The cover of this Persian manuscript is decorated with a scene painted in watercolours onto lacquered leather which is then covered with several more coats of lacquer. Ḥāfiẓ, Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ ([?1799]) [Collected works of Hafiz]. MSR-36 taken at 2009-08-26T15:06:27-08:00
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5531166222
1931, Ephemera Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: Eph-E-CABOT-Circus-Pedro-1931-02 Cabot reminisced in 1973 that this was the circus he remembered most vividly, as he himself provided some finance for it. He brought it out from Australia and it did badly because of the Depression, costing him a lot of money. It had no lions, tigers or elephants although it did have monkeys; basically it was a variety show featuring whipcrackers, sharp shooters and trick cyclists. In fact many of...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5463617692
This goatskin binding has a lacy dentelle border tooled in gold on the upper and lower covers. In the centre is one of the nine armorial devices of Alexander H. Turnbull. The bookbinding firm of Zaehnsdorf was founded in London in 1842 by Joseph Zaehnsdorf (1816-1886), an Austro-Hungarian craftsman-binder who learned his trade in Stuttgart and Vienna. While he was very successful, becoming 'Bookbinder to the King of Hanover' by 1861, it was under his son Joseph William Zaehnsdorf (1853-1930)...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5513692938
Green goatskin, upper and lower covers tooled in gold to a rambling rose design and with a central armorial device of Alexander H. Turnbull. The bookbinding firm of Zaehnsdorf was founded in London in 1842 by Joseph Zaehnsdorf (1816-1886), an Austro-Hungarian craftsman-binder who learned his trade in Stuttgart and Vienna. While he was very successful, becoming 'Bookbinder to the King of Hanover' by 1861, it was under his son Joseph William Zaehnsdorf (1853-1930) that the firm was able to...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5513096689
1929, Photolithograph on yellow sheet, 268 x 140 mm, Ephemera Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: Eph-B-CABOT-VARIETY-1929-01 Australian David Terence Meekin (1886-1966) was responsible for bringing Ubangi Chilliwingi as a touring performer in Australia and New Zealand. She was a pigmy woman from Cape Province, 28 inches tall at 27 years old when she performed in Wellington in 1929. She and Meekin formed a commercially successful association over a generation, engaging a pigmy...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5463018375
1939, Lithograph, 380 x 252 mm, Ephemera Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: Eph-C-CABOT-Magic-1939-01 In 1926 Cabot set himself up as a theatrical agent in Wellington, and rented hoardings to advertise picture shows, circus and variety entertainment. His association with circuses continued but the focus of his poster collection broadened to include carnivals, fairs and sideshows, magic shows, visiting variety groups and singers. These visitors appreciated the energy and...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5463016465
Maroon goatskin with ornate gold tooled frames on upper and lower covers. Armorial device of Alexander H. Turnbull in the centre. The bookbinding firm of Zaehnsdorf was founded in London in 1842 by Joseph Zaehnsdorf (1816-1886), an Austro-Hungarian craftsman-binder who learned his trade in Stuttgart and Vienna. While he was very successful, becoming 'Bookbinder to the King of Hanover' by 1861, it was under his son Joseph William Zaehnsdorf (1853-1930) that the firm was able to develop further...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5513096263
1939, Ephemera Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: Eph-C-CABOT-Exhibition-1940-01 Promotions described Mexican Rose as beautiful with a charming personality. She had toured the United States for years, was in Charlie Chaplin's ''Circus days'' and appeared in ''Our gang'' comedies. The Evening Post , for 4 November 1939, Page 10, featured a photograph of Rose having lunch at the Exhibition grounds. Other exhibits brought out for the Exhibition in 1939 were motor cycle speedsters...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5463017693
Olive-green goatskin tooled in gold and blind (no gold, silver of colours used) enclosing an armorial device of Alexander H. Turnbull. The bookbinding firm of Zaehnsdorf was founded in London in 1842 by Joseph Zaehnsdorf (1816-1886), an Austro-Hungarian craftsman-binder who learned his trade in Stuttgart and Vienna. While he was very successful, becoming 'Bookbinder to the King of Hanover' by 1861, it was under his son Joseph William Zaehnsdorf (1853-1930) that the firm was able to develop...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5513096601
Three-quarter borders introduce each of the Hours of the Virgin from Prime to Vespers. This page introduces Vespers. The borders are of conventional early sixteenth-century floral acanthus design. The initials are graded in importance, from the opening three-line 'D' in blue with white tracery on a ground of gold leaf to mark the beginning of Vespers; the two-line 'D' for the beginning of Psalm 109 Dixit Dominus Domino meo; to the one line initials for each verse of Psalm 109 alternately in...
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1910, Chromolithograph on 3 sheets, each 740 x 1015 mm, total 2220 x 1015 mm, Ephemera Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: Eph-E-CABOT-Circus-Australia-1910-01 This poster is a beautiful chromolithograph on three separate sheets of paper; when pasted up it would have measured 2220 x 1015 mm. We show the three pieces here digitally joined. Stewart Black Pty Ltd, a firm of Sydney lithographers, printed the poster in around 1910. It shows the heads of three clowns of the Do Re Mi...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5463615958
1929, Relief print on poster 1005 x 383 mm, Ephemera Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: Eph-E-CABOT-Circus-1929-01 This poster printed by Wright and Jaques shows an unusual an attractive colour scheme, for an exotic and evocative effect. Pedrini had been performing as an equilibrist with baboons in Brisbane, Singapore and New Zealand since at least 1912. This poster announces that he is to appear on a double bill with a movie, and he appeared again in a similar double bill in...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5463617312
Copied in Eastern France between 1425 and 1475. On this leaf at the beginning of St John's Gospel, is a miniature showing St John on Patmos. Traditionally John of Patmos, the author of the Book of Revelation, is also thought to be the same John who wrote the fourth gospel. The full ivy-leaf border includes grotesques along the top, with the lower border showing a man playing a drum and two men dancing. In the text underneath the miniature, a three-line initial 'I' opens the text (last line) for...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5531166314
1929, Relief print on poster 995 x 385 mm, with overpasted section at the top 130 x 380 mm, Ephemera Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: Eph-E-CABOT-Circus-Perry-1928-02 Cabot used this poster, printed in Melbourne, to advertise the coming of Perry Bros Circus to towns around New Zealand. His itinerary notebook for this tour notes that the circus toured from 14 November 1928 to 3 May 1929, starting in Southland, coming up through Queenstown, Central Otago, up through Canterbury...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5463014987
1955, Photolithograph and relief print on sheet 1015 x 380 mm, Ephemera Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: Eph-E-CABOT-Variety-1955-01 Cabot retired from constant travelling in around 1958, when he became the stage doorman at the Wellington Opera House. There he befriended visiting performers and collected their autographs and programmes; a particular favourite was Basil Brush! In an interview for the Evening Post , 3 February 1973, at the age of 83, he declared that he wouldn't...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5463620976
Green goatskin with an ornate flower and leaf decoration tooled in gold on the upper and lower covers. In the centre is an armorial device of Alexander H. Turnbull. The bookbinding firm of Zaehnsdorf was founded in London in 1842 by Joseph Zaehnsdorf (1816-1886), an Austro-Hungarian craftsman-binder who learned his trade in Stuttgart and Vienna. While he was very successful, becoming 'Bookbinder to the King of Hanover' by 1861, it was under his son Joseph William Zaehnsdorf (1853-1930) that the...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5513096339
1920, Ephemera Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: Eph-E-CABOT-Circus-Barton-1920-01 Many of the posters and pamphlets from the Cabot Collection were printed by the Auckland printers, Wright / Jaques, established in about 1887 by Dennett Wright. Amos Jaques, joined as his partner in around 1907. In that year the company expanded to publish the NZ Home Journal and moved to purpose-built premises in Albert Street. The company still ran from Albert Street in 1958, when they last...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5463014639
1938, Reference: Eph-B-CABOT-Variety-1938-01 The 1930s seems to have been a decade fascinated by freaks; perhaps the release of the classic movie ''Freaks'' in 1932 was a catalyst. Arthur Rodella Greenhalgh (1896-1972), one of the promoters of this sideshow, was a member of the Showmen's Guild of Australasia, as was Cabot. Greenhalgh had teamed with American wall-of-death motorcyclist Ernest Jackson Ibsch (1896?-1965) to form the entrepreneurial partnership of Greenhalgh and Jackson, and they...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5463017107
Authors sometimes presented specially-bound books to wealthy patrons or to people of standing. A note on the front flyleaf of this volume states that it was bound as a presentation copy for the dedicatee, Admiral Sir David Milne. The book is bound in red straight-grained goatskin, which has been gold tooled and blind tooled on the upper and lower covers. The spine has raised bands and includes a galleon motif in the second and third panels. On the insides of the covers are silk doublures with...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5533608188
1951, Relief print, 762 x 510 mm, Ephemera Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: Eph-D-CABOT-Rodeo-1951-01 Cabot had been involved with sideshows from around the 1930s, and in 1946 took out contracts with A/P associations to run sideshow alleys at A/P shows. Rodeos were also occasions on which he could operate sideshows. Even at the age of 70, in 1960, he was still keen to run the occasional stall at country fairs, selling novelties such as dolls on sticks, acrobat clowns, and...
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5463620594
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