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first edition of this Rabelaisian style pamphlet directed against Gambetta, one of 300 numbered copies on paper of the Netherlands.
Binding to open bradel ivory wove, smooth back, red mesh frame compositions painted boards and boards to centers: a bookplate and a monogram on the first front cover and Léon Gambetta dabbling in a bathtub on the second, fragile parchment wrappers preserved and bound in, contemporary binding signed Dodé.
Nadar handwritten signature under the justification of the draw.
Book adorned the author of illustrations.
Provenance: Library of Frederick Lachèvre, bibliographer, specialist in French poetry, with its large bookplate engraved and painted emblem repeated in the first boardes. A book illustration is reproduced on the lower flat of each volume.
Some light and light bites to bookbinding.

first edition of this Rabelaisian style pamphlet directed against Gambetta, one of 300 numbered copies on Holland paper.
Binding to open bradel ivory wove, smooth back, red mesh coaching boards and boards painted in watercolor compositions centers: a bookplate and a monogram on the first front cover and Léon Gambetta embodying Christ crucified, fragile parchment wrappers preserved and bound in, contemporary binding signed Dodé.
Nadar handwritten signature under the justification of the draw.
In addition, this copy is enriched with a handwritten correction Nadar pencil in The Passion, p. 45, to orveitan [sic].
Book adorned the author of illustrations.
Provenance: Library of Frederick Lachèvre, bibliographer, specialist in French poetry, with its large bookplate engraved and painted emblem repeated in the first boardes. A book illustration is reproduced on the lower flat of each volume.
Some light and light bites to bookbinding.

Wedding announcement of Boris Vian and Ursula Kübler. On the left panel is mounted a photograph of Vian and his wife in their famous 1911 Brasier Torpedo.
Included is the envelope written in Boris Vian's hand in purple ink. Manuscript calculations in green ink on verso.
Passionate about mechanics and driving, Boris Vian owned numerous car models; his favorite was undoubtedly his 1911 Brasier Torpedo, a former Marne taxi which he acquired in spring 1950.
The marriage finally took place on February 8, 1954 at the town hall of the 18th arrondissement of Paris.

First edition, one of 5 numbered copies on Holland paper, deluxe copy.
A small insignificant stain at head of spine.
Rare and handsome full-margined copy

First edition, one of 1650 copies on chestnut.
Two traces of vertical folds on the boards.
Pleasant copy of this text castigating the colonialist policy of France.
Rare autograph dedication signed by Michel Cournot to Jean Comte "The writers, at the time, had a lot of hair and very few holidays.Today Monsieur Comte knows how to take care of everything.I am not the only one to thank him. "

First edition, a Service de Presse (advance) copy.
Paper yellowed as is often the case.
Work illustrated with hors-texte illustrations by André Masson.
Precious autograph inscription signed by André Breton to Jean Paulhan.

First edition for which it was not drawn large papers.
Autograph dedication signed by Edouard Glissant to Charles Dobzynski.
Nice copy.

First edition, one of 25 copies on vélin neige, the only deluxe paper copies.
A fine copy.
Bound in half red morocco, smooth spine, date gilt at foot, single gilt fillet framing the patterned paper sides with African-inspired motifs, endpapers and pastedowns of bordeaux paper, original wrappers and spine preserved, protective rhodoid cover retained (with a small tear and paper offset from the lower cover onto the rhodoid), top edge gilt, binding signed by P. Goy & C. Vilaine.
Inscribed and signed by Léopold Sédar Senghor to Jean Bardet, co-founder with Paul Flamand of Éditions du Seuil.

New edition, one of the numbered copies.
Publisher’s red cloth Bradel binding, smooth spine slightly faded.
A pleasant copy.
Inscribed by Léopold Sédar Senghor to Madame Lucas.

First edition, one of 200 numbered copies on vélin neige, the only deluxe copies.
Fine copy of the third volume of the Teilhard de Chardin notebooks.

First edition, one of 25 numbered copies on pur fil, deluxe issue.
A handsome copy.
Rare.

First edition, one of 100 numbered advance (service de presse) copies on alfa du Marais paper.
Half brown morocco Bradel binding over marbled paper boards by P. Goy & C. Vilaine, gilt date to foot of spine, yellow paper endpapers and pastedowns , advertising band preserved and mounted on guards.
Light dampstain to foot of covers, a trace of folding to upper cover, foxing to covers and the first few leaves.
A nicely bound copy.

A rare and poetic autograph inscription from Aimé Césaire to the Pataphysician Maurice Saillet.

First collective edition, one of 15 numbered copies on pure wove paper, ours being one of 5 hors commerce copies, the only deluxe paper issue.
A handsome copy.
Inscribed and signed by Aimé Césaire to Jean Bardet, co-founder with Paul Flamand of Éditions du Seuil.

The first edition, of which there were no deluxe copies, a Service de Presse (advance) copy.
Spine slightly sunned.
Rare autograph inscription signed by Léon-Gontran Damas to J.H. Guillaumet.
From the late 1920s onwards, with Aimé Césaire and Léopold Sédar-Senghor, Léon-Gontran Damas fought against assimilationism and colonialism. With his two fellow writers and poets, he was the creator of the concept of Négritude.

First edition of the French translation, one of 10 numbered copies on Lafuma wove paper, ours unnumbered, printed on deluxe paper.
A rare and handsome copy, uncut, of one of the landmark works of the literary and poetic movement "Harlem Renaissance," which strove for the recognition of African-American culture.
Controversial since its publication owing to its title, the novel recounts the adventures of a young couple from Harlem, in the cabarets and soirées of the New York neighborhood. Van Vechten tirelessly supported African-American artists and writers, even after the decline of the movement that had drawn so many white intellectuals to Harlem.

First edition printed in 500 copies on vergé paper
Half brown shagreen over marbled paper boards, spine in six compartments decorated with double blindruled fillets and gilt points, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, corners slightly rubbed, ex libris of Eugène Le Senne, signed by Vanteyne on pastedown
Rare and precious autograph inscription from Charles Cros to Charles Le Senne, who would become the artists', writers', and publishers' lawyer, specializing in literary and artistic rights
Under the inscription, the poem Charles Cros inscribed onto Nina de Villard's (the dedicatee) copy is copied out in pencil.

New edition of the French translation.
Handsome copy complete with its dust jacket, slightly and marginally sunned at the head of the covers.
Rare and precious autograph inscription signed by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on his masterpiece: "Für J.J. Piot".

First edition, one of 10 numbered copies on Hollande, the only large paper copies.
Cover illustration by Antoon van Welie.
Two slight tears to foot of joints near edges, occasional small spots essentially to ffep, but otherwise a good, well-margined copy.
Rare.

First separate edition and first illustrated edition of this famous short story which first appeared in Les soirées de Médan in 1880. The illustration contains 58 compositions by François Thévenot engraved on wood by A. Romagnol, a frontispiece portrait, 7 plates and 47 in-text compositions. Limited to 300 numbered copies, one of 40 copies on handmade laid paper additionally containing a separate suite on China paper of the illustrations and a triple suite of the plates (2 of which on China paper). The portrait of Maupassant is also printed in 3 states, 2 of which on China paper.
Contemporary half tawny marbled calf binding with corners signed at the top of the first endpaper Baillot. Spine with 4 raised bands decorated with romantic tools, roulette at foot, fillets. Gilt title. Top edge gilt. Covers and spine preserved. The tissue guards, reduced in size compared to the leaves, have created on the laid paper an occasionally browned border. Apart from this minor flaw, a very fresh copy. Surface wear along the upper joint, the leather being exposed without glaze. 3 small chips on the spine and along the lower joint due to surface wear, the glaze having disappeared in these spots. Perfect freshness of the paper.
Fine copy.

First edition, one of 65 numbered copies on pur fil, the only large paper copies.
A very good copy.

First edition, one of 50 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the tirage de tête.
A very nice copy.

First edition, one of 35 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the tirage de tête.
Two ex-libris pasted onto an endpaper.
A very nice copy.

First edition, one of 40 numbered copies on pur fil, this one of 10 hors commerce, tirage de tête after 15 Arches.
Two tiny traces of sunning to head and foot of spine (tiny foxings on spine, not serious).

First edition, one of 10 numbered copies on pur fil paper Johannot, the tirage de tête.
Ex-libris pasted to foot of title page, with a frontispiece portrait of the author.
A nice copy.

Rare and sought after first edition, according to Clouzot, especially in contemporary binding
Bindings in half shagreen bottle green, back with four nerves adorned with golden and black nets, plates of marbled paper, guards and counterplates of paper in the tank, two slight scratches without gravity on the cuts, bindings of the time.
Very beautiful copy in a particularly desirable condition a fortiori enriched with a signed autograph shipment.
Rare autograph shipment signed by Théophile Gautier to Mr. Achard.

Illustrated edition with 51 original colour compositions by Etienne Dinet, one of 60 copies on Japan paper, ours specially printed for the bookbinder René Aussourd, containing, at the end, a second state of the engravings in black.
Full brown morocco binding, smooth spine, gilt name of the illustrator at foot of spine, gilt dots on boards decorated with a wide blind-stamped border, border of chocolate brown morocco fillet on marbled paper endpapers and pastedowns, following endpapers of marbled paper, all edges gilt, covers and spine preserved, contemporary unsigned binding but attributable to René Aussourd.
Some foxing to verso of the last black engraving of the suite.
Complete copy with its advertising prospectuses and publisher's full green leather slipcase with flaps, brown felt lining.

CHAGALL Marc. For the cloude of the Lorde was upon the Tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel thorowout all their journeys – The Story of Exodus
Amiel Léon, Paris, New-York 1966, 36 x 49.5 cm, one single leaf
Original color lithograph, one of 15 proofs on Japon impérial paper reserved for the artist and his collaborators, the only printing with 20 more on Japon and 250 on Arches paper. Unsigned proof, as all proofs in this series, other than the frontispiece.
A superb proof on Japon paper specially made for The Story of Exodus, published in 1966, for which Chagall made 24 hors-text lithographs printed by Mourlot.
An exceedingly rare original proof on Japon paper, the most attractive and best for color lithographs.


Fernand Mourlot was undoubtedly the finest lithographic printer of the 20th century and was thus the friend and printer to the leading artists of his day. “Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Miró, Braque, Dubuffet, Léger, Giacometti…added to their own expression and contemporary art a new field of research. With Mourlot, and thanks to him, lithography acquired both a personality and a future” (Pierre Cabanne, in Cinquante années de lithographie).
Having already printed two volumes of the Bible illustrated by Chagall, Mourlot contributed to the artist's lithographic training in the 1950s. It was during this period that Chagall began to visit Mourlot's workshop regularly in order to learn lithographic techniques and that he developed bonds of friendship with the staff of the workshop, most notably Charles Sorlier.
It was thus at the peak of his powers that Chagall made this story of Exodus, which coincided with the termination of his immense lithographic and pictoral work on the Bible, undertaken in 1930 at the urging of Ambroise Vollard. This decorative cycle, entitled Le Message Biblique [The Biblical Message] was in fact the basis for the creation of the Chagall Museum, originally called the Musée national du message biblique Marc-Chagall.

First edition, one of 70 copies on Hollande Van Gelder initialed by the author and artist and containing two states of the etchings.
Work illustrated with twelve original color etchings by the artist and twenty-three pencil drawings printed typographically by Edouard Chimot.
Full red and dark brown morocco binding, smooth spine depicting an infernal landscape inlaid with light brown, grey and dark blue morocco, boards illustrated with bronze flame motifs intertwining in inlay, bronze and gilt fillets emphasizing the separation between the red and brown morocco, gilt zigzag fillet at foot of first board, pastedowns framed with red and dark brown morocco, gilt and palladium fillets framing the pastedowns, pastedowns and endpapers lined with red moiré silk, top edge gilt, deckled edges, covers and spine preserved. Slipcase lined with paper and edged with red morocco. Near-contemporary binding signed A. Bianchi.
Paper of the slipcase detached in places.
Very handsome copy in a remarkable Art Deco-inspired decorative binding.

First edition, one of 300 numbered copies on vellum paper.
Spine slightly cracked at head and foot with minute losses, some foxing mostly affecting the endpapers.
Illustrated with 32 reproductions of works by Georges Annenkoff, including a colour frontispiece.

First edition illustrated with 12 original color lithographs by Charles Guérin, one of 35 numbered copies on Japan paper à la forme, deluxe issue.
Full purple morocco binding, smooth spine decorated with geometric and floral mosaic morocco pieces in purple, old rose and red, gilt roulettes on headcaps, quadruple gilt fillets framing the boards enhanced with geometric and floral mosaic morocco pieces in brown, purple, pink and green, mauve watered silk endpapers and pastedowns, double gilt fillets framing the pastedowns enhanced with a purple morocco fillet and pink mosaic morocco pieces forming three small flowers, gilt fillets on leading edges, covers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, contemporary binding signed Simon Kra.
Our copy is accompanied by two duplicate suites, one of the color lithographs on China paper, the other breaking down each of these lithographs into color passages (3 or 4 depending on the images).
Very rare and beautiful copy perfectly bound in full morocco signed Simon Kra.

First edition, one of 20 numbered copies on vélin de cuve paper reserved for the “XX” bibliophile group, the tirage de tête.
A good copy complete with its double covers by Albin Michel and the “XX” bibliophile group.
Joints of chemise rubbed, modern slipcase, tiny insignificant worming to endpapers.

Signed by the author on justification page.

First edition, one of 50 numbered copies on Japon mat, the tirage de tête.
A very nice copy.

First edition, one of 25 numbered copies on Hollande, this copy one of some hors commerce, the tirage de tête.
A very nice copy with edges preserved.

First edition, one of 150 numbered copies on Arches Vellum, only large papers.
Spine of the chemise slightly faded, a beautiful copy.
Issue illustrated with 4 original lithographs by Jacques Monory.
Text by Alain Jouffroy.
A beautiful copy.
Handwritten signature by Jacques Monory in pencil on the colophon.

First edition on ordinary paper.
Contemporary Bradel binding in half almond cloth, smooth spine very slightly faded decorated with a gilt typographical fleuron, double gilt fillet at foot, red shagreen title-label, marbled paper boards, original wrappers preserved, front cover with small harmless stains at head.
Provenance: from the library of Jean Ajalbert with his japonisant bookplate in the style of the Nabis engraved on wood in a very small number, signed with a monogram, probably that of Félicien Rops.
Precious signed autograph inscription from Jules Renard to Jean Ajalbert.

Second edition on ordinary paper.

Bradel binding in half orange cloth, smooth spine very slightly faded decorated with gilt floral motif, double gilt fillet at foot, chocolate shagreen title label, marbled paper boards, original wrappers preserved, contemporary binding.

Precious signed autograph inscription from Octave Mirbeau to Jean Ajalbert.

Provenance: library of Jean Ajalbert with his Japanese-style bookplate in the style of the Nabis, wood engraved in a very small number, signed with a monogram, probably that of Félicien Rops.

Posthumous first edition, one of 120 copies reimposed and numbered on Dutch laid paper, the only copies on deluxe paper.
A very handsome copy, uncut, enriched with an original watercolour depicting an Annamite soldier, signed Linh-Tap.
Preface by Jean Ajalbert.
Attractive illustrated cover by Géo Dorival, with a second state of the illustrated cover supplied on a separate leaf.
Manuscript signature of Marie-Thérèse Boissière beneath the limitation statement.

First edition, one of 25 copies numbered and justified by the publisher on japon paper, the only printing along with 25 on china paper.
Our copy was mistakenly identified by the publisher as belonging to the china issue.
Bradel binding in half burgundy cloth, smooth spine, black shagreen title label, pebble-grained paper boards, illustrated colour covers by Adolphe Willette preserved, slightly later binding signed Champs.
Poems by Henri Bernard, Maurice Boukay, Georges d'Esparbès, Louis Marsolleau, Roger-Milès, Maurice Vaucaire, Gabriel Vicaire, and others.
Illustrated with 17 original lithographs by Adolphe Willette, here in double state as in the deluxe copies.
A handsome copy.

First edition, one of 10 numbered copies on Whatman paper initialled by the publisher, deluxe issue.
Half chocolate morocco binding with corners, spine with five raised bands, date gilt at foot, marbled paper boards, hand-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original delicate parchment wrappers preserved (with discreet and skillful restorations), gilt edges, binding signed Goy & Vilaine.
Contributions by Victor Hugo, Stéphane Mallarmé, Charles Cros, Frédéric Mistral, Paul Arène, Théodore de Banville, Léon Cladel, Jules Claretie, François Coppée, Léon Dierx, Anatole France, Albert Glatigny, José-Maria de Heredia, Arsène Houssaye, Jules Janin, Charles Leconte de Lisle, Catulle Mendès, Albert Mérat, Sully Prudhomme...
Frontispiece portrait of Théophile Gautier by Bracquemond. Final endpaper partially creased.
A very handsome copy, uncut, beautifully bound.

Amyot, Paris 1860, 11.5 x 18.5 cm, bound
First edition published the same year the Aosta Valley became part of Italy. The work is illustrated with 97 wood engravings in the text, 33 steel insert engravings, 6 chromotypographies and a map.
Bound in half red shagreen, spine decorated with blind tooling, “Palais de Compiègne” gold stamped at the head of the spine, Napoleon III's monogram gold stamped on the spine, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, contemporary binding. Some minor foxing.
"Bibliothèque de la Couronne - Compiègne” stamp on the title page. Our copy, unlike those placed in the national collection when the Palais de Compiègne library disbanded, does not have the “dépôt de l'État 1891” stamp. The Palais de Compiègne library, entirely refurnished by Napoleon III, was a truly sociable venue for the emperor's guests who borrowed novels, magazines and newspapers. An entertaining hand-written loan register has been digitized by the National Library of France.
After the fall of the Second Empire, the third Republic allowed the library, which was then open to the Compiègne public, to remain for sometime, according to the memories of Jules Troubat, the former Sainte-Beuve secretary and the last librarian at the Palais. The decree of 16 January 1888 ordered the library to be permanently closed and emptied of its contents. One part of the collection - around 10,000 works - are given to the Compiègne municipal library in 1891. In March 1918, the town of Compiègne was bombed and evacuated; the books were then left open to the elements. It was not until the end of May 1918 that a librarian acting with the army evacuated the works that remained intact, but was unable to deal with the books that had suffered damage. This part of the collection will later be sorted and sold by weight.
We have only been able to find one work from the Palais de Compiègne library on public sale, a Description of Egypt auctioned in 2014.

Beautiful and rare copy, of renowned provenance, with Napoleon III's monogram and one of the rare works to have not made it to the national collection when the Palais de Compiègne library was dismantled in 1891.

First edition of the French translation, an advance (service de presse) copy.
Bradel paper binding by Goy & Vilaine, grey calf title piece, covers preserved.
Very rare autograph inscription by Otto Strasser to Pierre Loewel.
A rare copy.

First edition printed in 310 copies, ours being one of 285 numbered copies on Auvergne paper. Our copy is enhanced with an original drawing signed by Léon Courbouleix.
Bradel binding in full vellum, smooth spine decorated with an original drawing and pen title, covers decorated with drawings by Gaston Hoffmann, marbled paper slipcase.
Very handsome work entirely engraved with etching, printed on hand press by Léon Courbouleix and bound in a very beautiful painted binding by Gaston Hoffmann.

First edition in French, printed on vergé paper.

Publisher's Arabesque yellow paper binding by A. Lenègre, spine with gilt, black, and turquoise Arabic decorative motifs (head- and tail-pieces slightly rubbed), upper cover richly ornamented with Arabic decorative motifs in gilt, black and turquoise with a frame of gilt and black fillets, turquoise paper pastedowns and endpapers (corners slightly bumped), all edges gilt, a few small insignificant spots to lower cover.
Text by Alfred Edmund Brehm & Johannes Dumichen.
The work is illustrated with 24 watercolors after nature by Charles Werner.
A few small spots, mostly affecting endpapers.
Rare.

First edition, one of 20 lettered copies on China paper, the deluxe issue after 5 copies on old Japan paper.
A vertical crease mark on the first cover.
Handsome and rare copy.

Illustrated edition with 109 engravings including 8 etchings and one original lithograph by Jean Puy, one of 315 numbered copies on Arches vellum, the only issue after 30 on old Japan and 30 on Imperial Japan.
Half-red shagreen binding with bands, smooth spine, gilt friezes at head and foot, vellum-style paper boards, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns, covers and spine (spine in poor condition) preserved, slipcase with black shagreen borders, red cardboard boards.
The front cover has three small tears.
Handsome copy.
Both binding boards are enhanced with two original black ink drawings by Jean Puy depicting scenes from the work.

First edition, one of 20 copies on Japon, this copy specially printed for Madame Fasquelle, included in the copies hors commerce, the only grand papier (deluxe) copies.
Small tears to foot of spine on the edges, tiny spots, not serious, on the covers.
A nice and rare copy with edges preserved.

First edition illustrated with numerous unpublished drawings in black and in color by Albert Guillaume, Ferdinand Bac, Albert Robida, Lucien Métivet, Jean-Louis Forain, Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, Job, Charles Léandre, Hermann Paul, Benjamin Rabier, Charles Huard, Henry Gerbault, Abel Faivre, Paul Balluriau...
Publisher’s decorated binding in full cloth, smooth spine decorated with a green floral motif, bevelled boards, the upper cover illustrated by Lucien Métivet showing the masked faces of most of the illustrators of this volume and, above them, a society lady manipulating these caricatures with strings like puppets, endpapers and pastedowns of blue paper slightly discoloured at the margins, gilt edges at head, illustrated wrappers preserved, binding signed Engel.
Preface by Léon Roger-Milès.
A very rare copy preserved in its magnificent decorated publisher’s binding.

First edition on ordinary paper, only 12 copies were printed on Holland paper as deluxe copies.
Full Jansenist burgundy morocco binding, spine with four raised bands, triple gilt fillet frames on endpapers, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original faded covers and spine preserved, all edges gilt, elegant binding signed Georges Cretté.
Autograph inscription signed by Jean Moréas to composer and music teacher Gaston Vallin.
Provenance: libraries of Raoul Simonson and Jean Lebrun with their bookplates pasted to verso of front board.
Fine copy in perfect condition.

First edition.
Half mustard yellow shagreen binding with corners, spine with five raised bands decorated with blind-tooled compartments, black morocco title and volume labels, gilt date at foot, gilt fillets on marbled paper boards, combed paper endpapers and pastedowns, top edge gilt on deckled edges. Some very slight rubbing to headcaps, corners and on title and volume labels.
Reading marks in blue pencil in margins of the last three pages.
Autograph inscription signed by Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly "à Monsieur Charles Buet / écriture déguisée pour cette plume moderne, mais sentiment vrai toujours".
Provenance: from the library of P. Tissot with his stamp as bookplate on the title page.
The writer and journalist Charles Buet held a literary salon on avenue de Breteuil where he received notably Barbey d'Aurevilly, but also Léon Bloy, François Coppée, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Jean Lorrain, Laurent Tailhade, Jean Moréas, Stanislas de Guaïta and Félix Fénéon.
Signed autograph inscriptions by the author on this title are of exceptional rarity.

Illustrated edition of 10 original Adrien Marie compositions etched by Wallet, one of 50 numbered copies on Japan featuring etchings in double condition;
Binding in half gray percaline with corners, smooth back adorned with a floral golden pattern, golden date and double fillet in tail, title piece of navy shagreen, boards of marbled paper, Contemporary binding.
Edition enriched with an unpublished preface by Jules Clarétie.
Some foxinges mainly affecting the white guards of the binding.
Our copy is exceptionally embellished with an original watercolor in color signed Frédéric Bourdin on the page preceding the title page.

Edition illustrated with 96 original compositions by Maurice Leloir engraved as etchings.
Full red morocco-grained shagreen bindings, spines with five fine raised bands set with gilt friezes and decorated with richly decorated gilt compartments, gilt floral friezes at foot, gilt roulettes on headcaps, triple gilt fillet frames on covers, floral bouquets in cover corners, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt floral motifs in pastedown corners, gilt edges on leading edges, covers stitched and spine preserved.
One scratch at head of second volume joint.
Preface by Jules Clarétie.
Handsome copy beautifully executed.

Edition decorated with original color illustrations and borders, including 10 full-page, by Albert Robida, and printed in 100 numbered copies on handmade vellum, ours one of 50 nominative copies, that of Charles Meunier.
Bradel binding in full paper, smooth spine, red morocco title label, handmade paper endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved, binding signed P. Goy & C. Vilaine.
Rare and handsome copy.

Original collage by Claude Tarnaud, heightened with white paint and monogrammed in ink at lower right.
"Claude Tarnaud, together with Yves Bonnefoy and Jaroslav Serpan, founded the review La Révolution la nuit. Contacted by André Breton, he then joined the Surrealist group and took an active part in the 1947 International Surrealist Exhibition, as well as in the review Néon (5 issues from January 1948 to April 1949). In November 1948, disagreeing with the exclusion of the painter Roberto Matta, he broke with the Surrealist group, following his friends Victor Brauner, Stanislas Rodanski and others. He was later associated with François Di Dio in directing the review Positions, published by Le Soleil noir, to which he contributed three works. From 1953 to 1966, he took part in the activities of the Phases movement and contributed to the review of the same name. In 1966, he met Penelope and Franklin Rosemont, who, thanks to him, founded in Chicago the first Surrealist group in the United States of America." (Bibliothèque Kandinsky)

First edition of Yves Bonnefoy’s debut work, one of 300 copies on coated paper, the only issue after 1 on beige paper, 10 on grey paper and 50 on Chamois.
Spine and covers slightly and marginally faded, as usual.
Inscribed and signed by Yves Bonnefoy to a couple of friends, dated 1976: "1946-1976 cher Pierre, chère Simone, il est grand temps de vous remettre cette pièce à conviction... Avec affection. Yves."

Autograph letter by Hans Bellmer signed "H.B", addressed to Claude Richard, dated by the author December 31, 1950. Two pages in black ink on two sheets of fine pink paper, with autograph envelope enclosed.
Discrete fold marks inherent to the sending of the letter.
Exceptional lament of a cursed artist, sacrificing his life to his art. Endangering his health, Bellmer carefully supervises the printing of the first retrospective catalogue of his works (Vingt-cinq reproductions) of which he had received the first copies "le soir de la Noël" ["on Christmas evening"]. He addresses his Bordeaux collector-patron, Claude Richard, from his modest Latin Quarter studio, which had seen the birth, a year earlier, of his masterpiece Les Jeux de la Poupée.

Bellmer takes up his pen and transcribes his malaise onto these two old rose pages, similar to the color covering some of his Doll photographs, as well as to that of the band surrounding the collection of this famous suite of photographs. The words themselves, finely chiseled with pen strokes, disarticulate in the image of his works; the letters come undone and reveal the extreme distress of the artist at the end of his strength and resources: "Excusez je vous prie cette lettre décousue mais je ne vais pas très bien" ["Please excuse this rambling letter but I am not very well"] [...] "ma vie est redevenue très très dure" ["my life has become very very hard again"] [...] "vous ai-je remercié des 16000 que vous avez eu l'amitié de m'envoyer il y a deux semaines environ ? - Cela m'a permis d'activer la fabrication du recueil (une fois de plus)" ["did I thank you for the 16,000 that you were kind enough to send me about two weeks ago? - This allowed me to accelerate the production of the collection (once again)"] This concerns a work laid out by his own hand, bringing together twenty-five of his works, accompanied by texts by Nora Mitrani, Gisèle Prassinos, Jehan Mayoux, Jean Brun, André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Jacques de Caso, and Yves Bonnefoy. Bellmer had received the first copies a few days earlier: "J'y avais mis un effort affreux ; depuis trois semaines, je traîne une grippe, qui, par le froid glacial de la rue Mouffetard et de l'atelier d'impression chez Larrive, a pris depuis 10 jours un tour dangereux. Pour l'instant, je ne tiens plus debout, mais pour ne pas me déclarer vaincu, je suis obligé de courrir sans cesse pour trouver le minimum d'argent nécessaire, pour ne pas mourir de faim" ["I had put a terrible effort into it; for three weeks, I have been dragging around the flu, which, due to the freezing cold of rue Mouffetard and the printing workshop at Larrive's, has taken a dangerous turn for the past 10 days. At the moment, I can no longer stand up, but so as not to declare myself defeated, I am obliged to run constantly to find the minimum amount of money necessary, so as not to die of hunger"].
The manuscript also contains a beautiful passage on the artist's relationship with his patron, and also mentions Cocteau as well as his partnership with the Hugo Gallery in New York, directed since 1944 by former dancer Alexandre Jolas: (1907-1987): "Quant à l'encadrement de mon tableau (c.à.d le vôtre), je m'en occuperai avec plaisir, car c'est très important pour la mise en valeur de la chose. Je connais bien un des meilleurs encadreurs (il a encadré les choses que Cocteau et Morihien m'avaient achetées il y a quelques années que la Hugo-gallery m'a pris cette année. Il ne doit peut-être trop bien marché [sic]. Dès que je trouverai deux tickets de métro je vous dirai le prix qu'il demanderait.
Ces jours-ci j'ai pu récupérer un expl. de tête de mon Album de Revel, sous emboîtage avec un dessin original. Le prix est de 6000. Si vous le voulez je peux vous l'envoyer de suite. Avez-vous vous reçu l'expl. [illisible] du Recueil à mon sujet ? Les expl. de luxe ne seront pas prêts avant une semaine. Je vous enverrai le vôtre dès que je pourrai" ["As for the framing of my painting (that is to say yours), I will take care of it with pleasure, as it is very important for showcasing the piece. I know well one of the best framers (he framed the things that Cocteau and Morihien had bought from me a few years ago that the Hugo-gallery took from me this year. It must not have worked out too well [sic]. As soon as I find two metro tickets I will tell you the price he would ask.
These days I was able to recover a deluxe copy of my Album by Revel, in a slipcase with an original drawing. The price is 6000. If you want it I can send it to you immediately. Did you receive the [illegible] copy of the Recueil about me? The deluxe copies will not be ready for another week. I will send you yours as soon as I can"]

Magnificent swan song of a sick and reclusive Bellmer in his studio, who addresses death in order to achieve the sublime.

Illustrated edition of initials, colored vignettes and 8 plates inset by Georges Lepape, one of 36 numbered copies on Holland paper, head print.
Binding half turquoise shagreen corners, back with four nerves slightly discolored, paper plates with moiré effect, guards and contreplats of handmade paper, cover and back preserved, gilded head.
Nice copy.
Our copy, as it is stipulated in the justification of the draw, is full of the original etching of Georges Lepape that he signed.

First edition.
Complete third year in 12 issues of this extremely rare scholarly review founded and directed by Paul Nadar. Each copy includes at least two plates outside the text, including a plate of Nadar's photographic prints and a photograph often reproduced in heliogravure. Contributions by P. Nadar, A. and L. Lumière, A. Marey, G. Geffroy, J. Grand-Carteret, J. Demarçay, Davison, S. Ferrand, H. Fourtier, C. Gravier, A. Guerronnan, Ponton d'Amécourt, H. Reeb, L. Vidal, J. Waterhouse... Among the numerous subjects treated, one will find chronophotography, color reproduction, skies in photography, The pilgrimage to Mecca (very beautiful heliogravure plate outside the text of the grand çalat ceremony)... "We believe we are advancing progress by interesting the public even more in this entirely French discovery of Photography..." ["Nous pensons faire oeuvre de progrès en intéressant encore davantage le public à cette découverte toute française de la Photographie..."]. Thus Paul Nadar concluded his introduction as presentation of this precious review, containing a print by the celebrated photographer in each issue. At the origin of the creation of Paris-photographe, P. Nadar explains the absence of a luxury photography review in France, contrary to the magnificent foreign publications.
Some rare and minimal marginal dampstains and small tears of no consequence, otherwise very handsome uncut copies forming a set of remarkable rarity.

Autograph letter signed "LF Destouches" addressed to the journalist Léon Deffoux. 24 lines written in black ink, several underlines and erasures of Celine's hand.
Envelope attached.
Folds inherent to the enveloping of the mail as well as some very tiny pinholes in the right margin of the leaflet.

First edition published under the pseudonym Loyson-Bridet, one of the first issue copies.
Binding in brown half morocco, back with five nerves set with black threads, golden date tail, marbled paper plates, guards and contreplats of handmade paper, covers and back preserved, golden head, Contemporary binding signed Moens .
Three press clippings and a bookstore description label pasted at the top of the volume on the White Guards.
Precious autograph dedication signed by Marcel Schwob, under his pseudonym of Loyson-Bridet, to Lucien Descaves.

First edition illustrated with 167 plates drawn from life by Félix Benoist and lithographed by leading Parisian artists including Arnout, Bachelier, Benoist, David, Fichot, Tirpenne...
Bound in half bottle-green shagreen, spines with four raised bands framed with gilt rolls and decorated with double gilt panels featuring typographic motifs and gilt heraldic ermines, gilt names and places at the foot, covers of bottle-green percaline framed with a broad gilt lace border enriched with heraldic ermines and gilt armorials, boards stamped in the centre with the gilt arms of Brittany and of the city of Nantes within a gilt mandorla, white moiré silk endleaves and pastedowns, publisher's bindings.
Historical introduction by Arthur de La Borderie, epilogue on Breton poetry by De La Villemarqué, descriptive texts by Aurélien de Courson, Pol de Courcy, Ropartz, A. de La Borderie, De La Villemarqué...
Some minor foxing, not affecting the text or plates.
A handsome copy in a fine publisher's binding with the arms of Brittany and the city of Nantes.

First edition. One of 100 deluxe advance copies on B.F.K. de Rives, only deluxe copies along with 512 others on B.F.K. de Rives.

Precious copy inscribed and dated April 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 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).
Spine lightly sunned as usual for Molloy and L'Innomable, a tiny tear (not serious) to foot of spine of the latter.

First edition, one of 100 hors commerce (advance) copies on BFK de Rives paper, the only deluxe copies with 642 other copies on BFK de Rives paper.

Precious copy inscribed and dated January 1970 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 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).
Spine lightly sunned as usual for Molloy and L'Innomable, a tiny tear (not serious) to foot of spine of the latter.

First edition, one of 92 copies numbered on superior vellum, the only deluxe paper issue together with a few copies hors commerce.
A fine copy.

First edition, one of 60 numbered copies on Arches paper, head print.
Illustrated book of drawings by Jean-Robert Ipoustéguy.
Pleasant copy.
Our copy, like all the copies of the head print, is very complete with the original drypoint by Jean-Robert Ipoustéguy which he justified and signed in pencil.

First edition, one of 92 copies numbered on bouffant select, the only deluxe paper copies along with a few hors commerce.
A very handsome copy.

Charles Baudelaire. Sa vie et son œuvre First edition on thick paper, of the first biography devoted to Charles Baudelaire, who had died two years prior.
Half navy morocco over marbled paper boards Bradel binding by Alfred Farez, the spine slightly faded, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers and spine preserved.
This copy complete with the 5 etching portraits of Charles Baudelaire by Edouard Manet, Gustave Courbet, Emile Deroy and Charles Baudelaire himself. Edouard Manet engraved the two of his, Félix Bracquemond the three others.

Autograph inscription signed by Charles Asselineau to the publisher and bibliophile Léon Techener.

First edition.

Rare handwritten inscription from Josef Pankiewicz to [Moïse] Kisling.
Illustrations. Three light, minor snags at the top of the spine, tiny marginal tears without pieces missing at the top of the first board, otherwise pleasant copy.

In 1906, Pankiewicz was appointed professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. Notably, one of his pupils was Moïse Kisling whom he encouraged to abandon sculpture in favor of painting. He introduced the young man to French painting and more specifically Cézanne and Renoir. In 1910, on the advice of his mentor, Kisling – aged nineteen years old – left Poland for Paris where he quickly became a significant figure of Parisian artistic life.

First edition of the French translation by José Maria de Heredia.
Bindings in half brown morocco with corners, back with five nerves set with gilded nets and adorned with crossed golden swords overcoming a honorific golden distinction, golden dates in tails, framing of gilt fillets on marbled paper plates, guards and contreplats of paper in the tank, golden heads.
Signed autograph of José Maria de Heredia to Leon Charmolüe on the first volume.
A small snag on an upper corner of the third volume.
Nice copy pleasantly established.

Rare first edition of the second volume of the Parnasse contemporain, featuring works by fifty-six poets, most of them previously unpublished, issued in twelve parts between 1869 and 1871.
Includes contributions by Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé, Théodore de Banville, Théophile Gautier, Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Louise Colet, José-Maria de Heredia, Sainte-Beuve, Leconte de Lisle, Catulle Mendès, Anatole France, Louisa Siefert, Sully Prudhomme, and Augustine-Malvina Blanchecotte...
Bradel binding in green forest morocco-backed boards with corners, smooth spine with central floral ornament and date at foot, comb-marbled endpapers, original wrappers and spine preserved, binding signed by Stroobants.
Monogrammed bookplate “B” pasted on a flyleaf.
A rare and very handsome copy.

Rare original lithograph, executed by Paul Albert Laurens for L'Estampe Moderne, series number 9 published in January 1898.
One of 50 deluxe proofs printed on Japan paper with wide margins, wove paper mounted on Japan paper, artist's signature in the plate, publisher's dry stamp depicting a child's profile in the lower margin, numbered stamp of the deluxe printing on verso; engraving preceded by a tissue guard inscribed with the artist's name, title and a poem; blank tissue guard.
Lithograph inspired by the poem Les trophées by José-Maria de Heredia, reproduced on the print's tissue guard.
Magnificent French monthly publication edited between May 1897 and April 1899, L'Estampe moderne consists of original chromolithographs which, unlike other magazines such as Les Maîtres de l'Affiche and as stipulated on the tissue guards, were created specifically by each artist for the magazine. Thus 100 prints appeared in total, covering the major artistic movements of the late 19th century: Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Pre-Raphaelites, Orientalists and Belle Époque. Each delivery of four prints was printed in 2000 copies sold for 3.50F and 100 on Japan paper offered at 10F. Henri Piazza also planned a confidential deluxe printing: 50 copies on Japan paper with wide margins and 50 in black on China paper at the considerable price of 30F.
This print of handsome format is superbly printed on the most prestigious of papers: Japan. Thick, silky, satiny and pearlescent, it contributes to making each page a work of art in its own right. Its ink absorption quality and affinity with colors also make it the ideal support for these very beautiful lithographs.
French collectors' interest in artistic posters intensified in the early 1890s. Octave Uzanne, to describe this fever, invented the term "affichomanie". The poster, originally popular and posted in the streets of the capital, then became an art object and its ephemeral medium became precious and destined for preservation.
Piazza decided to remove the poster from its advertising vocation and elevate it to the rank of a work of art in its own right, on par with the deluxe illustrated book. He thus composed a prestigious collection of entirely original works by the most prominent European artists of the moment: Georges de Feure, Eugène Grasset, Henri Detouche, Emile Berchmans, Louis Rhead, Gaston de Latenay, Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, Gustave-Max Stevens, Charles Doudelet, Hans Christiansen, Henri Fantin-Latour, Steinlen, Ibels, Engels, Willette, Henri Meunier, Evenepoël, Bellery-Desfontaines, Charles Léandre, etc.
Handsome copy in the Art Nouveau style.

First edition.
Paper Bradel binding by Thomas Boichot, dark blue title-piece, covers and spine preserved, ex libris pasted opposite half-title with autograph inscription.
Handsome autograph inscription signed by Maurice Barrès to the poet José-Maria de Heredia.
A very good copy nicely bound.

Rare original lithograph printed in colors, executed by Auguste Donnay for L'Estampe Moderne, series number 10 published in February 1898.
One of 50 deluxe proofs printed on Japan paper with wide margins, artist's signature and date in the plate, publisher's dry stamp representing a child's profile in the lower margin, numbered stamp of the deluxe edition on the verso; engraving preceded by a tissue guard inscribed with the artist's name, title and a poem; blank tissue guard.
Lithograph inspired by a poem by José Maria de Heredia, reproduced on the tissue guard of the print.
Magnificent French monthly publication issued between May 1897 and April 1899, L'Estampe Moderne consists of original chromolithographs which, unlike other periodicals such as Les Maîtres de l'Affiche and as stipulated on the tissue guards, were created specially by each artist for the review. Thus 100 prints appeared in total, covering the major artistic movements of the late 19th century: Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Pre-Raphaelites, Orientalists and Belle Epoque. Each issue of four prints was printed in 2000 copies sold at 3.50F and 100 on Japan paper offered at 10F. Henri Piazza also planned a confidential deluxe edition: 50 copies on Japan paper with wide margins and 50 in black on China paper at the considerable price of 30F.
This print of handsome format is superbly printed on the most prestigious of papers: Japan paper. Thick, silky, satiny and pearlescent, it contributes to making each page a complete work in itself. Its quality of ink absorption and its affinity with colors also make it the ideal medium for these very beautiful lithographs.
French collectors' interest in artistic posters intensified in the early 1890s. Octave Uzanne, to characterize this fever, invented the term "postomania." The poster, originally popular and displayed in the streets of the capital, then became an art object and its ephemeral medium became precious and destined for preservation.
Piazza decided to remove the poster from its advertising purpose and elevate it to the rank of a complete work of art on the same level as the deluxe illustrated book. He thus composed a prestigious collection of entirely original works, by the most prominent European artists of the moment: Georges de Feure, Eugène Grasset, Henri Detouche, Emile Berchmans, Louis Rhead, Gaston de Latenay, Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, Gustave-Max Stevens, Charles Doudelet, Hans Christiansen, Henri Fantin-Latour, Steinlen, Ibels, Engels, Willette, Henri Meunier, Evenepoël, Bellery-Desfontaines, Charles Léandre, etc.
Handsome copy in the Art Nouveau style.

First edition.
Handsome autograph inscription signed by Alphonse de Lamartine to the painter (Jean) Gigoux.
Small restored tears to head and foot of joints, spotting.

First edition.
Half black Russian morocco bindings, smooth spines decorated with gilt romantic arabesques, gilt dates at foot, marbled paper boards, pebbled paper endpapers and pastedowns, top edges gilt, slipcases edged with black morocco, pebbled paper boards, elegant romantic pastiche bindings signed Champs.
Bookplate pasted on an endpaper of the first volume, the facing page bearing this manuscript notation in pen: "édition princeps".
Fine copy, free from foxing, in an attractive romantic pastiche binding by Champs.

New edition.
Half bordeaux shagreen binding with corners, spine with four raised bands set with gilt dots decorated with double gilt compartments enhanced with gilt floral motifs, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved, top edge gilt.
Work illustrated with a portrait of the author as frontispiece.
Precious autograph inscription signed by Théodore de Banville to his close friend Edmond de Goncourt.