The Manhattan Rare Book Company Collectibles and Curiosities

Stunning large gelatin silver limited edition photograph; one of the most iconic images of the 20th century. One of only 450 in the edition. “In 1946, when Albert Einstein was in residence at Princeton University, Fred Stein...

Grant, Ulysses S. Large Albumen Photograph Magnificent large albumen photograph of Ulysses S. grant by Abraham Bogardus. An unusually large late (circa 1880) photograph of Grant, post-presidency, in formal dress, sitting and in partial profile. Mounted on thick card with the photographer’s credit and address (“A. Bogardus / 872 Broadway, NY”) on matte below the photo. The photographer, Anthony Bogardus, was a photographic pioneer, described by the New York Times as “the best-known photographer in the United States” in his prime who took “the first photographs of Gen. Grant, Gen. Hancock, Samuel D. Morse, inventor of the telegraph; Horace Greeley, Henry Ward Beecher and other equally well-known men.” The engravers Currier & Ives produced an engraving based on this photograph, calling it “the last and best taken of General Grant...

Flower Is… “is one of Frank’s great books (which means it is one of the greatest of photobooks), demonstrating magisterially, as he himself says in the boo...

"Some people mistake my work for satire. I don't object because satire is a powerful force, so if the work is seen that way it serves one function. But I don't agree. The pictures are taken in the spirit of finding myself in the other, or finding the other in myself."—Larry Fink...

"The triumph of this book is that it does manage to reflect the mad experience of traveling in Southeast Asia, while still reflecting on what it all means" (Roth 101).


FIRST EDITION of one of the seminal photobooks of the 1980's. SIGNED BY BURKE INSIDE ORIGINAL DRAWING OF HIS HAND. One of only 1000 copies printed of the first edition.

"Bill Burke has become known for his large-format portraits shot on Polaroid Land film, which have the formality and feel of nineteenth-century photographs whilst remaining acutely modern in their sensibilities. In his best book, I Want to Take Picture, this technique is entirely appropriate, since it records his personal pilgrimage to southeast Asia, duplicating the enterprise of the old colonialist photographers but adding a contemporary twist...

"Although the pictures have a nineteenth-century feel, the book is also a diary that records a twentieth-century experience. Burke not only uses his photographs, but also employs documents- reproductions of ephemera like money...

"The Journal des Dames et des Modes was an expression "of the most refined Parisian elegance, and illustrated by the most gifted designe...