Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-04-04
A NASSAU STREET DEM
INTERESTING STUDIO OF A SPECIAL
ILLUSTRATOR OF BOOKS.

The Enlargement of Pages.
Among the interesting studios of Brook
Ivn artists is that of Mr T W Law renca
1t is not picturesque, but severely SIMPLE,
it is dot aristucratiC, but of Plebian aspect
no. is Mr.. Lawrence an artist in tn $, let
est sens of the wo d. He is IA spe ial Illus
traitor of books chief of his l. ale in this
country, and his studio Is an unpretentlous
room in Nassau st eet, New NOrE. His art
lies in the nicely with which he inserts
small pictures in large margins an pre- ares
them for inte leaving in books by t! e
special illustrating o. hooks is of cOuI Sc
meant the insertion OF plates, sketches, etch-
ings 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 a
man, but of couse when his book is com
pletei he has something valuable and uui
que There is man in Brooklyn who has
an edition of Byron that cost him 81 500 It
was bought for perhaps so in the first place,
but the covers we're taken Off and a large
number OF signed proof engravlngs inserted,
after which il was rebound in sumptuous
hOlltN. Ol course, Nbultl not uuN IL
from the owner, and it would be almost i'm
possible 10 duplicate it book that ought
to be in posse sion Of some one of our
museums, libraries or historical societies is
Everetts 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
4
when a single auto -raph of Washington will
probably be worth 500, its pecuniary equiv
alent will he something fabulous | saw a
couple Of volumes of travel the other day in
terleaved with eng ravings after Turne g
pictures and with etchIngs and meLzotints
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 and boxes Of engravings At
five minutes nUtice he can illustrate a 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
>. 90 prints series of portraits for the
civic or military history Of Europe or
America, ecclesiastical history, works on
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,
prototypes hardly realizes the extent
to which the worlds celebrit e5 have cen
celebrated in pOrtraiture until he skins over
a co le ction Ike this.
SKILL OF THE SPECIAL ILLUSTRATOR
a.. liz. R,,l- he
street where this mild hammered gentleman
presides, one or two bookish old worthless
who leak with "reminiscences Of ancient New
York Whenever they are pricked with a
question, and whoss heads are stored with
matter pertaining to early edtIons and
literary rarities- They are usually nosing
among antiquated caricatures, hunting up
copies of Cruikshanks etching, and all that
sort of thing and have one or two books
~on the stocks" that they are nursing into
abnormal proportions by the insertion of
all sorts of pictorial accessories Sometimes
they cut out ma agazine article of twenty
or thirty pages and make a book of it
in work Of this kind the craftsmanship
of the special illustrator is tested The
pages are enlarged by being pasted into
frames of fine paper that form their mar
gins, and that they may seem to be printed
iirectly on the enlarged sheets they must
overlap the large central aperture by a bare
of an inch or less Then they
must lie snoOthed and straight ned, and the
plates with which the booG is to be extended
must he inserted opposite the pages where
reference is made to the persons thus por-
trayed In order to make these fit into the
book their margins must either be pared
rks.,-
extra margin added Then the book re-
mains TO be trimmed, gilded vnd rebound
i single volume is often extended SO as to
compel its division into two and even three
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 u gal
lery of American literary celebrities
Editions de luxe are of course most suit
able for specially illustrating, and from a
as well as from an artistic
standpoint editions de luxe and specially
illustrated books, like proof etchings and en-
cravings, pay: that is, il it ever becomes
necessary or desirable to sell them, one
ought to make at least 100 per cent on his
One of the choicest pieces of
Mr.. Lawrence's workmanship appeared in
the form of three large folios bound in Rus
sian leather and containing about 400 beau
tfully printed photographs of European
towns, castles, churches, cathedrals, muse
ums and attractive natural scenery, col
lected by a Brooklyn gentleman in the
course Of summer tour "on the other side,
and forming a pictorial record of his wan-
ierings Brooklyn Eagle