One cannot quite profit from vows we declare,
Yet don’t give up ground to a world in disrepair.
Seek the Ancients’ counsel, heed them shrewdly,
And from La Confession Coupée, pull the slips up slowly.
Should you find that your sins are mortal and deep,
Forget hollow temptations that dazzle and creep.
But do not consign all your whims to disgrace -
Choose the sin that best suits your appetite’s taste,
And enter the New Year with pleasures embraced...

INVESTIGATION. La Confession coupée ou la Méthode facile pour se préparer aux confessions 

______

"Speech is silver, silence is golden": who but a Belgian could transform this popular adage into an ecclesiastical rule cast in the very same metal, with characteristic humor and irreverence?

Yet it was in all seriousness that Leutbreuwer, a Franciscan friar well-read in the virtues of monastic silence, conceived this incomparable catalog of sins: offering at once redemption at a lesser moral cost and a wide selection of new vices to explore...

While such silent confessions would doubtless frustrate the psychoanalyst, this compendium remains a unique archive for the historian and an unparalleled delight for the poet. It is hardly surprising that one of these exceedingly rare book-objects should have found its way into Apollinaire's Infernal Library!

SELECTION. "Deadly & Heady Sins"

______

Of all our vices, which one came first? 

Adam's envy

The Serpent's pride

God's greed

Eve's gluttony

The Divine wrath

Lazy Sundays

Or the lust brought on by all these sins...

From "the" Book to all books, no good story comes without a little transgression.

Writers and poets, hallowed be your vices, your faults be done, venial be your kingdom, in literature as it is on cloud nine.

FOCUS. Rousseau, Les Confessions

______

"If I went back into the world, I should always carry a cup and ball in my pocket, and amuse myself with it all day, to avoid being obliged to speak when I have nothing to say"

Latest Acquisitions

London’s Big Fish ◇ Who Framed François Vidocq

Ninth Circle of Shell ◇ Frankly, my dear, I don't give Adone

A Laboureur in Léotard skin ◇Man in the Miró

A Bawdy Bard ◇ You Should Play Chess by the Book

_______

Jack LONDON & Jean-Gabriel DARAGNÈS
Martin Eden

Paris ◇ [1921] 

First edition of the French translation, one of 25 numbered copies on pur fil, the only copies printed on deluxe paper.

Handsome copy in a fine stingray binding by Boichot.

Illustrated with original woodcuts by Jean-Gabriel Daragnès.

François VIDOCQ 

"I have discovered the address of Sieur Beaurepaire"  - Autograph letter signed 

Paris ◇ 22 November 1837 

Autograph letter signed by the legendary thief and con man, who from 1811 onwards served as head of the Paris security forces.

Fine printed letterhead detailing the services offered by his private detective agency.

SHELL-COVERED BINDING 
Martial Ardant frères ◇ Paris • Limoges 1858

Charming example of shellwork binding on a devotional book from 1858.

No binding entirely covered with actual shells is recorded in major databases (BL Database of Bookbindings or Reliures BnF).

Rare shell mosaic binding in high relief.

Le Cavalier MARINO
[Giambattista MARINO]
L'Adone, poema del Cavalier Marino

Presso Oliviero di Varino (Olivier de Varennes) ◇ Parigi [Paris] 1623
 
First edition of this famous Baroque poem, illustrated with a large title vignette with the coat of arms of Louis XIII, as well as numerous fine woodcut head-and tailpieces and initials.

Jean-Émile LABOUREUR
Maurice BEAUBOURG
La Saison au bois de Boulogne

André Delpeuch ◇ Paris 1928
 
Edition illustrated with 16 original copper engravings by Jean-Emile Laboureur, one of 25 numbered copies on vieux Japon à la forme, deluxe issue. Elegant Art Deco binding dated and signed by Geneviève de Léotard, 1931.

A precious copy housed in an elegant box calf binding with watered silk doublures, an original Art Deco creation by Geneviève de Léotard, pupil of Pierre Legrain.

Joan MIRÓ
Miro recent paintings

Pierre Matisse Gallery ◇ New York 1953
 
First edition, one of 100 copies numbered on Arches wove paper, the only deluxe issue. This exhibition catalogue includes three original lithographs together with numerous black-and-white and colour reproductions.

Autograph signature by Joan Miró, dated at the colophon number.

As stated in the limitation, this copy indeed includes its original lithograph, dated and signed by Joan Miró.

Georges BRASSENS
Georges Brassens chante les chansons poétiques (et souvent gaillardes...)
Volume 1

Barclay ◇ [Paris 1956]
 
New compilation of the most famous songs by the troubadour from Sète.
Autograph signature of Georges Brassens in the lower right margin of the upper cover. 

Pierre Danican PHILIDOR
L'Analyze des Echecs: Contenant Une Nouvelle Methode Pour apprendre en peu de tems à se Perfectioner dans ce Noble Jeu

S. n. ◇ London 1749
 

Pirate edition from the same year as the first edition of this bible of chess strategy. 

Binding attributable to René-François Fétil, pupil of the great Padeloup. 

The greatest chess treatise, in an elegant dentelle binding, from the library of the famous chess player Lothar Schmid, chess grandmaster and arbiter of the century, holder of the largest and most prestigious private chess book collection in the world.