Boston Book Company Newsletter

No holiday carols yet, we promise

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:16:00 +0000

Thanks to all who stopped by the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair. We are back in the shop and unpacking the trunks. It's always good to see new people at the booth - thanks for coming! If you missed the fair but would like to know more about what we brought, please email us.

We will be closing early at both locations on Wednesday, November 26th (please call ahead if you're thinking of visiting), and both shops will be closed on November 27th, Thanksgiving Day. Best wishes to all for a happy holiday.

Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, Nov. 14-16

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:07:00 +0000

We will be exhibiting as usual at the 32nd Annual Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, Friday November 14th - Sunday November 16th, at the Hynes Convention Center. See www.bostonbookfair.com for details. Please stop by and visit us at booth no. 125 - we will be bringing a selection of Japanese woodblock print books, 20th century Japanese commercial art publications, photography, children's books, first editions, early feminist material, fine antiquarian books (many bound in vellum), and more. The shop will be open normal hours, 9 am - 5 pm through Saturday.

They Also Ran (1943)

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:21:00 +0000

It's Election Day, and for you historians we are offering a first edition of Irving Stone's 1943 American political history THEY ALSO RAN:

STONE, Irving. THEY ALSO RAN. The Story of the Men Who were Defeated for the Presidency. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., 1943. First edition. 8vo., green cloth. Near fine, in an edgeworn, slightly soiled and price-clipped color illustrated dust jacket. The reverse of the dust jacket features a black and white cartoon chart: "Turn this jacket over and see how Irving Stone evaluates the candidates." Offered at $75.00.

We also have a Presidents section in the shop, presently featuring books and sets on John Quincy Adams, Hoover, Lincoln, Madison, Nixon, Washington, Wilson, and Jackson; you can also search our site here and use the keywords AMERICANA or AMER HISTORY.

See you at the polls - remember to VOTE!

Haunting Tales and Spine Tingling Accounts

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:34:00 +0000

Halloween is coming - how about some ghostly Victoriana? We are pleased to offer:

STEAD, W. T., ed. REAL GHOST STORIES: A RECORD OF AUTHENTIC APPARITIONS. BEING THE CHRISTMAS NUMBER OF THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS together with MORE GHOST STORIES: A SEQUEL TO "REAL GHOST STORIES. BEING A NEW YEAR'S EXTRA NUMBER OF THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS (2 volumes). London and New York: The Review of Reviews, 1892. First editions, later reprinted. 4to., pictorial printed wrappers. Good, rear wrapper detached from REAL GHOST STORIES, spine slightly chipped. Occasional light foxing. Illustrated in b/w. MORE GHOST STORIES: loose binding, staples removed, covers intact but splitting at front joint. Complete. Light foxing. Spiritualism, haunted houses in England, ghostly apparitions, premonitions, more paranormal phenomena. Highly collectible and very interesting gathering of stories. With warning to readers: not for the timid!! More images here. Offered at $650.00 #82077

See us in Seattle October 11-12

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:11:00 +0000

We're getting ready for the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair and Book Arts Show 2008, October 11 and 12, at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. Here's a link to the Fair: http://www.seattlebookfair.com/.
Please stop by and say hello if you're in the area. We are bringing a selection of Americana, children's literature, classics, women's studies books and ephemera, Japanese woodblock print books and more. You can see our other upcoming book fair events here.

Catalogue 38A Japan and Asia online

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:05:00 +0000

Friends,

We are pleased to announce our new catalogue 38A, Japan and Asia, featuring 147 items. The catalogue is now online and can be viewed at http://www.rarebook.com/cat38/cat38ad.html. We look forward to any questions or comments. Contact us directly to order or inquire.

Local and New England histories

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:58:00 +0000

We have just acquired a number of 19th and 20th century local Massachusetts and New England histories. Featured above: GREENE, George Washington. A SHORT HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND. Providence: J. A. & R. A. Reid, 1877. First edition. xxvi + [2] + 356 pp. + 1 pp. publisher's advertisements. 8vo., brown cloth stamped in gilt, black and blind. Moderate shelfwear, corners bumped. Spine slightly frayed at heel and crown. Faint pencil to front flyleaf (coated brown endpapers). Tissue guard removed from frontispiece; title page partially detached at bottom edge. Interior clean and tight. Author's note (correction) tipped in after p. 287. B/w map in excellent condition. Very good. Offered at $250.00.

Also new in the shop: 19th century Massachusetts town histories of Boston, Essex, Lynnfield, Woburn, Lowell, Beverly, Medford, Dedham, Manchester, and Plymouth; Eastport, Maine; Warren, New Hampshire; New York City; and state histories of New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, to name a few. For more information, email us, or stop by to see the selection.

Architectural Cannibalism in Rome, 1744

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:03:00 +0000

We are pleased to offer the following, from a collection of vellum bound books (16th-18th centuries) which we have just acquired:

MARANGONI, Giovanni. DELLE COSE GENTILESCHI E PROFANE trasportate ad Uso, e Adornamento delle Chiese. [Of things pagan and secular for the use and decoration of churches]. Rome, Niccolo e Marco Pagliarini, 1744. Quarto. xx, 519pp. First edition. A study of the uses of ancient Roman architectural elements in the building of Christian churches. Tombstones, columns, altars, moldings etc. were often re-used in the walls and interiors. Marangoni was a pioneer in the cataloguing of these "spolia." With many typographical and woodcut depictions of inscriptions, one copper engraving and one large folding plate. Internally immaculate in vellum boards. 1/4
inch nicks to hinge ends, else fine. Offered at $850.00.

Watch our website for a list of these vellum bound books, coming soon; or inquire via email.

Back to School: Education in America

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:03:00 +0000

Labor Day weekend is here, school is nearly back in session, and we are featuring a few of our titles relating to the history of education. The book pictured above is the first American book on pedagogy: Samuel R. Hall's LECTURES ON SCHOOL-KEEPING. Boston: Richardson, Lord and Holbrook, 1829. First edition. xi + 135 pp. + 10 pp. publisher's advertisements. 8vo., quarter cloth with (remnant of) paper spine label and green paper-covered boards, uncut and partially unopened,in custom slipcase with inner chemise. Faint dampstaining to covers with the bottom corner of the first part of the text somewhat affected. Moderate wear, light to moderate foxing throughout. Thirteen lectures, with questions to consider for each. The nature of teaching; children and their behavior; emulation vs. ambition; government of students; appropriate material; more. A scarce and uncommon book, offered at $1,500.00. #80234

We also have books on the histories of Yale, Harvard, Smith, Phillips Academy Andover, Roxbury Latin School, Vassar yearbooks (including one featuring Edna St. Vincent Millay), a Tufts 19th Century photo album, Anna C. Brackett's THE EDUCATION OF AMERICAN GIRLS (1874), 19th century readers, textbooks, elocution and geography texts, and a bound run of the periodical THE RHODE ISLAND SCHOOLMASTER, 1861-1873. You can also visit our website's search page here, and enter the keyword EDUCATION for more material.

Our Beacon Street store, the Boston Book Annex, will be open Labor Day; our Jamaica Plain store will be closed. We wish everyone a wonderful holiday weekend.

1930's Shanghai, album of 111 original photographs

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:50:00 +0000

We are pleased to offer a spectacular vernacular photo album, which we feel is quite special:

EXTRAORDINARY DOCUMENTATION OF LOST ARCHITECTURE, TRADITIONS

[PHOTOGRAPHY - 20TH CENTURY]. ALBUM OF 111 ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS: SHANGHAI IN THE 1930S. (Photographer unknown) Gelatin silver prints mounted in black photo corners. 111 original photographs, a vernacular album of Shanghai in the mid-thirties. The quality and condition of the photographs are excellent. Although the images range in size from 1 7/8 x 2 3/8 to 5 1/2 x 3 1/8 inches, they contain a world of information: vanished skylines, Deco architecture; people at work, at leisure and with family; temple interiors; waterways and canals; rice fields and farming equipment; and in general, the steady hand and curious mind of the unknown
photographer, who in capturing these moments, would often engage his or her subjects, eliciting smiles and curious glances.

There is evidence of the colonial perspective in some of the neatly hand-lettered captions. While the majority of the images are well-composed and technically very good, there are a surprising number of truly superior photographs which wholly capture the feel, bustle, sights and traditions of 1930s Shanghai. Offered at $7,500.00 #84101 For more images, click here.

We are preparing an electronic catalogue of photography and photographic literature for early next year. To request email notification of the release, please contact us at photographica@rarebook.com.

Japanese Commercial Art: 24 volumes

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:16:00 +0000

We have just been cataloging our new acquisitions from Japan. This will be of special interest to those who appreciate Japanese commercial design:

[COMMERCIAL ART] GENDAI SHÔGYÔ BIJUTSU ZENSHÛ THE COMPLETE COMMERCIAL ARTIST 24 volumes. Tokyo, ARS, Shôwa 3 [1928] 24 large slender 8vo. vols., this edition bound in red cloth, gilt, with bi-lingual titling. A remarkable compendium, heavily illustrated in color and b+w, exploring the whole world of commercial art, in Japan and abroad, for the professional. With remarkable articles by the leading proponents of Japanese advertising and commercial art of the day. One occasionally finds odd volumes of this thematically organized work, but it is very unusual thus, complete. Essential reference to late Taishô, early Shôwa culture. Complete, very good. Offered at $4,750.00.

We will be issuing an new Japanese and East Asian catalogue near the end of the year. To receive notification of the publication of the electronic version, please contact us at eacatalogue@rarebook.com with your email address.

New children's collectible books

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:16:00 +0000

We've just acquired some new children's books, including some Raggedy Ann titles from the late twenties and early thirties, and Palmer Cox's The Brownies at Home, 1893, a fantastic copy in the rare dust jacket, $1,250.00, above. We've got a set of nine vintage Harold Gray Little Orphan Annie titles; Arthur Rackham illustrated fairy tales; Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales illustrated by Milo Winter; and more. Don't hesitate to visit our website search page, here, and enter CHILDREN'S as the keyword to browse our selection.

Antique Maps and Prints

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:26:00 +0000

Hoefnagel's Cadiz, 1564
Here are a few samples of our antique maps - the first being a Hoefnagel from 1564:

(HOEFNAGEL, Joris). GADES AB OCCIDUIS INSULAE PARTIBUS. Double-page folio view of Cadiz, Spain, signed Georg Hoefnagel, 1564. From Volume V, no. 5. of CIVITATES ORBIS TERRARUM, Cologne, Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg (1572-98). Hand-colored. 14 1/2 by 19 1/2 inches. Light toning and wrinkling to margin; smudges to key panel and central fold, still a very good print. Of the artists involved in the Civitates, Hoefnagel was the most well-known, as calligrapher, painter, miniaturist and cartographer. A monk, a pilgrim, and fishermen are in the foreground of this peninsular city. Two vignettes show a fortress firing upon ships, and sailors gambling on the shore neared moored galleys. A leopard from the Indies and a toucan from Peru indicate Cadiz' foreign trade. (Koeman, Atlantes Neerlandici p.22). Offered at $750.00

Ortelius, Geographia Sacra, 1598.
ORTELIUS, Abraham. GEOGRAPHIA SACRA. Map of Europe, North Africa, Arabia, and Western Asia. (Antwerp) 1598. 17 1/2 by 21 1/2 in. (plate 13 3/4 by 18 3/4). Beautifully engraved, probably by Franz Hogenburg, and hand-colored. With insert miniature map of the world. A fine, clean copy, with only light toning to margin outside plate, and to center fold. Offered at $1,250.00

De Hooghe, Jerusalem, 1687
ETCHED BIRDS-EYE VIEW OF JERUSALEM
DE HOOGHE, Romeyn. JERUSALEM EN SYN TEMPEL. Netherlands, 1687. 15 by 21 1/2 inches. A splendid two-page spread showing an aerial reconstruction of ancient Jerusalem, with the Temple in the center. 35 ancient buildings, monuments and Biblical locations are labeled. The lower register shows the Temple's treasures in detail: the "Copper Sea," the Altar of Sacrifice, the Candelabra, the Ark of the Covenant, etc. In the foreground is Gethsemane, with the Betrayal of Christ. De Hooghe (1645-1708), a nephew of the painter Pieter de Hooch, was one of the finest of the Dutch seventeenth-century engravers. Central fold reinforced, with a one-inch repair at the foot, else fine. Text in Dutch on reverse. Offered at $325.00

Finley's New American Atlas, 1826 (Missouri & Arkansas Territory)
From Finley's New American Atlas, published in 1826, a double-folio sized hand-colored map of Missouri and Arkansas Territory, offered at $1,100.00

We have other maps from Finley's atlas, as well as bound atlases, local New England maps, and a variety of prints and etchings including our Japanese woodblock prints and woodblock print books.

Japanese photography books

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:34:00 +0000

With the current market strong for photo illustrated books, we thought it might be a good time to draw attention to our selection of modern Japanese photography monographs. Many of our books are signed by the photographer; all are in very good to fine condition.

Featured here is an oversize Moriyama Daidô monograph, Daidô hysteric no. 6 1994, published in 1993 by Hysteric Glamour. This limited edition features over 360 full page (many double-page) b/w images of Daidô's Japan - dark, grainy and ominous. Very good condition with only some moderate wear to cover. Offered at $975.00.

Also among our cache are books by:
Hosoe Eikoh: Eikoh Hosoe (Aperture Masters of Photography), signed, fine, $160.00
Kurihara Tatsuo: Okiri o Hibi no Kate ni Gakusei Tôsô no Kiroku, very good, $150.00
Moriyama Daidô: Imitation, signed, near fine, $685.00
Naitô Tadayuki: Sakura-cosm, signed, fine, $175.00
Naraki Itsuro: The Dancers, signed, fine, $250.00
Naraki Itsuro: Nomads, fine, $175.00
Tanaka Ichirô: Shashin Nichijô 1935-1990, signed, fine, $175.00

You can search our stock of Japanese photo monographs by visiting our website's search page and entering the keywords EA PHOTOGRAPHY in the keywords field. We also buy similar monographs, especially if signed, in very good or better condition.

Daidô hysteric no. 6 1994

Washington's Diaries and other histories, biographies

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:26:00 +0000

It's almost the Fourth of July, and we are offering a selection of books relating to early American history. Featured above in the picture is a set of The Diaries of George Washington 1748-1799, edited by John C. Fitzpatrick. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company for the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, 1925. Second printing. var pp. 8vo., blue cloth stamped in gilt. Minor shelfwear to heels of spines, faint white stain to Vol. III's spine, interiors excellent with no markings. B/w gravure frontispiece plates. A lovely set. Offered at $375.00 plus shipping.

In addition to our shop section on U.S. Presidents, we have a large selection of Americana; go to our search page and type in AMERICANA as the keyword and you can browse away. We carry a selection of the Lakeside Press Americana series, and books about New England, Western, and Native American history. Contact us if you can't find what you're looking for - we'll be happy to help.

Seeking photographica

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:56:00 +0000

Visitors to the store may have noticed our interest in things relating to photography. In the front room of the shop, we have an 1878 albumen print panoramic triptych of the town of Enfield, Massachusetts, which was razed and flooded (circa 1940) to create the Quabbin Reservoir. In our back room, we have a hulking Kodak Century Master Studio camera (currently without a lens) on an original stand. With our northern window light, perhaps we should make some adaptations to the camera and start making portraits ...

We are always looking for early (19th century) vernacular photograph albums, early photo-illustrated books, and historically interesting photographs (including daguerreotypes, calotypes, Woodburytypes, albumen prints and gelatin silver prints). If you have any of the above to sell, or have questions about appraisals, please contact us at photo@rarebook.com. We'd be glad to look at what you have. If you are outside of the area, you can send some digital photos of the material to the same email address. And, please let us know if you are looking for collectible photographs or photographic literature.

Ideas for Father's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:33:00 +0000

Father's Day is fast approaching and we have some ideas for gifts for your pop here in the shop.

Pictured above is a limited edition Nonesuch Press leather set of Montaigne's Essays, originally translated into English by John Florio in 1632 (the third edition). This is a handsome set and would be a fine addition to any father's bookshelf; it is beautifully printed, and has a nice heft to it. The essays include "On the Affection of Fathers to their Children," "Of Bookes," "Of Glory," "Of the Worthiest and Most Excellent Men," "Of Friendship," "By Divers Meanes Men Come to a Like End," "Of Solitarinesse," and a multitude of others, rendered in Florio's elegant English.

We also have several nice gift editions of Henry David Thoreau's Walden; an oversize Limited Editions Club issue of Walton's The Compleat Angler with engravings by Douglas W. Gorsline; sets of Shakespeare, Byron, Pepys, The Spectator, and the Legal papers of John Adams; nineteenth century Japanese wood block print books; contact us and we'll help you choose. And don't forget to visit the Boston Book Annex for more. Please note - only the Annex on Beacon Street is open on Sunday (from noon to 8 pm). We will reopen in Jamaica Plain on Monday at 9. Happy Father's Day!

June 5-7 in London: Boston Book Company at the Antiquarian Book Fair

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:13:00 +0000

We've just acquired a few Louis Wain Annuals from the early 20th century; his anthropomorphic cats are sometimes a bit disturbing (see image). Not for feliphobes. Go to http://www. rarebook.com and search for Louis Wain as the author, and you'll see our selections. This image is from the set of four bound Annuals, our book no. 84428.

So here it is, nearly June, and we're getting ready for the ABA London Antiquarian Book Fair. Boxes and trunks are on their way, and soon we'll be set up in our booth, ready to sell! Here's a link to the Fair: http://www.olympiabookfair.com.
Please stop by and say hello if you're in the area. We are bringing a selection of Americana, Japanese woodblock print books, literature, William England and vernacular (Shanghai in the 1930's) photograph albums, and more.

Boston Book Company welcomes you

noreply@blogger.com (Bostonbook) — Sat, 24 May 2008 14:21:00 +0000

Welcome to our newsletter! As time permits, we'll try to update the blog every week, with news, recent acquisitions, book fair information and more. Comments always welcome.

Don't forget to visit us online at www.rarebook.com.

Boston Book Company