N.d., circa 1900. A woodcarved oak folio, or letter or writing portfolio. The woodcarving work and floral motives are folk art-ish. The relief work has a depth to it, and the front panel has a solidity to it, as befits an oak piece. The interior has a brownish-orange felt pad. Two ribbon ties on the side seal the folio shut. The folio measures 11.75 by 8.5 inches, or 30 by 22 cm. View More...
Late 19th century celluloid photo album with 18th century miniature motives. Measures 10.5 by 8.5 by 1 by 9 by 2 inches. 12 boards within, each with one to four photo slots on each side. The interior of the album is attractive, with many nineteenth century photographs. Not all the slots are filled, and all slots can be replaced with new photos easily enough. The celluloid has a minor corner chip. Some minor chipping around photo frames. The back is a plain matching yellow celluloid. View More...
Lovely cherry wood stereoviewer, measuring 10 by 6 by 3 when unopened, and opens two ways, with three lenses, two for the stereoview, one for more general magnification, with an inlay striped band around the upper edges. View More...
A beautiful leather tooled desk folio folder featuring Classical Greek and Egyptian ornaments embraced in the Austrian Secessionist movement. at the turn of the last century. N.d., circa 1900. 31 by 22 cm. The color palette is gilt on black and somber green/gray. The binding is flawlessly preserved. Within is a separate notebook with textured wraps that resemble the sea floor perhaps. The pages within have never been used. The folder also includes a second notebook featuring a bird pattern on its wraps. This may or may not have been a part of the original package. This notebook is in a ... View More...
Swiss carved "Black Forest" bear, circa early 1900s, measuring 8.5 inches, or 23 cm, tall. Infinitesimal stain loss on one ear tip and tip of ear. Otherwise fine condition, with attention to detail showing in definition of teeth as a for instance. Glass eyes. Made in Brienz area. Thermometer rod currently upside down. View More...
N.d., circa 1890. The front board is quite elaborate, with a beveled perimeter of a richly painted wood grain. Within is an oblong piece of walnut in the quintessential Black Forest, or in actuality, Swiss Brienzerware, style. By this is meant the delicate foliate relief vignettes which rest on lightly pitted wood. But this frames a light walnut oblong oval with the putti relief that bespeaks more eighteenth century rococo than standard Brienzerware, except that the stones and vegetation at the base are consistent with Brienzerware. The rear board of the album has a pyrographic bouquet s... View More...
N.d. circa 1950. With a single text page followed by 49 leaves, each with a photograph of one or several specimens of Cordey china figurines and bric-a-brac, all in the signature kitschy rococo that characterized the brand. While the high brow has forever pooh poohed these inexpensive tchotschkes, the black and white photos render the same maligned pieces a certain haunting charm, not unlike that of marionettes and antique automata. Suddenly they have an animate aura, and whatever one's opinion of the specimens, they surely do have something to say about mid-twentieth century material cultu... View More...
11 inches. This is an antique gavel, probably from the mid-nineteenth century, used in Northern New England. It is about 11 inches, or 29 cm, long. View More...
Highly unusual, bibliophilic specimen of shell art. N.d., circa late nineteenth century. Dimensions: 14.5 cm tall, 12 cm wide, 8 cm deep. (All dimensions given at their greatest.) The top of the secretary has six typical late nineteenth century, circa 1880, cloth spines behind glass. This is bordered with small shells. The tabletop front or breakfront is also decked with shells, and like the top of the glass backing, has artistically placed ones of different sizes and varieties. The upper sides and the front base are decorated with a lovely Victorian marbled paper. The breakfront op... View More...
14 x 13 inches. This is an original photograph from the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition showing the Connecticut display, which mixed American country furniture, Colonial effects and various hunt paraphernalia, together with Yankee patriotic gewgaws and iconology. The photo looks somewhat overexposed, as was the inevitable consequence of photo techniques then. At base of photo are names of Connecticut officials and legend of the fair. The frame is plain and is itself quite old. More photos available upon request. View More...
A mother-of-pearl inlay photo or card album souvenir for Gibraltar from Japan! A true curiosity. The front board has a naive-style illustration of the Rock of Gibraltar and the village at its base made with inlay pieces of mother-of-pearl employed along with painted work on the laccquer. The interior, in contrast, features leaves of color woodblock floral and landscape designs, all quintessential Japanese, with thin, elastic bands in which to secure cards or photos. There are seven free leaves, plus the inside of the outer boards, all so decorated, with none of the slots used. The spine is... View More...
With inscription from 1856. 35 by 23 cm. Black leather blindstamped and gilt ornamented with typical designs of period. Pockets within for Letters Answered, Unanswered and Notes & Addresses and loosely attached notebook of leaves still entirely blank. The front cover also is backed with a pocket bearing no caption, and this, closed, served as a writing surface. Many separate sheets with tracing of various ornament and occasional written notes dating back to the 19th century and probably done by the original owner of the folio. The folio closed with a flap that folds over the front and has... View More...
6 inches across, 4.75 inches tall, 5 inches deep. This pair of J. B. bookends has the trademark celluloid detailing of the face and hands. It is, according to Kuritzky, the most authoritative source on bookends, of the greatest rarity, or a 5 on its 5 point scale. Some minor paint loss as per normal, but generally excellent condition. More photos available upon request. View More...
The fan is 16.5 cm tall, and its 18 piece ivory frame stretches to about 30 cm wide. The hand-colored illustration is of a bucolic scene, with a church and pleasure pavilion in the background, trees and bushes in the foreground, and a soldier courting a seated lady in the center. Beneath a gilt ruled edge is neo-classical festooned decoration such as became prevalent in the late nineteenth century -- the style associated with Louis XVI, and also Adams, English Regency, etc. Light soiling of the off-white background and some other wear, but overall, a very well-preseved of a highly decorativ... View More...
Circa mid-19th Century exquisite box with floral painting, plush velvet inside, leather spine lending appearance of book, with snap or clasp on other side. Photo very well preserved, with ghost-like images of girls. Box is 4 by 3.75 inches. View More...
N.d., the boards are circa mid-nineteenth century, while the endpapers and blank leaves within are new and fresh. The front board has a magnificent bouquet centerpiece, with a slender gilt border near the perimeter of the boards. The rear board is simply plain black. Rebacked, the album has a beautiful Japanese-style endpaper which while not strictly-speaking of the same period as the decorative boards, complements them spectacularly. The boards have typical minute craquelature, and there are a few very minor spots of surface loss along the edges. Immaculate within. View More...
Very unusual, and beautiful, book press intended for miniature books. N.d., nineteenth century. Dimensions: base is 20 by 10 cm, and with its four rounded legs, it is about 4 cm to top of this base. The two screws that lie onto of the base rise 14.5 cm above the base. One turns the handles to squeeze miniature books between the slabs of wood. The "washers" at the base of the screws are bone rings. In the center of the base top is a rectagularly well, with glass covering decorative tapestry. View More...
8 inches tall. This woodcarved black owl humidor is probably of English origin, and while it is not "Black Forest" in the sense of being from Switzerland, it has some kinship to the popular style in its glass eyes and charm. Dating from the latter part of the nineteenth century, it stands 8.75 inches tall, or 23 cm, and is in overall fine condition. It has some minor rubbing at the tip of the nose, but the photo here is misleading -- there is no loss of wood and the stain loss is more trivial than it appears. The back of the owl does have some fading and/or rubbing away of the stain... View More...
Antique bric-a-brac, including items for the library, and Black Forest woodcarvings. 
