Roméo Simonon, part two

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired the printing archive of Roméo Antoine Simonon (1888-1954), whose engraving and die-stamping firm R. Simonon & Cie was located at 170 rue Saint Maur, Paris, during the first half of the twentieth century. This second post shows a little more of the collection.

There are several notebooks and files of the trade cards, logos, monograms, and stationery designs created at Simonon & Cie. At first glance, clients included hotels, cosmetics, restaurants, and professionals from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and South America.

Simonon also made original drawings for illustration, advertising, posters, and other decorative arts projects. Large and small designs in pen and ink, charcoal, and pencil can be found, although the projects are not labeled and it will take some time before the designs are identified and documented.

Roméo Simonon, printer

Highlights include both finished work and working proofs, original sketches, printing blocks, and much more. According to the firm’s trade card R. Simonon & Cie could design, engrave, and die stamp cards, letterheads, envelopes, and embossed labels. The artist’s own cigar box of engraver’s tools [above] includes various burins, burnishers, punches, etching needles, and small hammers.

Roméo Simonon was the son of the Belgian engraver Jean Simonon (1847-1916) who began his business at Tilff, near Liege. Jean and his wife, Françoise Veck Simonon, had three children, two girls and Roméo, who was called Meo. At some point the family moved to Paris and the atelier at 170 rue Saint Maur was established.

The Simonon collection includes thousands of samples, proofs and documents from the firm’s decorative arts business. Because so little is known about trade printers, research will be needed to separate Simonon’s own work from the samples he collected made by others. In the archive are examples of embossed labels for perfumes, cigars and confectionery; restaurant menus; greetings cards; visiting cards and business stationery.

This collection demonstrates the methods used by commercial engraving firms. For instance, there are a large number of ‘calcques gelatine,’ with designs scratched on transparencies for transfer to copper or steel plates and blocks. Thanks to the wide market Simonon served for business stationery, we can also get an idea of the Parisian business community at that time and the related trades.

This collection was purchased in the 21st century from the Simonon family by the booksellers Rogers Turner. Some sort of order had been given to it by grouping similar material into envelopes of various sizes. Additional work will be needed to fully understand Simonon’s contribution to the decorative and commercial arts of the period. More will be posted in the coming days.

A group of Simonon’s embossed labels are held in a perfume box with the Parfums Fontanis emblem printed on top. Rene Lalique is credited with the design of that logo for the famous decorative arts exhibition in Paris in 1925 but it is possible Simonon’s firm produced the labels. The Gal-Madrid label above was also for an art deco perfume company in the 1920s.

Donald Trump, The Magazine of Poetry

Donald Trump, The Magazine of Poetry (Upper Montclair, NJ: Henry Wessells, Temporary Culture, 2016). Edition: 126. Graphic Arts Collection GA2016- in process. Gift of John Bidwell.

Temporary Culture is the imprint of Henry Wessells, Princeton University Class of 1983. He was inspired to create Donald Trump The Magazine of Poetry by Tom Disch’s Ronald Reagan The Magazine of Poetry (London: John Sladek and Pamela Zoline, 1968). Rare Books RECAP-91154631.

Wessells tells us that it took fifty burning marshmallows, thinking about how to illustrate the piece on page 1, before he got the front cover. Temporary Culture has an instagram page http://instagram.com/temporaryculture where there are a couple of clips of readings from the launch on the web. Temporary Culture also produces the Endless Bookshelf http://endlessbookshelf.net.

On the left Brendan C. Byrne and on the right, Henry Wessells at the book launch.

Students of American History: Can you identify these prominent Americans?

number 1
number 1 and 2
The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired an album of twenty rare American Antebellum portraits. Only a handful of the sitters have been identified, such as Samuel Houston, the Texas politician. Can you recognize the others? Please post your replies below or send them to jmellby@princeton.edu.

These photographs were taken in the very early days of photography on paper, in the New York City studio of Johannes De Witt Brinckerhoff (1812-1889) at 505 Broadway (present day Soho). The sitters either lived in New York or traveled there in the late 1850s or early 1860s to have their portraits made specifically by Brinckerhoff. They had the time and money to do so, so these would have been prominent figures in social and business circles.

Although the purpose of this album is uncertain, extra prints of these sitters may have been kept for a sample book to promote the photographer. According to William Welling’s Photography in America (SAPH TR23 .W44 1987) Brinckerhoff “was among the first to exhibit along with his daguerreotypes, proofs of photographs on paper made from collodion negatives, which led to his being employed in giving instructions to many daguerreotypists, who were flocking to [New York City] for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of the new art.”

number 3 and 4

New York Tribune January 4, 1889

Johannes De Witt Brinckerhoff was born in Bloomfield, New Jersey on April 15, 1812 to Jacob Brinckerhoff and Mary G Smith. He married Caroline Augusta Saville and had one son, James Saville Brinckerhoff. Johannes passed away on January 2, 1889 in New York City.
number 5 and 6
number 7
number 8
number 9 and 10

number 4
number 11 and 12
number 19
number 13 and 14
number 15 and 16
number 2
number 17 and 18
number 18
number 19 and 20
Johannes De Witt Brinckerhoff (1812-1889), Brinckerhoff’s Heliographic Likenesses, Developed in Colors from Nature, at the St. Nicholas Gallery… New York [title from label on front pastedown] ([New York City: Brinckerhoff, ca. 1856]). 20 mounted salted paper prints. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2016- in process

Comparing Rome and Venice

Rome

Thursday and Friday, we welcomed the students of ART 233/ARC 233 Renaissance Art and Architecture with Carolina Mangone. Although the class focuses on the renaissance, we pulled Giambattista Nolli’s 1748 plan of Rome (176 x 208 cm) to compare with a facsimile copy of Jacopo de’ Barbari’s 1500 map of Venice. Three extra tables had to be brought in to accommodate the two.

The class description reads “What was the Renaissance? This class explores the major artistic currents that swept northern and southern Europe from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries in an attempt to answer that question. In addition to considering key themes such as the revival of antiquity, imitation and license, religious devotion, artistic style, and the art market, we will survey significant works by artists and architects including Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo, Jan van Eyck, Dürer, and Michelangelo. Precepts will focus on direct study of original objects, with visits to Princeton’s collections of paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, books and maps.”

Venice

Rome

The border of Nolli’s plan consists of decorative elements interspersed with the symbols of the 14 Rioni (the districts of Rome). Here is the 8^th Rioni: Sant’Eustachio, named after the eponymous church located in Municipio I of the city. Its logo is the head of a stag with a cross between the antlers (although Nolli has changed that slightly here).

Rome

Preserving the Fall of Babylon

At something over seven feet long, this nineteenth-century circus poster is too big to fit in any of our flat files. Note how it falls over the side of our largest unit.

For years, this beautiful print had been folded and crushed into small drawers along with several hundred other circus posters and broadsides. Today, it came back from our conservation lab cleaned, flattened, and rehoused.

Thanks to Ted Stanley, Special Collections Paper Conservator in our Preservation Office, we are nearing the end of an almost year-long project to repair and restore the fragile posters and broadsides in our Barnum and Bailey Circus collection.

The artist of this work is not well known today. A resident of Ohio for his entire life, John Rettig (1855-1932) is known for his murals in the Cincinnati Masonic Temple, for the set decoration he painted in Ohio theaters, and for his poster designs. In 1886, Rettig was commissioned to paint the panoramic scenery for a spectacle entitled The Fall of Babylon, which would take the place of the annual procession of the Order of Cincinnatus.

With seating for 8,000, the spectacle was the largest of its kind in Ohio. Each year following, a different theme was added to the pageant, including the Fall of Rome, the Fall of the Aztec Empire, and many more. According to the Biographical Dictionary of Panoramists (http://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/uploads/uploads/biographical_dictionary_of_panoramists2.pdf)

The Fall of Babylon was sold and exhibited at St George Park on Staten Island, New York (today a parking lot) in 1887. For this Imre Kiralfy’s Grand Spectacular Company provided over 1,000 ballet dancers.” Kiralfy moved the performance to many other large American cities and eventually sold it to the joint firm of P.T. Barnum and J.A. Bailey.

As with other posters designed by Rettig, this one was chromolithographed and produced in large numbers. Since most were pasted to walls and billboards, few have survived. There is no date or location on the poster so that it could be used wherever the show was performed. Our collection holds over two dozen posters and streamers for The Fall of Babylon in its many variations.
John Rettig, The Fall of Babylon. Designed and painted by John Rettig (Cincinnati: Barnum and Bailey, ca. 1895). Chromolithograph. Graphic Arts Collection

Ahí Va El Golpe (There Goes the Punch)

Ahí Va El Golpe (Mexico, 1955-1956). 20 issues: numbers 5-9,11-21,23-26. Letterpress and lithographs. Graphic Arts Collection GAX in process

Under the direction of Alberto Beltrán Garcia (1923-2002), this Mexican satirical magazine flourished for only two years. Beltrán was an active member of the Taller de Gráfica Popular (The People’s Print Workshop or TGP, see: http://pudl.princeton.edu/collections/pudl0012) then later, worked as deputy director for graphics for the newspaper El Día. On his own time, he drew, printed, and self-published several journals including Ahí Va El Golpe (There Goes the Punch) and El Coyote Emplumado (The Feathered Coyote).

We are fortunate to have acquired 20 rare issues of the first, ephemeral publication from the 1950s. Each issue has only four to six pages, primarily caricatures. Fellow TGP member Leopoldo Méndez contributed several illustrations.

Princeton Students: A Chance of Free CAA Registration

Registration is in full swing for the 2017 Annual College Art Association (CAA) Conference in New York City, February 15-18, 2017. What can cost up to $500 for some is being offered gratis to a few lucky students with the CAA Student Scholarships.
http://www.collegeart.org/news/2016/11/21/complimentary-conference-registration-250-scholarship/

This, of course, includes entrance to the fabulous art book fair: http://conference.collegeart.org/book-and-trade-fair/fair-information/

“We are always listening to what our members want and seeking out the benefits to fit your needs. That is why we have partnered up our sponsors, multinational publisher, Routledge, Taylor & Francis, and art materials specialist, Blick Art Materials, to create a student scholarship fund to assist CAA Student Members with conference costs. CAA’s Annual Conference Partner Sponsor, Routledge, Taylor & Francis will award four (4) CAA Student Members with complimentary registration and an additional $250 in scholarship money to help with conference expenses such as travel, housing, or meals. Receipts will be required for reimbursement. CAA’s Annual Conference Presenter Sponsor, Blick Art Materials will also fund conference registration fees for four (4) CAA Student Members. No travel expenses are available.”

What does this mean for you? It means register today for the 2017 Annual Conference before the Early Registration deadline for a chance to be one of the lucky 8 CAA Student Members to receive one of these scholarships. Recipients will be randomly selected by CAA and announced in mid January.

Tell your students: https://services.collegeart.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?Site=CAA2016&WebKey=958b3482-f9d8-45c0-8994-c1698a07124a

Am I Not a Man and a Brother

For the 1,000th post on this weblog, we are pleased to share the acquisition of a medal bearing the abolitionist design of a kneeling slave in chains. On one side is the text: “Am I not a man and a brother,” and on the other side, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you. Do ye even so to them.”

Manufactured around 1790, probably in London, the medals were issued to promote the message of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. They replicate the Jasperware (unglazed porcelain) medallion produced shortly after the Society was formed in 1787 by Josiah Wedgwood’s Staffordshire pottery firm. The image, attributed to sculptor Henry Webber and prepared for production by modeler William Hackwood, quickly became the iconic symbol of the Society and appeared in books, prints, broadsides, plates, tapestries, and more.

Princeton University Art Museum holds one of the Wedgwood medallions.Slave, 1787. Porcelain. Manufactory: Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, English, established 1759. Trumbull Prime Collection, y1937-37

The library has many examples of this iconic symbol, including an embroidered sampler:
https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2014/02/27/anti-slavery-sampler/

See also: Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, At a meeting held for the purpose of taking the slave trade into consideration: resolved, that it is the opinion of this meeting, that the slave trade is both impolitic and unjust … ([London: s.n., 1787]). EX Lapidus 4.17 and 4.17a

A bill for your dinner in the 1780s

Princeton’s Graphic Arts Collection holds a lovely collection of colorful printed menus from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2016/06/01/decorative-menus/), along with a substantial collection of engraved change packets from nineteenth-century British shops (https://blogs.princeton.edu/graphicarts/2012/04/change_packets.html). Adding to this wealth, we recently acquired a group of 20 printed and handwritten bills from inns dating 1780 to 1830.

The businesses include: Foster, Loughborough [c.1780]; Charles McDonald, Blue-Bell, Belford [1787]; Charles McDonald, Belford [1789]; Mark Tool, Chelsea [c.1790]; Charles McDonald, Belford [1794]; George Nelson, Queen’s Head, Morpeth [1801]; Robert Coupland at the York Tavern & New Inn [1803]; David Winn, George Inn, York [1806]; Willm. Carver, The New Inn Easingwold [1809]; Richard Brown, King’s Arms, Temple-Sowerby, [printed by] John Ware, printer, Whitehaven [1813]; John Barnes, Lion and Lamb Inn, Carlile [printed by] Jollie, printer, Carlisle [c.1815]; Geo.r. Tyson, George & Dragon Inn, Penrith. [1815]; J. Broadbent, White Bear Inn, Barnsely. [c.1818]; George and Dragon, Sykes, Wakefield [c.1820]; H.C. Sharpin, Ripon [1822]; S. Twaite’s, Swan Inn Ferry-Bridge [1824]; Salkeld’s, Green Dragon, Workington. [1824]; Harrison, King’s Head Inn Barnard Castle. [1824]; T. Ferguson, George Inn, Catterick-Bridge [c.1825]; Matthew Bell, Fish Inn, Penrith. [1830].

Not only are the letterhead engravings of interest as printed ephemera but these records of food, drink, and other services offered to travelers at the end of the Georgian era are of value to researchers in many disciplines.

It is curious that the bills are often pre-printed with a list of drinks and services. The waiter simply checked off what each patron ordered and added up the total. Note the food for the horses and servants is included on each bill along with tobacco and postage.

A variety of long-forgotten drinks such as “negus” (concocted from a mixture of port, hot water and spices) and bumbo (a mixture of rum, water, sugar and nutmeg) are listed on these bills. The food is rarely described more than simply “eating.”

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