Rare books from The Bookpress, Ltd.

Everett, Edward. NORTHUMBERLAND, Charlotte Florentia Percy, Duchess of. CASTLES OF ALNWICK & WARKWORTH. (London): W. Nicol, Shakespeare Press, 1824. 4to. Contemporary Roxborough-st binding in quarter-calf with brick red boards. (vi), lithographed title leaf, pages, 29 lithographed plates, one of which is hand-colored. First edition. A nice association copy from the author to Edward Everett, dated 24 September 1844, when he was American Envoy Extraordinary to Great Britain. Everett lat served as Massachusetts governor, President of Harvard, Secretary of State, a was the primary speaker at the dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery (1863) giving an oration that preceded Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The bo itself was one of only a few architectural and topographical books in its tim to be written and illustrated by a woman. It is an early example of English lithography, not in Abbey or Twyman. OCLC only cites six copies as being in American libraries. The plates were printed on india paper by… Read More

PERCIER, Charles, and Pierre Francois L. Fontaine. PALAIS, MAISONS, ET AUTRE EDIFICES MODERNES, DESSINES A ROME. Paris: les Auteurs, P. Didot, (1798.) Folio Later quarter-calf, marbled boards. 8, 4, 36 pages, 100 plates. Second edition. This work was the first to introduce the Empire Style with its mixture of Gre Roman, Italian, and Egyptian elements. The first edition was also published 1798. The only difference between the two being a new title page. Percier a Fontaine were Napoleon and Josephine's primary architects. The plates are of interior views, details, and exterior elevations to gardens. This copy lacks the subscriber's list, rarely found with the second edition. Binding is late but sympathetic. Some soiling to the title page. The plates are nice impressions of the very delicate engravings.

BOTTICHER, Karl. DIE HOLZARCHITECTUR DES MITTELALTERS. Four volumes bound a one, complete. Berlin: Schenk & Gerstucker, 1836-1842. Folio. Later, sympathetic quarter-leather with marbled boards and red-leather cover label, original wrappers bound-in. (iv) pages of text, 26 color-printed plates. First editio An attractive and detailed study of wooden architecture of the middle ages, after drawings by Karl Botticher (1806-1889). Five of the finely printed pla are chromolithographs, the remainder tinted lithographs. A rare series produ over seven years. OCLC cites only three complete sets of this first edition. We could find no sets of any edition presently in commerce and none appearing auction during the past thirty years. A very good to fine copy, with origina wrappers for all four parts bound-in (37262).

RUTTER, John. DELINEATIONS OF FONTHILL AND ITS ABBEY. Shaftsbury: The Author, 1823. Large 4to. (14 x 11 1/2 inches). Publisher's morocco spine and tips, pictorial boards. xxvi, 127, (1) pages, 28 plates (se below for details). First edition, 1 of 78 copies. [Abbey, Scenery]. Of three states of the first edition, this is the most desirable with proofs etchings on india paper. Rutter's account of Fonthill, an opulent mansion bu for William Beckford by James Wyatt, remains the best contemporary account of the structure. The text is an elegant description of the interior and its furnishings. Our copy has an additional plate of the south-west view of the house, not called for. Plate I is a folding plan of the grounds (26 x 20 inches.) This deluxe issue has all plates on india paper. Plates VI-VIII ar hand-colored; a copy of Plate VII on standard stock is also included, as are additional variant proofs before lettering of Plates IV, XI-XIII. There are also many wood cut vignettes on india paper throughout… Read More

BAIRD, Henry Carey. CABINET MAKER'S ALBUM OF FURNITURE. Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird, 1868. Small oblong folio (7 x 10 3/4 inches Publisher's cloth. Printed title leaf, leaf listing plates, 48 lithograph plates. First edition. Baird's pattern book was the third such work published in America and one of most pivotal books in shaping American taste. It included a comprehensive ra of items from bureaus, desks, wardrobes, chairs, bookcases, tables, and beds. The style incorporated American colonial design with French and European tast and was heavily influenced by Desire Gulimard's French pattern books. The amalgam of tastes was largely created by Joseph Bonaparte (the elder brother Napoleon) constructing a magnificent house, Point Breeze, twenty-five miles north of Philadelphia. He greatly influenced the monied society that hovered around him, bringing with him sophisticated tastes in furniture not commonly seen before on this side of the Atlantic. A very nice copy with sporadic foxing--some light,… Read More

(BOOKBINDING) PRATT, Charles Stuart. BABY'S LULLABY BOOK. MOTHER SONGS. Boston: L. Prang, 1888. Folio. Publisher's silk binding. Unpaginated, 16 chromolithographic plates. First edition. Despite some very minor dusting, this publishers silk padded binding with delicate chromolithographic design is the finest copy of this American color plate book rarity we have ever seen. The covers are printed white silk. Copies, when found, are virtually always in less than desirable condition because of the delicate material used. The last copy we had seen, a worn example, was in 1987. Not recorded in Bennett or McGrath, this book features sixteen mounted, quality chromolithographs by Prang from water colors by W.L. Taylor, and music by G.W. Chadwick, one of America's leading composers of the time. (35028).

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS EDITION. Volumes XI-XII, bound one. January-December 1891. New York: 1891. Folio. Publisher's cloth. With 24 color plates. First editio An influential architectural periodical featuring numerous architectural rela articles and large, full-page color plates of domestic residences (both free standing and apartments) and other buildings, each with an elevation and floo plan. Many of this year's houses are in the Shingle Style. Other illustrati include in-text photogravures, drawings, plans and advertisements. Rebacked. Wear to covers and tips. Internally very good.

GOODWIN, Francis. Labourer's Cottages. Original drawings (4.25 x 6.5 inches; 3.75 x 10.5 inches). Being two original India ink and wash drawings for a pair of labourer's cotta by Francis Goodwin, (1784-1835). The smaller shows a side view of a cottage; the larger a front and side view. Along with cottages, Goodwin designed the House of Commons (1833). Goodwin was also the author of Domestic Architecture...A Series of Designs in the Grecian, Italian and Old English Styles (1833-1834). Very good. (9339).

RAWLINS, Thomas. FAMILIAR ARCHITECTURE; OR, ORIGINAL DESIGNS OF HOUSES, FOR GENTLEMEN AND TRADESMEN. London: I. and J. Taylor, 1789. Folio. Quarter-calf, marbled boards. 30, (4) pages, 50 plates. Second edition. [Harris, 731; Schimmelman, Architectural Bo in Early America, 112]. An uncommon title with only eight copies recorded on OCLC in American librari First published in 1768, Rawlins plans concentrate on both rural and city housing. The patterns are for parsonages, summer retreats, banqueting-rooms, and churches, as well as middle class housing. Many of the designs are Palladian in nature. There is also a chapter on stone masonry, not surprisin as Rawlins, who spent his life in Norwich, was more a successful mason and sculptor than an architect. Schimmelman locates copies in America before 180 A four-page catalogue for J. Taylor's Architectural Library is bound-in. Sympathetically rebacked; light sporadic foxing; else very good. (36841).

(FURNITURE DESIGNS) LALONDE, Richard. A Collection of Furniture and Ornamen Designs. (Paris: circa 1780). Oblong folio. Nineteenth century half-cloth, marbled boards. 12 complete 'cahiers,' each with 6 engraved plates, for a total of 72 engraved plates. The collection here contains a series of furniture and ornament patterns by French engravers and designers of the mature Louis XVI style. The collection comprises Lalonde's fine pattern book of furniture designs, I-IV Cahier des Meubles et d'Edenisteries, 24 plates of writing desks, chests of drawers, boo cases, cabinets, side tables, and game tables, engraved by Saint-Morrien (Ber Kat. 1271; Guilmard, p. 242); The design of a colossal billiard table, IX Cah de Meubles-Billiard, 6 plates designed and engraved by Delegardette (Berlin Kat. 1270); Two further fascicles of Lalonde furniture designs VI and II Cahi d'Ameublements, 12 plates of chairs and sofas, and beds, engraved by Delargardette (Berlin Kat. 1269; Guilmard, p. 242); and Caillouet's I-III… Read More

SLOAN, Samuel. CITY AND SUBURBAN ARCHITECTURE. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1859. Folio. Publisher's cloth. 104 pages, 136 plates, including 62 tinted and 12 in full color. First edition. [Hitchcock, 1188]. This is one of the most attractive American color plate books on architect, a one of only a few books on American city houses. There is particular emphasi on Philadelphia row houses, as well as ornamental store fronts. The color plates are by L.N. Rosenthal. The book is quite scarce--not in Bennett or McGrath's works on American color printing. Contemporary manuscript note in of building materials with prices loosely laid-in. Binding rubbed at extremities; moderate foxing. 38106.

POUNCY, J. DORSETSHIRE PHOTOGRAPHICALLY ILLUSTRATED. Four parts in three volumes, complete. London: Bland & Long; Dorchester, John Pouncy, (1857). Oblong folio. Publish grey cloth. Lithographic title page, (4) pages of introduction (38) pages of letterpress; (40) pages of letterpress, (2) pages advertisement and subscript list; (80) pages of letterpress, (2) pages of advertisement and subscription list; 79 photolithographic plates including 1 double-page. First, and only, edition, original subscribers copy. [Gernsheim, page 546; McLean, Victorian B Design and Colour Printing, page 128]. A rare and important book in the history of the book, being the first and onl English book illustrated by photolithography. McLean wrote, "What Pouncy had achieve was to make photographs permanent. The long exposures still necessar meant that people and animals could not be included, so to give the pictures verisimilitude and life, he drew them in" along with other details. As such was an important transitional… Read More

(TRADE SAMPLES) EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FRENCH TEXTILES. A pair of manuscript broadsides or pattern cards of Londrine Seconds swatches. Languedoc, France: mid to late 18th century. 24 mounted textile samples on t cards. Important documentation for the historian of textiles, all in excellent condition. These two broadsides come from a French manufacturer of Londrine, fulled woolen cloth manufactured specially in Languedoc in imitation of West England broadcloths, and used in the Levant trade...the Moors always entertai a favorable opinion of English manufactures, and the French, to humor them, g their cloth the name of Londras, wishing to make the Moors believe it was manufactured in London." (Montgomery, Textiles in America, 1984). The first is 19 x 13 3/4 inches and titled "Londrine Seconde" and on which ar mounted 12 large colorful swatches (2 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches) each with a stock number written in ink. The second is titled "Fabrique Royale de la Bastide Rouge Peyre, Londrine Second," same measurements… Read More

JONES, Shirley. SOFT GROUND, HARD GROUND, & A LITTLE LIGHT RELIEF WITH SHIRL JONES. (London: The Red Hen Press, 1989.) Oblong folio. Morocco and cloth portfolio and box. (53) pages, including 12 full-page plates. One of 40 numbered copies A lovely early Jones production of poems and accompanying color etchings and mezzotints about being a woman. The title of the book refers not only to the etching techniques she employed in this book, but also reflect her theme for book. As an introductory remark, Shirley Jones writes "Soft ground and hard ground are the etching techniques I have used almost exclusively in this book It is also, I think, an appropriate title for a book written for and about women- or rather, about the experience of being a woman. One of my books has been described as `feminist,' another as- and there seems a big difference to me- very `feminine.' I was not consciously trying to be either. Soft Ground Hard Ground, however, is as unashamedly feminine as it is feminist. I have attempted… Read More

(AUTOMOBILE TRAVEL - ETHIOPIA) HOLTZ, Arnold. IM NACKE-MOTORWAGEN NACH ABESSINEN ZU KZISER MENELIK. $1100.00 Berlin-Charlottenburg: Vita Deutsches Verlagshaus, 1908. 4to. Green pictoria cloth. 92, (4) pages. Scarce work with only five copies recorded on OCLC in American libraries. Arnold Holtz, a restless entrepreneur in economic and political daydreams, an became the German to be given a concession in Ethiopia by the Emperor Menelik He was an employee of the Daimler Motor Company at Berlin-Marienfelde, and as part of his efforts to integrate himself he transported and drove the second motor car to Addis Adaba in 1908. The first attempt to get a vehicle, a truc to Addis Adaba failed, and should not be counted as it failed to leave the po at which it arrived, due to its weight. The car was carried, pushed and cajo across a most unforgiving terrain and it is a wonder that it survived until t 1940s as an official vehicle. The car "disappeared" after the Second World W and is said to have been shipped to… Read More