First public edition of this text by Elsa Triolet, written under the pseudonym Laurent Daniel, one of 58 numbered copies on Madagascar paper, the deluxe issue.
Fine copy.
First edition.
Spine and boards slightly and marginally faded.
A rare and pleasing copy.
First edition of the French translation, one of 230 numbered copies on alfa paper.
With a preface by Romain Rolland.
A fine copy, the spine very slightly toned.
New edition.
Contemporary half bottle-green sheep over green paper boards, smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets and a central gilt fleuron, green endpapers and pastedowns, contemporary binding.
Some light foxing.
"The author's Cosmologie, published at Paris in 1815 [?], devoted considerable space to America". (Sabin, 100990).
First edition.
The association of the Lumière brothers’ name with the development of the cinematograph should not obscure the fact that Auguste Lumière (1862–1954) was first and foremost a biologist of distinction.
Having as early as 1895 left the new invention to his brother Louis, he established a laboratory of experimental physiology and pharmacodynamics in order to direct his discoveries toward experimental medicine.
This laboratory became the Lumière Laboratories in Lyon, which he personally directed until October 25th, 1940, when he transferred the presidency of the company to his son, while continuing his research until his death.
Fine copy.
Rare first edition, illustrated with an engraved frontispiece (cf. Barbier II 802; Cioranescu 65461).
Contemporary full mottled brown calf, spine with five raised bands tooled with rubbed gilt fillets and decorated with gilt compartments containing floral tools, gilt roll-tooling to the head- and tailcaps, rubbing to the joints, mottled edges; contemporary binding.
The work is attributed to Claude Vanel, who served as counsellor at the Cour des Comptes in Montpellier.
Provenance: from the library of Jacques Charreton, a Lyon jurist contemporary with the publication; his armorial bookplate (Meyer-Noirel C 0949) appears on the pastedown.
Manuscript shelf-mark in...
First edition (see Sabin 97501).
A light dampstain to the right margin of the opening leaves.
Half brown cloth binding, smooth spine with a brown sheep lettering-piece, boards with marbled paper; a modest later binding.
After distinguishing himself—at times infamously—during the wars of the French Revolution, notably in Vendée, Louis-Marie Turreau [1756–1816] later served in Italy and captured the city of Susa.
He held the post of Ambassador to the United States from 1804 to 1811 and was created Baron of the Empire upon his return. His Aperçu of 1815 offers a bitter critique of the federal government. Turreau’s name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe...
Copy in parts, unbound, each one of them a first edition.
According to the CCFr, the Lunéville media library holds the first text in manuscript copy form. On May 28, 1777, France renewed in Solothurn (Switzerland), for fifty years, its long-standing treaties of alliance with the thirteen cantons. The privileges specified in the second text are chiefly commercial and financial in nature; they derive, to varying degrees, from the Treaty of Perpetual Peace of 1516 (Treaty of Fribourg).
First edition of this in-folio broadside signed "Phelypeaux", printed on one side only and in two columns.
A scarce and pleasing copy despite traces of central folding.
First edition of the French translation prepared by Lamole de Tamayo of this monumental publication, long sought after for its exceptionally rich iconography: 107 plates hors texte, including 2 in colour (mostly portraits), 2 folding colour maps, and a very large number of in-text figures and photographs (portraits, views, reproductions of early engravings, types and costumes, portraits, etc.).
Publisher’s bindings in half brown shagreen, smooth spines decorated with gilt fillets and dotted tooling, as well as blind-stamped panels; gilt titles and ornaments in relief on the green percaline boards; publisher’s bindings signed E. Domenech-Barna.
Some rubbing to the spines with...
Very rare first edition (cf. Ryckebusch 7452).
Four copies are recorded in the CCFr, all in Paris at the BnF: Tolbiac (2), Arsenal and Richelieu.
Spine and boards restored and reattached, with losses to the corners,
A refutation of the memorandum by Baron de Lareinty, former delegate of Martinique, urging the National Assembly to reject the bill establishing trial by jury in the colonies.
Denouncing judicial practices prejudicial to men of colour, this memorandum is jointly signed by four liberal deputies: Victor Schoelcher, Alexandre Laserve and J. François de Mahy, representatives of the island of Réunion in the Assembly, and Philippe Pory-Papy, deputy for...
Rare illustrated first edition, with 5 copper-engraved plates hors-texte, including 2 folding plates (cf. Barbier II, 302. Schwab, 517. Hage Chahine, 4320. Wilson, 200. Absent from Blackmer and Atabey.)
Our copy lacks the two dedication leaves to Rouillié, often missing, with repairs to the joints and one corner, and a manuscript ex-libris on the title-page.
Contemporary full mottled fawn calf, spine with five raised bands gilt and decorated with gilt compartments and floral tools, tan calf title-label, gilt fillets to the edges partly faded, speckled edges.
Sanson, a zealous apostolic missionary, tireless traveller and accomplished diplomat, arrived in Persia in...
Four-page manuscript in black ink on a folio bifolium (31.9 x 20.1 cm), entitled Compte de dépense & de recette pour l'habitation de Monsieur le Vte de La Bourdonnaye and, on the verso, Etat des naissances de Nègres et mortalités & crues et déficits d'animaux, together with Etat des revenus fabriqués sur l'habitation de Monsieur le Vte de La Bourdonnaye. Signed Pérès and Grasset frères, Pitteu & Cie, certified at Verrettes and Saint-Marc on 30 June 1785.
First edition (see Playfair 583a. Not recorded by Tailliart.)
Half black morocco binding, spine with five raised bands, sides of marbled paper, original front cover preserved, endpapers and pastedowns of comb-marbled paper; modern binding.
Loss skilfully filled at the lower right corner of the original front cover and at the upper right corners of the final two leaves.
Each of the disbound parts is in its original edition.
With: "Supplément au Précis justificatif de la société commerciale de la nouvelle Compagnie des Indes. Pour servir de réponse aux inculpations contenues dans le rapport fait à la Convention nationale, le 3 août 1793", printed in Paris by Lottin, also in 1793 (4to, 14 pp.), likewise disbound, printed in two columns, one for the "inculpations" and the other for the "réponses", on bluish paper.
These texts constitute refutations of the allegations levelled against the Compagnie des Indes, founded in France by Colbert in 1664 and whose privilege had been abolished on 3 April 1790.
During the Terror, the...
Second edition comprising the reissue of the first two volumes of the Bulletin, no less scarce than the copies of the first edition, and corresponding to the opening phase of Bourbon’s legislative and regulatory activity, a veritable mine of information not only on legal matters but on every aspect of the island’s daily life (cf. Ryckebusch, 1224).
Contemporary Bradel bindings in half fawn marbled sheepskin, smooth spines ruled in gilt with double fillets, marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, yellow edges, three corners lightly rubbed.
The third and final volume lacking, occasional foxing, two black stains to the lower cover of the first volume.
Rare first edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint from the Bulletin de la Société de géographie de Marseille, illustrated with 2 folding colour maps outside the text.
Spine split with some loss, marginal dampstaining to the covers, contents in pleasant condition.
Alfred Rabaud (1828-1886) was president of the Société de géographie de Marseille, founded in 1877 and one of the organisations that helped further France's colonial policy.
Rare, albeit in the condition described.
First edition (cf. Sabin, 64,876).
Spine cracked with small losses; slight marginal tears and losses to the wrappers.
The subject of this dissertation does not, of course, concern the State of the same name (a member of the Confederacy during the Civil War), but the vessel, the CSS Alabama, a sloop of war with combined steam and sail propulsion, built in Great Britain in 1862. It served in the Confederate States Navy until it was sunk on 19 June 1864 following a naval engagement with the Union sloop of war USS Kearsarge off the port of Cherbourg, France.
In the aftermath of the war arose the Alabama Claims, demands for damages brought by the Federal Government of the...
First edition, illustrated with a folding map at the end of the volume (see Fumagalli 730, and Gay, 2674bis (collation of the first two parts only: 292 pp.).
The third part of this history of the "Ethiopia of the Ancients" is devoted to Christianity, the religion most widely practised in Abyssinia.
Occasional light foxing, chiefly affecting the folding map.
Half blue shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands gilt with dotted tooling and decorated with double gilt panels, slight rubbing to the spine, dark navy percaline boards framed with blind fillets, a small loss of percaline at the foot of the upper board, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled...
First edition of this important first-hand account of the deportation and enforced stay in French Guiana of the counter-revolutionary journalist and songwriter Louis-Ange Pitou (1767–1846), placed under “preventive” arrest after the Directory’s coup d’état of 18 Fructidor, Year V [4 September 1797], sentenced to transportation, and released from exile only after 18 Brumaire (cf. Fierro, 1170. Sabin 63057. Leclerc 3445.)
The work is illustrated with two folding engraved frontispieces: La détention des déportés sur la frégate La Décade and Le désert de Konanama dans la Guyane.
Contemporary bindings in fawn calf, half-bound with small vellum corners, smooth...
Rare first edition.
No copy recorded in the CCF.
Some marginal tears and losses to the boards.
In 1838 the “Chinese Museum” opened in Philadelphia on the ground floor of the museum of Charles Willson Peale, based on the objects brought back from China by the Quaker merchant Nathan Dunn (1782–1844), who had returned from a long commercial stay in Canton (1818–1832).
The whole of this collection was also exhibited in London in 1842 and, after Dunn’s death, again in 1851, the latter showing meeting with far less success.
The fate of the objects that composed it remains obscure, but the collection fell victim to its own success and appears to have been both...
First edition.
Green half morocco with corners, spine with five raised bands and blind-tooled compartments, a few rubs to the spine, marbled paper sides, comb-marbled endpapers and doublures, sprinkled edges, contemporary binding.
Georges Perrot (1832–1914), a French Hellenist and archaeologist, undertook in 1861, together with the architect Edmond Guillaume and the travelling physician Jules Delbet, a scientific and literary mission to Greece and Asia Minor on behalf of the French Ministry of Public Instruction, the results of which were published in 1872.
He would later be the author, with Charles Chipiez, of the monumental Histoire de l'art dans l'Antiquité, Égypte...
First edition of the French translation of this account, originally published under the title: "An Account of the Island of Ceylon" in London in 1803 (cf. Boucher de La Richarderie, V, 135. Brunet, IV, 490 and Quérard, VII, 43 mention an edition published by Dentu, 1804).
Contemporary full mottled calf bindings, smooth spines decorated with gilt compartments and gilt tools, red morocco lettering pieces, green calf volume labels, gilt rolls at the head and tail partly worn, fragile joints, marbled paper endpapers and pastedowns, bookplates pasted to the pastedowns, gilt fillets on the board edges, speckled edges.
Bindings rubbed, small losses at the foot of the joints...
First edition of this in-folio printed broadside signed "Phelypeaux", printed on one side only.
Visible fold marks to the broadside.
First edition of the French translation (cf. Chadenat, 494; Brunet I, 24.)
Contemporary half green sheep, smooth spines faded and decorated with double gilt fillets, marbled paper sides with minor rubbing, marbled endpapers, two small tears at the joints, contemporary bindings.
Light waterstain to the upper right corner of a number of leaves in the second volume.
An Indian traveller, Mirza Abu Taleb Khan was born in 1752 at Lucknow in Hindustan and died in Calcutta in 1806.
After serving in the army of the Nawab of Oudh, he embarked for Europe on 16 February 1799 with his friend Captain David Richardson.
Following a three-month stay at the Cape, he landed at...
A very rare collection of three anonymous political pamphlets, issued without place or publisher in 1783 and 1784, all in first edition and bound together at the time in one octavo volume:
Very rare first edition illustrated with one map and one colour plate.
Not recorded by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Cordier, or Lorentz.
Half midnight-blue shagreen, smooth spine decorated with quadruple gilt fillets, one joint very fragile, upper headcap worn down, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.
Some foxing.
Folio manuscript from the second half of the 18th century, comprising 2 unnumbered leaves and 258 foliated pages, containing extracts and summaries of royal orders and dispatches of the Conseil de Marine from September 1715 to March 1723. The volume therefore covers the entire period of activity of this institution, created at the beginning of the Regency as part of the polysynody and maintained until its disappearance in 1723.
Contemporary restored full tan calf. Smooth spine decorated with gilt compartments and gilt tools, partly faded, lettering-piece lacking, a gilt rampant lion stamped at the centre of...
Manuscript of unnumbered leaves comprising a digest of ordinances and regulations relating to the French naval troops, most promulgated between 1690 and 1751.
The manuscript is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, in contemporary paper covers with manuscript annotations; tears to the opening leaves affecting the text; housed in a cream card portfolio.
It contains: Royal regulation of 1690 concerning the levy, pay and discipline of the naval troops. – Royal regulation of 1691 governing the billeting, conduct, march, policing and discipline of the naval troops. – Royal ordinances of 1695 and 1700 on the policing and discipline of the compagnies franches. – Ordinance of...
Rare first edition (the work was reissued at least once, in 1833) of this historical compendium arranged in detailed tabular form, increasingly precise in its treatment of contemporary events (Revolution, Empire, Restoration).
Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers.
Minor tears with small losses to the spines, a dampstain to the final free endpaper, light foxing, staining to the lower cover.
Second edition of the french translation.
Some light foxing.
Contemporary full mottled calf bindings, smooth spines richly gilt with typographical ornaments, slight rubbing to the joints, red morocco title and volume labels, gilt rolls to the headcaps, sides framed with a gilt floral dentelle, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt dotted edges, marbled edges.
Gay 368 : "On y trouve l'extrait du voyage de Picard qui se rendit à Fouta Tora ; cette relation ne se rencontre pas ailleurs".
Rare first edition (cf. Playfair 1406; Fiori 245; Tailliart 2970).
Spine split with some loss, upper wrapper slightly soiled at the margins, internally in pleasant condition.
Rare, though in the condition described.
The central argument is that the indigenous population should be governed not according to French ideas, but in accordance with their own customs and expectations.
At the head of the upper wrapper, signed autograph presentation inscription from Ferdinand-Auguste Lapasset to M. Frédéric Lacroix, former Prefect of Algiers,
First edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with 6 plates of medals by L. Dardel (Salmaslian, p. 162, does not record the plates.)
Bound in later half brown cloth, smooth spine, gilt initials at foot, some rubbing to the joints, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, corners worn, a few nicks to the edges, speckled edges; a modest later binding.
This is the first comprehensive study devoted to Armenian numismatics. From the series "Bibliothèque historique arménienne", published by Edouard Dulaurier.
First edition of the illustrated French translation, with 2 maps (one folding), in-text figures, and 5 steel-engraved plates by Fauchery (see Chadenat 2669. Borba de Moraes does not mention the very brief passage devoted to the Rio stage of the journey (see volume III, p. 381), which is in fact rather insignificant).
Some foxing.
Contemporary romantic bindings in aubergine half sheep, smooth spines faded and decorated with gilt romantic arabesques, light wear to the headcaps, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, armorial bookplates pasted to the pastedowns, speckled edges.
The English traveller Richard Lander [1804–1834], originally trained as a...
An offprint from the Description de l'Égypte; the paper was read during the expedition itself before the members of the Institut d'Égypte on 1 Frimaire, Year IX [22 November 1800].
See Meulenaere, p. 125.
Bradel binding in full red boards, smooth spine, red title label mounted lengthwise, the upper cover very lightly and marginally faded; modern binding.
A civil engineer with the Corps des Ponts et Chaussées, Michel-Ange Lancret (1774–1807) had been tasked with gathering the movable goods abandoned by the Mamluks during their flight, which in part supplied the material for this memoir.
Very rare fully mimeographed first edition of this course prepared for officers of the French Army of the Levant, issued locally under the French Mandate in Syria and Lebanon.
No copy recorded in the CCF. Not in Hage Chahine.
Minor marginal tears to the wrappers, a manuscript ex-libris on the upper wrapper, and a hole in the lower wrapper also affecting the final page but not the text.
The Belgian Jesuit and orientalist Henri Lammens (1862–1937) spent almost his entire life in Beirut; he was the first to apply to the study of the origins of Islam a critical method as rigorous as that used for any historical subject, which earned him much hostility and repeated...
First edition illustrated with 1 large folding map: "Carte de la côte occidentale d'Afrique depuis le Cap Barbas jusqu'au Cap Tagrin par Lapie, Ingénieur Géographe (et) gravée par P.F. Tardieu" (cf. Gay 2905.)
Our copy in original stitched wrappers with interim covers lined with marbled paper.
Light dampstaining to the right margin of the final leaves.
Important details on the slave trade in connection with the Gorée Island stopover at the end of the volume.
Pierre Labarthe (Dax 1760 - Paris 1824) was appointed head of the Bureau of Eastern Colonies and African Coasts in 1794, a position he held until 1808.
He had gathered numerous authentic documents...
First edition of this rare imprint from the Vivarais.
A single copy recorded in the CCFr (Grenoble).
Contemporary half brown cloth binding, smooth spine without lettering with a small scuff, boards of vat-made paper; a modest 19th-century binding.
Charles La Font de Savine (1742–1814), Bishop of Viviers and later of Ardèche (1778–1793), was one of only four bishops in office in 1789 to swear the constitutional oath. The "citoyen Savine" was subsequently required to surrender his pectoral cross and all episcopal insignia, together with his letters of priesthood, on 1 December 1793, and to resign his public office as bishop of the diocese of Ardèche; arrested as a suspect...
Rare first edition of this fervent—indeed visionary—appeal to bring the Orient under the sway of the combined powers of the State and the Christian religion, informed by such an overtly Eurocentric outlook that the work is almost unreadable today, yet remains an eloquent record of the illusions prevailing in the West in the mid-nineteenth century.
Corners restored at the outer tips of the boards, some scattered foxing, and a stain to the right margin of the upper cover.
In an admirably prophetic vein, the author exclaims: "La civilisation chrétienne, qui ne cesse d'agrandir son cercle, ne s'arrêtera pas devant le Coran, et ce n'est pas la loi de Mahomet qui présidera au...
First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint from the Mémoires de la Société naturelle des sciences naturelles de Cherbourg, vol. XX (1876).
See O'Reilly, Tahiti, 2693. Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Aix-Marseille, Cherbourg).
Bradel binding in blue half cloth, smooth spine, long red marbled morocco title label, marbled paper sides, original wrappers preserved, modern signed binding by Boichot.
This pamphlet, which contains a large number of botanical entries on the Marquesas, Tahiti, the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, etc., is a continuation of the study entitled Les Plantes alimentaires de l'Océanie (1875).
A...
First edition (see Cordier 92).
Contemporary half brown sheep over brown cloth boards, smooth spine decorated with triple gilt rules, gilt ornamental frieze and gilt name at foot, a few rubs to the spine; marbled endpapers and pastedowns; binding of the period.
Scattered foxing.
Manuscript ex-libris on the half-title: Madame Sinoir, repeated in gilt lettering at the foot of the spine.
Second edition, largely original in its own right as it was substantially enlarged, to which was added a "Lettre sur l'instruction des aveugles", addressed to the author in 1816 by Mr Isaac Roquès of Montauban, himself blind, together with a selection of his poems.
Our copy is preserved in its plain grey temporary wrappers, the spine faded and showing small losses.
The first edition had been issued at the same Montauban address in Year VI of the Republican calendar.
First edition.
Contemporary full mottled fawn calf, smooth spine gilt with floral tools and gilt geometric tooling, tan calf lettering-piece, gilt rolls to the headcaps now largely faded, a small loss to the upper headcap, some rubbing to the joints, single blind fillet framing the covers, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to the edges of the boards mostly worn away, yellow sprinkled edges, corners just a little softened; a period binding.
Sole edition of this history of travel since Antiquity, considered from the standpoint of its benefits to trade and commerce.
The work is nominally presented as a translation, though it is in fact by the Marseille man of letters...
First edition.
The CCF records only the minutes of the sessions of December 1787 and January 1788, published at Narbonne (Veuve Besset).
A very rare report of the first sitting of the provincial assembly of Roussillon, held in three sessions (20, 21 & 22 October 1787), preliminary to the sessions of the following December and January, but apparently overlooked by most historians.
First edition (see Cioranescu, XVIII, 13 365).
Contemporary full speckled fawn calf, spine with five raised bands, compartments decorated with gilt fleurons, faded gilt roll tooling to the headcaps, a scratch at the head of the spine, gilt fillets to the edges partially faded, corners rubbed, speckled edges; binding of the period.
The sole edition of the author’s only work, written by the prior of Saint-Didier-en-Bourbonnais [Saint-Didier-la-Forêt], about whom little else is known.
A very concise overview of the events of each ecumenical council, from Nicaea I onwards.
Rare illustrated first edition, complete with three folding maps printed at the end of the volume: Cercle de Biskra, Zaatcha et les oasis voisines, Plan des attaques de Zaatcha du 7 octobre au 26 novembre 1849 (cf. Playfair 2479. Tailliart 1903.)
Bound in modern half black shagreen, spine with five raised bands, gilt date at foot, minor rubbing to foot of spine, comb-marbled paper sides, brown paper endleaves and pastedowns, top edge gilt.
Occasional foxing, manuscript bookplate in violet pencil on a flyleaf.
First edition.
Minor marginal tears to the boards, a few spots of foxing.
Not recorded by Sabin.
First separately issued edition, illustrated with a large folding map, issued as a plate outside the text (cf. Sabin 94850).
The work was first published in 1838 in the Notices statistiques sur les colonies françaises.
"La lecture des documents officiels réunis dans la Notice statistique laissera déjà dans tous les esprits cette conviction que la Guyane française offre de nombreux éléments de richesse et de prospérité, et que, pour les avoir laissés improductifs pendant deux siècles, la France ne peut avoir renoncé à les mettre un jour en valeur".
Some light foxing, otherwise a pleasing copy.
New edition, partly original, revised and corrected, illustrated with 4 engraved plates out of text and an engraved title-page in the first volume.
Contemporary full mottled calf, smooth spines gilt with a repeated floral tool (the decorative motifs partly faded), red morocco lettering-pieces, rubbing to the spines, gilt rolls to the head- and tailcaps, one headcap shaved, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets to the board edges, three corners softened, red edges, a few small snags to the board edges, bookplates to the pastedowns, bindings of the period.
The title-page and plates were engraved by Benoît Louis Henriquez after drawings by Jollain. Cohen 440. See Atabey...
First edition of the illustrated French translation, with 2 plates outside the text, one of which folding.
Bindings in contemporary full mottled fawn calf, smooth spines richly gilt with panelled compartments, joints split and restored, some rubbing and small wormholes to the spines, marbled paper endleaves and pastedowns, gilt fillet to the board edges, marbled edges, two rather clumsy restorations to two corners; bindings of the period.
Pleasing internal condition.
This is an abridged translation (but, unusually, explicitly stated as such) of the major work Reise durch Sibirien, published in Göttingen in 1751–1752, comprising 4 quarto volumes and an abundant...
First edition of the French translation.
Loukia Droulia (849) records this work without having been able to examine it. Not in Blackmer and Atabey, who describe the English edition published the same year (A narrative of Lord Byron's last journey to Greece).
Contemporary full mottled beige calf, flat spine elaborately decorated with gilt garlands and fleurons, red morocco lettering piece, minor rubbing at the foot of the joints, gilt tooling to spine-ends, borders of gilt dotted rules, gilt garlands to the boards also framed in gilt, edges framed in gilt, marbled edges.
A few minor and unobtrusive spots.
Pietro Gamba (1801-1826) was the brother of...
First edition of the French translation (cf. Sabin 26375).
A defence of Catholic principles addressed to a Protestant minister (…) preceded by a notice on the author’s life and virtues. Translated from the English by Prince Augustin Galitzin. Paris, Ch. Douniol [printed by Simon Raçon et Comp.], 1856, 12mo.
Contemporary half navy blue shagreen, spine with four raised bands ruled and panelled in gilt, slight unobtrusive rubbing to the spine, marbled boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.
Scattered foxing.
A work of religious controversy; the preface offers interesting information regarding Prince Galitzin’s activities in the United States.
Bound after it...
Second edition, partly original, as it was revised, corrected and enlarged with a handbook for the cultivation of mulberry trees, setting out the principles by which the fullest advantage may be drawn from this tree, together with the presentation of a new method of cultivation designed to prevent its mortality.
Light dampstaining to the upper outer margin of the first leaves, small losses to the head- and tail-cap of the spine, a few scattered spots.
The work was reissued in 1837 and 1848.
Charles Fraissinet (1798–1856) was a pastor of the Reformed Church at Sauve (Gard).
Although closely involved in the theological controversies of his day, he is best...
First edition.
A comprehensive work setting out in detail the legislation and regulations governing silversmiths, jewellers and watchmakers in the mid-nineteenth century.
Spine cracked with small losses; corners chipped to the boards; some light foxing.
An uncommon first edition (cf. Palau, 92 173. Barbier, IV, 1072. Quérard, II, 40. Cioranescu, XVIII, 28675-28678.)
Contemporary full marbled fawn calf, smooth spine decorated with double gilt panels and ornaments, hazelnut calf lettering-piece, spine caps defective, covers framed with a single blind fillet, marbled endpapers, corners rubbed, gilt fillets to the edges, red edges; a fragile contemporary binding: spine ends trimmed, joints and upper hinge entirely split.
The imprint is fictitious: the pamphlet was not printed at Saint-Malo.
This satire, directed against the government, religion and customs of the Spaniards, and marked by singular bad faith (Fleuriot never...
Rare first edition (cf. Sabin, 24009. Ryckebusch, 3167.)
Our copy is presented in wrappers, preserved in a modern marbled paper chemise, with a printed title label mounted on the upper cover.
Red ink stamps on certain leaves.
Staining and dampmarking to the first and last pages.
For the pastor de Félice (1803-1871), there exist "three very distinct classes of abolitionists: apparent abolitionists, the temporisers, and those who are called pure abolitionists", a category in which he places himself.
In correspondence with Schoelcher and Bissette, whose efforts he supports, Guillaume de Felice advocates an "immediate and complete" abolition and criticises...
First edition (cf. Sabin 23192).
Contemporary half brown shagreen, spine with four raised bands decorated with blind-stamped compartments, slight rubbing to the spine, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.
A few small spots of foxing, with several imperial colportage stamps at the foot of certain leaves.
The sole edition of this commemorative text, apparently composed directly in French for the author’s nephew.
The physician Thomas Wiltberger Evans (1823-1897) had practised as a dentist in Maryland until 1847, before moving to Paris at the invitation of a fellow American, Dr Cyrus Starr Brewster (1799-1870), who had been...
First edition, illustrated with a large folding map inserted as a plate (see Gay 1114; Playfair 692; Tailliart 1290: "Livre écrit entre la première (1836) et la deuxième (1837) expédition de Constantine : étude consciencieuse, documentée, sincère").
Modern half caramel calf binding, smooth spine gilt with double fillets, marbled paper sides, original upper wrapper preserved.
Some foxing.
Rare first edition issued as an offprint from the Journal asiatique, no. 7.
Contemporary half aubergine calf binding with corners, smooth spine gilt with Romantic arabesque tools, minor rubbing to the spine, gilt garland frame to the marbled paper boards, orange paper endleaves and pastedowns, rubbed corners; a period binding.
Dampstaining affecting the first half of the volume, some foxing.
Concise manual of the Hanafi rite, one of the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence, the oldest and notably the one recognised as official within the Ottoman Empire.
Antoine-Joseph Du Caurroy (1775–1853) served as an interpreter at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Very rare first edition, printed anonymously in London in June and July 1784. Octavo. Sabin 21044. The French Catalogue collectif de France records only two copies, at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and in Rouen. The first edition collates v, 320, viii pp., with table and errata.
Nineteenth-century green half calf with corners, smooth spine slightly darkened and ruled in gilt, marbled paper boards framed with a gilt fillet and with a crowned gilt cipher within a central cartouche, lemon edges. Corners bumped, a few small abrasions to board edges. Bookplate to one pastedown. A few small spots...
First edition.
"Voulons & Nous plaist, qu'à commencer au premier Mars prochain, aucuns de nos Sujets de quelque estat, condition & sexe qu'ils soient, à l'Exception de ceux qui en auront obtenu nostre permission par Ecrit, ne puissent porter des Diamans, Perles et Pierres precieuses, à peine de confiscation & de Dix mille livres d'amende : Faisons deffenses sous la mesme peine, à compter du premier Avril prochain d'en faire entrer dans le Royaume ; N'entendons néantmoins comprendre dans la presente prohibition les Bagues Episcopales & les Pierreries employées aux Ornemens des Eglises".
Rare first edition of this sticker album entirely devoted to the glory of the Castro regime and the Cuban Revolution.
The album comprises 268 small, mounted, colour stickers, each captioned and arranged in strict chronological order of events, including 16 portrait plates of the principal figures (the Castro brothers, Camilo Cienfuegos, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Faure Chaumont, Rolando Cubelas, Victor Bordon, Eloy Gutierrez, Crecencio and Faustino Perez, etc.).
No copy recorded in the CCFr, which comes as little surprise for this type of production.
Our copy, issued in original illustrated colour wrappers, is housed in a modern oblong slipcase, full decorated boards in the...
First edition of this particularly engaging monograph, written by the Dutch pastor Gerard Croese (1642-1710), and translated into English as early as 1696 although never into French.
A few minor spots of foxing.
Full green vellum binding, spine faded and tooled with small gilt ornaments, the title-piece largely lost, speckled green edges, a contemporary binding.
Partly informed by letters and documents supplied by William Sewel (1653-1720, himself the author in 1717 of an excellent Histori van de Opkompste, Aanwas en Voortgang der Christenen bekend by den naam van Quakers), it offers an account of the movement at a particularly significant moment in its...
First edition of this defence of the exclusive privilege of the Compagnie des Indes, then being challenged by the deputies of the National Assembly.
This memorandum is signed by Le Couteux du Mollay, Greffulge, Boyd, Dangirard, Picquet, and Le Cocq, commissioners representing the Company’s shareholders.
Our copy is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, issued in the temporary blue waiting covers.
A central fold throughout, rubbing with losses to the waiting covers, otherwise a pleasingly clean copy internally.
First edition published anonymously (cf. Ryckebusch, 6737).
Light, scattered foxing.
Modern half brown cloth, smooth spine without lettering, marbled paper boards, corners rubbed.
The anonymous author urges abolitionists to be especially active and visible at the moment when the chambers are to vote on the new colonial legislation.
Original offprint, printed in a small number of copies, of this extract from the Nouvelles annales des voyages for November 1858.
The original temporary front wrapper has been reattached; a few spots of foxing; the title written in pencil on the front cover.
No copy of this review recorded in the CCF.
Charles-Ernest Beulé’s monograph on the coinage of Athens had just been published earlier that same year, in 1858.
Very rare first edition of this Mauritian imprint of a charitable lecture delivered during the war in the island’s second city, by the Solesmes Benedictine Dom Paul Chauvin (1866–1937), preacher and prior of the Parisian Abbey of La Source.
Only one copy recorded in the CCF (Rennes).
Bradel-style binding in half brown glacé morocco, smooth spine, date and place gilt at foot, top edge gilt, sides in handmade paper, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers preserved, contemporary binding.
At the head of the title page, an autograph inscription by Paul Chauvin to the Duke and Duchess of Bauffremont (the sixth duke, Pierre-Eugène de Bauffremont, 1843–1917...
Rare first edition of this pamphlet printed at Carouge, Switzerland. Deschamps, 276, records 1789 as the date of the first book printed in that town (on the authority of a note by Ternaux).
Our copy is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, within a modern blank temporary cover.
Title-page and final leaf slightly soiled, early marginal note in the right margin of p. 19, blue pencil annotations at the foot of pp. 10 & 11.
A text violently hostile to Kellermann (1735–1820) and to the French presence in the Alps.
Kellermann commanded the Army of the Alps while Bonaparte was conducting his Italian campaign.
First edition of this remarkable collection illustrated with five finely engraved outline plates by Adrien-Louis-Marie Cavelier and Pierron after designs by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (cf. Collection Émile Brouwet, II, 168).
Large quarto (27.8 × 40.5 cm). Two pages of text and five engraved plates.
Mid-nineteenth-century half black goatskin, smooth spine decorated in gilt and...
First edition, illustrated with three folding tables in the text.
Our copy is preserved sewn, as issued, in plain contemporary waiting wrappers of pink marbled paper.
The plain spine is browned and detached, with some losses.
First edition (cf. Playfair, 533; Tailliart, 2295).
Spine cracked with small tears, some foxing.
General considerations on the colonisation of Algiers, its aims and its results. On the Arabs. The various systems of occupation, etc.
At the head of the front wrapper, an autograph presentation inscription from Amédée Hippolyte de Brossard to Marshal Clausel.
First edition of the French translation (cf. Sabin 8048; Quérard I, 521, who gives the date 1825).
Contemporary half roan with an aubergine hue, the flat spines lightly sunned and ruled with gilt fillets and dotted tooling, some rubbing to the backs, marbled paper sides, yellow mottled edges.
A few very light, insignificant spots.
John Bristed, born in the county of Dorset in 1778, died in the United States in 1855.
After studying medicine and law, he entered the Church. "Before leaving England he began writing and seems to have held ideas considered radical at the time (...) In 1806 Bristed came to New York City and there practised law, lectured, and wrote...
First edition, illustrated with a map of the Mexican states at the time of the Conquest in 1521, by Malte-Brun (see Sabin 7429, Leclerc 1079, Brasseur de Bourbourg, Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatémalienne, p. 27, Numa Broc, Amérique, pp. 45-47).
Originally engraved by Erhard Schieble, this map is presented here as an early facsimile, likely produced by the publisher to complete his copies.
Bound in half havana shagreen, spines with four raised bands decorated with gilt tooling and gilt panels and fillets, orange shagreen title labels, minor rubbing to spines, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, twentieth-century bindings.
Waterstains...
Important dossier of documents relating to a dispute between the bakers of Le Mans and the city’s mayor and aldermen, comprising the following items:
First edition originally written in French and illustrated at the end of the volume with a single engraved plate.
The English numismatist Henry Perigal Borrell (1795–1851) settled early in the Ottoman Empire as a dealer (in Smyrna in 1818). He quickly became one of the principal suppliers of the British Museum and of the English aristocracy in coins, medals and antiquities.
Small tears to the spine and a more significant one at the head of the upper cover, some light foxing.
First edition.
Contemporary half black shagreen over comb-marbled paper boards, spine with five raised bands ruled in black, green paper endleaves and pastedowns, original wrappers retained (soiled), modern binding.
Heavy foxing throughout.
First edition of the illustrated French translation, with a folding map (cf. Sabin 5568).
Only three copies recorded in the French Union Catalogue (BnF, Ministère des Affaires étrangères, Draguignan).
Contemporary-style half calf, smooth spine rubbed, joints split at head and foot, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges, in a slightly later binding.
Light foxing, a paper flaw in the right margin of the final leaf not affecting the text.
It should be noted that the translator mistook the genitive form for part of the author’s surname, spelling it “Birkbecks”.
The American first edition appeared in 1818 under the title of...
Rare first edition.
Our copy is presented disbound.
A close associate of Villermé, the economist and demographer Benoiston de Châteauneuf (1776-1856) advocates the adoption in France of measures widely used by Great Britain, whereby common-law convicts were transported overseas both to remove them from the country and to contribute to the settlement and development of the colonies.
In France, the system was ultimately applied only sporadically, and chiefly in Algeria.
First edition of the illustrated French translation, embellished in the second volume with a plate, a folding table, and a large folding map printed as a separate leaf (cf. Gay 2996).
Contemporary full mottled fawn calf, smooth spines gilt with fillets, garlands, and floral tools, red morocco title and volume labels, with the volume labels inlaid with green morocco, gilt rolls at the headcaps, minor rubbing to the spines, dentelle, single gilt fillet and gilt garland framing the boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, corners rubbed, gilt fillets to the board edges, lemon edges; bindings of the period.
In 1797, John Barrow (1764–1848) accompanied Lord Macartney, as his...
First edition, illustrated with 2 engraved portraits on separate leaves by Adam after Du Simitière (Washington and Arnold), and with 1 folding plan (forts, batteries and the post of West Point in 1780) (cf. Sabin 3302; Quérard I, 173).
Contemporary half polished brown calf, smooth spine ruled in triple gilt fillets, gilt decorative rolls at head and foot, orange calf lettering-piece, minor rubbing to spine and joints, marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.
Occasional foxing, manuscript corrections in black ink on the second page of the introduction.
First edition.
Endpapers partially toned, a few scattered foxmarks.
Contemporary half brown cloth, smooth spine ruled in blind, marbled paper boards, a few snags to the extremities, Masonic ex-libris label pasted to the inner board.
The petition under discussion sought to have the Banque de France adopt measures to counter fluctuations in the discount rate.
Provenance: from the library of the Château de Villardonnel (Aude), belonging to the Mahul family, with their pictorial ex-libris label pasted to the inner board.
First edition of this pamphlet, directed in part against Mormonism (cf. Sabin 2797).
Illustrated with a folding lithographed map of the United States, inserted as a plate.
Spine cracked with small losses and tears at the joints; library shelf label pasted at the foot of the upper wrapper; small corner tears to the wrappers.
This booklet also considers the relations between Christians and the indigenous inhabitants, as well as with the African population brought to the United States through the cupidity of the citizens of the Old World. A good copy.
A very rare first edition.
Répertoire bibliographique des livres imprimés en France au XVIe siècle. Aix, vol. I, p. 36:5. Lindsay & Neu, French Political Pamphlets 1547–1648. A single copy recorded in WorldCat (Chicago, Newberry Library).
Our copy is offered disbound, in sheets, preserved in plain marbled paper wrappers, with an early manuscript label on the upper cover.
Répertoire bibliographique des livres imprimés en France au XVIe siècle. Aix, vol. I, p. 36:5. Lindsay & Neu, French Political Pamphlets 1547–1648. A single copy recorded in WorldCat. A rare example bearing on the title an early contemporary manuscript annotation: “du 11 avril...
First edition.
Green sheepskin half binding, flat spine decorated with gilt garlands, marbled paper boards, speckled edges, contemporary binding.
A restoration at the head of the spine, a tear with loss to the first endpaper, library stamps (red stamps of the École Sainte-Geneviève on the title page, Jesuit stamp of Jersey "Dom. S. Aloys. Jerseiens S.J." on an endpaper, Bibliothèque jésuite des Fontaines stamp on the half-title.
The present copy was deaccessioned; another copy from the same provenance is held under the shelfmark SJ IG 266/100 in the collections of the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, which now houses the collections of the Bibliothèque des...
Limited first edition printed in a small number of copies, extracted from the "Bulletin de l'Institut égyptien", series V, vol. X.
Illustrated booklet with 4 figures in the text and 2 plates outside the text.
Only one copy recorded in the CCF.
A tear to the foot of the spine, covers marginally soiled and also bearing small black stains, internally in good condition.
A publicist and collector, then secretary to the Council of Ministers, Ahmad Zaki Basha (1867-1934) was, between 1892 and 1934, one of the most dynamic figures of Egyptian cultural life: a polyglot, translator, bibliophile, philologist, and man of learning, keenly interested in modernity and...
First edition of the French translation, established from the second edition.
Our copy, preserved in its original wrappers under a plain provisional cover, is complete with its coloured map, almost invariably lacking.
The only French translation, uncommon, of "A sketch of the military and political power of Russia in the year 1817", an anti-Russian pamphlet composed in the context of the growing opposition between Great Britain and Russia, once the aftermath of the Empire had been settled.
General Robert Thomas Wilson (1777-1849) had served in 1812 as liaison officer with Alexander’s army.
Provenance: copy from the library of Armand-François-Théophile...
First edition of the French translation (cf. Bruun (Christian), Bibliotheca Danica, V, 235.)
Contemporary uniform marbled full calf bindings, spines in six compartments with five raised bands, decorated with faded gilt fillets, gilt compartments and floral tools, gilt roll tooling to the caps partly rubbed, marbled endpapers, gilt rules to board edges, corners lightly bumped, contemporary bindings.
Some restorations to several joints and a few spines.
The first volume is devoted to Holland and Denmark, the second to Sweden and Russia, the third deals exclusively with Russia, and the fourth concerns Poland.
A pleasing copy.
First edition, illustrated with a folding plate printed outside the text, of these essays by « M. L. C. D. M. D. L. D. G. D. C. D. M. L. C. D’A [i.e. Monsieur le chevalier Duvernois, maréchal des logis of the guards of the comte d’Artois] ».
Cf. Quérard, Supercheries littéraires, II, 700. Blackmer 1725. Hage Chahine 4990. Atabey 1280.
Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, under plain grey covers, the spine unlettered and bearing traces of manuscript inscription.
Light marginal dampstaining affecting several leaves.
Verdy du Vernois (1738-1814) later became chamberlain to the King of Prussia and the author of several works on the military art, history, and...
First french edition forming volumes 18 and 19 of the Voyages, relations et mémoires originaux pour servir à l'histoire de la découverte de l'Amérique, issued by H. Ternaux-Compans (cf. Sabin, 98793).
Some foxing, light dampstaining to the upper margins of most leaves of the first volume, marginal losses to the spine and boards.
A member of the Society of Jesus and a native of Quito, Don Juan de Velasco withdrew to Italy following the expulsion of his order.
It was there that, in 1789, he composed his Historia del Reino de Quito.
The work comprises three parts: natural history, civil history, and geography.
The present publication...
First edition of the French translation, illustrated with an out-of-text chart presenting the numerical results of the preceding comparative survey of flour imports to the Island of Cuba" (cf. Sabin, 67081 (does not the plate), Brunet, 28642.)
Light dampstaining to the edges not affecting the text, occasional foxing, a pleasant copy.
Bradel binding in full paper-covered boards with pebble-grain paper, smooth spine, burgundy oasis morocco title-piece, red top edge and edges, modern signed binding by Boichot.
The first edition appeared in Madrid in 1845, under the title: "Informe fiscal sobre fomento de la poblacion blanca en la isla de Cuba y emancipacion...
