Master Labels 8/30/04

Arthur Rackham (1867 – 1939)

Self-portrait, 1924

Pastel, from Sketch book F1

RBML, Arthur Rackham Collection

11b.

Arthur Rackham (1867 –1939)

Sketchbook for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ca. 1908

Pencil, 18 pages, Sketch book F4

RBML, Arthur Rackham Collection
This haunting self-portrait reveals the genius of one of England’s most renowned children’s book illustrators. Born in 1867, Arthur Rackham entered the Lambeth School of Art in 1884. From 1885 to 1892 he worked as a clerk in an insurance office. In 1893 he began what would be his life’s work, illustrating the Ingoldsby Legends, and Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare. He became famous with Grimm’s Fairy Tales in 1900, and Rip Van Winkle in 1905, and through an exhibition held at the Leicester Galleries in 1905. The Rackham collection at Columbia University contains 413 drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings, as well as 30 sketch books, including this one of sketches for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In addition, the collection contains some 400 printed books and ephemera.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred C. Berol, 1967
12.

W. R. Johnson (b. 1933)

Lilac Wind, poems by W.R. Johnson on a pulp painting made by Claire Van Vliet with Kathryn Clark

Newark, VT.: Janus Press, 1983

1 folded sheet, 9 pp.

RBML, Book Arts Collection

Claire Van Vliet established the Janus Press, one of the country’s most creative private presses, in 1955, at West Burke, Vermont. Over the past fifty years, the Press has become known for its harmoniously balanced textual and visual elements, as well as for the careful consideration of inks, complex bindings, papers, boxmaking, and typography. Lilac Wind consists of a single printed sheet in which the illustration is integral to the paper itself, produced by the “painted papers” technique. The text poem by W.R. Johnson was printed on a pulp painting made by Van Vliet with Kathryn Clark, rendering each of the 150 copies unique. The Rare Book and Manuscript Library holds a complete collection of the books and ephemera produced by the Janus Press.
Purchase, 1983
13.

Vincent Fitz Gerald & Company

Maquette for The Reed, by Jalaluddin Mohammad Rumi, translated by Zahra Partovi

Watercolor, ink and pencil on cut paper, by Susan Weil, 1989

RBML, Vincent Fitz Gerald & Company Archives
The fine press company created by Vincent Fitz Gerald, a Columbia alumnus, is the embodiment of that nexus of creativity that makes New York City such a vital place. Through the generosity of Sylvia and Joseph Radov, the Rare Books and Manuscript Library now owns a nearly complete run of the publications of Vincent Fitz Gerald & Company, and also holds a significant portion of its archives.
As Village Voice theater critic, translator, and Columbia alumnus, Michael Feingold, a member of the company, has written: “In our degraded age of uncaring mass manufacture ... one artist was able to find so many kindred souls to share his love for works that are beautiful, meaningful, individual and scrupulously made.” Fitz Gerald has brought together the work of such authors as Jalaluddin Mohammad Rumi, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Edith Sitwell, Lee Breuer, and David Mamet with artists such as Susan Weil, Judith Turner, Edward Koren (also a Columbia alumnus), Neil Welliver, Dorothea Rockburn, and James Nares. Texts have been newly translated by Zahra Partovi, yet another graduate of Columbia, and Michael Feingold. Other members of the company include artisans such as book designer and calligrapher Jerry Kelly, paper artist Paul Wong of Dieu donné Papermill, and printer Daniel Keleher of Wild Carrot Press, in addition to Partovi, who is also a book binder.
Purchased with funds provided by Sylvia and Joseph Radov, 2003
East Asian Collections
14.

Oracle Bone

China, Shang Dynasty, ca. 1300 – 1015 BCE

Scapula, (11.4 cm. x 18 cm.)

C. V. Starr East Asian Library
An image of this bone is seen in countless textbooks as an example of the earliest Chinese writing. Dating from about 1300 to 1050 bce, it is a fine example of an authentic oracle bone. Questions of moment to the ruler and his people, about weather related to agriculture, about marriages of importance to the state, and about sacrifices important to the order of the world, were scratched onto the surfaces of bones or shells. Then heat was applied, and by the cracks on the surface, the diviner could read the answers of Heaven. These bones were unearthed by farmers and came to be known only at the turn of the last century. Together they provide information about the life of the ruling class of the Shang dynasty, some 3,250 years ago. Columbia’s collection of oracle bones is an important one, donated over the first half of the twentieth century by a number of scholars and collectors.
15.

China, Zhou Dynasty (1050 – 256 BCE)

Vessel (gui)

Bronze, (height 15.9 cm., bottom diameter 30.5 cm.)

Office of Art Properties
This bronze ceremonial vessel, with its smooth green patina, is a type (gui) that was used as a container for food, probably for grain. The body is round, with two dragon head handles and a band of conventional dragon motifs on the upper part. The vessel is raised on three legs, which are given the form of human figures.
Sackler Collections at Columbia University

16.

Hyakumantō dhārāni (One million pagoda dhārāni)

Kyoto, Japan: 764-770 CE

Cypress and cherry wood, (height 13.6 cm., bottom diameter 10.5 cm.)

C. V. Starr East Asian Library

As a gesture of appeasement (disguised as a gesture of Buddhist piety) after a political power conflict between the monk Dōkyō (d. 772) and the aristocrat Fujiwara no Nakamaro (706-764), the Empress Shōtoku (r. 764-770) ordered the production of one million miniature wooden pagodas with copies of at least four different dhārāni (mantras or charms). These pagodas, containing the rolled-up dhārāni, were then distributed to ten major temples. Most have been destroyed or lost over time. Only the Hōryūji (a monastery temple in Ikaruga, Nara prefecture) still owns approximately 1700 of its original one hundred thousand sets. In addition it is estimated that almost as many sets are held in public and private collections. The pagodas were made of two parts: the hollow bottom portion was made of hinoki (cypress) wood, and the top seven-tiered spire of cherry wood. The dhārāni were printed, most likely by the metal-plate method and, at least tentatively, form the earliest extant examples of printed text. They are also the only known printed texts from the Nara period (710-794), and as such remain of great interest in the history of printing.
17.

Japan, Fujiwara period (12th century CE)

Standing Bodhisattva

Wood, (height 85.1 cm.)

Office of Art Properties
This Bodhisattva, with inlaid eyes of painted crystal, stands on a low, lotus pedestal.
Sackler Collections at Columbia University
18.

Da bo re bo luo mi duo jing (Prajna-paramita sutra)

Fenghua xian: Wang gong ci tang, 1162 CE

One volume of six surviving volumes

C. V. Starr East Asian Library

This extremely rare volume was identified by visiting scholar Shen Jin, from Shanghai Municipal Library, in 1987, as one of only six known surviving volumes of the original 600-volume printing of this Buddhist sutra. Printed apparently privately during the Song Dynasty (960 – 1279 CE), it is believed to be the oldest book in the Chinese collections at Columbia University. The Prajna-paramita sutra is one of the most important sacred books of Mahayana Buddhism, and Chinese translations of Indian sutras were used in the spread of Buddhism – and of the Chinese written language as well – throughout East Asia.
19.