A Guide to the Printed Work of Jessie M. King (review)

Colin White is the author of a previous book on King published in 1988, entitled The Enchanted World of Jessie M. King, and he explains at the outset his chief reason for producing the present study. 'Although the check-list of Jessie M. King's books which it contained seemed comprehensive at the time it proved to have been no more than a prototype of the listings in this new volume.' Here, then, the author has attempted to bring 'some order to two series which have been previously difficult to locate: those of the Routledge Prize books from around 1903 and, thanks to the work of Dr A. D. Portno, the cover designs for Album von Berlin and the related albums of photographic views of German cities'. For this invaluable updating and recording, the enthusiast for King's highly decorated book designs will need to acquire the new volume. As for the scope of the book, the writer includes all the printed material such as bookplates, ephemera, and greetings cards both commercial and private as well as the books themselves, and wisely terms the undertaking, most modestly, a 'guide' rather than a bibliography or a catalogue.

In a brief but lucid introduction King is defined as a 'practising Symbolist' who 'combined the world of Celtic faerie with the child's vision of fairy land'. Following studies at the Glasgow School of Art under Francis Newberry, she swiftly positioned herself at the heart of the Glasgow Style which was, in essence, the Scottish version of the international movement that became known as L'Art nouveau after Siegfried Bing's pioneering establishment in Paris. We also read that 'the naturalism that Jessie M. King adopted was a synthesis of Pre-Raphaelitism, Japonaiserie and Celtic Symbolism', and I find throughout this section that the author possesses a sure grasp of his subject, invariably analysing it clearly and critically. In 1910, having married a fellow art student, Archie Taylor, King moved to Paris where both began teaching, but the couple returned to Kirkcudbright in 1915. Three years later, when hostilities had ceased, they crossed the Channel once again, but found that the art scene they had known and felt a part of in the French capital had been changed utterly by the Great War. They returned to Scotland and were to spend the rest of their lives there.

As King turned increasingly towards an Art Deco style her initial popularity faded, as did her status, and consequently her income became seriously reduced. Extraordinarily, when she died in 1949 she had been all but forgotten. It was the auction of the contents of her studio in 1977 that led to a revival of interest in her work, and it appears inconceivable that so inventive and decorative an artist will slip from favour again.

The listing section, which takes up the bulk of the volume, is devoted to the books and other printed work designed, decorated, or illustrated by King. This is further subdivided as follows: Section A covers books existing as unique or individual copies designed, illustrated, and bound by, for, or after King; Section B catalogues books published commercially with decorations or illustrations by King; Section C deals with books containing textual material by the artist; Section D catalogues ephemera of all kinds including posters, exhibition catalogues, advertising material, and so on; while Section E is devoted to bookplates and F to greetings cards. The final part lists books with reproductions of work by King that was not commissioned expressly for the volumes in question. The work concludes with two appendices: the first, compiled by Antony Portno, contains the designs King made for the Globus Verlag Souvenir Albums, while the second lists those for Routledge's 3/6 Prize Series. There is also a select bibliography (here termed...