A blog from the Cataloging Cave at Joslin Hall Rare Books about
art, antiques, books, gardens, food & random items of interest...
We've got a picture of the book here.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
"Catalogue of the Art Collection formed by the late Mrs. Mary J. Morgan..."
The catalog published in New York by the American Art Galleries for an auction held from March 3rd to March 15th, 1886. Subscriber’s Edition, limited to 500 numbered copies.
The very scarce Deluxe, illustrated edition of the catalog to one of America’s earliest blockbuster auctions and what was, for a time, the most famous art auction in America. The contents of the collection included modern paintings, Chinese porcelains, jades & crystal objects, “cabinet objects”, Sevres and other European porcelains, Minton porcelains, Webb cameo glass, other fine glass, silver, wood carvings, bronzes, and etchings.
Mary Morgan was the widow of a shipping tycoon, and collected a vast array of paintings and other art in her New York mansion. Upon her death Thomas Kirby of the American Art Association, the forerunner of Parke-Bernet, decided to make the Morgan sale a “can’t-miss” event.
The collection was controversial –Mrs. Morgan had simply walked in and bought her pictures from leading dealers instead of ingratiating herself personally with the artists as was the tradition of the day. Further, Lot 341 was an 8-inch Peachblow vase which Mrs. Morgan had bought from the American Art Association’s own retail galleries for $12,000 a few years previously. A print war broke out between the New York Times, which claimed Mrs. Morgan had paid a zero or two too much for the vase, and that in any case, there was no such thing as “Peachblow”, and Charles Henry Dana and the New York Sun, who stoughtly defended the AAA and the vase.
the Peachblow vase-
During the 3 week exhibition at the galleries prior to the auction 100,000 people viewed the paintings and Oriental art. The sale itself was standing-room only, and when they got to the vase, Baltimore connoisseur William T. Walters won it for $18,000 (which in no way stopped the controversy over its actual worth). The sale finally totaled $1,205,000 –with the exception of the 1882 Hamilton Palace sale in England, this was the highest total for any art collection at auction anywhere in the world.
The catalog itself was a groundbreaking achievement- “[Kirby’s] most striking innovation was the Mary Jane Morgan catalogue, a 305-page quarto volume that so far surpassed any cynosure of art collecting previously published in the United States that it not only launched the business at hand but synthesized Kirby’s whole new concept of the elite auction. Printed on heavy rag paper, with twenty-nine etchings, bound in pristine white boards with rich gold lettering, this weighty tome cost $40,000 to produce. It was a book to rest in splendor on the tables of the proudest salons. There was, of course, an ordinary catalog, without illustrations, for ordinary customers, the deluxe edition being limited to 500 numbered copies. The price was $10, but if mere money could have bought such a book, its propaganda value would have been lost. Except for a few copies sent to other cities, the entire edition was delivered by hand, with the compliments of the American Art Association, to the front doors of the most exclusive mansions in New York”.
For those wanting a more in-depth account, Wesley Towner devotes an entire chapter to Mrs. Morgan, her collection, this auction, the catalog, and the Peachblow vase in his book, “The Elegant Auctioneers”, from which we quoted above.
To see a full description and more pictures, go to our Ebay Store listing.
Ah, Summer is really here- the corn is in!
Please forgive me if I get a bit pedantic for moment, because summer corn is one of my favorite topics. Here are some guidelines to follow for the best summer corn- the kind whose sweetness and freshness just pops like a firecracker in your mouth.
First, a few observations- the main thing you have to be aware of is that the sweetness in corn is the sugar, and that this converts itself to starch after the ear is picked, and that this process goes more quickly dependng on how hot the ear gets and how old it is. Grocery store corn is hopeless, as it was picked a few days ago, and was probably not stored properly. Save your money.
For the best taste, buy your corn in the morning from a farm stand that has just harvested it. The ears need to be cool to the touch, and moist. If the tassels are brown you don't need to peel it down and look inside- just look for bug holes in the ear itself. Take it home and put it in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook it. City people take heart- when we lived in the city, our local farmer's market consistently provided corn that had been picked that morning and was still cool when bought shortly after the market opened.
When cooking corn, get the biggest pot you have and fill it with water, and bring it to a boil. Then throw in the corn and bring it back to a boil as quickly as possible- put a cover on the pot if it has one. The point is to keep the corn in the water for as short a time as possible. Boil it for three minutes, not a second longer, take it out and plate it, with a towel for a cover until you eat it with butter, salt and pepper, hopefully within fifteen minutes.
We have three separate collections we are in the middle of cataloging and offering for sale at the moment- a collection of fine books on Islamic arts, oriental carpets and ethnic textiles from a former dealer, a collection of reference books on silver, ceramics and glass from a customer, and of course there are still about 40 boxes of books on furniture, folk art and Americana from the reference library of Wayne Pratt.
"Island Cook Book. A Collection of Approved Recipes Contributed by the Women of Martha’s Vineyard for the Benefit of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital" Printed by Herald Printing Company of Oak Bluffs, in July, 1924.
This cookbook features several hundred recipes contributed by Vineyarders, as well as scores of advertisements by local businesses. In fact, leafing through the ads is almost as interesting as looking at the recipes, and gives one a real sense of life on the island at the time. Included is an ad for a “public Market” run by the Cronig brothers, which was located in Vineyard Haven (as it still is) and Oak Bluffs. If memory serves me right, Cronig’s was started in 1924, so the markets were only five years old at the time!
You can see the auction here. It began down low, and as always, there is no reserve!
We just got in a wonderful new publisher's overstock on the history of feasting-
It's Patriot's Day here in Massachusetts, a legal holiday not familiar to many folks outside the Bay State. It commemorates the Lexington-Concord Battle of 1775, as immortalized by favorite son Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his famous poem written for the ceremony for the completion of the Battle Monument at the bridge, April 19, 1836-I admit it- I do sometimes judge a book by its cover, and sometimes I can't resist buying a book for its cover. Here are a few garden-related covers that struck my fancy lately-
I love the Art Deco feel of this one, and its simplicity-
This is from the 1920s, and I loved both the cover, which shows the classic 1920s suburban cottage garden, and the subject matter-
I picked this one up last year. Its a beautiful cover, and it also looks a lot like our woods out back do in the winter at sunset-
And how was I supposed to resist this?
"The Oxford Museum" By John Ruskin & Henry W. Acland. Published in London by Smith, Elder and Co.: 1859.
An interesting discourse touching on the principles of the Gothic Revival, handwork and the dignity of workmen, and the proper decoration of buildings, as they were related to the architecture of Oxford’s famous Museum of Natural History, popularly known as the Oxford Museum. Championed in the 1850s by Sir Henry Acland, who felt that Oxford was ignoring the natural sciences, the Museum brought all those disciplines, including geology, astronomy, geometry, chemistry, and zoology under one roof. And quite a neo-Gothic roof it was... The building was designed by Deane and Woodward of Dublin, with assistance of one sort or another from Ruskin, who notes here-
“In the competition [for the design] scarce any limitation was imposed, and to style none. Thirty-two designs by anonymous contributors were sent in; the majority of the judges, after a thoroughly English battle, in which some professed advocates of Gothic architecture deprecated the application of Gothic Art to secular purposes, -thereby denying to their own style that malleability which is, perhaps, its highest prerogative, -the design, ‘Nisi Dominus oedificaverit domum,’ was accepted”.
The Museum was the scene of the famous 1860 debate during which Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, asked Thomas Huxley whether he was descended from a monkey on his grandfather’s or grandmother’s side, to which Huxley replied that he had-
"no need to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather, but that he would be ashamed of having for an ancestor a man of restless and versatile interest who distracts the attention of his hearers from the real point at issue by eloquent digression and skilled appeals to religious prejudice."
Hardcover. 4.75”x7.5”, 111 pages plus a 4-page list of other titles by the authors; steel-engraved frontispiece of a pillar with fern carvings; a full-page woodblock plate of decorative tracery; a folding plan of the museum; publisher’s pebbled & embossed cloth with gilt titles; spine slightly faded, minor soil and a little wear, but overall a very nice, fresh copy.
$350.00
Anonymous books are always a puzzle- why did the author choose not to reveal his name? What is the story behind it? Often there is an interesting tale to tell, and that is the case with a little 19th century book titled "Handbook of Young Artists and Amateurs in Oil Painting...by an American Artist", published in New York in 1845.
We're featuring an interesting item in our Ebay store this week, a catalog that played major part in one of the more fascinating tales of antiquities forgery in the 20th Century-We're offering an interesting 1857 US/Mexican border Survey for auction this week. The book has a few problems and is rough, but still has many interesting plates.
"United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, made under the Direction of the Secretary of the Interior" by William H. Emory, Major First Cavalry and United States Commissioner. Printed by A. O. P. Nicholson, Printer, Washington: 1857. Volume 1, Parts One & Two.
In 1848 Major William H. Emory, a highly skilled and talented American Army officer, topographer and geologist, was sent to make a survey of the new U.S.-Mexican boundary, as stipulated in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican American War. On his return, an elaborately illustrated report consisting of two volumes, each divided into two parts was prepared for distribution to Congress. A later edition was issued in three volumes.
Up for auction is Volume one of the two-volume set that was originally presented to Congress, one volume at a time.
You can see the auction and many more illustrations here.
"Maps and Views to Accompany Message from the President of the United States to the Two Houses of Congress, at the Commencement of the Second Session of the Thirty-Third Congress.” Printed by A.O.P. Nicholson, Printer: 1854.
This is a bound copy of the various maps, charts and plans submitted to the second session of the 33rd Congress of the United States in 1854. It consists of 43 maps and folding plates of wildly varying sizes, from a map of California clocking in at 44"x21" to a plan of the "Triangular Reservation on Pennsylvania Avenue, between Twentieth and Twenty-first Streets West" at a mere 5"x9".
States include California, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Ohio, New York, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.
Despite the ragged looking edges and some water stains, the maps are quite robust, with all folds intact.
You can see the complete description and more pictures by clicking here.
It hasn't seemed very Springlike, since we still have about 50% snow-cover here, but yesterday I was actually able to get outside and clean off a few beds, and the parsley, lemon balm, thyme and oregano are all coming up. And there are other signs...
The Red Sox are about to open the season. OK, they're opening in Japan, and we'll be listening at breakfast either Tuesday or Wednesday morning (I still haven't figured that out) but Opening Day means Spring!
The sun is now in my eyes in the late afternoon. Our house is oriented exactly North-South (front faces North) and one of my office widows faces due West. In the late afternoon during the Spring, Summer and Fall the sun shines in and reflects off my computer screen. In the Winter, when the Sun traces a much more southerly course, I don't get it in my window in the afternoon. So another sign of Spring here is that the Sun is moving back into the sky high enough to shine in my eye in the afternoon.
So- how long 'till we start harvesting home-grown tomatoes???
A cup of cold water
For him wounded sore:
He asks if a brother
Needs it not more.
Look! On this dark skin
Grim slave-scars are found,
Where blood rushes red
From the freedman’s deep wound.
"Our Work" Author unknown, probably printed in New York, circa 1862-1864.
5.5”x8.5” pamphlet. Printed in red and blue. Light soil, and a few spots.
A poem paying tribute to the work of male and female nurses on the battlefield in the Civil war, with an intriguing reference to wounded African-American soldiers.
The poem was also printed in the book “Pen Pictures of the War, and Sketches of the Rebellion”, edited by William Ledyard and published in 1864.
The 1864 printing of Ledyard’s volume is itself somewhat uncommon in the marketplace, and our printing of the poem appears to be downright scarce, with OCLC locating only one copy, which is in the New York Historical Society.
You can see and bid on the poem here.
We have several other interesting 19th Century Americana items up for auction this week. See our Current Auctions for all four Americana items.
We have a great new publisher's overstock just in-
-Emerson, "Society and Solitude"
Here's a very fun book we just got a small pile of-“Exquisitely photographed and produced, this volume tours ten magnificent British homes designed in the Arts and Crafts tradition. Red House, the only house that William Morris ever built (and that also inspired his design firm), is here, as is Hill House— family home to prominent Glasgow publisher Walter W. Blackie, designed by Scotland's Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Also included are Charleston, home to Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant; Kelmscott Manor, William Morris's idyllic country escape; and Edward Lutyens' eccentric medieval Castle Drogo”.
Hardcover. 10”x10”, 159 pages, color illustrations, dj. New. Published for $39.95. Available for a limited time for $20.00
Here's a fun play on an historical controversey we just bought a few copies of-
Here's a nice new remainder we recently put into stock- “Illustrated with 136 color plates, scores of color thumbnails, and hundreds of black and white figures and drawings, this volume describes a superb Japanese art object, the small carved boxes called inro, traditionally suspended from the kimono by silk cords and netsuke buttons to carry personal items. Internationally recognized expert Raymond Bushell documents the history and design of these jewel-like, exquisitely crafted items, along with their netsuke and similar other personal objects like incense boxes, tea caddies, and sake cups”.
Hardcover. 7.5”x10.5”, 263 pages, color and black & white illustrations, dust jacket. New.
Published for $75.00. While they last, we can offer this for $35.00
