Restoration, July Monarchy, Second Empire, Paris Commune: rare books, testimonies and political texts

First trade edition, partly original in its enlarged form.

A portion of the work had first appeared in 1832 in the Revue Encyclédique (May-June), and had been issued separately in a first offprint of 23 pages (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1399-1340.)

Wrappers backed and restored, manuscript bookplate in the upper left corner of the title-page, a pleasing copy internally.

This is the Da Xue, the first of the Four Confucian Classics, first incorporated into the Li Ji (Book of Rites), then regarded from the Neo-Confucian revival of the Song period onward as a mirror for the Prince and likewise a mirror for subjects, centered on good government.

The Chinese characters were...

First edition, published in seven text volumes between 1874 and 1890, the first four by Michel Lévy frères and the final three by Calmann-Lévy, successor to the house of Michel Lévy. One of the very rare copies printed on Holland laid paper, an unrecorded large-paper issue not mentioned in the justification and apparently absent from the bibliographies consulted. Cf. Vicaire VI, 397-398; F. Monaghan, p. 74, no. 1157.

The seven text volumes are in the original wrappers, entirely untrimmed with deckle edges preserved. Small marginal tears and occasional losses to some spines and wrappers.

Rare first edition of the French translation, illustrated with a facsimile plate.

According to the CCF, copies are held only at the BnF, Sainte-Geneviève, the Assemblée nationale and Bayonne.

Contemporary half brown sheep, smooth spine gilt with romantic arabesque tools, some rubbing and small losses to the joints and edges of the boards, marbled paper boards, endpapers of marbled paper, armorial bookplate pasted to a pastedown, speckled edges, contemporary binding.

Some light foxing.

The only French edition, very rare, of this account of the end of the First Carlist War (1833-1839), which concluded with the Convention of Ognate on 29 August 1839, between...

First edition of this letter which in fact sets forth a concrete political programme.

Absent from Starace.

Contemporary Bradel binding in half saffron buckram, smooth spine, rubbed brown sheep title-piece, marbled paper boards.

Bookplate with date and place inscribed in ink at the head of a flyleaf.

Provenance: from the library of Prince Roland Bonaparte (p. 222 of the catalogue of his library, 1891) with his engraved bookplate pasted onto an endpaper.

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.

First French edition, complete with its engraved plate at the end of the volume: "Air mauresque" (see Gay 1352).

Bookseller’s resale label from the antiquarian bookseller Challamel affixed to the foot of the title page.

Bound in contemporary half brown calf, smooth spine with gilt and blind tooling, black morocco title and date labels, some rubbing to the spine, marbled paper boards, handmade laid paper endleaves and pastedowns, speckled edges, corners slightly worn, upper corner missing on one, binding slightly later.

Some foxing, dampstaining affecting the lower margin of the first 70 leaves.

The work was first published in London in 1811 under the title...

First edition (cf. Palau, 142.350.)

Contemporary full marbled sheep binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt arabesques, gilt tail ornament, green sheep title label with scuffs and small losses, gilt fillets to the spine ends partially rubbed, marbled endpapers, gilt rules to the edges of the boards, worn corners, marbled edges.

Written in a language of remarkable elegance, this survey of pre-Columbian Peru, its ancient civilisations, and the Inca Empire stands, according to specialists, as a model of fine popular scholarship.

The work of Sebastián Lorente (1813–1884), Spanish-born, who taught in Peru from 1842 to 1884.

The edition was printed in France...

Very rare first edition, published in Munich in 1819, illustrated with a frontispiece and five hors-texte lithographic plates by Carl Friedrich Heinzmann, bearing the signature “Carl Heinzmann fec. 1819”. Cf. Quérard, IV, 424; Pfeiffer, 220.

Modern Bradel-style binding in full grey paper-covered boards, smooth spine with longitudinal red morocco lettering-piece. Original plain blue-grey wrappers preserved. Some foxing, lower wrapper soiled.

One of the plates bears a Latin dedication to Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria, celebrated as “father of...

Rare first edition of this virtuoso plea in defence of Prince Pierre Bonaparte (1815-1881), first cousin of the Emperor, in the case of the assassination of the journalist Victor Noir [Yvan Salmon], which took place on 10 January 1870 and caused an immense scandal.

According to the CCF [Catalogue Collectif de France], copies are held only at the BnF, Compiègne and Versailles.

Smooth spine, unlettered, small corner losses to the boards, some foxing.

The High Court of Justice, the only body empowered to try a prince of the Emperor's family, convened at Tours on 21 March 1870 and heard counsel for the civil party recall the accused's unfortunate past record (he was said to...

First collective edition.

Not recorded in Chahine, nor in any bibliography consulted.

Contemporary full black sheep, spine richly gilt with decorative motifs, joints rubbed, sides elaborately blind-stamped with a wide central panel within a quadruple gilt fillet border, blue moiré silk endpapers and pastedowns, gilt dentelle border to the pastedowns, gilt rules to the edges, all edges gilt, contemporary binding.

Spine restored, dampstaining at the beginning and end of the volume, restored marginal tear to the title page.

This work comprises a collection of brief biographies of figures involved in the conflicts and negotiations surrounding the struggle for...

First bilingual edition, with the Spanish text and its French translation printed on facing pages.

Not recorded by Sabin; see no. 38614 for the "Memorandum".

Contemporary pink half cloth, smooth spine lettered in gilt, gilt date at foot with a small tear, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, wrappers preserved, contemporary binding.

Spine slightly faded.

This work constitutes a supplement to the "Memorandum" published by Lafragua in 1857, which contained the correspondence exchanged between Mexican and Spanish diplomats during a particularly critical period in Mexican history, spanning the fall of the Santa Anna dictatorship and the Liberal victory under Juárez...

First edition with a lithographed frontispiece portrait of the author by Engelmann (cf. Quérard IV, p. 424.)

Contemporary fawn half sheep over boards with small vellum corners, smooth spine richly decorated in gilt within compartments, red sheep lettering-piece, green paper-covered boards, yellow edges.

Restorations to the spine, a small loss in the right margin of one compartment, minor rubbing to the spine.

Light foxing.

Count de Lagarde was a member of the Royal Society of Warsaw, the Academy of Naples, and the Literary Society of the city of Cracow.

Having emigrated to Austria and Poland during the Reign of Terror, he undertook the journey from Moscow to...

First edition.

Contemporary-style half tawny calf over marbled paper boards, smooth spine decoratively tooled in blind with double fillets and floral ornaments, bookplate mounted on pastedown, wrappers preserved, speckled edges, modern binding.

A few letters erased in the text on page 35.

Exceptionally rare collection of puns and jeux de mots based on homonymy and paronymy.

The CCFr records only a similar title, though not corresponding to ours: Encyclopédie pittoresque du calembour, printed in Paris without date and comprising 127 pages with illustrations (BnF, Institut, Grenoble), which appears to be an enlarged later edition of our work. In any case...

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...

First edition, illustrated with a large folding map (hors texte) at the end of the volume.

Half black morocco binding, spine with four raised bands decorated with gilt fillets and dotted tooling; light rubbing to the spine. Marbled paper boards, speckled edges, contemporary binding.

Scattered foxing.

Unique edition of this scarce monograph, among the earliest works in French on Albania, at the time still part of the European territories of the Ottoman Empire.

Hecquard (1814–1866) is better known for his travels in Africa, but he served as French consul in Albania from 1862 onward, which explains the writing of this work.

Signed presentation...

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.

First edition, printed in a small number, of these four separately published articles by the eminent Austrian Orientalist Baron von Hammer (1774–1856), one of the pioneers of modern scholarship on the Muslim world.

Contemporary blue half sheep, smooth spine decorated with triple gilt fillets, title lettered vertically in gilt, marbled-paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

These four offprints were originally published in volume XII (1854) of the Sitzungsberichte der philos.-histor. Classe der kais. Akademie der Wissenschaften (Proceedings and Transactions of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, Philosophical and Historical Class) and deal chiefly with the...

Rare first edition.

Only 3 copies recorded in the CCFr: Paris (BnF and Assemblée nationale); Rouen.

Contemporary-style half olive calf over marbled boards, smooth spine ruled in gilt, cherry morocco lettering-piece, marbled paper sides, pastedowns and endpapers of vat paper, red edges, modern binding.

This work constitutes a refutation of Astolphe de Custine’s "La Russie en 1839" (Paris, 1843, 4 vols. 8vo), which portrayed the country as backward while challenging the tsarist regime: « Avec une légèreté incroyable, avec une impudence qui n’a pas de nom, et l’intention manifeste de calomnier, d’offenser et d’injurier l’empereur et l’impératrice, il entre dans...

First edition.

Bradel binding in full blue paper-covered boards, smooth spine, red morocco title label.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Bibliothèque Thiers).

This rare text constitutes an extract from a larger work which appears not to have been published, the opening title bearing Chapter 15, Des Places fortes, and an advertisement on p. 139 indicating Chapter 16, De la Stratégie.

The work concludes with an interesting list of French fortified places, with an indication of the garrisons required for their defence.

Son of the celebrated René-Louis de Girardin d'Ermenonville, Lieutenant-General Count Alexandre-Louis-Robert de...

First edition of the French translation, printed on laid paper (cf. Loukia Droulia 1536. See Blackmer 663 for the original English edition).

Modern bradel binding in full green paper boards, smooth spine, olive green sheep title-piece.

A waterstain to the upper corner of the first 10 leaves of the volume.

"This is the first in Gell's series of rapid \"itineraries\" which contain information organized among plotted routes. The material for this itinerary was collected during Gell's travels in the Morea in 1805-6" [Blackmer].

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 of these extremely rare statutes of an Indo-British lodge established in Calcutta since 1860.

No copy recorded in the CCF or in WorldCat.

Minor losses to the spine and corners of the boards, with one tear at the head of the upper cover skilfully restored.

Extremely rare first edition of the statutes of an Indo-British military lodge established in Calcutta.

Losses to the rubbed spine, covers reinforced, internally in pleasing condition.

No copy recorded in the CCFr or on WorldCat.

First edition of this short work intended as a supplement to the Voyage dans le Levant by the same author: Auguste de Forbin (1777–1841) indeed undertook this journey in 1820, one year after returning from his extensive expedition to the Middle East, officially carried out in his capacity as Director of the Royal Museums.

Contemporary half caramel sheep, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and garlands and blind-stamped ornaments, gilt rolls at head and foot of spine, joints slightly split at head and foot, blind-stamped palmette decorations to marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns of vat paper, marbled edges.

Our copy is complete with its engraved...

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...

Very rare first edition of this album comprising 24 plates engraved by the Valenciennes engraver William Marks.

Indeed, the large figure printed on two sheets counts as two engraved plates (nos. 8 and 9), Cf. Vicaire

Contemporary half tawny shagreen over corners, spine with five raised bands highlighted with gilt dotted tooling and decorated with double fillets and gilt fleurons, some rubbing to the spine and joints, one joint split and then reglued at the head, comb-marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original illustrated upper wrapper preserved, top edge gilt, engraved bookplate pasted to one pastedown, contemporary binding.

Texts by...

First edition (cf. Quérard, Sup., II, 1252).

Modern tan half calf by Laurenchet, smooth spine lettered gilt lengthwise, marbled paper boards, red edges.

A loss to the title-page professionally made good, a few small spots of foxing.

Among the subjects discussed are: newspapers in Russia in 1838; military education in Russia; fishing in Russia; a survey of Russian literature in 1838; the work of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences; deportation to Siberia; scientific expeditions commissioned by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg; the form of government of the Russian Empire (imperial authority); the political constitution of the Russian Empire (the Council...

Rare first edition.

According to the CCF, the only recorded copy is held by the BnF.

Spine restored and rebacked, small marginal losses to the wrappers, front wrapper relaid, internally in very good condition.

Autograph inscription signed by Claude-René-Jacques David de Pénanrun to Odilon Barrot (1791-1873), in his capacity as "President of the Decentralisation Commission".

Indeed, the elderly Orléanist, despite having withdrawn from political life, had accepted, following a meeting at the Tuileries Palace with Napoleon III, the chairmanship of an extra-parliamentary committee tasked with examining decentralisation projects (1869).

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.)

Album of 25 hand-finished colour lithographs depicting French military uniforms from the last quarter of the 19th century (cf. Glaesser pp. 320-321. Colas 2003 (issued in quarto format?)).

Contemporary paper boards, plain smooth spine in brick-red cloth.

Some foxing.

The unnumbered military costume plates are captioned.

Collective first edition issued by subscription (cf. Le Quillec 524.)

Contemporary red half-shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands ruled in black, minor rubbing to spine and joints, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, wrappers preserved.

Scattered foxing, trace of a removed bookplate at the upper left corner of a pastedown, small marginal tears to the right margins of several leaves.

The celebrated "Le Temps des cerises", anthem of the Paris Commune, appears on page 243.

Rare first edition.

Losses to the spine, restored, foxing mainly at the beginning and end of the volume, manuscript ex-libris at the head of the upper cover.

The author emphasises the particular status of land ownership under Islamic rule, and proposes the establishment of a free zone on the coasts of Cyrenaica.

First edition of the French translation, illustrated in the atlas volume with 11 plates and 1 large folding map (cf. Hage Chahine, 720; Chadenat, 4227; Wilson, 35 for the 1835 English edition).

Contemporary Romantic bindings in aubergine half calf, smooth spines decorated with gilt arabesque tooling, gilt rolls at head and foot, marbled-paper boards, and marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

The atlas bound in aubergine half shagreen, smooth spine decorated with gilt Romantic arabesque tooling, gilt rolls at head and foot, marbled-paper boards, and marbled endpapers and pastedowns; a modern binding executed to match the Romantic bindings of the text volumes.

Joints...

First edition illustrated with 9 copper-engraved plates hors texte after drawings by Hippolyte Jordan and Baron Charles-Louis de Coubertin (1822-1908, father of Pierre de Coubertin), including one double-page map and one folding plate.

Frédy de Blackmer 177 (calling for 17 plates).

Contemporary half cherry-red shagreen over marbled boards, spine with five raised bands showing a few rubs and darkened at the foot, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, शीर्ष edge gilt, corners lightly bumped.

A light dampstain to the edges without affecting the text, joints restored at head and foot.

The sole edition, printed in an edition of 500 copies and uncommon, of this account...

Rare first edition.

Minor stains on the front cover, some light foxing of no consequence.

This lesser-known pamphlet is among the military works of the future Emperor Napoleon III; its purpose, it must be said, was more electoral than purely technical, as it aimed to introduce the young deputy to the public.

First edition, illustrated with 18 plates on China paper (cf. Sabin 5832. Leclerc 1075. Streeter, "Bibliography of Texas", 1343.)

Contemporary half tan calf, spine with four fine raised bands ruled in gilt and blind, gilt ornamental rolls partly faded at head and foot, hazel morocco lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, all edges marbled.

Dampstaining to the lower margins of most leaves, more pronounced towards the start and the end of the volume; some foxing; two gatherings bound out of sequence by the binder, and the final four preliminary pages bound at the end of the volume; minor repairs to the joints; slight rubbing to the lower edges...

First French edition, illustrated with a lithographed frontispiece and 11 lithographed plates (bound between pp. 360–361), cf. Brunet, I, 787; Chadenat, 5323.

Full calf binding, smooth spine with gilt decorative motifs, gilt roll on the headbands, red morocco title label, gilt roll borders on the boards, handmade paper endpapers and pastedowns, gilt edges on the board edges, red page edges, contemporary binding.

Restorations to the spine, one restoration at the foot of the title page.

An epistolary account of a journey undertaken in 1802 among the Kalmyks, a nomadic people of the Astrakhan province (North Caucasus).

Second edition, with a newly engraved portrait as frontispiece (cf. Blackmer 99 for the first edition issued the same year).

Light waterstaining to the upper margins of the opening leaves, minor losses to the head and foot of the spine as well as at the corners of the boards. Copy preserved in its original wrappers.

The first biography of Ali Pasha, illustrated with a portrait.

First edition, illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of Benito Juárez (cf. Palau 25905.)

Contemporary half red shagreen over marbled boards, spine in five compartments with raised bands, decorated with double gilt-ruled panels and gilt floral tools, a few minor abrasions to the spine, gilt gothic initials and gilt date at foot, marbled paper boards, the upper cover enhanced with a large aubergine shagreen title-piece lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, corners worn, small defects to the edges, speckled edges, contemporary binding. 

The finest biography of Juárez, published less than two years after his death: "Esta obra es la más documentada y completa que existe sobra...

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with 18 engraved plates, 10 of them hand-coloured (cf. Blackmer 87; Atabey 68; Contominas 39; Monglond VII, 654-655).

The 18 plates include the two plates of musical notation and the large folding map at the end of the second volume.

Contemporary green half sheep, darkened smooth spines ruled in gilt, with a narrow gilt roll at foot, marbled paper boards, speckled edges.

Some foxing, light rubbing to the joints, a few gatherings browned. 

First and only edition of Auguste du Coudray's French translation of this account of a journey through Greece, written in the form of letters. Jacob Levin Salomo, known as Jakob...

First edition of this rare work. Several states are known: without any plates, not even the engraved title-frontispiece (the extremely rare deluxe issue); with the engraved title bearing the same imprint as the printed title (Tours, R. Pornin et Cie); and, finally, with the Paris, Lehuby imprint (as in the present copy).

The following explanation may be proposed: the Tours publisher Pornin reserved a small portion of the edition, without the engraved material, for the author's friends. The remainder was shared with the Paris publisher Lehuby, a specialist in children's books, who ensured its wider distribution.

The work is illustrated with a frontispiece and two steel-engraved...

First edition (cf. Quérard I, 152, which incorrectly gives the date as 1824).

Our copy is preserved in its original beige printed wrappers, with the title label pasted to the spine.

Tears and corner losses to the wrappers, a few scattered foxing spots.

Born in Béthune (Pas-de-Calais) in 1777 and deceased in Margency (Val-d'Oise) in 1824, Chevalier Bail began a military career before turning his attention to the moral and political sciences.

This work was entered for the prize awarded by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1823.

New edition, partly original, revised and enlarged (cf. Vicaire 56; Bitting 231; Oberlé, Fastes, 466).

Contemporary-style half tan sheep, smooth spine decorated with gilt and blind fillets and blind-stamped ornaments, black shagreen lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, modern binding.

A few instances of foxing. 

The author of this work, born in Grasse in 1767 and died in 1839, was appointed physician to Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples, in 1806.

His dictionary is a mine of highly valuable information on food products from throughout the world, with historical, literary, anecdotal, scientific, gastronomic, and medical entries. It also...

First edition illustrated with 6 folding tables printed hors texte (cf. Palau, 16641. Not in Sabin.)

 Contemporary half tan sheep, smooth spine decorated with black and gilt fillets, rubbing to the spine and joints, marbled paper boards, endleaves and pastedowns of decorated paper, wear to the edges, bumped corners, speckled edges.

Account of the political unrest of 1833 by a Mexican statesman [1802-1855] who would become President of the Republic in 1851. For the first time in modern Mexican history, a transfer of power took place without violence, and even in a cordial manner. Nevertheless, fierce opposition ultimately brought down his government, and Arista resigned on 4...

First edition of this scarce catalogue of mineral specimens exhibited by the National Department of Mines and Geology of the Argentine Republic at the 1889 Universal Exposition.

Contemporary Bradel binding in chocolate brown half shagreen, smooth spine with gilt title lettered vertically, library shelf label at the foot of the spine, double gilt fillets to marbled paper boards, two abrasions with small losses of paper at the foot of the upper cover, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.

Library stamp skilfully erased from the upper right corner of the introductory page.

A pleasing copy in very good internal condition.

Very rare first edition of this major work, complete as issued (the text ends abruptly with the final table, without a table of chapters).

Illustrated with a lithographed portrait frontispiece (Cf. Palau 11 815. Sabin 1377.)

Contemporary half cherry calf over marbled paper boards, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets, garlands and fleurons; small loss at foot of spine, which is also rubbed; some abrasion to the marbled paper; speckled edges; corners and board edges rubbed.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Institut).

A member of Colombia's Comision corografica from 1850, the writer and publicist Manuel Ancizar Basterra (1812-1882) undertook an...

First edition of these travel recollections, written in the form of letters in prose and verse addressed to Saintine, friend and collaborator of the playwright Jacques Ancelot (1794-1854), who had accompanied Marshal Marmont to the festivities marking the coronation of Tsar Nicholas I.

Contemporary quarter blond calf with small green corners, smooth spine decorated with blind fillets and ornaments and gilt decorative rolls at head and foot, green calf lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges; binding signed Thouvenin at foot of spine.

Lower joint split with a small loss, upper joint split and subsequently reglued, some foxing...

First edition of this literary utopia (cf. Ferguson 3133).

Contemporary half dark green shagreen binding, smooth spine tooled with gilt fillets and foliate scrollwork, gilt volume number at foot, with a few minor areas of rubbing; marbled paper boards, blue paper endpapers and pastedowns, a small loss to one corner of a pastedown, corners bumped.

Spine restored.

First and only edition of this apocryphal voyage, presented as the account of a maidservant accompanying her master through an imagined Australia, envisioned as a new nation spared the vices of the Old World.

First edition of this new Histoire générale des voyages, arranged and brought up to date with contemporary discoveries by Baron Charles-Athanase Walckenaer (1771-1852). Published in Paris between 1826 and 1831 in twenty-one octavo volumes, it constitutes the only portion ever completed of a project originally intended to extend to some sixty volumes. The final four volumes were prepared by Jean-Baptiste-Benoît Eyriès. Brunet V, 1041; Quérard X, 472; Gay 299; Hoefer XLVI, 498.

Contemporary half red Russia morocco with corners, spines with five raised bands, boards framed with blind fillets, marbled...

Uncommon first edition (cf. O'Reilly & Reitman, 6271: "Travail consciencieux, bien documenté et toujours utile"; Numa Broc, Océanie, pp. 377-380).

Our copy retains the two folding maps bound at the end of the first volume.

The two maps are titled: Carte de l'île Taïti d'après Vilson et les travaux récens de la frégate l'Artémise; Carte de l'archipel Taïti d'après les travaux les plus récens [et] des archipels français dans l'Océanie par Mr Vincendon-Dumoulin, 1844.

Contemporary half bottle-green sheep, spine with five raised bands gilt with scrolling tools and floral ornaments, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, spines slightly...

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...

A substantially posthumous publication, prepared by Ayres de Sá from the notes and papers of the second Viscount of Santarém (1791–1856), who, in addition to his diplomatic and political roles amid the turbulent struggle between Marianist and Miguelist factions in Portugal, was the first historian to develop the study of cartography in a methodical manner.

The work is illustrated with 97 plates in the first volume and 40 plates in the second.

Cherry half-shagreen bindings with corners, spines with five raised bands framed by black fillets and showing some rubbing, marbled paper sides, a scratch to the left margin of the upper cover of the first volume, endpapers and pastedowns...

Second edition, partly original, revised and corrected (cf. Gay 954 and Tailliart 1601, who record only the fourth edition; Playfair 404).

Spine darkened and split, scattered foxing, a few stains to the boards.

The volume includes, as a frontispiece, a folding view of Algiers together with five plates and a folding map of the environs of Algiers, all hors texte.

First edition illustrated with three folding maps out of text.

"This work is one of the best contemporary accounts of the Greek War of Independence". Atabey 1014.

Minor losses to the corners of the spines and boards, uniformly browned boards, a few small spots of foxing.

Maxime Raybaud (1795–1894) was a senior officer in the Corps of Philhellenes and aide-de-camp to the President of the Executive Power of the Greek government.

He assisted the insurgents between 1821 and 1823, and again in 1825 and 1826.

Rare whaling share certificate issued by the Lamotte & Cie shipowners of Le Havre.

Lithographed sheet on pink paper with manuscript additions, presented in a modern glazed frame (with a small chip to the upper right corner of the frame) and set within a mat.

The document is mounted on a guard, tipped in at the head to the mat.

This is a half-share certificate valued at two thousand five hundred francs, relating to the vessel Hâvre, issued in the name of Mr Levis de Pontaudemer and bearing the number 25.

Dated at Le Havre, 10 September 1834.

A very rare and attractive document.

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...

First separate edition of Plain Language from Truthful James, which first appeared as an article in The Overland Monthly in September 1870.

Issued as a printed envelope-folder containing nine lithographed caricature plates by John Hull, each accompanied by a poem.

No copy recorded in the CCF.

Small angular tears to the envelope, with some staining to the lower margin.

Originally intended as a fierce satire on the racial prejudice of Irish-American workers against the numerous Chinese immigrants competing for railway construction jobs, the piece was widely misread as mocking the immigrants themselves.

The Jewish writer and poet Francis Brett...

Rare first edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with two folding plates.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Strasbourg). Backer & Sommervogel III, 1242 (59).

Our copy is preserved in its original provisional yellow paper wrappers,

With a few minor spots of foxing on the folding plates.

The Neapolitan Jesuit Raffaele Garrucci (1811–1885) devoted his work to the study of the Church Fathers as well as to both pagan and Christian antiquities.

He became one of the foremost disciples of Father Giuseppe Marchi, alongside the renowned Giovanni Battista de Rossi.

First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint from the Bulletin de la Société géographique de Paris.

Copies recorded in the CCFr only at the BnF, BULAC, and Tarbes libraries.

Half hazel shagreen binding with corners, smooth spine slightly faded with minor rubbing, boards, endpapers and pastedowns in olive-green paper, top edge gilt, original wrappers and spine preserved; modern binding.

The Fourierist Armand-Jules Duval (1813–1870), an influential member of the Société de géographie, was a staunch advocate of the colonisation of Algeria.

He had himself lived in the colony from 1847 to 1862, overseeing the fortunes of an agricultural...

Unpublished manuscript logbook kept by a French naval officer, an eyewitness to the celebrated action between the Aréthuse and HMS Amelia (1813), and to the campaigns that accompanied the restoration of French authority in the West Indies.

Unpublished autograph manuscript of 189 pages (the first 31 paginated, the remainder unnumbered), kept by an anonymous French naval officer and covering, without interruption, the period from 25 November 1812 to 4 May 1823.

Contemporary half tan calf, smooth spine decorated with repeated gilt rolls and naval ornaments, burgundy calf lettering-piece, brown paper-covered boards. Spine...

First and only edition, illustrated with a folding engraved frontispiece (see Polak 6795; not in Sabin).

Bound in bottle-green full sheep, Bradel-style binding, smooth spine ruled in gilt with double fillets, gilt date at foot, original pink paper waiting cover preserved, modern binding.

A waterstain affects the lower margin of the initial leaves, gradually fading throughout the volume.

Unique and uncommon edition (the purported 1814 edition is a bibliographical ghost).

Rare first edition, as referenced by Clouzot (see Guide du bibliophile français XIX^e siècle, p. 256).

A few insignificant spots of foxing, a small black ink stain at the bottom of pages 354–355. Complete with the errata leaf at the end of the volume.

Caramel half calf binding, spine with five raised bands ruled with gilt dotted lines and decorated with gilt and black tools, gilt fillets at head and foot of spine. Minor rubbing to the spine. Brown morocco title label. Marbled paper-covered boards framed with blind-stamped vertical rolls, endpapers and pastedowns in cat’s-eye paper, all edges gilt. Roman bookseller’s label at the top...

Autograph note signed by Victor Hugo in ink on a newspaper cutting:

"Par le Ph.[are] de la L[oire] d'aujourd'hui j'apprends que je suis un traître j'en prends acte"

This modest yet powerful note is emblematic of the mythic Hugolian tradition of the "copeaux", or little "shavings" of paper. As an outlet, a catharsis for this overflow of thoughts and agitation, the writer accumulated ill-fated fragments: "Hugo's writing also has its wild, untamed side. Hugo was a graphomaniac: for him, writing was an imperious gesture, bound to no place or hour. Words, phrases...

First edition printed in small numbers.
Traces of horizontal folds on the first cover, otherwise a nice copy.

Signed by Charles-Louis-Augustin Letellier at the top of first cover.