Seven scrolls (each 182 mm. high, lengths varying from 1950 to 5495 mm., including front endpapers), all with inner sides of endpapers with speckles of gold, silk brocade on outside, reverse sides with gold speckles, five of the seven with a surviving gold-paper label on outside with rather fanciful manuscript titles. [Japan]: “copied March 1819.”

Shinkage-ryū 新陰流, “new shadow school,” is one of the oldest traditional schools of Japanese martial arts, founded in the mid-16th century by Kamiizumi Ise-no-Kami Fujiwara-no-Hidetsuna (later, Kamiizumi Ise-no-Kami Nobutsuna 上泉 伊勢守 信綱, 1508-78). Shinkage-ryū is primarily a school of swordsmanship (kenjutsu) and is... More

39 fine double-page landscape paintings. 40 folding leaves. Small 4to (265 x 190 mm.), in orihon (accordion) format, orig. boards. [Japan]: on final opening (in trans.): “Copied in the summer of 1833 by [last name indecipherable] Hairi, a resident of Washu sakurai [part of today’s Nara].”

There are nearly 900 Imperial tombs in 457 locations in Japan, ranging from simple burial mounds to cemeteries to small temples. This manuscript contains landscape images of a selection of 34 Imperial burial sites, along with four famous landscapes and one ancient imperial residence area, all located in Yamato Province (today’s Nara... More

Square poster (500 x 478 mm.), silkscreened. Bremerhaven: 1973.

Rare poster produced by gallerist Jürgen Wesseler (1938-2023) for Rückriem’s second exhibition at the Kabinett für aktuelle Kunst in Bremerhaven. In fine condition.

❧ E. Kleimann, ed., 50 Jahre Avantgarde: Das Kabinett für aktuelle Kunst Bremerhaven (2018), p. 26 (no. 20). More

Woodcut printer’s device on title. 176 pp.; 120 pp.; 24 pp.; 103 pp., two blank leaves; 86 pp., one blank leaf; 60 pp.; 200 pp., two blank leaves. Seven parts bound in one vol. 12mo, early 19th-cent. diced calf, signed on spine “Rel. P Bozerian Jeune,” flat spine richly gilt, gilt fillets round sides, a.e.g. Amsterdam: D. Elzevier, 1674.

A fine copy of by far the most important bookseller’s catalogue of the 17th century, listing on 736 pages upwards of 20,000 titles.

“It is divided into seven parts: theology, law, medicine, books on ‘miscellaneous’ subjects, books in French, in Italian... More

A total of 17 panels with color-printed woodcuts (one double-page & one four panels wide). Oblong 12mo (70 x 84 mm.), orig. wooden boards, orig. purple silk title label (but no title!) on upper cover. [Japan]: late 19th century.

A very rare kind of shunga, this is an example of a mitate, an “appropriation of a classical source…then used to portray the modern, urban demi-monde.”–C. Andrew Gerstle, “Shunga and Parody” in Timothy Clark et al., eds., Shunga. Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art (British Museum: 2013), p. 335.

In this shunga, the appropriation is the tea ceremony. The... More

Numerous fine and highly detailed full-page woodcut illus. in the text. 100 folding leaves. Five parts in two vols. 8vo, orig. yellow patterned wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. N.p.: Preface dated 1829, [published 1830].

A very fine set; this edition is rare, with no copy located by WorldCat in North America. Ozeki (1781-1845), a fiefdom lord of Kurobanehan in today’s Tochigi Prefecture, was particularly interested in technology and science. He was active as an innovator in developing the agricultural and industrial activities of his region. After his retirement, he moved to Edo and... More

Elblag, Poland: [1977].

Interesting mailing from Petasz (b. 1951) sent to California artist Polly Esther Nation. Near fine. More

Artist-made envelope & collage. Elblag, Poland: [ca. 1985].

A beautifully crafted envelope, made of handmade paper, and collage assembled by mail artist Pawel Petasz (b. 1951). In fine condition. More

Elblag, Poland: [1980].

The mailed invitation to submit artpieces to an exhibition at Stempelplaats under the theme “The Intellectual Benefits of Art.” With an illustrated sheet advertising Art Theory Series No. 2: Ten Theses. Near fine. More

Stamped & printed illus. throughout. [26] pp. 8vo, printed wrappers, staple-bound. Elblag, Poland: Self-published, [1980].

The only copy of this artist’s periodical by Pawel Petasz (b. 1951). “The magazine consists of pages used for probation of stamps with addition of commercial & official stamps examples, also stamps by famous artists cut out from envelopes in beautiful compositions and other rubbish…appears irregularly in edition of one copy.”

Near fine; last few collaged leaves loose. With an invitation to participate in commonpress 34 and the artist’s stamped envelope, mailed to artist Polly Esther Nation. More

89 folding leaves. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [China]: [Privately Printed] by Xushou tang Wang shi 虛受堂王氏 1872.

First edition of this philological work on a corpus of so-called yue fu 樂府, or “Music Bureau poems.” Yue fu “originally referred to the Music Bureau founded in 117 B.C.” Music Bureau poems “also designated…poems commissioned for ritual purposes, poems selected to be set to music, or simply anonymous folksongs collected by the bureau from provincial regions as a way of gauging the common people’s reactions to the central government. In time, the term yüeh-fu [yue fu] was extended to... More

Eight vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [China]: 1853.

Rare copy of a commercial edition of a historiographical work. The “twenty-two histories” of the title refer to the so-called dynastic or standard histories (zhengshi 正史), a retrospective bibliographical category encompassing books written between the early first century CE and the Mingshi 明史 [History of the Ming] from the 18th century. Both the scope and the format of the histories made them inaccessible to readers into the late imperial period, which motivated commercial abridgments such as our book. “Despite the much greater availability of the Histories during and after... More