
BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS
A-C
D-J
K-Q
R-Z
[
]
A Review for
Printers & Bibliophiles
Randle, John & Rosalind, eds. Matrix 7. Number seven, winter 1987. Gloucestershire:
The Whittington Press, 1987. Imperial 8vo (28.7 cm, 11.3"). [6], 166, [2] pp.; illus.
$175.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Another volume of worthwhile and aesthetically pleasing reading for book arts enthusiasts, including “A Moroccan Diary” by Edwina Ellis, “Ornamented Types: the Making of the Edition” by Ian Mortimer, “On the Shape of Books” by Brooke Crutchley, “A Medley of Printers Past” by Ward Ritchie, “Letters from a Papermaker's Husband” by Brian Richardson, and a variety of other essays and reviews pertaining to typography, fine printing, and illustration, as well as two poems by Philip Gallo. This is
one of 960 copies printed, illustrated with an assortment of photographic plates, an oversized folding plate reproducing illustrations by Annie Newnham, tipped-in examples of printing, etc. The prospectus for Matrix 8 is laid in.
Publisher's printed yellow paper wrappers over printed paper–covered stiff boards; wrappers with spine sunned, minor edge wear. Contents clean and crisp. Very good. (34969)
For COLLECTED PRESSES
& TYPOGRAPHY, click here.
For “GIFTABLES” mostly $150
& UNDER, click here.

The Art of the Dedication
Rat, Maurice. Dédicaces. Poitiers: Éditions SFIL, 1958. 12mo (19.2 cm, 7.55"). 218, [2] pp.
$50.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition: Histoire et petite histoire littéraire. This is
numbered copy 66 of 500 printed, 50 of which were hors de commerce.
Publisher's cream paper wrappers; darkened, back wrapper with light spots, spine creased with chip at head. Pages clean. (35687)
For BOOKS IN FRENCH, click here.
For LITERATURE, click here.

CASANOVA Beyond His Exploitatious Exploits
Ricci, Seymour de. Jacques Casanova de Seingalt: An address to the Philobiblon Club of Philadelphia, 24 May, 1923. Philadelphia: Privately Printed [for The Philobiblon Club], 1923. 8vo (22 cm; 8.5"). 24 pp.
$22.50
Click the images for enlargements.
The great bibliographer and friend of Dr. Rosenbach (and of many American, British, and French bibliophiles and booksellers) entertained the gentlemen of the Philobiblon Club with a good and sympathetic account of Count Casanova, the publishing history of his memoirs, and the fate of the manuscript of the same.
New. Publisher's blue cloth shelfback and French swirl marbled paper over boards; white paper label on front cover. (35760)
For more of PHILADELPHIA interest, click here.
For LITERATURE, click here.
For a bit more (mostly very mild!) EROTICA, click here.
For PHILOBIBLON PUBLICATIONS, click here.
For “GIFTABLES” mostly $150
& UNDER, click here.

Catalogue of His Own Collection — Early American Children's Books
Rosenbach, A.S.W. Early American children's books. Portland, ME: Southworth Press, 1933. Stout 4to (27 cm; 10.625"). lix, 354 pp., [86] leaves of plates; facsims. (some col.).
$575.00
Click the images for enlargements.
One of
88 copies on Zerkall Halle paper and bound in blue pigskin, out of a total edition of 585 copies, this being copy XIII (i.e., 13), signed
by Rosy below the number.
Rosenbach was the leading bookseller in America during the first half of the 20th century, helping to form the collections of Huntington, Folger, Widener, Doheny, Bell, Lilly, Clements, and many others. His personal collecting included American Judaica and Early American children's books. This is the highly illustrated and very bibliographically detailed catalogue of his personal collection of the latter. The collection was donated to the Free Library of Philadelphia.
The introduction is by A.E. Newton, Rosenbach's friend and customer, and a man whose own books on the joys of collecting helped fuel the fashion for it in the 1920s and 30s.
Blue pigskin, embossed in black on covers with an early American design; rebacked in plain blue morocco; abraded joints nicely refurbished. In the original black cloth slipcase but without the paper label. A good+ copy. (34040)
For CHILDREN / EDUCATION, click here.

History of the Church — Emphasis on BOOKS!
Schelhorn, Johann Georg. Ergötzlichkeiten aus der kirchenhistorie und literatur. Ulm und Leipzig: Rosten der Bartholomäischen Handlung, 1762. 8vo (17.6 cm; 7"). I: [10], 185, [6], 188–374, [5], 380–566, [3], 572–746, [17] pp. II: [6], 188, [5], 194–380, [5], 386–567, [6], 578 –764, [14] pp. III: [7], 766–952, [5], 954–1139, [6], 1142–2128, [5], 2130–2282, [16] pp.
$375.00
Click the images for enlargements.
History of the Protestant Church, complete with excerpts from foundational texts, here bound in three volumes. Schelhorn (1694–1773) was a Lutheran theologian who studied at the University of Jena before serving as a preacher and later superintendent for the city of Memmingen. Luther, Melanchton, and several popes' actions are discussed; the text (which is in a mix of fraktur, roman, and italic) also includes
bibliographies of rare and prohibited books. In this copy, the contents of section four are bound near the start of vol. I instead of the most logical location.
Provenance: From the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (properly deaccessioned).
19th-century cream paper–covered boards with handwritten spine labels of paper, all edges speckled red; well rubbed with some loss of paper, dust-soiled especially to spines and top edges. Ex–seminary library with remnants of spine labels, bookplates on front pastedowns and a fly-leaf, small inking on endpapers, and light pencilling to title-page versos and one leaf of text. Light age-toning, with pinprick wormhole affecting margins or parts of letters (but not sense) in several gatherings, wormtracking on inner margins of a few others; a few paper flaws, small spots or stains, two repairs, one marginal tear with paper loss, another small marginal hole, two leaves with inked notes.
In fact a nice old trio. (37076)

A Look at
THREE Fine Presses
Sewell, Brocard. Three private presses: Saint Dominic's Press, the Press of Edward Walters, Saint Albert's Press. Wellingborough: Christopher Skelton, 1979. 8vo (26 cm, 10.25"). 54, [2] pp.; illus.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of this illustrated account, enlarged from the similarly titled 1976 exhibition catalogue. This is
numbered copy 213 of 250 printed, signed at the colophon by the author. Tucked into the pocket of the back pastedown is a facsimile copy of the marvelous color-printed, folding broadside invitation to the Ditchling Horticultural Society 98th Annual Show of 1920 that the Saint Dominic's Press originally produced.
Publisher's three-quarters green cloth, front cover with color-printed floral bouquet design on white paper, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title. Very slight traces of wear to lower front edge, otherwise a crisp, clean copy. (34436)

A Handsome “Facsimile” — A Pleasing Reference Resource
Simon Gribelin II, illus.; Philip Hofer, intro.; & Rudolph Ruzicka. A book of ornaments: engraved by Simon Gribelin II in the year MDCCIV and now partially reprinted in collotype facsimile. Meriden, CT: Timothy Press, 1941. Oblong 8vo (20.6 cm, 8.125"). 13, [3] pp.; 6 ff. of plts., illus.
$75.00
Click the images for enlargements.
“. . . Simon Gribelin deserves recognition because of his skill and ingenuity . . . Such quality of workmanship, such calligraphic and intricate, but confidently assured design, is quite wanting in art today. We have no designers trained in this tradition. Nor do we deserve them, because we do not notice, nor will we pay for, such attention to detail. Yet it is only when we look into Gribelin's engravings with a magnifying glass that the real inner content of his work stands revealed: the play of light and shade, the intricate interlacing of foliage, and lines which indicate so cleverly a roundness of form and a perspective. It is almost impossible to believe that this was achieved — mainly free hand — by a young man working on a recalcitrant copper plate.”
This is one of 310 unnumbered copies printed.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Black cloth shelfback, pictorial paper–covered sides, white label printed in black and red on front board; rubbed. Foxing to endpapers. Very good. (37715)

“It Was a Fascinating Discovery Which Invited Prolonged Exploration”
Stein, Marc Aurel. On ancient Central-Asian tracks: brief narrative of three expeditions in innermost Asia and north-western China. London: Macmillan & Co., 1933. 8vo (24 cm; 9.5"). xxiv, 342 pp.
$1750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition. Based on lectures given at the Lowell Institute, this book reflects on the explorations made by (Marc) Aurel Stein in four expeditions to Central Asia that took him into Eastern Turkestan, westernmost China, and across the Hindu Kush and the Pamirs. His greatest triumph involved
discovery of the world's oldest printed text, Diamond Sutra, dating to A.D. 868, plus 40,000 other scrolls. He received a knighthood for his efforts, which extended over 30 years.
Stein's account is accompanied by many illustrations, in both black and white and color. These include a color frontispiece, several fold-out panoramas, and a folding color map at rear, with all color illustrations having intact tissue guards.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear. Rust-brown publisher's cloth with gilt spine lettering and gilt medallion to front board, in an edgeworn, lightly soiled dust jacket with significant portions torn away at spine, smaller losses at corners/edges and price-clip, and two small stains to rear panel. Binding clean, with extremities bumped. Purple monogram ownership stamp to front free endpaper, p. 83, and a leaf in the index; text otherwise clean with upper corners lightly creased across and a few leaves unopened.
Good, in a good- dust jacket that appears in most instances to be lacking entirely. (37601)

Printed by W. Thomas Taylor / Signed by Stern
Stern, Madeleine B. Nicholas Gouin Dufief of Philadelphia: Franco-American bookseller, 1776-1834. Philadelphia: The Philobiblon Club, 1988. 8vo. (22 cm; 8.75"). 81 pp., illus., portrait, facsimiles.
$50.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Limited to 300 (unnumbered) copies, signed by Stern and printed by W. Thomas Taylor, Austin, Texas, who also designed the work (“The types used are Baskerville & Bulmer”). Stern gave this talk before the Philobiblon Club; the text “Appeared previously in the American Book Collector in a somewhat shorter form” (Preface). Includes bibliographical references (pp. 73–81).
Stern was the life and business partner of Leona Rostenberg, their firm of Rostenberg & Stern having been one of America's most respected during the post –WWII period and known for its dealing in early printed books Dufief (1776?–1834) was a refugee from the French Revolution who from 1793 to 1818 lived in Philadelphia, where he taught French and ran a bookstore.
Among the libraries he acquired was the large residue of Benjamin Franklin's!
New. Publisher's light brown cloth with paper spine label. (35753)

Works of a Master Engraver — With Signed Print
Stone, Reynolds. Reynolds Stone engravings. London: John Murray (pr. at the Curwen Press), [1977]. 8vo (29.1 cm, 11.5"). xli, [3], 151, [3] pp.; col. illus.
$450.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition, with an introduction by the artist and an appreciation by Kenneth Clark: an extensively illustrated survey of Stone's impressive accomplishments in wood engraving. A signed print of a previously unpublished engraving (of a waterfall in the Prescelly Mountains of south Wales) is laid in at the front; this engraving was printed with an Albion press by the artist, on handmade cream wove paper from Wookey Hole Mill. The colophon — which is also signed by Stone — notes that this is numbered copy 114 of 150 printed, done on Basingwerk parchment paper made by Grosvenor Chater, and bound in full buckram by W. & J. Mackay, with Cockerell endpapers.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Publisher's blue cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title, in a striking slipcase covered in combed paper in black, grey, and white, matching the endpapers; volume spine sunned, slipcase showing minimal shelfwear. Pages crisp and clean.
A beautiful book for collectors of calligraphic and/or bookplate art as well as connoisseurs of wood engraving. (39551)

Printing in America
BEFORE the Bay Psalm Book
Szewczyk, David, & Buffington, Cynthia Davis. 39 books and broadsides printed in America before the Bay Psalm Book. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company, 1988. 8vo (23.5 cm; 9.25"). ix, [1], 135, [1] pp., [2] ff.
$70.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Printing in North America began not in 1640 in Massachusetts, but in 1539, in Mexico, at a point in printing history when technique, typography, and aesthetic norms were widely first-rate. The European printers who came to the New World to produce the “incunables” and other “early printed” works of Mexico and Peru maintained the high standards of their homelands in a degree that astonishes those whose understanding of early American printing has been based purely on familiarity with the works produced a hundred and more years later in what is now the U.S.
Thirty-nine Books and Broadsides describes works that well represent the earliest Mexican printing, the rarities including 14 New World incunabula, 9 the only known surviving copies (3 described for the first time), several second known and several more earliest known copies, and a number of works with woodcut illustrations — all from a major private collection.
All entries are illustrated and provide exact collations; notably, the bibliography provides the very first accurate system of description for 16-century New World broadsides.
Limited to 250 copies. Each item fully described bibliographically and illustrated as well.
Publisher's cloth. New. (36766)

TEXAS-SIZE FRAUD!
Taylor, W. Thomas. Texfake: An account of the theft and forgery of early Texas printed documents. Austin: W. Thomas Taylor, 1991. 8vo (26.3 cm; 10.375"). xix, [1 (blank)], 158 pp., 39 plts.
$22.50
Click the images for enlargement.
Masterful account of the history of the plundering of Texas archives in the period from 1950 to 1980 combined with the related story of the fabrication, beginning in the 1960s, of fake copies of important, early, printed Texas historical documents. Taylor names those implicated and tells of how the fakery was slowly discovered.
A must read.
Publisher's quarter cloth, paper sides with a reproduction of the Texas Declaration of Independence; front cover darkened along edges and page-tops darkened also, with endpapers and a good many margins slightly to moderately affected; a good “working” copy. (35356)
For TEXANA, click here.
For BIBLIO-FRAUD & FALSE IMPRINTS, click here.

ON AMERICAN GIFT BOOKS
A Useful & Attractive Paperback
Tepper, Michael. American gift books & literary annuals: An annotated catalog. [Easton, MD: Michael Tepper], copyright 2016. 8vo (25 cm; 9.5"). 215 pp., illus. (some color).
$35.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The second edition (first was 2015) of a very good catalogue of this genre of 19th-century books, chiefly based on the author's large private collection: “This is a catalog of a large, privately held collection” (back cover). “The second edition contains additions and corrections and adds over 100 titles to the collection” (p. 15).
We've added a copy to our permanent reference library here at PRB&M: This includes collations and useful commentary.
Paperback with full color illustrations.
A very good reference work. (36706)

With a List of Members of the Philobiblon Club in 1945
Thorp, Willard. The lost tradition of American letters. Philadelphia: Privately Printed for The Philobiblon Club, 1945. 8vo (24 cm; 9.5"). 26, [1] pp.
$25.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Thorp (1899–1990) was a literary historian, an editor, and a critic who taught at Princeton University for more than 40 years. Here he seeks to resurrect interest in 19th-century American literature. He gave this paper as a talk to the Philobiblon Club in 1945, and the last three pages contain a list of members of the club at that time.
New. Bound, as issued, in quarter blue linen with marbled paper boards, title stamped in gold on spine. With the glassine wrapper. (35759)
For PHILOBIBLON PUBLICATIONS, click here.

One of 50 Special Copies Wood Engravings by
Ruzicka
Updike, Daniel Berkeley, & Rudolph Ruzicka. D.B.U. and R.R.: selected extracts from correspondence between Daniel Berkeley Updike and Rudolph Ruzicka, 1908–1941. New York: American Printing History Association, 1998. Small 4to (27.3 cm; 10.75"). vi, 181, [8] pp.
$115.00
Click the images for enlargements.
One of 500 copies and no. 50 of 50 special copies signed by the designer Roderick Stinehour and bound by Judi Conant at Guildhall, VT, with the inclusion of
three wood engravings by Rudolph Ruzicka printed by the Merrymount Press in addition to the many reproductions prepared for this volume. The correspondence was edited by Elizabeth French Lathem and Edward Connery Lathem, and the text and illustration together well exemplify the collaboration between two giants of the Book Arts during the first half of the 20th century.
The wood engravings are absolutely stunning.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard (sans indicia).
Quarter blue cloth with gray paper spine label over lovely marbled paper; issued without a dust jacket.
A bright and clean copy. (37600)

With a Photo of
the Printers in Their Garret
Village Press. The Village Press a retrospective exhibition 1903–1933. New York: The American Institute of Graphic Arts, 1933. 8vo. 32 pp.; illus.
$50.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Nice look at the Goudys' body of work at the Village Press, with an introduction by Will Ransom and a tipped-in photographic illustration of Frederic and Bertha Goudy at the press.
Sewn in publisher's printed paper wrappers; wrappers slightly age-toned, otherwise a clean, handsome copy. (14424)
Copiously & Usefully Illustrated
Vindel, Francisco. Solaces bibliográficos. Madrid: Instituto Nacional del Libro Español, 1942. 12mo. xi, 193 [1] pp., illus.
$110.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Short bibliographical essays on such topics as Spanish-language printing in Italy in the 16th century, Spanish books on chess and on women in the 15th through the 17th centuries, and the Ibarra press.
This copy with an authorial inscription to a recipient whose name has been gently, but entirely, obliterated!
Good quality red cloth, original wrappers bound in; grey spine label. Very good copy. (21546)
This book also appears in the HISPANIC MISCELLANY click here.

A Dutch Printer's Manual
Set Forth & CONSIDERED
Wardenaar, David. Zetten en drukken in de achttiende eeuw: David Wardenaar's Beschrijving der Boekdrukkunst (1801). Haarlem: Joh. Enschede en Zonen, 1982. 8vo. 610 pp., plts.
$65.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Scholarly printing, with much apparatus, of the oldest known Dutch printer's manual — a manuscript dated 1801; with a good summary in English at the end, and a detailed index.
Publisher's cloth with dust-jacket; jacket with a bit of light smudging and a few interior leaves with line creasing, probably occurring in production and unaccompanied by soil. A very good copy. (27614)
For BOOKS IN DUTCH, click here.

About Great Printers — From a Great Press
Owned by Another Great Printer
Warren, Arthur. The Charles Whittinghams, printers. New York: Grolier Club (pr. by the DeVinne Press), 1896. Large 8vo (25.2 cm, 9.9"). Frontis., 344, [2] pp. (index issued later, not present here); 2 fold. plts. (1 col.), illus.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition: One of 385 copies printed
by the DeVinne Press handmade paper (plus three on vellum) of this account of the influential uncle and nephew printers, covering their life stories and business history as well as the technical and artistic details of their accomplishments. The work is
copiously illustrated with views of important locations in the Whittingtons' lives and careers, woodcuts and engravings from their publications (along with other decorative elements such as borders and headpieces), reduced-size representations of title-pages, five beautifully accomplished stipple-engraved portraits, examples of different types used by the printers, etc., as well as two oversized, folding facsimiles of correspondence and charters. The covers bear the version of the Chiswick Press lion, dolphin, and anchor device that was designed by Charlotte Whittingham and engraved by Mary Byfield.
Provenance: Front pastedown with attractively designed bookplate of Peter Beilenson, proprietor of the Peter Pauper Press; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Publisher's half dark green leather and tan paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and Grolier Club device, covers with stamped central medallions bearing device as above; spine sunned to brick-brown and with some darker streaks and discoloration, sides lightly scuffed, joints and extremities rubbed. Index (printed and issued as a separate insert, after the original publication) not present here. Scattered light spottings only. Externally somewhat worn, but a solid and enjoyable copy, with
a gratifyingly apropos provenance and a Chiswick Bookshop (New York) bookmark iaid in. (39562)

Berhardt Wall's Works:
“A Prize of the Cognoscenti, a Delight for Collectors, & the Pride of Librarians”
Weber, Francis J. Following Bernhardt Wall 1872–1956. Austin, TX: The Book Club of Texas, 1994. Folio (29.9 cm, 11.75"). [2], 63, [1] pp.; 5 col. plts., col. illus.
$450.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Weber's account of the life and works of Wall, known as the “Postcard King,” an American artist, historian, and pioneer of etching. Originally published in 1974 as a miniature volume, the work appears here in an
expanded full-sized presentation designed and typeset by Castle Press and printed by Patrick Reagh Printers, limited to 195 copies (this example unnumbered). Like the first edition, this one is illustrated with mounted intaglio reproductions by Anthony Kroll — but this one additionally features a number of examples of Wall's work printed from the original plates, five colored photogravure reproductions of etchings by Wall, and one
original postcard (with writing on the reverse).
Publisher's speckled paper–covered boards with gray cloth shelfback, front cover with printed paper label, in plain paper dust jacket with printed spine label and in coordinating paper and cloth slipcase; jacket spine very slightly sunned, slipcase and volume clean and crisp.
A beautiful tribute to an important American illustrator. (37130)

Bird & Bull Press — Clubs Compared
Whitehill, Walter Muir. The Club of Odd Volumes, Boston, 1887–1973. [Philadelphia]: Printed for The Philobiblon Club [by the] Bird & Bull Press, 1973. 8vo (23 cm; 9"). 13, [1 (colophon)] pp.
$75.00
Click the images for enlargements.
This is the text of “an address given to the Philobiblon Club on 19 April, 1973.” Whitehill, the former director and librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, begins by pointing to
similarities between social organizations in Boston and Philadelphia and then gives a history of
the Club of Odd Volumes, the Boston book collecting club founded in 1887.This brief history was printed in an edition of 250 copies at the Bird & Bull Press. The Press's bibliography says: “Title line and colophon [are printed] in Arrighi; the text [is] printed in Garamond type on Hodgkinson's Bird & Bull paper” and the wrappers are “Burnt Sienna roller-printed paste paper . . . [with the] title on [a] paper label on [the] upper cover.”
Taylor & Morris, Twenty-one Years of Bird & Bull, B3. New. Publisher's “burnt sienna” patterned wrappers as above. (35763)

Perhaps, GO NOW TO
OUR NEWEST ARRIVALS!
All material © 2021
The Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company, LLC
 |
PRB&M/SessaBks |
 |
PLACE AN ORDER | E-MAIL US | GO (BACK) TO TOPIC/INTEREST TABLE