A Photographic Archive of Women with Musical Instruments

1930. Various locations worldwide, predominantly 19th century with most dating pre-1920. This archive comprises 366 individual photographs, including a single album containing 90 cyanotypes and one focused collection of 19 photographs documenting Vaudeville actress and violinist Mabelle Adams. The archive spans multiple photographic formats: 70 real photo postcards; 65 smaller format silver prints and albumens (under 5” x 7”, excluding CDVs and cabinet cards); 18 large format albumen, platinum or silver prints (over 5” x 7”); 48 cabinet cards;... Read More

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Police Crime Scene Photo Album

Portland, 1948. Photo album (15 1/4” X 11 1/2”) with 115 Weegee like crime scene photographs shot by a Portland Oregon policeman that are equal parts gruesome and businesslike. Many of the photographs have handwritten captions, in white ink, often with gallows humor. Oblong 4to, paper boards, “Photographs” in gilt on the cover, and 75 string–tied pages. The pictures range from 3 1/2” X 2 1/2” to 8” X 10”. Edges of the binding worn, else very good, the... Read More

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An Archive of Letters and 69 Signed Nobel Lectures in Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology or Medicine

1994. First Edition. 69 Offprints, 1935–1994. Nobel lectures in the physical and biomedical sciences, spanning six decades of discovery from Harold Urey's 1935 address on the thermodynamic properties of deuterium to Philip Sharp's 1993 lecture on RNA splicing. 64 are signed by their authors, and 19 are accompanied by typed letters from the laureates, the majority discussing offprints. The great majority were assembled by the Los Angeles cardiologist Dr. Myron Prinzmetal, who corresponded directly with laureates across Europe and... Read More

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A Photographic Archive of Women Playing Sports and Games

1930. c1850-1930. Various places and photographic processes, all but a few are from before 1920. The group totals 218 photos, made up from 61 smaller format silver prints (smaller than 5”x7”), 57 Real Photo Postcards, 40 large silver or platinum prints (larger than 5”x7”)—8 of which are in an album, 18 tintypes, 9 CDVs, 10 cabinet cards, 8 stereoscopes, 7 cyanotypes, 6 glass negatives, 2 ambrotypes, and one button. There are 30 photos of women holding playing or posing... Read More

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Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Three Tenant Families

by AGEE, James and Walker Evans

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1941. First edition. Near fine in an about very good, somewhat spine-faded dustwrapper with some internal tape removed, a couple of seamless professional mends, and a couple of small chips. Issued in a small edition, an extended essay on rural poverty with arresting images by Evans. Aside from its place in literary history, the Walker Evans images have made it something of an iconic volume for students of photography. Parr and Badger, *The Photobook Volume... Read More

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The Executor

by Alexander, Mrs. [Annie French Hector]

London: Richard Bentley & Son, New Burlington St, 1883. First Edition. 3 vols, 8vo (188 x 137mm), pp. [4], 323, [1]; [2], 320; [4], 321, [3]. Publisher’s dark blue cloth, spine lettered in silver, gray floral endpapers. Each volume printed throughout in dark blue ink. Slightly cocked, small ownership signature in pencil on the half-titles ("G. Newman"), and very light scattered foxing at the foredges, some offsetting to the floral endpapers, rubbing to the corners and spine tips, else... Read More

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Ragged Dick; in The Student and Schoolmate Illustrated Monthly

by Alger, Horatio

Boston: Joseph H Allen, 1867. First Edition. 12 vols. in 1. First appearance anywhere, complete in 12 issues of The Student and Schoolmate Illustrated Monthly, vol. XIX no. 1 through vol. XX no. 6 (Jan.–Dec. 1867). The original dozen monthly parts bound by the publisher in their original cloth, preceding the 1868 1st book edition published by Loring, that’s more common than unused treadmills, as well as the uncountable reprints of it, and the hundreds of attempts to replicate... Read More

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1906 Atlanta Massacre; in Le Petit Journal

by [African Americana]

Paris: Le Petit Journal, 1906. First Edition. 1st Continental appearance (?), covered earlier in the U.S. and U.K.  Original sheets (4), as issued. Very good.  The massacre took place from September 22–24, upwards of 100 Black residents of Atlanta were murdered in an event that was, in the immediacy, misrepresented regionally, downplayed nationally and then ignored locally for 100 years. The details can be easily researched, with numerous scholarly works published in the past 20 years. We’d say this... Read More

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A Frame of Mind: Eighteen Poems

by AMIS, Kingsley

Reading: University of Reading, 1953. First edition. Tall octavo. 32pp. Very modest age-toning, else near fine in stapled self-wrappers as issued. One of 150 numbered copies. An uncommon poetry pamphlet.

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Stamped Red Brick Fragment

by [Imperial Roman Army]

Carnuntum, c62AD-200AD. Fragment of a reddish clay brick with the stamp of Legio X Gemina Pia Fidelis “"LEG X C P[F]" (the 10th Roman legion of 5,280 men split into 10 cohorts). Mortar layer on the back, otherwise a very good and well preserved stamp. Ex collection Piscator 1959. Cf. on this piece Brandl, op. cit. no. 187-190. 6 1/2" x 4" x 1 1/4" Legio X Gemina was formed from the disbanded Legio X, the first Roman legion... Read More

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Emma

by Austen, Jane

London: John Murray, 1816. First Edition. 3 vols., 12mo (173 × 107mm), pp. [6], 322; [4], 351, [1]; [4], 363, [1-ad]. Late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century full mottled calf by Zaehnsdorf (stamped on the lower corner of the verso of the front free endpapers), spine compartments and cover borders elaborately decorated in gilt with flowers and vines, brown morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, all edges gilt, inner dentelles gilt. Bookseller Bartlett & Co., Boston stamp to the upper... Read More

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21 Photo Promotional Cards for L'Exposition Coloniale Performances; Pernod Fils pavilion

by Baker, Joséphine [Photographer: Lucien Lorelle]

Paris: Studio Lorelle, 1931. Very good. 21 small format black-and-white photographic cards (5 1/8" x 2 5/8") featuring portraits of Baker by photographer Lucien Lorelle (1894-1968). The cards promoted Baker's appearances at the Pernod Fils pavilion during the 1931 Paris Colonial Exhibition, where she sold recordings and books to benefit colonial charities. Each card presents a different pose and costume, documenting the range of Baker's performance personae. Baker appears in an array of ensembles: elaborate feathered capes, her... Read More

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Articles of Agreement Between the United States of America and Other Powers; Formulated at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference Bretton Woods, New Hampshire July 1 to July 22, 1944

by [International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (The World Bank)]

Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1946. First Edition. The first US printing detailing the articles of agreement of the World Bank. Original printed stapled wrappers with minor rubbing and toning, staple rust, ownership signature of R.H. Stimson to front cover, else very good. 33 pp. The official U.S. State Department publication of the founding charter that established the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, commonly known as the World Bank. This document represents the second major institution created at... Read More

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Bright Days in the Old Plantation Time

by Banks, Mary Ross

Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1882. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/very good. First binding with the title lettering in gilt. 12mo (198 x 137mm), [6], 266, [4], with inserted plates by James H. Moser. In the original green pictorially blocked in black and lettered in gold, gray floral-patterned endpapers with the original printed dustjacket. Light shelf-wear to the cloth, else fine in the integral and unrepaired jacket with light soiling, chips to the extremities and abrasions to the back panel,... Read More

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Nouvelles Pensees de l'Amazone

by BARNEY, Natalie

Paris: Mercure de France, 1939. First edition. Text in French. Fine in wrappers. One of 200 numbered copies.

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The Heroine; or Adventures of a Fair Romance Reader

by Barrett, Eaton

London, 1813. First Edition. —the subtitle was changed in the 2nd edition. 3 vols. A few small, faint spots to the back cover of vol. II (the only flaw) else fine and unworn, brighter than a Hollywood smile, in a royal binding of early 19th century green cloth (ca. 1835), the spines elaborately gilt, with the Royal Arms of Britain and Hanover embossed on the covers (the King of England’s family arms, though traceable to his brother Ernst). No... Read More

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Snow White

by BARTHELME, Donald

New York: Atheneum, 1967. Uncorrected proof. Spiral bound in tall wrappers. A light crease at one corner of the front wrap and the first couple of pages, a little offsetting at the top of the front wrap, one spiral partially broken, a very good copy. The author's first novel. Very scarce in this format, presumably issued in only a handful of copies.

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A Complete Collection of the Baum Oz Books

by Baum, L. Frank

Chicago, 1921. First Edition. 15 vols. 13 of the 15 are the 1st issue throughout, Wizard is a later issue from December 1900, and Marvelous Land has 1 point wrong (rare, despite evasive descriptions), but these are clean and beautiful copies (again, rarely seen like this despite evasive descriptions). A truly superior set, unlike any other set previously assembled or that could be assembled today. This set has, expectedly, no direct comparable for sale. 2 of the 15 are as... Read More

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Hold Your Hour and Have Another

by BEHAN, Brendan

London: Hutchinson of London, 1963. Uncorrected proof. Orange printed wrappers. A little cocked, a trifle soiled, a nice, near fine copy.

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Le Professeur

by Bell, Currer [Brontë, Charlotte]

Paris: Librairie De L. Hachette, 1858. First Edition. The scarce first French edition of Brontë’s first book, The Professor. 12mo (181 x 111mm), pp. [4], 299, [1]. Contemporary red half morocco and glossy speckled boards, spine blind ruled, lettered and decorated in gilt, speckled page edges and marbled endpapers. Light fading to the spine, rubbing to the extremities and a couple abrasions, else internally clean and very good. The Professor tells the story of William Crimsworth, a young Englishman... Read More

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Two Dream Songs

by BERRYMAN, John

[No place]: John Berryman, 1965. First edition. One sheet folded to make four pages. A trifle age-toned, thus near fine. Issued by John and Kate Berryman as a Christmas greeting. This copy Signed on the front wrap by Jean Stafford. Stafford was at one time the wife of Robert Lowell, and their friendship with Berryman is related in *Poets in Their Youth* by Berryman's ex-wife, Eileen Simpson. Why Stafford signed the card is a mystery, presumably it is her... Read More

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Poem

by Bishop, Elizabeth

New York: Phoenix Book Shop, 1973. First Edition. Near fine with a 1/4" split to the top of the spine in self-wrappers with applied label; 12mo. One of 100 numbered copies (of a total edition of 126) Signed by the Bishop. Bishop was a perfectionist, who only published 101 poems in her lifetime. The overt of her poetry is a precise photo realistic account of the physical, but a closer analytic examination exposes the reader to humanistic themes of... Read More

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The Grave. A Poem

by Blair, Robert; Blake, William (illustrator)

London: T. Bensley for R. H. Cromek, 1808. First Edition. William Blake. 1st edition, quarto, (xiv), 36, [4]. of Blake’s illustrations for Blair’s 1743 poem. Portrait frontispiece after Phillips, etched title page, 11 plates by Luigi Schiavonetti engraved after Blake's designs. One of about 590 copies published by subscription. Some foxing, particularly concentrated at the portrait and etched title page, else very good in 20th century ¾ calf and marbled boards. In October 1805, Blake was commissioned by the... Read More

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The Complete Marti MacAlister Series

by Bland, Eleanor

McClure: St. Martin's Press, 2005. First Edition. Hardcover. Dead Time was the first novel in which the main protagonist is a Black woman police officer. Right away the reader is introduced to a hero that is—typical of detective fiction— strong and intelligent, but also actively engaged in her personal responsibilities and trauma, cognizant and empathetic toward the most vulnerable in society. The exposition and character development provides context as to why the lived experiences of an African American women... Read More

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Los Cuatro Jinetes del Apocalipsis [The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse]

by Blasco Ibanez, Vicente

Valencia: Prometeo, 1916. First Edition. Cloth. 1st edition (Valencia, 6,000), 396pp, in Spanish). Original cloth, ripples to the front, a tear and a split along 1 joint strengthened, wear to edges, else very good (also issued in wrappers with no known priority). Paris is the setting, and WWI is the time, for this novel contrasting events that engulf 2 families divided by the conflict. It was a huge success world wide (200 editions in almost every language), a 1919... Read More

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