#decorative borders

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Typography Tuesday

Today we are presenting more specimen pages from Specimens of Printing Types and Ornaments Cast by James Conner & Son, printed in New York by William L. S. Harrison for James Conner & Son in 1852.  James Conner (d. 1861) established the foundry in New York with Edwin Starr (d. 1853), who came from a family of typefounders, in 1829. The business was carried on after James Conner's death by his three sons William, James, and Charles into the 20th century.

Specimen catalogues were used by there owners in several ways, including cutting out the desired specimens they wished to purchase and sending it to the type founder. A note in the introduction to this specimen books states:

Our Patrons will please understand that no mutilation of this Book is necessary -- the Name and Number of the Type and Cut required will suffice.

In our catalogue, under the word Merchant on the page that reads "MERCHANT THOUGHT JEWELS," the owner has written "Merchant, 'Beati sunt qui in domino moriuntur.'" (Blessed are they who die in the Lord.)

Comforting.

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[holespoles]

Japan's children's book series "Penguin Fairy Tale Library" The cute penguin decorative borders

ペンギンどうわぶんこのペンギンがかわいい✨

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From: Chirat, C. Le Guide de La Charité, Ou, Moyens d’exercer Avec Fruit Les Oeuvres de Miséricorde. Lyon: Louis Lesne, 1843.

BV4639 .C5

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Calendar page for October 1861 with an illustration of ‘Duck Stalking’ within a decorative black and white border of Autumnal plants and beetles. Taken from ‘The Ilustrated London Almanack’.

VictorianVoices.net

archive.org

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Decorative Sunday: Dreams and Diversion

To wash in a river signifies joy. To wash in a spring signifies gladness. But to wash in a bath? Anxiety. Also signifying anxiety: a walk in a palace, the stretching of a bow, the shooting of an arrow, playing with a girl, and the washing of one’s feet.

Today we present a sampling of the 94 dreams interpreted in A Mediaeval Dream Book, published by Morris Cox of Gogmagog Press in London, in 1963. Cox hand-set the text in Cloister Old-Style, and is responsible for the title page’s engraving as well as the endpapers – unique in each of the 100 copies of this limited edition. The decorative borders were set in the Calypso fleuron designed by Roderick Cave. The text of this dream book is from a manuscript out of the collection of B.S. Cron, who explains its origins in a note at the back of the book:

This list of dreams and their interpretations is written in a hand of probably the fourteenth century on some blank leaves in the middle of a thirteenth century manuscript of the Treatise on the Virtues and Vices of Guillaume Pérault, Bishop of Lyons (died before 1260), that formerly belonged to the monastery, now Cathedral, of St. Benignus at Dijon. The manuscript is now in my possession.

In an essay considering the literary work of Morris Cox, Alan Tucker argues that the transformation of the list with decorative borders and its fine press Gogmagog treatment elevates it to something of a found poem. He gushes: “The book is about wonder, the control of fear…” He also admits that Cox himself “disowns” this interpretation: The list of dreams is just a list of dreams. As Cron explains, it “is published mainly for diversion.”

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--Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern

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Publishers’ Binding Thursday

For this week’s Publishers’ Binding Thursday post we’ve got more Shakespeare! This is As You Like It: A Pleasant Comedy by William Shakespeare. This edition was published in 1900 by Dodd, Mead, & Company in New York and is “newly embellished with sundry decorations by Will H. Low.” 

Will Hicok Low (1853-1932) was an artist, muralist, and writer. He also did decorative murals and design work, providing large-scale work for places like New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel and the rotunda of the New York State Education Building. 

The binding is a green bookcloth with a gold stamped sweeping floral design. There is a flowery bit at the middle of the cover stamped in white and outlined in gold. The title is stamped in gold. 

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-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager

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Typography Tuesday

Here are some border and initial designs by the eccentric English artist, designer, and occultist Austin Osman Spare for the English writer and editor J. C. Squire’s collection of short tales, The Gold Tree, printed in 1917 at the Pelican Press for Marvin Secker in London in an edition of 500 copies signed by the author. The designs were engraved in wood by William Quick who was responsible for engraving most of Spare's designs.

Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956) was an English artist and ardent occultist who developed his own personal occult philosophy and wrote a series of grimoires. As an artist Spare was influenced by artists who worked in the Art Nouveau style, such as Charles Ricketts and Aubrey Beardsley, and in the 1920s he established two short-lived art magazines, one of which, The Golden Hind, we hold a full run (1921-1924). The magazine was co-edited with Clifford Bax and published by Chapman and Hall, and each issue was signed by the editors and included an original signed print by a different artist. 

That’s a lot of signing, something of which The Gold Tree’s author J. C. Squire evidently was not a fan. In another copy of this book currently for sale on the rare book market, Squire added a comment to his signature, “I would rather write the book again than sign another 500 copies.”

View our posts on Austin Osman Spare’s The Golden Hind.

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Decorative Sunday: Walter Crane

Today we present The Shepheard's Calender: Twelve Aeglogues Proportionable to the Twelve Monethes by Edmund Spenser, adorned with twelve pictures and other devices by Walter Crane. Published by Harper & Brothers in London and New York in 1898.

 Walter Crane (1845-1915) was a British artist and one of the most prolific and influential children’s illustrators of his time. Crane was heavily involved in the Arts and Crafts Movement and  a student of John Ruskin and was also apprenticed to the wood engraver William James Linton. Along with influential Arts and Crafts leader William Morris, Walter Crane was involved in the Socialist movement, and worked throughout his life to bring art into daily life for all people. This led Crane to designing motifs for decorative arts like wallpaper and textiles. He also drew cartoons for several Socialist newspapers. Crane is well known for his illustrations for another of Edmund Spenser’s poems The Faerie Queene that has a similar asthetic .

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–Sarah, Special Collections Graduate Intern