Alfred Pasternack

@aopmurray.bsky.social

247 Followers 186 Following

Rare books, manuscripts, that sort of thing. Bookseller @quaritch, bookbinder. Oooh, serifs.

Woodcut border around a Greek printed text, with a small figure of King David playing a harp that resembles a musical washboard
A beautifully presented 18th century printed book, duodecimo, invisibly cradled and resting on a glass shelf
Title page printed within woodcut architectural border flanked by two female figures, reading “Aristophanis comicorum principis comoediae undecim, E Graeco in latinum, ad verbum, translatae, Andrea Divo justinopolitano interprete … Venetiis M D X L I I”
A female figure from the side of a woodcut architectural border, holding a globe in her right arm. The section around the globe is clearly defined by a blank border, suggesting it has been inserted into the woodblock.
Dos-à-dos binding in pink silk, boards and spine richly gilt (if somewhat faded), edges gilt
Front board of a duodecimo volume bound in strapwork à la cire calf, with a central armorial of a crouching lion beneath a star
Endpapers of the same book with very brightly coloured brocade, a gilt lattice dividing lozenges of pink, orange, and purple
Eighteenth-century German pink silk binding embrodered with metal threadds, sequins, and pearls, sitting on top of a brown leather pull-off box, with beautiful green silk ribbon ties draped to one side
Printed text within a woodcut border, headed “List of Members March 1892” with the names of L F Austin, Augustine Burrell, W E Briggs, Oscar Browning, J E Christie, J F Green, John Gennadius, F C Gould (continued)
Marbled endpapers with bright green, purple, and red colours, with a Spanish wave effect, and the same marble rubbed and faded to almost brown on the outside of another volume
Email preview text, reading “Men, Women, Kids, Clearance, thank you for your order”
Gerarde's Herball, 1633, p. 277, with two botanical woodcuts and text reading "Of Italian Rocket ... Italian Rocket hath long leaves cut into many parts or divisions like those of the Ash tree, resembling Ruellius his Bucks-horne: among which rise up stalks weake and tender, but thicke and grosse, two foot high, garnished with many small yellowish floures like the middle part of Tansie floures, of a naughty savor or smell. The feed is small like sand or dust, in taste like Rocket seed, whereof in truth wee suspect it to be a kinde. The root is long and wooddy."
Captcha showing a picture of a tractor and the instruction “Wählen Sie alle Dinge aus, die schwerer sind als das angegebene Objekt im wirklichen Leben“, followed by a selection of diggers, cymbals, and brass instruments
Advertisement for Bernard Quaritch in the Book Collector, offering a brief account of the firm’s state after 120 years and suggestions for the next 120
From the same text, “populus Angliae bellicosus, et si instruatur ad omnes belli casus ferendos promtus est”
Text of Johann Friedrich Pöpping “Orbis illustratus” (1668) describing the British Isles, with entertaining transcriptions of English placenames
Book spine, bound in sixteenth century calf and gilt, with the head cap chipped to reveal the headband, and worming in the leather exposing a blue thread fastening the headband to the book
Letterpress title-page: “Theatro d’Arcani del medico Lodovico Locatelli da Bergamo … In Milano, per Gio. Pietro Ramellati, MDCXLIV, con licenza De’ superiori”, with woodcut ornament above the imprint
Copper engraved title of “Theatro d’Arcani del medico Locatelli”, within an architectural border with figures on either side and a coat of arms above