exchange with Dr. Howard N Moses

(correspondence courtesy of Robert M. Snyder Jr. Collection, LaBudde Special Collections, UMKC Miller Nichols Library, 5100 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, M0, accessed Aug 8, 2013)

fowler plate by stanley harrod

Double click on image to enlarge.


(LEFT) The 'Ex-Libris Militaribus Major Harry Alfred Fowler Signal Corps U.S.' bookplate by Stanley Harrod was one of the six entries Harrod displayed at the National Arts Club in New York City. Harrod was one of seventy-five artists featured in the Seventh Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Bookplates. (close up details, BELOW)

This bookplate is numbered # 80 in the Robert M. Snyder Collection.
(courtesy of LaBudde Special Collections, UMKC Miller Nichols Library, 5100 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, M0, accessed July 2013)

It was featured on page 49 of The Bookplate Annual 1922, which H.A. Fowler published. Click on
http://archive.org/stream/22bookplateannua00fowluoft#page/48/mode/2up 

(accessed Dec 15, 2013)

H.A. Fowler published the bookplates of Stanley Harrod in 1919

 (courtesy of LaBudde Special Collections, UMKC Miller Nichols Library, 5100 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, M0, accessed Aug 8, 2013)

grain seller is expert in book plates

(Subtitle: H. A. Fowler, Who Sells Grain in Business Hours, is an Expert in This
Branch of Booklover's Lore)

     WHEN you hear the word "collector," you probably think at once on stamps, then possibly of coins or birds' eggs. Next, if you are a highbrow, Chinese armor or miniatures may suggest themselves; or, if a lowbrow, even cigerette coupons. The fact comes home that the glorious army of collectors may be expanded to include everyone struck with the mania whether it be expressed in Rembrandts or---well, autographs.

     The present subject is that of book plates, and the merest chance develops the fact that in a young Kansas Citian, H. Alfred Fowler of 3 East Armour Boulevard, we have not only an enthusiastic collector of book plates but the editor of the only publication devoted to the subject in the English language. Mr. Fowler makes it quite clear that he is not a publisher by vocation, so to speak. His business is that of grain, he says, and book plates and things about book plates are simply a hobby---and a very fascinating hobby it proves to be.

      In 1911 Mr. Fowler edited his first book plate publication. This was in the form of an attractive pamphlet which he called the Book Plate Booklet, consisting of about thirty pages of contributions on the subject, various interesting examples of the art, articles on the work of celebrated engravers of book plates and the statement that the booklet was "an occasional magazine devoted to book plates--news of the book plate world." Mr. Fowler's subscribers were naturally limited in number. He seems however, to have awakened the interest of certain widely scattered bibliophiles with the result that the collectors of book plates in distant corners of the English speaking world have subsequently organized the American Book Plate Society, of which Mr. Fowler is a charter member. The headquarters of this society are in Cambridge, England---Trinity College, to be exact-- but Mr. Fowler's magazine, which, in its forthcoming form will be known as the Miscellany, continues as its mouthpiece.

       The Book Plate Booklet was published in four numbers, appearing in March, May, September, and December of 1911. Among other interesting features of the March number was a reproduction of the book plate of Maxim Gorky, the Russian novelist. As described, the plate, which was the work of Ephraim Moses Lilien, represents "an uncouth half-savage Muscovite peasant standing on an open book inhaling the rising, pure air of freedom. Against his knee he breaks the knout that so long kept him the slave of the tyrant. In the distance is the Kremlin, from which two ravens---birds of dark and evil omens---fly outward through Russia's black atmosphere."***It is difficult to conceive a drawing more completely in harmony with Gorky's style and Gorky's views. In the last number of the booklet the editor announced its expanision into a more ambitious publication. This materialized in the appearance in 1912 of a larger magazine called the Ex Libran.

                    A 1-MAN MAGAZINE
      The Ex-Libran was issued in four numbers, as was its predecessor. The work was done entirely by Mr. Fowler, who personally attended to every detail, even to "setting the type, sewing the covers and pasting the inserts," he says. To those who appreciate an artistic piece of work, the publication is indeed a credit to its editor's industry.  The text of the Ex Libran appears in bold-faced black letter type, most appropriate to the subject matter; the capital letters of each paragraph are decorated and in a few instances illuminated. The inserted book plates are uniformly attractive and interesting---some are of considerable historic value. They range from etchings and engravings to reproductions of wood cuts, half tones and those of the black and white impressionistic variety. The articles are for the most part devoted to the work of various master engravers who have identified themselves with the book plate world---Edwin Davis French, Isaac Hunt, father of Leigh Hunt, poet and essayist, who was related by marriage to Benjamin West, the painter; Charles William Sherborn, the eminent English engraver who died within the last two years. A whole number of the Ex Libran is allotted to Mr. Sherborn and includes a delightful frontispiece portrait of the artist, etched by Sidney L. Smith of Boston, for whose work Mr. Fowler expresses a particular attachment; the wood engravings of Esther and Lucien Pisarro, including some characteristic examples of their quaint design.
     Sprinkled in among these feature articles are numerous little contributions explaining the theory and use of book plates--for instance, that they must not only express the owner's personality or lineage but must be such as will be in keeping with the subject matter of the book or set of books for which they are intended. Also, they must possess some artistic value which will appeal to the instincts of the collector. Often one finds examples wherein the design embodies a pun on the book owner's name.

     With the fourth number of Volume 1 the Ex Libran suspended publication, the labor attendant upon its compilation demanding too much of Mr. Fowler's time. It must have been with considerable pleasure that the editor gave notice in this final number of the organization of the American Book Plate Society, referred to above, the credit for which he might justly regard as the harvest from the seed which he had sown.

                    A PHOENIX-LIKE PUBLICATION
     Far from giving up his labor of love however, Mr. Fowler proceeded with the publication of a successor to the Ex Libran. This materialized in the first number of the Biblio in March, 1913, a magazine of plainer appearance than its predecessor, but of wider scope. The Biblio was essentially devoted to bibliology instead of simply to book plates---"a magazine devoted to books, to every interesting phase of the subject," as the prospectus read. Book plates, however, seem to have remained the leading subject.

The publication appeared as the official organ of the newly formed society. Among other special articles are several most instructive ones on the subject of book binding, an art which is probably a good deal of a mystery to most readers.

     Mr. Fowler closed the fourth number of the Biblio with a notice of the Miscellany, which is forthcoming. Mr. Fowler is apparently greatly enjoying his different experiments, and it is clear that the frequent changes point to the fact that, while he does not attach the word "failure" to his work of the past, he is restless and ambitious to arrive at near perfection as is possible in the presentation of his delightful hobby.

     In addition to his magazine Mr. Fowler published, not long ago, a little book entitled "Lincolniana Book Plates" which, as the name implies, treated the various plates designed for owner of books or sets of books relating to the martyred president. This was limited to five hundred copies. Mr. Fowler is now preparing a book on book plates designed especially for members of the theatrical profession. Among these the work of Maxfield Parrish figures conspicuously.

(The Kansas City Times, Tuesday, December 23, 1913, courtesy of Missouri Valley Special Collection, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, accessed March 21, 2010)
    

venturesome spirit

Ten months after California etcher Sheldon Cheney stepped away from the Book Plate Booklet project, one of his subscribers decided to carry that vision forward. The new editor was a young grain broker in Kansas City, Missouri. His name was H. Alfred Fowler.  

 

 

     The "venturesome spirit" has "come forth" and once more the Book-Plate Booklet will make a bid for the approval of the book-plate world---or rather, it will make an effort to maintain this approval, which it already possesses, and prove worthy of a continuation of the support it has so long enjoyed under the editorship of Mr. Sheldon Cheney.

     When the editorial for the last number was written it seemed the the Booklet was doomed to die, but after the publication was on the press---just at the last moment---the "venturesome spirit" as Mr. Cheney puts it, came forth and for awhile at least the Booklet will maintain its place as the only periodical published in the English language devoted entirely to the subject of Book-plates.

      And it is a cause well worthy of being maintained. The ranks of modern American designers have suffered heavily but really commendable work continues to go on. The English designers are still at work turning out good designs and wonderful heraldic achievements and the Continental designers are constantly busy---although the latter are a bit beyond our province just at this time. But whether the work is American or English, it needs constant attention.

     Then there are the old plates. What has been said and written concerning them has far from exhausted the field, as a matter of fact we are in a better position today than ever before to develop that field. There does not seem to be such a strong tendency at present to collect and discuss the old plates and yet new varieties of old plates are constantly appearing and affording wonderful vistas for research and establishment of data. An old plate is always interesting, perhaps in a different manner than a modern example, but certainly worthy of our best attention.

     The enthusiasm of collectors has not suffered a decline---it is simply finding more difficulty is expressing itself. The American Ex Libris Journal was in existence but one year, the English Ex Libris Journal flourished for eighteen years but was suddenly discontinued, leaving the Booklet as the sole means of expression on the subject of book-plates in the English language. There are many foreign Ex Libris Societies publishing journals but they are devoted almost entirely to plates of their own nationality---and these plates permit of a different treatment than that necessary for our modern American and English plates.

     Mr. Cheney has said that the Booklet has not been financially successful, and that is ordinarily a rather serious defect. But enthusiasm should overcome the objection to lack of gain if the Booklet can only be made to maintain itself. And that is all I ask---that the proposition be not a loser even though it may not prove what would ordinarily be termed a successful financial venture. If my work may prove worthy of approbation it will have proven its own reward.

     So will all good intentions we shall strive to add at least one more successful volume to the existence of the Book-Plate Booklet and we shall try to make it a worhty successor to those that have gone before.

 

(courtesy of Alfred Fowler,The Bookplate Booklet, March 1911, Volume 4, Number 1, pp. 8,9, Missouri Valley Special Collection, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, accessed March 21, 2010)

memos

Who did Alfred Fowler find?
There are clues in the memos that follow.

 

In the monthly memo with the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art

and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, May 12-31 of 1935

there is the following news flash.

"THE WOODCUT SOCIETY: Due to the cooperation of its director, Mr. Alfred Fowler, the Third Annual Exhibition of the Woodcut Society is inaugurating its tour of the United States in our Print Galleries. This year's group is especially fine and has representations from America, Europe, Japan, and Australia. There are outstanding works Lionel Lindsay, 

Thomas W. Nason, C.F. Tunnicliffe, Frau Nortertine von Bressleru-Roth, and Y. Urushibara. It will remain on exhibition until Mar 15th."

                           ----------------------------------------------------------

Many of these artists are known within the Woodcut Society with the exception of two. (Neither one of these are in the Nelson-Adkins Museum of Art print collection.) C.F. Tunnelicliffe and Yoshijiro Urushibara. Double click on images to enlarge.

 

 C.F. Tunnelicliffe (1901-1979)

See Tunnelicliffe examples:

 'The Shorthorn Bull', Wood Engraving, 1935

 

'Stallion and Groom', Wood Engraving, c. 1935

 

 

See bio on C.F. Tunnelicliffe of Cheshire,
England  HERE and HERE

 

   "Success drove Tunnicliffe ever more towards wood engraving as a graphic medium. He had adapted to it very quickly and the speed and proficiency with which he engraved his blocks were quite remarkable. He told the publishers of A Book of Birds (1937) that he expected to complete between seventy and eighty engravings within three months."

(Tunnelicliffe images courtesy of Fine Print Shop-United Kingdom, http://www.fineprintshop.co.uk/browse.asp?types=Tunnicliffe%2C+C%2E+F%2E+%281901%2D79%29+Memorial+Collection+Part+One&reset=1, accessed Sept. 29, 2012)

 

Yoshijiro Urushibara (Japanese 1888-1953), also known as Mokuchu

 

 See Urushibara examples:

"Moonlight, Bournemouth",

 (courtesy of Haji-b, http://haji-b.blogspot.com.au/, accessed Sept. 29, 2012)

 

"Queen of the Night",

(courtesy of Haji-b, http://haji-b.blogspot.com.au/, accessed Sept. 29, 2012)

 

"Cyclamen", Paper Size: 348 x 235 mm, Image Size: 302 x 202 mm

(courtesy of Fine Print Shop, http://www.fineprintshop.co.uk/urushibara%2C-yoshijiro-%281888-1953%29%2C-%27cyclamen%27%2C-colour-woodcut%2C-1920s.~849, accessed Sept. 29, 2012)

 

"Ten Woodcuts"

 

See bio on Yoshijiro Urushibara HERE and HERE and HERE

 More on Urushibara HERE

 

Urushibara was an important figure in woodblock printing. He probably taught printmaking to such artists as Allen Seaby, John Platt and Walter J. Phillips. He did his own carving and printing and often carved and printed the works of others artists as well. (Courtesy of Woodblock Prints,http://www.woodblock-prints.com/fin_pri.htm; W.J. Phillips, Woodcut Society courtesy of Keith Sheridan, http://www.keithsheridan.com/Phillips.html, accessed Sept 17. 2012)

 

1924/note-to-australian-wood-engravers

A Note to Australian Wood Engravers
Mr. Alfred Fowler, editor of The Woodcut Annual, 17 Board of Trade,  Kansas City, M.O., U.S.A., writes to Art in Australia:-

     "Will you permit me to ask all of your readers who are artists in wood-engraving to send me certain information about all of the blocks they make during 1924? This information should give the title of the print, the size, and any information about the states and edition as well as other interesting facts concerning each block."

    "This information will be used in an annual list of contemporary wood-cuts, which will be one of the features of The Woodcut Annual for 1925 which I am now preparing. Other features will comprise several illustrated articles about wood-engraving and reviews of all the more important woodcut books published during the year."

    "A printed form will be supplied to artists for conveniently describing their blocks, on application to the Editor of The Woodcut Annual."

(courtesy of Art in Australia Third Series No. 8 (June 1924) via email Jayson Althofer, Australia, Apr 14, 2012)