Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$450.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Good only; major fault is that the dust jacket has been encapsulated in adhesive plastic film, which overlaps inside and attaches it to the book; film may be archival, but the adhesive has drawn out glue from the pastedowns, which is a mess, but there's no offsetting to the first and last free pages. Dust jacket has tanning around edges and a small damaged area on front panel; page edges tanned, which extends to a very small extent on the surface of some pages; otherwise pages are clean and bright. The Calder-designed paper knife is laid in, has a few creases and some tanning.
Seller: Montecito Rare Books, Goleta, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$962.62 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: The First printing published by Harrison of Paris. Minton, Balch and Company, New York, 1931. Number '33' of only 615 copies printed on Auvergne hand-made paper, of which twenty copies were not for sale. The BOOK is in Very Good++ or better condition. The boards are clean. Free from inscriptions and erasures. Light toning to the text-block and the extreme page edges. Many pages remain uncut. The Wrapper is complete and is toned to the edges with a little light spotting in places. The original inner chemise is present and is in Very Good- condition with rubbing to the folds and a small clear tape repair to the upper spine. The printed label to the spine of the chemise is present but rubbed. This copy is missing the original paper knife and slipcase. The book is now housed in a custom cloth slipcase. The fifth publication of Harrison of Paris with 50 striking line drawing illustrations by Alexander Calder. Increasingly scarce to find in collectible condition. More images available on request. Ashton Rare Books welcomes direct contact.
Seller: Ashton Rare Books ABA : PBFA : ILAB, Market Harborough, United Kingdom
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 1931 Harrison of Paris copy #196 of a total edition of 615 copies on Auvergne handmade paper and 50 on Spanish rag paper. Missing the original paper knife and slipcase. No marks tight binding. No title to spine as issued. In jacket. Please email for photos. Larger books or sets may require additional shipping charges. Books sent via US Postal
Seller: Griffin Books, Stamford, CT, U.S.A.
AESOP. Fables of Aesop.; According to Sir Roger l'Estrange. Harrison, Paris, 1931.
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Illustrated with fifty drawings by Alexander Calder. 124pp. Tall thin 8vo, original boards with blue printed d.w (wrappers slightly foxed); uncut edges, 2-piece red board slipcase is broken. (Paris): Harrison of Paris, (1931). A near fine copy in a good slipcase. From a total edition of 615 copies printed on Auvergne hand-made paper, this is one of only 20 marked "not for sale". The fifth publication of Harrison of Paris.
Seller: Argosy Book Store, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$2245.74 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Small Quarto. No. 159 of 595 copies (of a total edition of 665 copies), printed on Auvergne hand-made watermarked paper, and designed by Monroe Wheeler. Pp. [v], 124, [3]. Pen-and-ink line drawings by Alexander Calder. Loosely inserted is the elusive Paper Knife with vignette by Calder. Pasteboards with blue illustrated wrapper, top edge rough trimmed, others deckled, housed in a red laminate chemise with paper spine label, all inserted into a fresh, hand-crafted, blue cloth, 100% acid free clamshell box as indicated on the small label adhered to the lower corner inside the box, paper spine label. Wrapper spotted, with light spotting to the endpapers, nicks to the tips, 1 cm closed tear at lower front joint, previous owner's engraved bookplate loosely inserted, else interior clean and crisp. Tip missing from paper knife. Chemise rubbed, small tears to the joints at spine ends. Clamshell box fine and solid.
Seller: Karol Krysik Books ABAC/ILAB, IOBA, PBFA, Toronto, ON, Canada
Price: US$2887.85 + shipping
Description: First Calder edition, limited issue, number 262 of 595 copies on Auvergne paper from a total edition of 665, scarce retaining both the slipcase and the paper-knife. The text of the present edition is based Roger L'Estrange's ground-breaking translation of Aesop's Fables (1692). Harrison of Paris was founded by publisher and heiress Barbara Harrison Wescott (1904-1977) and art patron and curator Monroe Wheeler (1899-1988) in 1930. Wheeler designed this book, the pale blue covers of which were made from schoolchildren's aprons (Becker, p. 62). The illustrator, Alexander Calder, came from a long line of sculptors, and first took up printmaking after moving to Paris in 1926, where he befriended Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Leger, Joan Miró, and Piet Mondrian. David P. Becker, Drawings for Book Illustration, 1980. Quarto. Original light blue paper-covered boards, front cover lettered in dark blue with Calder illustration, edges untrimmed, endleaves uncut. With the original paper knife loosely inserted. Housed in the original red card chemise and slipcase. Illustrated throughout by Alexander Calder. A touch of foxing to wrappers, faint offsetting from paper-knife on half-title. A near-fine copy, a little wear to slipcase, tiny loss to tip of knife.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
CALDER, Alexander; Aesop; ALEXANDER CALDER. Fables of Aesop. , 1931.
Price: US$25000.00 + shipping
Description: CALDER, Alexander. Fables of Aesop According to Sir Roger L'Estrange. [6], 124, [10] pp., illustrated with 50 line-block reproductions after pen-and-ink drawings by Calder. 4to, 255 x 195 mm., bound in publisher's over boards, in the original cardboard slipcase, in a new half morocco folding box. Paris: Harrison of Paris, 1931. The publisher's copy of the deluxe issue of Calder's most significant book, illustrated with figures from Aesop constructed in the same style as his imaginary Circus figures and in his wire portraits and statues that dominated his creative output during the 1930s. This copy has an original signed Calder drawing for "The fox and the grapes", one of the more elaborate images in the book. The deluxe issue is especially sought after, being exquisitely printed on Spanish handmade paper incorporating coloured silk-threads. The Calder drawings for Aesop are creative and playful, marking this as a major example of modern book illustration. This is the fifth publication of Monroe Wheeler's Harrison of Paris publishing firm. One of 50 copies on Spanish Guarro paper with an original drawing, also with the original paper knife laid in. PROVENANCE: This copy belonged to Monroe Wheeler, with his book plate. The Artist and the Book 47. Museum of Modern Art 120.
Seller: Ursus Rare Books, New York, NY, U.S.A.