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: 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... More about Poems
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... More about Giacomo Joyce
(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... More about Leon Underwood: His Wood Engravings
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... More about Global Stability
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... More about Works
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... More about Against the Grain: The Woodcuts of Antonio Frasconi
(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... More about A Considerable Speck
(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... More about One More Brevity
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... More about Le Noble Jeu de L'oie en France, de 1640 à 1950 / La Vie Quotidienne a Paris de 1820 à 1824
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... More about Collection of Christmas cards by Georgie Gaskin
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... More about Original artwork for a Christmas card by Georgie Gaskin
(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... More about Cancelleresca Bastarda Displayed in a Series of Maxims and Mottos. With Alphabets and Ornaments
(Northampton: Gehenna Press, 1968). Square octavo. 23ff. One of 250 copies, of which this is one of 70 in the first binding by Arno Werner, whose copy this was. Inscribed by Harold McGrath, the pressman, to Werner at the colophon. A collection of head and tailpieces from 16th- and 17th-century... More about Culs de Lampe
Northampton, MA: Gehenna Press, 1967. Small quarto. (31)ff. One of fifty copies specially bound by Arno Werner. Inscribed by Leonard Baskin to Bill Covington. A collection of moral phrases in a variety of languages and artfully arranged by Baskin with ornamentation in black, red, yellow, green, and blue. The collection... More about Flosculi Sententiarum
(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... More about Flosculi Sententiarum: Printers Flowers Moralised
(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). More about "Divine Lovers"
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... More about Flower-Piece
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... More about "Images Médiévales"
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... More about "Karl Kardel Co.: Builders, Painters, Decorators"
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... More about Season's Greetings 1996 Bromer Booksellers
c. 1964. Four sheets, three of which measure 8 1/2 by 11 inches; the single sheet of text is smaller, measuring 8 by 6 inches, and is on blue paper. The pages reveal the unfolding of Gorey's creative process in developing the story and preliminary illustrations for his book, The... More about Preliminary sketches and text for The Remembered Visit. Together with a copy of the published book
San Francisco: Book Club of California, 1959-1965. Folio. Four volumes: "Figure Prints of Old Japan." 1959. (110)ff., + 52 plates. One of 400 copies. "Landscape Prints of Old Japan." 1960. (110)ff., + 50 plates. One of 450 copies. "Ukiyo-e: The Floating World." 1962. (92)ff., + 28 plates. One of 400... More about Set of books on Japanese Prints
Newtown: Gregynog Press, 1934. Octavo. 77pp. One of 300 copies. Printed on Kelmscott handmade paper with initial letters designed by Graily Hewitt, printed in red and green. Minor rubbing to corners, else fine in full gilt-stamped brown morocco, gilt title and imprint on spine. T.e.g. Prospectus laid in. (Harrop 21). More about Anne Boleyn, and Other Poems
(Newtown): Gregynog Press, 1929. Quarto. 189pp. One of 225 copies. Ornamented throughout with initial capitals, calligraphed by Horace Bray, printed in red and blue. Four of the psalms, as well as the title-page, show extra decoration by Bray, with wood-engraved flowering vines printed in red and black. Bound in half-morocco... More about Psalmau Dafydd
NY: Harrison of Paris, 1932. Octavo. 43pp. One of 595 copies. A collection of literary and philosophical quotations, poems, and short essays, presented using creative typography. This was the eleventh publication of Harrison of Paris, designed by Monroe Wheeler. Some fading to spline and trace edgewear, else near fine. More about A Typographical Commonplace Book
