A History of the Trump in Pictures: Europe and America.(Book Review)

By Frederick Crane. Mt. Pleasant, IA: 2003. [iv, 182 p. No ISBN. $22.] Available from: Frederick Crane, 601 N. White St., Mt. Pleasant, IA 53641. Illustrations, iconography, bibliography.

The silly title notwithstanding, the Vierundzwanzigsteljahrsschrift der Internationalen Maultrommelvirtuosengenossenschaft (VIM) is a serious journal of worldwide research concerning Jew's harps, or trumps, privately published by Frederick Crane since its inception in 1982; volume 11 is due in 2003. The book under review here appears as a special supplement to VIM but can very well stand alone. It bears no copyright notice, ISBN, or cataloging-in-publication data, but is in no respect amateurish. Although a few illustrations are fuzzy, production quality is generally good, typographical errors are few and trivial, and considering its nearly 8.5" x 11" size, the book is inexpensive even for a paperback.

Crane, whose previous work includes Extant Medieval Musical Instruments, a Provisional Catalogue by Types (Iowa City: University of Iowa, 1972), has long been collecting depictions of trumps, and his search has been thorough. The 237 illustrations (including details) he offers here represent some 180 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, manuscripts, architectural elements, and works in other media, many reproduced in color. The images range from the earliest known depiction of a trump in Europe (on the 1353 seal of Johannes Trumpi, from Switzerland) to Christian Attersee's design for a compact disc cover, dated March 2000. The basically chronological presentation covers seventeen chapters mostly arranged by period and medium, but some focused more narrowly on such topics as pictures of peddlers, who commonly sold trumps; the d'Esch family of Metz, who used the trump extensively as an emblem from about 1439 to 1535; the seventeenth-century Dutch grisailles of Adriaen van de Venne; and twentieth-century humorous illustrations.

Crane's economical text does not form a continuous narrative; rather, he interprets what he sees in each image in a straightforward, engagingly informal manner, admitting uncertainties and avoiding hermeneutic overstatement. Frequently he refers the reader to writings in VIM and elsewhere for elucidation, but occasionally, when comments would be superfluous, he lets a picture speak for itself. In a brief afterword, Crane offers broad but cautious conclusions regarding the trump's geographical distribution, playing techniques, social contexts, and attitudes suggested by his visual evidence. He does not discuss repertoire, construction, or acoustics. The book concludes with an iconography listing the source of each illustration (but not always giving the dimensions of the original item) and a select bibliography.

Like all pictorial surveys, this one has limits. Crane omits photographs, postage stamps, illustrations from trade catalogues, and most twentieth-century decorative and commercial graphics, as well as cartoons and miscellaneous drawings that have appeared in VIM and other ...