The Grolier Club of New York

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The Grolier Club of New York

Founded in 1884, the Grolier Club is America’s oldest and largest society for bibliophiles and enthusiasts in the graphic arts. Founded in 1884, the Grolier Club of New York is America’s oldest and largest society for bibliophiles and enthusiasts in the graphic arts.
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Named for Jean Grolier (1489 or 90-1565), the Renaissance collector renowned for sharing his library with friends, the Club’s objective is to foster “the study, collecting, and appreciation of books and works on paper.” The Club maintains a research library on printing and related book arts, and its programs include public exhibitions as well as a long and distinguished series of publications. As part of its mission to promote the art and history of the book, the Grolier Club regularly hosts the lectures and gatherings of other bookish organizations, and opens many of its own events to the public. No advance notice is required to view Grolier Club exhibitions; however, RSVPs and reservations for other events should be made through Maev Brennan, tel. (212) 838-6690, x7, [email protected].

Temporarily closed

06/02/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with a beautifully bound set of the three-volume 1889 Grolier Club edition of Richard de Bury’s Philobiblon (We featured a 1501 printed edition of this work in one of our earliest posts). Still as bright and unsullied as the day they left the bindery, the three volumes were bound by Léon Maillard and his colleagues at the Club Bindery in 1900 for Edwin B. Holden. Each volume is bound in crushed goatskin elaborately tooled in gold in contrasting historicizing designs. The finest contemporary French work, exercised in America. #grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #19thcentury #20thcentury #finebindings #clubbindery #bibliophiles

06/01/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with a New Year's greeting card from the bibliophile and editor Octave Uzanne. The engraved card shows his desk in a romanticizing light with piles of papers and decorative objects. Uzanne was editor of Le Livre Moderne, published January 1890 - December 1891, and the Club also has his personal set of this periodical, swollen to 9 volumes with extra illustrations and finely bound by Vieuxmaire and Meunier before 1897.
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Octave Uzanne. New Year’s Greetings for 1891. [Paris: for the author, 1890].
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Octave Uzanne (1851–1931). Le Livre Moderne: Revue du Monde littéraire et des Bibliophiles contemporaines. Nine vols. Paris: Maison Quantin, 1890–1891.
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#grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #frenchbookarts #NewYears #engraving #binding #finebinding

05/29/2020

We continue or 60 days of French Book Arts with a description of eighteenth-century papermaking. This is the second edition of the Académie Royale des Sciences's publication describing the art of papermaking, with eight retouched and corrected plates as well as six new engravings. This plate shows the parts of the vat used to hold the stuff (a technical term for the slush of paper fibers) and press to squeeze water out of new sheets.
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Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande (1732–1807). Art de faire le papier. [Paris: Desaint et Saillant, 1761].
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#grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #frenchbookarts #paper #papermaking #handmadepaper #18thcentury

05/28/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with a truly bibliophilic copy of Claudius Popelin’s ‘L’art de l’Émail’ (Paris, 1868). Bound in terra cotta goatskin with maroon goatskin onlays, it features a black and gold enamel medallion in sgraffito at center. The binding is attributed to Parisian binder, Rémy Petit, and was made for art critic, Philippe Burty (1830-1890).

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The book is a presentation copy from Popelin to Burty and is extra-illustrated by Popelin with various prints and drawings, including this engraving of a classical warrior. #grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #19thcentury #frenchbookarts #enamels #extraillustration #sgraffito

05/27/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with a reprint of the legendary Fortsas sale catalogue. In early 1840, the most prominent bibliophiles, institutions, and booksellers in England and the Continent received an invitation to an unparalleled auction on 1 August 1840: 52 unique books, collected by the unknown Jean-Nepomucène-August Pichaud, Comte de Fortsas, who had recently died. He collected only unique and unknown books, discarding whatever was discovered in another copy. When the bidders-to-be arrived in the small town of Binche, Belgium, they found that the collection that was too good to be true, was indeed a hoax. The notary managing the sale, the collector, and the books were all invented by Rénier Hubert Ghislain Chalon (1802-1889), a retired military officer and perpertrator of elaborate jokes. The only rare book to come out of the "sale" was the catalogue itself, now so scarce that the Grolier Club only has a reprint and later editions.
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[Fortsas Hoax]. “Comte J.-N.-A. de Fortsas.” Catalogue d’une très-riche mais peu nombreuse collection de livres . . . dont le vente se fera à Binche, le 10 août 1840. Mons: Hoyois, [1840].
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#grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #frenchbookarts #catalogue #bibliohoax #Fortsas

05/26/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with a ca. 1830s mosaic cathedral binding featuring a rose window design and heavy arch motifs covering a blank album. The binding is signed by Alphonse Giroux, a bookseller who also described himself as a binder. In reality, Giroux commissioned bindings from shops that were willing to stamp them with his name in place of their own. This specimen was probably produced in the workshop of Simier père et fils (fl. 1800-1847). #grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #19thcentury #finebindings #frenchbookarts

05/25/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with this embroidered papeterie, or small case for personal stationary and letters to be answered. It would have been part of a lady's writing-table in the first half of the 19th century, and with the rose silk and embroidered stumpwork binding, it would have been a beautiful accessory.
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France (Paris?), first third or first half of the 19th century.
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#grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #frenchbookarts #19thcentury #embroideredbinding #binding #finebinding

05/22/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with a book of the Lord's Prayer in 150 languages, printeded during Pope Pius VII's visit to the Imprimerie Impériale. This commemorative book is also a showpiece, demonstrating the typographic advancements made during the Napoleonic era.
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[Lord’s Prayer]. Oratio dominica CL linguis versa. Ed. Jean-Joseph Marcel (1776–1854). Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1805.
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#grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #frenchbookarts #typography #19thcentury #lordsprayer

05/21/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with a bibliophile Parisian red goatskin binding by or in the style of the Bozerian brothers (Jean-Claude and François) bearing the royal arms of Louis XVIII (r. 1815-1824). Bound on a copy of Antoine-Alexandre Barbier’s ‘Catalogue des livres de la Bibliothèque du Conseil d’État’ (Paris: Imprimerie de la République, An XI i.e. 1803), one of 15 copies (in an edition of 200) printed on blue paper.

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While it is possible that this copy was intended personally for the king, volumes in red goatskin with royal French armorials tended to be official copies destined for institutional libraries. #grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #19thcentury #finebindings #bookbinding #coatsofarms

05/19/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with an autograph letter signed by Thomas Jefferson to his bookseller in Paris, Jacques-François Froullé, dated 26 May 1795. While serving as American minister to France in the 1780s, Jefferson bought thousands of books in Paris to form his first library (later the core of the Library of Congress). This letter to Froullé concerns a shipment of books that arrived water damaged from Paris. Jefferson hopes that Froullé is weathering the ‘civil storms’ of Revolutionary France, not realizing that the bookseller had been condemned to death for publishing a pamphlet sympathetic to Louis XVI. #grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #18thcentury #thomasjefferson #letters

05/18/2020

We continue our 60 days of French book arts with a cross-cultural commodity from 18th century Germany. A French-language almanac with an embroidered binding featuring the cipher of Louis XVI looks like a French book at first glance; however, it was printed in Berlin, and the gilt-paper endleaves and gilt tinsel (Rauschelgold) decorations suggest the binding is also German in a French style.
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Album généalogique pour l’année 1783, avec l’approbation de l’Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles Lettres à Berlin. Berlin: Jean Michel Kunst, [1782 for] 1783.
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#grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #frenchbookarts #bookbinding #embroideredbinding #18thcentury

05/15/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book arts with a manuscript questionnaire on the famous Duc de La Vallière library. This late 18th century library had the attention of King Louis XV, and presumably the Abbé Desaunays wrote on his behalf to La Vallière's librarian with this inquiry. The King never bought the library, but this questionnaire went through the hands of famous collectors itself, including Richard Heber and Sir Thomas Phillipps.
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Abbé René Desaunays (ca. 1732–1811). Manuscript document to Abbé Jean-Joseph Rive (1730–1791). Paris, 28 May 1777.
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#grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #frenchbookarts #manuscript #18thcentury

05/14/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with the manuscript private library catalogue of Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764), compiled by her librarian after her death (our post last week highlighted her 1765 auction catalogue).

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This catalogue is remarkable for its sinister provenance. As shown by a stamp on a fly leaf, it was liberated from Hitler’s private library at Berchtesgaden by the French second armored division on 4 May 1945. The Club purchased it in 1978. So far we have not been able to determine who the owner was at the time it was confiscated. #grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #frenchbookarts #18thcentury #womenbookowners #catalogue #adolfhitler #berchtesgaden

05/13/2020

We are pleased to announce the publication on our website of a new subject guide dedicated to the bookbindings collections at the Grolier Club Library (Library: Guide to the Collections: Collection Subject Guides). We hope this guide will provide greater access to this stunning and often overlooked area of our collection.

https://www.grolierclub.org/Default.aspx?p=DynamicModule&pageid=384837&ssid=322458&vnf=1

05/13/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with a few miniature and embroidered bindings! See our story for binding close-ups.
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Titles, clockwise from top left:
1. Étrennes mignonnes pour l’an M. DCC. XC. Liège: H. Dessain & Sisters, [1789 for] 1790.
2. Les Dons de l’Amour et de l’Amitié: Almanach nouveau sur les plus jolis airs. Paris: [Louis] Janet, L’an VII (September 1798–August 1799).
3. Étrennes mignonnes pour l’an bissextil. Liège: J. Dessain, [1767 for] 1768.
4. “Souvenir” memorandum book. Paris: Suss, ca. 1800.
5. Le Triomph de la Vertu: Sujets tirés de la Sainte Bible. Paris: Janet, [1780–1790?].
6. “Souvenir” memorandum notebook. France (Paris?), early 1800s (?).
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#grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #frenchbookarts #miniaturebook #embroideredbinding

05/12/2020

In this week’s Grolier Club Library blog post, our director and unofficial Club historian Eric Holzenberg shares newly discovered photographs at the New-York Historical Society of the current clubhouse while under construction in early 1917. Not only are these photographs a delight, but they also offer suggestions for why the Club decided to build a new home in that precarious historical moment, the early years of the Great War. New-York Historical Society

https://grolierclub.wordpress.com/2020/05/12/there-goes-the-neighborhood-the-grolier-clubs-and-environs-1916-1918/

05/12/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with a copy of Voltaire’s Recueil nécessaire (‘Leipsik, 1765’ i.e. Geneva: Cramer, 1766) bound in Parisian red goatskin stamped with the arms of Marie Antoinette (one of many that survive from her library). It was purchased by GC donor, Samuel Putnam Avery, from Théophile Belin in Paris on 5 August 1889. #grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #finebindings #coatsofarms #womenbookcollectors #armorialbinding #marieantoinette

05/11/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with the book that immortalized Pierre-Simon Fournier (Fournier le Jeune; 1712-1768) in the history of typography, Manuel Typographique. He had trouble finding a publisher until Barbou agreed, and even still, Fournier wasn't able to complete the last two volume--on practicle printing and on the lives and work of the great printers--before he died. The two published volumes contain technical aspects of typography and printing and specimens of fonts and type ornaments.
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Pierre-Simon Fournier (Fournier le Jeune; 1712–1768). Manuel typographique. Two vols. Paris: Fournier for Barbou, 1764 & 1766.
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#grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #typography #18thcentury

05/08/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with the auction catalogue for Madame de Pompadour's library. After her death, her brother put her collection up at auction on 12 February 1765. Her library was so copious that her books still circulate in the market today, at least one a year. This catalogue records the book we posted two days ago, Gautier d'Agoty's Chroa-génésie ou
Génération des couleurs ..., as lot 287.
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Catalogue de la bibliothèque de feue Madame la Marquise de Pompadour, dame du palais de la reine. Paris: Jean-Thomas Hérissant & Jean-Thomas Hérissant, Fils, 1765.
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#grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #frenchbookarts #catalogue #auction #18thcentury #womenbookowners

05/07/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with this stunning miniature book in a French-inspired entrelac (interlace) binding by Henry Stikeman, produced between 1885 and 1890. We especially love the extraordinary doublures of gold-tooled ivory. The New York City firm of Stikeman & Co. consciously emulated the fine bindings created in Paris and London at the turn of the century. On: Marcus Tullius Cicero, ‘Cato Major’ (Paris: Barbou, 1758). #grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #19thcentury #finebindings #miniaturebook #stikemanandco

05/06/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with a book from Madame de Pompadour's (1721-1764) library. Her arms are stamped on all four covers of the two volumes. Bound in red goatskin, they are more sumptuously dressed than the majority of her collection in brown calf.
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On: Jacques-Fabien Gautier d’Agoty (1716–1785). Chroa-génésie ou Génération des couleurs, contre le système de Newton. Two vols. Paris: Antoine Chrétien Boudet, 1750–1751.
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#grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #frenchbookarts #bookbinding #18thcentury #armorial #womenbookowners

05/05/2020

In the latest blog post from the Grolier Club Library, we introduce you to the enigmatic “Miss Theodora de Verdion,”an eighteenth century book-peddler who captured London’s curiosity.

https://grolierclub.wordpress.com/2020/05/05/a-bookseller-by-another-name-or-theodora-grahn-or-baron-de-verdion-or-chevalier-or-dr-or-mr-john-de-verdion-1744-1802/

05/05/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with Anne Claude Philippe Caylus’s 1748 parody of the Annual Reports of the Académie française, which describes the itinerant colporteurs, hawkers of merchandise, and their wares. Colporteurs were important distributors of books and printed ephemera, especially in rural areas, during the first five hundred years of printing. They regularly ran into trouble with the authorities for distributing salacious material. The engraved frontispiece is by Charles-Nicolas Cochin (2715-1790). #grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #bookselling #18thcentury #colporteur #colportage #parody

05/04/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with Charles-Henri Comte d'Hoym's post-mortem manuscript inventory of possessions, including his extensive library. His books comprise one of the largest sections of the inventory, which the auctioneer Gabriel Martin compiled with great of detail over only eleven days. They spanned 7,739 volumes, grouped into 188 lots, with printing landmarks like the 1462 Mainz Bible and Complutensian Polyglot.

It is bound in rare blue goatskin from Hoym's private inventory, also recorded in this manuscript, stamped with his arms and crests of Poland (he served as ambassador to France for King August II of Poland). More about the binding in H. George Fletcher's upcoming exhibition and catalogue on bindings in the Club's collections.
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Karl Heinrich Graf von Hoym (1694–1736). Inventaire et description de tous les biens meubles, livres, tableaux, vaisselle d’argent, etc. Manuscript on paper. Paris, 30 September 1737–18 February 1738.
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#grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #bookbinding #catalogue #17thcentury

05/01/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with a view inside a seventeenth-century French library. The librarian, Claude Du Molinet (1620-1687), authored this description of the library and cabinet of curiosities. We love it for the double-page spreads of the library's interiors, engraved by Franz Ertinger (1640–ca. 1710).
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Claude Du Molinet (1620–1687). Le Cabinet de la Bibliothèque de Sainte-Geneviève. Paris: Antoine Dezallier, 1692.
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#grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #frenchbookarts #library #bibliothèque #17thcentury

04/30/2020

We continue our 60 days of French Book Arts with another pair of bindings from the library of a great bibliophile collector. (On Tuesday we featured Jean-Baptiste Colbert, 1619-1683). These two bindings bear the arms of Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553-1617), statesman and historian. The gilt vellum binding shows de Thou’s arms, recognizable by its three bees, as a bachelor and dates before 1587. The red goatskin binding shows de Thou’s arms incorporating those of his second wife, Gasparde de la Chastre, and dates after 1602. An intermediate version (not owned by the Grolier Club) incorporates de Thou’s arms with those of his first wife, Marie de Barbancon de Cany (d. 1601). #grolierclub #grolierclubfrenchbookarts #16thcentury #17thcentury #finebindings #coatsofarms

Address

47 E 60th St
New York, NY
10022

General information

Founded in 1884, the Grolier Club of New York is America's oldest and largest society for bibliophiles and enthusiasts in the graphic arts. Named for Jean Grolier, the Renaissance collector renowned for sharing his library with friends, the Club's objective is to foster "the literary study and promotion of the arts pertaining to the production of books." The Club maintains a research library on printing and related book arts, and its programs include free public exhibitions, lectures and other events, as well as a long and distinguished series of publications.

Opening Hours

Monday	10:00 - 17:00
Tuesday	10:00 - 17:00
Wednesday	10:00 - 17:00
Thursday	10:00 - 17:00
Friday	10:00 - 17:00
Saturday	10:00 - 17:00

Telephone

(212) 838-6690

Website

http://www.grolierclub.org

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Videos

The Grolier Club: Celebrating the Art & History of the Book since 1884

The Grolier Club is closed for the month of August, for deep cleaning, maintenance, repairs, and exhibition preparation. We'll look forward to seeing our members and our many bookish friends when we re-open after Labor Day. In the meantime -- happy late summer!

In a little more than two weeks, our exhibition hall will reopen to the public. There’s a bit of work remaining, but look how far we’ve come! #grolierclub #renovation #exhibitions #homestretch #almostfinished

We’re on the home stretch of the renovation, and it’s worthwhile to take a look at where we are and where we’ve been. Enjoy the time-lapse blast from the past! #grolierclub #renovation #exhibitions

It’s time for another renovation update and a reminder of how far we’ve come. The mezzanine is starting to take shape. Enjoy the video! #grolierclub #renovation #timelapse #exhibitions

The renovation continues...

Here's a peek at our renovation progess. Three months of work in 22 seconds!

Just a little taste of today's symposium...

Comments

After decades of navigating cracks, holes, and a chronic standing water problem, visitors to the Grolier Club will FINALLY encounter a smooth new stretch of sidewalk in front of our building. Rejoice!

After decades of navigating cracks, holes, and chronic standing water, visitors to the Grolier Club will FINALLY enjoy a smooth new expanse of sidewalk in front of our building!

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/arts/design/book-lovers-grolier-club.html

https://histoire-bibliophilie.blogspot.com/2019/01/thomas-phillipps-1792-1872-le-plus.html?spref=fb&fbclid=IwAR1u6u7xLt2h2Bhqd1c4Gu7QuMS1OmgvA6EfZog4uNOjUJwkBjbQ_Vf8jQc

I own some valuable copper plates from Of Human Bondage, illustrated by John Sloan. Do yoiu have an appraisal dept? Thank you.

Discover Antonio Manutius aka Hassan Pacha Veneziano, king of Algiers https://www.facebook.com/topographieethistoiregeneraledalger/posts/2184613525106937?__tn__=K-R

Magnificent dedication to scholarship :Awards of up to $3,000 are available for research in the Library's areas of strength, with emphasis on the private collecting of books and prints, antiquarian bookselling, and the book and graphic arts. Fellowship awards may be used to pay for travel, housing, and other expenses. A research stay of two weeks is desired, and Helfand Fellows are expected to present the results of their research in a public lecture at the Grolier Club, or in an article submitted to the Club's journal, The Gazette of the Grolier Club.

Absolutely loved the Playing Soldier exhibit!

Welcome back Antonio Manutius, King of Algiers https://www.facebook.com/topographieethistoiregeneraledalger/posts/2229249033976719?__xts__[0]=68.ARBg1L4BNwfWVW8xaKKHQYaMww33tCnUj0bfK0RLHhd288UHmW-k4cT-Wqy5GnvKGjft7ep74MvpW0Ub0wu_3LmbLF4hvvxZx2zGguFVXuPYm5Mjovn7IeA6596UGWghzJ52Tlb3KxdneAWQdUa0EPltcsYsvNHi6R4DZBxH6awG0knrZqr4LqI&__tn__=C-R

The "Cento Amici del Libro" (One hundred friends of book) an old Italian Association of bibliofile, will be happy to be connected with the Grolier Club (www.centoamicidellibro.com)

Who was Hassan Pacha Veneziano, king of Algiers? Antonio Manutius... (in French) https://www.facebook.com/topographieethistoiregeneraledalger/posts/2172475959654027

Manutius from Annaba (Algeria) https://www.facebook.com/topographieethistoiregeneraledalger/posts/2166190713615885 (in French)

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04/30/2020

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