Rare books from Ars Libri Ltd

N.p., [1929].. Original drawing in graphite on cream wove stock, signed “Crali” in ink at lower right. 116 x 134 mm. (4 5/16 x 5 1/4 inches). Tipped (at top two corners on the verso) onto a backing sheet. This drawing is quite evidently a preparatory study for Crali’s painting “Duello aereo” of 1929, a very important and early instance of aeropittura, dating from year of the initial aeropittura manifesto. Crali’s signature, which is in ballpoint, is in the style of his later years, and was probably added at a later date. Provenance: Collection Claudio Rebeschini; Collection Marco Viglino.

Hannover, [circa 1930].. Poster, printed in orange and black offset, with text and photomontage incorporating 14 photographic portraits. 625 x 338 mm. (ca. 24 3/4 x 15 1/4 inches), printed on coated card stock. Designed for the exhibition at the Handelsmuseum, Hannover. Schwitters himself is included at upper left, along with thirteen other designers affiliated with the Bund der Gebrauchsgraphiker. Schwitters was a founding member of the Ring ‘Neue Werbegestalter,’ having worked as a designer for the Pelikan firm earlier in the decade. In 1929, he was retained by the Magistrat of the city of Hannover to coordinate municipal typography and graphic design.  The poster is discussed in the Hannover Stadtbibliothek catalogue, “Der Typograph Kurt Schwitters” under the heading “Kurt Schwitters als Gebrauchs- und Werbegraphiker in Hannover”: “Um das optische Zentrum des Plakats (eine runde rote Scheibe mit dem Signet des Bundes des Gebrauchsgraphiker in der Mitte) sind Fotos Hannoverscher Graphiker… Read More

Paris, 1972.. [No. 1: all published.] (8)pp., including introduction by Goldschmidt. 20 signed and numbered contributions hors texte, including original gouaches, drawings, collages, and prints in various media (etching, woodcut, screenprint, lithography; some hand-colored), by Jean-Bernard Arkitu, Édouard Berreur, Gérard-Philippe Broutin, Françoise Canal, Jean-Paul Curtay, Myriam Darrell, Jean-Pierre Gillard, Micheline Hachette, François Poyet, Roland Sabatier, Jacques Spacagna, Jacqueline Tarkieltaub, Antoine Grimaud and Patrick Poulain; an original photocopy by Pierre Jouvet, two texts by Isidore Isou and Alain de Latour, and a superb mixed-media assemblage by Maurice Lemaître. Lrg. 4to. Publisher’s chartreuse silk box and chemise, hand-painted in gold on the front cover and spine. Contents loose, as issued. Edition limited to 50 hand-numbered copies, signed in the justification by the editors. Conceived as the first of a series of Lettrist portfolios, only this inaugural volume of… Read More

Spain, circa 1588.. Pen and ink, and brown wash, heightened with white, on 2 sheets of heavy blue paper, joined together by the artist. Sight: 493 x 402 mm. (ca. 19 3/8 x 15 3/4 inches). This is one of a well-known group of drawings for liturgical vestments, made by Spanish artists active at the Escorial between 1587 and 1598. Miguel Barroso (1538-1590), who trained with Gaspar Becerra, arrived at the Escorial in 1587, and worked there continuously for the rest of his career; he was named painter to Philip II in 1589. Along with his contributions to the frescos and altarpieces in the chief cloister, under the direction of Pellegrino Tibaldi, he is known to have worked as a draughtsman for embroideries of the vestments of the Monastery of El Escorial, and a number of drawings by him for these are conserved at the Library at the Escorial, bound together in a single folio. Priscilla E. Muller, reviewing the discussion of these in Angulo and Pérez Sánchez’s “Corpus of Spanish Drawings,” notes that… Read More

Paris (Firmin-Didot et Cie.), 1888.. 6 vols. 500 chromolithographic and tinted plates hors texte, each with multiple figs. Lrg. folio. Later cloth, 3/4 leather gilt. Raised bands. A.e.g. Housed in a custom built, glass-fronted freestanding oak bookcase. Vol. I consists mostly of explanatory text, with an introduction; Vols. II-VI each with 100 color plates, bound interspersed with pages of descriptive text, originally published in 20 fascicles 1877-1886. One of the most elaborate costume books ever produced, this edition is much less common than the smaller format which was published in the same year. A handsome set.

Berlin (J.M. Rüdiger), 1696.. (16), 145, (7)pp. Wood-engraved Chinese characters throughout. Culs-de-lampe, lettrines Lrg. 8vo. Contemporary blindstamped calf (rebacked utilizing the original backstrip). First edition and one of the few published works by the physician and botanist Christian Mentzel (1622-1701), one of the most famous Sinologists of his time. “Mentzels ‘Chronologia’ beruht auf der ‘Tabula chronologica’ seines zeitweiligen Mentors Phillippe Couplet, mit dem er während dessen Europaaufenthalts in Briefwechsel getreten war. Couplets Text ist gekürzt und mit Angaben aus Martini angereichert. Die chinesischen Zeichen sind jeweils hinzugesetzt, Mentzel selbst weist noch auf eine weitere Quelle hin, des ‘Xiaoer lun’ und die Geschichte des Gesprächs eines klugen Knaben mit Konfuzius. Die Herkunft einer Chronologie aus diesem kurzen ‘Kinderbuch’ hat bislang Unverständnis ausgelöst. Gemeint ist sicherlich eine Fibel des ‘zazzi’-Genres, wie sie auch in der Wolfenbüttler… Read More

San Francisco (Limestone Press), 1990.. 35 original etchings (18 signed, of which 16 with additions in color monotype). Printed on double-fold sheets. Folio. Cloth with supralibros title. Publisher’s fitted cloth clamshell case. Edition limited to 19 copies in all, signed and numbered by the artist in the colophon, printed on Rives 270 gm paper and bound by Klaus Rötzscher. This copy with a signed full-page pencil frontispiece drawing on the blank sheet facing the title, and with a loosely inserted double-sided sheet of rough sketches in pencil and paint, signed and dated Köln 86 on the verso (210 x 296 mm.; ca. 8 1/4 x 11 5/8 inches).

New Brunswick (Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions), 2008.. (30)pp., profusely augmented with overlays and collage elements in tissue and vellum, colored paper, colored string, cheesecloth, metal rods, and sculptural colored accretions in pulped paper and fabric. Exterior dimensions (including pipe-cleaner and paper protrusions and high-relief sculptural binding): ca. 18 x 14 x 8 inches (457 x 356 x 203 mm.) Sm. sq. folio. Edition limited to 10 copies, signed in pencil by John Yau and Richard Tuttle, beneath a hand-numbered tissue overlay. Text in letterpress and silkscreen. The spectacular high-relief binding construction--each cover rising at the center into a massive sculpture of a lizard with its young--was designed and fabricated by Lisa Switalski. A very fine copy.

San Francisco (Hine Editions/ Limestone Press), 1991.. 15ff., 11 softground etchings, each hand-colored by Tuttle. Folio. Full embossed cream pigskin. One of 80 copies signed and numbered by the artist, from the edition of 120 in all, printed in letterpress on uncut Somerset paper, and designed by Richard Tuttle and Hank Hine.

New York, 1940-1947.. Prof. illus. Format varies: Series I in tabloid folio; Series II in sm. 4to.; Series III-VII in lrg. 4to. Series I in self-wraps.; Series II-VII in dec. wraps. Special issues are devoted to Surrealism, Ernst, Tchelitchew/Tanguy, “Vertigo,” and Marcel Duchamp (designed by the artist). “Among the many literary and art reviews which sprang up in the United States during the last war, it was certainly ‘View’ which--although never in any way an ‘official’ organ of the movement--provides the most striking evidence of the gradual penetration of American intellectual life by the ideas and themes of Surrealism” (Marcel Jean). “When Breton reached New York, he found ‘View,’ an avant-garde literary magazine edited by Charles-Henri Ford, most sympathetic to the surrealists. One of its regular contributors, Nicolas Calas, in particular, was to become a close friend of Breton, and edited the special surrealist number October/November 1941, which contained an interview with… Read More

[Boston], 1895.. Monotype with pencil additions, on japon paper. Signed and dated at lower right, in the plate: M B Prendergast 1895. Image: 254 x 200 mm. (10 x 7 7/8 inches). Sheet size: 390 x 274 mm. (ca. 13 5/16 x 10 3/4 inches). Sight (as matted): 262 x 213 mm. (10 1/2 x 8 3/8 inches). Provenance: The artist; to Charles Prendergast, 1924; to Mrs. Charles Prendergast, 1948; gift of Mrs. Charles Prendergast to Peter A. Wick, 1960; by descent to the present owner, 1978.   Exhibited: Davis & Long Company: The Monotypes of Maurice Prendergast: A Loan Exhibition (New York, April 1979), no. 29.  "Picnic in the Park" is the second pull of the monotype "Spring in Franklin Park," one of the important group of Prendergast monotypes now in the collection of the Terra Museum of American Art. In her discussion of the latter, Cecily Langdale observes that "Picnic in the Park" shares with "Spring in Franklin Park" an exceptional color scheme. "'Picnic in Franklin Park' is notably strong in color (as, indeed,… Read More

Paris, 1868.. Graphite, black ink, and white gouache, on buff laid paper (watermark indistinct). 140 x 98 mm. (ca. 5 1/2 x 3 7/8 inches), slightly irregular. Signed in pencil at lower right: manet. Provenance: Sold by the artist to Alphonse Dumas; Hôtel Drouot, Sale April 1, 1942, lot 116 (sold for 4,600 francs by the expert Cailac, according to Guérin); bought by Viscount Alain de Léché; by whom sold to Gérard Cramer; Gérard Cramer, Genève, by whom sold to the father of the present owner July 6, 1951. Literature: De Leiris, Alain: The Drawings of Édouard Manet (Berkeley/Los Angeles, 1969), no. 228 ("Chats"); Rouart, Denis & Wildenstein, Daniel: Édouard Manet: Catalogue raisonné (Lausanne/Paris, 1976), Vol. II, p. 218, no. 618 (with illus.); cf. Guérin, Marcel: L'uvre gravé de Manet (Paris, 1944), no, 74 (with illus.); cf. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Édouard Manet 1832-1883. Catalogue by Anne Coffin Hanson (Philadelphia, 1966), no. 90 A preliminary design for the famous lithograph "Le… Read More

San Francisco (Arion Press), 1984.. (2), 27, (3)ff. All contents loose, as issued. 8 original prints hors texte, each signed and numbered in pencil, including 1 photograph by Richard Avedon (continuous-tone offset lithograph); 4 lithographs, of which 3 printed from the stone (Elaine de Kooning, Willem de Kooning, Jane Freilicher) and 1 from a metal plate (Alex Katz); 1 woodcut (Jim Dine); 1 softground etching with aquatint (R.B. Kitaj; printed by Aldo Crommelynck), 1 photogravure etching with hand-coloring (Larry Rivers; printed at Universal Limited Art Editions). Print and text dimensions: 450 mm. (ca. 17 3/4 inches) in diameter. 33-1/3 r.p.m. phonograph record of Ashbery reading the poem, in album with liner commentary by Helen Vendler. Title-page and record album both with reproductions of the Parmigianino self-portrait. Folio. Publishers polished steel canister, with inset convex mirror on the lid. Edition limited to 175 hand-numbered copies (25 hors de commerce), signed in the colophon by Andrew… Read More

Paris ([A l'Estampe originale), 1894].. 12pp., 9 full-page lithographs. 1 lithographic illus. in text. Printed on double-fold sheets. Sm. folio. Orig. wraps., secured with cord, as issued. Glassine d.j. New fitted cloth clamshell case. One of 240 copies in laid papier à dessin, signed and numbered in ink by Luce in the justification, from the limited edition of 250, “en vente à L’Estampe Originale.” The images are famous in the history of French anarchism, three of them depicting Félix Fénéon during his incarceration at Mazas. Presentation inscription from André Marty. A remarkable copy, accompanied by a fine original charcoal study by Luce for his full-length self-portrait in the book, leaning meditatively against the wall of his cell. 284 x 184 mm. (ca. 11 1 4/ x 7 14 inches), on buff laid paper (loosely inserted).

[Paris] (The Artist), 1894.. 8 original metal matrices for the prints (including variants). Together with this: Double proof suite of 7 original relief prints (glyptographies) on chine, each here in two states (one in orange, one in grey or grey-green), each initialled by the artist at lower right, loosely inserted in the artist’s illustrated chemise reprising the first plate in orange, here signed in full by the artist and dated “94” in pencil. Image: 140 x 88 mm. Cover 281 x 190 mm. 4to. New fitted cloth clamshell case. Maurice Dumont, etcher, painter, illustrator and editor of the journal 'L'Epreuve', which published numerous original lithographs by French symbolist artists, including Maurice Denis, Paul Gauguin, Pierre Bonnard and Eduard Vuillard, was a prolific printmaker in turn-of-the century Paris. He collaborated on various journals, and invented two engraving processes. This collection includes varaints for each of the prints  [“Il existe plusieurs essais ou variantes de couleurs… Read More