Mission, B.C. Barbarian Press, 2023. Hardcover. One of 108 copies for sale. An additional 20 were hors commerce. This marvelous book is the 52nd book from the Barbarian Press. Its founders Crispin and Jan Elsted write: "We conceived this book as a celebration of our 50 years of marriage and our 45 years as Barbarians. It comprises fifty of our favourite love poems, reaching back to classical Greece and the Old Testament, and forward through the late Middle Ages, the renaissance, and the 18th and 19th centuries to the present day, by twenty-eight poets ranging from the writer(s) of The Song of Songs which is Solomon’s to lyrics by Sappho, to Chaucer, Spenser and Donne, Marvell, Clare, Christina Rossetti, Tennyson and Yeats, to contemporaries Jan Zwicky and Heather Simeney MacLeod, among many others – not forgetting the ubiquitous Anonymous, who contributes five. Eight of Shakespeare’s sonnets form a thematic spine throughout the book. We invited seven engravers who have illustrated our books over the years and have become part of our lives as friends and collaborators to contribute engravings to accompany poems of their choice: Richard Wagener engraved a stunning frontispiece block, while Abigail Rorer, Andy English, Simon Brett, Peter Lazarov, Walter Bachinski, and Graham Williams chose to illustrate poems that range from the Middle English to the contemporary. The type we have chosen for the book is Pastonchi, in its inaugural use here at the press – a graceful, elegant, but little-known face issued by Monotype in 1929, designed by the Italian poet Francesco Pastonchi with the typographer Eduardo Cotti to be used to print an edition of the Italian classics. We are fond of the face. Although it has never been widely used (especially in North America), and has occasionally been criticized by those who fail to respond to its openheartedness, we feel it is ideally suited to poetry, and are delighted to add it to our range of typefaces." The book was designed by Crispin Elsted, who also designed the patterned paper for the binding. Jan Elsted printed the text and the engravings. Apollonia Elsted printed many of the title lines and the cover papers. Bound in half crimson morocco with paper covers at The Mad Hatter Bookbinding Company. Printed on Zerkall ENR White Smooth paper. Each copy is housed in a crimson cloth slipcase with a portfolio containing a suite of seven proofs of the engravings used for the book. In fine condition. Measures 7.25 inches x 10.5 inches. 88 numbered pages + 8 unnumbered pages. PRI/091423. Fine. More

London: Eragny Press for Halcon and Ricketts, 1900. Hard Cover. One of 226 copies of which 200 were for sale.This is one of 175 paper copies. There were also 10 vellum copies. Founded in 1894 by Lucien Pisarro and his wife, Esther, the Eragny Press became well known for its distinctive designs, woodcuts, and printing. The press originally printed books using Charles Rickett’s Vale Press type face; however, in 1904, after the closing of the Vale Press, Lucien began publishing his own books and printing them with a typeface of his design called Brook Type. This title beautifully exemplefies the style and distinctive qualities of the Eragny Press. It is printed on handmade papers with the Vale watermark using the Vale Press typeface. Printed in red and black with striking decorated initials. The frontispiece has a woodcut portrait of Villon done by Lucien Pissaro with an ornate border of leaves designed by Lucien and engraved by his wife Esther. Bound in floral patterned paper covered boards, with a gray paper spine with gilt titling. The spine has faded with some loss of cloth to head and tail, and it has been repaired along its right edge. The corners are bumped and there are light marks on the covers. Slight offsetting to pastedowns and the rear free endpapers. The text pages are generally in very good condition, with a bit of light spotting to the title page. Gift inscription in ink dated 1916, Measures 5.25 x 7.25 inches. 88 pages plus 3 page list of titles. PRI/061323. Very Good. More

London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1934. Hardcover. Number 64 of 300 copies, signed by both Enid Clay and Eric Gill. This book was published to be uniform with Clay's Sonnets and Verses, published by the press in 1925. From Roderick Cave's History of The Golden Cockerel Press: "Were it not for his sister Enid Clay, Eric Gill might not ever have been tempted to work with Robert Gibbings. Gibbings had approached Gill in late 1924 with an offer of work as an artist for his newly procured Golden Cockerel Press, but Gill refused on the ground that the press was not Catholic. Their acquaintance might have ended there, but as it happened Gill’s sister was in want of a publisher for her first book. Gibbings volunteered to take her on, and Gill was induced to be her illustrator. Following Gill’s temporary refusal, Enid Clay’s Sonnets and Verses (1925) became the first Golden Cockerel publication he was to illustrate. It was the beginning of a prolific seven-year partnership." This second book of Enid Clay's poetry is elegantly printed in Caslon O.F. type on Batchelor handmade paper with a hammer and anvil watermark. There are six wood engravings by Gill including the title page. Bound in green paper boards with a cream linen spine and paper spine label. Boards are faded along edges, as is frequently the case. Interior pages are clean and bright, with evidence of a bookseller ticket having been removed from the rear pastedown. The top edge is trimmed with the other edges untrimmed. A nice copy in very good condition. Measures 6 x 8.5 inches. 44 pages. See Gill Bibliography 293. PRI/090123. Very Good. More

Buenos Aires, Argentina: Imprenta Ideal, 2008. Hardcover. In a unique design binding by Sol Rébora. This letterpress printed collaboration on handmade paper is limited to 25 copies. The other 24 copies are in a case binding of cloth and paper. Features a frontispiece woodcut illustration by Lucrecia Ofloff. Printed on handmade paper by Viky Sigwald in type designed by Rubén Fontana. The book design and printing was done by Mariana Pariani and Patricio Gatti. The text (in Spanish) is poetry by Luis Gruss (1953 - 2021), an award-winning Argentinian poet, journalist, author, and professor. Gruss has contributed to most of the media publications in Argentina, from Clarín, La Nación and Página to the Latido and Los Inrockuptibles magazines. He has published the books Malos Poetas (1998) and La carne (2004), among others. In 2003 he received the Argentores special prize for his dramatic work Oscura Clarice. He also wrote the essay The Unreachable (Women in the life and work of Kafka, Pessoa and Pavese), first finalist in the essay contest organized by La Nación (Intellectual Capital, 2008). As a journalism teacher at the TEA school (Workshop, School, Agency) he has received a special distinction that rewards his career. Later in his career, Gruss edited books belonging to an academic collection sponsored in Argentina by the IDAES (Institute of Higher Social Studies). Bound in full dark grey leather covered boards printed with an embossed pattern. Both boards are decorated with relief inlays of white Japanese paper. The title is handstamped in grey to the front board. Handsewn white endbands and Japanese endpapers. The interior is clean and bright overall with a few scattered spots of foxing. The construction of the text block uses a reversible stub structure, which allows for easy access to the sewing threads, making any future repairs for a conservator simple. For more details about this reversible stub structure, see this page: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1afzoVW9qSzVaQchryT8gzpL9MRi4iGvC/view Housed in a custom-made clamshell box with white leather spine printed in matching embossed pattern over grey paper covered boards. The title and author's name are hand stamped in black title to spine. The book is hand-paginated in pencil on bottom corners. [48 pages.] Sol Rébora is a designer bookbinder working in Buenos Aires, Argentina, since 1999. She is a well-recognized practitioner, receiving awards both in Argentina and abroad. Her work encompasses innovative and experimental work in designer binding and contemporary conservation methods. She studied with Deborah Evetts, Monique Lallier, Pascale Therond, Edwin Heim, Helene Jolis, Sün Evrard and Kathy Abbott, among other teachers. She currently works and teaches courses out of her studio in addition to giving lectures and workshops in person and online at schools including the SF Center for the Book and Iowa University Center for the Book, American Academy of Bookbinding and Penland School of Crafts. She has participated in group exhibitions such us Epémère, Tomorrow’s Past and Les Pages Bien Gardees. Sol’s work may be found in many privet collections and inside of institution’s collections in USA, Mexico and UK such as Athenæum Library and British Library. PRI/052623. Fine. More

New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1890. Hardcover. A quite scarce Victorian children's book illustrated by Maud Humphrey and with verse by Helen Gray Cone. Maud Humphrey (1868 – 1940) was a commercial illustrator, watercolorist, and suffragette from the United States. She was the mother of the actor Humphrey Bogart and frequently used her young son as a model. She won a Louis Prang and Company competition for Christmas card design and then began working for the New York publisher Frederick A. Stokes as an illustrator. From the 1890s through the 1920s, her work included child portraits, "illustrating calendars, greeting cards, postcards, fashion magazines, and more than 20 story books." Her artwork featuring children garnered the moniker the "Humphrey Baby." [Wikipedia] Helen Gray Cone (1859 – 1934) was a poet and professor of English literature. She spent her entire career at Hunter College in New York City. This delightful book features six charming chromolithograph illustrations of the tiny toddlers along with seven pages of line drawings to accompany the poems. Printed on recto only. Some light offsetting of chromolithographs to the blank pages and title page. Bound in color pictorial boards with a red cloth spine. Some light bumping and rubbing to corners and of boards and spine edges. Offsetting to front pastedown and free endpaper from a piece of paper. Very good plus condition and probably never touched by a child. Measures 11 x 14 inches. CHILD/091123. Very Good+. More

Oldham, England: Incline Press, 2023. Softcover. Number 32 of about 100 copies signed and numbered by the author/printer. Graham Moss, the proprietor, printer, and binder at Incline Press writes: "Reclaiming the tradition of chapbooks. I try to avoid publishing my own writing as much as possible; introduction matter and occasional editorial work aside, a simple colophon usually fills my desire for writing: quiet, precise, and broadly anonymous. But versions and variations of this poem have been shunted around in my head these past two or more years, only taking this shape during the wintery months at the beginning of 2023. In lieu of anywhere else to publish it, Incline Press fills the gap! Printed on an off-cut of handmade paper it can be cheap enough to be properly called a chapbook, even though it will not see the inside of a chapman’s pack. Rather than avoiding that term, which is getting a bit pretentious of late for my taste, let us at least reclaim the chapbook for the lowest sort of price that letterpress printing can accomplish, even though this is some of the best paper that can be got for ready money!" Printed on Wookey Hole Paper, probably intended as ledger paper from the 1930s. Uncial type used for the titling is Solemnis, designed in 1954 from the Berthold type foundry. The text is set in Lectura type from the Stephenson Blake foundry. The book is hand sewn into stiff gray paper wraps. In fine condition. Measures 5.25 x 7.25 inches. Unpaginated [8 pages plus colophon]. PRI/050423. Fine. More

Sherman Oaks, CA: Ninja Press, 1995. Number 129 of 160 numbered cpies, with 18 produced hors de commerce. Signed by the poet on the limitation page. Carolee Campbell's Ninja Press began in 1984. Since that time, she has produced about 30 books of poetry and many broadsides that are renowned for their fine craftsmanship and distinctive artistry. She is recognized as one of the most important of contemporary book artists practicing today. In book artist Russell Maret's magnificent bibliography of the press, Dispatches From the Lizard Brain, he documents the life and work of Carolee Campbell. The foreword and afterword of the bibliography beautifully describe Campbell's ethos as an artist and bookmaker that has informed her work since she began making books in 1984. Russell Maret writes of her: "It takes a special kind of person to know that what one is working on is not ready to be discussed. It takes someone...who unhurriedly allows her books to germinate in her lizard brain until they are ready to be dispatched into the world. With each new book Carolee teaches the rest of us how it should be done - not how to make books like hers , but like her, to make books the way the books want to be made." Manuel Cordova is perhaps one of the best known productions to be issued by the press. The poem was written by the esteemed American poet W.S. Merwin. From the prospectus: "This special edition [of the book] may be unfolded and read in hand, stanza by stanza, or opened entirely, thus revealing all forty-three, fourteen-line stanzas. Fully extended, the book is fifteen feet long. The five-color image of a river undulates alongside the poem, printed in black, while the [type] setting of the poem itself mirrors the sepentine meanders of the river." A five-color printed river design runs parallel to the text of Merwin's poem, which is printed in black. Campbell wrote in her chapbook, Chasing the Ideal Book:..."this book comes closest to my never-ending chase for The Ideal Book." Designed, printed, and bound by Carolee Campbell . From the colophon: The type is Samson uncial. Printed on handmade papers of persimmon-washed kakishibu for the text and raw flax paper for the enclosure. The enclosure is fastened with alum-tawed goat skin and bone. The map of the world printed on the liner of the enclosure is from the original, the first to show the world's currents, drawn in 1665 by Athanasius Kircher.The map is hand-tinted in five colors echoing the colors of the river. Housed in a plexiglass slipcase. In fine condition. The book can be found in many institutional collections including the Getty Center, the New York Public Library, Houghton Library at Harvard University, Yale, University of Illinois, Brown, the British Library, and at Trinity College in Dublin. PRI/071023. Fine. More

Oxford: Collingwoond and Co., 1811. Hardcover. Quite scarce. No copies in commerce, no auction records save for mention of the book having appeared in long-ago auction house catalogs, including the catalog for the H. Buxton Forman auction at Anderson Galleries in 1920. OCLC lists thirteen libraries owning a copy, of which ten are in the U.S. and three internationally. Little is known about the author and poet, Janetta Philipps other than that she authored this book of poetry, and that it is possible that she was the anonymous author of the novel Delaval, published in 1802. In one her poems in this book on page 31, she notes that her poem "Stanzas" was "inserted in the novel of Delaval. However, there is intriguing other information about her in a few sources. In a biography of Percy Bysshe Shelley by James Bieri he writes that the poet was casting about for young female poets to support and help publish, and wrote to Philipps offering to help her publish her work after being shown some of her verses. He had a brief exchange of letters with her. It is not clear what finally transpired, but it is believed by some that Shelley did help her financially. He is listed as a subscriber to her book. The English novelist, John Cordy Jeaffreson, wrote with more certainty about Shelley's financial backing in chapter IV of his book, Real Shelley. " To believe all that is told to his honour in Shelley’s Early Life is to believe that Shelley made himself responsible for the costs and charges of publishing the little volume of verse, which gave Miss Janetta Phillips her modest place in literary annals. That Miss Janetta was writing poetry whilst Shelley kept terms at Oxford, that she rose to a high place in his poetical regard in the spring of 1811, and that...he was at much pains to get subscribers for her book of poems, are matters of historic certainty. The long list of subscribers to Poems by Janetta Phillips, affords conclusive evidence that, whilst regarding her poetical ability with approval, Shelley bestirred himself in Oxford, London, and Sussex, to further Miss Janetta’s literary venture. Subscribing himself for six copies of the work. It was, doubtless, at Shelley’s solicitation that his Oxford bookseller consented to subscribe for Miss Janetta’s little volume. It is probable that the young lady had other friends besides Shelley in the University, where she found no less than eighty subscribers for her Poems (there are actually a few hundred names in the subscriber list). Still, it may be safely assumed, she was considerably indebted to Shelley’s influence in the colleges for the sympathy and money of so many gownsmen. That Shelley admired Miss Janetta’s poetry, and pushed the fortunes of her book to the utmost of his ability, is certain." Bound in black grained cloth with an elaborate gilt design and rulings on both covers. and gilt design and titling to spine. Covers are rubbed and bumped. There is much wear along the joints, and the the front cover has been expertly reattached. It is worn at the top and bottom with fading to gilt. Rear hinge is tender. Gilt dentelles and marbled endpapers with light staining along the edges of the dentelles. Interior pages have browning, mainly along the margins, and intermittant spotting. Thhis copy bears the bookplate of Francis John Stainforth (1797-1866). Stainforth was an Anglican clergyman who was the owner the largest private library of Anglophone women writers, with more than 7000 editions and 2800 writers. Despite flaws this is a desirable copy of a very uncommon book with an interesting history associated with a major English poet. Measures 4.75 x 7.25 inches. 68 pages plus 10 page list of subscribers. POE/072123. Very Good. More

Moscow: Emile Goozairow, 2020. Hardcover. Emile Goozairow is a Russian artist who paints and draws, produces movies, and creates exceptional miniature handmade books that are printed on rare types of paper and published in limited editions. His techniques create unique designs that often are made with natural materials alone or in combination with relief decorations made from metal or polymeric clay. He creates books that he describes as "pop up," “kinetic carousel," “liporello” or “3D origami.” He also writes fairy tales, stories and mystical scenes. This small open edition miniature book offers the poem "The Prophet" by the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, printed in both Russian and English. The poems are digitally printed on each side of a "two-way" book and accompanied by 17 striking illustrations. This three dimensional binding in the shape of a chevron is embellished with faces and patterns on both sides. It is painted in gilt, black, and red. Something inside mysteriously rattles. Size: 3 x 1.5 x 1.5 inches. A stunning book in fine condition. ARTB/052323. Fine. More

Freeville, NY: Carol Schwartzott, 2021. Hardcover. Number 20 of 25 copies signed and numbered by the book artist. A collection of seven love poems originally from the book "India's Love Lyrics" compiled and translated by Laurence Hope. It includes the original illustrations that have been reworked from Carol's earlier book, "King Zada's Song" (1995). The interior of the book "follows a simple flutter style / accordian format, with each of the six hand-cut arched windows folding out to create tiny theaters displaying illustrations reminiscent of classic Indian miniatures" (artist statement). Bound in paper covered boards with title label to front cover. Digitally printed on Mohawk Superfine Vellum with additions of hand coloring. Housed in a handmade box covered in a variety of papers with title label to spine panel. In fine condition. Measures 3 x 2 inches in a box that is 4.25 x 2.5 inches. Unpaginated. [46 pages.] ARTISTSB/051723. Fine. More

London: T. Bensley, 1795. Hardcover. Scarce. This edition is printed in Greek and Latin. Bion ( onos) was an ancient Greek bucolic poet from Smyrna, probably active at the end of the second or beginning of the first century BC. He is named in the Suda as one of three canonical bucolic poets alongside Theocritus and Moschus. One long poem about Adonis and seventeen shorter fragments of his poetry survive. Moschus (Moschou) was an ancient Greek bucolic poet and student of the Alexandrian grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace. He was born at Syracuse and flourished about 150 BC. Aside from his poetry, he was known for his grammatical work, nothing of which survives. Theocritus (early third century BCE), born in Syracuse and also active on Cos and at Alexandria, was the inventor of the bucolic genre. Like his contemporary Callimachus, Theocritus was a learned poet who followed the aesthetic, developed a generation earlier by Philitas of Cos (LCL 508), of refashioning traditional literary forms in original ways through tightly organized and highly polished work on a small scale (thus the traditional generic title Idylls: “little forms”)[Wikipedia]. The editor, George Hamilton Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860), was a writer on Greek classical architecture and a future British Prime Minister. The book was described as: "A beautiful and correct edition, by the late Gilbert Wakefield, and printed with great care and delicacy by Bensley, but without accents, for which omission it has been much censured, and for which reason it never sold. The work is commended by foreign critics." [Thomas Frognall Dibdin] Bound in red leather with a faded spine with rubbing to gilt titling. Bumping and soiling to covers. All edges gilt. Red dentelles with gilt ornament design. Hinges are slightly cracked but text block is firm. Browning and spotting to front and particularly the rear endpapers with darker browning along margins of hinges. Tear to front free endpaper.Text pages are generally clean with light aging to margins. Very good condition. Measures 6.5 x 9.5 inches. Pages: (8) + 33 + (82). POE/072123. Very Good. More