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
Oxford: Alembic Press, 1992. Octavo. (38)ff. One of 150 copies. Contains a brief introduction on the development of the firm, and seventeen tipped-in samples of marbled papers produced for specific purposes, for customers ranging from Harrod's to a woman who wanted her lampshades to look like the feathers of her..... More
(Dallas, TX): Alisa Banks, 2016. Octavo. (4)pp., unbound. One of four copies. Signed by the artist/author Alisa Banks. Three stark photographs of plants from Banks' own garden, composed so that their subjects seem both foreign and familiar. Banks' meditation on gardening evokes much of the same; her nostalgia for the..... More
San Francisco: Allen Press, 1946. Quarto. 38pp., (16)ff. One of 300 copies, printed by Lewis and Dorothy Allen for the Book Club of California. With title and decorations by Mallette Dean. Contains a 30-page facsimile of the diary. Very fine in green, brown, and white patterned boards. Together with: Teggart..... 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
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
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
Mission, British Columbia: Barbarian Press, 2017. 24mo. (79)pp., + six loose plates. One of 60 deluxe copies. Engravings by John Lawrence printed largely from wood, with some detailed spots in larger engravings from polymer plates, all in the Press' customary assortment of bright colors. Texts from over forty songs and..... 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, 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
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, 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
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, 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
Parma: Bodoni, 1800. Folio. Three parts in one. 8, xxvii; 14, xliii; 11, xxxiii pp., + (35)ff. Contains thirty-five stipple-engraved plates, all but one in sepia, showing frescoes by the famed Renaissance painter Correggio at the Monastero de San Paolo in Parma. The engravings were done by Francesco Rosaspina after..... More
1930-1950. Forty-six quarto volumes, including the following: the original series (1930-1935) in twenty volumes; New Series (1935-1938) in twelve volumes; The Annual of Bookmaking (1938); New Graphic Series (1939) in four volumes; The New Colophon (1948-1950) in eight volumes; and the index to the original series. Lacks the New Colophon..... More
NY: Elston Press, 1901. Small quarto. (xv), 68pp. One of 485 copies on Holland hand-made paper, in boards with vellum spine. Unopened. Decorated with initials by H. M. O'Kane, floral devices, and a printer's device on the title page. The text is a 1345 treatise on book collecting written by..... More
San Francisco: Lawton Kennedy, 1958. Small quarto pamphlet. (6)ff. One of 175 copies. A tongue-in-cheek guide to the lexicon of the rare book trade. For example, the entry for "Fore-Edge Painting" states "These are always 'exquisitely executed' even when done by someone's Aunt Esmerelda on a wet Sunday afternoon." Fine..... More
(Wakefield, Yorkshire): Fleece Press, (1986). Large quarto. (10)pp., + (19)ff. From an edition of 200 copies, this is one of twelve bound by James Brockman. Illustrated with twenty wood engravings printed on handmade paper from the original blocks that were cut by Underwood in the 1920s and ‘30s. Underwood’s Brook..... More
Boston, MA: Bromer Booksellers, (c. 1991). Small quarto. (56)pp. With photographic reproductions throughout in black & white. Catalogue number 66 issued by Anne and David Bromer of Bromer Booksellers. This catalogue, released in conjunction with a lecture delivered by Anne Bromer and an exhibition, celebrates "the fine art of calligraphy..... More
Bromer Booksellers. (96) pp. Our most ambitious catalogue to date, featuring fifty exemplary works in literature, illustration, miniature and children's books, fine printing and artistic bindings. Includes many rare, unique, and autographed items from the 16th century to the present. More
