L'homme aux yeux de verre[The Man with Glass Eyes]
First edition, one of 26 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only copies issued on deluxe paper.
A rare and attractive copy.

First edition, one of 26 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only copies issued on deluxe paper.
A rare and attractive copy.
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)...
This illustrated volume with 58 engraved plates numbered 1-57 (including a plate 15bis) serves as the atlas to the two text volumes of the Manual of Navigation to the West Coast of Africa, issued in 1851.
Not in Polak, although that bibliography carefully records all the author’s other works, as well as the extracts derived from the Manual.
Some foxing, a light marginal waterstain to the right margin of all leaves.
Contemporary half navy blue cloth, smooth spine ruled in blind, paper losses and abrasions to the marbled paper boards, a small label pasted at the head of the upper cover, a few nicks to the edges, corners rubbed.
A lieutenant in the French Navy...
First edition.
Official series not recorded by Polak.
Contemporary full cherry-red morocco binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt Romantic arabesques, gilt roll tooling partly worn at the spine ends, covers with a wide panel of sextuple gilt fillets and Romantic arabesques, corner ornaments in gilt, crowned "FO" cipher stamped in gilt at the centre of each cover, doublures and endpapers lined with azure watered silk, gilt garland frame to the doublures, corners slightly rubbed, all edges gilt, an elegant Romantic binding of the period.
A few dark stains to the covers, occasional foxing mainly affecting the endpapers.
Copy from the library of Ferdinand-Philippe...
Rare illustrated first edition, with 4 plates at the end of the volume, including two folding maps.
Small tears neatly repaired to the spine, minor angular losses to the boards, heavy foxing.
Joseph Lartigue (1791-1876), a naval captain, distinguished himself through his work in nautical meteorology and cartography.
Copy from the physicist Edmond Becquerel (1820-1891), member of the Académie des sciences, with an autograph signed presentation inscription from Joseph Lartigue at the head of the upper cover.
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...
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...
Paris, G. Masson, 1872. Quarto, 3 unnumbered leaves, ix and 196 pages, with 51 lithographed plates.
First edition of this important and very rare work, issued in a small number of copies. Catalogue Petit, 656; Bibliotheca piscatoria, p. 75; Nissen, ZBI, 1018.
Complete with all 51 plates, numbered I-L with an additional plate XXXV bis. They form two distinct series: 36 plates devoted to nets, fish-farming apparatus and fishing implements used in China, followed by 15 plates depicting fishes collected by the author, including several species then new to European science...
Rare first edition, printed in a small number of copies and illustrated with 3 plates, including 2 folding colour maps.
A very good copy despite some minor foxing to the wrappers and a vertical crease to the front wrapper.
The text presents the conclusions reached by the naturalist William Carpenter (1813-1885) following the deep-sea exploration carried out off the north of Ireland from 1868 to 1870 alongside Sir Charles Wyville Thomson (1830–1882).
Copy belonging to the biologist Jean-Louis-Armand Quatrefages de Bréau (1810-1892), with his ink stamp in the upper right-hand corner of the title page.
First edition of the final work devoted to the Canary Islands by the zoologist and ethnographer Sabin Berthelot (1794-1880), whose first stay in the islands dates back to 1820.
From that time onward, he resided for the most part in Tenerife and devoted himself to the study of his adopted country.
At the end of the volume, the work is illustrated with 20 plates printed outside the text, some with coloured subjects.
A few minor spots of foxing.
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 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 on ordinary paper.
Contemporary Bradel binding in red half morocco with corners, smooth spine, date gilt at foot, covers of marbled paper framed with blind fillets, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt; an attractive period binding signed Bernasconi.
Occasional foxing, chiefly affecting the opening leaves.
Signed autograph inscription from Claude Farrère to M. Briquet.
Facing the limitation page, this copy is enriched with an original watercolour signed by Henri Leclerc depicting the heroine of the work leaning against a ship’s bulwark, her suitor standing slightly...
First edition, one of 330 numbered copies on Arches wove paper.
Minor tears to the head and tail of the spine; a pleasing copy.
With wood-engraved illustrations by François de Marliave, printed in several colours by E. Gasperini.
First edition, illustrated with a folding map and 469 engravings within the text.
Contemporary half black shagreen, the spine with four raised bands ruled in gilt and decorated with triple blind-tooled panels, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns; a few small scuffs to the edges, corners slightly rubbed.
Contents include: history; construction and manufacture of telegraph cables; laying and repair of submarine cables; electrical testing; fault detection; signal transmission; and the operation of submarine lines.
The author, Jules Hippolyte Eugène Wünschendorff (1840–1901), was an engineer with the telegraph service and director of military...
Rare first edition, illustrated with four plates at the end of the volume (cf. Polak 8728).
This practical treatise was reissued repeatedly until the end of the Ancien Régime.
Our copy is offered in its original state, stitched in the temporary blue paper wrappers.
A waterstain in the right margin of the first fifty leaves, with another affecting the lower margins of the subsequent leaves; title page detached.
Gilles-François Segondat (1724–1791), deputy commissioner of the navy, was to conclude his career as an ordinary commissioner of the ports.
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.
Edition issued after William Robertson’s History of America (cf. Sabin 38363, which records a work comprising the history of these three explorers under a collective title, printed in 1781).
Bound at the end is: "Kurzgefasste Geschichte des Ferdinand Cortez, Eroberers von Mexico und Franz von Pizarro ersten Entdeckers und Eroberers von Peru", published in Frankfurt by Eichenberg in 1781.
Contemporary early twentieth-century half red shagreen, spine in five raised bands ruled in gilt, minor rubbing to the spine, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.
Some light scattered foxing.
The preface to the work on Cortez notes that publication was...
Each of the disbound parts is in its original edition.
With: "Supplément au Précis justificatif de la société commerciale de la nouvelle Compagnie des Indes. Pour servir de réponse aux inculpations contenues dans le rapport fait à la Convention nationale, le 3 août 1793", printed in Paris by Lottin, also in 1793 (4to, 14 pp.), likewise disbound, printed in two columns, one for the "inculpations" and the other for the "réponses", on bluish paper.
These texts constitute refutations of the allegations levelled against the Compagnie des Indes, founded in France by Colbert in 1664 and whose privilege had been abolished on 3 April 1790.
During the Terror, the...
Second edition comprising the reissue of the first two volumes of the Bulletin, no less scarce than the copies of the first edition, and corresponding to the opening phase of Bourbon’s legislative and regulatory activity, a veritable mine of information not only on legal matters but on every aspect of the island’s daily life (cf. Ryckebusch, 1224).
Contemporary Bradel bindings in half fawn marbled sheepskin, smooth spines ruled in gilt with double fillets, marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, yellow edges, three corners lightly rubbed.
The third and final volume lacking, occasional foxing, two black stains to the lower cover of the first volume.
Very rare first edition, illustrated with two frontispieces, eighteen plates, and a folding map table bound at the end of the second volume.
Scattered foxing.
Half black shagreen bindings, smooth spines tooled in blind with fillets and small ornaments, gilt lettering at the foot of the spines showing some rubbing, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, light rubbing to the extremities, sprinkled edges, contemporary bindings.
Born at Versailles in 1809, Anne Jean-Baptiste Raffenel entered the Naval administration in 1825.
After several voyages, notably to Africa, the West Indies and the United States, he was posted to Senegal and from 1843...
First edition (cf. Sabin, 64,876).
Spine cracked with small losses; slight marginal tears and losses to the wrappers.
The subject of this dissertation does not, of course, concern the State of the same name (a member of the Confederacy during the Civil War), but the vessel, the CSS Alabama, a sloop of war with combined steam and sail propulsion, built in Great Britain in 1862. It served in the Confederate States Navy until it was sunk on 19 June 1864 following a naval engagement with the Union sloop of war USS Kearsarge off the port of Cherbourg, France.
In the aftermath of the war arose the Alabama Claims, demands for damages brought by the Federal Government of the...
First edition, illustrated with two plates, including an engraved portrait frontispiece by S. Desmaretz and Couché after Scheibler, together with an engraved headpiece by De Launay (cf. Quérard, VII, 240; Polak, 7650).
Account of the career of Jean Bart, squadron leader in the French Navy and Knight of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis, forming part of the collection devoted to the nineteen engagements of this celebrated seaman, engraved by M. Le Gouaz; followed by historical, biographical and topographical notes on the origins of Dunkirk and the political importance of its port (...). With engraved plates and vignettes. Dedicated to H.E. the Minister of the Navy and the...
First edition of this important first-hand account of the deportation and enforced stay in French Guiana of the counter-revolutionary journalist and songwriter Louis-Ange Pitou (1767–1846), placed under “preventive” arrest after the Directory’s coup d’état of 18 Fructidor, Year V [4 September 1797], sentenced to transportation, and released from exile only after 18 Brumaire (cf. Fierro, 1170. Sabin 63057. Leclerc 3445.)
The work is illustrated with two folding engraved frontispieces: La détention des déportés sur la frégate La Décade and Le désert de Konanama dans la Guyane.
Contemporary bindings in fawn calf, half-bound with small vellum corners, smooth...
First edition of the French translation (cf. Gay 3146).
Our copy is preserved in the original wrappers, with yellow and black marbled covers and a title label pasted at the head of the spine.
Occasional light foxing; a numbering in black ink facing the half-title.
First edition of the French translation of this account, originally published under the title: "An Account of the Island of Ceylon" in London in 1803 (cf. Boucher de La Richarderie, V, 135. Brunet, IV, 490 and Quérard, VII, 43 mention an edition published by Dentu, 1804).
Contemporary full mottled calf bindings, smooth spines decorated with gilt compartments and gilt tools, red morocco lettering pieces, green calf volume labels, gilt rolls at the head and tail partly worn, fragile joints, marbled paper endpapers and pastedowns, bookplates pasted to the pastedowns, gilt fillets on the board edges, speckled edges.
Bindings rubbed, small losses at the foot of the joints...
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...
Very rare first edition illustrated with one map and one colour plate.
Not recorded by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Cordier, or Lorentz.
Half midnight-blue shagreen, smooth spine decorated with quadruple gilt fillets, one joint very fragile, upper headcap worn down, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.
Some foxing.
Folio manuscript from the second half of the 18th century, comprising 2 unnumbered leaves and 258 foliated pages, containing extracts and summaries of royal orders and dispatches of the Conseil de Marine from September 1715 to March 1723. The volume therefore covers the entire period of activity of this institution, created at the beginning of the Regency as part of the polysynody and maintained until its disappearance in 1723.
Contemporary restored full tan calf. Smooth spine decorated with gilt compartments and gilt tools, partly faded, lettering-piece lacking, a gilt rampant lion stamped at the centre of...
Manuscript of unnumbered leaves comprising a digest of ordinances and regulations relating to the French naval troops, most promulgated between 1690 and 1751.
The manuscript is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, in contemporary paper covers with manuscript annotations; tears to the opening leaves affecting the text; housed in a cream card portfolio.
It contains: Royal regulation of 1690 concerning the levy, pay and discipline of the naval troops. – Royal regulation of 1691 governing the billeting, conduct, march, policing and discipline of the naval troops. – Royal ordinances of 1695 and 1700 on the policing and discipline of the compagnies franches. – Ordinance of...
First edition of this uncommon work, printed at Saint-Denis, Réunion, and illustrated by the local photographer E. Vidal, expanding upon a brief notice published as early as 1899 (cf. Ryckebusch II, 5358.)
Illustrated with a frontispiece map and 20 photographic plates hors-texte.
With a preface by M. Garsault.
Spine lacking, wrappers in poor condition, light waterstaining.
Scarce, offered in its present condition.
Born in Rennes, the military physician Jean-Marie Mac-Auliffe (1837-1908) was stationed in Réunion in 1864, and again from 1874 until his death, notably as physician to the thermal baths of Cilaos. In this remote locality he developed considerable...
Rare illustrated first edition with two large folding plates (Lugeol system; regulatory system) (see Polak 6168).
Lettered spine restored and reattached; pleasing internal condition.
The only edition of this scarce work (the 1845 edition noted by the Bibliothèque nationale appears to be a misreading).
Jean-Gustave Lugeol (1799–1866), who entered the navy in 1813, held the rank of captain in 1843; he took part in most naval campaigns of the Restoration and the July Monarchy; promoted to rear admiral in 1852, he remained on active service until 1864.
Second edition of the french translation.
Some light foxing.
Contemporary full mottled calf bindings, smooth spines richly gilt with typographical ornaments, slight rubbing to the joints, red morocco title and volume labels, gilt rolls to the headcaps, sides framed with a gilt floral dentelle, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt dotted edges, marbled edges.
Gay 368 : "On y trouve l'extrait du voyage de Picard qui se rendit à Fouta Tora ; cette relation ne se rencontre pas ailleurs".
First edition of Jacques Le Meilleur’s medical thesis.
Our copy is presented disbound.
Waterstaining at head throughout, not affecting the text.
First edition of the illustrated French translation, with 2 maps (one folding), in-text figures, and 5 steel-engraved plates by Fauchery (see Chadenat 2669. Borba de Moraes does not mention the very brief passage devoted to the Rio stage of the journey (see volume III, p. 381), which is in fact rather insignificant).
Some foxing.
Contemporary romantic bindings in aubergine half sheep, smooth spines faded and decorated with gilt romantic arabesques, light wear to the headcaps, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, armorial bookplates pasted to the pastedowns, speckled edges.
The English traveller Richard Lander [1804–1834], originally trained as a...
First edition illustrated with 1 large folding map: "Carte de la côte occidentale d'Afrique depuis le Cap Barbas jusqu'au Cap Tagrin par Lapie, Ingénieur Géographe (et) gravée par P.F. Tardieu" (cf. Gay 2905.)
Our copy in original stitched wrappers with interim covers lined with marbled paper.
Light dampstaining to the right margin of the final leaves.
Important details on the slave trade in connection with the Gorée Island stopover at the end of the volume.
Pierre Labarthe (Dax 1760 - Paris 1824) was appointed head of the Bureau of Eastern Colonies and African Coasts in 1794, a position he held until 1808.
He had gathered numerous authentic documents...
First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint from the Mémoires de la Société naturelle des sciences naturelles de Cherbourg, vol. XX (1876).
See O'Reilly, Tahiti, 2693. Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Aix-Marseille, Cherbourg).
Bradel binding in blue half cloth, smooth spine, long red marbled morocco title label, marbled paper sides, original wrappers preserved, modern signed binding by Boichot.
This pamphlet, which contains a large number of botanical entries on the Marquesas, Tahiti, the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, etc., is a continuation of the study entitled Les Plantes alimentaires de l'Océanie (1875).
A...
First edition.
Contemporary full mottled fawn calf, smooth spine gilt with floral tools and gilt geometric tooling, tan calf lettering-piece, gilt rolls to the headcaps now largely faded, a small loss to the upper headcap, some rubbing to the joints, single blind fillet framing the covers, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to the edges of the boards mostly worn away, yellow sprinkled edges, corners just a little softened; a period binding.
Sole edition of this history of travel since Antiquity, considered from the standpoint of its benefits to trade and commerce.
The work is nominally presented as a translation, though it is in fact by the Marseille man of letters...
First edition.
Minor marginal tears to the boards, a few spots of foxing.
Not recorded by Sabin.
First separately issued edition, illustrated with a large folding map, issued as a plate outside the text (cf. Sabin 94850).
The work was first published in 1838 in the Notices statistiques sur les colonies françaises.
"La lecture des documents officiels réunis dans la Notice statistique laissera déjà dans tous les esprits cette conviction que la Guyane française offre de nombreux éléments de richesse et de prospérité, et que, pour les avoir laissés improductifs pendant deux siècles, la France ne peut avoir renoncé à les mettre un jour en valeur".
Some light foxing, otherwise a pleasing copy.
First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint of an article from the Bulletins de la Société de Géographie d'Anvers.
Our copy is preserved in its original printed blue wrappers.
A few small marginal losses to the spine and wrappers; internally in very good condition.
This communication by the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs concerns accounts of explorations carried out in New Guinea: by the Italian explorer Luigi Maria D'Albertis in 1877, and by the Anglican missionaries J. Chalmers and Charles Dudfield in 1878.
First edition, illustrated with four plates, three of them folding (cf. Cordier, Sinica 442).
Losses to the head and tail of the spine, marginal tears to the covers, a light dampstain to the lower portion of the upper board, one plate torn across the centre without affecting the images,
Text of the lecture delivered on 13 December 1878 before the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Albert-Auguste Fauvel (1851–1909), a naval officer, accompanied the Duc de Penthièvre on his voyage around the world (1866–1867).
A graduate in Manchu, he had held a post since 1872 within the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service.
A naturalist, he devoted himself...
First edition illustrated with a folding map and a folding plate of fossils (cf. O'Reilly, Nouvelle-Calédonie, 486a).
Light waterstaining affecting the plate and the map at the end of the volume.
The palaeontologist Eugène Eudes-Deslongchamps (1830–1889) devoted most of his work to Normandy, his native region, but he also produced geological monographs based on collections assembled by other researchers, as is the case here.
Rare first edition, cf. Duvivier, I, 143.
Only 2 copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Muséum).
Half-cloth binding in black, smooth and rebacked spine, marbled paper boards, worn corners, speckled edges.
Minor foxing, not affecting the text.
The author, Father Antoine Duss (Anton Düß, 1840–1924), was a Swiss-born Spiritan missionary naturalized as a French citizen. He carried out his ministry almost exclusively in Martinique, particularly in Fort-de-France. He studied these plants "with care, consulting both ancient and modern works and illustrations published on these cryptogams growing in the Antilles in general, including those by Plumier, Swartz, Sloane, de...
First edition (Pritzel, 2480.)
Our copy is issued in the original wrappers, preserved in a temporary mustard-coloured paper cover; the spine rubbed with losses to the mustard paper, and a library shelf label pasted to the verso of the upper cover.
A very rare botanical monograph written by the great navigator following the scientific expedition sent to the Black Sea and the Greek islands (aboard the vessel La Chevrette), during which he was responsible for observations in natural history and archaeology (it was in the course of this mission that the Venus de Milo was unearthed).
First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this interesting report extracted from the Annales maritimes et coloniales of 1839 (cf. Polak 2837).
Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, with a plain blue-grey cover.
Tears to the spine and to the margins of the covers, some foxing, notably on the title page.
First edition.
Our copy is offered in loose sheets, unbound.
First edition of this defence of the exclusive privilege of the Compagnie des Indes, then being challenged by the deputies of the National Assembly.
This memorandum is signed by Le Couteux du Mollay, Greffulge, Boyd, Dangirard, Picquet, and Le Cocq, commissioners representing the Company’s shareholders.
Our copy is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, issued in the temporary blue waiting covers.
A central fold throughout, rubbing with losses to the waiting covers, otherwise a pleasingly clean copy internally.
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.
Second edition, partly original, as enlarged (cf. Barbier II, 241: gives "Deslandes". Polak 1130. INED 737. See Sabin 19744 for the first English edition published the same year.)
Full brown sheep binding, smooth spine gilt-ruled and decorated with gilt compartments and floral tools, rubbing to the joints, gilt rolls on the head- and tailcaps partly dulled, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets on the board edges faint in places, red edges, a period binding.
Some repairs to the spine.
Pages 191 to 252 contain the "Mémoire historique sur les Indes Braves, et les Forbans François du Golfe de Darien".
This edition appeared in the same year as the...
Illustrated edition with 6 plates hors texte, including one folding map; French text with an English translation.
Only the introduction is in English, the remainder of the volume being devoted to a sound scholarly publication of the accounts of Cartier’s three voyages.
Repaired tears at head and tail of the spine; spine and boards lightly sunned.
Henry Percival Biggar (1872–1938) was an archivist at the Public Archives of Canada and a leading authority on the history of New France.
Copy from the library of the archivist Charles Bourel de La Roncière (1870–1941), a specialist in maritime and colonial history, with, on the front free endpaper, an autograph...
Rare group of six fascicules, all in the original edition.
Bradel-style binding in green mottled boards, smooth unlettered spine, printed title label mounted at the centre of the upper cover; modern binding.
Not recorded by Polak. Apparently no copy located in the CCFr.
A stain at the head of the title page.
This curious compilation, bearing almost no identifying information, appears to be particularly rare.
It contains:
- 1. A notice to mariners concerning the change in the lighting of the lighthouse in the Bay of the Somme, scheduled for 25 Pluviôse, Year IX [14 February 1801].
- 2. An instruction on filters for purifying water, signed by the...
First edition of the illustrated French translation, embellished in the second volume with a plate, a folding table, and a large folding map printed as a separate leaf (cf. Gay 2996).
Contemporary full mottled fawn calf, smooth spines gilt with fillets, garlands, and floral tools, red morocco title and volume labels, with the volume labels inlaid with green morocco, gilt rolls at the headcaps, minor rubbing to the spines, dentelle, single gilt fillet and gilt garland framing the boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, corners rubbed, gilt fillets to the board edges, lemon edges; bindings of the period.
In 1797, John Barrow (1764–1848) accompanied Lord Macartney, as his...
First edition, printed in a small number of copies, cf. Gay 204; Bourquelot I, 115.
Contemporary full mottled fawn sheep, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and fleurons, joints rubbed, red shagreen title-piece, gilt rolls to the headcaps partly faded, gilt dentelle border to the boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets to the edges of the boards, partly browned, red edges.
Joints restored, circular losses filled in the blank areas of the title and half-title pages.
Very scarce first edition, issued in a small printing, of this offprint from the Annales des Sciences naturelles for September 1828 (cf. Engelmann I, 315).
This paper is preceded by "Extrait du rapport fait à l’Académie royale des sciences sur le mémoire présenté par MM. Audouin et Milne-Edwards, par MM. Cuvier et Duméril".
The CCF records only two copies, in Paris (Muséum) and Montpellier.
The author of several entomological papers published from 1821 onwards, Victor Audouin also took an interest in marine biology: in 1826, 1828 and 1829 he undertook, together with Henri Milne-Edwards, three field trips to Brittany and Normandy.
The present...
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...
First edition, forming the tenth volume of Voyages, Relations et Mémoires Originaux pour servir à l'Histoire de la Découverte de l'Amérique, published by H. Ternaux-Compans (cf. Sabin, 94854).
Some foxing, front board tending to detach, minor losses to the spine and at the corners of the boards.
This volume contains the Itinerary of the Voyage of the Fleet of the Catholic King to the Island of Yucatan, undertaken in 1518 under the command of Captain General Juan de Grijalva, first published in Italian in Venice in 1522.
It is followed by 19 other previously unpublished pieces relating to the history of Mexico, including: A Brief Account of New...
Second edition.
Contemporary Bradel binding in green half percaline, smooth spine gilt with a central floral tool, place and date gilt at foot, cherry shagreen lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, one corner bumped, period binding.
Minor abrasions to the left margin of the upper cover, a few scattered foxing marks.
No copy of this edition recorded in the CCF.
Concerning the Franciscan monastery of Santa Maria de La Rabida, situated in the province of Huelva (Andalusia), whose renown derives in part from the assistance it provided to Christopher Columbus before his first voyage.
Braulio Santamaria (1838-1914) was director of the Correo de Huelva.
Rare first edition.
Some occasional foxing.
Contemporary-style bradel binding in full blue marbled paper-covered boards, smooth spine, printed wrappers preserved, modern binding.
The author (not to be confused with the diplomat André Grasset de Saint-Sauveur, who died in 1830) was in 1836 the guest of Count Mikhaïl Semionovitch Vorontsov (1782-1856), Governor-General of New Russia and namestnik of Bessarabia since 1823.
Under his administration, Crimea and Odessa in particular experienced rapid development, and he was the first to introduce steamships on the Black Sea in 1828. This brief account provides an interesting testimony to the condition of these southern...
A very rare collection, unrecorded by both Martin & Walter and Sabin.
Modern bradel binding in full grey paper-covered boards, smooth spine, white longitudinal title label.
The second Assembly of Notables, a little-known historical episode, concerned itself not only with the affairs of metropolitan France but also with those of the colonies.
Following the preliminary matter, comprising four letters from the commissioners (to the Notables, to the King, to the Minister of the Navy, and again to the King), the principal text consists of an Mémoire instructif sur le régime & l'importance de la colonie de Saint-Domingue. The two principal issues addressed are the...
New edition (cf. Sabin 73468.)
Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, lacking the spine and without any provisional binding covers.
England ceded the island of Tobago to France in 1783.
English creditors laid claim to considerable sums from the colonists; a demand deemed unfounded by Roume de Saint-Laurent.
First edition, exceedingly rare, illustrated with 3 folding tables, 6 charming vignettes drawn and engraved by J. Duplessi-Bertaux, and 5 plates by Tardieu: 1 folding plan of Sebastopol, 1 large folding map, and 3 plates depicting medals, coins, and bas-reliefs (cf. Atabey 1034. Absent from Blackmer. No copy recorded in the NUC.)
Contemporary Bradel binding in full green paper-covered boards, smooth spine decorated with gilt rules, minor scuffing to spine and covers, a small snag at the foot of the upper cover, contemporary binding.
Wear to spine ends, one bumped lower corner, occasional foxing, a few dampstains at the foot of certain leaves.
In February 1803, Baron de...
First edition for each of the volumes.
Contemporary full mottled fawn sheep binding, spine with five raised bands, tooled in gilt with alternating anchors and fleurs-de-lis, joints split and restored at head and foot, burgundy shagreen title-piece with a small angular loss, spine ends trimmed, gilt arms stamped at the centre of the covers, red edges, corners bumped, contemporary binding.
2 ff.n.ch., 81 pp. Sabin 12235. Polak 1655 records this work from the Maurice Chamonal catalogue no. 31.
Bound after: Cyprien-Antoine de Lieudé de Sepmanville: "Détail particulier pour la carte de la Gonave, ajoutée en 1788 au Pilote de l'Isle de Saint-Domingue", printed in...
Uncommon first edition, issued anonymously: as early as 1817 the second edition bears the author's name (cf. Davois III, 117. Tulard 1194.)
Contemporary half blond sheepskin binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and fleurons, joints split and repaired, blue paper-covered boards with a few scuffs, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.
An interesting account of the Russian campaign, which the author, the Vicomte de Puybusque or Puibusque (1792-1841), experienced as a military intendant: it abounds in little-known details concerning the Grande Armée and the Imperial Guard.
Bound at the end is Thomas Lindley’s: "Voyage au Brésil ; où l'on trouve...
First edition (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1557.)
Contemporary half black shagreen, smooth spine decorated with triple gilt fillets and gilt floral ornaments, slight rubbing to the spine ends, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, bumped corners, speckled edges.
The sole edition of this survey, which in fact constitutes the French adaptation, by a librarian of Sainte-Geneviève, of three highly detailed articles written by the English diplomat Thomas Francis Wade (1818-1895), then attached to the secretariat of Lord Elgin.
Their contents were brought together in The Chinese Army : Containing Notices of Its Bannermen, Hánkiun, and Luhying Divisions: With Details...
First edition printed in a small number of copies of this offprint from "Voyages en Scandinavie, en Laponie et au Spitzberg de la corvette la Recherche", Physical Geography, vol. II, p. 279, the author having taken part in the expedition (1838-1840).
Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, with plain green temporary covers.
Illustrated with 1 folding plate at the end of the volume.
Some light foxing and a few marginal tears to the right margins of certain leaves.
Rare first edition of the French translation of the Journal of the Resolution (London, 1775), illustrated with a large folding copper-engraved map by E. Dussy, issued without legend.
Cf. O'Reilly & Reitman, 380: "Traduction de la relation apocryphe de Marra". See Hill, 60.
Scattered occasional foxing, a few abrasions to the boards.
Contemporary full marbled tan sheep, spine in five raised bands richly decorated with double gilt compartments, gilt fillets to bands partly rubbed, red morocco lettering-piece, gilt decorative tool at foot of spine, gilt rolls to board edges largely rubbed, marbled endpapers, single gilt fillet to edges, corners worn, marbled...
First edition of the French translation (cf. Blackmer 1752. Not in Weber or Atabey. See Barbier IV, 1083.)
Contemporary full marbled tan calf bindings, smooth spines gilt tooled in compartments with floral motifs, red morocco lettering-pieces, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets to board edges.
Some restorations to a few joints and spines, minor scattered foxing.
Volume IV is entirely devoted to the author’s stay in the Greek islands: Crete, Candia, Damaste, Retimo, Mount Ida, Gortyn, the labyrinth of Crete, Milo, Syphante, Seriphos, Antiparos, Paros, Naxia, Stenofa, Amorgos, Skinosa, Delos, Rhenia, Syra, Cynthos, Zia, Macrounisa, Jura, Tenos, Scio...
First edition, illustrated with a frontispiece depicting the site of the ancient city of Panticapaeum (now Kerch, in Crimea), a title-page vignette showing a view of the modern town, two maps (Greek colonies of the Bosphorus and the Black Sea; the Strait of Kerch, with Macpherson’s route), as well as 12 plates, 9 of them in colour (tumuli, vases, bronzes, oil lamps, statuettes, symbols, inscriptions and various objects recovered during excavations), and numerous wood-engravings in the text.
Cf. Abbey, Travel in aquatint and lithography, 243. Blackmer, 1055.
Publisher’s grey blind-stamped cloth, gilt title lettered lengthwise to the smooth spine, large gilt device blocked at...
First edition illustrated with 3 plates (Cf. Rodrigues 1357; Borba de Moraes I, 381; see INED 2496 for the 1774 edition).
Modern binding in brown mottled half calf, spine with four raised bands, gilt rules at head and foot, gilt initials at foot, red calf lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, sprinkled edges.
Stamp of a religious institution on the title page; old bookseller’s label pasted to the facing page.
The Coromandel Coast, European trading settlements, military strongholds, Indian religion, medicine, anatomy, the caste system, Indian manners, clothing, dwellings, gardens, food (and temperance), marriage rites, funerary customs, morality, fauna, flora...
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...
First edition (cf. Polak, 7057; Grandidier I, 2503).
Nineteenth-century Bradel-style binding of marbled paper-covered boards, brown sheep title-label, headcaps worn away, corners bumped.
Some little foxing.
This pamphlet contains a translation of a small portion of the monumental India Directory—more precisely, Directions for sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, and the interjacent ports, compiled chiefly from original journals and observations made during 21 years' experience in navigating those seas (1817)—by the Scottish hydrographer James Horsburgh (1762–1836), who was employed by the British East India Company.
The...
First edition, adorned with numerous tables including 8 folding at the end of the volume, and illustrated with 62 figures in the text.
Publisher’s Bradel binding in full burgundy cloth, smooth spine lettered in gilt on the upper cover, upper headcap lacking, lower headcap worn, upper cover framed with blind-stamped typographical motifs at the corners, blue-grey endpapers and pastedowns, upper corners rubbed.
A marginal loss to the right margin of pages 97-98, not affecting the text.
A treatise on hydrography and maritime topography, the first of its kind in Brazil, intended for fourth-year students of the Brazilian Naval School.
The author, the naval officer...
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, illustrated with a folding map at the end of the volume.
Contemporary half-grained cherry morocco over marbled paper boards, spine faded and decorated with gilt fillets, discoloration marks to the boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, contemporary binding.
A few minor foxing spots.
First French edition of this scientific expedition undertaken between 1827 and 1830 in order to refine contemporary knowledge of terrestrial magnetism.
The mathematician Kristoffer Hansteen (1784-1873), who later became director of the Observatory of Christinia (present-day Oslo), had taken an interest in these questions as early as 1807.
Rare first edition of this early biography of Agustín Arturo Prat Chacón (1848-1879), Chilean naval officer and national hero, who was killed at the Battle of Iquique shortly after boarding the Peruvian warship Huáscar during the War of the Pacific (1879-1884).
Cf. Palau 110 041. No copy recorded in the CCF.
This pamphlet is illustrated with a lithographed portrait frontispiece.
Some minor foxing, chiefly affecting the wrappers.
First French edition of the translation (Cf. Gay 3573. Chadenat 5378 for the original English edition of 1805. See also Brunet, Table, 19960 and Graesse, III, 155).
Bound in half tan calf, smooth spine decorated with quadruple gilt and blind fillets, gilt tailpiece, marbled paper boards, speckled edges, binding slightly later.
Minor rubbing to the binding.
A member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Griffiths visited Constantinople, Smyrna, and Mytilene, then the island of Chios and the ruins of Croesus's palace at Sardis, the ancient capital of Lydia. He then traveled to Konya, Aleppo, and Basra; from there, he descended the Persian Gulf, passed through Muscat, and...
First edition in two parts, illustrated at the end of the volume with one folding table outside the text: "État des farines importées de France et de l'Etranger dans différens Ports de cette Colonie, pendant les mois d'Avril, Mai, Juin & Juillet derniers".
Not recorded by Sabin.
Ineed 2034, which does not mention the folding table: "Des rapports commerciaux qui relient la colonie à la métropole. Saint Domingue ayant souffert de disette, les députés de l'Ile demandent l'abolition du pacte colonial. Mais les députés des manufactures et du commerce de France soutiennent que leurs exportations de blé à Saint Domingue ont toujours été suffisantes et que leur prix n'a jamais...
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.
Original edition of this auction catalogue from the sale held on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 May 1872, describing 294 lots.
A tear at the foot of the final leaf.
The catalogue is illustrated with 2 hors-texte engraved plates (line engravings).
Of Baden origin, the numismatist Ludwig Wilhelm Fröhner (1834–1925) settled in Paris in 1859: he became one of the close friends of Napoleon III and assisted him in the preparation of his History of Julius Caesar (1865–1866), which helped him obtain both French naturalisation (1866) and a desirable post at the Louvre.
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 proved disastrous for him: he lost all his positions and even any prospect...
First edition.
Contemporary blue half shagreen bindings, spines in five raised bands with a few rubs, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.
Frère I, 487 : "Cet ouvrage remarquable par la richesse des documents qu'il renferme, jette une vive lumière sur l'histoire du commerce de Rouen au moyen-âge. Il est divisé en 2 parties distinctes : la première contient le texte même de l'ouvrage, et la deuxième les pièces justificatives qui presque toutes sont inédites".
First edition illustrated with an allegorical frontispiece by J. Goeree engraved on copper, as well as a copper-engraved armorial vignette at the opening of the text (cf. Barbier, III, 560. Quérard, III, 212. Not held at the BnF. Not recorded in Fossati Bellani.)
Contemporary half tawny calf binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt friezes and blind-stamped fleurons now almost entirely faded, red morocco title label, a restoration to the head of the spine, marbled paper boards, early 19th-century binding,
A small black ink stain to a blank endpaper.
The work discusses, among other subjects, the Republic’s losses in Greece, the battles of Lepanto and the Dardanelles...
This critical survey of the Dutch possessions in Indonesia survives in three versions — English, French, and Dutch — without it being possible to determine with certainty which constitutes the original edition.
Only three copies are recorded in the CCF.
Written at the outset of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780–1784), triggered by the early recognition of American independence by the United Provinces, this pamphlet seeks to highlight the weaknesses of the administration of the Dutch East India Company and the vulnerability of its possessions to a French or British attack.
In fact, hostilities quickly turned to the disadvantage of the Dutch, who in 1784 were compelled to...
First edition of this extremely rare botanical monograph, written by the great navigator following the scientific expedition sent to the Black Sea and the Greek islands aboard La Chevrette, during which he was entrusted with observations in natural history and archaeology (it was during this mission that the Venus de Milo was unearthed).
Cf. Pritzel, 2480.
Late 19th-century brown half cloth, smooth spine with library shelf label at foot and red morocco lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, corners slightly rubbed, speckled edges.
Bound in at the end are three short monographs, all in first edition and published in 1842, the year of d'Urville's death, dealing...
Rare first edition.
No copies recorded in CCF or WorldCat.
A copy preserved in its original wrappers with printed green covers, showing a few marginal losses to the corners; internally in pleasing condition.
A rare document relating to a dispute arising from the wreck, off Saint-Domingue on 9 April 1834, of the vessel Courrier de la Vera-Crux (laden with bales of cotton), involving the Bordeaux shipowners Balguerie et Cie, the insurers Aguirrevengoa and Uribarren, the captain, and the various consignors. Appended is a copy of the grounds and operative part of the judgment of the Commercial Court.
At the head of the upper cover, signed autograph inscription...
First edition.
Not in Hage Chahine.
Some light foxing, imperial colportage stamps on certain pages.
Son of the former Consul General in Smyrna, Céleste-Etienne David (1802-1875) also pursued a diplomatic career (Cuba, Venezuela, etc.).
Included: "Notice biographique sur M. C.-E. David, ancien ministre plénipotentiaire, etc." Extract from volume XII of the Biographie des hommes marquants du XIXe siècle, by V. Lacaine and Ch. Laurent. (n.p., 1860, 4 pp.)
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...
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.
First edition illustrated with a large folding map bound at the rear of the first volume and 3 folding tables in the second volume (cf. Kress 5962. Goldsmiths B.20411. INED 1006. Not in Einaudi.)
Contemporary Bradel bindings in full yellow paper boards, smooth spines slightly darkened and decorated with fillets, minor rubbing to the spines, olive morocco lettering-pieces, volume numbers stamped within gilt shields, a few rubbed areas with slight losses to the paper boards, bookplates pasted onto the endpapers, contemporary bindings.
An important work from the geographical, economic, and statistical points of view alike. INED particularly notes, in volume II, the "sixth and...
First edition illustrated with a large folding map inserted out of text: "Carte de la navigation intérieure d'une grande partie de la Russie européenne et de l'ancienne Pologne… dressée par J.D. Barbié du Bocage".
Contemporary red Russian half morocco, spine with four raised bands ruled in gilt and decorated with double gilt fillets, gilt date at foot, bottle-green morocco lettering-piece, a few minor rubs to spine and boards, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, bookplate mounted on a pastedown.
Small scuffs to the lower edge of a pastedown.
The author, a merchant of Marseilles origin, conceived the plan of establishing an economic alliance between...