This essay could be sub–titled “The Artist, the Polymath and the Publisher”, Ella Hallward being the Artist, Edward Heron–Allen the Polymath, and H.S. Nichols the Publisher. The three are so closely intertwined in the 1890s that they merit equal coverage in what follows, though my main concern has been to reveal more about the life of the little–known Artist.
Edward Heron–Allen’s classic study, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Being a Facsimile of the Manuscript in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, with a Transcript into modern Persian Characters was published and printed by H.S. Nichols of 39 Charing Cross Road, London, in 1898, with a second, textually enlarged, edition appearing in the same year. Ella Hallward did the frontispiece for it (Fig.1a – note her signature) as well as the decorations (Fig.1b.) Examples of the decorations are shown in Figs.1c, 1d, 1e & 1f. Fig.1b would seem to imply that she did the calligraphy of Fig.1c, the half–title page, as no such calligraphic design is present in the original Bodleian MS, and if so, it would seem likely that she also did the decoration of the binding (Fig.1g), a subject to which we shall return later, as this would involve a considerable knowledge of Persian.
Heron–Allen’s second classic study, Edward FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam with their Original Persian Sources was published by Bernard Quaritch of 15 Piccadilly, London, in 1899, but still printed by H.S. Nichols. Ella Hallward is credited with the decorations for this too, precisely as in Fig.1b, but the decorations were merely a recycling of some of those from the earlier edition, the cover, for example (Fig.2a), being clearly adapted from that of Fig.1g. The frontispiece (Fig.2b) is very similar in its imagery to Fig.1a, even down to the two floral swirls rising behind and above the young woman, who seemingly represents Omar’s Beloved / Saki turning down an empty glass, as in the final verse of each of FitzGerald’s four editions. But Fig.2b is very different in technique to Fig.1a, and its very different and seemingly cryptic signature (Fig.2c) at first makes one wonder if it was by a different artist. Fortunately, as we shall see later, one of Ella’s letters to Heron–Allen has survived, and her signature on that enables us to read Fig.2c as a cursive E.F.G.H, the initials of her full name, Eleanor Frances Graeme Hallward, with the year 1897 above. Possible reasons why the former edition was published by H.S. Nichols and the latter by Bernard Quaritch will be discussed later.
Some of Ella’s decorations were recycled for a second time in Heron–Allen’s Lament of Baba Tahir also published by Bernard Quaritch, in 1902, though this does not much concern us here.
[The illustrations can be browsed here.]
Of more concern here is the fact that she had illustrated an edition of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem of 44 lines, The Raven, also published by H.S. Nichols in 1898, shortly before the firm published Heron–Allen’s “Facsimile” volume. (Actually, though the title–page bears the date 1898, contemporary newspaper advertisements indicate that it appeared in time for the Christmas market of 1897 – Fig.3.) It is not clear why this lesser–known poem of Coleridge’s, first published in 1798, was chosen by Nichols for publication, but chosen it was. It carried a brief introduction by Stephen Coleridge, whose grandfather was a nephew of the poet (1). This is rather a rare book, and Ella’s career as an artist and illustrator being, as we shall see, of short duration, I reproduce eight of its illustrations here. Since the poem is not well known today, it may be as well to outline its plot.
Subtitled “A Christmas Tale told by a School–boy to his little Brothers and Sisters,” the poem opens with a herd of swine crunching the acorns beneath an old oak tree. They leave behind them a single acorn, which the Raven of the tale buries beside a river. Years pass and the Raven returns with his mate to build a nest in the oak tree which has grown from the acorn he planted. But a Woodman appears and chops down the oak, killing the young chicks in the nest, the Raven’s mate dying of a broken heart as a result. The oak is used to make part of a ship, which is subsequently sunk in a huge storm with the loss of all lives on board. The poem closes thus:
Right glad was the Raven, and off he went fleet,And Death riding home on a cloud he did meet, And he thank’d him again and again for this treat:They had taken his all, and Revenge it was sweet!
Fig.4a is the decorated half–title page; Fig.4b is the illustration facing the opening lines, and also the design on the front cover; Fig.4c illustrates the opening line, “Underneath an old oak tree”; Fig.4d illustrates the line, “He belonged, they did say, to the witch, Melancholy!” (“He” being the Raven); Fig.4e, in a very different style, appears not to relate literally to any particular line(s), though the Raven is present looking down on the young couple depicted, so the illustration perhaps relates to the Raven finding his own mate (Ella’s signature is visible to the lower right); Fig.4f illustrates the line “But soon came a woodman” (about to chop down the tree which houses the Raven’s nest); Fig.4g depicts the ship being engulfed by the storm; and Fig.4h depicts the Raven meeting Death riding home. These last two are in the same style as Fig.4e, paintings rather than drawings.
[The illustrations can be browsed here.]
Ella had clearly done many of the illustrations for The Raven by 1896, for several are actually dated ’96, and one of them featured in the Arts and Crafts Exhibition in that year, receiving the following glowing review in an article on the exhibition in The Studio (vol.9, p.280):
The clever illustration to The Raven (here Fig.4c), by Ella F.G. Hallward, employs a striking convention of its own. One can scarce recall any other attempt to work in white upon black which has mastered the problem so easily. To use a second outline in white is a trick that has often led artists to terrible disaster. Here it is managed so deftly and directly that you fail to observe it at first glance. Miss Hallward has won a distinct place among illustrators by virtue of this single drawing, which, it may be added, is the copyright (strictly reserved) of Mr. H.S. Nichols. Would that the reservation prevented imitators from attempting weak versions of the difficult convention it employs.
Not so enthusiastic was a review of the book itself which appeared in St. James’s Gazette on 30 December 1897 (p.5.) Whilst praising her “Melancholy” (here Fig.4d) the reviewer dismisses her depiction of Death (here Fig.4h) as “inadequate”, but concludes:
Miss Hallward has imagination of a kind, and a fairly good sense of line. She only needs a more decided mastery of the materials used in these designs, or perhaps a thorough change to other methods, to produce drawings that will be at once more personal in their note and more convincing in their treatment. The printing and general aspect of the book is good.
Personally speaking, white on black has never been my favourite technique, and though Ella’s illustrations for The Raven are interesting I cannot help but think that, as this reviewer suggests, they would have been more effective using a different technique. Speaking for myself, I find Fig.2b much more appealing than Fig.1a, for example.
As stated earlier, and as we shall see presently, Ella Hallward’s artistic career was of short duration. She appears to have illustrated / decorated no other books besides The Raven and the Heron–Allen books, and the only other published art–works of hers which have come to my attention are two book–plates. The first is shown as Fig.5a. This featured in Gleeson White’s monograph Modern Bookplates and their Designers, published as a supplement to the Winter number of The Studio (1898–9), p.6. White comments:
The pretty little design for Maud Mackinlay by Miss Ella Hallward, reproduced on p.6, is an excellent example of the technique she has made her own, and a distinctly pleasant, unpretentious book–plate. (p.19)
This would seem to imply that Ella designed other book–plates in similar style, but if so, I have not found any others at the time of writing. However, the second book–plate mentioned above more than makes up for this, for it was designed for Edward Heron–Allen. It is shown in Fig.5b and was featured in The Ex Libris Journal in March 1901 (p.43) under the heading “Book Plate (Joint) of Edward and Marianna Heron–Allen”. The article quoted Heron–Allen’s own explanation of the significance of the various details in it, and this is of sufficient interest to quote in full here:
The frame is surrounded by a quotation from the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Book III, 15, ‘Be not deceived; for thou shalt never live to read all which thou hadst provided and laid up for thyself against thine old age.’ The general design and appearance of the plate is intended to be oriental, to symbolise my work in connection with Persian literature. The khush–i–khatt (‘elegant writing’) or tughra (‘sign–manual’) over the central design being my name ‘Edward Heron–Allen,’ written by the Katib (‘writer’) Mirza Mohammed Ali of Shiraz. The ornamental corners are suggested by an oriental bookbinding.
The central design is surrounded by the snake with its tail in its mouth, a symbol of eternity which I have affected for many years; the winged heart bears the motto of my house, ‘Diligenter et fidelis’, which makes up in sentiment what it lacks in latinity. Between the wings the pentacle (or pentagram) signifying mystery, perfection and the Universe which plays a prominent part in the Faust legends, symbolises my early work in the fields of occult science and psychology. The roses filling the ground suggest the cult of Omar Khayyam, and the sentiment attached by the sentimentally inclined to red roses all over the world.
The date 1900 commemorates the birth of the new century, as well as the death of our old plate, which, after giving nine thousand impressions, refuses to produce anything but what looks like a tenth–rate lithographic production.
The plate is designed by Miss Ella F.G. Hallward, whose illustrations to Coleridge’s “Raven” drew the attention of artists to her black–and–white (properly speaking, white–on–black) work a few years ago, and concerning whose work an exhaustive article is about to appear in the Studio.
It has been engraved by the well–known heraldic engraver Harry Soane, of Hanway Street.
The involvement of Mirza Mohammed Ali in the Persian calligraphy suggests that he (or someone similar) was behind the Persian calligraphy that embellished Heron–Allen’s “Facsimile” edition and that Ella Hallward merely copied it, albeit elegantly. Unfortunately, the promised “exhaustive article” about her in The Studio seems never to have appeared.
Finally, two unpublished art–works by her have survived in the possession of Kay Rippingale, who acquired them from her aunt, who in turn, it seems, had acquired them from Heron–Allen (2). The first (Fig.6a) depicts a young woman holding what could be a lute or a violin, and is dated 1897. The second (Fig.6b) depicts young woman with flowers and is dated 1898. The similarity in style, particularly the first, as well as their dates, brings to mind her illustrations for The Raven, so one naturally wonders if they were commissioned by H.S. Nichols (or perhaps another publisher) for another book which was never published.
As noted at the outset, Fig.1b would seem to imply that Ella did the calligraphy of Fig.1c, as no such calligraphic design is present in the original Bodleian MS. The design reads, in calligraphic Persian: “Rubaiyat [of] Hakim Omar Khayyam,” and it would take considerable skill in Persian, as well as a knowledge of Islamic calligraphy, to produce this design, and, by inference, that of Fig.1g. The design of Fig.1f, which incorporates the closing words of FitzGerald’s first edition, “Tamam Shud” (“It is finished” or “The End”), written in Persian script, likewise implies a knowledge of Persian, though there is no elaborate calligraphy here.
The precise origins of the design in Fig.1c are not known. One suggestion has been that Ella copied it from some Persian MS of Omar’s quatrains, but if so, none such has come to light. Another suggestion has been that Heron–Allen supplied Ella with the Persian script, and perhaps a rough draft of what such a calligraphic design might look like, for I am not aware that Heron–Allen himself possessed any marked calligraphic skills. A third suggestion has been that Ella herself had some knowledge of Persian script, and of calligraphy using it, though there is no firm evidence for this, and indeed the origins of the Heron–Allen bookplate mentioned above rather suggest that Mirza Mohammed Ali, or someone similar, did the calligraphy and Ella copied it (for no–one else is mentioned in the “Facsimile” edition besides her.)
[The illustrations can be browsed here.]
It is interesting that Ella owned a specially bound photographic copy of the Bodleian MS, dated 1896, inscribed “in honour, and for the service, of Miss Ella F.G. Hallward.” It may have been presented to her by H.S. Nichols, or perhaps by Heron–Allen, but no name is attached to the inscription, unfortunately, and no image of it is available. This rather suggests that she had at least an aesthetic appreciation of the beauties of Persian script, though perhaps not herself capable of producing unaided the calligraphy in Figs.1c, 1f & 1g. She also owned a specially bound copy, dated 1897, of FitzGerald’s translation (seemingly Potter #285, published by Thomas B. Mosher, Portland, Maine, in 1895), into the back of which was pressed a sprig of rose leaves from the bush at the head of FitzGerald’s grave, accompanied by the inscription “Boulge, 9th October 1897.” Why this particular American edition was chosen for such a special binding, though, is not clear. Fig.7a shows the two books side by side, with their protective silk pouches, the specially bound photographic copy being the one on the left. Fig.7b shows the sprig of rose leaves in the back of her specially bound copy of the Mosher edition.
Unfortunately, the two books were sold to an American Collector many years ago by Peter Harrington Rare Books of London, and though they are still thought to be in private hands, their present location is unknown. As a result, the images of Figs.7a & 7b are the only surviving images of these unique items.
Ella Hallward was Eleanor Frances Graeme Hallward. She was born in Bognor, Sussex on 14 May 1866, the daughter of solicitor Charles Berners Hallward and his wife Elizabeth Ann. In the 1891 census she was recorded as living as a lodger at 76 Warwick Road, Kensington, London, her occupation listed as “Sculp. Artist.” At the same address was her younger sister, Lillian, a “Student of Music.” A picture of Ella dated 1897 is shown in Fig.8a. In the 1901 census she and her sister were living at 25 Hogarth Road, Kensington, her occupation listed as “Artist – Sculp”, her sister’s occupation as “none – liv[ing] on means.” They had two servants. By this time, of course, she must have met Heron–Allen, though the circumstances of this are not known at present. We shall return to their close friendship later.
In 1902 she married Colonel James Ridgeway Dyas, after which, sadly, her career as an artist and illustrator seems to have taken a back seat to her roles as wife and mother. A photograph of him taken in 1901 is shown in Fig.8b. By the time of the 1911 census they were living at Brook House, Cumberland Street, Woodbridge, Suffolk – FitzGerald country, of course. They had two children, John aged 4 and Eleanor aged 1, with five servants. Ella lists no occupation. Shortly after the census, but still in 1911, they had another son, Henry. By the time of the 1921 census they were living at Corrib Lodge, The Avenue, Camberley, Surrey, with children Eleanor and Henry, plus two servants. (Their older son, John, was at school in Oxford at the time of the census.) The occupation of James Dyas is listed as “Colonel (Retired)” and that of Ella as “Home duties.”
In 1927 Col. James R. Dyas retired from the army altogether, having served as the librarian of the Staff College, Camberley, Surrey since 1919. In January 1933 he died suddenly, apparently as a result of taking his customary cold bath (3)!
In the 1939 register the widowed Eleanor F. G. Dyas, occupation “unpaid domestic duties”, was recorded as still living at the above–mentioned Corrib Lodge, The Avenue, Camberley, Surrey – still her address at the time of her death on 4 November 1948.
Nothing is known at present about how Ella Hallward and Edward Heron–Allen first met, but that they had a close friendship is indicated by the fact that she and their mutual friend Brooke Sewell (4) went on holiday with Heron–Allen and his wife, Marianna (nicknamed Mollie) each year between 1898 and1901. Heron–Allen kept detailed Holiday Journals, from which we know that the group were in Venice in May 1898 and May 1899; in Paris in October 1900 (though without Brooke Sewell for most of it, apparently); and in Lugano, Verona and Venice in April–May 1901 (5a). Unfortunately the diaries tell us very little beyond the traditional day–to–day activities of the tourist – details of the journey (including sea–sickness); visits to churches, galleries & places of interest; buying souvenirs and gifts, antiques and books; details of their hotel rooms (including the bed–bugs) and meals out; people encountered along the way; and so on.
One curious detail is that in the Venice diaries of 1898 & 1899 Heron–Allen refers to Ella as “Lady Ella”, though he gives no indication of why! (By 1900 he had dropped the “Lady”.)
The year 1900 was the year of an Exhibition Universelle and on 21 October they went to see the exhibition of French art, ancient to modern, in the Petit Palais; an exhibition of Byzantine art; followed by the Sculpture Court of the Grand Palais, which was devoted to modern works. “The sculpture is most beautiful,” Heron–Allen wrote, “if somewhat preponderating in ladies in their birthday costumes.” After a nice but hugely overpriced lunch (tourism hasn’t changed much!) they went to visit the various Pavilions representing the cultures of other nations, including India, Ceylon, Russia and China – at the last they bought some soapstone carvings and some “beautiful Chinese ink for Ella.” The following day, having feasted sufficiently on arts and crafts the previous day, Ella and Marianna went off to buy hats for themselves, leaving Heron–Allen to return to the Grand Palais for another look around, presumably checking out the naked ladies exhibited there en route. Unfortunately a page is missing from the diary at this point, and the next thing we know is that they are going home on the night–boat from Calais.
The 1901 holiday is one of particular artistic interest. Thus, on 13 April 1901, as they passed through Milan on the way to Venice, Ella & Heron–Allen squeezed in a visit to the Galleria, where “Ella fell in love with the big Veronese, of which she had to buy a photo.” Later on the same holiday, in Venice itself, the party visited the Scuola San Rocco “to see the Tintorettos, which are the worst lighted pictures in Venice” (18 April); later to the church of S. Giorgio dei Schiavoni to see the “marvellous woodwork and pictures by Carpaccio” (23 April). That same evening, “we dined most excellently, being presently joined by Walter Sickert who is a quaint & humorous wight.” The following day, in St Mark’s Square, the party met up again with Sickert, “who has begun a new and weird picture of S. Mark this morning.” He goes on:
He stands all the morning with a crowd around him, who make despairing remarks about him, regretting that he should be doing such awful things – they do not appreciate that the Starr–Sickert New Century developments of the Whistler legend. He enjoys it and paints on imperturbably, outraging all their pre–conceived ideas of art.
Unfortunately we don’t have Ella’s own thoughts on Sickert’s work.
The 1901 holiday is also interesting on account of some of the photographs taken by Heron–Allen and which have survived in the back of the holiday journal in remarkable condition. Thus Fig.9a is a photograph of Marianna, Ella and Brooke taken at Lugano; Fig.9b shows Ella in the Arena at Verona, visited on 15 April, on the way to Venice; and Fig.9c shows Brooke, presumably lolling in a gondola, at an unspecified date.
As regards the things she bought on this holiday, lace and embroidery feature, though beads seem to have been one of her main interests, one shared by Heron–Allen apparently. Needless to say, they visited Murano on 2 May. “On our way back from Murano”, he adds, “We stopped at the Fondamenta Nuova & looked into the Church of the Gesniti to see the Tintoretto & the Titian & the marvellous barocco inlaying of dark green marbles.” A few days later, on 7 May, they bought some “small beads and charms, for Ella’s ‘children’ Gweneth & Maud”, though who they were exactly remains unclear.
There are a few other minor details from the holiday journals generally which add to the picture. Thus we know that, back in their hotel, Ella enjoyed playing chess with Heron–Allen; that she proved herself an accomplished swimmer in the Lido at Venice; and an amusing if inconsequential detail from the 1899 journal (30 May – the evening before was their last in Venice before returning home): “Poor Lady Ella is rather seedy suffering from a Spanish Lady called ‘Dolores Fortes della Birras’ so she has not enjoyed her last evening” – Heron–Allen’s rather neat description of a hangover!
As already indicated, though the holiday journals give us some interesting day–to–day personal glimpses of the participants’ activities together, they give us no substantive information about how Ella and Heron–Allen met, or of their working relationship.
Heron–Allen also kept, and had bound, much of his correspondence, one volume of which (5b) covers the period 1896 to 1898 inclusive. But it contains no letters from Ella and only one letter to him from H.S. Nichols, dated 1 December 1897, relating to a revised prospectus for “Omar”. Another volume contains several letters dating from 1897 to 1898, all relating to Heron–Allen’s booklet Some Sidelights upon Edward FitzGerald’s Poem ‘The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’ published H.S. Nichols in 1898 (5c). This one does contain a letter from Ella, dated 30 March 1898, and since it is the only one known to have survived, I reproduce it here as Figs.10a & 10b. As can be seen, though interesting as a personal snapshot of the time, it is actually little more than a thankyou note. (Lil is Ella’s younger sister, mentioned above, and it is the Spring Cleaner in possession of the National Gallery.)
But returning to the Holiday Diaries, 1901 marked a turning point as regards the present study. Marianna Heron–Allen died in January 1902, and early in that same year Ella Hallward married Colonel Dyas. It was the end of an era.
Given that he published Coleridge’s poem The Raven and Heron–Allen’s “Facsimile” edition, one might expect that H.S. Nichols was a typically respectable late Victorian publisher, and in some respects he was. But not all, for there was a darker side to his publications: pornography.
Harry Sidney Nichols was born in Leeds in 1865, and by about 1884 had migrated to Sheffield, where he set up as a bookseller: “Nichols’ Great Emporium and Literary Lounge” (6a). It was in Sheffield that he teamed up with the notorious Leonard Smithers, and by 1888 they were publishing ‘high–end erotica’ (pornography for the wealthy, basically) under the imprint of the Erotika Biblion Society. This was probably modelled on Sir Richard Burton’s Kama Shastra Society, under which imprint had appeared Burton’s famous editions of The Kama Sutra (1883) and The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (1885–6). In fact, Smithers and Nichols, who by about 1891 (6b) had migrated to London, were to bring out four multi–volume editions of the latter between 1894 and 1897 (7), along with a parody of it, The Thousand and One Quarters of an Hour (Tartarian Tales), edited by Leonard Smithers and published by H.S. Nichols & Co., 3 Soho Square, London in 1893, and, following the success of that, The Transmigrations of the Mandarin Fum–Hoam (Chinese Tales), edited by Smithers and published by Nichols from the same address in 1894 (6c). Both were translations from the French originals by Thomas Simon Gueulette (1683–1766), but no translator is named in either. Probably their most notorious publication, however, was the explicit homosexual novel Teleny in 1893 (8).
By about 1894/5, though, relations between Nichols and Smithers had soured, and they parted company (6d). Smithers dubbed Nichols “an unsafe man to deal with” (6e) and Nichols dubbed Smithers “a lustful, lascivious and shameful satyr” (6f). Both were probably true, and the well–known photo of the pair together shown in Fig.11 doesn’t inspire one to take much confidence in either!
Legal notices in The Times newspaper show that Nichols was in financial difficulties early in 1898, resulting in bankruptcy by July of that year (9) which may well explain why it was Quaritch who published Heron–Allen’s “Persian Sources” volume. (Ironically, one of the ambitions of Nichols and Smithers on coming to London had been to “push Quaritch from his throne in the Antiquarian Book World.” (6g)) Presumably as a result of the bankruptcy, Nichols’s stock of books was sold by auction at Sotheby’s in early April of that year (10). Not only that, as the Calendars of Prisoners 1900 Central Criminal Court, tells us (p.6–7), he was facing imprisonment for:
Selling, uttering and publishing a certain obscene book called “Kalogynomia, or The Laws of Female Beauty”.
Printing, publishing, and selling a certain obscene book called “Mademoiselle de Maupin”.
According to the same source, Nichols was bailed on 13 February 1900, and the trial being postponed for some reason, he took the opportunity to flee to Paris (6h), a safe haven for more than one English purveyor of erotica (11). The Police Gazette for 30 March 1900 indicates that a warrant had been issued for his arrest “for failing to answer to an indictment.” However, though officially exiled in Paris, he clandestinely maintained a rented office in London through which he was able to continue to sell erotic literature to his wealthy clientele (6i). In 1908, apparently fearing extradition back to England, he fled to New York, arriving there from Cherbourg at the end of May aboard the SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse (12).
His early career in the States is difficult to document, but we know from contemporary newspaper advertisements that he continued to operate as a publisher of quality editions (Fig.12a) and a rare book dealer, in the latter role offering a book–search service (Fig.12b – note the “Established 1886”!) By 1920 business was booming enough for him to be running two shops in New York (Fig.12c). There is no indication that any of this success was down to peddling pornography, though Nichols’s track record suggests that he probably was, and his contacts in London and Paris would have furnished a ready supply. However the years 1919–1920 find him protesting his innocence in the midst of a dubious enterprise involving forgeries of drawings by Aubrey Beardsley.
An exhibition of the drawings was announced in The New York Times on 13 April 1919 (Fig.12d), with an enthusiastic review of it on the same page, though a short article previewing it had appeared in the same newspaper on 30 March. There were seventy drawings all–told, the article announced, whose background was as follows:
Mr Nichols spent twenty years in business in London and was personally acquainted with the biggest literary men of that period. He supplied Beardsley with funds during the latter’s periods of stress, and took what drawings the artist had to offer.
The fact that he owned so many Beardsley pictures, Mr Nichols said, was known only to a few friends, and he did not make known their existence because he did not consider the public sufficiently interested in the artist.
Nichols’s exhibition was no doubt prompted by an exhibition of genuine Beardsley drawings which had been staged at the Anderson Galleries in New York shortly before, and which had sold for some very healthy prices, though apparently the drawings in the Nichols exhibition were (according to the review in The New York Times on 13 April) “not for sale” – at least, not officially.
Though the first paragraph of the above quote (aside from the twenty years) could be applied to Leonard Smithers, I’m not sure how much of it actually applies to Nichols. Smithers certainly knew Beardsley and had a large number of drawings by him, publishing A Book of Fifty Drawings in 1896 (though dated 1897) and A Second Book of Fifty Drawings in 1899, the latter after the artist’s early death. (Smithers himself died in dire straits in London in 1907 (6j), having gone bankrupt in 1900 (13).)
Be that as it may, it was not long before doubts were raised as to the authenticity of the drawings in Nichols’s collection. An article in The New York Herald on 19 April 1919 (p.9) quoted the opposition by Beardsley experts A. E. Gallatin (14) and Joseph Pennell, along with Nichols’s protestations that his drawings were genuine. The controversy rumbled on, giving Nichols enough publicity to publish Fifty Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley, Selected from the Collection owned by Mr. H.S. Nichols, in a limited edition of 500 copies, in 1920. Its front cover is shown in Fig.13a; its colophon, with Nichols’s characteristic signature, in Fig.13b (one wonders what a graphologist would make of it!); and its title–page in Fig.13c. Today the drawings are routinely dismissed as forgeries, but by whom were they done?
It is not my purpose here to go into details, but though Smithers had a large number of genuine Beardsleys, he was not above selling copies of them done by an impecunious barrister and skilled amateur artist called John A. Black, whom he had met in a London pub one night (6k)! (This is typical Smithers!) It is quite possible that Black did some ‘hitherto unknown’ drawings in the style of Beardsley, and that Nichols acquired some of these. However, Beardsley authority Haldane Macfall believed that at least two forgers were involved (14), so nothing is known for certain.
No untoward consequences seem to have arisen from all this, and Nichols lived on as a book dealer and publisher. In the 1940 US Federal Census, aged 75, the presumably retired Nichols was living with his daughter Marcia and her two children at 167 Home Street, the Bronx, New York. He died in the Metropolitan Hospital, Manhattan, in 1941.
I have dealt with H.S. Nichols at some length for it is difficult to see how Ella Hallward and Edward Heron–Allen came to do business with such a shady character. However, it is known that Heron–Allen adhered to the dictum that “a filthy mind is a continuous feast” and, like many a Victorian gentleman, he had a Cabinet of Erotica (15). Though it is not known exactly what it contained, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that some of its contents were acquired from Smithers and Nichols. On the other hand, Nichols was also a respectable publisher of quality editions – he published Heron–Allen’s “Facsimile” edition for a start, and in 1894 had published his Prolegomena towards the Study of the Chalk Foraminifera, and, in that same year, had published, “for the author”, the translation by Heron–Allen & his wife, Marianna, of The Arts and Crafts Book of the Worshipful Guild of Violin–Makers of Markneukirchen &c. (This was De Fidiculis Opuscula – Opusculum VII, a limited edition of 100 copies. The following year he published, again “for the author”, Opusculum VIII, The Seal of Roger Wade, Crowder, relating to an alleged Welsh forerunner of the violin.) Nichols seems to have had a genuine interest in the Oriental, for as well as Omar and the Arabian Nights he also published a limited edition (100 copies) of Sir Richard Burton’s Sufic poem The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El Yezdi in 1894, and in 1899, an edition of its Sufic prose parallel, Fairfax L. Cartwright’s The Mystic Rose from the Garden of the King: a Fragment of the Vision of Sheikh Haji Ibrahim of Kerbela. So he certainly wasn’t a publisher of pornography on a par with some others, and in some ways he is a more intriguing character than Edward Heron–Allen and Ella Hallward.
Note 1: Barrister and author Stephen Coleridge (1854–1936) was the second son of John Duke Coleridge, the Lord Chief Justice of England, whose father, John Taylor Coleridge (another judge), was the nephew of the poet.
Note 2: Kay Rippingale and her sister, Coral Cox, had an aunt called Harriet Kate James who lived with her sister, Edith, in Selsey Bill, in a house called St. Itha, on East Street, which belonged to Heron–Allen. She gave Kay the two original drawings shown in Figs.6a & 6b, and Coral the original drawings for Fig.1a and its facing decorative title–page, here shown as Fig.14. (Heron–Allen and Harriet shared an interest in local history, co–authoring a number of articles published in the likes of The Sussex County Magazine in the 1930s.)
Note 3: An obituary of him appeared in The Birmingham Gazette, 25 January 1933, p.15 col.3.
Note 4: Brooke Sewell (1878–1958) was born in Norway, went to school in England, but seems to have lived most of his life in mainland Europe – France, and from about 1923 until his death, Switzerland. It is not clear where he actually lived at the time he holidayed with Ella Hallward and the Heron–Allens, though it appears to have been London, going off his presence there when the party set off for Dover or Calais to go abroad. A merchant banker by profession, he clearly acquired considerable wealth, for in the late 1950s, by a donation and a bequest, he gave the British Museum a total of about £1,000,000 to be used specifically for the acquisition of oriental antiquities.
Note 5a: The Holiday Journals are stored in the West Sussex Record Office in Chichester. The relevant documents are: Holiday Journals vol.IV, for Venice, May 1898 (Catalogue No. EHA 1/2/1/4); Holiday Journals vol.V, for Venice, May 1899 (Catalogue No. EHA 1/2/1/5); Holiday Journals vol.VI, for Paris, October 1900 (Catalogue No. EHA 1/2/1/6); Holiday Journals vol.VII, for Lugano, Verona & Venice, April–May 1901 (Catalogue No. EHA 1/2/1/7).
Note 5b: West Sussex Record Office: Album of Correspondence 1896–1898 (Catalogue no. EHA 1/1/1/4).
Note 5c: West Sussex Record Office: Edward Heron–Allen. Sidelights on E. FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat: MS, Proofs, Correspondence & Notes (Catalogue no. EHA 1/1/1/5). This contains details of “Sidelights” as a lecture at the Grosvenor Crescent Club and Women’s Institute, London, on 22 March 1898; the hand–written MS of the booklet version; the typescript of the booklet version, interleaved with printer’s proofs of it; clips from newspapers reviewing the booklet; and letters from various people relating to it. Heron–Allen had dedicated the booklet version of “Sidelights” to Edward Byles Cowell, and this volume contains the original of the well–known letter from Cowell, dated 3 April 1898, politely asking Heron–Allen to remove that dedication when he reprinted “Sidelights” in the up–coming second edition of “Facsimile”, on the grounds that he wanted nothing to do with “the Omar Cult”, and that for guidance in life he preferred “to go to Nazareth, not to Naishapur.” The complete text of the letter is reproduced in Heron–Allen’s book The Second Edition of Edward FitzGerald’s Rubaiyyat of Umar Khayyam (1908) p.xv.
Note 6: James G. Nelson, Publisher to the Decadents: Leonard Smithers in the careers of Beardsley, Wilde, Dowson (2000): a) p.28 & p.287; b) p.31–2; c) p.33; d) p.289; e) p.43; f p.288; g) p.33; h) p.289; i) p.289; j) p.282–3; k) p.277.
Note 7: J.G. Nelson, as note 6, p.40. Burton’s original edition of Nights had been privately published in a limited edition of ten volumes in 1885–6. It was unexpurgated, but its copious academic notes and appendices rescued it from accusations of pornography (for many, though not all!) Smithers had been a subscriber to it (Nelson p.8), and knowing that it had sold out and made a very healthy profit, was anxious to reprint it. Though Smithers had corresponded with Burton, the two never actually met (Nelson p.18), and. Burton having died in 1890, negotiations on the reprinting had to be done with Burton’s widow, the formidable Lady Isabel, who did not approve of her late–husband’s excursions into erotica, academically annotated or otherwise, famously burning his unpublished manuscript of The Scented Garden and much other material, now lost forever. Basically, Smithers wanted all the naughty bits left in, and Lady Burton wanted them cut out. Nelson tells the amusing story of their dealings (p.25ff; p.36–40.) It would appear, almost unbelievably, that Lady Burton quite liked and respected Smithers (Nelson p.23–4) – at least until, against her wishes, but legally (he had been a solicitor before entering into book dealing and publishing), he went ahead with the unexpurgated Nights – whereas she never trusted Nichols (Nelson p.26.)
Note 8: The novel seems to have been a round–robin production compiled by several hands, one contributor (and / or perhaps its overall editor) being Oscar Wilde. For a brief account see J.G. Nelson, as note 6, p.34–6. Today, of course, it is merely a somewhat risqué classic, and openly available in numerous editions.
Note 9: The key events can be found in the following issues of The Times: on 9 February 1898, p.16 col.3, H.S. Nichols (Ltd) was listed under the heading “Law Notices”, among “Companies (Winding Up) and Chancery Division”; on 10 February 1898, p.3 col.2, in the “High Court of Justice” section, the voluntary winding up of H.S. Nichols (Limited) was directed to be continued under the supervision of the court; on 16 July 1898, p.4 col.6, under “Queen’s Bench Division” his bankruptcy was declared.
Note 10: London Evening Standard, 31 March 1900, p.9 col.3.
Note 11: Colette Colligan, A Publisher’s Paradise: Expatriate Literary Culture in Paris, 1890–1960 (University of Massachusetts Press, 2014), p.34–5.
Note 12: J.G. Nelson, as note 6, p.290; C. Colligan, as note 11, p.184. The name of the ship comes from an online ship’s manifest.
Note 13: J.G. Nelson, as note 6, p.273, but for a more detailed picture see The Morning Post (London) 14 November 1900, p.2 cols.3–4.
Note 14: A.E. Gallatin subsequently devoted some space to the forgeries (as well as Nichols’s book of them), and their denunciation by various Beardsley experts, in his Aubrey Beardsley: Catalogue of Drawings and Bibliography (The Grolier Club, New York, 1945), Appendix 2 (p.139–141). Haldane Macfall’s belief that “they are the work of at least two forgers” and “beneath contempt as forgeries” is quoted here.
Note 15: For the “locked Case A containing all the Victorian pornographic literature”, see Edward Heron–Allen: a Talk delivered by his grandson Ivor E. Jones at the first Edward Heron–Allen Symposium, Chichester, July 2001 [Opusculum II of the Heron–Allen Society, 2002.], p.14. For “A filthy mind is a continual feast,” see ib. p.15.
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My thanks are due to Kay Rippingale for Figs.6a & 6b, and to her sister Coral Cox for Fig.14; to Callum Hill of Peter Harrington Rare Books, London for Figs.7a & 7b; to Tim Dyas for Figs.8a & 8b (from his online family–tree); to the West Sussex Record Office for access to the Heron–Allen holiday journals & letters, and for Figs.9a, 9b, 9c, 10a & 10b; and to Sandra Mason & Bill Martin for proof–reading the article.
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