Mid-Edo period.

An extremely rare survival: an uncommonly tall and large wooden training mannequin, called in Japan do-ningyo (“copper doll,” even those no longer made of bronze), in very good condition. It is most unusual to have such a mannequin of a female; the male figure is usually presented. Certain motifs of the model suggest it was carved in the Chinese or Indian style.

The first examples of similar models originated in 11th-century China, where life-size human acupuncture figures were cast from bronze. “The metal walls of the figures were pierced with small holes corresponding to the principal loci for... More

20 pp. 8vo, 19th-century brown half-cloth & marbled boards (spine a trifle rubbed), title on spine, spine gilt. [S.l.: 1737].

One of the very rare contemporary manuscript sale catalogues of the painting collection of the comtesse de Verrue (1670-1736), one of history’s greatest collectors of art as well as books. It is annotated with nearly all prices and a few buyers’ names. According to Lugt, there are no known printed catalogues of this sale of paintings — most likely never printed — and the Getty Provenance Index records 14 extant manuscript copies, all in institutional libraries, except this example.

“Verrue, may be best known today as Alexandre Dumas’s fictive dame volupté, a sobriquet she reputedly created and one that has too easily obscured her crucial role in the art world of early eighteenth-century Paris. She had the social confidence to renounce the traditional pattern of collecting that Crozat had eagerly embraced and turned from ‘serious’ Italian paintings to ‘petits sujets,’ bucolic landscapes, and amorous mythologies, primarily by painters of the Northern and French schools. Like Crozat, she shaped a remarkable and widely admired dwelling that was central to her identity and famous during her lifetime. The importance of each house was enhanced by the way it functioned. Each became a key site of artistic discourse, a place where art lovers and artists assembled, and a locus for assessing competing systems of value, where distinctive outlooks were forged, defined, and absorbed.”–Rochelle Ziskin, Sheltering Art (2012), p. 2. More

Large illustrated single sheet poster (420 x 300 mm. unfolded). [Lund, Sweden]: Beau Geste Press, 1976.

An extremely rare poster issued by Beau Geste Press for an exhibition at the Galerie S:t Petri in Lund, Sweden; one of 500 copies produced. Managed by Felipe Ehrenberg, Martha Hellion, and David Mayor, Beau Geste Press, based in Devon, UK, was active from 1970 to 1976. The press collaborated with numerous artists and authors, all of whom are listed on this poster: Beuys, Carrión, Filliou, Gibbs, Higgins, Hompson, Kostelanetz, Maciunas, Saito, Schneemann, Shiomi, Valoch, etc., etc. For example, two of Ulises Carrión’s bookworks, Looking for poetry/Tras... More

54; 7 leaves (final blank). Folio (both ca. 300 x 210 mm.), orig. stitching. [Amiens]: 1649.

A rare survival on the market, two mid-17th-century inventories describing the estate of Agnès de Het, wife of a feudal lord, who was councillor to the king. They lived on the outskirts of Amiens. We have found a record of de Het’s husband, Lecouvreur, agreeing to rent land in 1688, but we are not able to find any record of de Het’s life. These two manuscripts provide an exhaustive listing of a 17th-century noble family’s numerous possessions.

The first document (54 leaves), signed on the final leaf by Lecouvreur, is a complete inventory of this family’s belongings. It lists not only household items, but also a variety of luxury items, such as a golden coffeepot, a necklace holding fourteen diamonds, a golden ring encrusted with a diamond, two pearl necklaces, a silver clock, etc. Also recorded are tables, tablecloths, napkins, a mirror, clothing, carpets, several chests, other furniture, etc. More

34; 16; 20; 26; 15 folding leaves. Five vols. 8vo, orig. patterned wrappers (upper wrapper of Vol. I somewhat faded & rubbed), orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. Kyoto: Ryushiken Ibaraki Nobukiyo, 1718.

First edition of this collection of waka poetry; this is a rare book with no copy in WorldCat. Inoue (1660-1738), born in Marugame, was raised in an intellectual family. Her father, a samurai and Confucian scholar, arranged for his daughter to be educated in both Chinese and Japanese literature. Her mother taught her waka poetry, and she also studied calligraphy with Ippu Horie. At the age of eight, Inoue had memorized... More

23 full-page & 11 double-page woodcut colored illus. 22; 19;15 folding leaves. Three vols. 8vo, orig. patterned semi-stiff wrappers, each decorated on the covers with what appear to be stencilled nature motifs, orig. block-printed vignette labels pasted on upper covers, new stitching. [Japan]: n.d. [but WorldCat suggests 1861-64].

This set is composed of the first two volumes of the second series and the third volume of the first series of this superbly illustrated shunga parody of The Tale of Genji. There seems to be no surviving complete set of the three-volume first series, and we can trace only two sets of the complete three-volume... More

60 unnumbered pages. Tall 8vo (205 x 99 mm.), pictorial semi-stiff wrappers, upper wrapper covered in braille text, staple-bound. [Paris: 1993].

A scarce catalogue, with a beguiling upper cover bearing braille text. It describes 335 items, including works by Andre, Bloom, Boltanski, Boutin, Broodthaers, Fulton, Gette, Le Gac, LeWitt, Nam June Paik, Nauman, Wegman, Weiner, etc., etc. The braille cover is an original work by Barbara Bloom created for this catalogue, and the text, from Barthes’s “La Chambre Claire,” is translated on the inside wrapper.

In fine condition. The braille text is understandably a bit rubbed. More

36; 50; 25 leaves (each leaf consisting of two leaves pasted together at the fore-edge). 8vo (272 x 190 mm.), orig. wrappers, orig. manuscript title labels on upper covers (first label a little defective), new stitching. [Japan: between 1624-43].

A very rare movable type digest edition of the celebrated Tale of Genji. By the beginning of the 17th century, the Tale of Genji was not easy to read without a teacher. As a result, a series of digests or condensed versions, offering easier access to the text in more familiar language, were published. According to Peter Kornicki, seven movable type editions of the digest Genji... More

The autograph manuscript of one of Sand’s earliest novellas. It contains nearly 300 ink deletions and corrections and vividly reveals the author’s writing process. Cora appeared in print for the first time on 9 February 1833 in the fifth volume of the collection of tales Le Salmigondis. Sand (1804-76) wrote it shortly after her split with the novelist Jules Sandeau (1811-83). Sand’s works from 1832 to 1834 are particularly revealing concerning her turbulent personal life and her total adoption of the bohemian and androgynous persona of “George Sand,” for which she applied and received a permission de travestissement. Her early... More

N.p.: [ca. 1702-3].

A large and early woodblock from a three-volume popular novel written in kana-based vernacular. This genre stood in contrast to kanbun works, which were composed in classical Chinese and Japanese and intended for the intelligentsia. The Union Catalogue of Japanese Literature lists two editions of this novel, one published in 1702, the other a year later. NIJL records only one copy of each edition. We are unable to determine the edition for which our woodblock was used.

The present woodblock bears the text for leaves 2-3 and 4-5 (eight pages total) in volume three of this anonymously... More