Printed in small numbers, illicitly passed out, sought-after, forgotten, found again, major works or confidential texts... Some of these works are extremely rare today ; here are a few of them.
First edition adorned with illustrations and photographs.
Minor losses without seriousness at the foot of a few leaves.
An attractive and rare copy.
Texts by Jean Jaurès, Walt Whitman among others.
First edition, one of 35 numbered copies on B.F.K. de Rives paper, signed by Michel Seuphor and Ania Staritsky at the limitation page, our copy one of the few hors commerce.
Illustrated with original engravings by Ania Staritsky.
A rare and handsome copy, complete with its chemise and matching brown cloth slipcase.
Our copy, like the first 10 copies, exceptionally contains an original collage signed by Ania Staritsky, a 9-line manuscript text signed by Michel Seuphor, and a suite of all the engravings by Ania Staritsky. This association copy is also inscribed in pencil by Ania Staritsky to her collaborator Claude Nardin who...
First edition printed in a small number of copies, being the seventh booklet of the first series of the Cahiers de l'Ecole de Rochefort.
A rare and pleasing copy.
Valuable autograph inscription signed by Maurice Fombeure to Jean Follain.
Rare first edition. No copies located in U.S. libraries (not listed in WorldCat).
Spine and boards slightly and marginally sunned, without seriousness.
First edition, one of 100 hors commerce copies printed on deluxe paper, this copy specially printed for Louis Barthou.
A pleasant copy despite two sunning marks to the head and foot of the spine and to the margins of the rear board.
Henri Bergson's handwritten signature beneath the limitation statement.
First edition, one of 16 numbered copies on pur fil paper, the deluxe issue.
A very good copy despite a tiny stain on the upper cover beneath the printed title.
First edition which supposedly had an issue of 500 numbered copies. “Gallimard donated the paper required for the production of this book, but only 258 copies could be printed, rather than the 500 announced in the justification” (from a note by Paul Éluard). A slight crease to the covers, slight marginal sunning primarily affecting the rear cover.
Illustrated with 11 photographs of Nusch Éluard by Man Ray and Dora Maar.
Le temps déborde is a collection of eleven poems published...
First edition of the French translation, one of 100 numbered copies on Arches wove paper, the only deluxe paper issue, our copy justified at the colophon by Raymond Mason as an artist’s copy, the sole large-paper issue.
Illustrated work, with an original engraving by Raymond Mason, signed and justified by him as an artist’s copy as frontispiece.
A scarce and pleasing copy.
First edition, very rare (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1476); the NUC records only a single copy.
Spine inexpertly repaired with an adhesive strip, losses to the corners of the spine and covers, wrappers browned.
Melchior Yvan (1803-1873), physician and politician, took part in the mission sent to China under the direction of the diplomat Lagrené, with the aim of concluding a treaty of commerce and navigation with that country. He published his account of the journey in several parts between 1850 and 1855.
This pamphlet appears to be one of the author's very earliest publications relating to China.
First editions in mimeographed form of each of the fascicles (cf. Cuénot 312 & Cuénot 333).
Modern pink marbled paper Bradel binding, smooth spine, some rubbing with small losses of paper to the spine and along the edges of the boards; original wrappers preserved for the first fascicle.
Bound after the first text are: Trois Contes comme Benson (only Tales 2 and 3 are present: L'Ostensoir et La Custode) and En regardant un cyclotron (an offprint from Recherches et Débats, April 1953).
A rare collection.
First edition (cf. Cordier, "Sinica", 1610.)
Publisher’s original full green cloth, smooth spine, marbled endpapers, red-speckled edges, decorations partly faded on spine and covers.
A few pencil annotations, chiefly at the end of the volume.
This is the pocket edition of the "Chinese and English Vocabulary" by George Carter Stent, first published in Shanghai in 1871 (3rd ed. 1898).
A good copy.
Rare first edition of this collection of papers on the production and uses of India rubber.
Illustrated with 3 plates hors texte comprising 6 figures.
Only one copy recorded in the CCF (Musée de l'Homme).
Publisher's Bradel-style binding in full black cloth, smooth spine.
D. Spence, who edited the volume, appears indeed to have been, despite his young age at the time, David Spence (1881-1957), a chemist specialising in rubber manufacture.
Rare collection of pamphlets printed in Toulon or Marseille, notably during the Restoration period, several of which implicate senior military figures of the First Empire.
The first item is: "Ordonnance du Roi, Portant règlement sur les Franchises du Port de Marseille et Suite de l'Ordonnance..." printed in Toulon, by Alx (sic) Curet, (1815), 16 pages, comprising an extract from the Moniteur of 24 February 1815.
Bound in half ivory vellum with corners, smooth spine, manuscript inscription in black ink to spine, blue pasteboards with some surface abrasions, contemporary binding.
Some foxing. A few nicks to the edges.
Bound in continuation:
1)...
First edition of this one-act play. Rama VI (Vajiravudh, 1881-1925) was not only the successor to the celebrated Chulalongkorn (Rama V) on the Siamese throne in 1910; he was also a man of letters who composed numerous works of prose, poetry and drama.
Contemporary full dusky-pink glazed cloth, plain smooth spine, title blocked in gilt within a large architectural border on the upper board.
The author played a major role in the development of modern Thai literature, introducing Western-style theatre to Siamese audiences.
In addition to the thousands of original works he produced in a wide variety of genres, including short stories, novels and political essays, he...
Rare first edition, illustrated with 17 folding maps or plates.
Small tears with minor losses to the spine, light marginal spotting to the boards, library classification in blue pencil in the left margin of the upper cover.
Pavel Passalsky (1870-1900) was appointed observer at the Meteorological Observatory of the University of Odessa in 1894, where he devoted himself primarily to magnetic measurements; this posthumous work, prefaced by Boris Weinberg, is the result.
Krivoi Rog, now in Ukraine and known as Kryvyi Rih, has, since Tsarist times, been a major industrial and metallurgical centre in a mining region.
The city extends over some fifty kilometres...
First edition.
No copies recorded in the CCF.
A very rare small guide intended for English travellers in the Kingdom of Naples. It opens with an itinerary from Rome to Naples via the monastery of Monte Cassino.
Some foxing, small losses to the spine which also shows a tear at the foot.
Complete year for 1787, with 50 issues, of this health journal with continuous pagination (pagination error between nos. 48 and 49).
Contemporary half marbled sheep, smooth spine, bronze sheep lettering-piece, rubbing to the spine, domino-patterned paper boards, a few scuffs to the boards, corners worn and small nicks to the edges, red edges, contemporary binding.
The journal, founded in 1773 by Jean-Jacques Gardane, doctor-regent of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, would run for 17 years, with one volume per year, except for the years 1773-1774.
Jean-Jacques Gardane distinguished himself in the establishment in Paris of treatment houses for the poor and in the...
Rare second edition, illustrated with 13 figures in the text.
Spine and boards slightly sunned at the edges, losses to the spine, which has been reinforced; front wrapper tending to detach; one gathering bound in reverse order (pages 89 to 91).
The obstetrician Charles Maygrier (1849-1926) was an obstetric physician at the Hôpital de la Charité and agrégé professor at the Paris Faculty of Medicine.
At the head of the front wrapper, autograph presentation inscription from Charles Maygrier to Dr Franck, a member of the Académie de médecine (Charles-Émile François-Franck, 1849-1921), a specialist in heart disease.
First edition (cf. Sinkankas 3165. Lorenz X, p. 8.)
Contemporary-style binding in half tobacco calf, smooth spine decorated with gilt and blind fillets as well as blind fleurons, black morocco title label, marbled paper boards, wrappers partially soiled and preserved, modern binding signed Laurenchet.
Some foxing.
Crystallization, the diamond in antiquity, characteristics, composition, origin, attempts at artificial production, deposits (India, Oceania, Brazil, the Cape, various mines), cutting, trade, paragons or principal known diamonds.
Henri Jacobs, born in Antwerp, was a diamond merchant in Paris.
First edition (cf. Mendelssohn I 696; not recorded by Gay.)
Some foxing.
Contemporary half tawny sheep, spine in five compartments with raised bands, bands tooled with gilt dotted rolls and decorated with gilt fillets and fleurons, blue shagreen title-piece, author"s name in green shagreen, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, top edge red, period binding.
Auguste Haussmann (Winterzenheim 1815 – Alger-Mustapha 1874), a diplomat, was appointed French consul at the Cape of Good Hope, where he collected traditions still current among the descendants of the French Huguenots who had settled at the Cape after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
Pages 1 to 134...
First edition (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 2558).
Only one copy recorded in the CCF (BnF).
The First Convention of Peking (18 October 1860) was one of those unequal treaties through which the Western powers sought to impose their conception of international law upon China, which remained reluctant to comply with its provisions.
The clauses addressed in this brief memorandum concern, in particular, the full freedom of practice of the various Christian denominations as stipulated in Article 13.
Loss at the foot of the spine, marginal loss at the foot of the upper cover, minor spotting to the covers.
Rare first edition of the author's first published work, illustrated with three maps, one of which is hors texte.
Only one copy of this edition is recorded in the Catalogue collectif de France (Nanterre).
With an introduction by professor H. S. Jevons. Rangoon, Burma Book Club, 1931, 12mo.
Publisher's full green cloth, smooth spine, printed title label pasted to the spine, extensively rubbed and chipped with substantial loss.
John Sydenham Furnivall (1878-1960) joined the Indian Civil Service in 1901 and spent his entire career in Burma from 1902 onwards, remaining in the country even after independence. Married to a Burmese woman, he founded and developed the...
First edition.
Publisher's full blue pebbled cloth binding, smooth spine lettered in gilt to the centre of the upper cover, double blind-ruled frames to covers, some discoloration to covers.
Leaves 2, 8, 12, 14, 16 and 18 have been interleaved.
No copies traced in the CCF or WorldCat. Extremely rare.
Founded in 1864, this Indo-British lodge was affiliated with the Order of Mark Master Masons, established in 1769, a society connected with Freemasonry.
First edition of the extract from the fourth part, devoted to geology and palaeontology, of Pierre de Tchihatcheff’s work entitled: Asia Minor. A Physical, Statistical and Archaeological Description of the Region.
Contemporary full beige paper-covered boards, smooth spine lettered in black with the author's name, title and author's name neatly inscribed in ink on the upper board, bumped corners.
Our copy brings together the five palaeontological papers by the naturalist Paul-Henri Fischer (1835-1893): Middle Tertiary Fauna. - Lacustrine Tertiary Fauna. - Upper Marine Tertiary Fauna (Steppe Limestone). - Quaternary Formation (Raised Beaches). - Microscopic Organisms...
Rare first edition illustrated with a portrait frontispiece and a plate printed on a separate leaf with tissue guard depicting the Taj Mahal.
No copies recorded in the CCF.
Small tears to the unlettered spine, boards slightly soiled.
A very rare small travel guide to the city of the Taj Mahal (now in the state of Uttar Pradesh).
Manuscript bookplate "E. Miroir 8 February 1911" in the upper left corner of the title page.
An unrecorded edition of the first of the nine geographical booklets published by Marc Bonifas, known as Du Carla (1738-1816), between 1779 and 1780.
At the end of the volume, the work is illustrated with a folding plate.
A light dampstain to the upper margins of the final leaves.
Bradel binding in full blue paper-covered boards, smooth spine, date at foot, navy blue sheep title-piece, modern binding.
Ordinary editions bear the Geneva imprint, and the pagination is more extensive.
The author is chiefly known for having been the first to advocate the use of contour lines for the representation of terrain, extending to topography techniques already employed...
First edition, no copy recorded in the CCF.
Modern bradel binding in full burgundy cloth, spine ruled in gilt.
First leaf restored to the right margin with an adhesive repair, some light foxing, dampstain to the upper margin of the opening leaves.
A native of the Briançonnais (Villeneuve-la-Salle), like many booksellers who settled beyond the Alps, Yves Gravier established himself in Genoa in the second half of the eighteenth century, first in partnership with Louis Fantin, and subsequently on his own.
His parents Jean, Thomas and Simon Gravier were likewise active in Italy (Thomas in Rome itself).
In 1839, the firm was placed into liquidation.
...Extremely rare first edition of this work comprising a course intended for students of Arabic at the University of Turin.
No copies recorded in the CCF or the CCI. The title refers to Thomas Van Erpe’s Grammatica arabica [= Erpennio in Italian], published in Leiden in 1613.
Contemporary-style half black cloth over marbled paper boards, smooth spine, unrestamped and restored, bookplate pasted to front pastedown, modern binding.
In 1861, Colonel Luigi Calligaris (1808-1870), who had served from 1833 as an instructor to the beylical army of Tunisia, was permanently recalled to Piedmont and, in recognition of his expertise in Oriental languages, was appointed professor of...
Rare first edition printed in a small number of copies.
Our copy is preserved in its original blue paper provisional wrappers.
Born at Annonay in 1811, Auguste Bravais entered the École Polytechnique in 1829.
Having become a hydrographic engineer, he undertook several expeditions before embarking, in 1835, aboard the Recherche, dispatched to the Arctic regions in an attempt to locate Blosseville's Lilloise. There he carried out numerous observations in meteorology, terrestrial magnetism, and astronomy.
Appointed Professor of Mathematics Applied to Astronomy at the Faculty of Sciences in Lyon in 1840, he gave up seafaring and devoted himself...
First edition (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1430).
Our copy is preserved in its original temporary grey paper wrappers.
This is the first memoir only of a monograph that was eventually completed in 648 pages.
Unlettered spine split with losses, chipped corners to the wrappers, occasional foxing throughout.
The engineer Edouard-Constant Biot (1803-1850), son of the mathematician Jean-Baptiste Biot, studied under Stanislas Julien and rapidly established himself as an outstanding sinologist whose scholarship remains authoritative today.
Provenance: From the library of the celebrated mathematician Michel Chasles (1793-1880), member of the Académie des sciences...
Second edition, partly original as revised and expanded.
No copy recorded in the CCFr.
Publisher's flexible black cloth binding, smooth spine lettered in black at the centre of the upper cover.
Born in Canton itself, James Dyer Ball (1847-1919) was the son of an American missionary; he pursued his secondary education partly in Canton and partly in Great Britain before entering the British civil service in Hong Kong. He was long regarded as the finest European speaker of Cantonese, for which he moreover advocated a romanization system comparable to that used for Vietnamese.
A few minor foxing spots, slight angular losses to the covers.
Anonymous manuscript of 23 pages, complete as this first notebook, accompanied by a title leaf bearing a manuscript table of nine articles and entitled Cap de Bonne Espérance. 1er cahier. The title identifies it as a first notebook, although no continuation accompanies the present group. On one page, the text shows a visible revision, with a word crossed out and corrected; the manuscript therefore appears to be a working draft rather than a final fair copy. A small brown stain affects one page of the arrival narrative without impairing legibility.
...First edition.
Minor spotting to the boards.
Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, under plain white provisional covers.
Then French minister to the Court of Saint Petersburg, Louis-Philippe de Ségur (1753-1830) intervened in the constitutional debate that was stirring the National Assembly concerning the attribution of the right to declare peace and war (to the King? to the Assembly?).
First edition illustrated with a folding lithographed plate.
No copy recorded in the CCF.
Minor tears with small losses to the margins of the boards and to the spine.
Autograph inscription, in French, by José Vicente Barbosa do Bocage on the half-title.
José Vicente Barboza (Barbosa) du (do) Bocage (1823–1908), Portuguese statesman and zoologist, served as director of the National Museum of Zoology in Lisbon. He is unrelated to his namesakes, the French geographers of the Barbier du Bocage family.
Bound in, and by the same author: "Noticia acerca da descoberta nas costas de Portugal d'um zoophyto da familia hyalochaetides, Brandt...
First edition, one of 50 numbered copies on Renage vellum, the deluxe issue.
A fine copy.
First edition, one of 13 numbered copies on imperial Japan paper, deluxe issue.
Spine and boards very lightly and marginally sun-toned, without significance.
Rare and pleasing copy, with full margins and uncut.
Illustrated first edition, with a frontispiece portrait of Talleyrand.
A few light spots of foxing, mainly affecting the opening leaves.
Contemporary full caramel polished calf, spine with five raised bands ruled in gilt and decorated with double gilt compartments, author’s name in red morocco, title label in dark blue morocco, gilt date at foot, gilt rolls to the headcaps, covers framed with a double gilt fillet, a few small stains and light scuffs at the upper edges of the boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt dentelle border to the turn-ins, double gilt fillets to the edges, gilt top edge. An elegant binding of the period.
A fine, attractively bound...
First edition, one of 605 numbered copies on pur fil d'arches, this copy being one of the 20 hors commerce lettered name copies, including an additional suite on papier à la main du moulin Richard de Bas.
A few minor foxing spots to the front wrapper; slipcase and chemises split at several joints.
17 woodcuts engraved with a knife by Lucien Jacques.
Our copy is complete with its additional suite of the 17 illustrations on papier à la main du moulin Richard de Bas.
Signed and dated 1968 by Jean Giono to Monsieur Lachaud.
First edition, one of 60 numbered copies on Hollande paper, the deluxe issue after 30 copies on Japan paper.
Full red morocco binding, spine slightly toned with five raised bands ruled in black, gilt date at foot, minor unobtrusive rubbing to the bands, gilt rolls to the headcaps, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt dentelle frame and double gilt fillet to the inside covers, original wrappers and spine preserved, gilt stippling to the edges, top edge gilt.
A fine copy, attractively bound.
First edition, one of 200 numbered copies on Japanese vellum, the deluxe issue.
Illustrated with 3 engravings and 1 map.
Brown half shagreen morocco binding with corner pieces; spine with five raised bands ruled in black, gilt date at foot; minor rubbing to the spine; marbled paper sides; marbled endpapers and pastedowns; original wrappers and spine preserved; corners slightly bumped; gilt top edge.
A pleasing copy.
First edition, printed in a limited run of 70 copies numbered on Montval paper and signed by Georges Hugnet.
Illustrated with a frontispiece etching by Stanley William Hayter.
Two poignant autograph inscriptions signed by Georges Hugnet—one to his father and one to his son—in blue and red pencil: "à Georges Hugnet mon père en souvenir des romans noirs dont il enchanta et peupla mon enfance. Georges Hugnet."; "Et maintenant vingt-ans après, à mon très cher fils Nicolas de la part de son grand-père qui l'aurait bien aimé de tout cœur son papa. G."
First edition of Royaume-farfelu, published in Paris by Gallimard (Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française, 3, rue de Grenelle) in 1928. Limited edition of 572 copies: 13 on Imperial Japan paper, 23 on Pannekoek Dutch laid paper (including 3 hors commerce lettered copies), 486 on Lafuma Navarre wove paper, and 50 hors commerce copies on Alfa paper reserved for reviewers.
This is copy no. IX, one of the thirteen deluxe copies on Imperial Japan paper, the most sought-after of the three deluxe issues. Original printed wrappers, as issued.
The preliminary leaf bears the...
First edition, one of 110 numbered copies on deluxe paper, our copy unnumbered, the only large-paper issue.
With a photographic portrait of Léon Blum as frontispiece.
Some scattered foxing, notably to the edges and endpapers; minor marginal tears to the covers, without significance.
First edition, one of 40 numbered copies on alfa paper, our copy not specifically numbered, issued as the only deluxe paper copies.
A few small spots of foxing, mainly affecting the edges and the endpapers, which show two small traces of adhesive paper.
First edition entirely hand-painted by Jacques Capdeville and printed in 30 numbered copies on vellum, with a small number of hors-commerce copies also issued.
Rare and fine copy, complete with its full flexible paperboard slipcase and with the musical setting of the poem by John Supko, on tracing paper.
Handwritten signatures of Philippe Denis and Jacques Capdeville in the colophon.
First edition of the French translation, one of only 34 numbered copies printed on pure vellum paper, the sole deluxe paper issue.
A fine and rare copy.
First edition in book form, issued for the centenary of the birth of Pierre Jean Jouve; one of 33 numbered copies on pure wove vellum, the deluxe issue.
A fine copy.
Rare first edition of the French translation by Judith Gautier, printed on japon-style paper.
Slight restoration work to spine and a corner of the lower cover, wrappers slightly and marginally soiled as usual.
Illustrated throughout with full-page colour woodcuts by Yamamoto.
First edition, printed in small numbers, of this offprint from the “Journal de la Société des Américanistes”. No deluxe issue printed. Skilful restauration to cover.
Rare presentation copy signed by Claude Lévi-Strauss to Simone de Beauvoir: “Cet humble aspect de la malédiction féminine, en amical hommage de Claude Lévi-Strauss” (“this humble aspect of the feminine curse, in friendly homage”) on the upper cover. This fieldwork study of the Nambikwara from Lévi-Strauss’ 1938 ethnographic expedition directly influenced Beauvoir, who...
First edition.
Our copy is preserved in its original plain pink paper waiting wrappers.
Ink annotations to the front cover, a few short tears; internally a clean and agreeable copy.
As it was never ratified, this concordat never came into effect, and France therefore remained under the regime of the Concordat of 1801 until the Law on the Separation of Church and State in 1905.
First public edition of this text written under the pseudonym François la Colère, one of 50 numbered copies on Madagascar paper, the deluxe issue.
Rare and fine copy.
First edition.
Spine and boards slightly and marginally faded.
A rare and pleasing copy.
First edition, limited to 59 numbered copies on Arches vellum, signed in pink pencil by André Masson beneath the limitation statement.
Rare and fine copy.
Illustrated with two original etchings by André Masson, printed full-bleed and issued hors texte.
First quarto edition, complete with all volumes and plates, commonly referred to as the “Third Edition” of the Encyclopédie, and also known as the “Encyclopédie de Pellet” or “Encyclopédie de Lyon” or “Encyclopédie du Lac” by Simon-Nicolas-Henri Linguet.
Full marbled and polished brown sheepskin contemporary bindings, spines with five raised bands and four gilt compartments decorated with pomegranate gilt tools, two gilt decorative rolls at foot, title and volume lettering-pieces in red and green morocco, boards twice framed in blind, board edges gilt, all red edges, marbled pastedowns and...
First edition printed in 125 numbered copies on B.F.K. de Rives paper, ours being one of the 25 containing the two black etchings by Robert Lagarde, the colour suite, and the additional plate, a deluxe issue.
A few spots to the covers, internally clean and pleasing; copy complete with its publisher’s prospectus.
Each etching and additional plate is signed and justified by Robert Lagarde.
First edition.
Minor foxing, a pleasing copy.
The Roman jeweller Alessandro Castellani (1823–1883) was also an enlightened collector of ancient and medieval artefacts, from which he sometimes drew inspiration for his jewellery designs.
Jean de Witte (1808–1889), archaeologist and numismatist, became a member of the Institut in 1886.
First edition of the French translation of an episode from the Ramayana.
Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, under a temporary blue paper cover with minor losses at the corners.
Some foxing, mainly affecting the endpapers.
The young orientalist Antoine-Léonard Chézy (1773-1832), influenced by Friedrich Schlegel, had begun teaching himself Sanskrit around 1806, studying original texts alongside their English translations.
In the same year, 1814, he was appointed to the very first chair of Sanskrit in Europe, becoming professor of Sanskrit language and literature at the Collège de France.
Rare and important first edition.
Our copy is sold unbound. A minor worm-trail on all leafs' heads, not affecting text.
The work describes the dress, headdress, arsenal and equipment of soldiers and officers of the French army; it also addresses the cavalry, dragoons, and hussars.
The chapter devoted to the distinctive uniform of each regiment includes a list of these regiments, some of which took part in the American Revolutionary War.
First edition (see Sabin 97501).
A light dampstain to the right margin of the opening leaves.
Half brown cloth binding, smooth spine with a brown sheep lettering-piece, boards with marbled paper; a modest later binding.
After distinguishing himself—at times infamously—during the wars of the French Revolution, notably in Vendée, Louis-Marie Turreau [1756–1816] later served in Italy and captured the city of Susa.
He held the post of Ambassador to the United States from 1804 to 1811 and was created Baron of the Empire upon his return. His Aperçu of 1815 offers a bitter critique of the federal government. Turreau’s name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe...
First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint from the Annales d'Hygiène publique et de médecine Légale, 1849, vol. XLII.
Modern Bradel binding in marbled-paper-covered boards, smooth spine without lettering.
Only three copies recorded in the CCF.
This memoir offers a detailed study of the physical characteristics associated with various occupations: laundresses, hairdressers, writers, prostitutes, bookbinders, dyers, etc.
Son of the draughtsman and cartographer Ambroise Tardieu, Auguste-Ambroise Tardieu (1818-1879) was one of the founders of forensic medicine; he published numerous monographs on medical questions relating to...
Rare first edition, illustrated with a large engraved plate depicting a lead-smelting furnace and protective masks for miners.
Norman Library 2052 (without the plate). Garrison-Morton 2098: "Classical description of the diseases found among lead-workers. Reporting on 1200 cases of lead poisoning, Tanquerel's studies were so complete that later studies added little to the knowledge of the symptoms and signs of the disease".
Spines browned, a few light spots of foxing, a small hole to the lower right corner of the front board of the first volume, upper right corner of the front board of the second volume creased.
Original wrappers, as issued.
First edition of this in-folio broadside signed "Phelypeaux", printed on one side only and in two columns.
A scarce and pleasing copy despite traces of central folding.
First edition of the French translation by Edouard Chavannes of an extract from the Journal of the Peking oriental society.
Contemporary Bradel-style binding in full grey percaline, smooth spine decorated with a gilt fleur-de-lis, double gilt fillet at the foot, cherry shagreen lettering-piece with surface scuffing, partially toned endpapers.
This was the translator’s first scholarly publication devoted to this treatise, which forms the twenty-eighth chapter of the celebrated Shiji (Historical Records) by the first true Chinese historian, Sima Qian (145–86 BCE).
These records constitute the first systematic synthesis of...
Rare first edition of this small practical Malagasy–English lexicon compiled by the Protestant missionary Joseph Stickney Sewell (1819–1900), who was active in Madagascar between 1867 and 1876; although a Quaker, he was employed by the Anglican London Missionary Society.
No copy recorded in the CCF. Absent from Grandidier (who nevertheless cites other works by the author).
Publisher’s modest brick-coloured half-cloth binding, smooth spine without lettering, title blocked on the upper board, with light spotting and staining to the boards.
Title page and final endpaper toned,
First edition, illustrated with five engraved plates (see Crowley 894; David 258; Poletti 182).
Scattered foxing, otherwise a pleasing copy.
Contemporary half sheep, the flat spine gilt with decorative rolls and small tools, black morocco lettering-piece, headcap worn, some rubbing to spine and joints, marbled paper boards.
"… Serres did research into the development of the bones and teeth…" (D.S.B., XII, 315).
Very rare first edition (cf. Ryckebusch 7452).
Four copies are recorded in the CCFr, all in Paris at the BnF: Tolbiac (2), Arsenal and Richelieu.
Spine and boards restored and reattached, with losses to the corners,
A refutation of the memorandum by Baron de Lareinty, former delegate of Martinique, urging the National Assembly to reject the bill establishing trial by jury in the colonies.
Denouncing judicial practices prejudicial to men of colour, this memorandum is jointly signed by four liberal deputies: Victor Schoelcher, Alexandre Laserve and J. François de Mahy, representatives of the island of Réunion in the Assembly, and Philippe Pory-Papy, deputy for...
First edition of the French translation prepared by J. de Rey-Pailhade and Henry-Joseph Sauvaire, issued in a small printing as an offprint from the Journal asiatique.
A few small spots of foxing; a pleasing and uncommon copy.
Half green cloth, smooth spine with red morocco title-label, ‘œil-de-chat’ patterned paper over boards, sprinkled edges.
Illustrated with two double-page plates outside the text.
Born in Marseille, Henri Sauvaire (1831–1896) began his career in the consular service before turning to Near-Eastern archaeology.
On the half-title, a presentation inscription in the hand of Henri-Joseph Sauvaire to the archaeologist...
Very rare devotional work, for which no bibliographical information could be traced.
Not recorded in Hage Chahine, Blackmer, or Atabey.
Full brown calf binding, spine with four raised bands gilt-ruled and richly gilt-panelled, brown calf lettering-piece, contemporary binding.
Some restorations to the spine and joints, spotting to the edges.
First edition of a poetry collection printed in a very small number of copies.
No copy recorded in the CCF. A single copy held in WorldCat (National Library of Australia).
Light, scattered foxing.
Half brown percaline Bradel binding, smooth spine, date and place gilt at the foot of the spine, marbled paper boards, original wrappers preserved, corners slightly rubbed, contemporary binding.
First edition (only three copies recorded in the CCFr: BnF, Lyon and Montpellier).
Blank spine split with small losses, a few instances of foxing.
The sole edition of this small, learned and appealing dissertation.
Paul Saint-Olive (1799–1879), engraver and contributor to the Revue du Lyonnais, was a tireless seeker of curiosities (cf. Vingtrinier (Aimé): Paul Saint-Olive, archéologue lyonnais, Lyon, 1877).
Signed autograph inscription by Paul Saint-Olive to Doctor Girard on the inside of the upper cover.
Four-page manuscript in black ink on a folio bifolium (31.9 x 20.1 cm), entitled Compte de dépense & de recette pour l'habitation de Monsieur le Vte de La Bourdonnaye and, on the verso, Etat des naissances de Nègres et mortalités & crues et déficits d'animaux, together with Etat des revenus fabriqués sur l'habitation de Monsieur le Vte de La Bourdonnaye. Signed Pérès and Grasset frères, Pitteu & Cie, certified at Verrettes and Saint-Marc on 30 June 1785.
New illustrated edition featuring 15 naive woodcuts, including one on the rear cover.
No copies recorded in the CCF (Collective Catalogue of France).
Pleasant and rare copy.
This small illustrated tale, primarily serving as an opportunity to showcase all familiar animals within a single narrative, is part of the "penny books" series—the equivalent of our own chapbooks intended for the most modest audiences.
It is traditionally attributed to the publisher, John Golby Rusher (1784–1877), who took over his father’s printing business (William Rusher) and specialized in children’s literature.
First edition.
Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers beneath a plain cover, the spine split with losses to the paper and the title label also with defects.
Pleasing condition internally, with only occasional foxing.
Among the finest works relating to naval medicine; a substantial section (pp. 90–212) is devoted to scurvy.
The author, a physician in the Dutch navy, composed this work entirely from his own firsthand observations.
A substantial section (pp. 90–212) is devoted to scurvy.
New edition.
Publisher’s full red percaline binding, smooth spine ruled in blind, title and imprint stamped in gilt on the upper cover, speckled edges.
A slightly shaken copy, with some rubbing to the covers.
The first edition appeared in 1843, and the collection was again issued in 1910.
Théodore Roland de Bussy (1810–1873) pursued an administrative career in the colony, rising to the post of conseiller de préfecture, and was highly active in the field of language studies, publishing some ten bilingual lexicons, including the celebrated Idiome d'Alger (1838), likewise reissued on numerous occasions. See Gaudin (François); Mahtout (Mahfoud): Histoire culturelle et...
First edition of one of the many productions of an odontological charlatan (cf. David, p. 245).
Illustrated with a portrait of the author as frontispiece.
Spine clumsily restored with an adhesive repair and showing small losses; corner losses to the boards; foxing.
Born into a Dutch Jewish family, Benjamin Cohen (1818–1852) adopted an Anglicised pseudonym in order to facilitate his business dealings, passing himself off as a London practitioner holding a degree from the University of Edinburgh, where he claimed to have been "admitted" in 1833. In reality, he had undertaken no formal studies.
Nevertheless, he set himself up as a dentist in Paris in 1836. Lacking any...
First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint.
Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Sorbonne, Campus Condorcet).
Included in the collection of studies relating to Egyptian and Assyrian philology and archaeology. Offprint from the Muséon. Louvain, Charles Peeters, 1883. Spine and covers marginally faded, with small tears and slight marginal losses, one snag with loss to the centre of the lower cover.
Félix-Marie-Louis-Jean Robiou de La Tréhonnais (1818-1894) was deputy professor at the Faculties of Letters of Strasbourg and Nancy, and Professor of Greek Literature at the Faculty of Rennes.
First edition illustrated with 8 lithographed plates printed outside the text and protected by tissue guards.
Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and ENC).
The sole edition, uncommon: in fact a miscellany assembled by Fanny Claudet (Madame Prosper Richomme), bringing together "orientalist" texts that had already become classics on this part of the Middle East (Chateaubriand, Lamartine, Poujoulat, Michaud, Francis Wey, etc.).
First edition (see Playfair 583a. Not recorded by Tailliart.)
Half black morocco binding, spine with five raised bands, sides of marbled paper, original front cover preserved, endpapers and pastedowns of comb-marbled paper; modern binding.
Loss skilfully filled at the lower right corner of the original front cover and at the upper right corners of the final two leaves.
Second edition, revised and expanded (see Backer & Sommervogel VI, 1557). Only three copies recorded in the CCFr (BnF, Dijon and Nîmes).
Contemporary full mottled calf, spine with five raised bands and richly gilt compartments, modern burgundy morocco lettering-piece, some rubbing to spine and joints, headcaps trimmed, triple gilt fillet frame on boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, bookplate pasted to one pastedown.
The first edition of this small universal calendar appeared in 1711 in the form of a folio broadside.
Each subsequent issue expanded the content: the 1731 edition was intended to serve as a supplement to the large Calendrier...
Rare first edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint from the Bulletin de la Société de géographie de Marseille, illustrated with 2 folding colour maps outside the text.
Spine split with some loss, marginal dampstaining to the covers, contents in pleasant condition.
Alfred Rabaud (1828-1886) was president of the Société de géographie de Marseille, founded in 1877 and one of the organisations that helped further France's colonial policy.
Rare, albeit in the condition described.
First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint from the Bulletins de la Société d'antropologie, volume IV, 2nd series, for the year 1869.
According to the CCFr, copies are held only at the BnF and in Arles.
The work discusses the transformist hypothesis. A native of the Upper Palatinate, Franz Ignaz Pruner (1808-1882), known as Pruner-Bey following his years in Egypt, returned to Europe in 1860 and settled in Paris, where he devoted himself to anthropological studies.
A few small losses to the corners of the spine and wrappers, with occasional minor foxing.
Rare first edition (cf. Pritzel 7288).
Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Amiens and Montpellier).
Bound in a modern bradel binding of full blue paper-covered boards, smooth spine without lettering, printed paper title label pasted at the centre of the upper cover, a small dampstain at the foot of the spine.
The author, an apothecary in Montpellier, later qualified as a doctor of medicine.
First edition, illustrated with a folding map at the end of the volume (see Fumagalli 730, and Gay, 2674bis (collation of the first two parts only: 292 pp.).
The third part of this history of the "Ethiopia of the Ancients" is devoted to Christianity, the religion most widely practised in Abyssinia.
Occasional light foxing, chiefly affecting the folding map.
Half blue shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands gilt with dotted tooling and decorated with double gilt panels, slight rubbing to the spine, dark navy percaline boards framed with blind fillets, a small loss of percaline at the foot of the upper board, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled...
Rare first edition.
Our copy is preserved disbound.
The sole edition of this uncommon pamphlet issued in the context of the Russian Campaign: "Ce Précis historique sur les Cosaques ne pouvait paraître dans une circonstance plus favorable que dans le moment où la Russie est devenue le théâtre de la guerre".
The son of the Paris bookseller Noël-Jacques Pissot (1724–1804), Noël-Laurent Pissot (1748–1815) at first followed in his father’s footsteps: admitted to the booksellers’ guild on 19 April 1768, he worked chiefly in partnership with him and specialised in the publication and sale of works in English or translated from the English. From July 1797 he...
First edition.
Light scuffing to the boards.
Bradel binding in half black shagreen, smooth spine lettered in gilt vertically, green paper-covered boards, modern binding.
Paper by M. Breton-Laugier, vinegar manufacturer of Orléans, on the advantages of Pasteur’s system, pp. [5]–7; Wine industry, pp. [9]–15.
Very rare first edition printed in a small number of copies of this offprint from the Fourth International Congress of Hygiene and Demography, session of 5 September 1882.
Spine and boards slightly faded and yellowed at the margins; interior in pleasing condition.
In this communication, Louis Pasteur examines all the new studies carried out in collaboration with Chamberland, Roux and Thuillier since the publication of the 1880 memoir.
Its principal purpose is to provide examples of the attenuation of viruses under the influence of atmospheric oxygen. He also summarizes the criticisms that had appeared in the collected works of the German Sanitary Office.
Extremely rare first edition, illustrated with two plates and issued as a separate offprint from the Phytographia Canariensis of the Histoire naturelle des Îles Canaries by Barker-Webb and Sabin Berthelot.
The plates, lithographed by J. Rigaud et Cie, were drawn by Alfred Riocreux, the gifted botanical artist and pupil of Redouté, responsible, among other works, for Choix de plantes de la Nouvelle-Zélande (1846).
Some foxing.
Contemporary binding in red half-morocco with corners, smooth spine ruled in gilt at head and foot, long-grained title, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.
Not recorded by Nissen.
The Vicomte de...
Different issue from the one dated An XI (1803), which itself is not firmly established as the true first edition (cf. Monglond VI 139–140; Quérard VI 326).
The work is illustrated with an etched frontispiece entitled « Frémissez ! voilà du joueur le sort inévitable !! » depicting a gambler blowing his brains out in a gaming room, amid general indifference.
Our copy is preserved in its original publisher’s wrappers, with a blank marbled paper provisional cover showing small losses at the corners.
A pleasing copy.
First edition of the French translation (cf. Chadenat, 494; Brunet I, 24.)
Contemporary half green sheep, smooth spines faded and decorated with double gilt fillets, marbled paper sides with minor rubbing, marbled endpapers, two small tears at the joints, contemporary bindings.
Light waterstain to the upper right corner of a number of leaves in the second volume.
An Indian traveller, Mirza Abu Taleb Khan was born in 1752 at Lucknow in Hindustan and died in Calcutta in 1806.
After serving in the army of the Nawab of Oudh, he embarked for Europe on 16 February 1799 with his friend Captain David Richardson.
Following a three-month stay at the Cape, he landed at...
A very rare collection of three anonymous political pamphlets, issued without place or publisher in 1783 and 1784, all in first edition and bound together at the time in one octavo volume:
