The Definitive Dwiggins no. 214—Some more information about the BP mark

Personal mark for BP. From 22 Printers’ Marks and Seals Designed or Redrawn by W.A. Dwiggins (New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1929). Design and illustration by W.A. Dwiggins.

In The Definitive Dwiggins no. 210 I was unable to identify one of the designs in 22 Printers’ Marks and Seals Designed or Redrawn by W.A. Dwiggins (New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1929). The fifth design, showing a lion cub resting on a rock which has the monogram BP carved into it, is merely identified as a “Personal mark.” I couldn’t find anyone that Dwiggins knew with those initials. [1]

I still cannot. But I have found some additional material related to it and it makes identification of Dwiggins’ client even more difficult. One pencil rough and three pen-and-ink drawings with the same lion cub exist in the 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection at the Boston Public Library. [2] One of the pen-and-ink drawings is the original artwork for the published BP mark. The other two not only have the cub in a different setting, but one bears the initials RLP. The other one has no initials. However, to make things more confusing, its matching pencil rough includes the initials RL. So, who was the mark for—BP, RLP, or RL? [3]

Original artwork (with retouching) for BP personal mark (n.d.). Design and illustration by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Boston Public Library.

Two pencil roughs for personal mark (n.d.). Design by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Boston Public Library.

Original artwork (with retouching) for personal mark (n.d.). Design and illustration by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Boston Public Library.

Original artwork (with retouching) for RLP personal mark (n.d.). Design and illustration by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Boston Public Library.

The style of the ornament in the design without initials suggests that all of the marks were created in sometime between 1907 and 1910 during the years that Dwiggins was carrying out numerous commissions for The Merrymount Press. Similar ornament can be found as part of the illustrative border on the cover of Santa Claus Junior: A Christmas Operetta in One Act by Margaret E. Lacey and Eduardo Marzo (New York: G. Schirmer, 1907). Unfortunately, this has not provided any clues to the identities of BP, RLP, or RL since no one with any of those three sets of initials appears among Updike’s clients for whom Dwiggins did work. For now the owner of the BP personal mark in 22 Printers’ Marks and Seals remains unknown.

Galley proof of cover design (cropped) for Santa Claus Junior: An Operetta in One Act by Margaret E. Lacey and Eduardo Marzo (New York: G. Schirmer, 1907). Illustrative frame by W.A. Dwiggins; typography by D.B. Updike; printing by The Merrymount Press. Image courtesy of The Boston Athenaeum.

Notes
1. Dwiggins designed bookplates for Anne Marie Paul and Helen Mansfield Perkins; exhibition announcements for Charles Hovey Pepper; worked on a book co-authored by Stephen Pepper; and did advertising work for F.E. Pettingell of Pettingell-Andrews Co. and Starr Pierce.
2. See roughs and pen-and-ink drawings in Folders 26 and 27, Box 71, 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Boston Public Library. The material has been divided up for some unknown reason with the RL rough sketch lumped in with marks for Hart Books. There is a second pencil rough in the style of a lion of St. Mark that may be for the same unidentified client.
3. I asked Bruce Kennett, author W.A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design (San Francisco: Letterform Archive, 2018), if he knew who BP was and he replied no. He halfheartedly suggested Banta Press of Menasha, Wisconsin. But Banta Press is as unlikely as Berkeley Press and Beacon Press of Boston, two solutions I had considered and rejected. All three are commercial enterprises and the caption in 22 Printers’ Marks and Seals explicitly says “personal mark”.