Call Number:

MSS 0581

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

.3 linear feet (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 0581, J. J. Lankes bookplate collection, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

1922-1960 (inclusive)

Creator:

Lankes, Julius J., 1884-1960

Form:

Bookplates, Letters (correspondence), Price lists, and Fliers (printed matter)

Abstract:

The J. J. Lankes bookplate collection contains 47 bookplates created by Lankes between 1920 and 1940, an undated promotional circular, copies of letters written by J. J. Lankes's to artist Burl Neff Osburn, copies of artwork by Lankes and Osburn, and two lists of bookplates for sale by Stanley O. Bezanson.

J. J. [Julius John] Lankes was born on August 31, 1884, in Buffalo, New York. Freelance artist, book illustrator, teacher, and master woodworker, he is the author of A Woodcut Manual (1932). He died in Durham, North Carolina, on April 22, 1960. For a complete chronology, including his artistic collaborations, see Welford Dunaway Taylor’s The Woodcut Art of J.J. Lankes. (Boston: David R. Godine, 1999).

Although best known as an artist, Lankes began his career as a laborer, first in a factory and then in a patent office. He attended the Buffalo Commercial and Electro-mechanical Institute, where he graduated as Junior Engineer in 1902. While working as freelance artist, in 1905 and 1907, he enrolled in two International Correspondence School art courses. He continued to freelance for much of his career, earning only a modest income from his art. From 1912 to 1913, he attended the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston.

In 1914, he married Edee Maria Bartlett. He had four children: Julius Bartlett (b.1915), John Mosely (b.1917), Emily Elizabeth (b.1921), and Elizabeth Bartlett (b.1924). From 1915 to 1922, he worked as a draftsman for Newton Arms, a rifle manufacturer in Buffalo, and later as a carpenter for National Aniline & Chemical. After a brief trip to Europe, he moved to Hilton Head, Virginia in 1925. In 1929, he illustrated Robert Frost’s West-Running Brook. From 1932 to 1939, he taught at Wells College in Aurora, New York. In 1951, he moved to Durham, North Carolina. Primarily a wood engraver, his subjects were drawn mostly from rural life. In 1952, he was elected to the National Academy of Design.

For a complete chronology, including his artistic collaborations, see Welford Dunaway Taylor’s The Woodcut Art of J.J. Lankes.

Taylor, Welford Dunaway. The Woodcut Art of J. J. Lankes. Boston: David R. Godine, 1999.

The J. J. Lankes bookplate collection contains 47 bookplates created by Lankes between 1920 and 1940 and a undated promotional circular. Additionally the collection includes copies of letters written by J. J. Lankes's to artist Burl Neff Osburn, copies of artwork by Lankes and Osburn, and two lists of bookplates for sale by Stanley O. Bezanson.

Comprising the first series, the Lankes bookplates are organized numerically by the numbers which Lankes inscribed on the lower corner of each item. The numbers correspond to Lankes’s own numbering system, organized chiefly in his “Woodcut Record” and described in more detail in Welford Dunaway Taylor’s The Woodcut Art of J.J. Lankes. The record contains 1,242 entries, organized by date of execution.

Where relevant, Osburn numbers, corresponding to Burl N. Osburn’s A Descriptive Checklist of the Woodcut Bookplates of J. J. Lankes (Millersville, PA: Serif Press, 1937) are also given. Several items are signed and dated by Lankes, in one instance contradicting Osburn.

Included in the collection are a number of bookplates not listed in the checklist. The promotional circular, written by Lankes and titled simply "Woodcut Bookplates," describes Lankes’s services, and reproduces three bookplates, including a man on a sailboat for Peggy Bannerman, not included elsewhere in the collection. The circular also mentions Osburn’s checklist and recommends Lankes’s Woodcut Manual, which includes a chapter on bookplates.

The terms woodcut and wood engraving describe two related relief processes – the chief difference being between the artist's preferences to work on the side or end grain of the block, respectively. Lankes's preference appears to be for engraving. In the promotional circular, he states: "When I get a commission for a bookplate ... I develop the idea into a design, copy it in reverse on a woodblock and engrave it so that any good printer can run off all the impressions desired." The delicate line work and fine detail characteristic of Lankes, here executed on small blocks, are better suited to engraving; woodcuts tend also to reveal the grain of the block when printed as the ink is absorbed into the wood. Although Lankes's principal medium was wood, several designs have also been reproduced photo-mechanically on zinc plates, perhaps for wider distribution or in absence of the original blocks.

The second series consists of photocopies of letters written by J. J. Lankes to Burl Neff Osburn. The letters were copied from images on a recordable compact disk which was donated by Osburn's family. The disk also included images of bookplates and artwork created by J. J. Lankes, Burl Neff Osburn, and other bookplate artists, as well as artwork by Neil Osburn. Photocopies of these images are also available in the collection.

Finally, the collection includes two printed lists of bookplates which are for sale from Stanley O. Bezanson.