Traité théorique et pratique de lithographie

The nineteenth-century French artist and printer Godefroy Engelmann (1788-1839) founded the Industrial Society of Mulhouse (SIM) with his son Engelmann II after studying lithography with Aloys Senefelder in Munich.

Twenty years later, having establishing companies in Paris and London, Engelmann then returned to Mulhouse to focus on the new process of chromolithography, awarded a patent on July 1837.

His final treatise, A Discussion on Theoretical and Practical Lithography was published posthumously. Surprising to a twenty-first century audience, there are no illustrations in his manual beyond the decorative title pages.

Happily, we also recently acquired Michael Twyman’s monumental A History of Chromolithography: Printed Colour for All, which offers 850 color illustrations along with detailed descriptions of all variations of planographic color printing.

Twyman’s book is the first since the process was in its heyday to offer a detailed account of how chromolithographs were made, tracing the evolution of this hand-drawn color-printing process from its tentative beginnings in Germany in the early nineteenth century to its spread from Europe to the United States and beyond.

Michael Twyman is Emeritus Professor of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading, and has played an active role in several societies concerned with printing, particularly the Printing Historical Society and the Ephemera Society.

His publications include many articles and book chapters, in addition to over a dozen books, among them: Printing 1770-1970 (1970; 1998), Lithography 1800-1850 (1970), Early lithographed books (1990), Early lithographed music (1996), The British Library guide to printing (1998), Breaking the mould: the first hundred years of lithography (2001), and Images en couleur (2007).

Godefroy Engelmann (1788-1839), Traité théorique et pratique de lithographie (Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin: Engelmann père et fils, 1839, 1840. Graphic Arts collection GAX Oversize 2013-0078Q

Michael Twyman, A History of Chromolithography: Printed Colour for All (London: British Library; New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2013). GARF 2013- in process

Helen West Heller Joins The Latin Quarter-ly

Woodcut by Helen West Heller in The Latin Quarter-ly (New York: Maspa Press, 1933-1934). Graphic Arts Collection 2014- in process.

During the depression of the 1930s, Ruth Widen and Lew Ney could no longer afford to live in Manhattan and moved their Parnassus Press to the Brooklyn waterfront south of the Brooklyn Bridge. For their larger print jobs, Max Spiegel, owner of Maspa Press on Barrow Street, let them use whatever equipment they needed. It was his Linotype machine that enabled them to bring out a substantial new magazine called The Latin Quarter-ly (associating Greenwich Village with its Parisian counterpart).

Unlike Lew Ney’s other news-sheets, this is a fifty-page magazine with editorials, poems, a short stories, essays, plays, cartoons, book and art reviews, and literary news. The content is decidedly more political, given the editors’ involvement with the Writers’ Union. The art is sharp and satirical thanks to artists borrowed from the New Masses, included Art Young (1866-1943) and Helen West Heller (1872-1955), who had only recently moved to New York City. Over 100 subscriptions were sold before the first issue was out, including to NYPL and Harvard University.

Sherwood Anderson’s name is front and center as a consulting editor, although he never contributes his own writing. Regular contributors include Louis Ginsberg (1896-1976, Allen Ginsberg’s father); the young Norman Fitzroy Maclean (1902-1990), later known for A River Runs Through It; the progressive minister Rev. Eliot White; Oxford-educated literary scholar Walter Edwin Peck (1891-1954), recently fired from Hunter College; journalist Isaac Don Levine (1892-1981) responsible for the formation of the Citizens National Committee for Sacco and Vanzetti; and Estelle Sternberger (1886-1971) a radio commentator who became the executive director of World Peaceways.

Woodcut by Helen West Heller in The Latin Quarter-ly (New York: Maspa Press, 1933-1934). Graphic Arts Collection 2014- in process.

The 1934 winter issue includes the music for The Peril of Sheridan Square by Robert Edwards.

I know a girl I’d like to hurl into the river some day.
You may think me crude when I allude to any lady this way.
But she’s a pest, I get no rest from her nagging for lodging and food
But when I resist then she’ll insist that my reluctance is rude.

She’s the belle of Stewarts’ cafeteria down in Sheridan Square.
Where the nuts and the bums with their sex-hysteria patiently give her the air.
She hasn’t a home, no place of her own, she domiciles anywhere,
And her name if you ask it is Lizzie Mossbasket, the peril of Sheridan Square

This village queen, Lizzie I mean, went into Stewarts to feed
But there she found hanging around others in desperate need.
She hoped to mash some guy with cash to pay for the food that she’d et
But somehow I guess she’d little success poor thing is sitting there yet!

Hokusai’s Manga

The Hokusai Manga is a collection of sketches depicting thousands of subjects in fifteen volumes, the first published in 1814. Although Princeton does not have a complete first edition of all fifteen sketchbooks, several collections hold various individual volumes. The Graphic Arts Collection has only one, volume two. In trying to identify which edition we hold, we used Matthi Forrer’s wonderful, Eirakuya Toshiro (Amsterdam, 1985).

Forrer writes, “The first volume was originally issued as a complete publication of the sketches prepared by Hokusai during his stay at Nagoya during 1812. The evidence for this can be found in the preface, which makes no mention of further volumes in preparation, as well as in the title which has no indication of any volume number … The success of the volume must have been great enough to make the publisher urge the artist for a continuation, and Hokusai seems to have agreed with a series of ten volumes.”

One of the clues is the color of the binding but surprisingly, our binding is not listed. Thanks to Mr. Forrer’s kind help we believe our volume has a unique collector’s binding. If you click on the picture above, you can see the intricate embossed pattern in the paper.

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Hokusai manga (Bishū Nagoya: Eirakuya Tōshirō, [1814-1878?]). v. 2 only; GAX 2013-0546N Gift of Elmer Adler

Advertise. How? When? Where?

William Smith (1833/34-1867), Advertise. How? When? Where? With illustrations by William McConnell (1833-1867) and Joseph Swann (London: Routledge, Warne, and Routledge, 1863). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2013- in process

Historian Thomas Richards calls William Smith, author of Advertise. How? When? Where? a “prophet of modern advertising.” He notes that after the Great Exhibition of 1851 traditional methods of advertising changed radically and that Smith asserted that advertisers ought to exploit these new technologies so as to monopolize all attention. (The Commodity Culture of Victorian England: Advertising and Spectacle, 1851-1914, Stanford University Press, 1991).

I like the fact that he could tell you how many fliers to print if you wanted to paper Covent Garden on a Friday night.

Thomas argued, “Spectacle has become paramount. The commodities in the Crystal Palace are no longer the trivial things that Marx had once said they could be mistaken for; they are a sensual feast for the eye of the spectator, and they have taken on the ceremonial trappings of the dominate institutions and vested interests of mid-Victorian England. In his little book, which later went through twenty-three editions, Smith was one of the first in advertising to acknowledge the power of spectacle in organizing and channeling signification around and through manufactured objects.”

3D pen

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a 3Doodler or pen that writes in three dimensions. It’s not as easy as you might think but we tried it.

Here is their blog where others artists are better at it than we are: http://www.the3doodler.com/blog/

Can you tell this is Princeton tiger?

Joe Gould, Greenwich Village Poet

Joseph Ferdinand Gould (1889-1957) graduated from Harvard University in 1911, the same year Luther Widen (aka Lew Ney, 1886-1963) completed his M.A. from the University of Iowa. Both quickly found their way to Greenwich Village and established reputations as bohemian eccentrics. At the left is a photograph of Lew Ney, his wife Ruth Thompson Widen (born 1900) and (?) her father Charles Thompson. Below, Joe Gould as photographed by Aaron Siskind (1903-1991), who was also writing poetry in the 1920s and part of the Greenwich Village poetry scene.

In 1927, Lew Ney and Ruth established a National Poetry Exhibition, to which poets submitted their work for review by the general public. If enough readers “liked” a poem by signing their name to the page, the poem was exhibited on the walls of a local tea shop. Joe Gould not only submitted several poems but composed one in honor of Lew Ney’s 1920 arrest and banishment from Greenwich Village.

Gould was later immortalized in two New Yorker profiles by Joseph Mitchell and his subsequent book Joe Gould’s Secret (1965). In 2000, Stanley Tucci directed a film adaptation of the same title. Here’s the preview: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi849936665. Several cartoonists used Gould as an iconic bohemian poet when making fun of Lew Ney’s poetry exhibition.

Chivalry
It was only force of habit.
That made the half–wit nasty in the Black Rabbit.
He said, “With many strange contortions,
That girl has had twenty-one abortions,”
And so Lew Ney the gentile parfaite tonight,
Was hauled to court by Peggy White.
The character witness was Emil Luft.
So the Justice thought he was being spoofed.
He said “We won’t let this case pester us,
You can’t do in New York, what you do in Texas.”
By Joseph Gould

Gould’s poem was ‘liked’ by Lew Ney, who added “Untrue but a wonderful Poe hymn” and by the poets John Rose Gildea, Hazel H. Lowe, Paul Reeve, [unidentified], and the millionaire playboy Robert Clairmont.

For his part, Joe Gould skipped the poetry of his colleagues, adding his signature of approval only to the dinner menus Lew Ney printed for “The Little House,” a tea room located at 100 Bedford Street where the poetry readings and exhibits were held.

A number of scrapbooks from the exhibitions were compiled and a few survive at the New York Public Library. Our thanks to colleagues there who are in the process of transferring them from the open shelves to the rare book department. Lew Ney donated over 100 books and little magazines to Princeton University.

To learn more, see: Ruth Widen, Whispering Walls: an Anthology from the First National Poetry Exhibition (New York: Parnassus, [1930]) Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2013-0073Q

Below is a picture of the Black Rabbit, Joe Gould’s favorite speakeasy from the 1920s.

Le Praxinopose

Georges Brunel (1856-1900), Le Praxinopose (Bordeaux?, ca. 1890). (2) pp. folder with the text page mounted to the verso of the cover. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2013- in process.

The praxinopose is a metering apparatus for photographers, designed by the French mathematician Georges Brunel (1856-1900). It was used to determine the shutter speed for obtaining a clear image of moving objects, such as a bicycle or a train. Our praxinopose includes a series of four concentric moveable disks mounted inside a leather binding, along with instructions for use in French.

Early practitioners of high-speed photography include Eadweard Muybridge’s 1878 images of horses in motion; Peter Salcher’s 1886 photography of a bullet; and Ernst Mach’s capture of the shadows of supersonic shockwaves. The praxinopose was meant simplify the guesswork.

Is it a painting or a print?

Louis Prang (1824-1909) after design by James McDougal Hart (1828-1901), Scene near Farmington, CT., Autumn , March 1, 1873. Chromolithograph. Published by Louis Prang & Company, Boston. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2007.00587. Gift of Leonard L. Milberg, Class of 1953.

“Our Chromo Prints,” wrote Louis Prang, “are absolute FACSIMILES of the originals, in color, drawing, and spirit, and their price is so low that every home may enjoy the luxury of possessing a copy of works of art, which hitherto adorned only the parlors of the rich.”
In 1860, Prang established a Boston printing firm specializing in chromolithography, followed by a magazine, illustrated books, textbooks, cards, calendars, fine art, maps, and other print material. Prang quickly became one of the most prolific print publishers of the 19th-century.

“Louisa May Alcott praised Prang for ‘cultivating a love of art by placing copies of good and great pictures within the reach of all.’ Frederick Church wrote that he would proudly add his name ‘to the copious list of artists who have promised to furnish works for publication.’ Yet other critics found chromo lithographs distasteful. E. L. Godkin, editor of the Nation, argued that quality art could not be produced by the ‘mechanical contrivance’ of the printing press. In his view, chromos were vulgar imitations, deceptive illusions, mere ‘merchandise.’”–Lori Rotskoff, “Decorating the Dining-Room: Still-Life Chromolithographs,” in American Studies, 31, no. 1 (April 1997).

Peter C. Marzio, The Democratic Art (Boston: David Godine, 1979). Graphic Arts Collection GARF Oversize NE2500 .M3q

Monseigneur le Vin

Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a set of promotional volumes for the French wine distributor Maison Nicolas. Each of these charming annuals was designed by a different contemporary designer, including Marcel Jeanjean, Pierre Lissac, Armand Vallée, Carlègle and in particular, Charles Martin. The text is by Georges Montorgueil, one of several pseudonyms used by the French journalist Octave Lebesgue (1857-1933).

Georges Montorgueil (1857-1933), Monseigneur le Vin (Paris: Van Gindertaele; Poyet; Draeger), 1924-27. Five volumes. Original marbled faux suede paper wrappers. Lithographs and pochoir prints. Graphic Arts Collection in process.

The series includes Le Vin è Travers l’Histoire; Le Vin de Bordeaux; Le Vin de Bourgogne; Anjou-Touraine, Alsace, Champagne et Autres Grands Vins de France; and finally L’Art de Boire (Wine Throughout History; Wines of Bordeaux; Wine of Burgundy; Anjou–Touraine, Alsace, Champagne and Other Great Wines of France; and finally, The Art of Drink).

John Everet Millais proofs

Sir John Everett Millais (1829–1896) was the youngest student admitted to the Royal Academy School, accepted in 1840 at the age of eleven. While still a teenager, Millais and his classmates William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Millais married and had eight children in quick succession. To support the family, he accepted work illustrating numerous publications, including the Moxon edition of Tennyson’s poems (1857), the magazine Once a Week (1859 onwards) and several novels by Trollope.

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a set of proofs for Millais’s illustrations for Mistress and Maid by the Scottish novelist Dinah Mulock (later Craik). According to Forrest Reid, they “equal the best of the Trollope designs, and taken together, form perhaps the finest series of drawings he made for any single novel.”

In the end, only one drawing was used as a frontispiece in the Hurst and Blakett edition of Craik’s book. However, the entire set of prints appeared in the magazine Good Words, founded by the publisher Alexander Strahan the year earlier. The journal became distinguished, in particular, for its exceptional illustrations by the Pre-Raphaelites.

John Everett Millais (1829-1896), Proof pulls on three large sheets of Millais’s twelve illustrations to Mistress and Maid by Dinah Mulock, as serialized in Good Words in January-November 1862 ([London, 1861?]). Engraved by Dalziel after Millais. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2013- in process

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (1826-1887), Mistress and Maid (London: Hurst and Blakett [1863]). The frontispiece by J. E. Millais, engraved by John Saddler. Rare Books: Morris L. Parrish Collection (ExParrish) Craik 85

Good Words ([London: Alexander Strahan and Co., 1860-1906]). RECAP 0901.G646

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