Londres (Gb)

First edition and the inaugural volumes of this significant scientific periodical, whose publication continued until 1954.

Volumes 43, 4, 5, and 6 are illustrated with respectively 332 in-text figures, 392 figures, 138 in-text figures, and 179 in-text figures.

Contemporary half-sheep bindings in brown, smooth spines decorated with gilt fillets and garlands, spines rubbed, red lettering and volume labels with a few minor losses on some volumes, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, sprinkled edges, some volumes slightly rubbed at the extremities, the upper corner of the fourth volume lacking, a few snags to the board edges; period bindings.

The first three years include Claude Bernard’s experimental pathology lectures—on toxic and medicinal substances, bodily fluids, the nervous system, and related subjects—as well as contributions by Louis Pasteur, Étienne-Jules Marey, Gustave Flourens, Alfred Vulpian, Marcellin Berthelot, Virchow, and others.

First edition of the English translation of "De Logomachiis eruditorum" (Amsterdam, 1688) by the Swiss Reformed theologian Samuel Werenfels (1657–1740), a notably engaging essay on the obstacles to concord among Christians created by the endless disputes over the terminology used to define points of belief.

A few small spots of foxing.

Full speckled fawn calf, the spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt compartments and gilt tools; rubbing to the spine, the gilt title almost entirely effaced, headcaps trimmed down with a small loss to the tailcap; gilt double-fillet border with gilt corner tools on the covers; some wear to the board edges with gilt fillets, corners softened; edges sprinkled red; contemporary binding.

A few small spots of foxing.

Copy from the library of Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, bearing his armorial bookplate “Re que Diou” from the Château de Valençay, mounted on the front endpapers.

A highly appealing provenance, given the fundamental scepticism of the former bishop of Autun.

Rare first edition of this small opus, traditionally regarded as constituting the fourth part (of five) of the *Euphormionis Satyricon*, an allegorical satire of the tastes of King James I, and the author’s second most important work after his *Argenis* (cf. Brunet I, 652.)

Full brown calf, spine with five raised bands, compartments decorated with gilt floral tools, cherry-calf lettering piece, headcaps restored, trace of a shelving label at the foot of the spine, single blind fillet framing the boards, gilt fillets to board edges, lower corners rubbed, sprinkled edges, slightly later binding.

Loss restored to the title-page, which also bears two ink annotations; edges slightly trimmed.

The first part appeared under the London imprint in 1605, the second in 1607 under the Paris imprint, and the third in 1611 under the title “Apologia Euphormionis pro se”.

However, these last two texts are not works of fiction and are only loosely connected to the first two parts.

The present work, which may be rendered as Icon animorum, is in fact an essay offering, from life, a description and classification of the traits that mark both the differences and the affinities among Europeans.

Barclay examines their inner and outward signs, stemming sometimes from the conditions of human nature and education, sometimes from national character and from social or professional determinants.

Here the European man receives one of his earliest and most contrasted definitions, blending history and geography, culture and secularized religious ideals, in a treatise that eludes generic classification, abounds in stylistic gems, and compels today’s reader to reflect on his own preconceptions.

First separate edition, the text having previously appeared in the series Philipp's new voyages and travels (London, 1820–1823) (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 308).

Bradel-style binding in full grey boards, smooth spine, title label, sprinkled edges; a modern binding.

An exceptionally early account of the coastal region between Macao and Canton, published anonymously despite the initials J.R. at the end of the preface (this J.R. served as supercargo on the ship The Friendship).

First edition of the French translation (cf. Atabey, 557 (text) and 569 (atlas). Blackmer, 788 (atlas). Hage Chahine, 2105.)

Contemporary half brown shagreen, spines uniformly sunned and faded, raised bands framed with black fillets, marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers, gilt edges; a few lightly rubbed corners, one small defect to the foot of the edges of the fifteenth volume.

Some light foxing in the text volumes.

The atlas volume, folio, is issued in parts under ten beige paper wrappers with printed blue labels; the wrapper of part 6 is lacking; the general map of the Ottoman Empire has been restored in the final part; light foxing to the covers.

The original German edition was published in Budapest in ten volumes between 1827 and 1835. The illustrations comprise thirty-nine maps and plans—principally battle plans—prepared by the translator J. J. Hellert. The text includes eight folding genealogical tables of Ottoman princes and high dignitaries.

Joseph von Hammer, a renowned Austrian orientalist and diplomat, was born in Graz (Styria) in 1774. He entered the Royal Academy of Oriental Languages in Vienna, where he studied Turkish, Persian and Arabic. In 1799 he undertook his first journey to Constantinople; the following year he joined the British admiral Sidney Smith in the campaign against the French in Egypt as interpreter and translator. He attended the grand vizier’s council at Jaffa and the surrender of Alexandria. In 1802 he became secretary to the Austrian legation in Constantinople, from which he travelled into Asia Minor and Greece. Posted in 1806 to the consulate-general at Jassy in Moldavia, he was appointed interpreter at the Viennese chancellery in 1807. In 1817 he rose to the rank of court councillor. After inheriting the estates of the Counts of Purgstall, he added their name to his own and was created baron in 1835. He translated numerous oriental works into German and played a major role in the founding of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, serving as its first president from 1848 to 1849. He died in Vienna in 1856. "Aucun orientaliste avant lui n'a connu plus intimement les peuples musulmans et n'a autant contribué à nous faire connaître leurs mœurs, leur histoire et leur littérature […]. Il passa trente ans à réunir les documents [de son Histoire de l'Empire ottoman], qu'il a tirée de manuscrits orientaux et des archives de Saint-Marc à Venise, de celles de Vienne, et de tous les ouvrages publiés en Europe sur l'Empire ottoman" (Hoefer, XXIII, 259-267). Provenance: S. H. Weiss bookshop in Constantinople, located on the Grande Rue de Pera opposite the Russian consulate (label in each text volume).

Rare work. 

First edition of this periodical, comprising for the complete year 1781 (from 2 January to 28 December) 104 issues, the text printed in two columns with continuous pagination.

Contemporary half calf, mottled fawn, smooth spines decorated with gilt compartment tooling and floral ornaments, beige calf lettering-pieces and blue calf volume labels; minor losses and rubbing to spines and joints, a few scuffs to the blue paper boards, bumped corners, red edges; bindings contemporary to publication.

Transposition of ff. 357–58 and 359–60; initials in black ink and numbering to the endpapers; bookplate affixed and marginally torn in the first volume, another bookplate covered over in the second.

A biweekly periodical founded in June 1776, published until December 1792.

Its contributors included Serres de la Tour, Théveneau de Morande, and Brissot—already well-known publicists and scarcely “ministerial,” as was then said. Printed in England for readerships on both sides of the Channel, though primarily intended to inform a French audience about English institutions, it was avidly read in Paris, especially throughout the Anglo-French war over the American colonies. Along its columns one finds exceptionally rich documentation on that conflict (relative strengths, reports of naval and land engagements, debates in the English Parliament, diplomatic negotiations, etc.). Yet this was not its sole interest: what especially captured French readers of the Courier during this period of anglomania—and what chiefly accounts for the periodical’s value—were its detailed accounts of major English parliamentary sessions, together with numerous articles translated from and drawn from English and American newspapers.

Rare edition presenting the bilingual text in two facing columns (French–Piedmontese).

No copy recorded in the CCF.

A scarce version in the Piedmontese dialect (then the vehicular language for much of the population of the former duchy), issued by one of the Protestant Bible societies, likely intended for the Waldensian and related communities still well established in the valleys.

Contemporary full black shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands ruled in blind, rubbing to the spine, triple blind-ruled panels on the covers, yellow endpapers and pastedowns, inner hinge split, all edges gilt, corners lightly worn.

Copy presented to Wilbraham Taylor by The Foreign Conference and Evangelization Committee in 1851 (printed presentation label mounted on the front endpapers).

Embossed stamp and label of the Forbes Library in Northampton on an endleaf and on the title-page.

New edition.

Half calf binding in tan, spine with five raised bands tooled in gilt with gilt compartments decorated with floral motifs, blond calf title label, green paper boards with scratches, some rubbing to edges, red edges, contemporary binding.

Spine restored and rubbed, tear without loss to the head of pages 33–34 and 35–36, ink marginal note on the title page, which has been trimmed by the binder.

The first edition of Recherches sur l'origine du despotisme oriental dates from 1761, and the text was extensively revised by Baron d’Holbach to reflect his atheistic views, as he was in fact the editor of all the works attributed to Boulanger, who died in 1759.

Originally conceived as a commentary on Montesquieu’s Esprit des Lois, the work condemns in equal measure what it calls “theocracy” (in reality, any transcendent source of power) and “despotism” (in effect, any form of unlimited monarchy, wrongly associated with non-Western societies), and is clearly aimed at criticizing the regimes then in force in Europe.

Second illustrated edition, with five plates, including one hand-coloured, one partly coloured, and one aquatint (cf. Sinkankas 4286; Borba de Moraes 542; not in Sabin).

Half beige sheep binding, smooth spine with some rubbing, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns; modern binding signed Houdart.

Some light foxing; numerical notes in the upper right corner of the half-title.

An interesting work, largely devoted to the diamonds of Brazil.

First published in 1813 and reprinted in 1815, this edition—despite the statement on the title page—would thus be the third rather than the second (cf. Borba de Moraes). “Largely concerns Brazilian diamonds and their comparison with stones found elsewhere” (Maggs).

The plates depict: “Colored Stones” (hand-coloured frontispiece), “Peculiar Diamonds” (partly coloured), various types of diamonds (black plates nos. I and II), and “Diamond cutter [and] Diamond polisher” (two aquatint vignettes).

First edition of the French translation prepared by Jean-Nicolas Jouin de Sausseul (see Quérard VII, 330, who erroneously lists 4 parts; Cioranescu XVIII, 59 618; not in Sabin).

Full mottled fawn calf binding, smooth spines divided into compartments and decorated with gilt fleurons, some rubbing, light brown morocco title labels, green morocco volume labels, gilt rolls slightly faded at the headcaps, single gilt fillet framing the boards, gilt fillets along the edges, bumped corners, red edges, contemporary bindings.

Two small patches of missing leather to the lower cover of the second volume.

The original English edition appeared in 1781 under the title Emma Corbett.

One of the earliest English novels inspired by the loss of the American colonies; it enjoyed great success in Britain. Samuel Jackson Pratt (1749–1814) was a prolific man of letters whose works achieved a popularity comparable to that of Mme Cottin, a writer of a similar period and sensibility.

Pirate edition of 1812, imprint dated 1796. It features the exact pagination of the genuine 1796 edition, as well as the 13 plates and 2 frontispieces by Monnet, Mlle Gérard and Fragonard fils engraved by Baquoy, Duplessi-Bertaux, Dupréel, Godefroy, Langlois, Lemire, Lingée, Masquelier, Patas, Pauquet, Simonet and Trière. The pirate edition is identified by the letters “R. p. D.” in the plates' lower margins, as they have been retouched by Delvaux. In addition, the fillet preceding the date on the title-page is wavy, and the title is presented in seven lines rather than eight.

Bound in full morocco, slight rubbing on the corners, all edges gilt, splendid binding signed by Hardy.

A very fine copy in a magnificent decorated full morocco binding by Hardy.

Rare French first edition, translation by Butel-Dumont.

Full brown sheep binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt and tooled compartments, modern red morocco lettering-piece, restored tear and wear to the spine, one joint split at foot, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to board edges, rubbed corners, contemporary binding.

The Acadia map is missing from our copy. It is extremely rare and is only found in a few copies. Sabin 35958. Leclerc 732.

Bookplate of the Marquis de Bassano pasted on a pastedown.

Head of collection of this important medical periodical, whose significance needs no further demonstration. It was published until 1914 (volume XLII) and included most of the essential contributions to the advancement of medical science in the 19th century.

The set is illustrated with 61 plates hors-texte, some lithographed and/or folding.

Half cherry calf bindings, smooth spines decorated with gilt fillets, romantic arabesques and blind-stamped fleurons, a few small rubs to some headcaps or joints, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, some corners slightly bumped, marbled edges, period bindings.

Beautiful set in a contemporary romantic binding signed by Bunetier.

Illustrated edition of the first series which had previously appeared in 1836. Rare. Very fine printing on tinted laid paper, of great modernity when compared to French printings of the same period. Third edition statement on title page.

Preface to the first and second edition. 2 frontispieces and 7 plates on heavy laid paper in each volume by George Cruikshank. John Ruskin declared that after Rembrandt, no one had engraved scenes so fine. Although it is noted in manuscript on the endpaper "First illustrated edition", this is doubtless an error since the first series in first edition and the second were equally illustrated by Cruikshank. 

Late 19th-century English bindings in full blonde calf signed July File. Spines with raised bands decorated with gilt compartments. Red morocco title labels, red morocco volume labels. Complex shaped frames on boards. Top edge gilt. Brown marbled paper slipcase with tan morocco borders. A few small brown spots on spines, otherwise exceptional copy with immaculate paper, of perfect freshness, which is of very great rarity for Dickens's works, notably the engravings. The paper used is different from those habitually used for Dickens's works and resembles a deluxe paper printing, thicker.

Dickens's first published book, most of the sketches appeared previously in different newspapers under the pseudonym Boz.

Rare first edition illustrated with 9 plates, including a large folding map.

Publisher’s binding in full havana cloth, smooth spine decorated in black, vignette of a ship within a double black circle on the upper cover, black endpapers and pastedowns, joints split, corners slightly rubbed.

The author was a former officer of the 90th Light Infantry Regiment and wrote several works on various military subjects.

Manuscript ex-libris of R. B. Knight on the half-title, blue ink stains on the edges at the beginning of the volume.

Second issue, printed in March-April 1917, one month after the first edition published in February of the same year.
Publisher's red cloth.
Exceptional inscribed copy signed by H.G. Wells to André Citroën: “To André Citröen who has to do his share in making a new world out of a very shattered old one. From H. G. Wells.”
The inscription echoes the chapter of the book entitled New arms for old ones, in which Wells describes the armament factory created by Citroën to remedy the French artillery weakness. Reconverted at the end of the war, the factory will become the first Citroën automobile manufacturer.

First edition with 46 illustrations by Harry Furniss.
Publisher's binding over flexible paper boards, discreet and light repairs on the
joints, all edges gilt.
Autograph inscription dated and signed by Lewis Carroll to Mrs Cole.

First edition in Spanish, printed simultaneously with the French edition (Not cited by Sabin, who records only the French version under no. 39838).

Contemporary mottled tan sheep bindings, spines with four raised bands decorated with gilt dentelle and floral tools, red morocco lettering- and volume-pieces, headcaps shaved, gilt dentelle framing on the boards, marbled endpapers, corners rubbed, bindings signed "Felipe Montilla, Merida de Yucatán".

Joints split at head and foot of the first volume, joints rubbed, small marginal tears to a few leaves of the first volume without loss of text, light waterstaining to the edges of both volumes.

This collection of documents constitutes a complete history of the French intervention in Mexico and the ill-fated imperial venture of Maximilian.

Very rare collection comprising offprints of original editions of articles and reviews first published in the Journal des savants or the Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient.

Bradel binding in green bottle cloth-backed boards, flat spine decorated with a central gilt ornament and double gilt fillet at foot, red morocco title label, marbled paper boards, some original wrappers preserved, modern binding signed Boichot.

Most of the fascicles are by the Indologist Auguste Barth (1834–1916), one of the founders of the École française d'Extrême-Orient, and the originator of Indochinese epigraphy through his studies of Sanskrit inscriptions in Cambodia. He was also a specialist in Indian religions.

The collection includes the following items:

I. Die Religion des Veda, von Hermann Oldenberg. Berlin, Wilhelm Hertz, 1894 (September 1896, 55 pp.).

II. Le pèlerin chinois I-Tsing. Edouard Chavannes: Voyages des pèlerins bouddhistes (...). Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1894 (November 1898, 52 pp.).

III. Le Mahavastu, Sanskrit text published for the first time with introductions and commentary, by E. Senart. 1882–1897 (October 1899, 41 pp.).

IV. Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde, edited by Georg Bühler. Strasbourg, Karl-J. Trübner, 12 fascicles published from 1896 to 1899 (September 1900, 82 pp.).

V. Le Cambodge. Le Royaume actuel, by Etienne Aymonier, Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1900 (August 1901, 17 pp.).

VI. Kaccayana's Pali Grammar, by Satis Chandra Acharya Vidyabhusana, London and Calcutta, 1901 (October 1902, 16 pp.).

VII. Lunet de Lajonquière, Inventaire descriptif des monuments du Cambodge, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, E. Leroux éditeur, 1902 (July 1903, 4 pp.).

VIII. On the Origin and Diffusion of Fables. Francesco Ribezzo: Nuovi studi sulla origine e la propagazione delle favole indo-elleniche comunemente dette esopiche. Napoli, Francesco Giannini, 1901 (January 1904, 29 pp.).

IX. L'École française d'Extrême-Orient (Hanoi, Imprimerie F.-H. Schneider, n.d. [1900], 11 pp.).

X. Stele of Vat Phou, near Bassac (Laos) (1902, 2 unnumbered ff., 6 pp., one folding plate).

XI. The Doublets of the Stele of Say-Fong. Letter to the Director of the École française d'Extrême-Orient (1903, 7 pp.).

XII. FOUCHER (Alfred): Report to the Governor-General of Indochina on the work of the École française d'Extrême-Orient during the year 1901 (1902, 10 pp.). – XIII. LEVI (Sylvain): Chinese Notes on India (1902, 2 unnumbered ff., 10 pp.).

XIV and XV. FINOT (Louis): Notes on Epigraphy (n.d. [1902], and 1903, 36 pp., one unnumbered leaf of errata and 4 photogravure plates).

XVI. SPECHT (Edouard): On the Deciphering of Sindo-Ephthalite Coins (Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1901, 43 pp.).

Most of the pamphlets bear a signed presentation inscription from the authors to Father Boyer.

First edition, of great rarity (cf. Sabin 4182).

Bradel-style binding in full orange paper-covered boards, with a brown shagreen spine label; modern binding.

A very good copy.

A vindication of France’s conduct during the uprising of the British colonies in America.

First edition, with a photographic portrait of H.G. Wells as frontispiece to the first volume.

Illustrated throughout.

Some minor foxing, mostly to the edges.

Contemporary black half-shagreen bindings with cornerpieces, spines with three raised bands, gilt-stamped marine anchors at the foot (a few showing some loss), and gilt medallions on the upper boards featuring the ocean liner Normandie with three inlaid red and black shagreen pieces representing its smokestacks; marbled endpapers and pastedowns, with small red dots in the upper corners of the first flyleaves. Bound at the time for the Normandie.

A handsome copy with distinguished provenance.

First edition. The third volume includes the four-page William Blackwood catalogue of recent publications and twenty pages of the general Blackwood catalogue. This extensive catalogue is seldom found at the end of the volume; however, the presence of the four-page catalogue is a known indicator of the first issue. Brick-red cloth covers and spine preserved and mounted at the end of the volume. The edition was issued in five different bindings; this copy is in the very first state, A, with 'Wm. Blackwood' printed at the foot of the spines.

Late 19th-century English binding in brown half morocco over marbled boards. Spine with raised bands in Jansenist style. Gilt lettering for author, title, volume number and date. Top edge gilt. Spines evenly sunned. Minor rubbing. Headpiece fragment missing on volume 3. A crisp set, with a small marginal tear (a few millimetres) to the title-page of volume 2.

A handsome copy.

First edition of this splendid theatre programme, with an introductory text by Raymond Blathwayt. Illustrated with six exquisite double-page colour plates by Yoshio Markino. The play was written by David Belasco.

Japanese-style accordion fold. Illustrated cover. Some foxing to the covers, otherwise a very well-preserved copy.

First edition, one of the rare numbered copies printed on red papier bouffant, the only deluxe issue alongside 5 copies on Hollande.

Covers slightly and marginally soiled, two initials in red ink in the upper left corner of the front cover.
Illustrated with a "portrait de crotte de bique et couillandouille par eux-mêmes" [portrait of goat-dropping and dick-and-drumstick by themselves.]

Very famous work from the Dadaist canon, written by Pansaers one year before his untimely death — the personal copy of painter Theo van Doesburg, with his autograph signature. In 1917, Doesburg had co-founded the renowned De Stijl neoplasticist movement with Piet Mondrian.

Doesbourg had joined the Dada movement in 1921, and also became one of its theorists. As Marguerite Tuijn notes, “Van Doesburg was deeply impressed by Pansaers. This artist was one of the few Belgian Dadaists, a mysterious figure and a quintessential poète maudit. In early 1920, he also arrived in Paris, where he created a small number of Dadaist works. Among others, he wrote *Le Pan-Pan au cul du nu nègre* (1919) and *Bar Nicanor* (1920). In April 1921, he left the Dada movement. He died at the end of October 1922.” (Theo van Doesburg. A New Expression of Life, Art and Technology, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 26 February – 29 May 2016, p. 72).

One of the most desirable copies of this "PAN-DADA" masterpiece, in  Pansaers' own words.

Unpublished political, scientific and historical archives

The complete manuscript unpublished papers of Louis, Chevalier de Sade (1753-1832), author of the Lexicon politique and cousin of the famous Marquis.
The important geopolitical, historical, and scientific archives of a learned aristocrat, a privileged witness of the end of the Ancien Régime, the French Revolution, the Consulate, Empire, and Restoration.
A unique fund of research on the implementation of a constitutional monarchy.

First UK edition.

Publisher’s binding in full grey cloth, smooth spine, a fine copy complete with the illustrated dust jacket featuring a photographic portrait of the author by Yousuf Karsh.

Illustrated with maps on the endpapers and pastedowns, and 37 photographs.

Extremely rare inscribed copy signed by the last leader of the Soviet Union to a USSR émigré, the journalist Sam Yossman.

First edition of the English translation by Michael Glenny, who first came to prominence with his translation of Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita in 1967. No deluxe paper copies issued.

Publisher’s binding in full black cloth, flat spine which shows some inherent creasing due to the laminated covering.

A handsome copy, with illustrations.

Very rare inscribed copy dated 27 April 1990 and signed by Boris Yeltsin.

From the library of Sam Yossman (Sam Jones) of the BBC Russian Service.

First edition.

Contemporary full mottled calf. Smooth spine richly gilt, with red morocco title label. Marbled edges. Three bumped corners. Small losses at foot of spine. One 3cm loss along the upper board near the hinge. Another loss to the lower board at the corner. Some surface abrasions, responsible for the losses. Three small wormholes along the lower hinge. A well-preserved, clean copy overall.

First edition illustrated with photographic portraits.
Fragile dust jacket preserved, our copy is also complete with its soft red shagreen slipcase.

First edition, with seven folding plates engraved by Hallmandel after G. Schärf.
Beige full calf binding, spine with five raised bands framed in gilt, gilt lettered morocco title label lengthwise, stamped arms of the Society of Writers to the Signet in the center of the boards. Restored spine and corners, brittle spine ends, spalls and stains to boards.

A very rare and important publication by the British Consul General in Egypt in 1815, Henry Salt (1780-1827),involved in the excavation of several historical sites and the collection of numerous antiquities. The most remarkable of these is the colossal bust of Ramses II found at Thebes and housed in the British Museum, which is said to have inspired Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias". Salt carefully reproduces and explains various inscriptions, bearing the cartouches of Egyptian gods and pharaohs. He made valuable contributions to the understanding of hieroglyphics, following Thomas Young's work on the Rosetta Stone and Jean-François Champollion's groundbreaking discoveries presented in 1822. Historiography even proved that he successfully translated some Egyptian names independently of Champollion's work.

Provenance: bindings with the arms of the Society of Writers to the Signet, Scottish sollicitors association founded in the late 16th century. Library shelf label glued to the flyleaf.

Pirate edition from the same year as the first edition of this bible of chess strategy, published by Philidor at the age of twenty-two.

Full olive morocco binding, dentelle boards framed by a gilt roulette motif, central gilt decoration in mandorla shape composed of a quatrefoil formed by basket-handle motifs richly decorated in gilt inside the lobes, gilt edges, top spine-end slightly rubbed, corners bumped, some rare spots of foxing, binding attributable to René-François Fétil, pupil of the great Padeloup, based on numerous tools found on bindings bearing Fétil's ticket and listed in Giles Barber, The James A. de Rothschild Bequest at Waddesdon Manor. Printed Books and Bookbindings, 2013 (DCT 38 "Long, cornet-shaped ornament with a floral top", FR 16 "pair of fronds with a large double-sided base leaf and two smaller leaves above; plain curl end").

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 (according to Allan Savage, Caissa's Legacy: The Great Chess Libraries).

Very rare first edition of this substantial memorandum on the "Pierre Calvet Affair", which unsettled Canada in the aftermath of the American War of Independence.

Sabin 21044. In the CCF, copies only at the BnF and Rouen.

A few light spots of foxing; a faint marginal dampstain to the fore-edge of the front endpaper.

Half green sheep with corners, smooth spine slightly darkened and ruled in gilt, gilt fillet border to the marbled paper boards, a central gilt cartouche bearing a crowned cipher to each cover. Corners rubbed, a few scuffs to the edges, bookplate pasted to one pastedown, lemon-coloured edges; nineteenth-century binding.

Parallel to the work The Case of Peter Du Calvet (784), addressed to the English courts, this volume presents the case for a Canadian readership.

The merchant Pierre Du Calvet (1735–1786), a French Protestant, settled in New France in 1758; he remained there after the British annexation and pursued a persistent political campaign on behalf of the inhabitants of the Province of Quebec, both to obtain a constitution and to secure fair justice for the former French subjects.

The present text concentrates on his disputes with Governor Frederick Haldimand (1718–1791) and on his brief imprisonment.

A forerunner of the long struggle waged by the citizens of the Province of Quebec for recognition of their political rights within the British Empire,

Du Calvet nevertheless remained largely forgotten in Quebec’s historical memory.

His actions, and even his name, were widely overlooked by posterity until the republication of his memorandum in 2002.

First edition (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1643).

Small tear and minor loss at the head of the spine; covers slightly soiled.

A highly interesting trilingual lexicon, presenting Chinese ideograms alongside their phonetic transcription, published in the immediate aftermath of the French expedition of 1858.

It includes, for example, practical phrases such as how to ask "Quelle est la nature de la rade ?" or how to reply that a general is "très brave ; il ne recule devant rien".

Claude-Philibert Dabry de Thiersant (1826–1898) began his career as a naval officer before turning to diplomacy, a path that led him to hold several consular posts in the Far East. Unsurprisingly, the greater part of his scholarly work is devoted to China and Tonkin.

Second edition of this French version (the first having appeared in 1781), approved by the author, of the Memorial most humbly addressed to the sovereigns of Europe, on the present state of affairs (London, July 1780) (cf. Sabin 64827).

Disbound copy, presented in a modern marbled paper wrapper.

This text had in fact been the subject of an earlier translation based on the Translation of the memorial by Edmund Jennings and John Adams, which failed to satisfy Pownall (namely the Pensées sur la Révolution de l'Amérique-Unie, issued with the Amsterdam imprint in 1780).

The substance of the various versions nonetheless converges, forming a prescient exhortation to the sovereigns of Europe to confer together in order to enter into commercial and economic relations with the future power that Pownall already discerned in the English colonies of America.

First edition illustrated with 24 colour figures mounted within the text.

No copy recorded in the CCFr.

Occasional light foxing.

Publisher’s original full lemon-yellow percaline, smooth spine, upper cover decorated in red, minor spotting to the boards.

Pleasing album devoted to the monuments of ancient China, then undergoing rapid transformation at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The text was set before the Chinese Revolution of 1911 and the Great War.

On the half-title, this copy is enriched with a long dated autograph inscription by the American singer and society figure Tryphosa Bates-Batcheller (1876–1952) to Henry de Galard de Brassac, Prince of Béarn and of Chalais (1874–1947), including an English translation of a Chinese poem by Ssu-K'ung T'u (834–908).

First edition (the work was reissued in 1838–1839); an atlas was planned but appears never to have been published (its prospectus is bound at the beginning of volume IV), cf. Mennessier de La Lance I, 657.

Half blond calf bindings, spines with four raised bands framed with gilt garlands and decorated with gilt fillets and vine motifs, as well as blind-stamped scrolls, marbled paper boards showing some rubbing with small losses, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, sprinkled edges, contemporary bindings.

Two headcaps shaved, some foxing, small loss along one joint of the volume entitled Elève d’Alfort. Hurtrel d’Arboval (1777–1839) was particularly interested in equine epizootics.

At the head of each volume, an autograph presentation inscription from Louis Henri Joseph Hurtrel d’Arboval to a captain instructor of the 1st Regiment of Horse Artillery (recipient’s name erased).

Complete autograph manuscript in French by Anatole France, 7 pages in black ink on 7 leaves and a signed autograph note on a bifolium.

Complete and extensively corrected speech by Anatole France, on the occasion of a banquet given in his honor in London. The future Nobel Prize winner for Literature delivers a passionate appeal for peace between nations and an ode to England - its philosophy, literature and politics - less than a year before WW1.

The writer offered this manuscript with a signed note: “Keep, dear colleague and friend, keep these leaves of paper if they are of any value to you. Anatole France London, December 12, 1913”.

First edition, with the author's facsimile signature and date "october 1940" on the endpaper.
Split hinges, some foxing on the endpapers.
Publisher's sand-colored cloth binding, black title-label on the front cover.
Handsome copy of this notebook reproducing 82 sketches made in London air-raid shelters during the Blitz.