Search Results: Art & Photography from The Manhattan Rare Book Company

Wakefield, Massachusetts: np, 1888. First edition. Custom box. Very Good. ONE OF THE EARLIEST PHOTOGRAPHS OF LIGHTNING. This striking photograph by Alfred H. Binden (1837 England - 1892 United States) is among one of the earliest photographs of lightning. When Binden captured the image from his home in Wakefield, Massachusetts during a summer storm in 1888, he created a valuable tool for better understanding the natural phenomenon that was often referred to as "electric fluid" in that time. The photograph was a sensation. It was exhibited in newsrooms and bookstores throughout the country where viewers were encouraged to examine its details with a magnifying glass. Contemporary news reports describe it as "a most interesting picture as showing...the [electrical] current has a sinuous or rotary motion, being twisted like a rope or ribbon during its progress to the Earth." Articles about the photograph circulated for the next few years and in 1892 The Boston Herald wrote that Binden's lightning… Read More

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Very Good. FIRST EDITION, ASSOCIATION COPY, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY DAVIDSON: "To Lee Witkin / Bruce Davidson". Witkin was the enormously influential gallery owner who helped introduce the public to the masterpieces of contemporary photography. "Davidson returned to this blasted stretch of East Harlem regularly for nearly two years (always bringing prints for the people he photographed) until he and his bulky view camera began to be a part of the block's daily life... The published results are wrenching and revelatory. Davidson's strobe doesn't dispel the gloom or glamorize the ruin of the apartments, storefronts, and rubble-strewn lots where people stopped to pose for him, but the rapport he established allows those people to surrender to the camera with their humanity intact. The book's glossy duotone reproductions -- all face-to-face on spreads with wide white borders stripped of captions and page numbers -- give the grimiest… Read More

Zurich and Leipzig: Orell Fussli, 1931. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, illustrated with 65 images of the Jewish ghetto in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. With preface by poet Zalman Chneour in Hebrew and German. "In the same year that his Paris was published, Moï Ver - under his real name of Moshé Vorobeichic- produced Ein Ghetto im Osten (A Ghetto in the East). The book, with both Hebrew and German text, featured his photographic record of the Jewish ghetto in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, documenting a way of life that would soon disappear under terrible circumstances. Even more so than Paris, Ein Ghetto im Osten was ostensibly a documentary book, but as he had done in his view of the French city, Moï Ver could not resist pushing the envelope of the documentary form. Once again, he used a variety of New Vision strategies, the most obvious being to take many images from upstairs windows looking on to the narrow streets of Vilnius's old Jewish quarter. This… Read More

Brussels: n.p., 1921. First edition. Custom box. Fine. EARLY CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MAGRITTE AND HIS GOOD FRIEND, PAINTER AND POET PIERRE-LOUIS FLOUQUET, WITH PERSONAL COMMENTS ON LIFE AND ART. WITH ORIGINAL PENCIL DRAWING BY MAGRITTE. Having met at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, René Magritte (1898-1967) and Pierre-Louis Flouquet (1900-1967) shared a studio on the Rue de Alexiens and later exhibited together at the short-lived Centre d'Art founded in December 1919. In 1920, Flouquet undertook his military service in France, and Magritte would write regularly to keep up his friend's morale. In 1927- having worked so closely as to render many of their works form this period indistinguishable-the two men grew somewhat apart, with Magritte turning sharply towards Surrealism while Flouquet moved towards figurative art. The present letters thus fill a gap in the important period of correspondence before his rift with Flouquet and his pivotal development of a Surrealist aesthetic. Included… Read More

New York: Andy Warhol, 1957. First edition. Original gold wrapper, original cloth. Very Good. WARHOL'S RARE STUNNING SELF-PUBLISHED EARLY WORK. PRESENTATION COPY TO PHOTOGRAPHER DUANE MICHALS. INSCRIBED ON FRONT COVER: "To Duane / Happy Brithday [sic] / A.W." WITH LETTER OF PROVENANCE FROM DUANE MICHALS. "Warhol published A Gold Book [in 1957]. Printed on gold-coated paper with pink, lilac, and teal tissue laid between the pages, A Gold Book indulges the sensual in both its content and its materiality. It is dedicated to 'Boys filles fruits and flowers shoes tc and ew,' referencing both the broader gay subculture to which Warhol belonged, his close friend Ted Carey, and Warhol's then lover Edward Wallowitch, whose photographs were the basis of several drawings in the book." (Lucy Mulroney, Andy Warhol, Publisher). A Gold Book was one of "Warhol's promotional books - handmade and personalized - [that] often felt more like gifts. He sent A Gold Book at Christmas in 1957... He traced most of these… Read More

Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1974. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. FIRST EDITION, DELUXE ISSUE, one of 1000 copies signed by Ansel Adams and with additional silver print signed by Adams. A FINE COPY. A magnificent production, illustrated throughout with duotone reproductions of Ansel Adams's evocative photographs. Foreward by Wallace Stegner. With the rare signed silver print "Fern Spring, Dusk, Yosemite Valley, California" (12.25 x 9 inches) loose and mounted as issued. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1974. Oblong folio, original black cloth, original photographic dust jacket; housed in original silver-stamped clamshell box and original shipping box. In fine condition with book still shrink-wrapped.

New York: Thea Westreich, 1989. First edition. Cloth, slipcase. Fine. SIGNED LIMITED FIRST EDITION, number 217 of only 250 copies, SIGNED BY PRINCE AND WITH ACCOMPANYING HANDWRITTEN JOKE, ALSO SIGNED. An exhibition catalogue/artist's book published on the occasion of a 1989 Kent Gallery show, co-curated by Richard Prince and Thea Westreich. Including images by Prince interspersed with those of Richard Artschwager, Troy Brauntuch, Francis Picabia, Sigmar Polke, Man Ray, Gerhard Richter, Cindy Sherman, and Andy Warhol; each copy with its own personalized joke penned by Prince. Signed by Prince on the limitation page with accompanying handwritten joke, also signed, reading: "With all I've heard about A-bombs that'll destroy a city and H-bombs that'll destroy a state and chain reactions that'll destroy the world - you know I just don't have the incentive to buy a two pants suit." New York: Thea Westreich, 1989. Number 217 or 250 copies. Octavo (12 5/8" x 8 3/4"), original red cloth, original… Read More

London: Thames and Hudson, 1975. First edition. Original stiff paper covers. Very Good. FIRST EDITION OF BACON'S MOST REVEALING BOOK, INSCRIBED BY BACON ON HALF-TITLE: "To Carlos Peacock / with all very best wishes / Francis Bacon. / London 22/11/77". Interviews with Francis Bacon is the most important source we have for understanding Bacon's art and philosophy. Through Bacon's responses to the influential art critic and Bacon scholar David Sylvester's provocative questions, we gain invaluable insight into the one of the greatest artistic minds of the twentieth century. This copy was inscribed by Bacon to the influential art critic Carlos Peacock, author of several books on artists. Complete with 94 black-and-white illustrations. London: Thames and Hudson, 1975. Quarto (8x11 in; 20.5x27.5 cm), original pictorial stiff covers; beautiful custom half-leather box. A little peeling of the glossy surface at top edge of front panel, some toning to rear panel (as often). Rare signed.

Zurich: Gallery Bruno Bischofberger, 1985. First edition. Original cloth, original dust jacket. Fine/Fine. FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT. Signed by Basquiat and numbered ("281/1000") in blue ink on the verso of title page, facing a magnificent photograph of Basquiat taken in 1982 by James van der Zee. Illustrated with 32 colored plates and beautiful color dust jacket. The illustrations are of drawings created in New York and during travels abroad during the winter of 1982/83. Although the book is numbered as one of 1000 copies, it is extremely rare on the market and it is generally understood that a number much smaller than 1000 were produced and signed by Basquiat. Housed in a spectacular box by book artist Sjoerd Hofstra, which reproduces Basquiat's "Ascent" on the front cover. Zurich: Edition Gallery Bruno Bischofberger; New York: Mary Boone Gallery; 1985. Oblong quarto (14x10.5 in), original cloth, original dust jacket. A FINE COPY. RARE.

1912. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Fine. FIRST EDITION OF ALL 79 ISSUES, WITH 186 HAND-COLORED PLATES by some of the most famous artists of the era. Number 884 (each issue from the same set) of only 1250 sets on Holland paper (out of a total edition of 1279). IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS IN FINE CONDITION. "The Journal des Dames et des Modes lasted only two years (the first issue appeared on 1 June 1912, and the last on 1 August 1914). This stylish periodical was issued regularly three times a month, and ceased publication upon the outbreak of the First World War. With its expensive layout, its society columns, its poetic texts, its colourful annotations, and its fashion reports, it represented the last brilliant, refined, impartial, and aestheticizing impulse of a happy and optimistic society occupying the centre of the stage in the period that has aptly been called the 'belle époque'... It was essentially the testimony, the history--illustrated, or rather 'clothed' and narrated--of the customs, ideas, and… Read More

Milan: Edizioni Della Chimera, 1941. First edition. Original wrappers. Fine. DE CHIRICO, GIORGIO. ONE OF THE MOST MAGNIFICENT ILLUSTRATED BOOKS OF THE 20TH CENTURY: de Chirico's series of original lithographs illustrating The Apocalypse, complete with 20 large lithographs - 10 hand-colored with pastels - EACH SIGNED BY DE CHIRICO.

 With an important provenance: An out-of-commerce copy (out of an edition of only 150 numbered copies) for Massimo Bontempelli, who wrote the introduction. "It was almost certainly the feeling of impending doom during the Second World War (1939-1945) that drew de Chirico to illustrate the Apocalypse. He may have felt particularly threatened because his wife, Isabella, was Jewish. He may also have been attracted by the fantastical aspect of the Revelations of St John the Divine in the Bible... De Chirico was also very interested in the work of great artists of the past, and would have been familiar with many earlier Apocalypse illustrations, particularly those by the… Read More

Paris: Surréalistes, 1930. First edition. Original wrappers. Good. FIRST EDITION ASSOCIATION COPY SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY ANDRÉ BRETON. Written within the span of only three weeks during the summer of 1930, André Breton and Paul Éluard's L'Immaculée Conception is a quintessential example of the Surrealist practice of automatic writing. While Surrealism today may at first evoke painters such as René Magritte and Salvador Dalí, Surrealism was demarcated by its founders, namely Breton, as an experiment as much, if not more, in language and literature as the visual arts. Thus, the process of automatic writing which he developed across his lifetime sits at the heart of the first Surrealist Manifesto (1924)-and L'Immaculée Conception represents a pinnacle automatic text executed by two of the major Surrealist vanguards themselves. In a 1961 interview with Judith Jasmin, Breton maintained that the mission of Surrealism has been the same since 1924, and that Surrealism continues to be defined as:… Read More

Paris: Imprimerie Croutzet et Depost, 1924. First edition. Original wrappers. Very Good. FIRST EDITION of Roche's surreal, dadaist roman à clef exposing the misogynistic world of the French avant-garde. With annotations likely in Roche's hand. Like too many women artists of the early twentieth century, French writer and artist Juliette Roche (1884 - 1980) has been long overshadowed by her male contemporaries. Roche came of age amidst leading artistic and literary salons of early 20th century Paris. She studied at Académie Ranson, then considered the absolute best art school in Paris, and was an early adopter of Cubism. However, she is most closely associated with Dadaism. Despite Dada being a movement of absolute rebellion it harbored the normalized misogyny of the early twentieth century. Roche's most explicit critique of this discrepancy, of rebellion vs repression, can be found in La Minéralisation de Dudley Craving Mac Adam, her groundbreaking novella. Part satire and part Dada nonsense, the… Read More

Paris: Jeanne Bucher, 1936. First edition. Original wrappers. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, THE PRINTER JACQUES GROU-RADENEZ'S COPY, WITH TWO LONG PERSONAL INSCRIPTIONS BY HUGNET. WITH COVER MY MARCEL DUCHAMP. ONE OF ONLY 294 COPIES IN THE EDITION; AN OUT-OF-SERIES COPY LABELED "EXEMPLAIRE NO. G.H.". "This is Georges Hugnet's first volume of 'poemes-decoupages.' The title echoes Andre Mallarme's Un Coup de Des N'Abolira Jamais le hazard (1895), and Hugnet's poems, printed on the left-hand pages of the book, mirror the unusual spacing and various typefaces and sizes of Un Coup de Des. Hugnet had joined the Surrealists by 1932, and the collages on the right-hand pages, centered around nude images cut out of Paris Magazine, rehearse typical Surrealist themes... The cover by Marcel Duchamp spells out the title in letters containing the names of a whole Surrealist pantheon, including Sade, Freud, Rimbaud, Paracelsus, Swift, Heraclitus, Roussel, Chaplin, Jarry, Uccello, and Saint-Juste, and also a Man Ray… Read More

Karsh, 1960. Framed. Very Good. ICONIC PHOTOGRAPH BY YOUSUF KARSH, INSCRIBED BY KENNEDY IN INK ON THE IMAGE. Yousuf Karsh's masterful portrait of John F. Kennedy, taken on August 25, 1960, just weeks after he accepted the Democratic nomination, captured the nation's imagination. By 1960 Kennedy was a rising star in American politics and this photograph embodied the aspirations and idealism of Kennedy and his presidential campaign. This image was widely circulated and is regarded as one of the most famous and influential portraits of JFK, helping to shape his public image as a young and vibrant leader. In this portrait Karsh depicts Kennedy in an introspective pose. The lighting emphasizes Kennedy's strong profile and the shadows and highlights accentuate Kennedy's dignified features. It is believed that Karsh swapped ties with Kennedy just minutes before photographing him because he thought his own tie created a better image. (Enman) Karsh's photograph symbolized the promise of Kennedy's presidency… Read More

Florence: Giunti, 1568. 2nd Edition. Hardcover. Fine. FIRST COMPLETE, FIRST ILLUSTRATED, AND MOST SOUGHT AFTER EDITION OF THE FIRST MODERN HISTORY OF ART. [The Second Edition overall.] An exceptional copy, very handsomely bound. Vasari's "book contains the biographies of Italian painters, etc. from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. They are based on earlier written and printed sources, on oral accounts, on his knowledge of works of art and his own collection of large drawings. Vasari traveled extensively to collect personal information, meeting most of the artists of his time... Michelangelo was his great hero. The Lives are freely laced with stories and anecdotes, some of which are certainly apocryphal... Vasari's excellent sense of narrative, however, and lively style combined with his wide personal acquaintance makes his 'Lives' a vital contribution to our understanding of the character and psychology of the great artists of the Renaissance, a term ('rinascita') which he was the first… Read More

New York: Felicie, 1973. 1st Edition. Original cloth, original dust jacket. Very Good/Very Good. FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, WITH MAGNIFICENT PRESENTATION INSCRIPTIONS, DRAWINGS, AND "PAPER SCULPTURE" BY DALI. On the inscription and drawings: Dali lavishly decorated the endpapers of this copy, writing in thick black marker (and taking up over half the page): "Pour MR Riskin / Hommage / Dali." Beneath his inscription, he dated it (1974) and drew what looks to be a large version of one of his spinning men. Dali scraped the paper at the base of one of the figure's arms to create something resembling a hand. On the facing page, Dali created something even more unusual: He drew a bug, but molded and scraped the paper to create a three-dimensional exoskeleton for the creature. Finally, on the page facing the title page, Dali added another inscription: "with apologies for the translation / Dali / 1974". The book: "Les Diners de Gala, the opulent cookbook that [Dali] conceived and illustrated, sets out… Read More

Paris: A.C. Mazo et Cie, 1968. First edition. Original portfolio box. Fine. VERY RARE LIMITED EDITION OF SURREALIST MASTER RENÉ MAGRITTE'S LES ENFANTS TROUVÉS, COMPLETE WITH TWELVE BREATHTAKING LITHOGRAPHS. ONE OF ONLY 350 COPIES. "The art of René Magritte has had an influence far exceeding the confines of the art world. Imagery adapted from his paintings has been widely disseminated for more than half a century through advertising, cartoons, film, book jackets, and popular music... His work has continued to appeal to modern audiences hungry for the puzzling conjunctions of the everyday and the fantastic... The inscrutable nature of Magritte's work--coded, self-referential, and incongruous--has [moreover] intrigued several generations of artists," (Stephanie Barron). The first four illustrations (numbered recto) are magnificently unique, conceived by Magritte specifically for this production. While certainly distinctive, these images--as well as the final eight--represent a summary of his… Read More

First edition. Decorated leather. Fine. ONE OF ONLY SIX COPIES ON HANDMADE JAPON NACRÉ. SIGNED BY BOTH HUGNET AND DUCHAMP. Georges Hugnet, poet, graphic artist, publisher and historian of the surrealist movement, was inspired by Marcel Duchamp, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray and other members of the Parisian avant-garde. Hugnet's first collection of poems and collages, published in 1936 and entitled La septième face du dé (The seventh face of the die), included a cover designed by Duchamp. Hugnet so admired Duchamp and his work that he penned a poem called, Marcel Duchamp, which pays tribute to Duchamp's contributions to modern art. In this poem Hugnet celebrates Duchamp's innovative spirit, his unconventional ideas about the nature and purpose of art, and his use of found objects and readymades and references several of Duchamp's most famous works, which were seen as radical and controversial in their time. We have on offer Hugnet's poem, Marcel Duchamp, published in 1941 and signed by… Read More

Los Angeles: 7410 Publishing Company, 1990. First edition. Original box. Very Good. LIMITED DELUXE EDITION PHOTO-BOOK DOCUMENTING THE PUBLIC RESPONSE TO THE DEATH OF MARILYN MONROE; WITH TWO SIGNED ORIGINAL PRINTS; COPY A OUT OF ONLY 26 LETTERED COPIES. Front-page news across the US and Europe, the death of Marilyn Monroe on Saturday, 4 August 1962 shocked all who had come to know and love the star over her dramatic rise to fame in the proceeding decade. Just as Monroe has captured the public's imagination in her lifetime, her unexpected passing launched a flurry of media attention, riddled with everything from conspiracy theories involving the Kennedys to critiques of ever-invasive paparazzi. Photojournalist Leigh Wiener (1926-1993) was there the morning of Sunday, 5 August, on assignment for Life Magazine to cover the unfolding dramatic aftermath. In his career, Wiener documented a wide array of public and private events featuring celebrities of all walks of life including every US President from… Read More