BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS
A-C   •   D-G   •   H-N   •   O-Z

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Beautiful & Absorbing

•  A masterful and sweeping history of Western illuminated manuscripts organized by the audience for which they were made. Sumptuously illustrated with full-page color and partial-page, in-text, black and white reproductions. The author was the head of the Western Manuscripts Department of Sotheby's and is now Donnelley Fellow Librarian, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

First American edition. The illustrations are different than those in the second and later editions, but the same as in the first English edition.

•  Publisher's cloth with illustrated dust jacket. As new.  (22335)

“I Was Born in the Year 1632 . . . ”

Click the image above left for an enlargement.

•  Illustrated late 18th-century rendition of this classic tale: The Stockdale edition of Defoe's most-read novel contains a frontispiece and engraved title-page in each volume, along with an engraved portrait of Defoe and 12 engraved illustrations done by Medland after drawings by Stothard. Chalmers’s Life of Defoe appears in this edition for the first time anywhere; another interesting addition is“A List of Writings, which are considered as undoubtedly De Foe’s.”

A handsome edition of a great, indeed landmark English novel.

•  ESTC N47632; Lowndes, III, 613; NCBEL, II, 900 (first few eds. only). Contemporary half calf over marbled paper–covered sides, bindings overall worn and rubbed with leather lost over corners and front joint of vol. I cracked though holding; now housed in a handsome clamshell case of quarter calf with marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations. Front free endpapers with pencilled ownership inscription (dated 1875 in vol. I); front pastedowns with 20th-century collector’s bookplate. Light to moderate foxing to pages in proximity to plates, with occasional small spots to other pages; plates spotted and browned although not beyond expectable degrees. Worthy.

Bookselling Reminiscences — HIS

•  First American edition of a highly personal look at the firm of Elkin Mathews, and at bookselling in England and Europe during the period 1925-55. Very interesting information on the formation of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. Now out of print.

•  Fine in original dust jacket.

Bookselling Reminiscences — HERS

•  First American edition of the first volume of reminiscences of Percy Muir's widow: Much on the bookselling firm of Elkin Mathews and life on home front in WWII England. A good sequel to Muir's Minding My Own Business, above. In print for $35.00.

•  Fine in original dust jacket.

Collectors generally fond of BIOGRAPHY, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, & MEMOIRS
may enjoy our page devoted to them — click here.

With theVery Striking Folding Plate

•  First printed work to give instructions on producing mezzotints, and a most curious account of the development of "sculpture." Evelyn (1620–1706), whose occupation the Dictionary of National Biography cites simply as "virtuoso," published popular works on gardening, politics, and education. His roughly chronological history of illustrative arts, divided primarily by significant figures, is sprinkled with a number of languages (Greek, Hebrew, and German all in their respective typefaces, along with Latin in italics), and also contains a detail from the first mezzotint print ever created, here reproduced as an oversized (and dramatic) folding plate. A "Life" of Evelyn is also supplied.

The work first appeared in 1662, with a second edition published in 1755; the present copy is a reissue of the 1755 with a cancel title-page. A handsome engraved portrait, in which Mr. Evelyn is wearing a most dashing cape, opens the volume.

•  Wing E3513 (first ed.) On Evelyn, see: Dictionary of National Biography, XVIII, 79–83. Contemporary speckled sheep with red gilt-stamped morocco spine label; some little chipping to edges, with joints and spine lightly abraded and cracking (not disastrously). Early inscription reads "Evelyns Sculptura compiled originally the elder Faithorne." Pages unspotted for the most part, and plates in good condition save for slight offsetting to frontispiece. A pleasing book!

NEW JERSEY BOOKS, 1801–1860

Felcone, Joseph J.

•  This second volume of the catalogue of the Felcone library describes the books and pamphlets printed from 1801 through 1860. There are over 1400 bibiographical entries in this volume. The contents, binding, provenance, and historical context of each book or pamphlet is described in rich detail. An indispensable guide for anyone interested in the history of New Jersey.

•  Publisher's red cloth, stamped in gilt on the spine. New.

Good for Both Reading & Reference

•  English and Flemish panel-stamped bindings of the 16th century are damned similar in appearance. Fogelmark adds depth to our knowledge of each, and of which are which, picking up where Oldham's work on English blind-panel bindings left off with guesses and hints. We have a copy of this in our reference library, and you should too.

•  New, in publisher's gilt-stamped green cloth.

Forman, Buxton. The Shelley Library. An essay in bibliography. New York: Haskell House Publishers Ltd., 1971.
$40.00

•  Very, very detailed. First published in 1886; reprinted from a copy in the Enoch Pratt Free Library (Baltimore).

•  Publisher's cloth. As new.

BIBLIO–BEDTIME READING — WOOLLY WHALE

•  First edition of one of the most substantial treatments of this famous and elaborate auction hoax. It includes bibliographical descriptions of the catalogue, its subsequent printings, and the literature on the affair. Limited to 200 copies, printed in Centaur types on rag paper, with a title-page decoration by Fritz Kredel.

The Fortsas hoax is legendary for having fooled many renowned collectors and dealers near the mid-point of the 19th century (1840, to be precise) into travelling to the small town of Biche, Belgium for an auction of unique books that were bibliographically unknown!

•  Publisher's quarter cloth and decorated boards; top edge gilt, fore-edges untrimmed. Map endpapers. Cloth clean and fresh, volume in original glassine dust wrapper; significant portion of wrapper chipped away at base of back cover.

One of theMust-Reads

•  A standard reference work and overview of bibliography that is especially useful for the information it gives on 19th- and 20th-century book production, an area not well covered by other similar works.

•  New.  Paperback edition. (21476)

Classic — Invaluable

•  Marvelously inclusive and detailed encyclopedia of book, printing, and binding terms. A classic, and Donald Farren's introduction is a welcome addition.

•  Publisher's cloth, dust jacket, and contents as new. (6107)

For more “GIFTABLES” — mostly $150
      & UNDER,  click here.


 

Ars Typographica

•  The final number (volume I, #4) of Goudy's distinguished periodical, published 16 years after the first number, and the intervention of McMurtrie's periodical of the same title. A total of 514 copies were printed.

•  Cary 216. Printed wrappers. Collotype plates and illustrations. A fine copy. (17734)

One of the Special Copies

•  No. 156 out of 200 special numbered copies (out of a total edition of 650) containing “an extra page of supplementary information identifying the work to which Mr. Goudy has assigned those serial numbers which are missing from the chronological table.”

•  Publisher’s quarter tan cloth over black paper–covered sides, front cover with black- and red-printed paper label, in original glassine dustwrapper; clean and unworn. An elegant book.

NEW Illustrated "ABC" of Bookbinding

•  A major illustrated glossary in the field of bookbinding, this work contains over 1000 binding-related terms and 700 drawings, coupled with clear outlines of the various periods in the historical development of book structure and style.

•  New. Complete with printed dust jacket.

The BCP Bibliography

•  Absolute must for any library or collector of Anglican/Episcopalian materials. The definitive bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer. Gives collations by signatures and pagination; STC, Wing, and ESTC numbers; and locations of the especially rare editions. Not just the BCP in English, but in all translations as well.

•  Publisher's cloth with dust jacket. New. (5926)

Book of Armagh — Limited Edition — Signed Binding

Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  Ninth-century Irish manuscript, here transcribed and edited with an introduction and appendices by John Gwynn, professor of divinity at the University of Dublin. The volume is illustrated with six plates reproducing leaves of the original manuscript.

This is no. 186 of 400 copies printed.

Binding: Publisher's brown suede, front cover with embossed Celtic designs, signed by Galwey & Co. of Dublin (with their ticket on the front pastedown).

•  Binding as above, minor discoloration to central portions of covers, leather of back joint cracking but joint firm. Title-page and one other institutionally pressure-stamped; lower edges rubber-stamped; first preface page with inked provenance notation and stamped numeral; back pastedown with adhesions from card pocket once present. Binding “going to red” as is the wont of this material; still, however, handsome.  (21062)

Printed @ Hoorn

•  Blue cloth, as issued.

TO Part III

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