Chez Théodore Le Gras, à Paris 1728, 12° (9,5x17cm), (2 p.) xvij (7 p.) 346 pp.; (2 p.) ij 376 pp.; (2 p.) ij 387 pp.; (6 p.) 392 pp.; (6 p.) 404 pp., 5 volumes bound.
First edition of this famous description of West Africa.
78 full-page engraved plates:
- volume 1: 5 maps, 2 plates and 1 folding plan
- volume 2: 6 maps, 17 plates and 4 folding plans
- volume 3: 2 maps and 13 plates
- volume 4: 5 maps, 8 plates and 3 folding plans
- volume 5: 3 maps and 9 plates
First edition of this famous description of West Africa. Illustrated with 78 full-page engraved plates.
Contemporary beige calf, spine elaborately gilt, 19th century red leather title and volume pieces, all red edges. Joints and spine-ends very skillfully restored. An old strip of white paper hiding the name of a former owner on each volume.
Based on the memoirs of André Brue (director of the Senegal Royal Company), this study contains interesting details on commercial companies in Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Gambia and Sierra Leone, customs of the inhabitants, religious beliefs, natural history, etc. Many passages concern the slave trade.
“Jean-Baptiste Labat (1663-1738), more commonly known as Father Labat, was a Dominican missionary, botanist, explorer, ethnographer, military man, landowner, engineer and writer.
A staunch defender of slavery, he played an important role in the sugar cane industry in the French West Indies. He is known for developing a type of brandy to cure fever, which after some improvements became rum.” (Museum of Art and History, Le Havre)
Rare first edition, complete with the folding plate depicting the stove bound at the end. "First collected edition of these various reports concerning charitable institutions built following the model of the famous 'Rumford stoves'" (Oberlé).
Contemporary binding in half blond sheep, spine elaborately decorated in gilt with fillets and tools in the shape of stars and leaves, and with a red morocco title label; marbled paper boards, all edges yellow. The front flyleaf bears bibliographical notes in pencil concerning the authors of the collection.
First edition.
A shadow left by a piece of postal label on an endpaper and on the facing page where the autograph inscription appears.
Publisher's binding in full black cloth, smooth spine, complete with its photographic dust jacket which has small marginal tears.
Autograph tribute dated and signed by Erika Ostrovsky in French to Nadine Nimier, widow and wife of Roger Nimier who, after the war, rehabilitated Louis-Ferdinand with French publishers: "Avec beaucoup d'amitiés. Erika Ostrovsky. Juin 1967."
We include a promotional bookplate from the "New york university press" enriched with Erika Ostrovky's signature.
New edition after the first published in 1768. Printed on strong laid paper. One frontispiece, one engraved title and 76 head-piece vignettes engraved by Corbould and Dent.
Contemporary English full dark green morocco binding with straight grain. Spine with false flat bands very richly decorated with 3 complex decorative compositions and various fillets, roulette at tail and head. Gilt titles. Red morocco onlay at tail bearing a library number. Wide blind and gilt border frame on covers, series of blind and gilt fillets. All edges gilt. Traces of rubbing. A slight tear at headcap. Several scratches on covers. Pale foxing on frontispiece and title otherwise the rest perfectly fresh and free from foxing.
Very handsome copy.
Commentary on Hogarth's works. The subtitle of the edition published in 1768 read: With an explanation, pointing out the many beauties that may have hitherto escaped notice; and a comment on their moral tendency. Calculated to improve the minds of youth, and, convey instruction, under the mask of entertainment. Now first published, with the approbation of Jane Hogarth, widow of the late Mr. Hogarth.
Signed limited edition, one of 750 copies signed by the artist.
Original publisher's cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, front cover with elaborate design in gilt.
Colour frontispiece and colour plates mounted on cream paper, captioned tissue-guards, by Edmund Dulac. Cloth soiled, some foxing to margins. With a loose leaflet advertising the exhibition of the original drawings at Leicester galleries in 1909.
Collection assembled by an anonymous hand of chromolithographs and engravings. Numerous pages with various frames, Gothic and ornamental, intended to receive engravings. Frontispiece in chromolithography heightened with colors. The papers intended to receive drawings, engravings or chromos are of various colors: blue, green, cream, pink. The collection ends with music sheets that have remained blank.
English publisher's binding in full burgundy shagreen. Smooth spine decorated with a large ornamental Romantic plaque. Boards with a central raised rectangle decorated with a large stamp with the inscription: Album orné, blind-stamped frame. Rich Renaissance frieze in framing paper. Blind-stamped framing frieze and framing fillets with small corner stamps. Endpaper representing a large lace pattern.
This type of collection, intended for families and filled with engravings or drawings, is a beautiful and rare testimony of the Romantic era. Dressed in a rich publisher's binding, it was made to adorn drawing rooms. The pages have one or several frames and therefore one or several engravings that were cut out and then pasted. One finds engravings, lithographs, some in color, 2 drawings, a wash drawing, all on 60 leaves.
Rare testimony of the Romantic era, family or personal keepsake, in a rich English publisher's binding.
NB: This work is available at the bookshop on request within 48 hours.
First French edition, translated by Joncourt.
Later binding ca. 1790 in full blonde sheep with raised grain. Smooth spine decorated with 5 fleurons. Black sheep title label. Some rubbing. 2 corners slightly bumped. Good copy.
Manuscript gift inscription: "J'appartiens à Collins d'Anglus au collège à Mazarin à Paris, 1770."
Work presented to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh and published as a response to Hume's essay on population. Based on computational hypotheses about births and deaths, the author establishes approximate population figures from the biblical primitive couple through Antiquity. Drawing from known sources and historians, Wallace seeks to establish Jewish, Egyptian... populations and concludes that demographics were more significant in Antiquity. An interesting and curious essay, which forms one of the first major speculations on world population evolution, and which would influence Malthus and demographic studies in France.
First edition, superbly illustrated with 50 engraved and hand-coloured plates, all numbered and signed by William Ellis. Bilingual text, first in English, followed by the French translation on facing pages. Printed on deluxe wove paper.
English binding. Spine entirely rebacked in chocolate shagreen, decorated with five blind-stamped romantic floral tools. Brown calf boards adorned with a large central lozenge composed of leafy friezes. Blind-stamped border frieze with corner tools, and a second leafy border. Upper board split along the joint and nearly detached, lower joint open at the foot over 5 cm, with a continuing crack of 10 cm though the leather remains closed. Corners heavily worn and exposed. Endpapers reinforced at the centre with green adhesive. Light offsetting from most plates onto the facing leaf. Internally clean and crisp throughout.
First edition, rare, first issue with the 8 lines of errata on one leaf. The illustration, executed according to the author's very precise instructions, comprises a frontispiece, an engraved title with a vignette and 38 plates by Hablot Knight Browne, including one in mezzotint: On the dark road. Text on tinted laid paper.
Contemporary half red shagreen binding. Raised bands spine, decorated. Author and title in gilt. Top edge gilt. Margins of the frontispiece, engraved title and engravings browned, as is usually the case in English editions of Dickens. Clean text, free from foxing. Light rubbing. Handsome copy.
A novel written in a distinctly darker vein featuring the excessive pride of a tyrannical father driven by ambition against the unwavering love of his daughter, whom he completely ignores. As always with Dickens, we find a keen perception of the social tensions of the period.
First edition, second issue. The first of 1784 contains only 212pp. against 403 for this one, which has been expanded with the translation of Price's work: "Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution". Turgot's letter and Price's book benefit from a half-title.
Later, modern binding. Pastiche blonde cardboard Bradel binding. Smooth spine with pink sheep title and volume labels. Spine lightly darkened. Rubbing. Uncut copy, bound directly from the original wrappers. The first 2 leaves browned. Scattered browning. Last leaf with lack to lower right corner.
New edition. It is known that the first volumes 1 to 8 appeared in 1777, then the rest staggered until 1789. This edition does not contain Bachaumont's name on the title page, unlike the original. It is not known whether the address is fictitious or real, but the typographical material appears to be Dutch. Bachaumont wrote the first volumes but they were edited by Pidansat de Mairobert who continued writing the volumes until his death in 1779, then it was Moufle d'Angersville's turn. The complete collection contains 36 volumes.
Bindings in half chocolate sheep with corners. Spine with raised bands decorated with 3 fleurons. Title and volume numbering gilt. Boards rubbed.
19th-century armorial bookplate of F. de Lagotellerie.
