Japanese woodblock prints of the Edo period (1615-1868) were the products of a highly commercialised and competitive publishing industry. Their content was inspired by the vibrant popular culture that flourished in Edo (Tokyo). At any given time scores of publishers competed for the services of the leading artists of the day. Publishers and artists displayed tremendous ingenuity in finding ways to sustain demand for prints and to circumvent the restrictions placed on the industry through government censorship. Although Japanese prints have long been appreciated in the West for their graphic qualities, their content has not always been fully understood. This book draws on recent scholarship that makes possible a more subtle appreciation of the imagery encountered in the prints and how they would have been read when first made. Through stunning new photography of both well-known and rarely published works in the collection of the British Museum, including many recent acquisitions, the author explores how and why such prints were made, providing a fascinating introduction to a much-loved but little-understood art form.
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Hardcover, 23.5 x 23.5 cm, publisher's navy cloth, gilt-stamped lettering to spine, pictorial DJ; pp.: [1-6] 7-143 [144 blank]. -
Thin booklet in glossy pictorial wrappers, 29.8 x 24.7 cm, pp.: [1-4] 5-48, 24 leaves total, illustrated. Errata tipped in after the front wrapper. Title-page: Mirror | of the stage | The actor prints of | Kunisada | Ellis Tinios | The University Gallery Leeds || Colophon: Published in March 1996 for the exhibition Mirror of the Stage held at the University Gallery Leeds 24 April-30 May 1996. Introduction: "This book [exhibition catalogue] has been written as an introduction to nineteenth-century Japanese colour woodblock actor prints and to the achievements of the artist Kunisada in that field [as well as to accompany the exhibition of the same name]. It is divided into three sections. In the first, I examine four topics: the social and cultural milieu that gave rise to the production of prints as items of mass consumption; the aesthetic of the actor print; the economics of print production (including consideration of the numbers issued, the prices at which they were sold and their rates of survival); and the process by which prints were produced. The second section consists of sixteen colour plates with commentaries. In the final section, I survey Kunisada's career." Subject: Utagawa, Kunisada, — 1786-1864 — Exhibitions; Ukiyo-e — Exhibitions; Colour prints, Japanese — Edo period, 1600-1868 — Exhibitions. Contributors: Ellis Tinios Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Select illustrations (references in this collection):
SVJP-0226.2016: Superb Edo pictures illustrating dances, 1858.
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Publisher’s olive French flapped wrappers, in-4to, 33 x 25.3 x 6 cm, green and black lettering to front and spine, in a glassine dust jacket, in a marbled double slipcase 34.5 x 25.5 cm, unbound; pp.: [8] 1-436 [4], plus 30 colour plates with guard tissue, extraneous to collation; edition enriched with a set of 30 uncoloured etchings with guard tissue in a lettered paper folder. Title-page: ÉMILE ZOLA | NANA | ILLUSTRÉ DE | TRENTE GRAVURES ORIGINALES | DE | VERTÈS |◾| PARIS | JAVAL ET BOURDEAUX | 44 bis, rue de Villejust | 1933 || Justification du tirage: il a été tiré de «Nana » d'Émile Zola. Soixante exemplaires sur japon impérial, numérotés de 1 a 60, avec un état en couleurs colorié a la main et un état en noir des trente gravures originales de Vertès. [Edition limited to 60 copies, this is copy № 54]. Colophon: « NANA », D'ÉMILE ZOLA, ÉTÉ ACHEVÉ D'IMPRIMER LE TRENTE AVRIL MIL NEUF CENT TRENTE-TROIS, EN CARACTÈRES ROMAIN ANGLAIS DU CORPS 16, SUR LES PRESSES DU MAITRE IMPRIMEUR COULOUMA, À ARGENTEUIL, H. BARTHÉLEMY, DIRECTEUR. LES COMPOSITIONS DE VERTÈS ONT ÉTÉ REPRODUITES EN FAC-SIMILÉ PAR D. JACOMET & Cie. Printed on April 30, 1933 by Coulouma in Argenteuil, H. Barthélemy, director; illustrations reproduced in facsimile by D. Jacomet & Co. Catalogue raisonné: Vokaer 30. Contributors: Émile Zola (French, 1840 – 1902) – author. Marcel Vertès [Marcell Vértes] (Jewish-Hungarian-French, 1895 – 1961) – artist. Javal et Bourdeaux – publisher. Daniel Jacomet (French, 1894 – 1966) – printer. Seller's description: Nana. Paris, Javal et Bourdeaux, 1933. 2 volumes in-4, en feuilles, non coupé, non rogné, chemise et étui. Ouvrage illustré de 30 gravures originales en couleurs de Marcel Vertès. Tirage à 60 exemplaires sur japon impérial contenant un état des illustrations coloriées à la main en couleurs et un état en noir. Chemise et emboîtage insolés. -
Description: French flapped wrappers, 27 x 20.5 cm, 134 gatherings, plus two leaves (blank, h.t. / limitation) at the beginning (54 leaves total), the first and the last two leaves blank, two pages in each of 12 gatherings (24 total) are hand-painted photogravures after etchings by an anonymous artist, attributed to Santippa, pseudonym of Georges or Gaston Hoffmann, or, possibly, of André Collot; the gatherings are unbound, pp. [1-10] 11-99 [100] [8] (108 pages total). Title-page: ÉPICES | REFLEXIONS | sur quelques à-côtés de l'amour | destinées à des personnes | expérimentées | ILLUSTREES | DE | VINGT-QUATRE PLANCHES | HORS-TEXTE | COLORIÉES A LA MAIN | {vignette} | ÉDITÉ | POUR UN GROUPE DE BIBLIOPHILES || Edition: limited to 500 copies numbered from 1 to 480 + 20 hand-numbered with Roman numbers. This is copy № 273. Enrichment: one original sketch (for Coucou… ou l’erreur de porte), one etching before letters and the same after letters and coloured (Le petit coin tranquille.. 19/20), and a full suite of 24 original etchings in sepia on cream paper, 20 of them on Arches and 4 on BFK Rives) printed for the first 17 copies of the 1950 edition (55 copies were printed then). In addition: one graphite pencil sketch which is not part of the suite. Catalogue raisonné: Dutel 1920 – 1970: № 1490 (for 1950), № 1491 (for 1955).
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One volume in-4o, 26.5 x 21 x 4.4 cm, bound by Durvand (signed) in yellow ¾ morocco over marbled boards outlined in gilt, spine with raised bands, gilt lettering, vignettes after Félicien Rops in compartments, top margin gilt, marbled endpapers, publisher’s wrappers preserved; enriched with 57 original prints after Félicien Rops and an etched portrait of Félicien Rops by Robert Kastor. Collation: 3 blanks, π4 (orig. front wrapper ‘En souscription…./Etudes sur…’, La tentation…/Érastène Ramiro..., h.t./justification, t.p/blank), 1-274 (paginated 1-215 [216]) χ2 plus 58 leaves of bound-in original prints by various printers on different papers, some on India paper pasted on vergé, with tissue guards, and 1 leave of manuscript ‘Table de gravures dans le texte’; back wrapper with ‘Table des gravures ajoutées’ manuscript to recto, original spine, 2 blanks. Title-page (red and black): Études sur quelques Artistes originaux | — | FÉLICIEN ROPS | par | ÉRASTÈNE RAMIRO | {fleuron} | PARIS | (left): G. PELLET | 51, Rue Le Peletier, 51 | (right): H. FLOURY | 1, Boulevard des Capucines, 1 | 1905 || Limitation: 125 copies, of which 100 copies on Japon à la forme and 25 copies 0n papier de Chine. Photographs here represent the original prints only. Contributors: Eugène Rodrigues-Henriques [Eugène Rodrigues, Erastène Ramiro] (French, 1853 –1928) – author. Félicien Rops (Belgian, 1833 – 1898) – artist. Robert Kastor (French, 1872 – 1935) – artist. Imprimerie Charles Hérissey (Évreux) – printer Gustave Pellet (French, 1859 – 1919) – publisher. Henri Floury (French, 1862 –1961) – publisher. Lucien Durvand (French, 1852 – 1924) – bookbinder. -
Description: Oblong volume, 19.3 x 24.2 cm, hardcover in velvet with pasted image, in a pictorial slipcase; printed on glossy paper, unpaginated. Title-page (in frame): ERATO | GRAPHIKEN VON MIHÁLY ZICHY || Collation: (2) h.t., t.p., (30) leaves of plates (4) text by Éva Bros, bibliography, colophon; total 36 leaves. The plates are photomechanical offset copies made from the photogravures of 1911 Leipzig private press edition [SVE-0501.2021], which photogravures made from the original watercolours and crayon drawings produced by Zichy in 1874-1879; the original album of 51 compositions was sold at Christie’s sale of Gérard Nordmann collection on December 14-15, 2006 in Paris. See a copy of the Leipzig album № 285 in this collection [SVE-0501.2021]. -
Front wrapper and t.p.: THE | INTERNATIONAL | JEW | The Truth About | "The Protocols of Zion" | By ERIC D. BUTLER | ∞ | Hitler’s Views on “The Protocols”: | “I SAW AT ONCE WE MUST COPY IT.” | “The question of the Jews and their influence on the world, past and present, cuts to the root of all things and should be discussed by every honest thinker” | — Dr. Oscar Levy, Famous Jewish Writer. | Price — 2/6 || (T.p.: same with the full stop (.) after 2/6. Stamp to t.p.: Women’s Voice | 537 SO. DEARBORN ST. | ROOM 800 | CHICAGO 5. ILL. || [2] 3-167 [168]. Binding: Lettered publisher’s wrappers, 18 x 12 cm. Butler, Eric Dudley (Australian, 1916 – 2006) Osborne, Robert Martin (British-Australian, 1862 – 1931) — Australian printer and publisher. Levy, Oscar (German-Jewish, 1867 – 1946) Hitler, Adolf (German, 1889 – 1945) -
Description: Hardcover volume bound in red cloth with black lettering to front cover and spine, in a red dustjacket with black lettered, bookplate to front pastedown “ from the library of | DAVID. D. LEVINE | Militaria” in triple fillet frame, bookseller’s label to front fep “CHAS. E. LAURIAT CO. | IMPORTERS & BOOKSELLERS | 385 Wash’n St. Boston”. Title-page in red and black: MY DAYS OF ADVENTURE | THE FALL OF FRANCE, 1870-71 | BY ERNEST ALFRED VIZETELLY | LE PETIT HOMME ROUGE | AUTHOR OF “THE COURT OF THE TUILERIES 1852-70” ETC. | {publisher’s device} | WITH A FRONTISPIECE | LONDON | CHATTO & WINDUS | 1914 || Pagination: [2] advert., [i-vii] viii-xi [xii] [2] contents/blank, [1] 2-337 [338] [2], 340 pages total plus photo frontis. Collation: [A8] B-Y8 Z2, 170 leaves total plus one leaf of plates. Provenance: David D. Levine Contributors: Ernest Alfred Vizetelly (British, 1853 – 1922) – author. Charles E. Lauriat Company, Booksellers and Importers, Boston, Massachusetts. Charles Emelius Lauriat, Jr. (American, 1874 – 1937) – collector of rare books and prints Chatto & Windus (London) – publisher. David Daniel Levine (Australian, 1944 – 2020) – Australian judge and book collector -
![Ernest Gegout, Charles Malato. Prison Fin de Siècle: Souvenirs de Pélagie / par E. Gegout et Ch. Malato. — Paris: G. Charpentier & E. Fasquelle, 1891. — pp.: [ - blank, tiré] [2 - ht, frontis.] [2 - t. p. blank] [2 - préface] [1] 2-352 [2 blanks], wrappers, ills by Steinlen.](https://varshavskycollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/LIB-2452.2020-a-1-scaled-500x500.jpeg)
Front pictorial cover: [PRISON | FIN DE | SIÈCLE] – [SOUVENIRS | DE | PÉLAGIE | PAR | E. GEGOUT | ET | CH. MALATO] – [Dessins | de | Steinlen] – [PARIS | G. CHARPENTIER & E. FASQUELLE | ÉDITEURS | Rue de Grenelle, 11 | 1891] || Title page: GEGOUT ET CH. MALATO | PRISON | FIN DE SIÈCLE | — SOUVENIRS DE PÉLAGIE — | Illustrations de Steinlen | PARIS | G. CHARPENTIER ET E. FASQUELLE | ÉDITEURS | 11, RUE DE GRENELLE, 11 | 1891 | Tous droits réservés. || Pagination: [2] – blank / imprint, [2] – h.t. / frontis., [2] – t. p. / blank, [2] – préface, [1] 2-352 [2 blanks], wrappers, illustr. by Steinlen, paginated. Collation: 12mo ; π4 1-1912 203. Binding: 19 x 12 cm, publisher’s pictorial wrappers, block broken; bookplates pasted to verso of the front wrapper: Ex Libris NesClo, Fecit: René Versel; embossed stamp Versel to h.t. and t.p. Autograph of Ernest Gegout handwritten in black ink to half-title: Très amicalement allait à mon aimable cousin Le Roy. Ernest Gegout. Gégout, Ernest (French, 1854 – 1936) Malato, Charles (French, 1857 – 1938) Steinlen, Théophile Alexandre (Swiss-French, 1859 – 1923) -
ERNEST HEMINGWAY | A Moveable Feast | {Citation} | CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, | New York || Pagination: [12] – incl: advert., h.t., t.p., colophon, contents, preface, and note, [1, 2] - f.t. / blank, 3-211 [212]. Publisher’s cloth-backed stamped boards, original dust jacket. Ref.: Hanneman A31a. -
Title page: ACROSS THE RIVER | AND | INTO THE TREES | BY | ERNEST HEMINGWAY | CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS | NEW YORK | 1950 || Pagination: [12] 1-308; total 160 leaves. Binding: black cloth, gilt Hemingway's fac-simile to front board, lettering to spine, pictorial dust jacket designed by A. Ivancich; $3.00 price clipped from top of front flap. Bookplate of Feodor Rojankovsky to front pastedown. Size: 21.5 x 15 cm. Edition: 1st edition, 1st printing; DJ with yellow on spine (later copies have orange); letter “A” and the Scribner’s device to copyright page. Provenance: Rojankovsky, Feodor [Rojan; Рожанковский, Фёдор Степанович] (Russian-American, 1891 – 1970) Contributors: Ernest Hemingway (American, 1899 – 1961) – author. Adriana Ivancich (Italian, 1930 – 1983) – artist of the dust jacket (Ivancich inspired the figure of Renata in the novel). Charles Scribner's Sons – publisher. -
Bound in full-colour pictorial wrappers with French flaps, 250 x 190 x 35 mm, 1,311 g by weight, profusely illustrated volume, pp. [1-4] 5-427 [5], 216 leaves total. Title-page: {vignette} | EROS BACCHUS | L'amour et le vin | {publisher's device} || Exhibition at Château Musée du vin et de la vigne, à Aigle, du 24 mai 2014 au 28 février 2015. Text by Michel Froidevaux. Original description : Depuis l'apparition du vignoble, l'amour et le vin sont inséparables. Tantôt boisson des dieux, tantôt breuvage des poètes, le vin a la vertu de rapprocher les êtres. De la riche mythologie antique - Dionysos et Bacchus - aux fêtes des confréries contemporaines, le vin enflamme l'imaginaire et génère de la convivialité. L'idée est de proposer un parcours ludique et culturel, badin et savant pour aller par siècles et contrées à la découverte des plaisirs du boire et des méandres du désir. Livre richement illustré d'un millier d'images (dessins, objets, cartes postales,...) avec la participation d'une quarantaine d'artistes contemporains qui ont créé spécialement une œuvre. Machine translation: Love and wine have been inseparable since the dawn of the vineyard. Sometimes the drink of the gods, sometimes the beverage of poets, wine has the virtue of bringing people together. From the rich mythology of antiquity - Dionysus and Bacchus - to contemporary brotherhood celebrations, wine fires the imagination and generates conviviality. The idea is to offer a playful and cultural journey, both playful and learned, through centuries and lands, to discover the pleasures of drinking and the twists and turns of desire. The book is richly illustrated with some 1,000 images (drawings, objects, postcards, etc.), featuring works by some 40 contemporary artists. -
Description: One volume 32.5 x 25.5 cm, in crimson cloth, blind lettering to front cover and spine, pictorial DJ, lettered (similar to t.p.) in the back. Pagination: [2 blank] [1-9] 10-337 [338] [4] [4 notes], total 174 leaves, 137 entries. Title-page (in red and black): Eros invaincu | LA BIBLIOTHÉQUE GÉRARD NORDMANN | Florilège | établi sous la direction de Monique Nordmann | commente par Laurent Adert • Saba Bahar • Françoise Bléchet • Arto Clerc | (5 more lines of names) | & | édité par Rainer Michael Mason | FONDATION MARTIN BODMER | EDITIONS CERCLE D'ART | GENÈVE • MMIV • PARIS || Gérard Nordmann (Swiss, 1930 – 1992) Bibliothèque érotique: Gérard Nordmann; Livres, manuscrits, dessins, photographies du XVIe au XXe siècle / Catalogues de ventes (two parts) — Paris: Christie’s, 2006, see LIB-2828.2021 and [LIB-2810.2021]. -
Hardcover volume, 290 x 225 mm, bound in scarlet velveteen with gilt lettering to front and spine, gilt vignette and lettering to back; pp.: [1-8] 9-204 [4], profusely illustrated; text in French and English. ISBN : 2-940127-37-9. Title-page (yellow on red paper): EROS SECRET | OBJETS EROTIQUES A TRANSFORMATION | EROTIC TRANSFORMATION OBJECTS | Photographies et chorégraphie : Véronique Willemin | Photographer and choreography || “The ensemble of 150 objects presented belongs to one single collector. The manner in which the author met him at the airport of Larnaca, then on a yacht in the Mediterranean sea, resembles more a novel by Gérard de Villiers than the preface of a curator but has its own touch of spice” [Art of the day Weekly]. -
Hardcover volume, 297 x 256 x 40 mm, glossy pictorial boards, pp. [1-8] 9-428 [4], profusely illustrated, text in French. F.I.N.A.L.E. stands for Foundation Internationale d’Arts et Litératures Érotiques (Foundation of Erotic Arts and Literatures, established on December 12, 1996 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Title-page: éros, | indéfiniment | Collections F.I.N.A.L.E. | { HumuS, publisher’s device} || -
NEWHardcover, 188 x 118 mm, brown half-morocco over burgundy faux-chagrin, spine with raised bands and burgundy label with gilt lettering, gilt fleurons in compartments, floral diaper endpapers, collated 8vo:ffl, π2 1-138, ffl, pp. [4] 1-207 [208], plus frontispiece portrait and 8 unnumbered leaves of plates, etchings, one of them hand-coloured; limitation to half-title verso: "Tirage a 300 exemplaires". The title page is loose. Each gathering has 4 'tall' pages (1, 2, 7, 8 - 181 mm) and 4 'short' (3, 4, 5, 6 - 165 mm). Two parts are in one vol., signed and paged continuously; the second part has its own half-title and title pages. "Fin de première partie" at p. 107 (76), part 2 h.t. at 77, part 2 t.p. similar to the main t.p. but in black only at 78. The portrait of Étienne de Jouy was possibly engraved by Charles Monselet (French, 1825 – 1888) after Julien-Léopold Boilly (French, 1796 – 1874). Title-page (red and black): LA GALERIE | DES | FEMMES | COLLECTION INCOMPLÈTE DE HUIT TABLEAUX | RECUEILLIS PAR UN AMATEUR | L'amour est le roman du cœur | Et le plaisir en est l'histoire. | BEAUMARCHAIS. Folle journ. | — | A HAMBOURG | – | 1799 Compare to Dutel: 8 plates instead of 9; no two-page text “Nous espérions joinder à ce livre une notice…” before Deux mots de préface, the word FIN on p. 207 instead of 203, no table of contents at the end; no imprint Bruxelles. — Imp. de J. H. Briard, rue des Minimes, 51, on the same page as Table, signed 15. Dutel: № A-456, p.148:- In-8 (18,4 x 11) de (2 ff.), II, 203 pp., 1 ff. de table, couv. jaune imp. en rouge.
- Édition publiée à Bruxelles en 1869 par J.-P. Blanche. Elle est ornée de 9 gravures et d'un facsimilé de l'écriture de Monselet, qui n'est pour rien dans ce volume.
- Tirage : 300 exemplaires.
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Title page: PARIS | À TABLE | PAR | EUGÈNE BRIFFAULT. | Illustré par Bertall. | {vignette} | PARIS | PUBLIÉ PAR J. HETZEL, | RUE DE RICHELIEU, 76 — RUE DE MÉNARS, 10 | 1846 || Pagination : ffl, [2] – h.t. / imprim., [2] – wood-engraved pictorial t.p. bt Bertall, [2] – t.p. / blank, [i] ii-iv, 2] – f.t. / imprim., [1] 2-184, ffl; in-text woodcuts by Betrall. Collation: π6 1-462; size 8vo. Binding: brown quarter morocco over marbled boards, raised bands, gilt device in compartments and gilt lettering to spine. Matching marbled endpapers, previous owner’s bookplate to front pastedown. Bookplate: Motto: “LITTERÆ SCIENTIA & ARTES / AR (monogram), 7738 BELIURE TOFFIER – TOURS / L. D.” Contributors: Eugène Briffault (French, 1799 – 1854) – author of the text. Bertall [ Bertal; Charles Albert d'Arnoux (French, 1820 – 1882) – illustrator. Pierre-Jules Hetzel (French, 1814 – 1886) – publisher. Printer: Imprimerie Schneider et Langrand, rue d'Erfurth, 1 (Paris). Paper: La papeterie d’Essonne. -
Hardcover volume, 24.5 x 17.5 cm, pictorial boards and endpapers, pp. [2] 3-167 [168]; 2 t.p., 129 pp. of plates, 33 pp. of text, 4 pp. of thumbnails, 1 colophon. Front cover (grey vignette, blue lettering): Das Leningrader Album | We are on | our way to school | singing songs | hip and cool | Вместе в школу | мы идём | песни модные | поём. | von | Evgenij | Kozlov | konkursbuch Verlag | Claudia Gehrke || ISBN: 3-88769-315-9. Evgenij Kozlov (Russian-German, b. 1955) – artist.
