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Les Amours de Psyche et de Cupidon
J. De La Fontaine
Paris: Defer de Maisonneuve, 1791.The Loves of Psyche and Cupid by Jean De La Fontaine with colour illustrations based on paintings by M. Schall. One of the most striking editions of Fontaine’s adaptation of the story of Cupid and Psyche with coloured stipple engravings by Bonnefoy, Mme Demonchy, and Colibert after Jean-Frederic Schall. This copy with the advertisement leaf (often lacking) announcing the publication of Milton’s Paradise Lost, with an additional portrait engraving frontispiece by Edelinck after H. Rigault, and an original drawing dedication “quatre amis dont la connaissance avait commence par le Parnasse” [four friends whose acquaintance had begun at Parnassus]: La Fontaine, Racine, Moliere, and Boileau, in pen and Indian ink enhanced with gold and colouring on vellum signed L. Benard 1893, bound in a fine signed binding by the Paris bookbinder Salvador David (1859-1929).
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Salome. Drame en un acte.
Oscar Wilde
Paris and Londres: Librairie de L’Art Independant and Elkin Mathew et John Lane, 1893.First edition, one of 600 copies, the title page device by Felicien Rops. MASON 348. This copy rebound in a fine signed art nouveau binding by Hatchards, Piccadilly, without the wrappers, with a plentiful quantity of blank leaves at the rear to allow for the binding design.
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Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
Thomas De Quincey
London: Taylor and Hessey, 1822.First edition of the highly influential autobiographical account of De Quincey’s laudanum addiction. The establishing literary work in the artistic field of drug taking and creative expression. This copy with the half-title and without the advertisement leaf, in a fine signed 1911 Zaehnsdorf binding, with protective case.
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Le Spleen de Paris
Charles Baudelaire; L. Lafnet
: Les Bibliophiles Franco-Suisses, 1940 [1941].One of 106 numbered copies reserved for members of the final illustrated book by Luc Lafnet, with 90 etchings each with tissue guard.
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Les Fleurs du Mal
Charles Baudelaire; Armand Rassenfosse; Henri Noulhac
Paris: Les Cent Bibliophiles, 1899.One of 115 numbered copies of the first, and widely considered the best, illustrated edition of The Flowers of Evil, being the chef d’oeuvre of Belgian artist Armand Rassenfosse, with nearly every page of the text illustrated with Symbolist colour etchings and nude women. This copy from the collection of actor and bibliophile Barry Humphries, with his bookplate; bound in a fine binding signed Noulhac 1918, with multi-rule borders and silk doublures framed with inlaid leather strips and flowers at the corners. Illustrated with a portrait frontispiece, throughout with hundreds of colour illustrations and tailpieces, as well as 6 plates and a page of text with tailpiece outside of the text. Bound at the rear is a Juin 1897 Specimen being the leaf of XX La Geante with an alternative tailpiece illustration and the chapter plate for Les Fleurs du Mal, an etched menu cover for a Les Cent Bibliophiles Dinner for Fleurs du Mal, 6 Mai 1901 by Rassenfosse, as well as 17 additional etchings by Evert van Muyden and other artists.
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Les Fleurs du Mal
Charles Baudelaire; Almery Lobel-Riche; Henri Blanchetiere
Paris: M. A. Blaizot, 1917.One of 12 on Japon Imperial from a deluxe edition of 24 numbered copies of The Flowers of Evil illustrated by Almery Lobel-Riche and published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Baudelaire’s death. This copy from the collection of actor and bibliophile Barry Humphries, with his bookplate; bound in a fine binding signed H. Blanchetiere 1923, with illustrative inlays, the upper board depicting a branch of flowers with a reclining nude woman around which a snake slithers, the spine with a lyre motif, the lower board with a cat, and the inner boards decorated with inlaid leather floral patterns in an Art Nouveau style after Charles Meunier by Henri Blanchetiere. Illustrated throughout by Lobel-Riche with 43 etchings in multiple states: a frontispiece portrait of the author in 2 states, 40 etchings in 4 states, 1 etching in 6 states (Le Chat), and 1 etching in 3 states (a rejected plate for Les Yeux de Berthe), as well as an original signed drawing in pen, ink and crayon at the front (for La Geante), an original watercolour (for Chanson d’apres-midi), and 2 original sketches (for La Mort des amants and Priere d’un paien).
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Chemical Amusement, Comprising a Series of Curious and Instructive Experiments in Chemistry,
Fredrick 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
Pierrot
: 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
[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
[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
Pierre 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
Gabriel 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
Adelbert 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
Marie-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
Georges 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
Edmond 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
Edgar 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
[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)
[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
Thomas 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.