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  • Fêtes galantes. by BARBIER, George, illustrator. Paul VERLAINE. BARBIER, George, illustrator. Paul VERLAINE. ~ Fêtes galantes. Paris: [Imprimerie nationale for] H. Piazza, 1928.
    First edition with Barbier’s illustrations. One of 800 on Rives (of a total edition of 1200). The poems of Verlaine’s Fêtes galantes (first published in… (more)

    First edition with Barbier’s illustrations. One of 800 on Rives (of a total edition of 1200). The poems of Verlaine’s Fêtes galantes (first published in 1869) took inspiration from the pastorals of Watteau, as well as the sumptuous fantasies of Fragonard and Boucher, while drawing characters from the Italian traditions of the commedia dell’arte. Barbier’s sensibilities made him the perfect artist to reinterpret Verlaine for the 1920s.

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  • Fêtes galantes. by BARBIER, George, illustrator. Paul VERLAINE. BARBIER, George, illustrator. Paul VERLAINE. ~ Fêtes galantes. Paris: [Imprimerie nationale for] H. Piazza, 1928.
    First edition with Barbier’s illustrations. Number LX of 175 copies (on Japon) for America (the total edition was 1200 copies). The poems of Verlaine’s Fêtes… (more)

    First edition with Barbier’s illustrations. Number LX of 175 copies (on Japon) for America (the total edition was 1200 copies). The poems of Verlaine’s Fêtes galantes (first published in 1869) took inspiration from the pastorals of Watteau, as well as the sumptuous fantasies of Fragonard and Boucher, while drawing characters from the Italian traditions of the commedia dell’arte. Barbier’s sensibilities made him the perfect artist to reinterpret Verlaine for the 1920s.

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  • La double Maîtresse. by BARBIER, George, illustrator. Henri de RÉGNIER. BARBIER, George, illustrator. Henri de RÉGNIER. ~ La double Maîtresse. Paris: [Coulouma, Argenteuil for] A. & G. Mornay, 1928.
    Number 282 of 839 copies on Rives (of a total edition of 1000). La double Maîtresse (1900) was the symbolist poet’s first novel – a… (more)

    Number 282 of 839 copies on Rives (of a total edition of 1000). La double Maîtresse (1900) was the symbolist poet’s first novel – a tale of a tyrannical mother, a troubled son, a provocative cousin and an unscrupulous courtesan. Barbier brings his own brand of wit and sensuality to bear upon in his extensive illustrative scheme which includes full-page illustrations, vignettes and humorous initials.

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  • Les Artistes du livre. George Barbier. by (BARBIER). Jean-Louis VAUDOYER. (BARBIER). Jean-Louis VAUDOYER. ~ Les Artistes du livre. George Barbier. Paris: Henry Babou. 1929.
    First edition of this appreciation of George Barbier, the tenth issue of the collection, Les Artistes du Livre. One of 700 copies (on papier vélin). (more)

    First edition of this appreciation of George Barbier, the tenth issue of the collection, Les Artistes du Livre. One of 700 copies (on papier vélin).

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  • Designs on the Dances of Vaslav Nijinsky. by (DANCE). BARBIER, George, illustrator. (DANCE). BARBIER, George, illustrator. ~ Designs on the Dances of Vaslav Nijinsky. London: C. W. Beaumont & Co, 1913.
    First edition in English (following the French edition of the same year, Barbier’s first illustrated book). 148 of 400 copies, all on vellum paper. The… (more)

    First edition in English (following the French edition of the same year, Barbier’s first illustrated book). 148 of 400 copies, all on vellum paper. The foreword by Francis De Miomandre was translated by C. W. Beaumont. The bookseller, publisher and dance historian Cyril Beaumont was instrumental in promoting and documenting the performances of Nijinsky and the Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in London, and here published a suite of Barbier’s iconic prints with an introductory text.

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  • Casanova. Panorama Dramatique... décors et costumes par George Barbier. by BARBIER, George, illustrator. [Maurice ROSTAND]. BARBIER, George, illustrator. [Maurice ROSTAND]. ~ Casanova. Panorama Dramatique... décors et costumes par George Barbier. Paris: Lucien Vogel, 1921.
    First edition. Barbier designed the sets and costumes for the Bouffes-Parisiens production of Maurice Rostand’s Casanova in February 1919. The 24 fine costume plates here… (more)

    First edition. Barbier designed the sets and costumes for the Bouffes-Parisiens production of Maurice Rostand’s Casanova in February 1919. The 24 fine costume plates here are coloured by Jacomet et compagnie.
    The commission for Casanova was an important moment in Barbier’s artistic career, leading to commissions with theatres, the Ballet Russes and the Folies Bergère. Other successes followed, and for a time he was the most sought-after costume designer in Paris, recognized as the theatrical artist ‘who better than any other had captured the mood of the age’ (Gordon Ray).

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  • (LYDIS, Mariette). Henry de MONTHERLANT. ~ Mariette Lydis. Paris: Édition des artistes d’aujourd’hui, 1938.
    First edition, one of 1000 copies, complete with the additional lithograph (’Madina’) and etching (’Petite Tzigane à Epsom’). An appreciation of the work of the… (more)

    First edition, one of 1000 copies, complete with the additional lithograph (’Madina’) and etching (’Petite Tzigane à Epsom’). An appreciation of the work of the artist which includes a listing of her works in public collections and a valuable bibliography of her illustrated books. It is an important retrospective of Lydis’s European works before she left for England and ultimately Argentina.

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  • LYDIS, Mariette, illustrator. Erik-Ernst SCHWABACH. ~ Miniaturen in Liebesbillete gesetzt von Erik-Ernst Schwabach. [Die verliebten Billete des Prinzen Salamud]. Potsdam: Müller & Co, [ 1924].
    First edition. A striking early Lydis production. Each plate is accompanied by an exotic love lyric by Schwabach (publisher, author and patron of Expressionism) ‘Die… (more)

    First edition. A striking early Lydis production. Each plate is accompanied by an exotic love lyric by Schwabach (publisher, author and patron of Expressionism) ‘Die verliebten Billete des Prinzen Salamu’. The 18 plates reproduce Lydis’ orientalist miniatures in collotype and lithograph with gold and silver. The Müller firm had been established at Potsdam 1919 by Irmgard Kiepenheuer and Hans Müller. Kiepenhauer was an important figure in the artistic world of Weimar Berlin, hosting a cultural salon in Potsdam and being in personal contact with the most important contemporary artists — including many from the Bauhaus in Weimar. The firm issued several influential portfolios showcasing artists such as Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Oskar Kokoschka, Max Pechstein, Christian Rohlfs, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. One of 1100 copies (of which 100 were signed).

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  • James Dearden: A John Ruskin Collection. by JUSTIN CROFT ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS. JUSTIN CROFT ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS. ~ James Dearden: A John Ruskin Collection. [Faversham]: 2024.
    First edition. A descriptive catalogue of the lifetime collection of James Dearden (1931-2021) devoted to John Ruskin. Containing a near-comprehensive set of all important early… (more)

    First edition. A descriptive catalogue of the lifetime collection of James Dearden (1931-2021) devoted to John Ruskin. Containing a near-comprehensive set of all important early editions of Ruskin’s works, manuscripts, letters, photographs, ephemera, Ruskiniana and a reference collection (345 item). With introductory essays by Stuart Eagles (’Ruskin Today’) and Stephen Wildman (a biographical appreciation of James Dearden). Catalogue text by Justin Croft and Jonathan Stone.

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  • La Pécheresse. by BARBIER, George, illustrator. Henri de RÉGNIER. BARBIER, George, illustrator. Henri de RÉGNIER. ~ La Pécheresse. Paris: [Coulouma, Argenteuil for] A. & G. Mornay, 1924.
    Number 978 (on Rives) of a total edition of 1000 copies. La Pécheresse (’The Sinner’) was first published in 1912. (more)

    Number 978 (on Rives) of a total edition of 1000 copies. La Pécheresse (’The Sinner’) was first published in 1912.

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  • Assemblée générale. by BOURNAZEL, Diane de. BOURNAZEL, Diane de. ~ Assemblée générale. Marliac, 2024.
    Conventional politics is rarely expressed in De Bournazel’s work, which tends to explore more universal experience. But occasionally it emerges, if only by allusion. Created… (more)

    Conventional politics is rarely expressed in De Bournazel’s work, which tends to explore more universal experience. But occasionally it emerges, if only by allusion. Created in a particularly turbulent year in French culture and politics Assemblée générale bears a couple of teasing red and blue brush strokes on the cover label. Inside, however, the Assemblée générale envisaged by the artist feels like an interior politics rather than any played out in the machinery of the French state — densely populated, variegated and unsettling.

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  • Tombés de la nuit. by BOURNAZEL, Diane de. BOURNAZEL, Diane de. ~ Tombés de la nuit. Marliac, 2023.
    ‘Nightfalls’ — a tumbling exploration of the nocturnal adventures of the mind and of the porous boundary between the real and imaginary worlds. (more)

    ‘Nightfalls’ — a tumbling exploration of the nocturnal adventures of the mind and of the porous boundary between the real and imaginary worlds.

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  • Entre Chien et loup. by BOURNAZEL, Diane de. BOURNAZEL, Diane de. ~ Entre Chien et loup. [Brive, 2015].
    The French expression, Entre chien et loup refers to the twilight hours when it is hard to tell the difference between dog and wolf, but… (more)

    The French expression, Entre chien et loup refers to the twilight hours when it is hard to tell the difference between dog and wolf, but it also expresses the liminal spaces between the familiar and the unknown, or the tame and the wild. It denotes also the uncertain emotional territory between hope and fear, expressed playfully by Diane de Bournazel in the labyrinthine paths drawn across the pages of this unique artist’s book. As always with De Bournazel, words are scarce and ‘Là’ ’Tu sais’, ‘Je m’interroge’ and ‘encore’ provide the extent of the text here.

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  • Îles flottantes. by BOURNAZEL, Diane de. BOURNAZEL, Diane de. ~ Îles flottantes. Marliac, 2021.
    In this sequence, the artist draws on the spaces created by slate fragments impressed into the heavy rag paper (when wet). The slates leave asymmetrical… (more)

    In this sequence, the artist draws on the spaces created by slate fragments impressed into the heavy rag paper (when wet). The slates leave asymmetrical spaces (’Îles flottantes’) – each a matrix of their surface texture.

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  • Cours A. by (BOOKBINDING). INSTITUT ARTISANAL DE RELIURE. (BOOKBINDING). INSTITUT ARTISANAL DE RELIURE. ~ Cours A. Paris: Institut artisanal de reliure, [n.d., 1968].
    A correspondence course for amateur binders in 1960s France, aimed, according to the inserted advert at the retired, at professionals in search of a diverting… (more)

    A correspondence course for amateur binders in 1960s France, aimed, according to the inserted advert at the retired, at professionals in search of a diverting hobby, office workers, young mothers and adolescents. The 21 parts of cours ‘A’ give detailed instructions in casing, and bindings of several types: bradel, cloth, half sheep (’basane’) and half cloth, with instructions for paper cleaning. Apparently a second ‘Cours B’ offered instruction in gilding.

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  • Étudiants et Lorettes. Almanach du Quartier Latin (5e année). by (PUBLISHER’S ADVERT). (PUBLISHER’S ADVERT). ~ Étudiants et Lorettes. Almanach du Quartier Latin (5e année). Paris: E. de Soye et compagnie, [1850 or 51].
    A rare publisher’s advert for a short-lived satirical almanac devoted to the comic lowlife of the Parisian Latin Quarter, with its famously hedonistic students and… (more)

    A rare publisher’s advert for a short-lived satirical almanac devoted to the comic lowlife of the Parisian Latin Quarter, with its famously hedonistic students and lorettes courtesans or sex workers). The lorette emerged both in reality and in the popular imagination during the July Monarchy (1830-48), named after the Right Bank church of Notre Dame de Lorette where they were thought to reside and the almanac promises a range of playful gender inverting fun based on the ‘Vésuviennes’ (popular heroines of the 1848 revolution who donned uniform and took to the barricades) including the confessions of a Vésuvienne and their ‘Charte-Constitution’.
    During the February Revolution of 1848, French women briefly hoped for political rights and an improvement in their social situation. Such hopes were short-lived and popular reaction was expressed in satires like this. The complex image of the Vésuvienne woman warrior, both pleasantly seductive and scandalously rebellious. She appeared in all the major newspapers, while real women in the streets claimed this title by parading under a Vesuvian banner. Their morality was often called into question and it is no surprise to see lorettes and Vésuviennes share a billing here. In Belhomme’s lithograph, three lorettes step out of basket (one thumbing her nose); a reflection of a popular contemporary song ‘Le Panier aux lorettes’.

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  • [Saint Francis with the Virgin and Infant Christ; Saint Anthony of Padua. by (DEVOTION. DRESSED PRINTS). (DEVOTION. DRESSED PRINTS). ~ [Saint Francis with the Virgin and Infant Christ; Saint Anthony of Padua. [France or Catholic Low Countries, eighteenth century]
    The fashion for dressing prints existed probably from the origin of printed illustrations themselves, though it was a widespread, predominantly female recreation during the seventeenth… (more)

    The fashion for dressing prints existed probably from the origin of printed illustrations themselves, though it was a widespread, predominantly female recreation during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, often with a devotional intent.

    The subjects here are Franciscan: Francis himself in a version of the legend of the appearance to him of the Virgin and Infant Christ, and Anthony of Padau in friar’s habit with an infant and a cherub. St Francis is the most elaborate of the two, with almost all of the cut print’s surface covered with colour, several silk brocade fabrics (brown, black, white and silver), gold paper highlights and glittering ground glass. Cherries on a tree above the group are rendered in tiny red wax spots, giving a round and shiny surface to each. The border is of black lacquer-like paint and gold paper, and an engraved Latin caption reads: ‘Quid parvum Francisce adeo miraris Iesu / Expecta pendens in cruce maior erit’. The surrounding parchment surface is illuminated with full borders of pink roses. Saint Anthony’s robe is rendered with a single piece of shiny brown silk, with narrow painted bands of the original print giving the impression of its folds. The grassy ground on which he kneels, and the tree above him shine with fragments of ground green glass.

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  • The Adoration of the Magi. by (ARUNDEL SOCIETY). [Christian SCHULTZ after Hans MEMLING]. (ARUNDEL SOCIETY). [Christian SCHULTZ after Hans MEMLING]. ~ The Adoration of the Magi. The Arundel Society. 1863.
    The Arundel Societies superb colour printed version of Hans Memling’s Jan Floreins Triptych, copied by Christian Schultz.
    The Society was founded in 1849 at a meeting… (more)

    The Arundel Societies superb colour printed version of Hans Memling’s Jan Floreins Triptych, copied by Christian Schultz.
    The Society was founded in 1849 at a meeting in the house of the painter Charles Eastlake, who became the first Director of The National Gallery, and was named after the Earl of Arundel, collector and patron - a man whom Horace Walpole described as the ‘father of Vertue in England’. The Society saw the progress of art in England as being dependent on popular taste. It was established with the aim to promote a greater knowledge of art through the publication of literary works and high quality reproductions of Italian fresco cycles, classical art and a handful of Northern European masterpieces. John Ruskin was an early member. Many modern British artists who did not travel, including the Pre-Raphaelites, and many collectors and an entire art-hungry class were only familiar with the Old Masters in colour through Arundel Society prints. The Society was discontinued in 1897, when it was overwhelmed by the use of photography.
    The prints did not rely on photography and were not made directly from the original paintings. Instead from 1852 skilled copyists were sent out across Europe (by Henry Layard of the Society) to make smaller, very accurate water- and body-colour copies directly from the originals, probably using Windsor and Newton ‘Moist Colours’ in zinc tubes, which had been available from 1846. Each colour used was given its own lithographic stone, and up to 20 stones were drawn upon by hand and printed from to build a composite colour image. Standardising the colours throughout the complex process produced rather saturated but faithful copies, entirely by hand, before colour photography. Perhaps the greatest copyist, Christian Schultz, was also a lithographer.
    Memling painted this triptych in 1479 for brother Jan Floreins of the Oud Sint-Janshospitaal in Bruges, where it remains as part of the collection of the Memlingmuseum. He probably depicted himself to the left of the central panel, where he kneels behind a wall, holding an open book. The two panels on the verso of the wings, which are visible when closed, depict John the Baptist and Saint Veronica. The patron’s initials ‘IK’ are visible in the margins and these two panels include a trompe l’oeil lock which visually ‘fastens’ as the triptych is closed - reproduced faithfully in the Arundel copy. The Society made facsimiles of only two Flemish artists: Van Eyck (The Ghent Altarpiece) and Memling (The Lubeck altarpiece and the present Jan Floreins triptych). W. Noel Johnson, A Handbook (Catalogue raisonné) to the Collection of Chromo-lithographs from Copies of important Works of Ancient Masters, published by the Arundel Society: with historical and special artistic Record and Notes (1907) 182-6.

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  • The Constitutions of the Free-masons. Containing the History, Charges, Regulations, &c. of that most ancient and right worshipful Fraternity. For the Use of the Lodges. by [ANDERSON, James]. [ANDERSON, James]. ~ The Constitutions of the Free-masons. Containing the History, Charges, Regulations, &c. of that most ancient and right worshipful Fraternity. For the Use of the Lodges. London: William Hunter, for John Senex at the Globe, and John Hooke at the Flower-de-Luce over-against St. Dunstan’s Church, in Fleet-Street. In the year of masonry ---- 5723, Anno Domini 1723.
    First edition of the first standard code of the order of Freemasons in England. It was to become the basis of Masonic constitutions on both… (more)

    First edition of the first standard code of the order of Freemasons in England. It was to become the basis of Masonic constitutions on both sides of the Atlantic, being the edition from which Franklin printed the Philadelphia constitutions the following year.

    Anderson, born at Aberdeen, and educated as a Minister of the Church of Scotland moved to London in 1707, where he continued preaching and is reputed to have lost money in an unwise investment in the South Sea Company. ‘He was commissioned to write a history of freemasonry on behalf of the grand lodge of England, which had been founded in London in 1717. A freemason himself, Anderson was grand warden of the lodge when he published the work as The constitutions of the free-masons; containing the history, charges, regulations, &c. of that fraternity (1723). A second edition followed in 1738 that provided a fuller account of the speculative origins and early history of English masonry. Intended primarily as an ‘apologia’ that would give “a relatively new institution an honourable descent”... Anderson’s Constitutions was long accepted as the standard code of the craft and was translated into German in 1741’ (Oxford DNB).

    The printing of the Constitutions was an enterprise which drew together several prominent British Freemasons. Anderson was assisted by Newtonian natural scientist John Theophilus Desaguliers, member of the Royal Society, named in the approbation here as Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge. Publisher John Senex also reveals himself as a mason, while the fine frontispiece is by John Pine. It was this image which elevated Pine to the status of principal engraver to the Grand Lodge and he subsequently executed many works on their behalf. The final section contains masonic songs (with music) including ‘The Enter’d Prentices Song’ in six verses. Vibert, The Rare Books of Freemasonry, II, (1).

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  • Caractères des Passions gravés par Bernard Picart sur les desseins de Mr. le Brun. [for:] [Conférence... sur l’expression générale des passions]. by PICART, Bernard, engraver. Charle LE BRUN. PICART, Bernard, engraver. Charle LE BRUN. ~ Caractères des Passions gravés par Bernard Picart sur les desseins de Mr. le Brun. [for:] [Conférence... sur l’expression générale des passions]. Amsterdam: chez B. Picart le Rom. Sur le Cingel vis a vis le Marché aux pommes A. l’Etoile, [n.d. c. 1711].
    A complete set of the small plates for Le Brun’s influential artists’ manual, Conférence sur l’expression générale des passions (lectures at the French Académie royale… (more)

    A complete set of the small plates for Le Brun’s influential artists’ manual, Conférence sur l’expression générale des passions (lectures at the French Académie royale given between 1668 and 1678, but not printed until 1698). They are preserved in their original uncut state, four plates to an uncut sheet. Each sheet retains the stab holes for stitching in oblong format, probably the form in which they were issued by Picart, with the plates reorientated here when bound on guards in the nineteenth century. They were evidently sold separately, uncut as here, but were also issued dissected with the small format editions of the Conférence.

    Le Brun had lectured on the expression of emotions and produced a set of drawings to illustrate tranquility, admiration, desire, apprehension, joy, sadness, contempt and hatred, jealousy, and despair and fury. The lectures and the illustrations (’expressive heads’) were not published until 1698, when they appeared as Caractères des Passions which swiftly became one of the principal artists’ manual and was reprinted several times within a few decades, including in English. These Picart plates ‘correspond to [the first edition] with the addition of eleven new plates, except for fig. no. 34. Here, for the first time, the previously rather strange head-dress of this figure has been clearly represented as a metal helmet, thus making it easier to recognise in it Rhosaces, the man about to strike Alexander in the Battle of the Granicus’ (Montagu).

    This set bears the stamp and spine title of the Pictura Groningen (the stamp being Lugt 2028); a print collection now widely dispersed. Jennifer Montagu, The Expression of the Passions. The Origin and Influence of Chalres Le Brun’s Conférence sur lexpression générale et particulière (Yale, 1994) B.8.

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