Beautiful illustrated books of the Belle Époque, first edition engravings and lithographs, Art Nouveau and first print books

First edition, one of 1,400 numbered copies, only issue.

Outstanding publisher’s cream silk Bradel binding signed by Engel at the foot of the spine, flat spine decorated with Japanese characters; upper boards in excellent condition, elaborately decorated with a reproduction of Shinman’s starlings against a setting sun from the Henri Cernuschi collection (also illustrated pl. 26, vol. 1); corners slightly rubbed; both volumes complete with their illustrated dust jackets, showing tears and some losses.

New illustrated edition with plates hors-texte.

Bindings in half red shagreen with corners, spines with four raised bands gilt with dotted tooling and decorated with double gilt compartments; some rubbing to the spines; two water stains, to the left margin of the upper board of the first volume and to the right margin of the lower board of the second volume; a few marks to the corners; boards of cat’s-eye paper framed with double gilt fillets; marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

At the head of the first volume, a signed autograph presentation inscription by Lazare-Hippolyte-Sadi Carnot to General Henri Joseph Brugère.

First edition, illustrated with in-text and full-page black-and-white and colour drawings by Albert Robida.
Publisher’s original illustrated cloth binding in full green percaline, signed Engel, smooth spine, featuring a large polychrome illustration heightened with gold and palladium by Souze extending across the spine and boards; the original front cover in colour preserved; all edges gilt.
"Ceci qui va suivre sous un titre ambitieux pris simplement comme une étiquette en chiffres, n'est, bien entendu, pas une histoire, ni un tableau, ni un résumé, c'est une série d'esquisses, de croquis à la plume et à la mine de plomb, de portraits familiers de notre Siècle à différentes époques...

Folio edition of the Holy Bible illustrated by Gustave Doré in two volumes.
3/4 red calf, spine with five raised bands showing some scuffing, decorated with five blind-stamped panels framed in gilt, gilt roll on the bands and at top and bottom of spine, spine-ends rubbed, spine elaborately decorated with gilt tooling, title and volume number gilt-stamped, marbled paper boards framed in gilt, small losses of paper at upper margin of front board of both volumes, paper lifting at margin of lower cover of volume two, contemporary binding. Some foxing. 
Translated by J.J. Bourassé and P. Janvier.
A handsome edition with numerous monumental woodcuts after drawings by Gustave...

Rare first edition of the French translation by Judith Gautier, printed on japon-style paper.
Slight restoration work to spine and a corner of the lower cover, wrappers slightly and marginally soiled as usual.
Illustrated throughout with full-page colour woodcuts by Yamamoto.

First edition, illustrated with full-page 65 plates.

Occasional light foxing.

Blue morocco half-binding, spine with five raised bands ruled and decorated in gilt with gilt floral tools, marbled boards, marbled endpapers, original wrappers preserved, top edge gilt; bookplate on front pastedown.

A handsome copy in an attractive binding.

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 printed on laid paper and illustrated with numerous tables embellished with Chinese ideograms.
Contemporary full brown Russia morocco binding, spine slightly faded, with five raised bands decorated with triple black panels, a few rubs to the spine, gilt initials W. H. W. to the centre of the upper cover, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, triple gilt fillet border to the pastedowns, all edges gilt, double gilt fillets to the turn-ins, corners slightly bumped, unsigned period binding attributable to R. Petit.
Born in Poland, Michel-Alexandre Kleczkowski (1818–1886) served as Consul General of France, Minister Plenipotentiary in China, and Professor...

First edition, illustrated with 46 wood-engraved figures in the text, including 2 full-page plates (cf. Lorentz, IX, 740; not in Nissen).

Contemporary half red shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands showing some rubbing and a small loss at the foot, marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, corners rubbed.

Some scattered foxing; a light waterstain in the lower right margin of the final leaves, without affecting the text.

An interesting work awarded the Montyon Prize by the Académie française, addressing the appearance of instinct in the mineral and vegetal worlds; the journey of pollen; carnivorous plants; constructive, maternal, and migratory...

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.

First edition, illustrated with 883 figures in the text, some heightened with colour.

Contemporary half roan in a reddish-orange hue, the spines with five raised bands ruled in gilt dots and decorated with gilt florets, some rubbing to the spines and extremities, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

Manuscript ownership inscriptions partly erased from the endpapers of the first volume; an orange pencil line to an endpaper in the second volume; occasional pencil marginalia in the margins of several paragraphs in both volumes; a marginal note in red ink in the right margin of p. 37 of the first volume.

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 19 lithographed plates in colour or printed on tinted grounds (including a plan), with captioned tissue guards.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Musée de l'Homme).

The sole edition of this report, in fact written by the duke’s secretary, A. Gory.

La Butte-Ronde lies near the Luynes family estate at Dampierre (though in fact within the commune of Saint-Forget): the learned archaeologist who was the eighth duke (1802-1867) could hardly fail to take an interest in excavations carried out on the site, which brought to light a Gallo-Roman fanum. The pamphlet enjoyed only confidential circulation, and the duke’s death, in that same...

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...

Paris, Teissier et Cie, undated [circa 1868-1870]. Folio, 38 leaves mounted on guards, 32.5 x 49.5 cm.

An exceptionally rare collection, probably unique in this form, comprising thirty-eight proofs and working states of lithographed Masonic plates, most designed to be viewed across a double page. Numbered in red pencil from 1 to 40 in a discontinuous sequence including several bis plates. Caillet and Dorbon describe the Rameau d'or d'Éleusis, to which...

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...

First edition, printed in a small run, of this offprint from the Mémoires présentés par divers savants à l’Académie des sciences, vol. XXII, no. 6.

This publication constitutes botanist Maxime Cornu’s (1843–1901) first work on phylloxera and stands among the earliest scientific studies in French devoted to the subject.

Our copy is preserved in its original plain blue waiting wrapper, showing two losses along the spine and some foxing to the panels.

Very scarce work illustrated with three plates.

First edition of each volume.
Publisher’s full burgundy cloth bindings, flat spines, blue endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved for the second volume, front cover preserved for the first volume, gilt top edges.
Minor discoloration spots on the boards.
The first volume includes 75 biographies of notable figures of the time (each featuring a facsimile autograph and a wood-engraved portrait by Brauer), including Paul Arène, Léon Cladel, Coquelin ainé, Charles Gounod, Frédéric Mistral, Albert Robida, Octave Uzanne...
The second volume contains 76 biographies (each with a facsimile autograph and a wood-engraved portrait by Brauer) of figures such as Auguste...

Illustrated edition with a portrait of Jean Boccaccio as frontispiece to the first volume and 11 etched out-of-text engravings by Léopold Flameng, one of 600 copies on Holland paper in forme.
Half straw-yellow morocco bindings with corners, spines with five raised bands decorated with black fillets, gilt dates at foot, red morocco title and volume labels, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, top edges gilt, bindings signed by Canape-Helz.
Our copy is exceptionally enhanced with a suite of engravings executed by Gravelot.
Handsome set.

First illustrated edition by Robida, with 90 original illustrations. Limited edition of 300 numbered copies, this one unnumbered on vellum specially offered by the publisher to Mr E. Gruter with manuscript inscription and enhanced with a suite of all the engravings in black on China paper, and a duplicate state in blue.
Full brown morocco binding, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt compartments, quadruple gilt fillets framing the covers, double gilt fillet on the leading edges, brown and blue morocco doublure with gilt fillets and corner fleurons, top edge gilt, original wrappers preserved. Light rubbing traces on some raised bands. P. 295, lower portion yellowed. Uncut...

Original colour lithographed poster depicting Jean Jaurès as an elephant sitting on a chair and holding a bottle of “water from the Jordan”. Until then portrayed as a dog – caricaturists mocking his aggressiveness – Jean Jaurès is here, for the first time, represented as an elephant. It is a question here of highlighting his potbelly and his pachyderm silhouette, but we can, nevertheless, highlight the great dignity of this massive personality with a high gaze. The water from the Jordan is held on one of his hoofs and alludes to the rumour that he had his son baptised in the scared river, thus acting against his anticlerical policy. Despite the caricaturist's desire to...

Original lithographed color poster depicting Théophile Delcassé as a circus poodle.
Transverse folds and minor marginal tears without loss.

Distributed between October 1899 and December 1900 in a France inflamed by the Dreyfus Affair, these immense color caricature portraits are the work of Victor Lenepveu who announced the publication of 150 then 200 drawings and ultimately produced only about fifty. Despite the 1881 press freedom law allowing the distribution of politically subversive imagery, the publication of this nightmarish pantheon was interrupted by order of the Ministry of the Interior.

The fragility of the paper and the imposing format of these...

Original color lithographed poster depicting Georges Leygues as a donkey.
Transverse folds and minute marginal tears without loss.

Distributed between October 1899 and December 1900 in a France inflamed by the Dreyfus Affair, these immense satirical color portraits are the work of Victor Lenepveu who announced the publication of 150 then 200 drawings and ultimately produced only about fifty. Despite the 1881 press freedom law allowing the distribution of politically subversive imagery, the publication of this nightmarish pantheon was interrupted by order of the Ministry of the Interior.

The fragility of the paper and the imposing format of these extremely violent...

Original color lithographed poster depicting Louis Lucipia as a dog wearing a masonic sash.
Transverse folds and minute marginal tears without loss.

Distributed between October 1899 and December 1900 in a France inflamed by the Dreyfus Affair, these immense satirical color portraits are the work of Victor Lenepveu who announced the publication of 150 then 200 drawings and ultimately produced only about fifty. Despite the 1881 press freedom law allowing the distribution of politically subversive imagery, the publication of this nightmarish pantheon was interrupted by order of the Ministry of the Interior.

The fragility of the paper and the imposing format of these...

Original color lithographed poster depicting Joseph Reinach in the guise of a king slumped on his throne.
Transverse folds and minute marginal tears without loss.

Distributed between October 1899 and December 1900 in a France inflamed by the Dreyfus Affair, these immense satirical color portraits are the work of Victor Lenepveu who announced the publication of 150 then 200 drawings and ultimately produced only about fifty. Despite the 1881 press freedom law allowing the distribution of politically subversive imagery, the publication of this nightmarish pantheon was interrupted by order of the Ministry of the Interior.

The fragility of the paper and the imposing...

Original color lithographed poster depicting Jude Philipp in the guise of a vulture nailed to a wall.
Transverse folds and minute marginal tears without loss.

Distributed between October 1899 and December 1900 in a France inflamed by the Dreyfus Affair, these immense satirical color portraits are the work of Victor Lenepveu who announced the publication of 150 then 200 drawings and ultimately produced only about fifty. Despite the 1881 press freedom law allowing the distribution of politically subversive imagery, the publication of this nightmarish pantheon was interrupted by order of the Ministry of the Interior.

The fragility of the paper and the imposing format...