Tokens for Booksellers and Bookmakers

In 1989, Henry Morris, director of Bird & Bull Press, produced and published the book Trade Tokens of British and American Booksellers & Bookmakers. The book was accompanied by a heavy die-cut board folder containing eleven different copper tokens minted by individual booksellers & bookmakers especially for this book. The Graphic Arts Collection and Numismatics Collection have jointly acquired the dies and proofs used in the production of the these bookseller tokens.

Morris’s original dies, medals, and proofs are housed in a mahogany box with a token inset on the top cover, along with a metal plate inscribed “Original Dies for Bookseller’s Tokens, Bird & Bull Press.”

The participants whose tokens are included here are: Bird & Bull Press, The Book Press, Dawson’s Book Shop, Detering Book Gallery, Enterprise Books, Joseph J. Felcone, Kater-Crafts Bookbinders, George Frederick Kolbe/Fine Numismatic Books, G.T. Mandl (English papermakers), Iris Nevins (marbler), and Oak Knoll Books.

The tokens (with nine duplicates), along with a rough flan, were made under the supervision of Meyer Katz at the Unity Mint in Ambler, PA, from dies engraved by Kenneth Douglas at the Green Duck Co., in Olive Branch, MS. The set of 11 tool-steel dies (22 pieces), now coated with a protective lacquer, cost Morris $9800 in 1988, which he considered a bargain.

Lead proofs

Morris wrote a three-page letter and asked that it be kept with the collection. It is transcribed below.

Everything one might want to know about the dies for Bookseller’s Tokens, 1988.

This was a great project, and in addition to all the pleasure and challenges I had from producing it, I have these unique artifacts—the dies themselves. The first set of dies was made by the Green Duck Co (where did they get such an odd name?) in Miss[issippi]. This was my B&B [Bird & Bull] Token. When I got the idea to do the [Booksellers] Token book I went to Kenneth Douglas in Olive Branch, Miss., who was Green Duck’s die maker. His work was excellent and his price was much less than I would have had to pay locally. The 11 dies (set) here cost $9800, which I know was a bargain. The Green Duck dies have no [shoulder?] as their coining press was different than the Unity Mint in Ambler, who struck all the tokens for the book.

In 1991, I realized what a great B&B artifact this was and in order to keep them all together and protected I made the special box. The dies are made of tool steel and if not protected well easily rust. I gave them 2 coats of clear lacquer which should keep them safe for a long time. If there are signs the lacquer is degrading, remove the old coat with lacquer solvent (thinner) and re-coat.

Way back in 1956 when I started making paper, I bought some Honduras Mahogany to make molds. I still had some of this wood and used it to make the box. (Yes, I know the apostrophe on the label is in the wrong place—the book label is [liberize?]—my fault). Also enclosed here are the original lead proofs which the die maker submitted prior to striking (like a printer’s proof—but in metal).

The box also seemed like a good place to keep the original molds for silver reproductions of Dutch Guild Medals, in my Rarities of Numismata Typographica, 1996. I have written the note to be kept in the box so that someone at some future time knows the main details of the contents, also to know that the contents as described, are complete. H.M. [Henry Morris]

Henry Morris, Trade Tokens of British And American Booksellers & Bookmakers, With Specimens of Eleven Original Tokens Struck Especially For This Book (Newtown, PA: Bird & Bull Press, 1989). One of 300. Accompanied by a heavy die-cut board folder containing 11 different copper tokens minted by individual booksellers & bookmakers especially for this book, all enclosed in a slipcase. Graphic Arts Collection Z234.M67 1989.

William Blades, Rarities of Numismata typographica: four examples of early Dutch printers’, bookbinders’ & booksellers’ guild medals: cast in sterling silver from original specimens. Descriptions by William Blades; introduction by Henry Morris (Newtown [Penn.]: Bird & Bull Press, 1996). Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Z234 .B632 1995

In Honor of the Printer

Jehne no. 323: Paris, Freedom of the Press, 1827.

Princeton’s Numismatics Collection and the Graphic Arts Collection have jointly acquired a collection of 457 medals and tokens issued by printers, booksellers, and others in the book arts. A spread sheet with basic information on each one can be accessed here: Copy of MorrisMedals (1).
Blades 22: Harlem, 1740. “The wood near Haarlem, with Coster in the scholar’s dress of his time, seated on the stump of a tree; his name being written on the hem of his tunic . . . on the border is N.H. (Martin Holtzhey), the initials of the engraver.”

“This, the most ambitious of the Dutch Medals, was struck in commemoration of the 1740 Jubilee at Haarlem, by Michael Holtzhey, Medallist to the king.”
Verso: Aux amis de la Maison du Livre 1900. Ch. Meunier [publisher/binder Charles Meunier]

The collection is the life-work of Henry Morris of the Bird & Bull Press, who designed and printed books relating to the book arts (with additions by Robert Fleck). Morris spent many years tracking and acquiring this archive of medals and tokens, which led to a number of publication from his press, including:

Henry Morris, Trade tokens of British and American booksellers & bookmakers: with specimens of eleven original tokens struck especially for this book. Compiled and edited by Henry Morris (Newtown, Pa.: Bird & Bull Press, 1989). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Z234 .M677 1989

Elizabeth M. Harris, The art of medal engraving: a curious chapter in the development of 19th century printing processes (Newtown, Pa.: Bird & Bull Press, 1991). Graphic Arts Collection (GA) NE2720 .H37

William Blades (1824-1890). Rarities of Numismata typographica: four examples of early Dutch printers’, bookbinders’ & booksellers’ guild medals : cast in sterling silver from original specimens. Descriptions by William Blades ; introduction by Henry Morris (Newtown [Penn.] : Bird & Bull Press, 1996.) Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Z234 .B632 1995

and many other titles.

Here are a few examples of the medals. More about the tokens that Morris had produced in a later post.

William Stillman’s Athens in carbon prints

William James Stillman (1828-1901). The Acropolis of Athens. Illustrated Picturesquely and Architecturally in Photography. London: Printed by the Autotype Company for F.S. Ellis. 1870. Graphic Arts Collection 2015- in process. Purchased with funds given by the Program in Hellenic Studies with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund and matching funds provided by a gift of The Orpheus Trust to the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, in honor of the 35th anniversary of Hellenic Studies at Princeton. Additional funds provided by the Friends of the Princeton University Library and the Graphic Arts Collection.

In 2007, the Princeton University Library acquired (thanks to the help of the Friends of the Princeton University Library) a portfolio of photographs by the American painter, journalist, photographer, and US Consul in Crete William James Stillman (1828-1901). In an article for the Princeton University Library Chronicle, Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, Jane A. Seney Professor of Greek at Wesleyan University, proved that our portfolio was an early model for Stillman’s projected book, The Acropolis of Athens, mocked-up in (relatively) quick albumen silver prints. The following year the book was published using carbon prints, both more expensive and time-consuming but also a permanent printing process.

At the time of this purchase, we hoped there would be a day when Princeton could also acquire Stillman’s 1870 published book, offering scholars the opportunity to compare the early composition and design side-by-side with the finished volume. That day has finally arrived.

Thanks to two generous gifts we have been able to acquire Stillman’s The Acropolis of Athens, published with original carbon prints. The first gift is from the Program in Hellenic Studies with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund and matching funds provided by a gift of The Orpheus Trust to the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, in honor of the 35th anniversary of Hellenic Studies at Princeton.

The second gift came when the Friends of the Princeton University Library heard about the generosity of Hellenic Studies and The Orpheus Trust, inspiring them to join in the fun and also donated funds to make this acquisition possible. Our sincere thanks to these admirable organizations and congratulations to the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies on their anniversary.

Princeton’s new volume contains 53 unnumbered leaves. The printed title page has a mounted carbon print photograph vignette (Ancient Gate of the Acropolis), followed by a leaf with Stillman’s dedication to Miss Marie Spartall (1844-1927, soon to be his second wife), a leaf with Stillman’s “Notice,” and 25 carbon print photographs with accompanying descriptions. Many plates are numbered in the negative, several with Stillman’s signature and caption and date.

As Szegedy-Maszak has suggested, Stillman’s sequence subtly reveals a profound ideological program, in which the Acropolis is ultimately portrayed allegorically as an emblem of liberty. It is an agenda that ties convincingly with Stillman’s lifelong political idealism.

“His [Stillman’s] work is nominally in a straight-forward nineteenth-century topographical mode, fulfilling the brief of documenting the Parthenon and Erectheum, but it also functions as a conscious vehicle for the photographer’s artistic ambitions . . . Photographing the Acropolis was clearly a highly personal project, and it shows in the work. He needed to make money from the endeavor, but he also believed—quite rightly—that he could make better photographs of the monument than anyone else.” (Parr & Badger).

Dimitri Gondicas writes, “This very special acquisition adds to our Hellenic Collections at Princeton, complementing perfectly our unique holdings of early photography in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. These visual documents are frequently consulted by Princeton students in our classes. Through our Seeger fellowships, we make accessible these research collections to visiting scholars from around the world. On this happy occasion, we wish to thank the Trustees of the Orpheus Trust, in particular, Mr. Christopher Cone, President of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund, and Mr. Hubert Ashton.” –Dimitri Gondicas, H. Stanley J. Seeger Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Classics. Lecturer in Classics.

“[Stillman] embarked on a career as a diplomat, being posted as consul to Crete in 1865. Due to his support of a Cretan revolt against Ottoman rule, he had to flee in 1868 to Athens with his wife and children. Although his family was battered by a series of tragedies, Stillman undertook to photograph the monuments on the Acropolis. A selection of twenty-five photographs was published in London in 1870 as The Acropolis of Athens Illustrated Picturesquely and Architecturally in Photography.”–Szegedy-Maszak

The photographs themselves are at once documents of a civilization past and sublime elegies in light and shadow. They begin with distant views showing the imposing nature of the Acropolis within its city surroundings, and move closer with dramatic and picturesque studies of individual structures and sculptural details. The images include several figures, one of whom is thought to be Stillman himself.

See Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, “Athens. Photographed by W.J. Stillman,” Princeton University Library Chronicle, 70, no.3 (spring 2009): 399-432.

Celebrating the 35th Anniversary of Hellenic Studies

Alessandro dalla Via (active 1688-1729), General View of Mount Athos, printed ca. 1707. Etching and engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2015- in process. Gift of the Program in Hellenic Studies with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund and matching funds provided by a gift of The Orpheus Trust to the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, in honor of the 35th anniversary of Hellenic Studies at Princeton.

This extraordinary new engraving is the gift of the Program in Hellenic Studies with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund and matching funds provided by a gift of The Orpheus Trust to the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, in honor of the 35th anniversary of Hellenic Studies at Princeton. It is first independently issued representation of Mount Athos by the engraver Alessandro dalla Via (active 1688-1729), printed ca. 1707. The monumental view was created on four sheets joined together to form a single print 77.3 x 111.5 cm.

“This wonderful acquisition strengthens our Hellenic Collections at Princeton,” writes Dimitri Gondicas, Director of the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, “especially our excellent holdings in the Byzantine and early modern Greek fields, and complements our recently acquired collection of paper icons of Mt. Sinai in Graphic Arts. Through our Seeger fellowships, we are pleased to make accessible these research collections to students and scholars from around the world. We wish to thank the Trustees of the Orpheus Trust, in particular, Mr. Christopher Cone, President of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund, and Mr. Hubert Ashton.”

Only three other copies have been found in contemporary collections: two in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (one hand-colored) and one in the Museum of Prince Czartoryski, Krakow. Another version also exists dated 1707 but without engraver’s name (67 x 105 cm.). It is known in a unique copy preserved at the University of Uppsala, Sweden.

At the bottom of the sheet is a broad band divided into six columns with a description of the Holy Mountain, written in metric verse in Greek, Latin, and Russian. The text exhorts the faithful to visit Athos. At the bottom of the fourth column there is the inscription: “Sumptibus Rever(endissi)mi abbatis Domini Abbacum Adriani, et Revere(n)di Sacerdotis, et monachi Pauli Clementis ” (also in Greek at the bottom of the fifth column).

The composition is described by Dory Papastratos:

“The two aspects of Mount Athos are shown together in this view: the western face on the left, the eastern on the right; the peak, depicted twice to illustrate both flanks, appears in the center. A torrent cascades from close to the western summit, sweeping stones and boulders before it in its almost vertical course to the sea. Set among the hills on the mountainsides and atop the cliffs along the seashore, and surrounded by their lands and gardens and plantations, are the fortress-like buildings of the twenty monasteries with their defensive towers and domed churches: the Protaton, the sketes of Saint Anne and the Virgin, Prophitis Elias (skete), Mylopotamos, and the tower of Morphonou (that replaced the old monastery of Amalfitans after its destruction); at the sea’s edge are the tower-shaped arsenals or warehouses of the monasteries, their cannon firing out to sea.”

“The names of the various buildings are written in Greek and Latin on small oval tablets above them. Diminutive figures of monks move about the landscape, some on foot, others mounted on beasts of burden. A procession wends its way from Iviron monastery towards the shore where it will receive the icon of the Portaïtissa held by the monk Gabriel standing erect on the waves. Monks can be seen also on the courtyard of the Protaton. Six tall crosses project above the cypress trees lining the ridge of the mountain range.”

“Scattered about the sea in the foreground are galleys and oared ships, large fishing vessels with monks aboard, and two huge sea-monsters. With crosses at their mastheads and on their sails, the Christian vessels display Venetian or French coats of arms on their sterns, while the crescent distinguishes the Turkish vessels. The two religious scenes in the sky represent, left, the Deisis with Christ enthroned and flanked by the full-length figures of the Virgin and the Forerunner and, right, the Virgin half-length, her arms outstretched in benediction.”

Chromolithographed Prayer

Our Father Which Art in Heaven. Chromolithograph. New York: A.E. Pratt & Company, 1880. Graphic Arts Collection. Ephemera.

Trollope in Bronze

Gertrude Fass, Statuette of Anthony Trollope (1815-1882), no date [1900s]. Cast bronze on black micarta base. Cast in the workshop of Domenico Ranieri (Long Island City). Copy no. 4 of 250. Princeton University Library museum object collection.

As noted in a recent New Yorker, this is the bicentenary of Anthony Trollope’s birth. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/04/trollope-trending

The Princeton University Library owns 554 books by, about, or owned by Trollope, not to mention numerous portrait drawings, paintings, and sculptures. This one moved downstairs recently and so, we took a quick photograph.

My Dear this Heart which you behold… A Puzzle

After reading about Jana Dambrogio, the Thomas F. Peterson conservator at M.I.T. Libraries, who is analyzing how letter writers have sealed their letters until they reached the intended recipients, I was reminded of a valentine in the Graphic Arts collection. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/18/arts/design/a-trove-of-letterlocking-or-vintage-strategies-to-deter-snoops.html

Dambrogio has a great website for letterlocking, but I was not able to find and solve the secret of our valentine. http://www.janadambrogio.com/timeline

If you have time, please print out this double-sided 18th-century valentine and solve the puzzle. The heart is complete at the beginning and then, each section of the poem should be read in full as you unfold. Please send me your solution. Thank you.
recto

verso

Unidentified author, [Valentine puzzle], no date [1700s]. Pen on paper. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2010.01172. Folded paper “pocket purse” puzzle with love-letter inscribed in part on each fold.

American Printing History Association

The 40th annual American Printing History Association conference in Rochester, New York, will re-examine the history and practice of operating some of our earliest printing machines — flat-bed handpresses in predominant use from the 15th to 19th centuries. https://printinghistory.org/2015-conference/

Workshops, tours, lectures, papers and panels, and excursions in the Upstate York region will inform us of the creative ways these models are still employed by printers, artists, scholars, and educators. This conference will also investigate how these presses contribute to 21st-century teaching, historical studies, and fine printing.

A number of pre-conference tours and workshops on the Rochester Institute of Technology campus and at various sites in Rochester and Upstate New York are available on Thursday, October 22. On-site conference registration will be from 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m. at the RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection.

Program: https://printinghistory.org/2015-conference/#program

Bodies of Knowledge

In preparation for ART 321 / HUM 321 Bodies of Knowledge: Art and Anatomy in Renaissance Italy, with Susanna C. Berger, we pulled a few prints beyond the Renaissance focus. These two four-color mezzotints are by Arnaud-Eloi Gautier-D’Agoty (1741-1780 or 1783), the second son of the celebrated Jacques-Fabien Gautier-D’Agoty (1717-1786), who held the royal privilege for color printing in France.

The Gautier-Dagoty family (including all five sons) printed and published a number of scientific and anatomical studies both together and individually. Arnault-Eloi is credited with the color plates for Nicolas Jadelot’s Cours complet d’anatomie (1773) and the illustrations for the Mémoire sur des bois de cerfs fossiles (1775) by Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond (1741–1819). Although we don’t own the complete volumes, we do have these two full body muscle studies.

More attention is often paid to the printing of these anatomies, than their medical application. Arnault’s father learned multi-color printing at the studio of Jacob Christoph Le Blon, where he “remained there for only a few weeks, long enough to study the process of colour printing that Le Blon had developed, of superimposing three mezzotinted plates. In order to make use of this method without being accused of plagiarism and to speed up the printing, Jacques-Fabien used an extra plate inked in black or bistre, which gave the tonal values: this was the basic principle of four-colour printing. He was granted a royal licence, which was disputed by Le Blon’s heirs until 1748.” (Oxford Dictionary of Art)

Arnault-Eloi Gautier-D’Agoty (1741-1780 or 1783), Plate 8 in Cours complet d’anatomie peint et grave en couleurs naturelles (Full course anatomy painted and engraved in natural colors), 1773. Color mezzotint, aquatint, and engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2012.01421

Arnault-Eloi Gautier-D’Agoty (1741-1780 or 1783), Plate 4 in Cours complet d’anatomie peint et grave en couleurs naturelles (Full course anatomy painted and engraved in natural colors), 1773. Color mezzotint, aquatint, and engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2012.01420

The History of the Monument, Extra-Illustrated

Charles Welch (1848-1924), History of the Monument (London: City Lands Committee of the Corporation of the City of London, 1893). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2015- in process.

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired this extra-illustrated copy of Welch’s history of the London Monument, including many engravings, printed broadsides, albumen silver prints, related printed ephemera, printed guides to the Monument, as well as manuscript letters and notes. The whole was collected by Aleck Abrahams of Willesden Green, London, who assembled the collection and had it bound in black morocco and marbled boards, ca. 1910 by T. Ross, Binders to the King. There is a pocket on inside lower cover containing additional printed guide books.

This is an extraordinary assemblage of images and printed ephemera relating to Christopher Wren’s Monument, which was erected in the city of London in 1677 to commemorate the Great Fire of 1666. The Doric column had a viewing platform at the top, the highest vantage point in the city of London, with unparalleled 360 ° views across London.

Unfortunately it was also a suicide hotspot, particularly for women, and Welch records a number of actual deaths (p. 54). Abrahams has added to this several large, popular broadsides depicting suicides. “Another Dreadful Suicide at the Monument by a Young Woman” was printed and published by E. Lloyd, ca. 1842. The woman falling to her death has been identified as Jane Cooper, a servant, who threw herself off the Monument. Another hand colored print, ca. 1810, shows a man and woman together leaping off the column, while onlookers watch from below.

There is also a printed pamphlet Another Suicide by Precipitation from the Monument (London, 1839), with large folding woodcut of man falling from the Monument, in plain contemporary purple wrappers. News accounts of suffragettes marching and picketing around are juxtaposed with caricature and cartoons making fun of the structure. And much more.

At the end of his published book, Welch lists all the different “Views of the Monument” (p. 95-99) as well as printed books (mostly guide books) pertaining to the Monument (pp.99-100). Abrahams followed these lists and managed to find a large number of the prints and photographs, which he pasted, bound, and stuffed together into this single book. Here are a few examples.

Charles Welch:
“The City of London heard with much regret of the death on Monday of Mr. Charles Welch, F.S.A., who for many years was the Librarian of the Guildhall,” reported The Times on January 17, 1924. “He was in his 76th year, and has been in retirement since 1906. The son of a physician at Hackney, Mr. Welch was born on July 21, 1848, and was sent to the City of London School under Dr. Mortimer. On leaving school joined at once the then small staff in the Guildhall Library, which consisted of a librarian and two assistants. During his service of more than 40 years he helped the library to develop into the largest in London, next to the British Museum . . . On the history and antiquities of the City Mr. Welch became an authority second only to the late Dr. R. R. Sharpe. He wrote lives of civic worthies in the Dictionary of National Biography, and contributed to the Victoria County Histories . . . His Modern History of the City of London, which justifies its title, is of great value to the student.”– Obituary. The Times Thursday, Jan 17, 1924; Issue 43551; pg. 14; col D — Mr. Charles Welch

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