344. Ricketts and the Reichstag on One Page

On 11 March 1933, the Illustrated London News published a new collection of photographs in their regular feature 'The Camera as Recorder. News by Photography'. There were photographs of the remains of the old cathedral found at Amalfi, the new headquarters for the South African High Commissioner in London, a new American airliner, recent research on locusts, the Garrison Church at Potsdam that served as a substitute meeting-place after the incendiary of the Reichstag, the Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe, and 'The Masterpiece of Last Week at the Victoria and Albert Museum'.

Reichstag Fire, 27 February 1933 (Photo German Federal Archives)

The Reichstag fire had been on 27 February 1933, more than a week earlier. 'The Masterpiece of Last Week' was a sketch by Charles Ricketts.

Ricketts's didn't live to see the outcome of the political unrest in Europe in the twenties and thirties; he died in 1931. He would have been surprised to see art mixed with politics, archaeology, science, and industry on one and the same newspaper page.

'The Masterpiece of Last Week' (March 1933)

The drawing was a watercolour, a design for a theatre costume, dating from 1922. The newspaper added: 'This drawing was made for the costume of the Prince in a proposed production of Laurence Binyon’s "Sakuntala," and is typical of all Ricketts’ work in the perfect adjustment of colour and the vigorous beauty of the design. A representative display of his work for the theatre is included in the Winter Exhibition of the Royal Academy.'

The drawing had been exhibited earlier at the same venue in The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts 1925. The show ran from 4 May to 8 August 1925. In the South Rooms where the watercolours, miniatures, drawings, and engravings were hung, a drawing by Ricketts was on view. This was number 642 (according to the catalogue): 'Theatre Costume ("Sakuntala")'.

The drawing was acquired by the V&A in in 1926. See the museum's website for a description of this sketch.

Charles Ricketts, sketch for 'Sakuntala' (1922) [V&A]

Sakuntala was an Indian tale, written by Kalidasa, and translated by Kedar Nath Das Gupta, who asked Laurence Binyon to rewrite his translation for the stage. It was performed in 1919, the text published in 1920. Ricketts didn't design the costumes for this production. The artist William Rothenstein was asked to design curtains (Rothenstein had visited India in 1910, and Binyon had met Rabondranath Tagore at William Rothenstein's house in 1912), but by 1919 Rothenstein was located in Belgium as an official war artist.

Eventually, the scenery for the two performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in London in November 1919 was assigned to the artist Bruce Winston - later Ricketts would write a dedication for him in a  copy of Beyond the Threshold. Actress Sybil Thorndike served as the play's main attraction. There was a mixed audience of Indian and British guests, among whom were the Aga Khan and Maharaja of Baroda.

Other stagings by the Repertory Company followed; a performance in the Festival in Cambridge took place in October 1939. By June 1950, the play had been taken on by the Falcon Players at Bayshill Hall in Cheltenham. Local productions, all of them.

Ricketts's costume design must have been inspired by his attending a performance, but it was never produced.

Two designs have been preserved, according to Eric Binnie's list in The Theatrical Designs of Charles Ricketts (1985), one for 'Buffoon' (now at V&A), and one for 'Prince' (at the Ashmolean). However, the V&A describes their design as being for the 'Prince'.

343. Collections Online: William Andrews Clark Library

The other week, a new website on the history of the book was launched by Johanna Drucker: History of the Book. Coursebook.

The introduction explains its purpose: 

'This online course book uses materials in the UCLA Special Collections as the basis of a bibliographically based approach to the history of the book. Every chapter is structured around artifacts, sometimes of the period under discussion, and sometimes simply referencing those periods (as in section 1. Prehistory). The chapters are meant to provide a through-line narrative for the history of the book, an introduction for anyone interested in a basic overview of major developments, changes in technology, cultural attitudes, circumstances, or other aspects of this history.'

Apart from the 'Coursebook', there are sections for 'Exhibits' and 'Gallery'.

Included in the 'Exhibits' are several examples from the vast collection of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library that holds exceptional material on Wilde, and on Ricketts and Shannon.

There is an image of a Sybil Pye binding for the pre-Vale publication Daphnis and Chloe (1893). The binding is in black pigskin, inlaid with red niger and undyed goatskin, and gold-tooled (as described by Marianne Tidcombe). This binding was ordered by G.F. Simms and acquired by the library in 1959. The cover mentions 'The Loves of Daphnis and Chloe', a title that doesn't occur in the book itself.

Daphnis and Chloe (wood engravings by Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon) (1893)
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

Another example is in the 'British Aestheticism' section. This is a deluxe copy of Oscar Wilde's The Sphinx, with its extended design on the vellum covers (larger than the ordinary edition). There are only 25 copies, and this one still has the original fragile ties.

Oscar Wilde, The Sphinx. Binding design by Charles Ricketts.
Deluxe copy: front and back of binding.
(William Andrews Clark Memorial Library)

A long appraisal of the book can be found in the section on 'Modern Art of the Book'. This essay on The Sphinx with more images is written by Kristin Cornelius Way.

342. Similar Book Formats

One of the more famous book designs of the 1890s is undoubtedly John Gray's book of poems Silverpoints, published by John Lane, 'At the Sign of The Bodley Head in Vigo Street'. Its small and slim volume was regarded as innovative, especially in combination with the decoration of wavy lines and willow leaves stamped in gold on the green cloth covers and the page design with its vast areas of blank paper underneath a small block of text printed in italics.

Charles Ricketts's design was copied 'in various media'. The binding design was 'stolen' by other publishers such as Thomas Bird Mosher (see blogs nos 146 and 148), and shameless imitations popped up in many prize competitions.

London publisher Grant Richards also liked the format of Silverpoints. In 1917 he used a similar format for Thomas Burke's London Lamps. Its binding was of plain orange cloth. Earlier he adopted the format for a new translation of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, or rather a 'paraphrase from several  literal translations' as the subtitle duly noted, by Richard Le Gallienne. The book is only slightly larger.

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1897) and Silverpoints (1893)

Rubáiyát measures 23,0 x 11,5 cm; Silverpoints is 21,5 x 11 cm. The proportions are quite similar. The Omar Khayyám paraphrases only just occupy the upper half of the pages (as can be seen in the introduction); the page is 23,5 cm high, the texts don't go below the 9,5 cm line from the top, the page number can be found at two-thirds of the page in a sea of white.

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1897) and Silverpoints (1893)

The poems all start with a small and plain initial. There is no comparison between the subtle lay-out of Ricketts's Silverpoints and the design for Le Gallienne's version of Omar Khayyám. Ricketts decided to print all lines of verse in italic, adding large initials in roman.

The Grant Richards publication followed the trend of luxurious books, printing the Omar Khayyám book on Unbleached Arnold handmade paper. There was also a small number of copies on so-called Japanese vellum. The lay-out also followed a trend of large margins, and an elegant though affected placement of text at the top of the page.

341. An Oscar Wilde Book Signed by Ricketts and Shannon

The 51st California International Antiquarian Book Fair opens at the Pasadena Convention Center on Friday 9 February (open 9-11 February). More than 200 booksellers from around the world will exhibit their treasures, all for sale of course. 

Last week, John Windle Antiquarian Books (San Francisco) published a list of 32 Works of Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley, and most of these will be on view at the fair.

Oscar Wilde, A House of Pomegranates (1891)
(photo: John Windle Antiquarian Books)

One of the books that will interest Ricketts, Shannon and Wilde devotees is a copy of Oscar Wilde's A House of Pomegranates (1891). This is a signed copy of the first edition of Wilde's short stories, although, surprisingly it is not signed by the author himself, but by the two designers and illustrators, Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon. That is quite exceptional; I have no knowledge of another copy with their signatures, and the artists rarely adorned a book with their joint signatures. An absolute rarity.

Oscar Wilde, A House of Pomegranates (1891):
signed by Ricketts and Shannon (photo: John Windle Antiquarian Books)

The provenance of this copy is only partially established by the presence of two bookplates and one inscription. The inscription is dated 1922. In March of that year, Marie J. Lauer (I have not been able to establish her biography), gave the book as a present to Nina, who, according to her bookplate was Nina Ranger Herzog, later Lilienthal (New York, 1898 - San Francisco, 1963). Apparently, this copy has been in the USA since the early 1920s, and perhaps even earlier.

There is another bookplate that probably identifies the first owner of the book.

Oscar Wilde, A House of Pomegranates (1891):
bookplates on endpapers (photo: John Windle Antiquarian Books)

This bookplate was owned by its designer, the artist Herbert Warrington Hogg (1862-1893). He was born in Folkestone, where he became an apprentice in a porcelain factory, and developed into a successful designer of forms. He moved to Bournemouth after a breakdown, married, and early 1893 a daughter was born. 

His illustrations appeared in magazines, such as The Strand Magazine, The Gentlewoman, and The Studio. He also started a career as a book designer for John Lane who asked him to make drawings for the cover and the title page of William Watson's The Eloping Angels in 1893. It must have been one of his last works, as he died at the age of 31 in October 1893.

The Wilde book was published in 1891. Hogg may have met Ricketts and Shannon at an exhibition in London, or at the publisher's. But it is a puzzle. Had Warrington Hogg asked Ricketts and Shannon to sign the book? Why is there no dedication? Why is the form of Shannon's signature - with its long reversing tail - unusual? And why on earth would Hogg paste his large bookplate on one of the beautiful endpapers. These endpapers were specially designed for this edition by Ricketts. Hogg's example was followed later by the collector Nina Ranger Herzog...