Rare books from Common Crow Books

Newtown, Wales: Gwasg Gregynog, 1990. Hardcover. Fine/Slipcase. 1990, one of only 210 copies, this one rebound in special deluxe binding by John Pearson. Hardcover, folio, 13 x 18.5 inches (33x47 cm). Fine copy in slipcase. Illustrated. A magnificent, artistic binding, with collage style glossy leather and 6 rawhide ties. Unique, colorful endpapers. The lined slipcase is done in full black cloth with title label on spine. The slipcase has some soiling to one of its large sides. Pearson is a member of the Designer Bookbinders and his work has been displayed across the globe.

New York: George H. Doran, 1920. Later edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Good. First edition by Doran, but the Second American edition. c. 1920, judged by the titles on the rear panel of the dust jacket. Hardcover, green cloth. A Near Fine copy in a Good example of the scare dust jacket. Previous owner's signature on the fly leaf; light fading to the endpapers; clean contents; tight, square binding. The DJ is missing a 1x2-inch piece from the top of the spine and rear panel shallow loss at the the foot of the spine and corners. 'The story of a 20th century revival of Black Magic' with the protagonist loosely based on Aleister Crowley. One DJ now housed in a mylar wrap.

London: J. M. Richardson, 1817. Hardcover. Very Good. Leather-backed boards with marbled foredges with original hinges, bound to imitate a 2 volume folio set of leather bound books. With all 32 original wooden chess pieces (and two extras), and 28 backgammon pieces, ancient leather-covered dice-shaking cup with 5 old dice, and W. Lewis' two volume set 'Oriental Chess' (1817) which was found within the box when we purchased it. The 2 books are in Very Good condition. The leather box is dry, rubbed and flaking and could use some restoration, but in all a Very Good set. Digital images available upon request.

USA: n/a, 1940. Colorful pop-up 1940s Valentine of dancing children and monkeys. Measures 7 by 10 inches, all moving parts in working order, contemporary inscription on verso. Very good. Light edge wear, part of pop-up separating from backing, else clean and unmarked.

London: F. G. Moon and John F. Lewis, 1835. Hardcover. Good. First edition (1835). Large folio (22 x 15.5 inches), original leather backed cloth boards, lithographed title page, 25 plates, good copy with moderate wear to binding, including some loss of leather to spine, contents quite foxed throughout as is almost always the case, heaviest at the frontispiece. First few pages have slight edgewear. Some of the plates have foxing that is almost entirely in the margins. One of the great early lithographic view books. The author seemed to fancy the women of Spain and devotes much of his sketching to capturing women in various Spanish settings.

Rio de Janeiro: Philobiblion, 1957. Limited ed. Paperback. Fine/Fair. 1957, First Edition. One of 100 unnumbered copies. 8 color plates plus 2 in b&w designed by Lorca and hand printed by Manuel Segala on Ingres paper for Philobiblion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Text in Portuguese. 6.5 x 9.5 inches. Loose sheets in paper folder and cardboard wraps; the cardboard has split down the spine; paper covering front board mostly present; paper covering rear board lacking (although it's possible that it was issued this way. Title page printed in black and red. Contents in Fine condition -- wrappers worn. RARE. OCLC with only a single copy, in Spain. Beautiful reproductions.

London: Robert Barker, 1611. First printing. Hardcover. Fine. First edition, taken from the 'He' version, of the entire APOCRYPHA, Authorized Version, known as the King James Bible, 1611. Folio, finely bound in full morocco gilt, with printed title page and preface by the New York bookseller Charles Hamilton, probably early 1960s, where he attests that the text is from the 'He' version (taken from an error in Ruth III.15, corrected to 'she' shortly after) and thus much more desirable. Fine. 104 leaves (208 pp.) from the most famous book in the English language. The 1611 King James Apocrypha contained the following books: 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Additions to Esther, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, Prayer of Azariah, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, Prayer of Manasseh, 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees. In 2016 a copy of the complete Bible sold at Sotheby's for $320,000 plus the hammer: nearly $400,000.

Paris: Mercier, 1923. Very Good. No.158 of 500, this one inscribed by Julius Sarluis to Horatio Klug, with an additional note that the poem on p. 75 with the printed dedication to "H. K." is dedicated to him. 12mo (6.5 x 5 inches), illustrated wraps, 80 pp, a few illustrations in b/w. This is accompanied by the original drawing for the cover, 3 original drawings for the illustrations and a trial proof of the front and back cover illustrations, all with Sarluis' notes to the printers. Also accompanied by a 1997 "Individual Book Report" that was apparently part of an estate inventory, noting that this book and the accompanying original illustrations were purchased from the Nevill Keating Gallery in London in August 1986 at a cost of 65,000 Francs; $9743.50 at the time. Leonard Sarluis (1874-1949) was a well known French Symbolist painter, praised by Jean Lorrain and Oscar Wilde, and his illustrations for the 1923 edition of Gaston de Pawlowski's surrealist science fiction novel, Voyage au Pays de la… Read More

Kiel & Milwaukee, WI: Kiel Furniture Co, 1920. Near Fine. 5 catalogs, oblong quarto, wraps (each about 13 x 10 inches), very good plus to near fine condition, 64 to 96 pp. each, illustrated throughout, some in subtle browntone, occasional plates in color, with occasional price lists and inserts. Products include dining room suites, tables, library tables, desks, stools, tabourettes, pedestals and "novelties." The Kiel Furniture company was founded in 1882 and employed German-American immigrants in the small town of Kiel and has been in business ever since, now under the name A. A. Laun Furniture Company, named for the younger brother of J. B. Laun, one of the original presidents of the company, who took over as vice president and general manager in 1916. The types of products featured in these catalogs reflects both the tastes of their clientele, mainly middle-income Midwestern households, but also reflects the Stickleyesque influence of Arts & Crafts and Mission style furniture. Searching the OCLC… Read More

Akron, OH: The Werner Company, 1908. Limited edition. Hardcover. Very Good+. Ten volume set! Unnumbered set of 1000 total copies, 3/4 leather boards, octavo, various paginations, illustrated in b&w. Books have rubbing and wear to leather spines and corners, bindings tight (feel unopened), texts clean and unmarked but toned throughout, with handsome gilt to top edge of blocks. No DJs. THIS LARGE, HEAVY SET WILL REQUIRE ADDITIONAL SHIPPING FEES.

Boston: J. B. Millet, 1901. First printing. Hardcover. Very Good. Text volume plus 9 portfolios of mounted photoplates. Folio, book measures 14 x 10 inches, each portfolio measures 13.75 x 11.25 inches, all in green buckram with leather labels. Overall condition is very good, light wear, soil and dustiness, labels rubbed and sometimes chipped, plates collated complete: 150 photos with the visible area measuring 9 x 7 inches, mounted and matted on charcoal-black mounting sheets with captions pasted on versos of each. Plates all in fine condition. Very rare in the trade. An incomplete set with only 133 photos auctioned at PBA in 2013 for a total of $1560; rarebookhub reports a forty-year-old catalogue entry from a bookseller in California for the complete set for $2000.

New York: National Military Publishing Company, 1893. First Printing. Fair. Complete collection of 24 chromolithograph prints on sheets measuring approx. 14.5 x 11 inches, with cover of the original box-lid or card chemise the prints were housed in. Each plate has a smaller black and white printed reduction of the plates on their versos with the ships identified. Overall fair condition: many of the prints have some edgewear, soil and darkening to margins and three having some tears and rumpling to upper left margins, but most all of the images themselves are clean and free of wear, only the margins are affected, and quite a number are in what we'd call very good condition. Very rare and the only time this has appeared at auction, according to rarebookhub, 4 prints from the set sold for $360 at Northeast Auctions in 2013. Wonderful images with a predominantly gray-green background scheme, these would all mat & frame up really nicely.

Paris: chez Krafft, Ransonnette, Pougens, Fuchs, Volland & Levrault, de l'imprimerie de Clousier, 1802. First Printing. Hardcover. Very good. Folio, 20 x 13.25 inches, contemporary half dark green leather and fuschia paper-covered boards, good to very good binding, light wear, rubbing, edgewear, contents very good, collated complete with frontispiece and 120 etched copperplates with captions and descriptions every six plates in French, German and English columns, plates very good with hardly any wear, foxing or soil, one plate with small tan stain, bookplate of Irwin Laughlin (1871-1941), a Pittsburgh-born diplomat who was ambassador to Greece and then to Spain in the 1920s and 1930s. Rare volume: a copy with contemporary hand-coloring fetched nearly 11,000 Euros in 2014, and an uncolored copy similar to ours sold at Sotheby's in 1995 for 1840 Pounds including commission. Ransonnette engraved the plates.

San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1968. First Printing. Hardcover. Near fine. No. 22 of 50 signed copies handbound in boards by the Schuberth Bindery. Cloth backed boards, near fine copy with touch of bumping to the bottom corners of the boards, in acetate dust jacket we think was probably not issued by the publisher.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917. Hardcover. Very good+. Forty volume complete set! Green cloth boards, octavos, various paginations, sparsely illustrated in b&w. Books have mild shelfwear and rubbing to boards, a couple small spots of soil, bindings tight, one previous owner's stamp on volume 29 front pastedown, otherwise no markings, handsome gilt to top edges of blocks, texts clean and unmarked. THIS LARGE, HEAVY SET WILL REQUIRE ADDITIONAL SHIPPING FEES.