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
(London/Andoversford): Acorn Press/Whittington Press, 1975. Oblong quarto. (28)ff., frenchfold. One of 60 copies signed by the artist, Hellmuth Weissenborn. Illustrated with twenty-seven linocuts printed in two colors. Weissenborn's colorful alphabet is accompanied by quotations about various aspects of printing from philosophical and literary luminaries, such as Byron, Nietschze, and Southey..... More
Kentfield, CA: Allen Press, 1974. Large quarto. (86)pp. One of 140 copies. Illustrated with a woodcut portrait of St. Anthony and numerous woodcuts throughout the text, selected from antiquarian books identified by scholars as Flaubert's source material. His text, based on a 15th-century Persian motif, is translated by Lafcadio Hearn..... More
Fairfax, CA: Jungle Garden Press, 1991. Oblong 24mo. (14)pp., accordion-fold. One of 55 copies designed, printed, and bound by Marie Dern at the Jungle Garden Press. A tongue-in-cheek printer's alphabet, with large initials in, appropriately, Caslon type. The initials are accompanied by humorous representations of the letters printed using numerous..... More
(Portugal: c. 1885). Oblong octavo. (27)ff. First edition of this luxurious, allegorical alphabet by Godinho, with a full-page lithograph for each letter. The subjects are often highly symbolic, such as a soldier inside the letter G for "Guerra", an odalisque sleeping in the N for "Nudez", or a modern woman..... More
Barcelona: Nowhereman Press, 2007. Quarto. (12)pp. accordion fold. One of twenty-five copies. Signed by the artist. The book presents the alphabet and single integers as an expanding concertina, so that the letters and numbers grow and shift as the reader opens the volume. The set is inspired by children's alphabet..... More
Cambridge, MA: Dept. of Printing and Graphic Arts, Harvard College, 1968. Square 16mo. (8)ff. One of 500 copies, signed by the artist. Marie Angel, who also contributed illustrations to A. Colish's 1974 edition of The Velveteen Rabbit, here adorns Dickinson's two poems with a diverse array of butterflies set softly..... More
Brooklyn: Angelica Press, 1975. Four folio volumes, each unbound as issued. One of 220 numbered copies printed by Dennis and Marilyn Grastorf. The titles include: "A History of Wood Types"; "How to Print Wood Type," with illustrations by Marilyn Grastorf; "Forty-nine Fonts of Wood Type"; and "Posters." The type specimens..... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2003. Quarto. xxi, 101pp. From an edition of 400 copies, this is one of 200 with a photographic portrait of the author by Edmund Shea and a signed chromolithograph by Wayne Thiebaud. The portrait is printed here for the first time. Preface by Ron Loewinsohn, who..... More
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1993. Large quarto. 143pp. One of 300 copies, signed by the author and the artist. Illustrated throughout with fifteen drawings by Stan Washburn. The second in Arion's drama series. A very fine copy in pictorial boards and goatskin spine, with a mylar wrapper. Lacks accompanying CD..... More
Mission, British Columbia, Canada: Barbarian Press, 2013. Folio. (50)pp., + 134ff. plates. One of 120 copies of the regular edition. Illustrated with 134 examples of Brett's wood engravings. Number four in the Barbarian Press Endgrain Edition series of books on individual wood engravers. This volume includes an autobiographical Introduction by..... More
(Torrance): Labyrinth Editions, 1977. Translated by Enrique Sacerio-Gari. Tall quarto. (15)ff., frenchfold. One of 100 copies. Neruda's long poem celebrating the joys of the printed letter arranged in concrete typography by Bigus, who learned the craft of printing under the tutelage of William Everson and Jack Stauffacher at U.C. Santa..... More
Paris: Gumuchian, (c. 1930s). Quarto. (181)pp. + 135ff. of plates. One of 1000 copies. A catalogue of fine bindings from this famed Parisian bookseller, profusely illustrated with full-page black and white illustrations including XX color plates. In original dust wrapper, with the English titling: "Fine Bindings." This title also appears..... More
New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 1982. Octavo. 40pp. One of 250 copies. A comprehensive guide to bookbinding techniques and terminology for the layperson collector. Backed in cloth with red paper over boards. Fine. More
North Hills: Bird & Bull Press, 1972. Oblong 16mo. 70pp. One of 140 copies. An early title, containing six articles on printing, papermaking, etc. Bound in vellum-backed pastepaper boards. Little rubbing to corners, else near fine. Prospectus laid-in. More
(North Hills): Bird & Bull Press, 1980. Octavo. 40pp. One of 350 copies, each copy numbered "1". A clever and entertaining spoof by Henry Morris of several contemporary private presses, including his own Bird & Bull. Fine in cloth-backed decorated boards. More
North Hills: Bird & Bull Press, 1982. Octavo. 137pp. One of 500 copies. Facsimiles of two important essays on printing by Richard Atkins and the first specimen book by Caslon; introduced and commented upon by Cary S. Bliss. Very fine in tan buckram, with title-label on spine. Prospectus laid-in. (Bird..... More
Newtown, PA: Bird & Bull Press, 1985. Octavo. (17)pp. One of 300 copies. Designed by Abe Lerner. A transcription of "an imperceptibly edition version of a talk given April 5, 1982" to the Friends of the Book Arts Press at Columbia University. Spine sunned, else near fine in tan wrappers..... More
North Hills: Bird & Bull Press, 1971. Quarto. 67pp. One of 255 copies. Contains some amusing essays on paper-making, and some paper samples, including two made "with the cooperation of certain local wasps." A brief history of printing gives credit to "a man named Gutenberg, probably a foreigner," who "wanted..... 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
Newtown: Bird & Bull Press, 1990. Quarto. 64pp. One of 230 copies. A miscellany of amusing satires on many aspects of the world of fine printing, with cartoon-like line drawings. Includes "Meet Me at the Fair" and "Scouts' Honor" by Sidney Berger, both of which are signed by the author..... More
North Hills: Bird & Bull Press, 1975. Oblong 16mo. 62pp. One of "approximately 215 copies." Contains 24 tipped-in samples of colorful handmade paste papers. An account of methods and materials is illustrated with photographs. Bound in paste paper boards backed in vellum, gilt. Minor rubbing to edges, faint soiling to..... More
Newtown: Bird & Bull Press, 1989. Octavo. 86pp. One of 300 copies. Printers, papermakers, binders, and booksellers issued such tokens from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Fully illustrated with photographic reproductions of tokens and engravings. Some sunning to blue morocco spine, else fine. The tokens are contained in a...... More
(N.p.): Bird & Bull Press, 1991. Octavo. 82pp. One of 250 copies. Determined to "preserve worthwhile skills and artifacts from the past," Iris Nevins has focused on the art of marbling. "Many wonderful intricate patterns fell out of use after about 1870," and Spanish marbling is among the most difficult..... More
Newtown: Bird & Bull Press, 1987. Oblong octavo. 77pp.(25) ff. One of 325 copies. The first third of this handsome book consists of correspondence between Hans Schmoller and Morris dealing with the problems of the book itself. The second part by Tanya Schmoller is text about the Chinese tea chest..... More
Newtown, PA: Bird & Bull Press, 1984. Quarto. x, 49, 24 pp. + (31)ff. One of 500 copies. Contains three foldout plates, nineteen color reproductions of Japanese watercolors, and 30 illustrated facsimile pages of an eighteenth century Japanese papermaking manual. These woodcut facsimiles are printed on handmade Japanese gampi paper..... More
