Remarkable Bindings, from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century

First Elzevirian edition. with title-frontispiece. Epistle to Cardinal Mazarin. Brunet (Manuel du libraire): "The first edition of this esteemed history is that of Paris, Edme Martin, 1661, but it is not sought after, while this one [...]". There exists a counterfeit of this Elzevier edition, it is less well printed and contains only 514pp.

Full red morocco binding 19th century (ca 1860) signed Belz-Niedrée. Spine with raised bands richly decorated with ornate compartments framed by triple fillets, roll-tooled at foot. Covers with interlace decoration in frame and complex geometric figures. Rich inner border. Gilt edges. Very fresh copy, with a slight yellow dampstain to...

New edition, with some parts in first edition as expanded with a preface, one of 30 numbered copies on Holland paper, deluxe copies after 6 on Japan paper.

Full chocolate brown morocco binding, spine with five raised bands, gilt roulettes on headcaps, quadruple black fillets framing the boards, black fleurons at corners, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, triple gilt fillets framing the pastedowns, covers and spine preserved, double gilt fillets on leading edges, top edge gilt on deckled edges, contemporary binding signed by Stroobants.

Bookplate pasted at head of one pastedown.

Very fine copy perfectly executed by Stroobants.

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

With a substantial prefatory letter by Victor Hugo.

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

First edition, one of 10 numbered copies on Japan paper, the deluxe issue.
Bradel binding in half chocolate-brown morocco with bands, smooth spine, date gilt at foot, marbled paper boards, brown endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, gilt edges, binding signed Honnelaître.

First French edition, rare. Translated by Etienne François de Sennevert. A fine printing on handsome laid paper.
Contemporary full polished mottled calf, smooth spines richly decorated with gilt tooling in compartments and rolls, black morocco lettering-pieces, tan morocco volume labels, triple gilt fillet borders on the boards. Some surface abrasions to the boards, joints, and borders. Slight brown waterstain in the upper margin of the preliminary leaves of volume 1. A small loss at the foot of volume 4. Headcap of volume 2 lightly worn. Loss at the lower joint of volume 1. Despite a few minor defects, a very handsome copy.

First edition

Contemporary full red morocco binding. Decorated spine with raised bands. Red morocco title label. Triple fillet frame on boards. Gilt edges. Traces of rubbing. 2 corners slightly bumped.

Fine copy, precious in contemporary red morocco.

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

First edition displaying all the distinctive features of its publication: it presents no capital letters except at the beginning of paragraphs and it is the very first work to have been printed with Voltaire's spelling. Our copy is complete with its errata leaf, which is often missing.
Later bindings (19th century) in full red morocco, Jansenist spines with five raised bands, dates and places gilt at foot, boards struck at center with large gilt typographical fleurons, double gilt fillets on leading edges and headcaps, pastedowns lined with blue morocco presenting a wide gilt decorative border, monogrammed bookplates mounted on the pastedowns of each volume, following endpapers of...

New illustrated edition 300 numbered copies printed, ours on marble Vellum paper. The book is embellished with 50 drawings in color by Pablo Roig and decorated with a frame in the Art Nouveau style by Riom.

Full brown shagreen, the spine sunned in five compartments completely blindtooled from half circle embellished with golden carnations, fillets by cold soldering outline the raised band, date and place of publication to foot, covers are completely framed with a grid pattern of blindtooled fillets forming decorative compartments in their center a golden hoop, the large plate achieved by Saint-André in the center of the first chiseled cover in a sunken Andalusian pattern...

First edition, one of 15 numbered copies on Hollande Van Gelder paper and signed with the publisher's initials.
Full green morocco, the spine in five compartments, the first cover inlayed with a large and superb plate by Marguerite Lecreux of a horn sculpted in Cameo, featuring a sailboat with its sails unfurled, on the calm sea appears an engraved silverfish set under the plate of the horn and visible in transparency, pastedown in silk decorated with a submarine pattern (coral, jellyfish, starfishes and algae) framed in morocco embellished with quintuple gilt fillets, endpages of iridescence cloth, the following pages in marbled paper, the headband highlighted with a...

Rare edition of this bawdy tale, complete in two parts published separately. It is illustrated with four wood-engraved vignettes, borrowed from Decameron of Boccace (Venice, 1531) and ingeniously twisted to suit their context. This edition is the first text of the author and is unique in that it has not been corrected. The book will be translated in French only in 1792.
Modern binding in full red morocco, the spine in five compartments, gilt date and title, golden fillets surround the cover, the endpaper and pastedown of vellum.
Provenance: Library of Gianni de Marco with its book plate and itsseal.
No copies in an American Library, one in the British...

First edition, one of 40 numbered copies on vélin pur fil paper, the tirage de tête (deluxe copies).

Full morocco, covers and spine preserved, slipcase, elegant binding signed by Semet & Plumelle.

Provenances: mostly from Robert Desprechins' library with his ex-libris drawn by Jean Cocteau, and by Louis de Sadeleer with his engraved ex-libris.

A very nice copy beautifully bound morocco signed by Semet & Plumelle.

Illustrated first edition. Faerno's verses appeared for the first time in 1564, and Perrault's version in 1699. This edition gives for the first time Faerno's original text followed by Perrault's translation. It is illustrated with a frontispiece by Claude du Bosc representing Aesop among animals, and 100 unsigned headpieces (9 x 11 cm). The preliminary leaves contain some poems by the neo-Latin poet and some letters.

Full aubergine morocco binding from the late 19th century signed Chatelin in the frieze. Richly ornamented spine with raised bands. Title, date and place in gilt. Central framing à la Du Seuil with fleurons in the corners and 4 large fleurons inside the rectangle...

First complete collected edition and first illustrated edition. The first edition of Dom Garcie de Navarre, L’Impromptu de Versailles, Dom Juan ou le Festin de Pierre, Les Amans magnifiques, and La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas. With thirty copper engraved illustrations by Jean Sauvé after Pierre Brassart, 9 of them included in the pagination.19th-century red full morocco binding, spines with five raised bands, date gilt at foot, double gilt fillets to edges of covers and spine-ends, large inner gilt dentelle, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Bindings...

The so-called Fermiers Généraux edition, using the editions of 1685 and 1696 for the text and adding tales by d’Autreau and de Vergier, present in the 1718 edition.

From an edition of 2,000 copies on vergé de Hollande, the present copy is one of the rare first issue copies in contemporary morocco with uncensored engravings and a fleuron error on p. 240 of vol. 1, later corrected.

First edition, of which there were no large paper copies.

Near contemporary red half morocco over marbled paper boards by P. Ruban, spine in six compartments, raised bands bounded by black fillets, date gilt at foot of spine, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers preserved, top edge gilt.

Attractive ex libris engraved by Provost-Blondel on pastedown, representing a helmet with a feather, medallion and a strip with the motto “Tojours en face.” The ex libris belonged to Victor Coué, a 2^nd Lieutenant killed in the First World War.
This copy has two frontispieces: one lithograph heightened by Félicien Rops showing a caricature of Barbey d'Aurevilly...

The rare French first edition, illustrated with 9 folding plates containing 22 figures. The first edition, in Italian, dates from 1765. Two manuscript leaves in fine handwriting are bound at the rear on the properties of gunpowder, with a comparative table of tests for sulphur, saltpetre and charcoal.

Later binding, ca. 1830, in full glazed navy calf. Spine with raised bands handsomely decorated with central tool and corner tools in each compartment, roulette at head and foot, geometric roulette on bands, repeated as interior border. Green calf title-label. Framing border on boards. Edges gilt. Rubbing to boards, particularly the upper board, with scratches.

First edition for which there is no mention of large paper copies.
Bradel binding of paper boards, dark blue morocco title label with gilt fillets, covers preserved, elegant binding by Thomas Boichot.
Handsome autograph inscription from the author : "A Guy de Maupassant, son ami."

First edition, one of 18 numbered copies on pur fil, from the deluxe issue.
Full red Jansenist morocco binding, spine in five compartments, date gilt at foot, black morocco endpapers and pastedowns, covers and spine preserved, all edges gilt; matching half red morocco chemise, spine in five compartments, date gilt at foot, black felt lining; slipcase edged in red morocco, ochre felt interior, a highly elegant ensemble superbly executed by Duhayon.
A superb copy, impeccably bound in a triple binding by Duhayon.

HUGO Victor
La Pitié suprême [The Supreme Compassion] Calmann Lévy, Paris 1879, 150 x 240 mm (5 15/16 x 9 7/16 ”), half shagreen
First edition.
Elegant half dark blue shagreen over marbled paper boards by René Aussourd, spine in four compartments with gilt dots and double gilt compartments containing horizontal arabesques and gilt stars, date and “ex. de J. Drouet” in gilt at foot, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers and spine preserved (marginal repairs to covers), top edge gilt, ex-libris of Pierre Duché on one endpaper.
An exceptional presentation copy, inscribed by Victor Hugo to Juliette Drouet, the love of his life: “The first copy...