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: 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
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
(Paris: c. 1910-1914). 6ff., loose. A collection of six designs for binding elements, three completed in pencil and watercolor, and the others incorporating pencil, ink, watercolor, gouache, and gilt accents. Two of the designs are monogrammed "CM" for Charles Meunier and were likely made into bindings by the bindery of..... 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
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. Fine..... More
(Portland, OR: Vela Noche, 2010). Folio. (17)ff. One of thirty copies, this one being out of series. Fourteen of Lauren Henkin's photographs make up the majority of the book, with Kirsten Rian's poem, "Fieldnotes," appearing on the penultimate page. The poem, from which the book's title derives, meditates with equal..... More
Paris: Officina Bodoni for the Pegasus Press, 1929. Quarto. 30pp., (51)ff. One of 175 copies printed at the Officina Bodoni. With an Introduction by Henry Thomas and descriptive notes by Stanley Morison. Following these are forty-nine facsimile leaves in collotype reproducing the surviving text and plates of Brun's two writing..... More
Los Angeles: Cotsen Occasional Press, 2009. Two volumes: one folio, one oblong quarto. (vi), 141; 231pp. A brightly printed history of Alunno, with frontispiece and examples in the first volume, the second being a facsimile of his Cartoni. Both bound in blue cloth with blind stamping to upper cover and..... More
(Portland, OR: Chamberlain Press, 1980-85). A collection of 105 engravings, all signed and numbered in pencil by Sarah Chamberlain. These hail from her major publications printed in the early 1980s via the Chamberlain Press: The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1979), A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go (1981), Beasts from Belloc..... More
(Solihull, UK: Cherub Press, 1996). (10)pp., + 6 samples of Japanese papers. One of 95 copies. The paper specimens exemplify some of the major styles of Japanese papers, including Chiyogami, Suminagashi, lace-paper, and Kimburi Tairei paper. Butcher's text is a concise and accessible outline of the various methods employed in..... More
NY: Random House, 1931. Octavo. 116pp. One of 500 copies, inscribed by the bibliography's compiler, Louis Henry Cohn. Illustrated with a frontispiece facsimile note from Hemingway to the bibliography's author. With a presentation card from Cohn's wife and a 1961 Playboy Magazine article with Hemingway quotations laid in. Some rubbing..... 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
Maple Shade, NJ: Pickering Press, 1985. Octavo. (28)pp., frenchfold. One of 100 copies printed in black and brown. "A warm, witty, wry collection of observations by famous (& infamous) writers who 'draw the line in such a way as to define themselves.'" (Prospectus). This charming little book is printed in..... More
Tuscaloosa: Legacy Press, 2000. Octavo. x, 154pp., + 5 specimens. One of 130 copies, signed by both Baker and DePol at the colophon. Replete with reproductions of DePol's many pattern designs, both for his papers and from engravings. Baker's accompanying text, which includes a biographical sketch, provides necessary context, both..... More
Paris: Chez F.-L. Schmied, (1929). Quarto. (126)pp. One of 150 copies, signed by Schmied. Illustrated throughout with color wood engravings, executed in tones of brown, orange, and blue, including twelve full-page illustrations, each one signed by Schmied. This is a work that Ward Ritchie called "ingenious in its design, one..... More
Coaraze: Les Editions Coaraze, 1955. 16mo. 30, (2)pp., + 3 inserted plates. From an edition of twenty-four copies, this is one of twelve printed on Alfa Ivoire paper and labeled for a month of the year. Signed by Arman, the illustrator, on the colophon page. Arman's contributed plates offer a...... More
