Sunday, April 27, 2008

Renaissance Era Costumes

India AND Olmec (MesoAmerica)
India AND Olmec* (Mesoamerica)



Ireland
Ireland



Assyria, Arabia, Croatia
Assyria, Arabia, Croatia



Assyria, Arabia, Croatia a
Assyria, Arabia, Croatia



Hungary
Hungary



Italian costumes
Italy



Northern Greece, Ethiopia and Tatar people national costumes
Northern Greece, Ethiopia and Ta(r)tar* people



Palestine
Palestine



Russia, Poland, Finland, Lapland, Croatia
Russia, Poland, Finland, Lapland, Croatia



Russia, Poland, Finland, Moscow, Lapland, Croatia (a)
Russia, Poland, Finland, Moscow, Lapland, Croatia



The Orient
The Orient



Turkey
Turkey



Turkey a
Turkey



Venice
Venice



Greece, Tartar peoples, Iraq, Saracen peoples
Greece, Ta(r)tar peoples, Iraq, Saracen* peoples



'Kostüme der Männer und Frauen in Augsburg und Nürnberg, Deutschland, Europa, Orient und Afrika - BSB Cod.icon. 341' at Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek contains around three hundred hand-painted national costumes produced in the 16th century.

The anonymous manuscript was probabaly created in Augsburg and seems to be one of a very few similar works from around the same time period. There are a couple of scanned pages attached to Cod.icon 341 in German (one, two) with some contextual background - that I can't read of course - but that's about the extent of online references.

The captions above are the rough chapter - country - translations with a little modernising and, in the interests of avoiding any unintended international incidents, should probably be taken with a grain of salt. All the images above were extensively background cleaned which was totally a waste of time. If your model chooses to match red boots with a green and pink silk-lined cape, it's an exercise in futility believing that that ensemble can be saved by any amount of tweaking at the margins. [via Marion McNealy]

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Japanese Crepe Paper Fairy Tales

The Goblin Spider


Goblin Spider c


Goblin Spider a

'The Goblin Spider'
Published by Takezirou Hasegawa in 1926.



Chin Chin Kobakama


Chin Chin Kobakama a


Chin Chin Kobakama d

'Chin Chin Kobakama'
Published by Takezirou Hasegawa in 1925.



Der Sperling mit der Geschlitzten Zunge


Der Sperling mit der Geschlitzten Zunge a


Der Sperling mit der Geschlitzten Zunge b

'Der Sperling mit der Geschlitzten Zunge'
Published by Takezirou Hasegawa (undated).



La bataille du singe et du crabe


La bataille du singe et du crabe b


La bataille du singe et du crabe a

'La Bataille du singe et du Crabe'
Published by Takezirou Hasegawa in 1885.



La sierpe de ocho cabezas


La sierpe de ocho cabezas c


La sierpe de ocho cabezas a

'La Sierpe de Ocho Cabezas'
Published by Takezirou Hasegawa in 1914.



Le Mont Katsi Katsi


Le Mont Katsi Katsi a


Le Mont Katsi Katsi c

'Le Mont Katsi Katsi'
Published by Takezirou Hasegawa in 1897.



Le vieillard et les démons


Le vieillard et les démons c


Le vieillard et les démons b

'Le Vieillard et les Démons'
Published by Takezirou Hasegawa in 1897.


Momotaro


Momotaro b


Momotaro c


'Momotaro'
Published by Takezirou Hasegawa in 1886.


Sippeitaro


Sippeitaro a


Sippeitaro b

'Sippeitaro'
Published by Takezirou Hasegawa in 1914.



The Boy Who Drew Cats


The Boy Who Drew Cats b


The Boy Who Drew Cats a

'The Boy Who Drew Cats'
Published by Takezirou Hasegawa in 1898.



The Old Woman Who Lost her Dumpling


The Old Woman Who Lost her Dumpling c


The Old Woman Who Lost her Dumpling b

'The Old Woman Who Lost her Dumpling'
Published by Yosaku Nishinomiya Tanigawa Takeshi Stores in 1937.




The Baika Women's University Collection of Crêpe Paper Books in Japan consists of more than one hundred and fifty works produced between about 1880 and 1940 in English, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese editions. Not all of the books are present in each language and some of the books were published on thick Japanese paper rather than crêpe paper. Most, but not all, of the books are traditional fairy tales.

The semi-flash site is fairly slick and very easy to negotiate and includes a preface and an introduction in english. That's the good news. The unfortunate part is that the image sizes are rather small. Normally I would have bypassed this material but it's unique and exquisite and worth posting despite the down side in my opinion. In most cases, slightly larger versions of the above images can be found by clicking through to the flickr page and clicking 'All Sizes'. In a few cases, what you see above is the full size image -- they are all screen captures. I've posted about sixty images all told to this flickr set in any event. I haven't actually looked all the way through the site yet.

Alternatively, larger image versions of many (?) of the books are available in non-flash format at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies - Nichibunken - but I think the image quality is poor.
"The crêpe-paper books in this collection were published mainly in the Meiji era by Hasegawa Kobunsha. Each picture drawn by the artist was cut on a woodcut, one woodcut for each color used in the picture. The printer applied the color to the woodcut, making a print on Japanese paper each time a different color was added. As to the story, each word was set in type, or, in some cases, in handcarved letters.

Lightly moistened Japanese paper was wrapped around a vertical cylindrical form and crinkled by pressing the paper down to the bottom of the cylinder. The crinkled paper was removed, opened, and wrapped around the cylinder again in a different direction. This was repeated eight or ten times. By this laborious method, soft, crêpe-like paper was finally produced. In the process, the size of the Japanese paper was reduced to about 80%. The pages were assembled and bound with silk thread."

"Formerly, crêpe-paper books were largely thought of as a souvenir for foreigners to take home, but this is a mistaken idea. [...] Through such books, Japanese culture could be spread abroad and appreciated."

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Calligraphy Portraits

calligraphic Bust portrait of William III and Mary in state robes

"Bust portrait of William III and Mary in state robes, in two ovals facing towards each other, printed within calligraphic flourishes; a cutting of the top left corner from a official legal document. 1690s Engraving printed from a single plate on vellum" by William Elder.



Bust portrait of William III in state robes


Bust portrait of William III in state robes (a)

"Bust portrait of William III in state robes, with garter chain, in an oval facing left, printed within a second plate with calligraphic flourishes; a cutting of the top left corner from a official legal document. 1690s Engraving printed from two plates on vellum" (Anonymous).


Portrait of Charles II in penmanship (Sneddon)

"Portrait of Charles II in penmanship, drawn in an oval with calligraphic flourishes on all sides, printed on the Thames in the Frost Fair of 1684 Engraving"

"Lettered with motto round frame, and below ''Invented, performed by command of hand & engraven by John Seddon. Carp not at what you see for tis no more than th'untaught act of one ne'r grav'd before', and 'Printed on the River of Thames, Feb.1683/4'. "

"The bust of Charles is composed of calligraphic flourishes. John Seddon was the leading calligrapher of the time, and master of Sir John Johnson's Free Writing School in Priest's Court, Foster Lane. His portrait was drawn by William Faithorne (Vertue I 140), and was engraved by John Sturt as the frontispiece for his copy-books, such as 'The Ingenious youth's companion' of c.1690 and 'The pen-man's paradise' of c.1695. These were engraved after his work by others. This print declares that it was the first plate he engraved himself, and it probably remained the only one."


Bust portrait of Charles II in state robes


Bust portrait of Charles II in state robes (a)

"Bust portrait of [King] Charles II in state robes, with garter chain, in an oval, printed within a second plate with calligraphic flourishes; a cutting of the top left corner from a official legal document. 1660s Engraving printed from two plates on vellum" (Anonymous).


Bust portrait of Queen Anne in state robes


Bust portrait of Queen Anne in state robes(a)

"Bust portrait of Queen Anne in state robes, with hair piled high, in an oval, printed within calligraphic flourishes; a cutting of the top left corner from a official legal document. 1704/14 Engraving printed from a single plate on vellum" (Anonymous).



Bust portrait of Charles I in state robes

"Bust portrait of [King] Charles I in state robes, with garter chain, in an oval facing right, printed within calligraphic flourishes; a cutting of the top left corner from a official legal document. 1630s Engraving printed from a single plate on vellum with some colouring" (Anonymous).


calligraphy portrait of Johannes Gutenberg

'Jean Guttenberg de Mayence Inventeur de l"Imprimerie. 1436 à Strasbourg'
[Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, inventor of the Printing Press]
"Lithograph. Portrait by Simon fils [c. 1836], calligraphic border executed by Ald. Berliner. Printed on wove paper." [source]


All but the last of the above images were found in the marvellous British Museum Prints Database.

Doubtless there are more calligraphic portraits to be found in this style but they are fairly resistant to searching (I admit I didn't try tooooo hard). The more esoteric and specific the style or theme, the harder it is to find desirable images, seems to me. More image captions and metadata please!