Politics in Writing

Rare first edition (the work was reissued at least once, in 1833) of this historical compendium arranged in detailed tabular form, increasingly precise in its treatment of contemporary events (Revolution, Empire, Restoration).

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers.

Minor tears with small losses to the spines, a dampstain to the final free endpaper, light foxing, staining to the lower cover.

Rare first edition (cf. Playfair 1406; Fiori 245; Tailliart 2970).

Spine split with some loss, upper wrapper slightly soiled at the margins, internally in pleasant condition. 

Rare, though in the condition described.

The central argument is that the indigenous population should be governed not according to French ideas, but in accordance with their own customs and expectations.

At the head of the upper wrapper, signed autograph presentation inscription from Ferdinand-Auguste Lapasset to M. Frédéric Lacroix, former Prefect of Algiers,

An offprint from the Description de l'Égypte; the paper was read during the expedition itself before the members of the Institut d'Égypte on 1 Frimaire, Year IX [22 November 1800].

See Meulenaere, p. 125.

Bradel binding in full red boards, smooth spine, red title label mounted lengthwise, the upper cover very lightly and marginally faded; modern binding.

A civil engineer with the Corps des Ponts et Chaussées, Michel-Ange Lancret (1774–1807) had been tasked with gathering the movable goods abandoned by the Mamluks during their flight, which in part supplied the material for this memoir.

First edition of this rare imprint from the Vivarais.

A single copy recorded in the CCFr (Grenoble).

Contemporary half brown cloth binding, smooth spine without lettering with a small scuff, boards of vat-made paper; a modest 19th-century binding. 

Charles La Font de Savine (1742–1814), Bishop of Viviers and later of Ardèche (1778–1793), was one of only four bishops in office in 1789 to swear the constitutional oath. The "citoyen Savine" was subsequently required to surrender his pectoral cross and all episcopal insignia, together with his letters of priesthood, on 1 December 1793, and to resign his public office as bishop of the diocese of Ardèche; arrested as a suspect...

Rare first edition of this fervent—indeed visionary—appeal to bring the Orient under the sway of the combined powers of the State and the Christian religion, informed by such an overtly Eurocentric outlook that the work is almost unreadable today, yet remains an eloquent record of the illusions prevailing in the West in the mid-nineteenth century.

Corners restored at the outer tips of the boards, some scattered foxing, and a stain to the right margin of the upper cover.

In an admirably prophetic vein, the author exclaims: "La civilisation chrétienne, qui ne cesse d'agrandir son cercle, ne s'arrêtera pas devant le Coran, et ce n'est pas la loi de Mahomet qui présidera au...

First edition.

The CCF records only the minutes of the sessions of December 1787 and January 1788, published at Narbonne (Veuve Besset).

A very rare report of the first sitting of the provincial assembly of Roussillon, held in three sessions (20, 21 & 22 October 1787), preliminary to the sessions of the following December and January, but apparently overlooked by most historians.

Rare illustrated first edition, complete with three folding maps printed at the end of the volume: Cercle de Biskra, Zaatcha et les oasis voisines, Plan des attaques de Zaatcha du 7 octobre au 26 novembre 1849 (cf. Playfair 2479. Tailliart 1903.) 

Bound in modern half black shagreen, spine with five raised bands, gilt date at foot, minor rubbing to foot of spine, comb-marbled paper sides, brown paper endleaves and pastedowns, top edge gilt. 

Occasional foxing, manuscript bookplate in violet pencil on a flyleaf.

First edition.

Minor marginal tears to the boards, a few spots of foxing.

Not recorded by Sabin.

First edition of the French translation.

Loukia Droulia (849) records this work without having been able to examine it. Not in Blackmer and Atabey, who describe the English edition published the same year (A narrative of Lord Byron's last journey to Greece).

Contemporary full mottled beige calf, flat spine elaborately decorated with gilt garlands and fleurons, red morocco lettering piece, minor rubbing at the foot of the joints, gilt tooling to spine-ends, borders of gilt dotted rules, gilt garlands to the boards also framed in gilt, edges framed in gilt, marbled edges.

A few minor and unobtrusive spots.

Pietro Gamba (1801-1826) was the brother of...

An uncommon first edition (cf. Palau, 92 173. Barbier, IV, 1072. Quérard, II, 40. Cioranescu, XVIII, 28675-28678.)

Contemporary full marbled fawn calf, smooth spine decorated with double gilt panels and ornaments, hazelnut calf lettering-piece, spine caps defective, covers framed with a single blind fillet, marbled endpapers, corners rubbed, gilt fillets to the edges, red edges; a fragile contemporary binding: spine ends trimmed, joints and upper hinge entirely split.

The imprint is fictitious: the pamphlet was not printed at Saint-Malo.

This satire, directed against the government, religion and customs of the Spaniards, and marked by singular bad faith (Fleuriot never...

Rare first edition (cf. Sabin, 24009. Ryckebusch, 3167.)

Our copy is presented in wrappers, preserved in a modern marbled paper chemise, with a printed title label mounted on the upper cover.

Red ink stamps on certain leaves.

Staining and dampmarking to the first and last pages.

For the pastor de Félice (1803-1871), there exist "three very distinct classes of abolitionists: apparent abolitionists, the temporisers, and those who are called pure abolitionists", a category in which he places himself.

In correspondence with Schoelcher and Bissette, whose efforts he supports, Guillaume de Felice advocates an "immediate and complete" abolition and criticises...

Very rare first edition, printed anonymously in London in June and July 1784. Octavo. Sabin 21044. The French Catalogue collectif de France records only two copies, at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and in Rouen. The first edition collates v, 320, viii pp., with table and errata.

Nineteenth-century green half calf with corners, smooth spine slightly darkened and ruled in gilt, marbled paper boards framed with a gilt fillet and with a crowned gilt cipher within a central cartouche, lemon edges. Corners bumped, a few small abrasions to board edges. Bookplate to one pastedown. A few small spots...

Rare first edition of this sticker album entirely devoted to the glory of the Castro regime and the Cuban Revolution.

The album comprises 268 small, mounted, colour stickers, each captioned and arranged in strict chronological order of events, including 16 portrait plates of the principal figures (the Castro brothers, Camilo Cienfuegos, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Faure Chaumont, Rolando Cubelas, Victor Bordon, Eloy Gutierrez, Crecencio and Faustino Perez, etc.).

No copy recorded in the CCFr, which comes as little surprise for this type of production.

Our copy, issued in original illustrated colour wrappers, is housed in a modern oblong slipcase, full decorated boards in the...

First edition of this particularly engaging monograph, written by the Dutch pastor Gerard Croese (1642-1710), and translated into English as early as 1696 although never into French.

A few minor spots of foxing.

Full green vellum binding, spine faded and tooled with small gilt ornaments, the title-piece largely lost, speckled green edges, a contemporary binding.

Partly informed by letters and documents supplied by William Sewel (1653-1720, himself the author in 1717 of an excellent Histori van de Opkompste, Aanwas en Voortgang der Christenen bekend by den naam van Quakers), it offers an account of the movement at a particularly significant moment in its...

First edition published anonymously (cf. Ryckebusch, 6737).

Light, scattered foxing.

Modern half brown cloth, smooth spine without lettering, marbled paper boards, corners rubbed.

The anonymous author urges abolitionists to be especially active and visible at the moment when the chambers are to vote on the new colonial legislation.

Very rare first edition of this Mauritian imprint of a charitable lecture delivered during the war in the island’s second city, by the Solesmes Benedictine Dom Paul Chauvin (1866–1937), preacher and prior of the Parisian Abbey of La Source.

Only one copy recorded in the CCF (Rennes).

Bradel-style binding in half brown glacé morocco, smooth spine, date and place gilt at foot, top edge gilt, sides in handmade paper, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved, contemporary binding.

At the head of the title page, an autograph inscription by Paul Chauvin to the Duke and Duchess of Bauffremont (the sixth duke, Pierre-Eugène de Bauffremont, 1843–1917...

First edition, illustrated with three folding tables in the text.

Our copy is preserved sewn, as issued, in plain contemporary waiting wrappers of pink marbled paper.

The plain spine is browned and detached, with some losses.

First edition (cf. Playfair, 533; Tailliart, 2295).

Spine cracked with small tears, some foxing. 

General considerations on the colonisation of Algiers, its aims and its results. On the Arabs. The various systems of occupation, etc.

At the head of the front wrapper, an autograph presentation inscription from Amédée Hippolyte de Brossard to Marshal Clausel.

First edition, illustrated with a map of the Mexican states at the time of the Conquest in 1521, by Malte-Brun (see Sabin 7429, Leclerc 1079, Brasseur de Bourbourg, Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatémalienne, p. 27, Numa Broc, Amérique, pp. 45-47).

Originally engraved by Erhard Schieble, this map is presented here as an early facsimile, likely produced by the publisher to complete his copies.

Bound in half havana shagreen, spines with four raised bands decorated with gilt tooling and gilt panels and fillets, orange shagreen title labels, minor rubbing to spines, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, twentieth-century bindings.

Waterstains...

First edition of the illustrated French translation, with a folding map (cf. Sabin 5568).

Only three copies recorded in the French Union Catalogue (BnF, Ministère des Affaires étrangères, Draguignan).

Contemporary-style half calf, smooth spine rubbed, joints split at head and foot, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges, in a slightly later binding.

Light foxing, a paper flaw in the right margin of the final leaf not affecting the text.

It should be noted that the translator mistook the genitive form for part of the author’s surname, spelling it “Birkbecks”.

The American first edition appeared in 1818 under the title of...

Rare first edition.

Our copy is presented disbound.

A close associate of Villermé, the economist and demographer Benoiston de Châteauneuf (1776-1856) advocates the adoption in France of measures widely used by Great Britain, whereby common-law convicts were transported overseas both to remove them from the country and to contribute to the settlement and development of the colonies.

In France, the system was ultimately applied only sporadically, and chiefly in Algeria.

First edition, illustrated with 2 engraved portraits on separate leaves by Adam after Du Simitière (Washington and Arnold), and with 1 folding plan (forts, batteries and the post of West Point in 1780) (cf. Sabin 3302; Quérard I, 173).

Contemporary half polished brown calf, smooth spine ruled in triple gilt fillets, gilt decorative rolls at head and foot, orange calf lettering-piece, minor rubbing to spine and joints, marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

Occasional foxing, manuscript corrections in black ink on the second page of the introduction.

First edition of this pamphlet, directed in part against Mormonism (cf. Sabin 2797).

Illustrated with a folding lithographed map of the United States, inserted as a plate.

Spine cracked with small losses and tears at the joints; library shelf label pasted at the foot of the upper wrapper; small corner tears to the wrappers.

This booklet also considers the relations between Christians and the indigenous inhabitants, as well as with the African population brought to the United States through the cupidity of the citizens of the Old World. A good copy.

First edition.

Green sheepskin half binding, flat spine decorated with gilt garlands, marbled paper boards, speckled edges, contemporary binding.

A restoration at the head of the spine, a tear with loss to the first endpaper, library stamps (red stamps of the École Sainte-Geneviève on the title page, Jesuit stamp of Jersey "Dom. S. Aloys. Jerseiens S.J." on an endpaper, Bibliothèque jésuite des Fontaines stamp on the half-title.

The present copy was deaccessioned; another copy from the same provenance is held under the shelfmark SJ IG 266/100 in the collections of the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, which now houses the collections of the Bibliothèque des...

First edition of the French translation, established from the second edition.

Our copy, preserved in its original wrappers under a plain provisional cover, is complete with its coloured map, almost invariably lacking.

The only French translation, uncommon, of "A sketch of the military and political power of Russia in the year 1817", an anti-Russian pamphlet composed in the context of the growing opposition between Great Britain and Russia, once the aftermath of the Empire had been settled.

General Robert Thomas Wilson (1777-1849) had served in 1812 as liaison officer with Alexander’s army.

Provenance: copy from the library of Armand-François-Théophile...

First edition, illustrated with a folding plate printed outside the text, of these essays by « M. L. C. D. M. D. L. D. G. D. C. D. M. L. C. D’A [i.e. Monsieur le chevalier Duvernois, maréchal des logis of the guards of the comte d’Artois] ».

Cf. Quérard, Supercheries littéraires, II, 700. Blackmer 1725. Hage Chahine 4990. Atabey 1280.

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, under plain grey covers, the spine unlettered and bearing traces of manuscript inscription.

Light marginal dampstaining affecting several leaves.

Verdy du Vernois (1738-1814) later became chamberlain to the King of Prussia and the author of several works on the military art, history, and...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with an out-of-text chart presenting the numerical results of the preceding comparative survey of flour imports to the Island of Cuba" (cf. Sabin, 67081 (does not the plate), Brunet, 28642.)

Light dampstaining to the edges not affecting the text, occasional foxing, a pleasant copy.

Bradel binding in full paper-covered boards with pebble-grain paper, smooth spine, burgundy oasis morocco title-piece, red top edge and edges, modern signed binding by Boichot.

The first edition appeared in Madrid in 1845, under the title: "Informe fiscal sobre fomento de la poblacion blanca en la isla de Cuba y emancipacion...

Rare first edition. Rare.

Plain spine with small tears, slight angular losses to the wrappers, some foxing, imperial printed colportage stamps at foot of several leaves.

First edition (cf. Contominas 732; Blackmer 1652; Loukia Droulia 2021-22. Not in Atabey).

Contemporary Bradel binding in full grey marbled paper-covered boards, smooth spine with manuscript title label pasted at head, corners slightly rubbed, red-speckled edges.

Some foxing. 

 "An important work by the German philhellene, who was in fact the key figure in Bavarian philhellenism after Ludwig himself. In Munich in 1816 he founded an institute for educationg young Greeks (the 'Athenaion'). According to St. Clair he was also a member of the Philiké Etaireia ; certanly he called for volunteers in 1821. In 1831 he went to Greece as an unofficial agent of the Bavarian...

Second edition, partly original as revised and enlarged, illustrated with a folding map at the end of the volume.

Slight corner wear to the boards, otherwise a well-preserved copy with internal foxing.

The author takes a very broad view of the Serbs, seemingly including all Slavic populations of the Balkans.

First edition, illustrated at the end of the second volume with a folding map outside the text (cf. Gay 3608. Numa Broc 307).

Contemporary cherry-red half calf bindings, spines with four false raised bands ruled in gilt and black, red paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.

Scattered foxing, restorations to the joints and spines, a light dampstain to the lower margins affecting approximately the final two-thirds of the first volume.

A follower of Saint-Simon, Maurice Tamisier (1810-1875) travelled to Egypt in the aftermath of the 1830 Revolution with a small group led by Père Enfantin, who, following his imprisonment, hoped to unite in...

Rare first edition (cf. Tulard 275 and 1453).

Contemporary half tan goatskin binding, spine with four false raised bands decorated with gilt chains and a central fleur, gilt initials at foot, marbled paper boards, corners rubbed and canvas-tipped, late 19th-century binding.

Scattered foxing.

The only edition, extremely scarce as issued in a small print run and not offered commercially, like most of the works of the Dutch historian Sirtema van Grotestins (1791–1874), who was based in France.

The two figures whose memoirs he published were Dutchmen of contrasting political destinies: while the former refused to serve Louis Bonaparte, the latter went so far as to join...

First edition (cf. Atabey 1128. Weber 59. Not in Blackmer.)

Half brown sheep binding with small green vellum corners, smooth spine decorated with gilt friezes and amphoras, red Russia morocco title label, hazel-coloured boards, ex-libris pasted to a pastedown; contemporary binding.

Spine restored, a few minor foxing spots.

"This is an important collection of letters written to the antiquary the Comte de Caylus, beginning as early as 1729 and including the period up to 1778. The collection includes the letters of the Abbé Sevin and others, including Anquetil Duperron and Le Roy, but it is especially significant for Peyssonnel's letters to Caylus. It was edited by...

First Italian edition; the work had originally appeared as early as 1806 with the Paris imprint of Gratiot, under the more explicit title: "La Guerra de'tre mesi, o l'Ultima campagna di S. M. l'Imperatore Napoleone".

Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Poitiers and Rouen, all of the 1806 edition).

Contemporary Bradel-style binding in quarter tan calf with corners, smooth spine decorated with gilt garlands, crimson morocco lettering-piece, rubbing to spine and boards with some loss of paper, yellow edges.

Some foxing; small wormholes to the lower right-hand corner of the final three pages, not affecting the text.

Unlike the author’s other works, this...

First edition of this advance extract from "Annam – Numismatic Studies", an ouvrage not due to appear until 1905.

A rare and pleasing copy, despite 

Autograph presentation inscription from Albert Schroeder to Jean-Calixte-Alexis Auvergne, Resident-Superior in Annam from 1897 to 1898, and again from 1901 to 1904.

French edition, issued simultaneously with an English edition by the same publishers. It is a virulent pamphlet directed against Napoleon himself, circulated by one of his best-known opponents: General Jean Sarrazin (1770-1848), who had defected to the enemy on 10 June 1810, having himself conveyed aboard an English brig by a fishing boat from Boulogne.

Full red blind-stamped cloth binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets, gilt initials at the foot of the spine, discolouration marks to the spine, blue paper endleaves and pastedowns.

Foxing.
Work illustrated with a portrait of General Kléber as frontispiece.

Sentenced to death in absentia by the Lille...

First edition of this important pre-Revolutionary economic pamphlet. (See INED 3994. Stourm 152. Not in Kress, Goldsmith, or Einaudi.)

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers and plain paper covers.

A marginal waterstain to the left edge of the leaves.

"Ruelle, an advocate of physiocratic economic principles, demonstrates that the burden of taxation ultimately always falls upon landowners. He argues for the necessity of consolidating all taxes into a single direct income tax. Combined with unrestricted freedom of trade, this tax would constitute the only means of restoring the finances of the State. A critique of public borrowing and a defence of property." See...

First edition, privately printed in a small number of copies as an offprint from La Patrie of 16 and 18 November 1883.

The CCFr records copies only at the BnF, the Bibliothèque Thiers and Compiègne.

Contemporary navy-blue half morocco over marbled-paper boards, with corners, spine with five raised bands, boards framed with blind fillets, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original front wrapper bound in, corners rubbed, top edge gilt.

Some foxing.

The text is a funeral tribute to Odilon Barrot’s last surviving brother, who, like him, was both a lawyer and a politician, though as staunchly Bonapartist as his elder brother was a leading figure of left-wing...

Second edition, partly original as enlarged, illustrated with a lithographed frontispiece and two lithographed plates printed hors-texte.

Bradel binding in full paper boards covered with red shell-patterned paper, smooth spine, red shagreen title label, restored wrappers preserved and mounted on guards, modern binding.

This memoir, published by order of the Royal Academic Society of Savoy, of which the Comte de Boigne was president, notably recounts his travels in India.

Benoît Leborgne, Comte de Boigne, served in India and received from Prince Sindiah the supreme command of his troops, to whom he imparted European discipline and manoeuvres.

With them he won...

First edition of the French translation of the first part (Die Osmanen und die spanische Monarchie im XVI. und XVII. Jahrhundert) of the monumental work by the Prussian historian Leopold Ranke (1795-1886), professor at the University of Berlin: Fürsten und Völker von Süd-Europa im XVI. und XVII. Jahrhundert, Berlin, 1837.

Cf. Hage-Chahine 3920. Schefer 2617. Bourquelot VI 124.

Contemporary half havana calf, smooth spine ruled in gilt and black, a few rubs to the spine, a small chip at the headcap, marbled paper boards, paste-paper endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, contemporary binding.

First edition of what is sometimes inaccurately referred to as the "Constitution of Year XII", but which in fact constitutes an act of the Conservative Senate, dated the previous day (18 June 1804), entrusting the government of the French Republic (this designation being retained until 1814) to a hereditary Emperor in the person of Napoleon Bonaparte, and to his successors (in the absence of a direct male heir, a substantial portion of the text is devoted to the organisation of the succession)

This also represents the final production of the Imprimerie de la République, which immediately thereafter became the Imprimerie impériale.

A few minor spots of foxing, not...

Second edition of this French version (the first having appeared in 1781), approved by the author, of the Memorial most humbly addressed to the sovereigns of Europe, on the present state of affairs (London, July 1780) (cf. Sabin 64827).

Disbound copy, presented in a modern marbled paper wrapper.

This text had in fact been the subject of an earlier translation based on the Translation of the memorial by Edmund Jennings and John Adams, which failed to satisfy Pownall (namely the Pensées sur la Révolution de l'Amérique-Unie, issued with the Amsterdam imprint in 1780).

The substance of the various versions nonetheless converges, forming a...

First edition.

Sabin 62880. Not in Leclerc.

Contemporary half red shagreen, spine rubbed and decorated with five raised bands, gilt initials at the foot, marbled paper-covered boards, combed paper endpapers and pastedowns.

New edition.

Our copy is preserved in its original temporary binding, with marbled-paper wrappers. (cf. Sabin 6327.)

Marbled-paper spine lacking, abrasions to the marbled-paper covers, and a dampstain to the upper left corner of the volume, gradually diminishing through the text.

We follow the attribution given by Hoefer and Sabin for this uncommon pamphlet, a critique of the theories of Cornelijs de Pauw. Its authorship remains uncertain: Pierre Poivre (1719-1786) has been proposed, as has Antoine-François Pernety (1716-1796), probably through confusion with his Dissertation sur l'Amérique et les Américains of 1769; both attributions continue to find favour...

First edition, here in its 12mo issue; the 4to edition is more commonly encountered (cf. Sabin 50563. See Gagnon 1217, Lande 656 and Higgs 1032. Not in Kress, Goldsmiths or Einaudi. The NUC records 4 copies of the 4to edition.)

Contemporary half brown sheepskin over boards with vellum tips, spine in five compartments tooled in blind with garland motifs, paper-covered boards, red-speckled edges; an old binding with a later spine.

"A review of the causes of Anglo-French hostilities in America, from a French point of vue, and with the intention of persuading the Dutch correspondent of England's aggressiveness" Cf. James Ford Bell Library catalogue, p. 359.

The...

First edition of this letter which in fact sets forth a concrete political programme.

Absent from Starace.

Contemporary Bradel binding in half saffron buckram, smooth spine, rubbed brown sheep title-piece, marbled paper boards.

Bookplate with date and place inscribed in ink at the head of a flyleaf.

Provenance: from the library of Prince Roland Bonaparte (p. 222 of the catalogue of his library, 1891) with his engraved bookplate pasted onto an endpaper.

Second edition of this apocryphal work by the scandal-minded journalist and literary mystifier Henri de Latouche (1785–1851), first issued under the title Album perdu.

Contemporary half fawn sheep, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets, garlands and fleurons, some rubbing to spine and joints, minor losses at head and foot of the split joints, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.

Some foxing.

A collection of anecdotes and bons mots assembled here on the principle that “to those who have, more shall be given”: they circulated in the society of the July Monarchy and have since been endlessly repeated in monographs devoted to...

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 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 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...

Rare first edition of this occasional piece (a second edition was issued with the Paris imprint), cf. Monglond IV, 232.

Contemporary Bradel-style binding in blue paper over boards, smooth spine ruled in gilt with double fillets, marbled paper-covered boards, a few scuffs to the spine and boards. 

From November 1795, François de Neufchâteau (1750-1828) served as Commissioner of the Executive Directory to the Central Administration of the Vosges, where he devoted himself to the development of agriculture in the department, a pursuit that always remained his foremost interest.

Copy from the library of the lawyer Charles Fournerat (1780-1867) of Ancy-le-Franc, bearing his...

First edition.

Contemporary-style half tawny calf over marbled paper boards, smooth spine decoratively tooled in blind with double fillets and floral ornaments, bookplate mounted on pastedown, wrappers preserved, speckled edges, modern binding.

A few letters erased in the text on page 35.

Exceptionally rare collection of puns and jeux de mots based on homonymy and paronymy.

The CCFr records only a similar title, though not corresponding to ours: Encyclopédie pittoresque du calembour, printed in Paris without date and comprising 127 pages with illustrations (BnF, Institut, Grenoble), which appears to be an enlarged later edition of our work. In any case...

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, 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...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with 105 full-page plates (including 2 folding tables, 21 maps and plans, and 82 views and facsimiles of documents).

Remarkable account of one of the most significant international opinion manipulations by China and North Korea at the onset of the Korean War: as early as 1952, North Korean and Chinese officials (including Zhou Enlai) claimed that the U.S. Army was deploying "insect vectors" on a large scale to spread diseases such as plague and cholera among the populations of Korea and Manchuria.

As later confirmed by Soviet documents published in 1998, the entire operation had been meticulously staged.

Spine with...

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.

Rare collection of 16 hand-coloured engravings, comprising a frontispiece and 15 plates, illustrating the virtues of soldiers and young men during the Consulate period.

Contemporary half bronze calf binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets, dotted tools and floral ornaments, minor rubbing to the spine, brown morocco title label, boards, endpapers and pastedowns of marbled paper, ex-libris pasted on the front pastedown.

An attractive copy.

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...

Rare first edition.

According to the CCF, the only recorded copy is held by the BnF.

Spine restored and rebacked, small marginal losses to the wrappers, front wrapper relaid, internally in very good condition.

Autograph inscription signed by Claude-René-Jacques David de Pénanrun to Odilon Barrot (1791-1873), in his capacity as "President of the Decentralisation Commission".

Indeed, the elderly Orléanist, despite having withdrawn from political life, had accepted, following a meeting at the Tuileries Palace with Napoleon III, the chairmanship of an extra-parliamentary committee tasked with examining decentralisation projects (1869).

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 illustrated edition, featuring at the end of the volume 12 charming hand-coloured copper engravings depicting fashionable hairstyles and costumes (10), as well as furniture (2).

Contemporary binding in half midnight-blue calf, smooth spine decorated with lozenge tools and gilt fillets, gilt tail ornament, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, marbled edges.

The work is also illustrated with a portrait of Bonaparte as a frontispiece and one plate hors-texte.

Foxing, black ink stains to page 81.

This work, intended for an American readership, as stated in the Preface ("L'espèce de journal dont nous offrons ici le premier essai, ne contiendra que rarement...

Rare first edition of this study tracing the origins of An Ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States North-West of the River Ohio, adopted on 13 July 1787 by the United States Congress to organize the Northwest Territory, the first new territory incorporated into the young nation, of which Pennsylvania formed the eastern boundary.

Small losses to the unlettered spine, a dampstain to the upper margin throughout the volume, affecting the text only very marginally.

No copy recorded by the CCF. Sabin 14,327.

Edward Coles (1786-1868) also served as the second Governor of the State of Illinois from 1822 to 1826.

Collective first edition issued by subscription (cf. Le Quillec 524.)

Contemporary red half-shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands ruled in black, minor rubbing to spine and joints, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, wrappers preserved.

Scattered foxing, trace of a removed bookplate at the upper left corner of a pastedown, small marginal tears to the right margins of several leaves.

The celebrated "Le Temps des cerises", anthem of the Paris Commune, appears on page 243.

Edition not recorded by Sabin, 47516, who cites the first edition printed by the Imprimerie Royale [title, IV-196 pp.]. Not in JCB.

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

A few small spots of foxing.

A collection of diplomatic documents relating to the negotiations preceding the Treaty of 1763, concerning the boundaries of Acadia and Louisiana, the cession of Canada, and the fisheries of Newfoundland and the West Indies.

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 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...

Rare first edition.

Minor stains on the front cover, some light foxing of no consequence.

This lesser-known pamphlet is among the military works of the future Emperor Napoleon III; its purpose, it must be said, was more electoral than purely technical, as it aimed to introduce the young deputy to the public.

A very rare Brescia imprint, dedicated to Prince Eugène and celebrating Napoleon’s successes in the German campaign of 1805.

No copy recorded in the CCF.

A dampstain to the upper right corner of the leaves.

Contemporary cream paper-covered boards, smooth spine without lettering with tears,  boards soiled, title within a black frame on the upper board and address likewise on the lower board, tears with losses on the lower board, contemporary binding. 

However, dated 26 November of that year, it could not yet include the victory of Austerlitz. Niccolo Bettoni (1770-1842) was a prominent figure of Italian typography at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and...

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 of this rare work. Several states are known: without any plates, not even the engraved title-frontispiece (the extremely rare deluxe issue); with the engraved title bearing the same imprint as the printed title (Tours, R. Pornin et Cie); and, finally, with the Paris, Lehuby imprint (as in the present copy).

The following explanation may be proposed: the Tours publisher Pornin reserved a small portion of the edition, without the engraved material, for the author's friends. The remainder was shared with the Paris publisher Lehuby, a specialist in children's books, who ensured its wider distribution.

The work is illustrated with a frontispiece and two steel-engraved...

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...

Second edition, partly original as revised and enlarged (cf. Monglond VI, 1391.)

Our copy is preserved in its original publisher’s wrappers, under a plain beige cover of the period (disbound, spine lacking, upper cover and title-page detached, small repair in the blank margin of leaf [iii]) and housed in a modern light beige paper case, title lettered lengthwise on a black morocco label.

The first edition, published anonymously, appeared in 1805 (8vo, 80 pp.).

This new edition includes a preface by the purported translator and an errata: this leaf, sig. [vii]-viii, has been placed at the end of the volume.

A virulent pamphlet against Napoleon I, who is here...

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 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.

Rare pre-first edition offprint of Charles de Gaulle's article Les Origines de l'armée française, published in issue 520 of the Revue d'Infanterie in January 1936. This 44-page text appears two years later as the first chapter of his celebrated work La France et son armée, published by Plon in 1938. Presentation copy signed by the author "to M. Jean Auburtin": "With profound and faithful friendship. C. de Gaulle."

Blue wrappers slightly sunned at extremities, spine and upper...

First edition, one of 69 numbered copies on pur fil, the only deluxe paper copies.

A very handsome copy.

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...

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...

Second edition, partly original, revised and corrected (cf. Gay 954 and Tailliart 1601, who record only the fourth edition; Playfair 404).

Spine darkened and split, scattered foxing, a few stains to the boards.

The volume includes, as a frontispiece, a folding view of Algiers together with five plates and a folding map of the environs of Algiers, all hors texte.

First edition illustrated with three folding maps out of text.

"This work is one of the best contemporary accounts of the Greek War of Independence". Atabey 1014.

Minor losses to the corners of the spines and boards, uniformly browned boards, a few small spots of foxing.

Maxime Raybaud (1795–1894) was a senior officer in the Corps of Philhellenes and aide-de-camp to the President of the Executive Power of the Greek government.

He assisted the insurgents between 1821 and 1823, and again in 1825 and 1826.

First separate edition of Plain Language from Truthful James, which first appeared as an article in The Overland Monthly in September 1870.

Issued as a printed envelope-folder containing nine lithographed caricature plates by John Hull, each accompanied by a poem.

No copy recorded in the CCF.

Small angular tears to the envelope, with some staining to the lower margin.

Originally intended as a fierce satire on the racial prejudice of Irish-American workers against the numerous Chinese immigrants competing for railway construction jobs, the piece was widely misread as mocking the immigrants themselves.

The Jewish writer and poet Francis Brett...

First edition (cf. Barbier, III 1145; Monglond, IX 756).

Contemporary half sheep in brown, smooth spine gilt with decorative rolls and stars now partly dulled, joints rubbed, red and dark green morocco lettering-piece, author’s name gilt at the foot, marbled paper boards, a few small abrasions to the edges, corners softened, sprinkled edges, period binding.

Scattered marginal foxing.

Alphonse-Toussaint-Joseph-André-Marie-Marseille, comte de Fortia de Piles (1758–1826), pursued a military career while composing operas, then emigrated during the Revolution and travelled throughout Europe with his friend the chevalier de Boisgelin.

Upon his return to France, he...

First edition, one of 100 copies numbered on pur fil du Marais, the deluxe issue.
A handsome copy, despite a few insignificant foxing spots at the head of the upper cover.

In 1955, the book was splendidly adapted for the screen by Jean Delannoy, starring Jean Gabin, Robert Dalban, Serge Lecointe, Anne Doat and Jimmy Urbain.

First edition featuring the celebrated original color stencil "Aidez l'Espagne!", printed on Arches paper by Joan Miró.
With literary contributions by Christian Zervos on Pablo Picasso's "Guernica", as well as texts by Jean Cassou, Georges Duthuit, Pierre Mabille, Michel Leiris, Paul Éluard, René Char...
Illustrated with numerous reproductions of works by Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró’s "Le faucheur".
Some rubbing and small tears to the spine, as often, a vertical crease to the rear wrapper, otherwise a fresh and well-preserved copy.