BLAKE, William.
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
(John Camden Hotten). (1868)., (London).: 1868
- $2,291
4to. (251 x 200 mm). [27 leaves]. Leaf with pictorial lithograph title and 26 leaves of thick wove paper with lithograph text and illustration, all after William Blake by Henry Bellars and all with additional colouring and heightening in watercolour by hand. Original publisher's vellum-backed blue paper-covered boards. The first published facsimile of any of William Blake's illuminated books, John Camden Hotten's 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'. From the edition limited to 150 (possibly 153) copies. This facsimile, made c.1868 and the first of any of William Blake's illuminated books, features lithograph text and illustration with the colour provided in watercolour by hand. Blake's original work, printed using copper engraving for the text and outlines and then finished by hand, was produced c.1790 - 1793 and is extant in only nine complete copies, each unique, and some fragments. This facsimile was produced by using copy 'F', dated by scholars to c.1795, now held by New York's The Morgan Library & Museum. At the time the facsimile was produced the original was in the collection of Richard Monckton Milnes, Baron Houghton (1809 - 1885) and as per 'Blake Books', Houghton lent it to the publisher John Camden Hotten for reproduction. A note in the supplement volume to 'Blake Books', taken from 'Sir Geoffrey Keynes' copy of his 'Bibliography' (1921) (now in Cambridge University Library)' suggests otherwise: 'Edward Gordon Duff told John Sampson that Lord Houghton lent his copy of the original to Swinburne, and that Camden Hotten made his facsimile [1868] without permission, whereat Lord Houghton was much incensed.' The publisher John Camden Hotten was the first to publish a critical study of Blake (Swinburne's 'William Blake: A Critical Essay' (1868) that included too the first colour reproductions of works by Blake. For the 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' facsimile, planned as the first of many, he made use of the skill of the artist Henry Bellars, described by H. Spencer Ashbee as 'perhaps the best facsimilist that ever lived' who likely made use of a photographic process to transfer the text and image to the stone (see Morton Paley's extensive exegesis for fuller details). Hotten's project to issue further facsimiles was curtailed by Bellars death in the year this was issued. All copies of this 1868 facsimile, printed on a thick wove stock chosen for its similarity to Blake's original paper, feature spotting, foxing and staining - a result of the reaction between the printing ink, the hand-applied watercolour and the paper - as well as some oxidisation of the inks used; the present example features foxing and staining as usual, although largely marginal, but the colour remains bright and fresh and comparable to that of the original book. 'For every thing that lives is Holy'. (William Blake). 'Some time during the first months of 1790 a devil spoke to William Blake, an alter ego who revealed a truth and with whom a marriage was conceived, leaving neither the devil nor Blake the same again. The child of this union was 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' . It is a work that deliberately unsettles and questions, prods and cajoles, challenging the way we think. It tells us that evil is good and good evil, and promises us a Bible of Hell. The 'Proverbs of Hell' have become a lexicon of protest and liberation, upsetting convention and subverting authority, made all the more memorable by the spirit of exuberant delight that characterizes their collective wisdom.' (Michael Phillips). [Blake Books I, 99, see also 98, pp. 285 - 304 & Supplement 98, pp. 97 - 101; Keynes 210; Bentley & Nurmi 85; see Morton D. Paley's 'John Camden Hotten, A. C. Swinburne, and the Blake Facsimiles of 1868', Bulletin of the New York Public Library, Vol. 79, 1975 - 1976; see also Bodleian facsimile, 2011].
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(Recherche et Présentation de Tout Ce Qui Reste de Mon Enfance).
BOLTANSKI, Christian. Oblong 8vo. (c.176 x 266 mm). [9 unnumbered irregularly cut leaves]. Cover leaf with full-page monochrome image of a class photo including Boltanski, leaf with explanatory typed letter with typed signature and dated 'Paris, mai 1969' and seven leaves with reproduction images and explanatory text (15 illustrations in total); all leaves of thick white wove stock photocopied as issued and printed recto only in monochrome; final leaf verso signed and dated 'mai / 1.969 / C. B' by Boltanski in pencil. Loose as issued, the leaves held by a transparent plastic spine. The very scarce first edition of Christian Boltanski's fragile and ephemeral first artist book. From the edition limited to (approximately) 150 copies, this copy dated and initialled by Boltanski in pencil to the verso of the final leaf 'mai / 1.969 / C. B'; c.100 copies were mailed to selected people at the time of publication. Christian Boltanski (1944 - 1921) based much of his work, his artist books in particular, on the efforts to reconstruct his own past. In the present work, his first artist book published in the form of reproductions of family photographs, scraps of a sweater, some hair, a sample of his hand-writing in 1950 and other relics of his childhood, Boltanski offers details of a mythical youth (see below for the full contents). In reality, and as Boltanski himself admits, several of these personal relics belonged to his brother or his nephews. This first edition, as opposed to the stapled reissue in differing format and with different content included in 'Reconstitution' (1991), includes Boltanski's important text - it reads as a manifesto - in the form of a letter. In it Boltanski suggests he must set a precedent, an example and presents the artistic aim of his oeuvre: ' . j'ai décidé de m'atteler au projet qui me tient à coeur depuis longtemps : se conserver tout entier, garder une trace de tous les instants de notre vie, de tout les objets qui nous ont cotoyés, de tout ce que nous avons dit et de ce qui a été dit autour de nous, voilà mon but.' 'Contient 13 illustrations : une photo de classe prise au Collège d'Hulst (1950-1951) ; christian boltanski jouant aux cubes (1946), des cubes de christian boltanski retrouvés en 1969 ; le lit de christian boltanski (1947-1950) ; la chemise de christian boltanski (mars 1949) ; un morceau d'un pull over porté par boltanski en 1949 ; les cheveux de boltanski (1949) ; christian boltanski en famille dans le var (1948) ; christian boltanski à Paris en 1945 ; christian boltanski sur la plage de Beg Neil dans le Morbihan en 1945 ; Marie Boltanski, la mère de l'artiste sur la plage de Pénarf dans le Morbihan en 1949 ; Etienne Boltanski, le père de l'artiste sur la plage de Pénarf la même année ; Christian Boltanski avec des amis à la Baule en 1950.' (From the catalogue of the Bibliothèque Kandinsky). 'I'm interested in shared memories; so I felt no remorse about putting 'Christian Boltanski's bed' when it was my nephew's bed. The relic aspect doesn't interest me, because it's too closely linked to one person.' (Christian Boltanski). 'Recherche et Présentation de Tout Ce Qui Reste de Mon Enfance', given its ephemeral form, is scarce on the market and in institutions and we locate only a handful of copies: at the BNF, Bibliothèque Kandinsky and Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet in France, a copy at the Kunstbiblio Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in Germany, a copy in Poland at Kraków's Biblioteka G?ówna Akademii Sztuk Pi?knych, a copy at the Chelsea College of Arts in London and copies at Yale and Princeton in the US. The cataloguing for many of these examples is confusing: Princeton and Yale indicate their copies lack the title (there is no title), the Chelsea College lists the publisher of their copy as Edition Givaudon (?) and many of the other listed copies are described as consisting of eight pages; whether these copies are complete or not, the book is very rare with only a single copy (at Artcurial in 2009) reported in book auction records. [Calle (1), pp. 12 - 13; see 'Inventaires de Christian Boltanski', Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1973; see also 'Reconstitution', 1991, for the reissue].- $9,820
- $9,820
Cahier d’images: Hazard. (No. 1).
FELDMANN, Hans-Peter. Duval, Céline. 4to. (267 x 197 mm). pp. 32. Richly illustrated with 45 images of which 15 are in color. Original publisher's stapled wrappers with a monochrome photograph of two children on a swing to the front cover. 'Hazard,' no. 1 of 'Cahier d'Images,' the scarce artist book collaboration between Hans-Peter Feldmann and Céline Duval. From the edition limited to 600 copies. Feldmann and Duval's collaborative project 'Cahier d'images' took on many seemingly arbitrary themes and types of image appropriation. Cahier d'Images is complete in 7 issues.- $295
- $295
Zeichnungen zu den beiden 1965 wiederentdeckten Skizzenbüchern ‘Codices Madrid’ von Leonardo da Vinci.
BEUYS, Joseph. 8vo. (235 x 172 mm). [78 leaves]. Leaf with title and quotation from da Vinci in German and English and 81 granolithographs by Joseph Beuys, final (6) leaves with essay by Götz Adriani and quotations from da Vinci, final leaf with justification verso, also included, inserted loose, is a bifolium with an additional lithograph signed by Beuys in pencil; the whole volume is presented in the form of a sketchbook with leaves perforated at gutter as issued. Original publisher's black cloth-backed printed paper boards, white paper label to spine with titles in black, original grey card slipcase. Joseph Beuys' meditations upon and interpretations of Leonardo da Vinci's Madrid Codices with the additional signed lithograph. From the edition limited to 1,000 copies, with this one of 900 copies numbered in pencil, each with one of nine lithographs signed and numbered from the edition of 100 by Beuys in pencil; the slipcase is also numbered in pencil as per the book and indicates too the sequence of the lithograph. The book is presented in the form of a sketchbook and all leaves have perforations at the gutter as issued. The text is presented in German and translated into English by Caroline Tisdall. 'In his sketchbook Beuys picks up a characteristic feature of Leonardo: the apparently random sequence of varying themes, from landscape impressions through specific symbols for forms of energy and the powers of nature, to anatomical studies and the written elements and personally abbreviated notations that accompany the drawings in diagrams and partiturs. For Leonardo hardly ever pursues a theme like the planning of a painting over several consecutive pages. The connecting factor for him is always the formal and compositional unity of a page and its contents . Relinquishing his usual habit of free choice of dimension and approach, Beuys accepted the restraints of a unified quarto page format established by the Madrid model . Drawing, then, is for both artists an autonomous visual language, and one which penetrates the consciousness more directly than the world . In both cases the aim is to establish laws of nature with the help of artistic and scientific analysis and symbols. And admittedly the paths they follow to reach this aim are radically different.' (Götz Adriani translated by Tisdall). [Schellman 165 - 185].- $1,637
- $1,637
Antlitz der Zeit. (The face of our time). Sechzig aufnamen Deutscher Menchen des 20. Jahrhunderts.
SANDER, August. Döblin, Alfred. 4to. (292 x 224 mm). pp. xviii: 60. 60 monochrome reproduction photographs by August Sander, printed recto only. Original publisher's white wrappers with titles printed in black; spine repaired and laid down. August Sander's seminal first book, 'Antiltz der Zeit'. 'Antlitz der Zeit' (The Face of Our Time) was the first publication on Sander's portraiture project 'People of the Twentieth Century.' It is, understandably, now regarded as one of the greatest and most classic photobooks. "Many of his classic images are included in this seminal photobook, and the essential qualities of Sander's vision can be seen. He took typical examples of professions, trades and social classes in Weimar Germany, and photographed them in their familiar environments in order to build up, piece by piece, a dispassionate image of the 'face' of society. One of his work's miracles is how, despite his nominal objectivity, his political view shines through. His work is not neutral. It is not just penetrating, but was seen as positively dangerous, a little too acute in its analysis of society and class, by those with certain vested interests. This is made clear by the fact that when the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, publisher's copies of Antlitz der Zeit were seized, the plates destroyed, and the negatives confiscated by Hitler's Ministry of Culture" (Parr and Badger, The Photobook, I.124) The rare dust jacket has signs of wear; internally in good condition.- $2,946
- $2,946
Metamorphosis.
CHIRICO, Giorgio de. Folio. (572 x 462 mm). [6 unnumbered leaves]. Six original colour lithographs by Giorgio de Chirico, each signed and numbered in pencil at lower right (sheet size: 565 x 450 mm or the reverse). Loose in original publisher's cloth-backed portfolio, boards with textured faux crumpled paper pattern, printed title label to front board. Giorgio de Chirico's mythically rare first suite of lithographs, nearly impossible to find complete. From the edition limited to 112 copies with each lithograph signed and numbered by de Chirico in pencil. Ciranna cites an additional ten copies issued in monochrome only as suites for the first ten numbered copies. de Chirico's lithographs are titled as follows: 1. 'Il Ritorno del Figliuol Prodigo I'. 2. 'Gladiatore'. 3. 'Hebdomeros'. 4. 'Villa sul Mare'. 5. 'Scuola di Gladiatori II'. 6. 'Gli Archeologi IV'. 'La serie intitolata 'Metamorphosis' fu pubblicata a Parigi nel 1929 dalle 'Editions des Quatre Chemins' e costituisce il primo incontro impegnativo di de Chirico con la tecnica litografica . oggi introvabile completa . '. (Ciranna). 'La première suite de lithographies en couleurs de Chirico quasiment inconnue complète . Précieuse suite de ces 6 lithographies en couleurs de Chirico, publiée sans titre ni justification, qui constitue la première rencontre significative du peintre avec la technique lithographique . Cette suite complète est de la plus grande rareté.' (Bibliothèque Daniel Filipacchi Deuxième Partie). Of mythical rarity, de Chirico's 'Metamorphosis' is almost impossible to find in complete form: we can locate only a single example sold at auction, that of Daniel Filipacchi in 2005; in addition we can locate only the copy in the Cabinet des Estampes at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France described by Ciranna in 1969 as the sole recorded example. [Ciranna 11 - 16; see Bibliothèque Daniel Filipacchi Deuxième Partie lot 75, Christie's Paris, Vendredi 21 Octobre 2005].- $22,914
- $22,914
Los Diez Libros de Architectura de Leon Baptista Alberto. Traduzidos de Latin en Romance.
ALBERTI, Leon Battista. 8vo. (214 x 160 mm). [197 leaves (without terminal blank bb2); pp. (i), (vi), 343 (347 with 313 - 316 repeated), (xxxviii)]. Printed title within elaborate woodcut architectural facade with imprint and the initials 'F[rancisco]. L[oçano].', leaf with privilege recto, verso and two following leaves with Loçano's dedication to Juan Fernandez de Espinosa, note by Juan de Herrera, errata by Juan Vazquez de Marmol and note by the censor Christoval de Leon, two leaves with Alberti's 'Proemio' and 'Libro Primero' to 'Librero Decimo' of Alberti's text, final leaves with 'Tabla' (contents) and 'Repertorio' (index), historiated and decorative woodcut 10-line, 9-line, 8-line (&c.) initials throughout. Contemporary Spanish calf, boards ruled in blind with gilt fleur-de-lys corner tools to surround central pelican in her piety tool, banded spine with gilt tools in four compartments, boards pierced for ties (lacking), later endpapers, edges stained blue. The first edition of Leon Battista Alberti's 'De Re Aedificatoria' in Spanish. This copy features extensive annotation in sepia: to the verso of the title, foot of the conclusion to the dedication, the errata and throughout the text. While much of the annotation is underlining of notable passages in the text, there are numerous marginal notes throughout. In addition, page 12 of 'Libro primero' notes Alberti's mention of Vitruvius, while the section on capitals in 'Libro septimo' (page 206) features a marginal drawing of a Doric column and shortly thereafter in the section 'De los architraves' (on page 209) there is a drawing, with measurements, of a Doric capital and architrave. The extensive notes in the blank sections of the book appear to relate to Aristotle and his 'Ethicorum' (e.g. 'Benefactores plus amant benificiatos, quam en contra'), his 'De Animalibus' (e.g, 'Corpus est factum propter animam, et non anima propter corpus') and his 'Elenchorum' (e.g. 'Quibusdam magis est operae pretium, videri sapientes et non esse, quam esse et non videri'); many of these also feature additional commentary in Spanish. Alberti's 'De Re Aedificatoria' was the first printed book on architecture and an immensely important Renaissance exemplar for posterity. As part of the court of Cosimo de Medici the Elder, friend to Lorenzo, Brunelleschi and the Humanist circle, as well as secretary to six Popes, Leon Battista Alberti was much more than an architect or theoretician. Born into an important but exiled Florentine family in Genoa in 1404, Alberti, with his knowledge of Latin and Greek, flourished when the family were permitted to return in 1429. Notable for being the author of the first printed book published by a living writer (the 'Deifira' of 1471), Alberti's works also covered painting ('De Pictura'), sculpture ('Della Statua'), cryptography, the family and mathematics ('Ludi Rerum Mathematicarum'), the source for which was Euclid's 'Optics' and it is the combination of his talents that led to the publication of perhaps his most famous and influential work, the 'De Re Ædificatoria' of 1485. Printed first in the year of the Battle of Bosworth Field and the ascendancy of the Tudors, this Spanish edition, translated by Francisco Loçano was printed nearly a century later. Building on the ideas of Vitruvius - a first Spanish edition of 'De Architectura', Miguel de Urrea's Castilian translation, was also published in 1582 in Alcala' de Henares - Alberti also divides his work into ten books. Alberti stresses, in particular, the harmonious whole of a building, but has time too to reflect on matters relating to gardens, civil engineering, decoration, and the actual practical details of building. This Spanish edition features a note by the great architect and mathematician Juan de Herrera (1530 - 1597) beneath the translator Loçano's dedication. de Herrera, the epitome of the Spanish Renaissance and the Herrerian style, completed El Escorial in 1582 and his endorsement gives a measure of the importance of the text itself and the publication of this version. 'First edition of the Spanish translation.' (Fowler). 'His book is the prime example of the renaissance approach to classical example and contemporary practice. Based very firmly (and for the first time) on the writings of Vitruvius, it [the treatise] is neither a translation nor an imitation because the author had taken the trouble of studying and actually meaasuring the extant buildings of classical Rome . '. Weinreb. 'It is in the writings of Alberti that a complete Humanist doctrine is first developed and they are the source from which later ideas were derived. Since Alberti represented the fifteenth century at its best, exercising an influence over the spirit of his age second only to that of Leonardo, it is not surprising to find that his De Re Aedificatoria, especially in the theoretical treatment of the subject and in relating it to the ancient text of Vitruvius, played an important part in the literary output of his successors.' (Fowler). 'L'Edizione fu eseguita in Casa di Alonso Gomez, stampatore Reale, ma il privilegio per la stampa su concesso a Francesco Loçano. Non vi sono Tavole in questa versione.' (Cicognara). This Spanish edition of Alberti is scarce in commerce and in institutions: COPAC records only a single copy in the UK at Oxford; OCLC adds the copy at the National Art Library (V & A) and lists four copies in Spain (at Granada, Barcelona, Valencia and Rovira) together with copies at the Biblioteca Nacional Mexico and the Royal Danish Library. In addition we trace copies at the CCA in Montreal, as well as Columbia, Yale and the Bancroft in the US. There may be further copies we have overlooked but microfiche and other electronic versions as well as a later facsimile edition tend to cloud the results. Although this copy is in its first binding, the endpapers have been replaced at a later date and it appears that the first gathering and some of the second (i.e. all of *4 + up to and including A6) m- $9,820
- $9,820
WENDINGEN. Year 4. Number 11. (Frank Lloyd Wright by H. P. Berlage).
LISSITZKY. WRIGHT, Frank Lloyd. Square 4to. (330 x 330 mm). pp. 38. Illustrated with monochrome photographs of Frank Lloyd Wright's oeuvre throughout; decorative borders and advertisements printed in grey. Original publisher's stitched lithographic wrappers by El Lissitzky; slightly worn, with some with loss to right edge. The famous Frank Lloyd Wright issue of Wendingen with the original lithographic cover by El Lissitzky. An individual number from the splendid example of early 20th century ideas in art and architecture, unique among similar projects for the length of its run, its immaculate production, consistent high quality, and highly individual typography by H. Th. Wijdeveld. Of Wendingen's 116 issues, all but 11 are devoted to single subjects, with an unusually high percentage of architecture including 8 issues on Frank Lloyd Wright of which this is one.- $3,273
- $3,273
Eutychii Aegyptii, Patriarchae Orthodoxorum Alexandrini, Scriptoris, ut in Oriente admodùm Vetusti ac Illustris, ita in Occidente tum paucissimis Vsi tum perraro Auditi, Ecclesiae suae Origines.
SELDEN, John. (Ed. & Trans.). Small 4to. (200 x 152 mm). pp. (i), XXXVIII, 184. Printed title in red and black, manuscript '1642' in blue ink beneath Roman numerals and the same date in blue ink in Arabic numerals at right, 13 leaves with Selden's 'Praefatio' with elaborate woodcut head-piece and four-line intital, 6 leaves with Eutychius' parallel text in Arabic and Latin with headline in red and black, decorative woodcut head- and tail-pieces, decorative Arabic initial 'ya' with woodcut border and four-line initial to Latin text and Selden's detailed and extensive 'Commentarius' with elaborate woodcut head-piece and decorative 7-line initial, one woodcut of a Roman coin in the text, final leaves with 'Interserenda' with woodcut head-piece, errata to final leaf verso between type rules. Printed text in Latin and Arabic throughout with occasional Greek and Hebrew, using Roman, italic, Arabic, Greek and Hebrew types; manuscript correction in sepia ink, 'tum' for 'ac' in line 27 on pg. 183. Contemporary full vellum with Yapp edges, manuscript title in sepia ink to spine, later paper label with location details (?). The first edition of the first book printed in England to make extensive use of Arabic type. ' . it can be considered as the first Arabic book to be printed in England.' (Geoffrey Roper). Eutychius of Alexandria (877 - 940), i.e. Sa'id Ibn Batriq, was a doctor, appointed Melkite Patriarch of Alexandria in 932 and one of the first Christian Egyptian authors to write extensively in Arabic. His most important work was the 'Nazm al-Jawhar' (the Row of Jewels) and it is an excerpt from that work that is presented here. This critical edition, presented in the original Arabic and with a Latin translation together with extensive analytic commentary, was prepared by John Selden (1584 - 1654), the remarkable polyglot academic (he was competent in, or at least familiar with, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Chaldean, Samaritan, Aramaic, Farsi, Ge'ez, Old English, German, French, Spanish and Italian), antiquarian, historian, jurist and parliamentarian (he had long served as an MP and in different constituencies but at the time of publication was one of the two MPs representing Oxford University in the Long Parliament). Selden's selection from Eutychius' text treats of the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the early Christian church while his extensive commentary in Latin with additional extensive quotation from a variety of Arabic, Greek, Hebrew and Latin sources includes a list in Arabic of the first 307 Alexandrian Patriarchs. Selden's preface gives details of Eutychius and his life and medical practise, surveys Arabic manuscripts in Europe - he mentions scholars such as Erpenius - and relates how he purchased the manuscript he relied on for this edition from William Corderoy. Corderoy, like his fellow merchant Richard Hill, both merchants of the Levantine Company at Aleppo, were often the source of books for scholars; Edward Pococke, a friend and protegée of Selden's, procured the Gospels in Farsi for the English Polyglot through the pair. Pococke, the first Laudian Professor of Arabic at Oxford, was also responsible for another edition of Eutychius printed in 1656 by Henry Hall and paid for by Selden who did not live to see it published. Although Arabic type had been used prior to Selden's 'Eutychius' - and the earliest method had been via woodblocks inserted among metal type - it had been confined mainly to individual letters, short passages or quotations and had, at least until the mid-1630s been of very poor quality. William Stansby used Arabic metal type for the first time in England for Selden's 'Mare Clausum' (1635) and it was used again - this time by Bishop, the printer of Eutychius, who had bought Stansby's business - for the second edition of Selden's 'De Successionibus In Bona Defuncti' (1636) and his 'De Iure Naturali' (1640) but all three of these books used the type sparsely and irregularly with only the 1636 book including even a page. By the time of the printing of the present book, the compositors were more familiar with the type and it is used here extensively. As per Roper: 'Its [the Eutychius'] Arabic content was thus much more substantial than the previous items [i.e. the aforementioned books], and it can be considered as the first Arabic book to be printed in England.' 'The provenance of the type used by Stansby [the same type used by Bishop for the printing of the present book] is a mystery. It is in the style of the early seventeenth-century Dutch scholar-typographers Raphelengius and Erpenius, but it is of a smaller size than the former's Arabic face, and differs in detail from the latter's, which it nevertheless closely resembles. It may perhaps be a copy of the Erpenius face, probably imported from the Netherlands; but this must remain a matter for conjecture until further research is done and more evidence is found.' (Geoffrey Roper). 'During a lifetime of scholarship, legal practice, and public service, Selden amassed an extensive collection of books and manuscripts. A story circulated that he had revoked an original intention to bequeath these to the Bodleian Library, Oxford, but this was false. By the terms of his will the library was to receive his collection of Greek and Oriental manuscripts, selected Latin manuscripts, and his remaining Talmudic and rabbinical books. Most of these were forwarded by his executors to the Bodleian in 1659, although in the interim some had been lost. Among the 8000 volumes which arrived safely, some had belonged to Jonson, Donne, and Cotton; they remain there today.' (DNB). [Wing 3440; Brunet II, 1117; see Geofffrey Roper's 'Arabic Printing and Publishing in England before 1820', published in 'British Society for Middle Eastern Studies', Vol. 12, No. 1, 1985].- $7,201
- $7,201
Suggestions for the Architectural Improvement of the Western Part of London.
SMIRKE, Sydney. Tall 8vo. (254 x 162 mm). pp. (i), (ii), 117, (i). Half-title, title with printer's credit verso, large folding leaf (unfolded: 486 x 322 mm) with engraved plan of 'the Proposed Improvements' with additional colouring by hand and the text of Smirke's 'Suggestions' illustrated with two aquatint plates, final leaf with printer's credit verso. Contemporary green half-calf over marbled boards, smooth spine with gilt title, marbled endpapers, t.e.g. [PROVENANCE: Ownership signature 'W. S. Booth' in sepia ink to title; from the collection of architect Patrick McNeil with his notes (see below) inserted loose]. The scarce first edition of Sydney Smirke's ambitious proposals for improvements in the West End. The aquatint plates give an idea of the grandeur of Smirke's ideas and imagination, the first, by William Daniell after Smirke, is titled 'The Proposed Situation in the Green Park for New Parliamentary Buildings'; the second and possibly even more ambitious, by J. E. Coombs after Smirle, is titled 'Proposed Situation on the North Bank of the Serpentine for a National Edifice to Receive the Monuments of Illustrious Men'. 'Sidney Smirke, whose whole career was overshadowed by that of his brother, Robert, here puts forward his own views on the creation of an impressive government image which was to include an entire nucleus of palaces and offices in Green Park, a Westminster embankment and a Gothic temple on the Serpentine to hold the tombs defacing the interior of Westminster Abbey . Smirke's plan included slum clearance with proposed dormitories and recreation centres, widening of streets especially in Soho, and more direct routes through the West End. It is clarified by a colour map. His proposed major entrance from Trafalgar Square into the Mall is the only suggestion that actually materialised later.' (Weinreb). The inserted cuttings, those of the previous owner, the architect Patrick McNeil, include his extensive notes regarding the history of London's sewerage written on the verso of the announcement of a RIBA meeting. That meeting, held in December 1959, of the RIBA Library Group, included a talk 'The records of the Commissioners of Sewers as sources for the history of building development in London during the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries' by Miss Ida Darlington, M.A., F.S.A., F.L.A., Librarian and Archivist to the London County Council. Other inclusions are cuttings from booksellers' catalogues including the announcement, from Batsford in 1958, of a copy of the present work offered for '21s' and bound in 'h[al]f. calf.' that is likely this very example. Although well represented in institutions: COPAC details a number of copies including those at the BL, National Library of Scotland, Cambridge, the Courtauld and the V & A while OCLC lists a number in the US (Princeton, Columbia, Harvard, Yale and others), the book is scarce on the market with only a handful of copies at auction in the last 50 years. RBH also lists a copy (from the collection of Richard Grant White Esq.) sold by Bangs & Co. in New York in 1885 although it does not record the price. [Weinreb 24:86].- $589
- $589
Feu Central de Benjamin Péret.
TANGUY, Yves. Péret, Benjamin. 4to. (248 x 192 mm). [60 leaves + inserted leaf with Tanguy's etching; pp. 101, (ii), (i), (i)]. Half-title, title with copyright verso and Péret's verse illustrated with 4 hors-texte phototypie plates reproducing gouaches by Tanguy, 'Table', justification and final leaf with achevé d'imprimer; inserted loose (as issued) is Tanguy's original etching (238 x 188 mm). Original publisher's printed wrappers as issued: a grey jacket with illustration after Tanguy in white with excised section to front cover and beneath a yellow patterned wrapper with printed text in red (see below). An excellent copy of the édition de tête. From the edition limited to 1,030 numbered copies, with this copy one of 30 copies from the édition de tête on pur fil Johannot numbered in Roman numerals and with Tanguy's original etching. 'Feu Central' collects Péret's verse collections 'Immortelle Maladie' (1924), 'Dormir, Dormir dans les Pierres' (1927), 'Je Sublime' (1935), 'Un Point C'est Tout' (1946) and 'A Tatons'; all, save 'A Tatons', which appears here for the first time, had been published previously. The original wrappers for the book were designed especially for the first 230 'exemplaires de luxe' of the book, were executed after the maquette by Pierre Faucheux after Tanguy's original drawing.- $9,820
- $9,820
Bauhaus 1919-1928. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
BAUHAUS. Bayer, Herbert & Gropius, Walter & Gropius, Ise. (editors). 4to. (255 x 195 mm). pp. 244. Illustrated throughout in monochrome. Original publisher's yellow cloth with titles printed in red and black. First edition of MoMA's important Bauhaus monograph, with a delightfully enigmatic inscription by Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Moholy Nagy's signature, written in black ink to the initial blank, reads: '. yes, they are right! / L. Moholy Nagy / Xmas 1939.' It is followed by another inscription which reads 'To my good friend and room mate at the School of Design, Chicago / Bud Bigelow.' Presumably this copy was given by Moholy Nagy to Bud Bigelow who later passed it on. László Moholy-Nagy opened his own school, The School of Design in Chicago, in February 1939. Its first campus was at 247 East Ontario Street. Many of the faculty and students of the New Bauhaus joined the school, which offered day and evening classes, and Saturday morning classes for children. In 1944 the school was reorganised as the Institute of Design in Chicago. The book design's and typography is by Herbert Bayer. It includes work by all members of the Bauhaus. Some signs of wear and minor soiling to the yellow cloth covers. Internally in good condition.- $2,291
- $2,291
Cahier d’images: Image. (No. 2).
FELDMANN, Hans-Peter. Duval, Céline. 4to. (260 x 188 mm). pp. 24. 1 colour image. Original publisher's stapled wrappers. 'Image', no. 2 of 'Cahier d'Images,' the scarce artist book collaboration between Hans-Peter Feldmann and Céline Duval. From the edition limited to 600 copies. Feldmann and Duval's collaborative project 'Cahier d'Images' took on many seemingly arbitrary themes and types of image appropriation. Cahier d'Images is complete in 7 issues.- $295
- $295
Maurice Denis: Peintre et Lithographe. Edition Polyglotte.
DENIS, Maurice. Brillant, Maurice. Folio. (518 x 344 mm). With 4 original lithographs each signed in pencil by the artist. Loose as issued in original thick green waxed paper portfolio with flap, printed titles to front cover in black. From the edition limited to 225 copies, with this one 25 lettered copies from the edition de tete but this set does not have the extra suite called for by the justification.- $4,255
- $4,255
Parallèle des Edifices Anciens et Modernes du Continent Africain . &c.
TREMAUX, Pierre. Oblong folio. Printed title, lithograph frontispiece, leaf with 'Ordres des Planches et Notices de l'Atlas', folding 'Carte de l'Afrique Centrale et Orientale', 14 leaves with descriptive text for the plates printed recto only and 82 plates, numbered 1 - 82, of which 8 are original salt print photographs (seven of which have additional lithographs of the subjects printed on card or tissue and pasted over the photographs), 30 are engraved and the remaining 44 plates are lithographs (four colour, the remainder monochrome or tinted and 16 after photographs). Loose in modern green straight-grained morocco-backed cloth box, title gilt to upper board and spine. Complete copy of Trémaux's Parallèle des Edifices with eight original photographs. Trémaux's work, an early and interesting use of photography in the recording of architectural remains and features, compares African builldings in Cairo, Tunis, ancient Carthage, Ethiopia, Sudan and elsewhere in Africa from ancient to modern times. The original photographs in this copy (Trémaux in later issues replaced the photographs with lithographs so copies vary in the number of photographs present) are the following: Plate 10: 'Vue d'une Cour à Tunis (de l'Hotel d'un Ministre du Bey)'; plate with additional lithograph on tissue after the original photograph tipped-in to same sheet. Plate 28: 'Vue Latérale de la Mosquée Hassan et d'une Partie du Caire'. Plate 58: 'Détail d'un Arc de Triomphe à Tripoli à Barbarie'; plate with additional lithograph on tissue after the original photograph tipped-in to same sheet. Plate 61: 'Vue du Nymphée de Zaghouan formant la prise d'Eau des Aqueducs de Carthage'; plate with additional lithograph on tissue after the original photograph tipped-in to same sheet. Plate 63: 'Vue de l'Aqueduc de Carthage, prise sur les Bords d'Ouad-el Méliana'; plate with additional lithograph on tissue after the original photograph tipped-in to same sheet. Plate 65: 'Vue des Grands Citernes de Carthage (pris dans l'axe de la percée longitudinale et montrant sa construction en blocage'; plate with additional lithograph on tissue after the original photograph tipped-in to same sheet. Plate 68: 'Vue de l'Amphithéatre d'El-Djem (Prise du Sud)'; plate with additional lithograph after the original photograph tipped-in to same sheet. Plate 70: 'Vue Intérieure de l'Amphithéatre d'El-Djem'; plate with additional lithograph after the original photograph tipped-in to same sheet. 'Pierre Trémaux (1818 - ) worked on a project documenting the architectural history of Asia Minor and Africa, which was published in three parts over the course of several years (1847 - 1862). Trémaux employed daguerrotypes, his own sketches, and later, calotypes as the basis for the lithographic illustrations. Later fascicles of Voyage au Soudan Oriental et dans l'Afrique Septentrionale Exécutés en 1847 à 1854 were issued with mounted salted-paper prints which faded and required replacement by lithographic reproductions . '. (Early Photography in the Middle East). [The Truthful Lens 171].- $26,187
- $26,187
Cahier d’images: Rouge. (No. 3).
FELDMANN, Hans-Peter. Duval, Céline. 4to. (250 x 180 mm). pp. 24. Richly illustrated with 38 images of which 12 are in color. Original publisher's stapled wrappers with a photograph of a woman's legs to front cover. 'Rouge', no. 3 of 'Cahier d'Images', the scarce artist book collaboration between Hans-Peter Feldmann and Céline Duval. From the edition limited to 600 copies. Feldmann and Duval's collaborative project 'Cahier d'Images' took on many seemingly arbitrary themes and types of image appropriation. Cahier d'Images is complete in 7 issues.- $295
- $295
lange gedichte. (rot. no. 16).
rot: Ernst Jandl. (Bense, Max and Elisabeth Walther (Eds.)). Square 8vo. (160 x 151 mm). Leaf with title and printed typographic text throughout on doubled leaves as issued; printed by Hansjörg Mayer. Original publisher's red and white printed wrappers by Walter Faigle with flaps, title 'rot' to front cover as part of the design, issue number in black, quote by Ernst Bloch to white rear cover in red. An excellent copy of this single issue of 'rot', a compendium of concrete poetry. This copy has been signed by Ernst Jandl in blue ink to the reverse of the title page. Also included, inserted loose, is a leaf with details of previous numbers of the review (nos. 1 - 13) and their contributors and contents. 'rot ist eine reihe von heften, in denen experimentelle und tendenziose texte publiziert werden.' (from the- $196
- $196
klein abstrakte ästhetik. (rot. no. 38).
rot: Max Bense. (Bense, Max and Elisabeth Walther (Eds.)). Square 8vo. (150 x 152 mm). Leaf with title and Bense's analysis of aesthetics printed on doubled leaves as issued throughout, final leaf with bibliography; printed by Hansjörg Mayer. Original publisher's red and white printed wrappers by Walter Faigle, white canvas spine, title 'rot' to front cover as part of the design, issue number in black, quote by Ernst Bloch to white rear cover in red. A scarce single issue of 'rot' devoted to editor Max Bense's own theories of aesthetics. This issue is signed by Max Bense in blue ink to the title page.- $196
- $196
Search Engine.
PORTER, Louis. (400 x 125 x 70 mm). Title, Introduction, seven cards detailing subject matters (listed A?Z), a further 390 cards with reproduction photographs; card with colophon at rear. Each card digitally printed in white ink. Loose as issued in original publisher's handmade black drawer. 'Search Engine' by Louis Porter. From the edition limited to 8 copies (plus 2 APs). Search Engine is a series of index cards featuring photographs sourced from the Science & Miscellaneous section of the London Library ? one of the world's largest independent lending libraries. These images are ordered as they were encountered, alphabetically by subject, on shelves that make neighbours of Sleep and Smuggling and that bring together Pleasure, Poaching and Poisons. The result could be seen as an archaeology of the photographic systems of knowledge that we often taken for granted. The subjects listed and illustrated include: Advertising, Aeronautics, Agriculture, Alchemy, Anatomy, Animal Lore, Aquarium, Arbitration, Archery, Arms & Armour, Artillery, Astrology, Astronomy, Athletics, Atlantis, Atomic Theory, Bacteriology, Ballooning, Baths, Beer, Bees, Bells, Big Game, Billiards, Biology, Birds, Blind, Bookkeeping,Botany, Boxing, Bridges, Building, Bull-fighting, Burial, Butterflies, Camel, Canals, Canoeing, Capital & Labour, Cards, Carpentering, Cats, Cattle, Cavalry, Caves, Celibacy, Censorship, Chairman?s Handbooks, Character, Charities, Cheese, Chemistry, Chess, Children, Christmas, Chronograms, Chronology, Cinematography, Circus, Civil Service, Climate Change, Clubs, Coaching, Coal, Coast Erosion, Cocoa, Coffee, Coins, Colour-blindness, Commons Preservation, Computers, Conjuring, Conscience, Co-operative, Copyright, Coronations & Regalia, Corporations, Cotton, Coursing, Cremation, Cricket, Crime, Crosses, Cruelty to Animals, Crystallography, Cycling, Dancing, Deaf, Death, Dentistry, Devil, Distribution,Dogs, Domestic Servants, Dreams, Drink, Drugs, Duelling &c. Please contact us for the full list of subjects. 'The images reproduced in this card index were sourced from the Science & Miscellaneous section of the London Library between November 2021 and May 2022.' (From the Introduction card).- $2,291
- $2,291
Dans la Chaleur Vacante.
GIACOMETTI, Alberto. Bouchet, André du. 8vo. (206 x 144 mm). Half-title, leaf with Giacometti's signed original etching as frontispiece verso, printed title with justification and copyright verso, section title and du Bouchet's verse in seven sections, leaf with 'Table' and final leaf with achevé d'imprimer and printer's credit verso. Original publisher's printed wrappers with titles and publisher's vignette to front cover and titles to spine in black. An excellent copy of André du Bouchet's verse collection with Giacometti's signed portrait of the poet as frontispiece. From the edition limited to 520 numbered copies with this one of the first 70 on vergé d'Auvergne à la main du moulin Richard-de-Bas with Giacometti's signed original etching as frontispiece. Giacometti's original etching, signed in pencil at lower right, is a portrait of the poet André du Bouchet. Giacometti had provided an etching for du Bouchet's earlier 'Le Moteur Blanc' (GLM, 1956) appearing to show the poet's desk or the floor of a studio covered in canvases. 'Le Moteur Blanc' is also included in this collection together with other verse, some not previously published. 'Dans la Chaleur Vacante' also includes 'Sol de la Montagne', 'Au Deuxième Etage', 'Face de la Chaleur', 'Sur le Pas' and 'Cession'. The collection received the 'Prix de la Critique' in 1961, the year of publication. [Lust 107].- $8,511
- $8,511
5 beliebige fassungen. (rot. no. 28).
rot: Franz Mon. (Bense, Max and Elisabeth Walther (Eds.)). Square 8vo. (151 x 151 mm). Leaf with title, leaf with further title and Mon's verse on doubled leaves as issued; printed by Hansjörg Mayer. Rear inner wrapper with details of previous issues of 'rot' as well as details of several in preparation. Original publisher's red and white printed wrappers by Walter Faiglewith flaps, title 'rot' to front cover as part of the design, issue number in black, quote by Ernst Bloch to white rear cover in red. This single issue of 'rot', a compendium of experimental and visual poetry, is devoted to Franz Mon. This copy signed by Mon in pencil to the title.- $229
- $229
La Vie Artistique. Préface d’Edmond de Goncourt.
GEFFROY, Gustave. 8 vols. 8vo. (180 x 118 mm). pp. xvi, 375; 396; xx, 395; xviii, 334; 408; 462; 368; 483. Original etched frontispiece to each volume by Carrière, Rodin, Renoir, Raffaelli, Fantin-Latour (lithograph on chine), Pissarro, Vierge, and Willette. Contemporary green cloth-backed marbled boards (vols. 1 - 7), leather labels with gilt titles and volume nos. to spines, original publisher's printed wrappers with titles to front covers in red and black, publisher's advertisements to rear, uncut, vol. 8 in original publisher's printed wrappers as issued. Jean Ajalbert's set presented to him by the author Gustave Geffroy. Geffroy's evocative presentations, evidence for his profound friendship and respect for Ajalbert, differ in each volume (those for the final three are matching) although the sentiments are similar, with the most effusive appearing in the first two vols.: I - 'A mon cher Jean Ajalbert / poète de mon esprit et ami de / mon coeur / Gustave Geffroy'; II - 'A mon cher p'tit, le doux (?) poète / et violent avocat: Jean Ajalbert / de tout mon coeur d'ami / Gustave Geffroy'; The first volume also includes a letter from Geffroy, a bifolium of smooth paper (138 x 108 mm) with Geffroy's manuscript recto and verso to the first leaf, addressed to Ajalbert and his son. Among details such as a desire that Ajalbert visit him when he comes to Paris is news of Geffroy's health ('Ma santé continue à se lézarder. J'entends distinctement les craquements.') and of the death of Eugène Carrière in agony (' . une des plus tristes choses, la plus triste même, la plus sinistre, de ma vie . '). As for the presentations in the volumes, Geffroy ends familiarly and affectionately 'affectueusement à toi et `ton gosse', addressing Ajalbert in his 'Auvergne de neige'. Jean Ajalbert was a poet, author and journalist publishing in the 'Revue Independante', 'La Pleiade', 'L'Humanité' and a major contributor to the Dreyfusard press. The front pastedowns of the volumes feature Ajalbert's circular woodcut bookplate with his initials flanking an image of Mount Fuji and initialled 'MB'. La Vie Artistique was one of the most influential of the late-nineteenth century art periodicals. Geffroy was a friend and one of the earliest supporters of the Impressionists. He was a founding member of the Academie Goncourt and was, in Edmond de Goncourt's words, 'dispensateur d'une culture nouvelle.' He writes about the artists he liked and admired: Manet, Carrière, Rodin, Pissarro, Raffaelli, Whistler, Moreau, Puvis de Chavannes, Sisley, Forain, Cassatt, etc. The testaments he published on Impressionism constitute one of the major sources of the history of art of the period. 'De fait ses comtes rendus d'expositions et ses études d'artistes mettent en valeur avec une étonnante pénetration des talents aussi divers que ceux de Gustave Moreau, de Puvis de Chavannes, de Maurice Denis, de Rude.' (D. B. F.).- $7,201
- $7,201
kleine dada soirée.
DOESBURG, Théo van & Kurt Schwitters. (300 x 300 mm). Lithograph in red with additional printing in black recto only on thin newsprint paper, the full sheet, never folded; sheet size: 300 x 300 mm. An excellent example, never folded, of the first issue of the iconic 'kleine dada soirée' poster. This programme / poster by Théo van Doesburg and Kurt Schwitters details the events for the travelling show they had devised towards the end of 1922. Their proposed tour of Holland was to start in The Hague in December 1922 but had to be postponed due to problems with Schwitters' passport. On January 10th, 1923, Schwitters and van Doesburg appeared at the Haagsche Kunstkring (the details are at the upper right of the poster together with the address 'Binnenhof 8') and the performance featured van Doesburg's 'dadasofie', 'ragtime-dada' by Erik Satie and Schwitters' sound poetry. The chaotic typography of the poster, in typical dada style, features random capitalisations, variations in typography, the text at variable and peculiar angles, manicules, small vignettes, a quotation from Tristan Tzara etc., all against a background with 'dada' printed in red. 'DADA EXISTE DEPUIS / TOUJOURS LA SAINTE / VIERGE DÉJÀ FUT / DADAÏSTE'. (From the poster). It is thought that Piet Zwart, a member of the Kunstkring attended that first performance, and over the following three months a further 13 performances were held in different cities. The basic form for each event included van Doesburg reading from his booklet 'Wat ist Dada?', Schwitters making animal noises (barking like a dog or cooing like a dove) from the audience before reading his own works, van Doesburg's wife Nelly - she appeared under the stage name 'Pétro' - would play musical selections and the fourth collaborator, Vilmos Huszár, projected on a screen the moving figure of a mechanical dancer. 'We opened in den Haag in Konstruktixistik manner. Doesburg read a very good dadaistic programme, in which he said the dadaist would do something unexpected. At that moment I rose from the middle of the publik and barked loud. Some people fainted, and were carried out, and the Papers reported that Dada means barking.' (Schwitters quoted in Dada and Surrealism Reviewed). A second issue of the poster was produced later with the address at upper right ('Haagsche K[unst]. K[ring]. / Binnenhof 8') replaced with details of a subscription for van Doesburg's 'Mécano': 'Abonnement Mécano 5 Fr. per Jaar'. 'DADA EST CONTRE / LE FUTUR DADA / EST MORT DADA / EST IDIOT, VIVE / DADA! DA / DA N'EST PAS / UNE ÉCOLE LITTÉ / RAIRE HURLE. / TRISTAN TZARA'. (From the poster). 'The poster / program 'Small Dada Evening' is a carefully orchestrated visual cacophony. Information is difficult to discern in this nonhierarchical [sic] composition of red and black lettering distributed pell-mell across the white page. The work was printed in two passes through the press . 'Small Dada Evening' is a tricky piece of graphic design, a playful tease falling somewhere between communication and Dadaist self-subversion. The sheet doubles as a poster advertising the Dada Soirées that toured Holland in 1923 and as a program for the Soirées' proceedings, but even while it claims these dual functions, it undermines them . 'Small Dada Evening' is not a poster in the traditional sense. It may be better understood as a visual emblem of the Dutch Dada tour, a graphic encapsulation of the soirées and of Van Doesburg's and Schwitters' particular brands of Dada.' (Christian Larsen). [see 'Dada in the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art', New York, 2008, pp. 102 - 105; see Ades pp. 125 - 126 which describes the series of 'kleine dada soirée' performances (but without naming them) in Schwitters' words].- $32,734
- $32,734
bruchsünden und todstücke. (rot. no. 31).
rot: Witold Wirpsza. (Bense, Max and Elisabeth Walther (Eds.)). Square 8vo. (152 x 151 mm). Leaf with title and Wirpsza's translated verse in German on doubled leaves throughout as issued, final leaf verso with note on the translation; printed by Hansjörg Mayer. Original publisher's red and white printed wrappers by Walter Faiglewith flaps, title 'rot' to front cover as part of the design, issue number in black, quote by Ernst Bloch to white rear cover in red. An excellent example of this single issue of 'rot' featuring . Wirpsza's verse, taken from the collections 'Drugi Opor, Czytelnik' (Warsaw, 1965) and 'Przesady' (Panstwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Warsaw, 1966) was translated from the Polish by Maria Kurecka (1920 - 1989), the writer and translator of English, French and German (she translated Camus' 'La Peste', Hesse's 'Demian' among wother books) who was also Wirpsza's wife.- $98
- $98
experimentelle schreibweisen. (rot. no. 17).
rot: Max Bense. (Bense, Max and Elisabeth Walther (Eds.)). Square 8vo. (162 x 148 mm). Leaf with title and Bense's text on doubled leaves as issued with examples of visual poetry by various poets; printed by Hansjörg Mayer. Original publisher's red and white printed wrappers by Walter Faigle with flaps, title 'rot' to front cover as part of the design, issue number in black, quote by Ernst Bloch to white rear cover in red. Max Bill's copy, presented by Max Bense. Bense's presentation is in black ink to the front flap: 'für Mr. Bill / M. Bense'. The poets included are: Helmut Heissenbüttel, Arno Holz, Gertrude Stein, Stéphane Mallarmé, Arno Schmidt, Bense himself, José Lino Grünewald and Fernando Pessoa. Also included, inserted loose, is a leaf with details of previous numbers of the review (nos. 1 - 13) and their contributors and contents.- $327
- $327
