Video of the Grolier Club Colloquium: Blooks: The Art of Books That Aren't

On February 2, Columbia University and the Grolier Club sponsored an evening colloquium in conjunction with my exhibition Blooks: The Art of Books That Aren't. The symposium was filmed and the film is available on the Grolier Club website.


Here is a link: https://vimeo.com/158427834


Here is the program of speakers:

Colloquium in conjunction with the exhibition

Blooks: The Art of Books That Aren’t

January 28-March 12, 2016

 

Sponsored by Columbia University and the Grolier Club

Tuesday, February 2

Hours: 6:00-8:00 PM

 

Program

Moderator, Karla Nielsen, Ph. D., MSLIS. Curator of Literature. Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University

The Larger View of Blooks

Mindell Dubansky

Museum Librarian - Preservation, The Sherman Fairchild Center for Book Conservation, Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 Collecting Antiquarian Book Objects

Private collecting team, Bruce and Lynn Heckman

The Book as Object

Lynn Festa

Associate Professor of English. Department of English, Rutgers University.

Panel Discussion and Questions. Reception.

More Treasures from the Heckman Collection

In the post about my visit to Bruce and Lynn Heckman, I promised I'd create another post to show you a mix of the incredible objects that I enjoyed seeing and was able to get snapshots of. I could have gone on forever but we were going through the collection at break-neck speed and taking pictures was a distraction from looking. I did get a few though, and will share these with you here. I'll probably break them up into more than one post, so keep a lookout for more! 

Bruce tells us that this is either an adult word game or a learning device for children.  GR stands for George Rex, King of England. It is from the late 18th, or early 19th century.

 

An exuberantly decorated carved case for a sprint-loadel phlegm (lancet). American Civil War era:

My personal favorite, a blook pincushion. The cushion has a 'bird' to attach it to a table and a post to hold thread for lacemaking:





A toleware pencil box, dated 1874 (American). The case shows wear, but Bruce says it's the only one he has seen, as yet:

 

Bruce wrote to tell me that he is working on a post on his trick snake books. 

You are in for a treat...