Rare books

Featured Rare Books

24th April 2007
Mercedes-Benz Parade and Staff Cars of the Third Reich. An Illustrated History
Blaine Taylor
$ 550.00
Leo Cooper, Great Britain 1999
ISBN 0-5052-657-4
Arty Bees book # 22903

Book Description: First edition in large landscape hardcover binding in pictorial dustjacket with a total of 208 pages, indexed.
The book is in near new condition in a fine dustjacket - just a few mild crumples on the top back of the dustwrapper and some weight stressed crinkling on the front endpaper and first few pages stop this from being in pristine condition.
Magnificently illustrated throughout with rare and previously unpublished original photographs and accompanying text.

Blaine Taylor has gathered in one remarkable volume, hundreds of rare photos illustrating one of the most intriguing stories from the dark era of the 1930s and 1940s, the use of Mercedes-Benz automobiles by the leaders of Nazi Germany.

The luxurious and technically advanced Mercedes-Benz automobiles were much admired in Germany and were naturally taken into use by the various agencies of the Third Reich. Many of these automobiles appear in dramatic photographs of the period, from pre-war Party rallies to the entry into Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland to Hitler's departure from Rastenburg after the assassination attempt on him.

Mercedes-Benz Parade and Staff Cars of the Third Reich covers in detail all of the models, personalitiesand important events in the automotive history of the Third Reich. Blaine Taylor's fascinating text is supplemented by an extraordinary array of illustrations, from retro-futuristic paintings of the 1930s to unpublished photographs from the Herman Goering, Joachaim von Ribbentrop, Eva Braun, and Heinrich Hoffmann archives.

The Fuhrer in his open tourer Mercedes in Munich in 1930 with a few of his "Alte Kampfer" or Old Fighters, original Nazi Party members from the early 1920s.

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13th December 2006
Edo: Art in Japan 1615 - 1868
Robert T Singer et. al.
$ 250.00
National Gallery of Art, Washington, U.S.A 1999
ISBN 0-300-07796-3
Arty Bees book # 12006

Book Description: First edition in large square hardcover binding in pictorial dustjacket.
A total of 480 pages, and 281 color plates, indexed, with original black cloth - lettered in gilt on the spine and in blind on the front cover. Book is in near new condition in a fine dustjacket.
Magnificently illustrated in color throughout, with accompanying text, published to accompany the exhibition presented at the National Gallery of Art from 15 November 1998 to 15 February 1999.

"The West's understanding of historical Japan is almost wholly based on works of art from the Edo period - screen paintings of landscape settings and city life, woodblock prints of sumo wrestlers, kabuki actors and courtesans; brilliantly colored porcelains; exquisite textiles made for no theater or wealthy patrons.

One hallmark of Edo art is the lack of distinction between "high art" and "crafts", an artist likely to create a lacquer box as to paint on paper or silk. This lavishly illustrated volume presents examples of Edo art in all media, discussed in the context of ornament, samurai arts, religion, festivals, landscapes, entertainment, work, etc. Experts have written essays that address the themes and entries that focus on the individual works of art.

This is an astoundingly beautiful book - a sumptuous and comprehensive presentation of the many arts and crafts of the Edo period with details of the historic context in which these objects came into being.

Kosode with Views of Kyoto, mid-eighteenth century

Asakusa Honganji, from Thirty-six Views if Mount Fuji, Katsushika Hokusai (1760 - 1849)

The Fifty Rarest Birds in the World
By Blake Twigden
$750.00
Osborne Editions International, Auckland, New Zealand 1991
ISBN 0473010402
Arty Bees book #22779 and #12001

Book Description: Limited, delux first edition, signed by author, being No 717 of a proposed limited edition of 2000.
In reality only about 1000 were actually ever printed and bound, making this a much scarcer title than the 2000 print run would suggest.

Bound in three quarter black leather with gilt titles on the spin, decorative gilt edging and soft brush dark green suede boards this book is in as new - mint condition.
This is an Elephant Folio - over 15" - 23" tall with gilt page edges. It comes in a polystyrene box which is embossed with the book's title and is an unread copy.

An exquisite and collectible book full of of lavish and bold paintings, published in support of the work of the International Council for Bird Preservation in Cambridge, this book is considered highly collectable for very good reason. Every aspect of its binding and reproduction is perfect, with the striking colours of the paintings as bright as the originals.

13th December 2006
The Illustrated Natural History (Three Volumes) Vol. 1 Birds, vol. 2 Mammalia, vol. 3 Reptiles, Fishes and Molluscs
By the Reverend J G Wood, M.A., F.L.S. . with engravings by The Brothers Dalziel
$ 350.00
George Routledge & Sons, London, 1869
Arty Bees book #11161

Book Description: A very beautiful 3 volume set of an early edition of Woods The Illustrated Natural History in three-quarter tan leather and marbled boards, end papers and page edges.
(23cm high by 17 cm and all three 5-6 cm thick)

The binding includes raised bands and leather title labels on spine - the titles are tooled in gilt as is the decoration to spine.
There is very slight scuffing to edges and corners and small (1 inch) split is starting at the top front hinge on volume 1 but the binding is still very firm and the internal hinges are in very good condition on all three volumes.

There is some foxing throughout all 3 although the worst is in vol. 1 and at the begining and end of the books. Overall, all three are in very nice condition and clean and bright for their age.

Originally published in the early 1860s in 5 volumes - vol 4. Man in Africa, and vol 5. Man in America & Asia. are not here in this edition - but the first three volumes stand alone very nicely as a set on the animal kingdom.

These books are packed full of amazing engravings by many important botanical and zoological artists of the day including designs by Wolf , Zwecker, Weir, Coleman, Wood, Neale, Harvey etc. (all engraved by the brothers Dalziel) with very few pages not illustrated, and with over 750 pages in each volume.

The New Zealand Poe Bird or Tue

Full page engraving frontis piece for Volume 1 - Mammalia

13th November 2006
a (A Novel)
Andy Warhol
$ 110.00
Grove Press, New York 1968
Arty Bees book # 22353

Description: First edition black cloth hardback in good condition with a good dust jacket.
Black boards are clean and bright with slightly bumped corners and spine ends and a very light stain at top left of the front board near the spine. Silver titles on spine are bright. Contents are tight with minor foxing of page edges. No inscriptions.
Dust jacket is a bit battered with minor tears at top of the spine and one larger (1 inch) mended tear at the top left corner. It has been carefully mended and covered in plastic and is not price clipped.

This is an un-illustrated novel by the late Andy Warhol, which covers the story of it's hero Ondine "passionate, hilarious, a perverse seeker of the meaningful in a world peopled by such characters as Rotten Rita, The Sugar Plum Fairy, The Duchess, Billy Name, ...(and Andy himself)... and other personalities, old and new, in and around the Velvet Underground.
The novel relates one day in Ondine's life - a day that begins with Ondine popping several amphetamine pills and ends, twenty-four hours later, in an orgy of confusion."

Not surprisingly it was a huge hit in 1969.

In this, his first, and highly experimental novel, Warhol sets out to describe a day in the life of the fabled Factory crew he assembled in lower Manhattan. Warhol followed his entourage around for the day with a tape recorder as they conversed with inspired speed-driven wit, and cut swaths through the clubs, coffeeshops, hospitals, and houses of ill repute in 1960s Manhattan.

Interestingly the novel went through several name changes in it's early conception, including:

• Cock: (this novel was completely taped with an noreco taper)
• SPEEED KILLS
• Amphootimum
• Co-Pilots
• UPss
• OrAAl
• Twenty*Four Howers

"a" seems quite tame really by comparison!
Check out some other crazy book titles (and crazy books) in our Bizarre Books Collection.

13th November 2006
Touching North
Andy Goldsworthy
$ 395.00
Fabian Carlsson, Graeme Murray, London & Edinburgh, 1989
Arty Bees book # 22506

Description: Landscape hardback in very good condition with very good dust jacket. This is a very nice copy of this beautiful book with no inscriptions, pages are clean and bright and the binding is tight. The dust jacket is very slightly soiled and bumped along edges, and the rare endpaper is very slightly creased.

"North is an integral part of the landscape that I already work with. I can touch North in the cold shadow of a mountain, the green side of a tree, the mossy side of a rock... "

So writes Andy Goldsworthy in his forward to this extraordinary book.

"Throughout his career most of Goldsworthy's work has been made in the open air, in places as diverse as the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District, Grize Fiord in the Northern Territories of Canada, the North Pole, Japan, the Australian outback, St Louis, Missouri and Dumfriesshire. The materials he uses are those to hand in the remote locations he visits: twigs, leaves, stones, snow and ice, reeds and thorns. Most works are ephemeral but demonstrate, in their short life, Goldsworthy's extraordinary sense of play and of place. The works are recorded as photographs.
Book publication is an important aspect of Andy Goldsworthy's work: showing all aspects of the production of a given work, each publication is a work of art in its own right."

In Touching North, Goldsworthy and his team spent a month in Grise Fiord in March of 1989, working their way north to the pole and creating exotic and mesmerising ice and snow sculptures and photographing them.
The result is an amazing photographic essay, with a day by day diary of the trip and (as an added bonus) a glossary of Inuit words for snow at the back.

13th November 2006
The Savage-Club Papers for 1868
Andrew Halliday
$ 175.00
Tinsley Brothers, London, 1868
Arty Bees book # 21511

Description: Decorative dark green cloth in good condition. No dustjacket as issued. First Edition. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Original green bevelled boards are heavily embossed and decorated in gilt, with gilt page edging.
Very tidy condition for age - bumped corners and spine ends as expected. The front internal hinge cracked but binding is tight, and the book is illustrated throughout. Previous owner's name inside front endpaper and binders sticker on rear endpaper, with some foxing, particularly on first and last few pages.

The Savage Club was formed in 1857, named tongue-in-cheek for Richard Savage, a dubious actor and playwright of Dr. Johnson's era, who killed a man in a brawl and was later imprisoned for debt, and it's members comprised of the literati and artistic elite of mid-victorian England.
In 1867 and in 1868, club president Andrew Halliday edited two volumes of contributions (there would be only one more volume, and it would not be until 1897) as a fundraiser for the widow of an artist, and to endow a fund to assist others in the same situation in the future.
This is the second volume, and liks the first consists of a miscellany of stories, sketches, poems, songs and artwork from the club members. Contributors include: J R Planche (the great Gothic populist), John Oxenford (the Playwright and songwriter), George Manville Fenn, Edward Draper, George Grossmith, George Augustus Sala (a great victorian journalist) and many others. Artistic contributors include George Cruikshank, Gustave Dore, W Brunton, and Edward Draper again, among many.

4th September 2006
ABC der Tiere
Text by Hans Schumacher (in German) and illustrated by Celestino Piatti $ 150.00
Artimis Verlag, Zurich und Stuttgart, 1965 (1st edition.)
Arty Bees book # 21932

Description: Decorative Board covers with a cloth spine in excellent condition, as is rest of book. No Jacket. Landscape 8vo, unpaginated.

A beautiful copy of this children's book of animal abc's with text in German.
This copy is signed by the illustrator Celestino Piatti along with a hand drawn and completely original illustration of a delightful catfish in black ink and red crayon, dated 25.11.1967.
Previous owner's name inside. (See bottom left corner)

E is for Elephant, F is for Frog!

4th September 2006
Harrison Fisher's American Beauties
Text & paintings by Harrison Fisher, and illumination by E. Stetson Crawford $350.00
1st Edition,The Bob's Merrill Company, Indianapolis, 1909 (93 pages)
Arty Bees book # 22346

Description: Hardcover cloth bound book in very good condition with no dust jacket. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall.
Rust coloured cloth with colour plate on front which has some rust and spotting. Blind stamped titles on spine (if they were gilt it is all gone). Boards are very tidy. Front internal hinge is cracked but book is still tightly bound. Previous owner's name on front endpaper. Mild foxing of prelims. Plates are clean apart from one which has some damage (it has obviously been stuck to the page opposite). Apart from this, a very nice copy.

The classic illustrated text by one of the early 20th century most renowned artists, Harrison Fisher, who was dubbed "the King of the magazine-cover illustrators", this volume contains 21 exquisite paintings of beautiful fashionable ladies of the day, accompanied by a flowery poem (Fisher's own verse poems on the beauty of ladies and the art of courtship) bordered with a lovely Art Nouveau style rose design by Crawford.
His delicate, interesting look at the feminine ideal at the beginning of the 20th century were among the most popular images in the early 20th century America and were universally known as the the Fisher Girls. Their beautiful faces and striking fashions adorned books, magazines and postcards everywhere. Nearly a century later, Harrison's artwork is in very high demand and are quite rare and very desirable.