New Arrivals
The View from Mt. Dana
Santa Cruz, CA: Peter & Donna Thomas, 1997. (10) pp. Approximately 2 1/4 x 2 3/4". LIMITED EDITION of 97 copies, this being #38. Case-bound accordion with piano-hinge binding, handmade paper covers over boards, decorated with acrylic paint and crayon, title stamped in gold on front cover, inside white paper is also handmade by Peter, text was linoleum-cut by Donna, illustrations are linoleum cuts of birds, mountains, and shapes by Donna, spanning the entire accordion, numbered on the colophon, in fine condition. (P&D Thomas Bibliography A88)
Donna skied up Mt. Dana, in Yosemite, during a winter snow camping trip. Near the top, as she watched crows circling overhead, she was inspired to cut blocks for a book. She paired her illustrations with a quote about nature enriching life by John Muir.
Wildflowers of the John Muir Trail
Santa Cruz, CA: Peter & Donna Thomas, 2002. (40) pp. Approximately 2 1/8 x 2 5/8". LIMITED EDITION of 150 copies, this being #60. Green painted handmade papers over boards, title and illustration label on sleeve cover, inside white paper made by Peter from cotton rag and Donna's hiking shirt, digital printing with reproduction of text handwritten by Donna, reproductions of thirty-nine watercolor paintings by Donna, numbered on the colophon, in fine condition. (P&D Thomas Bibliography A109)
Donna Thomas and Kate McLaughlin hiked the John Muir trail in 2002. They identified flowers and Donna printed them on the spot. This beautiful book was a Miniature Book Society Distinguished Award winner in 2003.
Nasty Nancy & Her Cat, A Horrid ABC Book
New York: Mermaid Press, 1962. Approximately 1 7/8 x 2 3/8". (16) pp. Cream printed paper boards with decorations and title in red on front cover and spine, blue slipcase, letterpress, scarce, all in fine condition. (Bradbury, Mermaid Press 1)
The one and only book by this publisher, published at the beginning of the miniature book renaissance in the United States during the early sixties (Bradbury p147), it is a macabre ABC book describing all of the ways in which Nasty Nancy torments her cat (i.e. Jerked it, Kicked it, Licked it.) Luckily, the story ends happily with Kitty living with a much kinder owner the next lifetime it has.
L'Emploi du Temps ou les Enfans Modeles
Paris: chez Marcilly, ca. 1830. Approximately 1 15/16 x 2 3/4". 128 pp. Pale pink embossed paper boards, no slipcase, script title on front cover, engraved vignette on back cover and title page, 7 plates, some minor spotting, in French, fine condition. (Welsh 2637)
A beautiful scarce book about moral tales for children, published by leading Parisian publisher Marcilly, responsible for many of the most beautiful children's books of the period.
Frederick Law Olmsted at Biltmore
Dallas, TX: Aredian Press, 2023. Approximately 3 x 2 3/4", oblong. LIMITED EDITION of 10 copies, this being #9. Design binding by Patrice Miller of Aredian Press. Green photographic paper cover with green leather quarter bound, extra endpapers on special paper, stamp frontispiece, colophon and limitation which is, signed and numbered by the publisher, illustrations, in fine condition. Beautifully structured and well-written biography.
Frederick Law Olmsted (1922 - 1903) was an American landscape architect, as well as a public administrator, social critic, and journalist. He was famous for co-designing many well known parks such as New York's Central Park, Brooklyn's Prospect Park, as well as the campuses of Wellesley College, Smith College, Stanford University and the University of Chicago. Olmsted not only designed the landscape architecture of the Biltmore for George Vanderbilt II, but he designed the Biltmore Village to replicate the working estates of Europe. He was an important early conservationist and he encouraged the full use of naturally occurring features of any given space.
Patrice Miller's work has found its way to private and university collections, in the states and abroad. Human foibles, nature’s panoply, and artistic cleverness cannot help but inform future work. She continues to bind, and rebind, in Dallas, Texas.
ABC of Birds
Freeville, New York: Lilliput Press, 2020. Limited edition of 25 including 5 deluxe (already sold) in cabinet of curiosity format. 2 x 3 x 1.5" miniature book, flutter construction; 30 pp., digitally printed with pigmented inks, 26 Individual collages with text on reverse side, 28 pocket pages (collages plus title page and colophon) with inserts, signed and numbered by the artist, all in fine condition.
A lovely little abcedarium, cleverly constructed and beautifully illustrated throughout. Note that the species of bird does not necessarily coincide with the alphabet page it is on.
Coyote and the Shooting Stars (Standard Edition)
Freeville, New York: Carol Schwartzott, 2022. Limited edition of 24. 2.5 x 3"; 26 pages. Miniature. Flutter book structure. Paper-bound with scanned images, some of which are additionally hand-colored. Digitally printed on Mohawk Via Vellum. Papers used: Rives BFK, Indian hand-marbled papers, and Japanese Momi. Of the edition, 12 presented in standard paper-covered drop-lid box; 12 presented in a handmade wooden box with a glass lid in which is a hand-beaded coyote and star. Signed and numbered by the artist.
This is a version of the Native American shooting stars creation myth featuring Coyote. He talks a star into lifting him in to the sky to dance. When he grows tired and lets go of the star, he plunges to earth creating a trail of light – a shooting star.
Holy Bible. New Testament.
Tokyo: Japan Bible Society, 1982. Black leather cover with blind stamped title and decorations, 27 x 34 mm, 409 pp., printed by photo offset at Toppan Printing Co., miniature bookplate and bookstore labels present, Japanese text, slipped into in a gold metal case with with red and gold cross decoration and chain. All housed in a red velveteen box with magnifying glass and brochure. Limited to 1,000 copies. The complete package, including original manufacturer's packaing box, all beautifully executed and in fine condition.
The Toppan Printing Company in Japan has long been printers of the world's smallest books with many Guiness Book World Record holders.
![RNDM TXT [design binding]](http://thebooklair.com/cdn/shop/files/001732_4375f8aa-88a3-4838-a55d-3516276807fc_grande.jpg?v=1737332549)
RNDM TXT [design binding]
Dallas, TX: Aredian Press, 2016. Approximately 2 x 3". First edition, LIMITED EDITION of 20 copies, this being #12. Design binding by Patrice Miller of Aredian Press, metallic cloth covered cell phone style case. Black alligator-patterned goat skin over boards, floral endpapers, signed and numbered by the author on the colophon, fine condition.
Here is a creative binding and miniature book that is designed to have the appearance of an old-fashioned looking address book. The contents are comprised of a series of text message reminders of an individual over several weeks; the reader as voyeur peeks at a slice of a life. Quite humorous. Very limited edition at 20 copies. Patrice Miller's work has found its way to private and university collections, in the states and abroad. Human foibles, nature’s panoply, and artistic cleverness cannot help but inform future work. She continues to bind, and rebind, in Dallas, Texas.
The Cask of Amontillado
Boston: Anne & David Bromer, 1981. [21] pp. approx. 2 x 2 5/8". LIMITED EDITION of 150 copies, thirty-five of which are deluxe. Apart from the deluxe bindings printed by the Thistle Bindery which have a black inlaid morocco binding with box, this is a unique deluxe A/P edition in a custom Roland Meuter binding with pink leather, marbled aluminum covers and gilt top edge gauffered. Colored illustrations, signed by the illustrator on the colophon, housed in a wooden box with pink leather accents, in fine condition. (Bradbury, Bromer 7)
When Linnea Gentry moved her successful Amaranth Press from San Francisco to Santa Fe in 1980, she brought an exceptional sense of quality and a reputation as one of the Bay area’s most talented book artists. Gentry started her career as a designer at the EP Dutton firm in New York. In San Francisco she camped on the doorstep of the much-lauded Grabhorn Press, until she was taken on as a typesetting apprentice. She later launched her Amaranth Press where she turned out fine letterpress work for a discriminating clientele. In the mid-1970s she helped found and became production manager of Fine Print, an international journal of the book arts.
Her introduction to New Mexico came during childhood visits to her aunt, Helen Gentry, a renowned book designer and publisher who lived part-time in Santa Fe during the 1930s and 1940s and settled there after 1965. Colored by the elder Gentry’s circle of artist friends, the visits made a deep impression and influenced the Amaranth’s brief stay in Santa Fe before Gentry closed the press in 1983. (privatepress.org)
The binder, Roland Meuter, maintains an atelier in Ascona, Switzerland, where he continues to produce imaginatively designed bindings that attract considerable attention.