Manmo hokushi no shukyo bijutsu [Religious art of Manchuria and Mongolia], in Japanese
Baiei Henmi, editor. Maruzen Company, Tokyo, 1943-1945.

Eight volumes (volume 3-volume 10, a complete set?). Illustrated throughout. Stitched-binding, on double leaves, bound in cloth. Each volume is contained in an individual chemise with bone clasps. 29.3x20 cm. (11½x8”).

The work is about the religious art related to Taoism, Buddhism & Tibetan Buddhism, being an illustrated catalogue of the religious places and objects from Mongolia and Manchuria, full of photographs of temples, sculptures, paintings and religious objects and artifacts. The set was planned to have 10 volumes, but for some unknown reason the first two volumes do not seem to have been published, as noted in the catalogue descriptions of Smithsonian Institution Libraries and Worldcat.org.

The Excellency of the Pen and Pencil
Albert Durer. Thomas Ratcliff and Thomas Daniel, for Dorman Newman and Richard Jones, 1668.

The excellency of the pen and pencil, exemplifying the uses of them in the most exquisite and mysterious arts of drawing, etching, engraving, limning. Painting in oyl, washing of maps & pictures. Also the way to Cleanse any Old Painting…, engraved folding plate and illustration in the text, some full-page.

Views of ancient monuments in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan
Frederick Catherwood. London, 1844.

“Before Indiana Jones stirred our imagination about lost civilizations and their treasures, there were Frederick Catherwood and John Lloyd Stephens, whose explorations of the Maya ruins of Central America, Chiapas, and the Yucatan excited the Anglo-American world in the middle of the 19th century and helped spur the rediscovery of the Maya among the non–romance language nations. And it was Catherwood’s illustrations that fixed forever what the temples and other buildings looked like to the Victorian-era and later visitors to the area. “

B-A Note: This belongs more in an art or illustration blog, perhaps. The illustrations have been expertly bound into a single volume. I recommend clicking through to the website for several beautiful illustrations, if you have an interest in ancient Central American history and architecture.

Here’s one plate:

Interaction of Color
Josef Albers. Yale University Press, 1963.

Original limited silkscreen edition. Albers’s masterpiece in twentieth-century art education and one of the most influential resources on color. Conceived as a handbook and teaching aid for artists, instructors, and students, this timeless presents Albers’s unique ideas of color experimentation in a way that is valuable to specialists and accessible to a larger audience. Scarce as a complete set.

2 volumes. 1 text volume of 80 pp. Bound in black cloth. The other volume is a cloth case housing 80 color silkscreen plates loosely held in individual paper portfolios, plus accompanying wrapper bound volume with explanatory text, the two volumes in black cloth slipcase. 34.6x26.2 cm. (13¾x10¼”).

antikvarne-knjige:

Catalogue of the Collection of Jewels and Precious Works of Art, the Property of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1910 Author: George Charles Williamson (British, 1858–1942); Author: J. (John Pierpont) Morgan (American, 1837–1913) London: Chiswick Press, 1910 (deluxe ed.) Illustrated book, fine binding; H: 15 3/4 in. (39 cm) Presented by J. Pierpont Morgan (146.8 M821 Q)

Gorgeous!