Rabelais, Dumas, Carême, Brillat-Savarin... When literature hosts gastronomes in its palace and caters to their taste, the French language can be enjoyed like a fine wine. On the menu: a mix of fare and flair intertwined...
First edition, taken from the Mémoires de la Société royale et centrale d'agriculture, for the year 1824.
Illustrated with a folding plate inserted out of text.
Our copy is preserved in its original state, sewn and issued in a plain blue provisional wrapper.
Scattered light foxing.
A grandson of the founder and first director of the Académie royale de marine, Pierre-Marie-Sébastien Bigot de Morogues (1776-1840) devoted himself principally to agricultural matters.
Rare first edition.
Our copy is issued in its original state, unbound and preserved in wrappers.
Not recorded by Oberlé. Only two copies located in the CCFr (Cherbourg and Montpellier).
Alexandre Lesdos (1813-1865) was a member of the Société d'Agriculture and of the Société Académique de Cherbourg.
In this work, he devotes an entire chapter to the wines of Saint-Émilion, noted for their "bouquet as delicate as that of the violet." (our own translation)
First edition of this paean to intoxication, adorned with a charming engraved frontispiece depicting Bacchus seated on a barrel, holding a wine cup in one hand and a bunch of grapes in the other.
Cf. Vicaire 326. Bitting 415. Barbier II, 75 d. Oberlé, Une bibliothèque bachique, 523 (for the 1798 ed.).
Bound in contemporary fawn half-calf with corners, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt fillets, marbled paper boards, corners slightly worn, edges speckled red.
This work abounds with anecdotes and quotations drawn from the history of many lands. It asserts "that wine gives wit," offers "a catalogue of some illustrious drinkers," and claims "that wine wins us friends & reconciles us with our enemies," or again "that it is good for one’s health to get drunk now and then," though one must not "carry drunkenness too far." Born into a family of Protestant refugees,
Albert-Henri de Sallengre (The Hague, 1694–1723) was a lawyer at the Court of Holland, advisor to the Prince of Orange, and financial commissioner for the States General of the United Provinces.
Minor brown spot to the right margin of the first leaves, a few ink annotations and a stamp on the slightly soiled white endpapers.
A pleasing and rare copy.
Provenance: from the library of Fridrich Otto de Munchhausen, with his engraved bookplate affixed to the front pastedown.
First edition, with a single copy recorded in the CCF (Dijon).
Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers and housed in a plain blue interim cover, with a mounted title label at the head of the spine.
Some foxing.
The sole edition of this compilation, conceived primarily for fiscal purposes: indirect taxes at the time were levied chiefly on beverages.
The bookseller Louis Rondonneau (1759–1834) is renowned as the author, compiler, or editor of numerous legal codes, manuals, collections, and repertories of legislation and jurisprudence.
First edition (cf. Not in Quérard or Musset-Pathay. Oberlé 101-02.).
Including, with the appended pieces (cf. infra), the account of the thirteen experiments conducted by Maupin between 1772 and 1777 on the handling of wines.
Bound at the end:
Bradel-style binding in half bottle-green long-grain morocco, smooth spine tooled with gilt fillets, date gilt at foot, cat's-eye patterned paper boards, bookplate mounted at the head of one pastedown; modern binding.
Spine and lower cover marginally faded and sunning, light upper-marginal dampstaining.
First edition of this concise treatise on rural economy, attributed to the Duke of Sully, the famed minister of Henri IV, born at Rosny and who bore the name of that estate.
His well-known commitment to the development of agriculture has passed into national lore. However, it cannot be excluded that another author, sharing the same territorial designation, may be responsible for the text.
Contemporary full mottled fawn sheep, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt compartments and gilt tools, gilt fillets, Havana morocco lettering-piece, gilt rolls to the headcaps, gilt fillets to board edges, red sprinkled edges.
Some repairs to the binding. Manuscript ex-libris inscriptions “Cousturier, Prieur de Champsanglard [Creuse]” and “Denesmond, prêtre” on the title-page of the first volume.
The booklet is followed, as very often with this title, by two short agronomic treatises, which vary from one copy to another.
In this copy:
This work is in fact the reissue of the original edition, published under a new title: the 1772 edition was entitled "Dissertation sur les vins".
One hundred blank leaves have been bound at the end of the text.
The work saw an expanded edition in 1782, which was subsequently reprinted. (Cf. Simon BG: 510. Not recorded by Vicaire, Oberlé, or Bitting. Lacking from the Kilian Fritsch Collection.)
Contemporary half mottled tawny sheep with vellum-tipped corners, the spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt compartments, marbled paper sides, red edges.
An important treatise on vinification by a former wine merchant’s employee who had worked in France, England, and Holland.
The volume details the methods then used to preserve and improve wines, as well as to treat those that had spoiled. One chapter is devoted to the manner of making wines in Champagne (pp. 135–179). It is also, however, a veritable compendium of “fraudulent recipes”…
An open invitation to fraud, so much so that the censor responsible for granting approval was visibly unsettled: this dissertation "contient les formules suivant lesquelles on sophistique les vins, cependant on peut le laisser imprimer, parce qu'elle n'apprend aux frelateurs de vins que ce qu'ils savent bien faire et qu'elle fait connaître au public qui et prévenu, que les vins frelatés sont dangereux et les moyens qu'on emploie pour le tromper". [D. Denis, Histoire socio-économique de la vigne et du vin.]
First edition of the first of Augustin Sageret’s (1763–1851) two memoirs on cucurbits. Sageret was a pioneer in plant hybridization, particularly through his experiments with melons.
Only two copies of this edition are recorded in the CCF (Muséum and Lyon). Extracted from the Mémoires de la Société royale et centrale d’agriculture, year 1825. Pritzel 7969. Oberlé, Fastes, 708.
Half green long-grain morocco binding, spine faded and slightly darkened, decorated with gilt and black double fillets and blind-stamped floral tools, gilt rolls at head and tail, gilt date at foot, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, marbled edges, modern binding.
Some foxing mainly affecting the last work, partial shadowing on the title pages of the last two parts, trace of a label at the head of the rear pastedown.
Bound at the end, also in first editions and by the same author:
First edition of this offprint of great rarity.
Not listed in Musset-Pathay. Only two copies recorded in the Catalogue Collectif de France (Institut and Orléans).
Our copy is presented in a modern temporary wrapper made to resemble old paper.
Wine and cherry brandy, homemade kirschen-vasser, gin, juniper wine, poor man’s wine, currant wine, raisin and other dried fruit wines, etc.
First edition, illustrated with in-text vignettes (cf. Vicaire 733; Bitting 391; Cagle 273; NUC: only 2 copies listed. Not in Oberlé, "Fastes").
At the CCF, copies only at the BnF and Sainte-Geneviève.
Contemporary half green sheep binding, spine darkened and faded, decorated with triple blind fillets, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.
"Une des particularités de ce traité culinaire, c'est qu'il est 'dédié à la Sainte Vierge, mère de Dieu'" [Vicaire].
Another distinctive feature is that the work, divided into 1,187 paragraphs, exemplifies a scientific method and clarity worthy of a publication by Baillière.
Manuscript ownership inscription at the foot of the title page, occasional foxing.
Reculet (as stated on the title page) was “cook to Madame la comtesse d’Auteroche and Madame la marquise de Courtarvelle at the châteaux of Touchaillon and Lierville.” Which, however, hardly explains why the Virgin Mary should be the dedicatee of a work “qui traite d'une science à laquelle la décence convient si bien” [sic]. Rare and curious.
First edition.
Only one copy listed in the CCF (BnF).
Bradel binding in full marbled paper boards, smooth spine, green shagreen title label with a small loss, modern binding.
Very rare report of the administration of the "Argenterie, Menus-Plaisirs et affaires de la chambre", which under the Ancien Régime formed part of the King's Household, in charge of the "King’s pleasures"—that is, the organization of court ceremonies and entertainments.
Compiled from 393 records (and 21,000 invoices).
By drastically reducing the expenses of his household, Louis XVI retained only a single “Maître des Menus-Plaisirs”, endowed with a budget infinitely smaller than that of his predecessors.
Original colour print, printed on laid paper and signed in the plate lower left.
Original engraving produced for the illustration of La Gazette du Bon Ton, one of the most beautiful and influential fashion journals of the 20th century, celebrating the talent of French designers and artists at the height of the Art Deco era.
First French edition translated by Abdelmalek Faraj.
Spine and boards marginally discolored and sunned, handsome interior condition.
Very fine autograph inscription signed by Pierre Dermenghem, on two pages, to Henry de Montherlant enriched with an autograph inscription signed by Abdelmalek Faraj.
Manuscript annotations by Henry de Montherlant, in blue ink, on the back board.
Second edition, illustrated with a large folding plate bringing together five figures (referred to as “plates”).
Our copy is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, in the blank provisional waiting cover, with manuscript annotations in ink on the upper cover.
Two faint waterstains, one at the foot of the first page and the other at the head of the last.
The author, formerly florist-gardener on the Brunoy estates of Monsieur (Louis XVIII), was at the time a nurseryman at Mandres [les-Roses].
First edition (cf. Pritzel 6493; Vicaire, Bibliographie gastronomique, 610.)
Some foxing.
Contemporary half green sheep, the spine darkened and decorated with quadruple gilt fillets, red shagreen lettering-piece, joints rubbed, a gilt name at foot of spine, marbled boards, a few small defects to the edges, mottled edges.
An interesting study listing more than a thousand edible plants, including several little-known species that could, to advantage, be more widely used.
An alphabetical index provides the French names with cross-references to their Latin equivalents.
Some ten pages are devoted to coffee and more than twenty to tea; one also notes entries on the opium poppy, banana, avocado, cacao, the West Indian cherry, cassava, mango, Japanese medlar, the Saint-Domingue hazel, “pain de cassave”, pigeon pea, saffron, New Zealand pine, tamarind, the Chinese vampi, etc.
Provenance: "A. Chevalier" lettered in gilt at the foot of the spine.
Rare first edition, complete with the folding plate depicting the stove bound at the end. "First collected edition of these various reports concerning charitable institutions built following the model of the famous 'Rumford stoves'" (Oberlé).
Contemporary binding in half blond sheep, spine elaborately decorated in gilt with fillets and tools in the shape of stars and leaves, and with a red morocco title label; marbled paper boards, all edges yellow. The front flyleaf bears bibliographical notes in pencil concerning the authors of the collection.
The rare first edition of this pamphlet.
Stitched pamphlet, unbound.
The commission of agriculture and arts was founded in 1794 and Parmentier was from its creation an eminent and influential member. The potato was soon perceived, thanks to Parmentier, as a means to combat famine and food shortages, whether for humans or animals.
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