Waddy Productions. Physogs: the Novel Card Game (Aldwych, London: Waddy Productions, Astor House, [between 1939 and 1945]).1 game (4 frame cards, 52 playing cards, 2 booklets). Graphic Arts Collection GA2016- in process.
Shortly after the publication of sociologist Jacques Penry’s book How to Read Character from the Face: a Complete Explanation of Character as it is Shown by the Size, Proportion, and Texture of Each Feature (New York: Fortuny’s, 1939), the British company Waddy came out with a game based on Penry’s book.
As the booklet states, “The object of the game is not merely the piecing together of features but the building of faces, the features of which are consistent with each other. The eyes, nose, mouth, etc., must not, in its respective ‘character,’ conflict with any other feature.” A key book describes thirteen distinct facial-character types: acquisitive-shrewd, dissipated, bad-tempered, determined, suaveobsequious, artistic-imaginative, credulous-impractical, magnetic, excitable-impetuous, self-conscious, crafty-self-centered, pleasant-cheerful, and narrow-minded-stubborn. Play continues until someone has selected the correct set of eyes, nose, and mouth.
Approximately 1 1/2 minutes into this newsreel, there is a segment on the building of an automaton. The title frames are held for a long time but you can stop the film to see the actual work on the figure.
Title frames transcribed for that section:
The Art of Mechanics. Automated Mannequins. The body of the mannequin is first modeled by the artist then molded in a plaster mold. A complicated mechanism gives the impression of life. The anatomy of the smoker. The machine produces smoke. A perfected subject.
Special thanks to Special Collections Assistants Allison Hughes and Miriam Jankiewicz for adding a little perspective to this post.
From 2008 to 2014, we cleared material out of a storage space known locally as the “iconography vault.” Over 100 posters were crumbled up on top of the cabinetry, which have slowly been flattened and conserved by our staff. Yesterday, we discovered we had this treasure from 1861.
The broadside is for a special performance at the Howard Athenæum, also known as Old Howard Theatre, in Boston, Massachusetts. For over 100 years, from 1845 to 1953, the Howard was one of the most famous theaters in Boston history. This single performance featured and benefited the American stage actress Charlotte Saunders Cushman (1816-1876) who was known for playing both male and female parts (including a celebrated Hamlet). Note the separate seating required for Black and White audience members. This is just days after the beginning of the American Civil War.
Read : Emma Stebbins (1815-1882), Charlotte Cushman: her letters and memoires of her life (Boston: Houghton, Osgood and Company, 1878). Firestone Library PN2287.C8 S7 1878
George B. Black (active 1844-1880) after a painting by William Henry Watkins (active 1847), Charlotte Cushman as Mrs. Haller. “I cannot understand this!” 1845. Lithograph. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2013.00361
Frederick Gutekunst (1831-1917), Charlotte Cushman, 1874. Albumen silver print. Theater Collection photographs TA 2013.00547.
“In celebration of his Silver Wedding and birthday, Mr. J. W. Ackrill entertained the staff of the Herald Printing Works and a few other friends to dinner at the George Hotel, on Wednesday evening. Mr. Haywood, the manager, provided a most tempting menu and a pleasant evening was spent.
The employees arranged a surprise for the host in the form of a handsome silver tray, beautifully engraved and bearing suitable illustration executed in the finest form of the engraver’s art. Unfortunately Mr. Ackrill was called from the table as soon as the toast list was opened, in consequence of the illness of Mrs. Ackrill, his mother.
Under the circumstances the presentation to him was made by Mr. J R Foggo, the oldest member of the staff (40 years) through Mr. Robert Ackrill Breare, his eldest nephew. The cause of Mr. Ackrill’s absence was not made known, so the evening was spent most happily.”
“The valuable present was accompanied by an illuminated address in book form, entirely executed in the works, in the manipulation of which every person in the employ had some share. The tray was supplied by Mr. Ogden, of the Little Diamond Shop, together with a very unique engraving thereon.” –unidentified author, “Wednesday Gossip,” Harrogate Herald, May 8, 1901
The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired this keepsake prepared by the staff of the Herald Printing Works in North Yorkshire, England. The pages are filled with photographs, drawings, examples of printing, and other memorials to their manager. The volume provides a unique look at a printing firm at the turn of the last century.
The female staff
Herald Printing Works. The whole of the work, printing, lithographing, embossing, illuminating, photographing, binding, was executed by the employees of the Herald Printing Works, Harrogate (Harrogate [England]: Herald Printing Works, 1901. 64] card leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 29 x 22 cm.”Presented to Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Ackrill, as a souvenir of their silver wedding, April 29th, 1901, by the employees of the firm as a mark of their respect and esteem.” Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Q-000067
Two dueling pistols made by John Jones & Son, in mahogany brass-bound case containing also 2 wooden ram rods, 1 cleaning rod, 1 cleaning brush, and 17 bullets. Also grapeshot. 18th century. Museum objects collection, Rare Books and Special Collections Ex 4369.
In a search to find Napoleonic ephemera yesterday, we stumbled across this pair of dueling pistols. They were given to Lewis Boudinot Hunter, Class of 1824 and Medical Director U.S. Navy, by his father the Reverend Andrew Hunter, Class of 1772, Chaplain in the Revolutionary Army; Trustee of Princeton; Clerk of the Faculty; Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy; and Chaplain U.S. Navy. The pistols, housed in a mahogany brass-bound case, were then presented to the Princeton University Library by Colonel Charles Hodge Hunter, Class of 1878.
Bartholomew’s Fair in 1721, no date (1824). Etching and aquatint designed as a fan. Sold by J.F. Setchel. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2015- in process.
From 1133 to 1855, the citizens of London came together for several days each August to enjoy the pleasures at the Bartholomew Fair. Thanks to this colored aquatint, we can also enjoy the many entertainments offered during the 1721 fair, including a peep-show of The Siege of Gibraltar, Lee and Harper’s presentation of Judith and Holofernes, Faux’s Dexterity of Hand and his Famous posture master. At the top, people are seen riding an “ups and downs,” an early version of the ferris wheel.
“There was once sold in Bartholomew Fair a Fan,” wrote Henry Morley in his Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair, “on which the Fair was represented as it then appeared in the eyes of a Bartholomew artist, who having his own views of perspective, carefully economised the number of his figures, and left out at discretion bodies or legs, in the treatment of which he was embarrassed. A coloured engraving of this picture was issued by Mr. Setchel of Covent Garden, with a brief description commonly assigned to Caulfield, the bookseller, author of four volumes of Remarkable Characters. The date of the Fan is here said to be 1721; but this cannot be right, since it displays, among other things, a puppet show of the Siege of Gibraltar, which occurred in 1727. Almost every great Siege in which England was concerned reappeared on the first occasion in the shows at the Fair.”
A drawing for this scene, owned by the British Museum, was probably made circa 1730 but the fans were likely printed and sold in 1824. Isaac Fawkes or Faux (1675?–1732) was an English magician and showman. In 1722, he paid for an advertisement that read, “Tricks by Dexterity of Hand, with his Cards, Eggs, Corn, Mice, curious India Birds, and Money . . . Likewize the surprising Activity of Body perform’d by his Little Boy, of 12 Years of Age . . . .” —A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Volume 5 (Firestone PN 2597 .H5 1973). Possible portrait of Robert Walpole (1676-1745)
Let not the ballad singer’s shrilling strain
Amid the swarm thy listening ear detain:
Guard well thy pocket, for these syrens stand
To aid the labours of the diving hand;
Confederate in the cheat, they draw the throng,
And Cambric handkerchiefs reward the song.”
–Andrew White Tuer, Old London Street Cries and the Cries of To-day (1885)
Gillett G. Griffin, Untitled [Gillett Griffin on ladder, placing books on shelf], no date [20th century]. Paper collage. Graphic Arts Collection GC001
A former Curator of Graphic Arts, Gillett G. Griffin (born 1928) was responsible for moving our collection into the 2nd floor of the new Firestone Library in 1953. This paper collage is a self-portrait of Griffin shelving (or re-shelving) the monumental collection while balancing on a cloud. Perhaps a foreshadowing of off-site storage.
The Graphic Arts Collection has a large, and largely uncatalogued, collection of chromolithographed cigarette cards from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Included are cards from Turkey Red, Fez, and Duke cigarettes, among others. Most American companies inserted a coupon in the package, which could be exchanged for the actual cards. These cards [above] were circulated by Duke cigarettes. Duke University posted this guide to the W. Duke, Sons & Co. records and advertising materials, 1876-1953, which reads in part: “W. Duke, Sons & Co. was a tobacco manufacturer founded by Washington Duke in 1881. His son, James B. Duke, later became president of the American Tobacco Company. …There are also advertising materials dated 1876-1904, including trading cards, albums, and other advertising collectibles from the W. Duke Sons & Co., Liggett & Myers, American Tobacco, and other tobacco companies.” These cards are from Turkey Red cigarettes. Here is a brief history posted by a contemporary collector: “Inserted into 10-cigarette packages of Turkey Red cigarettes beginning in the summer of 1909, this attractive and historical 25 card set featured subjects related to the 1909 Hudson-Fulton Celebration. The Hudson-Fulton Celebration was a commemoration of Henry Hudson’s discovery of the Hudson River, 300 years earlier, along with recognition of Robert Fulton who invented the steamship and tested it on the Hudson in 1807. Individual cards of Hudson and Fulton feature portraits on the front and information regarding their lives and accomplishments on the back. The remaining cards in the set feature horizontal depictions of various steamships and other scenes.”– http://www.t3turkeyred.com/index.html
Our sincere thanks to Nancy Rosin, President of The Ephemera Society of America and President of the National Valentine Collectors Association, who posted the answer here: http://www.victoriantreasury.com/library/2007-01_Puzzle_Purses/. This website not only gives you the answer to the folding puzzle but offers another example of a valentine that can be printed and folded for your enjoyment. Give it a try and join me in thanking Ms. Rosin for her help.
It is hard to know where multi-media editions should be kept in a university setting. After consultation with colleagues, the Graphic Arts Collection has acquired The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records vol. 1 and 2. Released jointly from John Fahey’s Revenant and Jack White’s Third Man Records, the material was co-produced by the leading scholar on Paramount, Alex van der Tuuk. Volume one (below left) covers 1917 to 1927 and volume two (below right) chronicles 1928 to 1932.
Each ‘cabinet of wonders’ includes 800 newly remastered digital tracks representing over 170 artists; more than 300 fully restored original advertisement from the 1920s-30s; six vinyl records with hand-engraved labels; and two limited edition books including an encyclopedia of artists and tracks as well as a narrative history of Paramount. Volume one is housed in an oak cabinet with a custom-designed USB drive embedded inside and volume two is a stainless steel case also with an embedded drive. Both hold a music & image player app that enables the user personal management of all tracks and advertisements.
Quoted from the prospectus: “Paramount Records was formed in 1917 with little fanfare and few prospects its founders ran a Wisconsin furniture company and knew nothing of the record business. Its mission was modest: produce records as cheaply as possible with whatever talent was available. This was not a winning formula, and by the end of 1921 Paramount was on the threshold of bankruptcy.
In 1922 Paramount’s white owners embarked on a radical new business plan: selling the music of black artists to black audiences (a market that became known as “Race Records”). This move, paired with equal parts dumb luck, chicanery, a willingness to try anything, and the fortuitous hiring of Mayo Williams (the first black executive at a white-owned recording company), paid dramatic dividends.
Williams, a Chicago South-sider, early NFL player, bootlegger, impresario, and Brown University graduate, would become a key early champion of those two uniquely American art forms, jazz and blues, while maintaining a not entirely benevolent orientation toward the artists themselves (“screw the artist before he can screw you” being one of his mottoes). Via Williams, Paramount scouted talent, ran the offices of its recording operations, and recorded most of its early records in Chicago, unintentionally playing a documentarian’s role as it captured the very sounds of the Great Migration in the Midwest.
By 1927, Paramount was the most important label in the Race Records field, selling hundreds of thousands of records. And by the time it ceased operations in 1932, it had compiled a dizzying roster of performers still unrivaled to this day by any other assemblage of talent ever housed under one roof spanning early jazz titans (Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Fletcher Henderson, Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Coleman Hawkins), vaudevillian songsters (Papa Charlie Jackson, The Hokum Boys), the first solo guitar bluesmen (Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake), theater blues divas (Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter, Ethel Waters), gospel (Norfolk Jubilee Quartette, Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham), masters of Mississippi blues (Charley Patton, Son House, Skip James, Tommy Johnson), and others.”
Waddy Productions. Physogs: the Novel Card Game (Aldwych, London: Waddy Productions, Astor House, [between 1939 and 1945]).1 game (4 frame cards, 52 playing cards, 2 booklets). Graphic Arts Collection GA2016- in process.
Pathe-Magazine Revue Universelle des Sciences, Arts, Industries, Voyages, & Sports, No. 38
