Rare books from Riverrun Books & Manuscripts

Paris: Simon Du Bois for Geoffroy Tory, 1527. 4to (196 x 139 mm). Collation: a-r8 s4. 140 leaves, bâtarde type, title printed in red and black, initials and headings printed in red throughout, printer's "pot cassé" device (Bernard, no. 9) on title and on verso of last leaf, each page within a four-part woodcut border of flowers, insects, animals and other ornaments, 13 large outline woodcuts, including the Annunciation on two facing pages, ruled in red. 18th-century French marbled calf gilt, edges gilt. Front joint repaired; slight marginal worming, repaired. Provenance: Pierre Bosuiel (bookplate); from the Collection of Arthur & Charlotte Vershbow, purchased from Georges Heilbrun, 1968. A FINE COMPLETE COPY OF THE THIRD TORY HOURS, AND THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THESE ILLUSTRATIONS AND BORDERS. Each of Tory's three sets of Horae woodcuts represents an independent cycle of design. The renewed privilege granted to Tory on 5 September 1526 appears in both this edition (on a1v-a2r) as well as the octavo… Read More

Rome: Giovanni Bouchard, 1750. From the Collection of Arthur & Charlotte Vershbow. Broadsheets (537 x 370 mm). Letterpress title-page printed in red and black with the vignette by Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain, portrait of Piranesi by F. Polanzani, frontispiece (Robison 1) and 16 plates of the Prima Parte di Architetture, Second Edition, First Issue (R. 2, 3, 5, 15-18, 6-12 [all numbered], 20, 19 [not numbered]); frontispiece of Vedute di Roma (Hind 2, First State), two double-page plates printed in two separate halves on two sheets; Pianta di ampio magnifico Collegio (R. 25), state II as usual, double-page; the four double-page plates of the Groteschi (R. 23, 24, 22, 21), Second Edition, First Issue; Parte di ampio magnifico Porto (R. 26), state III, double-page. All very fine impressions, watermark Fleur-de-Lys in Single Circle (R. 4, dated early 1750s), Contemporary Italian vellum, gilt-lettered on spine, edges stained red. Spine partly split; some occasional minor spotting, generally in very good… Read More

San Francisco: The Arion Press, 1984. Folio (20 1/2 x 14 inches). 28 drypoint etchings, combining engraving and drypoint, using hand and electric tools, by Jim Dine, plus an additional print on chine colle from the second state of the frontispiece (entitled "Details from Nancy's Garden"), signed by Dine, laid in separate printed folder. Original quarter green morocco, gilt-lettered on spine; custom cloth box with an inset bas-relief sculpture designed by Dine and cast by Ron Dillon, representing Flora's temple gate on upper cover. LIMITED EDITION OF JIM DINE'S TEMPLE OF FLORA, number 158 of 175 copies signed by the artist and containing an additional signed print from an edition of 175. Dine's modern reinterpretation of John Thornton's 1807 work - one of the greatest of all botanical color-plate books - of the same name. Edited by Glenn Todd and Nancy Dine; with botanical notes compiled by Glenn Todd; poetry by John Ashbery, Richard G. Barnes, Hart Crane, Robert Creeley, E. E. Cummings, Hilda… Read More

London: John Murray, 1912. A very good copy, light wear and pale spotting to cloth, endpapers discolored, tissue guards creased, some pale intermittent foxing. Two volumes, 8vo. Photogravure frontispiece to each volume, 92 similar plates, 2 plates of manuscript facsimile, 6 maps and charts (3 folding), 16 charts and tables to the text. Original dark red cloth, gilt titles and enamelled Norwegian flags to spines and within simple red frame to front boards, top edges gilt, others untrimmed. Provenance: W. S. Godfrey (ownership signatures on front free endpapers). FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, first impression, of Amundsen's legendary narrative of his race to the Pole.

New York: W. W. Norton, 1932. A near-fine copy with a few small areas of discoloration to cloth, in a very good price-clipped jacket with losses at ends of spine and at lower rear panel. 4to. 240 pages. 82 full-page photographs of contemporary buildings, accompanied by plans. Cloth; dust jacket. Provenance: Samuel M. Nickerson (pencil inscription dated Sept. 11 1934 on front free endpaper), possibly a descendent of Samuel M. Nickerson (1830-1914) of Chicago, banker and owner of the famed Gilded Age Nickerson House, now the home to the Richard H. Driehaus Museum. FIRST EDITION of this seminal book on Modernist architecture, designed by Werner Helmer. The book illustrates buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, J. J. P. Oud, Mies van der Rohe, Raymond M. Hood, Howe & Lescaze, Richard J. Neutra, and other architects. It was published on the occasion of MoMA's exhibition "Modern Architecture, International Exhibition," and includes an introduction by the museum's director Alfred… Read More

London: Faber & Faber, 1986. A fine copy, the slipcase lightly age-darkened. 4to. 144 pages. Color illustrations, diagrams in text. Black cloth lettered in silver; printed board slipcase. SCARCE DELUXE LIMITED ISSUE OF THE FIRST EDITION, number 51 of 150 copies, signed by Eno and Mills on the half-title, and with Mills' original lithograph "Warm Jets" (1985) laid-in (as well as the tissue guard). Also laid-in is the publisher's slip indicating that the publishing info on the verso of the title refers to the trade paperback issued simultaneously, with a note that this hardcover features a typographic version of the paperback incorporating a rendition of Blank Frank by Brian Eno. The text comprises lyrics to Eno's songs, each accompanied by artwork by Mills. The book is arranged chronologically, according to the albums from which they come, with each album forming a chapter. Rick Pynor's commentary was compiled largely through interviews with Eno, and cover his biography, influences, methods, and… Read More

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928. An internally bright and clean copy in a worn binding, with a large stain on cover affecting title [without the dust jacket]. 8vo. 216, [1] pages. Plates by Gibran. Original black cloth. FIRST EDITION. A SCARCE PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED by Gibran in Arabic on the front free endpaper: "Ila al-Akh Jawaad [To the brother Jawaad], Jibran, 1928." A work seldom found signed or inscribed. Gibran portrays the life of Jesus through the words of 77 contemporaries who knew him: enemies and friends; Syrians, Romans, Jews, priests, and poets.

Göttingen: Steidl, 2010. A fine copy, the book safe characteristically a bit worn (a strategically anonymous hiding place). Folio (13 x 10 inches) book safe, containing 4to volume (11 x 8.5 inches). Color and black-and-white photographs, some folding. Linen-backed printed wrappers; housed in a book-safe (Martin Gottfried, 'In Person: The Great Entertainers', New York: Harry Abrams, [1987]). SIGNED LIMITED FIRST EDITION, one of 300 copies housed in a unique book-safe, signed by Soth and his alter ego Lester B. Morrison, and with a signed and numbered Soth photograph and booklet, 'Liberation Billford Manifest'. This copy numbered 142 of 300. Each of the book-safes are unique, and were cut by hand. According to Soth's Little Brown Mushroom website: "Created over four years (2006-2010), Alec Soth's newest book represents a significant departure from his previous publications. Entitled 'Broken Manual,' Soth investigates the places in which people retreat to escape civilization. Soth photographs monks,… Read More

New York: Wm. C. Locke & Co, 1851. Wrappers chipped at edges, professionally rebacked, some unobtrusive offsetting on map. 8vo. 50 pages. Large folding map on three joined sheets (21 x 1788 cm; 8.25 x 61.75 inches). 11 woodblock illustrations in text (and with 2 more not recorded in the index but always present). Original printed wrappers with woodblock vignette. SCARCE Hudson River Railroad travel guide published the first year in which the full line was completed. It covers points of interest along the route, with woodblocks illustrating the text. Topics include: the history of the Hudson River, the history of the construction of the Hudson River Railroad, and the cities, towns and villages along the Hudson, from New York City all the way to Troy.  Concerning the West Point Foundry at Cold Spring, the guide states: "the iron foundry [was] established here by Gouverneur Kemble. The works are situated about a mile west of the village, upon a small stream which tumbles rapidly down the mountains,… Read More

Göttingen: Steidl, 2016. A fine copy. Oblong folio (36 x 29 cm) 31 color photographs. Cloth; slipcase. Additional photograph in cloth chemise. DELUXE LIMITED EDITION, number 25 of 50 copies signed by Burtynsky with an original photograph, from an edition of 150 (three sets of 50 copies, each with one of three images) plus 15 artist's proofs. The additional image is that found of p. 4 of the book. "The images in this book are not about the battles being fought on the ground. Rather, they examine this ancient method of providing one of the most basic elements of our diet; as primitive industry and as abstract two-dimensional human marks upon the landscape." - Edward Burtynsky. For this series, the photographer traveled to Gujarat, India, to make images of the Little Ranch of Kutch, a region that is home to more than 100,000 salt workers extracting around one million tons of salt from the floodwaters of the Arabian Sea each year. "Salt has been their main industry for the last four hundred years.… Read More

Paris: Galerie Louis Carre, 1946. A clean, near-fine copy in wrappers with some very minute wear and pale offsetting. An attractive and finely printed catalog. 12mo (15.6 x 12 cm). 35, [17] pages. Frontispiece photograph of Calder in his studio in Roxbury, 7 plates, of which four in color (and two of these double-page), and one color heapiece of a mobile. Printed wrappers, the front wrapper with a photographic image of one of his mobiles in motion. First edition. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at Galerie Louis Carre in Paris that ran October 25 through November 16, 1946. Text in French with contributions by Jean-Paul Sartre, and James Johnson Sweeney. 24 pieces were included in the exhibition, created between 1941 and 1946. The cover, frontispiece and three balck-an-white plates reproduce photographs by Herbert Matter.

Cleveland, 1966. Faint toning. 11 x 8.5 inches. Title leaf of translucent paper with an original drawing by levy. Mimeographed. 12 pages, on rectos only. Stapled wrappers, front cover with original ink scarab drawing by the author mounted. One of 33 copies. A scarce publication by one of levy's unnamed presses, being Edouard Naville's translation of 'The Litany of Ra.' The large original drawing of a scarab on the cover is reflective of levy's interest in the symbol, which he used as the title of his collection 'Scarab Poems.' Though neither his name, nor that of one of his presses, appears in the text, this has all the hallmarks of levy's important mimeographed books, and appears less frequently on the market than others. Taylor & Horvath P-90.

London: Richard Griffin and Company, 1861. A lovely near-fine copy, the binding firm and bright. The contents with a previous owner's bookplate to the front pastedown and a little spotting to the endpapers, are otherwise clean and fresh throughout. A superb example of a very scarce title. 8vo (21.8 x 15.7 cm). Publisher's original green cloth with gilt titles and decoration to the upper board and spine, gilt to all page edges. Illustrated with 20 mounted albumen prints. FIRST EDITION of one of the earliest works of poetry to be illustrated by photography. The anthology combines extracts from authors including Keats, Clare, Wordsworth, Cowper, and Longfellow, with mounted photographs depicting idyllic scenes of contemporary rural life by the renowned stereographer William Morris Grundy (1806-1859), to create a harmonious interweaving of verse and imagery. Grundy was born in Birmingham, moving to Sutton Coldfield in 1850. Initially taking up photography as a hobby in 1855, he went on to achieve… Read More

Chicago: Reilly & Britton Co, 1914. Light wear at corners and ends of spine, front cover illustration with some rubbing at edges, but illustrations complete and fine, internally clean and fresh. 6 parts in one volume, 8vo (199x147mm). 196 pages, each section with separate pagination. Color plates and illustrations by John R. Neill; ownership page designed by Maginel Wright Enright (here with owner's name and address in ink dated Christmas 1918). Original tan cloth, front cover with mounted color title panel, pictorial endpapers printed in blue. First edition, second printing on rough paper and measuring some 1/8 inch thicker than the first printing on smooth paper. Binding with "Reilly & Britton" at foot of spine.

[Washington, D.C.]: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943. In unusually fresh condition, the wrappers with slightest of toning and a few tiny spots, the staples lightly rusted. 5.25.x 4.25 inches. 32 pages. Pictorial wrappers, stapled. A SCARCE EARLY WORK BY DR. SEUSS. First edition, first inner rear wrapper variant reading "U.S. Government Printing Office: 1943 - 543637". This copy, with two staples, is considered the earliest. During World War II, Theodore Geisel took a hiatus from writing children's books (his first, from 1937, was 'And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street'). Having previously been a commercial illustrator, Geisel worked during these years as a political cartoonist, and worked in the animation and film department of the United States Army. 'This is Ann,' a cautionary tale about malaria rendered in characteristic Seussian style, stems from this early period, before Geisel's emergence as one of the greatest children's book author/illustrators of the 20th century. Younger 78.