How much did a wood engraving cost in 1862?

In 1862, when Benson John Lossing (1813-1891) wanted a small image for one of his illustrated American history books, he got in touch with the leading printmaker of the day, Alexander Anderson (1775-1870). Here is a receipt for Anderson’s political caricature Ograbme, or the American Snapping Turtle, originally published in 1807 in response to Thomas Jefferson’s Embargo Act on American merchants (Ograbme is embargo spelled backwards).

The Sinclair Hamilton Collection holds several receipts that give us wonderful information about the business of printmaking and book publishing during the early 19th century. One reduced size print–meaning the picture had to be completely re-cut–cost Lossing $6 and another $5.

The second order is for Anderson’s To the Grave Go Sham Protectors of Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights–And All The People Say ‘Amen’ (1814). The caricature comments on James Madison (1751-1836) who cuts the head off Ograbme (the Embargo Act) but is bitten anyway.

Pen and Ink Drawings by Donald Corley

“Here is one who from personal emotion can construct a house of beauty wherein his mind and soul may dwell and wherein his friends may find refreshment. A garden of phantasy where the flowers are never plucked.”—”Donald Corley,” The Arts, 1921.

Emery College graduate Donald Corley (1886-1955) completed advanced training as an architecture in Europe before returning to New York City in 1909. Working with McKim, Mead, and White, he assisted with the construction of Pennsylvania Station and contributed to the design of the central post office now called The James A. Farley Building.

During the summer of 1916 Corley joined other artists and writers gathering in Provincetown, MA, where he spent most of his time building sets for the Provincetown Players and acting in their plays. His first role was “a Norwegian” [Corley was born in Georgia] in Eugene O’Neill’s Bound East for Cardiff, performing alongside Bror J.O. Nordfeldt, Harry Kemp, and O’Neill himself, who played the second mate. That fall, they brought the company back to New York City, where Corley was instrumental in the design and construction of their theater.

With the war in Europe intensifying, many of the original members of the company left, including Jack Reed and Louise Bryant. Corley remained active with the Provincetown Players for several years as a writer, artist, and actor along with Charles Demuth, Susan Glaspell, Alfred Kreymborg, Harry Kemp, O’Neill, Mary Heaton Vorse, Marguerite and William Zorach, among others. The company survived, in part, thanks to the art collector Dr. A.C. Barnes who enjoyed their plays and handed them a check for $1,000.

Through his friendships with Demuth, Nordfeldt, and Marsden Hartley, Corley was introduced to the Whitney Studio Club and received a show of his pen and ink drawings in March 1921.

“Donald Corley . . . protests against two things,” wrote one reviewer, “architectural limitations and the lack of precision in art—against both, because he has been an architect (for eight years with McKim, Mead & White), and because he is an artist. He has designed the scenery for the movie production of “Thaïs” and for the present production at the Greenwich Theatre. He has also written fairy tales. He shows delightful drawings in ink with color applied with a ruling pen. Mr. Corley has a keen sense of rhythmic design and the daintiest of imaginations.”

This resulted in the publication of his first book, 22 Drawings in Black and White (Marquand Library Oversize NE539.C7 A3f, seen below right), reviewed in The Arts magazine:

“Here is a world of phantasy and paradox and ironic humor, where disillusion has not extinguished hope; where, in a spirit of unbelief, eager curiosity explored the universe of ideas; where life is full of wonder but possibly not worth while. Worth while only in abstractions and impersonal sublimations and wonderful only in delicate personalities that vanish in expression. Wherefore the symbolic form, symbols which are in some strange way the things they symbolize.

…Those there are who ask, “Why is it considered good form to make a tower look as if it would fall over sideways?” or this or that. Such questions amaze; they seem to have no connection with the real issue. Here always it is the idea that is the chief concern. Its expression is two-fold, the drawing and the text. Which is the more intricate and elusive is hard to decide. To Mr. Corley they are of equal importance and are as the words and music of a song. Apart or together they are as direct and emotional an expression of the idea as the music which might be written for them. This is the modern spirit.”

Corley’s ink drawings also appeared regularly in the little Greenwich Village magazine, The Quill, where he was listed as a contributing editor, and in The Dial. Eventually, he gave up architecture completely in favor of writing and illustrating.

When The New York Times published a brief obituary on December 14, 1955, they failed to mention any of his work with theater or film, commenting only that he “wrote The House of Lost Identity, published in 1927. The Fifth Son of the Shoemaker his best-known work, came out two years later. He also wrote The Haunted Jester and illustrated many magazine articles and books.”

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired 28 pen and ink drawings attributed to Donald Corley, ca. 1921. These are not signed and we haven’t yet found them reproduced in a published book or magazine. Here are a few samples.

Georg Hulbe, leather artisan

Georg Hulbe (1851-1918), Chronika Haus Heimatfreude [Cover words, Chronicle House Homeland]. Book-shaped box with embossed leather decor ([Hamburg], circa 1890/95). 33 x 42 x 10 cm. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process

We all know there are many objects that look like books but aren’t books thanks to Mindy Dubansky’s 2016 Grolier exhibition and catalogue. Here is another. It is a box with an elaborately tooled leather cover by the Art Nouveau craftsman George Hulbe (1851-1918).

If you go to Hamburg today, you will certainly visit the Hulbe-Haus on Mönckebergstraße. The jewel-like building was designed in 1910 by Henry Grell for Hulbe, to serve as his studio, gallery and shop. This was the culmination of a long series of workshops run by Hulbe, beginning in 1884 and growing into one of the largest firms in the country, employing more than two hundred workers.

We know this piece is the work of Hulbe by the two stamps worked into the leather: the first are the words “Georg Hulbe / Hamburg Berlin” on the lower front edge and on the back cover is the artist’s chop mark on the lower right.

The leather cover is beautifully worked with the central figure of an angel holding a crown bearing the initials H and J gilded with a brush. Two clasps open to reveal a simple box with a leather strap and green linen covering.

Hulbe’s workshop designed and sold embossed leather furniture, wall treatments, bookbindings, and many other decorative arts products. His fame was so great that he was chosen to create the “Golden book of the city” as well as the leather wall coverings in the Hamburg town hall. Today, Hulbe designs can found at the Reichstag in Berlin, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. And now, Princeton University Library.

A Paper Calculator

Peter Bleich, Anweisung zum Gebrauche der allgemeinen Rechentafel, wodurch die vier Rechnungsarten auf vierfache Weise fest und sicher erlernet werden (Vienna: Mayer, 1838). [issued with]: A calculator consisting of 34 tables printed on thick paper strips & kept in a “calculating” box of blue paste-paper measuring 119 x 184 mm., with five cut-out panels for the calculations, preserved in the orig. marbled paper slipcase. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process

“Napier’s bones” was a manually-operated calculating device created in 1617 by the Scottish mathematician John Napier of Merchiston (1550-1617). His numbered rods–made of ivory, wood, metal, or heavy cardboard–could perform all types of mathematics. During the 18th and 19th centuries, many variations of Napier’s invention were tried, leading up to 1838 when Peter Bleich (1798-1871) published his own paper ‘bones.’

Bleich’s device was used by hundreds of young students to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in the classroom. The paper calculator had thirty-four movable strips or bones that fit into five panels with vertical windows to read the calculation. Princeton’s device is housed in the original marbled paper slipcase.

From 1831 until his death, Bleich lectured and taught at the Zollersche main school of Vienna, which is described in the 1851 essay Die Michael von Zoller and Franz Aloys Bernard’sche Hauptschule. His most noted publication was the 1846 educational booklet Nur Ruhe! (Silence), in which he gives 300 suggestions and hints to help keep children calm in the classroom without resorting to spanking. Unfortunately, there is no copy of Nur Ruhe! in any American library.

See also: Peter Bleach (1798-1871), Nur Ruhe! oder 300 einfache Mittel, die Ruhe in der Schule zu erhalten : ein Noth- und Hülfsbüchlein für angehende Schulmänner, denen es darum zu thun ist, die Ruhe in der Schule auf zweckmäßige Weise, ohne irgend einer Strenge, herzustellen (Wien: Meyer & Companie, 1846).

Peter Bleach (1798-1871), Die Michael v. Zoller- und Franz Aloys Bernard’sche Hauptschule im Bezirke Neubau in Wien; eine geschichtliche Darstellung dieser Lehranstalt von ihrem Entstehen im Jahre 1743, bis zum jetzigen Bestande im Jahre 1851 (Wien: Gedruckt bey L. Grund, 1851).

Peter Bleach (1798-1871), Tagesordnung eines Kindes : oder: Anleitung, wie sich ein Kind vom frühen Morgen bis in die Nacht zu verhalten hat (Wien: Mechitharisten-Congregations-Buchhandlung, 1862)

Game of the Great Exhibition of 1851

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired this unabashedly politically incorrect board game, in which people from around the world meet in London at the 1851 Great Exhibition. Caricatures of all races, creeds, and occupations are encountered as players make their way around this ‘game of the goose’ published by William Spooner.

For some reason, this game has 76 squares rather than the typical 63. The central winning square is the Crystal Palace itself with international visitors mingling outside the building.

**Note, square 34 representing the Americans holds a gun that can even shoot around corners. This is a reference to the Hartford inventor Samuel Colt (1814-1862), who brought 500 of his new Colt revolvers to display in the Exhibition.

No artist is identified on the board but the figures are redolent of Richard Doyle’s work, such as his comic An Overland Journey to the Great Exhibition, published the same year.

Artistic skits of the Great Exhibition of 1851: There were, doubtless, many of these— separate publications—in addition to the illustrations in Punch and other journals. I can mention two by distinguished men. 1. Overland Journey to the Great Exhibition, showing a few Extra Articles and Visitors, by Richard Doyle. These sketches were in nine panoramic plates in oblong quarto. 2. The Great Exhibition “Wot is to Be “; or, Probable Results of the Industry of All Nations, by George Augustus Sale. This was a folding panorama, eighteen feet in length, the designs, about 350 in number, being coloured, oblong octave. Not very long since I saw a copy of this, priced 385., in a London catalogue of second-hand books.” –Notes and Queries (March 16, 1889): 206.

Comic Game of the Great Exhibition of 1851 (London: William Spooner, 1851). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process.

See also: Richard Doyle (1824-1883), An Overland Journey to the Great Exhibition: showing a few extra articles & visitors (London: Chapman and Hall, [1851]) Graphic Arts Collection Oversize NE910.G7 D7 1851q

Hal Siegel

Design for Babylon Revisited painted by Hal Siegel. (c) Charles Scribner’s Sons

The illustrator and designer Hal Siegel (active 1950s-1980s) gained a dedicated following among art directors for his striking book cover designs. Freelancing for various major publishing houses, his commissions grew until the late 1970s, when Siegel became art director for Prentice-Hall in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

One of his most important early commissions came from Charles Scribner’s Sons, where a decision was made to publish a series of paperback editions of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels.

The Graphic Arts Collection holds ten paintings by Siegel, oil on board, which served as the basis for ten Fitzgerald book covers, each sporting bright yellow lettering. Here are a few examples.

Design for Tender Is the Night painted by Hal Siegel. (c) Charles Scribner’s Sons

Design for The Beautiful and the Damned, painted by Hal Siegel. (c) Charles Scribner’s Sons

Design for Flappers and Philosophers painted by Hal Siegel. (c) Charles Scribner’s Sons

Design for The Last Tycoon painted by Hal Siegel. (c) Charles Scribner’s Sons

It is unfortunate that Siegel fails to appear in any American art index or directory, leaving his biography sadly incomplete. Here is a partial list of the books (taken from online sources) with a cover design or art direction by Siegel.

Edouard Glissant, The Ripening (New York: George Braziller, 1959).
Arthur C. Clarke, Tales of Ten Worlds (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1962).
Bruno Bettelheim, The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self (New York: Free Press/A Division of the Macmillan Company, 1967).
Ray Birdwhistell, Kinesics and Context: Essays on Body Motion Communication (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1970).
Maurice Chevalier, I Remember It Well ([New York] The Macmillan Company [1970]).
F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970).
Robert Flynn, The Sounds of Rescue, The Signs of Hope (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970).
Pamela Hansford Johnson, The Honours Board (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970).
William L. Henderson and Larry C. Ledebur, Economic Disparity: problems and strategies for Black America (New York: Free Press, 1970).
Marshall McLuhan and Wilfred Watson, From Cliche to Archetype (New York: Viking Press, 1970).
Ursule Molinaro, The Borrower, An Alchemical Novel (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1970).
Alice Walker, The Third Life of Grange Copeland (New York: Harcourt Brace & Jovanovich, 1970).
David Amram, Vibrations – The Adventures and Musical Times of David Amram (New York: Viking Press, 1971).
Walter Allen (editor), Transatlantic Crossing: American Visitors to Britain and British Visitors to America in the 19th Century (New York: William Morrow, 1971).
Adolph F. Bandelier, The Delight Makers: a novel of prehistoric Pueblo Indians (New York: Harcourt Brace/Harvest, 1971).
Alfred Coppel, Between the Thunder and the Sun (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich 1971).
Kenneth W. Grundy, Guerrilla Struggle in Africa: an analysis and preview (New York: Grossman, 1971).
James Henderson, Copperhead (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971).
Stanley Kauffmann, Figures of Light: Film Criticism and Comment (New York: Harper & Row, 1971).
Kenneth Keniston, Youth and Dissent: The Rise of a New Opposition (New York: A Harvest Book/ Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1971).
John Kobler, Capone, The Life & World of Al Capone (New York: Putnam’s, 1971).
Jerzy Kosinski, Being There (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971).
Patricia Laubger, Of Man and Mouse How House Mice Became Laboratory Mice (New York: Viking Press, 1971).
Tom McHale, Farragan’s Retreat (New York: The Viking Press, 1971).
Nicholas Monsarrat, Breaking in-Breaking Out, An Autobiography (New York: Morrow, 1971).
Augustus J. Rogers, III, Choice: An Introduction to Economics (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- Hall, 1971).
Derek Robinson, Goshawk Squadron a Novel (New York: The Viking Press, 1971).
Muriel Spark, Not to Disturb (New York: Viking Press, 1971).
John Stickney, Streets, Actions, Alternatives, Raps (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1971).
Ian Wallace, The Pearl and Prince (New York: McCall Books, 1971).
Jay David, (editor), Black Defiance: Black Profiles in Courage (New York: William Morrow, 1972).
Robertson Davies, The Manticore (New York: The Viking Press, 1972).
G. Davis and K. Pedler, Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters (New York: Viking Penguin, 1972.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1972).
Helen Hayes and Anita Loos, Twice Over Lightly: New York Then and Now (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. [1972]).
George V. Higgins, The Friends of Eddie Coyle (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972).
Elizabeth Jane Howard, Odd Girl Out (New York: Viking Press, 1972).
Jeanine Larmoth, Murder on The Menu [Food and Drink in The English Mystery Novel] (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons [1972]).
David O. Selznick, Memo from David O. Selznick (New York, The Viking Press [1972]).
Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama (New York; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973).
Spencer Dunmore, The Last Hill (New York: William Morrow, 1973).
Lebar Gerard and Jacques Israel, When Jerusalem Burned (New York: William Morrow, 1973).
Ross MacDonald, Sleeping Beauty (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973).
Arthur Miller, The Creation of the World and Other Business: A Play (New York: Viking Press, 1973).
Jesse Stuart, The Land Beyond the River (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1973).
I.S. Young, Uncle Herschel, Dr. Padilsky, and the Evil Eye: A Novel of Old Brooklyn (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, c.1973).
Stanley Ellin, Stronghold (New York: Random House, 1974).
Jess Stearn, A Prophet in His Own Country: The Story of the Young Edgar Cayce (New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1974).
Berkely Mather, With Extreme Prejudice (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975).
Rumer Godden, The Peacock Spring (New York: The Viking Press, 1976).
Ross MacDonald, The Blue Hammer (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976).
Maria Rasputin and Patte Barham, Rasputin: The Man Behind the Myth (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1977).
Stephen Marlowe, Translation (New York: W H Allen, 1977).
Robert Westall, The Wind Eye (New York: Greenwillow Books, 1977).
Children’s Toys You Can Build Yourself (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall Inc [c.1978]).
Cheli Duran, Kindling (New York: Greenwillow, 1979).
Alma J. Koenig, Gudrun (New York, NY: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1979).
Jane Roberts, The Further Education of Oversoul Seven (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1979).
Christiaan Barnard, Good Life Good Death, a Doctor’s Case for Euthanasia & Suicide (Englewood Cliff, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1980).
Mary Glatzle with Evelyn Fiore, Muggable Mary: My Life with the Street Crime Unit (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1980).
Maxine Marx, Growing Up with Chico, The Biography of Chico Marx by His Daughter (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1980).
Joel L. Fleishman (Edited by), The Future of American Political Parties – The Challenge of Governance (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: A Spectrum Book/ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1982).
James Reid Macdonald, The Fossil Collectors’ Handbook: a paleontology field guide (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1983).
Lawrence Fawcett, Clear Intent: The Government Coverup of the UFO Experience (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Reward Books, 1984).
David Pepi, Thoreau’s Method: A Handbook for Nature Study (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1985).
Chet Raymo, Honey from Stone: A Naturalist’s Search for God (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company Inc [1987]).
Lynne Bravo Rosewater, Changing through Therapy: understanding the therapeutic experience (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1987).
Dolores Weeks, The Cape Murders (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1987).

The Historiscope

The Historiscope: a Panorama & History of America (Springfield, Mass.: Milton Bradley & Co., [1868?]). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process

Lithographer Milton Bradley (1836-1911) marketed his first game “The Checkered Game of Life” in 1860 and went on to produce hundreds of educational toys and books. Princeton is fortunate to own several copies of the Bradley Company’s paper panorama: The Myriopticon: A Historical Panorama of the Rebellion (American Civil War). We now add a new edition of its complement: The Historiscope: A Panorama and History of America (Springfield, Mass.: Milton Bradley & Co., ca. 1868), offering a less elaborate model than Cotsen’s.

Cotsen Library, South East (CTSN) Toys 30665

The chromolithographic scroll is made up of eight conjoined strips resulting in an image measuring 14 x 221 cm ( ~7 1/3 feet long). It rolls across the printed proscenium of a paper theatre box, thanks to a winding mechanism that is cranked by hand. Ours comes with its original crank.

The Historiscope provides a rolling journey through the history of the United States of America, from its discovery by Columbus, through the War of independence and the age of the steam engine. There are twenty-five scenes, including Columbus arriving in America; the Spanish conquest; the baptism of Pocohontus; Pilgrim Fathers; early settlement; treaties with Native Americans; the battle between the English and the French; the American War of Independence; the opening of transcontinental railway celebration; the new Capitol building, Washington D.C.; cotton farming; a steam threshing machine; and several more.

For more, see “The Historiscope and the Milton Bradley Company: Art and Commerce in Nineteenth-Century Aesthetic Education” by Jennifer Lynn Peterson https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/675800

El Show del Niño Burro

El Show Del Niño Burro: Charles Glaubitz. 5 two-color etchings, each printed from an original drawing directly on the zinc plates (Tijuana, B.C.: La Brigada Ediciones, Agosto 2014). No. 16 of 30. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process.

The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have acquired the portfolio El Show Del Niño Burro by the Tijuana-based artist Charles Glaubitz. Quoting from the wonderful dealer’s note:

The niño-burro (boy-donkey) is a California border character par excellence and has a close relationship with the American comics and illustration. Is not an appropriation of the donkey-zebras of Tijuana, but a remake of the same emblem of the city. It is not a harmless animal that pleases the tourist. It is a controversial character: childhood as a symbol of no domestication, of irreverence and, paradoxically, of candor. In addition to traveling back and forth between San Diego and Tijuana for many years, Charles Glaubitz regularly crosses borders and pushes boundaries in his work.

The Tijuana-based painter, illustrator and graphic novelist has a visual style that employs iconic, cartoonish imagery such as Lucha Libre masks and skeleton-faced Mickey Mouse figures, as well as children in spacesuits and Zonkey costumes (Zonkeys are Tijuana Donkeys painted to look like Zebras). ‘During school, I was exposed to Joseph Campbell who is this scholar and academic who talked about world mythologies and focused not on their differences but on their similarities,’ says Glaubitz, referring to his time at the California College of Arts in Oakland.

Books with Tails

The American bibliographer Henry Stevens (1819-1886) graduated at Yale in 1843 and studied at Harvard Law School in 1843–1844 before moving to London to work as a professional collector of Americana. Many collections—public and private, British and American—are rich thanks to his scholarship and perseverance.

In 1873, he made a list of nearly 2,000 Books with Tails or “continuations.” He also calls them incomplete or unfinished periodicals. A few pages from this list are posted here, in honor of the many book dealers, collectors, and bibliographers coming to town in a few days.

Henry Stevens, American books with tails to ’em. A private pocket list of the incomplete or unfinished American periodicals transactions memoirs judicial reports laws journals legislative documents and other continuations and works in progress supplied to the British Museum and other libraries ([London: Stevens’s Bibliographical Nuggetory, 1873]). ReCAP 04041.881

How to make a relief line block and a halftone plate (old school)

Here are our worn but still useful teaching progressives for the making of metal relief line blocks and the making of metal halftone plates. These were done many years ago, when we still brushed on acid without a fume hood. The images are fairly high resolution so you should be able to zoom in but here are also a few details.