When you hold a miniature book in your hand, it is like holding a jewel. A miniature book is usually no bigger than three inches (76 millimeters) tall, and although some need magnification to be viewed properly, most can be read with the naked eye. Dating as far back as 2500 BCE, Sumerian clay tablets with cuneiform writing are considered the prototype for miniature books ...
Read more about Miniature Books
Our miniature books are listed below. You may also browse our miniature books by publisher or by century.
Worcester, MA: Achille J. St. Onge, 1969. 67pp. One of 1,500 copies. Three essays on travel by McCord, Boston's famous literary figure. Very fine in gilt-stamped brown leather. A.e.g. (Massmann 35; Bradbury, p. 254). (2 11/16 by 1 13/16; 68x45mm). More
Worcester: Achille J. St. Onge, (1969). 45pp. One of 1,500 copies with a photograph of Nixon tipped-in as a frontispiece. Very fine in gilt-stamped blue leather. With original plastic wrapper. A.e.g. (Massmann 34; Bradbury, p. 254). (2 5/8 by 1 13/16; 68x46mm). More
Worcester, MA: St. Onge, Achille J., 1966. 36pp. Second edition. One of 1,000 copies. With a black and white frontispiece portrait of Paul Revere, which is a reproduction of the painting by John Singleton Copley at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Introduction by Esther Forbes. Fine in full..... More
Worcester, MA: St. Onge, Achille J., 1959. 38pp. One of 2,000 copies. With a one-cent stamp of Lincoln tipped in as a frontispiece. Very fine in full rust-colored morocco lettered and decorated in gilt on the front cover. A.e.g. Laid in are the prospectus and a newspaper clipping from The..... More
Worcester: Achille J. St. Onge, 1973. 23pp. First edition. One of 500 copies. Two elegies on one poet by another, written during the 1830s, while Swinburne was at Oxford, and found in his undergraduate notebook. Extremely fine in gilt-stamped red morocco. A.e.g. (2 11/16 by 1 7/8; 68x47mm). More
Worcester, MA: St. Onge, Achille J., 1956. 95pp. One of 950 copies designed by Bruce Rogers. Thoreau's well-known essay on the varieties, habitats, and habits of wild apples and crabapples. One of the most sought after of St. Onge's publications, and one of only two miniature books designed by Bruce..... More
Worcester: St. Onge, Achille J., 1975. 65pp. One of 1,500 copies. With the 1969 U.S. postage stamp honoring California's Bicentennial tipped-in as a frontispiece. Illustrated with numerous black & white reproductions of postage stamps. Extremely fine in gilt-stamped blue leather. A.e.g. (3 5/16 by 2 1/4; 84x58mm). More
Worcester: St. Onge, Achille J., 1975. 65pp. One of 1,500 copies. With the 1969 U.S. postage stamp honoring California's Bicentennial tipped-in as a frontispiece. Illustrated with numerous black & white reproductions of postage stamps. Extremely fine in gilt-stamped blue leather. A.e.g. (3 5/16 by 2 1/4; 84x58mm). More
Worcester: St. Onge, Achille J., 1975. 65pp. One of 1,500 copies. With the 1969 U.S. postage stamp honoring California's Bicentennial tipped-in as a frontispiece. Illustrated with numerous black & white reproductions of postage stamps. Extremely fine in gilt-stamped blue leather. A.e.g. (3 5/16 by 2 1/4 in.; 84x58mm). More
Worcester: St. Onge, Achille J., 1975. 65pp. One of 1,500 copies, with a 1969 U.S. postage stamp honoring California's Bicentennial tipped-in as a frontispiece. Illustrated with numerous black & white reproductions of postage stamps. Extremely fine in gilt-stamped blue leather. A.e.g. Bookplate (3 5/16 by 2 1/4; 84x58mm). More
Worcester: St. Onge, Achille J., 1975. 26pp. One of 300 copies, making this one of the rarer St. Onge titles. This copy includes an ALs dated May 30, 1975 from St. Onge to bookseller Robert Merriam explaining the limitation and price of this particular title. Portrait frontispiece tipped in to..... More
(N.p.): Sunflower Press, 1984. 37pp. One of 125 copies, signed by Cunningham. Illustrated with color prints, and with Chinese postage stamps. Photoreproductions of terracotta soldiers act as endpapers. Hint of fading to spine, else eear fine in full gold cloth wtih illustration of The Great Wall inlaid to upper cover..... More
Mill Valley, CA: Sunflower Press, 1985. (39)pp. One of 85 copies, signed by Carol Cunningham, who printed the book. A brief history of the Inca civilization illustrated throughout with hand-colored images and striking gold-stamped illustrations on black paper. Bound in lavender cloth woven with colorful Inca designs on the covers..... More
(Mill Valley, CA): Sunflower Press, 1980. (23)ff. One of 125 copies signed by the author/printer, Carol Cunningham. With a full-page color frontispiece. Text printed in black, except for one title piece in red. Brown endpapers and paste-downs, with the Chinese characters for "Large Territory" and "Mountain Peaks" printed on both..... More
(N.p.): Sunflower Press, 1986. (29)pp. One of 85 copies, signed by Carol Cunningham. Floral motifs, printed in purple, accompany haikus musing on the natural world. Faint fading to spine, esle near fine in quarter purple leather, with patterned papers over boards. (2 1/4 by 1 7/8; 58x46mm). More
Mill Valley: Sunflower Press, 1987. (30)pp. One of forty copies signed by the printer, Carol Cunningham. With illustrations printed in various colors, some hand-colored and one highlighted with gold. A brief history of the manufacture, trade, and uses of silk in Eastern and Western fashion. Bound in multi-colored silk over..... More
(Austin, TX): Tarantula Press, 1985. (6)pp. bound accordion fold. An absurd tale of a young boy's mishandling of a stray dog. Fine in paper wrappers. More
(Bangor: Tatlin Books, 1996). (12)ff. A prayer for safety on the way, with subtle decorations in color. The first eight pages unfold to show a wheel-like design. "Very little pagan influence can be seen in this poem, which seems more prayer than charm." A handsomely designed and printed book on..... More
Santa Cruz: Good Book Press, 1988. (33)pp. One of 150 copies. A nonsense rhyme, illustrated with photographs of the printer, Peter Thomas, at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire. Letterpress printed on Peter's handmade paper, with five samples of his handmade papers tipped in. Fine in lilac-colored boards. (2 15/16 by 1..... More
Santa Cruz: Good Book Press, 1986. (19)pp. One of 200 copies. Four illustrations by Donna Thomas, printed in light brown. The text is a bedtime story by Peter Thomas and his daughter Tanya, in which Tanya visits her little sister Suzanne in the ICU with the help of a magic..... More
(Exeter, NH): C. Norris & Co., 1812. 142pp. A charming thumb Bible with significant stories told in prose followed by supplements with references to verses. Bound in full brown leather with gilt decorations to spine and covers, including the monogram "E. L." to upper cover. Rear flyleaf torn and small..... More
Philadelphia: Conrad Zentler, 1811. (vi), 106pp. Engraved frontispiece, plus nine further engravings, each depicting biblical scenes, such as the ascension of Elijah and the birth of Christ. A famous Thumb Bible; according to Bradbury, the first foreign religious miniature book printed in America. Originally bound in red leather, this copy..... More
London: Tho. James, (c. 1700). The presence of the woodcut frontispiece portrait of the Duke of Gloucester makes this the first illustrated Thumb Bible. It precedes the dated edition of 1701 and is not recorded in Adomeit. This is the first James printing (before which the printer was alive) with..... More
London: Tilt & Bogue, (c. 1835). 191pp. Contains forty-eight wood engravings illustrating Aesop's fables, including two portraits of Aesop himself. Bondy writes of the Tilt's Handbooks series "their apparently everlasting popularity has resulted in making it increasingly difficult to find complete copies of these pleasing little volumes." Bound in full..... More
Tokyo: Toppan, 1979. Three micro-miniature volumes: Birth Stone, Language of the Flowers, and Zodiacal Signs. Together set into a leather-covered sleeve, which is then housed with a magnifier in a custom matching box, the lid of which has a red and blue design evocative of the red and blue covers..... More
