Search Results: Architecture from Royal Books, Inc.

Chicago: Wagner Sign Service, Inc, 1960. Archive of 77 vintage black and white photographs from the Wagner Sign Service, circa 1950s-1960s. Each photograph features the name of the local manufacturer or installer, location, and the type of Wagner Sign assembly used, as well as Wagner Sign Service's Chicago address. Archive includes 69 single-image photographs, four composite photographs with two images each, and one composite photograph containing three images. A tremendous archive of photographs of novel marquee signage made during the midcentury American automobile boom of the 1950s and 1960s. Archive features photographs taken in over 20 states, with photographs of marquees for grocery stores, restaurants, motels, shopping centers, automobile dealerships, sports arenas, and a drive-in theater, among many other businesses. The marquees are usually comprised of a playful combination of neon and Wagner's signature plastic and metal copy letters. The Wagner Sign Service was founded in Chicago by… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1954. Archive of 15 photographs documenting the deconstruction, transportation, and reconstruction of the Heinz House during 1952-1954, after it was purchased by the Henry Ford Museum and added to museum's Greenfield Village. Twelve of the photographs with the stamp of the Henry Ford Museum on the verso, the remaining three with the stamp of the Heinz Company. Additionally, ten photographs with either manuscript or printed captions on the verso detailing the image. Henry J. Heinz founded what would eventually grow into the world's fifth largest food company in 1869 in the basement of his childhood home in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania. That house would first be moved from its original location to Pittsburgh in 1904, and a single photograph in the archive shows it in the process of being assembled in its new location. Opened to the public in 1933, the Henry Ford Museum's Greenfield Village serves as a living museum with historical buildings moved there from all over the United States in an… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1930. Archive of eight vintage photographs documenting the harvesting, processing, packaging, and shipping of Sunkist Growers, Orland, California oranges, circa 1930s. Mimeo snipes on the versos of each, seven with a PIX Incorporated and Westport library stamps on the versos, and one with an American Photo Service stamp on the verso. One of the largest marketing cooperatives in the US, Sunkist Growers was formed in 1893, a time when citrus acreage had increased in California by more then ten fold, and today is one of California's largest land owners and the largest fresh produce shipper in the US, representing more than 6,000 members. 10 x 8 inches. Very Good plus to Near Fine overall.

New York: E.P. Dutton, 1939. First Edition. First Edition. A very nice copy of an important title, probably the premiere monograph of New York images, predicting the series ideas of Ruscha and many others. Near Fine in a Very Good plus dust jacket. Corners lightly bumped, a little soiling to the boards. Jacket has three small internal repairs (not restoration), and a few small nicks and closed tears. Parr and Badger, Vol.1 US. Hasselblad US. Roth US.

San Jose: The Mercury News, 1987. Vintage photograph of the 1951 Frank Lloyd Wright house, the Clinton Della Walker house, also known as Cabin on the Rocks, on Carmel Point in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, taken by photographer John R. Fulton Jr. for the Bay Area newspaper, The Mercury News, 1987. Mercury News mimeo snipe on the verso. An example of Wright's organic architecture, the Clinton Della Walker house is Wright's only house that overlooks the ocean, here viewed from the structure's east side, overlooking Carmel Bay. Designed by Wright in 1948 for Mrs. Clinton Della Walker, who said she wanted a house "as durable as the rocks and as transparent as the waves," it was built by Miles Bain and completed in 1951. When approached from the west, the house has the appearance of the prow of a ship jutting out from Carmel Point's rocky shoreline. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. The home was featured as the beach house in the 1959 film "A Summer Place," directed and… Read More

Cambridge and London: The MIT Press, 1983. First Edition. First Edition. INSCRIBED by the author on the half-title page to noted curator Brenda Richardson and partner, "1 April 1983 / For Brenda and Carol / With much love, / Nancy." From Richardson's collection, with her name to top of front endpaper. One of the most distinguished art curators and historians of the twentieth century, Brenda Richardson began her career at the University Art Museum in Berkeley (1964-1975), and went on to become the chief curator at the Baltimore Museum Art between 1975 and 1998. An unapologetic champion of contemporary art, she curated well over 70 major exhibitions for the BMA, the high spots being notable stagings for Frank Stella, Brice Marden, Barnett Newman, and Bruce Nauman. She also curated the 1985 exhibition of the Cone Collection, the BMA's prized centerpiece, which contains over 3000 works, including 600 pieces by Matisse, as well as work by Picasso, Cezanne, Gauguin, and others. She has authored and… Read More

New York: Distributed Art Publishers [D.A.P.], 2001. First Edition. First Edition. Near Fine in a Near Fine dust jacket. Bumps to corners, crown and heel of boards and jacket.

Culver City, CA: Columbia Pictures, 1986. Archive of five original architectural blueprints for location shooting purposes relating to the 1986 comedy film. Each blueprint numbered one through five (out of five), labeled "Ext. Pazzo Mansion," with the Beverly Hills address of the house, and credits for director Blake Edwards, production designer Roger Maus, and others. The blueprints detail both interiors and exteriors for sections of the house, as well as indicated places where the existing house would be augmented by new set construction. The location was used as the home of Paul Servino's mob boss character, Tony Pazzo, and his wife Claudia Pazzo, played by Maria Conchita Alonso. A remake of Laurel and Hardy's classic 1932 short, "The Music Box," about two friends who overhear a plot to fix a horse race and try to capitalize on it, while being pursued by both the mob fixers and the police. 36 x 24 inches. Stapled on the left edge, and rolled. Very Good plus.

Burbank, CA: Warner Brothers, 1949. Three vintage photographs of Patricia Neal applying makeup on the set of the 1949 film. Adapted to the screen by Ayn Rand from her novel, one of only three screenplays she wrote during her brief tenure in Hollywood. In approaching the film adaptation of Rand's iconoclastic work, King Vidor dispensed with typical Hollywood production techniques and focused on creating an expressionistic film, one that literally echoed the architectural underpinnings of its characters' philosophies, motives, and ambitions. Unusual choices included modernist cinematography, expressionistic set designs and wardrobe, and having Ms. Rand herself adapt her own screenplay. Two photographs 7.5 x 9.25 inches. One photograph 7.75 x 9.5 inches. Near Fine with light edgewear.

Paris: Librairie d'art Louis Reynaud, 1931. Small folio. INSCRIBED by the author on the title page. An additional inscription on the front pastedown to John Amore is signed by six of the architects of Rockefeller Center and two of its most important contributing artists. The architects who have signed include John R. Todd, L. Andrew Reinhardt, Henry Hofmeister, Wallace Harrison, J. Andre Fouilhoux, and George N. Pauly. Reinhard and Hofmeister are credited with Rockefeller Center's basic scheme, with Raymond Hood contributing significantly to the design of the main buildings. The artists who have signed are Rene F. Chambellan (who co-designed and cast the Atlas sculpture and designed several promenade fountains) and Gaetano Cecere (sculptor). Alfred Janniot was a French sculptor who contributed to the bas-relief sculptures of Rockefeller Center in New York City. The portfolio on offer here is a record of Janniot's bas-reliefs on the Palais de la Porte Doree in Paris, delivered in 1931 for the Paris… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1932. Vintage photograph of the Bayonne Bridge, connecting Staten Island in New York City with Bayonne, New Jersey, spanning the Kill Van Kull tidal strait. Shot by photographer F.S. Lincoln, circa 1932. "American Architecture" labels and specifications of the Chief Engineer for the Port of New York Authority on the recto and verso. The photograph was shot and struck in the same year the bridge's completion. An artful, "head-on" geometric viewing of the massive structure, the sixth-longest steel arch bridge in the world, one of four connecting New Jersey with Staten Island. The other two bridges are the Goethals Bridge (Elizabeth, NJ) and Outerbridge Crossing (Perth Amboy, NJ). Photograph 7 x 9.25 inches, mounted to gray art board measuring 11 x 14 inches. Near Fine.

Spain: N.p., 1961. Archive of 44 black and white vintage photographs, 21 photographic duplications of artistic renderings, one invitation, and three programs for the openings of various buildings whose interiors were designed by Valencia-based interior designer Vicente Melio Alfonso during Francisco Franco's fascist Spanish regime. This archive largely illustrates his work on two theaters: the Cine Imperial in Villena, and the Teatro-Cine Paya in Burriana. Teatro-Cine Paya material includes a program and an invitation for the theatre's opening, as well as 3 artistic renderings of the space and 21 black and white photographs, including shots of the theater, projection room, murals, bar in the lobby, and even a shot of the very modern-lookng urinals in the men's bathroom. Material for the Cine Imperial includes a program for the theater's 1958 inauguration as well as a program for the first film shown there ("Viage a Italia"), 4 renderings and 11 black and white photographs, including the bar,… Read More

New York: The Monacelli Press, 1995. First Edition. First Edition. INSCRIBED by Rem Koolhaas on the title page, in the year after publication: "To Rochelle / Rem Koolhaas / 1-2-96." Koolhaas' magnum opus, a profusely illustrated guide to his process. Conceptual in its design and execution, much like the architect's work. Near Fine, with only the slightest rubbing to the sensitive yellow spine titles.

Vienna: Verein für Soziale Wohnkultur, 1958. Two vintage furniture and home decor booklets, produced by Austrian furniture maker Soziale Wohnkultur, for subsidized housing in Vienna, circa 1958. One booklet illustrated throughout with black-and-white and color photographs, the other illustrated with black-and-white photographs only. Text in German. In 1952, in the midst of rebuilding the city after WWII, the government of Vienna formed a furniture initiative called Soziale Wohnkultur, or "Social Living Culture," a project spearheaded by architect Franz Schuster. The project introduced a line of furniture for low-income municipal housing residents that was designed to be attractive and high quality, but also inexpensive and practical for small apartments. A number of prominent Austrian designers were commissioned to work on the project, and the resulting designs ranged from kitchen, bedroom, and living furniture to wall shelving and lamps, all emblazoned with the "SW" logo. The furniture and… Read More

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1970. Vintage studio still photograph, of Daria Halprin, seemingly trapped in the middle of a mid-century modern glass vestibule, from the 1970 film. Mimeo snipe on the verso. Antonioni's great American experiment, and the only film the director ever made in the United States, written for the screen by a young Sam Shepard. Though made from an Italian's perspective, the film stands today as a great visual statement on the American West in the late 1960s, rampant consumerism, and the hippie zeitgeist. 8 x 10 inches, with wide horizontal margins. Near Fine. Rosenbaum 1000. Godard, Histoire(s) du cinema.