Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$75.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: No. 76 of 247 copies signed by the author. Front cover illustration framed in gilt; gilt decoration and lettering on spine. Gilt page tops. Uncut page sides and bottoms. 249 pages. Full-page illustrations, many in color. The author discusses the art of portrait painting and several old portraits such as: Essex on an Old Panel; King James in Faded Paint; A Portrait of Isaac Newton by John Riley; Kneller's Sarah Jennings, First Duchess of Marlborough; Gainsborough's Blackstone; A Loyalist Lady by John Singleton Copley; etc.
Seller: Barry Cassidy Rare Books, Sacramento, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$96.05 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: A selection of twenty-two portraits that are representative of the great age of English portait painting, and the best and most famous of English portrait painters of the period that begins in the 17th century and culiminates in the early 19th. SIGNED by the author with brief inscription and dated, Kennebunkport, Christmastime, 1939. Tall brown boards with gold-color lettering on spine, xx, 249 pp., full-color illus. Moderate shelf wear and rubbing, clean text, tight binding, unclipped jacket. The jacket is worn and the panels have separated from the spine and are laid in.
Seller: Bob's Book Journey, Austin, TX, U.S.A.
Booth Tarkington. Some Old Portraits. Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., New York, 1939.
Price: US$125.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: The book #175 of The 247 copies and is signed by Booth Tarkington. The inside hinges are browned. The balance of the book and contents are clean and tight. The cardboard slipcase that has protected the book is scuffed and worn on the edges.
Seller: Yesterday's Books, Richmond, IN, U.S.A.
Price: US$125.00 + shipping
Description: First edition limited to 247 copies signed by Tarkington, 4to, [2], xx, 249; vignette title-page printed in black and yellow, 22 plates (14 in color); original tan linen over beveled boards, stamped and lettered in gilt on spine and front cover, pictorial paper onlay mounted to front cover, t.e.g.; lacking publisher's glassine jacket and slipcover; very good or better. Tarkington muses on paintings of English notables from the 16th to the 18th centuries. This copy with a presentation inscription from Tarkington's personal assistant, collaborator (in the dramatization of Alice Adams), and the primary object of his "Acknowledgment," Elizabeth Stanley Trotter: "For 'Gene Dixon from the grateful cousin, Betty Trotter."
Seller: Rulon-Miller Books (ABAA / ILAB), St. Paul, MN, U.S.A.
Price: US$129.22 + shipping
Description: [Portraiture] INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION. Large octavo (26 x 18cm), pp.xx; 249 [3]. With 12 colour plates, each reproducing one of the paintings discussed. INSCRIBED by the author in black ink to half-title: 'For | John Booth | from | Elizabeth Stanley Trotter | of Cleeve Gate | and inscribed, with | hearty regard and admiration, | by | Booth Tarkington. | Christmas 1940.' Publisher's brown cloth with gilt titles to spine. Toning to edges and endpapers, otherwise crisp and clean internally. Moderate handling to cloth, with rubbing and toning to spine. Good. A presentation copy from the lady mentioned principally in the author's acknowledgements as the main driver behind the publication of this book, which concerns twelve important English portraits from the Stuart and Georgian dynasties.
Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom
Price: US$195.00 + shipping
Description: Small 4to. Brown cloth over beveled boards, pictorial dust jacket. xx, 249pp. Color plates. Near fine/very good. Jacket heavily edge chipped and edgeworn, but complete nonetheless; large armorial bookplate on front pastedown. Not the signed limited edition, but the scarce first trade edition. Large bold inscription in blue fountain pen by the author on the front flyleaf: "For / The Brooks Sisters / Terrence and John Jameson / and most gladly inscribed / by / Booth Tarkington / Christmastime, 1945."
Seller: Main Street Fine Books & Mss, ABAA, Galena, IL, U.S.A.
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: HANDWRITTEN TWO PAGE LETTER by BOOTH TARKINGTON to SILBERMAN (Elkan or Abris of E. & A. Silberman Galleries). The brothers Elkan and Abris Silberman ran a major New York Gallery and were greatly responsible for building and caring for Booth Tarkington's art collection. Tarkington's letter references a number of artworks that are in need of repair. The letter is written in a friendly and jocular tone, reminiscent of much of Tarkington's writing. The letter is long, written on both sides of a 9x15.5 inch piece of heavy stock paper. The letter has several folds where it was likely folded to fit into an envelope (no envelope is present). It is dated May 12, 1939. The letter comes with a two page typed transcript on onion skin paper. I don't know who made this early transcript, perhaps Silberman or another previous owner of the book and letter. The letter is laid-into a special SIGNED, LIMITED, FIRST EDITION of "SOME OLD PORTRAITS", by BOOTH TARKINGTON. The limitation/signature page states this is copy #34 of 247 copies. Published by Doubleday, Doran & Co., New York, 1939. Hardcovers, 7.5x10 inches, xx +249 pages, Illustrated with portraiture plates. Interesting that Tarkington's letter to his art dealer friend was written in the same year as his non-fiction book about art was published. Condition: NEAR FINE book, sharp, tight, bright, clean and unmarked, one of the nicest copies I have seen. The letter is in GOOD solid condition, folds and signs of handling but still solid with handwriting that is bright and clear. The typed transcript of the letter has tears, creases and areas of the blank margin are torn away, but it is still textually complete and fully legible. Booth Tarkington was a collector of art and was quite knowledgeable about the subject. He served for many years as a trustee of the John Herron Art Museum. The New York art dealers Elkan and Abris Silberman (E. & A. Silberman Galleries) helped build his collection and became his friend. Tarkington and the Silbermans corresponded for many years. He even used the brothers as the basis for nis 1934 romantic novel "Rumbin Galleries". In 2016 the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields held an Exhibition of works from Tarkington's collection, titled: "A Gentleman Collector from Indiana: Portraits from the Collection of Booth Tarkington". About E. & A. SILBERMAN GALLERIES (from Wikipedia): ******E. & A. Galleries was founded in 1938 by brothers Elkan Silberman, d.1952, and Abris Silberman, d.1968, from Austria. In the 1920s, the Silberman brothers owned the E. & A. Silberman art dealership in Vienna. After the 1938 Anschluss their company was expropriated. Fearing persecution the Silbermans left for the United States where they founded a new art dealership in New York under the name E. & A. Silberman Galleries, Inc. They built a reputation as the art dealership "that had helped form museum collections", as well as the collections of G. H. A. Clowes, Dan Fellows Platt, Booth Tarkington, and L. M. Rabinowitz.******
Seller: Blank Verso Books, Napa, CA, U.S.A.