RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE PRINT COLLECTION

N addition to the exhibition, "The Making of a Lithograph," which Naddition to was opened during April (in room 321) and was described in the June issue of the Bulletin, the Prints Division of The New York Public Library has had on view since May 9 (in the Stuart Gallery, room 316) its annual exhibition of "Recent Additions." Both exhibitions will continue until

the end of October.

In the nature of things, a display of the year's accessions cannot illustrate unity of purpose such as that of a show limited to the work of one man, or country, or medium (etching, lithography, wood-engraving). It will, perforce, be of a miscellaneous character, although the prints will naturally be arranged in groups (by artists, countries, periods, subject) of which each, however, again assumes, within its limits, the character of the special exhibition. But this varied result has, in itself, an attraction evident without making a virtue of necessity. And, in the end, such a yearly graphic report of progress well serves its special purpose of showing the large and growing number of those interested in prints, and in the Library's print room, how and in which directions the collection is growing.

Additions to the noted S. P. Avery Collection always form a group by themselves in this annual exhibition. This year they include etchings by Meryon (one of the rebus plates, the lines to his master Blery, and the projet de billets d'action designed as a preventive of counterfeiting), Lepère, E. Chahine; the Englishman Frank Short, Malcolm Osborne (a flat landscape of the kind glorified in Rembrandt's "Goldweigher's Field"), F. S. Unwin, W. Lee Hankey (an aquatint), Nathaniel Sparks; and our own Mahonri Young and George Senseney (a Venetian subject in color). And there are wood cuts ("painter-wood-engravings") in color by Carl Moll and Gustave Baumann. Thus, on the wonderful foundation laid by the elder Avery, the son is quietly and effectively building into the present time.

Other modern work acquired represents G. T. Plowman, E. D. Roth, Arthur Covey, Thomas R. Manley, W. J. Beauley, Cadwallader Washburn, Leigh Hunt, Dwight C. Sturges, J. C. Vondrous, Louis Orr ("The Pont Neuf," a gift from the French Minister of Public Instruction), O. J. Schneider, Jacques Reich and William Strang in etching, — increasing especially the American section. In lithography there is Muirhead Bone's

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series of ship-yard drawings done for the British Pictorial Service. There are reproductive wood-engravings by J. W. Evans, W. J. Linton, and Charles M. Johnson, and "original" ones by A. Allen Lewis and Rudolph Ruzicka. And finally there is a group of bookplates by E. D. French (bringing the Library's large and important collection of his work still nearer to completeness), A. N. Macdonald, W. F. Hopson, Gardner C. Teall and E. B. Bird.

Important special gifts or unusual opportunities may provide a prominent feature in an exhibition such as the present one. The first was the case last year, when the legacy of Miss Lydia S. Hays brought an interesting and important addition to the Library's modern prints, Odilon Redon, D. S. MacLaughlan and A. Allen Lewis being particularly well represented. This year the dispersal of the F. R. Halsey collection results in the adding to the Cadwalader collection of a number of French 17th century portraits and 18th century figure pieces, increasing the portfolios of old prints, and illustrating an interesting period of national expression. There are eight portraits by Nanteuil, both the smaller delicate ones, and larger plates, more vigorously graven, and including that portrait of Mazarin in the border surmounted by the cardinal's hat. By Masson there are three, among them "the Brisacier" ("Gray-haired man") in first state, before letters. Edelinck is represented by three, and Morin, Pitau, Cossin, Van Schuppen by one each.

The charming little portrait of the Comtesse d'Artois, by Cathelin, takes us into the 18th century, when Moreau le jeune produced his delightful figure-subjects of which two are here: the famous "Le couché de la Mariée" after Baudouin, and the "Bal Masqué" (illustrating the fête given by the City of Paris to the king and queen, January 23, 1782, on the occasion of the birth of the dauphin). And, by the way, "Monseigneur le Dauphin et Madame, Fille du Roi" are presented in a portrait by L. E. Le Brun engraved by Maurice Blot. The debonair toying with rural delights and domestic virtues, so characteristic of the period, are illustrated in such pictures as "Les Epoux Curieux" and "L'Horoscope accompli," both by Ponce after Freudeberg, and by DeLongueil's "Correction Maternelle," after Aubry. The old and ever-new story appears daintily camouflaged (also characteristic of that time) in Baudouin's “Les Amours Champêtres," engraved by Choffard, while less art and more preaching appears in Bord's "L'Innocence en Danger," engraved by F. Huot, a pictorial document of 1793. One expression of engraving activity in France was the color-print, here exemplified in three pieces by Gautier Dagoty and one by Jazet ("La Promenade du Jardin Turc").

A group of prints from the Netherlands bears the names of Jacob de Gheyn, F. van den Steen, W. J. Delff (Mierevelt's portrait of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, 1625), Danckerts (portrait of Cornelis de Wit, 1641), Mouzyn (portrait of Admiral de Ruyter), Munnickhuysen ("Cornelis Tromp," before letters), J. Louys, T. Matham, Porrekens ("Ignatius Loyola"), Jerome Wierix, T. de Leu and H. Bery (“Simon Simonides"). Vico's large portrait of Charles V is to be noted. And there is a group of English prints. Anonymous portraits of Charles II and James II, the latter changed to one of George II by the simple process of re-engraving the name but not the portrait. Portraits by Delaram (Charles I as Prince of Wales), Loggan (Archbishop Laud) and George Vertue, together with the last-named artist's portrait of himself and his wife, engraved by W. Humphrey.

Of mezzotints, there are Edward Fisher's "William, Earl of Chatham," after Richard Brompton, and Houston's plates of the Five Senses, after F. Hayman. Cipriani's portrait of Jonathan Mayhew recalls the wide field of "Americana," of interest to so many. Here there are Tiebout's large stipple portrait of Rev. William White, after Stuart (1805), D. Edwin's "George Washington," after R. Peale, "printed in colors by H. Charles," and W. J. Bennett's large colored aquatint view of "City of Washington, from beyond the Navy Yard."

Of local interest is the "Latting Observatory, near 6th Avenue, between 42nd and 43rd Streets," a picture of a 350-foot tower which stood there in the fifties of the past century and is said to have had room for 2,000 persons on its landings. From various sources have come line engravings and etchings by Morghen, Schelte à Bolswert, Bartolozzi, Weirotter and Hutin, and chiaroscuro prints by Goltzius and "M." And there are some original drawings by newspaper artists, two views of The New York Public Library by Louis Ruyl and one of the "When a feller needs a friend" series by Briggs, the one making a plea for books for our soldiers.

Finally, there is shown a small selection from a collection of prints relating to the care of the hair and beard in England in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Barbers, hairdressers, wigs, the difficulties of ladies with head-dress in coach or sedan-chair, stays, the "macaroni," and an "engine to shave 60 men in a minute,". these and other topics are dealt with, sometimes in a spirit of boisterous humor, in these prints, which are almost entirely of subject interest only.

-F. WEITENKAMPF..

CENSUS OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY BOOKS

OWNED IN AMERICA

EDITED BY A COMMITTEE OF THE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

PART IV

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