New Arrivals A Spring Miscellany of 53 Recently Acquired Books Michael R. Thompson Rare Books 8242 W. 3rd Street • Suite 230 Los Angeles, CA 90048 mrtbooksla.com [email protected] • (323) 658 - 1901 Item #1 With Carborundum Prints, Hand-Colored Etchings, and an Ink Painting; in the Deluxe 3D Binding and Signed by Susan Allix 1. [ALLIX, Susan.] Ithaca. [A poem by] Constantine Cavafy. [London: Susan Allix, 2018.] 5¾ inches by 5½ inches. [3] blank ll., [25] pp., [4] blank ll. Hand-set and printed in black, red and violet on Zerkall paper; with geometric cut-out accents, 2 fold-out leaves, and black Japanese paper collages. Also with 3 carborundum prints, 3 hand-colored etchings, and 1 ink painting. Black goatskin and white calf, tooled with title, over boards. Extended back board. Geometric calf onlay to cover, with three-dimensional accents of mother-of-pearl and gold and silver wire. Pastedowns are dyed Nepalese paper; free endpapers are sand-colored, textured stiff paper. In a wine-red cloth clamshell case with paper and calf onlay. Interior of case includes raised supports to protect the three-dimensional cover and is lined with the same sand-colored paper stock as the free endpapers. A fine, as-new copy of a beautiful book. $1,750 One of 18 total copies, signed and numbered by Susan Allix on the colophon. This is a special copy featuring the goatskin-and-calf cover, the three-dimensional accents, and the deluxe clamshell box; neither the colophon nor Allix’s website note a limitation for the special copies. Michael R. Thompson Rare Books • New Arrivals • March 2020 “Ithaca” by C. P. Cavafy (1863–1933) was originally published in Greek in 1911 and later appeared in English in The Complete Poems of C. P. Cavafy (1948). The English translation of “Ithaca” was popularized in the United States by Jacqueline Kennedy, who was vocal about her love for the poem. Susan Allix’s Ithaca is an abridged version of the poem, which was inspired by Odysseus’ return to his home country in the Odyssey. The opening lines of the poem, as it is printed in this item, read: “When you set out on your journey to Ithaca, pray that the road is long, full of adventure, full of knowledge.” Susan Allix (b. 1943) is a bookbinder, letterpress printer, and master engraver based in London. She has created over 50 limited-edition artist’s books, some unique, since beginning her bookmaking career in 1973 with her printing of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. She has received many prestigious awards for her artist’s books, including the Judges’ Choice Award at the 2011 Oxford Fine Press Book Fair for her project Myth. Allix’s most recent project, Invisibility, was completed in Spring of 2019. See the page for Ithaca on Allix’s website for more information. Item #2 With 11 Prints & in the Deluxe Binding with a Murano Glass Ornament 2. ALLIX, Susan. Small Cakes. A Selection Containing Brief histories, ingredients and recipes, poetic anecdotes and visual decorations. [London:] Susan Allix, 2017. 4¼ inches by 5¼ inches. [42] ll. 3 of the leaves have been cut down into creative shapes (a trapezoid and two cupcakes). With 11 prints in total (3 carborundum prints plus hand-colored etchings and linocuts) and with additional leaves throughout printed with colorful patterns and borders. Also with paper decorations cut in the shape of cupcakes and 2 leaves embossed to resemble seashells. Purple and beige goatskin over boards with white calf spine. Onlay in brown and wine-red goatskin as well as pink and white glazed kidskin. With a moveable miniature Murano glass cake secured to cover with a magnet. Endpapers are marbled in red-and-gold in the suminagashi style. A fine copy in a brown cloth clamshell case decorated inside and out with cut-paper onlay. $1,250 One of 18 total copies, signed and numbered by Susan Allix on the colophon. This is a special copy featuring the goatskin, calf, and glazed kid binding and the glass ornament; neither the 2 Michael R. Thompson Rare Books • New Arrivals • March 2020 colophon nor Allix’s website note a limitation for the special copies. The binding designs of the special copies vary slightly: Allix states that they are “each a different flavor.” Item #2 On her website, Susan Allix explains that the design of Small Cakes was inspired by glass miniatures and, of course, by the aesthetics of cake decoration: Allix notes that “cakes are an indulgence assembled and decorated to give pleasure to the taste and to the eye.” The book features bite-sized cakes like petit fours, ladyfingers, “Proust’s famous Madeleine,” and the Australian green sponge cakes known as “frog cakes.” See the page for Small Cakes on Susan Allix’s website for more information. The Golden Ass, with Surrounding Commentary by Filippo Beroaldo, A Remarkably Fine Copy in Contemporary Tooled Calf Over Oak Boards 3. APULEIUS, Lucius. Commentarii a Philippo Beroaldo Conditi in Asinum[m] Aureu[m] Lucii Apuleii. [Venice: Bartholomeum de Zanis, Nov. 11, 1504]. Folio. ff. 237 [i.e., 238 ]. Central text with surrounding commentary. Woodcut architectural border to a2v. Mostly white-on-black ornamental initials in two sizes, one quite large. In a fine contemporary binding of tooled calf over oak boards. Two brass clasps at fore-edge, one old, one recent. Early vellum manuscript "waste" for sewing the text block. Paper spine label in manuscript, remains of old paper label on back cover. Some light worming to covers, some neat repairs to spine, filling in some lost areas of calf. The three-line title on Leaf A1 with an old dark stain. Some minor toning to text. Overall a remarkably fine copy, with the text clean and crisp. $6,000 The text of Apuleius' Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass, with the extensive commentary of Filippo Beroaldo. This is the third edition of Beroaldo's commentary, the first having appeared in 1500 (ia00938000). 3 Michael R. Thompson Rare Books • New Arrivals • March 2020 Item #3 Apuleius (c. 124-170 AD) studied Platonist philosophy at Athens. He is best known for the present work, which is he only complete Latin novel to survive into modern times. Apuleius' works appeared in six incunable editions, the first appearing in Rome in 1469. Item #3 Filippo Beroaldo (1453-1505) was an Italian humanist who was made professor of rhetoric and poetry at the University of Bologna when only nineteen years old. He continued there until his death. He was considered the leading Italian humanist following the death of Agnolo (Angelo) Ambrogini, commonly known as Poliziano (1454-1494). He published editions of Aulus Gellius, Cicero, Juvenal, Lucan, Pliny the Elder, Suetonius, and others, with his extensive commentary. He was also known for being a very popular teacher, with up to 300 students following his lectures. OCLC lists a dozen copies in Europe, but none in North America. Adams A-1372. BL Italian STC, p. 35. Essling 1322. Sander 484. 4 Michael R. Thompson Rare Books • New Arrivals • March 2020 Item #4 Original Scrapbook on the First Female MP Elected in Britain 4. [ASTOR, Nancy.] An original scrapbook compiled by a follower of Nancy Astor, the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat in the United Kingdom. Materials within dated 1934-1936. Quarto (6⅛ inches by 7¾ inches). [180] pp. Newspaper clippings, posters, and other campaign promotional items laid in or pasted down on the first [90] pp., except for on a few blank pages. The remaining pages of the scrapbook are blank. Some of the items are in color and many of the newspaper clippings include photographs. Also with a separate photograph (3” by 4¼”) of Nancy Astor on a dock laid in between pages 2 and 3. Notebook in cloth-backed maroon boards. Some light rubbing to boards. Blue speckled edges. Some toning to materials throughout and to pages of notebook, but overall a very good, one-of-a- kind item. $2,000 Nancy Witcher Astor (1879-1964) was born in Danville, Virginia, but moved to England with her husband Waldorf Astor at the age of twenty-six. In 1919, Nancy Astor became the first woman in the United Kingdom to take her seat as a Member of Parliament. The materials in the present item chronicle Astor’s successful campaign in the general election of 1935 and offer context into the social and political climate of the United Kingdom at the time. Many of the campaign materials included here are targeted towards women, especially mothers, and portray Astor as a hero for educational reform (pp. [20-21]) and a “champion of the nursery” (p. [16]). The materials also offer insight into the Conservative Party’s rhetoric against socialism, especially in regard to economic improvement since the Conservative Party regained control of the House of Commons from the Labor Party in 1931. One flyer reads: “The Socialist Party’s policy means dumping, depression, disaster,” (p. [8]). Overall, this scrapbook is a fascinating perspective on the public face of Nancy Astor and contemporary attitudes toward her and her campaign. Oxford DNB. 5 Michael R. Thompson Rare Books • New Arrivals • March 2020 Item #5 One of 30 Copies from Aubergine Atelier and the Windowpane Press With 14 Original Paintings by Jodee Fenton 5. [AUBERGINE ATELIER.] YEATS, William Butler. The Second Coming (Again)…[with] Paintings by Jodee Fenton. Seattle: Aubergine Atelier, 2019. 8½ inches by 5⅝ inches. 36 ff., plus 14 Japanese kozo paper leaves painted on both sides by Jodee Fenton in gouache, tempera, watercolor, and polyacrylic varnish. Additional painted kozo paper cutouts used as accents throughout.