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The annual Fine Books & Collections gift guide for bibliophiles is out! By Rebecca Rego Barry Rebecca Rego Barry is the editor of this magazine.
The American essayist and novelist Charles Dudley Warner once wrote, “The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value.” The annual Fine Books gift guide offers twenty ideas exceedingly appropriate for the book lover in your life. Below is an excerpt from our guide, just published in the autumn quarterly.
Enlightenment
Bookseller Priscilla Lowry-Gregor makes reading by candlelight an effortless endeavor. In addition to selling fine prints, maps, and rare books from her shop, Lowry-James Rare Prints & Books on Whidbey Island, Washington, she has been creating custom beeswax candles every holiday season since 2005. With the help of her son, each year’s production has grown larger and more varied. Hand-poured from 100 percent filtered beeswax and shaped into pillars, eggs, and pinecones, these earth-tone candles make elegant gifts.
lowryjames.com $26 and up (360) 221-0477
Old Ways
From the workshop of Ian Hunter in Minneapolis, Minnesota, comes handcrafted home library furnishings that recall “old times, old ways.” His Ex Libris Collection includes a bookshelf, a writing desk, a bookperch (cradle), and a browsing stool. The bookrack is available in two designs: Seedlings, with a subtle cutout design, and Friend Ship, with two ceramic tiles set into the panels. Shown here is the Friend Ship, featuring nautically themed green tile. Measuring 7.5” high and 5” wide, it expands to display between 17” and 34” of books. The tabletop bookrack is made of quarter-sawn white oak with dowel joinery and brass hardware, a fine place for your most prized volumes.
oldwaysltd.com $235 (612) 379-2142
Shirts on a Mission
Out of Print makes books fashionable again. Featuring iconic and quirky titles, the retailer licenses the artwork from publishers and prints on 100-percent cotton t-shirts, in both male and female sizes. Lord of the Flies, On the Road, Of Mice and Men, Atlas Shrugged, and Moby Dick (with the Rockwell Kent illustration) are just some of the offerings. And, for each shirt sold, a book is donated to a community in need through Books for Africa – as if you needed another reason to don a shirt featuring the cover illustration from the 1902 first edition of The Hound of the Baskervilles.
outofprintclothing.com $28 (646) 789-5199
Type Print
Typewriter collector Martin Howard has amassed the largest collection of early typewriters in Canada. In 2007, the Royal Ontario Museum exhibited these rare and historically important typewriters. Underwood and Royal, of course, but how about a Blickensderfer, a Hammond, or the ornate Crandall from 1886? Howard maintains a remarkable and edifying website, where he is also now offering professional prints of some of his antique typewriters. Photographer Jon Muldoon has produced artistic 8” x 12” images on glossy paper, suitable for framing, such as the handsome one pictured here of the 1901 Sun typewriter.