• Title page: Sheila Cousins | TO BEG | I AM ASHAMED | {publisher’s device} | THE OBELISK PRESS | 16, PLACE VENDOME | PARIS || Pagination: [2] – blanks (in wrapper), [4] – h.t. / blank, t.p. / publisher's note & copyright, [1] 2-270, [4] uncut (in wrapper), total 280 pages. Collation: 8vo; [A]8 B-Q8 R4 S8; total 140 leaves. Binding: Publisher’s yellow wrappers, lettering to spine:| TO BEG | I AM | ASHAMED |—| SHEILA | COUSINS | {publisher’s device} |  THE | OBELISK PRESS | PARIS ||; lettered front wrapper in red and black: To beg | I am ashamed |—| by | Sheila Cousins |—| The autobiography | of a London prostitute | Only authorized edition | Complete and unexpurgated | {publisher’s device} | THE OBELISK PRESS ||, publisher’s device in red to back wrapper; margins untrimmed; in an owner slipcase. Edition: 1st edition, France, May (i.e. June) 1838; presumably the first impression. Size: 19 x 14.5 cm. Contributors: Graham Greene (British, 1904 – 1991) – author. Ronald Matthews (British, 1903 – 1967) – author. The Obelisk Press – publisher.
  • Woodcut pictorial title page (red and black): THE | COMIC | HISTORY | OF | ROME | By GILBERT ABBOTT À BECKETT. | ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN LEECH. | BRADBURY AND EVANS, 11, BOUVERIE STREET. || Pagination: [iii-iv] – t.p. / imprint., [v]-vi – preface, [vii]-viii – contents, [ix]-xii – list of ills., [1] 2-308, lacking half-title (i-ii) otherwise as called for by Tooley (1935) p. 162. Collation: π1 b4 B-U8 X2 plus 10 plates, incl. frontispiece, of hand-coloured steel engravings and 98 in-text woodcuts by John Leech. Imprint: “LONDON: | BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.”; same in the colophon on p. 308, in one line. Binding: 22 x 14.5 cm, full tan calf with gilt double-fillet border, spine gilt in compartments with red morocco label lettered in gilt, blind-stamped dentelle inside, marbled endpapers, additional flyleaf at the end (binding similar to 2-volume “The Comic History of England” LIB-2847.2021, making three volumes in total). Edition: 1st thus (in book form), without “and Co.” in the imprint on t.p. verso. Catalogue raisonné: Tooley (1935) p. 162. Catalogue raisonné: Hardie p. 210; Abbey, Life № 435, p. 365-6; Tooley (1935) p. 162. Contributors: Gilbert Abbott à Beckett (British, 1811 – 1856) – author. John Leech (British, 1817 – 1864) – artist. Bradbury & Evans (Whitefriars); William Bradbury (British, 1799 – 1869); Frederick Mullett Evans (British, 1804 – 1870) – printer.
  • Two volumes, 16.6 x 11.4 cm each, uniformly bound in sprinkled calf, spine with raised bands, gilt in compartments, with crimson and black gilt lettered labels. Ink inscription to title page of vol. 1: “Thomas Fry. St: John's, Oxford.” Vol. 1: Collation: 4to; π22 a4 b3 A-Z4 2A-2E4 2F1, (total 124 leaves), plus frontispiece, 29 in-text vignettes. Pagination: [2] – h.t., [2] – t.p., [4] – preface, [i] ii-xiv – Vie de La Fontaine, [1] 2-224, [2] – table, (total 248 pages), ils. Vol. 2: Collation: 4to; π23 A-Z4 2A-2K4 2L3, (total 140 leavs), 40 in-text vignettes. Pagination: [2] – h.t., [2] – t.p., [6] – preface, [1] 2-268, [2] – table, (total 280 pages), ils. Illustrations: frontispiece by Lebas (signature erased), Vie de La Fontaine headpiece by Fessard after Cochin, 2 fleurons on two title pages, 69 vignettes by Chedel, Fessard, and Ravenet after Cochin (not signed). Catalogue raisonné: Lewine: 278; Cohen-deRicci: 557-8. Contributors: Charles-Nicolas Cochin (French, 1715 – 1790) – artist. Engravers: Pierre Quentin Chedel (French, 1705 – 1763). Étienne Fessard (French, 1714 – 1774). Simon François Ravenet (French, 1706 – 1764). Jacques-Philippe Le Bas [Lebas] (French, 1707 – 1783). Provenance: Thomas Fry (British, 1718 – 1772) – English priest and academic, president of St John's College, Oxford from 1757.
  • Three volumes, 26.2 x 18.6 cm each: Vol. 1: Kabuki plays on stage: Brilliance and Bravado, 1697-1766; pp.: [i-viii] ix-xiii [xiv blank], 1-391 [1 blank], total 203 leaves, ils. Blue buckram gilt-lettered on spine, pictorial DJ. Vol. 2: Kabuki plays on stage: Villainy and Vengeance, 1773-1799; pp.: [i-viii] ix-xiii [xiv blank], 1-413 [3 blank], total 215 leaves, ils. Green buckram gilt-lettered on spine, pictorial DJ. Vol. 3: Kabuki plays on stage: Darkness and Desire, 1804-1864; pp.: [i-viii] ix-xv [xvi blank], [1] 2-397 [3 blank], total 208 leaves, ils. Ochre buckram gilt-lettered on spine, pictorial DJ. (Vol. 4: Restoration and reform, 1872-1905 – absent for the reason of no interest in the covered period). Contributors: James Rodger Brandon (American, 1927 – 2015) Samuel L. Leiter (American, b. 1940)
  • Description: Softcover, 23 x 14.5 cm, original flapped wrappers, spine and front cover lettered in blue «WANDA DE S…. FRANÇOISE | OU | LES PLAISIRS DU MARIAGE | AUX ALLÉES DES ROSES», leaves untrimmed. Title-page: WANDA DE S…. | FRANÇOISE | OU | LES PLAISIRS DU MARIAGE | {vignette} | AUX ALLÉES DES ROSES ||  Collation: [1]8 (1 blank in wrapper, 1 blank, h.t., t.p., f.t.p., 3 leaves of text), 2-148 15(uncut), 116 leaves total plus 10 hand-coloured photogravures by anonymous, extraneous to collation. Pagination: [1-10] 11-224 [8], ils.; 232 pages total. Limitation: edition under subscription, limited to 600 copies of which 100 copies (№ 1-100) on pur fil and 500 copies (№ 101-600) on Vélin, this is № 142. Edition: 1st edition thus, printed by Maurice Darantiere, illustrated with 10 full-page coloured photogravures after an anonymous artist, attributed by some to Feodor Rojankovsky [Rojan] and by some to Louis Berthomme Saint-André. According to J.-P. Dutel, the original watercolours in his collection signed Véronique. Catalogue raisonné: Dutel (1920-1970): 1605, p. 176; honesterotica.com.  
  • Сборник из семи рассказов: Карты на Запад; Ответственное задание; Старт на Берлин; Корабли идут над морем; «Боевой! Так держать!»; Второй удар; Благодарит Сталин. Two identical copies LIB-3028.2022(1) and LIB-3028.2022(2). Front wrapper: C. ВАРШАВСКИЙ И Б. РЕСТ | НАД БЕРЛИНОМ | {PHOTO} | БИБЛИОТЕКА “ОГОНЕК” | №7 | ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО “ПРАВДА” | МОСКВА — 1942 || Title-page: C. ВАРШАВСКИЙ и Б. РЕСТ | НАД БЕРЛИНОМ | Издательство “Правда” | Москва – 1942 || Description: Brochure, 14.7 x 10.9 cm, wrappers photo vignette and black lettering, pp.: [2] 3-37 [3], total 40 pages. Print run: 150.000 copies. Contributors: Sergei Petrovich Varshavsky [Сергей Петрович Варшавский] (Jewish-Russian, 1906 – 1980). B. Rest [Б. Рест; Юлий Исаакович Шапиро] (Jewish-Russian, fl. 1940 – 1980).  
  • Hardcover, 17.2 x 12.5 cm, brown cloth-backed pictorial paper boards, lettering to front and spine, pictorial endpapers, pp.: [1-4] 5-430 [2], total 432 pages; collated in-16mo: [1]-1216 138 1416, total 216 leaves. Print run: 65,000 copies. A real history-based fiction about doctor Nikolai Sudzilovsky [Nicholas Russel] (Belarusian, 1850 – 1930). Title-page (pictorial): АЛЕКСАНДРА | БОГДАНОВА | ЖИЗНЬ | ПОСЛЕ | СМЕРТИ | Роман || Imprint:  Рецензент доктор филилогических наук Н. Г. Жулинский. Редактор В. А. Лигостов. Богданова А. И. Жизнь после смерти: Роман. — К.: Рад. письменник, 1990. — 431 с. ISBN 5-333-00201-0. Colophon: Литературно-художественное издание. БОГДАНОВА АЛЕКСАНДРА ИВАНОВНА | Жизнь после смерти. Роман. Киев, издательство «Радяньский пысьмэннык». Author: Богданова, Александра Ивановна (b. c. 1950).
  • Hardcover volume, 22.2 x 15 cm, bound in blind-stamped blue buckram with gilt lettering to front cover and spine, pp.: [1-4] h.t., t.p., 5-507 [508] [4] contents/colophon, advert.; collated in 16mo (1-1616), 256 leaves, 512 pages. Title-page: Б. И. НИКОЛАЕВСКИЙ | ТАЙНЫЕ | СТРАНИЦЫ | ИСТОРИИ | ЛЕНИН И ДЕНЬГИ / БОЛЬШЕВИСТСКОЙ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ | БИОГРАФИЯ МАЛЕНКОВА | ГЕРМАНИЯ / И РУССКИЕ РЕВОЛЮЦИОНЕРЫ / В ГОДЫ ПЕРВОЙ МИРОВОЙ / ВОЙНЫ | ПРОТОКОЛЫ ПОЛИТБЮРО / И ДОКУМЕНТЫ ОСОБОГО ОТДЕЛА / НКИД СССР, 1934 | Москва | Издательство | гуманитарной литературы | 1995 || Print run: 2,000 copies. Contributors: Борис Иванович Николаевский [Boris Nicolaevsky] (Russian-American, 1887 – 1966) – author. Юрий Георгиевич Фельштинский [Yuri Felshtinsky] (Jewish-Russian-American, b. 1956) – editor/compiler. ISBN: 5-87121-007-4. History's secret pages.  
  • Hardcover volume, 35 x 26.8 cm, bound in grey cloth, blind stamped characters to front, brown characters to spine, in a slipcase, the outer case missing, pp.: [4] [1] 2-136 (plates with photographs of 211 items), [2] 139-166 [4]. Kutani ware [九谷焼] (Kutani-yaki); old kutani [古九谷] (kokutani) – ceramic objects produced in Kutani in the 17th century. 日本の陶磁 – Japanese ceramics, series title. Contributors: Yasunari Kawabata [川端 康成] (Japanese, 1924 – 1972) – author. Tetsuzo Tanikawa [谷川 徹三] (Japanese, 1895 – 1989) – author. Seizo Hayashiya [林屋晴三] (Japanese, 1928 – 2017) – editor. Chūōkōron-sha [中央公論社] – publisher.
  • Hardcover volume 36 x 27.5 cm, bound in grey cloth, gilt lettering ЛЕНИНГРАД to front board, red and black labels with gilt lettering, gilt compartments to flat spine, red endpapers with black and white border, pp.: [1-6] 7-402 [2], total 202 leaves with numerous b/w illustrations, plus frontispiece with pasted in b/w plate. Bookplate of Feodor Rojankovsky to front pastedown, ms inscription: “Дорогой Федя, дарю Вам на Ваше рождение эту книгу” signedФ. Рожанковский” Half-title (red on tan): ИЗДАНО В ЛЕНИНГРАДЕ | В ДНИ ВЕЛИКОЙ | ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ВОЙНЫ || Half-title verso (red on tan): ЛЕНИНГРАДСКИЙ ГОРОДСКОЙ  СОВЕТ | ДЕПУТАТОВ ТРУДЯЩИХСЯ | ИСПОЛНИТЕЛЬНЫЙ КОМИТЕТ  | {vignette «plan»} | АРХИТЕКТУРНО-ПЛАНИРОВОЧНОЕ | УПРАВЛЕНИЕ | 1943 || Title-page (red on tan) ЛЕНИНГРАД | {vignette «Admiralty»} | ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО | «ИСКУССТВО» | ЛЕНИНГРАД – 1943 –  МОСКВА || Blue ink stamp to bottom right: Printed in Soviet Union. Title-page verso: РЕДАКЦИОННАЯ | КОЛЛЕГИЯ | Ответственный редактор | БАРАНОВ Н. В. | КАМЕНСКИЙ В. А. | МОРОЗОВ М. В. | РУБАНЕНКО Б. Р. | ФОМИН И. И. | Художник издания | КАМЕНСКИЙ В. А. | Технический редактор | АНИСИМОВ М. Н. Contents (red on tan): АРХИТЕКТУРНО-ПЛАНИРОВОЧНЫЙ | ОБЗОР РАЗВИТИЯ ГОРОДА | РАЗВИТИЕ ГОРОДА В XVIII ВЕКЕ | С. М. ЗЕМЦОВ | РАЗВИТИЕ ГОРОДА В XIX ВЕКЕ  | А. Г. ЯЦЕВИЧ | РАЗВИТИЕ ГОРОДА С 1917 ПО 1935 г. | Б. Р. РУБАНЕНКО | ГЕНЕРАЛЬНЫЙ ПЛАН РАЗВИТИЯ | ЛЕНИНГРАДА  | Н. В. БАРАНОВ | ИЛЛЮСТРАЦИИ | ГОРОДА || verso: {vignette} | ГЕНЕРАЛЬНЫЙ ПЛАН ГОРОДА ЛЕНИНГРАДА. || Print run: 2,500 copies. ProvenanceFeodor Rojankovsky [Rojan, Фёдор Степанович Рожанковский] (Russian-American, 1891 – 1970). Contributors: Каменский, Валентин Александрович (Russian, 1907 – 1975) Земцов, Станислав [Исай] Маркович (1906 – ?) Яцевич, Андрей Григорьевич (Russian, 1887 – 1942) Рубаненко, Борис Рафаилович (Russian-Jewish, 1910 – 1985) Баранов, Николай Варфоломеевич (Russian, 1909 – 1989) Фомин, Игорь Иванович (Russian, 1904 ­– 1989)
  • Hand-coloured woodcut on wove paper, 400 x 270 mm; black ink stamp “5306” to reverse. Top centre: "FAMILLE IMPÉRIALE", right: "62."; below centre: "Fabrique d'Images de GANGEL et P. DIDION, à Metz."; right: "Déposé." Publisher/printer: Gangel et P. Didion (Metz); Paulin Didion (French, 1831 – 1879). Characters: Napoleon III [Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte] (French, 1808 – 1873) Eugénie de Montijo [L'impératrice Eugénie] (Spanish-French, 1826 – 1920) Napoléon, Prince Imperial (Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte] (French, 1856 – 1879) Napoléon II [Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte] (French, 1811 – 1832) Napoléon Ier [Napoléon Bonaparte] (French, 1769 – 1821)  
  • Watercolour on thick wove paper, unsigned. Attributed to Otto Rudolf Schatz (Austrian, 1900 – 1961). Size: 305 x 212 mm.
  • Hardcover volume 20.7 x 13.4 cm, bound in black buckram with blind and grey lettering to front and grey lettering to spine, in a pictorial dust jacket, yellow pictorial endpapers, pp.: [2] 3-287 [1], collated in 16mo, 1-916, 144 leaves, 288 pages. Title-page: ПИСЬМА АЗЕФА | — | 1893 – 1917 | — | [blank] | {publisher’s device} | МОСКВА | «ТЕРРА» — «TERRA» | 1994 || Print run: 10,000 copies. Азеф, Евгений Филиппович [Евно Фишелевич], [Azef, Yevno] (Jewish-Russian-German, 1869 – 1918) Павлов, Дмитрий Борисович (Russian, b. 1954) Перегудова, Зинаида Ивановна (Russian, b. 1934)

    ISBN: 5-85255-395-6. Azef Letters (Rus).

  • Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865).

    Uncut fan print (uchiwa-e), 295 x 230 mm, depicting kabuki actor Bandō Shūka I as Shirai Gonpachi (白井権八) reading a scroll by the light of a lantern. From the series A Parody of the Five Chivalrous Commoners; a Cup of Sake From Their Fans (Mitate gonin otoko, go-hiiki no omoizashi).  According to Paul Griffith, the term omoizashi refers to the act of pouring a cup of sake for one's chosen partner, here giving an impression of intimacy and affection between famous actors and their patrons.

    Actor: Bandō Shūka I [初代坂東しうか] (Japanese, 1813-1855); other names: Bandō Tamasaburō I, Bandō Mitsugorō V (posthumously). The print was probably published by some unknown Yama-Ta (Marks U421b). Double nanushi censor seals and date seal: Muramatsu and Fuku, Kaei 5, 2nd month (2/1852). As Kabuki Encyclopedia put it: "Gonpachi. A parasite. From the character named Shirai Gonpachi who lives at the home of Banzui Chōbei and sponges off him" (An English-Langauge Adaptation of Kabuki Jiten. Samuel L. Leiter. Greenwood Press, 1979, pp. 26, 98-9). There were many kabuki plays based on the story of the lovers Miura-ya Komurasaki and Shirai Gonpachi. (See: [LIB-2226.2019] Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford. Tales of Old Japan. — London: Macmillan and Co., 1883). Ref.: Art shop Ezoshi Ukiyoe new collection news, vol. 66, 2023.1 (Jan) # 31, p.8.  
  • Title: FABLES | DE | M. DE FLORIAN , | de l’académie françoise, de celles de Madrid , | Florence, etc. | — | Je tâche d'y tourner le vice ridicule , | Ne pouvant l'attaquer avec des bras d'Hercule. | La Font. Fables , liv. V , I. — | [publisher's device ] | A PARIS, | DE L'IMPRIMERIE DE P. DIDOT L'AINÉ, | 1792. Pagination: ffl, [2 - h.t. / Imp.] [2 - blank / frontis.] [2 - tp. / blank] [5] 6-224 [2 - advert. / blank], bfl. Collation: numbered 1(5), 2-18(6), 19(3); engarved frontispiece portrait of Florian after François Hüet-Villiers, 5 engraved plates by Longueil, Delignon, and Gaucher after Flouest. Binding: Contemporary full mottled calf, all margins red, gilt floral ornaments to flat spine, red label with gilt lettering. Catalogue raisonné: Cohen, de Ricci 1912: p. 398-9.
  • Title: GIACOMO CASANOVA | Chevalier de Seingalt | HISTORY OF MY LIFE | FIRST TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH IN ACCORDANCE | WITH THE ORIGINAL FRENCH MANUSCRIPT | By Willard R. Trask | With an Introduction by the Translator | VOLUMES 1 AND 2 | A Helen and Kurt Wolff book • Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966 | NEW YORK || Stated 1st edition. Pagination: [2 blank] [i-iv] v-viii, [1, 2] 3-330 [8 blanks] + 32 ills. Two volumes in one.
  • First MGM edition, original maroon cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold with decorations and lettering, partially darkened, wrap-around dust-jacket, chipped and torn near the head of spine with some loss, small chip and larger closed tear to lower panel. Photoplay edition. Film tie in edition for the 1926 French silent film which does not exist at this time in a full version. The front and rear panels depict scenes from the film. Bleiler (1978), p. 161. Not in Reginald (1979; 1992). Pagination: [2] – blank / advert., [2]  – t.p. / coloph., [4] –advert.  / editor's note, [2] – advert. / blank, [13] 14-251 [252: printer's imprint] [2] – blanks, note: [first and last leaves used as front and rear paste-downs]. Dimensions: 17 x 10.7 cm. Publisher: The Readers Library Publishing Company Ltd. (London). Publishing Year: 1927 (not indicated). Description of Shapero Rare Books, London: An attractive copy from this popular series of film editions, notable for their use of actors and scenes from the film version in question on the wrap-around dust-jacket, and sometimes photographic plates. A number of the film-makers involved were exiles from the Russian Revolution of 1917. The film's art direction was by Eduardo Gosch (Russian, American, 1890 – ?), César Lacca, Alexandre Lochakoff (Russian, French, fl. 1918–1939), Vladimir Meingard and Pierre Schild [Lakka Schildknecht] (Russian, Spanish, 1897 – 1968) who recreated the atmosphere of mid-nineteenth century Tsarist Russia. “Jules Verne has written no better book than this, in fact, it is deservedly ranked as one of the most thrilling tales ever written." Leonard S. Davidow, Classic Romances of Literature, 1937.
     
  • Title in black and red: LIFE IN ENGLAND | in Aquatint and Lithography | 1770—1860 | ARCHITECTURE • DRAWING BOOKS | ART COLLECTIONS • MAGAZINES | NAVY AND ARMY • PANORAMAS ETC. | FROM THE LIBRARY OF J. R. ABBEY | — | A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL | CATALOGUE | — | LONDON | PRIVATELY PRINTED | AT THE CURWEN PRESS | 1953 || Pagination: 2 blank leaves, [2] – limited edition 114 of 400 / blank, [i, ii] – h.t. / blank, [2] blank / frontis., [iii, iv] – t.p. / printer, v – contents, [vi] –blank, vii-ix – list of plates, [x] – blank, xi-xiii – list of ill., [xiv] – blank, xv-xxi – preface, xxii – blank; [1, 2] f.t. / blank, 3-427 [428], 2 blank leaves. Binding: Hardcover, 32 x 25.5 x 6.5 cm; brown cloth, red label with gilt lettering to spine, tan DJ with lettering to front and spine.