New York Books

The Jay Hoffman Collection of United States Stamps: Sale 956, Thursday & Friday, May 8-9, 2008, by Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc. One of the most important collections to c...

Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes by Stephen Sondheim (March 22, 1930 -November 26, 2021). Published by Knopf, 2010. Hardcover with dust jacket. The winner of seven Tonys, an Academy Award, seven Grammys, a Pulitzer Prize and more, Stephen Sondheim's career has spanned more than half a century; his lyrics have become synonymous with musical theater and popular culture. In Finishing the Hat--titled after perhaps his most autobiographical song, from Sunday in the Park with George, Sondheim has not only collected his lyrics for the first time, he is giving readers a rare personal look into his life as well as his remarkable productions. Along with the lyrics for all of his musicals from 1954 to 1981 including: West Side Story, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd, Sondheim treats us to never-before-published songs from each show, songs that were cut or discarded before seeing the light of day. He discusses his relationship with his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein II, and his collaborations with extraordinary talents such as: Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents, Ethel Merman, Richard Rodgers...

Pisanello, Painter to the Renaissance Court by Luke Syson and Dillian Gordon. London: National Gallery Company, 2001. First edition hardcover with dust jacket. 264 pp. A book on the works of Pisanello by London's National Gallery to accompany the exhibition. Pisanello (1395-1455) was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance. He is known for his amazing large murals, elegant portraits, small easel...

Christie's: Fine and Decorative Arts: The Maurice & Margo Cohen Collection. Important 20th Century Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture, New York, May 1999. 194 pp., illus. Works by Otto ...

Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1998. Second printing hardcover with dust jacket. 255 pp. An important book published by the United States Ho...

The Grandeur of Viceregal Mexico; Treasures from the Museo Franz Mayer. Houston: The Museum of Fine Arts, 2002. First edition hardcover with dust jacket. Spanish and English text. 36...

The Cyril Humphris Collection of European sculpture and Works of Art, Part I and II. Tuesday, January 10, 1995. Sotheby's New York. Sotheby's, Humphris, the London dealer...

Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns by Stacey Sell, Hugo Chapman and Kimberly Schenck. With gift card from the curator at National Gallery of Art, Washington. Publis...

Set of Three 18th Century Vellum Sunday Sermon Books. 1.) Sermoni Per Tutte Le Domeniche Dell' Anno (Sermons for all the Sundays in a Year) by Monsignore Alfonso Maria De Liguori. Na...

Andoversford: Whittington Press, 1985. First Edition. Imperial Octavo, 10 3/8 x 7 3/8 inches (265 x 190 mm); xvi + 44 + 4; Limited edition of 335, of which 35 bound in leather; this copy is Number XXVIII and SIGNED BY THE ARTIST below the colophon. Quarter-bound by Smith Settle in tan goatskin, gilt spine titling, dark and light brown and orange on mid-brown Whittington marbled paper-covered boards by Colleen Gryspeerdt. Headbands, top edge brown, rest uncut; Colorplan Bagdad Brown endpapers. Printed in black, the title-page in black and red, and the captions in grey, hand-set in 12-point Bell; Zerkall smooth white wove and Zerkall Silurian papers; 52 wood-engravings and a line-block reproduction of an engraving by Gwenda Morgan...

Skelton, John The Tunning of Elinor Rumming, a Poem London: Printed for Isaac Dalton, and sold by W. Boreham at the Angel in Pater-Noster-Row, 1718. Second Edition. Octavo, 7 5/8 x 4 5/8 in. (194 x 117 mm). pp. [8], 31, [1]. From the title page: by Skelton Laureat. Original unbound, rebound in modern pink paper over boards, leather spine label with gilt title. Some toning to last few leaves.boards All text is legible, some spot tanning throughout. In near fine condition. Rare. [ESTC N46064 ] ESTC shows two U.S. copies only: Henry E. Huntington Library and Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library; and two British Isles copies only: Oxford University Bodleian Library (both copies). This poem was printed multiple times in the 16th century, including by William Caxton's successor, Wynken de Worde. Rare as a separate volume. John Skelton (c.1463 - 1529) was a remarkable, unusual poet and priest, who had been the tutor of the Tudors, Prince Arthur...

Sotheby's: The Estate of Peter Jay Sharp, Thursday January 13 1994. 1st Ed hardcover auction catalog with dust jacket. Richly illustrated with full-color lithographic reproductions a...

Jimmy DeSana: Submission, Exhibition by The Brooklyn Museum 11/22-4/23. 1st Ed hardcover published by DelMonico Books and The Brooklyn Museum, 2022. immy DeSana: Submission is the first museum survey of work by a significant yet overlooked figure in the histories of photography, New York City, and LGBTQ artists. From his time photographing suburban landscapes in Atlanta, Georgia, to his role in the New York punk scenes, Jimmy DeSana (American, 1949–1990) conveyed the radical spirit of his era through an irreverent critique of the American Dream and its images. The exhibition traces his brief yet prolific career through nearly two hundred works on view (some for the first time) and over twenty years that bridged mail-art networks, New York’s 1970s and ’80s subcultures, the illuminating image-play of the “Pictures Generation,” and various responses to HIV/AIDS. As part of punk aesthetics and its symbolic forms of resistance, DeSana and his peers sought to forge art communities outside of official institutions. The exhibition showcased his extensive involvement in zines, artist collectives, performance art, experimental film, and club culture. In his major series—101 Nudes (1972), Submission (1977–79), and Suburban (1979–84)—DeSana photographed himself and friends (often nude and faceless) in and around bland suburban homes, creating an interplay among sexual liberation, queer aesthetics, and consumerist conformity. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, DeSana was heavily involved in New York’s punk and No Wave scenes and photographed prominent creatives for album covers and alternative publications. This exhibition will be the first to feature his portraits of art and music luminaries such as Kathy Acker, Laurie Anderson, Kenneth Anger, Patti Astor, David Byrne, John Giorno, Debbie Harry, and Richard Hell. Accompanying these works are DeSana’s more abstract efforts from the late 1980s, after he contracted HIV, that show an artist who resisted dominant narratives about the body and sexuality in the early years of the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic. Some graphic nudes...

The Best of Aubrey Beardsley by Kenneth Clark. New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1978. 1st Ed hardcover with dust jacket. 173 pp. An overview of Aub...

"One of the most engaging and ingenious mysteries of its age" (P.D. James) Philadelphia - New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1946. First American Edition, 1st Printing. 8vo, 7 3/...

Wallace Collection Catalogues. Furniture. Text with Historical Notes and Illustrations by F.J.B. Watson. 1s Ed hardcover Published by William Clowes for the Trustees Wallace Collecti...

Deliverance by James Dickey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1970. Stated first edition hardcover with dust jacket. Deliverance is widely considered as Dickey's best novel and was ...

Sotheby's: Jewelry From John Traina Collection Auction Catalog 2011. 1st Ed softcover catalog. 92 lots. All lots described and illustrated in color. With an Index of Jewelry Makers. Consisting of cufflinks, men's jeweled dress...

The Art Collection of the Late Mr and Mrs Charles E. F. McCann, Together With Property from The Daniel & Florence Guggenheim Foundation, Parke-Bernet Galleries. 91 lots some photogra...

Christie's Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Silver & Chinese Export, Date - 19th - 23rd January 2012, No. of lots - 447, No. of pages - 326, Illustrated in color. NPT Books,...

London: Faber & Faber, 1930 First Edition. 8vo, 7 5/8 x 5 inches (192 x127 mm); 21 pp. Brown cloth boards stamped in gold on front cover and on spine; t.e.g., others untrimmed. Dust...

A collection of the Sporting Novels; Handley Cross; or Mr. Jerrocks's Hunt; Hawbuck Grange or The Sporting Adventures of Thomas Scott, Esq.; Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour; Ask Mamma or ...

Victorian Clocks by Richard Good. 1st Ed hardcover with dust jacket. In this fascinating and fully-illustrated book Richard Good examines, in detail, over 140 examples of the differe...

Surrealist Art, The Lindy and Edwin Bergman collection. Chicago: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Stated first edition softcover. 245 pp. A comprehensive overview of Surrealist art from one ...

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1920 First American Edition, 1st Printing. 8vo, 7 1/2 x 5 inches (190 x 127 mm); 63 pp. Ribbed tan paper boards stamped in brown on front cover. Top edges...

The Jingguantang Collection Part III fine and important Chinese ceramics and Works of Art, Christie’s; New York September 18, 1997. First edition soft...

Sotheby's: The West Wycombe Park Sale June 1998.First Edition softcover with 1442 lots photographed in color and fully described, with results. This house was the site of some filming of Downtown Abbey...

Delhi: Stones And Streets by C.S.H. Jhabvala. Published by Ravi Dayal, Delhi, 1990. 2nd Ed Signed hardcover with dust jacket. Professor Cyrus S.H. Jhabvala was a prominent Indian arc...

Sixty Years A Queen: The Story Of Her Majesty's Reign by Sir Herbert Maxwell. Published in London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1897. 1st Ed hardcover, wit...

Sotheby's Art at Auction 1992-93: The Art Market Review. Published by Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications. 1st Ed hardcover with dust jacket. Highlights: ...

Rings for the Finger by George Frederick Kunz. Softcover, Published by Dover, New York, 1974. There is probably no item that is so common to almost all cultures and ages of man, yet so frequently overlooked, as rings. Nearly everyone wears (or has worn) rings; yet what person today could tell you anything about their origins, original uses, history, or even the customs behind modern engagement, wedding, and graduation rings...

The Hardy Collection of Early Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art From the Sze Yuan Tang: Sale #8218, with original printed invitation. Christie's New Y...

A SPLENDID DEPICTION of REGENCY LONDON Papworth, John Buonarotti Select Views of London: With Historical and Descriptive Sketches of Some of the Most Interesting of Its Public Build...

Anatomia Come Arte (Anatomy as Art) by Mario Bucci. Florence: The Fiorino Art Edition, 1969. Second edition hardcover with dust jacket, Italian text. 291 pp. A handsome art book illu...

Gauguin book by The Metropolitan Museum of art published in conjunction with the 2002 exhibition "Gauguin in New York Collections: The Lure of the Exotic". Softcover. Text in English...

London: Printed for the Company of Stationers, 1782. 64mo, 1 1/4 x 1 3/8 in. (57 x 33 mm), 24pp. Original cream morocco elaborately gilt and with decorative morocco inlays in red, w...

The Grosvenor House Antiques Fair, 1991, by Trusthouse Forte PLC. Published by , The Burlington Magazine, 1991. 1st Ed hardcover with gilt edged pages....

A RARE EARLY EDITION OF AESOPIC LITERATURE, BEAUTIFULLY ILLLUSTRATED. Les Fables d'Esope Phrigien avec celles de Philelphe; traduction nouvelle, Enrichie de Discours Moraux et Histor...

Waltham Saint Lawrence: Golden Cockerel Press, 1934. Limited Edition. Slim 8vo; 8 3/4 x 4 1/2 in. (224 x 112 mm); (vi),16 pp., (vi); printed on Arnold paper, in black ink using Eri...

Davenport's Art Reference & Price Guide 2 Volume Set by R. J. Davenport. 1st Ed hardcover. 1st Ed hardcover no dust jackets as issued. The comprehensive and authoritative book on int...

Industrial Art and the Museum by Charles R. Richards. 1st Ed hardcover published by The Macmillan Company, 1927. Including: Industrial Art Museums of Germany (München, Hess. Landesmu...

A celebration of the 150th anniversary of one of the finest and most recognisable lighting companies, Louis Poulsen Founded in Denmark in 1874 by Ludvig Raymond Poulsen, the origina...

The Golden Cockerel Press, 1937. Illustrations by Dorothea Braby. FIRST, LIMITED EDITION 8vo.; 8 1/2 x 6 1/4 in. (226 x 160 mm); 63 pp.; 14 pt. Perpetual type; four wood-engravings ...

Bloomsbury: The Nonesuch Press, 1927-1928 4 volumes, 4to; 10 1/8 x 7 1/2 inches (258 x 190 mm); pp. vol. 1, [4] xliv, 239 [1]; vol. 2, [10] 257 [5]; vol. 3, [10] 290 [4]; vol. 4, [4]...

Verona: Officina Bodoni, 1941. Limited Edition. Vellum. Octavo, 9 7/8 x 6 3/4 inches (250 x 170 mm); title page vignette etched by Mario Vellani-Marchi with a couple of small spots,...

Early American Bottles & Flasks and Other Rare American Glass Collected by the Late Alfred B. Maclay. Parke-Bernet NY softcover auction catalog....

Sulphides The Art of Cameo Incrustation by Paul Jokelson. New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1968. Limited Edition, 182/1000, signed. Hardcover with slipcase. Black pebbled leather with...

Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Rivals in Renaissance Venice. Published by Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 2009. Stated 1st Ed hardcover with dust jacket....

Subversion and Surrealism in the Art of Honoré Sharrer by M Melissa Wolfe, Sarah Burns and Robert Cozzolino. 1st Ed hardcover with dust jacket. Yale Univer...

Wallace Nutting General Catalogue, Supreme Edition. Exton: Schiffer Limited, 1977. A reprinted edition soft cover. A catalogue of Wallace Nutting's furniture originally published in ...

A decade’s worth of spectacular works by renowned glass artist Jeff Zimmerman, a maker at the height of his creative power Covering the most creative period of this premier glass ar...

This is a RARE first limited edition of Watson's poems, printed on deluxe japon and bound in vellum. Unwin's Cameo series of poetry was a distinctively packaged sequence of books tha...

Elegant And Welcoming Houses In Bucolic Settings By Charles Hilton, A Leading Traditional Architect In Greenwich. This book presents nine spectacular houses, each responding to an e...

Rare first issue of the first edition for Bernard Shaw’s first published novel. Shaw, George Bernard. An Unsocial Socialist. London: Swan Sonnenschein, Lowery & Co., 1887. First Edition, First Issue. Crown 8vo, 7 3/8 x 5 inches (188 x 126 mm); [4] 256 pp.; original red cloth, stamped in gilt on spine and covers, a little rubbed and soiled, spine slightly faded, hinges weak; dark brown endpapers; foxing on first 2 and last 2 sheets. First edition, first issue with "Author of The Confessions of Byron Cashel's Profession etc. etc." to title and no appendix. Ink inscription of Mrs Walter Crane on half title. [Broad, p. 87; Magill p. 965] This is Shaw's first published novel. It had been serialized in "To-Day, A Monthly Magazine of Scientific Socialism" between March and December of 1884. This printing was promptly canceled, and supposedly only samples for booksellers and travelers had been sent out with this title-page. Having attended a meeting by political economist Henry George in September 1882, Shaw became fascinated with Socialism, read Marx and became a member of the Fabian Society in September 1884, writing their first manifesto later that year. He believed in a more moderate, non-violent form of socialism and believed that socialist ideals could best be achieved by infiltration of people and ideas into existing political parties. In the early 1880s Shaw also began his literary career by writing music and art criticism and began writing novels, of which An Unsocial Socialist was the first published. But as his career as a playwright started taking off in the latter part of that decade, his political activities also decreased. Shaw later explained that he had intended An Unsocial Socialist as the first section of a monumental depiction of the downfall of capitalism. Gareth Griffith, in a study of Shaw's political thought, sees the novel as an interesting record of conditions, both in society at large and in the nascent socialist movement of the 1880s. [Griffith, Gareth. Socialism and Superior Brains: The Political Thought of George Bernard Shaw. London: Routledge, 1993]. The story centers on Sidney Trefusis, a millionaire socialist, who leaves his bride on their wedding day because he fears his passion for her will get in the way of his plans to overthrow the British government. Sidney vanished "underground"--Disguises himself as a common laborer called "Mengels"--and infiltrates Alton College, a girl's school where well-bred young women are "fitted and fatted to be put on the marriage market". His plan: take over the school and plant the seed of radical socialism into the fertile brains of the future consorts of cabinet ministers and kings. What he doesn't plan on is the presence of one Agatha Wylie, a sixth-form rabble-rouser, who falls hopelessly in love with both Sidney and his politics, and just happens to be his deserted wife's cousin. Love triangles, mistaken identities, Marx, Engels, pistols and the proletariat jostle for position. (via LibraryThing) An unusual ASSOCIATION COPY with ink inscription and address of "Mrs Walter Crane" [ie Mary Crane] on the half title. Walter Crane married Mary Andrews in 1871 and after a sojourn in Rome returned to London in 1873 living first in Wood End and then at Beaumont Lodge, Shepherd's Bush (the address she has written in this book). In 1914 Mary...

Small Houses: Contemporary Residential Architecture by Nicholas Pople. Universe Publishing, 2003. Paperback. Small houses are no longer thought of as cheap...

Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and the Biosphere by Caroline A Jones (Editor), Natalie Bell (Editor), and Selby Nimrod (Editor). 2022, MIT Press softcover 1st Ed. "Essays, conversat...

Industrial Sublime: Modernism and the Transformation of New York's Rivers, 1900-1940 by Kristen M. Jensen, Bartholomew F. Bland, Katherine E. Manthorne, Wendy Greenhouse, and Ellen E. Roberts. Fordham University Press, 2013. 1st Ed softcover. Co-published with the Hudson River Museum, Yonkers. The exhibition ran from October 12, 2013, through January 17, 2014. It was not until the first decade of the 20th century, as artists like Robert Henri and John Sloan turned their attention to the urban scene, that American art shifted its focus from bucolic landscapes to the cities, the towns, the crowds, especially the raucous urban scene of Manhattan, by then the nation's most important city. This movement away from painting the land to painting the life on the street is often seen as a clean break with the depiction of the landscape, and with landscape painting generally as a mainstay of American art in the face of European Modernism. However, artists continued to paint the Hudson River, as well as its tributaries, the Harlem and East rivers, and the great harbor of New York City. What was different was their approach. Giving way the romantic ideals of earlier painters, artists like Henri and Sloan, and later, Georgia O'Keeffe, George Ault, Edward Hopper, and Preston Dickinson...

Diane Arbus: Family Albums, by Anthony W. Lee and John Pultz. Yale University Press, 2003. Diane Arbus (1923-1971) is renowned for her provocative and unsettling portraits of modern ...

A collection of twelve stories by Mark Twain, translated into French and amusingly illustrated in color by Jean Trubert (1909 – 1983) a well known and prolific comic strip designer a...

Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion by Paul Grushkin & Dennis King. Published by Chronicle Books, 2004. Hardcover with dust jacket. Authoritative, eye-popping, and massive, Art of Modern Rock is the first and last word on contemporary concert posters. An art form that has grown hand-in-hand with the independent music scene, heralding small and large gigs alike, the posters have emerged from visually creative street-level notices to prized collectibles rendered in a variety of styles and media. Today's poster artists combine the expressive freedom pioneered in the poster revolution...