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Happy Wednesday Everyone! And a happy birthday tomorrow to Willy Pogány...

Wednesday August 23, 2017 11:15 PM

Willy Pogány, was born in Szeged, Hungary, in 1882, and studied at the Budapest Technical University and also in Munich and Paris. His reputation as a muralist, painter and illustrator was well established in Paris, London and Munich before arriving in the United States in 1915, at the age of...

The David Brass Rare Books TV Show

Stephen J. Gertz

Friday October 5, 2012

Not too long ago, Calabasas City Spotlight, a local Southern California TV program, devoted an entire episode to David Brass Rare Books. From the DBRB inner sanctum where David and the holy of holies are shelved to the DBRB outer sanctum where Caroline Brass, Dustin Jack, Debra Brass and I....

The Story Of A Drunk, Diseased, Insane Hunter And Inglorious Squire

Stephen J. Gertz

Tuesday July 10, 2012

Original boards, untouched. What do you call a 175 year old copy of a book that looks exactly as it did on the day it was published, completely untouched without any sort of restoration at all? I call it an astonishment. Light come, light go. But, beyond...

The First James Bond And The Invisible Spy

Stephen J. Gertz

Wednesday March 7, 2012

Two novels. Two spies. One spy's visible, the other's not. One is in service to George Washington, the other in service to snooping on the social set during the reign of George II. One is the first novel to wholly concern itself with espionage, the other is one of...

One Of The Great Books Of Childrens Literature Is Back

Stephen J. Gertz

Monday March 5, 2012

Hurrah for Peter Parley Hurrah for Daniel Boone Three cheers sir, for the gentleman Who first observed the moon! - Emily Dickinson, from Sic Transit Gloria Mundi Daniel Boone, check. The gentleman who first observed the moon (presumably, Adam), check. Peter Parley. Who? One of the great and...

A Bucolic Paradise For The Working Class, 1825

Stephen J. Gertz

Monday July 12, 2010

One of the rarest British color-plate architectural pattern books of the first half of the nineteenth century, Novel Designs for Cottages, Small Farms & Schools presents architecture as social engineering and provides the genesis for the company town. It was produced by architect John Hall, Secretary to the Society...

Robert Cruikshank Devastates Dandies

Stephen J. Gertz

Tuesday June 22, 2010

Dandies At Tea. “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy…” (Geo. M. Cohan). The clothes-obsessed dandy and dandyism phenomenon first appeared in the 1790s, both in London and Paris. In period vernacular, a dandy was differentiated from a fop in that the dandy’s dress was more refined and sober. But not for...

Part I: The Unwilling Spawn of a Rare Book Dynasty

David Brass

Monday August 27, 2007

In the beginning (or, rather in 1960 at the age of thirteen), I was told by my parents and grandparents "you are to be a fourth generation antiquarian bookseller and you will work in the family bookshop every Saturday and school holiday"This was definitely not what a thirteen year old...

Rare Books As Investments

Kenneth Hill

Tuesday July 10, 2007

Rare Books As Investments by Kenneth Hill. From The Book Collector, Volume 47, No. 3, Autumn 1998. Reprinted and posted with the kind permission of editor Nicolas Barker, and the estate of Kenneth Hill. While the primary aims of collecting rare books should always be to collect for the simple...