Antique menu blanks? Stationery?

I have these two sheets of paper that appear to be hand-tinted lithographs. I'm sure they're 19th century, and am leaning toward mid-1800s, but they could be earlier or somewhat later. Has anyone seen pieces like this before?

They seem to be designed for something to be added in the bottom area, but I'm not sure what... perhaps hand-written menus? Or letters? Or... ?

I have no idea why the margins are irregular... don't know if they would have been originally in a book and cut out?

I'm going to post the signatures turned right side up so they're easier to read. I tried enhancing them, but I'm still finding them very hard to make out. Anyone have any guesses?

 

Looks like sig reads N. Sarony. Napoleon Sarony was a famous NY 19th C. photographer and lithographer, and occasionally used N. Sarony on his products, but his known sig looks nothing like what you posted. Maybe an infringement using his name? Maybe his sig evolved over time and that's an early one?

 

Spring, thanks so much. The time frame is right. Here's his signature from 1871, but it was handwritten which I think would likely end up looking different than a signature in a lithograph. Have you seen his signature in lithographs?

 

Found a signature that seems to confirm my prints are by Napolean Sarony...

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/380862




For this 1843 lithograph, Sarony was the artist and Currier was the publisher. (I'm surprised it doesn't say "Currier and Ives" since I believe they were working together at this point.)

It would be nice if my prints were Currier and Ives, too, but since their names don't appear, I assume I couldn't prove it. Searching for Sarony's works, I didn't find anything like my prints... I think tomorrow I'll try searching to see if Currier and Ives published anything like them.

 

My, Sarony (1821-1896) was an interesting person. Here's a site with info on him. The self portrait of him is something else. He and his company, Sarony, Major and Knapp Lithographer of NYC, certainly did a variety of work. Speaking of bitters from your last query on VD Bitter bottle, they even did bitters, liquor, tonic, bottles, Civil War stuff, sheet music, etc... Seems he was an illustrator for Currier & Ives from around 1836 to c1843 when he "joined with James Major starting his own business." The name stayed Sarony and Major until 1853. The company name from 1853-1857 was Sarony and Company and from 1857- 1867 known as Sarony, Major and Knapp. In 1867 Sarony left the firm and established a photography studio where he was noted for celebrity art and pics. It says some of the most famous pics of Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens were done by Sarony. Very very interesting website on Sarony, his art and celebrity photographers. Interesting trivia from website, it seems the photographers paid the celebrities to take their pictures!

"Photographers would pay their famous subjects to sit for them, and then retain full rights to sell the pictures. Sarony reportedly paid famed stage actress Sarah Bernhardt $1,500 to pose for his camera, the equivalent of more than $20,000 today."

http://www.peachridgeglass.com/2012/09/the-great-work-of-sarony-major-knapp-lithographer-new-york/

As your lithograph has only N. Sarony on it, I wonder just when it was done - before 1843 when he was an illustrator for C & I, 1853-1857 when the company name was only Sarony & Co., or after 1867 when he left the company.

As to Currier & Ives, Nathaniel Currier bought out his boss's printing company in 1834 and around 1835 the name was N. Currier, Lithographer. Later his brother Charles Currier joined him. BTW, Charles Currier invented or whatever a lithograph crayon that he patented as Crayola! James Ives joined the company c1852 and a partnership was finalized in 1857 becoming Currier and Ives.
http://currierandives.com/

--- Susan

 

Pat, to my eyes at least the page in your fourth photo really looks like the left edge (white border as I am viewing your photo) of the paper was perforated. Those tiny white "dangles/shreds" of paper remnants along the edge have been witnessed by me too many times when I "tore/tore out" something perforated, especially from a "binding" of some sort where you can't really get a good, clean purchase on the paper to have the perforations "give up their hold perfectly/equally."

P.S. Both are quite lovely, but the second one is my favorite.

 

Pat, what size are they? And what is the difference in the size of the side (vertical) margins?

Even without those measurements I'm leaning toward "menu cards" at this point. They would be perfect for a ladies' luncheon.

 

Napoleon Sarony was quite a character -- I've got lots of his photos and have a book about his photography, too.

Fig

 

WOW!

 

Pretty!

 

Sarony's photos are pretty easy to find, still. In my experience they are always well posed. That is one of the qualities for which Sarony photos are known. Here is one from my collection. A cabinet card photo of actress Adelaide Neilson dressed for her role in Shakespeare's "Cymbeline."

 

Thanks for the replies and info!

Susan, I agree he was an interesting person. I haven't found any indication that Sarony did this type of work on his own, but did find some Currier and Ives prints that are similar, although they don't have the blank area at the bottom. My current hypothesis is that my prints were published by Nathaniel Currier while Sarony worked for him, so circa 1836 to 1843. The timing fits, since according to the article about Sarony, later on he used chromolithography to produce prints in color and my pieces aren't chromolithographs. Chromolithography was a less expensive process, and once it caught on it started to dominate the printing industry for commercial prints in color. The fact that my pieces are hand-colored lithographs and not chromos was the main reason I felt they're probably mid-1800s rather than later.

Yourturn, I don't have them in front of me at the moment, but they're around the size of our copy paper or a little smaller. When I have them in hand, I'll look more closely at the edges to see what's going on there, also the back.

Fig, Sarony's photo certainly would seem to attest to his being a character! Does the book on his photography talk at all about his earlier work as an artist and/or lithographer?

King, thanks!

 

Although these Currier & Ives prints are from the 1870s and don't appear to be signed, they remind me of my prints. At least it tells me that Currier & Ives did similar work later on.

http://springfieldmuseums.org/collections/item/queen-of-the-garden-currier-ives/
http://springfieldmuseums.org/collections/item/the-flower-vase-currier-ives/
http://springfieldmuseums.org/collections/item/a-feast-of-roses-currier-ives/

The prints had links to request digital copies from the museum, which I've done.

 

Hmm... this print by Sarony and Major, attributed to circa 1850, seems to have a similar signature. So I'm revising my hypothesis to include the possibility that Sarony's own company may have published my prints.

Plus the fact that Currier's name doesn't appear on the sheets might well signify he had nothing to do with my prints since Currier/Currier & Ives seem to always have put their name(s) at the bottom.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lovers-Morning-Recreation-Sarony-Major-1850.jpg

 

Pat, Yes -- there are a few pages of discussion of his work as artist and lithographer. And the author cites the sources he used. The book I have is Ben L. Bassham, The Theatrical Photographs of Napoleon Sarony. Published in 1978 by Kent State University Press. His sources are mostly other secondary sources.

I'm not sure how to convey the information to you because this is a paperback book with a very tight binding... opening it wide enough to make either photocopy or scan would certainly break the spine and the pages would become loose and fall out. Let me think about this. I might be able to type a transcription of those areas, but it would take a while. It's text intensive. Right now I have some other things to do, but maybe later I can send you something?

 

Oh, that would be nice of you, Fig, but I don't want to put you out. Maybe if you wouldn't mind typing out just one or two sources that sound promising?

What you're encountering is the problem sellers run into when trying to get images of books, magazines and catalogs. A tight binding is a big marketing plus, but a pain when it comes to scanning or photographing the item!

 

Okay, here are some sources that are footnoted in the part where the art and lithography are discussed:

Harry T. Peters, America on Stone (New York, 1931), 351-352, 356.

Joseph and Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Lithography and Lithographers, Some Chapters in the History of the Art (London, 1898), 250.

Harry T. Peters, Currier & Ives, Printmakers to the American People (Garden City, NY, 1942), 123, 125.

Frank Weitenkampf, American Graphic Art (New York, 1912), 270-271.

Lyell Carr, "A Dream Painter," The Quarterly Illustrator, Vol. 2, 1894, 372.

Some of these may not be talking about Sarony himself... the essay puts things in a historical context and I can't always tell what the footnotes are referring to. But they might be fun to read!

I'm guessing that some of the older ones might be digitized online somewhere based on their age. Also, Sarony may be discussed on more pages in these books than the pages that are cited!

 

Fig, thank you so much! With a little luck one or more will come up. I'll let you know after I do some research.

 

Fig, I was able to bring a few of these publications up in Hathi Trust and download them as well. There's not a lot about Sarony, but were some tidbits that add a little more to the picture. Plus it got me looking on Hathi Trust for more books on printing... a good thing!

Thanks, again!

 

I wonder if they were from a sample book - showing what was available if a company wanted to use his images.