Happy New Year to those of you who like to celebrate such things (not really into it myself  - it was 2009……now its 2010…so what??!).

Anyway, onto more interesting matters. Regular readers might know that I am a fan of vintage book-plate art. I am also a lover of Jungendstil - the the German interpretation of the Art Nouveau school of design so I was very interested to discover the book from which the images for this post are taken. Das Moderne Deutsche Gebrauchs Exlibris was written by Richard Braungart  and published in Munich in 1922. It features many examples of the work of outstanding ex-libris designers of the day. The Names of the artists are indicated. Enjoy:

The book features many, many more outstanding examples of bookplate art and I will be giving away a pdf of the book to my subscribers this week. If you would like to receive free vintage e-book like this in the future please enter you your details in the opt in box at the top of my homepage.

First off, any apologies for the distinct lack of posts on here in an excessively long time. Real life getting in the way and such…Anyway, back to normality so will be posting a lot more in the coming months.
As you may know, I am a great  believer in the potential of using public domain images for profit. I have been browsing the Visipix site recently to find some images for the purpose of making prints (great site by the way - almost 55,000 fine art images and photos  on here, check it out at http://visipix.dynalias.com/index_hidden.htm). Anyway I came across some great vintage postcards I’d like to share with you. Unfortunately there is no information on Visipix regarding any of the postcard images on there so all I know about these is that they are German and they are pretty cool! If anyone knows anything about them / the name of the artist, please leave a comment:

Although these images would make good prints, as they were originally postcards, this got me to thinking that there would be no reason why you couldn’t reprint them at their original size and sell them in sets. Online or supermarket photolab printing is dirt cheap these days - 6×4 prints cost literally pennies and you could sell a set of (say) ten “repro vintage postcard prints” for $5 -$10 no problem. Just an idea…

There are over 600 postcard images on the Visipix site. Here’s some more I liked:

Merry Christmas etc etc to everyone (dont like christmas, in case you didn’t guess!) and I shall return with many posts in the new year!

Regular readers may know that I am a great enthusiast of the Big Apple.  The images I have for you today are taken from the 1939 publication New York City Guide. The book was one of many published by the Federal Writers Project; a U.S. government initiative established by Predident Roosevelt in 1935 with the aim of funding written work and supporting writers during the Great Depression. The main idea of the project was employment with over 6000 writers, photographers, researchers, historians, cartographers, artists and so on found work in this difficult period. Around 400 volumes were produced the most well known of which were the American Guide Series which encompassed every U.S. state and also many major cities, including this New York guide. Some commentators have also suggested that the project had additional purpose with the government seeking to take greater control of the countrys cultural heritage and using the projects publications as a method of reawakening patriotism and national pride in a period of depression.

I have seen a number of Federal Writers Project publications and they really are magnificent pieces of work. I particularly like this New York guide not only as I am such a big fan of the city but also as I think the city lends itself particularly, to spectacular imagry and photography.

Enjoy!

Aside these magnificent photographs, the book also features a number of charming illustrations of the city by various artists. I particularly like these by Louis Lozowick - would make a great set of prints.

If you are a subscriber I will be sending you a link to download a pdf of the original 828 page book. If you would like to receive free gifts like this from me in the future please enter your name and e-mail address in the box at the top of this page to subscribe.

No introduction should be neccessary for regular readers of this blog to the work of Arthur Rackham - one Englands greatest illustrators. The images I have for you today are not as familiar to us as his more celebrated and well known coloured illustrations. They are taken from a 1907 publication Land of Enchantment  - a collection of traditional folk tales - but were not produced specifically for this book. The drawings (and indeed the stories) originally appeared in a periodical named Little Folks between 1896 and 1902 Seemingly, the publishers thought them worthy of republication and Rackham was glad to oblige providing assistance with their selection.

Whilst I enjoy his more famous coloured works I am also a big fan of these pen and ink drawings. I think they have an almost “comic book” type of quality to them. Click on any image to best appreciate the full sized versions.

Land of Enchantment features 13 full page illustrations in all. View the full set at my Flickr photostream HERE. The book also features many smaller illustrations within the text and this week I’m giving my subscribers a free pdf of the book along with all 13 of the full page images extracted at 300dpi. If you would like to receive freebies like this from me in future,please enter your details in the opt-in box at the top of this page.

These fantastic hand coloured wood-cuts are taken from the 16th Century astronomy text Astronomicum Caesareum by Petrus Apian. Taking several years to produce at  his private print shop in Ingolstadt the book is unusual in that it contains twenty one illustrations with moving parts (so called “volvelles“). These are primarily planetary equatoria (paper wheels designed for locating the position of planets in the zodiac). Even in the 16th century it was a great luxury item with a very limited print. Tycho Brahe is recoreded as having paid twenty florins for his copy which equates to approximately $3000 today!

Best appreciated at maxiumum size (click to go to the full size on Flickr)

A PDF of this book containing 37 full colour plates (along with many other rare astronomical texts from the 15th to the 18th century) can be obtained for free from the web page of the Digital Rare Book Collection at the Vienna University Observatory located at http://www.univie.ac.at/hwastro/.

You can also view the full set of illustrations from Astronomicum Caesareum in my Flickr set HERE.

Bookplates, also refered to as ex-libris [Latin for "from the books of..."], are small decorative labels which indicate the owner of a book. They generally appear inside the font cover and often feature a motto, crest, or motif representing the owner. Their usage can be traced back as far as the 14th century however their modern evolution stems from the use of simple inscriptions found inside books of the European Middle Ages which coincided with the advent of “librarianship”. Their use became gradually more widespread from the 17th to the 19th century whilst initial interest in them as collectibles and objects of study in themselves can be traced to the 1860’s. Many bookplates are now of greater interest than the books in which they are affixed and there are collectors of bookplates and societies dedicated to their study all over the world. The examples I have for you today are taken from a publication which is indicative of the level of interest in “ex libris” at the time (late 19th century). The publication in question dates from 1898 / 9 and is a special edition of the popular design periodical The Studio entitled Modern Bookplates and Their Designers. The designers are indicated.

Cyril Goldie

P J Billinghurst

J J Waugh

Henry Ospovat

A K Womrath (left), Henry Ospovat (right)

R Anning Bell (left) H Nelson (right)

All of these amazing images are in the public domain which got me to thinking they could be the basis for excellent designs for any purpose you wanted. I’m sure they could be adapted and would look great on a t-shirt, bag or other merch. If you have a Cafepress store and are looking for new designs, this type of thing would be perfect.

This is just one example of how you can easily use / adapt public domain materials for your own use / profit. To demonstrate how easy it is, I had a go at photoshopping an old bookplate to make a logo for my eBay business & blog (bear in mind, my photoshop skills are virtually non-existant!).

Heres the original:

And my photoshop effort!

I’m sure you get the idea! All that needs to be done is to edit out the name of the book owner and insert your own apt phrase or whatever.

Until next time

P.S. This week I’m giving away a free pdf of the 1898 edition of the Studio from which most of these bookplates are taken to my subscribers. If you would like to receive freebies such as this in the future enter your name and e-mail in the subscription sign up box at the top of this page.

Warwick Goble was a Victorian illustrator who enjoyed his greatest success during the early decades of the 20th century when there was a great demand for colour plate illustrations. One of his earliest commissions was for H G Wells War of the World’s in 1898. His specialisms however, were fairy tales and exotic stories of the East and he is best known for his magnificent watercolour illustrations for a variety of children’s books between 1909  and the early 1920’s. The images I have for you today are taken from the 1912 publication of Folk Tales of Bengal by Rev. Lal Behari Day.

Click any image to see the full size on Flickr.

She rushed out of the palace and came to the upper world

They then set out on their journey

In a trice she woke up, sat up in her bed, and eyeing the stranger, inquired who he was

She took up the jewel in her hand, left the palace, and successfully reached the upper world

The Girl of the Wall-Almirah

They approached a magnificent pile of buildings

I find it strange that Goble is not as well known as some of his contemporaries such as Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac given the stunning quality of his work. He continued working into the late 1920’s illustrating Treasure Island and Kidnapped for Macmillan. He died in 1943.

Folk Tales of Bengal contains 32 colour plates in all. You can view the full set on Flickr by clicking HERE.

J. J. Grandville was the pseudonym of  French caricaturist and illustrator Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard. His early carreer consisted of regular contributions of highly satirical political caricatures for a series of Parisian periodicals. He garnered a great deal of popularity for this work but following the reintroduction of censorship of caricatures in France in 1835, he pursued a notable career as a book illustrator. He illustrated a number of standard works gaining a reputation as the premier illustrator of works such as Gullivers Travels and Robinson Crusoe. His fantastical ilustrations featured a wonderful variety of inanimate objects brought to life, mixed up animal creatures (which he refered to as Metamorphoses) , crazy characters and an imaginative creativity that predated and influenced the school of Surrealism.

It is the far reaching influence of his work which is of most interest. He influenced not only the surrealists as mentioned above but also political cartoonists, comic book illustrators and  fantasy artists. His work is known to have influenced not only the illustrator of the Alice in Wonderland tales John Tenniel but their author Lewis Carrol. Look closely at his work and you may also see something of his influence in the animated films of Walt Disney.

Alice in Wonderland anyone?

This picture brings to mind the Be Our Guest scene from Disneys Beauty & the Beast

Click on any of the images above to view them at full size. There are 175 of Grandville’s illustrations available online at the wonderful Visipix site HERE.

Frank Cheyne Papé was a British illustrator of the “Golden Age” of book illustration. Born in 1878, there appears to be very little information available to us about his life and work. We know that his first work was around 1908. This early coloured work was similar in style and maybe influenced by artists of the 1890’s such as Walter Crane, and contemporaries Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. Papé did illustrations for a series of fairy tale books in this early part of his career including those featured here which are taken from “The Russian Story Book” by Richard Wilson published in 1916. He is actually much better known for his later black & white style which illustrated a series of popular satirical works. His career seemingly came an abrupt and unexplained end in 1935 although he did continue to contribute illustrations for a little known children’s periodical “Uncle Ray’s Magazine” up until the early 1950’s. He died in 1972.

“Come Down” Cried the Hero’s Wife     

Diuk Stooped and Caught Chorilo by His Yellow Curls

Then the Princess Ran With Her Feet All Bare, Out Into the Open Corridor

The Water Tsar Dances

She Put Her Good Steed to the Walls and Leapt Lightly Over Them

Marina Lay Upon a Couch and Fondled a Fiery Dragon With Her Right Hand

For those of you who don’t know, the Library of Congress recently took the unusual but comendable step of uploading an initial 3000 (and counting - now over 6,500) images from its vast collection to Flickr, the popular picture hosting site. The idea behind this move is to invite the public to tag the images adding metadata to those which previously had little or none. The response apparently has been astounding. You can view the entire (and amazing) Flickr photostream HERE.

Amongst the photostream are 382 photochrom images. Photochrom is a process invented in Switzerland in the 1880s by Hans Jakob Schmid whereby colourized images are produced from black and white photographic negatives via direct photographic transfer of a negative on to lithographic printing plates. The process was very popular in the late 19th century when colour photography was still not commercially viable. The resultant images benefit from beautiful and vivid colours.

Take a look at these examples from the L.O.C. Flickr photostream (best viewed by clicking images for full size)

Exchange Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark

Vik in Eidfjord, Hardanger Fjord, Norway

 Castle Street and municipal buildings, Aberdeen, Scotland

Parliament buildings, Quebec

Whirlpool Rapids, looking up Niagara

You can browse 6,500 photochrom images by subject on the L.O.C. website HERE.