Author Archives: Julie Mellby

How do you find the bad seeds in “La caricature”?

How do you find the bad seeds in the middle of the 10 volume run of La caricature? Answer: using the new index to the magazine, recently published by Alan Wofsy Fine Arts.

 

Auguste Bouquet. La Poire et ses Pépins. Paris: Chez Aubert, Galerie Véro-Dodat, 1833; in La Caricature: journal fondé et dirigé / par C. Philipon (Paris: Aubert, 1830-1835). 10 v. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2009-0240Q

 

La Caricature, 1830-1835: lithographies complètes: an illustrated catalogue raisonné of the lithographs / general editor and designer: Corine Labridy-Stofle (San Francisco: Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 2017). Graphic Arts: Reference Collection (GARF) Oversize NC1498 .C3 2017q

Summary note:

La Caricature” was the 19th century equivalent and the precursor of Charlie Hebdo. The editor Charles Philipon employed the major satirical artists of the mid-19th century notably Daumier, Grandville, E. Forest, Charlet, Bellangé, Traviès, Raffet and Gavarni. It appeared for five years, between 1830-1835. The main subjects of the caricatures were Louis-Philippe and his entourage of July Monarchy politicians. Louis-Philippe, son of the Duke of Orléans, came to power after the 1830 Revolution as the Citizen King. However, he was not amused by the caricatures and once put Daumier in prison for 6 months, before suppressing the whole publication in 1835. He became more and more authoritarian and was finally forced to abdicate during the 1848 Revolution.

The plates are numbered 1-524, but approximately 62 are double sheets so there are actually 462 separate prints. Georges Vicaire catalogued the 251 issues and 524 plates in 1895. However they have never been reproduced in a catalogue, nor has there been an English language discussion or catalogue of the corpus of prints.

All of the works are described in French and English and are arranged in the order they appeared in the original publication. There is an index by artist and the catalogue by Georges Vicaire from 1895 is also included. Many of the artists contributed anonymously and were not identified by Vicaire but are now identified. Where there were not descriptions of the plates in the original publication (about 60 of the 462), this new edition now provides descriptions in French.



 

The Battle Cry of Freedom

Six Military and Patriotic Illustrated Songs. Series no. 1 (New York: C. Magnus [186-?]). Stencil colored. Original green printed wrappers. Contents: The Union Marseillaise.–A Yankee man-of-war.–The army of liberty.–The flag of our Union.–Volunteer’s song.–Rally around the flag boys. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) 2017- in process

The patriotic song Rally ‘Round the Flag, originally titled The Battle Cry of Freedom, was written by George F. Root (1820-1895) in 1862. The composer published over 500 pieces of music from 1848 until 1896 but when the New York Times ran his obituary, it was The Battle Cry of Freedom mentioned in the banner.

The Times continues: “In a catalogue of 114 National War Songs, recently published, no less than 36 are from the pen of Mr. Root. None of them fail of success, or at least a degree of popularity but Tramp, [Tramp,] Tramp! and The Battle Cry achieved a phenomenal record. At one time the publishers had fourteen presses at work on the latter, and were even then unable to fill the orders, which crowded in from every direction. It was not unusual for a single house to order 20,000 copies at once and the aggregate sale of each song is estimated at from 500,000 to 750,000.”

The song has been recorded many times, in many versions. Over 100 years later, Billy Bragg composed, There Is Power in a Union, set to the tune of Root’s Battle Cry of Freedom.

Il favore degli dei

Aurelio Aureli (1652-1708), Il favore degli dei: drama fantastico musicale, fatto rappresentare dal serenissimo sig. duca di Parma nel suo Gran Teatro per le felicissime nozze del serenissimo sig. principe Odoardo suo primo genito con la serenissima signora principessa Dorotea Sofia di Neoburgo (Parma: Nella Stampa ducale, 1690). 14 folded engravings. Music by Bernardo Sabadini; Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

 

The Graphic Arts Collection is proud to have acquired Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow’s copy of Il favore degli Dei, which includes the libretto, scenario, and cast (without the music) along with fourteen folded leaves of plates engraved by D. Bonaveri, G.A. Lorenzini and L. Mattioli, and others after Domenico Mauro.

Ferdinando Galli da Bibiena and Domenico Mauro designed the scenography, Federico Crivelli invented the choreography, and Gasparo Torelli created the costumes. Princeton’s copy is imperfect, lacking the large folding plate by Carlo Virginio Draghi.

 

 

Il favore degli dei (1690): Meta-Opera and Metamorphoses at the Farnese Court by Wendy Heller, Professor of Music. Director, Program in Italian Studies, Chair of the Music Department, Princeton University

In 1690, Giovanni Maria Crescimbeni (1663–1728) and Gian Vincenzo Gravina (1664–1718), along with several of their literary colleagues, established the Arcadian Academy in Rome. Railing against the excesses of the day, their aim was to restore good taste and classical restraint to poetry, art, and opera. That same year, a mere 460 kilometres away, the Farnese court in Parma offered an entertainment that seemed designed to flout the precepts of these well-intentioned reformers. For the marriage of his son Prince Odoardo Farnese (1666–1693) to Dorothea Sofia of Neuberg (1670–1748), Duke Ranuccio II Farnese (1639–1694) spared no expense, capping off the elaborate festivities with what might well be one of the longest operas ever performed: Il favore degli dei, a ‘drama fantastico musicale’ with music by Bernardo Sabadini (d. 1718) and poetry by the prolific Venetian librettist Aurelio Aureli (d. 1718).

Although Sabadini’s music does not survive, we are left with a host of para-textual materials to tempt the historical imagination. Aureli’s printed libretto, which includes thirteen engravings, provides a vivid sense of a production whose opulence was excessive, even by Baroque standards. The unusually large cast included twenty-four principal singers, some of whom were borrowed from neighbouring courts such as Mantua and Modena. In addition, the libretto lists seventeen choruses and seven ballets featuring goddesses, breezes, warriors, nymphs, virgin huntresses, cupids, demons, stars, tritons, graces, fauns, and nereids who populated the stage for this remarkable performance. The set designers, painters, and engineers were also kept busy producing seventeen different sets and no fewer than forty-three machines that bore characters to and fro ‘in the air and the earth’ (‘in aria, e in terra’).

To continue reading, see hotlink above.

The book was also owned by Parmenia Migel Ekstrom (1908-1989), ballet historian; purchased from Ximenes, 1991.

For more references, see: Sonneck, O.G.T. Librettos, p. 483-484; Sartori, C. Libretti italiani, 9837; Bowles, E.A. Musical ensembles, p. 379-380.


Unpacking “The Valise”


The Valise, a collective artists’ project, unites seven South American artists—Johanna Calle, Mateo López and Nicolás Paris, Maria Laet, Rosângela Rennó, Matías Duville, and Christian Vinck Henriquez—with the Argentine writer César Aira. The project, published by the Library Council of The Museum of Modern Art, arrived this morning and we are still unpacking.

 

The works were made in response to the idea of travel and to Aira’s novel Un episodio en la vida del pintor viajero (An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter), with both the original Spanish edition (2000) and the English translation (2006) included. The novel concerns the surreal story of an 1837 journey through South America by the German painter Johann Moritz Rugendas, an associate of the explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt.

Stored in a special valise or carrying case, the works include original prints, maps, artists’ books, airmail envelopes, origami toys, posters, a sound recording, and a hand-blown glass sculpture, all reflecting the artists’ shared affinity for geography, travel literature, and bookmaking.

 

The Valise was conceived, edited, and organized by May Castleberry, Editor, Contemporary Editions, Library Council Publications.

Latin American Studies and the Graphic Arts Collection are collaborating on the purchase of this very limited edition.


The Valise is published in a signed edition of 100 copies for the members of the Library Council of The Museum of Modern Art. A deluxe edition of 25 copies is available for purchase. (The deluxe edition includes hand-cut paper architecture by López; a second original woodcut print by Duville; a Paris design, hand-painted in metal leaf, on the carrying case; and signatures on many of the individual pieces.) An additional 10 artist copies of each of the two editions go to the artists and other collaborators.

*This is only a small selection of items included.*

A Walk from London to John O’Groats


Elihu Burritt (1810-1879), A Walk from London to John O’Groats, with Notes by the Way. Illustrated with Photographic Portraits (London: Sampson, Low, Son & Marston, 1864). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Elihu Burritt the United State Consul to Birmingham, England, and through Burritt’s writings he brought the term “the Black Country” into common usage. He traveled widely, usually on foot, taking notes along the way, and A Walk from London to John O’Groats was addressed to his American friends. As Corresponding Secretary to the New Britain Agricultural Club he was particular interested in the state of farming and chose farmers as the sitters in the photographs.

Burritt was born and died in New Britain, Connecticut. Although trained as a blacksmith, Burritt made his name as a social activist, diplomat and author. In 1846 he founded the peace organization The League of Universal Brotherhood, and advocated temperance and opposed slavery. Thank you to Edward Bayntun-Coward for these details.

The book includes five mounted photographic portraits each with facsimile signature. The portraits are of the following individuals:

1. Elihu Burritt (frontispiece), photographed by Elliott & Fry, 55 Baker Street, London.

2. Mr. Alderman Mechi, photographed by Cundall, Downes & Co, 108 New Bond Street, London.

3. The late Jonas Webb, photographed by William Mayland, Cambridge.

4. Samuel Jonas, photographed by William Mayland, Cambridge.

5. Anthony Cruikshank, photographed by A. Adams, 26 Broad Street, Aberdeen.

The original binding by Burn (with label inside rear cover) is done in green cloth over beveled boards, the front covers blocked in gilt with a triple fillet border and the title in a cartouche at the center, the rear cover with a blind border, smooth spine lettered in gilt, and brown endleaves.

This is the first of two editions published in 1864.

 
See also: Burritt, Elihu, 1810-1879. Peace papers for the people … (London [184-?]). (F) BL262 .H583 1852

Clarke, Julius L.Circular [prospectus]: Dear Sir, A number of individuals residing in different parts of New England have recently formed themselves into a society called the New England Anti-Slavery Tract Association … (Worcester, Mass.: N.E.A.S.T.A., [1843]). First blank page is filled with autograph letter to G. & C. Merriam signed by Elihu Burritt. Rare Books (Ex) Oversize 2011-0237Q

Burritt, Elihu, 1810-1879. Sparks from the anvil (Worchester: Henry J. Howland, 1846). (F) BL262 .H583 1852

Blocks Plates Stones

In case you have not seen the announcement, registration is open for the Blocks Plates Stones conference, which has now been moved to the Courtauld Institute, London. https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/events/event/12642

Organized by Elizabeth Savage (IES), with help from her committee Giles Bergel (Oxford) and Caroline Duroselle-Melish (Folger), this event is part of a 12-month British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award, ‘The Matrix Reloaded: Establishing Cataloguing and Research Guidelines for Artefacts of Printing Images.’

A draft of the program is now available at: https://symphony-live.s3.amazonaws.com/UhZMp2iSbp7hKGrlphQwBW9X16Bi6li2kFtjXskSC3dcQUA2tbkSRremffd8PtWV/BPS%20Programme-v1.pdf
The keynote roundtable includes Richard S Field (Yale), Maria Goldoni (Galleria Estense), James Mosley (IES), Ad Stijnman (Leiden), Michael Twyman (Reading).

Speakers include Laura Aldovini (Università Cattolica; Cini), Rob Banham (Reading), Jean-Gérald Castex (Louvre), Rosalba Dinoia (independent), Neil Harris (Udine), Konstantina Lemaloglou (Technological Educational Institute of Athens), Huigen Leeflang (Rijksmuseum), Giorgio Marini (Uffizi), Julie Mellby (Princeton), Andreas Sampatakos (Technological Educational Institute of Athens), Linda Stiber Morenus (Library of Congress), Arie Pappot (Rijksmuseum), Elizabeth Savage (IES), Jane Rodgers Siegel (Columbia), Femke Speelberg (Met), and Amy Worthen (Des Moines Art Centre).

Object sessions and posters by: Constança Arouca (Orient Museum), Teun Baar (Apple), Cathleen A. Baker (Michigan), Rob Banham (Reading), Maarten Bassens (Royal Library of Belgium; KU Leuven), Giles Bergel (Oxford), Annemarie Bilclough (V&A), Chris Daunt (Society of Wood Engravers), Gigliola Gentile (Sapienza), Jasleen Kandhari (Leeds), Nicholas Knowles (Independent), Peter Lawrence (Society of Wood Engravers), Marc Lindeijer SJ (Société des Bollandistes), Anna Manicka (National Museum, Warsaw), Peter McCallion (West of England), Melissa Olen (West of England), Maria V. Ortiz-Segovia (Océ Print Logic Technologies), Carinna Parraman (West of England), Marc Proesmans (KU Leuven), Rose Roberto (Reading; National Museums Scotland), Fulvio Simoni (Bologna), Francesca Tancini (Bologna), Joris Van Grieken (Royal Library of Belgium), Bruno Vandermeulen (KU Leuven), Genevieve Verdigel (Warburg), Lieve Watteeuw (Illuminare), Christina Weyl (independent), and Hazel Wilkinson (Birmingham).

Hope to see everyone there.

Oxford

Martin Parr. Beating the Bounds. Ascension day.2014.

“The very first photo-documentary of Oxford was created by William Henry Fox Talbot,” reads the announcements. “A century and a half later, Martin Parr’s new project pays tribute to [that] great pioneer of photography.”

Commissioned by the Bodleian Library and Oxford University Press, Parr’s upcoming book is a collection of around 100 photographs documenting the life of the university between 2014 and 2016. The images capture day-to-day life of the school, highlighting the colorful and arcane rituals “that make Oxford so distinctive.”

Last Friday, we were given a preview of the book, entitled simply Oxford, due out on September 7, 2017. An exhibition to accompany the book’s release will be held from September 8 to October 22, 2017 in Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, Bodleian Libraries on Broad Street, Oxford.

In paging through the maquette with Bodley’s Librarian Richard Ovenden, we were introduced to the many bizarre, eccentric, peculiar, and unique activities at Oxford University (including a cat that is really a dog). One of the most memorable was the ancient practice of ‘beating the bounds,’ ceremonially re-enacted every year. The photograph by Parr at the top of this post is one such beating, although not the print that eventually made the cut for the book.

 

Another view of this ritual from the Graphic Arts Collection is: George Cruikshank (1792-1878), “May – Beating the Bounds,” in The Comic almanack; an ephemeris in jest and earnest, containing merry tales, humorous poetry, quips, and oddities. Text by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863); Albert Smith (1816-1860); Gilbert Abbot À Beckett (1811-1856); Horace Mayhew (1816-1872); and Henry Mayhew (1812-1887) (London: Tilt and Bogue, 1837). Graphic Arts Collection Cruik 1835.81. Published in a run of approximately 20,000.


Beginning in 1835 and continuing for nine years, Cruikshank alone drew the plates for each monthly issue. Thackeray contributed small stories and promoted the series writing that it showed “a great deal of comic power, and Cruikshank’s designs were so admirable, that the ‘Almanack’ at once became a vast favourite with the public and has remained so ever since.”

See also: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/whatson/whats-on/upcoming-events/2017/sep/martin-parr-oxford

Common Sense

Today we studied Martin Parr’s photobook Common Sense, which “takes a candid look at our everyday excess and social stereotypes to reveal our connection to global consumer culture.” [https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/society-arts-culture/martin-parr-common-sense/]

Princeton University Library holds 56 of Martin Parr’s 63 photobooks (most found in the art and architecture library), beginning with The Last Resort: Photographs of New Brighton, with text by Ian Walker (Wallasy, Merseyside: Promenade Press, 1986) and most recently Real Food (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2016). Many are released with Dewi Lewis Publishing, founded by his friend Dewi Lewis in 1994 and the 2014 recipient of the PHotoEspana’s prize for Outstanding Publishing House of the Year. https://www.dewilewis.com/pages/about-us

**See above right, what does an author do when he is asked to autograph a book filled with images, without writing on his art? Parr answered this with the white bubble added near the beginning of the book.

Common Sense (1999) was published in an unbelievably large edition of 12,000. A problem with glue in the binding left 600 with pages stuck together and unsaleable. The rest of the edition finally sold out this year.

The Martin Parr Foundation is a sponsor of PhotoBook Bristol, scheduled to return in the summer of 2018. In the meantime, the Martin Parr Foundation will open a new hub of activities at Paintworks in Bristol, including a gallery and shop in October 2017. Details at: http://www.martinparrfoundation.org


Martin Parr, Common Sense (Stockport, Eng.: Dewi Lewis, 1999). (SAPH): Photography TR654.P378 1999. The cover image shows a portion of a piggy-bank shaped like a globe.

Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook: a History (London: Phaidon Press, 2004- ) SAPH Photography reference Oversize TR650 .P377 2004q

Rare Book School I-45. The Photographic Book since 1844 http://rarebookschool.org/faculty/illustration/richard-ovenden/

300 Coburn prints destroyed


The Graphic Arts Collection holds two copies of The Door in the Wall by H.G. Wells with photogravures from negatives by Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882-1966). Princeton’s first book has ten mounted prints with letterpress captions while the second has only one.

The text was set by Bertha S. Goudy (1869-1935) at the Village Press, New York, with types and decorations designed by Frederic W. Goudy (1865-1947), under whose supervision it has been printed by Norman T. A. Munder & company, Baltimore, Maryland. Six hundred copies were printed on French hand-made paper in November, 1911.

When Coburn’s photogravures arrived in New York, an assistant mistakenly pounded a nail through the top of one crate destroying half of the prints. 600 photogravures had been prepared in England and only 300 were left for Frederic Goudy to fit into the New York edition.

Some books have 10 and the rest are missing one or more images. Princeton’s second copy is missing all but one. A slip is tipped onto the front board of each incomplete book. Some give the explanation that missing photogravures are replaced with prints made by the aquatone process. The slip in Princeton’s book reads “It was for this volume that Frederic W. Goudy designed his now famous Kennerley Type. Six hundred copies were printed. Unfortunately, only three hundred sets of the illustrations were complete, so that there remain three hundred copies of the book lacking one or more illustrations, of which this is a copy. The text is perfect.”

It was a complete surprise today to find the Rare Book division of the Library of Congress not only holds both complete and incomplete copies of Door in the Wall, but they also have Goudy’s own copy of the book’s maquette, originally placing the photographs on the right instead of the left and without his special type.

The binding and pages are larger in the maquette than the published version. The layout of the cover text is uniformly printed in plain type. Published books used a fancier, pseudo-Gothic face and reduce the size of Coburn’s name, giving his contribution less importance.

Library of Congress, Rare Books, Wells c.4

Library of Congress, Rare Books, Wells c.4

 

The maquette also holds additional prints, seen here laying side by side to check for variations.

 

 

H. G. Wells (1866-1946), The Door in the Wall and Other Stories by H. G. Wells, Illustrated with photogravures from photographs by Alvin Langdon Coburn (New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1911). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2006-0844Q previously owned by Elmer Adler and GAX 2006-0845Q previously owned by Edwin Hooper Denby.

 

Goudy’s pencil design for the title page layout, at the Library of Congress. He might have anticipated a longer production schedule, assuming the publication date would be 1912 instead of 1911.

See also: Alvin Langdon Coburn and H.G. Wells: the photographer and the novelist: a unique collection of photographs and letters from the University Library’s H.G. Wells collection ([Urbana]: University Library : Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997). Marquand Library (SA) No call number available

James and Coburn

We were looking today at the photogravure frontispieces by Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882-1966) for all but the final two volumes of what is known as Henry James’s New York Edition. The books were published two volumes at a time between December 14, 1907 and July 31, 1909. Above are the copies at the University of Virginia.

James famously called photography the “hideous inexpressiveness of a mechanical medium.” He told his publishers at Scribner’s that he wanted only a single good plate in each volume of the New York edition. “Only one but of thoroughly fine quality.”

George Bernard Shaw called Coburn “the greatest photographer in the world.” Alfred Stieglitz wrote that “Coburn has been a favored child throughout his career… No other photographer has been so extensively exploited nor so generally eulogized,” but that didn’t stop him from giving the young artist two solo exhibitions at 291.

In 1905, sixty-two-year-old Henry James was photographed by the twenty-three-year-old Alvin Coburn for the April 26 issue of Century Magazine. They became friends and collaborators, mutually agreeing on each of the twenty-four photogravures that Coburn created, beginning with a new portrait of the author for volume one.

Coburn cruised the Mediterranean and traveled to Paris, Rome, and Venice searching for the appropriate entrance scenes for each of his friend’s novels. The gravures are printed directly onto the book page with a tissue guard printed with a facsimile of James’ signature. This might be the greatest series of frontispieces ever created.

 

Henry James (1843-1916), The Novels and Tales of Henry James. New York edition ([New York: C. Scribner’s sons, 1907-17]). 26 volumes with 24 photogravure frontispieces by Alvin Langdon Coburn. (Ex) 3799.7.1907

The Graphic Arts Collection also has a single portrait of Henry James attributed to Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882-1866): https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2014/01/18/henry-james/