Happy Halloween from Alice C. Morse

I thought that Morse enthusiasts might enjoy seeing a couple of Morse's creepy drawings for the "At the Ghost Hour" series. Happy Halloween! 

George Macdonald: Lilith, Salted With Fire and Far Above Rubies

In preparation for the publishers' bindings symposium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art next month (May 24), I'm making a concerted effort to post recent attributions and information on new discoveries that I have learned about since the publication of my book The Proper Decoration of Book Covers. I've known about some of these for quite some time, but as they can be rare and expensive, I wanted to make sure that the Met was able to purchase copies in good condition before I posted.

In this set of unsigned bindings on books written by George Macdonald, two of the covers - Salted With Fire and Far Above Rubies - are in Morse's collection of book covers that she gave to the Museum Library in 1924. This collection of 58 covers is now in the Department of Drawings and Prints. Copies of the books are in the Publishers' Bindings collection in the Thomas J. Watson Library. If they aren't cataloged now, they will be soon and you can find and request them on Watsonline.

Above image from: http://www.abebooks.com/books/RareBooks/scottish-novelist-phantastes-fantasy/george-macdonald.shtml

The Thomas J. Watson Library of The Metropolitan Museum of Art owns Lilith both green and tan color variants. It is an unsigned binding. I have not yet found proof that allows me to confirm that this cover was designed by Morse but I speculate that it has, as the design is characteristic of other Morse covers in the Grotesque style.

Below you see Morse's unfinished display cover for Salted with Fire in gray cloth. In the advertisement above, it is stamped in reddish cloth (although it's difficult to discern). MMA 56.522.93. This and other Morse book covers can be seen in the Print Study Room, Dept. of Drawings and Prints (by appt.).

Publishers' Bindings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum has been expanding its collections of publishers  bindings and related materials by the artists who made them. Here are a few tips to get started. 

To search Watsonline for publishers bindings search by Call Number, type in 'publishers bindings' and they will all come up. (There are many more still uncatalogued, but that's ongoing).

https://library.metmuseum.org/search/?searchtype=c&searcharg=publishers+bindings&searchscope=1&SORT=D&SUBMIT=Search

To see publishers bindings blog posts on In Circulation:

http://www.metmuseum.org/research/libraries-and-study-centers/in-circulation/2015/american-trade-bindings-2

http://www.metmuseum.org/research/libraries-and-study-centers/in-circulation/2015/american-trade-bindings

http://www.metmuseum.org/research/libraries-and-study-centers/in-circulation/2015/czech-bindings

To see MMA Timeline essay on Alice C. Morse:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mors/hd_mors.htm

There have been recent acquisitions of materials relating to Margaret Armstrong and her family. These are in the Dept. of Drawings and Prints, along with many other books. You need to make an appt. to visit that room, but you can also use it to teach classes using the Museum's collection. Here is a link to the Museum catalog entries on Armstrong. A most amazing acquisition is a two-volume sketchbook, by Margaret Armstrong containing all of her original drawings for Western Wildflowers.The gift shop has used these for all kinds of gift items. 

Feel free to email me with questions about the visiting or otherwise accessing the collections -  mindell.dubansky@metmuseum.org

Come visit!

Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush with Dust Jacket

Link

It's not the greatest photograph, but looking on the Inernet I saw this copy of Morse's design for Ian Maclaren's book with its dust jacket on a blogpost (address above) and thought it was worth noting that the gold block was dropped from the dust jacket and 'Illustrated Edition' added. What a lovely copy!

Work on the Morse collection continues and I've been finding several binding variants and adaptations of known designs lately, although no new designs have shown up, with the exception of a speculation. I'll be getting the images and citations out soon. All of these are being added to the ACM collection, which I've been processing for the Watson Library. Although it has not been catalogued yet, if you are interested in seeing it, let me know.

"House and Hearth" Design Re-used

Recently, I found two books with Morse's designs re-used on books published by Dodd Mead. Both of them were authored by E. P. Roe. The one shown below is A Brave Little Quakeress (1892), featuring a design originally created for House and Hearth (1891). The picture below is Alice Morse's exhibition cover that is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Deptarment of Drawings and Prints). To read more about Morse's book covers in on The Metropolitan Museum website, click here. The other book will be the subject of another post. This design is described in entry 91-3, Dubansky book.

Book cover for House and Hearth, 1891
Designer: Alice C. Morse (American, 1863–1961); author: Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford (American, 1835–1921); publisher: Dodd, Mead & Company, New York
Beige cloth covered boards with light and dark brown and gold decoration

Overall 6 3/8 x 9 3/16 in. (16.2 x 23.4 cm), front cover 6 3/8 x 4 in. (16.2 x 10.1 cm), front cover and spine 6 3/8 x 5 1/4 in. (16.2 x 13.4 cm)
Gift of Alice C. Morse, 1923, transferred from the Library (56.522.50)

Here is the adaptation of Morse's design on A Brave Little Quakeress, by E. P. Roe, Dodd Mead, 1892. The color in this Ebay photograph is off. A more acurate photo may be forthcoming. The cloth is gold and the stamping orange-red. This design adaptation is not in the Dubansky book.

Polly

 

The Book Buyer (Vol. 11, February 1894-January 1895, p. 561) credits Alice C. Morse with the design of this cover for Polly: A Christmas Recollection (Scribners, 1894).  Polly is one of a four-title set of books by Thomas Nelson Page. The first title in the set is Marse Chan, published in 1892. It is also unsigned but attributed to Morse. Morse's own book-cover for Marse Chan is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Accession number 56.522.79; See Dubansky entry 92-12.)
To see the Museum's Marse Chan, click on:
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/385894

The other titles in this set are Meh Lady (1894) and Unc' Edinburgh (1895). These have not been attributed to Morse.

A Bow of Orange Ribbon - A Newly Attributed Design by Morse?

There are numerous book cover designs for A Bow of Orange Ribbon by Amelia Barr in the 1890s and Morse may have designed one or more of them. Although this cover is not signed, I always thought that Morse may have designed it. This is only one of the many variants I have seen it in. Upon browsing my notes from the Cooper Hewitt Morse collection, I notitced this small sketch on the back of  another design. Could it be an early sketch for this pubhsiled design. It certainly looks like it. Note the crossed swords, the rough bow design and the type layout.

'Crown of Straw'; Is 'Majesty of Man' a Series Binding?

Thanks go to Richard Minsky and John Lehner who both let me know about this Morse-designed cover for Allen Upward's Crown of Straw (Dodd Mead, 1896). It is the same cover for Alien's Majesty of Man, also Dodd Mead, 1896. So, it is probably a series binding (if two constitutes a series -- or set?) but more homework is required. Below is a photograph of Alice C. Morse's own cover for this book that she left to the Museum in 1924. Link to MMA catalog record. I admire this design so much that you may have noticed that I used it for the cover of my book on Morse, only in red. Notice how there is a problem with the green stamping on the reverse diagonal-rib bookcloth.

A clue to the fact that this may have been a series cover is that the lettering is not hand done, but stamped from type.

A Singer of the Sea - A Variant of a Cover Used on Paul Dunbar's Lyrics of Love and Laughter

Those of you familiar with Alice C. Morse will recongnize this pretty design from its appearance on two other titles in The Proper Decoration of Book Covers:

 My Lady's Slipper by Dora Sigerson (Dubansky entry 99-4).
Lyrics of Love and Laughter by Paul Dunbar (Dubansky entry 03-1)

Thanks to Valinda Carroll for discovering it.

And the variants just keep on coming and characteristically deteriorate in quality. 

Amelia E. Barr

A Singer From the Sea

New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.

copyright 1893; no date on book

160 x 107 x 27 mm

Signed

First in the Field

First in the Field
George Manville Fenn
New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1894
20.2 x 14.5 x 3.4 cm
Unsigned

Reference: A. C. McClurg & Co. Illustrated Holiday Catalogue of Books, 1894; p. 372. (identified by Valinda Carroll).

A recently attributed to design my Alice C. Morse, not published in The Proper Decoration of Book Covers.

Buy a copy of The Proper Decoration of Book Covers: The Life and Work of Alice C. Morse
http://alicemorse.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html

A New Design and Its Adaptation: The Song of the Rappahannock and The American Idea

The Song of the Rappahannock
Ira Seymour Dodd
Dodd, Mead and Company, 1898
175 x 115 x 27 mm
Signed

This publisher's binding is signed with Morse's monogram, a conjoined "AM", near the eagle's foot (right side). Song of the Rappahannock is another design recently discovered (by Valinda Carroll). The photograph here looks slightly different than my copy which has darker navy blue cloth with no linen weave appearance and red white stamping (not tan). The eagle design on this book was later used on another book, The American Idea, by Joseph B. Gilder. Dodd Mead, 1902.

Reference for "Landscape Gardening"

The following reference for this title (Samuel Parsons. Landscape Gardening . . . New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1891) was not included in my book (see Dubansky Entry 91-10, p. 58). It is a full-page illustration and accompanying review in American Bookmaker, June 1891, “Cover Stamps,” p.180-181.

Cover Stamps.
____

In the present issue of THE BOOKMAKER appear the cover stamps of two books which are to be published at an early day. Of these that on page 180 is to ornament the back and recto of the forthcoming work of Samuel Parsons, Jr., “Landscape Gardening,” of which G. P. Putnam’s Sons are the publishers. The book being bound in cloth of citron shade, the floral and leaf ornamentation and the lettering, which in the reproduction are here given are printed in black, will appear in gold on the book cover, as well as the dark background in which the conventionalized carnations are placed in the lower part of the recto. The appropriateness of the design and the excellence of its mode of treatment are very apparent.

Note: I have never seen this binding in a citron shade, mentioned above, only in green cloth on the spine and the same cloth used in reverse on the sides. As an aside, many of the photographs of landscapes were taken in New York's Central Park.

Buy a copy of The Proper Decoration of Book Covers: The Life and Work of Alice C. Morse
http://alicemorse.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html

Reference for "California and Alaska"

American Bookmaker, June 1890, p. 154-156 features a full-page illustration of Morse’s design in a black and white line drawing and a description in the column Books, Booklets and Brochures.

William Seward Webb
California and Alaska and Over the Canadian Pacific Railway285 x 200 x 50mm
New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890
Printer: The Knickerbockers Press, electrotyped, printed and bound by G. P. Putnam’s Sons
Illustrated
Dubansky entry 90-7, p. 52-53

The binding for California and Alaska is in the style of a sixteenth-century French fanfare binding. It is bound in dark brown full morocco, stamped in gold on the front cover and blind-stamped on the back cover. The top edge is gilt and the endleaves are printed with tiny flowers. Only five hundred copies of this cover were produced. It sold for the high price of $25.

Buy a copy of The Proper Decoration of Book Covers: The Life and Work of Alice C. Morse
http://alicemorse.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html

Morse’s Design for "The Woman's Book" and Its Adaptation for "The House and Home"

Morse’s book cover design for Stevenson’s Ballads was featured in two nearly identical woman’s guides, published by Scribner’s in 1894. Both include chapters on occupations for women, principles of housekeeping, the art of travel, house building and decoration, and books and reading. The Woman's Book and its successor, The House and Home, introduced Morse as an excellent example of the successful woman designer. In P. G. Hubert Jr.’s chapter titled “Occupations for Women,” the field of book-cover design was recommended as a viable occupation for women. The author buttressed his point by printing color illustrations of two woman-produced book covers: Morse’s Stevenson’s Ballads (Dubansky, 90-8); and Songs About Life, Love and Death, designed by Margaret Armstrong. Here is a link to Harvard University Library's digital copy of House and Home (1896). This later binding is entirely different from earlier printings. The book cover design is not attributed to Morse.
The unsigned cover design for The Woman’s Book can now be attributed to Morse, as a reference has been found in an issue of The Book Buyer from 1894-1895 (see reference below). The 1894 book cover design on House and Home is an adaptation of this cover. Only Morse's design for the outer border was reused for this cover. The central cartouche and border are omitted from its design. I have seen copies of House and Home in red cloth only.

Morse's signed personal copy of The Woman's Book has recently been identified by Jackie Killian, Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Drawings and Prints, Cooper Hewitt Museum. It is in the collection of the Cooper Hewitt Museum library, New York City.
Reference: The Book Buyer. Vol. 11, February 1894-January 1895, p. 484.
Seen on Google Books, March 30, 2010, p. 484.
On p. 701, a full page advertisement for The Woman's Book:

...The Woman’s Book is issued in Two royal octavo volumes. Bound in durable Boston Linen, with Design in silver by Miss Alice Morse. Price, $7.50: Half Morocco, $10.00. Sold only by Subscription. Agents Watnted Charles Scribner’s Sons, APublishers, 153-157 Fifth Ave., New York.

In the third paragraph: The work of those artists who are distinctly cover-designers is shown in the Scribner books, by Miss Margaret Armstrong upon the cover of "The Bird’s Calendar", and by Miss Alice Morse upon the covers of "Polly" and "The Woman’s Book".
This reference also mentions Morse’s design for Polly, which I speculate is the design on one of the four-volume set by Thomas Nelson Page. Morse is known to have designed the first title in this set, Marse Chan (See Dubansky 92-12).

Buy a copy of The Proper Decoration of Book Covers: The Life and Work of Alice C. Morse
http://alicemorse.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html