In the 1930s, Blue Ribbon Books and Pleasure Books, who published a series of colorful pop-up books including The Pop-up Pinocchio, were the first to coin the phrase “pop-up book”. In a five year period, they produced more than ten remarkable pop-up books on classic fairy tales including Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jack the Giant...
This trade catalog, which contains more than 100 photographs of furniture in the “modern” gothic style, is one of the only remaining works to visually document the furniture designed by the renowned New York cabinetmakers, Kimbel & Cabus. Anthony Kimbel emigrated from Germany in the late 1840s and partnered with Anton Bembe to form Bembe...
This catalog and sample book, circa 1930, contains needle and sewing items manufactured by The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (DOSCO), a Canadian coal mining and steel manufacturing company. Included are more than 50 steel sewing, crocheting, and knitting needles and safety pins. Some are even in their original packaging. Brief captions, images, illustrations, and item numbers...
De la loi du contraste des couleurs, by French chemist Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889), is a compendium of color design principles and one of the first systematic studies of color perception. The manual is based on Chevreul’s observations and experiments when he was Director of Dyes at the Manufacture des Gobelins tapestry works in 1824. Soon after...
Art and Handicraft in the Women’s Building of the World’s Columbian Exposition, edited by Maud Howe Elliot (1854-1948), noted author and daughter of anti-slavery activist Julia Ward Howe, consists of 30 articles by women on work and issues related to women as celebrated in the Women’s Building at the Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893....
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), an Italian architect, designer, antiquarian and engraver, created Diversi maniere d’adornare I cammini: ed ogni altra parte degli edifizi (Various ways of decorating chimneypieces and other parts of the house) in 1769. This work is considered to be one of the greatest contributions to interior design promoting the neoclassical style. His essay, presented...
