Welcome to our new website. We are located in Westhampton, New York, open by appointment only and with sales via the internet. We are full-time dealers in antiquarian books, maps, photographs, prints, paper ephemera and works of art, specializing in historical manuscript collections, business archives, and with a sub-specialty in Long Island historical material.

There are thousands of items presently catalogued in the Certain Books website, many of which are one-of-a-kind. Please enjoy browsing our site or use the advanced search feature when looking for a specific item.

George Krzyminski, Proprietor of Certain Books, ABAA

Featured Items

The first letter dated 29 Nov. 1937, handwritten in blue ink on 3 sides of Beverly-Wilshire Beverly Hills California letterhead-imprinted folded notepaper and signed in full; in this letter, Romola Nijinsky recounts the kindnesses shown to her by the addressee, one Mrs. Vance of El Paso Texas and gives thanks for hospitality, looking forward to perhaps continuing her lecture tour in Mexico and later, returning to Europe - the wording very personal and complimentary to her Texas hostess - "...You looked so lovely (although you always do) the evening of the lecture, you ought to be painted like this..."; the second letter, dated June 7 1947 on thin airmail paper, typed and signed in black ink; much darker in tone and almost pleadingly pathetic; written from Mittersill Castle Austria; stating in part, "...Next fall we intend to go with my husband to the U.S.A. We have had an awful time during the war as we were war prisoners in Hungary. After unspeakable sufferings and hardships we were liberated in 1945 by the Russian Army and went to Vienna, were(sic) we stayed one year as guests of the British commander in Chief; later General Clark put this glorious unique medieaval Castle of the 11th century to my husbands disposal...If I may trouble you do send us a food parcels; It is awfully hard to get here anything, for no money of the world can you obtain any canned meat, fruit or fruit juice...Thanking you in advance..." and signed in full Romola Nijinsky; both letters with their mailing envelopes; with postal cancellations; and both envelopes with evidence of being mounted to a souvenir album page at some time, with adhesive residue on envelope backs; the letters themselves with light wear and in very good condition, interesting content touching on the life of the great Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950), considered one of the 20th century's greatest ballet dancers and choreographers; after his mental collapse, Romola cared for him and traveled Europe in search of a cure for his affliction.

2 Letters with Good Content, Signed By Romola Nijinsky, 1937 and 1947; Wife of Ballets Russes Dancer & Choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky.
(Romola Nijinsky)
California and Austria: Not Published, 1937. The first letter dated 29 Nov. 1937, handwritten in blue ink on 3 sides of Beverly-Wilshire Beverly Hills California letterhead-imprinted.. more
Price: $1,000.00

C 120 pages; with approximately 250 photographic images in black and white, which cover the ski sports club's seasons of 1953 to 1963, usually 3 1/2" x 4 3/4" format, with several larger 6" x 9" & others which are mostly enlargements of the smaller imagery, recording skiing trips and social events that were held by the club; with several pages of newspaper clippings and club announcement sheets, officer lists, event tickets, publicity and news related to the club, also tipped-in; most of the materials mid-1950s; one especially nice feature is that most of the material and photographs are identified in white ink on the album pages - with also humorous little stick figure skiing-themed artwork that accompany the items within - often, candid, funny comments go along with the images of club members; events including: the Long Island Olympic Ski Ball, with the ladies in their gowns in a beauty competition, Spring picnic, annual dinners, summer camping at Woodcliff Park, ski waxing party, Christmas party (at Charlotte Galligan's house), Bromley and North Creek skiing trip photos and accompanying report on the trip; summer events including water skiing and Fire Island barbecue; various prize-winner items; Halloween party at Lars Jacobsen's; New Year's weekend at Killington Basin & Sugarbush; trips to Hillcrest Inn, Mt. Snow, Hog Back, Highmount, Cannon Mountain, Belleayre - Colonial Inn; an interesting page of photos of dryland skiing at Kissena Park, LI; each year's section compiled by another 'author', usually with their name on the year's title page - this evidently a club member ongoing effort to record their history; contained in a large, oblong format album, 11 1/2" x 15 1/2" approx. size; heavy, scalloped-edge wooden boards, with "Sunrise" of Sunrise Ski Club in jigsaw-cut script lettering on cover ('Ski Club' lettering gone, leaving the shadow of the title words); with leather thong tied side-binding; some wear to boards, ageing; some black-paper page edges chipped; a few newspaper clippings & items have become detached - photos mounted in, not glued-down; one section of a few pages at back with some top-edge damage, with a few photos lost or damaged from water-stain; overall, contents and boards in very good condition and interesting Long Island winter sports and social club history from the middle part of the 20th century, recording a group of people having a lot of fun.

1953-1963 Album of Photographs and Memorabilia from the Sunrise Ski Club Valley Stream Long Island New York
(Sunrise Ski Club)
No Place Listed: Not Published, 1953. C 120 pages; with approximately 250 photographic images in black and white, which cover the ski sports club's seasons of.. more
Price: $350.00

A broken volume of this botanical book, with 8 (of 20) of the color plates, each about 9 1/2" x 12" and in very good condition, with careful coloring and well-done; also contains a first appearance of a William Wordsworth work, "Verses Composed at the Request of Jane Wallas Penfold' dated 1 January 1843 and another set of verses by her friend Mrs. Calverley Bewicke, "Song of the Madeira Flowers" 1844; with the extra illustrated title page which has some coloring (albeit titles faded, as is much of that page); with 12 of the pages of botanical textual description, as well as the subscribers list; all leaves had been excised from the original binding; boards still here, dull green cloth, with flower-filled urn cover design in gilt and repeated in blind on back; boards soiled and worn, spine covering coming loose; in good condition; see Christie's South Kensington 9/25/2007 Sale # 5139 Lot 414 Travel & Natural History for further details on this Madeiran botany - which in part notes this as "...RARE: the subscribers' copies number 66 and it seems unlikely that many more copies were printed; only two copies (the Plesch and Duchess of Manchester copies) are recorded at auction by ABPC since 1975." 1875 Bibliography Reference BM(NH) IV, p. 1542; Nissen BBI 1503; Pritzel 7030; Stafleu and Cowan 7629.

Madeira Flowers, Fruits, and Ferns, a Selection of the Botanical Productions of That Island, Foreign and Indigenous, Drawn and Coloured from Nature
Penfold, Jane Wallas
London: Reeve, Brothers, 1845. A broken volume of this botanical book, with 8 (of 20) of the color plates, each about 9 1/2" x.. more
Price: $500.00

The Little Red Hen And the Wheat
(Childrens Book - Miniature)
No Place Noted: No Publisher, 1920. (8) pages; recounting this children's fable, with 9 color illustrations within; miniature size, 2 1/16" x 2 3/4" approx. size;.. more
Price: $65.00

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