Skip to content

Secure Checkout

Website Secured with 256-bit TLS Encryption
Subtotal: $9,510.00
Shipping: $36.00
$0.00
Donation Amount: $0.00
Total: $9,546.00
2 - 6 days
2 - 14 days

All fields are required unless marked optional.

Add Shipping Note
  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • American Express
  • Discover
  • Paypal
  • Apple Pay
  • Google Pay

Verified and Secured. Guaranteed.

Website Secured with 256-bit TLS Encryption
Please select your payment method from the following list:
Click the button to checkout with PayPal.
You will be charged $9,546.00 when completing this purchase.

Cart Totals

Subtotal: $9,510.00
Shipping: $36.00
: $0.00
Donation Amount: $0.00
Total: $9,546.00

You are about to purchase:

Russian Icons (Presentation from the binder)

Russian Icons (Presentation from the binder) by [Fine Binding - Philip Smith] Talbot Rice, Tamara

4 to 7 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: $15.00
Details
$8,500.00
( US$)
Seller: Whitmore Rare Books
Title
Russian Icons (Presentation from the binder)
Author
[Fine Binding - Philip Smith] Talbot Rice, Tamara
Seller
Whitmore Rare Books (United States)
Condition
Fine
Description
London: Spring Books, 1963. First edition. Fine. Quarto (10 7/16 x 9 1/16 inches; 265 x 230 mm.). [iv], 40 pp. Monotone frontispiece, full-color title and 48 full-color plates on 24 leaves. The verso of the color title is inscribed in ink "To Joan/with many thanks/for your continuing/kindness.../Philip". Bound by Philip Smith in 1964 (stamped in blind on rear turn-in) in full rose (front) and medium blue (rear) crushed levant morocco. Both covers elaborately decorated with Russian Icons in various colored onlaid moroccos finished with elaborate gilt tooling. Smooth spine of half rose and half medium blue lettered in gilt. Wonderful hand-made 'iconesque' patse-downs, speckled ivory paper endleaves, all edges gilt. Housed in a later, specially made, black felt-lined, quarter rose cloth over blue cloth boards clamshell case, spine with white paper label printed in black. Together with a two-page autograph letter dated 13 July 1970, from Philip Smith to Joan Rix Tebbutt (1910-2005) the much loved artist, bookbinder, calligrapher and teacher who lived all her life in Glasgow. She is perhaps best known for her collaboration with Sydney "Sandy" Morris Cockerell (Duval). The letter states: "What a pity I missed you when you went to see the exhibition at Hatchards... Miss [Elizabeth] Greenhill will be pleased that you like her bindings. I think she is very much like you in her approach to book binding... I did not sell any books at Hachards (not surprising as most people know I'm showing later in the year in London) & I have decided that possibly the one on Russian Icons would be the most acceptable to you so I hope you won't mind receiving this as a gift for your help to us!" A quite wonderful association. An elaborate binding fit for a regal subject: Here Smith has bound a book by Tamara Talbot Rice (1904-1993), a Russian-born English art historian who specialized in Byzantine and Central Asian art. After fleeing the Russian Revolution in 1917, her family settled in the United Kingdom; Talbot-Rice would complete her education at Oxford. Philip Smith (1928-2018) was a highly original and talented binder whose many innovations brought him acclaim. Selected for the Royal College of Art by the esteemed Roger Powell, he developed an abstract style that would use maril (compressed pieces of leather) with onlays and other techniques. Smith was a leader in the binding world-he published and edited and served as the president of Designer Bookbinders (1977-79)-he was eventually awarded an MBE for his lifelong contributions to the artform. Fine.
Elogio Storico de Conte Commendatore Gian-Rinaldo Carli

Elogio Storico de Conte Commendatore Gian-Rinaldo Carli by [Bossi, Luigi]

2 to 8 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: $15.00
Details
$990.00
( US$)
Seller: De Simone Company, Booksellers
Title
Elogio Storico de Conte Commendatore Gian-Rinaldo Carli
Author
[Bossi, Luigi]
Seller
De Simone Company, Booksellers (United States)
Description
In Venezia: Lo Stampatore Carlo Palese, 1792. 8vo.  220 x 130 mm., [7 ¾ x 5 ¼ inches].  xvi, 285, [3] pp.  Illustrated with an engraved oval portrait and one head piece engraving designed by Francesco Mingardi and engraved by Francesco Novelli.  Bound in contemporary paste paper boards, paper label with title in ink on spine.  Boards are a bit soiled, but generally a very good copy. First biography of Gian Rinaldo Carli, the famous Italian scientist, economist and government minister who in 1781-83 published his famous book, Delle Lettere Americane.  Carli based his writing on an “immense knowledge which embraced the evidence of myths, traditions, customs, laws, languages, science, geography, and cosmography, . . .and made his work a comparative study of the peoples of the Old and New Worlds to prove his thesis of fundamental unity and resemblance.  All humanity is one since it derives from a common source. . .”.  He wrote this book as a challenge to the theory of Cornelius de Pauw who published his work Recherches philosophiques sur les Américains, in Berlin in 1768-69.  Pauw conclusions stated that “the condition of the savage could be only one of misery, baseness and barbarism” and that “the climate of American was such that it induced a fatal degeneration in all subject forms of life, whether plant, animal, or human.” Carli’s book, sent to Benjamin Franklin by the bookseller Lorenzo Manini, arrived in Philadelphia in 1783.  It was immediately embraced by Franklin and American patriots and Carli’s conclusion that “the spirit of America” tempered by liberty and tolerance, would show Europeans the way to happiness as promised by the Enlightenment thinkers. Luigi Bossi, a noted antiquarian, historian, librarian, and member of the cultural elite in Milan, was a correspondent of Franklin and an ardent supporter of the unification movement that was being nurtured in Italy at the end of the 18th century.  He was a friend of Carli and saw in his work the way forward for himself and those who saw the future of mankind in a positive light.  As a member of the Italian enlightenment, Bossi was a lover of liberty who viewed the American Revolution against Great Britain as a signal for Italian nationalists to shake off the yoke of control exercised over the Italy by the French and Austrian occupation.  His biography of Carli was a testament to the life of singular Italian but symbolic of the potential of unifying the people who lived on the peninsula and creating an elected government working for the benefit of the Italian public. Antonio Pace, Benjamin Franklin and Italy, pp. 134-36. Wright Howes, U.S. Iana, C-149, P-142.  Joseph Sabin, Bibliotheca Americana, Dictionary of Books Relating to America. No. 6462.  Lucia Sebastiani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, v. 13, (1971). .
Commodore David Porter. 1780-1843.

Commodore David Porter. 1780-1843. by Turnbull, Archibald Douglas.

7 to 14 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: $6.00
Details
$20.00
( EU VAT US$0)
Seller: Ten Pound Island Book Co.
Title
Commodore David Porter. 1780-1843.
Author
Turnbull, Archibald Douglas.
Seller
Ten Pound Island Book Co. (United States)
Condition
First edition.This is my hero, the elder Porter, identified on the dust jacket as
Description
New York: The Century Co., (1929). First edition.This is my hero, the elder Porter, identified on the dust jacket as "The Count Luckner of the War of 1812." A great yarn and an interesting life. Smith II 1948. Very good condition in dust jacket.. 21 cm. 326 pp.bw frontispiece and plates.

Hang on… we’re fetching the requested page.