Found: a treasure trove of botanicals

A few weeks ago, I posted the collage "Lila's Magical Night Garden" and noted that it contained a tiny section of a lithograph from a John Lewis Childs seed catalog. I was hoarding the plate, because it was one of only two in my archive. Well, that all changed with a fantastic find this week. Read more about it on the Paper With a Past blog and view five more of the 40 plates that are now mine!

Woo hoo! A spectacular botanical find.

A few weeks ago, on my collage blog, I wrote about parceling out a beautiful lithograph of fuschias from the John Lewis Childs Catalogue of 1887. At the time, it was one of two seed catalog images I had in my library. That has changed.

Earlier this week, I was in a shop, waiting to pay for maps I needed for a few collages, when I began flipping through a box on the front counter. In it: random pages from books that were being sold for 25 cents each. I snapped up pages from a book titled "Friendships Gleanings," which I 'm trying to find out more about. Then I grabbed a few of children from who knows what book. Then, I spotted the worn cover of Chase Brothers Co. New England Nurseries 1902 catalog, "With Camera and Brush." Beneath it: 40 of the 48 lithographs that were originally included. I was momentarily breathless - really - then came to my senses, grabbed all of them and ended up paying just $8 for the batch.

The even-numbered pages are where the "brush" comes in via colorful lithographs printed by Stecher Lithographic Company, which, like Chase, was based in Rochester, N.Y. I'm researching who the artist is. There's a symbol on each plates that looks like a J and a W. The odd-numbered pages are where the "camera" enters with black and white photographs showing the plants in a variety of settings - backyards, front yards, draping porches, etc. - as well as more varieties. Those pages offer a description of the plants shown opposite them and often include a snippet of poetry ("I love the light anemones, That tremble to the faintest Breeze.").

The plates are a bit worse for wear, especially around the edges, but quite a few are in good condition and all are usable. As always, I'll most likely hold some back as too nice to cut up - even after I've finished scanning them into the digital archive.

Eugenie's friends felt it was time for an intervention

No more butterflies after this piece. Honest. This is a work in progress, but I'm so excited about how it's developing, that I had to post it. It's my first real effort of creating a piece in a box, which I've wanted to do since starting collage making.

Yes, I know that the other butterflies were in shallow shadowboxes, but they were essentially flat collages placed in pre-covered cloth boxes.

Foam-core board pushes Eugenie out from the back of the box - a bit hard to see in the scan - and watercolor paper reinforces the butterflies, which float and bend behind and in front of her.

A piece of plexiglass will cover the box and there may be more butterflies; most likely up against the inside of the glass. Yet to be decided: how to attach the glass. Initially, the plan was to drill small holes and screw it on. Now, though, I'm thinking vintage upholstery tacks or something edgier.

Despite the numerous classes I've taken on box making - which included plenty of great tips on how to paper them - I never seem to miter the croners correctly. Here that didn't matter, because the paper is being layered on the box, starting with tissue thin pages on the outside from "The Butterfly Book." Inside, are more pages from "The Butterfly Book," as well as The Chatterbox and a vintage songbook.

As you can see on the back, below, I've been inking the edges and paper. To do that, I used three colors of ColorBox's Fluid Chalk ink. I have scads of the pads but this is the first time I've used them. Love the soft, transparent effect. Well, more when it's finished.

Sumptuous engravings, unscrupulous publisher

I was up in the attic earlier this week rummaging through books for specific images for a few collage series when I came across a battered copy of The Royal Chatterbox. This oversized edition was published by R. Worthington in 1881 and, as I discovered yesterday, the work was pirated. Worthington lifted poems and engravings from the weekly British children's magazine, and repackaged them in a beautiful gift book filled with nostalgic, romantic and idyllic images.

Like many American publishers, Worthington had no qualms about republishing other pubishers' work without their permission. If you think publishing's cut throat now, just return to the 19th century and the early battles over copyright. Publishers Weekly is filled with news stories about copyright infringement.

Worthington won some early fights, defying Estes & Lauriat, the American company with the rights to The Chatterbox, to prove that the Worthington books were identical. "My books are all original in title and matter," he wrote in an ad in the Sept. 27, 1884 issue of Publishers' Weekly. In the end, Worthington got his comeuppance: he went bankrupt after losing the right to publish any book with Chatterbox in the title.

The pages in my book have darkened a bit but the engravings are nothing short of spectacular. I just began scanning them into the digital archive and thought I'd share two examples.

Tag sale!

Well, this week I delivered 90 - yes, 90 - of the Fit To Be Tied® collage tags/bookmarks/whatever to my first retail clients: The Bonbonerie in O'Bryonville and NVISION in Northside. Next: Redtree in Oakley. The orders just about wiped out my inventory, so I whipped up a slew of new tags yesterday and will be working on more next week. Now, if only the Studio Fairy would show up and help me seal, stamp, bag and tag 'em!

Oh, the reason you don't see the hole in most of these is because I am scanning them in before I punch it and add the hand-painted reinforcements. Yeah, another task the Studio Fairy could complete with a swipe of her magic wand.