Philip O Stearns

Philip O Stearns known as a member of the Sealed Knot, a photographer of model soldiers, author of a book on model solders, editor of various magazines and in a previous career a glamour photographer.

A short biography:

venusobservations

"Between 1980 and 1982, the publishers of Starlog Magazine released six quarterly issues of Fantasy Modeling under editor Philip O. Stearns"

wonderfest.com

Lucien Rousselot

This must have been a familiar (and welcome) stamp on the back of an envelope.

Looking up the address in Jacques Hillairet 'Dictionnaire Historique des Rues de Paris' we find the comment "De nombreux artistes y ont leur atelier entre 1900 et 1914".

Rousselot continuing a tradition....

W. A. Thorburn

 

This is a surprising little book published in 1969. Although the pictures are virtually all in b&w its an interesting selection and most of the prints came from Thorburns own collection. He was - judging from a letter I once received from him - slightly protective of what he had collected. But of course I might have been youthfully rude in my inquiry....

Lithograph

No information on this. At the bottom 'Lith de Lemercier'. Presumably hand-coloured, printed on thin card and came at some point from a scrapbook.

Knitted uniforms

This knitting pattern booklet (like virtually every knitting pattern) is undated - perhaps 1955 or thereabouts.

There is brief mention in Richard Rutt 'A History of Hand Knitting' about the (UK) craze for knitting for soldiers during the Great War - a frantic attempt to be doing something and how the soldiers at the front had so many knitted items being sent to them that they would use them for cleaning guns. He writes that during WW2 there was less urgency and less mania to it all (in the UK).

See also the Paula Becker essay at Historylink.org about American Knitting during WW2.
www.historylink.org

Recherche sur les Uniformes Etrangers de l'Empire

For some details (and a list of the publications) of the RUEE see  Yves Martin at the Napoleon-Series.org this one is dated 1973/1974 and numbered No 1; its 'Pologne Grand-Duche de Varsovie Genereaux 1806-1814' by E. Leliepevre et HFo (Henri Fournol). There is a card cover (illustrated) and then a few pages of roneo style text with a b&w plate to finish. According to Martin they came with a slide - but I don't have any of the slides :-(

They are clearly written and really quite useful - for instance the one on Tartares Lithuaniens begins with a page or so describing all the illustrations and sources available.

A certain similarity to the clarity (and poor printing) of Leliepevres Historex sheets..

Rene North

Rene North (died 1971) produced a series of b&w postcards sold in sets (of 6) as 'Paint Your Own' covering a range of Uniforms. The idea being that you could colour them in yourself. Which if you did would presumably reduce the current value considerably...

The couple of (posthumously published) Almark books above are really quite nice and he uses the cards to illustrate them.

There is a short biography on the back of his Hamlyn book:

After his death the Paint Your Own cards were sold by John Edgcumbe (about whom I know little except that in 1944 he was stationed near Richmond (Yorkshire) with the 17/21 Lancers. After his death there was an advert in Military Modelling Magazine offering the business for sale .....

I no longer have the list of cards so thats another thing on the 'to find' list..

Temoins

 

For Armistice day: Jean Norton Cru 'Temoins' 1933

There is nothing about uniforms in here but an extraordinary book. Supposedly difficult to find in University libraries in the UK until the reprint of 1996. A little bit like a piece of 70's criticism dropped back into 1930.

Almark Publishing

The first Almark book I bought was Emir Bukhari 'French Napoleonic Line Infantry' published in 1973. I bought a copy from a giant pile of remaindered copies in W. H. Smith....

There is a history of Almark Publishing yet to be written - they produced innumerable books on uniforms some good some bad. They seem to be an interesting result of 70's typesetting methods more than anything else. I believe they started as publishers of decals for model aircraft - but I will have to get out my old Airfix mags to see.

Bukharis book is half decent. M. G. Head wrote some fairly dreadful (in hindsight) rehashes of  Rousselot. Some parts (e.g. the drawings of the Sapeurs du Genie fire pump) are based on a logical imagination but just plain wrong.

The oddest thing Almark published was 'Soldiers of the Napoleonic Wars' - a bi-monthly (?) part series which I remember being sold in W. H. Smiths in the magazine section. It was fairly wonderfully done - Fosten being exceptional at the British Army - but was doomed to failure after 7 (???) issues.

Most of the Almark books I have are the glossy finish paperbacks and are much the worse for their age - the perfect bindings are starting to fall apart which seems to happen to all of them however carefully they are stored :-(

Passementerie

Braid, edging, tassels, fringes and trimmings fall under the heading of passementerie.

http://www.mywire.com/a/Grove-Enc-Decorative-Arts/Passementerie/9469322/?&pbl=105

Given the importance of all this to Uniforms one might think there would be some little mention of it - but its like all aspects of the manufacture of Uniform - rarely considered.

I have Rene Heutte "Le Livre de la Passementerie" 1972 which is extremely good - covering furnishings to military uniforms - including a few Rousselot drawings (from 'L'Armee Francaise Types et Uniformes'). Mainly concerned with types and manufacture with plenty of examples (everything seemed to have passementerie on it - from carriages to cushions).

I haven't seen the exhibition catalogue:'‎Des Dorelotiers aux Passementiers' Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1973 (Dorelotiers = caning?).

Once upon a time - in the 1980's - I knew someone who made tassels and like upholstery items. He had found by chance a workshop which was extremely long and very narrow - an unused corridor. Inside he had set up his rope making machinery - wooden, quite crude but effective. He started with Sylko thread and ended up with the decorative tassels that finished curtains and the like. I guess that sort of thing is all made in China now...

 

The African cavalryman is an interesting counter image to the Napoleonic Drummer!! The peculiar black block and layout is kind of how the book is in places....

Glasser

Glassers 'Costumes Militaires. Catalogue des principales suites de costume militaires Francais' can be found on Gallica http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5455729s

Gallica offers no author even though I think the attribution to Guy Glasser is pretty much certain (e.g. from Colas 1258).

Gallica is overlooked in the rush of Google to digitise everything but they just seem to be getting on with it. The standard of reproduction is low (e.g. have a look at the Carnet de la Sabretache - almost unreadable)

In his introduction Glasser bemoans the fact that prints which were common just 40 years before (ie in 1860) were virtually unobtainable in 1900.

The sale for Glassers collection was in two parts (1910 and 1911) at the Hotel Drouot. The V&A appears to have a copy of the first part.

Glasser is described as 'Ingeniéur en chef des Ponts et Chaussées' in the 'Tables 1903-1955 du Carnet de la Sabretache'

I have an unnumbered copy on Dutch paper with colour and b&w copies of each of the four plates. Its horrible as a book - the paper is too thick and has a tatty deckle edge and with an unnumbered copy there is always that worry as to why its not numbered (printers trial copy?). Its surprising how often one finds books which should be numbered but aren't (I have 3 that I can think of..)

Favourite Child

'Favourite Child' comes from Henri Bouchots preface to Sauzey "Iconographie du Costume Militaire" where he wonders whether Sauzey can have a favourite child in his study of uniforms.