For some of the early shows at Hacon's & Ricketts's shop 'The Sign of the Dial', it has proved difficult to establish dates. The exhibition of Famous Woodcut Illustrations of the Fifteenth & Early Sixteenth Centuries is one of those. In my checklist (1996) and in my bibliography of Ricketts's publications (2015), I assumed that 1898 was correct, even though Maureen Watry, in her book about Ricketts listed it as a 1897 catalogue. There seemed to be no diary notes, letters, or other documentary evidence available.
However, the growing number of digitised newspapers has now given us that proof. The Glasgow Herald of 5 April 1897 published a short descriptive review of this exhibition that can definitely be dated: 25 March to 24 April 1897.
The exact dates are taken from a copy of the invitation on which the dates were written in ink by the shop's assistant (collection of The Bodleian Library).
The review - part of 'The World of Art’, in Glasgow Herald, 5 April 1897, p. 7 - reads as follows:
Messrs. Hacon & Ricketts have gathered together a small but very choice exhibition in their little gallery at The Sign of the Dial, in Warwick Street, where also may be seen examples of their very beautiful printed books. The exhibition consists of about two score of woodcut illustrations by famous masters of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, a period of rapid development and great output in this particular branch of art. The earliest shown woodcut dates from the middle of the fifteenth century, and is from – the probably Dutch – block-book “Canticum Canticorum,” and there are fine examples from Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” 1497; Petrarch’s “Trionfi,” 1499, &c. By the German masters there are woodcuts from Dürer’s “Life of the Virgin,” 1505; “The Little Passion,” 1510; “The Great Passion,” 150, and his earlier work the “Apocalypse.” Also examples of Holbein’s “Dance of Death” and “The Old Testament,” Burgkmair’s “The Wise King,” and “Praxis Criminis”, by Geofroy Tory, 1541.
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| Famous Woodcut Illustrations of the Fifteenth & Early Sixteenth Centuries (1897) |
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| Famous Woodcut Illustrations of the Fifteenth & Early Sixteenth Centuries (1897) |
The review - part of 'The World of Art’, in Glasgow Herald, 5 April 1897, p. 7 - reads as follows:
Messrs. Hacon & Ricketts have gathered together a small but very choice exhibition in their little gallery at The Sign of the Dial, in Warwick Street, where also may be seen examples of their very beautiful printed books. The exhibition consists of about two score of woodcut illustrations by famous masters of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, a period of rapid development and great output in this particular branch of art. The earliest shown woodcut dates from the middle of the fifteenth century, and is from – the probably Dutch – block-book “Canticum Canticorum,” and there are fine examples from Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” 1497; Petrarch’s “Trionfi,” 1499, &c. By the German masters there are woodcuts from Dürer’s “Life of the Virgin,” 1505; “The Little Passion,” 1510; “The Great Passion,” 150, and his earlier work the “Apocalypse.” Also examples of Holbein’s “Dance of Death” and “The Old Testament,” Burgkmair’s “The Wise King,” and “Praxis Criminis”, by Geofroy Tory, 1541.
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| Famous Woodcut Illustrations of the Fifteenth & Early Sixteenth Centuries (1897) |