As stated, the copyright is held by Williams, Belasco, and Meyers, who are: Joseph Meyers (c. 1898 – 1957), his sister Edna Williams, and David Belasco (1853 – 1931). "Joseph Meyers was described by Bennet Cerf (Modern Library, Random House) as a “notorious pirate” in Gertzman’s book Bookleggers and Smuthounds, and the trio of presses allegedly indulged in reprinting numerous books without holding the copyright to those titles. By not paying copyright fees, Meyers and Williams were able to print and sell good quality illustrated books at prices that were below typical smaller, unillustrated reprint series of the 1930s." [cit.]
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Title page (frame, three compartments: LAURENCE STERNE |—| A | SENTIMENTAL | JOURNEY | THROUGH | FRANCE AND ITALY | ILLUSTRATED BY | MAHLON BLAINE |—| THREE SIRENS PRESS | NEW YORK || Title verso: (top) COPYRIGHT, 1930, BY WILLIAMS, BELASCO & MEYERS | PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | (bottom) BY J. J. LITTLE & IVES COMPANY, NEW YORK || Pagination: [1-6] 7-192, frontispiece, headpiece, and 4 plates within collation (pp. 45, 85, 141, and 185) after Blaine’s pen drawings in the woodcut manner. Binding: quarter lilac morocco with stamped brown lettering over blue cloth, design elements and lettering to spine, top edge gilt, fore-edge untrimmed. Size: 24.5 x 16 cm Edition: presumably 1st edition with plates after Blaine. Contributors: Sterne, Laurence (British-Irish, 1713 – 1768) – author of the text. Blaine, Mahlon (American, 1894 – 1969) – illustrator (pseudonym: G. Christopher Hudson). Three Sirens Press (NY); Williams, Belasco, and Meyers (NY) – publishers. J. J. Little & Ives Company (NY) – printer. Compare to the re-printed edition by Halcyon House, [c. 1950] in the collection [LIB-2783.2021].
As stated, the copyright is held by Williams, Belasco, and Meyers, who are: Joseph Meyers (c. 1898 – 1957), his sister Edna Williams, and David Belasco (1853 – 1931). "Joseph Meyers was described by Bennet Cerf (Modern Library, Random House) as a “notorious pirate” in Gertzman’s book Bookleggers and Smuthounds, and the trio of presses allegedly indulged in reprinting numerous books without holding the copyright to those titles. By not paying copyright fees, Meyers and Williams were able to print and sell good quality illustrated books at prices that were below typical smaller, unillustrated reprint series of the 1930s." [cit.]
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Title (in red and black): CANDIDE | OU L'OPTIMISME | PAR | VOLTAIRE | ILLUSTRATIONS | DE | BRUNELLESCHI | {vignette} | GIBERT JEUNE | LIBRAIRIE D'AMATEURS | 61, BOULEVARD SAINT-MICHEL, 61 | PARIS || Pagination : [6] 1-163 [164][2], with 23 black tailpieces, plus 16 colour plates extraneous to collation, incl. frontispiece, printed by A. Dantan and stencil-coloured (au pochoir) by E. Charpentier after gouache and watercolour drawings by Umberto Brunelleschi; total 102 leaves. Limited edition of 2500 copies, this is № 39. Printed at Imprimerie Coulouma, Argenteuil (H. Barthélemy, director) on July 15, 1933. Binding: 26.5 x 20.5 cm, publisher’s pictorial wrappers, vignettes and lettering to front wrapper and spine, publisher’s device to back wrapper. Description of the stensil (au pochoir) technique. -
Title (historiated border, three-compartment): CAMEO CLASSICS | {rule} | CANDIDE | BY | Voltaire | WITH ILLUSTRATIONS | BY | Mahlon Blaine | {rule} | GROSSET AND DUNLAP | NEW YORK || Pagination: [1-6] 7-144, total 144 pages; frontispiece plus 4 plates within collation, head- and tailpieces – reproductions of Mahlon Blaine’s pen drawings. Binding: 21 x 14 cm, cream cloth with the cameo of Johann Gutenberg to front cover, gilt lettering to front cover and spine, in acetate dust jacket, in a pictorial slipcase. Arouet, François-Marie [Voltaire] (French, 1694 – 1778)– author. Woolf, Herman Irwell [Chambers, Dorset] (British, 1890 – 1958) – translator. Blaine, Mahlon [Hudson, G. Christopher] (American, 1894 – 1969) – illustrator. Grosset and Dunlap (NY) – publisher. J. J. Little & Ives Company (NY) – printer. Cameo Classics series was published by Grosset & Dunlap (New York) in 1935 – 1948 as a cheap reprint of illustrated classic editions, in this case – of Williams, Belasco and Meyers publication of Candide in 1930 (see LIB-2792.2021). The Cameo Classics books had a clear, acetate dust jacket and were boxed in a buckram alligator skin patterned slipcase with an illustrated cover. The price per volume started at 69 cents and was gradually lowered to 59 and 50 cents per volume by the late 1930s. Candide was translated into English quite a few times, starting from Tobias George Smollett (British-Scottish, 1721 – 1771) and up to today's translators. For some reason, the translator's name is almost never indicated. This translation, published by Williams, Belasco and Meyers in 1930 and reprinted by Grosset and Dunlap in c. 1935, was performed by Herman Irwell Woolf under the pseudonym of Dorset Chambers and first published in London by F.B. Neumayer in 1919. This edition was mentioned in the letter from Joseph Conrad to his son Borys in 1922, May 10. -
Title: A SENTIMENTAL | JOURNEY | THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY | BY | LAURENCE STERNE | ILLUSTRATED BY | MAHLON BLAINE | {vignette} | Illustrated library | HALCYON HOUSE | GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK || Pagination: [1-6] – first leaf blank, h.t., t.p., 7-192, total 192 pages; frontispiece plus 4 plates within collation, and a headpiece, all photomechanical reproductions of Mahlon Blaine’s pen drawings. Binding: 20.5 x 14 cm, off-white pictorial paper boards decorated with black ivy-clad pink lattice, black lettering in a pink frame to spine, pink pictorial dust jacket with spine sunned to beige. Contributors: Sterne, Laurence (British-Irish, 1713 – 1768) – author of the text. Blaine, Mahlon (American, 1894 – 1969) – illustrator (pseudonym: G. Christopher Hudson). The Illustrated library series was started by Halcyon House, a reprint division of Doubleday Publishers, in 1950. This edition of Sterne with Blaine’s illustrations is a reprint of the same, published by Three Sirens Press of New York in 1930. Blaine's illustrations of this kind are pen drawings, not wood engravings. -
Engraved title: HEATH'S | PICTURESQUE ANNUAL, | FOR 1836. | St. Petersburg and Moscow. | {vignette Nikolskoi church signed: A.G. Vickers — E. Radclyffe} | Tower of the Nikolskoi church St. Petersburg | From Drawings by | ALFRED GEORGE VICKERS, ESQ. | Printed by Arnold & Fisher | LONDON, PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETOR, BY LONGMAN & Co. PATERNOSTER ROW: | RITTNER & Co. PARIS: & ASHER, BERLIN. || Title page: A JOURNEY | TO ST. PETERSBURG AND MOSCOW | THROUGH COURLAND AND LIVONIA. | BY | LEITCH RITCHIE, Esq. | AUTHOR OF “TURNER’S ANNUAL TOUR”, “SCHINDERHANNES,” &c. | WITH TWENTY-FIVE SPLENDID ENGRAVINGS, | BY THE FIRST ARTISTS, AFTER DRAWINGS, | BY A.G. VICKERS, Esq. | LONDON: | LONGMAN, REES, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMAN. | PARIS: RITTNER AND GOUPILL. BERLIN: A. ASHER. | 1836. || Imprint: LONDON: | PRINTED BY J. HADDON AND CO., DOCTORS’ COMMONS. Pagination: [i-iii] iv [4] [1] 2-256, total 264 pages + 25 plates. Collation: 12mo; π4, B-Y6 Z2; total 132 leaves + frontispiece, engraved title and 23 leaves of steel-engraved plates w/tissue guards, extraneous to collation. Binding: full red morocco, blind-stamped boards, gilt-lettered spine, all edges gilt, 12mo, 20 x 13 cm. Note: Schinderhannes – real name Johannes Bückler (German, c.1778 – 1803): Leitch Ritchie. Schinderhannes: the Robber of the Rhine. (Library of Romance). — London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1833. Contributors:Author: Leitch Ritchie (British, 1800 – 1865).
Illustrator: Alfred Gomersal Vickers (British, 1810 – 1837).
Publisher: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman (London).
Engravers: Turnbull, Thomas (British, fl. 1830s); Radclyffe, Edward (British, 1810 – 1863); Jorden, Henry (British, fl. 1829 – 1838); Fisher, Samuel (British, 1806 – 1851); Willmore, James Tibbits (British, 1800 – 1863); Higham, Thomas (British, 1795 – 1844); Appleton, J. W. (British, fl. 1834 – 1843); Wallis, Robert William (British, 1794 – 1878); Chevalier, William (British, 1804 – 1866); Kernot, James Harfield (British, 1802 – 1858); Lewis, James (British, 1782 – 1858); Carter, James (British, 1798 – 1855). Printer: John Haddon & Co. (London). Reference: Metropolitan Museum (NY); Royal Collection Trust (London). -
Vol. 1. Title : VOYAGES | ET MÉMOIRES | DE | MAURICE-AUGUSTE, | COMTE DE BENYOWSKY, | Magnat des Royaumes d’Hongrie et de | Pologne, etc. etc. | Contenant ses Opérations militaires en | Pologne, son exil au Kamtchatka, son Evasion | et son Voyage à travers l’Océan pacifique, au | Japon, à Formose, à Canton en Chine, et | les détails de l’Etablissement qu’il fut chargé | par le Ministère François de former à Mada- | gascar. | TOME PREMIER. | A PARIS, Chez F. Buisson, Imprimeur-Libraire, rue | Hautefeuille, no 20. | (1791.) Pagination : [2] – h.t. / blank, [2] – t.p. / blank, [i] ii-viii, [1] 2-466. Collation: 8vo; [π]2 a4, A-Ff8 Gg1. Vol. 2. Title: Similar, but TOME SECOND. Pagination: [2] – h.t. / blank, [2] – t.p. / blank, [1] 2-486. Collation: 8vo; [π]2 A-Gg8 Hh3, Hh3 unsigned. Binding: both volumes uniformly bound in half brown calf over speckled beige boards, crimson label with gilt lettering to flat spine, volume number in garland, florets in compartments. Bookplate to front pastedown: "C. De Oetting." Ink stamp to t.p.: "Oettingen-Wallersteinsche Bibliothek". Provenance: Oettingen-Wallerstein library (Oettingen-Wallersteinsche Bibliothek) is the former library of the princes of Oettingen-Wallerstein, now part of the collection of Augsburg University library. -
Title: MEMOIRS AND TRAVELS | OF | MAURITIUS AUGUSTUS COUNT DE | BENYOWSKY | MAGNATE OF THE KINGDOMS OF HUNGARY AND POLAND, ONE OF | THE CHIEFS OF THE CONFEDERATION OF POLAND | ETC., ETC. | Consisting of his Military Operations in Poland, his Exile into Kamchatka, | his Escape and Voyage from that Peninsula through the Northern | Pacific Ocean, touching at Japan and Formosa, to Canton | in China, with an Account of the French Settle- | ment he was appointed to form upon the | Island of Madagascar | WITH AN INTRODUCTION, NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY | BY | CAPTAIN S. PASFIELD OLIVER || Half-title (ornamental, in black and red): MEMOIRS & | TRAVELS of | MAURITIUS | AUGUSTUS | COUNT | DE | BENYOWSKY | LONDON•KEGAN• | PAUL•TRENCH• | TRÜBNER•&•Co 1904 || Pagination: [i, ii] – owner pasted wood engraving “A woman of Kamchatka” / Dryden House advert., [iii, iv] – serial title / MAB (years), frontis. Portrait of MAB by Walter L. Colls w/guard, [v, vi] – ornamental h.t / copyright, [vii, viii] – t.p. / list of ill., ix-xxxvi, 1-635 [636]. Collation: 2 blank leaves (binding), [a]-b8 c2 1-398 406, 2 plates, 2 blank leaves (binding). Binding: Modern ¾ morocco over marbled boards, raised bands, gilt fleur-de-lis-cross in compartments, burgundy label with gilt lettering, by Atkinson Book Binders, Salisbury (sticker to back pastedown). Contributors: Printed by Neill and Co., Edinburgh. Published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.; Kegan Paul, Charles (British, 1828 – 1902). Author: Maurice Auguste comte de Benyowsky [Мориц Август Бенёвский] (Polish-Slovak-Hungarian, 1746 –1786). Editor: Samuel Pasfield Oliver (British, 1838 – 1907). Translator: William Nicholson (British, 1753 – 1815). Originally published in 1790, in London (I have not seen it anywhere) and in Dublin by P. Wogan [etc.], and in 1791 in French, in Paris by Buisson. -
Hardcover volume in 8vo, 21.2 x 15.4 cm, tan cloth with black on gilt background circular publisher’s device "TFU" to front cover, gilt-stamped compartments and burgundy labels with gilt lettering to spine. Ink inscription to fep verso dated Jan 18, 1907. Publisher's device and serial device to h.t. Title-page: ❦❦❦ THE MEMOIRS AND | TRAVELS OF MAURITIUS AUGUSTUS COUNT DE | BENYOWSKY | IN SIBERIA, KAMCHATKA, JAPAN, THE LIUKIU ISLANDS AND FORMOSA | FROM THE TRANSLATION OF HIS | ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT (1741–1771), | BY WILLIAM NICHOLSON, F.R.S., 1790 | EDITED BY CAPTAIN | PASFIELD OLIVER | ILLUSTRATED | LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN, | PATERNOSTER SQUARE. MDCCCXCIII ❦❦❦ ||. Collation/Pagination: [1]-258 plus 7 plates, incl. frontispiece and 1 map. [1, 2] – serial h.t. "The Adventure Series" / advert. THE ADVENTURE SERIES. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, 5s. 17 titles, [3, 4] – t.p. / blank, [5] 6-9 contents, [10] blank, [11, 12] illustrations/blank, [13] 14-52 introduction, 53-399, [400] colophon: THE GRESHAM PRESS, | URWIN BROTHERS, | CHILWORTH AND LONDON. Contributors: Publisher: T. Fisher Unwin (London); Thomas Fisher Unwin (British, 1848 – 1935). Author: Maurice Auguste count de Benyowsky [Мориц Август Бенёвский] (Polish-Slovak-Hungarian, 1746 –1786). Editor: Samuel Pasfield Oliver (British, 1838 – 1907). Translator: William Nicholson (British, 1753 – 1815). Originally published in 1790, in London (I have not seen it anywhere) and in Dublin by P. Wogan [etc.], and in 1791 in French, in Paris by Buisson; see LIB-2742.2021. For another copy of the same edition, see LIB-3139.2023. For the 1904 edition, see LIB-2703.2021. -
Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞], a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代 歌川 豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Signed: Toyokuni ga [豊国 画] in a red toshidama cartouche Block carver: Yokokawa Takejirō [横川竹二郎] (Japanese, fl. 1845 – 1863), seal: 彫竹 – hori Take. Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, fl. c. 1845 – 1847). Media: Untrimmed fan print (uchiwa-e), 230 x 295 mm. Combined date seal and kiwame censor seal: Ansei 6 (1859). Title: Princess Sotoori [衣通姫] (Sotoori-hime) – Sotoori-hime was a concubine of Emperor Ingyo (reigned AD 412-53), and one of the Three Gods of Japanese Poetry [和歌三神] (Waka sanjin). Series: Chronicles of Elegant Women [風雅女史傳] (Fūga joshiden). The sign on the torii (Shinto shrine gates) reads: Mountain king shrine [山王宮] – it is the Sannō Shrine at the Nagata Riding Grounds in Edo. A print with these gates is at MFA (Boston) # 21.9853.
Other prints from the same series in this collection:
SVJP-0343.2021 — Tamagiku:
SVJP-0400.2023 — Saiko:
Note: Special thanks to Horst Graebner, who helped decipher and understand the meaning.
