Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 32. (Budapest, 2018)

Edit DARABOS: Blomstermarmor, klistermarmor. Modern Danish endpapers in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts

series of articles on the history of bookbinding.28 Thanks to these publications, as well as the inclusion of a Kyster work showing water lilies29—discussed below—in Dekorative Kunst, altogether three sheets by him are clearly identifiable. An analysis of style criticism, physical characteristics (for example corresponding mounting cardboards), other reproductions30 and analogies preserved in Copenhagen’s Designmuseum Danmark (painted sheets and bookbindings by Kyster) also make it possible to identify the majority of sheets purchased by Jenő Radisics.31

Without question, the popularity of painted endpapers peaked during the period 1899-1905, when articles reporting not only on contemporary sheets but providing an overview of the history of the art form were published.32 The painted endpapers and half-bindings—produced and exhibited, as we shall see, not only by bookbinders but by famous painters, graphic artists and applied artists—have today become divorced from the applied art context of the period in question. Nevertheless, common aesthetic efforts spanning all art forms and connections to other object types (here we should refer back to Meier-Graefe’s words) are observable in these sheets. The system of whirling lines in marbled papers can easily be linked to Art Nouveau shapes, while paste papers reveal a painterly-abstract effect. Comprehensive, international exhibitions of applied art at the end of the 19th century and an increasing number of journals created ample opportunities for interaction. Furthermore, as we shall see, these exhibitions and professional periodicals also presented a steady stream of book art (one-of- a-kind bindings, typographical works and publishers’ bindings). We must not forget that the significance of book art within the

applied arts in this period was far greater than it is today.

Identifying the sheets

The sheets purchased by Radisics, identified by examining contemporary reproductions and comparing mountings, can be divided into two major groups: 1) marbled papers; 2) paste papers. These papers can also be classified into two groups with respect to mounting. Although the mounting cardboard may be slightly different for the marbled papers versus the paste papers, the actual mounting method is identical: after being glued, the papers in both groups were trimmed straight and then framed with ink lines. However, with the marbled papers, twenty of the sheets were mounted in pairs onto cardboard, while the rest were mounted individually. The paste papers were only mounted individually. Carefully selected marbled papers were paired according to similarities in colours and patterns. All the paste papers and the double-mounted marbled sheets were mounted on machine-manufactured backings. For the backing of the rest of the marbled papers, however, Kyster also experimented with European and eastern, (presumably) Japanese, handmade paper. The European handmade paper came from two manufacturers. The Magyar Könyvszemle published an example of the double sheets, while Radisics published an example of the single sheets. This confirms that both groups, regardless of whether they were mounted individually or in pairs, came from the same source. The double sheets are numbered in pencil from 1 to 20; all of the sheets—attributed to Kyster and/or Bindes- boll—have the library’s stamp. An examination of the sheets based on stylistic analogies will be discussed later.

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