A few of the many stunning glass-plate transparencies depicting life in Japan collected in Yokohama during the years 1908–1918 by Herbert Geddes, a manager for a Canadian import-export company. ⠀ ⠀ Positive glass transparencies such as these were made directly from glass negatives (which were commonly used before the introduction of photographic film). As the photography historian Kim Timby writes, “When a glass negative was contact-printed to create a glass positive, none of the transparency and precision provided by the glass support were lost. No paper fibers absorbed solutions at any stage or left their trace during printing.” The resulting images were crystal clear, and could be projected through “magic lanterns” to allow people to experience photograph at an impressive scale. ⠀ ⠀ As with photographic prints, glass transparencies were often hand-colored, a practice which during the Meiji Period (1868–1912) became more popular in Japan than it ever was in Europe or America. As photographs gradually replaced ukiyo-e prints on the marketplace, printmakers found themselves out of work — and so turned their skilled hands to coloring the competition.⠀ ⠀ More on the site (and also some prints for sale) — visit link in bio and click image.⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ #japan #handcoloredphotographs #photography #yokohoma #glass

This is the first film by stop-motion animation pioneer Willis O'Brien. From the age of just 11, O'Brien worked a huge variety of jobs including cattle rancher, farmhand, factory worker, fur trapper, cowboy, bartender, rodeo man, and guide to palaeontologists in Crater Lake. Spending his spare hours sculpting and illustrating he soon became employed as architect's draftsman and then as cartoonist for the San Francisco Daily News. After a period working the railways he returned to more creative endeavours, becoming a marble sculptor and assistant to the head architect of the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair, where some of his work was displayed. During this time he began to make little models. Perhaps inspired by his time at Crater Lake, amongst his creations was a dinosaur and caveman and he soon began to animate using the stop-motion technique. In 1915, after a San Fransico exhibitor saw his test sequences, O'Brien got his first film commission to make The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy for a budget of $5000. A career doing stop-animation for films followed, including for his best known film, King Kong (1933). . . . . . #animation #stopmotionanimation #missinglink #ape #kingking #caveman #dinosaur

Illustrations by Ivan Bilibin for an 1899 edition of the Russian fairytale Vasilisa the Beautiful. In one we see the supernatural being Baba Yaga, the ground strewn with fly agarics; and in the other the heroine Vasilisa outside Baba Yaga's hut (which stands on chicken legs), the border decorated prominently with liberty caps and what look to be fly agarics. From our latest essay “Fungi, Folklore, and Fairyland” by Mike Jay — visit link in bio and click image to read.⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ #folklore #fairies #babayaga #mushrooms #magicmushrooms #libertycaps #flyagaric #drugs #magic #fairyland #vasilisa #ivanbilibin #russia #illustration

Engraving depicting some of the most famous comets over the centuries: Halley's Comet (1835), Donatis Comet (1858), and further comets of 1680, 1741, and 1811. Artist unknown, ca. 1860.⁠ ⁠ Available as a print in our online shop — visit link in bio and click image.⁠ .⁠ .⁠ .⁠ .⁠ .⁠ #engraving #comets #meteor #meteors #comet #astronomy #space #nightsky #shootingstars

Designs from a 1901/2 issue of Shin-Bijutsukai, a Japanese design magazine. More on on our site, visit link in bio and click image.⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ #design #japan #art #pattern #floral #flowers

Images from Filippo Buonanni's 1722 work Gabinetto Armonico (or Harmonic cabinet), an attempt to catalogue, for the first time, the musical instruments of the world.⠀ While some of the examples gathered in Buonanni's book are as simple as the bee-keeper banging his tub, or the clacking of shoes against the floor, some are highly crafted, technical machines; the great organ at Palazzo Verospi requires a fold-out page to show it all. We are also treated to what might be considered more incidental instruments, for example, the bell about a bound criminal's neck and the sound of a soldier's sword being struck. Lost more on the site — visit link in bio and click image. . . . . . #music #musicalinstrument #instrument #art #engraving

Some inside spreads from our new essays book. 📖 Today is the last and very final chance to get it for the special “early bird” discount!!!⏳⏳⏳Order before midnight tonight to get your 20% off. Visit link in bio and click image to go to the order page. 🙂

Various types of unicorn (including the amphibious "camphur" top left), from Pierre Pomet's Histoire générale des drogues (1694).⠀⁠ ⠀⁠ Featured in “Greenland Unicorns and the Magical Alicorn” by Natalie Lawrence, on a fascinating convergence of established folklore, nascent science, and pharmaceutical economy. One of 12 essays in our *brand new book of Selected Essays*. There's now ONLY ONE DAY LEFT to get the special 20% "early bird" discount! Visit link in bio and click image to get yours today.⠀⁠ .⠀⁠ .⠀⁠ 🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄⠀⁠ .⠀⁠ .⠀⁠ #unicorn #unicorns #alicorn #art #magic #medicine

“The Temptation and Fall of Eve” (Book IX, line 791), one of William Blake’s twelve Paradise Lost illustrations which make up the “Butts Set”, 1808.⠀ ⠀ Featured in “The Sound and the Story: Exploring the World of Paradise Lost” by Philip Pullman, on the sonic beauty and expert storytelling of Milton's masterpiece and the influence it has had on Pullman's own work. One of 12 essays in our *brand new book of Selected Essays*. There's now ONLY ONE DAY LEFT to get the special 20% "early bird" discount! Visit link in bio and click image to get yours today.⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ #williamblake #philippullman #paradiselost #milton

Some of the great illustrations to be found in The Algonquin Legends of New England (1884). The collection of Algonquin folk tales presented in the book is a result of the collecting efforts of folklorist Charles G. Leland and from Rev. Silas T. Rand, a Canadian Baptist clergyman who was the first to record the legend of Glooskap. It is this legend, with its many chapters, which takes up the majority of the book. The central character is a giant of a divinity named Glooskap, who “grows to a more appalling greatness than Thor or Odin in his battles”, and whose name literally means Liar, because it is said that when he left earth he promised to return but has never done so. Read the tales, and see more of the illustrations, on the site — visit link in bio and click image.⠀ .⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ #algonquin #folktales #myth #legend #newengland #nativeamericans #illustration #IndigenousPeopleDay

A rice-mortar, pounder, bee, and egg join the crabs in their council of war — illustration from a ca. 1911 crepe-paper reprint of The Battle of the Monkey and the Crab.⠀ ⠀ Featured in “Woodblocks in Wonderland” by Christopher DeCou, on the publisher Takejiro Hasegawa's Japanese Fairy Tale Series, a pioneering cross-cultural endeavour that gave rise to a magnificent chapter in the history of children's publishing. One of 12 essays in our *brand new book of Selected Essays*. There's now ONLY TWO DAYS LEFT to get the special 20% "early bird" discount! Visit link in bio and click image to get yours today.⠀ .⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ #japan #publishing #crab #egg #books #bookstagram

The dancer Loie Fuller in an early version of her "Serpentine" costume, ca. 1890s.⠀ ⠀ Featured in “Loie Fuller and the Serpentine” by Rhonda K. Garelick, on Fuller’s unlikely stardom and how her beguiling art embodied the era's newly blurred boundaries between human and machine. One of 12 essays in our *brand new book of Selected Essays*. There's now ONLY THREE DAYS LEFT to get the special 20% "early bird" discount! Visit link in bio and click image to get yours today.⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ #dance #dancing. #loiefuller #snakes