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
(NY): Center for the Book Arts, (2007). Octavo. 18ff. One of thirty-nine copies. A collection of thirteen poems from Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, beautifully printed by nine compositor-printers at the Center for the Book Arts. Each printer’s work occupies a single bifolium sheet, forming nine loose signatures. All..... More
Parma: Bodoni, 1800. Folio. Three parts in one. 8, xxvii; 14, xliii; 11, xxxiii pp., + (35)ff. Contains thirty-five stipple-engraved plates, all but one in sepia, showing frescoes by the famed Renaissance painter Correggio at the Monastero de San Paolo in Parma. The engravings were done by Francesco Rosaspina after..... More
San Francisco: Lawton Kennedy, 1958. Small quarto pamphlet. (6)ff. One of 175 copies. A tongue-in-cheek guide to the lexicon of the rare book trade. For example, the entry for "Fore-Edge Painting" states "These are always 'exquisitely executed' even when done by someone's Aunt Esmerelda on a wet Sunday afternoon." Fine..... More
(London): Fortune Press, (1922). One of 100 deluxe copies with a limited, signed color etching. Warmly inscribed by Jean de Bosschère, "with greetings of spiritual brotherhood." With a color frontispiece, twenty-one full-page plates printed in black & white and sanguine, and numerous black & white illustrations throughout. The volume opens..... More
(Wakefield, Yorkshire): Fleece Press, (1986). Large quarto. (10)pp., + (19)ff. From an edition of 200 copies, this is one of twelve bound by James Brockman. Illustrated with twenty wood engravings printed on handmade paper from the original blocks that were cut by Underwood in the 1920s and ‘30s. Underwood’s Brook..... More
Boston, MA: Bromer Booksellers, (c. 1991). Small quarto. (56)pp. With photographic reproductions throughout in black & white. Catalogue number 66 issued by Anne and David Bromer of Bromer Booksellers. This catalogue, released in conjunction with a lecture delivered by Anne Bromer and an exhibition, celebrates "the fine art of calligraphy..... More
Bromer Booksellers. (96) pp. Our most ambitious catalogue to date, featuring fifty exemplary works in literature, illustration, miniature and children's books, fine printing and artistic bindings. Includes many rare, unique, and autographed items from the 16th century to the present. More
Watertown, MA: Bromer, Anne & David, 1978. 30pp. One of 150 copies printed at the Bird & Bull Press and signed by Henry Morris. This was the first—and last—miniature to be printed at the Bird & Bull Press, and the first Bird & Bull checklist to appear in print. Fne..... More
Boston: Bromer, Anne & David, 1984. Quarto. 38pp. First edition. One of 225 copies printed in three colors by Richard Bigus at the Stinehour Press. Illustrated with two wood engravings by Greg Dearth and a specimen sheet printed in three colors on parchment. Hand-bound by Claudia Cohen in quarter-vellum and..... More
The Hague: J.B.W. Editions, 1935 (i.e. 1956). Small quarto. (14)pp. Although the colophon indicates a limitation of 50 copies, only 25 were actually bound and issued. This is the French version of the poem, printed for the artist in Holland before the war. Copies were available from Golden Cockerel Press..... More
Canton, NY: Caliban Press, 2001. Quarto. 117pp. One of 125 copies. Printed on handmade papers by Velma Bolyard, La Papeterie St-Armand, and Barcham Green, along with Arches, Frankfurt, and Mexican amate papers. Set in fourteen-point Dante type by M & W Bixler, and rain cut by Greg Lago. The book..... More
Darmstadt: (N.P.), 1775. Oblong quarto. 31pp. First edition. An instructional book for calligraphy, with an ornate engraved title page followed by thirty plates of calligraphic examples by Johann Menzzer. The plates demonstrate a variety of hands using quotations, biblical passages, and alphabets in Latin, French, and German, and include elaborate..... More
(San Francisco: 2010). Quarto. 10ff. Original calligraphic manuscript by Ingmire of the text from a section of Paz’s poem “Blanco.” This poem, which was published in 1967, has been linked to Paz’s time in India, and it can be read as a figurative exploration of Indian religious philosophy. “The spirit..... More
Utrecht: Catharijne Press, 1988. (34)pp. From an edition of 165 copies, this is one of fifteen deluxe copies hand-colored by Luce Thürków and with the Art Nouveau initials beautifully heightened with gold. Extremely fine in full green limp suede with gilt-stamped label on the front cover. Housed in original green..... More
Cisco, IL: CHEC-Chess Enterprises, 1982. Broadside measuring 24 by 18 inches. Printed in green and red on ochre-colored paper, this piece offers humorous commentary on every square of a chessboard, from g6 ("Gee, Dad, it's a dragon!") to h2 ("An insignificant square which deserves no consideration"). Of d1, the starting..... More
Boston: L. Prang, 1876. Octavo. xxxiii, 274pp., + thirteen plates. American edition, revised and enlarged by the author. With an introduction by Edward C. Pickering, a professor of Physics at MIT. Illustrated throughout with many woodcuts, as well as the thirteen chromolithographed plates. The first plate depicts the spectra of..... More
(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
Newtown, PA: Bird & Bull Press, 1985. Octavo. (17)pp. One of 300 copies. Designed by Abe Lerner. A transcription of "an imperceptibly edition version of a talk given April 5, 1982" to the Friends of the Book Arts Press at Columbia University. Spine sunned, else near fine in tan wrappers..... More
Andoversford, Gloucestershire: Whittington Press, 1987. Quarto. xii, 105pp. One of 335 copies. This edition was inspired by the discovery of a cache of Curwen Pattern Papers. It contains a history of the papers with 32 large samples by fifteen prominent artists, such as Eric Ravilious, Enid Marx, Thomas Lowinsky, and..... More
Hammersmith: Doves Press, 1911. Octavo. 12pp. Second edition. One of 350 copies. Included are descriptions of all books printed to that date, the introduction by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson from the first edition of 1908, and his additional comments for this edition. Expected toning to extremities, else a fine copy in..... More
Harper Woods: Adagio Press, 1969. Folio. 54pp. With a Preface by Strouse and a Note by the Printer, Leonard F. Bahr. From an edition of 329, this is one of ten copies made up of leftover sheets from the original printing. It contains three leaves: and octavo sheet from Tasso..... 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
(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
(Istanbul: Ebristan, 2004). Marbled paper with calligraphy measuring 23 3/4 by 32 inches. Ebru, or marbling, is one of the oldest arts in Turkey. In addition to being used in book binding and design, it was often used as a background for calligraphy and is considered high art. In this..... More
(Istanbul): Ebristan, 2008. Original marbled paper art by Turkey's premier paper marbler, Hikmet Barutçugil, with dusky swirls of pale peach, green, blue, and mauve. Signed and dated by the artist. Emerging from the center of the marbling is a small, detailed drawing in brown ink of the entrance archway to..... More
