Inscribed presentation copies and autograph letters by Charles Baudelaire

First edition, printed on vélin d’Angoulême, with the usual typographical errors, and containing the six banned poems; one of the few author’s copies “intended for friends who render no literary services”.

Full bordeaux red morocco binding, spine with five raised bands richly decorated with multiple gilt- and blind-tooled fillets; third-state covers; boards framed with multiple blind-tooled fillets; marbled endpapers; gilt turn-ins; all edges gilt; marbled paper slipcase with morocco border; signed binding by Semet & Plumelle.

Autograph letter signed by Charles Baudelaire, addressed to Antoine Arondel, written in black ink on a single sheet of blue paper.
Folds typical of mailing; minor losses expertly restored without affecting the text; a small tear on the signature discreetly repaired. This letter is transcribed in Correspondance I of Baudelaire (Pléiade, p. 277) and dated by Claude Pichois to May 1854.
In it, Baudelaire sends theatre tickets to his art dealer Antoine Arondel — a notorious and unscrupulous character who exploited the poet’s boundless taste for fine arts...

Autograph letter signed by Charles Baudelaire to Narcisse Ancelle, written in black ink on a sheet of blue paper.

Folds from mailing, three minute pinholes not affecting the text.

This letter was transcribed in the Complete Works volume 11 published in 1949 by L. Conard.

A moving letter from Brussels addressed to the celebrated family notary who became in 1844 Charles's legal guardian, charged with managing his annuity and his exponential debts. A...

First edition, of which only 500 copies were issued. With an etched frontispiece portrait of Théophile Gautier by Émile Thérond.

With a substantial prefatory letter by Victor Hugo.

Full red morocco binding, gilt date at the foot of spine, marbled endpapers, Baudelairian ex-libris from Renée Cortot’s collection on the first endpaper, wrappers preserved, top edge gilt. Pale foxing affecting the first and last leaves, beautiful copy perfectly set.

First edition, printed on vélin d'Angoulême paper, with the usual misprints and including the six condemned poems, one of the few copies given to the author and “intended for friends who do not deliver literary services”.
Full emerald morocco binding, signed by Marius Michel, original wrappers preserved.

Remarkable autograph letter signed by Charles Baudelaire to Auguste Poulet-Malassis, publisher of Les Fleurs du Mal, dated 28 February 1859 and written in Honfleur. 64 lines in black ink, some passages underlined, housed in a modern black half-morocco folder.

Baudelaire appears preoccupied with the “ Sainte-Beuve/Babou affair,” one of the many controversies following the Fleurs du Mal trial, in which the writer Hippolyte Babou accused Sainte-Beuve of failing to defend Baudelaire during the proceedings.
Excerpts from this letter were quoted by Marcel Proust in his celebrated Contre Sainte-Beuve, where he lamented...

Autograph letter signed by Charles Baudelaire, written in ink and addressed to his mother. A few underlinings, deletions, and authorial corrections.
This letter was first published in Charles Baudelaire, Dernières lettres inédites à sa mère in 1926.
Former collection of Armand Godoy, no. 197.

A precious letter from Baudelaire's Brussels period, during the poet's voluntary exile at the end of his life.

« Il est douteux que j'habite quelque part à Paris. Je crois que j'habiterai surtout une voiture dans laquelle je ferai, si je peux, toutes mes courses en un ou deux jours. » Haunted by...

Autograph letter signed by Charles Baudelaire, written in pencil and addressed to his mother. Dry-stamped stationery of the Grand Hôtel Voltaire, Faubourg Saint-Germain. Address to Madame Aupick in Honfleur (Calvados) in the author's hand, together with several postal markings dated 13 and 14 July 1858. Several underlinings, deletions and corrections by Baudelaire. Trace of a wax seal bearing Charles Baudelaire's initials in pencil, probably in the author's hand. A small portion of the second leaf has been excised, with no loss of text.
This letter was first published in the Revue de Paris on 15 September 1917.
From the former collection of...

Autograph letter signed in black ink, addressed to his mother and dated “Sunday morning the 14th.” A few underlinings, deletions and corrections by the author.
Formerly in the collection of Armand Godoy, n°188.
A fading Baudelaire: “The state of disgust in which I find myself makes everything seem even worse.”
Drawn by the promise of epic fame, Baudelaire went to Belgium in April 1864 for a few conferences and in the hope of a fruitful meeting with the publishers of Les Misérables, Lacroix and Verboeckhoven. The meeting didn't...