Folio Archives 43 : Two Tales of the Congo by Joseph Conrad and Dolf Rieser's Copper Engravings Portfolio 1952
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Two Tales of the Congo by Joseph Conrad and Dolf Rieser's Copper Engravings Portfolio 1952
Joseph Conrad's Two Tales of the Congo includes "Heart of Darkness" (123 pages) and "An Outpost of Progress" (33 pages). "Heart of Darkness" was also printed as a single volume by the FS in 1997 and 2014, and "Outpost of Progress" was one of the essays included in the 2013 FS book "Conrad's Congo".
The two stories are about Europeans isolated at remote trading stations in the Congo, but while the ironically entitled "Outpost of Progress" is raw and simple in its telling, short and direct, "Heart of Darkness" is much longer, and is as terrible as it is moving.
Joseph Conrad (Josef Feodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski) was born in the Ukraine of Polish parents. He took up the trade of a seaman in England in 1880. He had first hand experience of the Congo in 1890-91 as a riverboat captain.
The book is 22x14cm, has 166 pages and there are eight etchings by Dolf Rieser. It is bound in light brown cloth that is blocked in black with an African effigy design, and has an illustrated dustjacket but no slipcase (standard for Folio Society books of this era). The spine is in contrasting grey on black. The black dustjacket has the same design printed on the cover in contrasting white.
Commissioned and published by the Folio Society, the limited edition Copper Engravings Portfolio by Dolf Rieser is loose layered inside a specially designed cloth-backed illustrated papered boards portfolio with cloth ties. Inside this, an A3 folded piece of paper is printed on the front with the colophon, and inside this are the nine original signed etchings, each with a tissue guard. There is no binding between any of the elements, all are laid loosely in the portfolio.
Each plate is signed and numbered by the artist, and additionally signed and numbered on limitation page that wraps around the engravings, which have been hand-printed by the artist on Hammer and Anvil hand-made paper.
There are nine plates in the portfolio, and only eight in the book. It seems the picture of the small steamer passing along the river with thick jungle on the banks was drawn, but not published.
Folio 60 barely mentions this production, being merely a sentence in the Two tales of the Congo entry which reads "A suite of impressions of the original engravings was also published by the Society, in a limited edition of 75 copies".
Dolf Rieser (1898-1983) was born in King William's Town, South Africa (a very tenuous connection is that in 1976 I worked as a surgeon in KWT) and was educated in Germany and Switzerland. In 1923, Rieser studied with Hans Hoffman and, in 1928, joined Stanley William Hayter's Parisian Atelier. He worked at the atelier until 1940, at which time he moved to England to join in the war effort. In the 1950s Rieser produced his own folios of engravings entitled Africa and Tales of the Congo and became a full member of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers. In the 1960s he pioneered the technique of printing on fiberglass panels and laminates. Rieser's work was shown internationally and he is represented in a number of important public collections, including the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert, National Gallery of Canada and the New York Public Library.
Only 75 copies of the Two Tales of the Congo Portfolio were produced, and mine is number 30. It is one of tne of the rarest and oldest productions of the Folio Society.
Two Tales of the Congo
Dustjacket
Dustjacket flyleaves
.
.
Dolf Rieser's Copper Engravings Portfolio
Showing tissue guard over etching
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed at : http://www.librarything.com/topic/266300
Joseph Conrad's Two Tales of the Congo includes "Heart of Darkness" (123 pages) and "An Outpost of Progress" (33 pages). "Heart of Darkness" was also printed as a single volume by the FS in 1997 and 2014, and "Outpost of Progress" was one of the essays included in the 2013 FS book "Conrad's Congo".
The two stories are about Europeans isolated at remote trading stations in the Congo, but while the ironically entitled "Outpost of Progress" is raw and simple in its telling, short and direct, "Heart of Darkness" is much longer, and is as terrible as it is moving.
Joseph Conrad (Josef Feodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski) was born in the Ukraine of Polish parents. He took up the trade of a seaman in England in 1880. He had first hand experience of the Congo in 1890-91 as a riverboat captain.
The book is 22x14cm, has 166 pages and there are eight etchings by Dolf Rieser. It is bound in light brown cloth that is blocked in black with an African effigy design, and has an illustrated dustjacket but no slipcase (standard for Folio Society books of this era). The spine is in contrasting grey on black. The black dustjacket has the same design printed on the cover in contrasting white.
Commissioned and published by the Folio Society, the limited edition Copper Engravings Portfolio by Dolf Rieser is loose layered inside a specially designed cloth-backed illustrated papered boards portfolio with cloth ties. Inside this, an A3 folded piece of paper is printed on the front with the colophon, and inside this are the nine original signed etchings, each with a tissue guard. There is no binding between any of the elements, all are laid loosely in the portfolio.
Each plate is signed and numbered by the artist, and additionally signed and numbered on limitation page that wraps around the engravings, which have been hand-printed by the artist on Hammer and Anvil hand-made paper.
There are nine plates in the portfolio, and only eight in the book. It seems the picture of the small steamer passing along the river with thick jungle on the banks was drawn, but not published.
Folio 60 barely mentions this production, being merely a sentence in the Two tales of the Congo entry which reads "A suite of impressions of the original engravings was also published by the Society, in a limited edition of 75 copies".
Dolf Rieser (1898-1983) was born in King William's Town, South Africa (a very tenuous connection is that in 1976 I worked as a surgeon in KWT) and was educated in Germany and Switzerland. In 1923, Rieser studied with Hans Hoffman and, in 1928, joined Stanley William Hayter's Parisian Atelier. He worked at the atelier until 1940, at which time he moved to England to join in the war effort. In the 1950s Rieser produced his own folios of engravings entitled Africa and Tales of the Congo and became a full member of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers. In the 1960s he pioneered the technique of printing on fiberglass panels and laminates. Rieser's work was shown internationally and he is represented in a number of important public collections, including the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert, National Gallery of Canada and the New York Public Library.
Only 75 copies of the Two Tales of the Congo Portfolio were produced, and mine is number 30. It is one of tne of the rarest and oldest productions of the Folio Society.
Two Tales of the Congo
Dustjacket
Dustjacket flyleaves
.
.
Dolf Rieser's Copper Engravings Portfolio
Showing tissue guard over etching
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed at : http://www.librarything.com/topic/266300
2NLNils
>1 wcarter: Simply marvelous.
4boldface
Absolutely fascinating, Warwick. I love the engravings. Wherever did you find the portfolio?
5wcarter
>4 boldface:
I found it advertised on an Australian second-hand booksite by a bookseller in Melbourne.
I found it advertised on an Australian second-hand booksite by a bookseller in Melbourne.
