Regarded as one of the world’s largest and most prestigious exhibitions of antiquarian books, the California International Antiquarian Book Fair gives visitors the opportunity to see, learn about, and purchase the finest in rare and valuable books, manuscripts, autographs, illustrations, vintage photographs, and much more.
Preview some of the most-unusual, rarest, and most-beautiful rare books and other items that members of the ABAA will be exhibiting at the fair below. The fair tales place in Oakland, CA over the weekend of February 10-12, 2017, and, as always, all items are subject to prior sale!
Bowles, Paul. Archive of Paul Bowles Letters. Written to Patrick Eddington of Salt Lake City, Utah (Winter 1978 to Spring 1985)
1978-1985. This archive is comprised of thirty-one letters written by Paul Bowles to Patrick Eddington of Salt Lake City, Utah. Twenty-eight TLS (typed letter, signed) and three ALS (autograph letter, signed), typed/written on 8.25” x 10.75” single sheets of onion skin (format consistent, except in a few cases,). Letters with return address (printed or typed) and dates (typed) at top right. Each letter signed in ink by Paul Bowles. Some letters have corrections and added content in Bowles’ hand. All of the letters but one are accompanied by their original addressed and postmarked envelopes (standard 5.75” x 4.5” international size). Some additional material is present, including five small photographs, and some xeroxed sheets of copied artwork. A detailed write-up is available upon inquiry. (Offered by Ken Sanders Rare Books, Booth 804)
This 1890 greeting card contains Beatrix Potter’s first published illustrations, which accompanied a poem by Frederick Weatherly, and is one of just a handful of copies that survive. It is especially rare in undamaged condition with the original pale rose silk tassels wholly intact. Weatherly was also the author of the lyrics to `Danny Boy’. Beatrix Potter, of course, later gained immortal fame with her Peter Rabbit stories. Only one copy at auction in the last twenty-five copies was comparable to our copy, fetching $31,250 in 2012, and a copy has fetched as much as $55,000 (with ink spots, the tie-holes pulled, and the spine ends splitting). (Offered by Mac Donnell Rare Books, Booth 908)
Plato; Spens, Henry (translator). The Republic of Plato. In Ten Books. Translated from the Greek by H. Spens. With a Preliminary Discourse Concerning the Philosophy of the Ancients by the Translator. Glasgow: Robert & Andrew Foulis, 1763.
Quarto, contemporary calf, boards ruled in gilt with decorative cornerpieces, rebacked with original spine laid down, spine compartments elaborately decorated in gilt, red morocco spine label lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers. Complete with final leaf of publisher's advertisements. Bookplate of Dunnichen Library to front pastedown, shelfmarks to front fly leaf, inscriptions reading “From the Author to G. Dempster / 18th Nov 1784” (pencil) and “From the Author to George Dempster / 18th Nov 1784” (ink) on second front fly leaf. Closed tear to second front fly leaf, expertly mended.
First edition in English, presentation copy, of Plato’s Republic, translated by Scottish classicist Henry Spens “to stir up the youth to the study of the Ancients,” and published by the Foulis brothers at the University of Glasgow. (Offered by Honey & Wax Booksellers, Booth 903)
Marx, M. Roger (Preface). Les Maitres de l'Affiche Publication Mensuelle contenant la reproduction des plus belles Affiches illustrees des grands artistes, francais et etrangers.
Paris: Chaix, 1896-1897, 1900. First edition. Folio, 41 x 32 cm. Our copies, Vols 1-2, and 5 contain 140 fine color lithographs after posters (of 148). Four text pages by Marx in year 1896. Volume one complete with Plate Nos. 1-48, plus the original cover design by Cheret. Four text pages by Marx in year 1897. Plate Nos. 49-100 (lacking plates 49-52), and with a Cheret bonus plate. Year Volume 5 with Plate nos. 193-240 (lacks193-196) with three bonus plates, by Paul Bertha, Leander and Cheret. Artists in this series include Steinlen, Mucha, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Forain, Grasset, Meunier, Louis Rhead, Dudley Hardy, Beggarstaff, Edward Penfield et al. Under the artistic direction of Jules Cheret, the father of poster art (1836-1932), the prints were published as a monthly subscription. In addition to the four prints disseminated every month, there were 16 bonus plates each originally designed by noted artists, each lithograph with Maitres de l'Affiche blindstamp (LUGT 1777c). The varied selection of prints were sold in packages of four and delivered monthly to subscribers. On sixteen occasions during the selling period between December 1895 through November 1900, the monthly package included a bonus of a specially created lithograph. Maîtres de l'Affiche (Masters of the Poster) refers to 256 color lithographic plates used to create an art publication during the Belle Époque in Paris, France. The collection, reproduced from the original works of ninety-seven artists in a smaller 11 x 15 inch format. Plates bright and fresh, two bookplates inside front cover pastedown in all three volumes, raised bands, spine lettered in gilt, backstrips rubbed at extremities. Quarter brown morocco and marbled boards. Very good. (Offered by Roy Young Bookseller, Booth 511)
A Book of Visual and Verbal Contemplations, Philip Smith
(Yatton Keynell, Wiltshire, UK): Philip Smith Design, 1988. 3 x 4 1/2". Original needlepoint covered boards by Sarah Windrum, with continuous landscape design by Philip Smith, edged with beige morocco and with morocco-covered press stud closure, marbled paper leaves with various quotations in Philip Smith's hand, signed on the colophon by both Smith and Windrum, in fine condition.
A stunningly beautiful book from cover to cover. The tapestry is expertly worked by Sarah Windrum, a well-known UK embroiderer and author. The marbled papers, design, and binding were done by Philip Smith, an internationally well-known bookbinder and book artist who was awarded gold and silver medals in several international competitions. (Offered by The Book Lair, Booth 91)
A striking, powerful and mammoth Dispensationalist banner
For Ruth Watkins Evangelist / By permission of the author Clarence Larkin, DANIEL and REVELATION COMPARED. (Sacramento, CA area, ca. 1930s-early 1940s.)
Hand-painted polychrome banner on canvas, 46 ½”h x 136 ¼”w at edges. Metal grommets inserted all along edges to allow for hanging, with remnants of string ties. Some soiling and minor areas of abrasion, but very good or better for an artifact that probably saw some hard use. Accompanied by a heavily-annotated, battered and possibly incomplete copy of Clarence Larkin, Dispensational Truth (Philadelphia: Rev. Clarence Larkin Est, 1920), bearing the ownership inscription of “Guy L. Watkins, 474 South “W”[?] St. Tulare, [California.]” (Offered by Boston Rare Maps, Inc., Booth 608)
Jack the Ripper: A Bloody Alphabet. With Illustrations by Kristi Wyatt.
RICHARDS, Sean E.
Norman, OK: Byzantium Studios Limited, 2014. 32mo. 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches. Unpaginated. [50] pp. Engraved illustrations throughout, including facsimiles of 2 letters written at the time of the murders; text clean, unmarked. Hand-bound by Sean Richards in gilt-ruled red morocco, raised bands, marbled end-papers; binding square and tight. Housed in a box built up with papier-mâché into the shape of a human heart, covered with red morocco onlays, two brass hinges are embedded and pinned into the papier-mâché upon which are hinged two door that open forward to reveal the morocco-lined box that holds the little book. Comes complete with a wooden anatomical specimen stand hand-turned by a local wood-worker. Fine.
LIMITED EDITION of 95 copies, this is one of 20, SIGNED and Numbered 14, and housed in a human-heart-shaped box, and includes a wooden anatomical specimen stand for display. This artist’s book reflects Sean Richards’ life-long fascination with Jack the Ripper and his years of research on the Victorian crime spree attributed to this shadowy character. It also displays Richards’ virtuosity as a visionary artist and creative bookbinder, who manifests his ideas in leather and papier-mâché. (Offered by John Howell for Books, Booth 914)
AN ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHIC ALBUM OF COSTA RICA, INCLUDING CHARLES LINDBERGH’S VISIT TO SAN JOSE
Labeled “Costa Rica – May 1927 to Oct. 1928,” the album contains 176 black and white photographs, most measuring 3” x 5” or larger, capturing glimpses of a young woman's travels in Costa Rica. Notably, the album contains 14 original black and white photographs of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh’s departure from San Jose, Costa Rica on January 9, 1928. These original images show Lindbergh on the airfield, the pilot testing the propeller, and the painting of the Costa Rican flag on the Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh’s goodwill tour of Latin America and the Caribbean started in New York on December 13, 1927 and lasted until February 8, 1928. (Offered by johnson rare books & archives, Booth #802)
Dickens, Charles. Autograph Letter Signed From Charles Dickens to Charles Reade, author of The Cloister and the Hearth (1861).
1869. Dickens died from exhaustion and from complications of a stroke on June 9, 1870. (Offered by Johanson Rare Books, Booth 410)
The Original Journal Publication of the Tractatus
WITTGENSTEIN, Ludwig. Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung (A Logical-Philosophical Treatise) in Annalen der Naturphilosophie, herausgegeben von (edited by) Wilhelm Ostwald, Vierzehnter Band, Drittes u. Viertes Heft (Fourteenth Volume, Third and Fourth Part), Unesma G.m.b.H., Leipzig, 1921. Original printed wrap + [185]-308 + TP for Volume 14 + 1 leaf + Inhalt (Contents) for Volume 14, Octavo. First Edition (Frongia/McGuiness, "Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung”, p. 42). (Offered by Athena Rare Books, Booth 1005)
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Bancroft, H[ubert] H[owe]. The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft (Complete in 39 Volumes)
San Francisco. A.L. Bancroft & Company and The History Company, 1882-1890. First Editions, mixed printings. Octavos in original full polished tree calf, spines decoratively tooled & lettered in gilt, raised bands, burgundy and green morocco spine labels (series spine label of six volumes in variant color), inner gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Illustrated with maps, text illustrations and engraved portrait of Bancroft. Laid in is the original 'Publisher's Notice' of the planned publication sequence of the 39 volumes. A few minor cosmetic flaws and a few tender hinges (those of two volumes professionally strengthened); a splendid set in the publisher's deluxe binding, fine and bright and rare thus. (Offered by Carpe Diem Fine Books, Booth 215)
Note: All items are Subject to Prior Sale.
Keep an eye on both the ABAA Facebook Page and the California Antiquarian Book Fair Facebook Page for more item previews and other information on the 50th annual California International Antiquarian Book Fair!
