New York Antiquarian Book Fair
Sponsored by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, the NYABF opens with a preview Thursday evening, March 7, and runs through Sunday, March 10, at the Park Avenue Armory at 643 Park Ave. Over 200 American and international dealers will display an astonishing array of rare books, fine art, maps, manuscripts, and ephemera. Plus, a lecture series on Saturday, 1-6 p. m., and “Discovery Day” appraisals on Sunday, 1-3 p. m. Admission: $60 for preview pass, $45 run of show, $25 daily, $10 for students carrying a valid school ID. For more information, visit nyantiquarianbookfair.com.
Highlights
Courtesy of Antiquariat Steffen Völkel GmbH.
In case you haven’t heard, tarot is hot again, which makes this highlight from Antiquariat Steffen Völkel GmbH timely as well as beautiful. Here we have all seventy-eight colored woodcut cards from Andreas Benedict Göbl’s famous tarot for the wedding of Emperor Joseph II with Maria Josefa of Bavaria. Made in Munich in 1765. Price: $16,500.
Courtesy of Lux Mentis Booksellers.
Lux Mentis Booksellers puts the spotlight on Timothy Ely’s Bones of the Book: An Oblong Identity, a one-of-a-kind manuscript book of elaborate painted and drawn folios contained within a finely crafted binding. Price: $100,000.
Courtesy of Földvári Books.
Hungary’s Földvári Books, which specializes in avant-garde and modern art and literature, will bring the extremely scarce, first English edition of Friedrich Engels’ first book, The Condition of The Working Class in England (1887). Price: $20,500.
Courtesy of Antiquariaat De Roo.
Antiquariaat De Roo, the Dutch bookselling firm, will exhibit this beautifully hand-colored and richly illustrated edition of a large print bible named Groot Waerelds Tafereel, printed in Amsterdam in the early eighteenth century. Price: $38,500.
Courtesy of Librairie Amélie Sourget.
Johannes Ketham’s famously illustrated early medical book, Fasciculus Medicinae, printed in Venice in 1500 and bound in eighteenth-century half-vellum, will be offered by the Paris-based Librairie Amélie Sourget.
Courtesy of Librairie Camille Sourget.
Also coming in from Paris, to be found in Librairie Camille Sourget’s booth, is an exceedingly rare suite of watercolors depicting games and entertainments in Tuscany in the eighteenth century, executed by Giuseppe Piattoli for Trattenimenti e Feste Annue … (Florence, 1790). Price: $63,000.
The Manhattan Vintage Book & Ephemera Fair & Fine Press Book Fair
“The Shadow Show” will be held on Saturday, March 9, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, 869 Lexington Avenue at 66th Street—just across the street from the Armory. Appraisals by John Bruno and guest appraisers from 1-3 p.m. Admission: $15 for adults, $7 for youths aged 12-21, and free for those under 12 with paid adult. The Shadow Show will also feature the Fine Press Book Fair within the larger fair. For more information, visit flamingoeventz.com.
Highlights
Courtesy of Turtle Light Press.
In the Fine Press section of the fair, look for the limited edition artists’ book, The Amichai Windows, an homage to poet Yehuda Amichai, created by Rick Black at Turtle Light Press. Price: $9,500.
Courtesy of Ball’s Books.
For pure pep, try this 1954 Vintage edition of E. M. Forster’s 1910 novel, Howards End. The lime green cover art by American poster artist and AIGA Medal winner E. McKnight Kauffer is hard to beat. Offered by Ball’s Books. Price: $35.
Courtesy of Bottomless Books.
A first edition of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, a perennial favorite, in its now famous dust jacket with illustration by Joseph Mugnaini, is one of the first editions to be found in the Bottomless Books booth. Price: $2,500.
Courtesy of The Bookworm.
The Bookworm will exhibit a lesser-known Joseph Conrad title, Victory (1915), in its first UK edition (with a bright pictorial jacket, unlike the drab American version). Price: $4,000.
Courtesy of A Good Read.
Toronto’s A Good Read bookshop is bringing Mark Twain’s Saint Joan of Arc—his last completed work and the one he claimed to like best—in a noteworthy pictorial binding. Price: $175.
Courtesy of C. Rose Books.
A selection of modern firsts will be exhibited by C. Rose Books, including a first edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night ($5,500) and, as pictured here, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Price: $2,500.
The New York City Book & Ephemera Fair
In its fifth year, this “Satellite fair” now includes the Booklyn Artists’ Book Fair and will run two days: Saturday, March 9 from 8 a.m.-4 p.m., and Sunday, March 10 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. More than 100 exhibitors will showcase antiquarian books, manuscripts, ephemera, book art, and works on paper. Located in the bright and roomy Sheraton Central Park/Times Square, 811 7th Avenue, with free round-trip shuttle bus service to the Armory available. Admission: $15 for adults, free for students with ID. For more information, visit bookandpaperfairs.com.
Highlights
Courtesy of The Kelmscott Bookshop.
The Kelmscott Bookshop of Baltimore, Maryland, will showcase this unique designer binding by Robert Wu of Toronto for the deluxe edition of Pseudodoxia Epidemica: Of Unicornes Hornes by Sir Thomas Browne, printed and illustrated by Alan James Robinson of the Cheloniidae Press (1984). Price: $3,800.
Courtesy of Zoe Abrams.
Bookseller Zoe Abrams is especially interested in offering items with “hybrid qualities that distinguish them as unique,” such as this c. 1834 edition of Thomas-Joseph Moult’s horoscopes and poetry, Prophéties perpétuelles, sewn in contemporary manuscript wrappers. Price: $400.
Courtesy of Pryor-Johnson Rare Books.
The vibrant color of this 1971 paperback edition of Pablo Neruda’s Twenty Love Poems is sure to draw attention to the booth of Pryor-Johnson Rare Books. The book retains its Nobel Prize announcement band and is inscribed by the author with the words: “You are beautiful.” Price: $375.
Courtesy of Chatham Bookseller.
In addition to a signed, limited, large paper edition of Winnie-the-Pooh, Chatham Bookseller of New Jersey will offer up a signed first edition of William Burroughs’ Dead Fingers Talk (1963). Price: $550.
Courtesy of Stan Gorski Books.
Pennsylvania’s Stan Gorski Books will put the spotlight on this 1980 Phantasia Press limited edition (No. 100 of 725), in dust jacket and slipcase, of Stephen King’s science fiction classic, Firestarter. Price: $1,400.
Courtesy of Weinberg Modern.
New York City’s Weinberg Modern, an “ever-changing collection of unusual and important modernist design and art,” is bringing this first edition artist’s book by Joaquin Torres-Garcia, Raison et Nature, published by Editions Iman in 1932. Price: $4,500.
