Gift ideas between 3 000 and 5 000 €

First edition, one of 32 numbered copies on Japon nacre paper, the tirage de tête.
A fine copy. 

Letter written by a secretary and signed by Louis XVI, addressed to Cardinal Ludovico Calini, in ink over eleven lines. The signature of Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes, appearing at the foot of the bifolium, accompanies that of the King for these New Year wishes. The recipient's name is inscribed on the verso: "Mon Cousin le Cardinal Calino".

A few waterstains, a small hole at "qu'il vous ait".

"My Cousin, I have seen with pleasure from your letter of October 1st the token of the sincerity of the wishes you express for me at the beginning of this year. Your good intentions are as well known to me as you must be certain of my desire to give you proof of my esteem and affection. Whereupon I pray God that He may have you, My Cousin, in His holy and worthy keeping. Written at Versailles the 31st of January 1776." (our own translation). 

First edition from the Imprimerie Royale, complete in nine quarto volumes with all 262 black-and-white engraved plates.

Contemporary full mottled calf, spines with raised bands decorated with guilloche tooling and gilt ornaments in the compartments, red morocco lettering-pieces and numbering-pieces, triple gilt fillet border on boards, double gilt fillet on board edges, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges. Minor variations in the tooling on volume 3.

In this set, some headcaps missing, 6 cm joints split at foot of volume 1, 6.5 cm and 6 cm at foot of volume 2, 3.5 cm at head of volume 3, corners bumped, scratches and minor restoration to boards, including a more significant repair on volume 7 measuring 11 cm, browning in left margin of lower board of volume 4.

In this copy: some worming, several instances of dampstaining throughout the set, more pronounced in volumes 1, 3, and 8, some tears, restored on the title page and on pp. ix and xxiii of volume 1, also restored on p. 496 of volume 2, on pp. 259 and 260 of volume 3, on pp. 481 and 482 of volume 4, and on pp. 173 to 176 of volume 5.

Copy with some marginal annotations: in volume 2, a manuscript footnote added in ink on p. 541 ("Voyez les Planches enluminures n°491"), erroneous manuscript dates in ink in volumes 2 and 8, the number "18" annotated in ink in the upper right corner of the rear endpaper of volume 9.

Copy richly illustrated with drawings by Jacques de Sève, engraved by Robert de Launay, Lucas, Michel, Madeleine-Thérèse Rousselet, C. Baron, Hubert, Catherine Haussard, Carl Gottlieb Guttenberg, Jean-Guillaume Blanchon, Menil, Dufour, Louis Claude Legrand, Claude Mathieu Fessard, Elisabeth Haussard, François Hubert, A.-B. Duhamel, Mlle Mansard, C. Baquoy, Heinrich Guttenberg, Laurent Guyot, Benazeth, Schmitz, Marie-Anne Rousselet (M. R. veuve Tardieu), Louis-Gabriel Monnier, Pierre-Étienne Moitte, Jean-Louis de Lignon, Levillain, N. du Four, Thomas Chambars, Nicolas Thomas, Luigi Valperga, and George Louis Biosse.

Accompanied by two additional plates, heightened in color, numbered XX and XXII, from a volume 7 of the Histoire naturelle des oiseaux.

Original linen-backed lithograph, featuring a large portrait of Liane de Pougy by A. Gallice after a photograph by Léopold-Emile Reutlinger ("cliché Reutlinger" stated on the plate). Printed by G. Bataille. Horizontal and vertical fold marks, discreet traces of rolling at the hem of the dress, four pasted and stamped tax stamps, and a shadow in the left margin.

Exceptionally rare original poster advertising a performance by the dancer and courtesan Liane de Pougy, renowned for boldly displaying her beauty on stage and for the openly sapphic loves recounted in her writings (Idylle saphique, 1901).  This unrecorded document is the only copy we can trace.

Autograph letter signed by Albert Camus to his housekeeper or caretaker, "Chère Madame Quentin." One page on a single leaf written in black ink, on NRF letterhead, accompanied by its envelope bearing the autograph address of the recipient. Horizontal crease inherent to the folding of the letter for mailing.

Given that his own mother had been a housekeeper, the writer does not merely concern himself with domestic matters when addressing his employee. He also inquires after the wellbeing of his "Chère Madame Quentin" following her vacation: "I shall be in Paris on Monday or Tuesday at the latest (thus the 31st or the 1st). Could you ask Madame [...] (Pintres?), upon receipt of this letter, to stop forwarding my mail. I hope you were able to rest a little during the month of August and I send you my most faithful regards." (our own translation). 

Accompanied by a telegram once again to Mme "Quentin 86 Rue de Varennes," dated "5-59."

Autograph letters signed by Albert Camus are highly sought after today. This one bears witness to the considerate language the writer uses towards Madame Quentin, his housekeeper, a trade he knows intimately through his mother.

Illustrated edition with compositions by Arthur Rackham, 13 in colour tipped in with captioned tissue guards, and 52 black-and-white illustrations in the text, one of 55 copies on Japon paper, signed by Arthur Rackham on the limitation page, deluxe issue. 
Publisher’s full vellum binding, smooth spine gilt-lettered with gilt-stamped animals, upper cover gilt-stamped with the title and an illustration of animals, top edge gilt, uncut, lower cover silk ties preserved.
A fine copy of the works of the most celebrated fabulist, illustrated by Arthur Rackham, one of the rare copies on Japon.

Provenance: manuscript ex-libris on the half-title of Maurice Feuillet, a renowned press illustrator, notably for major judicial cases, but also an art critic and founder of the Figaro artistique. Feuillet remains famous for his courtroom sketches at the trials of Émile Zola in 1898 and Alfred Dreyfus in 1899.

Very rare first edition, bilingual, quarto in format and printed on laid paper, of the Corsican cahier de doléances.

(Cf. Starace 4747. Not in Roland Bonaparte. Conlon, xxiv, 89:1617, who notes only the 32-page octavo edition. No copy located in CCF or Worldcat.)

Our copy is preserved in a plain grey paper wrapper, with minor internal flaws, a few discreet paper restorations to the lower right margin of the opening leaves, not affecting the text.

"Les cahiers des Tiers, en même temps que des mesures spécifiques, exigent les mêmes réformes que le reste du royaume. Cette imbrication du régional et du national est jalonnée d'événements illustrant la dynamique révolutionnaire: agitation lors des assemblées primaires, émeute de Bastia le 1er mai 1789, "révolution municipale" du mois d'août à l'annonce du 14 Juillet parisien et sous le signe de la cocarde tricolore..." Soboul, Dict. hist. de la Révolution française.

Among the specific measures requested are the following: authorisation for Corsican vessels to fly the Moor’s Head on the French white ensign (as several towns and provinces of the kingdom already displayed their own arms); establishment of a university at Corte funded by the former revenues of the Carthusians, Jacobins, and Olivetans; establishment of a lazaretto to facilitate trade with the Levant; creation of a free port; preference in appointments to be given to Corsicans or to French inhabitants established on the island, etc.

Light foxing to the lower and upper right corners of the leaves, not affecting the text.

A well-preserved and appealing copy.

First French edition, one of 25 numbered copies on Hollande paper, deluxe issue.

This second volume of La comédie américaine was first published in English as The Ski Bum.
Fine copy.

First edition.

Some light foxing.

Contemporary half aubergine sheep binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt and blind fillets, gilt friezes at head and foot, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

Our copy is enhanced with a photographic portrait of Victor Hugo (Souvenir du 16 septembre 1862) which he has countersigned in ink, serving as frontispiece; as well as an autograph inscription signed by Victor Hugo added on a blue paper leaf: "A mon vaillant et cher compagnon d'épreuve C. Berru",

Camille Berru (1817-1878), French journalist, was editor at l'Indépendance belge, a Brussels daily newspaper directed since 1856 by the Marseillais Léon Bérardi (1817-1897), who later made him his private secretary. He was closely connected to the Hugo family, not only to Victor, but also to his son Charles and to Adèle Foucher. During his stays in Brussels, it was at Berru's home that the exile from Guernsey regularly stayed, with his wife, who died there of a cerebral congestion on August 27, 1868.

First edition, one of 480 numbered copies on laid paper, only grands papiers (deluxe) copies besides 20 Arches and 100 service de presse (advance) copies on laid paper.
Our copy is complete with the rare vignette etching drawn and engraved by Hans Bellmer printed 'en sanguine' present in only around 200 copies.
Preface by Jean Paulhan.
Spine very lightly faded.
A beautiful copy of this masterpiece of erotic literature.

Autograph letter signed from Georges Bataille to Denise Rollin, 40 lines in black ink, two pages on one leaf.

George Bataille and Denise Rollin's relationship lasted from the autumn of 1939 to the autumn of 1943 and left behind it a short but passionate correspondence. This letter dates from the early days of their connection, but already reveals Bataille's agonies: “Perhaps I was too happy with you for some months, even though suffering did not wait long to interrupt, at least for a time, a happiness that was almost a challenge.”
A passionate lover, Bataille moved from exultation to the deepest doubt and even offered his lover a potential way out of their relationship: “If you can't take it, me, any more, I beg you, don't deceive yourself any longer: tell me it's me, and not some foible I could have avoided and which is easily repairable.” He would rather be sac-
rificed on the altar of their love than have a relationship that was bland and flavorless: “Understand me when I tell you that I don't want everything to get bogged down, that I would really rather suffer than see a sort of shaky mediocrity as a future for you and me.”

Earlier in the letter, he turns to humor to tear him away from his worries: “I hardly dare make you laugh by telling
you that I've lost weight, so that my trousers occasionally fall down, because I've not yet gotten into the habit of tightening my belt to the new notch.” Then, he goes back to pleading: “I write to you like a blind man, because that is what you make me when you talk to me the way you do when you leave or when you phone, you make me fall into a darkness that is almost unbearable.” He then tries to get a grip on himself:
“there are moments I'm ashamed of doubting you and being afraid, or of stupidly losing my head.”
Finally, hemmed in by all his doubts as a lover, Bataille tried to find some respite in talking about the family that he had made up with Denise and her son Jean (alias Bepsy): “If you write me, tell me how Bepsy's doing, which is perhaps the only thing that you can tell me that doesn't touch something painful in me.”

In a 1961 interview, Bataille looked back on this time: "Le Coupable is the first book that gave me a kind of satisfaction, an anxious one at that, that no book had given me and that no book has given me since. It is perhaps the book in which I am the most myself, which resembles me the most... because I wrote it as if in a sort of quick and continuous explosion." The letters addressed by Bataille to Denise during this period contain the seeds of the feelings that explode in Le Coupable as in all of Bataille's work. His writing is an ebb and flow of love and suffering, between ecstasy and disappointment, calm and energy, mixing familiar and formal tones, compliments and reproaches. The letters are often impossible to date with precision as they all proceed from the same movement of ecstatic flagellation.

In 1943, Georges Bataille found a house in Vézelay where the couple settled with Laurence (Georges and Sylvia's daughter), and Denise's son Jean. It was there that Bataille completed his book Le Coupable as well as his love story since barely a month after their arrival, Diane Kotchoubey, a young woman of 23, moved in with them. Before the end of the year, Bataille left Denise Rollin for this new flame.

These previously unknown letters were kept by Bataille's best friend Maurice Blanchot who from 1944 became the new lover Denise Rollin, this woman with a "melancholic and taciturn" beauty who "embodied silence". The crumpled letters (one is even torn into five pieces) are as much the precious trace of Bataille's extraordinary passion as they are a valuable source from a little-known period of his intimate life which was until then only perceived through the eyes of his friends. Above all they are of an exceptional literary quality and reveal several sides to him: the man, the accursed, the worshipper and the profaner... all that, according to Michel Foucault, makes Georges Bataille "one of the most important writers of this century”.

First appearance of the 18 poems by Charles Baudelaire published on pages 1079–1093 of the Revue des Deux Mondes, showing numerous variations from the text of the first edition issued in 1857 by Poulet-Malassis & De Broise.

Full black shagreen binding, smooth spine, double blind-ruled borders on covers, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, slightly later binding.

A rare and attractive copy.

Bronze cast of the Marquis de Sade's skull by the master founder Avangini. One of a unique numbered edition of 99 bearing a reproduction of Sade's signature, this one no.31.
Also included is a certificate of authenticity signed by the Comtesse de Sade, with the family's wax seal.
Provenance: family archives.

First edition, one of the review copies stamped "M.F." on the front cover and numbered in the colophon.

Small restored tears to the spine and upper part of the front cover, slight traces of creasing to the margins of the front cover.

Precious inscribed copy signed by Louis Pergaud to J.H. Rosny jeune, one of the historic members of the Goncourt Prize jury. Pergaud had won the 1910 Goncourt for his collection of short stories De Goupil à Margot.

First edition of one of the most important revolutionary publications against the African slave trade and the first manifesto of the Society of the Friends of the Blacks, founded in February 1788 by Jacques-Pierre Brissot, Étienne Clavière, and Mirabeau, barely nine months after the London Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, which served as their model.
 

 

A unique combination of French translations of the first two philosophical works on the Sublime, marking the beginning of the most important reflection on aesthetics in Western history.
Extremely rare first edition of the first French translation of a philosophical work by Immanuel Kant, and the second ever translation of a Kantian text. The others were only translated during the 19th century. Illustrated with a portrait of the author by Benezy. The first edition in German was published in 1764 in Königsberg under the title "Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen".
Contemporary half brown roan binding with vellum corners, smooth spine ruled in gilt, blue paper boards, white paper pastedowns and endpapers, yellow red-speckled edges. Some marks on the endpapers, scattered foxing more noticeable on a few leaves.
This essay contains Kant's first observations on aesthetics - he had previously only published scientific texts - and more specifically on the sublime, a concept that would come into its own in Critique of Judgment (1790) left untranslated until the 19th century as it is the case with almost all of Kant's oeuvre.
"Certainly even before 1781 Kant's name was not completely unknown at the University of Strasbourg, where some students and professors had cited him in their research or lectures. The works of the Berlin Academy which included memoirs by staunch opponents of Kantianism were not completely ignored in France. However, it was not until the French Revolution and even the end of the Convention and the beginning of the Directoire, i.e. almost fifteen years after the publication of the Critique of Pure Reason that people in France began to talk about Kant and his work" (Jean Ferrari, "L'œuvre de Kant en France dans les dernières années du XVIIIè siècle" Les Études philosophiques No. 4, Kant (oct-dec 1981), pp. 399-411).
Bound at rear: Second French translation of Burke's text by E. Lagentie de Lavaïsse considered superior to the first 1765 translation by Abbé Des François. Illustrated with a portrait of the author by Mariage. The very first work on aesthetics, published in 1757 and translated into English the same year under the title A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.
Burke regarded the sublime as that which has the power to compel and destroy us (a "delightful terror"). As an ardent admirer of his philosophy, Kant went beyond this consideration in Critique of Judgment (1790), concluding that the sublime is "that which is absolutely great", something in the face of which man feels inferior and feels respect.
The first two modern definitions of the sublime - one as realization of human reason, the other as reason's confrontation with that which surpasses it - aptly bound together by a scholar aware of the philosophical debates of his time.

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 with beige morocco title and volume labels, marbled paper boards, all edges blue.
A handsome copy of this seminal text of the autobiographical genre, preserved in a contemporary binding.

First edition of the French translation, one of 51 numbered copies on pure wove paper, the only copies printed on deluxe paper.
Spine and boards slightly and marginally sunned, as often.
Rare and handsome copy of this work, splendidly adapted for the screen in 1967 by Richard Brooks, with Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, and John MacLiam in the leading roles.
Richard Brooks even went so far as to film in the actual house where the crime took place, as well as in the same courthouse, where 7 of the 12 jurors played their own roles.

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.

First edition, one of 50 numbered copies on pur fil.
Spine slightly sunned, a small scratch to the front cover, corner creases at the preserved margins.
Rare copy as issued.

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 following year in 1723, already contains all the essence of Marivaux's style, all its subtle gallantry. According to the Romantic poet Theophile Gautier, it is the author's masterpiece. 

Second issue, printed in March-April 1917, one month after the first edition published in February of the same year.
Publisher's red cloth.
Exceptional inscribed copy signed by H.G. Wells to André Citroën: “To André Citröen who has to do his share in making a new world out of a very shattered old one. From H. G. Wells.”
The inscription echoes the chapter of the book entitled New arms for old ones, in which Wells describes the armament factory created by Citroën to remedy the French artillery weakness. Reconverted at the end of the war, the factory will become the first Citroën automobile manufacturer.

First edition of the French translation. No grands papiers (deluxe copies) were printed.
Some loss of plastic film on the spine, two light damp-stains on the upper and lower edges.
Signed and dated by Andy Warhol with an original drawing on three pages: verso of the first cover, endpaper and title page.

First edition illustrated with 81 engraved plates, drawn by Antoine-Marie Chenavard and engraved on steel by various artists, comprising: a route map, a plan of Athens, and 79 plates numbered I to LXXV, including plates XXVIIIbis, XLVIIIbis (these two not listed in the table), LVIbis, and LVIIbis.

Cf. Blackmer 334. Atabey 230. Brunet II, 1831.

Each plate is accompanied by a leaf of explanatory text.

Plates LIX and LX are transposed in this copy.

Bound in modern half green sheep with corners, spine with four raised bands decorated with black fillets, black sheep lettering-piece and author’s name, sides covered in almond-green felted paper, a scratch to the lower cover.

The leaves are mounted on cloth guards, the preliminary leaves with some marginal soiling, a few light dampstains in the margins of certain pages, all leaves with marginal sunning.

First edition with 46 illustrations by Harry Furniss.
Publisher's binding over flexible paper boards, discreet and light repairs on the
joints, all edges gilt.
Autograph inscription dated and signed by Lewis Carroll to Mrs Cole.

First edition.
Half beige cloth Bradel binding, flat spine, date at foot, black shagreen title-piece skillfully restored, marbled paper boards, contemporary binding.
Inscribed by Guy de Maupassant to his friend the writer Catulle Mendès.
A fine copy, attractively bound.
Provenance: from the library of Arthur Christian with his bookplates on the front pastedown.

First edition, one of the review copies.
Preface by Raymond Queneau.
Rare and appealing copy.

Rare signed autograph presentation from Boris Vian to Marc Bernard.

First edition of this work published in Toulouse, cradle of aeronautics.
Precious and rare signed autograph inscription by Clément Ader to René Fonck, « l'As des As » of French aviation, who achieved the highest number of aerial victories during the First World War: « à monsieur René Fonck membre du Comité de Direction de l'Aéro-Club. En souvenir du 2 mars reconnaissant hommage. »
This remarkable dedication was most likely written on 2 March 1922 on the occasion of a banquet held by the Aéro-Club de France at the Palais d'Orsay, celebrating the award of the Commander's insignia of the Légion d'honneur to Clément Ader, the first Frenchman who, as early as 1890, attempted flight with his prototypes named « Éole » and « Zéphyr ». This final tribute marked the pinnacle of the career of this brilliant inventor, from whom the French army had nonetheless turned away after the unconvincing demonstration flight of his « Aquilon » at Satory in 1897.
A rare and desirable copy, enriched with an exceptional signed autograph inscription from the father of aeronautics to René Fonck, the military hero of French and Allied aviation, nicknamed « l'As des As » during the First World War with seventy-five confirmed victories to his credit.

First edition of this fine collection comprising 72 numbered copper-engraved plates. (cf. Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung Berlin, 2744. Brunet, V, 199 lists the author's name as Scheult).

Contemporary half calf binding with vellum-tipped corners, recently rebacked with a smooth spine decorated with gilt ornamental rolls and fleurons, olive green morocco label. Some rubbing to the spine, marbled paper-covered boards.

Scattered foxing, light dampstain to the upper outer corner of most leaves.

First edition of this highly important work, presenting the full text of all decrees and ordinances relating to trade with the Americas, primarily the West Indies (cf. Sabin 11812. Leclerc 113. Barbier I, 649 c. Ined 1038, 1783 edition).

Illustrated with two engraved frontispiece titles and ten maps (nine folding), depicting South America, North America (repeated in vol. 2), Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint-Domingue (2), Cayenne and its surroundings, Louisiana, the Guinea coast, as well as twelve engraved plates showing botanical specimens (sugarcane, cotton, tobacco, cocoa), genre scenes (a Black king dispensing justice, a slave market, turtle fishing), various tools and objects (ventilator, suction pump), industrial activities (plantation layout, sugar mill, indigo workshop), etc.

Bound in modern pastiche bindings: half mottled tan sheep over marbled boards, spine with five raised bands adorned with gilt garlands, double gilt panels, red edges.

Minor black ink stains to the edges of volume one, a pleasant copy overall.

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 influences and objectives behind this landmark work - the first modern legal code to be widely adopted in Europe, which influenced the codes of jurisdictions all over the world.

New edition illustrated with 47 engraved and hand-colored costume plates (cf. Colas 2784).

This is a reissue, under the Metz imprint, of a portion (volume IV) of the Tableau Historique des costumes, des moeurs et des usages des principaux peuples de l'antiquité et du moyen âge, originally published in Paris and Metz between 1804 and 1809.

Rare and attractive copy preserved in its original publisher’s wrappers, with the original plain waiting cover and a printed title label affixed at the head of the spine.

First edition of this rare album illustrated with 15 outline-engraved plates, each protected by a tissue guard and accompanied by a leaf of descriptive text, including a reproduction of the author's portrait drawn by Ingres in Rome in 1818 (cf. Castiglione, p. 226. Only three copies listed in the CCF: BnF, INHA, Lyon).

Contemporary green half sheepskin binding with corners, spine with four raised bands framed by dotted rolls, gilt double fillets and floral tools, triple gilt fillet border on green paper-covered boards, gilt title to upper board, marbled endpapers, contemporary binding.

Some rubbing to spine, corners restored.

A handsome copy.

Author's copy with inkstamp to the title-page.

Very rare first edition, illustrated with 73 plates outside the text, including a frontispiece portrait and two folding plates (see Gelli, 436-437).

No copy recorded in the CCF (French collective catalogue).

Our copy, with wide margins, is preserved in its original blue paper wrappers, untrimmed and with a reinforced spine.

Some minor spotting, slight loss at the corners of the plain wrappers, a faint dampstain to the lower left corner of the title page, and a small defect to the final page of the table of contents, not affecting the text.

Only edition of this fencing manual, compiled from both French and Italian sources.

Little is known of J. de Saint-Martin beyond what can be gathered from his work: a former cavalry officer and fencing master at the Theresian Academy, he states in his Preliminary Discourse: "Mon goût pour l’art militaire, et mon zèle pour l’avantage du service des armées impériales, ma vive reconnoissance pour les bontés du Grand Monarque que j’ai l’honneur de servir depuis sept ans, et qui a daigné me donner la place de professeur impérial de l’Académie Thérésienne pour l’Escrime, m’ont déterminé à publier et à donner au public cet ouvrage […]. Ce sont les fruits d’une expérience de trente ans, et d’une étude réfléchie tant sur les leçons des plus grands maîtres, et sur les assauts des salles les plus renommées, que sur les manœuvres et les diverses actions, où je me suis trouvé engagé dans la dernière guerre".

First edition.

Publisher's full cloth-backed pictorial boards, front board with color illustration, pictorial endpapers, a newspaper clipping photograph of the Disney couple pasted on the front pastedown. Minor lacks to the upper cover, corners slightly creased.

Exceptional incribed copy by Walt Disney on the front pastedown: "Best wishes / Walt Disney," below a portrait of him with his wife and their dog.

First edition, printed in 500 numbered copies on Arches wove paper, adorned with 48 black illustrations within the text and 32 full-page plates after drawings by Iacovleff, printed in bistre and black. A superb album, produced under the direction of Jacques de Brunhoff with the collaboration of Sergueï Grigorievitch Elisseeff (1889–1975).

In 1917, the Russian painter Aleksander Evgenevitch Iacovleff (1887–1938) spent six months on the Japanese island of Izu Ōshima, following a stay in China. He would never return to Russia, where the Soviets seized power that same year, but emigrated to France, where he would pursue the rest of his career. He became the official painter of the Croisière Noire and later the Croisière Jaune. His fascination with the Far East inspired several illustrated albums, including Dessins et peintures d’Extrême-Orient (1920), Le Théâtre chinois (1922), and finally, the present work.

Minor losses at head and foot of spine, restored tear to head of spine, small tears and stains to lower board, final endpaper slightly and partially toned with some marginal foxing; a well-preserved copy overall.

Black-and-white photographic promotional portrait for Disney studios, depicting Walt Disney. A minute black line is visible near the hair.

Rare and striking manuscript signature by Walt Disney in black ink, signed directly within the image.

Rare first edition, as referenced by Clouzot (see Guide du bibliophile français XIX^e siècle, p. 256).

A few insignificant spots of foxing, a small black ink stain at the bottom of pages 354–355. Complete with the errata leaf at the end of the volume.

Caramel half calf binding, spine with five raised bands ruled with gilt dotted lines and decorated with gilt and black tools, gilt fillets at head and foot of spine. Minor rubbing to the spine. Brown morocco title label. Marbled paper-covered boards framed with blind-stamped vertical rolls, endpapers and pastedowns in cat’s-eye paper, all edges gilt. Roman bookseller’s label at the top of a pastedown. Period-style binding signed in blind by Durvand.

Rare and important work (cf. Carteret), notable for being the first to bear Stendhal’s pseudonym on the title page.

Rare first edition, complete with its 17 plates, including 2 maps, 2 colored facsimiles of Japanese view and plan (view of Yedo, plan of Nagasaki), and 13 colored facsimiles of natural history drawings. (See Cordier, Japonica, 549 and Sinica, 2128. Numa Broc, Asie, 89-90.)

Some minor foxing, a faint dampstain on the final leaves, small restorations to the verso of the facsimiles.

Contemporary half green shagreen, spine slightly faded, with raised bands framed by gilt fillets, double gilt compartments with decorative tools, boards framed with a blind-stamped fillet, marbled paper boards slightly soiled, combed endpapers and pastedowns, painted edges.

A career diplomat, Charles de Chassiron (1818–1871) was part of Baron Gros’s diplomatic mission to Japan in 1858. He boarded the corvette *Laplace* with the other members of the mission in Shanghai on September 6, 1858, arrived at Shimoda on the 14th at 10 a.m., left during the night of September 19, landed in Edo (Tokyo) on the 26th, stayed until October 12, and departed the country from Nagasaki on October 22.

Chassiron’s *Notes* are a nearly verbatim transcription of the journal he kept during his stay; the appendix contains the text of the Franco-Japanese treaty signed on October 9. His travel journal thus represents an important milestone in the history of Franco-Japanese relations. His entries concerning Edo are particularly valuable for their care, precision, and integrity. Throughout Chassiron’s text runs a tension between the anxious caution of a disoriented diplomat and the observations of a traveler fascinated by Japan’s social order and industrial arts. The French, more perplexed than the British before Japanese reality, nonetheless allowed themselves to be charmed by it, bringing back the image of a feudal Japan rooted in espionage, and that of an artistic Japan. (Cf. Numa Broc.)

First edition of the French translation by Marie Bonaparte, one of 70 numbered copies on pur fil, the only deluxe paper copies.

Covers slightly and marginally toned, otherwise a handsome and rare copy.

The text is preceded by a translation of the short story Gradiva by Wilhelm Jensen, rendered by E. Zak and G. Sadoul.

It is followed by a psychoanalytic study of the dream and the fascination experienced by the young archaeologist Norbert Hanold for the image of a young woman sculpted in a bas-relief from the collections of the Museum of Rome.

First edition, one of 80 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the deluxe issue.
Fine copy.

Original inscribed photograph portrait of Emile Zola. Original albumen paper print on cardboard bearing the stamps of the Eugène Pirou studio, rue Royale, Paris.

Signed and inscribed by Emile Zola to Otto Eisenschitz: "à M. Otto Eisenschitz / cordialement / Emile Zola".




 

New edition, with 58 illustrated full-page plates including a frontispiece, all after P. A. Varin.
Full green velvet binding with silver edges, elaborately decorated with gilt gauffered rocaille motifs, and some blind stamped, with abundant onlays of blue, purple, cream and red vel­vet ; upper board with silver engraved crowned A[ve] M[aria] initials at center, "RGP" silver engraved initials at center of second board, both initials inside a wide red velvet inlay bordered with gilt gauffered motifs displaying the sheep­skin of the Order of the Golden Fleece at bottom, spine elaborately decorated with gilt rocaille motifs, silver engraved title label, silver clasps with pierced leafy designs and central roundel, light blue watered silk pastedowns and end­papers elaborately decorated with gilt rocaille gauffered motifs, all edges gilt. Contemporary binding. Scattered foxing throughout.

A masterful piece of Rocaille book-making in velvet and silver, op­ulently gauffered and heavily gilt, in exceptional condition.

Autograph letter most probably unpublished signed addressed by Juliette Drouet to her lover Victor Hugo, four pages written in black ink on a bifolium. 
Transverse folds inherent to mailing, fold joining the two leaves reinforced with a fine strip of pasted paper barely perceptible.
Absent from the very complete online edition of Juliette Drouet's letters to Hugo by the Centre d'Études et de Recherche Éditer/Interpréter (University of Rouen-Normandy).
Very beautiful declaration of love and admiration by Juliette Drouet, the day after Hugo's plea defending his son. Charles Hugo had been brought before the assizes, and condemned despite his father's intervention, for having valiantly castigated the execution of Claude Montcharmont.
Hugo's great love addresses this letter in troubled times, where father and son find themselves at the forefront of the scene for their abolitionist positions. Scandalized by the execution of Montcharmont, a 29-year-old poacher from Morvan, Charles Hugo publishes an article in l'Événement which earns him a trial for contempt of respect due to the laws: the Second Republic already exists only in name, and the press is subject to frequent attacks, further aggravated here by the notoriety of the Hugos. Victor wants to defend his son and delivers a plea that remains famous: "Mon fils, tu reçois aujourd'hui un grand honneur, tu as été jugé digne de combattre, de souffrir peut-être, pour la sainte cause de la vérité. A dater d'aujourd'hui, tu entres dans la véritable vie virile de notre temps, c'est-à-dire dans la lutte pour le juste et pour le vrai. Sois fier, toi qui n'est qu'un simple soldat de l'idée humaine et démocratique, tu es assis sur ce banc où s'est assis Béranger, où s'est assis Lamennais !" (My son, you receive today a great honor, you have been judged worthy to fight, perhaps to suffer, for the holy cause of truth. From today, you enter into the true virile life of our time, that is to say into the struggle for the just and the true. Be proud, you who are but a simple soldier of the human and democratic idea, you are seated on this bench where Béranger sat, where Lamennais sat!)
Despite Hugo's historic intervention, Charles is condemned to six months in prison and 50 francs fine - a decision that Juliette bitterly castigates, overwhelmed by anguish at the outcome of the trial: "J'ai beau savoir que cet arrêt inique est non seulement supporté avec courage par vous tous, mais accepté avec orgueil et avec joie par le plus directement intéressé dans cette malheureuse condamnation, la fatigue et l'inquiétude que j'ai éprouvé pendant toute cette interminable journée d'hier m'a laissée une douloureuse courbature physique et morale" (However much I know that this iniquitous verdict is not only borne with courage by all of you, but accepted with pride and joy by the one most directly concerned in this unfortunate condemnation, the fatigue and anxiety I experienced during all that interminable day yesterday has left me with a painful physical and moral ache). 


12 juin jeudi matin 7h

Autograph letter signed by painter Elis­abeth Vigée-Lebrun addressed to his­torical painter and portraitist Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot. Two pages in black ink on a bifolium. Autograph address of Mme Haudebourt, 19 rue Rochefou­cauld, on verso of second leaf. Usual horizontal folds, tear without damage to the text on the second leaf due to the wax seal. A bibliographer's note in blue pencil on the verso of the last leaf.

First edition on ordinary paper.
Small tears repaired at head and foot of spine.
Half black morocco binding, smooth spine, gilt date at foot, decorative abstract patterned paper boards, blue paper endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, binding signed Thomas Boichot.
Rare and precious autograph inscription signed by Charles De Gaulle on this text which he dedicated to Marshal Pétain: "A mon ami Louis Borel en souvenir de ses précieux conseils et de sa fidélité. Avec mon bien cordial témoignage. 7 octobre 1938. Charles." (To my friend Louis Borel in remembrance of his precious advice and his loyalty. With my most cordial testimony. October 7, 1938. Charles.)

First edition of the French translation by A. J. B. Defauconpret. Illustrated vi­gnette on the title page of each volume, with two illustrations in each volume (60 in total) by Louis Marckl after Noël Bertrand.
Green half shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands elaborately framed in gilt and blind, spine-ends stamped with a gilt rosette bearing cabbalistic signs, marbled paper boards, marbled endpa­pers and pastedowns, speckled edges, contemporary bindings.
Spines slightly lightened, some corners slightly dulled, more pronounced foxing on some volumes, a tear not affecting text to pp. 303-304 of vol. 2, a restored tear and a marginal lack of paper not af­fecting text to pp. 213-214 of vol. 5.

Autograph letter signed by James Fen­imore Cooper in French, bound in the first volume, written to Charles Goss­elin, publisher of his complete works.
Slight folds to the corners of the leaf, pencil and pen notes by a previous bib­liographer.

Handsomely bound set, exceptionally containing an autograph letter signed by the author to his publisher.

Rare pre-first edition offprint of Charles de Gaulle's article Les Origines de l'armée française, published in issue 520 of the Revue d'Infanterie in January 1936. This 44-page text will be entirely reprinted two years later as the first chapter of his celebrated work La France et son armée, published by Plon in 1938. Our copy is enriched with an autograph inscription signed by the author "to M. Jean Auburtin": "With profound and faithful friendship. C. de Gaulle."

Blue wrappers slightly sunned at extremities, spine and upper joint rebacked, minor losses to spine, vertical crease probably from mailing, old creases to upper right corners, some ink stains on lower wrapper, old stamp affixed and partially torn on same wrapper.

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.
Full olive morocco binding, smooth spine lavishly decorated with gilt fillets, rolls and fleurons, red morocco title-label, gilt rolls and tools, covers stamped with dentelle decoration, central monogram "CB" stamped at center of covers and framed by multiple fillets and rolls and surmounted by a ribbon, roll border on covers, gilt dentelle interior, pink marbled paper pastedowns and endpapers, gilt fillet on edges, all edges gilt, contemporary binding attributable to the great binder Derôme le jeune. Marginal tear with loss of one word and page number (p. 57). Marginal tear without loss p. 113 and p. 451. Very light rubbing on half a centimeter of the upper joint, otherwise a superb copy in perfect condition. 
Decorated with a fleur-de-lis title vignette as well as head- and tailpieces. 
Sumptuous dentelle binding attributable to Derôme, on this rare book of hours for use by pupils of the École royale militaire. 
Several gilt tools are identical to the binding bearing Derôme's label preserved at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (RES-G-370).
Worldcat records only one other institutional copy (BnF).  
A masterpiece of 18th-century binding in perfect condition.

First edition of this pamphlet, with contributions by Éluard, Tzara, Marcel Duchamp under his pseudonym Rrose Sélavy, Benjamin Péret, Erik Satie, Philippe Soupault, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Vincente Huidboro, Walter Serner, Matthew Josephson, Théodore Fraenkel.
Three copies found in institutions (BnF, Thomas J. Watson Library, Princeton University Library, Ryerson & Burnham Libraries - Art Institute of Chicago).
Cover designed by Ilia Zdanevich (Iliazd) on a motif created out of 19th-century woodcuts: “The cover of Le Coeur à barbe is an emblematic image of the Dada aesthetic, where old engravings are combined with words to create visual puns and unpredictable associations.” (Princeton University Museum).
Extremely rare copy in excellent condition of the only published issue of this famous Dada journal - Tristan Tzara's counterattack to André Breton's criticism in the March 2, 1922 issue of Comœdia.

Original felt-tip drawing signed by Uderzo, accompanied by René Goscinny's signature in blue ink. Half a page on the verso of the final leaf of a three-page typescript stapled with a metal clip.
Some minor fold marks, without consequence.
A round and cheerful portrait of Obelix, drawn by his creator and inscribed “pour Anne Sophie avec toute notre amitié”, enriched with René Goscinny’s signature, on the verso of television script pages from a show featuring Uderzo and Goscinny as guests.

"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: