NOTES AND COMMENTARY

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 5, Issue 2, 1 October 1972, Page 50

NOTES AND COMMENTARY

The Annual General Meeting of the Friends of the Turnbull Library was held in the Shell Theatrette on 4 July 1972. The Annual Report, as presented to a record attendance of over one hundred, prompted discussion on the future of the Library in the National Library Building. The Report, as presented by the Chief Librarian in the absence overseas of the President, was received and adopted with one dissentient voice. The following motion was carried unanimously: ‘That the Friends commend to the permanent interest of the Special Committee of the Trustees the separate identity of the Alexander Turnbull Library in both its physical and administrative senses.’

Mr A. D. Mclntosh as Chairman of Trustees and of the Alexander Turnbull Library Committee, outlined the present situation regarding the National Library Building plans and stressed that despite the limitations of the design, valuable years would be lost if the whole scheme were rejected. He assured the Friends that there was a legal as well as a moral duty of the Trustees to see that the Library was housed in separate and fitting accommodation, and he felt that the plans, as prepared, were fully in the spirit of that obligation. At the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting, the long awaited film on the Library ‘Alexander Turnbull’s Library’, produced by the National Film Unit and directed by Paul Maunder, was presented. The film, which met with a generally favourable reaction from the audience, has since been screened publicly in Wellington and will be shown elsewhere in New Zealand on television and it is hoped overseas. Proposals for a film of the Library go back some fifteen years, but we are now indebted to Mr R. T. Bowie, Producer, and Mr A. G. Scott, Manager of the Film Unit, for deciding that this was the time for this candid, personal but fascinating colour record to be made.

Work on the renovation of the Free Lance Building is more or less up to time, and it is expected that the Library will move into its new ‘temporary’ accommodation in the new year. The membership will be advised when a firm date is available. The Chief Librarian left for the United Kingdom via California on 23 August and is expected to return to Wellington on 18 December. While in England, Mr Bagnall will be engaged in a number of duties associated with the acquisition of manuscripts, sketches and paintings in original or photocopy form. He will, also, further negotiations on those

matters which have already been commenced. While it is not expected that any spectacular acquisitions will necessarily follow from these efforts, it is, nevertheless, clear from known contacts and from the relative frequency with which diaries, letters and paintings come to light in the United Kingdom, that there is still a considerable reservoir of such material in private hands. Mr Bagnall will, also, be in touch with officers of the National Library in Australia House who are engaged in the Joint Copying Project, and will endeavour to arrange for the priority copying of records in public and institutional repositories of particular New Zealand interest.

The State of Mansfield Scholarship Our attention has been drawn to an article by Mary Louise Bardas in World literature written in English, Vol. XI, No. 1, published by the University of Texas at Arlington. It is titled ‘The State of Scholarship on Katherine Mansfield, 1950-1970’ and consists of a brief discussion of the situation, followed by a useful bibliography. The discussion, however, seems to us somewhat casual and uninformed. Although she says that ‘Perhaps the most important event for the would-be critic of Katherine Mansfield ... is the discovery by lan Gordon of Murry’s extensive “creative” editing of the Mansfield papers’, and although she goes on to discuss these papers and even speculate about what should result ‘when Mansfield scholars have access to these papers’, no mention is made of the Alexander Turnbull Library, or, indeed, of New Zealand. A discussion of the state of Mansfield scholarship without mention of the repository of the main bulk of Mansfield manuscripts, and without clarification of the fact that scholars do have access to these papers, is surely inadequate.

Some assumptions are also misleading. The observation ‘Hopefully, the Mansfield papers will appear under more conservative editing’ carries a footnote which reads ‘One assumes that Gordon himself is undertaking this task.’ Although mention was made in the Record nearly a year before publication of this article of the fact that the Mansfield letters are currently being edited by Margaret Scott, we should now make it explicit that Mrs Scott has been commissioned by Oxford University Press to collect and edit the complete letters of Katherine Mansfield. This work is being done by Mrs Scott in a private capacity and is quite distinct from the editing of unpublished manuscripts of Katherine Mansfield which she has been doing for the past three years for the Record. The Library’s collections of Mansfieldiana (manuscripts, photographs, editions of works, published related material, ephemera, association articles and artifacts) are growing continually. Texas is bound to hear of us sooner or later.

Charles Meryon’s Etchings in the Alexander Turnbull Library

An Analysis of Etchings from ‘Divers Pieces Gravees Collecte, Gain, Butin de Course de la Chasse Faits aux mouillage et a la mer pendant le Voyage a la Nouvelle-Zelande Accompli, de MDCCCXLII a XLVI Sur le Navire Rhin Sous les ordres de M le Captaine de Voisseau, (mort contre-Admiral en 1852) A. Berard Commandant la Station a Akaroa. Presqu’ile de Banks. CM 1866 Paris. C.M. imp rue Duperre 20’ The following is a list of the nine etchings from this series held by the Alexander Turnbull Library and includes an analysis of states not listed in Delteil Le Peintre-Graveur Illustre Vol. II (New York 1969). The numbers in square brackets refer to the numbers in Delteil. The sizes are taken from the outside edge of the plate marks. The titles are those given in Delteil. If the title on our print varies it is quoted also. [63] COUVERTURE DU VOYAGE A LA NOUVELLE-ZELANDE. (1842 a. 1846) Etching on blue paper 15.3 x 24 cm. 4th state or, possibly, a sth state. State which includes inscriptions and lettering is described by Delteil as a fourth state: this copy includes the monogram C.M.

[66] LE MALINGRE GRYPTOGAME. At top: ‘N.Z. MDCCCXLV’. At bottom: ‘P. Pierron Imp MDCCCLX.’ Monogram printed in red 7 x 5.8 cm. Unlisted state between 3rd and 4th states. The state held by the Alexander Turnbull Library appears to be an intermediate state not listed in the Delteil catalogue. Delteil lists a 3rd state ‘Avec un fond de fougere, mais avant la lettre’. He refers also to a second state ‘Encore avant le fond, mais avec la monogramme (tire parfois en rouge).’ The Alexander Turnbull Library print has the bracken at the base and also the lettering: but it is not the fourth state as reproduced in Delteil. It differs by: (a) Having the monogram printed in red. (b) In size. The Alexander Turnbull Library print (to the inside edge of the plate marks) is 7 x 5.8 cm. The Delteil 4th state has been squared-off outside the plate marks (which show white on the sides of the state reproduced). Its size is 7.5 x 6.1 cm. [67] NOUVELLE-CALfiDONIE. Grande case indigene sur le chemin de ballade a poepo [1863] A new 4th state [as given in Delteil-Wright 1924 Catalogue and printed in Delteil under Addenda and Errata.] Has monogram but no lettering. An Intermediate state between 3rd and 4th states of Delteil. This is a crisp print in excellent condition. The evidence of drypoint burr on palm foliage, paper and condition of the print would suggest that this is an early state which does not correspond with the sth state described as having

lettering removed, but rather with the state of a print held by the Athenaeum, Pall Mall, London, and described in the Addenda as ‘an undescribed state between our 3rd and 4th states, which must now be reckened the 4th state’. [6B] OCEANIE, PECHE AUX PALMES. 16 x 33.8 cm. ‘Oceanie, Ilots a Uvea (Wallis) Peche aux Palmes 1845’. 4th state. C.M. pt 1863. Imp. Pierron. Paris. [69] PRESQU’ILE DE BANKS. POINTE DES CHARBONNIERS, AKAROA. 15.5 x 32.7 cm. ‘Nouvelle Zelande. Presqu’li de Banks, 1845.’ 3rd state before lettering. We hold two copies of this 3rd state. On one is written (1.1.) in pencil ‘Meryon Nouvelle-Zelande. Presqu’il de Banks. Peche a la Seine a Akaroa. Ist state [sic]’; on the other (1.1.) in pencil: ‘Nouvelle-Zelande. Presqu’il de Banks 1845.’ Also 4th state with lettering. C.M. det et sculp 1863 (1.1.) Pierron Imp. v. Montfaueon (1.r.). [7o] GRENIERS INDIGENES A AKAROA. 14.5 x 23.5 cm. ‘Nouvelle-Zelande. Greniers indigenes et habitations a Akaroa (Presqu’ile de Banks) 1845.’ 4th state with lettering and monogram. ‘Voyage de la corvette le Rhin' etched in Meryon’s hand on top right above monogram. [7l] ETAT DE LA PETITE COLONIE FRANQAISE D’AKAROA. 11 x 15.5 cb. ‘Nouvelle-Zelande. Presqu’ile de Banks, 1845. Etat de la petite colonie Frangaise D’Akaroa. Vers 1845—Voyage du RHIN.’ [3rd state?] After C.M. del. sculp. 1865 the date ‘l6 aout’ is scratched faintly on plate on (1.r.) Pierron Imp. v. Motfaucon. As the ‘ll’ aout has been altered to ‘l6’ and the sky has been added this is later than the 2nd state of Delteil and is either a 3rd state or z previously undescribed intermediate state between the 3rd and 4th states. [72] LA CHAUMIERE DU COLON. 8 x 7.5 cm. ‘La Chaumiere du Colon. Vieux-Soldat. AAKAROA (Nelle Zelande) 1845’. 3rd state. C.M. 1866 (1.1.) Pierron Imp. (1.r.). [74] PRO VOLANT DES ILES MULGRAVES. 14.5 x 8 cm. sth state.