Alastor Rare Books

Books, Glorious Books...The 2013 Salon International Du Livre Paris (And A Late Lunch In Monmartre)

The fair opened to the public in fine weather after the Thursday night preview. A long, snaking queue of expectant people waited quickly disappeared inside in search of rarities and treasures.

Every effort had been made to make the fair as inclusive as possible and a celebration of French literary culture. The fair included a  large display, with historic photographs and maps, devoted the Parisian Bouquinistes, the booksellers operating from stalls lining the banks of the Seine, dating from the 16th century. It was formalized in the mid-19th century with bouqinistes establishing permanent pitches and the sizes of stalls being regulated in the 1930s. The Bouqinistes became part of a UNESCO world heritage site in 1991.

Further displays showcased regional bookfairs across France, bibliophile magazines and binderies & restoration.

The fair was divided in the shape of a cross with the lower spoke without displays and forming the entrance passage. On the right were a selection of stands offering prints and drawings and in front and to the left were book stands.

A few hours spent amongst the stacks with dealers, customers, and colleagues passing quietly by, turned up a few choice items and led to short presentation at the stage area on the new online display of bindings held by the Bibliotheque Nationale.

 All that remained was to find somewhere for a quick late lunch, so onwwards to Abbesses by Metro and the space and sky of Monmartre. The delightful Le Relais Gascon, close to the edge of Monmartre cemetery, served a fine salade fraicheur with sliced potatoes fried in garlic, smoked ham, lardons and fried eggs before the homeward journey. 

 

Benjamin Franklin In Italy-A Catalogue Of Books On The Influence Of Franklin's Work & Thought In Italy In Science, Morals, Economics, Education & Typography

 

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Blood Fresh & Liquid Three Days After Death-Varieties Of Religious Experience In 18th Century Italy

Budrioli, Andrea.

Segni Maravigliosi co' Quali Si E' Compiaciuto iddio Di autorizzare il Martirio de' Vener. Servi di Dio...

Roma Antonio de' Rossi 1745 

12mo, 176 p., engraved folding frontispiece with portrait medallion of Ridolfo Acquaviva, Alfonso Paceco, Pietro Berna, Antonio, Franceschi & Francesco Arana with engraved floral spray cornerpieces (signed L.B. fecit), engraved title device, endpiece of inverted triangle of repeated scrollwork ornaments,, large decorative initial letter, contemporary vellum, MS spine title & shelfmark (couple of tiny worm holes at tail), edges mottled red & brown.

Only edition of this curious collection of descriptions of religious experiences including blood remaining fresh & liquid three days after death (Pietro de Arbues), visions of five martyrs (Marcello Francesco Mastrilli), an apparition of S. Ridolfo during a storm and some 27 others. Worldcat 2 copies (Mexico & UB Ingolstadt); ICCU 2 copies (Forli & Bib. Todi). Bibliographie Historique de la Compagnie de Jesus 496. Two circular stamps "BMPF" & "CVPF".

[Ref: 460] £450    [PLEASE USE CONTACT BUTTON ABOVE TO ORDER OR MAKE FURTHER ENQUIRIES]

17th Century French Fairy Tales From The Library Of John Fowles

 

BERNARD, Catherine

Inés de Cordoüe

Paris [Martin et George Jouvenel?] 1697

 12mo, [vi],[2 blank], 208 p.(title page dusty & couple of small chips at head), woodcut armillary sphere title device with astrological symbols, woodcut headpieces of flat baskets of flowers, fruit & foliage, woodcut initial letter.  20th century blue-grey wrappers (small chip at head of spine),autograph signature of John Fowles (20th century novelist) dated 1963 and his ownership stamp, together with notes on three inserted slips, two typed, one manuscript.

A novel famous for the two fairy tales framed within it, 'The Rosebush Prince' and 'Riquet of the Tuft', the second of which predates the more familiar version told by Perrault. This was the first of a succession of fairy stories that appeared in France in the sixteen-nineties and which laid the foundations of the entire genre, preceding Perrault's Contes de ma Mère l'Oye (1697) and Madame d'Aulnoy's Contes des Fées (1697) and Contes Nouveaux ou Les Fées à la Mode (1698). Bernard appears to have been a woman of strong and persistent character, determined to support herself through writing. She nonetheless struggled financially and survived precariously on the monetary prizes awarded for her work. Her novels express a very negative view of relations between the sexes and clearly expresses the disenfranchised position of women during that period. The typescript notes presumably by John Fowles provide a view that this volume could be a Dutch printed piracy as have an identical armillary sphere title device to a Dutch pirated edition of Perrault in the same year. A very good copy (light inner marginal stain to first three leaves). Reiss (1992) The Meaning of Literature p.210; Makward & Cottenet-Hage (1996) Dictionnaire littéraire des femmes de langue française p.63. OCLC 5 locations (3 Dutch, 1 German & 1 Danish)

[Ref: 450] £650

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A Critique of The Divining Rod & Art of Dowsing In The Practice of Criminal Detection. Paris. 1696

A Critique of The Divining Rod & Art of Dowsing In The Practice of Criminal Detection.

 

Vallemont, Abbé De (Pierre Le Lorraine) Suite Des Physique Occulte Où Traité de la Baguette Divinatoire Où Lettres qui Decouvrent L'illusion Des Philosophes Sur La Baguette Et Qui Detruisent Leurs Systemes. 

Paris Jean Roudot, rue S.Jaques, au Soleil d'or 1696

12mo, 13.5cm, [28], 255 p., title printed in red & black, headpiece of repeated typographic ornament, decorative initial letters, endpieces of fruit & foliage, ancient Italian paper-covered boards. ownership signature of Mattieu Hellin? scored through to title page.

This work appeared at a time when the church had taken particular exception to use of divination with the Council of Grenoble issuing an edict detailing excommunication for use of the practice. Vallemont, having taken holy orders took work as tutor to the son of the Marquis De Dangeau at Versailles and over the next ten years produced a number of works, the result of extensive research, on subjects such as numismatics, magnetism, divination and chronology. His key work on divination "La physique occulte, ou traité de la baguette divinatoire" appeared in the same year as this book of letters in response.

The work is a lengthy treatise on the divining rod, the art of dowsing and divinatory systems, with an examination and critique of their use, particularly in the art of criminal detection. The illustrations show several ways of holding the rod, and various scientific instruments including one of the magic lantern which had first come into use in the 1650's, and there are several astrological diagrams.

The main work is followed a small piece on a similar subject:Traité de la connoissance des causes magnetiques, de cures sympathiques, des transplantations et comment agissent les philtres . . . par un curieux de la nature.

OCLC 29854868 (2 copies only: Duke & Berlin); Not in COPAC; Querard X:27. [Ref: 262] £550

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ALASTOR DOWN UNDER-BOOK HUNTING IN MELBOURNE

BOOK HUNTING IN MELBOURNE

Finding myself in golden sunshine and thirty degree heat in the middle of a Melbourne summer, I couldn't resist the chance to see how the book trade works down under. Suncream, hat and water in hand, I set off from the suburbs to Flinders Street station, via South Kensington before heading North to Fitzroy and Collingwood. 

Locating a street map seemed quite a challenge and the only ones for sale were the size of telephone directories and cost around £50. I eventually found one in Collingwood. As an assortment of colourful shops and restaurants grew up around me I knew I was getting close and made my first stop by way of entree to the Lost and Found market.

This wonderfully eclectic selection of individual stalls in a covered market boasted all from modern antiques such as designer radios, furniture and clothes to several stalls selling modern books and ephemera.

From the Lost & Found it was on to Brunswick Street. The first shop I came across was Polyester Books which advertises itself as the world's freakiest bookstore and stocks a large range of books, graphic novels & pamphlets on all manner of counterculture & underground subjects.

Across the road was the excellent Grub Street bookshop with a large range of well-arranged books including a good philosophy section. After a short pit stop it was back to Flinders Street for a visit to Kay Craddock books.

This traditional rare & antiquarian central Melbourne booksellers maintains a good selection of both antiquarian & modern books & ephemera with a section of Australian travel & topography, extensive section of books about books and various fine bindings. The helpful and knowledgeable staff were happy to direct me to other booksellers.

I didn't have far to go for my next stop (next door in fact) to the splendid new bookshop: Readers Retreat, filled with all manner of books in a delightful and spacious shop, complete with comfy seats. My final destination was the voluminous City Basement books, which was, as the name suggests, in a basement and opposite Flinders Street station. Books are piled in every available space over a number of rooms on all subjects with an extensive section on travel and individual countries.

Then finally home, very foot sore, to see the New Year in down under

19th Century Electric Baths, 18th Century Two-Headed Cattle, Italian Phrenology, English & French Manuscripts, Continental Books & Ephemera Of All Kinds-New Catalogue Now Available

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York Bookfair

See us at stand 121 at the Knavesmuir suite, York race course 14-15th September.

http://www.yorkbookfair.com/

Rare Books, Manuscripts & Ephemera Catalogue 22 Coming Soon

Our new catalogue is coming soon including 

Manuscript design book by 19th century wood engraver, bookplate designer and illustrator John Sachs

19th century manuscript book of cartoons from British India

Early 19th century book of drawings of rural England

Early 19th century book of drawings by English diarist Fanny Anne Burney

An Archive of material relating to the St. James's Theatre London 1835-1957

An 18th century Latin acrostic poem on the Ave Maria

18th & 19th century Italian works on miracles, demonology & phrenology

 A 17th century French work of fairy tales

A 16th century work on gastronomy

And much else ephemeral, manuscript and printed from England and the Continent of Europe.

Please use the contact above to request a copy

NATURE PRINTING IN 19TH CENTURY ENGLAND

 

 

Since the advent of the printing press, there has been a desire to accurately reproduce images from nature which had always been limited by the very fragility of the intended specimens. Initially images were taken directly from the material itself by direct contact prints and in other countries such as China by inking & rubbing techniques.

Benjamin Franklin is credited with establishing natural printing from leaf casts via copper plate as a security measure for the printing of paper money in 1737.  However, some years were to pass before a commerically successful process could be developed. One such process was developed in 1853 by Alois Auer, the then Director of the Governement Printing Office of Vienna, whereby the natural object was imbedded in a lead sheet and prints taken from this.  The process was later brought to Britain by Henry Bradbury and developed by others such as Captain Thomas Honywood.

 

 

[Hand-Printed Sheet of Nature Printing]. [England]. [April 8^th 1821].

 

Single sheet, printed on both sides, 190 x 110mm, wove paper. A very good example (split along first half of fold line & short tear at base).

This extremely rare survival of an early 19th example of nature printing is dated in manuscript and features printed leaf specimens in mirror image of individually labelled Dock, Hawthorn, Trefoil and Hebe 'Lisa" leaves on one side.  Dock, Holly, Daisy, Hawthorn, Poa Annua (Meadow Grass) leaves on the other. The printed Holly leaves are hand-coloured.      

£350.00

 

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