Rare Books Berlin - Internationale Messe für Bücher und Graphik

ZAMYATIN, Yevgeny Ivanonvich, & Nadezhda Liubavina (illus.).

Vereshki (“Waves”). St Petersburg: Today, 1918. ¶ Octavo, pp. 4. With 5 linocut illustrations. Printed on thick paper stock. Linocut-printed wrappers, wire-stitched. Bookseller’s stamps and lettering on rear wrapper verso. Head of spine starting: in very good condition. ¶ First and only edition, with skilful later hand-colouring in blue and red pencil by one O. Danilova. She also added a hand-drawn bookplate and inscriptions to the inside of the front wrapper, dated 1936. One of approximately one thousand copies, the booklet was produced by the artist’s collective Segodnia (“Today”), founded by the avant-garde artist Vera Ermolaeva and who specialized in handmade picture books inspired by the lubki tradition. Segodnia produced less than 20 booklets of poetry and children’s material, all in small runs of under 1,500 copies. In each publication, the aesthetic combination of text and image was carefully considered and crafted to form a single design. Alongside Zamyatin, authors and artists who were published by the collective included Sergei Yesenin, Nathan Altman, and Nadezhda Liubavina, the latter of whom provided the linocut illustrations here. However, the difficult political and economic situation meant that the collective was short-lived and disbanded in 1919. “The roots of Leningrad’s subsequent – and renowned- children’s book publishing industry can clearly be seen in the books and broadsheets put out by Segodnia. The modernists were the first Russian artists to pay attention to folk art, lowbrow urban art, and the ‘clumsy’ drawings of children. Liubavina’s interest in the techniques and principles of naïve art, and her desire to penetrate child psychology, are apparent in her book illustrations published by Segodnia” (Shatskikh, p. 39). We have been unable to trace Danilova. The inside front wrapper is lettered “Colouring is mine. 1936. A wet month - a leaf fall” (our translation). She also altered the price on the back cover from 50 kopeks to 20 rubles and 50 kopeks. As usual for Segodnia’s publications, Vereshki is rare. RareBookHub records only two appearances at auction in the last 20 years: Bonhams 2013 and Sotheby’s 2006. ¶ Aleksandra Shatskikh & Katherine Foshko Tsan (trans.), Vitebsk: The Life of Art, 2007.

Sachgebiete: Kinderbücher, Kulturgeschichte, Illustrierte Bücher, Literatur ab ca. 1900, Russland

28.07.2026 - 23:21

4000,- EUR

Peter Harrington

VIENNA SECESSION.

Ver Sacrum: Organ der Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs. Vienna and Leipzig: Gerlach & Schenk; E.A. Seemann, 1898-1903. ¶ 120 numbers bound in 6 annual volumes, quarto; the first two volumes 289 x 282 mm, the latter four 254 x 238 mm. Illustrated with 471 reproductions of drawings, 55 lithographs, and 216 woodcuts (most printed in colour). This set includes the extra number for the first year (catalogue of the Second Secession Exhibition) and the Calendar number for the sixth year. Vols. I-II in 20th-century blue and grey cloth, front covers lettered in gilt, patterned endpapers, top edges gilt, others trimmed; Vols. III-VI in floral-patterned cloth, patterned endpapers, top edges gilt, other uncut. Original wrappers bound in vols. I-III. Vols. II and IV with “Feuerbacher Heide” bookplate of industrialist Hans Lutz Merkle (1913-2000). Slight fraying at extremities and minor sunning to spines, contents with some spotting and toning but generally clean and bright, Vol. I with some cropping of pagination at foot and minor loss to wrapper of August 1898 issue. An excellent set. ¶ First editions, a very scarce complete run of one of the most consequential artistic journals ever published, the organ of the Vienna Secession, bound in annual volumes, the latter four in floral cloth bindings likely by the Wiener Werkstätte. The Vienna Secession was a group of Austrian artists, led by Gustav Klimt, who, in 1897, broke away from the conservative Künstlerhaus to promote modern art and the ideal of the Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art. Ver Sacrum (“Sacred Spring”) was their journal, which sought to integrate ornament, typography, layout, design, and text into a unified artwork. It included photographs of the Secession’s own exhibitions, and texts were contributed by many leading poets and writers of the day. Literary and artistic contributors included Max Kurzweil, Rainer Maria Rilke, Maurice Maeterlinck, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Alphonse Mucha. “Ver Sacrum remains a document of the first importance for any student of the period, and one without which it would be impossible to obtain a complete picture of the activity of the Secession” (Vergo, p. 44). The introductory essay declared that it “aims to show other countries for the first time that Austria is an independent artistic entity... it is meant to be a clarion call to the artistic sense of the people, to inspire, promote, and spread artistic life and artistic independence” (translated). The bindings of the latter four volumes are in the style of the Wiener Werkstätte, founded in 1903 to promote high standards of Austrian craft. They were likely designed by Koloman Moser, who organized Ver Sacrum and later co-founded the Werkstätte. Their floral patterns, indebted to the English Arts and Crafts movement, reflect the aim of uniting binding and contents in keeping with the Gesamtkunstwerk ideal. A total of 120 numbers were issued from January 1898 to December 1903, forming six annual volumes: monthly for the first two years, and bimonthly thereafter. The print run of the early issues is unknown, though there were 300 subscribers by 1900, and 600 copies were printed for the sixth year (Nebehay, p. 32). ¶ Christian M. Nebehay, Ver Sacrum, 1977; Peter Vergo, Art in Vienna, 1993.

Sachgebiete: Österreich, Design, Illustrierte Bücher, Moderne Kunst

28.07.2026 - 23:13

78000,- EUR

Peter Harrington

TEXTILES AND DESIGN.

Pair of salesman’s pattern books, containing over 1,000 finely woven textile samples. [Likely Norwich: c.1820s]. ¶ 2 vols, tall octavo (260 x 150 mm). With 1,063 unique samples of varying sizes, mounted on rectos of 125 leaves printed in ornamental blue (2 folding at fore edge), manuscript titles and numbers direct to leaves or on labels. Contemporary blue paper wrappers, manuscript number or label on inner front covers. Housed in 19th-century calf pull-off box, green lining and gilt decoration. Within custom blue cloth box with red label by James Brockman. Samples fine and bright, wrappers creased, pull-off box worn: a well-preserved collection. ¶ A prepossessing collection of textile swatches for clothing or furnishing, likely produced in Norwich for selling to the German market. Using the whole spectrum of colours, the designs incorporate stripes, geometric shapes, diaper patterns, zigzags and chevrons, floral and foliate motifs, and ikat designs. The samples are arranged by pattern under titles in German and, at times, French and Italian. These include, for example, Weisbodige Croisé (white strips and colour chevron-pattern stripes), Rothbodige Köper (thick red stripes alternating with those of other colours), and Cuttni (multicolour swatches with fine diaper or lozenge patterning). The samples are woven from wool, a factor - together with their design - that points to their origin in Norfolk. “The presentation of choice in the books of samples from Norwich is literally fascinating, with some pages so stunning and dazzling in their effect and we might argue that it could be the effect of the whole page that seduces the buyer, rather than the individual sample... The almost infinite variations of colour and pattern, accentuated in their intensity in the context of a book or card, create an eye-catching and infectious spectacle” (Mitchell). Accompanying these books are two other unrelated sets of several dozen samples, both dating from later in the 19th century and at least one from France. Provenance: Cora Ginsburg (1910-2002), the expert in fine textiles, purchased by her in England in 1962 - Stephen C. Massey. ¶ Victoria Mitchell, “A Marketplace in Miniature: Norwich Pattern Books as Cultural Agency.”

Sachgebiete: Mode, Möbel, Textilien, Großbritannien

28.07.2026 - 23:11

18000,- EUR

Peter Harrington

TANAKA, Yoshio.

Taisei kunmo zukai (“An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of the West”). [Tokyo:] Monbusho, 1871. ¶ 2 vols, octavo. Colour woodblock and copperplate illustrations throughout; text in Japanese, English, French, and German. Original black patterned wrappers, renewed white string fukuro-toji binding, original printed label on front wrappers. Housed in modern blue cloth folding case with manuscript title label. Red ink seals of the English literature scholar Masaaki Sogo (1912-1993), remains of former printed label on inner rear wrapper of vol. I. Wrappers generally rubbed and creased, a little loss to labels, contents bright with minor worm-holing repaired: a very good copy. ¶ First edition of this colourful illustrated encyclopaedia, produced by the Ministry of Education to introduce various Western items and their names in English, French, and German. It was released only four years into the Meiji period by Tanaka Yoshio, a prominent naturalist and zoologist who oversaw the founding of the National Museum of Natural History and Ueno Zoo. Taisei kunmo zukai adopts the format of traditional Japanese encyclopaedias but applies multi-lingual captions. It opens with examples of European architecture, houses, and furniture, before moving to kitchen utensils, tools, clothing, gardening equipment, domestic animals, sports, railways, ships, and weaponry. The categorisation reflects the ongoing process of modernising scientific and technical knowledge in Japan. For example, as noted by W. Puck Brecher, the separation of animals into “domesticated” and “wild” subsections was a holdover from the early modern period, where animals were classified by their usefulness or danger to society. Taisei kunmo zukai “interprets ‘wild’ not simply as undomesticated, but as unmanageably savage and ferocious... The wildlife section includes illustrations of a hunter and a forest to instruct readers about the propriety of human dominion over the wild” (Brecher, p. 86). This contrasts with emerging Western models of zoological classification, showing how the late 19th century was in a state of flux between traditional and modern ideas. ¶ W. Puck Brecher, Loving and Loathing Wildlife in Japan, 2025.

Sachgebiete: Asien, Lexika, Illustrierte Bücher, Japan

28.07.2026 - 23:09

3300,- EUR

Peter Harrington

STIEGLITZ, Alfred.

Camera Work. Nos. 1, 25, & 26. 1903 & 1909. ¶ Three vols, tall quarto. With 24 hand-pulled photogravures and 1 photogravure (not hand-pulled). Bound for presentation in grey quarter cloth, preserving original wrappers pasted onto grey paper-covered sides. Edges worn, faint foxing and offsetting to a few leaves, more so to No. 1, slight loss at head of spine of No. 1, neat paper repair to front cover: a near-fine set. A full description is available on request. ¶ Three issues of the seminal photography periodical, including the inaugural issue, each a presentation copy inscribed by Stieglitz to his friend and collaborator, the philanthropist and civil rights activist Agnes E. Meyer. ¶ Camera Work was a quarterly publication that circulated work by some of the world’s most important photographers. Stieglitz showcased photography as a fine art and his journal has been called “by far the most beautiful of all photographic magazines” (Whelan). These issues contain 25 photogravures, primarily by members of the Photo-Secession movement. Photographers represented here include founder-members Gertrude Käsebier and Frank Eugene, the iconoclast Anne W. Brigman, and the distinguished portrait photographer Alice Boughton. Meyer was an activist and patron of the arts. One of the first woman journalists hired by the New York Sun, Meyer was nicknamed the “The Sun Girl” in Stieglitz’s artistic circle. She was one of his “she Graces”, together with the artists Katharine Rhoades and Marion Beckett. Together, she and Stieglitz created and published the art magazine 291 between 1915 and 1916, notable for its printing of the earliest example of visual poetry in America - written by Meyer. Her marriage to the financier Eugene Meyer allowed her the wealth and freedom to advocate for social causes. She influenced national policy by lobbying for the creation of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and her husband’s ownership of the Washington Post gave her a platform to criticize Nixon, campaign against racial inequality, and lampoon McCarthyism as a threat to liberty. Issue I is inscribed on the front free endpaper, “To Agnes Ernst Mayer, ‘The Sun Girl’, December, 1914”; No. XXV is inscribed on the first blank, “To Agnes E Ernst, with cordial greetings and best wishes, AS. NY, Dec 21/[illegible, perhaps 08]”; No. XXVI is inscribed on the first blank, “With kindest regards, cordially, AS. To Agnes Ernst. Paris. March 10 - 1909”. ¶ Richard Whelan, Alfred Stieglitz: A Biography, 1995.

Sachgebiete: Photographie

28.07.2026 - 23:05

40000,- EUR

Peter Harrington

ROME GUIDEBOOK.

Mirabilia Romae. [Sant’Orso: Giovanni de Reno, c.1475]. ¶ Quarto (195 x 138 mm): [a8]; 8 leaves, unnumbered. Roman type 97R, 28 lines per page. Watermark: scale in a circle. Mid 19th-century green morocco, elaborate gilt and blind floral frames to covers, gilt monogram “AF” and crest of the Duke of Genoa and Prince of Savoy Ferdinando Alberto di Savoia-Carignano (1822-1855) in center of front and rear covers respectively, board edges tooled in gilt, pink endpapers, edges gilt. Housed in a custom green cloth solander box. Professionally recased and refurbished, including discreet repair at spine ends, one corner, and the gilt retouched, peripheral browning to endpapers from binder’s paste, contents lightly foxed. A very good copy, attractively bound. ¶ A rare incunable edition of the earliest European printed guidebook, a geographically arranged inventory of the “unmissable” monuments and sites of Rome. This copy was handsomely bound in green morocco for the library of Prince Ferdinando of Savoy, first duke of Genoa, with his coat of arms and initials in gilt on the covers. Dubbed by PMM the “Renaissance Baedecker”, Mirabilia Romae (“The marvels of Rome”) was composed about 1140-50 by an anonymous writer - sometimes identified as Benedict, Canon of St Peter’s - as a guide for the pilgrims to the city. First printed in the early 1470s, it was reprinted multiple times over the following century, and translated into Italian, English, Spanish, and German. The great popularity of this work during the Renaissance illustrates a new awareness of the significance of ancient Roman remains and “was instrumental in preserving some of them. The Memorabilia is a valuable source for our knowledge of what remained and attracted notice in medieval Rome. One of its pleasant side-effects was the beginning of measures for the ‘protection of ancient monuments’ - such as Trajan’s column - as the Roman authorities realized their importance for tourism” (PMM). “The author of the Mirabilia concentrates attention on ancient Rome; churches serve only to locate the presumed site of an ancient building or sanctuary. Thus he leads a systematic tour through the ancient city, always focusing on the monuments; their identification from literary references, though important, is secondary. Starting at the Vatican, he lists the obelisk - its globe contains, as [the author] is the first to say, Caesar’s ashes; the two mausolea - one presumed to be a temple of Apollo; and the pigna and its canopy in the atrium. Thence he moves to the Mausoleum of Hadrian and other ancient monuments nearby; across the river to the Mausoleum of Augustus, the Pantheon, and the other temples of the Campus Martius; and as the climax, to the Capitol and its long-lost temples, to the Forum and the Palatine. A tour of ancient monuments... terminates the survey” (Krautheimer, p. 199). This is one of the earliest known editions. ISTC lists eight editions conjecturally printed in the 1470s, of which all except the edition printed at Treviso by Gerardus de Lisa, de Flandria, 12 April 1475, is without a specified date or place. All are exceedingly rare, and only two of the eight editions have appeared in commerce in modern times. A copy of this edition and a copy of the Treviso edition were lots 282 and 283 in the Kissner sale at Christies London, October 1990, and another copy of this edition was offered at Sotheby’s London in 2011. ISTC counts 13 holding institutions of this edition. This edition is assigned to the printer Giovanni de Reno, active in Sant’Orso (Valle d’Aosta, Italy), based on the type and watermark. “This edition, like that of De Lisa, Treviso, 12 April, 1475, has at the end a chapter concerning ‘Totilae exasperatio in servos Dei’. The chapter headings are at first printed in capitals, as in De Lisa’s edition, but revert to minuscules on 2b. While it thus appears to be certainly a reprint of De Lisa’s work and while the watermarks link it with Sant’Orso, the 9 (upper case) is throughout set at the medium height characteristic of De Reno’s work in 1473. Probably it is an early production at Sant’Orso, printed with a remainder of old type” (BMC VII 1027). Provenance: a) Prince Ferdinando Maria Alberto of Savoy (1822-1855), son of the King of Sardinia Carlo Alberto and founder of the Genoa branch of the House of Savoy. He owned a substantial library, mostly focused on military books. In addition to the supralibros, this copy has the prince’s ownership label lettered “Biblioteca di S[ua]. A[ltezza]. R[eale] Il Duca di Genova” and a shelf-label “C. II-32” on the front pastedown; his library stamp (faded) on the rear free endpaper. b) Early 20th-century bookplate of a member of the Asinari di Rossillon family of Bernezzo, likely Giuseppe Mario (1878-1943), marquis of Bernezzo, with his bookplate on the front free endpaper verso; he was army general and first aide-de-camp to King Emanuele II. ¶ BMC VII.1027; Goff Suppl. M591a; GW M23540; ISTC im00590600. Richard Krautheimer, Rome: Profile of a City, 2000.

Sachgebiete: Einbände, Inkunabeln, Italien, Reisen/Reiseliteratur, Reiseführer

28.07.2026 - 23:02

72000,- EUR

Peter Harrington

MARINE LIFE - KANDA, Gensen.

Nitto gyofu (“The Illustrated Fish of Japan”). [Japan: c.1741]. ¶ 5 vols, octavo (267 x 187 mm), ff. 52, 53, 47, 41, 41. With 310 hand-painted illustrations (1 full-page); text in Japanese. Original buff paper wrappers, renewed white thread fukuro-toji binding, manuscript paper label on front wrappers. Housed in modern brown cloth folding case. Former auction ticket tipped in to front free endpaper of vol. I, red ownership seals on vol. I f. 3. Wrappers a little scuffed, occasional worming to wrappers and contents repaired throughout, no significant worm holing to illustrations, a couple of ink marks on vol. I f. 15, illustrations bright: an attractive example. ¶ A beautifully hand-painted manuscript of the first Japanese illustrated compendium devoted to marine life. We have seen no other copy as lavishly hand-painted as this one. This copy was produced by an unknown artist for the Naito family, domain lords in modern-day Miyazaki Prefecture. Nitto gyofu introduces over 300 species of marine creature, with information on their names, geographical distributions, physical descriptions, taste, toxicity, and medicinal uses. In addition to the many species of fish there are also eels, pufferfish, various types of shark and whale, octopi, catfish, turtles, and shells. The compendium was produced by Kanda Gensen, a physician based in Edo, and circulated widely in manuscript form only. Gensen progressively revised and edited his work over 30 years, producing four iterations that were copied and spread by other artists. According to the National Diet Library of Japan, the oldest iteration (1719) was uncoloured and had sub-standard illustrations, the second (1731) was popular but shared the same flaws, and the third (1736) was the first to be coloured but was only produced for the perusal of the shogun. This present iteration (fourth, 1741) represents the culmination of his efforts. There are comparable manuscripts in the Nagoya University Library (487.5/Ka) and the National Diet Library (7-197), but neither with as detailed or luxurious illustrations. ¶ Provenance: Naito family of Miyazaki Prefecture, with their red ownership stamps internally and their shelf labels on the front wrappers. The stamps are similar to that of Naito Fuko (1619-1685) and Naito Rosen (1655-1733), both haikai comic poets. As both were dead by the time of this book’s production, it is likely that a descendant reused their stamps - Isseido Booksellers, October 1999, with their ticket inside the folding case - Colin Franklin (1923-2020), the distinguished British bibliographer and author of Exploring Japanese books and scrolls (1999) - Martin Schøyen (b. 1940), the Norwegian collector of rare books and manuscripts, with his pencil pressmark in the folding case.

Sachgebiete: Asien, Buchmalerei, Illustrierte Bücher, Japan, Zoologie

28.07.2026 - 22:56

90000,- EUR

Peter Harrington

OTSUKI, Gentaku.

Kankai ibun (“Strange Tales of a Circumnavigation”). [Japan: 1807-19]. ¶ 14 parts in 5 vols, large octavo, manuscript on recto and verso of each leaf. With 82 manuscript drawings (63 hand-coloured, 1 loosely inserted), 2 manuscript maps (1 hand-coloured); text in classical Japanese. Original blue cloud-patterned wrappers, renewed grey thread fukuro-toji binding, manuscript title labels on front wrappers. Contemporary inscription of one Mr Naito, Buheicho, Nagoya, on final page of each vol., later manuscript catalogue note loosely inserted. Wrappers worn and creased, thread loose in places but stable, occasional worm-holing and tidemarks internally: a very good example. An early manuscript copy, recounting the travels of four Japanese sailors shipwrecked in Russia and their return to Japan aboard Krusenstern’s voyage. Besides a map tracing the route, it contains many accomplished illustrations, including a portrait of two indigenous Hawai’ians, a depiction of a Russian planetarium, and many diagrams of Western clothes. ¶ In late 1793, the vessel Wakamiya-maru set sail for Edo, but storms drove it off course to the Aleutian Islands. After months, the crew were discovered and taken to Russia, where they remained for the next decade. In 1803, Tsar Alexander I asked the 10 surviving crewmen whether they wished to return to Japan aboard Krusenstern and Rezanov’s famous circumnavigation. Four agreed - Tsudayu, Gihee, Sahei, and Tajuro - who were accompanied by a fifth, Zenroku, working as Rezanov’s interpreter. They arrived in Nagasaki in 1804, becoming the first Japanese people to travel around the world. They were interrogated by the scholar Otsuki Gentaku, whose write-up of the interviews, Kankai ibun, circulated in manuscript in 16 volumes from 1807. Their story captured great attention at a time when it was still punishable by death for Japanese people to leave the country and accounts of the outside world were scarce. There is much attention paid to the technology and culture they saw in Russia, as well as their experiences in Britain, Brazil, the Canary Islands, and Hawai’i. The red ownership stamp of the poet Shimosato Denpo (1762-1819) dates this copy to the early 19th century. Textually it matches the Waseda University Otsuki-bon copy. The scribe omits the preface volume and Volume 14, although he includes the world map from the preface in Volume 1. The illustrations generally match those identified by the historian, linguistics researcher, and bibliographer of Kankai ibun, Sugimoto Tsutomu.

Sachgebiete: Asien, Buchmalerei, Japan, Russland, Reisen/Reiseliteratur

28.07.2026 - 22:47

21000,- EUR

Peter Harrington