Batenburg & Joppe, Netherlands: Karli Frigge, 1984-1992. Eleven octavo paper folders, mostly leporello. Frigge's periodical sample books, with prices, for samples #1 through #225, lacking #74 through #125 and with #150 to #152 presented twice but with one different paper and in an alternate format. A remarkable and near-comprehensive collection..... More
NY: Mahlon Day, 1836. 32mo. 32pp. Eight full-page engravings and title device, all depicting birds and bird-related activities, included the woodpecker, the flamingo, and the grebe. The accompanying stories are all educational, informing the reader of the given bird's habitat, behaviors, appearance, and occasionally its uses for humans. The exposition..... More
Marlborough & Leominster, Herefordshire: Marlborough College Press & Whittington Press, 1949 & 1998. Quarto. (12)ff. From an edition of sixteen, this is one of twelve copies for sale. Here, an original out-of-series copy of the litany, which was printed in 1949 in an edition of seventy copies by the Marlborough..... More
London: Econasign, 1929. Small quarto box. Contains four instruction and promotional leaflets, a booklet folder with ten plastic stencils for capitals, lowercase letters, numbers, mathematical symbols, and borders, two brushes, a brass straightedge, a felt dampener, and red and black paints. The set supplies the business owner or graphic designer..... More
Colombes, France: Collectif Génération, 1990. Square octavo. (15)ff. One of 60 copies, signed by the author, Marcelin Pleynet, and the illustrator, Bertrand Dorny. With imaginative engraved and blind-stamped illustrations throughout, to accompany Pleynet's modernist text. Many of the pages fold out to give the reader the feeling of discovery and..... More
(Risbury, Herefordshire: Whittington Press, 2001). Small quarto. 147pp. From an edition of 350 copies, this is one of forty bound in full oasis leather, and with a separate portfolio of original prospectuses. Sixteen plates, seven in-text illustrations, and three facsimile prospectuses housed in back board. An interactive, carefully printed history..... More
London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1867. Small quarto. (36)pp. Illustrated with thirty-two chromolithographs, each with verse or prose captions. The book is divided into four subjects: Sunny Days, Home for the Holidays, Right and Wrong, and Picture Rhymes of Happy Times. Most of the scenes take place on farms and..... More
Paris: Impie. Lender, 1866. Set of paper dolls, containing two figures, two wooden stands, twelve double-sided outfits, and four hairstyles, all printed lithographically. "Psyché", created in 1835, was one of the very first paper dolls included in the eponymous magazine. It was also sold as a paper toy in its..... More
(Paris: c. 1850). 32mo. (24)ff. Twelve hand-colored lithographs decorate the twelve question cards included in this game, which quizzes children on the scope and purpose of subjects, such as grammar, geography, architecture, and astronomy. Each question card is followed by a response card, which gives the appropriate answer. History, for..... More
Stamford, CT: Overbrook Press, 1958. Quarto. (207)pp. One of 200 copies. Illustrated in color by T. M. Cleland, who printed the images in each copy using the silk screen method. Laid in is a note on the manner of the book’s design and printing, including an explanation of the illustration..... More
London: Company of Stationers, 1783. (13)ff. Illustrated with a four-page engraving of the Ordinance Office at the Old Palace Yard. The almanac bears a host of useful reference information: dates of holidays and major saints' days, cycles of the moon, a table of the kings and queens of England, a...... More
Oak Park, IL: Jubilee Press, 1993. (8)ff. A linocut of Africa follows the text, a folktale from northern Ethiopia, which explains how the great Mount Gadam led a company of mountains until she was stuck in the sea and could no longer move. Thus behind her the remaining peaks formed..... More
(Philadelphia): Alice Austin, 2019. Tunnel book consisting of six panels connected with illustrated accordion-folded side panels. One of just twenty copies, signed and numbered by the artist, Alice Austin. The three-dimensional scene revealed when the book is expanded shows the beauty and chaos of Venice's Grand Canal, from the natural..... More
New Haven: J. Babcock, 1822. 16mo. 32 pp. Illustrated with eight plates, each bearing two engravings by Alexander Anderson. This is the first part of an abridged version of Hundred Wonders of the World, also published by Babcock, and for which an advertisement appears on the title-page verso. The text..... More
New Haven: S. Babcock, 1850. 16mo. 16pp. Illustrated with wood-engraved title-page vignette and fifteen additional images throughout. The cries of various tradespeople that were once heard around London—from the seller of cat and dog meat, to the dustman—illustrated, and accompanied by a short verse about that person's trade. One of..... More
London: Tho. James, (c. 1700). The Third Edition with amendments. 32mo., [144] ll. This is the first James printing (before which the printer was alive) with the first dedication to the Duke of Gloucester who died in 1700. The presence of the woodcut frontispiece portrait of the Duke of Gloucester..... More
Paris: Nouvelle Librairie de la Jeunesse, (c. 1900). Quarto panorama of four chromolithographed pop-up scenes. They carry the reader through an exotic hunt, in which cowboys and local turbaned attendants pursue and slay lions and tigers, and eventually overcome an ambush by native tribespeople. The book's three-dimensional structure adds to..... More
(Berkeley, CA): Foolscap Press, 2019. Quarto. (x), 64pp., + 5 full-page maps. One of 90 copies, signed by the printer, Lawrence G. Van Velzer, and the illustrator, Peggy Gotthold. The pages feature elaborate borders of gilt vines and all manner of creatures and vessels: hippos, parrots, Eastern ships, giants, dwarfs..... More
Kentfield, CA: Allen Press, 1975. Quarto. 130pp. One of 140 copies. With four illustrated titles printed in three colors, one for each story: "Roman Fever," "The Other Two," "The Last Asset," and "Afterward." The titles were designed by the printers, Lewis and Dorothy Allen, along with ornaments in four colors..... More
Kentfield, CA: Allen Press, 1972. Quarto. 79pp, unsewn as issued. One of 140 copies printed in four colors on handmade paper. Kazantzakis, best known for his novel Zorba the Greek, here mythologizes Columbus in the form of a play. Fine in stiff yellow wrappers, housed in a turquoise cloth dropback..... More
Chicago: Sherwin Beach Press, 1993. Oblong octavo. 21pp. One of 200 copies. Four photographs by Tappin depict people living on insubstantial government funds, the "safety net." The text, originally published in 1983 in the Chicago Reader, details the lives of those hovering at the poverty line, those who "are too..... More
(N.p.): 1995. Folio. (30)ff. One of forty copies signed by the artist/author. Five essays by Shirley Jones, drawing on historians from Thucydides to I.F. Stone, philosophers from Aristotle to Mao, and poets from Pindar to Eliot, "exploring the gulf between Man's ideals and the realization." With five different full-page etchings..... More
(London: Red Hen Press, 1989). Oblong octavo. (32)ff. One of forty copies. Contains twelve poems and prose pieces, with twelve color etchings employing soft and hard ground techniques. Shirley Jones writes "the title is appropriate for a book written for & about women - or rather, about the experience of..... More
(Greenbrae, CA): Allen Press, (1982 & 1983). Two octavo volumes. (67); (74)ff. One of an edition of 240 copies. Translated by E. D. A. Morshead, and with an introduction by Mark Livingston, who also did the Greek calligraphy for the titles. Printed in brown with striking flame-orange headings, and title..... More
Newark, NJ: Carteret Book Club, 1917. Quarto. 52pp. One of 200 copies. Illustrated with five full-page color illustrations, printed by hand and each signed by Ruzicka. Also includes twelve black & white engravings produced by D.B. Updike at the Merrymount Press. Born in Bohemia in 1883, Ruzicka arrived in Chicago..... More
