Rare books from ZH BOOKS

London: Freemantle & Co. / Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1900. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. First American edition, n. d. [1900]; 6" x 8"; pp. [4], v-xvii, [1], 1-464; pictorial cloth over boards; deckled fore-edge; gilt top edge; minor fading to boards; a bit of rubbing to tips of spine (small closed cut to bottom edge); slight vertical line through front cover; pages mostly very clean with a few faint spots of foxing limited to first and last several pages; illustrated with color fronts and 100 b & w full-page illustrations; in very good condition. "A New Translation by Mrs. Edgar Lucas." A scarce copy of the original Rackham-illustrated "Grimm's Fairy Tales," it brought Arthur Rackham his enormous fame and prompted the publishing of the 1909 deluxe signed edition. The great illustrator himself pointed out in the 1909 edition's prefatory note: "Some years ago a selection of "Grimm's Fairy Tales" with one hundred… Read More

Paris [presumably], 1660. Soft cover. Very Good. First edition (c1660); platemark: 4 3/16" x 7", sheet: approx. 4 1/2" x 7 1/2". Etched signature in lower left corner of plate: AB. Flamen. fe., lower right corner of plate: Cum privil. Regis XII. Minor foxing to lower margin; small light spot to lower right corner of sheet; very good or better. Albert Flamen was a Flemish etcher, engraver, and painter - active in France in the mid-1600s. Most of his works consisted of series of fish, including the current "Brill" one, birds, and mammals. He also created a set of moralizing emblems (1672) - one of his very few dated works. One copy of the etching located at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Glasgow: Printed for the Booksellers, 1793. Hardcover. First edition thus (first separate publication); 12mo (3 1/2 x 5); pp. [2], 3-128; lacking first and last blank leaves else complete (collated); contemporary roan; closed cut to head of spine; few scratches and rubbed spots to covers; corners show some wear; uniform age-toning to pages; text clean; overall in very good condition.In 1688, at his death, John Bunyan left his widowed wife the manuscripts for 12 works never published in his lifetime. She kept them until 1691 when, in turn, the writings were entrusted to Charles Doe - a bookseller and Bunyan's friend and editor. One of the manuscripts was that of 'Christ a Complete Saviour.' In 1692, "Doe's Folio" was published in collaboration with publisher William Marshall - containing the 12 unknown works together with 10 other titles which had appeared in earlier editions. The fact that the collection was published in folio was quite unusual and astonishing since… Read More

St. Petersburg: Tipografiia P. O. Panteleeva (Pechatano po Rasporiazheniiu Voennago Ministerstva), 1902. Softcover. First edition, 1 of 3300 copies; 9 x 11; pp. I-XI, [1], 1-679; wraps illustrated in gilt, red, and black by graphic artist Nikolai Samokish (1860 - 1944); stitching perished, gatherings mostly intact; wraps detached with some loss of paper to margins (more pronounced on back wrap); text clean; foxing mostly to tissue guards covering illustrations; numerous plates, diagrams, and colored maps (some large fold-out); good.An ambitious and massive undertaking, the book was published in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Russian Ministry of War. Created in 1802 as the Ministry of Ground Armed Forces during the Government Reform of Alexander the First. It was renamed in 1815. In May of 1900, Emperor Nicholas the Second declared that a historical work should be written through documents from all the different departments of the ministry. It soon became… Read More

S. l.: By the artist, 1930. Softcover. Eighteen items; various sizes - 11" x 7 1/4" to 14" x 12"; drawings in pencil, ink, and water colors, on Strathmore Drawing boards, poster boards, and artist’ boards.; many of them signed and captioned, i. e. “Ballet Costume,” “Business Woman’s Suit,” etc.; most in near fine condition with minor wear, a few with light spotting and glue residue predominantly to verso; several of them feature fabric designs, rather than dress models; overall in very good to near fine condition. Housed in a colorful tapestry portfolio with four of boards not fitting properly within its margins, as they are a bit larger.A beautiful collection of dress and costume designs, it was, presumably, created by a fashion/graphic design student. While most of the drawings were decidedly Art Deco-inspired, several of the dresses were a bit more whimsical and softer in appearance. Although research has not revealed much about the… Read More

Moskau (Moscow): Universitats-Buchdruckerei (Katkoff & Co.), 1875. Hardcover. Very good. First edition; 9" x 6"; pp. [4], 1-122, [2] + a large, fold-out, chromolithographed map by V. Bakhman; full, embossed, brown morocco; gilt title to front board; gilt page edges; rubbed spots with small loss to tips of spine and edges; a minor nick to one of the folds on the map; very good condition. Signed and inscribed by the author to Russian nobleman and politician Count Mikhail Khristoforovich Reitern (Michael von Reutern) [1820 - 1890].Hermann Abich [1806 - 1886], known as the Father of Caucasian Geology, was born in Berlin in, then, Prussia. He was the grandson of famous German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth [1743 – 1817], who discovered uranium (1789), zirconium (1789), and cerium (1803) and the nephew of renowned ethnographer and orientalist Julius Klaproth [1783 - 1835], who instilled in Hermann an interest for the history and natural history of Caucasus. He… Read More

Zagreb: Tipografija D. D., 1925. Softcover. Lithographed poster, n. d. (ca 1925); 3 1/4 ft. x 6 1/2 ft.; three panels, attached at verso; folded; several closed cuts and splits to fold lines; a few small pieces of tape to verso and pin holes to corners; a bit of wear to edges; very good- condition.A massive and truly stunning piece by the Serbian pioneer of graphic design Dragutin Inkiostri-Medenjak, pseudonym for Karlo Inkiostri (1866 - 1942), one we have never seen before in the trade or at auction. Born in Belgrade, he traveled throughout the South Slavic countries, collecting and cataloging ethnic motifs and patterns and attempting to establish specific, national, decorative styles. He would also become a professor at the Arts and Crafts School in Belgrade in the early 1900s. After Austria-Hungary's invasion of Serbia in 1914, he would design numerous patriotic posters, for which he would be arrested and prosecuted. He would become known for his incredible frescoes and murals on historic… Read More

London: Printed by J. C. for Thomas Basset, at the George in Fleet Street, near Cliffords Inne, 1674. First Edition. Very good. First edition; 6 3/4 x 4; pp. [8], 1-250; 3/4 polished calf and marbled boards; rebacked; spine in 5 panels with raised bands and gilt decorations; engraved printer's device to title page verso; engraved vignette at beginning of first chapter; thin rubbed line along hinge of title page obscuring the first letter of the title; period brown-ink smudge and a small puncture to upper corner of title page; edges of first few leaves a bit brittle with several small nicks; two bookplates to endpapers - the first, that of Colonel Robert Coleman Hall Brock (1861 - 1906) - prominent lawyer, financier, and scientist; the second, that of Thomas Mitchell - possibly Lieutenant Colonel Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (1792 - 1855 ) - surveyor and explorer of south-eastern Australia; a third, period signature to bottom of last page; overall in very good condition.Called one of the… Read More

Washington DC: Published by Order of the Secretary of War, 1873. First Edition. Good. Six maps for: Monday, February 17, 1873 - 11 P. M.; Tuesday, February 18, 1873 - 7:35 A. M.; Tuesday, February 18, 1873 - 4:35 P. M.; Wednesday, February 19, 1873 - 7:35 A. M.; Wednesday, February 19, 1873 - 4:35 P. M.; Wednesday, February 19, 1873 - 11 P. M.; 8 3/4 x 11 1/2; relief shown by hachures and gradient tints; small reference table in the lower half of the image; edges brittle, with small chips and cuts; overall in good to very good condition.A scarce collection of maps, their publication began in January of 1871, with no less than 3 maps being published every day. Samuel Morse's invention of the telegraph had made it possible to easily observe, gather, and transmit data from different points over the entire country. A small note at the head read: "All observations made at the same moment of actual (not local) time." Released by the US Army's Signal Service, the maps were intented… Read More

S. l. (St. Petersburg): M. V. Pirozhkova, 1905. First Edition. Very good. First edition, 1905 - 1906, nos. 1 to 14 (all published); 7 3/4 x 5 1/2; greenish-beige wraps, printed in black; most issues partially unopened; condition varies from good, foxing to wraps and a few small chips to edges, to very good or better, with light wear to edges and tips of spine; vol. 1, 7, 10 with manuscript numbers to front wrap and title page and/or stamps; vol. 4 and 14 rebound in boards and 1/4 leatherette, with the original wraps preserved; vol. 14 with three leaves towards the end with their margins clipped (only one affecting a small paragraph). A rare, complete run of the influential, albeit short-lived journal, it was published weekly and survived for just four months, before the Russian censorship shut it down. The editor, Petr Struve (1870 - 1944), was one of the brightest Russian philosophers and political economists of his time, starting out as a Marxist (his first book on Russia's economic… Read More

Moskva (Moscow): Moskovskoie Arkhitekturnoie Obshchestvo, 1923. Good. First editions, 1 of 2000 copies, issue1-2, bound with the wraps of issue 3-5 (publisher's error); rebound in (unfortunately-garish burgundy, green, and yellow) felt-over-boards, with the original wraps bound-in; 12 1/2 x 10; pp. [1], 2-50 +14 pp. of publisher's advertisements; illustrated with numerous photographs and drawings; repair of 2"-loss of paper to fore-edge and very faint traces of erased pencil notes to front wrap; back hinge and gutter between pp. 6 and 7 of the advertisements reinforced with more-recent strips of linen; in about good to very good condition.With an introductory article by Aleksei Shchusev, "Arkhitektura" would be the first architectural magazine in the Soviet Union. Shchusev (1873 - 1949) was a renowned Russian architect, said to have bridged the Russian Revival-style architecture of Imperial Russia and the Socialist Classicism-style under Stalin. He also thought at… Read More

London: Printed for Kingsbury, Parbury & Allen, 1824. Second Edition. Very good. Second edition; 8 1/2 x 5 1/2; pp. 580 and 547, respectively; rebound in brown cloth and 3/4 tooled morocco, with gilt title and initials and five raised bands to spine; illustrated with two large, fold-out maps (one of them hand-colored); ornate bookplates of the Oriental Club to front board verso (with a manuscript note in an unknown hand, stating that the volumes had been added to the library by the author); small, rubbed spots to corners; a bit of rubbing to edges; bottom of preface leaf in vol. I and pp. 1-2 in vol. II trimmed (not affecting text); closed splits to maps (no loss); overall in good to very good condition. Signed and inscribed by the author on the title page of vol. I (top edge of inscription slightly trimmed, while being rebound [?]).Major-General Sir John Malcolm (1769 - 1833) was a Scottish diplomat, historian, author, and soldier. First serving in the East India Company's Madras Army… Read More

S. l. (United States, possibly Pennsylvania): s. n., 1750. Good. Broadside, n. d. (after 1745); 18 x 14 1/2; laid paper, printed in black in five columns; moderate darkening and a few small spots; creases, with small punctures at intersecting lines; several nicks to edges, only one of them affecting a few words in the last three lines; a small piece of tape to verso; in good condition.A rare, 18th-century Danish-American broadside, it outlined the descendants of (presumably) King Christian I of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden through the royal houses of Europe. He was the first king of the House of Oldenburg and the dynasty he founded remains on the throne in Denmark. Although anonymous, according to Christian Bruun's "Systematic list of Danish literature from 1482 to 1830, after the collections in the Great Royal Library in Copenhagen...", the document was printed in the United States. (Bruun, C. (1902). Bibliotheca danica: Systematisk fortegnelse over den danske literatur fra 1482… Read More

Niu Iork (New York): Colonial Printing and Publishing Co., 1943. First Edition. Very good. First edition; 8 1/4 x 5 3/4; pp. [2], 5-95, [1]; textured red wraps, printed in black; light fading to margins; a few small cuts to edges; short, closed split to tail of spine; overall in very good condition. Signed, inscribed, and dated by the author on a tipped-in square on ffep to Russian-American aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky (1889 - 1972): "1943. VII. 1 / To my gracious neighbor Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky, in memory of enlightenment, from the sinful and humble Iliodor. / New York." Also included is an unused, laid-in sheet of Sikorsky's personal stationary.Hieromonk Iliodor, nee Sergei Trufanov (1880 - 1952) was a highly-controversial figure of the Russian Orthodox Church, a lapsed priest, an ardent panslavist, and actor. Founding the Holy Spirit Monastery in 1909, Iliodor would repeatedly shock and outrage the Russian aristocracy and the Holy Synod by verbally insulting the authority of… Read More

S. l. : s. n., 1848. Very good. Broadside; 12 1/4 x 7 1/2; illustrated with a lithographed half-portrait of George Washington at center, with the facsimile of his signature below; text in four columns; three old, horizontal fold lines with short, closed splits to edges; two small chips to right edge; a few minor spots of foxing, mostly to verso; overall in very good condition.Called one of the rarest George Washington portraits by bookseller, cataloger, auctioneer, and leading authority on Washingtoniana Stanislaus Vincent Henkels (1854 - 1926) and one of the first records of Congressman and future President Abraham Lincoln’s social life, the broadside presented an invitation to the National Birth-Night Ball of February 22, 1848, which was to be held under the patronage of four former- and current- First Ladies and 104 managers - representatives from various states. Due to tragic circumstances, namely former President John Quincy Adams' having a stroke on February 21 and his death two… Read More