Thanks to the generosity of our patrons and the funding from various organizations, the Rosenbach was able to enhance it's collections with the following recent acquisitions in FY07:
Gifts
Book Arts
George Cruikshank, Comic multiplication
London : Ackermann & Co., [ca.1845]
Gift of S. Oakley VanderPoel by his grandson Horace Andrews
Horace Andrews gave a total of
seven books all illustrated by George Cruikshank, including: Cervantes. Don Quixote, London: Jones & Co., 1831, 2 vols.; Three Courses and a Desert London: Viztelly, Branston & Co., 1830; George Cruikshank, [Caricatures ca: 1845]; George Cruikshank, Comic Multiplication [ca. 1845][pictured above]; C.R. Forrester. Eccentric Tales, London: James Robins and Co., 1827; Samuel Roberts, The State Lottery, A Dream.
London: Sherwood, Neely, and Jones,
1817; Loyalist; or Anti-Radical, London: W. Turner, 1820 [-1821][pictured below].
George Cruikshank, The radical ladder
In The loyalist’s magazine
London: W. Turner, 1821
Gift of S. Oakley VanderPoel by his grandson Horace Andrews
Mr. Andrews’s gift augments the museum’s extensive collection of Cruikshank materials. George Cruikshank was one of the foremost British caricaturists and book illustrators of the nineteenth century; he is perhaps best known as the original illustrator of Sketches by Boz and Oliver Twist. The majority of the Rosenbach’s Cruikshank collection (which includes over 4000 prints) has been preserved in the form of clipped illustrations, mounted in collector’s volumes. The Andrews donations are especially valuable because they allow the images to be put within the context of their accompanying text. In addition, the preservation of the color in the hand-colored plates is extraordinary and the pieces have excellent provenance; with some even coming from the library of Alfred Cohn, who compiled Cruikshank’s catalog raisonee.
Americana
Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia, 6 July 1863
Gift of Steven and Susan Raab
Steven and Susan Raab donated 46 issues of historic newspapers, documenting significant events in our nation’s history from the Stamp Act to the Civil War. The newspapers, which include copies of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia General Aurora Advertiser, Baltimore Sun, New York Times, and New York Tribune, among others, dovetail wonderfully with the Rosenbach’s holdings of Americana manuscripts, allowing readers to access both personal and professional accounts of the same events.
Literature & Fine Press
True Williams, Camping in the snow
In Mark Twain, Roughing it
Hartford : American Publishers, 1872
Gift in memory of Frank E. Taplin, Jr.
Margaret Taplin donated three books: Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872;
Alexander
Pope
,
Il
Riccio Rapito…
Florence
, 1739; Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Mosher Press, 1919.
The Italian translation of Pope’s The Rape of the Lock and the first edition Twain help flesh out the Rosenbach’s holdings of British and American literature; Twain’s book also builds on the library’s strength in materials relating to America’s westward expansion. The 1919 edition of Leaves of Grass, a facsimile of the original 1855 edition, was one of the crowning achievements of the fine press founded by Thomas Bird Mosher.
Rosenbachiana
Ernest Dawson, A visit with Doctor R.
Los Angeles : Dawson's Book Shop, 1988
Gift of David H. Wice
Ro5 988a
This miniature volume is a wonderful anecdotal account of a visit by a Los Angeles book dealer to the Rosenbach Company and to Rosenbach home on DeLancey Place.
The Doctor’s sales methods seduce even a seasoned dealer like Dawson, who not only buys many books, but writes of falling asleep in the Rosenbach home while dreaming of bookish treasures.
Purchases
Sendak
Maurice Sendak, Nutshell library
New York: Harper & Row, 1962
Purchased from Julie Cunningham, this first edition of Sendak's Nutshell Library is set in its original slipcases. Each volume is inscribed and illustrated for the owner
.
Drawings
Edward Williams Clay, Dance between Mars & Venus in the opera ballet of “Les filets de Vulcain ou Mars et Venus”--at the Grand Opera
Paris, 1827
2006.4587
Born in Philadelphia, Edward Williams Clay studied law, but left this work to become an artist and illustrator, modeling his work after that of the Cruikshanks, whose work he'd seen while visiting London. He painted this watercolor, presumably after attending a performance of a ballet in Paris just prior to his return to Philadelphia. The image of a couple in ethnic or ancient Greek dress may have been one of the influences on the Clay’s popular series of prints entitled Lessons in Dancing, published the following year, a copy of which is in Rosenbach's collection.
