47 pp. 8vo (200 x 131 mm.), orig. green printed wrappers preserved in green morocco-backed marbled boards, spine gilt, marbled endpapers. Paris: C. Paillet & Chariot, [1815].

A very scarce sale catalogue. Perrier (d. 1814) was an art dealer who primarily sold modern pictures. He is praised in the Avertissement as a steadfast supporter of a number of contemporary artists. This auction was held at his home on rue des Deux-Ecus, no. 33 (now rue Berger). The present catalogue very probably lists his personal collection and remaining inventory at the time of his death. It describes 184 lots of paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, porcelain, and... More

xvi, 255 pp. 8vo (199 x 131 mm.), modern marbled wrappers. Paris: Regnault Delalande, 1820.

The scarce sale catalogue of a famous Polish art collection and library, with all of the prices for paintings and drawings (lots 801-62) recorded in a contemporary hand. Vincent Potocki (1740-1825), great-nephew of Stanislas Leszczynski, the King of Poland, and grand chamberlain to the king, enjoyed the comforts of a large fortune. He formed an admirable collection of prints, books, and paintings from all across Europe, spanning several centuries.

The scarce sale catalogue of a famous Polish art collection and library, with all of the prices for paintings and... More

[12] pp. Small folio (297 x 210 mm.), printed pictorial wrappers, staple-bound. Nagoya: Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1989.

An uncommon Kawara exhibition catalogue published by Nagoya’s Institute of Contemporary Arts. Curated by Eriko Osaka, the show consisted of 23 of Kawara’s “Date Paintings” (executed between 7 June 1966 and 24 November 1988) displayed alongside 24 works by other Japanese artists, including Hiroshi Sugimoto, Jiro Takamatsu, Kanji Wakae, Nobuo Sekine, Hitoshi Nomura, Kazuo Okazaki, Ryoji Koie, etc. The latter 24 artworks are all pictured in this catalogue. Text in Japanese.

In near fine condition; minor scuffing to the spine. More

Many color plates. 72 pp. Oblong 4to (217 x 281 mm.), orig. black pictorial boards, title on spine, orig. slipcase (a little worn). Tokyo: Parco Co., 1991.

A scarce catalogue on Kawara’s previously unstudied five-year stay in Tokyo, where he was part of influential avant-garde art student associations and wrote many pieces of art criticism. His violent and grotesque imagery from this period is in stark contrast to his streamlined conceptual Date Paintings. This book reproduces the complete Bathroom series (1953-54; Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art), Events in a Warehouse (1954; ibid.), and a number of figurative paintings and drawings executed in Japan... More

Brush & ink drawings, in black & red ink, of the eye in the text. 82 folding leaves. 8vo (208 x 130 mm.), orig. persimmon-juice-stained wrappers, new stitching. [Japan but perhaps in Iga Province (today’s Mie Prefecture)]: after 1615.

This is an early and rich manuscript on Japanese ophthalmology, quite probably prepared in Iga Province at the Iesato Ichi ryu ophthalmological medical school. The Iesato Ichi ryu was founded in the 1580s in Iga Province. It based its education on Chinese teachings and experienced great success; students eventually spread out and established schools in Kyoto, Osaka, and the greater Kansai area.

The index at the beginning gives an excellent idea of the contents: More

Numerous fine drawings & diagrams, all full-page. 73; 80; 50 folding leaves. Three vols. 8vo (258 x 188 mm.), orig. brown wrappers embossed with shell motifs, new stitching. [Japan]: Prefaces dated 1635, 1634, & 1631 [but clearly copied in later Edo].

A fine and beautifully written manuscript of the Dattenko, the Japanese version of the Yuan Ye of Cheng Ji (b. 1582), the prominent Ming-dynasty landscape and rock artist. The Yuan Ye was first printed, in China, ca. 1631-35; it remains one of the greatest of all works on landscape architecture.

A copy of the book came to Japan in the early 18th century and was immediately influential, introducing the concept... More

8vo (235 x 168 mm.), orig. blue semi-stiff wrappers, modern stitching. [Japan]: 1853-54.

Silver was mined at the Ikuno Ginzan (Ikuno Silver Mine) from the 9th century until 1973 and was an important source of income for the central government. Lead, copper, zinc, and gold were extracted along with silver. There were a number entrances to the mine, and more than 20,000 local residents were in some way involved in the mining industry.

In the 19th century, the mines were running deficits as they were not producing enough silver. This is a fascinating official record maintained by Chudayu (or Chiwaki) Shiraishi (1817-87), of the... More

13; 14; 23 folding leaves. Three parts in one vol. 8vo (237 x 170 mm.), orig. gray wrappers (discolored, some unimportant worming), new stitching. [Japan]: on final leaf, in trans.: “given to Itakura on 9 February 1675.”

A very early manuscript concerning the transmission of Western medical knowledge to Japanese doctors. We learn from the end of each part that the information on Dutch medicines presented here was given by Dutch doctors to Sosetsu Yamamura, who, in turn, gave it to Un’an (or Munekatsu) Takahashi, who wrote the present manuscript. Takahashi then gave this manuscript on 9 February 1675 to Itakura.

The first part is entitled “Oranda kowa bassui” [“Excerpts of Translations of Dutch Medicine”] and gives in katakana the Dutch names of a series of ingredients for medicines, along with their translations in Japanese, written in kanji and katakana. The ingredients include oils and essences derived from plants, fruits, woods, insects, animal organs, and minerals. More

36 folding leaves, of which four are blank. 8vo (240 x 170 mm.), orig. blue semi-stiff wrappers (wrappers somewhat worn), orig. label, heightened in gold, with manuscript title, new stitching. [Japan]: n.d.

During the Edo period, there were 12 Korean delegations to Japan, whose purposes were mostly to congratulate a new Tokugawa shogun. The missions, which normally included 300-500 Koreans, accompanied by roughly 1500 Japanese escorts, symbolized the amicable relationship between the two nations and, in the early years, served to legitimize the Tokugawa shogunate.

These delegations, which usually took nine or ten months round-trip, were enormously expensive undertakings for both countries. The Koreans... More

22 perforated sheets (279 x 241 mm.) of continuous feed computer paper folded at perforation lines, printed by dot matrix. [From the first sheet]: San Francisco: 1997.

The very scarce 30th catalogue published by Leiber; WorldCat records no copy in North America. It imitates the famous digital print-on-demand catalogue for Dan Flavin’s 1967-68 exhibition Pink and ‘Gold’ at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Each visitor could print their own catalogue from pre-punched paper cards fed into a rented IBM 1401 decimal computer.

The present catalogue was produced in collaboration with 871 Fine Arts for an exhibition of printed art ephemera. On the first... More

xiv, 80 pp., one leaf. Small 4to, cont. paste-paper boards (joints a little worn). Kiel: C.F. Mohr, 1818.

First edition and very rare; WorldCat locates no copy in North America. Johann Daniel Major (1634-93), started the University of Kiel’s anatomical collection shortly after the school’s foundation in 1665. Major wrote the first book on intravenous infusion for anesthetic purposes, in which he described his own experiments. The anatomist and pathologist Johann Leonhard Fischer (1760-1833), who made the establishment of a scientific collection the main concern of his academic activity from 1793 onwards, furnished a foreword to the present book.

Fischer’s student Seidel (1790-1857), lists here 1150 anatomical specimens. More

Woodcut printer’s device on title. 8 p.l., 347, [18] pp. Small 4to, cont. blind-stamped pigskin-backed green vellum over boards (the vellum is a palimpsest), “A.S. 1594” stamped in black on pigskin of upper cover. Paris: M. Juvenis, 1578.

First edition and a lovely copy; “Coytard distinguished between petechial typhus and typhoid.”–Garrison-Morton 5372.1. Hirsch, II, p. 133 considers this work to be one of the first examples of modern epidemiological investigation. Coytard (d. 1590), was a physician at Poitier and later at Loudun. This book is the result of his investigations of a typhus epidemic that occurred in 1557 in the region of... More