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Chemical Amusement, Comprising a Series of Curious and Instructive Experiments in Chemistry,
AU$2,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartFredrick Accum
London: Thomas Boys, 1817.Which are Easily Performed, and Unattended by Danger. 103 chemistry experiments with magical application for the conjuring chemist. The rare first edition with the 60 page, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Apparatus & Instruments Employed in Experimental and Operative Chemistry, in Analytical Mineralogy, and in the Pursuits of the Recent Discoveries of Voltaic Electricity, Manufactured and Sold by the author, at the rear, the separate title on the verso of pp. 191. Friedrich Accum (1769-1838) was a German chemist who lived in London from 1793 to 1821. He played a key role in the establishment of gas lighting in London and wrote a number of popular chemistry works, most notably campaigning against the unscrupulous use of chemical additives in food in his 1820 A Treatise on Adulterations of Food and Culinary Poisons. HALL 1, TOOLE STOTT 1. This copy in a Zaehnsdorf half leather binding with the author’s calling card laid in and the bookplates of magicians Roland Winder and Ricky Jay.
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Seduction: Jeunes Amours au Chateau, a la Pension
Read MorePierrot
: En Vente Partout et Nulle Part, 1910.The first clandestine printing with the limitation of 300 copies on the verso of the half-title by the Briffaut brothers following the original edition circa 1908 titled Une Seduction and expanded with four additional texts of poetry and plays after the first. This copy unnumbered on Alfa as often and with the bookplate of the Membre de la Guide du Livre. DUTEL 787. PERCEAU 274-2, PIA 1366.
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Mademoiselle Javotte, ouvrage peu moral, ecrit par elle-meme, et publie par une de ses amies
Read More[Paul Baret]
[Paris]: A Bicetre, 1788.Mademoiselle Javotte, a work of little morality, written by herself, and published by one of her friends. An anonymous tale (often attributed to Paul Baret / Paul Barrett) in which the heroine engages in sex work to escape poverty. A racy reworking of a closely titled 1757 moral work, whereas this one has little. This copy illustrated with 2 erotic etchings.
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Nelly et Jean, Nous Deux, simples papiers du tiroir secret
Read More[Jean Dulac]; [Marcel Valotaire]
[Paris]: Grave et imprime pour les auteurs et leurs amis, [1929].First edition, first printing of one of the masterpieces of early 20th century erotica, noted as being the most expensive clandestine publication of the time with 46 finely printed and hand coloured illustrations by Jean Dulac. The story by Marcel Valotaire tells of the sexual awakening of a young female student, Nelly, mostly in the hands of her Latin tutor, Jean. One of 240 numbered copies on Arches (from a total edition of 295). The 2 volumes here bound as one in a fine three quarter leather binding retaining the two original illustrated wrapper panels. DUTEL 2054.
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Aphrodite: Moeurs antiques
Read MorePierre Louys; Edouard Chimot
Paris: Edition d’Art de L’Intermediaire du Bibliophile, 1929.The first edition with illustrations by Chimot of Louys’ immensely successful novel of tumultuous love and desire set in Alexandria. One of 154 copies of the standard edition (from the total edition of 300), this copy finely bound by Herbillon-Crombe.
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Le Malheureux Petit Voyage
Read MoreGabriel Soulages; Umberto Brunelleschi
Paris: L’Estampe Moderne, 1926.The Unhappy Little Journey, or the Miserable End of Madame de Conflans, Princess of La Marsaille, Reported by Marie-Toinon Cerisette, Her Faithful and Devoted Servant. The first novel by French writer Gabriel Soulaes (1876-1930), and the first edition with romantically erotic illustrations by Italian painter Umberto Brunelleschi. The 27 pochoir illustrations are finely executed, the colour bursting from the page. One of 20 hors commerce copies identical to the standard edition of 434 copies from a total edition of 500 copies, of which this is number VIII, bound in an elegant blue full leather binding with the original wrappers front panel (with pochoir illustration) and spine bound in.
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L’Homme qui a perdu son Ombre
AU$1,200.00 Read MoreAdd to cartAdelbert de Chamisso; Bernard Naudin
Paris: A. M. Peignot, 1913.French translation from the original German of Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (English: The Man with No Shadow) by the exiled French aristocrat, poet, and botanist, Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838). The story follows Peter Schlemihl who sells his shadow to the Devil for infinite money. The first edition with 15 engravings by French artist Bernard Naudin (1876-1946) limited to 100 numbered copies, this being one of 75 copies on Van Gelder paper, in a signed fine binding by Bernasconi with the original wrappers bound in. Peter Schlemihl was Naudin’s first major project after giving up painting to devote himself exclusively to printmaking.
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I’m For Hire
Read MoreMarie-Therese
Paris: Olympia Press, 1955.First-person account of a Parisian prostitute working all sides of WWII. Translated from the French, Vie d’Une Prostituee, later titled The Memoirs of a Prostitute. KEARNEY 17.
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Expedition Antarctique Belge. Au Pays des Manchots: Recit du Voyage de la Belgica
AU$1,800.00 Read MoreAdd to cartGeorges Lecointe
Bruxelles: Societe Belge de Libraire, 1904.Account of the captain of the RV Belgica, the second in command of the first Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897-1899. Considered the first expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, it was the first expedition to spend the entire winter in the region. Trapped in the ice for a year, they were ill prepared, the polar night driving a number of the crew mad and with scurvy setting in they were forced to subsist on penguin (largely considered inedible). Despite the challenges much scientific data was gathered including around 700 rock samples, for the first time meteorological observations were recorded for a full Antarctic year, and 188 new animal species were discovered. This superlative copy bound in full vellum with leather labels and decorative endpapers, and with a bound in manuscript letter dated 26 July 1904 from Lecointe to Madame Van Halteren requesting her to give the book to her daughter, Miss Van Halteren, signed by Lecointe, also with his monogram stamp and the stamp of the Royal Observatory of Belgium.
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Les Freres Zemganno
AU$3,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartEdmond de Goncourt; Auguste Brouet
Paris: Edite par F. Gregoire, 1921.Goncourt’s Naturalist exploration of the evolution of French literature through the acrobatic artistry of two circus brothers, also echoing and exploring his own love and loss of his inseparable brother (and literary partner) who passed some years prior. Originally published in 1879, here for the first time with numerous illustrations by Auguste Brouet. The illustrations include 15 full page etchings, a half-page etching on the half-title, and a vignette on the title, all signed in the plate, together with a further 51 illustrations in the text. This copy extra illustrated with 4 original signed drawings by Brouet mounted at the beginning, and finely bound in a signed full leather binding by Ganape, RD, dated 1925, and with the bookplates of Yvan Lamberty and B. Le Dosseur.
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The Bells and other Poems
AU$3,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartEdgar Allan Poe; Edmund Dulac
London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1912.The deluxe edition of the poems of Edgar Allan Poe featuring The Bells, The Raven, and others. Illustrated with 28 tipped in colour plates and additional vignettes by Edmund Dulac and published in a numbered edition of 750 copies signed by Dulac.
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Picturesque Representations of the Dress and Manners of the English
AU$1,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cart[William Alexander]
London: John Murray, 1814.50 persons from across early 19th century English society are depicted in fine hand-coloured costume plates dated 1813, each accompanied by a detailed descriptive text. This copy in a signed Zaehnsdorf binding and with the bookplate of Ada Thatcher Huntzinger
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Dictionnaire Universel Francois et Latin, Vulgairement Appele Dictionnaire de Trevoux (8 Volumes)
AU$5,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cart[Dictionnaire de Trevoux]
Paris: Compagnie des Libraires Associes, 1771.The final and most comprehensive edition of the Dictionnaire de Trevoux, so nicknamed because of its original publication in the town of Trevoux. The original 1704 edition, assumed to be directed by the Jesuits, was largely derived from the 1701 edition of Antoine Furetiere’s 1690 Dictionnaire universel. From the much expanded second edition it became widely used and was a major inspiration for Ephraim Chamber’s 1728 Cyclopaedia and the 1751-72 Encyclopedie, ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers.
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The Epicurean, A Tale
AU$200.00 Read MoreAdd to cartThomas Moore
Paris: A. and W. Galignani, 1827.The Paris Edition published the same year as the UK first. This copy in the armorial binding of Lord Henry Seymour (1805-1859) signed Rel. Hering.
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Light Through Darkness
AU$1,100.00 Read MoreAdd to cartHenri Michaux
New York: The Orion Press, 1963.The accounts, observations, and literary manifestations of Henri Michaux (1899-1984), Belgian born French poet and artist, on mescaline, psilocybin, and marijuana. Originally published in French in 1961, then translated into English by Haakon Chevalier and first published in America in 1963. Associated with the Tachiste movement in the 1940s and 1950s, Michaux was one of the original 20th century artists to take drugs and make art. This copy in a fine signed full leather binding by Queensland bookbinder Karen McGuire based on the original jacket design.
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Miserable Miracle (La Mescaline)
AU$1,100.00 Read MoreAdd to cartHenri Michaux
Monaco: Editions du Rocher, 1956.The accounts, observations, and literary manifestations of Henri Michaux (1899-1984), Belgian born French poet and artist, while on mescaline. Associated with the Tachiste movement in the 1940s and 1950s, Michaux was one of the original 20th century artists to take drugs and make art. This copy has been finely bound in full leather by Queensland bookbinder Karen McGuire, with a design based on one of Michaux’s drawings. One of the standard edition of 1,500 numbered copies, of which this is 1,256.
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Proverbial Philosophy
AU$80.00 Read MoreAdd to cartMartin Farquhar Tupper
London: Hatchard and Co., 1859.The Thirty-Fifth Edition containing the First and Second Series of Martin Farquhar Tupper’s (1810-1889) Proverbial Philosophy, the long winding moral flowers of this and that which say so much while saying nothing. Outselling Wordsworth and Longfellow in its day, and becoming very popular in America, though largely pirated copies, practically unrecognised today.
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Atlas on the History of Spectacles (Volume 1)
AU$300.00 Read MoreAdd to cartW. Poulet
Bonn: Wayenborgh, 1978.Volume 1 only of the 2 volume set. Volume One being a catalogue of spectacles from the collections of Carl Zeiss, Otto Hallauer, and Pierre Marly. Translated from the German by Frederick C. Blodi with an introduction by Dr. Wolfgang Pfeiffer, ‘A Short History of Spectacles’ by H. W. Holtmann, and ‘A Contribution to the History of Contact Lenses’ by Hans-Walter Roth Ulm. This being one of the deluxe edition bound in half leather by K. N. W. Page & Co., Edinburgh.