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CHARLES AGVENT has been buying and selling rare books, manuscripts, and autographs in a variety of fields since 1987. We have books from the 15th to the 21st century and feature a stock strong in Signed Books & Autographs, Literary First Editions, Presidential material, African-American Literature & History, and Fine Press & Illustrated Books. In addition, we carry the largest inventory of Limited Edition Club books and ephemera in the world. We are members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers and adhere to their high ethical standards.

Please search or browse our inventory of approximately 6000 items. Use the links to the left to browse our many specific categories and to see descriptions of new arrivals. If you can't find what you want, let us know and we'll be happy to search our extensive private

inventory for you.

You can also click on the Catalogs link to see our pdf catalogs, including our latest SUMMER MISCELLANY Catalog.

Featured Items

Large folio (16" x 20-1/2") consisting of one signature of text (comprising the title page with colophon, brief introductory text, and a list of contents) and ten individually matted ORIGINAL SILVER PRINTS, each SIGNED and numbered by the photographer. Images are all @7" x 10" matted on a 16" x 20-1/2" stiff board with cutout covering board. Entire contents contained in a cloth clamshell box. Photographers are Eve Arnold, Jill Freedman, Ernst Haas, Andre Kertesz, Duane Michals, Inge Morath, Barbara Morgan, Eva Rubenstein, Neil Slavin, and James Van Der Zee. This is portfolio #39 of only 75 produced.

TEN PHOTOGRAPHERS with 10 signed original silver prints
[MICHALS, D; KERTESZ, A; MORATH, I; VAN DER ZEE, J; HAAS, E; FREEDMAN, J; ARNOLD, E; SLAVIN, N; MORGAN, B; RUBINSTEIN, E.]
n.p.: Women's Campaign Fund, 1978. Large folio (16" x 20-1/2") consisting of one signature of text (comprising the title page with colophon, brief introductory text,.. more
Price: $8,500.00

Large octavo (7" x 10") bound in early full vellum, [16] 654 [32] pages. The complete and corrected ORLANDO FURIOSO, with Ruscelli's dedication to the Duke of Ferrara dated 1556 and an account of the life of Ariosto by Battista Pigna. Illustrated with an engraved title page, 51 full-page woodcuts, ornamental headpieces, and initial letters. The woodcuts, within decorative borders, are after the designs of Dossa Dossi, the Ferrarese painter and are printed from the blocks of the first Valgrisi quarto editon of 1556. Some of the impressions are weak, but most are quite presentable.

ORLANDO FURIOSO and I CINQUE CANTI
ARIOSTO, Lodovico
Venice: F. Valgrisi and N. Moretti, 1603. Large octavo (7" x 10") bound in early full vellum, [16] 654 [32] pages. The complete and corrected ORLANDO FURIOSO,.. more
Price: $1,500.00

Folio (8" x 12-1/2") bound in library buckram; irregularly paginated: [10], 502, [58] pages. Illustrated with 273 woodcuts, many full and half page. Previously published in 1556 and 1561, this edition seems scarcer than either of the previous. PRINTING & THE MIND OF MAN 79: "The first systematic treatise on mining and metallurgy and one of the first technological books of modern times." Herbert Hoover, who first translated this book into English, described this title in his autobiography as "the first important attempt to assemble systematically in print the world-knowledge on mining, metallurgy, and industrial chemistry. It was the great textbook of those industries for two centuries and had dominated thought and practice all that time. In many mining regions and camps, including the Spanish South America, it was chained to the church altar and translated by the priest to the miners between religious services." The woodcut impressions are strong and dark. As customary with this title, there is browning throughout, occasionally heavy. Small piece of title page repaired with no loss of text or illustration; ink names of David Stuart dated 1771 and Joseph Robertson dated 1830 on title page. Library bookplate on front pastedown and small ink number on the title page illustration; no other library markings except for numbers on the spine. An important and richly illustrated title.

DE RE METALLICA. LIBRI XII. QUIBUS OFFICIA, INSTRUMENTA, MACHINAE, AC OMNIA DENIQUE AD METALLICAM SPECTANTIA...
AGRICOLA, Georgius
Basil: Ludovici Regis, 1621. Folio (8" x 12-1/2") bound in library buckram; irregularly paginated: [10], 502, [58] pages. Illustrated with 273 woodcuts, many full.. more
Price: $8,500.00

The printed Foreword page (9-1/2" x 12") from Edward Curtis's monumental 20-volume study of the North American Indian attractively SIGNED at the bottom below his printed name. In part: "The Indian as he has hitherto been is on the point of passing away. His life has been lived under conditions thru which our own race past so many ages ago that not a vestige of their memory remains. It would be a veritable calamity if a vivid and truthful record of these conditions were not kept." Wonderful item that would frame very nicely.

DOCUMENT SIGNED [Foreword from Curtis's THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN]
ROOSEVELT, Theodore (Teddy) [CURTIS, Edward]
The printed Foreword page (9-1/2" x 12") from Edward Curtis's monumental 20-volume study of the North American Indian attractively SIGNED.. more
Price: $2,000.00

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