The Book Block :: Fine and Rare Books
NY Antiquarian Book Fair :: April 20 - 22, 2007

Sm. folio, bound as part of The New World, Extra Series, No. 34. Vol. II...No. 10 (bound between Chas. Dickens' American Notes for General Circulation [Vol. II...Nos 8, 9], and Mary Howitt's The Neighbors. A Story of Every Day Life [Vol. II...Nos 11,12]. Recent period style three-quarter calf over marbled sides with gilt titling on the spine. Occasional light foxing. The other bound-in titles from The New World include: The Western Captive; Or, The Times of Tecumseh. By Mrs. Seba Smith [Vol. II...Nos. 3,4] and Letters of Mary, Queen of Scots...With an Introduction by Agnes Strickland [Vol. II...Nos. 13,14]. There are ads announcing Franklin Evans [New Works in Press: "It will be issued...on Wednesday, Nov. 23, at 12 1/2 cents single; ten copies for $1, or $2[sic] per hundred. Let orders be early," and it is included in an ad for Works Already Published: "It was written expressly for The New World...Price 12 1/2 cts. Ten copies $1; $8 per hundred." Franklin Evans, when found at all (auction records for the past 25 years show but three copies), is INVARIABLY DISBOUND.

First edition, first issue [Whitman. Pittsburgh Series in Bibliography, 1993:  AI. I: Binding  A]. Bindings B and C are in brown and pink wrappers respectively, the first carrying a price of 12 1/2 cents, the latter 6 1/4 cents. This is Whitman's ONLY NOVEL AND HIS FIRST SEPARATE PUBLICATION. He said of Franklin Evans, "I doubt if there is a copy in existence. I have none and have not had one for years. R. M. Bucke, Whitman's biographer and executor, wrote that he had, "...hunted and advertised for 'Franklin Evans' for over twenty years, and at last got a copy of it." See: BAL 21393.

Two vols. 8vo., handsome full mottled Spanish calf with triple gilt fillet borders surrounding a narrow picket border. At the top third of the cover is a classical gilt swag with a profile relief head of a woman, beneath are the lines: "I have got a new born sister; I was nigh the first time I kissed her." Spine with two morocco title labels and gilt horizontal dividers; at the bottom is the date 1809. Board edges gilt, inner gilt dentelles, t.e.g.  [Bound by Zæhnsdorf] A. Edward Newton's Oak Knoll bookplate is on both pastedowns; laid in, having been removed, are the bookplates of F. Marion Soliday.

In 1809 Charles and Mary Lamb published two small volumes of poetry which fell into oblivion until 1877 when it was announced in the London Athenæum on June 16: "A discovery of much literary interest has been made in a region that would have seemed unlikely to yield such a treasure. The long-lost Poetry for Children by Charles and Mary Lamb, published in two tiny volumes at Godwin's, in 1809, has at last been found in South Australia...An entire edition up to this point had disappeared...The Poems are 84 in number, and of these only 29 were hitherto known."

The present edition is a type facsimile (including the engraved frontispieces) of 112 copies, faithful to the original in every detail, published by The Leadenhall Press and signed by it editor-publisher, Andrew Tuer. A FINE EXAMPLE. A. E. Newton Sale (1941), Pt II, 624.

Two vols. 8vo., full crushed crimson morocco with triple gilt fillet borders. In the center of both upper covers is the gilt-stamped design of the former owner: a serpent holding a long quill, writing in an open book the words of a muse or spirit pictured above. The initials on the book, F.L., are those of the collector, F. Lachèvre, whose bookplate, featuring a skull resting on an open book, is in both volumes. Spines with five raised bands and elaborate gilt tooling in the compartments. Board edges gilt, inner gilt dentelles, a.e.g. Both volumes ruled in red throughout; BOUND BY CUZIN and signed on the lower front turn-in. FINE.

The compilation of this collection, with its fictitious imprint, has been variously attributed to Charles de Beauxoncles, Charles Besnacon and Berthelot (the editor of UC's Melvyl catalogue adds, "without sufficient reason"), as well as to original publisher, Antoine Estoc. It consists (358 pp. in volume one and 330 pp. in volume two) of satyrical and erotic poetry from sixteenth and seventeenth century France. A similar collection with a similar title appeared in 1618 and there have been other editions published into the twentieth century; the 1924 two-volume edition published in Paris by J, Fort reproduces the title-pages of the first four editions. A very fine set of a scarce and curious work. University of California Libraries do not have a copy of this edition. Harvard catalogues an undated [ca. 1700?] edition. See Brunet I, 1446 for comparison.

Folio (15 1/4 x 11 1/8 inches), in gathered signatures, housed in a custom clamshell case by David Bourbeau of the Thistle Bindery. One of just 10 numbered copies, the book combines an imaginative gallery of photographs—hand-colored and transfer-printed onto deckle-edge Arches hand-made paper. Opposite each hauntingly nostalgic image, Mark Beard has written out in pencil the warm, personal, witty first-hand accounts of his association with his subjects. Some of the more well known persons who the artist recognizes as friends are: Andy Warhol, Pat Loud, Henry Geldzahler, Quentin Crisp, John Corigliano, Michael Feingold, Tennessee Williams, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Virgil Thomson. The subjects are included in sections (i.e. New York Celebrities, Three Gentlemen, Three Serious Ladies, A Playwright and Poet), and there is hand-set typography (by Jim Fredrickson and Ted Danforth) introducing each section, giving the names of the people portrayed, and there is  an attractive title-page, half-title and colophon, which is signed in pencil by Beard. The artist has succeeded in beginning with his own inspired photographs and transforming them into a series of painterly images. His design sense is impeccable and the the book works at every level.

Mark Beard is a renowned painter whose work is perhaps better known in Germany than it is in his own country. He was born in Utah and moved to New York City while in his early twenties. His first book, Manhattan Third-Year Reader, published by Vincent Fitzgerald, was accepted for exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art and it  instantly sold out. Beard has done more than a half dozen books for Fitzgerald all of which combine inspiration and exquisite production. This is the first book he has both created and published. It is limited to ten copies (remember, he has written out the entire text by hand!), and is already out of print. It has been purchased for the permanent collections of the NYPL and several leading European museums and by two important private collectors. We understand that this is the only copy now available for sale.

4to. (11 x 8 1/8 inches), full polished brown calf, elaborately gilt decorated with numerous foliate and ruled borders forming a central panel which is bordered with flowers and contains a central lozenge design with more flowers in its center. Spine with six raised bands, the compartments filled with gilt tooling, including a single gilt putto in each. Careful rebacking carried out when the album was placed into this binding has preserved the original spine. Many of the flower heads along within one of the decorative borders and the central cover design has been gilt (or painted) with silver which is now tarnished. Laid in is a photograph from an unidentified catalogue, of a similar binding. Both examples are settecento bindings from Naples.

The album consists of twenty portrait drawings executed in brown ink, which vary in sizes ranging from 7-8 inches by 5-6 inches; the drawings are tipped onto stiff card. Each bears the name of the hero, his coat of arms, and the date of the original portrait; also at the bottom is a line or two of brief biography. The portraits closely resemble those of Aliprando Capriolo, first published in 1596 (under the privilege of Pope Clement VIII) by Filippo Thomassino and Giovanni Turpino, and reprinted in 1600 when the book was dedicated to Prince Henry IV of France.. That work contains one hundred portraits. The figure included here are: Egidio Albernoz, Card., Tamerlano, Paolo Savello, Gattamelata, Gentile da Lionessa, Bartolomeo Coglione, Roberto Sanseverino, Iacomo Capece Galeota, Camillo Vitelli, Vitellozzo Vitelli, Consalvo di Cordova, Alessandro Vitelli, Marchese di Marignano, Gio. Bat. Gastaldo, Cesare da Napoli, Tannegvi de Castello, Nicolo Vitelli, Baiazete i. Sig. di Turchi, Corrado Capece and Angelo Sanvitale.

Folio (19 1/4 x 15 3/4 inches), accordion folds; title on cover. The final portrait signed in pencil by the artist: Per Anderson 2004/Litografia 1/10 impreso in el taller del autor. Preserved in a marbled paper covered slipcase that repeats the title on the front cover. When displayed fully extended, the work measures more than ten feet in length. This wonderful livre d’artiste displays the virtuosity of the Swedish artist, Per Anderson, born in 1946, who has made his home in Mexico since 1970, where he has fully explored the art of draughtmanship and lithography in the tradition of Senefelder and his fellow practitioners of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Mr. Anderson’s work has been exhibited throughout the world and is included in the collections of the New York Public Library, the Banff Centre of the Arts, Palacio de bellas Artes, Habana, Museo de Litografia Lidaholm, Sweden, and the Instituto de Artes Graficas de Oaxaca, to name but a few.