Category Archives: Acquisitions

new acquisitions

Is it Blanche of Castile or Christina of Sweden, or just a representation of courage?

Charles de, baron d’Auteuil Combault. Blanche Infante De Castille (Paris: A. de Sommaville 1644). Four parts in one volume. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process.

In the year 1200, the twelve-year-old Prince Louis of France was married to Blanca de Castilla, then aged eleven. Her grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, traveled to Castile in order to accompany her granddaughter to the wedding. Twice regent of France, Blanche reigned for some eight years between 1226 and 1234, when her son, Louis IX, came of age and again from 1248 to 1252 when her son went away on Crusade.

Dealer’s note:
Only edition of this feminist life of the virago Queen Blanche of Castile (1188-1252). She raised three armies to defend France, assembled two fleets to invade England, suppressed internal revolts, negotiated with hostile powers, exchanged territory to political advantage, secured the throne for her son Louis IX through diplomacy and force, governed France while he led the Seventh Crusade, patronized the arts, collected books, and protected the Jews. In his opening essay, Combault (1588-1670) advocates women as heads of state.

Proverbs 31:26 phe os suum aperuit sapientiae et lex clementiae in lingua eius = She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue

This marvelous frontispiece was designed by the French artist Grégoire Huret.

Kirsti Andersen, The Geometry of an Art (2008) writes “The draughtsman and engraver Grégoire Huret (1610-1670)-—an academician who was also close to the king—-took over Bosse’s lectures at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture… . In 1670, Huret published Optique de portraiture et peinture (Optics of Portraying and Painting) in which he expressed great concern about the state of the art, particularly criticizing Bosse’s book from 1665 and previous publications on Desargues’s method.”

Note, the same allegorical print is used again in 1658 [below] for this book dedicated to Christina of Sweden (1625-1689), published in Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597-1654), Aristippe ou de la cour (A Paris: chez Augustin Courbé, au Palais, en la Galerie des Merciers, à la Palme, 1658). The bottom text has been burnished out and the new book title engraved.

Ungherini, Manuel de bibliographie … des femmes célèbres I: 77
Chevalier, Répertoire des sources…du Moyen âge. Bio-bibliographie I: 610
Cioranescu 8987 (“4 vols.”).

“Animos curasque induta viriles” ? She represents masculine courage

Leonora Carrington

In honor of Princeton University’s new course: Along the Edge: Leonora Carrington, the Graphic Arts Collection acquired the limited edition portfolio, Leonora Carrington, Cinco Grabados, copy 3 of 30, purchased in part with funds provided by the Program in Latin American Studies (PLAS).

The five engravings, with etching and aquatint, were printed at Tiempo Extra Editores, an artists workshop founded in 1989 by Emilio Pavan Stoupignan. Also included is a single poetry broadside signed by Carrington (1917-2011), with text beginning, “Dog, come here into this dark house.” Each paragraph or verse addresses the swan, the coyote, the Shaman & cat, and three cats.

The interdisciplinary class, taught by Jhumpa Lahiri, will focus entirely on Leonora Carrington, the British-born Mexican printmaker, surrealist painter, and novelist.

“Students will be asked to respond to Carrington’s oeuvre both critically and creatively, writing essays, responses, and imaginative texts inspired by a close reading of Carrington’s idiosyncratic fiction and by studying her prints, drawings and paintings, which are part of the Princeton Art Museum’s permanent collection. Knowledge of French and/or Spanish is recommended but not required, as we will also look at some of Carrington’s writing in the original languages of composition, and consider questions linguistic migration and experimentation.”

Note, a search on Carrington in the online catalog https://library.princeton.edu/find/all/carrington%2C%20leonora now includes the entire holdings of the Princeton University Art Museum, along with the Graphic Arts Collection and other library holdings.

Hunting Brown Bear in Alaska 1910

In honor of Ben Primer, and thanks to the Friends of the Princeton University Library, the Graphic Arts Collection has acquired a photography album owned by George Frederick Norton (1876-1917) documenting a hunting expedition in the American West and Alaska, ca. 1910. The album contains 117 mounted gelatin silver prints (slightly photoshopped here) and a few letters. Born in Kentucky, Norton attended the Lawrenceville School and served as a partner at the brokerage Ex Norton & Co. Our dealer continues:

However, his life’s passion was travel, adventure and big game. Norton made numerous trips to the west and Alaska on private hunting expeditions, including the one depicted in the present album, and collected and donated specimens (with a particular emphasis on bear skulls) to the American Museum of Natural History the Smithsonian and other institutions. Indeed in 1910, the Department of Agriculture granted him a permit to capture and ship Alaskan brown bears in excess of the bag limit.

In 1901, he journeyed around the world and in 1908 he helped finance the final Peary expedition to the North Pole, accompanying him aboard the ship Eric as far north as Etah, Greenland. During World War I, Norton would serve in the American Field Service, and would be killed in action in France.

Given the terrain and the fauna (moose, mountain lion, pronghorn antelope, elk), the expedition(s) seen in the album were likely to Montana, Idaho or Wyoming. However, given Norton’s many expeditions farther north, some of the images may also be from Alaska.

Sympathetic Inks

Carl Friedrich August Hochheimer (born 1749), Chemische Belustigungen. Oder Sammlung auserlesener Kunststücke, die zur Bewunderung und zum Vergnügen gereichen [Chemical amusements. Or a collection of exquisite tricks that make for admiration and pleasure] (Leipzig: Friedrich August Leo, 1794). 8vo. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process.

C.F.A. Hochheimer, who also wrote under the pseudonym Johann Daniel Hock (CERL Thesaurus https://data.cerl.org/thesaurus/cnp01229497 ), studied in Göttingen with Lichtenberg, then in Leipzig and Erlangen before accepting a lectureship in philosophy and chemistry. He was a prolific author whose books include an instruction manual on color; a handbook on chemistry for farmers, artists, and homemakers; secrets for artists, manufacturers, professionals, and craftsmen: Greek history; mineralogy; fossils; and now in the Graphic Arts Collection: a collection of chemical amusements, magic tricks, and illusions that can be performed by use of chemistry.

This is not a treatise on chemistry but a collection startling effects produced by chemical action, arranged in eight chapters:
1.Tricks with colors
2.Sympathetic inks (a fluid for producing writing that is invisible until brought out by heat, chemicals, etc.: invisible ink)
3.Tree of Diana, et al.
4.Phosphorus
5.Combustion experiments
6.Explosions
7.Gases
8.Miscellaneous experiments including Ingenhousz electrical pistol (originally published in Jan Ingenhousz (1730-1799), Nouvelles expériences et observations sur divers objets de physique (Paris: T. Barrois le jeune, 1785-1789).

“Electricity and chemistry were close partners in those days. Ingenhousz described the making and handling of electrical pistols fired by igniting inflammable gas, ways of obtaining that gas from swamps, ways of making lamps burning in inflammable gas, …”– Geerdt Magiels, From Sunlight to Insight: Jan IngenHousz, the Discovery of Photosynthesis & Science in the Light of Ecology (2010), p. 179.

Chemische Belustigungen should not be confused with the 1817 volume with the same title by Friedrich Christian Accum (1769–1838), which may have based on Hochheimer’s book. The 1802 treatise Dintenbuch; oder: Anweisung, alle schwarze, bunte und sympathetische Dinten zu verfertigen (Instructions on making black, colored, and sympathetic inks; only available at the New York Public Library), is an expanded study based on chapter 2, Invisible inks.

See also:
Giambattista della Porta (approximately 1535-1615), Natural magick in twenty books … wherein are set forth all the riches and delights of the natural sciences (London: Printed for Thomas Young and Samuel Speed …, 1658).

John White (died 1671), A Rich Cabinet, with Variety of Inventions: Unlock’d and Open’d, for the Recreation of Ingenious Spirits at their Vacant Hours. Being Receits and Conceits of Severall Natures, and Fit for Those Who Are Lovers of Natural and Artificial Conclusions . . . [Frontispiece by Thomas Cross, active 1632-1685]. Fourth edition, with many additions (London: printed for William Whitwood at the sign of the Golden Lion in Duck-Lane near Smith-field, 1668). Graphic Arts Collection GAX N-000210

Flatland

Nothing about this edition of Edwin A. Abbott’s Flatlands is flat.

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired “a fantastical satire set in a two dimensional world peopled by plane geometrical figures, & an early classic of science-fiction: Flatland, a romance of many dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott, with a new introduction by Ray Bradbury, produced in an accordion-fold format, with diagrams, unusual typographic arrangements, and handcolored cutout illustrations devised by Andrew Hoyem, & printed in an edition limited to 275 copies…”–prospectus.

“This book has been produced in a novel form to suit its extraordinary theme. The acordion-fold format, borrowed from oriental bookmaking, is here used to show the perspective of the plane-geometrical character who tells the story, A Square.

Thus, the volume will open out flat to display text and illustrations on a long, continuous sheet. The paper panels (rather than pages) are 7 by 14 inches, stretching to 33 feet per side. A pair of panels forms a square which can be held in th lap to read in the conventional manner of the occidental book. For the second half of the novel, the book must be turned over to read the backside. The volume can also be laid out on a table to expose several panels at once.

For display purposes, the accordion can stand upright, spread to zig-zag over small or large areas, or can be expanded to its full length for wall exhibition. …The covers are made of clear anodized aluminum with the title and the author’s symbolic square silkscreened in epoxy=resin ink for permanency.”

Original prospectus and advertising materials included.

Versado y de Larga Duración

“Y porque estamos vivos, Ismael,
aunque carguemos con la muerte
de los otros,
es que sigue sonando,
aquí en el alma,
esa campana de esperanza,
para ti,
para mí,
y todo el bonche…” Dinorah Marzán, Versado y de larga duración (1987)

“And because we are alive, Ismael,
even though we carry with the death
of others,
the bell of hope,
keeps sounding,
here, in our soul,
for you,
for me,
and for all of us…” Dinorah Marzán, Versado y de larga duración (1987)

translation from César Colón-Montijo, Specters of Maelo: An Ethnographic Biography of Ismael ‘Maelo’ Rivera, 2018 theses: https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search_field=all_fields&q=C%C3%A9sar+Col%C3%B3n-Montijo

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired the facsimile reissue of the artists’ book written by Dinorah Marzán in 1987 mourning the Afro-Puerto Rican singer Ismael “Maelo” Rivera, edited by César Colón-Montijo, who has recently joined the Department of Spanish and Portuguese as a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University.

Versado y de larga duración is a book and collection of loose items inside a cardboard album sleeve. On the cover is the reproduction of a portrait of Maelo, with an image of Dinorah and Maelo on the back cover. The Versado pages include a photocopied collage of verses, pictures of Maelo, images of virgins and saints, Calm Street, the Sacred Heart, and more. Rather than a box, the volume is housed in a painted paperbag.

Listen to: Rafael Cortijo, Baile con Cortijo y su combo con Ismael Rivera [sound recording] = Dance with Cortijo and his Combo with Ismael Rivera. Recorded in New York, January 10, 1958 ; and in Puerto Rico, February 14, 1958 (North Bergen, N.J. : Seeco, 1993). Mendel Music Library CD 35374

Men Only

An earlier blog post incorrectly described University policy for acquiring material. PUL supports and follows the University’s policy on supplier diversity.

Oficina Perambulante

Although you will not find any listed in OCLC, the Argentine books edited, constructed, and published by Carlos Ríos through his imprint Oficina Perambulante are numerous. Their format is consistent: each volume 10 x 7 cm, 16 pages, and a cardboard cover from found materials. Don’t look for them in the bookstores around Buenos Aires or elsewhere, Ríos prefers to sell (or give) them directly from his backpack. Where he is, there are his books.

Here is a small section of a conversation between Luciana Caamaño and Carlos Ríos (loosely translated to English):
LC: How did the Oficina Perambulante come about?
CR: A long time ago I was playing with some formats, after Ediciones el Broche, my first editorial experience. I really like editorial work. The Oficina Perambulante emerged as a need to edit and also make books. . . . every person who writes should have to go through the experience of making books, their own books.

I am very concerned about the price of books, people can’t afford to buy them because they need that money for other things. I make inexpensive booklets that can be bought by anyone. In addition these books have an exceptional character. I lost count of the number of copies I made.

It is a press I carry with me, I can load the items to make the books and make them anywhere; As I walk through the streets, I gather cardboard for the covers of the books, the glossy American cardboard. It is a space of maximum freedom, writing a story in the morning and by night the book is ready to be released. . . The books are with me, carried in my backpack, and if I am not there, there are no books. I tried leaving some in bookstores but it doesn’t work, it works with me, sold where I am.
— https://www.eternacadencia.com.ar/blog/contenidos-originales/entrevistas/item/la-perfeccion-tambien-aburre.html

The Graphic Arts Collection has acquired a small number of Oficina Perambulante volumes:
Amé Dieciocho Veces Pero Recuerdo Sólo Tres by Silvina Ocampo, no date
Bing by Samuel Beckett [1966], no date
Biografía by Carlos Ríos, 2016
Calandria by Sergio Chejfec, 2018
Cuando Nada Pasa Hay un Milagro que no Estamos Viendo by Daniel Sada [1987], no date
El Dedo del Maniquí by Carlos Ríos, 2016
El Día que Fuimos Perros by Elena Garro [1964], no date
El Dogo del Amor by Carlos Ríos, 2016
El Mes de las Moscas by Sergio Chejfec, no date
“En qué to han transformado, Daniel?” by Carlos Ríos, 2016
Sobre la Dificultad de Leer translated by E. Kavi, by Giorgio Agamben, 2016
Un Relato Infantil by Carlos Ríos, 2016
Una Noche, Senté a Donald J. Trump en Mis Rodillas, [Carlos Rios?], 2017
Una Obra, Un Museo by Carlos Ríos, 2016

See also some of the books from the Eloísa Cartonera, https://www.princeton.edu/~graphicarts/2008/04/eloisa_cartonera.html and the Ediciones el Mandrugo: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2019/02/06/elena-jordana-and-ediciones-el-mendrugo/

Many more are listed online: http://catalog.princeton.edu

Printed Corks

With summer vacation over, many friends of the Graphic Arts Collection are returning with additions to our printed cork collection. Along with printed cloth, printed boxes, printed cigarette cards, printed labels, and other printed ephemera, we also collect printing-in-the-round with these international corks.

Friends, less talk and more Champagne. . .

From The New York Times: “Who Made That Champagne Cork?” By PAGAN KENNEDY, December 21, 2012:

According to legend, a French monk named Dom Pérignon realized that a cork could seal in the fizz and flavor of Champagne after he saw Spanish travelers using tree bark to plug their water gourds. But George Taber, author of “To Cork or Not to Cork,” and other historians dispute this story. Taber cites evidence of Champagne corks on the Duke of Bedford’s household inventory list from 1665 — several years before Dom Pérignon took charge of the vineyards at the abbey of Hautvillers. Still, Pérignon and his name remain indelibly associated with Champagne. . . .

Netherlandish Perspective Views

The Graphic Arts Collection is the fortunate new owner of eight 18th-century optical views from The Netherlands, meant to be viewed with a zograscope. These are early hand colored etchings on heavy wove paper without any title printed either above or below the view. Thanks to our donor Bruce Willsie, Class of 1986. Several have a hand-written note taped to the back and others can be identified online. Any additional information would be appreciated.

Can you figure out the reason for the second story hut?

These are not “hold to light” prints, there are no holes or treatment to light up the windows or stars when placed in front of a light. It is possible they were meant to be but never finished, just as the titles have not been printed.