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Baron Corvo in the Ukraine
Regular readers of some longevity may remember that way back in August 2013 I had a few spare copies of books by Frederick Rolfe Baron Corvo and offered to send them out for free on a first-come first...
View ArticleHiatus
Well...My apologies for the break. And for the fact that it may continue for a few days yet.I have been laid low by proper, honest-to-goodness flu and so I haven't been able to give blog or business...
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Figures in a Landscape by Lionel Wiggam
Back in June 2013 I posted a scan of a photograph I had acquired of a handsome young man called Lionel Wiggam. He was, among other things, a poet, and his first volume of poetry called Figures in a...
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Thomas Burnett Swann
It is often the way in this business that you are vaguely aware of an author's name, perhaps from an article or the internet, or someone has mentioned them to you and then months or years later...
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George Barr Illustrates Green Phoenix by Thomas Burnett Swann
Yesterday I mentioned that one of the reasons I might be drawn to Green Phoenix next out of all the Thomas Burnett Swann books I have, was the attractive nature of the illustrations by George Barr. I...
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The Book Catalogues of Michael deHartington
Back in June last year I was delighted to acquire for my own collection an almost complete set of the original book catalogues of Michael deHartington. If you think that the name has a slightly 'arch'...
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A Boy in the House by Mazo de la Roche
This rather charming drawing on the front of a 1952 novella by once famous, now overlooked author Mazo de la Roche is rather charming I thought. It is uncredited on the jacket and unsigned as far as I...
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Some Nudes by Donald Friend
I was cataloguing and flicking through a couple of books by Donald Friend today. A twentieth century Australian artist and diarist, Friend is accepted as a major artist in the Australian canon although...
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Crucifixion by Georges Desvallières
One of the joys of writing a blog like this is that people from all over the world are constantly getting in touch because of something they have seen here or to share things they think I would like to...
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Frederick Rolfe and the "Princess Alice"
"The Princess Alice" is the paddle steamer you can see in this painting being cut in half. I came across this image recently in a local auction house. It is a naive paining on glass and probably dates...
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Grace Lodge Illustrates Karik and Valye by Yan Larry
These rather extraordinary illustrations are from a peculiar book called The Extraordinary Adventures of Karik and Valya by Yan Larry (Hutchinson, London: [1945]) which was originally written in...
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Vintage Swim and Others
A gentle stroll around an antiques fair today and I have come home with three new items for my own collection. One of the nice things about the digital world is that you can take the small images on...
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Callum James Books: Short List #16
Last night I was very pleased to send out Short List #16 to people on my mailing list. Unlike any full-length catalogues I may issue, these Short Lists are only available by being on the mailing list...
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Ten Vintage Faces
I bought (and posted) some new postcards for my collection the other day and in the process found myself flicking through the album. I noticed in amongst the vintage swimming photos I seem to have...
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Hendrick Van Loon's Marvellous Maps
Hendrik Willem Van Loon is much better known in his native Netherlands I think than in the rest of the world. He was a prolific author and, in some cases illustrator, mainly of books for children and...
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Jessie Marion King illustrates Eric by F. W. Farrar
Well, my work here is done... My lovely husband came home yesterday with this book. Jessie Marion King (1875-1949) is well known as a book illustrator, jewellery designer and painter of pots, but it...
View ArticleRichard Siken: War of the Foxes
Ten years ago, Richard Siken won the Yale Young Poets Award for his debut collection of poetry, Crush. It was a brilliant tour de force of language and personal revelation and raw emotional states...
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Laurence Scarfe Illustrates Three Ghosts
Laurence Scarfe has been mentioned on Front Free Endpaper before, about two years ago when R and I visited Poole Museum and saw some screenprinted tiles from the Poole Pottery from the 1960s, some of...
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Comrade Loves of the Samurai by Saikaku Ihara
This little book has been on my shelves a couple of years waiting for the right time to be taken down. This week I have been working in London most days and so the train journey back and forth has...
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Three Ghosts Illustrated by Laurence Scarfe Part II
A couple of days ago I posted the colour illustrations from Three Ghosts by Laurence Scarfe. As threatened, here are the black and white drawings from the text that I also rather enjoyed.
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