Bookbase Book Gallery


Home
Bookblock
Illuminations demo























1471

1333

1117

The Raven
Edgar Allan, Poe
 
New York, Harper and Brothers, 1884
Folio (18 3/4" x 15"). Gray cloth pictorial beveled boards with black lettering and gilt decoration depicting an angel; a.e.g. Boards lightly soiled; wear to extremities. Title page designed by Elihu Vedder; 26 engravings by various artists from drawings by Gustave Dore. Bright copy of scarce title combining artistic talents of Poe, Vedder and Dore.

Tripartite Collaboration by Poe, Vedder and Dore

Hesperus
Catulle, Mendes

Paris, Societe de Propagation des Livres D'Art, 1904
4to. Green wrappers with hand painted Art Nouveau floral decoration in pink, green, silver and gilt. Small chips to head and tail of spine. 1 of 13 copies on vellum. 12 full page hand colored illustrations by Carloz Schwabe, the famous Symbolist artist and many other decorations. Nice copy of scarce volume with beautiful and delicate illustrations.

Hand Decorated by Schwabe

Byblis
Pierre, Louys

Paris, A. Ferroud, 1901
Small 8to. 3/4 green morocco over marble paper boards. Spine with gilt decoration with tan and brown leather onlays and gilt stamped title, author and date. Silk tie. t.e.g. Slight wear to extremities. Bound by De La Chaux & Durvand. Number 198 of 200 copies printed on "papier velin d'Arches" and signed by Ferroud. Original wrappers bound in. Occasional spotting, mostly on endpapers. Bookplates of Albert Clairouin, and Robert & Gladys Koch, the prominent art historian who focused on the turn-of-the-20th century and his well-known antiques dealer wife. Wrappers beautifully illustrated by Henri Caruchet who also contributed magnificent pictorial and floral border decoration in vivid colors to nearly every page in the Art Nouveau style reminiscent of Alphonse Mucha.

Illustrated by Henri Caruchet
Price: $1350

Price: $3000

Price: $2000

1208

1142

1110

A House of Pomegranates
Oscar, Wilde

London, New York, Methuen, Brentano's, n.d. (1915?)
Small 4to. Red cloth boards with blindstamp to back cover and gilt decoration and lettering to front. Extremities worn, hinges starting; t.e.g. Roughly 20 nonconsecutive pages have chips at top outer edge. First American edition. Pictorial eps. "Of the sixteen full-page colour illustrations in this book - for which Jessie M. King also designed the covers, end papers, title-page and decorative initials throughout - it is difficult to speak too highly." Taylor, The Art Nouveau Book in Britain, 135 (1966). Jessie M. King's work is sublime, particularly the 16 tipped in illustrations that are clean, crisp, imaginative and reflect a truly remarkable sensitivity and delicacy highlighted by a mix of vivid and muted coloring

With Jessie King Illustrations

The Song of Solomon
H. Granville, Fell

London, Guild of Women Binders, 1897
4to. Number 97 of 100 on Japanese vellum. Tan cloth with gilt lettering to top board. Covers lightly soiled, spine darkened. Bookplate of Henry Edward Atwell on front paste down. 12 full page tissue guarded illustrations, 3 additional full page illustrations and other decoration, all in Art Nouveau style reminiscent of Walter Crane. A superb and scarce example of Art Nouveau illustration produced by the Guild of Women Binders.

With Illustrations by H. Granville Fell

Wren's City Churches
Arthur, Mackmurdo

London, G. Allen, 1883
First edition of this landmark book, famous for its art nouveau front board whose pattern is repeated on the ". . .title page that is generally regarded as the first manifestation of Art Nouveau." Rheims, Flowering of art nouveau, no. 519. Tall 8vo., publisher's decorated boards over parchment spine with the title lettered in black. De-accessioned by an unappreciative library where it acquired the following symbols of prior ownership: a giant rubber stamp on the otherwise blank front free end leaf, a few small blind embossings, one on the frontispiece and one on the title, which also has the word "discard" discretely stamped in the margin, dampstain on back flyleaf and facing end paper, and inked number partially removed from spine. Scarce.

First Art Nouveau Book
Price: $1500

Price: $1350

Price: $1500

1616

1412xx

637

Prayer Book of King Edward VII
New York, M. Walter Dunne under arrangement with The Essex House, 1903
Folio (14" x 10 3/4"), full dark purple crushed morocco with a double gilt fillet outer border surrounding a border composed of the linked letter "E" interspersed with the Roman numeral "VII" within a frame; in the corners are the monarch's initials below a crown. The central design consists of gilt-stamped crowns and shields and other heraldic symbols, decorated with pink, blue and white paint, ever so slightly worn here and there. Spine with five raised bands, a bit worn at the top; title and date stamped in gilt. Inner purple suede doublures facing purple silk endleaves, with some offsetting; t.e.g., other edges untrimmed. There is an added Illuminated leaf identifying this as the Trinity Edition, which has been especially bound; it bears the publisher's embossed seal at the bottom right.

Specially Bound Deluxe Edition

Faust
Johann Wolfgang Von, Goethe

London, G. Harrap & Co., 1925
4to. #576 of 1000 for England signed by Harry Clarke. Vellum backed boards. Slight "bubble" to spine; t.e.g. Near fine in fair original gray DJ with tears to extremities. Pictorial ep. Pages uncut tho two were opened roughly. Bookplate of Robert and Gladys Koch. Gladys Koch was a prominent antiques dealer from the 1950's thru the 1980's. Robert Koch was the renowned art historian who specialized in Art Nouveau. 8 full page color illustrations in addition to numerous others in black and white by Harry Clarke, the unique Art Deco illustrator whose bizarre style reflects Beardsley's influence. Bright copy of an Art Deco masterpiece illustrated by one of its artistic geniuses.

With Harry Clarke Illustrations

Librorum Icones Artifices. Second Series
Baskin, Leonard

Northampton, Gehenna Press, 2000
Folio (16 1/4 x 11 1/4 inches), quarter gray oasis Niger with a narrow strip of morocco along the other three edges, inlaid into the center panel of both boards are sheets of marbled paper; the title is gilt stamped on the cover. Rounded spine with the title in gilt; in a matching quarter morocco clam shell case. Binding, box and marbled paper by Gray Parrot.There are 32 copies of the regular edition (and eight deluxe copies with extra impressions, a drawing and a plate), the letterpress was printed by Arthur Larson in Bruce Rogers’ Arrighi type on a variety of handmade papers (the typographical fantasies were INSPIRED by Mr. Baskin). LEONARD BASKIN'S TWENTY-FOUR ETCHED PORTRAITS, printed in color by Michael Kuch from copper plates etched by Baskin, are each accompanied by biographical notes WRITTEN by the artist. The portraits may even be better than those in the first series, published in 1987 and long over-subscribed (the color printing is more daring, more dramatic), and the subjects themselves are a far more interesting selection of printers, binders and book illustrators spanning the history of the printed word. Prior to publication the deluxe edition was sold out and all but two copies of the regular edition remained. This is one of ten lettered copies retained by the publisher

A SEQUEL TO PERHAPS THE BEST BOOK OF THE PRESS
Price: $1750

Price: $1750

Price: $14500

544

787

718

FRA LUCA DE PACIOLI OF BURGO S. SEPOLCORO.
Morison, Stanley

New York, The Grolier Club, 1933
4to. (12 1/4 x 8 1/2 inches), full native-dyed oasis niger, the front cover carries a central tobacco color onlaid panel with Pacioli's Roman capitals deeply stamped in gold. At the top and bottom of both covers in a thin onlaid dark rule. The rear cover is decorated with an onlay representation of the Bruce Rogers-designed Grolier Club device, achieved in gray, blue yellow and dark brown. The spine is brilliantly gilt lettered in large Roman capitals (Bruce Rogers' Centaur type), with four dark horizontal onlaid bands. Top edge gilt, board edges gilt, inner gilt rule; in a matching quarter morocco gilt lettered clamshell case. Signed at the bottom of the rear turn-in with the binder's ticket: BOUND BY GRAY PARROT.The book is one of 290 copies designed by Bruce Rogers, printed in Centaur type on Batchelor hand-made paper at the University Press, Cambridge, for the Grolier Club. Stanley Morison provided the text. It is considered one of the outstanding books of the Club and of Bruce Rogers and has been recognized by S.R. Shapiro as one of the 31 titles that appears in his Checklist of the Rarest and Most Valuable Bruce Rogers Imprints. It is the third in the Grolier Club's Series of books on the Roman alphabet.Gray Parrot has been refining his art and craft since graduating from Harvard where he fell in love with books when he took a job as a stack-boy in the Houghton Library. He studied bookbinding with Arno Werner and in Switzerland. Gray Parrot has for many years designed and executed small edition bindings for a number of the country's leading private presses, including the Gehenna Press, the Pennyroyal Press and the Bird and Bull Press. Today, he seldom finds time for commissioned bindings of the quality being offered here, which was achieved in 1990.See: Haas. 162. Shapiro. 28.

Bound by Gray Parrot

A Book of Demons
Baskin, Leonard

Northampton, Gehenna Press, 2001
Square 4to. (11 x 10 3/4 inches), beautifully bound in dyed dark green, random grained oasis niger with a smooth rounded spine and two lighter green title labels. In the center of the upper cover the title is gilt stamped in the four corners of a large, blind-blocked square standing on one corner; centered within this diamond-shaped space is a light green rectangular label on to which a demon has been stamped entirely in blind, except for its two gilt eyes. Housed in a cloth clamshell case with a green leather spine label (by Daniel Gehnrich).Demons were a lifelong subject of my friend, the late Leonard Baskin, and he continually showed me trial proofs for “the marvelous book I have been working on forever...” whenever I visited him in his studio. As the Prospectus for the book says, “...[he] invented a fellowship of demons.” The plates for this book of bizarre and fiendish, impish and grotesque, winged, horn-toes and elfin figures, all intricately realized and etched, in some cases appearing in multiple impressions, are printed in a variety of colors, touched with subtle nuance. The twelve copper-plates have been printed by Michael Kuch using a variety of techniques and devices such as à la poupee, color rollovers, counterproof and chine colle, on a variety of Japanese, French and Italian handmade papers.The edition is limited to 26 numbered copies. Lisa Baskin oversaw the publication of the book and has signed the colophon. It is offered here at the published price.

A Late [Great!] Book by Leonard Baskin

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. 75 Wood-engravings by Barry Moser. Preface by James Kincade and Edited by Selwyn Goodacre.
Carroll, Lewis

West Hatfield, 1982
and;[__________].___________. THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS and What Alice Found There. 92 Wood-engravings by Barry Moser. Preface by James Kincade and Edited by Selwyn Goodacre. West Hatfield, 1982.The Pair: $6000.Two vols., folio (each 16 1/2 x 11 inches), the former bound with a purple morocco spine and fore-edges over marbled boards, the latter similarly bound but with red morocco over pictorial boards. Both books come with an EXTRA SUITE of the Barry Moser SIGNED engravings in a linen portfolio, which along with the book, is housed in a matching quarter morocco-over-linen clamshell case with gilt blocking on the spine (all by Gray Parrot).Both editions are limited to 350 copies printed by Harold McGrath in Monotype Bembo and Bembo Italic in five colors on Pulegium paper, especially manufactured for the Press. Both books come with an extra suite of all of the engravings, each of them PENCIL-SIGNED BY THE ARTIST.Inspired by the satisfaction he got from doing his Moby Dick for the Arion Press in 1978, Barry Moser decided to publish his own large-scale artist book; "Alice" became his choice and he went on to assemble a world class team of scholars to join him in the project. Sparing no costs to make this an exceptional production, Moser and his associates were not prepared for the reception the book received upon its publication. It was a complete sell-out shortly after it became available. "Having done 'Alice,'" he wrote, "it seemed obvious that we should do 'Looking-Glass' in the same format...I think in the final analysis there exists a greater coherency in 'Looking-Glass' than in 'Alice.' I have never been able to understand why the critics have called the pictures dark. I intended them to be whimsical and humorous displaying a kind of calculated pandemonium."Both folios are offered in AS PUBLISHED CONDITION. Individually (and as a pair) they have become highly collectable by institutional libraries and collectors of both illustrated books and private press books. Mr Moser's skill as a wood-engraver is unequaled today, and these two volumes are perhaps the best evidence of that opinion.Pennyroyal Checklist Nos. 26 and 27.

BARRY MOSER'S BEST BOOKS
Price: $6950

Price: $6000

Price: $6000

781

539

766

Franklin Evans; Or the Inebriate. A Tale of the Times.
Whitman, Walt[er]

New York, The New World. Benj. Park Ed.; J. Winchester, Pub., 1842
Sm. folio, bound as part of The New World, Extra Series, No. 34. Vol. II...No. 10 (bound between Chas. Dickens' American Notes for General Circulation [Vol. II...Nos 8, 9], and Mary Howitt's The Neighbors. A Story of Every Day Life [Vol. II...Nos 11,12]. Recent period style three-quarter calf over marbled sides with gilt titling on the spine. Occasional light foxing. The other bound-in titles from The New World include: The Western Captive; Or, The Times of Tecumseh. By Mrs. Seba Smith [Vol. II...Nos. 3,4] and Letters of Mary, Queen of Scots...With an Introduction by Agnes Strickland [Vol. II...Nos. 13,14]. There are ads announcing Franklin Evans [New Works in Press: "It will be issued...on Wednesday, Nov. 23, at 12 1/2 cents single; ten copies for $1, or $2[sic] per hundred. Let orders be early," and it is included in an ad for Works Already Published: "It was written expressly for The New World...Price 12 1/2 cts. Ten copies $1; $8 per hundred." Franklin Evans, when found at all (auction records for the past 25 years show but three copies), is INVARIABLY DISBOUND.First edition, first issue [Whitman. Pittsburgh Series in Bibliography, 1993: AI. I: Binding A]. Bindings B and C are in brown and pink wrappers respectively, the first carrying a price of 12 1/2 cents, the latter 6 1/4 cents. This is Whitman's ONLY NOVEL AND HIS FIRST SEPARATE PUBLICATION. He said of Franklin Evans, "I doubt if there is a copy in existence. I have none and have not had one for years. R. M. Bucke, Whitman's biographer and executor, wrote that he had, "...hunted and advertised for 'Franklin Evans' for over twenty years, and at last got a copy of it." See: BAL 21393.

HIS FIRST BOOK AND HIS ONLY NOVEL

AGAMEMNON, CHOEPHOROI, EUMENIDES.
ÆSCHYLUS

Greenbrae, The Allen Press, 1982-83
Two vols., tall 8vo. Volume I bound in full native dyed terra-cotta goatskin with black onlays, blind tooled, carrying, in black Greek characters, the name Agamemnon across the top of the front and back boards (and spine), and the name Æschylus across the bottom. Full black goatskin inner doublures, leather joints, red Japanese endpapers, silk headbands. Volume II in a similar design but with the colors reversed; across the top, in terra-cotta Greek characters, is the word Choephoroi, and across the bottom is the word Eumenides. The doublures are terra-cotta, the joints, endpapers and headbands as before. Each is housed in a quarter-morocco clam-shell case. Each volume is signed by the binder.Limited to 140 copies by the Allen Press, they were the only limited edition in English translation, and represent the 48th and 49th books of the press. The type is Menhart Unciala, printed in black and brown; the running heads are Solemnis and Libra types, Greek-letter calligraphy and decorations are from Greek sources. The all-rag paper is handmade and especially watermarked at the Richard de Bas mill in France. The books were printed on dampened sheets on an Albion press made in Scotland in 1882.Denise Lubett, Fellow of the Designer Bookbinders since 1971, is one of the 38 binders who was asked to contribute a chapter to A Bookbinders' Florilegium, a publication of the H.R.C., in which these artist-craftsmen talk about their approach to the art of binding books. We quote: "...great purity of style and design usually bring forth great beauty...if we no longer bind books so that they become too fragile to handle...if we can ascertain that this bound book can be handed down for a number of generations, then we will have achieved a better and more significant role as modern bookbinders." The volume we are offering epitomizes these ideas.

THE ALLEN PRESS PRINTING BOUND BY DENISE LUBETT

LO PRESENTE LIBRO insegna la vera arte de lo Excele[n]te scrivere...
Tagliente, Giovantonio

Venice, Pietro de Nicolini da Sabio, 1550
8vo., recent decorated paper boards sewn over alum-tawed pigskin bands, preserved in a cloth clamshell case. Thirty-eight full-page specimens of letters cut in wood by Eustacio Celebrino, including a full-page woodcut of writing instruments and another of four allegorical scenes; there are elaborate decorative woodcut initials throughout and a full-page woodcut of an astronomer using a quadrant on the verso of the final leaf. A few of the pages are printed in reverse (i.e. white on black), instructions for the italic hand is in a centered format in the first portion of the book. The Rotunda alphabet is identical to that of Fanti. Page formats include alphabets, texts and alphabets, and writing instruction and alphabets. All borders made with ruled lines. The title has some light spotting and two tiny ink additions; it has been re margined at the bottom. Several other leaves have been mended at lower outer corners and the final leaf has been repaired at the bottom affecting the ruled border. Notwithstanding these minor flaws, this is a MOST DESIRABLE COPY of a class of books that invariably appear (when they can be found!) in poor condition, having been used to death.Tagliente was a professional writing master employed by the Venetian Republic. The author of numerous books, including one on arithmetic (1515), a reading book, Libro Mæstrevole, which he undertook to teach anyone to read in about one month, a letter-writing manual, Componimento di parlimenti and the first book to distinguish between single and double-entry bookkeeping. Tagliente's writing manual, Lo Presente Libro, was innovative in the way he reproduced the written word through woodblocks. In his petition for the privilege to publish, he says, "I have invented, not without a good deal of labor and personal expense, a new way of printing every kind of letter that can be made by the living hand; not printing the usual way, but by a new method never used before in Venice or her territory." The book first published in 1524 was issued about thirty times in the sixteenth century.Of his style A. S. Osley writes, "He is in love with the bold flourish, the decorative touch of the pen. Some have criticized his swagger and exuberance; no one can deny his vitality."See: Bonacini 1834. Johnson, "Catalogue," Selected Essays, pp. 23-24. Osley, Luminiario, pp. 18-26. Osley, Scribes and Sources, pp. 57-59. Atkins, Masters of the Italic Letter, pp. 26-29.

HARD TO FIND 16TH C. WRITING MANUAL
Price: $5500

Price: $5500

Price: $5250

643

636

735

Alfabeto di Lettere Iniziali Adorno di Animali e Proseguito da Vaga Serie di Caratteri.
GIARRÉ, GÆTANO.

Firenze, Giacomo Moro, 1797
Folio, contemporary brown pastepaper-covered wrappers a little worn at the very edges. Preserved in a quarter-morocco clamshell case.First edition (with brilliant impressions) of one of the most imaginative works of calligraphy and decoration that, according to Morison, revived Italian calligraphy at the close of the eighteenth century:"...the disappearance of calligraphy in Italy at the end of the seventeenth century was not so final as had at first seemed the case. The market for writing books appeared to go underground for a hundred years, only emerging at the end of the eighteenth century, when the Florentine master, Gætano Giarré began to produce some entirely and refreshingly novel books, in neo-classical style."Each of the 25 copper-engraved leaves including the title is beautifully decorated with floral garlands, arabesques, birds, animals, vases, trophies and masks. These decorations surround the various calligraphic examples which follow the initial letters that begin a saying or verse. There are examples of alphabets other than roman, including Greek and Hebrew. But it is the decoration--especially the birds and animals--that makes this book especially handsome and desirable. This large, bright example surely must have been pulled near the beginning of the print run for it clearly preserves the lightly engraved author's signature at the bottom of the plates.See: Morison, S. Early Italian Writing Books: Renaissance to Baroque.

"...beautifully decorated with floral garlands, arabesques, birds, animals, vases, trophies and masks."- MORISON

HOWLS & WHISPERS. With 11 Copperplate Etchings by LEONARD BASKIN
Hughes, Ted

Northampton, Gehenna Press, 1998
Sm. folio. Quarter morocco over hand-made paper sides, protected by a matching clamshell case (all by Claudia Cohen). One of a total of 110 copies (the ten deluxe copies were spoken for before publication), printed on hand-made Italian paper in letterpress by Arthur Larson; Michael Kuch color printed Mr. Baskin's copperplates, which "relate to the poems both centrally and tangentially."Hughes and Baskin are longtime friends and fellow artists. These eleven poems, not published as part of Mr. Hughes' Birthday Letters, are small windows into his tumultuous life with Sylvia Plath, and they enrich our understanding of that relationship. Each of the prints is numbered and signed by Leonard Baskin, and both he and Ted Hughes have signed the colophon.

ANOTHER FORMIDABLE COLLABORATION

La Dame Blanche. Chronique des Chevaliers a l'´Ecusson Vert .
Bres, Jean-Pierre

Paris, chez Lefuel, ca. 1828
Six vols. 8vo. (5 7/8 x 4 inches), each bound in light-weight boards covered with ivory coated paper, onto which six highly decorative, hand-colored engravings have been printed—the title of the work and volume number placed within a gothic architectural framework—all housed in a paper-covered decorated box trimmed with ribbon-printed gold foil, the cover of which carries the hand-colored engraved general title. The box is slightly worn at the extremities and soiled; the six books are in REMARKABLY FINE condition.Each volume contains, in addition to the engraved color covers, a full-page, hand-colored (with added gold) plate of a medieval scene, with a protective tissue guard. The letterpress printing is the work of Firmin Didot. The entire production brought about by Valentin Lefuel whose firm flourished during the period 1806-1829 or 1830 in their premises on rue Saint-Jacques where they published almanacks, miniature books, religious books, among other works in elegant bindings. Jean-Pierre Bres, which may well be a nom de plume, is also the acknowledged author of another six volume set, Contes de Robert mon Oncle, published in Paris, chez Louis Janet, Libraire, during the same period. In that set—also similarly boxed—the smaller format books are bound in stiff, paper-covered, pink boards with blind embossing (See: Gumuchain 910).Our set is listed in Gumuchain as 911, and is rare in any condition.

MEDIEVAL CHIVALRY HANDSOMELY PRINTED, BOUND AND BOXED
Price: $5250

Price: $5000

Price: $4750

509

619

523

OPERA di Frate Vespasiano Amphiareo da Ferrara.
AMPHIAREO, VESPASIANO.

Venice, Alessandro Gardano, 1580
Oblong 8vo., later vellum (19th C.), plain sides with a red and green morocco title labels and gilt decoration on the spine. In a leather-edged sliding case. A very nice copy with some of the expected wear; title-page guarded, colophon leaf repaired. Bookplates of Alphons Dürr and J. W. Six.First published in 1554, Amphiareo's one book held its position for an appreciable time and never deteriorated in point of production; in fact, its content remained essentially the same throughout its long publication history (an edition is said to have been published as late as 1620): typographic title, dedication to Principe Francesco Donato, four pages of brief instructions, followed by 48 plates (beginning with every-day hands followed by more exotic alphabets), at the end is a page on pen cutting and another on ink.Among the more original alphabets offered for the first time in an Italian writing manual is "a set of capitals derived from tree trunks; another is of heavy gothic initials, hung with grotesque masks and providing a scaffolding on which naked cherubs, monkeys, storks, and dogs engage in various activities; and the third displays rather hairy letters in black strapwork. The German influence is very strong here and reminds us that Venice was a terminus of the much used trade-route to the great commercial centers of Augsburg and Nurnberg. (Osley. Scribes and Sources. p. 99.)"Amphiareo, a Franciscan friar, was born at Ferrara and is said to have taught writing for thirty years. This was his only book, the first edition of which is exceedingly rare (Johnson records only the British Library copy; Bonacini failed to locate a single 1554 edition). All editions of Frate Amphiareo's writing books are scarce and desirable.See: Bonacini 59. Morison. 72 Writing Books. pp. 42-43. Morison/Barker. Early Italian Writing-Books. pp. 89-92. Becker, D. The Practice of Letters. Nos. 18-20.

A WONDERFUL 16TH C. WRITING BOOK

TWO MANUSCRIPTS, ACCOMPLISHED BY HAND IN BLACK AND TWO OTHER COLORS.
SOHN, GABRIEL

N.p., ca. 1740
Oblong 4to. (7 3/4 x 12 1/4 inches), each bound in German gold blocked paper made in Auguburg, one with orange and yellow flowers, green leaves and a dogs chasing deer [signed by the maker: Michael Munck]; the other, embossed leaves and flowerheads on a pink background, over printed in gold.Both manuscripts consist of calligraphic exercises, including very large initial Floriated letters, verses, numbers, and on several pages towards the back of each manuscript two-color calligraphy (green and burnt orange) with multi-color decorated borders and pictorial representations of religious figures, composed of DRAWN LINES combined with CALLIGRAPHIC LINES, forming a complete picture.The first manuscript contains fourteen leaves written on the recto only, with an additional leaf pasted to the inner front cover of the wrapper, dated 1741. The second manuscript contains 12 leaves (and the stub of another leaf); it, too, has an additional leaf pasted to the inner cover of the front wrapper and is dated 1740. The two are contained in a stiff folder covered in marbled paper with a hand written paper label. Laid in is a translation of that label: Bills and the accounting for moneys [sic] expended...fond [sic] for churches and people in need.

18TH CENTURY DUTCH CALLIGRAPHIC MANUSCRIPTS

THE HOLY BIBLE...[AND] THE WHOLE BOOK OF PSALMS: Collected into English Metre, by Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins, and others.
London, John Bill & Christopher Barker and J. M., 1673
Thick 8vo., full dark red turkey morocco with an all-over design. Slight repairs to the corners and lower joints. A.e.g.; on the fore-edge there is a painted heart and a now indistinct owner's name and the date 1674. The binding was once thought to be by Samuel Mearne, but it appears to be closer to the work of the Queen's Binder A. It is preserved in a fleece-lined, full oasis niger clamshell case with gilt titling.The Bible is printed in two columns as are the Psalms, both works being entirely ruled in red, including the 230 engraved plates, which originate in two separate sets of Biblical illustrations. The first E2 has a tear resulting in a slight loss, and two of the engraved plates have minor tears in their outer margins. The engravings are of two different styles, one and two-to -he-page, and the explanatory text appears in up to four languages: Latin, Greek, Hebrew and English. The illustrations have been placed by the binder in appropriate places.The forty year period following the Restoration of Charles II to his throne in 1660 has been known as the GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLISH BOOKBINDING. This is an excellent example of bookbinding from that period, with contemporary (dated) fore-edge decoration, on an attractive English Bible having more than two hundred engraved illustrations.

230 EXTRA ENGRAVED ILLUSTRATIONS
Price: $4750

Price: $4500

Price: $4500