Weimar-era cigarette card featuring a Black cabaret dancer
Collectible Weimar-era cigarette card, issued by the Garbáty cigarette factory in Berlin, number 214 of a series of 250 "Famous Dancers." The image depicts an African-American showgirl in bangles and feathers dancing the Charleston; the text on the verso translates as: "The recent interest in Negro dancing brought many American Negro troupes to Europe, where their grotesque dancing and songs were very popular for a while." Although not a portrait of Josephine Baker, the smiling "Negro Girl" featured here, making eye contact with the viewer, recalls the images of the legendary American star of the Folies Bergère. The distributors of this card, the Jewish Garbáty family, were forced to sell their successful cigarette factory at a huge loss in October 1938, two weeks before Kristallnacht; the younger generation, including art collector Eugene Garbáty, managed to escape to the United States. Text in German. A compelling piece of ephemera, testifying to Berlin's cabaret culture between the wars. Cigarette card, measuring 2.5 x 1.75 inches, machine-deckled edges. Black-and-white image on recto, captioned "phot. Robertson;" text on verso. Trace of mounting adhesive to verso.
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Things That I Do in the Dark. Selected Poetry by June Jordan
First edition of this anthology of June Jordan's poetry, edited by Toni Morrison, warmly inscribed to civil rights attorney William Kunstler, who shared Jordan's lifelong commitment to political activism. The poems in the collection are divided into four sections: "For My Own," "Directed by Desire," "Against the Stillwaters," and "Toward a Personal Semantics." While Jordan's subjects range from the personal to the political, her poetry is united by her distinctive conversational voice and pointed wit, reflected in "Calling on All Silent Minorities," which reads in its entirety: "HEY / C'MON / COME OUT / WHEREVER YOU ARE / WE NEED TO HAVE THIS MEETING / AT THIS TREE / AIN' EVEN BEEN / PLANTED / YET." Jordan has inscribed this copy: "1978 / for William Kunstler, / Attorney, freedom fighter, Brother: / wishing you and your family / all love and peace and joy, always / Respectfully / and with love, / June Jordan / 7/17/ N.Y.C." Best known for his high-profile defense of the Chicago Seven and the Black Panther Party, Kunstler maintained: "I'm not a lawyer for hire. I only defend those I love." Jordan met Kunstler at Yale in 1971, during their shared work on behalf of the prisoners at Attica. In her 1985 essay "Black People and the Law," Jordan recalls "that sunny morning in New Haven when I first met Big Bill Kunstler. . . . when I heard that extraordinarily deep voice filling up that splendid stairwell, I felt no longer exhausted by the phone calls, the flyers, and the rest of it. I felt exhilaration and relief. I knew he would surely kick ass. And he did." Jordan and Kunstler's warm friendship was grounded not only in their passion for social justice, but also in their love of poetry. Kunstler's first book, Our Pleasant Vices, was a co-authored collection of poems, published in 1941 when he was still a Yale undergraduate. His last book was a collection of sonnets, Hints and Allegations, The World (in Poetry and Prose) According to William M. Kunstler, published in 1994 with a foreword by Allen Ginsberg. A very good presentation copy, testifying to the bond between two important voices of the American civil rights movement. Single volume, measuring 8.25 x 5.5 inches: xvii, [1], 203, [3]. Original grey boards stamped in copper, black cloth spine lettered in copper, original unclipped photographic dust jacket. Ink presentation inscription from Jordan to William Kunstler on front free endpaper. Toning and spotting to edges and endpapers, occasional stray smudge, light edgewear to dust jacket. An Incomparable Entertainment Presented by Prof. Pamahasika with his Wonderful Troupe of Performing Birds and Dogs. 40 Laughs in 40 Minutes
Promotional flyer for Professor Pamahasika's traveling novelty act, an animal circus featuring "The Greatest Troupe of Performing Birds Ever Presented in America," including the headliner Rags, a cockatoo who could spell, tell time, and solve math problems. The flyer opens to a centerfold of the bird circus in action. Highlights include a top-hatted parrot smoking a tiny cigar in a carriage pulled by a driver bird; military birds shooting cannons, waving flags, and removing the "dead" from the battlefield; a parrot riding a bicycle; and a series of miniature amusement rides: a Ferris wheel, a waterslide, a carousel. In addition to the birds, Pamahasika's act featured a troupe of costumed dogs trained to "perform Intricate Dances and many New Tricks." He assures audiences that "the Performance is Suitable for Churches, Lodges and Private Institutions," and indeed his family-friendly menagerie appears to have enjoyed success on the Chautauqua circuit for decades. A whimsical survival. Single sheet, measuring 10 x 14 inches unfolded, 10 x 7 inches folded: [4]. Printed in purple and green on recto, pink on verso. Illustrated with line drawings and photocollages. Two small punch holes at center fold. Late Victorian photograph album featuring images of women and girls reading
Victorian photograph album of images of women and girls, most of them posed with books. The images represent a thoughtfully assembled thematic collection, rather than a record of a particular family's life: the photography studios represented range from New York to California, Massachusetts to Wisconsin, England to Germany. Thirty-one of the photographs present women or girls posed with books or letters. Many of the others highlight other cherished possessions: a picture hat, a doll, a fan, a drum, and in the case of a nun, a crucifix and rosary. While most of the photographs feature studio backdrops, a few appear to be candid shots: groups of women gathered around a supper table and on the shore of a lake; a single woman standing in a garden; a group of girls in a schoolyard, posed with a tennis ball and racquet. The one printed reproduction included in the album depicts a well-dressed woman reading aloud to a young boy, surrounded by the comforts of a Victorian parlor. The importance of education was reflected in nineteenth-century studio portraiture through the conspicuous display of books and letters, but the appeal of this album lies, in large part, in the genuine pleasure that many of the subjects appear to take in their reading. Among the most charming is a seated pair of young women, arms affectionately draped over each other's shoulders, with an open book across their laps. A delightful collection, celebrating the importance of reading in the nineteenth century. Photograph album, measuring 8.25 x 11.25 inches: 16. Original patterned velvet boards, celluloid cover with chromolithographed village scene within floral borders, all edges gilt, brass clasp to foreedge. Fifty-three cabinet cards and one printed reproduction, most measuring about 6 x 4 inches, inserted loosely into gilt-patterned frame mounts, two larger images laid in. Several images hand-captioned. Extremities rubbed with minor loss to celluloid, a few loose leaves, occasional light surface wear to photographs. Mr. Finch’s Pet Shop
First edition of this whimsical picture book by award-winning British illustrator Violet Hilda Drummond. The narrative follows twin Siamese kittens who are joyfully reunited after pet shop owner Mr. Finch reluctantly sells only one kitten as a birthday gift for the King. "Ah! These two sisters should never be parted!" This is London printer W.S. Cowell's file copy, "not to be taken away," with a note identifying the book as one of the titles chosen by the National Book League for inclusion in the 1954 exhibition of British book design. A fine example of a delightful book. Single volume, measuring 9.75 x 7.25 inches: 32. Original color pictorial paper boards, original unclipped color pictorial dust jacket. Color illustrations and black-and-white line drawings throughout text. Printed "File Copy" label of printer W.S. Cowell to front pastedown, with ink note: "Book Design Exhibition 1954.". An Anatomie of the World, Wherein by Occasion of the Untimely Death of Mistris Elizabeth Drury the Frailtie and the Decay of This Whole World Is Represented
Modern fine press edition of John Donne's 1611 elegy for Elizabeth Drury, the young daughter of his patron Robert Drury, number 27 of 170 copies printed by James and Beatrice Masters at the High House Press. Commonly known as the First Anniversary, Donne's poem uses the idealized figure of the dead girl to symbolize all that was lost in the fall: "She that did thus much, & much more could doe, / But that our age was Iron, and rusty too, / Shee, shee is dead; shee's dead; when thou knowest this, / Thou knowest how drie a Cinder this world is." The High House Press, founded by Dorset schoolmaster James Masters in 1924, specialized in small handpress editions of classic and contemporary poetry. A near-fine copy. Tall octavo, measuring 10.5 x 7.5 inches: [4], [7], 8-32, [4]. Original red and brown marbled boards, brown cloth spine with printed pastedown label, text uncut. Title page printed in red and black, red and blue decorated initials and headpieces throughout text. Numbered in ink at colophon. Light toning to endpapers, ghost of removed bookplate to upper pastedown, paper spine label chipped. Parsifal. With: two Wagnerian calendars illustrated by Pogány (London and Paris: Liberty & Co., 1914 and 1916)
First edition of Hungarian illustrator Willy Pogány's second treatment of Richard Wagner's 1882 opera Parsifal, issued by Viennese art book publisher M. Munk, featuring different plates than Pogány's initial attempt at the subject in 1912. The story of the Arthurian knight Parsifal's quest for the Holy Grail was one of three Wagnerian operas illustrated by Pogány before the Great War, along with Tannhäuser and Lohengrin. Those editions featured Pogány's carefully integrated images, decorations, and lettering, "designed and illustrated from head to toe, each page a visual construct" (Menges, Willy Pogány Rediscovered). Unlike the London Parsifal of 1912, which recounted the opera's plot in detail, this Viennese version foregrounds Wagner's musical score and libretto text, with interpretive verse by Richard Specht. The reimagined and strikingly beautiful color lithographed plates reflect the improved four-color separation printing process, a technological innovation that visually defined the "Golden Age" of illustration. The popularity of Pogány's Wagnerian imagery inspired a series of small-scale, affordably priced calendars featuring reproductions of the plates. English-language examples of the Tannhäuser calendar and the Parsifal calendar are included here, as companions to this 1920 Parsifal, with text in German. A compelling group of modern high spots of Wagnerian illustration. Three volumes: 1.) Parsifal, measuring 12 x 9.75 inches: [48]. Original color pictorial wrappers. Color pictorial title page, 12 color plates, 22 pages with color pictorial borders surrounding calligraphic text and musical notation, 12 pages of verse within decorative borders. Short scuff to upper wrapper, lower spine chipped. 2.) Tannhäuser Calendar for 1914, measuring 8.25 x 6 inches: [20]. Original color pictorial wrappers, 8 color plates. Disbound. 3.) Parsifal Calendar for 1916, measuring 8.25 x 6 inches: [20]. Original wrappers with color pictorial pastedown, 5 color plates in text. Disbound. All volumes laid into matching marbled chemises, and housed together in a custom clamshell box. The Long-Winded Lady. Notes from The New Yorker
First edition of Maeve Brennan's collected "Talk of the Town" pieces, originally published in The New Yorker in the 1950s and 1960s. Often credited as the inspiration for Truman Capote's Holly Golightly, Brennan was an observant girl-about-town who covered the midcentury Manhattan of neighborhood cafes, rented rooms, corner bars, and park benches: "Sixth Avenue possesses a quality that some people acquire, sometimes quite suddenly, which dooms it and them to be loved only at the moment when they are being looked at for the very last time." Brought back into print in the 1990s, after Brennan's death, these evanescent pieces describe everyday New Yorkers to pointed, comic, quietly devastating effect: "When she looks about her, it is not the strange or exotic ways of people that interest her, but the ordinary ways." A near-fine copy of a surprisingly scarce first edition. Single volume, measuring 8.25 x 5.5 inches: 237, [1]. Original monogrammed gold paper boards, black spine lettered in gilt, gold endpapers, original unclipped color pictorial dust jacket designed by Lydia Rosier. Jacket design repeated as frontispiece. Several stray marks to dust jacket, spine panel toned. Der Spatz im Zirkus “Potztausend alle Welt”
First edition of this stunning circus-themed picture book, featuring a sparrow who flutters in and finally out of the spectacular world of the big top: "Du bist frei." The vibrant linocuts are the work of Swiss artist Claude Schaub-Filliol, noted for her work in ceramics and sculpture as well as graphic design. Text in German. A near-fine copy. Single volume, measuring 8.5 x 8.5 inches: [28]. Original ivory cloth spine, color pictorial paper boards. Text and illustrations printed on board, featuring nineteen full-page color linocuts, including three folding triptychs. Publisher's information ("Ein Farbiges Heuwinkel Bilderbuch, im Pharos-Verlag") on printed label affixed to final blank. Light soiling to edge of upper board. John Brown’s Raid. A Picture History of the Attack on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia
First edition of this richly illustrated account of abolitionist John Brown's 1859 raid on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry, part of Scholastic's Firebird Books series, which centered the experience of Native Americans, African-Americans, immigrants, and others whose stories were often sidelined (or omitted altogether) in American history textbooks. Although Harper's Ferry is the climax of the narrative, Lorenz Graham places Brown's crusade to end slavery in the context of the Missouri Compromise, the Fugitive Slave Law, Bleeding Kansas, and the rise of the larger abolitionist movement, including portraits of all twenty-one members of Brown's "army" and documenting Brown's last words on his walk to the gallows. The book concludes with the image of a crudely printed ballad sheet carried by Union troops during the Civil War, less than two years after Brown was hanged: "John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave, / His soul's marching on!" A compelling visual history for young readers, in fine condition. Single volume, measuring 7.5 x 9 inches: [6], 7-80. Original stiff color pictorial wrappers, black and white illustrations throughout text. Scientists & Inventors. National Afro-American History Kit
First edition of this children's activity book celebrating African-American scientists and inventors, a supplement to the National Afro-American History Kit series of educational guides edited by J. Rupert Picott, who worked for years to establish Black History Month as a national observance. In 1979, Pamela Brown of Shoouple Enterprises received a federal grant to produce this activity book, based on Picott's History Kit series. Combining the words "soul" and "hope," Shoouple distributed its coloring books in schools; they were included with February meal purchases at McDonald's restaurants as well. The book highlights twelve African-American scientists and inventors: Elijah McCoy, Lewis Latimer, Garrett Morgan, Jan Matzeliger, Frederick McKinley Jones, Norbert Rillieux, Granville T. Woods, Charles Richard Drew, Ernest Just, Percy Lavon Julian, Lewis Temple, and George Washington Carver. Readers are encouraged to cut, color, and paste the portraits of these pioneers beside descriptions of their innovations, from the preservation of blood plasma to the induction telegraph system to the incandescent light bulb. OCLC locates one copy, at Howard University. A fine copy, never cut or colored. Side-stapled volume, measuring 11 x 8.25 inches: [2], 3-18, [2], including wrappers. Original black and white pictorial wrappers, black and white illustrations throughout text. Promenades sur les Bords du Rhin: Mémoires d’Ecoliers en Vacances
First edition of this popular volume of nineteenth-century travel literature, in a publisher's binding featuring arsenical green pigment. Part of publisher Barbou Frères' juvenile series Bibliothèque Chrétienne et Morale, the narrative follows schoolchildren on an educational tour of the Rhine valley. The lithographed frontispiece depicts a view of Pfalz, with a second plate featuring Koblenz (spelled Coblentz.) While different issues of this title have different plate counts, there is no sign of loss or removal in this copy. Provenance: Morris-Levin Collection of Publishers' Bookbindings. Not listed in the Arsenical Books Database compiled by The Poison Book Project, the interdisciplinary research initiative at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and the University of Delaware. An unusually bright copy in a decorative binding containing toxic green pigment. Single volume, measuring 10.5 x 7.25 inches: [7], 8-154. Original deep plum pictorial cloth gilt, Rhine landscape vignette stamped in gilt to upper board; arabesque frames containing decorative elements overstamped in colors, including arsenic green; spine repeating gilt title, decoration, and stamping; lower board with central gilt arabesque frame overstamped in red; yellow coated endpapers; all edges trimmed and gilt. Lithographic frontispiece with tissue guard, one full-page lithographic plate. Spine lightly sunned, lightest edgewear; occasional spot of foxing. Girls in Service Paint Book
Scarce WWII-era coloring book, depicting little girls performing women's roles in the war effort. The title page announces three primary divisions of military labor: the traditional field of nursing, alongside the newly established branches WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, part of the United States Naval Reserve) and WAC (Women's Army Corps). The nurses assist surgeons, staff wards and hospital ships, and travel around the world to establish new medical facilities. The WAVEs monitor weather instruments, work as radio operators, and deliver messages by boat and seaplane. The WACs conduct drills, work as dispatch riders, and operate cameras and switchboards at the front. A disorienting combination of wide-eyed cuteness and wartime reportage, the images to be colored include the WACs driving a convoy of trucks past the smoking wreckage of a tank, and the nurses setting up a hospital "well hidden in the jungle" of the Pacific theater. A near-fine copy of a scarce book, complete and uncolored. Side-stapled die-cut coloring book, measuring 15 x 11 inches: [48]. Original stiff color pictorial wrappers; title page printed in red and black; illustrations on every page. Light shelfwear, with partial splits to head and foot of wrappers at stapled spine; text block toned, with short closed tear to fore-edge (not touching illustrations). Le Printemps. Une Frise á Colorier
First edition of this illustrated panorama of springtime, designed to be colored in watercolor or gouache. Featured images include a gardener pruning a tree, statues surrounded by spring blossoms, a farmer shearing a lamb, and laborers planting gardens and fields. Belvès was a career illustrator with Père Castor, the author of multiple books on art education, and a founder of Ateliers du Carrousel at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, which runs public arts workshops for students of all ages to this day. Text in French. A near-fine copy, never colored. Single sheet, measuring 9.5 x 8.25 inches folded, unfolding to 9.5 x 33 inches. Pictorial panels printed in black on recto and in midnight blue on verso. Occasional stray smudge, light rubbing to folds. Kay Thompson’s Miss Pooky Peckinpaugh and Her Secret Private Boyfriends Complete with Telephone Numbers
First edition of Kay Thompson's satirical account of a New York teenager's dating life, arranged alphabetically in Pooky Peckinpaugh's "secret private boyfriends book." A dreamier, less tyrannical presence than Thompson's famous Eloise, Pooky spends most of her entries venting her frustration with the unobtainable boys she meets, only to end each page with a plaintive call: "Oh GOOD GAG GIG You're GORGEOUS;" "Oh NEDDY NOD to me or I'll NEVER notice you again;" "Oh Willy YOU worm. . . What's with the WEEKEND? WHERE? WHEN?" A very good copy of a comic period piece, from the days when a telephone book was a genre of its own. Single volume, measuring 11 x 7.5 inches: [30]. Original pictorial boards stamped in black, original clipped pictorial dust jacket. Minor discoloration to boards; offsetting to endpapers; edgewear and faint tidemark to dust jacket, with a few tape repairs to verso. Laura
First edition of Vera Caspary's romantic psychothriller, an international bestseller that inspired the blockbuster 1944 film starring Gene Tierney. Caspary's legacy of strong, independent female characters was most realized in the fiercely self-possessed Laura, an advertising executive who is alternately considered a murderer and victim: "I picked up a cigarette. He hurried to light it. / 'Don't do that,' I said. / 'Why not?' / 'You can't call me a murderer and light my cigarette.'" Caspary was herself a formidable woman, who started her prolific writing career early. Her dust jacket biography is as entertaining as the novel itself: "Vera Caspary has been around. . . . A genius in selling things by mail, she has distributed in this way cold cream, milking machines, dancing, singing, one-pipe furnaces, rat virus, Zane Grey, Sax Rohmer, heredity, and sex." Recognized as a major contribution to the suspense genre, Laura was listed as a Haycraft-Queen cornerstone for 1943, the definitive collectors' list of landmark works in detective, crime, and mystery fiction. A bright copy of a scarce book, in original dust jacket. Single volume, measuring 8 x 5.5 inches: [6], 237, [1]. Original blue cloth stamped in red, original unclipped color pictorial dust jacket designed by Bip Pares. Offsetting to endpapers, top edge spotted, jacket professionally restored. The Little Sister
First American edition, published three months after the British, of the fifth title in the Philip Marlowe detective series, signed by Raymond Chandler. The Little Sister follows the private eye to Hollywood, where Marlowe investigates a scandal involving a starlet, her gangster beau, and her missing brother. Chandler's disdain for the film business, informed by his own experiences as a screenwriter, is evident: "Real cities have something else, some individual bony structure under the muck. Los Angeles has Hollywood -- and hates it. It ought to consider itself damn lucky. Without Hollywood it would be a mail order city. Everything in the catalogue you could get better somewhere else." The Little Sister inspired the 1969 semi-noir film Marlowe, starring James Garner, who would go on to portray the equally sardonic detective Jim Rockford in the 1970s NBC television series The Rockford Files. Bruccoli A8.2.a. A scarce signed copy, in the original dust jacket designed by Boris Artzybasheff. Single volume, measuring 8 x 5.5 inches: [6], 249, [1]. Original orange-red cloth stamped in blue, original unclipped color pictorial dust jacket. Signed "Raymond Chandler" in ink on front free endpaper. Bookseller ticket to rear free endpaper. Light rubbing to dust jacket, spine panel with slight loss at ends and two short clean tears, one repaired. Too Many Cooks: A Nero Wolfe Mystery
First edition of Rex Stout's fifth Nero Wolfe mystery, in the uncommon dust jacket, with a scarce contemporary inscription. Too Many Cooks finds the orchid-loving, gourmand detective at a meeting of Les Quinze Maîtres, the fifteen greatest world's chefs, as their guest of honor. Wolfe is reluctantly pulled into service when one of the chefs is murdered during a taste-test challenge, and is ultimately satisfied not so much by solving the case as by having obtained a coveted secret recipe for Saucisse Minuit. Too Many Cooks was serialized in The American Magazine before publication, and promoted with a national tour that sent Stout and a cast of actors across the country in a dedicated Pullman car. Each stop featured reenactments of the novel's scenes and special press luncheons that served dishes from the recipes included in the novel's appendix: "dishes as hearty and robust as the crimes which he undertakes to solve," including Terrapin Stewed in Butter, Avocado Todhunter, and Shad Roe Mousse Pocahontas. A scarce signed copy of a high spot of modern detective fiction. Single volume, measuring 7.5 x 5 inches: [5], 303. Original red cloth stamped in black, top edge stained black, original unclipped color pictorial dust jacket, priced at $2.00. Recipe appendix printed on blue paper. Inscribed and signed by Stout: "Nov. 22 - 1940 - To Kip with love - Rex." Ink ownership stamp to endpaper above inscription. One-inch stain to fore-edge, expert restoration to jacket. This Gun for Hire
First edition of Graham Greene's thriller about a double-crossed assassin seeking revenge, published one month before the English edition titled "A Gun for Sale." The inspiration for the 1942 film noir classic starring Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd, Greene's seventh novel follows the conflicting interests of a hired gun, the private eye on his trail, and the detective's fiancée, who gets drawn into the chase. The dust jacket's promise, "A Novel of Terror and Devotion," reflects the flashes of humanity that illuminate Greene's hardened characters: "They were a little quietened because each had known a man who was suddenly dead; but the knowledge they shared gave them a sense of companionship which was oddly sweet and reassuring. It was like feeling safe, like feeling in love without the passion, the uncertainty, the pain." Barzun & Taylor 1574. A sharp, near-fine copy of a crime fiction classic. Single volume, measuring 7.25 x 5 inches: [8], 293, [3]. Original tan cloth, stamped in green on spine, original unclipped color pictorial dust jacket with price of $2.00 to front flap. Bookplate to front free endpaper. Light sunning to jacket, expert restoration to spine panel and folds. A Concise Introduction to the Knowledge of the Most Eminent Painters
First edition of this ambitious eighteenth-century traveler's guide, an alphabetical table of over two thousand European painters, giving the dates, birthplaces, favorite subjects, and influences of each, from Andrea Abate (a Neapolitan painter of fruit) to Lambert Zustrus (a disciple of Titian). The guide is intended "to instruct (as well as to assist the Memory of) those Gentlemen and Connoisseurs, who either travel Abroad for the Improvement of their Taste, or intend to view the curious Collections in their Kingdoms." A very good artifact of the glory days of the Grand Tour. Octavo in fours, measuring 8 x 5.25 inches: [124]. Nineteenth-century calf spine, marbled paper boards, raised bands, spine compartments ruled in gilt, grey morocco spine label lettered in gilt. One page of publisher's advertisements at rear. Light occasional foxing, heavier to final signatures; lightest shelfwear to binding. The Canterville Ghost
Illustrated edition of Oscar Wilde's 1887 ghost story, the first of his stories to be published. In this comic tale, a historic English country house ghost is demoralized by the arrival of an unspookable American family: "on one occasion, while dressed for the part of 'Black Isaac, or the Huntsman of Hogley Woods,' he met with a severe fall, through treading on a butter-slide, which the twins had constructed from the entrance of the Tapestry Chamber to the top of the oak staircase." In the end, through the intercession of the family's brave young daughter, the exhausted ghost is finally laid to rest. In 1990, illustrator Lisbeth Zwerger won the Hans Christian Andersen medal in recognition of her "lasting contribution to children's literature." A near-fine copy. Single volume, measuring 11.5 x 8.25 inches: [36]. Original glossy color pictorial boards, black linen spine, pale green coated endpapers, original unclipped color pictorial dust jacket. Color illustrations throughout text. Light edgewear to jacket, with several short closed tears. Practical Hints on Light and Shade in Painting. Illustrated by Examples from the Italian, Flemish, and Dutch Schools
First edition of this introduction to chiaroscuro by Scottish painter John Burnet, whose popular treatises on art theory and practice would be reprinted on both sides of the Atlantic for nearly a century. This work follows the success of Burnet's 1822 Practical Hints on Composition in Painting. In this second treatise, Burnet takes up the handling of light by painters including Tintoretto, Veronese, Titian, Van Dyck, Rubens, and especially Rembrandt: "The most learned arrangements of light and shade may astonish; but there is a charm in the chiaroscuro of nature which carries irresistable sway." Much of the appeal of Burnet's work lies in his original engravings: the eight plates in this volume represent an ambitious picture gallery of almost forty Old Master paintings, each accompanied by a discussion of the artist's talent and technique. A very good copy. Quarto, measuring 11 x 8.5 inches: vi, [2], 45, [1], [2]. Contemporary drab boards neatly rebacked, spine lettered in gilt, publisher's advertisement mounted to front pastedown. Eight engraved plates throughout text. Publisher's prospectuses for William Light's Series of Views of Pompeii and P.F. Robinson's New Vitruvius Britannicus bound in before half-title; two-page publisher's catalog bound at rear. Closed marginal tear to preliminary blank, occasional foxing. Jeu de la Grande Roue de Paris
Striking table game published on the occasion of the Universal Exposition of 1900, the world's fair held in Paris to celebrate progress in science, industry, and the arts. The game board features the fair's engineering marvel, the Grande Roue de Paris, the largest Ferris wheel ever constructed. Based on the classic "jeu de l'oie," or game of the goose, this game replaces the traditional sixty-three landing squares with spaces corresponding to the forty carriages of the Grande Roue. The spaces depict monuments, including the Louvre and Eiffel Tower; scientific achievements like the train and automobile; scenes of sports and amusements; and fates to avoid: death, prison, the dentist's chair! Five additional spaces are located outside the wheel, for a total of 45 landing squares. Printer Simonin Cuny specialized in children's games, puzzles, and toys, often drawing inspiration from current events. In 1904, the firm joined four other printers of amusements to form Les Jeux et Jouets Français. A delightful souvenir of the newly constructed Grande Roue de Paris, whose height would not be surpassed for almost a century, in near-fine condition. Game board, measuring 14 x 10.75 inches. Chromolithographed sheet heightened in gold, divided in half vertically, mounted to two red boards joined by a cloth spine, folding to 10.75 x 7 inches. Rules of play printed at base of image, publisher's imprint lower right. Trivial offsetting from glue at center fold, occasional stray mark, trace of old label to upper righthand corner.
The Cloud Eye
First trade edition of this early livre d'artiste by Italian artist Fausta Squatriti, offered at the Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with her 1969 exhibition at New York's Kozmopolitan Gallery. Squatriti's abstract candy-colored lithographs are teamed with an account of her work by critic Gillo Dorfles, printed in both English and Italian, titled "Fausta Squatriti's 'Disquieting Objects.'" Dorfles argues that Squatriti's vibrantly colored, futuristic sculptures represent the "equivocal nature half-way between the biological and the mechanical," "the furnishings terrestrial astronauts have discovered in the dwellings of a remote galaxy." He concludes that Squatriti's pop art represents "the revenge of her femininity . . . the distortion and mockery of the rigour of constructivism." Both the signed limited edition of fifty copies and this trade edition, printed in an unknown limitation, are scarce on the market. A very good example of an uncommon livre d'artiste. Oblong volume, measuring 4 x 7.75 inches: [20]. Original navy cardboard covers bound with two aluminum rings. Leaves printed rectos only. Fifteen color lithographs, four pages of text. Scattered foxing, light fading and a few faint spots to covers.
