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74 items found:

Iwahashi Zenbei (or Yoshitaka depending on the transcriber). [Heitengi Zukai]. Osaka, Ikeuchi Yahe &c 1802 (Kyowa 2). 27x19cm (with small variations); [4],38 double folded leaves (the last, the colophon, to be a single leaf pasted down to the back cover); woodcut illustrations throughout, three with moving parts. Light browning; an outstanding copy in unbound sheets, folded but untrimmed and unstitched. Au$1200

A quite remarkable, say I, copy of this guide to Zenbei's Heitengi - a set of astronomical volvelles - issued the year before, and an introduction to astronomy by Japan's leading telescope maker. So, in it's way something of an advertisement - almost a trade catalogue - and it includes a full page illustration of what must be one of his telescopes. Among the celestial and world maps and observations of planets and the moon he made, there is one of Zenbei's three sunspot drawings done in about 1793. Of course we all want a matching set of the volvelles now ... good luck and if you get there before me I curse all your electrical appliances.
This book had no title page, the title is on the binding label, so this set of sheets is absolutely complete.


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Advertising - Feet. M. Joel & M. Kock, (from Paris) Corn Operators, by Special Appointment to the Duke de Orleans and Princess Adelaide, Prince Nassau ... most respectfully informs the Nobility, Gentry and Public in general, that they eradicate Bunions and Soft Corns from their very roots; ... n.p. [c1830?]. Single sheet (220x140mm); text printed in a decorative border with a cut of a corn operator at work at the top and a bare foot at the bottom. A couple of spots but pretty good. Au$125

Messieurs Joel and Kock normally spent their winters in Paris and summers in London but here their residence has been filled in by hand as 3 George Place, Plymouth, opposite the Royal Hotel.


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HOWARD, Thomas. On the Loss of the Teeth; and on the best means of restoring them. London, Simpkin & Marshall 1859. Small slender octavo publisher's blindstamped cloth; 62,[1]pp and a charming frontispiece printed in blue with a before and after overlay. An over possessive medico's bookplate and blindstamp on the front endpapers, rather a good copy. Au$200

A successful little book it seems, there were several printings between 1852 and 1862 (the publishers claim 27 by 1857). Howard, surgeon dentist to the Archbishop of Canterbury, at first seems to approve of artificial teeth made of hippo tusk but later points out that they don't last long. There are similar problems with ivory, gold and natural teeth (recycled from other mouths) which understandably disturb persons of "extreme sensibility and delicacy of feeling". He has, though, invented a "new description of composition teeth" which are "perfectly incorruptible" - their "durability is unbounded".
By 1863 Howard had moved from Hanover Square to Fleet Street and extended his hours from 11 till 4 to 10 till 5. Whether this means a thriving business or desperate decline I can't tell.


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Exhibition - Dunedin 1865. Official Catalogue of the New Zealand Industrial Exhibition, 1865. Dunedin, for the Commissioners 1865. Octavo publisher's printed wrappers (a bit marked and frayed); 156,viii + 20 pages of adverts, folding plan. A pencil list of plants on the back wrapper; used but most acceptable. Au$450

New Zealand's first international exhibition, well before any other in this part of the world. Admittedly not a lot came from elsewhere apart from Tasmania and Britain but come they did. Tasmania sent more than all the other colonies combined.


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[Catalogue - Fashion]. Grands Magasins du Printemps. Paris. Saison d'Ete 1870. Grands Magasins du Printemps. Exposition Publique et Grande Mise en Vente des plus belle nouveautes de la saison. Catalogue des articles les plus remarquables .. 1870. Paris, the company 1870. Small quarto printed wrapper; 32pp, 10 full page wood engraved illustrations. Printed in blue. A touch rumpled. Au$250

High fashion for ladies of course - and for young girls: one of the plates illustrates three girls and a baptism robe.


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Catalogue - Gravestones. D.L. Kent & Co. East Dorset, Vt. Turned Marble Monuments, Urns, etc. [c1870-80?]. Lithographed broadside, 59x72cm, illustrating 21 designs. Unfolded, in excellent shape. Au$450

Restrained and classical, not a barley twist or angel in sight.


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Catalogue - tiles. Minton, Hollins & Co. Stoke Upon Trent. [Catalogue of art-painted tiles, enamelled tiles and embossed Majolica tiles]. Minton Hollins c1873. Small folio (33x22cm) publisher's cloth backed printed boards (ink stain on front cover); 2pp and 25 chromolitho plates, 12pp price list loosely inserted. Minor signs of use, the ink stain apart a rather good copy. Au$2750

Here we have the arty tiles those for walls, surrounds and so on. Encaustic and paving tile patterns were available separately from the company. Around 1870 there was a split between the partners of Minton and for a short while there were two companies making Minton tiles until a law suit settled the matter. Hence the stern declaration on the cover - and the price list - that the patents and the name belong this firm. Both cover and price list include their 1873 Vienna exposition medal and a slip added to the price list announces a price rise in August 1872 - 10% will be added to the prices here.
Maybe once a week for years and years - this was a long time ago when I kept shop with open doors in Sydney - an unappealing man would come in and ask if we had a 19th century Minton tile catalogue. When I said no, he said, "I do." I think he had some job that would be unspeakably dull but that it allowed him to tour the bookshops of greater Sydney assuring us all that he had a Minton tile catalogue. The last time I went to a Sydney book fair there he was, asking the same question with such anticipation that he barely paused for the answer before his inevitable boast. I don't remember his name, I don't know if he's still alive and I have no wish to see him ever again but still, still, I would like to say, "Why yes, yes I do".


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[Catalogue - Fashion]. Maison du Petit Saint-Thomas, Paris. Maison du Petit St Thomas. Saison d'Hiver 1879 - 1880. Paris, the company 1879. Octavo publisher's printed wrapper; 72pp, numerous wood engraved illustrations throughout and four fabric samples tipped inside the front cover; an additional illustrated leaf loosely inserted. A touch rumpled. Au$225

Something about this makes me think that this is the company that dressed the subjects of Manet paintings. An appealing catalogue with the latest fashions for women, men and children, from lingerie and cravats to fur trimmed coats and manteaus. There are as well such things as umbrellas, some furnishing fabrics and at the very end, some Chinese and Japanese 'objets authentiques' - vases, a cabinet &c.


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Catalogue - Pharmaceuticals. McKesson & Robbins, New York. Prices Current of Drugs and Druggists' Articles, chemical and pharmaceutical preparations, proprietry medicines & perfumery, sponges, corks, dyes, paints, etc., etc., etc. New York 1879. Octavo publisher's flush cut limp cloth, front titled in gilt; 224pp, numerous wood engraved illustrations. One section excepted, printed on pink paper. A rather good copy. Au$375

As well as the goods listed in the title this offers scales, glassware, brushes, surgical instruments and English toothbrushes, and still more.


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Exhibition - Melbourne 1880. Melbourne International Exhibition, 1880. The Official Catalogue of the Exhibits, with introductory notices of the countries exhibiting. Melbourne, Mason Firth &c 1880. Two volumes octavo bound together in contemporary half red gilt calf (edges a bit rubbed or scuffed); xvi,308;xvi,364pp, folding plan and some illustrations in the text. An attractive copy. Au$600

Second and better edition - late arrivals missed by the first edition have been included and "considerable improvements" and "extended notices" have been incorporated. So it is now "a complete record of the numerous exhibits".


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Catalogue - hearses. Merts & Riddle, Ravenna, Ohio. Merts & Riddle, Coach and Hearse Builders. Ravenna, printed by S.D. Harris [188-?]. Oblong octavo publisher's illustrated wrapper; 50pp, full page wood engraved illustrations throughout. A remarkably good copy. Au$250

Ravenna was clearly more than a one hearse town in the later 19th and early 20th centuries. Merts and Riddle bought their employer's coach building company in 1861 and expanded into hearses a decade or so later. When Merts left in 1891 the company became Riddle Coach & Hearse Co.
This is the earliest catalogue - dated "1880 or so" - in the collection of Thomas Riddle, descendant and company historian. The catalogues at the Huntington with a conjectured date of 1875 aren't. Romaine did not see any Merts & Riddle catalogues.


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Exhibition - Melbourne 1880. Report of the Executive Commissioner on the Melbourne International Exhibition 1880-81. Sydney, Govt Printer 1881. Largish octavo publisher's morocco; six autotype photo plates and two folding plans. Some foxing, mostly at each end. A handsome copy with John Chapman's bookplate. Au$650

An uncommon record from Melbourne's natural enemy but the NSW Commissioner is gracious, given that Sydney had held the first international exhibition the year before. Only in passing does he remark that it's a pity Melbourne is so flat they couldn't find an elevated spot to park their building. He doesn't mention that Melbourne is a follow up to Sydney more than three or four times a page.
Included is the catalogue of New South Wales' exhibits and list of jury award winners.


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Catalogue - Hardware. The Penn Hardware Company, Reading, PA. Illustrated Catalogue of General Hardware Manufactured by the Penn Hardware Company ... 1883. Reading, printed by Coleman 1883. Quarto publisher's cloth (spine tips a little worn); x,143pp, wood engraved illustrations throughout. A rather good copy. Au$375

Builder's hardware and household goods handsomely illustrated, often at full size. The household goods include some lamps, inkstands and a couple of toy savings banks.


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TRELOAR, W.P. The Prince of Palms. London, Sampson Low &c [1884]. Elegantly slender octavo publisher's dark green cloth, front cover decorated & titled in gilt (a touch flecked); 50pp, colour frontispiece, wood engraved illustrations through the text, some full page. A rather good copy of this appealing book. Inscribed and signed by Treloar. Au$250

Treloar's father had published a pamphlet with the same title "about forty years ago" (in 1852 actually) with the object of publicising his new industry of cocoa-nut fibre mats and matting. The Treloars have done pretty well with coconuts as W.P. is Sir William Treloar Bart. The view of acres of their works at Southwark illustrates well enough the extent of their success and he has in turn published this paean to the enriching nut, updating and giving an account of the industry around the world.


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Exhibition - London 1885-86. Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1885-86. Report of the Royal Commission for Victoria ... Melbourne, Govt printer 1887. Foolscap original half morocco; xii,103pp, six autotype or woodburytype photo plates (two folding), six wood engraved plates and a plan. Foxing at each end, still a pleasing handsome copy. A specially bound presentation copy to Melbourne bigwig, Jenkin Collier, one of the commissioners. Au$850

The four autotypes are from Lindt photographs and I wondered why they were there until I figured out they must have beeen exhibited and that Lindt gave 6000 copies to the Commission. Among the reports on each class, wine gets the most extensive treatment with a long report by Richard Bannister, a report of Joseph Bosisto's tour of vineyards in France and Spain and a further paper on colonial wines from Bannister.


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Catalogue - clothing. E. Rosenburger, New York City. A Dark Secret is Let Out By [cover title; inside:] The Clothing Specialists of America. E. Rosenburger & Co. NY, the company [c1890]. Large octavo (26x18cm) publisher's illustrated wrapper; [16]pp, illustrated by wood engravings throughout. A vertical fold, a rumpled but very decent copy. Au$350

A splendid example of the value that even the most casual racism adds to any advertising. Who could resist opening this to find out what could so shock this mammy? What is it about images like this that made them so successful? It can't just be that they were funny, nor that they comforted one race nursing a fear of another. And what makes them so magnetic now? It can't just be that they shock us? And what is the dark secret? I've been right through this and I'm still not convinced there isn't some secret beyond Rosenburger's cheap suits for men and boys.
I can't find this or any Rosenburger catalogue in Romaine, McKinstry or anywhere else I can think of looking.


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Catalogue - Pharmaceuticals. Weeks & Potter, Boston. Revised Catalogue of Foreign and Domestic Drugs, selected powders, fine essential oils, waters and extracts ... wines and liquors, proprietry medicines, druggists shop furniture ... sundries and surgical appliances, sponges, fancy goods, and toilet articles. Boston 1890. Octavo publisher's limp cloth, the front titled in black (spine browned and a bit rubbed); 468,130pp, profusely illustrated with wood engravings and a handsome full page colour lithograph of a bottle of their Beef, Iron and Wine. Used but solid and very decent. The second section consists of advertisements. Au$300

The advertisements include a warning by Dr S.A. Richmond of Tuscola, Illinois, against fraudulent companies selling bogus versions of his justly celebrated Samaritan Nervine. He prints the text of a judgment against such a company and invites the many thousands of those he has saved from epilepsy, insanity and death to join him "lashing these ignorant, impotent, piratical scoundrels through the earth with a whip of scorpions."


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Hikifuda. Hikifuda with lucky gods Ebisu and Daikokuten on the telephone. n.p. [Osaka? 189-?] Colour woodcut 26x38cm. A crooked fold and a few small marks; quite good and bright. Au$300

Ebisu and Daikokuten did embrace modernity - or rather, wanted to play with every new gadget and fashion - so naturally they would want to play on the telephone. Surely they had plenty of spirit messengers among their retinues. Apparently public telephones only became available in 1890, until then they were reserved for the government, police and select companies.
I can't read the centre panel which tells us who was selling what and I don't understand the signifance of 753 which is the number in both telephone booths and the banner on the right. Something to do with Shichi-Go-San? November 15? Sorry. But there would be no point to this hikifuda unless it was timely, that telephones were brand new, in the same way that this pair were pioneer joyriders in a motor car and donned military uniforms during the Russo-Japanese war.
Hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were usually produced with the text panel blank. The customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed, so the same image might sell fine silk or soy sauce.


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[Exhibition - Melbourne 1888-89]. Official Record of the Centennial International Exhibition, Melbourne, 1888 - 1889, .. Melbourne, Sands & McDougall 1890. Plump octavo publisher's gilt cloth; iv,1138,vipp, large folding plan, plans & photo plates (some folding). The large folding plan separated on some folds with some old tape marks; but in all a rather good copy. Au$600

Description and history, reports and awards, catalogue of the exhibits, &c.


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Hikifuda. Chairs. Yoshida Yakichi. [Isu Seizojin]. Morioka (Iwate) 1891 (Meiji 24). Letterpress broadside 24x33cm; five chairs and a stool illustrated. Top corners repaired - I suspect it was in an album, mildly stained; pretty good. Au$375

Advertising handbill for Yoshida Yakichi, a furniture, or at least chair, maker in Morioka - in northern Honshu.
Maruya opened probably the first western furniture shop in Japan in the Ginza in 1872, probably selling imports to begin with. How quickly western furniture making for a Japanese market followed I don't know. The wealthy who wanted at least one western room to show off their modernity would likewise want to show off fine imported pieces. I'm sure there is a learned paper somewhere on western furniture making in c19th provincial Japan. If there isn't, here's a good place to start.


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Exhibition - Launceston 1891. Tasmanian Exhibition, Launceston, 1891-92. Official Catalogue of the Exhibits. Launceston, printed by James Brickhill 1891. Octavo publisher's printed wrapper (chipped); xvi (adverts),181,xvii-xxiii (adverts)pp plus another four pages of adverts in the middle, folding plan. Used but most acceptable. Au$900

I confess I knew nothing of Tasmania's first international exhibition until recently, which says more about my willful blindness and the scarcity of the official catalogue and record than the exhibition itself. It was pretty big, with exhibitors from Britain, a few European countries and North America, and something close to twice the population of Tasmania visited.
This was one of Jules Joubert's successes. Joubert, who continually careered between triumph and disgrace, cut his exhibition teeth with the Sydney agricultural shows and moved on to international exhibitions in the mid seventies. After disgrace with the 1879 Sydney exhibition he became a travelling gun for hire, organising exhibitions in Perth, Calcutta, Melbourne, New Zealand and Tasmania - this one and the 1894 Hobart exhibition.
I learnt from the back cover that Collard & Collard offered pianos, upright and grand, in Tasmanian woods of elegant finish and I wonder whether any made their way back here among the rosewoods and mahoganies. In any case, few experts think that Collard pianos are worth restoring except for sentimental purposes so it probably doesn't matter.


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Hikifuda. ... [Yamaishihara ...] Osaka 1891 (Meiji 24). Colour woodcut 38x26cm. Two horizontal folds, a nice copy. Au$100

An example of a somewhat western aesthetic style (ie inspired by Japan) applied to the authoritive detail of a currency note or share certificate. In other words, here is a company or product to be trusted. Absolutely.
Hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were usually produced with the text panel blank. The customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed, so the same image might sell fine silk or soy sauce.
Yamaishihara is an area south west of Osaka and the timetable is for 1892. The rest is up to you.


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[Catalogue - Cast-Iron Hollow Ware]. E. Pugh & Co., Wednesbury. [Illustrated Price List of Cast-Iron Hollow-Ware - E. Pugh & Co.]. The company, before 1891. Octavo publisher's green cloth; [vi]pp, and 71 leaves printed on one side (numbered to 88 with some gaps in the numbering but complete as issued), numerous illustrations throughout. Mounted onto the title is a 64 page revised price list to amend all catalogues issued before January 1891. A note about their enamelling is dated 1884. Au$300

Enamelled and tinned ware: pots, pans, kettles, sifters, coffee mills, spittoons (plain and Turkish), and stable ware.


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Exhibition - Launceston 1891. Official Record of the Tasmanian International Exhibition - held at Launceston, 1891-92. Printed at the Launceston Examiner Office 1893. Octavo publisher's decorated cloth (a bit marked); viii,137pp, frontispiece. Quite a good copy with John Chapman's bookplate. Au$900

I confess I knew nothing of Tasmania's first international exhibition until recently, which says more about my willful blindness and the scarcity of the official catalogue and record than the exhibition itself. It was pretty big, with exhibitors from Britain, a few European countries and North America, and something close to twice the population of Tasmania visited.
This was one of Jules Joubert's successes. Joubert, who continually careered between triumph and disgrace, cut his exhibition teeth with the Sydney agricultural shows and moved on to international exhibitions in the mid seventies. After disgrace with the 1879 Sydney exhibition he became a travelling gun for hire, organising exhibitions in Perth, Calcutta, Melbourne, New Zealand and Tasmania - this one and the 1894 Hobart exhibition.
This includes a list of the award winners.


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Catalogue - Mechanical Music. Symphonion Manufacturing Co. Symphonions. NY printed, the company [1894]. Octavo publisher's printed wrapper (chipped and close to detached); 29pp, illustrations. Outwardly dishevelled but decent enough. Loosely inserted are some small sheets which seem to be an owner's catalogue of their discs. Au$200

Fourteen models, from the modest No.28 (crank driven) to the sublime Eroica, near seven feet of neo-renaissance kitsch and 'Very Loud, Magnificent Music; Expressive.' Also a partial list of the steel music discs; a large and complete list is announced to be ready on Jan 1, 1895. But nowhere can I find an address to send to.


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