The Fine Arts/Museums


Includes exhibition catalogues, painting and sculpture, interior design, cartoons and caricatures, costuming, millinery, dance, illustration, woodcuts and engravings, and the like. See also Architecture, Music and Photography.

Agee, William, Fairfield Porter: An American Painter (Parrish Art Museum, 1st ed. 1993). ISBN 0-943526-25-6. Exhibition catalogue for the first major retrospective of the works of Porter (1907-75) after his estate donated 237 of them to the Museum. Paperback, 10” x 10”, very good condition. A major American realist school painter after 1949, Porter was also a celebrated teacher and art critic. HBB price: $25.20150501_175659.jpg

Bailey, Harold H., The Birds of Florida (limited edition, privately printed for the author by Williams & Wilkins, 1925). Ornithologist Bailey (1878-1952) was the son of a prominent American ornithologist; his two great works are The Birds of Virginia and this volume (he was also noted marrying the widow of another great ornithologist, Eugene Law; their papers are in the collections at Virginia Tech). The Birds of Florida bears comparison with those of Audubon; 475 species and subspecies are covered, and the 76 color illustrations by George Sutton are breath-taking. A singular volume for birders. Hardcover, no dust jacket. Very good condition. HBB price: $175.

Bantock, Nick, The Venetian’s Wife (Chronicle Books, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1996). ISBN 0-8118-1140-9. A mysterious art connoisseur, communicating only by email, hires a museum curator for an equally mysterious task. Hardcover, dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $29.95.

Bantock, Nick, The Forgetting Room (Byzantium Books/HarperCollins, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1997). ISBN 0-00-225176-0. Another of Bantock’s mysterious tales interweaving text and illustration, this one involving a man who inherits a house in Spain from his grandfather. Hardcover, dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $49.95.

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Bantock, Nick, The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy (Chronicle Books,
Vol. 1, Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence, (1991, 1st ed., 6th printing); Vol. 2, Sabine’s Notebook, (1992, 1st ed., 2nd printing); Vol. 3, The Golden Mean (1993, 1st ed., 1st printing). The first set of Bantock’s two Griffin & Sabine trilogies, in which- he says-  he presents “a new genre in publishing, a marriage of word and image embedded within a mysterious alchemical love story of postcards and letters.” Lavishly illustrated, these books were a publishing sensation. Hardcover dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $60.

Bentley, Toni, Costumes by Karinska (Abrams, 1st. ed, 1995). ISBN 0-8109-3516-3. A leading New York ballerina’s survey of the work of the Russian emigre designer Barbara Karinska (1886-1983). Though she won the 1948 Academy Award for dressing Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc, Karinska’s lasting fame came from her decades as the design muse of choreographer George Balanchine, who died a month before her. 192 pp, folio, lavishly illustrated, with an introduction by Edward Gorey and an essay by Lincoln Kirstein. Fine condition, hardcover, with unclipped dust jacket. HBB price: $35020150501_175726.jpg


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Bry, Doris and Calloway, Nicholas, eds., Georgia O’Keefe: In The West (Knopf, stated 1st ed., October, 1989). ISBN 0-394-57971-2. Dazzling collection of works from O’Keefe’s time in New Mexico, with plates printed in four and five-color lithography. Inserted loosely is a 6 by 14 inch color reproduction of "Sky Above Clouds IV", with a listing of the plates in this book printed on the reverse. Hardcover; with unclipped dust jacket in seven colors and matte lamination. The text block is smyth-sewn in signatures. 16.25” x. 13.75”. Very good condition. HBB price: $95.

Campbell, Nancy and Seebohm, Carolyn, Elsie de Wolfe: A Decorative Life (Panache Books/Clarkson Potter, stated 1st ed., 1st printing, 1992). ISBN 0-517-58467-0. The first American woman professional interior designer, Elsie de Wolfe (1865-1950) made her name rebelling against the dark fussy clutter of Victorian interiors in favor of “optimism and lots of white paint”, and stood astride her profession for fifty years. Quarto, 144 pp, unclipped dust jacket showing a little wear at the corners; beautifully illustrated by pages in so many colors the occasional yellow text highlighting by a previous owner actually fits in! Very good condition. HBB price: $59.95.20150501_174625.jpg








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The Complete Book of Covers From The New Yorker, 1925-1989 (Knopf, stated 1st ed., October, 1989). ISBN 0-394-57841-4. 3277 covers spanning the magazine’s first 75 years. Hardcover, folio, unclipped dust jacket, 390 pp., very good condition. Foreword by John Updike; embossed cameo of Eustace Twilley on the cover board. HBB price: $49.95.



Corning Glass Center, (Western Printing, 1st ed., 1958). LOC 58-12805. Fine little volume on the history and uses of glass, featuring the sleek, then-new Corning research center. 61 pp. HBB price: $20.

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Crawford, Ilse, The Sensual Home (Rizzoli, 1st US ed., 3rd printing, 1998). ISBN 0-8478-2079-3. Hardcover, suede-style covers, no dust jacket as issued. The editor of Elle Decoration offers some timeless ideas for making one’s home a retreat from the chaotic rumble and jumble of the Outside. Quarto, 160 pp. Very good condition. HBB price: $19.95.

Crimmins, G. Garfield, The Republic of Dreams: A Reverie (W.W. Norton, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1998). ISBN 0-393-046433-8. A dazzling book, filled- literally- with zeppelin tickets, maps, telegrams, and even a Poetic License from the author’s dream visits to the utopian island of Reves. It brings to mind, somehow, a cross between Nick Bantock and the 1940 Robert Arthur short story, “Postpaid to Paradise,” about the Federated States of Eldorado and their fabulous stamps. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, fine condition, 95 pp. Rare. HBB price: $39.95.

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Darling, Benjamin, Vixens of Vinyl (Chronicle Books, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2001) Herb Alpert’s Whipped Cream is but one of the 1950s-’60s LP album covers chronicled- and illustrated- in this entertaining account of “the bachelor era.” Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $19.95.








Dreher, Denise, From the Neck up: An Illustrated Guide to Hatmaking (Madhatter Press, 1st ed., 1981). ISBN 0-941082-00-8. Softcover,spiral bound modern version of the ladies’ home guides of the 19th century. “Even if you have never held a needle and thread before, you can, through careful application of the lessons, make a complete hat either with or without the aid of a sewing machine,” the book promises. 199 pp. with many 19th century and photographic illustrations. Light staining/fading here and there. Good condition. HBB price $1995.




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Feher, Gyorgy, Cyclopedia Anatomicae (Black Dog & Leventhal, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1996). ISBN 1-884822-87-8. A 602 pp compilation of the art of anatomical drawing of humans and animals, with some 1500 illustrations. Hardcover, folio, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $40.

Frazier, Nancy, Special Museums of the Northeast: A Guide to Uncommon Collections from Maine to Washington, D.C. (The Globe Pequot Press, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1985). 144 museums are covered by this guide, “from aircraft and arctic explorers to dogs and dolls, from fly fishing and forestry to motorcycles and mushrooms, from railroads to steamships to weaving and weightlifting.” Softcover, octavo, 304 pp. Very good condition. HBB price: $25.

Gabo, Naum, Of Divers Arts (Pantheon Books, Bollingen Series XXXV-8, 1st ed., 1962). The 1959 A.W. Mellon Lecture in the Fine Arts, delivered in the National Gallery of Art in 1959. Russian-born, Naum Gabo was a leading light of the Constructivist movement in art; here, he details “the mental mechanism of the artist” in six lectures. Illustrations include 73 halftone plates (15 in four-color). Ex-library, hardcover, quarto, price-clipped dust jacket in mylar. Good condition. HBB price: $25.20150428_153327.jpg

H.R. Giger (1940-2014) was a member of the special effects team given the Oscar for the 1979 film, Alien. His ornate yet austere surrealist art, combining fantastic creatures and technology (he was a friend of both Dali and Timothy Leary), published in 1977 as Necronomicon, caught the eye of director Ridley Scott, and launched a thousand drooling, indestructible creatures into movie houses for the next 35 years. Alien made Giger rich and famous; his post-Oscar ventures included a series of Giger-themed bars in Switzerland and Japan. His Swiss chateau is now a museum of his work.

In 1994 Morpheus International published H.R. Giger's Necronomicon as an oversized art book, with a new foreword by Clive Barker and, added to the 1977 text, material from Giger's work for Alien. We have a good copy, sans dust jacket and a little worn at the top and bottom of the spine, but in fine condition otherwise. H.R. Giger, H.R. Giger's Necronomicon, Morpheus International, 1991, 3rd printing, 1994, ISBN 0-9623447-2-9), 12" x 16 3/4" hardcover, no dust jacket, some wear to top and bottom of spine, otherwise quite good. Your price: US $29.

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Gould, John, Hummingbirds (Wellfleet Press, 1st ed., 1990). ISBN 1-55521-661-7. This large (14.5” x 10”) volume does justice to the life’s work of John Gould (1804-1881), Curator of the Zoological Society of London. Author of Birds of Australia, Birds of Europe and Birds of Great Britain, Gould produced Hummingbirds in a series of volumes between 1849 and 1860. In 1880 he undertook a supplement; his colleague, Richard Bowdler Sharpe, completed and published it after Gould’s death. This volume collects all 418 illustrations by Gould, and the notes on each. A work worthy of comparison to Audubon. Hardcover unclipped dust jacket showing some wear along the front bottom; otherwise, very good condition. HBB price: $79.95.

Hockney, David & Spender, Sir Stephen, Hockney’s Alphabet (Random House, 1st ed., 2nd printing, 1992). ISBN 0-679-41766-4. An oversized, illustrated Alphabet drawn by Hockney, with comments inspired by each letter from over two dozen British and American writers. Originally produced to benefit AIDS Crisis Trust; all proceeds from this sale will be donated to Carolina CARE Partners, towards the same end. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $75.

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Homans, Jennifer, Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet (Random House, 1st. ed, 7th printing, 2010). ISBN 978-1-4000-6060-3. With no written texts or standardized notation form, ballet has nevertheless survived as an art for over four hundred years. This runaway hit, New York Times Book Review 10 Best lister for 2010, tells that tale. Astonishingly well-documented. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. 643 pp. HBB price: $49.

Hughes, Robert, American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America (Alfred A. Knopf, 1st ed., 1997). ISBN 0-679-42627-2. Companion to the PBS series, this volume is classic Hughes: Big, vivid and full of the cocksure judgements, expressed in vigorous prose. The Australian-born journalist (1938-2012)and art critic called the book his “love letter to America.” A large, handsome volume, 8’ x 10”. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, near-fine condition. 633 pp. HBB price: $79.95.

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Jones, Owen, The Grammar of Ornament: The Victorian Masterpiece on Oriental, Primitive, Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Design and Decorative Art (Portland House, 1st ed., 1987). ISBN 0-517-62486-9. Reprint of the 1856 classic study of the taxonomy of design, which- after its 1880 American publication- influenced many, including the young architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Jones (1809-74) won fame for his advocacy of polychrome design, most notably in the Crystal Palace of 1851, after falling under the sway of Moorish architecture on his Grand Tour. Folio size, near fine condition in like dust jacket. HBB price: $50.











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Kurlansky, Mervyn, and Naar, Jon, The Faith of Graffiti (Alskog Books/Praeger Publishers, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1974). ISBN 0-275-71610-0. Paperback, folio sized collection of photos of New York’s early 1970s graffiti explosion. Novelist Norman Mailer explains The Meaning of It All in a sixteen-page essay mid-book. Good condition, unpaginated. Rare pop culture record. HBB price: $75.

le Corbeiller, Clare, European and American Snuff Boxes 1730-1830 (Studio Press/Viking,1st ed. 1966) LOC 66-16384. Much of the plot of Busby Berkeley’s first great musical, Gold Diggers of 1935, revolves around Hugh Herbert’s character, T. Mosley Thorpe III, and how to attach to his millions, or separate him from them. All Thorpe, a world expert, cares about is snuffboxes. A former Metropolitan Museum staffer, Clare le Corbeiller, was clearly moved by the spirit of Thorpe to produce this encyclopedic tome, which covers a century of the art form in over 700 photographs and 100 pages of text. Quarto, hardcover, black cloth boards with gilt titled spine. Some underlining on five pages of the Introduction. Prior owner’s bookplate on endpaper. Very good condition. HBB price: $25.20150501_175858.jpg

Leighton, Clare, Southern Harvest (Macmillan, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1943). One of the most famous mid-20th century Anglo-American woodcut artists, Clare Leighton spent the war years in North Carolina. This collection of memories of her travels in the rural Carolinas of that day are brilliantly illustrated by the most singular woodcuts. Truly a lost art! Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket showing some wear and chipping. Very good condition overall. Quarto, 157 pp. Rare. HBB price: $50.

Leisch, Juanita, Who Wore What? Women’s Wear, 1861-1865 (Thomas Publications, 1st ed. 1995). ISBN 0-93961-81-4. Leisch’s well-illustrated study considers the fallacy- long perpetuated by film and television- that women of the Civil War era pretty much all worse the same outfits. Using tens of thousands of period photos and illustrated cartes des visites, Leisch breaks down wardrobe choices by age, rural v. urban, jewelry choices, outerwear, hats, and a variety of other accoutrements. Fascinating!  This book has become a standard reference in Hollywood and the war re-enactor communities. Quarto, 116 pp. Hardcover, no dust jacket as issued. Inscribed on the title page in 1996. Very good condition. HBB price: $125.20150503_175559.jpg

Loring, John Tiffany Flora/Tiffany Fauna (Harry N. Abrams, 1st ed, 1st printing, 2003). ISBN 0-8109-4573-8. Pair of beautifully-photographed volumes illustrating Tiffany’s output of jewelry and other goods in designs drawn from nature. In a striking white slipcase with nine open circles, front and back, allowing the dust jacket illustrations to show through. Hardcover, unclipped dust jackets, fine condition. HBB price: $125.

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Mackin, Dan, Reflections of Paradise (Ellison Graphics, 1st ed., 2002). ISBN 0-615-12303-1. Handsome large-scale collection of the art of the Florida artist, who specializes in tropical scenes. 9.75” x 13.75”, hardcover, unclipped dust jacket showing some edge wear, front and back. Autographed on title page. Very good condition. HBB price: $40.








March,  Joseph Moncure, The Wild Party (Pantheon, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1994). ISBN 0-679-42450-4. Woodcut illustrations by Art Spiegelman. Elegant reissue of the Jazz Age classic, first published in 1928. Spiegelman’s woodcuts are of the period. 8.75” x 5.5”, hardcover, unclipped dust jacket. Very good condition. HBB price: $39.95

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Michalowski, Kazimierz, Art of Ancient Egypt (Harry N. Abrams, 1st ed., 1968).  LOC 68-26865. 600 pages, 900 illustrations: this is an extraordinary work. Folio size, Very fine condition. HBB price: $175.

Norwood, Malcolm M., Elias, Virginia McGehee, and Haynie, William S., The Art of Marie Hull (University Press of Mississippi, 1st ed, 1975). ISBN 0-87805-068-X.  Marie Hull (1890-1980), was a leading regional artist for more than 60 years. This book documents her evolution from a realist style to a highly experimental one in her last years. Of particular interest is her portraits of African-Americans in Mississippi in the 1930s. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, two small tears at the top, otherwise very good condition.  HBB price: $50.

Paintings in the Collection of Henry Clay Frick, at One East Seventieth Street, New York (Privately printed, 1910). Rare volume produced before the Frick opened as a museum. Softcover, full limp morocco with gilt titling; sepia illustrations. 151 pp., octavo. Some rubbing along the front joint and at the spine’s head and tail. Otherwise in very good condition. HBB price: $150.


Pericoli, Matteo, Manhattan Unfurled (Random House, 1st ed., 3rd printing 2001). ISBN 0-375-50491-5. An Italian architect and illustrator who lives in New York, Pericoli took a Circle Line boat tour around Manhattan in 1998 and was seized of the idea to draw what he had seen. Three years later, this book was the result: two, accordionized, 22-foot panels showing everything there was to be seen at the time on the East and West Sides.  In an accompanying essay, architecture critic Paul Goldberger echoes E.B. White’s concern over bomb-laden aircraft in “This Is New York,” writing, “This drawing was completed before the horrific events of September, 11, 2001, which changed everything as far as the Manhattan skyline is concerned. Chaos is no longer an aesthetic concept but a catastrophic fact of life. The skyline, which we have always thought of as changing slowly, organically, suddenly becomes capable of wrenching, instantaneous, cataclysmic change. In the Darwinian world of the Manhattan skyline the largest buildings were always the most powerful, but on September 11 the World Trade Center did not drive smaller, weaker buildings away but were taken away themselves.” A brilliant artistic achievement, and evocation of a time about to be swept away. Very good condition, in a very good slipcase. HBB price: $35.20150507_131341.jpg


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Rumford, Beatrix T., gen. edn, American Folk Paintings: Paintings and Drawings Other Than Portraits from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center (New York Graphic Society/Little Brown, stated 1st ed., 1988). ISBN 0-8212-1620-1. 85 color and 298 black and white illustrations make up this second volume in the Folk Art Center Series of books. Quarto sized, 449 pp. unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $28.95.20150503_175509.jpg

Sato, Shozo, The Art of Arranging Flowers: A Complete Guide to Japanese Ikebana (Harry N. Abrams, 1st ed., 1965). LOC 65-20323.  Brilliantly illustrated guide to the minimalist wonder that is ikebana. Hardcover, mylar dust jacket, very good condition. Quarto, 366 pp. HBB price: $50.

Maurice Sendak (1928-2012) modeled his famed monsters after relatives: “They were unkempt; their teeth were horrifying. Hair unraveling out of their noses." Notoriously spiky (of e-books, he said, "F*** them is what I say; I hate those e-books. They cannot be the future... they may well be. I will be dead, I won’t give a s***!”; of a fan, he recalled, “A woman came up to me the other day and said, ‘You’re the kiddie-book man!’ I wanted to kill her.”), it bothered him not in the least that his book, In the Night Kitchen, is among the kids' books most banned from libraries in this century.

Selma Lanes, a Sendak friend and children's books' editor and author, combines a biography of the artist and a visual survey of his work in The Art of Maurice Sendak, a large, lavishly illustrated book complete with foldouts of Sendak's sketches and storyboards for his books. Harry Abrams, the art book publisher gave this volume the full treatment, which makes it a must-have for kids-at-heart and visual arts fans of every sort.



Selma G. Lanes, The Art of Maurice Sendak (1993 ed., hardcover with unclipped dust jacket, one slight tear on back edge, 278 pp., 165 black-and-white, 94 color illustrations, ISBN 0-819-8063-0, 12" x 11", very good condition). Your price: US $75.

Sinclaire, Clive, Samurai Swords: A Collector’s Guide to Japanese Swords (Chartwell Books, 1st ed., 2009). ISBN 978-0-7858-2563-0. Longtime kendo instructor and president of the To-ken Society of Great Britain, Sinclaire brought over forty years’ collecting experience to this work, lavishly illustrated and with highly useful appendices and glossaries. Quarto, 208 pp., hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $29.95.






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Sullivan, Michael, The Three Perfections: Chinese Paintings, Poetry and Calligraphy (George Braziller, rev. ed., 1999). ISBN 0-8076-1452-1. The former Slade Professor of Art at Oxford and Cambridge explains how painting, poetry and calligraphy come together in Chinese visual art. Hardcover, octavo, 86 pp. Hardcover, unclipped dut jacket, fine condition. HBB price: $125.





Tufte, Edward, Beautiful Evidence (Graphics Press, stated 1st ed., 1st printing 2006), ISBN 0-9613921-7-7. Emeritus professor at Yale, Tufte has produced a number of books on the visual display and interpretation of data and evidence. His is a singularly artistic vision, and this book is a wonder of art and narration, spanning centuries of how information is presented visually. Quarter, hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, 213 pp., fine condition. HBB price: $50.

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Van Loon, Hendrik Willem, The Arts (Simon & Schuster, 1st ed., 1937, later printing, 1939). A Dutch-American journalist, historian, children’s book author and political activist, Van Loon (1882-1944) moved- seemingly effortlessly- between genres, producing scores of books on all kinds of topics over a thirty-year period. He covered the 1905 Russian Revolution; so alienated Adolph Hitler that the dictator banned Van Loon from entering the country; and won the first Newberry Medal, for outstanding children’s literature, in 1922. Van Loon often illustrated his books, and The Arts is no exception. In this 678 page “story of Painting and Sculpture and Architecture and Music as well as all the so-called Minor Arts from the days of the caveman until the present time,” Van Loon covers the waterfront, with illustrated end papers, many four color drawings in the text, and- most interestingly- a dust jacket that folds out- double size- into a chart of important events in the history of the arts. Some front hinge separation; otherwise, good+ condition. HBB price: $59.95.

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Westra, Hans, Inside Anne Frank’s House: An Illustrated Journey Through Anne’s World (Overlook Duckworth, 1st ed.,, 2004). ISBN 1-58567-628-4. An elegant history of the Frank family’s hidden home. Lavishly illustrated with contemporary and modern photos. Folio, 266 pp. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket. Very good condition. HBB price: $50.

Wyler, The Book of Old Silver: English, American, Foreign (Crown Publishing, 1st ed, 1937, 32nd printing, 1976). ISBN 0-517-00089-X. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket with some wear and tear, overall good condition. HBB price: $25.

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