Ecology: Words of the World

Manuscript on graph paper comprising nearly 60 original drawings in black pencil, coloured pencil and watercolour, describing various species of edible and poisonous fungi: agaric, Caesar's mushroom, edible bolete, ceps, chanterelles, beefsteak fungus, morel, winter truffle, etc.

Each drawing is captioned in French and Latin.

 Contemporary amateur binding in full flexible boards, plain orange spine split and with portions lacking, blue boards; spine cracked.

Provenance: from the library of Dr Bacquias of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, with his name inscribed in the upper left-hand corner of the front board.

Some foxing.

First edition of this major classification, arranged according to the Linnaean system, describing a thousand plants with remarkable precision (cf. Pritzel 9806.)

Full green vellum bindings, smooth spines tooled with double gilt fillets and gilt rolls, brown calf lettering- and volume-pieces, slight rubbing to the spines, yellow mottled edges, some corners a little softened; contemporary bindings.

The author, Abbé Fulgenzio Vitman (1728–1806), a Florentine botanist, founded the Milan botanical garden after directing that of Pavia.

Rare set of eight works by Baron Thénard, all in first edition, seven of which concern agronomy.

The son of the chemist Louis Thénard, the agronomist Paul Thénard (1819–1884) conducted extensive research on soil fertility, begun on the estate of his in-laws in Givry, where he first undertook soil analysis in order to understand the factors favourable to vine cultivation.

In 1847 his wife inherited an estate in Talmay (Côte-d’Or). While retaining Givry, he settled in Talmay to pursue his investigations into ways of improving soil fertility.

Contemporary half midnight-blue shagreen, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt tools; slight rubbing to the spine...

Rare whaling share certificate issued by the Lamotte & Cie shipowners of Le Havre.

Lithographed sheet on pink paper with manuscript additions, presented in a modern glazed frame (with a small chip to the upper right corner of the frame) and set within a mat.

The document is mounted on a guard, tipped in at the head to the mat.

This is a half-share certificate valued at two thousand five hundred francs, relating to the vessel Hâvre, issued in the name of Mr Levis de Pontaudemer and bearing the number 25.

Dated at Le Havre, 10 September 1834.

A very rare and attractive document.

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 edition (the work was reissued in 1838–1839); an atlas was planned but appears never to have been published (its prospectus is bound at the beginning of volume IV), cf. Mennessier de La Lance I, 657.

Half blond calf bindings, spines with four raised bands framed with gilt garlands and decorated with gilt fillets and vine motifs, as well as blind-stamped scrolls, marbled paper boards showing some rubbing with small losses, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, sprinkled edges, contemporary bindings.

Two headcaps shaved, some foxing, small loss along one joint of the volume entitled Elève d’Alfort. Hurtrel d’Arboval (1777–1839) was particularly interested in equine...

Very rare first edition of the French translation, illustrated at the end of the volume with one folding copper-engraved plate and two folding printed tables, all hors texte.

See Oberlé (for the Milan 1819 edition). Lacking from the Kilian Fristch Collection. Vicaire, 353-354.

A rare and appealing copy preserved in its original wrappers, with the plain provisional cover showing some surface wear.

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.

Chinese accordion-fold painted album executed in ink and wash on plant-fibre paper, unfolding into a continuous panorama of the celebrated karst landscapes of Guilin extending to nearly two metres in length.

Original green silk binding woven with floral, pavilion and animal motifs in red and gold, with a manuscript silk title label reading Guilin shanshui ji ("Collection of Guilin Landscapes"), stamped with a red seal. Large red seal on the opening leaf, the artist's seals repeated throughout the panorama, and an ink signature...

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...

Complete new edition of Buffon's works, published in Paris by Eymery between 1825 and 1828 according to the arrangement established by the Comte de Lacépède and completed by the supplementary volume issued in 1828. A handsome complete set in 26 bound volumes (13.5 × 21 cm; total shelf length: 103 cm), illustrated with 245 plates: Buffon's portrait engraved by Devéria as the frontispiece, 216 hand-coloured plates - some heightened with gold - including 91 devoted to mammals and 126 to birds, 13 plates in black, and 4 folding maps. Most of the coloured plates were executed by Jean-Gabriel Prêtre, the animal painter successively attached to Empress Joséphine's menagerie...

First edition of the French translation, one of 75 numbered copies on Rives laid paper, the deluxe issue.
A fine copy.

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...

Original poster by Karen Horowitz numbered 145/200, dated 1974 and signed in pencil, showing a photograph with a superimposed quote from Lawrence Durrell's Justine: “The world is like a cucumber – today it's in your hand, tomorrow up your ass”.
A few tiny wormholes.

Manuscript inscription in felt tip pen by Lawrence Durrell to the left of the quote: “Buttons dear Attention! Larry Durrell. 1978”

This poster was given to a young lover of the author's who, in both Sommières and Paris, livened up his lonely days at the end of the 60s and in the 70s. Janine Brun, also known as “Buttons” in the author's letters and postcards was described thus...

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.

First edition, one of 15 numbered copies on Hollande Van Gelder paper and signed with the publisher's initials.
Full green morocco, the spine in five compartments, the first cover inlayed with a large and superb plate by Marguerite Lecreux of a horn sculpted in Cameo, featuring a sailboat with its sails unfurled, on the calm sea appears an engraved silverfish set under the plate of the horn and visible in transparency, pastedown in silk decorated with a submarine pattern (coral, jellyfish, starfishes and algae) framed in morocco embellished with quintuple gilt fillets, endpages of iridescence cloth, the following pages in marbled paper, the headband highlighted with a...