Category Archives: Medium

mediums

The Ariel Poems

In 1927, the Curwen Press, Plaistow, partnered with Faber & Gwyer in London to publish a series called The Ariel Poems. Most are four pages with a previously unpublished poem and new printed image from a contemporary artist. No author was involved in the selection of the art and the final booklet (or keepsake) sold for one shilling.

“In his attempt to persuade eminent poets to contribute an Ariel poem, Richard de la Mare was not shy at telling poets that his father, Walter, had agreed to participate. In any case, he had come to know the older poets concerned through his father: in the displayed draft of a letter to Sir Henry Newbolt, for example, he writes that ‘Daddy has promised to let me have a new poem and so has T. S. Eliot’. In 1927, moreover, several of the writers when replying make polite enquiries about how his father was recovering from a recent illness. Rudyard Kipling was not able to help, but ‘A. E’ and W. B. Yeats were, and many other important literary figures came up with short poems for the sequence.”– https://www.faber.co.uk/blog/the-ariel-poems-numbers-1-8/

“Artists enjoyed the opportunity to work for the Curwen Press, not only for fees paid but because of the care taken reproducing their work. This was particularly true of illustrations reproduced by the pochoir (stencil) process, set up by Harold Curwen in 1925 and continued until 1932. The process was exploited with great skill by E. McKnight Kauffer, but even he acknowledged how much his book illustrations reproduced by pochoir owed their quality to Harold Curwen’s skill in running a department for which he trained the staff so well.” —http://whittingtonpressshop.com/the-curwen-press-collection-in-cambridge-university-library/

Between 1927 and 1931 Faber published thirty-eight poems in the Ariel series and then, in the early 1950s, after a gap of twenty years, it was decided to revive the series. Princeton University Library has a number of these, although not a complete set, spread out between a number of collections.

1. Yuletide in a younger world by Thomas Hardy, drawings by Albert Rutherston (London: Faber & Gwyer, 1927).

2. The linnet’s nest by Henry John Newbolt, drawings by Ralph Keene (London: Faber & Gwyer, 1927).

3.The wonder night by Laurence Binyon; drawings by Barnett Freedman (London: Faber & Gwyer, [1927]). 350 copies. ReCAP 3628.5.398

4.Alone by Walter de la Mare; wood engravings by Blair Hughes-Stanton (London: Faber & Gwyer, [19–?]). No. 68 of 350. Rare Books PR6007.E3 Z99046

5.Gloria in profundis by G. K. Chesterton; wood engravings by Eric Gill ([London, Faber & Gwyer, 1927]). No. 185 of 350. Rare Books 3675.85.339

6.The early whistler by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson; drawings by John Nash ([London: Faber & Gwyer, 1927]). ReCAP 3752.3.331

7.Nativity by Siegfried Sassoon; designs by Paul Nash ([London: Faber & Gwyer, 1927]. No. 18 of 350. ReCAP 3917.75.367

8.Journey of the magi by T.S. Eliot; drawings by E. McKnight Kauffer ([London; Faber & Gwyer, Limited, 1927]). Graphic Arts Collection 2004-4195N

9. The chanty of the Nona by Hilaire Belloc, drawings by Hilaire Belloc (London: Faber & Gwyer,
1928).

11.Self to self by Walter De la Mare, drawings by Blair Hughes-Stanton (London: Faber & Gwyer, Curwen Press, 1928).

12. Troy by Humbert Wolfe ; drawings by C. Ricketts (London : Faber & Gwyer, [1928]). ReCAP 3995.18.391

13. The winter solstice, by Harold Monro; drawings by David Jones (London, Faber & Gwyer, 1928?). Rare Books 3862.62.397

14. To my mother by Siegfried Sassoon, drawings by Stephen Tennant (London: Faber & Faber, 1928). Rare Books 3917.75.349.1928

15.Popular song by Edith Sitwell, drawings by Edward Bawden (London: Faber and Faber, 1928). Rare Books 3933.05.373

16.A song for Simeon by T.S. Eliot; drawing by E. McKnight Kauffer (London: Faber & Gwyer, 1928). Graphic Arts Collection 2004-4218N

18. Three things, by W.B. Yeats; drawings by Gilbert Spencer ([London, Faber & Faber limited, 1929]). Rare Books 3999.4.3895.11

20.A snowdrop by Walter De la Mare; drawings by Claudia Guercio (London: Faber & Faber,
192?). Rare Books PR6007.E3 Z99047

22. The outcast by James Stephens; drawings by Althea Willoughby ([London : Faber & Faber, 1929 ). Rare Books 3943.35.369

24. Inscription on a fountain-head by Peter Quennell ; drawings by Albert Rutherston (London : Faber & Faber, [1929]). Rare Books 3902.17.349

26. Elm angel by Harold Monro,. Wood engravings by Eric Ravilious (London, Faber & Faber, 1930). Rare Books 3862.62.332

27.In Sicily by Siegfried, drawings by Stephen Tennant ([London] : [Faber & Faber], 1927). ReCAP PR6037.A86 I575 1930

29.Marina by T.S. Eliot; drawings by E. McKnight Kauffer (London: Faber & Faber, 192?). RHT 20th-125

30.The gum trees by Roy Campbell ; drawings by David Jones (London : Faber & Faber, 1930). Rare Books 3664.55.341

31.News by Walter de la Mare ; drawings by Barnett Freedman (London: Faber & Faber, 1930).
Firestone Library PR6007.E3 N497 1930

33. To Lucy by Walter de la Mare ; drawings by Albert Rutherston (London : Faber & Faber, [19–?]). Rare Books PR6007.E3 Z99059

34. To the red rose by Siegfried Sassoon ; illustration by Stephen Tennant (London : Faber & Faber, [1931?]). Rare Books 3917.75.391

35. Triumphal march by T.S. Eliot ; drawings by E. McKnight Kauffer ([London : Faber & Faber, 1931]). RHT 20th-132

36. Jane Barston, 1719-1746 by Edith Sitwell ; drawings by R. A. Davies (London : Faber & Faber, [1931]). Rare Books PR6037.I8 J36 1931

38. Choosing a mast / by Roy Campbell ; drawings by Barnett Freedman (London : Faber & Faber, 1931). Rare Books 3664.55.325

Jakob Steinhardt (Hebrew: יעקב שטיינהרדט‬)

Born in Zerków, Germany (what is now Poznań, Poland), Jakob Steinhardt (Hebrew: יעקב שטיינהרדט‬) fled Nazi persecution in 1933 and made his home in Jerusalem for the last 30 years of his life. This is one of the last books he produced in Berlin, where he co-founded Die Pathetiker group together with Ludwig Meidner and the German painter Richard Janthur.

Here is a portion of the entry in the Grove Dictionary of Art:

“While serving in the German army in World War I Steinhardt successfully exhibited 50 drawings at the Berlin Secession in 1917. In 1919 J. B. Neuman began to publish Steinhardt’s etchings and also arranged his first one-man exhibition that year. During this productive period he received many commissions for book illustration, such as those for the Haggadah (Berlin, 1920–21). He visited Palestine in 1925 and fled there from Nazi persecution in 1933, settling first in Tel Aviv and then in Jerusalem. There he concentrated on woodcuts, producing such Expressionist works as The Butcher (1934; see 1987 exh. cat., p. 32). He ran an art school in Jerusalem from 1934 to 1949, when he took over the Directorship of the Belazel School of Arts and Crafts. Throughout his career his style was Expressionist and though predominantly a printmaker he also painted in oils. He produced a number of illustrations for the Bible, such as Isaiah the Prophet (1954; Los Angeles, CA, Co. Mus. A.).”

 

Special thanks to James Weinberger, Curator, Near East Collection, for helping with this acquisition.

Jacob Steinhardt (1887-1968), Neun Holzschnitte zu ausgewählten Versen aus dem Buche Jeschu ben Elieser ben Sirah; mit einer Einleitung von Arnold Zweig [Nine Woodcuts and Selected Verses from the Book of Ben Sirah–Soncino] (Berlin: Aldus Druck, 1929). Ninth Publication of the Soncino Society of Friends of the Jewish Book. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process

Helena Bochořáková-Dittrichová

Written and illustrated by Czech graphic artist Helena Bochořáková-Dittrichová (1894-1980), this mostly wordless novel tells its story in 52 black and white woodcuts and 7 pages of text (also by the artist).

The book describes the struggles of the American Indians in the Midwest and Southwest, beginning with Ottawa war chief Pontiac’s battles against the British military occupation in 1763, followed by descriptions of Arizona and New Mexico American Indians.

Recognized as the first (or one of the first) woman graphic novelist, Bochořáková-Dittrichová began publishing woodcut narratives with Z mého dětství (From My Childhood) in 1929 and is credited with 15 graphic novels, the last published in 1969. Princeton University Library has only one other example of her work: Childhood: a Cycle of Woodcuts. Edition 300. Cotsen Children’s Library Eng 20 18173.

Considered extremely rare and yet, seminal to her oeuvre, Bochořáková-Dittrichová printed only 125 copies of Indians Then and Now with Josefem Hladkým. The only other holdings I see listed in the United States are at Columbia University and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C. Happily, if you can’t come to Princeton, the entire volume has been digitized here: http://sbirky.moravska-galerie.cz/dielo/CZE:MG.BF_456

Helena Bochořáková-Dittrichová (1894-1980), Indiáni jindy a dnes: kniha dřevorytů =
Indians Then and Now: a Book of Woodcutters. Copy 100 of 125. (Jozef Hladký, 1934). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process

 

Mana-ka-Dana 1868

This photograph [a detail] is labeled: “The Attack on Mhunnah-Ka-Dhunnah,” although we are told common orthography for that place in the Agror Valley (Pakistan, not too far from Abbotabbad) is Mana-ka-Dana (probably not too far from here https://goo.gl/maps/28gZ8NvrJ6q).

 

Most researchers who ask about our photography album attributed to the British Army officer Alexander Dudgeon Gulland M.D. with 165 albumen silver prints ca. 1868, are looking for the section covering the rebellion in Jamaica.

Equally compelling is the next section (digitized here: http://pudl.princeton.edu/objects/736664580) with photographs of Kashmir and, in particular, the 1868 camp of the Hazara Field Force under Major General Wylde O.B. at Oghi. In one print [see above] the photographer caught a cannon ball in mid-air, leaving a trail of smoke arching across the sky.

…An expedition thus became necessary, and as the country inhabited was mountainous and difficult, and it was possible that more tribes beyond the Indus would join the enemy, the invading force had of necessity to be a large one. A force under Major-General Wylde, O.B., was collected at Oghi, and the Mahdrdja of Kashmir was also called upon to furnish a contingent, which he did with readiness.

The force left Oghi, October 3rd, and occupied the Machai peak after an ineffectual resistance on the part of the enemy, and returned to British territory on the 22nd idem. The submission of all the tribes was secured, except the chief Syad of Pardri, and a petty chief named Shal Khdn of Tahkd, who fled. Some villages of the Pathans were destroyed, and fines levied on the offending Swatis. List of killed and wounded Europeans, 1 wounded ; Natives, 35 wounded, 9 killed. –“Historical Record of No 4 (Hazara) Mountain Battery Punjab Frontier Force” https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.278775

 

Attributed to Alexander Dudgeon Gulland, Photography album documenting the Morant bay Rebellion in Jamaica (1865), the Indian Northwest Frontier Hazara Campaign (1867-1870), views of Malta, Ireland, Guernsey, Spain, and elsewhere, no date [1860s-1880s]. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) (GAX) 2009-0016E

The Bard of Avon and the Bardavon


Leo Sielke, Jr., Design for the Bardavon Theater interior, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 1923. Watercolor and gouache on board. Theater Collection, Rare Books and Special Collections

 

Charlotte Evans, “Poughkeepsie Saves 1869 Opera House,” New York Times 25 Apr 1981: 25:

“Poughkeepsie has a Cinderella story to tell. Five years ago, its Bardavon Opera House, the oldest opera house in New York State and the seventh oldest in the United States, was scheduled for demolition to make way for a parking lot. But three years ago it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and this year the Bardavon is finally coming back into its own as a community-run, nonprofit theater. It is expected to attract 100,000 people to a full season of opera, music, theater and dance.

“The Bardavon, now known officially as the Bardavon 1869 Opera House, was originally the Collingwood, built in 1869 by James Collingwood on the site of his coal and lumberyard. In 1923, after the touring companies had declined and silent films had arrived, the Bardavon underwent a major renovation to become a movie theater.

On Jan. 3 of that year, The Poughkeepsie Evening Star and Enterprise reported that ‘every refinement in designing and decoration has been employed to make it a worthy setting for the best productions of the stage and the films, and no expense has been spared to assure the comfort and safety of its patrons.’

The theater was renamed the Bardavon after Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, reflecting the “Shakespeare mania” of the day. . . . Over the stage hung a 72-foot mural depicting the Bard sitting on the banks of the Avon River, contemplating a fair, pensive woman on the other side.

But the theater could not stave off the woes of the inner city, and by the 1960’s the Bardavon was seedy. Several movie companies failed to revive it and in 1975, when the city’s master plan called for more downtown parking, eyes turned toward the opera house.”

Unfortunately, the mural has been lost or painted over, leaving this 1923 design by Leo Sielke the only record of the 72-foot painting that once decorated the Bardavon’s proscenium arch. Sielke’s watercolor and gouache sketch was recently conserved and rehoused for Princeton’s theater collection.


See other designs by Leo Sielke & Son:
https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2018/06/07/leo-sielke-son/

https://www.princeton.edu/~graphicarts/2012/08/post_35.html

Leo Sielke & Son

Washington D.C. entrepreneur Fayette Thomas “Tom” Moore (1880-1955) shifted careers from vaudeville performer to Washington D.C. movie theater owner to Hollywood producer-director-writer before committing suicide at the age of 75. His D.C. theaters included the Diamond on H Street, the Plaza on 9th Street, the Garden Theatre, Orpheum and the Rialto, along with 15 others on the “Moore circuit.”

The Garden Theatre was acquired by Moore in 1913, who immediately renamed it Moore’s Garden Theatre. After much success presenting first run motion pictures, he hired the New York firm of Leo Sielke & Son to redesign and renovate the interior with hand-painted murals and elegantly printed wallpaper. In 1922, Moore lost control of the Garden to Henry Crandall, who renamed it the Central Theatre.

 

There are at least three generations of artists in the Sielke family, who founded an interior design business in the 19th century, handling both commercial and residential projects. In 1903, Leo Sielke Sr. bought out his partners and renamed the firm Leo Sielke & Son, with offices located at 1164 Broadway near Madison Square Garden.

His son Leo Sielke, Jr. (1880-1930) worked with the firm during his early career but eventually moved to California where he specialized in the portraits of silent-film stars. It is unclear which members of the company are responsible for the Garden Theatre redesign.

Princeton University Library’s Theater Collection holds a number of designs by Leo Sielke & Son, including these proposed renovations to Moore’s Garden Theatre in 1918.

See also: Robert K. Headley, Motion Picture Exhibition in Washington, D.C. : an Illustrated History of Parlors, Palaces, and Multiplexes in the Metropolitan Area, 1894-1997 (ReCAP PN1993.5.U79 H43 1999).

https://ggwash.org/view/8040/lost-washington-the-gayety-theater

Broadway Historians — Help


The Princeton University Library Theater Collection holds a number of watercolor and gouache set designs by the Swedish American artist Mark Lawson (ca. 1866-1928).

Thanks to research from the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library, we have the following information about Lawson:

“Set designer Mark Lawson (ca. 1866 -1928) was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He came to Chicago as a baby, later living in Minnesota, studying under scenic artist Paul Clausen. After working at Stetson’s Globe Theatre in Boston, Lawson came to New York where he worked on Broadway from 1915-1922, including productions at the New York Hippodrome, where he was on staff. Lawson was also a member of the Lambs Club. He died in New York City.”


In addition, the online Playbill database lists a number of the New York shows with sets designed by Lawson:

However, we have not been able to match these designs to a particular production in New York or Boston. Can you help? Please reply to jmellby@princeton.edu

 

 

 

Who Printed “The North American Indian”?


Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) is celebrated for producing the twenty volume set of The North American Indian (1907-1930) “picturing and describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska.” Its 20 text volumes include 1,505 photogravures and the 20 portfolios hold 723 photogravures, a total of 2,228 copperplate aquatints from glass plate negatives and then, glass plate interpositives.

It is believed that 272 sets were produced, meaning that well-over 600,000 prints were hand-inked and pulled. Three issues were produced; one printed on Van Gelder paper, another on Japan vellum, and a third on Japanese tissue (although some existing sets have a mixture).

We know that Curtis had various studios in Washington and California over the years producing the glass plates and albumen silver prints but who was making and printing the copper plates?

The names of two firms are printed on the final photogravures, both in Boston and, as it turns out, both in the same building: John Andrew & Son on the plates for volumes 1–11 and Suffolk Engraving Company (also called Suffolk Engraving and Electrotyping Company) on the prints for volumes 12–20. As with any project that took over twenty-five years to accomplish, the details are more complex.

The firm of John Andrew and Son was established in 1869 but the founder, John Andrew (1815–1875) had long since died when Curtis traveled east to find an engraver. In the 1880s and 1890s, John’s son George T. Andrew (dates unknown) was only supervising projects and from then on his name disappears. In a 1915 sample book in the David A. Hanson Collection of the History of Photomechanical Reproduction John Andrew & Son are listed as a subsidiary of the Suffolk Engraving Company at 394 Atlantic Avenue in Boston’s North end.

For many years the Suffolk Engraving Company, managed by Samuel Edson Blanchard (1869-193?), had been growing and expanding, merging or outright taking over various other engraving firms until they were one of the largest operations on the east coast. By 1905 they boasted over 20,000 square feet of floor space and an annual payroll over $200,000, with offices in New York, Boston, Providence, Philadelphia, and Hartford.

After several fires, the company moved to 394 Atlantic Avenue in 1909, where they “occupy the upper stories of the mammoth [building] and have had the whole top of the building entirely remodelled to suit the requirements of a modern photo-engraving establishment, including a passenger elevator.”

At that time, the photoengraver James S. Conant is listed as a branch of Suffolk Engraving, as was John Andrew & Son, both operating from the same building on Atlantic Avenue. A third firm may have done the same, as historian Mick Gidley found the stamp of the Gravure-Etching Company on some of the proofs for volume one and two (Western Americana Oversize 2017-0014Q .C982 1907q). Both John Andrew & Son and Gravure-Etching Company had been located at 125 Summer Street before merging with Suffolk Engraving, and so, it seems reasonable that some combination of their men handled the earliest of the Curtis photogravures.

Unlike J.J. Audubon’s Birds of America, which we know was printed by Robert Havell and his staff, there is still no man or men identified as the primary printer or even supervisor of the beautiful copperplate photogravures produced for Curtis.  At least not yet.


In 1909, the Suffolk Engraving Company moved to 394 Atlantic Avenue along the far east waterfront of Boston (Printing Arts 13, no. 6, August 1909).

See also: “Business Expansion,” Advertising and Selling 15, no. 3 (August 1905): 254-55.

Psaligraphy

George Schmidt, George Schmidt’s Psaligraphic Album (New York: Charles Becker, 47 East Houston St., 1863). 12 albumen silver prints of cut paper silhouettes. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process

Psaligraphy is the art of cut paper silhouettes (in German: Scherenschnitte). Although it was a wide-spread practice, George Schmidt put himself forward as a leading practitioner by publishing his own Method of Teaching the Art of Psaligraphy five years after this album of samples was published.

“A popular recreation of the middle and late nineteenth century was psaligraphy, or the art of cutting pictures in black paper. Prang’s chromo, January 1868, includes a description of the set that Prang published and sold. It came in an elegant box containing full instructions and specimens for the study of this … art. A pair of scissors accompanies each box. Price per box $5.00”–Katharine McClinton, The Chromolithographs of Louis Prang, (New York, 1973), p. 40.

The opening leaf shows George Schmidt himself resting on a tableau vivant in silhouette, gracefully cutting a small animal figure. His publisher, Charles Becker, is listed at 47 East Houston Street [see at the far left], just down the street from where the famous Puck building would be built approximately 15 years later. Since this publisher is not listed in contemporary business directories, it is likely the album was published from their home or apartment.

The introduction reads: George Schmidt, the celebrated and ONLY Psaligrapher, has exhibited his peculiar art before H.M. the Queen Victoria, also the Emperor of France, the Governor General of the Island of Cuba, and other most prominent persons and artists, and has brought to perfection the highly difficult science of creating the most natural and expressive Pictures and Scenes, even of Incredible smallness, by a simple pair of scissors and a piece of black paper.

Induced by a great many of his friends and admirers of his art, he offers in this Album the photographs of some of the best pictures, he has cut out with a common pair of scissors. For Originals, cut with scissors, apply to the Publisher, 47 East Houston Street, N.Y.

 

 

If you are in Washington D.C. in the coming months, try to see Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now on view at the National Portrait Gallery through March 10, 2019 http://npg.si.edu/exhibition/black-out-silhouettes-then-and-now

Welcome Back Princeton Alumni

The Graphic Arts Collection has a print by Thomas Nast (1840-1902) clearly torn out of a book or magazine. A quick search uncovered the Illustrated American, November 23, 1895 p. 652-53, where a short paragraph is followed by two Nast designs honoring Princeton’s football team. A Mighty Beast refers to the game on November 2, 1895, when 6,000 fans watched while Princeton beat Harvard 12 to 4. Unfortunately, three weeks later on November 23, a crowd of 35,000 watch Princeton lose to Yale 10 to 20. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16518993/princeton_12_harvard_4/

Assuredly, these are great days for the tiger. No wonder the royal beast goes about with a smile of complete contentment. Not only is he “in it”—to speak in the vernacular, but everything that has opposed him lately is likewise “in it”—grabbed, gobbled and stowed away in the tiger’s insatiate maw. The Goddess of Reform, before whom all New York was lately burning incense has certainly been badly crunched by Tammany’s tiger, and her recovery is by no means sure. Only two or three days before this gruesome catastrophe, Harvard “tackled” the Princeton tiger on the football field at Princeton with results that no lover of the crimson cares to dwell on. Enough to say that when the game was over it was another case of “the smile on the face of the tiger.”

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858055623197;view=1up;seq=665

The Illustrated American (New York : Illustrated American Pub. Co., 1890-1899). Vol. 1, no. 1 (Feb. 22, 1890)-v. 25, no. 7 (Feb. 17, 1899). ReCAP Oversize 0901.I293q