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. Flaubert's text, based on a fifteenth-century Persian motif, is translated by Lafcadio Hearn, and edited by Francis Carmody. Minor glue offsetting to endleaf gutters..... 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
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
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
Port Clarendon: Bird & Bull Press, 1978. Small quarto. (8)pp., with ten double-page samples. One of 400 copies, all numbered Copy 1. Printed by San Serriffe Publishing Company, Henry Morris's fictitious press based in the "Republic of San Serriffe." Wrappers fairly sunned, else near fine. 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
Newtown: Bird & Bull Press, 1988. Octavo. 58pp. One of 350 copies. Contains the Bird & Bull Commemorative medal in silver. Fine in morocco-backed terracotta boards, with the coin in a cardboard portfolio. Housed together in slipcase. Prospectus laid in. 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. Printed in three colors. Fine in gold and brown printed boards backed in cloth, with leather spine label. Prospectus laid..... 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, 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
New Castle, DE: Bird & Bull Press, 1990. Octavo. 57pp. One of 215 copies. Schmoller's history of Italian block-printed papers and the two firms best known for its production, including nine original samples, as well as one larger sample of "pictorial" paper. Slight rubbing to corners, else fine in cloth-backed..... More
North Hills: Bird & Bull Press, 1964. Octavo. 91pp. One of 200 copies. A biography on the life and work of Thomas Bird Mosher, the remarkable New England publisher and literary pirate. The Passionate Pirate is one of Henry Morris's earlier titles. In making it, he was plagued with both..... More
North Hills: Bird & Bull Press, 1976. Octavo. 70pp. One of "approximately 250 copies." Sumner's manual, first published in 1854, is full of very specific recipes. This is the first of Bird & Bull's excellent books on marbling. Near fine in handsome marbled boards backed in gilt-titled morocco, with spine..... More
North Hills: Bird & Bull Press, 1980. Small quarto. 78pp., + 14ff. One of 300 copies. Translated from the German with an Introduction and fourteen original marbled specimens by Richard J. Wolfe. Illustrated with numerous black & white photographs showing Weisse at work. The large marbled samples by Wolfe are..... More
Newtown, PA: Bird & Bull Press, 1983. Oblong 12mo. 64pp., + (14)ff. One of 350 copies. An interesting, historic account on marbling taken from the Journal of the Franklin Institute of 1829. Minor toning to spine, some edgewear, else near fine in marbled boards, backed with gilt-stamped blue morocco. Prospectus..... More
Newtown: Bird & Bull Press, 1987. Octavo. 108pp. One of 310 copies, of which 275 copies were for sale. With an introduction and thirteen original marbled samples by Richard J. Wolfe. Printed in red and black on the sumptuous Italian handmade "Umbria" paper. Bound in paper marbled by Wolfe, backed..... More
Newtown: Bird & Bull Press, 1985. Octavo. 161pp. One of 325 copies. Illustrated with eighteen black & white photographs and drawings, fourteen full-color photographs of Kinder's bindings, and thirteen pages of black & white impressions of Kinder's bookbinding stamps. A thorough examination of one of America's finest binders and of..... More
