Author Archives: Julie Mellby

Fraternity

“The most influential printmaker of the first half of the century.” This is how Michael Brenson described Stanley William Hayter (1901-1988) in the New York Times, May 6, 1988.

Hayter was only 26-years-old when he established the printmaking studio Atelier 17 in Paris, where it flourished until 1940. When the Nazis invaded in September 1939, he was forced to pack what he was able and move the shop to New York City. According to Brenson, when Hayter left France, he left “behind 100 copper plates and a press, which were confiscated by the Vichy Government.”

Both a school and a commercial press, it is hard to think of a major artist of that period who did not pass through Hayter’s workshop at one time or another.

Early in 1939, Hayter conceived of a publication that could be sold to raise money for children left orphan during the war in Spain. He asked the British poet Stephen Spender (1909-1995) for a poem, who sent “The Fall of the City” and then, arranged for Aragon (1897-1982) to translate the poem into French, “Chute d’une cite.”

Next, he convinced eight artists to come to the studio and produce an etching or engraving for the project, in addition to his own contribution. The international group included Joseph Hecht (French, born in Poland, 1891–1951); Dalla Husband (Canadian, 1899–1945); Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866–1944); Roderick Mead (American, 1900–1972); Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893–1983); Dolf Rieser (South African, active in England, 1893–1983); Luis Vargas Rosas (Chilean, 1897-1977); and John Buckland Wright (New Zealander, 1897–1954). I add this here intentionally since many databases, like Princeton’s, have thrown out artists’ nationality as an element for recording and searching.

A reference inquiry led to the pulling and counting of the prints in this portfolio. The etchings and letterpress text were issued unbound in a wrapper with the title Fraternity embedded in one of Hayter’s designs. Since then, many prints have been removed from various copies and sold separately, Kandinsky and Miró in particular, but happily, Princeton’s copy is complete as issued.

Fraternity ([Paris: Atelier 17], 1939). Poem by Stephen Spender, translated by Aragon. Printed at Atelier 17 in an edition of 113 copies. Etchings by John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter, Josef Hecht, Dalla Husband, Wassily Kandinsky, Roderick Mead, Joan Miro, Dolf Rieser and Luis Vargas. Sylvia Beach Collection 3938.965.336

Woodrow Wilson Saves Erasers and Other Pencil Dramas

In 1761, Kaspar Faber (1730-1784) started a pencil factory in Stein (outside Nuremberg, Germany), which he named “A.W. Faber” after his son Anton Wilhelm Faber (1758-1819).

A subsidiary of this firm, The Eberhard Faber Pencil Company, had its first American office at 133 William Street in Manhattan. In 1858, Eberhard Faber (1822-1879) expanded its operations to include the manufacture of rubber bands and rubber erasers with a factory in Newark, New Jersey.

Three years later, the company opened its first U.S. pencil factory on 42nd Street near the East River. After a fire destroyed the factory in 1872, Faber moved its pencil company to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where it remained until 1956 when it moved to Wilkes-Barre, PA. In 1987, Eberhard Faber Pencil Company was sold to A.W Faber-Castell.– From the “Guide to the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company Collection” ARC.028, Brooklyn Historical Society.

[above] Faber Rubber Company in 1912 where rubber erasers and rubber bands were made.

[below] The building still stands today, although it is not occupied.

In 1858, Hymen Lipman (1817-1893) patented the first pencil / eraser combination and hoping to make a fortune off this invention, Joseph Reckendorfer (1836-1883) bought the patent from Lipman for $100,000, The Faber company fought this patent (they had a similar attachment) and in 1875, the Supreme Court ruled that the eraser-tipped pencil wasn’t unique and didn’t warrant a patent.

This was only the first of many confrontations the Faber boys had with government agencies. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/92/347/case.html

During World War I, Eberhard Faber fought to separate his American firm from his German relatives, placing advertisements in newspapers and magazines, such as the one above in Walden’s Stationer and Printer 41 (1918). However, sale of the property on Dickerson Street was ordered under a ruling by the Alien Property Act and the American businessman Theodore Friedeburg bought the factory for $145,000.

This is where President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) stepped in and by executive order, demanded that the sale be cancelled because the bid was clearly below market value. Read more about that era: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/us-confiscated-half-billion-dollars-private-property-during-wwi-180952144/

Then, in 1938, the Federal Trade Commission charged Faber and other rubber eraser manufacturers (and later, thirteen pencil manufacturers) of price fixing. The eraser firms included the American Lead Pencil Company, in Hoboken; Eagle Pencil Company, New York; Joseph Dixon Crucible Company, Jersey City (today a condominium complex), and Weldon Roberts Rubber Company, Newark; along with both A.W. Faber and Eberhard Faber companies.

They all appear to have pleaded no contest.

Faber-Castell USA. http://www.faber-castell.us/14798/About-Us/index_ebene3.aspx

Habstritt, Mary. “Eberhard Faber’s Pencil Factory,” Archive of Industry. http://www.archiveofindustry.com/images/EberhardFaberHistory.pdf

Documenting Poverty Across America in 1968

Guest post by Jessica Terekhov, Department of English

The work of 16 known photographers is represented in a series of 73 photographs documenting poverty across America in April/May 1968, recently acquired by the Graphic Arts Collection. The images, which were presumably commissioned for a Time Magazine issue on “Poverty in America: Its Cause and Extent” (May 17, 1968), illustrate rural and urban life in migrant camps, immigrant communities, and low-income areas from California to New York. Featured states include Texas, Kentucky, Florida, Alaska, Michigan, and Missouri, with a number of pictures taken in Greenville, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee.

Five photographs of African-American residents of Detroit and nearby New Haven were taken by J. Edward Bailey III (1923-1982), one of the few African-American photojournalists active nationwide at the time. Another African-American photographer, Robert W. Cottrol (active 1970s), contributed five images of Harlem, and the work of William Sartor (active 1970s) is most heavily represented in the set. Julian Wasser’s shot of migrant farmworkers near Fresno, California was the only one that actually appeared in Time, although a total of 18 images accompanied the feature article and Wasser (active 1970s) also photographed Mexican-American families in East Los Angeles. Gilbert Barrera (1932-2007), Walter E. Bennett (1921-1995), Lee Spence (active 1970s), and Fran Ortiz (1931-2007) were among the other photographers involved in the project.

Some images are captioned with the names of pictured individuals, while others, such as the ones shown here, are only identified by city or state. A shot of “Mexican-American slum housing in Laredo, Texas” appears above, followed by images of Martin Luther Jr. ephemera peddled in Harlem, children in Mississippi and St. Louis, and labor in Maine and Alaska. All photographs are gelatin silver prints measuring 8 x 10 inches and uniformly printed on double-weight fiber paper. A full inventory is available through the library catalog record or here: Time Poverty in America inventory.

Here Froggy, Froggy

Detail of A.B. Frost, “He dived in…”, for Here Froggy, Froggy by Hugh Wiley, published Scribner’s 62 (October 1917). Gouache on board. Graphic Arts Collection

The Graphic Arts Collection holds a number of paintings by the color-blind artist A.B. (Arthur Burdett) Frost (1851-1928) who illustrated stories published in Scribner’s, Century, and other American magazines. During the late 19th century, Frost was a full-time member of the staff at Harper & Brothers but as demand for his work grew, Frost was eventually able to pick and choose his projects. This story for Hugh Wiley came near the end of Frost’s career, when the artist was sixty-five years old.

Young Hugh Wiley, on the other hand, was at the beginning of his career and this story was written before he enlisted in the army during the First World War. The plot involves Fat Pat Kelly, a cook on the U.S. Dredge No.8; Captain Dan Porter; Otto, the Proosian pastry chef; and their assignment on the Mississippi River in 1917.

“It was after his return to civilian life in 1918 that Wiley began writing professionally, beginning with an adventure tale entitled “Four Leaved Wildcat”, which appeared in the Saturday Evening Post on March 8, 1919. He followed this with a series of stories, “Mister Lady Luck”, “Hop”, “Junk”, and “Solitaire” among them, through the year 1920, and these were followed by his first books, The Wildcat in 1920 and The Prowler in 1921. The Wildcat told the story of a black American drafted and sent overseas during World War I; several of Wiley’s other early books, including The Prowler and Fo’ Meals a Day (1927), were works depicting black life in comic and exaggerated manner, somewhat akin to minstrel show entertainment though perhaps a bit more subtle.”–Bruce Eder.
https://www.fandango.com/people/hugh-wiley-722004/biography

A.B. Frost, “He dived in…”, for Here Froggy, Froggy by Hugh Wiley, published Scribner’s 62 (October 1917). Gouache on board. Graphic Arts Collection

A series of Wiley stories were translated to early films, starring Boris Karloff:

The Awful German Language

In 1880, Mark Twain (1835-1910) published A Tramp Abroad, about a trip through Central and Southern Europe. The first half covers South-Western Germany, where Twain had issues with the language. A commentary expressing his opinions on German was added as Appendix D: “The Awful German Language.”

Twain expanded on this with an essay that became a wonderful lecture titled Die Schrecken der deutschen Sprache (The Horrors of the German Language), which Twain was often called on to repeat.

German artist and printer Eckhard Froeschlin, who runs Edition Schwarze Seite, was inspired by Twain to create a contemporary fine press edition entitled An Awful German Language (2018), recently acquired by the Graphic Arts Collection. http://www.froeschlin-edition.de/seiten/ed_buecher/2018_TWAIN.pdf

“I heard a Californian student in Heidelberg,” writes Frieschlin, “say, in one of his calmest moods, that he would rather decline two drinks than one German adjective.“ Twain’s text appears in excerpts, accompanied by mezzotint etchings, which Froeschlin created while traveling in California and New England. Bet his English was perfect.

Electroblock printing, with no electricity

John Leech (1817-1864), Contemplating a Day’s Fishing, Mr. Briggs Gets His Tackle in Order, and Trys the Management of His Running Line, ca. 1860. Watercolor. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2006.02345. sheet: 25 x 27.8 cm.

John Leech (1817-1864), Mr. Briggs & His Doings. Fishing (London, Bradbury & Evans [1860]). Electroblock print. Otto von Kienbusch Angling Collection Oversize 2003-0004F. sheet: 33 x 47 cm.

In the summer of 1862, an exhibition entitled “Sketches in Oil” was held at The Egyptian Hall on Piccadilly in London. Although the designs by John Leech (1817-1864) were fun to see (primarily cartoons for Punch), it was the reproduction process that drew insiders to the show.

The process, Electroblock Printing, had been developed to ingeniously enlarge and transfer images to canvas or lithographic stones or other mediums. Despite the name, the technique required no electricity. An impression was taken from the original wood blocks or other medium onto rubber (or a sheet of caoutchouc), which was then stretched to a larger size and re-transferred to another surface. If a smaller design is needed, the process can be reversed by stretching the rubber before the design is transferred and then, releasing it back to its former size. The hard part was, of course, keeping all sides in proportion.

Leech was quite taken by the process and used it for several books and exhibitions, hand painting the black outline once it had been transferred.

John Leech (1817-1864), Mr. Briggs & his doings. Fishing. by John Leech (London, Bradbury & Evans [1860]). Otto von Kienbusch Angling Collection Oversize 2003-0004F 33 x 47 cm.

John Leech (1817-1864), Mr. Briggs contemplates a day’s fishing and practises with his running tackle, 1860. Electroblock print. Gift of Carl Otto Kretzschmar von Kienbusch, Princeton University Class of 1906. Graphic Arts Collection GC164

John Leech (1817-1864), Contemplating a day’s fishing, Mr. Briggs gets his tackle in order, and trys the management of his running line, ca. 1860. Watercolor. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2006.02345 sheet 25 x 27.8 cm.

Ricardo Baroja y Nessi

The Graphic Arts Collection has only one box marked Spanish prints but when it was retrieved today we found three beautiful drypoints by the Spanish painter, printmaker, and author Ricardo Baroja y Nessi (1871-1953), brother of the novelists Pío Baroja and Carmen Baroja.

None of these early twentieth-century prints is titled but each has Baroja’s printer’s stamp at the bottom corner.

We also have a reprinting (not original) of the magazine Arte Joven (Young Art), which he published together with Pablo Picasso and Francisco de Aís Soler beginning in March 1901. For this project, Baroja used the pseudonym Juan Gualberto Nessi, which was actually his birth name.

For more about the artist’s eventful life, including his film career as a silent movie actor, see: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=https://www.ecured.cu/Ricardo_Baroja&prev=search

El sexto sentido (1929 España) with artist/actor Ricardo Baroja y Nessi

Edward S. Curtis: negative / positive / negative / positive

Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952), “Honovi-Walpi Snake Priest, with Totkya Day Painting” from The North American Indian, 1907-1930. Suppl. v. 12, pl. 408. Rare Books EX Oversize 1070.279e

Suffolk Engraving Company after negative by Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952), “Honovi-Walpi Snake Priest, with Totkya Day Painting.” Original glass interpositive prepared for Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian, 1907-30, Suppl. v. 12, pl. 408 ([Boston: s.n., ca. 1910]). 39 x 27 cm., housed in light box 57 x 49 x 5 cm. Graphic Arts Collection Vault B glass.

Now available: https://dpul.princeton.edu/catalog/dv13zx94d#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-16011%2C-1%2C38853%2C9573

When you make a classic photogravure, the first step is to convert the photographic negative into a photographic positive. This is transferred to carbon tissue that is attached to the copperplate and from there, you proceed with the complex creation of an aquatint (intaglio ink print on paper). Negative – positive – negative – positive. The positive is also laterally reversed because the final paper will be face down on the copperplate.

It is easy to forgot that for every negative that Edward Curtis prepared, someone had to print it again as a glass positive before the image could be moved onto the copperplate for etching. It is still an open question whether these interpositives were created on the West Coast or, more likely, in Boston where the Suffolk Engraving Company finished the job with a beautiful photogravure print. See also: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2018/06/05/who-printed-the-north-america-indian/
A little history from Jon Goodman: http://jgoodgravure.com/about.html
Richard Benson’s explanation: https://printedpicture.artgallery.yale.edu/videos/flat-plate-photogravure [worth every minute]

Detail of photogravure.

We have acquired the glass interpositive for plate 408, the Honovi-Walpi Snake Priest portrait and the digital version will soon be available online so you download it. The longer we work with the positive, the more impressed we are with the detail, tonality, and depth of Curtis’s photograph.

Edward Curtis was one of the most important American artists of the nineteenth century and the most celebrated photographer of North American Indians. Over the course of thirty-five years, Curtis took tens of thousands of photographs of Indians from more than eighty tribes. “Never before have we seen the Indians of North America so close to the origins of their humanity, their sense of themselves in the world, their innate dignity and self-possession” (N. Scott Momaday). Curtis’s photographs are “an absolutely unmatched masterpiece of visual anthropology, and one of the most thorough, extensive and profound photograph works of all time” (A. D. Coleman).

Curtis had the Boston firm print 2200 of his images as photogravures for his magisterial The North American Indian, which was hailed as “the most gigantic undertaking in the making of books since the King James Bible” (New York Herald). He devoted the 12th volume to the Hopi, writing of this photograph, “This plate depicts the accoutrement of a Snake dancer on the day of the Antelope dance. The right hand grasps a pair of eagle-feathers – the ‘snake whip’ – and the left a bag of ceremonial meal. Honovi was one of the author’s principal informants.” Curtis’s lifelong project was inspired by his reflection that “The passing of every old man or woman means the passage of some tradition, some knowledge of sacred rite possessed by no other; consequently, the information that is to be gathered, for the benefit of future generations, respecting the modes of life of one of the greatest races of mankind, must be collected at once or the opportunity will be lost for all time.”

Detail of glass interpositive.

The Ariel Poems

In 1927, the Curwen Press, Plaistow, partnered with Faber & Gwyer in London to publish a series called The Ariel Poems. Most are four pages with a previously unpublished poem and new printed image from a contemporary artist. No author was involved in the selection of the art and the final booklet (or keepsake) sold for one shilling.

“In his attempt to persuade eminent poets to contribute an Ariel poem, Richard de la Mare was not shy at telling poets that his father, Walter, had agreed to participate. In any case, he had come to know the older poets concerned through his father: in the displayed draft of a letter to Sir Henry Newbolt, for example, he writes that ‘Daddy has promised to let me have a new poem and so has T. S. Eliot’. In 1927, moreover, several of the writers when replying make polite enquiries about how his father was recovering from a recent illness. Rudyard Kipling was not able to help, but ‘A. E’ and W. B. Yeats were, and many other important literary figures came up with short poems for the sequence.”– https://www.faber.co.uk/blog/the-ariel-poems-numbers-1-8/

“Artists enjoyed the opportunity to work for the Curwen Press, not only for fees paid but because of the care taken reproducing their work. This was particularly true of illustrations reproduced by the pochoir (stencil) process, set up by Harold Curwen in 1925 and continued until 1932. The process was exploited with great skill by E. McKnight Kauffer, but even he acknowledged how much his book illustrations reproduced by pochoir owed their quality to Harold Curwen’s skill in running a department for which he trained the staff so well.” —http://whittingtonpressshop.com/the-curwen-press-collection-in-cambridge-university-library/

Between 1927 and 1931 Faber published thirty-eight poems in the Ariel series and then, in the early 1950s, after a gap of twenty years, it was decided to revive the series. Princeton University Library has a number of these, although not a complete set, spread out between a number of collections.

1. Yuletide in a younger world by Thomas Hardy, drawings by Albert Rutherston (London: Faber & Gwyer, 1927).

2. The linnet’s nest by Henry John Newbolt, drawings by Ralph Keene (London: Faber & Gwyer, 1927).

3.The wonder night by Laurence Binyon; drawings by Barnett Freedman (London: Faber & Gwyer, [1927]). 350 copies. ReCAP 3628.5.398

4.Alone by Walter de la Mare; wood engravings by Blair Hughes-Stanton (London: Faber & Gwyer, [19–?]). No. 68 of 350. Rare Books PR6007.E3 Z99046

5.Gloria in profundis by G. K. Chesterton; wood engravings by Eric Gill ([London, Faber & Gwyer, 1927]). No. 185 of 350. Rare Books 3675.85.339

6.The early whistler by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson; drawings by John Nash ([London: Faber & Gwyer, 1927]). ReCAP 3752.3.331

7.Nativity by Siegfried Sassoon; designs by Paul Nash ([London: Faber & Gwyer, 1927]. No. 18 of 350. ReCAP 3917.75.367

8.Journey of the magi by T.S. Eliot; drawings by E. McKnight Kauffer ([London; Faber & Gwyer, Limited, 1927]). Graphic Arts Collection 2004-4195N

9. The chanty of the Nona by Hilaire Belloc, drawings by Hilaire Belloc (London: Faber & Gwyer,
1928).

11.Self to self by Walter De la Mare, drawings by Blair Hughes-Stanton (London: Faber & Gwyer, Curwen Press, 1928).

12. Troy by Humbert Wolfe ; drawings by C. Ricketts (London : Faber & Gwyer, [1928]). ReCAP 3995.18.391

13. The winter solstice, by Harold Monro; drawings by David Jones (London, Faber & Gwyer, 1928?). Rare Books 3862.62.397

14. To my mother by Siegfried Sassoon, drawings by Stephen Tennant (London: Faber & Faber, 1928). Rare Books 3917.75.349.1928

15.Popular song by Edith Sitwell, drawings by Edward Bawden (London: Faber and Faber, 1928). Rare Books 3933.05.373

16.A song for Simeon by T.S. Eliot; drawing by E. McKnight Kauffer (London: Faber & Gwyer, 1928). Graphic Arts Collection 2004-4218N

18. Three things, by W.B. Yeats; drawings by Gilbert Spencer ([London, Faber & Faber limited, 1929]). Rare Books 3999.4.3895.11

20.A snowdrop by Walter De la Mare; drawings by Claudia Guercio (London: Faber & Faber,
192?). Rare Books PR6007.E3 Z99047

22. The outcast by James Stephens; drawings by Althea Willoughby ([London : Faber & Faber, 1929 ). Rare Books 3943.35.369

24. Inscription on a fountain-head by Peter Quennell ; drawings by Albert Rutherston (London : Faber & Faber, [1929]). Rare Books 3902.17.349

26. Elm angel by Harold Monro,. Wood engravings by Eric Ravilious (London, Faber & Faber, 1930). Rare Books 3862.62.332

27.In Sicily by Siegfried, drawings by Stephen Tennant ([London] : [Faber & Faber], 1927). ReCAP PR6037.A86 I575 1930

29.Marina by T.S. Eliot; drawings by E. McKnight Kauffer (London: Faber & Faber, 192?). RHT 20th-125

30.The gum trees by Roy Campbell ; drawings by David Jones (London : Faber & Faber, 1930). Rare Books 3664.55.341

31.News by Walter de la Mare ; drawings by Barnett Freedman (London: Faber & Faber, 1930).
Firestone Library PR6007.E3 N497 1930

33. To Lucy by Walter de la Mare ; drawings by Albert Rutherston (London : Faber & Faber, [19–?]). Rare Books PR6007.E3 Z99059

34. To the red rose by Siegfried Sassoon ; illustration by Stephen Tennant (London : Faber & Faber, [1931?]). Rare Books 3917.75.391

35. Triumphal march by T.S. Eliot ; drawings by E. McKnight Kauffer ([London : Faber & Faber, 1931]). RHT 20th-132

36. Jane Barston, 1719-1746 by Edith Sitwell ; drawings by R. A. Davies (London : Faber & Faber, [1931]). Rare Books PR6037.I8 J36 1931

38. Choosing a mast / by Roy Campbell ; drawings by Barnett Freedman (London : Faber & Faber, 1931). Rare Books 3664.55.325

Goody: new digital images

https://dpul.princeton.edu/
Little by little, digital images from the Graphic Arts Collection that have been hiding in various sites over the years, are being moved to a new location. Lorenzo Homar, James Gillray, and Thomas Nast have made the jump, along with a handful of other things.

The best way to get a look is to put your cursor in the search box but not type anything. https://dpul.princeton.edu/ga_treasures/catalog?utf8=%E2%9C%93&exhibit_id=ga_treasures&search_field=all_fields&q= This gives you almost 2,000 digital images including prints, drawings, illustrated books, and more. We are still figuring it out. You can download single images or whole books, such as the one above from the Sinclair Hamilton Collection. Here are a few highlights:

https://dpul.princeton.edu/ga_treasures/catalog/5d86p3800#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=7&xywh=305%2C2398%2C6055%2C3600

https://dpul.princeton.edu/ga_treasures/catalog/5d86p388v#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-11131%2C-481%2C30012%2C9605

https://dpul.princeton.edu/ga_treasures/catalog/wm117s557#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-4337%2C-1%2C15873%2C3911

https://dpul.princeton.edu/ga_treasures/catalog/q811kj714#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-12022%2C0%2C29221%2C7199

https://dpul.princeton.edu/ga_treasures/catalog/bz60d0852#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-9687%2C-401%2C24996%2C8000