A precious book, a beautiful gift for Christmas

Autograph letter dated and signed by Jacques Chardonne addressed to his friend Roger Nimier (54 lines in blue ink) regarding Paul Morand's style, spiritual father of the Hussards, Roger Nimier and Antoine Blondin being considered, much against their will, as leaders of this literary movement.
Fold marks inherent to the letter's mailing, envelope included.
Jacques Chardonne intends to challenge two false ideas concerning Paul Morand, the first being stylistic in nature: "There is a double misunderstanding regarding Morand. He has been seen as a 'modern'... but he is essentially a 'naturalist'; his artistic doctrine is exactly that of Maupassant and...

Autograph letter dated and signed by Antoni Tàpies addressed to his close friend the art critic Georges Raillard, the greatest French specialist of his work (19 lines in blue ballpoint pen from Barcelona).
Fold marks inherent to the letter's envelope placement, envelope included.
Having directed the French Institute of Barcelona from 1964 to 1969, Georges Raillard formed friendships and collaborated with numerous Spanish and Catalan artists including Joan Miro and Antoni Tapies, whose biographies he would also write.
The Catalan artist relays the notion of "art impliqué" recently employed in Catalonia: "... je viens de voir une citation... dans...

Album of lithographed plates in third state, first cover printed in 3 tones, black, bistre with gradients and white highlights, followed by 24 lithographs in black on 12 double-sided pages.

Gray half calf binding, smooth spine, some foxing, original soft cover preserved, binding signed by Charles Septier.

Created in 1851, this youthful work influenced by Rodolphe Töppfer's style, is now considered an incunabulum of comic strips.

20 full-page lithographs in black by Gustave Doré, in second state.
Red half oblong Bradel-style cloth binding, smooth spine, black morocco title label, marbled paper boards, beige paper endpapers and flyleaves, corners slightly dulled.

First edition, one of 20 copies on Arches paper, most limited deluxe issue (tirage de tête).
Like all copies on Arches, it is wrapped in a double dust jacket in yellow and white, and bears the rare sanguine vignette drawn and engraved by Hans Bellmer.
Preface by Jean Paulhan.

Our copy is housed in a custom clamshell box featuring an original design signed by Julie Nadot.

Beautiful first edition copy of this masterpiece of erotic literature, in its most limited deluxe issue.

First edition, one of 55 numbered copies on pur fil paper, most limited deluxe issue.
Endleaves and half-title slightly and partially shaded.
Exceedingly rare and handsome copy of this seminal text of modern feminism.

Our copy is housed in a custom gray clamshell box, square spine titled in red, author's name and subtitles in black, first panel hollowed revealing a black and white photograph of Simone de Beauvoir as a young woman under a plexiglass, title in red, author's name, first volume number and subtitle in black, second panel hollowed revealing a color photograph of the author in her prime under plexiglass, titled in red, author's name, second volume number and...

A group of seven original erotic paintings on silk, four attributed to Tomioka Eisen (1864 - 1905) and three to his pupil Miyagawa Shuntei (1873 - 1914), executed during the closing years of the Meiji era, probably between 1895 and 1905.

The four compositions attributed to Eisen are laid down on their original mica-flecked paper boards; the three paintings attributed to Shuntei, executed on a lighter, undyed silk, remain unmounted.

Dans sa triste chambre
Le petit s'endort
Il gèle à pierre fendre
Le froid le dévore

On l'a trouvé dans son lit
Mort dans un sourire
Et Jésus là-haut s'est dit
Ca m'ôte un souci

"CLAC: Cercle Littéraire des amis des caves / Cercle libre des amateurs de cuisse." ["Literary Circle of...

First edition, one of 100 numbered copies on deluxe paper, the only deluxe copies.
Handsome copy presented in sheets under double chemise and slipcase.

Manuscript pages from ‘Conversations with Professor Y', n.p. [Meudon] n.d. [1954], various sizes (from 10x21 cm to 27x21 cm), 34 sheets.
Autograph manuscript by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, 34 sheets of various sizes, written in blue and sometimes pink ballpoint pen. Some of the pages are numbered by Céline at top left. The last folio numbered 159 is signed by the writer at the bottom.
Two leaves contain previously unpublished passages: the first, a few lines long, refers to the Professeur. The second leaf numbered 136 features another full-page text on the verso which we did not find in the ‘Professeur Y' or in any of the published works of Céline...

Actes et paroles - Avant l'exil, 1841-1851 [Words and Deeds - Before the Exile, 1841-1851]
Michel Lévy frères, Paris 1875, 19,5x25cm, bound.
First edition, one of 20 numbered copies on chine, most limited deluxe edition of this important collection of speeches, public declarations, and political texts intended for French parliament (Chamber of Peers, Constituent Assembly and Legislative Assembly), all written - as stated in the title - prior to his exile. These important texts address freedom of the press, theater and education, as well as the abolition of the death penalty.
Half red shagreen binding, smooth spine decorated in gilt lengthwise, marbled paper...

Autograph letter signed to Madame Catusse, 12,6x20,4cm, 3 pages on a double leaf.

Autograph letter signed by Marcel Proust, probably addressed to Madame Catusse. The recipient and date have been determined by Proust scholar Jean-Yves Tadié. Three pages in black ink on a double leaf edged in black. A fold inherent to the mailing.
A sombre and admirable letter steeped in Proustian melancholy. The future author of In Search of Lost Time feels more than ever the loss of his mother during the New Year period. The famously generous Proust also asks his faithful confidante Madame Catusse to buy a gift for the Straus couple, whose wife inspired...

"My dear director, under the terms of our agreements, I am ready to read, I have chosen tomorrow, Wednesday, and I have told your stage manager the names of the actors to whom I entrust our play. I've done a bit of your job, I've conquered Madame Dorval who will make you rich, I'll bring her myself. Find here, my dear d'Épagny, a thousand regards, I have given you proof of our old...

First collected edition, one of 260 numbered copies on tinted wove paper, the only large-paper issue after 45 copies on white Dutch wove paper.
Introduction and critical study by Jean Bloch-Michel.
Spine and covers slightly and marginally sunned, with a faint offset mark from a bookseller's description label to the margin of one endpaper.

First edition on ordinary paper, laid paper.

Modern half orange morocco slipcase binding. Smooth spine with title and author in black. Contemporary peacock-eye paper boards. Orange suede pastedowns and morocco spine. Work in original wrappers as issued with restorations to spine and lining of covers with period paper. Very fresh copy.
Handsome set.

Original drawing by Manfred Thierry Mugler, entirely in pencil on a white paper leaf.

 
With a profile of a woman, wearing a mask on her face and another one on top of the first. Numerous technical annotations around the drawing, also by Mugler: "(?) serigraphed, lycra "Wig Hat"", "Painted realistic, like her make-up", "Or All metalic GOLD NO DEFINITION LIKE A MASK OF ANTIK THEATRE".
This drawing is probably a costume project for the dancer Olga Smirnova in the ballet "McGREGOR + MUGLER" by choreographer Wayne McGregor. Fashion designer Thierry Mugler was undeniably very attached to dance, having himself joined the Rhine Opera Ballet at the...

To make the strength of marriage consist in that of love is to go so far as to misunderstand the spirit of this institution.

Autograph letter signed by Victor Hugo to Léon Richer, two pages in black ink on a double sheet framed in black. Crosswise folds inherent to envelope inserting. A central tear at the junction of the two sheets. Published in Œuvres complètes de Victor Hugo (Ollendorff, 1905).
Manuscript housed in a blue half morocco chemise and slipcase, marbled paper boards, marbled paper slipcase, signed Boichot.

A magnificent and important letter to Léon Richer, one of the first male feminist activists, considered by Hubertine Auclert as the "father of feminism" and later regarded by Simone de Beauvoir as its "true founder". This deeply humanist text is a compendium of...

irst edition of the French translation, and the first appearance of the work in French, of Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola’s major history of the conquest of the Moluccas, first published in Spanish at Madrid in 1609. The illustration comprises three repeated frontispieces, one portrait, six maps and twenty-six folding plates, making thirty-six illustrations in all; the present copy is complete with all plates, including the map of Ceylon, often lacking.

Contemporary full mottled brown calf. Spines with raised bands, decorated with central floral lozenges and gilt rolls...

The second édition originale on ordinary paper. Fifteen hundred copies had been printed, plus 4 on chine paper, a few copies on hollande and on vélin.
Complete with the portrait of the author by Félix Bracquemond (often missing), here in first state on papier chine pasted on the page (before letters, i.e. “L'Artiste” on top of the portrait).
Orange half cloth Bradel binding, smooth spine double ruled in gilt, gilt date at foot, slightly scratched brown shagreen title-label, marbled paper boards, slightly later 19th-century binding.

Mistakenly considered as “partly original”, this edition was entirely...