Monthly Archives: April 2014

Daesh’

daesh 3Don’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

sayer gazette2James 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.

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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

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rothchild of light

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.

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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

20140428_144643_resizedOver 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.

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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

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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). .

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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.

bachardy spender drawingsDon 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

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bachardy winter

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

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ornamentation2Maurice 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
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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.

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Lending Day at the Princeton Print Club

princeton print club 19“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.”
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princeton print club 16The 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.princeton print club 14
princeton print club14Once 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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Masqueronians, in English and in French

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rowlandson mascaronian6Joseph Grego writes “On August 15, 1800, Mr. Ackermann issued at his Repository of Arts, 101 Strand, a series of six plates designed and etched in [Thomas] Rowlandson’s boldest and most spirited style, and finished and coloured in almost exact imitation of the original drawings. Each plate contains three large distinct heads, festooned with attributes peculiar to the respective designs.”

“It is not very clear whether these symbolical groupings, which are superior in execution to the average of Rowlandson’s published works, were devised to be cut up for scrap-books, screens, or wall borderings, but they have become remarkably scarce since the date of publication, and sets of these typical heads (eighteen in all) are rarely met with at the present date.”

The Masqueronians are named:
Plate one: Philosophorum, Fancynina, Epicurum
Plate two:  Penserosa, Tally ho! Rum!, Allegoria
Plate three: Physicorum, Nunina, Publicorum
Plate four: Funeralorum, Virginia, Hazardorum
Plate five: Battleorum, Billingsgatina, Trafficorum
and Plate six: Barberorum, Flora, and Lawyerorum.

In 1814, a possibly forged set of Rowlandson’s designs was released by the Parisian publisher Vallardi, under the title Caricature Anglaises. The sheets held at Princeton, under the heading Symbolical groupings, [Grego’s words] are two per page and several of the figures are laterally reversed, presumably traced from the original.

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Dorothy George describes one plate as from “a group of Caricatures Anglaises that was listed by Vallardi in the Bibliographie de France for 10 September 1814. It is a partial copy of a print by Rowlandson with heads titled Billingsgatina and Battleorum, from the series Masqueronians (1800).”

“The French series has copies after most of the Masqueronians, other known titles as follows (from impressions in the collection of Nicholas Knowles):
No. 8, Mons. Friteur gargotier ambulant, La fantasie (Epicurum, Fancynina)
No. 9, Mons Craque Perruqier Mad. Flore (Barberorum, Flora)
No. 10, Mons. Sabbat Avocat. La religeuse (Lawyerorum, Nunina)
No. 12, La comedie. Mons. Taiant chasseur (Allegora, Tally! Ho! Rum!)
No.14, La Tragedie Le croque Morts (Penserosa, Funeralorum)”

 

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Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), Masqueronians ([London, Ackermann, 1800]). 8 col. pl. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Oversize Rowlandson 1800.71f

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), Symbolical groupings ([London, Ackermann, 1814]). 3 col. pl. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Oversize Rowlandson 1800.7f

 

Tempesta, “Raging death steers the boat”

tempesta vita2Antonio Tempesta (1555-1530), Vita et miracula D. Bernardi Clarevallensis abbatis. Opera & industria Congregationis regularis obseruantiae eiusdem Hispaniarum ad alendam pietatem Vniuersi Ordinis Cisterciensis. Aeneis formis expressa. Pars prior. Cum priuilegio, & superiorum permissu. = The Life and Miracles of Lord Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux. The Works and Diligence of His Regular Observant Congregation of Spaniards for the Spiritually Nourishing Piety of the Whole Cistercian Order. Printed with copper plates. Part one. With the privilege and permission of the superiors (Rome, 1587). 56 engravings depicting the life of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 or 1091-1153), 11 with monograms identifying various printmakers.

Bound with: Les Portraits de quelques personnes signalées en piété … de l’ordre des minimes (S.l., 1668) and Les figures et l’abrégé de la vie, de la mort et des miracles de S. François de Paule (Paris, 1664). More about these two in other posts.

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Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630) was a multifaceted Baroque artist who worked both large and small, in color and in black & white, designing enormous wall frescos as well as modest, albeit complex, book illustrations. In Rome, he was one of the artists Pope Gregory XIII selected to decorate the Loggia Gallery of the Vatican Palace, among many other projects. At the same time, he produced over 1,500 engraving, released in portfolios and as bound plates.

For his first published book, Tempesta was commissioned by the Cistercian Order to tell the story of the French abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, (1090-1153) who founded a monastery known as Claire Callée or Clairvaux. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Bernard “began that active life, which has rendered him the most conspicuous figure in the history of the 12th century. He founded numerous other monasteries, composed a number of works, and undertook many journeys for the honor of God.”
tempesta vita9tempesta vita10Custodit Dominus animas sanctorum suorum. Psal. 96. Lib. I. Cap. XII. Aduersa laborans valetudine uno tempore, & de daemone, & de morte triumphat. = [The Lord] preserveth the souls of his saints. Psalms 97:10. Book 1, ch. 12. Struggling simultaneously against disease, the devil, and death, he triumphs.

For the text, the Jesuit, humanist and polygraph Giulio Roscio (1550-1591) was selected, a specialist in religious poetry. He wrote six lines of verse at the bottom of each of Tempesta’s plates. This one translates:

Lying sick in bed, Bernard sees both the horrors of the enemy, and the face of the one who is gentle in judging. /  This one befriends, that one flees; now the nether regions themselves hold no terrors; he, however, stands; and raging death steers the boat. / The boat also departs, and sets sail far from shore. A double crown encircles Bernard’s head.

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tempesta vita3See more of Tempesta’s work:

Antonio Tempesta, Metamorphoseon, siue, Transformationum Ouidianarum libri quindecim, æeneis formis ab Antonio Tempesta Florentino incise… (Amsterodami, Wilhelmus Ianssonius excudit [1606?]) Rare Books (Ex) NE662.T45 O94 1606

Antonio Tempesta, Septem orbis admiranda ex antiqvitatis monimentis collecta, et oblectationi pvblicae in aereas tabvlas ab Antonio Tempesta Florentino relata (Antuerpiae, Venduntur apud I.B. Vrintium [1608]) Marquand Library (SAX): Rare Books NE662.T24 A3

Otto van Veen, Batavorum cum Romanis bellum, engraved by Antonio Tempesta (Antuerpiae: Apud auctorem vaeneunt, 1612) Rare Books (Ex) Oversize 2009-0462Q