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
(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...
(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...
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...
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.
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...
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 at...
(N.p): Butternut Press, 1977. One of of 225 copies. With illustrations of Shaker handicrafts, from furniture to capes to asthma cures. Very fine in printed wrappers and paper sleeve with printed label. (2 3/8 by 2 5/8; 68x60mm.).
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...
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...
Vashon Island, WA: Springtide Press, 2015. Folio. (20)pp. One of twenty-six copies, signed by the artist, Suzanne Moore. A contemplation of the letter "A," with each page presenting an original composition capable of standing on its own. Moore's conceptions of "A" reflect the letter's historic and cultural forms, resulting in...
(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.....
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.....
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...
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...
(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...
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...
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...
(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.
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...
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.
(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...
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...
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...
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.”...
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...
