Here's Looking at You Lincoln

It's late in the day by West Coast standards to continue celebrating President's Day holiday, but I can't help it if they keep moving it out of convenience. I'm never certain what day it is. Even so; anytime is a darn good time to take a close look at Maira Kalman's new book, Looking at Lincoln. In it, artist/author Maira Kalman paints a wonderful image of our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, peppered with witty commentary.
      Sidenote: Just last month Kalman visited Seattle on a book tour with her good friend Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), which had to be the funniest book reading I have ever attended. Together, they amused us with stories about failed relationships and love; the topic of the book, Why We Broke Up, authored by Handler with art by Kalman. Just before their presentation, I picked up a copy of Maira's newly released book on Lincoln which is based upon a New York Times online column she did three years ago called In Love With A. Lincoln. In the column, she brings us along on a journey to learn more about Lincoln's legacy; stopping at a Philadelphia museum and library and then visiting the land of Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois where she meets a retired minister who is one of 150 impersonators traveling the country doing Lincoln presentations in schools and libraries. 
      Today there are reportedly over 16,000 books written about President Lincoln, but I doubt any one of them are as colorful as Maira Kalman's brief account for ages 5 and way older. She does an exceptional job of painting a portrait of a kind, self-made, visionary man with just one year of schooling, who loved apples, vanilla almond cake and books; and strongly hated slavery. A book every world leader should read. 

Below are Kalmans' illustrations and hand-lettering from her original 2009 New York Times column In Love With A. Lincoln.

Watch a short clip of Maira Kalman on the Colbert Report a while back where
she talks about her earlier book on American history, The Pursuit of Happiness.
She tells Stephen that Lincoln would have made an incredible boyfriend.

Happy Almost Birthday George

Here is a little send-up in honor of President's Day today: a rosy-cheeked George Washington holding a flower and riding a spotted horse. I adore this flat two-dimensional style of illustration known as "fraktur" painting. It was done by a Pennsylvania German artist (ca. 1780-90) in a style reminiscent of a medieval illuminated manuscript. The term fraktur, meaning fractured writing, refers to the style of Gothic German lettering, also known as blackletter. The painter of this watercolor and ink portrait of Washington is unknown, but attributed to Sussel, the name of the historian who first studied the painting. It is included in the National Park Service's "Treasures of the Nation" collection. Follow their link and you can click on (almost) any letter of the alphabet to go on a treasure hunt—with exception to the letters K, N, U, X, Y & Z, which are still waiting for their designated treasures. Time might be ripe for the NPS to begin a Kickstarter campaign to fund the rest of the alphabet of the Nations' Treasures.

Another fraktur portrait of GW, circa 1831. 
::From the Mennonite Heritage Center via The Reporter.

An ink and watercolor portrait of the man looking a little pale. 7.25 x 6" (no date). ::From Christy Auction House via Live Auctioneers.

This is another remarkable work of American folk art made from various kinds of scroll-cut woods. It is all laid on red fabric and is in the original wooden scroll-cut frame with elaborate medallions and a crest dating 1915.
::From Cowan Auctions 

Bookstores in the Hood

Interior and exterior views of Pages Bookstore located on Lego Boulevard. You can find it in the fiction section of Flickr under notenoughbricks. My guess is they accept only plastic for payment here. 

This bookstore goes by the name of Building C Books. They could use better signage methinks. Architect is cdouglas polisci. 

This bookstore must only sell fancy books. The name of it is Fancy Bookstore 2. I'm not sure what happened to Fancy Bookstore 1.0. Designed by cimddwc, it was inspired by this fancily nice building in Germany. 

Design-builder JETfri doesn't say what planet this bookstore and deco house are on, and they aren't big on signage either. 

The eBook 2.0

The book bar has been raised by the students at KAIST Institute of Information Technology Convergence in Korea. Reading and navigating is about to get easier with their development of a smart eBook system. Pretty remarkable!
::Via Maria Popova at TBWA

Historic Ream Wrappers

Early Paper Ream Wrappers. They are seldom seen today as these paper wrappers were truly considered disposable. Printers went through volumes of paper in the process of printing books, billheads, broadsides and handbills and the paper wrapper packaging was quickly discarded. For historians of papermaking ephemera, they are considered to be the most ephemeral of all.  
     Displayed here is a small collection of rare ream wrappers from US paper mills in the 19th century. Most are from New England paper manufacturers. The earliest examples were generally printed as woodcut engravings and later copper and steel engravings were used, according to a great post on The Art of Old Ream Wrappers written by Stephen Gertz of Booktryst a couple years ago. He provides some other fine examples of European and US ream wrappers and explores some of the historical significance of these rare specimens. What was common to most all of these labels and wrappers was the great care given to the artistry, the design, the printing and the typography at that time. It is interesting to note that many of the beautiful illustrations on these wrappers were created by Dr. Alexander Anderson (1775-1870), who many readers here may recognize from several earlier posts I've written. All of the wrappers featured here (and more) are included in a database of graphic arts images from the American Antiquarian Society. 

I believe the term Vellum Foolscap was considered a very common kind of paper in the 19th century. However I am not familiar with the term Pot as it relates to paper. Surely this doesn't refer to hemp paper, but I am curious what it means, as I noticed it repeated often. Does anyone else have a clue? 

The Book of Love

Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields sing The Book of Love from 69 Love Songs. They are playing at the Neptune Theater in Seattle, March 19th & 20th. Happy Valentine's Day all!

Historic Books of Love and Devotion

French medieval song book, c. 1475. 
::Via Medieval Thedas.

A hand-lettered devotional 15th century French Book of Hours of Amiens Nicolas Blairie. When opened, the two halves of the book evokes the praying of hands. 
::Via Content in a Cottage.

16th century heart-shaped prayer book with ornate gold-stamped binding. (Saxon State Library).
::Via A Polar Bear's Tale.

This manuscript is considered one of the treasures of the Royal Library in Denmark. It is referred to as The Heart Book and is regarded as the oldest Danish ballad manuscript. It is a collection of 83 love ballads compiled in the beginning of the 1550's. The beginning of ballad No. 43 is shown above. Below is the front cover of the closed book. 
::Via The Royal Library of Denmark. 

The Book-Folder

Rather unbecoming portrait of a bookbinder toiling away on an edition of the Elton's Almanac for their Valentine. Curious the artist misspelled the word "Almanac" in this woodcut illustration. 

Give me an L

A songsheet title from The Spellman Collection of Victorian Music Covers, and The University of Reading in the UK. Circa 1870s. Oh those crazy Victorians!

Free Love

Canadian designer Marian Bantjes loves her work. She is a prolific and imaginative artist and claims she does it all for love. In the video below, sponsored by Lynda.com, she discusses the heartfelt Valentine designs she made this past year and sent to all of the special people in her life. Since 2005, she has been producing Valentine designs that are terrifically ornate, as only she knows how to do. Below are samples of some of her designs from former year's and a nice video of her discussing her 2011 designs.  

The 2010 Valentine Design above was a laser-cut card made from recycled holiday cards she collected. Because of the variety of cards, each appeared surprisingly different despite the common laser-cut. 

This handwritten letter above was Bantjes 2009 Valentine's mailing. She described this version as more "conceptual" than in year's past. It involved writing in her own hand, 4 fragments of letters; each with no beginning or end; and each written in a manner which may resonate to some degree with each recipient. Everyone received just one fragment.
      Below is a Valentine Bantjes designed for Saks Fifth Avenue. It contains a lacy pattern of endearing script words, forming a beautifully textured heart. This work was so well received, it has been ripped off multiple times, including t-shirts in China. Is this someone's idea of "free love"? Saks now owns the copyright on this work and their lawyers are standing by. Deal with it.