Californios: The Saga of the Hard-Riding Vaqueros, America's First Cowboys by Mora, Jo J - 1949

Monterey, CA: Privately Printed, 1930. The menu is 6 1/8" x 8 5/8" single sheet. Cream paper with colorful Jo Mora designed illustration with black lettering on front side; menu printed on back side with a design of a Spanish Galleon sailing in rough seas at the top. Some prices on the menu are neatly blacked out to reflect price increases. A fine copy. The postcard measures 3 3/4" x 5 1/2" and is in fine, unused condition. "Pop" Ernest Doelter was an entrepreneur and restaurateur at the turn of the last century. At a critical period in Monterey history, he came along and turned Abalone into an American delicacy - discovering its many uses and creating an entire industry around the food. He subsequently opened his "Abalone and Seafood Restaurant" and enlisted Jo Mora to create his menus in exchange for his Abalone dinners. Jo worked with his good friend and noted artist, Armin Hansen, to create the menu and postcard designs; Jo drew the illustrations and the hand-lettering was done by Hansen.… Read More

Chicago: Albert Whitman Company, 1923. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. A chapter book illustrated by Jo Mora (credited on the title page as Joseph J. Mora) and Sue M. Sealy. Mora's contributions are small black-and-white in-text vignettes of animals and a few small duo-tone (orange and black) chapter headings. Sealy designed the cover and six full-page, two-color illustrations. 126 pages. 5-1/2 by 7-1/2 inches. First edition (no later printings noted; with the cover image of a fox holding hands with two cubs, later changed to a rooster, a pig, and a leopard; and a blue-cloth binding, which was later changed to green). Quite scarce as a first printing. This is a very good copy, with minor shelfwear to the spine ends. A small piece of the upper outer corner of pages 27/28 is missing, not affecting any text. Lacking the dust jacket.

Monterey, CA: Jo Mora Publications, 1945. Color pictographic map. Image size 24 3/8" x 18 1/4". A fine copy; colors are strong and bright. This California carte is the last map drawn by Jo Mora. The Del Monte Canning Co. commissioned the map for promotional give-aways. As a means to save money, they used somewhat thin paper for the first run and some of the colors (blues and green) did not take as strongly as others. Within a short period of time, they switched to a heavier paper resulting in the colors keeping their strength and brightness. This map is on the heavier paper with the darker greens and blues. As with all Jo Mora cartes, it is packed with historical information and details, creatively and colorfully illustrated. He added details to this version, such as the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges that were not around in 1927 for his first, larger map. (Grandeau & Shorts Cartes 11; Gilmore M17).

Monterey, CA: Jo Mora Publications, 1942. Color pictographic map. Image size 30 1/4" x 22 7/8". "This carte, in either variation, is among the rarest ones to find!" - Grandeau-Shorts. This is the second variation of the map printed on white paper; showing "Map of Los Angelse" printed vertically down from the top central figure. Fine condition. "This map was dedicated to Charles F. Lummis, a 'buen amigo' of Jo's and a well-known Industriallist from Los Angeles, who foretold of the great Metropolis that LA would become. As shown in the map, the population in 1910 was only 50,000 people. Jo also included the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, who, like Jo, loved to draw animal figures with human clothes and traits." (Jon Gilmore). This map, considered "his greatest cartographic creation" (Picturing America p. 31); only 2,000 copies were printed thus this image is considered to be one of the more scarce Jo Mora cartes. As with all his cartes, this one is packed with historical information and details,… Read More