Binding:  Publisher's brown cloth, covers and spine heavily gilt-stamped with arabesque designs featuring color-stamped portions in blue, red, yellow, green, and white. Bright yellow endpapers, all edges gilt.

•  Binding as above, extremities rubbed, spine sunned to a pleasant olive. Sewing starting to loosen in some spots. Back free endpaper recto (not the yellow side!) with inked numerals and small rubber-stamp; light staining intermittently, not affecting the plates (which are both lovely and in lovely condition).  (26982)

The oversized, folding maps of France and the world featurehand-colored provincial and continental borders; two additional oversized, steel-engraved plates depict the gods atop Mt. Olympus and the seven wonders of the world.

Early editions of this work are uncommon.

•  Quérard, La France littéraire, 341.   Contemporary marbled paper–covered boards, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; bindings faded and with some soiling/rubbing (most notably to spines). rubbed. Half-title of vol. I, pp. vii/viii of preface, and printed volume labels all bound in at back of vol. II; some signatures of vol. I unopened. Title-pages with traces of mostly effaced inscriptions; first and last few leaves of both volumes very lightly waterstained. One plate with two short tears from lower edge, not touching image. Solid and interesting.  (27048)

This work is rare: A search of ESTC, NUC Pre-1946, RLIN, and OCLC revealed onlyone copy.

•  ESTC T13180. In recent marbled wrappers. Uncut copy: some soiling and deckle edges with some chipping with loss of part of a letter in one place. Paper lightly age-toned. Rubber-stamps from a now-defunct library, including one on title-page.

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Thiéry de Menonville was an economic spy and his visit to Mexico had one and only one purpose: To learn how to make cochinea. So he learned about the insect, its host plant (the nopal), and the care and nurturing of both; then he smuggled cuttings of the cactus with the insect in residence to Haiti.

His work details not only his trip to Oaxaca to find the plant and bug but also the proven methods of caring for the host and insect. Two handsome, hand-colored folding plates show the cactus in flower and several views of the color-producing creepy-crawly.

•  Wellcome, Medical Americana, H.56; Blake, 18th Century Printed Books in the National Library of Medicine, p. 449; Pritzel 9214; Leclerc 1413; Brunet 6048; Sabin 95349; Palau 331673.   Modern quarter claret-colored morocco, round spine with gilt beading on bands and gilt rules defining the bands; gilt center devices in spine compartments. Natural paper flaws to lower outer corners of five leaves; tear on pp. 113–14, repaired; pp. 241–301 with worm damage, now repaired, and with irregular inner margins with paper loss, repaired and leaves tipped in. Corners in some sections bumped/crumpled; some soiling/spotting (not to the plates); in fact, a decent copy of an increasingly difficult to find important economic treatise.  (26023)

Single-click the interior image for an enlargement.

The publisher’s authentifying signature is present on the final leaf, the “Avis des Éditeurs.”

•  Not in Garrison & Morton. 19th-century quarter cloth with paper-covered sides, spine with inked paper label; spine sunned and with call number label, edges and sides slightly rubbed. Original front pastedown and free endpaper bound in, endpaper with inked presentation inscription dated 1865. Title-page and first page of preface rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution. Pages clean.

The work was limited to 100 copies, all printed on Japan vellum. It has an engraved vignette on the black and red printed title, small illustrations or vignettes on 50 text pages, 11 vignette borders or headpieces (three of them in color, 10 of them in anextra state), and 10 tipped-in color plates. The illustrations are by Henri Gervex, J.A. Gonzalès, L. Kratké, Albert Lynch, Adrien Moreau, and Félicien Rops.

Binding:  Full red crushed morocco with five raised bands. Covers with a triple-rule gilt border; spine gilt extra with gilt beading on bands. Triple gilt fillet on board edges. Wide turn-ins richly tooled in gilt and with cream and blue leather inlays that are also gilt-tooled. Blue silk pastedowns and free endpapers. Marbled paper fly-leaves. All edges gilt. Binding signed “David.”

Provenance:  Red leather bookplate of Cortland Field Bishop, the famed collector of the early 20th century and, at one time, owner of the TWO most important auction galleries in NY/USA.

Original full-color wrappers bound in.

•  Vicaire, VII, 924.   Uncut copy. Bound as above with original wrappers bound in. Light refurbishment of front joint (outside). A fabulous copy.   (26675)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The present example is a fictitious imprint, printed in Amsterdam and counterfeiting the Parisian edition of the same year (actual place of printing from NUC Pre-1956 628:472, cf. E. Weller, Die falschen und fingierten Druckorte, II, 57). The volume’s two folding, engraved plates (unsigned) depict antiquarian coins and medals, while the mythologically inspired frontispiece includes a portrait of de Valois.

•  Later half sheep with speckled paper–covered boards, rebacked with speckled calf preserving original gilt-stamped leather title-label; sides and edges scuffed, with leather chipped at corners. Front pastedown with 19th-century private collector’s bookplate, partially chipped; preface with numeral inked in lower margin. Pages crisp and clean. All edges stained red.

Scarce: OCLC, RLIN, and NUC-Pre1956 locate only six U.S. holdings.

•  Brunet, V, 1118. Contemporary limp paste paper–covered wrappers, spine with hand-inked label; paper chipped at edges and front joint open; spine label darkened and peeling. Front pastedown with bookseller’s ticket and institutional bookplate; front free endpaper and title-page with institutional stamp; front free endpaper with ownership inscriptions dated 1829. Pages untrimmed.

•  ESTC T52110. Removed from a nonce volume and now in a Mylar folder. Edges untrimmed. Sewing all but gone, with a number of leaves separated. Title-page with early inked inscription in lower margin, chips to inner margin, dust-soiling, and old taped tear from outer margin; old repair at inner margin of last two leaves with loss of a few letters. A bit of interior foxing/spotting.

Binding:  Contemporary quarter garnet red morocco with fawn brocade–covered sides, spine gilt extra with title and arabesque motifs. Original green wrappers bound in.

•  Caillet, Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou occultes, 11198.   Binding as above, spine faintly sunned and with one small spot darkened; joints a bit rubbed and cloth corners/edges somewhat moreso, with instances of spotting/discoloration to cloth that should be mentioned but are not obtrusive. Front pastedown with attractive 20th-century bookplate. Some signatures unopened. A lovely book in quite a nice copy.  (26821)

•  Contemporary half morocco, abraded. All edges gilt. Cloth sides worn at tips, exposing boards. Some foxing. Prize inscription.

•  Sabin 106261; Palau 379641. Contemporary mottled sheep and calf as above, corners and edges worn, all joints cracking, both volumes with minor worming to front covers and pinholes to spines; vol. I with loss of leather over spine head (half of top compartment). Pencilled check marks scattered throughout; front free endpaper and recto of last text page of vol. II with annotations.

•  Sabin 106266; Palau 379645. Volumes bound in paper wrappers, back wrapper lacking in both cases; front wrappers reinforced with printed papers taken from other items. Reverse of frontispiece in vol. I and front pastedown in vol. II with small bookplates of private collector. Edges untrimmed. Scattered spots; pages and plates generally in good clean condition.

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