Category Archives: Acquisitions

new acquisitions

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

 

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

Cuerpos Blandos

In October 1969, the Chilean sculptor Juan Pablo Langlois converted Santiago’s National Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA) into “en objeto de la primera intervención artística de carácter público” [the object of the first artistic intervention of a public nature]. The work consisted of a large nylon sleeve filled with diaries, which began on the second floor, circled through the balcony, descended the staircase, and exited through a window, where it was tied to one of the palm trees in the front yard.

Forty years later, this seminal Chilean work of conceptual art was recreated on the second floor of the MNBA and a facsimile edition of the exhibition catalogue was published with drawings and photographs documenting the project. Thanks to the support of the Program in Latin American Studies, we are fortunate to acquire the rare, limited edition re-publication.

According to the curator Ramón Castillo, the re-assembly of “Cuerpos Blandos” has a double meaning. “On the one hand, it is an exercise that activates in memory a key moment for contemporary Chilean art and, at the same time, points to an artist who turns his work into a collective action, since Langlois will receive the contribution of the public and the collaboration of art students for its execution, as well as allowing the public to appreciate the execution and installation process.”

“The Chilean sculptor, installer, and visual artist was born in Santiago on February 26, 1936. Between 1952 and 1962 he studied architecture at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and at the Catholic University of Valparaíso. He receives the influence of Joseph Albers, professor of the Bauhaus in a course of six months that the professor dictates in Chile. His first visual works are closely related to his training as an architect and consist of two-dimensional research on optical art.

At the end of the sixties, he abandoned this tendency to develop a conceptual work made of paper, cardboard and wood, where he emphasized the critical reflection of Chilean society. Finally, Langlois abandons in a radical way the use of traditional elements of art to openly inaugurate the practice of installation in Chile. Since 1969, his work has been exhibited on several occasions in the National Museum of Fine Arts, as well as in other galleries and museums in Chile and abroad. He has received distinctions such as the Third Prize at the VIII International Art Biennial of Valparaíso in 1987 and the Gunther Prize of Santiago in 1995, among others.”–http://www.mnba.cl/617/w3-article-8863.html

For more about Langlois: http://www.artistasvisualeschilenos.cl/658/w3-article-40063.html

Juan Pablo Langlois (born 1936), Cuerpos blandos [facsimile]. 21st edition ([Santiago, Chile]: Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, [2017]). Catálogo de exposición de arte. Purchased by the Program in Latin American Studies. Copy 18 of 21. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process.

 

See also: Juan Pablo Langlois Vicuña, De Langlois a Vicuña (Santiago de Chile : AFA Editions, 2009). Summary note: Book devoted to sculptor and installation and visual artist Juan Pablo Langlois Vicuña (b. Chile 1936), considered by many as the “Father of Contemporary Art in Chile”. Conceived as a “document of artist”, the exhaustive work presents his extraordinary and diverse art production (installations, paper sculptures, collages, etc.) from 1969-2008, a chronology of his 39 exhibitions, his artist’s books and his thoughts about art. Includes and interview and a theoretical text. Marquand Library (SA) N7433.4.L363 A4 2009

Cuerpos Blandos – Juan Pablo Langlois (2007) from pedro l. talarico on Vimeo.

Juan Pablo Langlois:
A propósito de Cuerpos Blandos (1/3)

Mitchell and Abbott

Joseph Mitchell (1908-1996), The Bottom of the Harbor, with photogravures by Berenice Abbott (New York: Limited Editions Club, 1991). “The text was set in Monotype Bell by Michael and Winifred Bixler … Printed at Wild Carrot Letterpress … The photogravure plates were made by Jon Goodman, and were printed by Sara Krohn and Wingate Studio”–Colophon. Copy 89 of 250, signed by the author. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) in process.

 

The Limited Editions Club was founded by George Macy (1900-1956) in 1929. After his death, his wife, Helen and then, their son Jonathan Macy, ran the organization until 1970. The club went through several new managers and in 1978, Sidney Shiff (1924-2010) took over, reducing the print runs and emphasizing original art by major artists.

Princeton University Library holds over 200 of the illustrated books and we continue to add to the collection. The most recent addition is the last book Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) participated in before her death at the age of 93.

Returning to New York City in 1929, she began documenting both the modern buildings of Manhattan and the remains of the city’s historic past. Thanks to support from the Federal Art Project, Abbott published Changing New York in 1940. Shiff arranged for negatives taken for this earlier project to be transferred to copper plate photogravure by Jon Goodman and printed by Sara Krohn at Wingate Studio in Massachusetts. The result is the perfect accompaniment to Mitchell’s text.

 

 

“To furnish, to lovers of beautiful books, unexcelled editions of their favorite works . . . to place beautifully printed books in the hands of booklovers at commendably low prices . . . to foster in America, a high regard for perfection in bookmaking . . . by publishing for its members twelve books each year, illustrated by the greatest of artists and planned by the greatest of designers . . . this is the purpose of The Limited editions Club.” –The Limited Editions Club ([New York]: The Club, 1929). Graphic Arts Collection 2010-0386n c.2

The Greatest Invention of Modern Times and More

During the conservation of our circus broadsides, a large group of circus magazines and multi-page advertising were separated from the flat paper. These are now begin catalogued and housed with our other bound material. They announce many thrilling attractions from P.T. Barnum and other entrepreneurs, but one that especially caught our eye was an advertisement for Professor Faber’s “Talking Machine.”


In 1844, several American newspapers mention the first visit of Joseph Faber (ca.1800-1850) to the United States with his contraption named Euphonia:

“The Talking Machine. Having seen in one or two papers an account of this new invention we went with a friend yesterday to see it. –Mr. Faber, the artist, speaks only German, yet he has taught his machine to speak English, and speak it too better than German. And what is still more curious, it gives some of our difficult sounds better than Mr. Faber himself can pronounce them. The ‘th,’ for instance, which is the Rubicon in our language to a German, it gives like a native-born American. Indeed, we do not believe the ‘Native American Party’ itself could tell the difference. On asking Mr. Faber how it came to pass his machine could speak better English than German, he replied: “Why shouldn’t it? –it is American born.” The sounds issue from the lips of a Mask that as they open and shut reveal a tongue that plays like the living member, though no so ‘limberly.’ It is really laughable to see this bust placed upright with a turbaned head and whiskered face slowly enunciating in a whining tone, sounds which we have heretofore considered as belonging exclusively to our species.” –New York Daily Tribune January 26, 1844.

In December 1845, Joseph Faber exhibited his “Wonderful Talking Machine” at the Musical Fund Hall in Philadelphia and Princeton University professor Joseph Henry (1797-1878) was called on to help determine whether or not Faber’s invention was a fraud. Henry soon became one of Faber’s chief supporters.

Barnum saw Faber’s demonstration in 1844 while in London and later arranged for Faber’s nephew to perform with Euphonia at Barnum’s museum in New York City. Prof. Faber had unfortunately committed suicide in 1850.

See more: http://history-computer.com/Dreamers/Faber.html
James Lastra, Sound Technology and the American Cinema: perception, representation, modernity (New York: Columbia University Press, c2000). Firestone Library (F) PN1995.7 .L37 2000

A few other magazines:


A few more magic lantern slides

Leaver slide of two cats confronting each other. Their backs go up.

Slipping slide, pulling a tooth.

Slipping slides, only the eyes move.

Thanks to a generous donation from David S. Brooke, director emeritus of the Clark Art Institute, the Graphic Arts Collection and the Cotsen Children’s Library have acquired a new group of chiefly English, hand-painted magic lantern slides. Here are a few more examples from this wonderful collection.

Seven of a twenty-five-slide temperance set titled “The Last Shilling,” in which a husband is about to spend his last shilling on drink but remembers his poor wife and instead, returns home to give the shilling to her.
Various chromatrope slides.

The Last Judgment in Twelve Plates

Detail

Detail

Detail

 

[above] Pieter de Jode I (1570–1634) after the painting by Jean Cousin the Younger (ca. 1522–1594). Iudicÿ uniuersalis paradigma Sacrae Scripturae testimonijs confirmatum = Pourtraict du Iugement Vniuersel confirmé des tesmoignaiges de l’Escripture Saincte. Engraved in 12 plates. Published in Paris by P. Drevet aux Galleries, [First issued in 1615; this impression between 1726 and 1738]. Hollstein IX.204.83. Graphic Arts Collection 2017- in process

[below] Jean Cousin the Younger, Last Judgment, ca.1585. Oil on canvas, 145 x 142 cm. Musée duLouvre, Paris

Born in Antwerp, Jode studied with Hendrick Goltzius and matriculated into the Guild of St Luke. His 12 engraved sheets (9 image and 3 text) after Cousin’s Last Judgment (Louvre), were first issued in 1615, dedicated by Guilielmus Wittenbroot to King Louis XIII of France, and approved by the canon and censor Lawrence Beyerlinck of Antwerp.

The framed set of prints recently acquired by the Graphic Arts Collection was printed later from the original plates, acquired by the print publisher and graveur du Roi Pierre Drevet (1663-1738). Between 1703 and 1726 Drevet’s shop was located on the rue Saint-Jacques, after which he was granted lodgings in the Palais du Louvre. Our impression is inscribed “A Paris Chez Drevet rue St. Iacques a la Nonciation Avec Privilege du Roy” in the lower center of image and dates from after 1726.

 

 

See also: Recueil des oeuvres choises de Jean Cousin, peinture, sculpture, vitraux, miniatures, gravures à l’eau-forte et sur bois, reprodutes en fac-similé par MM. Adam et St. Pilinksi, Aug. Racinet, Lemaire, Durand et Dujardin (quarante-et-une planches, dont quatre en couleurs) et publiées avec un introduction par Ambroise Firmin-Didot (Paris: Firmin Didot, Frères, fils et ct cie, 1873). Marquand Library (SA) Oversize ND553.C825 D48f

Also engraved by Pieter de Jode I: Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630), Metamorphoseon, siue, Transformationum Ouidianarum libri quindecim, æeneis formis ab Antonio Tempesta Florentino incisi, et in pictorum, antiquitatisque studiosorum gratiam nunc primum exquisitissimis sumptibus a Petro de Iode Antuerpiano in lucem editi (Amsterodami, Wilhelmus Ianssonius excudit [1606?]). Rare Books (Ex) NE662.T45 O94 1606


Text in French and in Latin.

A previous owner of the set now at Princeton framed the 9 image plates reproducing The Last Judgment, leaving the 3 text plates in a separate mat. Other sets, such as the one in the Bibliothèque nationale de France [below] are framed with the text included.

 

 

Aquatints by Alexandre Alexeïeff

Léon-Paul Fargue (1876-1947), Poëmes. Eaux-fortes en coleurs par Alexeieff ([Paris]: Librairie Gallimard, [1943]). Copy 61 of 136. Graphic Arts GAX 2017- in process

 


The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have acquired another volume with aquatints by Alexandre Alexeïeff (1901-1982).

The Russian artist emigrated to France after the Russian Revolution and went on to animate films, design sets, and beginning in 1926, illustrate books by Poe, Baudelaire, Andersen, Hoffman, Tolstoy, Pasternak and Malraux, among others.

In her thesis (Universiteit Utrecht 2012), Bregje Hofstede lists 50 books with prints by Alexeïeff (file:///C:/Users/JULIEM~1/AppData/Local/Temp/Alexander%20Alexeieff%20and%20the%20Art%20of%20Illustration-1.pdf)

The chronological list below may not be complete. Titles with an asterisk have only been illustrated with a frontispiece.

 

Soupault, Philippe, Guillaume Apollinaire (Marseille: Éditions Les Cahiers du Sud, 1926).* – Giraudoux, Jean, La Pharmacienne (Paris: Éditions des Cahiers Libres, 1926). – Giraudoux, Jean, Siegfried et le Limousin (Paris: Aux Aldes, 1927). – Gogol, Nicolai, Le journal d’un fou (Paris: Schiffrin / Éditions de la Pléiade, 1927). Second edition: London, Cress Press Limited, 1929. – Hémon, Louis, Maria Chapdelaine. Récit du Canada Francais (Paris: Éditions du Polygone, 1927. – Maurois, André, Les Anglais (Paris: Cahiers Libres, 1927).* – Maurois, André, Voyage au pays des Articoles (Paris: Schiffrin / Éditions de la Pléiade, 1927). – Genbach, Jean, L’Abbé de l’abbaye, poèmes supernaturalistes. (Paris: Tour d’ivoire, 1927). – Soupault, Philippe, Guillaume Apollinaire, ou Reflets de l’incendie (Marseille: Les Cahiers du Sud, 1927).* – Morand, Paul, Bouddha Vivant (Paris: Aux Aldes / Grasset, 1928). – Pouchkine, Alexandre, La dame de pique (Paris: J. E. Pouterman Éditeur, 1928). Second edition: London, the Blackmore Press, 1928. – Kessel, Joseph, Les Nuits de Sibérie (Paris: Flammarion 1928). – Perrault, Charles, Contes (Paris: Hilsum 1928).* – Green, Julien, Mont Cinère (Paris: Plon, 1928).* – Apollianaire, Guillaume, Les épingles (Paris: Cahiers Libres, 1928).* – Soupault, Philippe, Le roi de la vie (Paris: Cahiers Libres, 1928).* – Bove, Emmanuel, Une Fugue (Paris: Éditions de la belle Page, 1928).* – Green, Julien, Adrienne Mesurat (Paris: Les Exemplaires, 1929). – Perrault, C., Les Contes de Perrault. Édition du Tricentenaire. Illustrés par 33 graveurs (Paris: Éditions Au Sans Pareil, 1928). – Giraudoux, Jean, Marche vers Clermont (Paris: Cahiers Libres, 1928).* – Poe, Edgar Allan, Fall of the House of Usher (Paris: Éditions Orion, 1929). Second edition: Maastricht, Stols, 1930. – Dostoevsky, Fyodor, Les frères Karamazov (Paris: la Pléiade / Schiffrin, 1929). – Kessel, Joseph, Dames de Californie (Paris : NRF, 1929).* – Poe, Edgar Allan, translated by Baudelaire, Colloque entre Monos et Una (Paris: Orion, 1929). – Delteil, Joseph, On the River Amour (New York: Covici, 1929). – Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeevich, Les recites de feu Ivan Pétrovitch Bielkine (Maastricht/Bruxelles: Stols 1930). – Fargue, L.-P., Poèmes (Paris: NRF Gallimard, 1931). – Fournier, Alain, Le Grand Meaulnes (Paris: Éditions de Cluny, 1931).* – [?] Louys, Pierre, Les Chansons de Bilitis (Paris: Cluny, 1933). – Baudelaire, Charles, Petits poèmes en Prose (Paris: Société du Livre d’Art, 1934). – Cervantès, Don Quichote, 1936. Published without text by ArtExEast, Geneva, 2011. – Andersen, Hans Christian: Images de la Lune (Paris: Maximilien Vox, 1942). – Afanas’ev, Aleksandr, Russian Fairy Tales (New York: Pantheon Books, 1945). – Soupault, Philippe: Journal d’un Fantôme (Paris: Éditions du Point du Jour, 1946).* – Tolstoy, Leo, What Men Live by: Russian stories and Legends (York: Pantheon Books, 1943). – Soupault, Philippe, Message de l’île déserte (Den Haag: Stols, 1947).* – Blake, William, Chants d’innocence et d’expérience (Paris: Cahiers Libres, 1947).* – Soupault, Philippe (transl.), Chant du Prince Igor (Rolle: Eynard, 1950). – Chekov, Anton, Une Banale Histore, suivie de: La Steppe – Goûssev – Vollôdia (Paris Imprimerie Nationale / André Sauret, 1955).* – Flaubert, Gustave, Premières Lettres à L.C. (Paris: Les Impénitents, 1957).* – Pasternak, Boris, Dr Zhivago (Paris: Gallimard, 1959). Second edition by Pantheon Books. – Hoffmann, Ernst Theodore Amadeus, Contes (Paris: Club du Livre, 1960). – Dostoevsky, Fyodor, The Gambler & Notes from the Underground (New York: Heritage Press / Limited Editions Club / Sign of the Stone Book, 1967). – Malraux, André, Oeuvres (Paris: Rombaldi, 1979). – Malraux, André, La Tentation de l’Occident (Paris: Ateliers Rigal, 1991). – Malraux, André, La Condition Humain, (Paris: Ateliers Rigal, 1991). – Malraux, André, La Voie Royale (Paris: Ateliers Rigal, 1991). – Malraux, André, Les Noyés de l’Altenbourg (Paris: Ateliers Rigal, 1991). – Tolstoy, Leo, Anna Karenina (Paris: Rigal, 1995 / Librairie Nicaise, 1997). – Alexeïeff, Alexandre, Album de 120 eaux-fortes et Aquatintes de A. Alexeïeff (Paris: Ateliers Rigal-Bertansetti, 1997).

The Fixed Income of France in 1789


What was the state of France’s finances at the beginning of the French Revolution? What was the annual revenue for goods produced in France and sold internationally? How much was spent by the Royal family on their china, silverware, or clothing? How much was loaned to the United States to pay for their revolution?

1789 was a pivotal year in the history of France. The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired two enormous broadsides itemizing the finances of the country that year. Detailed in gold with capitals rubricated in red and gold, the handwritten sheets are said to have been displayed publicly yet few copies survive (the only other recorded copies outside France are at Harvard). The sheets appear to be a pair, meant to be studied together:

Tableau des Finances de la France à l’Époque de la Tenue des États-Générau[x]: Ensemble, le Résumé de l’Étendue de la Population et des Contributions de chaque Généralité du Royaume = Table of the Finances of France at the Time of the Holding of the States-General: Together, a Summary of the Extent of the Population and the Contributions of Each Generality of the Kingdom.
and
Apperçu de la Balance du Commerce de la France Année – 1789: Ensemble le Relevé de la Population des Finances et Forces Militaires des Principales Puissances de l’Europe = Overview of the Balance of Trade of France for the Year 1789: Together the Survey of the Population of Finance and Military Forces of the Main Powers of Europe.

Itemized lists detail the fixed income and expenses for the year, with the resulting deficit in the bottom corner. There is a list of goods imported from Holland, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, England and the United States, as well as trade with India and China. Here are a few details:

Note on the right: Various objects of national industry include paintings, prints, books, leather, and fans, gloves, etc.

Extra Extra George Cruikshank

Thanks to the help of the Friends of the Princeton University Library, the Graphic Arts Collection has acquired an enlarged and extra-illustrated copy of Blanchard Jerrold (1826-1884), The Life of George Cruikshank (London: Chatto and Windus, 1880 (1882)). These four folio volumes are packed with 1,052 additional hand-colored etchings, engravings, portraits, map, letters, drawings, watercolors, and other significant works highlighting and elaborating on the original text.

The Life of George Cruikshank is not an uncommon book, Princeton has several. The text was prepared four years after Cruikshank’s death in 1878 as an homage to the artist. Extra-illustrated versions are also included in our collection but they do not compare to our new acquisition.

Previously, the largest volume in Princeton’s collection was comprised of two octavo books (as published) with 78 additional plates. Our new acquisition is three times the size with extra material from the whole of Cruikshank’s oeuvre, beginning with his earliest caricatures to his book illustrations (especially Dickens) to his obsession with Temperance, including such series as Monstrosities (Fashion), Oliver Twist, Hunting Stories, The Bottle, Drunkard’s Children and many others. Several prints are signed by Cruikshank in pencil and there are frequent notes concerning their rarity.


There are many plates of London views and haunts; portraits of the Royal family and leading celebrities; playbills and posters for theater productions; along with many prints by Cruikshank’s family and colleagues, such as Thomas Rowlandson, Isaac Cruikshank, James Gillray, Robert Cruikshank and others.

There are seventeen manuscripts and signed items including autograph letters by George Cruikshank, Ruskin, Jerrold, Crowquil, and others. One letter has been attributed to Guy Fawkes.

Note the added borders on the lower print.

 


Extra-illustrated books are receiving attention from a new generation of scholars. A major conference is planned for next spring at the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel, Germany along with a special issue of the journal Wolfenbütteler Notizen zur Buchgeschichte on the subject.

In his study of the history, symptoms, and cure of a fatal disease caused by the unrestrained desire to possess printed works, Thomas Frognall Dibdin observes that “[a] passion for a book which has any peculiarity about it,” as a result of grangerising by means of collected prints, transcriptions, or various cutouts, “or which is remarkable for its size, beauty, and condition—is indicative of a rage for unique copies, and is unquestionably a strong prevailing symptom of the Bibliomania.”

Holywell Street

These volumes join Princeton University Library’s collection of over 1000 of Cruikshank’s caricatures and over 100 of his drawings, collected by Richard Waln Miers, Class of 1888. Thanks to our Friends, these new materials enhance an already great collection, bringing added rewards to our students and to scholars worldwide.