Classic Ehon, Illustrated Books and Maps

Click for catalogue: http://www.rarebook.com/ehon1.html


Greetings,


Spring brings rain, flowers and, at the Boston Book Company, catalogues.


Following up on our design book list which we published a few weeks ago, we have created a catalogue of traditional ehon, and included maps, botanicals [birds and flowers], fairy tales and original paintings currently in our inventory. There are some true rarities and icons of the illustrated book genre, works we are all familiar with from their appearance in the wonderful books done by Jack Hillier, Roger Keyes and others - kyokabon such as the Utamaro insect book in an early, lovely edition, painting manuals such as the Taigado Gahô and pure picture books like the Sekien Gafu, the Sônan Gafu and the Kiyonaga Ehon Muchi Bukuro. There are Kabuki classics like the Nendaiki, fan and scroll paintings by Shijô school masters and a wonderful set of small sliding doors painted by Keibun. Besides the Edo era material, there is a large triptych painting of Sapporo in a Nihonga style, as well as transitional works by Seihô and others which round out the traditional aesthetic in its 20th century manifestation.


There is really too much to discuss in this brief introduction. Please enjoy the accompanying list, which is being issued as a web catalogue, as well as a printed text. We will be happy to provide more information or images, should you be interested in any of the items within.


We are off to London for the ILAB Book Fair at Olympia next week, so do get back to us as soon as you are able.


Best wishes,


Charles Vilnis

Olympia 2009 in London

We will be exhibiting at the 52nd Antiquarian Book Fair, Olympia 2009, in London, from June 4 - 6. Please stop by and see us if you are in the area.

New Additions update

We have updated our New Additions page at www.rarebook.com. We hope you enjoy browsing these new selections. If you are looking for an item that was previously on the page and does not appear, check our other categories, use the Advanced or Quick Search features, or feel free to contact us.

New East Asian Design list online

We are pleased to announce our new online list of East Asian Design books.

A message from Charles Vilnis:

Hello,

Besides my interest in classic ehon picture books and Japanese botanicals, I have been pursuing Japanese design books of the 20th century for many years now, focusing on a few main areas.

There are the kimono-oriented hinagata-bon, largely done in Kyoto from 1890-1935, printed in color and published by Unkindô, Unsôdô, Happôdô, and a few other high-quality printing houses. They restored the heritage of hinagata-bon kimono design works from the 17th and 18th century, which had been created then by such important Kansai ukiyo-e artists as Moronobu and Sukenobu.

In the 20th century, Kamisaka Sekka, Furuya Kôrin, Kaigai Tennen, Tsuda Seifû, Nishida Ungai and many others, besides contributing to the kimono design works, also produced "pure design" albums [zuancho] with collections of wonderfully creative designs for design's sake, largely printed in color woodblock by Unkindô, Unsôdô, etc..

Finally, there are the design books which stray from the dominant medium of color woodblock to employ lithography, stencil, silkscreen, linoleum printing and every imaginable hybrid technique possible, printed largely in Tokyo on every conceivable paper surface, from washi handmade paper to newsprint. I have found wonderful treasures of design, albums by Sugiura Hisui, Yamana Ayao, Fujii Tatsukichi and many others, as well as guides to industrial design and advertising art from the Taisho and early Showa periods of the 'teens, 20's and 30's. All in all, the works present a wonderful vade mecum to a world that is only now being recollected some 65 years after its utter destruction.

We have put together a list of items in stock that you might like from those three areas. Enjoy.

May Day

We are pleased to offer, in honor of May Day, a list of thirty-two May Sarton titles: click here for list and images. Many of these are inscribed by Ms. Sarton, and we even have multiples of a few titles. Celebrate May with May!