Category Archives: Acquisitions

new acquisitions

Housing Piazzetta’s Studi di Pittura

The following is a guest post by Lindsey Hobbs, Collections Conservator in our Preservation Office:

A newly acquired rare edition of Giambatista Piazzetta’s Studi di Pittura, a series of engravings to guide aspiring artists printed in 18th-century Venice, presented some handling and storage concerns for the library. [original post: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2017/02/16/one-of-the-finest-venetian-illustrated-books-of-the-settecento/ ]  The book’s value alone merited a custom drop spine box for protection, however, the binding also created challenges.

Although the binding is well in tact, the soft, worn cover boards flex and bow in dramatic fashion when lifted. Since the delicate nature of the boards is not apparent upon visual inspection, we needed a means of signaling to future researchers that this book requires special care before it’s handled.

The solution I landed on is a drop spine box with an integral, or built-in cradle. When opened, the user must lift and prop the first platform of a cradle via a ribbon in order to access the book. One can then prop the second platform in the same manner on the right to support the book while in use. When finished, the cradle platforms fold back around the book to allow the box to close.

This was my first attempt at building this type of enclosure and I have already thought of ways to improve it. My initial thought was to build two separate cradle “wings” to attach beneath the right and left box trays but this made the opening and closing action of the box a bit awkward. Building the cradle in a wrap-around style for the book was necessary to create a more fluid movement.

Of course, the best feature of this style is the intuitiveness of its use. I think the ribbon placement provides a clear indicator of what to do when opening the box, and once pulled, the rest of the structure guides the cradle into place. While the cradle adds a bit of construction time over a standard drop spine, it offers a relatively simple solution for showing users how to use this special book.

Remarks on Prints

The Grove Dictionary of Art declares Richard Dalton (1715?-1791) one of the most influential figures in the sphere of collecting in England for some four decades.

In 1749, at the age of thirty-nine, Dalton visited Calabria and Sicily and then, Egypt, Turkey and Greece. He was possibly the first English artist to record the ancient monuments of these places.

In 1755 he was appointed librarian to the Prince of Wales (later George III) but after only three years was back in Italy with commissions to buy drawings and medals. Both loved and hated, Dalton remains a powerful figure in the world of art and antiquities.

His major work evolved from a selection of drawings executed during his 1749 tour, which was finally published in 1791 as: Antiquities and views in Greece and Egypt; with the manners and customs of the inhabitants: … Engraved on 79 copper-plates by Chatelain [and others] ([London]: T. King and H. Chapman, 1791). (SAX) Oversize N5330 .D17e

Before that publication appeared, Dalton prepared a commentary without the plates about the places and cultures he visited, released as: Remarks on Prints, That Were Published in the Year 1781, Relative to the Manners, Customs, &C. of the Present Inhabitants of Egypt. from Drawings Made on the Spot, A.D. 1749 (London: printed by J. Nichols for J. Robson and W. Clarke, 1790). The Graphic Arts Collection is pleased to add this rare volume  to augment both the story of Dalton and the history of collecting.

See also: John Dalton (1709-1763), Remarks on XII Historical Designs of Raphael, and the Museum Græcum et Ægyptiacum, or, Antiquities of Greece and Egypt, illustrated by prints (London: Printed for M. Cooper …, 1752). (Ex) 2008-0382N

The Trial of Elizabeth Canning 1754

The Trial of Elizabeth Canning, Spinster, for Willful and Corrupt Perjury; at Justice Hall in the Old-Bailey, held by Adjournment, on Monday the 29th of April, Wednesday the 1st, Friday the 3d, Saturday the 4th, Monday the 6th… (London: printed by the authority and appointment of the Right Honourable Thomas Rawlinson Esq; Lord Mayor, for John Clarke under the Royal Exchange, and sold also by M. Cooper in Pater-Noster Row, [1754]).

Bound with Crisp Gascoyne, An Address to the Liverymen of the City of London, from Sir Crisp Gascoyne, Knt. Late Lord-Mayor, relative to his conduct in the cases of Elizabeth Canning and Mary Squires (London: printed for James Hodges at London-Bridge, [1754]).

Bound with additional trials. Graphic Arts Collection 2017- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired this volume of several trial transcripts bound together and extra illustrated with a hand colored etching entitled The Gypsy’s Triumph, a satire on the Elizabeth Canning affair. The print depicts Crisp Gascoyne and Mary Squires (the old gypsy) carried in triumph by four old gypsies with broomsticks and wearing pointed hats.

 

There are many versions of this curious story. A brief description was posted on The Londonist’s site:

“It’s 1 January 1753, in the City of London. An 18 year old maidservant disappears on the way back to her mother’s house near St Mary Aldermanbury. She wasn’t seen or heard from until nearly a month later, when she reappeared, dirty and bloodied, in ripped clothing. The maidservant was Elizabeth Canning. She claimed to have been kidnapped from near Bedlam Hospital and taken to a house on Hertford Road in Enfield. Here, a woman tried to force her into prostitution. When she refused, she was kept prisoner until she escaped through a window and managed to return home. Her disappearance has been the source of speculation and theories ever since. She identified Enfield woman Mary Wells and Romany woman Mary Squires as her captors. They both went to trial — despite Squires having an alibi, she was sentenced to hanging, while Wells was sentenced to branding on the thumb and six months in prison. Sir Crisp Gascoyne, who was Lord Mayor of London and Chief Magistrate, opened his own inquiry which led to the King granting a pardon. Canning herself was then indicted for perjury, found guilty and sentenced to one month imprisonment, after which she was sent to America. The truth about the case was never revealed.” http://londonist.com/2016/03/the-curious-case-of-elizabeth-canning

 

 

See also: Sir Crisp Gascoyne (1700-1761), An address to the liverymen of the city of London: from Sir Crisp Gascoyne … relative to his conduct in the cases of Elizabeth Canning and Mary Squires (London: Printed for James Hodges, 1754). Rare Books (Ex) Oversize HV6248.C15 G3q

“I dare do all that may become a man, Who dares do more is none.”

“Sweet Mercy is Nobility’s true Badge.”

 

Publicaciones revolucionarias

Publicaciones revolucionarias [Revolutionary publications]. 1. ed. (Bogotá, Colombia: Silueta Ediciones, 2016). Nine volumes. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process. http://www.lasilueta.com/vx1/editorial/

 

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a set of nine publications from La Silueta, a fine press in Bogotá, Colombia:

No. 1 – Avocados by Santiago Rueda
No. 2 – Labor by Lucas Ospina
No. 3  – Ceiling by Gabriela Pinilla
No. 4 – LMCP by WIlson Diaz
No. 5 – Liberating orgasm by The fulminant
No. 6 – Present! I presented! by Andrés Felipe Uribe
No. 7 – Poscon by Chócolo
No. 8 – 33 Revolutions per minute by Hernán Sansone
No. 9 – The Penitent by Alfredo Greñas

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.lasilueta.com/%3Fproduct%3Dpublicaciones-revolucionarias-no-1-a-8&prev=search

“Hacemos el tipo de libros que nos gustaría que existieran” /
“We make the kind of books that we want to exist,” write their editors.

“We are an independent publisher who works to publish the books we would like to see in bookstores, to buy and read. We edit authors who represent, in one way or another, a fresh and novel proposal; whose drawings, texts, and stories help open the minds of those who acquire them and become tools that help them take creative directions different from traditional ones.

Our titles, their designs, and the themes appeal to that playful side that we all still have alive inside us. A color, a source, an illustration, or a specific function can reactivate in such a way that the experience of having them in the hands always goes to Be gratifying and pleasurable.

Our books are designed to be explored both physically and in terms of content because in La Silueta we are convinced that both form and substance are important. We believe that there are contents that must exist and that they must be presented in such a way that they are striking to the senses because, in the end, everything enters through them.”

La Silueta editors Andrés Fresneda and Juan Pablo Fajardo with printing press.

One of the finest Venetian illustrated books of the Settecento


Giovanni Marco Pitteri (1703-1786) and Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815), after Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754), Studi di pittura già dissegnati da Giambatista Piazzetta ed ora con l’intaglio di Marco Pitteri [Painting Studies Drawn by Giambattista Piazzetta and Now Together with Marco Pitteri’s Engravings] (Venice: [Giambattista Albrizzi], 1760). 28 pp. text and 48 engravings after 24 drawings. Includes Alcuni avvertimenti per lo incamminamento di un Giovani alla pittura di Gian Pietro Cavazzoni Zannotti (Giampietro Zannotti, 1674-1765). Graphic Arts Collection 2017- in process


In 1750, the celebrated painter and draftsman Giovanni Battista Piazzetta was appointed director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice but at the same time, came under increasing financial difficulties. His good friend, leading Venetian publisher Giambattista Battista Albrizzi commissioned a series of instructional life drawings for aspiring artists.

Piazzetta died in 1754 and over the next six years, Francesco Bartolozzi and Marco Pitteri each engraved their own representations of his drawings, which Albrizzi published both sets in 1760 as a manual for painting students; 48 engraved plates after 24 drawings. Bartolozzi emphasizing the line and Pitteri the light and shadow.

Piazzetta, Male Nude in a Landscape. Black chalk on paper. Morgan Museum and Library, Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. 1961.12:53

This rare volume of virtuoso talent also includes the only surviving etched self-portrait of Piazzetta dated 1738 and a biography of the artist written by Albrizzi. The Graphic Arts Collection is honored to now hold one of the only complete first editions reproducing Piazzetta’s master drawings. Half a generation older than Giambattista Tiepolo, Piazzetta exercised a profound influence on the work of the younger artist, which continues into the 21st century.

Print historian Suzanne Boorsch wrote, “Giambattista Albrizzi’s final tribute to Piazzetta is the Studj di pittura, a sort of model book reproducing twenty-four drawings of nude figures by Piazzetta. During much of his life Piazzetta directed an art school, and Albrizzi’s aim was to put into a more lasting form Piazzetta’s role as teacher. The book, not published until six years after Piazzetta’s death, includes two plates reproducing each drawing, one by Francesco Bartolozzi, which is quite conventional, with outlines and cross-hatching, and the other in Pitteri’s singular, arresting manner.” –Venetian Prints and Books in the Age of Tiepolo (1997). Marquand (SA) NE2052.4.V46 B66 1997

 

 

Les vierges de Lesbos

 

 

Joseph Méry, Les vierges de Lesbos [The Virgins of Lesbos]. Poème antique (Paris: Georges Bell, 1858). Illustrated with photographs by Auguste Nicolas Bertsch (1813–1870) and Camille d’Arnaud (active 19th century) after paintings by Jean-Louis Hamon (1821–1874). Signed by Bell on verso of half-title. One of 300 copies. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection is pleased to have acquired one of the first books of French poetry illustrated with original photographs. The poem’s first edition had no illustrations and was published together with Méry’s Nuit lesbienne. According to Monselet (Catalogue . . . d’une jolie collection de livres rares, Paris, 1871, n. 215), the volume was printed in an edition of only five or six copies for friends, probably too sexually explicit for the era. Later, Georges Bell funded a larger and more elaborate edition.

In 1854 the photographer Auguste Nicolas Bertsch (1813-1870) became a founding member of the Société française de photographie, serving on the board of directors from 1858–1870. Sometime before 1855 he began a collaboration with the writer and photographer Camille d’Arnaud at his studio at 27 rue Fontaine Saint Georges, Paris. For the first illustrated edition of Méry’s poem, Bertsch and Arnaud made 900 salted paper prints from collodion-on-glass negatives, which were trimmed and pasted into each volume; three each in an edition of 300.

The photographs are after paintings by Jean-Louis Hamon (1821-1874), who worked at the Sèvres porcelain factory until he received recognition in the Paris International Exhibition of 1855. Ten new paintings were accepted into the 1857 International and in 1861, another five, including one titled Vierge de Lesbos.

 

 

See also Joseph Méry (1798-1865), Le dernier fantome; illustré par G. Staal (Paris: Publié par Gabriel Roux … ; , 1853). Purchase; Acquired with matching funds provided by the Program in Hellenic Studies with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund; 2003. Rare Books (Ex) Oversize 2004-1239Q

 

Nuit lesbienne (first verse)

La fille de l’Erèbe, à la rose étoilée,
La nuit couvre le temple et sa douce vallée ;
Comme une ombre plaintive échappée au cercueil,
Alcyone se plaint, seule sur un écueil :
C’est l’heure des frissons, et des songes funèbres !
Rhodina, sur son lit, a peur dans les ténèbres,
Un bruit vague a troublé l’écho du corridor :
La lampe va s’éteindre au candélabre d’or,
Et sa pâle lueur, jouant avec les ombres,
De sinistres reflets couvre les lambris sombres :
Rhodina se recueille ; elle invoque en tremblant
La Reine de la Nuit, au diadème blanc,
Diane de Délos, dont les regards austères
Ne sont point indulgents aux amoureux mystères,
Diane de Délos, triple divinité
Qui des pieux hymens garde la chasteté.

1,100 San Francisco Boxers

[Boxers of San Francisco] (1910s-1930s).1 album; 36 cm. Gelatin silver prints. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2012-0036Q

Back in 2011, we acquired an album containing 1100 portraits, presumed to be boxers from the San Francisco area in the early 20th century. It has become one of our most requested resources, especially relatives asking if their fathers and grandfathers are listed. https://blogs.princeton.edu/graphicarts/2011/10/boxing_portraits.html

Each of the photographs are numbered and a typed list was included identifying a small number of the 1100 men. Thanks to Ananya Malhotra, class of 2020, we now have this list in digital form so it can be searched online: http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/ga_pdf/San Francisco Boxers.pdf

The public can now identify the man on the left as Jimmy Cumpston who fought Al Ramus in 1920: https://boxstat.co/bout/727956/jimmy-cumpston-vs-al-ramus

Another of the fighters is Al Delmar, a middleweight boxer from San Francisco. His first professional fight took place on June 23, 1920 against Earl Biddle. Delmar won this fight in a knock out and went on to win twelve more, losing seven, and had nine end in a draw.

Eddie McGovern, alias Iron Man, was a light heavyweight from San Francisco. He boxed from 1920 to 1932, winning sixty-two matches (thirty-four in a knock out), lost thirty-four, and finished in a draw thirty-four times.

We would be glad to add to this list, if anyone can identify other boxers. Here are a few more images:

Decline and Fall of Hoops in the Roman Empire

Attributed to Emily “Lille” Maingay (1837-1890), The Decline and Fall of Hoops in the Roman Empire. Bound with The Christmas Robin ([London, privately printed? ca. 1872]). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired two small books bound together, both attributed to Emily “Lille” Maingay (1837-1890). The first is an illustrated satire on 19th-century women’s fashion and the Catholic Church, in which Pope Pius IX decides to ban women’s hooped skirts because they might prevent women from going to confession (doorway too narrow).

 

One section concerns a deacon who puts on a hoop and is chased by cardinals. “When caught, the pope amazed at his singular reserve did immediately confers on him priests orders (to cure him of the same).”

Maingay made the books using anastatic printing, also called metal relief, similar to what William Blake used with his illuminated books. Rockwell Kent also like the look of metal relief. Many of the copies of this book in other collections are called ink drawings, although they might also be anastatic printed copies. When the ink is transferred gently onto the paper, the result looks similar to an ink drawing.

Emily “Lille” Maingay (1837-1890) and her three sisters moved back to London from St. Petersburg in the 1860s. They were active in various charities. “The St Cyprian’s Orphanage for Girls is thought to have been founded in the 1870s at Allsop (or Allsopp) Mews, Marylebone, by the Misses Maingay of 39 Dorset Square. It was one of several homes in the area set up under the St Cyprian’s name, along with establishments for orphan boys, the aged, the incurable, and the fallen . . . the Maingay sisters donated the home to the [Waifs and Strays] Society” along with money to support it. —http://childrenshomes.org.uk/

It may be for the children of the orphanage that Maingay produced these small, humorous books.

 

The Guernsey Magazine obituaries for January 1891 announced “On Christmas Day, at 39, Dorset-square, London, Emily Lille Maingay, youngest daughter of the late William Maingay, Esq., at St. Petersburg.”

Yellow Barn Press

The Graphic Arts Collection has substantial holdings of twentieth-century fine press editions but we recently filled in some gaps in our collection of Yellow Barn Press (YBP) books with wood engravings by John DePol (1913-2004). These represent a collaboration between DePol and YBP printer Neil Shaver that lasted from 1983 until the DePol’s death in 2004.

Here’s a biographical note from the records of the YBP, held at the University of Iowa Libraries. “In 1966, Shaver and his wife Fran moved to rural Iowa, outside of Council Bluffs. On the property was a barn, which Shaver and Fran cleaned up and turned into his printing studio. Fran is credited with coming with the name Yellow Barn Press. In 1980, Shaver sold his grocery business and retired, turning his printing avocation into his vocation. He printed about two books a year. The first books were on the Washington press, but after his sixth book, he began printing his books on a Vandercook, which is easier for one person to operate.

In 1983, he took a course from John Anderson at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, and he and Anderson communicated from that point on until Anderson died in 1997. One of Shaver’s books about printing is about Anderson’s Pickering Press. . . Due to failing eyesight, Shaver closed the press in 2005, having brought out over thirty books.”

Photograph posted with the records of the Yellow Barn Press at the University of Iowa Library.

Here are the titles we’ve been able to acquire and a few images:
1. American Iron Hand Presses, #40/180, signed by Steve Saxe.
2. Ben Franklin on Lead Hazards, inscribed & dated by John.
3. Does Literature Exist, #9/175. John’s copy with his bookplate, inscription from Neil Shaver at Yellow Barn Press, signed twice by John. A second bookplate is also on the inside front cover with a different DePol engraving. With prospectus, ordering postcard, & typed note initialed by John.
4. Dress, by Eric Gill. #7/200, signed by John.
5. Goudy Memoir, YBP bookplate & Emerson G. Wulling’s bookplate too, with EGW’s traditional penciled notes on ffep, prospectus laid in.
6. Not Barn Again, inscribed & dated by John.
7. John Anderson & The Pickering Press, #102/150, inscribed & dated by John.
8. Liberty Bell on the K-G Press, #205/215, inscribed & dated by John.
9. Travels with Pat, with handwritten presentation note on his 1994 birthday laid in.




See also John J. Walsdorf, The Yellow Barn Press: a history and bibliography (Council Bluffs, Ia.: Yellow Barn Press, 2001). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2004-0798Q

Selling Cigarettes with Suffragettes


The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired an original watercolor advertisement for Park Drive cigarettes depicting suffragettes marching outside the House of Parliament in October 1908. The women’s sashes read “Vote for … Park Drive.” It is a rare and curious piece of commercial ephemera for a proposed advertisement that never found its way into print.

In 1857, Thomas Gallaher (1840-1927) started his own one-man business hand-rolling tobacco and selling it from a cart. Gallaher became a limited company in 1896 and a few years later received a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria.

The conglomerate, Imperial Tobacco, was formed in 1901 by the combination of thirteen leading British tobacco companies. Gallaher alone refused to join and all his advertisements from that time on included the statement: “We belong to no ring or combine.”

The introduction of machine-made cigarettes, called Park Drive, led to enormous growth and by 1907, the company employed more than 3,000 people, primarily women. Their first London factory opened at 67 Clerkenwell Road, the same area where Sylvia Pankhurst sought to unite the women’s movement with that of the working class. It’s possible someone, maybe even Gallaher, thought it would be useful to associate his company with the interests of the “Gallaher’s Girls,” who were sympathetic with the suffragettes.

Later a series of cigarette cards were marketed, including pretty girls, movie stars, and military officers.

For more on the history of the Gallaher Firm see: http://letslookagain.com/2016/02/up-in-smoke-a-history-of-gallaher/

 

 

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