Gift Ideas – Rare Editions

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...

Rare first edition of this sticker album entirely devoted to the glory of the Castro regime and the Cuban Revolution.

The album comprises 268 small, mounted, colour stickers, each captioned and arranged in strict chronological order of events, including 16 portrait plates of the principal figures (the Castro brothers, Camilo Cienfuegos, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Faure Chaumont, Rolando Cubelas, Victor Bordon, Eloy Gutierrez, Crecencio and Faustino Perez, etc.).

No copy recorded in the CCFr, which comes as little surprise for this type of production.

Our copy, issued in original illustrated colour wrappers, is housed in a modern oblong slipcase, full decorated boards in the...

First edition published anonymously (cf. Ryckebusch, 6737).

Light, scattered foxing.

Modern half brown cloth, smooth spine without lettering, marbled paper boards, corners rubbed.

The anonymous author urges abolitionists to be especially active and visible at the moment when the chambers are to vote on the new colonial legislation.

Original offprint, printed in a small number of copies, of this extract from the Nouvelles annales des voyages for November 1858.

The original temporary front wrapper has been reattached; a few spots of foxing; the title written in pencil on the front cover.

No copy of this review recorded in the CCF.

Charles-Ernest Beulé’s monograph on the coinage of Athens had just been published earlier that same year, in 1858.

Rare first edition of this pamphlet printed at Carouge, Switzerland. Deschamps, 276, records 1789 as the date of the first book printed in that town (on the authority of a note by Ternaux).

Our copy is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, within a modern blank temporary cover.

Title-page and final leaf slightly soiled, early marginal note in the right margin of p. 19, blue pencil annotations at the foot of pp. 10 & 11.

A text violently hostile to Kellermann (1735–1820) and to the French presence in the Alps.

Kellermann commanded the Army of the Alps while Bonaparte was conducting his Italian campaign.

First edition of this remarkable collection illustrated with five finely engraved outline plates by Adrien-Louis-Marie Cavelier and Pierron after designs by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (cf. Collection Émile Brouwet, II, 168).

Large quarto (27.8 × 40.5 cm). Two pages of text and five engraved plates.

Mid-nineteenth-century half black goatskin, smooth spine decorated in gilt and...

First edition (cf. Neu 838.)

Light foxing.

Contemporary full tan sheep, the spine with five raised bands ruled in gilt and decorated with gilt panels and gilt floral tools; some rubbing and small defects to the spine, gilt rolls to the head- and tailcaps, surface wear to the boards, red edges, gilt fillets to the board edges, corners a little softened; a period binding.

Second edition (cf. Quérard I, 529: records “Broussonnet”. Colas 457.)

Reflections on fashion and elegant dress in antiquity; the first edition, published in 1799, appeared under the name of one of the author’s pupils. 

Rare copy preserved in the original wrappers.

First edition (cf. Playfair, 533; Tailliart, 2295).

Spine cracked with small tears, some foxing. 

General considerations on the colonisation of Algiers, its aims and its results. On the Arabs. The various systems of occupation, etc.

At the head of the front wrapper, an autograph presentation inscription from Amédée Hippolyte de Brossard to Marshal Clausel.

Second edition of this treatise, first published in 1771 and reissued again in 1813 (see Mennessier de La Lance I, 162).

Our copy is offered stitched, in its provisional blue paper wrappers, the spine reinforced with an adhesive strip.

First edition of Étienne Bourdet’s major treatise, published in Paris in 1757 in two volumes, eleven years after the second edition of Pierre Fauchard’s Le Chirurgien Dentiste. The work is illustrated with 13 folding engraved plates depicting instruments, appliances and dental procedures.

Contemporary full mottled tan calf. Spines with five raised bands outlined in gilt and decorated with gilt floral compartments; bronze calf lettering-pieces, the volume-numbering pieces partly rubbed away; gilt rolls to the headcaps, blind fillet...

First edition originally written in French and illustrated at the end of the volume with a single engraved plate.

The English numismatist Henry Perigal Borrell (1795–1851) settled early in the Ottoman Empire as a dealer (in Smyrna in 1818). He quickly became one of the principal suppliers of the British Museum and of the English aristocracy in coins, medals and antiquities.

Small tears to the spine and a more significant one at the head of the upper cover, some light foxing.

First edition illustrated with 2 engraved plates of this rare anonymous collection of poems, recently and definitively attributed to the poet from Réunion Antoine de Bertin (1752-1790), and believed to constitute his earliest works (cf. Seth, Poète créoles, 304. Ryckebusch, Bibliographie… Réunion, 750. Conlon 71: 879.)

Contemporary-style half black sheep with corners, spine with five raised bands ruled in blind, comb-marbled paper boards, some rubbing to the covers, corners bumped, modern binding.

They were never included in subsequent editions of his Œuvres complètes.

Bertin alludes to his island in his “Vers à Jeannette. A l'Orient” (p. 68): « …Mais...

First edition (cf. En français dans le texte, 288. Horblit, 11b. Printing and the mind of man, 353.)

Full black cloth binding, smooth spine, headcaps slightly softened, corners slightly frayed, contemporary binding,

Printed stamps on the title page and on the final page of the table of contents, which bears, on the facing page, a numerical annotation in black ink.

Unpublished manuscript comprising 17 original signed and captioned watercolours executed in 1873 by a certain A. Poquet, an illustrator whose name has not been traced in the principal artists' dictionaries. The work announced on the calligraphic title page, Vues et types du Sénégal (Views and Types of Senegal), appears never to have been published; these watercolours almost certainly constitute the original maquette, or preparatory artwork, intended for its illustration.

The volume comprises a calligraphic title leaf, with a table of plates on the verso, followed by thirteen leaves on which the seventeen watercolours are mounted, one or two to a page...

A new edition, published anonymously, of the French translation.

Half black cloth binding with corners, spine without lettering, rubbed with small losses to the cloth at the joints, marbled paper boards, soiled original wrappers preserved, contemporary binding.

This rare Strasbourg printing escaped Sabin. It is in fact an adaptation of Struggles and Triumphs, the autobiography of the remarkable Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810–1891), first published by him in 1869.

Widely regarded as the father of the modern circus, Barnum was also a consummate master of spectacle and publicity. His conquest of Europe, accompanied by “General” Tom Thumb, measuring just 63 cm in...

First edition, printed in a small number of copies, cf. Gay 204; Bourquelot I, 115.

Contemporary full mottled fawn sheep, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and fleurons, joints rubbed, red shagreen title-piece, gilt rolls to the headcaps partly faded, gilt dentelle border to the boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets to the edges of the boards, partly browned, red edges.

Joints restored, circular losses filled in the blank areas of the title and half-title pages.

First edition, printed in a very small number of copies, of this offprint from the "Recueil industriel, Manufacturier (…) et des Beaux-Arts", published by M. de Moléon.

Our copy is preserved in its original state, in plain yellow wrappers, and housed in a modern green-paper chemise and slipcase with black morocco spine.

Jean-Pierre-Joseph d'Arcet (1777-1844), a chemist and the son of a chemist, was appointed Inspector-General of Assays at the Mint in 1807, examined the alloys used for the Vendôme Column in 1811, and installed the baths and fumigation apparatus at the Hôpital Saint-Louis. He devoted himself with particular zeal to research into public health and hygiene...

First edition.

Bradel binding in modern paper-covered boards of grey-blue stock, smooth spine lettered in black, original wrappers preserved; binding signed Laurenchet.

Label of the fishing library of M. Albert Petit pasted to the upper cover, no. 100.

The species are described in French, with their Latin and Greek names.

Stamp of the Société d'Acclimatation on the title-page.

Limited first edition printed in a small number of copies, extracted from the "Bulletin de l'Institut égyptien", series V, vol. X.

Illustrated booklet with 4 figures in the text and 2 plates outside the text. 

Only one copy recorded in the CCF. 

A tear to the foot of the spine, covers marginally soiled and also bearing small black stains, internally in good condition.

A publicist and collector, then secretary to the Council of Ministers, Ahmad Zaki Basha (1867-1934) was, between 1892 and 1934, one of the most dynamic figures of Egyptian cultural life: a polyglot, translator, bibliophile, philologist, and man of learning, keenly interested in modernity and...

First edition of the French translation, established from the second edition.

Our copy, preserved in its original wrappers under a plain provisional cover, is complete with its coloured map, almost invariably lacking.

The only French translation, uncommon, of "A sketch of the military and political power of Russia in the year 1817", an anti-Russian pamphlet composed in the context of the growing opposition between Great Britain and Russia, once the aftermath of the Empire had been settled.

General Robert Thomas Wilson (1777-1849) had served in 1812 as liaison officer with Alexander’s army.

Provenance: copy from the library of Armand-François-Théophile...

First separate illustrated edition, with a large folding map printed on a separate sheet and hand-coloured in outline bound at the end of the volume.

This geographical study is in fact an extract from Volume II of the first French translation by Stanislas Julien of the Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Record of the Western Regions of the Great Tang), the literary account of Xuanzang's nineteen-year journey (626–645, during the Tang dynasty), from Chang'an across Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent.

The two-volume work had previously been published by the Imprimerie impériale in 1857 and 1858.

Spine split, restored with minor losses, some foxing.

First edition, printed in a very small run as a separate issue.

No copies recorded in the CCFr or WorldCat.

Our copy is presented in its original wrappers, preserved under the original cream paper dust wrapper.

Oxford antiquary and numismatist, William Sandys Wright Vaux (1818–1885) was also closely associated with the Oxford Movement.

On the front cover, autograph inscription from William Sandys Wright Vaux to Count Melchior de Vogüé (1829–1916), the renowned French archaeologist.

A fine and substantial group relating to the Vaudreuil family, of considerable importance in the history of the French colonies, both in Canada and in Saint-Domingue.

The work is illustrated, at the beginning of the volume, with a folding genealogical table printed hors-texte.

Contemporary full marbled sheep binding, spine in six compartments gilt and tooled with floral motifs, red morocco title-piece, rubbing to the joints and restorations to the spine, gilt arms stamped at the centres of the boards, minor losses and abrasions to the boards, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to the edges partially faded, marbled edges, an early binding.

The folding plate at the beginning...

Rare first edition of this poem, printed on bluish paper and composed by Tissot in honour of the birth of the King of Rome, the Emperor’s son.

Not in Quérard.

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, under a modern marbled paper cover. Not in Quérard. A fine copy.

First edition (cf. Contominas 732; Blackmer 1652; Loukia Droulia 2021-22. Not in Atabey).

Contemporary Bradel binding in full grey marbled paper-covered boards, smooth spine with manuscript title label pasted at head, corners slightly rubbed, red-speckled edges.

Some foxing. 

 "An important work by the German philhellene, who was in fact the key figure in Bavarian philhellenism after Ludwig himself. In Munich in 1816 he founded an institute for educationg young Greeks (the 'Athenaion'). According to St. Clair he was also a member of the Philiké Etaireia ; certanly he called for volunteers in 1821. In 1831 he went to Greece as an unofficial agent of the Bavarian...

Second edition, partly original as revised and enlarged, illustrated with a folding map at the end of the volume.

Slight corner wear to the boards, otherwise a well-preserved copy with internal foxing.

The author takes a very broad view of the Serbs, seemingly including all Slavic populations of the Balkans.

First edition (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1282).

Contemporary flexible grey cloth, smooth unlettered spine slightly faded, blind-ruled borders to the boards, title lettered in gilt at the centre of both boards, a label bearing a handwritten inscription pasted to the upper left-hand corner of the front board, yellow paper pastedowns and endpapers, sprinkled edges.

George Thomas Staunton (1781–1859), an English diplomat and Orientalist, accompanied his father on a mission to China as early as 1792 and thus acquired a sound knowledge of the language at a very young age. In 1810, he published the Ta Tsing leu lee under the title Fundamental Laws of China. The...

Rare first edition (cf. Tulard 275 and 1453).

Contemporary half tan goatskin binding, spine with four false raised bands decorated with gilt chains and a central fleur, gilt initials at foot, marbled paper boards, corners rubbed and canvas-tipped, late 19th-century binding.

Scattered foxing.

The only edition, extremely scarce as issued in a small print run and not offered commercially, like most of the works of the Dutch historian Sirtema van Grotestins (1791–1874), who was based in France.

The two figures whose memoirs he published were Dutchmen of contrasting political destinies: while the former refused to serve Louis Bonaparte, the latter went so far as to join...

First edition illustrated with 8 engraved plates outside the text by Le Bas after Oudry, including a frontispiece and 6 hunting plates depicting stag hunting scenes (cf. Cioranescu, 60 125. Thiébaud 836-39. Cohen 952, with the often fanciful collation characteristic of this bibliography).

A fine copy complete in all its parts, notably retaining leaf Diij, which is sometimes found supplied in facsimile or replaced by a cancel leaf.

Contemporary full mottled tan calf, spine with five raised bands gilt-ruled and richly gilt in compartments with floral tools, gilt rolls to the spine ends, marbled endpapers, two engraved bookplates pasted to the endpapers and pastedowns, gilt...

First Italian edition; the work had originally appeared as early as 1806 with the Paris imprint of Gratiot, under the more explicit title: "La Guerra de'tre mesi, o l'Ultima campagna di S. M. l'Imperatore Napoleone".

Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Poitiers and Rouen, all of the 1806 edition).

Contemporary Bradel-style binding in quarter tan calf with corners, smooth spine decorated with gilt garlands, crimson morocco lettering-piece, rubbing to spine and boards with some loss of paper, yellow edges.

Some foxing; small wormholes to the lower right-hand corner of the final three pages, not affecting the text.

Unlike the author’s other works, this...

Rare first edition. 

Some occasional foxing.

Contemporary-style bradel binding in full blue marbled paper-covered boards, smooth spine, printed wrappers preserved, modern binding.

The author (not to be confused with the diplomat André Grasset de Saint-Sauveur, who died in 1830) was in 1836 the guest of Count Mikhaïl Semionovitch Vorontsov (1782-1856), Governor-General of New Russia and namestnik of Bessarabia since 1823.

Under his administration, Crimea and Odessa in particular experienced rapid development, and he was the first to introduce steamships on the Black Sea in 1828. This brief account provides an interesting testimony to the condition of these southern...

Rare first edition of d'Alègre’s French translation (cf. Brunet V, 25. Barbier II, 596.)

Contemporary full marbled calf, spine in five raised bands richly gilt in compartments with floral tools, red shagreen lettering-piece, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to board edges now almost rubbed away, red-speckled edges, contemporary binding.

Restorations to spine and joints, marginal dampstain at the foot of about ten leaves, annotations and a pen drawing on a flyleaf.

This is the second translation of this masterpiece by the Persian poet and philosopher Saadi, one of the great Sufi masters of the thirteenth century.

The first, by André Du Ryer, dates from 1634.

It...

First edition of this important pre-Revolutionary economic pamphlet. (See INED 3994. Stourm 152. Not in Kress, Goldsmith, or Einaudi.)

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers and plain paper covers.

A marginal waterstain to the left edge of the leaves.

"Ruelle, an advocate of physiocratic economic principles, demonstrates that the burden of taxation ultimately always falls upon landowners. He argues for the necessity of consolidating all taxes into a single direct income tax. Combined with unrestricted freedom of trade, this tax would constitute the only means of restoring the finances of the State. A critique of public borrowing and a defence of property." See...

First edition of what is sometimes inaccurately referred to as the "Constitution of Year XII", but which in fact constitutes an act of the Conservative Senate, dated the previous day (18 June 1804), entrusting the government of the French Republic (this designation being retained until 1814) to a hereditary Emperor in the person of Napoleon Bonaparte, and to his successors (in the absence of a direct male heir, a substantial portion of the text is devoted to the organisation of the succession)

This also represents the final production of the Imprimerie de la République, which immediately thereafter became the Imprimerie impériale.

A few minor spots of foxing, not...

First edition, published in seven text volumes between 1874 and 1890, the first four by Michel Lévy frères and the final three by Calmann-Lévy, successor to the house of Michel Lévy. One of the very rare copies printed on Holland laid paper, an unrecorded large-paper issue not mentioned in the justification and apparently absent from the bibliographies consulted. Cf. Vicaire VI, 397-398; F. Monaghan, p. 74, no. 1157.

The seven text volumes are in the original wrappers, entirely untrimmed with deckle edges preserved. Small marginal tears and occasional losses to some spines and wrappers.

First edition of this Arabic grammar, one of the earliest works printed by the Propaganda Press, whose own printing office had only been established in 1627 by Pope Urban VIII through the consolidation of several typographical collections, notably the Medici Arabic presses.

Contemporary full stiff vellum, smooth spine, title and date lettered in black ink, small wormholes to one joint and the left margin of the upper cover, sprinkled edges, contemporary binding.

A wormtrack runs through most of the leaves, occasionally affecting a few letters of the text.

The Franciscan friar Tommaso Obizzino (1585-1632), a native of Novara, produced several manuals for the study of the...

First edition (cf. Conlon 16:162; not listed by Barbier).

Later half marbled calf binding, spine with five raised bands ruled and decorated in gilt, marbled paper boards, speckled edges.

Restoration to the left-hand margin of the title-page, black ink stains in the margins of pages 4 and 5 and on the final flyleaf, with a few small spots of foxing.

Despite the anonymous author's prefatory remarks, the work appears to be a fashionable abridgement of Pétis de La Croix's book.

New edition of the French translation, this one by Abbé Pluquet (see Cordier, Sinica 1395-1396).

Contemporary half tan calf bindings over corners, smooth spines decorated with double gilt fillets, black calf title-pieces, some rubbing to spines and headcaps, marbled paper boards with some surface wear, a few corners slightly bumped, speckled edges, period bindings.

This French translation of Father François Noël’s Latin work includes the Observations on the moral and political philosophy of the Chinese legislators, The Great Learning, or the Science of Adults, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Book of Sentences, Meng Tsee or The Book of Mencius, Hiao-king, or The Book of Filial...

Rare first edition, one of 300 copies printed (cf. Palau 159 501).

Not recorded by Pardo de Tavera; only two copies listed in the CCF (BnF and Cujas).

The bibliography of the eminent Chilean historian José Toribio Medina Zavala (1852-1930) is extensive, though he is chiefly known for his works on Chile and Latin America. He also took an interest in other Spanish possessions, as shown by this short monograph, which appears to be the only early study devoted to the subject.

Small tears to spine and along the margins of the wrappers, with a few marginal tears to some leaves owing to the poor quality of the paper.

First edition of this provisional account of the Helvetian campaign, from the moment Masséna assumed command (11 December 1798-21 April 1799).

Contemporary grey half cloth Bradel binding, smooth spine, tan longitudinal lettering-piece, marbled-paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns.

Occasional light foxing, a faint dampstain to the upper margins of most leaves, not affecting the text.

Louis Marès (1765-1806), initially a volunteer from the Hérault, transferred to the Corps of Engineers in 1793; wounded at Austerlitz, he died in early 1806 from the effects of his injury.

First edition of the French translation (cf. Blackmer 1752. Not in Weber or Atabey. See Barbier IV, 1083.)

Contemporary full marbled tan calf bindings, smooth spines gilt tooled in compartments with floral motifs, red morocco lettering-pieces, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets to board edges.

Some restorations to a few joints and spines, minor scattered foxing.

Volume IV is entirely devoted to the author’s stay in the Greek islands: Crete, Candia, Damaste, Retimo, Mount Ida, Gortyn, the labyrinth of Crete, Milo, Syphante, Seriphos, Antiparos, Paros, Naxia, Stenofa, Amorgos, Skinosa, Delos, Rhenia, Syra, Cynthos, Zia, Macrounisa, Jura, Tenos, Scio...

First edition illustrated with 19 lithographed plates in colour or printed on tinted grounds (including a plan), with captioned tissue guards.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Musée de l'Homme).

The sole edition of this report, in fact written by the duke’s secretary, A. Gory.

La Butte-Ronde lies near the Luynes family estate at Dampierre (though in fact within the commune of Saint-Forget): the learned archaeologist who was the eighth duke (1802-1867) could hardly fail to take an interest in excavations carried out on the site, which brought to light a Gallo-Roman fanum. The pamphlet enjoyed only confidential circulation, and the duke’s death, in that same...

First edition of this thesis submitted for the agrégation examination (surgery and obstetrics section) and defended at the Faculty of Medicine of Paris on 19 July 1872.

Illustrated with 21 figures in the text.

Wrappers partially soiled, occasional foxing.

Just Lucas-Championnière (1843-1913) spent almost his entire career in the obstetrics departments of Parisian hospitals and was a pioneer in the field of antisepsis. 

Signed autograph inscription from Just Lucas-Championnière to Paul Bert on the half-title page.

Very rare first edition, published in Munich in 1819, illustrated with a frontispiece and five hors-texte lithographic plates by Carl Friedrich Heinzmann, bearing the signature “Carl Heinzmann fec. 1819”. Cf. Quérard, IV, 424; Pfeiffer, 220.

Modern Bradel-style binding in full grey paper-covered boards, smooth spine with longitudinal red morocco lettering-piece. Original plain blue-grey wrappers preserved. Some foxing, lower wrapper soiled.

One of the plates bears a Latin dedication to Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria, celebrated as “father of...

Very rare first edition illustrated with a folding map bound at the beginning of the volume and 44 plates.

No copy recorded by the CCFr.

Publisher's original full indigo-blue cloth, smooth spine decorated in gilt with dotted tooling and floral ornaments, covers framed with a blind rule, corners lightly bumped.

An amateur repair with adhesive tape to the upper right corner of the first text leaf, a few spots of foxing, chiefly affecting the edges.

The author served as secretary to the very first Brazilian mission sent to China (1880).

Rare first edition of this virtuoso plea in defence of Prince Pierre Bonaparte (1815-1881), first cousin of the Emperor, in the case of the assassination of the journalist Victor Noir [Yvan Salmon], which took place on 10 January 1870 and caused an immense scandal.

According to the CCF [Catalogue Collectif de France], copies are held only at the BnF, Compiègne and Versailles.

Smooth spine, unlettered, small corner losses to the boards, some foxing.

The High Court of Justice, the only body empowered to try a prince of the Emperor's family, convened at Tours on 21 March 1870 and heard counsel for the civil party recall the accused's unfortunate past record (he was said to...

First bilingual edition, with the Spanish text and its French translation printed on facing pages.

Not recorded by Sabin; see no. 38614 for the "Memorandum".

Contemporary pink half cloth, smooth spine lettered in gilt, gilt date at foot with a small tear, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, wrappers preserved, contemporary binding.

Spine slightly faded.

This work constitutes a supplement to the "Memorandum" published by Lafragua in 1857, which contained the correspondence exchanged between Mexican and Spanish diplomats during a particularly critical period in Mexican history, spanning the fall of the Santa Anna dictatorship and the Liberal victory under Juárez...

First edition.

Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Besançon and Strasbourg).

Minor spotting to the covers, a pleasant copy.

Andrés Poey y Aguirre (1826–1919) was the founder and director of the Physical and Meteorological Observatory of Havana.

At the head of the upper cover, autograph inscription from Andrés Poey to the chemist Edmond Becquerel (1820–1891).

A rare first edition unrecorded by Sabin.

Contemporary-style half bottle-green morocco-grained shagreen binding, spine slightly faded with five raised bands, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns of marbled paper, original front wrapper preserved, modern binding signed Laurenchet.

Scattered foxing, final page of the table of contents sunned.

Rare first edition of this occasional piece (a second edition was issued with the Paris imprint), cf. Monglond IV, 232.

Contemporary Bradel-style binding in blue paper over boards, smooth spine ruled in gilt with double fillets, marbled paper-covered boards, a few scuffs to the spine and boards. 

From November 1795, François de Neufchâteau (1750-1828) served as Commissioner of the Executive Directory to the Central Administration of the Vosges, where he devoted himself to the development of agriculture in the department, a pursuit that always remained his foremost interest.

Copy from the library of the lawyer Charles Fournerat (1780-1867) of Ancy-le-Franc, bearing his...

First edition illustrated with 2 folding tables.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Strasbourg).

Bradel binding in full black paper boards, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and a gilt fleur-de-lys tool, tan shagreen title label, upper corners slightly rubbed, speckled edges. Slightly later binding.

Offset from an old paper in the left margin of the title page.

Despite its great popularity, the publication of "Histoire de Napoléon" by Philippe-Paul de Ségur (1780-1873), issued in 1824, prompted numerous reactions, responses, and corrections from many participants in the Russian campaign (Gourgaud’s, of extreme violence, remains...

First edition.

Contemporary-style half tawny calf over marbled paper boards, smooth spine decoratively tooled in blind with double fillets and floral ornaments, bookplate mounted on pastedown, wrappers preserved, speckled edges, modern binding.

A few letters erased in the text on page 35.

Exceptionally rare collection of puns and jeux de mots based on homonymy and paronymy.

The CCFr records only a similar title, though not corresponding to ours: Encyclopédie pittoresque du calembour, printed in Paris without date and comprising 127 pages with illustrations (BnF, Institut, Grenoble), which appears to be an enlarged later edition of our work. In any case...

New edition.

Contemporary full mottled tan calf binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt garlands and floral tools, black morocco lettering-piece, blind-tooled rolls to the spine ends, boards framed with a gilt fillet and palmette border, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to the edges partly rubbed, marbled edges, one lower corner bumped, contemporary Restoration-period binding, 88 pp.

The first edition had been published in 1794; this reissue attests to the persistence of the epizootic outbreak in the Île-de-France region.

This work has been bound together with ten additional texts relating to epizootic diseases in the early nineteenth century:

I. CHABERT...

First edition of the second work in a set of four, published by a royal army officer between 1783 and 1788, focusing on a remedy claimed to cure numerous ailments. The remedy was prepared from a plant whose name the author deliberately withheld.

Bound in contemporary marbled paper over flexible cardboard, with wear and losses to the spine, labels pasted on the spine, and minor paper losses to the boards.

Printed stamps on some leaves.

The substance was both widely condemned as an excessively harsh purgative and praised—even by practitioners—for its apparent relief to gout sufferers.

An analysis conducted by Cadet and Parmentier failed to identify the plant used...

First edition in book form of the first part (the second did not appear until 1916), comprising 1,080 proverbs, together with 100 Betsimisaraka proverbs collected by Joël Laimijay and translated only into Hova; the work had previously appeared in a periodical.

Cf. Grandidier II, 10,041.

Publisher's half cherry-red pebble-grain cloth binding, smooth spine ruled in gilt, a few small stains to spine, boards covered in embossed violet cloth, corners rubbed, speckled edges.

The complete work was reissued in 1929-1930, 1957 and 1960. Hugues Berthier's copy (1869-1958), chief colonial administrator, with his ink stamp. Berthier served as Secretary-General of the...

First edition, adorned with numerous tables including 8 folding at the end of the volume, and illustrated with 62 figures in the text.

Publisher’s Bradel binding in full burgundy cloth, smooth spine lettered in gilt on the upper cover, upper headcap lacking, lower headcap worn, upper cover framed with blind-stamped typographical motifs at the corners, blue-grey endpapers and pastedowns, upper corners rubbed.

A marginal loss to the right margin of pages 97-98, not affecting the text.

A treatise on hydrography and maritime topography, the first of its kind in Brazil, intended for fourth-year students of the Brazilian Naval School.

The author, the naval officer...

First edition (cf. Rozier 2031.)

Modern half-speckled brown calf over marbled paper boards, smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets, brown calf title label lettered lengthwise, bookseller's label pasted at the head of a pastedown. Born in Tours in 1750, Nicolas Heurteloup was appointed surgeon trainee on the island of Corsica in 1770.

In 1782, he was appointed chief surgeon of the hospitals of Corsica and, in 1786, was placed in charge of the military hospital at Toulon.

Chief physician in 1790 and principal army surgeon in 1795, he became Inspector General of the Medical Service in 1804 and Surgeon-in-Chief of the Grande Armée in 1808, succeeding...

Very rare first edition (cf. Hage Chahine, 4007.)

The CCF records copies only at the BnF and the Saulchoir.

Bradel-style binding in brick-red half cloth, smooth spine with longitudinal black morocco lettering-piece, marbled paper boards.

An archaeologist and Orientalist, Baron Emmanuel Guillaume-Rey (1837-1916) was the author of several works on the history of the Near East, notably on Crusader military architecture in Syria and Latin rule in the East.

An attractive copy.

First edition, one of the rare copies printed on Japan paper, with no mention of such.

Illustrated with a portrait frontispiece and 15 full-page illustrations within the text.

Contemporary half red shagreen binding with corners, spine in five compartments ruled in black, marbled paper boards, black stains at the foot of the upper cover, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt.

Minor rubbing and small losses to the spine, a few light foxing marks. 

Written by one of the defenders of the citadel of Bitche during the Franco-Prussian War, this account constitutes a tribute to Colonel Louis-Casimir Teyssier (1821–1916), who managed to hold the stronghold for seven months...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with 105 full-page plates (including 2 folding tables, 21 maps and plans, and 82 views and facsimiles of documents).

Remarkable account of one of the most significant international opinion manipulations by China and North Korea at the onset of the Korean War: as early as 1952, North Korean and Chinese officials (including Zhou Enlai) claimed that the U.S. Army was deploying "insect vectors" on a large scale to spread diseases such as plague and cholera among the populations of Korea and Manchuria.

As later confirmed by Soviet documents published in 1998, the entire operation had been meticulously staged.

Spine with...

First edition printed in a small number of copies of this offprint from the August 1858 issue of the Annales de philosophie chrétienne, vol. XVIII, p. 85.

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, housed in the publisher's contemporary plain paper covers.

Minor marginal losses to the covers.

Only three copies recorded in the CCFr (BnF, Sorbonne, BULAC).

One of the author's earliest publications. Victor-Honoré Guérin (1821-1891) was entrusted with a mission to Palestine and the island of Rhodes in 1854.

During two subsequent missions to Palestine [1863 and 1870], he visited more than 1,500 localities, towns and villages, thereby acquiring an...

First French edition of the translation (Cf. Gay 3573. Chadenat 5378 for the original English edition of 1805. See also Brunet, Table, 19960 and Graesse, III, 155).

Bound in half tan calf, smooth spine decorated with quadruple gilt and blind fillets, gilt tailpiece, marbled paper boards, speckled edges, binding slightly later.

Minor rubbing to the binding.
A member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Griffiths visited Constantinople, Smyrna, and Mytilene, then the island of Chios and the ruins of Croesus's palace at Sardis, the ancient capital of Lydia. He then traveled to Konya, Aleppo, and Basra; from there, he descended the Persian Gulf, passed through Muscat, and...

Rare first edition.

Only 3 copies recorded in the CCFr: Paris (BnF and Assemblée nationale); Rouen.

Contemporary-style half olive calf over marbled boards, smooth spine ruled in gilt, cherry morocco lettering-piece, marbled paper sides, pastedowns and endpapers of vat paper, red edges, modern binding.

This work constitutes a refutation of Astolphe de Custine’s "La Russie en 1839" (Paris, 1843, 4 vols. 8vo), which portrayed the country as backward while challenging the tsarist regime: « Avec une légèreté incroyable, avec une impudence qui n’a pas de nom, et l’intention manifeste de calomnier, d’offenser et d’injurier l’empereur et l’impératrice, il entre dans...

First edition, printed in a limited run, of this extract from the Revue britannique of February 1880.

Only three known copies in the CCF (BnF, INHA, and Sorbonne).

This copy is presented in its original wrappers, with a blank temporary cover.

Pamphlet adorned with in-text black-and-white illustrations.

In Greek mythology, the Cabeiri were minor deities worshipped in mystery cults across several regions of Greece, particularly on the islands of Samothrace, Lemnos, and Imbros.

These deities, little understood even by the Greeks themselves, were remnants of an Aegean past influenced by Phoenician culture, yet they later became protectors of...

First edition.

Bradel binding in full blue paper-covered boards, smooth spine, red morocco title label.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Bibliothèque Thiers).

This rare text constitutes an extract from a larger work which appears not to have been published, the opening title bearing Chapter 15, Des Places fortes, and an advertisement on p. 139 indicating Chapter 16, De la Stratégie.

The work concludes with an interesting list of French fortified places, with an indication of the garrisons required for their defence.

Son of the celebrated René-Louis de Girardin d'Ermenonville, Lieutenant-General Count Alexandre-Louis-Robert de...

First edition of the French translation, printed on laid paper (cf. Loukia Droulia 1536. See Blackmer 663 for the original English edition).

Modern bradel binding in full green paper boards, smooth spine, olive green sheep title-piece.

A waterstain to the upper corner of the first 10 leaves of the volume.

"This is the first in Gell's series of rapid \"itineraries\" which contain information organized among plotted routes. The material for this itinerary was collected during Gell's travels in the Morea in 1805-6" [Blackmer].

Original edition of this auction catalogue from the sale held on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 May 1872, describing 294 lots.

A tear at the foot of the final leaf.

The catalogue is illustrated with 2 hors-texte engraved plates (line engravings).

Of Baden origin, the numismatist Ludwig Wilhelm Fröhner (1834–1925) settled in Paris in 1859: he became one of the close friends of Napoleon III and assisted him in the preparation of his History of Julius Caesar (1865–1866), which helped him obtain both French naturalisation (1866) and a desirable post at the Louvre.

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 proved disastrous for him: he lost all his positions and even any prospect...

Paris, Teissier et Cie, undated [circa 1868-1870]. Folio, 38 leaves mounted on guards, 32.5 x 49.5 cm.

An exceptionally rare collection, probably unique in this form, comprising thirty-eight proofs and working states of lithographed Masonic plates, most designed to be viewed across a double page. Numbered in red pencil from 1 to 40 in a discontinuous sequence including several bis plates. Caillet and Dorbon describe the Rameau d'or d'Éleusis, to which...

First edition illustrated with a portrait, 15 plates, and a large folding map printed in colours showing the routes.

Contemporary-style green half shagreen, spine with five raised bands lightly sunned, marbled paper boards, wrappers mounted on guards and preserved, skilfully restored at the corners, modern binding.

Rare collection of 16 hand-coloured engravings, comprising a frontispiece and 15 plates, illustrating the virtues of soldiers and young men during the Consulate period.

Contemporary half bronze calf binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets, dotted tools and floral ornaments, minor rubbing to the spine, brown morocco title label, boards, endpapers and pastedowns of marbled paper, ex-libris pasted on the front pastedown.

An attractive copy.

Rare first edition.

Our copy is offered in the original unbound state, with paper losses to the final leaf and a light waterstain affecting the opening leaves.

By General Duhesme (1766-1815), then serving with the army entrusted with the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples.

First edition of this thesis, illustrated with 4 plates.

Modern black half-calf binding, smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets, marbled-paper boards.

A few minor spots of foxing; stamps of the Library of the Paris Faculty of Medicine on the plates and title page.

Not recorded by V. Rozier. 

The author served as chief surgeon to the First Battalion of Foot Grenadiers of the Consular Guard.

He invented an adjustable inclined bed, an instrument for the treatment of compound fractures of the lower jaw, a compression device for use in cases involving severed arteries, and an apparatus designed to transport seriously wounded men over long distances...

Second edition, embellished with several figures in the text and illustrated with 5 albumen photographic plates, mounted on heavy paper and inserted on guards.

Contemporary half black shagreen, spine with five raised bands decorated with blind fillets, headcap rubbed, joints worn, marbled paper boards, speckled edges, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

This was the first published work of Abbé Louis Duchesne (1843-1922), who would go on to revolutionize both the methodology and conclusions of ecclesiastical history.

Written in collaboration with the future Byzantinist Charles Bayet (1849-1918), it is the result of their stay at the French School at Athens.

This...

First edition of this rare catalogue for the sale of the antiquities collection of Claude-Madeleine Grivaud de La Vincelle (1762-1819), deputy head of accounting at the Chamber of Peers, archaeologist, and numismatist.

497 lots are described.

Late nineteenth-century bradel binding in half blue cloth, smooth spine, brown shagreen title label lettered lengthwise, marbled paper boards.

Some minor foxing, otherwise a pleasant copy.

Rare first edition.

According to the CCF, the only recorded copy is held by the BnF.

Spine restored and rebacked, small marginal losses to the wrappers, front wrapper relaid, internally in very good condition.

Autograph inscription signed by Claude-René-Jacques David de Pénanrun to Odilon Barrot (1791-1873), in his capacity as "President of the Decentralisation Commission".

Indeed, the elderly Orléanist, despite having withdrawn from political life, had accepted, following a meeting at the Tuileries Palace with Napoleon III, the chairmanship of an extra-parliamentary committee tasked with examining decentralisation projects (1869).

First illustrated edition, featuring at the end of the volume 12 charming hand-coloured copper engravings depicting fashionable hairstyles and costumes (10), as well as furniture (2).

Contemporary binding in half midnight-blue calf, smooth spine decorated with lozenge tools and gilt fillets, gilt tail ornament, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, marbled edges.

The work is also illustrated with a portrait of Bonaparte as a frontispiece and one plate hors-texte.

Foxing, black ink stains to page 81.

This work, intended for an American readership, as stated in the Preface ("L'espèce de journal dont nous offrons ici le premier essai, ne contiendra que rarement...

First edition of this exceedingly rare literary fantasy (cf. Cioranescu, XVIII, 19 432.)

Our copy is preserved in its original temporary marbled paper wrappers, red edges.

A few small tears to the spine, lacking the half-title.

A literary meteoric figure, François-Antoine Chevrier (1721-1762) was chiefly renowned for dipping his pen in vitriol and thereby exposing the flaws and vices of the theatrical world of his time.

Scarce first edition, privately printed in a small number of copies, issued separately from volume VII of the Annuaire de la Société météorologique de France.

According to the CCFr, copies are held by the BnF, the BIUS Pharmacy Library, the Muséum, and Besançon.

Our copy remains in its original wrappers, preserved in its plain blue paper provisional cover.

A few minor spots of foxing, not affecting the text.

Gaspard-Adolphe Chatin (1813-1901) was Professor of Botany at the École de Pharmacie, of which he became Director in 1873.

"His remarkable researches on plant anatomy, organogenesis, physiology, the composition of sap, the respiration of fruits, and the...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated in the atlas volume with 11 plates and 1 large folding map (cf. Hage Chahine, 720; Chadenat, 4227; Wilson, 35 for the 1835 English edition).

Contemporary Romantic bindings in aubergine half calf, smooth spines decorated with gilt arabesque tooling, gilt rolls at head and foot, marbled-paper boards, and marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

The atlas bound in aubergine half shagreen, smooth spine decorated with gilt Romantic arabesque tooling, gilt rolls at head and foot, marbled-paper boards, and marbled endpapers and pastedowns; a modern binding executed to match the Romantic bindings of the text volumes.

Joints...

First edition, illustrated with 11 photographic prints measuring 9 x 15 cm, mounted on heavy paper and hinged on stubs. 

S.l., s.d. [circa 1890], oblong 12mo (12 x 19 cm), 

Publisher's full green percaline binding, smooth unlettered spine, gilt and blind-tooled fillet borders on the covers, title stamped in gilt on the upper cover, a few stains to the covers, grey-blue paper pastedowns and endpapers.

A photographer active in Nice from the late 1860s to around 1883, Jean Walburg de Bray (1839-1901) subsequently moved to Cannes, where he remained until the early 1890s. His assistant Jean Gilletta (1856-1933) succeeded him in Nice and reissued part of the stock under his...

First edition illustrated with 9 copper-engraved plates hors texte after drawings by Hippolyte Jordan and Baron Charles-Louis de Coubertin (1822-1908, father of Pierre de Coubertin), including one double-page map and one folding plate.

Frédy de Blackmer 177 (calling for 17 plates).

Contemporary half cherry-red shagreen over marbled boards, spine with five raised bands showing a few rubs and darkened at the foot, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, शीर्ष edge gilt, corners lightly bumped.

A light dampstain to the edges without affecting the text, joints restored at head and foot.

The sole edition, printed in an edition of 500 copies and uncommon, of this account...

Rare first edition.

Minor stains on the front cover, some light foxing of no consequence.

This lesser-known pamphlet is among the military works of the future Emperor Napoleon III; its purpose, it must be said, was more electoral than purely technical, as it aimed to introduce the young deputy to the public.

Offprint from the Revue archéologique, eleventh year, printed in a small number of copies.

Pamphlet illustrated with 2 plates on separate leaves.

Only three copies recorded in the CCF (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Lyon, and Annecy).

Traveller and amateur archaeologist, Jules de Bertou (1809–1881) had begun his career as an orientalist in conventional fashion, visiting Petra in 1837 and excavating the site of ancient Tyre from 1838 onwards, work that yielded a creditable memoir (Essai sur la topographie de Tyr, 1843), before turning to an ultimately fruitless attempt at concordism between archaeological discoveries and a literalist reading of the...

Rare first edition comprising a suite of 12 lithographs printed in colour on tinted grounds, numbered 1–12.

This series by the painter and lithographer Charles-Edouard de Beaumont (1821–1888), lithographed by Jaime, addresses the theme of children compelled to work from a very early age, exposed to street trades and itinerant entertainments.

Publisher’s half brown cloth over beige paper-covered boards, title stamped on the upper cover.

Some small tears and rubbing to the cloth spine, light dampstaining to the margins of the boards, occasional foxing, a small black mark to the upper cover.

The suite may be read either romantically or socially; in both cases it...

Rare first edition illustrated with 2 plates outside the text, including a frontispiece and a large folding facsimile of the inscription.

Contemporary green half sheep, spine faded and decorated with blind fillets and raised bands, a few scuffs to the spine, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, speckled edges, corners bumped.

A few spots of foxing.

This inscription had been unearthed in Marseille in June 1845 and had already given rise to numerous attempts at interpretation.

It is now known as the “Carthage Tariff” and lay at the origin of the enduring myth of the city’s Phoenician origins: the religious regulations it records appeared to provide proof that...

Rare first edition.

Only copy recorded in the CCFr (BnF).

Losses at the head and foot of the spine, small marginal tears to the covers and half-title, occasional foxing.

The author is presented as a serving Catholic statesman wishing to remain anonymous. With an introduction by the publicist Armand Ravelet (1834-1875).

Despite its very broad title, the pamphlet chiefly concerns the highly contentious relations between Gregorian Armenians and Catholic Armenians, as well as the respective positions of the Porte and the Papacy regarding these two communities.

First edition illustrated with 6 folding tables printed hors texte (cf. Palau, 16641. Not in Sabin.)

 Contemporary half tan sheep, smooth spine decorated with black and gilt fillets, rubbing to the spine and joints, marbled paper boards, endleaves and pastedowns of decorated paper, wear to the edges, bumped corners, speckled edges.

Account of the political unrest of 1833 by a Mexican statesman [1802-1855] who would become President of the Republic in 1851. For the first time in modern Mexican history, a transfer of power took place without violence, and even in a cordial manner. Nevertheless, fierce opposition ultimately brought down his government, and Arista resigned on 4...

Rare illustrated first edition, with a large folding map at the end of the volume showing the route of the railway line linking Rosario to Puerto Belgrano.

Only copies recorded at the BnF in the CCF.

The "Ferrocarril Rosario-Puerto Belgrano" company (Rosario–Puerto Belgrano Railway) was established in the first decade of the 20th century with French capital; its promoters based their railway policy around the ports of Rosario and Arroyo Pareja.

WITH, loosely inserted on three leaves: three local printed documents relating to the liquidation (notice to creditors; verification of claims; a receipt for 8 coupons, dated 1919).

See Chalier (Gustavo): Capitaux français...

First edition of this scarce catalogue of mineral specimens exhibited by the National Department of Mines and Geology of the Argentine Republic at the 1889 Universal Exposition.

Contemporary Bradel binding in chocolate brown half shagreen, smooth spine with gilt title lettered vertically, library shelf label at the foot of the spine, double gilt fillets to marbled paper boards, two abrasions with small losses of paper at the foot of the upper cover, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.

Library stamp skilfully erased from the upper right corner of the introductory page.

A pleasing copy in very good internal condition.