Search Results: Authors starting with D from Honey & Wax Booksellers

Berlin: S. Fischer Verlag, 1932. First edition of German novelist Alfred Döblin's Giganten, inscribed by Döblin to the Russian-Jewish political writer Isaac Steinberg (1888-1957), from the library of Steinberg's son, art historian Leo Steinberg (1920-2011). While Döblin is best remembered for his 1929 realist novel Berlin Alexanderplatz, critical attention in recent years has turned to his ambitious, dystopian works of science fiction. Giganten is a revised and condensed version of Döblin's 1924 Berge Meere und Giganten, adapted in an effort to find his sprawling eco-horror novel a broader audience. Döblin's vision of a precarious global future characterized by energy crises, relentless genetic engineering, and environmental catastrophe now seems prescient. The unabridged 1924 text was finally translated into English as Mountains Oceans Giants in 2021. Döblin has inscribed this copy of Giganten to his friend Isaac Steinberg, a Russian exile, Socialist Revolutionary, and leader of the Jewish… Read More

London: William Heinemann, 1909. Signed limited first edition, number 425 of 1000 copies, of Arthur Rackham's illustrated version of this German tale, first published in 1811. Celebrated for his depictions of fairy creatures, Rackham is ideally suited for this tale of a water spirit seeking a soul: "below sparkle, stately and solemn, many noble ruins, washed by the loving waters which win from them delicate moss-flowers and entwining clusters of sea-grass. Those who dwell there are very fair." Rackham's wave designs, in particular, lend a Japanese woodblock-inspired Art Nouveau element to the work, as in the image of Undine sinking into the Danube. A near-fine example of the best of the Golden Age of Illustration. Quarto, measuring 11.5 x 9 inches: viii, 136. Original full vellum, front board lettered and decorated in gilt with vignette by Rackham, spine elaborately ornamented in gilt, top edge gilt, other edges uncut, stiff brown endpapers. Half-title, with limitation signed by Rackham on verso.… Read More

Boston: E.G. House, for the Author, 1817. First edition of Massachusetts sea captain Amasa Delano's account of his voyages between 1790 and 1810, covering the Hawaiian, "Pelew," and Galapagos islands; Manila, Canton and Macao; New Guinea, Australia, and the East Indies; and Chile and Peru. Delano's narrative is best remembered for his account of the capture of the Spanish ship Tryal off the coast of Chile, the inspiration for Herman Melville's Benito Cereno, in which an unsuspecting American captain boards a moored ship in the middle of a slave revolt, misinterpreting every action he witnesses. In Delano's original account: "the negro, who kept constantly at the elbows of Don Benito and myself, I should, at any other time, have immediately resented. . . . the Spanish sailors were then seen jumping overboard and making for our boat." This copy bears the ownership signature of fellow sea captain Edmund Fanning, "the Pathfinder of the Pacific," a native of Connecticut who set sail in 1792 for the South… Read More

London: Printed for J. Newbery, J. Richardson, S. Crowder, et al., 1761. First edition of this absorbing miscellany of English poetry, thematically and alphabetically organized in the tradition of Edward Bysshe's popular Art of English Poetry (1702). Verses appear under headings from "Abbey" (a passage from the Elizabethan history play Thomas Lord Cromwell, attributed to Shakespeare) to "Zimri" (from Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel"). Other headings include "Bees," "Camera Obscura," "Folly," "Genius," "Hops," "Marriage," "Player," "Sloth," and "Witch." The verses under "Love," covering forty-five pages, offer a brisk survey of every aspect of infatuation, passion, and regret, from Romeo and Juliet through Comus to The Rape of the Lock. Although the Poetical Dictionary was once attributed to Oliver Goldsmith, based on the prose style of the preface, the editorship of Samuel Derrick is now established. A failed actor and enterprising hack writer, Derrick was friendly with Samuel Johnson, whose massive… Read More

France: no publisher, no date (early twentieth century). Striking hand-colored sheet of six "images d'Épinal." Inexpensive broadsides like these were hugely popular in France in the nineteenth century: naïve woodcuts, brightly colored, featuring images of Catholic saints, Napoleonic battles, and storybook characters. By the turn of the twentieth century, lithography had emerged as the primary printing process, and the range of subjects had greatly expanded, but there was still a market for images printed in the old style, a graphic tradition that influenced modernists from Henri Rousseau to Alfred Jarry. This group of six separate images, printed from blocks on a sheet of Ingres d'Arches paper, may be a publisher's proof. The military and religious subjects include uniformed soldiers on horseback, the Madonna and child, and Saint Hubert's encounter with Christ in the form of a stag. A bright fine example. Single sheet of six woodblock prints, printed recto only and colored en pochoir, measuring… Read More

France, nineteenth century. Large fragment of an original embroidery design, likely for a shawl or tablecloth, executed in red watercolor. The stylized parrot, snail, and lizard are meticulously plotted out by hand, stitch by stitch, against a background of oak leaves and acorns. This design is plotted on "papier quadrillé" manufactured by the Paris publisher Chavant & Dessaigne. Fleury Chavant was an industrial designer who issued a number of influential pattern books in the 1830s and 1840s. In addition to finished patterns, his company offered a range of these printed grid papers, with gauges corresponding to every kind of needlework, enabling those at home to produce their own designs. A striking survival. Original watercolor, executed on two sheets of printed "papier quadrillé" joined together, entire piece measuring 15 x 32 inches. Publisher information printed at base of sheets: "8 en 10: à Paris, chez CHAVANT & DESSAIGNE Rue Cléry, No 19 / No. 23." Several pale pink areas where paint… Read More

France: no publisher, no date (early twentieth century). Striking hand-colored sheet of six "images d'Épinal." Inexpensive broadsides like these were hugely popular in France in the nineteenth century: naïve woodcuts, brightly colored, featuring images of Catholic saints, Napoleonic battles, and storybook characters. By the turn of the twentieth century, lithography had emerged as the primary printing process, and the range of subjects had greatly expanded, but there was still a market for images printed in the old style, a graphic tradition that influenced modernists from Henri Rousseau to Alfred Jarry. This group of six separate images, printed from blocks on a sheet of Ingres d'Arches paper, may be a publisher's proof. The domestic and religious subjects include a young woman reaching for a flower, the devotional image of Christ in the winepress, and an angel watching over the city gates. A fine example. Single sheet of six woodblock prints, printed recto only and colored en pochoir, measuring… Read More

Bramsche: Gebr. Rasch & Co, 1950. Scarce sample of wallpaper by Laetitia Cerio, Capri-based artist renowned for her spare, whimsical line drawings. Founded in the late nineteenth century, German wallpaper firm Rasch won an international reputation through its collaborations with modernist designers from the Bauhaus and Vienna Secession. In the 1950s and 1960s, owner Emil Rasch commissioned wallpaper designs from artists across Europe, including Salvador Dalí and Bruno Munari, for the International Artists Collection. Cerio's "Spain" paper, featuring delicately tinted views of a Spanish fishing village, dates from this period. A fine example of midcentury popular design. Pictorial wallpaper sample printed in muted colors on an ivory ground, measuring 18 x 15.5 inches. Stamped on verso: "Rasch Waterfast, Spain 1, R 2012, $4.50 single roll.".

Bramsche: Gebr. Rasch & Co, 1950. Scarce sample of wallpaper signed in the print by "Letizia Cerio" (more often spelled "Laetitia"), Capri-based artist renowned for her spare, whimsical line drawings. Founded in the late nineteenth century, German wallpaper firm Rasch won an international reputation through its collaborations with modernist designers from the Bauhaus and Vienna Secession. In the 1950s and 1960s, owner Emil Rasch commissioned wallpaper designs from artists across Europe, including Salvador Dalí and Bruno Munari, for the International Artists Collection. Cerio's "Amsterdam" paper dates from this period. A fine example of midcentury popular design. Color pictorial wallpaper sample, measuring 15.5 x 18.5 inches, printed in gold and ivory. Stamped on verso: "RASCH WATERFAST / Amsterdam WT 10 / R 2076 / $3.95 PER SINGLE ROLL.".

Chicago: Beckley-Cardy Company, 1951. Complete set of midcentury classroom posters, designed to be colored by students. The twelve fruits and vegetables featured here are apples, beets, carrots, cherries, grapes, peaches, pears, radishes, strawberries, sweet corn, tomatoes, and wax beans, each depicted on the tree, vine or stalk. As a footnote, each image offers specific instructions on which colors the children should choose. Beckley-Cardy 535. A fine set of vintage classroom materials, with pomological appeal. Complete set of twelve black and white posters, measuring 10.5 x 8.5 inches. Housed in publisher's pictorial envelope printed in black and red. Light wear and smudging to envelope, posters fine.

Plauen: Christian Stoll, 1915. Vibrant Art Deco ornamental design, Plate 1 from Volume XV of Kunstgewerbliche Schmuckformen für die Fläche. Christian Stoll's influential pattern book series was an important source for graphic design in central Europe from the height of the Art Nouveau movement to the early days of Art Deco. Modernist surface designs like this one reflected the avant-garde painting styles of the early twentieth century, including Cubism, abstraction, and distortion. The geometric shapes and vivid colors were elements of a new style of ornamentation that found expression in architecture and the applied arts. An exemplary Art Deco design from a major pattern book. Single pochoir plate of a geometric airbrush design, measuring 9.5 x 7.25 inches. Tipped to black paper mount with publisher's label mounted to upper right corner. Archivally matted to 14 x 11 inches.

No place, 1923. Original illustration, published on the cover of the French magazine Nos Loisirs, December 1, 1923. An illustrated Sunday supplement to the daily newspaper Le Petit Parisien, Nos Loisirs (Our Leisure Time) was published between 1906 and 1940, with a break during World War I. This idyllic family scene is representative of the imagery of Nos Loisirs after 1920, when it adopted the subtitle "Revue de la Femme et du Foyer" in a post-war turn to domesticity. The interior's vibrant colors and patterns, its curvilinear couch and enameled metallic table, all display "le style moderne." In addition to good design, the importance of literature in the home is reflected in the stylish mother, affectionately cuddled with her children beside a prominently displayed book table, while her daughter peruses what may be a copy of Le Petit Parisien. Little is known of the illustrator who signed as "Djoz;" the René Malevy to whom the illustration is inscribed was likely the editor of the 1920s French… Read More

New York: The Phoenix Book Shop, 1969. First edition of San Francisco poet Robert Duncan's Achilles' Song, in which the Greek hero imagines his mother, the sea nymph Thetis, calling him away from Troy: "Thetis, then, / my mother, has promised me / the mirage of a boat, a vehicle / of water within the water, / and my soul would return from / the trials of its human state, / from the long siege." This is one of 26 copies lettered A to Z, each with an original illustration by the author, out of a total of 126 signed copies. Achilles' Song was issued as Number 7 in the Phoenix Bookshop Oblong Octavo Series, a twenty-volume series that included poems by Marianne Moore, W.H. Auden, Amiri Baraka, Gregory Corso, and Louis Zukofsky. A fine copy, with an original drawing by Robert Duncan. Oblong volume, measuring 5 x 7 inches: [16]. Side-stitched olive green wrappers in integral pictorial dust jacket printed in green and black. Original color frontispiece drawing by Duncan executed in pen and crayon.… Read More