The Artistic Arithmetic of Mr. Ellis

The four lines inscribed on the front cover of this handmade exercise book do well to characterize its role and purpose: 

Let every day produce some curious Lines

Which may advance thy Genius and thy pen

Let all thy Undertakings and designs

Tend to God's Glory and the good of men.

This exercise book once belonged to William Ellis, an artistic young student who was studying his arithmetic lessons. It was excavated in Exeter, England years ago and now sits in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum archives. Ellis began his book in 1729, and filled it with his calculations, measurements, flourishes and ornaments. He then hand painted the same three additional colors onto each page with great attention to detail. Many pages had colorful display headings with birds, flowers and medieval-looking creatures. His hand-lettering skills were capable, but "needs improvement" as any teacher might well suggest. Neatness was not his strongest suit.

Exercise books in Georgian England were commonly used by school children to practice lessons plans while perfecting their art and valued penmanship skills. These talents indicated you were a literate person of culture and good standing. All learning had great value and was considered virtuous. Creating beautifully illustrated lesson books with polished hand-lettering was intended to honor content, while building good character.

It's always interests me to see how the student of handmade and lettered books would often parody the layout of traditional books by creating large headings, and decorated initial caps to announce the title or text. They comprehended the principles of how we read. Although there appears to be no contents page, Ellis did add small page numbers to the upper right-hand corners of each page for ease of navigation. It's revealing to see how he tried to contain each topic to a single page which takes a certain degree of organizational skills, but his calculations would often spill onto the facing page or into the margins. His wonderful illustrations have a folk style charm, and the freshness of a skilled draftsman with a bent towards fantasy illustration. Especially true of the unicorn and the polka-dot sailing ship. In the heading for "Subtraction" seen below, he portrays the letter S as a dragon. 

   
Although there is no record of the age of William Ellis when he made this book, there is little doubt he was a young student. I hope he received high marks for his work and continued his artistic endeavors. I would love to have seen an entire alphabet of his initials with birds and flora. Are those real feet on the letter M? You can visit his entire book here which has slightly larger images.

Lincoln & Lettering

This collection of mid-19th century songsheets from The Lincoln Collection in Fort Wayne, IN., exists to preserve the history and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. In addition, these songsheets help to preserve a historic record of hand lettering, ornamentation, and lithography of this same era as well. As a tribute to Lincoln's birthday today, we can celebrate him and the many songsheet title pages which were published in his time leading up to the Civil War and following his assassination. They are a window into one of the most pivotal times in US history, as well as one of the most engaging and visionary periods of printing and design. With a few exceptions, most of these songsheet title pages were published between 1860 and 1865. 

   

Toys for Teaching Design

"Toys That Teach" was the official slogan of the The Embossing Company of Albany, New York, who were considered a giant in the field of manufacturing wood embossed toys, such as dominoes, checkers, wooden blocks, puzzles and building kits. The company was formed in 1870 after inventor John Wesley Hyatt (1837-1920), improved the manufacturing process of embossing and painting the wood surfaces of dominoes and checkers. Even though Hyatt held the first three patents which were instrumental to The Embossing Company's initial start-up, he was most famous for his invention of celluloid, which he discovered quite by accident. As the story goes, Hyatt became a printer's apprentice in Illinois at the age of sixteen. In the process of making the metal cuts, a bottle of collodion overturned and solidified, giving him the idea of making celluloid. He later used the celluloid to win a $10,000 prize for the competition to replace the ivory billiard ball. Over the course of his lifetime Hyatt went on to develop 236 successful patents, exceeded only by a few other inventors, including Thomas Edison.
     The Embossing Company released the "Curved Designs" boxed toy featured above in 1935, long after Hyatt's death. This toy is a bit of a mystery to me beyond this, yet it appears as if it could be a very effective educational toy for teaching the mechanics of working with typographical printers' ornaments. These individual ornament devices are color-coded which may simplify some of the organization initially, though I presume the blocks are not individually color-coded. Even so, I believe it would assist in the visual thinking process. 
     The Albany Institute of History and Art describes this set of toy cursive design blocks, as having game pieces included, but has little other description. I discovered the source of it after researching the history of a recently acquired chromolithographed label for The Embossing Company's Toy Blocks, dating back to the late 19th century. 

This 5 inch square label of a charming circus clown and pig was originally glued to a wooden box of embossed and painted wooden toy blocks, such as those seen in this later 1930 edition of this toy. My research also lead me to learn more about some of the many other wonderful toys from this company, such as the set of Illustrated Cubes (wooden blocks) circa 1900 and the Wonderwood, Play it With Flowers toy, circa 1925. 

The illustrator of this box design with the wonderful wonderwood title created with flower petals, happens to be Norman Price (1877-1951), a 1978 inductee to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame.

Color Cubes is another great teaching toy which I think could benefit a budding designer of any age. These simple and timeless toys are not just for blockheads. They are produced in four color variations, and one can create a myriad of designs within a square—again, much like miniature type ornaments. The examples below of this timeless toy originated from Sushipot.  

The Kolor Blox, also from Sushipot, is another similar learning toy, but with the addition of the half-circle shape, which invites all sorts of new options.

::Source of 1926 advertisement: Old Wood Toys