Build your collection with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Period%20-%20General=Antique" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">antique</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Period%20-%20General=Contemporary" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">contemporary</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Period%20-%20General=Vintage" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">20th century</a>&nbsp;books.&nbsp;Explore special&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/taschen" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">luxurious editions</a>&nbsp;of art and photography books plus unique manuscripts and letters. Browse the world of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/taschen" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Taschen</a>

First Editions

Fine Bindings

History

Illustrated and Children's Books

Books

First edition of the photobook Trying to Dance with additional signed print.<ul><li>JH Engström (Swedish).</li><li>Stockholm: Journal, 2003.</li><li>56 color and 39 black-and-white full page photographs.</li><li>Bound in black cloth-covered boards with a full-page photograph and title in silver. </li><li>Housed in gray cloth slipcase.</li></ul> Signed silver gelatin print by Engström of Radon, 2001.<ul><li>Limited edition print of 20, this being number 5.</li><li>Framed by Absolute! Frameworks, Culver City, CA.</li></ul>

Trying to Dance

First edition first printing of Woolf's&nbsp;The Voyage Out.<ul><li>Virginia Woolf (English).</li><li>London: Duckworth &amp; Co., 1915.</li><li>318 pages.</li><li>16 pages of publisher’s advertisements.</li><li>Bound by The Chelsea Bindery in full morocco with gilt title, marbled endpapers, handsewn headbands, and all edges gilt.</li></ul>

The Voyage Out

Finely bound and illustrated limited edition copy of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.<ul><li>Geoffrey Chaucer (English).</li><li>Illustrated by Eric Gill (English).</li><li>London: Folio Society, 2011.</li><li>328 pages.</li><li>Limited edition of 1250 copies, this being number 275.&nbsp;</li><li>Accompanying 48-page commentary volume.</li><li>Bound in full black goatskin with illustrated design, top edge gilt, satin bookmark.</li><li>Housed in a buckram clamshell solander box.</li></ul>

Troilus and Criseyde

Fine prize bindings of Jameson's third edition of the art historical text Sacred and Legendary Art.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2.</li><li>Anna Jameson (Anglo-Irish).</li><li>London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1905.</li><li>818 pages.</li><li>19 full page steel plate etchings with tissue guards.</li><li>In-text woodcut illustrations.</li><li>Full leather binding with burl flame boards, gilt embossed title, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt with gold prize stamp to the front board of each.</li></ul>

Sacred and Legendary Art

Finely bound copy of Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson.<ul><li>James Boswell (Scottish).</li><li>London: Oxford University Press, 1953.</li><li>1489 pages.</li><li>Bound by Bayntun-Riviere in full leather polished calf, all edges gilt and marbled endpapers.</li></ul>

The Life of Samuel Johnson

Finely bound copy of Donne's poetry.<ul><li>John Donne (English).</li><li>Illustrated by Imre Reiner (Hungarian).</li><li>New York: Heritage Press, 1970.</li><li>198 pages.</li><li>Bound by the Harcourt Bindery in polished calf over marbled boards with hand-sewn silk headbands and top edge gilt.</li></ul>

The Poems of John Donne

Finely bound copy of the Humanist work The Sonnets of Petrarch.<ul><li>Francesco Petrarca (Italian).</li><li>Illustrated by Aldo Salvadori (Italian).</li><li>New York: Heritage Press, 1966.</li><li>369 pages.</li><li>Bound by the Harcourt Bindery in morocco over cloth boards with hand-sewn silk endbands and top edge gilt.</li></ul>

The Sonnets of Petrarch

Finely bound Franklin Library edition of Wilder's most popular plays.<ul><li>Thornton Wilder (American).</li><li>Three Plays: Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Matchmaker.</li><li>Minneapolis: Franklin Library, 1980.</li><li>456 pages.</li><li>Bound by the Harcourt Bindery in morocco over marbled boards with hand-sewn silk headbands and all edges gilt.</li></ul>

Three Plays

First U.S. Edition and finely bound copy of Snow's novel The Affair.<ul><li>C. P. Snow (English).</li><li>New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1960.</li><li>374 pages.</li><li>Bound by the Harcourt Bindery in morocco over cloth boards with hand-sewn silk endbands, marbled endpapers and top edge gilt.</li></ul>

The Affair

Finely bound Franklin Library edition of Galsworthy's Five Tales.<ul><li>John Galsworthy (English).</li><li>Illustrated by John Collier (English).</li><li>Five Tales: The First and Last, A Stoic, The Apple Tree, The Juryman, Indian Summer of a Forsyte.</li><li>Minneapolis: Franklin Library, 1980.</li><li>382 pages.</li><li>Bound by Harcourt Bindery in morocco over marbled boards, hand-sewn silk headbands and all edges gilt.</li></ul>

Five Tales

Finely bound copy of Thackeray's collection of comedic Burlesques.<ul><li>William Makepeace Thackeray (English).</li><li>Burlesques: Novels by Eminent Hands, The Diary of C. Jeames de la Pluche, The Tremendous Adventures of Major Gahagan, The Fatal Boots, Little Travels and Roadside Sketches.</li><li>New York: Brentano’s, c. 1900.</li><li>394 pages.</li><li>Bound by Harcourt Bindery in morocco over marbled boards and hand-sewn silk endbands.</li></ul>

Burlesques

Finely bound limited edition of Smollet's Adventures of Count Fathom.<ul><li>Tobias Smollett (Scottish).</li><li>London: George Routledge and Sons, 1884.</li><li>416 pages.</li><li>Limited edition of 350, this being number 345.</li><li>Bound by Harcourt Bindery in morocco over marbled boards with gold gilt titles, decorations and ruling with hand-sewn silk endbands.</li></ul>

The Adventures of Count Fathom 

Finely bound copy of Cellini's autobiography.<ul><li>Benvenuto Cellini (Italian).</li><li>Illustrated by Fritz Kredel (German).</li><li>New York: The Heritage Press, c. 1960.</li><li>301 pages.</li><li>Bound by the Harcourt Bindery in morocco over cloth-covered boards with gilt titles and borders, hand-sewn silk endbands, marbled endpapers and with top edge gold gilt.</li></ul>

The Life of Benvenuto Cellini

Finely bound copy of Virgil's poem, The Georgics.<ul><li>Virgil (Roman).</li><li>Translated by John Dryden (English).</li><li>Illustrated by Bruno Bramanti (Italian).</li><li>New York: Heritage Press, 1953.</li><li>155 pages.</li><li>Bound by Harcourt Bindery in morocco over cloth-covered boards with gold gilt titles, hand-sewn silk endbands, gold ruling to the boards, marbled endpapers with top edge gilt.</li></ul>

The Georgics

Finely bound copy of Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel.<ul><li>Francois Rabelais (French).</li><li>Illustrated by Lynd Ward (American).</li><li>Translated by Jacques LeClercq (Belgian).</li><li>Gargantua and Pantagruel: The Five Books by Francois Rabelais.</li><li>New York: Heritage Press, 1942.</li><li>764 pages.</li><li>Bound by the Harcourt Bindery in morocco and decorative gilt motifs with marbled endpapers, hand-sewn silk headbands, and top edge gilt. </li></ul>

Gargantua and Pantagruel 

Finely bound first edition first issue of Ruark's Something of Value.<ul><li>Robert Ruark (American).</li><li>New York: Doubleday, 1955.</li><li>566 pages.</li><li>Rebound by Derek Woolf in three-quarter dark brown Nigerian calf leather over marble covered boards with raised bands to the spine with gilt lettering. </li></ul>

Something of Value

Subway Drawings by Keith Haring&nbsp;exhibition catalogue, published for the occasion "Keith Haring / New York City Subway Drawings 1983," June 5—August 7, 1983.<ul><li>Keith Haring (American).</li><li>Text by Andrea Miller-Keller (American).</li><li>Photographs by Tseng Kwong Chi (American).</li><li>Hartford, Connecticut: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1983.</li><li>6 pages.</li><li>Part of an unsigned edition of unknown size.</li><li>Includes a blue foldout insert featuring four illustrations.</li><li>Includes an exhibition checklist and selected exhibition bibliography.</li><li>Hole-punched pages are original to the pamphlet.</li></ul>

Keith Haring Subway Drawings 1983

Finely bound and printed copy of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin.<ul><li>Alexander Pushkin (Russian).</li><li>Translated into English by Vladimir Nabokov (Russian-American) with the Russian in Cyrillic transliteration by Stanislav Shvabrin.</li><li>Illustrated by Stan Washburn (American).</li><li>San Francisco: Arion Press, 2018.</li><li>256 pages.</li><li>Folio.</li><li>Frontispiece reproduces a painting by Stan Washburn, portraying Pushkin and Nabokov side by side, painted especially for this edition.</li><li>Limited edition of 300 copies, this being 75.</li><li>Sewn by hand with linen thread over linen tapes, with handsewn bands at the head and foot in three colors of silk thread, and cover with a brown goatskin spine with gold foil-stamped titling and tan cloth over boards and with original prospectus.</li><li>Housed in a dark brown cloth slipcase with gold gilt titling on the spine.</li></ul> From the publisher, “Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837) is not only Russia’s greatest poet, but also, to those in a position to judge, the greatest poet since Shakespeare. His novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, stands at the center of Russian literature in a way that nothing else in world literature dominates its tradition. By common consent, Pushkin is also the most untranslatable of writers. Dante and Shakespeare have long been admired across linguistic borders, but because Pushkin’s unique harmony of rhyme and reason defies translation, his reputation outside those who knew Russian remained pallid or merely notional for more than a century after his death. His quality did not become apparent to the English-speaking world until Nabokov’s 1964 Eugene Onegin translation and commentary, revised still more stringently in the 1975 version that this edition follows.” As Brian Boyd declares: “Nabokov would have been thrilled to see this Arion edition, which solves these problems of presentation so elegantly: the English translation with, beside it, the Cyrillic original interlineated with an indented stress-marked transliteration (prepared by Stanislav Shvabrin, the leading scholar of the finer points of Nabokov’s verse), both original and transliteration set in type small enough that their two versions of the line match the placement and numbering of the lines of the translation, so that the eye can easily skip from English to Russian. “But what difference could a mere typographic arrangement make? In this case, all the difference in the world. It allows Pushkin to leap into sharp focus; it allows Nabokov’s aims in translating the poem as he did to become instantly clear; it allows readers to see the essential modesty and solicitude that drove Nabokov’s method.” In a tour de force of typography and letterpress printing, Nabokov’s English is presented alongside the original in Cyrillic, accompanied by a transliteration. The paper is Italian mold-made Magnani, the types are Bembo for the English translation, 16 point; Modern 8A for the Cyrillic and transliteration, 12 point; and Ariston script for display in various sizes. About the Arion Press: Since its inception in 1974, the Arion Press has published 118 deluxe limited editions that are breathtaking in their scope and artistry. Combining notable literature illustrated with original artwork from prominent artists, Andrew Hoyem and his team at the Arion Press have carried on the tradition of the livre d’artiste in spectacular fashion. Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times put it best when he wrote, "The Arion Press produces some of the most beautiful limited-edition, hand-printed books in the world."

Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse

Finely bound and illustrated set of three plays by the famed Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.<ul><li>Henrik Ibsen (Norwegian).</li><li>Illustrated by Fredrik Matheson (Swedish).</li><li>Introduction by John Gassner (American).</li><li>New York: The Heritage Press, 1965.</li><li>Bound in three-quarter morocco leather over complementary cloth-covered boards by the Harcourt Bindery, Charlestown, Massachusetts, with raised bands to the spine, gilt titles and ruling, and decorative central gold gilt motifs, single gilt lines to the boards and corners, hand-sewn silk endbands with the top page edges gold gilt.</li></ul>

An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, and Hedda Gabbler

Finely bound portfolios of signed photographs by Baldridge, showcasing his signature style.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2.</li><li>Jamie Baldridge (American).</li><li>[South Dennis, Massachusetts]: 21st Editions, 2009.</li><li>2 Volumes.</li><li>Signed Deluxe Edition of 17 copies, this being number 4.</li><li>The book is signed and numbered by Jamie Baldridge, John Wood and the publisher Steven Albahari on the limitation page, and includes a letter of provenance from Lance Speer.</li><li>12 signed original hand-printed pigment ink prints and one signed loose print housed in a folded, letterpress printed presentation folder.</li><li>Bound in patina brass covers and printed in letterpress on handmade cotton rag paper.</li><li>Housed in a custom clamshell box with the title on a leather label affixed to the box.</li><li>The portfolio of 13 signed free-standing prints is housed in a separate custom clamshell box that matches the clamshell box with the book.</li></ul> In 2009, fine press photography book publisher 21st Editions released The Everywhere Chronicles. Limited to 50 copies worldwide, each of the hand-bound collections contains 13 original pigment ink prints (11 bound and one free-standing print — The Voyager — that is suitable for framing). Each print is signed by Jamie Baldridge. The first 17 numbered editions also contain a separate portfolio of 13 signed free-standing prints that appear in the book. Each edition is numbered and signed by the artist, the editor and the publisher. These copies, 4 of 50, were presented to Lance Speer, 21st Editions Contributing Editor and Director of Marketing, upon completion of the project. The edition sold out shortly after release. From the publisher, “To say that Jamie Baldridge is an imaginative genius is to state what will be obvious to anyone who views The Everywhere Chronicles, though readers of the tale he wrote to accompany the photographs may decide he is an escapee from the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Using sumptuous colors and the most bizarre, sometimes zany, often mystical imagery, Baldridge reveals a world he has miraculously imagined. He then takes us on tour through the whimsical travelogue he has written to accompany his masterful photographs. His guidebook may be a little mad, but his photographs are no collection of elaborate jests and spoofs. They are the stuff of archetypes, and they transport us to mythic places of the mind, of memory, and of histories not yet written. In a natural evolution, 21st Editions (a unique publisher known throughout the world for its mastery of classic photographic processes such as platinum prints, hand-pulled photogravure and silver gelatin photographs) has utilized color pigment ink printing for the first time with The Everywhere Chronicles. This is due to the fact that we at 21st Editions wish to stay true to the original and preferred medium of the artist, who works exclusively in pigment ink and who personally printed and signed each photograph himself. The result is our first color book, one that reflects our decade-long commitment to creating the finest photography books in existence, incorporating the widest range of original processes available.” Awards: 21st Editions was awarded the prestigious 2009 Lucie Award for Book Publisher of the Year for their publication of The Everywhere Chronicles. The worldwide photography community pays tribute to the year’s most outstanding photographic achievements at the annual Lucie Awards ceremony. The Lucies recognize men and women whose life’s work in photography merits the highest acclaim by their peers. As 2003 honoree, Douglas Kirkland said, “The movie industry has its Oscars and the photography community has its Lucies."

The Everywhere Chronicles

Finely bound copy of Taylor's poems in an artist binding.<ul><li>Richard Taylor (English).</li><li>Woodblock illustrations by Wesley Bates (Canadian).</li><li>Unique Exhibition Binding by Constance Wozny (American).</li><li>Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 2001.</li><li>Signed limited edition of 600, this being number 133.</li><li>Signed by the author, illustrator and binder on the limitation page.</li><li>Bound in a unique fine binding designed and executed by Constance Wozny in 2001, sewn into boards and bound in full goat leather with silver stamping to the front cover.</li></ul> The binding was selected for inclusion in 2002 Midwest Chapter of the Guild of Bookworkers exhibit, which was on display at numerous venues in 2003, including Northwestern University and The Minnesota Center for Book Arts. Published in 2001 by Larkspur Press, Kentucky, Stone Eye is a collaboration between Richard Taylor, Kentucky's former poet laureate, Gray Zeitz, letterpress printer and publisher of Larkspur Press, and Canadian artist Wesley Bates who produced the woodcut engravings for the book.&nbsp;A total of 600 signed and numbered copies were released with 31 of these copies being set aside unbound so that unique bindings could be produced by members of the Guild of Bookworkers who were selected to participate in the 2002 exhibition. About the Artist:&nbsp;Constance Wozny has been a bookbinder for over 18 years and her creations are widely exhibited in various exhibitions and juried shows in the United States, France, England, Australia and Tokyo. Her bindings are included in the permanent collections of numerous institutions ranging from the Special Collections Department of the Chicago Main Library to the University of Michigan Library in Ann Arbor. She holds a degree in Marketing from Eastern Kentucky University and has studied with many notable book artists and fine binders, including Tini Miura, Monique Lallier, Dominic Riley and Don Ethington. Her artistic works have been featured in book art exhibition venues locally, nationally and internationally as well as in several book art publications. Her studio is located in Louisville, Kentucky.

Stone Eye

First British Edition of Orwell's critically acclaimed first novel.<ul><li>George Orwell (English).</li><li>London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1935.</li><li>318 pages.</li><li>Bound in contemporary full morocco with raised bands to the spine with gold gilt ruling, titles and decorative central motifs, gilt ruling to the borders of the front and rear covers, marbled endpapers, hand-sewn silk endbands, and the top page edges are gold gilted, and with the original cloth spine bound in at the rear of the book.</li></ul> The book recounts Orwell’s five years' service as a police officer in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, 1922–1927, and is an honest and evocative novel based on life in upper Burma when Britain's rule was still unchallenged. The novel was initially rejected by British publishers due to concerns that his caustic critique of colonialism might be considered libelous to those portrayed. Orwell was able to get the book published in America in 1934 by Harper &amp; Brothers. The Gollancz edition is the First British with the characters’ names changed to avoid libel cases.

Burmese Days

Finely bound first-edition copy of Stevenson's Catriona, originally published as a serialized novel by Atlantic Monthly under the title David Balfour.<ul><li>Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish).</li><li>Catriona. A Sequel to "Kidnapped" Being Memoirs of the Further Adventures of David Balfour at Home and Abroad.</li><li>London: Cassell and Company, 1893.</li><li>371 pages with several pages of advertisements by the publisher at the end of the book.</li><li>Bound by Sickles in full sage crushed morocco leather, raised bands with gilt titling and strapwork that extends from the bands onto the covers which feature ornamented outer corners with gilt roses, vines and petals in onlaid leather in red, and a central gilt monogram to the front cover, fancy dentelles, green silk endpapers, and the top page ends are gold gilted, and with the original cloth spine and cover are bound into the rear of the book.</li></ul>

Catriona

First edition, first printing of Baron at the Ballet that features the stunning photography of Baron Sterling Nahum, the official photographer for Sadler's Wells Ballet, London, and court photographer to the British Royal Family.<ul><li>Baron Sterling Nahum (English).</li><li>Introduction and commentary is by Arnold L. Haskell (English).</li><li>London: Collins, 1950.</li><li>222 printed pages with 8 full-page color photographs and a collection of over 270 monochrome images.</li><li>Bound in full dark brown morocco leather Bayntun Riviere, onlaid in the center of the front cover in various colors of morocco leather is a theater mask, spine treatment consists of raised bands, an onlaid treatment of masks that replicate the front cover design, and a compartment with the title in gold gilt, with gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers and top page ends gilt.</li></ul> The book is divided into sections devoted to illustrating, describing and assessing the work of many famous ballet companies as well as dancers such as Markova, Argyle, Fonteyn, Shearer, Grey and Helpmann, Pagava, Vyroubova, Danilova, Baronova and Kaye. From the publisher, "This book covers Baron's work as a photographer of ballet from 1935 to 1950 and as such it is probably the most comprehensive collection of ballet photographs by one photographer ever to have been published."

Baron at the Ballet

Finely bound edition of the plays of J.M. Barrie that contains the most important of his full-length works for the stage and the best of his one-act plays, including&nbsp;Peter Pan&nbsp;by which the character of Peter Pan was established in the form we think of him today.<ul><li>J.M. Barrie (Scottish).</li><li>New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1935.</li><li>871 pages with a frontispiece portrait of J.M. Barrie protected by a tissue guard.</li><li>Bound in a signed full leather binding by Riviere and Son with six compartments to the spine with elaborate gilt tooling, double gild rule to the boards, colorful floral endpapers, gilt end pages and gilt dentelles.</li><li>Housed in a buckram slipcase.</li></ul>

The Plays of J.M. Barrie in One Volume

Signed limited-edition copy of the Arion Press' edition of Moliere's Tartuffe.<ul><li>Moliere [Jean-Baptiste Poquelin] (French).</li><li>Translated by poet laureate Richard Wilbur (American).</li><li>Illustrated by William Hamilton (American).</li><li>San Francisco: Arion Press, 2004.</li><li>120 pages.</li><li>Folio.</li><li>Numbered limitation of 300 copies, with this being an unknown number because the book remains unopened in the publisher’s original packaging.</li><li>Signed by Richard Wilbur and William Hamilton.</li><li>Bound in full cloth over boards, the fabric of a burgundy moiré satin, stamped in gold with titling on the spine and front cover, and with the original prospectus.</li></ul> From the publisher: “Molière was born and died in Paris (1622–1673). He began as an actor and by 1658 he was presenting plays at the Louvre in its rental theater. In 1664, he staged Tartuffe as a royal divertisement at Versailles, causing a scandal for it being perceived as criticism of the upper classes and anti-clerical. The king supported Molière but performances were suspended. The play was revived in 1667 under the title Panulphe, ou L'imposteur, but was banned by the clergy...Richard Wilbur's rhymed verse translation of Tartuffe is a treat to read, and his translations, especially of the plays of Molière, have brought him great acclaim. The cartoonist, humor writer and playwright William Hamilton, is well-known for his drawings in The New Yorker. His liquid line and quick capturing of character and expression provide the perfect foil for the play.” The type is 16-point Van Dijck composed in Monotype for the text with larger sizes handset for display and an ornamental type, Fontanesi, for the title, an initial letter and act numbers, and photopolymer plates were used for the illustrations. The paper is Arches, a French mold-made sheet. The names of characters are separated from the dialogue by a curving rule. The rule, running heads, folios, the decorative type and speeches repeated in larger type beneath the illustrations are printed in burgundy ink. About the Arion Press: Since its inception in 1974, the Arion Press has published 118 deluxe limited editions that are breathtaking in their scope and artistry. Combining notable literature illustrated with original artwork from prominent artists, Andrew Hoyem and his team at the Arion Press have carried on the tradition of the livre d’artiste in spectacular fashion. Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times put it best when he wrote, "The Arion Press produces some of the most beautiful limited-edition, hand-printed books in the world."

Tartuffe

Limited-edition copy of Milosz's Swiat/The World signed by the author and artist Jim Dine.<ul><li>Czeslaw Milosz (Polish-American).</li><li>Illustrated with a portrait of the poet in dry-point engraving with chine collé by Jim Dine (American).</li><li>Introductory essay by Helen Vendler (American).</li><li>San Francisco: Arion Press, 1989.</li><li>60 pages.</li><li>Limited edition of 200 copies.</li><li>The types are Monotype Ehrhardt and handset Janson, paper is Curtis Ruysdael with Intaglio printing by R. E. Townsend, Inc., Georgetown, Massachusetts.</li><li>Bound in boards with a brown cloth spine and yellow handmade paper for the sides and with the original prospectus.</li></ul> From the publisher, “Milosz, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature, wrote this sequence of poems in Warsaw in 1943, during the Nazi occupation, and it is considered among his greatest works. The English translation is his own. For the original Polish text, we ordered matrices to cast the special characters.” About the Arion Press: Since its inception in 1974, the Arion Press has published 118 deluxe limited editions that are breathtaking in their scope and artistry. Combining notable literature illustrated with original artwork from prominent artists, Andrew Hoyem and his team at the Arion Press have carried on the tradition of the livre d’artiste in spectacular fashion. Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times put it best when he wrote, "The Arion Press produces some of the most beautiful limited-edition, hand-printed books in the world."

Swiat The World 

Beautifully illustrated limited-edition copy of the original telling of the Lulu story by playwright Frank Wedekind, which inspired the silent cinema classic Pandora’s Box and the Alban Berg opera Lulu.<ul><li>Frank Wedekind (German).</li><li>Illustrated by William Kentridge (South African).</li><li>San Francisco: Arion Press, 2015,</li><li>Limited edition of 400 copies signed by Kentridge, this being number 400.</li><li>176 pages and printed by letterpress in black and red with the 67 illustrations bound into the book.</li><li>Housed in an illustrated slipcase.</li></ul> The images were derived from brush and ink drawings for projections for Kentridge’s 2015 production of Alban Berg’s opera Lulu, which was based on the two Wedekind plays from the turn of the century, Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box. Following its acclaimed run at the Metropolitan Opera, Kentridge’s production opened in London on November 9, 2016, at the English National Opera, and in Rome on May 17, 2017.Since its inception in 1974, the Arion Press has published 118 deluxe limited editions that are breathtaking in their scope and artistry. Combining notable literature illustrated with original artwork from prominent artists, Andrew Hoyem and his team at the Arion Press have carried on the tradition of the livre d’artiste in spectacular fashion. Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times put it best when he wrote, "The Arion Press produces some of the most beautiful limited-edition, hand-printed books in the world."

The Lulu Plays

Finely bound illustrated deluxe signed limited edition of Wilde's Fairy Tales, signed by Merlin Holland, the author's grandson, and the illustrator Sandow Birk.<ul><li>Oscar Wilde (English).</li><li>Illustrated Sandow Birk (American).</li><li>Introduction by Merlin Holland (English).</li><li>San Francisco: Arion Press, 2018.</li><li>152 pages printed in Bookman Monotype and hand composition, ornamented with initial Phyllis capitals, by letterpress on mold-made Magnani 90gsm Raffaello.</li><li>Includes 19 drawings by Birk reproduced by polymer plates, frontispiece, “Love and Death,” and full pages images for each of the nine stories.</li><li>Deluxe signed limited edition of 25 copies, this being number 12.</li><li>Machine-sewn, bound with an olive green cloth spine and paper sides imprinted with titling and a foil stamped butterfly, and with decorative initials foil stamped in 22k gold.</li><li>Housed in a slipcase.</li></ul> From the publisher: “Oscar Wilde (1854–1990) wrote his “fairy tales” in two installments at a pivotal point in his career. The Happy Prince and Other Tales, envisioned as a collection of children’s stories, was published in 1888, while Wilde was still serving as the editor of The Lady’s World, to all appearances happily married with children. The second collection, A House of Pomegranates, dedicated to his wife, Constance, was published in 1891. The Picture of Dorian Gray was published in the same year, marking a period of intense creativity for Wilde.” Accompanied by the drawings of artist Sandow Birk, whose images deftly extract messages from the stories and capture them in the light of modern-day, the Arion Press edition of The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde is an essential piece in the puzzle of the writer’s work. Birk’s artworks capture both the contradiction and the complexity of the stories, illuminating their timeless themes through imagery that bears a startling and immediate familiarity to today’s reader. The stark lines and style might at first trick an unsuspecting viewer into believing they do hail from Victorian times, but the content is very much of the now.Wilde once explained, “My fairy tales … are an attempt to mirror modern life in a form remote from reality—to deal with modern problems in a mode that is ideal and not imitative.” He went on to add, “They are, of course, slight and fanciful, and written, not for children, but for childlike people from eighteen to eighty!” Since its inception in 1974, the Arion Press has published 118 deluxe limited editions that are breathtaking in their scope and artistry. Combining notable literature illustrated with original artwork from prominent artists, Andrew Hoyem and his team at the Arion Press have carried on the tradition of the livre d’artiste in spectacular fashion. Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times put it best when he wrote, "The Arion Press produces some of the most beautiful limited-edition, hand-printed books in the world."

The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde

Limited-edition copy of Exit Ghost, the last of Philip Roth’s nine novels about Nathan Zukerman.<ul><li>Phillip Roth (American).</li><li>Illustrated by R. B. Kitaj (American).</li><li>San Francisco: Arion Press, 2018.</li><li>290 pages, printed by letterpress.</li><li>Includes thirteen illustrations in color, three in black and white, including the front cover portrait.</li><li>Limited edition of 275 copies, this being number 68.</li><li>Bound in full green cloth with an illustration by R.J. Kitaj on the front cover, and with original prospectus.</li><li>Housed in a matching slipcase.</li></ul> “The Arion Press is proud to announce its publication of Exit Ghost, the 2007 novel by the great American writer Philip Roth, alongside artwork by his close friend the American painter R. B. Kitaj. We had long hoped to include Philip Roth in the Arion Press publishing program, but were waiting for inspiration on how to present his work, mainly on the question of an artist to illustrate one of his novels. In this case we ran out of patience and made the offer without an artist in mind. As luck would have it, Roth’s choice drove the choice of the artist and the scheme for the illustrations. The edition is not signed as planned. Roth died on May 22, 2018, at the age of 85. The novel’s title comes from a stage direction in the first act of Shakespeare’s Hamlet when Hamlet’s father’s ghost refuses to answer questions and then disappears. His protagonist Nathan Zuckerman, elderly and debilitated by prostate surgery, has left the stage. So has Philip Roth.” Since its inception in 1974, the Arion Press has published 118 deluxe limited editions that are breathtaking in their scope and artistry. Combining notable literature illustrated with original artwork from prominent artists, Andrew Hoyem and his team at the Arion Press have carried on the tradition of the livre d’artiste in spectacular fashion. Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times put it best when he wrote, "The Arion Press produces some of the most beautiful limited-edition, hand-printed books in the world."

Exit Ghost

Finely bound and beautifully illustrated early edition of the first full-length detective novel in England.<ul><li>Angus B. Reach (English).</li><li>Illustrated by George Cruikshank (English).</li><li>Clement Lorimer or The Book with the Iron Clasps.</li><li>London: John Lofts, 1853.</li><li>Illustrated with 12 full-page black and white engravings</li><li>Bound in three-quarter leather by Zaehnsdorf over marbled boards with elaborate spine treatment involving decorative gilt and color treatments, matching marbled endpapers and built-in bookmark, top edges gilt.</li></ul> According to Eric Quayle in The Collector’s Book of Books, this is "the first full-length novel of crime, mystery and modern detection to appear in England ... Reach was employed as a crime reporter at the Central Criminal Court while working for the London newspaper The Morning Chronicle. In 1848–9, he published in six monthly parts a tale of vendetta, murder, racehorse doping, slow poisoning and abduction, and other dastardly deeds." The present work constituted the first book publication of this now-famous work.

Clement Lorimer

Finely bound and illustrated set of Malory's story of King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2.</li><li>Sir Thomas Malory (English).</li><li>Illustrated by Sir William Russell Flint (English).</li><li>Le Morte D’Arthur: The History of King Arthur and His Noble Knights of the Round Table.</li><li>London: Jonathan Cape and the Medici Society Ltd., 1923.</li><li>Bound by Asprey, London in full morocco leather featuring a spine treatment of five raised bands, gilt rules, and titling with gilt rules to the front and rear boards as well as the edges, inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, and gold gilted page edges, Asprey binders stamp appears in each volume on the bottom of the inside front cover in gold gilt.</li></ul> Le Morte D’Arthur&nbsp;written by Thomas Malory in the fifteenth century and first printed by William Caxton in 1485, is widely considered the most famous version of all the Arthurian legends. The first Medici Society edition was published by the Riccardi Press in two volumes in 1911 and featured 36 colored plates from paintings by William Russell Flint. This is the second edition published in 1923. Sir William Russell Flint’s illustrative interpretation of Malory's work is masterful and depicts seminal moments and characters within the Arthurian tale including: Uther Pendragon; Morgan le Fay; Merlin; King Arthur; Guinevere; Sir Lancelot; the Lady of the Lake; Sir Uwain; Sir Pelleas; Sir Gareth (Beaumains); Tristram; La Beale Isoud; King Meliodas; Tramtrist; Segwarides; King Mark; Sir Bors; Sir Percivale; and Galahad.

Le Morte D'Arthur

Finely bound edition of the plays of J.M. Barrie that contains the most important of his full-length works for the stage and the best of his one-act plays, including Peter Pan by which the character of Peter Pan was established in the form we think of him today.<ul><li>J.M. Barrie (Scottish).</li><li>London: Hodder &amp; Stoughton, 1928.</li><li>844 pages with a frontispiece portrait of J.M. Barrie protected by a tissue guard.</li><li>Bound in a full leather binding&nbsp;with six compartments to the spine with elaborate gilt tooling, double gild rule to the boards, colorful floral endpapers, gilt end pages and gilt dentelles.</li><li>Housed in a functional buckram slipcase.</li></ul> The volume includes 17 plays:&nbsp;Peter Pan, Or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up, Quality Street, The Admirable Crichton, Alice Sit-By-The-Fire, What Every Woman Knows, A Kiss For Cinderella, Dear Brutus, Mary Rose, Pantaloon, Half An Hour, Seven Women, Old Friends, Rosalind, The Will, The Twelve-Pound Look, The New Word, A Well-Remembered Voice, Barbara's Wedding, The Old Lady Shows Her Medals, Shall We Join The Ladies?

Finely bound true first edition of F.P. Delme Radcliffe’s treatise on fox hunting, entitled Noble Science, that covers the whole spectrum of the fox hunting enthusiast to include hound breeding and management, the master, the huntsman and hunting in the field.<ul><li>F.P. Delme Radcliffe (English).</li><li>The Noble Science: A Few General Ideas on Fox-Hunting for the Use of the Rising Generation of Sportsmen, and more especially those of the Hertfordshire Hunt Club.</li><li>London: Rudolph Ackermann, 1839.</li><li>327 pages, and illustrated with seven full-page black-and-white plates and numerous head-an-tale pieces as well as a dedication page, an author’s preface, list of illustrations and table of contents.</li><li>Bound by Bayntun, Bath in three-quarter morocco leather over marbled boards with decorated raised bands to the spine that also features gilt ruling and compartments with decorative embellishments in the compartments and gilt titling. There is gilt ruling to the covers, marbled endpapers, and all page ends are gold gilted; original cloth covers are bound into the rear of the book.</li></ul>

The Noble Science

Finely bound first-edition copy of Latimer's&nbsp;Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth Century.<ul><li>Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer (English-American).</li><li>Chicago: A.C. McClurg and Co., 1895.</li><li>451 pages which includes an introduction, table of contents, list of illustrations, foldout map as well as two other maps, a postscript and an index.</li><li>Includes 22 full-page illustrations, including a frontispiece of David Livingston, that are all protected by tissue guards and three maps including a foldout map of the Political Divisions in Africa.</li><li>In publisher’s original&nbsp;&nbsp;three-quarter morocco leather binding over patterned boards with elaborate ribbed gilt decorated spine, gilt ruling to the front and rear covers, patterned endpapers that match the boards, and top edges gilt, and with a binding stamp on the bottom of the first free endpaper, “Bound by binder for A.C. McClurg and Co.”</li></ul> From the publisher: Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer’s Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth Century is a comprehensive study of European imperialism and the history of colonization on the African continent, which had crucial impacts not only on diplomacy during the 19th century but the two World Wars fought in the first half of the 20th century. As Latimer noted at the beginning: "Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth Century has been a vast subject to be crowded into the limits which I have allowed myself in this series. If I am told by my critics that my book is deficient in historical perspective, I can only reply: 'You are right; but my aim has been to tell only what interested myself, and what I hoped might be interesting to other people. I therefore have put many persons, events, and other matters into the foreground, which, if I aimed to be an historian, I ought to have relegated to a less prominent position.' Almost every chapter of the book forms a narrative by itself. It was nearly as hard to write as would be a history of the United States with no reference to our General Government. The chapters on Uganda, South Africa, and the French in Central Africa, were especially bewildering; but I have had good material, and only hope I may have succeeded in making clear what seemed a Dark Forest in history before it had been penetrated and explored."

Europe in Africa in the 19th Century

Illustrated True First Edition of Beecher Stowe's third novel.<ul><li>Harriet Beecher Stowe (American).</li><li>Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne] (English).</li><li>London: Sampson, Low, 1859.</li><li>362 pages with an introduction by Stowe, 16 pages of the publisher’s advertisements that appear after page 362.</li><li>Bound in full leather mottled calf binding featuring an elaborately gilt decorated spine with raised bands and compartments for title and date, gold ruled covers with gilt floral stops, gilt edges, gilt dentelles and gilt top page ends, with original covers are bound into the book before the first free endpaper.</li></ul> Originally published in parts by Sampson Low, Son &amp; Co., from February-November, 1859, this is the first edition, first printing in book form of The Minister’s Wooing published in the same year by the same publisher.&nbsp;The Minister’s Wooing features 12 full-page illustrations by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), which complement Stowe’s story of daily life, slavery and religion in post-Revolutionary New England.

Filters

Book Type

Author

Price

Book Subject

Book Special Feature

Book Language

Era

Materials

Color

Region of Origin

Item Location by Country

Available for International Shipping

JH Engström

Virginia Woolf

Geoffrey Chaucer, Eric Gill

Anna Jameson

James Boswell

John Donne

Francesco Petrarca

Thornton Wilder

C. P. Snow

John Galsworthy

William Makepeace Thackeray

Tobias Smollett

Benvenuto Cellini

Virgil

Rabelais, François

Robert Ruark

Andrea Miller-Keller

Alexander Pushkin

Henrik Ibsen

Jamie Baldridge

Richard Taylor

George Orwell

Robert Louis Stevenson

Baron Sterling Nahum

J.M. Barrie

Molière, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin dit

Jim Dine, Czeslaw Milosz

William Kentridge, Frank Wedekind

Oscar Wilde

Phillip Roth

Angus B. Reach

Sir Thomas Malory

J.M. Barrie

F.P. Delme Radcliffe

Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer

Harriet Beecher Stowe