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"May blessings be upon the head of Cadmus, the Phoenicians, or whoever it was that invented books." -Thomas Carlyle
Welcome to my virtual book collection. Since collecting actual books is somewhat cost-prohibitive, I've begun to amass all of the books I would love to have if I had the means. Some are new, lots are old, all are unique or beautiful or unusual or in some other way have captured my fancy. Enjoy browsing!
Special Collections: Fine Bindings ~ Fairies and Fairy Tales ~ Terror and Madness ~ Poetry ~ Food, Drink and Apothecary ~ Science Fiction ~ Illuminations, Lettering and Hand-Coloring ~ Magic ~ Supernatural and Occult ~ Alchemy ~ Science and Technical ~ Maritime ~ Costumes ~ Humor ~ Children's books ~ Legend of King Arthur ~ Americana ~ 18th Century ~ 19th Century Authors and illustrators: Edgar Allan Poe ~ Jules Verne ~ Edmund Dulac ~ Kay Nielsen ~ Arthur Rackham ~ Edward Gorey ~ Charles Dickens ~ H.P. Lovecraft ~ William Hope Hodgson ~ Mark Twain ~ Lewis Carroll ~ Salvador Dali ~ George Cruikshank ~ Emily Dickinson ~ Geoffrey Chaucer ~ H.G. Wells
Fantastic Fables
Ambrose Bierce. New York, 1899.
8vo, original cloth lettered and elaborately decorated in red, blue, black and gilt, occasional soiling to covers, spine a bit darkened; ownership inscription; Otis Skinner bookplate laid in. first edition, first issue with four pages of advertisements at end headed “By Anna Fuller” and one-page advertisement for Bierce’s works facing title.
10 months ago on June 23, 2012 at 11:47am
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Robert Browning. London, George G. Harrap, 1934.
Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
45 pp. 4 color plates by Rackham. (8vo) 9¼x6, original limp vellum lettered in gilt, slipcase. No. 131 of 400 copies. First Edition.
Signed by Rackham at limitation statement. Latimore & Haskell p. 71.
via
pbagalleries.com
12 months ago on May 22, 2012 at 11:23am
Aesop
Vita Et Fabellae, Cum Latina Interpretatione. Basel: Johann Froben, January 1518
5 parts in one volume, 8vo (176 x 119mm.), Greek text with Latin translation on facing pages except for Galeomyomachia in Greek only, titles within woodcut ornamental borders, woodcut printer’s device at end of each part, manuscript annotations on free endpapers, seventeenth-century calf, early manuscript fragments used as pastedowns, some browning, wormholes at edges of title and first few leaves, tear to foot of title, ownership inscription at foot of title erased, rebacked.
via
sothebys.com
1 year ago on January 03, 2012 at 07:58pm
![An Intire New and Beautiful Edition of Aesop’s Fables, with Instructive Morals adapted to the Capacities of Children.
NEAR-MINIATURE EDITION NOT IN ESTC AESOP.53 half-page woodcut illustrations. [8], ii-xii, [1], 44; 64 pages, including woodcut frontispiece (A-D in 8s; ²A-²D in 8s). 2 volumes in one. 16mo, 97x59 mm, early 19th-century black calf, gilt-tooled spine with red morocco lettering piece; frontispiece mounted, slight gnawing along fore edge of opening leaves without text loss, lower outer corner of last 4 leaves restored affecting a few letters. Contemporary child’s crude ownership inscription (“Thomas Marriot his Book”) on blank final preliminary page. London: R. Baldwin, 1757](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lstoshBcXL1qabm59o1_500.jpg)
An Intire New and Beautiful Edition of Aesop’s Fables, with Instructive Morals adapted to the Capacities of Children.
NEAR-MINIATURE EDITION NOT IN ESTC AESOP.53 half-page woodcut illustrations. [8], ii-xii, [1], 44; 64 pages, including woodcut frontispiece (A-D in 8s; ²A-²D in 8s). 2 volumes in one. 16mo, 97x59 mm, early 19th-century black calf, gilt-tooled spine with red morocco lettering piece; frontispiece mounted, slight gnawing along fore edge of opening leaves without text loss, lower outer corner of last 4 leaves restored affecting a few letters. Contemporary child’s crude ownership inscription (“Thomas Marriot his Book”) on blank final preliminary page. London: R. Baldwin, 1757
1 year ago on November 20, 2011 at 08:33pm
(MALO, Charles). Livre Mignard, ou la fleur des fabliaux.
Old fables from the Middle Ages and from the East
Paris, Louis Janet, (ca. 1820). 12mo. Contemp. calf, spine ribbed and richly gilt and blind-stamped, with richly gilt and blind-stamped borders and large blind-stamped central ornament on sides, richly gilt inner dentelles, g.e. With engraved Gothic architectural title, richly and beautifully coloured by hand and heightened with gold, and 6 full-page engraved plates, all richly designed within Gothic architectural setting by Rouarque, and beautifully coloured by hand and heightened with gold. (12), 192 pp.
Beautifully illustrated and finely produced choice selection of old fables from the Middle Ages and from the East, edited by Charles Malo, a popular French literary author, born at Paris in 1790. The beautiful plates are designed in a half mediaeval and half Eastern style, and signed by Rouarque. Charles Malo published a large number of popular books. He founded “La France Littéraire”, a periodical with selected pieces of French literature, as well as a circle of Clubs of Literature at Paris. Malo was also an agent of the “Société pour l’Instruction élémentaire”, and a member of several learned societies. In the preface is stated that several fables are here published in France for the first time, carefully edited after the originals. Apart from the fables some poems by Ronsard, Baïf, etc. are also added, as well as epigrams by Clement Marot, and an epitaph by Du Bellay. At the end a glossary explaining the more difficult words is added as well.
3 years ago on January 25, 2010 at 04:17pm
