ART REFERENCE
       [General Reading/ReferenceAND Real Rarities]

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On Paintings in Rome & Italian Painters — CORRECTED

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•  Uncommon second, corrected edition of a work originally printed in 1786, here in an uncut copy in the original wrappers. Prunetti, the author of several works on painting and art, offers his thoughts on the great paintings of Rome, the artistic techniques used in their creation, and how to judge them, along with brief lives of the most prominent Italian painters.

•  Original paper wrappers, spine with hand-lettered paper label. Early inked owner’s inscription on front free endpaper; one early inked shouldernote. Some pages with faint hint of foxing, most clean. A very good copy.

Limited Edition Facsimile

•  Number 86 of a limited edition of 300 copies of this facsimile of the Victoria and Albert Museum copy of this famous writing book.

•  Publisher's light boards with printed dust wrapper, in Mylar protective jacket. Nearly new.  (23241)

“My Style ofDrawing Birds”

•  This slim volume offers two essays: a photographic reproduction and a nicely typeset transcription of Audubon’s “My Style of Drawing Birds,” which was published (not entirely accurately) in Maria Audubon's Audubon and his journals, 1897, and his “Method of Drawing Birds,” published in the Edinburgh Journal of Science, vol. 8, 1828, the latter in typeset form only. The original manuscript is presented in fine facsimile showing several authorial corrections and emendations of the first draft, and with a transcription. These are accompanied by a short introductory essay by Michael Zinman and the black-and-white frontispiece “portrait” of a “wip-poor-will.” Limited to 400 copies.

•  New. Attractive.

Limited to303 Copies

•  Privately printed. Descriptions of 34 works, one per page, each with an illustration on opposite page. Catalogue p .rinted by William Rudge.

•  Ex-library with blind pressure- and rubber-stamps, properly deaccessioned.

Berenson, Bernard.  Sunset and twilight. From the diaries of 1947–1958. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, [copyright 1963]. 8vo. xxv, [1], 547, [1] pp.
$17.50

•  First edition: Excerpts from the diaries of Berenson's later years.

•  Good; dust jacket with edge chips, creases, and small discolorations, cloth beneath clean with minor edge and corner wear. (3158)

Detailed — DETAILED!

•  First American edition, translated by Christina Hedström and Gerald Taylor, of one of the most comprehensive reference books on the subject. The volume is illustrated with eight color plates and 239 monochromes (the latter mostly in-text, some full-page).

•  Publisher's blue cloth, spine with gilt- and blue-stamped title; without dust jacket, spine slightly sunned, a clean, solid copy.  (24835)

“Large Scale” in Several Respects . . .
62 Engravings & Bedford Bound

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•  First edition, illustrated with a total of 62 engraved plates. Allibone describes Brayley “a laborious and accurate topographer”; he compiled and edited a wide range of works with titles featuring assorted Beauties, Picturesques, Histories, Antiquities, etc. The present work provides a history of Westminster Abbey and some of its associated luminaries, along with extensive descriptions of its architecture, sculptures, and paintings. The illustrator who portrayed many of the above, John Preston Neale, was an architectural draftsman and landscape painter “best remembered for his views of the nation's country houses, churches, and public buildings,” according to the Oxford DNB.

Binding:  By Francis Bedford, signed, in dark brown morocco done between 1851 and 1880, covers framed and panelled in ornate gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and midpoint decoration. Spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Board edges gilt-tooled with triple fillets, turn-ins with gilt-tooled rolls and corner fleurons. All edges gilt. Stamped “F. Bedford” on lower front turn-in.

Provenance:  Each front pastedown with armorial bookplate of William Arthur, sixth Duke of Portland.

•  NSTC 2B46491; Allibone 240; Brunet, II, 1215.   Binding as above, minor shelf wear to lower edges and corners, vol. I with front board expertly reattached and with small dent to outer edge of front cover. Joints delicate, due to size and weight of volumes, but holding. A few pages and plates with faint foxing, otherwise clean.  (24100)

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(Cassatt, Mary).  Hale, Nancy. Mary Cassatt. Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1975.
$15.00

Clark, Kenneth. Another part of the wood: A self-portrait. New York: Harper & Row, 1974. Dust jacket slightly worn, yellowed.
$17.50

Clark, Kenneth. The other half: A self-portrait. London: John Murray, 1977. Dust jacket in good condition, very slightly crumpled at top of spine.
$17.50

(Clark, Kenneth). Secrest, Meryle. Kenneth Clark: A biography. New York: Fromm International, 1986. Paperback, in fine condition, inscribed by author. With photographs.
$7.50

REACTIONARY!

•  With 34 black and white plates. A scathing critique of modernist impulses in contemporary art, namely its emphasis on composition for its own sake, a style that dispenses with or distorts natural forms. The author advocates instead a return to art that is derived from the experiences of the people and has meaning for them.

•  Publisher's cloth, stamped in gilt and red on the spine and on the front. Light wear to edges, corners, and over joints; spine darkened. A very good copy.

The House & Paintings Were ALMOST as Covetable asthe Books

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•  First edition. Dibdin's Bibliotheca Spenceriana is one of the high spots of British bibliophilia; Lowndes says “The collection is the finest private one in Europe; the catalogue will ever be regarded as of the first importance to the theologian, the historian, and the critic, and as a perfect model for the bibliographer.” The present two volumes, published as an accompaniment to the original four, are generally considered as a separate entity for cataloguing purposes. The first is dedicated to the Earl of Spencer's mansion, Althorp, including descriptions (and copperplate engravings) of the most outstanding artworks therein. The second provides a catalogue of “many rare and curious” editions of the Scriptures and 15th-century works in the Althorp library; it is printed in red and black with sections in black letter, and includes many wood-engraved reproductions of 15th-century illustrations, some full-page. Between the two volumes there are 32 plates total, along with numerous in-text engravings.

Binding: Contemporary purple morocco, covers framed in two sets of gilt triple fillets, spines with gilt-stamped title and volume numbers; spine compartments framed similarly to covers and bands gilt-stamped. All edges gilt.

Provenance: Front pastedowns each with bookplate of the “Library Halstead Place,” giving case and shelf location there; vol. I additionally with small ticket of London booksellers, Myers & Co.

•  Graesse 383; Lowndes, I, 640.   Bindings with minor rubbing overall, spines sunned to chestnut rather attractively, vol. I with corners bumped. Bookplate and label as above. Offsetting around plates and illustrations; folding map with light spots of foxing and inner margin reinforced. A luxurious production.  (25780)

“A Sudden &Unheralded REVELATION”

•  Catalogue of an important exhibition and sale of German art at the very beginnings of systematic American collecting of art. Includes reprints of notices from the press and full details of the items exhibited.

There were at least four editions of this title: one of only 16 pp., one of 45 pp., one of 47 pp., and a fourth with 91 pp. All were printed in New York in 1850 or 1851 with varying printers' and publishers' names.

Very scarce.

•  Very good condition. Sewn, original printed wrappers; pencilled filing marks. Minor creasing and dog-earing, a few age spots, light dust-soiling.

Author's Copy!

•  Softbound exhibition catalogue, on good paper. Worn but intact.

With theVery Striking Folding Plate

•  First printed work to give instructions on producing mezzotints, and a most curious account of the development of "sculpture." Evelyn (1620–1706), whose occupation the Dictionary of National Biography cites simply as "virtuoso," published popular works on gardening, politics, and education. His roughly chronological history of illustrative arts, divided primarily by significant figures, is sprinkled with a number of languages (Greek, Hebrew, and German all in their respective typefaces, along with Latin in italics), and also contains a detail from the first mezzotint print ever created, here reproduced as an oversized (and dramatic) folding plate. A "Life" of Evelyn is also supplied.

The work first appeared in 1662, with a second edition published in 1755; the present copy is a reissue of the 1755 with a cancel title-page. A handsome engraved portrait, in which Mr. Evelyn is wearing a most dashing cape, opens the volume.

•  Wing E3513 (first ed.) On Evelyn, see: Dictionary of National Biography, XVIII, 79–83. Contemporary speckled sheep with red gilt-stamped morocco spine label; some little chipping to edges, with joints and spine lightly abraded and cracking (not disastrously). Early inscription reads "Evelyns Sculptura compiled originally the elder Faithorne." Pages unspotted for the most part, and plates in good condition save for slight offsetting to frontispiece. A pleasing book!

Do It Yourself! — PAINT a Farm Wagon or a Drawing Room

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•  First edition. The front cover proclaims “Every Man His Own Painter,” and Gardner obliges with Victorian-era how-tos (some illustrated) for “satisfactory results in plain and fancy painting of every description, including gilding, bronzing, staining, graining, marbling, varnishing, polishing, kalsomining, paper-hanging, striping, lettering, copying, and ornamenting.” The volume closes with a series of advertisements for contemporary crazes including decalcomanie goods, phrenological books and journals, and hydropathic cookbooks.

Provenance:  Pencilled ownership inscriptions of W. G. Benton.

Rare in the first edition, with only one copy located via OCLC and none added by NUC Pre-1956.

•  Publisher's brown pebbled cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title; rubbed overall, edges darkened, spine extremities chipped. Front hinge (inside) cracked; front pastedown and free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscriptions; front fly-leaf partially excised. Light foxing variably throughout.  (24377)

Frescoes for Westminster Palace

•  Prince Albert headed this committee set up by the Queen to decorate the new Houses of Parliament: The report examines the feasibility of ordering murals in fresco compatible with the architecture and style of the building. This is the first of at least five such reports issued between 1842 and 1846.

Rare: We trace no U.S. copies of this work via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, or RLIN, nor is it in NSTC

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Lightly age-toned with a little light staining.

How Much Were theTownley Marbles Worth?

•  Government document 172, “Ordered to be printed 19th June 1805.” This scarce discussion of the British Museum’s proposed acquisition of a significant collection of classical sculpture includes several contemporary assessments of the value of Townley’s marbles — which did indeed go to the museum later in the year of this item’s publication. John Flaxman was one of those expressing an opinion of the trove; he says that he has “paid a great deal of attention to it as a Sculptor” and believes it to be “richly worth” the sum of £20,000. Click the image for an enlargement.

RLIN and OCLC report only one holding of this item in the U.S.

•  Not in NSTC. Removed from a nonce volume, now in a Mylar folder; title-page and final blank lightly dust-soiled. Sewing mostly gone. Title-page with short tear from inner margin, not touching text; some leaves with small edge chips.

(Goya, Francisco).  Poore, Charles. Goya. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1938. Hinges loose.
$17.50

A Woman Collector's BLOCKBUSTER Collection

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•  The first successful and major sale of art in the “post-Depression” era. Sale occurred December 4–5 and comprised 112 lots, bringing $463,520.00. Were the buyers still optimistic two days later when the news started to come in from Pearl Harbor?

Heavily illustrated; hammer prices pencilled in.

•  Original printed boards, scuffed and stained yet volume sound and pleasant enough with interior clean. As noted, most hammer prices pencilled in.  (26156)

One Year's Worth ofWell-Spent Half Hours

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•  First edition: Engaging periodical compilation of poetry, history, Christian meditations, natural history, art and literary criticism, biography, and fiction, set forth in 52 weekly issues meant to be consumed in half-hour portions, with each weekly number containing seven half-hours. (Indices and quarterly title-pages are bound in here.)

Knight, who was devoted to books and to literature from the time he was a small child, was a much-admired printer and publisher, as well as an author, reformer, and would-be educator: Many of his publishing endeavors were aimed at improving and enlightening the working class.

•  NSTC 2K7731. On Knight, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. On binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth, style Wav3.   Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with muse motif and title, spines with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorations; lightly worn overall with some fading, vol. II spine head with traces of a strip of cloth tape. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Paper slightly embrittled (more so in second volume), with a few short edge tears. Externally ordinary; internally worthwhile.  (26860)

Kraus, H.P., bookseller, New York. Arts: Art, Architecture, Archaeology, Festivities, Music, Drama, Film. New York: H.P. Kraus, (19--). 4to.
$7.50

•  Catalogue 166.

•  Original wrappers.

•  Special Bulletin 10.

•  Stapled in original wrappers.

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BothScholarly & Charming

•  First edition of this small pamphlet, which preceded the book published under the same name. Biblical quotes relevant to the holiday, illustrated with details of illuminated manuscripts, are accompanied by notes from the curator of the Spencer Collection of the New York Public Library.

•  Stapled in original gold-colored wrappers with the front wrapper embossed; wrappers with only very minor edge wear and a touch of soiling to the back wrapper. Pages clean and crisp. (8937)

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Ancient Dress.  51 Copper-Engraved Plates.

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•  First edition: Treatise on ancient dress among the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Jews, and Romans, among other peoples. The author, a Flemish artist also known as Andries Cornelis Lens, came to the study of antiquarian clothing by way of his classically inspired focus in painting. Illustrated with 51 copper-engraved plates done by Pitre Martenasie, this is an “Ouvrage estimé” according to Brunet (who seemingly mistakenly cites 57 engravings as opposed to the 51 given by von Lipperheide, described in institutional holdings, and present here).

•  Brunet, III, 980; Von Lipperheide, Katalog der Freiherrlich von Lipperheide’schen Kostumbibliothek, 105. Contemporary calf, rebacked in complementary style, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; original leather acid-pitted and cracked over edges and extremities. Front pastedown with small bookseller’s ticket from Albany, NY; free endpapers with a few stray pencilled notations. Dedication page with institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin.

Lindsay, Jack. Turner: The man and his art. London, Toronto, Sydney, New York: Granada Publishing Limited, 1985. 8vo. 179 pp.; illus.
$30.00

•  First edition. With 12 color and 13 black and white illustrations.

•  Paperback. On both covers is a detail of the painting A First Rate Taking in Stores.

CERAMICS

•  Sixth edition. Illustrated with color & black-and-white photos and drawings.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good condition, no dust jacket.

Marilyn Monroe'sLAST Posed Photo Session

•  The 1964 issue of this popular annual includes an essay by Margaret Bourke-White, in addition to the 12-page portfolio showcasing Bert Stern's photographs of Marilyn Monroe (and much more).

•  Publisher's red cloth in dust wrapper, jacket not price-clipped; dust jacket rubbed and chipped at extremities and along upper back edge, light dustsoiling to portion of back cover.  (24682)

Villa Benedetta in Words — A Copy of a RARITY for a Reader

•  First of three editions of Mayer’s architectural description of the Villa Benedetta in Rome. The format suggests that the volume was written for the tourist travelling “to see the sights.” Click the images for enlargements.

WorldCat locates only two copies of this edition.

•  Recent marbled paper-covered boards with leather spine label. Without the plates; light age-toning.  (26145)

MODERN LIBRARY“LEONARDO”

•  Fiction.

•  Publisher's limp boards, stamped in gilt. Spine a little sunned. Last few pages unopened. Near fine copy.

Michener onJapanese Woodblocks

•  First edition of this “tour of three centuries of art,” conducted by famed novelist Michener. 257 illustrations decorate the substantial volume, including 55 in full color; many are full-page, others in-text or several to a page.

•  Publisher's textured taupe silk binding, front cover with patterned coral silk insert; spine with gilt-stamped title. Dust wrapper and original slipcase present, lower back corner of jacket slightly crumpled; otherwise a gorgeous, clean copy in an undamaged slipcase.  (24683)

(Millais, John Everett).  Lutyens, Mary. Millais and the Ruskins. New York: Vanguard Press, 1967.
$17.50

Sixty Full-Page Full-Color Illustrations

•  Lengthy introduction followed by descriptions of 60 manuscripts, each description with a full-page, full-color illustration. Work ends with a bibliography.

•  Publisher's tan cloth and blue d/j printed in white and “gold” with illustration. Corners bumped.  (22344)

For a list of inexpensive, MODERN books
      on JEWISH HISTORY & CULTURE, 
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Design Manual, Used by aFemale Philadelphia Art Student?

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•  Later edition of a best-selling guide to drawing and draftsmanship, published by Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860), the noted American Neoclassical painter. The volume is illustrated with41 plates depicting various aspects of line production and calligraphy.

Provenance:  This copy bears an early inked inscription reading “School of Design S.E. Cr. of 8th and Locust” — that address having been one of the earliest locations of the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, now the Moore College of Art.

•  Contemporary quarter black sheep with black ribbed cloth–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine much rubbed, corners and edges far less so. Front pastedown with inscription as above. Pages and plates clean.  (27050)

Pro Helvetia Foundation. Swiss drawings: Masterpieces of five centuries. Organized by the Pro Helvetia Foundation. Introduction and notes by Walter Hugelshofer. Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution. 1967–1968. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1967. 8vo. 176 pp.; illus.
$22.00

•  An exhibition catalogue of Swiss draftsmanship from the 16th to the 20th century, from Holbein to Giacometti. With 126 illustrations.

•  Paperback. Gift inscription on front endpaper. Fine.

Robb, David M., & J.J. Garrison. Art in the Western world. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1953. 8vo. Frontis., 1050 pp.; illus.
$22.50

•  Third edition. Architecture, sculpture, painting, and the minor arts from prehistoric times to modern. With 648 black and white illustrations, 4 color plates, and illustrated endpapers.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good, with only a few dog ears. No dust jacket.

French Translation of the NT withExegesis of Text
 & of PICTURES

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•  Sole edition. A study of the iconography of Jesus in Late Roman and Medieval art, from the 3rd to the 12th century. Each chapter (165 in all) covers a particular scene in the life of Jesus, and the text begins with a Catholic translation in French of the relevant passages from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The text is accompanied by illustrations, copious interpretive notes of the iconography and critical commentary, both exegetical and archaeological. Officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church, the preliminary leaves including an “approbation” by the Archbishop of Tours and a letter from the Archbishop of Paris.

The book is illustrated with 100 engraved plates and numerous in-text engravings, as well as a frontispiece map of the Holy Land in each volume. The plates are mostly figural illustrations taken from paintings in catacombs and on sarcophagi, illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, ivory figurines, murals, etc. The title-pages are printed in black and red ink, and decorated with an engraved vignette.

•  Publisher's red cloth, stamped in gilt on the spines and front covers. Spines sunned and front cover of vol. II slightly sunned along fore-edge also; cloth of spines frayed at extremities and chipped in other places. Hinges (inside) of vol. I a little weak, stitching exposed; corners bumped with cloth damage; pages very shallowly bumped. Ex-library, with shelf labels on spines, institutional bookplates on front pastedowns, pressure-stamp to title-pages and one other page in each volume. Paper very good; pages clean and bright.  (24688)

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The Critic at Work

•  Third of a series of annual “Notes on the Royal Academy” (1855–9), this issue contains brief descriptions and critiques of numerous paintings. The series was extremely popular with the public but provoked hostility from some artists. DNB says that “Ruskin hoped that certain criticisms passed by him on a friend's picture would ‘make no difference in their friendship.’ ‘Dear Ruskin,’ replied the artist, ‘next time I meet you, I shall knock you down; but I hope it will make no difference in our friendship.'”

•  NSTC 2R20848.   Removed from a nonce volume, now in a marbled paper wrapper. Very good.  (9147)

Boom-Time Art Auction — Some Prices/Purchasers NOTED

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•  Partially priced and sometimes with name of purchaser. Sale occurred March 28–29 and contained 77 lots, all photographically illustrated.

Provenance of all items given.

•  Original green fabrikoid, spine and front cover title rubbed/faded, front joint cracking.  (26157)

Senff, Charles H. ...Important paintings by old & modern masters collected by the late...[of] New York City and Syosset, Long Island.... New York: The Anderson Galleries, 1928. Folio. 87 ff.
$115.00

•  Partially priced and sometimes with name of purchaser. Sale occurred March 28–29 and contained 77 lots, all illustrated. Provenance of all items given.

•  Original green fabrikoid, front joint cracking.

TWO Important Works ofLocal History

The Editor’s OWN Copies

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•  In 1680, in Mexico City, the Mexican polymath Sigüenza y Góngora (1645–1700) published the first edition of this highly important work of art history. Recounting the great celebrations surrounding the dedication of the “temple of Our Lady of Guadalupe” in Querétaro that the priest Juan Caballero y Ocio had built and donated, it not only describes the festivities in detail (“Frailes, monjas, gigantes, tarascas, cofradías, mulatos, indios, todos en la celebración’), but is profuse and precise in telling of the nature and minutia of the art within the temple.

Extraordinarily difficult to find today, that 1680 work was already rare and hard to obtain by the beginning of the 19th century — so José María Zelaa e Hidalgo decided, in the first years of the century before last, to bring out a new edition with some editorial revision and additions. This he accomplished in 1803. Zelaa was a zealous historian of his home town of Querétaro, and the combination of his scholarship with Sigüenza's earlier scholarship made this second edition of the latter’s work a true advance. Then, in 1810, Zelaa brought out a volume entirely made up of his own reportings, and that volume is here bound with his 1803 edition of Sigüenza.

The pairing of Zelaa’s two efforts in one volume is both uncommon and intellectually reinforcing. But here, it is more than that: It is a personal memento of a life’s work as well, forthis copy bears the bookplate of the editor himself.

Provenance:  Bookplate of José María Zelaa é Hidalgo. 20th-century rubber-stamp with initials only of a private Mexican collector.

•  Sigüenza: Medina, Mexico, 9637; Palau 312964. Zelaa: Medina, Mexico, 10540; Garritz 940; not in Palau. Publisher's sheep, gilt spine; small amount of leather missing from base of spine. Collector’s stamp partly offset to title-page; otherwise, the occasional stray stain only. “Association copies” don’t get much more “associated” than this.

When CEMETERIES Were PARKS with Great Landscape Gardening & Sculpture

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•  Sole edition and now uncommon.  A well-written guide to the cemetery of celebrities and society in mid- to late-19th-century Philadelphia. Who's buried where, who will be entombed where, biographies, the monuments and markers, and even a 53-page list of plot holders. Begins with a history of churchyards and cemeteries in Philadelphia (and the rest of the world) in general.

The text isheavily illustrated with in-text wood engravings and with 16 engraved plates. All illustrations are identified as to artist. The layout of the burial park is detailed in a colored plan at the front of the volume.

Binding:  Publisher's green cloth with textured covers; spine stamped and lettered in gilt. Front cover stamped in gilt with a frame with corner brackets; a very large oval center medallion shows an angel with harp posed between a broken pediment and an hour glass on a closed book, all flanked by weeping willows. Rear cover stamped in blind with same decorative elements. All edges gilt.

•  Sabin 83734.   Binding modestly rubbed, with spine faded and its gilt dimmed; cover gilt in parts “gone to copper” rather attractively. Scattered foxing; several sorts of spotting/staining, darkest stains in upper margins. Overall, a beautiful book in a better than decent copy.  (26863)

Baroque & Rococco Minor Arts

(Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden-Albertinum). [Menzhausen, Joachim]. Einführung in das Grüne Gewölbe. Dresden: [no date]. 8vo. [5], 133, [4] pp. Illus.
$17.00

•  First edition. Illustrated exhibition catalogue auf Deutsche.

•  Publisher's illustrated boards. Good-plus condition.

[Sweetser, Moses F.]. Dürer. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1880. 12mo. Frontis., 158 p., 2 pl. [also bound in, his] Rembrant. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1880. 12mo. 162 p., 5 pl. [also bound in, his] Van Dyck. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1880. 12mo. 157 p., 4 pl.
$25.00

•  In Sweetser's series, Artist-biographies. The biographies were issued separately in 15 volumes, then gathered in 5 volumes with three biographies per volume. This is vol. 4 in the gathered series. It must be noted that none of the volumes in the either series indicates it is part of a "set." That is, each volume truly is (and looks like) a stand-alone.

•  Publisher's deep blue cloth stamped in black and gold. Slight fraying to top and bottom of spine. A very good copy.

Liberal Arts Summarized forFrench Students Tardieu-Denesle, Mme. Henri.  Encyclopédie de la jeunesse, ou novel abrégé élémentaire des sciences et des arts. Paris: Henri Tardieu, X [i.e., 1802]. 12mo (17.6 cm, 7"). 2 vols. I: vi, 216 pp. II: [4], 202, [4] pp.; 2 fold. maps, 2 fold. plts.
$225.00

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•  Third, corrected and enlarged edition, following the first of 1799: Elementary overviews of mathematics, geography, music, painting, French history, chemistry, rhetoric, and an array of other topics.

The oversized, folding maps of France and the world featurehand-colored provincial and continental borders; two additional oversized, steel-engraved plates depict the gods atop Mt. Olympus and the seven wonders of the world.

Early editions of this work are uncommon.

•  Quérard, La France littéraire, 341.   Contemporary marbled paper–covered boards, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; bindings faded and with some soiling/rubbing (most notably to spines). rubbed. Half-title of vol. I, pp. vii/viii of preface, and printed volume labels all bound in at back of vol. II; some signatures of vol. I unopened. Title-pages with traces of mostly effaced inscriptions; first and last few leaves of both volumes very lightly waterstained. One plate with two short tears from lower edge, not touching image. Solid and interesting.  (27048)

(Tapestries). New York (city). Metropolitan Museum. Catalogue of a loan exhibition of French gothic tapestries, May 26 to September 16. New York: The Southworth Press for the Metropolitan Museum, 1928. 8vo. 25pp., [1] f., 2 plts.
$8.50

•  Printed sage green wrappers.

First Edition, Inscribed bythe Author Toch, Maximilian.  Materials for permanent painting. New York: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1911. 8vo. 208, [8 (adv.)] pp.; 8 plts.
$150.00

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•  First edition of this “manual for manufacturers, art dealers, artists and collectors,” written by a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and past president of the Chemists' Club. The volume is illustrated with eight plates, including microscopic close-ups of paint samples and reproductions of paintings displaying aging issues.

Provenance: Presentation copy signed by the author: “To Mr. Breiser[?] with the regards of Maximilian Toch,” dated [19]17.

•  Publisher's olive cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title in decorative lettering embellished with an artist's palette, spine with decorative gilt-stamped title; cloth showing minor wrinkling and light discoloration over back cover and part of spine, corners and spine extremities slightly rubbed. Front free endpaper with inscription as above. Pages faintly age-toned, else clean.  (24491)

“Students!   NO! Women — NO! Musical Instruments!” Universitat Freiburg im Breisgau. Collegium Sapientiae. Statuta Collegii Sapientiae, the statutes of the Collegium Sapientiae in Freiburg University Freiburg, Breisgau, 1497, facsimile edition. Lindau: Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 1957. 4to. 2 vols. I: 54 ff. II: 96 pp., 2 plts.
$80.00

•  In 1497 Johannes Kerer (1430?–1507) wrote up the statutes of the Collegium Sapientiae in Freiburg University, where he had been on the faculty since the institution's inception in 1457. In 1466 he was put in charge of the faculty library, an occupation for which he apparently felt great enthusiasm, as the Statuta particularly emphasize the collection's setting-up. In 1474 he became the chief incumbent of the University parish, leading to his rise in the Church hierarchy, evidence of a priestly bent perhaps accounting for the high importance set on the almost monastic lifestyles prescribed for the University scholars in its statutes here.

The statutes cover all aspects of the scholars’ lives, from the process of presidential election to rules regarding confession, from meal schedules and the recitation of the Hours to whether or not scholars might keep either weapons or women within the college (no).

These rules and regulations are completely spelled out in the facsimile volume of this set, where the text of the original Latin, written out in a Gothic hybrida textualis with red rubrics, is reproduced. The 80 miniatures are in full color illuminated with gilt. These show both religious scenes and illustrations of the college rules (a woman with a small child points to the college door under the rubric "mulierum in domo sapie prohibita." "Women not ever allowed in the house!") The initials are elaborate, decorated with geometric and anthropomorphic motifs. The second volume offers a biography of Kerer, a history of the College, and a transcript of the Latin text with a detailed synopsis of its contents in English as translated by Josef Hermann Beckmann. Another issue of this edition gives the translation into German.

The two volumes were wrought in celebration of the University of Freiburg’s 500th anniversary.

•  Vol. I, the facsimile: publisher's binding of paper imitating vellum over boards (hard back). Front cover embossed with the College coat of arms. Flat spine with title and date. Vol. II, the commentary, transcription, and translation: publisher's paper covers (soft back). Front cover also embossed with coat of arms. Flat spine with title and date. Both volumes in one slipcase. Very good condition.

Art/Architecture — Folio Extra — Imposing!

Valentini, Agostino.  La patriarcale basilica Liberiana. Roma: a spese di Agostino Valentini, 1839. Folio extra (47.5 cm; 18.75"). [4] ff., 118 pp.; 1 fold. plt., 102 plts.
$600.00

Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  Italian-language work on the art and architecture of the Liberiana basilica in Rome, illustrated with more than 100 impressive full-page engravings (as well as one oversized, folding engraving) of the church’s art and sculpture, along with its architectural detail, plans, and design. Detailed explanations of the plates, which were engraved by Domenico Feltrini, are provided.

This handsomely printed and produced volume forms the second part of the author's “Quattro principali basiliche di Roma,” which also includes works (not present here) on the Vaticana and Lataranense.

•  Publisher's half vellum with marbled paper–covered sides, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather labels; boards a little abraded and showing wear. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate; front fly-leaf with bookseller’s pressure-stamp in upper corner. Occasional light foxing. A handsomely produced, still very impressive volume.

Spanish Southwest  Mexican Art  New World Biography Vetancurt, Agustín de (a.k.a., Vetancur).  Chronica de la Provincia del Santo Evangelio de Mexico. Quarta parte del Teatro mexicano de successos religiosos. Mexico: por María de Benavides, viuda de Juan de Ribera, 1697. Folio (30 cm; 11.875"). [12], 136, [4], 153, 56 pp.
[SOLD]

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•  This is part 4, issued separately, of the author's Teatro mexicano: descripción breve de los sucesos exemplares. The Chronica de la provincia del Santo Evangelio gives detailed descriptions of the Franciscan houses and missions in all of New Spain — especially in Mexico City and Puebla, but also in such far-flung areas as New Mexico and California. Henry Raup Wagner, the dean of bibliographers of the Spanish Southwest, labels the Chronica “a prime authority for the history of New Mexico.” Vetancurt further offers a marvelous section on various apparitions of the Virgin across New Spain, each being given a lengthy paragraph with full details. He ends his volume with a menology of Franciscans and a biographical list of the bishops, writers, and other notables who served or lived in New Spain; a number of these figures were martyrs and their stories are recounted.

It must be pointed out, because it is often forgotten, that art historians will find the Chronica to be rich in architectural detail and brimming over with information about art work in 17th-century New Spain churches and convents. Guillermo Tovar de Teresa, the great historian and bibliographer of colonial-era Mexican books containing information on Mexican art, writes of the Chronica, “Para la historia del arte en México durante el Virreinato es capital; su lectura es imprescindible para los estudiosos de la arquitectura de los siglos XVI y XVII.”

Provenance:  Augustinian monastic library of Morelia (marca de fuego on upper edge of closed book; on verso of title-page in an 18th-century hand: “pertenece al convento de San Augustin de Valladolid”); private use of Fr. Manuel Aigustin Farias (noted on the verso of title-page in an 18th-century hand, prelim. p. 12, first p. 1); later owned by José Martín de Infanzón (prelim. p. 9).

•  Medina, Mexico, 1684; Palau 361217; Sabin 99386; Andrade 1073; Tovar de Teresa, Bibliografía novohispana de arte, 105; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 68.   Early vellum over boards, rebacked; new endpapers and title-page backed for strength. Stray stains and ink markings variously, the latter in margins; minor worming in some lower margins, with waterstaining notable in the final section and a brown stain perhaps of another nature in upper gutter-ward areas of the same section, sometimes into text. Final six leaves with loss of lower outer corner, including some text; paper replaced and text in excellent facsimile. Volume now housed in a quarter blue morocco tray case with gilt spine.  (26824)

For more ARCHITECTURE,  click here.

A Fundamental WorkHandsomely Printed Villaseñor y Sánchez, José Antonio de.  Theatro americano, descripcion general de los reynos y provincias de la Nueva España y sus jurisdicciones. México: En la Imprenta de la Viuda de D. Joseph Bernardo de Hogal, Impresora del Real y Apostólico Tribunal de la Santa Cruzada en todo este Reyno, 1746–48. 2 vols. in 1 (29.5 cm; 11.5"). I: [9] ff., 232 pp., [2] ff., pp. 233–382, [5] ff., lacks engr. title. II: [6] ff., 428 pp., [5] ff., lacks engr. title.
$7500.00

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•  The distinguished historian and bibliographer Don Guillermo Tovar de Teresa writes extensively of this work, but here we will quote only a small portion of what he says. “El Teatro Americano es una obra fundamental para todos aquellos estudiosos interesados en formarse una idea de la poblaciones de la Nueva España: su ubicación geográfica — longitud y latitud — con la descripción de los lugares circunvencinos; clima, aguas,y vegetacion; gobierno eclesiástico y civil, familias de indios, españoles y castas, templos y, sobre todo actividades económicas: comercio, ganadería, obrajes, minería, etc.”

Don Guillermo wrote that in his bibliography of works illuminating colonial Mexican art — and these two large volumes also have much to say, not noted above, about architecture, arts, sculpture, etc.!

The volumes are from the famous press of the widow of José Bernardo de Hogal, the Baskerville of Mexico, and they retain all of the fine characteristics that are associated with the Hogal name, including handsome black and red title-pages, great typography (here in double-column format), and use of good quality paper.

The author was general accountant of the Treasury's office of mercury accounting (the element was important in silver refining) and one of the most illustrious Cosmographers of New Spain. He wrote this treatise at the insistence of the viceroy, who was greatly pleased by it.

•  Sabin 99686; Medina, Mexico, 3802; Tovar de Teresa, Bibliografía novohispana de arte, II, 86/87.   Recent full dark brown calf, round spines, raised bands accented with gilt rules; green and red leather spine labels; gilt center devices. Covers with elaborate gilt roll at edges, concentric center compartments and gilt corner devices. Lacking the engraved title, only. Present are intermittent touches of limited worming and, in vol. II, the occasional old stain to a top margin's edge. This is a clean and indeedBEAUTIFUL SET.  (26378)

(Walker, John). Walker, John. Self-portrait with donors: Confessions of an art collector. Boston: Little, Brown, 1974.
$12.50

For other BIOGRAPHIES (not all of art-world figures) —
click here.

Warner, Langdon. The enduring art of Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952. 8vo. 178 pp.; illus.
$35.00

•  First edition. The history of Japanese art and architecture. With 92 illustrations.

•  Publisher's quarter black cloth, over green cloth sides. No dust jacket. Fine.

Art & Antiques Wendland, Hans. Die sammlung Dr. Hans Wendland Lugano mit einigen beitraegen aus anderem besitz. Eingeleitet und beschrieben von C.F. Foerster. Berlin: Hermann Ball & Paul Graupe, 1931. 4to. 162 pp., [85] ff.
$50.00

•  Highly illustrated auction catalogue of a notable private collection of art, silver, antiques, sculpture, etc.

•  Blue paper over light boards, paper slightly torn.

“Arguably theGolden Age of ENGLISH ART” Wilson, David M.  Anglo-Saxon art from the seventh century to the Norman Conquest. Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, (copyright 1984). 8vo. 224 pp.; illus.
$65.00

•  First American edition of this excellent overview of the glories of Anglo-Saxon art (including the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Stockholm Codex Aureaus, the Ruthwell Cross, etc.), with numerous illustrations. Given the nature of the subject matter, the volume offers both archaeological content and travelogue.

•  Publisher's brown cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title, in original dust jacket; dust jacket with corner clipped but price remaining, front upper outer corner very slightly crumpled. A clean, beautiful copy.  (24834)

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