In their broadest sense, the book arts are at the core of our inventory. To be sure, the category encompasses the specialties that you see on our homepage, such as Fine Printing, Fine Binding, and Illustrated Books. However, it also includes such things as writing books and calligraphy, fore-edge paintings, books on papermaking, and leaf books.
Read more about one of the book arts, Fore-edge Painting
(France / China: c. 1900). Octavo. (22)pp. Album of Chinese landscapes in original watercolors, facing depictions of women's antique costumes painted on silk, interleaved with tissue. "Chinoiserie" refers to European art characterized by imagery of a romanticized China, a notion that similarly underpins the genre of costume books, which presented... More
Antwerp: J.E. Buschmann, 1896. Octavo. 61pp. From an edition of 112, this is one of twelve copies for private circulation, and signed by the printer, Buschmann. Illustrated throughout by with eight fine full-page woodcut plates, several text figures, head- and tailpieces, and decorated initial letters printed in black and brown... More
(N.p.): Paul Hayden Duensing, (1969). One of 300 copies. Broadside measuring 31 1/2 x 25 1/2 inches (800x317mm), printed by offset. A selection of typefaces offered by the Typefoundry, including borders, ornaments, Hieroglyphics, and Greek, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Hebrew, and Cherokee alphabets. One faint spot, else fine. More
Guy Oliver Duncan, (n.d.). Broadside measuring 21 7/16 by 13 3/4 inches. One of twenty-five numbered copies, signed by the author and printer, Guy Oliver Duncan. Contains six poems by Duncan: "Feelings of a Lost Conviction," "(I see nothing)," "The Rising Sun," "The Spires," "Vanda," and "The Call of the... More
N.P. n.d. Black & white photograph measuring 4 1/2 by 6 1/2 inches. A posed portrait showing a younger William Addison Dwiggins, likely in his early 40s, standing in front of a garden holding a hoe. The photographer is credited on the verso as C. H. Marble. Very fine. More
(Boston): Boston Public Library, 1974. 12mo. 24pp. With a frontispiece portrait of Dwiggins. Fine copy in wrappers, illustrated with a Dwiggins ornament on front cover. "Abbe Talk, Boston Library '74" written in pen on front cover. More
(Hingham, MA): c. 1930s. A black & white photograph of a marionette made by W. A. Dwiggins, measuring 10 by 10 1/2 inches. The marionette is a likeness of F. Morton Smith, a Boston lawyer who was married to Margaret Coatsworth, the sister of the children's book author and illustrator... More
NY: Limited Editions Club, 1932. Quarto. 23pp.,(4)ff. One of 452 copies signed by Dwiggins. Dwiggins facetiously discusses the atrocities of the present design of currency and postage stamps, proposing new ones based on those issued by the fictional country of the Antipodes. Includes plates of Antipodean stamps, and a currency... More
NY: Elston Press, 1901. Small quarto. (xv), 68pp. One of 485 copies on Holland hand-made paper, in boards with vellum spine. Unopened. Decorated with initials by H. M. O'Kane, floral devices, and a printer's device on the title page. The text is a 1345 treatise on book collecting written by... More
Peking, China: Lotus Court, 1943. Quarto. (xvi), 46pp. Illustrated with forty-six tipped-in woodblock reproductions of traditional Chinese embroidery patterns, printed in red on handmade paper, tipped in. Frontispiece is a real tissue embroidery pattern backed with red paper for support. A fascinating reference book on Chinese symbolism. The Foreword lists... More
1860. Single leaf measuring 5 by 7 3/4 inches. A drawing of a young man and woman glancing shyly at each other, with their noses drawn in an angular fashion so as to point at each other. Below the figures is penned words “i cant [sic] stop long this time.”... More
Argus Books. Broadside measuring 25 by 19 inches. A reproduction of a notice posted by order of the Sacramento City Settlers' Association on June 14, 1850 warning the unwary of "a number of men with remarkable principles, who go among those who have newly arrived and offer to sell or... More
(c. 1940-1945). Oblong 24mo. (30)ff. An autograph book made by Albert "Al" Cummings between 1940 and 1945. Includes messages in morse code, poems (good and bad), and cartoons from friends, neighbors, sailors on the SS Fairfax, and soldiers from the 32nd Ordnance Company identified as being from all around New... More
Petersham, Massachusetts: Lone Oak Press, 2005. Oblong quarto. 89pp. From an edition of fourteen deluxe copies and 70 standard copies, this is one of five deluxe copies chosen to be specially bound for the international traveling exhibit "InsideOUT: Contemporary Bindings of Private Press Books," and as such, it does not... More
(Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1896). Folio. (556)pp. One of 425 copies. Contains 87 wood-engraved illustrations designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. William Morris, in addition to the "Chaucer" type designed expressly for this book, provided 26 nineteen-line initials, and numerous foliate and floral borders and initials. Burne-Jones called the book "a pocket... More
(Newton): Gregynog Press, 1938. Large octavo. Binder's dummy, with all pages blank. The edition was limited to 175 copies, translated from the Spanish by Henry Thomas. Gregynog Press books were created under one roof, from design to printing, all the way to binding. George Fisher, who started at Gregynog Press... More
Vancouver: Heavenly Monkey, 2018. Quarto. 63, (ii)pp. One of sixteen copies (Series 1). With four leaves tipped in, two of which originate from George Wither's A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient & Moderne (London, 1635); two are from the Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum of Gabriel Rollenhagen, and contain corresponding engravings that also... More
(Boston): Riverside Press, 1909. Quarto. (xx), 332, (vii)pp. One of 370 copies. The text is translated from Auguste Bernard’s second edition and contains a biography, iconography, and bibliography. In order to harmonize with Tory’s border woodcuts, Rogers printed this handsome book in Riverside Caslon, one of the typefaces which he... More
(London): 1932. Quarto. Unpaginated. One of 530 copies, printed and published by Rogers, Sir Emery Walker, and Wilfred Merton. Illustrated with twenty-six decorations of Homeric figures printed in black on round backgrounds of gold. It was Rogers who, upon reading Seven Pillars of Wisdom, decided that T. E. Lawrence would... More
North Hills: Bird & Bull Press, 1964. Octavo. 91pp. One of 200 copies. A biography on the life and work of Thomas Bird Mosher, the remarkable New England publisher and literary pirate. The Passionate Pirate is one of Henry Morris's earlier titles. In making it, he was plagued with both... More
Frankfurt am Main: Heinrich Egenolf, 1954. Oblong quarto. (ii), 100, (4)ff. One of 1000 copies. This volume has been inscribed by the author to Carl Zahn: "For Carl Zahn with cordial regards and as a token of friendship over many years. Hermann Zapf." For forty-one years, Zahn designed stunning books... More
(Wakefield, Yorkshire): Fleece Press, (1986). Large quarto. (10)pp., + (19)ff. One of 200 copies printed from the original blocks on handmade paper. Illustrated with twenty wood engravings by Underwood that were cut in the 1920s and 1930s. Underwood's Brook Green School produced a great many accomplished wood engravers, among them... More
(Wakefield, Yorkshire): Fleece Press, (1986). Large quarto. (10)pp., + (19)ff. Of an edition of 200 copies, this is one of twelve bound by James Brockman. Printed from the original blocks on handmade paper. Illustrated with twenty wood engravings by Underwood that were cut in the 1920s and 1930s. Underwood's Brook... More
(Wakefield, W. Yorkshire: Fleece Press, 1989). 38 pp. One of 200 copies signed by the author, Ward Ritchie, and by the printer, Simon Lawrence. Engravings by Anthony Christmas. A brief history of private presses, along with the memoirs of a master printer who learned his trade in the Thirties in... More
Northridge, CA: Lord John Press, 1981. 29 pp. From an edition of 400, this is one of 100 copies specially bound by Bela Blau. Signed by President Gerald R. Ford. The text of a September 1980 address given to the Visa International Convention in Quebec encouraging world peace for economic... More
