Our members list new acquisitions and recently catalogued items almost every day of the year. Below, you'll find a few highlights from these recent additions...
Charles Addams, Favorite Haunts (Signed)
New York: Simon and Schuster, (1976). Hardcover. First edition. Quarto. Fine in fine dustwrapper. Signed by Charles Addams.
Offered by Between the Covers Rare Books and found in their catalog "Halloween" (item #4). (This item is not listed on abaa.org.)
COUCEIRO, Henrique [Mitchell] de Paiva. Collection of autograph letters, signed, to Paiva Couceiro’s close friend Saturio Pires; written while Paiva Couceiro was in exile in Spain, and covering matters personal and political.
On paper, in Portuguese. 1925-1943. Most about 17.5 x 12.8 cm., in a plastic sleeve. Written in ink, in a cramped but legible script. Some holes punched in sides, without significant loss; otherwise fine. 9 autograph letters signed (98 pages), 17 autograph postcards signed, 1 calling card and 1 picture postcard with Paiva Couceiro’s portrait.
Collection of autograph letters, signed, to Paiva Couceiro’s close friend Saturio Pires, written while Paiva Couceiro was in exile in Spain. The earliest is dated January 6, 1925, the latest January 7, 1943. The letters are nearly all substantive, and include discussions of such matters as the famous letter Paiva Couceiro wrote to Mario Pessoa regarding a possible invasion of Angola (August 4, 1935), and a discussion of the Causa Monarchica, the Portuguese press and his own role as a leader of the Monarchist movement (August 15, 1930). There are also more personal letters, such as one of April 9, 1926, lamenting that the gas in his apartment had been cut off because he could not afford to pay the bill, and railing against those who call themselves Monarchists but will not help support him. Paiva Couceiro (1861-1944) became a prominent public figure in the 1890s, when his heroism helped keep Lourenço Marques from being captured. From 1907 to 1909 he was Governor of Angola. When the Republic was declared in 1910 he supported the King, and in 1911 handed in his resignation from the army with the famous line, “Revoltou-me contra a República para salvar Portugal!” He spent the remaining years of his life (mostly in self-imposed exile in Spain) working to restore the monarchy. ❊ On Paiva Couceiro, see Grande enciclopédia XX, 21-23; also Manso Preto Cruz, A Biografia política e o in-memoriam de Henrique de Paiva Couceiro (Lisbon, 1946), and Rocha Martins, A Monarquia do Norte (Lisbon, 1922).
Offered by Richard C. Ramer Old & Rare Books, and found in "Catalog 350: Manuscripts" (item #4). (This item is not listed on abaa.org.)
Photograph of Pit Brow Lass in Work Clothes with Tools
After women in England were banned from working in coal mines below the surface, they were employed to work at the brow of the mine or pit. Known Pit Brow Lasses, their arduous 12 hour shifts included breaking up coal bricks into pieces which they loaded into wagons, lugging the wagons, sorting the coal and greasing the wagon wheels. Their tools included a shovel and strainer or riddle shown in this photograph. At a time when women did not wear pants, these coal workers defied Victorian social convention and dressed themselves in heavy work trousers with a rough short skirt over them. On verso of this CDV written in an unknown hand, "Coal Digger, Wigan, Ellie McDudley. Wigan." Wigan, in Manchester, England, was a large coal mining town, and this may be a photograph of McDudley. The board on which the albumen photograph is attached measures 2.5 x 4 inches. Condition: the tip of the upper left corner of the image is missing, glue stain in the same corner and even light soiling recto and verso. A fascinating window into the working class world of Victorian England.
Offered by Schulson Autographs.
The Song of Solomon. With etchings and aquatints by Susan Allix
Privately printed and illustrated. London: (Willow Press,) 1977. Quarto. 13 1/4 x 10 1/4." Twenty-one original etchings and aquatints, hand printed by the artist on BFK Rives mould-made paper. Letterpress printed in Bembo Italic. Hand bound by Susan Allix in green Oasis, with colored onlays to a floral design, with tooling in gold and blind. In matching green felt-lined clamshell box. With a card signed by Allix laid in. A fine copy.
Susan Allix’s second book, one of fifty copies printed, bound, and signed by her. This remarkable, lively work of art is both a striking visual interpretation of the “Song of Songs” and a valuable insight into Allix’s early career. Susan Allix (b. 1943) is a bookbinder, letterpress printer, and master engraver based in London. She has created over 50 limited-edition artist’s books, some unique, since beginning her bookmaking career in 1973 with her printing of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Her book Myth won a Judges Choice Award at the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair in 2011. Allix’s most recent project, Invisibility, was completed in Spring of 2019.
Offered by Michael R. Thompson Rare Books and found in their catalog "Christianity: A Thousand Years of Christian Texts from Illuminated Manuscripts to Incunabula to Artist’s Books" (item #1).
Large Archive consisting of the following: 470 letters, 654 pp., (18 retained mailing envelopes), written by and to Marion Greenwood, her husband Robert Plate, and others; dated 21 August 1929 to 25 October 1983. (See complete inventory below). 101 pieces of Artwork of Marion Greenwood, and others, including drawings, prints, sketches, and watercolors, circa 1920s to 1960s. 8 bound diaries and journals (1582 pp.), 1 account book (34 pp.), 1 notebook (22 pp.); 32 short stories (387 pp.); 237 loose pp. of journal writings; 90 loose pp. of magazine writing; all of Robert Plate, dated 1936 to 1986. 2 address books (86 pp.) of Marion Greenwood, not dated; plus, small diary possibly of Charles Fenn, 1939. 157 photographs mostly of Greenwood, family, husbands, artist friends, 1910s-1960s. Over 280 paper and manuscript ephemeral items, c1930s-1970s.
Large and compelling archive of Marion Greenwood, American artist who had a successful career from the 1920s through the 1950s. She was a painter and muralist and knew and corresponded with many of the leading artists of the day, Isamu, Noguchi, Diego Rivera and others. The archive would be of interest for scholars and historians of the period, and of woman artists, not only for Greenwood's correspondence, but the journals of Robert Plate comprise a fascinating and lively account of the New York City art scene of the 1950s. OCLC does not record a repository for Greenwood's papers, the largest consisting of 0.4 linear feet, mainly photographs, catalogs, etc., was donated to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art by Greenwood in 1964.
Offered by Michael Brown Rare Books.
Interior view of the New York Crystal Palace for the exhibition of the Industry of All Nations
New York: Goupil & Co., 1853. Fine copy of a very rare print; I can locate only two institutional copies, New York Public Library and that copy has a visible repaired tear. The second copy is found in the New-York Historical Society. I have checked with two other likely New York institutions, Metropolitan Museum and New York Society Library and they do not have copies. Also, Harry S. Newman, of the Old Print Shop, reports that he has never had a copy.
The building is well known in the history of American architecture. “George Carstensen & Charles Gildemeister won the competition for the New York Crystal Palace (1852-53). Of glass and iron, painted olive with gilding, it was shaped like a Greek cross, and had an imposing dome. The interior, with ornate iron galleries and staircases, was painted in polychromy. Fire destroyed the building in 1858.”- Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architecture, I, 389. The lithograph is signed lower left “Carstensen & Gildemeister, Architects, 74 Broadway, N.Y.” It is signed lower right: “Lithography of Nagel & Weingaertner, 143 Fulton St. New York.” There is a good note on Louis Nagel in Jay Last, The Color Explosion, Nineteenth Century American Lithography, p. 119. There is a long caption on the print underneath the title; beneath that is a list of the officers and directors, headed by the President, Theodore Sedgwick. Carstensen and Gildemeister published their own book on the building: New York Crystal Palace: Illustrated Description of the Building New York: Riker, Thorne & Co., 1854 but that work is now exceedingly rare (I have owned one copy in the past 51 years). That book is now as rare as the present print.
Offered by Charles B. Wood Booksellers, and found in their "Catalog 181" (item #32).
by Henri Pene Du Bois
Jamaica, New York: George D. Smith, Printed at The Marion Press, 1903. First edition. First edition. A striking and magnificent heavily onlaid, gilt-stamped and tooled full morocco binding by Alfred William Launder, Bradstreet's finest binder, who bound for major collectors such as William Loring Andrews, Robert Hoe and Henry William Poor in the very early 1900's. Both covers richly adorned with multiple large sections of onlaid morocco including a central beige patterning, and intricate maroon strapwork motif, bold gilt stamped and tooled fillet borders and centrally located winding vines terminating in bold solid hearts, on both covers. Single gilt fillet ruling to all edges. Spine with fine raised bands (gilt designs on outer edges), six compartments with five decorated in a matching but different patterning as covers. Large dentelles with six fillet concentric rectilinear edge motifs of different composition, signed on front dentelle in gilt pallet, "Bradstreet's." Marbled doublures and endsheets. Top edges gilt. Original cloth covers bound-in at end. #160 of 200 Copies on Handmade Paper, Signed by Henry W. Poor. The most important book on American bookbinding published at the time, or really at any time since, a stunning example of color reproduction, containing dozens of covers of fine bindings from notable firms such as Club Bindery, Matthews, Smith, etc., in vibrant and true colors. The book itself is quite scarce and rarely found in nice condition. The book, housed in contemporary brown cloth slipcase is in fine condition. Michael Dubansky, (The Metropolitan Museum) pictures a similar Launder binding in his article, "A Well-Bound Book Mocks at Time: The Legacy of Alfred William Launder, but ours more ornate at magnificent, one of only a very few of the highest caliber of Launder's work. Dubansky writes, "In 1899 or 1890, Launder was hired as a finisher at Bradstreet's, a small fine bindery that was part of the larger reference-book publishing firm of the same name. The little bindery, located on Elm Street in Lower Manhattan, produced deluxe bindings for rare book and manuscript collectors, including J. Pierpont Morgan and Henry W. Poor. Prior to his work at the Museum [Met], Launder, a Londoner, had been a lifelong fine binder and finisher who had achieved the highest level in his trade. As a finisher, he was exclusively responsible for the design and decoration of bindings, including the decorative leather onlays, inlays, and gold tooling. Launder came from a family of bookbinders, and as a young man he apprenticed in his father's shop before later working for the Mansell Bindery, an old and prominent London bindery/stationer. A rare opportunity to obtain one of the finest bindings by an American binding master, executed in the heyday of rich, ornate and accomplished fine bindings.
Offered by Nudelman Rare Books.
Archive of Original Mexican Pulp Cover Art Gouaches and Corresponding Mini-Comics
[Various Cities: Various Publishers, circa 1969-1980]. All paintings gouache on heavy card stock, in various sizes, near fine generally, with brilliant, bright colors, many with publication markings to the verso, some with slight smudging to the gouache or with stray marks to the boards. Comics range from very good plus to near fine in wrappers, with color covers and black-and-white interior illustrations. Notably, one mini-comic, Una Lucha Inusitada (Colección Micro Misterio, no. 182), is also accompanied by all 125 pages of original 6" x 9" and 6" x 7" pen-and-ink artwork comprising the interior of the publication. The mini-comic is a science fiction tale, beginning in the countryside and ending in a UFO. Light smudging and page toning, else pages are near fine.. Archive of original artworks for Mexican mini-comic covers, circa 1969-1980, by Rodolfo Federico Antonio Fraga, Luis Perez, R.A. Dorantes, T. Zavala, Antonio Luna, Marin, Jorge A. Baduy, as well as several unidentified artists. A collection worthy of institutional exhibition, and indeed, one that came from a private collection and has never been exhibited. The archive consists of 89 paintings on heavy card stock: 62 are paired with their mini-comics, and 27 are without mini-comics. Several of the paintings are signed by the artists; all paintings are images only, free of titles, publisher's imprints, or other information. A fairly dazzling variety of graphic art stylistically best described as appropriating the most visually arresting features of American pulp art of the early 1960s as a starting point, then moving aggressively toward primary colors, strong images, and situations as utterly impossible and sexualized as reality will allow. One might easily dub the Giallo-reminiscent fusion of many of the works as "Colonial Gothic Horror," in which zombie Aztecs and Conquistadors, haunted monasteries, secret treasures, and ghostly horsemen illustrate a coded and psychedelically skewed rendition of Mexico's violent colonial history. Others depict sci-fi fever dreams of alien visits, technology run amok, vengeful objects, sorcery, and natural forces in revolt-nightmarish intrusions of the absurd and unexpected, parables of anxiety and dread. In Mexico, the term mini-comic generally refers to low-priced, pocket-sized comics that first began appearing in the 1950s by publishers such as Editorial Argumentos, featuring stories in a variety of genres, including horror, suspense, romance, and westerns. However, despite the popularity of the format (and of comics in general in Mexico), little is known about the artists who created the covers, a situation analogous to many pulp paperback cover artists in the US. And, like US pulp art, the original paintings are quite rare.
Offered by Harpers Books.
G. Washington’s Troops “have crossed the Delaware” (Autograph Letter Signed)
by George Washington
An incredible, war date, reference evocative to an to the earlier event which George Washington is more known for than anything else "…the Pennsylvania Troops have crossed the Delaware,".. This time, in a twist of war, the General worries that some of the very troops who were with him in 1776 would spread their mutinous feelings to the New Jersey Troops.
Important and rare war date Autograph Letter Signed, "Go: Washington," as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, 1 page, 7.75" x 12.5", Ringwood, [New Jersey], January 28, 1781 "To The Officer Commanding the Jersey Troops at Pompton.-" concerning the disposition of the Pennsylvania Line which had recently mutinied and the possibility that elements of the New Jersey line had done the same, ordering the officer to protect the Continental Stores at Morristown. Docketed on verso in an unknown hand. Archivally laid in borders, mild staining to center of page. Clear, strong ink with a large, bold signature by Washington. Superb near fine condition.
On January 1, 1781, following a boisterous New Year's Day celebration, elements of the Pennsylvania Line encamped for the winter near Morristown, New Jersey, mutinied over lack of pay and disagreements over terms of enlistment. When officers led the orderly regiments of the Line to quell the disturbance, it only took a few warning shots for the rest to fall in line with the mutineers. General Anthony Wayne, commanding the Pennsylvania Line, tried to convince them to return to order peacefully to little avail, and as the soldiers marched south toward Philadelphia to air their grievances with the Pennsylvania assembly, he followed them while dispatching letters to Washington and the government in Pennsylvania. The central disagreement lay in the interpretation of the term of service, which was often stated simply as: "for three years or the duration of the war," with no reference to which was to take precedence. Naturally officers assumed the soldiers were committed for the duration of the conflict, while the soldiers were of the understanding that their terms had expired at the end of three years. Additionally, men who had enlisted in 1776 and 1777 had taken $20 enlistment bounties, were disgruntled over the fact that those enlisting later were offered much larger sums.
Pennsylvania Governor Joseph Reed traveled to Princeton to meet with the mutiny's leaders on January 7 and negotiations went fairly quickly. On the same day, an agent of Sir Henry Clinton offered the men all of their back pay if they would agree to abandon the rebel cause. The leaders refused the offer and placed the agent under guard. In the end, Pennsylvania agreed to allow those who had enlisted for the $20 bounties to be discharged and reenlist at the higher rates. Between January 12 and the 29, approximately half of the regiment was discharged, while the remainder were furloughed until March 15 when they reassembled to join operations against the British in Virginia.
However, the amicable resolution to the Pennsylvania a Line mutiny also inspired members of the New Jersey line to follow suit. On January 20, about 300 members of the New Jersey Line at Pompton mutinied. This time Washington, wishing to restore structure and command, ordered General Robert Howe to lead a detachment to compel their unconditional submission, which he quickly accomplished. Howe made an example of the two sergeants who led the revolt by executing them on the spot before a firing squad.
Now that both mutinies had been quelled, Washington looked to protect the Continental Stores at Morristown that were now essentially unguarded after the Pennsylvania mutineers had marched south. He writes to the commander of the New Jersey troops who had just revolted the week before:
"If the Posts at Smiths Clove and Dobbs Ferry have been deranged by the late disorders in the Jersey line they are again to be re-established agreeably to former Orders. And as the Pennsylvania Troops have crossed the Delaware, you are, till some other arrangement is made of the Stores at Morristown to detach about 50 men properly Officered to be relieved once a fortnight to that place. The Objects of the Officer Commanding there are to cover the public Stores which are at Morris to Aid the Q[uarte]r Mast[er] at that Post in forwarding the Provisions and other Stores to their respective places of destination and, where necessary to afford escorts.– The Letters herewith inclosed you will please to forward immediately; the one for the Commissary of Prisoners requires dispatch.–"
This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.
Offered by University Archives.
Andy Warhol Photobooth Pictures
New York: Robert Miller Gallery, 1989. First edition. Quarto. 196 (3)pp. Original photo-illustrated white wraps with black lettering on spine, in original mylar jacket with printed red lettering on cover.
Offered by Eric Chaim Kline Bookseller.
by Franz Kafka
Munich: Kurt Wolff, 1926. First edition. 8vo, pp. [vi], 504. Original blue cloth, some mild fading, internally fine and fresh, with the rare original dust jacket (edges and folds minimally restored, slightly chipped at the ends of the spine), the jacket carries a quote from Hermann Hesse calling Kafka "König der Deutschen Sprache."
Offered by Thomas A. Goldwasser Rare Books.
Hiroshige; Meisho Edo hyakkei-Honderd beroemde aanzichten van Edo [100 Views of Edo]
by TREDE, MELANIE; BICHLER, LORENZ; HIROSHIGE (ARTIST)
Germany: Taschen, 2010. Sewn binding. Near fine. Hiroshige. Folio size, 272 pp., illustrated in colour, text in German. A beautiful re-issuing from the Ota Museum of Art, Tokyo, of this famous series of ukiyo-e prints by Hiroshige (1797-1858), featuring 100 views of Edo. Ukiyo-e or "pictures of the floating world" were usually drafted on wood blocks and sometimes as paintings, subject matter was usually of beautiful women, folk tales, landscapes, nature, kabuki actors and scenes, erotica, and sumo wrestlers, all of which appealed to the merchant class of Edo or modern Tokyo.
DESCRIPTION: Japanese style sewn binding, pictorial wrappers, pages french-fold, with over 120 full-page color reproductions, re-issuing of the original woodcuts from the Ota Museum of Art, Tokyo; folio size (12.25" x 9.75"), 272 pp. Please note that the text is in German. Housed in a pictorial paper covered folding case with bone clasps.
CONDITION: Near fine; the colours vibrant and unfaded, both on the wraps and internally, the sewn binding strong, the text block solid and square, and free of prior owner markings; a few light spots of soiling to the front wrapper, else fine. The folding case fine, strong and sturdy, the bone clasps present and the ribbons unworn, just a trifle soiled.
Offered by Swan's Fine Books.
NEW HAMPSHIRE (Signed, First Edtion)
by Robert Frost
New York: Henry Holt, 1928. 1st edition (6th printing), cloth spine, without dust jacket. Specially signed "Robert Frost / Greensboro N.C. / 1928" in black fountain pen ink on the FEP. Frost won his first of four Pulitzer Prizes with this title in 1924. This title is included on the list of one hundred "Books that Shaped America" by the Library of Congress. Noted on the copyright page "Sixth Printing, April 1928," the text includes Frost's monumental poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" among other favorite selections. Shelf wear to corners and aging to cloth spine, else a clean copy in overall good-very good condition, specially signed by Frost.
Offered by Jett W. Whitehead Rare Books.
By Mary A. Hutton (Illustrations by Seaghan MacCathmhaoil/John Patrick Campbell)
Dublin: Talbot Press, ~1948. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo; VG-; fully bound in green cloth, spine and front cover have black impressions and lettering; binding has bumping on the top and bottom edges and on the fore edge corners; has minimal fraying at the top and bottom of the spine, spine has minor discoloration; pages have age toning, minor blotching along the edges of the text block, have occasional minimal creasing on the bttom fore edge corner, have a stamp of the original owner's name on the ffep and on the top of the text block; shelved case 12. Táin Bó Cúailnge (often shortened to The Táin) is an Epic of Irish folkore which features the hero Cú Chulainn defending his homeland of Uliad from Queen Medb. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.
Offered by Second Story Books.
by PARAMHANSA, YOGANANDA
New York: The Philosophical Library, 1946. First edition of one of the most important spiritual books of the twentieth century, Octavo, original cloth, frontispiece. In near fine condition. Preface by Walter Evans-Wentz. Autobiography of a Yogi introduces the reader to the life of Paramahansa Yogananda and his encounters with spiritual figures of both the Eastern and the Western world. The book begins with his childhood family life, to finding his guru, to becoming a monk and establishing his teachings of Kriya Yoga meditation. The book continues in 1920 when Yogananda accepts an invitation to speak in a religious congress in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He then travels across America lecturing and establishing his teachings in Los Angeles, California. In 1935, he returns to India for a yearlong visit. When he returns to America, he continues to establish his teachings, including writing this book. It is an introduction to the methods of attaining God-realization and to the spiritual wisdom of the East, which had only been available to a few in 1946. The author claims that the writing of the book was prophesied long ago by the nineteenth-century master Lahiri Mahasaya (Paramguru of Yogananda) also known as the Yogiraj and Kashi baba. Before becoming a yogi, Lahiri Mahasaya's actual name was Shyama Charan Lahiri. It has been in print for seventy years and translated into over fifty languages by Self-Realization Fellowship. It has been highly acclaimed as a spiritual classic including being designated by Philip Zaleski, while he was under the auspices of HarperCollins Publishers, as one of the "100 Most Important Spiritual Books of the 20th Century." It is included in the book 50 Spiritual Classics: Timeless Wisdom from 50 Great Books of Inner Discovery, Enlightenment and Purpose by Tom Butler-Bowdon.
Offered by Raptis Rare Books.
by HIGGINS, DICK; SENG-TS-AN; BRECHT, GEORGE (TRANSLATOR)
Mentor, Ohio: Generator Press, 1991. Softcover. Fine. 39 pp, fine in original stapled wrappers. A volume in the Generator Press Chapbook Series (offering "a wide range of contemporary experimental visual and language poetries") and a scarce Higgins title. Publisher John Byrum writes in his preface "Dick Higgins wrote The Autobiography of the Moon in 1981 as a verse commentary on the Hsin-Hsin-Ming by Seng-ts'an (died 606 c.e.), the third Chinese Patriarch of Zen Buddhism. In his preface to the 1984 Lebeer Hossmann edition of the Hsin-Hsin-Ming, translator George Brecht described Seng-ts'an's text as 'a succinct statement of Mahayana, and especially of Zen belief, consisting of seventy-three unrhymed verses of eight characters each.' This edition, designed by Mr. Higgins, couples the two texts on facing pages."
Offered by Walkabout Books.
by Robert Louis Stevenson (Illustrated by Roger Duvosin)
[New York]: The Heritage Press, 1944. First trade edition of Roger Duvoisin's illustrated version of A Child's Garden of Verses, published the same year as the deluxe Limited Editions Club issue. Robert Louis Stevenson first published his beloved series of poems in 1885. Highlights include "Bed in Summer," "My Shadow," "The Land of Counterpane," "The Swing," and "Summer Sun": "Above the hills, along the blue, / Round the bright air with footing true, / To please the child, to paint the rose, / The gardener of the World, he goes." Illustrator Roger Duvoisin would go on to win the 1948 Caldecott Medal for his work on Alvin Tresselt's White Snow, Bright Snow; Duvoisin is best remembered for his illustrations for Louise Fatio's Happy Lion series and his own Petunia books. A bright, near-fine copy. Quarto, original red cloth, spine lettered in yellow, pictorial pastedown bordered in red and blue to front board, color pictorial endpapers, all edges stained yellow, original unclipped color pictorial dust jacket. Black-and-white and color illustrations throughout text. Jacket spine sunned, no slipcase.
Offered by Honey & Wax Booksellers.
The Coming of the Saucers: A Documentary Report on the Sky Objects that Have Mystified the World
by Kenneth Arnold & Ray Palmer
Self-published: Boise, ID & Amherst, WI, 1952. First Edition. Near Fine. First edition. 192 pp. Original green cloth lettered in gilt. Near Fine with slight bowing to front board, a little rubbing to spine lettering. An account of the early days of Ufology co-written by Kenneth Arnold, the pilot whose sighting of nine UFOs near Mt. Rainier in 1947 began the modern UFO era. Co-author Ray Palmer was the ambitious editor of Amazing Stories magazine, who sometimes sent Arnold on assignment to research sightings like the Maury Island incident, which is covered here in numerous chapters.
Offered by Burnside Rare Books.
by Joseph Victor Von Scheffel
New York: Stroefer & Kirchner, 1875. First Edition. First Edition. Small portfolio of 12 photographically illustrated cards (4 1/2 x 6 3/4 inches) depicting original artwork, the whole enclosed in a thin red cloth portfolio with three flaps. Portfolio cloth and flap folds repaired. The front and rear of the portfolio are blind stamped, the front also in gilt. Marked with a stamp "F. Bonnet" "St. Louis, MO." on inside flap. Each of the cards has red satining at the very edges all around. Each card has amounted photograph (woodburytype?) roughly 3 1/2 x 5 inches with some variations in size. On each card there is a thin printed double box, above which is printed "SCHEFFEL's EKKEHARD" and below "Stroefer & Kirchner, New York" Inside the border is the title of the image, sometimes with attributions of artists.
These images illustrate scenes from "Ekkehard. A tale of the tenth century," Joseph Victor von Scheffel's famous historical romance. (1857, translated into English in 1872). Each card is numbered (1-12) and each identifies the artist. The cards are: 1. Ekkehard Carrying Hadwig Over the Cloister-Sill (A. Liezen-Mayer), 2. Rudimann and Kerhildis (E. Grutzner), 3. Ekkehard and Praxedis (F. Wagner), 4. Reading Virgil (J. Herterich), 5. Audifax and Hadumoth (F. Fluggen), 6. Battle with the Huns (W. Diez),7. Hadumoth Praying (G. max), 8. Hadwig and the Covent-Scholar (J. Fluggen), 9. Relating Heroic Legend (C. Schraudelph), 10. Hadwig and Ekkehard (A. Liezen-Mayer), 11. Ekkehard's Flight (J. Benczur), and 12. Ekkehard's Farewell (A. Liezen Mayer). Joseph Victor von Scheffel (b1826 - d1886) was a German poet and novelist. The firm Stroefer & Kirchner did this sort of work regularly in the 1870s. However, we cannot find this example (or indeed anything Stroefer & Kirchner did related to Ekkehard) in OCLC as of this writing. We did find a German language edition done by another publisher (Friedrich Bruckmann) with similar portfolio design and 16 images. Scarce.
Offered by Kuenzig Books.
THE NIGHT SIDE: MASTERPIECES OF THE STRANGE & TERRIBLE
by DERLETH, AUGUST (EDITOR)
New York, Toronto: Rinehart & Company, Inc., [1947].. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v-x [1-2] 3-372 [373-374: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], illustrations by Lee Brown Coye, original decorated black cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold. First edition, first printing with "R" monogram on copyright page. Collects twenty-three stories by H. P. Lovecraft, John Metcalfe, Arthur Machen, Robert Bloch, Margery Lawrence, Ray Bradbury and others, with illustrations by Lee Brown Coye. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 527. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 4-257. Bookplate of Alan D. Eames affixed to the front paste-down. Free endpapers lightly tanned along gutter margins, a very good, bright copy in good dust jacket with wear along top and bottom edges, several tears and internal tape mends at upper spine end, and clipped price.
Offered by L.W. Currey.
Watercolor. Marsh in Autumn. Boston area. 19th c.
by William Gurry
1890. A near fine copy, a bit of soiling.. 1 sheet. 6 3/4 x 10 inches. William Gurry was a Boston area artist, a student at the School of Drawing and Painting of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (see the Boston Art Guide and Artist's Directory. Boston: Wheat Pub.,1893; p 47). Several of his oils have been sold at auction, including 'Twilight on the Charles River' (Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, 2014).
Offered by Kaaterskill Books.
Volumes 1-8 (Oak Tree Press First Chapter Series of Booker-Winning Titles)
Fyfield: Oak Tree Press, 2006. Hardcover. Orig. colored boards, lettered paper spine labels. Fine in fine slipcases. 26 x 20 cm. Deluxe edition comprising eight volumes.
The first five titles with an additional plate signed and numbered by the artist: Coetzee, J.M. "Life and Times of Michael K," illustrated in black and white lithograph by South African artist Colbert Mashile. Roman numeral copy 20 of 35 (of 350) signed and dated by Coetzee. Atwood, Margaret. "Blind Assassin," illustrated with an ink drawing by Yoko Ono. Roman numeral copy 20 of 35 (of 160) signed and dated by Atwood. Middleton, Stanley, "Holiday," water color illustrated and signed by the author. Roman numeral copy 20 of 35 (160) signed and dated by Middleton. Hollinghurst, Alan. "Line of Beauty," illustrated with color lithograph by Gilbert and George. Roman numeral copy 20 of 36 (of 160) signed and dated by Middleton. Gordimer, Nadine. "The Conservationist," illustrated with a black and white etching signed by Cyril Coetzee. Roman numeral copy 20 of 35 (of 350) signed and dated by Gordimer. Byatt, A.S. "Possession A Romance," with signed color lithography by David Royle. Roman numeral copy 20 of 35 (of 160) signed and dated by A.S. Byatt. Unsworth, Barry. "Sacred Hunger," with signed color wood by Ezequiel Mabote. Roman numeral copy 20 of 35 (of 160) signed and dated by Barry Unsworth. Rushdie, Salman. "Midnight's Children," with a color lithograph by Thomas Howard. Roman numeral copy 20 of 150 signed and dated by Salman Rushdie.
All the above authors are Booker Prize winners. Each book is comprised of the first chapter of the title, accompanied by an illustration commissioned especially for the series. All proceeds from the original sales were targeted at organizations which offer support to the child victims of the African HIV/AIDS crisis.
Offered by Roy Young Bookseller, Inc.
by Edmund Spencer
London; 1894-1897: George Allen, Ruskin House. Limited Edition. Quarto. In six volumes with original wrappers bound in. Limited to only 1000 copies on hand-made paper for the US and England. Volume one contains an 83p. editor's preface which explains the early copies of The Faerie Queen with examples of title pages, and sonnets. Pages xix-xxi of volume one also offers a listing of the illustrations within each volume, which includes half-titles, title page, frontispieces, head and tail pieces. All volumes bound in original cream pictorial gilt cloth lettered in red, spine lettering gilt, top edges gilt, all others uncut, bindings are sharp cornered with no bumping, covers are clean and bright (as new). Previous owner's names dated 1906 and 1948 in volume one only, all in clear mylar for protection from soiling. A magnificent set and possibly one of the prettiest sets ever offered.
Offered by Alcuin Autographs.
1915. Very good condition. A highly attractive group of 16 silk postcards, made for the Allied forces in World War I, often sent home to loved ones. The collection, tipped onto black card for presentation, includes some unusual silks. Two silks with photographic portraits include General Haig's photographic hand tinted portrait within a circular frame of allied flags, and Lord Kitchener's in a circular embroidered frame with the Union Jack above. Haig (1861 - 1928) commanded British forces; he is credited with the final victory over the German forces in 1918. Kitchener (1850 - 1916) was appointed Secretary of State for war in 1914; he was lost on a ship which sank in 1916 en route to Russia. The rest of the cards are of a more developed embroidery than commonly seen. Titles include "To My Dear Friend; Christmas Greetings; Souvenir de France; Good News from France; From Somewhere in France; To My Dear Sister; Long May She Wave (under British Flag); Royal Flying Corps (British RFC). They feature Allied flags including the United States of America, England, France, Netherlands, Romania, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal and elaborate floral embroidery, and are often designed with a pocket flap, into which a small greeting card is inserted. (There are four of these small cards with the collection, which say Thinking of You, Glorieuse Memoir 1914-1915, Souvenir of France.)Silk postcards were developed in 1898 and appeared at the Paris Exposition of 1900; its popularity peaked during World War I. Around 1915, French women began producing the cards as part of a thriving cottage industry. Cards are mounted on stamped floral patterned paper frames. Colors of the silk thread beautifully bright and fresh. Cards measure 5 1/2 x 3 1/2"; one oversize greeting card for 1919 within a Oriental bamboo motif patterned frame measures 6 1/4 x 4 1/4". Collection presented within a large removable frame, 22 x 28."
Offered by Antipodean Books.
This important two-page folded letter documents the launch of the entrepreneurial career of a Hispanic businessman who became one of the wealthiest Texans by the 1870s. Thorn M. Grath. New Orleans: 1846.
This two-page folded letter measures approximely 16,5"x9". It was sent by Thorn M. Grath in New Orleans to Joseph San Ramon in Matamoros, Mexico and dated December, 28, 1846. The letter ins annotated "Steamer M Kins (?)" in the lower left corner and has ha black circular New Orleans postmark dated "DEC 28" in the upper rigtht. A large, bold "20" rate handstamp is in the upper right corner indicating the cost to mail this letter plus an enclosed invoice that is no longer present. The letter is in very nice shape.
San Ramon, a former employee of Thorn Grath, left New Orleans to folow the U.S. Army wich had recently occupied northeastern Mexico during the early months of the Mexican-American War. In late 1846, he established a clothing and dry goods business in Matamoros which apparently catered to military personnel and those who had accompanied the occupation. In the letter, Graph notes that he is sending San Ramon an inventory of clothing and footwear and inquires as to what ohter products San Ramon thinks will sell well. The letter reads in part: "We enclose an Invoice of Clothing and other articles ... a handsome assortment... we hope they will sell well. We would have shipped you more by this Schooner the "Lone Star" but she was taken up and filled on the first day she was put up for Matamoros... We shall make you another Shipment by the "Sarah Jane" wich will be the next vessel..."
"We are glad to hear... that Business prospects look favorable. And we feel quite confident that you will make Money both for yourself and us, if you manage things right. This we feel quite sure you will do. We are glad that you have informe us what kinds of Good will sell and we wish you to let us know more about clothing the different styles that are most suitable wether Frock Coasta Sacks Paletos or what fashion is best. So with Pants and other Articles. Clothing we think is the best we can send you but is porbable that we may send by Dry Goods after a while. We have a lot of Hats picked out for you to go by the next Vessel. We shall also add some more glaced Caps..."
San Ramon, who had emigrated from Spain as a young man in the 1830s, did, indeed, prove his business mentor's prediction correct. By 1850, San Ramon's business has greatly expanded to include commercial credit, trustee holdings, river transport, real estates, and cotton brokerage.
He remained in Matamoros despites the instability of the region until 1860 when he finally moved across the river to Brownsville, Texas. There he, along with a cartel of associates, monopolized credit services and forced the closure of many competing businesses. Already quite wealthy, San Ramon increased his fortune during the Civil War when he became one of the leaders in the South's contraband cotton trade. He moved once more to Matamoros where he continued operation during the Union occupation of Brownsville, selling cotton wholesale to merchants in England, Germany, and even New York. By the end of the war, San Ramon was one of the wealthiest men in Texas. He opened one of the largest mercantile companies in Texas and was responsible for building the Rio Grande Railroad that connected Port Isabel with Brownsville. After leaving his business holdings in the care of relatives, San Ramon returned to Spain where he died in the late 1890s.
An important record documenting the beginning of one of the most important Hispanic-American business men of the 19th century. Very scarce. As of 2018, nothing similar is for sale in the trade, nor are there any auctions results listed. Neither does OCLC identify any San Ramon records or correspondence held by institutions.
Offered by Elena Gallego Rare Books.
by James Buckley
Boston: Oliver Ditson (copyright held by Firth, Pond & Co.), 1860. Cardboard covers. Good to Very Good. First edition. Collated and complete with all 80 pages. Illustrated card covers with cloth spine covering. Cover illustration of Buckley (not in blackface) sitting in a chair and playing his banjo. Worn spine and cracked hinges. Soiling and edge-wear. Pages toned, but not brittle. Owner names and miscellaneous docketing inside both covers. A number of songs in the table of contents have pencil checkmarks. A sound copy of a very scarce banjo book. This classic, antebellum banjo instruction book and songster is an original first edition, not a modern paperback printing. It contains 10 pages of instruction, titled "Rudiments of Music," followed by music in standard notation for over 135 tunes, some with lyrics. Lots of early banjo highlights including Yankee Doodle, Jim Crow Jig, Hail Columbia, Dan Bryant's Waltz, Old Dan Emmett's Waltz, Dixie's Land, Hard Times, Arkansas Traveler, I'm Off for Brighton, Root Hog or Die, The Glendy Burk, etc. "The Buckley Family were among the pioneers of negro minstrelsy. Their first appearance was in the Tremont Temple, Boston, in 1842, under the name of 'Congo Melodists,' and proved immensely successful. Subsequently they traveled through the South and West, and in 1846 visited England, where they performed successively at Drury-Lane and the Princess's Theatres. Returning to New-York, they located themselves in the Chinese Assembly Rooms, where they have since continued to produce burlesque operas, and become very popular with our citizens. The Buckleys consist of James Buckley, the father, and three sons-Richard, George Swaine and Frederick. . .. They are at present assisted by persons of considerable taste and skill, and the entertainments which they nightly present attract numerous and respectable audiences." ("The Black Opera," N. Y. Tribune, June 30, 1855) Scarce. As of 2019, no other examples are for sale in the trade and no auction records are listed at Rare Book Hub. OCLC shows only five examples held by institutions.
Offered by Read 'Em Again Books.
by Vladimir Nabokov
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1962. First edition. Fine/Near Fine. Book in Fine condition with gilt to spine and bright red topstain and endpapers. Price clipped jacket retaining First Impression slug to front panel is Near Fine, with a touch of toning to the spine. Small closed tear to bottom of front panel and minor wear to extremities. A much nicer than typical copy of this riveting novel. "On first read, Pale Fire is a book that appears to be a different book entirely. It takes the form of a long biographical poem written by the eminent and recently deceased poem John Shade, followed by several hundred pages of annotations by Shade's friend and fellow professor Charles Kinbote. Very quickly, an astute reader becomes aware of three things: 1) Kinbote is unstable. 2) Kinbote is convinced that Shade's poem 'Pale Fire' is not about Shade at all but about Kinbote's own delusional history as the exiled king of the (possibly fictional) country of Zembla. 3) Kinbote's 'interpretation' of the poem takes over the book and, in effect, becomes the novel. Pale Fire is thus many things: a blistering satire of academia and ivory-tower cluelessness; a breathless tale of escape and adventure over snowy mountain ranges; a mystery novel; a heartbreaking memoir; a closeted lament; a rumination on the afterlife; probably a suicide note; and possibly a ghost story as well" (Burr). A modern classic and an enduring part of Nabokov's legacy. Fine in Near Fine dust jacket.
Offered by Whitmore Rare Books.
Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah. (First Edition)
by BURTON, RICHARD FRANCIS
London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1856. 1st ed. Hardcover. Very Good. 3 vols. 3 folding maps and plans, 15 plates (including 5 chromos and 8 single-tint lithos). Publisher's advertisenements on pastedown portion of all 6 original terra cotta endpapers. 24-page publisher's catalog (dated September, 1854) at end of Vol. I. Original blue cloth. 23cm. Backstrips darkened and showing some wear at ends. Front free endpaper pasted down in Vol. I. Index leaves at end of Vol. III partially unopened. Burton's compelling account of visiting Islam's Holy Cities in disguise is generally regarded as his most important travel account.
Offered by McBlain Books.
by John James Audubon
1860. Chromolithograph by Julius Bien. 654 x 970 mm; 25 3/4 x 38 1/4 inches.
Offered by William Chrisant & Sons' Old Florida Book Shop.
By Ripley Dillon
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Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1984. Illustrations by J. Fenwick Lansdowne. Folio. Stiff green printed folder housing 31pp pamphlet and 41 color plates. Fine/fine/near fine. Faintest edgewear to folder only. Handsome "Portfolio Edition," being text excerpts and all of the artwork from the original 1977 hardbound limited edition issued in Boston by David R. Godine. All 41 plates (frontispiece and 40 illustrations) are outstanding and pristine.
Offered by Main Street Books, and found in their catalog "E-list #12: New Arrivals."
A Collection of Books on the Language of Flowers
Various publishers, places, and dates of publication, 1655 to 1900.
The Language of Flowers phenomenon flourished for almost eighty years, beginning in France in the early 19th century. As both potent and subtle symbols in Western culture, flowers are found in religious texts, poetry, heraldic, and emblematic literature from the classical period and early Christianity, through medieval literature and the enlightenment. In the early 19th century books were written and published for the first time under titles such as Abécédaire de Flore ou Langage des Fleurs (1811), Oracles de Flore (1816), Emblemes de Flore et des Végéaux (1819) and Le Langage des Fleurs (1819). With those publications, the language of flowers and its exploration of floral symbolism in communication - usually as a language of love and romance - gained acceptance and popularity. By 1830, the genre was widely available to a new world of fervent book buyers and readers in the working and middle classes. The vogue for language of flowers books was so prevalent that it became the subject of parodies and satires by, among others, Frederick Marryat and J. J. Grandville. Herman Melville was a devotee of symbolic flower language and referred to it in Mardi and Pierre and poems written to his wife Lizzie. See Beverly Seaton, The Language of Flowers, A History. University Press of Virginia, 1995. Overall in good to fine condition.
A catalogue with full descriptions is available via pdf at our website, www.brickrow.com, on the catalogues page. Over 100 titles, with one manuscript and one ephemeral item, in original or contemporary bindings, except as noted, profusely illustrated, primarily with lithographs and chromolithographs. The core of the collection was assembled by Doris Ann Elmore, a French teacher in San Francisco and lifelong Francophile. The collection is unusual for its scope. The Language of Flowers phenomenon flourished for almost eighty years, beginning in France in the early 19th century. As both potent and subtle symbols in Western culture, flowers are found in religious texts, poetry, heraldic, and emblematic literature from the classical period and early Christianity, through medieval literature and the enlightenment. In the early 19th century books were written and published for the first time under titles such as Abécédaire de Flore ou Langage des Fleurs (1811), Oracles de Flore (1816), Emblemes de Flore et des Végéaux (1819) and Le Langage des Fleurs (1819). With those publications, the language of flowers and its exploration of floral symbolism in communication - usually as a language of love and romance - gained acceptance and popularity. By 1830, the genre was widely available to a new world of fervent book buyers and readers in the working and middle classes. The vogue for language of flowers books was so prevalent that it became the subject of parodies and satires by, among others, Frederick Marryat and J. J. Grandville. Herman Melville was a devotee of symbolic flower language and referred to it in Mardi and Pierre and poems written to his wife Lizzie.
Offered by Brick Row Bookshop.
Michael Mercator
Amsterdam: Hondius, circa, 1628. Copper-engraved map, early hand-colouring. French text on verso. Roundels at each corner with inset maps of the Gulf of Mexico, Cuba and Hispaniola, the remaining containing the cartouche. (Expert restoration at sheet edges).
A fine example of one of the most celebrated maps of the Americas, the only printed map by Gerard Mercator's grandson Michael. Made by Gerard's grandson Michael to complete the atlas begun by Gerard in 1584 ( Atlantis Pars Altera ), this map is noted for its outstanding design and beauty, particularly its symmetrical configuration of circular insets and Mannerist flow of vines, flowers and leavessurrounding the circular map. Largely based on Rumold Mercator's world map of 1587, this map aptly reflects 16th-century knowledge, theories and suppositions regarding the New World. Naturally, most of this new knowledge was coastal, and configurations of any large areas were greatly hampered by the lack of a sound means of determining longitude. Nevertheless, the collective accomplishment of explorers and mapmakers represented in this map is astounding, showing in a generally correct way the vast extent of the New World. "A few of the most famous theories are still present: a large inland lake in Canada, two of the four islands of the North Pole, a bulge to the west coast of South America and the large southern continent" (Burden). The map appeared in 1595 and 1606 editions of the Atlantis Pars Altera , after which the plate was sold to Jodocus Hondius, who reissued the maps in varying editions through 1639. The present example includes French text on verso (confirming it to be a Hondius issue), with signature mark "S" on verso, suggesting it to be from a 1628 edition of the atlas (see Koeman Me 28a). Burden, The Mapping of North America I, 87; Koeman, Atlantes Neerlandici, Me 28a; Goss, The Mapping of North America, 19; America Emergent 12.
Offered by Donald A. Heald Rare Books.
Globe Terrestre Dresse par Fx. Delamrche, Succr. de R. De Vaugondy 1832
by Felix Delamarche
Paris, 1832. No Binding. Very Good. 9 ½ inches (24 cm.) diameter; 21 inches (53 cm.) total height. Single pedestal globe with horizon ring, armature & meridian all of wood, wear and staining on meridian at point where fits into stand, some chipping at extremities, else fine; globe with vibrant original color and clear, sharp patina; some abrasion & losses, mostly in lower and upper extremities; overall very good plus condition.
An attractive, very capably executed table or desk globe, in the distinctive style of the Delamarche firm, "the most successful French entrepreneur[s] in maps and globes" (Dekker/ van der Krogt). This was an original work by the son, Felix, who succeeded his father in the management of the firm in 1817. The globe is geographically up-to-date, notably in the South Pacific and Alaska, with information from then recent Russian voyages, such as Krustenstern's. Related to this, at the time the globe appeared and reflected on it, Europeans were beginning to differentiate between various regions of the Pacific. These were based on a better understanding of cultural and other differences between the peoples of various areas encountered on these recent voyages. For example, in 1831 the French explorer Dumont d'Urville proposed the use of the terms "Micronesia" and "Melanesia" for various parts of the Pacific as distinguished from Polynesia. Printed dashed lines on this globe, labeled "Division Oceanique," roughly approximate the three eventually accepted divisions of what is referred to as the South Pacific, though the regions are not named on the globe. Delamarche also clearly identifies on the globe the more traditional divisions of the Pacific between "Grand Ocean Boreal," "Grand Ocean Equinoxial," and "Grand Ocean Austral."
The Delamarche firm was the first to successfully reach a fairly sizable, general market of globe buyers. It accomplished this by reducing the cost of constructing globe stands and other parts, while maintaining a high level of quality in the maps of their globes, which are cleanly and attractively engraved. Traditional brass meridians were replaced by wooden ones, and the horizon rings and armatures supporting the rings were greatly simplified and made from either wood or stiff board. Also, the firm generally used simpler, single-pedestal stands rather than four-legged designs. Yet, as this well-preserved example demonstrates, Delamarche's design and materials proved to be very durable.
Charles-Francois Delamarche (1740-1817), the founder of the family firm, was the successor of the great map and globemaking family, the Robert De Vaugondys, as is cited in the title of this globe. Delamarche, in fact, seemed to have cornered the globe market in France by also incorporating the stocks of Jean Fortin and Jean Lattre. Delamarche's son, Felix took over the firm upon his father's death and managed it until 1848, when Gosselin succeeded him. The firm continued well into the latter 19th century under yet another Delamarche descendent. Dekker/ Van der Krogt, Globes from the Western World, pp. 63, 74; Dekker, E. Globes at Greenwich, pp. 321-25; Suarez, T. Early Mapping of the Pacific, p. 25.
Offered by Martayan Lan, Inc.
1925. Map. Offset lithograph. 8" x 10.25". Fantasy map from The Significance of Trollope (1925) by Spencer Van Bokkelen Nichols, painted by George F. Muendel. Barsetshire is a fictional English county created by Anthony Trollope in the series of novels known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire. Towns within Barsetshire include Hogglestock, Greshamsbury, Uffley, Puddingdale, and the capital, Barchester. A key in the lower left denotes roads, railways, and the boundaries of East and West Barsetshire. Small views near each of the towns depict scenery and institutions in those towns.
Offered by Argosy Book Store.
The Adventures of Mark Twain. A Pictorial Map of The Life of Mark Twain... River Pilot, Frontiersman, Reporter, Traveler, Famous Author and Great American. His Story is Told in The Motion Picture, "The Adventures of Mark Twain."
Warner Bros.. No date. [ 1944].. Color pictorial / pictographic map, 18 3/4 x 28 1/2 inches on sheet 21 1/2 x 31 inches, folding as issued to 10 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches. Light creasing horizontally not noticeable from Very good condition. "The Adventures of Mark Twain" was a 1944 biographical film produced by Warner Brothers; text at the bottom of the map states that the map is "published in the interest of a better understanding and appreciation of the life and works of Mark Twain...scenes...read clockwise, starting at top center. Figures 1 thru 37 present a picture outline of Mark Twain's life. Starred (*) cities figured prominently in his career." The pictorial border features photographic images from the movie. At lower centre is featured a quote from the movie "We can and must hold fast to our ideal of democracy because we have made it a shining reality..."
Offered by Old Imprints.
The Human Eye and Its Auxiliary Organs
by Hermann Renlow
London: George Philip & Son, 1896. First English language edition. Hardcover. g- to vg. Quarto. 20pp. + fold-out model. Red cloth spine over illustrated tan paper boards, with black lettering on the front cover. This informative early modern optometrical work discusses the physiology and anatomy of the human eye. The book is illustrated with a number of detailed engraved b/w figures throughout, and a beautifully produced multilayered full color chromolithographic fold-out model of the eye, nasal passage, and surrounding muscles of the human face, on the interior back cover. This detailed fold-out is accompanied by a detailed key, enumerating and labeling 99 different parts of the model. Binding with a large chip to the bottom right corner of the front cover, and some additional light rubbing and/or chipping to other extremities. Front cover with a vertical crease, and some light staining at the top right corner. Interior with some minor to light sporadic foxing and water stains to the pages throughout. Binding looses along gutter. Binding in very good-, interior in good condition, model in very good condition overall. Protected by modern mylar. * There are known German and Swedish editions printed the same year, an Italian edition published the following year, and a Spanish translation published at an unknown date. It is not known if this English-language edition is the first or the German (both published the same year). John Browning (c. 1831-1925) was an English inventor and manufacturer of scientific and medical instruments. He was an optician who was particularly known for his ophthalmic instruments, and was a founder and the first president of the British Optical Association (1895), the first body of its kind for professional optometrists. He is considered by many to have been the first first professional optometrist.
Offered by Eric Chaim Kline Bookseller.
Finely Illuminated Vellum Manuscript Signature in Latin, perhaps France, ca. late 15th Century
[No location given: ca. 15th Century].. 22 x 21.75 cm. Double-columned, double-sided single signature, 32 lines. The leaf features 69 gilt initials with embellished pen-work, 2 of them larger with blue backgrounds and the rest smaller with beige or dark brown (matching text ink) backgrounds, with some additional red lettering and the heading "Psalms." 4 pp. Fine vellum; some initials faintly faded with gilt and colors otherwise bright and text clear. Fine. Although not fully translated, this signature was likely once part of a psalter. It features part of a litany from the Book of Hours—Psalm 70 in its entirety, moving into a call-and-response from with red letters marking the call v. the response, beginning with "V: Salvos fac servos tuos" and cutting off at "R: aeternam dona eis. . .." Due to the structure of books, the page opposite the beginning of this litany is not the page that should numerically follow it were it still bound, and so it is broken early. The leaf also features almost all of Psalm 37," ending with "Qui retribuunt mala pro. . .."
Offered by Jeff Weber Rare Books.
THE ADVENTURES OF PRICKLY PORKY
by Thornton W. Burgess
Bost: LB 1916 (1916). 8vo, pict. cloth, 120p. name erased from endpaper and sl. soil rear cover else VG+. 1st ed. Illus. by HARRISON CADY with 6 nice b&w plates. A Bedtime-Story / Quaddie Book.
Offered by Aleph-Bet Books.
by Christopher Morley
Garden City: Doubleday, Page, 1917. 12mo., cloth & pictorial boards in dust jacket. First Edition. An immaculate copy of the first edition. First issue, with the misprint "Y ears" for "Years" on p. 4, line 8 and with the "l" missing in "goldenrod" on page 169, line 11. Also in the first state dust jacket, with "vibrating" instead of "beating" on the front cover.
The entire front endpaper is covered by the following signed autograph inscription by the author, to famous movie director Frank Capra: "This is Frank Capra's copy of this little book-and I am grieved when I think how much he paid for it! It cost him 160 times as much as if he had bought it in September 1917- also, the Author is not worth 160 times what he was then! There is a mistake somewhere! With embarrassment and every good wish- Christopher Morley Jan 28-1935." It is interesting to note that the quotation on the front jacket does not agree with the text of the book, as it appears on p. 146 and leads to speculation that some subsequent issues of the book were issued without dust jackets. With the John C. Eckel bookplate.
Near fine; very tiny nicks or short tears to a lovely dust jacket. Enclosed in a nice leather and cloth slipcase with gilt lettering on the spine. A great association copy in wonderful condition!
Offered by Antic Hay Books.
by Mrs. Dunoyer De Noirmont & Alfred De Marbot (authors & artists). Lithography by Andre & Gustave David.
Paris and London, respectively : Clément; E. Gambart, 1860. First edition. Quarter Morocco. Marbled boards. Near FIne. A gorgeous, sweeping collection of historic French military costume plates, as comprehensive as imaginable, spanning 1439 to 1815, or from the Renaissance to Waterloo. Folio, 45 by 33.5 cm. 450 hand-colored plates in all. Vol. 1: 100 pp, hand-colored plates numbered 1 to115. Vol. 2: 48 pp. Plates numbered 116 to 300. Vol. 3: 58 pp. Plates numbered 1 to 150. The illustrations are generally not static, dull costume plates but rather, the artist usually shows the soldiers in engaged in some activity, and so the illustrations also document the military lifestyle of the day depicted. Many of these plates, thus, can be viewed as genre or action pictures, and their large size contributes to their visual excitement as well. Condition: some light foxing on the text pages. Plate leaves have light age toning along edges but are otherwise very clean, fresh, bright. Morocco spines with a few minor scuffs and rubbing. Bindings are overall solid and attractive.
Offered by White Fox Rare Books & Autographs.
The Israeli Official Gazette, with the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel
The first issue of the Official Gazette of the Israeli provisional government, contains the first printing of "The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel," the new nation's Declaration of Independence. The names of the 37 members of the Provisional Government who signed the document, headed by David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), are listed on the second page. [ISRAEL].
Newspaper. Iton Rishmi [Official Gazette], May 14, 1948. Bulletin. Tel Aviv, Israel: Provisional Government of Israel. In Hebrew. 3 pp., 8 x 13 in.
Excerpt: "WE EXTEND our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace andgood neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.
"WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel.
"PLACING OUR TRUST IN THE "ROCK OF ISRAEL," WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL-AVIV, ON THIS SABBATH EVE, THE 5TH DAY OF IYAR, 5708 (14TH MAY, 1948)."
Historical Background
After World War I, Britain controlled Palestine by League of Nations mandate. By 1946, Britain was under pressure to withdraw from Palestine because of attacks by Arab militias and armed Zionist groups. A special United Nations committee recommended the immediate partitioning of Palestine into two states, one for Arabs and the other for Jews, with Jerusalem maintained by the U.N. as an international city. The General Assembly approved the proposal, and the British announced they would leave Palestine on May 15, 1948.
Members of the provisional government drafted the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, and the provisional government voted in favor of it on May 12. They settled on final wording and held a Declaration ceremony in the Tel Aviv Museum on May 14. Twenty-five members of the Provisional State Council signed it that day, and twelve more added their names later. One was out of the country, and the other eleven were trapped in besieged Jerusalem.
The two rabbis in the provisional government argued for a including the draft phrase "and placing our trust in the Almighty," but a member of the secularist Mapam party strongly opposed it. Rather than including a direct reference to God, the Declaration uses the phrase "Rock of Israel" in the final section, which could refer either to God or to the land of Israel.
Other prominent signers include future Prime Minister Moshe Shertok [Sharett] (1894-1965), future Prime Minister Golda Myerson [Meir] (1898-1978), first Jewish mayor of Jerusalem Daniel Auster (1893-1963), future President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (1884-1963), first Minister of the Interior Yitzhak Gruenbaum (1879-1970), first Minister of Finance Eliezer Kaplan (1891-1952), first Minister of Religions Rabbi Yehuda Leib Maimon (1875-1962), first Minister of Transportation David Remez (1886-1951), first Minister of Justice Pinchas Rosen (1887-1978), first Minister of Health and Minister of Immigration Haim-Moshe Shapira (1902-1970), first and longest-serving Minister of Police Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit (1895-1967), Communist Party of Israel leader Meir Vilner (1918-2003), and many other future members of the Knesset.
At midnight on May 14/15, 1948 (6 p.m., May 14, in Washington), the British Mandate officially ended, and David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel. Eleven minutes later, President Harry S. Truman recognized Israel on behalf of the United States. In the next few days, Iran, the Soviet Union, and several other nations recognized Israel. Over the next few days after the declaration, armies of Egypt, Trans-Jordan, Iraq, and Syria engaged Israeli troops, starting the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which ended ten months later with a substantial increase in the area governed by Israel.
Condition: Fine.
Offered by Seth Kaller, Inc.
by Wanamaker's Department Store
[New York City Subway] THE WANAMAKER VEST POCKET SUBWAY GUIDE. 12.5 cm x 13 cm, a folded cardboard postcard created as promotional advertising for the new New York City Wanamaker department store at Astor Place, which featured its own store entrance directly from the subway platform.
Augustyn and Cohen, in MANHATTAN MAPS 1527 – 2014 state: "The first subway map to be distributed was a private venture. In 1904, Wanamaker's, whose new department store boasted an entrance right at the downtown platform at Astor Place, published a simplified subway map heralding the coming of both the subway and the new store." (p. 135) The image printed on the card is titled "The Wanamaker Station in the Subway at Astor Place. As it will appear when the new Wanamaker Building is completed." This promotional post card was printed in 1904, the year in which underground subway service began in New York City. It shows the platform entrance to Wanamaker's store, with the subway train, headlights on, travelling in the tunnel. (The earliest segment of the New York train transportation system was the above-ground Ninth Avenue El, which began operations in 1868 as a cable-hauled line.) The Wanamaker Department Store at Astor Place was being built in 1904 as an annex to the earlier A. T. Stewart store, which Wanamaker acquired, accessed by a third-floor walkway. According to Henry Collins Brown (1862 - 1961) ground was broken in 1903.
The Astor Place subway station is one of the original twenty-eight stations in the newly opened 1904 underground subway system in New York City. This vest pocket subway guide bears a red stamp with an arrow pointing to the underground subway platform entrance, added when the new store opened in 1907, which says, "Direct Entrance from SUBWAY to the WANAMAKER STORE NOW OPEN." Below the image of the underground entrance to Wanamaker's is a time table: "Time Table of the New Subway, from City Hall to 145th St. – the portion at present completed." On the left-hand side the express stations are listed: Brooklyn Bridge, 14th Street, 42nd Street, 72nd Street, 96th Street, 103rd Street, 110th Street, 116th Street, Manhattan Street, 137th Street, 145th Street. The running times in minutes from the start, Brooklyn Bridge, are listed opposite the stations. On the right-hand side of the guide, below the image, are listed the local stations in double columns: City Hall (now partially illegible, due to the fold), Brooklyn Bridge, Worth Street, Canal Street, Spring Street, Bleeker Street, Astor Place (Wanamaker's), 14th Street, 18th Street, 23rd Street, 28th Street, 33rd Street, 42nd Street (Grand Central), 42nd Street (Broadway), 59th Street, 60th Street, 66th Street, 72nd Street, 79th Street, 86th Street, 91st Street, 96th Street, 103rd Street, 110th Street, 116th Street, Manhattan Street, 137th Street, 145th Street. Below the Time Table is the "Route of the Subway," showing those portions completed at the time of printing, 1904.
This copy, in its original unrestored state, is believed to be one of three recorded copies of THE WANAMAKER VEST POCKET SUBWAY GUIDE with a time table of running times between express stations and a listing of the local station stops. With the exception of a fold, with some letters of text being folded over, but not entirely lost, the condition of this extraordinarily rare WANAMAKER VEST POCKET SUBWAY GUIDE is very good, as it was never addressed, stamped or sent through the mail. The verso is very clean as is the recto with the image and printed information. In Henry Collins Brown's The New Subway in Manhattan, New York: Wanamaker, 1904, both the image of the underground entrance to Wanamaker's store and the map are reproduced on separate pages: the subway map with running times is on page 21 and the image of Wanamaker's subway platform entrance on pp. 14-15.
Offered by Gosen Rare Books.
Trial of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States
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1970. Johnson, Andrew [1808-1875], Defendant. Trial of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, Before the Senate of the United States, On Impeachment by the House of Representatives for High Crimes and Misdemeanors. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1868. Reprint. [New York: Da Capo Press, 1970]. 3 volumes. Original cloth hardcover, gilt titles and library location lales to spines, library marks to edges and endleaves and title page, card pockets to rear free endpapers. Reprint of the first edition.
This is a report of the trial made by the regular stenographers of the Senate for the use of that body. The first volume contains the opening argument of the managers and the evidence, the second the argument in general of the managers and of the counsel for the President, and the third the opinions filed by the individual Senators and, in an appendix, the debate on the right of Senator Wade to sit as a member of the court.
Offered by Lawbook Exchange.
TELEPHONE DIRECTORY. San Francisco. Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph Company. October, - 1905.
[California / San Francisco Local History]. [Chinese Americana]. Sabin, Jno. I - President. Wettig, Miss Anna - Former Owner.
San Francisco: Issued by and property of Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph Company, 1905. 1st printing of this edition. xii, [8], 284 pp., plus 3 unpaginated, inserted advert leaves, blue, buff & pink paper respectively. 8vo. 9" x 6". Original printed grey paper wrappers, stapled, with hole for hanging-cord in upper left. Affixed to front wrapper a caution not to use the Directory until "4 A. M. November 12th. It contains many changed numbers which are not effective until that date." General wear & soiling, A Very Good copy.
Here offered a rare early 20th C. San Francisco telephone directory, the last one issued before the devastating 1906 earthquake & fire. The volume's listings are presented in alphabetical order, accompanied by the occasional exhortation to get a telephone: "You need a telephone. The rates are low. Order one now."
Of particular note & interest in this volume is the 14 page Chinese section at front, 8 pages in Chinese, providing names and numbers of those individuals listed on the "Chinese Exchange, 743 Washington Street" [first founded in 1894].
Interesting in its own right as an early California telephone directory, the volume also serves as a snapshot of San Francisco just months before the city was to suffer its most horrifying destruction, and too, as a document showing the increasing role of the Chinese in the San Francisco environs.
We find only one copy listed on OCLC: CSL.
Offered by Tavistock Books, and featured in their new e-catalog, "Samm's New Short List" (item #3).
by Thomas Jefferson
Philadelphia, 1793. [1]p. manuscript letter on a quarto sheet, 9 1/4 x 7 1/2 inches. Old folds. Small tape repair on verso. Near fine.
A relatively brief but significant letter from Thomas Jefferson that relates to a number of important foreign and domestic political issues that bedeviled George Washington's administration in the early 1790s. The issues addressed by Jefferson, directly and indirectly, include the war between France and Great Britain, Washington's Neutrality Proclamation with regard to that conflict, the efforts of Edmond Genet to enlist private American aid in commandeering British shipping, and the duties, powers, and responsibilities of the individual states as opposed to the federal government. The task of enforcing American neutrality fell largely to Jefferson as Secretary of State, and it was a major instance of his reasoned notion that America must remain neutral coming into conflict with his emotional attachment to France.
Edmond Genet, the first minister of the French Republic to the United States, arrived in Charleston, South Carolina on April 8, 1793, and immediately undertook a course of actions that strained French-American relations. France had declared war on Great Britain the previous February, and Genet sought to enlist American assistance in seizing British ships, and in attacking British holdings in North America. He commissioned American ships as privateers against British ships, and established French prize courts to divide the spoils. Just two weeks after Genet's arrival, Washington pronounced that the official policy of the United States toward France and Great Britain would be strict neutrality, and he instructed American citizens to refrain from any belligerent activities. This neutrality proclamation did nothing to dissuade Genet, however, and on April 29 a British-owned schooner, Eunice, was captured off the coast of Virginia by an American-built and armed schooner that sailed under French colors, but which was manned largely by Americans. The Eunice was sent to Baltimore, where it was to be tried in a (Genet-organized) prize court. In the wake of this and other events, the Washington administration issued several important directives in May 1793, including an order for prosecuting American citizens bearing arms with European belligerents, and circular letters to the state governors regarding the preservation of peace and against the outfitting of privateering vessels.
The present letter from Jefferson to Maryland governor Thomas Sim Lee is a response to a letter from Lee dated May 20th. In that letter Lee updated Jefferson on the status of the Eunice, and deferred to the federal government on how to proceed with that issue and in similar cases. In the present letter of May 25th, Jefferson responds to Lee in a direct and forthright manner, informing him that he has shown Lee's letter of the 20th to President Washington. Jefferson addresses the issue of how to deal with Americans aiding the belligerents, referring to Attorney General Edmund Randolph's recently issued order: "Measures had been already taken for prosecuting such American citizens as had joined in the capture therein mentioned, a letter to that effect having been written to the Attorney of the U.S. in the state of Maryland." With regard to how the states should respond to instances of captured ships being brought into their ports, Jefferson informs Lee that the federal government expects the states to use their own resources: "With respect to the prize, the government did not think itself authorised to do any thing. Your Excellency will have been informed by a letter from the Secretary at war, addressed to you as the head of the militia of your state, of the measures proposed for preventing the fitting out privateers in our ports in future, as well as for the preservation of peace within our limits." This refers to the two orders issued by Secretary of War Henry Knox on May 23 and May 24, just a few days before Jefferson wrote this letter. Throughout 1793, Secretary of State Jefferson wrestled with the issues raised by the war between Great Britain and France: America's neutrality, his personal pro-French sentiments, the deleterious effects of Genet's activities, and the role that the states and the federal government should play in preserving peace. This letter encompasses all those issues. PAPERS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 26, pp.67-68, 117-18. Malone, JEFFERSON AND THE ORDEAL OF LIBERTY, pp.79-89, 102-3. Harry Ammon, THE GENET MISSION (New York, 1973), pp.32-79. Lawrence S. Kaplan, JEFFERSON AND FRANCE (New Haven, 1967), pp.51-59.
Offered by William Reese Co.
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