Toronto: Cheshire Cat Press, 2015. Number 16 of 66 copies signed and numbered by the publisher, Andy Malcolm, the writer of the introduction, Edward Wakeling, and the printer, George A. Walker. The press calls this fine production their Sesquicentennial Edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Edward Wakeling, who wrote the introduction, is an internationally known authority on Carroll. Wakeling writes in his introduction: Harry Furniss was born in Wexford, Ireland on March 26, 1854. He was a prolific artist and illustrator, best remembered for his humorous illustrations published in Punch, to which he contributed over 2,600 drawings from 1880 to 1894. Furniss was eleven years old when Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published. He regretted not being old enough to illustrate the Alice book for himself. He was delighted when Carroll singled him out to illustrate the Sylvie and Bruno books. Carroll recognized Furniss’s ability to draw both character likenesses and grotesques; an essential ingredient for his new book. Sylvie and Bruno was nothing like Alice’s Adventures. Furniss said that this was a bitter disappointment to him. Inwardly, he nursed the ambition to do his own illustrated version of Alice. When the copyright ran out in 1907, he drew twenty illustrations for the book. But few people have seen Alice as illustrated by Harry Furniss. The illustrations first appeared in three installments of The Children’s Encyclopaedia edited by Arthur Mee in 1908. This edition offers for the first time enlarged, high resolution copies of the original Furniss art. The portfolio of loose illustration leaves is made available for sale as a hand printed folio. The polymer plates of the illustrations were made from high resolution scans; sixteen of these images are from the original drawings from the archives of the Fales Library in New York City. Printed on Arches Velin Cream French 100% rag archival paper with Janson type. The portfolio is housed in a clam shell box made from the finest quality materials, with red cloth covers and a gilt illustration of the white rabbit on the top cover and gilt title on spine. In fine condition. Paper sheets measure 11 x 15 inches. PRI/111519. Fine. More

Toronto: Cheshire Cat Press, 2019. Hardcover. Number 12 of 42 copies. Signed by Walker, Burstein, and printer Andy Malcolm. Quarto. This is the latest version of The Hunting of the Snark to be published by the Cheshire Press. Carroll's famous nonsense poem has been subject to numerous interpretations over time. In this truly snarky edition, Walker has chosen President Donald Trump and his White House cabinet and advisors for his 21st century lineup of the characters. He writes: "...I think they match up nicely to to the crew of the ship. When you read the poem and think of Trump's cabinet, it's hard not to see the parallels. The political arena in the USA could be described as nonsense, which is exactly the type of poem [this] is. The plot follows a crew of ten unqualified professionals trying to hunt the Snark with a blank map." Thus such familiar names as Scaramucci, Sessions, Priebus, Pence, Mnuchin, Bannon, Sanders and Trump himself appear in parts that reflect their real-life attributes and roles. Bound in grey textured cloth with leather title label to front cover and gilt title to spine. Printed in New Caledonia type on Velin BFK Rives paper. With thirteen engravings by Walker and "The Snark Map" in a sleeve affixed to front pastedown. Housed in slipcase covered in same cloth as book with gilt titling to cover and spine. In fine condition. 71 pages. PRI/011520. Fine. More

Toronto: Cheshire Cat Press, 2018. Hardcover. Number 15 of 42 copies signed by the printer, illustrator, and the author of the introduction. The illustrator writes: "This edition in your hand is one of three interations of The Hunting of the Snark published by Cheshire Cat Press, all of them very different in concept while sharing the same aesthetic, inflecting the narrative in different ways without in the least altering Lewis Carroll's original text." The Cheshire Press was formed by book designer and printer George Walker in 1991. The press began when he and two colleagues produced new editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. For this edition of Snark, Malcolm created new illustrations inspired by contemporary carte-de-visit photographs that were so popular in Victorian England. He has one for each character in the poem, adapting images from actual photographs. He chose images that to him bring to life the imagined crew men on the hunt for the snark. They are ideal depictions for this fantastical nonsense poem by Carroll, written when he was forty-four years old. Bound in dark blue cloth with title in gilt to spine and on cover label. With "The Snark Map" inserted in a sleeve on the front pastedown. Handprinted in New Caledonia type on Velin Rives paper. Housed in a slipcase in the same blue cloth with gilt title on cover. In fine condition. 6.5 x 10 inches. 71 pages. PRI/111519. Fine. More

Toronto: Cheshire Cat Press, n.d. Number 50 of 71 copies signed and numbered by the book artist. A charming broadside from master designer and printer George Walker. Donne's famous quote "no man is an island" is paraphrased in this broadside and printed both pictorially and in text. There is an image of a bee, an knot, and an eye for those words. Printed in black and yellow on handmade paper. In fine condition. Measures 7.5 x 14.75 inches. PRI/091919. Fine. More

Toronto: Cheshire Cat Press, 1991. Hardcover. Number 135 of 177 copies. Around 1982, Walker, Poole, and Brambant founded the Cheshire Cat Press. They spent six years working on their well received edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, published in 1988. George Walker's wood engravings were so admired that the Press decided to publish a book that would be devoted entirely to his engravings. This is that book, which is divided into three parts.: In the first part the 96 illustrations featured in Wonderland are reproduced by chapter in the story's order. The second part, Alice's Misadventures, has engravings that were not used in 1988 along with the reasons why. The last part reproduces some of Walker's preliminary sketches for Wonderland. The introduction describes the procedures the three used in deciding upon each of the illustrations used in Wonderland. Bound in red cloth with gilt titling to spine. Red and gold marbled endpapers. Printed with Century Schoolbook and Hadriano & Hadriano types on Noranda Recycled Antique paper. The drawings were reproduced from Polymer plates. In fine condition. PRI/011019. Fine. More

france: Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1939. Paperback. Thin octavo. Black and white illustrated paper wrappers with black dates to front cover and white "La Tour Saint Joseph" to bottom of cover. Rubbing and wear to edges and hinges of wrappers. No title to spine. Includes photographic illustrations of the sisters and missions around the world, with several chapters on France. Includes sections on Africa, South America, and Australia. 60 pages. REL/011420. Very Good. More

Kingston, NY: Maureen Cummins, 2004. One of 20 copies. Titanic is an altered edition of a single day’s copy of the Wall Street Journal. The artist explores the history of the 1912 Titanic disaster using excerpted accounts of passengers who survived the disaster. The resulting collaged text, which is printed inside the shape of the sinking boat, is visually reminiscent of children’s books, an allusion to the simplistic and oft-quoted belief, “She’s too big to sink.” The quotes chosen highlight the pervasive attitude of denial on the part of both passengers and staff, which not only contributed to the disaster but arguably allowed it to happen. On April 10, 1912 the greatest ship ever built, the Titanic, was launched on her maiden voyage. No cost had been spared in her construction or in the outfitting of her opulent compartments. For the millionaires, captains-of-industry and honeymoon couples who sailed with her, the Titanic promised the ultimate in luxury, status and social privilege. She was the very embodiment of the most cherished beliefs of her age, a limitless faith in science, technological progress, and man's ability to prevail over brute nature. Her owners, The White Star Line, declared her to be "unsinkable." Five days later, on April 15, 1912 at 11:45 p.m., the Titanic grazed an iceberg in the North Atlantic and was fatally pierced through her starboard side. When she sank, two and a half hours later, 1,513 lives were lost with her. Her fate, and the succession of human errors that sealed it, shocked the world. The Titanic, a ship that had been built as a monument to man's power and supremacy, came to be synonymous with human folly and mortality. This book by renowned book artist, Maureen Cummins, retells the story of the Titanic's last hours from memories of the ship's survivors. Drawing upon original memoirs published shortly after the disaster, the artist weaves together a chorus of voices to create a narrative reminiscent of Greek tragedy. Like the mythic ship herself, each statement of disbelief and denial looms larger than life. This beautiful and haunting book seeks to capture the greater significance of the Titanic disaster - an event that haunts our consciousness even though it is a nightmare catastrophe from another time. The piece pairs eyewitness accounts with graphic images of the sinking ship in black silhouette against deeply saturated fields of midnight blue sky and seascape. Layers of time and meaning from the book's text and the underlying newspaper intersect to create a palimpsest of poetry and the recording of events. Twenty copies of the Wall Street Journal were overprinted with six silkscreen runs. Produced by Cummins at the Women's Studio Workshop. In fine condition. 48 pages. ARTISTSB/100419. Fine. More

Maureen Cummins, 2018. Number 17 of 35 copies signed and numbered by the book artist, Maureen Cummins. Secretary deconstructs the life and death-by-suicide of the artist's mother, Dolores Cummins, a brilliant woman, aspiring artist, and housewife for twenty-five years. It is this story that inspired Cummins's later book Crazy Quilt, as well as all the subsequent work that she created around marginalized populations. This book is the first of several around this common theme that Maureen has become well-known for. Secretary is made even more powerful by the structure and composition. It was letterpress printed on sheets of Asian lined paper resembling a steno pad, with titling redacted by hand in graphite. The type used appears to have been typed on an old typewriter. Each section of the book is preceded by a ghostly photographic image of Cummins's mother from that period of her life, reprinted from originals in the artist's possession. The text pages are bound in the style of a stenographer's notepad. It is housed in a stiff grey paper folder. Maureen Cummins is a noted creator of artists' books. Her work is held in over one hundred permanent public collections internationally and has been included in exhibitions at the American Craft Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Rotunda Gallery (amongst others). She has received over a dozen grants and awards and has been an artist-in-residence at numerous venues, including the American Antiquarian Society and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. In fine condition. Measures 8.75 x 14.5 inches. ARTB/100119. More

High Falls, NY: Maureen Cummins, 2010. Hardcover. Artist's Proof. The edition included 30 copies. Signed by the artist and writer. A powerful work on the famed Salem witch trials that is the result of a decade’s long collaboration between the book artist, Maureen Cummins, and poet Nicole Cooley, based on their research at the American Antiquarian Society while resident artists. The book pairs Cooley’s cycle of poems, written specifically for this book, with images from a penmanship book of stern biblical commandments kept by a Salem boy, Josiah Peele, in 1808-09. The book seeks “to trace the psychic reverberations of the witch trials on subsequent generations” (artist’s statement). Each of Cooley’s thirteen poems is written from the voice and perspective of one of the participants in the trials. They represent the accusers and accused, survivors and condemned, focusing primarily, as the trials did, on the women. They are presented chronologically, beginning with the slave Tituba, the first accused, and ending with the girl Susannah Martin, who refused to confess to being a witch. Printed on Johannot paper with the endpapers done on a handmade Belgique sheet. The poems are printed offset with the titles in letterpress. The images are silkscreen printed. She states that the covers are like vintage writing slates such as Josiah Peele might have used. The book’s binding allows for multiple structures - that of a codex or concertina, or as a “theater in the round” that presents the chorus of voices within. Housed in a black linen box decorated with the marks of the accused, who were unable to sign their names. Maureen’s work is held in over one hundred permanent public collections internationally and has been included in exhibitions at the American Craft Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Rotunda Gallery (amongst others). She has received over a dozen grants and awards and has been an artist-in-residence at numerous venues, including the American Antiquarian Society and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Size: 7 x 8 inches. In fine condition. Unpaginated (45 pages). ARTB/092319. Fine. More

Paris: Bibliotheque de la Pleiade / Gallimard NRF, no date. Hardcover. Flexible dark purple leather boards with gilt title and rules to spine. Wear and rubbing to edges, hinges, and corners of boards. Front hinge is starting with splits to leather along top and bottom. Clean interior overall with browning to margins and light dampstaining/rippling to margins of a few early pages. A good reading copy despite condition issues. 902 pages. FRE/010220. Very Good. More

Paris: Chez Bailly, Libraire, 1777. Hardcover. Scarce. Déjean's treatise on odors was originally published in 1764, following his earlier work on distillation. This new edition discusses the use of herbs, flowers, spices, and more to create such products as perfumes, cosmetics, creams, and bath products. The treatise is filled with hundreds of recipes using specific ingredients for making these products. Bound in contemporary full leather with elaborate gilt work to spine and title label. Cracks to joints but text block solid. Marbled endpapers. Interior pages generally clean, with early bookworm damage as is typical of the period. early owner wrote notes in ink on the rear free endpapers. Very good. Measures 4 x 6.5 inches. In French. 492 pages. FRENCH/111419. Very Good. More

Bombay: Free Trade Union Committee, 1950. Paperback. Scarce. 8vo. Light blue side stapled paper wrappers with red title and illustrated to front wrapper. Minor browning to edges. Text is clean and bright. 40 pages. POL/100119. Very Good. More

New York: Croscup & Sterling Co, 1897. Limited Edition. Hardcover. "Florentine" Edition. Limited and numbered extra-illustrated edition. Number 48 of 100. 8vo. 3/4 red maroon leather with marble paper covered boards. Minor bumping to corners and spine ends as well as minor rubbing to boards. Minor yellowing to edges of pages. Else is clean and bright with beautiful illustrations throughout. Several unopened pages. Marbled end pages. 350 pages. We have 4 other titles from this series in matching binding. TRA/011419. Very Good. More