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9/26/2018 Arcane stock for the Exeter Matford Antiques and Collectors fair this Saturday 29th September! This Saturday, Matt ArtPix and Arcane Publishing will be back in Exeter, this time for the Exeter Matford Antiques and Collectors fair. This is a "proper" antiques fair, and therefore, Arcane will have a special stock full of items (books and ephemera) which don't grace our stand very often. This includes some rare items including a copy of Colette's "L'Envers du Music-Hall", a book we talked about in a previous blog HERE. On this blog, we have also written about Spectacular! The Story of Epic Films and 1960s Roma: Summer Olympics Brochure - those two items will make their very forst appearance on our stall on Saturday! Matford Park Road, Marsh Barton Trading Estate EX2 8FD Exeter, Devon Public entry: 10am-4pm  And as if getting up at 4am on the Saturday were not enough, we will be doing it all over again on the Sunday (albeit nearer to our HQ and with a completely different stock) in Bridport for The Bridport Vintage Market! For this one, Arcane will mainly bring discounted books as we are trying to get rid of old stock!
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! |
AuthorArcane Publishing is a small independent imprint with a passion for beautiful books. Archives
April 2025
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