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Aims of the Grolier Club part 3

The Burlington Fine Arts Club does not publish books, and only a few of its valuable exhibitions are devoted to the arts pertaining to the making of books. The Societe des Amis des Livres publishes books and holds no exhibitions. The Grolier Club unites the three qualities to be found in differing degrees in one or the other of these European clubs: it has frequent meetings at which its members may talk shop and free their souls; it gives exhibitions; and it prints books. (I open a parenthesis here to note that there was once an unpretending little Book Fellows' Club here in New York which printed a tiny tome now and again; and to record that there is a dining club in London caned the Sette of Odde Volumes, for whom a few pretty books mostly of a personal interest and of varying value have already been printed. But neither of these can fairly be called a rival of the Grolier Club.)

I am forced to consider the meetings of the Grolier Club before discussing the books it has published, because certain of its publications have had a previous existence as lectures delivered before the members. During the winter of 1884-85, the first whole season that the club was in full possession of its rooms, Mr. Theodore L. De Vinne lectured on "Historic Printing-Types," Mr. Hoe on "Bookbinding Artistically Considered," and Mr. William Matthews on "Practical Bookbinding." In 1885-86 Professor Chandler lectured on "Photo-Mechanical Processes," Mr. Elbridge Kingsley on "Modern Wood-Engraving," and Professor Knapp on "Thierry Martens and the early Spanish Press." In 1886-87 Mr. W. J. Linton spoke on the "Wood-Engravers of the XVth and XVIth Centuries," Professor R. R. Rice on "The Etchings of Storm van's Gravesande," Mr. Brayton Ives on "Early Printed Books," and Mr. Heromich Shugio on "Oriental Books." In 1887-88 Professor West discussed the" Philobiblon," Professor Russell Sturgis analyzed "Turner's 'Libel' Studiorum,'" and Mr. W. Lewis Fraser considered" Nearly Two Hundred Years of Book-illustrating in America." In 1 888-89 Mr. George Hannah lectured on "Early Printed Books relating to America," and Mr. H. Mansfield on "The Etched Work of Alphonse Legros." In 1890 Mr. W. C. Prime lectured on "Durer and his Contemporaries "; and in 1891 Mr. H. Carrington Bolton discoursed upon a collection of books on alchemy and kindred subjects. In 1892 Mr. Frederick Keppel delivered an address on "Some Masterpieces of. Engraving"; and in 1893 Mr. Charles R. Hildeburn considered the career of "William Bradford, first printer in the Middle Colonies." And in 1 894 Mr. J. Wells Champney read a paper on "Pastels and Pastellists."

The most of these lectures accompanied or preceded special exhibitions of the objects under discussion or of the works of the master eulogized. There were any number of other exhibitions in connection with which no addresses were delivered; indeed these special exhibitions of prints, of portraits, of drawings, of fans, of early printed books, of pictorial posters, of pastels, of etchings and bookbindings old and new are too many to be here catalogued in detail as they deserve.

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