742. Walter M. Hill and The Vale Press around 1900

Walter Martin Hill from Chicago regularly issued catalogues of books for sale. In his eleventh catalogue from December 1903, he assured the readers that he made yearly journeys to Great Britain and France to buy new stock, and that he attended in person 'the important auction sales of books in New York, Philadelphia and Boston' [see for a digitised series of catalogues the copy in the University of Michigan Libraries]. Hill (1868-1952) was born in Bristol and moved to the United States when he was seventeen, working for antiquarian firms in New York, Boston and Chicago before starting his own business in 1899.

Catalogue of Miscellaneous Books (No. 3, April 1900)

He bought and sold all kinds of works, including erotica, and offered whatever was in demand on the market. The third catalogue from April 1900, for example, was entitled: Catalogue of Miscellaneous Books. Including Kelmscott and Vale Press Publications, First Editions of Standard Authors, Books Illustrated by George Cruikshank, Etc.

Wallace Rice (1859-1939) wrote an introduction for the eleventh catalogue - Rice was a prolific writer and journalist in Chicago. Among other things, in the Catalogue of Rare Books (December 1903) he wrote:

Growing wealth in America has its finest manifestations in the increasing demands for books especially for the best books. Americans are not only in love with education and the cultivation and culture which are its flower, not only is the national existence staked upon the value and worth of these things, but books as containing all that is best and finest in human knowledge and wisdom have been their devoted care from the beginning. Such a love implanted in the heart of the people of the United States at the moment of their birth needs nothing but opportunity to burst into bloom and this is afforded by the wealth of its population. Already Europe is complaining that the American is carrying away the finest specimens of its literature and the charge is wholly just. 

He asserted:

Last of these modern and modified Argonauts is my friend, Walter M Hill, whose summer in England has enabled him to consign to Chicago the most precious merchandise that has ever entered its prosperous port. 

Nevertheless, it appears that not every book in this catalogue was new stock. J.A. Symonds's In the Key of Blue and Other Prose Essays, had appeared with exactly the same description and price in two earlier catalogues. The same goes for a large-paper copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891). On the other hand a selection of nine Vale Press books, listed in catalogue 3 from April 1900 had apparently been sold, as the eleventh catalogue did not mention any Vale Press items (there were however newly acquired Doves Press and Kelmscott Press titles, including vellum copies).

One of the more unusual items he sold around that time was a book from Charles Shannon's collection. It was listed in Catalogue of Choice and Rare Books… (Number 16, December 1905): a dedication copy of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband (1899):  'Only 100 copies printed on large paper, each with the author’s full autograph signature. This copy derives a much greater interest from having on reverse of the half-title the following inscription, in Mr. Wilde’s autograph: "To Charles Shannon: In sincere admiration: in affection: from the author. Oscar Wilde". The price was $50.00. This copy was later owned by John B. Stetson (sold in 1920) and re-emerged on the market in June 1996 when it was sold by Phillips in London. The copy therefore remained in Shannon's possession for less than six years, and one might wonder why he sold this book. Perhaps it was in connection with the move of Ricketts and Shannon to Lansdowne House in 1902?

741. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Ricketts and Shannon Collection

In 1936, a fascicule in the ongoing series Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum appeared: Great Britain, Fascicule 11, Cambridge, Fascicule 2. Winifred Lamb was the author of this section that contained descriptions and illustrations of objects from the collection of Ricketts and Shannon. At the time the collection was deposited on loan in the Fitzwilliam Museum. Although Shannon was still alive, he could no longer answer questions about the objects, and it must be assumed that the notes on the purchases (which had been passed on to the author through J.D. Beazley) came from Shannon's immediate circle, or perhaps were notes made by Ricketts himself.

The detailed descriptions are much more extensive than those in the catalogue All of Art from 1979 (which contains mostly small black-and-white photographs of the objects) or those in Greek and Roman Art from 1998 (which contains colour illustrations). That latest edition (written by Eleni Vassilika and with photographs by Andrew Morris and Andrew Norman) includes, for example, a description entitled 'A Labour of Theseus' which discusses a red-figure neck amphora (34 by 22.4 cm) from the period 480 to 470 BC.

Neck-Amphora

[Photograph copyright ©Fitzwilliam Museum:

Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY-NC-ND]

The collection website of the museum contains more similar images, which can freely be downloaded (see the website: 'Neck-Amphora'). Vassilika mentions the possible painter of the vase, the so-called Pig Painter. This name is not used in the online description, but corresponds to that in Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, plate X, 2 (p. 58). The description on the website is factual and brief and does not discuss the images on the vase.

Vassilika's description on the other hand is not overly detailed, but highly informative and composed as an exciting narrative about the events depicted on the vase. As we would expect from an academic publication, the description in the CVA is extremely detailed, with an extensive description of the image, but without any context or explanation.

The beginning reads as follows:

Theseus advances  to kill Prokrustus with an axe. His sword is slung  in a scabbard from his shoulder. Prokrustus, wounded in head and arm-pit, tries to defend himself with a stone and  supports himself with his left hand as he sinks  down onto a rock. Above hangs Theseus' cloak.

CVA is online, and the black and white images of this vase and others from the Ricketts and Shannon collection can be consulted online: the item has the rather long title: 206466, ATHENIAN, LONDON, RICKETTS-SHANNON, CAMBRIDGE, FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM, CAMBRIDGE, FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM, GR22.1937. The online CVA gives 35 results for 'Ricketts', while the original 1936 fascicule contains descriptions of over fifty objects; they are probably all there but not all included in the search.

However, the long text in the fascicule has not been included in the online description. For that one has to find the 'Index of Fascicules by City' elsewhere on the website (follow this link), and click on the 'Browse Text' button behind the title of the fascicule. The Ricketts and Shannon fascicule can be consulted here: Cambridge Fascicule 2. The entire website is aimed at scholars and students with considerable stamina, not at casual visitors looking for items from the Ricketts and Shannon collections.

That's fine, of course, but in the meantime, the descriptions on the museum's own website remain somewhat sparse – and I know that projects like this require an insane amount of time and money, but one can always keep dreaming.

740. The Vale Press through the Eyes of Alfred W. Pollard

The bibliographer Alfred William Pollard (1859-1944) criticised the work of the Vale Press on several occasions between 1899 and 1912. Since 1883 he had been an assistant in the department of printed books at the British Museum (he would be promoted to assistant keeper in 1909, and keeper in 1919).

Frank Brooks, 'Portrait of Alfred William Pollard'
[© British Library]

In December 1899, he mentioned Ricketts's A Defence of the Revival of Printing (published June 1899) in The Library, the magazine of the Bibliographical Society:

The revival of printing is hardly in need of a defender, and Mr. Ricketts' "defence" is indeed chiefly directed against certain criticisms on his own share in it. Incidentally, however, he makes some excellent observations on the lines on which all sound printing and type-cutting must proceed, and his pamphlet is one of the pleasantest of the "Vale" books.

('Notes on Books and Work: Bibliography, Literary History, and Collecting', The Library, 1 December 1899, p. 111).

He had apparently received the book soon after its publication, because in July he gave it to the bibliographer Robert G.C. Proctor (1868-1903) to read. Proctor had become an assistant to the same department at the British Museum in 1893. He was an expert on incunabula. In his diary, Proctor wrote (without enthusiasm):

Got Ricketts on printing from Pollard – badly written, & not well printed – he breaks his own rules.
(diary entry for 31 July 1899).
[For Proctor, see also blog 220].

Three years later, Pollard wrote about 'Recent English Experiments in Artistic Printing' for an American magazine, The Literary Collector (March, 1902):

[The Vale Press books] have many excellencies, but they cannot stand the test of comparison with those of Morris. Their highest success seems to me to lie in some of their borders, which are quite original and have a lighter and gayer touch well in keeping with the lyrics they surround. [...] It could not help working on the same lines [as The Kelmscott Press], and yet it strove to be different; and in the effort to be different fell back at times on mere eccentricity, as in the ugly intermixture of large and small letters in one or two of its colophons, and the staring form adopted for &. Nevertheless the fount is a fine one, and with tolerable initials and the occasional excellence of its borders the books are pleasant possessions.

Five months later, he welcomed the new edition of the works of Thomas Browne:

The only new publication of any interest which I have to record is a really fine edition of the chief works of Sir Thomas Browne, in the Vale Press series, uniform with the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini. Of all the amateur of semi-amateur experiments in printing now being made those of the Vale Press seem to me the most worthy of encouragement from the literary point of view, for its managers show both enterprise and originality in the books they select to print, and appeal not merely to collectors , or the rather speculative individuals who will buy any book from a private press if the issue is small enough, but to such lovers of literature as care to have their book well printed at a reasonable price. Good printing is an admirable thing, and specimens of good printing are well worth buying for their own sake. But one does not want to multiply them indefinitely, while there is hardly any limit to the number of good books which it would be a pleasure to welcome if the charm of good printing were added to them. The distinction is an important one and the Vale Press seems more alive to it than most of its rivals.

(Alfred W. Pollard, 'Recent English Experiments in Artistic Printing', The Literary Collector (August, 1902), p. 125-126.

The King's Fount in The Kingis Quair (vale Press, 1903)

In 1912, Pollard published Fine Books (Methuen & Co.) in which he criticised the Vale Type and King's Fount:

Foremost among these [the followers of Morris] must be placed Mr. Charles Ricketts, whose Vale type, despite a few blemishes, is not very far behind the Golden type of the Kelmscott Press, and whose ornament at its best is graceful, and that with a lighter and gayer grace than Morris's, though it cannot compare with his for dignity or richness of effect. In a later type, called the Kinge's Fount from its use in an edition of The Kingis Quair (1903), Mr. Ricketts’s good genius deserted him, for the mixture of majuscule and minuscule forms is most unpleasing.

(Fine Books, p. 307-308).

Pollard wavered somewhat in his opinion of The Vale Press, showing more appreciation for the borders and choice of text than for the typefaces and typesetting.

739. Ricketts at the Amsterdam International Antiquarian Book & Map Fair

Last weekend saw the International Antiquarian Book & Map Fair in Amsterdam (which, for personal reasons, I could not attend). Considering the online catalogues of some exhibitors, it must have been a delight to explore the range on offer. 

There were at least two Vale Press books on offer. 

Iris van Daalen (Antiquarian Bookshop Acanthus, Utrecht) showed a copy of William Blake's The Book of Thel. Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience (1897) in an 'Exhibition' binding by Zaehnsdorf. Her description ran: 'Full brown crushed morocco, front cover elaborately decorated in gilt a design of swirling branches with leaves and dots. The spine with raised bands and gilt decorated in four compartments with the same leaves and dots, which also come back at the turn-ins. Signed by Zaehnsdorf on front turn-in and with their gilt oval exhibition stamp showing a binder using a backing hammer on rear pastedown. Top edge gilt. With a small dedication in ink on the first blank leaf, dated "Dec. 1899" and a small "R" in ink on the last blank leaf.'

The Book of Thel. Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience (1897)
Binding by Zaehnsdorf (from a snapshot)

The other Vale Press book was shown by Sophie Schneideman Rare Books (London). A copy of Mathew Arnold's Empedocles on Etna (1896). This was the copy owned previously by the Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, Campbell Dodgson - Ricketts, Shannon and Dodgson knew each other quite well. In 1905, for example, Ricketts and Dodgson both became members of the Executive Committee of the recently founded Vasari Society.

Bookplate of Campbell Dodgson
in Mathew Arnold, Empedocles on Etna (1896)

Sophie Schneideman also brought a vellum copy of Lord de Tabley's Poems Dramatic and Lyrical with the enigmatic cover designed by Ricketts.

These books may or may not have been sold by now.