A Selection of Charming Paper Knives

A few of the antique tools currently in use on my desks, top to bottom:
a 19th century continental sterling letter opener/bookmark  given to me
by my dear husband last Christmas,
a 19th century coin silver pen knife, engraved "Willie" on one side of the blade and "Mamie" on the other,
 a second coin silver pen knife chased with a rose pattern and beaded edging
and lastly, a shortened  but well-loved Clan Stuart Tartanware page turner.

I love to collect objects that are not only beautiful but useful in daily life as well. Today, I've gathered a collection of paper knives and letter openers for you. In days past, these tools were used to open envelopes and slit the uncut pages of books. While books are generally made with clean, trimmed pages these days (I for one am still happy to bind books in the old way-- I love the deckled effect of pages slit by hand after binding...), a beautiful letter opener or paper knife still has a useful place on an elegant desk. 

An early 20th century  gold-mounted jadeite paper knife, attributed to Faberge.
Because of their lovely fitted boxes, many of Faberge's objets d'art have survived
a century or more in perfect condition. 

A fabulous English sterling and tortoiseshell paper knife from Asprey. This
multi-purpose tool can be used as a page turner, paper knife, letter opener and has a perpetual calendar fitted in the handle--wonderful!

The everyday task of opening envelopes can be swiftly and satisfyingly accomplished by a number of antique desk tools intended for alternative purposes. Page turners were designed to help cultivated newspaper readers avoid ink stained fingers. But with their very long and delicate blades, they often survive in a shortened state, making them perfect for the task of opening envelopes.

A diminutive Victorian silver paper knife with a chain that would have allowed
it to be hung from a chatelaine.

Victorian mother of pearl and tortoiseshell paper knife,.
Image courtesy of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

An early 20th century  McBeth Tartanware pen knife 

Early pen knives were used to trim quills, and are similar in design to more modern multi-purpose folding knives like the one above.  Both make excellent desk companions.

A second Russian paper knife with Faberge and Nicola Schepelew marks.
 This one features a jadeite blade, white guilloché enamelwork, 
and the Russian double-headed eagle coat of arms.
I especially love the beautiful gold swan head at the end.

And now for something completely different:  Charles Dickens' eccentric
paper knife, with an ivory blade and a handle made from his beloved cat's paw.
The blade is engraved: "C. D. In Memory of Bob 1862" the year of Bob's death.

I do hope you'll enjoy hunting for similar tools which are easily found in antiques shops, auction houses and on the internet. William Morris famously said, "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." A meticulously crafted paper knife or letter opener is a joy to look at and to use, and is a perfect opportunity to put Morris' sage advice into action. 

Treasured Books, No. 2: Clifton Fadiman's "Reading I've Liked"

My collection of books by Clifton Fadiman and his daughter, Anne Fadiman live
on my coffee table, ready for perusal the moment the fire is lit. You may notice I have 2 copies
 of "Party of One": recently,I found a copy inscribed by the author, but couldn't bear to
part with my older, well-thumbed and annotated volume...perfectly logical.

 

“And now we welcome the new year, 

full of things that have never been.” 

R.M. Rilke

                                                                                       

Happy New Year, Everyone!

I hope the holidays were wonderful for you all. We had a fantastic holiday season at the bindery and send our thanks to our lovely clientele with hopes that you all will enjoy your pieces for many years to come. After a week of family, friends and time in my favorite reading chair, I'm back with you, invigorated and ready for the adventures of  the new year. 

In these Treasured Books posts, I have the great pleasure of sharing some of my favorite books and authors, all of whom continue to surprise and delight me, and I hope, will do so for you. What better way to begin a new year than with an old friend, an author whose companionship I've enjoyed for many years. I came to know of Clifton Fadiman through the excellent writing of his daughter, the essayist Anne Fadiman. One day, while having a browse in a used book shop, I saw the familiar surname on the spine of a book entitled, "Reading I've Liked: A Personal Selection Drawn from Two Decades of Reading and Reviewing Presented with an Informal Prologue and Various Commentaries," by Clifton Fadiman (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1941). How could I resist?! 

Clifton Fadiman was a man of extraordinary erudition, remembered by many for his work on the radio and television during  the 40's and 50's, but he considered himself primarily as a teacher, or as a  guide to the wisdom of other people. He  believed that the most rewarding of leisure activities is: "the cheerful, unaffected but conscious training and exercise of the mind" ("Any Number Can Play," 1957) and wrote bountifully for that audience on subjects ranging from quantum physics, to  George Santayana to cheese.

After all these years, it took a Google search to discover that my dear Mr. Fadiman has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame... very amusing! If you'd care to see a video of Mr. Fadiman at work,
visit the Encyclopaedia Britannica website (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/200119/Clifton-Fadiman), where they have posted many videos of classes on literature and the humanities
he recorded for the Britannica. They are of their time and very charming. 

In "Reading I've Liked," Mr. Fadiman introduces us to examples of writing culled from his work as a book reviewer for the New Yorker, with each piece introduced with a generous and beautifully constructed essay describing it. One of the things I enjoy most about reading his work is that he is absolutely dedicated to excellence and fine craft in writing, and is of a time before post-post-modernism and bricolage that was unafraid of assessing the quality of a work of art. His superbly well-formed opinions are shared sincerely, clearly and convincingly. Although one may find a passage here or there that feels dated or exclusionary by our contemporary standards, the more common experience is one of awe in the startling prescience of his views on contemporary life.

Mr. Fadiman received the 1993 National Book Foundation's 
Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
at The National Book Awards Ceremony.

In the introductory essay to "Reading I've Liked", entitled "My Life is an Open Book: Confessions and Digressions of an Incurable," Mr. Fadiman writes: “It happens that you will find in this book biographies, anecdotes, brief fiction, semilong fiction, excerpts from novels, sketches, essays (both familiar and formal), a book review, humorous pieces (including one complete book of humor), excerpts from a dictionary, a judicial decision, reflections of nature, a long letter, an excerpt from a speech, and a collection of epigrams.” There is one constant among all these pieces, he writes: “I believe everything you will read here, if the product of hands other than my own, is of its kind extremely well written.” 

This is one of those wonderful, classic books that lends itself to rereading, along with so many other of Mr. Fadiman's works. He famously said, "when you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before, you see more in you than there was before," and I  enthusiastically agree. On these cold, snowy evenings, it's one of my great pleasures to open any of them up to a random section, and sit by the fire with my old friend. I believe that if you come by any of his works, (not such a difficult task thanks to Amazon and ABE Books), you'll be similarly rewarded. 

Clifton Fadiman, 1904-1999

Christmas at the Bindery

A commission-in-progress at the bindery: ingredients for a set of bespoke Parvum Opus Christmas
crackers include fountain pens, tiny bookmarks, ink  cartridges in fun colors,
and of course, a paper crown and a very bad joke. The center of the cracker awaits decoration.

Each Christmas, along with our holiday commissions, we look forward to constructing Christmas crackers at the bindery. We make them in small batches in the traditional way, jacketing cardboard tubes in beautiful papers and filling them with special treats customized for a particular family or event.  Of course the classic ingredients are all there: friction snaps, tissue paper hats and very bad (yet artfully chosen) jokes, but we take great pleasure in choosing extra special  trinkets for our crackers.

Some of the elements for this project gathered on a work table.

In the past, these have included vintage sterling silver charms and lockets, antique bird calls, antique collapsing travel cups, monogrammed seals and sealing wax sticks, custom address labels, and more. Today, we're putting the finishing touches on a set of six crackers for a family of bibliophiles, and so have filled each one with a Kaweco Sport fountain pen. 

The Kaweco Sport fountain pen is available in a variety of fun colors 
and nib sizes, making it a nice choice for these literary crackers.

This petite German pen was chosen for its beautiful line quality, and since it's only 4" long when closed, it's a perfect fit for the limited capacity of the cracker tube. Along with the pen we've included a packet of ink cartridges in festive colors, and a set of tiny handmade bookmarks made here in the bindery. For this particular set, the crackers are finished in a classic embossed tartan paper and tied with bright green double-faced satin ribbons--simple and festive!

A bundle of tiny 4" tall duodecimo bookmarks made with
Italian, French and Japanese papers here at the bindery.

According to Wikipedia, "The Christmas Cracker was devised in 1847 by an English confectioner and stationery manufacturer,Thomas J. Smith of London, whilst on holiday in Paris with his family. In the early days, the crackers were called Bon-Bons - meaning lollies or sweets in French - and as a consequence were still quite small in size with a fairly plain wrapping. Later he added a colored outer wrapper and a friction strip – consisting of two overlapping strips of cardboard coated with a small amount of explosive powder - that is inside all ordinary crackers - and joined together, which became known as a "snap" - because when the cracker is pulled apart the strips rub across each other setting off a chemical reaction that produces an audible bang."

An early example of Tom Smith's Christmas Cracker packaging

Upon his return to London, Mr. Smith combined the elements of the bon-bon with a trinket, novelty gift, tissue paper hat and a joke, and the Christmas cracker as we know it was born. The English tradition of placing a cracker at each place setting at Christmas dinner has spread cheerfully across the globe, and is a highlight of the season for countless families, my own included. 

Another example of a box of Tom Smith crackers, this one ca.1891

Participating in this Christmas tradition is a joy for us at the bindery, and we look forward to these small but meaningful projects all year long.    

We send you all our warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday season, a very Merry Christmas,  and hope that the new year brings health, happiness and all good things for you and your families. 

Sunken Treasure

The third painting from the 2013 Parvum Opus Desk Calendar:
A Gold Cup, Peru? 1670-1715, from the cargo of the Santo Cristo
de San Roman, sunk in 1715

After a long absence due to an incredibly busy few weeks in the bindery, I'm very pleased to be back and to bring you the third installment of posts on the antique art objects from the Parvum Opus 2013 Desk Calendar. As you may recall, each year we add twelve new motifs to our library of original watercolor paintings, which are then featured in our desk calendars, ex libris bookplates and address labels. All of these can of course be seen at http://www.parvumopus.com.

 

For the month of March, I chose to paint a three hundred year-old  gold cup, probably from Peru, filled with a jaunty posy of hydrangea and ivy: a perfect complement for any elegant desk, wouldn’t you say? Interestingly, it’s one of two pieces of sunken treasure featured in this year’s calendar. This cup was part of an enormous load of treasure aboard the Spanish galleon, San Cristo de San Roman, sunk during a hurricane off the coast of Florida in 1715.
 

A Spanish galleon, by Everett Hickam:
a sister to the Santo Cristo de San Roman, perhaps?
 

According to Allen Tony at Wrecksite.com, “Santo Cristo de San Roman brought up the rear of the fleet and acted as a guard ship. The 450 tons ship was armed with 54 cannons. The holds of the ship contained the second largest amount of treasure within the fleet. The manifest is as follows: 2,687,416 pesos in silver and gold, 53 chests of worked silver, 14 chests of Chinese porcelain, 728 leather bags of cochineal, 1,702 leather bags and chests of indigo, 139 sheets of copper, 682 tanned leather hides, 26 chests of pottery, 48 chests of vanilla beans, balsam, liquid amber, chocolate, oaxaca, cochineal, brazilwood and sasparilla. During the hurricane of 1715 she ran aground on a reef when 1,500 feet from the shore, eventually coming to rest on the second reef when 700 feet from the shore in 12 feet of water.”

A map of just a few of the shipwrecks off the coast of Florida,
including the San Roman, second from the top.

The San Roman’s treasure had been destined for Spain where it surely would have been useful to the heavily debt-burdened Philip V (no comment). After her sinking, recovery of the San Roman's treasure began almost immediately. Our gold cup was among those objects recovered by divers in 1715.

As you can see in the painting, despite being slightly dented from its underwater adventures, this is a very sensitively worked cup. This is not at all surprising given the long history of goldsmithing in South America. Metal working in the New World seems to have developed in the Andean region of modern Peru, Colombia and Bolivia with gold being hammered and shaped into intricate objects, (particularly ornaments) as early as 2155 to 1936 BCE. Gold in the Americas was an especially prized material, valued for its religious symbolism. For the Inca and other peoples of the Andean region of South America, gold was thought of as the "sweat of the sun," the most sacred of all deities.

 

 



An early Inca sun motif gold mask



 

Our anonymous South American goldsmith formed this beautiful cup from a sheet of gold, alternating between hammering and heating the metal until it had the desired shape. This was no brutish, primitive task: the molecules in the gold had to be hammered carefullly into alignment to create a rigid, but not brittle finished vessel.  He would have soldered the two handles, and then worked the design on the cup using  complex techniques of repoussé and chasing. In repoussé, specialized tools are used to impress the design into the metal from the back (repoussé being from the French, “pushed up”). About three hundred forty years ago, then, our artist ancestor would have refined his design by delicately working with chisels from the front of the cup (chasing). Having studied metalwork during my art school years and after, I romantically imagine that his chasing tools, made specifically for his hand, would not have been so very different than my own handmade tools, forged with the guidance of my undergraduate mentor.

 

 A selection of handmade chasing tools, reminiscent of some of my own,
courtesy of Anvil Fire

 

How wonderful that in a time in which we value the virtual more highly than many things, working with one’s hands provides a unique path towards understanding our ancestors and the objects they created. Using the traditional, sometimes even ancient craft techniques and tools passed down through generations of artisans, allows us to relate to the people and objects of the past on a very human, intimate level. Brilliant.

 

If you'd care to learn more about the history of gold in South America, I invite you to take a look at this video tour of the magnificent Gold Museum in Bogota, Colombia. Having visited many times myself, I can tell you that the predominant golden hue of this video wonderfully represents  the fantastic, unreal glow of the place. Enjoy!

                                           http://youtu.be/X4aZDhAA2WM

Anatomy of the Well-Dressed Desk, Part 4: Pen Wipes

 

A  very stylish bronze lizard pen wipe with boar bristles, ca. 1900

 

Every well-dressed desk includes fine writing tools, and we all have our personal favorite pens and pencils that perfectly suit our needs. There are many excellent sources for information on writing instruments, and one of my favorites is the very informative blog, Palimpsest. So today, rather than concentrating on writing instruments, I thought I'd introduce a lesser known desk accessory, the pen wipe.

 

A rare Tiffany glass mosaic pen wipe, 1906

 

In the early years of letter writing, before the ballpoint pen and fountain pen, writers used quills or dip pens which were dipped into an inkwell for use. Since this operation tended to result in messy drips, pen wipes were developed and came into widespread use along with the steel nib pens produced in Birmingham England in the very early nineteenth century.

 

A more humble early 19th century cloth pen wipe:
the pen nib is inserted between the layers of fabric for cleaning

 

Thankfully, our letter-writing ancestors were not content to simply use a scrap of fabric to clean their pens. Pen wipes were made in countless ingenious forms, from hand-sewn discs of cloth with embroidered embellishments, to fine figurative sterling silver examples. Usually measuring no more than 3 inches across, they make helpful and alluring writing mascots.

 

A sterling silver pig pen wipe with boar bristles, hallmarked Birmingham, 1912

 

Even today, a carefully chosen pen wipe can be a charming and functional addition to a handsome desk. I favor fountain pens for my correspondence, and have found that not only are my little pen wipes enjoyable to use, but they've become something of a record of the colored ink experiments that accompany my letter writing, like a well used artist's palette.

 

A recent commission at the bindery for a fountain pen enthusiast:
A set of stacking fountain pen trays and a matching chamois pen wipe
all made with French marbleized paper

A cold painted bronze dog pen wipe, Vienna ca. 1900

Another cold painted bronze example from Vienna, ca. 1900

A simple and handsome Sampson, Mordan & Co. Victorian pen wipe in sterling silver 

 

A 19th century tartanware pen wipe in the form of a knife box
  

The next time you find yourself scribbling on a scrap of paper to get the ink in your pen flowing, perhaps you'll be inspired by these stylish and functional objects produced by our very elegant predecessors. As William Morris said, "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." Wise words, indeed.

 

 

Porcelain of the K'ang-hsi Period

The February 2013 desk calendar illustration: a porcelain jar and cover, 1661-1722, China

 

Today I'd like to share another watercolor painting I did for for our 2013 desk calendar, which depicts a stunning Chinese blue and white porcelain jar and cover from the reign of K'ang-hsi, 1661-1722. With so much mass-produced junk on the market, some may feel blue and white porcelains are uninteresting ubiquitous. I feel, however, that antique blue and white porcelains from Asia and Europe are so finely made and have such interesting histories, that perhaps a little background information on this exquisite art form and the ruling emperor of the period will restore the magic...

 

A porcelain charger from the K'ang-hsi period

 

According to Jeffrey Munger and Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chinese porcelains were introduced into Europe in the fourteenth century, and were regarded as extremely rare and luxurious objects. "By the early sixteenth century—after Portugal established trade routes to the Far East and began commercial trade with Asia—Chinese potters began to produce objects specifically for export to the West and porcelains began to arrive in some quantity...The porcelains were often stored at the lowest level of the ships, both to provide ballast and because they were impervious to water, in contrast to the even more expensive tea stored above. The blue-and-white dishes that comprised such a significant proportion of the export porcelain trade became known as kraak porcelain, the term deriving from the Dutch name for caracca, the Portuguese merchant ship. Characteristic features of kraak dishes were decoration divided into panels on the wide border, and a central scene depicting a stylized landscape." (You may notice that these features are indeed visible on the lidded jar in my  painting above.)

 

A grouping of K'ang-hsi miniatures

 

Mr. Munger and Ms. Frelinghuysen continue, "Porcelain decorated only in blue pigment painted under the glaze dominated the export trade until the very end of the seventeenth century...With the appearance of porcelain factories in Europe in the early eighteenth century, the demand for Chinese export porcelain began to diminish, and by the second half of the century the trade was in serious decline... New geographical markets, however, revitalized the export porcelain industry. Following the nation's newfound independence in 1784, America officially entered into trade with China. Consistent with European trade, American agents in China expedited special orders for clients... By the late nineteenth century, Chinese export porcelains, especially blue-and-white ware, had achieved a status in this country above the merely utilitarian. Looked upon with nostalgia, they became emblematic of the colonial era."

 

The young K'ang-hsi Emperor

From Jonathan Spence of  Yale, we learn about the fascinating K'ang-hsi Emperor himself: "Hsüan-yeh, born in 1654, reigned from 1661 to 1722 as the K'ang-hsi Emperor. He was one of China's greatest rulers, and his reign was not only the longest but also one of the most vibrant and complex in the history of imperial China. Though he could be callous or negligent at times, and made errors of judgment, he possessed a self-analytical acuity and a sense of imperial mission that mark him as one of those rare individuals who, by acts of will, change the course of human history. It has not escaped the notice of numerous historians – Chinese, Japanese, and Western – that his reign coincided chronologically with those of Tsar Peter the Great in Russia and King Louis XIV in France, and that the three shared certain common characteristics that marked perhaps the apogee of traditional kingship in pre-industrial societies."

The K'ang-hsi Emperor in court dress,



Tsar Peter the Great,

 

and King Louis XIV-- three peas in a pod.



"Any emperor of China was, of course, merely one individual, occupying a special position within his society but unable to comprehend all that society's ramifications. Also, the actions and thoughts ascribed to him were often those of others, of relatives, courtiers, eunuchs, bureaucrats. Therefore we must be cautious about seeing the ruler as the reign, of narrowing our own vision to the emperor's own. Nevertheless, the K'ang-hsi Emperor acted decisively in so many matters, and took so great an interest in affairs of governance and of culture, that his actions and his personality serve as a valid entry point for comprehending the myriad elements that led to the consolidation of Ch'ing rule."

 

From the series: The Cambridge History of China

Volume 9 Part 1Part one: The Ch'ing Empire to 1800
Chapter TitleChapter 3: The K'ang-hsi Reign
Publication Date2002
AuthorJonathan D. Spence

Jonathan Spence is also the author of a highly regarded biography of K'ang-hsi entitled  Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K'ang-hsi. It is widely available through online booksellers, with an ISBN as follows: 978-0679720744. I just ordered one myself!

If your curiosity has been piqued, you may  also enjoy this link to a very interesting YouTube documentary video on the history of Chinese porcelains:

                                                      http://youtu.be/LZSHq95fug4

And as always, you are most welcome to visit www.parvumopus.com to see all of our 2013 calendar motifs.

Treasured Books, Vol. 1: An Almanac for Moderns

This post is the beginning of a new series in which I'll share some of my treasured books. As you will see, my favorite books from a sort of interrelated web of ideas. Given the change of seasons, an appropriate place to start is with An Almanac for Moderns, by Donald Culross Peattie. Born in Chicago in 1898, Peattie studied poetry at the University of Chicago and then botany at Harvard.

In 1935, he published An Almanac for Moderns. I was first introduced to this book by one of my favorite essayists, Clifton Fadiman (more on Clifton later) in his excellent "Reading I've Liked." Here's what Mr. Fadiman had to say about Peattie's Almanac:

"Though not of their stature, Mr. Peattie has in him the spirit of Thoreau and Huxley. He makes tadpole and ants exciting, celebrates the charms of springhouses, pays judicious tributes to the great naturalists who preceded him, comments upon the fact that Edward Lear at twenty was the perfect painter of parrots, ascends to poetry in his comparisons ("the warning cries of herons, like the drop of an old chain on its own coils"), and yet, with all this warmth, never departs from "the scientific frame of mind which does not humanize or sweeten what it must report."

Fadiman continues, " I recommend this book for your spring reading, and, for that matter, for summer, autumn and winter. An eye that, without losing its sense for the human and the transitory, trains itself on such constants as the nuclei of our cells, the death of stars, and the silent multiplication of bacteria can never record observations that are merely seasonable. It reveals, in this case, the very poetry of biology."

"An Almanac for Moderns" is one of the books which I keep always at hand, and no matter how many copies I have at any given time, I always search used bookstore shelves for another to be given as a special gift. It's not a book that needs to be read through in one or two sittings, although I have done many times with great pleasure. But my preferred method is to follow Peattie through the subtle changes in the seasons by reading only one passage per day, enjoying Peattie's elaborations on chitin, or slime mold or Aristotle. It makes me more alert and conscious of the passage of time, and to the world's rhythms.

Donald Culross Peattie. Interestingly, his home in Illinois featured a stained glass circle on the large leaded glass window in the main room. This circle is placed in such a way that the moon appears encircled here on the vernal equinox in the spring and autumnal equinox in the fall--how appropriate for this scientist-poet!

A passage from the "Almanac for Moderns":

"OCTOBER TWENTY-FIFTH

The keynote of spring is growth amongst the plants, reproduction amongst the animals. In summer, it is the reverse; it is the plants that reproduce, the animals that grow. But autumn is the time of fattening. Now the beech nuts ripen their oily kernels; the walnut swells its rich meat through black wooden labyrinths; the wild rice stands high in the marshes, and the woods are filled with their jolly harvest of berries, blue buckthorn, and scarlet bittersweet, black catbrier, holly and mistletoe and honeysuckle. The great green cannonballs of the osage orange drop from the prickly hedges with a thud; under the hawthorns a perfect windfall of scarlet pomes lies drifted, and in the sun the bitter little wild crabs reach their one instant of winy, tangy, astringent perfection.

"This is the moment of abundance for all our brother animals. The harvest mouse is now a wealthy little miser; squirrels can afford the bad investments they make. Opossums paw over persimmons and pawpaws, picking only the tastiest, and like a cloud the cowbirds and grackles and bobolinks wing southward over the wild rice fields, so fat and lazy that the fowler makes an easy harvest of them. Everywhere, on frail bird bones, under the hides of chipmunk and skunk and all four-footed things, fat, the animal's own larder and reserve, is stored away against the bitter months, against lean hunger and long sleep."

Autumn, the season for fattening, indeed!

This fellow is (obviously) a frequent visitor to our feeder, well prepared for the winter.