Browse the latest catalogs, newsletters, and e-lists of rare books, fine bindings, incunabula, print ephemera, and much more from the members of the ABAA below. (Also includes podcasts, blog posts, and other digital formats.)
*New* indicates any catalogs brought to our attention since the early August 2024.
AARDVARK BOOKS/EZRA TISHMAN BOOK APPRAISALS
ANTIPODEAN BOOKS, MAPS, PRINTS
- E-list #44 ~ W.W.I., Americana, Australia, Photographs, Maps, Ephemera
- E-list #43 ~ Antipodean Books at the Brooklyn Virtual Book Fair
Featured item:
Nissen, Georg Nikolaus von.
Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1828. Large octavo, 6 x 8.25 in (15 x 21 cm), two parts in one volume, including the supplement (Anhang); xliv, 702, 220 pages. Contemporary paper boards; expertly rebacked. Moderate external wear, light occasional foxing to contents, overall an attractive copy. All illustrations, facsimiles, etc. are present, except the family portrait that is usually missing. There are 8 lithograph plates, ; a manuscript music facsimile; a text facsimile of Nissen’s tombstone; and 8 folded music plates.
This collection of family letters, journals, contemporary criticism, etc. was assembled with connecting text by Danish diplomat Georg Nikolaus von Nissen, the second husband of Mozart’s widow, Constanze. She edited it for publication after Nissen’s death. It remains one of the most important collections of primary source material on the composer.
Offered by Archway Books and found in "A Short Musical List."
Featured item:
Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., State Printers, 1888. 8vo (9.5” x 6.25”), later blue library buckram, gilt title at spine. 469 pp. Autograph of “Waldbridge A. Field” pasted in above tipped in autograph letter from Sarah Jane Robinson to “Judge Field,” dated 30 May, 1888. CONDITION: Very good, tissue repairs to chipped edges of first 6 and last 4 leaves; letter very good.
The official report on the first of two trials of Sarah Jane Robinson, the “Massachusetts Borgia,” who murdered her landlord and seven of her own family members, with a brazen letter from the murderer herself to Massachusetts Justice Waldbridge A. Field, requesting a private meeting.
After the death of her parents, Sarah Jane (Tennant) Robinson emigrated from Ireland to the U.S. at the age of fourteen, and at nineteen married Moses Robinson, a carpenter. They lived in poverty, dogged by creditors and moving frequently to escape unpaid rent. She gained notoriety in the 1880s for committing a series of murders, beginning with her elderly landlord in August 1881 and followed by her husband (1882), their young daughter (1884), her sister and brother-in-law (1885), an older daughter, her seven-year-old nephew, and her son William (1886). Most of Robinson’s victims were insured—some thanks to her own urging—and she found ways of becoming the beneficiary: in the case of her sister and brother-in-law, whose insurance benefited their young son, she simply adopted her nephew and “put [him] out of the way” (“A Bay State Borgia”).
Robinson was tried twice—first for William’s murder, and then for those of her sister and brother-in-law, their son, her landlord, and her husband. This volume is the report on the first trial. Robinson’s letter, dated May 30th, 1888, was written from “E. Cambridge Jail” after the second trial. It reads in full:
Judge Field Dear Sir:—
As you well know I am here charged with one of the highest crimes known to the law & convicted by false evidence since my trial I have not felt able to be off my bed having been quite sick.
Would it be asking too much if you could find time for me to have a short interview with you I want to see you very much hoping you will grant me the favor of seeing you I remain
Respectfully
Sara J Robinson
Excised from a different sheet and affixed above the letter is the autograph of Judge Walbridge A. Field (1833–1899). Originally from Vermont, Field studied at the Harvard Law School and practiced law in Boston in between periods of service as the Assistant Attorney General of the United States, Republican Representative to the House of Representatives, and justice—eventually Chief Justice—of the Massachusetts Supreme Court (1881–1899).
Accounts differ as to what finally tipped off the police to Robinson’s guilt—the increasingly frequent insurance payouts to her, or the fact that William, after being struck on the back by a falling object at work, became, in his mother’s care, seriously ill with the same stomach convulsions that had carried off his siblings, aunt, uncle, and cousin. A suspicious doctor, Emory White, sent a sample of William’s vomit to Harvard chemist and toxicologist Edward Wood, who found it to contain arsenic. Eventually, all Robinson’s victims were exhumed, and all were found to have been poisoned with arsenic. While “nursing” her victims, Robinson apparently had several premonitions and prophetic dreams about their imminent deaths, which soon—or at least, as soon she confirmed that their life insurance was in order—became reality. After her imprisonment, newspapers reported the discovery of a box of rat poison in a hole in the wall of her former basement: “That it may have been there before Mrs. Robinson took the house of course is possible, but the police firmly believe that Mrs. Robinson placed it where it was found” (“Circumstantial Evidence”).
Naturally, newspapers were inclined to sensationalize Robinson’s story, the interest of which was no doubt increased because she had an “intelligent” face and “the appearance of a refined woman” (“Arsenic Grains Found”). Around the time of her sentencing in November, 1888, however, “public sentiment had turned in Mrs. Robinson’s favor and a petition to commute her sentence [from death by hanging] to life in prison” was submitted to and granted by the Governor (Wilhelm). Her sympathetic bearing in court, as well as her gender, may have had something to do with this. A modern author, also sympathetic, put it this way: “If there is shrewd calculation in such long-range plans as her elimination of Annie [her sister] to get at Prince [her brother-in-law], there is also a desperate necessity in picking off one insured worker after another. In the circle of poverty, no person’s work was as valuable as life insurance; and even that lump—the sum of a person’s life—was never, in the long run, enough” (Jones, p. 156). Robinson died in prison on January 3rd, 1906.
REFERENCES: “A Bay State Borgia,” Morning Journal and Courier (New Haven, CT), August 13 1886; “Arsenic Grains Found,” Fall River Daily Herald, 13 August 1886, p. 1; “Circumstantial Evidence,” Boston Evening Transcript, 31 May, 1888, p. 1; Jones, Ann. Women Who Kill (New York: The Feminist Press, 2009), pp. 149–157; Wilhelm, Robert. “The Massachusetts Borgia,” at Murder by Gaslight online.
Offered by James Arsenault & Company and found in "Recent Acquisitions & Highlights in Americana, June 2024."
- Artists' Books and Exhibition Catalogues: Electronic List 146
- French World War I Print Portfolios, Drawings, Photographs, Periodicals & Livres d'artistes: Electronic List 145
- EVOLVING HISTORY of IDEAS (New York Book Fair)
- Catalog 24: LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN – THE MAN and HIS THOUGHT
Featured item;
Signed Portrait of the Boxer Cecil Phillips.
Washington or environs, 1938. Silver gelatin print measuring 9 ⅛ x 6 ⅛ inches. Some creasing, very good.
A signed photograph of the boxer Cecil Phillips - of whom we find no record besides a negative in the Smithsonian’s Scurlock collection of this image. The photograph is signed twice by Phillips, and dated april 1, 1938. The Scurlock Studio played a significant role in photographically documenting the African-American communities of Washington D.C. and its environs during this period.
Offered by Auger Down Books and found in "Graphic & Archival Americana."
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19th Century Decorated Paper Bindings, Decorated Cloth Bindings and Historic Works New York Book & Ephemera Fair Catalog
W. C. BAKER RARE BOOKS & EPHEMERA
Featured item:
BUTLER, Octavia E. Parable of the Talents.
New York / Toronto: Seven Stories, (1998). Octavo, original black paper boards, original dust jacket.
First edition of one of Butler's final novels, the concluding work in her Parable Series—a "masterpiece" (New York Times)—boldly signed on the title page by her.
"By writing Black female protagonists into science fiction, and bringing her acute appraisal of real-world power structures to bear on the imaginary worlds," Butler became a prominent early voice of Afrofuturism (New Yorker). Her Parable series, begun with Parable of the Sower (1993), was continued by her series' final work, Parable of the Talents (1998). Awarded the 1999 Nebula Award for Best Novel, it was quickly heralded as a "masterpiece" (New York Times). The novel, which evokes a dystopian world in which "indentured servitude and slavery are common" (New Yorker), nevertheless stands "as a testament to the author's enormous talent, and to the human spirit" (Publishers Weekly). To Butler, the book "was not intended as an augur. 'This was not a book about prophecy,' she said… 'this was a cautionary tale'" (New Yorker). In addition to her two Nebula Awards—for Parable of the Talents and for Bloodchild (1985) as "Best Novelette"—Butler won two Hugo Awards: one for Bloodchild and another for her 1984 short story Speech Sounds. Following her sudden death in 2006, Butler was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2010. Her body of work "pushes the genre to speak to our deepest, culturally burdened horrors as well as to our transcendent hopes" (Kilgore & Samantraim, Memorial, 353).
Interior fine with scant foxing to fore-edge; mere trace of soiling to bright dust jacket. A handsome about-fine copy.
Offered by Bauman Rare Books and found in "Highlights in Science-Fiction & Fantasy."
BLUEMANGO BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS
- Recent Acquisitions (August 2024) *New*
- Recent Acquisitions
Featured item:
Robert Dudley’s rare and desirable chart of the Eastern seaboard
[Robert Dudley] / A[ntonio Francesco] Lucini (engraver), Carta seconda Generale del’America. [Florence: Giuseppe Cocchini for Jacobo Bagnoni & Antonio Francesco Lucini, Florence, 1646].
Engraving on laid paper, 17 5/8”h x 14 5/8”w at plate mark. Early notation in ink (“Fig. 12”) just below title. Minor soiling, but about excellent.
A rare chart of the Eastern Seaboard, representing a bundle of firsts: “This is the first printed sea chart of the east coast of North America by an Englishman, and the first to record soundings” (Burden). It is from the “first nautical atlas by an Englishman, and the first nautical atlas with charts on [the] Mercator projection.” (Tooley).
Offered here is the first state of the chart–with “II” at upper right–from the second volume of the 1646 first edition of Robert Dudley’s Dell’Arcano del Mare (“Secrets of the Sea”). Burden notes that “there are two known states of the map … Both are of great rarity, the first especially so.”
The chart’s coverage extends from the mouth of the River St. Lawrence, Nova Scotia and the tip of Newfoundland south to Cape Canaveral and the northern extremity of the Bahama Islands. Burden notes,
“The most interesting area is that of New York where any indication of the Dutch presence is removed. R. Hudson is named after its discoverer and not by the Dutch name, Noort Rivier. To the west of this lies another bay with two rivers, clearly corresponding with Lower Bay. Staten Island is the promontory to the east and the two islands here represent Sand Poynt. The large island at the mouth of the Hudson River is Manhattan.”
It is generally accepted that Dudley’s treatment of the New York area relied on a 1639 manuscript chart by one John Daniell. Daniell (1565?-1649) was one of the leading figures of the “Thames School” group of manuscript chartmakers active along the Thames through much of the 17th century. The bulk of his extant charts survive in Florence and are convincingly said to have been owned by Dudley himself.
To the south “Mary land” and “Verginia Nuoua” are both named, with much of the delineation deriving from the maps of John White and John Smith. There are however significant additions, such as the inclusion of the York River for the first time in a printed map, while the James River is labelled “R: del Re”, presumably a reference to King James. Significantly, Dudley has included soundings for the Chesapeake Bay, which for some reason are not present on the more detailed “Carta particolare della Virginia” in volume 6 of the Arcano del Mare.
Sir Robert Dudley (1573-1649)
Dudley was the illegitimate son of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. By his own account, by age 20 he was a general and explorer with a commission from the Crown, leading an expedition to the West Indies during which he sailed some 250 miles up the Orinoco River. Soon thereafter he had a command in the wildly successful Cadiz expedition of 1596, for which he was knighted.
Around 1605 however, Dudley lost favor at court while trying to prove his legitimacy, in the hope of inheriting his father’ titles and attached property. Having failed in this, Dudley abandoned his wife and children, left England with lover in tow, converted to Catholicism, and took up residence in Florence. There he entered the service of Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and went on to serve his successors Cosimo II and Ferdinando II as a skilled navigator, mathematician, engineer, ship designer and shipbuilder. During these years he published his Dell’Arcano del Mare (Secrets of the Sea), a mammoth, six-volume sea atlas and compendium of nautical knowledge. Dudley was a friend of Sir Francis Drake and a relative of Thomas Cavendish, both of whom corresponded with him and likely supplied some of the information for his charts.
Three volumes of Dudley manuscript charts, produced in preparation for the atlas, survive today in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, including a prototype for this chart of the eastern seaboard. Indeed, Dudley seems to have been a conscientious compiler, as the manuscript charts in the Berlin volumes show “evidence of unceasing revision” (Imago Mundi), with the present chart showing influences as late as 1639.
Offered by Boston Rare Maps, Inc. and found in "Recent Acquisitions."
- Brattlecast #187: Something from I. Newton (Podcast)
- Brattlecast #186: The Japanese Album (Podcast)
- e-List #81: Cryptozoology *New*
- e-List #80: Fine Press *New*
ANDREW CAHAN, BOOKSELLER, LTD.
- E-list on the South (June 2024)
- New York Book Fair 2024
- From the library of John Henry Nash -- list available on request from info@carpediemfinebooks.com...
- New Arrivals
- Inhabited by Winston (January 2022)
- Winston for Your Walls
- August Arrivals *New*
- Manuscripts & Letters *New*
- THE LUNAR VOYAGE FROM THE 17th CENTURY TO THE PRESENT -- In conjunction with the RBMS and the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing -- Offered jointly with John W. Knott, Jr., Bookseller
- Popular Fiction 1814-1939: Selections from the Anthony Tino Collection -- Offered jointly with John W. Knott, Jr., Bookseller
- E-list: Photographic Archives, Latin-Americana, African-Americana, Lincoln Conspirators, American Indian History, and More -- Joint catalog with Auger Down Books
DE SIMONE COMPANY, BOOKSELLERS
- List 58: Women, Illustrated Books, Cookery, Collections
- List 55 Illustrated Books, Broadsides & Manuscripts
- New Arrivals (August 12, 2024) *New*
- Shaker Books, Ephemera and Photography
- Catalog #88, Medical Books from the Fifteenth to the Twentieth Centuries -- This catalog is print-only. To request a copy, contact MedBks@aol.com...
Featured item:
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
Child, Julia; Louisette Bertholle; and Simone Beck
Notes: A very good signed copy of the 8th printing of the most influential cookbook of the 1960s. Pro tip: If you are looking for the famous "beef bourguignon" recipe, you won't find it in the index with other beef recipes (like beef Stroganoff), it's alphabetized under Boeuf... This is a serious French cookbook.
Illustrated by Sidonie Coryn. [1–2: blank] [i–vii] viii–x [xi–xiii] xiv–xv [xvi] [1–3] 4–684 ii–xxxii (index) [xxxiii–xxxiv] pages.
Edition + Condition: Eighth printing. A very good copy with a few spots on the fore-edge in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket missing a half-inch or so at the top of the spine (not affecting any text). The jacket also has a few spots and edge tears. This copy is signed by Julia Child on the half-title with her usual "Bon appétit!" Vintage copies, from the 1960s, can be hard to find signed.
Publication: New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964.
Offered by Downtown Brown Books and found in "List 112."
- e-list 104: Miscellany: the Doukhobors, a Perfumed Nut, a Curseword Puzzle, "A Job Only a Woman Can Do", & Of COurse, the Children
- e-list No. 103 Miscellany: Circus Ephemera, Butter Wrappers, Victory Rations, a Jesuit Priest's Guide to "Going Steady" & Of Course, the Children
EDITIO ALTERA RARE BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
- RBMS 2024
- New York Book Fair 2024 (Revised)
- Comic collection of William "Gatz" Hjortsberg -- Details available upon request from info@elkriverbooks.com...
- Highlights from the ABAA Virtual Book Fair
- August New Arrivals *New*
- July 2024
RODGER FRIEDMAN RARE BOOK STUDIO
- OCCASIONAL LIST 22: A Miscellany: Original Art Work; Small Archive of Major English Watercolourist; Interesting Theatrical Pieces; Manuscript Material, Etc., Etc. -- available on request from fgrare@fgrarebooks.com...
- Has the following lists available: California, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Oregon, Louisiana, Colorado, Ohio and New York. Will email to interested parties. Contact info@ginsbook.com to request...
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THOMAS A. GOLDWASSER RARE BOOKS
DAVID A. HAMILTON AMERICANA BOOKS
Featured item:
HIRST, Damien.
Pharmacy (Signed Limited Edition)
New York: Cohen Gallery, 1992. Limited Edition. Offset print on thick card (8.5 x 8.5 inches), with die-cut circle to center; SIGNED and hand-numbered to lower margin (147/200). An editioned announcement card produced by Damien Hirst for one of his earliest New York shows at Cohen Gallery (Dec. 4–Jan. 28, 1993), where Pharmacy had been created as a site-specific installation. Archivally-hinged in white lacquer frame with UV plexiglass.
Offered by Harper's Books and found in "July Selections."
- Americana
- Antiquarian Miscellany (May 28, 2024)
JONATHAN A. HILL, BOOKSELLER, INC.
- Mail Art *New*
- Artists' Books *New*
- Art History *New*
- Woodblocks *New*
Featured item:
Guy Bleus: Broken Stamps (7-30 [July] 1996).
Many illus. Unpaginated. 4to, transparent plastic sheets, black plastic spiral bound. San Francisco: Stamp Art Gallery, 1996.
Rare exhibition catalogue on the influential correspondence artist Guy Bleus (b. 1950). Filled with essays by the artist on a wide range of topics, including Ray Johnson, artists’ books, mail art, etc. In fine condition, signed by two proprietors of the Stamp Art Gallery, John Held, Jr. and Picasso Gaglione. Two examples in North America recorded by WorldCat.
Offered by Jonathan A. Hill, Booksellers and found in "Mail Art."
- Publishers' Bindings from the Morris-Levin Collection *New* -- Offered in partnership with johnson rare books & archives
- July New Acquisitions
- August 2024 *New*
- Summer 2024
Featured item:
“History of Costume by Gertrude Balentine, 2nd year Costume Design, January, 1942,” and “Fashions from Past to Present by Tru Balentine,” begin this delightful school assignment kept in a 9.75” x 11.5” loose-leaf notebook with over 45 watercolors/pen and ink costume designs, with another 90 pages or so of handwritten text on the subject.
The designs start with “The beginning of costume (with prehistoric man), “and covers other periods, including Egyptian costumes, Asiatic costumes, Greek costumes, Roman costumes, Middle Age costumes, the Renaissance, French costume, Colonial costumes in America, and fashions up to the 1930s.
In the back of the assignment, there is commentary attached by her teacher. It reads “Very good – more definition of folds, drapery, desirable in some cases.” This is signed “Lucile Howard.” Edith Lucile Howard was a founder and member of the Philadelphia Ten, which was a group of female artists from the United States who exhibited together from 1917-1945. She taught at the Grand Central Art Galleries and School of Art in New York and taught art history and fashion at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, which is where I believe Tru took her class.
I couldn’t find much information on Balentine, except for: Gertrude (Balentine) Lysinger, 1920-2012. Died at age 92 in Southampton PA. Husband Herbert was a naval officer during WWII.
I imagine it must have been a thrill to have been taught by such an esteemed teacher, who herself was a student of artists Henry B. Snell and Elliott Daingerfield.
Offered by House of Mirth Photos and found in "August 2024."
- Literary Archive of Jane Miller -- Details and price available upon request to james@jamesjaffe.com. Institutional inquiries only.
- Harold Bloom Archive - Details and price available upon request to james@jamesjaffe.com. Institutional inquiries only.
- Publishers' Bindings from the Morris-Levin Collection *New* -- Offered in partnership with Honey & Wax Booksellers.
- Japanese Internment *New*
- Dystopian
Featured item:
Improvements in or relating to forks.
[Redhill: Malcomson, 1900.] Disbound: One plate. 2 pp. Red edges, signs of removal from gutter, purple stamp on page [1].
This is the patent for an innovative and affordable fork designed for laborers. Invented by Charles Frederick Marriott, this fork was to be constructed so that it could fold closed safely without the tines being exposed, and then be kept in one’s pocket while working. With a plate showing the nature of the invention as well as the means for putting it into effect. The four figures represent an opened folding fork; a longitudinal section through the fork; the cross section of the fork; and the fork in its closed position. With a purple stamp from the Manchester department of patents on page [1] dated 16 May 1900. In good condition. Unrecorded.
Offered by Ben Kinmont, Bookseller and found in "Job Printing & Gastronomy."
JOHN W. KNOTT, JR., BOOKSELLER
Featured item:
THE FEDS. June 1937. (Volume 2, No. 4). John L. Nanovic, editor.
New York: Street and Smith Publishing, Inc., 1937. Octavo, single issue, pictorial wrappers. Pulp magazine. Lead feature is "Public Hero No. 1-The Life Story of John Edgar Hoover and the F.B.I." Also includes a Steve Fisher novelette. Cook, Mystery, Detective and Espionage Magazines, pp. 237-239. Tanning to text paper, still supple, mild edge wear, small paper loss at the head of the spine, light damp stain to verso of lower front edge.
Offered by John W. Knott, Jr., Bookseller and found in "New Arrivals: Pulps."
- Catalog #74: 100 Rare Books -- with an emphasis on history and military affairs. Please request from mail@kubikbooks.com...
MICHAEL LAIRD RARE BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
Featured item:
GOLD-PRINTED LITHOGRAPH: A PROTECTIVE TALISMAN, WITH SPECIAL APPEALS FOR HEALING
[Anonymous Lithographer].
S.l. (probably Istanbul): late 19th century or ca. 1900. Gold printed lithograph (51 x 16 cm; 20” x 6.25”), stained, significantly repaired on verso, some small holes in folds. Preserved in a mylar L-sleeve (folded once horizontally). Good.
PROTECTION FROM EVIL SPIRITS, LITHOGRAPHED IN GOLD. An intriguing Ottoman talisman; unusually, it was executed in gold ink lithography. As customary, there are two columns of various prayers and spells, references to the Qur’an, the names of God, the Prophet, other prophets, and other magical terms and magical squares. The text is Arabic, here presented in calligraphic handwriting. The talisman itself was created to be carried (or worn), either folded or in a protective case. The vertical texts on the borders of the two columns are verses taken from the Qur’an and are REQUESTS FOR HEALING. The two middle columns are requests for aid by God through the Qur’an, the Prophet Muhammed, and the other prophets. Such objects have been popular as a personal protection against evil spirits in the Middle East for centuries until today. Nonetheless, examples printed in gold lithography, are very uncommon. We are grateful to Kelly Tuttle for her kind assistance in cataloguing of this talisman.
Offered by Michael Laird Rare Books & Manuscripts and found in "RBMS 2024."
- 30 Unusual & Extraordinary Items (Aug 6, 2024) *New*
- Books of the Corpus Juris Civilis: Editions, Commentaries & Related Works (July 30, 2024)
Featured item:
[Raymond of Penaforte, Saint (1175?-1275), Compiler]. [Le Conte, Antoine (1517-1586), Editor].
Antwerp: Ex Officina Christophori Plantini, 1570. [xxxii], 911, [1] pp. Octavo (6-1/2" x 4-1/4"). Contemporary ornately gilt-paneled calf, large heraldic arms with the arms of an unidentified bishop or cardinal (indicated by a galero hat with tassels) to centers of boards, gilt spine with raised bands, all edges gilt, spine ends carefully mended. A few minor nicks and scuffs to boards, a few tiny worm holes to spine, moderate rubbing to extremities, front joint starting, hinges cracked. Plantin device to title page. Moderate toning and light foxing, light soiling to title page, single worm hole through most of text block. A superbly bound volume.
Promulgated in 1234, the Decretals of Gregory IX is one of the four works known collectively as the Corpus Juris Canonici, a collection of papal decisions comprising the law of the Catholic Church and lands governed by the Pope. The Decretals is organized into five books dealing with church government, procedure, clerical life, marriage and criminal law. The first printed edition was issued in Strasbourg by Heinrich Eggesteyn in 1470-1472. Edited by the important humanist Le Conte, also known as Contius, our Plantiin edition predates the Reformation-inspired Correctores Romani (1580-1582), which was the law of the Church until 1917.
Offered by Lawbook Exchange and found in "30 Unusual & Extraordinary Items."
DAVID M. LESSER, FINE ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS
Featured item:
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[vp: 1865]. All are in Very Good condition, with occasional dust to the backing. All are about 2-1/2" x 4." Light occasional wear, Very Good.
1. EXECUTIVE OFFICE, SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY. NY: Brill. 1865. 2-3/8" x 3-7/8." Illustration of a despairing Jefferson Davis, now a prisoner in handcuffs standing in the middle of his small cell. Mrs. Davis's dress and crinoline, in which he was allegedly captured, hangs on a wall in his prison cell. A stool and a pitcher are by his bed. A chain for shackling is on another wall. The verso is blank. Very Good with light wear.
2. THE LAST OF THE CHEVALIERS. (END OF THE PLAY) JEFF: "I THOUGHT YOUR GOVERNMENT WAS MORE MAGNANIMOUS THAN TO HUNT DOWN WOMEN AND CHILDREN." Boston: Prang. 1865. Lithograph print, 2-3/8" x 3-15/16." Jefferson Davis in a woman's long dress, with shawl and cape, holding a knife in his upraised right hand. A hand points a revolver at Davis's head. Davis wears boots, with spurs. "Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1865 by L. Prang & Co. in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Mass." Very Good.
3. "DONT PROVOKE HIM. HE MIGHT HURT YOU. [np: 1865]. 2-38" x 3-3/4," mounted on card stock. On the verso is a photo of an elderly gentleman [Davis?], wearing a top hat and standing in front of his house]. Davis is running away, in woman's dress and bonnet, carrying a knife in his right hand.
4. Uncaptioned. Providence: 1865. 2-1/2" x 4." Jeff Davis, elaborately costumed in women's clothing, and Mrs. Davis at his side, is flanked by two Union soldiers, one of whom lifts the bottom of Davis's dress with his sword; the other Union soldier pats Davis on top of his head. They are standing outside Davis's tent. A ghoulish person looks on from inside the tent.
5. Uncaptioned. New York: Anthony. [1865]. Davis wears a woman's dress and cloak. He has a long pigtail and shuffles away from a burning Richmond.
6. In manuscript, "The Neglected Picture." Davis's portrait is enclosed in a frame with shattered glass. Two business cards--one for a rope maker and one for an undertaker--are inserted into inner edges of frame. Photograph of a cartoon. The verso states, in ink manuscript, "From an original oil painting by Wm. M. Davis of Port Jefferson L.I. - 1861."
The copy at the Lincoln Financial Foundation confirms Davis as the artist. ""William M. Davis produced a trompe l' oeil painting in 1861 based on the most popular likeness of the Confederate president, which had appeared, among other places, on the five-cent Confederate stamp. The center of the artist's work is a tattered lithograph in an old pine frame, with its caption 'Hon. Jeff Davis' fully visible. The lithograph is torn, one corner curls down, and disrespectful signs are pasted over it. But what makes the work successful is the illusion of shattered glass over the print. The painting was photographed in 1862 and distributed as a carte-de-visite entitled The Neglected Picture..." Neely, Holzer, Boritt: The Confederate Image, pages 169-170.
Offered by David M. Lesser, Fine Antiquarian Books and found in "Civil War: New Acquisitions."
LIBER ANTIQUUS, EARLY PRINTED BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
- New Arrivals (July 2024)
- RBMS 2024
J. & J. LUBRANO MUSIC ANTIQUARIANS
- NEW ANTIQUARIAN MUSIC ACQUISITIONS May 2024
- Rare First and Early Editions of the Works of George Frideric Handel 1685-1759
STUART LUTZ HISTORIC DOCUMENTS
- List of 77 Mark Twain First Editions and Ephemera available by request from info@macdonnellrarebooks.com (specify elist or paper copy).
MAIN STREET FINE BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
- Fraktur, Fashion, LGTBQ+, Marcus Garvey, etc. (August, 2024) *New*
- LGBTQ+ Flyers, Ephemera, etc.
- MEXICAN ILLUSTRATED BOOKS. 50 YEARS OF ILLUSTRATED BOOKS PUBLISHED IN MEXICO -- catalog available to institutional buyers by request from mmbooks@comcast.net
- Illustrated Catalog on Carlos Merida (1891–1984) -- Mexican painter, sculptor, writer and graphic designer -- available by request from mmbooks@comcast.net
MARTAYAN LAN RARE BOOKS & MAPS
- e-catalog #99: Books from the Collection of Cameron Allan
- Children’s Dance Theater Archive of Carla Blank and Jody Roberts -- Offered jointly with Kate Mitas, Bookseller. Details available on request from maser@detritus.com...
- List 56, Fifty Under $500 *New*
- List 55, Civil War *New*
BRUCE MCKITTRICK RARE BOOKS, INC.
Featured item:
Follini, Giorgio. 1756-1831.
Osservazioni Fisiche Sul Preteso Vero Uomo Incombustibile Signor Giuseppe Lionnet.
Turin, B. Barberis 1808. 8vo (203 x 131 mm.). 48p. Stabbed in original pale blue wrappers (rubbed, corners folded).
First edition, the report of the physicist, abbot and professor debunking the sensational performer Giuseppe Lionnet’s claim of incombustibility. When Lionnet arrived in Turin on tour in 1807, Follini and a committee of five doctors were able to scrub the daredevil’s skin clean. They then subjected Lionnet to seven tests. He touched hot metal bars with his hands, mouth and feet, drank hot oil, held molten lead in his mouth and had nitric acid poured on his arm. He sustained burns to a foot and an arm.
FOLLINI REVEALS HOW EACH OF LIONNET’S TRICKS COULD BE ACCOMPLISHED using alum, dexterity, sleights of hand and acclimatization. He cites scientific monographs and journals, as well as religious and historical precedents. In short, he proved Lionnet a fraud. No example in the U.S. In good condition.
Offered by McKittrick Rare Books and found in "Seven Books You Weren't Thinking About When You Woke Up."
Featured item:
Safety Matches / Alumettes de Surete
Moscow: Raznoexport, (n. d.), circa 1958. 10-1/4 x 6-1/2 inches. [32]pp. Stapled blue wrappers illustrated in pink, yellow, orange, etc. Profusely illustrated in color and b&w, with gilt highlights. Text in English and French. Rubbing/scuffing to spine and lightly to wrappers; slight bumping to corners. Very Good.
A scarce promotional booklet of matchbooks from the USSR, gorgeously printed and including a two-page photographic spread of women working in the matchbox factory. The USSR itself is promoted here nearly as much as the matches themselves, which have names like "Soviet Ballet," "Visit the USSR," "Puppet Theatre," and "Festivalniye"; these last were issued in 1957 to mark the Sixth World Festival of Youth and Students, held in Moscow. Naturally, the high quality of Soviet materials and workmanship is touted, too, and the specs for each of the different match sizes offered are carefully delineated.
OCLC locates one holding, at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Offered by Kate Mitas, Bookseller and found in "E-list No. 22: How to Be a Badass."
Featured items:
[TREU, Martin].
Twelve dancing couples. [Germany], 1541-1543.
12 small engravings (58/60 x 42/44 mm.) of well-dressed couples engaged in courtly dances, all signed with the MT monogram (one with monogram partly effaced), most numbered, fine, dark impressions, trimmed to borders, a few with hairline margins (nos. 1, 7, 9, 10, 12), tipped to three leaves in an album, within neat pen-and ink borders, with tissue guards. No. [6] with possible small restoration in upper blank margin. Modern red morocco gilt, spine gold-tooled and lettered “Martin Treu / Danses de la Renaissance.” Provenance: Friedrich August II, King of Saxony(?): the upper edge of what appears to be his smaller inkstamped mark visible at the foot of most of the engravings (cf. Lugt 170-171, noting that the second sale of duplicates from the collection, held in 1900, included “les petits-maîtres allemands”); “MD,” leather bookplate. ***
A rare suite of Renaissance dance engravings, the first depicting a pair of musicians playing a flute and drum, the rest showing prosperous couples engaged in courtly dances. Included are three engravings not recorded by Hollstein but clearly part of the series.
The name Martin Treu was first associated with the monogrammist MT, active ca. 1540-1543, by J. F. Christ in his Dictionnaire des Monogrammes (1750). Although no evidence has emerged for this identification, the name has stuck. This artist belonged to the second generation of “Little Masters,” a picturesque term for several engravers who produced minuscule prints, from the size of a postage card to that of a playing card. Our artist was of the generation succeeding the most famous representatives of this school, Sebald and Barthel Beham and Georg Pencz; his work has been compared to that of Heinrich Aldegrever, active in Westphalia.
This series of well-dressed couples dancing demurely (several appear to be standing still) contrasts markedly with a complementary set of engravings, ascribed to the same Master MT (though stylistically rather different), showing 12 peasant couples dancing rowdily (Hollstein, Treu 26-36).
Here we see women in high-waisted and low-bodiced gowns, with long waist-ribbons, translucent cambrics covering their bosoms, and double or triple-puffed long sleeves, wearing caps or coifs, one with a feathered hat, and necklaces. Some lift outer skirts bearing short trains, a few hold flowers, and one (no. 4), appears to be pregnant. Their partners are exuberantly dressed, showing no signs of the Protestant sobriety that was to influence men’s fashion by the middle of the century. They wear doublets, pleated knee-length breeches, ornate sleeves, and delicate dancing-shoes; some wear cloaks or capes, and most sport caps, though several are bare-headed. All but one carry swords at their waists. Only one gentleman lifts a leg more than an inch off the ground. Most look intent on the dance (although one tries to snatch a kiss). These are serious people.
Hollstein records 12 engravings, numbered 1 to 14, with no numbers 9 or 11 (a plate numbered 15, Hollstein 26, is actually part of the peasant dance series). Three of our engravings are not in Hollstein, and absent from this set are Hollstein nos. 20, 23 and 25. Three others represent unrecorded states.
Contents:
1, dated 1543: Hollstein 14 (only state)
2, 1543: Hollstein 15 (only state)
3, 1543: Hollstein 16 (only state)
4, 1541: Hollstein 17, state 2
5, 1543: Hollstein 18, state 1
6, no date: Hollstein 24, unrecorded state, with the date deleted, and the number 6 incompletely rubbed out.
[7] unnumbered, 1542: not in Hollstein
8, 1543: Hollstein 21, state 2
[9], 1542: Hollstein 19, unrecorded state without numbering
[10], unnumbered, 1542: Not in Hollstein
[11], 1542: Hollstein 22, unrecorded state without numbering
1[2], the 2 of the number added in early ink, 1542: Not in Hollstein
I locate no copies in American museums or libraries. Hollstein, German Engravings, Etchings and Woodcuts 1400-1700, vol. XCV (2019), Treu no. 14-25 (but see above); Bartsch, Le Peintre Graveur IX: 68-78; Nagler, Künstler Lexikon 19: 74-78.
Offered by Musinsky Rare Books and found in "Continental European Parties Before 1830."
- Louis M. Jason's book Literary (and Other) Celebrity Doodles II is now available. Contact the store at info@mysterypierbooks.com to order...
- Father's Day Gift Offerings
Featured item:
Tabula Anemographica seu Pyxis Nautica.
This is an excellent example of Jansson’s beautifully engraved and hand-colored wind rose chart, one of the first in that map genre and a significant navigational advance for sailors.
Using the 32 points of the compass rose developed by sailors and navigators in the Middle Ages; each point is associated with a line labeled in Greek, Latin, Italian, Portuguese, French, and Dutch and degrees separated at intervals of 90 as well as degrees running 360 from the north. The cardinal directions are labeled in all caps with lines running towards the top-left (north), top-right (east), bottom-right (south), and bottom-left (west). Heads representing the different races of the world blow winds around the perimeter of the chart, with larger heads at the ends of the lines for the cardinal directions. Despite its aesthetic qualities, this chart was used as a reference, evidenced by its detail and inclusion of the six languages, as extant pilot books or other navigational tools could easily be in any of these languages.
Wind Rose Charts
This map was one of the earliest published wind charts, which are graphical representations of wind data showing various attributes of wind, such as direction, speed, frequency, and patterns over a specific period and location. The present map is more specifically a wind rose chart, also known as an anemographic chart, which is a circular diagram showing the frequency of winds blowing from different directions. Each “spoke” on the rose represents a wind direction, and the length of each spoke indicates the frequency or speed of the wind from that direction.
Publication information
This map appeared as the first plate in Jannson’s Atlantis Majoris, the fifth volume of Jansson’s Atlas Novus. The first part of the Atlantis Majoris is also known as the Atlas Maritimus. A ground-breaking work, it was the first true sea atlas. This example is distinguished by its very good condition and gorgeous hand coloring.
Offered by Neatline Antique Maps and featured in "Curiosities & Miscellanea."
Featured item:
[Adams, Katharine- Binding and Original Stunning Illuminations By Allan Vigers]
Morris, William. Art and the Beauty of the Earth.
London: Longmans & Company; The Chiswick Press, 1898. First Edition. 8vo, 8 ¼ x 5 ¾ inches. EXQUISITELY ILLUMINATED BY ALLAN F. VIGERS (1858-1921), including half-title decorated with white rose blossoms and leafy tendrils hanging down in multiple colors, verso with square illustration of flowers in garden, with striking blue ornamental background, opening text leaf with stunning full-page wide border design in multiple colors composed of dozens of flowers in bright red bordered design panels, and two graceful long-beaked birds at the bottom (dated “1903”), large illustration on the colophon page including the two birds facing each other in a garden, with 12 roses overhead, bright blue background, and red bordering panels, and approximately 48 tendril and flower infills within the text in various colors--all in watercolor; the colophon illumination is signed below by Vigers: “1903 A.V.F.” This wonderfully illumined masterpiece is further complemented by its superb binding by KATHARINE ADAMS, one of the top bookbinders in the modern era, who became an acclaimed and highly sought-after bookbinder in Britain and abroad, creating intricate gold-tooled bindings with tools she herself had designed. Adams became the second president of the Women’s Guild of Art, and bound many books which have become legendary in the trade by famous publishers such as the Doves and Kelmscott Press. Bound in full crushed green morocco, signed and dated “K.A. 1906,” on lower dentelle, lettered on upper cover and spine, top edges gilt, and dentelles made up of small circles; joints slightly rubbed, internally fine. Printed at the Chiswick Press in Golden type designed by William Morris for the Kelmscott Press.
Allan Francis Vigers (1858-1921) was trained as an architect, but was best-known (like Morris) as a designer of textiles, furniture and especially beautifully designed wallpaper in distinctively Arts & Crafts modalities. Vigers joined the Art Workers Guild in 1903, and exhibited at the Royal Academy and at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition in 1910, and took a highly individualistic approach to pattern design, informed by his skills as an illuminator. He specialized in intricate florals, composed of a mass of small flower heads, mounted like jewels on white or dark-blue backgrounds. At once naturalistic and symbolic, his patterns feature typical English garden flowers... simply and accurately depicted, but arranged in consciously artful synchronized formations.
Offered by Nudelman Rare Books and found in "Catalog 52."
- Special Catalogue 34: The Herbert H. Johnson Collection of Book Design and Typography, Part One
- July 2024: New Acquisitions
Featured item:
LES LETTRES ET LES ARTS. REVUE ILLUSTREE. FOUR VOLUMES
Paris: Boussod, Valadon et Cie, 1886-1887. large 4to. half brown morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, leather tips, marbled patedowns and endpapers. variously paginated.
The first four (of twelve) volumes of this well-known reference on French Art. Minor rubbing / wear to spine ends / hinges / corners of all four volumes. Foxing to preliminary pages of all four volumes, else a very good set. Many illustrated plates, some in color.
Offered by Oak Knoll Books and found in "Special Catalogue 34: The Herbert H. Johnson Collection of Book Design and Typography, Part One."
- Catalog 65, May 2024 -- by subscription only. Contact oldwestbooks@earthlink.net for details about obtaining a copy.
- The Horse
- Occasional List (May 2024)
- Timm Ulrichs: A Pioneer of Concrete Poetry, Computer Art and Copy Art
- Fugitives from Culture: The Polish Neo-Avant-Garde and Beyond
PHILLIP J. PIRAGES FINE BOOKS & MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS
Featured item:
HISTOIRE DE NAPOLÉON
NORVINS, JACQUES DE MONTBRETON DE.
(Paris: [Imprimerie Panckoucke for] Bureau des Publications Illustrées, 1839). 248 x 156 mm. (9 3/4 x 6 1/4"). Two volumes. 11th Edition.
STRIKING LIGHT BROWN POLISHED CALF BY NOULHAC, COVER WITH INLAID ENAMELLED VELLUM PANELS BY JEANNE DINET-ROLLINCE (front turn-ins signed "J. Rollince, Del. 1919" and "Nouhlac, Rel. 1919"), panel on front cover depicting an eagle with thunderbolt arrows in its talons and an olive branch in its beak, on a shimmering ground in shades of gold, enclosed by a flowered frame with a crowned "N" within a laurel wreath at each corner, rear panel similar, with a cockaded hat above crossed swords and olive branches at center, raised bands, spine gilt in compartments featuring a bee centerpiece, gilt lettering, INLAID ENAMELLED VELLUM DOUBLURES signed by Rollince at foot, medallion centerpieces with four different scenes from Napoleon's career, surrounded by colorful ornaments in the Empire style, marbled flyleaves, all edges gilt. With 53 engravings, composed of 19 portraits (including the two frontispieces of Napoleon), 22 maps (six folding), and 12 scenes. ◆Minor soiling to covers, volume II with enamel rubbed in a couple of spots, two very small chips to the leather framing the panels, intermittent minor foxing and offsetting, about a third of the plates a little browned, but a memorably bound set in pleasing condition, the contents without a fatal flaw, the colors on the covers bright, and the doublures virtually perfect.
The creation of a leading binder in collaboration with a talented Parisian artist (and socialite), this popular illustrated history of Napoléon comes in a spectacular "reliure parlante" ("speaking binding") which symbolizes the book's subject. Master binder Henri Noulhac (1866-1931) and Jeanne Dinet-Rollince (1865-1947), the sister and biographer of Orientalist artist Étienne Dinet, probably produced this binding either for a special client, such as Noulhac's patron, the great collector Henri Béraldi, or for an important exhibition, possibly the 1919 Salon de la Société des Artistes Français. Dinet-Rollince collaborated with top binders such as Gruel and Noulhac, a fact that speaks highly of her skill as an artist and designer. She is best known for having developed the "enamelled vellum" ("velin émaillée") technique used to such great effect here. In the "Women Bookbinders" chapter of his "La Reliure française de 1900 à 1925," Ernest de Crauzat praises her work: "Among these innovative women, it is appropriate to cite . . . Mrs. J. Rollince, pseudonym of a most charming society woman, who, even before pyrography and chiseled copper were fashionable, had the idea of enameling vellums. She succeeded and knew how--by a complicated alchemy, by the double effect of colors and metallic iridescence, by pen-retouching of prints and a grain worked with a burin, finally, by the supreme and random magic of fire--to obtain this brilliant, decorated, smooth, caressing surface, which envelops the book as if with a spread light." Duncan & De Bartha describe Noulhac as "a highly talented craftsman," but one who "had no ambition to make a name for himself specifically as a book binding designer"--in other words, the ideal partner for an artist of Dinet-Rollince's gifts. Examples of Dinet-Rollince's work are rare in the marketplace: we could trace just one other at auction, a single volume in a Gruel binding with enamelled vellum doublures.
Offered by Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books & Medieval Manuscripts.
PRIMARY SOURCES, UNCHARTED AMERICANA
RABELAIS BOOKS ON FOOD & DRINK
RICHARD C. RAMER, OLD & RARE BOOKS
- Special List 520: Periodicals *New*
- Special List 519: Patrons of the Academia Brasileira de Letras *New*
Featured item:
Robert Towne (screenwriter)
CHINATOWN [ca. 1973] Jack Nicholson's copy of early draft film script
[Los Angeles]: Paramount Pictures, [ca. 1973]. Vintage original film script, printed die-cut Paramount Pictures wrappers, 11 x 8 1⁄2" (28 x 22 cm.). First-generation xerographic printing, 187 pp. Pp. 178-187 are
hand-numbered in ink. Light creasing to back cover, last few pages have minute stains at extreme top blank margins, overall near fine.
Jack Nicholson’s copy of a very early draft by Robert Towne. The script contains innumerable photocopied revisions, almost certainly in Towne’s hand, and some underlinings and notes in ink in Nicholson’s hand.
Almost all of the great American private-eye films—The Maltese Falcon, Murder My Sweet, The Big Sleep, Out of the Past, Kiss Me Deadly—are adapted from preexisting works, with one outstanding exception: 1974’s Chinatown, based on an original screenplay by Robert Towne that is a masterpiece of narrative construction, meta-history, and myth. This early draft of the Chinatown screenplay, with corrections by writer Towne and annotations by star Jack Nicholson, is substantially different from the screenplay that was eventually filmed—rougher and much longer. It has voiceover narration missing from the completed film. Where later versions of the screenplay—and the film—begin with the detective protagonist Jake Gittes (Nicholson) in conference with a cuckolded client (Burt Young), this version, set like the film in the 1930s, begins with the eventual murder victim, water commissioner Hollis Mulwray, examining the bed of the L.A. River. What appear to be Towne’s photocopied annotations are essentially corrections (portions of lines crossed out, many hand-printed words added to the dialogue), suggesting this is an early draft, if not the first draft, of the completed script. What appear to be Nicholson’s annotations, handwritten in this copy, are comments suggesting a dialogue between Towne and Nicholson (who had been friends and collaborators for many years) regarding the development of the script. The screenplay was clearly written with Nicholson in mind as the lead.
Although the movie is much tighter than this early draft, and scenes have been revised, replaced, or rearranged, the bare bones of the plot are the same as in all later versions—the mystery of why massive amounts of L.A.’s water are being diverted into the ocean, the strange interrelationship of Mulwray and his beautiful wife Evelyn (Faye Dunaway), her monstrously wealthy father and Hollis’ former partner Julian Cross (renamed Noah Cross and played by John Huston), and the incest theme, the hidden girl who turns out to be Evelyn’s daughter by her own father. Between this draft and the completed film, some characters were added and others eliminated. Unlike in the movie, the screenplay’s patriarchal villain, Cross, doesn’t appear until late in the story. And he has far fewer scenes and lines. The most radical difference between this draft, subsequent drafts, and the completed film is its final act and conclusion. In this early draft, Cross is shot dead by Evelyn off-screen—whereas in the completed movie’s stunning ending (written by director Roman Polanski), Evelyn is the one who is shot and Cross leaves the scene with Evelyn’s terried daughter in his custody. Evil and corruption prevail.
Offered by Walter Reuben, Inc. and found in "Catalog 54."
ROOTENBERG RARE BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
Featured item:
Robert Altman (director) Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Robert Duvall (starring)
Final script for the 1970 film, dated February 26, 1969. Included with the script are eight borderless double-weight reference photographs from the film, with stamps specific to the film’s French release on the versos. A core New Hollywood film, based on the 1968 novel by Richard Hooker, and in turn the basis of the acclaimed television show which ran for eleven seasons, from 1972-1983 on CBS. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Screenplay, and nominated for four more, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress. Winner of the Palme d’Or. Housed in a custom clamshell box. National Film Registry.
Offered by Royal Books and found in "Catalog Eighty-Two" (item 56).
BARRY LAWRENCE RUDERMAN ANTIQUE MAPS, INC.
- Recent Acquisitions (August 13, 2024) *New*
- Recent Acquisitions (August 6, 2024) *New*
Featured item:
Bonvalot, Gabriel. Through the heart of Asia over the Pamir to India ... with 250 illustrations by Albert Pepin. Translated from the French by C. B. Pitman.
London: Chapman & Hall, 1889. First edition in English, 2 volumes, large 8vo, pp. xxii, 281; x, 255, [1], 8 (ads); vignette title pages, folding map printed in color, numerous wood-engraved illustrations throughout, a number of them full-page; a scuff mark at the top of the spine of volume II, and a small dampstain on the upper cover of the same volume, else a very good, sound and clean set in original pictorial blue cloth stamped in gilt and white.
Wikipedia notes that in 1886, Bonvalot set out for Russian Central Asia. He departed from Tashkent in 1886 and traveled up to the border with Afghanistan. During the winter season, the expedition remained in Samarkand and sought a way to cross the Pamir Mountains from north to south and reach China. In 1887 they crossed through Kyrgyz territory in the Alai Mountains. He crossed the Pamirs, Chitral, where he was detained for more than a month, and the Karakoram, until he reached Kashmir. He was rewarded for this expedition by the Société de Géographie in Paris.
Offered by Rulon-Miller Books and found in "Recent Acquisitions (August 6, 2024)" (item #4).
- Catalog 24-2: Suppression of Contagious Diseases
- Catalog 24-1 (January 2024)
- A Handfull of 19th Century American Books
- Wines and Viticulture - 17 items from 4 centuries
- List: 150th Anniversary of Mendeleev's Periodic System
- California Book Fair 2019: 130 Items on Science and Medicine is now available on request from scientiabk@gmail.com...
Featured item:
Liu, Cixin; Liu, Ken [Translator]; Martinsen, Joel [Translator]; Hanlon, Elizabeth [Translator]; Haluza, Zac [Translator]; Lanphier, Adam [Translator]; Nahm, Holger [Translator]
London: Head of Zeus, 2015, 2016, 2017. First UK Editions, First Printings, Limited Signed Editions. Octavos, four volumes. In Near Fine condition with Near Fine dust jackets. Black, red, and blue spines with white, yellow, and red lettering. Dust jackets are wrapped in mylar coverings. Each volume signed flat by author and translator on limitations pages.
CONTENTS: 'The Three-Body Problem' (399 pages) No. 78 of 250; signed by Cixin Liu and Ken Liu on limitations page. -- 'The Dark Forest' (512 pages) No. 78 of 250; signed by Cixin Liu and Joel Martinsen on limitations page. -- 'Death's End' (604 pages) No. 78 of 250; signed by Cixin Liu and Ken Liu on limitations page. -- 'The Wandering Earth' (447 pages) No. 78 of 150; signed by Cixin Liu on limitations page.
Offered by Second Story Books and found in "E-List #107: Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror."
MARC SELVAGGIO, BOOKS & EPHEMERA
MICHAEL R. THOMPSON RARE BOOKS
- Fine Printing and Artist’s Books *New*
- New Arrivals *New*
Featured item:
PINKHAM, Lydia E. Stretching Your Dollar.
[n.p., Lynn, Massachusetts: Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Company, n.d., ca. 1920s.] 4½ x 7 in. 32 pp. Illustrated on nearly every page. Publisher’s pictorial paper wrappers printed in black and orange. Some toning. Uniform toning due to paper quality. A very good copy of a scarce and fragile item. First edition.
This booklet combines money saving tips with advertisements (targeted towards women) for patent medicines sold by the Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Company. The remedies include a vaginal douche, laxatives, and “Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound,” a popular cure-all for women that was supposedly able to regulate mood, improve sleep, and cure physical discomforts relating to menstruation, menopause, pregnancy, and childbirth. The booklet includes many testimonials by grateful women who used the remedy. One such testimonial reads, “All my life I have felt tired and run down. Housework was a burden. But Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound has chased that feeling away…My color is good. I sleep well and eat well. I recommend this wonderful medicine to any suffering woman” (p. 18).
Lydia Estes Pinkham (1819 – 1883) was an inventor and patent medicine distributor made famous by creating and selling Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound, one of the most popular patent medicines of the late nineteenth century. The remedy utilized five herbal ingredients traditionally used to treat menstrual issues, plus alcohol. She managed a large business to distribute the compound along with other remedies and publications like Lydia E. Pinkham’s Private Text Book, a sexual health manual for women. The tonic was so popular that it was eventually memorialized in a drinking song known as “The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham” and, later, “Lily the Pink.” Pinkham was also a lifelong supporter of abolition and women’s rights. She had grown up in a family of abolitionists in Lynn, Massachusetts who counted Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison among their friends.
Offered by Michael R. Thompson Rare Books and found in "New Arrivals."
- E-list #94: LGBTQ++ Publications, African Americana, Prison Ephemera *New*
- E-List #93: Women's Rights, Gay Rights, African Americana, et. al
- List 154: Travel Posters *New*
- List 153: Military Posters *New*
- List 152: New Arrivals *New*
Featured item:
Brown, Samuel M.
U.S.A. - Europe. 'Britannic' Cunard White Star.
Liverpool, ENG: Cunard White Star Lines., (c.1930). Color lithograph [73.5 cm x 48 cm] / [29" x 19"] Colors are bright. Nice condition. Travel poster promoting travel on the newest ship in the Cunard White Star fleet, the MV Britannic, which when it was completed was the largest ship in the UK Merchant Navy.
Offered by Tschanz Rare Books and found in "List 154: Travel Posters."
Featured item:
by James Baldwin
1962. First edition, review copy with publisher's publicity photo laid in of novel that Baldwin said "makes GIOVANNI seem conservative—almost square."
Fine in very good plus jacket.
Offered by Type Punch Matrix and found in "James Baldwin Catalog."
- E-List 20, Sales, Marketing & Merchandising in the United States 1886-1973
- E-list #19: Western Americana
Featured item:
ADICHIE, Chimamanda Ngozi. Half of a Yellow Sun.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. 24.2x16.5cm: 435pp. First North American Edition. SIGNED by author on title page. Yellow paper-covered boards quarterbound in green paper, with title stamped in gilt on spine. Illustrated dust jacket. Spine ends gently nudged with light wear to board edges. Modest stain to textblock foredge that bleeds into the preliminaries and first 20 pages, not affecting text. Dustjacket a bit soiled with scuffing to rear. Small stain on p.178, not affecting text, otherwise internally clean. Better than Very Good in a Very Good dust jacket.
Adichie’s second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun is set during the Nigerian Civil War (Biafran War) and “is a remarkable novel about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race–and the ways in which love can complicate them all.” It won the UK Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2007, and was turned into a movie in 2013.
Offered by Walnut Street Paper and found in "African Americana E-List."
JOHN WINDLE ANTIQUARIAN BOOKSELLER
Featured item:
Hanham, Frederick, editor.
Natural Illustrations of the British Grasses.
1846. Bath: Binns and Goodwin, 1846.
Small folio, xx, 130, (2, ads) with 62 specimens of dried grasses mounted on separate plates each with printed title and border. Publisher’s red pebbled morocco, elaborately paneled in gilt and blind over beveled boards, backstrip gilt with title entwined by grasses of the field and the publisher’s name surmounted by an oval vignette of reeds at the water’s edge, bound by Astle and Sons. Binding lightly rubbed and worn at tips, occasional light foxing and offsetting, specimens astonishingly well preserved.
First (only) edition. A beautifully preserved specimen book describing the grasses of Great Britain. A small ecological treasure from the pre-herbicide era (one wonders how many of the grasses contained are now endangered or extinct) and one with renewed significance in the light of the rewilding movement in England and new efforts by English Heritage and others to restore former meadowlands. Taxonomy is discussed but the accompanying text is mostly literary, extolling the charms of grasses and their vital importance to mankind. The specimens themselves are extraordinarily delicate and attractive. “Dried specimens of plants, when preserved with care as to their natural appearance and character, must always be more interesting and valuable to a Botanist, or a lover of Nature, than engravings; being the real or original object, which drawings are intended only to portray... there is much... that the pencil can never show” (Hanham, Preface).
Offered by John WIndle Antiquarian Bookseller and found in "A Short List of Manuscripts and Other Rarities."
Featured item:
DASSANCE, M. L’ABBE. Heures nouvelles, paroissien complet Latin-Francais, a l’usage de Paris et de Rome, par M. L’Abbe Dassance.
Paris: L. Curmer, 1841. Writing of a color-printed work entitled Offices complets suivant le rit romain of 1855, Michael Twyman states: “This was by no means the first ‘paroissien’ (French prayer book for the laity) to include some chromolithography. Among the first must be L’Abbe Dassance, Heures nouvelles...(Paris: L. Curmer, 1841) which has a decorated title page and a part-title lettered ‘Lith. Engelmann.’ Both pages were printed on coated stock in a pale version of the five-colour method referred to above. Curmer must have felt that colour was a means of selling his ‘paroissiens’ as they were advertised very briefly on the wrappers of his L’imitation de Jesus (1855-57) as having ‘coloured frontispieces [‘frontispieces en couleur’].” - History of Chromolithography, p. 184, note 198.
Rare; OCLC locates just two copies in American libraries. 8vo, orig. full maroon morocco, gilt die-stamped upper cover and spine, a.e.g., a handsome binding. 800 pp. with 2 chromolithographs as explained above; and 11 steel engr plates.
Offered by Charles B. Wood, Bookseller and found in "Catalogue 199."
- List #1223: Holiday List
- List #1222: Holiday List (December, 2022)
Featured item:
Milne, A.A. [Alan Alexander]
London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1968. Shepard, Ernest H. First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine / Very Good. Item #2345281
First edition. Includes original first state jacket with 7/6 NET on spine. Minor discoloration to endpapers, a few tiny closed tears along jacket edges with minor loss from corners.
x, 178 pp. Pink cloth, gilt titles and decorations, top edge gilt, illustrated endpapers, frontispiece and illustrations throughout text by Ernest H. Shepard. Return to the Hundred Acre Wood in A.A. Milne's second collection of Pooh stories, The House at Pooh Corner. Here you will rediscover all the characters you met in Winnie-the-Pooh: Christopher Robin, Eeyore, Owl, Piglet, Kanga, tiny Roo, and, of course, Pooh himself. Joining them is the thoroughly bouncy and lovable Tigger, who leads the rest into unforgettable adventures.
Offered by Yesterday's Muse Books and found in "Summer 2024."
- Early August 2024 *New*
- July 2024
- Portland & Environs -- catalogue issued in conjunction with the Rose City Book & Paper Fair
- Dreaming of the Open Road: Automobile Dealer Literature, Catalogue Two
Featured item:
ST. VINCENT DE PAUL (1581-1660)
Regulae seu constitutiones communes congregationis Missionis
Paris: 1658. The first edition of the rules of the Congregation of the Mission, the religious society founded by St. Vincent de Paul. Founded in 1625, the society was concerned especially with charitable works and expanded rapidly in Europe and abroad. The edition offered here is the only one published during the saint's lifetime and includes an exhortation by Vincent to this followers. There are several variants of this first edition, some have a different engraved portrait of Vincent, others have a different spelling on the title-page, and still others include an errata sheet at the end (this one does not). 12mo (12 x 6.5cm), [iv], 112pp., [ii]. Engraved title-page, engraved portrait, and engraved plate of Christ. Bound in contemporary calf, some wear to spine.
Offered by Zinos Books and found in "New Arrivals."
Featured item:
Sherman, Orin The Sherman Clothes Wringer, Warranted Without Cog Wheels
Boston: By the author, n. d. (1860s). Small broadside; 8 3/4 x 5 3/4; off-white stock printed in black and illustrated with a woodcut; a small nick to right edge and a tiny puncture to lower margin; a bit of age-toning and spotting; in about very good condition. A fabulous, mid-19th-century advertising piece, it showed a lady using the Sherman Wringer, dressed in a patriotic, American-Flag-pattern dress. Historically, laundry was a dreaded household chore in the 19th century, one which women did everything they could to avoid - including sending their washing out for others to do and hiring laundresses to come to their homes, when they could afford it. Those, who could not afford help needed a large variety of supplies - water, heating sources and vessels for boiling water, pails, tubs, dippers, wash-boards, soaps, drying areas, and so on. The Sherman Wringer promised to make everyone's life easier by being improved, compact, simple, durable, and without cog wheels "to cause it to turn hard, or to break and render the machine useless," like other wringers on the market. The broadside stated that the Sherman was far superior to Putnam's, Colby's, and many other competitors' contraptions and that it could fit both round and square tubs, making it universal.
Offered by ZH Books and found in "E-list: Everyday Life."
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