Category Archives: Acquisitions

new acquisitions

Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur

James Sayers (1748-1823), Illustrious Heads designed for a new History of Republicanism, in French and English, dedicated to the Opposition.1794. London: Hannah Humphrey. Lettered with both titles and “JS / Published 12th May 1794 by H.Humphrey No.18 Old Bond Street.” 9 etchings on wove paper. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

An example of a print with and without a liberty cap

On May 12, 1794, Hannah Humphry’s Old Bond Street print shop released a set of satirical prints by James Sayers (1748-1823) titled “Illustrious Heads.” The eight portraits and a cover sheet were “dedicated to the Opposition,” transforming eight prominent British politicians into French patriots, with new names and the “bonnet rouge” (liberty cap). “Mutato nomine de te Fabula Narratur,” = “Change the name and the joke’s on you [or the story is about you].”

The title sheet features a satyr sitting on a pile of books, who warns, “If the cap fit put it on,” and then adds, “The work will not be compleat till all the heads are taken off.”

Collectors took the set home and cut out the hat (making that sheet extremely rare), so that it could be put on each of the illustrious heads. Princeton’s newly acquired set is complete except for the cap, which is a facsimile.

The Sayers entry in the Dictionary of National Biography notes,

“From 1783 onwards, for several years, he drew a series of caricatures, . . . mainly upon Fox, but subsequently upon Burke and other opponents of Pitt. These caricatures . . . were so powerful and direct in their purpose that Fox is said to have declared that Sayers’s caricatures did him more harm than all the attacks made on him in parliament or the press.”

The set includes these British figures, renamed after their French counterpart:

Charles James Fox (1749-1806) = Maximilien de Robespierre (1758-1794)

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) = Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac (1755-1841)

Charles Stanhope, third Earl of Stanhope (1753-1816) = Anacharsis Cloots (1755-1794)

James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale (1759-1839) = Jacques Pierre Brissot de Warville (1754-1793)

John Courtenay (1738-1816) = Camille Desmoulins (1760-1794)

Sir Philip Francis (1740-1818) = Pierre Philippeaux (1754-1794)

William Petty, 1st Marquis of Lansdowne (1737-1805) = Bernard-François, Marquis de Chauvelin (1766-1832)

Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 4th Duke of Grafton (1735-1811) = Louis Philippe Joseph, duc d’Orléans (1747-1793)

 

La Chromolithographie et la Photochromolithographie

One of the best chapters in this volume on lithographic printing describes and illustrates a commercial pantograph, which could be used to reduce or enlarge a picture as well as easily transferring the image to another surface. Written by Frederic Hesse, the technical director of the Lithographic Atelier of the National Printing Office in Vienna, the descriptions are specific without being overly complex.

Frédéric Hess, La chromolithographie et la photo-chromolithographie (Paris: A. Muller, [1897]). Translation of: Die Chromolithographie mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der modernen auf photographischer Grundlage basirenden Verfahren. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

 

For a book on color printing, there is little actual color inside but many black and white diagram of machinery and process. For example, Hesse shows how to dis-assemble an image into separate color sections, each one drawn and then printed from a different stone with a different color ink.

Hesse went on to publish Die Schriftlithographie: eine theoretisch-praktische Anleitung zur Erlernung der Schrift: mit Vorlageblättern sämtlicher in der lithographischen Technik zur Anwendung kommenden Schriftcharaktere unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der modernen Kunstrichtung = Lithographic writing: a theoretical and practical guide to the study of the writing: with preliminary sheets of all characters used in the lithographic technique with special consideration of the modern art direction.

Pfeffel’s Fables

Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel (1736-1809), Fables et poésies choisies de Théophile-Conrad Pfeffel: traduites en vers français et précédées d’une notice biographique par M. Paul Lehr (Strasbourg: G. Silbermann et L. Derivaux, 1840). Graphic Arts RECAP-97004798

Originally written in German and published as Fabeln und poetische Erzählungen, nine editions of the text were published between 1840 and 1861. Paul Lehr (1787-1865) did the French translation in 1840 for the publishers Sibermann and Derivaus, who paid special attention to the design and printing of this edition. Michael Twyman notes that some of the earliest datable examples of the five-colour method are to be found in this volume.

Georges Zipélius (1808-1890) drew the illustrations and Frédéric-Emile Simon (1805-1886) was responsible for the chromolithographic printing on the title page and on the four chapter or book titles, with text printed by Gustave Silbermann (1801-1876).


David Whitesell, at the University of Virginia wrote a nice piece on planographic printing found in their collection, commenting

“Printers have long sought to demonstrate and advertise their prowess through specimen work, and lithographers have been no exception. Perhaps the finest early chromolithographic printing was that executed by the Strasbourg firm of Frédéric Émile Simon. During the 1830s Simon teamed with the innovative calligrapher Jean Midolle to issue three extraordinary specimen books . . . [including] Album du Moyen Âge (1836). That many of its plates are heightened with dusted gold, silver, and bronze powders, and even some discreet hand coloring, does not detract from their beauty and technical mastery.”

The Young Crocodile and the Lizard

One day a young crocodile, on the banks of the Niger, discovered a lizard; He was going to devour him. “Grace!” said the reptile, “For your cousin.”
“How talkative! You my cousin? Explain the matter to me. – You see in me, my dear parent, A crocodile still child.”
“Indeed, yes, the more I consider you, the more I perceive that we resemble each other; But to dispel my doubts, let us go and find my mother; Quickly, my dear cousin, let us plunge!”
The frightened lizard: “What! you want me to dive? I never supported the water. – Oh! for the blow, all handsome!
“You think I’m imposing it by a rude lie: I’m not your dupe, and I’m going, neighbor, to swallow you!”
At these words, opening his huge mouth, he crunched without pity the alleged cousin.

One cannot always be deceived by appearance.

Sunbonnet Sue and I Want My Man

Thanks to a generous donation from David S. Brooke, director emeritus of the Clark Art Institute, the Graphic Arts Collection has acquired a new group of magic lantern slides. Among them are an almost complete set of “Sunbonnet Sue,” presumably images to accompany the song of that title, music by Gus Edwards (1879-1945) and lyrics by Will D. Cobb (1876-1930), published in 1908 by Gus Edwards Music Publishing Company.

In addition, there is a set of beautifully colored slides from the firm of Scott and Van Altena (SVA) of New York City, with the title “I Want My Man.” Scott and Van Altena are discussed at length in a recent article entitled “Outstanding Colorists of American Magic Lantern Slides,” by Terry Borton (American Magic-Lantern Theater. P.O. Box 44 East Haddam CT) in a recent Magic Lantern Gazette. He notes:

“One other company needs to be mentioned for out-standing color, both of detail, and of overall flamboyant impact. Scott and Van Altena (SVA) was the leading producer of the “illustrated song” slides that became popular about 1900, so popular that a minimum order became 20 sets and an order of 200 sets was not uncommon. The sets were usually of 12 to 14 images, selling for $5.00 (about $132.00 today).

The slides combine life models, elaborate photographic montages, and vibrant color—all depicting the lyrics of popular songs sung in movie theaters, and all perfectly matching the spirit of a new century. “Novelty” montages were created by combining negatives in a process that SVA guarded closely. The coloring was done in two rooms of the company’s New York studio, using aniline paints applied by camel-hair brushes.

John D. Scott and Edward Van Altena, the principals of the company, had somewhat different roles. Van Altena, whose mother had been an artist, became a photographer, and was the company’s master in that field. Scott was the master colorist—though Van Altena was responsible for coloring half the sets. Scott, who was deaf, had gone to the Lexington School for the Deaf, where he was taught by Dwight Elmendorf, whose comments about coloring were presented earlier, and who will reappear as an out-standing colorist later in this article.”

https://library.sdsu.edu/pdf/scua/ML_Gazette/MLGvol26no01.pdf

 

 

You can listen to a recording of the song online or play it through YouTube, links to both below.

http://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Crecorded_cd%7C555633

 

Schiller’s Gedichte

When Lucien Goldschmidt and Weston Naef got to Schiller’s Gedichte, while working on The Truthful Lens, they did not mince words but described it as “the most sumptuous early German book illustrated with photographs.” —The Truthful Lens: a Survey of the Photographically Illustrated Book, 1844-1914 , no. 145 (1980). GARF Oversize TR925 .G73

 

To mark the centenary of Friedrich Schiller’s birth, a Jubiläum (anniversary) edition of his poems was published between 1859 and 1862, decorated with 44 albumen silver prints by Joseph Albert (1825-1886), after drawings by Böcklen, Kirchner, C. Pilothy, F. Pilothy, Ramberg, Schwind, and others. Throughout the text are woodcuts by an unidentified artist after designs by the Nazarene artist Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872).

The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have acquired this extraordinary book, beautifully bound in beveled-edge wooden boards covered with dark green embossed morocco and brass-corner bosses.

 

Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), Schiller’s Gedichte, mit Photographieen nach Zeichnungen von Böcklen … [et al.]; und Holzschnitten nach Zeichnungen von Julius Schnorr (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1859-1862). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

 

 

Ode To Joy
Friedrich Schiller, translated by William F. Wertz (first section)

Joy, thou beauteous godly lightning,
Daughter of Elysium,
Fire drunken we are ent’ring
Heavenly, thy holy home!
Thy enchantments bind together,
What did custom stern divide,
Every man becomes a brother,
Where thy gentle wings abide.

Chorus.
Be embrac’d, ye millions yonder!
Take this kiss throughout the world!
Brothers—o’er the stars unfurl’d
Must reside a loving Father.

Who the noble prize achieveth,
Good friend of a friend to be;
Who a lovely wife attaineth,
Join us in his jubilee!
Yes—he too who but one being
On this earth can call his own!
He who ne’er was able, weeping
Stealeth from this league alone!

Chorus.
He who in the great ring dwelleth,
Homage pays to sympathy!
To the stars above leads she,
Where on high the Unknown reigneth.

Joy is drunk by every being
From kind nature’s flowing breasts,
Every evil, every good thing
For her rosy footprint quests.
Gave she us both vines and kisses,
In the face of death a friend,
To the worm were given blisses
And the Cherubs God attend.

Chorus.
Fall before him, all ye millions?
Know’st thou the Creator, world?
Seek above the stars unfurl’d,
Yonder dwells He in the heavens.

 

Le Magasin charivarique

Le Magasin charivarique. Musée comique, magasin de charges et de caricatures [The Charivaric Store. Museum of Comics, a store of cartoons and caricatures] (Paris, 1834). Full page prints by Honoré Daumier, Benjamin, Grandville, and others. From the collection of Arthur & Charlotte Vershbow; purchased from Goodspeed’s Book Shop; previously owned by William M. Ivins, Jr., former curator of the Department of Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process.

A ministerial newspaper editor

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a complete set of Le Magasin charivarique, comprised of two parts in three volumes. The first volume includes nine lithographs by Honoré Daumier (D. 219, 220, 223, 224, 225, 229, 231, 234 and 237). The second volume (issued in two parts, plates 1-19 and 20-37) containing 14 ‘chalk-plate’ prints (Bouvy 23-36).

“The only large cuts that Daumier made, aside from two or three odd ones like Le Carnaval and Le Compliment, that came out in the Charivari, are the series of ‘chalk plate’ caricatures that the Charivari published in the early 1830s, many of which subsequently appeared, printed carefully on one side only of good paper, in the Magasin Charivarique . . . In certain ways, these two series exhibit him at the height of his prowess. For sheer brutal dominant power of presentation there are few things to be found in the history of the relief print finer than a number of the early chalk plates” –William Ivins, “Daumier,” in The Colophon, part V, 1931.

 

Inside front cover.

When the vessel is full, it overflows. Monseigneurs, take care.

 

A caricature of the French magistrate Nicolas Martin du Nord (1790-1847) as a bear climbing a tree labeled conspiracy “to earn his living.”

 

 

Every Building on the Thames Strip

John Heaviside Clark, Panorama of the Thames from London to Richmond (London: Samuel Leigh, ca. 1824). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process


In 1966, American artist Ed Ruscha pieced together photographs showing both sides of the Los Angeles Sunset Strip from Beverly Hills and Laurel Canyon. The mile and a half stretch of road became a 24-foot-long leporello or concertina folded book, which he called Every Building on the Sunset Strip.

Nearly 150 years earlier in 1824, Scottish printmaker John Heaviside Clark (ca. 1770-1836) created 45 aquatinted etchings of the Thames River, showing the buildings and landscape on both sides from London to Richmond. The 15-mile stretch became a bound volume called Panorama of the Thames from London to Richmond. If it were unbound, the prints would extend 59 feet (18 meters).

 

Edward Ruscha, Every Building on the Sunset Strip ([Los Angeles]: E. Ruscha, 1966). 1 folded sheet ([53] p.). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2006-2722N

 


 

John Heaviside Clark was sometimes known as Waterloo Clark, after the drawings he made of the battlefield. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and published A Practical Essay on the Art of Colouring and Painting Landscapes (1807); A Practical Illustration of Gilpin’s Day (1824); The Amateur’s Assistant, or, A series of instructions in sketching from nature (1826); Elements of Drawing and Painting in Water Colours; (1841)(GAX) 2003-0273N; and Friedrich Wilhelm Delkeskamp (1794-1872), Panorama of the Rhine and the adjacent country from Cologne to Mayence (ca. 1830)(Ex) Oversize 2008-0020Q.


 

Print to Motion

Students in the class “Print to Motion” from Columbia University’s LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies visited recently along with instructor Ben Hagari and the Center’s artistic director Tomas Vu-Daniel. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/arts/neiman/about.html They are printing their own thaumatropes, zoetropes, and other optical devices and so, came down to be inspired by our historical collection. http://rbsc.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/Optical%20Devices.pdf


Their timing was good, arriving just in time to see our newly acquired biunial magic lantern, a recent donation from David S. Brooke, director emeritus of the Clark Art Institute.

This very special lantern has a mahogany body with aluminum slide holders and has been wired for electricity making it possible to project slides for our students. As the name indicates, a biunial has two separate projection systems placed one over the other, which allows the lanternist to superimpose two images for dissolving views or other special effects. Ours was made by the Optimus company and is a nice companion to our single lens Perken Optimus Magic Lantern, ca. 1875.

The LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies was founded by a generous endowment from LeRoy and Janet Neiman in 1996 to promote printmaking through education, production and exhibition of prints. The center provides students, as well as established artists, a rich environment to investigate and produce images through a myriad of printmaking techniques which include intaglio, lithography, silkscreen, relief, photography, and digital imaging.

To see other items in our collection, choose the category ‘pre-cinema optical devices’ in the right margin.

Shinzoho Saigoku kidan = Mysterious Stories of the Western Country

Kunisada Utagawa II, artist and Shunsui Tamenaga (pseudonym for Sadataka Sasaki, 1790-1844), author. 新増補西圀奇談 新増補西國奇談 = Shinzoho Saigoku kidan = Mysterious Stories of the Western Country. Complete in twenty parts bound in forty volumes. Edo: Tsutsumi Kichibei, 1856-1875. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process.


The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired the first edition and a rare complete set of this beautifully illustrated example of gokan, a type of fiction of the kusa zoshi genre. According to The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature, “gōkan are popular illustrated stories and romances, prose narratives succeeding Kibyōshi, and flourishing sometime after 1807. By combining three or four sōshi into one gōkan unit, much longer stories were possible.”


We are told that “these serial novels are usually characterized by their vividly colored pictorial wrappers upon which the artists’ names were given equal prominence with the name of the author on the covers, title-pages, and colophons. Each volume of a gokan contains ten sheets/twenty pages. The images are more sophisticated than those encountered in most earlier kusa zoshi and the texts far denser.”

Shunsui Tamenaga was the pen name of Sadataka Sasaki (1790-1844), one of the major writers of the Edo period. He is perhaps best remembered for Colors of Spring, the Plum Calendar, written in 1832-33. But he is also known for his humorous story Longevity, which was translated by Yei Theodora Ozaki for The Japanese Fairy Book (Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1903). Cotsen Children’s Library (CTSN) Eng 20 28988.

Kunisada II (1823-1880), successor to Kunisada Utagawa, worked in the style of his master and illustrated nearly 200 books. Each of the stories is in two parts, each with its own color woodblock cover that matches and completes the image on the cover of the other volume.

Our new collection is in remarkably good condition, given the popularity of these volumes and the simple paper cover. Even for those who do not read Japanese, the matching print covers are spectacular.


 

Sermones prestantissimi sacrarum literarum

Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg (1445-1510), Sermo[n]es prestantissimi sacrarum literarum doctoris Joa[n]nis Geilerii Keiserspergii, contionatoris Argetine[m] fructuosissimi de te[m]pore [et] de s[e]ctis accomodandi ([Strasbourg]: [Joannes Grüniger], [1515]). Bound in contemporary blind-stamped half pigskin over wooden boards with brass clasps, the book has been rebacked, preserving old spine. Provenance: early marginalia; Joh. Wigand (signature on title); collection of Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow; purchased from John Fleming, 1971. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired one of several issues of the second edition of Geiler’s sermons, illustrated with the same unusual set of woodcuts representing danse macabre subjects that appeared in the first edition of 1514. Geiler, sometimes called the German Savonarola, was a “preacher at the Strassburg cathedral, who attracted huge audiences while advocating reform. Inspired by the ideals of humanism, Geiler composed and delivered sermons that were at once learned and passionate, and above all, accessible to a broad audience.” Carlos M.N. Eire, Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650 (2016).

The title page is printed in the dotted manner or manière criblée or Schrotblatt, a technique found in Germany and France in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, in which the design is created from punches or stamps on a metal plate. Seven woodcuts and numerous woodcut initials also decorate the book.

For more about the dotted manner technique, see also: Prints in the dotted manner and other metal-cuts of the XV century in the Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, edited by Campbell Dodgson …(London: Printed by order of the Trustees, 1937). Marquand Library (SA) Oversize NE55.L8 B709f

Sylvester Rosa Koehler (1837-1900), White-line engraving for relief-printing in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. [Dotted prints, gravures en manière criblée, Schrotblätter] (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1892). Marquand Library NE1000 .K7