57. Curious errors (3)

Stephan Tschudi Madsen's phrase about 'Charles Ricketts and his pupil Robert Shannon' (see my comments in no. 55) was repeated literally in a Belgian publication about literary magazines around the turn of the twentieth century: Raymond Vervliet's De literaire manifesten van het fin de siècle in de Zuidnederlandse periodieken 1878-1914, published in Gent in 1982:

'Charles Ricketts en zijn leerling Robert Shannon' (p. 114).

At the time, Madsen's study about art nouveau was no longer the only book on the subject of art nouveau, and both Stephen Calloway and Joseph Darracott had published a book about Ricketts that could have been consulted by Vervliet, who, also, neglected to read John Russell Taylor's 1966 more general study on The art nouveau book in Britain, which by 1982 had reached an almost iconic status as a work of pioneering research and had recently been reprinted.

Dust wrapper for John Russell Taylor, The art nouveau book in Britain (reprint, 1980)

I suppose that Vervliet's work, which was an important contribution to our knowledge of fin-de-siècle periodicals in Belgium, will have been the source for another round of quotes containing Madsen's error.

And what about Madsen himself? Was he the source of 'pupil' and 'Robert Shannon', or was he also quoting a not completely trustworthy publication?

56. Curious errors (2)

My summer series of curious errors continues today. In Simon Loxley's Type. The secret history of letters (2004) I came across a passage (on page 94) about the type designer Frederic Goudy, who was the owner of The Village Press, an American private press:

Inspired by Charles Ricketts's Songs and Poems of Sir John Suckling, designed by Ricketts and Thomas Cobden-Sanderson, Goudy now decided he wanted to set up his own press.

Patterned paper (detail), designed by Charles Ricketts, for The poems of Sir John Suckling (1896)

I wrote about the patterned paper for this book, The poems of Sir John Suckling (1896) in December 2011. This Vale Press book was, of course, designed by Ricketts alone. Cobden-Sanderson, at that time a bookbinder, who, in 1900, would become the co-owner of the Doves Press (with Emery Walker) had nothing at all to do with the design of the Vale Press books. Where did Loxley get this piece of misinformation?

It turns out, that Loxley, a graphic designer and writer on design and typography, quotes an author and editor of The New York Times Book review, D.J.R. Bruckner, who published a biography about Goudy in 1990: Frederic Goudy. Bruckner related on page 44:

One book Goudy encountered in the Saints and Sinners Corner was The Songs and Poems of Sir John Suckling, printed in the Vale type designed by Charles Ricketts and Charles James Cobden-Sanderson, with woodcut borders and initials by Ricketts.

Loxley corrected Charles James Cobden-Sanderson to Thomas [James] Cobden-Sanderson, but should have deleted his name completely. Bruckner's text contains more of such trivial errors, calling Ricketts Sir Charles Ricketts (as Walter Tracy pointed out in The new criterion); Ricketts was elected as a member of the Royal Academy, but the abbreviation 'R.A.' behind his name should not be confused with a knighthood. Elsewhere (page 38 and the index page) Bruckner refers to Ricketts as 'C.W. Ricketts', adding a puzzling initial 'W'.

Goudy himself wrote, in the introduction to A bibliography of The Village Press by Melbert B. Cary, Jr. (1938, p. 5-6):

I have told elsewhere how the sight of a Vale Press copy of the Poems of Sir John Suckling first stirred my imagination regarding its type, the hand-made paper and its general get-up as a private press publication. At that time this particular book, to me, was an aristocrat belonging to an aristocracy of craft and typographic art. A new leaf in the book of my life was turned and my interest in fine bookmaking was born; a wide prospect was disclosed and a world that lay beyond the horizon of my imagination invited exploration. [...] Two or three years ago, Miss Fanny Borden, Librarian of Vassar College Library, at a talk I gave before a group of Vassar College students, remembered that I mentioned this book as the earliest inspirer of my, as yet, unawakened taste and desire for greater knowledge of private press publications, and kindly presented me with a copy of the Poems; not, of course, the actual copy I saw at McClurg's [a bookshop in Chicago], but one of the same issue, which I note now is dated 1896, thus fixing the beginnings, the vision, it may be, of The Village Press itself.

Another copy of this book, inscribed by Goudy to Edmund Geiger Gress, is said to be in the collection of the Grolier Club, New York.

55. Curious errors (1)

Now and then, one comes across a paragraph on Ricketts and Shannon in books about art and literature of a general kind, containing curious errors regarding biographical facts. One example is a monograph by Stephan Tschudi Madsen (1923-2007), Art nouveau, published in English in 1967. On page 80 we read:

'in 1889 the first number of The Dial appeared, edited by Charles Ricketts and his pupil Robert Shannon.'

One may wonder how Charles was rechristened Robert in the first place, and then - while he was two years older - became to be seen as his pupil. Of course, literature about Ricketts and Shannon was rare and not that well informed at the time. But still, the misguiding detail seems to betray a more than superficial knowledge about the pair.

Front cover for the Dutch translation of S. Tschudi Madsen, Art nouveau (1967)

The Dutch translator made it worse. Duco van Weerlee, in his 1968 translation of Art nouveau (published by W. de Haan/J.M. Meulenhoff), introduced several misspellings for Ricketts, such as 'Rickett' and 'Ricket' (p. 81) - as if losing the name, one letter at the time, - and he rechristened him as well, not to Robert, but to 'Thomas Rickett' (p. 56, 58, index p. 256). One finds these errors repeated by other writers.

54. Queer domesticity

The July 2012 issue of the Journal of British studies (available through JSTOR) features an essay by Matt Cook, senior lecturer in history and gender studies at Birkbeck, University of London, about the 'domestic passions' of Charles Shannon and Charles Ricketts. An earlier presentation on the subject was given on 28 October 2010 at the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research and can be heard on the website of the Backdoor Broadcasting Company (BBC).

Homosexuality and home life in the twentieth century is one of Matt Cook's current projects, he is now writing a book on Queer domesticity, and he has published London and the culture of homosexuality 1885-1914 (2003) and A gay history of Britain (2007).

His article, 'Domestic passions: unpacking the homes of Charles Shannon and Charles Ricketts', opens with a description of their activities at Chilham Keep in Kent, which they used as their country retreat.

The interior of the Keep at Chilham Castle

Their redecoration of the Norman tower was illustrated in an article in Country life (June 1924) written by Christopher Hissey. Matt Cook analyzes Hissey's words:

'Shannon and Ricketts aligned themselves with [...] a particularly British and especially late Victorian and Edwardian middle- and upper-class domestic culture. If their investment in the home was in many ways typical of their class and of this period, however, it also spoke of them a little queerly - and not only because the home was increasingly seen as a feminine preserve and passion. Hussey hints at this in his mention of the keep's association with Edward II and the final (unnamed but notorious) "crisis" of his reign (the king was purportedly murdered by the anal insertion of a hot poker [an uncorroborated story]). This was, it seemed, an appropriate domestic heritage for the new residents. By imagining them in a "peacock bower," meanwhile, Hussey nodded to late nineteenth-century Wildean aestheticism. Having established the couple in their ancient setting and rendered them respectable in that way, he then signals and also legitimizes their queerness. The couple, I argue in this article, did something similar for themselves in the way they decorated, furnished, and lived at the keep and in the London homes they shared from 1886 in Kennington, Chelsea, Richmond, Kensington, and Regent's Park.'

Art reproductions pinned on the wall of Ricketts and Shannon's home at Kennington Road

One might have issues with the argumentation, and Matt Cook seems to realize that when he says:

'Neither Shannon nor Ricketts described themselves as homosexual, Uranian, or inverted, nor did they allude to the sex they might have had together. Ricketts playfully refused to answer the classicist John Addington Symonds's pleading questions on the subject, though in relaying the anecdote down the years indicated an ease and a certain mischievousness about the topic. Instead, Shannon and Ricketts's bond and relationship was articulated by the men themselves and by their circle of friends in terms of their coresidence; their emotional, practical, and aesthetic investment in their homes; their vast collection of art and antiques; and the artistic and design work that was closely identified with the places where they lived (their Vale Press, for example, was named after their first Chelsea home). [...] I examine some of the ways in which home functioned for the couple as a symbol and material indicator of queer alienation, belonging, difference, and normalization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.'

Original prints or drawings hanging on a door in the dining room of Lansdowne House (enlarged)

Cook realizes that we know little of Shannon's sexual tastes, apart from his heterosexual adventures and his contemplating marriage on several occasions. The intensity of their bond is of course difficult to understand. Ricketts and Shannon had an unconventional life, certainly, but that their connections and affections 'cut across gender, sexuality, age, and class divisions' can not be seen as typical of homosexual or homosocial couples alone, as a lot of artists gave over to a nonconformist way of living.

A table with objects in Lansdowne House, drawing room, c. 1907

Cook has a tendency to interprete all Ricketts's sayings as official communications of the couple, while he also goes back and forth in time, negating the different circumstances of their lives, that underwent some radical changes after 1900. However, Cook belongs to a group of scholars that have come to study Ricketts and Shannon's work and life from an angle that may well lead to new discoveries, and the rearrangement of known facts brings up to date insight in the extraordinary lives of both artists.

53. A medal for a portrait

On Saturday 5 February 1898 a private view at the Dutch Gallery in London introduced the guests to medals, plaques, seals, and some drawings, paintings and other objects at the First exhibition of the Society of Medallists. A catalogue was set in Ricketts's Vale type and printed on Vale Press paper by the Ballantyne Press for E.J. van Wisselingh's small gallery that, according to a later commentary in Literature, 'seldom fails to interest the visitor' (8 December 1900).

Catalogue of the First exhibition of the Society of Medallists (1898, p. 4-5)

The Dutch art dealer had opened a London shop in 1892 (it was to be closed in 1916), hoping to broaden the scope of his stock and to represent English and Scottish artists. He mounted three to four exhibitions a year at 14 Brook Street, which, however, were less successful than his shows in Amsterdam. He also introduced the work of Ricketts, Shannon, Rothenstein and others to the Dutch audience in the late nineties, but, although much effort was put into it, moving the exhibition from Amsterdam to The Hague and Rotterdam, sales were far from impressive.

Ricketts was a member of the Society of Medallists, when Alphonse Legros was its president, and Charles Shannon a committee member. In 1897 Legros had made a medal with a portrait of Ricketts and an image of a woodcutter on the reverse. Legros had also made a portrait medal of Shannon, and these two medals, along with a medal of the Duke of Devonshire, 'were hung by themselves; twenty-five others inhabit one case', as the Pall Mall Gazette reported (7 February 1898). The same paper wrote about a portrait of Shannon, a pencil drawing by Legros, 'a most excellent likeness admirably modelled'.

Alphonse Legros, 'Ch. Shannon', 1897, cast bronze (scanned image from The studio, 1898, by George P. Landow, see The Victorian Web)

The portrait of Shannon on Legros' medal was appreciated by the sitter, but not that much by Ricketts, who thought it a little dull or quiet. Ricketts later reworked the portrait as a wood-engraved frontispiece for the Catalogue of Mr. Shannon's lithographs (1902).

Charles Ricketts (after a medal by Alphonse Legros), 'Ch. Shannon', wood engraving, frontispiece for A catalogue of Mr. Shannon's lithographs (1902)

In Ricketts's version the lettering is cluttered, and the face looks less fair, a bit older, with the hair curling more lively and wild than in Legros' portrait. Shannon's face in Legros' version is more or less blank, while in his partner's case, the expression has a stern, or even disapproving, look. The mouth in the wood-engraving is different. The lips are opened, but as if Shannon is withholding comment. The eye, too, has a more tired look to it than in the sportsman-like version by Legros, as if Ricketts wanted to picture a man who has experienced life instead of studied it. It also seems that Legros saw Shannon as a somewhat prim English artist, and Ricketts preferred to see Shannon as a Roman emperor.

52. Farewell to Dublin

My recent visit to Dublin (see Ireland where I have never been and A prize binding) brought me to Parnell Square, where the Dublin Writers Museum stands almost next door to the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane.

Decorated ceiling, Dublin Writers Museum, June 2012

The Writers Museum, situated in two restored Georgian houses at the north side of the square, has a charmingly old fashioned feel to it. I think I have never before seen so many more or less famous typewriters in two rooms. Photography, alas, was not allowed. Upstairs is a splendid reception room, with decorated plaster ceilings, busts and paintings, and, surprisingly a piano that was bought by James Joyce in 1910, when he lived in Triest. The instrument, manufactured by Anton Petrof, is on loan from the James Joyce Museum. (Incidentally, while I was walking the Dublin streets, Ulysses was published in Amsterdam in a new Dutch translation by Erik Bindervoet and Robbert-Jan Henkes: Ulixes).

James Joyce's piano

Next to this 'Gallery of Writers' is a small room with bookcases, containing a selection of recently published and not systematically acquired or arranged Irish books.

Dublin Writers Museum, library, June 2012

Two odd volumes of Yeats' collected works were placed on the shelves (on opposite sides of the room). One can easily recognize the binding design by Ricketts that I discussed in blog 48 on an edition Plays in prose and verse, which was published in 1922 and reprinted several times, carrying the abbreviated title Plays on the spine.

Dublin Writers Museumm, library shelf, June 2012

51. Anniversary & Adoration

This is an anniversary blog, commemorating the first post to my weblog, almost a year ago, when on 20 July 2011 I decided it was time to write online about Ricketts. Some people anxiously told me they did not think that a weekly blog about Ricketts would survive for a year, due to lack of subjects. The opposite is what happened: the list of subjects I can write about is longer than ever, and I would like to thank Ton Leenhouts for his support and for his suggestion that I write about the patterned papers for the Vale Press books, a series of seven blogs that will be continued. Also, I am grateful to Marja Smolenaars for correcting my usual grammatical errors and typos. Looking back, I am particularly pleased with a contribution by Paul Delaney about Ricketts's mother and another one about the Burlington magazine by Barbara Pezzini. If you would like to write an article for this blog, please mail me, as the blog is intended for Ricketts scholars, Ricketts collectors, Ricketts enthousiasts, the 'Ricketts racket', as Paul Delaney once called us.

In April, one hundred years ago, a new book of poems was published by Sands & Co. in London and Edinburgh, Poems of adoration, written by Michael Field. These belonged to 'the first fruits of our Catholic life' (*). The poet Gordon Bottomley admired the cover of their book.

Michael Field, Poems of adoration (1912): two copies with the upper board blocked in gold and two copies with the upper board blindstamped with a design by Charles Ricketts

Bottomley wrote: 'How happy I was to see the lovely lines playing together in crystal-clear chimings again, as I first saw them when I was a boy and thought there was never such a master of line - indeed there never was and there is not.' Ricketts, who had designed the much admired cover, had to admit that most of the poems were closed to him, 'owing to temper or subject matter', as 'the religious spirit is far more constant and very inward.'

The binding design incorporated Christian symbols, such as the Holy Spirit (on top), a burning lamp, organ pipes on either side of a crucifix, and an altar. Underneath are the words 'Adoremus in aeternum sanctissimum sacramentum', while lines with dots, circled dots and two small leaves form an orderly rectangular pattern, which is broken by three diagonal lines symbolizing the stigmata. The design was blocked in gold on the upper cover and the spine was also printed in gold. However, there are also copies with the design blindstamped on the upper cover (the spine design still printed in gold), probably a secondary binding.

Michael Field, Poems of adoration (1912), four copies: spine design

Ricketts's own copy was exhibited in 1933 at the Royal Academy ('lent by the estate of Charles Shannon, Esq., R.A.') and that copy had the gold tooling on purple cloth which makes the design so brilliant and evocative.

(*) Works and days. From the journal of Michael Field, 1933, p. 308.

50. Patterned papers (g: Wild rose)

The only patterned paper for a Vale Press book that was not designed by Charles Ricketts is the one that can be found on the cover of De la typographie et de l'harmonie de la page imprimée. William Morris et son influence sur les arts et métiers, which was published in February 1898. The cover paper, with a pattern of wild roses (in profile), printed in orange and green on a pale green paper, was designed by Lucien Pissarro in 1897 and printed by Esther Pissarro in December 1897.

Cover for De la typographie et de l'harmonie de la page imprimée. William Morris et son influence sur les arts et métiers (1898)

That Lucien Pissarro designed this paper was no coincidence, as he had in mind to publish the book at his own press, The Eragny Press, and after the text of the two essays, written jointly by Ricketts and Pissarro, had been corrected by Georges Lecomte, Pissarro started to set up the text in the spring of 1897. After eight pages had been set (not yet printed), he suffered the first of a series of strokes, which partly paralyzed him. Esther and Lucien Pissarro spent a few months in France and after their return to England, Lucien had two more attacks. It was decided that Ricketts would take over the book for his Vale Press. The other pages were set at the Ballantyne Press, however, printing was delayed by a strike. At the beginning of January 1898 the printed quires were ready for the binders; the book was published a good six weeks later.

Meanwhile, Esther had printed the cover paper, for which a woodblock had been supplied by T.N. Lawrence (£1.19.06), the paper had been supplied by P. Young (.05.00). The whole block had 23 rows of roses, and in each row nine flowers were shown. The book is somewhat smaller and has the paper pasted on the back cover, the spine and the front cover, showing a series of 6½ roses in each row, while from top to bottom 21 rows can be counted. One leaf of the patterned paper sufficed for one book. Esther Pissarro may have printed around 300 leaves in all, as the projected edition was 256 paper copies. However, the printer at the Ballantyne Press made an error and printed no more than 216 paper copies.

Patterned paper for De la typographie... (1898), designed by Lucien Pissarro

The surplus leaves may have been used for an Eragny Press book that was issued in 1902: Francis Bacon's Of gardens has the same cover paper, however, additional leaves would have had to been printed for the job. The design was used again for La belle dame sans merci by John Keats (1905), but for this book the design was printed in green and yellow.

49. A prize binding

On my visit to Dublin (see last week's blog) I took the opportunity to inspect the stock of several antiquarian bookshops, most of which deal in 'Irish history and literature' or 'Celtic studies' (see Stokes Books) and also some more general second hand book stores (such as The Secret Book and Record Store). The most interesting Ricketts-related books are to be found at Cathach Books in Duke Street, near the corner of Dawson Street, which now holds copy number 62 of Oscar Wilde's Poems in the famous 'Seven Trees' cover design by Ricketts.

Cathach Books also had two volumes of the collected works of Yeats that I showed last week. The spine design for these cloth bindings was used by Macmillan for a series of poetry volumes by a variety of authors, including many Irish writers, such as Lennox Robinson, Katharine Tynan, and James Stephens.

James Stephens, Collected poems (first edition, 1926, in dust wrapper; second edition, 1926; reprint, 1931, in dust wrapper): spine design by Charles Ricketts

James Stephens (1882-1950) collected his poems when he was in his forties, the book was reprinted twice with the spine design by Charles Ricketts, in 1926 and 1931. Cathach Books had a special copy of the second edition of 1926, which was given as a prize for 'Northern Universities' Matriculation Work' to Frances Pickard on 25 May 1931, that is: five years after it was published.

School prize label, dated 1931, in the second edition of James Stephens, Collected poems

Following a nineteenth-century custom, the name of the school and its crest were printed in gold on the upper cover: Penrhos College, Colwyn Bay, with the motto 'Semper ad lucem' ('always toward the light'). This college was founded in 1880 as a Methodist girls' boarding school in the town of Colwyn Bay on the north coast of Wales. The college crest shows an oil lamp on top of a book. The school is now incorporated in the Rydal Penrhos School, a private co-educational Methodist boarding school, and its modern crest contains a fish between the lamp and the book, that is no longer closed. The old motto has been replaced by 'Veritas scientia fides' ('Truth, knowledge, faith').

James Stephens, Collected poems (second edition, 1926), prize binding with the front cover stamped in gold

Books of poetry were a suitable gift for Methodist girls. Recently another book dealer, St Marys Books and Prints in Lincolnshire, listed an edition of the Collected poems of John Masefield (Heinemann, 1931), with the same school prize stamp on the upper board.

John Masefield, Collected poems (1931) [photo by St Marys Books and Prints]

 

48. Ireland where I have never been

I am in Dublin to present a paper at the annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP), and although I will not speak about Ricketts, there are many reasons to write about Ricketts and Ireland. He designed books, costumes and theater sets for the works of three major Irish writers, Oscar Wilde, G.B. Shaw and W.B. Yeats.

Writing about the scenery he designed for Yeats's play Well of the Saints he confessed to another Irish writer, J.M. Synge: 'I wish I had been given the time to reason it out properly. I had to work from Yeats's descriptions of Ireland where I have never been' (letter, c. May 1908). It seems his travels always led him in the opposite direction, to France, Italy, Spain and other continental countries.

That aside, he was not very interested in the Irish cause, and would be bored by Yeats's nationalism, but had sympathy for the Irish stage and when the actors came to London he was in the audience. Yeats became the first playwriter for whom Ricketts designed costumes and Yeats and Ricketts worked together on several occasions.

Cover for W.B. Yeats, Essays (1924), designed by Charles Ricketts

One of his later book designs is for Yeats as well, and it was used for six volumes of the collected works that were published by Macmillan from 1922 onwards. The books were bound in green cloth, with a blindstamped design of architectural elements, roses in the four corners (sometimes wrongly identified as birds), sprays of yew and their berries in the corners of the central panel, which also contained circles and circled dots. The design was also used for the dustwrapper. 

Dustwrapper for W.B. Yeats, Essays (1924), designed by Charles Ricketts

Yeats found the designs 'perfect and serviceable', especially the bookplate-like decoration on the endpapers, depicting 'a unicorn couching on pearls before a fountain, backed by a cave full of stars', as Ricketts wrote to Yeats: 'On the crest of the cave is what I believe to be a hawk contemplating the moon'. These symbols were very dear to Yeats, who had wanted them on the cover, which Ricketts found unsuited for the material: a cover stamped in blind required a formal and abstract treatment, or it would look 'poor and ambitious'. It shows how practical Ricketts was as a designer, and also that his later designs are less crowded and much more clear than his very early designs, although his roses can still be taken for birds and his pearls for pebbles.

Decoration on the endpapers of W.B. Yeats, Essays (1924), designed by Charles Ricketts

47. English art and the Netherlands

Rythmus, a yearbook for the study of the fin de siècle, was published earlier this month. It contains twelve essays about English art and literature in relation to art and literature in the Netherlands and Belgium around 1900: Lopende vuurtjes (publisher: Verloren). The contributions are based on papers given at a conference in Groningen (see my blog of 14 September 2011).

Cover of Lopende vuurtjes (2012)

The essays are divided into two categories, one of which is concerned with 'tranfer'; the second theme is 'integration'.  My essay is about the integration of the private press movement in the Netherlands. The abstract reads:

Between the foundation of the first modern private press, William Morris's Kelmscott Press (1890), and the foundation of the first Dutch private press, De Zilverdistel (1910), the private press ideals were introduced in the Netherlands. In the process these ideas were transformed, English ideas were translated into Dutch practices and only partly realized by a small number of presses. A lively debate on modern typography ensued, and the relation between professionals and amateur printers was difficult: the private press was seen by some as a superfluous movement. In this essay, the transition of the private press ideas from the United Kingdom to the Netherlands is described from a personal, semantic and technical perspective. Generation gaps, terminological evolutions, and technical developments influenced the outcome. Contacts between British and Dutch artists were frequently based on one-way traffic, and fuelled by a conscious transnationalism. Delaying factors were diverging literary and artistic goals, as well as divergent commercial motifs. In both countries the ideals of the private press contributed to the design in commercial publishing and the ideals in book design were realized by the 1950s.

The essay frequently mentions the names of Ricketts and Shannon, as the Netherlands is the only country where Ricketts and Shannon were written about earlier than the founder of the Kelmscott Press. However, after his death in 1896, Morris became the major influence on book design for a while, until his books went out of fashion and the pages of Cobden-Sanderson, whose pure typography was better suited to the Dutch taste, became a model of fine printing.

Paul van Capelleveen, 'Van private press naar eigen pers en retour. De introductie van de private press-gedachte in Nederland, 1890-1930', in: Lopende vuurtjes. Engelse kunst en literatuur in Nederland en België rond 1900. Anne van Buul (ed.) Hilversum, Verloren, 2012, p. 197-214, colour plate 11.

46. Sorrows, prayers, gaiety, and consolations

In his diary for 13 June 1900, Charles Ricketts wrote:

With Beethoven the conscious intellectual effort is more apparent than in Bach. I believe that Robert Browning's verdict on Shakespeare's amazing facility is applicable to Bach. Beethoven, with his sorrows, prayers, gaiety, and consolations urges you to endure the possibilities of passion and regret. Was Bach, the sedentary and solitary Bach, even more sensitive? Sensitive is not the word, possibly. "Sentient" is better. In a formula of pure pattern and ornament one becomes aware of a thousand exquisite things crumbling away like the glittering mist from a fountain. The Adagio of the D Major Concerto left me almost shattered as if I had been listening to the nerve-racking sounds of Wagner, in which physical strain counts for so much. Baudelaire compared Chopin's music to the flight of a glittering bird over an abyss. This summarizes the effect of a great deal of the finest music - the first movement, for instance, of Beethoven's great concerto for the violin.

[From: Self-Portrait taken from the letters & journals of Charles Ricketts, R.A. London, Peter Davies, 1939, p. 38].

45. Lux, Ars, Spes and Night

The first issue of the magazine Black and White was issued on February 6, 1891. The masthead for volume 1, number 1, was especially designed by Charles Ricketts and incorporated the words 'LUX' (as 'LVX'), 'ARS', 'SPES', and 'NIGHT'. The 'weekly illustrated record and review' carried this masthead for a short period only. It was not used after 13 June 1891.

Nameplate, designed by Charles Ricketts, for Black and white, 6 February 1891

The pen drawing, 90x232 mm was signed, lower left 'DEL C RICKETTS'. In advertisements (11 July and 7 November 1891) Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon were mentioned among the artists 'who have aided "Black & White" with brush, pen and pencil', which was true, as they had published a number of drawings in several issues.

For the advertisement leaves another illustration was in use from the beginning:

Nameplate for the advertisements in Black and white, 6 February 1891

This was not signed, and much more academic in style. After six months another masthead made its appearance on the opening page:

Nameplate for Black and white, 20 June 1891

In 1900 yet another masthead was in use:

Nameplate for Black and white, 7 July 1900

The later mastheads have a more restraint, businesslike character, while the first one, which was meant to disseminate the involvement with art work, was done in Ricketts's early drawing style, with crowded images and complex symbolism, filled to the brim with detail, figures and objects, while the lettering was placed a little too loosely, the individual letters sometimes being obscured by other parts of the drawing. The title Black and White did not stand out clearly, and obviously, the sales department did not approve.

44. Printed on Vale Press paper

The Vale Press was the first private press to dispose of its type by throwing the punches into the River Thames, an example that was followed a decade later by T.J. Cobden-Sanderson, and ultimately by Esther Pissarro (crossing the Channel). The lead of the type itself was too valuable to throw away, the types were melted down. The paper stock was another matter to deal with; apparently Ricketts sold the paper to James Guthrie of the Pear Tree Press, who used it for a few books and announcements. 

Colophon of L.V. Hodgkin, Holy poverty (Pear Tree Press, 1905)

One of these was a pamphlet by Lucy Violet Hodgkin (1869-1954), Holy poverty. The message of St. Francis for to-day, which was published at the Pear Tree Press in 1905. 

Title page of L.V. Hodgkin, Holy poverty (Pear Tree Press, 1905)

In The Vale Press. Charles Ricketts, a publisher in earnest, Maureen Watry writes (footnote 93) that Holy poverty, and an announcement for E.P.P. Macloghlin's Poetry (1905) were printed on Vale Press paper bearing the watermark of the mermaid, a paper Ricketts had designed for his Shakespeare edition. Macloghlin's book of poetry was printed on paper bearing the Vale Press watermark. The copy I have seen of Poetry was indeed printed on that paper. However, a copy of Holy poverty that came to my notice was not printed on mermaid paper, but on Unbleached Arnold paper with the Vale Press watermark. Guthrie may have printed the edition on a variety of papers, of course; please mail me the Vale watermarks you find in your copies of Pear Tree publications.

Unbleached Arnold paper with the Vale Press watermark in Holy poverty (Pear Tree Press, 1905)

43. Rik was talked off his feet by Ricketts

In 1996 an exhibition in the Museum Meermanno in The Hague commemorated  the foundation of The Vale Press in 1896. During preparations it came to light that the Dutch libraries together did not possess a complete collection of the ninety volumes of the press, however, several public collections contained a small representative group of Vale Press books, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National library of the Netherlands being one of them. The national library acquired the books in three batches, in 1900, in 1954, and in 1988.

In 1988 a few books were added to the collection as a longstanding loan from the Dutch Museum for Literature. These books came from the bequest of the poet Adriaan Roland Holst, a nephew of the artist and book designer Richard (Rik) Roland Holst (1868-1938), who visited London in 1893 to meet William Morris and Walter Crane. He became best of friends with Ricketts.

Richard Roland Holst and his wife Henriette van der Schalk (cover for Het boek van de Buissche Heide, 2012)

He wrote a long letter about Ricketts and Shannon to his fiancée, Henriette van der Schalk, misspelling the name of his new hero: 'Rickets talks you off your feet, he keeps on talking, without talking nonsense, very intense and excited, never jumpy, giving a broad perspective, you can feel that he has seen a lot, and  knows everything'. He thought him a brilliant man, whose work was 'deep, ingenious, full of fantasy, with a purity of rich feeling'; all features of art he was striving for himself. He admired Ricketts, for although Roland Holst was only two years younger than Ricketts, the latter had achieved far more: he founded his own magazine The dial, and he designed the covers for books of Oscar Wilde and Thomas Hardy. Ricketts had designed the binding and typography of John Gray's Silverpoints, of which Roland Holst owned copy number 111, and Ricketts and Shannon had worked a year on their latest publication, Daphnis and Chloe. When Rik Roland Holst visited their home in The Vale, Ricketts and Shannon were working on the wood-engravings for Hero and Leander.

The first Vale Press book, Milton's Early poems (1896), was acquired by the national library during the Winter of 1900. The work of Ricketts and Shannon had been exhibited in the Netherlands as early as 1892, and private collectors had been more attentive. J. Visser of Rotterdam had corresponded with Ricketts, and had been buying books since 1897. After the Vale Press suffered from a devastating fire at the printer's, the library bought a few books, such as Michael Field's The world at auction (1898), Ricketts's A defence of the revival of printing (1899) and The Rowley poems of Thomas Chatterton (1898). They arrived in November and December 1900, and were acquired directly from the shop of Hacon and Ricketts.

The Chatterton edition is remarkable, as it is one of only a few sets in the so-called flame binding, of which the pattern of flames and orange dots was a memento of the fire in which many wood blocks and unbound copies had been lost. The Vale Press stated that only three copies of the Chatterton had survived, but, as there are copies at The Houghton Library, at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, and at least three copies are known to be in private collections, more than three copies must have been found among the debris.

In 1954 the Koninklijke Bibliotheek again acquired two Ricketts items, the first of which was Beyond the threshold (1929), which was bought for its binding. The same goes for the edition of the Lyric poems of Tennyson, which was bound in red morocco by Zaehnsdorf, and acquired through the antiquarian firm of Frank Hammond. This book is one of only ten copies on vellum.

A vellum copy of Alfred Tennyson, Lyric poems (Vale Press, 1900) [© Photo: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National library of the Netherlands/Jos Uljee, 2010]

Rik's nephew, the poet Adriaan Roland Holst - who owned a not well-cared for copy of Daphnis and Chloe - went to meet Ricketts in 1920, and after the visit Ricketts wrote to his old friend: 'I liked your Nephew, he seemed bright, pleasant, manly, and pleasant to talk to.'

[A longer version of this blog was published in Dutch as: 'Ricketts praat je omver', in: KB Centraal, 30 (2001) 2 (March), p. 5-6.]

42. Patterned papers (f: Pine-cone and leaf)

The Vale Press programme of early English text editions included The sonnets of Sir Philip Sidney, which had been in preparation since 1896 before it was announced for October 1897; the book finally appeared in March 1898. The description of the cover paper in Ricketts's bibliography reads: 'pine-cone and leaf'. The probably stylized, fan-shaped leaf form may have been derived from the gingko tree.

Cover for The sonnets of Sir Philip Sidney (1898)

Originally, as can be read in the Michael Field journals (21 April 1898), the Sidney edition should have had a cover paper with primroses, but, due to a strike at the printers the publication scheme was adapted, and Ricketts used the paper of pine-cones which he had intended for Michael Field's next book. The Fields wrote: 'poor Sidney who had never anything to do with the Bacchic spirit'. Ricketts used an image of the Greek symbol for Bacchic rituals, a thyrsus topped with a pine-cone, on the border page of their book, The world at auction (1898).

Thyrsus topped with a pine-cone in the border, designed by Charles Ricketts for Michael Field, The world at auction (1898)

The cover design for The sonnets of Sir Philip Sidney has minor irregularities: some of the leaves have ten, others have eleven or twelve veins, while there are also many leaves that have thirteen veins that arise from the bottom of the blade and fan out to the rim. Horizontal and vertical lines are visible in the design, and the basic form of the design for the paper cover consists of eight leaves and eight pine-cones.

Detail of cover paper for The sonnets of Sir Philip Sidney (1898): a horizontal line is visible in the pattern

The design has been printed in green on a buff coloured paper, which is pasted on to the brown cardboard covers. The border of this book incorporates leaves of laurel.

Detail of cover paper for The sonnets of Sir Philip Sidney (1898)

41. Lot sold

The library of Jacques Levy, which was on sale at Sotheby's, New York, on 20 April, had some surprises in store for us. The special copy of Daphnis and Chloe sold for 8.780 US$, while the exceptional copy of The importance of being earnest - one of only twelve copies on Japanese paper, bound in full vellum, with the author's dedication to Robert Ross - sold for the amount of 362.500 US$ (hammer price with buyer's premium).

Should we see this as reasonable prices for books, while a pastel by Munch, one of four known 'Scream' images, changed hands for more than a hundred million?

I would love to see a picture of the bookcase, now containing the Jacques Levy copies of Ricketts's books, on Bookshelf Porn - or on this blog.

Detail of Charles Ricketts, woodcut,  'Love in the snow' (from Daphnis and Chloe, 1893, p. 61)

40. Charles Ricketts's articles in The Burlington magazine

This blog is an addendum to blog 39 and has been contributed by Barbara Pezzini:

List of articles by Charles Ricketts in The Burlington magazine
By Barbara Pezzini (edited by PvC)

1. C.R., [Review of: Velasquez. By Wilfred Wilberforce and A.R. Gilbert], in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 5, no. 15 (June 1904), p. 322.
2. Charles Ricketts, 'The masterpieces by Velazquez in the Imperial Gallery at Vienna', in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 5, no. 16 (July 1904), p. 338-341, 343, 345, 347.
3. Charles Ricketts, 'Fantin-Latour', in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 6, no. 19 (October 1904), p. 17-18. [Obituary.]
4. C. Ricketts, [Review of: Rubens. By Max Rooses], in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 6, no. 22 (January 1905), p. 330-331.
5. Charles Ricketts, 'Watts at Burlington House', in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 6, no. 23 (February 1905), p. 346-350.
6. C.R., [Review of: The Dürer Society. Seventh series], in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 6, no. 24 (March 1905), p. 502-503.
7. Charles Ricketts, 'The portrait of Isabella Brant in the Hermitage', in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 7, no. 25 (April 1905), p. 83-84. [Letter to the editor.]
8. Charles Ricketts, 'Constantin Meunier', 'II, His aim and place in the art of the nineteenth century', in: The magazine of art, vol. 7, no. 27 (June 1905), p. 181-182, 186-187. [Part I was written by R. Petrucci.]
9. Charles Ricketts, 'Dalou', in: The magazine of art, vol. 7, no. 29 (August 1905), p. 348, 353-354.
10. C.R., [Review of: Pisanello. By G.F. Hill], in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 8, no. 32 (November 1905), p. 141-142.
11. C.R., [Review of: Giotto. By Basil de Selincourt], in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 8, no. 32 (November 1905), p. 142-143.
12. C.R., [Review of: Dürer Society. Eight Series], in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 8, no. 35 (February 1906), p. 362.
13. Charles Ricketts, 'Adolph von Menzel', in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 9, no. 37 (April 1906), p. 51-52. [Review of: Adolph von Menzel. Abbildungen seiner Gemälde und Studien].
14. C. Ricketts, 'Early German art at the Burlington Fine Arts Club': 'III, Dürer and his successors', in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 9, no. 40 (July 1906), p. 264-267-268. [Part I was written by Lionel Cust; part II was written by Aymer Vallance.] [Exhibition review.]
15. C. Ricketts, [Letter on an attribution to Hubert van Eyck:  Pictures in the collection of Mr. John G. Johnson, of Philadelphia], in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 9, no. 42 (September 1906), p. 426. [Preceded by a letter from Herbert P. Horne.]
16. C.R. [Review of: Oxford Union Society. The story of the painting of the pictures on the walls, and the decorations on the ceiling of the old Debating Hall, Oxford. By Holman Hunt], in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 10, no. 46 (January 1907), p. 262-263.
17. Charles Ricketts, 'Puvis de Chavannes: a chapter from 'Modern painters', in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 13, no. 61 (April 1908), p. 9-12, 17-18.
18. Charles Ricketts, 'The Franco-British exhibition', 'The French section', in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 13, no. 64 (July 1908), p. 192-195. [Followed by 'The British section', written by Robert Ross.] [Exhibition review.]
19. C.R., [Review of: Auguste Rodin, l'oeuvre et l'homme. Par Judith Cladel], in: The Burlingtin magazine, vol. 14, no. 72 (March 1909), p. 368-369.
20. Charles Ricketts, 'In memory of Charles Conder', in: The Burlington magazine, vol. 15, no. 73 (April 1909), p. 8, 13-14.

Ricketts published 9 book reviews, 2 exhibition reviews, 5 articles, 2 letters and 2 obituaries in The Burlington magazine, of which only seven were published again in Pages on art (1913): he revised his obituaries of Fantin-Latour and Conder (p. 89-94 and p. 1-14) and his articles about Watts (p. 95-113), Meunier (p. 115-124), Dalou (p. 125-135) and Puvis de Chavannes (p. 55-79). In his first volume of art criticism he also included slightly rewritten versions of the Von Menzel and Rodin reviews (p. 137-145 and p. 83-88). However, thirteen of his contributions to The Burlington magazine were not published again by Ricketts.