Antiquarian & Rare Books

Los Angeles: The First National Bank of Los Angeles et. al., 1925. Single sheet, printed both sides, folding into original pictorial wrappers. Opened: 19 x 24 inches; Wrappers: 3.75 x 6.75 inches. Front wrapper with a decorative pictorial map of California south of the Bay Area titled "Serving the Pacific-Southwest." Interior with a "City Limits of Los Angeles" map, copyrighted 1922 by Pacific-Southwest Trust & Savings Bank. Rear wrapper printed with a directory of Pacific-Southwest Trust & Savings Bank branches across California, plus Los Angeles branch locations.

A well-preserved and rare example of 1920s Southern California bank-issued promotional cartography — jointly produced by three affiliated Los Angeles financial institutions to advertise their statewide branch network while encouraging automobile tourism, offering a detailed snapshot of the Los Angeles street grid and regional motor routes at the height of the city's 1920s growth.

OCLC 743300749

Illustrated Descriptive Price-List of Magical Apparatus & Illusions. New York: Otto Maurer, Magical Bazaar / Columbia Magic Trick Manufacturing Co., n.d., [ca. 1890]. 7.5 inches, duodecimo. Original printed pictorial wrappers, the front with an engraving of the Magical Bazaar storefront, its verso with the "Card to Customers" and testimonials. Two portrait plates printed in blue, rectos only: Otto Maurer and Otto Maurer, Jr., "Prestidigitateur.". Unpaginated, 118 of 120 leaves ([240] pp.). Profusely illustrated with wood engravings.

Trade catalogue of Otto Maurer, the Bowery dealer who supplied Houdini, Thurston and Downs, issued under his Columbia Magic Trick Manufacturing Co. name. This expanded edition contains "a considerably greater number of illusions than any list heretofore published," including a substantial illustrated juggling section.The juggling section corresponds closely to Maurer's separately issued catalogue of juggler goods, recorded in a single known, 52 page copy.

Catalogue of the Niles Tool Works. Hamilton, Ohio: Niles Tool Works. Illustrated and printed by McDonald & Eick, Cincinnati, 1891. 10.25 inches, quarto. Green cloth hardcover, beveled boards, gilt title to front cover and spine, black-stamped decorative tool emblem to front cover. Text block edges lightly stained red. Floral endpapers. (second free endpaper nearly detached — see condition). x, [4], 13-244; collates complete.

A trade catalog of one of America's foremost 19th-century machine-tool builders. This copy with period California ownership and inscription evidence.

New Overland Guide to the Pacific Coast. Chicago: Rand, McNally & Company, 1888. 8.5 inches, octavo. Original pictorial stiff paper wrappers, printed in red, black, and tan with illustrated vignette to front cover. 212, [6]pp of advertisements. Includes folding map.

Railroad travel guide to the American Southwest and Pacific Coast during the Gilded Age

Catalogue C. San Francisco: The A.J. Glesener Co., 1935. 11 inches, quarto. Blue cloth, stamped in black and yellow to front cover and spine. 316 pages, illustrated throughout with products offered, including several full-page color advertisements.

Featuring period advertisements and stock from major American tool manufacturers including Starrett and Lufkin.

All Over Town. Erie, Pennsylvania: William P. Atkinson, 1873–1874. 9 inches, octavo. Original paper wrappers, printed in red and blue. 64 pp. Illustrated throughout, with extensive period advertising for local businesses, including banks, tailors, merchants, and grocers.

A fragile but visually strong survival of a scarce advertising publication.