A Small World of Bookplates

Bookplate of Melitta Heroux created by Burno Héroux (1868 1944); Gift of Neville Barnett, 1936
Bookplate of Melitta Heroux created by Burno Héroux (1868 – 1944); Gift of Neville Barnett, 1936

In 1996 the Baillieu Library showcased its small but captivating holdings of bookplates with the exhibition The Age of Ex Libris.[1] The exhibition focused on the period from the 1890s to the 1930s when a number of societies devoted to bookplates were established and the Library displayed works from the holdings of Harold Wright who collected Lionel Lindsay bookplates and those donated by Neville Barnett in 1936.

[Percy] Neville Barnett is recognised as one of the earliest authorities on bookplates in Australia. The information about his 1936 gift was not recorded in the database, but it has been possible to identify many of those works from the finely printed publications Barnett produced, in particular his Wood-cut bookplates (1934). This privately printed book reveals the international breadth of his collection, and reflected in his gift which includes examples from Czechoslovakia, Germany, Italy and America amongst others. Mounting political tensions are seen in some of these 20th-century bookplates as the world moved toward its second international war. Neville Barnett had in his collection bookplates designed for Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini; one of the Mussolini bookplates is held by the Baillieu Library.

Vácslav Rudl bookplate designed by Frantisek Bílek (1872 1941); Gift of Neville Barnett, 1936
Vácslav Rudl bookplate designed by Frantisek Bílek (1872 – 1941); Gift of Neville Barnett, 1936

The Australian Bookplate Society was formed in 1923 and Barnett was a founding member along with other collectors such as Camden Morrisby. Thebookplate designed by Lionel Lindsay for Morrisby which depicts the incident where Samuel Johnson wallops a London bookseller with a dictionary, ‘became highly sought after and gave its owner access to bookish individuals around the world’.[2] Appreciation for bookplates freed many international boundaries; Vácslav Rudl was a Czechoslovakian collector and also a member of the Australian Bookplate Society.

The inscription on his bookplate translates: ‘He was involved in many things;/ If all these should be written down,/ The world would not hold all the books’.[3] The often personalised visual meanings in bookplates can also emphasise their specialist audience. While the symbols and inscriptions in bookplates and their wider purpose as labels for book ownership demonstrate that a world of knowledge may be communicated through these miniature printed forms.

 

Kerrianne Stone (Special Collections Curatorial Assistant (Prints))

[1] [Geoffrey Down and Judith Purser], The age of ex libris: bookplates from the Library’s collection: an exhibition, 6 February – 30 April 1996, Leigh Scott Room, Baillieu Library (Melbourne: Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne, 1996).

[2] Mark J. Fenson, ‘A Bibliography Works by and about P. Neville Barnett,’ in Mark J. Fenson (ed.) P. Neville Barnett: Australian genius with books: a volume of essays issued on the 50th anniversary of his death (Riverview, NSW: Book Collectors’ Society of Australia, 2003), p. 59.

[3] Down and Purser, [p. 28].

William Kennedy Laurie Dickson- A Legacy of the Moving Image

Emma Hyde

Sandow no 1
[Sandow No.1] March 1894. Eugen Sandow: ‘The Grecian Ideal’ (misdated as 1891 by W.K.L Dickson). 35mm perforated film strip sample, B&W. University of Melbourne Archives, Dickson collection, 1978.0117, item 2/31.
UMA’s holdings span three centuries of audiovisual formats and recent findings in the collection represent the very beginnings of what we now know as motion picture film. Through genealogical research by descendants of William Kennedy Laurie Dickson and a recent audit conducted at University of Melbourne Archives a number of early 35mm film samples produced by Dickson have been re-discovered. These valuable items are significant to the history and development of moving image technology and, while not unique, are almost certainly the earliest known examples of film to exist in Australia.

William Kennedy Laurie Dickson was born in 1860 to Scottish parents and began his career in America as an assistant to the inventor and businessman Thomas Edison. Both were key figures in the experimentation of the first commercially successful moving image apparatus: the Kinetoscope (a viewer) and the Kinetograph (a camera). First known as the Edison format, Dickson’s lasting contribution to cinema history is undoubtably the 35mm film gauge[1]. Devised in 1891 and used for cinema projection throughout the 20th Century it is still in use today. UMA holds three early 35mm film samples which highlight the important role Dickson played in the evolution of moving image technology. Their rediscovery amongst family papers illustrate his desire for  both professional and personal recognition, and reveal the methods he employed to safeguard his legacy with both film historians and his relatives in Australia.

W.K. Laurie Dickson had a half brother, Raynes Waite Dickson, a lawyer who migrated to Australia and settled in Melbourne. Raynes Waite had a son, Raynes Waite Stanley Dickson who was the recipient of a number of letters written by W.K. Laurie Dickson. A couple of these letters reside at University of Melbourne Archives, the contents of which discuss family matters and financial hardships suffered by W.K. Laurie Dickson in his later years. However, one of the letters written by W.K. Laurie Dickson in March 1932 reveals a number of interesting contents. Composed on writing paper ‘From the Laboratory of W Kennedy Laurie Dickson: with Edison 1881-1897’ the letter contains three 35mm film samples and a PostScript by Dickson inscribed around the sides and bottom of the letter stating:

Letter from WKL Dickson to RWS Dickson, 1932
Letter from William Kennedy Laurie Dickson to Raynes Waite Stanley Dickson, March 1932. Reproduced with kind permission from Christopher O’Connor Thompson. University of Melbourne Archives, Dickson collection 1978.0117, item 2/31

‘I see in many papers and journals I am, since the deaths of Edison and Eastman- given credit for my pioneer work at Edison’s – in producing the 1st film/present day cinema film- as per souvenir samples for your albums’.

Dickson sent similar samples to a number of people, including journalists and historians, but the UMA finds are a rare example of Dickson sending samples to a relative. Dickson’s letter to Raynes Waite Stanley was written several months after the death of Edison (1931) and this event, along with financial insecurities facing Dickson at the time, must have impacted on his general outlook on life. The fact he was writing on old laboratory paper to a relative and referencing film samples as an afterthought, indicates Dickson may well have been cementing his own legacy in his final years.

The first of these samples is a five frame sprocketed film strip featuring Eugen Sandow, known as the ‘father of modern bodybuilding’ flexing his muscles. Sandow (Freidrich Muller) was filmed by Dickson for Edison in the Black Maria Studio[2] on 6th March 1894. The bodybuilder was a feature of the first exhibition of Edison’s peep show Kinetoscope and the filming of Sandow can be regarded as the first commercial motion picture production’.[3] Dickson has included a notable inscription at the bottom of the strip claiming ‘a 1891 positive Edison film. WKL Dickson’. This strip is known as [Sandow No.1] and was in fact produced in 1894 and not 1891. Dickson deliberately pre-dated the film strip and it appears such a practice was a regular occurrence for him.

Letter from WKL Dickson to RWS Dickson, 1932 second page
Second page of letter from William Kennedy Laurie Dickson to Raynes Waite Stanley Dickson, March 1932. Reproduced with kind permission from Christopher O’Connor Thompson. University of Melbourne Archives, Dickson collection 1978.0117, item 2/31.

Dickson tried to move the dates in the mistaken hope this would establish Edison (and himself) as the first to make movies. Film Historian Paul Spehr mentions Dickson frequently pre-dated his work and was doing this so frequently he may have come to believe his own misdating was in fact accurate.[4] Dickson was not unique in this practice and USA copyright law may have been a major factor in deliberately pre-dating work, as it required that an application be reviewed by a patent specialist, which could be challenging in terms of establishing when prior work/art was created.[5]

The second set of samples found in the letter are two copies of positive film (three frames) showing a blacksmith scene. The two samples are known as ‘Horse Shoeing’ and this film was a significant test for Dickson of the ability to make films.[6] This scene was one of the first films to be made in the Black Maria Studio. One copy is inscribed as ‘Hand on Horse, May 1889. Edison’s Lab. First Successful Edison Film’. Dickson has noted on the reverse: ‘2 scraps of original films of 1889 (May)…unfortunately the perforations were trimmed’. On the reverse of the second sample Dickson writes: ‘Ditto- 2nd scrap- these scraps being all there is in existence since the Edison film fire many years ago- makes this sample/s most valuable. W.K. Laurie Dickson’

‘Horse Shoeing’, April- May 1893
‘Horse Shoeing’, April- May 1893. Blacksmith scene (misdated as May 1889 by W.K.L. Dickson). 35mm non-perforated film samples, B&W. University of Melbourne Archives, Dickson collection 1978.0117, item 2/31

Dickson also sent a very similar sample to Eastman’s Oscar Solbert[7] in 1932, around the same time he sent these samples to Raynes Waite Stanley. Both samples give misleading dates of 1889. In fact the film was shot in either early April or early May of 1893 and is another example of Dickson exaggerating the truth. Even though his misrepresentations of chronology have perplexed many film historians over the years, these two film fragments are almost certainly the earliest known examples of 35mm film to exist in Australia. While they are not unique or shot in Australia, they are valuable artefacts in UMA’s audiovisual collection. This rediscovery illustrates the fascinating personality of W.K.L Dickson, who made many claims to secure his place in film history. Not only was he a significant inventor, but was also an anonymous performer in the Horse Shoeing film (although he does not feature in these film samples) and can therefore be credited as the first movie director to be appear in his own film.[8]

Emma Hyde is the Audiovisual Archivist at the University of Melbourne Archives.

Many thanks to Paul Spehr for his invaluable knowledge and advice.

 

[1] Spehr, PC 2008, The man who made movies : W.K.L. Dickson, John Libbey, Eastleigh, p.239/386

[2] Thomas Edison‘s movie production studio in West Orange, New Jersey. Known as America’s first film studio

[3] Ibid., p.327

[4] Paul Spehr email correspondence

[5] Paul Spehr email correspondence

[6] Paul Spehr email correspondence

[7] Solbert was the first Director of George Eastman House. The World’s first museum and archive dedicated to photography and the motion picture

[8] Ibid., p.330

Illustrating Daily Life in Seventeenth-Century Oxford

A few months ago, Special Collections acquired the 1675 first edition of David Loggan’s Oxonina illustrata at the 2014 Melbourne Antiquarian Book Fair.[1] The book consists of some of the most detailed engravings depicting the city of Oxford and the university, including a plan of the city, all the Oxford colleges, halls and public buildings, and a plate showing examples of academic dress.[2]

 

Engraving of St John's College, Oxford
St John’s College

 

Though Loggan’s architectural engravings are of course the centre piece of his work, it was the small vignettes illustrating activities outside the university walls that generated much conversation amongst staff. Below is a sampling of these miniature images of daily life in seventeenth-century Oxford, from people selling goods and men driving animals, to horse-drawn carriages and a child’s run in with a dog.[3]

 

'The Prospect of Oxford from the South near Abbington Road'
Farmers in a field from ‘The Prospect of Oxford from the South near Abbington Road’
Engraving of two gentlemen on horseback outside University College, Oxford
Two men (one with a peg leg) on horseback outside University College
Engraving of carriage and beggars outside the Bodleian Library
Carriage and two men begging outside the Bodleian Library
Engraving of a youth being chased by a dog outside Jesus College
Youth being chased by a dog outside Jesus College
Engraving of a team of pack horses outside the Church of St Mary the Virgin
Team of pack horses outside the Church of St Mary the Virgin
Engraving of tenant house next to Trinity College
Out building and workers near Trinity College chapel
Engraving of a man leading horse cart outside Merton College
Man leading horse cart outside Merton College (note one cask has sprung a leak!)
Engraving of woman with children and two dogs outside Queen's College
Woman with children and two dogs outside Queen’s College
Engraving of a woman selling produce outside Magdalen College
Woman selling produce outside Magdalen College
Engraving of cattle outside St Alban Hall
Cattle outside St Alban Hall

 

Anthony Tedeschi (Deputy Curator, Special Collections)

[1] David Loggan, Oxonia illustrata … Oxoniae: E. Theatro Sheldoniano, [1675]; Melbourne copy with the bookplate of Australian military historian and academic Alec Hill (1916–2008).

[2] Oxonia illustrata was evidently intended as a companion to Anthony Wood’s Historia, et antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis (1674). Special Collections holds a later English language edition published in Oxford by the Clarendon Press in 1786. An appendix to this work was published in 1790.

[3] Special Collections also holds two pre-1801 editions of Loggan’s Cantabrigia illustrata, a companion volume of views of Cambridge first published c. 1690, at which time Loggan was appointed engraver to the University of Cambridge. These volumes are held as part of the Pierre Gorman Cambridge Collection.

Henry Jones IXL ‘Knight of the Jam Tin’

A finding aid for another of our collections is now available, thanks to the fine work of our archivists. The records come from Henry Jones IXL and its many subsidiaries and merged firms.  The collection spans 83 shelf metres and dates from 1846 to 1974. It includes minutes, correspondence, staff and financial records, publications, photographs and much more. For further detail about the collection search for 1974.0056 Henry Jones IXL

"IXL" Golden Gage Jam, Undated 1974.0056 Henry Jones (IXL) Ltd, Unit 829
“IXL” Golden Gage Jam,
Undated
1974.0056 Henry Jones (IXL) Ltd, Unit 829

Henry Jones (1862-1926) began work aged 12, at George Peacock’s jam factory on the Old Wharf, Hobart pasting labels on tins, within a few years he had become an expert jam-boiler. When Peacock retired in 1889, Jones formed a partnership and took control of the company, renaming it as H. Jones & Co. In 1902 the partnership dissolved but the company name was retained as the business grew and diversified into mining and briefly, shipbuilding. Jones was knighted in 1919, in recognition of his war efforts. Accordingly, “Jam Tin Jones” became known as the “Knight of the Jam Tin”

The brand name ‘IXL’ is a play on ‘I excel’. The Melbourne arm of the business was located in Prahran, in premises still know as The Jam Factory.

 

Wharves on the Derwent River, early 20th Century, 1974.0056 Henry Jones (IXL) Ltd, Unit 830 The IXL factory is just out of fram, centre left.
Wharves on the Derwent River, early 20th Century,
1974.0056 Henry Jones (IXL) Ltd, Unit 830
The IXL factory is just out of fram, centre left.

The site of the Henry Jones IXL factory is now the Henry Jones Art Hotel which will display a selection of images from the Henry Jones IXL  collection at their Hobart premises. The hotel includes a lively pub and events space within the original structure of the building. The words  ‘H Jones & Co Ltd’ ‘IXL Jams’  remain on the facade as a reminder of past use and Henry Jones’ contribution to industry and community in the local area.

 

 

Links:

1974.0056 Henry Jones IXL

Australian Dictionary of Biography – Henry Jones

Contributor: Sophie Garrett

Memorialised in Manuscript: A Unique First World War Honour Roll

Memorial lists recording the names of people who have died in service to their country or local community are a tragic, but important, part of library and institutional collections worldwide. For the First World War alone, Special Collections holds seventeen separate registers published between 1919 and 1926. There is, however, one further register in the collection that was neither printed nor published, but artfully crafted by a member of university staff.

Opening page.
Opening page.

 

Title-page.
Title-page.

This manuscript Honour Roll was created by Vincent J. Hearnes, chief mechanic in the Department of Metallurgy workshop during the early 1930s.[1] According to an index card enclosed in the book, one of Hearnes’ hobbies was the production of books and decorative texts using coloured inks he prepared. This Honour Roll is one surviving example of his work.

The book consists of 34 hand-decorated leaves recording in a calligraphic script the names of 102 graduates killed on active service between 1914 and 1918.[2] Hearnes was clearly influenced by medieval manuscript decoration and Celtic art, but added an Australian touch by using eccentrically stylised kangaroos and emus to form his knotwork patterns as exemplified in the previous images.

Rather than design decorated initials for each individual name, Hearnes instead used either one large initial for all the names on a given page, such as in the first and third examples below, or incorporated multiple initials into a single design element, e.g. the combination of ‘E’, ‘F’ and ‘G’ in the middle image.

Surnames Corbett and Creswell.
Surnames Corbett and Creswell.

 

Surnames Elliott to Garnett.
Surnames Elliott to Garnett.

 

Surnames Mathison to Miller.
Surnames Mathison to Miller.

 

Introduction by Professor Earnest Scott, 25.3.1932.
Professor Scott’s Introduction, 25.3.1932.

The work was also a collaborative production. The book was tastefully bound in blue (the university colour) pebble-grained morocco with ornamental gilt turn-ins and marbled endpapers by the prominent Melbourne binder Harry Green. There are brief contributions by Professors L. J. Wrigley (Department of Education) and J. Neill Greenwood (Department of Metallurgy), and an Introduction was provided by noted historian Professor (Sir) Ernest Scott.[3]

When and why did Hearnes compile the manuscript? Thanks to the colophon, we know he completed the Honour Roll in March 1932. The year is significant for two reasons. First, the twentieth anniversary of the outbreak of World War I was just two years away. Second, Melbourne’s war memorial, the Shrine of Remembrance, was under construction and scheduled to open in time with the anniversary in 1934.

To create a record of the Victorians who served overseas between 1914 and 1918, the committee tasked with founding and constructing the Shrine opted to have the names inscribed in a series of Books of Remembrance.[4] To ensure the longevity of the books, they sought the advice of the Victorian Arts and Crafts Society, which specified: ‘The books will be made of the best Roman Vellum, and hand bound in Levant Morocco … The binding would be done by Mr Harry Green, one of the best craftsmen in Australia in the production of Edition de Luxe. The lettering would be done by [Jason] S. Forman and assistants’.[5]

Although Hearnes’ Honour Roll was also bound by Green, he was not among Forman’s assistants, though it seems evident that their work inspired Hearnes to create a similar Book of Remembrance focused on graduates of the university.[6]

The Honour Roll was not the only calligraphic work Hearnes wished to present to the library. In a letter to the Registrar dated 5 April 1933, he wrote: ‘As I mentioned some months ago, I intended having another manuscript book finished for presentation … this year, but owing to illness … I have been unable to do any considerable amount of drawing’.[7] The letter closed with an offer of a third manuscript, one comprised of prayers written alternately in Irish and Latin. Neither book mentioned, however, is held by Special Collections.

Eight months after writing to the Registrar, Hearnes was dismissed from the university due to conflict with other staff, which, it is safe to presume, also ended any inclination on his part to donate further books.[8] This makes the Honour Roll the sole example of his calligraphic work held by the library, and a fitting object to write about, as we enter the final months of the centennial year marking the start of the First World War and prepare to commemorate the centenary of the costly Gallipoli Campaign in 2015.

Colophon dated 28.3.1932.
Colophon dated 28.3.1932.

Anthony Tedeschi (Deputy Curator, Special Collections)

[1] Essington Lewis, Development and Activities of the Metallurgy School … Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1935, p. 7.

[2] For the official university Roll of Honour, see The Melbourne University Magazine: War Memorial Number … Compiled by Graduates and Undergraduates of the University … Melbourne: [Printed by Ford & Son for Melbourne University Magazine], 1920.

[3] Scott was knighted in 1939. The School of Historical and Philosophical Studies maintains a chair in his honour, and the university awards an annual prize in Scott’s name, which was established by his widow, Lady Emily Scott (1882–1957).

[4] The books, which number forty in total, are housed in individual bronze caskets displayed in the Ambulatory.

[5] J.B. Forman to Philip Hudson, 10 October 1929; quoted in Bruce Scates, A Place to Remember: A History of the Shrine of Remembrance. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2009, p. 129. Fine vellum proved cost prohibitive, so parchment, cheaper but no less durable, was used.

[6] My thanks to Leigh Gilburt at the Shrine of Remembrance for confirming Hearnes was not among the calligraphers.

[7] V. J. Hearnes to the University Registrar, 5 April 1933; the letter is enclosed with the Honour Roll.

[8] File ‘H. V. [sic] Hearnes Termination of Employment’; University of Melbourne Archives, Office of the Registrar Collection, UM 312, 1933/ 206.

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