Alfred Pasternack
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aopmurray.bsky.social
Alfred Pasternack
@aopmurray.bsky.social
240 followers 190 following 29 posts
Rare books, manuscripts, that sort of thing. Bookseller @quaritch, bookbinder. Oooh, serifs.
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aopmurray.bsky.social
King David playing the washboard?

From the 1498 Aldine Greek Psalter
Woodcut border around a Greek printed text, with a small figure of King David playing a harp that resembles a musical washboard
April 5, 2025 at 2:58 PM
aopmurray.bsky.social
Custom (budget) book display solutions at the Antiquariatsmesse Stuttgart
A beautifully presented 18th century printed book, duodecimo, invisibly cradled and resting on a glass shelf The underside of the same book, seen through the glass shelf, being supported by two folded business cards A quarto sammelband, bound in vellum with green silk ties, displayed open on a glass shelf The same book viewed from beneath, revealing its support to be a canvas tote bag
January 26, 2025 at 10:54 AM
aopmurray.bsky.social
From this 1542 Venetian Aristophanes, with us at the Antiquariatsmesse Stuttgart
Title page printed within woodcut architectural border flanked by two female figures, reading “Aristophanis comicorum principis comoediae undecim, E Graeco in latinum, ad verbum, translatae, Andrea Divo justinopolitano interprete … Venetiis M D X L I I”
January 25, 2025 at 10:53 AM
aopmurray.bsky.social
An altered woodcut border - I wonder what she was holding before?
A female figure from the side of a woodcut architectural border, holding a globe in her right arm. The section around the globe is clearly defined by a blank border, suggesting it has been inserted into the woodblock.
January 25, 2025 at 10:53 AM
aopmurray.bsky.social
Dos-à-dos...
... -à-dos-à-dos ...
...... -à-dos-à-dos!

🇸🇪 🇩🇰 🇺🇸 respectively
Dos-à-dos binding in pink silk, boards and spine richly gilt (if somewhat faded), edges gilt Dos-à-dos binding in calf, borders gilt, edges gilt Dos-à-dos binding in sheep, edges patterned with an almost-foliate design, spines gilt but faded
December 18, 2024 at 6:42 PM
aopmurray.bsky.social
Does anyone recognise this handsome little lion?
Front board of a duodecimo volume bound in strapwork à la cire calf, with a central armorial of a crouching lion beneath a star
December 16, 2024 at 12:23 PM
aopmurray.bsky.social
... ENDPAPERS! We love them.
Endpapers of the same book with very brightly coloured brocade, a gilt lattice dividing lozenges of pink, orange, and purple
December 11, 2024 at 1:39 PM
aopmurray.bsky.social
It's housed in its original leather box, lined with not one but two patterned papers, and ...
Eighteenth-century German pink silk binding embrodered with metal threadds, sequins, and pearls, sitting on top of a brown leather pull-off box, with beautiful green silk ribbon ties draped to one side The leather pull-off box opened to reveal on the top half a red block-printed patterned paper, and on the bottom half a gilt brocade paper lining Detail of the brocade paper on the inside of the box, with animals including a goat, a crab, and a bird Another detail of the brocade, with a donkey, a duck, a camel, a boar, and other animals
December 11, 2024 at 1:39 PM
aopmurray.bsky.social
List of Members … of what? Any suggestions?
Printed text within a woodcut border, headed “List of Members March 1892” with the names of L F Austin, Augustine Burrell, W E Briggs, Oscar Browning, J E Christie, J F Green, John Gennadius, F C Gould (continued) “List of Members continued”, J C Haslam, G Birkbeck Hill, Samuel J Hodson, A H Hutton, J B Keene, Edward J Leveson, H W Massingham, W A McArthur, Valentine Matthews (continued) “List of Members continued”, Henry Norman, Joseph Pennell, J O’Connor Power, Ernest W Radford, George H Radford, John Sargeaunt, Arthur H Spokes, H M Stanley, J Henwood Thomas (one more page to go) “List of Members continued”, James Tregaskis, T Fisher Unwin, Howard Unwin, John Westrope, George Whale, “Honorary Members”, Dr Macaulay, Gen. Digbg Willoughy, J Passmore Edwards
November 26, 2024 at 9:14 PM
aopmurray.bsky.social
The same marble, c. 1820, as preserved inside a book and out
Marbled endpapers with bright green, purple, and red colours, with a Spanish wave effect, and the same marble rubbed and faded to almost brown on the outside of another volume
November 25, 2024 at 3:16 PM
aopmurray.bsky.social
Friends, Romans,
Email preview text, reading “Men, Women, Kids, Clearance, thank you for your order”
October 16, 2024 at 9:56 AM
aopmurray.bsky.social
Italian rocket: has flowers "of a naughty savor" and seeds "in taste like Rocket seed"
Gerarde's Herball, 1633, p. 277, with two botanical woodcuts and text reading "Of Italian Rocket ... Italian Rocket hath long leaves cut into many parts or divisions like those of the Ash tree, resembling Ruellius his Bucks-horne: among which rise up stalks weake and tender, but thicke and grosse, two foot high, garnished with many small yellowish floures like the middle part of Tansie floures, of a naughty savor or smell. The feed is small like sand or dust, in taste like Rocket seed, whereof in truth wee suspect it to be a kinde. The root is long and wooddy."
September 24, 2024 at 11:22 AM
aopmurray.bsky.social
“Select all pictures of tractors” was too easy, let’s try “select everything which is heavier than a tractor in real life”
Captcha showing a picture of a tractor and the instruction “Wählen Sie alle Dinge aus, die schwerer sind als das angegebene Objekt im wirklichen Leben“, followed by a selection of diggers, cymbals, and brass instruments
August 15, 2024 at 9:16 PM
aopmurray.bsky.social
The Book Collector, Autumn 1967
Advertisement for Bernard Quaritch in the Book Collector, offering a brief account of the firm’s state after 120 years and suggestions for the next 120
August 14, 2024 at 4:57 PM
aopmurray.bsky.social
From the same text, “populus Angliae bellicosus, et si instruatur ad omnes belli casus ferendos promtus est”
August 6, 2024 at 6:01 PM
aopmurray.bsky.social
Londen, Bristow, and Theyle of Man
Text of Johann Friedrich Pöpping “Orbis illustratus” (1668) describing the British Isles, with entertaining transcriptions of English placenames
August 6, 2024 at 6:00 PM
aopmurray.bsky.social
A headband anchor-stitch peeking out from this seventeenth-century spine, courtesy of a bookworm
Book spine, bound in sixteenth century calf and gilt, with the head cap chipped to reveal the headband, and worming in the leather exposing a blue thread fastening the headband to the book
January 20, 2024 at 6:24 PM
aopmurray.bsky.social
And a third, letterpress, title
Letterpress title-page: “Theatro d’Arcani del medico Lodovico Locatelli da Bergamo … In Milano, per Gio. Pietro Ramellati, MDCXLIV, con licenza De’ superiori”, with woodcut ornament above the imprint
January 14, 2024 at 9:30 PM
aopmurray.bsky.social
A delightful example of copper engraving vs woodcut, found in the same book
Copper engraved title of “Theatro d’Arcani del medico Locatelli”, within an architectural border with figures on either side and a coat of arms above The same title, but executed much more crudely in woodcut
January 14, 2024 at 9:26 PM