Gift ideas between 500 € and 700 €

Handwritten signed letter addressed to Docteur Francis Mars: "j'ai du mal à vous pardonner le mal que vous vous êtes fait à vous-même !” “I find it difficult to forgive you for the harm you have done to yourself!”
Paris 17 November 1966, 20.7 x 13.5 cm, one page on a leaf, envelope attached

Handwritten letter signed by Natalie Clifford Barney addressed to Doctor Francis Mars, a few lines written in black in on a leaf of headed paper from 20 rue Jacob (Paris VI^e), envelope attached. Central fold from having been sent.
"Cher ami Francis, j'ai du mal à vous pardonner le mal que vous vous êtes fait à vous-même ! Natalie (PS: Je ne serai à Nice que vers le 5 déc.)” “My dear friend Francis, I find it difficult to forgive you for the harm you have done to yourself! Natalie (PS: I will not be in Nice until around 5 Dec.) ”
Francis Mars, from Nice, was a mutual friend of Natalie Clifford Barney and her companion, the artist-painter Romaine Brooks. The two women, who had been in a relationship for almost fifty years, did not live together: Natalie lived in Paris and only joined Romaine in Nice for the winter.

Autograph letter signed by Antoni Tàpies addressed to Georges Raillard, his close friend and greatest French specialist of his work. Sheet written in blue ballpoint pen on letterhead paper bearing the author's name with his Barcelona address at the bottom "C. Zaragoza, 57 - Tel. 217 33 98 - Barcelona-6". Traces of folds inherent to the letter's envelope insertion.
The Catalan artist writes to his friend about newspaper articles, including one published in the Catalan daily l'Avui: "Voici l'article que tu m'as demandé. J'ajoute un de l'AVUI où j'amplifie quelques détails. Merci encore pour ta présence à Sénanque. Nous pensons beaucoup à vous et envoyons nos félicitations pour le petit-fils..." ["Here is the article you asked me for. I'm adding one from l'AVUI where I expand on some details. Thank you again for your presence at Sénanque. We think of you often and send our congratulations for the grandson..."]
An exhibition by Antoni Tàpies had been organized at Sénanque Abbey from July 9 to August 29, 1983.

New edition, after the original published in 1738.

269 numbered figures at mid-page.
Contemporary full marbled sheep binding. Decorated spine with raised bands. Red morocco title label. Upper joint cracked at head, and a small crack at tail over 0.5cm. 3 corners very bumped and worn. 3 traces of surface wear on lower board. Good copy.
Didactic treatise on Backgammon, a game of Chinese origin that was very popular in Europe under the name of Trictrac, and which features numerous games. The rules of the game remained unchanged until 1931, the date at which the Americans modernized the game rules.

New édition. The 8 parts each have a title page. Title pages of the first part and the fifth in red and black. Novel first published between 1734 and 1736, the last three parts are apocryphal and appear here at Scheurleer in first edition.

Contemporary full brown calf bindings. Raised band spines ornate with fleurons and stars. Red morocco title labels, and brown morocco volume labels. Restorations to joints and headcaps. Scattered browning. Good copy.

Like La vie de Marianne, Le Paysan parvenu is based on memoirs, and the rise of a handsome young man of great wit, but poor and of peasant extraction. His qualities which will make him appealing in women's eyes will allow him to make his way in the bourgeoisie and achieve success. Marivaux uses the devices of the picaresque novel, throwing his character from one adventure to another. At the end of the fifth part, Marivaux tells his reader what awaits him in the sixth, but the author will return to writing la vie de Marianne, of which Le paysan parvenu seems to be the masculine parallel, and the last three parts will be completed by an unknown author. 

First edition of these three well-illustrated physiologies; for example, the first physiology contains 65 vignettes. Only the Physiologie du flaneur bears a date.
Physiologie du flaneur. Vignettes by Alophe, Daumier and Maurisset.
Physiologie de l'employé. Vignettes by Trimollet.
Physiologie de la femme la plus malheureuse... Vignettes by Valentin.
Contemporary half black sheep binding. Smooth spine decorated with fillets. Gilt titles. Rubbing. Occasional light foxing, on paper that has remained quite white.

Second edition and first published by Cazin, with two volumes added; a first edition in 4 volumes was published in Geneva in 1782. Musical scores at the end of volumes. Only volumes 5 and 6 contain no musical score, the songs being sung to airs already noted in the other volumes, which are identified by the air numbers. 48pp. of musical scores in volume 1; 48pp. in volume 2; 38 in volume 3; 40 in volume 4.

Later brown half-sheep binding (1800). Smooth spine decorated with three fleurons and fillets. Red morocco title-label with roulettes. Red morocco volume label in a roundel. Marbled paper boards. Rubbing to headcaps and joints. Corners slightly bumped.

Second edition, rare, after the first edition published in 1698 by Barbin.

Contemporary full brown sheep binding. Decorated spine with raised bands. Head worn. Rubbing. Foxing.

The work belongs to no defined genre; in a very free manner, a Siamese tells anecdotes which he mixes with maxims on various subjects: The palace, the court, the public, the Bois de Boulogne, the opera... These satirical considerations of Parisian society, pell-mell, do not possess a continuous narrative; the work would pave the way for Montesquieu's Persian Letters. It is one of its principal sources.