The Origami Forum

What's the rarest diagram/book you have??

Mine is probably a set of diagrams of Train and cars by Max Hulme
and some convention books.

my rarest book ist "Papierfalten - Tiere, Pflanzen, Bauten, Märchen aus Papier" (paperfolding - animals, plants, buildings, fairy-tales) by Steffen Gnam. the book is from 1988, and it's quite hard to get. I have two books that should be even older (one by Robert Harbin), but don't know, where they are, so I can't check it.

Christian

Mine is a photocopy of a 1898 book called "pleasant work for busy fingers"

Mine is an early book of Akira Yoshizawa.Because it's too old and the cover was torn away since a was a little boy,I now can't remember its name. This is my first Origami book and it delivered Origami interest to me.

Lets extend the topic by including
what models are in the book and if possible the date it was published/written

Oh, mine includes Hojyo Takashi's God of Thunder.

What did you think a book from 1898 would contain??? (it doesn't even have diagrams per se - Randlett Yoshizawa symbols didn't exist yet)

What did you think a book from 1898 would contain??? (it doesn't even have diagrams per se - Randlett Yoshizawa symbols didn't exist yet)

Joan Sallas did an excellent research about origami publishings in the past of europe. Joan wrote two booklets about it, including a large list of books, beginning somewhere in 18th or 19th century. he putted a lot of research work into it and did a good job. as far as I know, his booklet are only available in german language. on our last meeting in munich, I saw some really old books with something like folding instructions in it.


Christian

hi bshval, u mean you have hojyo takashi's book? what is the title? where did you buy it?

thanks

If it wasn't clear, that was a JOKE.

Hojyo Takashi does not yet have a book, as far as I know. Diagrams for his models can be found in Tanteidan convention books, and ORU magazines, mostly.

I have Hojyo's Icarus! Isn't that pretty rare? And a freakin awesome model too.

the 1898 book was just on ebay and could still be there or was it half.com? one of the two. sincerely, dani

my rarest book is a book titled "Koten Origami" or "classical origami" by Yaejo Sakumi published in 1981 when the author was 91 years old.
i happened upon it quite by accident while shopping in a japanese fabric store in berkeley. i asked the owner if he ever carried origami books as he had some related items. he said no but had a book upstairs if i would like to take a look, i did, i loved it , we struck a deal. i didnt find out for years what the name of the book was til David Lister and i struck up a conversation. there are gorgeous full color photos in it. one section has to do with tatos created with beautiful papers. another section has intricate origami dolls, lots of cutting, again with beautiful papers, they are amazingly detailed like i have never seen. and another section has parts of the "kayaragusa" or the misnamed Kan no mado. a book from 1845. overall it is the most precious origami book i possess, but sigh as of yet have not sat down and folded any models from it. sincerely, dani