[EROTICA.] 

Pencil drawing of a woman in eighteenth-century hunting dress. 

[France, early nineteenth century?] 

A fine erotically-charged figure study of a woman in rather masculine eighteenth-century French hunting dress, seemingly pleasuring herself for the gratification of the viewer.

£6500

[MURAT, J.-B. de.] 

La destinée d’une jolie femme, poème érotique, en six chants, par J.B… de M… 

Paris, Langlois for Mongie, An XI (1803). 

First and only edition, very scarce, of this humorous moralising tale of love and loss in verse, intended for a female readership and hidden under the ‘transparent veil’ of erotic poetry. 

£650

MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus.

Les Mistères d’Isis, opéra en quatre Actes. Representé à Paris au théâtre des Arts. Paroles de...

Paris, chez Sieber père … [1801?]

First edition, scarce, printing much of the score Die Zauberflöte (1791) for the first time, albeit in the distorted form of a pasticcio by Ludwig Lachnith, adapted to the tastes of contemporary Paris with a new text by Étienne Morel de Chédeville. The full unadulterated score was not published...

£4250

[MURDER.]

Arrest de la cour du Parlement, qui condamne Pierre Guyon, jardinier, à étre rompu vif ... dans la Place du Pilory...

Paris, Pierre-Guillaume Simon, 1778.

Very rare decree documenting the crimes and punishment of one Pierre Guyon, a murderous gardener from Poitiers; a case of green fingers turning blood-red.

£175

SPON, Jacob.

Voyage d’Italie, de Dalmatie, de Grece, et du Levant, fait aux années 1675 et 1676 par Jacob Spon docteur medecin...

Lyons, Antoine Cellier, 1678.

Very rare first edition of ‘one of the most important accounts of travels in the Levant, and the first description of Athens which was systematic, detailed, and trustworthy’ (Blackmer).

£4750

SIMONETTA, Bonifacio.

De Christiane Fidei et Romanorum Pontificum Persecutionibus.

(Colophon:) Basel, Nicolaus Kesler, 1509.

A beautiful copy of the second edition of Simonetta’s principal work, from the library of Christian VI (1699–1746), King of Denmark and Norway, and containing an early yet intriguing reference to the New World.

£4500

[QUESNAY, François].

DU PONT DE NEMOURS, Pierre Samuel, editor. Physiocratie, ou constitution naturelle du gouvernement le plus...

First edition of the ‘Bible’ of the Physiocrats and one of the most important and original works on political economy to be published before the Wealth of Nations. The excessively rare ‘Pékin’ imprint was printed in very small numbers and swiftly withdrawn because of a statement on page 104...

£37500

[ROUSSEAU, Pierre.] 

Considérations sur le théatre de l’opéra.  Novembre 1822. 

[Paris,] de l’imprimerie de Rignoux, [1822].

Very rare proposal for a new opera house in Paris by the architect Pierre Rousseau (1751–1829), annotated by the author and accompanied by an autograph letter. 

£475

ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques. 

Du contract social; ou Principes du droit politique ... 

Milan, François Pogliani, 1796. 

Rare first edition printed in Italy of Rousseau’s Contrat social. 

£1750

H.M.S. COMUS and H.M.S. TOURMALINE. [HELBY, Harold Wildey Hasler.]   

Log Book.  Hong Kong, Singapore, Palau, Yokohama,...

Dec 1881–Feb 1884. 

A characterful log book charting the voyage of Royal Navy steamer H.M.S. Comus, beginning with its berth in Hong Kong and following its course around the Pacific, before its passage home across the Atlantic. It records the technicalities of cruising by steam; the significant international...

£3000

VERLAINE, Paul, and Léon LEBÈGUE (illustrator).

Fêtes gallantes.

Paris, F. Ferroud for the Librairie des Amateurs, 30 July 1913.

Limited edition on vélin teinté d’Arches, numbered 430 of 500 copies, with etchings by Lebègue. First published in 1869, Verlaine’s Fêtes gallantes are here exquisitely printed and illustrated by Léon Lebègue (1863 – 1944) and finely bound by Flammarion.

£750

WEBER, Max.

Wirtschaftsgeschichte … Abriss der universalen Sozial- und Wirtschafts-geschichte. Aus den nachgelassenen Vorlesungen...

Munich and Leipzig, Duncker & Humblot, 1923.

First edition of this posthumous compilation of lectures.

£60

BROWN, Arthur Henry.

Autograph manuscript notebook mainly of Christmas carols.

[Brentwood?, 1864–87].

An autograph manuscript notebook composed primarily of Christmas carols, compiled carefully over some twenty-five years from various sources including manuscripts in the British Museum, early printed books, and contemporary books and periodicals.

£450

NIEUHOF, Jean, and Jean LE CARPENTIER (translator). 

L’ambassade de la compagnie orientale des provinces unies...

Leiden, Jacob de Meurs, 1665. 

Lavishly illustrated first French edition of Nieuhof’s travels through China from 1655 to 1657. 

£3500

[BELGIUM and NETHERLANDS.]

‘Journal of a trip to Holland July 1825’.

The Netherlands and Belgium, 1825.

An entertaining and informative diary of a holiday in the Netherlands and Belgium by an anonymous Englishman, recording his adventures in Rotterdam, Delft, The Hague, Leiden, Haarlem, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, Waterloo, Ghent, and Bruges.

£650

BRADLEY Gertrude M., illustrator.

An archive of drawings for Just Forty Winks.

[c. 1897].

Fifty-eight delightful preliminary pencil sketches by the illustrator Gertrude M. Bradley for Just Forty Winks, Hendry’s tale for children, offered with a copy of the first and only edition, rare in the dustjacket.

£850

CAMPBELL, Duncan. 

A Poem upon Tea.  Wherein its Antiquity, its several Virtues and Influences are set forth; and the Wisdom...

London, Mrs. Dodd, J. Roberts, J. Wilcox et al., 1735. 

First and only edition, very scarce, of a series of poetical sketches in praise of tea over alcohol, dedicated ‘To the Fair Sex’ and with an unusual double preface to the masculine and then the feminine reader.  Tea had arrived in Britain in the 1650s, but its expense made it very exclusive;...

£2500

AVGERINOS, Hypatios.

Πονηµατα δραµατικα. [Ponemata dramatika.]

Trieste, Austrian Lloyd, 1849.

Very rare first edition of Avgerinos’ dramas of Greek Romanticism, three pieces uniting sentiments of nationalism, liberty, and philhellenism with aesthetic and literary reflections on the style and scope of dramatic poetry.

£750

[SATIRE.]

L’Art de plumer la poulle sans crier.

Cologne [i.e. the Netherlands?], Robert le Turc, 1710.

First(?) edition of this scarce collection of twenty-one satirical anecdotes, mostly about the law, money and women, exposing hypocrisy and abuses of authority. Several stories mention the lieutenant-criminel of Paris, Jacques Deffita. In one story a poor lawyer escaping a storm stumbles upon...

£1250

BEARDSLEY, Aubrey, art editor; Henry HARLAND, literary editor. 

The Yellow Book.  An Illustrated Quarterly.  Volume...

London [– & New York], Elkin Mathews & John Lane [– John Lane, The Bodley Head], and Boston, Copeland & Day, April 1894 [− April 1897]. 

An excellent set of the first edition of The Yellow Book, the decade-defining illustrated quarterly that captured the spirit of decadence and aestheticism and gave its name to ‘the yellow nineties’. 

£2000