"Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road."
(Jack Kerouac, On the Road)
The rare first edition of these two volumes published two years apart, the continuation of which would never see the light of day. With one frontispiece and one large folding genealogical chart.
Copy with the arms of Louis XV stamped on the boards, and his cipher repeated on the spine, a presentation copy.
Contemporary full marbled brown calf bindings. Spine with raised bands decorated with Louis XV's cipher repeated four times with angular fleurs-de-lys. Red morocco title and volume labels. Armorial boards. Triple gilt fillet frame on boards. Headcaps restored. Several splits along the upper joint of volume I and volume II. Corners and certain areas of the leading...
First edition, with a frontispiece signed L.F.D.B. Title page in red and black.
Full marbled brown sheep binding. Smooth spine decorated with acorn tools framed by foliage. Red morocco title label. One lack at head. One tear with loss at tail. Corners slightly bumped. Lacking the 2 marbled endpapers at the beginning of the work.
A Turk is sent by his sovereign to the principal courts of Europe to bear witness. The narrator begins his journey through Russia, Moscow and Saint Petersburg, then passes through Poland, finally to Vienna... The letters deal with varied subjects, European affairs, the power of Austria, French affairs, opinions on eunuchs, Amsterdam and the East India...
French first edition, following the English first edition of 1763.
Copy with the arms of Anne-louis-Alexandre de Montmorency, (D'or à la croix de gueules cantonnée de seize alérions d'azur ordonnés 4 et 4) lieutenant-general of the king's armies, captain of the king's guards.
Contemporary full speckled calf binding. Smooth spine decorated with 5 alérions of the Montmorency family. Arms stamped on covers. Red morocco title label. Rubbing. Spine browned. 2 corners slightly bumped. Browning to margins of half-title and title page, small worming in margins. Handsome copy.
Lady Montagu was the wife of the English ambassador to Constantinople. The principal interest of...
First edition
Contemporary red half Russian morocco, the spine with double gilt fillets, corners very lightly rubbed.
Presentation copy, inscribed by Théophile Gautier to Monsieur Bufquin des Essarts on half-title.
First edition in French, printed on vergé paper.
Publisher's Arabesque yellow paper binding by A. Lenègre, spine with gilt, black, and turquoise Arabic decorative motifs (head- and tail-pieces slightly rubbed), upper cover richly ornamented with Arabic decorative motifs in gilt, black and turquoise with a frame of gilt and black fillets, turquoise paper pastedowns and endpapers (corners slightly bumped), all edges gilt, a few small insignificant spots to lower cover.
Text by Alfred Edmund Brehm & Johannes Dumichen.
The work is illustrated with 24 watercolors after nature by Charles Werner.
A few small spots, mostly affecting endpapers.
Rare.
New edition (third?) and first in 6 volumes. The first edition dates from 1746. Les Songes philosophiques are in first edition.
Contemporary full speckled brown calf bindings. Smooth spines decorated. Red morocco title and volume labels. Triple gilt fillet and star cornerpieces on boards. All edges red. Three head caps and three tail caps worn. A few corners very slightly bumped.
The Lettres chinoises, inaugurated by the same author as the Lettres juives have this typical Enlightenment design of comparing the customs and habits of several civilizations; the work takes up the scheme, always humorous, of the first work of this type: L'espion de la...
First edition, rare and valuable.
Contemporary full brown sheep binding. Spine with raised bands, gilt tooling. Binding with some surface wear. Losses to the joints at headcap and to the upper joint at tail. One corner rubbed.
Produced between February 1802 and 1830 on the orders of Naopleon Bonaparte and published between 1809 and 1828, 1,000 copies were printed and distributed to institutions, on vergé paper with an 'Égypte ancienne et moderne' watermark, visible when held up to the light.
Produced between February 1802 and 1830 on the orders of Naopleon Bonaparte and published between 1809 and 1828, 1,000 copies were printed and distributed to institutions, on vergé paper with an 'Égypte ancienne et moderne' watermark, visible when held up to the light.
Produced between February 1802 and 1830 on the orders of Naopleon Bonaparte and published between 1809 and 1828, 1,000 copies were printed and distributed to institutions, on vergé paper with an 'Égypte ancienne et moderne' watermark, visible when held up to the light.
Produced between February 1802 and 1830 on the orders of Naopleon Bonaparte and published between 1809 and 1828, 1,000 copies were printed and distributed to institutions, on vergé paper with an 'Égypte ancienne et moderne' watermark, visible when held up to the light.
