London by Ogilvy

The Bell Tavern, Cornhill

Watling Street, St. Augustine's, and St. Paul's

The Place of Execution, Tower Hill, and All Hallows, Barking

Lincoln's Inn Gateway

The Martyr's Corner, Smithfield

"WHILE making the drawings and collecting notes for this work, I tried to choose the subjects which would be of most interest to the greatest number of people.

In an area so crowded as the City of London is with associations - historic, religious, literary, and personal - everything could not be illustrated. Interesting, historically or as types, the subjects must be; if they had any element of the picturesque besides, I tried to retain it; working much in the early morning, when the City wears its fairest looks, before the tide of bustling humanity has filled every street and alley.

In the beginning, my explorations led me into many backwaters, and I wished for a guide to lead me through the maze; erratic excursions made policemen regard me with looks of doubt; but the maze became familiar in time, and constables became interested friends, whose cheerful philosophy lightened many trying hours; my thanks are due to them, and to the citizens, for their unfailing courtesy during the years of my pilgrimage."

Relics & Memorials of London City by James S Ogilvy with 64 coloured plates by the author [published 1910] is posted among the Bolles Collection at the Tufts University Digital Library.
[click on 'images in this document' in the left margin for thumbnail views]

Slabber Marine Miniatures

Martinus Slabber (1740-1835) was something of an allrounder. Although his background education in Holland is not well known it seems he was a physician but at some time he also worked as a bailiff, alderman, mayor, president of the court of justice and tax collector.


Not to be outdone by his professional undertakings, he was also a keen amateur zoologist. The images here are from a book devoted to invertebrate marine creatures from the North Sea which he examined under a microscope. His work (described as 'landmark' at many websites that seem to be pilfering a single source) was issued by subscription in 18 sections, one for each of the illustration plates that accompany his text. Slabber did all of the illustrating and (I think) some of the engraving himself.

Natuurkundige Verlustigingen was released between 1769 and 1778 with both latin and dutch names for the creatures as well as morphological and some physiological descriptions. The work (together with another book on taxidermy) resulted in Slabber being accepted into German and Dutch scientific academies. Six marine taxa are named after him.

The 18 illustration plates from Natuurkundige Verlustigingen are online at the Marine Biological Laboratory Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution [Link updated 31.12.13].

[all the above images are details]

Update of link in comments: A compilation Slabber book at U Strasbourg, 'Physicalische Belustigungen oder microscopische Wahrnehmungen in- und ausländischer Wasser- und Landthierchen'.

Life of the People

Guts of Manhattan
Louis Lozowick 1939
lithograph

Lunch Hour
Joseph Hirsch 1942
lithograph

The Working Day No. 37
Hugo Gellert 1933
lithograph

White Collar Boys
Elizabeth Olds 1936
lithograph

The Return of the Soldier
Charles White 1946
pen & ink

"Labor advocate and garment manufacturer Ben Goldstein, with the support of his wife Beatrice, left to The Library of Congress -- and the nation -- a collection of American prints and drawings informed by a sympathy for the condition of working people.

A native New Yorker, over decades he collected works that stirred his very personal interest in the city of his birth, the American people, and the human condition during the first half of the twentieth century. His concerns encompassed a broad spectrum of social and political issues that touched on life in urban centers and in rural areas, American labor and industry, and the experience and achievements of minority groups."

Life of the People: Realist Prints and Drawings from the Ben and Beatrice Goldstein Collection, 1912-1948 at the Library of Congress
[via ::wood s lot::]

Tokyo Library

This fish headed utility beastie caught my eye among the Tokyo Library Web Gallery which includes wartime posters, Shinbun nishikie woodblock images and Kawaraban (broadsides).

The Silhouette Book

Silhouettes - an outline filled with a solid colour, typically black on a white background - have been found in cave paintings from the stone age, ancient Greek vase decorations and in Indonesian shadow puppetry by way of historical examples.

But the modern equivalent originates in Europe in the early eighteenth century when aristocrats would hire silhouettists to make paper cutout portraits of family members and guests. The art grew in popularity as it was a cheap way to have a person's likeness rendered prior to the advent of photography.

The name silhouette derives from the miserly French finance minister, Étienne de Silhouette from the 1760s, who was known to be fond of doing things cheaply, including making paper cutouts at home. The populace wore black clothing to mock the unfeeling taxation overlord, going 'a la silhouette' in protest. The name, but not the negative connotation, stuck.

Silhouettes had their original modern heyday between about 1790 and 1840 until cameras became available. Many of the early silhouettes were actually painted and many artists became rich on the trade. But the art has never truly died out.

The above images come from an anonymous German childrens book without title that contains 12 silhouettes, the majority accompanied by short extracts from Cervantes or Shakespeare and which are online at the Braunschweig University Library. It was published c. 1900 and would appear to be an elite private press release. The images and text take up a very small space in the middle of the pages.

• Charles history of silhouettes (decidedly personal view, but with a number of early examples).
• Peggy McClard biography of silhouette artistes.
• Peggy McClard gallery of vintage silhouettes.
• De Hoogh antique silhouette portraits from artist John Buncombe.
• Silhoutte picture making at CutArts.
• The Silhouette Man - artist.
• Fashion industry silhouettes from the 20th century.
• Weblog on silhouettes by 3rd generation silhouettist (probably related to CutArts above).
  

Architectural Zoology

[click on the images for larger versions]

Artist and engineer Joseph Boillot (1546-c.1603) was part of the military adminstration in France at Langres under Henri IV. First published in 1592, Pourtraitz et Figures de Termes Pour User en Architecture draws influence from such classics as Pliny's Natural History in displaying animals pairs with natural antipathy adjacent to one another on the book's open pages. There are said to be allegorical as well as architectural motifs represented.

He engraved these baroque ornamental plinths from wood or copper and there are 55 illustrations accompanying his text. All engravings from this very rare and amazing book are online at NYPL (thumbnail page). I get the feeling that not all of the images are from the same edition - and indeed, I have 'sharpened' a couple of the images above (that's the only adjustment I ever make to images and I've done it to maybe 3 other -- usually faded engravings -- illustrations previously) to make them a touch clearer. A later German edition is said to be far superior.

The fantasy column illustrations were meant: "to provide models for artists, sculptors, carpenters, glass painters, goldsmiths, cabinet-makers, craftsmen, and "lovers of art". This strange and lovely book can also be viewed as a bestiary of sorts. The illustrations provide fascinating archetypes from the world of real and imaginary beasts via images of bears, red deer, lions, leopards, wild boars, wolves, camels, unicorns, horses, bulls, elephants, rhinos, rams, dall sheep, hunting dogs, porcupines, monkeys, donkeys, goats, tigers, antelopes, etc., which are incorporated into busts, statues and plinths."

• UPDATE Dec. 2013: this Architectura article from 2004 by Yves Pauwels provides good (bilingual) commentary on our Boillot's opus of structural zoomorphia.
  
• This Sims Reed site shows how the illustrations appeared on the book pages.
• August Laube have a decent review of the work - the most authoritative I could find.
• This is a translated cached page, ostensibly dealing with Bulliot's other major publication on weaponry. I am very surprised that there is so little online about Bulliot and his Pourtraitz.

I know I think this every other day, but this Bulliot's Pourtraitz is the best find for a while - to me.

Beinecke Dice Throw

A Visit from Saint Nicholas by Clement Clark Moore c. 1850
[All the images from the book as thumbnails]
{I'm glad I never had this sort of vision of Saint Nick as a youngster}

Le Champ d'Asile le Laurier sous leurs pas y croitra sans culture
[The laurel under their path will probably not grow]
Notes: Champ d'Asile, Texas, political saitre, French emigration.
The title contains a pun suggesting that the emigrants culture will not grow.
{*shrug* - no indication as to when this coloured aquatint
intaglio was published - I would guess late 18th/early 19th century}

A Mormon and his wives dancing to the
devil's tune by the Van Deusens 1850 in:
Startling disclosures of the wonderful ceremonies
of the Mormon spiritual-wife system

Haida Double Thunderbird by Garrick Mallery 1894 in:
Picture Writing of the American Indians

Drawing of musical instruments as animal by Johan Beer 1701 in:
Bellum musicum oder Musicalischer Krieg :
in welchem umbständlich erzehlet

I love the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library Digital Images Online database. Some people might venture to suggest that it could do with a little association by way of themes but I'm not complaining. Although there aren't too many fully digitized books (that I haven't posted previously) available, there is nonetheless a plethora of unique and unusual book images (and photographs) online. It's also a good opportunity to practice the random word generator part of your mind.

The Rålamb Costume Book

"The 'Rålamb Costume Book' is a small volume containing 121 miniatures in Indian ink with gouache and some gilding, displaying Turkish officials, occupations and folk types.

They were acquired in Constantinople in 1657-58 by Claes Rålamb who led a Swedish embassy to the Sublime Porte, and arrived in the Library in 1886. The call number is Cod.Rål. 8:o nr 10.

This volume is a variant of the so-called muraqqa-album type, which is rather common in libraries in Europe. They were probably manufactured for European visitors, as precursors of the 19th century 'pittoresque' photos and the present-day folklore postcards."

The Rålamb Costume Book is on display at The Royal Library - National Library of Sweden. [Titles are in the image URL]
See also previous entries: 'Turban Turkey' & 'Hatwear of the Eurostacray'.

Toy Gun Patents

A toy airplane water pistol. Perfect for swooping
in and shooting your sister from behind.
1952 Invented by William R. McLain

The Strato Gun for Futuristic Products Company of Detroit, Mich.
The Strato was a cap gun with a plastic chrome finish.
1953 Invented by Sidney Wasserman and Allen M. Sterns

A Tom Corbett Space Cadet rifle designed for toy maker Louis Marx.
1953 Invented by Mahlon Hirsch

The Pyrotomic Disintegrator Pistol.
This toy gun was made by space-toy manufacturer Pyro Plastics Corp.
You can see a photo of the pistol at toyraygun.com
1953 Invented by Grover C. Schaible

A toy cap pistol made to look like a ray gun.
This design was for the J. & E. Stevens Sales Company.
1953 Invented by Frederick J. Maywald