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
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
Northampton, MA: Double Elephant Press, 2016. Square 24mo. (24)pp. One of 365 copies. Each page has a relief etching (recto and verso). Inspired by Les simulachres & historiees faces de la mort (1538) by Hans Holbein the Younger, Kuch's own Dance of Death comes as a natural history with a...... More
(Hammersmith): Doves Press, 1891. Octavo. 8pp. Presented to subscribers of the Doves Press, the present text reprises Cobden-Sanderson's speech given to the Art Workers Guild, in which he expounds upon the contemporary artistic tastes of the general population, and thus nods at the social function of the aesthetic movement. His..... More
Hammersmith: Doves Press; Hammersmith Publishing Society, 1900; 1902. Two octavo volumes. (iv) 10pp.; (40)pp. The Ideal Book is one of 300 copies and is George Parker Winship's copy, with his bookplate to the front paste-down. Only the second title to have been issued by the Doves Press, the essay by..... More
(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. More
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. More
(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..... More
(Istanbul: Ebristan, 2004). Marbled paper with calligraphy measuring 23 3/4 by 32 inches. Ebru, or marbling, is one of the oldest arts in Turkey. In addition to being used in book binding and design, it was often used as a background for calligraphy and is considered high art. In this..... More
(Istanbul): Ebristan, 2008. Original marbled paper art by Turkey's premier paper marbler, Hikmet Barutçugil, with dusky swirls of pale peach, green, blue, and mauve. Signed and dated by the artist. Emerging from the center of the marbling is a small, detailed drawing in brown ink of the entrance archway to..... More
(Istanbul: Ebristan, c. 2003). Original marbled paper by the premier marbling artist in Turkey, Hikmet Barutçugil. Signed by the artist. Barutçugil has developed his own technique for creating flowers within his marbled patterns, inspired by his wife, Füsun Hanim. In this delicate example, two carnations grow from the same root..... More
(Istanbul): Ebristan Yayinlari, 2003. Original marbled paper by the premier marbling artist in Turkey, Hikmet Barutçugil. Signed and dated by the artist. Ebru, or marbling, is one of the oldest arts in Turkey. In addition to being used in book binding and design, it was often used as a background..... More
(Istanbul: Ebristan, 2008). Marbled paper measuring 23 3/4 by 32 inches, with elegant marbled calligraphy in Arabic. The script translates to say "One who conducts business in a Halal fashion is the beloved servant of Allah." This superb example of Ebru, the ancient Turkish art of paper marbling, has a...... More
London: For A. Millar and W. Sandby, 1757. Quarto. v, [2], xviii, [2], 513, [1]pp. Second edition. Illustrated with 15 maps (of which 9 are folding), 23 plates (of which 3 are folding), and numerous ornaments and initials from copper engravings. Considered by many to be the best description of..... More
(NY: New Directions, 1969). Oblong quarto. 33pp. One of 100 copies printed at the Thistle Press and signed by the illustrator, Fritz Eichenberg. Illustrated with five full-page wood engravings in black & white. With an extra suite of the plates, each one signed by the artist. Suite is housed in..... More
Lyon: Léon Sézanne, (c. 1870). Oblong quarto. 32pp. A rich collection of embroidery patterns, including alphabets and fashionable monograms produced by the company founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson's father. The designs herein hint at the sleekness of twentieth-century styles, with the sharp linework of Art Deco. Given the fragility of the..... More
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..... More
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.”..... More
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..... More
Boston: L. Prang & Co., 1883. Octavo. An elaborate birthday card, with two color illustrations of flowers in vases on the interior panels. The left-hand panel bears a short poem, and the right-hand panel offers the recipient best wishes for their next year. Both are printed on pillowed silk. Bound..... More
(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..... More
(Darmstadt: Ernst Ludwig Presse, 1911). Quarto. (120)pp. From an edition of 500 copies, this is one of fifty printed on Japon. Title-page calligraphy and 150 decorated initials designed by Friedrich Wilhem Kleukens. The text of the Press's fifteenth book is Martin Luther's translation from the last edition of the German..... More
Petersham, MA: 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..... More
Praha [Prague]: Technologicko-Prumyslovým Museem [Technological Industrial Museum], 1914. 16mo. (v), 10, (4)pp. A student production, heavily ornamented with Cubist design principles, including three initials, a woodcut illustration, black decorative borders, fully illustrated endpapers, and an spectacular gilt cover design. The raw, saturated decorations reflect the weight of the book's text..... More
(Portland, OR: Chamberlain Press, 1980-85). Small octavo. (112)ff. 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)..... More
Detroit, Cranbrook Press, 1902. Octavo. 40pp. One of 210 copies, printed by the author, George G. Booth, who was the co-founder of the Cranbrook Press. A group of essays of a philosophical and personal nature, one set in Naples and one in Mexico. With decorative interlace initials to each chapter..... More
