Diggin’ Deco-

Art Deco Shipping (Luggage?) Label for the Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen Line. Paris: 1930s. 

A label issued by the Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen Line and featuring three of their star ships- the Bremen, Europa, and Columbus. The Norddeutscher Lloyd was a German shipping company founded Bremen in 1857. It became one of the most important German shipping companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, competing with the English liners for the North American trade. All post-World War One liners, these three ships met ignominious fates: Columbus was launched in 1924, and scuttled by her crew off the coast of Virginia in 1939; Bremen was launched in 1929 and burned at her dock in 1941. Europa was launched in 1928 and scrapped by the Allies in 1945.

 4.25"x6". Tape repair. [39943] $35-

From the new Bookin'! - Peace? Ptui!!

Mose Skinner's Grand Peace Jubilee and Jewsharp Oratorio. 

Boston; New England News Company: 1869. 

A biting satire of Boston's famous National Peace Jubilee, which was organized by Patrick Gilmore and took place in Boston on June 15, 1869. The Jubilee was by all accounts a complete success, with more than 11,000 performers, including 100 choral groups, an orchestra of 525 musicians, and a 486-piece wind band. The Jubilee, in fact, became the "high-water mark in the influence of the band in American life" (Crawford, America's Musical Life: A History).

But before any of this took place the size and scope, as well as the concept of celebrating peace with Southerners (with whom there had been some recent "unpleasantness"), created doubters. An excellent example is this satirical booklet by James E. Brown, writing under the name Mose Skinner, the text of which first appeared as a series of columns in the Wide World news paper. Aside from his obvious doubts about the possibility that such a grand undertaking could ever succeed, one sees doubts about whether it even -should- succeed, the Jubilee being only a few years removed from the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil. 

For instance- "In order to promote kind feelings toward the South, and create a feeling of confidence, Confederate scrip will be considered legal tender, on the five days of the Festival, - and any person passing a greenback (on the sidewalk) will be subject to arrest. One-armed and one-legged soldiers are requested to retire into the country, in order that their presence may not cause any unpleasant recollections to arise in the minds of our Southern friends". Ouch.

Softcover. 4.5"x7.5", 21 pages, plus several pages of advertisements. Front cover damaged, with a small hole, and general wear and soil, creases, etc. [39932] $100 

Read the new Bookin'! here.

Our Latest Catalog-

January is really the cruelest month- there are only few actual holidays for the Book Elves to celebrate, so they fall back on “second-tier” celebrations, for better or (usually) worse. One “holiday” they are especially fond of is January 3rd's Fruitcake Toss Day which coincides (coincidentally?) with Humiliation Day. We have barely recovered from Bean Day on the 6th before it's time for Bubble Bath Day on the 8th. Play God Day (January 9) has been permanently banned in the Cataloging Cave, but the 10th's Peculiar People Day is always a good time. The less said about Feast of Fabulous Wild Men Day on the 12th the better, likewise the 14th’s Dress Up Your Pet Day -that may be the next day we have to ban. National Popcorn Day (19th) and National Pie Day (23rd) seem to lead naturally into National Kazoo Day, January 28th. 
Be sure to join us.

Bring a bib. And ear plugs.

You can see our new Bookin'! #8 right here !

Bookplate of the Day-

Sporty-

Art Nouveau Chromolithograph of Sports from the Dekorativ Vorbilder. 

Stuttgart; Julius Hoffmann: 1904-05. 

- from the new Bookin'!

A Dramatic Christmas in WWI France-

A Pair of World War One French Hand-Painted Christmas Cards. 

France, 1915.

A rather dramatic pair of hand- painted Christmas, 1915 cards, each showing a war scene and mounted with a photographs of what appears to be a French hospital unit. One card, titled "Noel 1915 - Le Eparges" shows a desolate, snow- covered street, surmounted by pine cones. The second card, titled "Noel 1915 - Malines", shows a burning cathedral, surmounted by ivy leaves. Les Eparges was the site of a fierce battle in April, 1915. Malines is a Dutch-speaking city in Flanders which was the scene of fighting in August, 1914, and numerous accounts of German atrocities against civilians were circulated. 

2 cards. 5.75"x8", minor soil. [39882] $250 

1910 Halley's Comet Chocolate Cards in the new issue of Bookin'!

Set of 6 Halley's Comet Chocolate Cards. 
Stollwerck: 1910. 

A set of six cards promoting Stollwerck chocolate, featuring humorous views of Halley's Comet. Each card has a humorous, if doggerel, German verse on the back relating to the scene on the front of the card: a happy comet riding a bike, a happy comet making wine, a shy comet hiding behind a cloud as an astronomer peers at her throug his telescope, an angry comet chasing a man and woman, a happy comet raining a star shower on a group of umbrellaed onlookers, and a happy comet on a bike being chased down the road by a German soldier, complete with pickelhaube helmet. Quite wonderful. Stollwerck, a leading German chocolate manufacturer, was founded in 1839 and was the second largest producer of chocolate on the United States by 1900. 

Six cards. 2"x3.5". Minor soil, one card creased. [39881] $100 

Bookin'! for the Hollydaze-

Neither snow, nor sleet, nor dark of night, will keep the Book Elves from finishing another Bookin’ - the Christmas party the pretty girl elves over at The Ale Shack threw almost did though... but a promise to pay for all the damages, and replacing the missing sleigh from the Town common, got everybody back to the Cataloging Cave without having to deal with nasty words like “bail bondsman”.

So with the merry words to “Good King Sauerkraut” ringing in our ears, we wrap this catalog up with a big bow and send it on to you. It’s been fun to put together, which is why we do it every two weeks. 

Well, that, and working on it keeps the Book Elves off the streets.

You can see the Bookin'! #7 right here.

A New Bookin'! is Ready!

With Thanksgiving and the Book Elves’ Great American Turkey Fracas in the rearview mirror, we can start worrying about what they will do for Christmas. 
A repeat of last year’s Burning Tree Festival seems unlikely, as does any sort of revival of the “Department Store Santa Roundup & Rodeo” of ’09. And, as far as I know, we managed to intercept all the Cat Wrapping videos they ordered on Amazon. There’s no snow in the forecast, so we also don’t have to keep an eye out for any of their notorious “Frieda Does Frosty” pornographic snow scenes on the front lawn. Vigilance remains necessary, though- just this morning UPS delivered 250 squirrel-sized Santa costumes.  And a catapult.

I feel just like Captain Kirk when he said-

“Very funny, Scotty. 
Now beam down my clothes”.

Have fun with our new catalog!

-Forrest

You can see the catalog here.

The Age of Aquariums

A handbill for J.W. Fiske Cast Iron Aquariums. New York: no date, but probably early 1870s.

An item in the latest issue of Bookin'!

A New Edition of Bookin'!

ANA ONE, ANA TWO...

Wonnerful, wonnerful -it’s time for another edition of Bookin’, as we swing into Fall with some of our favorite books and ephemera, brought to you again this week by our very own Book Elves! They went on the internet yesterday and joined something called the Thanksgiving Turkey Liberation Front, and then liberated 27 Thanksgiving turkeys. Unfortunately they seem to have missed the point of the Front’s goals, and liberated the turkeys from the freezer section of our local supermarket. 

The Book Elves are calling it a Blow for Freedom. 

The police are insisting on calling it “theft”.

Here in the Cataloging Cave we call it just the usual-

Chaos, panic & disorder. 

My work here is done.  

Have fun!

The new Bookin'! is here

A new month, a new Bookin'!

Well, the Cataloging Cave seems to have survived Halloween intact, and most of the Book Elves made bail in time to get this catalog together.  I know I say this every time, but there’s some interesting stuff in this one. Whale oil, fake arrowheads, weird sunflowers, snuff, ostriches and croquet mallets -and more. 
I can’t decide whether my favorite quote from these items is the woman who compared early American rug hookers to Matisse, or this one- 

"The savage who tattoos his flesh is a painter, the barbarian who ornaments his club with carvings is a sculptor, the Indian who constructs his wigwam in the forest is an architect, the cannibal who sings in triumph while his enemy is burning at the stake is a musician, and all are artists." 

I think I’m just going to leave it there.


You can see the latest issue of Bookin'! here.

A Grave Affair-

A GRAVE AFFAIR - 
Special Bookin’! Halloween Issue:

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new edition of A Grave Affair, a special issue of our Bookin’! catalog series, featuring books and other material about gravestones, epitaphs, mourning customs and related topics (also referred to by the Book Elves here in the Cataloging Cave as “The Death Catalog”).  This is always one of my favorite catalogs to put together, and I hope you find something that entices, pleases or surprises you.  

-Forrest 
 (a.k.a., The Death Guy)

You can see the catalog here.

Fraudulent Frogs???

From our new Bookin'! catalog-

8. [Fraud & Frogs] American Frog Canning Company Promotional Correspondence. 

New Orleans: 1936. 

A typewritten letter on the company’s very graphic stationary, dated May 19, 1936, signed by S. Schutt, forwarding information about raising frogs for the company. The stationary includes pictures of the company offices, a tadpole, a frog, a barrel of live frogs, and cans of frog a la king and frogs' legs. Alas, the enterprise came to grief. The Sandusky Register for the 19th of June, 1936, reported:

"Two frog specialists who opened a school here and then hopped to New Orleans were held there today for transfer to Toledo to face a federal charge that their mail-order course in commercial breeding of the amphibians constituted a fraud. The two, Albert Broel, formerly of Detroit, and Sylvester Schutt of Fremont, denied any guilt and were held in lieu-of $2,500 bonds for return to Ohio, where their undertaking began in 1933. Postal officials, who obtained their indictment secretly last December, charged that Broel and Schutt offered for $47.50 cash or $157.60 in installments to instruct would-be frog-farmers in a business which they professed would 'yield the student up to $100,000 in two years'. The officials said such profits sounded too high, even though each graduate student was promised a pair of frogs free from the farm here. After the indictment, Broel and Schutt were discovered to have left Fremont and opened the American Frog Canning Co., in New Orleans. Broel, who said he was a Polish army officer during the World War, owned the farm here and maintained a downtown office when the school functioned."

Letter. 8.5"x11". Folded, minor wear and soil. [39575] $85 

Printmaker to the Mexican People-

An item from our new Bookin'! catalog-

11. [MexicanArt] Handbill- Posada: Printmaker to the Mexican People.

Brooklyn Museum: 1944.

A handbill for the Brooklyn Museum's September 8-October 15, 1944 exhibition of prints by Jose Guadalupe Posada. Their August 18, 1944 press release for the exhibition explained:

"The Brooklyn Museum will begin its fall exhibition season with a large show entitled POSADA — PRINTMAKER TO THE MEXICAN PEOPLE (September 8-October 15). Lent by the Direccion General de Educacion Estetica, Mexico, it contains over six hundred prints, blocks and photographic enlargements and will be installed in four large galleries on the second floor. The first great printmaker in the New World, Posada’s gigantic production of twenty-thousand subjects reached the remotest village. The Mexican people well understood his art, because he re-stated with simplicity and vigor their own legends and songs, their own inarticulate hopes and aspirations. Through the medium of his prints he was among those actively responsible in preparing the way for the 1910 Revolution. Not only a prophet of the armed-mass uprising, he was a creator of an artistic expression which reflected a new social philosophy and established the foundations for a new national art. An excellent draughtsman, his work has economy of line, boldness of contour and dramatic action. It establishes him, not as a folk artist, but as a highly competent master who portrayed his era with passionate honesty and revolutionary zeal."

Handbill, 8.5"x11". Several chips and tears, creases, minor soil. Fragile. [39572] $60

Gone, and also Forgotten-

An item from our new Bookin'! catalog-

7. [Forgotten by History] Victorian Dramatic Author Brochure. Philadelphia. Undated, but probably 1860s. An interesting piece of self-promotion by a Philadelphia author/playwright, probably in the 1860s. The front of the brochure claims "Established 10 Years - Bob Watt - Dramatic Author - 610 Arch St., Phila. Pa", and the verso adds- "Best of Professional References - I write original songs, sketches, farces, comedies, dramas and all stage specialties to order. Comedies and dramas revised. - Author of 'Pert', 'My Sister', 'Foiled', 'Bait', 'Zero' and many other successful plays". Sadly for posterity, neither OCLC or any other source we have been able to find contains any record of this established dramatic author or his works.

3.5"x4.25 (folded). Some soil. [39576] $100

“Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

-Samuel Clemens

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”

 -Stephen King 

The October 22, 2103 Issue of Bookin'!

Well, in spite of our best efforts, another Bookin’! is ready to unleash upon an unsuspecting public. The Book Elves were going to write a little song to introduce it, but they insisted that there was only one word that rhymed with “Art” and I insisted that word wasn’t going in the song.  Next week is the big Halloween Special, a.k.a. “The Death Issue”, so if you’re looking for something normal, it would be best to browse this week’s installment. Actually, to be perfectly honest, there’s nothing normal here, either. That’s sort of the point of doing the whole thing.  

Well, that, and keeping the Book Elves off the streets.

You can browse Bookin'! here.

A New Catalog Series-

A new catalog series featuring the unusual,
the unruly, & the self-important.

-

We first published our Bookin’! series in the late 1990s, and the Book Elves (ever-ready to find a new excuse to get some overtime) have been lobbying for its return since at least 3:30 pm yesterday. Since the new(ish) .pdf format allows us to set wild our most self-indulgent production fantasies at little or no expense I naturally said, “No, of course not!”, and then they went ahead and did it anyway. So please enjoy, and join the Book Elves as they sing their theme song:

Books are Good!

Books are Nice!

Books are Often

Food for Mice!

Chaos, panic & disorder. My work here is done.  Have fun browsing the new Bookin'!

Our Latest Catalog- Books on Glass

Hobbies- everybody has one. The Book Elves have had dozens, and their latest was glass-blowing. I'd seen the cute set-ups they have at places like the Science Museum- a little bunsen-burner-type thing and some glass rods and your kids can make beads and stuff. No problem, I thought. Much better than their previous hobby, carving animals out of stumps with chain saws, I thought. And then they began to talk about blast furnaces and annealing ovens. And then they began to price blast furnaces, and then (priced out of that market) they began looking around for cheaper alternatives. Now, here's a funny, quirky thing about the American legal system: buying a blast furnace, new or used = legal. Purchasing a surplus jet engine off an ex-Soviet Mig-23 fighter jet (NATO code-name "Flogger") from a guy named "Sergei" who you met in an internet chat room on the Soldier of Fortune website = NOT legal.

But before the Book Elves got yet another update to their red-tabbed dossier in a filing cabinet at the Department of Homeland Security, they finished our latest catalog-

CATALOG #346: BOOKS ON GLASS & GLASSMAKING 

which can be viewed or downloaded as a .pdf file here

So, you think you can see right through me, eh?