FRENCH

Manuscript, in French, written by a Royalist, titled 'Notes sur la Conduite des grandes Maisons de France, dans la Révolution. (Extraits trés Abrégée.)'

Author: 
[King Louis XVIII of France; the Bourbon Restoration; the French peerage; nobility]
Notes sur la Conduite des grandes Maisons de France, dans la Révolution.
Notes sur la Conduite des grandes Maisons de France, dans la Révolution.
Publication details: 
[Early nineteenth-century.]
£650.00
Notes sur la Conduite des grandes Maisons de France, dans la Révolution.
Notes sur la Conduite des grandes Maisons de France, dans la Révolution.

4to, 3 pp. Bifolium. Neatly and closely written. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Evaluations of the conduct of more than thirty families, from a staunchly Bourbon point of view. First entry: 'Lorraine. Des sentiments trés pur. Ils quitterent ce Pais et furent trouver l'Empereur, qui les Emploie dans ses Armées.' Some families come in for criticism: 'Bethune. Cette maison si illustre s'est couverte d'ignomenie, un seul Bethune d'Artois a Emigrée.' Longest entry (twenty lines) on the Durfort Boissier family.

Anonymous manuscript, in French, by the 'Doyen de la Musique du Roi', listing those 'Musiciens du Roi' alive and dead in 1815, and giving the 'Apostile de M. de Rohan a ma demande de Bibliotécaire [sic] honoraire'.

Author: 
[La Musique du Roi (the King's Music); Monsieur de Rohan; Bourbon France]
La Musique du Roi (the King's Music)
Publication details: 
[Circa 1815.]
£450.00
La Musique du Roi (the King's Music)

12mo, 8 pp. Fair, on aged laid paper. On four leaves removed from a pocket book, with two leaves numbered in manuscript '41' and '42'. Apparently a first-person draft of information for an appeal by the oldest surviving member (from the inception of the group) for a stipend. Begins 'Depuis le commencement de l'an 1760 que j'ai ete recu a la Musique du Roi, j'ai été en exercice jusqu'en 1792, avec 222. sujets qui s'y sous dont 40 vivant encore au 18 Janvier 1815. [...]'.

Album containing 112 well-executed pen and ink drawings by the French nineteenth-century artist H. Du Chene de Vere [H. Duchene de Vere].

Author: 
H. Du Chene de Vere [H. Duchene de Vere], French nineteenth-century painter
H. Du Chene de Vere [H. Duchene de Vere], French nineteenth-century painter
Publication details: 
All undated [1850s?]. Captions may indicate that the drawings were executed in France, Italy and England.
£1,200.00
H. Du Chene de Vere [H. Duchene de Vere], French nineteenth-century painter

4to album of 33 leaves, with the 112 illustrations each on a separate piece of paper, and all laid down on 59 of the album's 66 leaves (the blank leaves of the album bearing traces of other illustrations having been removed). The illustrations range in size from 19 x 15.5 cm to 6 x 3 cm, with the average around 15 x 11 cm. The album's brown cloth covers are faded and worn, but internally the album is sound, with the illustrations themselves in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Around twenty are signed, half with the spelling 'Duchene' and the other half 'Du Chene'.

Large printed 'Prix-Courant' advertisement, in French, for a dealer in fireworks, headed 'Fabrique de Feux d'Artifices | Cornesse-Pepinster [Belgium] | M. Dresse, artificier de la ville de Liége. | Jacques Dresse, Succcesseur.'

Author: 
Jacques Dresse, Artificier, à Cornesse-Pepinster [fireworks; firework displays; pyrotechnics]
Advertisement, in French, for a dealer in fireworks
Publication details: 
[Belgium. Circa 1910.]
£95.00
Advertisement, in French, for a dealer in fireworks

4to, 2 pp. Bifolium, with first page on verso of second leaf, and second on recto of first. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged semi-opaque paper. The 'Prix et Programme de quelques Feux d'Artifices' follow a short introduction by Dresse. Prices range from 'Feux de 100 francs' to 'Feux de 500 francs', the latter including 'Moulin de Don Quichotte' and 'Chutes de Niagara, en feux au magnésium, 6 forts jets donnant une clarté ébloussante avec une pluie blanche merveilleuse.' Final sections headed 'Articles divers' and 'Conditions et Observations Generales'.

[book, limited edition] Causeries sur les Hiéroglyphes, et deux Étapes de l'Histoire Ancienne de l'Égypte [Egyptology].

Author: 
Adolphe Cattaui Bey [Egyptology; Egyptologist]
Causeries sur les Hiéroglyphes [Book]
Publication details: 
Cairo: Librarie d'Art Stavrinos et Cie, 23, Rue Kasr el-Nil. 1925. [Imprimé sur les Presses de l'Imprimerie de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale au Caire]
£125.00
Causeries sur les Hiéroglyphes [Book]

Small 4to, [vi] + 135 pp. Frontispiece and three plates, with illustrations and cartouches in text. Internally tight and sound, on aged paper, in worn and stained brown-cloth half-binding, decorative endpapers, sprung hinges. Number 43 of 400 copies. Scarce: no copy in the British Library, and the only copy on COPAC at the University of London SOAS.

Autograph Letter Signed "Yvonne Arnaud", French-born pianist, singer and actress.

Author: 
Yvonne Arnaud (1892 – 1958) was a French-born pianist, singer and actress.
Yvonne Arnaud (1892 – 1958), singer, pianist, actress, ALS
Publication details: 
[Printed heading] Banks Way Farm, Effingham Common, Surrey, 18 Jan. 1954, about illness.
£56.00
Yvonne Arnaud (1892 – 1958), singer, pianist, actress, ALS

Two pages, 12mo, to "Mrs Chapman". She explains that she has had to give up her role in "Dear Charles" because she us "over-tired". Sir Horace Evans has ordered "complete rest for a month, the two more months recuperation". She is "sad and upset about it". She hopes her correspondent willl still enjoy her work when it resumes.

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 Letter, third person, in French, to "Monsieur Disderi", French photographer

Author: 
Duke of Nemours [Le Duc de Nemours]
Publication details: 
Bushy House, Bushy Park, Teddington, SW, 28 Nov. 1866
£120.00

Two pages, 8vo, bifolium, blank second leaf laid don on stiff paper, c.21 x 27cm, good condition.. He asks Disderi de lui envoyer deux collections des huit vues de Claremont [an earlier refuge in England] & Weybridge qu'il a fait en avril dernier, et un exemplaire du groupe general sur la pelouse de Claremont." He doesn't want the latter mounted but "l'autre collection doit etre montee sur carton." He asks for a "note au compte" made out to him. Note@ Apparently Disderi pioneered the carte de visite.

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 Signed ('G : A Galignani'), in Italian, to Twining. With signed receipt by Galignani, in Italian, for '18 Lezioni'.

Author: 
Giovanni Antonio Galignani (1757-1821), Paris bookseller and publisher of English works [Richard Twining (1772-1857), tea merchant]
Publication details: 
Letter: 'Venerdi mattina' (docketed with date 8 November 1796). Receipt dated 21 January 1797.
£800.00

Letter: 12mo, 1 p. On bifolium. Text clear and complete. On aged and ruckled paper. Slight damage to second leaf caused by breaking open of wafer. Addressed to 'Illustrissimo Signore'. Having 'un affare di qualche importanza alle nove', he would like to give Twining his lesson (presumably in Italian) the following morning at 8 o'clock. He hopes that coming half an hour early does not cause any inconvence. Receipt: on one side of a slip of paper, 7 x 19.5 cm. Headed 'Memorandum del Signor Twining'. For '18 Lezioni la prima delle quali fa data li 15 Novembee', and signed 'Galignani'.

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 Memorandum, in English, docketed 'General Bernard's information respecting ettiquette [sic] of the french Court'.

Author: 
Baron Simon Bernard (1779-1839), French general of engineers, who did much military work for the United States government
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£56.00

Written in a neat, close hand (not Bernard's) on one page (the recto of the first leaf of a 12mo bifolium). Twenty-one lines. Text clear and complete. On aged, grubby and lightly-creased paper.

Autograph Signature ('Jules de Polignac') on part of letter to 'mon cher Baron'.

Author: 
Jules Auguste Armand Marie, Prince de Polignac (1780-1847), French Prime Minister under Charles X.
Publication details: 
17 September [no year].
£28.00

On rectangle of paper roughly 9 x 17 cm. Cut from the head of a letter for an autograph hunter. Fair, on aged paper, with traces of previous mount on the reverse. Above the signature a florid five-line valediction in the best courtly style. Date and beginning of letter on reverse.

Catalogues 1, 2, 5 and 16 of the 'Bibliothèque Entomologique'.

Author: 
Ed. André [Édouard François André (1840-1911)], editor [entomology; book catalogues]
Publication details: 
February and September 1883, October 1884 and January 1888. 21, Boulevard Bretonnière, a Beaune (Cote-d'Or)'.
£125.00

All four catalogues are stitched and unbound. All four are 8vo, with nos. 1 and 5 of 32 pp, no. 2 of 64 pp, and no 16 of 40 pp. The last leaf of catalogue 2, carrying advertisements is torn with some loss, otherwise the texts are clear and complete, on aged and spotted paper. Providing valuable bibliographical information, in a specialised scientific field.

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 ('C. Genest'), in French, to unnamed male recipient.

Author: 
Claude Genest [editor, 'La Revue du XIXème siècle']
Publication details: 
Undated, on printed 1840s lettehead of the 'Revue du XIXème siècle', 'Bureaux, 11, rue de Lille', Paris.
£38.00

12mo, 1 p. 20 lines of text. Clear and complete. On aged paper and lightly-creased paper. Writing to ask how the recipient wishes to deal with 'traités de Botanique et de Chimie' in his reviews. Written during the first of several incarnations of the 'Revue', this one beginning around 1836.

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 manuscript paper entitled 'Rapport au congrès Scientifique de Douai sur Les coutumes locales du Bailliage d'Amiens considerée comme documents historiques.' Autograph Letter Signed ('Bouthors') to Dinaux.

Author: 
Alexandre Bouthors (1796-1869), Greffier en chef de la Cour royale d'Amiens [Arthur Dinaux (1795-1864)]
Publication details: 
Paper undated [1835]. Letter dated 18 September 1835; Frévent.
£150.00

Paper: 4to, 6 pp. With addendum slip of a third of a page. Text clear and complete. On aged paper and lightly-creased paper. Closely written, with several deletions. This paper held some significance for Bouthors. The 'Bulletins de la Société des antiquaires de Picardie' (1864) quotes an address by him, in which he describes that society as 'la fille de l'association des Congrès scientifiques de France.

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'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Charle | Geographe rue de Sevres | No. 48.'), in French, to the French Minister of War, 'Monseigneur le Maréchal Duc de Bellune'.

Author: 
J. B. L. Charle, French cartographer [Claude Victor-Perrin (1764-1841), Duc de Belluno (Bellune)]
Publication details: 
4 October 1823; Paris.
£85.00

One page, on the recto of the second leaf of a bifolium, leaf dimensions 31 x 20 cm. In fair condition on lightly-aged paper with slight wear to extremities. According to his entry in the catalogue of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Charles was a 'Géographe attaché au Dépôt général de la guerre en 1933 [sic], ancien membre de la Société de Géographie. - Dessinateur, il eut une production cartographique très abondante à partir de 1823'. Neatly laid out.

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 "Ch. Teste" to "Monsieur le redacteur de la Trib[une]" [Deroche?]. In French.

Author: 
Charles Teste
Publication details: 
Paris, 5 May 1831.
£250.00

Two pages, folio, chipped with small loss of letters (e.g. the end of "Tribune"), mainly clear. He says: "Mon nom a figure ces jours-ci dans le moniteur et par suite dams plusieurs autres journaux de la capitale. Cette publicite m'oblige a parler de moi . . .

Les vacances de Lumineux petit cheval de cirque.

Author: 
Cécile Aubry
Publication details: 
Paris: Éditions Émile-Paul Frères, 14 Rue de L'Abbaye, VI. 1955.
£60.00

PRESENTATION COPY: inscribed on half-title 'Pour Louise | avec mon bien amical souvenir - | Cécile Aubry'. 32 pages, quarto. In printed coloured boards, with decorated endpapers. llustrated by Aubry in colour (one double-page and nine full page) and black and white (five vignettes) and red (final page and endpapers). On the poor side of good, with minor staining, spotting and wear; negligible damp damage to boards.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A Guinnard'), in French, to an unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Auguste Guinnard, French traveller, who wrote an account of his three-years' captivity in Patagonia [Jules Verne; Pierre Kalfon; Benard]
Publication details: 
7 January 1863. 4 rue St Louis en l'Ile [Paris].
£100.00

8vo, 2 pp. Bifolium. Thirty-two lines of text. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged and creased paper. It is only now that he is able to thank him for the 'bon accueil que m'a fait Monsieur Benard grâce à votre Gracieuse recommendation'. Benard has lent him 'quelques ouvrages', including 'ceux que vous aviez bien voulu <?> sur la petite note'. He has not had time to look at them, 'pressé que j'etais tout d'abord de vous remettre ceux que vous m'avez bien voulu prêter'. He has not been able to 'les compulser', but has 'sommairement lu le contenu qui je l'espere me suffira'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Quatremère'), in French, to 'Monsieur Feuillet, Bibliothecaire de l'Institut'.

Author: 
Étienne Marc Quatremère (1782-1857), French Orientalist [Laurent François Feuillet (1768-1843), from 1823 chief librarian of the Institut de France]
Publication details: 
Undated [between 1823 and 1843].
£45.00

12mo: 1 p. Eight lines of text. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. A bifolium, addressed by Quatremère on the reverse of the second leaf. He is returning a work borrowed from the library of the Institut, and asks Feuillet 'de vouloir bien me communiquer le Voyage de l'Anglois en Afrique, et le 5e. volume de la nouvelle histoire des voyages.'

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