The same rules, a year on

The 1916 rules, printed again in 1917 — which is how a settled category looks.

Eleven numbered rules, published to govern an exhibit at the Sphier building on Wall street, with no admission charged. Two of them name the Emblem Club cup and they are the first and the last of the list — rule four, which is the cup’s category, and rule eleven, which is how to enter for it.

Rule four is word for word the 1916 rule. Two consecutive years of identical published terms is the least dramatic thing in this batch and one of the more useful, because it is what makes the mid-century cup look so different: after 1924 the category moves almost every year, a committee choosing it afresh rather than a club maintaining it.

Rule eleven adds something 1916 did not have. Entering for the cup now took advance notice to the secretary so that space could be reserved — a general display needs a table, and the club’s cup is the one award on the sheet that cannot be judged from a single stem.

The typesetting is kept as printed, “publbished” and all.

This was the last show for three years. The cups stayed with their 1917 winners until 1920.