London: Tommaso Masi, 1789. Hardcover. A charming Italian edition of Boccaccio's classic, The Decameron. Bound in three quarter brown leather with marbled paper boards. Spines with gilt ruling and dark leather spine labels. Leather is rubbed, bumped, and somewhat worn. Paper boards are worn, abraded, with a piece missing from the front cover of Volume IV. Frontis portrait of Boccaccio. Text pages are very good with scattered foxing. Ownership signature to title pages and inscription to ffep of Volume I. Size: 5 x 7.25 inches. Volume I: 317 pages; Volume II: 442 pages; Volume III: 356 pages; Volume IV: 322 pages. ITAL/102121. Very Good. More

New York: Béatrice Coron, 2001. Hardcover. Number 24 of 25 copies. Beatrice Coron is renowned internationally for her book arts and installations. She is particularly known for her use of papercutting to tell stories and create books. This inventive and complex book by Coron is a departure from her works created by cutting paper. It first appears to be a traditional codex. However, when opened one discovers that the text pages in French of Verne's novel are bifolds that open to reveal facsimiles of his manuscript pages of that text. Even more unexpected are inserts between the pages that may be pulled out by green string to document the changes made in the text in the manuscript. A wonderful production. Soft covers in a Coptic binding. Inkjet printed and stenciled on paper. Housed in a blue cloth and black leather custom box with a title label on front cover. Size: 6 x 9 x 1 inches. Unpaginated. ARTB/081921. Fine. More

London: The Nonesuch Press, 1931. Hardcover. Number 450 of 1375 copies of which 900 copies were for sale in England and 475 in the United States. From the third edition of John Florio's translation in 1632, the first English translator of Montaigne's essays. A beautiful edition of the essays by the famed French philosopher Montaigne. Bound in full brown leather with raised bands to spine with leather title labels, and gilt ornament on front cover with the words "que scay je" (what do I know) written in gilt on green leather background. Leather is browned on covers and the spine darkened by the sun. Some rubbing and light bumping. It appears that the title label on the spine of Volume I was reattached at some point and some of the glue can be seen beneath it. Fore-edges are untrimmed with light browning. Tender front hinges. Interior pages are clean. Very good condition. Octavos. Volume I: 724 pages; Volume II: 708 pages including index. LIT/090821. Very Good. More

Baltimore: The Hill Press, 2001. Hardcover. One of 40 copies. Signed and dated by the printer, Stephen Heaver, owner of The Hill Press. This passionate and beautiful tale was written by William Morris at age twenty-one and published with many other of his writings in the short-lived Oxford and Cambridge Magazine. In his introduction, Morris scholar Theo Rehak quoted Joseph Dunlap as having observed that this particular story was the most perfect example of the works published, "a separate thing, better than the rest of the lot." Rehak also said that Morris did not allow these early pieces to be reprinted during his lifetime, and that he does not recall ever seeing an instance of their being done in a fine press book. The story tells of the journey of a Mediaeval stone cutter, his sister and her husband-warrior, all now departed. The prose is lyrical as it tells their story, and the land on which the church sat is described in all its beauty through the seasons. Morris writes of how beautiful the church is "in the solemn starry nights, so solemn that it almost reached agony - the awe and joy one had in their great beauty." This book was printed in Cloister Old Style type on paper made by Twinrocker for this book. Renowned engraver Simon Brett's engravings are printed from the blocks and include a full-page frontispiece of a cathedral interior, overlayed by by an image printed on transparent Japanese paper, and an historiated initial. The title page calligraphy by Sheila Waters was printed from an electro-plate. Bound in quarter black leather and tan decorated paper boards. Housed in grey cloth slipcase. In fine condition. Unpaginated [nine pages of text and three of introduction]. MOR/072921. Fine. More

London and New York: George Routledge & Sons and E.P. Dutton & Co., n.d. [early 1900s]. From The Photogravure Series. Retold in English by the author and with six charming color illustrations by him. This is a lovely copy with a full red leather binding by Riviere & Son, with gilt designs on the covers and spines and dentelles. Red marbled endpapers and all edges gilt. Binding is very good with a few light marks, wear to spine ends, slight bumping to corners and wear along front joint. Interior pages and illustrations are also very good with light browning to text pages. Book plate of Leolyn Louise Everett. An ideal gift book. Measures 5 x 7.5 inches. 95 pages. LIT/101221. More