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

BRAGARD, Henri. Four Original Water-color Interior Designs. (Paris: circa 1895-1905.) Four original color drawings, matted. (45 x 31; 47 30; 47.5 x 29; and 45 x 33 centimeters). Four finely drawn and detailed water-colors prepared by Henry Bragard, 31 Ave d'Odeans, Paris, for Magasins du Printemps. Printemps was established in 186 after the retail model created by Bon Marche, with large show rooms offering array of household goods. (See Lancaster The Department Store, a Social Hist for more information.) Two drawings are of a study for a Pierre Laguionie (o a traditional masculine design; the other an Art Nouveau creation.) The thir is of a classical drawing room; the fourth, an Art Nouveau bedroom for Henry Bataille, the French dramatist [1872-1922]. (26639).

GIARDINI, Giovanni. DESEGNI DIVERSI INTENTATI E DELINEATI DE GIOVANNI DIARDI DA FORLI. Two parts bound as one. (Rome): 1714. Folio. Calf spine, contemporary marbled boards. Engraved title and dedication, 53 engraved plates; engraved title and dedication, 46 plates numbered 54-99. First edition, first issue? A gorgeous rococo pattern book for goldsmiths and silversmiths with both secu and ecclesiastical designs. The author, Giovanni Giardini (1646-1721), was appointed the Vatican's chief metalworker in 1698. His designs are reminisce of Bernini's. This design book is the most complete record of Giardini's wor as many pieces from the Papal collection were melted down by Napoleon's troop Rare. Only one copy is cited by NUC, that at the New York Public Library. T Berlin Catalogue [1141] calls for one hundred numbered plates as does the cop offered in Robin Halwas' Catalogue 4, but their copies have engraved plate numbers while our copy was numbered by hand, indicating an earlier state of t work. There is… 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).

Da Vinci, Leonardo. (AMBROSIANA LIBRARY) FONTES AMBROSIANI IN LUCEM EDITI CURA ET STUDIO BIBLIOTHECAE AMBROSIANAE. XXIX. Milan: 1955. Folio. Reverse-calf spine, boards. (15) pages, 100 plates. Firs edition. Facsimilies from Codex Resta, an exquisite collection of seventeenth-century drawings in the Ambrosiana Library, many published here for the first time. There are drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea Mantegna, Correggio, Tintoret Nicolas Poussin, and many others. With text in Italian, French, English, and German. Some light cover wear, internally very good and partially uncut.

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

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.

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).

WALLIS, N. THE CARPENTER'S TREASURE; A COLLECTION OF DESIGNS FOR TEMPLES. London: I. Taylor, (1773). Large 8vo. Contemporary blue wrappers. (iv) pages 16 engraved plates. First edition. [Harris, 900]. All recorded copies state on the title page "A New Edition." The present cop without any edition statement on the title, with the plates still fresh and w no trace of any wear, point to it being 'the' first edition. The earliest recorded copy, as here, contains the advertisement listing William Pain's Practical Builder published in 1774, and bears the imprint of 'I. Taylor at t Bible & Crown in Holborn.' Later editions drop the advertisements with the imprint 'I. & J. Taylor, nearly opposite Great Turnstile, Holborn.' Harris a other scholars have verified that it is the first. A second and third were published in 1790 and 1800. Our copy has the two-page advertisement of books sold by Taylor frequently missing. Wallis compiled only three pattern books, this one unique in featuring both Gothic and Chinese… Read More

(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

MITELLI, Giuseppe Maria. DISEGNI, ET ABBOZZI DI AGOSTINO MITELLI, together with, BOSCHI, Pietro. VASI ET URNE. (Bologna: circa 1670 and 1710). Folio. Early boards. Engraved title leaf, 24 engraved plates; Engraved title leaf, 8 engraved plates. [Berlin Catalogue, 5 (Mitelli only)]. Giuseppe Maria Mitelli was the son of Agostino Mitelli, a renown "quadtunista i.e. painter of illusionistic architectural perspectives. In 1658 he accompanied his father to Spain, petitioning the officials there after Agostino's death (1660) for wages. This series of etchings after motifs by Agostino, are important in validating his father's draughtsmanship and were executed not long after his death. Eight motifs are architectural columns, fourteen urns and pedestals, and fourteen are ornaments and brackets. But mo memorable and powerful are the more than forty-six animal and human grotesque contorted in most amazing configurations, throughout the twenty-four pages of designs. We could locate only two copies on OCLC and… Read More

(PAINT-SALESMAN'S COUNTER DISPLAY SAMPLE) ACME WHITE LEAD AND COLOR WORKS. COMBINATION OF COLORS OF NEW ERA HIGH-GRADE PREPARED PAINTS. Detroit: Acme White Lead and Color Works, (circa 1895). Oak wood display cas (19 x 5 1/2 x 16 inches), w/ glass viewing window mounted in front containing linen scroll with 22 color plates (each plate 14 1/2 x 12 inches) mounted and wound between two rollers each of which is controlled by an exterior nickel plated handle. Celluloid labels carefully mounted on all sides of the glass window with metal pins. First edition. An exceedingly rare example of a salesman's counter display, advertising exterior color schemes of paints and trims for Victorian Era homes. The hous illustrated in this ingenious piece are composed primarily of Queen Anne Victorians (Queen Anne Revival). Twenty-two paint schemes are presented in t piece, including two-tone Flesh tones & Gray upper & lower siding, with Dark Green trim and Red roof; French Gray siding with Bronze Green roof; Light Oli… Read More

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