Category Archives: Illustrated books

illustrated books

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.

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.

 

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.


 

Being a pleasant and profitable companion for children

It was a good day. In preparing to digitize the smallest volumes in the Sinclair Hamilton collection of American books illustrated with woodcuts and wood engravings, we made a search for the few missing copies. Many were found including this 1774 edition of The History of the Holy Jesus, printed and sold by John Boyle in Marlborough Street, Boston. Note the frontispiece portrait of “a lover of their precious souls.”

 


Many of the illustrations in this 1774 edition are thought to have been cut by Isaiah Thomas (1749-1831) after the metal relief plates engraved by James Turner (1722-1759), first published in 1745. The Sinclair Hamilton Collection has six editions of The History of the Holy Jesus, 1749: Hamilton 28s; 1749: Hamilton 1311(1)s; 1767: Hamilton 68(2)s; 1774: Hamilton 68(1)s; 1779: Hamilton 88s; and 1958 (1746): Hamilton 1311(2)s.

For more, see Dale Roylance’s “Of Sin and Salvation,” in Princeton University Library Chronicle Winter 1998 http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/pulc/pulc_v_59_n_2.pdf

One of the cuts completely changed by Thomas is this image of three stars, which replaced a picture of three wise men. Two might be seen as falling stars, or shooting stars. Below are a few more of his cuts.

 


The History of the Holy Jesus: containing a brief and plain account of his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven: and his coming again at the great and last Day of Judgment: being a pleasant and profitable companion for children: composed on purpose for their use / by a lover of their precious souls. The twenty-fifth edition. Boston: Printed and sold by John Boyle … , 1774. Woodcuts attributed to Isaiah Thomas. Cf. Hamilton. Inscribed “Moley Heving, her book” and “Moley Heving, her book, bought the year 1779, March the 22, price four shillings.”–in ink, on frontispiece recto. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton 68(1)s

 

 

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

Blocks, cut but never printed

One hundred and fifty curators, conservators, and historians met on Thursday 21 September 2017 at the Courtauld Institute, London, to view and discuss “Blocks Plates Stones.”

Twelve papers were delivered, including Huigen Leeflang of the Rijksmuseum seen here introducing the “curtain viewer” developed by Robert G. Erdmann, senior scientist at the Rijks, which allows you to compare differing impressions or a plate together with a print in the same image. The Metropolitan Museum of Art posted examples of Erdmann’s viewer that you can use online: http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2017/hercules-segers/segers-closer-look

In addition, there were nine object sessions with physical blocks and plates. Seen here are a selection of “printing blocks from the collections of Senate House Library” by Tansy Barton, Senate House Library. Nineteen posters introducing new and continuing projects were available with their creators. After today, the posters have been accepted into the newly established Poster House in Chelsea, New York City.

One thread throughout the sessions involved blocks prepared but never printed. Conference organizer Elizabeth Savage reminded us that William Morris never allowed anyone to print from his woodblocks but only from the electrotypes after them. The boxwood blocks for his Kelmscott Chaucer were wrapped up and packed away for 100 years to assure they would not be inked or printed. **Those 100 years are now over and the blocks, in the British Museum, might be available for printing (or at least photographing).

See the article written by Peter Lawrence in the August 15, 2015 issue of Multiples, the Journal of the Society of Wood Engravers, edited by Chris Daunt, for more information about Morris’s blocks. Princeton students note: This can be ordered through interlibrary loan and should not be confused with the Wood Engravers’ Network (WEN). The Graphic Arts Collection at Princeton has the archive for the Wood Engravers Network here:

Wood Engravers’ Network collection (1995- ). Consists of issues of Bundle, Newsletter, and Block & Burin, along with membership directories, supplier directories, announcements, and other related printed material. Grouped by date into folders labeled by Bundle issue number. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2015-0046F.

First class of the new year.

Romano Hanni, Werner Pfeiffer, Enrique Chagoya

 

We are beginning the new 2017/2018 academic year with a visit from VIS 214, Graphic Design with Francesca Grassi. The students were shown wonderful book arts, old and new, high and low, rare and well-known.

“This studio course will introduce students to the essential aspects and skills of graphic design, and will analyze and discuss the increasingly vital role that non-verbal, graphic information plays in all areas of professional life, from fine art and book design to social networking and the Internet.

Students in the course will explore visual organization through a series of focused, interrelated assignments dealing with composition, page layout, type design, and image. Hands on production will include an array of do-it-yourself printing and distribution technologies, from letterpress and mimeograph to photocopying and websites.”

Sign painter’s sample album, Alfred Jarry

 

Olafur Eliasson, Bruno Munari, Henry Wessells, Kenneth Josephson, Sol Lewitt

 

Warja Honegger-Lavater, Yoji Kuri, German baptismal certificate

 

Francesca Grassi, Lecturer in Visual Arts, is a New York-based independent graphic designer and creative director. After graduating in 2007 with an MFA in graphic design and typography from the Werkplaats Typografie, in The Netherlands, she worked as a freelance book designer collaborating on books with contemporary artists and fine art publishers.

From 2009–2012 Grassi worked as a designer at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she was responsible for the overall institutional identity as well as art directing, developing and executing all Museum graphic design needs for print, online and environmental applications.

Enrique Chagoya, Bruce Nauman, Richard Misrach, Ed Ruscha

How to Nag, a Bibliography

Directions To Servants In General; And In Particular To The Butler, Cook, Footman, Coachman, Groom, House-Steward, And Land-Steward, Porter, Dairy-Maid, Chamber-Maid, Nurse, Lanundress, House-Keeper, Tutoress, Or Governess by the Reverend Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D.

“I have a Thing in the Press, begun above twenty-eight Years ago, and almost finish’d: It will make a Four Shilling Volume; and is such a PERFECTION OF FOLLY, that you shall never hear of it, till it is printed, and then you shall be left to guess. Nay, I have ANOTHER OF THE SAME AGE, which will-require a long Time to perfect, and is worse than the former; in which I will serve you the same Way.” Letters to and from Dr. Swift … http://jonathanswiftarchive.org.uk/browse/year/text_4_18_4.html

Jonathan Swift worked on a parody of courtesy or conduct books for nearly three decades and it was probably still unfinished when finally published. “Lock up a cat or a dog in some room or closet,” he recommends “so as to make such a noise all over the house as may frighten away the thieves, if any should attempt to break or steal in.” The book is hilarious.

This led to Jane Collier’s An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting in 1753, which is basically an advice book on how to nag. The book came and went quickly but in 1806, William Miller chose to issue a new edition, with a frontispiece by James Gillray.

So popular was the volume that Thomas Tegg published an even newer edition in 1808, this time with a frontispiece and four other prints by George Woodward, engraved by Thomas Rowlandson.


‘Directions to the Cook’ from Directions to Servants by Jonathan Swift – Read by Sir Alec Guinness

 

Detail from George Woodward’s frontispiece (etched by Thomas Rowlandson)

 

Below, “Train up a Child in the way he should go / and when he is old he will not depart from it. -Solomon.” Left: hanging two cats from their feet. Lower left: Tying a bottle to a cat’s tail. Right: Feeding very hot cheese to a cat.–George Woodward

 

In the late 20th century, Swift was revived, this time illustrated by Joseph Low (1911-2007). For more on the artist, see: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2014/04/10/is-there-a-picture-of-nassau-hall-burning-down/

 


Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Directions to servants (Dublin: Printed by G. Faulkner, 1745). Rare Books (Ex) 3950.331

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Directions to servants: in general, and in particular, to the butler, cook, footman, coachman, groom, house-steward and land-steward, porter, dairy-maid, chamber-maid, nurse, laundress, house-keeper, tutoress, or governess (London: Printed for R. Dodsley …, 1745). Rare Books: South East (RB) RHT 18th-581

Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting; with proper rules for the exercise of that pleasant art, humbly addressed in the first part, to the master, husband… (London: Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand, 1753). Rare Books (Ex) 2015-0337N

Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting: with proper rules for the exercise of that pleasant art : humbly addressed, in the first part, to the master, husband, … The second edition, corrected. (London: Printed for A. Millar … , 1757). Rare Books (Ex) BJ1843 .C64 1757

Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting; with proper rules for the exercise of that amusing study. Humbly addressed, Part I. To the Master, Husband… Fourth edition (London: printed for Andrew Millar, in the Strand, 1753; reprinted for William Miller, Albemarle Street, 1806). Frontispiece by James Gillray.

Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting. New ed., corr., rev. and illustrated with five prints / from designs by G.M. Woodward (London: Printed for Tegg … by Hazard and Carthew …, 1808). Engraved by Thomas Rowlandson. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Rowlandson 1808

Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting. A new ed., corr., rev., and illustrated with five prints, from designs by G.M. Woodward (London: Printed for T. Tegg and R. Scholey, 1809). Engraved by Thomas Rowlandson. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Rowlandson 1808.11

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Jonathan Swift’s directions to servants. With drawings by Joseph Low (New York, Pantheon Books [1964]). Cotsen Children’s Library (CTSN) Eng 20 39678

How many copies of “Birds of America” does a family need?

Princeton University Library received the gift of the double elephant folio Birds of America [(Ex) Oversize 8880.134.1860e] from Alexander van Rensselaer, Class of 1871 (1855-1933), during the academic year 1928-29. We believe he inherited the copy from his uncle, Stephen van Rensselaer IV, Class of 1808 (1789-1868). The wealthy van Rensselaer family is the only one I have found who bought two copies of Audubon’s massive publication. The second was purchased by Stephen’s cousin Dr. Jeremias “Jeremiah” Van Rensselaer (1793-1871), who graduated from Yale.

Most American subscribers to Audubon’s Birds of America were convinced to join during his second trip back to the United States in 1831, when Audubon spent considerable time in New York during 1833. Both Jeremias and Stephen IV were born at the sprawling 1,200-square-mile van Rensselaer estate near Albany, New York, but lived during the 1830s in New York City.

Stephen’s father and Alexander’s grandfather, Stephen Van Rensselaer III (1764-1839), was among the richest men in America and when he died, Stephen IV left New York City to live in the “West Manor” of the Rensselaer estate. Jeremiah’s medical practice remained in New York City, where he was also corresponding secretary of the X.Y. Lyceum of Natural History, with a great love for the natural sciences. He retired in 1852, traveled, and died in New York City in 1871. The whereabouts of his copy of Audubon’s Birds of America is not known.

 

Stephen III was an active businessman who owned several New York properties and in 1816, built a modest two-story house on Mulberry Street (originally no. 153 moved to no. 149) where the family could live while in town. The Federalist structure, which survived flood, fire, and a bomb, has a façade of Flemish bond brick and a Dutch-style gambrel roof, punctured by two tall dormers.

Around the time, Stephen IV moved back to Albany, the family sold the house and it has had various owners since then. http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-1816-van-rensselaer-house-no-149.html

In the 1890s, Helen Louisa Stokes (1846-1930), wife of Anson Phelps Stokes (1838–1913) purchased the house and converted it to The Free Italian Library and Reading-Rooms, which opened in 1894.

“The free Italian library and reading rooms established chiefly by Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes, in a house formerly used by [an] Italian, as a cheese factory at 149 Mulberry street, was open for inspection yesterday from 2 to 10 P. M. The guests were welcomed by the Rev. Antonio Arrighi. pastor of the Italian church at 123 Worth Street. The library has more than 200 volume, which will be added to by books now being bound, it contains books of history, poetry, science, travel, natural history, and novels. –New York Times, July 23, 1894

See our colleague’s research: Alexandra Deluise, “Mission work, Conversion and the Italian Immigrant in Turn-of-the-Century New York City: the Story of the Anson Phelps Stokes Italian Free Library” (2015). CUNY Academic Works. http://academicworks.cuny.edu/lacuny_events/3

 

 

Interesting that her father’s family company, Phelps, Dodge & Company was the organization that helps to preserve the Audubon printing plates when Mrs. Lucy Audubon was forced to sell her family estate.

 

 

 

 

Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942), Mr. and Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes, 1898 (?). Oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

The Modern School and Ferrer Colony

Bird bath in the front yard

In 1915, Samuel Goldman (1882–1969) constructed and then carved reliefs into the exterior of his stucco home at 143 School Street, in the North Stelton neighborhood of Piscataway Township, New Jersey. The symbols reflect his Marxist beliefs and membership in the Francisco Ferrer Association, founded in 1901 by Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.

The Ferrer Colony was a libertarian community where, among many programs, they established the progressive Modern School, an alternative to public schooling and traditional living arrangements. At its largest, the Stelton Colony included 90 houses, although most residents only occupied their homes on the weekend.

Thanks to the generous donations of Donald Farren, Class of 1958, the Graphic Arts Collection holds a nearly complete run of The Modern School: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Libertarian Ideas in Education, edited by Carl Zigrosser and printed by Joseph Ishill.

The magazine includes linocuts (primarily) by many contemporary printmakers, such as William Zorach, Man Ray, and Rockwell Kent, who designed its logo and chapter initials. Man Ray was also one of the first adult students to attend night classes at the Modern School, while it was still in New York City.


 

On Friday afternoon, October 27, 2017, the Friends of the Modern School hold their 45th annual meeting at Alexander Library, Rutgers University, also the home of the Modern School archives.

For more information, see:
http://friendsofthemodernschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/FMS-2017-Meeting-Announcement.pdf

For more photographs, see: http://www.talkinghistory.org/stelton/modschoolmag.html

The Modern School. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2009-2180N and 2015-0579N