Gift Ideas – Antique Books

First edition.

Full red morocco binding, round spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt fleurons, slight rubbing on the caps, double frame of blind-stamped gilt fillets on the covers, with fleurons at the corners of the inner frame, edges slightly blunt, marbled paper endpapers and back covers, gilt edges and heads, very elegant 19th-century binding ‘a la Du Seuil’ signed Quinet on the first endpaper. 

Rare first edition of Chamblain de Marivaux's first theatrical success, The Surprise of Love, published four years before The Second Surprise of Love. This play, performed in the spring of 1722 before being published the...

First edition (cf. Polak 8547).

Rare copy preserved in its original stitching, in temporary cream paper wrappers.

A few marginal manuscript annotations on page 49.

This publication includes only the decrees issued between 7 Thermidor Year II [25 July 1794] and 9 Fructidor Year II [26 August 1794], although the mission of the Convention member Jeanbon Saint-André (1749–1813) in Toulon continued until March 1795.

An important document on the work of one of the reformers of the French navy during the Revolution.

First edition (cf. Sabin 47206. Leclerc 952.).

Some joints cracked at head and tail, minor marginal losses of no consequence to the temporary wrappers.

The author, Italian by birth, emigrated to America before the Revolution and settled in Virginia near Monticello.

His book, written in collaboration with Condorcet, is of particular interest with regard to the history of independence and the government of the United States, cf. Fay pages 24-25: "Compilation très exacte, qui réfute les théories de Mably et de Raynal et constitue un répertoire précieux de renseignements de tous ordres sur les États-Unis."

Rare and appealing copy preserved in its original...

Very rare first edition illustrated at the end with 4 folding plates (cf Quérard VII, 190).

Modern binding in half mottled sheep with small vellum corners, smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets, red morocco title-piece, marbled paper boards.

The author was a lawyer and architect in Lunéville.

Chapters on fire, the causes of fires, stoves and chimneys, floors, partitions, staircases, roofing, etc.

Pleasant copy.

New edition illustrated with 79 woodcuts in the text (cf. Bibliographie der Spielbücher).

Contemporary limp vellum, plain spine rubbed and soiled, covers stained.

Light dampstaining at the head of the opening leaves, at the foot of the first part, and affecting other leaves.

The work is generally attributed to Father Leurechon (1591-1670), a Jesuit from Lorraine, professor of mathematics, philosophy and theology at the University of Pont-à-Mousson (Dictionary of Scientific Biography VIII 271), though its authorship remains disputed (cf. David Singmaster, Bibliography of Some Recreational Mathematics Books, 2004, who attributes it to Hendrik van Etten).

...

Rare first edition illustrated, at the end of the volume, with 2 folding plates.

Unique edition, of the utmost rarity, rendered all the more so by the second dedication to Berthier, unrecorded elsewhere and evidently added later.

It is known that the young Bonaparte, assigned to the artillery regiment of La Fère, had passionately learned his military trade at the Royal School of Artillery in Auxonne.

It is also known that he had studied in depth the Nouveaux principes d'artillerie by Benjamin Robins, on which he left notes.

This work must therefore have drawn his particular attention. The author long taught artillery in military schools, yet little is known about...

First edition, cf Conlon 17:710. Quérard VII, 455 ("Cette Dissertation est très-estimée").

Full marbled blond calf, spine with five raised bands richly gilt in compartments decorated with gilt bees, red morocco lettering-piece, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillet on board edges, mottled edges, contemporary binding.

Lower corner rubbed, endpapers partially browned.

Notable treatise on the two great English political parties, their history, development, and respective positions.

Vérédishtad [Paris], chez les marchands de nouveautés, undated [before 1814]. Three parts in four octavo volumes.

Contemporary Bradel-style bindings in full aubergine boards imitating straight-grain morocco, smooth spines decorated with gilt fillets, rolls and floral tools, with the crowned cipher of Louis-Philippe d'Orléans at the head. Entirely untrimmed. The final two volumes remain unopened. Complete with the...

Rare first edition of the French translation prepared by Thomas-François Dalibard at the request of the Comte de Buffon (cf Wheeler Gift 367d. Waller 11339. DSB V, pp. 129-139).

Full mottled calf, spine with five raised bands ruled in gilt and decorated with double gilt compartments with floral tools, red morocco lettering-piece, gilt rolls on the caps (partly rubbed), restorations to head and tail of spine as well as to the corners of the boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets on the edges, marbled edges, contemporary binding.

Some foxing, a dampstain to the upper right corner of the first endpaper.

The English first edition was published in London in...

First edition of this architectural collection, published in Paris in 1821 by Bance aîné and comprising seventy-two numbered etched plates. These are preceded by two distinct preliminary elements: a letterpress title page giving the author’s name as “Schuelt”, and a fully engraved title with a vignette signed by Henry J. Picou, retaining the earlier title Recueil de divers motifs d’architecture and spelling the name “Seheult”. The coexistence of these forms reflects the historical instability of the family name, which was only gradually standardised as Seheult through subsequent civil-status corrections.

Rare first edition (cf. Polak, 1808; Quérard, II, 133. Not in Crowne Library. Absent from Brunet.) Contemporary full marbled calf, spines with five raised bands framed by gilt fillets and decorated with gilt double compartments and ornamental tools, red morocco lettering-pieces, marbled endpapers, gilt edge-rolls and red edges. Some early restoration to the joints; gilding at the spine ends and on the numbering-piece of the second volume partly faded. Occasional foxing; final leaves and endpapers of both volumes lightly toned in the margins.

At a time when American privateers were being fitted out in French ports and their captures were raising...

Extremely rare printing by Fauvelle, official printer for the Tribunaux de la Seine, contemporary and textually identical to the octavo and quarto editions by the Imprimerie de la République. Only four copies with Fauvelle's imprint in OCLC (BnF, National Library of Spain, Royal Danish Library, Stadtbibliothek Worms).

Bradel-style binding in full marbled paper boards, flat spine with red roan label, light foxing to the first three leaves.

First version of the Napoleonic Code, presented by the four members of Bonaparte's commission appointed to draft the civil code. Also contains the important “Preliminary Address to the First Draft of the Civil Code,” outlining the...

First quarto edition, third issue (distinguished by the absence of the table of contents at the end; the other two issues present this table as 28 unnumbered leaves or 42 pages), cf. Polak 7161.

Each of the 23 books comprising the ordinance is separated from the preceding one by 8 blank leaves, likely intended for handwritten supplements or annotations, though these remain unused.

Full tan calf binding, spine with five raised bands, gilt compartments and tooling, tan leather title label, gilt rolls on the somewhat faded caps, name of a former owner gilt-stamped on upper board, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets partially faded along the edges, red edges...

First edition of the French translation by Jean-Baptiste Dupuy-Demportes of the work originally published in 1689 under the title "La Morale dei principi osservata nell'istoria di tutti gl'imperadori, che regnarono in Roma" (cf. Quérard II, 260. Barbier III, 353b. Conlon VII, 54-572. Hoefer XI, 314).

Contemporary full red morocco bindings, spines with five raised bands decorated with gilt fillets and double gilt panels with gilt floral tools, boards framed by gilt roll-tooled floral and bird motifs, gilt fillets on the board edges, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, all edges gilt over marbling.

Some gatherings bound out of sequence in volumes 1 and 3; headcap of...

First edition of the French translation by Nicolas-Gabriel Vaquette d'Hermilly (1705 or 1710–1778), later revised by La Harpe (Quérard II, 30; Cioranescu, XVIII, 33 926).

Despite its very late date, this was only the second attempt at a French translation of Os Lusiadas (1572), following that of 1735 by Duperron de Castéra, which had failed to convince contemporary readers.

This edition includes 10 copper-engraved plates out of text, and is further enriched with notes and a biography of the author.

Bound in early 19th-century green bottle Russian morocco over pink paper boards, corners reinforced, flat spines with gilt double fillets and black ruling; some...

First edition of the first of six publications addressing the state of the Corps of Bridges and Roads, presented to the National Constituent Assembly by Chaumont de La Millière (1746–1803), who served as director of the School from 1781 to 1792.

Contemporary half vellum binding with corners, flat spine with red morocco label, soft marbled paper boards showing some wear and losses from rubbing, yellow edges.

Two additional related publications have been bound at the end:

I. Supplément au Mémoire de M. de La Millière, sur le département des Ponts & Chaussées; ou Réponses à deux écrits relatifs à ce Mémoire, qui ont paru depuis sa publication. Paris, Imprimerie royale...

First edition (cf. Grand-Carteret, Almanachs, 158; Saffroy, Almanachs et annuaires, 306.)

Bound in full old red morocco, smooth spine decorated with fleur-de-lis panels, gilt roll tooling on the caps, triple gilt fillet framing on covers, gilt tooling along the edges, corners slightly rubbed, all edges gilt, contemporary binding.

Date handwritten in black ink at the top of the upper cover.

This rather rare almanac was published continuously from 1744 to 1789.

Provenance: From the library of heraldist Olivier Le Bas, with his bookplate mounted on a pastedown.

Rare first edition of one of the many promotional pamphlets extolling the virtues of the celebrated Aqua mirabilis, or "eau admirable", invented by Giovanni Paolo Feminis and produced through the distillation of grape spirits with neroli oil, bergamot, lavender, and rosemary.

Unless, of course, it is one of its many imitations.

First edition, of great rarity (cf. Sabin 4182).

Bradel-style binding in full orange paper-covered boards, with a brown shagreen spine label; modern binding.

A very good copy.

A vindication of France’s conduct during the uprising of the British colonies in America.

First edition of this French translation prepared by Abbé J.B. Morvan de Bellegarde, who here renders six of the nine books of the celebrated Brevissima relación by Las Casas, first published in Seville in 1552 (cf. Sabin 11273. Medina BHA 1085n. Streit I:733. Palau 46966. JCB (4) 344-345. Leclerc 337. "European Americana" 697/33).

Contemporary full marbled calf binding, spine gilt in compartments with decorative tooling, red morocco label, gilt rolls to head and tail caps, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets to board edges, red edges.

Minor repairs to joints, discreet restoration in the inner margin of the frontispiece.

A handsome copy.

Las...

First edition of this significant work on the customary law of Maine. Divided into sixteen parts, it also includes two valuable alphabetical indexes: one listing the main subjects covered in this Custom of Maine as well as in the revised Customs of Anjou and Paris, and the other listing key subjects found in the remarks and observations on this custom.

Marginal dampstaining to a few leaves, occasional foxing.

Contemporary ownership inscription on the title page: Berthereau.

Contemporary full mottled calf, spine with six raised bands, gilt double compartments with decorative tooling, red morocco title label, gilt rolls on somewhat faded caps, marbled endpapers and...

New edition. A steel-engraved portrait frontispiece, printed on China paper and mounted. Printed in very small type, arranged in two columns.

Full polished blond calf binding, signed by Thouvenin at foot of spine. Smooth spine with blind-stamped Gothic architectural elements heightened with gilt dots, gilt fillets and title. Covers blind-stamped with a large Gothic window surrounded by architectural ornaments. Multiple blind-ruled frames with corner fleurons and gilt fillets. Inner dentelles. All edges gilt. Joints discreetly cracked at head. Some foxing and occasional browning to a few pages. Minor rubbing. Spine slightly dulled. A handsome copy.

Collected edition, partly first edition, of the plays of Pierre Corneille, printed in Rouen by Laurens Maurry and sold in Paris by Augustin Courbé and Guillaume de Luyne. Illustrated with three allegorical engraved frontispieces and 23 full-page copper-engravings, largely designed by François Chauveau and engraved by artists including Jérôme David, Mathéus and Louis Spirinx.

All three frontispieces are dated 1660. The title-pages and privileges of the first and third volumes are likewise dated 1660, while those of the second volume bear the date 1664. The second volume therefore belongs to the 1664 reissue...

Second edition and first edition printed in Paris; the first edition was published in St Petersburg in 1795.
Contemporary half tan sheep over boards, with small vellum corners, smooth spine slightly darkened and ruled in gilt, tan sheep lettering-piece, speckled edges, bookplate pasted to one pastedown.

A few restorations to spine, pale staining around the bookplate and on the facing page, occasional minor foxing.

This work consists of an extract from the journal of the author's extensive journey through the "southern governments of the Russian Empire" in 1793 and 1794, more specifically from the second part devoted to the description of Crimea.

Provenance : from...

First complete edition.

It is illustrated with two frontispieces, twenty-four full-page engravings, and a folding map of Telemachus's travels. The portrait of Fénelon serving as frontispiece to the first volume is signed Baillieul and Duflos; the second frontispiece, together with the plates, is signed Bonnart fils and Giffart, while the map is drawn by Rousset and engraved by Berey. A few head-pieces, bandeaux, and ornamental initials. 

Bindings in full red morocco signed Chambolle-Duru, richly decorated covers, spine with five raised bands ruled in gilt, gilt panels and fleurons between the bands, author, title, volume number, place and date lettered in gilt on...

New edition of this ancient pastoral romance, illustrated with a frontispiece and eight full-page engravings. With several headpieces, decorated initials and tailpieces.

Dark yellow morocco, spine with five raised bands, author, title and date lettered in gilt, gilt fillets to board edges and headcaps, gilt inner dentelle, all edges gilt; tan morocco case by Riviere & Son, spine with five raised bands, author, title and date lettered in gilt, blind-tooled fillets. Raised bands lightly rubbed, with a few scuffs to the slipcase, otherwise a handsome copy.

Mortimer L. Schiff's guilt red morocco bookplate on the front pastedown.

First edition, illustrated with 4 plates, one folding, and a large vignette on the dedication leaf.

Contemporary full fawn calf, smooth spine gilt in compartments with gilt floral tools, olive-green shagreen lettering-piece, minor rubbing to the joints, boards framed with triple gilt fillets, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets to the board edges, all edges gilt.

Contemporary ownership inscription on a free endpaper.

Internally in pleasing condition.

New edition, revised, corrected and enlarged.

Bound in full red morocco, spine with five raised bands ruled in double black fillets, boards framed with double black fillets, wide gilt dentelle border to the red morocco doublures, following endpapers of combed paper, bookplate pasted to an endpaper, gilt fillets to the board edges, all edges gilt, superb signed Duru binding dated 1848.

With an introductory history of satire in France by Viollet Le Duc.

A very handsome copy in an elegant red morocco doublure binding by Duru.

New edition, revised, corrected, enlarged, and illustrated with engravings.

Contemporary half brown morocco over marbled boards, corners preserved, spine with five raised bands showing a few minor rubs, gilt date at foot, gilt fillet border to the boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, all edges gilt, an elegant binding signed by Pierson.

A few occasional and unobtrusive spots of foxing.

A handsome copy, attractively bound.

Second edition, the "most complete of this work" (baron Pichon sales catalogue, 3rd part, no. 5531) containing a map of Dauphiné, an engraving by Berey fils, and six plates depicting seals.

Full marbled brown sheep bindings, spines with six raised bands framed by gilt fillets and compartments richly decorated with gilt floral motifs, red morocco title labels, green morocco volume labels, blind fillets on the board edges, red edges; contemporary bindings.

First French edition, illustrated with 69 statistical tables on 24 folding plates (cf. Sabin 79632. Goldsmith's 22782. Kress C 619.)

Contemporary full sprinkled calf, smooth spine decorated with gilt ornamental tooling, covers framed with gilt rolls and fillets, marbled edges, gilt edge-lines.

Spine expertly restored, particularly at the upper right corner, occasional foxing.

The first French edition of this comprehensive statistical survey of the United States, covering population, commerce, navigation, fisheries, public lands, and the revenues and expenditures of the federal government.

Adam Seybert (1773-1825), a distinguished physician, chemist, and...

Rare collection of pamphlets printed in Toulon or Marseille, notably during the Restoration period, several of which implicate senior military figures of the First Empire.

The first item is: "Ordonnance du Roi, Portant règlement sur les Franchises du Port de Marseille et Suite de l'Ordonnance..." printed in Toulon, by Alx (sic) Curet, (1815), 16 pages, comprising an extract from the Moniteur of 24 February 1815.

Bound in half ivory vellum with corners, smooth spine, manuscript inscription in black ink to spine, blue pasteboards with some surface abrasions, contemporary binding.

Some foxing. A few nicks to the edges.

Bound in continuation:

1)...

First edition of the French translation established by Bergier (cf. Atabey 973. Not in Blackmer.)

Bindings in fawn half sheep, smooth spines decorated with gilt friezes, red shagreen title-pieces and green shagreen volume-numbering pieces, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, bookplates pasted on the pastedowns, 19th-century bindings).

Sir James Porter served as ambassador to Constantinople from 1746 to 1762.

A pleasant copy.

Complete year for 1787, with 50 issues, of this health journal with continuous pagination (pagination error between nos. 48 and 49).

Contemporary half marbled sheep, smooth spine, bronze sheep lettering-piece, rubbing to the spine, domino-patterned paper boards, a few scuffs to the boards, corners worn and small nicks to the edges, red edges, contemporary binding. 

The journal, founded in 1773 by Jean-Jacques Gardane, doctor-regent of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, would run for 17 years, with one volume per year, except for the years 1773-1774.

Jean-Jacques Gardane distinguished himself in the establishment in Paris of treatment houses for the poor and in the...

First edition of this speculative theological inquiry into the date of the end of time, based on scriptural data.

Contemporary full mottled fawn calf, spine in five raised bands richly gilt with fleuroned compartments, red morocco title label, loss to the headcap, joints split at head and foot and restored, some rubbing to the spine, covers framed with a blind fillet, marbled endpapers, gilt edges to the boards with a few nicks, red-speckled edges, corners worn, binding of the period.

A few pencilled markings and marginal annotations to certain passages, library stamp on the title page, a light dampstain to the upper edge of one leaf, not affecting the text. 

The author...

First edition illustrated at the end of the volume with 2 folding engraved plates by Gobille after drawings by Guillet, depicting an ancient theatre and a plan of Athens with its surroundings (cf. Blackmer 766. Weber 364. Brunet, Table, 22855.)

Contemporary full brown sheep binding, spine with four raised bands decorated with compartments tooled in gilt, now very rubbed, restorations to the spine and covers.

First historiographer of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, to which he was admitted in 1682, Guillet de Saint-George (Thiers, circa 1625 - Paris, 1705) became known through several writings, the principal ones relating to Greece and the Ottoman Empire.

First edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with 28 hors-texte plates of Chinese ideograms (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1735-36; Backer & Sommervogel II, 1168 (2)).

The table of plates lists 27; Backer records 29; our copy contains 28, whereas most copies indeed call for 27.

Modern half fawn calf, smooth spine ruled in gilt with double fillets and gilt floral tools, brown speckled paper-covered boards, speckled top edge. The sole edition of a work thoroughly informed on the ideogrammatic origins of Chinese characters, thereby contradicting the thesis advanced by the English orientalist Needham concerning the supposed analogy between Chinese writing and the Egyptian...

First edition, no copy recorded in the CCF.

Modern bradel binding in full burgundy cloth, spine ruled in gilt.

First leaf restored to the right margin with an adhesive repair, some light foxing, dampstain to the upper margin of the opening leaves.

A native of the Briançonnais (Villeneuve-la-Salle), like many booksellers who settled beyond the Alps, Yves Gravier established himself in Genoa in the second half of the eighteenth century, first in partnership with Louis Fantin, and subsequently on his own.

His parents Jean, Thomas and Simon Gravier were likewise active in Italy (Thomas in Rome itself).

In 1839, the firm was placed into liquidation.

First edition, published in Paris by Nepveu in 1812 in six volumes, illustrated with 72 engraved plates by Lambert, most of them reduced from those in Dalvimart’s Costume of Turkey, published in London in 1802. Complete with all plates; without the binder’s directions and the leaf concerning the orthography of Arabic words, both of which are absent from many copies.

Contemporary full mottled tan calf. Smooth spines, slightly faded, decorated with gilt...

New edition, partly original, constituting a revised and expanded version of the author’s doctoral thesis.

A few minor spots of foxing. 

Contemporary full fawn calf, smooth spine gilt with decorative friezes and floral tools, slight rubbing to the joints, red shagreen title label, gilt rolls to the spine ends, marbled endpapers, marbled edges, gilt fillets to the board edges, period binding. 

A military physician, the author took part in the Russian campaign and was attached to the Imperial Guard field hospitals in Vilna under the command of Larrey. 

First edition (cf. Barbier, IV, 232. Palau, 260438.)

Contemporary full tawny calf binding, spine in five compartments ruled with gilt garlands and richly decorated with gilt tools, gilt rolls to the caps, a small loss at the foot of the spine, red morocco lettering-piece, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets to the edges, lower corners bumped, speckled edges, binding of the period.

Some light foxing.

First edition.

Minor spotting to the boards.

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, under plain white provisional covers.

Then French minister to the Court of Saint Petersburg, Louis-Philippe de Ségur (1753-1830) intervened in the constitutional debate that was stirring the National Assembly concerning the attribution of the right to declare peace and war (to the King? to the Assembly?).

New edition of the translation by Alain-René Le Sage, revised by Pons-Auguste Alletz, some forty years after its initial publication. Two frontispieces decorate each volume. As we learn from the Avertissement, this classic, which flowed from the pen of the author nicknamed the "Divine Spaniard" by his compatriots, was then, in the 1770s, unknown to a large part of the French youth.

Contemporary binding in full brown tree calf, smooth gilt spine with four compartments separated by traditional and dotted...

First edition limited to only 250 copies, which were not offered for sale but given to the author's close circle. This former minister under Louis XV composed these essays in 1736, and his son, the Marquis de Paulmy, had them published nearly fifty years later.

Contemporary half brown calf, grained paper boards, spine with five raised bands decorated with five compartments featuring double gilt fillets, red morocco lettering piece, red speckled edges.

An intriguing first edition, complete with its engraved frontispiece of the author by Giovanni Volpato after Domenico Corvi, and its introductory poem by the Abbé Luigi Godard. A copy unrecorded in non-European libraries according to WorldCat.

Contemporary binding of fawn mottled calf, smooth spine divided into five gilt compartments by gilt rolls, brown morocco lettering-piece, triple gilt fillet framing the boards, double gilt fillet on the board edges, blue speckled edges, and shell-pattern marbled pastedowns and endpapers.

The lower cap lacking, some surface...

Complete copy comprising two translations by Nicolas Perrot d'Ablancourt, whose works are commonly known as "belles infidèles" (beautiful but unfaithful translations). Between 1662 and 1795, no other translation of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War was published. The privilege granted to the bookseller Clousier in 1712 was shared among several booksellers, including Michel-Étienne David, Nicolas Gosselin, and Jean-Geoffroy Nyon.

Contemporary full brown calf, gilt spines with five raised bands and four compartments decorated with plain and dotted fillets enclosing fleuron tools, tan morocco lettering-pieces, numbering-pieces within gilt...

First edition.

Our copy is preserved in its original plain pink paper waiting wrappers.

Ink annotations to the front cover, a few short tears; internally a clean and agreeable copy.

As it was never ratified, this concordat never came into effect, and France therefore remained under the regime of the Concordat of 1801 until the Law on the Separation of Church and State in 1905.

Reunion of three highly sought-after first editions, most notably the last, printed in a very small number of copies, on the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain between 1609 and 1614, written by Marcos de Guadalajara y Javier and Juan Ripol. 

Volume bearing the royal and Jesuit arms, and woodcut initials with foliate and figural designs, after the macabre engravings of Hans Lützelburger. Woodcut-engraved border on the first and third title pages, elegant double black-ruled frame around the text. 

A superb copy bringing...

New edition.

Contemporary half bottle-green sheep over green paper boards, smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets and a central gilt fleuron, green endpapers and pastedowns, contemporary binding.

Some light foxing.

"The author's Cosmologie, published at Paris in 1815 [?], devoted considerable space to America". (Sabin, 100990).

Rare first edition, illustrated with an engraved frontispiece (cf. Barbier II 802; Cioranescu 65461).

Contemporary full mottled brown calf, spine with five raised bands tooled with rubbed gilt fillets and decorated with gilt compartments containing floral tools, gilt roll-tooling to the head- and tailcaps, rubbing to the joints, mottled edges; contemporary binding.

The work is attributed to Claude Vanel, who served as counsellor at the Cour des Comptes in Montpellier.

Provenance: from the library of Jacques Charreton, a Lyon jurist contemporary with the publication; his armorial bookplate (Meyer-Noirel C 0949) appears on the pastedown.

Manuscript shelf-mark in...

Rare and important first edition.

Our copy is sold unbound. A minor worm-trail on all leafs' heads, not affecting text. 

The work describes the dress, headdress, arsenal and equipment of soldiers and officers of the French army; it also addresses the cavalry, dragoons, and hussars.

The chapter devoted to the distinctive uniform of each regiment includes a list of these regiments, some of which took part in the American Revolutionary War. 

First edition (see Sabin 97501).

A light dampstain to the right margin of the opening leaves.

Half brown cloth binding, smooth spine with a brown sheep lettering-piece, boards with marbled paper; a modest later binding.

After distinguishing himself—at times infamously—during the wars of the French Revolution, notably in Vendée, Louis-Marie Turreau [1756–1816] later served in Italy and captured the city of Susa.

He held the post of Ambassador to the United States from 1804 to 1811 and was created Baron of the Empire upon his return. His Aperçu of 1815 offers a bitter critique of the federal government. Turreau’s name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe...

Copy in parts, unbound, each one of them a first edition. 

According to the CCFr, the Lunéville media library holds the first text in manuscript copy form. On May 28, 1777, France renewed in Solothurn (Switzerland), for fifty years, its long-standing treaties of alliance with the thirteen cantons. The privileges specified in the second text are chiefly commercial and financial in nature; they derive, to varying degrees, from the Treaty of Perpetual Peace of 1516 (Treaty of Fribourg).

First edition, illustrated with five engraved plates (see Crowley 894; David 258; Poletti 182).

Scattered foxing, otherwise a pleasing copy.

Contemporary half sheep, the flat spine gilt with decorative rolls and small tools, black morocco lettering-piece, headcap worn, some rubbing to spine and joints, marbled paper boards.

"… Serres did research into the development of the bones and teeth…" (D.S.B., XII, 315).

Rare first edition, illustrated with four plates at the end of the volume (cf. Polak 8728).

This practical treatise was reissued repeatedly until the end of the Ancien Régime.

Our copy is offered in its original state, stitched in the temporary blue paper wrappers.

A waterstain in the right margin of the first fifty leaves, with another affecting the lower margins of the subsequent leaves; title page detached.

Gilles-François Segondat (1724–1791), deputy commissioner of the navy, was to conclude his career as an ordinary commissioner of the ports.

Very rare devotional work, for which no bibliographical information could be traced.

Not recorded in Hage Chahine, Blackmer, or Atabey.

Full brown calf binding, spine with four raised bands gilt-ruled and richly gilt-panelled, brown calf lettering-piece, contemporary binding.

Some restorations to the spine and joints, spotting to the edges.

First edition.

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers beneath a plain cover, the spine split with losses to the paper and the title label also with defects.

Pleasing condition internally, with only occasional foxing.

Among the finest works relating to naval medicine; a substantial section (pp. 90–212) is devoted to scurvy.

The author, a physician in the Dutch navy, composed this work entirely from his own firsthand observations. 

A substantial section (pp. 90–212) is devoted to scurvy.

Second edition, revised and expanded (see Backer & Sommervogel VI, 1557). Only three copies recorded in the CCFr (BnF, Dijon and Nîmes).

Contemporary full mottled calf, spine with five raised bands and richly gilt compartments, modern burgundy morocco lettering-piece, some rubbing to spine and joints, headcaps trimmed, triple gilt fillet frame on boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, bookplate pasted to one pastedown.

The first edition of this small universal calendar appeared in 1711 in the form of a folio broadside. 

Each subsequent issue expanded the content: the 1731 edition was intended to serve as a supplement to the large Calendrier...

Rare first edition (cf. Pritzel 7288).

Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Amiens and Montpellier).

Bound in a modern bradel binding of full blue paper-covered boards, smooth spine without lettering, printed paper title label pasted at the centre of the upper cover, a small dampstain at the foot of the spine.

The author, an apothecary in Montpellier, later qualified as a doctor of medicine.

First edition, illustrated with two plates, including an engraved portrait frontispiece by S. Desmaretz and Couché after Scheibler, together with an engraved headpiece by De Launay (cf. Quérard, VII, 240; Polak, 7650).

Account of the career of Jean Bart, squadron leader in the French Navy and Knight of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis, forming part of the collection devoted to the nineteen engagements of this celebrated seaman, engraved by M. Le Gouaz; followed by historical, biographical and topographical notes on the origins of Dunkirk and the political importance of its port (...). With engraved plates and vignettes. Dedicated to H.E. the Minister of the Navy and the...

First edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with a folding plate showing surgical instruments (cf. Garrison & Morton 2158.1; V. Rozier 3346).

A copy preserved in the original wrappers, in contemporary orange marbled paper without lettering.

Spine split; a light dampstain to the lower margins of the first few leaves.

Percy stresses the importance of immediate care for the wounded on the battlefield. "One of Napoleon's leading surgeons, Percy laid down his principles of the practice of military surgery in the same year he was appointed médecin consultant of the Army of the North. He divised his own instrument for bullet extraction, the tribulcon. He was...

First edition of this in-folio printed broadside signed "Phelypeaux", printed on one side only.

Visible fold marks to the broadside.

Different issue from the one dated An XI (1803), which itself is not firmly established as the true first edition (cf. Monglond VI 139–140; Quérard VI 326).

The work is illustrated with an etched frontispiece entitled « Frémissez ! voilà du joueur le sort inévitable !! » depicting a gambler blowing his brains out in a gaming room, amid general indifference.

Our copy is preserved in its original publisher’s wrappers, with a blank marbled paper provisional cover showing small losses at the corners.

A pleasing copy.

First edition of the French translation (cf. Chadenat, 494; Brunet I, 24.)

Contemporary half green sheep, smooth spines faded and decorated with double gilt fillets, marbled paper sides with minor rubbing, marbled endpapers, two small tears at the joints, contemporary bindings.

Light waterstain to the upper right corner of a number of leaves in the second volume.

An Indian traveller, Mirza Abu Taleb Khan was born in 1752 at Lucknow in Hindustan and died in Calcutta in 1806. 

After serving in the army of the Nawab of Oudh, he embarked for Europe on 16 February 1799 with his friend Captain David Richardson.

Following a three-month stay at the Cape, he landed at...

A very rare collection of three anonymous political pamphlets, issued without place or publisher in 1783 and 1784, all in first edition and bound together at the time in one octavo volume:

1. Considérations politiques, par M.***. N.p., 1783, title and 77 pp. Conlon 83:1465.
2. Ces réflexions devoient, avec beaucoup d'autres, faire suite aux Considérations politiques ; mais le tout n'étant pas encore rédigé, les circonstances du moment m'ont déterminé à faire paroître celles-ci sur-le-champ. N.p., n.d. [1783]...

Substantial collection of theses submitted to the Special School of Medicine of Strasbourg between 1803 and 1808, composed in Latin or French and arranged in reverse chronological order.

Contemporary binding in speckled fawn half sheep, smooth spine decorated with triple gilt fillets, black sheep lettering-piece partly rubbed, vellum tips, yellow edges, corners worn; period binding.

I. ORDINAIRE (Désiré): Dissertation sur l'influence de l'habitude sur les facultés physiques et morales de l'homme (2 ll. unnumbered, 33 pp.). The Fourierist Désiré Ordinaire (1773-1847) was professor of natural history, then academy inspector and rector of the Academies of Besançon...

Substantial compilation of these three texts setting forth the statutes of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, together with the related legal instruments: royal declarations or edicts, rulings of the Parlement, and a judgment of the Châtelet of Paris. 

The second part sets out in detail the conditions governing the conferral of degrees, while the final section comprises several discourses on medicine.

Bound after the principal work are Hyacinthe Théodore Baron’s "Ritus usus et laudabiles Facultatis medicinae parisiensis consuetudines" and Gabriel Naudé’s "De Antiquitate et dignitate Scolae medicae parisiensis panegyris", published in  Paris by G.F...

First edition.

Our copy is offered unbound.

The dissertation concerned "Les Loix du choc des corps à ressort"; the R. P. Mazière was a priest of the Oratory, born in Pontoise.

A very rare first edition printed on blue paper (only four copies recorded in the CCFr: Aix-en-Provence (2), Angers and Avignon).

Not recorded in Monglond.

Contemporary flexible boards covered in blue marbled paper, speckled edges.

A few scuffs to the covers, spine restored.

With an additional pierced copper plate indicating units and fractions.

The author, a clerk in the Imperial Navy at Toulon, here sets out, in tabular form, a method enabling the rapid conversion of former units of measurement into the metric system, instituted in 1795 but still little used at the time.

The accompanying copper plate bears the engraved inscription: "Le...

Rare first edition (the work was reissued at least once, in 1833) of this historical compendium arranged in detailed tabular form, increasingly precise in its treatment of contemporary events (Revolution, Empire, Restoration).

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers.

Minor tears with small losses to the spines, a dampstain to the final free endpaper, light foxing, staining to the lower cover.

Very rare first edition.

A single copy is held at the Municipal Archives of Lyon. Absent from the CCFr.

Not recorded in Goldsmith, Kress, Einaudi, or Higgs.

Modern Bradel-style binding in full beige boards, printed title label, signed by Hervé.

Lengthy discussion of the trade in tallow, animal fats used in the manufacture of candles.

The authors argue that butchers are not responsible for the high price of tallow, and that the ordinance of 16 April 1771, which prohibited its export, in fact hampers the trade in this commodity. In conclusion, the butchers request not to be placed at the mercy of the chandlers, whether in terms of price or outlets.

Corner...

New edition illustrated with 16 folding copper-engraved plates.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (Collège de France, Caen). As such, the volume is not cited by Quérard nor by Cioranescu.

Contemporary temporary blue paper boards, smooth spine, unlettered. Minor rubbing to the spine-ends.

Some foxing.

As such, the volume is not cited by Quérard nor by Cioranescu. It nevertheless constitutes the exceedingly rare atlas to the second edition of the Histoire de Russie tirée des chroniques originales, published in the same year, 1800, in 8 volumes of text.

The first edition had appeared in 1782 in five duodecimo volumes and, compiled from the...

First edition of Jacques Le Meilleur’s medical thesis.

Our copy is presented disbound.

Waterstaining at head throughout, not affecting the text.

First edition of these important memoirs covering the years 1747 to 1783 (cf. Sabin 39271).

Contemporary full mottled calf, smooth spine gilt with fillets, roulettes and floral tools, some rubbing with small losses of leather at the foot of the upper board, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to the edges, marbled edges; period binding.

Upper cap and corners restored.

The duc de Lauzun (1747–1793) accompanied the comte de Rochambeau during the French expedition to America; he recounts this campaign in his Mémoires, pp. 339–375.

The editorial history of this publication deserves notice: the original manuscript having not been recovered, the text—issued some twelve times...

First edition of this rare imprint from the Vivarais.

A single copy recorded in the CCFr (Grenoble).

Contemporary half brown cloth binding, smooth spine without lettering with a small scuff, boards of vat-made paper; a modest 19th-century binding. 

Charles La Font de Savine (1742–1814), Bishop of Viviers and later of Ardèche (1778–1793), was one of only four bishops in office in 1789 to swear the constitutional oath. The "citoyen Savine" was subsequently required to surrender his pectoral cross and all episcopal insignia, together with his letters of priesthood, on 1 December 1793, and to resign his public office as bishop of the diocese of Ardèche; arrested as a suspect...

First edition of this biblical poem later set to music by Mondonville (cf. Barbier II, 970; Cioranescu 63676).

Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville (1711–1772), violinist, conductor and composer, wrote several operas, oratorios and pastorals, as well as works for harpsichord and sacred music.

He directed the Concert spirituel between 1755 and 1762.

Claude-Henri de Fusée de Voisenon (170–1775), a friend of Voltaire, a familiar figure in the salons and much in favour with Madame de Pompadour, was elected to the Académie française in 1762.

He left a body of dramatic works, novels and tales.

A date inscribed at the head of the title-page, which shows small spots...

First edition (cf. Wellcome, II, 340).

Our copy is preserved in its original sewn state, in provisional cream paper wrappers.

Signed presentation inscription from Charles-Irénée Jacquin to his colleague Dr Long, physician at Die.

Accompanied by a dated autograph letter signed by Charles-Irénée Jacquin, one page written on both sides, discussing his work and thanking his correspondent for the advice he had given him in the preparation of the present volume.

Second edition, largely original in its own right as it was substantially enlarged, to which was added a "Lettre sur l'instruction des aveugles", addressed to the author in 1816 by Mr Isaac Roquès of Montauban, himself blind, together with a selection of his poems.

Our copy is preserved in its plain grey temporary wrappers, the spine faded and showing small losses.

The first edition had been issued at the same Montauban address in Year VI of the Republican calendar.

Scarce new edition, illustrated with a folding plate printed on a separate leaf.

According to the CCF, copies are recorded only under the date 1826.

Bound in full fawn marbled paper boards, smooth spine, unlettered; modern binding.

A rare edition, though not the first: the approval printed at the end of the volume is dated 30 August 1766 for the censor’s permission (yet no public holding records a copy earlier than 1799). Contemporary manuscript ex-libris of Gabory Dodin, dated 24 July 1817.

First edition.

The CCF records only the minutes of the sessions of December 1787 and January 1788, published at Narbonne (Veuve Besset).

A very rare report of the first sitting of the provincial assembly of Roussillon, held in three sessions (20, 21 & 22 October 1787), preliminary to the sessions of the following December and January, but apparently overlooked by most historians.

First edition (see Cioranescu, XVIII, 13 365).

Contemporary full speckled fawn calf, spine with five raised bands, compartments decorated with gilt fleurons, faded gilt roll tooling to the headcaps, a scratch at the head of the spine, gilt fillets to the edges partially faded, corners rubbed, speckled edges; binding of the period.

The sole edition of the author’s only work, written by the prior of Saint-Didier-en-Bourbonnais [Saint-Didier-la-Forêt], about whom little else is known.

A very concise overview of the events of each ecumenical council, from Nicaea I onwards.

First edition, issued in a very small number as an offprint from the Bulletins de la Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale, t. CXCI et CXCII.

Not recorded by Quérard.

The pamphlet is illustrated with three folding technical plates, engraved by Normand fils.

Bradel binding in paper-covered boards entirely clad in blue paper, with a black vertical spine label showing minor losses; a modern binding.

The work describes the apparatus devised by the chocolatier Auger, which made it possible to reduce any animal, vegetable or mineral substance to "poussières impalpables, aériformes ou éthérées".

Héricart de Thury, Chief Engineer in the Royal...

First edition (cf. Crowley 931. David 132. Poletti 92: "Rara").

Contemporary half tan sheep, smooth spine tooled in gilt with floral motifs and gilt fillets, red morocco lettering-piece with a small loss and a scuff, lower headcap lacking, marbled paper boards, marbled edges, period binding.

This celebrated "Manuel du Dentiste permit d'acquérir les indispensables connaissances théoriques…" (Besombes, Hist. de l'Art Dentaire, 282)."

First edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with a folding plate entitled "Système dentaire des oiseaux" (see Crowley 916; David, p. 127; Poletti 90).

Occasional light foxing; a tear along the left margin of the plate not touching the engraved figures.

Contemporary half tawny calf, smooth spine decorated with gilt tools and fillets; a restored snag at the head of the spine, which also shows some rubbing; marbled paper boards, marbled edges.

First edition of the treatise "qui comprend la structure et les fonctions de la bouche, l'histoire de ses maladies, les moyens d'en conserver la santé et la beauté, et les opérations particulières à l'art du dentiste" (cf. Crowley 846. David p. 125. Poletti p. 49.)

Half brown calf binding, the smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets and gilt panels; rubbing to the spine and joints; marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns; late 19th-century binding.

A few minor spots of foxing.

Illustrated with an engraved title-page, an allegorical frontispiece, and 13 copper-engraved plates printed hors texte.

An uncommon first edition (cf. Palau, 92 173. Barbier, IV, 1072. Quérard, II, 40. Cioranescu, XVIII, 28675-28678.)

Contemporary full marbled fawn calf, smooth spine decorated with double gilt panels and ornaments, hazelnut calf lettering-piece, spine caps defective, covers framed with a single blind fillet, marbled endpapers, corners rubbed, gilt fillets to the edges, red edges; a fragile contemporary binding: spine ends trimmed, joints and upper hinge entirely split.

The imprint is fictitious: the pamphlet was not printed at Saint-Malo.

This satire, directed against the government, religion and customs of the Spaniards, and marked by singular bad faith (Fleuriot never...

Very rare first edition, printed anonymously in London in June and July 1784. Octavo. Sabin 21044. The French Catalogue collectif de France records only two copies, at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and in Rouen. The first edition collates v, 320, viii pp., with table and errata.

Nineteenth-century green half calf with corners, smooth spine slightly darkened and ruled in gilt, marbled paper boards framed with a gilt fillet and with a crowned gilt cipher within a central cartouche, lemon edges. Corners bumped, a few small abrasions to board edges. Bookplate to one pastedown. A few small spots...