Miniature Book - made from a seashell

Early Souvenir of Santa Cruz, California.
Santa Cruz, CA: Field & Cole Curio Company, n.d. [c. early 1900s].

This souvenir from Santa Cruz is an actual sea shell whose lids are bound with string that allows it to be readily opened and closed. Inside is a miniature accordion book published by the famed local Field & Cole Curio Company that opens to reveal multiple pages of b&w photos of Santa Cruz scenery and landmarks. The shell is in very good condition. The foldout book is in two pieces but complete. It measures .5 x 1 inches. The shell is about 2 x 2.25 inches. A somewhat remarkable little object that survived despite its fragility. Very Good. (#35512)

Price: $75 

Homage to Emily Dickinson

[Abstract Orange]
Dickinson, Emily, Lauren Emeritz, book artist.
Hope.
DC: Abstract Orange Press, 2021.

Number 4 of 10 copies of this inventive work by Lauren Emeritz in honor of Emily Dickinson. The artist's statement: "This book was based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson and released on her birthday, December 10th. The book started as visual interpretation of the words 'Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul' with a thing of feathers perched in a box. The simple construction mimics that of a case-bound book, with a spine and fore-edge but it is actually a box. The box is made of basswood and the spine is white birch wood veneer. A gentle wire clasp holds the book shut, but not locked shut. Inside the box is 'the thing' with feathers. The 'thing' is not a bird with a beak and feet, but a grouping of brightly colored orange feathers. They do not represent a specific bird, but rather a fictional idea of a thing with feathers. The feathers are made from cut paper that is scored to looks like feathers and held together by a simple wire. The cover is a bright, glowing yellow with the title in orange letterpress printed type, and a wooden 'inlay' with the author's name. This represents that the while the poem is by her and she was the inspiration for the piece, the piece is not just about her, but the idea of hope [artist's statement]." In fine condition. Measures 5.25 x 7.25 x 1 inches.  (#35501)

Price: $450

A Forest in Papercuts

Coron, Béatrice (book artist); Jean Moreas (poem).
La Feuille des Forêts.
New York: Béatrice Coron, 2012.

Number 4 of 6 copies. Coron describes her book work: "For the last 20 years, I have been exploring visual storytelling in artist books, paper cutting and public art. Collecting memories from individuals and communities, I stage narrative allegories in silhouette to create a dialogue with the viewer in playful fantasies. These visual chronicles record archetypal stories that transcend time and space. I have been fascinated by the relation of people to their space and the sense of belonging. Using papercutting where everything is cut from a single piece of Tyvek, the profusion of individual stories makes a coherent whole world." [From her website].

This work is inspired by a poem by Jean Moreas. Moréas (1856 – 1910)) was a Greek poet, essayist, and art critic who wrote mostly in the French language. The forest leaves of the poem are depicted in twelve hand-cut pages cut from six folded sheets of multi-colored paper that together create a forest. A deer and wolf appear as well. The paper cuts are held in a grey paper folder with the title label on the front cover. In fine condition. Size: 8.5 x 6 inches.  (#35271)

Price: $460 

A Poem on Identity - illustrated with papercuts

Coron, Béatrice, book artist; Mick Stern, poem.
Peeling an Onion Can Make You Cry.
New York: Béatrice Coron, 2013.

Number 6 of 6 copies. This is an inventive book that renowned book artist Béatrice Coron did with her frequent collaborator, the poet Mick Stern. In his poem, Stern asked an onion, "Who am I?" The onion replies by instructing the seeker to look inside of the inside; peel away name and address; peel off family, country, religion; remove language, gender, and race; teling the seeker that he is left as a tear that dried on his mother's cheek as she chopped an onion. Coron's illustrates the poem by cutting an onion shape on each page that gets smaller as the pages are turned. The shape on the last page is the mother's tear.

Coron describes her book work: "For the last 20 years, I have been exploring visual storytelling in artist books, paper cutting and public art. Collecting memories from individuals and communities, I stage narrative allegories in silhouette to create a dialogue with the viewer in playful fantasies. These visual chronicles record archetypal stories that transcend time and space. I have been fascinated by the relation of people to their space and the sense of belonging. Using papercutting where everything is cut from a single piece of Tyvek, the profusion of individual stories makes a coherent whole world." [From her website]. Hand-cut on textured white Fabriano paper. Housed in a yellow paper sleeve with a cut-out revealing the onion shapes of the book's pages. In fine condition. Size: 6 x 7 inches. Unpaginated [13 pages printed on verso only]. (#35280)

Price: $640

A Vacation in Cuba

Dana, Richard Henry Jr.
To Cuba and Back. A Vacation Voyage.
Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1859.

First edition of this interesting narrative by Dana of his experiences traveling in Cuba, including his observations on slavery there. Bound in publisher's pebbled green cloth with gilt titling to spine. Wear to edges and bumping to corners. Interior pages show light aging to margins. Previous owners signatures to free endpaper. With April 1959 advertisements. BAL4447. Very good. Small octavo. 288 pages plus 16 pages of ads.  (#35515)

Price: $60

Humanity vs. Oblivion - told through photography

[Deeply Game Press]
Flynn, Nick, poet; Sara Press, photographs, book design, and binding.
Cartoon Physics.
San Francisco: Deeply Game Publications, 2019.

Number 28 of 40 copies signed by the poet and book artist. Sara Press is a photographer, printmaker and book artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area who distributes her works and those of others through Deeply Game Publications. Many of her projects examine peculiar areas of overlap between nature and culture as well as the relationship between creativity and the scientific method. Her work can be found at the Library of Congress,the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and many university special collections.

At the core of this beautiful and thought provoking book "are two photographic series, interwoven. On the white pages, images of modern childhood in all its fragility, awkwardness, & ambiguity conjure loveliness with all its potential for heartbreak. Layered with these are cameraless images of light itself, which has crept through a stack of sensitized paper. Transcending scale, they might be wildfires, supernovae, or solar flares. Dispassionate foils to our human conceits, the timeless principals of physics contrast with the flickers of human joy and sorrow. Nevertheless, the human scale holds its own in this balance: what we stand to lose is still important, even if only to us....The photographs comprise an inner book, wrapped in a soft cover that can be peeled away to reveal the spine’s stitching (the book’s own vulnerability). Encasing this is a folio featuring Nick Flynn’s poem, “Cartoon Physics, Part 1”, a bittersweet meditation on childhood and scale, obliviousness and oblivion. Cartoon Physics was conceived in the wake of the 2016 election, and created after a subsequent wildfire destroyed thousands of homes in my community." [artist's statement]. The text is letterpress printed on Mohawk Superfine paper. Measures 6.25 x 8 inches. Unpaginated. [48 pages.]  (#35455)

Price: $525

An Intricately Designed Artists' Book on Acquiring Knowledge

[Flying Fish Press]
Chen, Julie.
A Guide to Higher Learning.
Berkeley: Flying Fish Press, 2009.

1 of 100 copies signed and numbered by the book artist. Julie Chen is one of the foremost book artists practicing today. Since she established the Flying Fish Press in 1987 her books have been recognized for their meticulous craftsmanship and their imaginative interweaving of content and structure. Her books emphasize three-dimensional and movable structures and fine press printing. In her artist's statement, Ms. Chen says that her work is heavily rooted in the idea of the book as a physical object and time-based medium.

A Guide to Higher Learning is a particularly complex and inventive work from the press. "It examines the experiential process of acquiring knowledge, on both academic and personal levels. The piece is comprised of 8 sections of rigid square pages that are hinged together in unexpected ways, giving the reader a physical reading experience that mirrors the complex meaning of the content [much of it mathematical formulas and equations]. The book in its fully unfolded form reveals an intricate and fascinating visual pattern of information."[from the Flying Fish website].

The book is housed in a blue cloth covered clamshell box that includes a viewing cloth on which to fully open the book, following the instructions provided. In fine condition. Box size: 11.75 x 11.75 x 3.75 inches; Book size: 11 x 11 x 3 1/8 inches, opening to a full dimension of 31 x 31 inches. Dimension of viewing cloth is 34 x 34 inches. Fine. (#35502)

Price: $2,225.00  

A 25 foot scroll book on a monument in Athens

[Foolscap Press]
(Lawrence G. Van Velzer, printer).
The Tower of the Winds.
Santa Cruz: Foolscap Press, 2002.

Number 94 of 200 copies. This is an unusual and lovely scroll book, which, according to the Press, follows the written record of a wondrous monument standing in Athens. The Tower has been explained by scholars from antiquity to the present, yet the Tower of the Winds was and still is a mystery to those who study it. The work is original to the Foolscap Press both in content and exterior form, and was created as a biblio-artifact, both a book and an object. The book is in a pre-codex form, allowing the reader to scroll through history viewing the subject along a panorama 25 feet in length. In addition to reproducing historic texts, there are illustrations of the Tower by James Stuart and Nicolas Revett, two important early British architects. The work is printed in Adobe Herculanum type on Zerkall Book and hand made papyrus from Egypt. It is housed in a formed sculptural / architectural case. Each case is a rigid cylinder hinged with cloth and lined with a map of ancient Athens. Issued with handling instructions. It is a stunning and inventive work from this press. Scroll is in fine condition. Cylinder case has light spot of soiling but still very good. Fine. (#35511)

Price: $450

Attractively Bound Poetry Collection - with references to Indian landscapes and Sufi symbolism

Hope, Laurence.
Indian Love, Stars of the Desert, The Garden of Kama.
London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1925.

Later edition of this classic, finely bound with Stars of the Desert and The Garden of Kama. These popular volumes of lyric poetry were written by Adele Florence Nicolson using the pseudonym of Laurence Hope. In 1900, Adela Nicolson, who also used the name Violet Nicolson, began to publish her poetry under the pseudonym Laurence Hope. Hope’s formal verse, steeped in the Indian landscape and Sufi symbolism, often assumes the voices of Indian dancers and slaves to engage themes of passionate love and loss. Her first collection, The Garden of Kama (1901), was initially presented as a translation and arrangement, rather than the original poetry it was later revealed to be. In 1904 her husband died during a medical operation; two months later, at the age of 39, she committed suicide with poison [Poetry Foundation].

Beautifully bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in dark red leather with gilt rulings to covers. Spine with gilt decorations and author and title labels to six compartments with raised bands. Some light chipping to spine hinges but very good. All edges gilt. With gilt dentelles and lovely patterned endpapers. Interior pages are also very good, with frontispiece portrait of author. Octavo volume. Indian Love: 92 pages; Stars of the Desert: 152 pages; The Garden of Kama: 174 pages. Very Good. (#35503)

Price: $90 

Joan of Arc

Krause, Dorothy Simpson.
HERetic: Joan of Arc.
Viewpoint Editions, 2009.

Number 35 of 55 copies. Signed and numbered by the artist. Includes exerpts from "Le Ditie de Jehanne d'Arc" by Christine de Pizan, a French poetess. "Written in 1429 when Joan was at the height of her successful campaign, it celebrates her life and achievements. On each facing page, an image is combined with comments on Joan of Arc's brief history. The pages covering her trial for heresy incorporate Joan's own words, taken from the trial document."

Printed by Acme Bookbinding on Mohawk Via Superfine Eggshell 100# paper in German Latin, Uncial, and 10th Century Bookhand typefaces. Fine in paper wrappers with full color photographic illustrations throughout. Housed in a box that was designed to resemble a well-worn library enclosure for a rare book. The box has a cloth tie closure, faux-library stickers, and other appropriate markings. Unpaginated. Fine. (#35520)

Price: $375 

Society & Manners in 18th Century Italy

Moore, John, M.D.
A View of Society and Manners in Italy: With Anecdotes Relating to Some Eminent Characters Two Volumes.
London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1781.

Second edition of this interesting account by the author of his observations and experiences in Italy, told through a series of letters. John Moore (1729 – 1802) was a Scottish physician and travel author. He also edited the works of Tobias Smollett. From 1769 to 1778 he accompanied the Duke of Hamilton on a Grand Tour of Europe. On his return he took up residence in London. This book was written based on his experiences on that tour. Bound by Riviere & Son in full brown leather with gilt decorated rulings to covers and ornate spine decorations and titling labels. Leather is scuffed, stained. rubbed, and bumped. Spines are faded, with title labels missing, and spine piece to Volume Front cover of Volume I is almost detached and rear joint is cracked. Front cover to Volume II is cracked and rear joint is tender. Offsetting to pastedowns and free endpapers. The text has scattered light browning and spotting but the text is quite legible throughout. Ownership signature on title pages and of St. Paul's Working Men's Club Carlisle on ffep. Still a nice copy despite noted flaws. Measures 5 x 8 inches. Volume I: 518 + [11] pages; Volume II: 502 + [8] pages. Good +. (#35323)

Price: $110

Charming Illustrations by Jessie M. King

Morris, William.
The Defence of Guinevere and Other Poems.
London: John Lane and the Bodley Head Ltd.

A lovely edition of William Morris's poems. In addition to the title poem, this romantic collection of 30 works includes King Arthur’s Tomb, Rapunzel, and Old Love. The exquisite black and white illustrations throughout exemplify Jessie M. King’s (1875-1949) imaginative and mysterious style of art. King was one of the foremost artists of the Glasgow school, active at the turn of the century. An anomoly - the illustration facing page 18 is the same as that facing page 22. The illustration listed for page 22 is not present. There is a beautiful King cover illustration in gilt, as well as lovely headpieces, and tailpieces throughout. Binding is bright red with very slight bumping to spine and book corners. Very light foxing to front and rear end papers but interior is bright and clean. Very good plus condition. 310 pages.  (#35508)

Price: $700.00  

Arctic Exploration

Nansen, Fridtjof.
Farthest North: Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship "Fram" 1893-1896 and of a Fifteen Month's Sleigh Journey by Dr. Nansen and Lieut. Johansen with an Appendix by Otto Sverdrup Captain of the Fram Two Volumes.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1897.

First American edition of this stirring narrative of the Arctic exploratory voyage and sleigh trip undertaken by Nansen and his men. This expedition established the nature and drift of the Arctic icepack and reached the highest latitude then attained. With 120 full-page and numerous text illustrations; 16 color plates in facsimile from Dr. Nansen's own sketches; an etched portrait of Nansen, and photogravures. With four very good folding maps in front and back pockets of Volume I. Bound in original gray cloth with color and gilt cover decoration and titling and gilt titling to spine. Heavy volumes have caused fraying to top of spines from being pulled off shelf by top. Slight fraying to bottom of spine also, and cracked hinges to Volume I. Small stain to edge of free front endpaper in Volume I. Rough cut page edges. Bookplate of former owner on front pastedowns. Still a nice copy in very good condition. Small quartos. Volume I: 587 pages; Volume II: 714 pages plus 4 pages of advertisements. Very Good. (#35510)

Price: $165