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Imprint: Munich, Johan Bapt. Dettl. bürgerl. Buchbinder nacht St. Peter, 1783
Binding: Hardback
8vo., black cross-grained calf with a single gilt fillet border surrounding a narrow floral roll border with corner floral ornaments; smooth spine without title, horizontal bands and elaborate mosaic tooling within the compartments; a.e.g. Stamped on the upper cover are the initials R. S. and the date 1824. Slight wear. Pink coated endleaves.The text is set in blackletter. The 25 full-page engravings are of two distinct styles. The first ten are borderless and loosely drawn; they depict the life of Jesus and the saints. The final set of fifteen portray the stations of the cross; they are all set within the same style architectural cartouche and each has a descriptive text beneath. It is interesting to note that THE PUBLISHER OF THIS MISSAL REFERS TO HIMSELF ON THE TITLE-PAGE AND LATER ON AS BOOKBINDER. The style binding is uncommon hereabouts and quite attractive.
25 BAROQUE COPPERPLATE ENGRAVINGS
Stock number:642.
$US 375.00
Imprint: Paris, J, Barbou, 1776
Binding: Hardback
8vo., full crushed mottled brown morocco with a triple gilt fillet border on both covers with tiny gilt flower heads in the corners; smooth spine with elaborate gilt decoration and two red morocco title labels. Board edges gilt, inner gilt dentelles, a.e.g. An elegant English 19th century binding in ABSOLUTELY FINE CONDITION.There is a separate title-page [35] for the Satires of Juvenal along with a second engraved frontispiece [not in the collation], also by Duflos, who engraved the frontispiece opposite the main title. The pagination of the two works is continuous. Several head and tail-pieces which look especially fine on the BLUE TINTED PAPER.Aulus Persius Flaccus (34-62) was a Roman satiric poet, a friend of Lucan and much influenced by Horace. He is the author of six satires which expounded the tenets of Stoicism. Decimus Junius Juvenalis (60?-?140) was a satirist of Roman vices under the Empire. He is the author of sixteen satires, divided, as here, in five books, and include biting attacks on public manners and morals. Barbou was known for his fine printing of other classic authors; this is the first copy of his work on blue paper we have seen. There is no auction record for this work on either white or blue paper for the past 25 years.
PRINTED ON BLUE PAPER BY BARBOU
Stock number:719.
$US 675.00
Imprint: N,p., 18th Cen.
Binding: Hardback
Inscription: Signed, Inscribed Or Annotated
8vo., full burgundy crushed morocco with a double gilt fillet border surrounding a large floral border with elaborate corner tools extending towards the center, topped by hawks; in the center of the covers is a large rectangular panel composed of four gilt fillet borders with a wavy border in between and a central crowned supralibros. Spine with five raised bands, much gilt decoration and a morocco title label with the initials, C. M. Very attractive color, block-printed endleaves; a.e.g.Striking calligraphic main title-page rendered in colors and signed F. Pietsch. Each of the 303 numbered pages of text (there is a seven-page index at the end not numbered), has a triple-ruled, red-and-black border; the text is written in a sloping cursive hand in black ink with occasional passages and headlines in red. There are several elaborately decorated Part Titles, another of which is signed as before. Interleaved (but not numbered) are a series of engraved illustrations taken from religious books, all of which have several lines of text below. The prayers are selected for Morning, Evening, Mass, Confession, Communion, and other Prayers together with the Liturgy of the Hours and the Litany. A VERY ATTRACTIVE example in a handsome, CONTEMPORARY BINDING.
MANUSCRIPT PRAYER BOOK
Stock number:522.
$US 995.00
Imprint: Paris, Garnier Frères, 1848
Binding: Hardback
Three vols. tall 8vo., publisher's black grained cloth with blind decorative borders and elaborate mosaic gilt stamped designs in the center of both covers; spines elaborately gilt decorated and titled; a.e.g. One volume with wear to the front joint, the others well preserved. There is an engraved full-page portrait of P. J. de Bérenger added at the front of Vol. I and a two-page ALS by him added to the front of Vol. II. Bérenger was in his lifetime considered the national poet of France who owed his lifelong popularity to his light-hearted verses, some of which are included in this collection.Originally published in 1842-43 by H. Delloye in parts (each part consists of four engraved plates of text and illustrations with accompanying printed pages of commentary and music), it is generally regarded as one of the finest illustrated books of the Romantic period and is often compared with the masterpieces of 18th century book illustration. Gordon Ray devotes several pages to it, reproducing four illustrations (two, full page), one of which is by Daubigny, "Indeed, those of which he himself engraved have a high rank as original prints." Ray goes on to add that copies in their original part-wrappers are very rare (the Otto Schäfer copy sold at Sotheby's 27 July 95 for £5,800.), and that copies in the publisher's cartonnage in fine state have become scarce, "...and prices for them have soared." Ours is an attractive copy and offers the added Bérenger material described above.See: Ray, Gordon. The Art of the French Illustrated Book: 1700-1914. pp. 249-50; 314-15.
IN CARTONNAGE DE PERCALINE DORÉ ET MOSAÏQUE
Stock number:632.
$US 1150.00
Imprint: Oud-Hollandt, Enschedé, 1895
Binding: Hardback
8vo., original printed blue wrappers, side stitched, altogether untrimmed.A wonderful example of the use of "Civilité" types from the collection of Joh. Enschedé & Zonen, dating back to the 16th century. The first printer to make use of a character of this style was the type founder and printer Robert Granjon of Lyons. Granjon received a Royal Patent of ten years for his "lettre françoyse d'art de main." But this Patent did not prevent its imitation. The name, lettre de civilité, is derived from La Civilité puérile... a translation from Erasmus by Jehan Louveau, published by Jehan Bellère in Antwerp in 1559. After its publication, works of this kind, even into the 19th century, were often printed with similar characters. They met with most success in the South Netherlands. These types were often imitated, even by such famous printers as the Plantins of Antwerp.Here we have a splendid example PRINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL TYPES OF THE 16TH CENTURY.
PRINTED IN CIVILITÉ TYPES BY ENSCHEDÉ
Stock number:578.
$US 325.00
Imprint: Lexington, The Anvil Press, 1955
Binding: Hardback
Sm. 4to., decorated paper over boards with a printed paper label extending onto both covers. One of just 250 COPIES printed in black and brick red in Hammer's American Uncial type on handmade paper by Carolyn Reading Hammer. There are eight woodcuts of the Evangelists & their symbols, also used in the Press's edition of The Gospells. The figures were derived by Hammer from the Holkham Bible. A fine copy of a most attractive book. See: Victor Hammer: Artist and Printer. p. 59.
EIGHT WOODCUTS BY VICTOR HAMMER
Stock number:652.
$US 395.00
Imprint: Brussels, Jean Joseph Boucherie, [1759]
Binding: Hardback
8vo., full crushed burgundy morocco with a double gilt fillet border surrounding a narrow scalloped border. Spine with five raised bands and understated gilt decoration, title on a black morocco label; a.e.g. The bottom margin of the title has been cut away as has the bottom margin of D1; bookplate removed from the front pastedown.A curious and attractive BOOK OF HOURS displaying a number of different typefaces used in combination. For the most part, the type is a very legible script that takes on the appearance of handwriting. Interspersed for emphasis is a standard roman typeface of no special distinction; at the end, though, and in one place at the beginning the printer inserts a form of CIVILITÉ for several pages. The Litanies begin with a woodcut of Heaven, and there are numerous woodcut-decorated initial letters, headpieces and tailpieces. An altogether attractive 18th century book.
NICELY BOUND, TYPOGRAPHICALLY INTERESTING
Stock number:657.
$US 595.00
Imprint: Paris, Baillieu, N.d. [1862]
Binding: Hardback
4to., contemporary three-quarter black calf over marbled boards; on the front paste-down is wonderful etched Memento Mori bookplate depicting a standing skeleton with outstretched arms that have sprouted foliage, standing amid a pile of books. According to the AAA Sale Catalogue of the Susan Minns collection of Dance of Death books [item 146], this edition reproduces "the text of the original 1486 Marchant edition, with woodcuts printed from the blocks cut for the Troyes editions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries." This 66 page (misnumbered 67) edition is one of several facsimile "Danse macabre des hommes et des femmes," which were very popular in the last century. According to Aldred Warthin [The Physician and the Dance of Death. p. 29], "In many of the old editions of the Danse Macabre, the figure of a Negro blowing a trumpet and holding a javelin is introduced, usually at the beginning of the Danse des Femmes. This figure is said to have been painted on the vaulted roof of the charnel-house of the innocents." The cut appears on page 25 of our edition, reprinted from the wood blocks of the 1641 edition first published in Troyes, along with the 55 ADDITIONAL EVOCATIVE WOODCUTS of Death coming to claim all manner of men and women. Of further interest is the title-page woodcut in which the words, "Danse Macabre," are formed by tiny Dance of Death figures engaged in different activities.
PRINTED FROM THE BLOCKS OF THE 17TH C. TROYES EDN.
Stock number:606.
$US 750.00
Imprint: N.p (Paris), N.d. [ca. 1850]
Binding: Hardback
Lg. 4to. (11 3/8 x 9 1/4 inches), rich burgundy velvet, deeply stamped on both covers. Within a solid outer border, the design is composed of a wide, gold, seashell border (cadre “rocaille”). In each of the four corners there is a fully realized portrait of a young scholar reading or writing. On the inside front cover, printed in gold on coated white paper, set within a rococo floral design, we find the days of the week. On the inside rear cover, covered in heavy embossed white paper, are a set of three expandable pouches for correspondence: Lettres à répondre, Lettres répondues, and Notes diverses. The content of the portfolio consists of eight sheets of blotting paper sewn into matching white embossed paper. There are off settings from earlier use (blue and some black ink), but the portfolio is in excellent condition. It is preserved in a cloth clamshell case.Although this portfolio is not a book, it certainly was produced at the atelier of a highly skilled French (undoubtedly Parisian) bookbinder, around the middle of the nineteenth century. We have reviewed the literature dealing with French decorative romantic bookbindings and cannot place the plaques used in its execution. Comparisons with the occasional surviving French bookbinding of this period, executed on velour, reinforce our opinion that this is a remarkable example of the bookbinders’ art at the height of the romantic era in bookbinding.
THE BEST FRENCH GILT STAMPING ON VELVET
Stock number:904.
$US 1950.00
Imprint: Paris, Chaix, 1896-1900
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardback
2 folio (16 x 12½ inches) vols. ¾ morocco over French curl marbled paper. Each vol with 5 raised bands; gilt title stamped in second compartment surrounded by gilt rule. Third compartment gilt stamped “Tomb I” and “Tomb II” respectively also surrounded by single gilt rule. Wear to corners and spine though each volume strong and structurally sound. Wrappers lacking. Front pastedown with bookplates of Harold Byron Gibbs, and Robert and Gladys Koch. Gladys Koch was a well known antiques dealer and her husband, Robert, was an art historian best known for his books on Louis C. Tiffany and Will Bradley. He specialized in the Art Nouveau period and authored articles on posters. Recognizing the continual theft of posters from
the Paris hoardings reflected a fierce interest in
posters and seeing a marketing opportunity to
capitalize on that demand, the publisher, Chaix,
introduced a smaller version of the best of those
posters, which were made available via
subscription. Subscribers received four posters
per month, each a smaller full color lithograph of
the larger version. Since the publication lasted five years, a subscriber throughout the entire run received a total of 240 posters. Additionally, Chaix issued 16 special posters. Thus, a complete run of posters from Les Maîtres de l’Affiche (“Masters of the Poster”) consists of 256 posters. Among the many poster artists represented in Les Maîtres de l’Affiche were Lautrec, Mucha, Cheret, and the American, Will Bradley. Our set contains 259 posters. It lacks only special poster three, by Jules Cheret, and includes two copies each of poster 49 by Cheret, poster 50 by Eugene Grasset, poster 51 by J.-L. Forain and poster 52 by Bradley. Finding a set this complete has become increasingly difficult owing to the propensity of owners to break them up to sell individual plates. With all lithographs fine, our set, bound in two matching volumes, is rarely found.
Stock number:1900.1.
$US 65000.00
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Imprint: Vienna, A v. Schmid, 1836
Binding: Hardback
8vo., full crimson straight-grained calf; the covers are decorated in a neo-classical style with four triangular green corner onlays and an oval green onlay in the center, all elaborately gilt bordered and tooled. The smooth spine also has two onlays, one for the title and one for the volume number, and is heavily gilt decorated. Bright green coated paper endleaves; a.e.g.A very handsome example of Viennese period bookbinding, on one volume (of two) of a utilitarian Prayer Book almost always found in a simple black binding.
HEBREW PRAYER BOOK BOUND IN 19TH C. VIENNA
Stock number:534.
$US 750.00
Imprint: Turin, Augustae Taurinorum, 1889
Binding: Hardback
Folio (15 x 10 1/4 inches), full brown crushed morocco with a quarter-inch high-inch-wide curvilinear border decorated in gilt on both edges, on which are mounted (in the four corners) three-dimensional deaths heads atop crossed bones. Recessed in the large central field is a rough hewn cross covered in brown leather with the initials, INRI, in gilt on a swag at the top; draped on the cross itself is a white shroud covered in white leather. The rear board is almost completely covered by another quarter-inch high, gilt-trimmed raised panel, otherwise unadorned. Occasional foxing at the beginning and end of the text, the binding is in FINE CONDITION.This funeral mass in fifty numbered pages is printed throughout in black and red. It contains the traditional full-page wood engraving of the crucifixion and the musical notation for the mass. It can be safely inferred that this copy was bound for a person of some importance. Most unusual.
IN AN EXTRAORDINARY BINDING
Stock number:591.
$US 1650.00
Imprint: Leipzig, C. T. Rabenhorst, 1809
Binding: Hardback
8vo., burgundy straight-grained morocco with a series of gilt borders, straight and decorated, resulting in a large central panel. Smooth spine framed with gilt borders and horizontal scroll-work dividers with leaf-and-flower tooling. In the top and large central compartments there are two different neoclassical gilt-stamped vases. At the bottom is an oval gilt cartouche with ownership initials: M. H. [above] g. D. The title is gilt stamped on a black morocco label. Board edges gilt, inner gilt dentelles, bright-yellow raw silk pastedowns (bookplate, ex-libris stamp and owner's name in ink—all different owners); a.e.g.Fifth edition. The text is set in three columns. Light occasional browning. A PARTICULARLY HANDSOME period binding.
NEOCLASSICAL ELEGANCE
Stock number:532.
$US 395.00
Imprint: N.p., N.d. [1890’s]
Binding: Hardback
Folio (13 x 10 5/8 inches), publisher's red grained cloth, worn, faded and stained, with the title and some design in gilt on the upper cover, repeated in blind on the lower cover. The anonymous publishers (who never bothered putting their name on the cover, much less print a title-page) offer up SEVEN LARGE COMPOSITE PHOTOGRAPHS of famous people along with seven companion "outline" plates that "key" the images to numbered captions below; viz.: I. Celebrities in the Church, Science, Literature, and Art; II. Modern Celebrities. Political, Legal, &c.; III. Military and Naval Celebrities; IV. & V. Musical, Operatic, and Dramatic Celebrities; VI. Historical Celebrities [in which they use a composite photograph of painted portraits]; and VII. Eminent Women. Literary and Historical [a combination of painted and photographic images]. The list of celebrities runs to about 700, and includes such figures as: Cardinal Newman, Sir H. M. Stanley, Kipling, Savonarola, Hon. W. E. Gladstone, Miss Jenny Lee, Herr Joachim (Violinist), Alfred the Great, et. al. An unusual photographic album (and perhaps a forerunner of People magazine).
7 LARGE COMPOSITE PHOTOGRAPHS FAMOUS PEOPLE
Stock number:720.
$US 275.00
Imprint: New York, J. P. Callender, 1836
Binding: Hardback
Sm. 8vo., publisher's tan roller-printed cloth with a leafy pattern (most unusual!), with the title stamped in gilt on the cover, which is a little rubbed; interior a bit browned with a light tide line towards the back. Although the list of engraved plates calls for six plates each with four portraits, there are two additional plates not called for of metallic tributes. The 24 heroes of the Reformation include the usual suspects: Luther, Beza, Huss, Knox, Calvin, Cranmer, &c. Each gets a brief biography to accompany his portrait. An unusual book.
IN PUBLISHER'S GILT-STAMPED, PATTERNED CLOTH
Stock number:730.
$US 275.00
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Imprint: New York, M. Walter Dunne under arrangement with The Essex House, 1903
Binding: Hardback
Folio (14" x 10 3/4"), full dark purple crushed morocco with a double gilt fillet outer border surrounding a border composed of the linked letter "E" interspersed with the Roman numeral "VII" within a frame; in the corners are the monarch's initials below a crown. The central design consists of gilt-stamped crowns and shields and other heraldic symbols, decorated with pink, blue and white paint, ever so slightly worn here and there. Spine with five raised bands, a bit worn at the top; title and date stamped in gilt. Inner purple suede doublures facing purple silk endleaves, with some offsetting; t.e.g., other edges untrimmed. There is an added Illuminated leaf identifying this as the Trinity Edition, which has been especially bound; it bears the publisher's embossed seal at the bottom right.
Specially Bound Deluxe Edition
Stock number:1616.
$US 1750.00
Imprint: New York, Brentano, 1912
Binding: Hardback
Folio (15¼ x 11¼”). Yellow linen with colored decoration to top board. 1¾” fraying to tail of spine. Slight wear to head of spine and corners. 24 plates in color and black and white, some tipped in. Theophile Alexandre Steinlen was a Swiss-born leading poster artist.
Stock number:1900.3.
$US 300.00
Imprint: London, 1923
Binding: Hardback
8vo., publisher's batik paper covered flexible boards; in a paper-covered slipcase with the publisher's label echoing the title-page text. Case a little worn and a bit soiled having performed its job.One of just 250 copies printed in modified Caslon type on handmade laid paper; the text is set within a series of borders, "enlarged from copies of those designed by Bernard Salomon for Jean de Tournes." The books of the aforementioned mid-sixteenth century Lyonese printer are notable for their typography, for the woodcuts of Le Petit Bernard, and for their imaginative arabesque borders printed here by Francis Meynell in brick-red, which contrasts dramatically with the color of the type and the color of the paper. A handsome and MUCH SOUGHT-AFTER early Nonesuch Press title. Dreyfus 3.
ONE OF THE HANDSOMEST BOOKS OF THE PRESS
Stock number:705.
$US 395.00
Imprint: [London, James Edwards, 1789]
Binding: Hardback
8vo., very handsome full polished calf with a series of decorative borders (gilt and blind) in the manner of Edwards of Halifax; spine with five raised bands and a black morocco label with gilt and blind decoration within the compartments. A.e.g., pink endleaves.Based upon Holbein's original 15th century designs, Wenceslaus Hollar, the Bohemian etcher born in Prague in 1607 created copper plates for his own Dance of Death. In 1647 an edition of 30 copperplates was brought out in London; another edition from these plates was published in 1651. The plates then disappeared from sight until the late 18th century when several editions from the "newly discovered" plates began to appear. The copperplates apparently came into the hands of an English family of nobility, from whom the bookseller, Edwards, obtained them. We have compared the plates of our edition with the plates of the ALSO SCARCE 1804 edition (printed by C. Whittingham for John Harding) and with the more common 1816 edition (printed by B. McMillan for J. Coxhead) and notice unmistakable differences in small details, which may be the result of the copperplates having been "rebitten with great care," according to Douce, or entirely recut.The title-page of our edition carries no place, date of publication, or publisher's name. We have inferred, however, that is it the 1789 printing of the plates (before the rebiting); the 1794 Edwards edition (See: No. 249 in the Minns Catalogue) is described thus, "Printed from the original plates rebitten with great care to prevent injury in the retouching."See: Warthin, A. The Physician of the Dance of Death. pp. 72-76. Douce, F. Holbein's Dance of Death. pp. 111-113.
IN QUITE A FINE BINDING
Stock number:600.
$US 2300.00
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Imprint: London, John Bill & Christopher Barker and J. M., 1673
Binding: Hardback
Thick 8vo., full dark red turkey morocco with an all-over design. Slight repairs to the corners and lower joints. A.e.g.; on the fore-edge there is a painted heart and a now indistinct owner's name and the date 1674. The binding was once thought to be by Samuel Mearne, but it appears to be closer to the work of the Queen's Binder A. It is preserved in a fleece-lined, full oasis niger clamshell case with gilt titling.The Bible is printed in two columns as are the Psalms, both works being entirely ruled in red, including the 230 engraved plates, which originate in two separate sets of Biblical illustrations. The first E2 has a tear resulting in a slight loss, and two of the engraved plates have minor tears in their outer margins. The engravings are of two different styles, one and two-to -he-page, and the explanatory text appears in up to four languages: Latin, Greek, Hebrew and English. The illustrations have been placed by the binder in appropriate places.The forty year period following the Restoration of Charles II to his throne in 1660 has been known as the GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLISH BOOKBINDING. This is an excellent example of bookbinding from that period, with contemporary (dated) fore-edge decoration, on an attractive English Bible having more than two hundred engraved illustrations.
230 EXTRA ENGRAVED ILLUSTRATIONS
Stock number:523.
$US 4275.00
Imprint: Verona, Officina Bodoni, 1962
Binding: Hardback
Folio (12 x 8 inches), full burgundy oasis morocco, spine and cover decorated and lettered in gilt; t.e.g. In the original cloth-covered board slipcase with red morocco ends. One of 320 copies (this is copy cxxxvi designated for Great Britain), set in various sizes of Mardersteig’s Zeno type and printed at the hand press of the Officina Bodoni on mould-made paper. The English text is from the King James version of the New Testament. The striking title-page was cut in wood by Reynolds Stone, and the 114 woodblocks that illustrate the text have been recut by Bruno Bramanti (except for the last eight, which were cut after his death by his pupil Italo Zetti). The cuts were made after the original illustrations by Bartolomeo di Giovanni, from the 1495 Epistole et Evangelii, an incunable which Mardersteig considered to be the most considerable achievement of 15th century Florentine book illustration. Truly one of the great books of the Press. Fine. See: Officina Bodoni 126. Barr 64.
A Fine Copy of a Beautiful Book
Stock number:794.
$US 2655.00
Imprint: London, Ransom, Woestyn & Co., 1898-1900
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardback
Small 4to., ½ black Morocco over marbled paper covered boards with original wrappers preserved within: slight wear to covers. Spines with gilt decoration and brown labels with gilt lettering. Marbled ep. Front pastedown with bookplate of Gus Bofa, famous French art critic and artist who also was a poster designer; fabric markers. Original subscription order form laid in. Monthly periodical bound as 2 vols. starting with first issue of June 1898 and extending through December of 1900; lacking August 1899. The leading and most important English chronicle of the development and importance of posters during the turn-of-the-20th-century profusely illustrated in color and black & white. Most of the great Art Nouveau poster artists are represented including Mucha, Cheret, Crane, the Beggarstaffs, Beardsley, Grasset, Bradley, Hardy, etc. Nearly complete collection rarely found.
Stock number:1900.2.
$US 9500.00
Imprint: London, Leonard Smithers, 1896
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardback
3 vols, sm. 4to (10 1⁄2 x 8”). Blue cloth with gilt decoration and lettering to both covers and spine, slight edge wear; untrimmed. Contains often lacking Beardsley Christmas card. Each volume with bookplate of Robert and Gladys Koch to front pastedown. Gladys was a well known antiques dealer and her husband, Robert, was an art historian best known for his books on the great American decorative artist, Louis C. Tiffany and master graphic artist, Will Bradley. Dr. Koch specialized in the Art Nouveau period and authored articles on posters. Each volume with bookplate of Willis Vickery to front pastedown. Willis Vickery was a well known judge in Cleveland whose important library collection was sold at auction in 1933. The Savoy was a journal produced from January to December 1896. Authors such as Yeats and Beardsley were represented. Also playing a prominent role in the production of the journal was Oscar Wilde. Important publication of the Art Nouveau period.
Stock number:1900.4.
$US 3000.00
Imprint: Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare Head Press, 1906
Binding: Hardback
Six vols. Sm. 8vo. [3 5/8 x 5 1/8 inches], quarter gray morocco with four raised bands and a hand-lettered paper spine label, over mottled brown boards (undoubtedly the work of an amateur bookbinder), with the bookplate of Anna Blakiston Day on the front pastedown.Ransom [Selective Check Lists of Press Books. I, 9] "This item is known only from a set bound together; no other specimens or records have been found. The titles are: I, Ancient Carols (second edition); II, Festive Songs for Christmas (second edition); III, Shakespeare's Songs; IV, The Nutbrown Maid; V, More Ancient Carols; VI, A Lover's Complaint & The Phoenix and the Turtle." It would appear that this is the set to which he referred.Each booklet comprises 32pp., including self covers, which feature a 17th century style typographical border (all but No. III being identical), as well as a table of contents. The last booklet is unopened. RARE.
"this item is known only from a set bound together..."
Stock number:744.
$US 500.00
Imprint: London, T. Nelson and Sons, 1859
Binding: Hardback
8vo., publisher's patterned purple cloth, faded, with elaborate gilt and blind decoration; a.e.g. The book consists of 280 pages of short prose and poetry, illustrated by eight full-page color plates, printed by the innovative firm, Thomas Nelson and Sons, in Edinburgh, who, according to Joan Friedman (Color Printing in England 1486-1870): "began producing color work in the 1850's." Nelson's innovative color printing is a major subject of Bamber Gascoigne's recently published, Milestones in Color Printing 1457-1859, where he devotes nearly 50 pages to its publications (oddly, the book being offered here is omitted). The color effect is achieved in this case by printing a steel engraving in purple ink, followed by additional tints applied lithographically. See: Friedman. 171. Gascoigne. pp. 75-119.
EIGHT THOS. NELSON COLOR PLATES
Stock number:701.
$US 200.00
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Imprint: London, Wm. Pearson, 1720
Binding: Hardback
8vo., black morocco, covers with an outer double gilt fillet border inside of which are a series of rectangular panels composed of combinations of rolls and fleurons (in the corners and along the sides). The spine has six raised bands and is ELABORATELY GILT-DECORATED within all the compartments; it is without title. Board edges gilt, inner gilt dentelles; a.e.g. Marbled endleaves, with two bookplates of Lord Cowper (the name W. Cowper 1720 is written in ink in the upper margin of the Latin Psalms).The binding is quite attractive notwithstanding evidence that it was carried out with great speed. In several places one sees the rolls extended in blind beyond their gilt geometrical limitation. The book consists of two sets of the Psalms. The Latin version is first and is without title. It is immediately followed by the Whole Book of Psalms, Collected into English Metre, by Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins and Others..., which concludes with its own Table for the whole Number of the Psalms.This nice example of eighteenth century provincial bookbinding (perhaps Scottish) is preserved in a cloth clamshell case with a red morocco label.
18TH CENTURY—ELEGANT SIMPLICITY
Stock number:545.
$US 525.00
Imprint: London & Boston, Elkin Mathews & John Lane & Copeland & Day, 1894-1897
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardback
8vo. ( 8¼ x 6½”). Complete run published in 13 volumes of famous Art Nouveau periodical. Bound in publishers yellow pictorial cloth. Included works of most famous artists of the day including Beardsley, Le Gallienne, and Henry James.
Stock number:1900.5.
$US 2000.00
Imprint: Basel, Felix Schneider, 1875
Binding: Hardback
Sm. 8vo., publisher's pictorial paper-covered boards printed in black and red. In the original yellow dust wrapper.Occasional marginal foxing. One in a long tradition of tri-lingual Dances of Death, the wood-engraved illustrations for which are based on the famous Basel Church wall paintings which come down to us from the engravings of Holbein via Matthias Merian, whose Todentanz was first published in Frankfurt in 1649. The text that accompanies the engravings consists of a dialogue between Death and the "candidate," all going to prove that no one escapes his fate, from the Pope and the Emperor on down to the humblest man. An attractive edition, particularly so because of the CAREFUL HAND COLORING.
HAND COLORED PLATES—TRI-LINGUAL TEXT
Stock number:589.
$US 275.00
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Imprint: Greenbrae, The Allen Press, 1982-83
Binding: Hardback
Inscription: Signed, Inscribed Or Annotated
Two vols., tall 8vo. Volume I bound in full native dyed terra-cotta goatskin with black onlays, blind tooled, carrying, in black Greek characters, the name Agamemnon across the top of the front and back boards (and spine), and the name Æschylus across the bottom. Full black goatskin inner doublures, leather joints, red Japanese endpapers, silk headbands. Volume II in a similar design but with the colors reversed; across the top, in terra-cotta Greek characters, is the word Choephoroi, and across the bottom is the word Eumenides. The doublures are terra-cotta, the joints, endpapers and headbands as before. Each is housed in a quarter-morocco clam-shell case. Each volume is signed by the binder. Limited to 140 copies by the Allen Press, they were the only limited edition in English translation, and represent the 48th and 49th books of the press. The type is Menhart Unciala, printed in black and brown; the running heads are Solemnis and Libra types, Greek-letter calligraphy and decorations are from Greek sources. The all-rag paper is handmade and especially watermarked at the Richard de Bas mill in France. The books were printed on dampened sheets on an Albion press made in Scotland in 1882.Denise Lubett, Fellow of the Designer Bookbinders since 1971, is one of the 38 binders who was asked to contribute a chapter to A Bookbinders' Florilegium, a publication of the H.R.C., in which these artist-craftsmen talk about their approach to the art of binding books. We quote: "...great purity of style and design usually bring forth great beauty...if we no longer bind books so that they become too fragile to handle...if we can ascertain that this bound book can be handed down for a number of generations, then we will have achieved a better and more significant role as modern bookbinders." The volume we are offering epitomizes these ideas. The Oresteia is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus. The first story concerns the king Agamemnon who returns from the Trojan War to face the wrath of his wife, Clytemnestra, for sacrificing their daughter. To make matters worse, Agamemnon is accompanied by his concubine, Cassandra. While bathing, Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, and Cassandra is killed too. In the second play, Choephoroi, Clytemnestra sends her surviving daughter, Electra, to Agamemnon’s grave, where she happens to meet her brother, Orestes. The siblings talk and eventually discuss a plot to avenge the murder of their father. The plan works, and Orestes kills his mother and her new husband. Orestes becomes tormented by the “Furies” since matricide is particularly horrific. Eumenides, the final play in the trilogy, addresses whether the Furies torment of Orestes is justified. Events leading up to a trial by 12 Athenians involve, among others, Apollo and Hermes. At the trial, Orestes is represented by Apollo, and the Furies represent the other side. At the end of the trial, the jury is evenly split, and Orestes is relieved of the wrath of the Furies.
THE ALLEN PRESS PRINTING BOUND BY DENISE LUBETT
Stock number:539.
$US 4950.00
Imprint: Amsterdam, Gerrit Bos for I. Tinnekens & G, Roos, 1736
Binding: Hardback
8vo., dyed green vellum with a wallet flap extending from the lower cover; both covers stamped in black with the arms of the city and the date: Anno 1736. In very fine condition; preserved in a cloth, felt-lined clamshell case. Contained in the front compartment are six contemporary manuscript notes in Dutch having to do with daily life.The Almanack is PRINTED IN BLACK AND RED and is interleaved throughout for commentary; the first half is annotated the rest remains blank. Every month begins with a two-by-three -inch woodcut typifying the activities of that season, in the manner of medieval Books of Hours. On the verso is a Calendar printed in red and black, featuring astrological and astronomical information, followed by two blank leaves. At the conclusion of the Calendar there is the usual compendium of helpful information one finds in Almanacks. A beautifully bound and printed look at Dutch life in the first third of the eighteenth century.
Dated 18th C. Amsterdam Stamped Green Vellum
Stock number:618.
$US 950.00
Imprint: Lyons, J. de Tournes & G. Gazeau, 1556
Binding: Hardback
Sm. 8vo., full green morocco with a pair of double gilt fillet borders trapping a beaded border; floral gilt corner fleurons; the spine is decorated in a Greek key design, without titling. A.e.g. over red staining, printed floral endpapers. A handsome, unsophisticated binding of indeterminate age in fine condition.Ruth Mortimer points out that this series of 113 woodcuts was designed for the first de Tournes-Gazeau edition of 1547, and continued in use into the seventeenth century. The subjects were freely adapted from the Paris blocks--either directly or through Lyons copies used in editions by Jacques Moderne in 1544 and 1545—with considerable skill in added detail. The series is attributed to BERNARD SALOMON and are considered, "the most skillful of the Alciati interpretations."The Hofer-Harvard copy Ms. Mortimer describes is the 1580 sixth de Tournes edition. Our edition contains EXCELLENT IMPRESSIONS of the blocks and wide margins except for the title-page border which is closely trimmed along the right edge with minimal loss. Lower right corner of the first two leaves restored from the verso with a small ink addition to the border. UNCOMMON IN ANY EDITION, just one copy shows up in auction records for the past twenty-six years.See also: Cartier vol. 2. Brunet I, p. 148 (1547 edition only). Praz p. 6 (1547 edition).
THE PERFECT FUSION OF FRENCH AND ITALIAN TASTE
Stock number:507.
$US 3250.00
Imprint: Boston, Houghton, Mifflin, 1884
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardback
Tall 8vo., publisher's gray cloth with a paper spine label, a little chipped. First edition, moderate handling wear. The title piece, based on an incident related in the Mémoirs of the Duchess d'Abrantes, is a love story, which was dramatized by the author and produced in 1894. BAL 325.
Stock number:508.
$US 40.00
Imprint: New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons , 1895
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardback
Green cloth with classic Art Nouveau peacock image on front cover. t.e.g. Bookplate of Robert and Gladys Koch on front pastedown. Gladys was a well known antiques dealer and her husband, Robert, was an art historian best known for his books on the great American decorative artist, Louis C. Tiffany and master graphic artist, Will Bradley. Dr. Koch specialized in the Art Nouveau period and authored articles on posters. Name and address of previous owner on front end paper. 117 pp., 69 illustrations. Number 562 of 750 copies on enameled book paper. Includes sections on French posters and book covers, Posters and Poster-Designing in England, American Posters Past and Present, and Italian Posters and Mosaic Book Covers. As usual, lacking the Bradley poster that accompanied the book upon publication.
Stock number:1900.6.
$US 300.00
Click for full size image.
Imprint: Oxford, at the Theatre in Oxford, 1674
Binding: Hardback
Sm. 4to., black turkey morocco tooled in gilt in an all-over design with drawer-handle tools, curls and flower head tools; decorated with silver paint. The spine is divided into six compartments by five raised bands, which are also tooled in gilt (echoing the covers), with silver paint. The title is gilt lettered in the second compartment from the top. One corner and the very head of the rear joint have been skillfully repaired. Marbled endleaves. The binding is the work of the Queen's Binder A and appears to be a twin of a copy of the same title (but the later, 1675, printing), given to the British Library as part of the Henry David gift [See: No 118].Hobson and Nixon have had much to say about the forty years following the Restoration of King Charles II to his throne in 1660, which has been called THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLISH BOOKBINDING. Nixon points out that there were at least four Queen's binders; viz., A, B, C and D, who all started work in 1670, and all made use of the recently introduced drawer-handle tools and volutes with pointellé outlines rather than floral volutes much used by the other binders of the period. This is a FINE EXAMPLE on a most fitting book. Allestree was a man of extensive learning, of moderate views and a fine preacher. He was generous and charitable, of “a solid and masculine kindness,” and of a temper hot, but completely under control [Encyclopædia Britannica 11th ed.].
A FINE RESTORATION BINDING BY THE QUEEN'S BINDER A
Stock number:521.
$US 1995.00
Imprint: Venice, Pietro di Nicolini da Sabbio, 1538
Binding: Hardback
8vo. (6 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches), late 17th or early 18th century vellum over stiff boards with a red morocco title label; edges stained yellow. A few early marginal notes in brown ink; a very nice copy.Title-page with a large woodcut historiated border, the book’s 191 foliated leaves are nicely printed in italic type by Paolo Manuzio, whose name is absent from the volume. The Aldine Press had closed in 1529, upon the death of Andrea Torresano, and was subsequently reopened by Paolo Manuzio in 1533 who managed it for the heirs of Aldus and Torresano until 1540, when the heirs of Torresano began printing on their own, and the Aldine shop resumed printing under their own imprint: Aldi Filli. During the period 1533-1540 editions were issued using the imprint: Heirs of Also Manuzio & Andrea Torresano. In addition, they occasionally printed books, sometimes unsigned, for other printers and publishers, as here.The text of Delle Guerre Esterne was translated into Italian by Alessandro Braccio. Appian of Alexandria lived during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian and Antonius Pius. He had an active political career and in retirement he turned to writing history, completing a history of Rome in 24 volumes (of which nine volumes survive complete, seven others in fragments). He is best known for his observations of military matters. An uncommon Aldine edition anonymously printed during the interregnum of the great house.See: Renouard. p. 116 no. 3. Adams A-1357
Nelle case di Pietro di Nicolini da Sabbio
Stock number:502.
$US 1550.00
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Imprint: London, G. Allen, 1883
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardback
First edition of this landmark book, famous for its art nouveau front board whose pattern is repeated on the ". . .title page that is generally regarded as the first manifestation of Art Nouveau." Rheims, Flowering of art nouveau, no. 519. Tall 8vo., publisher's decorated boards over parchment spine with the title lettered in black. De-accessioned by an unappreciative library where it acquired the following symbols of prior ownership: a giant rubber stamp on the otherwise blank front free end leaf, a few small blind embossings, one on the frontispiece and one on the title, which also has the word "discard" discretely stamped in the margin, dampstain on back flyleaf and facing end paper, and inked number partially removed from spine. Scarce.
First Art Nouveau Book
Stock number:1110.
$US 1500.00
Imprint: Rochester, Published for the Authors, 1879
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardback
8vo., publisher's brown pebbled cloth decorated in blind and gilt; head and foot of spine slightly rubbed (otherwise quite fresh). Opposite the frontispiece (and before the title) is an eight-line quotation from Isaiah XLII, 16 PRINTED IN LARGE BLIND EMBOSSED LETTERS. First edition. The book begins with memoirs of eminent blind authors, including Homer, Milton, Ossian followed by more contemporary writers and concludes with a section of Collected Poems by Hall and other blind authors.
EMBOSSED-TYPE FRONTISPIECE
Stock number:557.
$US 165.00
Imprint: London, Geo. Bell, 1843
Binding: Hardback
[Bound with] THE HAND-BOOK OF ARCHITECTURE: being a concise account of the different styles of architecture, which have been or are in use in England. London (Tayas), N.d.8vo. (6 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches), full dark green straight grain morocco with gilt borders on the cover, the title (“British Architecture”) in gilt on the upper cover; smooth spine with gilt bands. Fine.In this "custom-made" volume on British architecture, the original owner had his binder convert the second work, Tabular Display of British Architecture, from a lithograph measuring 42 x 20 inches, into twenty 6 1/2 x 4 inch leaves, each mounted onto stiff paper and then tabbed into the first section of the volume. The companion Manual for Students..., containing 36 pages and a Glossary of Architectural terms at the end, follows. That work is followed by the unrelated, anonymously published 58-page Hand-book of Architecture with its own numerous illustrations.OCLC locates four copies of the Manual and has a separate listing for the Tabular Display, citing two copies; it moreover locates just one copy of the Handbook. The three works together here in this unusual format make for a very interesting volume.
THREE WORKS MOROCCO BOUND TO FIT THE POCKET
Stock number:565.
$US 475.00
Imprint: N.p., 1980
Inscription: Signed, Inscribed Or Annotated
Watercolor on paper (22 1/4 x 15 1/2 inches), matted, framed and glazed. Signed and dated, Baskin 1980, lower center; signed and dated ind inscribed "Lament" on the verso. The work consists of seven heads in three rows, forming an inverted triangle, with Hebrew calligraphy separating the rows. It illustrates verse 3:34 from The Book of Lamentations. The watercolor has been reproduced on the dust jacket of The Six Days of Destruction by Elie Wiesel & Albert H. Friedlander (Paulist Press, 1988).Leonard Baskin is one of the most important American artists working today. His sculpture, prints, drawings, watercolors and the books of his Gehenna Press are represented in Museums throughout the world, and his monumental bronze relief fills a fifty foot wall at the recently dedicated Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C.
EVOCATIVE WATERCOLOR WITH HEBREW CALLIGRAPHY
Stock number:518.
$US 4950.00
Imprint: Paris, G. Boudet Editeur, 1897
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardback
Near fine 4to. (12 ½ x 9 inches); three quarter red morocco over marbled paper covered boards with gilt rules separating leather from paper; 5 raised bands with elaborate gilt tooling except for second compartment containing gilt title only. Modest wear to binding with bumped corners. Marbled endpapers. Original wraps bound in. Number 533 of 1,000 copies printed on “papier velin.” First edition complete with 67 (2 double-page) mostly tissue guarded colored lithographs and 150 illustrations. Bookplate of Robert and Gladys Koch on free front endpaper. “Property of Robert Koch” in his hand on a preliminary page. Dr. Robert Koch was an art historian whose first book on Louis C. Tiffany in 1962 helped repopularize this towering figure of American decorative arts and led to a collecting craze. Dr. Koch also authored the definitive bibliography of the great American graphic artist, Will Bradley, whose posters are well represented in this work.
Stock number:1900.7.
$US 5000.00
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Imprint: Montrose, Printed for John Smith Bookseller, 1826
Binding: Hardback
Tall 8vo., publisher's printed gray boards reprinting a modified version of the title-page (the cover quotes excerpts from poems by Burns, Shakespeare and an anonymous poet; the title-page contains one poem longer poetic quotation, also anonymous). Spine with printed title and decoration. WONDERFULLY PRESERVED in a cloth chemise and folding case.Although the title-page refers to this as the "fifth edition" that attribution is questionable. The British Library records nothing before 1847; NUC records just three copies of this same 1826 edition, nothing earlier; the only auction record for the work dating back to 1966 is for an edition of 1883.In addition to the appeal of these posthumously published poems in Scottish dialect (they first appeared in The Montrose Review), there are seven primitive, charming hand-colored etchings depicting witches, demons and dragons. Beattie (1786-1823), was the son of a Kincardinshire crofter who established himself successfully as an attorney at Montrose and in the end committed suicide from disappointment in love. His principal poems were contributed to the above mentioned Montrose Review. To find a copy of what must have been a very popular work in such fine condition is remarkable
IN THE PUBLISHER'S PRINTED BOARDS
Stock number:549.
$US 975.00
Imprint: Paris, P. Lethielleux, [1897]
Binding: Hardback
Tall 8vo. (10 x 6 1/2 inches), publisher’s wrappers. Fine.The work consists of 100 pages nicely printed on coated paper, and contains 42 illustrations reproducing 40 watercolors executed by Emmanuel Büchel between 1766 and 1768 from the 41 designs in distemper on the cloister walls of the Dominicans of Klingenthal in Basel in 1312. The verses relating to the designs are in French, as is the commentary and the translation of the preface to Büchel's manuscript.The renditions are among the earliest interpretations of how Death eventually comes to embrace every man and woman from every station. This convention endured until Holbein introduced his own ideas on the subject in the 1530's. A surprisingly elusive book, it is not in the Minns catalogue nor is it mentioned by Warthin.
Stock number:592.
$US 300.00
Imprint: Newcastle upon Tyne, Printed by Edward Walker, for T. Bewick, 1811
Binding: Hardback
4to., newly bound in period style quarter green polished calf over marbled boards; spine with simple gilt decoration and a red morocco title label; t.e.g., other edges untrimmed. A TALL COPY in a handsome binding by Gray Parrot of Hancock, Maine.Bewick 326 engravings include most of the animals from A (Adive) to Z Zorilla) listed in the five-page index of this sixth edition. In addition, there are four proof pulls of the following Bewick cuts: A rural scene, A wanderer with a dog, Sowing crops, and a Fishing scene, laid in. Of the many books claimed as Bewicks, probably only the Quadrupeds and the two volumes of Birds, with some question about the second volume, were designed and executed by Bewick himself. See Hugo. p. 24.
WITH FOUR BEWICK PROOFS LAID IN
Stock number:554.
$US 975.00
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Imprint: Newcastle upon Tyne, Printed for William Charnley, 1789
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardback
8vo., tan diced binder's cloth, plain sides, title gilt-stamped on the spine: HOLBEIN'S DANCE OF DEATH. Spine rebacked with a small portion of the original lacking. FIRST EDITION with 52 woodcuts of the Dance of Death of which 51 are after Holbein's designs; the full-page frontispiece, which contained a figure of the Deity habited as a Pope, was changed in deference to Protestant sentiment, for an original design. This Charnley/Newcastle imprint, unlike the Hodgson/London imprint of the same year makes no claim that the cuts imitate a "Painting in the Cemetery of the Dominican Church in Basel;" Charnley's title-page correctly states that they are all from the Holbein series which dates back to 1538, and which are far too well known to describe here. This is the ONLY COPY of the Newcastle imprint we have seen. Even the Susan Minns collection lacked a copy (although it had several copies of the London edition). It differs from Hodgson' London imprint only through the insertion of another title-page.(which in this case is printed on a different paper and is slightly more foxed). Shortly after its publication, the blocks were destroyed in a London fire. An American edition by Alexander Anderson based on the Bewicks' version appeared soon after the turn of the century. Both Bewick versions are scarce; we would not, though, hesitate to use the word rare to describe this book.See: Hugo. Nos. 35 and 36. Minns Sale Catalogue. No. 242. Warthin, A.S. p. 81. Not in Collins, M. The Dance of Death in Book Illustration.
WITH THE NEWCASTLE IMPRINT AND A DIFFERENT TITLE
Stock number:593.
$US 2950.00
Imprint: Easthampton, Warwick Press, 1976
Binding: Hardback
Inscription: Signed, Inscribed Or Annotated
8vo., stitched into green pastepaper wrappers with a paper label on the cover. One of 150 copies printed in van Krimpen's Spectrum type on Nideggen paper, in which the artist-printer-publisher describes the Warwick Press from inception to its three year anniversary and coincidentally celebrates her thirtieth year. There is a striking self-portrait on the title and a drawing of two ducks on the colophon, both touched with color. The colophon is signed by Ms. Blinn and is also inscribed. FINE, AS ISSUED.
AN EARLY BOOK OF THE PRESS
Stock number:558.
$US 150.00
Imprint: Easthampton, Warwick Press, 1978
Binding: Hardback
Inscription: Signed, Inscribed Or Annotated
Lg. 8vo., handbound in blue/brown pastepaper boards with the title lettered in gilt on the spine. One of 250 copies printed in van Krimpen's Spectrum type on Mowhawk Superfine paper, the author-illustrator-publisher, Carol Blinn, provides the reader with four delicately hand-colored illustrations [each of which has been signed] to support her text, which she calls a "personal journal of her vivid memories of her former country life." In absolutely fine condition, and with the original publisher's Prospectus.
IN HANDSOME PASTE PAPER BOARDS
Stock number:559.
$US 200.00
Imprint: New York, E. Weyhe, 1929
Binding: Hardback
4to. (12 14 x 9 3/4 inches), publisher’s green canvas cloth with the title stamped in gilt on the cover and spine. Fine.Published in London (by A. Zwemmer ) and in New York (by E. Weyhe), based on the German edition (by Ernst Wasmuth), this first American edition contains 120 spectacular plates, early examples of close-up botanical photography. Professor Blossfeldt’s photographs are today also valued as pioneering examples of abstract images. The book is often broken up for the value of the individual plates, and the remaining intact copies are often shabby if not disbound. This is a beautiful copy of a keystone photography book, which was reprinted in 1932, 1936 and well into the late twentieth century (1999)
A Bright Copy of an Important Book
Stock number:793.
$US 2350.00
Imprint: Copenhagen, J. H. Schubothe, 1814
Binding: Hardback
Small 4to., more-or-less contemporary marbled boards with a morocco spine label and a gilt cypher on the cover (by Gustave Hedberg, Stockholm, with his ticket).Woodcut title-page with two skulls followed by 36 large (5 x 5 1/4 inch) woodcuts and verses devoted to the Dance of Death. Although the theme is traditional--Death in the form of a skeleton ushers away people of every class to their final reward: the Pope, Emperor, King, Queen, right on down to the child and the humble beggar--the artistic treatment of the figures is quite unlike anything by Holbein or Hollar in the 16th and 17th centuries, or for that matter Matthias Merian, or Bewick a century later. Printed on a rough-textured paper altogether appropriate for these "FOLK ART" DEPICTIONS, the scenes (each of which is attractively framed) are more satirical or playful than frightening. Each is accompanied by twenty-eight lines of verse, set in gothic type. The final image is that of Jesus Christ triumphing over Death.We found JUST TWO REFERENCES. The Minns Catalogue ("The Dance of Death," a Collection sold in New York by AAA in 1922. No. 63), calls it "[a] rare and curious Dance of Death, not listed by Bibliographers." Aldred Scott Warthin, The Physician of the Dance of Death (NY, 1931, pp. 83-84), writes, "A Danish version of the Dance of Death is given in a series of curious woodcuts issued in Copenhagen in 1814..." He goes on to describe the general caracteristics of the book before looking closely at the figure of the Physician, the subject of his study, "It is a simple, naive, conventional representation of the subject." He then reports, "In 1838, an edition, Det Menskliga Lifwets, was published in Fahlun, Sweden. The same woodcuts used in the Danish edition are repeated, reduced in size and reversed [a reproduction of the Physician appears on p. 80]." Although the title-page calls it the third edition, neither of these two references mention any earlier appearance of the book. We found NO COPY OF ANY EDITION IN THE BRITISH LIBRARY. Indeed, a very fine copy of a RARE AND CURIOUS DANCE OF DEATH.
"Rare and Curious Danish Dance of Death"
Stock number:596.
$US 4250.00
Imprint: Stockport, W. Bracher & Co. Ltd, N.d. [1929]
Binding: Hardback
4to., original gilt stamped rust cloth; FINE. In his Introduction to this Jubilee Catalogue, the company founder, T. W. Bracher, traces the company's accomplishments, especially "Brachering," a revolutionary means of trimming headwear, an innovation that has, "...ensured that the name T. W. Bracher will be as long remembered in hatting as are the names of Crompton, Arkwright and Hargreaves in the cotton trade."The catalogue, HANDSOMELY PRINTED on coated paper, pictures the firm's line of hatbands (grouped within blue borders), labels (red borders), and "Flexible Labels, Leathers and Tips" (printed nine-to-the-page in GOLD, over a COBALT BLUE background, within gold borders). Bracher prided itself on being able to print or stamp on material of any kind; this catalogue was intended to exemplify their abilities.
HATS • GOLD (ON BLUE) PRINTING • ART NOUVEAU BORDERS
Stock number:653.
$US 395.00
Imprint: London, jas. Carpenter, 1828
Binding: Hardback
Inscription: Signed, Inscribed Or Annotated
4to. (10 3/4 x 8 1/8 inches), full crushed brown morocco with a triple gilt fillet border surrounding a series of blind blocked borders and four small corner fleurons; the spine, which is lightly sunned, has four raised bands and is nicely gilt titled and decorated within the compartments. Board edges gilt, inner gilt fillets, a.e.g. Signed in gilt on the inner front fore-edge turn-in: COLNAGHI COCKSPUR STREET.The work with a general title (above) contains three separate essays as follows: Practical Hints on Composition in Painting (1828); Practical Hints on Light and Shade in Painting (1827); and, Pracitcal Hints on Colour in Painting (1828). Each essay contains a section of etched illustrations, some by Burnet himself but most after the world's acknowledged masters: Titian, Vandyke, Rubens, Rembrandt, et. al. There are over 100 etchings from celebrated pictures of the Italian, Venetian, Flemish, Dutch and English schools. Particularly good are the hand-colored examples from the last part. The book was very popular as evidenced by the fact that it was published well into the last third of the century. The three sections, each with its own title-page, are designated respectively third, second, and second edition. The letterpress is nicely printed by Chas. Whittingham.Colnaghi & Son, one of London's leading art dealers since the eighteenth century, is seldom thought of as a source of finely bound books. Ramsden (London Bookbinders 1780-1840), however, on page 52 makes the following observation about a Colnaghi bound book seen in 1951 at Marks: "Impressed in gilt on the inside edge of a russia binding on an 1818 publiction." A scarce example.
Signed Binding: COLNAGHI COCKSPUR STREET
Stock number:579.
$US 950.00
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