Description

182. Donald R. Friary, “Illustrations for a New England Village: Print Collecting at Historic Deerfield,” Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring 2005), 2-13.

Donald Friary recounts the formation of the print collection at Historic Deerfield in an article that features and illustrates a selection of seventeen representative items. The museum’s founders, Henry Needham Flynt (1893-1970) and Helen Geier Flynt (1895-1986), who established Historic Deerfield, Inc., in 1952, formed a small, but choice, collection of prints, primarily to hang on the walls of ten historic houses that they restored and furnished in the village of Deerfield, Massachusetts. Among their rarities were a Paul Revere Bloody Massacre, John Faber’s mezzotint of Governor Jonathan Belcher, and Nathaniel Hurd’s tiny portrait of The Reverend Joseph Sewall. DD. Their view of prints as decorative arts is seen in two shellwork shadowbox frames made in Boston for Philip Dawe’s The Bostonians Paying the Excise-Man, or Tarring & Feathering and The Bostonians in Distress. Historic Deerfield’s curators took a more scholarly approach to print collecting and found several that appeared in early Deerfield probate inventories, as well as Boston imprints and local scenes. Thomas Johnston’s first state (1759) of Quebec, The Capital of New-France is among the prizes. Recently, a collection of fashion plates has been formed to complement Historic Deerfield’s outstanding collection of costume. The print collection now numbers more than 400.

183. Russell and Corinne Earnest, “Pen Work and Press Work: The Taufscheine Collection of Klaus Stopp Challenges Assumptions about Fraktur,” Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring 2005), 14-25.

The authors focus on the Taufscheine, or birth and baptism certificates, in the collection of Klaus Stopp. Such certificates are one type of fraktur, the term Americans use for hand-decorated manuscripts and printed forms made by and for Pennsylvania Germans from 1740 to 1910. Stopp.s collection challenges the prevalent assumption that freehand Taufscheine always preceded printed ones. The evidence suggests that many early and major fraktur artists probably preferred printed forms, such as those printed at Ephrata Cloister, especially bird-panel forms and three-heart forms, and at Reading, Pennsylvania, especially angel-type certificates. The authors discuss and give examples of the work of some of the major fraktur artists, including the Early Ephrata Artist, Heinrich Otto, Heinrich Dulheuer, Arnold Hoevelman, Friederich Speyer, Friederich Krebs, Martin Brechall, the Ehre Vater Artist, and Johann Valentine Schuller. They also consider why such artists might have used printed forms.

184. James Brust, “Unconventional Currier & Ives: A Followup,” Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring 2005), 26-31.

This is a followup to a 1999 Imprint article titled “Unconventional Currier & Ives,” which presented a wide array of unusual items issued by Currier & Ives, and also examples of C & I images copied by others. Included are a map and book illustration by N. Currier, a charcoal and pencil drawing copied from a Currier & Ives print, an elaborately over-printed small folio lithograph used for advertising, and a 1905 real photo postcard that shows an 1845 Currier print. The discovery of these unconventional Currier & Ives items has become an ongoing process, and it is expected that others will surface in the future.

185. Bruce M. Wolf, “Authenticating a Monumental Lithograph of Pittsburgh,” Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring 2005), 32-38.

Wolf recounts how he determined that a large bird.s-eye view of Pittsburgh (43 x 85 inches) owned by Pittsburgh.s Duquesne Club is an original lithograph dating from ca. 1859-1861. With the help of many, including John Reps and Gary Grimes, Wolf was able to attribute the work to James T. Palmatary, who also produced large lithographs of Chicago, St. Louis, and Baltimore, among other cities