FRANCE

Autograph Letter Signed ('Philip H Calderon.') from Philip Hermogenes Calderon, member of the St John's Wood Clique, to fellow-artist John Callcott Horsley, describing a trip to the 'dissolute city' of Paris.

Author: 
Philip Hermogenes Calderon (1833-1898), English painter born in France of Spanish extractino, member of St John's Wood Clique, Keeper of the Royal Academy, London [John Callcott Horsley (1817-1903)]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 9 Marlborough Place, St John's Wood, NW. 'Sunday Evening' [no date].
£220.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin neat strip of paper mount at head of third page.

[Printed pamphlet in French.] Lucien Achille Mauzan / 1883-1952 / affichiste . peintre . sculpteur / graveur . modéliste . décorateur . humoriste'.

Author: 
[Lucien Achille Mauzan (1883-1952), French Art Deco poster designer and decorative illustrator]
Lucien Achille Mauzan
Publication details: 
[Imprimerie Dardelet, Grenoble.] No date [1980s?].
£135.00
Lucien Achille Mauzan

8pp., 4to. In stiff printed wraps. Printed in black and white. Photographic portrait of the artist tipped-in as frontispiece, twenty illustrations in text, and loosely inserted in a wallet at the rear a facsimile (2pp., 8vo) of an article from the Argentine Magazine, Christmas 1929: 'How MAUZAN makes lively posters' by A. Lancelotti. Cover carries image of smiling fat black man shining his foot with a shoebrush, above facsimile of Mauzan's signature. Scarce: does not appear to be present in the Bibliotheque Nationale.

[Printed catalogue of Linotype type specimens.] Spécimen de Charactères, Vignettes & Filets Linotype. Entièrement exécuté sur machines a composer Linotype.

Author: 
[French Linotype type specimen book]
Publication details: 
[Morgenthaler Linotype.] Without date or place [French, 1930s?].
£225.00

28pp., landscape 12mo, printed on rectos only of 28 leaves. Dimensions 21 x 15 cm. In brown card wraps with brown cloth tape spine over staples. In fair condition, on aged thick paper, with foxing to title leaf, and damp staining at foot of first and last few pages. Printed decorative border on front cover, with same border in black ink on title page, enclosing the title in block capitals in red ink: 'SPÉCIMEN | DE | CARACTÈRES, VIGNETTES | & FILETS | LINOTYPE'.

[Printed handbill poem.] A la Garde Nationale de Honfleur. Choeur des Républicains. Air du Chœur des Girondins.

Author: 
'Achille de Naguet Desportes, Propriétaire à Equemauville, près Honfleur' (d.1879) [La Garde Nationale de Honfleur; E. Dupray, printer]
Publication details: 
'Honfleur. Typographie ve E. Dupray.' Undated [1840s].
£150.00

1p., 8vo. On wove paper. Lightly worn and aged. Text in two columns within ornate decorative border. Author's details at foot, above printer's slug. Thirty-five line poem, in five seven-line stanzas. First stanza: 'O! toi, ma France bien-aimée, | Pour toi, nous faison tous des voeux, | Oh! sois à jamais vénérée, | Élevons nos voix vers les cieux. | Oh! France, ma patrie!

Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo. S. Hillard') from the Harvard lawyer George Stillman Hillard (later District Attorney for Massachusetts) to W. W. Greenough, written from Paris in the 'Year of Revolutions' 1848, analysing the political situation there.

Author: 
George Stillman Hillard (1808-1879), Harvard-educated lawyer, writer on the law, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts [William Whitwell Greenough (1818-1899), Boston merchant]
Publication details: 
Paris, France; 16 May 1848.
£320.00

4pp., 4to. Bifolium. Ninety lines of text. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with small hole on second leaf causing damage to a few words of text. Addressed with two postmarks (one French, one American) on the reverse of the second leaf to 'William W. Whitwell Esq | Boston. Mass. | United States of America'. A significant letter, written from Paris by an astute and cultured American jurist on the day following the demonstration of 15 May 1848.

French nineteenth-century handbill poem by 'L. N.' on the game of whist, titled 'Le Whist.'

Author: 
'L. N.' [French nineteenth-century handbill poem on the game of whist]
Handbill poem by 'L. N.' on the game of whist
Publication details: 
Date of publication and name of printer not stated [1840s Paris?].
£350.00
Handbill poem by 'L. N.' on the game of whist

2 pp, 12mo. On the first leaf of a bifolium of wove paper. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. Signed 'L. N.' in type at end. A 114-line poem, in rhyming alexandrine couplets, beginning 'Messieurs, au jeu du whist adoptez constamment | L'air grave britannique et le flegme allemand.

Anonymous French nineteenth-century handbill poem, containing precepts on the game of chess, entitled 'Le Jeu d'Échecs.'

Author: 
'Le Jeu d'Échecs' [anonymous French nineteenth-century handbill poem on the game of chess]
Handbill poem, containing precepts on the game of chess
Publication details: 
Date of publication and name of printer not stated [1840s Paris?].
£650.00
Handbill poem, containing precepts on the game of chess

4 pp, 16mo. Paginated [1] to 4. On a bifolium of wove paper. Fair, on lightly-aged and creased paper, with thin strip of previous mount adhering to inner margin of first page.

Autograph Letter Signed from Louis-Antoine-François de Marchangy ('L de Marchangy') to 'Monsieur le Comte' [Vincent-Marie Viénot, comte de Vaublanc?].

Author: 
Louis-Antoine-François de Marchangy (1782-1826), French writer [Vincent-Marie Viénot (1756-1845), comte de Vaublanc?]
Louis-Antoine-François de Marchangy
Publication details: 
'Limoges ce 22 8bre. [Octobre]' [on paper watermarked 1823].
£95.00
Louis-Antoine-François de Marchangy

8vo, 4 pp. Seventy lines of text. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with the outer pages browned. The identity of the recipient is suggested by the following, written in the margin of the first page: 'Ces Dames vous supplient d'agréer l'hommage de leurs souvenirs. Mesdames de Vaublanc et veulent elles me permettre de leur offrir ici la mienne?' His correspondent is writing his memoirs, and de Marchangy considers that he has 'mille fois raison de vivre dans le passé, s'il vous console du present'.

[Printed pamphlet.] Mémoire Descriptif d'un Brevet d'Invention pour une Machine Volante dénommé Avion Militaire de Grand Combat Vitanval en faveur de M. Leon Louis Laforge Prince Laforge de Vitanval. Second Partie. Traduit de l'Espagnol.

Author: 
Leon Louis Laforge, self-styled 'Prince Laforge de Vitanval' and 'Grand Master of the Knights of Saint Leon' [aeronautics; flying machines; airplanes; aviation; inventions]
Publication details: 
['Au Ministerio de Fomento a Madrid. Le 25 Mai 1916 sous le No. 62.342'.] Madrid: Artes Gráficas "Mateu". Paseo del Prado, 34. 1916.
£125.00

4to, 22 pp. In original green printed wraps. Frontispiece photograph on art paper, inscribed in bottom right-hand corner 'A M. Maggs Bros booksellers | Souvenir de la guerre | Pce. Laforge de Vitanval | Madrid 12 Aout 16'. Text clear and complete. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. No diagrams. The invention is described as 'un Aéro-frein ou frein automatique pour aéroplanes et toutes espèce de machines volantes, empêchant le capotement des appareils, en cas d'accident ou d'arrêt subit du moteur'.

Notes et Notices sur l'Expédition scientifique des Anglais au pic de Ténériffe, en 1856. Sur l'Origine des Espèces [i.e. Darwin's 'Origin of Species']. Sur Toulon, port de mer. Sur l'Ouvrage de Miss Nightingale, intitulé: Notes on Nursing. [...]

Author: 
J.-P.-A. Madden [Jean-Patrice-Auguste Madden (1808-1889)] [Florence Nightingale; Charles Darwin]
Notes et Notices sur l'Expédition scientifique des Anglais au pic de Ténériffe
Publication details: 
Versailles: Imprimérie de E. Aubert, 6, Avenue de Sceaux. 1864.
£285.00
Notes et Notices sur l'Expédition scientifique des Anglais au pic de Ténériffe

12mo, [iv] + 52 + [i], the last page carrying an erratum. Unopened. In original grey printed wraps. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with wear to wraps (particularly spine) and dog-eared front wrap. Bound in at the end is a separate seven-page pamphlet with a title-page which simply reads 'Toulon Port de Guerre par J. P.A. Madden.' The printer of this seven-page item is Imprimérie Cerf at Versailles.

Manuscript document in French, a copy, ('Collationné Certiffié [sic] sincère et véritable') from the Duc de Luxembourg for the Grand Orient de France, to 'tous Les Maçons reguliers', certified by the 'Secretaire de la loge des vrais amis' (Daumas?).

Author: 
[Le Grand Orient de France, French Masonic organization, founded in 1733; la Loge des Vrais Amis; Anne de Montmorency-Luxembourg, Duc de Luxembourg (1737-1803); Freemasons; Freemasonry]
Le Grand Orient de France, French Masonic organization
Publication details: 
Année de la Vraie Lumière 5781 [i.e. 1781]
£400.00
Le Grand Orient de France, French Masonic organization

Folio, 3 pp. Bifolium. On watermarked laid paper. Headed 'A La Gloire du Grand architecte de L'univers sous Les auspices et au Nom du Serenissime G M | Le Grand orient de france a tous les Maçons reguliers, | union force salut'. Apparently regarding relations 'Entre Nous & Les directoires

Two manuscript receipts from 1707, in French, for sums of money for the payment to Louis de La Rochefoucauld, Marquis de Roye, Lieutenant-General of the Galleys, of money for rations for the 'Tartane armée', authorised and countersigned.

Author: 
Louis de La Rochefoucauld, Marquis de Roye, lieutenant-general of the galleys [le Marquis de Roye Lieutenant General des galeres]
Louis de La Rochefoucauld, Marquis de Roye, lieutenant-general of the galleys
Publication details: 
France, 1707.
£180.00
Louis de La Rochefoucauld, Marquis de Roye, lieutenant-general of the galleys

Folio, 4 pp. Both on the same bifolium. All texts clear. On aged and worn paper, with chipping and fraying to extremities. Presumably part of a series of ongoing receipts, as the the first begins in the middle of the preamble '<...> commandement de Monsieur le Marquis de Roye Lieutenant general, | De la somme de deux cent cinquante neuf livres onze sols huit deniers [...]'. The receipts are neatly written out, with two long authorisations in the margins, each bearing the same illegible signature.

[Book] State of France during the years1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806

Author: 
W.T. Williams
Publication details: 
Richard Phillips, London, 1807
£200.00

Title continued: "Comprising A Description of the Customs and Manners of that Country; together with Observations on its Government, Finances, Population, Agriculture, Religion, Public Schools, Conduct towards English prisoners, and Internal Commerce. To which are added, Anecdotes tending to delineate the Character of The Chief of the French Government" [presumably Napoleon]. 2 vols, pp.xii.216; viii.204, catchword on ii.204 "Useful" anticipating a 36pp. catalogue of Richard Phillips' publications missing from this copy, mauve cloth, discreetly rebacked, bumped, spine gt.title and vol.

Autograph Notebook by Frederick Leman Whelen, containing biographical matter, some on the Stage Society. Including lists of individuals (some Jewish) with whom Whelen was interned at Fort de Romainville and Drancy, Paris, during the Second World War.

Author: 
Frederick Leman Whelen (1867-1955), Fabian socialist author and founder of the Stage Society [Drancy Internment Camp; Nazi Germany; holocaust; concentration camps]
F.L. Whelen, Fabian author, founder of  Stage Society, Notebook
Publication details: 
1939 to circa 1941.
£400.00
F.L. Whelen, Fabian author, founder of  Stage Society, Notebook

Small 4to, 140 pp. Paginated by Whelen. Notebook of good laid paper, in boards covered in patterned paper, with the word 'BIOGRAPHICAL' in faded red manuscript at head of front cover. Text neatly written and clear and complete. Good: internally sound and tight on lightly-aged paper; in worn and chipped boards. The flyleaf is dated 1939, with Whelen's addresses given as the Royal Societies Club, St James's St, and 5 Place de la Taconnerie, Geneva.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W L George') from the novelist Walter Lionel George to the writer Ralph Straus, regarding payment and literary work.

Author: 
W. L. George [Walter Lionel George] (1882-1926), English novelist brought up in Paris [Ralph Straus (1882-1950), English novelist and biographer]
Autograph Letter Signed ('W L George') ,  novelist
Publication details: 
23 January 1919; on letterhead of the Savile Club, Piccadilly.
£65.00
Autograph Letter Signed ('W L George') ,  novelist

12mo, 1 p. Twelve lines of text. Clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged and creased paper. 'No cheque from the Bystander, [...] my new novel will be out in two months or so. I intend to shock you with that.' Perhaps referring to George's 'Blind Alley', or 'Eddies of the Day', both published in 1919.

Typed Letter Signed, in English, to R. W. C. Vail of the Roosevelt House Library and Museum, with typed invoice.

Author: 
Edouard Champion, Paris bookseller, publisher and autograph dealer, 'Seul Agent (France, Belgique, Suisse) du British Museum'
Publication details: 
Both items dated 11 July 1924, and both on his letterhead.
£125.00

Both items fair, on lightly-aged paper. Both with list of Champion's publications down the left-hand margin, and with the list continuing in the letter to the blank second page. Letter: 4to, 1 p. He is sending 'a few documents which I have so far collected' relating to the Marquis de Chamilly. 'It is a long time since I last heard from the ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION, and am always at your entire disposal.' Invoice: Landscape 8vo. 12mo, 1 p. Containing five Chamilly letters, totalling 268 francs.

Autograph Signature ('P. B. Du Chaillu').

Author: 
Paul Du Chaillu [Paul Belloni Du Chaillu] (1835-1903), French-American traveller and anthropologist
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£28.00

In pencil, on strip of paper roughly 2.5 x 13 cm. Laid down on piece of card. On lightly-aged and creased paper, with small tear close to the right of the signature.

Legal agreement, in French, between Drummond and the Marquise de St. Aulaire, for the leasing by Drummond of the Chateau de Courbeton. Signed by both parties ('Mise De St. Aulaire' and 'Jas Drummond').

Author: 
James Drummond (1767-1851), Viscount Strathallan; Marie Madelaine de St. Janvier, Marquise de Beaupoil de St. Aulaire [Chateau de Courbeton, Seine et Marne, France]
Publication details: 
28 November 1822; Paris.
£85.00

8vo, 1 pp. A long document, closely written in a clerical hand. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with slight loss to one corner. Stamped for tax. Signed twice by both parties, and initialled by them on a couple of occasions. Following the defeat of Napoleon, the broken state of the French economy allowed many wealthy Britains to live there. Drummond is described as 'Mr. Jacques Drummond Ecossais Logé ce jour à Paris, Rue St. Honoré No., hôtel Meurice'.

Autograph Letter, in the third person, to Mrs Wallack, on the occasion of the Wallacks' Paris performances.

Author: 
John Y. Mason [John Young Mason] (1799-1859), U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary to France, 1853-1859 [James William Wallack (1764-1864), Anglo-American actor]
Publication details: 
15 June 1855; 13 Rye Beaujon (on letterhead of the Paris Legation of the United States).
£85.00

4to, 1 p. Twenty lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly-creased paper. Responding to 'the kind note of his esteemed Country woman Mrs. Wallack'. He is 'gratified to learn, that Mr. Wallack will present to the Parisian public representations in the English language, of the best of our Tragedies & Comedies'. He wishes the Wallacks 'the most complete success, and will with pleasure attend the performances, when his health will permit him & his family to do so'. Two of Mason's family will take up Wallack's offer of tickets for the opening.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J Würtz'), in French, to 'mon cher Martin'

Author: 
J. Würtz [Commission Scientifique pour l'exploration des Antiquités Américaines, Paris]
Publication details: 
19 September 1851; on letterhead of the Commission Scientifique pour l'exploration des Antiquités Américaines, Paris.
£45.00

8vo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. In a difficult hand. Apparently relating to a proposed meeting and dinner for 'tous les trois' (including ''). It is curiously difficult to discover anything, either about Würtz or about the Commission.

Autograph Signature ('Waddington') and address in frank to Fritz Cunliffe Owen, and with an Autograph Note Signed by Owen to 'friend Leckie'.

Author: 
William Henry Waddington (1826-1894), Prime Minister of France in 1879 [Fritz Cunliffe Owen]
Publication details: 
Undated.
£28.00

On one side of a piece of paper, an irregular rectangle cut from the front of a letter (10 cm x 13 cm at head and 16 cm at foot). On aged paper with pinholes from mounting. Small signature boxed in to the bottom left-hand corner by Waddington. Addressed to 'Fritz Cunliffe Owen Esqre | 4 Grafton Street | Piccadilly'. Owen's note, above the address, reads 'Dr. friend Leckie. Your sister may like to have this autogr. of the French ambassador Mr. Waddington as you know, a great French statesman - au revoir a Bologna on Sunday morning. Yours affect. [signed] Fritz Cunliffe Owen'.

Manuscript Report to the Secretary General of the Hospitals and Hospices of Paris, by a commission investigating the medicinal qualities of the cahinca root. In Parent de Chatelet's hand and signed by him and the other four members of the commission.

Author: 
Alexandre Jean Baptiste Parent du Châtelet (1790-1836); Philibert Guéneau de Mussy (1776-1854); Pierre-Barthélémy Portal d'Albarèdes (1765-1845), Baron Portal; Auguste François Chomel (1788-1858)
Publication details: 
[Paris. Seance of 29 April 1830.]
£350.00

Foolscap (leaf dimensions 42 x 26.5 cm), 1 p. Clear and complete. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium. Both leaves with the small neat ownership stamp of the 'Collections Louis Leguay, à Paris [series A, number 382]'. Good, on lightly-aged watermarked laid paper. Written in French. Addressed 'A Monsieur le Secretaire general des hopitaux et hospices de Paris'.

The Plight of the Creative Artist in the United States of America.

Author: 
Henry Miller [Bern Porter]
Publication details: 
[Houlton, Maine: Bern Porter, 1944.]
£75.00

8vo: paginated 3-38. Four full-page reproductions of Miller's paintings. In original yellow printed wraps. On brittle, aged paper, with the body of the book detached from the wraps, which are worn and with one corner at front creased. Title taken from front wrap. One of 950 numbered copies, signed by the publisher on the final page (beneath 'Publisher's Addendum') 'Bern Porter | 25 South St | Houlton Maine | Copy # 296'. Shifreen &Jackson A37a. Uncommon. Apart from the British Library, COPAC only lists copies at Cambridge, Manchester, Oxford and Bristol.

Défense du Tropique du Cancer. Avec des inédits de Miller. Traduction de E. M. F. Rosé et de L. M. Rivière.

Author: 
Michael Fraenkel [Henry Miller]
Publication details: 
Paris: Variété, 108 Avenue du Maine. 1947.
£56.00

8vo: 93 [+1] pp. In original grey wraps with printed label on front and yellow wrap-around band ('Une pièce à verser au Dossier Miller | Variété a Paris'). Covered in glassine. Good, on lightly-aged paper. From the archives of Michael and Daphne Fraenkel's Carrefour Press.

Wytsman's catalogue no. 9, in French, titled 'Entomologie'.

Author: 
P. Wytsman, science bookseller, Brussels [entomology]
Publication details: 
P. Wytsman, Librarie Scientifique, 1, Rue de l'Arbre, Bruxelles.
£35.00

8vo, 8 pp. Unbound. An unopened leaf, folded twice to make four leaves. Text clear and complete. On aged and worn paper.

Autograph Letter Signed and three Autograph Cards Signed ('jean Duranel' and 'J. Duranel'), to his patron Lawrence Ives, with two invitations to his shows and a paper cut-out.

Author: 
Jean Duranel (born 1946), French artist [Lawrence A. Ives]
Publication details: 
Between 1982 and 1992; France.
£100.00

All the items except the cut-out and the last card (in which he gives the price of a painting) are damp-stained, with part of the text of the letter illegible. One card in French. The first card, from 1982, thanks Ives for payment for 'watercolors'. The cut-out, in red paper, is roughly 10 x 10 cm. Intricately-cut, it depicts a long-leaved plant in a basket on legs. Although found with the other items, there is no indication that it is by Duramel. Ives made the news in 2000, when his extensive collection of paintings by L. S. Lowry was put up for sale.

Trade catalogue, in French, of books in 'Anthropologie et Zoologie', sold by H. Welter, 'Export-Agent and Dealer in Second-Hand Books'.

Author: 
H. Welter, Paris and Leipzig bookseller ('Librarie universitaire française et étrangère, ancienne et moderne') [bookselling; trade catalogues; anthropology; zoology]
Publication details: 
Catalogue Mensuel No 61. - 1893'. Paris: H. Welter, 59, Rue Bonaparte, 59. ['Imp. Mazereau. - Tours. - E. Soudée, Successeur.']
£56.00

12mo, 32 pp. Stapled. Text clear and complete. On aged and worn paper, with rusted staples causing the outer bifolium to detach. Items 2067 to 2786, with 'Supplément. Deutsche Werhe.' (Items from the firm's Leipzig branch.)

Autograph Letter Signed ('Péclet'), in French, to 'Monsieur Danjou'.

Author: 
Jean Claude Eugène Péclet (1793-1857), French physicist after whom the 'Péclet number' is named
Publication details: 
Postmarked September 1837.
£56.00

12mo, 1 p. Ten lines of text. Good, on aged paper with slight wear to extremities. In a bifolium, with address and four circular postmarks (two in black and two in blue ink) on verso of second leaf. He is 'a la fin de l'impression d'un ouvrage qui doit être pret pour la rentrée et qui depuis longtemps absorbe tous mes instants'. It is impossible for him to write the requested articles. He is 'tellement fatigué' that he awaits with impatience the end of the printing, so that he can take 'un peu de repos'.

No. 271. Essai sur le Plaisir, considéré relativement a la Médecine; Thèse présentée et soutenu a la Faculté de Médecine de Paris, le 28 novembre 1820, pour obtenir le grade de Docteur en medecine.

Author: 
Augustin Haguette, de Saint-Denis, Départment de la Seine [Didot le jeune, Paris printer]
Publication details: 
A Paris, De l'Imprimerie de Didot le Jeune, Imprimeur de la Faculté de Médecine, rue des Maçons-Sorbonne, no. 13. 1820.
£40.00

4to: viii + 47 pp. Disbound. On foxed paper with occasional light staining. On the title-page Haguette is described as 'Bachelier-ès-lettres; ex-Officier de santé des armées; ancien Elève de l'Ecole pratique et des hôpitaux civils de Paris.' 'No. 9.' in manuscript at head of the title-page. Dedicated, somewhat unusually for a thesis, 'Au meilleur des pères. A la mère la plus tendre. Leur fils reconnaissant. A Monsieur Fouquier, [...] Hommage de respect et de reconnaissance. Aug. Haguette, son élève.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Beattie. MD.') to the editor of the 'Naval and Military Gazette'.

Author: 
William Beattie (1793-1875), Scottish physician and poet
Publication details: 
13 August [1858]; St James's Street, London, on embossed letterhead of the Conservative Club.
£56.00

16mo (11 x 9 cm) bifolium, 3 pp, 16 lines of text. Mourning border. Good, with slight discoloration to the external pages. He is sending a manuscript 'At the suggestion of the Author, an officer residing in Paris'. If 'on examination' the recipient considers it 'unsuitable for the pages' of the Gazette, he asks for it to be returned to him at 13 Upper Berkeley Street 'when your messenger happens to pass that way'. The author 'is a man of high character and well acquainted with Paris & the Parisians'.

Syndicate content