London: n.p., (1795). 220pp. With eight woodcut illustrations that depict significant figures and scenes, including Adam and Eve, Moses, and King David. Most other known copies contain seven or fewer woodcuts. Adomeit identifies this as the first iteration of at least two issues, which feature reset title pages and texts..... More
London: Company of Stationers, 1793. (24)pp. Opens with an engraving of the Coal Exchange, spanning four pages. The almanac's calendar records the times of sunrise and sunset, as well as various saints' days and term times for academic institutions. The volume also provides a table of the reigns of the..... More
Paris: Didot, Typographie de Firmin, (c. 1810). 124pp. Eight engravings on beige paper. The absurd adventures of Pierrot, born from a turkey's egg to La Fee Gourmande, and dedicated to gourmandise from that moment on, until his gluttony proves too much and dooms him. In a contemporary binding: full blue-green..... More
Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 1878. 499pp. One of 1,000 copies. The type, cut by Antonio Farina in 1834 but never used by him, was cast in 1850 for this edition of Dante and is thought to be the smallest ever employed. According to Bondy, "the most widely-discussed and the most sensational..... More
(France? c. 1830). Seven vols. Unpaginated. Each volume devotes its contents to a particular theme: flowers, animals, insects, the Latin alphabet, caricatured figures, professions, and landscapes. All illustrations are finely and minutely rendered, suggesting a skilled hand, early to the use of color in printed illustration arts. The volume of..... More
(c. 1980). A small collection of items connected with Barry Moser's contributions to the Arion Press Moby-Dick, containing a calligraphic sample, a wood block of the whale tailpiece, and four copies of an announcement for Moser's lecture on the illustration of Moby-Dick at Amherst College on April 2, 1981. The..... More
NY: F. A. O. Schwarz, (c. 1900). Quarto. 8pp. With eight full-page chromolithographed illustrations. A clever “talking” book that reproduces the characteristic sounds of animals, including a donkey’s hee-haw, a sheep’s baa, and mama’s voice, with the pull of a string. Each creature is illustrated in color, and on the..... More
London: Ernest Nister, (c. 1895). Small quarto. (20)pp. Line drawings throughout, plus eight full-page movable chromolithograph volvelles, whose scenes theatrically change by pulling a silk tab around the entire circle. Each illustration has a couplet caption relating it to the verses on the facing page. A delightful and fully functional..... More
San Francisco, CA: Pacific Editions, 2004. Two volumes: oblong octavo and oblong 48mo. (8); (24)ff. One of 54 copies, signed by the printer/designer/artist, Charles Hobson, on the colophon page. Interleaved among the larger volume's pages of Wilbur's poem are sheets of vellum containing hand-painted patterns printed as digital pigments, and..... More
Chicago: Ideal School Supply Co., (c. 1930). Octavo. 10 loose sheets, along with instruction slip and original brass fasteners. Each sheet provides the young designer with an animal in parts, which can then be hinged together to create a paper doll. The animals range from the more domestic cow and..... More
Mt Horeb: Perishable Press, 1990. Oblong octavo. (47)pp. One of 125 copies, signed by the poet, Ann McGarrell, and the artist, Jack Beal. Beal's line-drawings, here printed in a variety of earthy colors, render plant life local to Southern Europe in wonderful detail. McGarrell's accompanying poems recall a journey from..... More
Salt Lake City, UT: Red Butte Press, 2004. Octavo. (29)pp. One of 125 copies, signed by the artist, Chris Stern, and the author, William McDonough, at the colophon. Three monoprints by Stern punctuate the text. The images vary across the edition, making each book unique. Stern skillfully balances a western..... More
Mittineague, MA: Strathmore Paper Company, 1921. Large quarto. 28pp., (39)ff. A sample book of variously colored cover papers from the famed Strathmore Paper Company. Each of the nineteen sample papers is a fold-out leaf printed with measured color areas arranged according to the Munsell System, a complex color-coding system that..... More
Decorah, IA: Solmentes Press, 2022. Quarto. (32)pp. One of thirty copies, from which a percentage of the original sales aided Ukraine TrustChain. Signed by the artist, David Esslemont. Devised as an immediate, empathic response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, the book, in Esslemont's words, aims..... More
London: Arc Artist Editions, 2022. Octavo. (37)ff. One of twenty-six copies, signed by the artist, Haein Song. Sixteen cyanotype prints of paper foldings (jong-e-jeop-ki in Korean) give particular attention to methods of interlocking, and of opening and closing. The sixteen foldings were exposed to UV light for different lengths of..... More
Williamstown, MA: Chapin Library, Williams College, 1979. Octavo. 87pp. One of 750 copies designed and printed by Carol Blinn at her Warwick Press. This copy inscribed at the colophon by Blinn, and at the rear flyleaf by the binder, David Bourbeau, who specially bound this copy at his Thistle Bindery..... More
Jena: Eugen Diderichs, 1913 (but 1922). Folio. (15)ff., loose, as issued. From an edition of 250 copies, fifty were hand-colored; this appears to be a regular edition copy (number 111 and with the regular edition's black-printed portfolio) that has been hand-colored out of series. Each of the seven lithographs is..... More
Jena: Eugen Diedrichs, (1922). Elephant folio. (12)ff., loose, as issued. One of 250 copies, signed by Wolf in pencil on the eleven sheets of wood engravings. The engravings represent the height of Wolf's artistic vision, evincing an accomplished eye for contrast, while also drawing upon a cross-section of styles, from..... More
