USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume III > Part 31
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A life-size bronze bust of George Wash- ington, by Jean Antoine Houdon, a gift of Dr. Coles, is at Mount Vernon, in the home of Washington, where the artist spent three weeks taking measurements and casts.for the full length marble statue. ordered by the Legislature for the State of Virginia, and now in the State House at Richmond.
Says the "Morris County Chronicle :" "At Washington's Headquarters, Morris- town, New Jersey, Washington's birth- day was celebrated February 22, 1898. Austin Scott, LL. D., President of Rut- gers College, New Brunswick, New Jer- sey, delivered an able address on Wash- ington, after which Jonathan W. Roberts, President of the Association, announced the receipt of a valuable bronze from Dr. J. Ackerman Coles and called upon the donor for some remarks concerning the same. Dr. Coles replied :
As executor of the estate of my father. the late Dr. Abraham Coles, I would have been derelict in the discharge of my duty if, in the distribution of works of art to the various institutions of learning he loved, I had omitted to remember Washington's Headquarters at Morristown, New Jersey, a building which is said to have sheltered more statesmen, military and naval heroes con- nected with our war for independence than any . other home in America; the home where for many months Martha Washington, as hostess, hospitably entertained her husband's guests ; where Alexander Hamilton, during the winter of
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MARBLE VASE SENT FROM ITALY TO U. S.A. CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION HELD AT PHILADELPHIA, PA. 1876
DEERHURST THE COLES RESIDENCE SCOTCH PLAINS, NEW JERSEY
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ENGRAVED FROM AN ARTOTYPE, E BIERSTADT, N Y
DEERHURST THE " HAMPTON COURT" LABYRINTH
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1779, met, laid siege to, and won the heart of the daughter of General Schuyler; where from time to time gathered members of the Continental Con- gress; in front of which mansion, Washington's bodyguard of one hundred Virginians kept watch day and night. In every room and on every wall are objects of historic interest. Therefore, Mr. President, I esteem it a privilege and a pleasure to be permitted to add something thereto, and as a member of the Washington Association. in memory of my father, the late Dr. Abraham Coles, I now proffer for your acceptance the bronze medallion bearing the stamp of Tiffany and Company, representing in bas-relief, life- size portraits of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Ulysses S. Grant, entitled "Tri- umviri Americani," and designated also, respec- tively, Pater, 1789-1793 - Salvator, 1861-1865 -- Custos, 1869-1873. (Father. Savior and Pre- server.)
Upon vote the gift was unanimously accepted with thanks.
The following stanzas are from a poem written on a visit to Mount Vernon by Dr. Abraham Coles :
I sing to him, the good, the brave, Whose mighty dust in glory sleeps, Where broad Potomac swells and sweeps And mourns and murmurs past his grave.
() spot most hallowed! Shrine most blest! Where every pebble, wild flower. blade Of common grass, is sacred made:
The Mecca of the Christian West.
Here unforgetful pilgrim feet,
From all the earth, shall come and crowd: - And half mankind with forehead bowed. Moist tributes pay and homage meet.
What though no mausoleum towers In marble grandeur, grace of art,
. His monument's the human heart,
Immortal as this soul of ours.
Memorial of sculptured stone Is needed not: no slab so rough As not to serve; it is enough Bears it the name of Washington.
A valuable tract of Florida land which the University has sold for five thousand dollars ; a life-size bronze bust by Houdon of George Washington, given in memory of his intimate friend, General Howard; and one also of Abraham Lincoln, are among the gifts contributed by Dr. Coles
to the Lincoln Memorial University at Harrowgate, near Cumberland Gap, Ten- nessee. It was founded twenty years ago by General Oliver Otis Howard, and its twentieth anniversary was celebrated in connection with the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, three days successively-Febru- ary 12, 13 and 14, 1917. There were pres- ent a large assemblage of members of Congress, representatives of colleges and other distinguished guests. Dr. and Miss Coles being unable to accept the invita- tion of the trustees to be present, supple- mented their previous gifts by additional ones; Miss Coles sending from Tiffany & Co., New York, an imported large female bronze figure by M. M. Edouard of the Ecole des Beaux Arts, emblemizing Science, who holding an open book is apparently explaining the meaning of Virgil's "Labor improbus omnia vincit." inscribed on its open page.
Dr. Coles sent as his gift a set of the Founder's Copy of the "History of North America." Guy Carleton Lee, Ph. D., and Francis Newton Thorpe, Ph. D., editors, issued in the interest of the beautiful Washington Memorial at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, of which there were only one hundred sets numbered and registered for subscribers to the building fund. Pub- lishers, George Barrie & Sons. Philadel- phia.
Two volumes are devoted to the Civil War, one written from the Southern, the other from the Northern standpoint. Very much space is occupied by the history of Abraham Lincoln's administration.
A letter sent with the gifts was ac- companied by the following sonnet, writ- ten by Abraham Coles, M. D., Ph. D., LL. D., during the Civil War, a tribute to Lincoln. They were both read by request of President George H. Hub- bell, and Chancellor Hill, by the Rev. John S. Allen. D. D., of New York, who represented the donors in presenting the
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gifts, which were gratefully accepted for the University in a courteous and cordial address by President George H. Hub- bell :
Lincoln twice summoned to the helm of state Be thine to bring a calm upon the deep In which the eyes of war may ever sleep! Quell bloody enmity and civil hate! From all unchristian broils and homicides, By the religious sword of Justice, free The land baptized anew to Liberty! Search out where unrepentant Treason hides. Thy soul's eye sharpened with that sacred Light Of which the sun itself is but a beam, And be thou firm and faithful to the Right Though topt with titles, high in men's esteem, To Virtue's pilotage must thou resort Else shipwreck shall betide in safest port.
We heard one day the following re- mark of a well-known clergyman: "Dr. Coles in the spirit of his life -- for you know he was a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln-came as near as any one I ever knew to fulfilling the maxim: 'With malice toward none, with charity toward all'."
To the late Hon. Joseph P. Bradley, LL. D., one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, a warm friend, Dr. Coles wrote: "It is a pity that all do not estimate law as you do, as a sacred thing, a kind of religion ; so regarded, it is a spiritual force related to celestial dynamics. I remember when Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was first proposed, some said that it would be a brutum fulmen. I did not think so. I
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believed it would be a live thunderbolt, heaven forged, swift, subtle, far-reach- ing, far-flaming, irresistible, striking to the centre, and so it proved. "Where the word of a king is, there is power."
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"Deerhurst," since their father's death, has continued to be the country residence of Dr. Coles and of his sister, Miss Coles. The "Boston Transcript" says:
Back from the house a short distance is the deer park; farther on is the labyrinth, a fac- simile of the Maze at Hampton Court, England. The mansion itself is substantial, elegant and
beautiful, and is replete with articles rich and rare, gathered in journeyings through foreign lands. The library is an ideal room. It is open to the roof, the rafters coming down in grace- ful sweeps, with here and there odd little windows, and deeper ones reaching to the floor and opening to balconies. On every side are books, in massive cases, filling deep recesses, on shelves substantially built around corners and supported by ornamental columns, and on daintier shelves arranged above one's head, a vast and varied collection, in all languages, carefully and worthily bound. One very rare volume is remarkable as being the first book printed containing Arabic Types, and is entitled "Psalterium, Hebraeum, Graecum, Arabi- um, et Chaldaeum, cum tribus Latinis interpreta- tionibus. Genuae, Petrus Paulus Porrus, 1516." Folio, half-green morocco. This, the first Poly- glot psalter, edited by Agostino Gustiniani, is im- portant, also as containing the first printed biog- raphy of Columbus. It is printed as a long mar- ginal note of Psalm XIX.
"The fine collection of paintings, curios and bric-a-brac belonging to Dr. Coles," says the "New York Tribune," "which has been on exhibition in the Art Gallery of "The Coles Homestead," No. 222 Mar- ket street, Newark, New Jersey, for the benefit of the Newsboys Building Fund, is without exception one of the choicest collections in Newark, if not in the State."
The Art critic of "The Queen," London, says of one of the oil paintings (ten feet by five feet), entitled "The Fall of Man," by Bouverie Goddard, and exhibited by him at the Royal Academy, London, Eng- land, in 1877: * * "Second to no picture painted since Sir Edwin Landseer's palmy days, in which animal forms and character have been represented and ex- pressed on canvas, is Mr. Goddard's truly noble 'Fall of Man.' In the distance ap- pears the vision of the celestial warrior guardians of the gate of that blissful gar- den, no longer the home of the fallen ones, from which, for the first time conscious of the fierce instincts of their nature. vari- ous animals are rushing away in amaze- ment and alarm."
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THE LIBRARY DEERHURST
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GIVEN BY J. ACKERMAN COLES IN REMEMBRANCE OF HIS MOTHER, MRS. CAROLINE E. ACKERMAN COLES AND OF HIS AUNT MRS JEANIE C. ACKERMAN BUCKNELL
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"The picture portrays," says "The Acad- emy," "the savagery of the brute nature, ensuing upon the disobedience of Adam and Eve. * *
* The difficulty of Mr. Goddard's attempt becomes all the great- er, in that he does not represent any actual attack of one animal upon another, but only the moment when the attacking and ravenous impulse arises and mani- fests itself in feature and demeanor."
"We have not for a long time met with a picture of animals by an Englishman," says the "Athenaeum," "showing so much care, energy, and learning as Mr. God- dard's 'The Fall of Man,' in which the beasts, terrified by the portents attending 'The Fall,' rush from the neighborhood of Eden, new ferocity being manifested by their actions and expressions."
The "London Times" says: "One is first puzzled to account for the tremen- dous commotion among Mr. Bouverie Goddard's wild beasts, carried to its height in a powerfully designed and well painted foreground group of a lion, lion- ess, and cubs, till we learn from the ex- tract of Milton, appended to it, that such was the effect produced among the beasts of the forest by 'The Fall of Man.' They are supposed to sympathize with the signs in . the Heaven, the eclipsed sun, the lowering sky, the muttering thunder and sad drops 'wept at the completing of the mortal sin'." This remarkable painting is shown on the left-hand wall in the steel engraving of the Library of Deerhurst, as are also two other paint- ings by Goddard, on the opposite wall, viz., "The Combat" (seven feet by four feet), painted and exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1870. Of this painting the "London Times" of May 30 said : "After Sir Edwin's animal pictures. per- haps there is nothing so remarkable as the way the painter has brought his land- scape and animals into harmonious imagi-
native conditions as Mr. B. Goddard's 'Combat.' * *
* Full of action, orig- inal in grouping, and forcible in light and shade, this really is a powerful picture, an excellent illustration of the wealth of subject that lies yet undrawn upon in the wide range of animal life." The third painting by Goddard (nine feet by five feet) representing "A Sale of New Forest Ponies at Lyndhurst, England," is regarded as equal in merit to the "Horse Fair,".by Rosa Bonheur. "The Fall of Man" Dr. Coles has given to the New Jersey Historical Society, and the painting of "The Combat" to the Free Public Library for the Newark (New Jer- sey) Museum of Art. The painting of the Ponies now hangs in the assembly room of the Memorial Home for Orphans at Mountainside, Union county, New Jer- sey.
Another remarkable painting in the Newark exhibit was the one entitled "The Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy," painted by G. P. A. Healy in Rome, in 1871 (canvas forty-eight by seventy-three inches). The poet Longfellow and his daughter are represented standing underneath the Arch, while the artist, F. E. Church, is seated sketching with G. P. A. Healy and J. McEntree looking over his shoulder. All are excellent portraits. Through the great arch an excellent view is had of the Colosseum beyond. Among other paint- ings of the Coles collection we name the following : Five by J. F. Cropsey, one of Corfe Castle, England (seven by five feet), given by Dr. Coles to the High School at Newark ; one of Lake Nemi on the Appian Way, Italy (six by four feet), and three others: five by Albert Bier- stedt, one of Mount Hood in Oregon (six by four feet), one of Niagara Falls, one of Goat Island, one of Mount Blanc in a storm, one of Mount Blanc from near Geneva, Switzerland, Dieppe, France ;
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three by Daniel Huntington, including a portrait of Dr. Abraham Coles; two by A. T. Bricher; three by J. F. Kensett ; three by F. E. Church; two by Thomas Moran; two by Edward Moran; two by H. P. Smith; one by Benjamin West ; one by James M. Hart; William Hart; Julian Scott; Edward Gay; George In- ness; W. S. Hazeltine; John Constable, R. A., England (1776-1837). "Dedham Vale," a quiet, unpretentious landscape from the collection of Clifford Constable, the painter's grandson ; R. A. Brunery ; L. Verboeckhoven ; A. Reinert ; Paul Jean Clays; Jan. Chilnisky; J. Carabain ; H. De Buel; Rosa Bonheur (pen and ink sketch) ; J. H. L. De Haas; Edward Por- tielge; B. C. Kock Kock; J. G. Brown; N. A. Diaz de la Pena ; J. B. C. Corot : Constant Troyon; Hans Makart; Theo- dore Rousseau ; Eugene Fichel; Julian Dupre ; Jules Dupre ; Charles Jacque ; C. F. Daubigny ; H. Delacroix ; F. De Vere ; Lazerges; V. G. Stiepevich; Jean Fran- cis Millet; Anton Mauve; "The Trum- peter of Sackingen" (six feet, seven inches, by four feet, six inches) by R. Eisermann; A. Steinheil, Adolf Schreyer. A large Paris Salon painting by F. A. Bridgman, of Pharaoh in pur- suit of the Israelites on the bed of the Red Sea, Dr. Coles gave to Columbia University in the City of New York.
Other paintings believed to be genuine are attributed to Rembrandt ; Peter Pour- bus (1510-1583) ; David Teniers, the Younger (1610-1690) ; Du Bois ; Til Borg (1625-1678) ; Luca Giordano (1632-1701) ; "Europa" (six by five feet), from Prince Borghese sale, Rome; Jean Steen; Ger- ard Douw; Hans Memling (1440-1495), the eminent decorator of missals and church books; Jacob Backer ( 1609-1651), pupil of Rembrandt, "The Antiquarian" (six by four feet) ; Ostade; Minderhout ; Hobbinier ; Holbein (1498-1543), portrait of his patron Henry VIII ; Salvator Rosa ;
Rivera (1588-1650) ; Gerard (1770-1837) ; Dana Cox (1783-1859) ; and an historical painting by Peter Paul Rubens of "C. Mucius Scaevola (Left Handed)," a Ro- man hero, who according to legend, when Lars Porsena was besieging Rome, in 509 B. C .. concealed a dagger about his person and went out to the King's camp with the intention of putting him to death, but killed instead a royal secretary. whom he mistook for Porsena. He was threatened with death by fire, unless he revealed the details of a conspiracy which was said to have been formed at Rome for the purpose of assassinating Porsena ; whereupon he thrust his right hand into a sacrificial fire on an altar hard by. This firmness excited the admiration of Por- sena, who ordered him to be released.
Thomas Babington Macaulay. in his "Lays of Ancient Rome," thus refers to the incident :
Now, by your children's cradles, now by your fathers' graves,
Be men to-day, Quirites, or be forever slaves! For this did Servius give us laws? For this did Lucrece bleed?
For this was the great vengeance wrought on Tarquin's evil seed?
For this did those false sons make red the axes of their sire?
For this did Scaevola's right hand hiss in Tuscan fire?
Shall the vile fox-earth awe the race that stormed the lion's den?
Shall we, who could not brook one lord, crouch to the wicked Ten?
Among other valuable paintings is a most excellent one by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), admitted by critics to be, in all respects, one of his best.
In the Library of Dr. Coles one volume of special value is a fine copy of the work of John James Audubon, F. R. S. L. and E., the great American naturalist, entitled "Ornithological Biography," or an ac- count of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, accompanied by descriptions of the objects represented
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in the work entitled "The Birds of Amer- ica," and interspersed with delineations of American scenery and manners; five volumes, half leather, Edinburgh, 1831- 1839. This set is especially interesting by reason of its being an autograph pres- entation copy of the author to his friend, an eminent jurist in New York City, who has written on the fly-leaf of the first volume as follows :
Mr. Audubon told me that he did not sell more than forty copies of his great work in England, Ireland, Scotland, and France, of which Louis Philippe took ten. The following received their copies but never paid for them: George IV, Duchess of Clarence, Marquis of Londonderry, Princess of Hamburg. An Irish Lord, whose name he would not give, took two copies and paid for neither. Rothschild paid for his copy, but with great reluctance. Mr. Audubon said further that he sold seventy-five copies in Amer- ica, twenty-six in New York, and twenty-four in Boston; that the work cost him 27,000 pounds sterling, and that he lost 25,000 dollars by it.
He said that Louis Philippe offered to sub- scribe for one hundred copies if he would pub- lish the work in Paris; this he found could not be done, as it would have required forty years to finish it as things were in Paris. Of this con- versation I made a memorandum at the time, which I read over to Mr. Audubon and he pro- nounced it correct.
In addition to the above mentioned five volumes, Dr. Coles has elephant folio plates of the birds and the animals of North America. The birds are the size and colors of life. In his volume I, Audu- bon says :
Not only is every object, as a whole, of the natural size, but, also, every portion of each object. ** The great size of the paper on which the representations are offered could not be avoided without giving up the desire of pre- senting to the world these my favorite objects in nature of the size which Nature has given to them.
Every individual possessed of a sound heart, listens with delight to the love notes of the wood- land warblers. He never casts a glance upon their lovely forms without proposing to himself
questions respecting them; nor does he look on the trees which they frequent, or the flowers over which they glide, without admiring their gran- deur, or delighting in their sweet odours, or their brilliant tints. Should you, good-natured reader, be a botanist, I hope you will find pleasure, while looking at the flowers, the herbs, the shrubs, and the trees, which I have represented.
The friends Audubon made in Europe included Sir Thomas Lawrence, Herschel, Sir Walter Scott, "Christopher North" Cuvier, Humboldt and St. Hillaire. In 1827 he issued the prospectus of his famous work, "The Birds of America," which originally came out in numbers. He had not money enough to pay the printer for the first number until, through the influence of Sir Thomas Lawrence, the painter, he was enabled to sell some of his pictures. The first bill that he had to meet was for five hundred pounds. There were one hundred and seventy sub- scribers at one thousand dollars each.
In his descriptions Audubon has woven passages of the most exciting personal adventures. On May 1, 1839, he wrote from Edinburgh : "I have pleasure in say- ing that my enemies have been few and my friends numerous. May the God who granted me life, industry and persever- ance to accomplish my task forgive the former, and forever bless the latter !"
Dr. Coles is continually sending valu- able books to Public Libraries, Universi- ties, Colleges and High Schools in the United States and in foreign lands.
Says the Newark "Sunday Call:"
An addition to the treasures of the Free Public Library is the gift from Dr. J. Ackerman Coles of a rare and magnificent copy of "The Birds of America," by John James Audubon. The large volume is a reprint published in 1860 of the famous Elephant folio published by Audubon be- tween 1830 and IS39. The large size of the plates are much in excess of the regular size and gave the edition the name it bears. It contains 97 pages and 138 drawings. The volume was pub- lished by Roe Lockwood & Son, New York, the
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chromo-lithography being the work of J. Bien. It is said that these now rare volumes are valued at about $1,200.
At Dr. Coles' suggestion four of the plates have been removed from the book and framed. The richly colored pictures have been placed in the central court facing the main stairway. The plates thus exhibited show the American flamingo, the wild turkey, fish hawk and Iceland, or jer falcon.
The Public Library has recently received also from Dr. Coles for the Newark Museum of Art illustrated books, sixty-seven in number, sev- eral of them measuring two feet in length and a foot and a half across. The height of the towering pile is over nine feet. Its interest and value are not confined to dimensions. Among these books are works that are world famous; many of them contain very rare steel and copper engravings, their worth being estimated at several hundred dollars. They are the generous gift of Dr. J. Ackerman Coles to the Newark Museum.
The collection is one to delight trained bibli- ophile and amateur alike. The bindings and bookplates and inscriptions alone offer a fascinat- ing study, while the chief value, it is said, lies in the illustrations. Besides the copper and steel engravings already mentioned there are hundreds of photogravures, color etchings, etchings in black, lithographs, water color fac similes and illuminated engravings. A few of the books are absolutely without text and the subject matter of the others deals with various branches of art. There are several fine bindings of polished calf and one regally bound subscription set of ten volumes in half-levant with calf sides. This edition of the "Exposition Universelle" is printed . on Whatman drawing paper and limited to one hundred registered and numbered sets. The pub- lishers are said to ask $200 per volume. So much for luxurious bookdress.
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There are two volumes of the plans, .elevations, etc., of the Alhambra from drawings by M. Jules Gourney and Owen Jones, the famous architect, that have brought as high as $170 at book auc- tions. Gourney died while preparing his draw- ings and Owen Jones finished the books and dedi- cated them to the memory of his friend. There is a dual text in French and English to supple- ment the fifty-one rarely fine steel engravings and lithographs of this wonderful old Moorish palace in Granada, "once a kingdom in Spain."
Four cases of medallions, book-encased, are of unusual interest. These medallions are re- productions of those to be found in the museums
of Italy and include copies of those in the mu- seums at Florence and Venice and the Vatican.
The history student will find his way to the two volumes of ancient arms and "Armour," attracted by the splendid coloring of the illu- minated engravings, and to Holmes's "Naval and Military Trophies." The water color drawings in the latter, executed by William Gibb, repro- duce with detail and exactness historic treasures from the Royal and Wellington collections and English museums. The swords of Oliver Crom- well and John Hampden are included and the cloak of Napoleon. Two tattered American flags captured in the War of 1812-14 are given as in the collection belonging to the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.
An interesting "presentation copy" of the Wo- burn Abbey Marbles, ticketed in a fine hand. "Presented by the Duke of Bedford," is a book large in area with India proof plates of the draw- ings of H. Corbould. The duke himself wrote the descriptions of his marbles, and this special volume contains a "laid-in" picture of him. The book was privately printed and is exceedingly rare. The duke is said to have bought up any of the 180 copies appearing for sale.
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