Such stuff as dreams are made on

La Place de St. Jaques a Londres, ca. 1750-1800, 298 x 445 mm, etching/engraving/watercolour/illuminated O ptical prints, also known as the 'Vue d’Optique', a re curious objects. These prints are characterized by mirrored titles, an exaggerated perspective effect and multilingual descriptions. Once mass produced as tourist prints, nowadays these objects are increasingly valued for their artistic character. The preserved optical prints give us an very interesting eye on how the 18th century elite viewed the world. ' t Stad Huys van Amsteldam    Daumont, Paris, ca. 1750-1800, 300 x 450 mm, etching/watercolour    These beautiful etched or engraved prints were usually hand coloured. Some of them are even made to be illuminated. This means that the contours of buildings, windows and stars are perforated with dots and figures. On the back of the print a piece of translucent paper is pasted.  On top of this the holes are coloure...

The industrial age brought a new worldview to the British Empire. A small group of wealthy Victorians called the shots while the large majority of the population led a less glorious existence. They may have had jobs, but the circumstances in which they lived were far below standard. The arts also suffered under the overwhelming power of industry. Inventiveness was hard to find.  A Romance of the Three R’s (1886) At the end of the century a group of socialist artists felt it was time for a change. ‘The Arts and Crafts Movement’ was founded under the leadership of designer and philosopher, William Morris (1834-1896). The Movement believed that the conditions of the working class would improve if they got acquainted with aesthetic objects. The movement’s goal was to bring art to the common people. One of the first and most influential followers of the movement was the illustrator Walter Crane (1845-1915). Crane was a student of the socialist engraver W. J. Linton (18...

As you may know we, at Van der Steur , live amongst the mysterious history of more than 40.000 books and prints. Logically we are unable to read each and every one of them. This is why it can be very refreshing when a new intern stumbles upon an object that tells a greater story than just the one that is written inside. When our intern Sterre van der Sijde took a book from the shelf in our section dedicated to classical literature she noticed immediately that the book in her hands was special. This beautiful work, titled Fabulae Aesopi Graecè & Latinè is not bound in linen, leather or blank parchment as could be expected. Oddly enough it is bound in a parchment manuscript page with rubrication (sentences in red ink) and decorated initials.    When opened, the book shows that it concerns the 1672 version of the fables of the Greek slave Aesopus (600 BC) and those of the Latin poet Avianus (400 to 500 AD), written in Greek and Latin in parallel columns.  ...

Gustave Doré in: De Fabelen van La Fontaine , 1895 J. Punt in: Fabelen van J. De la Fontaine, 1805 Practically everybody knows the story of the tortoise and the hare. The overconfident hare decides to take a nap in the middle of a running contest, while the slow but modest tortoise follows through and finally wins the competition. A story that teaches us that slow but certain is better than fast and improvident and that teaches us morals about how to behave well in society. These fables find their roots in the sixth-century before Christ. It is thought that they were written by the Greek slave Aesop. Although his existence remains uncertain and none of his writings survived, numerous tales credited to him, were gathered across the centuries. Many of the tales are characterized by animals and lifeless objects that speak, solve problems, and have human characteristics. The representation of fables in pictures has a long history as well. In comparison to other illustrat...