Welcome to Motte & Bailey Booksellers

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We are a used and rare bookshop in Ann Arbor Michigan, with both more common and antiquarian books. We focus on American and European history, Books About Books, children's books, and scholarly titles. We have 8500 books in all subjects, with over 2,700 catalogued on our site in over 50 catalogs. New arrivals are always listed here before we post them to the internet bookselling sites.

To keep our stock interesting and growing, we buy individual books or entire libraries across our region. Also, when you visit our shop and choose 2 of our books, you get a 3rd book priced $12 of less free, each and every day, any quantity.

We are one of the few remaining booksellers in our area who perform appraisals for estate, donation, or insurance purposes. See links to to your left for more information.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or if are looking for a hard to find book. If you prefer to call, our phone number is 734.669.0451. Our hours are Mon -Sat 10-7 p.m., closed Sundays. However, you may call for an appointment.

Featured Items

Insurance in Venice from the Origins to the End of the Serenissima. Documents Published for the 125th Anniversary of the Company, 1831-1956. Two Volumes.
Stefani, Giuseppe. Translated by Arturo Dawson Amoruso.
Trieste: 1958.. First translated edition. Two very good folio sized (oversized) hardcovers in biege cloth binding without dust jackets. Both volumes have.. more
Price: $140.00

First (and only) edition. Very good in floral grey-blue cloth with medium brown floral designs, bound in the Japanese style with purple cloth ribbon, tied in 3 knots each. Title in Japanese on cover. Printed in double leaves, oriental style. Gold and silver flecked white endpapers. Small faded spot on upper left corner of back board, and a small brown spot on top page edges, affecting only the edges of 4 double leaves. 88 leaves, 44 photographs of Noh Masks, and one of the creators. Text in English and Japanese. A very scarce and lovely book, detailing the masks created by Kiyoshi (Yuisei) and his wife Hidemi (Yuishu) Mori, both members of the Nippon Noh Masks Association. The book was created to commemorate an April 1984 exhibition of their masks in New York. One of the most attractive book we have. 2 copies held in US libraries, including one in the Smithsonian.

Mugen-no-Michi (Art Unattainable) [ Noh Masks ].
Yuisei and Yuishu Mori. photos by Fumio Dodo, edited by Toru Ishikawa, introduction by Masaharu Gotoda, Chief of Cabinet Secretariat.
[probably Japan, ca. 1984 or 1985]. First (and only) edition. Very good in floral grey-blue cloth with medium brown floral designs, bound in the Japanese style.. more
Price: $350.00

Racing for the America's Cup : the Great Romance of Yachting History.
Kemp, Lieutenant Commander P. K., R.N.
London: Hutchinson & Co., 1937. Octavo (standard size). Heavy wear and chipping to edges and corners of dj, with a few short closed tears. A.. more
Price: $85.00

Horned Giants : Hunting Eurasian Wild Cattle.
Brandt, Capt. John H. (USPHS ret.).
Long Beach, CA: Safari Press, Inc., 1996. Octavo (standard size). Slight wear to edges and corner of slipcase and boards. SIGNED by author and numbered (199 of.. more
Price: $240.00

Folio. Price clipped dj has tears at front bottom and at right front corners, and a pieces missing from lower spine and back cover. Upper left corner of dj back crinkled. Cellophane tape stains to areas around tears. Corners and lower edges of boards have noticeable wear. Front board illustration bright, with only light soiling to covers. Interior clean and bright, no marks. British illustrator Kathleen Hale (1898-2000) is best known for her Orlando books, of which this is the second in that series of 19 books. For her beloved work she was recognized when she was given the Order of the British Empire in 1976. Uncommon, more so in a dust jacket of any condition. A good addition to any collection of British illustrators.

Orlando the Marmalade Cat : A Trip Abroad.
Hale, Kathleen O.B.E.
London: Country Life, 1939. Folio. Price clipped dj has tears at front bottom and at right front corners, and a pieces missing from lower.. more
Price: $500.00

A Bibliography of the State Of Ohio : Being a Catalogue of the Books and Pamphlets Relating to the History of the State ; With Collations and Bibliographical and Critical Notes, Together with the Prices at which Many of the Books have been Sold at the Pri
Thomson, Peter G. [ Gibson ].
Cincinnati, OH: the author, 1880. Thick Quarto (oversized). SIGNED and inscribed by the author to a prominent OH physician, Dr. Cyrus Falconer, in 1893 on.. more
Price: $375.00

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