A Short Peter Newell Animation
I did not know that orecchio acerbo, who published my Italian translation of Peter Newell’s Slant Book last year, had also produced a short booktrailer which you can see on YouTube:
You can also download a pdf of the Italian edition of the whole book from orecchio acerbo’s site.
Dye Inoculation by Peter Newell
No. 1
“It seems to me it orter work,”
Said Farmer Hiram Beggs,
“By feeding Hens on Easter dyes
To deckerate their eggs.”
No. 2
And sure enough for several days
The eggs were many-hued
With stranger markings on the shells
Than Beggs had ever viewed.
No. 3
He peddled them about the town
And found a brisk demand.
He sold a dozen lovely ones
To Mrs. Cyrus Bland.
No. 4
On Easter morn she gave the eggs
To Bob, her precious boy,
Oh, but the baubles pleased the lad
And made him shout for joy.
No. 5
Now Bobby’s appetite was great,
And being unrestrained,
He fell to eating Easter eggs
Till not a one remained.
No. 6
Next morning mama climbed the stair
Her sleepy son to rout,
When horror! what a sight he was –
The dyes were coming out!
The Easter Collier, p. 32.
I don’t know the date, as I got this image from an eBay auction; it appears in the Beineke’s library catalogue of Peter Newell’s family papers among the unidentified or unpublished comic strips.
Joge-e: Two-Way Pictures
In the second half of the nineteenth century the west shows a sudden interest in images that can be seen upside down. There are several examples, the most famous being probably Peter Newell’s Topsys and Turvys (New York: The Century Co., 1893), followed by a second volume in 1894, and Gustave Verbeek’s comic strip, Upside-Downs Of Little Lady Lovekins And Old Man Muffaroo (1903-1905). At least another book had been published previously, Upside Down, or, Turnover Traits from Original Sketches by the Late William McConnell (London: Griffin and Farran, 1868), with texts by Tom Hood, in which each of the 15 pictures is meant to represent both a person and an animal to which it is compared.
This kind of picture appears to have been very popular in Japan from the beginning of the century, according to a post at the Pink Tentacle blog:
Joge-e, or “two-way pictures,” are a type of woodblock print that can be viewed either rightside-up or upside-down. Large numbers of these playful prints were produced for mass consumption in the 19th century, and they commonly featured bizarre faces of deities, monsters or historical figures (including some from China). Only a few examples of original joge-e survive today.
All of these images represent only the faces of characters, just like the pictures in Dreh’ mich um, rund herum! by Otto Bromberger, published in Germany in the 1890s.
Other interesting items at Pink Tentacle include:
Mythical 16th-century disease critters
Edo-period monster paintings by Sawaki Suushi
Previous Articles
In the Papers
- Alice: End of Daze - Review - Theater - New York Times - Theater pieces billed as multimedia often turn out to be regular plays with a couple of video projections tossed in. The Triple Shadow company?s ?Alice: End of Daze,? which takes its inspiration from Lewis Carroll?s ?Through the Looking Glass,? is a true and often graceful blend of forms. New York Times, 6 May 2008.
- Extraordinary Scenes - Briony Llewellyn on British Orientalist Painting. As Tate Britain mounts an exhibition of work by nineteenth-century Western artists who travelled east, Briony Llewellyn delves into the archives, journals, manuscripts and letters of Edward Lear, Richard Dadd, William Holman Hunt and David Roberts. TATEetc., Issue 13, Summer 2008.
- Edward Lear - Tate Collection. Article provided by Grove Art Online.
- The Owl and the Pussycat went to Sea at DUT - The "runcible" musical of the Owl and the Pussycat went to Sea is based on Edward Lear's largely lovable characters from his nonsense verse which comes to life at the Durban University of Technology campus's Courtyard Theatre from 7 - 10 May.
- Albania: once and future glories - Albania?s abundant archaeology has been recognised since the likes of Lord Byron and Edward Lear discovered this atmospheric Balkan backwater in the 19th century. Telegraph, 19 March 2008.
