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First edition of these three photographically illustrated albums, mainly portraits of contemporary Parisian actresses, dancers and singers, both from the mainstream theatres and the smaller dance halls and cafés-concerts. Reutlinger’s studio specialised in such portraits, usually actresses photographed in different degrees of deshabille in either studio settings or in the corridors and dressing rooms of the theatre. The voyeurism of the photographer is extended into bedroom and bathroom scenes intended to illustrate the daily routine of the ideal Parisienne. Sarah Bernhardt and Yvette Guilbert appear, while most subjects are now little-known but then much admired Parisian performers.

First edition of one of the most interesting Paris Exposition guides.

A steel-engraved plate collection made after daguerrotypes. Another issue (with variant title contained 28 plates).

First edition. Rimmel, a phenomenally successful perfumer and cosmetics innovator was a member of the committee of the second Paris exposition. His Recollections contain a colour-printed additional title of the Broussa mosque, the medieval Yechil Djami (the Green Mosque), reconstructed in reduced form in the Turkish section of the Exposition. The book appeared in both French and English versions, which eachran to several editions.

First edition of a charming illustrated guide by the bibliophile journalist–photographer Jérôme Doucet (1865–1957) to the various ‘little trades’ plied on the streets of turn-of-the-century Paris, from tram rail cleaner to map seller, lamplighter to bootblack, cigar end collector to saw sharpener, marshmallow vendor to bill sticker, ragmen and organ grinders to women carding stuffing for mattresses, people renting chairs or toy boats, or selling ice cream, or chestnuts, or chickweed, or mistletoe, or lettuce, or soup. And, naturally, les bouquinistes.

First edition: Paris by night, as described by Darzens (1865–1938) and depicted by Adolphe Willette (1857–1926), an artist who worked on the Moulin Rouge cabaret, focusing on Montmartre and around, with chapters on, as one might expect, the Folies-Bergère etc, but also subjects such as roller coasters and night-time printing. Vicaire III, 27.

First separate edition, with illustrations by Maclaren himself and his friends, recounting a visit to Paris in 1878 to see the sights (Notre-Dame, Saint-Sulpice, the Panthéon, Napoleon’s tomb, Versailles, the Père Lachaise cemetery, the Jardin des Plantes, etc) as well as the Exposition Universelle.
Library Hub Discover locates 3 copies only: BL, NLS, Trinity College Dublin.

First edition of this classic belle époque survey of the culture of the café-concert and the circus. Ibels was one of the major commercial graphic artists of the period and a collaborator of Toulouse-Lautrec’s.

First edition, inscribed on the initial blank ‘A son ami H. de la Pommeraye de Edouard Fournier’, presumably Henri de Lapommeraye (1839–1891), theatre critic and men of letters. ‘The Butte des Moulins (“windmill hill”) was a small hill—part natural, part built up—that had existed in Paris since ancient times. Dotted with windmills, the working-class neighborhood was dominated by small trades until the mid-1870s, when its population was cleared and the hill was leveled to construct the avenue de l’Opéra, which would become celebrated as the most glamorous street in Paris’ (The Met).

First edition.

First edition of an account of some of Paris’s famous cafés: le café Foy, le Procope, le Buci, la brasserie Saint-Séverin, etc.

Madame Gabrielle Boissier ran a finishing school (’Etablissement libre d’Enseignement supérieur’). for English and American girls in an impressive house at 14 avenue Gourgand, in the 17th arrondissement. The prospectus illustrates its elegant interior (salons, dining room, two libraries and bedrooms). The text includes an enthusiastic testimonial in English describing life at the school and its associated activities.

A charming chromolithographed souvenir book, illustrating the major sights. Inscribed ‘E. A. de R. D. le 19 Avril’ on inside front cover.

First edition of a sumptuous publication documenting the flood.

A profusely illustrated publication produced by the Red Cross to raise funds for those affected by the Great Flood.

A fascinating photographic record of the Great Flood of 1910, in which the waters of the Seine rose by over 25 feet, flooding large parts of the of the centre of the city. Thousands of Parisians were evacuated from their homes but, amazingly, no deaths were reported. The present series also documents the effect on the city’s suburbs and surrounding towns.

First edition of an illustrated account of the Bois de Boulogne, Paris’s second-largest park, a former royal hunting ground and pleasure garden which was given to the city by Napoleon III in 1852 as before then Paris’s only parks (the Tuileries, Luxembourg Garden, Palais-Royal, and Jardin des Plantes) were all in the centre and there was nothing on the outskirts of the rapidly expanding city.

First edition of an illustrated pocket guide to Paris’s new park, published in the series ‘Bibliothèque des chemins de fer’.

A sketchbook made by British architect, George Truefitt (1824-1902), first at Antibes and then in Paris, recording architectural details as well as general views and other sights of interest. There are some delightful details of Closebrooks, the Antibes villa he had designed for banker and businessman William Brooks Close, together with several metalwork details.

Truefitt travelled to the 1889 Exposition at the invitation of Brooks and his wife. In this album he made a brief journal of his visit, and preserved 25 excellent sketches. The first is an amusing sketch of ladies lying head-to-head on a shipboard saloon bench, while the others are mainly architectural views including of the Eiffel Tower seen from his hotel room at Maurice’s; architectural details of the chateau at Fontainebleau; some from the Hôtel de Cluny and metalwork details from the Trocadéro as well as a few other small sketches of people. There is an especially good view of the crowded exhibition around the dome of the Trocadéro sketched from his lunch table at Spiers and Pond’s restaurant. The journal and drawings are pasted into a sketchbook which also includes a sketch journal of his earlier visit to Antibes in 1886.

Truefitt was prolific in his contribution to Victorian British architecture, best known for his work at Tufnell Park in London, for numerous country churches and for his remodelling of the Brooks estate at Glen Tanar in Scotland.

First edition, ‘tiré à petit nombre pour les amateurs’ for the series ‘Petite bibliothèque des curieux’. A rare work in which ‘the author reviews the famous wines and the principal cabarets of the 17th century and recounts many interesting and amusing anecdotes about them’ (Bitting).
Bitting, p. 160; Vicaire, col. 366.