The name, however, has since come under some dispute with the proprietor's significant other for resembling "the name of about four NYC nightclubs in nineties." Personally, I'm a fan of the name, but I could be biased. I decided to post the drawing, perhaps prematurely, because I have developed a kind of twitch that sets in if I haven't posted anything for over ten days.
In between sessions of putzing around with chiaroscuro and striation, I admired the detail work of the woodblock engravings that illluminated Webster's early dictionaries. Thousands of such engravings have been whimsically arranged in Pictorial Webster's: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities. This may be the most humbling collection of illustrative work I have ever encountered. I get exhausted just glancing at the detail work invested in etching a locomotive engine or wentletrap (a kind of shell) into soft boxwood, usually smaller than 1" square.
Many of the engravers went uncredited for their work, and were never really elevated to the status of artists. These drawings show me, more than anything, the etchers' devotion to collecting the world's miscellany, categorizing it, and storing it in labeled drawers. I'm guessing that these men probably did not tarry much in saloons with ladies who wore feathered headbands. I could be wrong.
Editor John Carrera felt besieged by minutiae while deciding how to arrange the images. "But my brain won't quit jumping around," complains the introduction. "In spite of the fact that an image of a hat on top of the Eiffel Tower can also be found on the flap of a Pop Tarts box, it all looks too much like the jumble of the world outside." Is it ironic to take up dictionary-editing to avoid that jumble?
I highly recommend Pictorial Webster's to artists and lovers of arcane and sundry knowledge. As an object alone, the thing fairly glistens.
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