Category Archives: Books

books

A Slap at Slop

 

The Lenny Bruce of the early nineteenth century, William Hone (1780-1842) was a radical comic writer and publisher who joined forces with the visual artist George Cruikshank (1792-1878) to expose and ridicule abuses in British politics as well as the news media supporting the conservative government.

Hone was charged with three counts of libel in 1817 but brilliantly acquitted of all charges citing his use of parody. It wasn’t a crime to be funny.

 

One of the greatest but least celebrated publications issued by the two men was a serial news sheet titled A Slap at Slop, lampooning the work of John Stoddard, publisher of The Times and The New Times newspapers.

Along with two variant editions of A Slap at Slop, the Graphic Arts Collection holds Hone’s personal copy of Factiae and Miscellanies (1827), a collection of 14 of his tracts and 120 engravings by George Cruikshank, which includes Hone’s manuscript annotations, autograph letters, newspaper clippings, and a likenesses of William Hone and George Cruikshank. These came to Princeton thanks to the astute collecting and generous gift of Richard W. Meirs, Class of 1888 and Gordon A. Block Jr, Class of 1936.

Rather than talk about their work, here are some examples (obviously just a taste) reproduced hopefully large enough for you to read the hilarious texts for yourself:

 

 

 

 

George Cruikshank (1792-1878), A Slap at Slop and the Bridge-Street gang: Royal cuckoo clock, 1821. Pencil drawing for the Royal Cuckoo Clock, with inscription in George Cruikshank’s hand “Reward for the discovery of the Royal Society–south of the pendulum of England”. References: Cohn 749. Graphic Arts Collection GC022/George/Drawings

William Hone (1780-1842), A Slap at Slop and the Bridge-Street Gang (London: Printed by and for William Hone, 1822). Illustrations by George Cruikshank. Graphic Arts Collection Cruik 1819.41

William Hone (1780-1842), A Slap at Slop and the Bridge-Street Gang; with twenty-seven cuts (London: Printed by and for William Hone, 1822). Illustrations by George Cruikshank. Graphic Arts Collection Cruik 1817.28

William Hone (1780-1842), A Slap at Slop and the Bridge-street gang ([London, W. Hone, 1821]) 5th edition; 26 illus. by G. Cruikshank. “By a closer setting of the material, room is made for an extra illus. and over a column and a half on the Queen’s death. Included also is an octavo sheet with 4 original pencil sketches with explanations, 3 of them from “A slap at slop.” The two issues and the drawings inserted in a red cloth wrapper and slip case. Graphic Arts Collection Cruik 1821.28

William Hone (1780-1842), Factiae and Miscellanies. With one hundred and twenty engravings drawn by George Cruikshank (London: Published for W. Hone by Hunt and Clarke, 1827). A collection of 14 of Hone’s tracts gathered together and published under the above title. There is an additional woodcut on the title representing two men seated at a table. These are likenesses of William Hone and George Cruikshank. Laid in: “The queen’s matrimonial ladder / printed by William Hone, Ludgate Hill, London. Price (with the pamphlet) One shilling.” 30 x 6.5 cm., folded to 15.5 x 6.5, on cardstock. Provenance: The author’s copy, containing his ms. annotations, with autograph letters bound in, and newspaper clippings laid in. Front free endpaper has trial title page, entitled “A history of English parody …” Annotations by George T. Lawley, noting he purchased the volume from Hone’s family. Graphic Arts Collection Cruik 1827.61

L’Almanach des poètes

L’Almanach des poètes pour l’année ... (Paris: Edition du Mercure de France, 1896-1898). Volumes for 1896 and 1898 illustrated by Auguste Donnay; for 1897 by A. Rassenfosse. The editor for the series is R. de Souza. Graphic Arts Collection PQ1163 .A463 in process

These rare fin-d-siècle almanacs were designed by the Belgian artists Auguste Donnay (1862-1921) and A. [André] Rassenfosse (1862-1934) under the watchful supervision of poet and editor Robert de Souza (1864-1946), a disciple of Stéphane Mallarmé. Small and unassuming, they include poems by such celebrated authors as André Gide, Gustave Kahn, Henri de Regnier, Emile Verhaeren, Stuart Merrill, Camille Mauclair, and many others.

Benezit Dictionary of Art mentions that as a young artist Donnay spent “five months in Paris, where he got to know the Nabis. However, he was particularly attracted to Egyptian statuary, Japanese art and the Italian primitives, before he discovered the work of Puvis de Chavannes.

In 1894 he participated in the first Salon de la Libre Esthétique, and in 1896 he took part in the Salon de l’Art Indépendant in Paris. In 1901 he was appointed to teach at the Académie de Liège and gave lessons in ornamental composition. He left Liège in 1905 and went to live in Méry-sur-Ourthe.” Donnay was equally interested in art and poetry, illustrating many books and magazines throughout his life, including the issues of this Almanach.

Rassenfosse was the same age as Donnay and involved with many of the same people and projects. He spent time in Paris and became friends with Félicien Rops, together perfecting ‘Ropsenfosse,’ a soft varnish for paintings. By 1934, he was appointed the director of Fine Arts at the Belgian Académie Royale des Beaux Arts.

 

 

 

See also: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t8hf0gd5q;view=thumb;seq=1

The Pennyroyal Alice

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland [by] Lewis Carroll; illustrated by Barry Moser; preface and notes by James R. Kincaid; text edited by Selwyn H. Goodacre; printed by Harold McGrath at Pennyroyal Press (West Hatfield, Mass.: Pennyroyal Press, 1982). Bound volume and additional portfolio of 68 black and white engravings, signed by Moser. “The Pennyroyal Press Sesquicentennial Edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was printed in an edition of three hundred and fifty copies, of which fifty have been reserved for participants & patrons” –Colophon. Copy 317 of 350. Graphic Arts Collection Oversize PR4611 .A7 1982bF


Notes on the prints by Barry Moser (1981) “To illustrate Alice entails a certain indelicacy, for Alice is a story of loneliness. Its illustrators, beginning with Carroll himself and including Tenniel, Rackham, Steadman, Pogany, Furniss, and Dali, have intruded on the privacy of Alice’s adventure, standing apart and observing Alice in her dream. They have been voyeurs, and yet there can be no voyeurs to dreams. In The Pennyroyal Alice, the reader is a voyeur only when Alice is associated with her sister: first, on the bank; then, after awakening, running home for tea; and finally in her sister’s reverie. The images of Alice’s dream are always seen from Alice’s point of view, for after all, the dream is Alice’s dream.

…Carroll’s thoughts on his own creation provided important keys which took The Pennyroyal Alice in interesting visual directions. For instance, Carroll commented to Alexander Macmillan in 1864, that the binding cloth for Alice should be bright red—not because it was the best, he said, but because it would be “the most attractive to the childish eyes.” I used that note as a displaced chromatic key: red for the shoulder commentary, and red for Alice’s name when it is shrieked by the White Rabbit in the trial scene. Similarly, Carroll’s habit of writing letters in purple ink suggested the use of violet leather for the binding. The blue that appears in the chapter heads and other titles is, of course, Oxford blue. Carroll’s (often meddlesome) letters to and about Tenniel, Arthur Hughes, and G.W. Taylor gave me insights into Carroll’s vision of Wonderland, a contradictory vision which embraced the “weird” and “grotesque” as enthusiastically as it embraced the “graceful and pretty.”…

The Cheshire Cat is modeled after the hairless Sphinx, a ridiculously rare feline, which like a mule cannot reproduce itself.”

“In 1977 Moser met Andrew Hoyem, who asked if Moser would be interested in illustrating Arion Press’s forthcoming Moby-Dick. He was, he did, and it was published to great fanfare. This had profound ramifications for Pennyroyal Press because, as Moser reasoned in retrospect, he could certainly design a book as well as Hoyem, and Harold McGrath, who was widely considered as the finest letterpress printer in America at the time, was certainly as good a pressman as any of Hoyem’s. And so Moser, McGrath, and Jeff Dwyer, their business manager and partner, determined to produce something that was much grander than any of the previous Pennyroyal books. In 1982 the Pennyroyal Press edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland appeared and subsequently won the 1983 American Book Award for the trade edition published by the University of California Press in Berkeley, California.”–https://www.moser-pennyroyal.com/

Fables drawn by Gustave Doré

Princeton University Library lists 696 versions of the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) dating from 1668 to 2018 in twenty identified languages, including both paper and online, audio, manuscript, visual, projected, and a senior thesis. Yet it was a surprise when a request came for the book illustrated by Gustave Doré.

His more than 300 designs were first published in Paris by Librairie de L. Hachette in 60 parts between 1866 and 1868. Our London and New York edition published by Cassell, Petter, and Galpin has no date connected to it but sources list 1868. It was a generous gift from the great book collector W.T. Scheide.

 

Don’t miss the lizard hanging from the ceiling.

 

Doré’s designs were handsomely wood engraved by T. Ettling; Huyot; Adolphe François Pannemaker (born 1822); George Auriol (1863-1938); Paul Jonnard (ca. 1863-1902); and possibly others, but the prints were not well received. “La Fontaine sees clearly and true; M. Doré sees falsely, strangely and eccentrically,” wrote a critic (recorded by Jules Claretie). The artist himself was worn out by the effort and wrote, “-the job appalled me, crushed me.”

Regardless, readers loved the translation and the prints leading to multiple editions, including a sold out trade edition. The unusual presence of human beings in these animal tales seemed to resonate with people. Situations are presented with great dramatic flare and a realistic terror usually reserved for Dante or Milton. What do you think? Read more about the project in Nigel Gosling, Gustave Doré, (Newton Abbott: David and Charles, 1973) Marquand ND 553.D7G6.

 

Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695), The Fables of La Fontaine, translated into English verse by Walter Thornbury, with illustrations by Gustave Doré (1832-1883) (London and New York: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, [1800?]). GAX copy: Bookplate of William Taylor Scheide (1847-1907). Graphic Arts Collection Oversize 2003-0072Q

 

Louche binding

This book was purchased by the Graphic Arts Collection in small part because the binding was listed as “louche.” Louche is an adjective that describes something of questionable taste or morality while at the same time kind of attractive—ugly/beautiful–; one definition reads “the louche world of the theater.”

It seems apropos of Jim Dine’s consciously informal facsimile of the annotated script and his sketches for a never realized production of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. This is perhaps his most well-known artists’ book and the first of many celebrated volumes from Petersburg Press. Later projects include Foirades by Samuel Beckett and Jasper Johns (1976); The Departure of the Argonaut by Alberto Savinio and Francesco Clemente (1986); Notes in Hand by Claes Oldenburg (1971); Shards by Richard Meier and Frank Stella (1983) and dozens of others.

The Petersburg Press had two incarnations, first in London in 1968 and again in New York in 1972, publishing limited edition prints, livres d’artistes, and artists’ books in collaboration with a list of noted contemporary artists that few presses could rival. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/06/paul-cornwall-jones-obituary Here is the Guardian’s obituary for its founder Paul Cornwall-Jones.

Jim Dine, Picture of Dorian Gray: a working script for the stage from the novel by Oscar Wilde (London: Petersburg Press. 1968). Limited edition, 125/200 signed by Jim Dine. Bound in emerald green velvet over boards with the title blocked in silver on the upper cover. This is edition B of Dine’s three editions of Dorian Gray. The original colour lithographs, etchings and text pages were prepared on zinc and aluminium plates by Jim Dine in February 1968 and subsequently printed on Velin Arches at the Atelier Desjobert and Atelier Leblanc in Paris. It contains twelve lithographs six of which are the signed set issued loose in Editions A and C. This copy lacks the four signed etchings which are called for in the publisher’s notes. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

Endpapers

DIY: Be the first to own this 1673 book

Title page

 

The Graphic Arts Collection holds this uncut, unpublished single sheet imposition* for two copies of a 24 page 1673 miniature book. Below are the recto and verso as single pages that you can print double-sided and cut off the excess paper on the side. Then fold and cut to create your own copy of this Italian devotional. Extra credit is given for hand coloring the plate.

*Imposition: Process of arranging the pages for each side of a sheet by placing them on a flat surface, surrounding them with wooden spacing pieces (the furniture) of less than type height, and locking them into the chase with long and short wedges, thus creating the forme.

See OCLC:
Laude spirituale nella quale si contengono le parti principali della dottrina christiana (Roma, 1674). Held by the Biblioteca Casanatense.

Laude spirituale: nella quale si contengono le parti principali, della dottrina christiana. Parte prima (Torino: Per Bartolomeo Zapatta, 1632). Original printer’s sheet, designed to be cut in half; each half, when folded, would form a 24 page booklet (11 cm., 12 mo). Apparently the booklet was never issued. Held by the University of California Berkeley Library.

John Smith (active 1755), The printer’s grammar: containing a concise history of the origin of printing; also, an examination of the superficies, gradation, and properties of the different sizes of types … tables of calculations; models of letter cases; schemes for casting off copy, and imposing; … with directions to authors, compilers, &c. how to prepare copy, and to correct their own proofs. Chiefly collected from Smith’s edition. To which are added directions for pressmen, &c. (London, Printed by L. Wayland and sold by T. Evans, 1787). Princeton copy is from the library of P. J. Conkwright. Graphic Arts Collection Z244.A2 S7

Poems by the Knight of Morar, See Princeton

Detail

The British Museum holds an etching [left] by George Cruikshank (1792-1878) designed as a frontispiece to Sir William Augustus Fraser’s Poems by the Knight of Morar, with the inscription “Designed & Etched by- George Cruikshank- September 27th 1870- 78 years of age.” At the bottom someone has written “See Princeton…”.

Princeton University’s Graphic Arts Collection holds a watercolor sketch [below] for this print but no book, since the proposed volume with this 1870 frontispiece was never published.

 

Thanks to the gift of Richard Waln Meirs (Class of 1888), the Graphic Arts Collection does have two editions of Fraser’s book from 1867 with other Cruikshank’s designs, both particularly rare unpublished copies: Sir William Fraser (1826-1898), Poems by the Knight of Morar (London: Printed by Whittingham and Wilkins, 1867). Copy 1 has three steel engravings by Gustave Doré (1832-1883) and one etching by G. Cruikshank.  Copy 2 uses that Cruikshank print as a frontispiece, described here:

Verse:
“Or on the sundial’s polished face
Round and round the circle trace,
Now to the gnoman’s point they climb
Mocking the Moon’s mistaken time”

…What a way to make a living

(left) The Engraver or Plate cutter, ca. 1725.   (right) The Engraver, 1694.

In 1568, Jost Amman carved woodcuts depicting various occupations, printed together with several lines of verse by Hans Sachs. In 1694 the Amsterdam artist Jan Luyken (or Luiken) and his son Casper published a collection of 100 engravings depicting arts and craft professions, also with a six-line poem below.

Each of these books were enormously successful and many variant copies followed. Recently the Graphic Arts Collection acquired an Amsterdam edition by Reinier and Josua Ottens, published around 1725. This set of engravings includes occupations copied directly from the Luykens’ volume but with completely new verses below.

The prints are also shifted into a new order, offering little narratives. One such example, shown below, is a Doctor seen with a massive botanical open before him and an unhappy patient opening a flask. The verse translates loosely: “The sick people who appear before me are taken in by medics, unless their coincidence was too great, I know no drinks for death.” This is immediately followed by the grave digger seen with a collection of skulls.

A few more plates are posted here.


Afbeelding der menschelyke bezigheden, bestaande in hondert onderscheiden printverbeeldingen vertonende allerhande stantspersonen [= Depictions of Human Activities, Consisting of Hundreds of Distinguished Printed Images Showing All Kinds of People] (Amsterdam: Reinier and Josua Ottens, ca. 1725). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process.

 

See also:

Jan Luyken (1649-1712) and Casper Luyken (1672-1708), Het menselyk bedryf, vertoond. in. 100. Verbeeldingen [= Human Industry, exhibited in 100 Images] (t’Amsterdam: Gedaan door Johannes en Caspaares Luiken, 1694). Reprint of 1694 original. Rare Books 3382.34.358

Hartmann Schopper (born 1542), [Panoplia] omnium illiberalium mechanicarum aut sedentariarum artium genera continens (Francofurti ad Moenum: [Apud Georgium Coruinum, impensis Sigismundi Feyerabent], M.D.LXVIII [1568]). Verses by Hartmann Schopper, accompanied by woodcuts by Jost Amman (1539-1591). Graphic Arts Collection 2003-1720N

Hans Sachs (1494-1576), Eygentliche Beschreibung aller Stände auff Erden (Franckfurt am Mayn : [s.n.], 1568). British Library Online

 

Note, Jost depicts a woodcutter rather than an engraver, cutting wood rather than copper.

Mr Pipp the Barber and other early comic strips




The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired three items from the library of Anne and F.G. Renier of interest to early comic strip researchers. Two were drawn by John Lewis Roget (1828-1908), the son of thesaurus-creator Peter Mark Roget. For more examples of work by John Lewis Roget, see: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2014/02/05/rogets-other-work/. The third volume has potential connections to Roget.

Above are a few of the 44 pages from Mr. Pipp,  in which he attempts to woo Mrs. Plum by learning to dance, wearing a wig, losing weight, and other personal improvements. Poor guy.

Viewers will immediately think of Rodolphe Töpffer (1799-1846), who is often credited with drawing the earliest European illustrated comic strip (although James Gillray was doing it much earlier). Töpffer drew Histoire de Mr. Vieux Bois in 1827 and then, published the small volume in 1837. See: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2017/04/07/histoire-de-mr-jobard-and-others/ There is no record of Roget’s Mr Pipp appearing in print.

 

Along with Pipp, we also acquired A Shepherd Once Had Lost His Love, which takes its title from the popular song from Storace’s Drury Lane Opera The Cherokee, 1794. Finally, seen below is a work by the unknown Adolphus Gosling, also named W.A.G. Neither moniker has been found in any database or drawing catalogue and yet, the very similar style suggests a connection with Roget.

What do you think?

 


John Lewis Roger (1828-1908), A Sketch of a Passage in the Life of Mr. Pipp the Barber; wherein the inroads made upon his peace of mind by the Widow Plum, the fair grocer, are duly registered by their mutual friend and admirer J.L.R. ([England] : J.L. Roget, 1848). Graphic Arts Collection GA2018- in process
John Lewis Roger (1828-1908), A Shepherd Once Had Lost His Love (1847). Graphic Arts Collection GA2018- in process
W.A.G. [Adolphus Gosling], Outlines of the the most interesting portion of the chequered life of that singular individual, designed and drawn by W.A.G. (1851). Graphic Arts Collection GA2018- in process

Kees van Dongen and Kipling

The Dutch painter Kees (Cornelis Theodorus Maria) van Dongen (1877-1968) moved to Paris in 1897, where he was introduced to the artists associated with the Revue Blanche, making a name for himself in the popular press. Between 1901 and 1912, his work was published in L’Assiette au beurre a satirical journal loved by the political left for its radical, sometimes violent lithographs, along with Félix Vallaton, Kupka, Juan Gris, Jacques Villon, Steinlen, and Jean-Louis Forain, In particular, the October 26, 1901 issue devoted to prostitution in Paris was chiefly drawn by Dongen (Rare Books Oversize 0904.133q).

Beginning with the Salon d’automne of 1905, Dongen joined André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, and others showing wildly colored canvases, which became known as Fauvism, reinforced at the Salon des indépendants of 1906 and Salon d’automne of 1906.

Dongen’s travels through Spain, Morocco and Egypt led to exotic, sometimes erotic portraits earning him a reputation as chronicler of the period. See: https://www.princeton.edu/~graphicarts/2013/01/deauville.html

But in a departure, Dongen agreed to work on two project unlike anything previous. In 1919, the artist was enlisted to design the imaginative cover typography for a wealthy socialite, Irène Hillel-Erlanger’s book entitled Voyages en Kaleidoscope [Voyage in Kaleidoscope Marquand Library PQ2615.I35 V7 1919]. Sources say that shortly after publication in Paris, all copies of the book were confiscated and pulped, but clearly a few survived.

Then in 1920, Dongen illustrated a collection of short stories by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) entitled Les plus beaux contes de Kipling [The Most Beautiful Tales of Kipling]. In New York, Elmer Adler saw and immediately acquired a copy, which he brought to Princeton when he moved down in 1940.

Rudyard Kipling and Kees van Dongen, Les plus beaux Contes de Kipling, 2nd ed.  (Paris: [impr. Louis Kaldor; images coloriées par l’atelier Marty Henir] Jonquiéres & compagnie, 1926). Including 18 full page pochoir colour illustrations and several smaller illustrations (also coloured). Copy 170 of 300. Graphic Arts Collection GAX Oversize PR4853.F7 .F3 1920q

For a complete biography of Kees van (Cornelis Theodorus Maria) Dongen (1877-1968), see Anneke E. Wijnbeek’s entry in Oxford Art Online https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T023275