Joseph Moxon (1627-1691), Mechanick Exercises: or, the Doctrine of Handy-Works (London: Joseph Moxon, 1683-[1700]). Complete with fifty-nine engraved plates (some folding), two engraved portraits, seven small engraved slips loosely inserted.  Volume 1: pp [viii] 58; [iv] 59-114; [iv] 115-169; [v] 171-234; [iv] 1-46 including: description and instruction in manual trades:  Volume 2: 394 [2, blank] including: Printing, Letter-Cutting, Printing Letters, Compositers trade, Pressmans trade, Dictionary, alphabetically explaining the abstruse words and phrases that are used in typography. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process. Purchased with assistance from the Friends of the Princeton University Library; Rare Book Division; and the Graphic Arts Collection.
This is the first edition of the earliest English manual about printing. Moxon revealed to the English speaking public, for the first time, technical information that had once been considered trade secrets by those who practiced printing for a living. It was also the first book published in England as a serial, issued in monthly numbers, each number consisting of 16 pages and one or more engraved plates. “Although 500 copies were printed, very few complete sets have been preserved, the whole being, perhaps, the most difficult to obtain in the whole range of typographical literature.” (Bigmore and Wyman, II, pp 55-56).

Written by a tradesman, for tradesmen, Mechanick Exercises remains one of the most important English language works on craft, in general, and on printing specifically. The second volume, concerned solely with printing, was published in 1683, delayed, as Moxon explains in his Advertisement, “by the breaking out of the [Popish] Plot, which took off the minds of my few Customers from buying them, as formerly.”

The provenance of these volumes is impeccable. The book was part of the Library of the Earls of Macclesfield, created in the first fifty years or so of the 18th century beginning with Thomas Parker (1667-1732), the 1st Earl of Macclesfield. Regarded as one of the great country house libraries of England, the sale of the collection necessitated 12 auctions over four years from 2004 to 2008.

The present copy was assembled by William Jones, the acting librarian of Shirburn Castle in the early 1700s when complete sets of the serial publication were already rare. It was rebound, as many volumes in the library were, with a Macclesfield exlibris and embossed stamp. A couple of plates have just been touched by the binder’s knife, the one plate and two portraits that are mounted are mostly indistinguishable from the rest. The manuscript plate numbers are in Jones’ own hand and remain unchanged since that time.

As usual, the present copy of volume one is a mixture of second and third issues or editions. Volume one contains a general title dated 1694, followed by five sections with separate title pages, dated between 1693 and 1700, the first four paginated continuously, the last with separate pagination, and twenty-six engraved plates. The second volume, a first edition with imprint 1683, contains twenty-four numbered sections with continuous pagination, thirty-three plates (bound at the end) and two engraved portraits.

Thanks in particular to the Friends of the Princeton University Library for their ongoing assistance and their financial support of this important purchase.

“[January] 2d Last night I got up and began to kindle a Fire, when thinking it might be too early I went up to Papa’s room and look’d at his watch, found it to be about half past 1, at which discovery I undress’d and went to bed again–Rose in the Morning about 6, as soon as ’twas light enough, engrav’d at Hicks’s Compass Plate–In my way to the Doctor’s call’d upon Mr Durell and got 16/ of him–spent some time in kindling a fire in the Shop; read in Cullen’s Practice–At noon engrav’d–went to Mr Parr’s & paid his bill 1.4.6– At 3, went to the College and attended Dr. Bailey’s Lecture (Bones of the Head)–I gave him the Draught of the Exrescence which I finish’d today–after Lecture came home and engrav’d…”

Thanks to Jane Pomeroy’s newly published transcription of Alexander Anderson’s diary, we now know how he spent his days and night for the six years from 1793 to 1799. The entry above refers to William Durell, a New York publisher for whom Anderson engraved plates for several volumes. The payment he mentions might have been for his work, completed in 1792 for George Maynard’s Whole Genuine and Complete Works of Flavius Josephus.

Of the 60 wood engravings in the volume, Cornelius Tiebout cut 14; Amos Doolittle made 14; William Rollinson 6; J. Allen 5; Benjamin Tanner 2; and E. Tisdale only one. Alexander Anderson was the youngest artist working on the project, only seventeen years old at the time. Bibliographer and collector Sinclair Hamilton tells us he engraved 7 plates including 2 maps and a plan of Jerusalem. The designs are from drawings by Metz, Stothard, and Corbould.
Jane R. Pomeroy, Alexander Anderson’s New York City diary, 1793 to 1799 (New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press; Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society, 2014). Graphic Arts Collection GA 2014. In process

Flavius Josephus, The Whole Genuine and Complete Works of Flavius Josephus … by George Henry Maynard … (New-York: Printed and sold by William Durell …, 1792). Gift of Sinclair Hamilton. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize Hamilton 207f

This remarkable printer’s sample book displays a wide and varied stock of woodcuts from the Reyher Printing House, founded in the seventeenth century by the German educator and scholar Andreas Reyher (1601-1673). The blocks shown include decorated and historiated fraktur alphabets, cartouches, scientific diagrams and illustrations, series of religious and vernacular scenes, astronomy, coats of arms, and an enormous number of vignettes. There is no record of another Reyher album in the United States and only two in Europe, held in German libraries.

The volume gives a particularly good overview of the range of woodcuts that would have available to a printer, showing the opportunities as well as the restrictions in his design choices. Most of the woodcuts appear to be from the seventeenth-eighteenth century, however some probably date to the late sixteenth century. It also demonstrates the continued importance of woodcut decoration into the nineteenth century.

“The Reyher press has a fascinating place in history for its influence on the new theories of education expressed by its owner which were based on the educational precepts of Comenius and Ratke, modernizing and restructuring century old school plans. Andreas Reyher had studied theology and philosophy in Leipzig. He later served as rector of the gymnasium at Schleusingen and from 1641 held the same position at Gotha. Reyher viewed a printing house as an important tool in expressing his views and took over the shop of Peter Schmidt (active 1640-1644) when it became available. Reyher wrote and edited numerous texts in a wide variety of fields including languages (Hebrew, Greek and Latin), grammar, mathematics, logic, and theology. The firm remained in business up till modern times.”–Roger Gaskell

Holzschnitte der Reyher’schen Buchdruckerey in Gotha [printed wrapper title] (Gotha: Reyher Buchdruckerey, 1810). Folio, 22 bifolia, 44 leaves, printed on one side only of laid paper. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process

James Heath (1757-1834) was a talented reproductive engraver who was able to translate the paintings of Thomas Stothard (1755-1834), Henry Fuseli (1741-1825) and others into opulently yet accurate prints. When John Boydell (1720-1804) was looking for the best engravers in London to create the plates for an illustrated Shakespeare, Heath was one of the artists he hired.

After only a brief time, however, Heath decided he could compete with Boydell by publishing his own illustrated Shakespeare. Heath convinced his friend Stothard to contribute 16 drawings and like Boydell’s enterprise, not only bound his prints into a set of six volumes but also sold the engravings individually in print portfolios.

He released the series in parts between 1802 and 1804 when his first publisher, J. Robinson, ran out of money and turned the series over to John Stockdale, who completed the set.

Thanks to the kind donation of David Hunter McAlpin Jr., Class of 1950, the Graphic Arts Collection has a new print from Heath’s Shakespeare, depicting a scene in act 5 of Love’s Labour’s Lost.

The print includes a brief text: “King.  We came to visit you; and purpose now To lead you to our court: vouchsafe it then.  / Prin.  This field shall hold me; and so hold your vow: Nor God, or I, delight in perjur’d men.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

James Heath (1757-1834) after Thomas Stothard (1755-1834), “Love’s Labour’s Lost” from Heath’s Shakespeare, May 1, 1802. Etching and engraving. Gift of David Hunter McAlpin jr., Class of 1950. Graphic Arts Collection

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. The Plays of William Shakspeare. From the corrected text of Johnson and Steevens. Embellished with plates … (London: J. Stockdale, 1807), Firestone Oversize PR2752 .S8 1807q

Thanks to the kind donation of Gloria Jean Landolfi, in honor of Camille Sellito Langsdorf, the Graphic Arts Collection has several important publications and artifacts from the Club of Printing Women. In particular, we have the pin only worn by members of the Club, previously own by Ms. Langsdorf’s aunt Camille, who was a member of the New York branch and a working printer.

We also received a copy of the book: Antique, Modern, & Swash: A Brief History of Women in Printing (1955, RCPXG-6960832), along with the 50th Anniversary keepsake from The Club of Printing Women of New York, their 1971 Membership Directory, 25th Anniversary Dinner roster, as well as newspaper clippings and personal photographs of members.

For more information, see the website for Rebecca W. Davidson’s  exhibition “Unseen Hands”: http://libweb2.princeton.edu/rbsc2/ga/unseenhands/

A page from Antique, Modern, & Swash: A Brief History of Women in Printing

This 1857 almanac has advice for women who might want to travel abroad this summer.

Woman’s Sphere in Modern Life.

A woman’s true sphere is in her family, in her home duties which furnish the best and most appropriate training for her faculties, pointed out by Nature herself. And for those duties some of the very highest and noblest that are entrusted to human agency, the fine machinery that is to perform them should be wrought to its last point of perfectness.

The wealth of a woman’s mind, instead of lying in the rough, should be richly brought out and fashioned for its various ends, while yet those ends are in the future, or it will never meet the demand. And for her own happiness, all the more because her sphere is at home. Her home store should be exhaustless, the stores she cannot go abroad to see.

Lady’s Almanac for … (Boston: John P. Jewett, 1857). Graphic Arts Collection, Hamilton SS 431s

Thanks to the generous donations of Mary M. Schmidt, former art librarian of Princeton’s Marquand Art and Archeology Library, the Graphic Arts Collection is the proud new owner of eight 19^th -century French illustrated books. Among them, J. J. Grandville (1803-1847), Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux: études de moeurs contemporaines (Scenes from the Private and Public Lives of Animals: Studies of Contemporary Manners) might be the most curious.

The first question one might ask is who is responsible for this book?

Authors include Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850); George Sand (1804-1876); Charles Nodier (1780-1844); Jules Janin (1804-1874); Pierre Bernard (1810-1876); Émile de La Bédollière (1812-1883); Louis Baudet (1804-1862); Édouard Lemoine (1814-1868); Lhéritier (dates unknown); Paul de Musset (1804-1880); Louis Viardot (1800-1883); Marie Mennessier-Nodier (1811-18??); and Alfred de Musset (1810-1857).

Wood engravers include Louis-Henri Brevière (1797-1869); Louis Dujardin (1808-1857); Célestin Nanteuil (1813-1873); Adolphe-Jean Best (1808-1879); J.-H. Caqué (1820?-1885?); Pierre-François Godard (1797-1864); Henri Désiré Porret (1800-185?); Charles  Tamisier (1813-1855?); Brugnot (dates unknown); Saint-Elme Gautier (1849-1876?); François Rouget (1825?-18??); E. Bernard (dates unknown); Barbant (dates unknown); John Andrew (1800?-185?); Isidore Leloir (1802-18??); D. Thiébault (date unknown); Guibault (dates unknown) and Quichon (dates unknown).

The concept and original drawings were by J.J. Grandville (pseudonym for Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard, 1803-1847), however, according to Gordon Ray, “The moving force behind this book was its publisher P.J. Hetzel, who himself contributed many chapters under the pseudonym of P.J. Stahl. Though his model was Les Français peints par eux-mêmes, Hetzel’s primary objective, as he remarks in his preface, was ‘to give words to Grandville’s marvelous animals, and to join our pen with his pencil…'” Gordon Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, 1700 to 1914 (1982) Graphic Arts: (GARF) Oversize NC980 .R3 1982q

Grandville provided 232 illustrations, about 2/3 of which are full page plates, during the book’s serial appearance between 1840 and 1842.

Mary Schmidt’s gifts, for which we are extremely grateful, include the following;
Le Lithographiana. Recueil de caricatures amusantes; d’anas, de reparties, bons mots, plaisanteries et petites anecdotes (Paris: Aubert, 1835).

Virgil, Les Georgiques de Virgile, traduites en vers français par Jacques Delille; avec des notes et les variants (Paris: De l’imprimerie de P. Didot aîné, 1803)

Molière, Oeuvres complètes de Molière. Nouvelle edition (Paris: Laplace, Sanchez et Cie., 1871)

Alain René Le Sage, Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane (Paris: Paulin, Libraire-Éditeur, 1836)

Torquato Tasso, La Jérusalem délivrée. Édition illustrée par MM. Baron et C. Nanteuil (Paris: J. Mallet et Cie, 1841)

Lodovico Ariosto, Roland furieux (Paris: Morizot, Imp. S. Bacon, 1864)

Jean de La Fontaine, Fables de la Fontaine (Paris: Garnier Frères, 1868)

J.J. Grandville, Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux: études de moeurs contemporaines (Paris: J. Hetzel et Paulin, Schneider et Langrand, Lacrampe et Cie, 1842)

Another good source of information on Grandville’s book, and the others, is H. Hazel Hahn, Scenes of Parisian Modernity: Culture and Consumption in the Nineteenth Century (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). Firestone Library (F) HC280.C6 H34 2009

Thank you to the Friends of the Princeton University Library who joined us last night, perusing a small selection of new acquisitions in the Graphic Arts Collection. We looked at graphic material from the 17th century to the present, including one project that is still being printed.  There are so many events taking place over this busy alumni weekend, we are doubly grateful that so many of the Friends of the Library stopped by!

In case you missed it, here’s a list of what we saw:

1. Jean Dieu de Saint-Jean (1654-1695), [Collection of the Costumes of France] (Paris, 1678-1698). Spine title: Mode de France. All engraved, engravers identified in the plate are Gérard Scotin (1643-1715) and Franz Ertinger (1640-ca.1710). Graphic Arts Collection.
2. “The Learned Antiquarians Puzzl’d (by an English Epitaph),” January 1, 1770. Etching. Published by Mary Darly in Darly’s Comic Prints. Graphic Arts Collection. Inscription reads: Beneath this stone reposeth Claud Coster, tripe-seller of Impington, as doth his consort Jane.
3. Allegorical Map of the Track of Youth, to the Land of Knowledge (London: John Wallis, June 25, 1796). Engraved fan by Vincent Woodthorpe (ca.1764-1822) with hand coloring. Purchased with funds from the Historic Map Collection and Graphic Arts Collection and Exposition universelle [souvenir] Paris,1867. Designed by the French printer Charles Maurand (1824-1904). Wood engraved fan. Graphic Arts Collection.
4. London Almanack for the Year of Christ 1816 ([London]: Printed for the Company of Stationers, [1815]). Miniature with original decorated red morocco binding, gilt, onlays in buff, blue and green and a central hot-air balloon. Matching slipcase. Graphic Arts Collection.
5. Fore-edge paintings on: Lord Byron (1788-1824), The Works (London: Printed for John Murray, 1814-1824). Graphic Arts Collection.
6. John Sartain (1808-1897), after a drawing by James Hamilton (1819-1878) after daguerreotypes taken on the spot by John M. Hewitt (active 1840-1860). Ashland. The Homestead of Henry Clay. Philadelphia: F. Hegan, 1853. Etching, engraving, stipple engraving with hand coloring. Graphic Arts collection.
7. J. Wilkes Booth, The Assassin, 1865. Altered albumen photograph after Charles Deforest Fredricks (1823-1894). Graphic Arts Collection. Gift of Donald Farren, Class of 1958.
8. Chang-rae Lee, On Such a Full Sea (New York: Riverhead Books, 2014). Copy 471 of 500. Graphic Arts Collection. 3D printed slipcase designed by  art director Helen Yentus. Fabricated on the MakerBot® Replicator® 2 Desktop 3D Printer.
9. Antonio Martorell, Las Antillas Letradas [The Lettered Authors of the Antilles], 2014. 27 multi-media prints. Copy 1 of 100. Graphic Arts Collection. Purchased with funds provided by the Program in Latin American Studies.