Yearly Archives: 2014

Penguin Designer Classics

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881), The Idiot (London: Penguin/Penguin designer Classics, 2006). Designed by Ron Arad (born 1951). One of 1000 copies. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process.

Since 1946, Penguin Books has been publishing Penguin Classics in volumes individually designed in unexpected formats. For their 60th anniversary in 2006, five Penguin Designer Classics were crafted by five internationally known artists, most with no previous experience in book design. Each volume was released in an edition of 1000 copies, with a transparent Plexiglas (Perspex) box serving as the book’s slipcase, which also supplies protection for the curious designs. The Graphic Arts Collection now has four of the five out-of-print classics.

The Israeli industrial designer and architect Ron Arad chose to publish Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot bound but without boards, stating “by not wanting to have a cover, it ended with the book becoming an amazing object that is alive, but which maintains its transparency. It becomes a glorious box with a book inside, almost like a monument.” The title and author are printed on the fore-edges of the paperback.

D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), Lady Chatterley’s Lover (London: Penguin/Penguin Designer Classics, 2006). Designed by Sir Paul Smith (born 1946). One of 1000 copies. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover (first published in 1928) was given to the British fashion designer Sir Paul Smith, who bound the volume in a silk jacket delicately embroidered with flowers and title information, along with the Penguin logo on the spine.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), Tender Is The Night: A Romance (London: Penguin/Penguin Designer Classics, 2006) Designed by Sam Taylor-Wood (born 1967). One of 1000 copies. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process.

Tender is the Night was first published in Scribner’s Magazine between January and April, 1934. For the new edition, American photographer Sam Taylor-Wood constructed a translucent dust jacket printed with a soft, almost muffled photograph, seen both from the front and the back. The tranquility of the scene is continued in the type, barely visible at the top.

Also acquired was Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881), Crime and Punishment (London: Penguin/Penguin designer Classics, 2006) Designed by Fuel. One of 1000 copies. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process.

The graphic design firm Fuel was founded in 1991 by London artists Damon Murray and Stephen Sorrell. In general, Fuel books are initiated and compiled by the firm itself so this volume is fairly unique within their catalogue. The brown paper wrapper they created is printed in red with Russian text sandwiched between the English.

Still to be found is Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), Madame Bovary, designed by the Spanish artist Manuel Blahnik (born 1942) founder of the high-end shoe brand Manolo Blahnik.

Edwin Denby, architect

Edwin Hooper Denby (American, 1873/74–1957) was an architect and member of the architectural firm, Denby and Nute. In the New York Times obituary, January 18, 1957, it was noted that in 1899 Denby opened offices in New York City and Bar Harbor, designing churches, schools, and residences all over the East Coast. “Mr. Denby also was a type designer, and he was made a fellow of the Institute of American Genealogy for his design of a genealogical chart.”

The Graphic Arts Collection has a collection of his watercolors and two of Denby’s sketchbooks, offering a private look into some of the artist’s informal designs.

Note the artist’s stenciled cover design

Daesh’

Don’t miss the wonderful post my colleague Thomas Keenan, Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Librarian wrote just now describing our new collection of daesh’ or dayosh’ (You Give), acquired jointly with the Graphic Arts Collection.

https://blogs.princeton.edu/seees/2014/04/30/198/

Gazette Extraordinary

James Sayers (1748-1823), A Gazette Extraordinary from Berkeley Square, May 31, 1794. Aquatint and etching. Published by Hannah Humphrey, London. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2014- in process.

The Gazette is the Official Journal of the United Kingdom, Scotland and Northern Ireland (according to the National Archives of the UK). Originally called The Oxford Gazette, it is the world’s oldest continuously published newspaper and is still published “with Authority,” as it has been since it was established by Charles II.

The London Gazette contained all official dispatches when Britain was at war and these supplements were ‘extraordinary’ issues. For example the London Gazette extraordinary published 22 June 1815, announced victory at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June.

Here, dressed as a newsboy, is William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne and 1st Marquess of Lansdowne (1737-1805) who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1782–1783. The newspaper he is delivering a Gazette Extraordinary: Published without Authority Monday May 26th 1794 Berkeley Square, with two columns of text beneath: “Intelligence from America Lie the Ist Intelligence from France Lie the 2d Intelligence from Holland Lie ye 3d Intelligence from Italy Lie ye 4th Intelligence from Algiers Lie the 5th [signed] I am &c. Malagrida.”

He calls, “Bloody News Great News” and outside the garden wall other demonstrators are calling “Ça ira Ça ira” (“It will be fine,” the song of the French revolution)

Dorothy George notes that the sheet represented Lansdowne as “denying all reports of British successes (news of the capture of Martinique reached London on 21 Apr. of St. Lucia on 16 May). On 23 May news of the Duke of York’s defeat at Turcoing-Roubaix reached London, on 25 May a supplementary dispatch from the Duke of York announcing the repulse of a French attack was published in a ‘Gazette Extraordinary’. On 30 May Lansdowne, speaking on Bedford’s motion for putting an end to the war, maintained that the allied armies were unable to subjugate France.”

Of Light and Shade

A specialist on the art of Leonardo, Jean Paul Richter (1847-1937) completed a translation and examination of the artist’s notebooks entitled Literary Works of Leonardo in 1883. Chapter 3 of volume 1 presents six books on the effects of light and shade, which are now available in full text online (III. Six Books on Light and Shade).

In response to these chapters, the contemporary artist Judith Rothchild created six intaglio prints, using mezzotint with rocker, roulette and, dry point additions. These were matched with text set by Mark Lintott in Vendome Romain and printed by him on an Albion press. Lintott bound the entire set in wrappers and a slipcase covered with handmade papers screenprinted by Rothchild.

Leonardo da Vinci, Of Light and Shade from the Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci…as compiled, translated, and edited by Jean Paul Richter. Intaglio prints by Judith Rothchild ([Octon, France]: Verdigris Press, 2009). Copy 9 of 15. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process.

118. Of Light. “The lights which may illuminate opaque bodies are of four kinds. These are: diffused light as that of the atmosphere, within our horizon. And Direct, as that of the sun, or of a window or door or other opening. The third is Reflected light; and there is a fourth, which is that which passes through [semi] transparent bodies, as linen or paper or the like, but not transparent like glass, or crystal, or other diaphanous bodies, which produce the same effect as though nothing intervened between the shaded object and the light that falls upon it; and this we will discuss fully in our discourse.” http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/dv/

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, compiled and edited from the original manuscripts, by Jean Paul Richter … (London: S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1883). Marquand Library Oversize ND1130 .L56q

Typography VIS 215

Over at 185 this week, the students of Graphic Design: Typography with David Reinfurt pinned paper to the wall to share their innovative designs using words and images. The class has been reading essays by Beatrice Warde (1900-1969), Herbert Bayer (1900-1985), László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), and Paul Elliman, which provide “the raw material for hot metal typesetting in the letterpress print shop, photo-typesetting in the mechanical paste-up studio, and state of the art typesetting and design software in the digital computer lab.” They practiced design not only from their own imagination but in the spirit of historical masters.

As an additional exercise this year, each of the students designed a class stone for Nassau Hall. http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S39/63/00K80/#comp000052ff592200000035935c56

What a treat it was to see all the provocative and strong pages to come from the class.

20140428_160836_resized

Since 2010, David Reinfurt has been teaching elements of graphic design to Princeton students, opening the type shop to them for the first time in many years as well as a state of the art digital studio. In addition to his teaching, in 2012 Reinfurt, Stuart Bailey and Angie Keefer set up a 501c3 corporation called The Serving Library, a cooperatively-built archive that assembles itself by publishing. It consists of 1. an ambitious public website; 2. a small physical library space; 3. a publishing program which runs through #1 and #2. http://www.servinglibrary.org/

Happy Birthday Don Bachardy

Inside back cover, image under Japanese paper

Next month on May 18, portrait artist Don Bachardy will celebrate his eightieth birthday. Thanks to the generosity of Peter Putnam, Class of 1942 (1927-1987) and the Mildred Andrews fund (named for his mother), the Graphic Arts Collection holds 27 portrait drawings by this talented California artist. In addition, Putnam donated several books of Bachardy’s portraits, including October (1981) and Don Bachardy: 100 Drawings (1983). .

To these gifts, we added the collaboration between Bachardy and the actress/printer Gloria Stuart (1910-2010), published through her private press Imprenta Glorias. The design of the book, embellishments, handset type, and printing were all accomplished Stuart, while the images and text are by Bachardy. All 30 copies were bound by Allwyn O’Mara.

Don Bachardy (born 1934), Portrait of Stephen Spender, January 21, 1964. Pencil on paper with ink wash. Graphic Arts Collection. Gift of Peter Putnam, Class of 1946

Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986), October, drawings by Don Bachardy (Los Angeles, Calif.: Twelvetrees Press, 1981). Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Oversize PR6017.S5 Z47 1981q

Don Bachardy (born 1934), Don Bachardy, one hundred drawings (Los Angeles: Twelvetrees Press, 1983). Graphic Arts Collection (GA) NC139.B24 A4 1983

Don Bachardy (born 1934), The Portrait ([Los Angeles]: Imprenta Glorias, 1997). Copy 10 of 30. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize Z232.I326 B32q

Stencil ornamentation

Maurice Pillard Verneuil (1869-1942), L’ornementation par le pochoir (Paris: Schmid, [1896?]). Portfolio of pochoir plates. Charles Rahn Fry Pochoir Collection. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize NK8667.V47 O76f

At the turn of the last century, the French artist and decorator Maurice Verneuil published a series of model books for the stencil design of wallpaper, cloth, ceramics, carpets, stained glass, jewelry, and much more. Through his writings he played an important role in the definition of ornamental style between the floral decoration of 1900 and its evolution to Japonisme at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925. Here are some of his earliest designs.

Lending Day at the Princeton Print Club

“Lending Day” at the Princeton Print Club was an semi-annual ritual on campus throughout the 1940s and well into the 1950s. As a reporter for the Princeton Alumni Weekly noted, these young men are “continuing a six-year custom that has caught the fancy of the undergraduate body.” Each fall and spring, the Princeton Print Club staged its lending day and in 1946 “a record crowd queued up outside 36 University Place to choose from the group of 400 contemporary American originals made available. Each man was entitled to select one framed print to decorate his room for the remainder of the term. No charge or deposit fee is required, and in the six years since the program was instituted not a single print has been lost.”

The Club sponsored exhibition, lectures, and demonstrations. Above, Harry Shokler, president of the National Serigraph Society, demonstrated the correct technique to a group of students and faculty (and wives?). Below, John Taylor Arms showed the group how to make an etching.
Once or twice a week evening seminars were held at 36 University Place, where exhibitions were also mounted by the student members. Note the book binding over the fireplace.

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The 75th anniversary of the Princeton Print Club is coming soon. Do you remember the organization or did your father participate? We are collecting reminiscences and comments either below or at jmellby@princeton.edu. Thank you.

Tour of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croatians, and Slovenians

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Zájezd ,,,Národního shromáždění Č S R. do Království Srbů, Chorvatů a Slovinců ve dnech 2. – 12. října 1926 [Tour …of the National Assembly of the Republic of Czechoslovakia to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on October 2 to 12, 1926]. Album with 39 gelatin silver photographs and letterpress title page. Graphic Arts Collection. On deposit from Bruce C. Willsie, Class of 1986.

In 1922, a delegation of the National Group of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croatians and Slovenians visited Czechoslovakia, touring Prague (The National Assembly, the Senate, and Prague Castle) and the town of Hradec Králové.

In October of 1926, a group of seventy members of the Czechoslovakian National Assembly returned the compliment and paid a friendly visit to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed Yugoslavia in 1929). During the ten day trip, the delegation traveled to several towns, including Belgrade where they visited the Yugoslavian Parliament. They laid wreath at the Grave of Unknown Hero on the Avala Hill and in Split, the group watched a performance by Yugoslavian folk dancers.

Thanks to the generosity of Bruce C. Willsie, Class of 1986, the Graphic Arts Collection now holds what we believe to be an official album documenting the Czech delegation’s 1926 tour. Each photograph is embossed and credited to the Prague photography studio of A Wanner, also listed as A.F. Wanner. Tomáš Masaryk (1850-1937), chief founder and first president (1918–1935) of Czechoslovakia, is recognizable in these photographs as one of the few men with a beard.

To see a 1926 silent movie of the delegation on tour, prepared by Ministerstvo národní obrany, click here: http://film.nfa.cz/portal/avrecord/0063401.

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