social sciences

BECK, Julia, artist and calligrapher. Isabelle BOGELOT and Lady ABERDEEN. ~ [Calligraphic certificate]. Paris, 1922.

A calligraphic certificate by Julia Beck, being the copy of a letter of 8 June 1914 sent by a leader of the women’s movement in France, Isabelle Bogelot to Canadian feminist, Lady Aberdeen wholeheartedly endorsing the new book by Indiana feminist, May Wright-Sewell, entitled Genesis of the International Council of Women and the story of its growth (1914). more...

£400

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[SOUZOUKI, Ruytchi. ~ Sketches from the cinema and other entertainments. Paris, 1949-62].

A superb collection of over 300 spontaneous sketches made in situ in Paris of popular films and entertainments of the 1950s, including the classics Les Vacances de M. more...

£3500

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BERT, Antoine, [owner]. ~ Récueil contenant la mythologie, des notions sur la géographie, un calepin des mots choisis, avec des lettres diverses fait du 28 Fevrier jusqu’au 10 Juillet 1820 pour ant[oin]e Bert Fils ainé. Barsac (Gironde), 1820.

A spectacular naively-illustrated collection made for (or perhaps by) the young son of a Gironde merchant, including 24 large illustrations including fantastical depictions of royal palaces in Paris, Venice, Persia and India, a shipwreck and a tiger hunt. more...

£10000

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(AMERICA). ~ [Toile fabric fragment from ‘Apotheosis of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington’ England, c. 1785].

A large fragment of a famous post-Revolutionary copperplate-printed textile. more...

£2500

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[EON DE BEAUMONT, Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée, chevalier d’]. ~ Dernière lettre du chevalier D’Eon à M. le Comte de Guerchy en datte du 5 Aout, 1767. Avec l’extrait de la procedure en bonne forme… seconde edition. Amsterdam: Aux dépens du corps des Militaires François, 1767.

A notorious pamphlet by the famous transvestite spy, issued during one of the most colourful and tangled episodes of Anglo-French diplomacy. more...

This ‘seconde’ edition issued at the expense of the corps des Militaire François in D’Eon’s defence. The first edition (also 1767) bore a Londres imprint and survives in only a handful of copies; our Amsterdam edition is even rarer with no copies located in Worldcat.

Following a successful military career d’Eon served Louis XV in English diplomacy and espionage from 1762, gathering defence intelligence for a projected French invasion. Living lavishly in London he became something of an embarrassment to his government who stopped his pension and sought to recall him to France. He became embroiled in a bitter row with his compatriot Claude Louis François Régnier de Guerchy (1715–1767), who he saw as an interloper on his diplomatic patch. ‘From October 1763 the dispute took a spectacular turn as d’Eon published allegations that Guerchy had tried to poison him. In March 1764, he went further still and published a selection of his diplomatic papers, which heaped ridicule on Guerchy and his allies in France’ (Burrows, A King’s Ransom). The dispute was a profound embarrassment to the French, not least because d’Eon successfully brought the matter to the English courts and because it drew attention to the chevalier’s increasingly complex personal life. It was in the wake of this affair that the chevalier went into hiding in Byfleet (Surrey), spending a years disguised as a woman and going by the name of Madame Duval. This transvestite experiment became a pattern and the remainder of his career was lived partly as a woman and he became a celebrated figure in London society.

This pamphlet, a superb piece of propaganda issued on d’Eon’s behalf appeared after the comte de Guerchy’s death in 1767 and reproduces the last letter sent to him by d’Eon recounting the facts of the poisoning case together with extensive translations from English legal records of the law case as it worked its way, very publicly, through the courts. . see full details

£1100

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HOLLAR, Wenceslaus. Robert SAYER, publisher. ~ Theatru[m] mulierum sive Varietas atq[ue] differentia habituum foeminei sexus diversorum Europae nationum hodierno tempore vulgo in usu… Londini Ao 1643. London: Robert Sayer, [n.d., c 1795].

Hollar’s small format plates of European women and their costume are dated from 1642-4 and followed his successful series Ornatus muliebris Anglicanus of 1640. more...

£1600

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