Conservation appeal update

Following on from our recent conservation appeal, we are pleased to announce that all 10 volumes of John Latham’s A general history of birds have now been rebound.

Once again we would like to thank those who generously sponsored the volumes and made the work possible, and to Cyril Formby, our conservator, for doing such a fantastic job. The books are now on display in the gallery, and according to the numerous visitors who have enquired about purchasing them, it would appear that they have made a particularly stunning addition to the Library’s shelves!

A little update...

A little update to let you know that this week, the Portico cataloguing project reached 15,000 volumes! As well as being a lovely round number, this also means that more than half of the Portico’s holdings are available for search online. Currently being catalogued are the Collected Works and the Biography sections. 

Work will start in the upcoming weeks on the treasures held in the reading room...

Our 15,000^th record was Memoirs of Charles Mathews, comedian, by Mrs. Anne Jackson, [Ft 11-3].  Mathews was an English theatre manager and comic actor, famed for his excellent mimicry and work at Drury Lane Theatre. The Portico holds his biography as part of a 4 volume set, and each features several beautifully intricate illustrations of Mathews on stage throughout his career:

To search the library catalogue click here.

Conservation appeal:

John Latham’s A general history of birds

A General History of Birds is often considered to be one of the greatest ornithological books ever published. It was issued in ten volumes between 1821 and 1828, and contains 193 hand-coloured copperplate engravings of unsurpassed beauty. These plates were personally designed, etched and coloured by the English physician, naturalist and author, John Latham (1740-1837), who, having been one of the first naturalists to examine specimens of Australian birds and who was responsible for naming many of them, is often acknowledged as being the “grandfather” of Australian ornithology.

The Portico is lucky enough to hold a first edition set of this seminal work. Unfortunately, however, over the years the individual bindings have deteriorated, and each volume has become increasingly fragile. To ensure it can continue to be used by future generations, it is now in need of urgent conservation and preservation work.

We are currently looking for individuals to sponsor the rebinding of this set. The sympathetic rebinding of each individual volume within the set will cost approximately £135, and in return for your support a permanent bookplate will be placed within your chosen volume(s), recording your name, date, and a dedication of your choice.

If you are interested in sponsoring this work and helping to restore it to its former glory, please contact a member of staff for further details.

Spotlight on the collection: Political Economy

The latest section to be added to the Portico's online catalogue is Political Economy, and one of the treasures unearthed is The Gilbart prize essay on the adaptation of recent discoveries and inventions in science and art to the purpose of practical banking [Kl 25], by Granville Sharp, an accountant in the East of England Bank, at Norwich. 

The prize winning essay was originally published in Banker’s Magazine, winning a £100 prize. Applicants were asked to write an essay or pamphlet based on the Industrial Exhibition of 1851. Also known as the “Crystal Palace Exhibition”, the fair was prompted by the great success of the French Industrial Exhibition on 1844, the first in a series of popular 19^th century World Fairs, displaying industry and culture with a particular focus on new manufactured products. World expositions of this period were often focused towards industry and trade, making Sharp’s reflections applicable not only to banking but “to any and all large commercial establishment [...] this essay should be read with interest by every employer and employee connected with business and trade” – Daily News.

This volume is the third edition of the essay - the only illustrated publication, containing numerous plates, including cheque specimens, bank notes, and patent plans, as well as 15 remarkable wax seals mounted on the back pastedown of the book, as shown below.

 For  access to the Library's online catalogue visit http://www.theportico.org.uk/library/catalogue. 

The lost art of nature printing: The ferns of Great Britain and Ireland

Thomas Moore and Henry Bradbury's The ferns of Great Britain and Ireland was first published in 1855. Containing 51 plates detailing all of the varieties of fern found within the British Isles, it was the first book within Great Britain to be published using the pioneering process of nature printing. The technique involved pressing a specimen leaf onto a thin, soft lead plate to create a very finely detailed intaglio impression. These impressions were then electroplated to form a printing plate, with details then being coloured by hand. The resulting images were particularly vibrant and realistic, being slightly raised off the page as if they were in fact real pressed specimens of the plants. 

Bradbury had studied the process whilst at the Imperial Printing Office in Vienna, where Alois Auer, the director of the office, and his associate, Andreas Worring, had first patented the process in 1852. On his return to London Bradbury patented his own improved version of the process, without crediting Auer. The resulting controversy that developed between the two men was said to have led to Bradbury's suicide at the age of 29. 

Despite a high level of original interest, nature printing was used very little in any subsequent English works. Whilst Bradbury and Auer believed the technique to be a major advance in printing, it could not be employed on an extensive range of plants and other subjects, as they had to be largely two dimensional in nature in order to be reproduced successfully. 

Stereoscopy: 3D imagery in the 19th century

The latest item to be added to the online catalogue is a copy of Charles Piazzi Smyth’s  Teneriffe: an astronomer’s experiment; or, specialities of a residence above the clouds, first published in 1858. As Astronomer Royal for Scotland from 1846-1888, the book describes Smyth’s expedition to Tenerife, where, accompanied by his wife, he spent a month undertaking numerous astronomical, meteorological and geological observations.  What is perhaps of particular interest however are the 20 photo-stereographs used to illustrate the volume. This was the first book ever to be illustrated with stereoscopic photographs, which, upon purchase of a book stereoscope, could be viewed in 3-D.

                As the author explains, ‘if we wish to enjoy the effects of solidity or of distance, effects which are the cynosures of all the great painters, we have only to combine the two photographs stereoscopically, and those bewitching qualities are produced’. 

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Letters Conference: Call for Papers

CALL FOR PAPERS

Yours Sincerely: The Rise and Fall of the Letter 

28-29 June 2013

Manchester, United Kingdom     

The tradition of communication through correspondence can be traced far back in the annals of ancient history, but the rise of technology is daily changing the face and format of the letter. This conference will explore forms of correspondence as they have evolved from simple letters between friends and literary personalities and their shared experiences to revelations, through correspondence, of scientists, statesmen and celebrities. It will also look at the language used in the traditional letter, the email, the text message and the tweet as well as the constant change and development in this form of dialogue from the past and into the future, examining related fields and the letter in its historical and literary contexts.

Papers are sought from all disciplines, including but not limited to literature, history, anthropology, psychology, philosophy and other social sciences and arts.

Proposals are sought for 20 minute papers. Possible themes may include (but are not limited to):

· The changing language of digital correspondence

· Victorian women writers

· Challenges of editing letters

· Evidential value for biographers, historians

· 19^th century letter writers

· 20^th century letter writers

· 21st century letter writers

· Use of letters in fiction as a device

· The epistolary novel

· The lasting value of digital correspondence as an archival or primary source

· The future of letter writing

Abstracts of 250-300 words (for a 20 min paper) should be sent via email to librarian@theportico.org.uk or assistant.librarian@theportico.org.uk by 1st April 2013.

Selected papers may be invited for inclusion in an academic collection of essays following the conference.

An exhibition surrounding the theme of the conference will run from 11th June to the 26th of July at The Portico Library and will tie in with Quarry Bank Mill’s ‘Best Wishes’ exhibition which begins in April and extends to the rest of 2013.