Trying to find these Electrotypes, and Typefaces in this book
Here is a book I am researching called THE RED MAN’S REBUKE. It’s a book printed on birch bark in the 1890s. You can see all the pages here:
https://images.chicagohistory.org/search/?searchQuery=Simon+pokagon
The Smithsonian also has a copy:
https://archive.org/details/redmanquotsrebu00Poka/page/n1/mode/2up
(You’ll notice there is variation across copies).
It was written by an indigenous Michigan man named Simon Pokagon. (Here is the bulk of my own research: https://fritzswanson.com/ceniushenryengle/ ).
I want to find the images, and the type, in the 19th Century Specimens. Can you help me?
IMAGES:
Columbus
Eagle Feeding it’s Young (Jody Harnish found this one, it’s in several specimens including the ATF Desk Book of 1901)
Deer
Fox
Man with Tomahawk (Jody Harnish found this one. This one is in an 1860s Farmer and Little Specimen.)
TYPE:
Title Page/Cover
Author Page titling
First Page titling
Body Text
I really want to find the Columbus image.
Once I have everything identified, I will update my research and thank those who have helped me find stuff.
I have been asked by some scholars to make a reproduction on birch bark, and so I need to make new plates of the images. But because they were printed on birch bark, these copies aren’t good for that.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP.
Fritz Swanson
[email protected]
403316.jpg
Page 61 in the printed copy of the 1888 Cincinnati Type Foundry catalog has the deer and fox images. In a PDF of that specimen it is on page 286.
The Columbus Landing image appears to be a bespoke cut based on the painting by John Vanderlyn, (1775–1852). It does not appear in the cuts section of any of the 10-12 specimen books I checked, likely for a good reason. It is occasion-specific and not a good candidate for a foundry to expect a good return on.
As to the image itself, it is not nearly as well done as other engravings based on the same painting. The faces, particularly that of Columbus, are more cartoonish, as an example. The large rocks in the foreground are a light color as opposed to other engravings.
So I believe a search for the original would be fruitless unless a type collector happens to possess it. Far better to create a new one based on existing prints.
One such print is on eBay, here:
https://tinyurl.com/cnfzcckh
George, you’re a legend.
Agree!