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
Paris: Chez le Fuel, c. 1820. 24mo. 7ff., including title page, and pages for every month, each decorated with an engraving within a roundel. This is followed by a folded palimpsest of heavy coated ivory-colored paper with the days of the week printed in gold. This appears to have been..... More
(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
Mission, BC: Barbarian Press, 1994. Small quarto. (384)pp. From an edition of 430 copies, this is one of 250 in quarter cloth with patterned paper covers. Essays on wood engraving in Canada and in the USA are followed by approximately 150 examples of the artists' work. Text, including biographical notes..... More
Poestenkill, NY: Kaldewey Press, 2007. Octavo. (21)ff. One of twenty-one copies, inscribed by the artist, Gunnar Kaldewey, in addition to a signature at the colophon. A retelling of a Japanese folktale, lustrously illustrated with leaves of watercolors interleaved with uncut sheets of tissue. Stab-bound with rivets in red, blue, and..... More
(North Hills): Bird & Bull Press, 1967. Octavo. 121pp. From an edition of 500 copies, this is an out-of-series copy in a 1968 trial binding by Jean Millard. According to a penciled note on the front endpaper, there were two copies bound thus, and the note mentioned that "L. Schlosser..... More
North Hills: Bird & Bull Press, 1964. Octavo. 91pp. One of 200 copies. A biography on the life and work of Thomas Bird Mosher, the remarkable New England publisher and literary pirate. The Passionate Pirate is one of Henry Morris's earlier titles. In making it, he was plagued with both..... More
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
London: Oxford University Press, (1925). Octavo. (ix), 1456, (iv), (130)pp. Later printing. With a large fore-edge painting by Miss C. B. Currie, which, according to the signed statement on the front endleaf, depicts "(a) view of the entrance to the avenue from Clare Hall Piece, Cambridge." It is identified as..... More
London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1842. Small quarto. xlviii, 320pp. Enriched throughout with engravings that bring both pastoral and romantic themes to bear on Thomson's celebrated poetic cycle. Completed by some of the most eminent illustrators and artists of the era, including John Bell, Thomas Crewsick, and Thomas Webster..... More
Santa Cruz, CA: William James Association, 1976. Elephant folio. 15ff., loose. One of 200 copies. To commemorate the bicentennial of the founding of the United States, seventeen printers contributed broadsides in their own styles, illustrating in image and type statements from various founding fathers. The participating printers included William Everson..... More
(Dallas: Ondine Press, 1977). Octavo. 19pp. One of 145 copies. Highlights an address given by Franklin at Perkins Chapel to mark the acquisition of the Sir Emery Walker copy of the Doves Press Bible printed on vellum by the Bridwell Library. Few marks to rear board, else fine in cream..... More
Buren, The Netherlands: Frits Knuf, 1985. Oblong quarto. (22)ff. One of 100 copies, signed by the author. Containing two black & white photographs of Karli Frigge at work and thirty-four total tipped-in samples of intricate marbled papers in a rainbow of hues. After apprenticing with a Dutch binder, Karli Frigge..... More
Batenburg & Joppe, Netherlands: Karli Frigge, 1984-1992. Frigge's periodical sample books, with prices, for samples #1 through #225, lacking #74 through #125 and with #150-152 presented twice, but with one different paper and in an alternate format. A remarkable and near-comprehensive collection of Frigge's papers, exhibiting her unique technical mastery..... More
NY: 2006. Square octavo. Four-fold enclosure. Unique. Acrylic on textured boards with added wires, pompoms, and button snap closure. The folds reveal a gray-white woodland scene, blue at the edges, with a line from Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" painted on the bottom panel: "The woods..... More
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
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
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
(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
(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
(Northampton: Gehenna Press, 1969). Octavo. 25ff., housed in paper wrapper. One of 250 copies. With 21 woodblock illustrations of creatures fantastic and familiar printed in a variety of colors on nine different oriental papers, each print signed by the artist, Wang Hui-Ming. Box shows some rubbing, but sheets all pristine..... More
Northampton, MA: Gehenna Press, 1972. Quarto. (14)ff. One of thirty-five copies. Signed by Baskin at the colophon. Eight etchings, each signed and numbered in pencil, all depicting figures formed after the fashion of Roman boundary markers. These stele, with the exception of the bird marker, preserve perhaps the most human..... More
Bob Ziering, 2009. Pastel on paper. Signed and dated by the artist, Bob Ziering. Exploratory artwork for the gay 2010 American short film Curious Thing directed by Alain Hain. This bold, emotional piece is Ziering at his most authentic; a celebrated commercial illustrator, it was only after more than forty..... More
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
1903. Single sheet of long, narrow paper measuring 52 by 16 inches, bearing the graphite rubbing of the words of the eighth Commandment. This inscriptional work by Eric Gill was commissioned by Graily Hewitt on behalf of the Seventh Earl Beauchampt for the library door at Madresfield Court near Malvern..... More
c. 1926. Single sheet of wove paper measuring 4.75 by 8 inches with six letterpress-printed lines. Everything about the evolution of Perpetua flew in the face of traditional type design: Stanley Morison tapped Eric Gill, whose reputation at that point rested primarily in his stonecarving work, to create a "roman..... More
