Typography

Stamford: The Overbrook Press, 1948.. [4],77,[1] leaves, printed on rectos only. Small quarto. Loose, unbound sheets of Bristol board, printed in a variety of types and a few colors. Upper board (functionally the half-title) a bit tanned and smudged, otherwise a nice set. First edition, special issue. The second and considerably expanded specimen book of the press. The formal book was issued in an edition of fifty copies only, printed on handmade paper. The copy in hand is one of fifteen impressions made on loose sheets of Bristol board suitable for display. Rare in this format. CAHOON, p.57.

Strasbourg : D'Emil Simon Fils , 1834. This is a very good hardcover copy in the original binding of brown marbled paper boards with an all-over green design. There is a large printed paper label with the title inset in an elaborately lithographed Gothic style frame. Tan paper covered spine of dark green cloth. The edges of the covers have a little wear. Inside there is an elaborately detailed title-page followed by 32 of 40 numbered plates. No evidence of plates being removed, as binding still very tight, but normally with 40 plates. All plates are black & white lithographs showing an amazing variety of typefaces and alphabets. Many are composed out of very imaginatively worked animals, plants, people or inventions forming the letters. A classic of this genre, here an incomplete copy with various faults, such as browning, tiny foxing, and 2 instances of later careful coloring of initials on different plates. Quite rare in the original binding. Large oblong folio, 11" high X 13 1/2"… Read More

London: printed for the author, Charles-street, ST. Jame's-square; and William Faden [replaced by R. Faulder in vol. II], Charing-cross, 1792. First Edition. Half-Calf. Fine. First Edition, complete in two royal octavo volumes: [2],xv,[1],154; vii,[1],190,[2]pp, with 65 aquatint plates in sepia "beautifully engraved and resembl[ing John] Carey's work" (Cox) and 11 maps (10 double-page). Recent period-style half-calf over marbled paper-covered boards, spines in six compartments between raised bands ruled in gilt, red morocco lettering pieces gilt, end papers renewed—a very handsome presentation. The title page to vol. 2 bears the imprint: London: printed for the author; and R. Faulder. Title and half-title toned, expected offsetting of plates, otherwise a Fine, attractive set. Abbey (Scenery) 24. Cox 1792. Brunet 1333. Lowndes III, 2105. RCIN 1076105. Little is known of the author, not even his place or date of birth, "but Bath was a popular destination for members of the gentry during the Regency… Read More

Chicago: John Calhoun Club. Very Good+. 1931. First Edition. Hardcover. Limited edition, #72 of 160 copies in publisher's brown cloth-backed patterned boards with matching slipcase. Printed on Italian handmade paper. Brown cloth spine with bright gilt title. Deckle page edges, top edge gilt. Interior of text is tight, clean and intact. Contains14 illustrations of early printings, including a folding Deseret News (unopened). Text & slipcase bordering near fine. Typography, Western Americana; Samples of printing; 8vo; 91 pages .

Italia: n.p., 1835. Very Good. 19 cm; 20 pages (three blank), including 7 full-page illustrations with captions. Text and illustrations lithographed throughout. Bound in (later?) plain wraps. Not in Melzi. No copies located. Apparently unrecorded booklet with text and illustrations produced completely in lithograph. The text reproduces an italic calligraphy that must have been lettered in reverse on stone, or written out on transfer paper before being applied to the lithographic stone. The narrative concerns a lady who is handily juggling simultaneous affairs with a young man and with the young man's father.

London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1896. First Trade Edition. hardcover. Good. 9 1/4" × 5 1/4" (23.5 × 13.3 cm) . First Printing. Printed by Chiswick Press. Tall 8vos. Bound in publisher's original hardcover quarter Holland-backed blue paper boards, with white linen spine and paper title label. One of 750 copies. Printed on fine, hand-made, Charles Whittingham & Co., watermarked "B A S" paper. Uncut, deckled edges. Pages uncut. [i–iv] v–vii [viii], 1–378 [379: printer's imprint] [380: blank]; & [i–iv] v–vi, [1–2] 3–279 p.p. [280: printer's imprint], double flyleaves at front and rear of each volume. Printed in 1893 but delayed by the Kelmscott Press edition issued the same year (which edition was being set up from this edition). Unlike other authors who wrote of foreign lands or of dream worlds, Morris was the first to describe completely invented or fantasy worlds.H.G. Wells praised the book and compared Morris to Malory, admiring his style, writing: "All the workmanship of the book… Read More

London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1896. First Trade Edition. hardcover. Good+. 9 1/4" × 5 1/4" (23.5 × 13.3 cm) . First Printing. Printed by Chiswick Press. Tall 8vos. Bound in publisher's original hardcover quarter Holland-backed blue paper boards, with white linen spine and paper title label. One of 750 copies. Printed on fine, hand-made, Charles Whittingham & Co., watermarked "B A S" paper. Uncut, deckled edges. Pages uncut. [i–iv] v–vii [viii], 1–378 [379: printer's imprint] [380: blank]; & [i–iv] v–vi, [1–2] 3–279 p.p. [280: printer's imprint], double flyleaves at front and rear of each volume. Printed in 1893 but delayed by the Kelmscott Press edition issued the same year (which edition was being set up from this edition). Unlike other authors who wrote of foreign lands or of dream worlds, Morris was the first to describe completely invented or fantasy worlds.H.G. Wells praised the book and compared Morris to Malory, admiring his style, writing: "All the workmanship of the book… Read More

San Juan Capistrano, California:: Inkswine Press,, 2020.. Edition of 10. 25 pages. Measuring 7.875 x 5.75 x 0.5 inches (20 x 14.6 x 1.3 cm). Printed letterpress on heavy weight translucent sheets over 2-color screen-printed type compositions on 250 gm deckle edge rag paper. Hard cover, single page quarter binding, bookmark ribbons. Sea green Ingres end papers with red kozo edging. Signed and numbered by the artist. Dirk Hagner: "I made these little volumes of contemporary New Collective Nouns recently. They are dedicated to James Lipton, whom I would have loved to send a copy. Alas, he passed away in 2020. Thank you for your inspiration and your passion for collective nouns among so many other things. There are 11 new collective nouns." wikipedia, 6/9/2021: "Louis James Lipton (September 19, 1926 – March 2, 2020) was an American writer, lyricist, actor, and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York City. He was the executive producer,… Read More

Northhampton, MA; (1980): Pennyroyal. Limited Edition. Oblong Octavo. Limited to 100 copies. Of the one hundred numbered copies this is number 32. Signed by both Paul Smyth and Barry Moser on the limitation page. Seven ottava rima (poems) by Paul Smyth, seven wood engravings by Barry Moser. "This book was printed at Pennyroyal by Harold McGrath and bound at the workshop of Gray Parrot. The paper is Arches. The types are Georg Trump's Medieval and John Peters' Castellar. The work was completed in Northampton during the late summer of 1980. Bound in 1/4 red leather over marbled paper covered boards, spine lettering gilt. A fine copy of a very scarce book.

This is a copy of the Lettered Issue of the first edition, thus one of only 26 copies printed on Zerkall Litho (a 210gram, exceptionally fine mouldmade paper, watermarked and with deckled edges) for presentation as a loose-leaf book of ten signatures. The book is wrapped in a coloured paper cover with a letterpress printed label and then presented in a handmade black cloth-covered clamshell box. Traditionally, such loose-leaf formats are especially attractive to printing-arts enthusiasts and to collectors who prefer to rebind their books in a bespoke style to suit a particular library or collection.The First Edition of  FINN'S HOTEL by James Joyce. Edited, arranged and with a preface by Danis Rose, introduced by Seamus Deane, with eleven illustrations by Casey Sorrow. Designed and printed letterpress by Michael Caine for Ithys Press, Dublin. The Preface and Joyce's text have been handset by Caine in Van Dijk, Kis-Janson and various early 20th Century typefaces and the Introduction has been set by… Read More

Washington DC:: Abstract Orange,, 2020.. Edition of 20. 28 x 18 cm; 31 cardboard sheets (Title page plus 30 loose leaves). Text printed in dark blue ink. Page numbers printed in orange ink on bottom right of each card. Housed in blue cardstock trifold with velcro closure. Tittle printed on cover in blue ink. Signed and numbered by the artist. This piece printed and designed by Lauren Emeritz is based on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948. Emeritz printed excerpts from the Declaration with her usual attention to detail - color, type, layout and material. She created the prints by hand using traditional printing presses and typographic forms combined with some modern techniques. She begins with article 01 "ALL HUMANS ARE FREE & EQUAL" and ends with article 30 "NO ONE MAY DENY THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS". The portfolio of prints is a testament to her internship in letterpress design at Hatch Show Print in Nashville, Tennessee in 2017. The Hatch… Read More

Washington DC:: Abstract Orange,, 2016.. Edition of 20. 5 x 7"; 29 leaves with the 29th as the back pastedown. Accordion format extending from back pastedown. Drawn, hand-carved, designed, printed and bound by Lauren Emeritz. Letters carved out of linoblock, pine, basswood and plywood. Letterpress printed using a Vandercook on Lettra 200 paper. Bound in orange cloth with title stamped on front top right corner of cover. Colophon printed on rear pastedown. Signed and numbered by the artist. IIn blazing orange Emeritz created an alphabet by hand carving the letters then printing on her Vandercook press. She printed using her favorite color of orange with each letter having its own page.  Lauren Emeritz: "I live in DC, so there is lots of cool artsy stuff. I love the Smithsonian Art Museums, the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress - they have so much amazing art and printed pieces! The Library of Congress was on my bucket list for a number of years. I finally made it there… Read More

London and Hertford, 1936-1939: The Shenval Press. First Editions. Quarto. Vols 1-8. published quarterly. Illustrated by Robert Harling (all pbd) original plastic ring-bound stiff printed wraps. Various articles pertaining to the art of typography including advertising in color and in black and white on multiple paper stocks also include several tipped-in examples within all volumes. Interesting and informative articles including Jan Tschichold, one of the foremost typographical influences of England, writes on Type Mixing and illustrates his premises with some highly interesting examples. work to be published in Britain. Initially published in editions of 1,200 copies, the press run expanded to 2,500 copies by 1939. Issue #1 sold out very quickly and Volume #2 added another 300 copies and volume three would have more issues printed than the first. A very scarce set and quite uncommon with all eight volumes. A very nice set with a few of the plastic spirals with 1 to 3 broken pieces, volume one has… Read More

Ginko Press, 2013. First Printing. Hardcover. Near Fine. * RARE COPY - Inscribed and SIGNED by author on title page. * Book cover like new, very slight shelf wear - pages clean, bright and unmarked spine like new. Blue satin ribbon marker. * No dust jacket issued with this book. * Proceeds benefit Friends of the Pleasant Hill Library. * "Honest and reliable service - every book hand-packaged with care."

Rochester , New York:: P22 Publications,, 2020.. Folio Edition of 20. Book Edition: Slightly oversized Quarto 9.5 × 12.5"; 56 pages. 26 wood type specimens. Printed on 100lb Arjowiggins Utopia 2 Ivory Matte text paper. 82 hand-press runs in six different print shops. Case sewn and hand-bound in Asahi cloth (red or orange). Foil-stamped cover (gold on red or black on orange). Signed and numbered by Richard Kegler. Folio Edition: Same as Book Edition except specimens and descriptions unbound as individual one-sided plates. Laid in a box hand-bound in blue Asahi cloth with gold foil and spine label. Press Statement: "A tour de force of typographic design and a celebration of American printing innovation,' A Specimen of Wood Type' is a hand-bound, hardcover letterpress printed book by Richard Kegler. It features 26 wood type specimens hand-printed between January 2017 and October 2020 using the original wood types referenced to digitize the Hamilton Wood Type Collection… Read More