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  • Quand j’étais homme.  Cahiers d’une femme … by LEMMONNIER, Camille. LEMMONNIER, Camille. ~ Quand j’étais homme.  Cahiers d’une femme … Paris: Louis-Michaud, [1907].
    First edition of a confessional novel by Lemonnier (1845–1913), the Belgian writer and art critic who ‘shared the aims of the French symbolists and stimulated… (more)

    First edition of a confessional novel by Lemonnier (1845–1913), the Belgian writer and art critic who ‘shared the aims of the French symbolists and stimulated a revival of Belgian letters’ (Oxford Companion to French Literature), in which the female narrator writes against a male-dominated society which leaves no room for the possibility of female emancipation such that she is driven to dress as a man. 
    This copy belonged to the ‘high priest of fin-de-siècle bibliophilia’ (Silverman, The New Bibliopolis, p. 14), Octave Uzanne (1851–1931).  One of only ten numbered copies printed on vergé de Hollande, it includes a unique printed presentation leaf, ‘Cet exemplaire a été imprimé spécialement pour M. Octave Uzanne’, tipped in as pp. 1–2 and inscribed ‘En fidèle souvenir mon cher Uzanne, le double homage de l’éditeur et de l’auteur.  Camille Lemonnier’. 
    ‘There is no more original Belgian artist than Camille Lemonnier.  A powerful and fertile writer, he represents Belgian literary activity for more than forty years, until his death in 1913, and even if he reflect the various tendencies of the French mind, and adapt himself to his surroundings, he is Flemish to the backbone in his mystico-sensual leanings, in his pious materialism, … in his Rubens-like fertility and love of colour, dash and force.  It is true that he reminds the reader of Zola, and even of Dickens; but it is above all of Rubens and Jordaens that he makes us think, because, like them, he paints his imagination in the form of ever sensitive emotions’ (Gladys Turquet-Milnes, Some modern Belgian Writers, 1916, p. 87).

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  • Monsieur Vénus. Roman matérialiste. by RACHILDE [and] ‘Francis TALMAN’. RACHILDE [and] ‘Francis TALMAN’. ~ Monsieur Vénus. Roman matérialiste. Brussels: Auguste Brancart, 1884.
    First edition, first issue, complete with all subsequently censored text, including the final scene in which the heroine makes love to a partially animated transgender… (more)

    First edition, first issue, complete with all subsequently censored text, including the final scene in which the heroine makes love to a partially animated transgender mannequin. Rachilde, who was to style herself as a ‘man of letters’ on her calling cards was just 24 when Monsieur Vénus, her second novel was published in Brussels. The book caused an immediate scandal and was vigorously suppressed by the Belgian and French authorities. Subsequent editions were shorn of the novel’s more shocking passages, which were conveniently attributed to Rachilde’s (probably-fictitiou)s co-author ‘Francis Talman’, whose name appeared on the title page. Some critics refused to believe that a work which frankly recounted the pursuit of sexual pleasure by a noblewoman, Raoule de Vénérande, could possibly be the work of a young woman. It remains an unsettling work, describing Raoule’s treatment of her young male lover, Silvert, who she persistently feminizes and humiliates. Silvert ultimately dies at the hands of one of Raoule’s suitor’s in a duel, and is replaced by her with a mannequin (with real hair, teeth and fingernails) who can be alternately dressed in male and female clothes.

    The Belgian authorities sought to destroy as many copies of the first edition as possible, and it is accordingly a noted rarity. We can locate the following copies: BnF, Bibliothèque Jaques Doucet, Institut de France in France and Library of Congress, University of Houston, Vanderbilt University in North America, British Library and Cambridge in the UK and Kb in the Netherlands.

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  • Latimore, ou le plus infortuné des hommes au sein de l’opulence et des grandeurs. Nouvelle anglaise traduite sur la 5e édition de Splendid misery, by Thom Surr, author of Georges Barnwell etc. Par Joseph Martin... by SURR, Thom[as Skinner]. SURR, Thom[as Skinner]. ~ Latimore, ou le plus infortuné des hommes au sein de l’opulence et des grandeurs. Nouvelle anglaise traduite sur la 5e édition de Splendid misery, by Thom Surr, author of Georges Barnwell etc. Par Joseph Martin... Paris: [P.N. Rougeron for] Villet ‘et à Verdun’, 1807.
    A rare French edition of Surr’s Splendid Misery (1801), perhaps the first in French. It is one of two French translations of 1807, the other… (more)

    A rare French edition of Surr’s Splendid Misery (1801), perhaps the first in French. It is one of two French translations of 1807, the other entitled Splendeur et souffrance published by Maradan. It is not clear which was the first. Though little remembered, Surr’s several novels of fashionable British society were bestsellers in England and were much read in both France and Germany. He was born in London in c. 1770 and was educated at Christ’s Hospital before becoming a clerk at the Bank of England. Garside, Raven and Schöwerling, The English Novel 1770-1829, 1801, 64 (noting the Splendeur et souffrance edition only. Worldcat lists copies of Latimore at Bn and University of Illinois only; COPAC adds no British copies. For Splendeur et souffrance OCLC lists copies at Bn and Universities of Erfurt and Göttingen only; COPAC adds no British copies.

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  • Melaia; and other Poems. by COOK, Eliza. COOK, Eliza. ~ Melaia; and other Poems. London: [Cunningham and Salmon for] R. J. Wood, Dispatch Office, 1838.
    First edition of the second collection by this south London working class poet. ‘The sentiments expressed in Cook's poetry and prose reflect her efforts to… (more)

    First edition of the second collection by this south London working class poet. ‘The sentiments expressed in Cook's poetry and prose reflect her efforts to break free from the societal limitations imposed on her class and gender. A woman who prided herself on her tiny hands and feet, Cook dressed in unconventionally masculine attire and wore her hair short. J. Leach notes that Cook's dress 'proclaimed a determination to be herself' and relates how an 1851 story in the New York Times describes her as 'Tilting back in her chair, planting both feet on the fender', and 'bluffly order[ing] a glass of beer' (Leach, 157). Cook was also most probably a lesbian. She never married, and from 1845 to 1849 she was closely linked with the American actress Charlotte Cushman (1816–1876), to whom she wrote passionate poetic tributes ('To Charlotte Cushman')’ (Solveig C. Robinson in Oxford DNB).

    The frontispiece depicting ‘The Old Water Mill’ bears Baxter imprint and states ‘printed in oil colours’ while the title-page vignette (depicting an English ship at sea) is similarly printed. These examples date from the first decade of George Baxter’s patent for his colour prints in which an intaglio plate, usually aquatint, was printed first, and then colours added with up multiple woodblocks. In both prints the darker colours have a characteristic depth and sheen. Melaia was reprinted in 1840, but the first edition with Baxter prints is exceptionally scarce. Worldcat lists a single copy (UC Davis, Kohler collection), JISC lists UK copies at BL, Birmingham and Cambridge.

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  • ou Tableau du Libertinage de Paris. Avec la vie de plusieurs filles célèbres de ce siècle. by Correspondance d’Eulalie. Correspondance d’Eulalie. ~ ou Tableau du Libertinage de Paris. Avec la vie de plusieurs filles célèbres de ce siècle. ‘Londres’: Jean Nourse, 1785.
    A scandalous epistolary novel purporting to be the genuine correspondence of fashionable Parisian prostitutes, courtesans and actresses in 1782 and 1783. It is full of… (more)

    A scandalous epistolary novel purporting to be the genuine correspondence of fashionable Parisian prostitutes, courtesans and actresses in 1782 and 1783. It is full of detail on life in the theatres, on the racecourse and in the salons of the fashionable rich. There are elegant orgies, unexpected lesbian encounters, cross-dressing, petty theft and continual financial worries. This is the expanded edition (with 16 additional letters) of Lettres de Julie à Eulalie (Londres, 1784). It includes erotic and comic verses and songs.

    It was widely read and extremely popular. James Boswell owned a copy (Bibliotheca Boswelliana, 1825), p. 24, 739. The imprint is certainly false, and the BnF catalogue suggests a German origin on the basis of typography. The occasional attribution to Mirabeau is incorrect, arising from confusion of the earlier title of his novel Ma Conversion (see Kearney, History of Erotic Literature, p. 77). Gay I, 819: ‘Lettres d’une courtisanne, qui après de longs déréglements, épousa un lord anglais, et devint une femme vertueuse’. Worldcat locates three copies only (BL, BnF and Anna Amalia Library, Weimar).

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  • Tales of Fashionable Life. by EDGEWORTH, Maria. EDGEWORTH, Maria. ~ Tales of Fashionable Life. London: [S. Hamilton, Weybridge, vol 1; Wood and Innes, vol. 2; W. Pople, vol. 3] for J. Johnson, 1809.
    First collected edition of the first series of Tales of Fashionable Life, Edgeworth’s most ambitious literary project. containing Ennui, Almeria, Madame de Fleury, The Dun,… (more)

    First collected edition of the first series of Tales of Fashionable Life, Edgeworth’s most ambitious literary project. containing Ennui, Almeria, Madame de Fleury, The Dun, Manoeuvring. In his preface, Richard Lovell Edgeworth notes his daughter's aim ‘to promote, by all her writings, the progress of education, from the cradle to the grave’, and that the present and envisaged volumes of the series were ‘intended to point out some of those errors, to which the higher classes of society are disposed’. A second series appeared in 1812, for which she received £1050 making her the most commercially successful novelist of her age.

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  • Selected Letters... adapted for the use of Learners by A. J. Lastdrager. by MONTAGUE, Lady Mary Wortley. MONTAGUE, Lady Mary Wortley. ~ Selected Letters... adapted for the use of Learners by A. J. Lastdrager. The Hague and Amsterdam: Van Cleef brothers, 1827.
    First edition of this Dutch-printed schoolbook, reproducing the English text of selected Montague letters with a foreword and extensive footnotes in Dutch, edited by educationalist… (more)

    First edition of this Dutch-printed schoolbook, reproducing the English text of selected Montague letters with a foreword and extensive footnotes in Dutch, edited by educationalist Abraham Johannes Lastdrager (1788-1855) who had founded a successful academy for young ladies in Amsterdam around 1820. The advert leaf lists a further thirteen educational titles in Dutch and French. No US or UK copies located in Worldcat or JISC.

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  • Les Ecosseuses: ou Les Oeufs de Pasques. by VADÉ, Jean-Joseph; Anne-Claude-Philippe comte de CAYLUS; Jeanne Baptiste d’Albert de Luynes, comtesse de VERRUE. VADÉ, Jean-Joseph; Anne-Claude-Philippe comte de CAYLUS; Jeanne Baptiste d’Albert de Luynes, comtesse de VERRUE. ~ Les Ecosseuses: ou Les Oeufs de Pasques. ‘Troyes’ [but Paris]: chez la Veuve Oudoy, 1745.
    First edition with the delightful woodcut frontispiece of two pea shellers, evidently cut by the comte de Caylus himself after a drawing and engraving by… (more)

    First edition with the delightful woodcut frontispiece of two pea shellers, evidently cut by the comte de Caylus himself after a drawing and engraving by Edme Bouchardon. The imprint of widow Oudoy at Troyes is considered false, and the book was probably printed in Paris. The combination of frontispiece and imprint serves to give the work a popular character (Troyes being a well-known centre of chapbook production), appropriate for a collection composed in the genre poissard reproducing contemporary street language — a collection of tales and anecdotes purporting to be told by six women (’commeres’) in a butcher’s shop. The authorship is composite, with contributions from populist Vadé and the comte de Caylus and comtesse de Verrue, members of a Parisian salon, the ‘Société du Bout-du-Banc,around the hostess Jeanne-Françoise Quinault. An edition had previously appeared in 1739, with a different pagination and without the woodcut and extra title.

    The woodcut reproduces one of Bouchardon’s wonderful series of Cris de Paris series of drawings, immortalising the ordinary people of Paris in age where so many illustrations were purely aristocratic. It is signed with initials ‘B’ and ‘C’ on either side, for Bouchardon and Caylus respectively. Barbier, 1, 359, 4695; cf. Gay II. p. 182 (Etrennes de la Saint-Jean, the collection in which it was also included).

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  • The History of Wat Tyler and Jack Straw. by (WAT TYLER). (WAT TYLER). ~ The History of Wat Tyler and Jack Straw. ‘Printed and sold in London’, [n.d., c. 1760-1769.
    A popular eighteenth-century chapbook, one of several on the subject of Wat Tyler and the Peasant’s Revolt. The text is perjorative towards both Tyler, Straw… (more)

    A popular eighteenth-century chapbook, one of several on the subject of Wat Tyler and the Peasant’s Revolt. The text is perjorative towards both Tyler, Straw and his fellow rebels, seeing them as traitors to the realm. The final page bears the woodcut arms of the City of London and the text explains the (apocryphal) story that the incorporated dagger represents the weapon used by Sir William Walworth to slay Tyler (though the arms do indeed date from 1381, the dagger is actually the emblem of the martyrdom of St Paul). ESTC t36566, listing the National Library of Scotland copy only.

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  • The Works. by CHAUCER, Geoffrey. CHAUCER, Geoffrey. ~ The Works. Stratford-upon-Avon: Shakespeare Head Press, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1928-1929.
    One of 375 numbered sets (number 266). The type of the Shakespeare Head Chaucer is Caslon Old Face and the illustrations of the Canterbury pilgrims… (more)

    One of 375 numbered sets (number 266). The type of the Shakespeare Head Chaucer is Caslon Old Face and the illustrations of the Canterbury pilgrims are adapted from the Ellesmere manuscript. ‘The first impression is of care in planning, of thought for the reader. A friendly craftsmanship comes from all the pen and brush work in these books. The illustrations enter as a pleasant surprise, rather than necessary parts of the plan. The edition seems complete without them, but we are delighted to find them’ (Franklin, The Private Presses, pp. 149-50). The set comprises The Canterbury Tales (in the first four volumes), Consolation of Philosophy, Troilus and Criseyde, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, later minor poems, doubtful poems, A Treatise on the Astrolabe and The Romaunt of the Rose.

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  • Ouverture de la Pêche. by JARRY, Alfred. JARRY, Alfred. ~ Ouverture de la Pêche. Collège de Pataphysique, [1953].
    First edition, one of 276 copies in ‘vert aqueux’ wrappers (after 57 in ‘vert de Perse). The tableau Ouverture de la Pêche was written when… (more)

    First edition, one of 276 copies in ‘vert aqueux’ wrappers (after 57 in ‘vert de Perse). The tableau Ouverture de la Pêche was written when the author was 15 and later deemed by him worthy of publication by the Collège de Pataphysique. This piece of comic Jarry juvenilia sees families haste to catch the opening of the French fishing season.

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  • Gestes suivis des Paralipomènes d’Ubu. by JARRY, Alfred. JARRY, Alfred. ~ Gestes suivis des Paralipomènes d’Ubu. Paris: Simin Kra, Éditions du ‘Sagittaire’, 1920 [1921].
    First edition. One of 1040 copies, this one of 940 on Hollande. (more)

    First edition. One of 1040 copies, this one of 940 on Hollande.

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  • The Fables of Aesop. by AESOP. Edward J[ulius] DETMOLD, illustrator. AESOP. Edward J[ulius] DETMOLD, illustrator. ~ The Fables of Aesop. London: [Henry Stone for] Hodder & Stoughton, 1909.
    Copy number 50 of 750 copies of the limited edition, signed by the illustrator. Edward Detmold was the longest surviving of the two tragic Detmold… (more)

    Copy number 50 of 750 copies of the limited edition, signed by the illustrator. Edward Detmold was the longest surviving of the two tragic Detmold twins who had attracted the attention of artists such as Edward Burne-Jones as children and young artists. Edward’s brother Maurice had committed suicide in 1908, after producing numerous highly regarded prints at the turn of the century. Edward himself continued to make prints and publish illustrated books until his own suicide in 1957. Animals and birds were their primary subjects and to varying degrees, their prints exhibit the clear influence of the Japanese master printmakers.

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  • The Canterbury Tales. by CHAUCER, Geoffrey. CHAUCER, Geoffrey. ~ The Canterbury Tales. Waltham Saint Lawrence, Golden Cockerel Press, 1929-1931.
    Number 381 of 485 copies on paper (there were also 15 on vellum). Along with Troilus and Criseyde and The Four Gospels, The Canterbury Tales… (more)

    Number 381 of 485 copies on paper (there were also 15 on vellum). Along with Troilus and Criseyde and The Four Gospels, The Canterbury Tales is one of the high points of the Golden Cockerel Press. It perhaps stands above above all in Gill’s masterful designs, forming, as Colin Franklin pointed out an integral part of the book’s success — ‘not quite illustration but far transcending decoration’. ‘The balance of text and illustration goes further than typography... Most of the borders are leaf and stem, but among the leaves, hiding or beckoning, climbing or leaning out, are girls and men, kings and boys, priests and nuns who take part or seem to be commenting on the stories. A young man is whistling across the page, two fingers at his mouth, to a girl; Chaucer himself waves to a little god of love facing across his own poem; a sad lover looks over to Christ crucifies; Pan blows pipes and a naked girl, hearing him, prepares to climb her tree; a nineteen-twentyish girl climbs up, and a sad young bearded man looking like Robert Gibbings sits, supporting the whole tree’s weight, opposite; Chaucer is writing with confidence under the leaves, taking it down by dictation from the naughty spirit looking down and over the lines. So the pattern continues, affectionate and cheeky, erotic, enjoyable and relevant, decorative and explanatory, a balance of taste and eye’ (Franklin). Franklin, The Private Presses, 137-144.

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  • Troilus and Criseyde. by CHAUCER, Geoffrey. CHAUCER, Geoffrey. ~ Troilus and Criseyde. Waltham Saint Lawrence, [1926-] 1927.
    Number 183 of 225 copies. Troilus and Criseyde is the first of the three outstanding Golden Golden Cockerel Press editions produced by Robert Gibbings and… (more)

    Number 183 of 225 copies. Troilus and Criseyde is the first of the three outstanding Golden Golden Cockerel Press editions produced by Robert Gibbings and Eric Gill (the others being The Canterbury Tales and the The Four Gospels). The Middle English text was edited by Arundell del Re, the compositors were F. Young and A.H. Gibbsand the pressman, A.C Cooper.

    Gill’s woodcuts include portraits of Chaucer: one depicting him with Cupid whispering in his ear, the other shows him writing Troilus. There are four full page illustrations, one at the beginning of each book, while every page has a tall border facing each other across each opening. In these Gill successfully re-imagined the borders of medieval manuscripts in which the images do more than simply decorate the margins, but work in interplay with the text — marking, illustrating and commenting with varying degrees of transparency, subtlety, eroticism and humour. ‘They rank very high in the range of Gill’s work’ (Franklin, p. 142).

    Provenance: Sotheby’s, 10th July 2001, lot 369.
    Franklin, The Private Presses, 137-144.

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  • Makeda reine de Saba Chronique Éthiopienne traduite pour le première fois du “Gheez” en Français, d’après un manuscrit appartenant a leurs majestés les Négus d’Éthiope. by BARBIER, George, illustrator. Hughes le ROUX, translator. BARBIER, George, illustrator. Hughes le ROUX, translator. ~ Makeda reine de Saba Chronique Éthiopienne traduite pour le première fois du “Gheez” en Français, d’après un manuscrit appartenant a leurs majestés les Négus d’Éthiope. Paris: Goupil & C[ompagn]ie, Manzi, Joyant & C[ompagn]ie. 1914.
    First edition, copy number 7 of 100, of this sumptuously illustrated version of the story of the Queen of Sheba, combining illustrations by Barbier and… (more)

    First edition, copy number 7 of 100, of this sumptuously illustrated version of the story of the Queen of Sheba, combining illustrations by Barbier and the Abyssinian artist Michel Engueda-Work. French scholar, traveller and diplomat, Hughes Le Roux had transcribed parts of the Ethiopian chronicle Kebra Nagast in 1904, with the help of local scholars, from a manuscript looted by the British at Maqdala and subsequently returned. The Kebra Nagast or ‘The Glory of the Kings,’ is a fourteenth-century national epic of Ethiopia, written in Geʽez by the nebure id Ishaq of Aksum. In its existing form, the text is at least 700 years old and purports to trace the origins of the Solomonic dynasty, a line of Ethiopian Orthodox Christian monarchs who ruled the country (until 1974), to the biblical king, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

    The story of the text’s survival is interesting. The Battle of Maqdala, the last struggle in the British Expedition to Abyssinia, led to significant looting by the victorious British forces, who took Emperor Tewodros II’s crown along with ceremonial crosses, chalices, weapons and the holy icon Kwer’ata Re’esu along with two fine manuscripts of the Kebra Nagast which found their way to the British Museum (catalogued as Oriental MS 818 and 819 respectively). 819 was returned to Ethiopia in 1872 on the request of the Abyssinian king, who identified it as a fundamental source of law. Hugues Le Roux, a French envoy from the President of the French Republic to Menyelek II, King of Ethiopia, later went to Addis Alem in order to see this manuscript and to obtain his permission to translate it into French. He notes in his introduction here the inscription ‘This volume was returned to the King of Ethiopia by order of the Trustees of the British Museum, Dec. 14th, 1872’. Of the artist Michel Engueda-Work who is referred to elsewhere as an ‘Abyssinian artist’, almost nothing else is known, but his illustrations are of course far truer to the Ethiopian style than Barbier’s highly exoticised and eroticised interpretations, in which Sheba is portrayed (following long tradition) as a white woman.

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  • Histoire charmante de l’adolescente sucre d’amour. by SCHMIED, François-Louis, illustrator. [Joseph-Charles] MARDRUS. SCHMIED, François-Louis, illustrator. [Joseph-Charles] MARDRUS. ~ Histoire charmante de l’adolescente sucre d’amour. Paris: F. L. Schmied, 1927.
    Number 150 of 150 copies, signed by the publisher (there were also 20 additional publisher’s copies). Joseph Charles Mardrus was best known as a translator… (more)

    Number 150 of 150 copies, signed by the publisher (there were also 20 additional publisher’s copies). Joseph Charles Mardrus was best known as a translator into French of the Arabian Nights. He was born in Cairo of Armenian parents and studied in Lebanon before settling in Paris. As a doctor for the French government, he worked throughout Morocco and the Far East. Carteret IV, 263.

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  • Le Tapis de prières. by SCHMIED, François-Louis, illustrator. LUCIEN-GRAUX [Dr. Lucien Désiré Prosper Graux]. SCHMIED, François-Louis, illustrator. LUCIEN-GRAUX [Dr. Lucien Désiré Prosper Graux]. ~ Le Tapis de prières. [Paris: Schmied, 1 October 1938].
    One of 125 copies (this an unnumbered hors série copy) of a superb illustrated book with colour wood engravings designed by art deco master François-Louis… (more)

    One of 125 copies (this an unnumbered hors série copy) of a superb illustrated book with colour wood engravings designed by art deco master François-Louis Schmied and engraved by his son Théo, each printed successively from multiple blocks.
    Author Lucien Désiré Prosper Graux known as Lucien Graux (1878-1944) was a French doctor, entrepreneur, art collector, bibliophile, writer, publisher and member of the French Resistance in his final years (he was arrested and murdered at Dachau in 194). He had amassed one of the finest French book collections of his era and operated a small publishing house, the ‘Amis du Docteur Lucien-Graux’. This orientalist fanstasy Le Tapis de Prières was the house’s 24th production, the first in quarto. Carteret, Illustrés IV, p. 255, ‘édition originale et premier tirage recherché et coté’; Ritchie, François-Louis Schmied, p. 41.

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  • Ulysses. by JOYCE, James. Henri MATISSE, illustrator. JOYCE, James. Henri MATISSE, illustrator. ~ Ulysses. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1935.
    Number 58 of 1500 copies, signed in pencil by Henri Matisse (a further 250 copies of the edition were additionally signed by Joyce). This is… (more)

    Number 58 of 1500 copies, signed in pencil by Henri Matisse (a further 250 copies of the edition were additionally signed by Joyce). This is the first illustrated edition of Ulysses, though Matisse chose to supply illustrations of the Calypso episodes of Homer’s Odyssey corresponding to the six episodes of the novel as his artist’s response to Joyce’s text (which, it is often said, he never finished reading). He thus confounded both the publisher, George Macy, and most of the public on its first publication. The Limited Edition Club edition owes its existence to the lifting of the American ban on the novel in December 1933. Henri Matisse, L’Oeuvre gravé, 235-240; Slocum & Cahoon, 22.

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  • Promenade ou Itineraire des Jardins d’Ermenonville. by [GIRARDIN, Louis Stanislas Cecile Xavier, Comte de]. [GIRARDIN, Louis Stanislas Cecile Xavier, Comte de]. ~ Promenade ou Itineraire des Jardins d’Ermenonville. Paris: Mérigot père, Gattey, Guyot and Murray at Ermenonville, 1788.
    First edition of this superbly illustrated account of Girardin’s garden at Ermenonville, which was inspired both by the philosophy of Rousseau and the English landscape… (more)

    First edition of this superbly illustrated account of Girardin’s garden at Ermenonville, which was inspired both by the philosophy of Rousseau and the English landscape gardens of the eighteenth century. It was to become Rousseau’s resting place, within an elaborate tomb on an island in the Lac de peupliers. The delightful aquatint plates here depict the philosophical temple, picturesque grottoes and torrents. It as reprinted in 1811. Much of what Girardin created was destroyed in the Revolutionary era. Cohen-De Ricci 439; Hunt 695.

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