We will be at the London Fair at Stand C14 so hopefully you will call and see us and find some unusual titles to start a collection with or add to one.

Our traditional inventory of books on the arts, architecture and photography has been expanding in recent years to include photograph albums, which document architectural projects, trade catalogues, which inform what was really produced, and small print run journals which give insights into contemporary design ideas at a given moment. These areas interest will be part of our stock at the fair.

Among the items  we will be bringing  are two short-run journals “Uppercase” [ five issues] and “Living Arts” [ three issues].  Uppercase was the brainchild of Theo Crosby and he edited this between 1958-1961 as a journal of the graphic arts and visual communication. Crosby said “if some of the communications are tenuous, then the reader must bridge the gap with his own experience.”  Living Arts documents,  just a few years later, the activities of the ICA in London with particular, but not exclusive interest, in the visual arts.  Both these publications were at the cutting edge of design when produced.

Complimenting these runs of magazines will be individual experimental zines.

There will be original architectural drawings too spanning the 19th and 20th century on the walls of the stand including work by Robert Venturi, Maurice Adams and James Murray.

All the material mentioned in this news item is for sale [ unless someone has read it before you, discovered something and purchased  it].  Highlights, beyond those mentioned here, can be viewed  on this website by clicking on our catalogue section but the majority of the material at London Olympia can only be seen there… so come along.

We will be at the Grasmere book fair on the 8-9th October with a selection of material on Architecture, Design and Gardens including some original architectural drawings which link to the Lake District. If you are in the area call and see us in this beautiful spot.

Going to the London Book Fairs Week always turns up some interesting items and this year I have come back to York with a fabulous album of original photographs of the York Pageant 1909; timely because the York Mystery Plays are in progress in the City at the moment and during the 1909 Pageant there was a parade of wagons which included a parade of guild banners accompanying a wagon representing the Nativity and this event is often cited as a precursor of the current mystery play cycle which was reinvented in 1951 at the time of the Festival of Britain.

This is a fabulous album and I have been pouring over it as, it is not only interesting for the people it shows in their strange [to our eyes] costumes, but for the buildings and gardens it shows that were pressed into service as the backdrop of the scenes acted out then.

It comprises 58 photographs, the first two bearing the signature of Louis Napoleon Parker looking very proud [Dramatist and author of the York Pageant] The photographs are fine matt platinum prints mostly by H. Lane Smith + Debenham and Co., York. It depicts the scenes of the Pageant and the key actors and actresses. The setting was the Museum Gardens and St Mary’s Abbey, The Kings Manor and St Leonard’s Hospital all of which were backdrops for variant scenes. There are further photographs of the cast in the main courtyard of the Kings Manor. Photographs vary in size between 10×8 inches and 6 x 4 inches.

The album itself is supported by a very useful contemporary postcard album: 45 sepia photographs of the pageant and participants which are very helpful in interpreting the larger format photographs. These post cards turn up now and then but rarely together.

Of course it is for sale so if you are interested let me know. If you are in York call by and have a look for yourself.