Imperial coat-of-arms vignette on title. xii, 28 pp. 8vo (215 x 132 mm.), late 19th-century blue sheep backed-marbled boards (upper & lower joints split but holding), title on spine. Paris: L’Auteur, 1809.

The large-paper version of this unusually finely printed auction catalogue detailing the personal collection of a history painter who was reçu by the Académie Royale in 1761. Belle (1722-1806), a pupil of François Lemoyne, worked at the Gobelins manufactory from 1755, where he adapted pictures by his contemporaries as well as his own designs into painted tapestry cartoons. His lengthy career saw him commissioned by the Comte d’Angiviller to design a tapestry... More

60 pp. & order form. 8vo, printed pictorial wrappers, staple-bound. Toronto: 1990.

A very scarce Art Metropole catalogue, this was the only one issued in 1990 dedicated to bookworks. It consists of an extensive selection of artists’ publications. We find newly published works, a Trade List, and the Catalogue No. 13 Backlist.

In fine & fresh condition. More

Parallel texts of Manchu & Chinese. Six vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers (some browning), orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. [Hubei?]: Zhu fang fan yi zong xue, 1890.

A reprint of the famous Manchu-Chinese edition commissioned and sponsored by the Emperor Qianlong, of The Four Books of Confucianism, which, together with The Five Classics, make up the basic canon of Confucianism. During the Ming and Qing dynasties The Four Books were made the core of the official curriculum for the civil service examinations.

An intellectual and ardent Confucian, Emperor Qianlong ordered standardized, fully annotated translations of The Four Books and... More

16 vols. in four publisher’s chitsu. 8vo, orig. wrappers (a few leaves with natural paper flaws touching text, several wrappers detached), orig. stitching. [Beijing]: 1851.

First edition of this important collection of classic Chinese prose translated into Manchu, with Chinese in parallel columns.

Nice set. The title-page of the first volume was never bound in. More

[97] folding leaves. Two parts in one vol. 8vo (248 x 163 mm.), early patterned orange semi-stiff Japanese wrappers, new stitching. [China: n.d. but perhaps early 18th century].

During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, a number of Chinese-Manchu dictionaries were published. This is a manuscript copy, on pre-printed paper, of a Chinese-Manchu vocabulary arranged by topic, and is closely related to other dictionaries of the Kangxi period. Printed editions seem to be held only at the BnF, the National Library of China in Beijing, and at Naikaku Bunko in Tokyo. The authorship is unknown.

Each page is divided in half. Within each half, there are five columns for Chinese words and, below, ten columns for their Manchu equivalents and a Chinese description. The manuscript copy has either been made from a copy with unclear print, or the copyist was not proficient in Manchu (some words do not appear correctly). More

Numerous woodcut illustrations in the text. Title-page, 31 folding leaves, one leaf of colophon. 8vo, orig. patterned blue semi-stiff wrappers, orig. block-printed title label on upper cover (label rubbed), new stitching. Tokyo, Kyoto, & Osaka: 1864.

First edition and rare. Imamura (1814-90), was a leading physician and historian of Japanese medicine of his period. Professor of medicine at Tokyo University, he was physician to the future Emperor Taisho when he was a youth.

Imamura found that many of the contemporary Japanese works on acupuncture had strayed from the classic teachings of the Chinese physicians. In this work, he makes a series of corrections... More

Three engraved plates. viii, 53 pp., [3] pages of schedule of sale. 8vo (201 x 125 mm.), gray modern cloth-backed marbled boards, title on spine. Paris: Delaroche, Billaudel & Balbastre, 1813.

A scarce example of an illustrated sale catalogue from the period, it contains three nicely engraved plates of works by Murillo, de Morales, and Rubens (most copies lack the plates). Lugt erroneously records the seller as “Billaudet.” The RKD copy has an inscription on the title-page linking the contents of the sale to Billaudel, whose name, curiously, is also found in the imprint. Billaudel concurrently operated as a dealer and painter, and it seems that... More

Many black & white text illus. [64] pp. Small 8vo (210 x 135 mm.), orig. pictorial wrappers (minor sunning to head & spine), stamped on upper wrapper: “Catalogue No. 3,” address label on lower wrapper, staple-bound. Toronto: 1976.

The corrected second state of the scarce third catalogue distributed by Art Metropole; this copy was mailed to David P. Silcox, the first Senior Arts Officer of the Canada Council for the Arts, who was instrumental in Art Metropole’s securing of grants from the council. Two years before Printed Matter was established in New York, Art Metropole became the first large-scale distributor of artists’ publications in North America. The... More

15 black & white illus. [46] pp. (incl. inside of wrappers). Small 8vo (197 x 128 mm.), orig. printed wrappers (spine a little sunned), staple-bound. Toronto: Spring 1975.

An extremely rare and significant catalogue issued by Art Metropole, the first large-scale distributors of artists’ publications, records, and video works in North America. The collective General Idea (AA Bronson, Felix Partz & Jorge Zontal) founded the space in 1974. Bronson inscribed and mailed this catalogue to David P. Silcox, the first Senior Arts Officer of the Canada Council for the Arts, who was instrumental in Art Metropole’s securing of grants from the council.

“If we examine the years in which artist-run spaces were founded, it becomes evident that the heyday of the founding euphoria was the 1970s…Although Ecart came into being in 1969 and MOCA in 1970, the majority of the artist-run spaces were set up some years later: Western Front in 1973, Art Metropole and Zona in 1974, La Mamelle [and Other Books and So] in 1975, Franklin Furnace and Printed Matter in 1976, and Artpool in 1979…Identified as alternative art spaces, nonprofit art organizations, artist-oriented spaces, or artist-run spaces, these places define an area of shared experiences of experimenting with a concept of art that had no boundaries, and they linked art forms and the operating model of collective self-organization into a single venture. The bookshops and publishing activities integrated into the collectives emphasize a central aspect of collective activities: acting and communicating autonomously, and independently of the commercial art business, far beyond geographical boundaries.”–G. Detterer & M. Nannucci, eds., Artist-Run Spaces (2012), pp. 23-25. More

Many illus. in the text. 36 pp., order form on lower inside wrapper. 8vo (230 x 154 mm.), semi-stiff pictorial wrappers, staple-bound. [New York]: 1988.

A scarce Printed Matter catalogue, this copy was mailed to the great dealer and scholar of art ephemera Steven Leiber, who frequently cited these catalogues in his own. It begins with an introduction by Amy Baker Sandback, a member of the Printed Matter Board of Directors. This is followed by an essay by the art critic Germano Celant (translated from the Italian) called “Artists’ Manifestos & Magazines.” Then offered are works by Daniel Buren, Tom Phillips, Dieter Roth, Telfer... More

Many text & full-page illus. [20] pp. 8vo, pictorial wrappers, staple-bound. Docking, Norfolk: 1992.

An uncommon Coracle catalogue, with many illustrations of the publications offered. It lists multiples, books, prints, and exhibition catalogues by Marie Bourget, Bill Culbert, Simon Cutts, Stephen Duncalf, Paul Lincoln, Colin Sackett, Yoko Terauchi, Erica van Horn, Richard Tuttle, etc. Most of the items are thoroughly described.

This catalogue was likely distributed through Coracle’s London bookstore, workfortheeyetodo, which is described on the inside of the lower wrapper as “an accumulative book space, index and agency: a location referencing the purpose of publication as a model of self-organisation and availability.” More

[15] pp. (incl. inside wrappers). 8vo, pictorial wrappers, staple-bound. London: 1990.

A very rare Coracle catalogue; WorldCat notes only one copy, in Italy. With priced listings for books, prints, and pamphlets by Tony Cragg, Alan Charlton, Cutts, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Colin Sackett, Richard Tuttle, Erica van Horn, Jonathan Williams, Yoko Terauchi, Stephen Willats, Andy Goldsworthy, Richard Long, etc.

Fine copy. Cover illustration (“Rubber Coracle”) by Sackett. More