Judy Garland Spots James Mason In Rare 1805 Book

by Stephen J. Gertz

The original, unsigned and undated, artwork for a series of satirical prints, Symptoms of Drilling, signed on the published prints as  "Designed & Etched by H.B.H. Esq. 1805" without imprint, recently fell into my lap. Bound by Riviere and Son c. 1900 - incredibly with misspelled title, "Symptons," on the upper cover - it was from the collection of the great film  director, George Cukor, and bears his celebrated bookplate designed by Paul Landacre.

Bookplate by Paul Landacre.

"For George / I came across this book & spotted James Mason. Judy"

It was a gift to Cukor from Judy Garland, inscribed, "For George/ I ran across this book & spotted James Mason / Judy." The book was likely presented and the message likely written c. 1953-54, the years that Cukor's production of Garland's star-vehicle, A Star Is Born, co-starring Mason, was shot and released. 

Symptoms of Drilling / Fall in Gentlemen!- heads up! - eyes right!

Ready! -p'sent! - wait Gentlemen, wait for the Word "Fire!"

The watercolors, in a style similar to Thomas Rowlandson, depict a motley crew of comical recruits engaged in soldier's training under the direction of a drill sergeant. The captions have been added by hand in the sky above the heads of the recruits. A bookseller's description tipped to the front endpaper mistakenly attributes them to Rowlandson but the only surviving copies of the published prints, at the British Museum (incomplete set) and Brown University (complete set), bear the signature and date at noted above.

Shoulder Arms.

It remains unknown who "H.B.H." or "H, H.B." is, and the published album is unrecorded by Tooley or Abbey.

March!!!- Cock-up there!

To the Right - face!

The series might well have been titled, "1st Division, Wildly Divided, Amateur Army... Chaos on the March!!!" If someone looking like James Mason is part of this platoon of British Gomer Pyles I don't see him. Miss Garland was clearly poking fun at the British actor who, in A Star Is Born, portrays washed-up movie star, Norman Maine, to Judy Garland's rising star, Esther Blodgett / Vicki Lester, the two in a heartfelt yet disastrous marriage.

Authentic Judy Garland autograph material is difficult to come by - studio publicists routinely signed still photographs - and her signature mutated over the years, her autograph from the 1930s - 1940s quite distinct from later examples. As odd as her signature appears here in contrast to earlier ones there is little doubt that this inscription is genuine. Why would someone make the  effort to deceive with this obscure, one-off album, and why would it be in George Cukor's possession? 

Had she remained in character the inscription would have been tear-stained and signed, "Mrs. Norman Maine," how Vicki Lester accepted her Academy Award after dearly beloved husband Norman Maine took a long walk off a short pier and journeyed into the drink for a final, dramatic exit stage-right to continue his full-time drinking into eternity.

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[H.B.H. or H., H.B.]. Symptoms of Drilling. N.p.: n.p., n.d. [1805]. Oblong octavo (5¾ x 16¾ in; 145 x 427 mm). A set of five original watercolor illustrations folded in two.

1. Symptoms of Drilling. Fall in Gentlemen!- heads up! - eyes right!
2. To the Right - face!
3.  March!!!- Cock-up there!
4.  Shoulder Arms
5.  Ready! -p'sent! - wait Gentlemen, wait for the Word "Fire!" 

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Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks.
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Napoleon Rides Bareback On Erotic Steed (May Be NSFW)

by Stephen J. Gertz

This  astonishing and keenly amusing original watercolor of a bare-bottomed Napoleon with membre viril exposed riding a horse composed of nude women is being offered at Christie's-Paris during their Collection d'un Amateur Bibliophile sale, Tuesday, October 30, 2012.

What's the estimate for this unique erotic caricature of Napoleon? $21,000 - $27,000. Nappy in flagrante delicto ain't cheap to collecto.

The watercolor, created c. 1810 by an unknown artist in the manner of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, is 232 x 180 mm in size. The draftsmanship is excellent, the arrangement of the women to form a horse with mane and tail is artful and clever, the composition is a sight to delight. It's a minor masterwork.

Napoleon was no stranger to political caricature and this eye-opener, while singular, reflects the contemporary German and English sport of casting Napoleon in the worst possible light.

I'm not sure what the underlying message is in this particular lampoon  - Napoleon, imperial scepter exposed, riding on the backs of women as a commentary on his staying power; Napoleon as a sex-addled emperor; what? - but it is, as they say in Brooklyn, cherce.

This is just one of many fine items of erotica, etc, offered by Christie's. We'll feature more from this sale as it draws close.

In the meantime, Booktryst provides, as a public service, the following advice for horseback riders engaged in l'amour fou à cheval.

Equestrian Safety Tip #1: Men who hold on to their pommel when riding without saddle may feel warm and secure but it will do absolutely no good if the horse rears and/or bolts into a wild gallop. You may hold your own during the ordeal but that won't hold the prospect of flying over the high side at bay.

Equestrian Safety Tip #2: French emperors who bare their buttocks while riding may justifiably be confused with a horse's ass.

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Image courtesy of Christies, with our thanks.
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A Rare And Revealing Erotic Movable Book From 1846 (May Be NSFW)

By Stephen J. Gertz

It's as rare a book as you will find, if you can find a copy. There are no auction records. There are no copies found in institutional libraries worldwide. It is not found in any of the usual and unusual bibliographies of erotica, nor in any of the major and minor dealer or auction house catalogs devoted to erotica that I know of.  I've reached out to other scholars in the field. Though they are charmed by it nobody has ever seen this delightful piece.

It is Variations de l'Amore, a suite of nine numbered, gilt-bordered watercolors, image size 115 x 160 mm,  with overlaid slips that was clandestinely issued c. 1846 (that date appearing on one of the plates), likely in Germany, with captions in German and French.

It is not the earliest work of erotica in movable book format, innocent scenes whose overlays, when lifted, reveal graphic sexual situations. I have seen two other erotic movable books with overlays, Moeurs de Paris 2eme Livraison, with illustrations by, amongst others, Achille Devéria, published c. 1835 in London (i.e. Paris), and Les Portes et Fenêtres, paru en livraisons (Paris, 1835) with plates by Henri Monnier, Devéria, etc., its "doors and windows" providing an eyeful when opened.

That there are erotic movable books may come as a surprise to those who associate the form exclusively with childrens literature. The reality is that, until the mid-19th century, movable books were primarily created for and marketed to adults, and "adult content" was not unknown. 

Yet few erotic movable books have survived, certainly intact with all of their, by nature, fragile overlays or other movable parts present, working, and in collectible condition. They were handled by adults with the same gusto as those meant for children, which is to say, vigorously. There are few virgin erotic movables extant; most that have survived were assaulted and sullied, to one degree or another, by hands animated by desire; their maidenhead is ancient history. Which is why this example is so extraordinary. It's as if the original owner was too shy and inhibited to peek beneath the overslips, the knowledge of what might be revealed enough to excite his imagination.

This little gem, unearthed who knows where, is currently being offered, along with another suite of six erotic movable watercolors, for a low five-figure British pound sum. If you collect movable books in general it's a must-have and worth every American penny, if you have at least 1,000,000 pennies. There was surely only a small number produced and this may be the only surviving example.

If you collect movable books meant for children and are put-off by erotic content, consider that human erotic activity is a playground where adults can relax and enjoy uninhibited fun, a refuge from the harsher realities of adulthood, the sexual arena a sandbox for mature children with sex-toys as pail and shovel .

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Images courtesy of Shapero Rare Books, currently offering this item, with our thanks.
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Just Say Da: Unique Rare Books With Original Russian Watercolors At Auction

By Stephen J. Gertz

Original watercolor by Georges Kars Kralupy for David Golder.

Lots to love at Christie's in its upcoming Fine Books and Manuscripts sale at London-South Kensington June 19, 2012.

Lot 192 is a singleton. a richly illustrated first edition copy of Iréne Némirovsky's (1903-1942) David Golder (Paris: 1929) featuring sixty-seven original watercolors by artist Georges Kars Kralupy (1882-1945).

Némirovsky is primarily known as the author of Suite Française, duet novels portraying life in France between June 4, 1940 and July 1, 1941, the period in which the Nazis occupied Paris.

After the author's death in Auschwitz the manuscript of  Suite Française was kept by her eldest daughter for fifty years until it was donated to a French archive that had it published: it became a bestseller in 2004. The present copy is no. 56 of a limited edition of 100 copies and is inscribed  by the artist to Robert Ellissen.

Original watercolor by Hermine David for Gourmont's Oeuvres.

Next up, lot 193 is a unique copy of the limited edition of Remy de Gourmont's (1858-1915) Oeuvres (Paris: 1930) elegantly illustrated with ninety-eight original watercolors by Hermine David (1886-1970). It, too, is inscribed to Robert Ellissen by the artist.

A trend is developing...

Is it the woman or the moon? It's both, lot 194, another unique and superbly illustrated book, no. 12 of a limited edition of only eighteen copies of Gil Robin's (1893-1967) novel Le Femme et la Lune (Paris: 1925).

It features sixty-eight original watercolors by Sonia Lewitska (1874-1937). 

Yet again, it is inscribed, here to Mme. Robert Ellissen by Lewitska.

Original watercolor by Alice Halicka for Tragédies de Ghetto.

Finally, artist Alice Halicka (1895-1975) illustrated lot 195, a copy of Israel Zangwill's (1864-1926) Tragédies du Ghetto (Paris: 1928), with fifty-seven original watercolors.

You guessed it: inscribed by the artist to Robert Ellissen.

Who were the Ellissens and how did they manage to get the artists to devote their time and talent to illustrate these books for them?

Robert Ellissen was the author of Le Gaz dans la vie moderne (1933); Les villes et l'Etat contre l'industrie privée (1908); Le Concours Sartine 1763-1766 (1922), and a translator. He and his wife were art patrons who befriended and aided the Russian and Eastern European artist-exiles who had emigrated to Paris to escape the anti-Semitism in their homelands, settled in Montparnasse, and established the 1918-1939 Judaic aspect of the Ecole de Paris, its heyday the 'Twenties.

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Images courtesy of Christie's, with our thanks.
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A Splendid $200,000 Album of Early 19th Century Chinese Export Watercolors

By Stephen J. Gertz

A remarkable early to mid-nineteenth century Chinese album, containing 141 full-page watercolors of exceptional quality, journeyed from the Celestial Kingdom to the library of a British noble thence disembarked to rare book shop in London where it is now being offered for sale. The asking price is $195,768 (£125,000).

Depicting the various ranks of Chinese society, including royalty, mandarins and other officials, warriors and archers, along with costumes of different provinces, as well as various trades and industries, the watercolors, created for export, are vivid and often highlighted with gilt.

Noteworthy are the large number of subjects pictured, the unusually large size of each painting, and the use of very fine, thin and delicate paper.

Later collections of Chinese export watercolors were routinely executed on less expensive, stronger and thicker "pith" paper (made from the pith of a plant related to ginseng); the demand in Europe for small, inexpensive, and easily transportable art souvenirs had grown huge and earlier watercolors of the finest quality, as here, were not practical to produce on the necessary scale to satisfy what had once been carriage-trade items but had evolved into a mass middle-class market.

The album thus represents an earlier, more prestigious style of export watercolor paintings specifically meant for wealthy Europeans. These are Chinese watercolors of the highest quality, designed and executed to the highest standards.

The album was once owned by Annie Pearson, Viscountess Cowdray (1881-1931), Steward of Colchester and wife of Lord Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray. She likely acquired it from a previous owner.

“'Export' paintings, mainly oil paintings, as well as watercolours, gouaches on paper, board and glass, started in the mid eighteenth century and reached their climax in the mid nineteenth century but declined when photography became fashionable...

"In order to satisfy the great demand of the market...Guangdong painters opened workshops in the area of the Western factories (or 'Hong') where foreigners lived. They employed painters specialized in different sections and made many imitations with Western materials, paper and silk. After the Opium War between China and Britain in 1840, China was forced to open ports. When Shanghai was opened as a port in 1843, Great Britain, the United States and France established 'concession zones' in the city between 1845 to 1849. In the same way as had happened in Guangzhou, Guangzhou 'export' painters, among other Chinese painters, thrived in the new commercial emporium by producing 'export' paintings...

"'Export' painters, at the same time, produced lots of commercial paintings of the popular themes about the Chinese society. Since the purpose of producing 'export' paintings was entirely commercial, most artists rarely signed their works or, at the most, just added to them a monogram identifying the pictorial workshop to which they belonged" (Export Paintings, Civil and Municipal Affairs Bureau of Macao S.A.R.).

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[CHINA SCHOOL Watercolors of Chinese Costume and Trade]. N.p. [Guangzhou?]: N.p., n.d. [c.  early-mid 19th century]. Large quarto (38.4 x 32 cm). 141 full-page watercolors on thin Chinese paper, some with gilt highlights, nearly all captioned in Chinese in ink in lower right corner. Each mounted on paper, recto only.

Bound in mid-nineteenth century half morocco, gilt, with spine compartments decorated in gilt. Bookplate of Annie, Viscountess of Cowdray.

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Images courtesy of Shapero Rare Books, with our thanks.

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How the Other .0001% Lives, Part I

Chatsworth House, seat of the Dukes of Devonshire. Image courtesy of WikiCommons.

Who among us hasn't at some point gazed wistfully at pictures of the beautiful homes of the rich and famous, fascinated by the trappings of enormous wealth? Whether your pleasure is Architectural Digest, House & Garden, Elle Decor, vintage books on interior design, a coffee table book offering the Duchess of Devonshire's private views of her home at Chatsworth, or the In Style magazine you picked up in the airport, admit it: it's fun to gawk at these amazing buildings and interiors and to dream of what it would be like to live there. And so it has always been: illustrated books of stately homes and interiors have been popular and collectible for at least two centuries.

John Preston Neale's six-volume Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen, in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland (1818-23) depicts more than 400 beautiful stately homes and provides an esthetically pleasing guided tour of some of the finest estates in the English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish countrysides. In his illustrations of great houses, running the gamut of styles from gothic to Palladian, Neale usually takes the view from some distance, so as to frame the mansion with trees, clouds, and hills. The drawings are neat, accurate, placid, and sunny, especially when compared to the works of some of Neale's contemporaries like Turner and Constable. The accompanying text gives considerable historical and architectural information about each house, including much about the grounds, the history of the families in residence, structural renovations, and so on.

One of Neale's stately homes

Before he made a living with his drawings, John Preston Neale (1780-1847) was a postal clerk. In his spare time, he made entomological drawings that were good enough to be exhibited at the Royal Academy, beginning when he was 17. He was encouraged to take up topographical drawing and painting, and he went on to become, in Houfe's words, "one of the leading topographers of the gothic revival." Houfe says that "his pen drawings . . . were exceptional for their accuracy," and Adams concurs with these characterizations, calling Neale "a skillful delineator of gothic architecture" whose work represented "accuracy of representation combined with picturesque effect." The present work is generally thought of as the definitive record of stately homes constructed in Britain and Ireland during the 60 years after 1750.

A library to covet, from Pyne's Royal Residences

In The History of the Royal Residences of Windsor Castle, St. James's Palace, Carlton House, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, Buckingham House, and Frogmore (1819), William Pyne presents us with 100 fine hand-colored plates of British royal palaces (mostly interiors, but several sunny exterior views). This three-volume work is not only beautiful, but also hitorically important, as its brilliantly colored plates illustrate interiors that have since been lost to demolition or reconstruction.

The Blue Velvet Room, now lost to renovation

The public has always been fascinated with the trappings of royalty, and Pyne was catering to this appetite when he undertook his "Royal Residences." Unfortunately, the very considerable expense of producing it was difficult to recoup, and these costs initiated the downward spiral of Pyne's financial condition that landed him in debtors' prison. William Henry Pyne (1767-1843) was the son of a leather-seller who showed an early aptitude for art. He studied at the school of Henry Pars, where "he obtained . . . a great facility for drawing, practising almost entirely in watercolours in the early tinted style." (DNB)

He declined an apprenticeship with Pars, embarked on an independent career, and found substantial success with his "Microcosm, or a Picturesque Delineation of the Arts, Agriculture, and Manufactures of Great Britain." This was followed by the very popular and acclaimed "Costume of Great Britain" and other works of British landscapes. Although Pyne is remembered best as an artist, he was also a talented writer, and, as indicated by DNB, he did the text here, not the drawings, which were "supplied by Mackenzie, Nash, Pugin, Stephanoff, and others." The beautifully rendered and detailed illustrations are frequently heightened with gold, and they are given a convincing depth and an overall vividness that are consistently pleasing from plate to plate.

One of Nash's exterior views of Windsor Castle

Joseph Nash's Views of the Interior and Exterior of Windsor Castle (1848) is a massive piece of bookmaking (the work in its various parts is immense, and the total package weighs 38 pounds) with 25 plates that give us a glimpse not only into a monarch's palace, but also into the daily life of the royal family. This is not the usual series of richly appointed, yet cold and too-perfect, chambers; the rooms in Windsor Castle have a lived-in look, for they are notably inhabited by a young working mother--Queen Victoria--and her active family. The "Queen's Private Sitting Room" contains both a cluttered desk and a cradle, and in the "Library," books are strewn open on tables and the floor, while the young queen and her counsellors huddle around a volume they are consulting. The royal children figure prominently in the picture of "St. George's Chapel," featuring the christening of the heir to the throne, as well as in the "East Corridor," where the young Prince of Wales frolics with his dog, as his mother watches indulgently.

Christening of the Prince of Wales

Painter and lithographer Joseph Nash (1809-78) was noted for his faithful reproduction of architectural detail and for enlivening his pictures of buildings and rooms with scenes of celebration and domesticity. Both are very much in evidence here; the detail in the plates is impressive, with everything carefully delineated, from the gothic tracery on the roof of the chapel to the reproductions of Old Masters hanging on the walls. But the greater effect is produced by the sense of life emanating from each tableau--even in the rare uninhabited room, there are such signs, like a shawl tossed carelessly over the back of a chair. Although the emphasis is on scenes of domestic life, there are a few pictures telling of great events, including the installation of a new Knight to the Order of the Garter and the state visit of French king Louis-Philippe; in the same vein of greatness, a particularly striking lithograph of the "South Corridor" depicts Victoria standing alone in the vast gallery, surrounded by paintings of scenes from her realm and busts of kings and generals that remind us of the vast empire ruled by this petite woman.

Next week, a look at royal celebrations and fête books.

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Except where otherwise noted, images courtesy of Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books & Manuscripts.