The Zamorano Club

The Zamorano club kicked off the summer with a wonderful fundraising book auction hosted in the Gamble House in Pasadena. The Gamble House was designed in 1908 by architects Greene & Greene. It was commissioned by David and Mary Gamble a second generation member of the Procter & Gamble Company, of Cincinnati, Ohio, as a retirement residence. The house is a complete Arts and Crafts movement jewel with the original custom-designed furniture still a part of the estate. The auction consisted of books donated by members of the club. It was a successful and enjoyable afternoon.

Monthly meetings started back up in October with a lecture by Steven Hackel entitled “The Rock and the Crucifx: Changing Representations of Serra over Time.” The iconography of Father Serra was analyzed through period representations in paintings and sculpture within the context of the culture of the local community and California politics. It was a wonderful start to our 2013-2014 meeting lecture series. On October 29 the Clark Library presented the 9th annual Kenneth Karmiole lecture, “Eighteenth-Century Publishers and Women Writers: Antagonism and Alliances” by Isobel Grundy (Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta). Ken Karmiole is a member of the Zamorano Club and a great supporter of the academic book community. The next club meeting was in November and we had the pleasure of hearing Jeff Groves deliver his presentation “A Hands-On Approach to Printing History: Building a Replica of an Eighteenth-Century Printing Press.” To obtain a practical knowledge of the press, Professor Groves measured the original press, drew plans, gathered materials and tools, and then built a replica in his garage. The finished press is on view at the Honnold Library at Clairmont University. Mr. Groves shared with us what he learned about eighteenth-century press technology through this project. In December, at our annual Gaudeamus celebration, we heard from Richard Wagener, who discussed his evolution as a wood engraver, showing examples from his early, abstract work to his later figurative work, scenes from the California Sierra Nevada. He has had two books of his engravings published by the Book Club of California along with others printed by Peter Koch and by his own imprint, The Mixolydian Press.

On January 14, 2014, the annual Zamorano Lecture at the Huntington Library will feature Nick Wilding on the recent forgeries of Galileo’s “Sidereus Nuncius.” Over a dozen other rare scientific books recently sold are also turning out to be fakes. Dr. Wilding will describe the “low-tech” bibliographical methods and lines of reasoning he used to expose the fakes. Following the ABAA Fair in Pasadena on February 8, 2014, members of New York’s Grolier Club will join once again with Zamoranans to exchange tales of book-fair conquests and raise toasts to each other’s congenial company at a joint reception at The Women’s City Club of Pasadena on Saturday, February 8, 2014.