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First edition of a rare pamphlet issued in the wake of the decree issued by the police prefect Claude Mangin on April 14, 1830, prohibiting prostitutes ‘from appearing, at any time and under any pretext, in the passages, in public gardens and on the boulevards’ and ordering them to engage in prostitution only in licensed brothels. This measure lasted only three months, but was enough for its opponents to publish dozens of pamphlets. All these occasional pieces are extremely rare, including this one.

Purporting to be the work of a Matrone, jurisconsulte de ces dames this enquiry and petition is satirical in tone, and yet still gives voice to the women it represents, by outlining in detail how Mangin’s heavy-handed decree would effect them at various levels, pointing out the impossibility of enclosing the thousands of Parisian filles de joie in licenses houses. The frontispiece, which has been attributed to Henri Monnier, shows a discussion among the women debating the pour et contre of the measures, presided over by the matron. It is captioned ‘Comité central et de Sabbat des Donzelles de Paris’, likening it to a ‘sabbath’ of witches. WorldCat lists copies at the Bn, Cleveland Public Library and Bryn Mawr College only.

Folio (290 × 230 mm), pp. [4] (one bifolium). Browned, some marginal creasing.

[with:] Supplément au Manifeste technique de la littérature futuriste. [Milan: A. Talveggia for Direction du Mouvement futuriste, 1912]. Browned, some marginal creasing, fore-edge quite chipped.

First editions in French (simultaneous with the Italian issues) of Marinetti’s Futurist manifestos for literature: ‘Sitting on the gas tank of an aeroplane, my stomach warmed by the pilot’s head, I sensed the ridiculous inanity of the old syntax inherited from Homer. A pressing need to liberate words, to drag them out of their prison in the Latin period!’

[MARINETTI, F. T.] Le Music-Hall. Manifeste futuriste publié par le “Daily-Mail,” 21 Novembre 1913. [Milan: A. Talveggia for Direction du Mouvement futuriste, 1913].

Folio (290 × 230 mm), pp. [4] (one bifolium). Browned, some creasing, chipping and short tears at margins, but generally sound.

First edition of Marinetti’s manifesto on the music hall. Though dated 29 September 1913, publication postdated the abridged version published in English in the Daily Mail on November 21, 1913, where it was attributed to ‘the only intelligible Futurist’). Issued simultaneously in Italian in this pamphlet form. It lays out the Futurists’ enthusiasm for Music Hall as an anti-academic art form, not bound by tradition, with its speed and mechanical novelty, its use of cinematography to create effects unheard of in the theatre, and its genuine collaboration with the audience, among many other perceived advantages over conventional theatre. It ends with a typically Futurist typographical performance incorporating adverts for Manoli cigarettes. Marinetti had been lecturing in London in 1913 and his various pronouncements were eagerly covered by the press. It was not until the eve of war in 1914 that he put his manifesto into practice, giving presentations at London’s largest music hall, the Coliseum — events which were greeted with a degree of bemusement by a distracted British public.

--- La Danse futuriste. Danse de l’Aviateur - Danse du Shrapnell - Danse de la Mitrailleuse. [Milan: A. Tareggia for Direction du Mouvement futuriste, 1917].

Folio (290 × 230 mm), pp. [4] (one bifolium). Browned, some creasing, chipping and short tears at margins, but generally sound.

First edition in French (and probably the first separate edition) the Italian text having previously appeared in the journal Italia futurista of 8 July 1917. Marinetti’s manifesto for dance applies the Futurist programme prioritising action, violence and speed to contemporary dance. He considers the innovations brought to European dance by Argentine tango (’spasme furieux’) and other South American forms, he is equivocal about the langorous style of Isadora Duncan but more enthusiastic about Loïe Fuller, before coming to the point: ‘La danse futuriste sera: Inharmonieuse - Disgracieuse - Asymétrique - Dynamique - Motlibriste’. He then gives detailed accounts of three such dances: Danse de l’Aviateur - Danse du Shrapnell - Danse de la Mitrailleuse. Carteret 418.

First edition of this rare offprint from the Gazette des tribunaux reporting the case and outcome surrounding the publication of Marie-Antoinette’s library catalogue, edited by Louis Lacour and printed as Livres du boudoir de la reine Marie Antoinette. Catalogue authentique et original for Jules Gay. Bibliographically and politically fascinating, the case was brought by the state against Lacour and Gay, alleging that the rights to the manuscript catalogue remained with the state, and that Lacour and Gay had sought to publish it for immoral reasons. It seems that it was this second contention that was the primary motive for bringing the case: with the Appendix here explaining that certain monarchical Legitimists had objected to Marie-Antoinette’s name being blackened further through the presentation of her private reading material - the books of the boudoir being widely considered trivial. There is also a discussion of the extent to which the manuscript catalogue really represented the queen’s reading matter, or simply an assemblage of fashionable books. The matter was decided in favour of Lacour and Gay, the former apparently arranging for this offprint - with manuscript dedications at the rear (obliterated in this copy). WorldCat: Bn, BL, Oxford (Law Library) and Michigan.

First edition of a detailed treatise on household management for young women, presented in epistolary form. It was to become very popular, running to several editions by the middle of the century, but the first edition is rare. Starting by establishing the principles of order and economy it proceeds to give advice on a suitable house, its furnishing (with chapters on the dining room, salon, bedrooms for both madame and monsieur, and kitchen). There is information on the linen provision and washing, and choice of fabrics, as well as on personal dress. Two of the longer chapters consider the appointment and operation of the wine cellar (over which the mistress of the house had control) and the kitchen, the latter with a selection of useful recipes and dishes.

Though separately-published, it is one of the volumes of the series Encyclopédie des Dames issued by Audot from 1821, which provided titles useful and interesting to women, all in portable format like this. This copy was apparently a subscriber’s copy, with the half-title bearing the printed statement ‘Exemplaire imprimé pour la Bibliothèque de Mademoiselle Emma de Kolly’, and it is therefore likely that the arms on the upper cover are also hers (though we have been unable to discover anything more about her). WorldCat finds only one copy of the first edition outside continental Europe (University of Michigan).

A pocket guide for visitors to the three levels of the Eiffel Tower.

First edition: a rare work by the young Barrès (1862–1923), the same year Huit jours chez M. Renan, ‘imaginary conversations on an impertinently ironic note, won him both praise and blame, and before long he was in the first rank of authors’ (Oxford Companion to French Literature). Barrès’ look at the Left Bank, and the men and women found there, is peppered with little drawings, all anonymous.

A fascinating guide to the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter of the mid-eighteenth century. Shinpan Sancha daihyoban is a rare early survival of a book of the hyōban-ki genre —’reputation books’, which reviewed and ranked kabuki actors and courtesans, but which in this case is specifically devoted to brothels and the women who worked within them.

The title uses the term sancha as designation for a high-class of prostitute of courtesan (‘joro’) known as sancha-jōro, who followed in rank the taiyū-jōro and koshi-jōro, but was superior to the umecha-jōro class. All these ranks borrow their terminology from tea-making practices, Sancha referring to a powdered tea (similar to matcha) that could be prepared simply by mixing it with hot water—unlike earlier methods that required steeping tea leaves in a cloth and shaking the bag. The ease of preparing sancha came to symbolize the accessibility of sancha-jōro—a courtesan class that, while still prestigious, was less selective with clientele. This accessibility probably explains why the book focuses on the sancha-jōro offering readers a sense of possibility and approachability.

The book catalogues the names of sancha-jōro and the chaya (tea houses, or brothels) they were affiliated with. Importantly, it also highlights their individual skills. While these women are often associated primarily with sex work, they were trained entertainers. At the higher ranks, they were expected to demonstrate talents in music, singing, the tea ceremony, poetry, and other refined arts. This guide served not only to inform potential visitors but also to allow them to request specific courtesans based on their accomplishments.

Additionally, the book provides valuable insight into the publishing and distribution practices related to Yoshiwara’s pleasure quarters, which became historically significant as a cradle of modern publishing practices in Japan. Importantly, our book predates by several years the work of Tsutaya Jūzaburō, the famed publisher known for producing numerous popular guides to Yoshiwara. Although published by Maruya Shōbei in the Nihonbashi district, it was distributed by Honya Yashichi, a bookstore operating within Yoshiwara itself.

Though not quite the same as the lewd eighteenth century guides to Western prostitutes such as Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies in London (published 1760-794) the existence of Shinpan Sancha daihyoban provides an interesting point of reference in compariing sexual culture and publishing practise in No copies located in institutions outside Japan.

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.