February 2012 Archives

Mauro Boni (1746-1817), Lettere sui primi libri a stampa di alcune città e terre del l’Italia superiore: parte sinora sconosciuti, parte nuovamente illustrate (Venezia: Nella stamperia di Carlo Palese, 1794). Three books, each has a special title page. Bookplate of the Library of the College of New Jersey (previous name of Princeton University Library), “Presented by J.S. Morgan Esq.” Original accession number 95452 stamped on p. III. Graphic Arts collection GAX Z155. Gift of Junius Spencer Morgan, 1867-1932

This early bibliography of incunables in Genoa, Pavia, and Brescia is attributed to Mauro Boni (title in English: Letters on the First Printed Books in Some Cities and Lands of the Upper Italy, Hitherto Unknown). Two of the three title pages are decorated with engravings by the Venetian artist Francesco Novelli (1767-1836). Novelli acquired a reputation as a copyist of Rembrandt etchings, a reputation which led some historians to value his work only for its draftsmanship and technical skill.

The Oxford Dictionary of Art gives him only a small paragraph: “Francesco Novelli was the son and pupil of Pietro Antonio Novelli III. He went on to work at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice before going to Rome. Novelli merits special mention for the copies he made of Rembrandt’s etchings, with such remarkable skill that his reproductions have sometimes been confused with the originals. He also produced engravings of Mantegna’s drawings, and was a member of several academies.”

Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966), Scribner Press Logo, [1902]. Pen and ink drawing attached to block. Graphic Arts GA 2006.02471

In July of 1902, Maxfield Parrish completed his design for a colophon device commissioned by the new Scribner Press. “The Scribner logo, with its three key elements of burning antique (Greco-Roman) lamp, books, and laurel wreath, dates back to the Beaux-Arts architect Standford White’s original design for the cover of Scribner’s Magazine (January 1887).”

“The symbol of the book hardly needs to be explained; the laurel crown is a symbol of the highest achievement in poetry or literature, or the arts in general, and it is associated with the classical god of Apollo; the lamp is not Aladdin’s lamp but rather the lamp of wisdom and knowledge. There is a long tradition in art, going back at least to the time of Petrarch, of a poet being crowned with a wreath of laurel, and such scholars as St. Jerome and St. Thomas Aquinas are traditionally depicted beside such a burning lamp” (Charles Scribner III, unpublished memo dated 2 June 1994).

This printer’s seal appeared on the copyright page of all books printed by the Scribner Press. For more, see John Delaney’s webpage: Charles Scribner’s Sons: An Illustrated Chronology: http://library.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/aids/scribner/

Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (1770-1852), Physiognotrace portrait of Thomas Jefferson, n.d. [1804]. Engraving and copperplate. 7.1 x 6.6 cm. Graphic Arts French prints. Gift of Charles Scribner Jr., Class of 1943.

The French musician Gilles-Louis Chrétien (1754-1811) invented the physiognotrace (physionotrace in French) in 1887. He used the apparatus to trace the silhouette of a sitter and at the same time, create a reduced copy, which could be used to engrave a lifelike image on a copper plate. Chalk drawings and oil sketches were also made using this technique. One of Chrétien’s earliest sitters was Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), who paid for the privilege while in Paris.

Eight years later, the French émigré Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (1770-1852) brought a physiognotrace to the United States and Jefferson, now age sixty-one, again sat for a portrait. According to records at Monticello, Jefferson purchased 48 prints of his own portrait and collected a number of other portraits of friends and colleagues, which sold for about $25 each.

Both a print and the copper plate are on view in our Leonard L. Milberg Gallery for the exhibition, Capping Liberty: The Invention of a Numismatic Iconography for the New American Republic, on view through July 8, 2012.

See also Howard Rice, “Saint-Memin’s Portrait of Jefferson,” Princeton University Library Chronicle 20 (Summer 1959): 182-92. http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visualmaterials/pulc/pulcv20n_4.pdf

See also Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia, Monticello: http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/jefferson-portrait-saint-m%C3%A9min-physiognotrace

On April 28, the International Obscura Day, you are invited to Firestone Library for a rare viewing of selected life and death masks from the Laurence Hutton Collection. Hutton was the dramatic critic for the New York Evening Mail from 1872 to 1874 and literary editor of Harper’s Magazine from 1886 to 1898. In 1897, he received the degree of A.M. from Princeton University and presented Rare Books and Special Collections with his collection of over sixty death masks of distinguished men and women.

A group of the expressive memonto mori will be on view from noon to 5:00. Stop by when you are able, free of charge. At 2:00, there will be an informal talk about these iconic artifacts, how they were made and how they found their way from a trash can in Manhattan to the rare book vaults of Princeton University.

The Atlas Obscura, a compendium of the world’s wonders, curiosities, and esoterica, was founded in 2009 by Joshua Foer and Dylan Thuras. To be included a place should appeal to our sense of wonder and curiosity, “places that expand our sense of what is possible and tell us something about ourselves, and about the wider world in which we live.”

Once each year, hundreds people around the world join together to create Obscura Day, offering rare and unusual sights and experiences to anyone who wishes to attend. Here is a link to Obscura Day 2011: http://atlasobscura.com/obscura-day/

When the complete list for Obscura Day 2012 is ready, it will be posted here: http://obscuraday.com

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616), The History of Don Quixote;
edited by J. W. Clark and a biographical notice of Cervantes by T. Teignmouth Shore; illustrated by Gustave Doré (London; New York: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, [1864?]). Previous owner William Taylor Scheide (1847-1907). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2004-0809Q

“His carte de viste is in such request that his photographer cannot supply the demand; and an order sent from this country for a dozen or two copies remained for weeks unfilled. Better still the publishers vie with each other for the privilege of giving his works to the public. He is able to name his own terms, and finds that no publisher considers them too high.”

The reaction of the critics, on the other hand, was mixed. An unsigned review in Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art (February 6, 1864), comments “Whether M. Doré has been employed to illustrate Cervantes, or Cervantes to illustrate M. Doré, will be a nice problem for the critics … [and] for the fortunate mortals who can be expected to become their purchasers. … the conception of Don Quixote’s personal appearance is a vulgar one, of which we speedily grow tired. If is assumed that he cannot be made ridiculous enough by a gaunt figure or a dismal countenance unless his bearing and attitude are made positively clumsy and lubberly.”

“There have recently been published two new editions of Don Quixote of the class styled “sumptuous,” writes a critic for The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature (August 1868). “One is a reprint of one of the worst translations in the English language and the other is in Spanish. The first is illustrated by M. Gustave Doré who, if anything, understands his author even less than the translator…”

Dekisai kyō miyage (Dekisai’s Souvenirs of Kyoto). H. Isoda, 1677. 7 volumes; 54 woodblock prints; woodblock text. Graphic Arts GAX 2012- in process

At a time when Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-1694) was the illustrator of choice in Kanbun era Edo (seventeenth-century Tokyo), ukiyo-e artist Yoshida Hanbei (active 1664-1692) was similarly in demand in Kyoto. These two artists were among the first to sign their work and so, among the first to be remembered as the great book illustrators of Japan.

This seven volume guidebook to Kyoto has been attributed to the latter. Princeton also holds a seventeenth-century travel diary Kōshoku tabi nikki illustrated by Hanbei. In his History of Japanese Printing and Book Illustration, David Chibbett refers to Dekisai kyō miyage as a sequel to Kyo warabe (Child of Kyoto), an earlier guide to Kyoto by Nakagawa Kiun, published posthumously in 1658.

If you want to know about the culture and costumes in Rome during the early nineteenth century, look no further than Bartolomeo Pinelli. His portfolios of etchings include Collection of Roman Costumes, Another Collection of Roman Costumes, The Carnival of Rome, Roman History, Costumes of the Roman Countryside and so on.

These unbound sets have often been broken up, sold individually, and reassembled into personalized compilations for private collectors. Graphic Arts holds such an album titled Twenty-Seven Etchings Illustrative of Italian Manners and Costume (1844), “comprising Picturesque Costumes of Rome, in twelve plates; The Carnival, in five plates; and Adventures of Massaroni, in ten plates.”

Our theater collection holds several views depicting popular entertainments, including a peep show and a Punch and Judy show. In the first, the showman raises the top of the box to light the picture inside from the front, showing a scene during the day. When he closes the top, the light comes from behind through holes in the back and gives the impression of a nighttime scene. If he does this carefully, it should look to the viewer as though the scene is changing from day into night. His wife provides the musical accompaniment.

From there, Haberly moved to Gregynog Press but only stayed for two years, producing only four volumes. His best work during this period may be Cyrupaedia, (1936) published in an edition of 150 hand-set and hand-bound copies. Haberly’s bindings tend to be overly ornate but in this case, he successfully balances a simple design with bright color.

Haberly returned to the United States and ended his long career as an English professor and dean at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. The original University shield, recently updated, was designed by Haberly. He continued to print and publish books of his own poetry throughout his life.

With thanks to Jay Satterfield, who has written an extended biography of Loyd Haberly (1993): http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/satter2.htm

His obituary in the New York Times can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/28/obituaries/loyd-haberly-dies-at-84-poet-teacher-and-dean.html

E. Goddwyn Lewis (1827-1891), Charles Dickens, 1869. Pastel on paper, author age fifty-seven. Gift of Thomas W. Hotchkiss, Class of 1989. Morris L. Parrish Collection, Rare Books and Special Collections

This portrait was drawn by Lewis the year Charles Dickens (1812-1870) collapsed due to a mild stroke and was forced to give up public readings. Only one year later Dickens suffered another stroke and passed away. Very little is known about the artist, except that he moved to Melbourne, Australia in 1880, where he worked until his death.

The original company consisted of forty performers including the composer and performer James Bland (1854-1911), who dropped out of Harvard University to pursue a career in music.

There is an interesting moment when the white and black companies merge to produce mammoth spectacles. On August 27, 1895, Cleveland’s company played Washington D.C.’s Academy of Music and the Washington Post reported, “Cleveland’s latest effort in the amusement line is a sort of combination of burnt cork and genuine negro minstrelsy [sic] … For the opening attraction, Mr. Cleveland promises one of the largest minstrel companies that has ever visited Washington.”

“The first part is said to be a distinct innovation. When the curtain rises a complete minstrel show of white performers, including orchestra, &c., is seen; a second curtain is drawn disclosing a complete troupe of colored performers; the third curtain brings to view a troupe of eleven Arabs, while the fourth and last curtain brings to view a troupe of ten Japanese, making a total of eighty-one performers in all.”

The finale was declared “excruciatingly funny.”

In his Dictionary of Paris, Charles Dickens wrote “Public balls [and] the bals masqué de l’opéra have always been popular in Paris. It is the fashion nowadays to say that these balls are no longer what they were, that they are lifeless and that half the fun has gone from them. There is some truth in the complaint, for fifty years ago they were all the rage; the costumes then were droll and grotesque; people then took trouble and went to some expense to dress themselves so that each one should add his share to The gaiety of the scene; therefore, of souse, the dancing was more vigorous and hearty. For a few years, from 1830 to 1836, the dancing was very wild; from that date it has never been completely uproarious….”

“Still the sight is one to be seen. …The whole floor of the theatre is boarded over, and one may walk without interruption, except that caused by the crowd, from the back of the stalls to the back of the stage. …There are those who go to the bals masqué de l’opéra merely as a thing of fashion, others go to enjoy themselves; and the line of demarcation between the dancers—that is between the great crowd—and those that stand aloof in the foyer and in the passages where people walk up and down and see their friends is clearly marked. Some of the fine folk disdain the crowd; we may be certain that the feeling is reciprocal.”

Artist unknown, Bals masqués, 1853. Lithograph. Graphic Arts Theater Collection.

Listen to a quadrille by Musard:

British Museum

nearly 100 Houses, about 20 of which fronted Cornhill, … notwithstanding all possible Means were used to stop them, there being upwards of 50 Engines, …”

Within days, William Henry Toms (active 1724-1765) engraved and published a print of the tragedy. Twelve years later, the copper plate was reprinted to decorate the top of a broadside advertising the services of the fire engine manufacturer John Bristow (active 1769-1795).

We recently acquired a copy of the print from the top of the broadside. The back of the sheet has been used as a manuscript bill, dated October 12 1787, relating to work carried out by Bristow on the fire engine belonging to the combined city parishes of St. Michael, Queenhithe and Holy Trinity. Possibly, Bristow kept a series of these prints to use for bills and receipts.

To see one of Bristow’s fire engines, visit the Bicester Local History Society: http://www.blhs.org.uk/index.php?page=fire-engine

Graphic Arts has a large and until now, uncatalogued collection of American comic almanacs from Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore. Here are a few samples, primarily from the 1830s.

American Comic Almanac (Boston: Charles Ellms). Graphic Arts GAX 2012- in process
Elton’s Comic All-My-Nack (New-York: Elton and Harrision). Graphic Arts GAX 2012- in process
National Comic Almanac (Boston: Association of Gentlemen). Graphic Arts GAX 2012- in process
Rip Snorter Comic Almanac (New York: Philip P. Cozans). Graphic Arts GAX 2012- in process
Sam Slick Comic All-My-Nack (New-York: Philip P. Cozans). Graphic Arts GAX 2012- in process
Turner’s Comic Almanak (Philadelphia: Turner and Fisher). Graphic Arts GAX 2012- in process
United States Comic Almanac (Philadelphia: King and Baird). Graphic Arts GAX 2012- in process

Klimsch’s Jahrbuch (Klimsch’s Yearbook) (Frankfurt am Main: Verlag von Klimsch & Co., 1900-1940). Complete in thirty-three volumes. Subtitle varies from Eine übersicht über die Fortschritte auf Graphischem Gebiete (An Overview of the Progress in the Field of Graphics) to Technische Abhandlungen und Berichte über Neuheiten aus dem Gesamtgebiet der Graphischen Künst (Technical Papers and Reports about Innovations in all Areas of the Graphic Arts).

Ferdinand Karl Klimsch (1812-1890) established the Frankfurt printing firm Klimsch & Co. in 1858. Originally a specialty firm offering commercial lithographic printing, the company expanded into all aspects of printing and continued to operate through 1995.

In 1900 the company issued a report on the state of printing arts in Germany and continued the practice each year until WWII got in the way. Articles ranged from general histories and biographies to in-depth studies in paper technology, electroplating, typography, photographic printing processes, and the evolution of press machinery, much of it written by Friedrich and Konrad Bauer.

But it is the samples of contemporary printing that really make the publication unique. Each issue includes specimens of coated papers, varnishes and inks, embossed labels, monochrome and multicolor typography, as well as printing on foil, on cellulose, and cloth. Paging through the volumes, we see the German graphic aesthetic transform from the decorative Jugendstil to the dynamism of the Futurists and then, the social realism of the rising Nazi party.

The 1932 issue features a retrospective on the first 25 volumes. All of the volumes include tables of contents and the 1935 issue includes an index to volumes 25-28.

Graphic Arts recently acquired a number of books on the history and making of American, British, French, and German papers. Here are a few other titles:

L.L. Brown Paper Co., Makers of the Standard Linen, Ledger and Record Papers: Samples, Sizes, Weights and Price-List (Adams, Mass.: L.L. Brown Paper Co., 1887). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2012-0044N

Union centrale des Arts Décoratifs, 7e Exposition organisée au Palais de l’Industrie 1882. Deuxième exposition technologique des industries d’art, le bois, les tissus, le papier (Paris: Quantin, 1883). Supplément au numèro de la Revue des Arts Décoratifs du 20 Février 1883, numéro exceptionnel du bulletin officiel de l’union centrale. Graphic Arts GAX 2012- in process.

Willy Grünewald, Papierhandel: ein Hilfsbuch für Papierhändler, -Verarbeiter und -Verbraucher (Berlin: Verlag der Papier-Zeitung Carl Hofmann, 1927). Graphic Arts GAX 2012- in process.

Richard Parkinson, A Treatise on Paper, with an Outline of its Manufacture, Complete Tables of Sizes, etc., for Printers and Stationers (Clitheroe: R. Parkinson; London: Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1894). Graphic Arts GAX 2012 in process.

A wonderful checklist of the Aldine “tip top” detective novels can be found at http://mysteryfile.com/TipTop/Detective.html.

Steve Holland posted a biography of Robert Prowse Jr. and his father, also a prolific artist of penny dreadfuls. This can be found at: http://john-adcock.blogspot.com/2010/01/tale-of-two-roberts-by-steve-holland.html

Holland writes, “It was around 1893 that Robert Prowse junior began his association with the Aldine Publishing Co., producing illustrations for their partwork publications of Burrage’s The Lambs of Littlecote and The Island School amongst many other contributions. His illustrations appeared in Aldine’s Garfield Boys’ Journal (1894-95) and Aldine Cheerful Library (1894-95), and he worked for most of Aldine’s library titles, becoming their main cover artist from the mid-1890s.”

“His work can be found on Boys’ First-Rate Pocket Library, Aldine Detective Tales, and Aldine Romance of Invention, Travel and Adventure Library in the 1890s. Probably his most famous covers were for the Aldine Robin Hood Library, and he continued to provide cover art for years to come, his last known work appearing on the Aldine Invention Library (1913) and Aldine Cinema Novels (1915).”

Note, the book covers really are blue, not just bad photography.

Watanabe Shōtei (or Seitei, 1852-1918), Shōtei kachō gafu (省亭花鳥画譜 / Picture Album of Shōtei’s Birds and Flowers) (Tōkyō: Okura Magobē, [1890-1891]). Graphic Arts GAX 2012 Japanese

William Henry Walker (1871-1938), Santa Speeding Down Road in Motorized Sleigh, 1903. Charcoal on paper. Signed and dated in ink, l.c.: ‘Wm. H. Walker 1903’. Published in Life Magazine, December 10, 1903. Graphic Arts GA 2006.01951

William Henry Walker (1871-1938), Elves Serving Dinner to Santa and Mrs. Claus, 1903. Charcoal on board. Published in Life Magazine December 10, 1903. Graphic Arts GA 2008.01214

In the William H. Walker Cartoon Collection MC068, housed in Mudd Library, there are approximately 1,000 pen-and-ink cartoon drawings, which Walker published in Life magazine between 1894 and 1922.

Recently, we found eight additional charcoal sketches in graphic arts, which will now be moving over to Mudd so that researcher will have access to all drawings in one convenient location.

Born on February 13, 1871, Walker started drawing cartoons for Life in 1894 and joined the staff full-time four years later. The magazine, still barely ten years old, successfully promoted Walker’s combination of serious politics and humor. Drawings at Mudd Library focus particular attention on the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.

Other drawings moving to Mudd include:
The Father of Our Country as Seen by His Children, n.d. [ca. 1907].
Do You Ever Think of Being Married? Think? Think!! Why, I worry! 1898.
Two Seated Women with Books, 1898.
Woman on Steps Calls to Boys in Sailor Suits, 1898.
Cadet. Lieut. Capt. Col. Gen., 1909.

Pastorale. Wood-engravings by Lucien Pissarro, with a note on the Kelmscott paper by John Bidwell ([Oxford]: Ashmolean Museum; [New York]: The Morgan Library & Museum; Risbury, Herefordshire: Whittington Press, 2011). Copy 53 of 100. Graphic Arts GAX 2012- in process.

“The 100 copies half-bound in Oasis leather and pre-war Fabriano Ingres are printed on the Flower paper made for the Kelmscott Press, and also contain the proofs and additional engraving. The 160 regular copies are half-bound in Fabriano Ingres papers and printed on the Crown and Sceptre paper”.

Sutton Nicholls (active early 18th century), Gates of London, no date [1731]. Engraving. GA 2005.01593

This eighteenth-century print describes the ten London gates, each within a black border with a compass and description beneath. They are Ald-Gate, Bishops-Gate, Moore-Gate, Cripple-Gate, Alders-Gate, New-Gate, Lud-Gate, Temple Bar, Kings-Gate, the King Street gate at Westminster.

The engraving was first published in a portfolio entitled London Described; or Perspective Views and Elevations of Noted Buildings by the London print and map seller John Bowles in 1731 (only one copy in OCLC). According to the British Museum, “most of the prints had been issued before, but this one is only mentioned in Bowles’ 1731 catalogue, not the 1728.”

Engravings of the individual gates were used in various editions of Stow’s The History and Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, and elsewhere. For information on the restoration of Temple Gate, see http://www.thetemplebar.info/

Saitö Shözö (1887-1961), Bookplates in Japan (Tokyo: Meiji-Shobo [1941?]). GAX 2009-2016N c.2. Gift of Gilbert McCoy Troxell.

Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) after a design by George Moutard Woodward (1760-1809), A Parody on Milton!, 1808. Etching. Graphic Arts Rowlandson Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895.

On she came—such as I saw her in my dream—
Grease was in all her steps—Geneva [gin] in her hand,
and every Gesture, reeling ripe for fun!!

This is a slight variation on lines from Paradise Lost (Book 8):
…When out of hope, behold her, not far off,
Such as I saw her in my dream, adorn’d
With what all Earth or Heaven could bestow
To make her amiable; on she came,
Led by her heavenly Maker, though unseen,
And guided by his voice; nor uninform’d
Of nuptial sanctity and marriage rites:
Grace was in all her steps, Heaven in her eye,
In every gesture dignity and love.

Who knew we had so many pictures of elephants?

http://libweb5.princeton.edu/RBVisuals/index.htm

Searching the “visuals” database for graphic arts (including prints, drawings, photographs, paintings, sculpture, and other non-book items in the library) just got easier. The link above should take you to the same location but a new, easier to use access database of our collections. Thanks to Gary Buser, our Application Delivery Lead Analyst, each field is key word searchable. And, the subject key word also searches through our free-text note field.

Give it a try and let us know if you see problems.