JAMES CUMMINS bookseller catalogue 121 james cummins bookseller catalogue 121 To place your order, call, write, e-mail or fax: james cummins bookseller 699 Madison Avenue, New York City, 10065 Telephone (212) 688-6441 Fax (212) 688-6192 e-mail: [email protected] jamescumminsbookseller.com hours: Monday – Friday 10:00 – 6:00, Saturday 10:00 – 5:00 Members A.B.A.A., I.L.A.B. front cover: item 20 inside front cover: item 12 inside rear cover: item 8 rear cover: item 19 catalogue photography by nicole neenan terms of payment: All items, as usual, are guaranteed as described and are returnable within 10 days for any reason. All books are shipped UPS (please provide a street address) unless otherwise requested. Overseas orders should specify a shipping preference. All postage is extra. New clients are requested to send remittance with orders. Libraries may apply for deferred billing. All New York and New Jersey residents must add the appropriate sales tax. We accept American Express, Master Card, and Visa. 1 ALBIN, Eleazar. A Natural History of English Insects Illustrated with a Hundred Copper Plates, Curiously Engraven from the Life: And (for those whose desire it) Exactly Coloured by the Author [With:] [Large Notes, and many Curious Observations. By W. Derham]. With 100 hand-colored engraved plates, each accompanied by a letterpress description. [2, title page dated 1720 (verso blank)], [2, dedica- tion by Albin], [4, preface], [4, list of subscribers], [2, title page dated 1724 (verso blank)], [2, dedication by Derham; To the Reader (on verso)], 26, [2, Index], [100] pp. Large 4to, London: William and John Innys, 1720-24. With preliminaries and titles of both first and second editions. Contemporary calf, boards gilt, with minor wear at corners. New spine with raised bands, morocco title piece. Fine copy, tight and clean. Nissen 58; BMNH p.25; Freeman 45. $7,500 100 avinoff watercolors of russian art treasures 2 AVINOFF, Andrey. Russian Ecclesiastical and Decorative Art Objects in the Collection of George R. Hann: Watercolor illustrations by A[ndrey] Avinoff. A total of 100 watercolors, each about 5 inches high by 3 inches wide; 84 of them mounted in two volumes, the remainder loose. 2 vols. Folio (13 x 11-H in.), n.p: 1944. Two full dark blue calf albums, gilt on upper covers and spines, patterned fabric doublures, linen hinges (to allow the thick volumes to open flat); fine condition. With the bookplate of George Rice Hann and that of the Library of the Westmoreland County Museum of Art in each volume. Mr. Hann’s own record of his distinguished collection. The two large albums have typewritten title pages, and consist of original watercolors, inset behind transparent protective coverings on the rectos, with typewritten descriptions of a high order of scholar- ship on the facing versos, each volume illustrating 42 items: crosses, medallions, mitres, lamps, censers and other liturgical items, as well as silver, Imperial china table services, a silver spade used by Alexander II in laying the foundation of the Odessa City Park, and other relics of a non-ecclesiastical sort. Andrey Arvinoff (1884-1949), a Russian artist who emigrated to America after the Bolshevik revolution, specialized in landscapes and portraits; he also had a successful career in commercial art. He was noted for his imaginative and skillful detail, art critics praising his “purity of line that can come from only the most delicate perception” and observing “like the other Russians who have come here, he loves to use details in wholesome quantities.” In the commercial art field, his nephew Alex Shoumatoff notes in the family chronicle Russian Blood, “his renditions of everyday household articles attracted attention as works of art.” In 1922 he was recruited by the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh to be a curator of entomology and in 1926 became the museum’s direc- tor. In addition, he taught courses on Oriental and Russian art at the University of Pittsburgh. He was the ideal artist to depict George Hann’s Russian objects, and his watercolors, done over pencil, are careful but not fussy; where, as is often the case, the objects are set with precious stones, his drawings shine with a radiant sparkle. a splendid, unique record of art treasures which is itself a work of art. Accompanying these volumes is the catalogue of an exhibition of Russian Icons and other works of art from Mr. Hann’s collec- tion held at Carnegie Institute in 1944. It is finely bound in dark brown calf, gilt device on upper cover; apart from a little wear to extremities, it is in fine condition, and displays some of the items illustrated in the two albums. $15,000 2 | james cummins bookseller the playwright henry arthur jones, by max beerbohm 3 BEERBOHM, Max. “Mr. Henry Arthur Jones.” Pen and ink drawing on paper, signed lower right (“Max”). Image 10-H x 8 inches, matted and framed to 17-G x 14-H inches overall, [London: 1907]. Fine. Rupert Hart-Davis 835. Henry Arthur Jones was an English playwright who, without reaching the heights of Wilde or Shaw, enjoyed three decades of almost unbroken successes, beginning in 1882 with “The Silver King,” the most celebrated melodrama of its day. He was brilliant, controversal, unafraid of unpopular social commentary, and a master of dialogue. He was, notes Kunitz & Haycraft, “a pioneer in the revival of the English drama after a period of decay lasting nearly a century.” This is one of five caricatures Max did of the playwright. $7,000 catalogue 121 | “the typographical masterpiece of the mission press” (forbes) 4 (BIBLE, Hawaiian) [Bible in Hawaiian] Ka Palapala Hemolele a Iehova ko kakou Akua o ke Kauoha Kahiko a me ke Kauoha Hou; I un- uhiia mailoko mai O na Olelo Kahiko. Paiia no ko Amerika Poe Hoolaha Baibala. [1]-1128; [4, records pages (unaccomplished)]; [1129]- 1451 pp. 4to (28 x 22 cm), Honolulu, Oahu: Mea Paipalapala na na Misionari, 1843. Quarto edition of the Hawaiian Bible, edition of 500 copies. Full maroon morocco grained and tooled to period style, boards with gilt rope borders, spine lettered in gilt, period marbled endsheets. Small blindstamp on title. Forbes 1417; Judd and Bell, 266; Hunnewell, pp. 24-25. Quarto edition of the Hawaiian Bible: “The typographical masterpiece of the Mission Press. This ‘stately volume’ was printed with great care on the finest available paper, and it was designed primarily to supply church pulpits” (Forbes). The translation of the Bible into Hawaiian was undertaken between 1828 and 1839; a duodecimo edition was published 1837-9 in three thick volumes. An octavo edition was begun in 1843, and this large format edition was produced concurrently: “the title page has been reset, and the text has been slightly repositioned to conform to the larger page size … the printing records of the mission show that this was considered at the time to be a distinct edition” (Forbes). Two printed leaves are inserted between the Old and New Testaments: the first headed “Moohana - Na Hanau” (births) and “Moohana - Na Mare” (marriages), and both side of the second are headed “Moohana - Na Make” (deaths). Forbes records the presence of these leaves in some copies of the octavo edition but makes no mention of them in his discussion of the quarto edition. The binding on the present copy follows that of the presenta- tion copy in Hawaiian binding in the P.M. Kahn colleciton, Hawaii State Archives, described as “the finest known copy of this edition” (Forbes). Rare and beautiful. $17,500 4 | james cummins bookseller inscribed, with a collection of letters and song lyrics 5 (BLUES) Broonzy, William [“Big Bill”]. Big Bill Blues. William Broonzy’s Story. As Told to Yannick Bruynoghe. Illustrated. [xii], 139, [1] pp. 8vo, London: Cassell & Co, [1955]. First edition. Publisher’s black cloth. Near fine, in good dust-jacket with some loss. Country blues musician Big Bill Broonzy’s autobiography, inscribed on the frontispiece “to 2 very good friends irine an jay Best wishes from Big BIll Broonzy” and signed by others on the half title and ffep. With a collection of letters, photographs, and song lyrics dating from the early 50s. Broonzy (1893-1958) began his musical career in the 1920s as a country blues musician; he shifted to a more ubran, electric style in the 30s and 40s, and returned again, to great acclaim, in the 50s to the acoustic country blues style. His concerts in London in 1952 (the time of the writing of these letters) were an enormous influence on the emerging folk revival movement. [With:] Autograph Letter, signed (“Your old pal Big Bill Broonzy”), to Irene and Jay. London, ca. November 5, 1952. With original envelope. “Hello old Pal i am ok do hope yo all is ok to … Mahale [i.e. Mahalia] Jackson an me is doing shows to gether an is she good oh Brother she can sing we got 5 concerts together …” Jackson was not pleased that a blues musician was opening for her (cf. Goreau, Just Mahalia, Baby (1975), p. 166). Autograph Postcard, signed (“Big Bill Broonzy”), to Irene and Jay. Paris, ca. February, 1952. “Hello old Pals i am ok hope yo ar all is ok to …” Autograph Manuscript of song lyrics, “Hold me tight dont let mee fall / Put my mule to kicking in yo stall …” 1-G pp. pencil on paper. Broadside advertisement on yellow paper for a Broonzy performance at the Cambridge Theatre, November 2, 1952, presented by the London Jazz Club. Inscribed by Broonzy along the margin, “Rite me at this address [arrow].” Three vintage b/w informal photographs of Broonzy, ca.