Custom Book Blankies - Treat Your Books Like Babies

 

 

I thought I'd take this opportunity to let blog readers know about a product I've designed and have been using with great success. If you are collecting or conserving 19th century publishers' bindings, such as those designed by Alice C. Morse -- or any rare or fragile book, you will want to protect them by using book cradles and supports. Safe book handling procecedures are neccessary for the long life of books. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I have developed several styles of custom book supports and book weights that assist the reader and ensure that books can be safely read and displayed. As a conservator, I also use these to support books when I'm working on them.The supports I make are unique. I make two designs -- one design fits commercially available acrylic or foam book cradles and the other deisgn are a pair of long blankets that are used on their own, without cradles. Please see the Purchase Custom Book Supports page on this blog for details. If you have questions, or are interested in having these made for your collection, conservation lab or home library, please contact me at mindelldubansky@gmail.com.  

"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.

Occupations of Women: Book Ornamentation - Title Page Design

This lovely gouache painting in the collection of the Cooper Hewitt Museum was described on the verso, by Morse, as a "book ornamentation - title page." As with most of Morse's drawings at the Cooper Hewitt, I have not seen this design in published form -- but I also haven't seen copies of either edition of a book that it may have been designed for entitled, What Women Can Earn: Compensations Occupations of Women and Their Compensation; New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1899. I will be looking for copies of this book to see if Morse's title page is present and if you have copies in your collection or inventory, please look to see if you see it there and let me know what you find.

Morse's Designs for Art Amateur - Candy Dishes

While I did mention this design from Art Amateur in my book, I was not able to illustrate it. Here are Morse's designs for candy dishes from Art Amateur. 1897. Vol. 36, no.2. (Dubansky, page 39, note 52.)

Embroidery Design for Doilies, Another Design from Harper's Bazaar

Harper's Bazaar. October 17, 1896; 29, 42 (Proquest)



This is another one of several designs which Alice C. Morse created for embroideries, china painting and phyrography for Harper's Bazaar in the 1890s. Look closely and you can see her signature in the lower left corner of the design.  



Embroidery Designs in Harper's Bazaar

In addition to designing book covers, Alice C. Morse produced designs for pyrography, china and embroideries for several periodicals, including Art Amateur and the Art Interchange, Corticelli Home Needlework and Harper's Bazaar (see Dubansky pp. 13-14).  Here are two of her designs with Chrismas and plant motifs for Harper's Bazaar in 1896.

 

From Harper's Bazaar; November 21, 1896. This periodical is available on Proquest.

A Book Plate Design at the Cooper Hewitt Museum - 1895

This bookplate design by Alice C. Morse, dated 1895, is in the collection of the Cooper Hewitt Museum. (Accession number 2009-6-58). The media is pencil and ink on paper, with white paint used as a correction aid. It is the only known bookplate design by Morse, although she may have designed others. It is signed in the lower left corner of the design.

As with Morse's other original designs at Cooper Hewitt, this drawing gives us insight into Morse's process. Her underlying pencil sketch, areas where Morse used white paint to modify her drawing, and notes on size (2 1/2 x 2 3/4 in.) are evident. She obviously wanted this design returned to her, but we don't know to whom it may have been commissioned from or sent to on spec. The verso image has been color-corrected (or uncorrected) to show you more detail. The board is quite brittle and yellowed. The drawing paper is still white and in good condition. Perhaps one of us will one day find this bookplate in printed form in a book. If anyone does find one, please let me know, as it is now known if the plate was ever printed and used.