Engraved frontis. port., engraved vignette on first title, & 51 plates (50 are folding). 8 p.l. (incl. frontis. port.), clxxxvi, 544 pp.; 1 p.l., 604 pp.; 6 p.l. (incl. frontis. plate), 756, [36] pp. Three vols. Thick 8vo, cont. half-vellum & speckled boards. Ulm & Memmingen [Vol. I]; Ulm [Vols. II & III]: Gaum, 1753-53-54.

First edition of this renowned account of Uffenbach’s book-collecting travels through Saxony, Belgium, Holland, and England. Uffenbach (1683-1734), was a member of a rich and famous noble family and studied at Strasbourg and Halle, where he developed his enthusiasm for collecting books and manuscripts. He constantly patronized the libraries and bookshops of Halle and... More

34; 53; 36 folding leaves. Three vols. 8vo (230 x 164 mm), orig. blue patterned wrappers (some worming), later stitching. [Japan]: on the final leaf of Vol. III (in trans.): “copied in March 1787.”

On the final leaf of Vol. III, we learn that this manuscript was copied in March 1787 by an anonymous scribe from “Kojima’s secret information.” These secrets were the property of a school, and only the students and their parents could have access to them.

In the beginning of the first volume, there are five icons denoting: 1. do not insert needles here; 2. good place to insert needles; 3. use a.... More

86 folding leaves with ten pre-printed columns per page. 8vo, orig. blue wrappers (240 x 163 mm.), new stitching. [Probably Kyoto: ca. 1844].

We do not understand why this manuscript exists: is it the fair copy sent to the printer or a remarkable act of fidelity? This text was published in Kyoto in 1844 as an oblong octavo of 63 leaves. Our manuscript (and the printed book) is a bibliography of about 1600 ancient and modern Chinese medical manuscripts and printed books available and/or printed in Japan, with details of author, title, and dynasty; many of the entries appear to be unrecorded. The entries... More

Brush, pen (?), & ink, many with background underdrawings in red ink. Approximately 200 drawings, ranging from 350 x 260 mm. to ca. 230 x 165 mm., all on fine tissue paper, many of the drawings bound in three large & two smaller albums, and some loose; three bound albums of artist’s proofs. Occasional minor staining, but in fine condition. Several are signed by Tsutsui & dated, a few with his printed seal. [Japan: late Meiji].

An important archive of drawings and artist’s proofs by Tsutsui, a leading kuchi-e artist. The fine drawings in this collection extend well beyond the kuchi-e genre and include the artist’s work for... More

19 folding leaves. 8vo (240 x 168 mm.), orig. wrappers, stitched as issued. [Japan: early Meiji].

This is a beautifully written manuscript, signed at the end “Shobei Izutsuya,” a member of the three-generation Kyoto publishing house of the 18th and 19th centuries. The text is most remarkable, a series of verses of the genre known as Ben’yo utaibon. These were traditional noh songs but with new lyrics. Singing noh songs was a common hobby amongst the intelligentsia of Japan, and the tunes were familiar to many. These new lyrics — sung in a rhythmic “sing-song” manner (like Westerners memorizing out loud the multiplication... More

In various formats and sizes, some quite large, many folding. [Kyoto & Tokyo: ca. 1910].

The Masumiya Kyoto Textile Company, owned by the Saito family, was located on Muromachi-dori in the textile district of Kyoto, Nishijin. The company was founded in the early Edo period and lasted ten generations; it went bankrupt sometime in the middle of the 20th century due to family neglect. Masumiya was a textile wholesaler, with a branch in Nihonbashi, Tokyo (this branch used the name Saito Mohei Tokyo ten). The company specialized in the design and creation of rich silk brocades for kimono and obi belts, religious... More

Two manuscript volvelles, each with a rotating paper disc & diagrams in the text. 51 folding leaves. 8vo (230 x 165 mm), orig. aubergine wrappers, new stitching. [Japan: mid- to later 18th cent.].

Shuhaku Asai (1643-1705), was a fellow student with Ippo Okamoto of the prominent doctor Sanpaku Ajioka. Asai was the court doctor to the fiefdom of Owari and was considered to be one of Japan’s leading authorities on traditional Chinese medicine. His secret writings on acupuncture have all remained in manuscript, and his private lectures were copied by several generations of students.

This manuscript begins with a discussion of the yin and yang of the five organs and the acupuncture meridians. There is an explanation of kotsudo (how to determine the pressure points by measurement of the bones). In ancient China, bone length measurement was widely used as the basis for positioning of acupuncture points, a system called the bone length method. This process of using body landmarks and a relative unit of measurement called a “body inch” was developed in ancient China and has remained in use to the present day. More

Engraved frontis. port. of Leybourn and numerous woodcut diagrams & tables in the text. Title printed in red & black. 6 p.l., 84, 177-279 pp. Small folio, cont. sheep (some wear & rubbing, a few unimportant stains). London: R. & W. Leybourn for E. Brewster & G. Sawbridge, 1653.

First edition under this title. “Of all the seventeenth-century writers on surveying, William Leybourn probably exerted a greater influence on the practicing surveyor than any other, with the possible exception of John Love. Leybourn’s first contribution to surveying was a short pamphlet, Pantometria or the Whole Art of Surveying, published in London in 1650 and written under the... More

Five folding hand-drawn plates & much stencilling of chapter headings, decorative initials, and mathematical symbols. 160; 185 pp. Two vols. in one. Large 4to (295 x 245 mm.), cont. mottled calf (upper joint cracked but strong), spine gilt, red morocco lettering-piece on spine. From the manuscript title-page: “Paris: M.D.CC.LXX.”

The re-discovered manuscript fair copy, written in a fine hand and laid-out to be sent to the printer for typesetting, of a hitherto unknown work by Bicquilley (1738-1814), a mathematician who made important contributions to probability theory and mathematical economics. Our manuscript, which is completely unknown, precedes Bicquilley’s first published work, Du Calcul... More

Frontis. & one illus. (both black & white). 16 pp. 8vo (205 x 136 mm.), orig. green semi-stiff printed wrappers, staple-bound. [From the final page]: Melun: A. Douhin, 1927.

The uncommon second edition of this account of Jean François Millet’s life by the poet and journalist Louis Latourrette. He focuses on the formative time the artist spent at Barbizon. The author writes in the introduction (in trans.): “If Barbizon gave to J.F. Millet the full awareness of his genius and the reason for his most magisterial inspiration, the great painter lavishly settled his debt by giving to Barbizon glory, a glory universal and immortal, such as... More

Frontis. port. & eight full-page illus. (all black & white). Large 8vo (240 x 157 mm.), orig. printed wrappers, staple-bound. Paris: 1935.

The rare auction catalogue of Carco’s art collection and library. Carco (1886-1958), the celebrated writer and journalist and early devotee of Modigliani’s work, often went to Montmartre and there befriended artists such as Utrillo, Max Jacob, Eugène Paul, and Modigliani, with whom he developed a close friendship. An amateur art historian, Carco wrote Le Nu dans la peinture moderne: 1863-1920 (1924), in which he refers to a number of works in his collection. An earlier sale of paintings, prints, and drawings from Carco’s... More

96 pp. 8vo (190 x 128 mm.), cont. red sheep maroquiné, gilt coat-of-arms of Louis XVIII & ornate gilt borders on covers, flat spine gilt, a.e.g. Paris: Constantin, et al.; Amsterdam: Coclers; Antwerp: Beckmans; Brussels: Marneef; Mannheim: Artaria; London: Woodburn, 1816.

A splendid copy of this important and scarce auction catalogue, which describes the personal collection and stock of paintings of Constantin (1755-1816). With all prices and nearly all buyers in a contemporary hand, this catalogue is finely bound with the coat-of-arms of Louis XVIII and bears the bookplate of the Duchesse de Berry’s unparalleled Bibliothèque de Rosny. This was the first of... More