Fine Bindings
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Seduction: Jeunes Amours au Chateau, a la Pension
$400.00 Add to cartPierrot
: 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. -
Brave New World
$1,200.00 Add to cartAldous Huxley
London: Chatto & Windus, 1932.
First edition, first printing of Huxley’s dystopian classic. BROMER A29.3.1. This copy rebound in fine full blue leather. -
Mademoiselle Javotte, ouvrage peu moral, ecrit par elle-meme, et publie par une de ses amies
$1,200.00 Add to cart[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. -
Nelly et Jean, Nous Deux, simples papiers du tiroir secret
$3,500.00 Add to cart[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. -
Aphrodite: Moeurs antiques
$1,500.00 Add to cartPierre 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. -
Le Malheureux Petit Voyage
$1,000.00 Add to cartGabriel 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. -
L’Homme qui a perdu son Ombre
$1,200.00 Add 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. -
I’m For Hire
$500.00 Add to cartMarie-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. -
Expedition Antarctique Belge. Au Pays des Manchots: Recit du Voyage de la Belgica
$2,200.00 Add 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. -
Les Freres Zemganno
$3,000.00 Add 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. -
The Bells and other Poems
$3,000.00 Add 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. -
Picturesque Representations of the Dress and Manners of the English
$1,000.00 Add 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 -
Dictionnaire Universel Francois et Latin, Vulgairement Appele Dictionnaire de Trevoux (8 Volumes)
$5,000.00 Add 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. -
The London Anthology
$100.00 Read more[display_attributes attributes=”authors”]
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Second Printing.
22cm x 14cm. xiv, 514 pages, frontispiece, 12 leaves of black and white illustrations, black and white illustrations in the text. Full red leather, gilt lettering, all edges gilt, dentelle, marbled endpapers.
A finely bound presentation copy presented to the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Alderman R. G. Groom from Sir Denys Lowson, Barrister and former Lord Mayor London, on the occasion of his visit to Brisbane, February, 1957.
Minor shelf wear to leather. Slight discolouration to spine. Very minor foxing to interior. Very Good Condition. -
The Epicurean, A Tale
$200.00 Add 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. -
Light Through Darkness
$1,100.00 Add 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. -
Miserable Miracle (La Mescaline)
$1,100.00 Add 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. -
Clavis Apocalyptica Ex Innatis & insitis visionum characteribus eruta & demonstrata:
$600.00 Read more[display_attributes attributes=”authors”]
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Third Latin Edition.
19.5cm x 14.5cm. [2], 36, [4], 290, 7, [1] pages. Half brown leather, gold rules to boards and spine, marbled papered boards, all edges green. Text is in Latin.
una Cum Commentario in Apocalypsin: Quibus accessit hac tertia editione Conjectura de Gogo & Magogo, ab eodem Autore. Ad eorum usum quibus Deus amorem studiumq indiderit Prophetiam illam admirandam cognoscendi scrutandíque. The Key of the Apocalypse of Josephus Medius excavated and demonstrated from the characters of innate and innate visions: together with a Commentary on the Apocalypse: To which was added in this third edition the Conjecture of Gog and Magog, by the same Author. For the use of those to whom God has given the love of study to know and scrutinize that wonderful prophecy. Joseph Mede (1586-1639) was an English biblical scholar, naturalist, and Egyptologist who was proficient in Hebrew and Greek. This was an influential work on the interpretation of the Book of Revelation, and predicted the end of the world in the 18th or perhaps even 17th century. It has an interesting binding with the title handwritten on the leather spine. The papers covering the boards were originally a printed ledger which has been marbled prior to use on the boards. The marbling has worn sufficiently to make the printing legible again.
Papered boards rubbed. Very minor soiling, evidence of historical worming, not affecting text. A small piece has been cut from head of title page. Minor marginalia. Lacks the folding diagram. Very Good Condition. -
Proverbial Philosophy
$80.00 Add 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. -
Atlas on the History of Spectacles (Volume 1)
$300.00 Add 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. -
The Traveller’s Library (41 Books in 15 Volumes)
$4,500.00 Add to cartLongman, Brown, Green, and Longmans
London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1852.
Very Good Minus Condition. -
London
$40.00 Read more[display_attributes attributes=”authors”]
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Second Printing.
22cm x 14.5cm. xi, 290 pages, colour illustrations. Full green leather, gilt lettering, all edges gilt.
Finely rebound in full green leather
Minor handling wear and foxing. Previous owner’s stamp. Very Good Condition. -
Les Maitresses
$1,500.00 Read more[display_attributes attributes=”authors”]
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First Edition.
23cm x 17cm. Quarto. 108 pages, [9] plates. Signed art nouveau binding, half sheepskin, incised decoration, marbled papered boards and endpapers, gilt top edge. Text is in French.
The only complete work of Jules-Georges dit Jean Floux (1855-1892), French poet, journalist, and member of the Montmartre group Le Chat Noir. This copy inscribed by Floux to Benjamin Constant (1845-1902), one of the illustrators, and in a unique art nouveau binding signed by Louis Deze (1857-1930). Deze bindings are rare with many destroyed during World War II. The Mistresses is a “collection full of exquisite verses and promises that the author would certainly have kept, if the cruel death had not come to strike him in full youth” (Bertrand Millanvoye: Anthologie des poètes de Montmartre). Illustrated with 9 plates from Jean Beraud, Benjamin-Constant, Leon Maxime Faivre, Fanny Fleury, Hector Giacomelli, Pierre-Paul-Leon Glaize, Luc-Olivier Merson, Pierre Vignal, and Yamamoto Hosui.
Minor wear and rubbing to leather. Original wrappers bound in with an original drawing to rear. Inkstamps to title, first page, and verso of rear endpaper. Occasional minor foxing. Some offsetting to rectos from plates. Very Good Condition. -
Les Odes d’Anacreon, Teien.
$2,500.00 Read more[display_attributes attributes=”authors”]
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24.5cm x 16cm. [xiv], viii, [ii], 171, xi pages, 8 original drawings. Contemporary half leather, marbled papered boards, gilt lettering and rule, black decoration, top edge gilt. Text is in French.
Translated from the Greek to French by Remy Belleau with a woodcut frontispiece by Pierre Gandon in a limited edition of 305. This copy extra-illustrated with 8 original signed drawings (4 full page and 4 vignettes) in pencil, pen, ink, and pastel by Georges Villa (with an additional note written by Villa tipped in). In a fine binding signed Yseux SR de Thierry-Simier with the original wrappers bound in. The drawings by Villa, while with some nudity, are more sensual than erotic, and dance beside Anacreon’s lyrics of love and life.
Spine very slightly discoloured. Minor wear to the board edges. Light wear to the tail edge of a couple of preliminary leaves. Near Fine Condition. -
Fisherman’s Luck
$300.00 Read more[display_attributes attributes=”authors”]
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First Edition.
19.5cm x 13.5cm. [x], 247 pages, 13 plates. Half leather, decorative papered boards, gilt lettering and decoration, top edge gilt, decorative endpapers.
First Edition of Dyke’s angling stories in a decorative half leather binding with gilt blocked fish on the spine and pond-like decorative papers. Bookplate of John Black Stewart.
Spine slightly discoloured. Light rubbing to board edges. Very minor tanning. Very Good Condition. -
Little Rivers: A Book of Essays in Profitable Idleness
$1,000.00 Read more[display_attributes attributes=”authors”]
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Walton Edition. Signed by Author
22cm x 15cm. xviii, 292 pages, 33 plates. Full dark green leather, ornate gilt decoration, all edges gilt.
The Walton Edition limited to 150 numbered copies, of which this is number 106, signed by Dyke at the end of the preface and bound in a signed 1910 Zaehnsdorf fine leather binding with elaborate gilt decoration of leaves, fishing, flowers, and birds. Provenance: Angling Collection of George Miskin, Bloomsbury May 3rd, 2012, Lot 325.
Spine discoloured. Crown fore-edge corner of lower board very slightly pushed. Frontispiece portrait slightly offset to title page. Very Good Condition. -
The Doors Of Perception / Heaven and Hell (2 Volumes)
$1,200.00 Read more[display_attributes attributes=”authors”]
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First Edition.
19cm x 13cm. 64, 88 pages, 2 volumes. Full leather, gilt lettering, gilt and decoration, marbled endpapers.
First Editions of Huxley’s classic psychedelic essays, The Doors of Perception (1954), the telling of his first experience on mescaline, and Heaven and Hell (1956), wherein he philosophises on the extremes of the mystical experience. BROMER A68.2 & A71.1. Rebound in matching red and blue full leather fine art bindings by Queensland bookbinder Karen McGuire.
Very minor foxing to edges. Near Fine Condition. -
Records of Female Piety;
$150.00 Read more[display_attributes attributes=”authors”]
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Second Edition.
17cm x 10cm. 356 pages, 16 advertisements. Full black leather, gilt lettering and decoration, all edges gilt.
Comprising Sketches of the Lives and Extracts from the Writings of Women Eminent for Religious Excellence.
Minor rubbing to spine and board edges. Contemporary inscription. Bookseller’s label of G. H. & J. Smyth, Liverpool. Minor foxing to first and last pages. Very Good Condition. -
Bubbles from the Brunnens of Nassau
$800.00 Read more[display_attributes attributes=”authors”]
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First Edition.
20.5cm x 12.5cm. viii, 376 pages, 10 lithographed plates. Original publisher’s illustrated cloth.
Reputed to be the first publisher’s cloth binding with a full pictorial design on its cover. A travel guide to the Duchy of Nassau (now Germany).
Ex-Guildhall Library, call numbers in white to spine, plate to front pastedown, stamps to title page and occasionally throughout. The cloth somewhat shabby, tanned, and worn, but still presenting well. Occasional foxing and soiling to interior. Good Condition. -
The Blue Angel
$400.00 Read more[display_attributes attributes=”authors”]
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Reprint.
20cm x 13cm. 286 pages. Full blue leather, gilt lettering and decoration, marbled endpapers.
Scarce English translation of Henrich Mann’s important 1905 novel, Professor Unrat, following the 1930 film adaptation starring Marlene Dietrich, Der blaue Engel. This copy rebound in fine full blue leather with full gilt finishing.
Exterior Fine. Foxing to interior. Very Good Condition.