2 Calling Cards: Octave Uzanne, Ida Lees. Charles Keene

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A Calling Card of French Writer Octave Uzanne

Plus a Calling Card of English Artist Miss Ida Lees

...Inscribed with the Name of Charles Keene R. A.   (Possibly English Artist Charles Samuel Keene

Collected by Philadelphia Publisher Robert Barrie in the late 1800s, early 1900s

And Clipped from His Scrapbook

Size of Octave Uzanne's Card: 41 x 77 mm (1-5/8 x 3 inches)

Size of  Miss Ida Lees' Card:  37 x 76 mm (1-1/2 x 3 inches)

Above: Calling Card of French Writer Octave Uzanne

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Reverse Side:  Calling Card of English Artist Miss Ida Lees...

...Inscribed with the Name of Charles Keene R. A.   (Possibly English Artist Charles Samuel Keene)

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Octave Uzanne:

Octave Uzanne (born 1851 - died 1931) was the internationally-know author and bibliophile.

Uzanne wrote for leading French journals of the era including Les Miscellanées Bibliographiques, Le Livre, Le Livre moderne, and L'Art et l'Idée.  He also published works on Le Marquis Sade and Charles Baudelaire.

Uzanne published numerous works of literary bibliography.  He worked closely with artists such as Eugène Courboin or Félicien Rops.

He also contributed to premier French newspapers such as La Dépêche de Toulouse, Le Figaro, and Le Mercure de France.

In 1886, Uzanne published Nos Amis Les Livres, subtitled "Causeries sur la littérature et la librairie (Talks on literature and bookselling), which remains a landmarks for scholars of French literature.

Miss Ida Lees:

Miss Ida Lees is somewhat elusive, but she appears in the 1891 book Dictionary of Artists who have Exhibited Works in the Principal London Exhibitions from 1760-1893.  That book mentions she was from Ryde, England, and that she was a landscape artist.

Ida Lee's calling card is inscribed with the name Charles Keene R. A.  I am not sure who wrote that name, or why.

 That might be the signature of British artist Charles Smith Keene (born 1823 - died 1891).  Keene was an illustrator for Punch magazine and for the Illustrated London News.

In 1881 Keene was elected a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers.

See the 1892 book The Life and Lettes of Charles Samuel Keene by G. S. Layard, and the 1897 book The Work of Charles Keene by Joseph Pennell.

From a Scrapbook Assembled by Publisher Robert Barrie of Philadelphia:

These calling card were in a scrapbook assembled by Philadelphia publisher Robert Barrie in the late 1800s and early 1900s. (The last dated item in the scrapbook is 1937, with most items dated in the first decade of the 1900s.)

Note: I recently offered on Ebay another scrapbook by Robert Barrie, about yachting. I sold that yaching scrapbook complete as I purchased it. The items I offer here comes from a second Robert Barrie scrapbook, whose pages I am selling individually, because of the diversity of items in this second scrapbook. I purchased these scrapbooks at an estate auction here in Pennsylvania.

This Robert Barrie was the son of publisher George Barrie, a Scottish-American immigrant who founded the Philadelphia publishing house Barrie and Sons. George Barrie was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Here in Philadelphia, George Barrie was first employed by the publisher J. B. Lippincott, before starting his own publishing company in 1873, with the assistance of his sons, this Robert Barrie and George Barrie Jr.

The Barrie publishing house was very successful, and was internationally known as a publisher of fine art works, prints, and books. The Barrie publisher received medals at all the leading exhibitions, including the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, the 1889 expo in Paris, in 1893 at Chicago, and in 1900 at Paris.

Robert Barrie was actively involved in the Paris art scene, in the late 1800s, and turn of the century.

As described in a 1904 Who's Who in Pennsylvania: "Of all the Americans now in Paris, few have a better knowledge of the serious side of French life and a higher respect for French art and industry than Mr. Robert Barrie, junior member of the firm of George Barrie and Son publishers, of Philadelphia. Mr. Barrie has made numerous visits to Paris during the past 15 years, some of them extending over six months, and during this time his relations with French artists have been most cordial and extensive."

Robert Barrie assembled this scrapbook to collect items related to his friendship with European and American artists and writers in the late 1800s and early 1900s

Condition:  Both cards are glued onto a small section of page from the Robert Barrie scrapbook, as shown in the scans above. The paper and cards are bright and clean, with no tears, foxing, or dampstains.

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