Falls Church, VA - A large and significant group of early printed books and other material spanning the 1400s through 1700s is set to headline Waverly’s Thursday, Sept. 13 Rare Books & Prints Auction featuring Natural World Fine Prints: Part II. In addition to traditional gallery bidding, absentee, phone and live online bidding will be available to those who cannot attend in person. Start time is 6 p.m. Eastern.

Star items in the 381-lot auction include rare and important books by Durandus, Bartholomaeus Anglicus and George Simon Winter, plus prints by Albrecht Durer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jacob van Ruisdael, Lucas van Leyden and others. Many of the books came to Waverly from the personal library of distinguished theologian Dr. Thomas C. Oden, with two other books having noteworthy provenance from the libraries of English poet Robert Southey and Scottish biographer/author James Boswell. Additional categories in the sale include Black Americana, autographs, fine bindings and illustrated works. 

The book portion will be followed by Part II of a previously introduced series titled “Natural World Fine Prints.” Those items, totaling 170 lots, richly capture the beauty of exotic birds, botanicals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and many other types of animals. Among the prints are examples by Basilius Besler, John Gould, Innocente Alessandri, Comte de Buffon, Elizabeth Blackwell, Emanual Sweerts and Johann Christoph Volckhamer - all known and respected names in the world of antiquarian prints.  

In the Black Americana section, Lot 19 is a highlight. It is composed of the books Up from Slavery, an Autobiography of Booker T. Washington (1st book edition, 1901), signed by Washington; and My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass (1st edition, 1855) with ownership inscription (est. $1,000-$1,500). Lot 20, a commencement address Frederick Douglass delivered at Western Reserve College in July 1854, is titled The Claims of the Negro… and is estimated at $2,000-$3,000.

An archive of printed material and manuscript papers belonging to Charles E. Francis, author of The Tuskegee Airmen - The Story of the Negro in the U.S. Air Force, first published in 1955, has an estimate of $2,000-$3,000. The lot is not the actual book, but rather a trove of handwritten and typed pages about the book and the airmen. Also, a signed copy of Portrait of Dylan Thomas (1949) by Thomas’ old friend Mervyn Levy (Welsh, 1915-1996) is expected to make $600-$900.

Fifteenth-century books include a 1492 copy of Proprietatibus Rerum, an early encyclopedia and one of the most popular folios of its time, by Bartholomaeus Anglicus (circa 1203-1272) and published in Nuremberg, Germany. It is estimated at $1,000-$2,000. A 1486 copy of Rationale Divinorum, an essential authority for the history of Western liturgy by the judge, diplomat, bishop, and governor in the church state Guillaume Durandus (1230-1296), is entered with a $3,500-$5,500 estimate.

A 1498 German edition woodcut by Albrecht Durer (German, 1471-1528) titled The Opening of the Fifth and Sixth Seals, from The Apocalypse, with the sheet measuring 15½ inches by 11¼ inches, is expected to change hands for $2,000-$4,000. Also, an etching with drypoint by the Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) titled Three Oriental Figures (1641), from New Hollstein’s second (and final) state, 13 inches by 12 inches framed, should bring $3,000-$5,000.

A chromolithograph plate of a bird titled Crested Grebe was drawn from nature by John James Audubon (American, 1785-1851) and produced in 1860 by Julius Bien (Plate 389 No. 6-4). It measures 31 inches by 42 inches framed, and its estimate range is $1,500-$2,000. A hand-colored plate titled Lantern Fly & Pomegranate Flower (1726) by Maria Sibylla Merian (German, 1647-1717), on an 18½-inch by 13-inch sheet and in very good condition, should reach $800-$1,200.

One volume of Scottish biographer/author James Boswell’s copy of Chrysal: Or The Adventures of a Guinea, boldly inscribed on the first free endpaper by Boswell and dated 1765, carries a pre-sale estimate of $1,000-$2,000. Also, a notable 18th-century compilation of Welsh civil and ecclesiastical law (1730), with a title in Latin, was published in London and has a title page with ownership inscription of the English poet Robert Southey. Its auction estimate is $800-$1,000.

A first-edition copy of The Grandeur of the Gorges (1926), a compilation of 50 photographic studies of China’s great waterway, the Yangtze Kiang, tipped in, with descriptive notes and including 12 hand-colored prints, is expected to knock down $1,500-$2,500. Compiled by Donald Mennie and published in China, the volume retains its original embroidered silk binding.

Auction previews are presently under way at Waverly Rare Books’ gallery in northern Virginia, and will continue through auction day. Consult the company’s website for hours.

Waverly Rare Books, a division of Quinn’s Auction Galleries, is always accepting quality consignments for future auctions. To consign a single item, an estate or a collection, please call 703-532-5632, ext. 575; or email waverly@quinnsauction.com. View the online catalog and register to bid absentee or live online at www.LiveAuctioneers.com or www.Invaluable.com. 

To learn more about the Thursday, September 13 auction, visit http://www.quinnsauction.com.

New York — A classic of world literature, a masterpiece of horror, and a forerunner of science fiction, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is the subject of a new exhibition at the Morgan. Organized in collaboration with the New York Public Library, It’s Alive! Frankenstein at 200 traces the origins and impact of the novel whose monster has become both a meme and a metaphor for forbidden science, unintended consequences, and ghastly combinations of the human and the inhuman. Portions of the original manuscript will be on display along with historic scientific instruments and iconic artwork such as Henry Fuseli’s Nightmare and the definitive portrait of Mary Shelley. The story’s astonishingly versatile role in art and culture over the course of two hundred years helps explain why the monster permeates the popular imagination to this day. 

Co-curated by John Bidwell, the Astor Curator and Department Head of the Morgan’s Printed Books and Bindings Department, and Elizabeth Denlinger, Curator of the Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle at The New York Public Library, this exhibition presents a diverse array of books, manuscripts, posters, prints, and paintings illustrating the long cultural tradition that shaped and was shaped by Mary Shelley’s myth. A large number of these works come from both the Morgan and the New York Public Library’s collections.

Only eighteen years old when she embarked on the novel, Shelley invented the archetype of the mad scientist who dares to flout the laws of nature. She created an iconic monster who spoke out against injustice and begged for sympathy while performing acts of shocking violence.The monster’s fame can be attributed to the novel’s theatrical and film adaptations. Comic books, film posters, publicity stills, and movie memorabilia reveal a different side to the story of Frankenstein, as reinterpreted in spinoffs, sequels, mashups, and parodies.

“The Morgan is in an excellent position to tell the rich story of Mary Shelley’s life and of Frankenstein’s evolution in popular culture,” said director of the museum, Colin B. Bailey. “Pierpont Morgan was fascinated by the creative process, and one of the artifacts he acquired was a first edition Frankenstein annotated by the author. The collection of works by the Shelleys, both at the Morgan and the New York Public Library, has only grown since then. We are very pleased to collaborate with the NYPL in presenting the full version of this extraordinary tale and how it lives on in the most resilient and timely of ways.”

A copiously illustrated companion volume, It’s Alive! A Visual History of Frankenstein, provides a vivid account of the artistic and literary legacy of the novel along with detailed descriptions of the highlights in the exhibition, while a new online curriculum offers high school teachers resources for the classroom.

The Exhibition

The exhibition occupies two galleries: one documenting the life of Mary Shelley and the composition of her book, the other showing how the story evolved in the theater, cinema, and popular culture. 

The Influence of the Gothic Style and Enlightenment Science

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus sprang from both a passion for Gothic style that pervaded British culture long before the author’s birth in 1797 and the influence of the discoveries of European Enlightenment science. Audiences loved the supernatural in all its formulations—ghosts, graveyards, mysterious strangers, secret warnings, lost wills, hidden pictures, and more. While novels were the primary vehicle for the Gothic, it was also popular with artists of paintings and prints, which were sometimes satirical —the Gothic was parodied as soon as it was taken seriously. The exhibition opens with the greatest horror painting of the eighteenth century, The Nightmare, painted in 1781by the Swiss immigrant artist Henry Fuseli. Mary Shelley knew about this iconic image and may have used it in writing the climactic scene in Frankenstein.

Shelleywas also influenced by the scientific endeavors of the time. She had been born into an age of scientific and technological discovery in Britain, when institutions like the Royal Society began fostering exploration and experimentation. Across Britain spread a thriving circuit of lectures and science demonstrations for the public. A few of these experiments have become part of the Frankenstein legend. While writing the novel, Shelley had been reading Humphry Davy’s Elements of Chemical Philosophy, and she knew about anatomical dissections, contemporary debates about the origins of life, and electrical experiments on corpses. She lends this fascination to Victor Frankenstein, who makes a monster from corpses in his “workshop of filthy creation.”

Mary Shelley’s Life and Conception of Frankenstein 

Mary Shelley grew up in a radical and intellectual milieu, the daughter of writers famous in their own time, the feminist theorist Mary Wollstonecraft and the novelist and philosopher William Godwin. After her mother died in childbirth, her father married Mary Jane Clairmont, who had children of her own, and the teenaged Mary Godwin escaped a tense family atmosphere by making long visit to friends in Scotland. When she returned in 1814, she met the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, already married and a father. They soon fell in love and eloped to Europe, the most decisive act of all their lives.

It was on a trip to Lake Geneva in 1816 accompanied by P.B. Shelley, Lord Byron, and her step-sister Claire Clairmont that Mary Godwin found the inspiration to write Frankenstein. During their stay, the party entertained themselves by reading aloud from a volume of Gothic tales. Byron suggested a contest to write ghost stories, and Shelley joined in energetically, looking for something “to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.” After days of frustrated effort, the idea came to her one night after hearing P.B. Shelley and Lord Byron discuss the origins of life and the possibility of animating a corpse by galvanic action. “I saw -with shut eyes, but acute mental vision -I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together.” She returned to England with the beginnings of a novel

By 1817, she had finished a draft titled Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The book appeared in three volumes on January 1, 1818, after P. B. Shelley offered revisions and found a publisher. Luckily for posterity, most of the Frankenstein manuscript has survived, making it possible to see the author’s original ideas, her second thoughts, and her husband’s suggestions. Portions of the manuscript containing key passages in the novel will be on display at the Morgan.

Mary Shelley’s personal life was punctuated by tragedy in ways strangely similar to incidents in the novel. After settling in Italy in the spring of 1818 with her husband, their children William and Clara, step-sister Claire and her daughter Allegra, the family experienced constant sorrow as first William and Clara, and then Allegra died. Their grief was only partly assuaged by the birth of another child, Percy Florence. Through their mourning and marital difficulties, Mary Shelley and her husband maintained a strenuous routine of writing and study and friendships in the English and Italian communities. In July 1822, Shelley suffered a final devastating loss: P. B. Shelley sailed with his friend Edward Williams and their cabin boy to meet their friend Leigh Hunt’s family in Leghorn; on their return their boat met a sudden squall and they drowned. 

Frankenstein on Stage and on Screen 

When Mary Shelley returned to England in August 1823, one of the few bright spots was Richard Brinsley Peake’s melodrama Presumption! or, the Fate of Frankenstein: a theatrical hit, the play had made her famous. The actor Thomas Potter Cooke’s performance was the key factor: over six feet tall, clad in a gray-blue leotard, his exposed skin painted the same color, with a toga on top, he moved with lyrical athleticism and made the creature both frightening and pathetic. Mary Shelley saw one of Cooke’s performances and enjoyed it greatly. Other adaptations followed: at least fifteen dramas based on the novel were produced between 1823 and 1826. 

A large portion of the exhibition is dedicated to the movies, which have played an essential role in popularizing the story and shaping our pop culture image of the monster. The earliest film of Frankenstein was made by the Edison Studios in 1910, but it is James Whale’s 1931 version that has taken such a prominent place in the popular psyche that it is now better known than the novel. The 1931 Frankenstein and 1935 Bride of Frankenstein gave us a radically reimagined version of the narrative, particularly the creation scene and Boris Karloff’s performance as the monster. James Whale and his special effects technicians introduced the high-voltage lab equipment and set the scene amidst the thunder and lightning now obligatory in horror movies. The creature’s violence was induced by his being tortured with fire. Karloff later said, “Over the years thousands of children wrote, expressing compassion for the great, weird creature who was so abused by its sadistic keeper that it could only respond to violence with violence. Those children saw beyond the make-up and really understood.” The 1935 sequel, with Elsa Lanchester playing both Mary Shelley and the creature’s bride, has also aged well. Both films create sympathy for the creature through his encounters with stupid and sadistic people, and both Karloff and Elsa Lanchester portray their characters with dignity and depth of emotion.

From the creation of the monster, to the creature’s killing of a small child, to violence committed against women, adaptations of Frankenstein again and again have returned to some of the most disturbing but recurring scenes of human experience. Mary Shelley’s unique contribution to culture is the creation of the monster. Her genius was to imagine a way to make life out of death; James Whale’s genius was to imagine a way to depict it in moving images and sound.

Whale’s Frankenstein films sparked a mass of cinematic energy. Other directors drew from it for years after with imitations and derivative films, a few just as frightening, some quite funny, none as haunting. The Morgan has borrowed a series of B-movie posters from a private collector and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to show some of the more faithful, comic, lurid, and execrable treatments of this theme

Makeup artists, perhaps, have come closer than anyone to bringing Victor Frankenstein’s story to life. Jack Pierce’s makeup gave the creature a new face in the 1931 film. Some highlights in the section include the sketches and photographs of this iconic appearance along with a gruesome torso model of Robert De Niro in Kenneth Branagh’s Frankenstein, provided by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin.

The Creature’s Afterlife: Comic Books and Prints

The comic book as a separate slim magazine first appeared in 1933 as a promotional insert in newspapers, and Frankenstein has been part of this medium’s history from nearly the beginning. The exhibition includes some of the most interesting examples of the story, some aimed at children and some at adults. 

Surprisingly few illustrators have taken on the novel’s challenge, but we present four of the best: Lynd Ward (remembered first of all as a wood engraver), Bernie Wrightson (a renowned comic book artist), Barry Moser (a celebrated book illustrator), and Pierre-Alain Bertola (a polymath Swiss artist who worked on a theatrical version of Frankenstein). All of them are working after, and against James Whale. All pay exquisite attention to Mary Shelley’s text and its ethical implications. 

The exhibition closes with Barry Moser’s illustration of the Frankenstein family tomb, leaving us solidly in the tradition of Gothic art with which the show begins. Mary Shelley’s creature is a Gothic nightmare, but one who takes responsibility for himself. Even as his blood boils at the injustices committed against him, he is also “torn by the bitterest remorse.” Seeking quiet in death, he leaps onto his raft and is soon lost to human eyes. As mysterious and volatile in death as in life, Frankenstein’s monster leaves us with more questions than answers—perhaps the decisive reason why artists have been drawn to him for the past two hundred years.

Publication

It’s Alive! A Visual History of Frankenstein delves into the artistic and literary legacy of the novel and provides detailed descriptions of the highlights in the exhibition. It introduces readers to portrayals of the creature--from his early days dancing across a stage, to Boris Karloff's lurching pathos, to the wide variety of modern-day comic book versions--and of Victor Frankenstein, from brainy college kid to bad scientist, and grounds them in historical context. In addition, it provides full introductions to Mary Shelley's life before and after the novel and to the pioneering scientific work of her day. A full chapter displays the Gothic paintings and graphic art that inspired Shelley's work. The contextual chapters will make it useful to the student and the general reader.

The Northern & Southern California Chapters of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America would like to announce the California Young Book Collector's Prize. 

Most great collectors started when they were young, and most great collections started with a passion for a particular object or subject. When these objects are books and manuscripts, the collectors are called bibliophiles, or lovers of the book. 

Curiously, the love of books continues unabated today, despite their increasing rarity and the rapid growth of digital media. Some might even argue that the printed page has taken on a new meaning and cultural resonance in our era of computers and electronic texts.  

In recognition of the next generation of bibliophiles, we have created The California Young Book Collector’s Prize. The competition is open to collectors aged 35 and under who are living in California. All collections of books, manuscripts, and ephemera are welcome, no matter their monetary value or subject. The collections will be judged on their thoroughness, the approach to their subject, and the seriousness which with the collector has catalogued his or her material. 

The winner of the competition will be awarded:

     1. A gift certificate of $500 to spend at the 2019 California International Antiquarian Book Fair

    2. An exhibition of the winner’s collection to be presented in a showcase at the book fair

    3. A stipend of $250 towards exhibition expenses (to help cover travel costs, showcase labels, and insurance)

    4. And a year’s membership to the Book Club of California

The deadline for submission is December 1st, 2018, and the winner will be notified by January 5th, 2019. The exhibit will be at the 52nd California International Antiquarian Book Fair held in Oakland, CA, from 8-10 February, 2019; the winner will be responsible for insuring his or her collection and for setting-up the exhibition on February 7th and taking it down on the evening of February 10th. The showcase will be for exhibition only; no parts of the collection can be offered for sale during the fair. 

To participate in the competition you need to submit the following materials as a .pdf file:

    1. Your age and contact information, including mailing address, telephone number, and email.

    2. A statement of no more than 1000 words concerning your collection. This should include a summary of your collection; your reason for forming the collection; a description of one or two of your most prized items (supported by photographs); and a description of a few desiderata, those works that you lack, but hope to find one day to add to your collection. All items in the collection must be owned by you, the collector.

Submissions should be sent as a .pdf file to Ben Kinmont, Chair of the Northern California Chapter of the ABAA, at bkinmont@gmail.com no later than December 1st, 2018."

New York—Swann Galleries’ season-opening auction of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings on September 20 brings to market original works by blue-chip artists and scarce prints by Regionalists, German Expressionists, Modernists and more.

The cover lot for the auction, Downtown, New York, by John Taylor Arms, comes from a private collection of iconic New York City views (estimate $2,000-3,000). A showcase of architectural splendor, the run features early twentieth-century etchings of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Flatiron Building, elevated trains and waterways. Among unusual examples is Kerr Eby’s scarce view of the Singer Building, circa 1930, which was razed in the late 1960s. The etching shows the now-forgotten building swathed in fog ($1,200-1,800). Other artists in the collection are Armin Landeck, John Marin, Joseph Pennell and John Sloan.

Further American works include several luminous color woodcuts: Blanche Lazzell’s Tulips, 1920 ($15,000-20,000); Edna Boies Hopkins Cineraria (Anemones; Purple Zinnias), 1915-17 ($10,000-15,000); and Bror J. O. Nordfeldt’s Three Travelers Crossing a Bridge in the Snow, 1906 ($2,000-3,000). Grant Wood’s lithograph Sultry Night, 1939, stands out among Regionalist prints ($15,000-20,000). 

Several watercolors by Thomas Rowlandson are led by James Christie’s Auction Rooms, circa 1810, a variant of a similar work held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The image of a packed salesroom replete with periwigs and tricorn caps is estimated at $10,000 to $15,000. Other nineteenth-century highlights include Honoré Daumier’s Les Gens de Justice, with 38 lithographs, 1848, the master caricaturist’s satirization of corrupt lawyers and judges ($30,000-50,000). A run of scarce prints and drawings by Camille Pissarro features Maison avec Palmiers, watercolor and pencil, circa 1852-54 ($15,000-20,000).

European originals include the delicate Jeune Fille Accroupie by Aristide Maillol, and a chalk drawing of a tall, fashionable woman in profile by Gustav Klimt ($1,000-1,500 and $20,000-30,000, respectively). A run of antiquity-inspired works by Georges Braque is led by the 1925 brush-and-ink Portrait d’une femme ($20,000-30,000). A colorful watercolor by Man Ray, Sans titre (Trois Arbres), 1913, reflects the artist’s early work likely inspired by the inaugural Armory Show in New York that same year ($15,000-20,000). 

A strong selection of German Expressionist works includes Lyonel Feininger’s Dorfkirche, watercolor, pen and ink, 1954 ($12,000-18,000) and scarce prints by Käthe Kollwitz, Max Beckmann, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

The top lot of the sale is Pablo Picasso’s Grand nu Dansant, color linoleum cut, 1962 ($40,000-60,000). Edvard Munch’s 1899 color woodcut of a curvy, smiling sex worker in a dim interior relates to his painting Rose and Amelie, in the Oslo Munch museum ($30,000-50,000). Highlights among fine prints by Marc Chagall are Les Adolescents, 1975, and Femme du Peintre, 1971 ($25,000-35,000 and $30,000-50,000, respectively).

San Marino, CA— The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens announced today plans to mark its centennial with a year-long series of exhibitions and programs celebrating the impact of the research and educational institution’s incomparable collections while exploring the interdisciplinary ideas that will shape the next 100 years.

To punctuate the announcement, a new variety of rose, ‘Huntington’s Hundredth’, will be unveiled on Saturday at this year’s annual Huntington Ball. The pastel yellow and orchid pink floribunda was hybridized in 2009 by Tom Carruth, The Huntington’s E. L. and Ruth B. Shannon Curator of the Rose Collection and will become available for sale for the first time in January 2019.

“From the tens of thousands of researchers who have studied The Huntington’s collections over the past century and the countless people their research has touched, to the millions of visitors who have explored the galleries and gardens here, this institution’s reach is immeasurable,” said Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence. “We are seizing this moment not only to reflect on the legacy of our past, but also to explore unexpected synergies across the library, art, and botanical collections; to steward and grow those collections; and to welcome new audiences of scholars, artists, and the public whom they will inspire. We want to encourage creative exploration of the relationship among the humanities, the arts, and nature.”

It was in August 1919 that railroad and real estate businessman Henry Edwards Huntington (1850-1927) and his wife Arabella (1851-1924) drafted the trust indenture document that established The Huntington as a collections-based research and educational institution for the public’s benefit. Twelve miles from downtown Los Angeles, their Gilded Age estate— one of the first cultural centers in Southern California—opened to the public in 1928. Since that time, the collections have grown exponentially, and the institution has become a premier research center and a world leader in the promotion and preservation of the humanities, and its galleries and botanical gardens have become beloved destinations to some 750,000 visitors each year. With its extensive historical and literary archives, signature holdings of European and American art, and 120 acres of astonishingly varied botanical collections, “The Huntington has, in its first 100 years, by all estimates, established itself as a vital cultural treasure,” Lawrence said. 

Exhibitions, Events, Outreach, and Collaborations
The Huntington’s Centennial year opens in September 2019 with “Nineteen Nineteen,” a major exhibition in the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery that draws from the library, art, and botanical collections to examine that historic year across the globe and the founding of The Huntington in the context of international events. In October 2019, “What Now: Collecting for the Library” opens in the Library’s West Hall, the first exhibition of a two-part series highlighting a wide variety of recent acquisitions of rare books and manuscripts. Also opening in the fall of 2019 is the fourth installment of The Huntington’s /five initiative, a collaboration in which contemporary artists respond to a theme drawn from The Huntington’s collections, culminating in an exhibition.

Throughout the celebration year, The Huntington will offer a special series of programs that look at the collections in new ways and explore their potential impact into the future. The Huntington’s audiences will have the opportunity to experience Centennial-oriented content through a dedicated website inviting visitors to share their memories and impressions of The Huntington through text and images. New displays in the Mapel Orientation Gallery are planned as well. 

The Huntington’s education division—which engages some 15,000 school children and their teachers each year—will continue its partnerships and outreach with Southern California schools by adding a special Centennial-themed tour to its list of programs. And to encourage the next generation of life-long learners, 100 free Huntington memberships will be offered to students attending Southern California colleges and universities.

“During our Centennial celebration, we want to engage people in The Huntington as an unparalleled repository of our history and, at the same time, as a site of increasing relevance to the way we think, create, and live our lives today” said Lawrence. “It may seem that our botanical gardens are the only organic parts of our collections, but in fact, our library and art collections are organic as well, growing and changing their physical and interpretive shape. With ‘Nineteen Nineteen,’ our curators have the chance to identify objects from across the library, art, and botanical collections to tell fascinating stories about intellectual, aesthetic, and natural history, and suggest new directions for thought. Why did Henry Huntington, a wealthy industrialist, collect rare books, manuscripts, and fine art? Why did he develop among the first avocado orchards and desert gardens in Southern California? We believe it is because the arts, humanities, and the natural world added both pleasure and meaning to his existence. The Huntington is a wondrous enterprise that never ceases to delight its visitors in the same existential way.”

Details about all The Huntington’s Centennial celebration exhibitions and programming will unfurl over the coming year. 

‘Huntington’s Hundredth’ Rose - Available beginning January 2019
The ‘Huntington’s Hundredth’ rose will be available for sale at The Huntington beginning in January (as bare-root plants at the monthly Second Thursday Garden Talk and Sale on Jan. 10), and at the Spring Plant Sale from April 26th through 28th. “This could easily be one of the top 10 roses from my 40-year rose breeding career,” said Carruth, who enjoyed a long career as an award-winning hybridizer before joining The Huntington’s staff in 2012 as curator of the rose collection. The rose is a cross between one of Carruth’s most popular roses, ‘Julia Child’, with the French variety, ‘Stormy Weather’.

“As it blooms, the flowers open a soft yellow color, and then gradually blush to shades of orchid, pink, and cream,” Carruth said. “Beautiful colors aside, what really makes this variety stand out is the intense fragrance of lemon blossom with a hint of fruit.” The rose has been planted in The Huntington’s historic Rose Garden and will anchor a new Centennial garden display, situated between the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art and the Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science.

New York — The Center for Book Arts Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Corina Reynolds as Interim Executive Director. Beginning in September, Corina will oversee the operation of the organization, including exhibitions, classes, artists’ residencies and literary programs.

Corina comes to the Center from Small Editions, an independent artists' book publisher, exhibition space, and bindery in Brooklyn which she co-founded and has directed since 2012. Small Editions has worked with over 50 artists to produce more than 35 editions and 20 exhibitions. During this time, she has been an active member of the Center.

Of her new role, Corina says, "I am honored to lead the Center for Book Arts during this period of transition, and grateful to Alex Campos, the Board, and our members and funders, whose hard work and support have helped CBA grow into a vital resource for the book art community. I look forward to working with the staff and board to encourage innovation and excellence as the Center prepares to commemorate its 50-year anniversary."

Board Chair Stephen Bury said of the appointment, “We are thrilled to have someone as passionate for and knowledgeable about the book arts as Corina Reynolds to carry forward the work of the Center during this exciting time. We are committed to our mission of promoting books as a contemporary art form and the Board looks forward to working with Corina as we plan for a promising new chapter.

Please join us in welcoming Corina Reynolds to the Center for Book Arts!

New York— An exhibition of Italian postwar photography will be on view at Howard Greenberg Gallery from September 12 through November 10, 2018. Through the lens of neorealism, The New Beginning for Italian Photography: 1945-1965 explores how photographers documented daily realities during the two decades after World War II. The exhibition at Howard Greenberg is in conjunction with NeoRealismo: The New Image in Italy, 1932-1960, which opens in September in two exhibitions at New York University. Also in September, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is featuring a selection of postwar images from their permanent collection. In addition, a new book, NeoRealismo: The New Image in Italy 1932-1960 (Prestel) by Enrica Viganò, with a foreword by Martin Scorsese will be published in September. An opening reception at Howard Greenberg Gallery will be held on Wednesday, September 12, from 6-8 p.m. 

Associated with cinematic and literary depictions of postwar conditions, photography’s embrace of neorealism illuminated the here and now of a country emerging from ruins, alive with vitality and hope. With print media outlets on the rise, photographers and their reportage played an integral role in picturing the postwar period when 1945, later termed “year zero,” was time for a new beginning. In graphic compositions that master line and shape, the images on view capture fleeting moments that become the seeds of longer imagined narratives. Humanist in nature, the beautifully printed images in the exhibition convey a concern with finding unusual stories in quotidian scenes. 

Among the photographers in the exhibition are Carlo Bavagnoli, who photographed in working-class neighborhoods in Rome, and later contributed to Life magazine; Mario de Biasi, who began taking pictures in 1944 with a camera found in the rubble of Nuremberg; Sante Vittorio Malli, who dedicated himself to portraits and landscapes, and established the photo group, Il Naviglio, in 1956; Franco Pinna, who took his first photographs in Rome in 1944, during the  arrival of the Allied troops; and Stefano Robino, an artist and designer known for his cultured and elegant style.

Independent curator and journalist Enrica Viganò has spent over a decade researching the phenomenon of Italian neorealism in photography and identifying important works and artists of the period. As she writes in an essay in the new book NeoRealismo: The New Image in Italy 1932-1960, “This period of the country’s rebirth was characterized by an attempt at collective identification, a venture in which photography could play an essential role. The vision of the photographers dealt with genuine people, real landscapes, collective stories that vibrated with skin and soul.”

Kansas City, MO- Napoleon: Power and Splendor marks the first examination of the majesty and the artistic, political and ideological significance of Napoleon’s imperial court, from Napoleon’s coronation in 1804 to his final exile in 1815. The exhibition opens at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City Oct. 26 and aims to capture the spirit that prevailed in the French imperial court and to recreate the sumptuous ambiance of Napoleon’s reign.

A selection of more than 200 works, most of which have never before been exhibited in North America before this tour, will reveal the power and splendor of the Imperial Household and its role in fashioning a monarchic identity for the new emperor, his family and loyal entourage. The exhibition is organized and circulated by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) with the participation of the Nelson-Atkins, the Musée national du château de Fontainebleau, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. It was curated by Sylvain Cordier, Curator of Early Decorative Arts at MMFA.

“I find it extraordinary that 200 years after his demise, the geopolitics of our world bear so much of Napoleon’s legacy,” said Julián Zugazagoitia, Menefee D. and Mary Louise Blackwell CEO & Director of the Nelson-Atkins. “He emerged from the French Revolution and fought to impose his order on the rest of the word until his bitter end. The fact that his story resonates and fascinates today reflects his talent in harnessing the arts and the power of images.”

The Imperial Household was a key institution during Napoleon’s reign. It included 3,500 members in its retinue who were responsible for managing the daily lives of the imperial family and the day-to-day existence of former general Bonaparte, who became Emperor Napoleon in 1804. They also helped craft Napoleon’s image as Emperor and modern hero.

Napoleon’s household relied on complex everyday functions in which the Emperor himself played an integral part. The exhibition installation will follow the six departments that made up the Imperial Household including the grand equerry, grand master of the hunt, grand chaplain, grand marshal of the palace, grand master of ceremonies, and the grand chamberlain.

Interpretive elements throughout will unpack for visitors the socio-historical significance of the household’s functions. Innovative scenography re-creates the splendor of palace life. The integration of immersive projection technologies will further enhance the spectacle and provide salient historical, cultural, and personal context that is immersive and engaging.

“The rich collection of objects that form this exhibition highlights the degree to which Napoleon harnessed the arts not only to strengthen his image, but also to bolster the French economy,” said Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, the Louis L. and Adelaide C. Ward Senior Curator of European Arts. “More than anything, this exhibition provides a portal into the exquisite breadth and level of skill of the artists and artisans in Napoleon’s employ.”

Napoleon: Power and Splendor brings together nearly 200 works of art. They are featured thanks to more than 40 distinguished lenders, including such institutions as the Louvre, the Château de Fontainebleau, the Mobilier national de France, the Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et de Bois-Préau, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Napoleon: Power and Splendor offers a unique opportunity to discover paintings, sculptures, furniture, silver and porcelain, tapestries, silk hangings, and court dress illustrating the opulence characteristic of the Empire in service of Napoleon’s spectacle of power.

The exhibition closes at the Nelson-Atkins March 10, 2019. It can be seen at Musée national du Château de Fontainebleau in France from April 13-July 15, 2019.

The Folio Society is delighted to announce that eight of their titles have been selected as finalists in three categories of the prestigious British Book Design & Production Awards. This is a record number for Folio and the most from an independent publisher this year. In the Literature category, five of the six shortlisted titles are Folio editions. 

The shortlisted titles are: 

The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana (illustrated by Victo Ngai) and The Wanderer and Other Old-English Poems (illustrated by Alan Lee) in the Limited Edition and Fine Binding category 

The Anglo-Saxons (a two-volume set) in Scholarly, Academic and Reference Books category. 

I Am Legend (illustrated by Dave McKean), We (illustrated by Kit Russell), Japanese Tales (illustrated by Yuko Shimizu), The Hundred and One Dalmatians (illustrated by Sara Ogilvie) and The Little Prince (illustrated by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) in the Literature category 

Kate Grimwade, Production Director at The Folio Society said: ‘The Folio Society is delighted that a record number of our books have been shortlisted for the BBDPA this year. This is a recognition of Folio’s continued commitment to design and production excellence.’ 

The British Book Design & Production Awards is one of the most prestigious literary events in the world of publishing. The awards recognise and promote the excellence of the British book design and production industry by celebrating the best books of the year. The judges look for exceptional production and design, free of typographical errors, with particular emphasis given to excellent layout and standards of typography. The winners will be announced in London on 22nd November. 

Boston, MA — On Friday, September 21, Skinner presents an outstanding two-session auction of Prints, Multiples & Photographs and Paintings & Sculpture with over 350 lots spanning Old Masters through contemporary offerings. Robin S. R. Starr, Vice President and Director of American & European Works of Art, notes, "We're excited about the depth and breadth of the works in the September auction, from a rediscovered Gérôme masterpiece to a considerable number of fresh to the market works from private collections, including of the composer, lyricist, author, playwright, recording artist, and performer, Dory Previn." 

Paintings & Sculpture

The marquee lot of the sale is by Jean-Léon Gérôme. This newly rediscovered orientalist painting called Evening Prayer (Lot 266, Estimate: $400,000-600,000) has been described as a "perfected" version of one of Gérôme's most evocative compositions, showing Muslim men at prayer on a Cairo rooftop. With all of the technical hallmarks and intellectual nuances of his art, it has recently been confirmed as an original work by his hand, and returned to the artist's oeuvre. It has not appeared at auction since it was sold at the Christie, Manson and Woods, London, Modern Pictures auction on May 5, 1888. 

Other notable 19th-century works include Twilight on the Terrace by Julius Leblanc Stewart (Lot 219, Estimate: $150,000-250,000).  From a private collection, this major painting by expatriate artist Julius Stewart, dated 1877, shows elegant figures at leisure on a terrace with a twilight view of Paris in the distance. The three women wear handsomely painted dresses of satin and lace, and exotic details such as the colorful parrots and Japanese parasol add to the opulence of the scene. Stewart studied for a time with Jean-Léon Gérôme and accompanied him on a trip to Egypt in 1874. Starr notes, "The rediscovered Gérôme is such a rare and wonderful find; and to be able to present it with Stewart’s work - also previously hidden away in private hands - gives us a fascinating glimpse into the relationship between master and student.”

A highlight among the offerings of Modern & Contemporary works is by Louise Nevelson, a leading figure in 20th-century American sculpture. Nevelson is represented by a maquette for the monumental sculpture Sky Landscape I (Lot 373, Estimate: $50,000-70,000). The 30-inch tall welded steel piece displays the elegance of Nevelson's smooth opaque black surfaces and the balanced fusion of her geometric angles and anthropomorphic curves. The monumental version of Sky Landscape I is currently on view at the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park.

Other featured works include:

• A John La Farge watercolor A Torii on Lake Chuzenji, Japan (Lot 263, Estimate: $20,000-40,000)
• From the collection of Dory Previn, Charles Demuth's Blue Hat (Lot 333, Estimate: $20,000-30,000) and John French Sloan's White House, Pennsylvania (Lot 335, Estimate: $15,000-20,000)
• Two works by Jesús Rafael Soto, Estela Doble Faz (Lot 386, Estimate: $10,000-15,000) and Blanc et Couleur (Lot 387, Estimate: $15,000-20,000) 
• Tom Wesselmann's Study for Sunset Nude (Two Legs Up) (Lot 370, Estimate: $8,000-12,000)

Prints & Multiples

Features work from the old masters to the 21st century, and is especially strong in 20th-century works. Leading the group is Andy Warhol’s Portraits of the Artists (Lot 108, Estimate: $25,000-35,000); a group of 100 colorful screen printed polystyrene boxes depicting a veritable who’s who of New York’s 1960s art scene. The auction features two groups of prints - one by Joan Miró and the other by Rockwell Kent. Both show the broad ranges and talents of these two artists. The collection of Miró prints includes lithographs and intaglios from small, intimate compositions like the plate from the Ubu Roi suite (Lot 75, Estimate: $2,500-3,500) and large-scale iconic images with heavy carborundum like Le matador (Lot 77, Estimate $25,000-35,000) and La fronde (Lot 76, Estimate: $20,000-30,000). The Kent works likewise feature a variety of media, and include Starlight (Lot 24, Estimate $2,500-3,500) and Forest Pool (Lot 21, Estimate $1,500-2,500), two of his most highly coveted wood engravings.

Other featured works include:

• Pierre-August Renoir’s Enfants jouant à la balle, a joyous color lithograph (Lot 7, Estimate $20,000-30,000)
• Henri Matisse’s Danseuse endormie, one of many images of a dancer from the late 1920s (Lot 6, Estimate $5,000-7,000)
• Several ceramic works by Pablo Picasso, including Four Enlaced Profiles, 1949 (Lot 90, Estimate $7,000-9,000)
• Martin Lewis’s brooding aquatint Wet Night, Route 6 (Lot 33, Estimate $6,000-8,000)
• Childe Hassam's quiet portrait of his wife at work titled The Writing Desk, 1915 (Lot 20, Estimate $5,000-7,000)

Photographs

A range of 20th-century and contemporary works by such masters as Ansel Adams, Lewis Baltz, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Nan Goldin, Kenneth Josephson, Daido Moriyama, and others are on offer. Highlights include:

• Ansel Adams’s iconic winter scene Oak Tree, Snow Storm, Yosemite Valley, from 1948, printed c. 1963-1970 (lot 127, $8,000-12,000)
• Lewis Baltz’s North Wall, Niguel Hardware, 26087 Getty Drive, Laguna Niguel (Lot 145, Estimate: $12,000-18,000) from the series The New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California, in which Baltz explores the effects of twentieth-century culture and suburban development on the country’s topography
• Two works by Nan Goldin—Greer and Robert on the Bed, New York (Lot 155, $8,000-12,000) and Dieter and Wolfgang at the O-Bar, West Berlin (Lot 156, Estimate: $3,000-5,000)

Previews, Gallery Events, and Catalogs

Previews for the auction will be in our Boston Gallery on Wednesday, September 19: 12pm-5pm and Thursday, September 20: 12pm-8pm.  Free and open to the public, department specialists will be available to answer questions about the material and participating at auction. Join us for an EVENT... The fully illustrated print catalog may be purchased on the Skinner website or by phone order at 508-970-3234.