Harper's Woodcuts

[T206Collector]

I was in an antique book store in Poultny, VT today and came across a few volumes of
bound Harper's magazines from the mid- to late-1800s. I recognized some of the woodcuts
but I noticed that they appeared smaller than the ones I have, which were cut
from the magazines themselves. That raised my question: were there two versions of every
woodcut -- one big one from the magazine and one smaller one included in the bound volumes?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[barrysloate]

They should be the same size. A bound volume just includes a year's worth of weekly issues.

[FrankWakefield]

I don't know the answer to your question.

I do know I bought a bound volume that is MUCH smaller than the large front page I have that depicts Ewing. The bound volume is at my office. It covers a year when there were no baseball woodcuts. I'd wondered the same thing...

What I think is that Harper's changed sizes over the years. But that was just what I was thinking after seeing that there are definitely different sizes. I wonder if all issues were big during the years that baseball subjects were depicted.

TV Guide changed sizes...

[buymycards]

Weren't some of the Harpers reprinted in the 50's or 60's? Could your bound volume be one of the newer versions?

Rick

[rhettyeakley]

I just want to make sure everyone is aware of the difference between "Harpers Magazine" and "Harpers Weekly".

The "Weekly's" are the newspaper sized issues that included the Baseball Woodcuts. The Magazines were more like literary happenings of the time, and when bound (this is how they are almost always found) they make books roughly the size of a large Bible. The Magazines can often be found for $5-15 for complete years and (other than Bibles) are just about the cheapest books of the time to buy. Bound Harpers Weekly's are highly collected and can run you MUCH more than the smaller (Magazine) ones. I am unaware of any Harpers Magazine that featured any baseball related material (but I could be wron on that last part).

-Rhett

[drc]

The miniatures Harper's baseball woodcuts must have been reprints. As Rick noted in this thread, Harper's were reprinted at some point. As Barry noted, an original particular Harper's woodcut print is constant in size. The original wood printing blocks were hand carved, and you couldn't easily resize a picture like you could in the 1900s. To get a smaller version you'd have to have the craftsman carve a smaller image on a new block of wood.

Addressing Frank's topic, I haven't seen Harper's from every year so I don't know whether or not there were sizing variations over the years. It was printed for decades, so perhaps there were variations.