Les Chiffres

First edition.
Elegant half navy blue morocco over marbled paper boards by Pierre-Lucien Martin, spine in six compartments with gilt fillets to bands and geometric decoration of red morocco onlays, date gilt at foot of spine, gilt fillet to boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt dentelle frame to pastedowns, covers and spine preserved, top edge gilt.

A very good copy in a handsome binding. 
Exceptional autograph inscription from Claude Farrère : "A Pierre Louÿs son très petit disciple [To Pierre Louÿs, his very humble disciple]", along with Chinese ideograms.

First edition, one of the press review copies.
Spine with a small waterstain at the foot.
Signed autograph inscription from Jorge Semprun: "A Mr Pierre Pain, a good bookseller like good bread, in memory of a signing day and of a shared memory far richer. With warm regards. JSemprun."

 

Two unpublished autograph manuscripts signed by Louis-Ferdinand Céline in blue and red ballpoint pen: the first contains 9 pages numbered in the left-hand corner from 1480 to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...

Paris, Gueffier, 1769-1770. Four octavo volumes.

First edition of this major eighteenth-century classic of scientific recreations, illustrated with 72 folding plates, 68 of them finely coloured by hand at the time of publication, together with a folding table. Four further plates listing the prices of recreational apparatus sold by Guyot accompany the first three volumes. The first two volumes appeared in 1769 and the remaining two in 1770.

Contemporary full polished tan calf, smooth spines elegantly decorated with gilt floral tools and fillets, red morocco lettering-pieces...

"In the end, 5 hours of work for example to produce - per man - all that is necessary to man."

Complete unpublished autograph manuscript in French by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. 9 pages on 8 leaves in black ink. Traces of horizontal and vertical folds. A small piece of paper missing in the center of two leaves.

Exceptional unpublished manuscript by Saint-Exupéry, to be compared with his political and economic reflections in Carnets (1989, p. 43). Personally affected by the 1929 crisis, Saint-Exupéry “the self-taught writer” writes passionately about the economy and puts forward reform strategies. The manuscript...

A collection of four extremely rare first editions:
- Thuileur des trente-trois degrés de l'écossisme (1813), “a rare and sought-after work and one of the best thuileurs in existence...” (Caillet, I, 2910). With a frontispiece and 14 plates (one folding) as well as a large folding table at end;
- Récapitulation de toute la maçonnerie ou Description et explication de l'hiéroglyphe universel du maître des maîtres (1812) with two plate;
- l'Explication de la croix philosophique (1806) with a folding plate showing the eponymous cross;
- l'Explication de la pierre cubique (1806) with a folding plate describing the stone.
This copy is further enriched with a small insert...

First French edition, translated by Joncourt.

Later binding ca. 1790 in full blonde sheep with raised grain. Smooth spine decorated with 5 fleurons. Black sheep title label. Some rubbing. 2 corners slightly bumped. Good copy.
Manuscript gift inscription: "J'appartiens à Collins d'Anglus au collège à Mazarin à Paris, 1770."
Work presented to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh and published as a response to Hume's essay on population. Based on computational hypotheses about births and deaths, the author establishes approximate population figures from the biblical primitive couple through Antiquity. Drawing from known sources and historians, Wallace seeks to...

Partly first edition, gathering the most famous speeches by Victor Hugo, including some of his most memorable addresses delivered at the tribune of the Legislative Assembly—most notably the speech on constitutional revision and the powerful plea he gave at the trial of his son, on 11 June 1851, before the Cour d'assises of the Seine, in defense of the inviolability of human life. Spurious mention of “eighth edition.”
Complete with the rare portrait of the author by Masson printed on China paper, as frontispiece.
Scattered occasional foxing.
Precious inscribed copy signed by Victor Hugo to Juliette Drouet : « à mon pauvre...

First edition.
Contemporary limp parchment binding. Smooth, unlettered spine. Brown stains on both boards, more extensive on the upper board. Binding detached from upper board. Tears to the lower margin of leaf li.
Complete set of navigation tables (latitudes, moon, winds, ports...), with 64 pages explaining these tables.