Roman No. 1, Janvier 1951 by Célia Bertin & Pierre de Lescure (eds.] - 1951

Paris: Galerie Beaux-Arts, 1938.. Large octavo. Pictorial stiff wrappers (after a design by Tanguy). Very heavily illustrated with drawings, photographs, facsimiles, etc. Pale green wrappers somewhat tanned at edges, neatly recased, with shallow loss at crown and toe of spine, usual light foxing, otherwise a very good copy in lightly chipped and tanned glassine wrapper. This copy is significantly better than the norm for this book. First edition. A multi-disciplinary exercise in self-explanation, drawing on primary texts for the definition of terms and tendencies, and reproductions of artworks by those who at various times found or placed themselves under the umbrella of Surréalisme. The work was compiled to accompany the Exposition International du Surréalisme, organized by Breton and Eluard, with the assistance of Duchamp, Ernst, Dali and others, and the uncommon [8]pp. catalogue of the exhibition (inevitably a bit tanned) is laid in.

Complete set in four volumes of Dezallier-Argenville's famous Lives of the most famous painters with their portraits on copperplateComplete with frontispiece, 4 vignettes and 255 copperplate engravings by Fessard and Aubert in decorative frames (13 empty frames as published)Volume 1: Italian school artists from Rome, Florence and Venice322 pages, 51 of 51 plates, and frontispiece by Boucher and vignetteVolume 2: Italian school artists from Lombardy, Napoli, Spain and Genoa 428 pages, 44 of 44 platesVolume 3: Flemish school, German, Swiss, Dutch, Flemish and English artists, 473 pages, 97 of 97 plates and vignetteVolume 4: French school 494 pages, 62 of 62 plates and vignetteMany Renaissance artists including Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Velazquez, Durer, Holbein, Lucas von Leiden, Pieter Breughel, Rubens, Watteau, Poussin, Titian, Van Dyck, etc. Includes several women artists such as Maria Sibylla Merian, Marietta Robusti (Tintoretto's daughter), Rosalba Carriera, Elisabeth Sophie… Read More

Good copy of this seminal 18th century English art tutorial With 90 (of 100) copperplate engravings (plates 68/69 bound out of order, lacking plates 42, 44, 45, 52, 55, 56, 61, 66, 86, 95.)Sayer includes 50 prints from Sebastien Le Clerc's Principes de dessein (1700), as well as drawings by the "best masters" of the day, such as Francis Barlow and Charles Le Brun.In addition to anatomical studies of the human body, heads, limbs, facial expressions, etc., there are groups of figures by Johann Sebastian Muller, landscapes by J. Armstrong engraved by William Henry Toms, animals engraved by H. Stevens, etc. Many plates with duplicate in outline.Ink inscription on front endpaper: "This book was my grandmother's, Margaret Owen afterwards Mrs. Barnsby. It was given to my mother Mrs Barnsby Gore Harbeck. Given by me to Mary Egerton for her boys, 1859."Robert Sayer (1725 – 1794) was a successful publisher of prints, maps and educational books based in Fleet Street, London. His guide books and pattern books… Read More

West Germany: NGG, 1965. 6 plates in presentation box. very good. Frans Masereel. Very rare set of 6 porcelain plates, commissioned for 100th Anniversary of the "Gewerkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten (NGG) ('Food-Enjoyment-Restaurants' or better:Hospitality Union) in West-Germany in 1965. 6 plates (4 inches) designed by Masereel for the NGG in 1965. Manufactured by well-known porcelain maker Furstenberg (founded in 1747). Shown are butchers, fishermen, cigar-makers cooks, bakers and full beer-glasses. -- Very rare as a complete set in the original box. Masereel's only work on porcelain.. Plates are in like new condition, box has some shelf-wear. -- Ships well packaged from Hawaii.

This is volume 1 of a 5 volume publication put out annually from 1920 to 1924. it was a survey of contemporary developments in European visual arts. This is a German language book published in Leipzig. There are 8 original prints bound into the book: 4 lithographs by Max Pechstein, Erich Waske, Max Burchartz and Josef Eberz. 3 woodcuts by E. Adam Weber, Lyonel Feininger and Franz Nitzsche. 1 linoleum cut by Wilhelm Morgner. Also included is a facsimile letter from Wilhelm Morgner (pg 218). The cover (front and back) is a partial reproduction of a print which, I think, is a print by Pechstein. There are many reproductions of contemporary art throughout the book. Laid in is a 4 page brochure from the publisher. The spine cover is gone and there is edge wear all around, but the binding is surprisingly tight, and the pages are clean and unmarked except for the last page which has some cryptic stamps and writing at the bottom. Too bad about the spine, but the interior of the book looks very good.

Fine delicate engravings by Chretien de Mechel or Christian von Mechel (and Bartholomaus Hubner) after works by the Renaissance master Hans Holbein.
Incomplete copy of the first edition of these suites of engravings and sepia aquatints.
Three complete suites (Dance of Death*, the Passion of Christ and Portraits), plus several additional plates, altogether 40 engraved plates and two engraved vignettes.
Title page, 14 pages of descriptive text to the Triumph of Death with two engraved vignettes, 47 engravings on 12 plates of the Triumph of Death (Le Triomphe de la Mort) and two plates entitled Triumph of Wealth (Triumphus Divitiarum) and Triumph of Poverty (Triumphus Paupertatus); frontispiece and 12 plates to The Passion of Our Lord (La Passion de Notre Seigneur); 2 double-page fold-out engravings A Scene of the Insurrection of the Peasants and The Prophet Samuel Declared to Saul; 1 plate of the costume of a young woman of Basel from Costumes d'hommes et de femmes du seizième siècle; and 10 plates of… Read More

Good copy of the 1931 re-issue of this rare suite of engravings
Complete with all 115 plates newly engraved by E. Doisteau, printed by R. Tanburro and hand-coloured in pochoir (stencil) by J. Saude
After the original hand-coloured plates by Georges-Jacques Gatine, Nicolas Schencker and others after designs by artists Horace Vernet, Louis-Marie Lanté, Dominique Bosio, Jean-Baptiste Isabey, Dutailly, etc.
Example No. 490 of a print run of 750 numbered copies and ten copies hors commerce numbered I to X.
The plates were sold individually from 1811, then the first 104 plates were collected and published in a suite with explanatory text in 1817. A second edition was published in 1827 with an additional 11 plates (for a total of 115 plates) with 24 pages of Observations by Pierre de la Mésangère.
The magnificent caricatures depict not only the belles and dandies of the Empire and Restoration eras, but also Parisian public entertainment, street performers, masquerade balls, the latest dance crazes (the… Read More

Very good copy of the first volume of Massard's Costumes Francais (French Costumes)
With all 160 hand-coloured lithographs drawn and lithographed by Leopold Massard (one uncoloured)
First volume of a four-volume set that is very hard to find complete
Plates numbered 1-160 in the index, but 1-60, 1-16 of the second series, and 77-160 within the plates.
Very vibrantly hand-coloured plates of 1,000 years of French fashions from the time of Clovis I (5th century) to Charles V (14th century). Subjects include a wide range of society from royalty to peasants, and include kings and queens, dukes and ladies, servants, maids, soldiers, bourgeois, falconer, troubadours, archers, soldiers, crossbowmen, knights, crusaders, executioner, etc. Royal portrait plates include Clovis I, Chlotar I, Charlemagne, Lothair I, Philip the Bold, Henry III, Philip IV, Charles IV, Jean II, Charles V, Louis II, etc.
Leopold Massard (1812-1889) was a French artist, miniaturist, engraver and lithographer. Grandson of the engraver… Read More

Suite of a 25 hand-coloured etchings of British fashions of the Georgian era
Elegant fashion plates depicting Regency belles and dandies from the pages of a Jane Austen novel
Ball gowns, court fashions, promenading clothes, and more
The etchings by A. Guillaumot Fils (Auguste Etienne Guillaumot Jr.) based on contemporary prints in the collection of the writer Victorien Sardou
While many are signed only by the etcher, a few of the gentlemens' costume plates include the name of the original artist, Horace VernetAuguste Etienne Guillaumot (1844-1890) was the son of architect and printmaker Auguste Alexandre Guillaumot (1815-1892), and published several books of architectural views and costume plates including Costumes du XVIIIe Siecle after paintings by Watteau, Desrais and others (1873), Costumes du XVIIIe Siecle taken from Sardou's musical play Les Pres-Saint Gervais (1874), Costumes du Directoire (1875), Costumes de la Revolution (1879), Costumes de l'Opera (1883), Costumes des Ballets du Roy (1885)… Read More

Very good copy of the Insects and Crustaceans part from Cuvier's huge Dictionary of Natural Sciences
Complete with all 118 hand-coloured stipple engraved plates of entomology and carcinology
All the illustrations by Jean-Gabriel Prêtre, under the direction of Pierre Jean François Turpin, and engraved by Louis Massard, Victor, Prudhon, Madame Guyot, Forestier, Joyeau, etc.
Insectes et Crustacés: Title page, 16pp (tables of plates, index), 60 handcoloured engraved plates of insects, beetles and butterflies, 58 handcoloured engraved plates of crabs and shrimp.
Part of Cuvier's massive Dictionary of Natural Sciences that was published in 60 text volumes and 13 plate volumes from 1816 to 1830.
Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (1768-1849) was a Swiss-French natural history painter who illustrated a large number of books for Cuvier, Louis Pierre Vieillot, René Primevère Lesson, Comte de Lacépède, Richard Achille, and many other French zoologists.
Pierre Jean François Turpin (1775-1840) was a French botanist and… Read More