Splendid Beauty Reads Book En Plein Air (1895)

by Stephen J. Gertz

A nude woman, languid upon a sheet in a pastoral setting, with a gown loosely draped across her lower body, is deeply engrossed in a book.

The book she's reading is, presumably, Longus' Daphnis and Chloe, specifically the Edition de Deux Mondes published in Paris, 1895 by the Société des Beaux Arts and illustrated by Raphael Collin. 

In the movie version, the camera would track over the woman's shoulder and move into the book, whereupon the text would dissolve into scene one. Here, she is actually in the book, a comely prelude to the text, in three states of dishabille ala book, color, sepia, and red tint.

Then we meet Chloe...

...And Daphnis and Chloe.

They are bound together in love and leather within a sumptuous azure crushed morocco binding lavishly gilt and inlaid in an Art Nouveau design, the covers with a large central fleur-de-lys in gilt and maroon morocco within an elaborate frame of lily bouquets and garlands inlaid in maroon, orange, and white. 

The spine is gilt in compartments, the smaller ones at head and tail with an inlaid maroon fleur-de-lys, with a large central compartment containing a spray of lilies in maroon and white, and two compartments with gilt titling.  The inner boards feature broad gilt dentelles with elaborate floral and foliate decoration.

 

Burnt orange morocco doublures grace the inner covers, the front doublure featuring an oval inset of white kidskin  with a hand-colored engraving of a female figure. The endpapers are of ivory moiré silk.

ABPC notes that only one copy of this very strictly limited edition of Daphnis and Chloe, translated into English from the 1559 French translation (Les amours pastorales de Daphnis et Chloe) of the original Greek by Jacques Amyot, tutor to the sons of Henry II and Bishop of Auxerre, and identically bound, has come to auction since 1975.

A luxury volume attractively printed on Japanese vellum with boldly wide margins, it is gorgeously illustrated with a series of engravings that were considered to be some of the most attractive of the period. In a list published in 1895 and cited by Gordon N.. Ray in The Art of the French Illustrated Book 1700-1914, the Collin-illustrated Daphnis and Chloe, first issued in 1890, came in fourth in a survey to determine the ten best modern French illustrated books. 

The edition under notice appears to have been produced a few years later, as part of a series of  deluxe volumes of literary works illustrated by some of the best contemporary artists, and issued by the Sociétié de Beaux Arts in a Salon Édition of 500 copies, an Édition Artistique of 75 copies, and, as here, an Édition de Deux Mondes of 20 copies. The identical  binding design was used for the Sociétié's 1895 twenty-copy Édition de Deux Mondes of Flaubert's A Simple Heart.

Louis-Joseph-Raphael Collin aka Raphael Collin (1850 -1916) was a French painter and illustrator associated the symbolist movement. He studied at the School of St. Louis, then at Verdun, where he was a classmate of Jules Bastien-Lepage, who grew to become a close friend. Collin later went to Paris where he became a student of William Bouguereau, then joined his friend Bastien-Lepage in Cabanel. Collin was a genre painter of nudes, portraits, decorative compositions, and a book illustrator. He exhibited at the Salon beginning in 1873 and won several awards.

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LONGUS. Daphnis and Chloe. With Illustrations by Raphael Collin. Preface by Jules Claretie. Paris: Société des Beaux Arts, 1895.

Edition de Deux Mondes, limited to twenty copies only, this copy indicated with a star. Quarto (10 5/8 x 7 7/8 in; 270 x 200 mm). xvi, 166 pp. Printed on velin. With eleven in-text illustrations in three states (full color, black and white, and single color) and twelve plates in two states, one color and one black and white, all with tissue guards.

Cf. Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book 1700-1914, p. 377.

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Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks.
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Nice Ass, Great Binding

by Stephen J. Gertz

In 1904, publisher George Bell and Sons issued a beautifully designed and printed edition of the ancient classic The Golden Ass, aka Metamorphosis, by Apuleius in its 1566 English translation by William Adlington. Published in an edition of 200 numbered copies for sale, it was printed by the Chiswick Press.

In 1960, a copy of the Chiswick Golden Ass received fine binding treatment.  It was bound by Bernard Kiernan.

Now, in 2012, that copy is the subject of a Booktryst post with teasing headline of dubious taste. Aim high, swing low.

Title-page.

Kiernan bound the copy in full light brown morocco with fifteen onlaid deep purple morocco medallions with a radiating sun motif in gilt to the upper and lower boards, each medallion encircled by a black morocco border. Six compartments with onlaid gray morocco hexagons and black morocco label lettered in gilt grace the spine. Inside, burnt orange morocco doublures with gilt rays emanating from a plain central oval stagger the eyes when the book is opened. All edges are gilt.

Few are aware of master bookbinder Bernard Kiernan (1922-1967). Bernard Henry Kierman  took up bookbinding as a hobby in 1954 at age thirty-two. He was largely self-taught and became a member of the Guild of Contemporary Binders in 1958 and exhibited at Foyles in the same year. He was elected a Fellow of the Guild but, alas, died in 1967 at age forty-five. Bibliographer J.R. Abbey had a number of books bound by him, one of which is illustrated in The Anthony Dowd Collection of Modern Bindings (John Rylands University Library, 2002, pp. 106-7). He also bound a copy of Craig's Irish Bookbindings 1600-1800 which was in William Foyle's collection. A copy of Charles Holme's The Art of  the Book bound by Kiernan is found in the British Library. Many volumes in the Gutteridge collection of books on cricket were bound by Kiernan. He was held in high regard for his original designs and tooling skills, as splendidly displayed here. His career was short, his work distinguished.

Cover detail.

Few, if any, care about publisher George Bell and Sons. But The Chiswick Press is another matter entirely. Peel back the skin of the Private Press movement and the enormous influence of the Chiswick Press lies exposed.

Woodcut historiated initial.

"Chiswick Press was established in the printing shop of Charles Whittingham (1767-1840) in 1787. Although the press moved on a few occasions, it operated for the most part in London, England. Chiswick Press became influential in English printing and typography and, most notably, published some of the early designs of William Morris. The press continued to operate until 1962" (Special Collections, University of Missouri Libraries).

Front doublure.

In 1811, Whittingham began printing inexpensive editions of the classics. In 1838, his nephew and apprentice of the same name, Charles Whittingham (1795-1876), assumed control of Chiswick, and under his stewardship the press revived old typefaces and made a concerted effort to improve the quality of typographical design and printing in England, which had fallen low.

Historiated initial.

The high quality that Chiswick Press brought to English printing became the craft's gold standard in the U.K. Chiswick Press was a trade printer - Great Britain's finest -  servicing publishers (it became the most in-demand print shop of nineteenth century England), but its influence extended beyond job work. It played an important role in the development of the Private Press movement, which strove to meet and exceed the mastery of the Chiswick Press. They printed many of William Morris's early books, and the great printer and designer, Emery Walker, a founding father of the Arts & Crafts movement who established the Doves Press with T.J. Cobden-Sanderson in 1900, used the Chiswick Press to print  an edition of  Burns' The Pied Piper  of Hamelin in 1889. The Chiswick Press printed books for the Riccardi Press, the Folio Society, Boar's Head Press, etc.

Stamped signature to rear doublure.

I don't pretend to know all there is to know about rare books; I only became aware of the Chiswick Press a few months ago yet I consider it an embarrassing lacuna in my knowledge. Now, as if seeing a previously unknown consumer product or car for the first time, I  find references to it all over the place. And this copy of The Golden Ass bound by Kiernan holds a place of honor.

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Frontispiece.

[KIERNAN, Bernard, binder]. APULEIUS. The Golden Ass. Translated by William Adlington. London: Chiswick Press for George Bell and Sons, 1904.

One of two hundred numbered copies, this being copy no. 195, out of a total edition of 220. Quarto (13 1/8 x 8 in; 335 x 203 mm). [17, blank], [1, limitation], [1, half-title], [1, blank], [6], 226, [1, colophon], [11 blank] pp. Frontispiece and title page by W.L. Bruckman; title page in red and black. Rubricated headlines and running heads, text in black. Historiated woodcut initials in black. Shoulder notes in red and black.

Bound in 1960 by Bernard Kiernan.

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Many thanks to Edward Bayntun-Coward for information about Bernard Kiernan.

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Images courtesy David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks.

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Homer and the Fabulous Foulis Brothers Top the Charts With "Iliad" and "Odyssey"

by Stephen J. Gertz

In 1756-1758, Robert and Andrew the Younger, the Foulis brothers, printers in Glasgow, hooked up with Homer, a poet from Greece, and produced a number one hit, one of the great antiquarian golden oldies, critically acclaimed upon its release and since as one of the most esteemed volumes to ever make the rare book Top 40 - Printing.

"I give it a ten. It has great typography and you can dance with it" (Dick Clark, American Bookstand).

I'm with Dick, though I don't recommend swingin' 'n swayin' it to the Lindy Hop. The layout, margins, line spacing, font -  I can't understand a word on the page but I can't take my eyes off the leaves; drawn in and spellbound, at times I feel like I'm actually reading them. Aesthetically and practically it's  very easy on the eyes. It's no wonder people can't stop talking about it.

"Robert Foulis (1707-1776) and Andrew Foulis (1712-1775) were at the forefront of the print trade in 18th century Glasgow and they contributed greatly to the development of Enlightenment print culture in the city…The editions of the classics produced by the Foulis brothers were renowned for their textual accuracy and the beauty of their type. Their greatest publication achievement is said to be that of a folio edition of Homer (1756-58) which contemporaries recognised as a masterpiece of literary and typographical accuracy" (Young, John R. The Glasgow Story).

"The partnership of the Foulis brothers marked the most significant period for Glasgow in publishing and printing during the eighteenth century. They printed some 586 editions together during their active partnership, 1744–75, producing books at a rate which varied from nine in 1764 to forty-three in 1751, an average of almost seventeen a year. Their connections with the university formed the basis of their success, with works written or edited by Glasgow professors such as Francis Hutcheson, George Muirhead, James Moor, and William Leechman dominating the British authors, and classical texts required for studies in the college such as Cicero, Xenophon, Epictetus, and the poets of the Anacreonta, frequently reprinted or re-edited by the brothers...

"Of greatest significance, however, were the four volumes of the works of Homer issued in 1756–8 in folio...The Homer was financed by an informal group of professors at Glasgow led by William Rouat...The texts were printed in a new fount of Greek type designed and cut by the Glasgow typefounder Alexander Wilson. After three sets of corrections at the printers' expense, the text was proof-read, sheet by sheet, by professors Moor and Muirhead: the corrected proofs are now in the National Library of Scotland. Despite the importance of the edition for classical scholarship and the history of printing and publishing in the Enlightenment, the venture was a financial disaster for the brothers" (Oxford DNB).

"Edited by [University of Glasgow] Professors James Moor and George Muirhead, whose prefaces are dated Ides November 1756 (Illiad) and Ides May 1758 (Odyssey)...{It was] awarded the Silver Medal of the Select Society of Edinburgh in 1756 and 1757" (Gaskell).

"'One of the most splendid editions of Homer ever delivered to the world' says Harwood, 'and I am informed that its accuracy is equal to its magnificence.' The reader, on perusing the preface, will see with what pains this sumptuous work was executed; each sheet, before it was finally committed to the press, was six times corrected by various literary men" (Dibdin).

The copy at Cambridge appears to be that submitted for judgment as an example of fine typography. Within it is a manuscript note stating: "We are of the opinion this edition of Homer's Odyssey is entitled to the prize for the best printed & most correct Greek Book," apparently signed by two of the judges.

I had a copy with marvelous, eye-popping provenance pass through my hands. It had been originally owned by William Danby (1752-1833), the extravagantly wealthy, accomplished scholar and writer of Thoughts, Chiefly on Serious Subjects (1821), Ideas and Realities, or, Thoughts on Various Subjects (1827), Extracts from and observations on Cicero's dialogues De senectute and De amicitia (1829), and a translation of his Somnium Scipionis, with notes (1829), and Thoughts on Various Subjects (1831).

Later, Bloomsbury member, biographer and literary critic Lytton Strachey (1880-1932) possessed it.  The next owner was head of publishing house Secker & Warburg, Roger Senhouse (1899-1970),  who possessed Lytton Strachey.

In The Letters of Lytton Strachey, edited by Paul Levy (2005), it is revealed that Strachey and Senhouse had a torrid, long-term sado-masochistic love affair. With Senhouse the sadist, the two would enact an erotic recreation of Christ's crucifixion, Strachey blissfully absorbing the wounds. (Levy, Paul. Bloomsbury's Final Secret, in the Telegraph, March 14, 2005).

A video of that twisted tune has yet to surface on YouTube.

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HOMER. [Works in Greek] Tes Ton Homerou Illiadae… [et] Tes Tou Homerou Odysseias… [Transliterated from the Greek]. Rurus, Quid Virtus, et Quid Sapientia Possit, Util Proposuit Nobis Exemplar Ulyssem. Glasguae: In Aedibus Academicis, Excudebant Robertus et Andreas Foulis Academieae Typographi, 1756-58.

First edition. Four tomes in two folio volumes (12 7/8 x 8 in; 200 x 325 mm). [2, blank], 312; 336, [2, blank]; [2, blank], 297, [1]; 336, [2, blank] pp on fine laid paper watermarked Pro Patria. Separate title pages. Commonly lacking the general title ("Rarely found" - Gaskell).

Gaskell 319. ESTC T090250. Dibdin I, p. 385. Rothchild 2674.

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Images courtesy of Blackwell's Rare Books, with our thanks.

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