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First edition, illustrated with figures in the text (cf. Hage Chahine, 4405.)
Contemporary bradel binding in full beige percaline, smooth spine darkened, olive green shagreen lettering-piece, binding of the period.
Occasional foxing.
The sole edition of one of the earliest works by the numismatist Gustave-Léon Schlumberger (1844-1929), who specialised in the history of the Crusades and the Byzantine Empire.
Autograph inscription signed by Gustave-Léon Schlumberger to the archaeologist Alban-Emmanuel Guillaume-Rey (1837-1916), a specialist of medieval Syria.
First edition, one of 65 copies on Arches; our copy is unnumbered but correctly justified "vergé d’Arches" at the foot of the lower cover. One of the only deluxe papers issued.
Two slight sunning marks at head and foot of the spine, which is also lightly pinched at the foot.
A pleasing copy.
First French edition, one of 25 numbered copies on Hollande paper, deluxe issue.
This second volume of La comédie américaine was first published in English as The Ski Bum.
Fine copy.
First edition, one of 500 copies, dated 1867 on the wrapper.
3/4 brown morocco binding, spine with four raised bands framed in gilt and decorated with double gilt compartments adorned with small gilt tools at the corners and a large central floral tool at centre, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved with two minor restorations to the upper cover, gilt top edge, elegant binding signed by Bernasconi. A few minor foxing spots, slightly more pronounced on the first leaves.
Rare and precious autograph presentation inscription signed by Paul Verlaine to Emile Piau.
Invitation card for the Picasso Drawings and Watercolors Exhibition held from October 20 to November 15, 1919, at Galerie Paul Rosenberg in Paris, 21 rue La Boétie. With a reproduction of a drawing by the artist.
Very fine condition, annotated in pencil with the number "40" to the upper left corner and a curved line to the right margin.
The present work was executed by Picasso first public showing with the dealer Paul Rosenberg held at his gallery in Paris. After a trip to London, he had settled in the South of France at the prestigious hôtel Continental in Saint-Raphaël with his new wife and Ballets Russes dancer Olga Kholokhova. He exhibited his production of 167 drawings and watercolours at this Rosenberg exhibition. It is one in a series of what have become known as guéridon still-lifes, now held in prestigious collections such as the National Gallery in Berlin, the Musée Picasso in Paris and the MoMA: the artist chose this leitmotiv as the illustration for this exhibition's invitation card. Iconic Cubist staples (a gueridon often found in Braque's paintings, coupled with a guitar and sheet music very present in Picasso's collages) are paired with a more classical rendition of the background where the window is framed by a theater stage-like curtain opening over a seaview through the wrought iron balcony. Picasso seamlessly blends Synthetic Cubism with the prevailing aesthetics of the ‘return to order’ to tradition and the classical after the trauma of the First World War reverberated across France and Europe. Rosenberg also played an important role in Picasso's neoclassical period, not only as his dealer who helped increase his success on the international market, but as the place where Picasso could nurture and discover new artistic influences with Rosenberg's exceptional collection of Impressionist art.
Outstanding creation for a famous exhibition of Picasso's artworks, in a masterful combination of two seemingly disparate aesthetics. The motif of the open window symbolizes renewal and displays a hopeful perspective on the better times to come after the conflict that tore and reshaped the modern world.
First edition, containing 23 tales by Andersen translated by David Soldi, together with a biographical essay by Xavier Marmier.
Illustrated with 40 vignettes by Bertall, engraved by Jacques G. J. Midderich and Alphonse Minne.
Full blue cloth binding, flat spine, gilt-stamped title, faint rubbing to the joints, light scattered marks to the boards, contemporary binding.
A very rare copy of this collection of Andersen's tales, "the first translation of Andersen's tales into French directly from the Danish, which long remained the finest [...]. This translation achieved wide circulation and continues to be published to this day" (Poul Høybye, H.C. Andersen og Frankrig).
First edition on ordinary paper, with the false statement of “third edition,” complete with the errata bifolium.
Discreet repairs to the spine; a handsome copy as issued.
With a desirable signed presentation from Marcel Proust to the playwright Jacques Darval: “à Monsieur Jacques Darval / Hommage reconnaissant / Marcel Proust.” ["To Monsieur Jacques Darval / With grateful homage / Marcel Proust.”]
Darval, born Louis Valeton, authored several plays and numerous dance revues during the 1920s.
First edition, one of the 81 numbered copies on Holland paper, the only deluxe issue.
A handsome copy.
First edition, one of 45 numbered copies on vélin de Hollande van Gelder, most limited deluxe issue.
In wrappers as issued, housed in a decorated clamshell box with a square white spine bearing the title printed in red and the author's name in black; the upper board features a portrait of the author by Izis, the lower board a portrait of the author taken in 1957 by François Pages at Céline's house in Meudon with his parrot Toto; two very faint white marks on the upper board; interior of the slipcase lined in bordeaux paper with white pastedowns, an outstanting work by the artist Julie Nadot.
A remarkable copy presented in a custom box featuring an original creation by Julie Nadot.
First edition.
Minor spotting to the boards.
Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, under plain white provisional covers.
Then French minister to the Court of Saint Petersburg, Louis-Philippe de Ségur (1753-1830) intervened in the constitutional debate that was stirring the National Assembly concerning the attribution of the right to declare peace and war (to the King? to the Assembly?).
Rare illustrated first edition, with 4 plates at the end of the volume, including two folding maps.
Small tears neatly repaired to the spine, minor angular losses to the boards, heavy foxing.
Joseph Lartigue (1791-1876), a naval captain, distinguished himself through his work in nautical meteorology and cartography.
Copy from the physicist Edmond Becquerel (1820-1891), member of the Académie des sciences, with an autograph signed presentation inscription from Joseph Lartigue at the head of the upper cover.
First edition of the French translation, one of 100 numbered copies on Arches wove paper, the only deluxe paper issue, our copy justified at the colophon by Raymond Mason as an artist’s copy, the sole large-paper issue.
Illustrated work, with an original engraving by Raymond Mason, signed and justified by him as an artist’s copy as frontispiece.
A scarce and pleasing copy.
Third edition, the second issued by Simon de Colines (cf. Renouard, Bibliogr. de Finé, 357-358. Brun, 189. Mortimer, French, 228 (not this ed.). Schreiber, 188. Not in Fairfax Murray.)
This edition constitutes a revised and improved reissue of the 1535 edition, with a newly cut woodcut architectural border to the title ("Quadrivium II").
Full vellum binding, smooth spine, manuscript title at the head of the spine, modern binding in the style of early vellum bindings,
A small tear to the title-page restored, a date inscribed in ink beside the printed date of publication.
A pleasing copy of one of Simon de Colines’ typographical masterpieces.
First edition illustrated with 2 engraved plates of this rare anonymous collection of poems, recently and definitively attributed to the poet from Réunion Antoine de Bertin (1752-1790), and believed to constitute his earliest works (cf. Seth, Poète créoles, 304. Ryckebusch, Bibliographie… Réunion, 750. Conlon 71: 879.)
Contemporary-style half black sheep with corners, spine with five raised bands ruled in blind, comb-marbled paper boards, some rubbing to the covers, corners bumped, modern binding.
They were never included in subsequent editions of his Œuvres complètes.
Bertin alludes to his island in his “Vers à Jeannette. A l'Orient” (p. 68): « …Mais aurez-vous la cruauté / D'oublier un petit sauvage, / De son Isle autrefois jetté, / Sur votre florissant rivage /… ».
The edition, bearing a false London imprint, is illustrated with 2 etched plates, one as frontispiece, after drawings by Claude-Louis Desrais dated 1771.
Offprint from this prestigious publication directed by François Albert-Buisson, President and Perpetual Secretary of the "Académie des Sciences Morales & Politiques", and Claude Pellegrin, editor-in-chief and attaché to the Academy. The text featured here, Le problème de l'éthique dans l'évolution de la pensée humaine (The Problem of Ethics in the Evolution of Human Thought), is the work of a newly elected member of the Academy, who had been a member for only a few months when this offprint was published, having taken the seat previously held by Marshal Pétain; namely, Dr. Albert Schweitzer.
Our copy is enriched with an inscription by the latter in brown ink, written two years later, while he was in France for an extended period during which he frequently attended the Academy's sessions: "to Andrée Eekman [née Herrenschmidt, niece of his great friend Tata (Adèle Herrenschmidt) and wife of the painter-engraver Nicolas Eekman] my dear goddaughter Albert Schweitzer / 19 oct 1954."
Discrete marginal dampstaining to the wrappers. A fine copy, very slightly sunned.
(our own translation)
Booklet of the "Rabelaisian menu" offered on "diemenche 26 de oiteuvre 1952" [Sunday, 26 October 1952] on the menu of the Parisian restaurant Au Mouton de Panurge, gastronomic headquarters of the Amis de Rabelais et de La Devinière, whose walls were decorated by Albert Dubout, who is also the author of the illustrations featured here. On the final page appear several facsimile signatures of distinguished regulars of the establishment. Our booklet is enhanced by a gift inscription from one of these signatories, Albert Schweitzer: "to Andrée [Eekman, his goddaughter, also the niece of his close friend Tata (Adèle Herrenschmidt)] and her dear husband [the painter and engraver Nicolas Eekman] / Albert Schweitzer," as well as four further autograph signatures by Michel de Bry, publisher of the booklet, by a certain "Devilly," and finally by two unidentified names.
Faint vertical fold to the centre of the booklet.
(our own translation)
Illustrated edition with colour drawings by Chas Laborde, one of the numbered copies on wove paper.
A pleasing copy.
Autograph signed inscription by Colette: "A monsieur F. Porlier en souvenir d'une passante. Colette."
New edition, partly original, constituting a revised and expanded version of the author’s doctoral thesis.
A few minor spots of foxing.
Contemporary full fawn calf, smooth spine gilt with decorative friezes and floral tools, slight rubbing to the joints, red shagreen title label, gilt rolls to the spine ends, marbled endpapers, marbled edges, gilt fillets to the board edges, period binding.
A military physician, the author took part in the Russian campaign and was attached to the Imperial Guard field hospitals in Vilna under the command of Larrey.
First edition of the French translation (cf. Chadenat, 494; Brunet I, 24.)
Contemporary half green sheep, smooth spines faded and decorated with double gilt fillets, marbled paper sides with minor rubbing, marbled endpapers, two small tears at the joints, contemporary bindings.
Light waterstain to the upper right corner of a number of leaves in the second volume.
An Indian traveller, Mirza Abu Taleb Khan was born in 1752 at Lucknow in Hindustan and died in Calcutta in 1806.
After serving in the army of the Nawab of Oudh, he embarked for Europe on 16 February 1799 with his friend Captain David Richardson.
Following a three-month stay at the Cape, he landed at Cork in Ireland on 9 December of the same year.
He resided in London for more than two years and, in 1802, travelled to Paris. He returned to his country via Constantinople, Mosul, Baghdad and Basra (cf. Hoefer). "Cet ouvrage contient des anecdotes piquantes et des observations judicieuses sur les peuples visités par l'auteur" (Chadenat).
Chapters XXVI to XXVIII relate to Malta, Smyrna, the Dardanelles and Constantinople (description, character of the Turks, government, the author’s presentation to the Sultan).
First edition, first issue with all the features of first issue copies including the misprint "Sénart" on the dedication leaf.
Dark green half-shagreen binding, spines with four raised bands decorated with double gilt-tooled compartments with gilt roundels at the corners, very minor restoration to the headbands, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, contemporary bindings.
With an exceptionally added autograph letter signed by Gustave Flaubert to his niece Caroline Commanville, affectionately known as "Loulou", on one page of a bifolium, pasted to a flyleaf of the first volume:
"Mardi 11h. [26 mars 1872]
Mon Loulou, ta gdmère a très bien supporté le voyage et, malgré l'abominable état où est plongé Croisset, son humeur est bonne. Je n'en dirais pas autant de la mienne. Mon irascibilité touche à la démence. Je vais m'habiller pour aller à Rouen payer des notes - choisir des papiers - & faire une visite à l'hôtel dieu. J'ai couché dans ta chambre. On ne sait pas comment se retourner dans la maison - qui pue violemment - et nous n'avons ni femme de ménage - ni cuisinière. Je t'embrasse ainsi qu'Ernest
Ton vieux - peu gaiGFlaubert."
"Tuesday, 11 o'clock. [26 March 1872]
My Loulou, your gdmother bore the journey very well and, despite the appalling state in which Croisset finds itself, her spirits are good. I cannot say the same of mine. My irascibility borders on madness. I am going to dress and head to Rouen to settle some bills - choose papers - & pay a visit to the Hôtel-Dieu. I slept in your room. One cannot turn around in the house - which reeks dreadfully - and we have neither a housekeeper nor a cook. I embrace you as well as Ernest. Your old man - in poor spirits.
GFlaubert."
On the facing pastedown is another letter by Heeckeren, dated 11 January 1931, providing details regarding Flaubert's letter: "Mon cher ami, Loulou, c'est la nièce de Flaubert et c'est elle-même qui remis cet autographe à ma mère ; c'est elle aussi qui écrivit au crayon la date : 1872... [...]"
Later edition (the first was published three years earlier in 1906).
Bradel binding with marbled paper boards, smooth spine with some parts lacking paper, brown morocco lettering piece with some loss to margis, one joint split, handmade paper endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, contemporary binding.
Exceptional copy mounted on a stub, signed and inscribed by Auguste Gilbert de Voisins to his celebrated writer friend and traveling companion on Chinese roads and rivers: "to Victor Segalen in thanks for speaking to me of the Orient. AGilbert de Voisins."
Rare first edition comprising a suite of 12 lithographs printed in colour on tinted grounds, numbered 1–12.
This series by the painter and lithographer Charles-Edouard de Beaumont (1821–1888), lithographed by Jaime, addresses the theme of children compelled to work from a very early age, exposed to street trades and itinerant entertainments.
Publisher’s half brown cloth over beige paper-covered boards, title stamped on the upper cover.
Some small tears and rubbing to the cloth spine, light dampstaining to the margins of the boards, occasional foxing, a small black mark to the upper cover.
The suite may be read either romantically or socially; in both cases it conveys a deeply poignant impression, all the more so as such subjects are ultimately seldom represented at a period which, par excellence, was that of child labour and early confrontation with poverty: 1. Match seller. – 2. Shrimp fishers. – 3. Street performers. – 4. Monkey seller. – 5. Performing dogs. – 6. Street singers. – 7. Chimney sweeps. – 8. Shepherd. – 9. Groom. – 10. Cabin boy. – 11. Broom sellers. – 12. Puppets.
Provenance: copy from the celebrated collection of Félicie Meunier d’Hostel, with her bookplate mounted on the front endpapers; subsequently in the library of Paul Gavault (1866–1951), playwright and theatre director.
Illustrated edition with colour drawings by Chas Laborde, one of the numbered copies printed on wove paper.
A pleasing copy, despite a small tear to the upper right margin of the front free endpaper.
On the page following the title, a fine signed autograph inscription by Colette: "A monsieur F. Porlier. Nantes, février 1933. Colette. J'aime beaucoup "et autres" ! Colette.", Colette having ironically circled the words "et autres" appearing in a paragraph outlining her alleged collaboration with her former husband Willy in the writing of the work.
Illustrated edition with colour drawings by Chas Laborde, one of the numbered copies printed on wove paper.
A pleasing copy, notwithstanding a crease mark to the lower right corner of the upper cover.
Fine signed presentation inscription by Colette: "A monsieur F. Porlier ce vieux péché littéraire que je n'aime plus beaucoup. Colette."
Fourth separate issue of this memoir. The text first appeared in the Description de l’Égypte, before being reissued in several offprints (cf. Meulenaere p. 80.)
Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, under temporary green paper covers, spine restored, minor marginal losses and a few tears to the covers, internally in pleasing condition.
At the head of the front free endpaper, autograph inscription by Du Bois-Aymé “à son honorable collège et ami Monsieur Etienne”.
Du Bois-Aymé (1779-1846), who embarked on the Tonnant, travelled to Egypt as a student of the École Polytechnique. He sat his examinations there, at the same time as his friend Villiers du Terrage, and became an engineer of the Ponts et Chaussées.
Sent to Suez, he appears to have left on 16 June 1799 with the Maltese corps. There he worked on the levelling of the Isthmus. Attached to the first reconnaissance commission of Upper Egypt, which left Cairo on 19 March 1799, he quarrelled with its head Girard, who was likewise little appreciated by Jollois and Villiers.
This resulted in his being dispatched with General Donzelot to Kosseir. He remained there for approximately three months and later took part in the second levelling campaign of the Isthmus of Suez, under the direction of Le Père. He then travelled to Samangoud, journeyed through the Delta, and worked on the memoirs he was to present to the Institut. Hoping to return to France, he shared with Jollois and Villiers their misadventures aboard the Oiseau.
Following a dispute with the commander of this brig, he was placed under arrest by Menou. He left Egypt towards the end of September 1801.
Our copy contains, bound after and by the same author: Notice sur le séjour des Hébreux en Egypte et sur leur fuite dans le désert. Published in Paris by the Imprimerie royale in March 1816 (34 pp. Meulenaere, p. 81).
Second separate edition (the text had likewise already appeared in the Description de l'Egypte).
First French edition.
Profusely illustrated.
Text by Edgar Morin, Georges Lois, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Eric Troncy, Jérôme Sans.
Valuable signed autograph inscription from Jean-Paul Goude to Sonia (Rykiel) in capital letters: "POUR SONIA QUE J'AIME."
First edition (see Cordier 92).
Contemporary half brown sheep over brown cloth boards, smooth spine decorated with triple gilt rules, gilt ornamental frieze and gilt name at foot, a few rubs to the spine; marbled endpapers and pastedowns; binding of the period.
Scattered foxing.
Manuscript ex-libris on the half-title: Madame Sinoir, repeated in gilt lettering at the foot of the spine.
First edition describing 1,539 entries.
Bound in modern brown half shagreen over marbled paper boards, smooth spine lettered in blind, corners rubbed, bookplate pasted to the front pastedown; a modest modern binding.
Occasional light foxing.
Provenance: copy from the library of the Canadian bookseller G. S. Terence Cavanagh (1923–2005), also librarian of the Trent Collection, with his bookplate pasted to the front pastedown.
First edition illustrated with 3 folding tables printed on separate leaves in the second text volume and 45 engraved plates, single or folding (3 maps, 42 plans and picturesque views), most with tissue guards, in the atlas volume.
Cf. Gay 266. Toussaint & Adolphe D1100. Ryckebusch II, 5713.
Some foxing throughout the text volumes and atlas.
Bindings in half black glazed calf with corners, smooth spines decorated with gilt fillets, circles and large gilt fleurons, burgundy calf lettering and volume-numbering labels, boards covered in paste paper with a cold-stamped garland border, light rubbing to spines and boards, bindings slightly later for the text volumes; the atlas volume in contemporary marbled paper boards, spine later and re-backed in green percaline, title label pasted to the centre of the upper board. The whole presented in a modern half bottle-green morocco slipcase, raised bands to spine, title label of the same leather pasted to the centre of the upper board.
Jacques-Gérard Milbert (1766–1840), landscape painter and engraver, was appointed to join the expedition to the Terres Australes led by Baudin, alongside Péron and Freycinet.
Forced to interrupt his journey at the Île de France on account of poor health, he remained there for two years and gathered during that time the materials for this work. Milbert subsequently became a corresponding member of the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, to which he had sent numerous botanical and zoological specimens.
Ryckebusch notes that "cet ouvrage rare comporte de multiples renseignements sur l'île de France, il concerne indirectement l'île Bourbon par certains chapitres (Administration de M. de La Bourdonnaye et de M. Poivre... habitants... culture et industrie... administration, etc)".
Bookplate of Lady Le Fleming, of Rydal Hill, pasted to the front pastedown of the first volume.
First edition, one of 50 numbered copies on Holland paper, being the only large paper issue.
Bradel binding with decorative paper featuring red and gold motifs, flat spine, small restorations to spine-ends and joints, brown shagreen title label with a corner skilfully restored, endpapers and pastedowns of blue paper with gilt motifs, soiled soiled covers and spine preserved, gilt top edge on deckle, contemporary binding.
Exceptional and precious presentation copy signed by Claude Farrère: "Pour Max-Anély que j'admire et pour mon ami Segalen. Claude Farrère." [For Max-Anély I admire and for my friend Segalen. Claude Farrère]
Press clipping comprising a photograph of Joséphine Baker in stage costume, signed and dated by her in black felt-tip.
A fine example.
Illustrated edition with colour drawings by Chas Laborde, one of the numbered copies printed on wove paper.
A pleasing copy.
On the half-title page, a signed autograph inscription from Colette: "A monsieur F. Porlier. Colette.", Colette having added after Claudine s'en va : bon vent !
First issue of the 250 wood-engraved compositions by Edmond Morin, one of 150 numbered copies on Holland paper.
The work is further illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of the author by Léopold Flameng.
Bound in half orange morocco over marbled boards with corners, spine with five raised bands ruled in gilt and richly tooled with double gilt compartments, covers framed with double gilt fillets, marbled endpapers, original wrappers preserved, top edge gilt, an elegant binding signed A. Bertrand.
A fine copy, impeccably presented.
First edition, one of 100 hors commerce numbered copies on BFK de Rives paper, the only grand papier (deluxe) copies with 662 other copies on BFK de Rives paper.
Precious copy inscribed and dated October 1966 by Beckett to his friend the painter Geer (Van Velde) and his wife Lise.
Nice copy.
“What to say of the sliding planes, the shimmering contours, the cut-out figures in the fog, the balance that any little thing can break, breaking and re-forming themselves under our very eyes? How to talk about the colors that breathe and pant? Of the swarming stasis? Of this world without weight, without force, without shadow? Here everything moves, swims, fells, comes back, falls apart, re-forms. Everything stops, non-stop. One would say it's the revolt of the internal molecules of a stone a split second before its disintegration. That is literature” (“The Van Veldes' Art, or the World and the Trousers”, in Cahiers d'Art n°11-12, Paris 1945).
Beckett here is not talking – despite how it may appear – about his literary oeuvre, but about the paintings of Geer Van Velde, going on to add a few lines later “[Bram] Van Velde paints distance. G[eer] Van Velde paints succession.” This elegy, published on the occasion of the double exhibition of the Van Veldes (Geer at Maeght's and Bram at the Galerie Mai) is the first important text on these painters, more or less unknown to the public at the time: “We've only just started spouting nonsense about the Van Velde brothers, and I'm the first. It's an honor.” This is also the first critical text written directly in French by a young Irish writer who had not, as yet, published anything in France.
Thus, the first and most important of Beckett's writings on art, composed at the dawn of his literary career, establishes – right from the start – a fundamental relationship between his developing work and his friends' art: “Thus this text has often been read in a hollow or in the mirror, as one of the rare designations of Beckett's poetry (to come) by the man himself, a sort of anamorphic program of writing,” (Un pantalon cousu de fil blanc : Beckett et l'épreuve critique by Pierre Vilar).
A real statement of dramaturgical intent, this fundamental text whose introspective value Beckett lays out from the introduction on (“one does nothing but tell stories with words”) ushers in the writer's most fruitful creative period. In essence, like Apollinaire and Cendrars, Beckett draws from the artistic problems of his contemporaries the catalyst of his own future writing through “the deepest questioning of narrative, figurative or poetical presuppositions” (Pascale Casanova in Beckett l'abstracteur).
The major influence of modern painting on the narrative structure – or destructuring – of Beckett's drama and novels would be pointed out and examined by a number of thinkers, among them Gilles Deleuze, Julia Kristeva and Maurice Blanchot. It was, in fact, with the art of the Van Veldes (first Geer then Bram) that Beckett began to formalize this desire to translate the pictorial question into dramaturgical terms. Thus it was that he rejected Nicolas de Staël's set design for Godot, since: “the set must come out of the text without adding anything to it. As for the visual comfort of the audience, you can imagine how much I care. Do you really think you can listen with the backdrop of Bram's set, or see anything other than him?” (Letter to Georges Duthuit, 1952).
When he met Geer in 1937, “Beckett was going through a major existential crisis and had just been reworking his first novel, Murphy, which had been rejected by a great many publishers. He was lost in alcohol, leaving Ireland and moving once and for all to Paris” (Le Pictural dans l'œuvre de Beckett, Lassaad Jamoussi). He returned from a long artistic journey in Germany, where he was marked by classical works as well as contemporary art – it was during this journey that he discovered Caspar David Friedrich's Two Men Contemplating the Moon, his source for Waiting for Godot.
Art was thus at the heart of his creative thinking and the friendship that would tie him to Geer and later his brother Bram and their sister Jacoba (with whom his relationship may have been more than merely friendly), and which would profoundly influence his life and writing. His first writing on art is a short piece on Geer Van Velde, whose works he pressed on his new lover Peggy Guggenheim when she set up her new London gallery. Despite the relative failure of the exhibition (which followed Kandinsky's), he got his friend a one-year scholarship from Peggy. James Knowlson even thinks that “if Beckett maintained close links with Peggy for a long time, it was first and foremost because she could be convinced to give his artist friends a serious helping hand, starting with Geer Van Velde” (in Beckett, p. 474). Enigmatic, the little piece that Beckett wrote at the time at Peggy's request already contained a dramaturgical kernel of thought: “Believes painting should mind its own business, i.e. colors. i.e. no more say Picasso than Fabritius, Vermeer. Or inversely.”
Slower to develop, his friendship with Bram and interest in the latter's painting slowly changed Beckett's outlook on Geer's art and when, ten years after his first meeting the brothers, he wrote The World and the Trousers, Beckett brought up to date a duality symbolized by the title, taken from an anecdote given as a legend to the article. The world is the “imperfect” work of God, made in six days, to which the tailor compares the perfection of his trousers, made over six months.
The link between this anecdote and the Van Velde brothers is perhaps to be found in the second essay Beckett devoted to them, in 1948, “Peintres de l'empêchement” [Painters of the Problem] (Derrière le miroir n° 11/12): “One of them said: I cannot see the object in order to represent it because I am who I am. There are always two sorts of problems – the object-problem and the ‘eye-problem'…Geer Van Velde is an artist of the former sort…Bram Van Velde of the latter.”
Resistance of the object or impotence of the artist, this tale, the “true primary narrative core in kôan zen form,” (P. Vilar) would later find itself scattered throughout Beckett's work and would more specifically take center stage in Endgame, whose similarity, by the by, with the art of Geer Van Velde was noted by Roger Blin. “At the time, he was friends with the Dutch brothers Geer and Bram Van Velde, both painters. Geer was a painter in the style of Mondrian. I have the feeling that Beckett saw Endgame as a painting by Mondrian with very tidy partitions, geometric separations and musical geometry,” (R. Blin, “Conversations avec Lynda Peskine” in Revue d'Esthétique).
Beckett's growing affinity for Bram Van Velde's work and the energy he put into promoting his work, especially to the galerie Maeght or his friend the art historian Georges Duthuit, was no doubt to the detriment of his relationship with Geer. Nonetheless, despite some misunderstandings, their friendship remained unbroken; as did the silent but anxious dialogue that the writer maintained with the art of the younger Van Velde brother, two of whose large canvases he owned. “The big painting by Geer finally gave me a sign. Shame that it should have turned out so badly. But perhaps that's not true after all” (letter to Georges Duthuit, March 1950). “Geer shows great courage. Ideas that are a little cutting, but maybe only in appearance. I have always had a great respect for them. But not enough, I think” (letter to Mania Péron, August 1951)
The death of Geer Van Velde in 1977 affected Beckett deeply and coincided with a period of intense nostalgia during which the writer decided to give himself over to “a great clear-out” of his house so as to live between “walls as grey as their owner.” Confiding his state of mind to his friend, the stage designer Jocelyn Herbert, Beckett bore witness to the indefatigable affection he had nurtured for the painter over forty years: “more canvases on display, including the big Geer Van Velde behind the piano.”
A precious witness to the friendship of these fellow travelers who had, ever since checking the veracity of the game of chess played by Murphy and Mr. Endon for Beckett's first novel, tackled together the great challenges of modernity: “It's that, deep down, they don't care about painting. What they're interested in is the human condition. We'll come back to that” (Beckett on the Van Velde brothers in The World and the Trousers). + de photos
First edition of the author's French translation, one of 50 numbered copies on vélin d'Arches paper, an hors commerce copy, the only large paper copies with 292 other vélin d'Arches paper.
Precious copy inscribed and dated December 1972 by Samuel Beckett to his friend the painter Geer (Van Velde) and his wife Lise.
Spine and back cover slightly discolored.
What to say of the sliding planes, the shimmering contours, the cut-out figures in the fog, the balance that any little thing can break, breaking and re-forming themselves under our very eyes? How to talk about the colors that breathe and pant? Of the swarming stasis? Of this world without weight, without force, without shadow? Here everything moves, swims, fells, comes back, falls apart, re-forms. Everything stops, non-stop. One would say it's the revolt of the internal molecules of a stone a split second before its disintegration. That is literature” (The van Veldes' Art, or the World and the Trousers, in Cahiers d'Art n° 11-12, Paris 1945).
Beckett here is not talking – despite how it may appear – about his literary oeuvre, but about the paintings of Geer Van Velde, going on to add a few lines later “[Bram] Van Velde paints distance. G[eer] Van Velde paints succession.” This elegy, published on the occasion of the double exhibition of the Van Veldes (Geer at Maeght's and Bram at the Galerie Mai) is the first important text on these painters, more or less unknown to the public at the time: “We've only just started spouting nonsense about the Van Velde brothers, and I'm the first. It's an honor.” This is also the first critical text written directly in French by a young Irish writer who had not, as yet, published anything in France.
Thus, the first and most important of Beckett's writings on art, composed at the dawn of his literary career, establishes – right from the start – a fundamental relationship between his developing work and his friends' art: “Thus this text has often been read in a hollow or in the mirror, as one of the rare designations of Beckett's poetry (to come) by the man himself, a sort of anamorphic program of writing,” (Un pantalon cousu de fil blanc : Beckett et l'épreuve critique by Pierre Vilar).
A real statement of dramaturgical intent, this fundamental text whose introspective value Beckett lays out from the introduction on (“one does nothing but tell stories with words”) ushers in the writer's most fruitful creative period. In essence, like Apollinaire and Cendrars, Beckett draws from the artistic problems of his contemporaries the catalyst of his own future writing through “the deepest questioning of narrative, figurative or poetical presuppositions” (Pascale Casanova in Beckett l'Abstracteur).
The major influence of modern painting on the narrative structure – or destructuring – of Beckett's drama and novels would be pointed out and examined by a number of thinkers, among them Gilles Deleuze, Julia Kristeva and Maurice Blanchot. It was, in fact, with the art of the Van Veldes (first Geer then Bram) that Beckett began to formalize this desire to translate the pictorial question into dramaturgical terms. Thus it was that he rejected Nicolas de Staël's set design for Godot, since: “the set must come out of the text without adding anything to it. As for the visual comfort of the audience, you can imagine how much I care. Do you really think you can listen with the backdrop of Bram's set, or see anything other than him?” (Letter to Georges Duthuit, 1952).
When he met Geer in 1937, “Beckett was going through a major existential crisis and had just been reworking his first novel, Murphy, which had been rejected by a great many publishers. He was lost in alcohol, leaving Ireland and moving once and for all to Paris” (Le Pictural dans l'œuvre de Beckett, Lassaad Jamoussi). He returned from a long artistic journey in Germany, where he was marked by classical works as well as contemporary art – it was during this journey that he discovered Caspar David Friedrich's Two Men Contemplating the Moon, his source for Waiting for Godot.
Art was thus at the heart of his creative thinking and the friendship that would tie him to Geer and later his brother Bram and their sister Jacoba (with whom his relationship may have been more than merely friendly), and which would profoundly influence his life and writing. His first writing on art is a short piece on Geer Van Velde, whose works he pressed on his new lover Peggy Guggenheim when she set up her new London gallery. Despite the relative failure of the exhibition (which followed Kandinsky's), he got his friend a one-year scholarship from Peggy. James Knowlson even thinks that “if Beckett maintained close links with Peggy for a long time, it was first and foremost because she could be convinced to give his artist friends a serious helping hand, starting with Geer Van Velde” (in Beckett, p. 474). Enigmatic, the little piece that Beckett wrote at the time at Peggy's request already contained a dramaturgical kernel of thought: “ Believes painting should mind its own business, i.e. colors. i.e no more say Picasso than Fabritius, Vermeer. Or inversely.”
Slower to develop, his friendship with Bram and interest in the latter's painting slowly changed Beckett's outlook on Geer's art and when, ten years after his first meeting the brothers, he wrote The World and the Trousers, Beckett brought up to date a duality symbolized by the title, taken from an anecdote given as a legend to the article. The world is the “imperfect” work of God, made in six days, to which the tailor compares the perfection of his trousers, made over six months.
The link between this anecdote and the Van Velde brothers is perhaps to be found in the second essay Beckett devoted to them, in 1948, Peintres de l'empêchement (Derrière le miroir n° 11/12) : “One of them said: I cannot see the object in order to represent it because I am who I am. There are always two sorts of problems – the object-problem and the ‹eye-problem... Geer Van Velde is an artist of the former sort... Bram Van Velde of the latter.”
Resistance of the object or impotence of the artist, this tale, the “true primary narrative core in kôan zen form,” (P. Vilar) would later find itself scattered throughout Beckett's work and would more specifically take centre stage in Endgame, whose similarity, by the by, with the art of Geer Van Velde was noted by Roger Blin. “At the time, he was friends with the Dutch brothers Geer and Bram Van Velde, both painters. Geer was a painter in the style of Mondrian. I have the feeling that Beckett saw Endgame as a painting by Mondrian with very tidy partitions, geometric separations and musical geometry,” (R. Blin, Conversations avec Lynda Peskine in Revue d'Esthétique).
Beckett's growing affinity for Bram Van Velde's work and the energy he put into promoting his work, especially to the Galerie Maeght or his friend the art historian Georges Duthuit, was no doubt to the detriment of his relationship with Geer. Nonetheless, despite some misunderstandings, their friendship remained unbroken; as did the silent but anxious dialogue that the writer maintained with the art of the younger Van Velde brother, two of whose large canvases he owned. “The big painting by Geer finally gave me a sign. Shame that it should have turned out so badly. But perhaps that's not true after all” (letter to Georges Duthuit, March 1950). “Geer shows great courage. Ideas that are a little cutting, but maybe only in appearance. I have always had a great respect for them. But not enough, I think” (letter to Mania Péron, August 1951)
The death of Geer Van Velde in 1977 affected Beckett deeply and coincided with a period of intense nostalgia during which the writer decided to give himself over to “a great clear-out” of his house so as to live between “walls as grey as their owner.” Confiding his state of mind to his friend, the stage designer Jocelyn Herbert, Beckett bore witness to the indefatigable affection he had nurtured for the painter over forty years: “more canvases on display, including the big Geer Van Velde behind the piano.”
A precious witness to the friendship of these fellow travelers who had, ever since checking the veracity of the game of chess played by Murphy and Mr. Endon for Beckett's first novel, tackled together the great challenges of modernity: “It's that, deep down, they don't care about painting. What they're interested in is the human condition. We'll come back to that” (Beckett on the Van Velder brothers in The World and the Trousers).
First edition, of which no copies on deluxe paper were issued.
Spine slightly faded as usual.
Precious signed presentation inscription from Eugène Ionesco to Raymond Queneau: "Pour Raymond Queneau, le Satrape, avec mon admiration affectueuse (et que tant je voudrais revoir plus que de temps à autre). Eugène Ionesco."
First edition, no copies in North American libraries; only four copies known in Europe (Mazarine, Méjanes, BnF, Lausanne). Illustrated throughout with numerous headpieces, historiated initials, and tailpieces. Contemporary full vellum binding, smooth spine gilt-tooled gilt floral tools twice framed in gilt, morocco lettering-piece, boards framed in gilt, centre oval palm wreath, enclosing the initials "I.H.S." (Jesus Hominum Salvator), superimposed over a former cypher "H. D. B.", the lower board with the same wreath enclosing the initials "MA" (Mater Amabilis), tie holes, traces of a library label at the foot of spine, gilt edges, some foxing and marginal worm holes to the boards, upper corner. Worm gallery affecting pp. 11 to 156, dampstain to the upper margin of pp. 319 to 429.
An exceptionally rare work of the Catholic Counter-Reformation by Didière Gillet, self-described as "une simple femme de village," [a simple peasant woman] virtually unknown to modern scholarship.
New edition, illustrated with a large folding line-engraved plate depicting all the animals mentioned in the text (cf. Cornet-Malagies, 158).
Half mottled fawn sheep with vellum tips, smooth spine gilt-ruled and tooled with gilt fillets, garlands and floral tools, marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges; a contemporary binding.
The author, a veterinary surgeon, had trained at Alfort.
Bound at the end, by DELACROIX, is a new edition of: "Le Nouveau maréchal-expert, ou Le Guide du du maréchal-ferrant, du vétérinaire, de l'écuyer, du propriétaire et de l'amateur ; avec un précis de la connaissance et du choix des chevaux, ânes et mulets ; de leur éducation et conservation, de leurs maladies et des moyens de les traiter. Suivi de l'indication des meilleures méthodes de ferrure et de harnachement. Et d'un traité d'équitation", printed in Paris by B. Renault in 1835 (2 preliminary leaves, pp. 5-218, one large folding plate. Mennessier de La Lance I, 367-68).
Rare first edition.
Our copy is offered unbound, preserved in comb-marbled paper wrappers, red edges.
The sole and scarce edition of this treatise written by a surgeon-major of the Santerre and Touraine regiments.
First edition of the French translation, one of 200 numbered copies on white wove paper, the only deluxe paper issue.
Bound in full mouse-grey shagreen, spine with five raised bands ruled in black, covers framed with a single black fillet, endpapers and pastedowns in cat’s-eye patterned paper, wrappers (with a small loss at the foot of the lower cover) and spine preserved, top edge gilt.
A pleasing copy.
Rare and sought-after first edition, first issue, with exceptionally added plates from the first illustrated edition, publisher that same year. 34 full-page engravings after Demoraine, Gagnier, Staal and engraved by F. Delannoy.
Includes the subscribers' list and the foreword, lacking in the second issue when the remainder of this edition was sold to another publisher, Dion-Lambert. It also features the pagination error in volume two: page 164 instead of 364. With a letter by the author, bearing his autograph signature, written and dated 14 April 1839, in the hand of his secretary. One page written in black ink on a leaf. Slightly darkened at the upper edge, with occasional foxing, and the usual folds from postal handling.
With an exceptional, prophetic and macabre letter by François-René de Chateaubriand: "mais moi je suis mort, absolument mort et s'il me fallait écrire un mot dans un journal, j'aimerais mieux être enseveli à mille pieds sous terre." ["but I am dead, utterly dead, and if I were required to write a single word in a newspaper, I would rather be buried a thousand feet underground."]
Signed with the author’s faltering hand, this apparently unpublished letter was penned by his secretary: "Vous connaissez la main de [Hyacinthe] Pilorge que j'employe pour remplacer la mienne souffrante de la goutte" ["You will recognise the hand of [Hyacinthe] Pilorge, whom I employ to replace my own, suffering from gout,"] the author explains in the introduction to the letter.
Black half-morocco bindings, flat spines with double gilt fillets and double blind-stamped compartments, black paper boards, slight superficial rubbing to some boards, marbled paper pastedowns and endpapers, sprinkled edges; contemporary bindings. Sparse foxing.
Illustrated edition with 4 original copper engravings by Armand Coussens, one of 25 numbered copies on japon paper, this being one of the few hors commerce copies specially printed for Armand Coussens, as stated in the colophon.
Translated from the Languedoc dialect and prefaced by Marcel Coulon.
Contemporary half blue morocco over corners, spine with four raised bands ruled in black, date gilt at foot, covers of moiré-effect paper framed with black fillets, matching endleaves and pastedowns, wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, an elegant signed period binding by Ch. Septier.
This copy is enriched with an autograph letter of nearly three pages, dated 8 July 1866 and signed by Jules Troubat, mounted on a guard at the beginning of the volume, in which he discusses Abbé Favre and the research he undertook concerning his correspondence and the letters he was able to recover and catalogue. He modestly acknowledges that the article and translation he produced of this title were imperfect and fragmentary, but states that he places them at his correspondent’s disposal so as to assist in the preparation of a new edition to be illustrated by Gustave Doré. Finally, Jules Troubat recommends a person more qualified than himself and better able to provide further information on Abbé Favre: a certain M. Gaudens, assistant librarian in Montpellier.
A handsome copy attractively bound in a signed contemporary binding.
Rare illustrated first edition, with 5 copper-engraved plates hors-texte, including 2 folding plates (cf. Barbier II, 302. Schwab, 517. Hage Chahine, 4320. Wilson, 200. Absent from Blackmer and Atabey.)
Our copy lacks the two dedication leaves to Rouillié, often missing, with repairs to the joints and one corner, and a manuscript ex-libris on the title-page.
Contemporary full mottled fawn calf, spine with five raised bands gilt and decorated with gilt compartments and floral tools, tan calf title-label, gilt fillets to the edges partly faded, speckled edges.
Sanson, a zealous apostolic missionary, tireless traveller and accomplished diplomat, arrived in Persia in 1683, learning Armenian, Turkish and Persian while travelling through the kingdom in order to "consoler les chrétiens qui y habitent".
He took an interest in everything, "mœurs… situation… antiquités", of the regions he crossed, and eventually gained access to the Palace, "qui ne sont accordées qu'aux grands seigneurs de Perse", attending all audiences and taking part in every banquet.
He spent three years close to Soliman before returning to France, bringing Louis XIV a personal message from the "roi" of Persia.
Provenance: copy from the library of the literary critic Émile Faguet (1847–1916), with his vignette bookplate pasted to the inside board.
First Gallimard edition, one of 1,050 numbered copies printed on Alfama du Marais paper.
Publisher’s boards bound after the original design by Paul Bonet.
A very fine copy.
First edition of the catalogue for the exhibition of works by Claude Monet held at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris from 28 May to 8 June 1912.
Preface by Octave Mirbeau.
Bradel binding in half fawn morocco, smooth spine, date gilt at foot, minor rubbing to spine, boards of marbled paper framed with a gilt fillet, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, wrappers (a pink stain at the foot of the lower wrapper) and spine preserved, top edge gilt; contemporary binding signed L. Bernard.
The paintings were exhibited four years after Claude Monet’s sole journey to Venice.
Illustrated catalogue with 9 reproductions of paintings by Claude Monet.
First in-12 edition, published one year after the exceedingly rare first edition.
Uniform half green shagreen bindings, spines slightly darkened with four raised bands, decorated with blind fillets, gilt titles at the foot of the spines, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, bookplate pasted to the rear pastedown of the first volume.
Minor rubbing to some boards, two small tears at the foot of the boards of the first volume.
An attractive set, virtually free of foxing and preserved in a uniform binding.
First edition, one of the copies printed on alfa paper.
A small split to the spine, a few light foxing spots.
Manuscript signatures of Joseph Kessel and Hélène Iswolsky.
First edition.
Light scuffing to the boards.
Bradel binding in half black shagreen, smooth spine lettered in gilt vertically, green paper-covered boards, modern binding.
Paper by M. Breton-Laugier, vinegar manufacturer of Orléans, on the advantages of Pasteur’s system, pp. [5]–7; Wine industry, pp. [9]–15.
First public edition of this text by Jean Guéhenno, written under the pseudonym Cévennes, one of 60 numbered copies on Madagascar paper, from the deluxe issue.
A fine copy.
First edition of this pioneering work in the history of psychiatry (cf. Garrison & Morton 4920; Semelaigne I, pp. 68-73; Waller records only the 1770 German translation; Wellcome III 547; Blake 277).
Contemporary half calf with vellum-tipped corners, smooth spines gilt with decorative rolls, some rubbing and small wormholes to the spines, marbled paper boards, sprinkled edges; bindings from the early nineteenth century.
Ink stains on pp. 72–76 of the first volume, a black ink spot at the head of the lower cover of the second volume, a few minor and unobtrusive foxmarks.
For Lorry, not all melancholic patients are driven by a single fixed idea, and melancholy is a state of mental disorder of physical origin, in which the mind—sharply disturbed by objects either external or produced by the imagination—becomes unable to resist, repel, or reason through the ideas arising from them. He identifies two forms of the condition, according to whether its origin lies in the solid parts or in the humours, which he terms nervous melancholy and humoral melancholy respectively.
"La mélancolie nerveuse peut parfois constituer l'hystérie chez la femme, l'hypochondrie chez l'homme ; ou bien c'est la manie vraie, ou encore, sans le moindre symptôme maniaque, elle consiste uniquement en convulsions. Il semble y avoir peu de différences entre la mélancolie et la manie, mais le mélancolique délire surtout sur ce qui le concerne en particulier, tandis que le délire maniaque s'étend à tous les sujets". Cf. Semelaigne.
Lorry (1726–1783) may also be regarded as the founder of dermatology in France (Tractatus de morbis cutaneis, Paris, G. Cavelier, 1777).
A pleasant copy, with generous margins.
New quarto edition, revised and corrected by the author, with numerous decorated headpieces, initials and tailpieces.
Full brown calf, spine in six compartments with five raised bands richly gilt-tooled, red morocco lettering-piece, triple blind fillet border to boards, double gilt fillet to board edges, red edges, marbled pastedowns and endpapers.
Light scratches and scuffing to boards, corners slightly bumped, otherwise a very fine copy.
Paper flaw causing marginal tears on pp. 49, 571 and 595, light scattered foxing affecting a few gatherings towards the end of the volume, minor wormhole to lower corner of pp. 253 onwards, ending in a charming emoji.
First edition describing the 388 items offered in the sale.
A few pencilled hammer prices in the margins, a loss to the upper right corner of the front wrapper and title-page, and small corner losses to the wrappers.
The introduction is by Fröhner, though the expert in charge of the sale was Hoffmann.
Of Baden origin, the numismatist Ludwig Wilhelm Fröhner (1834–1925) settled in Paris in 1859; he became a close friend of Napoleon III and assisted him in the preparation of his Histoire de Jules César (1865–1866), which helped him obtain both French naturalisation (1866) and an important post at the Louvre.
He later devoted himself to the cataloguing of collections, producing works that became major references for Antiquity and early medieval archaeology.
Rare first edition (cf. Tailliart 1697, Playfair 554, Polak 5050).
Spine clumsily restored with small losses, slight marginal tears to the covers, a few scattered foxmarks.
The crew of the "Béarnaise," consisting of about thirty men, seized the citadel of Bone without firing a single shot.
First edition, taken from the Mémoires de la Société royale et centrale d'agriculture, for the year 1824.
Illustrated with a folding plate inserted out of text.
Our copy is preserved in its original state, sewn and issued in a plain blue provisional wrapper.
Scattered light foxing.
A grandson of the founder and first director of the Académie royale de marine, Pierre-Marie-Sébastien Bigot de Morogues (1776-1840) devoted himself principally to agricultural matters.
First edition of the French translation (cf. Sabin, 43416; Smith, Pacific Northwest Americana, 6381; Pilling, Bibl. of the Algonquian Languages, 327; Hoefer, XXXII, 566-567).
Illustrated with a portrait of the author after Sir Thomas Lawrence as frontispiece to the first volume and, at the end of each volume, three engraved maps showing the route from Fort Chipewyan to the Arctic Sea in 1789 and to the Pacific Ocean in 1793, together with the portion of North America lying between the 40th and 70th degrees north latitude and the 45th and 180th degrees west longitude.
Handsome half red shagreen bindings, flat spines ruled in gilt with quintuple fillets, traces of former labels at the head of each spine, minor rubbing to joints, red boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns; mid-19th-century bindings.
Repair to the half-title of volume I.
A pleasing copy of this major exploration narrative.
First edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with three folding maps (cf. Tailliart 3080; Playfair 4334).
The original colour map, frequently lacking, has here been supplied in photomechanical reproduction, while the two others are later insertions.
Full brick-coloured sheep binding, unlettered spine with five raised bands showing traces of rubbing, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved; modern binding.
Minor foxing, pencil annotations on the initial endpapers and in the margins of several passages, with a handwritten note in blue ink "états de service" at the head of the front endpaper, followed by a brief pencilled biography of the author.
Only edition, highly sought after, of this exceptionally well-documented study, addressing a subject that preoccupied the French administration in Algeria (which, by an inaccurate analogy with Catholic religious "orders"—then targeted in mainland France—sought to curb the influence of Muslim brotherhoods).
Louis Rinn (1838–1905) spent almost his entire military career in Algeria, where he lived from 1864 to 1889.
First edition, one of 15 numbered copies on vellum, the only deluxe issue.
Fine and uncommon copy.
Seventh edition, expanded with new annotations and an appendix containing descriptive and historical details on all the monuments recently erected in the capital by J.-L. Belin, avocat.
Bound in contemporary half midnight-blue Russian morocco, flat spines gilt with romantic arabesques, gilt fillet framing the marbled-paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns; one lower corner lightly rubbed, contemporary bindings.
Scattered foxing.
Illustrated with 58 plates (including 11 archaeological plates), together with 5 folding colour plans hors texte.
A handsomely preserved copy in a period romantic binding.
First edition of the French translation prepared by F. Soulès of "An account on the present state of Nova Scotia", originally published in 1786.
Our copy is offered unbound.
Pages 31 to 39 are devoted to fishing practices.
First French edition, translated from the third English edition (Sabin, 30036.).
Each volume features a steel-engraved frontispiece.
Covers soiled, front boards detached, minor losses and tears to board margins, some foxing, cracked spines with losses; our copy in wrappers is housed in a modern brown full-cloth slipcase.
The second volume also includes a section on "Passage to Montreal and Quebec" (pp. 317-342) and "The Character of the Canadians" (pp. 331-332, 339-342).
Manuscript ex-libris signed Delecey de Mécourt on the front covers.
Rare first edition (see Cordier, Japonica 583; Nipponalia I, 2073. Neither of these bibliographies mentions the map. Polak 8448).
Contemporary half cherry-red calf, spine slightly faded, with four raised bands gilt with dotted tools and fillets; light rubbing to the spine, red paper-covered boards, corners slightly bumped, speckled edges.
Occasional light foxing; a pale dampstain affecting the opening leaves and the folding double-page map showing the plan of the Strait of Shimonoseki.
This work relates the Anglo-French naval campaign of 1862–1863, by Alfred Roussin (1839–1919), a naval officer who commanded the frigate Sémiramis.
The text offers detailed descriptions of trade and the political situation in Japan, as well as of the political relations between the French, the British, and the Japanese during the years 1853–1865.
First edition, published anonymously by Delaporte, secretary and prompter of the Comédie-Française.
Contemporary black cloth Bradel binding, smooth spine, red shagreen lettering-piece with some loss, marbled paper boards, upper corners slightly worn, 19th-century binding.
Copies recorded only at the BnF and in Rouen (CCFr).
Printed initials at the foot of the title page.
Rare summary, by the Comédie-Française secretary and prompter, of the grievances held by the Company against the actor Talma, focusing particularly on performances of Marie-Joseph Chénier’s play Charles IX.
The play, which achieved immense public success, drew criticism from the Gallican Church, leading to its ban after the 33rd performance.
On July 21, 1790, the play was performed again in defiance of the ban. The Comédie-Française troupe then split between the "revolutionaries" and the other shareholders, who refused to perform with Talma.
Autograph letter, dated and signed, addressed to the writer Christiane Baroche: 21 lines in blue ink concerning an issue of the journal Sud devoted to him.
Folding traces from mailing, with the original handwritten envelope, on which Christiane Baroche noted the sender’s name in pencil.
Michel Leiris thanks Christiane Baroche for the tribute paid to him by Sud : "Soyez sûre que je préfère de beaucoup quelque chose de ce genre à un ensemble de doctes analyses ! " but explains that he will not be able to attend the upcoming event dedicated to him: "Dites, je vous prie, à Mr Genêt que je lui sais gré d'avoir pensé à une "journée Leiris", mais qu'il ne doit malheureusement pas compter sur ma présence : j'en serai, d'une part, empêché matériellement... et, d'autre part, cette participation personnelle m'embarrasseerait beaucoup, je vous l'avoue franchement."
Leiris concludes by extending his best wishes to his correspondent and to the Sud team for the year ahead.
First edition, one of 50 numbered copies on Marais Crèvecoeur paper, issued as part of the publisher’s deluxe limitation.
Spine and boards faintly sunned and toned as usual, with a small spot to the lower outer corner of the front board.
As stated in the limitation, this copy includes its original etching by Jacques Villon, signed in the plate.
First edition, illustrated with an original etching as frontispiece and four hors-texte drawings by Henri Laurens, one of 324 numbered copies on Vélin du Marais.
Title page lightly toned, otherwise a pleasing copy.
Signed in pencil by Tristan Tzara and Henri Laurens beneath the limitation statement.
First edition of the catalogue published for the exhibition of works by Max Ernst, held from 15 November to the end of December 1961.
A fine copy.
Illustrated, with a foreword by Alain Bosquet.
Signed autograph inscription by Max Ernst to Madame de Harting.
First edition of the French translation, one of 26 lettered copies on Lana wove rag paper, issued as part of the tête-de-tirage.
A fine copy.
Rare first edition of this project, whose development was certainly collective (with contributions from several democrats, including Frédéric Charrassin, Charles Fauvety, Adolphe Louis Chouippe, and Alexandre Erdan), but which was authored by the neo-criticist philosopher Charles Renouvier (1815–1903).
Bound in contemporary half cherry-colored sheepskin, with a smooth spine adorned with gilt fillets; some rubbing to the spine and boards. Marbled paper over boards, handmade laid paper endpapers and pastedowns, modern bookplate affixed to the front pastedown, slightly bumped corners, minor tears to the joints, speckled edges. Original binding.
Minor, insignificant foxing.
The central idea of this work is that of direct government and direct legislation, inspired by the debate initiated by Rittinghausen.
At the time, this idea was considered utopian and dangerous—much like in contemporary debates—on the grounds that it would discredit the representative system and, contrary to the authors’ intentions, play into the hands of the emerging Caesarism (this was 1851...).
The book also presents other proposals for institutional reform, notably the adoption of the canton as the basic administrative and political unit of the nation, intended to form the true French commune.
Provenance: from the library of Georges and Geneviève Dubois, with their bookplate affixed to the front pastedown.
First edition of the author's third book, with no copies printed on deluxe paper, here a review copy.
Spine very lightly sunned, without seriousness, faint spotting to the board edges.
Rare and desirable presentation copy signed by Patrick Modiano to the woman of letters Christiane Baroche: "Pour Christiane ces boulevards de ceinture avec lesquels elle est bien indulgente. Avec l'amitié de Patrick."
First edition, illustrated at the close of the volume with six plates printed out of text.
Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Institut, Strasbourg).
Our copy is preserved in its original state, issued in a temporary paper wrapper.
Spine restored at head with small losses; marginal losses to the soiled covers; two small adhesive strips along the right margins of the final plate; author’s name and title pencilled on the upper cover.
The study of Phoenician languages was the speciality of Auguste-Célestin Judas (1805–1873).
First edition, printed in a small run, of this offprint from the Journal des savants.
Work illustrated with a finely engraved plate printed outside the text.
Some scattered foxing internally and to the wrappers.
Appointed in 1820 to the chair of archaeology at the Sorbonne, succeeding Quatremère de Quincy, Désiré Raoul-Rochette (1789–1854) was chiefly known for his expertise in Greek antiquity. He also served as curator of the Cabinet des médailles.
On the upper cover, authorial presentation inscription from Désiré Raoul-Rochette to the physician and botanist Henri Dutrochet (1776–1847), the discoverer of the phenomena of exosmosis and endosmosis.
First edition of this important work on former French Indochina, comprising:
On the half-title page of Volume VI, signed autograph inscription by Auguste Pavie: "A l'ami Vitoux, hommage affectueux. A. Pavie."
Accompanying this set is: "Carte de l'Indo-Chine dressée par MM. les Capitaines Cupet, Friquegnon et de Malglaive membres de la Mission Pavie."
Printed in Paris by Augustin Challamel in 1893 (broadsheet, folded and linen-backed, with some foxing).
The map is housed in a modern half green cloth portfolio with tips, red oasis title label, red board covers, and a red full-cloth slipcase, designed to match the text volumes.
"A pioneer of new routes in Cambodia and Laos, and a key figure in French expansion in Indochina, Auguste Pavie (1847–1925) holds a privileged place among the explorers of this region. Born in Dinan, he joined the army at seventeen, served in Cochinchina with the Marine Infantry (1868), and was sent to Cambodia in 1875 (…). In 1876, he was commissioned by the Governor of Indochina to create a new map of Cambodia, taking advantage of the construction of a telegraph line between Phnom Penh and Bangkok (…). In 1885, Le Myre de Vilers, recognizing his abilities, appointed him to the delicate post of French Consul in Luang Prabang, where he was to defend the rights France had inherited from Annam over Laos (…). From Luang Prabang, Pavie undertook a series of journeys across Laos from 1887 to 1889, regions that Mouhot and F. Garnier had only briefly explored. His investigations focused on three main directions: east (Tran-Ninh, Plain of Jars); northeast (Hua-Panh); and north (Sip-Song-Chau). It was in this last area that Pavie concentrated his efforts, seeking safe routes to Tonkin in order to open up Laos and firmly link it to France's other Indochinese possessions (…). From 1888, Pavie was no longer alone. He surrounded himself with military collaborators—Cogniard, Cupet, Malglaive, Pennequin…—and civilians such as the young diplomat Lefèvre-Pontalis and the brilliant biologist Le Dantec. Within a few years, the Pavie Mission, a veritable geographical service, would number some forty members, not counting the many indigenous auxiliaries. Dispersed in small groups along different routes, the mission members multiplied the leader's efforts, covering considerable ground. Thus, in 1890–1891, surrounded by a large team of geographers, naturalists, doctors, ethnographers, and economists, Pavie successfully completed a vast territorial survey intended to establish the future borders between French Indochina, China, Siam, and Burma (…). The scientific results of this collective enterprise, unparalleled in the French Empire, were impressive. Extending far beyond Laos, the investigations covered Tonkin, Annam, Cambodia, and southern China. In total, some 600,000 km²—an area larger than France—were surveyed and partially mapped, and 70,000 km of land and river routes were recorded (…). Truly multidisciplinary, the Pavie Mission encompassed all fields of knowledge, neglecting neither history, nor literature, nor folklore…" (Cf. Numa Broc, Dictionnaire illustré des explorateurs français du XIXe siècle, Asie, pp. 366–368).
First edition, with no copies issued on deluxe paper.
A handsome copy.
With Pierre Bourdieu’s signed presentation inscription to the anthropologist Emmanuel Terray.
First edition, with a single copy recorded in the CCF (Dijon).
Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers and housed in a plain blue interim cover, with a mounted title label at the head of the spine.
Some foxing.
The sole edition of this compilation, conceived primarily for fiscal purposes: indirect taxes at the time were levied chiefly on beverages.
The bookseller Louis Rondonneau (1759–1834) is renowned as the author, compiler, or editor of numerous legal codes, manuals, collections, and repertories of legislation and jurisprudence.
