Category Archives: Illustrated books

illustrated books

Rubáiyát


Over 100 editions of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) are listed in the Princeton University Library catalogue. Many have special bindings and illustrations. One of the most unusual was published in September 1905 by Dodge Publishing Company with illustrations by the California photographer Adelaide Hanscom (later Leeson, 1876-1932).

In 1903, Hanscom gathered writers and artists to her San Francisco studio and like Julia Margaret Cameron, dressed and posed them in exotic scenes for her book’s illustrations. Joaquin Miller (the pen name of Cincinnatus Heine Miller, 1837-1913), George Sterling (1869-1926) and George Wharton James (1858-1923) are thanked individually. Charles Augustus Keeler (1871-1937) was not, nor were any of the female models.

Hanscom not only took the photographs but also drew the borders. This edition was first announced in the column “Books and Authors” in the New-York Tribune on August 26, 1905:

Omar Khayyam. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, translated into English verse by Edward FitzGerald; with illustrations by Adelaide Hanscom (New York: Dodge Publishing Company, 1905). “… my gratitude to Joaquin Miller, George Sterling, George W. James, and others who have rendered valuable assistance in posing for these illustrations …” Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2003-1063N

 

 
Joaquin Miller

 

 

 

 

George Wharton James

 

 

 

George Sterling

 

 

 
See also
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), Sonnets from the Portuguese with photographic illustrations by Adelaide Hanscom Leeson (New York: Dodge Pub. Co., [1916?]). Marquand Library (SAPH): PR4189 .A1 1916

Adelaide Hanscom Leeson (1876-1932), Adelaide Hanscom Leeson, Pictorialist Photographer, 1876-1932 (Carbondale, Ill.: University Museum, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1981).Marquand Library (SAPH) TR647 .L415 1981

Isabella Piccini and Angela Baroni, 18th-century engravers

Detail “Suor Isabella Piccini Sculpi”

Detail “Angela Baroni Scrisse Ve.a”

From: Bernardo Lodoli, Serenissimo Venetiarum Dominio ill[ustrissi]mo, et ecc[ellentissi]mo Arsenatus regimini Bernardi Lodoli … fidele votvm … ([Venetiis], [1703]). 12 leaves. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process. Thanks to Gail Smith, Senior Bibliographic Specialist. Rare Books Cataloging Team, who worked out the description of this item.

 

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a rare all-engraved publication by two eighteenth-century female printmakers, Sister Isabella Piccini (1644-1734) and Angela Baroni (active 1700s), with text by Bernardo Lodoli.

The bound compilation announces and endorses a forthcoming work, including its printed index and engraved title page.: Il cvore veneto legale formato dalla compilatione delle leggi … et altre cose notabili stabilite nel corso di cinque secoli per la buona a[m]ministratione … dell Arsenale di Venetia … Opera dal dottor Bernardo Lodoli … [Venezia] 1703. There are three full-page engravings and engraved title page by Piccini and “Cvore” title page; along with four leaves of text (one illustrated) engraved by Baroni.

For more information see: Morazzoni: Libro illustrato veneziano del settecento, Graphic Arts reference (GARF) Oversize Z1023 .M85 1943q, p.239.

Detail

Thanks to Eric White’s Bridwell Library exhibition “Fifty Women,” we now know “that Elisabetta Piccini (1644–1734) was the daughter of the Venetian engraver Giacomo Piccini (d. 1669), who trained her in the art of drawing and engraving in the styles of the great masters, particularly Titian and Peter Paul Rubens.

In 1666 she entered the Convent of Santa Croce in Venice and took the name Suor (Sister) Isabella. She continued to work as an engraver, accepting numerous commissions from Venetian publishers to illustrate liturgical books, biographies of saints, and prayer manuals. However, as a Franciscan nun dedicated to a life of poverty, she divided her earnings between her convent and her family living in Venice. Her long and productive career ended with her death at the age of ninety.”

For more, see the entry in the Enciclopedia delle donne: http://www.enciclopediadelledonne.it/biografie/elisabetta-piccini/

In this work, Piccini was partnered with Angela Baroni (active 1700s), who specialized in calligraphic engraving.

Detail

 

Detail

Piccini’s work can also be seen in: Missale Romanum : ex decreto Sacrosancti Concilii Tridentini restitutum, S. Pii V. Pontificis Maximi jussu editum, Clementis VIII. & Urbani VIII. Auctoritate recognitum ; in quo missæe novissimæ Sanctorum accuratè sunt dispositæ (Venetiis: ex Typographia Balleoniana, 1727). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2012-0009F

Carlo Labia, Dell’imprese pastorali (Venetia: Appresso Nicolò Pezzana, 1685). Rare Books (Ex) Oversize N7710 .L12q

Carlo Labia, Simboli predicabili estratti da sacri evangeli che corrono nella quadragesima, delineaticon morali, & eruditi discorsi da Carlo Labia….(Ferrara: Appresso B. Barbieri, 1692).Rare Books (Ex) Oversize N7710 .L122q

 

 

Printed in Blue

Alessandro Tassoni (1565-1635), La Secchia Rapita [The Captured Bucket]. Poema Eroicomico di Alessandro Tassoni Patrizio Modenese. Colle dichiarazioni di Gaspare Salviani, Romano. S’Aggiungono la Prefazione, e le Annotazioni di Giannandrea Barotti, Ferrarese; e la Vita del Poeta Composta da Lodovico Antonio Muratori Bibliotecario del Serenissimo Signor Duca di Modena (Modena: Bartolomeo Soliani Stamp. Ducale, 1744). Provenance: book plate of Marco di Carrobio. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process.

The War of the Oaken Bucket began late in 1325, when Malatestino dell Occhio, Lord of Rimini, led the Bolognese from Florence and Romagna to the fort at Monteveglio (12 miles west of Bologna) to regain a bucket of treasure stolen by the Modenese.
— https://www.warhistoryonline.com/military-vehicle-news/aerosan-war-sleds-red_army.html

Nearly three hundred years later in 1622, Tassoni published a mock-epic poem called La Secchia Rapita, which has also been translated as The Rape of the Bucket or The Stolen Bucket. Many translations and new edition followed, including two in 1744. The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired the larger of the two, called “stimmatissima edizione” and “belle edition,” and one of the few copies with the plates printed with blue ink.


“The poem is pervaded by an exuberant, satirical, and often brilliant humor. There are passages in which the humor is sustained and cumulative, and others in which an apparent seriousness finds its climate in a sudden hilarious absurdity” (Ernest Hatch Wilkins (1880-1966), A History of Italian Literature (1974) (F) PQ4038.W5 1974 pp. 298-9).

Based on the life of Alessandro Tassoni by Muratori, this edition includes a commentary by Giovanni Andrea Barotti, and notes by the author written under the pseudonym Gaspare Salviani.

Many of the best artists of the period worked on this publication, including engravings by Giuseppe Benedetti (1707-1782); Andrea Bolzoni (1689-1760); Francesco Zucchi (1692-1764);
and Antonio Zuliani from designs by Bartolomeo Bonvicini; Domenico Maria Fratta (1696-1763); Pietro Gradici; and Francesco Villani, among others.

“Intaglio colour printing developed only gradually before 1700. Monochrome colour-printed engravings and etchings appear regularly from the fifteenth century, and some experiments with polychrome intaglio printing date from the time that chiaroscuro woodcut emerged en force in the 1520s…. The reasons for monochrome colour printing may have ranged from practical, such as to distinguish designs for goldsmiths (printed in yellow-brown) from those for silversmiths (printed in blue), to commercial, making the prints more attractive to collectors. — “Colour Printing in intaglio before c.1700,” in Printing Colour 1400-1700: History, Techniques, Functions and Receptions (2015).

 

See also:
Alexander Pope (1688-1744), The Rape of the Lock: an Heroic-Comical Poem in Five Canto’s [sic]. 2nd ed. (London: Printed for Bernard Lintott, 1714). Rare Books (Ex) 3897.374.11

Alessandro Tassoni (1565-1635), La Secchia Rapita; Poema Eroicomico … con le dichiarationi del sig. Gasparo Salviani [pseud.] el primo canto dell’ oceano nell’ vltimo corretti con gli originali (Bologna: Per G. Longhi [1670]). Editor: Paulino Castelucchio. Rare Books (Ex) 3138.01.38

30 books in 4 inches

Graphic Arts Collection Hamilton 1429s

Sinclair Hamilton writes, “Many of these [woodcuts] will be found in the 1807 edition of The Looking Glass for the Mind, the cuts in which are probably all by [Alexander] Anderson and follow generally his cuts in the 1795 edition of the same book. Some of the cuts in the present volume bear his initials. Indeed it seems likely that Anderson was responsible for the majority of the engravings in these 30 tracts.”


1. Address to a child. New York New York Religious Tract Society, D. Fanshaw, printer, 1824.
2. Advice to Sunday school children. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
3. Bread: the staff of life. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
4. Dennant, John. The Sabbath scholar: showing how he was rescued from ignorance and vice, by means of the Sabbath school / by Rev. J. Dennant. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
5. Eyes and no eyes, or, Eyes that see not: how to read the Bible aright. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
6. Little Sally of the Sunday school. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
7. Little Susan and her lamb. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, 1824.
8. Louisa’s tenderness to the little birds in winter. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
9. Mary Jones, or, The soldier’s daughter. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
10. Memoir of Miriam Warner. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
11. Mischief, its own punishment: exemplified in the history of William and Harry. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
12. Select verses for children. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
13. Sherwood, Mary Martha, 1775-1851. The May-Bee / by Mrs. Sherwood. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
14. Sherwood, Mary Martha, 1775-1851. The wishing cap / by Mrs. Sherwood. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
15. The affectionate daughter. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
16. The destructive consequences of dissipation and luxury. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
17. The goodness of providence: illustrated in several interesting cases. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, 1824.
18. The happy cottagers, or, The breakfast, dinner & supper: to which are added: The shepherd’s boy, reading to the poor widow. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
19. The happy man, or, The life of William Kelly; a true story. New York: New-York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
20. The happy Negro: to which is added: The grateful Negro. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
21. The history of Sally Butler. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
22. The image boys: translated from the French. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
23. The Irish girl: being a very interesting account of Anne Walsh, a poor Irish girl: and her conversation with a lady who visited her. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, 1824.
24. The Lord’s prayer. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
25. The orphan. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
26. The remarkable history of Elizabeth Loveless, or, Fidelity and filial affection: examplified and rewarded; very interesting to all young persons. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, 1824.
27. The shipwreck: showing what sometimes happens on our sea coasts; also giving a particular account of A poor sailor boy. New York: American Religious Tract Society, [1825?]
28. The Vine. New York: New York Religious Tract Society; 1824.
29. The wonderful cure of Naaman: a general in the Syrian army. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]
30. The wreath. New York: New York Religious Tract Society, [1824]

 

 

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

Thoreau in gravure


In searching for hand-inked, copperplate photogravures recently, these beautiful plates turned up in the two-volume Walden by Henry David Thoreau, with a willow leaf binding design by Sarah Whitman. The negatives were taken by Alfred Winslow Hosmer (also called Fred, 1851-1903).

As the Concord Free Public Library (where his library and archive are housed) notes, Hosmer did not record dates on many of his photographs but since he created gelatin dry-plate glass negatives, we date them from the 1880s. See more: https://concordlibrary.org/special-collections/fin_aids/Hosmer

One gravure is from Benjamin D. Moxham’s 1856 daguerreotype portrait of Thoreau as well as one from Edward S. Dunshee’s 1861 ambrotype.

 

 

Annotated captions for the illustrations note that Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) owned the land on which the Walden house stood. In a letter to him, January 24, 1843, Thoreau wrote: “I have been your pensioner for nearly two years, and still left free as under the sky. It has been as free a gift as the sun or the summer, though I have sometimes molested you with my mean acceptance of it, –I who have failed to render even those slight services of the hand which would have been for a gift at least: and , by the fault of my nature, have failed of many better and higher services. But I will not trouble you with this, but for once thank you as well as Heaven.”

Above is the house with a profile figure of Emerson. Below is Samuel Staples, Thoreau’s jailer when he was arrested for refusing to pay taxes.

 

 

Above is “Brister’s Spring”. Below “Pines set out by Thoreau on his Beanfield”.

 

 

 

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Walden. With an introduction by Bradford Torrey. Illustrated with photogravures (Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1897). Firestone Library (F) PS3048 .A1 1897. Princeton also owns Sylvia Beach’s copy of this book.

What Can a Woman Do, and, What a Woman Can Do

 

As a mother and a full-time journalist, Martha Louise Rayne (1836-1911) became interested in what occupations were both open to and appropriate for the women of her day. In 1883, she wrote What Can a Woman Do: Or Her Position in the Business and Literary Worlds, published the following year and recorded as selling over 100,000 copies. She followed up by opening the Mrs. Rayne’s School of Journalism, specifically focused on training women for a professional career. Other occupations she found to be suitable for ladies were hand-coloring photographs and wood engraving.

Rayne’s book had lasting influence, with new editions and variations on the theme published for generations. “What Can a Woman Do” was quickly modified to read “What a Woman Can Do,” for better or worse.

 

In 1894, Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952) opened her first photography studio in Washington, D.C. After much success, she published an article in the Ladies Home Journal discussing the suitability of photography as a profession for women. https://www.cliohistory.org/exhibits/johnston/whatawomancando/ This was part biography and part addendum to Rayne’s book, which had just been reissued in 1893.

In 1911, the year of Rayne’s death, there was even a silent film entitled “What a Woman Can Do,” but the female character’s only occupation is as an unfaithful wife who destroys her husband’s life.

 

 


 

Martha Louise Rayne, What Can a Woman Do; or, Her Position in the Business and Literary World (Petersburgh, N.Y.: Eagle publishing co., [c1893]) Rare Books (Ex) HD6058 .R3 1893 and Miriam Y. Holden Coll. (Holden). Firestone HD6058 .R3

What a Woman Can Do! (London: Aldine Publishing Company, [189-?]). Rare Books Off-Site Storage RCPXR-6160701

Frances Benjamin Johnston, “What A Woman Can Do With A Camera: With Reproductions of Photographs Taken By The Author, And Here Published For The First Time,” The Ladies’ Home Journal. xiv, no. 10 (Sep 1897): 6.

S.H. Muir, What a Woman can do. Humorous song. Words by Arthur Legion (London: J.H. Larway, 1902)

What a Woman Can Do (1911) Silent film directed by and starring Gilbert M. ‘Broncho Billy’ Anderson (1880–1971).

T. Mullet Ellis (1850-1919), What Can a Woman Do for the Empire? (London: Holden [1915]). RECAP 3729.15.396

Mabel St. John, What a woman can do (London: Published for the proprietors at the Fleetway House, 1917). Woman’s world library no. 105.

Martha Louise Rayne, What Can a Woman Do? (New York, Arno Press, 1974 [c1893]). RECAP HD6058.R3 1974

What Can a Woman Do With a Camera?: Photography for Women / edited by Jo Spence & Joan Solomon (London : Scarlet Press, c1995). Marquand Library (SAPH): Photography TR183 .W537 1995

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).

Digitization of Hamilton Smalls

“1767 / Heartman #27 / This is the / [George Parker] Winship copy. / The only one / known.”  The New-England Primer Improved for the More Easy Attaining the True Reading of English To Which Is Added, The Assembly of Divines, and Mr. Cotton’s Catechism (1767). 10 cm.

In preparation for the digitization of the Sinclair Hamilton Collection, each volume is being examined by Roel Munoz, Library Digital Imaging Manager, and  Mick LeTourneaux, Rare Books Conservator. We are working in order by size, not date, beginning with the smallest American imprints that include woodcuts or wood engravings.

Some conservation will be done now and some will wait until after the volume is photographed, making it easier for the technicians to open and shoot the pages. Missing volumes are being located and Gail Smith, Senior Bibliographic Specialist, is revising the cataloguing to reflect the location in our new vaults.

[Above] An early conservator repaired the spine with new sewing and then, continued stitching across the title page.

[Below] This book was probably repaired by a 19th-century reader using a straight pin, which still holds three pages together.

 

Every binding will be photographed, front and back, as well as all blank pages, although there are very few.  If a special box was constructed for the volumes, it will be photographed also. Wish us luck.

Princeton University. Library. Early American book illustrators and wood engravers, 1670-1870; a catalogue of a collection of American books, illustrated for the most part with woodcuts and wood engravings in the Princeton University Library. With an introductory sketch of the development of early American book illustration by Sinclair Hamilton. With a foreword by Frank Weitenkampf (Princeton, N.J., 1958). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton

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.