Search Results: Authors starting with V from Nat DesMarais Rare Books, ABAA

(San Francisco): (Sunset Press), [ca. 1925]. Promotional pamphlet. [8] pp. (16 x 9 inches). Each page has four panels of either printed text or photographic illustrations and the whole folds into a 5 x 9 stapled pamphlet. Very good.One would expect quite a bit of info about the fecundity of the San Joaquin Valley but in truth this pamphlet focuses almost exclusively on the scenic wonders around the Valley; Yosemite, Mariposa Big Trees, Calaveras Big Trees, General Grant and Sequoia. Literally all of the illustrations are concerned with these or like places. In the center is a large panorama map of the area printed in orange and black. Distributor's stamp on one page.

[New York]: Pacific Coast Borax Co., [ca. 1925]. First edition. Small twelvemo. The title page reads "Concerning Borax Bill and the Famous 20 Mule Borax Team from Death Valley California." 1[16] pp. including frontispiece of Borax bill. Charmingly illustrated through and with a half-tone of the mule team across two pages. Publisher's brown printed wrappers with highlights in red. Excellent condition. he wagons were among the largest ever pulled by draft animals, designed to carry 10 short tons (9 metric tons) of borax ore at a time. The rear wheels measured seven feet high, with tires made of one-inch-thick iron. The wagon beds measured 16 feet long and were 6 feet deep and were constructed of solid oak. They weighed 7,800 pounds empty; when loaded with ore, the total weight of the mule train was 73,200 pounds. Long after the transportation of the borax was mechanized, the company sent. out these 20 mule teams as a sort of advertisement. Promotional team appearances ended with an outing in the… Read More

[Death Valley]: N.p., [ca. 1885]. Original albumen photograph of the famous Borax 20 Mule Team driving through the desert. It measure 8 c 6 1/4 inches and is mounted to a board measuring 10 5/8 x 8 1/4 inches. A couple of small sun blotches but a wonderful image of a famous task tat became the logo for the company.Twenty-mule teams were teams of eighteen mules and two horses attached to large wagons that transported borax out of Death Valley from 1883 to 1889. They traveled from mines across the Mojave Desert to the nearest railroad spur, 165 miles (266 km) away in Mojave. The routes were from the Harmony and Amargosa Borax Works to Daggett, California, and later Mojave, California. After Harmony and Amargosa shut down in 1888, the mule team's route was moved to the mines at Borate, 3 miles (5 km) east of Calico, back to Daggett. There they worked from 1891 until 1898 when they were replaced by the Borate and Daggett Railroad. In 1877, six years before twenty-mule teams had been introduced… Read More

Near Rhyolite, NV: A. E. Hoyt, [ca. 1909). Original photograph measuring 5 x 3 inches on a mount measuring 7 x 4 3/4 inches. Captioned in the plate in white - "The Desert Flyer, A. E. Hoyt, Rhyolite, Nevada." Very good.The Desert Flyer was an open air car with three commodious bench seats and no storage. While we could find no other image of this automobile we did find this - "A. J. P. Bertzchy attempted the manufacture in 1908 of a behemoth he calledthe Desert Flyer, weighing five tons and meant for hauling loads of miners about the goldfields of Nevada, but the effortgot no further than a prototype built in Chicago" (P. G. Hockett, As If in a Dream). The existence of this very photograph gives lie to that statement but undoubtedly the history of The Desert Flyer was a very brief one indeed. Death Valley is not kind to motorized vehicles, especially those weighing five tons.

Los Angeles: Death Valley Hotel Co., [1939]. Map of Death Valley. 11 x 17 inches, printed in brown ink. Inset map shows major highway routes to Death Valley. Recto with tourist information and a mileage chart. Folding with front panel reading "Convenient Route Map to Death Valley". Cartography by Howard Burke. Very good. The Death Valley Hotel Company owned Furnace Creek Inn.

Santa Ana: Western Resort Publications, 1956. Accordion-style promotional pamphlet with one panel of text about growing dates in Southern California, 12 postcard-size illustrations of scenes involving date growing in the Imperial Valley of California. Meant to be mailed and with spaces for address. One card with a slice else very good.

New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1890. First edition. Octavo. 2-8, 2. ads for author's other books], 7[8-publisher's ads. Publisher's bright blue cloth with gilt spine and cover lettering. Minor extremity wear. Bookplates of Jerome A. Hart and Millard M. Meir. A very good copy of this Southern California classic."He {Theodore S. Van Dyke] lived here in the spring of 1887, when “The streets were everywhere crowded, gold clinked on every hand, and imaginary millionaires by the score rode around the streets in shining new buggies with fast horses, or bustled about the banks and real-estate offices with checkbooks sticking from their outside breast pockets.” By that summer, he writes, “fully five sixths of the buyers were buying, not for use, but to sell at an advance to some one else in a few days or weeks. And…nearly all sales were upon contract, with only one fourth or one third paid in cash.”Even today, the memory of the boom haunts people. Overnight it made the town unrecognizable,… Read More

Los Angeles: Abbey San Encino Press, 1935. First edition. One of 1500 numbered copies. Small folio. Complete with nineteen large tipped-in color plates and 114 small tipped in color plates. Complete. Publisher's beige cloth with cover and spine lettering. A very good copy.

Calcutta: Heeralal Dhole, 1885. First Edition with Basu notes. Small octavo. 46 pp. Publisher's blind-ruled terra-cotta cloth with gilt cover lettering.

Montreal: Saidye Bronfman Centre, 1975. First edition. Quarto. 107, [1] pp. Publisher's printed green wrasppers wwith darker green cloth spine. Excellent copy. Only 3 copies located by OCLC.In 1975 the debate over Velikovsky's ideas were still widely argued. This symposium, arranged by the director of the Centre, Nahum Ravel, was a high point in the field. Presented are these talks in printed form; Introduction to Velikovsky, by Irving Wolfe.--Science's unscientific reception of Velikovsky, by C.J. Ransom.--The coming cosmic debate in the sciences and humanities, by Alfred De Grazia.--Catastrophism and the compulsion to meaning, by William Mullen.--The intellectual context of Velikovsky's thought, by George Grinnell.--The social impact of Velikovsky on our generation, by Patrick Doran.--Velikovsky in Shakespeare, by Irving Wolfe."Immanuel Velikovsky (1895-1979) was a controversial author of several books suggesting a radical interpretation of history. In his best-selling book, Worlds in Collision… Read More

[Philadelphia]: [American Dredging Company], 1954. A lovely calligraphic memorial resolution calligraphed by by W. G. Strickland of Philadelphia. Octavo (6 3/4 x 9 1/2 inches). [6] leaves of vellum of which four bear the memorial (versos only). Capitals done in gilt and blue. Opening leaf elaborately decorated. Final leaf signed by each Member of the Board. Original black pebbled morocco, gilt turn-ins, white moire silk doublures, matching slipcase. An excellent example of this form of the Golden Watch.The American Dredging Company of Philadelphia began operations in 1867 and soon became the largest dredging company in the country. E. Homan Stroud joined the company in 1904 and rose through the ranks to become its president in 1944. He died on June 24, 1954 and this memorial was dated the day after. Apparently there were two copies as it states near the rear that a copy shall be given to his widow.

Los Angeles: (The Author), 1948. Original typescript. Probably one of two copies. Quarto. 21, [5, bibliography] leaves (rectos only) plus two folding maps ("Map of Venezuelan Guayana" and "Mapa-Croquis Geologico de la Gran Sabana"). Original full black morocco with gilt cover lettering, black endpapers. Spine rubbed and with one-inch pieces missing from top and bottom. Very clean copy in a tight, if a bit abraded, original binding.Although we never learn who commissioned Rene Engel to conduct this survey we can admire it's professionalism. Engel gives in depth information about the geography, geology and mining history of then Venezuelan Guayana. Gauyana achieved statehood in 1966. The area has a long history of gold and diamond mining with the biggest gold mines being near the Calloa lode which he considered a bit played out for methods of the time. Indeed the first map in this book (actually a photograph of a map) has marked on it the various diamond and gold mines and prospects marked on the… Read More

Ventura : Lee Printing Co., [ca. 1945). This is one large sheet (13 x 7 1/2 inches) )of craft paper folded to make eight panels. The entire inside of the brochure (4 panels) bears a color bird's-eye view of the building and ground of the Pierpont Inn. The other side bears two photographic illustrations of the rooms at the inn, a printed panel welcoming "Mr. Mrs. and Miss Motorist", and the final part contains the name and address of the recipient and a short handwritten note as well. Letter is dated January 10, 1947. In very good condition.The Pierpont Inn is a Craftsman bungalow-style Inn in Ventura, California on a bluff overlooking the Santa Barbara Channel. Built in 1910 for motoring tourists, the property is City of San Buenaventura Historic Landmark Number 80. n 1908, Josephine Pierpont bought land on a bluff overlooking the ocean in Ventura, California for development as a site for an inn. She felt the inn could serve the increasing number of automobile enthusiasts who would travel along… Read More

San Francisco: The "Viavi" Co., 1891 & 1898. The very elusive first edition of the first title and OCLC records no editions of the second. Octavo. 24 [i.e. 26] pp. and VIII chromolithograph plates (actually one pate is just tinted) of the female reproductive system. Publisher's full burgundy calf with very large and ornate gilt lettering on the front, gilt turn-ins, printed green endpapers, all edges gilt. The spine is hanging in there but will be in need of rescue soon. The second title is also a small octavo, 32 pp. and printed on green tinted paper. Publisher's wrappers with their monogram in blue in the middle, blue titling. Old and faint crease but very fresh. Dr Hartland Law and his brother Herbert Edward Law, FCS were two of the most prominent and wealthy citizens of San Francisco by the early 1900s. They were the largest dealers in real estate in the city. For a time they had been the owners of the Fairmount Hotel, rebuilding after the great earthquake of 1906 at a cost of 2 million dollars… Read More

Pomono: Frasher's Photos, [ca. 1926-35]. Original silver gelatin proof prints by Burton Frasher of scenes in Death Valley and environs. Sight size of each is 5 x 7 inches and the mount size is 10 x 8 inches. All with the Frasher logo in the print as well as stamped in the back. one photograph with a small marginal tear. Impeccable condition of rarely seen views. All photographs were laboriously identified on three typed sheets. From the library of Hugh Toldford.When one thinks of Frasher the first thing that comes to mind are his numerous RPPCs but the photographs on offer here are all his deluxe format photographs and are seldom seen, especially not in this condition and number. After years of traveling while working in the fruit packing industry, Burton Frasher and his wife Josephine opened a photo shop in La Verne, California in 1914. Six years later they moved to Pomona where he expanded his studio by publishing postcards. Frasher went to great lengths to find images for his real photo… Read More

Buenos Aires: Mitchell's English Book Store, 1944. First facsimile edition. One of 2000 numbered copies. Octavo. xxviii, 115, [1, colophon] pp. Twenty-four facsimile colored plates. The plates include: “General View of Buenos Ayres, from the Plaza de Toros;” “Landing Place;” “Market Place;” “Milk Boys;” “South Matadero (Public Butchery);” “Church of San Domingo;” “Pampa Indians;” “Estantia (Farm) on the River San Pedro;” “Balling Ostriches;” “Guachos (Rustics) of Tucuman;” “Convoy of Wine Mules;” “Paolistas, Soldiers of the East Bank of the Plata;” “A Quinta (Farm);” and “A Horse Race.” original half brown morocco over marbled boards, spine with gilt bands and lettering, marbled endpapers, morocco-edged slipcase to match. Bookseller's ticket to front pastedown (Mitchell's). Original wrappers bound in. Bit of erosion to spine head else a very handsome copy.

Tarrytown NY: N.p., 1971. This calligraphic and decorated scroll measures 19 x 124 inches and is composed of five sheets of laid paper attached. Calligraphic text with decoration on the margins. A very powerful, yet attractive document.Written much in the style of the Declaration of Independence, this scroll, written by a known author and illustrated by an renown artist, move in an entirely different direction all the while upholding the principles of the US primary document. The time was 1971 and the anger at American involvement in the war in Vietnam was reaching a fever pitch. Marches and demonstrations (not a few of which I was dragged to as a youth) were happening across the country, violence was done to university students. and thousands of deaths were reported weekly on television. It was a great time of togetherness and everyone pitched in. The makers;Robert Andrew Parker; Robert Andrew Parker graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1952 after serving in the Army in the 1940s. He… Read More

Paris: Librairie Documentaire, 1906. First edition of this tasteful gathering of original nude photographs for academics, sculptors, painters and engravers (ahem). The work was issued in ten parts (or 'serie') between 1906 - 1907, each with 10 albumen photographs. The present selection consists of 'Serie II' complete, with three additional images. Each photograph measures 7 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches and is mounted, landscape and portrait formatting, to gray boards measuring 12 x 8 1/2 inches. The whole housed in the original printed gray envelope with an tipped-on actual photograph of a a woman's face. The typography and the poses all speak of a deep art nouveau influence. Very scarce. The only copy recorded is at the Bibliotheque National.This copy has three additional albumen photographs. It is likely that a new subscriber started at Serie II and the publisher was kind enough to include a few remaining photographs from Serie I. Amdedee Vignola is today chiefly remembered for his publication L'Humanite… Read More

Los Angeles: The Author, 1913. First edition. Quarto. 23, [2] pp. plus seven full page color illustrations by Villa (and seven monochrome vignette drawings). Publisher's stiff buff wrappers with a color Villa illustration, string tied. Some chipes to front wrapper, else a clean copy,

San Francisco: Bedford Arts, (1990). First edition, first printing. Square quarto. xxviii, 271, [1] pp. with 10p full page color illustrations of paintings of California. Publisher's green cloth with gilt spine and cover lettering. pictorial dust jacket. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket.