ART
REFERENCE
[General
Reading/ReferenceAND
Real Rarities]
[]
Limited Edition Facsimile
Antonozzi, Leopardo. De Caratteri. [Rome 1638]. Nieuwkoop: Miland Publishers, 1971. Oblong 4to. 57 pp. $100.00
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)
Literati of Antwerp Salute One of Their Own — Portrait after Peter Paul Rubens
Woodcut *&* Engraved Versions of the Plantin Device
Asterius,
Episcopus Amasenus. S. Asteri Episcopi amaseae homiliae
Graecè & Latinè nunc primùm editae Philippo Rubenio
interprete. Antverpiae: Ex Officina Plantiniana, apud viduam & filios Ioannis
Moreti, 1615. 4to (24.13 cm, 9.5"). [6] ff., 284, pp., [2] ff. $2000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition. A multi-part memorial volume from the Plantin–Moretus press in honor of Philippe Rubens (1574–1611), brother of the famed artist, whose Greek and Latin rendition of the Homilies by Asterius, Bishop of Amasia (ca. 375–405), occupies the first section of the text, here in Greek and Latin printed in double columns. Little is known about Asterius, Bishop of Amasea, and there has been much scholarly debate regarding exactly which homilies should be attributed to his authorship and which to other early Christians, including Asterius the Sophist; the Catholic Encyclopedia online says his works provide “valuable material to the Christian archaeologist.”
The second section here includes verses Rubens composed in the later years prior to his death in 1611 and dedicated to illustrious members of his circle including the humanist Justus Lipsius, Janus Woverius, and Peter Paul Rubens and Isabelle Brant, who married in 1609. Brant’s father, Jan, composed the introductory letter to the reader.
The volume was published at the request of Cardinal Ascanius Columnas in an edition ofonly 750 copies, and was printed at Antwerp at the press of Moretus’ widow and sons with the famous Plantin device appearing in two versions (engraved, to the title, and woodcut, to the final recto).
A full-page engraved funeral portrait of Rubens engraved by Cornelius Galleafter Peter Paul Rubens signals the beginning of the third section, in which Jan Brant records the life of his son-in-law’s brother and transcribes his epitaph. Even Balthasar Moretus contributes an epigram in honor of the deceased.
In the fourth section, Rubens’ own orations and selected letters appear, i.a. his funeral oration to Philip II of Spain. Josse DeRycke contributed the final funerary tribute.
Done up in fully elegant Plantin–Moretus style, the volume has in addition to its careful typography and full-page plate and devices been lavished throughout with two-line block initials and four-line historiated woodcut initials; also, it offers several intricate woodcut tailpieces.
Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only eight copies in U.S. institutions, one of which has been deaccessioned; most arenot in obvious places.
Graesse, I, 241; Corpus Rubenianum, XXI (1977), 152. Period-style full brown calf, covers framed in blind double fillets, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label, raised bands with blind tooling extending onto covers. With a few odd spots to the text only, this is aremarkably fine, crisp copy. All edges green. (28878)
Limited to303 Copies
Babbott, Frank Lusk. The collection of...[,] 18541933. New York, 1934. 4to. Unpaginated. $75.00
Privately printed. Descriptions of 34 works, one per page, each with an illustration on opposite page. Catalogue printed by William Rudge.
Ex-library with blind pressure- and rubber-stamps, properly deaccessioned. (1681)
Early edition: Remarkable collection of female nude photographs dating from the turn of the (20th) century, with an afterword by Bamlach. This is no. 246 in the series Die bibliophilen Taschenbücher, “pocket books for bibliophiles.”
Publisher's yellow bookcloth wrappers, front wrapper with affixed photographic label. Very clean and crisp. (30630)
Just a Bit HEAVY for Taking with You to“the New Barnes” . . .
Third edition, revised and enlarged: the central text of Dr. Barnes's art education curriculum, featuring 122 illustrations.
Publisher's cloth in original dust jacket; jacket with spine sunned, spine and extremities chipped. Ex–social club library: Front pastedown with bookplate and evidence that jacket was once taped down, dedication page with inked numeral in lower margin, spine with inked shelving number. Title-page with inked private ownership inscription dated 1942. Laid in, an amusing newspaper snippet. Outer edges (closed) with small area of staining; otherwise, internally clean and nice.
(33133)
With an Early Engraving ofthe Virgin of Guadalupe *&* Commentary on It
Bartolache [y Diaz de Posada], Jose Ignacio. Manifiesto satisfactorio anunciado en la Gazeta de Mexico (Tom. I nm. 53) Opusculo guadalupano. Mexico: Imp. por D. Felipe de Ziga y Ontiveros, 1790. 4to. [7] ff., 105, [1 (blank)], 16 pp., [6] ff., 3 plts. $1500.00
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Medical doctor, professor of mathematics, author, and founder of the first medical journal published in the New World (Mercurio volante), Bartolache was one of New Spain's memorable and colorful “characters” during the Age of Enlightenment. He was an eccentric and volatile personality in the academic, medical, cultural, and social life of Mexico City during the last third of the 18th century.
In this treatise Bartolache (1739–90) presents quite possibly the first historiographical study of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the literature about her. In all, Bartolache details and discusses 19 books and pamphlets. Additionally, this volume contains an excellent engraving of the Virgin, designed by Jose Guerrero and engraved by Tomas Suria. The last text pages discuss this image of the Virgin as a physical object, as a piece of art: the structure supporting her, the proportions of the face and body, the “paint,” and so on. The final six leaves contain a list of subscribers, which is rather unusual in Mexican books, and there are two other, unsigned, related engravings.
Medina, Mexico, 7957; Grajales & Burrus, Bibliografia guadalupana, 273; Palau 25095; Maggs, Bibl. Amer., I, 1141, and VI, 5899; Beristain, I, 141; Puttick & Simpson, Bibliotheca Mejicana, 167; Sutro, p. 33. Contemporary acid-stained sheep (Valenciana style) with gilt spine, marbled endpapers and all edges red; fore-edge of rear cover gnawed upon by a rodent, but not too seriously. A clean, attractive copy of a book both widely and deeply interesting. (36633)
Detailed — DETAILED!
Bergström, Ingvar. Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century. New York: Thomas Yoseloff Inc., 1956. 8vo. xix, [1], 330 pp.; illus. $285.00
First American edition, translated by Christina Hedström and Gerald Taylor, of one of the most comprehensive reference books on the subject. The volume is illustrated with eight color plates and 239 monochromes (the latter mostly in-text, some full-page).
Publisher's blue cloth, spine with gilt- and blue-stamped title; without dust jacket, spine slightly sunned, a clean, solid copy. (24835)
“Large Scale” in Several Respects . . .
62 Engravings & Bedford Bound WESTMINSTER ABBEY A Classic of English Antiquarianism, Illustration,
& Book-Making
Brayley,
Edward Wedlake. The history and antiquities
of the abbey church of St. Peter, Westminster: Including notices and biographical
memoirs of the abbots and deans of that foundation. London: J.P. Neale for Longman,
Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, 1818–23. Folio (37.9 cm, 14.9"). 2 vols.
I: [18], 227, [19], 72, [10] pp.; 13 plts. II: [2], 304, [40] pp.; 49 plts. $2250.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
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)
Cecil, Richard. Memoirs ofJohn Bacon, esq. R.A. with reflections drawn from a review of his moral and religious character. London: Pr. for F. & C. Rivington by R. Noble, 1801. 8vo (17.5 cm, 6.9"). Frontis., iv, 118, [2 (1 adv.)] pp. $1800.00
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Uncommon first edition of this life of the prominent sculptor, remembered for his memorial busts and statues in Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, and elsewhere. The author was an eminent Church of England clergyman and one of the founders of the Eclectic Society. Joseph Collyer steel-engraved the frontispiece portrait, which shows Bacon at work on a classical head, after John Russell.
WorldCat locates only seven U.S. institutional holdings.
Provenance: This copy is inscribed by the author on a front fly-leaf: “Mrs. Bacon wth the author's affect. respects.” In addition, athree-page autograph letter signed by Bacon is tipped in; the letter pertains to Bacon family heraldic and heritage matters and includes mention of a deposition. The front pastedown bears the pictorial bookplate and small ticket of Robert Heysham Sayre of Bethlehem, PA.
NSTC C1166. 19th-century half brown morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and blind-tooled trefoil decorations in compartments; joints refurbished, spine bands and extremities slightly worn. Pages age-toned; six leaves browned from an old stain and a few more with small marginal areas browned; frontispiece and title-page with spots of foxing. Manuscript letter with outer edges creased, some creases partially slit, one small strip detached along an edge fold and laid in. An attractive copy of an interesting text with excellent and interesting additional material. (33598)
(Ceramics).
Litchfield, Frederick. Pottery and porcelain: A guide to collectors.
New York: M. Barrows and Company, [1950]. Folio. Illus. $40.00
Sixth edition. Illustrated with color & black-and-white photos
and drawings.
Publisher's cloth. Very good condition, no dust jacket.
KENNETH CLARK
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
(6472)
(Clark, Kenneth). Secrest, Meryle. Kenneth Clark: A biography. New York: Fromm International, 1986. Paperback, in fine condition, inscribed by author. With photographs. $7.50 (6473)
Capturing an AgeOne Biography at a Time
[Clarke]. The Georgian era: Memoirs of the most eminent persons, who have flourished in Great Britain, from the accession of George the First to the demise of George the Fourth. London: Vizetelly, Branston, & Co., 1832–34. 8vo (19.5 cm, 7.65"). 4 vols. I: Frontis., 582 pp.; 12 plts. II: Frontis., [2], 588 pp. III: Frontis., [2], 588 pp. IV: Frontis., 588 pp. $450.00
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First
edition: Concise
yet entertainingly anecdote-laden biographies recounting the accomplishments
and characters (foibles and all) of the most prominent figures of the age: nobles,
churchmen, politicians, dissenters, military and naval officers, jurists, physicians,
voyagers and travelers, scientists, writers, economists, architects,artists and musicians, etc.
All the expectable princesses, duchesses, and countesses are present, along
with a handful of women represented in other categories — the preponderance
falling under the “Vocal Performers” and “Actors” headings.
The first volume is illustrated with12
plates each offering four rows
of small portraits, some intriguingly expressive; each volume opens with an
engraved frontispiece portrait of a royal George.
NSTC 2C23867. Recent textured maroon cloth, spines with
gilt-stamped black leather title and volume labels; title-pages institutionally
pressure- (not rubber-) stamped. Scattered light spots of staining,
pages generally clean; first few leaves of voI. \ II with outer margins chipped.
A
hefty, substantive evocation of Georgian life and times. (30012)
REACTIONARY!
Craven, Thomas. Modern art: The men, the movements, the meaning. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1934. 8vo. Frontis., xxii, 378 pp.; illus.
$12.00
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.
“STUMPED & the KITTENS Are Everywhere”— One of 26 Special
Copies
Davidson, Michael. Two views of pears. Berkeley, CA:
Sand Dollar, 1973. 8vo (20.1 cm, 7.9"). [10] ff. $80.00
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A collection of poems on various subjects, with an especial emphasis onart
history. The title-page is lettered in sky blue and black, with a small blue sand dollar ornament.
376 copies comprise this limited edition printed by Wesley Tanner at theSand Dollar Press,
including26 on Wookey Hole paper and signed by the poet, of which this is number 14.
Michael Davidson (b. 1944) was the first curator of the Mandeville Special Collections
Library at the University of California, San Diego, where he has taught American Literature since
1988.
Stitched in orange paper wrappers with matching
orange paper jacket, title and author printed in light brown surrounded by black ornamental
frame on front cover. Fine, in a mylar slipcase.
(30796)
Hague & Gill Bibliography — “Observing Eric Gill's Centenary”
First edition: Compiled and with an introduction by James Davis. The text is illustrated with four versions of the printer's devices designed by Gill for Hague & Gill, plus “Pigotts Road.”
Publisher's plain paper wrappers. Clean and fresh. (29721)
Art Artists Wit Allegory Prose Poetry
Doni, Anton Francesco. La zvcca del Doni, Fiorentino. Divisa in cinqve libri di gran valore ... In Venetia: Appresso F. Rampazetto, ad instantia di G.B. & M., Sessa fratelli, 1565. 8vo (15.5 cm, 6.25"). [8], 316 ff. $850.00
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Doni (1513–74) first published La zucca in parts over the course of 1551 and 1552 — a collection of moral tales, witticisms, aphorisms, and letters in which he often mocks his contemporaries, all of it in prose with some poetry and with a heavy helping of allegory. In this edition that Rampazetto printed for the famous Sessa family of publishers/printers, he has edited the five parts and renamed them in the forms now most commonly used.
Added here is his work on art (“Pitture”), which had first appeared in 1564 at Padua. The theme is the allegorical representation of Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time, and Eternity. Through this work he gives us an understanding of the artistic theory of his era andmany observations on the life and works of such artists as Giovanni Angelo (1507–63) and Vasari.
A full-page woodcut portrait of author is found on the verso of leaf *8, along with the printer's woodcut device on the title-page and woodcut headpieces and initials throughout the text.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Grässe, II, p. 424; Marsili-Libelli, Anton Francesco Doni,; 57; Edit16 CNCE 17710; Gamba 1367 (note). . . Early 20th-century vellum over light boards, ruled and tooled and lettered in gilt; marbled endpapers. Possible ownership name in one margin (not deciphered). Light waterstaining in some upper and lower margins, with occasional limited effect to text; overall in facta good and attractive copy. (40658)
The Art of the Printed Book
Duncan, Harry. Doors of perception: essays in book typography. Austin, TX: W. Thomas Taylor, 1983. 8vo (23.2 cm, 9.2"). [2], 99, [3] pp. $150.00
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First edition: Essays on book design and printing by a famed typographer, book designer, and hand-printer. This is one of 325 copies (300 for sale) printed; the edition was designed by Carol J. Blinn at Warwick Press, printed by Daniel Keleher at Wild Carrot Letterpress, bound by Sarah Creighton and C.J. Blinn in quarter olive Niger goatskin and paste paper–covered sides (paper made by Blinn), andsigned at the colophon by the author.
Binding as above, inoriginal terra-cotta paper–covered slipcase; leather very gently sunned, slipcase with lower edge rubbed and each side with a small unobtrusive spot/mark or two to paper, otherwise clean. Informative and attractive. (30560)
An Artist's Viewof theEarly Development of American Art
Dunlap, William. History of the rise and progress of the arts of design in the United States. New York: George P. Scott & Co., 1834. 8vo (24.6 cm, 9.7"). 2 vols. I: 435, [1] pp.; 1 facs. II: viii, 480 pp. $450.00
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First edition. Dunlap (1766–1839) was “one of the first outstanding figures of the American stage” according to the Oxford Companion to the Theatre; sent to London to study painting with Benjamin West, he found the lure of the theatre more compelling and eventually became a playwright, manager of New York’s Park Theatre, and vice president of the National Academy of Design. Here reverting to his first “life,” he provides interesting biographical accounts, full of anecdotes and personal observations, of numerous prominent American artists and their works. Vol. I features a facsimile of an autograph bill of sale, for portraits, by John Singleton Copley.
On Dunlap, see: Oxford Companion to the Theatre, 211. American Imprints 24237; BAL 5026; Howes D571; Sabin 21303. Publisher's quarter green diced cloth and tan paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped title; edges and extremities rubbed, corners bumped, spines sunned, sides with spots of staining and discoloration. Front hinges (inside) tender. Ex–social club library: spines with paper shelving labels, front pastedowns with 19th-century bookplates and inked shelving numbers, title-pages and one other in each volume rubber-stamped, no other markings. Some outer corners of vol. II lightly waterstained; a very few instances of small spots of staining. (27558)
“To Toiling Millions, Whose Means are Small, Yet Whose Desires are Great to Possess a Home . . .”
Dwyer, Charles P. Economic cottage builder: or, Cottages for men of small means. Buffalo: Wanzer, McKim & Co., 1856. 8vo (23.3 cm, 9.125"). [2], 127, [1] pp.; 32 plts. $350.00
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For the handy 19th-century American in need of a home but without the means to consult a professional (“and yet whose tastes are as worthy of being gratified”), anarchitectural handbook for building one's own cottage on a humble budget. Charles P. Dwyer (ca. 1815 – ca. 1880), an architect and writer, emigrated to North America from Ireland and had moved to Buffalo, NY, by 1847. He subsequently began to publish architectural advice books for people with limited advantages among other works.
Log cabins, plank buildings, and double cottages are a few of the thoughtfully “economic” buildings Dwyer advises for “men of small means.” The materials he suggests are “adapted to every locality” and affordable for dwellers of each neighborhood. The manual is illustrated with32 black-and-white plates (including an added lithographed title-page), 23 of which represent Dwyer's cottages, the other eight being plans for their designs. The lithographs are by Compton, of Buffalo.
Binding: Publisher's brown cloth with gilt lettering and foliate decoration to spine; deep blind-stamped triple-ruled and foliate border on front board framing stylized gilt title and cottage centerpiece; rear board identical to front board but with centerpiece in blind. Saffron endpapers.
Provenance: On front free endpaper, 20th-century signature of “Wm. B. Goodwin, M.I.T.” A rubber-stamp from the Lowell Historical Society appears on the front pastedown and on the top and bottom edge.
Hitchcock, American architectural books . . . portfolios, and pamphlets . . . published in America before 1895, 389. Bound as above; rubbing to extremities, small tears at spine head, minor coppery discoloration to gilt on front board. Provenance stamp and signature as above; age-toned edges and minor to moderate foxing throughout interior. Sound and unassuming and more than respectable, much like its target audience. (38084)
ALL the ACTUAL PRINTER'S BLOCKS for the *47* Illustrations of Zoeth Skinner Eldredge'sThe Beginnings of San Francisco
Francis, Walter, illus., et al. For Eldredge's The beginnings of San Francisco, the 47 California-themed printing blocks used to produce the volume’s illustrations. San Francisco: Pr. John C. Rankin Company (New York), 1912. 37 half-tone plates (on copper), 10 zinc cuts, all on their wood blocks; plus 3 additional plates on copper and another zinc cut, similarly mounted. $2500.00
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A FULL SET of the printer's blocks prepared of the illustrations for Zoeth Skinner Eldredge's The Beginnings of San Francisco (1912), being 37 photographic half-tones on copper and 10 zinc cuts, all on wood blocks, ranging generally in size from approximately 2.5" square to 14" square, with oblong maps measuring up to 20" across. A number of the half-tones were done after drawings by Walter Francis, a California artist and illustrator who worked for the San Francisco Chronicle; a few blocks offer images of photographs, some identified as taken by W.C. Mendenhall of the U.S. Geological Survey or Captain D.D. Gaillard of the Boundary Commission; other images are said to be from paintings and a daguerrotype held privately, with another being the facsimile of a document in the John Carter Brown Library; and, indeed, some are simply “after” images in other books (e.g., The Annals of San Francisco and “Bartlett's Narrative”). The images include a dozen California maps and plans; photographic views of the Colorado Desert and an artistic sketch of “the Trail on the Gila”; portraits of prominent early Californians; several “military moments” and a plan of the Presidio in 1820; plus, notably, scenic and historic “views” including renderings of “the Palo Alto,” the ports of Monterey and San Diego, Yerba Buena, and a number of street and bay scenes depicting San Francisco proper.
Eldredge was a New York–born banker and amateur historian of California whose Beginnings of San Francisco, though possibly self-published, is listed in Cowan & Cowan and described there as “of great historical value.”
In addition to the 47 images/blocks from that work present here, we offer four others that seem to be “related” but which we have not identified beyond establishing that they do not seem to be from the same author's History of California (1915). We must wonder, were they images prepared for the Beginnings and not used? The additional zinc-cut image of a document signed by Gaspar de Portola and two of the three additional half-tones on copper (Portola sighting San Francisco bay and the Spaniards marching to Monterey) were found as online images without clear attribution as to their physical sources; and the last, a western scene not identified, has not yet been “matched” at all.
Most blocks from the Beginnings are still in or withwrappers showing the images printed from them, as would have been convenient for the printers — these marked (as the backs of the blocks themselves sometimes are) identifying the images and/or showing that the work was completed. (The additional blocks are unwrapped and unmarked.)
In sum, thiscomplete array of the blocks used for printing a substantial and well-regarded Titanic-era book looks like something that was put on a printing house shelf one afternoon in 1912 at the end of an ordinary project for the pressmen and simply stayed there. Seeing it on its present PRB&M shelf, coherent and unmessed-with more than 100 years later, is like walking up to that shelf through one of time's “wrinkles.”
On the Beginnings, see: Cowan & Cowan, Bibliography of the History of California, 193. For a list of all its images and notes on their origins, see: http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hbbegidx.htm. The paper wrappers present are variously just fine or age-toned or browned, chipped, torn along folds. ALL the blocks are in good condition; this is not a sort of thing easily damaged! (29741)
GiltMOSAIC Binding
[Gavard,
Charles]. Souvenir d'une promenade a Versailles. Paris: au
Bureau des Galeries Historiques de Versailles, [ca. 1850–55]. Folio (36.5
cm; 14.5"). [6] ff., 50 leaves of plates. $600.00
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One of several works with the identical title but from different publishers and with different contents! The present volume contains engravings after paintings in the palace's “Galeries Historiques”: the engravers include Leroux, Masson, Thomas, Nargoot, Rebel, Frilley, and many others. Curiously, many engravings bear a faint line of identification reading “Diagraphe et Pantographe Gavard” and they have non-sequential numbering, meaning the images from this source could be and were recombined to form a wide variety of souvenir albums.
In this copy all plates are guarded by sheets of heavy paper stock.
Binding: In the style of a percaline mosaïquée, but the gilt and mosaic are applied to a textured pebbled cloth. Spine gilt extra with added “mosaic” of green, white, red and blue. Front cover with a blind-stamped border incorporating elegant corner-pieces; within this, “Souvenir de Versailles” gilt-stamped in an arc above a large on-laid crowned coat of arms flanked by banners and flags, this embellished in gilt with rich use of blue, white, red, blue, and green. Rear cover with similar blind-stamped border and a different large gilt-stamped center device strikingly incorporating an on-lay of blue stamped in gilt with a military medal. All edges gilt.
On this type of binding, see: Morris & Levin, The Art of Publishers' Bookbindings, pp. 94–97. Binding as above, rubbed to the underlying boards at the corners of the boards and top of spine slightly pulled with one bit of rubbing. Scattered pale brown stains mostly on interleaves and sometimes visible on versos of plates; some discoloration in some margins of plates and occasionally into one; overwhelmingly a clean copy, remarkably bright and unfoxed. A strong and nice example of this category of “souvenir” and of a gilt mosaic binding. (30464)
Great Britain.Commissioners on the Fine Arts. Report of the Commissioners on the Fine Arts, with appendices; and a critical introduction. By command of Her Majesty. London: James Gilbert, 1842. 8vo (20 cm, 7.875" ). x, 37, [1] pp. $150.00
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. (11192)
How Much Were theTownley Marbles Worth?
Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Report from the committee to whom the petition of the trustees of the British Museum, respecting the late Mr. Townley’s collection of ancient sculptured marbles, was referred. [London, 1805]. Folio (32.5 cm, 12.75"). 8 pp. $250.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
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.
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. (17274)
Jacquemart, Albert. Histoire de la céramique. Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1873. 4to (26.5 cm, 10.43"). [2] ff., 750, [2] pp. 12 pls. $425.00
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Canvassing ancient Egypt to the Italian Renaissance and modern times, this monograph on ceramic art distinguishes classes and styles of pottery, is illustrated with200 wood-engraved figures by Hercule Catenacci and Jules Jacquemart, bears12 full-page engraved plates by the latter, and tells how to identify many works' makers, cataloguing1,000 marks and monograms. Each full-page plate is protected by a guard sheet with a brief letterpress description.
Jules Jacquemart (1837–80) was but in his mid-twenties when he began drawing from the renowned art collection of his father, Albert, an art historian. The Jacquemarts' first book on the subject was the Histoire de la porcelaine, followed shortly by this, its companion, in 1873, when Jules was “at work again on his own best work of etching.” He also made the etchings for Techener's Histoire de la bibliophilie (1860–64) and, in 1864, received an important commission from the French crown for Gemmes et joyaux de la couronne (1865).
The monograph's originalcolor-painted beaux-arts wrappers are bound in at the front and back here, including the spine in front (rubbed and faded, hinting at original splendor). The title-page is printed in red and black. An extensive index appears at the end.
Binding:Three-quarter evergreen morocco bordered with gilt fillets over bubble gum and mint marbled paper boards; spine with raised bands, gilt-framed compartments containing author, title, date, and appropriate devices in gilt; endpapers matching marbled boards and top edge gilt.
For J. Jacquemart, see: The Nineteenth Century, Vol. IX, pp. 681–90. Leather lightly scuffed at extremities and sunned to a woody green on spine and upper front cover; offsetting from turn-ins onto endpapers. Mild to (occasionally) moderate foxing throughout and old water damage on a few leaves only. (30132)
One Year's Worth ofWell-Spent Half Hours
Knight, Charles. Half-hours with the best authors.
[London: Charles Knight, 1847–48]. 8vo (22.8 cm, 9"). 4 vols. in 2. I: Frontis., engr. t.-p., [2],
312 pp., frontis., engr. t.-p., [2], 312 pp. II: Frontis., engr. t.-p., [iii]–iv, 312 pp., frontis., engr. t.-p., [iii]–iv, 316 pp. $175.00
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First edition: Engaging periodical compilation of poetry, history, Christian meditations, natural history, art and literary criticism, biography, and fiction, set forth in 52 weekly issues meant to be consumed in half-hour portions, with each weekly number containing seven half-hours. (Indices and quarterly title-pages are bound in here.)
Knight, who was devoted to books and to literature from the time he was a small child, was a much-admired printer and publisher, as well as an author, reformer, and would-be educator: Many of his publishing endeavors were aimed at improving and enlightening the working class.
NSTC 2K7731. On Knight, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. On binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth, style Wav3. Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with muse motif and title, spines with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorations; lightly worn overall with some fading, vol. II spine head with traces of a strip of cloth tape. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Paper slightly embrittled (more so in second volume), with a few short edge tears. Externally ordinary; internally worthwhile. (26860)
Koch, Rudolf, & Fritz Kredel. Christian symbols. San Francisco: Arion Press, 1996. 4to (28.6 cm, 11.25"). [9], 158, [5] pp.; illus. $125.00
Click the images for enlargements.
“One hundred and fifty-eight graphic images from the history of Christianity.” These important religious emblems drawn by Rudolf Koch with the help of Fritz Kredel are presented in a bound book from theArion Pressfor the first time. They were previously published as a folder of plates between 1932 and 1935; the reproductions here were reduced to ninety percent of the original. Koch intended for the book to be used as a reference for other artists and churches.
Typographer Koch (1876–1934) and graphic designer Kredel (1900–73) previously collaborated on their well-known Book of Signs. Koch's preface, translated to English from the original German by Kevin Ahern, is provided, as well as a foreword from Andrew Hoyem.
The prospectus is laid in.
Publisher's blue-green cloth, white spine label with blue lettering; one very faint scuff to front board. In original tan paper slipcase; light spot of sunning to one side. Interior is bright. A beautiful copy! (38304)
H.P. KRAUS CATALOGUES
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. (6486)
Kraus, H.P., bookseller, New York. 19th Century Photographs, including Daguerrotypes, Civil War Photographs, Early American Views, Technology, French Portrait Photographs, etc. New York: H.P. Kraus, [1977]. 4to. $20.00
Special Bulletin 10.
Stapled in original wrappers. (6488)
Click here for a database including
not in PRB&M's illustrated catalogues . . . AUTHOR keyword, e.g. = KRAUS, H. P. NOTE SPACE between H. & P.
Ancient Dress. 51 Copper-Engraved Plates.
Lens, André Corneille. Le costume ou essai sur les habillements et les usages de plusieurs peuples de l’antiquité, prouvé par les monuments. Liege: Aux dépens de l’auteur, chez J.F. Bassompierre, 1776. 4to (24.9 cm, 9.8"). xxxi, [1], 411, [1] pp.; 51 plts $1750.00
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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. (19415)
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.
“The First Public Manifestation” of theLiverpool First Edition Club Signed by Eric Gill
Liverpool First Edition Club. Catalogue of the first exhibition by members of finely printed books from modern presses May 12–24, 1930 with a foreword by Eric Gill. Liverpool: The Basnett Gallery (pr. at the Fanfare Press), 1930. 8vo (21 cm, 8.25"). 31, [1] pp. $100.00
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Catalogue of the Liverpool First Edition Club's debut exhibition, with a foreword by Eric Gill including his thoughts on the nature of Art and book production.
Provenance: Signed by Eric Gill (“Eric G”) at the end of his foreword; additionally, elegantly inscribed to rare book collector Clark Stillman by the artist's brother and biographer Evan R. Gill, dated 28 September 1937.
Searches of NUC and WorldCat located only three copies in U.S. libraries.
Publisher's printed paper wrappers; wrappers detached, sunned, and chipped. Pages clean. (36969)
37 Examples ofCurwen Papers, Plus Notes & History
McKitterick, David; Paul Nash. A new specimen book of Curwen pattern papers. Andoversford, Gloucestershire: Whittington Press, 1987. 8vo (27.5 cm, 10.8"). xii, 105, [3] pp.; 4 double-sided plts. (some col.), 32 color-printed samples. Portfolio: 5 fold. ff. $1000.00
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“This book celebrates the co-operation between the Curwen Press and a group of artists who, between the early 1920s and the 1950s, produced the distinctive — and distinguished — series of pattern papers that have become known generally by the name of the Press itself” (p. xi). These productions, used by Curwen and by many other bookbinders for endpapers, book covers, and jackets, were avant-garde examples of modern graphic design. A fortuitously preserved stash of papers enabled the production of this 1987 sample book despite the press's having shut down in 1984, and it includes more patterns, done by more artists, than the previous Curwen specimen book of 1928. Contributing artist Paul Nash's introduction to that 1928 volume is additionally reprinted here.
Each surviving paper pattern (the 32 main samples being each a twelfth of a full sheet, mounted onto heavy stock) is accompanied by a brief biography of its designer and notes on its production; the artists represented, some by multiple papers, are Edward Bawden, Harry Carter, Claud Lovat Fraser, Elizabeth Friedlander, E.O. Hoppé, Margaret James, Thomas Lowinsky, Enid Marx, Paul Nash, Sarah Nechamkin, Eric Ravilious, Michael Rothenstein, Albert Rutherston, Graham Sutherland, Diana Wilbraham, and Althea Willoughby (the specimen of Willoughby's work was specially printed for this volume).
The colophon notes that this is numbered copy XLIV of 335 printed; this isone of just 85 copies bound by Smith Settle in quarter morocco and Curwen paper, with an accompanying portfolio containing five additional full sheets of pattern paper. The portfolio sheets were designed by Marx, Bawden, Lowinsky, and Friedlander, the latter contributing two patterns. The main volume was set in 12-point Monotype Lutetia (borrowed from the Libanus Press) and printed on Zerkall mould-made and Colorplan papers, with the plates and reprinted pattern papers done at the Senecio Press.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Quarter dark blue morocco and vividly color-printed paper–covered sides with gilt-stamped title on spine, portfolio in matching paper, both housed in publisher's plain slipcase; portfolio spine and corners showing minor wear, main volume bright and fresh. Top edge gilt. One portfolio sample leaf with two short tears from one edge, papers otherwise in beautiful, crisp condition, as are the text pages of the main volume. A special copy in lovely condition. (39552)
MODERN LIBRARY“LEONARDO”
Merejkowski, Dmitri. The romance of Leonardo da Vinci. Translated from the original Russian of Dmitri Merejkowski by Bernard Guilbert Guerney. New York: The Modern Library, 1928. 12mo. xii, 635 pp. $23.00
Fiction.
Publisher's limp boards, stamped in gilt. Spine a little sunned. Last few pages unopened. Near fine copy. (6441)
Michener onJapanese Woodblocks
Michener,
James A. Japanese prints from the early
masters to the modern. Rutland, VT & Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Co.,
(copyright 1959). Folio (31.7 cm, 12.5"). 287, [1] pp.; plts., 6 fold. $250.00
First edition of this “tour of three centuries of art,” conducted by famed novelist Michener. 257 illustrations decorate the substantial volume, including 55 in full color; many are full-page, others in-text or several to a page.
Publisher's textured taupe silk binding, front cover with patterned coral silk insert; spine with gilt-stamped title. Dust wrapper and original slipcase present, lower back corner of jacket slightly crumpled; otherwise a gorgeous, clean copy in an undamaged slipcase. (24683)
A Famous Designer's TRAVELOGUE ofHis TRIP TO CHINA in 1984
Miho, Jim. Kromekote opens up a whole new world. [New York?, Cincinnati?]: Champion International Corp., [1985]. 32mo (near miniature: 10 cm; 3.9375"). [48] ff. $175.00
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Issued chiefly as a sample of the Champion International Corporation's papers. The title appears on the front of the book's box, on the inside cover of the same (as “Champion Kromekote opens whole new worlds”), and below the colophon of the book.
Titled “China” on its front cover, the book is designer Miho's travelogue of a trip to China in 1984, with his conversational, informal text on the verso of its leaves and ahandsome, well-chosen color photograph opposite on each facing leaf's recto.
The near-miniature travelogue book is contained in a larger box measuring 19 x 19 x 2 cm (7.375" x 7,375" x .75").
WorldCat locates fewer than ten reported copies worldwide.
Book in fine condition, box very good. A fascinating, evocative little production. (36984)
Limited Edition of 80 Copies, with anOriginal Water Color
Nancy, Jean-Luc. Le regard du portrait. [Paris]: Galilée, (2000). 8vo (21.5 cm; 8.5"). 90, [1], [1 (blank)] pp., [1], [2 (ads)], [1 (blank)], [1(colophon)] ff., [8] pp. of color illus., [1] tipped-in watercolor. $275.00
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Nancy's treatise on the philosophy of portraiture was issued in a trade edition and a limited edition. This is a copy of the limited edition of 80 copies containing an original water color portrait by François Martin: 70 were numbered and for sale, five were lettered and for the artist, and five were lettered and not for sale.
This is number 21 of the 70 numbered, with the water color being a version of the frontispiece on heavy artists' paper and signed by the artist with his initials.
Original wrappers with a glassine dust jacket; front wrapper and title-page with publisher's “scribble” device above imprint as seen on other titles from this press. Very good. (35646)
Elegant accordion-pleated presentation of this series of waterfall photographs, taken throughout the United States and offering intriguing urban images in addition to the more typical scenic views. Deborah Tall's accompanying essay on waterfalls and representations thereof is laid in.
Publisher's midnight blue cloth–covered boards, spine with blind-stamped title, in original cream and blue cloth–covered slipcase; binding and case in beautiful condition. An attractive volume. (30642)
How to Paint, According toOne of the Great French Critics
Piles, Roger de. Cours de peinture par principes. Amsterdam & Leipzig: Arkstee & Merkus; Paris: Chez les Freres Estienne, 1767. 12mo (17.1 cm, 6.75"). Frontis., [8], 389, [11] pp.; 2 plts. $250.00
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Attractive 18th-century printing of an influential treatise on painting by de Piles (1635–1709), an eminent artist, critic, and member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. The publisher's foreword notes that the work had become “extrêmement rare” since its original publication in 1708, promptingthis updated edition, here in its second printing following the first of the previous year (that 1766 issue having been part of a five-volume Oeuvres diverses of de Piles; the date and the booksellers' information have been reset on the title-page here). The text is illustrated with the engraved allegorical frontispiece and two plates, one of which is signed by Charles de Rochefort, from the 1708 Jacques Estienne edition. At the back of the volume is de Pile's original — and still controversial — “objective” numerical breakdown of the talents of 56 famous painters, assigning points in four categories (composition, drawing, color, and expression).
WorldCat locatesonly three U.S. institutions reporting holdings of this 1767 printing, and just a handful of the 1766.
Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped title and pomegranate decorations in compartments; joints and extremities rubbed, with back joint starting from foot. All edges stained red. Pages with a very few scattered small spots or smudges, overall clean. (40294)
Two Seasonal Spectacles at the Theatre Royal SPECIAL EFFECTS 1829
Playbill. Broadside. Begins: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. This evening, Monday, December 28, 1829, His Majesty's Servants will act the tragedy of King Richard III. [London]: Pr. by J. Tabby, [1829]. Folio (34.5 cm, 13.5"). [2] ff. $125.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Unusual theatrical bifolium: two attached playbills from 1829. The first sheet advertises a Shakespeare production starring Mr. Aitken, Mr. Kean, Mrs. Faucit, and Miss Faucit, along with“a Splendid Comic Christmas Pantomime” called Jack in the Box; or, Harlequin and the Princess of the Hidden Island. The latter includes a descriptive list of the scenes as painted by Clarkson Stanfield (“The Giant's Dining Parlour,” “Lime-Kilns, near Gravesend,” “Cheesemonger's Shop and Wine Vaults,” etc.).
The second sheet is for Stanfield's “Grand Local Diorama,” the grand finale of which involved the “magnificent display of the Falls of the Virginia Waters, seen through the Fairy Temple of Luminaria” — facilitated by a hydraulic apparatus capable of discharging 39 tons of water, “forming a coup d'oeil never before witnessed on any stage.”
A contemporary of Stanfield's once called him “the prince of scene-painters,” and his dioramas were legendary for their beauty and immersive effects.
Split halfway up center fold and neatly repaired from rear; one untrimmed outer edge slightly ragged. Gently age-toned. Delightful (and very displayable) piece of theatrical ephemera. (36575)
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
Prunetti, Michelangelo. Saggio pittorico ed analisi delle pitture più famose esistenti in Roma con il compendio delle vite de’più eccellenti pittori ec. ec. Edizione seconda corretta ed aggresciuta. Roma: Nella Stamperia Salvioni, si vende nella Libreria di Giambatista Petrucci, 1818. 12mo (20 cm, 7.9"). xii, 296 pp. $500.00
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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. (14402)
Photography withFlash Bulbs, Gas Lights, Electric Lights, etc. Author's Presentation Copy
Ris-Paquot, [Oscar-Edmond]. La pratique de la photographie à la lumière artificielle. Paris: Charles Mendel, [ca. 1905?]. 12mo (20 cm, 7.87"). 88, 16 (adv.) pp.; illus. [SOLD]
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Analysis of the use (and creation) of different types of artificial light in early 20th-century photographic technology, written by an artist and art historian responsible for reference works on art forms including faience and enamel, as well as a number of practical guides on photography techniques. The guide is illustrated with small, in-text renderings of equipment and setups.
Our suggested publi cation date is based on the back wrapper advertisement for La Photo-Revue, which states that the periodical was then in its 16th year. This manual is not commonly encountered now, with searches of WorldCat findingonly two U.S. institutions reporting holdings (George Eastman House, Texas State University-San Marcos).
Provenance: This is anauthor's presentation copy: half-title inscribed “L'auteur à Monsieur de Tardieu,” with signature. Later from the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
Publisher's paper wrappers in (taped) glassine dust jacket; spine slightly darkened. Signatures unopened; pages age-toned; a clean and sound copy. (40421)
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.
French Translation of the NT withExegesis of Text &of PICTURES
Rohault de Fleury, Charles. L'évangile études iconographiques et archéologiques. Tours: Alfred Mame et Fils, 1874. Folio (33 cm, 13"). 2 vols. I: Frontis., [8], vii, [1], 287 pp.; 53 plts. II: Frontis., [4], 320 pp.; 46 plts. $350.00
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Sole edition. A study
ofthe
iconography of Jesus in Late Roman and Medieval art, from
the 3rd to the 12th century. Each chapter (165 in all) covers a particular scene
in the life of Jesus, and the text begins with a Catholic translation in French
of the relevant passages from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The text is accompanied by illustrations, copious interpretive notes of the
iconography and critical commentary, both exegetical and archaeological. Officially
endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church, the preliminary leaves including an “approbation”
by the Archbishop of Tours and a letter from the Archbishop of Paris.
The book is illustrated with 100 engraved plates and numerous in-text engravings,
as well as a frontispiece map of the Holy Land in each volume. The plates
are mostly figural illustrations taken from paintings in catacombs and on
sarcophagi, illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, ivory figurines, murals, etc.
The title-pages are printed in black and red ink, and decorated with an engraved
vignette.
Publisher's red cloth, stamped in gilt on the spines and front
covers. Spines sunned and front cover of vol. II slightly sunned along fore-edge
also; cloth of spines frayed at extremities and chipped in other places. Hinges
(inside) of vol. I a little weak, stitching exposed; corners bumped with cloth
damage; pages very shallowly bumped. Ex-library, with shelf labels on spines,
institutional bookplates on front pastedowns, pressure-stamp to title-pages
and one other page in each volume. Paper very good; pages clean and bright.
(24688)
For BIBLES, TESTAMENTS, *&*
BIBLE SCHOLARSHIP, click here. For
SETS, click here.
Censoring “Satanic” Art
Rosignoli, Carlo Gregorio [Charles Grégoire]. La pittura in giudicio, overo il bene delle oneste pitture, e’l male delle oscene. Opera di Carlo Gregorio Rosignoli della compagnia di Giesu. Milan: Nella Stampa di Giuseppe Malatesta, 1697. 12mo (14.8 cm; 5.75"). [11] ff., 316 pp. Lacks engr. frontis. $750.00
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Art criticism, morality, and religion intersect as Rosignoli discusses the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, and Michelangelo, among other artists. This Jesuit favorsdemonic and Satanic influence as an explanation for the odious, secular imagery to be found in certain paintings, and praises the beneficial effects of the Virgin Mary’s inspiration. He also advocates exercising stricter ecclesiastical control over the arts, and demands that “obscene” paintings be destroyed.
This early edition of Rosignoli’s work, first published in Bologna in 1696, is decorated with floriated capitals, headpieces, and tailpieces, with an engraved frontispiece lacking in this copy. The volume opens with a dedication to Don Teobaldo Maria Visconti and closes with a thorough index.
Sommervogel, VII 154. Contemporary stiff vellum, spine with title inked in early hand; engraved frontispiece lacking and text block separating from spine from base upwards (with sewing visible). Light discolorations to many pages, inked jottings to front and back pastedowns. A scarce edition of a scarce text. (36670)
For “Workmen & Laborers” & Including Ruskin'sAttack on Whistler
Ruskin, John. Fors clavigera. Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain. New York: Greenwood Press, 1968. 8vo (21.8 cm, 8.6"). 4 vols. I: 430 pp. II: 459, [1] pp. III: 425, [1] pp. IV: 412 pp. $100.00
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Facsimile printing of the 1886 Frank F. Lovell & Co. edition: pamphlets presenting Ruskin's perspective on contemporary moral and social issues.
Publisher's teal cloth, spines with gilt-stamped title; spines with gilt slightly dimmed and minor extremity wear, front cover of vol. II with a small light smudge. A solid and pleasant set, with its pages very crisp and clean. (33164)
First edition: the correspondence of John James Ruskin, his wife, and their son John, from 1801 through 1843 — an important body of material for scholars of the great art critic.
Publisher's red cloth, spines gilt-stamped, in matching slipcase; volume spines sunned, slipcase showing minimal shelfwear. Overall very clean and crisp. (33160)
Inscribed by the Artist
Saroyan, William, & Barbara Ebersole. Fletcher Martin. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1954. 4to (28.7 cm, 11.3"). xvii, [1], 51, [1] pp.; illus. $100.00
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Illustrated tribute to the American artist, with a foreword by Saroyan and
commentary by Ebersole.
Provenance: Inscribed “To Judy and Ron with best wishes Fletcher Martin 1966" on the
half-title and with an impression of that inscription transferred to title-page because of the nature
of the book's paper.
Publisher's brick-colored cloth, front
cover and spine stamped in black, in original dust jacket; jacket sunned and a little soiled with
light staining to edges, short tear to each upper edge, and small chips at spine extremities;
volume with minimal shelfwear outside and, inside, a touch of generally very faint waterstaining
to lower margin across and a short ways up the gutter. Solid, and signed.
(35904)
Uncommon Work on Photography — Used by a Photographer?
Seyewetz, Alphonse. Le développement de l'image latente en photographie. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1899. 12mo (19.5 cm, 7.68"). vii, [1], 97, [1] pp.; 3 fold. tables. [SOLD]
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Scarce sole edition: Authoritative, practical overview of the state of the art in development of photographic images, from the “Bibliothèque photographique” series. Seyewetz (1869–1940) was a French chemist and pioneer of photography who published numerous scientific papers both alone and in collaboration with the Lumière brothers. His present offering includes chemical formulas and details, along with three tipped-in folded tables of developer characteristics; the original paper wrappers are bound in. Physical holdings are rare, with a search of WorldCat finding only one actual non-microform, non-electronic copy reported, at the George Eastman House. Of the digitized version from that copy in the Cromer Collection at the Eastman (which is the version held by many U.S. libraries), it is noted by several sources that the “copy [is] imperfect and defective: weak or faded print; p. 60 wanting [i.e., the folding tables].”
Evidence of Readership: Two pages with early pencilled marginal annotations regarding amounts and proportions of chemicals.
Provenance: From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
Contemporary half green cloth and marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped title; sides lightly rubbed, extremities more so. Pages age-toned. Marginalia as above. (40576)
He Was a Member ofSor JUANA's Circle
Sigüenza y Góngora, Carlos de. Parayso occidental plantado y cultivado por la liberal benefica mano de los muy catholicos y poderosos reyes de España, nuestros señores, en su magnifico Real Convento de Jesus Maria de Mexico. Mexico: Juan Ribera, 1684. Small 4to. [12], 206 ff., coat of arms. $15,000.00
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“Polymath” is the term most often applied to Siguenza y Gongora (1645–1700), and indeed he was a cosmographer, philosopher, chronicler, poet, biographer, historian, cartographer, and priest.
Here he is wearing the hats of a chronicler and a biographer, as he, “an intellectual friend of Sor Juana [Ines de la Cruz] and at the same time a man of science and religiosity, [writes] the history of the convent of Jesus Maria and the biography of some of its notable nuns.” His Parayso occidental is “a classic example of baroque[-era] writing on the monastic life of nuns [in Mexico]” (both quotations from Lavrin, p. 205). As such, the volume is important; and even apart from its association with the Spanish world's Tenth Muse,” it isa basic starting place for the study of nuns, the economics of nunneries, and the political life of the same.
As is increasingly the case with Mexican imprints of the 17th century, it islittle found in the marketplace.
Provenance: 18th-century ownership signature on title-page and first leaf of preliminaries of the Conde del Fresno de la Fuente.
Medina, Mexico, 1328; Palau 312973; Asuncion Lavrin, “Cotidianidad y espiritualidad en la vida conventual novohispana: Siglo XVII,” in Memoria del Coloquio Internacional Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz y pensamiento novohispano (1995). Late 19th-century Mexican quarter dark green morocco with mottled green paper sides; binding rubbed and abraded, front endpapers with an old paper label and remnants of one removed. Pencilling on front fly-leaf and title-page verso; top margins closely cropped occasionally costing top of letters of running heads and foliation. Worming, chiefly in margins but occasionally into the text, not costing words, sometimes repaired; first and last few leaves with old repairs to corners and margins and a bit of text restored in pen and ink. Withal, a good++ copy of important work that is not often on the market. (34203)
Works of a Master Engraver — With Signed Print
Stone, Reynolds. Reynolds Stone engravings. London: John Murray (pr. at the Curwen Press), [1977]. 8vo (29.1 cm, 11.5"). xli, [3], 151, [3] pp.; col. illus. $450.00
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First edition, with an introduction by the artist and an appreciation by Kenneth Clark: an extensively illustrated survey of Stone's impressive accomplishments in wood engraving. A signed print of a previously unpublished engraving (of a waterfall in the Prescelly Mountains of south Wales) is laid in at the front; this engraving was printed with an Albion press by the artist, on handmade cream wove paper from Wookey Hole Mill. The colophon — which is also signed by Stone — notes that this is numbered copy 114 of 150 printed, done on Basingwerk parchment paper made by Grosvenor Chater, and bound in full buckram by W. & J. Mackay, with Cockerell endpapers.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Publisher's blue cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title, in a striking slipcase covered in combed paper in black, grey, and white, matching the endpapers; volume spine sunned, slipcase showing minimal shelfwear. Pages crisp and clean. A beautiful book for collectors of calligraphic and/or bookplate art as well as connoisseurs of wood engraving. (39551)
An Art Collector's Estate
Suárez de Toledo, Juan. Collection of documents in Spanish on paper relating to his death and estate. Talavera: 1669–79. Folio, 100 ff. $950.00
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Suárez de Toledo seems to have been a serious collector of oil portraits — including one of Hernando Cortés and one of the Queen of France — as well as of religious art, silver, and other “objets d'art.” The several inventories present in this cahier document his passion, with the other documents further telling the story of the complicated settlement of the estate by the heirs.
Written by several notaries so hands are varied. Stitching starting to loosen. A very few leaves with small loss of text to a hungry rodent. (27598)
A Beloved Victorian Author on anEqually Beloved Victorian Illustrator
Thackeray, William Makepeace; W.E. Church, ed.; George Cruikshank, illus. On the genius of George Cruikshank ... reprinted verbatim from “The Westminster Review.” Edited with a prefatory note on Thackeray as an artist and art-critic. London: George Redway, 1884. 8vo (22.5 cm, 8.875"). Frontis., [6], xvi, 60, [2 (adv.)] pp.; 1 plt. $125.00
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First book-form edition of a tribute originally published in The Westminster Review in 1840 — advertised by the publisher as “the most delightful of Thackeray's critical essays” (Book-Lore, Dec. 1884). In addition to themore than 40 woodcut illustrations, this printing includes a “new portrait” of Cruikshank, etched by F.W. Pailthorpe.
Binding: 19th-century half red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges ruled in gilt double fillets, spine with raised bands, gilt-stamped title, and gilt-stamped floral compartment decorations. Signed binding: front free endpaper stamped by Root & Son.
Provenance: From the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.
NCBEL, III, 856. Binding as above, joints and extremities rubbed. Pages mildly age-toned; two leaves with very small chips from outer margins; two pages with one small
spot of staining each. A very nice copy of a work of both literary and artistic interest. (39846)
“Three themes dominate the period covered by this book . . . the consolidation of the new nation-states . . . religious persecution and the wars between Catholic and Protestant . . . the expansion of Europe over the whole world” (from the dust-jacket). The volume is extensively illustrated in color and black-and-white; this is a work of art reference as well as historical reference.
Publisher's terra-cotta cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title, corners bumped yet cloth pristine, in dust-jacket; wrapper with wear at corners and spine extremities, one short edge tear to upper front edge. Pages age-toned; clean and unmarked. (26183)
One of 50 Special Copies Wood Engravings byRuzicka
Updike, Daniel Berkeley, & Rudolph Ruzicka. D.B.U. and R.R.: selected extracts from correspondence between Daniel Berkeley Updike and Rudolph Ruzicka, 1908–1941. New York: American Printing History Association, 1998. Small 4to (27.3 cm; 10.75"). vi, 181, [8] pp. $115.00
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One of 500 copies and no. 50 of 50 special copies signed by the designer Roderick Stinehour and bound by Judi Conant at Guildhall, VT, with the inclusion ofthree wood engravings by Rudolph Ruzicka printed by the Merrymount Press in addition to the many reproductions prepared for this volume. The correspondence was edited by Elizabeth French Lathem and Edward Connery Lathem, and the text and illustration together well exemplify the collaboration between two giants of the Book Arts during the first half of the 20th century.
The wood engravings are absolutely stunning.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Quarter blue cloth with gray paper spine label over lovely marbled paper; issued without a dust jacket.A bright and clean copy. (37600)
Art/Architecture — Folio Extra — Imposing!
Valentini, Agostino. La patriarcale basilica Liberiana. Roma: a spese
di Agostino Valentini, 1839. Folio extra (47.5 cm; 18.75"). [4] ff., 118 pp.; 1 fold. plt., 102 plts. $600.00
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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. (11659)
Fine Bodoni Printing, Fine ENGRAVINGS, Informative Contents, & Printing Completed by the Widow
Vieira, Francisco; & Francesco Rosaspina. Le piu insigni pitture parmensi Indicate agli amatori della Belle Arti. Parma: Dalla Tipografia Bodoniana, 1809. Large 4to (31.8 cm; 12.5"). [5] ff., xxviii pp., engraved added title, 59 plts., [118] ff., 7, [1 (blank)], 7, [1 (blank) pp. [SOLD]
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An account of paintings that at one time or another hung on the walls of churches and residences in Parma. The artists include Michelangelo, Correggio, Amidani, Allegri, Mazzola, to list a few. The plates of the paintings are engraved by Francesco Rosaspina after drawings by Francisco Vieira and accompanied by descriptions in Italian and French, each on its own leaf. The indices are similarly in both languages.
Location of each painting as of the date of publication is given.
One of the few books printed by Bodoni that is highly illustrated and is about art. The edition was limited to 150 copies.
Provenance: On front pastedown, the bookplate of Robert Wayne Stilwell.
Brooks 1060; Giani 187 (page 74). Quarter black morocco with threaded textured black cloth sides, raised bands and gilt lettering to spine; minor rubbing to spine, a few threads loose on rear board, and sky-blue, white polka-dotted endpapers reinforced in gutter. Provenance marks as above; small inked numbers in the bottom corner of some leaves with plates; instances of foxing not entirely absent but in factthe leaves of this copy are notably bright, its engravings are notably crisp, and its pages are very clean! (40195)
(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.
Waugh! The Pre-Raphaelites!
Waugh, Evelyn. PRB An essay on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood 1847–54. Westerham, Kent: Dalrymple Press, 1982. 4to (25.2 cm, 9.9"). 44, [3] pp. $125.00
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“No-one else was writing about the Pre-Raphaelites in the 1920's, and it is therefore interesting to know what an intelligent and independent-minded author thought about them, especially during their most unfashionable phase. We must, of course, be thankful that Waugh became a novelist and not an art-historian, but he does deserve to be remembered as one of the most distinguished pioneers of the Victorian revival” (44).
This is the first published edition of Waugh's essay, which was first printed privately by Alastair Graham in 1926. As Christopher Sykes and Christopher Wood describe it in the preface and postscript, respectively, Waugh's account of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood is not very scholarly (for one, Waugh makes biased remarks about William Holman Hunt, who married not one but two of his relatives, the sisters Fanny and Edith Waugh); however it is regarded as the first serious bit of writing by one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century. A commission followed to write the biography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Waugh's first full-length book.
The text was designed by Robert Hamilton Dalrymple using Monophoto Modern Extended 7 and printed on Zerkall mould-made paper at the Westerham Press, illustrated withsix plates reproducing portraits drawn by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais, of each other. The binding, in navy blue cloth with the title stamped in red on the front cover and spine, and matching red endpapers, was designed by Hunter & Foulis of Edinburgh. Of an edition limited to 475 copies, this is number 118, written in manuscript below the colophon.
Binding as above, in protective mylar wrappers. Short marginal tear to bottom of one leaf, elselike new. (30683)
Berhardt Wall's Works:
“A Prize of the Cognoscenti, a Delight for Collectors, & the Pride of Librarians”
Weber, Francis J. Following Bernhardt Wall 1872–1956. Austin, TX: The Book Club of Texas, 1994. Folio (29.9 cm, 11.75"). [2], 63, [1] pp.; 5 col. plts., col. illus. $450.00
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Weber's account of the life and works of Wall, known as the “Postcard King,” an American artist, historian, and pioneer of etching. Originally published in 1974 as a miniature volume, the work appears here in anexpanded full-sized presentation designed and typeset by Castle Press and printed by Patrick Reagh Printers, limited to 195 copies (this example unnumbered). Like the first edition, this one is illustrated with mounted intaglio reproductions by Anthony Kroll — but this one additionally features a number of examples of Wall's work printed from the original plates, five colored photogravure reproductions of etchings by Wall, and oneoriginal postcard (with writing on the reverse).
Publisher's speckled paper–covered boards with gray cloth shelfback, front cover with printed paper label, in plain paper dust jacket with printed spine label and in coordinating paper and cloth slipcase; jacket spine very slightly sunned, slipcase and volume clean and crisp. A beautiful tribute to an important American illustrator. (37130)
Haters Gonna Hate: Whistler vs. the Critics — The Unauthorized First Edition
Whistler, James McNeill. The gentle art of making enemies: Edited by Sheridan Ford. New York [i.e., Antwerp]: “Frederick Stokes & Brother”, 1890. 12mo (17.4 cm, 6.9"). [8], xi–xvii, [2], 21–256, [6 (2 adv.)] pp. $2500.00
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First edition: Collected exchanges of letters in which the artist harangues his critics, including arch-nemesis John Ruskin, Oscar Wilde, Tom Taylor, Harry Quilter, Theodore Child, and many others. Whistler's sarcasm and venom know no bounds, nor does his commitment to defending his aesthetic philosophy.
This pirated edition, quickly suppressed by Whistler, was produced immediately after the artist first gave and then withdrew publishing permission from the American journalist Sheridan Ford. It thus preceded the author's printing, and differs notably from the later, officially published text, providingmore Wilde correspondence as well as record of the final bitter spat between Ford and Whistler — and it gives only Ford's name on the cover, spine, and title-page, with no mention of Whistler himself until he appears in the preliminary note.
While Ford used the Stokes name on this Antwerp printing (and again later in the same year on a Parisian printing to which he resorted after Whistler's representatives successfully halted the Belgian production and confiscated most of the existing copies), Stokes denied having been involved in any way.
Provenance: Inked inscription of noted educator and book collector Jahu Dewitt Miller on final blank page.
For the story of Ford's pirated edition, see: E.R. & J. Pennell's Life of Whistler, 1908, V. II chap. 34, pp. 100–13. Publisher's heavy gray paper wrappers, front wrapper with title stamped in red; spine creased and sunned, corners rubbed, rear wrapper very unobtrusively reinforced. Now housed in a violet cloth–covered chemise and a quarter deep purple morocco and violet cloth–covered slip case, with outer box edge and case spine and front cover sunned, case showing light shelfwear overall. Front two fly-leaves with short tear from upper margin; a very few instances of light spotting, generally not occurring within text. With laid-in auction catalogue information regarding publication and textual details; final blank page with inked inscription as above. Now very uncommon. (36545)
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