A house burns in the background, but it takes you a moment to notice that there is a fireman shopping for pumpkins in the foreground. Is it real or a set up? There is a wry humour to Sternfeld’s images of 1980’s America, that mean you are never entirely sure.
American Prospects was Sternfeld’s first photobook. Originally published in the 1980’s – this re-digitised edition from 2006 has an additional photograph, and is produced in finer quality that the original version.
I always thought of George Cruikshank as one of the foremost illustrators of Dickens – and that he was. But on researching this book, I discovered that there was more to our George that meets the eye.
For a start – he was a fanatical member of the Teetotal movement (who swore off alcohol entirely) and this was one of the main causes of his falling out with Dickens, who believed in the acceptability of moderate drinking.
The second fact I have found, is that he married twice (his first wife died 2 years after they got married) but that upon his death, it was discovered that he had fathered 11 (yes 11) illegitimate children with a former servant, who he had installed in a house nearby.
Although he is most famous for his Dickensian illustrations, he also did many caricatures, following his father’s fame. In addition, he illustrated works from around Europe.
In this work, he has produced engravings for a German novella:
Peter Schlemihl is the title character of an 1814 novella, Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (Peter Schlemihl’s Miraculous Story), written in German by exiled French aristocrat Adelbert von Chamisso.
In the story, Schlemihl sells his shadow to the Devil for a bottomless wallet (the gold sack of Fortunatus), only to find that man is shunned by human societies. The woman loves rejects him, and he is very involved in guilt. Yet when the devil wants to return his shadow to him in exchange for his soul, Schlemihl, as the friend of God, rejects the proposal for the bottomless wallet besides. He seeks refuge in nature and travels around the world in scientific exploration, with the aid of seven-league boots. When overtaken with sickness, he is reconciled with his fellow who does not care for his shadow. Finally, however, he returns to his studies of nature and finds his deepest satisfaction in communion with nature and his own better self.
The story, intended for children, was widely read and understood as a common cultural reference in many countries. People generally remembered the element of the shadow better than how the story ended, simplifying Chamisso’s lesson to the idiom “Do not sell your shadow to the Devil.”
The Yiddish becomes schlemiel-and its Hebrew cognate shlumi’el-mean a hopelessly incompetent person, a bungler. The name is a synonym of one who makes a desperate or silly bargain. Originally the name of God, Theophilus
This week we have an exciting new item in our exclusive photo-book auction. Rare limited first edition of the book of Richard Prince enriched with a silver print in colour. Signed, dated and numbered “X/26” in ink under the image (format 40 x 50 cm). In original casing titled on the cover.
Adult Comedy Action Drama is a visual diary mixing and mingling snapshots with found imagery of media culture’s detritus, inane jokes painted on canvas, trashy book covers, and cartoons from The New Yorker. It is a hilariously intelligent, delightfully wacky, and convincingly accurate portrayal of life in an era where real and fake, fact and fiction, media and everyday life have become almost undistinguishable. Adult Comedy Action Drama is both an inventive artist’s book and an overview of Prince’s work. Prince is an obsessive collector of images and a gifted photographer. From his immense archives he has chosen these pictures and arranged them into this truly contemporary, provocative, sexy, and political visual narrative. Prince plays with havoc with the 1970’s credo that the personal is the political and vice versa. It’s a sophisticated breviary for pop culture aficionados, art world mavens, and anyone enamoured or repelled by the late 20th century’s media madness.
As both a photographer and an artist, Prince is in demand. My favourite fact about Prince, is that he built a house / museum in upstate New York. He sold this to the Guggenheim museum, and shortly afterwards it was struck by lightning and burnt down. Poor Guggenheim!
This bible is small – very small. Only 4 x 3 cm. As you can see from the pictures, you could fit it into a match box – never mind you pocket.
One of the most important things to notice here though, is that this is not a modern digital printing – it is a proper old fashioned printing, with a printing press, and separate letters placed onto the press, inked, and pushed onto the page. Imagine how small each piece of punch type has to be to make a single letter.
The 14 woodcuts are even more impressive. The artist had to carve, on a small piece of wood, an engraving clear enough to take ink, and give a clear impression on the page.
All this – and it was done in 1727, without the modern micro-machinery that would make this so much easier.
Most of us are very familiar with the John Tenniel illustrations for Alice in Wonderland. These are still the standard by which every other illustrator is judged, and most are found wanting. But these Willie Pogany illustrations for a 1929 edition have certainly made the grade.
the book includes vibrant, full-colour endpapers plus 99 line drawings in an “altogether new, crisp, clean style, the first really original interpretation since Tenniel and a milestone in the artistic characterisation of Alice” (John Davis, ‘The Illustrators of Alice in Wonderland’).
One of my favourite parts of the film The Doors starring Val Kilmer, was when Morrison came up with the name for the band, dancing around and quoting from Huxley’s book.
The quotation The Doors of Perception was from William Blake – the famous English poet, visionary and possibly slightly insane author, in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Here it was re-used by Huxley to describe a Mescalin fuelled trip he undertook in 1953.
If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern
Huxley believed that the brain is a reducing valve that restricts consciousness and hoping mescaline might help access a greater degree of awareness (an idea he later included in the book). As a result, he volunteered to be an experimental subject for Humphrey Osmond, an English psychiatrist who was researching the effects of Mescalin.
Here we offer a very early American Edition in a nice dust wrapper. (the book is dated 1954 – the same year as the first issue – but doesn’t have the edition statement to the printing information page).
So what did he think of his experiment? Well he was keen, and found the experience opened his eyes to beauty and colour in a way he had not previously experienced. He was later to describe much of his trip in Buddhist terms. However, he also felt that he had touched the edge of madness, and felt that some of the experiences threatened to overwhelm him His conclusion was that although less harmful than alcohol and tobacco, great care should be taken in using Mescalin. So as Gerry Springer would say – Look after yourselves
Long before the tasty chocolate treat, came the organisation of the Girl Guides – the Brownies, for the youngest girls, was set up in 1909 and originally known as The Rosebuds. But this name clearly didn’t capture their spirit.
So they were renamed The Brownies, after the original Northern English and Scottish mythical being. This was a small, wrinkled creature, who hid in the house, and helped out around the house in exchange for small gifts of food. They particularly favoured dairy products – so would probably have enjoyed a chocolate Brownie.
This book is full of tales of the little wrinkled creatures, and full of lovely illustrations. Sure to delight any children, and not just the younger Guides!
A colour engraving of the warring nations depicted as animals from World War I.
This fascinating serio-comic map was created by John Henry Amschewitz and published in December 1914, at the beginning of WWI. Amschewitz was a British born artist who was unable to enlist for war service due to an injury he sustained while working on a mural project in Liverpool. Instead Amschewitz focused on his interests in art and theatre, themes which are apparent in this map and even the title itself: European Revue. The eagle refers of course to Germany, which has its claw on Marianne’s bayonet, while its other claw is being pulled by the Russian bear. Austria is depicted as a clown with the head of an ass in one hand and Italy croons the song lyrics, “You made me love you, I didn’t want to do it…,” written by American Al Jolson and first published in 1913. Britain is illustrated as a domineering John Bull accompanied by the words “Business as usual,” a patriotic phrase coined by British businesses to indicate that business would continue in Britain despite the war. This map was later copied by German propagandists with a mis-interpretation of the phrase “business as usual” to prove Britain’s war-mongering ways. Issued folding in original printed paper self-wrappers.
Although the human personification of continents and countries can be seen as early as the 14th century (on maps by Opicinus de Canestris), human and animal metaphors on maps reached a new level in Europe between 1845 and 1945 with political cartoon maps. The rise of these satirical maps reflected the momentous political and cultural changes that occurred during the time. Political leaders were caricaturised and European nations were given symbolic identities that lent humour and accessibility to the geographical map. Based on popular stereotypes, these visual representations even found their way into the classroom to help bring geography and politics to life. Original serio-comic maps are very scarce due to their ephemeral nature.
This complete set of the Chronicles of Barset, includes a frontis by the Dalziel brothers in each volume. With this collection, you can enter the Victorian world of Trollope, He was a complex character, who worked for the Post Office for many years. He was credited as being the inventor of the Pillar Box!
The set includes:
The Chronicles of Barsetshire (2 vols.). The Warden. Barchester Towers (2 vols.). Doctor Thorne. Framley Parsonage. The Small House at Allington (2 vols.). The Last Chronicle of Barset.
The Book & Cartography Blog 