Gift Ideas – Antique Books

Rare first edition decorated with ornamental headpieces, letterheads and culs-de-lampe.

Posterior binding in full red morocco, Jansenist spine, gilt date at the foot, marbled endpapers, frame of gilt roll-tooling on the pastedown endpapers, all edges gilt.
A very beautiful copy of one of the most famous plays in the French repertoire. It was played for the first time on 13 December 1669 at the Hôtel de Bourgogne and received a mixed reception. At the head of this edition is a preface by the playwright responding to his critics:

“Of all the works that I have given to the public, there is none
that attracted more applause and nor...

Rare and genuine posthumous first edition of the first six books of the Confessions, the remaining volumes not appearing until 1789. Several other editions were issued shortly thereafter, but the evidence provided by the commentary published in the June 1782 issue of the Journal Helvétique clearly establishes that this separately printed edition, known as the "large type" issue, is indeed the very first (F. Michaux, "L'Édition originale de la première partie des 'Confessions' de J.-J. Rousseau" in Revue d'Histoire littéraire de la France, 35th Year, No. 2 (1928), pp. 250-253).
Contemporary half calf bindings, flat spines tooled with gilt fillets and decorated...

First posthumous edition of Jacques le Fataliste et son maître, published in Paris by François Buisson in 1796 on Holland paper. The text is preceded by À la mémoire de Diderot by Jacques-Henri Meister, a close friend of Diderot and Grimm’s successor as director of the Correspondance littéraire.

Contemporary full mottled brown calf, spine with raised bands and gilt decoration, red morocco lettering-piece and black morocco numbering-piece. Small...

Fourth collective edition for the first part and third for the second and third parts, published by Corneille himself. Our copy is adorned with the frontispiece of the first two editions (dated 1645), and the portrait of Corneille by Michel Lasne, dated 1644.

Later bindings in full blue morocco, Jansenist spines with five raised bands, endpapers and pastedowns framed with gilt dentelles of marbled paper, all edges gilt, marbled paper slipcases bordered with morocco, bindings signed by Alix.

Rare and beautiful copy elegantly bound.

New edition. Title pages in red and black. Armillary sphere on the title of volume I, fleuron or cipher on the second volume. Wood engraving of the "Divine Bottle", Volume II, p.327.
Contemporary full brown calf binding. Decorated raised-band spine. Tawny morocco title-label, tawny calf volume label. One lack at head of volume 1. Scuffing to headcaps and raised bands. Overall rubbed. Some foxing. Good set overall.
These works contain: The Life of François Rabelais; Particulars of the life and customs of François Rabelais; Author's Prologue; I. Book of the life, deeds and heroic sayings of Gargantua; II. and III. Books of the heroic deeds and sayings of Pantagruel; Vol.II: IV. Book...

First edition, superbly illustrated with 50 engraved and hand-coloured plates, all numbered and signed by William Ellis. Bilingual text, first in English, followed by the French translation on facing pages. Printed on deluxe wove paper.
English binding. Spine entirely rebacked in chocolate shagreen, decorated with five blind-stamped romantic floral tools. Brown calf boards adorned with a large central lozenge composed of leafy friezes. Blind-stamped border frieze with corner tools, and a second leafy border. Upper board split along the joint and nearly detached, lower joint open at the foot over 5 cm, with a continuing crack of 10 cm though the leather remains closed. Corners heavily...

First edition displaying all the distinctive features of its publication: it presents no capital letters except at the beginning of paragraphs and it is the very first work to have been printed with Voltaire's spelling. Our copy is complete with its errata leaf, which is often missing.
Later bindings (19th century) in full red morocco, Jansenist spines with five raised bands, dates and places gilt at foot, boards struck at center with large gilt typographical fleurons, double gilt fillets on leading edges and headcaps, pastedowns lined with blue morocco presenting a wide gilt decorative border, monogrammed bookplates mounted on the pastedowns of each volume, following endpapers of...

One of the very few copies bearing an autograph inscription—fewer than ten are recorded—of this first edition, containing the Marseillaise.
First edition illustrated with an engraved frontispiece by Charles-Étienne Gaucher after Jean-Jacques Le Barbier and four pages of engraved musical score at the end of the volume. La Marseillaise appears here in its true first edition, having first been pre-published in the Almanach des Muses in 1793 and circulated as separate leaves.
Contemporary half-sheepskin binding, smooth spine gilt-decorated with compartments, fleurons and fillets, red morocco title-piece, black pasteboard...

Second edition, a reprint of the first folio edition published in 1756 by the same publisher. A rare edition, illustrated with 40 plates including 4 folding and 16 double-page (arms, costumes, plans, manoeuvres...). Large vignette with coat of arms on the title-page, and 41 ornaments (headpieces, tailpieces). Title-page printed in red and black. At the end, Supplement aux Reveries, with its own title-page; this short addition, spanning only a few pages, contains the corrections made to the original. A two-volume quarto edition appeared in Paris in 1757.
Bound in later full marbled brown calf; a skilful early 20th-century pastiche signed Saingy at foot. Spine with raised bands richly...

Second edition statement, rare, published after the original of 1783, and illustrated with 9 plates in fine, of the aerostatic machine and the flying boat.

Bound in full limp vellum binding, reused. Smooth spine with author's name in pen and date at foot. Stains and soiling. Trace of dampstain to lower margin of frontispiece. Leaves browned at beginning of work, and several others scattered throughout bearing browning.

First and important work on aerostation. It brings together several memoirs relating the first balloon flights (On inflammable gas, Observations made by M. Jeaurat, On rubber, Accounts of the first flights at Annonay...

First edition, with the illustrations of the author (often missing) and 79 plates (plate 27-28 double page) hors texte steel-engraved by Forestier after drawings by Antoine Chazal.
Strictly contemporary Romantic binding in brown calf, spine in six compartments richly decorated with gilt fillets and blindtooled arabesques, boards with blindtooled arabesques to corners, double fillet frame and gilt initials ‘A.D.' to centre, gilt roulette framing marbled endpapers and pastedowns, double gilt fillets to edges of covers. Binding very skilfully restored.
Jacques-Pierre Maygrier (1771-1835) was a student of Antoine Dubois, the obstetrician of Empress Marie-Louise. He practiced at the...

First edition.
Contemporary full bronze calf, spine with four raised bands lavishly decorated in gilt with fillets and dentelles and with blind-stamped tools in the compartments, sides with large blind-stamped panels composed of an elaborate frame of dentelles and fillets, four corner rosettes, and a central lozenge-shaped cartouche ornamented with gilt arabesques and rosettes, corners bumped, gilt rolls to the edges and turn-ins, gilt dentelle border to the pastedowns, a few scuffs, all edges gilt, strictly contemporary binding, signed Martin.

Our copy is complete with the frontispiece and the facsimile of the signatures of Molière and his daughter.
Some foxing.
A handsome...

Sixth edition with some parts in first edition. It contains 54 new remarks compared to previous editions.

Contemporary full brown sheep binding. Decorated spine with raised bands. Red morocco title label. Rubbing. The last endpaper has been pasted down over the privilege. 3 wormholes on the spine.

New edition from La collection des classiques français, illustrated with a portrait and a folding map of Spain. Fine edition with classical typography and wide margins.

Full glazed wine-red calf bindings, sky blue title and volume labels, smooth spines richly decorated with cathedral tools and rolls, boards stamped in blind with a large central monastic medallion, a blind border frieze and a second in gilt, boards with slight worm damage, marbled edges.

Magnificent romantic binding by a great binder of the period.

It should be noted that the preface by the Comte de Neufchâteau, academician, is actually by Victor Hugo (then aged 16); the...