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Hermès, Paris c. 1947-48. Hermès playing cards. Set of two decks of cards, with orignal box from Hermès, wrapped with textile ribbon. The orange outer box is marked Hermès, 24, Faub[our]G Saint-Honoré, Paris and holds two separate boxes with cards, plus an accompanied note book, spiral bound, all edges gilt, in a pocket. The front and back of these boxes have the same design as the backs of the cards. Card box measures 10x15 cm. Each deck contains 52 cards plus two jokers along with an extra presentation card (something like a title page). The cards have gold edges. The outer box a little bit worn, the ”title page” for the red deck has a fold mark to the lower part. Otherwise in very good condition. These cards were printed by Draeger-Frères, Paris, in 7 (maybe even 8) zincographic colours. This is the second version, probably made for the export to Anglo-American countries because he words "Made in France" were added on the title page. The major change lies in the design of the Jack of Diamonds. The head, hat, dagger and the Jack's index finger has been redrawn. In the second version the type face with serif is also a bit bolder, higher and wider, so the letter and small suit sign had to be placed closer to the large suit sign, thus cutting a piece off the suit sign. This is seen in all suits. A print ad from the period sells the cards as follows, "Grace your card table with these beautiful and unusual playing cards . . . the facial expressions of the court, the abundance of color are eloquent testimony to the genius of Cassandre, internationally celebrated designer-artist."A. M. Cassandre (1901-1968). Cassandre was the alias of Adolphe Jean Marie Mouron, who was born on 24·1·1901 in Kharkow, Ukraine, and died on 17·6·1968 in Paris. He was not only a graphic artist and illustrator, but also a designer of theatre stages and type faces for the French type foundry Deberny & Peignot, Bifur (1929) & Peignot (1937). He was mostly known for his advertising posters, like the one of the mailboat Normandie. In 1918 he briefly studied painting at the Beaux Arts in Paris, but already in 1922 he began to work for commercial agencies. He moved to the USA and made many covers for the Harpers Bazaar magazine between 1936 and 1937. In the early 1940's he abandoned the commercial activities and became a painter and stage designer.

Moderna Museet, Stockholm. 1968. First edition. 654 pages, without pagination, 636 mostly full-page black-and-white illustrations. Factory photos by Billy Name, photographs by Stephen Eric Shore. (27 x 20 cm), glued binding, cover (front and back) is printed with flowers in 5 colours. Printed in letterpress on recycled paper. Condition close to a new copy of this fragile art object. Typography by John Melin and Gösta Svensson, Stig Arbman AB. (John Melin till exempel pages 32-37, Lutz Jahre 21 - 1968). Exhibition: Stockholm, Moderna Museet, 10 February - 17 March 1968.Warhol's first solo exhibition in a museum took place in Stockholm. Four months before the artist was to be shot in the Factory, he was in Stockholm for the exhibition's opening. The facade of the museum building was completely covered with Warhol's cow wallpaper (Cow Wallpaper, 1966). There was snow and it was very cold. Temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius were measured on the museum island of Skeppsholmen. Held back by the cold, relatively few visitors came to the five-week exhibition.The catalogue was a huge success, however, with three editions of around 20,000 copies in total. The concept was prepared in New York by Kasper König. The only text was statements by Warhol such as "All is pretty"; the majority of the publication consists of mostly full-page illustrations. Around a third of the illustrations are reproductions of Warhol's works, another third are Factory photos by Billy Name, and the photos in the last third are by Stephen Eric Shore. A catalogue with so many illustrations had rarely been produced before, and at the extremely low price of around one dollar. In the spirit of pop art and less for commercial reasons, T-shirts with Warhol motifs were also offered for sale at the exhibition. The famous Brillo Boxes in Stockholm were not the works printed in the Factory, but came directly from the Brillo soap factory.Kasper König Born in 1945. Exhibition organizer, founding director of the Kunsthalle Portikus, Frankfurt/M., and principal of the Städelschule:"I met Pontus Hulten in the autumn of 1962 at an impromptu dinner in the apartment of Ursula and Rudolf Zwirner, to which the Bremen art dealer Michael Herz was also invited.For Mr. Hultén, it was by no means a given that he would stop in Germany. He later reported that as young men, he and his friends made it a sport not to pee on German soil even once on the way from Stockholm to Paris. Michael Herz, an anti-fascist and man of the resistance, eased the tension in the situation with ironic, casino-like comedy; Erich von Stroheim's spirit was present. The aesthetic attitudes of the random guests were diametrically opposed.Poetic anarchism of the avant-garde versus the world view of the deformed creature, an elitist conservative communist view. I was interested in both poles - the humanistic, from literature, and the artistic, which led to a traineeship at the Zwirner Gallery, then Kolumba Kirchhof. Of course, I knew the Moderna Museet catalogues and was excited to get to know Pontus Hulten as a bystander.The evening, however, had nothing to do with professional insider discussions; it was about Trotsky and Breton, about Bakunin/Kropotkin and the Russian Constructivists. My head was spinning - I spent the next few weeks in the library.A few years later, I landed in New York and foresaw problems with the immigration authorities. The physicist Billy Klüver, the representative of the Moderna Museet in New York and a friend of many artists, gave me the tip to ask Pontus Hulten and the Stockholm Museum for help. My first job was assisting in the preparations for the Claes Oldenburg exhibition for the Moderna Museet. With help from Stockholm, I got a green card, and residence permit for the USA, and this privilege allowed me to propose concrete projects.I saw the opportunity for an Andy Warhol exhibition through a rigorous cost-saving concept. Warhol was in the air, and after the first major Pop Art exhibition in Europe in Stockholm, after the Swedish American Oldenburg Warhol, the timing was right. The mythical Factory had moved from midtown to downtown in Union Square into large offices. The first thing I did was drive to the Brillo Factory in Brooklyn to reserve a small container of folded Brillo boxes; written confirmation from the company was my main argument for Stockholm. Ivan Karp of the Leo Castelli Gallery allowed me to use the photocopier and the archive for the layout design of the catalogue book; this is evident in the book. Everything was to be created especially for the exhibition in the Factory in order to minimize transport and insurance costs; the studio was the sole lender - many flower paintings, large electric chairs and copies of all the early silent films, etc. The package was accepted - my sly, naive suggestion was taken at face value. That was my key moment and the beginning of my work with Pontus Hultén. I used the flight ticket to go to Stockholm to set up and stay in New York - a fitting reward. The conceptual game in the collective was a good start. The Stockholm Warhol book was part of the production and distribution aesthetics, the significance of which only became clear to me later; with Warhol and Hultén, the penny dropped immediately.This generosity and willingness of Pontus Hultén to fully commit to a radical artistic position and to pursue it professionally (and institutionally) was a decisive contribution by Hultén to art, and it always provided inspiration for decades."

Printed by T. Bensley, Bolt Court, for J. White, at Horace's Head, London. 1803. Second and best edition, with additions. Engraved front portrait, (8), xxiv, 240 pages + 31 engraved full page plates, 7 plates hand coloured. Folio (48 x 31 cm). Contemporary full leather, all edges gilt, spine with six raised bands and richly gilt decorated, gilt inner bordures, marbled end papers. Edges worn, boards scratched, spine worn & faded, Lars Laurentii’s bookplate and inscribed by him, a few pages with mild foxing.”Thomas Astle’s work was intended to be comprehensive; as an antiquarian, he was particularly interested in the earliest forms of writin. His study of these early forms relates naturally to the first part of the present exhibition; he has nothing to say on more recent handwriting, and shows a greater concern for the more exotic alphabets than for the roman.” (V&A 212).”Vi sono esemlari in carta grande, formato in folio.” [There are examples on large paper, in folio format.] (Bonacini 105).

The International Typeface Corporation (ITC), New York. Folio. Fem privatinbundna svarta klotband med 18 årgångar (ej kontrollerade) av ‘Upper & Lower Case’. Förgyllda ryggtitlar.Det är naturligtvis så här man skall göra för att bevara en tidskrift av den här karaktären. Annars leder lätt det otympliga formatet och det sköra pappret till en gulnad konfettihög efter några år.Rikt illustrerade och blandning av samtida och historiska artiklar om typografi och bokstavskonst. Herb Lubalin har gjort detta typografiska magasin synnerligen attraktivt.

Gesellschaft für Typenkunde, Rudolf Haupt, Leipzig & Karras, Halle (Saale), 1907-14. Folio (42 x 30 cm). 11 kartongmappar med 640 löst liggande planscher + titelblad. Bilagor med subskribentförteckningar för år 1907:1-2, 1908:1, 1909:1, 1911, 1914. Titelsidor, boksidor, träsnittsillustrationer, boktryckarmärken, anfanger, överstycken, ornament, typprover med hela alfabet.1907:1-2, Tafel 1-60, (Med bilaga. Konrad Haebler: ”Der Capotius-Drucker = Martin Landsberg”). 1908:1-3, Tafel 61-150, (Med bilaga. H. O. Lange: ”Der Drucker Johann Limburg in Münster”). 1909:1-3, Tafel 151-250, 1910:1-3, (Med bilaga. Konrad Haebler: ”Johann Grüninger der Drucker des Missale mit dem Kanon Peter Schöffers”). Tafel 251-325, 1911:1-2 [3], Tafel 326-380 [381-405], 1912:1-3 Tafel 406-485 (Med en 12-sidig förteckning av Ernst Voulliéme över tryckarna i Köln och med planschhänvisningar till typsnitt, initialer, titelträsnitt etc.) 1913:1-3, Tafel 486-565 (Med två löst liggande inkunabelblad; Johannes de Bromyard: ”Summa praedicantium” Basel : Johann Amerbach. Inte efter 1484). 1914:1-2, Tafel 566-665. (Med bilaga, 52 s., sammanställd av Victor Madsen: ”Typenregister zu Tafel 1-665).Mapp 1907:1 trasig och med kartongförluster. Somliga mapppar hörnstötta, åldersfärgade och med delvis blekt kartong. Titelbladet saknas för 1914:2. I sviten saknas 1911:3, Tafel 381-405. Två bilagor saknas; H. O. Lange: ”Eine Merseburger Buchdruckerei um dass Jahr 1479”, K. Haebler: ”Die Merseburger Druckerei von 1479 und ihr Meister”.Detta är den största trycktypsinventering med typprover över inkunabeltiden. Verket utkom i två serier mellan 1907-38 och i en tredje 1965, Tafel 1-2460. Ytterligare ett typsnittregister utkom 1926 (Tafel 1-1630 ), detta sammanställdes av Rudolf Juchhoff. Det slutliga typsnittsregistret redigerades av Rudolf Juchhoff & E. von Kathen (Osnabrück, 1966). Upplagan var inte stor och subskribentförteckningen översteg aldrig 200, 1907-14. Papper och tryckåtergivning i mycket hög klass.

Johan Hörberg, Stockholm. 1827. 4:o. (4), 137, (2) s. + 2 graverade notplanscher + 48 graverade och kolorerade planscher. Två relativt nötta men trevliga samtida halvsaffianband med mönsterpressade pärmpapper, guldornerade ryggar och hela guldsnitt. Pärmarna även med gulddekorerat ramverk. Det första bandet utgörs av en textdel och det andra av planscher. Inlagan i första bandet mycket fin, endast den andra notplanschen lite lagerfläckig. Planschbladen i andra bandet så gott som helt fläckfria. Namnteckning i bläck daterad 1842 på försättsbladet till planschbandet. Bra ex!

Frankfurt, Berlin, Wien. Ullstein/Propyläen Verlag, Moderna Museet, 1972. Eds.: Berit Tärnlund, Katja Waldén. 363 pages, 508 black and white, 18 colour illustrations, some full-page. Bibliography, index, 1 enclosed record 33 1/3 p. m., page 1: "Sound belonging to Pontus Hulten's book on Jean Tinguely's work. Méta; page 2: "La Vittoria, Milano, 28. November 1970. Sounds and comments". + one signed drawing by Jean Tinguely bound in. (31 x 22 cm), book object with a bookmark in the shape of a briefcase, thread stitching. Cover in colour-printed fabric based on a motif by Jean Tinguely. 6 folding plates and 20 bound parchment pages. The extended cover on the back is folded over to the front, where - like on a briefcase - a metal lock is attached. A brown metal handle is attached to the front edge. Design: Pontus Hulten, Gösta Svensson. (Lutz Jahre 26 - 1972).Pontus Hulten took a sabbatical in 1971 to be relieved of the daily business of the museum and to find time for special projects. In the Torpedo Institute, a former naval building near the Moderna Museet, he worked for a year on his Tinguely biography, which was then published in book trade in Germany and Sweden in 1972. A Tinguely exhibition was organized jointly with the Danish Louisiana Museum (Humlebæk, 1973) and the Moderna Museet (Stockholm, October 7th - December 3rd, 1972). Instead of a catalogue, only a leaflet was published in Stockholm, since the extensive biography was already available on the book market. The book went far beyond the possibilities of an exhibition publication, and Hultén, as a friend of the artist and an expert on the work, was ideally placed to realize such a project. The chronologically structured book is characterized by its great information value and its remarkable design. Not least because of the wealth of illustrations, carefully researched data and the numerous facsimiles of source documents, the monograph was considered for a long time to be the best standard work on Jean Tinguely.Although over 30,000 visitors saw the exhibition in Stockholm and Tinguely was a widely respected artist, the book was not a commercial success. In his introduction, Hultén wrote: "I hope to write an even more comprehensive book about Jean Tinguely at some point." This wish came true in 1987: an expanded and updated version was published as an exhibition catalogue for the Tinguely exhibition in the Palazzo Grassi, Venice. Hultén retained the striking motif of the bag in a modified form: the book was in a slipcase with a shoulder strap.

Gesellschaft für vervierfältigände Kunst, Wien. 1912. 12 graverade planschblad + ett titelblad i en något nött och fläckad dekorerad klotmapp. Titelbladet delvis blekt. Planschbladen i mycket fint skick!

Jean Rousseau-Girard, Paris 1959-60. Tome I. Des origines à la fin du XVIIe siècle: xvi, (16), 201, (1) s. + 88 planscher. Tome II. De 1700 à 1850: 259, (1) s. + 71 planscher. 4:o (28,5 x 23 cm). Privatbundna skinnband med helt guldsnitt. Banden bundna i franska flaggans färger; bakre pärmar blå, ryggarna vita och främre pärmarna röda. Alla omslag samt ryggarna medbundna. Handstickade kapitälband i blått, vitt och rött. Främre och bakre uppslag klädda med handmarmorerat papper. (G. Christoferson). Fotografier, vinjetter, faksimiler, monterade färgplanscher och andra illustrationer. Varje volym avslutas med en bibliografi och biografi över franska bokbindare. Två volymer. En tredje del utkom i detta monumentalverk över fransk bokbandskonst. Tryckt i 900 exemplar. (Schmidt-Künsemüller nr 1951, Brenni 516).

Editiones Officinae Bodoni, Verona. 1952. (2 blank), (6), vii-xi, (1 blank), (2), 3-127, (5, last 2 blank) pp. 4:o (about 283x188 mm.). 23 woodcuts re-cut by Fritz Kredel after Bartolommeo di Giovanni and a title in heliogravure facsimile after the first English edition of 1597. Original quarter vellum with purple paste-paper sides designed by Ugo Zovetti, spine title in gilt, upper edge gilt, otherwise uncut. Original vellum-lined slipcase. Printed in 225 numbered copies, this is number 143, in Griffo-type on handmade Fabriano paper. Foreword by Hans Mardersteig. (Schmoller no. 102).

Kooperativa Förbundets Bokförlag, Stockholm. 1947. 269 pp. Red cloth spine. Lower corners bumped and outer margins of the cover tiny scuffed. A really nice copy of this extremely scarce first translation of The Hobbit, also the only translation of the Hobbit from the first UK edition before the changes Tolkien made to the text after writing the Lord of the Rings, and the first translation of any of the author's books. Translation by Tore Zetterholm. Cover and maps by Charles Sjöblom. Drawings by Torbjörn Zetterholm. First Swedish edition of "The Hobbit, or There and Back Again" (1937). Hompen, eller En resa dit och tillbaksigen ("The Hobbit, or A journey there and back again"), translated to Swedish by Tore Zetterholm, was the first non-English edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (and thus the first translation of any work by Tolkien). The book was illustrated by Torbjörn Zetterholm (interior illustrations) and Charles Sjöblom (cover and maps).This item is a must for all serious collectors of Tolkien.

Aldus, Venice. 1515. First edition, in second printing, bearing the correct term "duernionem" in the register on the recto of the last sheet. 8vo (155 x 88 mm). Latin and Greece text. Roman, Greek, and italic types. 32 unnumbered sheets, 289 unnumbered sheets that make up the corpus of the work, finally 51 non-figures, containing the titles of the chapters and the explanation of the Greek passages. Colophon: Venetiis, in aedibus Aldi, et Andreae Soceri, mense Septembri MDXV. Aldine woodcut device to title and verso of colophon. The two large indices by Egnatius - the first with the titles of the chapters, the second with the explanation of the passages of the text reported in Greek. Bound in later full brown calf, gilt inner dentelles, decorative marbled endpapers faded spine in six compartments, red edges. Some staining in upper margin first about 50 leaves and last 10 leaves. Old signature on title and last leaf verso. Bookplate of C. Vilh. Jacobowsky, mounted cut from antiquarian catalogue on inside of upper board. (Renouard 73:9).

London (printed for and sold by H. Overton). 1743. Fol. (36 x 24 cm). Engraved frontispiece portrait, larger brown stain, engraved title (foxed), engraved plates numbered 1-212. Plate 142 missbound, comes after plate 144. The plates are also decorated with about 70 nice vignettes. Contemporary brown half leather, somewhat rubbed and worn, gilt spine, endpapers laid down on later paper, front inner hinge weak. Plates 188-194 foxing to outer margins. Textblock edges a bit browned, some marginal soiling, foxing and stains, else internally clean and in attractive condition. Provenance the Swedish calligrapher and graphic designer Lars Laurentii, with his exlibris and signature.Complete copy of this monumental work, a compendium of all scripts in current use in England and the most celebrated of English writing-books.The original edition was published in 52 instalments between 1733-1741. This is the second edition in volume form.Bickham's publication came out in a time when English hand-writing was universally recognized. The round hand, ideal for commercial use, spread throughout Europe as England's expanding trade brought her into communication with other nations. Although the period of publication covered only eight years, this calligraphic anthology gives a fairly complete record of the hands in use during the earlier part of the eighteenth century.Of the 212 plates 18 seems to be engraved by Bickham from his own design, but he employed 25 leading writing-masters to compose the bulk of the work. The hands displayed are for a variety of uses and the whole book is one of the most important English writing books, establishing Bickham as one of the leading calligraphic engravers and calligraphers in an age of writing masters.This book contains more than 210 full-page plates, each crammed full of beautiful and interesting material. To list only part of its contents: Over 125 pictorial scenes, clear copperplates of drinking scenes, family scenes, commerce, rustic festivities, duels, more. Over 200 script pictures, male and female heads, busts, cherubs, griffins, birds, fish, etc. 19 complete alphabets: round hand, round text, Old English, florid, foliated, and others. 275 lettered specimens, overlaid with fine flourishes, swirls, spirals, featherings, volutes, etc. Over 100 panels, frames, cartouches, and other effects Over 950 lettered specimens, with thousands of words. Calligraphers find Bickham the best source for English round-handwriting; commercial artists, advertising directors, and designers all find Bickham first-rate as a source for immediately usable pictures and script that suggests antiquity, quality, and reliability. Craftspeople have found it rich in unusual ideas and motifs, while libraries and art historians find it a wonderful collection of 18th-century pictures illustrating art-life.(Heal pp. 171-72, Bonacini 208, Baltimore 116, Ekström pp. 78-81).