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Russian State Bank
A rare presentation volume to the bank’s first Chairman A.L. Sheinman, 1927.

A rare survival from the founding days of the state bank of Russia. Probably one of only a few copies. 1922 was an important year for the bank, in that it was permitted by the authorities to issue Chervonets that marked the beginning of monetary reform in the country and thereby ended spiralling inflation. In 1927 the bank was given total control of the country’s credit system. These two key dates are marked by this volume.

Loosely inserted is a bifolioum with a dedication, a fascimile of the bank’s balance sheet running from 1922-1927 and 7 mounted samples of banknotes (Chervonets), original leather, upper cover with large mounted metal presentation plate with a mounted 1923 gold chervonet on relief foliage decoration and an engraved presentation inscription

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The  Water-Babies
Charles Kingsley. London,  1886. 

100  illustrations  by  Linley  Sambourne.  Elaborate  blue  morocco  binding  by  Kelliegram  featuring  morocco  inlays  of  a  fish,  a  child  swimming,  and  seagulls,  spine  lettered  gilt,  edges  gilt.    Blue  cloth  folding  case. 

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The  Quadrupeds  of  North  America.  New  York
John James Audobon:  V.  G.  Audubon,  1849-51-54

3  volumes,  in  8s  (10  1/4  x  6  1/2  in.;  260  x  170  mm).  155  fine  handcolored  lithographed  plates  by  W.  E.  Hitchcock  and  R.  Trembly  after  J.J.  and  J.  W.  Audubon  (plates  1-31  printed  by  Nagel  &  Weingartner,  New  York  and  colored  by  J.  Lawrence;  remaining  plates  printed  and  colored  by  J.T.  Bowen,  Philadelphia);  lacking  half-titles,  light  toning  to  text,  chiefly  in  vol.  1,  occasional  text  offsetting  to  verso  of  plates,  not  affecting  images.  Publisher’s  deluxe  dark  blue  morocco  paneled  gilt,  covers  gilt-stamped  with  animal  emblems  derived  from  Plate  I  (American  Wildcat)  in  the  center  and  Plates  XXXI  (Collared  Peccary),  VI  (American  Cross  Fox),  XLII  (Common  American  Skunk),  and  II  (Maryland  Marmot  Woodchuck  Groundhog)  used  as  cornerpieces,  dentelles  richly  gilt,  yellow-coated  endpapers,  spines  in  6  compartments  with  raised  bands  lettered  and  decorated  in  gilt,  edges  gilt. 

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Irish Melodies
Thomas Moore. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1846.

Additional title and decorative borders throughout by Daniel Maclise. Apart from letterpress title, preface leaf, and end matter, entirely engraved throughout. 4to, original bevelled cream boards printed in green and gold with shamrock border enclosing center roundel showing woman playing harp (front cover) and publisher’s monogram (rear cover),

First Maclise edition, in the original boards, “one of the finest covers of the early Victorian period, probably designed by Owen Jones”—McLean (1983), page 30. Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England 29 (“a landmark … in the history of style”).

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The Mookse and the Gripes and The Ondt and the Gracehopper. From Two Tales of Shem and Shaun, Finnegans Wake
Joyce, James. Chicago: The Compulsive Printer, 1977-78 
Binding by Joseph D’Ambrosio.

Two titles based on Two Tales of Shem and Shaun. Illustrated with serigraphs and block prints by d’Ambrosio. 8vo, original bindings. Each a limited edition. Bound in ruby red velvet and 23k gold leaf over a relief-serigraph, designed by the artist; book and separate print laid into rose board slipcase. Prospectus card signed by d’Ambrosio laid in.
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“Eins within a space and a wearywide space it wast ere wohned a Mookse. The onesomeness wast alltolonely, archunsitslike, broady oval, and a Mookse he would a walking go (My hood! cries Antony Romeo),so one grandsumer evening, after a great morning and his good supper of gammon and spittish, having flabelled his eyes, pilleoled his nostrils, vacticanated his ears and palliumed his throats, he put on his impermeable, seized his impugnable, harped on his crown and stepped out of his immobile De Rure Albo (socolled becauld it was chalkfull of masterplasters and had borgeously letout gardens strown with cascadas, pinta-costecas, horthoducts and currycombs) and set off from Luds-town a spasso to see how badness was badness in the weirdest of all pensible ways.” ~The Mookse and the Gripes, Finnegans Wake

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John Dryden: The Works
Jacob Tonson, 1701.

Vol. III only, title in red and black, some small worming in lower margins, a few tears, browned, bookplate of Augustine Fitzgerald on front pastedown, bound in a contemporary panelled Irsh binding, gilt stamp: “Col. Augustine Fitzgerald 1769” on upper cover. (Fitzgerald family of Carton House, near Dublin.)

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SONG FROM AMPHITRYON
John Dryden

FAIR Iris I love, and hourly I die,
But not for a lip, nor a languishing eye:
She’s fickle and false, and there we agree,
For I am as false and as fickle as she.
We neither believe what either can say;
And, neither believing, we neither betray.
‘Tis civil to swear, and say things of course;
We mean not the taking for better or worse.
When present, we love; when absent, agree:
I think not of Iris, nor Iris of me.
The legend of love no couple can find,
So easy to part, or so equally join’d.

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The Adventures of Oliver Twist
Charles Dickens. Bound by Bayntun. 1846

First one-volume edition, half-title, 24 plates by George Cruikshank, plates lightly browned, modern full red morocco, gilt, by Bayntun, g.e., 8vo, 1846.

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The makers of Venice: Doges, conquerors, painters, and men of letters.
Margaret Oliphant. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [ca. 1900–1910].

Binding: Striking medieval-style vellum, front cover with inset chromolithographic illustration in jewel tones in raised, stamped and gilt frame; hand-painted foliate decorations in pink, green, blue, and yellow with stamped and gilt “studs” laid on, artfully scattered. Calligraphic title incorporating onlaid raised decorative capitals; spine with painted foliate decoration; back cover with fully-filling reverse-painted griffin in blue-green and gilt. Studs and other raised elements appear to be clay or ceramic; upper edges gilt and gauffered.

First published in 1887, this evocative study of medieval and Renaissance Venetian history comes from a Scottish-born novelist and historical writer who also published similarly titled works on Florence, Rome, and Jerusalem. Here it appears in a remarkable hand-painted, medieval-inspired binding with raised and gilt details.

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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson. Centipede Press, 2012 
Limited Edition Hardcover.

The classic novel of personality transference is an acknowledged masterpiece and one of the most influential novels ever written. Now with a new introduction by Patrick McGrath, a stunning suite of fifteen wood engravings by Barry Moser, a front cover by James Bama, gorgeous endpapers by Aeron Alfrey, a back cover by Basil Gogos, a fascinating typographical treatment that destabilizes the text, a handful of Stevenson’s best horror short stories, and a fantastic cover gallery of old film posters in full color. The book is presented in our oversize format, 8 × 12 inches, the same as the other books in our Gothic series.

The wood engravings by Barry Moser are exquisite. They were originally published in small size by the University of Nebraska Press. Mr Moser personally retouched all of the engravings for this edition, and he also created three new wood engravings just for this new edition. One of America’s most renowned artists, Mr Moser’s work has graced some of the finest and most collectible limited editions ever published, including books from the Arion Press and Moser’s own acclaimed Pennyroyal Press.

Each numbered copy is signed by Patrick McGrath, Barry Moser and Aeron Alfrey. The edition is limited to 200 copies for sale. The books are bound in cloth with printed front and rear panels with printed endpapers, ribbon marker, and a slipcase.

Image and Text from Miskatonic Books

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Le roman de Tristan et Iseut
Joseph Bédier, ed. Paris: L’Édition d’art, 1926.

Gorgeously bound version of the beloved Celtic Arthurian legend, here in Bédier’s French rendition — an attempt to reconstruct the ideal original version of this oft-retold romance. The text is attractively printed, each chapter opening with a large foliate capital.

Binding: 20th-century hand-painted vellum, front cover with sailing ship between decorative bands accomplished in a style reminiscent of the Bayeux Tapestry, spine with title and decorations, back cover with castle tower and distant ship motif. Publisher’s original tan paper wrappers with Celtic motifs bound in.

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Chronicles of Fashion, from the Time of Elizabeth to the Early part of the Nineteenth Century
Elizabeth Stone. London: Richard Bentley, 1845

Two volumes gilt morocco extra by Bayntun, with approximately 100 extra plates, 8vo, (good).

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“Fashion, who had found a haven and a home in the Court of Charles the Second, fled from its precincts during the occupation of his successors, the stern and unattractive William and Mary, the homely and indolent Anne, and the heavy and uninteresting German Elector. They had not any of them a spark of that brilliancy whose coruscations in the chambers of Whitehall had dazzled the eyes of beholders, and almost blinded them to the real nature of the orgies carried on within. We have seen that virtuous and irreproachable as Mary’s personal character was, she won none to her circle; she beguiled none of the votarists of the very questionable code of manners of her uncle’s and father’s day to imitate the purity and propriety of her own. It was not because she was virtuous, but because she was cold and repulsive, that Fashion fled away.”

-opening paragraph of Volume 2

Ouch.

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GEJAAGD DOOR DE WIND [GONE WITH THE WIND]
Mitchell, Margaret. Anton Piek. Haag: Zuid-Hollandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij(S. Holland Pub. Co) [1937].

First Dutch edition. A translation of Margaret Mitchell’s classic GONE WITH THE WIND in three volumes: “Vuur Over Land [Land on Fire)”; “Als Een Vlam in de Storm [Like a Flame in a Storm]”; “Het Zaad Ontikiemt [The Seed Sprouts].” Translated by W. J. A. Roldanus Jr. Illustrated by renowned artist Anton Pieck with over 25 paintings and drawings. Each frontispieces matches the respective dust jacket illustration. Tan boards over green cloth stamped with red and black on spine; intricate emblem on front board in red and gilt. Volume one’s dust jacket has a thin closed tear down the left edge of the spine and Volume two’s has a tear along the bottom of the spine. All three have some minor damp staining to the base of the spine with only volume two’s extending to some of the back pages. Otherwise in very good condition in heavy paper dust jackets with duplicates of color frontis pictures attached to front covers. As best we can determine the set is scarce but the original jackets are much scarcer, perhaps rare.

Books 2 and 3:

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5 Christmas Novellas by Charles Dickens

1. A Christmas Carol. London: Chapman & Hall, 1843. [viii], 166, [2] pp. Four hand-colored engraved plates and illustrations in the text by John Leech. FIRST ISSUE.
2. The Chimes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1845. [viii], 175, [1] pp. Additional engraved title, frontispiece, illustrations throughout by John Leech, Richard Doyle, and others. FIRST STATE.
3. The Cricket on the Hearth. London: for the author by Bradbury and Evans, 1846. [viii], 174, [2] pp. Additional engraved title, frontispiece and illustrations throughout by John Leech, Richard Doyle and others. FIRST EDITION.
4. The Battle of Life. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1846. [viii], 175, [3] pp. Additional engraved title, frontispiece, illustrations throughout by Daniel Maclise, Richard Doyle, John Leech and others. FIRST EDITION.
5. The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1848. [viii], 188 pp. Additional engraved title, frontispiece and illustrations throughout by John Tenniel, John Leech and others. FIRST EDITION.

All bound in full crimson morocco, spine gilt, upper covers with morocco inlay vignettes depicting characters from each of the works, a.e.g., all with original cloth bound in at rear, for Henry Sotheran. Custom cloth slipcase. Mild fading to original cloth on some volumes, spines somewhat sunned.

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“Some new remembrance of the ghostly figures in the Bells; some faint impression of the ringing of the Chimes; some giddy consciousness of having seen the swarm of phantoms reproduced and reproduced until the recollection of them lost itself in the confusion of their numbers; some hurried knowledge, how conveyed to him he knew not, that more years had passed; and Trotty, with the Spirit of the child attending him, stood looking on at mortal company.”
-The Chimes, Chapter IV