There are some very beautiful bindings in the Rare Books and this is just a sampling of them. Included are leather bindings with decorative stamping and tooling, laquered wood and leather binding, a metal binding, cloth and paper bindings with beautiful illustrations. Also included are some beautiful marbled endpapers and color illustrations.
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He produced his most important work after the age of 60. His most popular work, the ukiyo-e series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, was created between 1826 and 1833 and actually consists of 46 prints.
Hokusai's Views of Mt. Fuji, Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1965 features Katsushika Hokusai's prints accompanied by poems by Easley Stephen Jones (1884-1947). Charles E. Tuttle was an American publisher and book dealer who was known for his contribution to bridging the English-speaking and Japanese-speaking worls.
Joseph T. Altemus (d. 1853) was an American bookbinder from Philadelphia. He apprenticed under his uncle Shadrach Taylor and later operated his own bindery, eventually going into partnership with his brother, Samuel, a merchant in Philadelphia. He practiced his trade from 1825 until his death in 1853.
Leaflets of Memory: An Illuminated Annual of MDCCCXLVII, edited by Reynell Coats, E.H. Butler, 1847 was bound in red cloth, decorated in gold by Joseph T. Altemus and signed in the middle of the spine, all edges gilt. This was a gift book.
Riviere & Sons, Bookbinders, was founded in 1829 by Robert Riviere in Bath, England. Robert Riviere died in 1882 passing the business on to his grandson, Percival Calkin and it was eventually passed on to a great grandson, Stuart Riviere Calkin, who ran the firm until its closing in 1939.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Houghton Mifflin, 1906 was a limited edition book of 1000 copies. This copy was bound by Riviere and Son in a red lether binding with gold stamping and marbled endpapers.
I Fioretti Del Glorioso Messere Santo Francesco E De' Suoi Frati, 1919 has the writing of Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) bound in a leather binding that has been heavily tooled with brass florettes at each corner of the cover, front and back.
Eleodoro E. Marenco (1914-1996), an Argentine illustrator, was a painter and illustrator that based much of his work on his childhood experiences in rural Argentina. His work was featured in the 1946 edition of Martin Fierro.
Martin Fierro by José Hernández, Buenos Aires, 1967, also known as El Gaucho Martin Fierro, is a 2,316-line epic poem by the Argentine author, José Hernández. It was originally published in two parts in 1872 and 1879. This edition, published in 1967, is bound in lacquered wood boards and leather spine and features the illustrative work of Eleodoro E. Marenco.
Morañegas by Constantino de Lucas y Martin, Senén Martín, 1946 is a book of Spanish poetry that is bound in a blue leather with gold tooling and includes a slipcase that hs marbled paper that matches the flyleaves. The back cover is stamped as being bound by Nicolas Abvlae.
The Machine as seen at the end of the mechanical age, by K.G. Pontus Hultén, 1968, an exhibit catalog, with a cover made of metal designed by Anders Österlin (1926-2011), one of the founders of the Imaginist artist group known for his rich composite paintings. With John Melin, own of the designers of this book, he did innovative graphic designs in the 1950s and 1960s. The design was taken from a photograph by Alicia Legg (b. 1915) who was the assistant curator at the Museum of Modern Art at the time of this exhibition. She became curator of MOMA in 1979, a position she held until 1987 when she retired at the age of 71.
