“The Noble Art and Mystery of Printing”: John Brampton’s Book Label and Print Shop Keepsake

While rummaging around the Grolier Club Library’s Spencer Van B. Nichols Bookplate Collection, I noticed a rather imposing book label. Printed for John Brampton on 29 December 1745, the label is surrounded by a running quote relating to the invention of printing: “The Noble Art and Mystery of Printing was first invented and practiced by …

2018 Grolier Club Library William H. Helfand Fellowship

After a year’s hiatus due to renovations, The Grolier Club Library is pleased to announce the resumption of its annual fellowship offering in the art and history of the book, named in honor of Grolier Club benefactor and former president William H. Helfand. Awards of up to $3,000 are available for research in the Library's …

A 17th century Embroidered Binding

A few months ago, a box of miniature bookbindings was rediscovered in our archives.  The box proved to be a veritable treasure trove of fine bindings donated to the Grolier Club in April of 1918 by none other than Samuel P. Avery, one of the Club’s greatest benefactors. Among them a book of fables in …

Accidental Antiquarians

Some booksellers are drawn to the business because of their love of reading. Some are following a relative in the family business. For others, it’s a second career after law, finance, or medicine loses its luster. Still others become booksellers through unconventional paths.  One of the first firms I cataloged, W. & G. Foyle, Ltd., …

The Library of a Convulsionist curé: Jacques-Louis Rocheboüet (1685-1743)

One of my favorite objects in the Grolier Club Library is the manuscript library catalogue of Jacques-Louis Rocheboüet (1685-1743). Rocheboüet was a Jansenist and a Convulsionnaire curé living in France in the first half of the eighteenth century. His catalogue is interesting both for the books it contains and for its peculiar aesthetic appeal. Jacques-Louis Rocheboüet was …

The Fly Dealer of Covent Garden Bookshop

Booksellers and collectors are stereotyped as quiet, nerdy, bookish sorts, but the reality is they are just as likely to be adventurers, visionaries, activists, oddballs, provocateurs, and even scoundrels. Covent Garden Bookshop was run by one such colorful figure. Dr. N.C. Nothmann supposedly fled his Nazi-occupied homeland of Lithuania by walking to Italy. From there …

A 20th Century Binder’s Scrapbook

It was initially presumed that this binders scrapbook, acquired by the Club in 2014, was part of the Curwen Press archive, as it contains numerous drawings of bindings for Curwen publications, as well as correspondence from Harold Curwen, director of the Press. It is well known that the Curwen Press had a bindery on their …