Las semillas mejoradas del maíz afirmarán tu futuro.

[US / Mexico Relations] Taller de Gráfica Popular [sometimes Leopoldo Mendez]. Las semillas mejoradas del maíz afirmarán tu futuro. Comisión del Maíz [...]. Mexico, D.F.: TGP, 1950. Linocut, 47 cm x 35 cm. Some minor chipping in the blank margins. VG.

Agricultural propaganda produced by the Taller de Gráfica Popular for Mexico’s Corn Commission, established in 1947 as a postwar partnership with the US Government and the Rockefeller Foundation to develop and distribute high-yield corn seeds in Mexico [Mexico Agriculture Program (MAP)]. A very rare collaboration between the TGP, associated with socialism and revolutionary worker’s parties, and an organization with direct ties to the US government during the early days of the Cold War and US antisocialist policy.

Despite initial mistrust of the new varietals, public campaigns like this one successfully raised Mexico’s corn yields dramatically. The first seed issued to farmers from the project was marketed under the name “Rocamex”.

OCLC records one member holding: UCSD.

$375

Allegorical Map of Mexico City and Environs

(Pictorial Cartography) Herrmann, Carlos. Allegorical Map of Mexico City and Environs. Mexico, D.F.: n.d, ca. 1930-1935. 63.5 x 92.3 cm. Image very good, blind margins a bit worn, beginning to fray.

A pictorial map of Mexico City, representing the natural, industrial, architectural, and cultural landmarks of the city. The artist blends indigenous styles and historical references with colonial and postcolonial features, identifying the key features of Mexico’s emerging modern national identity.

Probably printed in the 1930s during the Maximato, when as Delia Cosentino has argued, “the production, circulation, and consumption of such imagery offered the opportunity to imagine a uniquely animated geography coming into its own … [C]artography, [was] an advantageous way to shape the view of Mexico as a cohesive entity with a rapidly developing infrastructure and an evolving relationship with its own Indigenous past and present. [...]. Through these images dating to the first half of the 1930s, an international cadre of artists, travelers, publishers, government officials, and other boosters disseminated an integrated vision of Mexican cultural space and thereby coproduced the territory itself.” (1)

Known from a single other example, in the David Rumsey Map Collection.

$950

Notes:

1. Delia Cosentino. “Unfolding Maps during the Maximato in Mexico,” Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture 1.1 (January 2019).

El Movimiento Estudiantil: Three Posters

El Movimiento Estudiantil de 1968: Three Posters. México: 1968. Donde hay lucha hay sacrificios [...], linocut?, 34 x 47 cm, center crease, newsprint toned as expected; Asesinos. Pueblo: el gobierno te engaña [...] ¡Despierta!; 29 x 43 cm, an uneven impression, colored ink slightly faded, typical minor soiling and staining for a protest poster; and Untitled [after Adolfo Mexiac]; offset?; 44.7 x 29.8 cm, unevenly trimmed.

Rare surviving graphics from the 1968 student protest movement in Mexico City, which ended shortly before the ‘68 Olympics on October 2nd with the infamous Tlatelolco Massacre. The posters were printed rapidly and inexpensively during the summer and early fall for use during massive demonstrations and as street propaganda. They were primarily created by student collectives at the San Carlos and La Esmerelda art schools using linocut and silkscreen in addition to offset presses. In addition to original artwork, the artists appropriated militant imagery and text from previous social protest movements and legendary Taller Grafica Popular prints.

This group includes two uncommon examples together with a variation on a famous Adolfo Mexiac linocut that was repurposed (with the artist’s permission) during the protests. The juxtaposition of student artwork and protest language with the official Olympic graphic, as seen on the Asesinos example, was a hallmark of many of the ‘68 poster designs.

The first example is known from a copy in the UNAM archives, but otherwise unrecorded in OCLC holdings; we are unable to find location information for a copy of the second despite its reproduction by at least one blog. The third is a curious version of the Mexiac image, slightly altered from most period examples available for comparison, and evidence of the print collectives’ ongoing process of iteration and reproduction.

$1500

Por Que luchan las mujeres

(Mexico) (Feminism) [Chato, Illus.]. Por que luchan las mujeres. Mexico City: 1978. Broadside, 40 cm x 60 cm. Mild fading and toning, a few small chips to blank edges. Creased where folded. Signed “CHATO” in plate.

Poster advertising a feminist lecture series organized by teachers and students from the Physics and Mathematics department of UNAM. Listing the names and titles of the four lecturers and their presentations, including “que es feminismo” by Guatemalan poet Alaide Foppa [shortly before her disappearance by Guatemalan government forces]; “que es el sexismo” by renowned journalist Esperanza Brito; “la mujer en Mexico” by Elena Urrutia; and “alternativa politica” by anthropologist Marta Lamas.

The late 1970s marked an important shift in the Mexican feminist movement, as it aligned more closely with other leftist and worker’s movements. Foppa was the cofounder of the feminist journal Fem, and Brito was its director.

Not in OCLC or market records.

SOLD

Primo Congresso Nazionale, 26 27 Aprile 1919. Donne di Roma [...]

(Women’s Organizations) (WWI) (Mothers and Widows) Associazione Nazionale Fra Le Madri e Le Vedove Dei Caduti. Primo Congresso Nazionale, 26 27 Aprile 1919. Donne di Roma,—. Roma: Tip. Italiana di Pubblicità, 1919. Broadside, printed recto only, 98 x 67 cm, fragile at creases.

Early political organizing by Italian women in an impassioned announcement for the first congress of mothers and widows of the fallen soldiers of WWI. The gathering was not only to acknowledge the great personal losses of these women, but to form a “definitive structure” with which they hoped to address urgent civic and economic problems faced by those who had “given their blood and their love for the greatness of the sacred family … Italy!” The poster calls for “better state measures.”

Very little is written about this organization in the pre-fascist period, but the association continues to organize in the 1920s.

Not in OCLC.

$450

L’Opera Nazionale Maternità ed Infanzia nel suo costante lavoro per la difesa [...]

(Women and Children) (Fascist Demographics) (Eugenics) Opera Nazionale per la Protezione della Maternità ed Infanzia, Federazione Provinciale di Lucca. L’Opera Nazionale Maternità ed Infanzia nel suo costante lavoro per la difesa ed il miglioramento della razza …. Lucca: Tip. Francesconi e Simonetti, 1933 [XI]. Broadside, printed recto only, 100 x 69.5 cm, a few small losses to edges, a few offset roller marks on right edge.

An impressive example from a public campaign in support of Mussolini’s “Battle for Births,” one of the pillars of his vision for Italian economic supremacy. His regime supported the demographic policy with financial incentives, including tax breaks and direct grants, like those described here, for large families and married couples. Conversely, Italians could be penalized for not having sufficient children–the ideal number was more than 5–or remaining unmarried. As signaled in this example by the proposed goal of “improving of the breed,” Italian pronatalist policies under Mussolini can be traced to the eugenics movement.

No other examples found in market or institutional holdings.

$450

Illustrated Autograph Album: El Frente de Juventudes Femenino a su Regidora Comarcal

(Education - Girls) (Fascism) [El Frente de Juventudes Femenino, Villanueva y Geltrú]. Illustrated Autograph Album: El Frente de Juventudes Femenino a su Regidora Comarcal. June 1943. Oblong 19.5 x 31 cm, 97 manuscript leaves; including approx. 90 pages individually executed by members of the Juventudes Femenino, approx. 90 with brightly colored pencil and pen drawings accompanying various inscriptions, poems, songs, and signatures; stab bound in brown faux-leather boards with leather thread, leather broken thus loosening the album, otherwise very good. With two leaves laid in, these two a bit frayed where they extended beyond the boards.

Unique illustrated gift album for Sra. Mercedes Rodriguez, a regional commander of the Falange Party’s Girls Youth Front, commemorating a political indoctrination summer camp focusing on home economics, physical education, religion, and social hygiene. During the Civil War, El Frente de Juventudes (like its fascist counterparts Hitlerjugend [Germany] and Balilla [Italy]) became an important part of securing a fascist future. Following the Nationalist victory, Franco made voluntary and involuntary state-sponsored youth organizations a priority of his new government, providing militarized style training for both boys and girls. Loosely based on scouting troops, the girls sections (“Margaritas” for 7-10 yr olds; “Flechas” for 10-18 yr olds) wore uniforms and practiced the songs and policies of the new Homeland.

Later superseded by the Juventudes de la Sección Femenina (1945), the Margaritas and Flechas of 1943 were being prepared to be good wives and mothers to the soldiers of Spain: in addition to domestic skills (sewing, nursing, cooking, etc.), they were encouraged to be physically fit, hygienic, churchgoers capable of teaching the core Falange values (Dios, Patria, Hogar) to the next generation.

In detailed drawings and inscriptions, the album documents the language and imagery of this indoctrination and its eerie combination of idealized femininity, children’s comics, and facist propaganda. Again and again Margaritas and Flechas announce their dedication to their beloved (“cariño”) commander, obedience to the political hierarchy of the Falange (“a tus ordenes”), and submission to the collective goals of national syndicalism. ¡Arriba España!

Despite its wide integration into girls education for more than thirty years, El Frente de Juventudes Femenino and the Juventudes de la Sección Femenina are poorly documented in North American institutions.

$2250

Eight Spanish Republican Women’s Groups’ Handbills and Flyers

(Anarcho-Feminism) (Guerra Civil) (Suffrage) (Songs) [Agrupación Mujeres Libres; La Secció Femenina del Bloc Obrer i Camperol; Las Agrupaciones Femeninas del Partido Radical, et al.]. Eight Republican Women’s Groups Handbills and Flyers, ca. 1934-1938. Np, nd. [Barcelona, Madrid, et al.]. Various sizes ranging from 31.5 x 22 to 16.5 x 16.5 cm; all but one printed recto only, fragile papers with minor fraying and small closed tears or nicks throughout. One green paper foxed. One illustrated, linocut?

Rare ephemera from various Republican women’s political organizations during the Spanish Second Republic and the Civil War, these handbills express outrage with the failures of certain political leaders and parties, and appeal to women to vote (as proletariat workers; domestic laborers, and mothers). Women’s suffrage was established in 1933; these examples attempt to enlist their support for the FAI and CNT, Catalonian Independence, and voluntary military service, among other issues.

One important sheet contains two coplas (folk songs) first published in the anarcho-feminist “Mujeres Libres” magazine: “El sambenito” and “Alto la Revolución.” These represent the complexity and despair of the counter-revolutionary movements building at the end of the Civil War.

None of the present examples are recorded in OCLC collections.

$1200

1a Exposició de Cartells [...] Internacionals en Previsió dels Accidents de Treball

(Graphic Design) (Worker Safety) (Expositions) Generalitat de Catalunya, Conselleria de Treball; and Marti Bas, Illus. Calendar commemorating the 1a Exposició de Cartells Nacionals i Internacionals en Previsió dels Accidents de Treball. Barcelona: 1937. 23.5 x 16.6 cm; 52 weekly calendar sheets printed recto, each sheet illustrating a different international worker safety poster with explanations of the dangers represented in each, in Catalan. Sheets loose, neatly removed from their original perforated(?) binding, the final week mounted to a heavier card stock, weeks 43 and 46 with small losses to blind top edge where removed from binding. Orig. color cover present, illus. by Marti Bas, lightly foxed on blank verso, not affecting recto. Together with a second calendar: Generalitat de Catalunya, Conselleria de Treball. [Croada de La Previsio 1937]: [Commemoració de la 1a Exposició de Cartells Nacionals i Internacionals en Previsió dels Accidents de Treball…]. Barcelona: 1937. [Fotolitografia Barguño]. 11.4 x 7.7 cm. [8] pp., single sheet, tri-fold monthly calendar with 14 illus. Both VG+.

Appealing, otherwise unrecorded, artifacts of a graphic design exhibition organized during the Spanish Civil War by the Catalonian Ministry of Labor, probably in conjunction with the UGT (General Workers Union). The weekly calendar surveys 52 dramatic, often frightening, international accident prevention posters (incl. the workplace dangers of alcohol, electrical shocks; eye safety; braking; cranes, ladders, fire, slips and falls, heavy lifting, cables, scaffoldings, scalding, sharp tools, sewing machines, etc.). Examples drawn from safety campaigns in Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and the U.K. (Strange bedfellows given the political realities of many of these countries in January 1937!)

The safety posters themselves were probably the product of union efforts in individual countries, not necessarily by governmental organizations or propaganda offices. They underscore the dangerous and inhumane conditions that many laborers faced twenty years after the creation of the ILO in the Treaty of Versailles (1919). Occupational health and safety policy would not be nationally regulated in most of these countries for another thirty to forty years.

Cover illustration by artist Marti Bas, known for his work on other civil war-era posters and propaganda programs.

We are unable to find records of another copy of the weekly calendar in OCLC or market records, such as they are. The smaller, monthly calendar is known from other examples, but is also not listed in OCLC holdings.

$1750

Alrededor de México: Vista en los carros especiales de La Compañía Limitada de Tranvías Eléctricos

(Mexico) (Tourism) (Railways) Compañía Limitada de Tranvías Eléctricos de Mexico. Alrededor de México: Vista en los carros especiales de La Compañía Limitada de Tranvías Eléctricos de México. Mexico, D.F.: La Compañía, 1907. Oblong 14.7cm, 37, [2], pp.; 13 b/w pls. with captions; stapled brown paper wrappers, a bit thumbed, printed with “Obsequio La Compañía Limitada de Tranvías Eléctricos de Mexico” recto, “Compliments of…” [same] verso. Very Good.

Bilingual, early guide to exploring Mexico City by rail on the special parlor car service of the Mexico Electric Tramway system. These special cars make two trips daily and will be accompanied by “competent” guides to describe the sights. “Every foot of ground covered in these trips is replete with a constantly changing panorama of historical interest, combined with pleasure and romance.” Detailed trip itineraries are listed with schedules. Special cars can also be chartered! Other electric and animal-driven tram lines listed with points of interest for the tourist.

Rare, a single holding listed in OCLC: UC-Berkeley.

$450

Eight Central and South American Tourist Pamphlets

Eight Central and South American Tourist Pamphlets, ca. 1950-1970. Most approx. 23 cm (folded), multi-fold single sheets with varying sizes, up to [24] pp., one stapled [20] pp. + folding map; Spanish except San Carlos Gran Hotel, Guatemala City, in Eng.; color illus., many with maps and or graphs, varying conditions, two with manuscript annotations inside and/or recto, overall about Good-.

Postwar graphic treatment promoting modern tourist experiences in Argentina (2), Brazil (1), Guatemala (1), Mexico (1), and Uruguay (3). Mexico pamphlet promoting a week-long festival of the Sociedad Cubano-Mexicana de Relaciones Culturales (1963). Uruguay pamphlet advertising social and public benefits systems as well as tourism.

$100

16 Cuban Tourist Pamphlets and Handbills

(Cuba) (Tourism) 16 Cuban Tourist Pamphlets and Handbills, ca. 1950-1983. Most approx. 23 cm (folded) multi-fold single sheets with up to [12] pp.; color illus., many with maps, varying conditions, two with manuscript annotations recto, overall about Good.

With an equal number of pre- and post-1959 examples, this small collection tracks the shifts in tourism that occurred in Cuba after the Revolution. Changes in marketing and activities focused on a largely European, rather than American, visitor, introducing a new emphasis on camping and nature (rather than hunting and clubbing). Examples from 1960-1983 published by the Instituto Nacional de la Industria Turística.

Includes a number of pamphlets for the Isla de Pinos/Isla de la Juventud, including two pre-1960 examples featuring the modernist new annex of the Hotel Santa Fe, now gone?

$400

Recuerdos de la Cuba que Dejamos

(Cuba) (Exile) Recuerdos de la Cuba que Dejamos [cover title]. Forest Hills, N.Y. : AZEFA Trading. Co., n.d. [1963? 1966?]. Oblong 23 cm, [24] pp.; bilingual color photobook, reproducing 79 images “in full natural color.” Stapled color wrappers, a bit worn, rubbed at spine.

Book memorializing midcentury Cuba before the Revolution. Spanish and English introductions are not the same, but both invoke a beloved “free” Cuba, the patriotism of Cubans living in exile in the US, and propose a “second liberation” that is close at hand.

Images focus on architectural and urban features with an emphasis on modern development before 1959. Possibly issued twice, or simultaneously, in Miami and New York.

Six OCLC holdings.

$125

Musterbuch 3 Abteilung Hohlglas and Preisliste

(Trade Catalogue - Glass) Werkstätten Richard Süssmuth-Glaskunst. Musterbuch 3 Abteilung Hohlglas. Penzig in Schlesien [Pieńsk]: n.d. [1935]. Oblong 29 cm; [1], 18 b/w pls., reproducing photographs of glass tableware, the first pl. lightly soiled, the rest very good; in stab bound decorative portfolio, edgeworn with small closed tears. Together with: Werkstätten Richard Süssmuth-Glaskunst. Preisliste. Penzig in Schlesien: n.d. [1935]. Oblong 23 cm; [1], 20 pp. dampstain affecting first 2 leaves; stapled half-wrapper, heavily creased, starting near top staple.

Glass artist Richard Süssmuth (1900-1974) studied at Dresdner Akademie für Kunsthandwerk and set up his own workshop in Penzig in Schlesien in 1924. Influenced by Neue Sachlichkeit, Deutsche Werkbund, and Bauhaus, he designed simple, stylized glass tablewares. His workshop was destroyed during WWII and he left Silesia during the mass evacuation and expulsion of ethnic Germans from Polish territories after 1945. He settled in Immenhausen and started a new glassworks; today it is a glass museum.

Süssmuth’s work is included in the collections of The Met, MoMA, Victoria & Albert, Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, etc., and yet no documentation of his workshop’s production prior to the war seems to be recorded in any OCLC institutions. The present example includes pull quotes from international arts reviews praising Süssmuth, including Kunst und Kunstgewerbe, La Revue-Moderne, and The Studio London. He won a Gold Medal at the Milan Triennale of 1954.

$500

Direcções Telefonicas

(Advertising - Socks - Spanish Civil War) Bosch & Baylina. Direcções Telefonicas. [Porto, Portugal]: [1938]. 30 cm. Unused. Decorative hanging telephone directory with color lithographic printing across fourteen heavy index cards mounted to board, the first further reinforced. Lightly abraded at center of design, affecting three leaves.

Lovely directory, each index page with a peppy promotional suggestion for Bosch & Baylina’s socks or expressing support for national industry and economy. The Portuguese factory was owned by Ramon Baylina, a supporter of the fascist Spanish Falange during the Civil War. As the president of Casa de España de Porto, he organized fundraisers for Spanish fascist causes and used his factories to host volunteer workshops to fabricate clothing for Spanish Falange soldiers. Curiously, Baylina also donated socks throughout the war to the Spanish Republican side.

“Calce a meia EGARA e não se arrependerá.”

No Bosch & Baylina materials recorded in OCLC.

$500

Selling Beauty

Helena Rubinstein. Selling Beauty. [New York]: 1941-1942. 3 issues: each 22 cm; 16, 20, and 16 pp.; b/w illustrations from orig. publicity artwork, reproductions of newspaper articles, and photographs; in red pictorial stapled wrappers, a few creases, VG.

Three otherwise unrecorded issues of Rubinstein’s internal sales magazine, introducing new products and pricing, updating ad campaigns, offering prizes for display case design, and distributing sales advice for Rubinstein sales girls. Helena Rubinstein’s marketing savvy is widely acknowledged, but we find no reference to these point-of-sale training manuals for selling during the war. “Make Beauty a Patriotic Duty!”

One full color reproduction of a Vogue ad laid in.

$145

The Secrets of Beauty

Helena Rubinstein. The Secrets of Beauty [cover title]. Paris; London; New York: Np, nd. (ca. 1927). Oblong 12.5 cm; 40 pp.; three b/w illustrations: one of Mme. Rubinstein and 2 of her NYC salons; in stapled cream and gold pictorial wrappers, rubbed, small area of loss to color on rear wrapper, top forecorner creased.

Rare descriptive trade catalogue for Helena Rubinstein’s Valaze line, with images of two of her NYC salons before they were remodeled and relocated in 1928. Numerous objects from her African, American, and Oceanic art collections are visible. A price index and table of contents at the end. The business address and product line lead us to suggest a date of 1927 with some confidence.

Rubinstein was a Jewish refugee who became one of the world’s richest women through her pioneering work in cosmetics and marketing.

Not recorded in OCLC.

SOLD

Typescript Letter (Jacob Lawrence)

(Lawrence, Jacob) Artist’s Committee for Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Two-Page Typescript Letter. New York: 1963. Stapled, 8-½ x 11 in.; bottom corners torn away. Fair.

Jacob Lawrence was the Chairman of the artist’s fundraising committee for the iconic civil rights organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Here is a form letter from Lawrence to other artists on behalf of SNCC’s artist committee, describing a forthcoming exhibition and sale in support of the SNCC’s southern voter registration drive. “Artists, too, yearn for an end to racial injustice and the birth of equality for all men. Inspired by the students, we pledge ourselves to use our art to help guarantee support for this vital effort in which we deeply believe and upon which all our futures hinge.”

Scarce surviving documentation of Lawrence’s involvement with the committee in 1963, one other related letter held at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art in the Philip Evergood papers.

$50

Cyklonette

(Trade Catalogue - Automobiles) Cyklon Maschinenfabrik LMD. Cyklonette [cover title]. Lista de Precios [half-title]. [Berlin]: 1910. Oblong 8vo (23.5 cm), 31 pp.; b/w illustrations throughout; color stapled pictorial wrappers, small closed puncture affecting entire text block and wrappers, two small tape repairs to verso of front wrap.

Rare Cyklonette tricycle catalogue, published for the Spanish market, including family and commercial models. Popular in Europe, the three-wheelers never caught on in the United States. Cyklon-Maschinenfabrik stuck with the design for almost twenty years, much longer than other carmakers, and they were used by the German and Polish Armies during WWI.

Only a single example of Cykon promotional materials is located in OCLC records, in Sweden.

$275

El Arte del Embellecimiento

(Trade Catalogue - Beauty) Tangee. El Arte del Embellecimiento [cover title]. [New York]: [George Luft], 1929. Oblong (10 cm), [16] pp.; profusely illustrated in color; stapled self-wrappers, very good.

American pharmacist George Luft built Tangee cosmetics and its “color-changing” lipstick formula into one of the most popular brands in the US before WWII. It excelled with colorful, modern branding and testimonials from many theater and film stars of the day (here Anita Page, Sue Carol, Ann Pennington, et al.). The present pamphlet designed for the Spanish market.

Scarce, no examples of Tangee trade materials are recorded in OCLC.

$250

1ere Communion 1933

(Fashion) Printemps. 1ere Communion 1933. [Paris]: Herbert, 1933. Tall 8vo (23 cm), [16] pp.; mostly illustrations, in stapled pictorial wraps. WITH: Au Bon Marché. Première Communion. [Paris]: Desfossés, 1936. Oblong 8vo (19 cm), [24] pp.; illustrated in stapled color wraps, with laid in advertisement for printed communion souvenirs.

Two leading Parisian department stores advertise their photographic studios and large lines of communion clothes and accessories, mostly for girls.

$75

La Dattilografa: Canzone a ballo

(Women; Typists) (Operetta) Rocchi-Burlamacchi, G. La Dattilografa: Canzone a ballo. Florence: Mignani, 1939 [XVII].

Sheet music, 27 x 18.2 cm, [4] pp.; pictorial color self-wrapper. Cover sl. toned, very good.

A bit of social satire from fascist Italy in this suggestive song (for dancing!) about typists and their machines.

Not found in OCLC.

SOLD

Collection of National Shortwave Radio Station QSL Cards

(Graphic Design) (International Typographic Style) (Radio) Collection of National Shortwave Radio Station QSL Cards, 1950-1965.

A broad collection of state-sponsored graphic design spanning the golden-age of post-WWII advertising. The postcards incorporate elements of international typographic style and consumer advertising with local and national iconography. Together the collection demonstrates the adaptability and diffusion of mid-century modern design, and its importance to the progress of postwar international trade.

QSL cards can acknowledge either two-way radio communications or one-way radio transmissions; most of those in the present group acknowledge a reception report sent by the collection’s compiler, an amateur radio operator living in Lockport, NY.

Sent and traded since at least the 1920s, QSL postcards have developed into an expressive format for individual operators and larger stations. The current group is distinctive because it focuses on national radio stations; their designs reflect elements of state-level propaganda programs and design. Represented nations include: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belgian Congo, Brazil, Bulgaria, Republic of Congo, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Israel, Italy, India, Jamaica, Japan, Lebanon, Monte Carlo, Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Senegal, South Africa, Switzerland, Tahiti, and Turkey. A few cities or territories are also included: Antilles, Brazzaville, Dakar, Guadalupe, Tangier, Prague (CSSR)

74 postcards, most around 15 x 10.5 cm, two much larger, all in color except six b/w real photo postcards and two with orig. photographic prints tipped in. Most with text in at least two languages (country of origin and English). Housed in plastic sleeves. Together with a folder including another 20+ examples and a small group of correspondence with national radio stations (1950-1960) for additional context.

$950

“Femme éternellement belle”...

(Pochoir) (Perfume) (Orientalism) Mary Blanc.“Femme éternellement belle”... [Paris: Les Papeterie Glandières, ca. 192-.] 16 x 11 cm., [8] pp.; descriptive text and price list of beauty products influenced by “Hindu” recipes and secrets passed from Marco Polo to the Italian Renaissance and to France; wrappers with color pochoir print on front cover, slight discoloration on blank edge of cover otherwise very good.

Attractive pochoir design reminiscent of Léon Bakst’s orientalist costume designs for the Ballet Russes. The small printing house, Les Papeterie Glandières, had a specialty in pochoir printing.

Not located in OCLC.

$95

Twenty-One Egyptian and Syrian Tourist Guides, Pamphlets, and Ephemera

​(Middle East) (Tourism) Sammelband of Twenty-One Egyptian and Syrian Tourist Guides, Pamphlets, and Ephemera, ca. 1958. 24.5 cm. Materials primarily printed in Cairo and Damascus, a few from Madrid, Brussels, et al. Most illustrated in color, with texts in Arabic, English, French, German, and Spanish. Various sizes with orig. wrappers bound in red cloth with gilt title to spine, boards rubbed and bumped, endpapers brittle and worn. Two guides with losses or closed tears, rest good.

In addition to guides to the obvious touristic destinations, many items promoting modern life and industry in the Middle East, including a copy of Abdel Nasser’s Philosophy of the Revolution, and a 40 pp. promotional booklet for the Sadd-El-Aali dam.

$300

Group of Black LGBTQ+ Club Ephemera, San Francisco

Group of Black LGBTQ+ Club Ephemera, San Francisco, ca. 1970-1973. Seven broadsides and handbills: four 215 x 280 mm, two half-sheet handbills approx. 215 x 115 mm, one smaller, approx. 77 x 109 mm.; four black and white, three on colored papers, one broadside pierced at corners from orig. staples, else VG+.

Scarce documentation of social spaces for transgender people of color in the 1970s. Bo Jangles, a.k.a. Bojangles, was a black-owned club at Larkin and Ellis in “Polk Gulch,” the center of San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ bar scene in the 1960s and 1970s. It is described by trans activist Red Jordan Arobateau in his semi-autobiographical novel “Autumn Changes,” as an “all black [Soul] club full of sissies, dikes, studs and a few straight customers. Transsexual queens black as Cleopatra reign in full face, form & fashion. And small drag butches congregate; a few are ex prison inmates; and two of the most successful black lesbian pimps come down with their string of ladies for a night out on the town.” Weekly “taped” soul nights are advertised here along with live latin fusion music from bands Christian Black and Black Magic.

In the mid-1970s Bojangles relocated to the Tenderloin(?), where it continued to cater to a “black and brown queer crowd.”

$550

Agro: La Mejor Revista del Campo. Año I, No. 5.

Agro: La Mejor Revista del Campo. Año I, No. 5. (June 1955). Mexico, D.F.: Imp. Cal-Yu-Mex. 4to, 30 pp., pictorial illus. wrapper, chipped with small closed tears. Toned.

One issue of a government sponsored(?) agricultural serial distributed for free to “campesinos, agricultores, miembros de las Sociedades de Crédito Ejidal.” Sections on farming, labor organizing, health, and religion.

OCLC listed only at BNM (partial).

$50

Mitos y Leyendas de Teotihuacan [...]

[Dominguez, Francisco; Gonzalez, Carlos; and Efren Orozco Rosales] Departamento del Distrito Federal [México], Dirección General de Acción Cívica. Mitos y Leyendas de Teotihuacan. Creación del Quinto Sol; Sacrificio Gladiatorio: Escenificaciones Musicadas // Myths and Legends of Teotihuacan. Creation of the Fifth Sun; Gladiatory Sacrifices: Musically Arranged Scenes. Mexico, D.F.:, Imp. “Cosmos”, 1935. Tabloid, 29 pp.; program with illus. head- and tail-pieces, mostly repeating from Spanish to English sections, and map; stapled stiff card wrapper, with color illus. recto and verso. Damage to wrapper at lower forecorner, causing small area of loss through the text block (not affecting text or images). Rear wrapper chipped with earlier tape repair. Only fair.

Souvenir program for a musical event held at the Teotihuacan archeological zone for the international Lion’s Club convention in 1935 (the first time the annual convention was held in a non-English speaking country). Includes a map of the zone indicating where the performance took place and how visits were directed. More than 6,000 members attended the convention, where they were greeted by President Cárdenas.

$50

Para las Madres ...

(Maternal Health and Child Care) (Eugenics) Departamento de Salubridad, México. Para las Madres …. México, D.F.: D.A.P.P., 1939. 8vo, 64 pp.; 8 b/w pls., in pictorial stapled wrappers, rubbed and sunned. Good.

Propagandistic public health booklet promoting the connection between healthful, clean mothers and children and a strong society and nation. Including a section on the “certificado pre-nupcial,” a required premarital medical exam that was a part of the post-Revolutionary regulation of the national (“la gran familia mexicana’‘) family. The Mexican Eugenics Society was actively involved in the creation and implementation of these laws. Focusing on hygiene and care before marriage, during pregnancy, birth, and infancy, with sections on STDS, labor, early schooling, and the prevention of common infant diseases.

$95

Five Programs from the Inaugural Season of Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires: Amlet, Aurora; et al.

(Opera) (Art Nouveau) Five Programs from the Inaugural Season of Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires: Amlet; Aurora; Don Giovanni; Otello; and Pagliacci / Tristano e Isotta. [Buenos Aires, Argentina]: [Imprenta Tragant], [1908]. Trimmed sizes vary slightly, each approx. 26.5 x 14.3 cm, 23 pp.; illus. throughout from b/w photos of conductors, singers, and composers, and advertisements, some toning throughout, a few small closed tears or chipping, Otello with more substantial wear and losses; stapled color pictorial wrappers illus. by “Benesch,” four with small ink inscriptions on cover identifying the opera. Aurora staples removed.

The original Teatro Colón was closed in 1888 to make way for a modern national opera. The new building took twenty years to complete, and it opened in May, 1908, with a performance of Aida. The highlight of the inaugural season was the world premiere of Hector Panizza’s Aurora, the first “Argentinian” opera, commissioned by the theater. Beloved by Buenos Aires’s audiences, the tenor aria “Alta en el cielo” became the hymn for the Argentine national flag. The present group includes the program for this premiere, conducted by Panizza. It also includes a program for Pagliacci; the featured soprano, Emilia Reussi, was the first Argentine woman to sing at the Colón.

The programs are each printed in 2-4 colors. They include plot synopsis and Art Nouveau advertisements for liquors, interior furnishings, fashions, soaps, perfumes, opera glasses, pianos, Pathé records and phonographs, and modern appliances, including an early domestic vacuum.

Not recorded in OCLC.

$1500

Venus: Las Estrellas en Exclusiva! Nos. 73, 75-77, 79-82, 84-85, 88, 91-92, 95-104.

(Cinema) (Mexploitation) (Prensa Rojo) Samayoa Lizárraga, Carlos, Ed. Venus: Las Estrellas en Exclusiva! Nos. 73, 75-77, 79-82, 84-85, 88, 91-92, 95-104. México: D.F.: [Publicaciones Llergo], 1966. Small folio, 23 issues, each 31 pp., bound with orig. illustrated wrappers in contemporary cloth with orig. covers. Newsprint fragile and lightly toned, some minor chipping, creases.

A broken but substantial run of an otherwise unrecorded chiefly photographic tabloid featuring the major and minor actresses of Mexican cinema. Each issue with full-page centerfolds. The editor, Carlos Samayoa founded the iconic tabloid weekly Alarma! in 1963. As the original prensa rojo, Alarma! revolutionized the Mexican popular press and Samayoa (together with right wing publisher Regino Hernandez Llegro) led the era-defining transition to sensationalist journalism.

Venus follows Samayoa’s successful graphic formula at Alarma!, with a skillful combination of photography, eye-catching headlines, and gossipy industry columns. Issues are dedicated to well-regarded actresses and singers of the 1960s including Lilia Prado, Maria Victoria, Angélica María, Ana Bertha Lepe, Sonia Infante, Ana Martín Yolanda Montes (Tongolele), and Gina Romand. Retrospectively Venus documents a generation of women whose work on Mexploitation films has largely been forgotten. These include Mary Esquivel, Rossy Mendoza, Mayte Carol, Angelita Castany, Grace Polit, Marga Lopez, Ana María Fernández Pomar, Elsa Cárdenas, Eva Norvind, Jeanine Acosta, Fanny Cano, Maria Fuensanta, Malu Reyes, Vianey Lárraga, Olga Guillot, et al.

Articles written under pseudonyms report on social issues of the 1960s, including “skirts vs. pants,” and actresses exploited in border towns of Cd. Juarez and Tijuana by Northamerican tourists. Privilege given to actresses of Mexican origin, frequent accusations of malinchismo to those descriminating against Mexican beauties.

$900

Two programs celebrating the inauguration of Mexico’s Supreme Court buildings in 1904 and 1964

(Architecture) (Law) Santacruz y Olivier. Inauguración del Ala Poniente del Palacio de Justicia Civil [cover title]. [Mexico, D.F.]: Tip. de la Oficina Impresora del Timbre, 1904. Small folio, 36 pp.; 18 full page b/w reproductions of photographs and elevations with captions, texts facing, first leaf chipped with small losses, closed tear to fore-edge affecting all leaves, repaired with tape recto. Decorative wrapper, orig. stab bound, stained and rubbed, in recent protective mylar sleeve. Together with: Carvajal Herrera, Fernando, Ed. Palacio de Justicia del Distrito Federal Ad Perpetuam Rei Memoriam. Mexico, D.F.: Imprenta Ayuntamiento, 1964. 4to, 131 pp.; first 60 pp. a history of the courts and their organization, Mexican legal code, and the orig. courthouses on calle Donceles, the remainder a profusely illus. account of the new building by Juan Sordo Madaleno and Assoc., its construction and inauguration, some in color. Cloth, gilt title on front board. Edition of 1000.

The first a large, privately printed program celebrating the inauguration of the new national and federal district courthouses on calle Cordobanes (now Donceles). Produced by the engineers who directed the renovation of the buildings, the large plates are accompanied by text detailing the contracts, costs, and results of the work. The government requested the renovation to bring a “more adequate character to the important” offices whose “gloomy appearances” made a “poor impression on foreigners.” Approved in 1900, the work was not completed until 1904 due to engineering challenges discussed here at length. The physical separation of the federal and district courts was accompanied by their legal separation.

The buildings on Donceles remained the primary courts in Mexico City until the subject of the second volume, the new Palacio de Justicia del Distrito Federal, was completed in 1964. This edition was produced to commemorate Juan Sordo Madaleno’s modernist design, whose streamlined spatial organization was intended to reflect a similar rationalization of Mexico’s federal legal code. Exemplar of Latin American modernism as both a corporatist and nationalist aesthetic.

Both quite scarce, OCLC finding only one holding apiece, the former at UT-Austin, the latter at LA Law Library.

$550

Arquitectura de la Ciudad de México: Guía

International Union of Architects. World Congress; Trueblood, Beatrice. Arquitectura de la Ciudad de México: Guía / Architectura [sic] du Mexico: Guide / Mexico City Arquitecture [sic]: Guide. México, D.F.: [International Union of Architects], [1978]. Tall 8vo, 199 pp.; b/w illus. of 74 sites, with 11 folding maps locating each building, pp. 167-173 misbound. In pictorial wraps, with 1 in. loss at spine, adhesive failing, one signature semi-detached. Fair only. Previous owner inscription on half-title.

Fascinating and thorough guide to the historical and modern architecture of Mexico City, prepared for the IUA’s 1978 World Congress. Many unexpected buildings featured among the more obvious highlights. All text given in Spanish, French, and English. Design by Beatrice Trueblood, co-designer of the ‘68 Olympiad graphics.

Scarce, OCLC finds four copies in the Americas: Harvard, Dumbarton Oaks, Library of Congress, Pratt.

$175

Ultra: Wrestling Gals, Bizarre Fads, Exotic Fashions. Vol. 1, No. 3.

[Zucker, Hal]. Zucca, H. Ultra: Wrestling Gals, Bizarre Fads, Exotic Fashions. Vol. 1, No. 3. New York, NY: Ultra Sports Co., 1958. 8-¼ x 5-½ in., 61, [3] pp.; b/w illus. from artwork by Gene Bilbrew and Eric Stanton among many others, uncredited; in orig. color stapled wrappers, with remnants of red privacy tape at edges and a handwritten price in upper corner, small loss to bottom of rear wrap.

One of four total numbers of this domination and sports fetish digest. Single OCLC holding at Yale, of the first issue.

$95

Les Maladies Sans Nom. Leur Guréison Faciles et Radicale Conseils aux Medales Désespérés.

(Sexual Health) Richard, Charles-Antoin. Les Maladies Sans Nom. Leur Guréison Faciles et Radicale Conseils aux Medales Désespérés. Paris: E. Dentu, [1877]. 6-1/2 x 4-1/2 in., 32 pp.; pink stapled wrappers, light wear.

Richard gives case histories of many diseases, some sexual, healed with either “gouttes régératices” made by Dr. Samuel Thompson or “Granules d’Arséniate” by Dr. Addison. Further research warranted into connection to other arsenic-based treatments for venereal disease.

Parisian holdings cite 46 pages [sic?], North American holdings only at Rochester.

$125

(Sexual Health) Aux Victimes de L’Amour

(Sexual Health) Bertray, A. Aux Victimes de L’Amour by Doctor Bertray Professor ... of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris . Paris: [Dupont], nd [ca. 1900]. 4-3/4 x 3-1/8 in., 8 pp.; stapled self-wraps, 1 mm closed tear front wrap fore-edge, else very good. Dr. Bertray will “relieve and heal what he bonhomie called the little miseries of Parisians.” A related edition held at BNF only, otherwise unrecorded.

$ 45

(Sexual Health) (Soldiers) Keeping Fit to Fight; Sex Hygiene and Venereal Disease

(Sexual Health) (Soldiers) (WWI) (WWII) War Department and American Social Hygiene Association. Keeping Fit to Fight. [New York?], n.d. [1918?]. 16 pp.; with medical illus.; ex-library, withdrawn stamp on front wrap. Together with: War Department. Sex Hygiene and Venereal Disease. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1942. Small oblong pamphlet, 8 pp.; tape at spine, front wrap heavily marked in contemporary pen. “A copy will be furnished to each recruit upon enlistment.”

Two pamphlets written for newly enlisted soldiers in both World Wars, describing sex and venereal disease in American vernacular. Sections on wet dreams, masturbation, and including contemporary slang, e.g. “Lues” for syphilis.

$50

(Sexual Health) (Government) Six Booklets, Reports, and Pamphlets

(Sexual Health) (Government) United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board, Washington, D.C. Six Booklets, Reports, and Pamphlets. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1920. All 8vo, varying from 11-272 pp.; one with folding maps and organizational chart; all in paper wraps with stab holes from previous binding, one front wrap separated, else good.

Scarce documentation of the federal effort to coordinate research and prevention against social disease, within the armed forces and through federal funding to the States. Together a rich document of federal operations and organization in relation to private and state-funded efforts. Including “a study of the records of six thousand delinquent women …” Titles all from 1920, including:

Scientific Researches (January 1920); Program of Protective Social Measures Showing a Type of Federal aid available to States in connection with Venereal Disease Control (February 1920); Scientific Researches: Second Announcement. Section I, Section II (April 1920); Manual for the Various Agents of the United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board with appendices containing the federal law creating the Board, amendments thereto, regulations regarding funds administered by this Board, financial statements, a study of the records of six thousand delinquent women [...]; and Report of the United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1920.

Our research indicates most with only scattered US institutional physical holdings, despite labyrinthine OCLC records indicating otherwise.

$250

(Sexual Health) (Education) Seven Booklets and Pamphlets

(Sexual Health) (Education) (New York) New York Social Hygiene Society; American Social Hygiene Association. Seven Booklets and Pamphlets, 1914-1924. 8vo, each 4-171 pp., most approx. 12 pp.; two with b/w illus. throughout, in various printed wrappers, most ex-library with accession stamps and pencil shelf labels. Overall Good.

Based in New York, the founders of the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA) included reformers and philanthropists such as Jane Addams and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. At least through the early 1920s ASHA shared an address with the New York Social Hygiene Society, formerly the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, the earliest of the American “voluntary social hygiene associations,” and a member of ASHA. The New York Society and ASHA cooperated with medical organizations, law enforcement, and social welfare groups to develop public information campaigns: mainly in the form of lectures, pamphlets, and journals.

This group includes two well-illustrated examples: Frank J. Osborne. A Health Exhibit for Men. New York, NY: New York Social Hygiene Society, 1917, with a few closed tears; and The New York Social Hygiene Society, Inc., 1916-1917 [title from cover]. New York, NY. Both booklets document public exhibits and lectures given in the state of New York.

Also: American Social Hygiene Association. First Annual Report, 1913-1914. New York, NY: The American Society Hygiene Association, 1914. Frank J. Osborne. The Control of Venereal Disease from the Public Health Standpoint. New York, NY: The New York Social Hygiene Society, 1917. Will Irwin. Conquering an Old Enemy. New York, NY: The American Society Hygiene Association, 1920. Publications of the American Social Hygiene Association, 1918. Bigelow, Maurice. The Established Points in Social Hygiene Education. New York, NY: American Social Hygiene Association, 1924.

$200

(Sexual Health) (Education) Circular Nos. 2-4

(Sexual Health) (Education) (Illinois) Chicago Society of Social Hygiene. Circular No. 2. Self-Protection: Sexual Hygiene For Young Men; Circular No. 3. Family Protection: For the Protection of Wives and Children from Venereal Contamination; Circular No. 4. Community Protection: Education against Venereal Disease a Need of the State. Chicago, IL: Chicago Society of Social Hygiene, n.d. [ca. 1911-1920]. 8vo, each pamphlet [4] pp.; no. 2 somewhat toned, else good.

Public health pamphlets issued by the Chicago member organization of the American Social Hygiene Association. Scarce in the market and institutionally, OCLC seemingly records less than 5 physical copies of each circular, possibly fewer?

$100

(Sexual Health) (Education) (Illinois) Manpower

(Sexual Health) (Education) (Illinois) Public Health Service, United States. Manpower. Venereal Disease Pamphlet No. 6. [Springfield IL?]: Social Hygiene Press; State Department of Public Health, Illinois, n.d. [ca. 1919]. 16 pp. pamphlet, stapled pictorial color wrapper, 1mm closed tear, recto, else very good.

“Sex—uncontrolled is disaster and wreck. Sex in control for men means Power.” Original emphasis.

A few pamphlets from this series held at Harvard and Oberlin, this one seemingly unrecorded in OCLC.

$45

(Sexual Health) (Education) (California) A Plain Explanation of the Greatest Social Evil

(Sexual Health) (Education) (California) Howard, Wm. Lee. A Plain Explanation of the Greatest Social Evil. San Francisco, CA: Purity Educational League of North America, 1910; and California Social Hygiene Society. 16 pp.; stapled printed wraps, ex-library with stamps and shelf-marks. Circular No. 8: The Need for Education in Sex Hygiene. San Francisco, CA: n.d. [ca. 1913]. 9 pp.; stapled self-wrapper, very good.

Early sex hygiene pamphlets. Although its name suggests otherwise, the Purity Educational League of North America was committed to a “wholesome discussion of sex life” featuring “pure and healthful knowledge,” in contrast to the “silence and secrecy” of past policy. “By secrecy we encourage mental perversion.” Sex education is patriotic.

$30

(Sex Work) Group of Sex Work Ephemera from Brazil, England, and the US

(Sex Work) Group of Sex Work Ephemera from Brazil, England, and the US, 1975-2001.

Comprised of: Hustlers’ Rights Project, We Are the Target [San Francisco, CA: 1975], (10) stapled fliers from the Bay Area Gay Liberation organizing against antiprositution activities, verso printed with mailing list? of California organizations; Coyote and Project AWARE, Sex in the Age of Aids: A forum for women who work in the sex industry, [San Francisco, CA: 1985], small pink flier, printed recto and verso, corner with loss, advertising AIDS antibody testing and a public panel conversation; King’s Cross Women’s Centre, Centrepiece 5: The Hooker & The Beak, London, 1987; W.H.I.S.P.E.R.: Women Hurt in Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt, Vol. I, No. 3 (Winter 1986-87) and Vol. II, No. 1 (Spring 1987), New York: NY. Together with Maria José Bacelar Guimarães, “Empresário procura mulher jovem, morena, bonita, liberal…”: Explorando os anúncios de estrangeiros, Salvador, Brasil: Centro Humanitário de Apoio à Mulher, 2002, 106 pp. with bibliography.

$150

(Sex Education) (Antisemitism) Collection of Anti-Sex Education and Moral Decency Literature

(Sex Education) (Christian) (Antisemitism) Collection of Anti-Sex Education and Moral Decency Literature, 1956-1970.

Comprising 11 booklets and pamphlets from both Christian and conservative morality campaigns, including Christian Crusade, The John Birch Society, The Movement to Restore Decency (MOTOREDE), and the National Organization for Decent Literature. Most examples are argued from Christian perspectives, some with explicit racist, sexist, anticommunist, and antisemitic content corresponding to far-right panic over the cultural impact of school integration and sexuality education. Frequent references to counterculture and the “sexual indoctrination” espoused by the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS; founded by Dr. Mary Calderone, medical director for Planned Parenthood Federation of America). Some illustrated. Scattered holdings in OCLC, some unrecorded. Overall condition very good.

$400

In chronological order: Publications Disapproved for Youth by the National Organization for Decent Literature: June 1956. Chicago, IL: NODL, 1956. [12] pp. pamphlet with book list by genre; 20th Century Reformation Hour. The Shame of the National Council of Churches … Collingswood, NJ: [1961]. 7 pp. illus. pamphlet; The problem of teen-age purity: The teachings of Pope Pius XII. New Rochelle, NY: Salesiana Publishers and Distributors, [1961]; Cross, John. A Fearful Crime to Offend God in Order to Please Men. Kenosha: WI: Cross Publications, 1961. 32 pp. stapled booklet; How the ‘Levelers’ Are Destroying America. N.p., n.d. [ca. 1968]. [4] pp. pamphlet; Sex Education in the Schools: Some Thoughts from Eminent Doctors and From MOTOREDE. Belmont, MA: MOTOREDE, n.d. [ca. 1969]. [4] pp. pamphlet; Manion Forum: Weekly Broadcast No. 791. South Bend, IN: 1969. [4] pp. newsletter; Hargis, Billy James. Sex Replaces Prayer in Public Schools. [Christian Crusade], 1969. [4] pp. newsletter; The Fact Finder. Must Our Schools Teach our Children Sex without Morality? Phoenix, AZ: 1969. [8] pp. pamphlet, illus.; American Education Lobby. Sex Education: Assault on American Youth. Washington, D.C.: American Education Lobby, n.d. [ca. 1969]. [4] pp. folio newsletter; Drake, Dr. Gordon V. SIECUS: Corrupter of Youth. Tulsa, OK: Christian Crusade, 1969. 63 pp. stapled booklet with bibliography; Hargis, Billy James. Sex Revolution in the United States. Tulsa, OK: Christian Crusade, 1970. First Edition. 53 pp. booklet, some b/w illus.

(Sexual Health) (Prostitution) (California) Transactions of the Commonwealth Club of California ...

(Sexual Health) (Prostitution) (California) Commonwealth Club of California. Transactions of the Commonwealth Club of California. Vol. VI, No. 1: The Red Plague (May 1911) and Vol. VIII, No. 7 (August 1913): The Red Plague—Second Report. San Francisco, CA: Commonwealth Club, 1911; 1913. 2 vols., 8vo, 83; [99] pp.; in printed wrappers, tight, sunned at edges, vol. VI spine just starting to split at foot. Good.

The first issue documents the groundbreaking proceedings of a “sane, healthful” public discussion of sex hygiene in prostitution to undo a “conspiracy of silence” on this means of spreading venereal disease. Following this first conference, the Club’s committee made recommendations to the state Board of Health, but hesitated on one controversial recommendation regarding whether or not “registration and compulsory examination” of prostitutes could result in diminished venereal disease. The second issue provides a number of opinionated analyses of the results of such a program from 1911-1912 at a municipal clinic in San Francisco, the only one of its kind in the US. These later reports offer conflicting opinions on state-sanctioned health care for prostitutes and its effects on the health of the general population, including the innocent women and children who are victims of men’s immorality. Impassioned arguments for and against legalized prostitution.

The only physical holdings definitively recorded in OCLC outside of California are at Harvard Law.

$125

(Dating) (Internet - Social Aspects) Collection of 13 Zines, 1999-2014

(Dating) (Internet - Social Aspects) Collection of 13 Zines, 1999-2014?.

Overall offering a broad perspective of contemporary dating culture, self-presentation, and sexuality. Most with fewer than 2 OCLC holdings, many others unrecorded.

Most 8-½ x 5-½ in., with illus. stapled wrappers, two single vol. octavo fold format, one sewn, most 8-40 pp.; profusely illustrated zines with anecdotes on internet dating including apps, Craigslist, social media, and sexual encounters. A few overtly feminist and/or queer, many compiling real classifieds. One mostly in haiku. Very Good.

Includes: B&D Press, Naked on the 6 Train: M4M, n.d.; Lizz Carlton and Mollie Underwood, Eds., Garbage Never Looked So Good, Irrelevant Press, n.d.; Alexandra Montclair, Classified Casanova, n.d.; Nicky Rodriguez, How (Not) to get a woman, n.d., and How (Not) to get a woman, Vol. 2, n.d.; Aaron Mew, Aaron’s Guide to Getting Girls, n.d. [California? ca. 1999?], Up Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 5: Modern Dating, St. Paul, MN: 2000; Awkward Ladies Club, Never date dudes from the internet: responses to a Craigslist ad, 2005; Andy Yates, Celebrity Blind Date! Starring Mel Gibson & Sarah Palin, 2010; Carrie Colpitts, My aim is true #6: You are not alone, [Chicago, IL]: n.d. [2011?]; Mission Mini Comix, Quincy’s Terrible, Horrible, Worst-ever Blind Date, San Francisco, CA: [2011]; Teppei Ando, I miss you already, Stranger - m4w - 52 …, [2012?]; Red Velvet, Things men have told me about my body, [2014]; Red Velvet and How are Your Insides, Have you had sex with this person, [2014].

$350

(Dating) (Internet) A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek.

(Dating) (Internet - Culture) Inouye, Omi M. A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek. [London]: 2007. 8vo, 168 pp.; in pictorial wrapper, scratched and worn.

Guide with graphs, case studies, fieldwork reports, and exercises designed to help the “females identify geeks using a helpful Geek Test, categorize them into distinct subclasses, understand and cope with their foibles, and if necessary, acclimatize to their culture.” “[D]iscover how to plot revenge, diagnose common geek ailments, and find the perfect geek gift.”

Highly specific moment in the evolution of 2000s geek culture. OCLC: 2 North American holdings.

$60

(Dating) (Asian-American) Donahue Transcript 02244

(Dating) (Asian-American) Donahue, Phil. Donahue Transcript 02244. Cincinnati, OH: Multimedia Entertainment, Inc., 1984. 8vo, 23 pp.; stapled show transcript regarding Asian women and Asian mail-order bride services, with discussion of stereotypes, sexuality, religion.

A few scattered holdings of Donahue transcripts exist in OCLC, not of this show.

$200

(Courtship) (Theater) How to Choose a Wife: Ten Tips for Men Who are Threatened with Matrimony

(Courtship) (Theatre) (Women) [Fairfax, Marian]; [The Dorner Players]. How to Choose a Wife: Ten Tips for Men Who are Threatened with Matrimony. [Elmira, NY], n.d. [ca. 1913-1914]. Small handbill promoting a staging of Fairfax’s play, “The Talker,” in Elmira, New York, by a traveling actor’s troupe. Satirical text presumably by Fairfax.

Ephemera related to the screenwriter and playwright Marian Fairfax’s early Broadway hit, “The Talker” (1912). Fairfax broke ground for women on stage and in Hollywood, writing a number of theatrical hits and silent films. She formed her own Hollywood production company in 1921.

$50

(Courtship) (Christian) How to pick a wife [...]

(Courtship) (Christian) Orr, William. How to pick a wife for Christian fellows. Wheaton, IL: Scripture Press, 1953. 8vo, 32 pp.; color stapled wrapper, small area of discoloration on front wrap. Together with Lovasik, Lawrence. Clean love in courtship. St. Paul, MN: Fathers Rumble & Carty, Radio Replies Press, n.d. [ca. 1948]. 8vo, 73 pp.; pictorial stapled wrapper, lightly rubbed.

Advice for Protestants (Orr) and Catholics (Lovasik) looking for love, addressing both spiritual and practical questions, e.g. Where to Look for Her, How to Look for Her, Self-Denial, Practical Tips for Dates, and the pitfalls of Parked Cars and Dangerous Reading.

OCLC finds no North American holdings for Orr, a few for Lovasik.

$55

(Antiprostitution) Report and recommendations of the Wisconsin Legislative Committee [...]

(Antiprostitution) Wisconsin Vice Committee. Report and recommendations of the Wisconsin Legislative Committee to Investigate the White Slave Traffic and Kindred Subjects. Madison, WI: The Committee, 1914. 8vo, 246 pp.; printed wrapper, splitting at foot, ex-library with stamps and pencil shelf-mark.

$25

(Sexual Health) (Pennsylvania) Four Reports on Vice and Social Diseases

(Sexual Health) (Pennsylvania) (Antiprostitution) Four reports on vice and social diseases, 1911-1913.

Together revealing the competing contemporary methodologies for controlling disease and vice: 1) scientific/medical and 2) moral/legal. Philadelphia’s report includes police reports and detailed arrest notes, as well as an appendix on sex hygiene. The Pittsburgh commission’s “constructive program” recommends sterilization and censorship and includes an extremely harsh analysis of women in prostitution, “lured by the love of luxury and idleness [rather] than driven by the pangs of penury.” Includes a wage survey of prostitutes in the city.

*The Vice Commission of Philadelphia: a report on existing conditions with recommendations to the Honorable Rudolph Blankenburg, Mayor of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, PA: The Vice Commission of Philadelphia, 1913. 8vo, 163 pp.; in brown printed wrapper, lower forecorner damaged throughout textblock, not affecting text. Fair.

*Morals Efficiency Commission. Report and recommendations of Morals efficiency commission. Pittsburgh, PA: N.p., 1913. 8vo, 43 pp.; stapled gray printed wrapper, sunned, damaged forecorner affects all pages, not affecting legibility. Fair.

*Wilson, Robert. The Eradication of the Social Diseases in Large Cities. Offprint from Transactions of the Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography, 1912. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1912. 8vo, 12 pp.; stapled printed wrapper, center fold and darkened.

*Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Social Disease. Report and Prospectus, 1911. [Philadelphia, PA]: N.p., 1911. Small 8vo, [16] pp.; printed self-wrapper, subscription card laid in, small closed tears at fore edge. Good.

$75

(Sexual Health) (Libraries) Two letters soliciting librarians’ help fighting venereal disease

(Sexual Health) (Librarians) Two letters expressing support for librarians’ help fighting venereal disease. Comprising: Office of the Surgeon General, US Public Health Service, 1918. Letter from Surgeon General Rupert Blue to Librarians of the United States, October 3, 1918. Single sheet, typed, with Blue’s duplicated signature, lower right hand corner folded, two creases from original mailing. Together with: American Library Association. Letter from Secretary George Utley to Librarians, October 3, 1918. Single sheet, typed, with Utley’s duplicated signature, creased, upper corner folded.

The first letter requests support of librarians in the civic fight against venereal disease. The Surgeon General’s office will be preparing “an accredited list of books of instruction [for young men and women]” to be distributed in libraries “in such a way that their interest will be aroused.” The second, from the American Library Association, expresses approval of the Surgeon General’s plan to ask librarians to aid their enterprise in the “judicious distribution of good books.”

Together with a TLS from the American Social Hygiene Association to a library in Maine requesting information on what social hygiene reading is available at their location.

$60

(Sexual Health) (Quackery) Letter promoting a new treatment for syphilis

(Sexual Health) (Quackery) (Oklahoma). [Cosden Oil & Gas Company?]. Letter promoting a new treatment for syphilis, October 26, 1918. TLS, on a single sheet of Cosden letterhead, reporting on the Fisher treatment, a permanent cure for syphilis. Signature illegible, initials BWG.

References patients treated in 1907, a year after Oklahoma became a state, and the formation of a company to place this remedy before the public. At the time, the single syphilis cure was an arsenic compound invented by German chemist, Paul Ehrlich. It is unclear whether the “Fisher treatment” was the Ehrlich arsenic compound or another quack treatment, or if it was associated with the famed Cosden Oil & Gas Company. However, it was expected by the author to show “large and substantial profits.” and was managed by “Mr. Edward A. Hill” who may have been a geologist for Cosden.

$25

(Sexual Health) (Soldiers) Evidence in the Case of the Unwary Returnee

(Sexual Health) (WWII) [War Department?; Third Air Force]. Evidence in the Case of the Unwary Returnee. Tampa, FL: [Third Air Force?], n.d. [ca. 1941-1944]. 8vo, [12] pp.; eleven sensational stories of sexual encounters between enlisted men and various promiscuous women (“the old acquaintance” “the weeping widow” “the trim trucker” ) or procurement opportunities (“the Gabby Cabby”), all ending in venereal disease; based on “actual case history reports” reports released by Commanding General, Third Air Force, each with a half-page b/w illus., pages toned; in stapled printed wrapper, wrinkled with losses, sheets sl. loosened.

Not found in OCLC.

$325

Attenzione! Si avvicinano i “liberatori” anglo-assassini…

(Propaganda - Fascist) Attenzione! Si avvicinano i “liberatori” anglo-assassini… [Milan?], nd., ca. 1943. Poster printed in black and red, approx. 22-¾ x 19-¼ in.; toned, creases from vertical and horizontal folds, splitting at center; edges a bit worn, some foxing verso.

Poster warning inhabitants in German-controlled northern Italy of the dangers of the advancing Allied forces. “Reds,” “Jews,” and “hyenas of the air,” are coming for Italian women and children, converting them to their side with sweets and cigarettes.

OCLC locates one holding, at the Hoover.

$225

Elezioni Politiche 1913. Noi Anarchici.

(Anarchism) Elezioni Politiche 1913. Noi Anarchici … Broadside, 13 x 18-½ in.; creased, bottom edge roughly trimmed, typographic irregularities. Np, nd [1912-1913].

Anarchist broadside protesting the quasi-universal male suffrage granted to Italian men over 30 by the “moderately progressive” government of Giovanni Giolitti in 1912. The enfranchisement extended the vote to the very poor and illiterate, with the dramatic impact of trebling the electorate (from 3 to almost 9 million voters) in advance of the 1913 elections. The far left parties (Estrema) did not support the franchise; here anarchists protest it as a bourgeois “swindle,” keeping intact economic tyranny and solidifying the power of the political elite.

Italian anarchists were influenced by Mikhail Bakunin, who wrote “the whole system of representative government is an immense fraud resting on this fiction [of political liberty in the popular vote] ... Political power means domination.” (In fact, the “democratized” 1913 elections resulted in no representative gains by the revolutionary or working class parties of Estrema.)

$175

Collection of Documents Regarding Post-Liberation Italian Governance and Elections

[Partito Liberale Italiano; Democrazia Cristiana; et al.]. Collection of Italian Political Pamphlets, Leaflets, and Documents Regarding Post-Liberation Governance, Elections, and the First Italian Republic, ca. 1945-1946.

Comprised of: three mimeographed documents issued in December 1945 in reference to a proclamation by Prime Minister Alcide de Gasperi shortly after his election, one the proclamation, and two from members of the Allied Commission; three Democrazia Cristiana leaflets, ca. 1945, one printed the day of Mussolini’s death; eight issues (with five duplicates) of the Quadrini del Partito Liberale, by Luigi Einaudi, Paolo Serini, Benedetto Croce, and Marcello Soleri, and others, some reissued by the PLI Sezione Piemontese, with two PLI leaflets, one printing the lyrics to the patriotic anthem “Arise Piedmonte.” Turin. Most 1945, a few 1943-1948.

Quadrini del Partito Liberale not found in OCLC.

$350

Conseils et soins à donner à la chevelure. Traité théorique et pratique

(Cosmetics) (Quackery) Sœur Haydée. Conseils et soins à donner à la chevelure. Traité théorique et pratique [title from front wrap]. [Toulouse]: [Impr. de Berthoumieu], n.d. [1930s]. 10 4-⅜ in x 2-½ in., 64 pp.; some pen annotations, illus. stapled wraps a bit worn.

Lengthy promotional treatise concerning a baldness cure developed by “Sister Haydée” and her ersatz convent.

$45

Grand Torneo Internazionale di Lotte Feminili al Salone Margherita

(Women) (Sport) Grand Torneo Internazionale di Lotte Feminili al Salone Margherita. Rome, 1912. Concertina booklet, closed: 5-½ x 3-⅜ in., illus. with ten portraits of the fighters, from England, Europe, Russia, and the US; some usual wear, esp. at folds.

Promotional booklet for a women’s wrestling tournament held an evening variety show at a well-known Roman theater. Photographs of each contestant are reproduced with captions identifying their last name, nationality, and weight. The earnest, athletic presentation of the “national champions” in this booklet was unusual for a sport regarded largely as entertainment. This style of presentation may have been related to contemporary interest in the international competition of the V Summer Olympiad, which opened the same month

We could not locate any other record of the tournament or the participants. Women’s wrestling was not included as an Olympic sport until 2004.

$900

Eight Jail and Prison Equipment Catalogues

(Trade Catalogues) (Prisons) Decatur Iron and Steel Co., Roanoke Iron and Bridge Works, Southern Steel Co., Van Dorn, and VANCO. Eight Jail and Prison Equipment Catalogues, ca. 1965-1975. All approx. 8-½ x 11 in., ranging from [4] to [12] pp.; profusely illus., each in orig. color wrappers with stab holes from earlier binding, rubbed at spine.

Modern marketing for prison cells and equipment depict the fantastical empty spaces of the architecture of control. Together the catalogues demonstrate the growing sophistication of marketing and design in the emergent prison-industrial complex.

Scarce. Some unrecorded in OCLC or held in fewer than 3 institutions.

$250

Dealers in Patent Rights, Look To Your Interests!

(Broadside) Dealers in Patent Rights, Look To Your Interests! Buy Lechner & Stump’s Celebrated Combination Patent Pie Rimmer, Crimper and Pastry Cutter, an article of absolute utility in every household. Patented Sept. 11, 1866. Sheridan, PA: Lechner & Stump, [1866?]. Single sheet, 13-⅞ x 7 in.; engraved illus. by “Crossoup-Phila.”

Rare post-Civil War broadside with striking illustration of women and children in the kitchen. Crimper manufactured by Lechner & Stump. Four institutional holdings identified: Emory, Harvard, Library Company Phila., and Winterthur.

$250

[O]n the illegality and inexpediency of segregating commercialized vice in St. Louis

(Antiprostitution) (Missouri) Committee of One-hundred for the Suppression of Commercialized Vice in St. Louis. Brief in support of citizens’ memorial to the Board of police commissioners of St. Louis, Missouri, on the illegality and inexpediency of segregating commercialized vice in St. Louis. St. Louis: n.p., 1914. 8vo, 32 pp.; stapled self-wrapper, sl. toned at edges, one small closed tear to front wrap, ex-library stamp and penciled shelf label, very good.

Report on the “fallacy of segregation” and in support of the red light abatement efforts of the St. Louis Police. With many reports from other cities nationwide.

$60

(Antiprostitution) Report of the Commission for the Investigation of the White Slave Traffic [...]

(Antiprostitution) (Sex Trafficking) Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Commission for Investigation of White Slave Traffic. House - No. 2281: Report of the Commission for the Investigation of the White Slave Traffic, So Called. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1914. 8vo, 86 pp.; numerous charts and tables; stapled wrapper with ex-library stamp and penciled shelf label, otherwise very good.

Report on extensive investigation “to determine, so far as is possible, by what means and to what extent women and girls are induced or compelled by others to lead an immoral life …” “to endeavor to devise plans for preventing the evils it finds …” and a draft of bills “as may be necessary to carry its recommendations into effects.”

At the center of the report is a significant amount of sociological research conducted by the commission during interviews with known prostitutes and johns. While refuting entirely the “vague rumors” and myths of “white slavery,” fascinating details emerge about the early life of prostitutes in Massachusetts, and the commercial and penal systems they entered when they began their “immoral life.” With proposals for laws to address the “social evils” of dance halls, street solicitation, hotels, “call houses,” sexually transmitted disease, etc.

Rare in physical format.

$125

(Sexual Health) Dr. McIntosh’s Natural Uterine Supporter

(Sexual Health) Dr. McIntosh’s Natural Uterine Supporter Company. Dr. McIntosh’s Natural Uterine Supporter [title from front wrapper]. [Chicago]: Dr. McIntosh’s Natural Uterine Supporter Company, n.d., ca. 1876-1882. 8vo, [4] pp.; illus., edges soiled with chips and small closed tears, vertical and lateral creases where formerly folded, fair to good.

Promotional leaflet for a vaginal pessary designed to relieve uterine prolapse. Despite the seeming patent medicine hyperbole, the device is quite similar to modern pessaries.

OCLC finds one example? possibly located at Univ. of Rochester.

$90

Presenting tonight the Queen of Pantomime and Statuesque Grace and Beauty, Miss Cora Neilson [...]

(Theater - Travesty). Broadside advertisement for Sunday afternoon and evening performances at Opera House in Amsterdam, NY, “Presenting tonight the Queen of Pantomime and Statuesque Grace and Beauty, Miss Cora Neilson, in her masterly Impersonation, in the Grand Spectacular Military Drama, French Spy, Or, The Siege of Constantini [...].” Amsterdam, NY: n.d. [1888]. Broadside, approx. 18-½ x 5-½ in.; a few small pinholes and central lateral crease from early fold, very good.

Featuring Cora Neilson in the cross-dressing, cross-ethnic, lead role of the colonial fantasy French Spy, by John Thomas Haines. Originated in London in 1831 by the famed French actress Madame Céleste, it was later popularized by Adah Isaacs Menken. The play follows the heroine Mathilde, disguised as both the mute French colonial soldier Henri and the “Arab boy” Hamet, as she attempts to rescue her father and the French army during the siege of “Constantini.” As Henri, Mathilde kisses a woman, has a “terrific broad-sword” fight with Mohammed, and outwits the Bey of Algiers to deliver the city to the French. The broadside illustrates the moment of combat between Mathilde/Henri and Mohammed, and highlights her gender reveal: “It is a woman.”

Related ads and reviews for the same tour in Arkansas, Ohio, and New Jersey allow us to offer a likely date of 1888.

No copies in WorldCat or the trade as of August 2019.

$275

Thirteen Pamphlets, Offprints, and Reprints from the American Social Hygiene Association

(Antiprostitution) Thirteen Pamphlets, Offprints, and Reprints from the American Social Hygiene Association and the Journal of Social Hygiene, 1917-1942. New York, NY: American Social Hygiene Association, 1917-1942. Various sizes, most octavo, 2-40 pp. each, most 8-10 pp.; condition varies, good to near fine, some illus. wrappers, some with ex-library stamps from the Jewish Welfare Board, Gainesville, TX, a few penciled shelf labels.

In 1913 several national antiprostitution and public health organizations united to form the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA). Based in New York, their founders included reformers and philanthropists such as Jane Addams and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. The ASHA supported campaigns to end prostitution and redlight districts (and their attendant venereal diseases) through scientific inquiry, social reform, and community action. They cooperated with medical organizations, law enforcement, and social welfare groups to develop public information campaigns. The documents in the present collection represent the wide range of ASHA’s activities, with a particular focus on WWI and WWII when the health of enlisted men was used as political leverage against commercialized vice. Includes a pamphlet reprinting a speech by Fiorello LaGuardia that captures the somewhat comedic ambivalence of many politicians to “clean communities.”

They especially emphasize the turn during the 1920s at ASHA and nationally toward punitive, legal solutions to prostitution the demonized women and sidelined charitable or rehabilitation efforts.

$250

Includes:

American Social Hygiene Association. Does Prostitution Breed Crime? Law Enforcement Responsibility in Delinquency Prevention. New York, NY: American Social Hygiene Association, [1947?]. 8-1/2 x 11 in., [4] pp. leaflet, toned. Emphasizing law enforcement solutions.

American Social Hygiene Association. Why Let it Burn? [cover title]. New York, NY: American Social Hygiene Association, 1941. Stapled leaflet, 15 pp.; in illus. color self-wrapper, very good. “Prostitution must be recognized as a Fifth Columnist in our midst.” Although another pamphlet was issued by the ASHA under the same title in 1919, this edition appears updated with new research and arguments relating to America’s wartime concerns.

Six Offprints and Reprints from the Journal of Social Hygiene, 1918-1941. New York: The American Social Hygiene Association, 1918-1941. All octavo, 2-40 pp. each, most 8-10 pp.; some edgewear with small closed tears, ex-libris stamps, most from the Jewish Welfare board, Gainesville Texas, one with penciled shelf label. The longest articles, from 1919 and 1920, offer a history of the antiprostitution movements in New York City (the “Committee of Fourteen”) and California (Redlight Abatement Act). Another article, 1936, addresses the issue of legalized prostitution

American Social Hygiene Association. The Case Against Prostitution. New York, NY: American Social Hygiene Association, 1940. Pamphlet, unfolded approx. 16-½ x 10-¾ in., [12] panels, recto an informational broadside suitable for posting; sl. toned at edges, front panel with ex-library stamp, Jewish Welfare Board, Gainesville, TX. Rare ephemera intended to promote the “clean community environment in which prostitution cannot flourish.” Includes a “practical program” for community action.

Johnson, Bascom; LaGuardia, Fiorello; and Jean B. Pinney. Three American Social Hygiene Association Pamphlets, 1940-1942. 8vo, 8-24 pp. each; one illus., stapled wrappers, sl. toning and edgewear, good.

Reprinted from the Journal for Social Hygiene: How Fares the Battle Against Prostitution (Pinney); Prostitution and Quackery in Relation to Syphyilis Control (Johnson); and “An Address” (LaGuardia).

LaGuardia pamphlet reprints a speech including a jokey intro in which the Mayor seems confused about why he is speaking at a conference about Commercialized Vice and not at a leather or furniture convention.

Kneeland, George J. Commercialized Prostitution and the Use of Property. New York, NY: New York Social Hygiene Society, 1917. 8vo, 8 pp.; ½ in. closed tear on upper edge goes through entire pamphlet; stapled printed wrapper, edges worn, with ex-library stamp and penciled shelf label, fair. Excerpted from Social Hygiene, Vol. II, No. 4 (Oct. 1916).

Women’s Forum on Prostitution Rights: Program

(Sex Work) (Rights) Women’s Forum on Prostitution Rights. Program. San Francisco: Women’s Forum on Prostitution Rights, [1984]. Single pink sheet, 8-½ x 5-½ in., printed recto and verso, some wear, creases, good.

Verso supplies the four-day program for a conference on prostitution rights in July, 1984 (date from Hooker’s Ball advertisement). Speakers include many well-known advocates and activists for prostitutes’ rights, including Margaret Prescod, Margo St. James, Delores French, Gloria Lockett, et al. Recto advertises the infamous Hooker’s Ball and the Coyote Film Festival.

$30

Opal Correspondence Club Ephemera

(Courtship) (Correspondence) Reasoner, Walter E. [and Opal N. Reasoner]. Opal Correspondence Club Ephemera. Rosiere, New York: Opal Correspondence Club, [1919]. Six items: two personal ad directories, [16] and [8] pp., one dated membership offer, one blank “Gentleman’s Application,” an introductory letter, and a trade card. Overall very good, minor wear at directory spines.

Items presumed to constitute a man’s introductory package to the Opal Correspondence Club, a matrimonial agency. The Club was named after the wife of its president and manager, Walter; Opal Reasoner is also listed as the Manager of the Ladies Department.

The blank application and the personal ads capture the pragmatic aspect, for both men and women, of many lower-middle-class and middle-class marriages in the first quarter of the 20th-century. Emphasis is given to income, inheritance, real estate holdings, children, hereditary disease, and religion. Personal questions somewhat limited: “Are you of good morals?” “Do you prefer city, town, or country life?” The Reasoner’s club was strictly limited to white applicants. The “updated” directory includes the new rule “No Colored People Accepted.”

Walter and Opal were entrepreneurial in other fields. The directory includes advertisements for their “Minette” correspondence photo service and two different pocket multi-tools.

We are unable to locate other references to this agency.

$275

(Trade Card) McDonnell’s Matrimonial Association.

(Courtship) (Trade Card) (Correspondence Marriage) McDonnell’s Matrimonial Association. [Lady Member]. Chicago: n.p., n.d, ca. 1900. 5-⅛ x 3 in., printed recto and verso; soiled with creases, older cellophane holding top corner with small loss.

Advertising a free directory of 2000+ ladies in the US and Canada with a “view to amusement, mutual improvement [and] matrimony.” Including photographs. “Would you like a rich girl, a poor girl, a beautiful woman, a buxom widow, a pretty maiden, a well-educated young lady, a farmer’s daughter, or a good housekeeper? We have them all …”

We are unable to identify other references to Walter McDonnell’s Chicago service.

$125

Radioactivo: Poderoso Fertilizador y Estimulante Para La Vegetación

Banco del Radium [Banque du Radium, Paris]. Radioactivo: Poderoso Fertilizador y Estimulante Para La Vegetación [title from wrapper]. Barcelona: [Banque du Radium] and [R. Cumellas], [1915]. 8vo, 8 pp.; in Spanish, some translated from French, printed in green, with historiated initials, near fine.

Attractive art nouveau promotional booklet for radium soil enrichment, from a period of explosive popular interest in radium. The text compares the “therapeutic” action of radium in agricultural applications to those in human medical treatments—combating unknown “infirmities” and cultivating new vigor.

Published by a Spanish representative for the radio-agricultural firm Banque du Radium, Paris. BDR was established by a friend and sponsor of Marie Curie, the French industrialist Emile Armet de Lisle. Armet de Lisle also published the journal Le Radium.

Uncommon, we locate no other examples of Banque du Radium or Banco del Radium promotional materials in OCLC or the trade.

$225

Tercer Salon Italo: La energia en las artes visuals

Compañía Italo Argentina de Electricidad and Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Tercer Salon Italo: La energia en las artes visuals. Exh. Cat. [Buenos Aires]: [La Compañía], 1971. Oblong 8vo, [36] pp.; b/w pls., wrappers lightly worn at extremities.

Catalogue an exhibition of painting and sculpture by Argentinian artists, on the theme of energy.

OCLC locates five copies in North America: Getty, Lib. of Congress, MoMA, Univ. of Texas, and Trenton.

$50

Poem 1 and Poem 2. From Penny Poems, No. 31

Oldenburg, Claes. Poem 1 and Poem 2. Penny Poems, No. 31. New Haven, CT: Penny Poems, 1959. Single-sided sheet, 8-1/2 x 11 in., toned with losses at two corners; typed-signed at bottom, Claes Oldenberg [sic].

Scarce issue of Penny Poems, the daily broadside poetry series founded by Yale grad students in 1959. It was sold at various bookstores for 1¢ and published early work by a number of famous language poets and Beats including Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Diane di Prima, and Ron Padgett.

This would appear to be the first published writing by Claes Oldenburg, whose poetry based on found imagery was the subject of a 2012 exhibition by at the Menil Collection, Houston, entitled Strange Eggs: Poems and Cutouts, 1956-1958. The exhibition focused on a transitional period in his artwork, shortly before he made his first iconic Pop sculptures. The humor and absurdity of the “collage-like” poems are evident in these examples.

OCLC records only one holding: Brown; a copy may also be held at Yale.

$750

Las Juventudes Libertarias de Artes Gráficas protestan [...]

[Federación Ibérica de Juventudes Libertarias (FIJL) and Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI)] and Comisión pro-Cultura Juventudes Libertarias de Artes Gráficas. Las Juventudes Libertarias de Artes Gráficas protestan del torpedeamiento de que es objeto la Banda Municipal, y piden a las demás Juventudes y amantes de la cultura, que hagan otro tanto. [Barcelona]: n.d. (ca. 1936-38). Broadside, 8-1/2 x 6-1/4 in.; toned and creased.

Impassioned and cheeky defense of the Municipal Band of Barcelona by a youth graphic arts and cultural commission associated with the socialist and anarchist federations during the Civil War. The band was directed by Joan Lamote de Grignon. Lamote was fired after Franco took the city in 1939 and fled to Valencia.

$175

Carteleras. Año I, No.1 - Año 1, No.3 (all published?)

Comite Ejecutivo de Espectaculos Publicos de U.G.T.-C.N.T. Carteleras. Año I, Núm. 1 (24 Enero 1937) to Año I, Núm. 3 (7 Febrero 1937) (all published?). Valencia, Spain: N.p., 1937. Three issues, each a single-sheet 4to, [8] pp.; some wear at edges and creases.

Weekly pamphlet advertising upcoming films and theater schedules in Valencia, published by the UGT-CNT whose unions controlled the theaters and film selection. Uncommon ephemera from the cultural revolution of the Spanish Civil War.

Unrecorded in OCLC.

$175

Comitè Econòmic d’Espectacles Públics

(Cinema) Comitè Econòmic d’Espectacles Públics. [Theater Broadside]. Girona, Spain: [CNT/AIT: Comitè Econòmic d’Espectacles Públics], 1936. 8-3/4 x 12-3/4 in.; toned as expected with a few ink notations, partially backed with paper, good.

Broadside advertising the weekend schedule (Aug. 27-30, 1936) of three Catalonian theaters collectivized by the CNT/AIT during the first month of the Spanish Civil War. The schedule included three class-conscious Hollywood movies: Vivamos de Nuevo (We Live Again, 1934; based on Tolstoy’s Resurrection); El Payaso del Circo (Circus Clown, 1934); and Duro y La Cabeza (St. Louis Kid, 1934).

Unrecorded in OCLC.

$175

Teatre del Poble: La música a través del poeta

Comissió de Cultura de l’Ajuntament de Terrassa. Teatre del Poble: La Música a través del poeta. Terrassa, Spain: Salvatella, 1937. Tri-fold, single sheet program, folded: 8-1/2 x 6 in., [6] pp.; approx. 1/2 in. neat closed tear at bottom edge, else very good; signed in ink by soloists Matilde Viver and A. Pons I Guitart.

A concert of “sublime” music probably prepared or sponsored by the Republican Teatro del Pueblo which organized performances in Catalonia during the Civil War. Representative of a brief avant-garde uprising in a conservative suburb of Barcelona, where some traditionalist artists were imprisoned (including Salvador Salvatella, founder of the press which issued this program?).

$95

On the Question of Homosexuals and the Party

(New Communist Movement – Homosexuality) On the Question of Homosexuals and the Party. N.p., n.d., [1973?]. (2) 8-1/2 x 14 in. sheets, [4] pp.; staple neatly removed, second sheet with minor stains verso.

Doctrinaire “Marxist Leninist defense of the line of the Continuations Committee on homosexuality,” arguing there is a “material basis for the exclusion of homosexuals from the party building movement.” The paper condemns the mores and metaphysics of the “depraved liberal bourgeoisie” and provides a materialistic, dialectical argument against homosexuality. Homosexuality is not a private question, it is a “social relation” that “replaces love and comradeship between the sexes with antagonism and hatred […] There is no way that such degenerates and exploiters can be admitted to […] the revolutionary party.”

The National Continuations Committee was part of the New Communist Movement: it emerged from a 1973 national party-building conference intended to create consensus between a number of Marxist-Leninist organizations. Its stated purpose was “a defense of the science of Marxism-Leninism and […] an all out assault on the CPUSA and all forms of revisionism.” Regional groups were formed to provide issue papers to the Continuations Committee, and this appears to be one of them. Its vehement argument against sexual freedom and the factionalism that undermines class unity is an overwhelming repudiation of progressive politics and the American left.

Primary source document of the mixed history of communism and LGBTQ rights. No copies found in OCLC.

Ref. National Continuations Committee Newsletter No. 1 (January 1974).

$225

65th Commemoration, Paris Commune, at Webster Hall

(Humphrey, Doris) [International Labor Defense, N.Y. District]. 65th Commemoration, Paris Commune at Webster Hall. New York: International Labor Defense, 1936. Flyer, 8-1/4 x 5-3/4; torn and chipped, missing top right corner.

Advertising a March concert commemorating the Paris Commune, with performances by modern dance pioneer Doris Humphrey and her partner Charles Weidman, and a lecture by Robert Minor, political cartoonist and a leader of the American Communist Party.

$65

Seven leaves of hand-painted wallpaper designs

(Decorative Art) (Spain) Seven leaves of hand-painted wallpaper designs. [Catalonia]: n.p., n.d. [late 18th century, ca. 1787].

Ink, gouache, and graphite on laid paper with Honig and Van der Ley watermarks, each leaf trimmed to approx. 10-1/2 x 8-1/2 in. or sl. larger; all signed or graded either recto or verso, most by the same hand in ink, two with additional graphite signatures; one with minor water stain at edge, otherwise very good.

The leaves appear to be prize-winning examples or tests submitted for competition, perhaps by students at a professional arts school in Catalonia. They are all attributed to or signed by one of five artists: Francisco Coromina, Joseph Coromina, Joseph Fontanelles, Gaspar Ribó, and Jayme Trens. The floral and pictorial designs are expertly executed with fine detail, suggesting professional craftsmanship. Beautiful and unique examples of the rich decorative arts tradition in Catalonia.

Dated examples by Fontanelles in another collection allow us to tentatively establish a date circa 1787.

$1750

Apóstrofes: Revista de la Escuela de Periodismo Universidad Católica. Año I, No. 1–No. 3

[Chile] [Student Movement] Apóstrofes: Revista de la Escuela de Periodismo Universidad Católica. Año I, No. 1 (May 1982)–No. 3 (Sept.-Oct. 1982) (all published?). Santiago, Chile: 1982. 8vo, three issues: 23 pp., [25] pp., [21] pp.; side-stapled mimeograph with illus. wrappers, b/w reproductions of orig. graphics, including cartoons, collage, and photography, light edge-wear and toning at extremities, No. 2 toned, front wrap with small crease.

When the left-wing Popular Unity party (led by Salvador Allende) came to power in 1970, they reached an agreement to undo previous limits on the freedom of the press in Chile. This brief period of pluralism was silenced by the Pinochet coup in 1973, which ushered in not only an era of censorship, persecution, and state-sponsored journalism, but also a period in which opposition journalists were imprisoned, tortured, and “disappeared.”

It is within this context that students at the Journalism School at Santiago’s Catholic University began publishing this short-lived serial, questioning the role and relevance of the professional journalist in Chile. Beginning as a general inquiry into the conditions of journalism and teaching, the tone shifts, rejecting university and national hierarchies and censorship. No. 3’s headline “Renacer del Movimiento Estudiantil,” declares the rebirth of the student movement following the arrest and torture of Marcela Palma, secretary general of El Centro de Estudiantes de la Universidad Católica (and sister of the leftist paramilitary Ricardo Palma). Articles report on colleagues in exile and the duty of the journalist to justice and critical thinking.

No copies found in OCLC or direct searches of Chilean national online catalogues.

$275

Recueil des instruments de chirurgie orthopédie et mobiliers

[Trade Catalogue]. [Medicine]. Maison Mathieu. Recueil des instruments de chirurgie orthopédie et mobiliers: nouvellement construits ou perfectionnés. Année 3, No. 2 (Sept. 1908). Paris: 1908. 8vo, 16 pp.; illus. with photographic reproductions and technical drawings; orig. printed wrapper, contents neatly removed from staples, wrapper toned with light wear at extremities; additional plate and advertisement laid in.

Instruments of surgery, predominantly for amputation, and prosthetics. Add’l plate with 2 graphic images of an amputation.

OCLC locates no holdings with this issue statement.

$45

Books from the estate of Mark Tobey

[Tobey, Mark.] Glover/Hayes. Books from the estate of Mark Tobey. Seattle: 1982. 4to, 12 pp.; stapled mimeographed sales list of 143 books “signed by, or inscribed to, Mark Tobey,” dated in pen, minor creases from folds, good condition.

We can find no other record of this sale of books from the American abstract painter’s estate. The annotated list describes signatures and inscriptions.

$75

Dara Birnbaum: Video

Birnbaum, Dara and Erkki Huhlama. Dara Birnbaum: Video. Catalogue for an exhibition held at Norrtälje Konsthall, April 8-June 10, 1995. Norrtälje, Sweden: Norrtälje Konsthall, 1995.

Folded single sheet exh. cat. with color illus., opens to poster, folded: 6-1/2 x 6-1/2 in. open: 26 x 39 in.; outside panels sl. wear, else very good.

$25

Publicité Divers

Publicité Divers [title from spine]. [Bordeaux, France]: 1939. 4to (10 x 12.5 in.), [112] pp.; cloth, spine with gilt title and date.

Professional? scrapbook album with approximately 90 vintage examples of graphic design mounted on 39 leaves, including menus; packaging for luxury goods and comestibles; personal calling cards; advertisements for automobiles and auto parts, textile, and machine companies; coupon books and stamps; and events, most for companies and brands in Bordeaux, many in color, all exemplifying French Art Deco design’s integration of bold geometries, angular composition, and modern typography. A majority of the examples are numbered consecutively from 162-244 with a discreet stamp. Gilt letters “C-L” on spine—contents loosely alphabetical, by product, not proper name (e.g., café, charbon de bois, chocolat, fromage, lessive). Many folding examples, most very good, some with areas of discoloration or wrinkled from paste. Album date is handwritten on first leaf in pencil, though some of the advertisements refer specifically to 1938.

$450