Product Placement Discovered in 19th Century British Novels

Back in the Saddle Again!
Inspiriting Action!
Feeling Better than Ever!
Neurasthenia a Bad Memory!
Men. Who Needs Them?

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Get Ready for Ads in Books, with the drop in e-reader prices, tech players entering the book retail trade, and the ever-downward pressure on book prices, e-book or otherwise, publishers, facing diminishing profits, are turning to product placement in books to bolster their sagging bottom lines.

This should not come as a shock; television, movies, and video games have been planted with product advertisements for quite some time now. It's been a veritable Victory Garden for the Mad Men of Madison Avenue.

What is little known is just how far back this practice dates. Recently, the Annenberg Center for Communication, established to cleanse  the family name of patriarch Moe Annenberg's  highly dubious activities, has been conducting a survey of nineteenth century British literature. To their surprise, they have, in the process, discovered advertising so subtly placed within classic texts that it has hitherto gone unnoticed by scholars and readers alike. Many of the ads, it has since been learned, were part of an ongoing campaign by Ogilvy & Mather, the ad agency originally established by Patrick Ogilvy and Cotton Mather in the 17th century, with offices in Edinburgh and Boston, to promote fire, brimstone, and treacle for everyday use in the home.

Below, a few examples. Read carefully. See if you can discern the advertisement so well-woven into the text as to be indivisible from it. Truly,  copywriting genius at work.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Chapter Three
I Have a Change

The carrier's horse was the laziest horse in the world, I should hope, and shuffled along, with his head down, as if he liked to keep people waiting to whom the packages were directed. I fancied, indeed, that he sometimes chuckled audibly over this reflection, but the carrier said he was only troubled with a cough. If only he’d given the horse Dr. Locock’s Pulmonic Wafers. They provide perfect freedom from coughs within ten minutes and instant relief and a rapid cure of asthma and consumption, coughs, colds, and all disorders of the breath and lungs. The carrier had a way of keeping his head down, like his horse, and of drooping sleepily forward as he drove, with one of his arms on each of his knees. I say 'drove', but it struck me that the cart would have gone to Yarmouth quite as well without him, for the horse did all that; and as to conversation, he had no idea of it but whistling.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Chapter Twenty-Two

Fanny, having been sent into the village on some errand by her aunt Norris, was overtaken by a heavy shower close to the Parsonage; and being descried from one of the windows endeavouring to find shelter under the branches and lingering leaves of an oak just beyond their premises, was forced, though not without some modest reluctance on her part, to come in. A civil servant she had withstood; but when Dr. Grant himself went out with an umbrella, there was nothing to be done but to be very much ashamed, and to get into the house as fast as possible. Oh, to have a W. & J. Sangster Alpaca umbrella! The superiority of Alpaca over every other material for Umbrellas being now generally acknowledged, W.&J. Sangster also always have a Stock of cheap Silk Umbrellas. The two sisters were so kind to her, and so pleasant, that Fanny might have enjoyed her visit could she have believed herself not in the way, and could she have foreseen that the weather would certainly clear at the end of the hour, and save her from the shame of having Dr. Grant's carriage and horses out to take her home, with which she was threatened.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Chapter Eight

"Look at me," said Miss Havisham. "You are not afraid of a woman who has never seen the sun since you were born?"

I regret to state that I was not afraid of telling the enormous lie comprehended in the answer "No."

"Do you know what I touch here?" she said, laying her hands, one upon the other, on her left side.

"Yes, ma'am." (It made me think of the young man.)

"What do I touch?"

"Your heart."

"Broken!"

She uttered the word with an eager look, and with strong emphasis, and with a weird smile that had a kind of boast in it. Afterwards, she kept her hands there for a little while, and slowly took them away as if they were heavy.

"I am tired," said Miss Havisham. "I want diversion, and I have done with men and women. Play."

I think it will be conceded by my most disputatious reader, that she could hardly have directed an unfortunate boy to do anything in the wide world more difficult to be done under the circumstances.

"I sometimes have sick fancies," she went on, "and I have a sick fancy for my Vigor's Horse-Action Saddle. It invigorates the system by bringing all the vital organs into inspiriting action! And I haven't had any action, inspiriting or otherwise, since the sun dawned upon the day you were born. There there!"

Silas Marner by George Eliot
Chapter Two

There were no lips in Raveloe from which a word could fall that would stir Silas Marner's benumbed faith to a sense of pain. In the early ages of the world, we know, it was believed that each territory was inhabited and ruled by its own divinities, so that a man could cross the bordering heights and be out of the reach of his native gods, whose presence was confined to the streams and the groves and the hills among which he had lived from his birth. And poor Silas was vaguely conscious of something not unlike the feeling of primitive men, when they fled thus, in fear or in sullenness, from the face of an unpropitious deity. It seemed to him that the Power he had vainly trusted in among the streets and at the prayer-meetings, was very far away from this land in which he had taken refuge, where men lived in careless abundance, knowing and needing nothing of that trust, which, for him, had been turned to bitterness. The little light he possessed spread its beams so narrow, that frustrated belief was a curtain broad enough to create for him the blackness of night. Would that he had a passel of Field’s “Ozokerit Candles” for brilliant light, safety, economy and reliability to burn the Star-Lit Nights!

His first movement after the shock had been to work in his loom; and he went on with this unremittingly, never asking himself why, now he was come to Raveloe, he worked far on into the night to finish the tale of Mrs. Osgood's table-linen sooner than she expected...

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Chapter Ten

When the typhus fever had fulfilled its mission of devastation at Lowood, it gradually disappeared from thence; but not till its virulence and the number of its victims had drawn public attention on the school. Inquiry was made into the origin of the scourge, and by degrees various facts came out which excited public indignation in a high degree. The unhealthy nature of the site; the quantity and quality of the children's food; the brackish, fetid water used in its preparation; the pupils' wretched clothing and accommodations--all these things were discovered, and the discovery produced a result mortifying to Mr. Brocklehurst, but beneficial to the institution: Frampton’s Pill of Health. This most excellent Family Medicine is the most effective remedy for Indigestion, Bilious and Liver Complaints, Sick Headache, Loss of appetite, Drowsiness, Giddiness, Spasms, and all Disorders of the Stomach and Bowels; and where an Aperient is required nothing an be better adapted.

Several wealthy and benevolent individuals in the county subscribed largely for the erection of a more convenient building in a better situation; new regulations were made; improvements in diet and clothing introduced; the funds of the school were entrusted to the management of a committee.

Dracula by Bram Stoker
Chapter Eleven
Dr. Seward’s Diary

Without an instant's notice he made straight at me. He had a dinner knife in his hand, and as I saw he was dangerous, I tried to keep the table between us. He was too quick and too strong for me, however, for before I could get my balance he had struck at me and cut my left wrist rather severely.

Before he could strike again, however, I got in my right hand and he was sprawling on his back on the floor. My wrist bled freely, and quite a little pool trickled on to the carpet. I saw that my friend was not intent on further effort, and occupied myself binding up my wrist, keeping a wary eye on the prostrate figure all the time. When the attendants rushed in, and we turned our attention to him, his employment positively sickened me. He was lying on his belly on the floor licking up, like a dog, the blood which had fallen from my wounded wrist. He was easily secured, and to my surprise, went with the attendants quite placidly, simply repeating over and over again, "The blood is the life! The blood is the life!"

Yes, indeed, For the Blood is the Life - Clarke’s World Famed Blood Mixture is warranted to cleanse the blood from all impurities, from whatever cause arising. For Scrofula, Scurvy, Sores of all kinds, Skin and Blood Diseases its effects are marvelous. Thousands of testimonials from all parts.

I cannot afford to lose blood just at present. I have lost too much of late for my physical good, and then the prolonged strain of Lucy's illness and its horrible phases is telling on me. I am over excited and weary, and I need rest, rest, rest. Happily Van Helsing has not summoned me, so I need not forego my sleep. Tonight I could not well do without it. If only I had some of Dr. J. Collis Browne’s Chlorodyne, the Original and Only Genuine. If you wish to obtain quiet refreshing sleep, free from headache, relief from pain and anguish, to calm and assuage the weary achings of protracted disease, invigorate the nervous media, and regulate the circulating systems of the body, you will provide yourself with that marvelous remedy discovered by Dr. J. COLLIS BROWNE (late Army Medical Staff), to which he gave the name CHLORODYNE, And which is admitted by the Profession to be the most wonderful and valuable remedy ever discovered.

Vanity Fair 

by William Makepeace Thackeray
Chapter Twenty

The idea of hitting his enemy Osborne such a blow soothed, perhaps, the old gentleman: and, their colloquy presently ending, he and Dobbin parted pretty good friends.

“My sisters say she has diamonds as big as pigeons’ eggs,” George said, laughing. “How they must set off her complexion! Surely she avails herself of Madame A.T. Rowley's Toilet Mask (or Face Gloves), a natural beautifier for bleaching and preserving the skin and removing complexional imperfections. It is soft and flexible in form, and can be worn without discomfort or inconvenience. A perfect illumination it must be when her jewels are on her neck. Her jet-black hair is as curly as Sambo’s. I dare say she wore a nose ring when she went to court; and with a plume of feathers in her top-knot she would look a perfect Belle Sauvage.”

• • •

Miss Belle Sauvage, "The Woman in the Toilet Mask"

 __________

All products were real; the text for the advertisements copied verbatim.

__________

__________

The Bars of Paris, A Bar-Room in the U.S.

LEGRAND, Louis. Les Bars.
Paris: Gustave Pellet, 1908.

Louis Auguste Mathieu Legrand (1863–1951) was a French artist who worked in etchings, graphic art and paintings. Many of Legrand’s subjects were taken from Parisian nightlife, the bars, brothels, and music halls, and featured an undercurrent of eroticism. His black and white etchings provide a particular sense of decadence.

English Bar
(Arwas 389)

En passant
(Arwas 391)

Legrand  studied etching and engraving techniques with Felicien Rops, one of the few pupils of the great Belgian Symbolist, and he learned much from him but his manner of viewing men and women and life was different; Legrand had irony, wit and humor, and empathy for  the common and the socially scorned.

Aux Folies
(Arwas 386)

La Negresse
(Arwas 390)

Rops said that Legrand had “un amour extraordinaire du modele” (an extraordinary love for the sculptured) and in another remark said, “What a man, that Legrand, he would find angles in a billiard ball.”

Sportmen
(Arwas 385)

Pochard (Drunk)
(Arwas 387)

"An admirably skillful etcher, a draughtsman of keen vision, and a painter of curious character, who has in many ways forestalled the artists of to-day. Louis Legrand also shows to what extent Manet and Degas have revolutionized the art of illustration, in freeing the painters from obsolete laws and guiding them  toward  truth  and  frank  psychological  study. Legrand is full of them without resembling them.

Prince K
(Arwas 388)

Fin de soirée.
(Arwas 384).

"We must not forget that besides the technical innovation [division of tones, study of complementary colours] impression-ism has brought us novelty of composition, realism of character, and great liberty in the choice of subjects. From this point of view Rops himself, in spite of his symbolist tendencies, could not be classed with any other group if it were not that any kind of classification in art is useless and inaccurate. However that may be, Louis Legrand has signed some volumes with the most seductive qualities" (Camille Mauclair).

Au Bar
(Arwas 352)

Legrand certainly had an eye for the louche life, the languid couple below we imagine nearing the end of a long night of liquid pleasure in their corner of the bar.

Unidentified
From a folio suite of Legrand works accompanying Les Bars.

Unidentified
From a folio suite of Legrand works accompanying Les Bars.

But all things must pass, all parties must end:

Les Victimes de L'Alcool. Pathé, 1911

Blame it on those pesky, non-tippling temperance nuts in the United States who really knew how to poop a party. Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, and What I Saw There by T.S. Arthur, about the effect of ardent spirits on a man, his family, and the entire community, is now an old warhorse but was one of the most popular American novels of the 19th century. Adapted to the stage, it became an instant sensation.

ARTHUR, T[imothy].S[hay]. Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, and What I Saw There.
Philadelphia: J.W. Bradley, 1854.
First edition.

Ten Nights in a Bar-Room.Publisher's original binding.
First edition, 1854.

Mezzotint by John Sartain
From Ten Nights in a Bar-Room
First edition, 1854.

From its debut shortly after the novel was published through the rest of the 19th century it was one of the most oft-produced plays in the United States, in continuous production by someone, somewhere. into the 20th century. With the birth of the cinema it was, of course, filmed. Twice.

Ten Nights in a Bar Room
Thanhouser, 1910.

Ten Nights in a Bar Room, 1931.

 But, really, didn't they know that alcoholic beverages are medicine? I drink Health Beer. It keeps my water running, allows the spirit to take flight, is an excellent digestive ferment, and puts hair on your chest. And you?

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy"
(Benjamin Franklin)

__________

Images from first edition of Ten Nights in a Bar-Room courtesy of Dragon Books.

Images of Les Bars from a deluxe proof set and are courtesy of Sims Reed Rare Books, part of a folio suite of over 40 original etchings by the artist which include the two unidentified (by me) works above and Au Bar.

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Victoria And Albert Go To The Olympics

TIMMERS, Margaret.

A Century Of Olympic Posters.

London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 2008.
Covers of Two Editions of The Text
To The Olympic Poster Exhibition.

(All Images Courtesy Victoria and Albert Museum.)

London's Sutton Central Library is the latest venue to host a traveling exhibit from the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) of more than 100 posters charting the history of the Olympic Games. As London prepares for the 2012 Summer Games, this exhibit reminds the city that modern Olympic movement founder, Pierre de Coubertin, stated his goal in reviving the games was to create a "marriage of art and sport." The exhibit shows how numerous artists have attempted to succeed not only in bringing off that marriage, but also in making a happy couple of such strange bedfellows as art and advertising, nationalism and internationalism, culture and commerce, and politics and populism. Add to that a capsule history of one hundred years of graphic art, and there's enough to fill a book. Which the V&A did in a companion volume to the show. A Century of Olympic Posters opened at the Europa Gallery in Sutton's Central Library on September 1 and runs through October 31, 2010.

Herz, Walter.

Poster For 1948 London Olympic Games.

Eight Color Lithograph.

The 1948 London games were the first to follow the Second World War. Much of London was still in ruins, and rationing was still in place. Known as 'the austere games', the Olympics that year were a low key affair compared to the preparations which will precede 2012. Athletes brought their own sandwiches to eat and the British team were instructed to make their own uniforms. As war-torn London looked towards a brighter future, the poster design combined an image of the marble statue of ‘Discobolus’ (classical icon of the discus thrower from Ancient Greece) with a view of the Houses of Parliament. The hands of the famous "Big Ben" are pointing to 4 o'clock, the time at which the opening of the Games was planned. Fittingly the artist, Walter Herz, had escaped the Nazis and settled in Britain.

Lavers, Ralph.

Olympic Torch, 1947.

Aluminium torch holder, steel burner.

A recently acquired Olympic Torch from the 1948 Games is also part of the exhibit. The lighting of the flame by a torchbearer at the opening ceremony marks the start of the Olympic Games. The torches are carried by amateur athletes who each complete a leg bearing the flame on its journey from Olympia in Greece to the Olympic site. This torch is thought to have been used on the Belgium leg of its trip across Europe. The British Olympic Committee chose architect Ralph Lavers, an expert in classical architecture and archaeology, to design a functional torch representing British craftsmanship at its best. The torches had to be lightweight, as each runner carried them for about one kilometre. They weighed just less than a kilogram and were made from aluminium. The fuel was supplied in tablet form and inserted into a steel burner perforated with holes to protect the flame from strong winds. Each torch had to burn for at least fifteen minutes.

Matisse, Auguste.

Poster For The Chamonix
Mont-Blanc Winter Olympics, 1924.
Colour lithograph.

Many of the Official Olympic Posters display traditional iconography, such as the eagle dominating the poster above, from the French Winter Games. But the exhibit also includes some highly UNofficial and subversive posters.

Mexiac, Adolfo.

Protest Poster.

Lithograph, 1968.

Leslie and Alice Schreyer obtained this poster, now on loan to the V&A, from a Mexican student just days before student uprisings were brutally crushed by President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz. The students used social and political grievances to challenge the image projected to the world by their government through the Mexico City Olympic Games. This poster makes the point by turning the links of the Olympic logo into chains, while the short, harsh 'cuts' of the woodcut style create a tortured energy. The 'made in the USA' padlock refers to Diaz Ordaz's political ties to North America.

Other "unofficial" posters celebrate artistic freedom, rather than scoring political points:

Hockney, David.

Poster for the Los Angeles,
Olympic Games, 1984.

Color Offset Lithograph.

In contrast to many fiercely nationalistic posters produced to advertise earlier Olympics, David Hockney's lyrical poster concentrates on the solitary perfection of a swimmer in a pool.

Warhol, Andy.
Artist Series Poster For

Sarajevo Winter Olympics, 1984.

Lithograph Incorporating Silkscreen print.

Another unofficial take on the solitary beauty of the athlete, done in iconic Warhol fashion.

Lancashire, David.
Peace Roo' Official Design Poster No.1

For Sydney Olympic Games, 2000.

Color Offset lithograph.

An Official poster that still remains highly idiosyncratic and offbeat.

Jones, Allen.
Edition Olympia Poster For

Munich Olympic Games, 1972.

Color Offset Lithograph.

This poster for the 1972 Munich Games is quite deliberately non-political, and international in theme. Probably at least in part as an attempt to avoid a repeat of this:

Würbel, Franz .
Poster for Berlin Olympic Games, 1936.

Color Lithograph.

And this:

Holwein, Ludwig.
Poster For Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Winter Games, 1936.
Color Lithograph.

There was a nationwide competition sponsored by the Nazi Propaganda Ministry for posters for the 1936 Summer and Winter Games. In the end, none were deemed "appropriate" to show the spirit desired by the Reich. The Ministry commissioned work from several artists, and in the end chose the "Classical-Realist" work of Holwein and Wurbel. Both posters depict an athlete supposedly offering the "Olympic Salute," but certainly its similarity to the salute favored by Der Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler, is no accident.

Arsentiev, Vladimir.

Poster For Moscow Olympic Games, 1980.

Color Lithograph.

A poster with an exceedingly simple design for an Olympics that was anything but. The Soviet 1980 Games were boycotted by the United States and several other Western nations in protest of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. The poster features the emblem of the Moscow Games: a section of a running track rising into an architectural silhouette topped with a five-pointed star.

The poster below is notable NOT for its politics, but for its artistry:

Kamekura, Yusaku.

Official Poster For

Tokyo Olympic Games, 1964.

Color Photogravure.

The Start of the Sprinters’ Dash poster by Yusaku Kamekura for Tokyo 1964, was the first to use the medium of photography. There were four official posters, all containing the Olympic rings superimposed on the rising sun of the Japanese flag. Photoengraved using several colors, they reflected the height of Japanese printing technology and received a number of awards for excellence, including the Milan Prize for poster graphics.

And another of the exhibition's artistic high points:

Wyman, Lance.
Poster For Mexico City Olympics, 1968. Color Lithograph.

The Op Art poster for the 1968 Games in Mexico City effectively captures both the mood and artistic style of the 1960s while incorporating the imagery of pre-Hispanic Mexican cultures, specifically the patterns of the Huichole Indians. A series of identical posters in blue, red, yellow, green, or black, were designed for these Games through the collaboration of three artists: Pedro Ramirez Vazquez, Eduardo Terrazas, and Lance Wyman.

Hjörtzberg, Olle.

The First Official Olympic Poster.

Commissioned For The

Stockholm Olympics, 1912.

Seven Color Lithograph.

This poster for the 1912 Stockholm Games was the first official Olympic poster, and also the first to be censored. In his original poster, artist Olle Hjortzberg depicted an idealized nude male athelete, a reference to the Games of Antiquity. Seen here is the revamped version featuring strategically placed streamers. Even this sanitized version of the poster was still found to be too racy for distribution in several countries.

Systimesä, Ilmari.

Poster For The Cancelled

Helsinki Olympic Games, 1940.

Color Offset Lithograph With Screenprinting.

An exact copy of this poster created for the 1940 Helsinki Games, cancelled due to World War II, was used for the 1952 Games, with only the date changed. It is an effigy of Paavo Nurmi, the greatest Finnish athlete of all time, and winner of nine Olympic Gold Medals. Nurmi's image is based on a staute by sculptor Wamo Aaltonen.

Jaruska, Wilhelm.

Poster For Innsbruck Winter Olympics, 1964.
Offset Print.

This last poster demonstrates the ambiguity that can arise from an attempt to be inclusive. Guided by the principle of not showing one sporting discipline in particular, Wilhelm Jaruska created a neutral poster showing a common feature of winter sports: a skate, or is it an ice crystal, or a snowflake? It has been described on various authoritative Olympic sites as all three. This skate/snowflake/icicle symbolizes all the disciplines found in the Winter Games, whatever it is.

Lame Duck Books To Close

Lame Duck Books, a mainstay of Cambridge, Massachusetts' Harvard Square, will close its doors on September 25, 2010.

John W. Wronoski, who opened Lame Duck originally in Philadelphia in 1984, told the Harvard Crimson that the business was "hemorrhaging" money,  "destroyed" by online competition.

“Nowadays people like myself who’ve devoted...50 years to this world have no means of competing again,” he said.

“It was a way of earning an income without actually doing something that I considered odious, like work,” he continued. “Not that you don’t work an enormous amount in this, but it’s completely pleasure.”

Wronoski, who does not consider  himself a bibliophile because he rejects a personal relationship with books, defined the role of rare booksellers as guardians:

“I maintain custody of these fabulous objects until the right person comes along to relieve me of them,” he said. “For me, money is so much less interesting than these objects. I’m selling the best thing that you could possibly buy.”

Amen.

Listen to John talk rare books:

Lame Duck Books will be missed.
__________

Full story at Harvard Crimson.
__________
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A Slightly Pre-Joan Rivers Red Carpet Fashion Report, 1800-1815

A chic ensemble from Dalvimart's Costume of Turkey

As we've seen in recent Booktryst posts on stately homes and the "lower orders," color plate books were very much the "in" thing in the early 1800s. A favorite genre was the Costume Book, and in honor of the beginning of Red Carpet season at last Sunday's Emmy Awards, this week Booktryst asks, "Who What the HECK are you wearing?"

Between 1800 and 1818, London publishers William Miller, T. M'Lean, and William Bulmer brought out a series of color plate books featuring the costumes of various exotic lands, as well as those of both the "lower orders" and the aristocracy. We even get to see the early 19th century version of a Starbucks:

A "salop" seller from Pyne's Costumes of Great Britain

The opulent and brightly colored costumes in Octavien Dalvimart's Costume of Turkey (1802) are mostly those of the ruling classes, although he does represent a wide variety of native dress from the many regions of the vast Turkish empire of the day, which included Bosnia, Albania, Syria, Egypt, and parts of Greece. It is particularly interesting to contrast the clothing of the very heavily veiled Turkish and Egyptian women with the much more relaxed style of the Greek women and the nearly immodest garb of the female Bedouin. We also are shown a eunuch, an odalisque from the harem, a grand vizier, various royal functionaries, and government officials, all splendidly attired.

A Chinese bookseller, in attire that might be seen at a book fair today

The pictures in George Henry Mason's Costume of China (1800) portray ordinary working class men and women toiling at their trades. We see a bookseller with his wares spread out on a mat, women sewing and embroidering, a butcher, a fisher, a barber, a man with a "magic lantern" show, and a "man striking a small gong during an eclipse," an ancient ritual that the author tells us he was privileged to witness on 17 November 1789.

A "magic lantern" show

Mason's follow-up, Punishments of China (1801), is filled with (almost gleefully) painful depictions of all degrees of disciplinary action, from the relatively minor twisting of the ears or chaining to an iron pole, to the humiliating ordeal of the wooden collar to methods of execution by beheading or by crucifixion using a cord.

The more serious version of the "finger trap" game

Hard to see what these have to do with costume, really, unless wooden stocks are all the rage for fall. And, frankly, haven't we all see more ridiculous (and more painful) get-ups in fashion magazines or on the runway? I'm looking at you, Lady Gaga.

Really suffering for fashion

The Costume of the Russian Empire, attributed to William Alexander, C. W. Müller, and others (1803), is based on engravings done by at the request of Empress Catherine the Great, and is focused on the ethnic dress of the empire's many holdings. The Laplanders and Finns wear clothing that would look familiar to most Europeans, but the Mongols in their Oriental dress would be quite exotic. The clothing of the northern tribes, such as the Kamchatkans, Aleutians, Koriaks, and Tungoosi, will impress the modern reader with their similarity to the traditional dress of Native American and First Nation peoples:

Buckskin is always a classic for fall

William Pyne's Costumes of Great Britain is one of the most highly praised works in this genre, and for good reason: the simple working men and women of Britain it depicts are always shown going about their daily tasks in the midst of a well-realized scene. The woman selling "salop" (a hot morning beverage) is seated at her cart with its urn, judiciously located by the watchman's stall, surrounded by customers including soldiers and a woman with her market basket (see photo above).

Pyne's entertainer with bells on his toes

A fireman with an ax and a torch hurries toward his engine company while they unwrap their hose. The potter is at his wheel, the tanner is cleaning skins, and the bill-sticker posts the winning lottery numbers. The clothing, while carefully detailed, is almost secondary to the depictions of everyday life. Pyne shows us his range here: he was also the person responsible for the opulent publication on Royal Residences.

Coronation of Henry V

Charles Hamilton Smith's "Ancient Costume of Great Britain and Ireland" (1814) displays raiment worn in the kingdom from the eighth through the 15th century. Prepared for an august list of subscribers headed by Her Majesty and the Prince Regent, this volume contains portraits of specific people (the Countess of Lancaster, the Earl of Oxford, Edward the Black Prince) as well as soldiers, fishermen, clergy, and nobles. We see everything from the coronation of Henry V (of Agincourt and Shakespeare's "We happy few" fame) to the gatekeeper of a castle and his guard dog. It is presumed that what appears to be an enormous studded pen is in fact some devices for raising a drawbridge or portcullis.

A bold accessory is the key to a successful look

While the fashion police compile their "best and worst" lists, bibliophiles can take refuge in the exotic costumes of the past, and reflect on the fact that few could have been stranger or more uncomfortable that those weird Alexander McQueen "hoof shoes."

See you on the red carpet!
__________

SJG Note: No wish to horn in on Cokie's post but apologies to Joan Rivers for my headline. Ms. Rivers, as young Joan Molinsky, once worked as a window-dresser at Lord & Taylor in NYC with an old friend of SJG's mother. SJG (hopefully) preempts a barbed riposte from Ms. Rivers with the painful admission that he modeled children's fashions at Lord & Taylor when he was a little kid. (Thanks, Mom, the scars of humiliation, though pale, remain). He still has a three-piece gray flannel suit (w/shorts; no long pants yet) from that c.1956 era. (Thanks again, Ma!). Oh, the horror, the horror, the horror...
__________
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Bookbinding on Trial in Divorce Case

This week on Booktryst Divorce Court:

For twenty-seven years, Robert Eick, a fifty-seven year old bookbinder in Madison, New Jersey, has been operating as R.A. Eick Quality Bookbinding.

He and his wife divorced in 2007 after twenty-nine years of marriage. He was ordered to pay alimony as well as child support for their two minor children remaining at home.

In 2009, Eick filed a motion to have his alimony and support obligations diminished. Why? His business was taking a swan dive into a shallow pool; bookbinding "has declined drastically, to wit:

"My main customers are law firms. Now that they have access to online research databases their need for my product has diminished substantially. The decline in my business is an industry wide issue... I have been in the book binding business for the last 27 years...

"...My business is extremely specialized. At the time of our divorce, my income from my business was $117,000.00. Defendant was earning $29,000.00 per year. As indicated on my current Case Information Statement [(CIS)], my total business income in 2007 was down to $89,270.00, with an adjusted gross income of $51,692 a reduction of $27,730.00 and $65,308.00 respectfully [sic]. In 2008, my gross business income was only $82,948.00 and my adjusted gross income was approximately $36,783.00. The decline in my business is a result of changes in technology. My customers, who in the past would have bound their books have started to put everything on disks or the internet...

"...The book binding business has decreased rapidly on account of the use of electronic research systems, growth of imported bound printed material and the general downturn in the economy."

The trial judge heard oral argument on July 17, 2009. Eick's motion was denied. The judge stated:

"Certainly it is true that these are economically challenged times. But, again, Lepis [v. Lepis, 83 N.J. 139 (1980)] requires not only a substantial change of circumstance, but a demonstration that those changes are permanent.

"And we can question whether, given the nature of the bookbinding business, the change is in fact permanent. But I certainly cannot take current economic conditions as a justification for reducing the voluntarily agreed to obligations, because these economic conditions, as referred to by the plaintiff, are - one can only hope and anticipate - temporary.

"It is a difficult decision that needs to be left to the courts to make based on a consideration of all of the circumstances. Again, the court recognizes that there may in all likelihood be some impact on the plaintiff's earnings, I should say, income, by virtue of the fact that we are in difficult economic times.

"But given the fact that the issues facing the bookbinding industry in 2007, the prospect of it being a promising business even as of 2007, the court concludes that plaintiff had the same issues that he's looking at now, only further complicated by the fact that we are in economically difficult times.

"So, the changes in the bookbinding business industry from 2007 to today are virtually nonexistent. They are about the same. They are just further complicated by the fact that we have a temporary economic situation that we anticipate will rebound.

"So, based on all of those circumstances, the court concludes that the plaintiff has not met the threshold requirement of demonstrating a permanent and substantial change of circumstances that would warrant modification of either the alimony or the child support obligations."

Eick appealed the judge's decision. The appeal was decided on August 18, 2010.

We will spare you the legal details. Suffice it to say, Eick won this round due to his ex-wife's increased income and the fact that, according to the appellant judge,

"the trial judge did not make adequate findings with respect to whether the reduction in plaintiff's earnings was of a permanent or temporary nature...For example, notwithstanding plaintiff's undisputed allegations as to why his bookbinding business had decreased, the judge found that 'changes in the bookbinding business industry from 2007 to today are virtually nonexistent.' We discern no substantial, credible evidence of record to support that finding.

"The judge further found that plaintiff 'had the same issues that he's looking at now,' as he had in 2007, but acknowledged that those 'issues' were 'further complicated by the fact that we are in economically difficult times.' Notwithstanding this latter finding, however, the judge declined to find that plaintiff had, as a result, suffered a permanent diminution in his earnings; this was apparently the result of the judge's 'hope and anticipat[ion]' that the 'current economic conditions' are 'temporary.'

"In sum, we are satisfied that plaintiff has made a prima facie showing of changed circumstances sufficient to warrant discovery and a plenary hearing."

Good thing. Eick must surely be frustrated, on the verge of cracking his hinges, yet stab-stitching an officer of the court - and, certainly, one's ex-wife - is bad form if not a felony in most jurisdictions across the country.

It is always sad when the ties that bind are broken. Marry that to bindings tied to broken bond and promised bread and you have a situation bound to become another dark chapter in the book of love.

We now await the outcome of Eick v. Eick: Is the Bookbinding Business As Rotten As Petitioner Claims? Is the trade going to hell in a Halifax binding?

Or, the documentary, Mothers, Don't Let Your Children Grow Up To Be Bookbinders, based upon the  hit self-help book for gold-diggers of either sex, Never Marry a Bookbinder (Unless You Want Someone Really Good  With Their Hands).

In the meantime, you, Booktryst reader, are judge and jury. Oyez, oyez, oyez! What say you?

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Full transcript of the appellant judge's decision here.
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