First Editions on Laid Paper

First edition, one of 20 numbered cop­ies on hollande, the only deluxe issue (grand papier) after 10 copies on japon.

Bound in gray half morocco in panels, smooth spine, gilt date at foot, abstract decorative paper boards, black onion­skin pastedowns and flyleaves, original wrappers preserved, pastedown book­plate, top deckled edge gilt, binding signed Boichot.
Small tears with small lacks of paper to the margin of an endpaper and on the front cover.
The work is dedicated to Paul Verlaine who wrote the preface "which was a way of advertising to gay readers" (Gra­ham Robb, Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century, p. 210).

Precious signed and inscribed copy to Catulle Mendès who will go on to write six years later "the first descrip­tion of a male homosexual orgasm" (Graham Robb) in his novel La Maison de la Vieille.

This novel, although still tinged with a moralistic, guilt-ridden view of ho­mosexuality, features the first gay sex scene in a French novel. It takes place near the Opera, in a palatial Turkish bath house, one of Paris' most famous cruis­ing spots at the time when the influence of the Arabian Nights and the prospect of hedonistic pleasures were all the rage: "In this overheated atmosphere, Jacques savors the pleasures of body reflection and massage. Then comes the 'unpleasant brusqueness of the shower' before entering the steam bath, where several bodies lie naked and immod­est. Suddenly, a young man of twenty appears with 'an aristocratic bearing, a blond head, the fat, bulging chest of the Capitoline Antinous statue'. It was love at first sight. Jacques looks out for him, follows him 'panting' and thus succumbs to 'unnatural vice'" (François Buot, Gay Paris, Une histoire du Paris interlope entre 1900 et 1940).
Neil Bartlett even suggests Oscar Wil­de might have read the novel based on the plea he wrote to the Home Secretary from Reading Gaol, which features a similar description of his erotomania (Paul Hallam, The Book of Sodom, 1993).

This deluxe copy is exceptionally in­scribed to Catulle Mendès, who also pi­oneered the writing of novels centered around gay and lesbian protagonists.

Provenance: library of Comte René Philipon, specialist in occult sciences, collector, entomologist and patron of the arts, with his pastedown bookplate featuring the Rosicrucian symbol of the Phoenix rising from the ashes.
An Annotated Bibliography of Homosexual­ity, II, 6694.

First edition, one of 12 numbered copies on hollande paper, the only large paper copies.

Full red shagreen binding, spine with three raised bands decorated with gilt fillets and gilt cartouche enriched with black typographic motifs, marbled paper endpapers and pastedowns, bookplate affixed to pastedown, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, other edges uncut.

Foxing to some uncut edges.

Autograph inscription signed by Georges Clemenceau to Monsieur Henry Leyret, political and judicial chronicler and editor at L'Aurore.

First edition, one of 12 copies numbered on Montval laid paper, the deluxe issue.

Light foxing to the upper cover and endpapers, with a small nick to the lower right corner of the rear cover.

First edition, one of 35 copies on Holland paper, the limited deluxe issue following 19 on China paper.

A fine copy, with a visiting card tipped in on a blank leaf bearing the manuscript note: "de ton beau-frère, un échantillon des éditions suisses".

Illustrated with headpieces and tailpieces by Marcel North.

First edition, one of 56 numbered copies on Arches laid paper, after only 11 on China paper and 14 on Japan paper.

Bradel binding in half navy blue morocco, smooth spine slightly faded, gilt date at foot, marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, bookplate pasted to one pastedown, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt.

Upper cover illustrated with a wood engraving by Pierre Lissac.

First edition, one of 200 numbered copies on Holland paper, the only deluxe paper issue.

Shadowed endpapers.

Half chocolate-brown morocco binding with corners, smooth spine decorated with gilt panels enhanced with black morocco onlays, gilt date at foot, marbled paper boards, handmade paper endpapers and doublures, original wrappers and spine preserved, bookplate pasted to an endpaper, top edge gilt on untrimmed leaves, an elegant binding signed Pierre-Lucien Martin at the foot of the spine.

A fine, wide-margined copy beautifully bound by Pierre-Lucien Martin, one of the most gifted bookbinders of the second half of the twentieth century.

First edition, one of the numbered copies on laid paper, the only issue after 1 copy on large Arches vellum, 50 on Japan paper, and 10 hors commerce.

The upper cover slightly and marginally toned; a pleasing copy.

Illustrated with wood engravings by Raoul Dufy.

First edition, one of 60 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the deluxe issue after 30 copies on Japan paper.

Full red morocco binding, spine slightly toned with five raised bands ruled in black, gilt date at foot, minor unobtrusive rubbing to the bands, gilt rolls to the headcaps, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt dentelle frame and double gilt fillet to the inside covers, original wrappers and spine preserved, gilt stippling to the edges, top edge gilt.

A fine copy, attractively bound.

First edition, printed in a limited run of 70 copies numbered on Montval paper and signed by Georges Hugnet.

Illustrated with a frontispiece etching by Stanley William Hayter.

Two poignant autograph inscriptions signed by Georges Hugnet—one to his father and one to his son—in blue and red pencil: "à Georges Hugnet mon père en souvenir des romans noirs dont il enchanta et peupla mon enfance. Georges Hugnet."; "Et maintenant vingt-ans après, à mon très cher fils Nicolas de la part de son grand-père qui l'aurait bien aimé de tout cœur son papa. G."

First edition, one of 50 numbered copies on Holland paper, being the only large paper issue.

Bradel binding with decorative paper featuring red and gold motifs, flat spine, small restorations to spine-ends and joints, brown shagreen title label with a corner skilfully restored, endpapers and pastedowns of blue paper with gilt motifs, soiled soiled covers and spine preserved, gilt top edge on deckle, contemporary binding.

Exceptional and precious presentation copy signed by Claude Farrère: "Pour Max-Anély que j'admire et pour mon ami Segalen. Claude Farrère." [For Max-Anély I admire and for my friend Segalen. Claude Farrère]

First edition, one of the 81 numbered copies on Holland paper, the only deluxe issue.

A handsome copy.

Edition partly original, one of 90 numbered copies on Dutch paper, the only issue following 10 on Japan, 2 on Chapelle and 2 not-for-sale copies.

Volume illustrated with 8 wood engravings by Manolo, four of which are full-page.

Manuscript signatures of Manolo and Pierre Reverdy on the colophon.

A rare and handsome copy of the only work illustrated by Manolo.

Rare first edition of this work by the author, one of 150 numbered copies on antique paper, the only issue after three deluxe copies.

Some light foxing.

No copies recorded in the CCF. Only three copies listed in WorldCat.

This slender booklet brings together pieces belonging to the earliest poetic experiments of Félix-Conrad Laventure (1902–1995), who was also known for his political career in ministerial, legal, legislative and municipal life (he served as Mayor of Port-Louis and as a minister).

His first verses appeared in 1921 (in Le Mauricien and L'Essor, of which he later became editor, and where in 1924 he published a critical study of the works of Mallarmé).

First edition printed on laid paper and illustrated with numerous tables embellished with Chinese ideograms.
Contemporary full brown Russia morocco binding, spine slightly faded, with five raised bands decorated with triple black panels, a few rubs to the spine, gilt initials W. H. W. to the centre of the upper cover, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, triple gilt fillet border to the pastedowns, all edges gilt, double gilt fillets to the turn-ins, corners slightly bumped, unsigned period binding attributable to R. Petit.
Born in Poland, Michel-Alexandre Kleczkowski (1818–1886) served as Consul General of France, Minister Plenipotentiary in China, and Professor of vernacular Chinese at the École nationale des Langues orientales vivantes.

It was in the latter capacity that he began publication of this work, which remained unfinished. A fine copy.

On a flyleaf, autograph signed presentation inscription by Michel-Alexandre Kleczkowski to William Henry Waddington (1826–1894), industrialist and archaeologist, then Minister of Public Instruction in the Dufaure cabinet, who had his initials W. H. W. gilt-stamped at the centre of the upper cover.

A fine copy, handsomely bound at the time in a personalised monogram binding.

First edition of Pierre Drieu la Rochelle's first book, one of 150 numbered copies on Hollande laid paper, the only deluxe copies.
Precious autograph inscription signed by Pierre Drieu la Rochelle : « to Charles Maurras this anxious testimony. Pierre Drieu la Rochelle ex. sergeant in the 146^th Infantry. October 1^st, 1917. »
Important testimony of the young Drieu la Rochelle's admiration – then in full intellectual development – for the « master of Martigues » to whom he sends this copy of his war poems composed in 1916 after being wounded at Verdun.
Demobilized and disillusioned by a war for which he had enlisted hoping to wash away the defeat of 1870, Drieu oscillates between Aragon's communism and Maurras's integral nationalism. Having discovered the latter in adolescence, he considers him from then on as one of his intellectual masters alongside Maurice Barrès, Rudyard Kipling and Friedrich Nietzsche. In November 1918, he would write to him: « It is you, it is your prudent thought that destroyed in me, around 1915 or 1916, my Germanic conception of joyful war. Having fought in the infantry during the first winter, I already knew all too well that war was not joyful... »
Glorifying Maurras as « the greatest political thinker of the last century » (Gilles), he is – like many young people of his generation – seduced by the patriotic aura as well as the taste for action and morality embodied by the leader of Action Française. Throughout the 1920s, the ambivalent Drieu will hesitate on which political path to take, before evolving toward fascism, definitively abandoning Maurrassian conservative ideology.

First edition, one of 41 numbered copies on Hollande paper, from the deluxe issue.

Contemporary half black morocco binding, smooth spine, wood-effect paper boards, marbled paper endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed, binding signed L. Bergeron. 

A fine copy.

First edition printed in 36 copies with a frontispiece portrait of the author, one of 30 numbered copies on vellum, the only issue after 1 Japan and 5 Holland paper copies.

Admirably printed, this extremely rare bibliophilic object is particularly precious for its complementarity with the first edition of Voyage au bout de la nuit.

Handsome copy presented in a full beige cloth chemise (with light dampstaining at foot) which appears to be the publisher's slipcase.

Bookplate affixed to verso of front cover.

"It's war!" we shouted that night, over and over again. The terrible word brought us bad luck... It was 1913: the following year, we were packing our kits again. This time, for real. And not all the guests came back." p. 335

First edition, one of only 6 copies printed on Hollande, this being copy no. 1 of the deluxe issue.
Bound in navy blue morocco backed boards with corners, spine very lightly sunned with raised bands, gilt date at foot, marbled paper-covered boards and endpapers, edges untrimmed, top edge gilt, covers and spine preserved. Binding signed Lavaux.
A fine copy with wide margins, attractively bound.
Bookplate pasted to a flyleaf.
The author's own copy, profusely extra-illustrated, of this magnificent Montmartre chronicle. Tipped in is an original ink portrait of Roland Dorgelès by Gus Bofa, humorously captioned: "Monsieur Roland Dorgelès dans son uniforme de rédacteur à la petite semaine"

Alongside two original photographs, one depicting the famous Montmartre figure Francisque Poulbot in his Guignol theatre (Agence Rol, 1910), and the other a very rare photograph of the legendary “Fête des Dernières Cartouches” organised by Poulbot on 23 May 1913. We have located only one other known image of this event. The photograph shows the merry band of participants at Poulbot’s place on rue de l’Orient, dressed as soldiers from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The celebration, which created quite a stir, is recounted by Dorgelès in this book:

First edition, one of 200 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the only large paper copies.

3/4 blue morocco Bradel binding, spine with five raised bands highlighted with gilt dots and decorated with triple gilt compartments, gilt date at tail, gilt fillets on marbled paper boards, marbled paper flyleaves and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, others uncut, binding signed Canape.

Rare copy of Guy de Maupassant's masterpiece beautifully bound in an elegant signed binding.