Author Archives: Julie Mellby

Havell’s Copper

The copper plates used by Robert Havell, Jr. (1793-1878) for the 435 hand-colored aquatints in John James Audubon’s four-volume The Birds of America, came from at least three London companies. Plate marks have been found for the Hiam Steel and Copper Plate Makers off City Road, where both William Lizars, of Edinburgh, and Havell began buying their enormous plates. There are also marks for Richard Hughes, a copper plate manufacturer off Fleet Street, while still others were from Pontifex and Stiles in Soho.

The National Portrait Gallery’s British artists’ suppliers, 1650-1950 lists the complex ownership and locations of the three companies: http://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/directory-of-suppliers/

William Hiam 1819? 1823-1856, Hiam & Sons 1857-1858, William Hiam & Co 1859-1873, William James Hiam 1874, William James Hiam & Son 1875-1916, William James Hiam 1917. At 9 Ratcliffe Row, Bath St, City Road, London 1823-1861, 195 Lever St, Bath St 1862-1891, 162 Lever St 1892-1911, 1 Ironmongers Row, St Lukes, EC 1912-1917. Also 13½ Exmouth St, Euston Square 1849. Steel and copper plate makers.

Richard Hughes 1820-1845, Mrs (Mary) Hughes 1846-1847, Miss Mary Hughes 1848-1850, Hughes & Kimber 1850-1874, Hughes & Kimber Ltd 1875-1909, Hughes & Kimber 1910-1940. At14 Lombard St, Fleet St, London by 1822-1825, 8 Peterborough Court, Fleet St 1826-1838, 107 Shoe Lane, Fleet St 1839-1856, 106 Shoe Lane 1850-1856, 5 Red Lion Passage, Fleet St 1856-1862, West Harding St, Fetter Lane 1863-1909, 3 West Harding St 1910, 9 Gough Square, Fleet St 1911-1940. Works, New Church Road, Mitcham, Surrey from 1880, Britannia Iron Works, Bury, Hunts 1881-1899. Copper and steel plate makers.
Russell Pontifex 1802, William Pontifex, Russell Pontifex & E. Goldwin 1805-1811, William & Russell Pontifex (& Co) 1808-1813, Russell Pontifex 1814-1828, Russell Pontifex & Co 1825-1829, Russell Pontifex & Son 1826-1833, Russell Pontifex 1834 [subsequently Russell Pontifex and/or one of his sons seems to have traded with Stiles at 23 Lisle St and in changing arrangements (see below) at Upper St Martin’s Lane], Pontifex & Stiles 1835-1848, William Stiles 1840-1857. At 126 Bunhill Row 1802, 46-48 Shoe Lane 1805-1813, 5 Lisle St, Soho, London 1814-1816, 23 Lisle St 1813-1857, 22 Lisle St 1818-1819. Initially a watchcase maker, from 1806 copper plate makers and coppersmiths. Russell Pontifex & Co 1827-1829, Russell Pontifex & Son 1830-1834, Russell Pontifex 1834, Russell Pontifex & Co (apparently Pontifex, Farr and Yeowell) 1835-1836, Pontifex & Farr 1837, Russell Pontifex 1839-1841, Pontifex & Mallory 1842-1853, Russell Pontifex 1854-1859, Russell Pontifex & Son 1860-1868, Russell and Alfred Pontifex 1869-1872, Russell Pontifex & Co 1873-1885, Russell Pontifex & Son 1886-1892, Russell Pontifex & Co 1893-1915. At 15-16 Upper St Martin’s Lane 1827-1849, 14 Upper St Martin’s Lane 1851-1915. Copper and engineering works.

This research is part of the upcoming conference: Blocks Plates Stones: Matrices/Printing Surfaces in Research and Collections, Thursday, 21 September 2017, Courtauld Institute of Art. Final program:
https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/events/conferences/BARSEA/BlocksPlatesStones-Programme-Final.pdf

Convened by Dr Elizabeth Savage (Institute of English Studies), “This deeply interdisciplinary conference will survey the state of research into cut woodblocks, intaglio plates, lithographic stones, and other matrices/printing surfaces. It will bring together researchers, curators, librarians, printers, printmakers, cataloguers, conservators, digital humanities practitioners, and others who care for or seek to understand these objects. The discussion will encompass all media and techniques, from the fifteenth century through the present.”

First class of the new year.

Romano Hanni, Werner Pfeiffer, Enrique Chagoya

 

We are beginning the new 2017/2018 academic year with a visit from VIS 214, Graphic Design with Francesca Grassi. The students were shown wonderful book arts, old and new, high and low, rare and well-known.

“This studio course will introduce students to the essential aspects and skills of graphic design, and will analyze and discuss the increasingly vital role that non-verbal, graphic information plays in all areas of professional life, from fine art and book design to social networking and the Internet.

Students in the course will explore visual organization through a series of focused, interrelated assignments dealing with composition, page layout, type design, and image. Hands on production will include an array of do-it-yourself printing and distribution technologies, from letterpress and mimeograph to photocopying and websites.”

Sign painter’s sample album, Alfred Jarry

 

Olafur Eliasson, Bruno Munari, Henry Wessells, Kenneth Josephson, Sol Lewitt

 

Warja Honegger-Lavater, Yoji Kuri, German baptismal certificate

 

Francesca Grassi, Lecturer in Visual Arts, is a New York-based independent graphic designer and creative director. After graduating in 2007 with an MFA in graphic design and typography from the Werkplaats Typografie, in The Netherlands, she worked as a freelance book designer collaborating on books with contemporary artists and fine art publishers.

From 2009–2012 Grassi worked as a designer at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she was responsible for the overall institutional identity as well as art directing, developing and executing all Museum graphic design needs for print, online and environmental applications.

Enrique Chagoya, Bruce Nauman, Richard Misrach, Ed Ruscha

Americana in Italian

Elio Vittorini (1908-1966), Americana: raccolta di narrator, a cura di Elio Vittorini; con una introduzione di Emilio Cecchi (Milano: Bompiani, 1947). (F) PS519 .V588 1947

 

This fall, 2017, Jhumpa Lahiri, Professor of Creative Writing, and Sara Teardo, Lecturer in French and Italian, will be teaching: “Translation Workshop: To and From Italian,” based on Elio Vittorini’s 1941 anthology Americana.

The book showcases “thirty-three American writers translated for the first time into Italian – transformed the literary consciousness of a nation under fascism.” An instance where “literary translation broke through barriers of parochialism and became a defining cultural phenomenon.” Also included are 100 plates of iconic American photographs.

Their announcement promoted a look at the book that inspired this class.


 

Papier du guimauve

Marshmallow [plant] paper

Charles-Michel, Marquis de Villette (1736-1793), Œuvres du marquis de Villette (Londres. [i.e. Langlée, France: P. A. Léorier Delisle], M. DCC. LXXXVI. [1786]). Together with 20 samples of leaves. From the printing collection of Elmer Adler. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2004-0061S.

In 18th century Paris, there was a shortage of linen and cotton rags for making paper and so, Pierre Alexandre Léorier Delisle (1744-1826), director of the paper mill at Langlée, near Montargis, began experimenting with various vegetable materials. His tried marshmallow (plant) paper, nettle paper, as well as hops, moss, reeds, sponge, couch root, linden and willow bark, thistle leaves and more.

Charles-Michel Villette had his writings published by Léorier Delisle using his vegetable paper. A note on the verso of the half title page notes, “Ce volume est imprimé sur le papier d’écorce de tilleul” [This volume is printed on linden bark paper]. It was Leorier Delisle’s second attempt at using non-rag paper. Two years earlier, he published Les loisirs des bords du Loing, ou Recueil de pièces fugitives, poems by Marie-Joseph-Hippolyte Pelée de Varennes (1741-1794), not held by Princeton.

At the back of each book, various paper samples are bound in. At the back of the Graphic Arts Collection copy are bound in twenty sample leaves, each one identified:

papier de guimauve
papier d’ortie
papier de houblon
papier de mousse
papier de roseaux
papier de conferva (première / seconde / troisième espèce)
papier de racines
papier de chiendent
papier de bois de coudrier
papier de bois de fusain
papier d’écorce de fusain avec son épiderme ou croûte
papier d’écorce de chéne
papier d’écorce de peuplier
papier d’écorce d’osier
papier d’écorce d’orme
papier d’écorce de saule
papier de bardanne
papier de bardanne et de pas-d’ane
papier de chardons.

Reed paper [above] and Nettle paper [below]

Marshmallow plant

Conversation on NYPL



Beginning this week, Frederick Wiseman’s newest documentary Ex Libris: The New York Public Library will be screened in New York City. If you can’t get to the city in person, NYPL will host the filmmaker at 7:05 p.m. on Thursday, September 14, 2017, along with Errol Morris, as part of their “LIVE From The NYPL” series.

You can find it at https://livestream.com/nypl/events/7643977. They promise conversation along with segments of the film and the series is usually archived, so it can also be watched at a later date.

Advertised as “behind the scenes of one of the world’s greatest institutions of learning, capturing the vast programmatic scope of NYC’s library system. The NYPL is blessed with uniformly passionate staff and deeply devoted, appreciative bibliophiles and beneficiaries across its 92 branches. The film reveals a venerable place of welcome, cultural exchange, and intellectual creativity.”

We might see Anthony W. Marx, President of The New York Public Library. Marx has a B.A. from Yale; an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University; and a Ph.D., also from Princeton.

Here is an earlier video history.


To see an elephant folio of the early [Floor plans of the New York Public Library], try: RECAP HG2613.N494 W5554 1929e

Frank Weitenkampf (1866-1962), Chiaroscuro prints (New York, 1916). “List of chiaroscuro prints in the Library’s Print Room”: p. 6-7. Graphic Arts: Reference Collection (GARF) NE1048 .W4

Chiapas Photography Project

It was a relief to hear today that our friends in Chiapas, Mexico, are shaken but safe. We heard “the worst of the damage was in the lowlands, not in the mountains. Fortunately the famous facades of the colonial churches in San Cristobal de Las Casas survived intact as did the major Maya sites.”

Best wishes to these artists and their families.

 

 






Carlota Duarte, Mirror to our world = Un espejo de nuestro mundo (San Cristóbal de las Casa, Chiapas, México: Chiapas Photography Project, 2007).

Limited edition portfolios published to commemorate the achievements of the Maya photographers in the Chiapas Highlands. Artists include: Genaro Sántiz Gómez; Petul Hernández Guzmán; Domingo Pérez Sánchez; Lucía Sántiz Girón; Xunka’ López Díaz; Domingo Sántiz Gómez; Maruch Sántiz Gómez; Emiliano Guzmán Meza; and Juana López López.

In clamshell box, with hand-woven cotton textile slipcase designed after a pirik mochebal of the 1970’s/80’s. Copy no. 5 of 100. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2008-0459Q

How to Nag, a Bibliography

Directions To Servants In General; And In Particular To The Butler, Cook, Footman, Coachman, Groom, House-Steward, And Land-Steward, Porter, Dairy-Maid, Chamber-Maid, Nurse, Lanundress, House-Keeper, Tutoress, Or Governess by the Reverend Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D.

“I have a Thing in the Press, begun above twenty-eight Years ago, and almost finish’d: It will make a Four Shilling Volume; and is such a PERFECTION OF FOLLY, that you shall never hear of it, till it is printed, and then you shall be left to guess. Nay, I have ANOTHER OF THE SAME AGE, which will-require a long Time to perfect, and is worse than the former; in which I will serve you the same Way.” Letters to and from Dr. Swift … http://jonathanswiftarchive.org.uk/browse/year/text_4_18_4.html

Jonathan Swift worked on a parody of courtesy or conduct books for nearly three decades and it was probably still unfinished when finally published. “Lock up a cat or a dog in some room or closet,” he recommends “so as to make such a noise all over the house as may frighten away the thieves, if any should attempt to break or steal in.” The book is hilarious.

This led to Jane Collier’s An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting in 1753, which is basically an advice book on how to nag. The book came and went quickly but in 1806, William Miller chose to issue a new edition, with a frontispiece by James Gillray.

So popular was the volume that Thomas Tegg published an even newer edition in 1808, this time with a frontispiece and four other prints by George Woodward, engraved by Thomas Rowlandson.


‘Directions to the Cook’ from Directions to Servants by Jonathan Swift – Read by Sir Alec Guinness

 

Detail from George Woodward’s frontispiece (etched by Thomas Rowlandson)

 

Below, “Train up a Child in the way he should go / and when he is old he will not depart from it. -Solomon.” Left: hanging two cats from their feet. Lower left: Tying a bottle to a cat’s tail. Right: Feeding very hot cheese to a cat.–George Woodward

 

In the late 20th century, Swift was revived, this time illustrated by Joseph Low (1911-2007). For more on the artist, see: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2014/04/10/is-there-a-picture-of-nassau-hall-burning-down/

 


Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Directions to servants (Dublin: Printed by G. Faulkner, 1745). Rare Books (Ex) 3950.331

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Directions to servants: in general, and in particular, to the butler, cook, footman, coachman, groom, house-steward and land-steward, porter, dairy-maid, chamber-maid, nurse, laundress, house-keeper, tutoress, or governess (London: Printed for R. Dodsley …, 1745). Rare Books: South East (RB) RHT 18th-581

Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting; with proper rules for the exercise of that pleasant art, humbly addressed in the first part, to the master, husband… (London: Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand, 1753). Rare Books (Ex) 2015-0337N

Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting: with proper rules for the exercise of that pleasant art : humbly addressed, in the first part, to the master, husband, … The second edition, corrected. (London: Printed for A. Millar … , 1757). Rare Books (Ex) BJ1843 .C64 1757

Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting; with proper rules for the exercise of that amusing study. Humbly addressed, Part I. To the Master, Husband… Fourth edition (London: printed for Andrew Millar, in the Strand, 1753; reprinted for William Miller, Albemarle Street, 1806). Frontispiece by James Gillray.

Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting. New ed., corr., rev. and illustrated with five prints / from designs by G.M. Woodward (London: Printed for Tegg … by Hazard and Carthew …, 1808). Engraved by Thomas Rowlandson. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Rowlandson 1808

Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting. A new ed., corr., rev., and illustrated with five prints, from designs by G.M. Woodward (London: Printed for T. Tegg and R. Scholey, 1809). Engraved by Thomas Rowlandson. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Rowlandson 1808.11

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Jonathan Swift’s directions to servants. With drawings by Joseph Low (New York, Pantheon Books [1964]). Cotsen Children’s Library (CTSN) Eng 20 39678

Greek Poetry

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a number of fine press editions of Greek poetry, thanks to matching funds provided by the Program in Hellenic Studies with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund. Thank you to Dimitri H. Gondicas, Executive Director, Program in Hellenic Studies. Lecturer in Classics and Hellenic Studies. Stanley J. Seeger ’52 Director, Center for Hellenic Studies; and to David T. Jenkins, Librarian for Classics, Hellenic Studies and Linguistics.

Here are two:

Giannēs Ritsos (1909-1990), Persephone; English translation by Nikos Stangos; with two woodcuts by Joe Tilson = Persephonē / Giannēs Ritsos ; me dyo xylographies toy Tzo Tilson (Verona: Edizioni Ampersand, 1990). Printed on a 1854 Stanhope handpress by Alessandro Zanella (1955-2012). Graphic Arts in process


 

 

Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933), The Splendour of a Morning: Early Poems of C.P. Cavafy = Hē ena prōi tēs pheggero : proima poiēmata tou K.P. Kavaphē; translated from the Greek by David Smulders; Greek text edited by Anthony Hirst; with five wood engravings by Peter Lazarov (Mission, British Columbia: Barbarian Press, MMXVI [2016]). “Greek text reprinted … from The Collected Poems with parallel Greek text … edited by Anthony Hirst (Oxford University Press, 2007)”–Title page verso. Graphic Arts in process

 

There is limited information on the printmaker Peter Lazarov and so, I’m including this terrific article from the magazine of the Fine Press Book Association: Willem Keizer, “Peter Lazarov and his Pepel Press,” in Parenthesis no.12 (November 2006). Preservation Z119 .P373

How many copies of “Birds of America” does a family need?

Princeton University Library received the gift of the double elephant folio Birds of America [(Ex) Oversize 8880.134.1860e] from Alexander van Rensselaer, Class of 1871 (1855-1933), during the academic year 1928-29. We believe he inherited the copy from his uncle, Stephen van Rensselaer IV, Class of 1808 (1789-1868). The wealthy van Rensselaer family is the only one I have found who bought two copies of Audubon’s massive publication. The second was purchased by Stephen’s cousin Dr. Jeremias “Jeremiah” Van Rensselaer (1793-1871), who graduated from Yale.

Most American subscribers to Audubon’s Birds of America were convinced to join during his second trip back to the United States in 1831, when Audubon spent considerable time in New York during 1833. Both Jeremias and Stephen IV were born at the sprawling 1,200-square-mile van Rensselaer estate near Albany, New York, but lived during the 1830s in New York City.

Stephen’s father and Alexander’s grandfather, Stephen Van Rensselaer III (1764-1839), was among the richest men in America and when he died, Stephen IV left New York City to live in the “West Manor” of the Rensselaer estate. Jeremiah’s medical practice remained in New York City, where he was also corresponding secretary of the X.Y. Lyceum of Natural History, with a great love for the natural sciences. He retired in 1852, traveled, and died in New York City in 1871. The whereabouts of his copy of Audubon’s Birds of America is not known.

 

Stephen III was an active businessman who owned several New York properties and in 1816, built a modest two-story house on Mulberry Street (originally no. 153 moved to no. 149) where the family could live while in town. The Federalist structure, which survived flood, fire, and a bomb, has a façade of Flemish bond brick and a Dutch-style gambrel roof, punctured by two tall dormers.

Around the time, Stephen IV moved back to Albany, the family sold the house and it has had various owners since then. http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-1816-van-rensselaer-house-no-149.html

In the 1890s, Helen Louisa Stokes (1846-1930), wife of Anson Phelps Stokes (1838–1913) purchased the house and converted it to The Free Italian Library and Reading-Rooms, which opened in 1894.

“The free Italian library and reading rooms established chiefly by Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes, in a house formerly used by [an] Italian, as a cheese factory at 149 Mulberry street, was open for inspection yesterday from 2 to 10 P. M. The guests were welcomed by the Rev. Antonio Arrighi. pastor of the Italian church at 123 Worth Street. The library has more than 200 volume, which will be added to by books now being bound, it contains books of history, poetry, science, travel, natural history, and novels. –New York Times, July 23, 1894

See our colleague’s research: Alexandra Deluise, “Mission work, Conversion and the Italian Immigrant in Turn-of-the-Century New York City: the Story of the Anson Phelps Stokes Italian Free Library” (2015). CUNY Academic Works. http://academicworks.cuny.edu/lacuny_events/3

 

 

Interesting that her father’s family company, Phelps, Dodge & Company was the organization that helps to preserve the Audubon printing plates when Mrs. Lucy Audubon was forced to sell her family estate.

 

 

 

 

Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942), Mr. and Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes, 1898 (?). Oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

Four color printing, separate and together


Book collectors remember the Parisian author Marquis Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (1719-1803) not so much for his writing but for the colorful printing of his books. These typographic curiosities were printed separately in one colored ink and then, bound together with separate sections in separate colors. There are many editions and variations, including pirated editions. Some say they are new editions but are exactly the same. Princeton has five variations.

 

In 1760, they are brought together in the Book of Four Colors, to the Four Elements, of the Printing of the Four Seasons. If you count black, the title page actually has five colors. There are sections in orange-yellow, greenish-blue, brown, and scarlet red, although the orange is very close to the brown and yellow. Of the several copies I’ve seen, the colors look different, perhaps some inks holding up better than others.

One collector writes: “Moreover, the text is also very agreeable, and Caraccioli also laughs at himself and fashions from the beginning, when he stresses that probably the color of his works alone will suffice for their success, at a time when one is enamored of everything and nothing, under the pretense often the most futile. He also writes that he offers his readers books that resemble them, colored “… I offer you (…) the most beautiful vermilion, such that it shines on your faces beautifully and furiously illuminated.” http://bibliophilie.blogspot.com/2007/11/des-livres-lhonneur-les-livre-la-mode.html

“Of letterpress or typographic printing in colours, not very much seems to have been done during the eighteenth century; work in red and black, other than on title-pages, was almost entirely confined to the service books of the Roman Church, and a large proportion of even these were printed in black only, though such establishments as the Plantin Press still produced creditable examples on the old lines.

In the middle of the century, several editions were got out at Paris of a work entitled Le Livre a la Mode, a satirical description of the manners of the time. It was a 12mo volume, of which two editions were published in 1759, one printed wholly in red, the other in yellow. In 1760 there was another red edition, and then the work, which was in four sections, was re-issued with the title of Le Livre de Quatre Couleurs, the sections being respectively printed with green, yellow, red and brown ink. On the title-page lettering in all these colours appears, in addition to a vignette printed in black.” R.M. Burch and William Gamble, Colour Printing and Colour Printers (1910).

Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (1719-1803), Le livre à la mode. Nouvelle édition, marquetée, polie & vernissé. En Europe [Paris]: Chez les libraires, [1759]. Rare Books Off-Site Storage 3238.95.359

Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (1719-1803), Le livre à la mode. Nouvelle édition / marquetée, polie & vernissée. En Europe [i.e. Paris]: Chez les libraires [1759]. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) PQ1959.C3 L58 1759

Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (1719-1803), Le livre à la mode. A Verte Feuille, de l’imprimerie du Printems au Perroquet. L’année nouvelle. [Paris, 1759]. Rare Books Off-Site Storage 3238.95.359.11

Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (1719-1803), Le livre de quatre couleurs. Aux Quatre-Elements: De l’Imprimerie des Quatre-Saisons, 4444 ; [i.e. Paris]: [publisher not identified], [1760]. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) in process

Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (1719-1803), Le livre de quatre couleurs. Aux Quatre-Éléments [i.e. Paris], De l’imprimerie des quatre-saisons, 4444 [i.e. 1760]. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) PQ1959.C3 L58 1759

Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (1719-1803), Le livre à la mode; suivi du, Livre des quatre couleurs, textes présentés et annotés par Anne Richardot. Saint-Etienne: Publications de l’université de Saint-Etienne, 2005. Firestone Library (F) PQ1959.C3 L68 2005