Who had the crazy idea of coining ecology?
Idyllic or hostile nature, romantic ideal or scientific mystery, protective and protected, abundant and deserted, overwhelming and overwhelmed... Hunters or gatherers, alert scientists and amazed innocents, let's cultivate our extraordinary garden together.
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 revised by the author, with 35 newly composed poems and 55 “deeply rewritten” poems [profondément remaniés] among the 129 poems. This true new first edition of Les Fleurs du Mal is the culmination of Baudelaire's grand œuvre and the only text of reference for foreign language translations.
First edition.
Half brown shagreen binding ca 1860. Jansenist spine with raised bands. Gilt title. Rubbing to corners. Good copy.
Treatise on animal magnetism by a disciple of Mesmer. Demonstrations and proofs. The work concludes with considerations on the movement by the Marquis de Chastellux.
Collection of documents formed of 33 original contemporary silver halide print photographs, a reproduction of a press clipping from La Voix du Nord and three mimeographed technical plans, united in a black binder with a label with the inscription «Production Report «press» – press-forming of the ½ spheres of Ct Cousteau's diving saucer – February 1964.» Handwritten title page.
Signed, handwritten presentation: «Avec les amitiés du reporter photographe Wallemme Raoul» «With love from the photojournalist Wallemme Raoul.»
Very beautiful and unique collection, testifying to the genius of the making of the Deep Star 4000, a diving saucer invented by Commander Cousteau.
The reproduction of the press clipping glued at the beginning of our collection explains: «The French Office for Underwater Research in Marseille will build, on behalf of an American firm, a diving saucer, the ‘S.P. 4000,' which can descend to a depth of 4000 metres. This machine, whose full-scale model has just been produced, must be completed in May 1964. It will be able to carry out its first trials the following month, before leaving for the United States where
it take the name ‘Deep Star.'»
In 1964, the French Office for Underwater Research, led by Commander Cousteau, entrusted the company Arbel de Douai with the work of forming the hemispheres in Vasco Jet 90 steel intended for the manufacture of the diving saucer «S.P. 4000.» The 33 photographs collected in this album of internal archives recount all the stages of this conception. We see the metalworkers at work, dressed in suits worthy of science-fiction; the last shot immortalised the team posing proudly in front of photojournalist Raoul Wallemme's camera.
It is the American company Westinghouse Corp who, under Cousteau's leadership and the French Office for Underwater Research, will manufacture the submersible. For certification purposes, the Vasco sphere manufactured by the Douai workshops will not be used by the American firm, who will prefer another model used by the US Navy. It will finally be used on another machine, the S.P. 3000 or Cyana. «In September 1971, a trial dive, luckily without crew, went wrong. Cyana, hanging on a cable and weighted with a heavy weight, is submersed off Sicily to a depth of 3 200m. A shackle opens, releasing the cable. The saucer remains unable to move, a few metres from the bottom. The sinking point is immediately marked by an ultrasonic beacon that can only beep for one month. A race against the clock begins: it is necessary to rearm the Archimède and urgently equip it with shears inspired by a charcutier's ham slicer! Fourteen days after the sinking, while the beacon still emits weakly, the Archimède finds the Cyana and cuts the cable that holds it prisoner. It was the deepest ever successful rescue!» (Ifremer website).
The Cyana carried out more than 1 300 dives from Ifremer's different oceanographic vessels (Jean Charcot, Le Suroît, Le Noroît, Nadir, L'Atalante) and opportunity vessels (Castor, Ravello).
Superb and unique testimony of French metalworking know-how at the service of Commander Cousteau and the pioneers of oceanography.
Rare first edition of the catalogue of the first exhibition of Benjamin Rabier's watercolors, showing 41 works at the Galerie d'art Deplanche from 8 June to 4 July 1910.
A very good copy despite slight staining to edge of upper cover.
An important and amusing preface by Guillaume Apollinaire who awards Rabier the prize for the "most spiritual of our animal painters."
The catalogue is illustrated with a reproduction of one original watercolor by Benjamin Rabier on the cover.
Second edition, illustrated with two musical plates (examples of tunes that can be taught to canaries) and one depicting cages.
Contemporary binding in full speckled brown sheep. Ornate spine with raised bands. Red morocco title label. Joints cracked at head and foot. Corners bumped and rubbed. Scuffing. Scattered foxing. Yellow dampstain on the first six leaves.
Treatise and manual on breeding Canary birds in captivity: feeding, nesting, care, prices, varieties... These aviary birds were particularly appreciated for their beauty, colors and song.
Contemporary spotted sheep, spine with four tools and roulettes to head and foot, red morocco title- and black morocco volume- labels, roulette frame to covers. Spines uniformly and slightly faded, lack to first blind-ruled compartment of spine of volume one. A good copy.
The work, in the form of an alphabetical dictionary, provides an overview of contemporary knowledge of natural history (mineralogy, botany, zoology, entomology, astronomy, and so on). Each article includes a curious or remarkable aspect of its subject (medical uses, strange properties, characteristics, etc). Several useful tables at end. Handsome.
First edition, rare.
Contemporary full blond calf bindings, mottled. Smooth spines decorated with urn tools and fillets. Red morocco lettering-pieces and green morocco volume labels, the latter additionally bearing the letters AB, NZ... Rich border of palmettes and frieze on the covers, with on the upper cover: Prix des Ecoles Académiques; and on the lower cover: Lille 1812. Rubbing. Some corners bumped. A handsome and highly decorative set.
