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Prestigious Designation of Provenance
Once (and not so long ago) private libraries functioned as an ostentatious assertion of self.
Bindings, prestigious editions, unica: the host and owner relied on the trained eye of his guests to gauge the importance of his collection from the mere sight of decorated spines and revealing title labels.
Today's collector can no longer expect immediate recognition of his tastes and connoisseurship from his dinner companions who are more likely to be struck with wonder by paintings rather than words.
And what a fortunate situation this is, for the building of a library is an intimate endeavor that reveals the deepest reaches of our intelligence to one who knows how to read it: in all its foundations, affinities, curiosity, complexity, diversity, secrets…
There is no complicity more powerful, nor more discreet, than that of a gaze cast across the shelves of a library. Presentation inscriptions, bookplates, armorial bindings, provenances: step inside illustrious libraries and share the intellectual intimacy of artists, scholars, writers, and the great figures of history and culture.
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Prestigious Designation of Provenance
Once (and not so long ago) private libraries functioned as an ostentatious assertion of self.
Bindings, prestigious editions, unica: the host and owner relied on the trained eye of his guests to gauge the importance of his collection from the mere sight of decorated spines and revealing title labels.
Today's collector can no longer expect immediate recognition of his tastes and connoisseurship from his dinner companions who are more likely to be struck with wonder by paintings rather than words.
And what a fortunate situation this is, for the building of a library is an intimate endeavor that reveals the deepest reaches of our intelligence to one who knows how to read it: in all its foundations, affinities, curiosity, complexity, diversity, secrets…
There is no complicity more powerful, nor more discreet, than that of a gaze cast across the shelves of a library. Presentation inscriptions, bookplates, armorial bindings, provenances: step inside illustrious libraries and share the intellectual intimacy of artists, scholars, writers, and the great figures of history and culture.
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INVESTIGATION. The brilliant story behind a gem of a book.
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Diamonds are forever... so is the written word.
In the library of celebrated jeweller Alexandre Reza lay a literary diamond: Chien Blanc [White Dog]. A presentation inscription by Romain Gary evoking the 'precious stones' of their shared youth made it the crowning gem of his collection. As a true artist of the stone, Reza then set this sublime jewel with one final emerald: an original drawing of one of his own creations.
So settle in, and discover the story behind this gem of a book.
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FOCUS. A book "uncut at the head".
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"Now, with my machine, I strike you off your head in the twinkling of an eye, and you never feel it. […] The punishment I have invented is so gentle that one would not know what to say of it, were one not expecting to die, and would think one had felt upon one's neck nothing but a refreshing coolness."
Joseph Guillotin
Base de données des députés français depuis 1789, Assemblée nationale
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"Now, with my machine, I strike you off your head in the twinkling of an eye, and you never feel it. […] The punishment I have invented is so gentle that one would not know what to say of it, were one not expecting to die, and would think one had felt upon one's neck nothing but a refreshing coolness."
Joseph Guillotin
Base de données des députés français depuis 1789, Assemblée nationale
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Our new acquisitions
Fable 6 is available ◊ You won’t forget Madame de La Guette
Who says DADA says Da! Da! ◊ A French Ace Up the R.A.F.'s Sleeves
Maurice is not fishing for compliments ◊ Do not take the kids for Granted
Little Deerbrooks make great stories
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Jean de LA FONTAINE
& Étienne FESSARD
L'auteur • Durand • Prault • Des Lauriers ◊ Paris 1765-1775
Celebrated edition entirely engraved both images and text.
A handsome copy, elegantly bound in contemporary red morocco with elaborate gilt-tooled spines, of this edition undertaken by Etienne Fessard, dedicated to the heirs to the kingdom or "enfants de France": the Duke of Berry, the Count of Provence, and the Count of Artois.
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A rare true first edition of the first Verne novel adapted for the screen
Jules VERNE
Les Enfants du capitaine Grant
Bibliothèque d'Éducation et de Récréation J. Hetzel ◊ Paris 1867-1868
Rare first edition. First volume published on 6 May 1867, the second on 27 July and the third the next year (28 January 1868). All of 18° format are first editions of Verne's novels.
A handsome copy attractively housed in contemporary bindings.
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Louise de VILMORIN
Madame de
Grasset ◊ Paris 1951
First edition, one of 350 numbered copies on alfa paper reserved for the press.
A touching and highly desirable presentation copy, inscribed by Louise de Vilmorin to her lover, the French sports shooter, businessman and politician Jean de Beaumont: "À mon Jean chéri que j'aime toujours davantage sa mendiante de baisers. Louise", with a drawing of a four-leaf clover enclosing the name Louise.
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From a fisherman-writer to another:
a precious presentation copy
Mohammed KHAÏR-EDDINE
envoi à Maurice GENEVOIX
Une vie, un rêve, un peuple, toujours errants
Éditions du Seuil ◊ 1978
First edition, no deluxe issue printed.
Rare presentation copy by Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine to a prominent French writer: "to Mr Maurice Genevoix, writer and fisherman like me, these images of a strange Morocco, in fraternal homage. Khaïr-Eddine".
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Iconic Dada journal with its subscription slip
ÉLUARD & PICABIA & TZARA & BRETON & ARAGON
Proverbe
Collection complète en 6 numéros
Proverbe ◊ Paris 1 February 1920 - 1 July 1921
An exceptionally rare complete collection in six issues of this important Dada journal, complete with its very rare sixth no. of July 1921 entitled "Invention et proverbe".
One of the most significant Dada journals published at the height of the movement with its very rare subscription leaflet.
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Limited issue memoirs of an R.A.F. ace,
with original watercolours
Pierre-Henri CLOSTERMANN & Paul LENGELLÉ
Le Grand Cirque - Souvenirs d'un pilote de chasse français dans la R.A.F.
Flammarion ◊ Paris 1948
First edition, one of 110 numbered copies on Arches pure rag wove paper, the most limited deluxe issue.
Our copy exceptionally contains two original watercolours depicting two R.A.F. bomber aircraft flown by Pierre Clostermann: the Vickers-Armstrong "Wellington" and the Bristol Beaufort.
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Catherine de LA GUETTE
Mémoires de Madame de la Guette,
écrits par elle-même
Adrian Moetjens ◊ La Haye 1681
First edition.
A very rare copy of one of the most singular and arresting 17th-century memoirs written by a woman, laying bare the exceptional life of a provincial noblewoman under the reign of Louis XIV who bore arms, rode astride, occasionally cross-dressed and even attempted to single-handedly bring the Fronde to an end.
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Harriet MARTINEAU
Deerbrook. A Novel.
Edward Moxon ◊ London 1839
First edition of the debut novel by English feminist and abolitionist Harriet Martineau, a pioneering work in raising public awareness of gender equality and public health.
This handsomely bound copy once formed part of the library of her contemporary Lady Tyrconnel at Kiplin Hall in Yorkshire.
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