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Agnes Miller Parker Illustrates A Shropshire Lad
I have long thought that A. E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad is a work of genius, flawed genius perhaps, but genius nonetheless. I also am something of a fanboy for the engravings of Agnes Miller Parker...
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The Anatomy of a Vintage Photograph
So I picked up this photo at lunchtime today from a junk shop for just 70 pence. And the reason I was drawn to it, apart from the fact that I simply love photos of old interiors, is that at first...
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Mercury in 1920s Germany
Regular readers will know that we are discovering that Mercury alias Hermes was something of a big cheese in the design pantheon of the 1920s and 30s. This postcard cost me more online that I would...
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Albert writes to Paul in 1912
I had to have this!Reading gay relationships into the past is always a perilous business but so long as one does it with a level of respect and a light touch that doesn't impose modern categories on...
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Mid 1960s DIY Toys
These amazingly colourful plates come from a brilliant book that tells you how to make toys and models out of paper, card and wire. Of course, it's the painting of these that makes them quite so...
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Richard Kennedy illustrates Crispin
Meet Crispin, the star of this 1975 book by William Herschell who is perhaps better known for his previous childrens' book King Lizard. Crispin in 13 and has grown up happily on a farm until now when...
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Vintage Swimwear
We haven't had a vintage swimwear post forever, well for a few days at least. So here are a few of the new arrivals to the collection here at Callum James Heights. I have decided to assume that the...
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1960s Amatory Unorthodoxy
One of the things that is invaluable to a bookdealer who has a specialism, is the ephemera of those who have gone before along the same paths: book catalogues, prospectuses, articles and so on... So I...
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Vintage Men
Always a good way to jump start the postings again after a bit of a break with a handful of hunky chaps from some distance in the past. None of these guys reside in my collection but I have swept them...
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Frederick Rolfe and Vincent O'Sullivan - A Slight Ex-libris Connection
There are some little piece of paper that can really connect us to the past. In this case, a somewhat battered ex-libris plate from St Mary's College, Oscott. At the time this bookplate was in use, two...
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Jean Cocteau Decorates a Church
Most people's knowledge of Jean Cocteau as a visual artist is related to his films and to his simple line drawings of nude men with often very homoerotic themes. It comes as something of a surprise to...
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Jean Cocteau: Church Decoration II
The chapel of St Blaise des Simples is set in a garden in the small town of Milly La Foret a short distance from Paris. This series of black and white postcards arrived today and show the amazing...
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Karmic Astrology and Naked Planets
Hard to resist these cards which are marketed as "Tarot Astro Karmique" although they are a long way from either divinatory Tarot cards or the continental European playing cards also called Tarot....
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1960s Penguin Illustrated Book Covers
I have been scanning some mainly 1960s Penguin book covers, a period in which they used a lot of line illustrators, so I thought I would share some of them here. From top to bottom the illustrators are...
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1940s Hand-painted Patterned Papers
Readers with long memories may recall eighteen months ago, this post, in which I showed off some stunning hand-painted patterned papers I had bought by one Gwendoline K. Young, whom I assume to be an...
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Sultry Young Man
Today has been an excellent buying day and the results will be in upcoming catalogues as soon as I've had a chance to catalogue things but we have ranged from 1980s goth/post-punk lyrics back a hundred...
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Howard Hardiman - Mythology
Tonight is the opening night of an exhibition on the Isle of Wight (just over the water from Callum James Books HQ) of a series of drawings by Howard Hardiman called Mythology. Howard first came to the...
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Vintage Swimwear...
The top photograph in this post is one which I bought recently and now resides in my collection. The two below however are much more interesting and thank you to Per Anderson, correspondent of Front...
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Callum James Books: Short List #20
I can't quite believe that I am saying this but I have sent out in the last few days my 20th Short List! The first one was sent out in May 2011 I see now, looking back through my files. The Short Lists...
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Books by their covers...
Those of you who follow me on Twitter (@CallumJBooks) will have seen some of these jackets before. These are the results of my not quite being able to swerve away from bookshops whilst on holiday...
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