Category Archives: Books

books

Live Dog / Evil God

Born in Minnesota, Fritz Scholder (1937-2005) moved with his family to Sacramento, California, where he began studying painting with Wayne Thiebaud. Although Scholder was one-quarter Luseino, a California Mission tribe, he grew up outside the native American community and only later began to explore this cultural heritage, bringing to it a unique perspective.

In 1970, Tamarind Institute invited Scholder to Albuquerque to create a suite of lithographs he called, Indians Forever. From that time on, Scholder would be a major influence for his generation of native American artists.

Afternoon Nap was published in 1991, the first in a series of book projects by Nazraeli Press, Munich, followed in 1992 with Live Dog / Evil God in a limited edition of 50 copies. Nazraeli was founded in 1989 by Chris Pichler, specializing in books of photography. Scholder created ten cliche-verres or glass plate negatives for the book that were printed as kallitypes by James Hajicek. These were reproduced in duotone lithograph by Fabe Litho in Tucson, Arizona.

Pichler also published Scholder’s 1993 exhibition catalogue with an essay by Edward Lucie-Smith for the Riva Yares Gallery (SA ND237.S31 L824 1993). http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/fritz-scholder-native-american-artist-art-world-180957655/ This review of Scholder’s 2015 exhibition at the Denver Art Museum brings the artist’s work up to date.

Fritz Scholder (1937-2005), Live Dog / Evil God (Munich and Tucson: Nazraeli Press, 1992). Copy 44 of 50. Includes a suite of ten original prints. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

In the Fabled Fragrant East

Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), Stanzas. Spine title: In the fabled, fragrant East; Nell’ odorato e lucido oriente. Translation by David R. Slavitt, edited by Michele Miracolo (Austin: Michele Miracolo Press; printed by Bradley Hutchinson, 2015). Dos-à-dos binding. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

Pietro Bembo was a well-known Vienna poet and humanist who composed this 50 stanza poem as part of the Carnival festivities for the court of Urbino in 1507: “For the entertainment of the lords and ladies gathered at Castel Durante, and to the delight of Madonna Elisabetta Gonzaga, Duchessa d’Urbino, and Madonna Emilia Pia, her good friend and companion. Both ladies are entreated by Bembo and Don Ottaviano Fregoso, disguised as ambassadors from the court of the Goddess Venus, to renounce their sad devotion to chastity and embrace the pleasures of Love.”

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired the inaugural publication from Austin’s Michele Miracolo Press. Bembo’s text has been newly translated into English by David Slavitt and printed by Bradley Hutchinson from Blado types cast at his letterpress workshop in Texas.

“Approximately 100 copies of this bilingual edition were printed and bound in an unusual “tête bêche” [a.k.a., dos à dos] style, with each language having its own front cover but meeting in the middle, one text upside down in relation to the other.

The printing was executed on a Heidelberg flat-bed cylinder letterpress by Bradley Hutchinson. The paper is a scarce mouldmade sheet from the 1980’s, no longer manufactured, from the Magnani mill in Pescia, Italy.

The text is smythe sewn and bound into stiff wrappers, with a soft grey dust jacket and enclosed in a handsome slipcase made by Jace Graf at Cloverleaf Studio in Austin, Texas.”–prospectus.

The Trial of Elizabeth Canning 1754

The Trial of Elizabeth Canning, Spinster, for Willful and Corrupt Perjury; at Justice Hall in the Old-Bailey, held by Adjournment, on Monday the 29^th of April, Wednesday the 1^st, Friday the 3d, Saturday the 4^th, Monday the 6^th… (London: printed by the authority and appointment of the Right Honourable Thomas Rawlinson Esq; Lord Mayor, for John Clarke under the Royal Exchange, and sold also by M. Cooper in Pater-Noster Row, [1754]).

Bound with Crisp Gascoyne, An Address to the Liverymen of the City of London, from Sir Crisp Gascoyne, Knt. Late Lord-Mayor, relative to his conduct in the cases of Elizabeth Canning and Mary Squires (London: printed for James Hodges at London-Bridge, [1754]).

Bound with additional trials. Graphic Arts Collection 2017- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired this volume of several trial transcripts bound together and extra illustrated with a hand colored etching entitled The Gypsy’s Triumph, a satire on the Elizabeth Canning affair. The print depicts Crisp Gascoyne and Mary Squires (the old gypsy) carried in triumph by four old gypsies with broomsticks and wearing pointed hats.

There are many versions of this curious story. A brief description was posted on The Londonist’s site:

“It’s 1 January 1753, in the City of London. An 18 year old maidservant disappears on the way back to her mother’s house near St Mary Aldermanbury. She wasn’t seen or heard from until nearly a month later, when she reappeared, dirty and bloodied, in ripped clothing. The maidservant was Elizabeth Canning. She claimed to have been kidnapped from near Bedlam Hospital and taken to a house on Hertford Road in Enfield. Here, a woman tried to force her into prostitution. When she refused, she was kept prisoner until she escaped through a window and managed to return home. Her disappearance has been the source of speculation and theories ever since. She identified Enfield woman Mary Wells and Romany woman Mary Squires as her captors. They both went to trial — despite Squires having an alibi, she was sentenced to hanging, while Wells was sentenced to branding on the thumb and six months in prison. Sir Crisp Gascoyne, who was Lord Mayor of London and Chief Magistrate, opened his own inquiry which led to the King granting a pardon. Canning herself was then indicted for perjury, found guilty and sentenced to one month imprisonment, after which she was sent to America. The truth about the case was never revealed.” http://londonist.com/2016/03/the-curious-case-of-elizabeth-canning

See also: Sir Crisp Gascoyne (1700-1761), An address to the liverymen of the city of London: from Sir Crisp Gascoyne … relative to his conduct in the cases of Elizabeth Canning and Mary Squires (London: Printed for James Hodges, 1754). Rare Books (Ex) Oversize HV6248.C15 G3q

“I dare do all that may become a man, Who dares do more is none.”

“Sweet Mercy is Nobility’s true Badge.”

A 17th-century journey to the pyramids and elsewhere

Cornelis de Bruyn (1652-1726 or 1727), [Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn. English] A Voyage to the Levant: or, Travels in the Principal Parts of Asia Minor, the Islands of Scio, Rhodes, Cyprus, &c. With an Account of the Most Considerable Cities of Egypt, Syria and the Holy Land (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson and Thomas Bennet, 1702). First English edition. Rare Books (Ex) 2010-0277Q

Dr. Deborah Vischak’s class FRS 144, Archaeology in Egypt: Reconstructing the Past visited RBSC today to examine several items including this volume by Cornelis de Bruyn. The travelogue follows the Dutch artist’s journeys through the Levant, Persia and the Far East illustrated with 215 engravings spread throughout a narrative text.

De Bruyn left for Rome on November 1, 1674 and after two and a half years in Italy, continued his journey to the Near East. His voyages took him to Turkey, several Greek islands, Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Cyprus.

Returning to Italy, De Bruyn settled this time in Venice where he studied painting with Carl Loth. Finally, on March 19, 1693, De Bruyn arrived back in the Hague and spent the next five years writing his narrative and preparing the engravings to illustrate it. Particularly striking are the multi-sheet panoramas, including Smyrna, Rhodes, the Bosphorus, Tyre, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Aleppo, Palmyra and others.

De Bruyn and his companions are seen in most of the panoramas on horseback at the far left.

Add your own immigration story to “The British Library”

http://thebritishlibraryinstallation.com/

“The British Library,” a re-installation of an exhibition created by the British/Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare MBE, is now on view at the James Cohan Gallery in New York City. Its web component, accessible in the gallery and online, allows visitors to explore the complete list of names on the show’s 10,000 books and several video documentaries about immigration. There is also a page where we are asked to record our own immigration stories. http://thebritishlibraryinstallation.com/your-stories/

Shonibare designed the work as a celebration of diversity. Originally commissioned in 2014, Cohan’s gallery has been transformed into a place of discovery and debate, featuring an installation of thousands of books “covered in the artist’s signature batik Dutch wax printed cotton textile. On the spines of many of these books are printed the names of notable first and second generation immigrants and incoming migrants to Britain who have moved here throughout history.”

The names include Winston Churchill, Prince Philip, Dame Helen Mirren, and many others. “These immigrants and incoming migrants have all made a significant contribution to aspects of British life and culture, from science to music, art, cinema and literature. Other books feature names of prominent figures who have opposed immigration at various times. Online, the videos investigate the immigration debate from pro-immigration, anti-immigration, and neutral viewpoints.”

The show’s website notes: “Examples of the reasons for immigration can vary from global conflicts to economic factors. Whilst the project is a celebration of the ongoing contributions made to British society by people who have arrived there from other parts of the world or whose ancestors came to Britain as immigrants, it does not exclude the points of view of those who object to it.”

For more information, see http://www.jamescohan.com/exhibitions/2017-02-02_yinka-shonibare-mbe

More about book jackets:
George Thomas Tanselle, Book-Jackets: their History, Forms, and Use (Charlottesville: Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, 2011). Graphic Arts Collection (GA) 2012-0040N

Kurt Weidemann, [Buchumschläge und Schallplattenhüllen] Book Jackets and Record Covers (New York, Praeger [1969]). Graphic Arts Collection (GA) 2014-0581Q

Charles Rosner, The Art of the Book-Jacket (London: Published for the Victoria and Albert Museum by H.M.S.O., 1949). Graphic Arts Collection (GA) 2009-0369N

One of the finest Venetian illustrated books of the Settecento

Giovanni Marco Pitteri (1703-1786) and Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815), after Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754), Studi di pittura già dissegnati da Giambatista Piazzetta ed ora con l’intaglio di Marco Pitteri [Painting Studies Drawn by Giambattista Piazzetta and Now Together with Marco Pitteri’s Engravings] (Venice: [Giambattista Albrizzi], 1760). 28 pp. text and 48 engravings after 24 drawings. Includes Alcuni avvertimenti per lo incamminamento di un Giovani alla pittura di Gian Pietro Cavazzoni Zannotti (Giampietro Zannotti, 1674-1765). Graphic Arts Collection 2017- in process

In 1750, the celebrated painter and draftsman Giovanni Battista Piazzetta was appointed director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice but at the same time, came under increasing financial difficulties. His good friend, leading Venetian publisher Giambattista Battista Albrizzi commissioned a series of instructional life drawings for aspiring artists.

Piazzetta died in 1754 and over the next six years, Francesco Bartolozzi and Marco Pitteri each engraved their own representations of his drawings, which Albrizzi published both sets in 1760 as a manual for painting students; 48 engraved plates after 24 drawings. Bartolozzi emphasizing the line and Pitteri the light and shadow.

Piazzetta, Male Nude in a Landscape. Black chalk on paper. Morgan Museum and Library, Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. 1961.12:53

This rare volume of virtuoso talent also includes the only surviving etched self-portrait of Piazzetta dated 1738 and a biography of the artist written by Albrizzi. The Graphic Arts Collection is honored to now hold one of the only complete first editions reproducing Piazzetta’s master drawings. Half a generation older than Giambattista Tiepolo, Piazzetta exercised a profound influence on the work of the younger artist, which continues into the 21st century.

Print historian Suzanne Boorsch wrote, “Giambattista Albrizzi’s final tribute to Piazzetta is the Studj di pittura, a sort of model book reproducing twenty-four drawings of nude figures by Piazzetta. During much of his life Piazzetta directed an art school, and Albrizzi’s aim was to put into a more lasting form Piazzetta’s role as teacher. The book, not published until six years after Piazzetta’s death, includes two plates reproducing each drawing, one by Francesco Bartolozzi, which is quite conventional, with outlines and cross-hatching, and the other in Pitteri’s singular, arresting manner.” –Venetian Prints and Books in the Age of Tiepolo (1997). Marquand (SA) NE2052.4.V46 B66 1997

Decline and Fall of Hoops in the Roman Empire

Attributed to Emily “Lille” Maingay (1837-1890), The Decline and Fall of Hoops in the Roman Empire. Bound with The Christmas Robin ([London, privately printed? ca. 1872]). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired two small books bound together, both attributed to Emily “Lille” Maingay (1837-1890). The first is an illustrated satire on 19th-century women’s fashion and the Catholic Church, in which Pope Pius IX decides to ban women’s hooped skirts because they might prevent women from going to confession (doorway too narrow).

One section concerns a deacon who puts on a hoop and is chased by cardinals. “When caught, the pope amazed at his singular reserve did immediately confers on him priests orders (to cure him of the same).”

Maingay made the books using anastatic printing, also called metal relief, similar to what William Blake used with his illuminated books. Rockwell Kent also like the look of metal relief. Many of the copies of this book in other collections are called ink drawings, although they might also be anastatic printed copies. When the ink is transferred gently onto the paper, the result looks similar to an ink drawing.

Emily “Lille” Maingay (1837-1890) and her three sisters moved back to London from St. Petersburg in the 1860s. They were active in various charities. “The St Cyprian’s Orphanage for Girls is thought to have been founded in the 1870s at Allsop (or Allsopp) Mews, Marylebone, by the Misses Maingay of 39 Dorset Square. It was one of several homes in the area set up under the St Cyprian’s name, along with establishments for orphan boys, the aged, the incurable, and the fallen . . . the Maingay sisters donated the home to the [Waifs and Strays] Society” along with money to support it. —http://childrenshomes.org.uk/

It may be for the children of the orphanage that Maingay produced these small, humorous books.

The Guernsey Magazine obituaries for January 1891 announced “On Christmas Day, at 39, Dorset-square, London, Emily Lille Maingay, youngest daughter of the late William Maingay, Esq., at St. Petersburg.”

Yellow Barn Press

The Graphic Arts Collection has substantial holdings of twentieth-century fine press editions but we recently filled in some gaps in our collection of Yellow Barn Press (YBP) books with wood engravings by John DePol (1913-2004). These represent a collaboration between DePol and YBP printer Neil Shaver that lasted from 1983 until the DePol’s death in 2004.

Here’s a biographical note from the records of the YBP, held at the University of Iowa Libraries. “In 1966, Shaver and his wife Fran moved to rural Iowa, outside of Council Bluffs. On the property was a barn, which Shaver and Fran cleaned up and turned into his printing studio. Fran is credited with coming with the name Yellow Barn Press. In 1980, Shaver sold his grocery business and retired, turning his printing avocation into his vocation. He printed about two books a year. The first books were on the Washington press, but after his sixth book, he began printing his books on a Vandercook, which is easier for one person to operate.

In 1983, he took a course from John Anderson at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, and he and Anderson communicated from that point on until Anderson died in 1997. One of Shaver’s books about printing is about Anderson’s Pickering Press. . . Due to failing eyesight, Shaver closed the press in 2005, having brought out over thirty books.”

Photograph posted with the records of the Yellow Barn Press at the University of Iowa Library.

Here are the titles we’ve been able to acquire and a few images:
1. American Iron Hand Presses, #40/180, signed by Steve Saxe.
2. Ben Franklin on Lead Hazards, inscribed & dated by John.
3. Does Literature Exist, #9/175. John’s copy with his bookplate, inscription from Neil Shaver at Yellow Barn Press, signed twice by John. A second bookplate is also on the inside front cover with a different DePol engraving. With prospectus, ordering postcard, & typed note initialed by John.
4. Dress, by Eric Gill. #7/200, signed by John.
5. Goudy Memoir, YBP bookplate & Emerson G. Wulling’s bookplate too, with EGW’s traditional penciled notes on ffep, prospectus laid in.
6. Not Barn Again, inscribed & dated by John.
7. John Anderson & The Pickering Press, #102/150, inscribed & dated by John.
8. Liberty Bell on the K-G Press, #205/215, inscribed & dated by John.
9. Travels with Pat, with handwritten presentation note on his 1994 birthday laid in.

See also John J. Walsdorf, The Yellow Barn Press: a history and bibliography (Council Bluffs, Ia.: Yellow Barn Press, 2001). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2004-0798Q

An unrecorded subversive almanac for 1794

Les Romances du temps présent. Almanach nouveau (Paris: chez les Marchands de Nouveautés, [between August and mid-October 1793]). 100 mm. Collation: [1]32 [2]8 (nested quires). 33, [16], 34-64 pp. Calendar for 1794. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired an unrecorded subversive almanac, innocuous in appearance but containing openly anti-Revolutionary poems, songs, and invocations.

The “Romances of the present day” [above] opens with several heart-rending poems on the plight of Marie-Antoinette, who, on August 1, 1793, had been transferred at dead of night from her prison in the Temple to a solitary cell in the Conciergerie. She would be guillotined 77 days later on October 16.

Other poems set to popular tunes include an invocation of the Dauphin (age 10, separated from his mother on July 3); a “romance” of the ghost of Louis XVI (executed on 21 January 1793) addressing the French people; a song relating the last words of the dying King, “found in his papers”; and a song “to the Sans-Culottes”: Rhabilles-toi peuple Français. Ne donnes plus dans les excès De nos faux Patriotes! [Get dressed French people. Do not give in excess of our false patriots!]

There is a racy pair of couplets, “to the Emigrés, by the French Ladies,” and vice-versa, each verse ending with the equivocal line “ce qu’on fit en nous [vous] faisant” (e.g., “Et jurons qu’un brave Emigré / Seul aura droit de nous faire / Ce qu’on fit en nous faisant),” along with a series of “Ariettes, written from the siege of Maastricht” (winter of 1793).

Beside these subversive texts are normal apolitical songs and a calendar for 1794.

How Many Nippers Does It Take To Bind A Book?

Nineteenth-century nipping press from Leonard Bailey and Company, Hartford Connecticut.

Black and red cast iron book press, labeled World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893, The Cotton State’s Exposition, Atlanta 1895.

On a recent visit to our preservation lab, Mick LeTourneaux, Rare Books Conservator, pointed out the wide variety of nipping, standing, and other book presses they used. Although some are beautiful 19th-century originals, many others were purchased in the last twenty years specifically for our shop.

According to the Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology of Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books, the nipping press is “a small press consisting essentially of a fixed, horizontal iron base plate, and an upper, movable platen that is raised and lowered by means of a relatively long, vertical screw. The nipping press is used to apply quick and uniform pressure in a variety of bookbinding operations.”

“While the nipping press does not have the available daylight or the pressing power of the standing press, it is relatively easy to open and close which makes it very useful for a quick pressing operations. The true nipping press does not release its pressure until released by the turning of the screw; however, substitute ‘nipping presses,’ which are really ‘letter-presses’ or ‘copying presses,’ once used in business offices for ‘copying’ letters, are limited in their ability to apply pressure because they have a tendency to ease the pressure when the handle is released.” http://cool.conservation-us.org/don/dt/dt2329.html

Here are a few more, along with some of the standing presses in Princeton’s lab.

Standing wood press manufactured by Hampson Bettridge & Company Ltd., 2 & 4 Fann Street, London EC1 Great Britain

Several of our presses come from the W. O. Hickok Manufacturing Company, located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest remaining industrial plants in South Central Pennsylvania. http://www.hickokmfg.com/history.htm

“In 1844, William Orville Hickok established the Eagle Works and became a manufacturer of bookbinders’ specialties. His brilliant inventions would soon revolutionize the paper ruling industry. Sometime between 1844 and 1850, Hickok’s ideas began to click. He invented an “Improved Ruling Machine” and his Eagle Works plant grew quickly. By 1853, the Ruling Machines were in constant use in every state of the Union.”

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