Illustrated Police News

The Illustrated Police News, Law Courts and Weekly Record was founded in 1864. “Published in London by John Ransom and George Purkess and printed by Purkess and Richard Beard, the Illustrated Police News claimed to give attention to subjects of more than ordinary interest ranging from gory murders to courtroom dramas. The sensational weekly priced at 1d . . . Its circulation grew over its first 20 years of publication from 100,000 to 300,000.” –Laurel Brake and Marysa Demoor, Dictionary of Nineteenth-century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland (2009)

A pictorial front page of the January 14, 1882, issue was recently acquired by the Graphic Arts Collection, without the three text pages that followed. The top-most cells depict George Lamson, who was found guilty of murder, a sensational case covered by the paper almost daily from December 1881 through his hanging the following April.

George Henry Lamson (1850-1882) had become a morphine addict and needed money. On December 3, 1881, he poisoned his crippled brother-in-law using aconite or wolf’s bane, in the hope of receiving his inheritance. The transcript of Lamson’s trial is recorded in the Old Bailey Online database at:
https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=def1-367-18820227&div=t18820227-367#highlight

Lamson insisted on his innocence and turned himself in to officials. “However, with the consciousness that I am an innocent and unjustly accused man, I am returning at once to London to face the matter out. If they wish to arrest me they will have ample opportunity of doing so. I shall attempt no concealment. I shall arrive at Waterloo Station about 9.15 tomorrow (Thursday) morning. Do try and meet me there. If I do not see you there I shall go straight to your house, trusting to the possibility of finding Kitty there.—In great haste, yours truly, GEO. H. LAMSON.—W. G. Chapman, Esq.”

Other events are also highlighted in this issue.

See also Giles St. Aubyn, Infamous Victorians: Palmer and Lamson, two notorious poisoners (London: Constable, 1971). RECAP HV6555.G7S35

Lot and His Daughters

Lot and His Daughters. Engraved by Jan Harmensz Muller (1571–1628), published by Harmen Jansz. Muller (ca. 1540-1617), ca. 1600. Engraving. II/IV. Inscribed below image: Dùm flammâ patriam cernunt cecidisse voraci, / Extinctumque putant omne virile genus: / Largius en solito siffundunt pocla parenti / Lothiades, fallant quo simul arte senem. / Ô laudanda magis quàm condemnada voluptas, / Quae petit amplexus, prolis amore, pios! Graphic Arts Collection.

For this engraving, Muller took as his subject Genesis 19:30-38, which reads in one translation:

Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.” That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab[a]; he is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi[b]; he is the father of the Ammonites[c] of today.

The Graphic Arts Collection has the second of four states, printed and published with his father Harmen Jansz. Muller (ca. 1540-1617). We know this because of the description of Muller’s four states at catalogue number 64 in J. P. Filedt Kok, The Muller Dynasty, compiled by Jan Piet Filedt Kok; edited by Ger Luijten, Christiaan Schuckman; introduction by Harriet Stroomberg; [appendix by Erik Hinterding] (Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Interactive in co-operation with the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, 1999- ). Marquand Library (SA) NE667 .F544 1999

A painted version of this scene also exists in a private collection. There is no indication which came first, the engraving or the oil.

Japan Paper Company, New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston

John Bidwell wrote, “Hand-papermaking is now more of an art than a trade, more of a creative opportunity than a commercial proposition.”

In the early 20th century, paper manufacturers in the United States started making sample booklets to promote hand-made and specialty papers. Each of the small volumes included a variety of materials: bound swatches, sizes, weights, colors, and prices of the papers for sale. Unlike written descriptions, this promotional material demonstrated the tactile qualities and aesthetic beauty of the merchandise to the finite market of luxury, limited-edition publishers.

The Japan Paper Company was one of the leading importers of hand-made papers for fine press editions. When Harrison G. Elliott (1879-1954) became the company’s manager, he greatly expanded the firm’s scope, distributing papers from fifteen European and Asian countries.

Elliott was a good friend and associate of Elmer Adler, while Adler was the director of the Pynson Printers. When he gave up that business and came to Princeton, Adler brought with him his collection of paper sample books. Today, the Graphic Arts Collection has identified and catalogued over six dozen booklets, including a large group from the Japan Paper Company.

Recently, a small collection of full-size sheets were also uncovered, which had been sent to Adler by Elliott in 1938.

1. Oriental Papers. New York City: Japan Paper Company, [19–]. (GAX) 2014-0431N
2. Japanese Tissue Papers Carried in Stock by Japan Paper Company. New York: Japan Paper Company, 1916. (GAX) 2013-0263N
3. Hand Made Papers. New York: The Company, [1917?]. (GAX) Oversize 2010-0002F
4. Privately Printed Books and Their Personal Value as Christmas Gifts. New York: Japan Paper Company, 1921. (GAX) 2004-3723N
5. [A collection of paper sample books from the Japan Paper Company]. [New York: Japan Paper Company, 1924-1939] (GAX) TS1220 .J361
6. Dutch Charcoal Papers. New York City: Japan Paper Company, 1929. RCPXG-7207242
7. Renka Announcements: deckle edge sheets and envelopes imported and carried in stock by Japan Paper Company. [New York, N.Y.: Japan Paper Company, 193-?] (GAX) Oversize 2010-0008Q
8. Handmade Paper: its Method of Manufacture. New York: Japan Paper Company, 1932. RCPXG-5893687
9. Aurelius Hand Made: Handmade Deckle Edge Announcements from Italy … by Japan Paper Company. [New York, N.Y.: Japan Paper Company, 1935?] (GAX) Oversize 2010-0141Q
10. Arnold Hand-Made Deckle Edge Cards & Envelopes: from England … by Japan Paper Company. [New York, N.Y.: Japan Paper Company, 1938?] (GAX) Oversize 2010-0019Q
11. Samples of Letterhead Papers with Envelopes to Match from Japan Paper Company. New York, N.Y.: Japan Paper Company, [1938?] (GAX) Oversize 2010-0017Q
12. Oriental Papers. New York City: Japan Paper Company, [1939?] RECAP-91156800
13. Samples: Bethany, Virgil, Ragston. New York, N.Y.: Japan Paper Company, 1939. (GAX) Oversize 2010-0020Q

For examples of English hand-made papers see: John Bidwell, Fine papers at the Oxford University Press (Risbury, Herefordshire: Whittington Press, 1999). “This edition of 300 copies is set in 14-point Centaur (from matrices belonging originally to Oxford University Press) printed at Whittington on Zerkall mould-made paper, & half-bound with Fabriano Roma paper.” GAX copy is no. LI. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) HD8039.P33 B5 1999f

Attention Students: Submit Your Essay to Win the 2016-2017 Elmer Adler Undergraduate Book Collecting Prize

Are you an avid collector of books, manuscripts, or other materials found in libraries? If so, consider submitting an essay about your collection for a chance to win the Elmer Adler Undergraduate Book Collecting Prize!

Image: (c) Jane and Louise Wilson, Oddments Room II (Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle), 2008. C-print, Edition of 4. Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York

Endowed from the estate of Elmer Adler, who for many years encouraged the collecting of books by Princeton undergraduates, this prize is awarded annually to an undergraduate student, or students, who, in the opinion of a committee of judges, have shown the most thought and ingenuity in assembling a thematically coherent collection of books, manuscripts, or other material normally collected by libraries. Please note that the rarity or monetary value of the student’s collection is not as important as the creativity and persistence shown in collecting and the fidelity of the collection to the goals described in a personal essay.

The personal essay is about a collection owned by the student. It should describe the thematic or artifactual nature of the collection and discuss with some specificity the unifying characteristics that have prompted the student to think of certain items as a collection. It should also convey a strong sense of the student’s motivations for collecting and what their particular collection means to them personally. The history of the collection, including collecting goals, acquisition methods, and milestones are of particular interest, as is a critical look at how the goals may have evolved over time and an outlook on the future development of the collection. Essays are judged in equal measures on the strength of the collection and the strength of the writing.

Winners will receive their prizes at the annual winter dinner of the Friends of the Princeton University Library, which they are expected to attend. The first-prize essay has the honor of representing Princeton University in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest organized by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America. Please note that per the ABAA’s contest rules, the winning essay will be entered exactly as submitted to the Adler Prize contest, without possibility of revision. In addition, the first-prize winner will have the opportunity to have his or her essay featured in a Library-affiliated publication.

Prize amounts:
First prize: $2000
Second prize: $1500
Third prize: $1000

The deadline for submission is Tuesday, November 29, 2016. Essays should be submitted via e-mail, in a Microsoft Word attachment, to Faith Charlton: faithc@princeton.edu. They should be between 9-10 pages long, 12pt, double-spaced, with a 1-inch margin, and include a separate cover sheet with your name, class year, residential address, email address, and phone number. In addition to the essay, each entry should include a selected bibliography of no more than 3 pages detailing the items in the collection. Please note that essays submitted in file formats other than Microsoft Word, submitted without cover sheet, or submitted without a bibliography will not be forwarded to the judges. For inquiries, please contact Faith Charlton, faithc@princeton.edu.

Recent Adler Prize Winning Essays:

Samantha Flitter, ’16. “The Sand and the Sea: An Age of Sail in Rural New Mexico.”
Recipient of the 2016 National Collegiate Book Collection Contest Essay Award.

Anna Leader ’18. “‘Like a Thunderstorm’; A Shelved Story of Love and Literature” Princeton University Library Chronicle 76:3 (spring)

Rory Fitzpatrick ‘16. “The Search for the Shape of the Universe, One Book at a Time.” PULC 75:3 (spring)

Natasha Japanwala ’14. “Conversation Among the Ruins: Collecting Books By and About Sylvia Plath.” PULC 74:2 (winter)

Mary Thierry ’12. “Mirror, Mirror: American Daguerrean Portraits.” PULC 73:3 (spring)

“Les minutes de sable mémorial”

Alfred Jarry (1873-1907), Les minutes de sable mémorial ([Paris]: Editio[n] du Mercure de Fra[n]ce, C. Renaudie, 1894). One of 216 copies printed. Seven woodcuts carved and printed by Jarry, two printed from earlier woodblocks. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2016- in process.

Alfred Jarry published his first book of prints and poems, Les minutes de sable mémorial in September 1894 at the age of twenty-one. He paid the cost himself working with the printers at Mercure de France where many Symbolists were publishing.

The design of the volume, repeated the following year in his second book César antichrist, includes astonishingly modern typography, which predates that of Un Coup de Dés Jamais N’Abolira Le Hasard (A Throw of the Dice will Never Abolish Chance) by Stéphane Mallarmé in 1897. Jarry’s book should be considered an early artists’ book although it never appears in such studies

According to Keith Beaumont, “…the prestigious and highly influential Echo de Paris had held a monthly literary competition which offered to aspiring young writers the prospect of four valuable and much coveted prizes of 100 francs each … and a guarantee of publication in the paper’s weekly illustrated literary supplement. Between February and August 1893, Jarry was to win outright or to share five such prizes, with poems or prose texts, which would be republished the following year in his first book, Les Minutes de sable mémorial.” (Keith Beaumont, Alfred Jarry. St. Martin’s Press, 1984)

Jarry liked multiple meanings for a single text, exemplified in his title: Les minutes de sable mémorial. Beaumont notes, “Sable refers both to the sand of the sablier or hourglass, which marks the passage of time, and which recurs in the title of the last poem in the volume, and to the term for the colour black in heraldry; and memorial has the meaning of both ‘in memory of’ and ‘of the memory’. The title as a whole therefore refers simultaneously to the passage of time whose ‘minutes’ are here recorded; to the movement of memory; and to the committal to paper of a series of moments of creative activity (‘sable’ referring to the ink-blackened pages) which memory has inspired or, alternatively and simultaneously, which are reproduced here as a ‘memorial’.”

In November 1894, Jarry cut his long hair and enlisted in the 101st Infantry Regiment in Laval.

See also Alfred Jarry (1873-1907), Cesar antechrjst ([Paris]: Mercure de France, 1895). One of 7 large-paper copies on vergé Ingres de carnation. Rare Books (Ex) 3260.33.323 1895 [below]

NYCC. Rule 5: Naked is not a costume.

Nearly 200,000 visitors attended New York Comic Con (NYCC) at the Jacob Javits Convention Center this week. The final numbers are not in but that’s roughly double the number of attendees of last year’s Super Bowl. All tickets for all week sold out last summer.

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471 artists participated in NYCC’s annex known as Artist Alley. A separate annex offered opportunities for Photo Ops with celebrities, but the entire schedule was sold out.

A masked trio played at the Adult Swim booth, while crossword puzzles were completed on a public monitor. Visitors crawled in through a tunnel under the desk.

Writer Ben Kahn signed a copy of Heavenly Blues, drawn by Bruno Hidalgo and lettered by Kathleen Kralowec. The book’s full title: “Heavenly Blues from the Pits of Perdition! Isaiah ‘Tommy Gun’ Jefferson & ‘Wicked’ Erin Foley.” The final page promises, “Next time, soulful sounds from the band of thieves.”

Before you can attend NYCC, each visitor is given a list of rules they must follow. Rule 5 is “Naked is not a costume. Please wear appropriate (or at least enough) clothing while attending NYCC.”

There were, of course, plenty of cosplay outfits:

Samples went quickly and the entire run of Kill Shakespeare (the book) was gone before we could buy one.

The French Comics Framed festival offered an exhibition at The Cooper Union, rotating artists in the Artists Annex, and here, Nicolas Otero talked to the public. His graphic biography Le Roman de Boddah is being released in the United States as Who Killed Kurt Cobain? this month.

Nearby, the National Cartoonist Society booth was filled with different artists each day.

Welcome VIS 214 Graphic Design

Ken Ohara (born 1942), ONE (Tokyo: Tsukiji Shokan, 1970). 456 photographs, no text. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2006-0807Q
On Friday, we welcomed a new class of graphic design students into Rare Books and Special Collections. The group began with some classic artists’ books from the 1960s and 1970s that use a visual sequence as narrative rather than text. Each student will make one of their own. Then we mixed in a few modern and contemporary accordion books.

In the middle right: Enrique Chagoya, Illegal Alien’s Meditations on el Ser y la Nada (Lyons, Colo.: Shark’s Ink, 2012). An eleven-color lithograph with chine collé and gold metallic powder, printed by hand from 10 aluminum plates. The lithographic plates were made from Mylars created by the artist that combine Xerox transfers with hand drawing, using pencils, toner and ink washes. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2013-0031Q

Middle left: Warja Honegger-Lavater, Imageries (Paris: A. Maeght, 1965-1982). 6 volumes. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2012-0814N

Bottom: Bruce Nauman (born 1941), Burning Small Fires ([s.l. : s.n., 1967?]). GAX copy: Signed by the artist on p. [2] of cover. Burning Small Fires documents the burning of pages torn from a copy of Ed Ruscha’s Various Small Fires. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2006-0548Q

Kenneth Josephson (born 1932), The Bread Book ( [Chicago?]: K. Josephson, 1973). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2006-0142N

Sometimes the visual sequence not only omits text, but also pictures. Here’s a sequence of negative spaces to present the artist’s house. Ólafur Elíasson (born 1967), Your House (New York: Library Council of the Museum of Modern Art, 2006). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2007-0032E.

The class moved into type design and philosophy, type specimens, and history. They will soon set their own metal type and produce a printed sheet. We wish them luck.

[Sign painter’s pattern book] ([Paris: 1880-1890]). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2010-0028E

Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948), Thesen über Typographie ([Zürich]: [E. Schwitters], [196-?]). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) in process

William Caslon and Son. A specimen of printing types, by W. Caslon and Son, letter founders, in London (London: Printed by Dryden Leach, 1764). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2007-0699N

Merrymount Press. [Specimens of type] ([Boston: Merrymount Press, 194-?]). Princeton copy presented to P. J. Conkwright by the Friends of Princeton University Library. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2004-0799Q

Les sept péchés mortels

Everett Hamilton, Les sept péchés mortels. Observes et graves sur bois dans la ville de Cagnes (Paris: Gilbert Rougeaux, 1936). Copy 34 of 100. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2016- in process.

Rare Books and Special Collections has many different versions of Sept péchés capitaux or Seven Deadly Sins or Siete pecados capitals or Sieben tödliche Sünden. This is a new addition to the group.

Almost nothing has been recorded about the life of the American artist Everett Hamilton. As a young man, Hamilton left the United States in 1923 to live and study painting in Paris. Six years later, he returned and received his first one-man show of watercolors and linocuts at Montross Galleries on Fifth Avenue.

“The subject matter his pictures are reminiscent of the work of all the other painters who frequent the popular painting resorts of France. There the similarity ends, in that the artist has remained curiously free from popular trends of style and points of view. A direct transcription of visual reality and an emphasis on structure which, when the human figure is introduced, becomes definitely plastic, [and] gives his work its distinctive style.” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 15, 1929

By 1932, Hamilton was included in an American watercolors exhibition assembled by the College Art Association and held at the Worcester Art Museum, in Worcester, Massachusetts. His three paintings hung side-by-side with the work of Milton Avery, Charles Burchfield, Stuart Davis, and Wanda Gag, among others.

This was Hamilton’s last American show and it seems likely that the artist moved back to the South of France, where he observed and engraved The Seven Mortal Sins in the town of Cagnes.

Egyptian Cigarette Box

This tin canister for Dimitrino’s Egyptian Cigarettes might have been collected by the Graphic Arts Collection for the decorative printed label.

“Around the mid-19th century, the cigarette, the latest fashion in tobacco consumption, gained popularity in Egypt, as it did globally and throughout the Ottoman Empire. Some fifty years later, the cigarette had become the predominant smoking preference in Egypt, and luxury Egyptian cigarettes were being exported around the world. Indeed, Egyptian and Turkish brands played a significant role in introducing cigarettes to different parts of the globe and thus in shaping world cigarette production.”– Relli Shechter, “Selling Luxury: The Rise of the Egyptian Cigarette and the Transformation of the Egyptian Tobacco Market, 1850-1914,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 35, no. 1 (February 2003): 51-75.

Shechter goes on to say, “The five leading Greek cigarette manufacturers were Gianaclis, who arrived in Egypt in 1864; Vafiadis, who established his business in 1870; Melachrino, who arrived in Egypt in 1873; Kiriazi, whose business was already running in 1874; and Dimitrino, who opened his business in 1886.”

However, when we finally figured out how to open the can, we found it was in the Graphic Arts Collection as the housing for type elements with Assyrian figures. See below:

James Nicholson, amateur photographer

Our thanks to photography historians Jenny and Ken Jacobson, whose recent publication Carrying off the Palaces: John Ruskin’s Lost Daguerreotypes (SA TR 365 .J34 2015Q) identifies another artist represented in the Richard Willats album at Princeton University (Permanent Link: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/k930bx11x)

On leaves 35, 49, and 51 of the album are calotypes labeled ‘Mr. Nicholson.’ Not only have the Jacobsons identified him as James Nicholson (ca. 1815-1894), “an amateur photographer and lead and glass merchant in the city of London,” but they also made the discovery that it was Nicholson who instructed John Ruskin (1819-1900) in the calotype process. Get a copy of the book to read the whole, fascinating story.

Nicholson’s calotype above is cropped and photoshopped as it might have looked originally. Inscribed: Taken by Mr. Nicholson, of Queens Street, Cheapside London. Turner’s Chafford Paper Mill.

The subject is the Chafford paper mill, where a special paper was made for the early photographers. A letter to the editor in The Photographic Journal instructs, “You may obtain Turner’s paper, specially made for photography, of Sanford and others, who deal in photographic papers. It is generally marked in the margin with the water-mark ‘R. Turner, Patent Talbotvpe,’ at other times, ‘R. Turner, Chafford Mills.’”—March 16, 1861, p.146.

In her history of the mill, Sarah Tanner notes, “At the time of the census in 1861 Richard Turner was still proprietor of the mill employing 34 men, 11 boys, 30 women, and 8 girls, and in 1864 is listed producing writing, drawing and bank papers, hand and machine made, copying papers tissues etc.” –Sarah Tanner, “The Turner Family and Chafford Mill No 389, Fordcombe, Penshurst, Tunbridge Wells, Kent”

Inscribed: Winchester West Window from the interior by Mr. Nicholson, London, an early interior on Paper if not the first.

Inscribed: Goring Church Nr Reading. Mr. Nicholson, paper.

This photograph shows St. Thomas of Canterbury, Goring-on-Thames. The church is adjacent to the old Mill in Goring and it is possible Nicholson was inspired by “Goring Mill and Church,” ca. 1806-07, an oil painting by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) now in the collection of Tate Britain.

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