BibliOdyssey: 2009-11-01

'Dronte' is (or was) a Dutch (and German and Danish) word for Dodo and this previously unknown sketch from the mid-1600s of the famous extinct bird was sold at Christie's a couple of months ago for ~£44K (about seven times the estimate!). More information: Telegraph / Bibliopole.

Short tailed magpie. 'Cissa thalassina' (Borneo and Java) -- watercolour and gouache sketch on paper by Thomas Lewin from about the early 1800s. Exquisite colouring. It was on sale in the recent Travel, Science & Natural History auction at Christie's but the Lot has now mysteriously disappeared.

A somewhat stylised spotted opossum (perhaps really a tiger quoll) from 'The Voyage of Captain Phillip to Botany Bay..' by Arthur Phillip*, published in 1789 - an account of the settlement-invasion of NSW by whitefellas. The image comes from a Sotheby's auction from a few days ago, featuring a new whizzbang interface.
[via one of Jeremy's informative auction reviews on PhiloBiblos]

The Great Atlas Moth by Marian Ellis Rowan [source]

Smooth Leaved Green Antigua Pineapple - George Brookshaw

Smooth Leaved Green Antigua Pineapple from 'Pomona Britannica' [1812]. Hand-finished aquatint illustration by George Brookshaw. Image from Christie's. (See Emma's recent post on Fed by Birds for some more Brookshaw botanical illustrations).

The Elderly Fool and his Cat

Engraving made by Alexander Voet II in about 1660 or thereabouts (after Jacob Jordaens). The image is from the British Museum. The title in the cartouche below the jester-fool says: 'FATVO RIDEMVR IN VNO' {We all laughed through this one fool}.

I can't quite read the verse at the bottom (in French and Dutch), although I think it's something of a play on wisdom [and] stupidity ~~and rabies(!?) ['la rage']~~*.

The notes (sans image unfortunately) for the Jordaens painting (the scenes are not the same) records the English translation of the Dutch verse. That same Dutch wording appears on the print (bottom right), but to my squinting eyes the French verse (bottom left) is totally different. Let me know if you can decipher it. Update:

Rions de touts fantastiques La rage
Bien loing de soucis réjouisson nous
Estre fou et se réjouir C'est estre sage
Estre sage sans se réjouir C'est estre fou

Let us laugh of all rage from anxious people
far from worries let us be merry
Being fool and be merry is being wise
Being wise without be merry is being fool
[*thanks to Archidemon]

An Essay on Woman

Another print published by Matthew Darly -(seen recently in Waiter There's a Hair in my Satire and probably collected at the same time)- in the late 1700s. [source: Walpole] The publisher's opening saccharine lines are respectful enough; the author quotes following, less so.

The Cryes of the City of London Drawn after Life - Henry Overton, 1733

Knives, Combs or Inkhorns

Engraving of a street merchant by Pierce Tempest (after Marcellus Laroon) from Henry Overton's 1733 book, 'The Cryes of the City of London Drawne After Life'. [source: Sotheby's]

'Cryes' (cries) refers to the calls shouted out by sellers to attract customers as they traipsed around the city trying to eke out a living. The street seller theme was a popular subject for more than two hundred years in book and print illustrations, as well as songs. I can't find any decent overview* of the history : that may be a function of search laziness and also the variation of names applied to the traders; costermonger, for instance, is a related term (but it's not the same thing) that goes back to at least Shakespearian times.
See:

Trades
Cries, Itinerants and Services - [previously] - from the John Johnson Collection Exhibition site;
'Old London Street Cries' by AW Tuer (1885) at the University of Wisconsin [Amazon];
'Images of the Outcast: The Urban Poor in the Cries of London' 2002 by S Shesgreen [*this book review by Dianne Payne is about the best online article giving background to the cries that I found]
Paris Street Cries by Edmé Bouchardon (1740s)
The Street Cries of Damascus

Forçat à Perpétuité by Jules Noel, 1845 (Bibliothèque numérique Enap)

Forçat à Perpétuité (Convict for Life)

The illustration by Jules Noel appears in Maurice Alhoy's 1845 book, 'Les Bagnes : Historie, Types, Moeurs, Mystères' (Prisons: history, types, customs and mysteries). The image comes from somewhere in Médiathèque Gabriel Tarde, a digital justice/prisons library in Enap, France [via Bibliopedia: Bibliothèques Numériques]. Alhoy's book is available from the Internet Archive and NYPL has a couple of other illustrations.

Frontispiece from 'The English Gentleman : containing sundry excellent rules, or exquisite observations, tending to direction of every gentleman, of selecter ranke and qualitie; how to demeane or accommodate himselfe in the manage of publike or private affaires', 1630 by Richard Brathwait. [source: Sotheby's]

See British Printed Images to 1700 which has the related titlepage variation of the above design from a 3rd Ed. 1641 dual-publication, 'The English Gentleman and the English Gentlewoman'.

French and Indian cruelty exemplified, Peter Williamson, 1787

French and Indian cruelty exemplified, Peter Williamson, 1787 (spliced)

"Peter Williamson (1730–1799), or Indian Peter as he became known, was one of the more colourful personalities of 18th century Scotland. He was kidnapped and sold into slavery in America. He was captured by Indians, but eventually escaped and joined the British army, serving for three years. He was imprisoned by the French. He eventually returned to Scotland and successfully sued Aberdeen officials for slave trading. In Edinburgh, he published the city's first street directory and set up a postal service, called the Penny Post."

The frontispieces above are from two different editions of Williamson's remarkable account of his experiences in America, almost certainly embellished to some extent, and first published in 1752 as 'French and Indian Cruelty: exemplified in the life, and various vicissitudes of fortune, of Peter Williamson'.

The top image -- showing the author dressed as a Delaware Indian, an outfit he wore as he travelled around Britain promoting his book -- is from the 1st Ed. [source/abstract] and the one underneath [Sotheby's] is from the 1787 release. [see also] Williamson's book is available from the Internet Archive.

Produced in 1939, this hand-drawn map of Oklahoma by Lester Raymer was commissioned by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Known simply as the Raymer Map, it was apparently rediscovered by the Oklahoma History Center while they were in the process of digitising and uploading (as in-browser pdfs) more than eight hundred Oklahoma-related maps from their collection. Regrettably, the Raymer Map is not among those available online in large format*. The History Center blog post does tell us how a copy can be purchased for $10 however. Not too shabby.
*I've been told that it is to be "entered into the online catalog" shortly, but I'm not sure if that means that a high-def version will become accessible or not. The map website itself is a little awkward, let's say, and the pdfs are browser-paralysing pains.

'De Schepping der Wereldt' (Creation of the World) - a fascinating series purporting to show how the world evolved in stages from Genesis onwards. This is an early attempt to use rational science to explain the origins of the earth. It was produced by the Amsterdam illustrator/booksellers, the Goeree brothers, in c. 1690. [source: Rare Maps] {slight tangent: Mr H on Thomas Burnet, a British 'geological historian' from the same era}

Le Monde Selon l’Hypothèse de Copernic. Le Système du Monde au moment de la Naissance de Louis le Grand, 1638

Swiped from the fantastic Ptak Science Books blog (bookstore), this 1638 print is a celestial snapshot commemorating the of birth of Louis XIV [the Sun King].

Zwillinge (Twins : Gemini)

A 1799 constellation map by Christian Goldbach from his book:

'Neuester Himmels - Atlas zum Gebrauche für Schul- und Akademischen Unterricht, nach Flamsteed ... [et.al.], in einer neuen Manier, mit doppelten schwarzen Stern-Charten bearbeitet; durchgehends verbessert, und mit den neuesten astronomischen Entdeckungen vermehrt'

[Latest heaven - Atlas for the use of school and academic education, according to Flamsteed ... [et al], dealt with in a new manner, with dual star-black holes, consistently improved, and increasingly with the latest astronomical discoveries]

[Latest sky atlas for use in school and academic education, according to Flamsteed ... [et al], dealt with in a new manner, edited with double black star maps; completely revised, and enriched with the latest astronomical discoveries]

The image above comes from the US Naval Oceanography Portal, but the Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology has the whole album available.

"The print style and technique was unusual. White stars are shown against a black background. The first pressing was made before the constellation figures and text details were added. These prints looked like a night sky. Then the finished plate was printed once more, providing a comparison with figures. The copper plates were printed in relief rather than the more common intaglio. While not the first to use this technique, his atlas was very influential on those that followed. His maps represent the stars with a Flamsteed projection."

A pictographic bird's-eye view map of Los Angeles (with coastal/inland section routes in the margins) by Mary Hall Attwood for use as a guide to the 1932 Olympic Games. [source: Rare Maps] See also: reverse side of the map and the cover. [games pics/info]

Our National Church - The aegis of liberty, equality, fraternity by FC Gould, 1883

Our National Law - the gloriously uncertain protector + punisher of the vicious and the virtuous by ION, 1884

Our National Law - the gloriously uncertain protector &
punisher of the vicious and the virtuous by FC Gould, 1884

Detailed satirical caricature prints accompanied by verses from scripture critiquing English religious and legal institutions with a context legend at the bottom (scanned from colour transparencies). [source: Rylands Digital Library, Manchester]

Les Veritez Du Siecle Da Present (1700) (HAB)

Les Veritez Du Siecle Da Present
(~The truths about the present century)

This print from about 1700 comes from somewhere in HAB (probably from a book). Approximately: priests bless you, soldiers guard you, farmers nourish you and, of course, lawyers eat you. Lawyer jokes have been around a long time: low hanging fish in a barrel.

König Friedrich Wilhelm IV -- caricature from 1848.9 revolution

"Vorwarts!" (Forward!)
{Natural History curiosity found in a Russian village in 1844}

This political satire is from the time of the 1848 revolutions in German states and comes from Humboldt University Print of the Month series. The translated accompanying text reads:

"This very rare cartoon plays on the relationship between King Frederick William and his Culture Minister Johann Albrecht Friedrich von Eichhorn. Eichhorn, Prussian Minister of the most controversial of the pre-March, which was retired in consequence of the revolution of 1848-49. The scene shows the Minister, here as a squirrel, sitting on the shoulders of the sleeping king, and directing the cancer (lobster) into a quagmire. The Location of the event "in a village in Russia" suggests that even conservative circles of far-reaching anti-liberal policies Eichhorn.

The king was asleep, his minister, "confided" stands for the indifference of the monarch to the emerging political opposition. The cry "Forward" stands in contrast to the symbolism of the cancer that might have been the most in March 1844 adopted by Eichhorn law on disciplinary proceedings against judicial officers as a pictorial representation of backwardness and reactionary policies took place in graphic snapshots of use. The occasion for the presentation, that would degrade as in Russia, particularly judges to instructions governing bodies. This satire is part of the collection of pamphlets and posters of the revolution of 1848-49 in the Office of Historical book collections of the University Library."

A Bad Shot! [Lloyd George dropping Budget Bombs from an airship]
(The Budget Protest League*)

"Ach! I did ~~not~~ mean to hit ze rich man's castle, but I have made von bad miss and hit ze factory."

Sourced from Oxford University's Bodleian Library Conservative Party Association Poster Collection.

See Brett's post - Keep that shadow from them - at Airminded for more background.

Coffre Sculpte des Habitans de la Nouvelle Zelande
(Carved coffin by New Zealanders) [source: Rare Maps]

A Maori carved casket, from the first French edition of Cook's official account of his travels to New Zealand, 1774.

Cropped detail from an 1830s work by MI Weber called: 'Anatomischer Atlas des Menschlichen Körpers in Natürlicher Größe, Lage und Verbindung der Theile' (~Anatomical atlas of the human body: natural size, location and connection) [source]

Ovidiu posted a nice selection of late 19th century European photographer details from the backs of photographs, for their typographic goodness.

[click through any image for an enlarged version; all images with black borders were spliced together from screencaps. This post was actually ready a couple of days ago and then I lost the whole thing and had to start again. Idiot.]

Other things...

JFK Library's online McCune Collection features rare and early printed works, fine printing from private presses and more (site map is a good place to start).
Bowsprite: A New York Harbor Sketchbook.
The wonderful ~7 minute video below relates to the Pictorial Websters project by John M Carrera.
The Wood Engravers Network kindly make available for download issues of their biannual illustrated newsletter-come-magazine: Block & Burin.
The mid-19th century 'Victorian Blood Book' from the library of Evelyn Waugh at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas now features an audio slide-show.
There was lots more but I just got a new computer (yay!) and am still totally disorganised with links and images all over the place (boo!).