Search Results: ephemera

Jerusalem, British Mandated Palestine. Good+. 1936. Original Cloth. Evidential to the roots of Middle Eastern terror, this is the extraordinary handwritten diary of Miss Doreen M. C., daughter of General and Mrs. J. C., sister of Cynthia. This British family witnesses the very beginnings of the modern era of Middle East tensions and terrorism having been residents of Jerusalem from January 1st to mid-June of 1936. Doreen writes a significant, extraordinary, insightful and well written diary. A young girl of 16 or 17 we estimate (too young for boys - she detests them - and too old for the usual games that girls play [paraphrase]) she writes of her time spent traveling throughout British mandated Palestine recording daily her comings and goings and all that goes on around her. She also does a great job drawing maps and other illustrations. Doreen sums it up in her own hand: in a handwritten copy of a 1963 letter to the famed Leonard Mosley of the Sunday Times, found in the book Doreen admits… Read More

Washington, D.C., 1943. Unbound. Near Fine. A remarkable collection of letters and limited edition books from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to his longtime friend and personal secretary, Marvin H. "Mac" McIntyre. The collection includes 10 Inscribed books (each issued in an edition of 100 copies or less), a large, early Inscribed portrait, nine Typed or Autograph Letters Signed, and several additional items related to their long friendship and professional relationship. The collection is overall near fine. McIntyre (1878-1943) was born in Kentucky and studied at Vanderbilt. While working as Special Assistant to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, he befriended then-Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt. McIntyre went on to work on Roosevelt's 1920 Vice Presidential campaign; this collection includes a striking 1920 portrait of Roosevelt warmly Inscribed: "For the only Mc [sic], in memory of our work together, past present, and to come. Franklin D. Roosevelt. August 3, 1920."… Read More

1571 - 1947. The Russell Collection contains over 300 books, broadsides, and pieces of ephemera produced between the waning decades of the ancien regime and the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. The collection was assembled in the early 1950s by William F. Russell (1890 - 1956), President of Columbia University's Teacher's College from 1949 to 1954. With material spanning the 16th to the early 20th century, the majority of the collection was produced between 1775 and 1800. Highlights include early editions of the 1791 and 1793 French Constitutions, letters written and signed by pioneering economist Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, and official documents signed by Robespierre and other members of the Comite du Salut Public. The Collection is comprised of the following components: 1) The French Monarchy and the Ancien Regime; 2) Ideological Roots of Revolution; 3) The Transition to Republicanism and Collapse of the Monarchy; 4) The National Convention and the Committee for Public Safety; 5) Historical and… Read More

A unique and important artifact of his childhood.
[ALBERT EINSTEIN]. Ephemera. Set of Anker-Steinbaukasten children's building blocks by F. Ad. Richter & Cie., Rudolstadt, [Germany], c.1880s. Approximately 160 composite quartz sand, chalk, and linseed oil blocks in red, limestone and slate gray, in various sizes and shapes, together with three or more sets of building plans, all contained in two wooden boxes with printed Anker-Steinbaukasten labels.
Einstein spent his childhood building "complicated structures" with these Anker-Steinbaukasten blocks. Accepting his later theory that "Imagination is more important than knowledge," the toys that encouraged his imagination became building blocks for the most important scientific theories of the last millennium.
His sister Maja Winteler-Einstein, describing his childhood, recalled that "The games he played … were very characteristic of Albert's capacities. These were mostly puzzles, fretsaw work, the erection of complicated structures with the well-known… Read More

1930. Very Good. A large, fully catalogued collection of over 600 early guidebooks published throughout the continental United States. This remarkable collection of highly detailed and multi-purpose ephemeral guides, many of which contain folded maps, spans the entire 19th Century from 1796 up through the First World War and early 1920s. The collection includes over 145 guidebooks to New York City alone: "the Commercial Metropolis of the United States" of which over 100 were published between 1807 and 1898, the year of consolidation of the city of New York. The majority of the guidebooks in the collection are bound in the original publisher's bindings and printed wrappers, which are particularly important for the additional bibliographical and historical information they provide about these uncommon guidebooks which were heavily used (both on the road and at the places they describe), and often discarded when no longer needed. Most are well-preserved in good or very good condition: about thirty… Read More

The literary archives of the late author William “Gatz” Hjortsberg, of Livingston, Montana, extensively document the lifeÂ’s work of an important American novelist, screenwriter and Richard Brautigan biographer. In addition, these archives offer key insights into the evolution of the publishing and film-making industries over the course of the last fifty years, as well as the creative work and exploits of members of the so-called “Montana Gang” of writers, actors and musicians that gathered in southwest MontanaÂ’s Paradise Valley throughout the 70s and 80s. The materials can be divided into five classes:  1) An exhaustive collection of manuscripts and drafts of all of his screenplays including those of the produced films Legend, The Georgia Peaches and Thunder and Lightning; those ultimately written by other screenwriters: Angel Heart (from his novel Falling Angel), Legends of the Fall, A River Runs Through It; and several unproduced screenplays and screen adaptations of novels – 25 distinct… Read More

Topaz, UT: The Topaz Times, 1945. Four hundred issues of The Topaz Times; 197 of which are in English and 203 in Japanese; with 47 fragments of various issues, 17 illustrated calendars, and nine pieces of ephemera including high school newspapers from Topaz War Relocation Center, Ram-bler and Topazette. Following two Pre-Issues from September of 1942, the run spans from Vol. II #49 (February 27, 1943) to Vol. X #19 (March 6, 1945). The newspaper was issued with varying frequency, from daily to weekly or less. Illustrated with drawings, many of which are cartoons. Each issue from 2 to 10 pages or so, generally printed on both sides of mimeographed sheets measuring about 36.5 x 22.5 cm (14¼" x 8 ¾"). Stitched together into monthly groups, or fascicles, with string through small holes in the top margins. Very Good overall with some edge wear, chips, and tears; very infrequent loss of text or biopredation. Most issues appear complete but archive is sold "as is" with regards to completeness. Rare. The… Read More

2017. Fine. A large archive of original letters, cartoons, photographs, and memorabilia, relating to Hugh Hefner's 75-year relationship with high school classmate and close friend Jane "Janie" Borson Sellers (1943-2017). The collection was organized by Sellers in seven quarto binders, who also provided numerous sheets of explanatory descriptions and observations, in keeping with her plan to publish her letters from Hugh Hefner under the title: *Letters from the Innocent Playboy*. The core of the archive consists of over 150 letters by Hefner, half of which are illustrated with pen & ink cartoon drawings by Hefner (including some hand-colored), and associated photographs and ephemera. The first group of correspondence consists of a fascinating and charming series of 65 letters from Hefner to Sellers during their time at Steinmetz High School (1943-44) and continuing through Hefner's career in the Army (1944-1946). There are 27 ALS and 38 TLS (a total of 293 pages), of which 60 are illustrated with… Read More

Unbound. A collection of correspondence and family papers of New England abolitionist and philanthropist William H. Baldwin. Included are about 70 Autograph Letters Signed from prominent American literary writers and social reformers including Bronson Alcott, William Cullen Bryant, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Lloyd Garrison, Julia Ward Howe, John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, including the Manuscripts of two of his rare "A" items. Additionally are three letters from U.S. Presidents: Rutherford B. Hayes, Howard Taft, and Calvin Coolidge; and various family papers (spanning the years from 1810-1910) of manuscript, typewritten, and printed materials and photographs, the bulk of which document Baldwin's post-Civil War philanthropic work. Among the later papers are materials relating to Baldwin's two sons: William H. Baldwin, Jr., a noted railroad executive and important benefactor of the Tuskegee Institute; and George S. Baldwin, also a prominent… Read More

New York, 1912-1915. Hardcover. A scrapbook and associated ephemera relating to the lives and deaths of Isidor (February 6, 1845-April 15, 1912) and Ida (February 6, 1849-April 15, 1912) Straus, who died aboard the Titanic, including an autograph letter signed by Ida Straus to her granddaughter Beatrice. Isidor was, with his brother Nathan, co-owner of Macy's department store and a U.S. Congressman; both he and his wife were prominent and wealthy members of New York City's Jewish community and philanthropists particularly interested in questions of education. The Strauses took passage aboard the Titanic to travel back to New York following a winter spent largely in southern France, and both died when the ship struck an iceberg on April 15, 1912. Famously, Ida was offered a seat in one of the lifeboats, but refused to be separated from her husband. Their deaths, and particularly Ida's love of and loyalty to her husband, became a subject of numerous newspaper pieces, poems, and songs in the months… Read More

Near Fine. A remarkable collection of 235 H.P. Lovecraft items with over 200 rare amateur press appearances dating as early as 1914 and nearly 20 miscellaneous appearance by Lovecraft or directly relating to his writing. While a couple items are bound in boards, the rest are bound in stapled or sewn wrappers, nearly all with the tiny book label of Black Sparrow Press founder John K. Martin on the rear pastedown or wrap. Overall near fine with exceptions noted in the detailed list.

Earliest Representation of a Rare Books Auction
The Compleat Auctioneer, circa 1700,
uncolored engraving of a book auctioneer standing behind a stall of books, with two ladies and two gentlemen beside him, and a tree behind, the tree bearing a printed notice 'A Choice Collection of Books being the Library of the late famous Unborn Doctor, are to be put to Sale this Day and to continue untill all be Sold, at Mr L-GS Auction in the North West Corner of Middle Moorfields. Cattalogues may be had at most of the eminent Booksellers in the four Quarters of Moorfeilds Gratis, the Books may be Seen before or at the time of Sale', the whole set within a 19th century black and gilt moulded frame, glazed.
Rare. The earliest known representation of a book auction. The table of books on display include many bawdy titles of the restoration era, such as 'Sch: of Venus', 'Aratines Post.', 'Play of Sodom', 'Poems by the R H the E[arl] of R[ochester], alongside standard medical works of the period, 'Culp Midw',… Read More

Highlights in the collection include the rare 1857 catalogue for Kentucky's Woodburn Farm, apparently the second known copy of the earliest single-farm horse stock catalogue that we could identify, that farm's 1864 catalogue, printed in the midst of Civil War, the 1870 catalogue for Kentucky's Forest Park farm, featuring three mounted photographs, including two views of the farm's grounds, two catalogues for the farm owned by New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert, both with chromolithographic covers, hundreds of items printed in small town job shops, etc. Various places, 1857-1940. The collection of 859 catalogues and other items is divided into five groups: I. New England, Mid-Atlantic States, and the Midwest, including Maine (4 catalogues), New Hampshire (4), Vermont (10), Massachusetts (44), Rhode Island (3), Connecticut (2), New York (103), New Jersey (10), Pennsylvania (37), Ohio (63), Indiana (5), Illinois (40), Michigan (9), Wisconsin (13), Minnesota (2), Iowa (23), Missouri (7), Nebraska (4),… Read More

1866. Unbound. Very Good. A double-sided 6000+ word report of a trip by the Excelsior Baseball Team of Brooklyn, New York to play the National and Union teams of Washington, DC on September 29 and 30, 1866, almost certainly written by Henry Chadwick, the Hall of Fame sports writer known as the Father of Baseball. Broadsheet. Measuring 9" x 18½". Printed in two columns on both sides with box scores for each of the two games printed in the text, listing players from the three teams, including both individual and team scoring. Very good with horizontal and vertical creases from being folded, nicks at the folds and some offsetting from an ink note at the bottom edge ("give this to Jack"). The broadsheet begins with an account of the Excelsior's journey from New York, through Baltimore, to their arrival at Willard's Hotel in Washington, and a day of sightseeing at Mount Vernon, before beginning an account of the games played over the next two days. The featured game between the Excelsiors and the… Read More

At sea, the Pacific north-west, Antarctica, Hawaii, Sulu Sea: , 1840-42. Shipboard songs from the first expedition to confirm the existence of the Antarctic continent A rare survival from one of the most important voyages in Antarctic exploration, this manuscript was composed during Charles Wilkes's United States Exploring Expedition (1838-42). It includes four songs created during the voyage in a collaboration between the geologist James Dwight Dana (1813-1895), who composed the music, and the surgeon James Croxall Palmer (1811-1883), who wrote the lyrics, making it the earliest known example of Antarctic music and poetry. This collection of nine songs, all set to music by Dana, contains four with lyrics by Palmer ("The Old Peacock: A Breeze from the Unpopular Opera of the Icebergs", "My Tent Beside the Oregon", "Young Shepherd's Canzonet", and "Antarctic Mariner's Song"). Alongside these are "David's Complaint" from Psalm 42:5, a duet from a Paisiello opera paraphrased by Palmer, a song by George… Read More

A collection of books, cards, posters, and other ephemera showcasing the diverse and prolific work of American writer and artist Edward Gorey (1925-2000). Gorey's first book, The Unstrung Harp, was published in 1953; over the course of his career he published dozens of works he authored and illustrated himself, and collaborated with other contributors on dozens more. Beginning in 1953, Gorey also worked for the publisher Doubleday Anchor as an illustrator and typography designer. Over the course of his career, he illustrated more than 200 books for Doubleday Anchor and other publishers. Gorey also provided artwork for promotional material for the New York City Ballet, WGBH Boston's Mystery! Anthology produced for PBS, the Boston Book Fair, and numerous other institutions and events. In addition to his work in print media, he was a noted costume and set designer, and won a Tony award for his costume designs for the 1977 Broadway revival of Dracula. This collection, assembled by Chris Bready of… Read More

c.1958-79. One of the most interesting and prolific esoteric thinkers and artists of the twentieth century An exceptional archive, the largest known in private hands, of the "magical" writings of one of Britain's most important surrealist artists, Ithell Colquhoun. It was compiled by Steve Nichols, who edited and published much of the contents in The Magical Writings of Ithell Colquhoun (2007). The archive is broadly divisible into three themes: Colquhoun's occult writings and material pertaining to her membership of occult groups; her notes and materials pertaining to Ireland; and her incoming correspondence from other occultists. Several items are particularly striking: the beautiful enamel and metallic ink drawings Colquhoun has executed to illustrate the Cube of Space (a model of the invisible energies of the universe) and the Tattwas (the elements of aspects of reality that constitute human experience); her manuscript descriptions of rituals, in which performed actions are picked out in red; her… Read More

(Rome; New York; Washington D.C.), 1915. Very Good. A collection of 61 sketchbooks belonging to the Italian born artist Pietro Lazzari, a World War I soldier and leading figure in the Italian Futurist movement. After several trips to New York during the 1920s, Lazzari emigrated permanently to the United States in 1929 because, as he put it, "the fascists began mingling with the futurists." During the 1930s he painted murals for the WPA and soon won fame as a sculptor, painter, and teacher at American University and the Corcoran School of Art. The collection is comprised of 34 working sketchbooks spanning Lazzari's early years in Italy and the United States (circa 1915 - early 1930s), and an additional 27 sketchbooks from when Lazzari was based in Washington, DC (circa 1950-72). Together they comprise an astounding gallery of various portraits and caricatures, with related figures and studies, including early images of Italian army officers and soldiers, and of friends and fellow artists. The… Read More

San Francisco: Peregrine Press, Porpoise Bookshop and Henry Evans, Printmaker, 1948-1990, 1948. A detailed description is available via pdf on our website on the catalogues page.. The Peregrine Press, the Porpoise Bookshop and Henry Evans, Printmaker flourished in San Francisco between 1948 and 1990, under the stewardship of Henry Evans, his wife Patricia and their daughter Judith. Shortly after World War II, Henry Evans (1918-1990) established an antiquarian and secondhand bookstore in San Francisco, under the name H. H. Evans, Bookseller, which within a few years was one of the largest bookstores of its kind on the West Coast. In 1950 Evans purchased a nineteenth-century Washington handpress and dedicated himself, with the assistance of his wife, to producing iconoclastic and avant-garde books of poetry and art under the imprint of the Peregrine Press. In 1952 they combined the Peregrine Press and their book business under the name of the Porpoise Bookshop, which became a multifaceted, unique… Read More

London: William Heinemann Ltd,, 1951-75. Increasingly warm inscriptions to a pre-eminent bibliophile and "fellow infantryman" First editions, first impressions, an exceptional association set of the complete novel sequence. Each volume is inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to his friend, the auctioneer and historian Anthony Hobson (1921-2014); the latter nine are inscribed to Hobson and his wife Tanya. Complete sets inscribed to the same recipient are rare. The inscriptions in the books chart the development of a rich friendship fostered over luncheons. A Question of Upbringing is inscribed with the cool and unfamiliar, "This volume belongs to Anthony Hobson, signed by the author, Anthony Powell", but The Acceptance World is inscribed "after a delicious luncheon", which evidently did much to thaw Powell, as The Kindly Ones is warmly inscribed to "Anthony & Tanya, with love from Tony, March 1963", and The Valley of Bones, (which charts Powell's experience in the Second World War), is… Read More