Fine 18th Century Illustrated Books

Celebrated edition entirely engraved both images and text, richly illustrated with 6 engraved titles, a frontispiece and an engraved half-title for volume I, together with 243 figures, 473 vignettes and tail-pieces engraved by Fessard. The illustration of the first three volumes is the work of Monnet, and in the last three by Fessard after Bardin, Bidauld, Caresme, Desrais, Houel, Kobell, Le Clerc, Leprince, Loutherbourg, and Meyer. The text is entirely engraved by Montulay and Drouet within decorative borders. 
Contemporary red morocco bindings, flat spines gilt in a lattice design with floral gilttooling, beige morocco volume and title labels, triple gilt fillet framing the boards, gilt fillet on the edges, gilt roll-tooled borders on the pastedowns, blue paper endleaves and doublures, gilt dentelle turn-ins, all edges gilt. Joints expertly restored.

A handsome copy, elegantly bound in contemporary red morocco with richly gilt-tooled spines, of this edition undertaken by Etienne Fessard, dedicated to the heirs to the kingdom or"enfants de France", the Duke of Berry, the Count of Provence, and the Count of Artois.

Very rare first edition illustrated at the end with 4 folding plates (cf Quérard VII, 190).

Modern binding in half mottled sheep with small vellum corners, smooth spine decorated with double gilt fillets, red morocco title-piece, marbled paper boards.

The author was a lawyer and architect in Lunéville.

Chapters on fire, the causes of fires, stoves and chimneys, floors, partitions, staircases, roofing, etc.

Pleasant copy.

First edition of this highly important work, presenting the full text of all decrees and ordinances relating to trade with the Americas, primarily the West Indies (cf. Sabin 11812. Leclerc 113. Barbier I, 649 c. Ined 1038, 1783 edition).

Illustrated with two engraved frontispiece titles and ten maps (nine folding), depicting South America, North America (repeated in vol. 2), Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint-Domingue (2), Cayenne and its surroundings, Louisiana, the Guinea coast, as well as twelve engraved plates showing botanical specimens (sugarcane, cotton, tobacco, cocoa), genre scenes (a Black king dispensing justice, a slave market, turtle fishing), various tools and objects (ventilator, suction pump), industrial activities (plantation layout, sugar mill, indigo workshop), etc.

Bound in modern pastiche bindings: half mottled tan sheep over marbled boards, spine with five raised bands adorned with gilt garlands, double gilt panels, red edges.

Minor black ink stains to the edges of volume one, a pleasant copy overall.

First edition, illustrated with 27 engraved plates (13 in the first volume and 14 in the second – plates 1–7 mistakenly bound after plates 8–14), cf. Ryckebusch 4989. Toussaint et Adolphe D 903. Gay 3239. Robertson 129.

Full mottled fawn calf bindings, flat spines gilt with triple fillets and floral tools (gilding partly faded), gilt roll tooling to headcaps, cherry morocco title and volume labels, plain endpapers with some usual marginal soiling, marbled edges. 19th-century bindings presented in two modern custom slipcases.

Joints restored, internally clean and well-preserved.

The astronomer Guillaume Joseph Hyacinthe Jean-Baptiste Le Gentil de La Galaisière (1725–1792), a student of Jean-Dominique Cassini, spent nearly ten years in India and travelling through the Indian Ocean region.

"His work contains valuable information on currents, tides, monsoons, etc. He introduced knowledge of the Hindu zodiac and Brahmanic astronomy, and noted its concordance with Chaldean science" (Hoefer).

The second volume is entirely devoted to the Philippines (pp. 1–366, plates 1–5), Madagascar (pp. 367–628, plates 6–10), and the islands of France and Bourbon (pp. 629–844, plates 11–14).

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with a folding copper-engraved frontispiece by Bénard: "Mort du Capitaine Cook à Owhy-hée, Fevrier 1779," and a folding map titled "Carte montrant la route suivie par M. Cook… dans son troisième et dernier Voyage."

See O'Reilly and Reitman, 419. See also Hill, p. 253, for the first English edition. Forbes, Hawaiian National Biography, 45.

Contemporary binding in half marbled calf with vellum-tipped corners, spine decorated with gilt floral compartments, red morocco title label, marbled paper boards, red edges.

Restored loss to the title page. The half-title is lacking in our copy; the boards are modern.

"An apocryphal account of the third voyage, published surreptitiously more than two years before the official edition. Hocken […] attributed it to Ledyard, who also wrote a narrative of the expedition. But F. W. Howay […] demonstrated that the true author was John Rickman, lieutenant aboard the Discovery. Includes some unpublished details and episodes." Cf. O'Reilly (no. 415). "All the journals kept on board were claimed by the Admiralty, thus the author remained strictly anonymous. The text, especially as regards details of Cook’s death, differs considerably from other accounts." Cf. Hill.

This work also contains one of the earliest high-quality accounts of the Hawaiian Islands: see Forbes, p. 23.

First edition, illustrated with a frontispiece by Ozanne depicting the frigate *L’Aurore*, engraved by Haussard, four plates of instruments, and one folding map at the end of the volume (cf. Polak 2098).

Contemporary-style binding in bronze half calf, flat spine decorated with double gilt fillets, bronze morocco title label with some rubbing, marbled paper boards, modern binding.

In 1767, Coutanvaux was commissioned by the Académie des Sciences to undertake a voyage to the North to test various marine timekeeping systems.

Some light foxing, not affecting the text.

First and unique edition of this work, illustrated with 9 plates engraved by Benard after drawings by Penevert (cf Polak 8371).

Binding in half mottled tawny basane with vellum corners, smooth spine decorated with gilt friezes, black basane title piece partially torn, some rubbing and small holes on the spine, marbled paper boards with small paper losses, contemporary binding.

Some restorations on the spine, corners rubbed.

This work is one of the volumes of the *Description des Arts et Métiers* published at the initiative of the Académie des Sciences.

Author of numerous works on navigation and ships, Romme was a professor of mathematics at the School of Marine Guards of Rochefort. He developed a new method for measuring longitudes at sea, which earned him election as a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences in 1775.

The plates depict ships with their rigging, as well as various types of sails with the pieces that allow them to be maneuvered: ropes, pulleys, shrouds, etc.

The text is accompanied by numerous tables detailing the technical characteristics of the sails and ends with an explanation of the nautical terms used in this work.

Pleasant interior condition.

First edition of this excellent maritime dictionary, later reprinted in 1780, 1797, and 1799.

The work is complete in all its parts and includes 31 engraved plates by Le Gouaz after the author's drawings.

Contemporary full mottled calf binding, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt compartments and floral tools, red morocco title label, headcap worn down, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, red edges, upper corners worn.

Small loss to the upper left corner of the front free endpaper, tears to the left margin of the title page, occasional foxing, otherwise a pleasant copy internally.

Born in Lyon on 5 November 1743, Daniel Lescallier entered naval service in December 1765 as a writer in charge of accounting at Môle-Saint-Nicolas in Saint-Domingue.

Appointed student-commissary in February 1767, then assistant commissary of ports and arsenals in February 1770, he sailed in 1773 aboard the ship *Le Languedoc*, before being sent by ministerial order to England, Russia, and Sweden. His travel account was published in 1775. Made commissary of ports and arsenals in January 1777, he was appointed in January 1780 as colonial commissary in Grenada, recently seized by d’Estaing, then in May 1782 as commissary in Demerara (British Guiana), recently occupied by Kersaint’s division. Appointed chief commissary in Cayenne in May 1785 and first councillor to the colony’s Superior Council, he endeavoured to rouse the colony from its lethargy before returning to France in July 1788. In 1789–1790, Lescallier travelled again to England and the Netherlands to study shipbuilding techniques. In August 1790, he became assistant to the Navy Committee of the National Assembly and, in February 1792, civil commissary in the Indian Ocean colonies. Captured by the English on 22 August 1793 after the capitulation of Pondicherry, he did not return to France until 1797. Head of the Colonial Bureau at the Ministry of the Navy from August 1797, he was appointed ordonnateur at Corfu but was unable to reach his post. Named colonial prefect of Guadeloupe in July 1801, he returned to France via the United States in April 1804. He was appointed maritime prefect of Genoa in February 1806 and of Le Havre from May 1808 to August 1810. In October 1810, he was made consul general to the United States, but was captured by the English en route. He escaped, returned to France at the end of 1815, left the service, and died in Paris on 14 May 1822.

Second edition of the French translation, expanded with a few remarks and illustrated with a map of the North Atlantic and 9 folding plates outside the text (natural history, views, Inuit types, etc.), cf. Sabin 22312n. "European Americana" 750/110. See Leclerc 717 for the first French edition published a year earlier.

The plates are captioned in both French and Dutch; the original English edition was published in London in 1748; the first French edition appeared in Paris in 1749.

The work opens with a historical account of earlier attempts to discover a route to the East Indies via the Northwest Passage.

Contemporary binding in full marbled calf, spine with gilt compartments decorated with floral tools, some fading to the gilt, modern havana morocco label, gilt roll tooling on the caps, gilt dentelle frame inside the boards, marbled edges, gilt fillets along the board edges.

The text begins with a chronicle of the various efforts made up to 1746 to discover the Northwest Passage.

Henry Ellis, the English traveller, was born in 1721 and died in Naples on January 21, 1806. As hydrographer and mineralogist, he took part in the 1746 expedition aimed at finding a northern route to the Indies and published this account, which includes valuable observations on Inuit customs. He was later appointed governor of Georgia and Nova Scotia.

Ink ownership inscription at the foot of the title-page.

A handsome copy.

Second illustrated edition, with 68 wood engravings within the text.

The first leaf bears, on its verso, a few lines of music (the recto is blank). On the final leaf, the same score reveals, when folded, lines of writing: "Les notes musicales qui servent de Frontispice à cet Ouvrage, ressemblent parfaitement au Discours & à la Musique ci-dessus. C'est la manière de plier le papier qui fait paraître l'un & disparaître l'autre" (cf. Fechner, p. 152).

Paris: Chez l'Auteur, Granger, Bailly, Lesclapart, Hardouin & Gattey, Varin, Lagrange [Printed by Veuve Hérissant], 1786. Octavo (in-8), 2 ff. n. ch., pp. [v] to xix, 328 pp., 1 folding unnumbered leaf in accordion format, 68 woodcuts in the text.

Bound in modern pastiche half brown calf with vellum tips, spine with gilt fillets and small tools, green morocco label, endpapers and pastedowns lightly shaded, red edges.

The first edition of this text appeared in 1785.

This volume constitutes the third part of Henri Decremps' renowned treatise on recreational science, the first volume of which, La Magie Blanche dévoilée, was printed in 1784; a supplement appeared in 1785, followed by this Testament, then a fourth and fifth part.

"Henri Decremps, born in Beduer-en-Quercy on April 15, 1746, died in 1826, jurist, mathematician and Doctor of Law, served as interpreter-secretary at the French Embassy to the Court of England" [Fechner].

A pleasant copy.

Rare first edition of this elementary Arabic grammar, the author's first publication, composed at the beginning of his teaching career in Oriental languages at Jena by the pastor and theologian Heinrich Eberhard Gottlob Paulus (1761–1851), who would later become known primarily for his systematically rationalist interpretation of the Scriptures.

Illustrated with 5 folding tables.

We have identified only three copies in the CCF (Bulac, Strasbourg, and Chambéry).

Some occasional foxing, small loss of leather to the lower left corner of the upper board.

Contemporary full tree calf binding, spine with gilt fillets, garlands and floral tools, cherry-red morocco label, gilt roll tooling to headcaps, dentelle border, gilt single fillet and egg-and-dart garland on covers, gilt single fillet on edges, marbled endpapers and pastedowns with gilt dentelle border, yellow edges.

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with a portrait of the author and 29 engraved plates depicting objects, ornaments, coins, plants, and animals (cf. Cordier, Bibl. Japonica, 447. Gay, 3151. Brunet, V, 850).

Contemporary full marbled calf bindings, flat spines richly decorated with gilt typographic tools, gilt roll tooling at head and tail, brown morocco title-pieces, dark green morocco volume labels, gilt roll-tooled borders on boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt fillets on board edges, yellow edges.

A Swedish botanist and naturalist, Carl Peter Thunberg (1743–1828) studied medicine and natural history at Uppsala and became one of Linnaeus’s most brilliant pupils.

In 1771, he sailed as a surgeon aboard a ship of the Dutch East India Company. Upon arrival at the Cape, he remained in the colony for three years, exploring regions inhabited by the Hottentots and the Kaffirs while collecting specimens of plants and animals. In 1775, he traveled to Java, stayed in Batavia, and eventually reached Japan. He settled on the island of Deshima, in Nagasaki Bay, where the Dutch trading post of the Company was located. There he worked as a physician and obtained permission to botanize in the nearby mountains, where he collected a large number of rare and previously unknown plants, along with many natural history specimens. In 1776, he accompanied the Dutch Company’s director on a visit to the shogun in Edo (Tokyo), allowing him to explore further and gather more botanical samples. He returned to Sweden in 1779. The first volume recounts the voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, his stays at the Cape, and his first journey inland; the second volume describes his second trip along the Kaffir coast, return to the Cape, journey to Java, and arrival in Nagasaki; the third is entirely devoted to Japan: trade with the Dutch and Chinese, government, administration, religion, language, character and portrait of the Japanese, zoological observations, minerals, etc. The final volume continues with Japan: food, festivals, weaponry, agriculture, calendar, etc., followed by the account of the return voyage via Ceylon. It also includes Lamarck’s explanations of the eight natural history plates.

A rare copy of this important travel account.

Provenance: From the library of the Château de Menneval, with armorial bookplates on the pastedowns of each volume.

Second edition of Lucas’s third journey to the Near East, undertaken between 1714 and 1717 (first published in 1729); cf. Gay, 2122. Chadenat, 5090. Atabey 734. Blackmer, 1038.

The illustrations include two folding maps (Anatolia and surrounding regions by de l’Isle; Lower Egypt and the course of the Nile by Lucas) and 32 plates outside the text: monuments, picturesque views, architectural plans, archaeological artefacts, various inscriptions, etc.

Contemporary half tawny sheep, smooth spines ruled in gilt with triple fillets, headcaps stained, some rubbing, marbled paper boards, sprinkled edges, some wear to the edges of the first volume. 19th-century bindings.

Pleasant internal condition.

According to Brunet (III, 1204), the text was written by Abbé Banier.

A soldier, naturalist, collector and dealer, Paul Lucas (Rouen, 1664 – Madrid, 1737) showed a marked passion for travel from an early age.

He first left for the Levant to trade in precious stones, joining the Venetian army in 1688 and becoming captain of a ship armed against the Turks. Returning to France in 1696 with a collection of antiquities and coins he sold to the King's Cabinet, he was commissioned by Louis XIV to undertake journeys that would make him famous. From 1699 to 1703, he visited Egypt, Cyprus, Persia and Syria. His second expedition, from 1704 to 1708, took him to Greece, Macedonia, Asia Minor, the Holy Land, Egypt and Libya. In 1714, he was entrusted with a new mission in the Levant: he travelled through Rumelia and Thessaly, passed through Constantinople and Smyrna before visiting Syria, Palestine and Egypt. Departing from Cairo, he returned to Paris in December 1717.

First edition of the French translation, illustrated with 12 folding plates and maps outside the text, and 11 folding tables included in the pagination (cf. Sabin 62574).

Contemporary full mottled calf binding, spine with five raised bands decorated with double gilt panels, floral tools and gilt medallions, red morocco title label with some loss and partially lifting, gilt garland frame on covers, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, all edges yellow.

Some minor foxing, one joint fragile.

Famous account of this "unfortunate expedition which served to demonstrate the impossibility of crossing the Polar ice" [Hoefer]. Pages 187 to 208 are devoted to natural history, with 2 plates [XI and XII] depicting crustaceans and mollusks.

Rare first edition of this "relation (...) much sought after for its accuracy", illustrated with 19 folding plates, including 2 maps (cf. Sabin 3604, Leclerc 119).

Full marbled tan calf binding, spine with five raised bands, gilt compartments decorated with gilt floral motifs, small chip at foot of spine, scuffing to covers, red edges, bumped corners, gilt fillets along the board edges, contemporary binding.

The author, a physician and botanist born in Perpignan in 1690—where he held a post at the military hospital—was introduced by Antoine de Jussieu to the Conseil de la Marine in August 1721 and appointed royal physician and botanist in French Guiana. He landed in Cayenne at the end of 1721 and left the colony in May 1724. During his stay, he explored the banks of the Kourou and Orapu rivers, studying the local flora, fauna, and indigenous customs.

His account, one of the earliest on French Guiana, is of great importance and was widely used by eighteenth-century geographers.

First edition, illustrated with 3 hors-texte plates (cf. Rodrigues 1357. Borba de Moraes I, 381. See INED 2496 for the 1774 edition).

The plates depict: Brama, god of the Indians – View of a pagoda tower – Snake charmer.

Contemporary-style binding in marbled tawny calf over vellum-tipped corners, spine with five raised bands, ruled in gilt, brown calf lettering-piece, marbled paper-covered boards, red sprinkled edges, modern binding.

Coromandel Coast, European trading posts, military strongholds, Indian religion, medicine, anatomy, caste system, Indian manners, dress, dwellings, gardens, food (and temperance), wedding rituals, funerals, Indian morals, fauna, flora, etc.

Pages 3 to 21 are devoted to Brazil. The author made a stop at Bourbon Island (pp. 25 to 27).

Provenance: from the Breitenbauch library, with its armorial bookplate pasted on the endpaper.

A pleasing copy.

Illustrated edition comprising 54 plates depicting twelve views and over sixty different costumes, along with monuments and picturesque scenes (including bullfights), most of them based on drawings executed in 1809 and 1810 (cf. Colas, 439; Lipperheide, 1214; Brunet, I, 1226, no. 3; Quérard, I, 506).

Contemporary half blond calf bindings, spines with four false raised bands adorned with triple gilt and black fillets, gilt rolls at head and foot, marbled paper boards with minor surface losses along the fore-edges, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges. Unsigned bindings, yet attributable to Thouvenin.

Scattered foxing, small tear on page 63 of volume 5.

"J'ai tâché d'offrir à mes lecteurs quelque chose de neuf […] Ce sont particulièrement des ouvrages en langues étrangères qui ont servi de base à ma description et au texte explicatif d'estampes jusqu'alors inédites pour la France. Sans négliger le voyage pittoresque de don Antonio Ponz, dont j'ai eu constamment l'original espagnol sous les yeux, j'ai recouru plus particulièrement à deux ouvrages publiés récemment en Angleterre, l'un en 1812, l'autre en 1813. Le texte magnifique de ces ouvrages est enrichi d'un grand nombre d'estampes qui ont été transportées dans le mien. M. Bradford, auteur du plus considérable des deux, étoit attaché en qualité de dessinateur à l'état-major de lord Wellington. L'autre, publié sous ce titre modeste, Costumes of Portugal, est rempli d'observations ingénieuses et piquantes…" (Preface, pp. V–VII).

The historical overview, spanning from the Carthaginians to Ferdinand VII, occupies volume 1; the second volume describes Catalonia and the kingdoms of Valencia, Murcia, and Granada. The next volume is devoted to the kingdom of Seville (including Cádiz and Algeciras), Gibraltar, the Jewish communities of Spain, Andalusia, and the kingdom of Galicia. Volume 4 covers the principality of Asturias, Old Castile, Biscay, and the kingdoms of Aragon, Navarre, and León.

The fifth volume continues with the kingdom of León, New Castile (including a description of Madrid), the kingdom of Córdoba, and Majorca.

The sixth and final volume is entirely dedicated to Portugal.

The charming period binding is by Thouvenin, who signed only one volume (La Suisse) of this impressive collection that has passed through our hands.

Provenance: from the library of Sinety, with an armorial bookplate affixed to the front pastedown of each volume.

Edition regarded as the masterpiece of the painter and engraver Charles Eisen, and a counterfeit of the famed Fermiers généraux edition.

This edition is illustrated with 2 engraved frontispieces by Vidal, 2 title vignettes, 1 portrait after Hyacinthe Rigaud, along with 80 plates and 43 tailpieces. One engraving is unfortunately missing from our copy, which contains 79 engravings instead of 80.

A few minor spots, not affecting the text.

Bound in contemporary full green morocco, flat spines slightly sunned, decorated with double gilt fillets and gilt floral and typographic motifs, red morocco lettering-pieces and volume labels, gilt roll tooling at head and tail, light rubbing to joints, triple gilt fillet frames on boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt borders on pastedowns, gilt fillets on board edges, all edges gilt. Roman bookseller’s labels affixed to the pastedowns. Contemporary bindings.

A handsome copy, bound in contemporary full morocco, of La Fontaine's tales superbly illustrated by Charles-Dominique-Joseph Eisen.

New edition, partially original as it is augmented with three new stories and the life of the author (previously published in 1744; before this date, editions included only 10 stories).
The false title of the second volume bears the title "Diverse Works," these two volumes, although sold separately, could be placed after the six-volume Don Quixote. The original title "Exemplary Novels" was used concurrently in other editions.
Translation by Abbé Martin de Chassonville. It is illustrated with a portrait of the author engraved by Gentot after Kent, and 13 plates, of which 12 are engraved by Aveline after Folkema, and one by Daudel. The engravings are charming and pleasing, with typical interiors (pharmacy, hospital...).
Full mottled calf bindings, smooth spines adorned with gilded fleurons, gilded rolls at the tails, grenadine morocco title pieces, brown morocco volume number pieces, triple gilded fillet borders on the covers enriched with gilded angular fleurons, gilded dentelles on the endpapers, all edges gilded, one bumped corner, some rubbing on the joints and covers, contemporary binding.

• Volume 1 : 2 fr. et 22 pl. (+1) - vij (1) 304 pp.
• Volume 2 : 2 fr. et 14 pl. - 312 pp. Page 147 mounted. Two small restorations to the lower margin of pages 266 and 267.
• Volume 3 : 2 fr. et 23 pl. - 304 pp. Lower part of p. 121 restored, probably during the binding process, with a different typeface on the last two lines of the text.
• Volume 4 : 2 fr. et 15 pl. (+1) - 293 pp. (3). Small hole to the last page (publisher's catalogue)

• Tome 1 : 2 fr. et 10 pl. - 344 pp. 2 title pages dated 1784 "chés la d.me Veuve Duchesne" + 1 title page Les Dangers de la ville. Restoration to the upper corner of p. 9.
• Tome 2 : 2 fr. et 4 pl. - 320 pp. (mal chif. 220). Title page of Les Dangers de la ville pasted over that of La Paysane pervertie 1784 "chés le libraire indiqué au frontispice de la I Partie du Paysan"
• Tome 3 : 2 fr. et 7 pl. - 320 pp. 2 versions of the title pages as described above. A restoration to the inner margin of p. 257.
• Tome 4 : 2 fr. et 9 pl. - 344 pp. ; 8 pp. ; (1) clxx-ccxliv (12) Also 2 versions also of the title page. The first page of the text of Dangers de la ville bound, with some skillful restorations.