18th Century Illustrated Books

First edition of this essential work on the subject.

The first volume is illustrated with an engraved portrait of the author hors texte; the second contains one folding plate hors texte.

Contemporary half aubergine sheep bindings, smooth spines slightly faded and tooled with gilt and blind fillets, a few scuffs to the marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.

First edition, adorned with numerous tables including 8 folding at the end of the volume, and illustrated with 62 figures in the text.

Publisher’s Bradel binding in full burgundy cloth, smooth spine lettered in gilt on the upper cover, upper headcap lacking, lower headcap worn, upper cover framed with blind-stamped typographical motifs at the corners, blue-grey endpapers and pastedowns, upper corners rubbed.

A marginal loss to the right margin of pages 97-98, not affecting the text.

A treatise on hydrography and maritime topography, the first of its kind in Brazil, intended for fourth-year students of the Brazilian Naval School.

The author, the naval officer...

Atlas volume only from this important 8-volume work, produced within the broader movement to generalize the use of statistics initiated by ministers François de Neufchâteau and subsequently Chaptal. 

Contemporary half flexible paper boards, smooth spine without lettering in blue cloth, marbled paper-covered boards with a printed title label of the period to the centre of the upper cover, spine restored.

Marginal dampstaining to the boards, occasional spotting or soiling to the margins of some leaves.

Herbin, who coordinated the work, draws upon official data that prefects were required to supply for this purpose. 

This volume, in accordance with the table of...

First edition, illustrated with 1 plate and 3 folding maps printed outside the text (cf. Tulard, 694.)

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, in soiled temporary covers with angular losses and wear to the spine; internally in pleasant condition despite some foxing.

The only edition, and uncommon, of this report on the operations at Peschiera (1–19 January 1801), which followed the Battle of Marengo and were entrusted to François de Chasseloup-Laubat, Commander-in-Chief of Engineers with the Army of Italy. 

The diplomat Étienne-Félix d'Hénin de Cuvillers (1755–1841) was then serving in the same army as a captain, and later as a squadron leader attached to the...

First edition of the French translation by Barrère de Vieuzac, illustrated with 2 folding maps as plates.

Cf. Sabin 31266. Leclerc 1759.

Contemporary half aubergine basane binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt friezes, a gilt frieze at the tail, marbled paper boards, handmade paper endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, period binding.

Some light water staining affecting notably the two folding maps.

Rare work, significant for its contributions to Statistics, Geography, Mineralogy, Metallurgy, Natural History, Agriculture, and Trade of South America.

The original German edition was printed in Dresden in 1798. Both translations include additional...

First edition, illustrated with a large folding map (hors texte) at the end of the volume.

Half black morocco binding, spine with four raised bands decorated with gilt fillets and dotted tooling; light rubbing to the spine. Marbled paper boards, speckled edges, contemporary binding.

Scattered foxing.

Unique edition of this scarce monograph, among the earliest works in French on Albania, at the time still part of the European territories of the Ottoman Empire.

Hecquard (1814–1866) is better known for his travels in Africa, but he served as French consul in Albania from 1862 onward, which explains the writing of this work.

Signed presentation...

First edition, printed in a very small number of copies, of this offprint from the Comptes rendus de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres.

Illustrated pamphlet with 13 figures in the text and a double-page folding map.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Bibliothèque Mazarine).

The archaeologist Joseph-Etienne Gautier (1861-1924) conducted numerous excavation campaigns throughout the Middle East (Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, etc.).

A rare and attractive copy.

Original edition of this auction catalogue from the sale held on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 May 1872, describing 294 lots.

A tear at the foot of the final leaf.

The catalogue is illustrated with 2 hors-texte engraved plates (line engravings).

Of Baden origin, the numismatist Ludwig Wilhelm Fröhner (1834–1925) settled in Paris in 1859: he became one of the close friends of Napoleon III and assisted him in the preparation of his History of Julius Caesar (1865–1866), which helped him obtain both French naturalisation (1866) and a desirable post at the Louvre.

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 proved disastrous for him: he lost all his positions and even any prospect...

Paris, Teissier et Cie, undated [circa 1868-1870]. Folio, 38 leaves mounted on guards, 32.5 x 49.5 cm.

An exceptionally rare collection, probably unique in this form, comprising thirty-eight proofs and working states of lithographed Masonic plates, most designed to be viewed across a double page. Numbered in red pencil from 1 to 40 in a discontinuous sequence including several bis plates. Caillet and Dorbon describe the Rameau d'or d'Éleusis, to which...

First edition illustrated with a portrait, 15 plates, and a large folding map printed in colours showing the routes.

Contemporary-style green half shagreen, spine with five raised bands lightly sunned, marbled paper boards, wrappers mounted on guards and preserved, skilfully restored at the corners, modern binding.

First edition of this thesis, illustrated with 4 plates.

Modern black half-calf binding, smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets, marbled-paper boards.

A few minor spots of foxing; stamps of the Library of the Paris Faculty of Medicine on the plates and title page.

Not recorded by V. Rozier. 

The author served as chief surgeon to the First Battalion of Foot Grenadiers of the Consular Guard.

He invented an adjustable inclined bed, an instrument for the treatment of compound fractures of the lower jaw, a compression device for use in cases involving severed arteries, and an apparatus designed to transport seriously wounded men over long distances...

Very rare first edition of this album comprising 24 plates engraved by the Valenciennes engraver William Marks.

Indeed, the large figure printed on two sheets counts as two engraved plates (nos. 8 and 9), Cf. Vicaire

Contemporary half tawny shagreen over corners, spine with five raised bands highlighted with gilt dotted tooling and decorated with double fillets and gilt fleurons, some rubbing to the spine and joints, one joint split and then reglued at the head, comb-marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original illustrated upper wrapper preserved, top edge gilt, engraved bookplate pasted to one pastedown, contemporary binding.

Texts by...

Album of 25 hand-finished colour lithographs depicting French military uniforms from the last quarter of the 19th century (cf. Glaesser pp. 320-321. Colas 2003 (issued in quarto format?)).

Contemporary paper boards, plain smooth spine in brick-red cloth.

Some foxing.

The unnumbered military costume plates are captioned.

First illustrated edition, featuring at the end of the volume 12 charming hand-coloured copper engravings depicting fashionable hairstyles and costumes (10), as well as furniture (2).

Contemporary binding in half midnight-blue calf, smooth spine decorated with lozenge tools and gilt fillets, gilt tail ornament, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, marbled edges.

The work is also illustrated with a portrait of Bonaparte as a frontispiece and one plate hors-texte.

Foxing, black ink stains to page 81.

This work, intended for an American readership, as stated in the Preface ("L'espèce de journal dont nous offrons ici le premier essai, ne contiendra que rarement...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated in the atlas volume with 11 plates and 1 large folding map (cf. Hage Chahine, 720; Chadenat, 4227; Wilson, 35 for the 1835 English edition).

Contemporary Romantic bindings in aubergine half calf, smooth spines decorated with gilt arabesque tooling, gilt rolls at head and foot, marbled-paper boards, and marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

The atlas bound in aubergine half shagreen, smooth spine decorated with gilt Romantic arabesque tooling, gilt rolls at head and foot, marbled-paper boards, and marbled endpapers and pastedowns; a modern binding executed to match the Romantic bindings of the text volumes.

Joints...

First edition illustrated with 9 copper-engraved plates hors texte after drawings by Hippolyte Jordan and Baron Charles-Louis de Coubertin (1822-1908, father of Pierre de Coubertin), including one double-page map and one folding plate.

Frédy de Blackmer 177 (calling for 17 plates).

Contemporary half cherry-red shagreen over marbled boards, spine with five raised bands showing a few rubs and darkened at the foot, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, शीर्ष edge gilt, corners lightly bumped.

A light dampstain to the edges without affecting the text, joints restored at head and foot.

The sole edition, printed in an edition of 500 copies and uncommon, of this account...

First edition, illustrated with 18 plates on China paper (cf. Sabin 5832. Leclerc 1075. Streeter, "Bibliography of Texas", 1343.)

Contemporary half tan calf, spine with four fine raised bands ruled in gilt and blind, gilt ornamental rolls partly faded at head and foot, hazel morocco lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, all edges marbled.

Dampstaining to the lower margins of most leaves, more pronounced towards the start and the end of the volume; some foxing; two gatherings bound out of sequence by the binder, and the final four preliminary pages bound at the end of the volume; minor repairs to the joints; slight rubbing to the lower edges...

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...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with 18 engraved plates, 10 of them hand-coloured (cf. Blackmer 87; Atabey 68; Contominas 39; Monglond VII, 654-655).

The 18 plates include the two plates of musical notation and the large folding map at the end of the second volume.

Contemporary green half sheep, darkened smooth spines ruled in gilt, with a narrow gilt roll at foot, marbled paper boards, speckled edges.

Some foxing, light rubbing to the joints, a few gatherings browned. 

First and only edition of Auguste du Coudray's French translation of this account of a journey through Greece, written in the form of letters. Jacob Levin Salomo, known as Jakob...

Rare first edition illustrated with 2 plates outside the text, including a frontispiece and a large folding facsimile of the inscription.

Contemporary green half sheep, spine faded and decorated with blind fillets and raised bands, a few scuffs to the spine, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, speckled edges, corners bumped.

A few spots of foxing.

This inscription had been unearthed in Marseille in June 1845 and had already given rise to numerous attempts at interpretation.

It is now known as the “Carthage Tariff” and lay at the origin of the enduring myth of the city’s Phoenician origins: the religious regulations it records appeared to provide proof that...

First edition of this rare work. Several states are known: without any plates, not even the engraved title-frontispiece (the extremely rare deluxe issue); with the engraved title bearing the same imprint as the printed title (Tours, R. Pornin et Cie); and, finally, with the Paris, Lehuby imprint (as in the present copy).

The following explanation may be proposed: the Tours publisher Pornin reserved a small portion of the edition, without the engraved material, for the author's friends. The remainder was shared with the Paris publisher Lehuby, a specialist in children's books, who ensured its wider distribution.

The work is illustrated with a frontispiece and two steel-engraved...

First edition of this new Histoire générale des voyages, arranged and brought up to date with contemporary discoveries by Baron Charles-Athanase Walckenaer (1771-1852). Published in Paris between 1826 and 1831 in twenty-one octavo volumes, it constitutes the only portion ever completed of a project originally intended to extend to some sixty volumes. The final four volumes were prepared by Jean-Baptiste-Benoît Eyriès. Brunet V, 1041; Quérard X, 472; Gay 299; Hoefer XLVI, 498.

Contemporary half red Russia morocco with corners, spines with five raised bands, boards framed with blind fillets, marbled...

Second edition, embellished with a copper-engraved map by Giraud l’aîné, folded, together with a copper-engraved plan of the labyrinth of Knossos by Chapuy.

This edition is not recorded by Contominas, Atabey or Blackmer (1493 for the first edition).

Contemporary half mottled sheep with parchment corners, smooth spine decorated with delicate black fillets, paper labels serving as title pieces, green paper boards with some rubbing, sprinkled edges.

Spine foot restored.

Three gatherings very lightly toned, otherwise a clean, fresh copy.

Bound at the end is the first edition of the French translation prepared by Jean-Claude Pingeron of Dominique Sestini’s work...

First edition illustrated with three folding maps out of text.

"This work is one of the best contemporary accounts of the Greek War of Independence". Atabey 1014.

Minor losses to the corners of the spines and boards, uniformly browned boards, a few small spots of foxing.

Maxime Raybaud (1795–1894) was a senior officer in the Corps of Philhellenes and aide-de-camp to the President of the Executive Power of the Greek government.

He assisted the insurgents between 1821 and 1823, and again in 1825 and 1826.

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with 40 plates outside the text (35 finely hand-coloured), together with 90 wood-engraved vignettes in the text (cf. Sabin 65478. See Printing and the Mind of Man, no. 303, for the third English edition in five volumes.)

Some light spotting; small loss to the first leaf of volume II, affecting the text with the loss of a few words; library shelf labels covering the publisher’s name, printed bookplates and library shelf numbers to the title-pages.

Contemporary half calf, the smooth spines decorated with gilt and blind fillets, black morocco lettering- and volume-pieces; joints cracked and restored, some rubbing to the spines...

First edition illustrated with 12 folding maps printed in outline and heightened with colour.

No copies recorded in the CCF.

Ink notes at the head of a front flyleaf; a few minor spots, not affecting the text.

Bradel binding in full boards covered with navy-blue paper, smooth spine ruled in gilt, yellow edges, corners rubbed; a contemporary binding.

Sole edition of this collection, conceived as a series of "touristic" itineraries.

Each section is separately paginated.

The author, a painter and naturalist based in Spa, also published several minor works on mineralogy (cf. Del Vaux, *Dictionnaire biographique de la province de Liège*, Liège, 1845).

First separate edition of Plain Language from Truthful James, which first appeared as an article in The Overland Monthly in September 1870.

Issued as a printed envelope-folder containing nine lithographed caricature plates by John Hull, each accompanied by a poem.

No copy recorded in the CCF.

Small angular tears to the envelope, with some staining to the lower margin.

Originally intended as a fierce satire on the racial prejudice of Irish-American workers against the numerous Chinese immigrants competing for railway construction jobs, the piece was widely misread as mocking the immigrants themselves.

The Jewish writer and poet Francis Brett...

Rare first edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with two folding plates.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Strasbourg). Backer & Sommervogel III, 1242 (59).

Our copy is preserved in its original provisional yellow paper wrappers,

With a few minor spots of foxing on the folding plates.

The Neapolitan Jesuit Raffaele Garrucci (1811–1885) devoted his work to the study of the Church Fathers as well as to both pagan and Christian antiquities.

He became one of the foremost disciples of Father Giuseppe Marchi, alongside the renowned Giovanni Battista de Rossi.

First edition, printed in a small run, of this offprint from the Mémoires présentés par divers savants à l’Académie des sciences, vol. XXII, no. 6.

This publication constitutes botanist Maxime Cornu’s (1843–1901) first work on phylloxera and stands among the earliest scientific studies in French devoted to the subject.

Our copy is preserved in its original plain blue waiting wrapper, showing two losses along the spine and some foxing to the panels.

Very scarce work illustrated with three plates.

Generally regarded as the most complete early edition of Chardin’s Travels, this imposing publication in ten volumes with a separate atlas was prepared in 1811 by Louis-Mathieu Langlès. The orientalist added a historical survey of Persia from the earliest times and an extensive critical apparatus, confronting Chardin’s text with the historical, geographical and philological scholarship of his own day. It remained the standard edition until Philip Stewart’s complete modernised and annotated text appeared in 2018.

The ten text volumes are bound in contemporary full tree calf, smooth spines richly decorated...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with an engraved portrait by Verzy after Longhi as a frontispiece to the first volume, together with five folding tables and five folding plates out of text in the second volume.

Half brown sheepskin bindings, smooth spines decorated with gilt garlands now partly faded, some rubbing to spines, modern brown sheepskin title labels, vellum corners, pink paper-covered boards, a few scuffs to the covers, wear to the edges, corners bumped, red edges, contemporary bindings.

Uncommon sole French translation of the Farmacopia generale by the Italian practitioner Brugnatelli (whose given names vary across sources, 1761–1818)...

First and only edition, illustrated with a folding engraved frontispiece (see Polak 6795; not in Sabin).

Bound in bottle-green full sheep, Bradel-style binding, smooth spine ruled in gilt with double fillets, gilt date at foot, original pink paper waiting cover preserved, modern binding.

A waterstain affects the lower margin of the initial leaves, gradually fading throughout the volume.

Unique and uncommon edition (the purported 1814 edition is a bibliographical ghost).

First edition of the Voyage pittoresque à l'Île-de-France, au Cap de Bonne-Espérance et à l'Île de Ténériffe, published in Paris by Auguste Nepveu in 1812 and printed by Le Normant. Two octavo text volumes with an accompanying atlas. The second text volume contains three folding tables; the atlas in the present copy comprises 45 engraved plates, both single-page and folding, including three maps and 42 plans and picturesque views, most retaining their tissue guards. 

Some foxing in the text volumes and atlas.

The text volumes in slightly later...

First edition, one of the rare copies printed on laid paper.
This 4-page issue features a comic strip by Steinlen: "La mauvaise aventure de Maigriou."
Includes literary contributions by Charles Cros (“Pour en avoir le coeur net”), Charles Chincholle (“Les jours d’absinthe”), George Auriol (“La saint Charlemagne”), François Coppée (“L’esclave ivre”), ...
A well-preserved copy.
Le Chat Noir was a weekly magazine founded by Rodolphe Salis and Emile Goudeau, published from 1882 to 1897, with the aim of promoting the famed cabaret of the same name, of which it served as a living memory. It featured the texts performed during the shows. The publication also stands as a...

First edition of this vast illustrated undertaking, published in Brussels by the Librairie historique-artistique in 1843-1844, in four octavo volumes. The present copy contains 210 costume plates, hand-coloured and heightened with gum, together with four coloured title vignettes. The number of plates varies considerably from copy to copy; with its 210 plates, all retaining their tissue guards, this is one of the more extensively illustrated examples.

Contemporary half dark blue morocco. Spines with false bands, the compartments decorated with...

New edition, illustrated with 111 drawings by Neuville and Riou. 7 plates, some in color.
Publisher's gilt Globe binding, upper cover signed Blancheland, Engel relieur, spine with lighthouse motif, rear cover of Engel H type, publisher's Y catalogue at rear of volume.
Spine with minor discoloration, a few small stains to upper corner of front cover, endpapers discolored, corners slightly twisted, the engraving between pages 122-123 with small corner lacks, occasional light foxing mainly to edges.
Undoubtedly the most famous of Jules Verne's novels, featuring the mythical figure of Captain Nemo and his legendary submarine, the Nautilus.

Complete set of 13 original lithographs by Eugène Delacroix, in first edition, first issue with the letter, one of 20 copies on Chine paper pasted on laid paper:

"It was originally printed in a few proofs on Chine, the format of which exceeds the square line by one or two centimeters. They are highly sought-after, even though they bear the letter" (Robaut).

Bound in the original publisher's brown half-shagreen binding, title gilt stamped on first board, original first cover wrapper preserved. Small restored tear to the margin of the wrapper over 5 cm, sunned spine, joints and corners rubbed, scattered foxing and a dampstain to the lower part of the laid paper...

First edition of this complete suite of 18 numbered intaglio plates enhanced in colour, on 'J. Honig & Zoonen' laid paper, depicting 72 merchants accompanied by captions beneath each figure.
First printing, subsequent editions will feature individually numbered figures surrounded by a border.

Bound in half sienna morocco with corners, smooth spine, title stamped in gilt throughout, tiger patterned paper boards, combed paper endpapers and flyleaves, first cover retained, gilt head.
 
Extremely rare and the earliest known suite of prints depicting itinerant merchants and pedlars in Spain. Each figure is...

Set of 52 original plates, etched and enhanced with watercolours at the time, numbered 1 to 52, mounted in pairs under mats.
 
Leaves in red half calf slipcase (early 20th century), red shagreen boards.
The plates vary in size (10.8 x 17.6 cm to 28.1 x 18.8 cm) and paper stock, as was often the case with La Mésangère's publications. Unbound engraved title on a bifolium, printed separately, absent from most copies. It is replaced here by its identical reprint by Gosselin (1893-1903), on antique watermarked paper and bears the publisher's 'G' mark, characteristic of this reprint a century later. All the plates, however, are in their first edition, without the G...

New illustrated edition with 22 plates by Célestin Nanteuil, and some headpieces. Text adapted for young readers. Translation by Le Prince Le brun. First edition of this version for young readers.
Publisher's polychrome mosaic cartonnage binding. Smooth spine with ornaments on red, green and cream ground. Upper cover decorated with 4 shields, 2 red and 2 blue, and a portrait of Tasso on cream ground, all set against Renaissance interlacing patterns. Blind-ruled frame on covers. Edges gilt. On the lower cover, a very elaborate shield on green ground. Tinted paper throughout. Dark traces on the lemon endpapers. Some very occasional and light foxing.

A very handsome...

First edition of this Roman missal. Each text page within an engraved border containing multiple vignettes that change throughout the pages, after French manuscripts of the 15th century. Engraved title and 10 engravings in borders. The 5 chromolithographs may have been added, as they are not part of most copies. A frontispiece is sometimes mentioned, but the presence of a chromolithographic title with Curmer's name suggests they were added.

Contemporary full chocolate morocco Jansenist binding signed L. Curmer, in gold letters at the top of the first endpaper. Decorative gilt board-edges. All edges gilt. Scarlet silk endpapers with a monogram on the first endpaper. Light...

First and only edition. This copy is one of the rare examples complete with the 64 full-page plates. The work is also illustrated with a title vignette depicting the artist Ambroise-Louis Garneray in a small boat, sketching the entrance to the port of Brest.

Contemporary binding of half tan sheep with corners, smooth spine richly decorated in gilt and blind with multiple large typographic tools, discreet restorations to the joints, marbled-paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

A magnificent work on the ports of France, and one of the finest collections ever...

Illustrated edition with a portrait of Jean Boccaccio as frontispiece to the first volume and 11 etched out-of-text engravings by Léopold Flameng, one of 600 copies on Holland paper in forme.
Half straw-yellow morocco bindings with corners, spines with five raised bands decorated with black fillets, gilt dates at foot, red morocco title and volume labels, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, top edges gilt, bindings signed by Canape-Helz.
Our copy is exceptionally enhanced with a suite of engravings executed by Gravelot.
Handsome set.