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MINIATURE BOOKS
Phinney Thumb Bible, 1839
(A Child's Treasure). Bible. English. Selections. 1839. History of the Bible. Cooperstown: H. & E. Phinney, 1839. 16mo (4.9 cm, 1.9"). 192 pp.; illus.
$300.00
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Thumb Bibles were a favorite gift or reward for children during the late 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, but they were enough of a curiosity that they also found audiences among other classes of readers and collectors as well. Miniature books, with page measurements not exceeding 2" x 1 1/2", their text is composed of paraphrased versions of famous Bible stories or passages. Because these books were most commonly owned, read, and played with by children, they suffered heavy and rough use and saw a great rate of destruction.
Adomeit notes that the “long run of Phinney Bibles . . . are distinctive as the majority of the cuts are portraits, which Stone suggests are portraits of neighboring farmers.” The present example is illustrated with 24 wood engravings, all in nice strong impressions and squarely impressed on the pages.
Adomeit, Three Centuries of Thumb Bibles, A90. Period-style speckled calf, spine with two raised bands and gilt-stamped title. One leaf with most of lower half torn away, resulting in partial loss of image on one side and loss of roughly 20 words on the other; otherwise, pages slightly age-toned only, with occasional faint spotting. (25202)

Spouses, Don't Thwart Your Bibliomaniacs
Field, Eugene. Dibdin's ghost. A Christmas keepsake. Fullerton: Lorson's Books & Prints, 1980. 16mo (7.3 cm, 2.8"). [16] pp.
[SOLD]
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Fine-press
miniature production of this bibliophilic poem (first published in 1890) about a late-night encounter with the shade of bibliographer and collector Thomas Frognall Dibdin, who warns that wives who prevent their husbands from buying books or reading them in bed will be shut out of the sphere of heavenly “biblio-bliss above.” This is
one of 500 copies printed by Vance Gerry, cofounder of the Weather Bird Press, better remembered by the general public for his role as a story artist on numerous Disney films.
Publisher's textured green paper wrappers, sewn as issued. Clean and crisp. (30658)

Decorative
Polish Catholic Miniature
(God be with you!). Bóg z toba! Ksiazka do nabozenstwa dla katolików obojga plci. Warszawa i Wimperk: J. Steinbrenera, 1911. 16mo (9.8 cm, 3.75"). 256 pp. (19–30 lacking); illus.
$100.00
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Miniature (or near-miniature) Polish Catholic devotional book. All text here is in Polish except for one line of the title-page: “Printed in Czechoslovakia.” Steinbrener was the proprietor of a prominent printing concern in Vimperk, which published prayer books in more than 20 languages; the present example was first printed in 1895. The work is illustrated with portraits of Jesus and Mary, six images of priests conducting Mass, and smaller vignettes of the stations of the Cross.
Uncommon: WorldCat locates only one U.S. institutional holding of this 1911 (as per the imprimatur) edition.
Binding: Cream-colored plasticized boards (with cream cloth intentionally visible at joints), front cover with color-printed overlay of an angel delicately tinted in light blue and pink with gilt backdrop beneath a rose and grapevine motif, turn-ins with gilt roll, moiré silk endpapers. All edges gilt.
Binding as above, corners slightly rubbed, minor discoloration to sides and spine head. Lacking pp. 19–30 (though with its not being entirely clear whether these were ever present). Pages age-toned; lower outer corners of first few leaves bumped. A beautiful little prayerbook. (30391)

Portable Pindar from the Glasgow Editions of the Greek Classics
Pindarus. Ta tou Pindarou sesōmena ... ex editione Oxoniensis. Glasguae: R. & A. Foulis, 1754–58. 32mo (7.8 cm, 3.1"). 4 vols. in 3. I: [2], 158 pp. II: 186 pp. III: 128 pp. IV: 79, [1] pp.
[SOLD]
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One of Foulis's Editiones minimae, this being a dainty miniature printing of selected odes from Pindar's famous tributes to the classical Panhellenic festivals: Olympia, Pythia, Isthmia, and Nemea.
Provenance: Each front fly-leaf with early inked inscription of Henry Moore, Worcester College, Oxford; front pastedowns with bookplate of H.M., presumably also Moore.
Binding: Publisher's mottled crimson calf, covers framed in gilt beaded roll, spines with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations, board edges with gilt roll.
ESTC T134377; Brunet, IV, 660; Dibden, II, 290; Gaskell 274; Schweiger, I, 236. Bindings as above, edges and extremities rubbed, spine leather darkened and showing small cracks. Vol. I with occasional instances of early inked marginalia in Greek. Vol. II with paper flaw to one leaf that has torn slightly, affecting about three letters. Pages gently age-toned with a very few scattered light spots, otherwise clean.
A nicely printed text in a pleasing small format. (30208)