Search Results: Art & Photography from The Manhattan Rare Book Company

Rome: Henri Le Lieure, 1878. First edition. Framed. Very Good. ALBUMEN PHOTOGRAPH OF GRANT IN MILITARY DRESS, SIGNED BY GRANT ON THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S MOUNT. A very handsome bust-length portrait of Grant taken by photographer Henri Le Lieure during Grant's visit to Rome in 1878. Signed "U.S. Grant" in ink on the original mount beneath the photograph. A handwritten note on the paper backing of the frame reads: "This photograph was autographed by U. S. Grant in April 1878 at the home of Dr. Charles McMillan, Counsel General (Great Uncle of Eunice) in Rome, Italy. Dr. McMillan had served as Medical Director on Grant's staff throughout the Vicksburg Campaign." The frame, with the seal of "The Dayton Company Picture Galleries Minneapolis", on the backing likely dates from early-mid 20th century. (The Dayton Company was a celebrated Minneapolis department store in Minneapolis from 1911-1962, ultimately serving as the parent company for Target.) Grant visited Rome on his hugely successful… Read More

np: np, 1878. custom folder. Very Good. Walt Whitman Albumen Photograph by Napoleon Sarony given to his caregiver and house mate Mary O. Davis. Signed by Davis. To call Mary O. Davis, Walt Whitman's housekeeper is akin to calling a parent its child's babysitter. Perhaps history has undermined Ms. Davis' role simply because the English language lacks the proper word to describe their relationship. Nurse? Roommate? Modern-Family? Rather than finding a catchall word, let's try to briefly describe their relationship. It began in 1884 when Whitman brought clothing to Ms. Davis' rented home for mending. Soon enough, he began taking his meals with Ms. Davis. And soon after, Whitman purchased his first home-yes, it took until 1884, when the poet was 64 years old, for him to finally own a home. But what is a home without a family, Whitman may have thought. He had no wife of course, no children. So he asked Ms. Davis if she would like to join him in his new home. In some ways the relationship began as… Read More

London and New York: William Heinemann and Doubleday, Page, & Co, 1907. first Rackham edition. Original buckram. Very Good. Arthur Rackham. DELUXE LIMITED EDITION in exceedingly rare original slipcase. WITH: RACKHAM INK DRAWING of the Gryphon. The book: "Rackham embarked on his new edition of Alice in Wonderland, with illustrations to rival John Tenniel's, when the book came out of copyright in 1907. Rackham's advantage over Tenniel was that now he could introduce colour; also his pen line would not be reproduced by wood-engraving. This gave him some new freedoms for invention, but his amendments to the ingrained image of Alice were not only technical. Rackham's Alice was very much a fleshly Edwardian child who would question the status quo of Wonderland. Her courtesy carried an undercurrent of insistent argument. A contemporary critic observed 'a tender, flickering light of imagination in [Alice's] eyes' (Daily Telegraph, 27 Nov 1907). (Dictionary of National Biography). This deluxe limited… Read More

Paris: Éditions Pierre Belfond, 1970. First edition. Original wrappers and box. Very Good. SIGNED FIRST EDITION MAN RAY ART-BOOK INCLUDING ORIGINAL RAYOGRAPH. Following his English-language Alphabet for Adults, Man Ray in the lead up to 1970 decided to produce a French edition of his concept for a mature ABCs art-book. Rather than translating the existing words or retrofitting translations onto existing drawings, Man Ray produced a new set of illustrations based on a new set of words for his limited-edition, signed collection-including a signed original rayograph serving as a frontispiece. A number of entries are seemingly innocuous and feature literal pictorial representations, such as "elephant" written over a drawing of an elephant or "barbe" [beard] labelling what is clearly a beard. But many of the lemmas are abstract in nature and require more involved figural interpretation: "beaucoup" [very much; many] clouded by several arrows directed to the upper-right corner of the page; "jalousie"… Read More

Stockholm: Moderna Muséet, 1968. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, profusely illustrated with full-page black and white photographs. Warhol's Moderna Muséet catalog "is a fine example of the catalogue-as-artist's-book, a form that ostensibly began with the Dadaists and Surrealists, and is produced with some of the roughest reproductions ever seen, which are entirely appropriate, and supplemented by a long section of Factory snapshots by Billy Name. The genre was revitalized by the Pop movement, and Warhol in particular, which demonstrates his position as a latter-day Dadaist. The Moderna Museet publication especially had a great influence upon Japanese photography in the late 1960s and 1970s, particularly the photobooks of the Provoke era" (Parr and Badger, Vol II). Published by Moderna Muséet, Sweden, in 1968 as an exhibition catalogue for the show "Andy Warhol" at the Moderna Muséet in Stockholm, February - March, 1968. Stockholm: Moderna Muséet, 1968. Quarto (approx. 8.5… Read More

Los Angeles, 1986. LARGE PORTRAIT OF WARHOL. SIGNED BY THE ARTIST. NO. 24 OF 25. One of Gorman's most iconic images, demonstrating his mastery of light and shadow, is his portrait of Andy Warhol. Taken one year before Warhol's death in 1987, the image captures a side of him not often seen, an austere and slightly more intimidating appearance. But with the invariable shock of white hair, it is immediately recognisable as Andy. From an edition of 25, this large-format 23 x 18.75 in portrait (as opposed to smaller editions of 19 x 15 in and 14 x 11 in) is signed, dated and numbered by Gorman on the reverse. Image: 23 x 18.75 in Sheet: 24 x 20 in Frame: 28.5 x 24 in GORMAN, GREG. b. 1949. Andy Warhol, Los Angeles, 1986. Silver gelatin photograph, no. 24 of 25. Gorman's authentication stamp signed in pencil on reverse. Fine, handsomely framed.

Munich: Transmare Verlag/Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1929. First edition. original cloth, original dust jacket, original slipcase. Very Good. FIRST EDITION OF SANDER'S CLASSIC: A REMARKABLE COPY IN EXTREMELY RARE DUST JACKET AND SLIPCASE. August Sander "was part of a coterie of photographers who established the photographic book as an aesthetically and commercially viable art form in the 1920s. Though Sander had published one such book in 1924, Unsere Heimat, Hannover, it was the 1929 publication of Antlitz der Zeit (The Face of Our Time) that propelled him into enduring fame" (Warren, Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography). "Many of his classic images are included in this seminal photobook, and the essential qualities of Sander's vision can be seen. He took typical examples of professions, trades and social classes in Weimar Germany, and photographed them in their familiar environments in order to build up, piece by piece, a dispassionate image of the 'face' of society... One of his work's miracles… Read More

New York: Pierre Matisse Gallery, 1942. First edition. Very Good. CATALOG FOR THE LANDMARK ARTISTS IN EXILE EXHIBITION, SIGNED BY ALL 14 ARTISTS, INCLUDING ANDRÉ BRETON, MARC CHAGALL, MAX ERNST, AND PIET MONDRIAN. On March 3, 1942, an historic exhibition of fourteen émigré artists opened at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York City. Pierre Matisse, distinguished modern art dealer, gallery owner, and son of Henri Matisse, exhibited some of the greatest European and American artists of the twentieth century, many for the first time. This special exhibit, appropriately titled Artists In Exile, represented cutting edge European avant-garde art and featured a single work from each artist, created after their arrival in the United States. We have on offer a rare Artists in Exile exhibition catalog which features a group photo by George Platt Lynes and the signatures of all 14 of the artists in colored inks: Eugene Berman, André Breton, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Fernand Leger, Jacques Lipchitz,… Read More

Washington, DC: Lunn Gallery/Graphics International Ltd, 1977. First edition. Orignial publisher's box. Very Good. A COLLECTION OF THE MOST CELEBRATED COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHS OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY ARTISTS. NUMBER 1 OF 6 COPIES RESERVED FOR ARTIST AND PUBLISHERS, OUT OF A TOTAL OF 36. The present portfolio of Freund's photographic portraits assembles the most celebrated of her innovative colour images. The portfolio is comprised of Freund's portraits of: 1. Colette (1873-1954) 2. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) 3. André Gide (1869-1951) 4. James Joyce (1882-1941) 5. Andreinne Monnier (1892-1955) 6. Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) 7. Simone de Beauvoir (1908) 8. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905) 9. André Malraux (1901-1976) 10. Victoria Sackville-West (1892-1962) It is well documented both Woolf's and Joyce's aversions to sitting for photographs, and indeed "Freund was twice refused admission to Tavistock Square but eventually Woolf succumbed", being "acutely self-conscious and disliked sitting for pictures, never mind… Read More

Berlin: Ernst Wasmuth, 1910. First edition. Original boards. Very Good. RARE FIRST EDITION OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S MAGNIFICENT WASMUTH PORTFOLIO, COMPLETE WITH ALL 100 LARGE FOLIO PLATES. Known the world over as the Wasmuth portfolio, the immensely influential Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe (1910) was a project conceived by Ernst Wasmuth-a Berlin publisher of high-end art books who "intended to publish a complete portfolio of Wright's work to that date [...] that would become a collector's item" (Secrest, Biography, p. 203). In contrast to the compact Frank Lloyd Wright: Ausgeführte Bauten, the Wasmuth portfolio is a grand expression of Wright's architectural vision, containing 100 lithographs of his most successful projects completed by 1910, including: Unity Temple, I.L.; the Robie House, I.L.; the Westcott House, O.H.; and the Cheney House, I.L. (the project on which he met his lover Mrs. Mamah Borthwick Cheney). The extraordinary portfolio showcased here presents an exceptional opportunity… Read More

New York: np, 1953. 1st Edition. No Binding. Fine. Strong, impassioned, and revealing letter from Wright to his longtime friend, the architecture critic Lewis Mumford, defending his architectural philosophy after the appearance of Mumford's article in the New Yorker evaluating Wright's life and work. Written on The Plaza, New York letterhead (from December 3 1953), the letter reads in full: "Dear Lewis-- Read your "appreciation" in the plane coming in last night-both glad and furious- Read? Insults my clients and myself-I may be vain but I am not stupid-neither are my clients-- He harks back to the view that an individual should go to 'a style' for his home, be the guest of a style rather than the guest of a great architect-? Yes? Good argument for the communist against Democracy-- He should talk to my clients. So you talked to one-one Paul Hanna. From him you got a false impression-at least so he says and so say I.-- Just one word slipped[;] the word 'my' was actually 'your' in reproving… Read More

New York: J.J. Augustin, 1945. First edition. Hardcover, dust jacket. Very Good. FIRST EDITION of Brodovitch's masterpiece; of profound influence in the history of photography and photobooks. With extremely rare original slipcase. "Although known primarily as a mentor and patron of photographers, due in large part to his position as art director and graphic designer at Harper's Bazaar, Alexey Brodovitch also made a legendary photobook of his own. Ballet, published in 1945 by J J Augustin in New York, has become a photobook legend for two reasons. Firstly, only a few hundred copies were printed, so the book is more talked about than actually seen. Secondly, the volume was extremely radical, both in terms of the images themselves and their incorporation into the design and layout... "The 104 pictures in Ballet had been taken by Brodovitch between 1935 and 1937. He photographed ballet companies visiting New York, including the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, with whom he worked in Paris in the 1920s.… Read More

Paris: GLM, 1939. FIRST EDITION, Deluxe issue. Original wrappers. Fine. EXCEEDINGLY RARE DELUXE SET OF AVANTE-GARDE WORKS BY FOUR LITERARY MASTERS. Each copy one of only 15 deluxe issues. Includes the deluxe issue of Duchamp's important collection of aphorisms, "Rrose Sélavy". This extraordinary and complete collection (collectively "Biens Nouveaux") of works by Marcel Duchamp, Lewis Carroll, Franz Kafka and Gisèle Prassinos demonstrates the significance of absurdism, magical realism and surrealism across Europe in the 1930s and 40s. Published in April 1939 by Guy Lévis-Mano, one of the most creative French printers of the twentieth century, this complete series includes Marcel Duchamp's Rrose Sélavy, Lewis Carroll's La Canne du Destin, Franz Kafka's Le Chasseur Gracchus, and Gisele Prassinos's Sondue. Each copy is one of only 15 of the deluxe issue printed on high-quality Vieux Japon. This original edition of Marcel Duchamp's book of aphorisms, Rrose Sélavy, is numbered two out of only… Read More

New York: Alfred Stieglitz, 1904. First edition. Very Good. INSCRIBED FIRST EDITIONS IN A PRESENTATION BINDING WITH ORIGINAL WRAPPERS BOUND-IN. A SUPERB ASSOCIATION COPY, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY STIEGLITZ: "To my friend, advisor & co-worker / John Francis Strauss / from / Alfred Stieglitz." Additionally noted by Stieglitz "Feb, 17 - 1905. Third Anniversary of the birth of the Photo-Secessions, after the Surprise Lunch at Steichen's." The complete set of issues for 1904, including: -Number 5, January 1904, with six plates by Robert Demachy, one by Prescott Adamson, one by Frank Eugene; text by Joseph Keiley, Sadakichi Hartmann, and others. -Number 6, April 1904, with six plates by Alvin Langdon Coburn, two by Will A. Cadby, one by W.B. Post; text by Charles Caffin, Hartmann, and others. -Number 7, July 1904, with six plates by Theodor and Oscar Hofmeister, two by Demachy, one by Edward Steichen, one by Mary Devens; text by Ernst Juhl, Demachy, and others. -Number 8, October 1904, with six… Read More

1906. First edition. Seude over boards with original wrappers bound-in. Very Good. INSCRIBED FIRST EDITIONS IN A PRESENTATION BINDING WITH ORIGINAL WRAPPERS BOUND-IN. AN IMPORTANT ASSOCIATION COPY, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY ALFRED STIEGLITZ TO J.B. KERFOOT: "To my friend J.B. Kerfoot who has so kindly helped me in making this volume what it is. Alfred Stieglitz. Dec 25/06." A set of the five issues for 1906 (including the Steichen Supplement), complete with all the plates including: -Number 13, January 1906, with three plates by Hugo Henneberg, four by Heinrich Kuhn, five by Hans Watzek; a Steichen poster for the Photo-Secession; text by F. Mathies-Masuren, Kuhn, Watzek, Charles Caffin, F.H. Evans, Kerfoot, and others.

 -Number 14, April 1906, with nine plates by Edward Steichen, four reproduced photographs by Stieglitz (on two plates) of exhibitions at 291, magnificent Steichen "Cover Design"; text by George Bernard Shaw, Kerfoot, and others. 

-Special Steichen Supplement, April 1906,… Read More

San Francisco, 1966. First edition. Very Good. One-of-a-Kind Beatles Images Portend the End of an Era. This original contact sheet of rare 1966 images of The Beatles was discovered by artist, photographer, musician, and Beatles enthusiast Dave Seabury at a garage sale near San Francisco in the late 1980s. These photos, which we have on offer, were taken at the Fab Four's final concert at Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966. The story of how these images were discovered is almost as fascinating as the images themselves. Seabury frequented garage sales for years inquiring about Grateful Dead or Beatles photos and never had any luck. On one fateful day the seller said, "Yeah, there are some Beatles pictures in that box over there." (Marks) In the box Seabury found a contact sheet with 73 black-and-white images of The Beatles taken by someone who clearly had privileged access to the band. The photos were close-up and deeply moving, however there was no date on the photos and no photographer stamp.… Read More

Llibreria, Catalonia: np, 1934. 1st Edition. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, with the EXTREMELY RARE AND SOUGHT-AFTER POCHOIR BY MIRÓ (From Here and There: Figures by the Sea); one of only five pochoirs created in his career. "After their first encounter, Miró and [the architect] Sert continued to meet often through the group of painters, sculptors, and art critics of the cultural group known as ADLAN (1932-1936)." Through the joint efforts of ADLAN and GATCPAC, a group of architects active from 1930 to 1936, came "the most representative publication of that period: a special issue of the magazine D'Aci i d'Allà focusing on twentieth-century art-the 1934 Christmas issue-directly supervised by Joan Prats and Josep Lluís Sert and with the participation of Joan Miró, in the first instance of a collaboration between the artist and the architect ... The result of this joint effort was far more than a mere revision of contemporary visual arts; it became a guidebook to the new trends and to the avant-garde… Read More

Deventer: The Octopus Foundation and Sonsbeek 71, 1971. First edition. Original card covers. Very Good. FIRST EDITION OF THE RAREST RUSCHA BOOK; ONE OF ONLY AN ESTIMATED 200 COPIES. IN OUTSTANDING CONDITION. "In December 1970, Ruscha was invited to produce a photobook in conjunction with the Sonsbeek 71 exhibition in the Netherlands. Wim Beeren, the commissioner of the international festival, chose the location (Stadskanaal-a village in Groningen built along both sides of a straight canal) for the commission, but left the specifics of the project up to Ruscha. Once on site, Ruscha began photographing the facades of the houses along the canal, undoubtedly informed by his panorama of Los Angeles, Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966). The topography of the Dutch village led Ruscha to a different approach, however, and the book is conceptually more performative than the earlier work, inasmuch as it directly encompasses a site-specific action: the artist's journey back and forth across the bridges… Read More

Wakefield, Massachusetts: np, 1888. First edition. Custom box. Very Good. ONE OF THE EARLIEST PHOTOGRAPHS OF LIGHTNING. This striking photograph by Alfred H. Binden (1837 England - 1892 United States) is among one of the earliest photographs of lightning. When Binden captured the image from his home in Wakefield, Massachusetts during a summer storm in 1888, he created a valuable tool for better understanding the natural phenomenon that was often referred to as "electric fluid" in that time. The photograph was a sensation. It was exhibited in newsrooms and bookstores throughout the country where viewers were encouraged to examine its details with a magnifying glass. Contemporary news reports describe it as "a most interesting picture as showing...the [electrical] current has a sinuous or rotary motion, being twisted like a rope or ribbon during its progress to the Earth." Articles about the photograph circulated for the next few years and in 1892 The Boston Herald wrote that Binden's lightning… Read More

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Very Good. FIRST EDITION, ASSOCIATION COPY, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY DAVIDSON: "To Lee Witkin / Bruce Davidson". Witkin was the enormously influential gallery owner who helped introduce the public to the masterpieces of contemporary photography. "Davidson returned to this blasted stretch of East Harlem regularly for nearly two years (always bringing prints for the people he photographed) until he and his bulky view camera began to be a part of the block's daily life... The published results are wrenching and revelatory. Davidson's strobe doesn't dispel the gloom or glamorize the ruin of the apartments, storefronts, and rubble-strewn lots where people stopped to pose for him, but the rapport he established allows those people to surrender to the camera with their humanity intact. The book's glossy duotone reproductions -- all face-to-face on spreads with wide white borders stripped of captions and page numbers -- give the grimiest… Read More