Browse the latest catalogs, newsletters, and e-lists of rare books, fine bindings, incunabula, print ephemera, and much more from the members of the ABAA below. (Also includes podcasts, blog posts, and other digital formats.)
*New* indicates any catalogs brought to our attention since the start of January 2022.
ARTISAN BOOKS & BINDERY
STUART BENNETT RARE BOOKS
- Sixty Books About Love -- Just in time for Valentine's Day, an offering of books about true and not-so-true love and its consequences, together with paeans and complaints to those beloved, and advice to aspiring lovers. *New*
BETWEEN THE COVERS RARE BOOKS
Featured item:
Dawn Xenogenesis
by Octavia E. Butler
(New York): Warner Books, 1987. Hardcover. First edition. Foxing on the page edges else near fine in a fine dust jacket.
Offered by Between the Covers Rare Books and found in "E-catalog 118."
ROBIN BLEDSOE BOOKS
BROMER BOOKSELLERS
BULL'S HEAD RARE BOOKS
Featured item:
Angelus. 300 Distinctive Homes. 4th Volume [cover title].
Los Angeles: Angelus House-Plan Service Company, 1928. Oblong 4to. 108 lithographed pages presenting samples of plans and exterior photographs for 300 homes, interspersed with full-page advertisements for building materials (i.e., Hawthorne roofing tiles), designed and printed by Los Angeles Lithograph Co, Inc. Color illustrated wrappers; light shelfwear, a few corners creased. Catalogue for the Angelus House-Plan Service Company, presenting 300 plans for single-family homes, encompassing a range of aesthetics — Spanish mission and Spanish colonial revival, Craftsman and Tudor. Stock plans are priced, based on square footage, from $18 to $65, with several custom options regarding exterior wall and basement construction, garage size and lot orientation available. In addition, the company offers custom home plans drawn up from answers to a short list of questions provided by the client. This copy of the catalogue includes the unused stock and custom home plan order sheets.
A useful sourcebook for the medley of styles prevalent in the residential neighborhoods of southern California and the Southwest developed in the 1920s and ‘30s.
Offered by Bull's Head Rare Books and found in "Catalogue Two."
CHURCHILL BOOK COLLECTOR
Featured item:
The Story of the Malakand Field Force. Lord Curzon’s copy of Churchill’s first published book, signed by Curzon and inscribed and dated by Churchill in India on 13 March 1899 during Curzon’s first months as Viceroy of India Longmans, Green, & Co., London, 1899
This is a signed copy of Winston S. Churchill’s first published book, rendered remarkably compelling by association, time, place, and the nature of the signature itself. This first printing of the second, Silver Library edition of The Story of the Malakand Field Force belonged to the last Victorian Viceroy of India, Lord George Nathaniel Curzon, bears Curzon’s signature, and was signed and dated by Winston S. Churchill, in India, on 13 March 1899.
The inscription and signature
Curzon’s characteristically bold and simple signature “Curzon” is in blue on the front free endpaper recto. Churchill signed and dated the upper half title in two lines in black “Winston Spencer Churchill | March. 13. 1899”. The use of the full, formal “Spencer” rather than simply “S.” is quite unusual, typically found only in Churchill’s earliest signatures and scarce even among these. It seems plausible to speculate that the formality reflected the moment, the young cavalry subaltern being at the time the guest of the newly appointed Viceroy and evidently much impressed by his host.
The moment
Fortunately, we know much about the time and circumstances that prompted this signed presentation copy. In December 1898, Lord Curzon, not yet 40, left England to assume his duties as the newly-appointed Viceroy of India. That same December, 24-yearold Winston Churchill, newly returned to England from the battlefield at Omdurman in the Sudan, also left for India. Churchill’s purpose - less exalted than that of Curzon – was to take part in the Inter-Regimental Polo Tournament.
Their two arcs would converge a few months later in Calcutta, when the newly-minted Viceroy of India hosted the itinerant war correspondent, cavalry officer, budding author, and aspiring politician. Churchill’s Official Biography informs us that “On his way back from the Inter-Regimental Polo Tournament, Churchill stayed for a week with the Viceroy of Calcutta.” This stay occurred in early March 1899. (R. Churchill, Vol. I, p.436)
Two years earlier, in a 25 February 1897 letter to his mother, Churchill had cited – with youthful vehemence and certainty – his detestation of Curzon, whom he called “blown with conceit – insolent from undeserved success – the typification of the superior Oxford prig.” Worth noting, all but the “Oxford” epithet might have been applied to Churchill by others.
During his stay with Curzon and his wife in India, Churchill’s opinion clearly changed and “All of his previous hostility evaporated under the impact of the Curzon charm”. (R. Churchill, Vol. I, p.436) Now fondly impressed, Churchill wrote to his mother from Calcutta on 2 March 1899: “I have found him very delightful to talk to. His manners are wonderful. All the aggressiveness wh irritated me at home is gone… I fear he works too hard – nearly eleven hours every single day…” To his grandmother Churchill wrote on 26 March “I spent a pleasant week at Calcutta & had several long and delightful talks with Lord Curzon. I understand the success he has obtained. He is a remarkable man…”
Indications are that the favorable impression was mutual. It also appears that The Story of the Malakand Field Force had been well received. Lady Curzon wrote to Churchill’s mother on 14 March 1899 “People in India have an immense opinion of Winston & his book.” (R. Churchill, Vol. I, p.436)
Offered by Churchill Book Collector and found in "Inhabited by Winston."
JAMES CUMMINS BOOKSELLER
DE SIMONE COMPANY, BOOKSELLERS
DEWOLFE & WOOD
LES ENLUMINURES
EVENING STAR BOOKS
MARK FUNKE, BOOKSELLER
Featured item:
Four OCE Ammonia Printer advertising brochures [Sexist Advertising in Computing & Printing].
Venlo, Netherlands: Van Der Grinten N.V., [1973]. 300 by 210mm (11¾ by 8¼ inches). Four advertising brochures, each 4 pp. (1 folded piece of cardboard).
1) Oce 622S and 648S;
2) Oce 621 Plan Printer;
3) Oce 604 and 607;
4) Oce 612.
In English. Each brochure depicts a “Bond-girl” in a white unitard, high black boots and blue hair posing prominently in front of the newest ammonia printer.
Very good with light wear.
Classic “Mad-Men” sexist advertising to sell printers and copiers.
Oce printers comprise an important part of computing and printing history. The company started in 1877 experimenting with various dyes. That knowledge was then applied to blueprint technology as early as 1920. During the 1960’s and 1970’s the company produced massive copying and printing machines. The machines subject of all these advertising brochures are based on an ammonia combination printing process and were sold by the company between 1973 and 1975. In 2009 Canon Production Printing took over the company.
In addition to the “sex sells” angle, there is some fairly unique advertising copy. For example for the Oce 604 & 607:
“Democratic dictators of drawing office efficiency.
The Oce 604 or 607 Plan Printer, like some politicians, starts off as a democrat and ends up a benevolent dictator. You don’t have to elect to use it - there are plenty of other plan printers - but once you do - the democrat become a dictator!”
Clearly playing off a James Bond theme, the advert for the Oce 612 states:
“A confident conspirator... to conquer your copying problems.
At the mention of the word ‘conspirator’ most of us get a mental picture of silent men with black beards, secret codes, time bombs in attaché cases, revenge and revolution.
But there are more acceptable conspirators... If it’s a copying problem in the drawing office more and more managements are conquering these problems by introducing one of those confident conspirators, the Oce 612 Plan Printer, into their conspirational circle.”
A nice addition for those interested in the history of computing and printers or the history of advertising.
Offered by Mark Funke, Bookseller and found in "January Fresh Sheet."
JAMES GRAY BOOKSELLER
RICK GRUNDER-BOOKS
HERITAGE BOOKSHOP
Featured item:
[THOMAS AQUINAS]. Summa theologicae pars tertia.
[Basel: Michael Wenssler, not after 1474]. First edition of the third part of Aquinas’s great unfinished work. Each part of the Summa has its own separate printing history and bibliography; this third part addresses Christology. Royal folio (15 3/8 x 11 1/4 inches; 390 x 285 mm.). [2, blank], [270], [2, blank] leaves. With numerous rubricated initials, several with infill designs. The initial on the first page is ten lines with elaborate infill. Numerous other 6 and 7-line initials with infill. And several 3-line rubricated initials throughout. Text in two columns.
This third part of the Summa theologicae is very rare. Other than this present copy, the Rutman (sold twice) and Schoyen copies are the only copies on Rare Book Hub and ABPC in the past 100 years. Contemporary calf over wooden boards. Boards ruled in blind. Boards with chipping and loss of calf. An old sewn repair to calf on front board. Hinges are cracked and loose, but holding. With remnants of brass clasps. Leaves with some occasional toning. Some minor dampstaining along some inner margins and outer corners, not affecting text with the exception of a few letters at the top in the index. Approximately ten leaves with some repairs with some loss of a few letters of text. Some pinhole worming to covers and leaves. Leaf 191 with a corner tear, not affecting text. Previous owner’s old ink inscription on top margin of first leaf of text. Fragments of a 12th-century lectionary for the mass used as pastedowns.
Offered by Heritage Bookshop and found in "Holiday 2021."
JONATHAN A. HILL, BOOKSELLER, INC.
JEFF HIRSCH BOOKS
Featured item:
ESSAYDI, Lalla and Ray Waterhouse.
Crossroads: The First U.K. Exhibition of Photographs by the Celebrated Moroccan Artist.
London: Waterhouse & Dodd/ ArtQuarters Press, 2008. First edition. Softcover. 43 pages. Exhibition catalog for a show that ran October 13-25, 2008. Features the text of Ray Waterhouse's interview of Lalla Essaydi. Includes numerous color images by Essaydi, list of previous exhibitions, and lists of publications, and collections. A clean near fine copy in wrappers. Uncommon, with only 5 copies listed in OCLC.
Offered by Jeff Hirsch Books and found on their recent "E-list 193: 50 New Arrivals."
HONEY & WAX BOOKSELLERS
Featured item:
Ezra Jack Keats; Sister Mary Corita Kent. The Snowy Day.
New York: The Viking Press, (1965). Early printing of Ezra Jack Keats’s Caldecott-winning picture book, warmly inscribed to fellow artist Sister Corita Kent, then head of the art department at Immaculate Heart College. The joyful story of a city boy’s snow day, The Snowy Day was one of the first American children’s books to center the experience of a Black child without foregrounding race or racism: “After breakfast he called to his friend from across the hall, and they went out together into the deep, deep snow.”
The activist nun known as “Sister Mary Corita” became widely known in the 1960s for her vibrant pop serigraphs on social justice themes, and for the progressive art department she chaired, which attracted guest instructors like John Cage, Charles Eames, and Buckminster Fuller. Forced to leave her position at Immaculate Heart in 1968, Kent moved to Boston, where she continued to create art, including the 1971 “Rainbow Swash” painted on a Boston gas tank (still the largest copyrighted piece of art in the world), and the 1985 LOVE stamp for the United States Postal Service.
This is the sixth printing of The Snowy Day, issued in May 1965, three years after the first printing. A remarkable association copy, bringing together two groundbreaking American graphic artists. Single volume, measuring 8 x 9 inches: 32. Original pale blue pictorial cloth printed in red and white, snowflake-printed endpapers, original unclipped color pictorial dust jacket priced at $3.00, Caldecott medal affixed to front panel. Color illustrations throughout text. Ink presentation inscription on dedication page: “For Sister Mary Corita -- / Best wishes / Ezra Jack Keats.” Shelf label of Immaculate Heart College Art Department affixed to jacket spine. Lightest edgewear, tiny circular hole to front jacket panel.
Offered by Honey & Wax Booksellers and found in "January 2022 New Acquisitions."
JAMES S. JAFFE RARE BOOKS
- Jonathan Williams / The Jargon Society: a comprehensive selection of their publications -- The 233-page illustrated catalogue offers over 550 items, including books, manuscripts, letters, photographs and ephemera.
The catalogue is available upon request from james@jamesjaffe.com *New* -- There is no digital version of this catalogue.
MICHAEL LAIRD RARE BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
THE LAWBOOK EXCHANGE, LTD.
- 17th-Century Law: English and Continental (Feb 1, 2022) *New*
- Recent Acquisitions: English, American & Continental Law, 1496-1919 (January 25, 2022) *New*
- 18th-Century Law: America, Great Britain & Europe (January 18, 2022) *New*
- Recent Acquisitions: English, American & Continental Law, 1585-1931 (January 11, 2022) *New*
- 19th-Century Law: America, Great Britain & Europe (January 4, 2022) *New*
California International Antiquarian Book Fair
February 11-13, 2022
www.cabookfair.com
DAVID M. LESSER, FINE ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS
LUX MENTIS BOOKSELLERS
MAIN STREET FINE BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
KENNETH MALLORY, BOOKSELLER
Featured item:
March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom Pin
NY: Allied Printing, 1963. 2.5 inches [5.5 cm] diameter. Some light rubbing to the front, tiny spots of rust to the rear, else a nice example, one of two varieties we know of produced.
Original pin produced on the occasion of the August, 1963 March on Washington with the stated goals of the protest being “a comprehensive civil rights bill” that would do away with segregated public accommodations; “protection of the right to vote”; mechanisms for seeking redress of violations of constitutional rights; “desegregation of all public schools in 1963”; a massive federal works program “to train and place unemployed workers”; and “a Federal Fair Employment Practices Act barring discrimination in all employment”
The event was attended by numerous high profile speakers and performers including Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, John Lewis and others, with the high point being the delivery by Martin Luther King Jr. of his "I Have a Dream" speech.
Offered by Kenneth Mallory, Bookseller and found in "New Arrivals Black History."
MARE BOOKSELLERS
MARTAYAN LAN RARE BOOKS & MAPS
MCBRIDE RARE BOOKS
BRUCE MCKITTRICK RARE BOOKS, INC.
OAK KNOLL BOOKS
Featured item:
WILL AND TESTAMENT: A FRAGMENT OF BIOGRAPHY.
(Plain Wrapper Press). Burgess, Anthony.
Limited to 86 numbered copies signed by the author and artist. Some discoloration to the crush morocco, most likly due to the adhesive used in the binding as there is no sign of offsetting / discoloration to the interior of the wooden box. Else an absolutely pristine copy of what could be considered the most scarce Plain Wrapper Press book ever printed by Richard Gabriel-Rummonds and Alessandro Zanella.
With an ornament and eight color serigraphs by Joe Tilson. Bound by Carol Joyce. Wooden box consits of a front and rear panel with burnt-wood color decorations on the top panel by Tilson. Interior lined with cloth boards and silk ribbon. A lush publication with handset Mediaeval type printed on handmade paper made by the Cartiere Milani-Fabriano specifically for this publication and printed damp. With calligraphic elements by Golda Fishbein. The plates were screenprinted by Christopher Prater at the Kelpra Studio in London.
Offered by Oak Knoll Books and found in "Rare Books Pasadena, 2022."
PALINURUS ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS
PHILLIP J. PIRAGES FINE BOOKS & MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS
RICHARD C. RAMER, OLD & RARE BOOKS
WILLIAM REESE COMPANY
L&T RESPESS BOOKS
WALTER REUBEN, INC.
Featured item:
Jaws (1973) Screenplay by Peter Benchley.
Universal City, CA: Universal Studios, 1973. Vintage original Revised Second draft lm script, 11 x 8 1⁄2" (28 x 21 cm.), pictorial wrappers, brad bound, mimeograph, [1], 121 pp., minor creasing and slight stains to wrappers, near fine in very good+ wrappers.
A very early draft of the script for Jaws, two years prior to its release in 1975, with an unusual artwork design on the front cover which was not present on subsequent scripts for this classic film. Jaws was the second feature film directed by the 27-year-old Stephen Spielberg and became one of the highest grossing movies ever made, the prototype of the summer blockbuster, outgrossing even The Godfather.
The movie went through a complicated pre-production process involving several directors prior to Spielberg, and numerous screenwriters, most of whom were uncredited. This is the Second Draft screenplay by Peter Benchley based on his novel, an eventual bestseller, which producers Zanuck and Brown had purchased the rights to some months prior to its publication. Although Benchley’s Second Draft screenplay has the same fundamental structure as the completed lm, most of the same incidents, and the same principal characters, it was substantially revised before reaching the screen. The character who was most altered between the Second Draft screenplay and Spielberg’s completed lm was Hooper, the young shark expert. In Benchley’s screenplay, he is described as “handsome but disheveled”. Whereas the Hooper in Benchley’s screenplay was a daredevil type, someone who climbed mountains and chased lions before he became interested in sharks, the Hooper in Spielberg’s movie, as played by Richard Dreyfuss, is more of a science nerd, an ichthyologist fascinated by fish. Where the Hooper in Benchley’s screenplay is killed before the end of the story, the Hooper in Spielberg’s movie makes it out alive.
Finally, where in both Benchley’s screenplay and the film Brody is the one who ends up killing the shark, the way he kills it was changed. In the screenplay, Brody kills it with a harpoon through the creature’s eye; in the film, more ingeniously, he kills it by shooting and exploding a canister of compressed air lodged in the shark’s mouth.
Offered by Walter Reuben, Inc. and found in "Catalog 49."
ROOTENBERG RARE BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
ROYAL BOOKS
RULON-MILLER BOOKS
SECOND LIFE BOOKS
TAVISTOCK BOOKS
Featured item:
The Singer's Gun. A Novel
by Emily St. John Mandel
(n. p.): Unbridled Books, 2010. First Edition. SIGNED by the author on the title page. [12], 287, [5] pp. 8vo. Hardback. Dust jacket. A Nr Fine copy, with a slight lean, in a Near Fine jacket, showing only a hint of wear & a lightly sunned spine panel. Item #50317
"Mandel's talent is clearly visible from the get-go, but what's more pleasing is the added strength and control of her far superior sophomore effort, 'The Singer's Gun'. ... The net effect is akin to an Eric Ambler novel with greater development of internal consciousness for multiple protagonists." [LA Times, May 2, 2010].
Offered by Tavistock Books and found in "Buying Continues Apace: A FS List."
MICHAEL R. THOMPSON RARE BOOKS
THORN BOOKS
- 2022: Catalog 1 *New* -- print copies available at the upcoming California Book Fair!
Featured item:
Bourcher, John, Lord Berners THE HISTORY OF THE VALIANT KNIGHT ARTHUR OF LITTLE BRITAIN. A ROMANCE OF CHIVALRY
London, Printed for White, Cochrane, and Co., 1814. Limited edition 4to. (16), xxvii, (1), 544pp. Illustrated with plates based on drawings in a manuscript of the original romance. Edition limited to 175 regular copies and 25 large paper copies. Even though this copy has very generous margins, we believe it is one of the 175 copies. Translated from the original French by Lord Berners (ca. 1467- 1533), this is the third (or possibly the fourth) edition, and the first with illustrations. Previous editions are unobtainable; there are two recorded, one in 1555 or 1560, printed by Redbourne, and another in 1582 printed by East. Another edition is reported but not seen.
This edition is edited by Edward Vernor Utterson, who has provided a 16 page preface from which the above information is taken. Contemporary tan straight-grain morocco, spine in six compartments, gilt. Boards tooled with gilt rules and upper and lower boards tooled with gilt armorial central devices. All textblock edges gilt; board edges ruled in gilt. Endpapers of brown coated paper. Occasional light foxing, corners worn, but a very good copy. This is the version with the contemporary colored illustrations. All illustrations are expertly colored in the manner of medieval miniatures. The coloring is clear, expert and glowing.
Offered by Thorn Books and found in "2022: Catalog 1."
TYPE PUNCH MATRIX
THE VEATCHS ARTS OF THE BOOK
WHITMORE RARE BOOKS
JOHN WINDLE ANTIQUARIAN BOOKSELLER
Remember, you can always browse and download the latest catalogs published by ABAA members on ABAA.org by visiting the following link: https://www.abaa.org/catalog/... (You can also access this page by selecting 'Booksellers' from the top menu, scroll to the bottom of the page to 'Member Catalogs', and click on 'View All'.)
ABAA Virtual Book Fair: California Edition
February 12-14, 2022
abaa.org/vbf
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