Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-04-22
A NASSAU STREET "DEN.r
INTERESTING STUDIO OF A SPECIAL
ILLUSTRATOR OF BOOKS.

Volumes That Are Valuable and Cniqus-
Rare and Curious Old Prints-Nursfng
Books into Abnormal Proportions
The Enlargement Of PagsA
Among the interesting studios of Brock
Iyn artists is that of Mr.. T. W. Lawrence
Il is not picturesque, cut severely simple;
it is dot aristocratic, but of Piebian aspect;
no. is Mr.. Lawrence an artist in the strict
est sense Of the word. He is q special Illus
traitor Of books, chief Of his trade in this
country, and his st,idio is an unpretentious
room in Nassau street, New York. His art
lies in the nicely with which he inserts
small pictures in large margins and prepares
them for interleaving in books By tie
special illustrating o. books is of course
meant the insertion Of plates. sketches, etch-
;ngs. photographs and autographs bearing
on the people, things or places Of which the
volume treats
SOMETHING VALUABLE AND UNIQUE
A hobby for special illustrations is one
that may run for great distances with
man, but Of couse when his book is COM
pleted he has something valuable and uni
que There is a man in Brooklyn who has
an edition of Byron that cost himk1 800. 1t
was bought for perhaps so in the first place,
but the covers were taken off and a large
number o. signed proof engravings inserted,
after which it was rebound in sumptuous
form Money. OF course, would not buy it
from the owner, and it would be almost i'm
possible to duplicate it a book that ought
to be in possession Of some one of our
museums, libraries or historical societies is
Eyerett's Life Of Washington" spe-
cially illustrated by Mr. Lawrence with
hundreds of plates, maps, cuts and auto
graph letters from all the great men Of the
revolutionary epoch. Such book has an
ever increasing value, and a century hence.
when single autograph OF Washington will
probably be worth 500, its pecuniary equiv
alent will be something fabulous l saw a
couple of VOLUMES Of travel the other day in
terleaved with engravings after Turner'S
pictures and with etchings and mezzotints
by Turner himself That, too, is one of the
books that will never be worth less than it
Is now
Mr.. Lawrence is almost walled in by
early editions AMI boxes of engravings At
five minutes notice he can illustrate q work
on the American or English stage with
portraits of actors, play writers and singers
and with pictures of old play houses. With
equal readiness he could produce from his
5000 prints a series Of portraits for the
civic or military history Of Europe or
America, ecclesiastical history, works on
science, literature or the arts. There arc
many rare and curious old prints in his
collection. few that are not known to have
their mates Steel engravings, copper
plates, etchings, wool cuts, Autographs,
phototypes-one hardly realizes the extent
TO which the worlds celebrities have been
celebrated in portraiture until he Skins over
q cole ction ike this.
SKILL OF THE SPECIAL ILLUSTRATOR.
One usually finds in the den on Nassau
street where this mild hammered gentleman
presiies one or two bookish old worthless
vino leak with "reminiscences Of ancient New
York Whenever they are pricked with
question, and whoss heads are stored with
matter pertaining 10 early editions and
literary rarities. They are usually nosing
among Anticipated caricatures, hunting up
copies of Cruikshank 5 etching, and all that
sort of thing, and have one or two looks
ION the stocks that they are nursing into
abnormal proportions by the insertion Of
all sorts of pictorial accessories. Sometimes
they cut out a magazine article Of twenty
or thirty pages and make a book of it
In work Of this kind the craftsmanship
pages are enlarged by being pasted into
frames of fine paper that form their mar
gins, and that they may seem to be printed
dire fly on tine enlarged sheets they must
overlap the large central aperture by bare
sixteenth of an inch or less Then they
mus lie snoothei and straight ned, and the
plates with which the booS is to he extended
must lie inserted opposite the pages where
reference is made to the persons thus por-
trayed. In order to make these tit into tho
book their margins must either be pared
down or they must have n paper frame or
extra margin added Then tire book re-
mains 20 be trimmed gilded end rebound
\ single volume is often extended so as to
compel it. division into two and even three
volumes, and Oliver Wendell Holmes would
hardly know his Life of Emerson if he
were to see it on one of Mr. Lawrence's
shelves in two morocco bound volumes,
filed with plates that make it almost a gal
lery of American literary celebrities.
Editions de luxe are, of course, most suit
able for specially illustrating, and from a
commercial as well as from an artistic
standpoint. editions de luxe and specially
illustrated books, likeproof etchinys and en-
cravings, pay; that is, if it ever becomes
necessary or desirable to sell them, one
ought to make at least 100 per cent. on his
Investment. One o: the choicest pieces of
Or Lawrence's workmanship appeared in
the form of three large folios bound in Rus
sian leather and containing about 40 beam
tifully printed photographs of European
towns, castles, churches, cathedrals, muse
uns and attractive natural scenery, col
lc ted by a Brooklyn Gentleman in the
course Of a summer tour "on the other side,r
- 4 -,