A journal by artist and designer John Coulthart.
Design
Continuing the delve into back issues of Jugend magazine, the German fin de siècle periodical of “art and life”, this post covers the year 1898. As before, Jugend was so copiously illustrated that the selection here can only scratch the surface. Anyone wanting to see more of these graphics is advised to explore the bound volumes at the Heidelberg University archive. The two books for 1898 can be found here and here.
Belmont glass dial (1937).
Something you’ll never get with your digital radio, fancy dials for the analogue spectrum. From Indiana Radios which has a lot more wireless ephemera.
left: Sparton glass dial (1936); right: Fada glass dial (1937).
The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (and sporting my design inside and out) is now in print. The grotesque creatures on the jacket and inside are from a celebrated set of prints by Arent van Bolten.
• More VanderMeeria: my cover for Jeff’s novel Finch continues to garner attention. Artist John Picacio selected it as part of his contribution to this discussion of genre cover designs (thanks John) and io9 followed up by choosing it from SF Signal’s selection.
• Graphic design: the Ballets Russes at BibliOdyssey; Julian Montague’s “books from an invented intellectual history” at A Journey Round My Skull; Women, Snakes and Stalkers, book covers from the PK (Indo-Iranian languages and literatures) section of the University of Chicago’s Regenstein library (also here); I want this book: Arabesque – Graphic Design from the Arab World and Persia.
• Photography: Richard Davies’ documenting of Russia’s wooden churches; Dave Walsh’s fata morgana mirages in the Arctic.
• Illustration: Jacob Escobedo at Sci-Fi-O-Rama; Mahlon Blaine reprinted.
• The gays: Oliver Frey (aka Zack) has originals of his erotic art for sale; 100 is the third book of erotic portraits from photographer Dylan Rosser.
• Silent Porn Star is back. Related: Susie Bright praises sexual expression.
• The Libel Reform Campaign is trying to reform England’s egregious libel laws. Sign their petition here.
• RIP: Victor Arwas, art collector, writer and scholar; Alex Chilton, musician and record producer.
• The record sleeve that’s also the record player.
• Song of the week: Guess I Was Dreaming by The Fairytale (1967).
Shades of Toho: the city of San Francisco encounters its octopoid nemesis on this gig poster from DKNG. Via OMG Posters!
• Related to the above: Godzilla Haiku.
• View from Another Shore: a fantastic (so to speak) and overdue interview with Franz Rottensteiner, writer and editor of landmark studies of fantasy and science fiction.
• Ronald Searle: a life in pictures: an appreciation by Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell.
• 832 masks: The Maskatorium at Flickr.
• The Cult of the Theremin: lots of theremin links including this page of scans from a beautiful Art Deco theremin brochure. (Thanks to Kara for the tip!) Related: the DIY IKEA lamp theremin.
• Music & Science Fiction, an exhibition at Maison d’Ailleurs.
• Nathalie found a stoned angel in Rome.
• EVB’s Boy of the Week is a Spanish guy in his underwear drawn by Jacobo Labella.
• Film of the month: Sally Potter’s Orlando on DVD, featuring the luminous enigma of Tilda Swinton.
Broche Marguerite.
Still in the 19th century, and more contributions to the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900. The first and third of these are collaborations between Art Nouveau designer Eugène Grasset and jeweller brothers Henri & Paul Vever. The butterfly woman is Henri Vever’s own creation.
Well-known jewellers since the 1870s, Henri and Paul Vever broke new ground at the Universal Exhibition of 1900 when they presented a new line of “artistic” jewellery alongside more traditional pieces. They asked the decorator Eugène Grasset to design the new pieces. Grasset, who was the author of the famous vignette on Larousse dictionaries: “Je sème à tous vents”, had trained as a sculptor, designed furniture, posters, stained-glass windows and ceramics and made a name as an illustrator. (More.)
Sylvia.
Apparitions.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Exposition Universelle catalogue
• Jewelled butterflies and cephalopods
• Exposition Universelle publications
• Exposition cornucopia
• Return to the Exposition Universelle
• The Palais Lumineux
• Louis Bonnier’s exposition dreams
• Exposition Universelle, 1900
• The art of Philippe Wolfers, 1858–1929
• The Palais du Trocadéro
• Lalique’s dragonflies
• Lucien Gaillard