Antique illustrated books and works illustrated with woodcuts, etchings, engravings, drawings from 16th to 18th centuries

Very rare first Viennese edition, illustrated with 366 figures by Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner. Remarkable baroque iconography. Only one copy located in electronic library catalogues at Strasbourg, one copy at Cambridge and another at Oxford.
Contemporary half brown sheep bindings, spines with raised bands decorated with fillets, green sheep title and volume labels. Skilful restorations to joints and headcaps. Rubbing to speckled paper boards. Although pagination is continuous across the four volumes and collation appears complete, we note the absence of a title page to the third part (binder's oversight?).
Engraved bookplate Froissart, second manuscript bookplate Augustin...

Second edition, a reprint of the first folio edition published in 1756 by the same publisher. A rare edition, illustrated with 40 plates including 4 folding and 16 double-page (arms, costumes, plans, manoeuvres...). Large vignette with coat of arms on the title-page, and 41 ornaments (headpieces, tailpieces). Title-page printed in red and black. At the end, Supplement aux Reveries, with its own title-page; this short addition, spanning only a few pages, contains the corrections made to the original. A two-volume quarto edition appeared in Paris in 1757.
Bound in later full marbled brown calf; a skilful early 20th-century pastiche signed Saingy at foot. Spine with raised bands richly...

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...

New edition after the first, very rare, published in 1670. Huet's Treatise on the Origin of Novels, in the form of a letter to Segrais, appears at the end of the first part of Zaïde.

Armorial copy of Charlotte Emilie Le Fèvre de Caumartin de La cour de Balleroy, daughter of Louis-François Le Fèvre de Caumartin, lord of Boissy, and wife of the Marquis de la Cour de Balleroy. Feminine arms are rare and sought after, as few women formed libraries with their coat of arms. The Marquise de Balleroy, who died in 1749, settled in Normandy, and maintained an intense correspondence with the highest nobility from which she descended.

Full speckled...

• Observations du thermomètre faites pendant les grands froids de Sibérie, par M. Delisle.
• Recherche de statique et de dynamique, par M. le Marquis de Courtivron.
• Expériences de l'electricité appliquées à des paralytiques, par Mrs Morand et...

Tenth edition statement, after the original published in 1700. It is illustrated with 38 numbered plates including two folding ones, 17 for the first volume and 21 for the second, and 35 woodcut figures in the text.

Contemporary full marbled blonde sheep binding. Spine with raised bands decorated with fillets. Red morocco title label and black morocco volume label (lacking the volume label for tome I, though the gilt lettering remains visible). Rubbed throughout. Some plates are cut shorter. Fresh throughout. Lacking at head of tome I. Tear to lower joint at foot of tome I. 4 corners bumped. Cuts to boards. 

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...

New édition after the first complete edition in 2 volumes of 1726, illustrated with a frontispiece and 12 charming and picturesque unsigned figures by Dubercelle. Title pages in red and black. Good impression. The frontispiece reproduces that of the first edition of 1707, it has been re-engraved. 

Contemporary full glazed brown calf binding. Ornate spine with raised bands. Red morocco title label. Lower joint split at foot for 2 cm, otherwise handsome copy, very fresh.

It was this work that made Lesage a distinguished and immediately celebrated writer. The author had borrowed the framework from Guevarra, the devil carrying a mortal over the rooftops and observing...

First illustrated edition with 3 title vignettes and 3 figures by Eisen in volume I (as well as 3 pages of engraved music) plus 3 tailpieces and 1 figure by Marillier, 2 by Barbier and 3 title vignettes by Marillier in volume II, plus 3 tailpieces. All engraved by Fessard, Longueil, Née, Delaunay and Halbou. Very fine illustration, very elegant.
Contemporary full calf binding with scale pattern. Spine with raised bands decorated. Red morocco title labels, and green morocco volume labels. Triple-ruled frame on boards. Edges gilt. Small lack to upper joint at head of volume I. Signs of rubbing. Pale scattered foxing. One lack to margin of p. 479. The binder has inverted the volume...

Second edition, after the first published in 1779, expanded by Rouland, and illustrated with 8 folding plates at the end, compared to 5 for the first edition.

Contemporary full marbled calf binding. Ornate spine with raised bands. Red morocco title label. Two corners bumped. Rubbing. One loss at head. Light foxing on the first leaves. Good copy.

Awakened to experimental physics as a student of Abbé Nollet, Sigaud de la Fond assisted the chemist Macquer in his experiments on gases and notably hydrogen, verifying that its combustion produced water. He relates in this work his experiments on different types of air, and summarizes the work of foreign...

Second edition statement, rare, published after the original of 1783, and illustrated with 9 plates in fine, of the aerostatic machine and the flying boat.

Bound in full limp vellum binding, reused. Smooth spine with author's name in pen and date at foot. Stains and soiling. Trace of dampstain to lower margin of frontispiece. Leaves browned at beginning of work, and several others scattered throughout bearing browning.

First and important work on aerostation. It brings together several memoirs relating the first balloon flights (On inflammable gas, Observations made by M. Jeaurat, On rubber, Accounts of the first flights at Annonay...

First edition, illustrated with 4 very attractive headpieces by Pronk, 4 tailpieces and 13 folding plates on polyps. Armorial copy with the arms stamped on the spine (ermines and macles) of the Rohan-Chabot family. The armorial bindings of the Rohan and Rohan-Chabot families have the distinctive feature of bearing the heraldic devices exclusively on the spine.

Contemporary full blonde calf binding. Spine with raised bands decorated with crowned ermines and macles. Joints entirely cracked. Headcaps worn. Corners slightly bumped from rubbing. Occasional minor worming, final plates with upper margin soiled.

It was in these memoirs that...

First edition, with the illustrations of the author (often missing) and 79 plates (plate 27-28 double page) hors texte steel-engraved by Forestier after drawings by Antoine Chazal.
Strictly contemporary Romantic binding in brown calf, spine in six compartments richly decorated with gilt fillets and blindtooled arabesques, boards with blindtooled arabesques to corners, double fillet frame and gilt initials ‘A.D.' to centre, gilt roulette framing marbled endpapers and pastedowns, double gilt fillets to edges of covers. Binding very skilfully restored.
Jacques-Pierre Maygrier (1771-1835) was a student of Antoine Dubois, the obstetrician of Empress Marie-Louise. He practiced at the...

New edition, illustrated with 14 plates, most folding.
Contemporary full brown marbled calf binding. Decorated spine with raised bands. Red morocco title label, and black wax volume label. 2 corners slightly bumped. Rubbing. Good copy.
Notable articles in each of the mentioned sections include: Experiments to determine if the strength of ropes exceeds the sum of the strengths of the threads composing these same ropes, by M. de Réaumur. Observations on the vegetation of truffles, by M. Geoffroy. Observations on fecal matter, by M. Homberg. Remarks on certain colors, by M. de La Hire. Rules and remarks for the construction of equalities, by M. Rolle. On different ways in which...

Illustrated edition with 16 folding plates, 8 per volume.
Contemporary full marbled brown calf bindings. Raised band spines with gilt ornaments. Red morocco title-labels, and black wax volume labels. Small lack to head of volume I. One corner slightly bumped. Rubbing. Last errata leaf frayed at margin. Good copies.
Notable articles to be retained in each of the mentioned sections include the following: On beam resistance by M. Parent. On conchoids in general by M. de La Hire. Observations on coral analysis by M. Geoffroy. Reflections on magnetic variations by M. Houssaye. General method for finding an infinity of new curved lines by M. Réaumur. Physical explanation of the...