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.
Northridge, CA: Lord John Press, 1981. 29pp. One of 400 copies, signed by President Gerald R. Ford. The text is an address given to the Visa International Convention in Quebec, in September 1980, in which Ford advocates for world peace for economic purposes. He was the only president to collaborate... More about Global Stability
Northridge, CA: Lord John Press, 1981. 29 pp. From an edition of 400, this is one of 100 copies specially bound by Bela Blau. Signed by President Gerald R. Ford. The text of a September 1980 address given to the Visa International Convention in Quebec encouraging world peace for economic... More about Global Stability
London: Frowde, Henry, (c. 1905). 584pp. With a portrait of Oliver Goldsmith as frontispiece. "A handsome edition on thin paper." With pink marbled endpapers. Fine in red morocco, gilt on spine and panels. A.e.g. (Welsh 3103; Spielmann 171; AAS 149). (2 3/16 by 1 7/8; 55x47mm). More about The Vicar of Wakefield
(N.p. c. 1922). Set of eight cards, printed in red, along with a rules sheet. The cards form a drinking game; all are dealt to a group of eight, and each player must follow the pictorial instruction on the card placed before them. Five cards show a single cocktail, indicating... More about Game of D.W. Griffith's "One Exciting Night"
N.p. Garcia de Fuentes Press, n.d. 12ff. One of 200 copies. Illustrated with color images throughout. Bound in printed mylar over wrappers. Fine. (2 3/4 by 2; 70x51mm). More about Recuerdo de mi Primera Comunión [I remember my first communion
Tustin, CA: Garden View Press, (1969). 57pp., frenchfold One of 200 copies with color illustrations by Warren Batchelder. "Kwaidan," in Japanese, means "weird, haunting tales," and the two stories included tell the tales of a ghostly, shape-shifting priest and a mysterious woman, dressed in white, encountered in a snowstorm. Stab-sewn... More about Kwaidan: Jikininki, Yuki-Onna. Two Japanese Fairy Tales
(Amsterdam: Alice Garman, 1971). (44)ff. One of 250 copies. Stevenson's delightfully amusing reasons for vetoing a bill passed by the Illinois State Legislature that would have required cats to be leashed. Printed from the calligraphy of Alice Garman and illustrated by her. Garman was a renowned artist and the wife... More about Adlai Stevenson's Veto 1949
Paisley, Scotland: Gleniffer Press, 1978. (28)ff. One of 500 copies. With portraits of Robert Burns and others. Between these are highlights of Burns' compendium of work, including "To a Mouse" and "Address to a Haggis". Pictorial endpapers and printed boards. Fine in a fine pictorial dust wrapper. Bookplate of former... More about The Wit of Burns
(N.p.): 1976. Three volumes. 22pp.; (14)ff.; (16)ff. With hand-colored illustrations by Amanda Goldman. The first title contains pictures of columbine, water lily, larkspur, and other species. The second volume features vibrant renditions of the chickadee, owl, and other birds. Dolls and Doll Houses is separated into two parts, representing the... More about Wild Flowers of America. Together with Birds of America and Dolls and Doll Houses
(London): Goode Bros. c. 1875. (47)pp. Illustrated throughout with black & white lithographs, this little book includes excerpts from several Old Testament stories. In dark violet gilt-stamped wrappers. An unusually fine copy. (Bondy 162). (2 1/4 by 1 5/8; 58x40mm.). More about The Illustrated Bible; also Verses entitled Railway to Heaven
(Berkeley): Rasmussen Press, 1974. 81pp. One of 200 copies, this one being an unnumbered gift edition inscribed "To Doris- In memory of K.G." Illustrated with five sets of verses and drawings compiled by Lucile Rasmussen from those published in the Ladies' Home Journal, which were never published in book form... More about Drawings by Kate Greenaway, Verses by Laura E. Richards. From Ladies' Home Journal, 1895 and 1896
London: Grant Richards, 1904. 103pp. A comical miniature illustrating the inhabitants of London and poking fun at everyone from the telegraph boy to the sentry at Buckingham Palace. Full-page color plates by the famous British poster artist and illustrator John Hassall are accompanied by rhyming verses. In a limerick about... More about London Characters
(Vancouver): Heavenly Monkey, 2008. 20ff.,+ 4 tipped-in paper samples. Second edition. One of 50 copies. Printed to mark the tenth anniversary of its original publication, El Autobus Azul was the first book printed by Rollin Milroy, and this new edition adds a Foreword by him. Four samples of papers collected... More about El Autobus Azul: Handmade Papers from Costa Rica
Tilton, NH: Hillside Press, 1974. 38pp. One of 250 copies. Illustrated with numerous photo-engravings surrounded by keen numismatic analysis of colonial currency's forms and functions. Very fine in yellow cloth. (2 5/16 by 1 15/16; 59x50mm). More about Colonial Coins
Franklin, NH: Hillside Press, 1963. 28pp. One of 325 copies. Dee was an astrologer, book collector, and mathematician, and a friend of Elizabeth I. Fine in cloth-backed decorated boards. (2 5/16 by 1 15/16; 58x47mm). More about Diary of John Dee
Franklin, NH: Hillside Press, 1968. xi, 42pp. One of 250 copies. Illustrated throughout with woodcuts replicated from seventeenth-century originals. Very fine in gilt-stamped black morocco. (2 5/16 by 2; 58x51mm). More about The Famous History of Tom Thumb
Franklin, NH: Hillside Press, 1967. 44pp. One of 375 copies. Contains ten reproductions of illustrations by Kate Greenaway and an introduction on the history of nursery rhymes. Fine in orange pictorial cloth. (Bradbury, p. 94). (2 1/4 by 1 15/16; 57x49mm). More about Nursery Rhymes
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 2; 60x50mm). More about Aesop's Fables
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 1/4 by 2; 59x51mm). More about Bewick's Select Fables
Franklin, NH: Hillside Press, 1967. 51pp. One of 210 copies. With four full-page black and white illustrations. A fine copy in gilt-stamped polished navy blue leather. (2 5/16 by 1 7/8; 59x47mm). More about The Bell and Other Tales
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 about Florian's Fables
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 about Grimm's Fairy Tales
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 about Walt Whitman
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 about Bibliography of the Hillside Press, 1971-1980
Buffalo: Hillside Press, 1985. 70pp. One of 300 copies signed by the author and printer, Eleanor Irwin. Printed in blue and black. Fine in blue leather with marbled endpapers, gilt. (2 1/2 by 2 1/16; 63x53mm). More about The Book in History
