In 1909 an edition of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was issued by Henry Frowde, the publisher to and manager of the London arm of the Oxford University Press. It was undated, but its publication was announced in The Bookseller on 8 October 1909, p.93 (Fig.1a). As can be seen, it was one of twelve titles in “The ‘Oxford’ Moment Series”, so–called because each volume offered moments to be spent with its particular author (the half–title page of several actually begins “Moments with...”) The volumes are not allocated a series number. Fig.1b is a listing to be found at the back of my copies of the Shelley and Emerson volumes, for example, but whether it indicates an order of publication is not clear. I say “in my copies” advisedly, because this listing is not in my copy of The Rubaiyat, but is in the copy owned by Jos Coumans. Not only that, but, in Jos’s copy the terminal TAMAM SHUD is rendered AMAM SHUD, whereas in my copy the mistake has been corrected – presumably, then, my copy is an (again undated) reprint; plus our two copies have slightly differing half–title pages, neither beginning “Moments with...”, both beginning “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”, both naming Edward FitzGerald, but Jos’s copy having “translated by” whereas mine has “rendered into English verse by.” But I propose not to get bogged down in these minor differences, nor to list varieties of the bindings, which is more complicated than Fig.1a might lead us to expect. Rather I propose to restrict myself to the frontispieces and illustrated end–papers of The Rubaiyat and the rest of the series (1).
The frontispiece with title page of The Rubaiyat volume are shown in in Fig.2a, the frontispiece clearly being a generic Omarian image of a wine–bowl with grapes and vine leaves. Of more particular interest to us here, though, are its front end–papers (Fig.2b) and its rear end–papers (Fig.2c), both of which, unlike the frontispiece, are signed “M. Jameson”. This signature is the only guide we have to the identity of the artist, for she (as we shall see presently, the artist was a woman) is not named on the title–page nor anywhere else in the book. The text is that of FitzGerald’s first version, and the book is Potter #57 and Paas #1934.
At first it is difficult to see what the illustrated end–papers have to do with The Rubaiyat, as the figure of Omar features in neither of them, and neither of them has anything like an Oriental feel about it. Indeed, Fig.2c seems more like an illustration of an English bucolic poem by the likes of Herrick, if anything, or a dance of seven of the nine Muses of Greek mythology. However, on closer inspection, Fig.2b shows that it could relate to the final quatrain 75: “And when Thyself with shining Foot shall pass...turn down an empty Glass!” At least, there is a dainty foot there and an upturned glass in the girl’s left hand, though no “Guests Star–scatter’d on the Grass.” But what of Fig.2c ? We have seven young women, connected by a mysterious ‘thread’, seemingly dancing on a layer of clouds, with seven stars above them. The seven sisters of the Pleiades star cluster spring to mind, and they are Parwin in quatrain 54, though the arrangement of stars here doesn’t match that of the cluster, and in any case there is no “flaming Foal of Heav'n” and no Mushtara (planet Jupiter) in the picture. Indeed, the illustration could just as easily be seen as the young women putting the Stars to Flight in quatrain 1, but without “the Hunter of the East” and “the Sultan’s Turret in a Noose of Light”! Or it could be seen simply as an evening alfresco party – “we that now make merry in the Room” with “Summer dresses in new Bloom” (quatrain 22.) Whatever these illustrations signify, I do find them rather intriguing and of considerable charm. [The illustrations can be browsed here.]
Turning to the Moments Series as a whole, now, starting with the listing in Fig.1b, the Tennyson volume sets the pattern for the series, or at least, much of it. The frontispiece with title–page is shown in Fig.3a; the front end–papers in Fig.3b (“Elaine”); and the rear end–papers in Fig.3c (“The Gardener’s Daughter”.) The unsigned frontispiece portrait of Tennyson as a young man is based on the famous original done by Samuel Laurence for Edward FitzGerald in about 1840 (2), and now in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG 2460). The frontispieces of most other volumes of the series bear a similarly derivative portrait of the author of their contents (though not, of course, the Omar Khayyam volume.) The end–papers are again signed “M. Jameson.”
Turning to the second on the list in Fig.1b, Robert Browning, the frontispiece with title–page is shown in Fig.4a; the front end–papers in Fig.4b (“The Pied Piper”); and the rear end–papers in Fig.4c (also illustrating “The Pied Piper”). The unsigned frontispiece portrait of Browning as a young man is based on an original done by Field Talfourd in 1859, and now in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG 1269.) Note yet again that the end–papers are signed “M. Jameson.”
At the risk of becoming wearisome, turning to the third on the list in Fig.1b, Shelley, the frontispiece with title–page is shown in Fig.5a; the front end–papers in Fig.5b (“Anarchy”); and the rear end–papers in Fig.5c (“The Cloud”). The unsigned frontispiece portrait of Shelley seems to be based, ultimately, on an original done by Amelia Curran in 1819, and now in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG 1234), though it could be a derivative of one of several derivatives! Note yet again that the end–papers are signed “M. Jameson.” [Browse here.]
Concentrating just on end–papers now, Fig.6a (“Truth”) shows the front end–papers & Fig.6b (“Liberty”) the rear end–papers of the Emerson volume (fourth in the list); Fig.7a (“Romeo and Juliet”) shows the front end–papers & Fig.7b (“Much Ado about Nothing”) the rear end–papers of the Shakespeare volume (fifth in the list.) Both are signed “M. Jameson.”
So far so good, but in building up a collection of the 12 titles in Fig.1b, mainly to see if “M. Jameson” had illustrated them all, it was with the sixth in the list, the Dickens volume, that a rather large penny dropped, for there turned out to be two of them, identical in text, but with different end–papers. The front and rear end–papers of the first are shown in Fig.8a (“David Copperfield”) and Fig.8b (“Little Dorrit” and “Oliver Twist”) respectively. The front and rear end–papers of the second are shown in Figs.9a & 9b respectively (both relating to “The Cricket on the Hearth”.) Again, “M. Jameson” did them both, raising the question: for how many other volumes in the series did this artist do alternative end–papers ? Most likely, of course, one is a later reprint, but which came first is unclear, for both are undated. The second bears a gift inscription for Christmas 1919, the first is in much better condition, but of course neither a gift inscription nor the condition of a book is necessarily a reliable guide to an actual date of publication.
Continuing down the list, Fig.10a (“The Child Angel”) & Fig.10b (“Christ’s Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago”) are the front and rear end–papers of the Charles Lamb volume (seventh in the list); Fig.11a & Fig.11b (both “M. Aurelius Antoninus”) the front and rear end–papers of the Marcus Aurelius volume (eighth in the list); Fig.12a & Fig.12b (both “Adam Bede”) the front and rear end–papers of the George Eliot volume (ninth in the list); Fig.13a (“Isabella or the Pot of Basil”) & Fig.13b (“The Eve of St. Agnes”) the front and rear end–papers of the Keats volume (tenth in the list); and Fig.14a (“Sonnets from the Portuguese”) & Fig.14b (“Aurora Leigh”) the front and rear end–papers of the Elizabeth Barrett Browning volume (eleventh in the list.) [Browse here.]
As can be seen, then, the end–papers of all 12 of the series are signed “M. Jameson”, yet the artist is not credited by name in any of them. So who was the artist ?
The artist turns out to be Margaret Jane Jameson. There is next to nothing about her online or in the standard reference books on book illustrators, but it is possible to build up an outline biography of her from ancestry records and newspaper archives.
She was born in Edinburgh on 17 October 1876 at 9.30 am, or so the registration of her birth tells us. She was the daughter of Andrew Jameson, what we would now call a professional painter and decorator, and his wife Margaret (née Keddie). The 1891 Scottish Census shows her, now aged 14, with her parents and three younger sisters, Wilhelmina (aged 11), Gertrude (aged 9) and Florence (aged 6), living at The Bower, Bonnington Grove, Edinburgh. The 1901 Scottish Census shows her parents and sisters still in Edinburgh at the same address, but the 1901 Census of England and Wales shows that Margaret is living in London at 41 Oakley Crescent, Chelsea. She is registered as “Art Student”, though no school or college is indicated. Her father died in 1903, and by the time of 1911 Census of England and Wales, Margaret Jane Jameson “Illustrator & Art Teacher” (at the London County Council Arts & Crafts School), her mother Margaret Jameson “Widow”, and her sister Wilhelmina “Secondary School French Teacher” were living together in London, at 121 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. By this time she had exhibited her first painting at the Royal Academy of Arts, her “Gertrude: a Portrait”, exhibit #877 in the exhibition of 1909, Gertrude being presumably her younger sister. It was deemed worthy of mention as “interesting” in The London Evening Standard on 12 May 1909 (p.5).
In 1914 she married Henry James Lynch Bacon, a portrait painter, commercial artist and book illustrator (3). In 1916 she exhibited another painting, “In Somerset” (exhibit #860), at the Royal Academy of Arts, still using her maiden name, though she was now Mrs Bacon. In 1916 their daughter Margot Jean Bacon was born and in 1919 their son, Stephen Henry Bacon. In 1920 she exhibited her third (and last ?) painting at the Royal Academy of Arts, “Flowers” (exhibit #464), again under maiden name. It was one of five works by women artists cited as “interesting and worthy of notice” by the art critic for the Suffragette newspaper The Woman’s Leader on 28 May 1920 (p.15). Whether it is the painting shown in Fig.15, though, is not clear, as this, the only surviving painting by her of which I am aware, is undated.
In the 1921 UK Census the couple were living at 24 Maitland Park Villas, she now Margaret Jane Bacon, of course, though, as we have seen, she continued to use her maiden name as an artist. She is listed in the Census return as Artist and Teacher of Drawing and Painting at the Central School of Arts and Crafts at Hammersmith; he as an Artist working for the well–known advertising agency, the Carlton Studio. Their two children, though, were living at Violet Carvick’s Pearl Nursery in Ottershaw, Chutsey, Surrey. Clearly, then, our artist was not one of those women who gave up their artistic careers upon marriage, in favour of wifely duties and motherhood. The 1939 register shows our two artists at the same address as in 1921, she listed as “Artist Writing Teacher Painting LCC Arts & Crafts [School ?] (Retired)”; he as “Artist Book Illustrator & Advertising Salesman.” In the 1939 register their daughter, Margot Jane was listed as a School Teacher of “Domestic Subjects” in Letchworth. Their son, Stephen Henry had enlisted in the RAF.
Our artist’s mother died in 1938; her husband in 1948. She herself lived on, dying in Wandsworth, London on 2 April 1971. Both children long survived her, Margot Jane dying (as Margot Jane Chaplin) in 2004 and Stephen Henry in 2009.
Fig.1a indicates that the Moment Series was not going to stop at twelve titles, and indeed six further titles were announced in The Bookseller on 14 October 1910, p.23 (Fig.1c). All had illustrated end–papers bearing the signature “M. Jameson”. Having seen so many of her end–papers already, I give here only one example: Figs.16a & 16b are the front and rear end–papers for the Matthew Arnold volume.
No specific listing of titles issued comparable to Figs.1a & 1c seems to have appeared in The Bookseller in 1911, merely the following overview write–up published in the issue of 25 December (p.144) of that year:
The “Oxford Moment Series of Booklets” is rather a new departure on the part of the Oxford Press and the twenty–four volumes it now contains, representing an excellent selection from our standard authors, Tennyson, Browning, Blake, Dickens, George Eliot, Emerson, Keats, Shelley, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and many others, make up a very dainty and attractive series. They are, as is always the case with publications from the Oxford Press, very beautifully produced, perfectly printed, and artistically bound. Each volume contains a coloured portrait of the author, and the end papers are all specially drawn coloured illustrations. They are issued in cloth and in various ornamental bindings, and as inexpensive yet presentable books for presents these lilliputian volumes will no doubt command a considerable sale. The weight is very light, an ounce on the average, and thus they might be usefully sent to friends at Christmas time in place of the customary Christmas card.
In fact, it is quite common to find these books with gift inscriptions dating to Christmas time. In addition to the Dickens volume, mentioned above, my copy of the Keats volume relates to Christmas 1911, my Emerson to Christmas 1913 and I know of a copy of the E.B. Browning which relates to Christmas 1918 (see also note (1) below.) More interesting, though, is that the review tells us that the end papers were “specially drawn” for the series (also stated in Fig.1a), and yet the artist responsible for them is not deemed worthy of naming. Note, too, that by Christmas 1911, the Moment Series consisted of 24 titles, meaning that six new titles had been added in the course of 1911. But among the authors named, the only new name is Blake, leaving five other names / titles so far unidentified. (The only copy of the Blake volume that I know of is that in the National Library of Australia, but it has marbled end–papers & bears a gift inscription dating it to Christmas 1928.)
Another six titles were added in 1912, these being announced in The Bookseller on 11 October 1912, p.67 (Fig.1d). According to the same publication on 25 December 1912 (p.137) this brought the series up to thirty volumes. At least four of the six new additions had illustrated end–papers bearing the signature “M. Jameson” (4). Figs.17a & 17b are the front and rear end–papers of the Herrick volume; and Figs.18a & 18b are the front and rear end–papers of Browning’s Pied Piper and Other Poems. The Herrick end–papers are signed; the Browning end–papers are not, or at least have no visible signature, though they are in the style of Jameson. But there is something odd about this Browning volume, for the poems they illustrate, “Home Thoughts from The Sea” and “The Guardian Angel”, are in the earlier “Moments with Robert Browning” volume, which volume did not contain “The Pied Piper” and yet had end–papers illustrating it (Figs.4b & 4c.) It would appear, then, that the end–papers for the two Browning volumes were ready at the same time, but the wrong ones were used in the earlier volume to be published! [Browse here.]
These were to be the last of the Moment Series issued under Henry Frowde, as he retired on 31 March 1913 after 39 years of service with Oxford University Press. His successor was Humphrey Milford, with whom he had worked for some years (5). Milford continued to publish some of the series, but with his name replacing Frowde’s on the title–page. His Rubaiyat appeared in at least two versions (Paas ##3406–7; Coumans #90), one with the frontispiece & title–page shown in Fig.2a, but with Henry Frowde on the title–page replaced by Humphrey Milford, and with Figs.2b & 2c as end–papers. The other had the title–page, with no frontispiece, shown in Fig.19a, and had ‘new’ end–papers by M. Jameson, shown here as Figs.19b & 19c. Actually, they weren’t new at all, having featured as the end–papers of the Longfellow volume listed in Fig.1c! Sharp–eyed readers will further note that the front end–papers of the Longfellow & Milford Rubaiyat (Fig.19b) are the rear end–papers of the even earlier Shelley volume (Fig.5c), with “The Cloud” replaced by “The Oxford ‘Moment’ Booklets”! [Browse here.]
I propose not to follow the Milford editions further than this, save to say that they are much less common than the Frowde editions, which might suggest that the series petered out fairly quickly, though Paas #3406 (which has the frontispiece but plain end–papers) bears a gift inscription dated Christmas 1921. I am also aware of a copy of the type shown in Fig.19 with an ownership inscription dated 1923.
By way of general comment on Margaret Jameson’s end–papers, they are clearly technically accomplished, and mostly rather literal representations of their subject matter. When she lets herself go a little, though, the results are more interesting. I rather like her illustration for Shelley’s “Anarchy” (Fig.5b), for example. Her generic illustrations of “Truth” (Fig.6a) and “Liberty” (Fig.6b) for the Emerson volume, too, are worthy of note, the former with her usual symbols of Light (in the form of a candle / lamp) and a Mirror, but her path beset by Thorns; the latter with Liberty standing on what seems to be a defeated Dragon (of Evil ?), holding a baton / rod (of authority / protection ?) with two somewhat sinister figures to the lower left, presumably signifying the threat to Liberty. (I must confess that they rather remind me of ISIS fighters!) I also rather like the infants and angels in Figs.10a & 18b, and the atmospheric effect of Fig.16b. And, to take us back to where we started, we have the intriguing Rubaiyat illustrations of Figs.2b & 2c. [Browse here.]
In 1910 an edition of Oliver Goldsmith’s novel The Vicar of Wakefield was published by Chapman & Hall Ltd., of London. It was undated but its publication was announced in The Bookseller on 14 October 1910 (p.74). As its title–page states, it contained 24 illustrations in colour by Margaret Jameson. As one would expect from the Moments Series, they were technically accomplished illustrations which, by the nature of the novel, adhered literally to their subject matter. Accordingly I give only four examples here, as Figs.20a (facing p.72), 20b (facing p.80), 20c (facing p.152) & 20d (facing p.184).
With the 1910 publication date of this falling within the 1909–1912 time zone of the Moments Series, and with her first appearance at the Royal Academy Exhibition in 1909, the question naturally arises: What preceded this great flurry of activity ? How did she secure contracts with publishers Henry Frowde of the Oxford University Press and Chapman & Hall, with no ‘previous experience’ or reputation in the art–world ? And what happened after 1912, aside from the issue of reprints of her past work ? She seems to have illustrated nothing else, though we know that she continued to work as an artist & art–teacher. We have no answers at present, I’m afraid.
Note 1: An additional complication with documenting the series is that some volumes have no illustrated end–papers, merely blank ones. I have 2 copies of the Tennyson volume, for example, one containing the illustrated end–papers of Figs.3b & 3c, with a gift inscription dating it to Christmas 1915; the other with blank end–papers, with a gift inscription dating it to Christmas 1923. If these gift inscriptions can be taken as evidence, then perhaps the copies with blank end-papers are later reprints, the illustrated end–papers being dropped (to save printing costs ?) I also know of a copy of the George Eliot volume with blank endpapers, this having an inscription dated 1939.
Note 2: Though done in about 1840, it was still in Laurence’s possession in 1844 (Terhune & Terhune, Letters, vol.1, p.439.) When it finally reached FitzGerald isn’t clear, but by 1859 he had given it to Tennyson’s wife (Letters, vol.2, p.340). By 1871, on a visit to the Tennysons, Laurence had found it “much the worse for Dirt, etc” and had taken it away for cleaning (Letters, vol.3, p.290–1.) It was presumably returned to Mrs Tennyson, for the very last letter FitzGerald wrote before his death was to Samuel Laurence, in which he explained that he had given the portrait away not because he didn’t value it – on the contrary he did – but because he felt a better place for it was with Tennyson’s wife, who would value it even more (Letters, vol.4, p.594). The portrait is reproduced in Letters vol.2 (plate 2) and as the frontispiece of vol.1 of Alfred Lord Tennyson, A Memoir by his Son (1897).
Note 3: Henry James Lynch Bacon was born in London in 1875. In 1900 the British Institution Scholarship Fund awarded him a scholarship worth £50 a year for two years at the Royal College of Art (Daily Telegraph & Courier (London), 27 July 1900, p.1.) After leaving the Royal College he took up a career as a portrait painter, book illustrator, and commercial artist (eg for the Carton Studio in the 1921 UK Census.) For an excellent account of his life and work by Robert J, Kirkpatrick, including an extensive list of books illustrated, see: https://bearalley.blogspot.com/2017/08/h-l-bacon.html.
Note 4: The Herrick, Christina Rossetti, D.G. Rossetti & Ella Wheeler Wilcox volumes are signed “M. Jameson.” The Browning is discussed above. The Ruskin volume I have never seen anywhere.
Note 5: The Bookseller, 7 March 1913, p.3. This short article was deemed significant enough to be reproduced verbatim in numerous English newspapers on subsequent days. For more information on Frowde and Milford, including photographs of the two men, see The Sphere, 29 March 1913, p.28.
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Some of the Moments booklets are rare, so I must thank Johanna Ward of Cambridge University Library for supplying details of the Wordsworth volume, and Konrad Crnkovic of the National Library of Australia for details of the Blake. I must also thank Jos Coumans and Danton O’Day for supplying images & details of their copies of the Moments Rubaiyat, and Joe Howard for sharing his thoughts on the Rubaiyat illustrations.
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