A designer binding is the most visible of all the book arts. To those artists whose medium is the binding of a book, the old adage that you can't judge a book by its cover is untrue. From colored leathers and gold foil, vellum and exotic woods, the artistry of a book is vividly ...
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Paris: Moreau, (1983). Oblong 12mo. (26) pp. Illustrated by Baltazar. From an edition of 220 copies, this is one of forty signed by the author and by the illustrator, and hand-colored. Reproduced entirely by serigraphy, the text is from the author's own manuscript. The abstract black and white illustrations have... More about Ardeur
Lyon and Paris: Librairie Catholique de Perisse Frères, 1844. Small octavo. viii, 524, (v) pp. A seventeenth-century silver gilt, jeweled binding covering a French prayer book, which was placed into the binding at a later date. Very fine in a modern, velvet-lined dropback box. The Journée du Chrétien concerned the daily..... More about La Journée du Chrétien, Sanctifiée par la Prière et la Meditation
(London: c. 1928). Small quarto. 33pp. Signed by Alberto Sangorski. A unique manuscript on vellum, designed, illuminated, and calligraphed by Sangorski. A stunning work containing the title poem and five others: "To the River," "Dream Land," "The Sleeper," "To One in Paradise," and "Fairy Land." With an illuminated full-page frontispiece... More about Annabel Lee and Other Poems
(Watertown, MA): Anne and David Bromer, 1977. (24)pp. The text is printed on Japanese paper with ornamentation in green. Wood engravings by Sarah Chamberlain, as her first miniature book commission. This is the first miniature book published by the Bromers. Midori Kunikata-Cockram captures the whimsical nature of the text, which... More about The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast
(McMinnville, OR): Bird & Bull Press for Philip J. Pirages, 1991. Octavo. 132pp. One of 275 copies. The leaf is from a copy of Volume I of the Sweynheym and Pannartz first edition of Nicholas of Lyra's Postilla super totam bibliam, completed on 18 November 1471 in the Palazzo Massimo... More about Sweynheym & Pannartz and the Origins of printing in Italy: German Technology and Italian...
Newton, IA: Tamazunchale Press, 1987. 31pp. Truman Capote's essay describes his first meeting with French author Colette, during which she gave him a crystal paperweight and inspired him to start collecting the objects for himself. The book has been specially bound by Tom McEwan to reflect the world in miniature... More about The White Rose
N.p. (1845). Octavo. (26)ff. A manuscript alphabet book of calligraphic paintings, signed by the artist, Jean Midolle. Includes an elaborately decorated title page, twenty-four letters, and "Fin." A renowned nineteenth-century Swiss calligrapher and miniature-painter, Midolle executed his alphabets in the gothic style of lettering to resemble the text of a.... More about Alphabet Gothique par Midolle
London: Methuen, (1927). First edition. This famous collection of children’s verses, featuring Milne’s son, Christopher Robin, and his bear, is illustrated throughout with Ernest H. Shepard’s whimsical drawings. Signed at a later date on the title page by Shepard. Handsomely bound by Bayntun-Rivière in deep red morocco, with gilt ruled..... More about Now We Are Six
A nineteenth-century French solid gold enamel binding containing five bone leaves. First appearing around 1820, the carnets de bal were used to record the order of an evening's dances, as well as the name of the partner for a particular dance. This opulent example is decorated with a leaf border;... More about CARNET DE BAL (dance card holder
Boston: Anne & David Bromer, 1983. (62)pp. First edition. From an edition of 400 copies signed by Gorey, this is one of 100 copies comprising the deluxe issue with the illustrations hand-colored by him. The text is an alphabet of short humorous couplets patterned after early moral primers for children... More about The Eclectic Abecedarium
Boston: Anne & David Bromer, 1989. (32)ff. From an edition of 400 copies, this is one of 110 hand-colored in metallic casein by the artist, and signed by him below the colophon. This Gorey rarity is bound in a one-of-a-kind designer binding by Brother Edgard Claes, a binder known for... More about Q.R.V
St. Petersburg: c. 1905-6. 14-carat pendant in the form of a hinged book containing three leaves with fine engraving work. The text begins with a plaintive song which was apparently popular in the salons of pre-Revolutionary Russia, and which closes with the line "Farewell, my invaluable friend/ Do not forget... More about Russian Gold Book
Rome: Delfino, (1985). Folio. 106pp. According to the colophon, this is one of 1,200 copies. Illustrated with ten color lithographs after drawings by Henry Moore. The editor, Dr. Stanley Wells, notes in the Foreword that this work reveals an "unsuspected spiritual kinship between one of the greatest visual artists of... More about Hamlet
Dallas: Somesuch Press, 1983. 24pp. Inscribed by Stanley Marcus, noted miniature book collector and proprietor of the Somesuch Press, to his friend and fellow microbibliophile Donn Sanford. A collection of love poems by Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Browning, illustrated with two United States "Love" stamps and a British stamp in honor... More about Love
NY: Pre-Columbian Press, 1960-61. Octavo. 31pp. One of 500 copies, signed by Rau. Drawings accompany each of the eight sites described, and a map prefaces the text. Bound in sienna boards printed with Mayan hieroglyphs. Spine slightly tilted, else near fine in near fine dust wrapper. More about Discovering the Lost Maya Cities
Boston: Southworth Press, 1931. Octavo. xxx, 214pp. One of twenty-five copies printed on vellum. Signed by Braithwaite, Hugh Francis Blunt, who wrote the Foreword, and Ralph Adams Cram, who wrote the Introduction. A hand-colored portrait of Mary Emelda Curley, the wife of James M. Curley, mayor of Boston, appears opposite... More about Our Lady's Choir. A Contemporary Anthology of Verse by Catholic Sisters
(Hyattsville, MD): Rebecca Press, 1983. 118pp. One of 150 copies. Illustrated with whimsical wood-engravings by Sarah Chamberlain. Designed by Rebecca Bingham, who signed the colophon. Published in the bicentennial year of the birth of Washington Irving. Bound in blue cloth with paper label. Very fine. Bookplate of former owner. (Bradbury... More about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Baltimore: Xavier Press, 1993. 19pp. A timeless essay by Lewis Carroll on the art of correspondence, illustrated with two pasted-in postage stamps promoting letter-writing and a fold-out sample of a letter by the author. In a designer binding by Dominic Riley featuring gilt-tooled envelopes and abstracted stamps in onlays of... More about Wise Words about Letter Writing
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 about Introducing Bookbinding. Together with: the original art for the dust jacket
Stratford-upon-Avon: Shakespeare Head Press, 1928-1929. Eight quarto volumes. One of 375 copies. Illustrated throughout with myriad hand-colored vignettes and miniatures redrawn by Lynton Lamb from illuminated manuscripts. The figures of the Canterbury pilgrims were adapted from the Ellesmere Manuscript by Hugh Chesterman. Title and paragraph marks in red, and headings... More about The Works
Mill Valley, CA: Sunflower Press, 1977. (16)ff. From an edition of 250 copies illustrated in color by Marcie Collin and printed by Carol Cunningham, this copy is in a designer binding by Sonya Sheats. Evoking the fierce battle between the Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat, the artist envisioned "a... More about Le Chien Guingan et le Chat Calicot
(Northampton, MA): Apiary Press, 1961. Oblong quarto. (10)ff., + single letterpress sheet laid in. One of twenty-five copies signed by the illustrator, Joyce Sills. This copy bears a presentation inscription from Sills to social-realist artist Ben Shahn and his wife, Bernarda. The colophon notes that the Shahns' son, Ezra, had... More about Some Arachnids
Boston: Southworth Press, 1931. Octavo. xxx, 214pp. One of fifty copies printed on Kelmscott handmade paper. Signed by Braithwaite, Hugh Francis Blunt, who wrote the Foreword, and Ralph Adams Cram, who wrote the Introduction. A broad collection of poems, largely on religious subjects, some of which reimagine often-male realms of... More about Our Lady's Choir: A Contemporary Anthology of Verse by Catholic Sisters
Worcester: St. Onge, Achille J., 1973. 55pp. From an edition of 1,500 copies, this is one of thirty-four in a special binding executed by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Printed with large ornamental initials in red by Joh. Enschedé en Zonen. Tiny book label to rear paste-down, else fine in burgundy morocco... More about The Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapters 5, 6, 7
Baltimore: Xavier Press, 1988. vi, 18pp. Samuel Clemens's account of his formative time spent as a printer's apprentice, presented as a speech at a dinner for New York printers. Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of Clemens and a vignette depicting a compositor setting type. This copy is in a designer... More about The Old-time Printer
