Avian Abecedarian - with Woodcut Illustrations & Poetry by Contemporary Canadians
Letterpress Printed

[Barbarian Press]
McCaslin, Susan, editor; Edith Krause, woodcuts and introduction.
An Avian Alphabet.
Mission, Canada: Barbarian Press and Sperling Printshop, 2023.

One of 110 copies each accompanied by a handsome original woodcut of a raven, signed and numbered by Edith Krause. This delightful book is a flock of poems on birds by 15 Canadian poets. The book provides a diverting anthology of poems about birds by sixteen contemporary Canadian poets, some of them well established figures, such as Lorna Crozier, Susan McCaslin, Harold Rhenish, and Bill Richardson, and others younger emerging poets. The result is a rich cross-section ranging from the lyrical to the satirical, the humorous to the elegiac. Edith Krause provides an introduction to the project itself; ornithologist Rob Butler, a thoughtful ecological preface; and wildlife biologist Phil Henderson, a short reflection on the relationship between the poems and the birds in the book. Edith’s 26 woodcuts of birds, each representing a letter of the alphabet, provided the core of the project. In addition she created four further woodcuts to accompany the three prefatory essays and an extra poem, and provided a title page block, a selection of woodcut feathers for the endpapers, and a press device.

Book artist and proprietor of the Barbarian Press, Crispin Elsted writes about the book: "Early in 2023 we were approached by woodcut artist Edith Krause and poet Susan McCaslin with a ready-made book project in hand for which they needed a printer. It had been many years since we had printed a book for another publisher, and it was a practice we had not planned to renew – especially since we had a considerable list of our own book projects in various stages of planning or production. However, we were struck at once by Edith’s delightful woodcuts of birds, and it seemed to us that the project deserved to be encouraged. Crispin consulted on the design of the book and Jan and Apollonia [Elsted] devised the imposition of the pages and subsequent details of placement and colour. Jan and Apollonia, Edith and Susan sorted out the logistics of acquiring materials and established the nature of the collaboration, and work began."

The poems and other texts were handset by Apollonia in Joanna roman and italic type and printed on Hannemühle paper, with help from Kirsten Way and Lea Sanchez Milde, while the lion’s share of the presswork, comprising all the poems and the prose elements, was done by Apollonia, Jan printed the preliminary pages and the second colour title lines. We decided that we would make a departure with the blue paper binding of An Avian Alphabet, and imposed the texts and images so that the pages could be French-folded (i.e. with the fold at the foredge), then stabbed (that is, drilled) and laced into the covers with waxed coloured linen cord in an exposed sewing, and housed in a beige cloth covered slipcase with title label to spine. In fine condition. Measures 6 7/8 x 10 inches. Unpaginated [About 70 pages.] Fine. (#36920)

Price: $525

History of Bruce Rogers's Centaur Types

[Book Club of California]
Kelly, Jerry and Misha Beletsky.
The Noblest Roman: A History of the Centaur Types of Bruce Rogers.
San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 2016.

105 of 300 copies, signed by both authors. "In this book we will endeavor to unravel some of the key elements of the story [of Bruce Rogers's Centaur typeface] and set the record straight. Examining the muddled origination of the design, the intellectual property issues involved, and the curious story of the font's recutting for machine composition, we hope to shed new light on the evolution of this seminal typeface" (introduction).

Set in three digital versions of Bruce Rogers's Centaur Type: the text in a recent revival of the original foundry Centaur, rendered by Jerry Kelly, and a new caption Centaur by Toshi Omagari, used in this book for the first time, with monotype Centaur used for display. Design and typography by Jerry Kelly. Printed in black and dark red. Bound in speckled cream paper covered boards with paper title label to spine panel. Bruce Rogers design to front board in brown. Clean and bright. Housed in a brown paper covered slipcase with minor sunning to edges and light rubbing to panels. 120 pages. Fine. (#36844)

Price: $200

Lovely (and Uncommon) Dutch Press Book

Boutens, P.C. [Pieter Cornelis Boutens].
Beatrüs (Beatrijs).
Bussum, Netherlands: C.A.J. van Dishoeck, [1921].

One of 200 copies. Now scarce. This is a lovely small book in Dutch with a poem by well known writer P.C. Boutens. Pieter Cornelis Boutens (1870 – 1943) was a Dutch poet, classicist, and mystic. His debut as a poet was the Utrecht Student Almanac in 1891. His early work was inspired by the verses of Herman Gorter; later sources of inspiration were Plato, Sappho and the Bible. Boutens' style became based on the idea of achieving a "higher reality". In the course of 45 years, he published some 20 volumes of poetry, but also a large number of translations of Ancient Greek (i.a. Iliad and Odyssey), Persian, French, German and English poets.

CAJ van Dishoeck was a Dutch publishing house that was founded in 1889 by the founder of the same name. Cornelis Anthonij Jacobus van Dishoeck (1863 – 1931) was a member of the Van Dishoeck family, which came from Zierikzee and was included in the Dutch Patriciaat .After his education and experiences in bookstores between 1880 and 1888 (including in Leipzig ), he settled in Leiden and started a publishing house there in 1889. In 1898 he moved it to Amsterdam and finally to Bussum in 1903 where he called his villa Zeelandia. In the Netherlands he published work by Johan de Meester , but also the famous Beatrijs by PC Boutens and other works by that poet, such as Alianora.Van Dishoeck's publications were known for their beautiful design. He also attracted artists such as Jan Toorop and Jan van Krimpen. He also chose well-known artists such as Edzard Koning and Willem Vaarzon Morel for the illustrations . Moreover, he often published luxury editions of his publications: on handmade or Japanese paper, bound in full parchment or full leather, often in small, but sometimes unknown editions [Wikipedia Dutch version].

The five striking black and white woodcuts (including title page) were done by Joan Collette (1889 – 1958). He was a Dutch engraver, graphic designer, illustrator, monumental artist, painter, glass painter, wall painter, draughtsman, manufacturer of mosaics and bookbinding designer. Bound in plain white paper wrappers with a dark blue cover with a printer device in red on the front cover. Very light signs of handling. Interior pages are clean and bright. Printed in black letter type with occasional blue Initials. Near fine condition. Measures 5 x 6.5 inches. Unpaginated. [18 pages] (#36912)

Price: $125 

Miniature "Tower Book" by Russian Book Artist
Christmas Poem by Lewis Carroll

Carroll, Lewis; Emil Goozairow, book artist.
Christmas Greetings (From a Fairy to a Child) - Tower Book.
Moscow: Emil Goozairow, 2023.

Emil Goozairow is a Russian artist who paints and draws, produces movies, and creates exceptional miniature handmade books that are printed on rare types of paper and published in limited editions. His techniques create unique designs that often are made with natural materials alone or in combination with relief decorations made from metal, polymeric clay, or 3-D printing. He creates books that he describes as "pop up," “kinetic carousel," “liporello” or “3D origami.” He also writes fairy tales, stories and mystical scenes.

This charming handmade edition of Lewis Carroll's well-known Christmas poem from a fairy to a child. Emil's delightful color illustrations unfold on one side of each of the eight pages that fold out and can be seen together, while the text of the poem appears on the other. The book's covers have a striking three dimensional gilt and green polymer structure of a dazzling Christmas tree seemingly on a pedestal. When closed the book fastens with a brown cord that attaches to a hook on one of the covers. A delightful Christmas memento from this inventive book artist. In fine condition. Measures about 2.5 x 2.5 inches when closed. The Christmas tree structure is about 3.25 inches tall. (#36928)

Price: $325 

Miniature Book by Russian Book Artist
Poem by Alexander Pushkin - filled with fantastical illustrations

Pushkin, Alexander; Goozairow, Emil (drawings, design, binding); Irina Zheleznova (translator).
Lukomorie from the poem "Ruslan and Ludmila"
Moscow: Emil Goozairow, 2019.

A small, unnumbered edition by Russian book artists, Emil Goozairow. This eight sided star-shaped book is bound as a do-si-do with text in English on one side and text in Russian on the other. It has an interesting tower-shaped 3-D printed sculptural cover painted green and bronze It is held closed with brown braided cord straps that are held together with a metal clasp. Filled with charming fantastical illustrations of a wizard, witch (Baba-Yaga), princess, palace, cat, and more. In fine condition. Measures about 1.5 x 1.5 inches. Fine. (#36938)

Price: $325 

Designer of Publisher's Bindings - Margaret Armstrong

Thing, Lowell.
Cover Treasure: The Art of Margaret Armstrong.
Catskill, NY: Black Dome Press, 2022.

First edition of this definitive new exploration of artist Margaret Armstrong's life and book cover art. The author wrote that he hopes that his celebration her work will bring new admirers to her and the art of decorated publisher's bindings. The book features more than 700 beautiful full-color illustrations of the beautifully designed and decorated covers by the premier book-cover designer during the Golden Age of American publishers’ decorated bindings.

In his foreword, curator Stewart Plein writes: "Lowell explores the context in which Margaret Armstrong and her fellow artists brought the cloth-covered book to its zenith of beauty and possibility. His chapter on the life of Armstrong provides us with new information and images about the artist....In his chapter on her cover designs he traces her art chronologically....and he provides for the first time a complete visual reference to her cover designs." Bound in red and gold paper covers with titling to cover and spine. A valuable reference in fine condition. Quarto. 440 pages.  (#36846)

Price: $65 

Movable Flaps - A Theatrical Presentation of Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast.
McLoughlin Bros [Brothers], 1893.

This is a rare and unusual copy of “Beauty and the Beast” published by McLoughlin Brothers, New York in 1893. McLoughlin Bros., Inc. was a New York publishing firm that pioneered the systematic use of color printing technologies in children's books, particularly between 1858 and 1920. Their illustrations were hand-stenciled during the firm's early years and printed using chromolithographs and photo engravings later on. The book is shaped like a theater and the cover looks like a stage. The book opens in the center of the cover and the interior pages shows the audience in black and white in theatre boxes on either side of the stage. The center shows the story in play form in color. There are 7 coloured illustrations incorporating text representing scenes on stage, the first six divided vertically into flaps, or halves. As the flaps are turned over the scene being shown changes until arriving at the final scene of the story.

The vividly printed covers are bound in paper with red cloth spines on both sides ad the book opens in the middle. Hinges are worn and there is a crease along the middle of the last page and back cover. Minor chipping along bottom of front cover. Interior pages are quite bright and the book is in very good condition. It doesn't appear that this fragile book had much handling by children. Measures 9.75 x 11.5 inches. Unpaginated. Very Good. (#36886)

Price: $180

Cinderella - with an introduction on the custom of Christmas stockings

Baum, L. Frank (introduction).
Cinderella and the Sleeping Beauty. Christmas Stocking Series.
Chicago: Reilly and Britton Co., 1905.

Baum's introduction discusses the history and custom of the Christmas stocking. Illustrated with color plates and with black and white line drawings within the text. Color frontis and title page. Red paper covered boards with dark green title and holly design to front board along with pasted down color vignette illustration. Dark green title to spine. Slight loss to top front corner and wear to other corners, edges, and spine ends. Clean, bright interior. 119 pages plus 4 pages of ads. Size: 4 x 3 inches. Very Good. (#36722)

Price: $115 

Papercut Book on Movement - Positive and Negative Space

Coron, Béatrice, book artist.
Promenade.
New York: Béatrice Coron, 2015.

Number 3 of 4 copies. Accordion bound in tan cloth covered boards with papercut illustration to front cover. A graphic papercut portrayal of an action sequence of a person moving. An exploration of positive and negative space with positive space represented on one side and negative on the verso. The illustrations are handcut on black Tyvek and mounted onto heavy white handmade paper. There is no text aside from the penciled title, edition, date, and artist's signature. [48 pages.] Size: 4 x 8 inches.

French born Béatrice Coron is a renowned artist whose work includes book arts, fine art, and public art. Her work can be found in major museum collections, libraries, as well as private collections. Her books are fascinating creations made through cutting images in paper or Tyvek. Fine. (#36868)

Price: $800 

Papercut Book on a Beloved (but Abused) Teddy Bear

Coron, Béatrice, book artist; Mick Stern, poetry.
My Teddy Bear.
New York: Béatrice Coron, 2003.

5 of 8 copies. A nostalgic poem about a child and their teddy bear, which is loved, battered, and constantly in need of repair. An excerpt: "I could not explain why I flung it at my bedroom wall, kicked it across the room, held it by one ear, and beat it against the bedpost, not from hatred, but ecstasy - the only time in my whole life, I have ever been free to love in my own way." Bound in orange cloth covered boards with ribbon closure and metal teddy bear charm. Illustrated with handcut papercuts on black paper, which are mounted on handmade paper with rose petal inclusions. Size: 14 x 4.5 inches (open); 4.5 x 4 inches (closed).

Mick Stern is an artist and writer living in New York City. Stern received a PhD in English Renaissance Literature from New York University. He has taught English at Rutgers and other colleges. For more than twenty years, he taught screenwriting at NYU’s film school. A book review said about him: "Mick Stern's poems are clever, deep and humorous, real treat to read."

French born Béatrice Coron is a renowned artist whose work includes book arts, fine art, and public art. Her work can be found in major museum collections, libraries, as well as private collections. Her books are fascinating creations made through cutting images in paper or Tyvek.  Fine. (#36866)

Price: $250

Papercut Book on Computer Frustrations - from cramped work spaces to chopping one up with an axe!

Coron, Béatrice, book artist.
Cyber-Egos.
New York: Béatrice Coron, 2000.

Number 3 of 3 copies. Each page is hand numbered with the edition. A book of computer related frustrations illustrated with handcut black Tyvek sheets mounted in six unbound white paper folios. One folio titled "Caugt in the Web" depicts a person staring at a computer screen as a web of wires shoots from the computer and keyboard, wrapping around the room. Another titled "Going Through it All" shows a person throwing themselves through their computer screen, an axe at their feet. A third titled "Small is Beautiful" shows a person working on a tiny laptop that they can hardly see, bent over and crammed into a tiny alcove with books on shelves all around them. The fourth titled "Not in the Mood" shows a person sitting a desk holding a gun as the computer taunts them by blowing a party tongue roller. Each of the six folios is titled on the front in handcut Tyvek, which is covered by a clear mylar "screen." Housed in a grey cloth covered box with scratch board title label to front panel and a scratch board label with the artist's name, date, and edition number to the interior. The box is lined with embossed red paper. Minor rubbing and wear to box edges and panels. Size: 16 x 12 inches.

French born Béatrice Coron is a renowned artist whose work includes book arts, fine art, and public art. Her work can be found in major museum collections, libraries, as well as private collections. Her books are fascinating creations made through cutting images in paper or Tyvek. Christina Favretto, Head of Special Collections at the University of Miami describes her work in Coron's "artfragments" portfolio: "There is a palpable joy in the work of Béatrice Coron, the kind of joy we felt as children in unwrapping a particularly enticing holiday gift. But...for Béatrice the gift is a sheet of Tyvek...or paper, and the stories to be unearthed and unleashed within and through the medium."

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]. Fine. (#36861)

Price: $1,650

Uncommon Edition of Beauty and the Beast

Dowson, Ernest, translator; Charles Conder, illustrator.
The Story of Beauty & the Beast: The Complete Fairy Story.
London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1908.

A beautiful scarce edition of this classic French fairy tale, originally published by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740 and here translated into English by the poet and novelist Ernest Dowson. There are four elegant color illustrations by Charles Conder, the English-born artist who lived and worked in Australia.

Bound in green cloth with beveled edges and decorative gilt ornament to cover and gilt titling to spine. Light wear to corners, edges and spine. Top edge gilt and other edges untrimmed. Browning to half title and offsetting to title page from frontispiece illustration. Pages across from the other three illustrations also have very slight offsetting and there is light toning to text pages. There is a small nick to lower margin of pages25-26 and a larger tear from the margin of pages 99-100. Neither affects the text. Still a lovely copy in very good condition of this uncommon book. Measures 8.75 x 11.25 inches. 119 pages. Very Good. (#36810)

Price: $200

Grolier Club Exhibition of Antonio Frasconi's Books

Frasconi, Antonio; Robert D. Graff (introduction), Margaret K. McElderry (essay).
The Books of Antonio Frasconi. A Selection 1945 - 1995.
New York: The Grolier Club, 1996.

One of 1000 copies of which 100 include an original numbered woodcut by Antonio Frasconi and are specially bound. This is number 40 of 100 with an original hand numbered woodcut tipped in. Printed to accompany an exhibition at the Grolier Club 21 May through 31 July 1996 by the Stinehour Press in Vermont. Designed by Jerry Kelly. Features a selection of 68 items with color photographs and brief descriptions, as well as an introduction, essay, and brief chronology. Antoni Frasconi (1919 - 2013) was a Uraguayan-American artist best known for his woodcuts.

A quarto bound in tan cloth boards with dark brown title to spine and paper title label to front board. Clean and bright. Housed in a light brown paper covered slipcase with minor sunning to spine and edge of slipcase. Unpaginated.  Fine. (#36860)

Price: $250

A Golden Cockerel Press Book Featuring Illustrations by Eric Gill

[Golden Cockerel Press]
Clay, Enid, poet; Eric Gill, illustrator.
The Constant Mistress.
London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1934.

Number 64 of 300 copies, signed by both Enid Clay and Eric Gill. This book was published to be uniform with Clay's Sonnets and Verses, published by the press in 1925. From Roderick Cave's History of The Golden Cockerel Press: "Were it not for his sister Enid Clay, Eric Gill might not ever have been tempted to work with Robert Gibbings. Gibbings had approached Gill in late 1924 with an offer of work as an artist for his newly procured Golden Cockerel Press, but Gill refused on the ground that the press was not Catholic. Their acquaintance might have ended there, but as it happened Gill’s sister was in want of a publisher for her first book. Gibbings volunteered to take her on, and Gill was induced to be her illustrator. Following Gill’s temporary refusal, Enid Clay’s Sonnets and Verses (1925) became the first Golden Cockerel publication he was to illustrate. It was the beginning of a prolific seven-year partnership."

This second book of Enid Clay's poetry is elegantly printed in Caslon O.F. type on Batchelor handmade paper with a hammer and anvil watermark. There are six wood engravings by Gill including the title page. Bound in green paper boards with a cream linen spine and paper spine label. Boards are faded along edges, as is frequently the case. Interior pages are clean and bright, with evidence of a bookseller ticket having been removed from the rear pastedown. The top edge is trimmed with the other edges untrimmed. A nice copy in very good condition. Measures 6 x 8.5 inches. 44 pages. See Gill Bibliography 293.  (#36757)

Price: $400

Modern Poetry Collection on Wise Men and Rich Gifts
Letterpress Printed and Limited to 130 Copies

[Incline Press]
McKendrick, Jamie, poet.
Gifts of the Magi.
Oldham, England: Incline Press, 2023.

Number 4 of 130 bound copies signed by the poet. Born in Liverpool, Jamie is a poet and translator based in Oxford. He has published seven collections of poetry. His poetry has won numerous awards including the Forward Poetry Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, and the Cholmondeley Award, and his books have been nominated for the Whitbread Award and twice for the T. S. Eliot prize and the Forward Prize. Jamie’s poetry pays minute attention to the details of the natural world and of human history, mixing formal pleasure with a disquieting humor.

This new collection plays with traditional ideas concerning wise men and rich gifts – the price of wisdom and the ambiguity of gifts, for both the giver and receiver. Myrrh, the gift brought by Balthazar, for example, is associated in the Bible both with the anointing of kings and with death. The poems delve into the contemporary – as in a lockdown binge-watched TV series about Australian gold-diggers – as well as the biblical and the classical. This handsome book is the latest work to be designed, printed, and bound at the estimable Incline Press by Graham and Helen Moss. It displays the skill, expertise, and devotion to quality that are the hallmarks of this press, which Graham founded in 1990.

The book is printed on some of the last available Zerkall paper ( Zerkall paper mill ceased production in 2021 after experiencing severe flooding). It is hand set in Baskerville types and Rudolf Koch’s Locarno italic for titling. The book is hand bound and wrapped in gold and blue paste paper designed for this book, with a yellow cloth spine. In fine condition. Measures 6.7 x 9.7 inches. Unpaginated [8 pages]  (#36849)

Price: $90 

Lovely Non-adhesive Binding by the Janus Press
New Mexico Inspired Poetry & Illustrations

[Janus Press]
Burke, Clifford; Ruth Fine, drawings; Claire van Vliet, book & structure.
Bone Songs.
Newark, VT: The Janus Press, 1992.

8 of 150 copies. Signed by the author, artist, and binder. Inscribed from Ruth Fine to Nina (Matheson), a bibliophile, ex-rare book dealer, and the director emerita of the Johns Hopkins Welch Medical Library, on occasion of her 60th birthday. Born in 1933, Claire Van Vliet is one of the most acclaimed book artists practicing today. For over 60 years Van Vliet and her Janus Press have produced wonderful works of art in book form. Van Vliet started Janus Press, located in Vermont, in 1955. The press embodies the age-old tradition of book making, yet it also experiments with innovative book formats and structures. In addition to the more than 90 artist’s books that Van Vliet has published, she has also created hundreds of drawings, prints, pulp paintings, and broadsides. She has been a recipient of many awards and honors, including a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1989.

According to "The Janus Press - Fifty Years" (2006), This was Claire Van Vliet's first book publication after her receipt of the MacArthur. She says that the non-adhesive book structure used for this publication "just fell into place, came out of the blue, fully formed, in Abiquiu" (page 29). The poems featured in this book and the drawings that inspired them were also created in New Mexico, not far from where Claire was visiting in Abiquiu. The book was later completed at Claire's home in Vermont. Bound in an interesting binding structure of 40 french-folded sheets held together with woven strips of vellum. Illustrated with line drawings of skulls by Ruth Fine, printed from polymer relief plates. The poems are printed in Gill Sans Light caps on Barcham Green Royal Watercolour Society paper. The book is housed in two non-adhesive fitted slipcases of drum vellum and Barcham Green Renaissance IV paper. Clean and bright. Unpaginated. [40 pages.] Size: 8 x 10 inches. Fine. (#36880)

Price: $500 

January Themed Linocut - An Accordion Book

[Janus Press]
Ruth Fine.
January - Reduction Linocuts by Ruth Fine.
Newark, VT: The Janus Press, 2009.

Limited edition. 1 of 150 copies, signed by Ruth Fine and inscribed to Nina (Matheson). This book was one of four volumes in her series "Four Months / Four Seasons." Printed on Barcham Green RWS by Andrew Miller-Brown and bound by Audrey Holden. An accordion binding in heavy white paper with grey title "January" to front cover. Housed in a matching white paper covered slipcase with grey title to spine panel. Unpaginated. [15 pages.]

Ruth Fine (1941 - ) worked as a curator at the National Gallery in DC for nearly thirty years and is also a visual artist. Fine continues to curate shows in her home town of Philadelphia, and she continues to publish papers. A friend of Claire Van Vliet, she authored "Janus Press - Fifty Years" (2006), a catalog raisonne of the press. For over 60 years Claire Van Vliet and her Janus Press have produced wonderful works of art in book form. Van Vliet started Janus Press, located in Vermont, in 1955. The press embodies the age-old tradition of book making, yet it also experiments with innovative book formats and structures. In addition to the more than 90 artist’s books that Van Vliet has published, she has also created hundreds of drawings, prints, pulp paintings, and broadsides. She has been a recipient of many awards and honors, including a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1989.  Fine. (#36857)

Price: $100

Movable Do-Si-Do - Letterpress Printed
Based on Shakespeare's Plays & Characters
Addresses Gender, Sexism, Misogyny, and Anti-Semitism

Martin, Emily, book artist; William Shakespeare.
Funny Peculiar Funny Ha Ha.
Iowa City: Emily Martin, 2017.

Number 8 of 25 copies signed and numbered by Emily Martin. Martin earned an MFA degree in painting, from the University of Iowa in 1979 and made her first artist’s books at that time. Martin joined the faculty of the University of Iowa Center for the Book in 1998 where she teaches artists books, paper engineering, and traditional bookbinding classes. Martin makes limited edition artists books first as the Naughty Dog Press, now using her name only. She has produced over fifty artist’s books, often using movable and/or sculptural paper engineering techniques. Martin’s books are included in public and private collections throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Meermanno Museum, The Hague, Netherlands; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago; the Tate Britain, London, England, the Library of Congress and others. This is an inventive and thoughtful yet playful book from Martin.

From the book artist: "This book is the result of my extended study of Shakespeare’s comedies. I find the comedies individually to be enjoyable but there is a sameness to many of the plots that allows me to mix them up in my head. So much mistaken identity, gender confusion and various other contrivances while romping their way to a fifth act wedding or two. Even more problematic are the decidedly unfunny themes that are common in many of these same comedies such as hypocrisy, sexual harassment, intolerance, sexism, misogyny, and anti-Semitism. I struggled for a long time to integrate all these ideas. I finally realized that what I needed to do was to address each aspect separately, thus a dos a do book. Each side has its own focus and treatment. The characters are the same in both books. They are printed using the P22 Blox which are a set of modular shapes that can be interchanged to change the body’s posture and gestures. The P22 Blox allows the presentation of the characters as interchangeable as well. "

Funny Peculiar is a drum leaf book and presents selected lines from five plays delivered by characters on a stage set. Funny Ha Ha is a slice book allowing the viewer to mix and match the costumes and gender of the characters in a variety of postures. Funny Peculiar is letterpress printed on an SP15 Vandercook proof press using hand-set type and P22 Blox combined with rubbings, ink washes, and collagraphs to make the images. Printed on Domestic Etch paper with gray Pescia end sheets. Funny Ha Ha is printed letterpress on an SP15 Vandercook proof press using hand-set type combined with relief printing using P22 Blox, collagraphs, and polymer plates from Boxcar Press to make the images. Printed on white Pescia paper with gray Pescia end sheets.

Bound in a modified dos a do binding to hold the sewn text block slice book on one side and the drum leaf text block on the other side. The hard covers are covered with Arrestox book cloth and three vivid colored cotton papers color-matched and custom made by Katie MacGregor. Funded in part by a grant from the College Book Art Association. Housed in a clamshell box covered in Japanese linen cloth. The box has light bumping to corners and tiny loss of fabric along top edge. In near fine condition. Measures 12 x 10 x 1 inches. Box is 13 x 11 inches.  (#36904)

Price: $2,200 

Privately Printed Quilt Book

[Poltroon Press]
Howard, Alison.
Alison's Quilts.
Berkeley: Poltroon Press for Serendipity Books, 2009.

79 of 100 copies. Filled with full color photographic illustrations of quilts made by Alison Howard with dates of creation, quilt sizes, and brief descriptions for each quilt. Alison's quilt adventure began in 1990 with her first piece - a piano bench cover, which was inspired by Amish quilts. She later took a few classes on quilting resulting in more ambitious projects of complex patterns and larger sizes. Her brief notes about each quilt include small windows into her personal life such as quilts made for grandkids, friends in times of need, etc. Alison was the wife of Peter Howard, owner of Serendipity Books in Berkeley, CA.

Gift inscription to previous owner in pencil on top of title page. Japanese stab binding with white paper covers embossed with a floral pattern. Clean and bright; although the red thread used to bind the book has bled a little onto the cover papers. Unpaginated. [30 pages.] Size: about 10 x 9 inches. Fine. (#36881)

Price: $100

Cinderella "Peepshow" or Starbook

Pym, Roland, illustrator.
Cinderella.
London: Folding Books Ltd., 1950.

Published as one of a series of "peepshow books." Illustrator Roland Pym (1910 - 2006) was a well known British painter, illustrator, and theatrical designer known for his elegant romanticism. This famous fairy tale is depicted as a stage presentation with six colorful fold-out scenes for the story, each with 6 lines of text telling the key events of the tale.

Bound in color pictorial pink boards with pinkish-red paper spine. The covers are worn along the edges, somewhat chipped and soiled, with the spine quite worn along the covers. The beige ribbons meant to hold the book open as a carousel are intact. The interior pages are very good with some wear along the edges. The pop-up scenes are particularly clean and bright. Measures 5.5 x 7 inches. Unpaginated. Very Good. (#36890)

Price: $40

Christmas Keepsake - Featuring William Morris

[The Printery]
William Morris; John DePol, illustrator.
Christmastime.
Kirkwood, MO: The Printery, 2000.

A charming holiday keepsake sent by printers Kay and Ginny Kramer for the friends of their press. The heartwarming quotation from the great William Morris celebrates the joy of reading and the magic of the season. The wood engraving on the title page was cut by the late wood engraver John DePol in 1988 and is printed here from his original block. This small keepsake has covers in black paper with sparkling gilt and silver "flakes" floating in the night sky. With a cream paper title label to cover. In fine condition. Measures 4.75 x 6.75 inches. 3 pages of text plus title page and colophon. (#36913)

Price: $20 

First Edition of Short Stories by Yeats

Yeats, William Butler; Illustrated by John Butler Yeats.
The Secret Rose.
London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1897.

First Edition. William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), the famous Irish poet, was one of the most important figures in twentieth century literature. and was a key figure in Ireland's nationalist movement. This collection of short stories blends Irish with Rosicrucian themes and characters.

Bound in the original blue cloth with the famous cover design done for Yeats by Althea Gyles stamped in gilt on covers and spine. Gyles met Yeats in 1891. She and Yeats later became interested in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the cabalistic iconography of which influenced her design of the cover of Yeats's book The Secret Rose in 189. At its center is a four-petalled rose joined to a cross. The boughs of the tree resemble a serpent; among them, just above the rose, are the kissing faces of a man and a woman, With six black and white illustrations by J. B. Yeats. The binding is bright and beautiful. Unfortunately there is mild dampstaining and rippling to the preliminary pages and frontispiece illustration. The text pages are clean with browning to the fore-edges. There is offsetting to the front and rear free endpapers. Still a lovely copy of this landmark of book cover design with stories by the incomparable poet Yeats. Measures 5.25 x 7.75 inches. 265 pages. Near Fine. (#36852)

Price: $600