Rare & Beautiful

 

24 blog entries
Rare & Beautiful
By Peter Kraus June 25, 2019

Color has been a subject of fascination and importance for artists and designers since our earliest times and cultures. Over the centuries, numerous books have explored theories of color—how it used and perceived. The second installment in a collaboration between Designers & Books and Peter Kraus’s Ursus Books & Gallery in New York highlights three important books from the past devoted to color theory. More...

Rare & Beautiful
By Peter Kraus May 14, 2019

Peter Kraus, owner of Ursus Books & Gallery in New York, looks at two innovative graphic design publications from the past: Ladislav Sutnar’s Package Design: The Force of Visual Selling, issued in 1953, and F. T. Marinetti’s Les Mots en Liberté Futuristes, published in 1919, 100 years ago. More...

Rare & Beautiful
By Peter Kraus April 7, 2020

From Palladio to Frank Lloyd Wright, architects have brought their work to the printed page with exquisite results. More...

Rare & Beautiful
By Steve Kroeter April 12, 2011

Thought by many to be the premier rare book event in the world, the 51st New York Antiquarian Book Fair took place this past weekend in New York. The event attracted more than 200 booksellers from 15 countries. With one of the booksellers listed on Designers & Books as our guide, another as an exhibitor, and two others letting us know they would be attending the opening, we made a point of dropping by. More...

Rare & Beautiful
By Peter Kraus November 5, 2019

To look at a collection of the books published by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler in Paris is to get a unique insight into the artistic ferment that marked the early twentieth century. More...

Rare & Beautiful
By Peter Kraus May 5, 2020

Peter Kraus chooses eight rare art and design books to remind you of the beauty of the world beyond your walls while you’re self-isolating. More...

Rare & Beautiful
By Steve Kroeter September 22, 2016

We’ve just launched a new website dedicated to Italian Futurist artist Fortunato Depero’s tour de force of avant-garde book design, Depero Futurista, also know as The Bolted Book because it is famously bound by two industrial aluminum bolts.

Visit wwww.boltedbook.com to explore this 1927 gem page by page and learn about our Kickstarter to support publication of a new facsimile edition of the book launching on October 18. More...

Rare & Beautiful
By Peter Kraus July 30, 2019
Japan remains a wonderful place to buy illustrated antiquarian books and to connect with a still thriving community that retains a unique respect for printing, publishing, and collecting books. Peter Kraus uncovers some finds in Tokyo’s Jimbocho district and Kyoto.
Rare & Beautiful
By Peter Kraus April 13, 2021

From trade catalogues to children’s stories, Dutch graphic designers during the first half of the 20th century produced a memorable body of work that deserves revisiting. More...

Rare & Beautiful
By Randall Ross May 31, 2012

Guest blogger Randall Ross, of Modernism 101, specializing in mid-century modern design antiquarian books, presents highlights from his 2012 catalogue, which focuses on books that helped to set the stage for and define America's "Good Design" movement of the postwar period. — SK More...