all Mischief.”

The Repeal quickly became “the most popular satirical print ever issued” according to R.T. Haines Halsey, “Impolitical Prints,” Bulletin of the New York Public Library 43, no.11 (Nov. 1939). Within three days the publisher issued an advertisement requesting patience because he could not keep up with all the orders he had received. Within the week other print sellers were issuing their own versions of Wilson’s scene.

According to the Dictionary of National Biography’s entry on Wilson, the print was titled “The Repeal; or, the Funeral of Miss Ame-Stamp. It was sold for one shilling and brought Wilson 100 pounds in four days. On the fifth day it was pirated, and two inferior versions produced at six-pence.” The British Museum’s catalogue identifies the original etching and six variant editions, A-F.

Graphic Arts recently acquired an excellent impression of copy B, a reduced, chiefly engraved version of Wilson’s print. Processional figures are reproduced on the same scale as the original but the background buildings and ships are altered to fit on a smaller sheet. A descriptive text, once sold separately, is here engraved below the image along with a slightly altered title, now “Americ-Stamp”.

See a copy of [An act for granting and applying certain stamp duties] (London: Printed by Mark Baskett, 1765). Rare Books, William H. Scheide Library (WHS) 16.5.9

E.P. Richardson, “Stamp Act Cartoons in the Colonies,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 96, no. 3 (July 1972).

Each volume of this biographical series on prominent Cincinnati men contains 125 albumen silver prints. Photographer James Landy said he spent over two years making the nearly 70,000 prints that were required for the whole edition.

In an interview with Landy, published in the Commercial Gazette (January 26, 1896) just a year before his death, Landy discussed his life and work:

“During my career as photographer I have met hundreds of men and women, who were or are still prominent in politics, or in the professions, and I could tell you many an interesting reminiscence. My collection of portraits of celebrities, taken during the last thirty-five years, numbers many hundreds, and at present I am at work cataloguing them. They will be exhibited some time this year.”

Mr. Landy has been exceptionally successful during his career, and many are the acknowledgments of the superiority of his artistic work which have been awarded to him. His series of seven photographs, representing Shakespeare’s “Seven Ages,” has become famous all over the world. A set of these pictures, tastefully framed, adorns the walls of the Shakespeare Memorial Library in Stratford-on-Avon, and a handsome letter of thanks from the Shakespeare Memorial Association is in Mr. Landy’s possession, and treasured highly by him.

At many exhibitions valuable prizes have been awarded to Mr. Landy for his excellent and artistic work. At the Chicago Exhibition of the Photographers Association of American, in 1887, he was awarded the Blair Cup for his “Man, Know Thy Destiny,” and at the Convention in 1888, in Minneapolis, his “Hiawatha” again won him the Blair Cup.

Thanks to Gary W. Ewer for finding the quote.

On February 19, 1796, a bonfire of money was built and then burned on Paris’s Place des Piques. The bills were assignat, the state bond used as the national currency since 1789. According to Richard Taws, the ritual incineration of the assignats “signaled a rupture … intended to register a self-conscious break with the past.” In the months following, a number of trompe l’oeil engravings of crumbled, old assignats began to circulate throughout Paris. The example shown here, both engraved and published by François Bonneville, shows a group of scattered bills, perhaps tossed in a gesture of despair at their worthlessness during that period of hyperinflation.

For more, see Richard Taws, “Trompe-l’Oeil and Trauma: Money and Memory after the Terror,” Oxford Art Journal 30, no. 3 (2007)