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“DE LA BIBLIOTEQUE [SIC] DE MON FRERE L’EMPEREUR NAPOLEON”
(MARIE ANTOINETTE) (NAPOLEON BONAPARTE) GONDI, Jean François Paul de, Cardinal de Retz. Memoires du Cardinal de Retz. Geneve, 1777. Six volumes altogether. Rare 1777-79 editions of the four-volume Mémoires of Cardinal de Retz and the 1771 two-volume Mémoires de Guy Joli and Madame la Duchesse de Nemours, possessing an exceedingly rare provenance in association with two of the most legendary figures in French history—Marie-Antoinette and Napoleon Bonaparte. Five volumes (I, III-VI) are from the library of Marie-Antoinette, bound in contemporary calf gilt and displaying her distinctive gilt-tooled armorial coat of arms on the boards, along with her gilt-stamped crowned cipher “CT” on the spines. Volume II, bound in contemporary mottled calf gilt, contains a lengthy gift inscription on the front free endpaper by Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon Bonaparte—“de la biblioteque [sic] de mon frere l’ Empereur Napoleon” (from the library of my brother the Emperor Napoleon)—to Baron Claude Francois Méneval, Napoleon’s trusted private secretary and his “only really close friend and confidant.” $55,000.
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BOUND FOR THE FUTURE LOUIS XVI WITH HIS COAT OF ARMS
FRENCH ALMANAC. Almanach Royal, Annee Bissextile 1772. Paris, 1772. 1772 Royal Almanac, bound for Louis XVI dauphin two years before he would inherit the throne of France, in a lovely binding designed by the royal bookbinder Pierre-Paul Dubuisson. $25,000.
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“A REVOLUTION IN PICTURES”
(DISDÉRI, André and MAYALL, J.E. et al.). Photograph Album. Victorian. (London, circa 1860). Scarce Victorian carte de viste album with 56 mounted albumen prints of British Royalty and major political and literary figures as taken by leading photographers, this superb album from the collection of musician Graham Nash, with his signed bookplate tipped in. $12,000.
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THE RAREST FRENCH CROWN JEWELS CATALOGUE
BLOCHE, Arthur. La Vente des Diamants de la Couronne. Paris, 1888. Rare first edition of this “valuable historical document,” the scarcest catalogue of the sale of the French Crown Jewels, with 35 illustrations of the principal jewels. Uncut in original wrappers. $12,000.
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FROM THE LIBRARY OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, WITH HER GILT ARMORIAL COAT OF ARMS ON BOTH BOARDS
(MARIE ANTOINETTE) (MUYARD DE VOUGLANS, Pierre-François). Motifs de ma Foi en Jesus-Christ. Paris, 1776. First edition of 18th-century French criminologist Vouglans’ major work on state and religious authority, a most rare and exceptional copy from the library of Marie Antoinette, with her gilt-embossed armorial coat of arms on both boards. $11,000.
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“MEASURE THE STRENGTH OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE BY THE BATTERING IT HAD ENDURED” (CHURCHILL):
(RUSSIA) (NICHOLAS II). Romanov Commemorative Plaque. St. Petersburg, 1913. Rare Russian commemorative bisque porcelain plaque, circa 1913, honoring the 300-year rule of the House of Romanov, displaying the richly sculpted image of the first Russian Tsar of the House of Romanov, Mikhail Fedorovich, and that of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, containng the cypher of Nicholas II and the date 1913 on the verso, created by the world-famous Imperial Porcelain Manufactory of St. Petersburg. Unusual with a seven-inch diameter, as these plaques were usually made in a smaller format. $9000.
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LARGE-PAPER EDITION OF STRUTT’S ENGLISH COSTUMES, WITH 153 LOVELY HAND-COLORED AND GOLD-HIGHLIGHTED PLATES
STRUTT, Joseph. A Complete View of the Dress and Habits of the People of England. London, 1842. Two volumes. Splendid limited large-paper edition of this treasury of English costume beginning with the Saxons, illustrated with 153 hand-colored copper-engraved plates of costumes, armor, seals, and everyday objects—one of only 25 copies additionally highlighted in gold and silver, handsomely bound in three-quarter morocco-gilt. $8800.
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A LAMENT FOR THE HOUSE OF BOURBON—BEAUTIFUL ITALIAN MANUSCRIPT, WITH DELIGHTFUL INK AND PENCIL DRAWINGS
[ANONYMOUS]. Le Veglie del Filosofo Cristiano su le Tombe di Grandi. Italy, late 18th century. Exquisite and extremely rare manuscript in excellent condition, including several delicate pen and pencil drawings, comprising a series of four separate meditations on the deaths of King Louis XVI, his wife Marie Antoinette, his sister Elisabeth, and his young son, the “lost dauphin,” Louis XVII. In a splendid contemproary calf-gilt binding, decorated with the royal arms of France. $7800.
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CAMDEN’S IMPORTANT 1630 HISTORY OF ELIZABETH I,
“AMONG THE BEST HISTORICAL PRODUCTIONS
COMPOSED BY AN ENGLISHMAN” (HUME)
CAMDEN, William. Historie of the Life and Reigne… of Elizabeth. London, 1630. First complete edition in English of Camden’s important history of Elizabeth I, “among the best historical productions which have yet been composed by an Englishman” (Hume), with fine engraved frontispiece portrait of the Queen. $6800.
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FROM THE LIBRARY OF LA DUCHESSE DE BERRY WITH HER GILT COAT OF ARMS
(DE BERRY, Duchesse) DE RANCÉ, M. and THÉAULON, [Marie]. Anniversaire. Paris, 1816. First edition of the popular French play L’Anniversaire, from the library of La Duchesse de Berry, with her gilt armorial coat of arms on both boards. $5500.
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