ANONYME

Second edition, as scarce as the first published in 1836 of this pamphlet. Illustrated with a folding plate as frontispiece, and 8 plates, including two folding ones.
With an engraved medallion on the cover. Spine lacking for two-thirds of its length, without affecting the integrity of the work.

NB: This item is available at the bookshop upon request within 48 hours.

Second edition after the original of 1766, published by the same publisher.

Half emerald morocco binding from the mid-19th century. Spine with raised bands decorated with 5 flowers and fillets.

The work is a libertine entertainment on elegance and fashion in novelistic form; it is the story of an elegant man and his tribulations in society.

First edition. Bound at the end of the volume are 4 edicts with separate paginations, the last dated 20 January 1706.
Contemporary full calf binding, spine with raised bands and gilt tooling. Red morocco title label partly lacking. Upper headcap partially torn. Lower headcap damaged with losses. Wormholes along the spine.

NB: This work is available at the bookshop on request within 48 hours.

First edition of the French translation.

Our copy is issued in its original state, preserved in a blue paper temporary wrapper and housed within a double chemise and slipcase in navy half-shagreen, smooth spine, marbled-paper boards; a modern binding signed by Devauchelle.

A rare and appealing copy.

Recorded in the CCF only at the BnF.

Sole edition of this theatrical jeu d’esprit, which bears little relation to China despite the purported setting of the action: "La scène se passe à Pé-King, l’an du monde 100, 857, et de Con-Fou-Tsée 6550". In reality, it is a play about the destructive nature of gambling, for which there was no real need to summon China as a...

9 paintings on silk in a folding album with biographies in Chinese and English. This album was certainly intended for the English to provide knowledge of Chinese mythology.
Chinese-style binding in folding format that can be opened from the right or the left. Covered in 20th-century red watered silk. 9 traditional paintings in glue on silk (11.2x16.3). Framed with bands of raw silk. Facing the painting on the left, text in Chinese then in English. In the margin above the Chinese text, the manuscript name in grey pencil of each divinity in Italian. The text pages show traces of a central fold. The legend of the first painting appears to be missing, unless this first painting serves as a...

A collection of two first editions of Italian translations, each devoted to a figure of eighteenth-century French secret diplomacy and published during their lifetimes: the Chevalier d'Éon and Prince Charles Edward Stuart, d. 1810 and 1788 respectively. 

This sammelband, combining two separately published works, in fact possesses a genuine thematic unity: cross-dressing.

Rare first edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with a folding map printed outside the text and with outline colouring.

Our copy has been extra-illustrated with a folding engraving "Vue générale de l'île d'Elbe et de la ville de Porto-Ferrajo" (Paris, Pillet, numbered 26).

Contemporary half calf over corners, smooth spine gilt with fillets, date gilt at foot, burgundy calf title label lettered lengthwise, some rubbing to joints and edges, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, contemporary binding.

The only edition, very scarce, of this account strictly contemporary with Napoleon’s arrival on the island of Elba.

The final two leaves contain...

Erotic playing card with hidden image, unknown manufacturer, produced in France around 1860. Lithograph colored with pochoir, blank verso.
When held up to the light, the card reveals an erotic scene: the lady is amusing herself with a dildo.
A curiosity!