RARE Cartes-de-visite of Kansas City Railroad and Carriage Bridge ( Hannibal Bridge ) by Little & Sprague ( Photographers )

1697 1st ed Evelyn Numismata Illustrated Medals Coins Physiognomy Numismatics

"The long and prolixer beard was ever a mark of gravity and wisdom in men, but a woman with a hairy chin, was saluted as a monster, by a peal of stones at her."
– John Evelyn, Numismata

John Evelyn's 'Numismata' is one of the most important 17th-century books on numismatics, ancient coins, medals, collecting them, and identifying authentic and fakes. This 1697 first edition is illustrated with engravings of medals each with inscriptions and commentary on the figures. While the title of the works refers to both numismatics, which includes coins, the content of Evelyn's treatise focuses primarily on medals alone.

This work though, takes a bizarre turn and covers more than just the study of medals. Evelyn writes about human physiognomy and the importance of the human face which appears on medals and coins. One rather odd section discusses the appearance of a beard on both a man and a woman!

Item number: #7725
Price:… Read More

Farmer, E[lihu] J[erome]. The Resources of the Rocky Mountains, Being a Brief Description of the Mineral, Grazing, Agricultural and Timber Resources of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and Dakota... "Westward the Star of Empire Takes Its Way." Cleveland: Leader Printing Company. 1883. First edition. Dark green embossed stiff wraps. 20 cm. Illustrated. 196 pp. One page bound in slightly askew (p. 111), cover bump, else very good. OCLC shows 60 holdings, 6 in Texas (SMU; TAMU; Texas Tech; UT-Austin & UT-SA). Adams, Herd 787: "Scarce.". Flake 3505a: "Brief Description of the settling of Utah by the Mormons." Not in Howes or other standard sources. A work meant to promote emigration to the State of Colorado and territories of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and the Dakotas. Included is a section on Yellowstone National Park (with illustrations). The book is especially strong on the virtues of industries such as mining and stock raising. The natural beauty… Read More

Portland, OR: Northwest Photography Archive & Oregon State University Press, 2008. First printing. 345 pp., 12 x 12.5 inches. Cloth over boards in printed dust-jacket. With 134 full-page reproductions, and an introduction, epilogue, list of plates, notes, acknowledgments, selected bibliography, and index. From the first printing of five thousand copies, designed and produced by John Laursen, this is one of one hundred special copies, numbered and signed by Laursen, housed in a special slipcase, and accompanied by an archival digital pigment print of an 1867 Carleton Watkins photograph, "Cape Horn." A gorgeous production. As new. The Northwest Photography Archive was the culmination of many years of research, field work, collecting, planning, and organization — not to mention fundraising! — by Terry Toedtemeier and John Laursen. Wild Beauty, the first publication of the Archive, appeared in tandem with a celebrated exhibition of the same name at the Portland Art Museum, where Toedtemeier, a… Read More

Commentaires and Commentaires 2 assemble Chris Marker's early film commentaries in written form. Together they comprise nine commentaries from Les statues meurent aussi (1953), to Si j'avais quatre dromadaires (1966). When the first Commentaires was published in 1961, two of Marker's films included in the book had been censored and were not allowed to be shown in French cinemas: Les statues meurent aussi, because of its critical stance towards the damaging cultural impact of colonialism, and Cuba Si! (1961) because of its sympathy for Castro and the revolution.
A real pleasure are the commentaries L'Amérique rêve (1959) in Commentaires and Soy Mexico (1965) in Commentaires 2, which Chris Marker called his imaginary films. Both exist only in these books and are accompanied by fantastic images.
The dynamic layout, set by Chris Marker and Juliette Caputo, treats images and text as equally important. According to Rick Poynor, Commentaires are not only of interest in terms of film history, but also… Read More

1/1/1937. Hardcover. 1st printing; inscribed by Margaret Bourke-White on half title; no dust jacket; tan cloth covers with title in red box on cover and spine; covers soiled and scuffed; hinges weak; endpapers foxed; text clean. G

Denver: Louthan Book Company, 1904. 1st. Paperback. Fine. With illustrations. Preface by John Coble. Bound in original pictorial wraps. Adams Six-Guns 1033. Adams Herd 1066.

London: Akfred W. Bennett, 1866. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Good/No Jacket. Ernest Edwards. FIRST EDITION 1866. Original blue pebbled cloth, AEG, gilt lettering front cover & spine, gilt decoration of box camera and ice-axe on front cover, gilt title frame front, gilt rules spine ends, debossed triple borders front & rear covers. Diffuse grubbiness covers, rubbed spine ends and corners, no owner writing or marks on any pages, solid binding, paper cracked inside hinges but hinges strong and not broken (mess is solid and tight), some foxing in places but considerably less than what is frequently found for this book. The book measures 275mm tall x 215mm, and has 243 pages, 28 b/w photos, map. This is probably the earliest mountaineering book to use photographs as illustrations. Account of the author's excursion to Bernese Oberland with the purpose of photographing the mountains and the climbing. The group was comprised of 5 men and 4 women, plus the famous guide Christian Almer,… Read More

Westminster London: Archibald Constable and Co, 1900. First Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. vittorio sella. FIRST PRINTING of First UK Edition. Rebound in green cloth to resemble the original binding with original front cover title patch cleanly mounted in original position on front cover and original spine patches similarly mounted. Overall nice condition. Tight binding with no loose pages (the text block has been sewn into page gatherings = the stitching shows at the start/end of each gathering --> see photo). Gift inscription on front pastedown. No other former owner writing or marks in book. Based on the inscription, this book was given to Smoke Blanchard prior to his 1964 expedition to Mt St Elias, possibly by Vin Hoeman, beloved climber & mountaineering historian who perished in an avalanche on the 1969 Dhaulagiri expedition along with 6 others, though the "Love Always" seems a bit melodramatic. Smoke Blanchard's St Elias expedition was a 4-man… Read More

Map Details and Condition:
color lithograph
dimensions: 26 3/4" x 19"
Brown Paper pocket covers with red bookstore label of Neal Stratford & Kerr, San Francisco
condition: professionally flattened and otherwise in as found, very good conditionDescription:
This 1914 map of now popular wine country Napa County, California shows the county in 1914, with early roads, largely undeveloped, vast open land areas, and natural features. The numbered grid system on this map reflects the Public Land Survey System. Large open tracts of land are identified as ranches, such as Rancho Catacoula, or Rancho Las Putas, Rancho LaJota all of which are large swaths of undivided land. Urban grids are shown in the southernmost part of Napa County, and sections of the southernmost sections of Sonoma County and Solano County. The cities of Petaluma, Sonoma, Vallejo and Napa and Benicia show populated urban areas. A corner of Marin County is shown.
C.F. Weber & Co. and the Punnett Brothers published… Read More

[Félix Díaz] José Guadalupe Posada. El Ejército Triunfante. Mexico: [Antonio Vanegas Arroyo]. [1913-14?] One sheet printed on pink paper. 30 x 40 cm. Edge wear and corner folds not affecting text or image.
OCLC shows one holding of this broadside. (Ibero-Ameri. Inst.) Anti-Maduro, pro-Felix Díaz tract. Illustrated with a portrait of General Felix Díaz. Lists Arroyo's address: Imprenta 2a. de la Penitenciaría Número 29. Felix was the nephew of Porfirio Díaz. When Porfirio Díaz was forced into exile by revolutionary forces in May 1911, most of his family went with him. Félix stayed in Mexico. In October 1912, he rose in an unsuccessful revolt against Madero, but was jailed and sentenced to death for treason. Madero commuted the sentence and he escaped from prison during La Decena Trágica ("Ten Tragic Days"), the coup against Madero led by General Victoriano Huerta in February 1913. Díaz held out in the downtown military arsenal of the Ciudadela, bombarding federal targets and the… Read More