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

London: W. H. Allen & Co., 1895. First edition. Octavo. xviii, [1, abbreviations], [1], 598, [2, publisher's ads] pp. Profusely illustrated with photographic illustrations and line drawings. In its time, this book was a landmark in English-language writings on Tibet, and it still retains great value for its rich visual documentation, in the form of photographs and line drawings. Although derided now, Waddell did history a great service by presenting in this book remarkably clear descriptions of shrines and temples, costumes and ritual practices, objects and images.

London: John Murray, 1905. First edition Octavo. xxii, 530, [2, printer's slug and blank] pp. plus 8 maps (three of which are folding), and 114 full page illustrations (almost entirely photographic). Complete. Publisher's light tan cloth with gilt spine lettering, front with lettering in red plus 2 Tibetan symbols and the word Lhasa in Sanskrit in gilt, top edges gilt, yellow endpapers. Spine a bit dulled but an excellent copy overall.Waddell's densely illustrated account of the British Mission to Lhasa of 1904-1905. Led by the legendary British explorer/soldier, Col. Younghusband and his army of 2800 Indian soldiers. Conceived of as a Peace Mission it soon became the very opposite as the the Tibetans took up arms against this invading foreign force. The fight fell heavily on the Indian soldiers as they were up against the entire Tibetan army. The British government had gotten wind of a political agreement between the Dalai Lama and the Tsar of Russia. Naturally, this was dire news to the British… Read More

Bielfeld: August Helmich, 1852-62. First edition. Octavo portfolio with 9 fascicles bearing 220 mounted specimens of mosses and other primitive plant species. Complete. Publisher’s blind-stamped brown cloth portfolio with gilt cover lettering, original ties present but broken. A couple of specimens starting to degrade but overall, an excellent copy of this very fragile and scarce book. OCLC locates various copies with various numbers of fascicles but only finds 2 complete with all 9 as presented here (Paris; Bium and the University of Virginia).Each of the 9 fascicles bears a title page and each of the specimens bear a printed description just below the sample. Thus the book is printed in its entirety and someone had the tedious job of placing the correct specimens in the correct places. A few contemporary manuscript corrections. Hermann Wagner was a very early and important pioneer of biodiversity of ecosystems. “The first clear and simple system of categorizing the different types of… Read More

San Francisco: John Howell, 1926. First edition. Quarto. x, 543, [1] pp. Illustrated. Publisher's blue cloth with gilt spine lettering. Frontispiece loose laid in (apparently never got bound into this copy). Historian John Caughey's copy with his bookplate (which, unfortunately, has has the majority of which torn out). Very clean in the original binding.

London: Rider & Co., [1921]. New and revised edition (the first edition was published a year earlier). Two large octavo volumes. With sixteen full-page plates and other illustrations. Publisher's blind-ruled blue cloth with gilt spine lettering, front cover with a gilt Masonic device. Some light spine extremity wear else a very handsome, clean and study copy.

Aberdeen: North Plains Press, (1973). First edition. One of 300 specially bound copies, signed by the author and Conrad Schwiering. Large quarto. xvii, [1], 207, [1], [1. colophon], [1] pp. Numerous illustrations throughout (many in color). Publisher's full dark brown calf with gilt spine lettering and gilt facsimile of Schwiering's signature on front. A fine copy."Conrad Schwiering, raised in Laramie, Wyoming, first fell in love with the Tetons while on a trip with his father. The spectacular view of the Teton Range from the north left a lasting impression on the young boy. Schwiering moved to Jackson with his wife Mary Ethel in 1947. Unlike many artists of the American West, Schwiering was a native of the region. As he stated in an interview several years before his death in 1986, "I am different in that I am a part of the land. I record the things that I know as a way of breathing - a way of living." Schwiering is best known for his dramatic Teton landscapes" (National Museum of Wildlife Art).

N.p.: N.p., [ca. 1880]. Twenty original mounted albumen views of North Wales (all mounted on stubs), including Llandudno, Fairy Glen (Betws-y-Coed), Mt. Snowdon, The Last Half Mile, Menai, Suspension Bridge, etc. All photographs with captions in the plate. Each photograph measures approximately 5 1/4 x 8 inches. Original full red morocco album with cover bearing gilt lettering and gilt corner devices, gilt turn-ins, a.e.g.. Scattered foxing throughout though mainly to mounts. A very well preserved and handsome album of quotidian life in Wales.In all the captions we find the initials of the photographer; J. V. This is no doubt James Valentine. He was a a Scottish topographical and landscape photographer based in Dundee. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he often included people in his photographs. The most charming photograph herein is of an old lady dressed in traditional Welsh garb and having tea on the patio.

Gdansk: N.p., (1987). Original bronze medal, 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches, in original box as presented by Lech Walesa according to pencil note on the back of a laid in business car. The card is for Richard Z. Chesnoff, Senior Correspondent at US New & World Report. On the back of the card is the following manuscript notation; "Received by RZC from Lech Walesa at Krakow Synagogue, Jan. 17, 1987. Maker's sticker still on inner cover. Box is burgundy cloth with a gilt Polish eagle on the front. Excellent condition.Lech Wa sa is a Polish retired politician and labour activist. He co-founded and headed Solidarity (Solidarno ), the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland from 1990 to 1995. The Katyn Forest is where 22,000 of Poland's best and brightest, the intelligentsia of Poland, were executed in a WWII massacre in the spring of 1940 carried out by NVDK, the forerunner of the KGB, Joseph Stalin's secret police. Until fairly… Read More

London: George Allen & Unwin, 1952. First edition, Octavo. Cloth in dust jacket. Very good,

Big Pine [CA]: Privately Printed, 1988. First edition. One of 875 numbered copies. Octavo. 95, [1] pp. Publisher's printed buff wrappers. No issues.Walker's descriptions are laden with facts and quite useful.

APA Philo Press: Amsterdam, (1976). Two octavo volumes. 1103 pp. plus 8 plates. Publisher's green cloth with burgundy gilt spine labels, pictorial dust jackets. Mild sunning to jacket of first voume but a very clean and tidy and attractive set.The first volume is the English translation and the second is a facsimile of the original.

Philadelphia/Paris: George Barrie, 1889. First trade edition. Folio (15 x 13 inches). 25 parts (with seven being double issues). Fifty original engravings on thick stock and tinted plus twenty-five full page color illustrations. Complete. Plates and text loose as issued by the publisher. In the original printed gray wrappers. All wrappers with splits separating front cover from back (all present though and in good condition). Some expected edge wear as the contents were issued loose. Complete and rare in parts. From the introduction: "This publication is intended to furnish a complete description of the best and most important works in painting, sculpture, and architecture collected at the Paris International Exhibition of 1889." This was the popular edition published by subscription at a price of fifty cents each.

Philadelphia: John Wanamaker, 1901-1902. All ten issues in the original pictorial wrappers. Octavos with various paginations. All ten issues are from Volume XX which switches from 1901 to 1902; September, October, November, December, January, February. March, April, June, August. The October issue has some old tidemarks and a page with a cutout article and inserted at that page is a 4-page manuscript letter dated 1901. Some edge browning to wrapper edges and mild spine erosion but quite good overall."Born in Philadelphia in 1838, John Wanamaker pioneered the concept of the department store. In 1861 Wanamaker and his brother-in-law, Nathan Brown, opened Oak Hall, a men's clothing store. In 1876, intending to open a central market like London's Royal Exchange or Paris' Les Halles, he converted an abandoned Pennsylvania Railroad depot into a multipurpose clothing and specialties store called Wanamaker's. Catering to an upscale market, he promised all-wool clothing and quality goods with a… Read More

Bloomington, WI: Bloomington Record, 1902. First edition. Octavo. [54] pp. of text, including six full page photographic portraits, and [12] pp. of ads for local Wisconsin businesses. Publisher's crepe wrappers with blue cover lettering, front cover with an image of the American flag, rear cover with an ad. A very good copy.Various tales by Wisconsin Union soldiers and widows relating to the Civil War. Portraits of Mrs. Anne Nye Dennis, Mrs. Isabella Leindecker, William Leindecker (in his Union uniform), Martha M. Jones, Charles H. Baxter and R. B. Showalter.

Washington: Government Printing Office, 1900. First edition of War Notes 1-8. Octavo. Variously paginated. Folding maps. Each of the eight parts with its own orange front and rear wrappers. Publisher's pebble-grain green cloth with gilt spine and cover lettering. Front hinge starting, ery narrow bands of dampstaining to top and bottom (about an eighth of an inch each), some minor silverfishing to cloth. A complete copy, clean, in the original binding.

Camp Alger: N.p., [1898]. A six-page (three sheet) ALS from Chas to his mother, dated July, 12, [1898]. Some repair to verso tears at fold-lines. Each of the three sheets bears a printed image at the top which shows soldiers, tents, guns and a red-white-blue flag flying. At the end Charles intimates to his mother that they might be going to Puerto Rico and he asks her not to let anymore of his letters be published. The writer, somewhat educated, was with the 3rd Infantry Regiment, New York State National Guard, and they were mustered out without having seen action. Comes with an original photograph of two soldiers, seated and holding their rifles between their legs (3 3/4 x 6 1/2 inches; losses at edges); presumably one of the soldiers is Charles. An appealing little asemblage.

[Monterey]: n.p., 1996. A fine original Ward watercolor of a Western town (signed by Ward in lower left) with an ALS below. Sight size; 10 1/4 x 7 7/8 inches. Matted, framed (19 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches) and glazed. A charming watercolor with a heartfelt letter below. "A native Californian, Ward began his professional training at U.C.L.A. where he graduated with a degree in mathematics. After serving in the Korean War, his love of painting brought him to the Monterey Peninsula where he lives with his wife Johanna...A student of the late Joshua Meador for five years, Ward was elected to membership in the Carmel Art Association in 1963, serving three terms as President. He is an Artist member of the California Art Club and Charter Member of the Society of American Impressionists. Equally adept in oils, watercolor, and acrylic, Ward has become well-known as an outstanding American impressionist" (Carmel Art Association). He is also known for his book First Impressions: Sketching Nature in Watercolor (New… Read More

Bozeman: Treasure Products , (1972). First edition. One of 300 numbered copies, signed by the author. Quarto. 29, [2] pp. Illustrated. Publisher's full rawhide with a gilt bas-relief of Russell on cover, lettering in blind, pictorial endpapers, Errata laid in. An excellent copy.

Essen: Krupp Aktiengesellschaft, 1911. A portfolio of ten large mounted gelatin silver prints of the Krupp armament plant in Essen/Ruhr. The images measure from 11 x 9 inches (229 x 279 mm.) to 6 1/4 x 8 3/4 inches (165 x 222 mm.). They are on stiff gray mounts, 12. 1/2 x 15 1/4 inches (318 x 387 mm.), each with a red border and a printed caption in French. Original green cloth portfolio (15 1/2 X 12 3/4 inches) with gilt cover lettering. Some aging and sunning to portfolio but the prints are excellent.[together with]Donnees Statistiques. Essen/Ruhr; Krupp Aktiengesellschaft, 1909. First edition. Octavo (5 14 x 8 inches; 203 x 133 mm.). 144 pp. with text in French. Profusely illustrated in half-tone, including reproductions of the photographs in the portfolio. Bound in matching green cloth with title in gilt on front cover. Aside from some spine sunning, a very attractive copy.A photograph of the original wooden structure that housed Krupp's first factory, surrounded by the huge development of… Read More

Lexington [KY]: The King Library Press, 1993. First edition. One of 100 numbered copies Signed by Cleanth Brooks just prior to his death and with the signature of Robert Penn Warren in facsimile. Small octavo. 25, [1] pp. Publisher's green and brown patterned boards with printed paper spine label, blue endpapers, mulberry paper flyleaves. No issues.This copy signed by the director of the Press, Paul Evans Holbrook, as well (in the colophon).