Vademecum
Series (#179-180) ..... and European Artists
The Vademecum Series is a multivolumed, multiauthored series of books
that was published between 1894 and 1926. The covers of the books as
well as the titles changed from year to year. This series is one of a
number of publisher's series that printed the same titles but in
different formats.
In the Vademecum Series there were more than 40 different covers over
the years. These covers appeared in numerous different colors and/or
with numerous paste-on (applique) pictures.
Between 1894 and 1898 there were as many as 109 titles. Starting in
1899 there were varying numbers of titles up to the maximum of 187
titles. Some years the Vademecum Series included all the books on the
list. Other years, without rhyme or reason, some titles would be
dropped only to reappear another year.
Reprints of Poe, Carroll, Hawthorne in addition to the writings of
Emerson, Kipling, Longfellow and many, many others made up the
Vademecum list.
The same book list was used by many of the Publisher’s series. The
later list (from 1899 on) was in alphabetical order. The earlier one
was a random book list.
Perhaps the most interesting of the Vademecum books are the ones
published between 1901-1907. During this period of time there were 6
different covers which had paintings by European artists as appliques
on the front covers of the books. Because of the width of the original
paintings, two books may have parts of the same painting but may look
totally different because they have different sections of the painting
on their covers.
To further explain, note the pictures. Each of these five covers (from
1903 and 1907) look
quite different even though the pictures on the front of the covers are
really from the same painting. Because of this it is somewhat difficult
to absolutely quantitate the number of different book covers there are.
Nonetheless, as is shown below, I have designated at this point in time
43 different pictures (although the number of paintings is lower).
Thus a specific title
will have at least 43 different covers times the number of different
colors the cover has been seen in. So if a Vademecum book format has 7
different color covers (like the 1903 books), then a certain title
could be seen with 301 different covers.
1903 |
1907 |
1907a |
|
1902 |
1901a |
1901 |
In 1901 in addition to
the European paintings as
paste-ons, the 1901 format included four different Alphonse Mucha
paintings from the Seasons Series. All four seasons are shown below.
I am including the 43 European paintings below as well as the three
Mucha covers seen so far. I suspect it is an incomplete list. New
pictures and new composites which include more than one cover will be
added as they are obtained.
I have arbitrarily numbered these pictures for ease in identification.
As noted above some of the covers are comprised of parts of a larger
painting. This has been seen with #5 and #18, #25 and #26, #14 and #20,
#4 and #27, #13 and #33, #3 and #16, #15 and #22, #10 and #17, #9
and #21, #2 and #6, #28 and #42, and #41 and #43.
1. Large windowed house
|
2. Mountain over water
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3. Giant tree/sidewalk
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4. Light house
|
|
5. Red roof/people sitting
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6. 2 rowboats
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6. right
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7. Large sailboat
|
|
8. Distant sailboat
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9. Buildings on the water
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10. Pine tree behind winter tree
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10. left
|
|
10. right
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11. Man walking in the woods/winter
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12. Big waves/rocks
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13. Big circle on pic
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|
13-left
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13-right
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14. House behind pond
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15. Three trees
|
|
16. Wooden house with red
chimney/man by fence
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16-left
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17. House behind trees/rock
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18. Hay in field
|
|
19. Large trees/stump in front
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20. Red trees
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21. People on sidewalk
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22. Rock wall with house behind
|
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23. Waves front/angle mntn in back
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24. Giant mntn behind still water
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25. Giant oak tree next to water
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25. (right)
|
|
26. One clapboard with chimney
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27. Sailboat with red rag flag
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28. 2 clapboards with chimney
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29. Grass water grass sky
(nondescript)
|
|
30. People under a tree
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31. Sailboat with distant lighthouse
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32. Big rock, waves, distant
sailboats
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33. Distant white house in the trees
|
|
34. Boat tied in water/calm waves
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35. Multiple rocks on hillside
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36. Waves-no land/rocks
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37. Clapboard on pond
|
|
38. Tower on the peninsula
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39. Rocks in pond
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40. Double trunk trees (2)
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41. Trees on pond
|
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41. (left)
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42. Houses on a pier
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43. Three bushes on the water
|
|
1901 Mucha - Winter
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1901 Mucha - Spring
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1901 Mucha - Summer
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1901 Mucha - Fall
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Colors:
Not every color has been seen with each of these 6 covers.
Here is a key for which color covers have been seen in which years.
1. Blue 1901, 1902, 1903, 1907a
2. Light blue 1901, 1902, 1903, 1907
3. Red 1901a, 1902, 1903
4. Maroon 1903
5. Green 1901a, 1902, 1903, 1907, 1907a
6. Brown 1901, 1901a, 1903, 1907
7. Deep Blue 1902, 1903
8. Pink 1902
9. White/tan 1907, 1907a
10. Beige 1901a, 1907
11. Olive green 1901, 1902, 1907a
#5
and #18 |
#2
and #6 |
|
#14
and #20 |
#4
and #27 |
|
#13
and #33 |
#3
and #16 |
|
#15
and #22 |
#10
and #17 |
|
#9
and #21 |
#25,#26,#41
and #43 |
|
#28
and #42 |
|