Printing History II

Yesterday, we posted a new set of 19th-century metal printing plates telling classical stories with Latin captions. Today, several of the sequences have been identified.

My sincere thanks to Christina S. Kraus, Acting Chair, NELC. Thomas A. Thacher Professor of Latin, Yale University, and to Christopher Stray, Honorary Research Fellow, Department of History and Classics, Swansea University, for their help in identifying the stories. This will be a tremendous help in tracking down the published versions of these educational prints.

A.This is from Sallust, Bellum Jugurthinum chapter 93
1.MILES AQUATUM EGREDITUR
2.FACILIS ASCENSUS
3.UTILIS ARBOR
4.RAMIS MODO MODO SAXIS NISUS AD CASTELLUM HOSTIUM PERVENIT
5.OMNIA EXPLORAT
6.LAETUS REGREDITUR

B. Unidentified
1.ITER FACIENS
2.POSSUMNE?
3.EXPERIAR CERTE
4.FORTIS SENEX
5.CAPTUS
6.EXITUS MISERANDUS

C. Unidentified
1.LATRONES DELIBERANT
2.CALLIDUM CONSILIUM
3.LATRONES VENUMDANT
4.ILLE PORTAM RESERAT
5.EFFUGIT URSA
6.CANES LATRONEM LACERANT

D. This is from Livy 1.24 the battle of the Horatii and the Curiatii
1.FRATRES PRO PATRIA INTER SE PUGNANT
2.DUO ROMANI INTERFICIUNTUR
3.TERTIUS CALLIDE FUGIT
4.PRIMUM ALBANUM OCCIDIT
5.SECUNDUM OCCIDIT
6.TERTIUM OCCIDIT

E. This is from Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 4.24-6, the first landing in Britain
1.CLASSIS ROMANA
2.BRITANNI
3.ROMANI TERRENTUR
4.AQUILIFER FORTIS
5.MILITES SECUUNTUR
6.BRITANNOS FUGANT

F. This is from Livy 5.47 and thereabouts, Manlius and the geese during the Gallic sack
1.ROMANUS DESCENDIT
2.VESTIGIA GALLI VIDENT
3.NOCTU GALLI VIDENT
4.IAM IAM DORMIUNT
5.ANSERES VIGILES
6.SPES IRRITA

G. A late antique story; see also: http://storiesforpreaching.com/telemachus-and-the-colosseum/
1.GLADIATORES PUGNANT
2.INTRAT TELEMACHUS
3.FRATRES ESTIS
4.TELEMACHUS INTERFICITUR
5.SCELUS NEFANDUM
6.EXEUNT OMNES

Printing history

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired seven 19th century metal printing plates for a yet unidentified text or project. The blocks are composed of sequences of six cells and the numbering on the sides indicates that several blocks are consecutive. The captions are in Latin and the pictures tell simple stories of Telemachus and other classical histories. If anyone knows these books or teaching broadsides, could you let us know?

This block has been inverted and laterally reversed. The caption reads: Telemachus Interficitur.

The same block laterally reversed, as it would be when printed. Caption: Milites sequuntur

The same block inverted and laterally reversed, note the figure. Caption: Experiar Certe

The marks on one side read: UU 361, 362, 363, 364, 365, 366 & 368. On the other side: 1883, 1885, blank, 1886, 1872, 1869 & 1871.

Catch and Release

Reina María Rodriguez, Catch and Release. Linocuts by Alejandro Sainz (Tuscaloosa & Havana: Parallel Editions, 2014). Graphic Arts Collection 2014- in process. Gift of the author.

“This book is a collaboration between Cuban poet Reina María Rodríguez, as translated by Kristin Dykstra, Cuban artist Alejandro Sainz, and The University of Alabama. Faculty and students in the MFA in the Book Arts Program, School of Library & Information Studies, College of Communication & Information Sciences designed, letterpress printed, and bound the book.”–Last page. Alternating sections in black and gold type. Limited edition of 60 copies.

Adam Fuss, Mask

Adam Fuss, Mask (Aspen: Baldwin Gallery, 2005). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process

Mask was published in conjunction with the 2005 exhibition of photograms by Adam Fuss, held at the Baldwin Gallery in Aspen, Colorado. Twenty-five tritone reproductive plates are printed on stiff brown paper, housed in a cardboard slipcase. This first edition was limited to 1000 copies.

Exploring the rich iconography of African masks, Fuss placed the 3D objects directly onto light-sensitive paper, varying the exposure time to create eerie contrasts between light and shadow. What results are ghost-like images offering the hidden identities within these magical objects.

“In the midst of the digital age, Adam Fuss creates pictures of rare beauty and mystery with traditional and historical photographic techniques. Working without a camera, Fuss employs the 19th-Century photogram process involving the most basic elements of photography: objects and light.”—press release

We have reserved Margaret Atwood’s upcoming book, to be published in 2114 [this is not a typo]

Margaret Atwood – the first writer for Future Library from Katie Paterson on Vimeo.

A forest in Norway is growing. In 100 years it will become an anthology of books.

The Scottish artist Katie Paterson conceived of this 100-year-long project she calls Framtidsbiblioteket (The Future Library). It is one of four public artworks produced for Slow Space, a program of public artworks for Bjørvika, Oslo’s former container port, and commissioned by Bjørvika Utvikling.

The project has begun:
1. 1,000 trees have been planted outside Oslo, Norway, which will supply paper for a special anthology of books to be printed in one hundred years time.
2. The first writer, Margaret Atwood, has accepted a commission to write the first text over the next year, which will be sealed in a box, unread and unpublished until 2114.
3. Between 2014 and 2114, one additional writer every year will contribute a text, with the writings held in trust, unpublished, until 2114.
4. In 2114, the forest will be harvested and paper made to print an edition of each text.
5. Princeton will receive one complete set of the books.

According to Paterson’s website, the texts will be held in a specially designed room in the New Public Deichmanske Library, Oslo. Tending the forest and ensuring its preservation for the 100-year duration of the artwork finds a conceptual counterpoint in the invitation extended to each writer: to conceive and produce a work in the hopes of finding a receptive reader in an unknown future. Atwood comments:

I am very honoured, and also happy to be part of this endeavor. This project, at least, believes the human race will still be around in a hundred years! Future Library is bound to attract a lot of attention over the decades, as people follow the progress of the trees, note what takes up residence in and around them, and try to guess what the writers have put into their sealed boxes.

Guiding the selection of authors is the Future Library Trust, whose trustees include the artist, Literary Director of the Man Booker Prize Ion Trewin, Publishing Director of Hamish Hamilton Simon Prosser, former Director of the Deichmanske Bibliotek Liv Sæteren, Publishing Director of Forlaget Press Håkon Harket, Editor in Chief of Oktober Press, Ingeri Engelstad, Director of Situations Claire Doherty and Anne Beate Hovind, Bjørvika Utvikling’s Project Manager for the Slow Space Programme.

Thanks to the James Cohen Gallery for helping us be a part of this wonderful project.www.futurelibrary.no

Future Library, Katie Paterson from Katie Paterson on Vimeo.

Riva Castleman

“The Trustees and staff of The Museum of Modern Art mourn the death of Riva Castleman, legendary print curator, who worked at the Museum from 1963 to 1995. Riva first joined MoMA’s Department of Prints and Illustrated Books as a cataloger; in 1976 she became Director of Prints and Illustrated Books, and in 1986 she was named Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs, a position she held in addition to her work as Director of Prints and Illustrated Books until she retired in June 1995. Recognizing the significance of prints and illustrated books as important expressions of modern art, Riva organized dozens of exhibitions and catalogues that helped to advance scholarship in the field and convey the importance of these mediums to a wider audience. Her efforts resulted in many landmark publications that remain standard references today, including Prints of the Twentieth Century: A History (1976), Printed Art: A View of Two Decades (1980), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1985), Jasper Johns: A Print Retrospective (1987), and A Century of Artists Books (1994).

Her work inspired a generation of curators and collectors, and her passion and dedication ensured that MoMA’s collection of prints and illustrated books would remain the premier collection of its kind in the world. Her legacy is also reflected in two innovative initiatives that continue to provide support to the Museum and that have influenced other museums around the world. In 1975 she organized the Print Associates, the first collectors’ group affiliated with a curatorial department at the Museum. She conceived of an endowment earmarked for the acquisition of prints and illustrated books, also a first for a curatorial department at the Museum. Her astute intelligence, sharp eye, and exacting standards left a mark on all who had the good fortune to know or work with her, and she will be greatly missed. We extend our deepest sympathies to Riva’s niece, Kristen DeVoe, and her family.”

Shared by our colleagues last night and printed in NYTs 9/6/2014

Zuber/Spoerlin family tree

On August 8, 1796 Jean Zuber (1773-1852) married Elisabeth Spoerlin (1775-1856). The following year, he founded the French wall paper printing company, Zuber, which continues to produce luxury papers today. To celebrate their 50th anniversary, Zuber commissioned the great chromolithography firm, Engelmann and Graf, to produce a family tree outlining members of the Zuber and Spoerlin families.

At the very bottom is a complex series of presses and machinery representing the production of long sheets of wall paper. For an easier picture of the Zuber printing technology, see http://www.zuber.fr/html/video.html. This is a long video but well worth the time.

The family tree was found inside the Engelmann sample books in the Graphic Arts Collection.

Playing shatranj

In the back of the first volume of our newly acquired specimen albums from Godefroy Engelmann’s Société Engelmann père et fils, is this chromolithographed game board. At one end is an image of men and women playing Shatranj (the Persian word for what became chess). At the other, the men are smoking from a water pipe.

In 1837, Engelmann took out a patent on chromolithography but died two years later. His son Jean Engelmann continued the family business and in 1842, partnered with members of the Graf family of printers as his father had also done. Below is the building where this game board was printed at One Great Castle Street, London.

Over 10,000 visitors

I’m sure it doesn’t sound like a lot to The Huffington Post, but over 10,000 visitors have now interacted with our map of William Hogarth’s London. Created for Princeton’s RBSC exhibition “Sin and the City,” this online resource will hopefully have lasting value for a worldwide community of scholars. Thanks to Kevin Reiss who maintains the site for us. Sin and the City: William Hogarth’s London

A gift with perspective

The Graphic Arts Collection is delighted to have received the donation of a vintage zograscope and 56 eighteenth-century hand-colored perspective prints (vue d’optique) from Evelyn and Peter Kraus in honour of Charles Ryskamp.

The device, also called a diagonal mirror, is simply a double convex lens and a mirror on a stand tall enough to use either sitting or standing. A well-known eighteenth-century print [below] by J.F. Cazenzave after Louis Léopold Boilly, shows a woman and her son (identified as Louise Sébastienne Danton and Antoine Danton) looking at prints through a zograscope,

Erin Blake traced the earliest mention of perspective prints to the April 2-4, 1747 St. James’s Evening Post, and after this, in a number of newspaper advertisements. By 1753, Robert Sayer published a catalogue of over 200 views and in later years, Georg Balthasar Probst established an busy studio producing prints labeled in four languages for sale throughout Europe. The majority of prints in our new collection date from the earliest years, some even proofs before the caption was added.

L’Optique, ca. 1794. British Museum.

It is the condition of the prints donated by Mr. and Mrs. Kraus that is particularly impressive. Because perspective prints were made to be handled and enjoyed by the whole family, most of the ones that survive are worn and/or faded. The color of these prints is strong and bright, with lovely watercolored skies and oceans.

Views of all the major cities of Europe are represented, as well as Mexico, Egypt, and the Far East. I have included a few examples below. For the complete list, here is a pdf
French School. Vue de Baionne. Paris, Basset, ca. 1750-1800. Original engraving hand-colored at publication.

European School. Vues des Chantiers et du Port de Carthagene en Espagne. ca. 1750-1800. Original engraving hand-colored at publication.

Georg Balthasar Probst. Le Rouine del grande Tempio du Palmira, della parte d’Occidente. Augsburg, ca. 1750-1800. Original engraving hand-colored at publication.

Georg Balthasar Probst. Les Pyramides de l’Egypte. Augsburg, ca. 1750-1800. Original engraving hand-colored at publication.

Georg Balthasar Probst. Veduta della Chiesa di S. Martino, a Londra. Augsburg, ca. 1750-1800. Original engraving hand-colored at publication.

above: lit from the front
below: lit from the back
C.J. Kaldenbach, “Perspective Views,” Print Quarterly 2, no.2 (June 1985): 87-104.

Erin Blake, “Zograscopes, Virtual Reality and the Mapping of Polite Society in Eighteenth Century England,” in New Media 1740-1915 (Cambridge Mass., 2003)

Erin Blake, “Topographical Prints Through the Zograscope,” Imago Mundi 54 (2002): 120-4.

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