Books about Books

London, England: Eugrammia Press, 1965. cloth, paper wrappers, both volumes enclosed in a slipcase. Fournier, Pierre Simon. oblong 4to. cloth, paper wrappers, both volumes enclosed in a slipcase. Facsimile of the 1742 manual accompanied by the 20 page introduction. 2 volumes. Printed in an edition limited to 600 copies. Loosely inserted in this copy is the 12 page publisher's catalogue describing this book and others they published. One joint split about one inch from opening of slipcase. Minor wear to slipcase. Else a pristine copy of this scarce facsimile. Reproduced from the copy in the Printing Library of the St. Bride Institute. Thirty-three plates depict samples of the types cut by Fournier c. 1742, which then appeared in his Manuel Typographique. Introduction by Mosley, renowned typography professor and then librarian at the St. Bride Printing Library. Printed in collotype by Louis van Leer & Co. of Amsterdam on rag cream paper. A consummate artist and craftsman, Fournier (1712 - 1768)… Read More

New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Books, 1990. cloth-backed boards covered with patterned paper, in facsimile of an original Remondini pattern specially executed by Henry Morris, leather spine label. Bird & Bull Press. 8vo. cloth-backed boards covered with patterned paper, in facsimile of an original Remondini pattern specially executed by Henry Morris, leather spine label. 55, (5) pages. A first edition limited to 215 numbered copies. A fine copy with prospectus loosely inserted. Remondini and Rizzi is set in Perpetua and printed by letterpress on Johannot mouldmade paper by Henry Morris at the Bird & Bull Press (Berger B36). Italian block-printed papers were the start of the collection of decorated papers that Tanya Schmoller and her husband Hans gathered together for over twenty years. The use of woodblocks to transfer designs to cloth and paper can be traced back in Europe to the fourteenth century. In the region of what is now Italy there were several firms supplying these colorful papers, the most… Read More

Chicago: Caxton Club. Very Good. 1929. First Edition. Hardcover. Limited edition of 250 (1st. Ed). (xx) + 81pp. Illustrated with small margin drawings, and 30 pages of color & b/w plates plus 3 pages of Payne's Handwriting. Printed for Caxton Club on English handmade paper. Clean red cloth decorated with a gilt border and title on spine. Top edge gilt with deckle edges. Text is tight, clean & intact. Additional illustration, a frontispiece of Payne's shop. Top margin of rear endpaper has a narrow damp stain. All Tissue guards are present, a few are laid in. Spine is slightly color faded from the sun. Books on Books, Bookbinding. ; Color & B/W Illustrations; Folio 13" - 23" tall; 79 pages .

Cairo: Paul Barbey, 1936 Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. ESTERN (ARABIC, TURKISH, PERSIAN) AND EUROPEAN SECTIONS, 181 , 267 PP, FRONT COVER STAINED. INSIDE V G. ABOUT BOOKS PRESERVED IN THE EGYPTIAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, IBRAHIM HILMI PASHA'S SECTION..

Newtown, PA: Bird & Bull Press, 1996. cloth, cloth spine label. Bird & Bull Press. 8vo. cloth, cloth spine label. medals portfolio, slipcase. Descriptions by William Blades. Introduction by Henry Morris. Limited to only 120 numbered copies (Berger A58). Printed from Dante types composed by Dan Carr and Julia Ferrari at Golgonooza Letter Foundry. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch printing guilds, which included booksellers, bookbinders, publishers and artists, issued medals to their journeyman members, with the name or number of the member engraved thereon. The medal identified the holder as a qualified guild member, a sort of "union card." All "one-of-a-kind," they are highly prized and extremely difficult to find today. Few Americans have ever seen one. Henry Morris was able to identify the formerly anonymous "No.17" on one of the medals, thus adding considerable interest to what is already a fascinating subject. Due to the high cost of silver and casting, only 120 copies of this book… Read More

First edition, four volumes, 1909-1920, Washington. Overall very good condition in original bindings. Notable for the complete absence of library or ownership markings. The only marking I can find is an old pencil note on the front blank of volume 3. Includes bound in errata slips and a promotional leaf for the series laid in. The boards have some dings to the corners. Volume 3 has the most condition issues: shows the most outer wear with some stains on the edges and wear on spine and boards (see scans). Bindings are all sound, which I expect can be an issue with this heavy set. A quite decent usable set. Please see scans of the books you will receive.

330 pages, 165 tissue-protected illustrations, coated paper. The covering of the spine is partially detached, and there is some rubbing and bumping. The binding is tight, and all pages are intact and clean. Bears the bookplate of Kenneth M. Setton of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, and Vernon Watney (presumably Vernon James Watney of the famous brewery, and thus probably from his library at Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire).John Willis Clark (1833-1910), eminent Cambridge academic and polymath, wrote a groundbreaking study of the physical and technical characteristics of libraries from ancient times to about 1800, including the storage, care, protection, classification, regulation, retrieval, and provisions for the use of books, scrolls, documents, etc. The subject was, as he says in the preface, "entirely new" at the time.

J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1871. Book. Good+. Three-Quarter Leather. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. Three three-quarter-leather hardcovers with gilt lettering and decorations to spines; 5 raised bands each; marbled boards and endpapers; outer edges of text block are marbled as well; slight foxing to pages just off the marbled endpapers; 1871 on title pages; 1870 on copyright pages of volumes I and II, 1871 on volume III; over 1000 pages each with total of 3140. Good plus condition: leather is mildly worn with a little loss; marbled boards are clean and bright with loss of paper to bottom edges of boards; all are straight and tight, clean and unmarked; no tears. Will require extra for shipping. Not available for international shipping..

The Writings in Prose and Verse of Eugene Field. First edition. xiii+253 pp.+2 pl. h.t. 19,5x13,5 cm. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1896.
--- Cloth-bound (publishers cloth), with gilt lettering and decoration. Some wear to extremities. Top edges gilt. Fore-edge and bottom-edge untrimmed. Some numbers written and a stamp on endpapers. Very tight binding. Pages bright and clean.

Potts Point NSW: Hordern House, 2004. First Edition. Fine/Fine. [11.25x8.5in]; xi [introduction], 690 pp.,732 articles with 4000 names of persons and ships, index of persons, index of ships; Gray green cloth covers with gilt lettering on front and spine, all edges trimmed, three gold page mark ribbons, light gray illustration of explorers looking at map on a promontory overlooking land on front and back end papers; Pictorial color illustration on dust jacket of Gill painting of Australian "Desert Interior" circa 1846 [also on end papers], black lettering on front and spine; Publisher prospectus tipped in. Raymond Howgego (1946- ) is an independent researcher, scholar and traveler. He has been researching the history of travel and exploration for much of his adult life. His first book in this series, Encyclopedia of Exploration To 1800, was issued in 2003 was the distillation of that research that took some fifteen years to complete. This book is the second in the series and cites more than 10,000… Read More

Limited Edition #33 out of 100 copies printed.This privately printed Classic book's exterior has worn areas along the top and bottom edges on its four corners and along and on the spine, however, the front and rear covers themselves are in a very well preserved condition. The book's interior has some mold spotting but otherwise, no visible extraneous markings and thus based on its age is very well preserved.This book will be carefully wrapped up and then boxed and shipped promptly to you from here in New Jersey and comes with our utmost appreciation for your order.

8vo., [8], xiv, 618, 64, plus indexes, [4] pages.Full leather binding with five raised bands and gilt title. Inner gilt dentelles with marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Leather to joints, leading edges of boards, and corners rubbed with marginal loss on corners. Corners bumped. Minor scratching and indents to boards without loss. Light foxing for first +/-30 pages and sporadically to a few subsequent pages. Heavy foxing to rear end-paper and final page of indexes. Otherwise text very clean. Very good condition except for defects reported.
Three plates present of the four for regular copies listed by Windle & Pippin "seldom all present in regular or large-paper copies" (Thomas Frognall Dibdin 1776-1847 A Bibliography, New Castle, Oak Knoll Press, 1999, p.42) – missing the frontispiece portrait of Dibdin. The cuts at pp. 250, 254, and 484 are on india paper which Windle & Pippin note are "sometimes found" in copies (ibid. p,43).
One of 500 copies printed.
Windle & Pippin A11d.
As a heavy and high… Read More

Privately Printed: [London], n.d. [1949]. First Editions. Hardcover. Small Octavo, 58, 38, 38, 32, 30, 24, 32 pages; VG; rebound in full blue leather, gilt lettering to spine; marbled endpapers; with seperate title and half-title for each part; lacking wraps; NOTE: Shelved in Room G. 1308156. Special Collections.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1920. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. Octavo, 347 pages; VG-/VG; Faded yellow spine with red lettering; Dustjacket has fading and single crease along spine, and minor soiling to front cover; Some edgewear to head/tail of spine, shelfwear to printed labels on cover and spine, and cornerwear to top corners; Textblock has minimal foxing to deckled bottom and fore-edge; Several pages remain uncut; CX consignment; Shelved in Room G. 1346217. Special Collections.

Chicago: Rand McNally & Co, 1911. First Edition. First edition of this surprisingly scarce Rand McNally publisher's catalogue with a focus on illustrated children's books and classic literature. With colour plates by Lucy Fitch Perkins for 'The Enchanted Peacock' by Julia Brown, Grace Chandler Horn for 'Hiawatha' by Henry W. Longfellow, Hope Dunlap for 'The Rose Fairies' by Olivia McCabe, Magniel Wright Enright for 'The Garden of Hearts Delight' by Ida Huntingdon, Katherine Merrill for 'Edda and the Oak' by Elia Peattie, Fanny E. Cory for 'Jackieboy in Rainbowland' by William M. Hill, and Ruth Hallock for 'Other Rhymes for Little Readers' by Wilhelmina Seegmilla. No copies in Worldcat. Octavo, bound in printed paper wrappers, 85 pages [+3], 7 full page colour plates, numerous black and white photographic illustrations and line drawings throughout, a couple of minor closed tears at fore-edges, mild bumping to corners, with original promotional slip laid in, a very good copy indeed.