Art & Architecture
Contact Alex Day or Andrea Mazzocchi
Art & Architecture encompasses a broad sweep of material, from early works concerning architecture and architectural history, and books and manuscripts on the fine arts and aesthetics, antiquities and archaeology, to pattern and design books, and private press books and fine bindings. The department also handles original artwork, artistic archives, posters, and propaganda material.
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BRITISH MUSEUM.
List of Missing English Theological and Devotional Books.
[London, 1940s.]
Mimeographed typescript of books missing after the losses suffered by the British Museum Library during the Second World War. This is one of several lists of books destroyed, produced both as a record and as a tool for acquiring replacement copies – this copy appears to have been used for that...
£275
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BURY, Stephen.
Artists’ books: the book as a work of art, 1963-2000.
London, Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 2015.
The history of artists’ involvement with the book format between 1963 and 2000 includes a fascinating range of artists and movements from Mallarmé to the Piece of Paper Press via Cubism, Futurism, Dada, Fluxus and conceptual art. This second edition includes updated text with new bibliographic descriptions...
£60
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CAPPONI, Alessandro Gregorio, Marchese.
Catalogo della Libreria Capponi o sia de’ Libri Italiani del su Marchese Alessandro...
Rome, Bernabò & Lazzarini, 1747
First and only edition of the catalogue of this remarkable library assembled by Capponi (1683–1746) and containing over five thousand titles, mainly of early Italian literature. The catalogue was compiled by Alessandro Berti with bio-bibliographical notes by Domenico Giorgi. The collection now...
£900
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CARDONNEL, Adam de.
Picturesque Antiquities of Scotland [I–II] …
London: Printed for the Author, and sold by Edwards … also by Edwards’s, in Halifax. 1788.
First edition, the very rare issue with the plates in sepia, printed directly onto thick wove paper.
£975
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CARTARI, Vincenzo.
Le imagini con la spositione de i dei de gli antichi.
Venice, per Francesco Marcolini, 1556.
First edition of Cartari’s influential and successful treatise on the mythology of the ancients. Cartari concentrated on the iconography of the gods, explaining their guises and detailing their several attributes. His book was expressively written to aid artists, painters and sculptors, to understand...
£1100
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CARTER, John, and Graham POLLARD.
The Firm of Charles Ottley, Landon & Co.: Footnote to An Enquiry.
London, Rupert Hart-Davis, and New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948.
First edition of Carter and Pollard’s further research into the forgeries of Thomas J. Wise. The authors examine pamphlets of Swinburne’s poetry published under the imprint of ‘Charles Ottley, Landon & Co’ and expose them as the work of the book-collector and forger Thomas James Wise (1859–1937)....
£12
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CELLINI, Benvenuto.
Vita di Benvenuto Cellini orefice e scultore fiorentino da lui medesimo scritta, nella quale molte curiose...
‘Cologne’ [i.e. Florence], ‘Pietro Martello’ [i.e. Bartolini], [1792].
The counterfeit edition of Benvenuto Cellini’s seminal autobiography, extra-illustrated with two large engravings illustrating his ‘Perseus and Medusa’ and the ‘Hercules and Cacus’ of his rival sculptor Bandinelli.
£850
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[CHINESE ARTS DEALER.] ISKANDRIAN-HUPEDEN, A.
[Cover title:] ‘My Treasure Box’ [Title-page:] ‘Some selected...
Shanghai, Spring 1938.
A charming and insightful trade catalogue compiled by a female Chinese arts dealer, covering porcelains, cast bronzes and irons, stone and wood sculpture, lacquered figures, furniture and screens, pottery and embroidery. The colours and dimensions are often described in the text, and the final...
£1600
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[COCHRAN, Charles B.]
OSTROWSKA, Wanda and Viola G. GARVIN. London’s Glory.
London, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1945.
First edition, a poignant collection of paintings of war-torn London by the Polish artist-in-exile Wanda Ostrowska, accompanied by extracts from her own writings and narrative by Viola Garvin.
£75
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[COLOGNE.]
Hotel de Belle Vue à Deutz vis-à-vis de Cologne tenu pour J.A. Kimmel. [
Cologne, c. 1850
A ambitious lithograph advertisement for the Hotel de Belle Vue in Deutz, facing Cologne over the Rhine. The finely engraved view of the hotel shows it with its surrounding park lying on the Rhine which is bustling with barges, there is a bridge crossing the river full of promenading people. The litho...
£250
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[COLONNA, Francesco.]
Poliphili hypnerotomachia, ubi humana omnia non nisi somnium esse ostendit, atque obiter plurima scitu...
Venice, [heirs of Aldus], 1545.
Second edition, scarcer than the first (also an Aldine, published in 1499), of the most beautiful illustrated book printed in Italy in the fifteenth century. Known for its fine woodcut illustrations, mysterious meanings, and the cryptic inclusion of Colonna’s name, the Hypnerotomachia...
£24000
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[COLUMBUS.] QUARITCH, Bernard, and Michael KERNEY.
The Spanish Letter of Columbus . . . A facsimile of the original edition published...
[London], Quaritch, 2006.
Over the centuries, booksellers have contributed much to the elucidation and sometimes to the falsification of historical documents. The story of the first printed account of the New World, usually known as Christopher Columbus’s Letter to Santángel or simply the Columbus Letter, illustrates both themes.
£60
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[COSTUME.]
6 Blätter Altenburger Trachten.
Altenburg, Schnuphase’sche Buchhandlung, [c. 1857].
Charming Altenburg costume plates, lacking at least one plate.
£150
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COX, John Roalfe.
Horses in Accident and Disease: Notes and Sketches.
Edinburgh, George Waterston & Sons for David Douglas, 1892.
First edition of an elegantly illustrated veterinary work. An early advocate of the use of chloroform anaesthetic when operating on horses, J. Roalfe Cox here offers tender line drawings and brief descriptions of twenty-eight equine ailments.
£70
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DALI, Salvador.
Alpes: French Railways.
France, Draeger for SNCF, 1970.
A gorgeous and colourful surrealist design of delicate butterflies fluttering against a rugged Alpine backdrop, one of six designs commissioned from Dali by SNCF, French national railways, to promote travel into the Alpine region.
£250
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DALI, Salvador.
Normandie. French Railways.
France, Draeger for SNCF, 1970.
Mont Saint-Michel meets stone circles, butterflies and surrealist heads in this promotional SNCF poster for train travel in Normandy.
£200
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DALI, Salvador.
Roussillon. French Railways.
France, Draeger for SNCF, 1970.
Further butterfly-interspersed surrealism for SNCF, this time for the Roussillon
region, featuring a stylised cross of Languedoc above a beach scene against a
mountainous backdrop£250
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DALI, Salvador.
Alsace. French Railways.
France, Draeger for SNCF, 1970.
A striking monochrome image of the Temple Saint-Étienne, also known as the Cathedral of Mulhouse, against a murky sky. A vast butterfly blends into the foreground.
£250
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DASSIER, Jean and Jacques-Antoine.
‘An Explanation of Dassier’s Medals being a Representation of a Series of Events...
London, c. 1795-1800.
An exceptionally fine illustrated manuscript, with drawings after the series of sixty medals of Roman history from Romulus to the Age of Augustus produced by Jean Dassier and his son in 1740-1743. The drawings are executed with considerable finesse, adding detailed elements not clearly visible...
£8500
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DICKENS, Charles.
The Nonesuch Dickens. The Complete Works of Charles Dickens.
London, The Nonesuch Press, 1937-38.
Limited edition of 877, of which 66 sets were destroyed when a bomb hit the bindery in September 1940, so at most 811 complete sets survive (Dreyfus, Nonesuch Press, 108). The steel plate included with this set is number 605, “Solemn reference is made to Mr. Bunsby” from Dombey and...
£6750