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
(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...
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...
(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...
(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...
(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.....
NY: Vincent FitzGerald & Co., 1987. Quarto. (17)ff. One of 75 copies, signed by the translator, Michael Feingold, and the artist, Neil Welliver, whose five color etchings and double-page fold-out lithograph were printed by Shigemitsu Tsukaguchi. The translator served as the lead drama critic for the Village Voice until it...
NY: Vincent FitzGerald & Co., 1989. Folio. (32)pp. One of fifty copies, signed by the artist, Susan Weil. Throughout the text are scattered collages, papers, and etchings that work together to create an interactive, multimedia experience for the reader. In this way, the reader physically engages with the work in...
(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...
London: Folio Society, 2014. Oblong quarto. One of 980 numbered copies. Consisting of two volumes housed together in a clamshell box, this set reproduces the album of proof impressions of Disasters of War assembled by Francisco de Goya for Juan Agustin Cean Bermudez now held at the British Museum. The...
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...
Glasgow: Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1756-58. Four quarto volumes. xi, 312; (iv), 336; (vii), 297; (iv), 336pp. Edited by Professors James Moor and George Muirhead, and printed throughout in Greek. This is the magnum opus of the Press. The brothers Foulis had a special font of Greek type cut by...
NY & London: Macmillan, (1974). Quarto. 159pp. One of 140 copies signed by the artist. This copy is inscribed by Frasconi and his family to Anne and David Bromer, dated December 1976. Illustrated throughout with examples of Frasconi's woodcuts in black, white, and red and several full-color plates, this is...
(Salem: Colonial Society, 1939). First separate edition, which consisted of fewer than 100 copies. A single folded sheet with one page of type, printed by Dard Hunter II at the MIT Paper Museum Press. Inscribed by Frost to Martin K. Howes at foot of poem. Frost read this delightful piece...
(NY: Spiral Press), 1953. First edition. One of 587 copies with Frost's imprint. Decorations by Philip Grushkin. This copy bears an inscription by Frost on the title page to William Sloane and his wife, Julie. Sloane was Frost's editor at Holt and headed up the trade department from 1938 to...
Paris: Librairie Gründ, 1950. Quarto. 237pp., + 48 plates, nine of which are in color. One of 700 copies. This authoritative text and bibliography on the French “Game of the Goose” and its derivatives is illustrated throughout with images relating to the game, including many whimsical geese. The plates are...
1896-1905. A collection of nine color Christmas cards for the years 1897 through 1905, designed by Georgie Gaskin for Laurence W. Hodson and his family. The cards feature delicate vining borders intertwined with banners that extend the Christmas greeting for that year. The subjects of the cards include the Hodson...
1896-1905. 5ff. An original pen & ink drawing and two proofs, one hand-colored and one printed, plus a final printed copy of a Christmas card designed by Georgie Gaskin for Laurence W. Hodson and his family. The card is for the year 1896 and depicts Santa Claus, heavily laden with...
(Northampton): Gehenna Press, 1965. 16mo. (14)ff. One of 100 copies, signed by Leonard Baskin. After acquiring several Jan van Krimpen fonts in three sizes, modeled on chancery script, Baskin designed this book. It contains eleven mottos, each decoratively printed with different sizes of type in subtle variations of color. One...
(Northampton, MA: Gehenna Press, 1967). Quarto. (31)ff. One of 250 copies, this one inscribed in pencil from Leonard Baskin to Ben Tighe, a well-known bookseller in the Northampton area. The inscription is curiously dated "1947" in Baskin's hand. Using the collection of type ornaments owned by Bruce Rogers, Baskin has...
(N.p. 1922). Wood engraving on paper measuring 3 by 4 inches. One of twelve copies. Signed by Gill. The illustration shows two figures in a tight embrace against a black background. Engraving in fine condition. Matted and in an unglazed frame measuring 11 1/2 by 13 inches. (Physick 396).
1924. On paper measuring 6 1/4 by 5 3/8 inches (159x137mm), mounted to a bifolium sheet. One of six copies signed by Gill in graphite at the lower corner. This is one of eight of Gill's delicate white line engravings that is featured in Enid Clay's Sonnets and Verses, published...
Berkeley, CA: Pacific Film Archive, 1973. Broadside measuring 24 by 18 1/4 inches. One of 500 copies. Designed by California artist David Lance Goines and printed in 10 colors, this advertisement for a film series at the Pacific Film Archive features an image of Veronica, daughter of Solome, who took...
Oakland, CA: Karl Kardel Co., 1974. Broadside measuring 24 by 18 1/4 inches. One of 1,850 copies. Designed by California artist David Lance Goines and printed in 8 colors, this advertisement for Karl Kardel Co. features a bumblebee over an ochre background. The design was inspired by an unknown philosopher's...
Boston: Bromer Booksellers, 1996. Small quarto. 26 pp. From an edition of 2,000 copies, this is one of 200 copies signed and numbered by Edward Gorey. Bromer special holiday catalog with previously unpublished, full-color cover design by Gorey, who created the artwork originally for a Nieman Marcus holiday catalogue. When...
Reading, MA: Young Scott Books, 1971. First edition thus. Signed by Gorey on the title-page. With Gorey's large color illustrations surrounding Ennis Rees' whimsical poetic interpretations of Aesop. Near fine in orange pictorial boards and matching very good dust wrapper. (Toledano B47a).
