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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.

First edition: one of 450 numbered copies printed on Hollande, out of a total print run of 500. The bibliophile journalist and poet Alexandre Piédagnel (1831–1903)—friend of Mallarmé, secretary to Jules Janin, editor of the Librairie des bibliophiles—here profiles Lécureux (1795–1875), a Paris second-hand bookseller for more than fifty years, ‘unique en son genre’ (p. 23), who specialised in selling odd volumes.
It opens with an extract from a new, enlarged edition of Piédagnel’s book Jules Janin, ‘Les joies du bibliophile’.

First edition. ‘Cet ouvrage a été tiré sur papier de Hollande Van Gelder à 244 exemplaires numérotés à la presse’, this being no. 203. It is also been inscribed by Mithouard (1864–1919), an essayist and poet, ‘A mon ami Désiré Ferry’ (1886–1940), a writer and publisher who fought in both Wars and served as Minister of Marine and then Health in the 1930s.
The Bièvre is Paris’s second river and flows into the Seine near the Ile de la Cité, but due to various flooding incidents was culverted during the nineteenth century, as alluded to in the title of the present work.

First edition: an account of anything in the city on wheels, from fine carriages to an amputee beggar pushing himself around on a wheeled cart, with attractive silhouette illustrations by Louis Bombled (1862–1927).

First edition, listing the various grievances of 48 Paris coachmen against certain monopolistic rights enjoyed by other coaches, from the library of Paul Lacombe (1848–1921), bibliographer and collector. The sale of his library, including shelf after shelf of books about Paris, took place across four days in June 1922; five more days of sales followed early the next year. The present work was part of lot 2133 (31 Jan. 1923), in the section ‘Voitures et Postes’. Lacombe’s bookplate was etched, with drypoint, by his friend François Courboin (1865–1926, by day sous-bibliothécaire in the Bibliothèque nationale’s print department) and shows the bouquinistes’ stalls by the Pont Neuf, which Lacombe must have constantly haunted.

First edition in this form; a second edition followed in 1815. It was also issued uncoloured. ‘At least 14, and very probably all of the plates, are copies of images published around 1790 in an octavo suite, called Vues pittoresques des principaux édifices de Paris, “by Le Campion, Guyot, Roger, Guillot, Belley, Mlle Guyot, after Testard and Sergent” (see NUC). The last two are identifiable as the Parisian artists and engravers François Martin Testard (active 1790–1819) and Antoine François Sergent-Marceau (1751–1847), with “Segard” on the title-page probably being an error for “Sergent”’ (Library Hub Discover).
‘The City of Paris has always been an object of much interest to the Traveller. Recent events, which have filled every mind with astonishment, gratitude, and joy, have rendered the Metropolis of France, now enriched with the choicest spoils of conquest, and the noblest specimens of art, doubly interesting. From every neighbouring kingdom, and especially from the shores of Britain, thousands have eagerly flocked to that Capital, formerly the scene of the most horrible atrocities, now the depository of the most valuable treasures’ (Advertisement).
Abbey, Travel 104; Tooley, English Books with Coloured Plates 1790 to 1860, 448.

First (and only) edition: an attractive children’s book about the Exposition, famous for the creation of the Eiffel Tower, which, naturally, little Madeleine and Jacques rush to visit first in the story before going on to explore the rest of the world’s fair: trying out Elias Howe’s sewing machine and Edison’s phonograph and sampling the exotic delights of Japan, Russia, Algeria, Senegal, and New Caledonia.
Cotsen 814 (‘Élodie Lamarque is a pseudonym of Gaston Bonnefont [1851–1911]’).

First edition of this lighthearted account of the typical Parisian Sunday, with superb etched vignettes by Lepère depicting picnics, rambles, cycling, drinking, dining and boating, complete with an original sketch for the first vignette, initialled by the artist. Number 50 of 250 copies. While Lepère is best known for his work in the revival of the woodcut in France, his immense talent in other media, including etching is attested by his many book illustrations. This deluxe copy, bound by Lenoë, has an inlaid engraved stone plaquette, evidently the work of Lepère, and perhaps an experimental or trial plate - its smooth surface has been incised in the manner of a woodcut (suggesting a soft stone like soapstone or alabaster) and inked. It depicts a tavern or dining room scene with diners, drinkers and a breastfeeding mother in the foreground. Carteret IV, 294. ‘Dernière et très belle publication de cet éditeur, très cotée... maintenant que le livre est très coté, on peur dire que c’est une des meillures et des plus pittoresques de l’artiste, la plus importante avec des eaux-fortes’.

First edition: a survey of the city in 1860 (its buildings and infrastructure, ),with long sections on the Asile impérial de Vincennes, founded in 1855 for convalescent workers, the Maison Eugène-Napoléon, a school for poor girls set up in 1858, and the history of Paris’s theatres after Napoleon limited the number of theatres in the city to twelve, then eight.
Vicaire V, 1021.

First edition, by the journalist and champion of political reform, William Carpenter (1794–1874). ‘The following little work pretends not to the character of a history; but it will be found to embody, in consecutive order, the leading events of the late glorious revolution in France, derived from the most authentic sources, and interspersed with such remarks and reflections as they naturally call forth’ (Preface).

An original lease granted by George II to Sir Matthew Decker of lands once part of the royal park of Richmond at Richmond Green, formerly known as the Bakehouse. Sir Charles Hedges (died 1714), Secretary of State to Queen Anne had built a fine house here, which was enlarged by Decker (1679-1749), a wealthy Dutch merchant, who settled in London in 1702, becoming and MP and director of the East India Company. He created a celebrated garden on this land, widely commented on by contemporaries and the site of the first successful cultivation of the pineapple in Britain.

This little pocket book has been densely filled with diary notes by a young girl or young woman, presumably one Flora Keene. She copies out several hymns at the opening, and then completes every day of her diary, with dense and minute notes, now very hard to read, mainly noting family comings and goings. The frontispiece by John Leech entitled ‘Volunteer Movement — Jones & Family go under Canvas’ is a satire on the British volunteer rifle corps, formed in 1859 as a response to public fears of a French invasion. There is also a series of delightful vignettes by Tenniel on Shakespearean quotations.

Second edition in English (after the first, Edinburgh and Perth edition of 1792) abridged and translated from Niebuhr’s Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und andern umliegenden Laendern (1774) and volume two from Niebuhr’s Beschreibung von Arabien (1772). It remains the only English translation and recounts Niebuhr’s travels in the Middle East, Egypt, Persia, India and Arabia — the first scientific expedition to this area, which was subsidised by the Danish king. The plates depict: An Arab on horseback; Dancing girls in Egypt; Procession at an Egyptian marriage; The way to Mount Sinai; Mount Sinai and the Convent of St. Catherine; Dress of the women in the back parts of Yemen and Scene in Arabia Petrea.

The translator, Robert Heron (1764-1807) was the son of a Kirkudbright weaver who raised enough money to study at Edinburgh University, supporting himself with teaching and work with local booksellers. Soon after translating Niebuhr ‘His imprudent habits overwhelmed him with debt, and he was thrown into prison by his creditors’ (Oxford DNB). Although he was freed and removed to London, he was once again imprisoned for debt, dying soon after. Howgego, to 1800, N24.

Caroline Naudet (1775-1839), one of the very few female caricaturists of her era, she was the daughter of the caricaturist Thomas-Charles Naudet. She is known as the artist of some 25 separate satirical prints c. 1817-1823. The plate depicts an older well-dressed lady sitting for an urbane looking artist. The caption reads:

‘Une dame de qualite faisant faire son portrait s'efforcait de se retrecir la bouche l'artiste s'en appercut et lui dit pour peu que madame le veuille je n'en ferait pas du tout’ (A lady of quality having her portrait done was trying to narrow her mouth. The artist noticed this and said to her, if Madam would like it, I won’t paint it at all). Benezit III, 347.

A large and splendid binding - of one of the notorious forgeries created by Théodore Hagué (1822-1891) one of a considerable number purporting to have been made for Henri II and his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. Hagué (1822-1891) had worked in London for Zaehnsdorf but was living in France in the 1860s when he began creating pastiche bindings and then outright forgeries, offering them for sale first in 1862. It was not until 1875 when examples found their way to London via Bernard Quaritch, who had entered into correspondence with a certain M. Caulin who was offering choice renaissance books, many apparently formerly belonging to a lost collection of Henri II and Diane de Poitiers. Quaritch sold the books almost exclusively to the British collector John Blacker. ‘Needless to say, the ordeal ended well for no one involved: by 1888, John Blacker had spent approximately thirteen years and £36,000 (£3.4 million by modern reckoning) collecting forged bindings, Bernard Quaritch was forced to scramble to cover his losses and hopefully his involvement in the whole charade, and Hagué dropped dead suddenly in 1891. Blacker’s collection was sold at Sotheby’s for £1,907 16s 6d in 1897, which translates to a little over £205,000 in 2017. Henry Folger, who began his collecting in 1883 (when John Blacker was deeply invested in purchasing Caulin/Hague’s forged bindings), kept a copy of the 1897 catalog, which features multiple full-color images made with a combination of letterpress and chromolithography, rare (and expensive) for an auction catalog at the time’ (Elizabeth DeBold, Under Cover: forged Bindings on Display at the Folger, Folger Library Blog, July 19, 2018).

Blacker’s sale included no less than nineteen books purporting to have been made for Henri II and Diane de Poitiers. This one, being a folio, has an especially expansive ‘Grolerieresque’ strapwork designs in black, white and gilt, a scheme continued in colours on the fully decorated gilt and gauffred edges. The design incorporates variations of both their monograms and devices, including Diane’s crescent moon devices (evoking Diane the Huntress, goddess of the moon, and her reputed iridescent beauty) and the famously ambiguous entwined ‘H’ and ‘D’ (the latter actually a ‘C’ for Henri’s Queen, Catherine, but easily readable as ‘D’ for Diana). Sotheby’s, Catalogue of a remarkable Collection of Books in magnificent modern Bindings, formed by an Amateur (recently deceased) (11 Nov. 1897), lot 15. Mirjam Foot, ‘Double Agent: M. Caulin and M. Hagué,’ Book Collector, Special Edition for the 150th Anniversary of Bernard Quaritch (1997), pp. 136-150. Adams B102; Von Gültlingen, Mareschal 14.

First edition of this rousing patriotic endorsement of French manufactures, with its invocation of the might of the king, on the eve of the Revolution. A ‘France First’ manifesto, it insists on the primacy of French metalwork, silks, and cloth — pointing out that women could demonstrate their patriotism by renouncing plain white mousseline dresses (from Eastern sources). It insists on domestic linen manufacture, which could be a source of employment for sixty thousand people and on the imposition of means-related taxation. Peddling (‘colportage’) or other unregulated trade is to be strictly forbidden. It is signed at the end ‘R..... patriote’. Worldcat: UCB, Newberry, Harvard and Toronto in North America.