Marbled Monday
This sunny Marbled Monday, as we here in Wisconsin wait for the weather to catch up to the seasons and feel spring-like, I’ve selected The Seasons by Scottish poet and playwright James Thomson (1700-1748). There have been many editions of The Seasons since its first publication as a complete series of four poems in 1730—this one was published by The Nonesuch Press in 1927. It features five illustrations by an artist simply identified as Jacquier, who I have been unable to otherwise identify. The images are copperplate engravings made by C. Sigrist that were hand colored using watercolor through stencils at The Curwen Press.
The marbling is a very curly French curl or snail pattern, featuring red, blue, orange, cream, and a greenish-grey. This pattern is created by first dropping colors in to the water bath and then taking a comb with regularly spaced teeth and swirling it in the water bath to make the snail pattern.
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-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager
