Gift Ideas – Travel & Exploration

Uncommon first edition, issued anonymously: as early as 1817 the second edition bears the author's name (cf. Davois III, 117. Tulard 1194.)

Contemporary half blond sheepskin binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and fleurons, joints split and repaired, blue paper-covered boards with a few scuffs, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.

An interesting account of the Russian campaign, which the author, the Vicomte de Puybusque or Puibusque (1792-1841), experienced as a military intendant: it abounds in little-known details concerning the Grande Armée and the Imperial Guard.

Bound at the end is Thomas Lindley’s: "Voyage au Brésil ; où l'on trouve...

First edition (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1557.)

Contemporary half black shagreen, smooth spine decorated with triple gilt fillets and gilt floral ornaments, slight rubbing to the spine ends, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, bumped corners, speckled edges.

The sole edition of this survey, which in fact constitutes the French adaptation, by a librarian of Sainte-Geneviève, of three highly detailed articles written by the English diplomat Thomas Francis Wade (1818-1895), then attached to the secretariat of Lord Elgin. 

Their contents were brought together in The Chinese Army : Containing Notices of Its Bannermen, Hánkiun, and Luhying Divisions: With Details...

First trade edition, partly original in its enlarged form.

A portion of the work had first appeared in 1832 in the Revue Encyclédique (May-June), and had been issued separately in a first offprint of 23 pages (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1399-1340.)

Wrappers backed and restored, manuscript bookplate in the upper left corner of the title-page, a pleasing copy internally.

This is the Da Xue, the first of the Four Confucian Classics, first incorporated into the Li Ji (Book of Rites), then regarded from the Neo-Confucian revival of the Song period onward as a mirror for the Prince and likewise a mirror for subjects, centered on good government.

The Chinese characters were...

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 (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.

First edition (cf. Saba Jc 3. Not in Schwab, who cites another work by this author).

Full contemporary flexible brown sheepskin binding, smooth and unlettered spine slightly darkened, cold-stamped fillets framing the boards, original covers preserved, period Oriental binding.

Spine restored.

After serving as secretary-interpreter to the Shah of Persia, J.B. Nicolas became dragoman chancellor, managing the French general consulate in Baghdad. He was a commander of the Order of the Lion and the Sun of Persia, a knight of several orders, and a member of the Institut Historique de France.

Rare first edition of the French translation, illustrated with a facsimile plate.

According to the CCF, copies are held only at the BnF, Sainte-Geneviève, the Assemblée nationale and Bayonne.

Contemporary half brown sheep, smooth spine gilt with romantic arabesque tools, some rubbing and small losses to the joints and edges of the boards, marbled paper boards, endpapers of marbled paper, armorial bookplate pasted to a pastedown, speckled edges, contemporary binding.

Some light foxing.

The only French edition, very rare, of this account of the end of the First Carlist War (1833-1839), which concluded with the Convention of Ognate on 29 August 1839, between...

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 printed in a small number of copies of this offprint from "Voyages en Scandinavie, en Laponie et au Spitzberg de la corvette la Recherche", Physical Geography, vol. II, p. 279, the author having taken part in the expedition (1838-1840).

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, with plain green temporary covers.

Illustrated with 1 folding plate at the end of the volume.

Some light foxing and a few marginal tears to the right margins of certain leaves.

Contemporary manuscript copy of the important unpublished memoir written in Tonkin in 1841 by the Spanish Dominican Domingo Martí (1811–1852), devoted to the lives and martyrdom of twenty-seven Servants of God who died between 1838 and 1840 during the anti-Christian persecutions carried out under the reign of Emperor Minh Mạng.

Small quarto (15 × 19.8 cm). 6 unnumbered leaves, 2 blank leaves, 117 numbered leaves with a few pagination errors...

Rare first edition of the French translation of the Journal of the Resolution (London, 1775), illustrated with a large folding copper-engraved map by E. Dussy, issued without legend.

Cf. O'Reilly & Reitman, 380: "Traduction de la relation apocryphe de Marra". See Hill, 60.

Scattered occasional foxing, a few abrasions to the boards.

Contemporary full marbled tan sheep, spine in five raised bands richly decorated with double gilt compartments, gilt fillets to bands partly rubbed, red morocco lettering-piece, gilt decorative tool at foot of spine, gilt rolls to board edges largely rubbed, marbled endpapers, single gilt fillet to edges, corners worn, marbled...

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 French edition, complete with its engraved plate at the end of the volume: "Air mauresque" (see Gay 1352).

Bookseller’s resale label from the antiquarian bookseller Challamel affixed to the foot of the title page.

Bound in contemporary half brown calf, smooth spine with gilt and blind tooling, black morocco title and date labels, some rubbing to the spine, marbled paper boards, handmade laid paper endleaves and pastedowns, speckled edges, corners slightly worn, upper corner missing on one, binding slightly later.

Some foxing, dampstaining affecting the lower margin of the first 70 leaves.

The work was first published in London in 1811 under the title...

First edition, illustrated with a frontispiece depicting the site of the ancient city of Panticapaeum (now Kerch, in Crimea), a title-page vignette showing a view of the modern town, two maps (Greek colonies of the Bosphorus and the Black Sea; the Strait of Kerch, with Macpherson’s route), as well as 12 plates, 9 of them in colour (tumuli, vases, bronzes, oil lamps, statuettes, symbols, inscriptions and various objects recovered during excavations), and numerous wood-engravings in the text.

Cf. Abbey, Travel in aquatint and lithography, 243. Blackmer, 1055.

Publisher’s grey blind-stamped cloth, gilt title lettered lengthwise to the smooth spine, large gilt device blocked at...

First edition (cf. Palau, 142.350.)

Contemporary full marbled sheep binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt arabesques, gilt tail ornament, green sheep title label with scuffs and small losses, gilt fillets to the spine ends partially rubbed, marbled endpapers, gilt rules to the edges of the boards, worn corners, marbled edges.

Written in a language of remarkable elegance, this survey of pre-Columbian Peru, its ancient civilisations, and the Inca Empire stands, according to specialists, as a model of fine popular scholarship.

The work of Sebastián Lorente (1813–1884), Spanish-born, who taught in Peru from 1842 to 1884.

The edition was printed in France...

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...

First collective edition.

Not recorded in Chahine, nor in any bibliography consulted.

Contemporary full black sheep, spine richly gilt with decorative motifs, joints rubbed, sides elaborately blind-stamped with a wide central panel within a quadruple gilt fillet border, blue moiré silk endpapers and pastedowns, gilt dentelle border to the pastedowns, gilt rules to the edges, all edges gilt, contemporary binding.

Spine restored, dampstaining at the beginning and end of the volume, restored marginal tear to the title page.

This work comprises a collection of brief biographies of figures involved in the conflicts and negotiations surrounding the struggle for...

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).

First edition with a lithographed frontispiece portrait of the author by Engelmann (cf. Quérard IV, p. 424.)

Contemporary fawn half sheep over boards with small vellum corners, smooth spine richly decorated in gilt within compartments, red sheep lettering-piece, green paper-covered boards, yellow edges.

Restorations to the spine, a small loss in the right margin of one compartment, minor rubbing to the spine.

Light foxing.

Count de Lagarde was a member of the Royal Society of Warsaw, the Academy of Naples, and the Literary Society of the city of Cracow.

Having emigrated to Austria and Poland during the Reign of Terror, he undertook the journey from Moscow to...

First edition illustrated with 3 plates (Cf. Rodrigues 1357; Borba de Moraes I, 381; see INED 2496 for the 1774 edition).

Modern binding in brown mottled half calf, spine with four raised bands, gilt rules at head and foot, gilt initials at foot, red calf lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, sprinkled edges.

Stamp of a religious institution on the title page; old bookseller’s label pasted to the facing page.

The Coromandel Coast, European trading settlements, military strongholds, Indian religion, medicine, anatomy, the caste system, Indian manners, clothing, dwellings, gardens, food (and temperance), marriage rites, funerary customs, morality, fauna, flora...

First edition, with three folding plates and numerous hieroglyphs in the text.

A copy preserved in its original wrappers with temporary green paper covers, a title label affixed at the head of the spine.

Occasional foxing.

The German traveller and Orientalist Julius von Klaproth (1783–1835), one of the foremost linguists of his time, devoted himself chiefly to the languages of Asia, which he spoke almost all.

In this vehement critique of Champollion, published six months after the latter’s untimely death, he seeks—though not entirely in good faith—to call into question the method and results of the scholar from Grenoble, disputing in particular the priority and...

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.

First editions of each of the pamphlets.

Contemporary full speckled calf binding, smooth spine richly gilt in the grotesque style, beige calf lettering piece, patterned paper endpapers and pastedowns, worn corners, red edges, period binding.

Some rubbing to the spine.

Founded in December 1722 by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, the Imperial Company of Commerce and Navigation established Ostend, in the Austrian Netherlands (roughly present-day Belgium), as its home port and warehouse. However, neighbouring powers, in particular the two Dutch East India Companies and the English East India Company, strongly opposed this new enterprise, which threatened their commercial...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with a hand-coloured frontispiece depicting a Mahratta soldier and his wife (cf. Brunet, V, 883).

Contemporary Bradel binding in red paper-covered boards, title gilt to spine, some rubbing to spine, bookplate pasted to one pastedown, corners bumped.

Some foxing; the half-title was not bound into this copy.

A former colonel in a Mahratta infantry regiment, the author published his account in the form of letters addressed to an officer in the British Army.

The first English edition appeared in Bombay in 1798 under the title A Letter to an Officer on the Madras Establishment, before being translated...

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 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 (cf. Polak, 7057; Grandidier I, 2503).

Nineteenth-century Bradel-style binding of marbled paper-covered boards, brown sheep title-label, headcaps worn away, corners bumped.

Some little foxing.

This pamphlet contains a translation of a small portion of the monumental India Directory—more precisely, Directions for sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, and the interjacent ports, compiled chiefly from original journals and observations made during 21 years' experience in navigating those seas (1817)—by the Scottish hydrographer James Horsburgh (1762–1836), who was employed by the British East India Company.

The...

First edition with a folding plate at the end of the volume.

Spine and boards with losses, front cover starting to come loose, black stains to the upper cover.

At the express request of Napoleon III (who remains the dedicatee of the work despite the printing date), the archaeologist Léon Heuzey (1831-1922) undertook in 1861 his second archaeological mission to Macedonia (he had already carried out excavations there in 1855): the Emperor, then engaged in writing his Jules César, took a particular interest in the battlefields of his hero in the East (notably that of Pharsalus).

The mission took place in a difficult geopolitical context and had to be curtailed...

Atlas volume only from this important 8-volume work, produced within the broader movement to generalize the use of statistics initiated by ministers François de Neufchâteau and subsequently Chaptal. 

Contemporary half flexible paper boards, smooth spine without lettering in blue cloth, marbled paper-covered boards with a printed title label of the period to the centre of the upper cover, spine restored.

Marginal dampstaining to the boards, occasional spotting or soiling to the margins of some leaves.

Herbin, who coordinated the work, draws upon official data that prefects were required to supply for this purpose. 

This volume, in accordance with the table of...

First edition of the French translation by Barrère de Vieuzac, illustrated with 2 folding maps as plates.

Cf. Sabin 31266. Leclerc 1759.

Contemporary half aubergine basane binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt friezes, a gilt frieze at the tail, marbled paper boards, handmade paper endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, period binding.

Some light water staining affecting notably the two folding maps.

Rare work, significant for its contributions to Statistics, Geography, Mineralogy, Metallurgy, Natural History, Agriculture, and Trade of South America.

The original German edition was printed in Dresden in 1798. Both translations include additional...

First edition, illustrated with a large folding map (hors texte) at the end of the volume.

Half black morocco binding, spine with four raised bands decorated with gilt fillets and dotted tooling; light rubbing to the spine. Marbled paper boards, speckled edges, contemporary binding.

Scattered foxing.

Unique edition of this scarce monograph, among the earliest works in French on Albania, at the time still part of the European territories of the Ottoman Empire.

Hecquard (1814–1866) is better known for his travels in Africa, but he served as French consul in Albania from 1862 onward, which explains the writing of this work.

Signed presentation...

First edition illustrated with 24 colour figures mounted within the text.

No copy recorded in the CCFr.

Occasional light foxing.

Publisher’s original full lemon-yellow percaline, smooth spine, upper cover decorated in red, minor spotting to the boards.

Pleasing album devoted to the monuments of ancient China, then undergoing rapid transformation at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The text was set before the Chinese Revolution of 1911 and the Great War.

On the half-title, this copy is enriched with a long dated autograph inscription by the American singer and society figure Tryphosa Bates-Batcheller (1876–1952) to Henry de Galard de...

Rare first edition, illustrated at the beginning of the volume with an engraved line plate.

Publisher's Bradel binding in full boards covered with pink paper, smooth spine darkened, cherry-red calf lettering-piece, boards soiled.

Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Institut, Sainte-Geneviève).

The sole edition of this short monograph devoted to what was then the only known representation of this Hellenistic monarch, who ruled successively over Pontus, the Bosporus and Armenia.

The numismatist Louis Allier de Hauteroche (1766-1827) had himself served as French consul at Heraclea Pontica at the end of the eighteenth century.

Difficulties with the...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with a folding map at the end of the volume.

Contemporary half-grained cherry morocco over marbled paper boards, spine faded and decorated with gilt fillets, discoloration marks to the boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, contemporary binding.

A few minor foxing spots.

First French edition of this scientific expedition undertaken between 1827 and 1830 in order to refine contemporary knowledge of terrestrial magnetism.

The mathematician Kristoffer Hansteen (1784-1873), who later became director of the Observatory of Christinia (present-day Oslo), had taken an interest in these questions as early as 1807.

First edition, printed in a small number, of these four separately published articles by the eminent Austrian Orientalist Baron von Hammer (1774–1856), one of the pioneers of modern scholarship on the Muslim world.

Contemporary blue half sheep, smooth spine decorated with triple gilt fillets, title lettered vertically in gilt, marbled-paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

These four offprints were originally published in volume XII (1854) of the Sitzungsberichte der philos.-histor. Classe der kais. Akademie der Wissenschaften (Proceedings and Transactions of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, Philosophical and Historical Class) and deal chiefly with the...

Second edition, revised and enlarged, illustrated with 7 superb copper-engraved plates by Laurent after drawings by David Massil and Antoine Favray, including 4 folding plates (6 plates in the first volume, 1 in the second).

See Contominas 315. Blackmer 655 (the 1783 edition erroneously records 9 plates). Absent from Atabey.

Contemporary full mottled calf, smooth spines richly gilt with floral and typographic ornaments, red morocco lettering-pieces, green morocco volume labels, the latter partially rubbed, gilt rolls to the spine ends partly worn, blue endpapers and pastedowns, red edges.

Some restorations to the spines and joints, occasional foxing.

This second...

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 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 of these curious memoirs by a young officer, illustrated with 2 folding maps (cf. Sabin 27391).

Contemporary half Havana calf over corners, spine with five raised bands richly gilt with floral tools and double fillets, green morocco lettering-piece, rubbing to spine and joints, covers framed in gilt fillets on brick-red percaline boards, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt.

Occasional foxing.

In this work, the author recounts, among various observations, the resistance of women at the beginning of the British occupation of 1806; a list, now lost, of the Anglophiles who had sworn allegiance to King George, etc...

New edition, partly original, published anonymously (see Sabin 20,288).

Disbound copy, preserved in a modern marbled paper wrapper.

Abbé Louis Genty (1743–1817) is better known for his Influence de la découverte de l’Amérique sur le bonheur du genre humain, published in 1788, but this Dissertation appears here in a form close to its first draft.

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].

First edition, printed in a very small number of copies, of this offprint from the Comptes rendus de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres.

Illustrated pamphlet with 13 figures in the text and a double-page folding map.

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

The archaeologist Joseph-Etienne Gautier (1861-1924) conducted numerous excavation campaigns throughout the Middle East (Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, etc.).

A rare and attractive copy.

A rare first edition.

This scholarly periodical was issued continuously over eight years, from 1870 to 1877.

Angular losses to the lower wrapper.

Joseph Héliodore Garcin de Tassy (1794-1878) was an orientalist and a specialist of French India. He studied Oriental languages under Silvestre de Sacy and, alongside him, was one of the founders of the Société asiatique in 1822.

He was appointed to the chair of Indology at the École spéciale des Langues orientales in 1828 and was elected to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres in 1838.

Initially known for his studies on Islam and for his translations from Arabic, Turkish and Persian, Garcin de Tassy...

First edition.

Two small losses at the foot of the spine and on the front cover, the final gathering was improperly trimmed, resulting in a few minor marginal losses without serious consequence.

Joseph-Hélodore Garcin de Tassy (1794-1878) was a French orientalist and specialist of India.

He studied Oriental languages under Silvestre de Sacy and, together with him, was one of the founders of the Société Asiatique in 1822. He was appointed to the Chair of Indology at the École spéciale des Langues orientales in 1828 and was elected to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1838. Initially renowned for his studies of Islam and his translations from Arabic...

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...

Extremely rare first edition of the statutes of an Indo-British military lodge established in Calcutta.

Losses to the rubbed spine, covers reinforced, internally in pleasing condition.

No copy recorded in the CCFr or on WorldCat.

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 first edition illustrated with 2 out-of-text plates, hand-coloured at the time, depicting Morlach costumes (cf. Conlon 78:960. Not recorded by Quérard.)

Our copy is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, under the period plain grey covers (spine lacking, covers with tears and detached, corners bumped, a few foxing spots, final endpaper stained at foot).

We have encountered another copy of this work illustrated with a single folding plate containing 3 figures.

Pages 78 to 85 contain a song in the Morlach language, with a French translation printed opposite.

First edition of this short work intended as a supplement to the Voyage dans le Levant by the same author: Auguste de Forbin (1777–1841) indeed undertook this journey in 1820, one year after returning from his extensive expedition to the Middle East, officially carried out in his capacity as Director of the Royal Museums.

Contemporary half caramel sheep, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and garlands and blind-stamped ornaments, gilt rolls at head and foot of spine, joints slightly split at head and foot, blind-stamped palmette decorations to marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns of vat paper, marbled edges.

Our copy is complete with its engraved...

First edition of the first and only published part, illustrated with figures in the text and one plate printed separately as a frontispiece.

This is an offprint from the Revue archéologique.

The sole and uncommon edition of this essay exploring a possible Far Eastern influence on Amerindian civilizations.

Gustave d'Eichthal (1804-1886), a Saint-Simonian, was born into a German Jewish family but converted to Catholicism at the age of thirteen; he notably contributed to the emergence of new social sciences such as ethnology and anthropology.

Unbound copy, a few minor spots of foxing.

At the head of the half-title page, an autograph inscription signed by...

First edition in book form, bringing together six contributions previously published in the Revue des Deux Mondes. The archaeologist Albert Dumont (1842-1884) here records his impressions from journeys undertaken during his stay at the French School at Athens.

Signed autograph inscription by Albert Dumont to the spiritualist philosopher Adolphe Franck (1810-1893) at the head of the half-title page.

The ink of the autograph inscription has faded, minor losses to the foot of the first leaves, occasional light foxing.

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...

Rare first edition.

No copies recorded in CCF or WorldCat.

A copy preserved in its original wrappers with printed green covers, showing a few marginal losses to the corners; internally in pleasing condition.

A rare document relating to a dispute arising from the wreck, off Saint-Domingue on 9 April 1834, of the vessel Courrier de la Vera-Crux (laden with bales of cotton), involving the Bordeaux shipowners Balguerie et Cie, the insurers Aguirrevengoa and Uribarren, the captain, and the various consignors. Appended is a copy of the grounds and operative part of the judgment of the Commercial Court.

At the head of the upper cover, signed autograph inscription...

First edition of this important royal declaration partially reversing the compulsory deportation measures established by the declarations of 8 January and 12 March 1719.

Responding to repeated complaints from colonial governors, the royal government henceforth resolved that only voluntary emigrants should be sent to populate the colonies.

Our copy is offered disbound.

First edition (cf. Quérard, Sup., II, 1252).

Modern tan half calf by Laurenchet, smooth spine lettered gilt lengthwise, marbled paper boards, red edges.

A loss to the title-page professionally made good, a few small spots of foxing.

Among the subjects discussed are: newspapers in Russia in 1838; military education in Russia; fishing in Russia; a survey of Russian literature in 1838; the work of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences; deportation to Siberia; scientific expeditions commissioned by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg; the form of government of the Russian Empire (imperial authority); the political constitution of the Russian Empire (the Council...

First edition printed in a small number of copies of this offprint from the Mémoires de la Société des antiquaires de France, vol. XX.

The work is illustrated at the beginning of the volume with two folding plates engraved by Charles Oury after drawings by Delamare, gathering several figures.

Contemporary half black shagreen, spine with four raised bands decorated with blind fillets and gilt fleurons, minor rubbing to the joints, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, speckled edges, contemporary binding.

Foxing.

A former student of the École Polytechnique and an officer, Delamarre (1793-1861), who adopts a particle on the title-page for greater...

First edition.

Not in Hage Chahine.

Some light foxing, imperial colportage stamps on certain pages.

Son of the former Consul General in Smyrna, Céleste-Etienne David (1802-1875) also pursued a diplomatic career (Cuba, Venezuela, etc.).

Included: "Notice biographique sur M. C.-E. David, ancien ministre plénipotentiaire, etc." Extract from volume XII of the Biographie des hommes marquants du XIXe siècle, by V. Lacaine and Ch. Laurent. (n.p., 1860, 4 pp.)

Second edition, issued in a limited printing of 75 copies.

Restored unlettered spine, wrappers somewhat soiled, a few light foxing spots.

This work, the first of the three-part series Le Mariage indigène dans les colonies et les protectorats de la France, stands apart from the usual writings of magistrate Claude-Arthur Daguin (1849-1944), whose publications had previously focused almost exclusively on Nogent-en-Bassigny and its surrounding region.

First edition (cf. Monglond, VII, 242. Brunet, 20178. Quérard, II, 337.)

Contemporary half tawny sheepskin binding, smooth spine ruled in gilt and decorated with gilt typographic ornaments, a few rubs to the spine, modern blue shagreen lettering-piece, upper cap worn away.

Some foxing to the first and last leaves, a tear to the lower margin of page 277, joints restored at foot, dampstaining to the margins of the boards. 

Baron Auguste Creuzé de Lesser (1771-1839), prefect of Charente and Hérault under the Empire and the Restoration, published anonymous opéras-comiques under the name Auguste, as well as heroic and lyrical poems, a translation of Schiller, and a life of La...

First edition, printed in a small number of copies, issued as an offprint from the Bibliothèque de vulgarisation du Musée Guimet, vol. XXXVI. 

Essentially a concise introduction to the Daodejing (Tao te King in EFEO transcription).

Spine rebacked, with losses; corner losses to the wrappers, which are tending to detach; internally in pleasing condition.

Rare, but sold as is.

First edition of the exceedingly rare French translation, illustrated with 5 folding maps hors-texte (cf. Atabey 255. Not in Blackmer).

Contemporary half blond sheep bindings, smooth spines decorated with gilt fillets, a few rubs to the spines, marbled paper boards, engraved bookplates pasted onto the endpapers and pastedowns, yellow edges, contemporary bindings.

Some foxing, date erased from the title page of the first volume.

Quérard III, 216: "Le gouvernement ne permit pas la mise en vente de cette traduction ; il n'y en a eu que quelques exemplaires de répandus".

Provenance: notably from the library of H. Tronchin, with his engraved bookplates pasted onto the...

First edition of this ambitious study dedicated to the eminent Orientalist Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy, in which the author sets out to examine "l'état et les destinées de l'Asie, d'y suivre la trace des systèmes religieux et d'en indiquer l'enchaînement" (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 70. Barbier I, 305 c. Quérard XI, 101.)

Contemporary full porphyry calf bindings, smooth spines decorated with quadruple gilt fillets and gilt fleurons, gilt ornamental borders at head and foot, olive-green calf lettering- and volume-labels, three with losses at the corners, gilt rolls to the headcaps, covers framed with double gilt fillets, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges, gilt fillets to...

Second edition, issued with the date of the original, which bears the imprint of Michallet in Paris (cf. Willems 1899. Blackmer 325 (our edition) and 326 (third, 1679). Atabey 222 (third edition).

Illustrated with a frontispiece and, at the end of the volume, a large folding view of the battle of Khotin.

Full polished brown calf, spine with five raised bands, decorated in blind with fillets and panel compartments, gilt rolls to the spine ends, covers framed with triple fillet and blind palmette tools, comb-marbled endpapers, gilt garland frame to the pastedowns, double gilt fillets to the edges, red-speckled edges, gilt garland frame to the pastedowns, 19th-century...

Rare first edition.

Losses to the spine, restored, foxing mainly at the beginning and end of the volume, manuscript ex-libris at the head of the upper cover.

The author emphasises the particular status of land ownership under Islamic rule, and proposes the establishment of a free zone on the coasts of Cyrenaica.

Rare first edition of these engaging memoirs on the mathematician Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier (1768–1830), Secretary of the Institut d'Égypte and Prefect of Isère from 1802 to 1815 (cf. Tulard 302.)

Bound in half blond calf, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets, chainwork and garlands, red morocco title label, rubbing to the joints, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns of laid paper, speckled edges, original wrappers preserved, contemporary binding.

Occasional light foxing.

Work illustrated with a folding plate (the Dendera Zodiac).

Jacques-Joseph Champollion-Figeac (1778–1867) served as his secretary in Grenoble.

At the head of...

First edition illustrated with a large folding map bound at the rear of the first volume and 3 folding tables in the second volume (cf. Kress 5962. Goldsmiths B.20411. INED 1006. Not in Einaudi.)

Contemporary Bradel bindings in full yellow paper boards, smooth spines slightly darkened and decorated with fillets, minor rubbing to the spines, olive morocco lettering-pieces, volume numbers stamped within gilt shields, a few rubbed areas with slight losses to the paper boards, bookplates pasted onto the endpapers, contemporary bindings.

An important work from the geographical, economic, and statistical points of view alike. INED particularly notes, in volume II, the "sixth and...

First edition illustrated with 5 plates hors texte (3 portraits and 2 views) and 1 facsimile (cf. Tailliart 184).

Contemporary bindings in fawn half calf, smooth spines gilt with fillets, red shagreen title labels, black shagreen volume labels, marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, bindings of the period.

Waterstaining at the end of volumes I and III.

The section relating to Algeria appears in vol. III, chap. V, pp. 127 to 164.

The author stayed in Bône as a divisional officer from December 1837 to 9 February 1838.

These few pages abound in characteristic details concerning the indiscipline of the army, its poor discipline and appearance, 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 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...

First edition, illustrated with 18 plates on China paper (cf. Sabin 5832. Leclerc 1075. Streeter, "Bibliography of Texas", 1343.)

Contemporary half tan calf, spine with four fine raised bands ruled in gilt and blind, gilt ornamental rolls partly faded at head and foot, hazel morocco lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, all edges marbled.

Dampstaining to the lower margins of most leaves, more pronounced towards the start and the end of the volume; some foxing; two gatherings bound out of sequence by the binder, and the final four preliminary pages bound at the end of the volume; minor repairs to the joints; slight rubbing to the lower edges...

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...

First French edition, illustrated with a lithographed frontispiece and 11 lithographed plates (bound between pp. 360–361), cf. Brunet, I, 787; Chadenat, 5323.

Full calf binding, smooth spine with gilt decorative motifs, gilt roll on the headbands, red morocco title label, gilt roll borders on the boards, handmade paper endpapers and pastedowns, gilt edges on the board edges, red page edges, contemporary binding.

Restorations to the spine, one restoration at the foot of the title page.

An epistolary account of a journey undertaken in 1802 among the Kalmyks, a nomadic people of the Astrakhan province (North Caucasus).

Second edition, with a newly engraved portrait as frontispiece (cf. Blackmer 99 for the first edition issued the same year).

Light waterstaining to the upper margins of the opening leaves, minor losses to the head and foot of the spine as well as at the corners of the boards. Copy preserved in its original wrappers.

The first biography of Ali Pasha, illustrated with a portrait.

First edition, illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of Benito Juárez (cf. Palau 25905.)

Contemporary half red shagreen over marbled boards, spine in five compartments with raised bands, decorated with double gilt-ruled panels and gilt floral tools, a few minor abrasions to the spine, gilt gothic initials and gilt date at foot, marbled paper boards, the upper cover enhanced with a large aubergine shagreen title-piece lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, corners worn, small defects to the edges, speckled edges, contemporary binding. 

The finest biography of Juárez, published less than two years after his death: "Esta obra es la más documentada y completa que existe sobra...

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.

First edition illustrated with a large folding map inserted out of text: "Carte de la navigation intérieure d'une grande partie de la Russie européenne et de l'ancienne Pologne… dressée par J.D. Barbié du Bocage".

Contemporary red Russian half morocco, spine with four raised bands ruled in gilt and decorated with double gilt fillets, gilt date at foot, bottle-green morocco lettering-piece, a few minor rubs to spine and boards, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, bookplate mounted on a pastedown.

Small scuffs to the lower edge of a pastedown.

The author, a merchant of Marseilles origin, conceived the plan of establishing an economic alliance between...

Very rare first edition of this major work, complete as issued (the text ends abruptly with the final table, without a table of chapters).

Illustrated with a lithographed portrait frontispiece (Cf. Palau 11 815. Sabin 1377.)

Contemporary half cherry calf over marbled paper boards, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets, garlands and fleurons; small loss at foot of spine, which is also rubbed; some abrasion to the marbled paper; speckled edges; corners and board edges rubbed.

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

A member of Colombia's Comision corografica from 1850, the writer and publicist Manuel Ancizar Basterra (1812-1882) undertook an...

First edition of these travel recollections, written in the form of letters in prose and verse addressed to Saintine, friend and collaborator of the playwright Jacques Ancelot (1794-1854), who had accompanied Marshal Marmont to the festivities marking the coronation of Tsar Nicholas I.

Contemporary quarter blond calf with small green corners, smooth spine decorated with blind fillets and ornaments and gilt decorative rolls at head and foot, green calf lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges; binding signed Thouvenin at foot of spine.

Lower joint split with a small loss, upper joint split and subsequently reglued, some foxing...

First edition illustrated with a large folding plate inserted out of text reproducing the Greek portion of the Rosetta Stone (cf. Quérard I, 48.)

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, in temporary root-pattern paper covers.

A key figure in the establishment of literary repositories during the Revolution, and their transformation into libraries, the antiquarian Hubert-Pascal Ameilhon (1730-1811) remains an important, though far too neglected, figure in bibliography and the sciences.

This relative oblivion owes much to the small number of works published during his lifetime : the work offered here constitutes an essential link in the decipherment of the...

First edition of this literary utopia (cf. Ferguson 3133).

Contemporary half dark green shagreen binding, smooth spine tooled with gilt fillets and foliate scrollwork, gilt volume number at foot, with a few minor areas of rubbing; marbled paper boards, blue paper endpapers and pastedowns, a small loss to one corner of a pastedown, corners bumped.

Spine restored.

First and only edition of this apocryphal voyage, presented as the account of a maidservant accompanying her master through an imagined Australia, envisioned as a new nation spared the vices of the Old World.

First edition of this new Histoire générale des voyages, arranged and brought up to date with contemporary discoveries by Baron Charles-Athanase Walckenaer (1771-1852). Published in Paris between 1826 and 1831 in twenty-one octavo volumes, it constitutes the only portion ever completed of a project originally intended to extend to some sixty volumes. The final four volumes were prepared by Jean-Baptiste-Benoît Eyriès. Brunet V, 1041; Quérard X, 472; Gay 299; Hoefer XLVI, 498.

Contemporary half red Russia morocco with corners, spines with five raised bands, boards framed with blind fillets, marbled...

Uncommon first edition (cf. O'Reilly & Reitman, 6271: "Travail consciencieux, bien documenté et toujours utile"; Numa Broc, Océanie, pp. 377-380).

Our copy retains the two folding maps bound at the end of the first volume.

The two maps are titled: Carte de l'île Taïti d'après Vilson et les travaux récens de la frégate l'Artémise; Carte de l'archipel Taïti d'après les travaux les plus récens [et] des archipels français dans l'Océanie par Mr Vincendon-Dumoulin, 1844.

Contemporary half bottle-green sheep, spine with five raised bands gilt with scrolling tools and floral ornaments, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, spines slightly...

Album comprising 30 original albumen prints mounted on heavy card leaves.

Bradel binding in full black boards, smooth unlettered spine, gilt-ruled frame on the covers, title set within a central panel on the upper cover, corners rubbed; contemporary binding except for the renewed spine.

The first 22 photographs (approx. 12.5 × 17 cm) depict views of the City of the Doges; the following seven (various formats) reproduce paintings by Italian masters (Veronese, Titian, Raphael, Murillo...) held in Venice, Florence, and Paris; the final print shows a water-carrier.

Captions in Italian in black ink on the mount, on the verso.

The sequence of photographs is as follows...

First edition, illustrated with a folding plate bound at the end of the volume (cf. Quérard IX, 259).

Contemporary full boards covered with marbled paper, smooth spine heavily rubbed, a label with a now-effaced manuscript title affixed at the head of the spine, surface abrasions with paper losses to the boards, snags to the edges, bumped corners, sprinkled edges; a period binding.

Following general remarks on the designation, status, quality, and responsibilities of consuls, the work presents the texts of ordinances, treaties, and conventions relating to the Levant and Barbary trading posts (1781), prizes brought into foreign ports (1784), navigation and commerce between...

First edition, with three folding tables printed within the text. The title-page bears the false imprint of Yverdon; modern bibliography establishes that the book was in fact printed in Leghorn. XII, 196 pp. Brunet III, 330; Vivien de Saint-Martin, Voyages faits en Asie Mineure depuis le XIIIe siècle, no. 148; Atabey, The Ottoman World, 1126; Weber II, 595. Not in Blackmer, but see nos. 1530 and 1531.

Contemporary half brown calf with corners, smooth spine decorated with gilt lyre tools and ornamental rolls, black morocco lettering-piece, speckled paper...

Second edition, embellished with a copper-engraved map by Giraud l’aîné, folded, together with a copper-engraved plan of the labyrinth of Knossos by Chapuy.

This edition is not recorded by Contominas, Atabey or Blackmer (1493 for the first edition).

Contemporary half mottled sheep with parchment corners, smooth spine decorated with delicate black fillets, paper labels serving as title pieces, green paper boards with some rubbing, sprinkled edges.

Spine foot restored.

Three gatherings very lightly toned, otherwise a clean, fresh copy.

Bound at the end is the first edition of the French translation prepared by Jean-Claude Pingeron of Dominique Sestini’s work...