This Saturday 22 September, Arcane Publishing and Matt ArtPix are going back to their roots with a proper indoors Vintage Fair! The Arcane/ArtPix team is determined to try out as many fairs and markets in the South West as possible over the next few months! We will be trading at the Vintage Somerset fair in beautiful Wells, Somerset! Matt ArtPix will have his usual mix of vintage items and his very own vintage-inspired art, and Arcane publishing will occupy a little corner of the stall with a very special stock all about classic glamour and fashion! Check out the books and ephemera we're taking to the fair below! VINTAGE SOMERSET
Saturday 22 September Wells Town hall Market Place, Wells, BA5 2RB 9.30am to 4pm  Not exactly new in stock, though, as this lovely little volume has been part of my personal collection for many years... But there always comes a point when you need to part with some of your personal treasures... often to replace them with new ones! This wonderful little book is from the edition "Le Livre Moderne Illustré" and is beautifully illustrated by Henri Mirande. It was written by the famous and very much loved French writer Colette in 1912, when she was still working on stage and writing for the newspaper "Le Matin" (whose editor, Henri de Jouvenel, became her husband).  Colette is about to become better known in the English-speaking world as a new movie with Keira Knightley is being released soon (UK: January 2019). Colette's story is a wet dream for contemporary writers who seem to be obsessed with making period drama "relevant for modern audiences" (i.e "let's crowbar-in trendy issues even though it means twisting historical accuracy/social realities of the time" - see trailer below! - even though this time, they didn't need to make too much up!) I personally would recommend Colette's hilarious and truly wonderful "Dialogue de Bêtes" (1904) whose main protagonists are a cat (Kiki-the-demure) and a dog (Toby-Dog). The Gary Cooper picture is A4 size.
The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) and Laurel and Hardy are around A3. Did you know that a movie called Stan and Ollie will be out in early 2019 about their reunion for a tour of post-war Britain? I am still getting used to taking pictures with my phone and therefore I still get a few blurred pictures... Hopefully it will improve with time! These lovely pictures will be for sale on our stall this autumn! Check out the events we will be appearing at HERE. More to be announced soon!  Published in 1974 by Hamlyn and edited by the famous and ubiquitous John Kobal, this fantastic, big sized book (bigger than A3!) is a must for any lover of epic cinema! Starting with silent epics Cabiria (1913), Theodora (1919) and Quo Vadis? (1924), it features all the famous and infamous (such as the controversial The Birth of a Nation) movies in the genre, lavishly illustrated with full-page or double-page pictures (and a few impressive foldout sheets!) - up to the 60s. There is a little bit of water damage to the back cover.  Arcane Publishing has recently acquired a wonderful brochure of the 1960s Olympic Games (known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad (in Italian: Giochi della XVII Olimpiade). It has a bit of water/liquid damage on a few pages towards the back of the brochure, and there are a few scuffs and scratches to the front and back cover, but overall, it is in a pretty good state. There are gorgeous full-page colour adverts, maps, articles about the Italian culture, landscapes and economy, all written in five languages: Italian, French, English, German and Spanish. There are also a few very large foldout pages! It really is a nice and hefty volume!  Arcane Publishing sells second-hand, vintage and rare books and ephemera, but we also diversify with unusual items... Selling books is always tricky, and I am thinking about reaching a more international audience soon by opening an online shop for the second-hand side of Arcane. If this actually becomes reality, it would be at some point in 2019... Watch this space! In the meantime, I will post a series of blogs this week about my new acquisitions! I was lucky enough a few days ago to acquire this fantastic Tarot set, Alan Borvo's "Le Grand Oracle Celtique" - this can be used on one's own or as a group - a really beautiful tarot game published in 1981. Alan Borvo was a Frenchman from Brittany who trained as an ethnologist and had a passion for Celtic culture. In 1953, at the age of 20, he hitch-hiked across Norway and stayed with Lapp tribes for several months. This turned into an impressive archive about the Lapps'way of life at the time: SAMILAND (website in French and English). Alan Borvo was also a painter, as can be seen from the beautiful, colourful Tarot cards below! The whole game is in french, but the little guidance booklet is bilingual, and therefore any English speaker should be able to have a go... This item will be on sale on the Arcane stall this autumn/winter... The game's introductory card tells us that "This Tarot gets its symbols from the myths of ancient Celtic culture as its ones survives in Brittany, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The messages delivered by the game are directly inspired by the wisdom of the druids." Now that the summer season draws to a close, we expect things to slow down in our unit at the The Customs House in West Bay, Dorset.
We are now booking a few indoor events for this autumn and winter and are already looking at potentials for next year, especially good quality events in the South West region. We have quite a few we would like to try out on our list... Whilst Matt ArtPix has had a successful summer, sales of books have virtually stopped now for a year. I have had mixed results with my high-quality second-hand books too, and my cupboards are still full of excellent quality, rare and beautiful looking volumes about cinema, fashion, and much, much more! We still have a few copies of I Am a Muse and The Book of Thoth on the shelves, but we have removed most of my second-hand books. West Bay is not the right place to sell books, and this winter, I will look at alternative ways I could trade in lovely second-hand books - including expanding my online shop to a full-blown "Arcane Books" shop. This of course will depend on several things, including our availability (managing an online shop can be very time-consuming!) In the meantime, we have kitted out our unit with promotional posters and flyers for the next event we will attend: Vintage Somerset in Wells on 22nd September. Arcane will bring some hand-picked books about Fashion (these were really successful at the Giant Shepton Flea in June!) and a few rare volumes about some gorgeous cinema icons!  Arcane Publishing had a stall at the Bridport Bookfest in West Bay on Saturday. Unfortunately, whilst West Bay is always packed on a sunny summer day, the weather had decided to turn once again and the very wet harbour was mostly deserted! Nevermind... at least we authors and publishers were all inside, dry and cosy. We had decided to try out a more elaborate display than usual for our books, and had gathered a variety of items that would reflect the contents of the novels.  For I Am a Muse, a contemporary tale of lost love and artistic inspiration mostly set in Cornwall, we used stones and shells found on various beaches, a guide book of Cornwall and a vintage vinyl record with a sleeve showing a surfer in action to evoke the surfer's life of the group of friends featured in the book; as a tribute to the characters of Alda and Alastair, both painters, we brought with us the original painting purchased at Alexandra Palace's Antiques and Collectors Fair a few years ago (it lives in Miss Gish's office at home!), an easel and a real vintage painter's palette with brushes and old paint tubes. We even found a paint-stained sheet which added "authenticity" to the whole thing! Unfortunately, we had forgotten to bring our lovely vintage mannequin head... Next time! For The Book of Thoth, a Gothic novel mostly set in 1925 and full of ghosts, alchemists, Ancient Egyptian gods, time-travellers and other strange and marvellous things, we gathered quite a few items bought at antiques and collectors fairs, including two issues of The Play magazine which features towards the end of the book, and lovely postcards of the actress Pauline Chase to illustrate Lady Sophia Chronos's pre-WW1 stage career. Of course, Thoth and Princess Amunet were not forgotten - we do have in our possession a framed (fake) Ancient Egyptian papyrus showing the passage between Life and Death, perfect to express various themes in the book. And of course, Lord Vangelis Chronos's alchemical experiments were alluded to thanks to an assortment of old brass objects of dubious provenance purchased at the Giant Shepton Mallet flea! (Witchy candle and dusty chandelier, author's own).
I do hope I will have the opportunity to put this display together again at another event... There will be some announcements soon about the next events the ArtPix / Arcane Publishing team will attend, and we also have a few very cool music-related events planned for the autumn... Oil 54 and Arcane Publishing have also started working on the next LONDON: Winter Tales event (#3). We have sent a few emails and if everything goes to plan, you will be in for a real treat early next year! Read about forthcoming events as well as about our previous Winter Tales events, go HERE.  On Saturday 11th August, I will have a stall at the Bridport Bookfest which will take place at the Salt House and Fishermen's Green in West Bay, Bridport, Dorset. For this event, I am going to have fun and experiment with my display. I will put together a stand which reflects the narrative and setting of each book. I have found quite a lot of fab items and will just make it up as I go along. Obviously, I will post pictures once the event is over! Below are some pictures of a few items I will bring along, there will be many more! People will then be able to go and have a look at the Matt ArtPix/Arcane Publishing unit round the corner at The Customs House! Yes, it is true! Oil54 and Arcane Publishing have just started planning for our third London: Winter Tales event, which will take place in London in early 2019. Once again, expect a mixture of spoken words, literature and music! We already have some great names on our list, so fingers crossed it all come together! We are also thinking about expanding the event in both scope and capacity... We hope to be able to announce the details on 24th November in London at another special event - WATCH THIS SPACE! Here is a video which gives a hint about the theme of our next event - and no, it is NOT pornography. |
AuthorArcane Publishing is a small independent imprint with a passion for beautiful books. Archives
September 2018
CategoriesAll Art Books Collaborations Events Ideas Literature Press Promo Promotional Material Promotional Material Publication Publishing Second Hand Books Second Hand Books Second-hand Books Shop Work In Progress Work In Progress |
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