To continue with our short list series, here are a few strange and unusual items bound to be loved by someone.

We will have more to come, including a vernacular photography catalog before the Boston ABAA fair and of course, the Boston show list.  Featuring new and exciting things!

With that in mind, our next fair is the 41st Annual Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, November 10-12, 2017. We’ll keep you posted for passes for the Friday night opener!

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Countess of Caithness, Duchesse de Pomar [Marie (Mariategui) Sinclair]. A Midnight Visit to Holyrood. London: C.L.H. Wallace, Philanthropic Reform Publishers, Oxford Mansion, 1887. Limited Edition. Originally printed for private circulation, but published on the three hundredth anniversary of the execution of Mary Stuart, February 8th, 1887. Slight foxing on the frontispiece and portrait of Mary Stuart, and a strange series of period puncture wounds to front cover penetrating text to stab portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots on page 45. Else, tight, bright, and a scarce and odd book. Original dark green cloth, lettering and pictorial device on front and back covers, edge, in gilt, black coated endpapers. Frontispiece with tissue guard and one portrait. 103 pages, 2 unnumbered leaves of plates, illustrations, Very Good+. Hardcover.

Recollection of the communication between Marie Countess of Caithness and the ghost of Mary Queen of Scots from Holyrood House in Edinburgh.  Marie used to visit Holyrood House near midnight and claimed to listen to the dead queen’s spirit voice. The work was originally published for private circulation only, and it is likely that the Countess gave copies to her friend exclusively. This edition, printed by C.H.L. Wallace appears to be limited.

The Countess was increasing influenced by theosophy and universial In 1876, and joined the Theosophical Society founded by known occultists Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott in New York. In 1884, during their stay in Paris with Lady Caithness, Blavatsky approved the creation of the “Theosophical Society of the East and West,” the French branch of the Theosophical Society. Lady Caithness’s theosophy was marked by esoteric Christianity influenced by Jakob Boehme and Swedenborg. She held a spiritualist salon in her Parisian mansion, every Wednesday from spring to autumn in the early 1890s. As to the damage inflicted on the book itself, a few theories arise: it is possible it is just book vandalism. A more compelling and fascinating theory is the book was part of hysteria or ritual to evoke the spirit of Mary Queen of Scots. The book is inscribed to “Miss Blackwell” of which there are two well-known spiritualists in London and Paris; Anna Blackwell and Elizabeth Blackwell. Anna was a prolific writer and participated in the spirit communities during the late 19th century in London and Paris. It is also recorded she was a medium and was said, at times, to be tormented by the ghosts and spirits that threatened her. (#9384) $350.00

Fleischauer, Louis ; Aesthetic Meat Foundation. Flesh Art Book. Berlin: Aesthetic Meat Front/AMF, 2014. Limited Edition. Tight, bright, and unmarred. Cased in leather ‘corset’ (see below). 44pp. Illus. (color and b/w plates). Fine in Fine Case. Hardcover.

Limited first edition of 36, this edition is 1/36, with the trade edition cased in a custom leather ‘corset’ cover binding, secured by metal grommets and two leather strap loops. Leather still bears a hide scent and features a painted patina, a fire burnt treated, manipulated, and animal-like with elements cut into tails. The AMF logo is carved into the leather at the top of the cover, as well as the edition number: 1/36 on the back. Text printed on high quality matte clay coated medium weight paper. Signed by Louis Fleischauer, “Pure Kaos Against Total Control” 2016, on the opposite end papers. Includes a small archive of performance fliers for AMF [2002-2015], AMF Korsets / Fleischauer Creations marketing cards and a DVD-R of live performances, signed with a fingerprint impression and numbered 1/36. Edition is divided into several sections: Flesh Art Manifesto, Sculpted Skin (Wearable Art/AMF Korset), Rituals of Transformation, Human Instruments, Aesthetic Meat Front (Rituals + Actionism), Transformed Flesh, Interviews + Random Thoughts. Scarce copy, most editions are with private collectors, this is the last acquired copy from AMF with the leather casing and performance inclusions and also is the first numbered and sculpted edition, as well.

This book is a retrospective of Aesthetic Meat Foundation, (Aesthetic Meat Front is the performance collective of the entire art and creative project of Aesthetic Meat Foundation), featuring a mix of ritual, sculpture, and wearable art. AMF performances in the United States are generally rare, but emulate the same power as Ron Athey and Einstürzende Neubauten fused with an anti-industrial complex manifesto. “Louis Fleischauer, is a sculptor, and body-artist using organic materials such as animal hides, bones, flowers, blood and his own skin. In his public rituals he turns humans into living sculptures and instruments, including his own body. Through a mix of agony and euphoria Louis falls into a state of trance. His sculptures are a reflection of this experience.” – from the AMF biography. (#9084) $550.00

Sprinkle, Annie. Annie Sprinkle Self-portrait [MSS Notations]. [No Place], 1981. Unique. Signed by Sprinkle with numerous notations all over the image, notation at rear, else bright and clean. 16x24cm. b/w photograph. Signed by the artist. Fine. Photograph.

“Original self-portrait photograph of sexologist Annie Sprinkle. Sprinkle is known as the “prostitute and porn star turned sex educator and artist.” Annie Sprinkle began working at the ticket booth at Tucson’s Plaza Cinema at 18, when Deep Throat was playing. The film was busted, and when Sprinkle had to appear in court as a witness, she met and fell in love with Deep Throat’s director, Gerard Damiano, and became his mistress, following him to New York City where she lived for twenty years. Annie’s first porn movie was Teenage Deviate, which was released in 1975. Perhaps her best known mainstream porn featured role was in ‘Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle’ (co-directed by Sprinkle and sexploitation veteran Joseph W. Sarno) which was the #2 grossing porn film of 1981.

She is considered a role model for a new generation of feminists, she challenges old conceptions and established role models of sexuality and was a pivotal player in the 80’s “sex positive feminist movement” and has long championed sex worker rights and health care. The photograph is heavily annotated with a detailed analysis of the image.The verso contains the anotation p.4 102% suggesting that the image was published although we have been unable to trace the publication. A fantastic image of a true sex goddess.”

Together with Annie’s “Post-Porn Modernist: My 25 Years as a Multimedia Whore”, which includes a ‘clean’ version of the image with the caption, “It was this latex ensemble, which I had brought back from Europe, that started America’s latex trend (or so it seemed to me). It made quite a splash at the HFC [Hell Fire Club]. Or should I say quite a splash was made on it.” (#8115) $1,250.00

Pell, Sara C. In Dillafluff Land. New Jersey: Standard Publishing Concern, Publishers, 1910. First Edition. Light shelf/edge wear, front boards loose with light toning, few page tears, one leaf loose but present, American Red Cross stamp, else bright and unmarred. Oblong 8vo. Approx. 58pp. Illus. (b/w plates). Good+ in Wraps. Hardcover.

“Esther from Aunt Ann, Xmas 1910”. The black and white Illustrations are by A.G. Learned. Extremely scarce, no known copies. Odd, children’s nonsense nursery rhymes with accompanying anthropomorphic figures very similar to Dr. Seuss’ characters created much later, and similarly, the rhyming is reminiscent of Edward Lear. The book was marketed and reviewed in major publications, but little is known about the author or other published books. The characters were affectionately described as “freakish” and “queer” in reviews. (#9118) $150.00

Woven paper undergarments, Diane Jacobs

Jacobs, Diane. Woven Paper Undergarments [Bra and Panties]. Portland, OR: Scantron Press, 2010. Limited Edition. Bright and unmarred. Woven paper strips, letterpress printed, sculptural. 11x23x3″ np. Fine.

“In this body of work I intend to expose the tenacious, white, patriarchal power structure by using language as my witness. Over a three-year period I collected slang and derogatory words that exploit women. The exhaustive list came from friends, family, and several dictionaries on slang. Strangers also contributed by writing on anonymous pink and blue cards their answer to the question what are the worst names you have ever been called? In my first projects, I sculpted hats, bras, and underwear made of letterpress-printed woven paper. This series of work makes feminist references to craft, the body, and a misogynist culture.” (#8766) $2,000.00

Greer, John Michael. The Weird of Hali: Innsmouth. Oregon: Arcane Wisdom Press, 2016. Limited Edition. Tigh, bright, and unmarred. Custom bound in green faux alligator laminate cloth boards with gold foil inlay embossed Lovecraft image, smythe sewn, and signed, hand-numbered by author with hand-printed ink stamp image of H.P. Lovecraft. Colored endpapers with image of Old Ones and include high gloss print insert of Lovecraft inspired artwork. 9.5×6.25”. 276pp. Limited edition of 500 copies. Fine. No DJ, as Issued. Hardcover.

Cover art by Caniglia and book design by Larry Roberts. “Like every other grad student at Miskatonic University, Owen Merrill knows about the Great Old Ones, the nightmare beings out of ancient legend that H.P. Lovecraft unearthed from archaic texts and turned into icons of modern fantasy fiction. Then a chance discovery—a lost letter written by Lovecraft to fellow Weird Tales author Robert Blake—offers a glimpse into the frightful reality behind the legends, and sends Owen on a desperate quest for answers that shatters his familiar world forever.

As he flees across the witch-haunted Massachusetts landscape toward the mysterious seaside town of Innsmouth, Owen finds himself caught up in a secret war between the servants of the Great Old Ones and their ancient enemies, a war in which yesterday’s friend may be tomorrow’s foe and nothing is as it seems. The history of the world is not what he has been taught—and the tentacles reaching out for him from the shadows of a forbidden past may hold not only his one chance of escape from the terrifying forces closing around him, but the last hope of life on Earth…”(publisher’s note) (#9096) $75.00

Greer, Michael. Weird Hali of Innsmouth

Bizarre Female Domination [Personal Scrapbook]. unknown, nd [circa 1970s]. Unique. Light shelf/edge wear, two leaf loose, very slightly musty, else tight, bright, and unmarred. Brown paper wrappers, mounted images/text at front and read. 4to. np. Illus. (color and b/w plates). Very Good. Original Wraps.

A very thorough and engaging collection of imagery and text involved, as the name implies, around the area of the BDSM scene from a Domme female/submissive male perspective. Neatly tape mounted images on lined white paper, the color and b/w images range from relatively small (approx. 2′ square) to full page (cut from magazines and original photographs). There are also some short text elements around the subject matter, too. Most interestingly, interspersed throughout are full page collections of ‘want ads’ from around the country and Canada…the shared qualities of most reflect either specific interest or, perhaps, that he ‘knew’ them. Overall, an eccentric stimulating collage of pre-internet collection of bondage erotica. (#8389) $450.00

Anon. Sumatran Batak divination book [pustaha]. Indonesia, Early 20th century. Unique. Twelve (two-sided) panel concertina fold; fastened on handcarved alim (or agarwood) tree-bark original boards; inscribed and drawn on smoothed and pressed alim tree-bark; 4.75 x 39″ (unfolded); illus. Handwritten in red and black ink pigments. Boards stained with natural pigments, in remarkable condition, less one split in bark panel. An exceptional and critical book for Indonesia history and culture. Very Good. Hardcover.

The ‘pustaha’ [named by the Batak people of interior province of northern Sumatra, Indonesia] are manuscript books constructed and composed by their “datu” or magicians and healers. Origins of the pustaha remain somewhat clouded to non-indigenious research, although, records of provenance date to the 18th century. The Batak people settled mainly in the Lake Toba region of North Sumatra, and included three dominant dialects: Toba, Angkola, and Mandailing.

The books themselves are frequently made with alim tree-bark; written and illustrated with other natural ink pigments. The pustaha is significant for the Batak, as the texts are idiosyncratic to the datu, meaning they are didactic tools for apprentices, but also for members of the community to interpret important decisions and advise on community issues, as reconciled by the datu. The books are often written in note-like script. The script is almost illegible for most members of the community, and indecipherable to Western scholars, however the syllabe script is thought to be derived from East Indian Sanskrit or to some scholars, Indian Palava script. Many contemporary pustaha were made and sold to tourists of the region, as well. The content of the books vary, but generally are divination books, including diagnosis of illness, protective/destructive magic, and acts of cult. Many of the books are also astrological in nature and contain solar and lunar charts and tables, and in the case of this particular pustaha, which contains animistic figures. This book features four carved lizards in low relief on one of the boards, which is associated with fertility and fertility rites. The verso has a carved image of star or a floral symbol. Many of the figurative llustrations in the book [a child] [a goddess figure with serpents] [star], also allude to creation myth, as the ‘tendi’ manifestation of ‘life’ and ‘death’ represented these symbols. The text is inscribed and illustrated on both sides of the bark. Although colonized by the Dutch government in the 19th century, many Batak people retain indigenious treligious beliefs, although increasingly marginalized.

Voorhoeve, P. “Batak Bark Books,” Conservator, University of Leiden, John Rylands Library and the Manchester University Press, 1951.

Teygeler, Rene. “Pustaha. A Study into the Production Process of the Batak Book,” 1993. (#9148) $1,200.00

Sumatran pustaha

[Count of Saint Germain (attributed)]; Koss, Nick [ed.]. Triangular Book of St. Germain. Seattle, WA: Ouroboros Press, 2015. Limited Edition. Triangular hand-bound and stitched in red and black letterpress wraps; 48 pp.; full color interior printing in English and French text; illus.; limited to 444 copies. As New. Original Wraps.

The edition of the ‘Triangular Book’ was deciphered, transcribed and translated by Nick Koss, who also executed the research and editing of the text. An excellent essay by Koss about the provenance of the manuscript is featured in “Clavis 3: Cipher & Stone.” The edition is limited to 500 copies in three editions. 26 special copies bound in full leather accompanied by a hand-wrought silver Longevity Talisman featured in the original manuscript. 26 copies in full leather and 444 copies bound in letterpress wraps. Design and typesetting by Joseph Uccello. – from the colophon. (#9180) $65.00

[Garcia, Fernando Aguayo; Queer Nation]. Proper Conduct / On October 6, 1989, Police Rioted in the Castro… [Rally Poster]. [San Francisco]: [Queer Nation], 1991. First Printing. Bright and clean. Cyanotype poster. 12×35.5″ Illus. (mono plate). Near Fine.

Poster for a protest organized by Queer Nation in San Francisco to demand justice for victims of the 1989 Castro Sweep Police Riot, when more than 200 San Francisco police officers reacted to an ACT UP march by invading the gay Castro District, declaring the entire neighborhood an unlawful assembly and violently clearing the streets. The Queer Nation protest took place at the San Francisco Hall of Justice following a Police Commission finding that the police sweep of the Castro had constituted “proper conduct.” The poster was designed by gay Latino artist and activist Fernando Aguayo-Garcia and was produced in an extremely limited number of copies using the cyanotype process. (#9272) $350.00

Heart In Your Business: 14th National Motorcycle / Bicycle Show. New York, 1928. Unique. Excellent condition, bright and unmarred, heart shaped advertisement for the 14th Annual National Motorcycle and Bicycle show in New York City, Madison Square Garden. Very Good+.

The first National Auto Show was held in 1900. Apparently, as early as 1915, the two-wheel industry was expanding so the national show split from the automotive industry to have their own independent show. The newly built Madison Square Garden accommodated track racing as well. Rare piece of motorcycling and bicycle ephemera. (#9315) $45.00

Brown, Frederic. ETAOIN SHRDLU. Portland, ME: Ivy Derderian/Wolfe Editions, 2009. Limited Edition. Tight, bright and unmarred. Unprinted tan cardstock wrappers; green textured heavy stock DJ, lettering and pictorial elements in black ink, advert endpages. 8vo. 13pp plus ads. Illus. (b/w plates). Numbered limited edition this being 6 of 40 copies. Fine in Wraps. Original Wraps.

The first solo project from Ivy Derderian, working at Wolfe Editions. Printed in Linotype Bonodi Book, created on an Intertype (the Linotype’s successor). From the prospectus:

“Frederic Brown’s entertaining short story about a sentient Linotype, titled Etaoin Shrdlu, was originally published in 1942 in the magazine Unknown Worlds. While Mr. Brown was well known for his science fiction short stories and novels as well as his award-winning detective fiction, it is clear that he knew his way around a Linotype and a print shop.

Ivy Derderian, with the help of Wolfe Editions, announces a new publication of Etaoin Shrdlu, designed in the manner of pulp magazines of the 1940s. The text type is Linotype Bodoni Book, titles were set in Ludlow Ultra Modern. Text is printed on acid free Dur-o-tone Aged Newsprint, cover is acid free St. Armand Colours. The two engravings used are from a 1923 issue of The Linotype Bulletin.”

Designed and printed to reflect its pulp heritage using Dur-o-tone Aged Newsprint (acid free) and cover wraps on St. Armand Colours. Illustrations from a 1923 issue of The Linotype Bulletin. A wonderful blending of content and design. (#7080) $225.00

Harwood-Jones, Markus/Star . Confessions of A Teenage Transexual Whore [Complete in Ten Parts]. Toronto: Self, nd [circa 2010-2012]. First Thus. Tight, bright, and unmarred. Taped bindings over printed paper wraps, color inkjet reproductions. 8vo. Var. pag. Illus. Near Fine in Wraps. Original Wraps.

“A 10-part zine series telling Star’s short stories of survival sex work over the course of two years.” [From the author] (#9294) $145.00

Eckels, Howard Samuel. Post Mortem Stains and Putty Color. Philadelphia: Press of H.S. Eckels & Co., 1922. First Edition. Minor shelf/edge wear, joint starting at staples, light/even toning to textblock, ownership signature and notation at front, else tight, bright, and unmarred. Navy cloth boards, printed label, fold-out map (in red) of circulatory system. 12mo. 53pp plus adverts. Illus. (color print). Very Good+. Hardcover.

Includes ‘modern’ book curse, “‘Notice’ / This book is the property of G. L. Dodds. / Read if you care to but do not mark, destroy, or carry out of back room. / G.L. Dodds / P.S. I weigh 157lb. Let this be a warning to you. / G.L.D. (#8966) $245.00

Dwight, Thomas. Frozen Sections of a Child. New York: William Wood & Co, 1881. First Edition. Light even toning, tips through, wear at head and tail, ownership signature at first blank, moderate shelf/edge wear, else tight, bright, and unmarred. Black cloth boards. 8vo. Illus. (b/w plates). Good+ [Textblock Very Good]. Hardcover.
Includes fifteen full-page drawings from nature by H.P. Quincy. A century or so before CAT scans and MRIs, this work offered detailed tomogrpahic images. Remarkably important (and one of the great titles in publishing). First edition of a classical work of great importance in pediatrics, and the first American group of serial sections. This work provided tomographic images a century before the CAT and MRI. Dwight was a Harvard medical school and, later in life, succeeded Oliver Wendell Holmes as the Parkman Professor of Anatomy.”A classical work of great importance in pediatrics, and the first American group of serial sections” (Choulant-Frank, p. 409). (#8962) $225.00