Grab Bag

'Harlemi apud Petrum van Assendelft - Pharmacopoea Harlemensis'

Engraving by Jan Caspar Philips, 1750. Spliced together from screencaps and sourced from the North Holland Archives. There's precious little information online about this Dutch engraver (nor this engraving) who is best known for a series of portrait plates made of senior Mennonite Ministers.










'Verhael met den Almanach..' is a very small 1692 folklore book by Jacob Mesens with a number of slightly absurd woodcuts (in the manner of le monde renversé), combined with a couple of poems. It is easily accessible from the Antwerp Library Archives.








'Wapen. Des Heyligen Römischen Reichs Teutscher Nation' or Koebel's Wappenbuch (Coat of Arms book) is interesting because the heraldic symbols are all featured on flags - although perhaps not so obviously with the two example images - held aloft by the mercenaries known as Landsknechts (seen recently). Published in 1545 by Jacob Koebel, this rare wappenbuch features around one hundred and fifty full page illustrations (by Jacob Kallenberg - monogramme: 'IK') of the puffy shirt-wearing, armor-clad flag bearers; and in passing, I noted a subsequent edition from the late 16th century selling for ~€4000. The complete book is available online at the Bavarian State Library. [via Archivalia]














'Buch der Kunst dadurch der weltliche Mensch mag geistlich werden' (something like: Art book to help the secular man find spirituality). This incunabulum was published in Augsburg by Johann Bämler in 1477 and is as good a place as any for all your medieval woodcut devil and tentacle seahorse porn needs. The book is hosted by Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart - their digital collection is only modest in size but contains some interesting items.

'Pyramides ante fores Regii Hospitii in fordo Civitatis Gedanensis Collocatae'

'Arcus circa festivitatem Regiarum nuptiarum in
medio Longae Plateae civitatis Gedanensis erectus'

Description: Triumphal gate with Atlas and Hercules, built in Gdańsk in honour of Ludwika Maria Gonzaga.

Martius

All these three illustrations, from 1646, were produced by Jeremiasz Falck, a Polish artist who worked all over Europe. The Martius illustration was designed by the great German Baroque artist, Joachim von Sandrart. I confess to having no clue as to the nature of those elaborate ornamental calligraphy prints but presume they were commemorative works, given the description of the 'Arcus Circa' design. A portrait of Ludwika Maria Gonzaga is actually among a small collection of illustrations by Falck hosted by the Polish Digital Library (put 'Falck' in the search box to return eight prints and a portrait of the artist).




The latest Sothebys* catalogue (English Literature, History, Children's Books & Illustrations) lists a number of previously unknown original ink and watercolour sketches by Beatrix Potter. The bespectacled mouse illustration (1890) above, spliced together from screencaps, displays Potter's fondness for drawing mice reading newspapers, a subject which appears in a number of her works.
*[requires registration]




I have absolutely zero recollection and no notes in relation to this image. If anyone has any info. about the repository, artist or date, please let us know.





I left the title tag with 'Russian Cthulu'* in deference to the Babs71 LiveJournal site owner's entry. They photographed this map in a local shop in Russia. It's trilingual (Finnish + Swedish as well as Russian) and was probably produced in Scandinavia. It was made after 1900* (the Paris Exhibition is noted on the map). Some of the caricatures appears to be non-contemporary national symbols/people and some of the imagery has been lifted from previous joco-serious cartographic curiosities.

*Update: P-E Fronning comments:
"..it says on the map "Europe and the world's largest monarchy before its overthrow" so I guess either it is a call to overthrow the government or it is made 1917 or after."