Collection: All Illustrated Books

The distribution of the collection tells the story of the genre: a few illustrated titles prior to 1800, several hundred for the 19th century, nearly 1,400 for the 20th. Three techniques dominate, each detailed in its collection: wood engraving, printed with the text on the same press; copperplate engraving, printed separately and bound in sheets; lithography, where the artist draws directly on the stone.

We classify by century rather than by subject, because an 18th-century illustrated book and an illustrated book from the 1930s do not adhere to the same collection criteria: the former is judged by the completeness of its engraved plates, the latter by its position in the print run justification and the integrity of its suites. Some pieces even cross the boundaries of the genre: our first volume of theUkiyo gafu, a collection of prints by Ikeda Eisen (Nagoya, circa 1820), reminds us that the picture book is not a European invention.Ukiyo gafu, Ikeda Eisen

Our illustrated books are divided into three collections: illustrated books before 1800, 19th-century illustrated books, andmodern illustrated books. Lovers of wood engraving taken to its highest artistic level will also find our artist's books. Each item offered has been collated before being put up for sale.

An illustrated book implies a constructed dialogue between text and image, conceived from the very design of the work: number of plates, placement, relationship to the text. A simple title vignette or an isolated frontispiece does not make it a fully-fledged illustrated book. We verify this relationship before classification.

The criteria for value change: completeness of engraved plates before 1800, quality of press illustration in the 19th century, print run rank and suites in the 20th century. Comparing an 18th-century folio with a 1930s deluxe edition makes no sense for a collector.

A tipped-in plate, from another copy or print run, can be identified by the paper and margins, which differ from the rest of the volume. We collate each piece plate by plate before appraisal, regardless of the century.

Yes. Send us photos of the title page, the colophon if it exists, and two or three plates. KOEGUI, a member of SLAM and LILA, identifies the technique, edition, and market range free of charge.