Rare books from Ars Libri Ltd

Lyons (Anisson et Posuel), 1717.. 3 vols. (22), 379, 448, 404, (60)pp., 153 engraved plates, plans and maps (6 folding). Stout 8vo. Eighteenth-century French tree-calf gilt, raised bands, with red and green morocco lettering pieces. A.e.g. Second edition of the work, published in the same year as the Paris first edition, in quarto; a third edition was issued in 1718 (Amsterdam), as was an English translation. “The botanist Pitton de Tournefort was sent on a mission to the Levant by Louis XIV in 1700. He was accompanied by the artist Claude Aubriet and the doctor Gundelsheimer. Pitton de Tournefort traveled extensively in the Archipelago, visiting most of the islands in the Cyclades... He also spent a considerable period in Crete before going to Constantinople and Asia Minor, the coasts of the Black Sea and then overland through Armenia to Persia. The travellers returned to Paris in June 1702.... The text takes the form of letters to M. de Pontchartrain, who sponsored Pitton’s mission. The very… Read More

N.p., [1929].. Original drawing in graphite on cream wove stock, signed “Crali” in ink at lower right. 116 x 134 mm. (4 5/16 x 5 1/4 inches). Tipped (at top two corners on the verso) onto a backing sheet. This drawing is quite evidently a preparatory study for Crali’s painting “Duello aereo” of 1929, a very important and early instance of aeropittura, dating from year of the initial aeropittura manifesto. Crali’s signature, which is in ballpoint, is in the style of his later years, and was probably added at a later date. Provenance: Collection Claudio Rebeschini; Collection Marco Viglino.

Paris, 1972.. [No. 1: all published.] (8)pp., including introduction by Goldschmidt. 20 signed and numbered contributions hors texte, including original gouaches, drawings, collages, and prints in various media (etching, woodcut, screenprint, lithography; some hand-colored), by Jean-Bernard Arkitu, Édouard Berreur, Gérard-Philippe Broutin, Françoise Canal, Jean-Paul Curtay, Myriam Darrell, Jean-Pierre Gillard, Micheline Hachette, François Poyet, Roland Sabatier, Jacques Spacagna, Jacqueline Tarkieltaub, Antoine Grimaud and Patrick Poulain; an original photocopy by Pierre Jouvet, two texts by Isidore Isou and Alain de Latour, and a superb mixed-media assemblage by Maurice Lemaître. Lrg. 4to. Publisher’s chartreuse silk box and chemise, hand-painted in gold on the front cover and spine. Contents loose, as issued. Edition limited to 50 hand-numbered copies, signed in the justification by the editors. Conceived as the first of a series of Lettrist portfolios, only this inaugural volume of… Read More

Paris (Firmin-Didot et Cie.), 1888.. 6 vols. 500 chromolithographic and tinted plates hors texte, each with multiple figs. Lrg. folio. Later cloth, 3/4 leather gilt. Raised bands. A.e.g. Housed in a custom built, glass-fronted freestanding oak bookcase. Vol. I consists mostly of explanatory text, with an introduction; Vols. II-VI each with 100 color plates, bound interspersed with pages of descriptive text, originally published in 20 fascicles 1877-1886. One of the most elaborate costume books ever produced, this edition is much less common than the smaller format which was published in the same year. A handsome set.

Paris (A La Belle Édition), 1918.. (24)pp. 10 woodcut illus. (including front cover image), printed in black on colored backgrounds. Dec. wraps. Fitted cloth clamshell case. Édition de tête: one of 25 numbered copies on papier Japon, with irregular large margins, from the limited edition of 1052, printed by François Bernouard. The artist’s initials are misstated on the title-page, but corrected on the front cover. The text is by Laboureur himself, who, as author, appropriates the initials A.S.C. from his address at the Army Service Corps. Cover somewhat soiled; textblock neatly detached within; small stains. Presentation copy, inscribed on the title-page “à A. Johnson/ cordialement/ J.E. Laboureur 1919.”

Paris (Éditions des Quatre Chemins), [1930].. 6 original drypoint etchings, each signed and numbered in pencil by the artist (Black/Moorhead 33-38ii). Sheet size: 375 x 285 mm (ca. 14 3/4 x 11 1/2 inches). Lrg. 4to. Publisher’s portfolio (boards with supralibros title, 1/4 cloth, ties). Edition of 50 copies (apart from artist’s proofs), printed by Paul Haasen on B.F.K. Rives paper. No justification or table was provided with the publication.

[Reading, Pennsylvania], 1833.. 21 copperplate engravings, verso blank. Oblong 8vo. Orig. blue wraps, stitched (front neatly detached and with a small loss; loss to corner of rear). Orange reinforcement. Spine perished. Carl Friedrich Egelmann was an astronomer, newspaperman, and poet, who provided most of the astronomical calculations for the principal American almanacs published in the first third of the 19th century. He was also an engraver, with this being his only book, containing engraved examples of handwriting in German (Fraktur) and English. The engraving on the title-page is a fine example of Federalist art, though influenced by Pennsylvania German folk art traditions. A cartouche surrounds the title, surmounted by an all-seeing eye with the motto “He Shines For All”. A woman (likely Justice; with scales but not blindfolded) is seated on the cartouche to the upper right and holds the Declaration of Independence, and tools for farming, mining, and surveying fill the upper and lower left,… Read More

Easthampton, Massachusetts (Pennyroyal Press), 1964.. (8)pp., 13 wood-engraved plates. Printing size 2 x 3 inches, sheet size 8 x 10 inches. Each plate signed by the artist. Sm. 4to. All contents loose in paper chemise as issued. Limited to an edition of 100 suites of 13 engravings. A fine copy.

Berlin (J.M. Rüdiger), 1696.. (16), 145, (7)pp. Wood-engraved Chinese characters throughout. Culs-de-lampe, lettrines Lrg. 8vo. Contemporary blindstamped calf (rebacked utilizing the original backstrip). First edition and one of the few published works by the physician and botanist Christian Mentzel (1622-1701), one of the most famous Sinologists of his time. “Mentzels ‘Chronologia’ beruht auf der ‘Tabula chronologica’ seines zeitweiligen Mentors Phillippe Couplet, mit dem er während dessen Europaaufenthalts in Briefwechsel getreten war. Couplets Text ist gekürzt und mit Angaben aus Martini angereichert. Die chinesischen Zeichen sind jeweils hinzugesetzt, Mentzel selbst weist noch auf eine weitere Quelle hin, des ‘Xiaoer lun’ und die Geschichte des Gesprächs eines klugen Knaben mit Konfuzius. Die Herkunft einer Chronologie aus diesem kurzen ‘Kinderbuch’ hat bislang Unverständnis ausgelöst. Gemeint ist sicherlich eine Fibel des ‘zazzi’-Genres, wie sie auch in der Wolfenbüttler… Read More

New York, 1940-1947.. Prof. illus. Format varies: Series I in tabloid folio; Series II in sm. 4to.; Series III-VII in lrg. 4to. Series I in self-wraps.; Series II-VII in dec. wraps. Special issues are devoted to Surrealism, Ernst, Tchelitchew/Tanguy, “Vertigo,” and Marcel Duchamp (designed by the artist). “Among the many literary and art reviews which sprang up in the United States during the last war, it was certainly ‘View’ which--although never in any way an ‘official’ organ of the movement--provides the most striking evidence of the gradual penetration of American intellectual life by the ideas and themes of Surrealism” (Marcel Jean). “When Breton reached New York, he found ‘View,’ an avant-garde literary magazine edited by Charles-Henri Ford, most sympathetic to the surrealists. One of its regular contributors, Nicolas Calas, in particular, was to become a close friend of Breton, and edited the special surrealist number October/November 1941, which contained an interview with… Read More

Paris, 1868.. Graphite, black ink, and white gouache, on buff laid paper (watermark indistinct). 140 x 98 mm. (ca. 5 1/2 x 3 7/8 inches), slightly irregular. Signed in pencil at lower right: manet. Provenance: Sold by the artist to Alphonse Dumas; Hôtel Drouot, Sale April 1, 1942, lot 116 (sold for 4,600 francs by the expert Cailac, according to Guérin); bought by Viscount Alain de Léché; by whom sold to Gérard Cramer; Gérard Cramer, Genève, by whom sold to the father of the present owner July 6, 1951. Literature: De Leiris, Alain: The Drawings of Édouard Manet (Berkeley/Los Angeles, 1969), no. 228 ("Chats"); Rouart, Denis & Wildenstein, Daniel: Édouard Manet: Catalogue raisonné (Lausanne/Paris, 1976), Vol. II, p. 218, no. 618 (with illus.); cf. Guérin, Marcel: L'uvre gravé de Manet (Paris, 1944), no, 74 (with illus.); cf. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Édouard Manet 1832-1883. Catalogue by Anne Coffin Hanson (Philadelphia, 1966), no. 90 A preliminary design for the famous lithograph "Le… Read More

San Francisco (Arion Press), 1984.. (2), 27, (3)ff. All contents loose, as issued. 8 original prints hors texte, each signed and numbered in pencil, including 1 photograph by Richard Avedon (continuous-tone offset lithograph); 4 lithographs, of which 3 printed from the stone (Elaine de Kooning, Willem de Kooning, Jane Freilicher) and 1 from a metal plate (Alex Katz); 1 woodcut (Jim Dine); 1 softground etching with aquatint (R.B. Kitaj; printed by Aldo Crommelynck), 1 photogravure etching with hand-coloring (Larry Rivers; printed at Universal Limited Art Editions). Print and text dimensions: 450 mm. (ca. 17 3/4 inches) in diameter. 33-1/3 r.p.m. phonograph record of Ashbery reading the poem, in album with liner commentary by Helen Vendler. Title-page and record album both with reproductions of the Parmigianino self-portrait. Folio. Publishers polished steel canister, with inset convex mirror on the lid. Edition limited to 175 hand-numbered copies (25 hors de commerce), signed in the colophon by Andrew… Read More

Paris ([A l'Estampe originale), 1894].. 12pp., 9 full-page lithographs. 1 lithographic illus. in text. Printed on double-fold sheets. Sm. folio. Orig. wraps., secured with cord, as issued. Glassine d.j. New fitted cloth clamshell case. One of 240 copies in laid papier à dessin, signed and numbered in ink by Luce in the justification, from the limited edition of 250, “en vente à L’Estampe Originale.” The images are famous in the history of French anarchism, three of them depicting Félix Fénéon during his incarceration at Mazas. Presentation inscription from André Marty. A remarkable copy, accompanied by a fine original charcoal study by Luce for his full-length self-portrait in the book, leaning meditatively against the wall of his cell. 284 x 184 mm. (ca. 11 1 4/ x 7 14 inches), on buff laid paper (loosely inserted).

[Paris] (The Artist), 1894.. 8 original metal matrices for the prints (including variants). Together with this: Double proof suite of 7 original relief prints (glyptographies) on chine, each here in two states (one in orange, one in grey or grey-green), each initialled by the artist at lower right, loosely inserted in the artist’s illustrated chemise reprising the first plate in orange, here signed in full by the artist and dated “94” in pencil. Image: 140 x 88 mm. Cover 281 x 190 mm. 4to. New fitted cloth clamshell case. Maurice Dumont, etcher, painter, illustrator and editor of the journal 'L'Epreuve', which published numerous original lithographs by French symbolist artists, including Maurice Denis, Paul Gauguin, Pierre Bonnard and Eduard Vuillard, was a prolific printmaker in turn-of-the century Paris. He collaborated on various journals, and invented two engraving processes. This collection includes varaints for each of the prints  [“Il existe plusieurs essais ou variantes de couleurs… Read More

[Paris], n.d.. Album of original pencil drawings, arranged with clipped proofs of texts, as layouts for humoristic illustrated journal articles. 32ff., including manuscript title-page (with tipped-in vignette), 30ff. of tipped-in sheets with multiple vignette drawings (3 full-page) in layout with clipped proofs of texts, 1f. with final vignette. Sm. 4to. 184 x 248 mm. (9 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches). Pastepaper boards. Fitted clamshell case.  The prolific and highly successful illustrator Alfred Grévin (1827-1892) furnished animated and amusing drawings for articles in "Journal pour rire," "Charivari," "Journal amusant," "La vie parisienne," "Paris-Caprice," and other journals, as well as illustrations for "Almanach des parisiennes," "Soirées parisiennes," and his own "Almanach Grévin," and for books by Champsaur, Clairville, Siebecker, and Véron. Active also as a playwright and theatrical designer in the Second Empire and Third Republic, he produced a popular revue, "Les jolies filles de Grévin." His… Read More