Rare Book Monthly

Articles - June - 2017 Issue

Print on Cloth

Ephemera is a very large category.  By some estimates it’s at least a hundred times larger than old books.  More likely, it’s five hundred to a thousand times larger.  And it is a broad category that includes many sub-categories that are themselves significant.  Books require commitment and planning, ephemera a press and a few words to communicate.  For those who love books some ephemera is relevant.  Announcements of events and publications, letters by or to an author, as well as sundry related images are often appealing.  Such ephemera however, taken together, probably represents .001 of all that exists.  But what of the rest.

 

Within the ephemera category here are some of the sub-categories:

 

Prints

Broadsides

Manuscripts

Photographs

Trade Cards

Cartes-de-visite

Metals and Ribbons

Flags and buttons

Invoices and Receipts

Post Cards

 

And inevitably there are others including printing on cloth.

 

Some used and rare book dealers recognize that a few categories of ephemera are valuable and that Printing on Cloth is one of them.  A search for ‘satin’ finds 7,764 references in the RBHD, 1 for ‘cloth broadside,’ 7 for printed muslin, 1,070 for printed cloth in quotes, while the same without quotes is 273,198.  On the William Reese website, a search for “printed on silk” finds two very collectible pieces, a Jackson proclamation for $2,250 and a copy of Jefferson’s inaugural for $8,750.  Such silk material is a recognized, if quite scarce, category.

 

But there are many other works on cloth, more plebian, but also very interesting.  They seem to fall into three categories; advertising, notices and warnings.  These often-interesting advertising items were sometimes printed on cloth bags and have by-chance survived.  So too have notices and announcements printed on cloth because they were more durable than paper when posted out-of-doors.   

 

The printing, whether on paper, cardstock or cloth, seems to have been done on the same or similar presses that printed paper notices.  What seems most different are the numbers involved.  Works on cloth survive better but we assume much rarer because so few examples appear. 

 

As to why this category is generally unknown there are few reference books as well as few steady sources.  You can decide you are interested but you’ll be frustrated in your search for such material both because appearances are uncommon and descriptive words not yet codified into a category that sellers can use to identify and buyers use to search.  This will change. 

 

In my collecting area, the history of the Hudson Valley, such material exists and is generally neither important nor expensive.   It is simply rare.  This is a category that I happened upon in local Hudson River Valley sales and later found randomly at shows and online.  It’s extremely appealing.

 

Books are the lynchpin of collectible print but it turns out, only one, of many subcategories that are increasingly visible and therefore methodically collectible.

 

Here are some examples that I have acquired.

 

The first is a 15” x 9” silk broadside, prepared by Richard H. Pease of Albany, to commemorate the New-York, Albany and Troy Steam Boat Line.   A printed notation includes “Rebuilt in the Winter of 1836” [the 6 could be an 8].  It’s an early example, a marvelous survival that I purchased from Antipodean Books, Maps and Prints for $1,600.

 

The second is a 17’6” square advertisement on cloth for “The Celebrated Heidielburgh Portable Hurdle F E N C E  For Sale.  The firm is F. T. Rhoades, Milton, Ulster Co., N. Y.  It appears to date to about 1870. Mr. Rhoades’ facilities were probably located near the Hudson River as this advertisement mentions “Cash on Delivery, to any part of the City of Po’keepsie.”   Poughkeepsie is a few miles north on the east side of the Hudson River.  Milton is on the west side.

 

The third is James McKinney, Iron Founder – Store Fronts, Machine Castings, Iron Sash Weights, Window Cap and Sills, Roof Cresting, And all Castings Plain and Ornamental, used for Building Purposes.  Nos. 18 & 20 De Witt St., Albany.  24” wide x 16” high.  No date but probably 19th century.  Items 2 and 3 cost $75 together.  Both appear to be printed on muslin. 

 

The forth example is a 12” square notice on muslin apparently intended to be posted along roads and land lines.  N O T I C E – Take Warning!  Trespassing of Any Kind, or Hunting or Fishing Forbidden and will be Prosecuted.  It reads:

 

On Lands of J. E. Hasbrouck in Town of Plattekill, Bounded by State Highway running from Highland to Gardiner and State Highway running from Newburgh to Kingston, and Bounded by Lands of J. E. Hasbrouck, Jr., H. Alhusen, E. E. Miller, Albino Shultis, A. L. F. Deyo Est., Mary Deyo, Black Bros., Mrs. Anna LeFevre.

 

Dated August 2, 1928, J. E. Hasbrouck

 

The fifth, and final, example is a 15.5” wide by 21.5” high advertisement with a substantial image of the company’s facility for:

 

Judson, Parsons & Haskell, Wholesale Dealers in COFFEES SPICES &c. and Manufacturers of Ground Coffee, Spices, Mustard, Cream Tartar, Chocolate, Cocoa, Saleratus, &c.

 

Southeast Corner of Exchange and Dean Streets, Albany, N.Y.

 

Signed in print:  A. C. Judson, S. H. Parsons, Wm. H. Haskell

 

The material is, to my eye, deeply appealing.  If as you read this you remember having such material and would like to sell it I’m interested.

 

Print on cloth should become a subset of ephemera and I would hope, in five years, to see both dedicated dealer catalogues and auctions focusing on the category.

 

If you have older printed on cloth material to sell please let me know.  Contact me by phone at 415.823.6678 or by email at bmckinney@rarebookhub.com    

Rare Book Monthly

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  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.

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