Author Archives: Julie Mellby

Isabella Piccini and Angela Baroni, 18th-century engravers

Detail “Suor Isabella Piccini Sculpi”

Detail “Angela Baroni Scrisse Ve.a”

From: Bernardo Lodoli, Serenissimo Venetiarum Dominio ill[ustrissi]mo, et ecc[ellentissi]mo Arsenatus regimini Bernardi Lodoli … fidele votvm … ([Venetiis], [1703]). 12 leaves. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process. Thanks to Gail Smith, Senior Bibliographic Specialist. Rare Books Cataloging Team, who worked out the description of this item.

 

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a rare all-engraved publication by two eighteenth-century female printmakers, Sister Isabella Piccini (1644-1734) and Angela Baroni (active 1700s), with text by Bernardo Lodoli.

The bound compilation announces and endorses a forthcoming work, including its printed index and engraved title page.: Il cvore veneto legale formato dalla compilatione delle leggi … et altre cose notabili stabilite nel corso di cinque secoli per la buona a[m]ministratione … dell Arsenale di Venetia … Opera dal dottor Bernardo Lodoli … [Venezia] 1703. There are three full-page engravings and engraved title page by Piccini and “Cvore” title page; along with four leaves of text (one illustrated) engraved by Baroni.

For more information see: Morazzoni: Libro illustrato veneziano del settecento, Graphic Arts reference (GARF) Oversize Z1023 .M85 1943q, p.239.

Detail

Thanks to Eric White’s Bridwell Library exhibition “Fifty Women,” we now know “that Elisabetta Piccini (1644–1734) was the daughter of the Venetian engraver Giacomo Piccini (d. 1669), who trained her in the art of drawing and engraving in the styles of the great masters, particularly Titian and Peter Paul Rubens.

In 1666 she entered the Convent of Santa Croce in Venice and took the name Suor (Sister) Isabella. She continued to work as an engraver, accepting numerous commissions from Venetian publishers to illustrate liturgical books, biographies of saints, and prayer manuals. However, as a Franciscan nun dedicated to a life of poverty, she divided her earnings between her convent and her family living in Venice. Her long and productive career ended with her death at the age of ninety.”

For more, see the entry in the Enciclopedia delle donne: http://www.enciclopediadelledonne.it/biografie/elisabetta-piccini/

In this work, Piccini was partnered with Angela Baroni (active 1700s), who specialized in calligraphic engraving.

Detail

 

Detail

Piccini’s work can also be seen in: Missale Romanum : ex decreto Sacrosancti Concilii Tridentini restitutum, S. Pii V. Pontificis Maximi jussu editum, Clementis VIII. & Urbani VIII. Auctoritate recognitum ; in quo missæe novissimæ Sanctorum accuratè sunt dispositæ (Venetiis: ex Typographia Balleoniana, 1727). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2012-0009F

Carlo Labia, Dell’imprese pastorali (Venetia: Appresso Nicolò Pezzana, 1685). Rare Books (Ex) Oversize N7710 .L12q

Carlo Labia, Simboli predicabili estratti da sacri evangeli che corrono nella quadragesima, delineaticon morali, & eruditi discorsi da Carlo Labia….(Ferrara: Appresso B. Barbieri, 1692).Rare Books (Ex) Oversize N7710 .L122q

 

 

The Newsboy’s Debt and other Lantern Readings

The Lucerna Magic Lantern Website notes: No magic lantern show consisted of slides alone: there were always elements like music, audience participation, or the spoken word. Especially in the later nineteenth century, many slide producers published ‘readings’ giving a recitation, story, or lecture to accompany the slide images.

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a dozen or so Lantern Readings, the text that accompanies a particular set of slide. As noted on the covers, the scripts could be borrowed for a performance and returned when it was done. Today, they can be matched with the Magic Lantern Society’s Readings Library project, launched in 1995, which currently offers nearly 3,000 images, scripts, and music scores.

 

The Newsboy’s Debt: [originally published by Hannah R. Hudson, “The Newsboy’s Debt,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, May 1873].  Plot: A gentleman trusts a newspaper boy to get change, which he was to bring to his office. The lad, however, is run over, but sends his brother to say that when he gets well he’ll work to refund the money lost at the time of the accident.

References to this set:
1891 Catalogue of photographic lantern transparencies and apparatus: season 1891-2 (Bradford: Riley Brothers, 1891), 34
1891 Complete catalogue of lantern slides, dissolving views, magic lanterns etc. (London: UK Band of Hope Union, 1891), C 17
1894 Wood’s catalogue of slides, optical lanterns, and dissolving views apparatus: forty-eighth issue (London: E.G. Wood, 1894), 106
1905 Catalogue of optical lantern slides (Bradford: Riley Brothers, 1905), 16
1910 A detailed catalogue of photographic lantern slides, life models &c. (Holmfirth: Bamforth & Co., 1910), 13
1912 Lantern slide catalogue (Glasgow: J. Lizars, 1912), 45
1912 Wood’s catalogue of over 200,000 slides, optical lanterns etc.: 1912-13, sixty-seventh issue (London: E.G. Wood, 1912), 383
Other references (2)
1888 Stationer’s Hall copyright register, COPY 1/393/154-155 (27 July 1888)
1888 Walter D. Welford and Henry Sturmey (compilers), The ‘indispensable handbook’ to the optical lantern: a complete cyclopaedia on the subject of optical lanterns, slides, and accessory apparatus (London: Iliffe & Son, 1888), 299

 

 

While the Sabbath Bells Were Ringing:


While the Sabbath Bells Were Ringing By W. A. Eaton (1848-1915)

The sunshine fell on cottage-roofs and waving cornfields bright,
And all the world seemed lying still beneath the golden light.
The cattle stood beside the hedge, the sheep were in the fold,
The sunlight on the old church-tower lit up the fane of gold.

And from its nest in the long grass the lark was upward springing,
And softly on the evening air the Sabbath bells were ringing.
The organ-notes rang loud and deep, and sweetly sang the choir,
While through the colored window-panes the sunlight fell like fire.

And earnestly the minister lifted his voice in prayer;
The sunshine fell upon his face, and on his snow-white hair.
And then once more upon the air there came the sound of singing,
While softly, sweetly over all the Sabbath bells were ringing.

Within the street of a great town I saw a noisy throng;
And there were women wan and pale, and brawny men and strong.
And they were pressing round the door of a gin-shop warm and bright;
Within they drank and screamed for more — it was an awful sight.

And oh ! the din of babbling tongues, and loud, half -drunken singing,
While far above them, out of sight, the Sabbath bells were ringing.
And farther on I saw a crowd around two women stand;
And one of them, with eyes aflame and blood upon her hand,

Struck at the other like a fiend and felled her to the ground;
And no one tried to interpose of all who stood around.
She rose and glared upon her foe, like fiend from hell up-springing.
And this was in a Christian land, while the Sabbath bells were ringing.

 

The Quarryman’s Resolve by Joseph John Lane:

 

 

The Bathos

William Hogarth (1697-1764), Tailpiece, or The Bathos, 1764. Engraving. Graphic Arts Collection

There was a reference question this week concerning Hogarth’s last print, The Bathos, which is filled with all manner of images denoting the end of life as we know it. This led to a close reading, following entry no.216 in Ronald Paulson’s catalogue raisonne Hogarth’s Graphic Works, 3rd revised edition.

Paulson writes “This print is the culmination of such pessimistic images . . . . [taking] his general composition, the configuration of objects, and some of the particular items, from Dürer’s engraving, Melancholia; but he also recalls Salvator Rosa’s Democritus in Meditation (which derives from Dürer’s print) with a scroll at the bottom of the etching: ‘Democritus the mocker of all things, confounded by the ending of All Things’ (Antal, p.168).”

below left: Albrecht Dürer, Melancholia I, 1514. Engraving. Princeton University Art Museum, x1952-1

below right: Salvator Rosa, Democritus in Meditation, Etching. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012.136.848

“But,” Paulson adds, “Roubiliac’s Hargrave Monument (Westminster Abbey, 1757), with crumbling pyramid and Time himself breaking his scythe across his knee, must have been Hogarth’s primary inspiration.”Louis François Roubiliac, Monument to General William Hargrave, 1757. Photographic detail, Courtauld Institute of Art.

 

Hogarth includes several references to his own print The Times, including the entire sheet [seen above] catching on fire from a burning candle. Below we see a globe also on fire, as it is in the far right of The Times.


William Hogarth (1697-1764), The Times, plate 1, 1762. Engraving and etching. Graphic Arts GA113.

 

Paulson continues, “In the far distance is a sea with a sinking ship and a gallows on the shore (for hanging pirates). Above in the sky is Apollo and his horses dead, his chariot wheel broken, a limp parody of the group in Poussin’s The Kingdom of Flora.”

 

Nicolas Poussin, L’Empire de Flore, 1594. Oil on canvas. Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Dresden

 

Time’s “last will and testament reads: ‘all and every Atom thereof to [name crossed out; beneficiary changed to ] Chaos whom I appoint my sole Executor. Witness Clotho. Lachesis. Atropos’ (the three Fates, with their seals).

Behind him lies a statute of bankruptcy with a pendant seal (a pale horse and pale rider, probably Death, on it), labeled “H. Nature Bankrupt”; and an empty purse. A playbook open to its last page and Exeunt Omnes” [This is a stage direction to indicate that all the actors leave the stage].

 


Hogarth’s Graphic Works / compiled and with a commentary by Ronald Paulson. 3rd rev. ed. (London: Print Room, 1989). Graphic Arts: Reference Collection (GARF) Oversize ND497.H7 A35 1989q

See also: https://rbsc.princeton.edu/hogarth/

 

Es ist bitter, die Heimat zu verlassen

Romano Hänni, Es ist bitter, die Heimat zu verlassen [It is Bitter to Leave Your Home] (Basel: Hänni, 2017). Number 21 of 87 copies of the standard edition. Text in German, English, and Japanese. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process


Swiss artist Romano Hänni has spoken passionately about the devastating effects of contamination from nuclear facilities. His new book Es is bitter die Heimat zu verlassen concerns the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that occurred on March 11, 2011, as well as the ongoing impact of radioactive contamination.

Hänni writes that claims made by nuclear scientists “that no health consequences are to be expected from contamination are unscientific, immoral, and criminal.” He further states that “there is no peaceful use for nuclear energy. It is repressive, criminal and deadly. Only nuclear plants that have not been built can offer absolutely safety.”

His newest book is printed in five colors on paper towels, a technique the artist perfected with an earlier work: Typo bilder buch: von Hand gesetzt und auf der Handabziehpress gedruckt. Graphic Arts RCPXG-7350409. Small selections of text are juxtaposed with letters, images, and symbols to communicate the event and its aftermath. 

The artist writes “Work on this book began in December 2013, was interrupted by some commissioned work, and lasted until June 2017. The page format was determined by the paper: paper towels, maxi roll . . . The printing forms were composed from individual parts and printed on the hand proofing press. The Japanese text was [cast] and composed in the type foundry Sasaki Katsuji in Tokyo and delivered to Basel. For most of the pages several printing forms and printing runs are needed. The body of the book was bound by hand with thread. Overall production time was approximately 1400 hours.”

http://www.romano-haenni.ch/assets/21_it_is_bitter_to_leave_your_home_standard-edition-2017.pdf

Minnesota Center for the Book: “Educated at the Basel School of Design, [Romano] Hänni returns to the core values of traditional printing technique and modernist European design. The strict limitations of hand typesetting are his cornerstone, everything composed from the incremental units of type and spacing available in the type shop. Hänni’s work encompasses a wide range of fields in visual communication, from books, magazines, catalogs and newspapers to drawings, photography and journalism about design and everyday culture.”

 

The book is accompanied by a glossy 12-page color pamphlet with 108 photographs documenting the production process for this publication.

 

Printed in Blue

Alessandro Tassoni (1565-1635), La Secchia Rapita [The Captured Bucket]. Poema Eroicomico di Alessandro Tassoni Patrizio Modenese. Colle dichiarazioni di Gaspare Salviani, Romano. S’Aggiungono la Prefazione, e le Annotazioni di Giannandrea Barotti, Ferrarese; e la Vita del Poeta Composta da Lodovico Antonio Muratori Bibliotecario del Serenissimo Signor Duca di Modena (Modena: Bartolomeo Soliani Stamp. Ducale, 1744). Provenance: book plate of Marco di Carrobio. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process.

The War of the Oaken Bucket began late in 1325, when Malatestino dell Occhio, Lord of Rimini, led the Bolognese from Florence and Romagna to the fort at Monteveglio (12 miles west of Bologna) to regain a bucket of treasure stolen by the Modenese.
— https://www.warhistoryonline.com/military-vehicle-news/aerosan-war-sleds-red_army.html

Nearly three hundred years later in 1622, Tassoni published a mock-epic poem called La Secchia Rapita, which has also been translated as The Rape of the Bucket or The Stolen Bucket. Many translations and new edition followed, including two in 1744. The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired the larger of the two, called “stimmatissima edizione” and “belle edition,” and one of the few copies with the plates printed with blue ink.


“The poem is pervaded by an exuberant, satirical, and often brilliant humor. There are passages in which the humor is sustained and cumulative, and others in which an apparent seriousness finds its climate in a sudden hilarious absurdity” (Ernest Hatch Wilkins (1880-1966), A History of Italian Literature (1974) (F) PQ4038.W5 1974 pp. 298-9).

Based on the life of Alessandro Tassoni by Muratori, this edition includes a commentary by Giovanni Andrea Barotti, and notes by the author written under the pseudonym Gaspare Salviani.

Many of the best artists of the period worked on this publication, including engravings by Giuseppe Benedetti (1707-1782); Andrea Bolzoni (1689-1760); Francesco Zucchi (1692-1764);
and Antonio Zuliani from designs by Bartolomeo Bonvicini; Domenico Maria Fratta (1696-1763); Pietro Gradici; and Francesco Villani, among others.

“Intaglio colour printing developed only gradually before 1700. Monochrome colour-printed engravings and etchings appear regularly from the fifteenth century, and some experiments with polychrome intaglio printing date from the time that chiaroscuro woodcut emerged en force in the 1520s…. The reasons for monochrome colour printing may have ranged from practical, such as to distinguish designs for goldsmiths (printed in yellow-brown) from those for silversmiths (printed in blue), to commercial, making the prints more attractive to collectors. — “Colour Printing in intaglio before c.1700,” in Printing Colour 1400-1700: History, Techniques, Functions and Receptions (2015).

 

See also:
Alexander Pope (1688-1744), The Rape of the Lock: an Heroic-Comical Poem in Five Canto’s [sic]. 2nd ed. (London: Printed for Bernard Lintott, 1714). Rare Books (Ex) 3897.374.11

Alessandro Tassoni (1565-1635), La Secchia Rapita; Poema Eroicomico … con le dichiarationi del sig. Gasparo Salviani [pseud.] el primo canto dell’ oceano nell’ vltimo corretti con gli originali (Bologna: Per G. Longhi [1670]). Editor: Paulino Castelucchio. Rare Books (Ex) 3138.01.38

Birds from Byzantium

 

 

Peter Lyssiotis, Birds from Byzantium = Pouliá tou Vyzantíou (Melbourne, Vic.: Masterthief, 2010). Text was written in 2009 at the Monastery of Mavrovouni in the Larnaca district of Cyprus. Greek translation by Andreas Psilides and Lefteris Olympios. Images by Peter Lyssiotis. Binding by Wayne Stock. Copy 17 of 18. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

The artist writes “Birds from Byzantium has been made in an edition of [18] and has been printed duotone on Mohawk Superfine paper. The text has been set in columns, justified to both left and right with no regard to word breaks as this was one of the design elements of the earliest hand scripted Bibles. Sure it makes the text difficult to read but it also traps the eye and gives a nod to tradition.

The images are collages. As a backdrop they have a Bible commentary in Greek. The collages have been made so the text has a place to rest. On some pages there are drawings in ink by Lefteris Olympios. The binding is by Wayne Stock and has used aspects of Byzantine book design and place them in a contemporary setting: for example, the use of circles, the X, the use of gold, the [choice] of burgundy for the colour of the cloth and the bands on the spine.”

Peter Lyssiotis: http://www.australianphotographers.org/artists/peter-lyssiotis


See also:
Leonie Sandercock, Cosmopolis II: mongrel cities in the 21st century. Images by Peter Lyssiotis (London; New York : Continuum, 2003). Firestone Library (F) HT166 .S219 2003

Silent scream: political and social comment in books by artists: an exhibition, 26th September-26th November 2011, Monash University Rare Books Library within the Sir Louis Matheson Library curated and catalogue commentaries by Monica Oppen and Peter Lyssiotis (Sydney, Australia: Bibliotheca Librorum apud Artificem; Melbourne: Monash University Rare Books Library, 2011). Marquand Library (SA) N7433.3 .S545 2011

Printed Tobacco Wrappers

 

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a bound collection of 19th-century tobacco wrappers from the Dutch-German firm of Hendrik Oldenkott.  The volume holds approximately 194 printed wrappers with a variety of images and text, printed on many different paper stocks, both plain and colored. Some are stenciled, some letterpress, and a few are lithographed.

Michael Twyman writes, “Tobacco was among the first commodities to be sold in printed paper wrappers… The design element of tobacco papers was normally confined to the centre of the printed sheet, which was large enough to accommodate varying quantities of tobacco. The earliest designs were in the tradition of the bookplate, but later they took on the characteristics of the trade card and were often printed from plates actually designed as trade cards.” –(Ephemera, p. 329)

According to the Oldenkott records at http://www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Oldenkott

“Very little is known about the company. According to the albums the company was founded in 1760 in Amsterdam as Hermann Oldenkott, with since 1819 a subsidiary in Ahaus (Germany). Probably the factory had some other factories as well, as in 1838 August Kersten from Rees (Germany) bought the factories from Heinric Oldenkott in Elten (Germany) and Weesp (Holland). It is, however, not clear whether these were part of the same company as the original Oldenkott company.

This German company increased rapidly and became one of the largest German tobacco companies. In 1929 the factories from Hermann Oldenkott in Ahaus and Neuss (Germany) were bought by the German Oldenkott company. The German company also produced pipes since 1932. In 1972 the German company was bought by the Dutch company Niemeijer. Tobacco production ceased in 1974 and only pipes were still made. In 1987 the German pipe company was bought by the Kersten family again, but closed in 1992.”

Te souviens-tu

Warja Lavater (1913-2007), Te souviens-tu? [Do You Remember?] (Amsterdam: Da Costa, 1984). 16 panel leporello. Oblong folio, 22.5 x 12.5 cm, mounted between one split linocut block. Copy 11 of 20. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

 

The Swiss artist Warja Lavater was in her 70s when she partnered with the Galerie da Costa in Amsterdam to publish two leporellos, beginning with Te souviens-tu? and a year later Roman (Novel). The first is a rare project in which Lavater departs from her use of “visual codes” to re-interpret well-known narratives and uses instead visual text to interpret a song.

The title references (among other things) to the nineteenth-century popular song “Do you remember?” and the printed words can only be read through the veiled verso of the folded sheets; just as our memories often seem hidden behind a veil. Each copy of the book was mounted between one of the linoleum blocks used to print the text.


The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to acquire this rare book, only the second in an American public collection. We have one other book published by Da Costa, titled Identikit 32 by Manuel S. Menán (1946-1994).

 

Verso

 

30 books in 4 inches

Graphic Arts Collection Hamilton 1429s

Sinclair Hamilton writes, “Many of these [woodcuts] will be found in the 1807 edition of The Looking Glass for the Mind, the cuts in which are probably all by [Alexander] Anderson and follow generally his cuts in the 1795 edition of the same book. Some of the cuts in the present volume bear his initials. Indeed it seems likely that Anderson was responsible for the majority of the engravings in these 30 tracts.”


1. Address to a child. New York New York Religious Tract Society, D. Fanshaw, printer, 1824.
2. Advice to Sunday school children. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
3. Bread: the staff of life. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
4. Dennant, John. The Sabbath scholar: showing how he was rescued from ignorance and vice, by means of the Sabbath school / by Rev. J. Dennant. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
5. Eyes and no eyes, or, Eyes that see not: how to read the Bible aright. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
6. Little Sally of the Sunday school. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
7. Little Susan and her lamb. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, 1824.
8. Louisa’s tenderness to the little birds in winter. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
9. Mary Jones, or, The soldier’s daughter. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
10. Memoir of Miriam Warner. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
11. Mischief, its own punishment: exemplified in the history of William and Harry. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
12. Select verses for children. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
13. Sherwood, Mary Martha, 1775-1851. The May-Bee / by Mrs. Sherwood. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
14. Sherwood, Mary Martha, 1775-1851. The wishing cap / by Mrs. Sherwood. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
15. The affectionate daughter. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
16. The destructive consequences of dissipation and luxury. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
17. The goodness of providence: illustrated in several interesting cases. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, 1824.
18. The happy cottagers, or, The breakfast, dinner & supper: to which are added: The shepherd’s boy, reading to the poor widow. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
19. The happy man, or, The life of William Kelly; a true story. New York: New-York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
20. The happy Negro: to which is added: The grateful Negro. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
21. The history of Sally Butler. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
22. The image boys: translated from the French. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
23. The Irish girl: being a very interesting account of Anne Walsh, a poor Irish girl: and her conversation with a lady who visited her. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, 1824.
24. The Lord’s prayer. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
25. The orphan. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
26. The remarkable history of Elizabeth Loveless, or, Fidelity and filial affection: examplified and rewarded; very interesting to all young persons. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, 1824.
27. The shipwreck: showing what sometimes happens on our sea coasts; also giving a particular account of A poor sailor boy. New York: American Religious Tract Society, [1825?]
28. The Vine. New York: New York Religious Tract Society; 1824.
29. The wonderful cure of Naaman: a general in the Syrian army. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
30. The wreath. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]

 

 

Bilder-Zauberei

Bilder-Zauberei für Jung und Alt: eine unterhaltende Gesellschaftsspielerei [Magic Pictures for Young and Old, an Entertaining Paper Game] (Berlin: A. Sala, [ca. 1850]). Provenance: Helmut Bender (born 1925). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2017- in process.

The Graphic Arts Collection has acquired a 19th-century magician’s blow book. The fore-edges are tabbed, making five different sets of pictures appear or vanish by riffling the pages in different ways. It comes with the note, “With a flick of the finger, the performer can make a range of images appear and then disappear. First time round you might see farm animals, the next time round it is playing cards, paper cut silhouettes, or type specimens.”

In trying to date this volume, note Antonio Vinzenz Sala’s Kunst-Anstalt und Spielfabrik was founded in 1845 and one of the illustrations bears the date 1848.






See also:
The enchanted scrap book exhibiting pictures which appear and vanish at the word of command (London. E. Wallis, Skinner Street [between 1830 and 1847?]). Cotsen Children’s Library (CTSN) Moveables 19 8065

Zauber-Bilderbuch = Livre de la magie graphique = The magic picture book = Libro magico = Magyarázat ( [Germany : s.n., 18–?]). Rare Books (Ex) 2015-0871N