Grand Palais éphémère 2023 - Our catalog with first editions, manuscripts, autographs, photographs, fine bindings...

Autograph postcard signed by Albert Einstein to Ludwig Hopf. 18 lines written verso and recto, address also in Einstein's handwriting. Postmarked June 21, 1910. 

Published in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 5: The Swiss Years: Correspondence, 1902-1914, Princeton University Press, 1993, n°218, p. 242.

An exceptional and highly aesthetic card from Albert Einstein to "the friend of the greatest geniuses of his time" - according to Schrödinger - mathematician and physicist Ludwig Hopf, who introduced Einstein to another 20^th-century genius: Carl Jung.
The master invites his pupil Hopf to a dinner...

A substantially cropped print bearing the same penciled number on the back of our photograph (11214), is in the Reutlinger archives at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Album Reutlinger de portraits divers vol. 53, p.3). We have been unable to find any other examples of this photograph in other public collections. A similar photograph belatedly dedicated to Maurice Chevalier went on sale in 2008.

A beautiful, sultry shot of...

Black cloth binding. A white star made by Mugler in corrector fluid on the first cover.

Fifteen pages of the notebook filled in by the fashion designer:
- The first page, in neon blue felt-tip pen, with the word "Yes" as and large exclamation mark ending with the iconic Mugler star.
- A double page with the word "white" enhanced with corrector fluid and in capital letters on a black felt-tip background, in orange the words "Indehain" (?) and "TRIBE" with a drawing depicting a sun, several notes in black ballpoint pen: "Aelino Rock-Elektro", "DJ", "Syath Choreographie".
- A double page with a wonderful drawing of a naked Black woman with voluminous pink...

"CLAC: Cercle Littéraire des amis des caves / Cercle libre des amateurs de cuisse." ["Literary Circle of...

Original autograph manuscript by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, one page in black ink on a yellow paper sheet, numerous corrections, and rewritings.

Exceptional working manuscript of a passage from the original French version of Wind Sand and Stars [Terre des Hommes] from chapter VI "Dans le désert", a magnificent ode to the barren wilderness of deserts doomed to disappear due to the inevitable development of the industrial age. This section from the original French novel was removed for the English version translated by Galantière and remains unpublished in English. Moreover, the final two paragraphs of the manuscript are unpublished in the original French version...

Autograph manuscript by Jean Cocteau, early version of the poetry collection Appogiatures - published in 1953 by Éditions du Rocher in Monaco - comprising 47 leaves of thick paper taken from a large drawing pad and 5 smaller leaves of thin paper, written in blue ink and blue ballpoint pen. Numerous deletions and corrections. The leaves are numbered up to 25 (including one number 8 bis) and most bear a small cross or the mythical Cocteau star. The last leaf, containing the poem titled "Lettre," is dated in the poet's hand August, 15, 1952. Also in Cocteau's hand, the first leaf bears the final title, above which is crossed out the initially...

Manuscript pages from ‘Conversations with Professor Y', n.p. [Meudon] n.d. [1954], various sizes (from 10x21 cm to 27x21 cm), 34 sheets.
Autograph manuscript by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, 34 sheets of various sizes, written in blue and sometimes pink ballpoint pen. Some of the pages are numbered by Céline at top left. The last folio numbered 159 is signed by the writer at the bottom.
Two leaves contain previously unpublished passages: the first, a few lines long, refers to the Professeur. The second leaf numbered 136 features another full-page text on the verso which we did not find in the ‘Professeur Y' or in any of the published works of Céline...

Two unpublished autograph manuscripts signed by Louis-Ferdinand Céline in blue and red ballpoint pen: the first contains 9 pages numbered in the left-hand corner from 1480 to 1488; the second contains 7 pages numbered from 1498 to 1504. Each text is signed by Céline in red ink at the bottom margin, with the words "Meudon 54" also in his hand (ff. 1485 and 1505). There are numerous variants, lines and words crossed out, modified and repeated.
Traces of pinholes in the upper left-hand margin of every sheet, as Céline organized his manuscripts in "bundles".
Normance was published in 1954 as a sequel to 'Fable for Another Time' published two years earlier. Both parts were written during...

Actes et paroles - Avant l'exil, 1841-1851 [Words and Deeds - Before the Exile, 1841-1851]
Michel Lévy frères, Paris 1875, 19,5x25cm, bound.
First edition, one of 20 numbered copies on chine, most limited deluxe edition of this important collection of speeches, public declarations, and political texts intended for French parliament (Chamber of Peers, Constituent Assembly and Legislative Assembly), all written - as stated in the title - prior to his exile. These important texts address freedom of the press, theater and education, as well as the abolition of the death penalty.
Half red shagreen binding, smooth spine decorated in gilt lengthwise, marbled paper...

Autograph letter signed to Madame Catusse, 12,6x20,4cm, 3 pages on a double leaf.

Autograph letter signed by Marcel Proust, probably addressed to Madame Catusse. The recipient and date have been determined by Proust scholar Jean-Yves Tadié. Three pages in black ink on a double leaf edged in black. A fold inherent to the mailing.
A sombre and admirable letter steeped in Proustian melancholy. The future author of In Search of Lost Time feels more than ever the loss of his mother during the New Year period. The famously generous Proust also asks his faithful confidante Madame Catusse to buy a gift for the Straus couple, whose wife inspired...

"My dear director, under the terms of our agreements, I am ready to read, I have chosen tomorrow, Wednesday, and I have told your stage manager the names of the actors to whom I entrust our play. I've done a bit of your job, I've conquered Madame Dorval who will make you rich, I'll bring her myself. Find here, my dear d'Épagny, a thousand regards, I have given you proof of our old...

A unique combination of French translations of the first two philosophical works on the Sublime, marking the beginning of the most important reflection on aesthetics in Western history.
Extremely rare first edition of the first French translation of a philosophical work by Immanuel Kant, and the second ever translation of a Kantian text. The others were only translated during the 19th century. Illustrated with a portrait of the author by Benezy. The first edition in German was published in 1764 in Königsberg under the title "Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen".
Contemporary half brown roan binding with vellum corners, smooth...

A collection of twelve volumes comprising the complete eight-volume Collection des petits classiques françois, published under the direction of Charles Nodier and Nicolas Delangle, together with four contemporary works belonging to the same literary and publishing milieu. The original series was dedicated to the Duchesse de Berry and printed using the types of Jules Didot the Elder. The present set is numbered 17 and is one of 25 copies on Dutch paper, following 6 copies on Chinese paper and preceding 500 copies on extra-fine paper.

Two original unpublished drawings by fashion designer Manfred Thierry Mugler on post-it notes in black ink, red, blue, beige, and yellow felt-tip pens and white correction fluid. Numerous mentions in English by the designer around the drawings depicting the front and back of an extravagant dress (which to our knowledge has never been made). Top corner of the first drawing backed with a small piece of tape.
The very body-hugging front of the dress is torn at the chest ("double breasted tuxedo wriped [sic]"). The blonde model wears a mask ("wolf ? Mask, lace eventually ?") similar to the famous "Mouche" sunglasses created by Mugler for his "insects" 1997...

Autograph letter signed by Victor Hugo to Léon Richer, two pages in black ink on a double sheet framed in black. Crosswise folds inherent to envelope inserting. A central tear at the junction of the two sheets. Published in Œuvres complètes de Victor Hugo (Ollendorff, 1905).
Manuscript housed in a blue half morocco chemise and slipcase, marbled paper boards, marbled paper slipcase, signed Boichot.

A magnificent and important letter to Léon Richer, one of the first male feminist activists, considered by Hubertine Auclert as the "father of feminism" and later regarded by Simone de Beauvoir as its "true founder". This deeply humanist text is a compendium of...

Chez Théodore Le Gras, à Paris 1728, 12° (9,5x17cm), (2 p.) xvij (7 p.) 346 pp.; (2 p.) ij 376 pp.; (2 p.) ij 387 pp.; (6 p.) 392 pp.; (6 p.) 404 pp., 5 volumes bound.
First edition of this famous description of West Africa.
78 full-page engraved plates:
- volume 1: 5 maps, 2 plates and 1 folding plan
- volume 2: 6 maps, 17 plates and 4 folding plans
- volume 3: 2 maps and 13 plates
- volume 4: 5 maps, 8 plates and 3 folding plans
- volume 5: 3 maps and 9 plates
First edition of this famous description of West Africa. Illustrated with 78 full-page engraved plates.
Contemporary beige calf, spine elaborately gilt, 19th century red leather...

First edition, one of 50 copies printed anonymously on papier japon.
First edition, one of 50 copies printed anonymously on papier japon.
Illustrated with an erotic frontispiece by Félicien Rops on chine.
Custom chemise and slipcase in half morocco and paper boards signed Boichot, some discreet restorations to the spine and covers, some discreet restorations to the top margin of the frontispiece, not affecting the engraving.
“La Présidente”, honorary nickname given to Apollonie Sabatier (alias Aglaëe Savatier, her real name), was one of the most captivating Salon hostesses of the 19th century. She inspired an ethereal love in Baudelaire who...

First edition of the Marcello Virgilio translation in Latin, dedicated to Leo X. The princeps edition was based on an old translation by Petrus de Abano (ca. 1250-1316), and published in 1478 in Colle di Val d'Elsa. The original text was written in Greek around 60 AD.
Title page in red and black. 45 lines per page. Colophon : "Florentiæ per hæredes Philippi Iuntæ Florentini. Anno ab incarnatione Domini.1518. Idibus Octobris. Leone decimo Christiana[m] Rempub. gerente." Superb Filippo Giunta printer's mark on verso of last leaf. Bibliographical note in French opposite the title page.
Full modern limp vellum binding, all edges faintly bluish.
A lack of a small piece of paper...

First edition, one of 150 numbered copies on Hollande, the only deluxe issue copies after 5 on Japon.
A very fine copy, as issued, with an important manuscript document by Elme-Marie Caro, 1 page in ink on a double leaf, undated [1887 ?].
Maupassant's last novel Notre Coeur is also one of his most autobiographical. The writer was strongly influenced in this piece by famous literary and artistic "Salons" held by high society women, which he frequently attended. The novel confronts a man of letters with one of these strong-headed women of late 19th-century Paris. He describes the main character Michèle de Burne as "a woman of refinement, of indeterminate...

First edition, an ordinary paper copy.
Contemporary green half shagreen, marbled paper boards, spine with five raised bands and gilt flowers, speckled edges.
With the autograph signatures of every author of the "Médan group" involved in the writing of this famous collection of short stories: Guy de Maupassant, Emile Zola, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Léon Hennique, Paul Alexis and Henri Céard on the first endpaper.
A very good and rare copy in a strictly contemporary binding.

First edition printed on vélin d'Angoulême. Complete copy with the six banned poems and every misprint on page 29, 31, 43, 45, 108, 110 and 217 specific to first edition copies, except for the error to "s'enhardissant" on page 12, corrected at the beginning of printing. Very rare cover in "first state" (Jean de Schelandre 1385-1636 on the second cover and the price of 3 frs on the spine). Small marginal tears to the covers, discreet restorations to the spine, rare and light scattered foxing attesting to the original condition of the copy, unwashed and unglued unlike most copies.
Our copy is housed in a custom clamshell box with the design of the original cover and spine, signed...

First edition, one of the rare press copies. No deluxe limited issue printed.

Full yellow box calf binding, smooth spine lettered in palladium, boards tooled in blind, upper board with inlays of grey box calf, yellow box calf pastedowns, beige suede endpapers, original wrappers and spine preserved, no gilt edges like every binding by Jean-Luc Honegger, half yellow box calf custom slipcase, smooth spine lettered in palladium, yellow lustrine cloth boards, beige suede lining, very fine set signed Jean-Luc Honegger (2023).

4400 copies of this first edition of The Stranger were printed on April 21, 1942: 400 press copies, 500 copies without a statement of...

First edition, complete with all 12 issues of this luxurious and short-lived review founded and directed by Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen, one of the exceedingly rare copies on japon, the only deluxe paper, with four states of the colour engravings.

Bound in half sand-coloured cloth, morocco lettering pieces, marbled paper boards, spines and wrappers preserved for each issue, a fine copy with wide margins.

Our copy indeed contains the four colour states reserved for the deluxe issue, printed on various papers, of each of the 23 photogravures in Arts & Crafts, Symbolist, Renaissance, Art Nouveau, and Classical styles, after Maxwell Armfield, Henri...

Very rare first edition.
Beige half calf binding, spine decorated and ruled in gilt, some rubbing to the joints, dark yellow paper boards, marbled endpapers, edges speckled. Missing top spine end, rubbed joints and some scratches.
Notes about the author in ink by a former owner on the page facing the half-title page: "condamné à mort le 24 mars 1794” (executed on 24 March 1794)

Extremely rare inscribed copy signed by Anacharsis Cloots to the revolutionary Nicolas Joseph Pâris, "Pour NJ Pâris de la part de l'auteur” (For NJ Pâris from the author) Friend of Danton and Cloots, court clerk of the Paris Revolutionary Tribunal, Pâris was well known under...

Edition published the same year as the first. Illustrated with a portrait of the author, three folding plates, a folding map of Longwood house and two folding maps.
Some foxing.

Full black calf bindings, smooth spines with gilt romantic motifs, boards with central motif in blind, boards ruled in gilt, a small restoration to the margin of the first volume's upper board, handmade endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges, spine-ends ruled in gilt, contemporary romantic bindings.

Rare signed and inscribed copy to a veteran of the Napoleonic wars, on the title page of the first volume: "A Mr. Foucauld, ancien s. [sous] officier de la Grande...

To our knowledge unpublished autograph letter signed by Ernest Hemingway to Roberto Herrera Sotolongo, 2 pages in blue ink on both sides of a sheet, and envelope postmarked September 19, 1953 with his autograph return address ("E. Hemingway...") on the back.

The letter begins in Spanish and continues in English, before ending with a few Spanish words signed "Mister Papa".

A magnificent letter from Hemingway to his Cuban friend and secretary, recounting his 1953 safari in Kenya. Hemingway reveals the true outcome of the hunt for the black-maned lion, a central theme of his posthumous novel True at first light (1999)...

Nouveau cercle parisien du livre, Paris 1965, 35x45cm, morocco binding under custom chemise and slipcase.

"The idea of this book, bringing together poems by Jean Cocteau illustrated by Léopold Survage on the theme of Pegasus, had been submitted to the Poet and had pleased him. A few days before his death, he invited us to Milly-la-Forêt to hand over the texts and the preface he had specially written. But on the day of our appointment, he was no longer there" (afterword to Pégase).

Complete illuminated Ottoman Qur'an manuscript, zilhidje [Dhu al-Hijja] 1277 AH [July-August 1861], 8° (12,5x18,8cm), 610 p., bound.

Complete Ottoman manuscript of the Qur'an, 610 pages written on parchment paper in black and red ink, margins ruled in black (7.5x13cm) enhanced with bright and matt gold, text entirely in naskh script on 15 lines per page with gilt and polychrome florets between verses, flanked by large illuminated floral motifs in the margins of certain leaves, very beautiful sura headings as well as elaborately colored and gilt vegetal miniatures. Customary for Qur'ans, this copy opens with an elaborately and finely illuminated double-page frontispiece...

First edition for both texts.
Contemporary quarter brown polished calf binding, spine with five raised bands ruled and decorated in gilt and blind, marbled paper boards, stylized acanthus leaves endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges.
Exceptional reunion of these two great Nietzschean texts, the very last ones written before the philosopher succumbed to madness.

Important and unique set of stage costumes sketches by Thierry Mugler for Beyoncé's "I Am... World Tour" in 2009:

• A large original drawing (21,6x56 cm) in pencil, brown and pink markers on two A4 pages glued with a piece of adhesive. The sheath of the model is a collage enhanced with gold felt pen and white corrector fluid by Mugler himself.
• An original pencil drawing (21.6x27.9 cm) with several silhouettes of Beyoncé in motion, probably studies for petticoats.
•  An original pencil drawing (21.6x27.9 cm) showing several sketches of a costume made of...

The second édition originale on ordinary paper. Fifteen hundred copies had been printed, plus 4 on chine paper, a few copies on hollande and on vélin. Complete with the portrait of the author by Félix Bracquemond (often missing), here in first state on papier chine pasted on the page (before letters, i.e. “L'Artiste” on top of the portrait).
A very rare copy with untrimmed margins and no foxing, preserved in its original soft cover; housed in a custom clamshell box with the design of the original cover and spine, signed by Julie Nadot.

Mistakenly considered as “partly original”, this edition was entirely...

“This little edition, said to be very accurate, is a true typographical jewel, and perhaps the most beautiful one ever printed in the Hebrew language.”

For a few months now, we have been witnessing a regularised passive hunt for patriots, too highly noticed, it seems, at a time when risking their own life and that of their family's was not a shopfront item.
The odious thing about this way of acting is that it is strangely reminiscent of the Hitlerians. We dishonour, then we wait and see. Regardless of the esteem in which a person is regarded, a police visit always leaves a...