Gift ideas between 2 500 and 3 000 €

"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...

First edition of the theatrical adaptation.
 
Contemporary binding in red half morocco with corners, spine with five raised bands framed by gilt fillets, adorned with double gilt panels and decorative tooling, gilt fillets framing the marbled paper boards, combed paper endpapers and pastedowns, combed edges.
A few stains to the covers, a crisp and clean copy, free of foxing.
 
Signed autograph inscription by George Sand to the actor Fresne : « à monsieur Fresne, souvenirs affectueux. G. Sand. »
Fresne had performed in her play Molière at its premiere at the Théâtre de la Gaîté...

Rare first edition of this manual on film development.
Illustrated with 54 figures in the text and 6 folding plates at rear, containing 107 interest­ing samples of films negatives and celluloid.

With a frontispiece photographic portrait of Charles Pathé.

Skilfully restored brown half sheepskin pub­lisher's binding, smooth spine decorated with golden arabesques, small gaps filled at head of spine, marbled endpapers and past­edowns.

"In the early years of the twentieth century, the largest film production company was the Société Pathé Frères (Pathé Brothers Com­pany). Founded in 1897, the company was at its height in 1920s when it unveiled the first home...

Autograph letter signed by Marguerite Yourcenar, dated 23 January 1957, two pages in black ink on a single sheet, with the original envelope included.
On two densely written pages, Yourcenar confides her editorial frustrations to her close friend, the painter Elie Grekoff, recounting the blasphemous act of her publisher, who had torn in "en deux ou plutôt en quatre" [‘two or rather four’] the dedicated copy of her poetry collection Les Charités d’Alcippe (1956) and returned it to her by post. She discusses joint projects with Grekoff and requests that he accept the profits from a work he illustrated...

Japan, circa 1900. Erotic emakimono composed of twelve original paintings on silk, mounted continuously in a scroll covered with silk patterned with gilt brocade and bordered with gilt edging. The outer margins are of printed silk, while the paintings are laid onto a paler silk ground decorated with cloud motifs, the whole mounted on paper. A few small spots and light stains to the silk. Each painting measures 18 x 23.5 cm; complete scroll: 24.5 x 380 cm. In very good overall condition.

The series comprises twelve scenes, a number traditionally associated with painted shunga scrolls. Here...

Album of lithographed plates in third state, first cover printed in 3 tones, black, bistre with gradients and white highlights, followed by 24 lithographs in black on 12 double-sided pages.

Gray half calf binding, smooth spine, some foxing, original soft cover preserved, binding signed by Charles Septier.

Created in 1851, this youthful work influenced by Rodolphe Töppfer's style, is now considered an incunabulum of comic strips.

First collective edition of this complete series of 25 original lithographed plates printed on thick vellum.

Mounted engravings, preceded by a title page bringing together three series: Souvenirs de Carnaval (6 plates), Les bals masqués (7 plates), Costumes historiques (12 plates).

Each of these series first appeared in other journals: under the title 'Souvenirs de Carnaval' in Ritner et Goupil, 'Les bals masqués' in La Caricature and 'Costumes historiques' in Charivari.
Engravings in third state according to Vicaire.
Some foxing.

Red half straight-grained morocco Bradel binding...

2 frontispieces and 12 numbered engravings bound at rear of the second volume.
Small lack of paper to upper right corner and marginal restoration to the first volume's title page. Minor foxing, a light halo to the right margin of each of the 12 engravings at rear of the second volume.
Red half morocco binding, smooth spines with arabesques motifs in gilt, marbled paper boards, snags and rubbing to boards and edges, corners bent.
The book was first published as The Universal Cook in London in 1792; its fourth edition was translated into French...

« Il faut avant de rentrer en cage [...] que je vous demande le grand service de faire entrer à l'hospice mon cousin (le petit Dacheux) à qui vous avez bien voulu faire avoir sa dispense d'âge. » ["Before returning to the cage [...] I must ask you the great favor of having my cousin (little Dacheux) admitted to the hospice, for whom you were kind...

Paris, Gueffier, 1769-1770. Four octavo volumes.

First edition of this major eighteenth-century classic of scientific recreations, illustrated with 72 folding plates, 68 of them finely coloured by hand at the time of publication, together with a folding table. Four further plates listing the prices of recreational apparatus sold by Guyot accompany the first three volumes. The first two volumes appeared in 1769 and the remaining two in 1770.

Contemporary full polished tan calf, smooth spines elegantly decorated with gilt floral tools and fillets, red morocco lettering-pieces...

Original albumen photograph of Jules Verne in profile, in carte-de-visite format, mounted on the heavy card stock of the Nadar studio, 51 rue d'Anjou-Saint-Honoré, Paris. Early pen inscription on the verso identifying Jules Verne, printed advertising matter for the studio including the statement “Gold Medal, Universal Exhibition 1878”, and blue stamp “J. Kuhn, Paris”. Card with rounded corners; very slight wear to one corner, otherwise without significant defect.

The Nadar mount, whose advertising records the gold medal awarded at the 1878 Universal Exhibition, establishes a date after 1878...

First edition of the French translation. First published in English in 1712 under the title A cruising voyage round the world. Illustrated with 2 engraved titles, 14 engraved plates and 7 maps including 2 large format (Paraguay and Chile - mainland Peru and Brazil and the Land of the Amazons) and a world map.
Bound in full brown sprinkled calf, spine elaborately gilt, gilt roulettes on the edges, all red speckled edges. Expertly restored (corners, upper and lower part of joints). Two small restored tears on the world map, not affecting the image.
Ex-libris in ink "Sr Remy" to the upper left margin of the title-page.
A tear to the world map, not affecting the...

First edition and first printing of Lucien Laforge’s pacifist illustrations, one of 400 deluxe copies on special matte red paper from the Barthélémy paper mills, the only deluxe issue announced.
Some light wear, otherwise a very good copy of this fierce anti-militarist pamphlet in which runs "comme le grésillement du fer rouge marquant à vif la chair pâle et grasse du Bourgeois repu de morts" (Paul Vaillant-Couturier in L'Humanité).

"Si quelque part au monde le coeur de la liberté continue à battre, s'il est un lieu d'où ses coups nous parviennent mieux frappés que de partout ailleurs, nous savons tous que ce lieu est l'Espagne." ["If anywhere in the world the heart of freedom continues to beat, if there is a place from which its beats reach us more clearly struck than from anywhere else, we all know that this place is Spain."]

First edition, one of 120 numbered copies on holland paper, deluxe copy.
Very handsome copy.
Autograph inscription signed by André Malraux to his friends Minka and Karl-Hans [Strauss] enhanced with two small drawings in red and blue ink representing cats.
Minka, a Rothschild descendant, and Karl-Hans Strauss, were important patrons and collectors of art and music close to André Malraux. Their correspondence seems to reveal that in the 1970s the elderly writer was hunting around the world, with his last companion Sophie de Vilmorin, for works for their collection. At the end of his life, he thus rediscovered this youthful passion that inspired his first work...

Dans un quartier fréquenté par des gens argentés
Où le client ne boit que du whisky cent pour cent
Y'a un p'tit bar genre acajou...

Autograph letter signed by Emile Zola addressed to Henry Fouquier, written in black ink on a bifolium. Usual folds from mailing.
This letter was transcribed in the complete correspondence of Emile Zola published by the CNRS and the Presses de l'Université de Montréal.

Concertina album comprising five paintings in colour on ochre silk, mounted on card and framed with beige silk. Bound in blue brocaded silk with Chinese motifs, with a blank gold-flecked buff title label. Both paintings and binding retain notable freshness in the areas documented by the photographs.

The first page bears a four-character manuscript title, 趣味無止, freely rendered as “Pleasure Without End”. Beside it is a partially legible vertical inscription, 汴江陸[...], followed by a red seal and a final...

"Your little book is very original and you show qualities of talent that will develop, if you look ahead."

Second illustrated edition.
Spine with some rubbing.
Illustrated with drawings by Horacio Cardo.
 
Rare presentation copy erroneously dated 1949 and signed by Jorge Luis Borges to his muse Ema Risso Platero : « à Emita, con afecto innumerable. »

A very rare first edition of 15 lithographed views in bistre tint, mounted in an accordion pleat, forming a panorama of 6.75 ft and showing the Parisian procession of the return of Napoleon's mortal remains (his "ashes" used here as a metaphor since he was not cremated). The parade started from the Arc de Triomphe to his resting place in Invalides. In the lower margin, the caption presents the different groups forming the procession: Ajaccio delegation, Paris Municipal Council, Prince of Joinville Commission of Saint-Helena...in the centre of the panorama stands the spectacular...

China, probably 19th century, undated. An album of twelve erotic paintings in ink and colour on paper, each mounted on silk and depicting a couple in an amorous scene, either in a domestic interior or in a garden or outdoor setting. Each painting measures 16 x 19.2 cm.

Accordion-fold album, 19 x 25.4 cm, the boards covered in green silk patterned with polychrome crosses over a diamond lattice, the endpapers in figured cream silk. Small losses of fabric along the edges of the boards, two further small losses to the rear board, and one fold of the accordion partly split. The twelve paintings retain a remarkable freshness of colour.

Second edition, printed in a small number of copies on Hollande laid paper.

3/4 red morocco, five raised bands-spine,  gilt date at foot. Slight, superficial fading to spine, marbled paperboards, pebbled flyleaves and pastedowns, original covers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, A finely executed, unsigned binding from the late 19th to early 20th century.

Provenance: from the library of Simone and André Maurois, with their engraved bookplate on front pastedown.

Signed and inscribed copy by Paul Verlaine to the opera singer Marie-Blanche Vasnier : "A Madame Vasnier, hommage respectueux. P. Verlaine." [To Madame Vasnier, with respectful homage. P...

First edition for which no grand papier (deluxe) copies were printed.
Small marginal pieces missing at the top of the first board, a clear remnant of adhesive paper at the bottom of the first endpaper.
Copy complete with the facsimile at the end of the volume.

Precious handwritten inscription signed by Gabriele d'Annunzio to Natalie Clifford Barney: « à miss Barney et au Temple de l'Amitié attentive, cette légère torpille ‘sine litteris' est offerte par la ‘tête d'ivoire'. Gabriele d'Annunzio » (“To Miss Barney and the attentive Temple of Friendship, this light ‘sine litteris' torpedo is offered by the ‘ivory head'. Gabriele...