Fine (Book) Gifts

Courtesy of Priscilla Juvelis.

The Birds and Beasts of Shakespeare

This letterpress-and-leather beauty was published by Alan James Robinson’s Cheloniidae Press in 1990. The copy offered here contains an extra suite of the fifty-four wood engravings and an original watercolor of the Horse (the wood engraving appears with Hotspur’s line from King Henry IV, “Come let me taste my horse, Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt”) and a pencil sketch of the Wolf (the wood engraving appears with Prospero’s line from The Tempest, “Thy groans Did make Wolves howl”). Professor Arthur F. Kinney contributed the text, providing literary and historical context for Robinson’s wood engravings of the birds and beasts. The text is letterpress printed by Harold McGrath on Cheloniidae Rag paper, and the binding is full chestnut morocco by Claudia Cohen and Sarah Creighton. $3,300

www.juvelisbooks.com

Courtesy of Whitmore Rare Books.

Whale in a Pail

Herman Melville’s classic novel plus Rockwell Kent’s incredible illustrations in three volumes, all within an aluminum slipcase equals “Whale in a Pail.” Published by Chicago’s Lakeside Press in 1930, Kent’s masterwork appeared in a limited edition of one thousand. This copy was inscribed by Kent in 1933 for James B. Rankin, an original subscriber for the book. Completely unopened page block with publisher’s promotional materials laid in. An excellent copy. $12,500

www.whitmorerarebooks.com

Courtesy of Aleph-Bet Books.

Look With the Heart

An exceptional, signed copy of the limited first edition of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince (NY: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943). This very special book is in an un-chipped dust wrapper that shows the limitation number inked on the spine that matches the limitation number of the book, and it is housed in a custom cloth box. The edition was limited to 525 numbered and signed copies. The book was written in the United States while Saint-Exupéry was in self-exile from France’s Nazi occupation and the American edition precedes the French edition. Sadly, The Little Prince was his last book published before he disappeared in a flight over the Mediterranean. $22,000

www.alephbet.com

Courtesy of Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts.

Christmas in Camelot

A beautifully illustrated and utterly felicitous new edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in which John Ridland’s new modern English translation in traditional ballad meter invites reading aloud; Artemio Rodriguez’s new lino cuts are exemplary; and the presswork of Juan Pascoe’s esteemed Taller Martin Pescador, on handmade green paper, is splendid. Available in both a regular issue of two hundred numbered copies in stiff paper covers and sewn on vellum tapes, and a deluxe issue of twenty-six lettered, signed copies in quarter vellum with a handsome slipcase. “Thus Arthur was handed a New Year’s marvel, a startling gift, first thing / In the young year …” $450/Regular issue $1,050/Deluxe

www.prbm.com