Architecture treatises, antique plans, urban planning projects, architect drawings and first editions, heritage history

Album comprising 30 original albumen prints mounted on heavy card leaves.

Bradel binding in full black boards, smooth unlettered spine, gilt-ruled frame on the covers, title set within a central panel on the upper cover, corners rubbed; contemporary binding except for the renewed spine.

The first 22 photographs (approx. 12.5 × 17 cm) depict views of the City of the Doges; the following seven (various formats) reproduce paintings by Italian masters (Veronese, Titian, Raphael, Murillo...) held in Venice, Florence, and Paris; the final print shows a water-carrier.

Captions in Italian in black ink on the mount, on the verso.

The sequence of photographs is as follows...

First edition of this scarce work entirely autograph manuscript (cf. Manque à Gay. Playfair, 2894. Tailliart, 781.)

Some light foxing, wrappers laminated.

The volume comprises letters written by Octavie Lagrange during a journey undertaken in 1864 and, for the most part, dated from Algiers: "Parmi les mosquées jadis si nombreuses les unes restent consacrées au culte musulman ; les autres ont disparu sous le marteau des démolisseurs ; celles-ci sont affectées à différents services publics ; celles-là converties en églises catholiques. […] Dans les bazars s'étalent de jolis magasins assez bien assortis ; les objets pleins d'originalité, y sentent d'une lieue le terroir, et...

Generally regarded as the most complete early edition of Chardin’s Travels, this imposing publication in ten volumes with a separate atlas was prepared in 1811 by Louis-Mathieu Langlès. The orientalist added a historical survey of Persia from the earliest times and an extensive critical apparatus, confronting Chardin’s text with the historical, geographical and philological scholarship of his own day. It remained the standard edition until Philip Stewart’s complete modernised and annotated text appeared in 2018.

The ten text volumes are bound in contemporary full tree calf, smooth spines richly decorated...

First edition abundantly illustrated with photographs.
Publisher's full black cloth binding, smooth spine, black paper endpapers and pastedowns, black edges, complete with dust jacket and soft cardboard slipcase.
Signed and inscribed by Peter Marino to a couple of friends accompanied by two drawn hearts on an endpaper: "For Christine & Olivier. Love. Peter"

First edition, published in London by Seeley, Jackson & Halliday in 1883. The work is illustrated with twelve large plates on Arches wove paper, comprising eleven etchings and one plate in wash manner by Alfred-Louis Brunet-Debaines and his pupil Henri Toussaint, together with thirty-three engraved illustrations in the text, including plans, architectural details and views. Text printed in double columns.

Contemporary full navy blue morocco. Spine with raised bands and gilt shell tools, title gilt; broad...

Rare original folding colored map of the city of Shanghai printed on heavy paper and including the street names in English, as well as an extensive grid to find locations. It was published under the authority of the Shanghai city council in 1933.
A skillfully repaired tear touching the index.
There is a variation of this map in existence – without the grid or the key – of which an example is preserved in the University of Chicago library. We have not otherwise been able to find any other example of this map.
This very detailed map still shows the old town under the name «Chinese City.» Each district or foreign concession (particularly the French one) is marked out and named in a...

First edition of 30 copies printed on Japon paper of this offprint of L'Artiste for November 1890.
Contemporary Bradel binding of beige paper boards, ex-libris to pastedown.
Autograph inscription signed from Paul Verlaine to Edmond Bonnaffé on the justification of printing at end: “Exemplaire de Monsieur E. Bonnaffé. P. Verlaine [Monsieur E. Bonnaffé's copy. P. Verlaine]”. Edmond Bonnaffé (1825-1903) was a wealthy collector and noted historian of art, very close to the artistic movements of the age.
These pages by Verlaine are a critical review of the book by Roger Marx of the same name (Paris, 1890). In it, the poet discusses the great names in Art...