Color illus. Unpaginated. Small 4to, printed blue softcover. N.p.: Self-published, 2015.

First and only edition, signed on the title-page. Homma’s homage to Ruscha’s Colored People. The publisher’s description: “Taking reference to Ruscha’s Colored People published in 1972, Takashi Homma’s Scandinavian Mushroom is a collection of photographs which capture a variety of wild mushrooms grown in the forests of Fukushima. Collecting several specimens of radioactive fungus, Homma’s photographs resonate aesthetically to the same white background and photographic style used in Colored People bringing forward Homma’s own contextual narrative to the homage.”

Fine. We locate one copy in North America... More

Black & white illus. Unpaginated. Small 4to, printed wrappers & glassine jacket, staple-bound. Banyoles, Spain: Self-published, 2022.

Second edition (1st ed.: 2022) of 200 copies. From the artist’s website: “Twentysix casetas del Delta is a self-published work containing 26 black and white photographs of agricultural houses in the rice fields at Delta de l’Ebre. It is also a tribute to twentysix gasoline stations, published in 1963 by artist Edward Ruscha.” Fine. Not in WorldCat. More

Black & white illus. Unpaginated. Small 4to, printed softcover. Rennes: Lendroit Editions, 2017.

The final volume in Gasc’s trilogy of Ruscha homages, containing twenty-six reproductions of lithographic stones. A fine copy. WorldCat locates one example in North America. More

Risograph-printed color illus. Unpaginated. Small 4to, printed yellow softcover. N.p.: theretherenow, 2018.

One of 100 numbered copies. From the artist’s website: “White Spaces is the last in a series of artist’s books ‘after ed Ruscha’ by Travis Shaffer. This book, printed during a micro-residency at Bennington College’s Word & Image Lab, re-positions the plants from Ruscha’s 1971 book ‘colored people’ into new environments sourced from Modern and Scandinavian furniture magazines.”

In fine condition. WorldCat records a single copy. More

Black & white illus. Unpaginated. Small 4to, printed softcover & glassine jacket, title on spine. Paris: Editions Florence Loewy, 2014.

A Ruscha homage by Gasc (b. 1975), documenting the demolition of several apartment buildings. From the colophon: “There are 400 copies of this book + 100 copies destroyed by fire on 25/01/2015.”

In fine condition. WorldCat locates three copies in North America. More

Color illus. Unpaginated. Small 4to, printed softcover, title on spine. Cologne: Verlag Bernd Deutsch, 2021.

Photographic documentation by Camilo (b. 1964) of thirty-three pastis pitchers from the collection of Michael Eckel. In fine condition. No copy in North America. More

Facsimile printed by collotype. Ten juan in six vols. Small 8vo, orig. wrappers (upper wrapper of first volume & lower wrapper of final volume frayed), orig. stitching. [China]: Songfen shi 誦芬室, 1913.

First printing in over 350 years of this collection of Ming-era variety plays, limited to 100 copies. Variety plays, or zaju, have antecedents going back as far as the medieval period, but over time, the term “came to mean [a] four-act music drama” (The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Vol. 1, 775-76). In the early 20th century, there was renewed interest in the genre along... More

20 vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [China]: Cengyi tang 層漪堂, 1911.

First edition of this historiographical work on the history of Mongol rule in China, a scholarly topic much in vogue during the period it was printed.

Zeng Lian (b. 1857), lectured at the Ailian Academy 愛蓮書院 in Hunan. A conservative, he served the forces opposing the foreign powers’ Eight Nation Army that was sent to quell the Boxer Rebellion, and when the Qing forces faced defeat, he retreated with the court to Xi’an. Removed from office, Zeng withdrew to Guizhou in the south, where he finished... More

Eight vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, orig. stitching. [Beijing]: Wengui tang 文圭堂, 1935.

Facsimile reprint of a history of the Tangut state. “Western Xia, also referred to as Xixia or the Tangut Empire, was an important dynastic regime in medieval China, its population composed mainly of the Dangxiang-Qiangic people, and ruled by as many as ten emperors throughout its 190 years of recorded history” (Shi, Tangut Language and Manuscripts, 1-6). There was no “standard history” compiled for the Tangut state, so later historians had to piece together a history based on Chinese... More

Six vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [Beijing]: Guoli Beiping tushuguan 國立北平圖書館, 1930.

Facsimile edition of the extant part of Da Yuan tongzhi 大元通制 [Comprehensive Regulations of the Great Yuan]. The Comprehensive Regulations, promulgated in 1322, were intended for Yuan government servants, guiding them in the execution of their office. The collection is of “extremely high historical value. It is an indispensable reference when researching Yuan history, especially its institutions” (Chen, Zhongguo tongshi shisan, di ba juan, 5-6).

Our edition represents the first printing of the work since the Yuan period. The statutes proper were recovered from the... More

39 leaves. Two parts in one vol. 8vo, orig. patterned semi-stiff wrappers (wrappers a little wormed), new stitching. Osaka: Kashiwabaraya Seiemon, 1764.

First edition. Sekkōsai was an artist active in Osaka, ca. 1740-50. He illustrated books and theater programs and also designed a number of prints. This is “the best of Sekkōsai’s sumi-printed books, consisting of a wide range of miscellaneous pictures, some in Kanō or even Itchō style. The profile drawing of a girl wearing a kimono patterned with white hares and drooping willow wands is unusually winning.”–Hillier, The Art of the Japanese Book, p. 299.

A... More

71 folding leaves. Small 8vo, orig. wrappers (a little frayed), orig. stitching. Beijing: Wenkui tang 文奎堂, 1940.

First edition of this book about Beijing, the former capital of the Qing empire. A literature on Beijing for tourists and for proud locals developed from the 17th century onward. The genre broadened toward the end of the 19th century and continued into the Republican period. This book is part of this literature, notwithstanding its publication during the Sino-Japanese War, when Beijing was under Japanese occupation.

The pseudonym of our author, Nilüguoke, literally “the passing traveler at the inn,” suggests that... More