Descrizione dei circhi particolarmente di quello di Caracalla e dei giuochi in essi celebrati opera postuma del consigliere Gio. Lodovico Bianconi ordinata compita e publicata dall' architetto Angiolo Uggeri con note dall'avvocato Fea e corredata di tavole in rame e della versione francese. by BIANCONI, Giovanni Lodovico (1717-1781) - 1789

Rome: Desclee, Lefebvre & C., 1903. Testo only. First edition. Hard cover in original cloth and boards. Published Rome: Desclee, Lefebvre & C., 1903. Folio, 12" x 16", xix+549pp., illustrated with 54 reproductions within the text. Text in Italian. Libro Primo, Libro Secondo, Supplemento Primo, Supplemento Secondo. Splitting to the outer cloth along the hinges, some scuffing to rear cover, light foxing along front edge of portion of page block, else very good. Text clean, bright, unmarked, binding tight. Not ex-library. Scarce. . 1st. Hard. Very Good Minus/No Jacket. Folio.

Paris: Chez C. P. Landon. Very Good with no dust jacket. 1801. 1st Edition. First Printing. Hard Cover. 16 volumes, only, of 21. This set includes volumes 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 19, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, and 21. Bound in full green morocco, spines in five compartments separated by raised bands, gilt lettering in two compartments, gilt imperial eagle and floral tooling in remainder, gilt and blind-stamped borders on covers surrounding gilt imperial eagles, a.e.g., rust endpapers. Illustrated with hundreds of full-page engravings of works of art in the museums and public buildings of France. Charles Paul Landon (1760 – 1826) was a French painter and popular writer on art and artists. It is chiefly for his writing on the arts that he made a reputation. He published nearly one hundred volumes during his lifetime. Landon was among the collaborators of the influential Journal des arts, des sciences et de la littérature. He was also a part-owner of the Gazette de France,… Read More

Shanghai Commercial Press, Ltd, China, 1936 Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. English and Chinese text; Hardcover (original blue cloth silk with gilt design - without dust jacket); 19.5 x 27.6 cm; 3.357 Kg; 4 volumes: 1. Bronze (101 pages); 2. Porcelain (3 parts) (244 pages); 3. Painting and Calligraphy (256 pages); 4. Miscellaneous (191 pages) (Tapestry and Embroidery, Jade, Cloisonné, Red Lacquer, Fans, Furniture and Writing Accessories, Archaeological Exhibits and Ancient Books); all with black and white illustrations.; Signs of wear in the hardcover cloth. Minor edgeworn. Minor scuffs on the front cover of the four volumes and on the back cover of the second and third volumes; The gilt designs on the front cover of the second and forth volume show minor yellowing marks. The interior is in very good condition with minor signs of wear.; REFERENCE EXHIBITION ON CHINESE ART.; Catalogue for the International Exhibition of Chinese Art held by the Royal Academy of Arts at Burlington House,… Read More

SIGNED by Watts, Hefner, Larry Flynt, Bunny Yeager, and Dita von Teese in black ink to ffp and title page. Black paper with gilt particulars to spine. Dust jacket protected in mylar. Both color and black and white illustrations in sections throughout text. These signatures were collected by the previous owner who attended a performance by von Teese, an exhibition opening at the NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale for Bunny Yeager, at a Los Angeles Barnes & Noble signing event for Hefner and Watts (December 16, 2008; flyer included), and at a signing event at Books & Books in Coral Gables for Flynt (June 3, 2011). ix, 529 pp. 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches.

Scarce first German combined edition of Goeree's manuals for painting, drawing and watercolouringWillem Goeree (1635-1711).
Anweisung zu der Mahler-Kunst, worinnen nebst derselben Fürtrefflichkeit und Nutzen gezeiget wird, was einer zum gründlichen Verstand der Mahler-Kunst wissen, und wie er sich durch Ubung darinnen perfectioniren soll; nebst einem gründlichen Unterricht von der Reiß- und Zeichen- wie auch Illuminir-Kunst, oder dem rechten Gebrauch der Wasser-Farben.
Leipzig, Friedrich Lanckischens Erben, 1744.
3 parts in 1 volume. 8°. [8], 132, [4], 120, [2], 98 pp. With a woodcut vignette on title-page, several woodcut head- and tailpieces.
Modern half calf with marbled sides.
Very rare (WorldCat: 1 copy) first German edition of the collected artists' manuals by the Dutch author Willem Goeree. It combines the manuals by Willem Goeree on oil painting, drawing and watercolouring. These were originally published in Dutch as:
- Verlichtery-konst, in de welcke den rechten grondt, ende volkomen… Read More

London / Dublin: Printed for Knight and Lacey, Paternoster-Row, and Westley and Tyrrell, 1825. A new edition with considerable additions; including an appendix, containing several valuable tables. Printed paper covered boards. Spine repaired with binder's tape, boards rubbed with a few chips at the edges, a few scuff marks, one affecting the word 'wood' on the front board and one affecting a few letters of the advertisements on the rear board, front endpapers soiled, fly leaf torn and split from gutter, small chips to top edge of a1 and a2 probably from opening roughly, some staining to last page of index and blank, occasional finger soiling, but overall remarkably clean, crisp, and tight, and even scarcer thus as most copies and manuals of this nature usually disintegrated from use.. xii, 95 pp., [1]. 16mo. Printed by T. C. Hansard. The first known edition of this book was published in 1809, though it was then only 36 pages and the author identified as Peter Weber. A later edition, only slightly… Read More

Various publishers, various places 1973-2009. Book. Near Fine. Soft cover. 1st Edition. An archive of over 100 items, from the collection of the late Julian Andrews, a long-term supporter and enthusiast of the artist, Head of the Fine Arts Department of the British Council and the author of the primary reference source 'The Sculpture of David Nash'. The collection comprises over forty (primarily solo) exhibition catalogues from shows all round the UK, Europe, the US, Japan, Korea and Australia, and includes the catalogues for his first three solo shows, each written and designed by Nash; various studies and monographs; circa forty exhibition handbills and private viewing invitation cards; plus several books by Nash himself and various ephemeral bits and pieces. Seven of the items bear the artist's signature or inscription. A signed copy of Julian Andrews' exhaustive reference work is also included. A fascinating and wide-ranging archive which would now be virtually impossible to… Read More

1768 Diderot Encyclopedia Plates HUGE FOLIO Medicine Architecture Vesuvius Art

The Enlightenment's most-important general encyclopedia!

Through the mid-18th-century, large collections of knowledge were relegated to specific areas of study like law, medicine, or religion. However, Denis Diderot's 'Encyclopedie' changed the public's knowledge base as well as setting a standard for future generations of acquiring knowledge on many different subjects. This was the first encyclopedia to include contributions from many different named writers. It also was the first encyclopedia to describe work-related topics like agriculture, engineering, cooking, and trade.

This enormous tome is the complete volume of illustrations from the 1768 edition of Diderot and d'Alembert's famous encyclopedia. It features 294 full-page and folding engravings covering a wide variety of topics including human anatomy, surgery and medicine, military and war, art and architecture, zoology, chemistry, and music and theater. One… Read More

Preparatory drawing by Jakob van der Schley (1715-1779) for his famous print depicting execution methods that were supposedly used on Sri Lanka: crushing by a mounted elephant, impalement and hanging. The print was made by Van der Schley for Antoine Francois Prevost d'Exile's Histoire Generale des Voyages, published by Pierre de Hondt in The Hague1746-1789. It is included in volume VIII, where it accompanies the part on Sri Lanka (Ceylon). The part on Sri Lanka was largely derived from Robert Knox's An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon (1681), which was also illustrated with a plate showing the execution by elephant. Van der Schley modeled his composition after that example, but made drastic artistic improvements. His drawing is of a much higher artistic quality compared to the rudimentary manner in which the execution by elephant was made in Knox's work. Another difference is the other execution methods that are depicted. In Knox's illustration the other victim was tied to a pole, but in the… Read More

Paris: Saussine, 1865. Magnetic fortune telling board game, 21cm x 26cm. Constructed of painted wood and cardboard, significant wear, most notably to corners and extremities, the lid consists of the decorated top panel but has lost three of the four strengthening "lips" that would have firmly attached it to the base, although as a whole it is appreciably solid. A self-contained game in the form of a box with a painted glass and wood top with applied chromolithograph decoration, the magnetic blue bird moves beneath the window when a card and bone spinner with a metallic element is spun above it. The spinner has various fortune subjects written on it in French to "ask" the blue bird about. Once the bird stops spinning, its beak will be pointed at one of eight small circular lidded boxes affixed to the game surface (some of these are a trifle worn to the decorative paper covers, but still bright and attractive). Once opened, the boxes contain tiny circular handwritten paper "fortunes" which can be… Read More