717. Charles Ricketts and The Vasari Society (1)

The Vasari Society for the Reproduction of Drawings by Old Masters was founded in 1905, and a first portfolio was probably issued in January 1906. Chairman of the committee was Sidney Colvin (1845-1927), Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum. 

Sidney Colvin
[from: Memories & Notes of Persons & Places, 1852-1912. 
London: Edward Arnold & Co., 1921

Charles Ricketts described him as follows in a letter from December 1911: 

[...] years have passed and transformed the journalist he then was, into a student; he is besides a gentleman [...]

Ricketts also spent cultural evenings organised by his wife, Frances Jane Colvin. In 1915, for example, he attended a recital by Muriel Lee Mathews and was impressed by her performance.

In 1905, the Committee of The Vasari Society consisted of Martin Conway (art critic, politician, cartographer and mountaineer), Charles Holroyd (painter and director of the National Gallery), Laurence Binyon (poet and curator, working at the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum), Campbell Dodgson (art historian and curator, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum), Roger Fry (painter and art critic), Charles J. Holmes (Slade Professor of Fine Art and c0-editor of The Burlington Magazine), Sid Montague Peartree (art historian and collaborator of The Dürer Society), Claude Phillips (art historian, Keeper of the Wallace Collection), Charles Ricketts and Robert Ross (manager of the Carfax Gallery and literary executor of Oscar Wilde).

With Binyon, Dodgson and Fry, Ricketts (the only member without a university education) formed the Executive Committee. Over the years, the composition of the committees would change, but Ricketts remained an active member until the end of his life.

The reproductions were executed in collotype at the University Press, Oxford. A 'Note' in the first volume explained: 'They are of the same size as the originals, except in the case of drawings exceeding 12 x 10 inches (30.5 x 25.5 centimetres) in size, which have been reduced. The drawings selected are such as admit of reproduction without the employment of more than the two colours usual in collotype, so that the renderings may be regarded as practically exact facsimiles.' 

The reproductions were accompanied by descriptions, 'intended rather as a guide to the student than as definitive critical notices'.

The first series ran from 1905 to 1915, when the World War I caused an interruption. The second series began publication in 1920. On 7 January 1910 The Times reviewed one of the annual issues, and reported 'that the position of the society may be regarded as satisfactory, though the number of subscribers remains more or less stationary.' The newspaper added: 'Needless to say, the more subscribers the society obtains the more drawings it will be able to reproduce. The drawings are very judiciously chosen from all schools, and some of them will probably be new even to students.'

Ricketts contributed to the series in two ways: some drawings from the joint collection of Ricketts and Shannon were reproduced, and Ricketts wrote a number of descriptions to accompany the drawings (these contributions remained unnoticed in his bibliography until now).

Drawings from the Collection of Ricketts and Shannon

Part II (1906) contains a reproduction of Wolfgang Huber's 'The Crucifixion', a pen and ink drawing on white paper, 32 x 21.5 cm. The drawing is listed as number 137 in All for Art (Fitzwilliam Museum, 1979): 'The drawing has been dated c. 1525. It may be connected with a lost altarpiece which Huber painted in Passau during the 1520s.' This information is not given in The Vasari Society edition for which Campbell Dodgson wrote the description.

Wolfgang Huber, 'The Crucifixion' (c. 1525)
[Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge]
[Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND)]

In the years that followed, nine more drawings from their collection were selected for The Vasari Society edition: 

Index of Drawings from the Collection of CR and CHS [with links to the Fitzwilliam Museum Collection]

 

Barye, Antoine Louis Sec.Ser.VIII-15

Florentine School (Andrea del Sarto?) IV-5

Wolfgang Huber II-20

Lorenzo di Credi IV-1

North Italian School Sec.Ser.VIII-2

Rembrandt Sec.Ser.I-7

Verrocchio (School of) Sec Ser.III-2

Watteau, Antoine III-33, III-35; V-37

The second drawing (Florentine School) is now attributed to Fra Bartolomeo. The fifth drawing (North Italian School) is now attributed to Francesco Francia. The seventh drawing (Verrocchio) is now attributed to Fra Bartolomeo.

For Lorenzo di Credi, see also All for Art, number 111.

For Rembrandt, see also All for Art, number 165.

For Verrocchio, see also All for Art, number 203.

For Watteau (III-35), see also All for Art, number 204.

For Watteau (V-37), see also All for Art, number 206. 

Antoine Watteau, 'Reclining Lady seen from Behind' (undated)
[Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge]
[Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND)]

716. Charles Ricketts From A to Z

With the deadline for the copy of The Collected Letters of Charles Ricketts fast approaching, John Aplin and I, as editors, are working feverishly to dot the i's and cross the t's. One of the major tasks was the general index compiled by John, which I have just finished reading. Some people (myself included) enjoy reading indexes. They always tell the story in a different way. I won't spoil the surprise of how this works with Ricketts's letters; you'll want to discover that for yourselves. For now, let's just look at the A and the Z. What is the first keyword in the index and what is the last?

Abbey Theatre, Dublin I. 268 n.4, 384 n.2, 468 n.6, 524 II. 860 n.6
The Abbey Theatre in Dublin is mainly mentioned in the footnotes of letters from Ricketts to W.B. Yeats and Katharine Bradley in which he comments on certain actors or plays, such as Frank Fay and Lady Gregory, both co-founders of the theatre. At the end of 1905 Ricketts wrote to Yeats:

We hope you are well & all your friends in Ireland 'the nation of the Drama' and that Dublin thinks of nothing else but plays.

In a letter to the Editor of The Times (21 February 1912) Ricketts mentioned the Abbey Theatre in his plea for 'Municipal Drama and Opera'.

Zoffany, Johan III. 1433, 1446

The name of Zoffany came up in two letters to Eric Brown of the National Gallery in Ottawa when Ricketts was appointed their advisor in December 1923. Ricketts wrote:

In the mean time, realizing that you have £1,000 till March, I have made some enquiries concerning a most exceptional life size full length by Zoffany (woman in blue silk dress, book in hand sitting under a tree) which sold last year for £600. The name Zoffany does not convey the exceptional merit of the work which recalled an early Gainsborough with something more explicit (almost French) in the workmanship. The Dealer had purchased it on commission.

Johann Zoffany,
'Self-portrait as David with the head of Goliath' (1756)
[National Gallery of Victoria]

However, soon it turned out that the painting was unobtainable, because a collector did not want to part with it. Johann Zoffany (Johannes Josephus Zaufallij) was a German neoclassical painter who was born in 1733 and moved to England in 1760. He died in Chiswick in 1810.

715. Sculpture at Auction: Deposition

It is not often that one of Charles Ricketts's statues comes up for sale. He did not make many sculptures in the early 1910s and the editions are very small, if you can even call them that; he probably only had them cast when there was a demand or if he wanted to exhibit them.

Charles Ricketts, 'Deposition' (sculpture, c.1908)

'Old Masters & 19th Century Art' at Chiswick Auctions lists Lot 164:

CHARLES DE SOUSY RICKETTS, RA (SWISS, 1866-1931)
Deposition
inscribed 'CR' (lower)
bronze with a dark brown patina
40cm high

Provenance: Private Collection UK

Estimate £4,000 - £6,000

There is a lot to be said about this description, but I will exercise restraint. 

Ricketts may have been born in Geneva, but that did not make him Swiss.

Secondly, this is not a work from the '19th century', but from the early 20th century.

The deposition was one of Ricketts's favourite subjects which he painted regularly. To find it as a statue is quite rare.

Charles Ricketts, 'Deposition' (sculpture, c.1908): monogram 'CR'

714. A Lecture about Ricketts: Our Collection

Last Friday I gave a lecture to the visitors of the National Library of the Netherlands in The Hague about Charles Ricketts, simply because I had not completed any other research by the time they asked a title (in November last year) and my Ricketts research is ongoing. There are a number of works designed by Charles Ricketts in the library (KB, National library) and I have written previously about our holdings. However, there is always more to discover. 

The Rowley Poems of
Thomas Chatterton (1898):
KB The Hague

In May 2012 I wrote a blog (No. 43 'Rik was talked off his feet by Ricketts') about a visit by the Dutch artist Richard Roland Holst to Ricketts.

At the time, I reported that the national library had acquired Ricketts related books in three batches, in 1900, in 1954, and in 1988. However, as always, history is more complicated.

After my lecture there was a gathering in the Special Collections reading room where I was able to show examples from our collection: pre-Vale books, Vale Press books, commercial books designed by Ricketts, books designed for his friends and others. One of the guests asked me if such a Ricketts collection was still being maintained, now that the library's acquisition policy has changed drastically.

A good question. The KB has decided years ago to primarily collect the national heritage: everything that is published in the Netherlands, and a selection from what is published about the Netherlands.

But I realized that the selection on display was not a Ricketts collection at all. Most of the books were purchased for their literary content, and, examining them more closely after the visit was over, I discovered that there were more than just three batches of Ricketts acquisitions.

1900

The library ordered books from Hacon and Ricketts as stated in the acquisition books:

• Michael Field, The World at Auction (1898) in the flame binding. Received by 1 November 1900.
• John Milton, Early Poems (1896). Received by 5 December 1900.
• Charles Ricketts, A Defence of the Revival of Printing (1899). Received by 5 December 1900.
• The Rowley Poems of Thomas Chatterton (1898), two volumes in the flame binding. Received by 10 December 1900.

KB The Hague, acquisition ledger for November 1900

KB The Hague, acquisition ledger for December 1900

1904

The Poems & Sonnets of Henry Constable (1897). Received by 14 December 1904

The acquisition ledger does not mention a dealer or price.

KB The Hague, acquisition ledger for December 1904

Earlier, Charles Ricketts's first art historical monograph had been added to the collection: The Prado and Its Masterpieces (1903), received on 17 September 1904.

1908-1909

Oscar Wilde, The Duchess of Padua. A Play (1908) and ten other volumes from the first collected edition. Received by 20 February 1908, except for The Picture of Dorian Gray which was received in April 1909.

KB The Hague, acquisition ledger for 1908 and 1909

Michael Field and W.B. Yeats (1908-1947)

The library did not acquire other plays by Michael Field published by the Vale Press. Four later books of poetry for which Ricketts designed the cover were acquired in the year of publication: Wild Honey (in May 1908), Poems of Adoration (June 1912), Mystic Trees (April 1913), however, Dedicated (1914) was acquired after the World War I had ended, in June 1920. W.B. Yeats's collected works were sometimes acquired in later or American editions. Early Poems and Stories was bought in the year of publication (1925), Autobiographies was acquired in a later American edition from 1927 and joined the library twenty years later in 1947. 

1936

In 1936 the library received The Pageant, of which two yearly issues were published in 1895 and 1896 (for 1896 and 1897). Only the second volume is part of our collection.

1939

Just before World War II the librarian selected books from two private collections: the library of Ricketts's friend R.N. Roland Holst and the private collection of poet and critic Willem Kloos. Both had died in 1938.

R.N. Roland Holst's books were given by his widow, Henriette Roland Holst-van der Schalk and bear a bookplate with her name (produced by the library):

• Oscar Wilde, De Profundis (ninth printing, 1907). Signed by R.N. Roland Holst.
• The Bard of the Dimbovitza. Roumanian Folk-Songs. Collected from the Peasants, edited by Hélène Vacaresco. Translated by Carmen Sylva and Alma Strettell (second edition, 1892).
• Lord de Tabley, Poems, Dramatic and Lyrical (third edition, 1896).

The books owned by Willem Kloos included two works designed by or written by Ricketts. These books have a similar bookplate produced by the library, bearing the name of Willem Kloos:

• W.B. Yeats, Later Poems (reprint, 1924)
• Charles Ricketts, Oscar Wilde. Recollections (1932)

1954-1961

In the run-up to the 1960s, the KB began to purchase more and more books with a view to establishing a museum of the book, which later became Museum Meermanno (now Huis van het boek). However, it is completely unclear why some books were included in the collection and others were not. There are now copies from private presses such as Kelmscott Press, Vale Press and Eragny Press in both the KB and the Huis van het Boek.

In 1954 the library acquired the Vale Press edition of The Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson (1900), containing the Lyric Poems, this copy printed on vellum and bound by Zaehnsdorf. It was acquired from F. Hammond, Sutton Coldfield for fl. 230,-.

In 1955 the library acquired a copy of Charles Ricketts, Beyond the Threshold (1929) with an inscription by A.J.A. Symons for the collection of bookbindings. 

In 1961 a copy of Charles Ricketts and Lucien Pissarro's De la typographie et de l’harmonie de la page imprimée; William Morris et son influence sur les arts et métiers (1898) was bought at the Internationaal Antiquariaat for fl. 45 (invoice paid on 10 April 1961). 

1988

Finally, in 1988, the library received a large collection of books from the library of poet Adriaan Roland Holst, nephew of R.N. Roland Holst - these were donated by the Letterkundig Museum (now Literatuur Museum) in The Hague. These included works that Adriaan had been given by his uncle Rik:

• The Dial, No. 2-5 (1892-1897), with the name stamp of Adriaan Roland Holst. 
• John Gray, Silverpoints (1893), with the bookplate (designed by R.N. Roland Holst) and with the name stamp of Adriaan Roland Holst.
• Lord de Tabley, Poems, Dramatic and Lyrical (third edition, 1896), with the signature of painter Charley Toorop and the name stamp of Adriaan Roland Holst.
• William Shakespeare, A Most Pleasant and Excellent Conceited Comedy of Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor (1902). Bookplate of 'Klingerder' and name stamp of A. Roland Holst.
• William Meinhold, Mary Schweidler, the Amber Witch. The most interesting trial for witchcraft ever known. Printed from an imperfect manuscript by her father, Abraham Schweidler, the pastor of Coserow in the Islands of Usedom (1903). With the name stamp of A. Roland Holst.

2006

In 2006 collector Jan van der Marck donated a Vale Press book to the bookbinding collection: the edition of Maurice de Guérin's The Centaur, The Bacchante (1899), in a binding by Bryan Cantle (Eddington Bindery).

The existence of a kind of Charles Ricketts collection in the KB is not due to a consistent acquisition policy on the part of the library. Rather, it is due to the fact that Ricketts designed many literary works and to donors who presented some rare books with an interesting provenance.

713. The Condition of a Book

There are professional guides to the terminology of the condition of a book. An online example of this is ‘A Guide to Used Book Conditions’ [on the website of Abebooks].  

The fact is that second-hand books are often not ‘As New’, ‘Fine’ or ‘Near Fine’. The condition of a hundred-year-old book often does not even meet the criteria 'Very Good', 'Good' or 'Fair'. We descend into the depths and cellars of the book supply, where no treasures can be found and books are described as 'Poor' - meaning: 'A heavily worn book whose primary value is its complete, legible text. May have loose joints, hinges, or pages, and may be soiled, scuffed, stained, or spotted' - or not described at all. Even then, there is a term: in such cases the seller may resort to the phrase 'As Described'. However, usually a bad condition is not mentioned as photographs are said to be part of the description.

Books may be bowed, chipped, dampstained, darkened, faded, edgeworn, foxed, loose, re-cased, shaken, sunned, trimmed, or there may be worm holes or worse.

Three recent examples found on e-Bay may illustrate such conditions. 

Charles Ricketts's Titian is not a rare book at all, and may be found in good condition. This, however, is a copy that I would not even like to touch.

Charles Ricketts, Titian (1910)

Even a deluxe edition can be stored or left in the wrong places - damp sheds and attics, musty basements, above the central heating, in forgotten moving boxes or on garden tables in the rain. Here are two examples of G.B. Shaw's Saint Joan (1926), illustrated and with a cover designed by Ricketts. The edition was 750 copies.

G.B. Shaw, Charles Ricketts  Saint Joan (1926)

The condition of the Shaw books are described as:

The book is in a used condition, the pages are clean, some have a stain on the bottom, the sketches are in good condition, two of the corners are slightly folded and one has a piece coming away (please see all photos).
The Paper cover is in a used condition and is fragile (please see all photos).

and:

Spine largely detached and partially lacking, thus a fair only copy (internally fine) lacking the dustwrapper

E-bay prices were c. $160 and $430 respectively. Better copies may be found for less.