ART REFERENCE
       [General Reading/ReferenceAND Real Rarities]

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Limited Edition Facsimile

•  Number 86 of a limited edition of 300 copies of this facsimile of the Victoria and Albert Museum copy of this famous writing book.

•  Publisher's light boards with printed dust wrapper, in Mylar protective jacket. Nearly new.  (23241)

“My Style of DrawingBirds”

•  This slim volume offers two essays: a photographic reproduction and a nicely typeset transcription of Audubon’s “My Style of Drawing Birds,” which was published (not entirely accurately) in Maria Audubon's Audubon and his journals, 1897, and his “Method of Drawing Birds,” published in the Edinburgh Journal of Science, vol. 8, 1828, the latter in typeset form only. The original manuscript is presented in fine facsimile showing several authorial corrections and emendations of the first draft, and with a transcription. These are accompanied by a short introductory essay by Michael Zinman and the black-and-white frontispiece “portrait” of a “wip-poor-will.” Limited to 400 copies.

•  New. Attractive.

Great Facsimile of aTruly Rare Book

•  Copy # 85,signed by Fairbank, of a limited edition of 750 copies: 300 published by the Merrion Press, copies 301–750 by David Godine.


Prepared to honor Fairbank on his 80th birthday and containing Fairbank's 6000-word introduction to this facsimile of a famed writing manual that as of 1975 survived in only two copies: Opera nella quale si insegna à scriuere varie sorti di lettere;Venetia: Francesco de Tomaso di Salo, 1568. The facsimile is from the copy in the British Library.

•  Publisher's French silk cloth with gilt title on spine and gilt decoration on front board. Publisher's dust jacket with protective clear wrapper. Promotional four-page prospectus included. Great copy.  (21899)

Limited to 303 Copies

•  Privately printed. Descriptions of 34 works, one per page, each with an illustration on opposite page. Catalogue p .rinted by William Rudge.

•  Ex-library with blind pressure- and rubber-stamps, properly deaccessioned.

AnOpinionated Critic . . .

•  Biography of Hans Holbein (1497–1543), from the "Masterpieces in Colour" series edited by T. Leman Hare. Illustrated with eight full-color plates, including portraits of Jane Seymour, Erasmus, Sir Richard Southwell, and Sir Henry Wyatt, the text is both lively and engaging. Of the portrait of Anne of Cleves (plate V), the author writes, "This is the portrait that Holbein was said to have made too flattering, at the instance of Thomas Cromwell. If this story be true, this unfortunate consort of Henry VIII must have been singularly homely in appearance. This oil-painting...gives the suggestion of a woman who could not have roused interest in anybody, and the peculiar quality of something akin to inspiration that Holbein brought to nearly all portrait painting is conspicuous by its absence."

•  Publisher's brown cloth, stamped in black on the front and spine. Front cover bears a full-color on-lay of Holbein's portrait of Anne of Cleves. Clean. Very good. (9875)

Berenson, Bernard.  Sunset and twilight. From the diaries of 1947–1958. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, [copyright 1963]. 8vo. xxv, [1], 547, [1] pp.
$17.50

•  First edition: Excerpts from the diaries of Berenson's later years.

•  Good; dust jacket with edge chips, creases, and small discolorations, cloth beneath clean with minor edge and corner wear. (3158)

Simply Beautiful

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•  First American edition. Beautiful color illustrations and illuminated letters are added to the standard version (i.e., King James version) of the Psalms; an index gives the sources. Printed on coated stock and handsome.

•  Red cloth–covered boards stamped in gilt, with full-color reproduction of a Renaissance miniature on front cover. Very fine condition.  (21762)

“Large Scale” in Several Respects . . .
62 Engravings & Bedford Bound

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•  First edition, illustrated with a total of 62 engraved plates. Allibone describes Brayley “a laborious and accurate topographer”; he compiled and edited a wide range of works with titles featuring assorted Beauties, Picturesques, Histories, Antiquities, etc. The present work provides a history of Westminster Abbey and some of its associated luminaries, along with extensive descriptions of its architecture, sculptures, and paintings. The illustrator who portrayed many of the above, John Preston Neale, was an architectural draftsman and landscape painter “best remembered for his views of the nation's country houses, churches, and public buildings,” according to the Oxford DNB.

Binding:  By Francis Bedford, signed, in dark brown morocco done between 1851 and 1880, covers framed and panelled in ornate gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and midpoint decoration. Spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Board edges gilt-tooled with triple fillets, turn-ins with gilt-tooled rolls and corner fleurons. All edges gilt. Stamped “F. Bedford” on lower front turn-in.

Provenance:  Each front pastedown with armorial bookplate of William Arthur, sixth Duke of Portland.

•  NSTC 2B46491; Allibone 240; Brunet, II, 1215.   Binding as above, minor shelf wear to lower edges and corners, vol. I with front board expertly reattached and with small dent to outer edge of front cover. Joints delicate, due to size and weight of volumes, but holding. A few pages and plates with faint foxing, otherwise clean.  (24100)

Apparitions, Town History,DOCUMENTATION
for Art Historians

Campo y Rivas, Manuel Antonio.

•  A history of the founding and development of Cartago, in the mountains of the Popayan Province in New Granada, from founding to the end of the 18th century. The history is told via the parallel history of the apparition, veneration, and interventions of Nuestra Señora de la Pobreza; the story of her first appearance in the city and the miraculous painting of Her are all studied in detail. She is contrasted and compared with the Virgin of Guadalupe, and aspects of other apparitions in the New World are also brought to bear. The author was a native of Cartago, hence his interest in the topic, despite his career’s carrying him to Central America and Mexico.

Printed in the “remote” town of Guadalajara, where the first printing press was not established until 1793, this would have had a smaller print run than if it had been printed in Mexico City. But, still, the list of subscribers, an uncommon feature in any colonial Spanish American book, shows 146 subscribers pledging to buy 207 copies.

Because of the attention paid to the painting of Nuestra Señora de la Pobreza and to the silver and gold and other ornaments and decorations in her chapel in Cartago, this is an important source for art historians. Itself, it has three fine copper etchings: one of Nuestra Señora de la Pobreza signed “G.A.”; one of the Virgin of Guadalupe signed by Francisco Agüera (one of Mexico’s most accomplished engravers); and a folding plate of Nuestra Señora de Chiquinquirá that is unsigned.

An attractive Guadalajara imprint, in a contemporary binding.  Rare.   OCLC locates only five copies.

•  Medina, Guadalajara, 44; Palau 41362. Contemporary speckled calf, ornate gilt spine, maroon gilt morocco label. Bookseller's description adhered to front pastedown. Blind ownership stamp on title and third leaf. Contemporary ownership signature on front fly leaf. Folding plate torn cleanly and now repaired. Very good.

(Cassatt, Mary).  Hale, Nancy. Mary Cassatt. Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1975.
$15.00

Clark, Kenneth. Another part of the wood: A self-portrait. New York: Harper & Row, 1974. Dust jacket slightly worn, yellowed.
$17.50

Clark, Kenneth. The other half: A self-portrait. London: John Murray, 1977. Dust jacket in good condition, very slightly crumpled at top of spine.
$17.50

(Clark, Kenneth). Secrest, Meryle. Kenneth Clark: A biography. New York: Fromm International, 1986. Paperback, in fine condition, inscribed by author. With photographs.
$7.50

REACTIONARY!

•  With 34 black and white plates. A scathing critique of modernist impulses in contemporary art, namely its emphasis on composition for its own sake, a style that dispenses with or distorts natural forms. The author advocates instead a return to art that is derived from the experiences of the people and has meaning for them.

•  Publisher's cloth, stamped in gilt and red on the spine and on the front. Light wear to edges, corners, and over joints; spine darkened. A very good copy.

“A Sudden &Unheralded REVELATION”

•  Catalogue of an important exhibition and sale of German art at the very beginnings of systematic American collecting of art. Includes reprints of notices from the press and full details of the items exhibited.

There were at least four editions of this title: one of only 16 pp., one of 45 pp., one of 47 pp., and a fourth with 91 pp. All were printed in New York in 1850 or 1851 with varying printers' and publishers' names.

Very scarce.

•  Very good condition. Sewn, original printed wrappers; pencilled filing marks. Minor creasing and dog-earing, a few age spots, light dust-soiling.

Author's Copy!

•  Softbound exhibition catalogue, on good paper. Worn but intact.

With theVery Striking Folding Plate

•  First printed work to give instructions on producing mezzotints, and a most curious account of the development of "sculpture." Evelyn (1620–1706), whose occupation the Dictionary of National Biography cites simply as "virtuoso," published popular works on gardening, politics, and education. His roughly chronological history of illustrative arts, divided primarily by significant figures, is sprinkled with a number of languages (Greek, Hebrew, and German all in their respective typefaces, along with Latin in italics), and also contains a detail from the first mezzotint print ever created, here reproduced as an oversized (and dramatic) folding plate. A "Life" of Evelyn is also supplied.

The work first appeared in 1662, with a second edition published in 1755; the present copy is a reissue of the 1755 with a cancel title-page. A handsome engraved portrait, in which Mr. Evelyn is wearing a most dashing cape, opens the volume.

•  Wing E3513 (first ed.) On Evelyn, see: Dictionary of National Biography, XVIII, 79–83. Contemporary speckled sheep with red gilt-stamped morocco spine label; some little chipping to edges, with joints and spine lightly abraded and cracking (not disastrously). Early inscription reads "Evelyns Sculptura compiled originally the elder Faithorne." Pages unspotted for the most part, and plates in good condition save for slight offsetting to frontispiece. A pleasing book!

Gardner, Helen. Art through the ages. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1948. 8vo. Frontis., 851 pp.; illus.
$20.00

•  Third edition. A survey of western and non-western art from ancient times to modern. Profusely illustrated.

•  Publisher's cloth. No dust jacket. Very good condition.

Frescoes for Westminster Palace

•  Prince Albert headed this committee set up by the Queen to decorate the new Houses of Parliament: The report examines the feasibility of ordering murals in fresco compatible with the architecture and style of the building. This is the first of at least five such reports issued between 1842 and 1846.

Rare: We trace no U.S. copies of this work via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, or RLIN, nor is it in NSTC

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Lightly age-toned with a little light staining.

How Much Were theTownley Marbles Worth?

•  Government document 172, “Ordered to be printed 19th June 1805.” This scarce discussion of the British Museum’s proposed acquisition of a significant collection of classical sculpture includes several contemporary assessments of the value of Townley’s marbles — which did indeed go to the museum later in the year of this item’s publication. John Flaxman was one of those expressing an opinion of the trove; he says that he has “paid a great deal of attention to it as a Sculptor” and believes it to be “richly worth” the sum of £20,000. Click the image for an enlargement.

RLIN and OCLC report only one holding of this item in the U.S.

•  Not in NSTC. Removed from a nonce volume, now in a Mylar folder; title-page and final blank lightly dust-soiled. Sewing mostly gone. Title-page with short tear from inner margin, not touching text; some leaves with small edge chips.

(Goya, Francisco).  Poore, Charles. Goya. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1938. Hinges loose.
$17.50

WonderfulJaponica-style Book on Japanese Woodcuts

•  96 pages of text with 25 b/w illustrations, plus 50 pages of color plates. At head of title: “Hájek-Forman. Translated by Ilse Gottheiner.” Includes bibliographical references on (p. 93–94).

•  Cloth slipcase with Japanese lettering on front cover and lovely illustration inside, held closed by two bone fasteners through silk loops. Book is in wrappers; Japanese-style string-held binding. A nice copy with slipcase (only) exhibiting slightest soiling.  (23115)

48 Plates & an Elegant “Illuminated” Binding

•  First edition: A history of Biblical art written by the author of The Madonna in Art and Child Life in Art, with an illuminated title-page.

•  Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in gilt and red; minor darkening and rubbing with binding overall very attractive. Front cover beautiful and bright. Pages and plates clean.  (22046)

Kraus, H.P., bookseller, New York. Arts: Art, Architecture, Archaeology, Festivities, Music, Drama, Film. New York: H.P. Kraus, (19--). 4to.
$7.50

•  Catalogue 166.

•  Original wrappers.

•  Special Bulletin 10.

•  Stapled in original wrappers.

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A “Learned & Curious” Work — Illustrated

•  Second edition, following the first of 1789, of what Brunet calls an “ouvrage savant et curieux,” written by a Jesuit-educated archeologist known for his excellent Storia pittorica della Italia. The Catholic Encyclopedia (online) praises Lanzi as being “remarkable for his widespread learning, his masterful grasp of his subject, his sound judgment, and the classic simplicity of his beautiful diction”; although many of Lanzi’s conclusions regarding the Etruscan language have since been dismissed, the value of his work on Etruscan arts and antiquities is unchallenged even today. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The three volumes are illustrated with18 copper-etched plates, some signed by Tommaso Nasi, depicting inscriptions, coins and medallions, and other antiquities.

Binding: Contemporary vellum, spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels.

•  Brunet, III, 827; Cicognara 2595; DeBacker-Sommervogel, IV, 1501. Bindings show only very minor signs of wear overall, some light speckling to spines and small spots of discoloration to two front covers, two volumes with lower corners bumped, two spine labels with small scuffs. Front pastedowns each with private collector’s bookplate and institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings), vol. I with small early inked name on front pastedown. One leaf with small hole affecting five letters. A few leaves very lightly age-toned, some plates in vol. II and first and last few leaves of each volume faintly foxed, otherwise clean. An attractive set.

Ancient Dress.  51 Copper-Engraved Plates.

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•  First edition: Treatise on ancient dress among the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Jews, and Romans, among other peoples. The author, a Flemish artist also known as Andries Cornelis Lens, came to the study of antiquarian clothing by way of his classically inspired focus in painting. Illustrated with 51 copper-engraved plates done by Pitre Martenasie, this is an “Ouvrage estimé” according to Brunet (who seemingly mistakenly cites 57 engravings as opposed to the 51 given by von Lipperheide, described in institutional holdings, and present here).

•  Brunet, III, 980; Von Lipperheide, Katalog der Freiherrlich von Lipperheide’schen Kostumbibliothek, 105. Contemporary calf, rebacked in complementary style, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; original leather acid-pitted and cracked over edges and extremities. Front pastedown with small bookseller’s ticket from Albany, NY; free endpapers with a few stray pencilled notations. Dedication page with institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin.

Lindsay, Jack. Turner: The man and his art. London, Toronto, Sydney, New York: Granada Publishing Limited, 1985. 8vo. 179 pp.; illus.
$30.00

•  First edition. With 12 color and 13 black and white illustrations.

•  Paperback. On both covers is a detail of the painting A First Rate Taking in Stores.

CERAMICS

•  Sixth edition. Illustrated with color & black-and-white photos and drawings.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good condition, no dust jacket.

McKenney & Hall — Limited-Edition Facsimile

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•  Marvelous facsimile of the original edition (Philadelphia, 1848–50) of McKenney and Hall's famous work on the native people of the U.S. Limited to 5000 copies.

A leaflet accompanying the set tells us: “These volumes are an official publication of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York. We would like to extend our appreciation to David D. Ryus, Alan Ternes, and Louis Bilka for their contributions to this work. Editor: Barry L. Kessel and project editor: Philip R. St.Clair.”

The original color illustrations, i.e., the color portraits of Indian chiefs and warriors from various tribes, are faithfully reproduced.

•  Publisher's full tan calf, round spines, raised bands, gilt tooling in replication of an 1830s binding. Silk place marker in each volume. All edges gilt. With original prospectus and some advertising matter laid in, and in a brown cloth open-back slipcase. Both books and slipcase in excellent condition.  (22188)

MODERN LIBRARY“LEONARDO”

•  Fiction.

•  Publisher's limp boards, stamped in gilt. Spine a little sunned. Last few pages unopened. Near fine copy.

(Millais, John Everett).  Lutyens, Mary. Millais and the Ruskins. New York: Vanguard Press, 1967.
$17.50

Sixty Full-Page Full-Color Illustrations

•  Lengthy introduction followed by descriptions of 60 manuscripts, each description with a full-page, full-color illustration. Work ends with a bibliography.

•  Publisher's tan cloth and blue d/j printed in white and “gold” with illustration. Corners bumped.  (22344)

The Original Is atThe Morgan

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•  Reproduction of an illuminated manuscript belonging to The Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. Introduction and commentaries by Webster Smith accompanying full-page, full-color reproductions of leaves from the book of hours. Selective bibliography.

•  Faux brown suede, blind-stamped on front and back covers and stamped in silver on the spine. Binding protected by a paper chemise and volume in a gilt-stamped slipcase graced with a full-color reproduction of a full-page miniature from the manuscript; bottom edge of slipcase (only) bumped.  Excellent copy.  (21763)

Pro Helvetia Foundation. Swiss drawings: Masterpieces of five centuries. Organized by the Pro Helvetia Foundation. Introduction and notes by Walter Hugelshofer. Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution. 1967–1968. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1967. 8vo. 176 pp.; illus.
$22.00

•  An exhibition catalogue of Swiss draftsmanship from the 16th to the 20th century, from Holbein to Giacometti. With 126 illustrations.

•  Paperback. Gift inscription on front endpaper. Fine.

On Paintings in Rome & Italian Painters — CORRECTED

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•  Uncommon second, corrected edition of a work originally printed in 1786, here in an uncut copy in the original wrappers. Prunetti, the author of several works on painting and art, offers his thoughts on the great paintings of Rome, the artistic techniques used in their creation, and how to judge them, along with brief lives of the most prominent Italian painters.

•  Original paper wrappers, spine with hand-lettered paper label. Early inked owner’s inscription on front free endpaper; one early inked shouldernote. Some pages with faint hint of foxing, most clean. A very good copy.

Statutes for Mexico’sFine Arts Academy

Real Academia de San Carlos,

•  The Royal Academy of San Carlos apparently had its beginnings in a group of artists who gathered in Mexico City to promote the Neo-Classical style in 1780 or 1781. They received a charter from Charles III on 18 November 1784 and the Academy, which was eventually housed in an impressive building on the main square in Mexico City, officially opened in 1785—the year these Statutes were published. The Academy’s founding was quite an event in the life of New Spain, introducing the Neo-Classical style into architecture, sculpture, drawing, and painting, and signalling the end of the Mexican Baroque, though buildings in the hinterland were still being produced in that style for at least ten years afterwards. The Academy still exists under the name of The National School for the Plastic Arts, though it is commonly known even now as the Academy of San Carlos.

The frontispiece shows the arms of King Charles III, surrounded by a very ornate border, underneath a banner inscribed “REAL ACADEMIA DE SAN CARLOS DE NUEVA ESPA” above the badge of New Spain. The title-page has a simple flowery vignette and the text begins with a woodcut scenic initial. The Statutes end with a printed decree of Viceroy Conde de Gálvez ordering their publication, underneath which is a handwritten certificate that this copy conforms with the original, signed by Antonio Piñero. This is the first edition of the Statutes, which were apparently not republished until 1852.

•  Palau 83643; Medina, La Imprenta en Mexico 7541. 20th-century vellum over cardboard. Covers sprung with a few stains and, on the front, a small wormhole. Small round wormholes throughout, resulting in loss of bits of engraving and loss of parts of letters. Frontispiece with light waterstaining. Some leaves reinforced in the gutters. Paper generally white with a few smaller stains in the margins. Inked ownership inscription, “Prado,” on frontispiece. All edges speckled brown.

Three Fore-Edge Paintings

•  Compilation of the influential portrait-painter's lectures, along with a brief and admiring biography. The third volume is filled out by Mason's epistle to Reynolds, a life of Du Fresnoy, and a translation of Du Fresnoy's poem "De Arte Graphica," the last with extensive annotations by Reynolds.

The Fore-Edges: Each volume bears a different fore-edge painting with a hunting theme, the hunters in traditional "pink" coats, with a pack of brown-and-white hounds either gamboling around the horses' legs or coursing ahead in the gently rolling terrain.

These proved particularly tricky to photograph, but here's the trio:

Binding: Roan in imitation of morocco, gilt-stamped front and back with curved quadruple fillets and corner foliation, spines gilt-stamped with title and volume number. Watered-silk endpapers, with small bookseller's ticket affixed in each volume. All edges gilt.

•  Hinges cracked across silk, inside, but all holding; vol. I frontispiece lacking. Some wear at heads, tails, and corners, nicely refurbished; occasional light spots of foxing.

Attractive.

Robb, David M., & J.J. Garrison. Art in the Western world. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1953. 8vo. Frontis., 1050 pp.; illus.
$22.50

•  Third edition. Architecture, sculpture, painting, and the minor arts from prehistoric times to modern. With 648 black and white illustrations, 4 color plates, and illustrated endpapers.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good, with only a few dog ears. No dust jacket.

Art Religion Morals Use — Line Light Colour

•  Third edition of the great critic’s discussions encompassing art, æsthetics, technique, perception, and morality, delivered towards the close of his distinguished and influential career.

•  Contemporary blue morocco, covers framed in single gilt fillet, spine with gilt-stamped author, title, and date; spine slightly darkened, with minor rubbing to the front joint. Wide turn-ins, gilt-ruled, and all edges gilt.

Senff, Charles H. ...Important paintings by old & modern masters collected by the late...[of] New York City and Syosset, Long Island.... New York: The Anderson Galleries, 1928. Folio. 87 ff.
$115.00

•  Partially priced and sometimes with name of purchaser. Sale occurred March 28–29 and contained 77 lots, all illustrated. Provenance of all items given.

•  Original green fabrikoid, front joint cracking.

One Drop-Dead Catalogue

•  Outstanding catalogue of an exhibition on architecture and engineering in time of war and of peace: books, cannon, instruments, drawings, and on and on.

“Ausstellungskataloge der Herzog August Bibliothek Nr. 42.” Text in German.

Great reference work.

•  Publisher's soft covers. Top right corner bumped.  (22585)

TWO Important Works ofLocal History

The Editor’s OWN Copies

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•  In 1680, in Mexico City, the Mexican polymath Sigüenza y Góngora (1645–1700) published the first edition of this highly important work of art history. Recounting the great celebrations surrounding the dedication of the “temple of Our Lady of Guadalupe” in Querétaro that the priest Juan Caballero y Ocio had built and donated, it not only describes the festivities in detail (“Frailes, monjas, gigantes, tarascas, cofradías, mulatos, indios, todos en la celebración’), but is profuse and precise in telling of the nature and minutia of the art within the temple.

Extraordinarily difficult to find today, that 1680 work was already rare and hard to obtain by the beginning of the 19th century — so José María Zelaa e Hidalgo decided, in the first years of the century before last, to bring out a new edition with some editorial revision and additions. This he accomplished in 1803. Zelaa was a zealous historian of his home town of Querétaro, and the combination of his scholarship with Sigüenza's earlier scholarship made this second edition of the latter’s work a true advance. Then, in 1810, Zelaa brought out a volume entirely made up of his own reportings, and that volume is here bound with his 1803 edition of Sigüenza.

The pairing of Zelaa’s two efforts in one volume is both uncommon and intellectually reinforcing. But here, it is more than that: It is a personal memento of a life’s work as well, forthis copy bears the bookplate of the editor himself.

Provenance:  Bookplate of José María Zelaa é Hidalgo. 20th-century rubber-stamp with initials only of a private Mexican collector.

•  Sigüenza: Medina, Mexico, 9637; Palau 312964. Zelaa: Medina, Mexico, 10540; Garritz 940; not in Palau. Publisher's sheep, gilt spine; small amount of leather missing from base of spine. Collector’s stamp partly offset to title-page; otherwise, the occasional stray stain only. “Association copies” don’t get much more “associated” than this.

Baroque & Rococco Minor Arts

•  First edition. Illustrated exhibition catalogue auf Deutsche.

•  Publisher's illustrated boards. Good-plus condition.

[Sweetser, Moses F.]. Dürer. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1880. 12mo. Frontis., 158 p., 2 pl. [also bound in, his] Rembrant. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1880. 12mo. 162 p., 5 pl. [also bound in, his] Van Dyck. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1880. 12mo. 157 p., 4 pl.
$25.00

•  In Sweetser's series, Artist-biographies. The biographies were issued separately in 15 volumes, then gathered in 5 volumes with three biographies per volume. This is vol. 4 in the gathered series. It must be noted that none of the volumes in the either series indicates it is part of a "set." That is, each volume truly is (and looks like) a stand-alone.

•  Publisher's deep blue cloth stamped in black and gold. Slight fraying to top and bottom of spine. A very good copy.

•  Printed sage green wrappers.

A Flemish Book of Hours in the “BL”

•  Full-color reproduction of the 15th-century Flemish book of hours made for William, Lord Hastings, now in the British Library. With good commentary at the end. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Cloth-covered boards stamped in gilt. In an open-back paper-covered slipcase, with a full-color reproduction of one of the pages of the hours on the front cover. Nearly new condition.  (21764)

“Students!   NO! Women — NO! Musical Instruments!”

•  In 1497 Johannes Kerer (1430?–1507) wrote up the statutes of the Collegium Sapientiae in Freiburg University, where he had been on the faculty since the institution's inception in 1457. In 1466 he was put in charge of the faculty library, an occupation for which he apparently felt great enthusiasm, as the Statuta particularly emphasize the collection's setting-up. In 1474 he became the chief incumbent of the University parish, leading to his rise in the Church hierarchy, evidence of a priestly bent perhaps accounting for the high importance set on the almost monastic lifestyles prescribed for the University scholars in its statutes here.

The statutes cover all aspects of the scholars’ lives, from the process of presidential election to rules regarding confession, from meal schedules and the recitation of the Hours to whether or not scholars might keep either weapons or women within the college (no).

These rules and regulations are completely spelled out in the facsimile volume of this set, where the text of the original Latin, written out in a Gothic hybrida textualis with red rubrics, is reproduced. The 80 miniatures are in full color illuminated with gilt. These show both religious scenes and illustrations of the college rules (a woman with a small child points to the college door under the rubric "mulierum in domo sapie prohibita." "Women not ever allowed in the house!") The initials are elaborate, decorated with geometric and anthropomorphic motifs. The second volume offers a biography of Kerer, a history of the College, and a transcript of the Latin text with a detailed synopsis of its contents in English as translated by Josef Hermann Beckmann. Another issue of this edition gives the translation into German.

The two volumes were wrought in celebration of the University of Freiburg’s 500th anniversary.

•  Vol. I, the facsimile: publisher's binding of paper imitating vellum over boards (hard back). Front cover embossed with the College coat of arms. Flat spine with title and date. Vol. II, the commentary, transcription, and translation: publisher's paper covers (soft back). Front cover also embossed with coat of arms. Flat spine with title and date. Both volumes in one slipcase. Very good condition.

Art/Architecture — Folio Extra — Imposing!

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•  Italian-language work on the art and architecture of the Liberiana basilica in Rome, illustrated with more than 100 impressive full-page engravings (as well as one oversized, folding engraving) of the church’s art and sculpture, along with its architectural detail, plans, and design. Detailed explanations of the plates, which were engraved by Domenico Feltrini, are provided.

This handsomely printed and produced volume forms the second part of the author's “Quattro principali basiliche di Roma,” which also includes works (not present here) on the Vaticana and Lataranense.

•  Publisher's half vellum with marbled paper–covered sides, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather labels; boards a little abraded and showing wear. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate; front fly-leaf with bookseller’s pressure-stamp in upper corner. Occasional light foxing. A handsomely produced, still very impressive volume.

Mexican Colonial Imprint — Its Excellent Engraving of a
Miraculous ImagePRESENT

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•  The history of the town of Izmiquilpa's statue of Christ Crucified, to which many miracles are attributed. Dating from about 1545, there, it had been moved in the 17th century to the Convent of San José of the Discalced Carmelite Women in Mexico City. A striking etched plate showing the miraculous image — done in the Mexican Baroque style — faces p. 1; this engraving is apparently lacking in many copies (it was probably often removed and used as an icon in its own right).

This popular work was first published in 1688 (or possibly 1685).

•  Palau 357046; Medina, Mexico, 10530.   20th-century Mexican black mottled binding, gilt extra on covers, with gilt inner dentelles; marbled endpapers. Old private ownership stamp on title-page. Occasional spotting.  (23965)

(Walker, John). Walker, John. Self-portrait with donors: Confessions of an art collector. Boston: Little, Brown, 1974.
$12.50

For other BIOGRAPHIES (not all of art-world figures) —
click here.

Warner, Langdon. The enduring art of Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952. 8vo. 178 pp.; illus.
$35.00

•  First edition. The history of Japanese art and architecture. With 92 illustrations.

•  Publisher's quarter black cloth, over green cloth sides. No dust jacket. Fine.

Art & Antiques

•  Highly illustrated auction catalogue of a notable private collection of art, silver, antiques, sculpture, etc.

•  Blue paper over light boards, paper slightly torn.

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The Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company