Signed Books, Presentation Copies

Original ink composition in magenta, brown, green, and blue hues, titled and signed “Moscou / LD” by Léon Deubel made on the verso of a leaf from his collection of poems titled La Lumière natale.

Magnificent multicoloured ink-blot drawing (klecksography) signed by the poète maudit Léon Deubel, inspired by Arthur Rimbaud’s Illuminations. This early Rorschach-like fold drawing was created using a technique dear to Victor Hugo.

Original ink drawing by Marie-Laure de Noailles, signed "Marie-Laure" within the artwork (appearing twice as a result of folding the paper while the ink was still wet). With an autograph postcard signed to Valentine Hugo, with 2 inscriptions and some parts of the photograph drawn over. 

A Rorschach-like Surrealist decalcomania by Marie-Laure de Noailles created for painter and photographer Valentine Hugo, the “Queen of Hearts” of the Surrealists.

Handsome and uncommon album comprising 36 vintage silver-print photographs (18.5 × 23 cm, mounted and captioned by hand), depicting exterior views—façades, gardens, and architectural perspectives—of this English neo-Gothic estate built between 1868 and 1872 by Thomas Smith and the Cannes contractor Scavy for one Michael Hugh Scott, who never lived in it: the property quickly passed to the businessman Debionne, who resold it to Lord Wolverton after furnishing and decorating the interior.

Publisher’s blue percaline binding, smooth unlettered spine, blind-ruled frame on the boards, gilt-lettered title to the upper cover, marbled endpapers and pastedowns; contemporary binding.

A few black spots to the slightly warped upper board; pleasing internal condition.

Facing the first photograph, presentation inscription from the second owner, Alexandre-Louis Debionne, to his brother-in-law, dated 15 April 1878.

First edition, one of 60 copies on large paper signed on the justification by Leonor Fini and Jean Paul Guibbert, the only copies to include four etchings by the Surrealist artist. This copy numbered on grand vélin de Rives.

Minute tear at head of joint.

Enriched with a precious presentation inscription from Leonor Fini to the Surrealist Lise Deharme: "Pour Lise à qui je plais(t) et qui me plais(t) \ Leonor" [To Lise who delights in me and in whom I delight], accompanied by an original drawing of a mischievous cat beside the artist's signature.

First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint from the Revue des arts décoratifs of January 1885.

Unbound copy.

Copies recorded in the CCFr only at the BnF, the Musée des Arts décoratifs, and Troyes.

This offprint gathers the three lectures delivered on 18, 21, and 25 October 1884 by the influential art critic Philippe Burty (1830–1890), a key figure in the emergence of Japonism.

Inscribed by Philippe Burty to the archivist and historian Pierre Margry (1818–1894).

Autograph letter signed "R" by Auguste Renoir, addressed to his friend and great collector of his works Paul Bérard. One and a half pages in black ink on a bifolium.
Horizontal fold mark inherent to mailing.

 

Autograph letter signed by Auguste Renoir, dated in his hand 5 February 1909. 2 pp. in black ink on a double leaf.

Horizontal mailing fold. Renoir penned this letter at his villa Les Collettes in Cagnes, where he created works of great sensuality and essayed sculpture. The painter orders brushes and refers to an expected visit from the family of Dr Emile Baudot, his physician of long standing and chief medical officer of the Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Ouest. Renoir's sole pupil was the venerable doctor's daughter, Jeanne Baudot, of whom he painted a portrait and who sat alongside her master for a canvas by Maurice Denis.

Maurice Gangnat was a patron, distinguished collector, and intimate friend of Renoir, whom he first met in 1904 through the offices of Paul Gallimard. Upon being introduced to Renoir, his pictures so delighted him that he purchased twelve forthwith, at a cost of twenty thousand francs. He possessed the connoisseur's eye, and Renoir permitted him to select the finest of each spring's production: "He has the eye," he would say of him.

Between 1905 and 1917, Gangnat acquired one hundred and eighty canvases during his sojourns at Les Collettes, among them thirty-six landscapes of Cagnes and its environs.

"Cher Monsieur Gangnat,
Je retrouve sur ma table une lettre que je croyais depuis longtemps à la porte.
Je vous disais que j'avais reçu un avis de la Banque marseillaise ou vous avez eu l'obligeance de déposer de l'argent pour moi et que je vous renverrais ( ?)
Je prends la liberté de vous charger de m'apporter un paquet de pinceaux. Millaud vous les apportera chez vous. Nous comptons toujours sur vous le plus tôt possible. Les Baudot doivent me faire leur visite annuel vers le commencement de mars. Ce pauvre docteur est replacé à la gare Saint Lazare. Ce mois-ci il s'y attendait. [...]
J'espère que vous êtes en bonne santé et prévenez nous pour vous aller chercher à la gare.
Ma femme et moi vous envoyons toutes nos amitiés ainsi qu'à Madame Gangnat et à Philippe [...]"

 

["Dear Monsieur Gangnat, I have discovered upon my desk a letter which I believed long since dispatched. I was informing you that I had received notice from the Marseille Bank where you were good enough to place money on deposit for me and that I should return it to you (?). I take the liberty of charging you with bringing me a packet of brushes. Millaud will convey them to your residence. We continue to count upon you at the earliest opportunity. The Baudots are to pay me their annual visit toward the commencement of March. That poor doctor has been reassigned to the Gare Saint-Lazare. He was expecting it this month. [...] I trust you are in good health and pray advise us so that we may meet you at the station. My wife and I send you our warmest regards, together with our compliments to Madame Gangnat and to Philippe [...]"]

A charming and vivid letter from the artist to an intimate friend during his Cagnes period, ordering brushes for future masterworks, notably his Ode aux fleurs executed that year.

First edition of this album of caricatures by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi which he numbered and initialled (copy no. 36, followed by his initial). Printed "in small numbers” (Bartholdi Museum), with only six located in institutions (Colmar Museum, BnF, Harvard, UPenn, NYPL, Rutgers University).

Publisher’s blue cloth binding, smooth spine gilt-lettered along its length, upper board numerously framed in black, anchors and stars stamped in black at the corners, title and date gilt-stamped; lower board numerously framed in black, black stars at the corners and a central anchor, red edges. Slight rubbing to joints, faint mottling to the lower part of the upper board, a few plate tabs slightly split at foot, not affecting the integrity of the binding.

Illustrated with an engraved title-frontispiece, a half-title featuring the head of the Statue of Liberty, and 30 full-page hand-coloured lithographs.

Exceptionally rare copy of Auguste Bartholdi’s caricature album created on board the steamship bound for the United States for the 1876 Philadelphia World’s Fair, where he exhibited part of the Statue of Liberty.

This curious album contains the only caricature of the Statue by Bartholdi ever published: a vignette on the half-title depicting the top of Lady Liberty’s crowned head with her amused eyes emerging above the Atlantic. Moreover, the profits from the album were donated to the Franco-American subscription fund for the statue's construction.

First edition of the French translation by Pierre Jean Jouve of Georg Büchner's libretto for Alban Berg's opera, one of 40 copies on pure wove paper, this one specially printed for Charles Orengo.

Endpaper partly toned, a pleasant copy.

Inscribed, dated and signed by Pierre Jean Jouve to Charles Orengo.

Portrait of Tsuguharu Foujita, original photograph on albumen paper. Blue stamp of the studio "Photographie Simon's, 40 rue de Passy, Paris" on the back of the print.

Splendid portrait inscribed by Foujita on his birthday: "A Lolotte Rabinovitz / Avec mes amitiés / Je suis toujours / prêt à toi [sic] / à Yoshinoya New York / ma fête 27 nov 1930". "To Lolotte Rabinovitz / With my friendship / I am always / close to you / at Yoshinoya New York / my birthday 27 Nov 1930".

First edition, printed in a very small number of copies, of this extract from the Revue archéologique.

The booklet is illustrated with several figures in the text and, at the beginning of the volume, a full-page plate.

Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau (1846-1923), orientalist and archaeologist, made major archaeological discoveries in Palestine, where he had resided since 1867 as dragoman-chancellor at the French consulate. Appointed consul in Jaffa in 1881, he accepted a mission on the Egyptian coast east of the Nile, in Philistia, Phoenicia and Palestine; he published the results in the Archives des missions scientifiques.

Until his death, he pursued a dual career as diplomat and archaeologist. Clermont-Ganneau also unmasked numerous archaeological forgeries.

Precious autograph presentation inscription from Charles Clermont-Ganneau to Viscount Charles-Jean-Melchior de Vogüé (1829-1916), himself both archaeologist and diplomat.

First edition, for which there was not printed any grand papier (deluxe) copies.
Publisher's binding in full grey cloth.
Illustrations.

Copy complete of its dust jacket illustrated by Jimmy Ernst, the dust jacket being in a poor state with several tears and corners missing.

Very precious handwritten dedication signed by Harriet Janis to Boris Vian: “To Boris Vian with Paris greetings for Rudi Blesh & myself, Harriet Janis. May 1953.”

Personal diary handwritten by Maurice Béjart, written in a 1969 diary celebrating the centenary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi.
52 handwritten leaves, written in red and blue pen in a spiral-bound notebook. This diary features amongst Béjart's very rare, privately owned manuscripts, the choreographer's archives being shared between his house in Brussels, the Béjart foundation in Lausanne and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie.
The choreographer Maurice Béjart's diary written during the year 1969. An extremely rare collection of thoughts, questions and introspections from the point of view of Hinduism and Buddhist wisdom, which Béjart adopts following his first trip to India in 1967.
The diary is an emblematic testimony of the indo-hippie era of the 1960s, spiritual and artistic renaissance that inspired numerous ballets of the choreographer (Messe pour le temps présent, Bhakti, Les Vainqueurs).
A selection from this diary was published by Maurice Béjart in the second volume of his memoirs (La Vie de Qui ? Flammarion, 1996).
During the year 1969, Béjart wrote daily notes in a diary published in memory of Mahatma Gandhi. Fascinated by Hindu mysticism since his trip to India in 1967, he filled in this spiritual journal with numerous mantras and prayers (“Krishna guide my chariot, the light is at the end of the path. OM”; “Buddha is everywhere”; “Let God enter, but how to open the door”) and he calls upon the Hindu deities as well as the Bodhisattvas Mañju?r? et T?r? – soothing figures of the Buddhist pantheon. Béjart's “Indian period” was particularly rich in choreographic masterpieces, the progress of which can be followed in his diary (Baudelaire at the beginning of the year, the first performance of the Vainqueurs in Brussels and the Quatre fils Aymon in Avignon, as well as the filming and screening of his Indian ballet Bhakti). At the crossroads of New Age and the hippie movement, Béjart's “conversion” is symptomatic of an era that refuses progress and has a thirst for spirituality: “Calcutta is not India, but our western face. It is not religion or traditional thinking that is to blame, but capitalism. India, a rich country before colonisation.” The Beatle's visit to the guru Maharishi's ?shram and Ravi Shankar's concert at Woodstock in 1969 marks the beginning of a real western passion for Indian music and culture, which was decisive in Béjart's ballets at the time.
In Béjart's eyes, India presents itself as a place where art and ancestral traditions have not suffered the perversions of positivity. In his creations he seeks to express the spirit of a culture that intimately links the body and the spirit, and in which dance plays a major cosmic and spiritual role. Included in his ballets were Indian dance systems and Vedic songs that were discovered thanks to Alain Daniélou – in 1968 he opened the Messe pour temps présent with a long vînâ solo that lasted fifteen minutes: “Béjart is in his Hindu quarter-hour. And over there, Hindu quarter hours, can last for hours...” commented Jean Vilar, director of the Avignon festival. A wave of Indian fashion also passes through the costumes of the Ballet du XX^e siècle company: large silk trousers, tunics, jewellery and oriental eyes. In the diary, Béjart states that there is “no truth without yoga,” an art discovered from an Indian master that can be found in many of his ballets in the form of dance exercises on the barre. He also decides to make Bhakti “an act of Faith” by filming himself the ballet choreographer, and during the summer he prepares the Vainqueurs, an unusual meeting between Wagner and traditional Indian ragas.
Beyond the prolific artist, we also discover the choreographer's troubled personality in the diary, in the grips of doubt and melancholy: “vague state of physical weightlessness and moral emptiness. Lethargy or laziness. Weakness. Dizziness. Drowsiness. Unconsciousness.” Despite successes, Béjart will try to calm his fragile state by meditation and the teachings of Indian prophets and brahmins, which can be found throughout the pages of this diary (Ramana Maharshi, Swami Ramdas, the Dalai-Lama, Apollonius of Tyana).
His sometimes thwarted romances with his favourite dancer Jorge Donn monopolise him and plunge him into anxiety – on the eve of the Vainqueurs premiere, he writes, “Before dress rehearsal. Chaos. [Jorge] Donn disappeared. Tara absent. Me lost.” Torn between enjoyment and self-control, he tours at a frantic pace with his company Ballet du XXe siècle, first to the Netherlands, then to Milan, Turin and Venice in Italy: “I leave Venice completely enslaved to laziness, to sex and to ease, and yet a strange well-being of the brute who drank and fucked.” However, these happy moments did not go so far as to satisfy Béjart, for whom “Joy has a dead aftertaste” despite the “life of work and discipline” that he establishes during this richly creative year. At the end of his life, Béjart will look back with humour on his Indian escapades and the resolutely sombre tone of his diary: “I can't stop myself laughing at this idiot who cries and who moans, even though he created a great number of ballets [...] When I think that at the end of this diary in 1969 I was firmly considering retirement!”
An extremely rare document retracing the meeting of the East and the West in Maurice Béjart's personal life and choreographic work. This diary embodies an era of counter-culture and cultural syncretism that had long-lasting effects on avant-garde European ballet.

Autograph manuscript signed by the painter and writer Jacques-Émile Blanche, entitled « Serge de Diaghileff ». Five leaves written in black ink, with numerous corrections in blue. Autograph foliation in black ink, later foliation in blue pencil. Leaf 4, originally in two parts, was joined with a strip of adhesive affixed to the verso.

Crossed-out passages and corrections.

A very fine funeral oration by Jacques-Émile Blanche for his friend Serge Diaghilev, director of the celebrated Ballets Russes.
The painter and writer Jacques-Émile Blanche pays tribute to the genius of Serge Diaghilev, shortly after his death in Venice in 1929. Chosen as a « godfather » to the Ballets Russes, the painter followed closely the choreographer’s work as a regenerator of the performing arts and applauded Stravinsky’s Sacre du printemps. He also produced numerous portraits of the Ballets Russes dancers, which he presented at the Venice Biennale in 1912.
At the beginning of the century, Diaghilev’s company, the « Ballets Russes », had dazzled audiences across Europe with a rich and vigorous art which, moving from one new form to another, remained at the avant-garde for twenty years. The painter recalls his first encounter with Diaghilev, a figure of undeniable charm: « j'éprouvai qu'on ne pouvait lui résister. Son autorité, ses caprices d'enfant gâté, on les subissait, tant son intelligence éclatait dans ses paroles d'adolescent. Il ressemblait, alors, assuraient ses compatriotes, au Tzar Alexandre Ier ». He evokes the impresario’s troubled existence and his dazzling triumphs with the Ballets Russes: « Eh quoi ! vingt ans d'expériences, vingt ans d'incomparables spectacles - et la perfection d'une technique de plus en plus déconcertante, ne nous conseilla-t-il pas d'accorder crédit illimité à notre cher ami, le plus artiste des hommes - et somme toute, le plus sûr de soi-même, malgré l'extravagance, le paradoxe de la vie qu'il menait et qu'il imposait à sa troupe ? ».
Blanche highlights Diaghilev’s taste for French culture, which he shared with his friends and collaborators. This passion, inherited from Russian aristocratic circles, made him « Le plus parisien des cosmopolites, croyant au prestige de Paris comme un boulevardier du second Empire ». We also learn of Diaghilev’s unrealized plan to travel to Moscow and stage ballets in the young USSR, then regarded as a land of political and artistic avant-garde. The letter closes with a moving evocation of Venice, where Diaghilev passed away on 19 August 1929:
« voici qu'un funèbre cortège de gondoles accompagne sur la lagune torride [...] les restes de notre cher camarade. Il est bien - puisqu'il devait nous quitter - qu'il fermât les yeux sur la cité du Sang, de la volupté et de la Mort ».

A remarkable panegyric to the creator and impresario Serge de Diaghilev by Jacques-Émile Blanche, his loyal friend and portraitist of the Ballets Russes.

Autograph letter by Pablo Picasso to Max Pellequer, vividly executed in multiple colours, signed and dated by the artist, 27 January 1956, addressed from his villa “La Californie”. Fourteen lines written in green, blue, pink, orange, red, violet and turquoise pencil on a watermarked “BFK Rives” sheet.
A few negligible transverse folds, as expected from mailing.

Picasso did not regularly employ colour in his correspondence. Here, however, he seems to have offered a gracious gesture to his friend and banker Max Pellequer, as the more visually striking his letters, the more sought-after they become. To speak of his work, Picasso turns to red pencil: “je continue mon travail avec ardeur” - a telling choice that conveys the fervour he wished to bring to his art.

Multi-coloured autograph letter from Pablo Picasso to Max Pellequer, signed and dated by the artist on June 5,  1956. The document includes the autograph address of his villa ‘La Californie’. Twelve lines in orange, pink, blue, yellow and purple pencil on one sheet. 
Minor folds. 

A very elegant letter written in pastel colours by Pablo Picasso.

Multi-coloured autograph letter from Pablo Picasso to Max Pellequer, signed and dated by the author on June 13, 1957. The document includes the autograph address of his villa ‘La Californie’. 2 pages on one sheet, 22 lines in green, blue and red pencils on a watermarked sheet.
Minor folds. 

An exceptional account of Pablo Picasso's passion for bullfighting, a recurring theme in his art since his very first works painted at the age of eight ("The Little Yellow Picador", 1899). 

Pablo Picasso gives Max Pellequer and his wife details regarding a trip to Arles on July 5, 6 and 7, 1957, to which the artist has invited them along with a handful of friends. With undisguised enthusiasm, he announces that he has booked their rooms at the "Norpinus" [Nord-Pinus] and their seats for the bullfight. Only after providing this essential information does the painter mention the opening of his exhibition at the Réatu Museum and the official dinner with Douglas Cooper, the great collector, and the mayor of Arles, Charles Privat: "Dinner with Cooper & the mayor". A performance of "Aïda at the bullring" is also scheduled during this Arlesian getaway, which ends on the 7th with an intriguing "bull run with the presence of a black king".

Autograph letter in blue and red pencil by Pablo Picasso to Max Pellequer, signed and dated by the author on June 7, 1956. The document includes the autograph address of his villa ‘La Californie’.  12 lines on the front of the letter and two lines on the back on a printed notice announcing the forthcoming publication of a book by Thérèse Leroy. 
Minor folds and a slight crease in the lower left corner. 

We have here a rare written account of Pablo Picasso engaging in self-deprecation. In his villa "Californie", the painter found a printed poster announcing the forthcoming publication of the book "La technique du classement" (The Technique of Classification). On this announcement, he humorously wrote the following words: "Je vais m'y mettre. Un peu sur le tard" (I'll get started on it, with slight delay), well aware that he preferred to devote his time to his art rather than to administrative tasks. Picasso refers here to the topic of his letter, the discovery of a new insurance document requested by its recipient. Max Pellequer, who managed his finances, knew only too well the disorderly nature of his friend, the artist with 50,000 works to his credit.

Picasso's true concerns however seem to reflect in the letter's graphic composition. He changed the colour and size of the characters to highlight what really mattered to him: beauty and friendship.

« Mistral et soleil. Allez bien et bonne poignée de main de votre Picasso » ! ("Mistral and sunshine, and a proper handshake to you from Picasso"!)

Multi-coloured autograph letter from Pablo Picasso to Max Pellequer, signed and dated by the artist on September 23,  1959. The document includes the autograph address of his villa ‘La Californie’. Ten lines in blue and green pencils on a watermarked “BFK Rives” sheet.
Minor folds and marks.

A very elegant letter written in pastel colours by Pablo Picasso.

Multi-coloured autograph letter from Pablo Picasso to Max Pellequer, signed and dated by the artist on September 23,  1958. The document includes the autograph address of his villa ‘La Californie’. 13 lines in a multi-coloured tip pen (orange, red, blue and green) on a sheet marked ‘VIA WESTERN UNION’.
Minor folds. Tear in the lower left corner. 

Colour is not systematically used in Pablo Picasso's letters. It would seem that the artist wanted to make a kind gesture towards his friend and banker Max Pellequer, because the more aesthetically pleasing his letters are, the more valuable they are.

The use of a multicoloured pen in letter writing was a practice shared by several artists, notably Paul Éluard.

Multi-colored autograph letter to Max Pellequer

Elegant multi-colored autograph letter by Pablo Picasso to Max Pellequer, signed and dated 'December 20, 1955'. A leaf in multi-color pencil (blue, green, orange and red).
Traces of transverse folds.
This "graphic" letter in the most literal sense constitutes a superb polychrome and artistic link in an epistolary chain that linked Picasso and his prominent patron for decades.

First edition, consisting of the facsimile of the author’s autograph manuscript.
Publisher’s binding in full white boards, smooth spine, covers illustrated with drawings by Oscar Niemeyer.
A handsome copy, complete with its illustrated dust jacket showing very minor tears and insignificant losses.
Work illustrated with drawings by Oscar Niemeyer.
Rare presentation copy, dated and signed by Oscar Niemeyer to Georges and Alice (Raillard).
Georges Raillard was an art critic and a close friend of Antoni Tàpies and Joan Miró; his wife Alice translated into French the leading Brazilian authors of the second half of the 20th century, such as Jorge Amado.
 

First edition.
Publisher’s full white boards, smooth spine.
A fine copy, complete with its illustrated dust jacket bearing very minor, inconsequential tears.
Illustrated with drawings by Oscar Niemeyer.
Rare signed presentation inscription from Oscar Niemeyer to Henri (Raillard).
 

First edition with 25 full-page photographs.
Green cloth publisher's binding. Copy complete with its dust jacket, with very slight tears, and traces of wear to the margins.
Rare autograph signature of Maria Callas on the title page.

Typescript of L'Intelligence en guerre with autograph manuscript additions


1945 | 22.3 x 27.9 cm | (24) f. | 24 handwritten sheets hold with a pin & 340 leaves of typescript

340 page typescript of the work L'Intelligence en guerre by the resistant writer-journalist Louis Parrot, accompanied by manuscript notes concerning the title, half-title, preface and first bibliography pages (4 pages in total) and the index of names quoted at the end of the volume (6 pages in total). Several folds and rust marks from the metal fasteners.
The typescript includes handwrittencorrections and changes, in particular
25 fully handwritten pages, and additions in the margin on several tens of pages, featuring fully in the version published in 1945 by La Jeune Parque publishers.

First edition, printed on vellum paper in 260 numbered copies.

Bradel binding in half vellum-style boards, smooth spine, gilt title running lengthwise, gilt fillet framing the marbled paper covers, top edge gilt.

A long orange offset to the margin of the lower cover on the vellum-style board, light orange offsets to the margins of the white endpapers.

Illustrated with 68 plates reproducing drawings by Max Liebermann in facsimile.

This copy retains the two original etchings by Max Liebermann, each signed by him in pencil.

Autograph letter signed by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres to Charles Paillet, with autograph address and title "Honorary Expert Commissioner of the Royal Museums", with postal stamps. Usual fold marks. A marginal tear repaired without affecting the text.

Ingres provides descriptions and exhibition instructions for his two paintings Aretino and the Ambassador of Charles V and Aretino in the Studio of Tintoretto.

First edition.

Publisher's full cloth-backed pictorial boards, front board with color illustration, pictorial endpapers, a newspaper clipping photograph of the Disney couple pasted on the front pastedown. Minor lacks to the upper cover, corners slightly creased.

Exceptional incribed copy by Walt Disney on the front pastedown: "Best wishes / Walt Disney," below a portrait of him with his wife and their dog.

Five compositions in Indian ink signed and dated 1923 by George Barbier on a leaf of thick paper. Traces of paper pasted down at the four corners on the back, a few very faint traces of previous pencil inscriptions on the front.

An exceptional ink drawing by the eminent fashion illustrator George Barbier for the “Elegances” section of the newspaper La Vie Parisienne, featuring four silhouettes at the height of 1920s fashion, with boyish haircuts, dressed in flowing, low-waisted tube dresses or wrapped in luxurious furs.

Original vintage photograph, signed and dated by Jeanne Moreau, showing her alongside Raymond Pellegrin during the filming of "Les hommes en blanc" as part of the Caméra du lundi series.

Black and white vintage print, with printed stamp and notations on the verso.

Manuscript signature by Jeanne Moreau, dated, at the foot of the image.

First edition of the vocal and piano score of the opera Déjanire by Camille Saint-Saëns.

A few pencil annotations in the margins of certain staves.

Our copy is presented in a 3/4 shagreen clamshell box, spine with five raised bands framed by gilt garlands and decorated with gilt fleurons, gilt lettering at foot of spine: "Inscribed by composer". Boards, endpapers and pastedowns in marbled paper. Spine of the box slightly faded.

Inscribed, dated and signed by Camille Saint-Saëns to music critic Edouard Beaudu.

First edition, printed on laid paper.

Contemporary bottle green half shagreen binding, spine faded, with five raised bands framed by black fillets and adorned with gilt lyres, some rubbing to spine, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt top edge.

Frontispiece portrait of Camille Saint-Saëns.

Inscribed and signed by Camille Saint-Saëns to A. Lasserre, inspector at the Opéra Garnier.

Signed and inscribed newspaper clipping with Picasso's portrait.

Newspaper clipping from 'Le Patriote de Nice et du Sud-Est' (25 October 1959) signed and inscribed by Pablo Picasso. A folded leaf inscribed with a large red felt-tip pen.

A pictorial and unusual inscription signed by Picasso on the front page of a Nice newspaper celebrating his 78th birthday: “For Max Pellequer / his friend / Picasso”. A beautiful testimony of friendship in an important political newspaper which featured many of the artist's original creations.

Autograph manuscript by André Breton initialed three times by his hand, written in black ink on two leaves. Multiple crossed-out and rewritten passages, annotations by his hand in pencil.
Pagination in blue pen on each of the leaves. Published in the review Medium, Paris, 1st series (sheet) no. 8, June 1953.
Breton delivers spirited literary and artistic chronicles for the Surrealist review Médium - and lashes out with great virulence against the "false witnesses" and "dubious witnesses" who criticize Surrealism.
The praise of Premier bilan de l'art actuel by his friend Robert Lebel becomes the occasion for a violent attack against Michel Tapié:

"Déplorons seulement qu'on ait fait appel [...] à un faux-témoin avéré comme M. Tapié, de qui nous avions déjà pu apprendre, au mépris de toute évidence, que ceux qu'il appelle dans son affreux jargon "les informels" (Mathieu, Riopelle, et autres) œuvraient à rebours de tout automatisme et qui a aujourd'hui le front de prétendre que Brauner, Maria, Matte et Dali ont pris l'initiative de rompre avec le surréalisme "où ils ne trouvaient plus leur compte" ce qui se passe tout autre commentaire" ("Let us only deplore that they have called upon [...] a proven false witness like M. Tapié, from whom we had already learned, in defiance of all evidence, that those he calls in his dreadful jargon 'the informals' (Mathieu, Riopelle, and others) worked against all automatism and who today has the audacity to claim that Brauner, Maria, Matte and Dali took the initiative to break with surrealism 'where they no longer found their advantage' which defies all other commentary").

In three other chronicles, he receives with interest the new work by Pierre Geyraud L'Occultisme à Paris:

"Le récent procès dit "des J. 3" a appelé l'attention sur la personnalité du père de la victime, qui, sous l'anagramme de Pierre Geyraud, a mené une série d'enquêtes 'parmi les sectes et les rites" [...] M. Geyraud continue à y braver les menaces de graves représailles que lui ont valu ses divulgations. L'accent reste ici sur l'activité luciférienne [...]" ("The recent trial known as 'the J. 3' has drawn attention to the personality of the victim's father, who, under the anagram of Pierre Geyraud, has conducted a series of investigations 'among the sects and rites' [...] M. Geyraud continues to brave the threats of serious reprisals that his disclosures have earned him. The emphasis here remains on Luciferian activity [...]")

salutes the "multiple originals" by painter Jean Fautrier:

"Par un procédé à lui, de la reproduction si fidèle d'une toile jusqu'à travers ses plus menus accidents de la pâte qu'il est impossible à l'œil nu de distinguer les copies de l'original, Jean Fautrier est passé à la création d'originaux multiples [...] Le silence gardé par la critique sur cette entreprise attesterait à lui seul de sa valeur révolutionnaire. Brisant avec un mode d'agiotage particulièrement impudent, il ne s'agit rien de moins que de mettre la peinture vivante à la portée de ceux qui l'apprécient pour elle-même" ("Through his own process, of such faithful reproduction of a canvas down to its smallest accidents of paint that it is impossible for the naked eye to distinguish copies from the original, Jean Fautrier has moved to creating multiple originals [...] The silence kept by critics about this enterprise would alone attest to its revolutionary value. Breaking with a particularly shameless mode of speculation, it is nothing less than making living painting accessible to those who appreciate it for itself").

and becomes enthusiastic about the masterpiece La Chouette aveugle by Iranian poet Sadegh Hedayat:

"Jamais plus dramatique appréhension de la condition humaine n'a suscité pareille vue en coupe de notre coquille, ni pareille conscience de nous débattre hors du temps, avec les immuables attributs qui sont notre lot [...] Un chef d'œuvre s'il en fût ! Un livre qui doit trouver place auprès de l'Aurélia de Nerval, de la Gradiva de Jensen, des Mystères d'Hamsun, qui participe des phosphorescences de Berkeley Square et des frissons de Nosferatu [...]" ("Never has a more dramatic apprehension of the human condition inspired such a cross-section view of our shell, nor such awareness of struggling outside of time, with the immutable attributes that are our lot [...] A masterpiece if ever there was one! A book that must find its place alongside Nerval's Aurélia, Jensen's Gradiva, Hamsun's Mysteries, which partakes of the phosphorescences of Berkeley Square and the shivers of Nosferatu [...]").

Superb manuscript by the father of Surrealism filled with annotations and revisions.

Autograph letter signed and dated by Auguste Bartholdi to writer Edmond About. Three pages written in black on a bifolium with his letterhead.
Traces of folds inherent to mailing.

Bartholdi returns from Egypt after having presented his project for a colossal statue on the Suez Canal, whose design will eventually be used for the Statue of Liberty. The sculptor gives his impressions of the trip, and brings back silks and Persian carpets from the bazaar for his friend.
From March to April 1868, Bartholdi stayed in Egypt to submit his monument project to Viceroy Ismaïl-Pacha. The idea of building a statue at the entrance to the Suez Canal had stemmed from the sculptor's visit to the canal company's pavilion at the Paris Universal Exhibition. He then imagined a fifty-metre-tall female colossus, stretching her arm skywards and brandishing a lantern - which he named "Egypt bringing light to Asia", or "Egypt illuminating the Orient". The pasha and chief canal builder Ferdinand de Lesseps were not won over:
"Of my enterprise I cannot give you any interesting information. I really don't know myself whether I've succeeded or not. You'll have to wait and see, I've found a benevolent welcome; but nothing definite, in the Egyptian fashion." The idea finally took root on the other side of the Atlantic, where his statue was enthusiastically welcomed by the Franco-American union and brought him international renown.
In addition to his excursions on the back of a donkey to find a site for his work on the banks of the canal, the sculptor took to strolling the streets of Alexandria and Cairo, drawing numerous sketches: "I intended to return to complete my studies at the bazaar; when, being indisposed, I was obliged to leave suddenly [...] I had the pleasure of seeing your friend Arackel, who was as kind to me as your letter ". Bartholdi also thanks About for his glowing review of his work published on June 1st: "It took your kind little note in the Revue des deux mondes to get my pen into my hands. Thank you for your friendly caress", and talks at length about the silks and carpets he had promised him: " The habaye [abbaya] of blue and gold silk cost 180 instead of 175, and they would only let me have it for 130, the last price. The Caramanie carpets cost 60 last price, and I only saw two or three that were beautiful".
A precious and aesthetic letter by Bartholdi, whose unsuccessful venture in Egypt would lead to the building of America's most iconic monument.

 

First edition, no limited issue printed, of this exhibition catalog. This solo exhibition of Perrriand's works was held at the Musée des arts décoratifs from February 5 to April 1, 1985.
Scuffing on lower right-hand corner of second cover faded.
With a lot of illustrations, a nice copy.

Signed and dated inscribed copy by Charlotte Perriand to Michel Troche: "... que d'efforts conjugués...Vive l'amité. Charlotte" (...what a combined effort... Long live friendship. Charlotte).
 

First edition, with no copies printed on deluxe paper.

A very good copy.

Precious signed autograph inscription from Jean-François Lyotard to Pierre Vidal-Naquet.

Extremely rare ensemble including a catalogue-program on laid paper, 3 original broadsides and 4 flyers announcements printed on colored paper (salmon, pink, blue and yellow) for the Bal de la Grande Ourse organized by the Union des Artistes Russes in Paris, held on May 8, 1925. Not at the NYPL or the Houghton Library. 
The folio broadside announcement (49.5 x 32.5 cm) is printed on both sides on laid paper and illustrated with a drawing by Cubist painters Auguste Herbin and Henri Laurens, folded in half; with two alternate printings of the same broadside printed on thin blue paper, folded in half or in four.
Housed in a chemise and slipcase with a brown morocco spine.

Cover drawings for the catalogue by Herbin, Laurens, Larionov and Léger. The catalogue includes illustrations by Picasso, Gontcharova, Larionov, Léger, Rodchenko, Vassilief, Melnikoff, Frenkel, etc.

Rare copy on laid paper of the program for the Union des Artistes Russes ball on the theme of constructivist architecture, exceptionally signed by Michel Larionov at the bottom of the cover. The contributors of the catalogue include Bernouard, Brunelleschi, Bourdelle, Brancusi, Cendrars, Chagall, Delaunay, Foujita, Gleizes, Laboureur, Soupault, Tzara and Valadon. In addition to the masked ball, events such as the dance performance "Ballet Synthétique" and the "Balcon Poëtique", consisting of fragments of modern poetry readings on the balcony railing, were organized. Other events at this avant-garde ball included the "Space Walk", the "Invisible Orchestra" and a "Japanese Dramatic Theater", a composition by Claude Debussy entitled "Cake Walk".

A rare ensemble representing "a fascinating intersection of Russian émigré culture and the vibrant Parisian art scene of the early 20th century" (Libraries of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston).