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.
Tilton, NH: Hillside Press, 1974. xvii, 40pp. One of 250 copies. The Caxton translation of 1484 is used, and eight of Caxton's original woodcuts of that edition are reproduced here. With a preface on Caxton and his work. Fine in orange cloth boards printed with Caxton's insignia. (2 3/8 by..... More
Franklin, NH: Hillside Press, 1965. xvi, 50pp. One of 375 copies. A collection of Aesop's fables with engraved illustrations of the original woodcuts by Thomas Bewick. A fine copy in blue cloth with a yellow illustrated dust wrapper, which is signifiantly torn at the rear side. (Bradbury, p. 94). (2..... More
Franklin, NH: Hillside Press, 1970. x, 64pp. One of 250 copies. Nine engraved caricature illustrations by J. J. Grandville, the pseudonym of Jean Ignace Isidore Gerard. Florian's amusing lyric tales include "The Inquisitive Cat", "The Crocodile and the Sturgeon", and "The Canary and the Crow". Bound in pictorial yellow cloth..... More
Franklin, NH: Hillside Press, 1963. 64pp. One of 350 copies. The second book of the Press. Contains six little-known tales taken from a miniature edition published in Boston, 1863, and wood-engraved vignettes from the same source. Fine in pictorial boards backed in cloth. (2 5/16 by 1 7/8; 59x48mm). More
Roswell: Hillside Press, 1983. xi, 58pp. One of 300 copies signed by the printer, Eleanor Irwin. With three illustrations, and hand-colored initials and fleur-de-lis on title page. The Introduction is by Richard F. Ellis. Very fine in dark blue leather. (Bradbury, p. 96). (2 1/2 by 2; 65x52mm). More
Buffalo: Hillside Press, 1980. xv, 50pp. One of 300 copies. Illustrated with eighteen full-page plates. Contains a preface by Robert E. Massmann, as well as a life of Frank Irwin, co-proprietor of this well-known miniature book press, by Eleanor Irwin. Fine in red leatherette with gilt decoration to cover and..... More
Buffalo: Hillside Press, 1982. 50pp. One of 350 copies signed by the author and printer, Eleanor Irwin. Slight skew to spine, else near fine in red, gilt-stamped leather. (2 7/16 by 2 1/16; 62x51mm). More
Franklin, NH: Hillside Press, 1964. ix,74 pp. One of 375 copies, signed by Irwin. An analysis of Nostradamus' famous foresight, with contemporary verses and texts added. Fine with illustrated dust wrapper, shabby at edges, featuring an image by William Blake. (Welsh 5298). (2 3/8 by 2; 60x51mm). More
Franklin, NH: Hillside Press, 1964. ix, 74 pp. One of 375 copies, signed by Irwin. An analysis of Nostradamus' famous foresight, with contemporary verses and texts added. Fine with illustrated dust wrapper, shabby at edges, featuring an image by William Blake. (Welsh 5298). (2 3/8 by 2; 60x51mm). More
Buffalo: Hillside Press, 1978. 62pp. One of 275 copies, signed by the author/printer, Frank Irwin. Illustrated with reproductions of woodcuts and engravings from the fifteenth century onward. Fine in pictorial tan cloth. (2 1/4 by 2; 60x50mm). More
Tilton, NH: Hillside Press, 1976. ix, 60pp. One of 300 copies. With occasional black-and-white illustration, a collection of notes bearing on existential philosophy, mysticism, Zen Buddhism, and books. Bound in gray-blue leatherette over boards with gilt decoration. Fine. (2 5/16 by 2; 59x51mm). More
Buffalo, NY: Hillside Press, 1979. 42pp. One of 250 copies. Illustrated throughout in black & white with examples of heraldic bookplates from the fifteenth century onward, including that of George Washington. Fine in pictorial orange cloth. (2 1/4 by 1 7/8; 58x49mm). More
Tilton, NH: Hillside Press, 1976. 51pp. One of 250 copies. Illustrated throughout with printer's marks from presses, both early and modern. Fine in yellow cloth, printed in black. Bookplate. (Bradbury p. 95). (2 5/16 by 2; 58x49mm). More
Tilton, NH: Hillside Press, 1976. 51pp. One of 250 copies. Illustrated throughout with printer's marks from presses, both early and modern. Fine in yellow cloth, printed in black. Bookplate. (2 5/16 by 2 in.; 58 x 49 mm). (Bradbury p. 95). More
Tilton, NH: Hillside Press, 1971. xix, 51pp. One of 350 copies. Illustrated with twenty-five full-page woodcuts and other illustrations. Contains a preface by Robert E. Massmann. Fine in green, gilt-stamped cloth. Bookplate. (Bradbury, p. 95). (2 3/8 by 2; 61x51mm). More
Tilton, NH: Hillside Press, 1975. xxiv, 92pp. One of 250 copies. With frontispiece portrait and vignette of Monticello. Fine in gilt-titled red leather. (2 3/8 by 2; 60x50mm). More
Buffalo: Hillside Press, 1979. 39pp. One of 225 copies. The 1898 version of the text, written for Clemens' autobiography. A very fine copy in pictorial cloth binding. (Bradbury, p. 96). (2 3/8 by 1 15/16; 60x49mm). More
Tilton, NH: Hillside Press, 1976. (103)pp. One of 250 copies signed by the publisher, Frank Irwin. Frontispiece uncancelled stamp of Copernicus. Spaces provided for affixing the appropriate stamps, which would include portraits of Catholic historical figures, from Columbus to Kennedy, predominate. Fine in green cloth boards. (2 3/8 by 2;..... More
Tokyo: Bijou Book Hoshino, 1979. 104; 88pp. Text in English and Japanese, with each language separately paginated. One of 150 copies. Illustrated with a two-page map of New Guinea, printed in green, and with chapter title pages printed in green and black. An account of an unlikely friendship made while..... More
(Tempe, AZ): Kelly M. Houle, 2008. (1)ff., accordion-fold. One of thirty copies, signed by the artist, Kelly M. Houle. The book is comprised of a fold-out illustration of a banana plant, printed in black on yellow parchment-textured paper. Below the illustration is a haiku by the seventeenth-century Japanese poet Matsuo..... More
(Chillicothe, OH: Mountain House Press, 1987). Four volumes. Unpaginated. One of 50 numbered copies printed by Dard Hunter II at the Mountain House Press. The text, written in 1915, is reprinted from the quarterly published by Alfred Fowler entitled The Miscellany, Volume II, No. 1. It was written by Dard..... More
San Diego, CA: Iron Bear Press, 2000. One of 50 copies, signed by Weintraub. Two volumes of fables, bound dos-a-dos. Fine in boards covered with gray and tan handmade paper. (3 by 2 3/8; 75x60mm). More
Palm Beach Gardens: Kaycee Press, 1989. (65)pp. Limited to 200 copies printed by Ward Schori. This copy inscribed by the author. Humorous and sensitive poetry to the memory of his mother by one of the founders of the Miniature Book Society. Very fine in covers of dark blue with gilt-stamping..... More
(Turkey: c. 1875). 200ff. Complete, single column, with between thirty-eight and forty-one lines of miniature gold gubari per page. Surah headings in black against gold ribbon banners. The opening two pages of text feature illuminated blue, red, and white borders decorated with interlocking vinal circles, creating a mesmerizing array of..... More
Chicago: Le Petit Oiseau Press, 1968. 7pp. One of 150 copies. With a portrait frontispiece of Christ tipped in. Printed by Doris V. Welsh. Very fine in half blue cloth and yellow boards. (1 7/8 by 1 7/16; 47x36mm). More
