Latest Acquisitions

First edition, one of 120 numbered copies on Lafuma pure wove paper, the only large-paper issue.

Endpapers very slightly and marginally toned, two small tears at foot of spine.

A rare and much sought-after copy in original state.

First edition.

Full celadon blue morocco binding, later (ca 1920). Smooth spine decorated with mirror-tooled ornaments at tail and head connected by fillets. Fillet frame on boards. Top edge gilt. Covers and spine preserved. Uncut copy. Scattered pale foxing. 

Handsome copy in full morocco.

Last flame of late romanticism, Dominique is a sentimental novel, imbued with profound melancholy, largely inspired by autobiographical events and narrating the story of an impossible love. It is the only novel by this celebrated painter, and remains one of the great works of 19th-century French literature.

First edition, exceedingly rare copy without statement of edition, with the correct imprint dated 20 October 1912.

Restorations to spine and inner margins of the covers, a discreet fold to the low­er right corner of the front cover.

Illustrated with 26 artworks by Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, André Derain, Georges Braque, Jean Metzinger, Ma­rie Laurencin, Albert Gleizes, Fernand Léger, Marcel Duchamp, Juan Gris and Francis Picabia.

 
A fine copy despite restorations, rare without statement of edition, of this Cubist manifesto published on the oc­casion of the historic exhibition of the "Section d'Or" at the Galerie La Boétie.
 

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"It is difficult to imagine today the im­pact of Gleizes and Metzinger's book. Read, reread, celebrated or rejected, it was very quickly translated into Rus­sian and English. The Russian cultural avant-garde discussed it passionately. From the American critic Arthur Jerome Eddy to the Romanian painter Marcel Janco, they recommended reading it, at the risk of forgetting that it was less the theorists than the good painters who expressed themselves in it. The Flemish poet Paul van Ostaijen considered the book as useful for a writer as for an art­ist, and, in fact, the abandonment of the concern for resemblance of the cubist painters corresponds to the fragmenta­tion of meaning and the unusual images of Apollinaire or Reverdy. Du cubisme ends with these words: "To the par­tial freedoms conquered by Courbet, Manet, Cézanne and the Impression­ists, Cubism substitutes infinite free­dom. We now know that Cubism was not a break with the past but a door wide open to the future." (Serge Fau­chereau)

"A cause du mécanisme moderne, qui permet de reproduire le rare à d'innombrables exemplaires, le rare se meurt et, entre autres, on fait du mot merveilleux un emploi abusif [mot biffé].
Le merveilleux cesse de l'être s'il se désingularise, et l'on a une tendance à le confondre avec tout ce qui nous étonne encore : la radio, la vitesse, la bombe atomique.

Or, le merveilleux se trouve beaucoup plus en nous que dans les objets qui nous surprennent. Le véritable merveilleux, c'est la faculté d'émerveillement, qui s'émousse si vite chez l'homme. L'enfance le quitte. Il se blinde contre elle. Il juge, il préjuge. Il repousse l'inconnu [phrase biffée]. S'il laisse agir en lui cette faculté atrophiée, c'est pour fuir les fatigues qu'il s'impose. Il en use comme d'une drogue et se plonge, pour quelques heures, dans un livre ou dans un film.

Autograph manuscript by André Breton initialed three times by his hand, written in black ink on two leaves. Multiple crossed-out and rewritten passages, annotations by his hand in pencil.
Pagination in blue pen on each of the leaves. Published in the review Medium, Paris, 1st series (sheet) no. 8, June 1953.
Breton delivers spirited literary and artistic chronicles for the Surrealist review Médium - and lashes out with great virulence against the "false witnesses" and "dubious witnesses" who criticize Surrealism.
The praise of Premier bilan de l'art actuel by his friend Robert Lebel becomes the occasion for a violent attack against Michel Tapié:

"Déplorons seulement qu'on ait fait appel [...] à un faux-témoin avéré comme M. Tapié, de qui nous avions déjà pu apprendre, au mépris de toute évidence, que ceux qu'il appelle dans son affreux jargon "les informels" (Mathieu, Riopelle, et autres) œuvraient à rebours de tout automatisme et qui a aujourd'hui le front de prétendre que Brauner, Maria, Matte et Dali ont pris l'initiative de rompre avec le surréalisme "où ils ne trouvaient plus leur compte" ce qui se passe tout autre commentaire" ("Let us only deplore that they have called upon [...] a proven false witness like M. Tapié, from whom we had already learned, in defiance of all evidence, that those he calls in his dreadful jargon 'the informals' (Mathieu, Riopelle, and others) worked against all automatism and who today has the audacity to claim that Brauner, Maria, Matte and Dali took the initiative to break with surrealism 'where they no longer found their advantage' which defies all other commentary").

In three other chronicles, he receives with interest the new work by Pierre Geyraud L'Occultisme à Paris:

"Le récent procès dit "des J. 3" a appelé l'attention sur la personnalité du père de la victime, qui, sous l'anagramme de Pierre Geyraud, a mené une série d'enquêtes 'parmi les sectes et les rites" [...] M. Geyraud continue à y braver les menaces de graves représailles que lui ont valu ses divulgations. L'accent reste ici sur l'activité luciférienne [...]" ("The recent trial known as 'the J. 3' has drawn attention to the personality of the victim's father, who, under the anagram of Pierre Geyraud, has conducted a series of investigations 'among the sects and rites' [...] M. Geyraud continues to brave the threats of serious reprisals that his disclosures have earned him. The emphasis here remains on Luciferian activity [...]")

salutes the "multiple originals" by painter Jean Fautrier:

"Par un procédé à lui, de la reproduction si fidèle d'une toile jusqu'à travers ses plus menus accidents de la pâte qu'il est impossible à l'œil nu de distinguer les copies de l'original, Jean Fautrier est passé à la création d'originaux multiples [...] Le silence gardé par la critique sur cette entreprise attesterait à lui seul de sa valeur révolutionnaire. Brisant avec un mode d'agiotage particulièrement impudent, il ne s'agit rien de moins que de mettre la peinture vivante à la portée de ceux qui l'apprécient pour elle-même" ("Through his own process, of such faithful reproduction of a canvas down to its smallest accidents of paint that it is impossible for the naked eye to distinguish copies from the original, Jean Fautrier has moved to creating multiple originals [...] The silence kept by critics about this enterprise would alone attest to its revolutionary value. Breaking with a particularly shameless mode of speculation, it is nothing less than making living painting accessible to those who appreciate it for itself").

and becomes enthusiastic about the masterpiece La Chouette aveugle by Iranian poet Sadegh Hedayat:

"Jamais plus dramatique appréhension de la condition humaine n'a suscité pareille vue en coupe de notre coquille, ni pareille conscience de nous débattre hors du temps, avec les immuables attributs qui sont notre lot [...] Un chef d'œuvre s'il en fût ! Un livre qui doit trouver place auprès de l'Aurélia de Nerval, de la Gradiva de Jensen, des Mystères d'Hamsun, qui participe des phosphorescences de Berkeley Square et des frissons de Nosferatu [...]" ("Never has a more dramatic apprehension of the human condition inspired such a cross-section view of our shell, nor such awareness of struggling outside of time, with the immutable attributes that are our lot [...] A masterpiece if ever there was one! A book that must find its place alongside Nerval's Aurélia, Jensen's Gradiva, Hamsun's Mysteries, which partakes of the phosphorescences of Berkeley Square and the shivers of Nosferatu [...]").

Superb manuscript by the father of Surrealism filled with annotations and revisions.

Autograph letter signed by Emile Zola addressed to the actress Marie Laurent, dated in his hand December 16, 1896. One and a half pages in black ink on a bifolium.
Traces of horizontal and vertical folds, inherent to the mailing. Trace of violet ink in left outer margin of first leaf, not touching text.
Published in his Correspondance, ed. Bard H. Bakker, Colette Becker, October 1893-September 1897, p. 371. 
Zola attempts to help the actress Marie Laurent who created the role of Thérèse Raquin on stage, and encounters the refusal of Fernand de Rodays, administrator of Le Figaro.
President of the Orphelinat des Arts, the actress Marie Laurent had solicited the writer to support the publication of an article about the charitable work in the columns of Le Figaro. Zola meets with a categorical refusal from the newspaper's administrator Fernand de Rodays:

"Chère Madame,
Je n'ai pas de bonne nouvelle à vous donner. M. de Rodays ne m'a pas même laissé achever, et il m'a déclaré qu'il était résolu à ne publier dans le Figaro aucun article sur l'Orphelinat des Arts. Il m'a été impossible même d'insister, devant son parti pris formel. J'aurais été fort heureux de vous être agréable et je regrette l'obstacle qui m'en empêche. Je le répète, toute insistance est inutile. 
Veuillez me croire quand même, chère Madame, votre fidèle et dévoué" ("Dear Madam, I have no good news to give you. M. de Rodays did not even let me finish, and he declared that he was resolved not to publish any article about the Orphelinat des Arts in Le Figaro. It was impossible for me even to insist, faced with his formal prejudice. I would have been very happy to be agreeable to you and I regret the obstacle that prevents me. I repeat, any insistence is useless. Please believe me nonetheless, dear Madam, your faithful and devoted")

Fine letter from Emile Zola to the actress who, according to the writer, "véritablement créé le rôle de Madame Raquin [...] c'est elle qui a trouvé tout cet admirable personnage du quatrième acte, cette haute figure du châtiment implacable et muet, ces deux yeux vivants cloués sur les coupables et les poursuivant jusque dans l'agonie." ("truly created the role of Madame Raquin [...] it is she who found all this admirable character of the fourth act, this lofty figure of implacable and mute punishment, these two living eyes fixed on the guilty and pursuing them even unto agony.") (Preface to Thérèse Raquin, Drame en quatre actes, Charpentier, 1875).

First edition, "very rare and extremely sought-after" (Clouzot), one of 750 copies on laid paper, with title vignettes engraved by Henri Porret after Henry Monnier.

Skilful restoration of a tear at the foot of a page, with slight damage to a letter. A rare copy with no foxing.

Green half calf binding, smooth spines with arabesques stamped in gilt, black title labels and volume labels; marbled paper boards, spine boards and endpapers, speckled edges, later bindings in the Romantic style.

First edition, one of 1050 numbered copies on bouffant alfa paper.
Publisher's binding after the original design by Paul Bonet.
Very handsome copy complete with its flexible cardboard slipcase.

New edition printed in 3,100 numbered copies on châtaignier paper, ours one of 100 hors commerce copies.
Publisher's full cardboard binding made according to Paul Bonet's original design.
Handsome copy.