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: Dial Press, 1963. Uncorrected long galley proof copy. Baldwin's seminal non-fiction text on race in America, here in a rare pre-publication format. The book contains two essays, "My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation" and "Down at the Cross: Letter from..... More
Los Angeles: 1993. 26pp. One of 90 copies issued as a keepsake for the Zamorano Club. A touching memorial to renowned miniature-binder Bela Blau upon his death. Published privately by his wife Mariana, who also bound the book and wrote the dedication. Eulogies by Francis Weber, Glen Dawson, and others..... More
Easthampton, MA: Warwick Press, 1986; 1976. Two small octavo vols. 30; (13)pp. From Stripper to Publisher is one of 125 copies, signed by Blinn and the photographer, Robert Lyons, and with a special multi-colored colophon inscription stating, "A little extra color for Hugh's copy with lots of love from Carol."..... 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
Islip: Strawberry Press, 1994. Octavo. (19)pp. One of 100 copies. Printed in black and red inks is an Introduction by Paul Nash, a prefatory letter sent by Bowden in 1902 to the then-Printer to the University of Oxford, Horace Hart, and its accompanying memorandum in which Bowden concisely and clearly..... More
(NY: Center for the Book Arts, 2015). 16mo. Unpaginated. One of twenty-one copies, signed by the artist. Illustrated in Cordeiro's characteristic atmospheric and multimedia style with woodcuts, photopolymer plates, linocuts, and tipped-in photographs. A keen and skillful meditation on the oft overlooked limp vellum binding and on the historic standards..... More
San Francisco: Herbert and Peter Fahey, 1940. Octavo. (21)pp. One of 50 copies, signed by Herbert and Peter Fahey below the colophon. Frontispiece illustration by George C. Pearce. With six vellum and two parchment samples tipped-in. Beautifully printed within a border of blue lines and with opening initials of blue..... More
Slanted Publishers, 2014. Folio. (27)ff. One of twenty-six copies. Signed by both artists. A highly stylized, almost-mechanical alphabet, originating from designer Raban Ruddigkeit's "Elements" type. Developed in 2013 for the "We Create Berlin" exhibition, "Elements" consisted of only five characters conceived to be freely combined into letters, numbers, and images..... More
NY: Fuchs & Lang Mfg. Co., (1943). A catalog of hundreds of examples of offset lithography inks, in an array of colors, from "Tomato Red" to "Deep Milori Green" to "Bronze Blue", all exemplified through a rotation of several decadent Art Deco images. The inks are displayed in a range..... More
Ogdensburg, NY: Caliban Press, 2020. A delightful and inquisitive survey of typography and typographic potential, making use of a wide variety of types, inks, papers, and paper sizes, the result of which is a fanciful review of the Caliban Press' collection of wood type. Octavo. Unpaginated. One of..... More
Thaxted Essex, UK: Workshop Press, 1984. Octavo. vi, 45pp. One of 85 copies, signed by the author. A compendium, with preceding exposition, of typographic experiments, evincing a number of colors, layouts, and techniques. Bound in cloth-backed marbled papers. Split at hinge before page 15, some rubbing to extremities, else very..... More
Tübingen: Jäckle-Sönmez, (1987). Square octavo. 107pp. One of 230 copies signed by the artists, Nedim Sonmez and Yvonne Jackle-Sonmez, with an additional sheet of ebru paper, signed and dated by Sonmez, bound in. A catalog with thirty-eight color reproductions of marbled pictures, nine photos in black and white on the..... More
Chicago: Starshaped Press, 2021. Square small quarto. (29)pp. One of forty copies. An abecedarium constructed entirely of 12-point metal type and ornaments in an elaborate range of colors. The letterforms are artful and contemporary, drawing on a variety of sources both original and revised. Stab-bound in beige wrappers with a...... More
(Mattapoiset, MA: Busyhaus Publications, 1983). Small oblong octavo. 65pp. One of 200 copies bound in hardcover. Illustrated with photographs of the artists, tipped-in paper samples, and woodcuts by Michael McCurdy. Introduction by Don Guyot. Apart from the description of the work of the twelve artists, among whom are Faith Harrison..... More
Woodside, CA: Heyeck Press, 1986. Quarto. 65pp. One of 150 copies, signed by Robin Heyeck. With twenty-eight mounted specimens, thirteen of which are large sheets measuring 6 3/4 by 4 7/8 inches. With a bibliography of marbling projects by the Press. Bound in quarter gray morocco with patterned paper covers..... 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
Oldham: Incline Press, 1997. Quarto. vi, 120pp. One of 300 copies. Contains seven essays on the subject of patterned paper by Paul Nash, Phyllis Barron, Sebastian Carter and others. With numerous samples of paper tipped in. Bound in yellow and red patterned paper backed in yellow cloth. Housed in a...... More
Newark, VT: Janus Press, 2002. Quarto text volume, plus sixteen 32mo. samples. 142pp.; samples variously paginated. One of 200 copies, signed by Claire Van Vliet. A trade copy of Van Vliet and Elizabeth Steiner's how-to manual on creating non-adhesive book structures is accompanied by miniature models of each of the..... More
Loughborough: Plough Press, 1981. Quarto. (62)ff. One of 120 copies. Contains nineteen fascicles with actual samples of eighteen different printing methods, from woodcut to photomechanical printing, and ranging from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Explanatory text is printed on the wrappers, and the samples are loose so as to..... More
1930-1950. Forty-six quarto volumes, including the following: the original series (1930-1935) in twenty volumes; New Series (1935-1938) in twelve volumes; The Annual of Bookmaking (1938); New Graphic Series (1939) in four volumes; The New Colophon (1948-1950) in eight volumes; and the index to the original series. Lacks the New Colophon..... More
Oxford: Oxford Polytechnic Press, 1984. Revised first edition. Robinson’s classic introduction to the craft of bookbinding, with the inclusion of the original artwork for the book’s jacket design. The artwork is rendered in oil on board, painted in black and white on a gray background, and is framed in natural..... 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
San Francisco: Word Play Publications, 1996. First edition. From an edition of 226, this is one of 26 lettered copies signed by Gorey and by the authors. This illustrated reference work includes ephemera and collectibles, dramatic productions, a list of pseudonyms, and more. The first true Gorey bibliography. Bound in..... 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
