//18th century
  • Title page: JOHN LANDWEHR | ROMEYN DE HOOGHE | (1645-1708) | AS BOOK ILLUSTRATOR | A BIBLIOGRAPHY | {space} | 1970 | AMSTERDAM: VANGENDT & CO | NEW YORK: ABNER SCHRAM || Pagination: [1-6] 7-247 [248 blank], ils. Content:109 entries, concordance table and 12 pp. of indices. Binding: 27.3 x 19.7 cm, green cloth, silver lettering to spine, pictorial dust jacket. ISBN: 90 6300 467 2. Contributors: Romeyn de Hooghe (Dutch, 1645 – 1708) John Landwehr – author.

    Van Gendt & Co. (Amsterdam) – publisher.

    Abner Schram Ltd. (NY) – publisher.    
  • Softcover, in pictorial wrappers, 28 x 21.8 cm, 37 entries, with colour illustrations. Catalogue of the sales exhibition on March 3 - April 5, 2008 in NY; pagination: [1-3] 4-102 [2], ils. Contributor: Sebastian Izzard
  • Hardcover, 24 x 16 cm, bound in quarter black calf over marbled boards, raised bands and gilt lettering to spine, printed on Van Gelder Zonen laid paper with wide margins, bottom and fore edge untrimmed, pp. [i-viii] ix-xiv, [2] 3-89 [90], total 104 pages, two flyleaves, frontispiece in colour with captioned tissue guard, and 28 b/w plates; total 83 leaves. Title-page: A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE | OF AN EXHIBITION OF | JAPANESE | FIGURE PRINTS | FROM | MORONOBU TO TOYOKUNI | BY | LOUIS V. LEDOUX | {publisher’s device} | NEW YORK | THE GROLIER CLUB | 1924 || Edition: 1st edition limited to 300 copies on Van Gelder Zonen paper in April, 2024. Exhibition from January 25 to March 3, 1923, at the Grolier club. Library of Congress Control Number: 23009175 OCLC Number: 2583847 Louis Vernon Ledoux (American, 1880 – 1948)
  • Two-volume large paper edition with 20 plates in two states. Vol. 1 (with plates). Title : CONTES | ET | NOUVELLES EN VERS. | PAR | JEAN DE LA FONTAINE. | — | TOME PREMIER| {vignette “P.P. Choffard 95”} | A PARIS, | DE L’IMPRIMERIE DE P. DIDOT L'AÎNÉ. | L’AN III DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE. | M. DCC. XCV. || Pagination: [2] [i-iv] v-vii [viii], 1-280 [2 table] [2], total 294 pages, ils. Collation: 4to; 1 blank, π43a signed “a”), 1-354 361, 1 blank, total 147 leaves, plus 40 leaves of plates with tissue guards, after Fragonard and others, which represent 20 engravings, each in two states, before and after letters, besides №9 (Le Calendrier des Vieillards by Jean Dambrun after Fragonard), which has two identical copies, both before letters. Vol. 2. (without plates) Title: same, but TOME SECOND. Pagination: [2] [4] 1-334 [2], total 342 pages. Collation: 4to; 1 blank, π2 1-414 423 1 blank, total 167 leaves. Binding:  Two volumes uniformly bound in crimson straight-grain morocco, ruled in gilt, gilt-decorated flat spine with lettering, board edges and turn-ins tooled with gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, three bookplates to front pastedown, top edge trimmed, 2nd volume partly uncut; text and plates printed on thick Dutch wove paper. Size: volumes: 33.3 x 25.2 cm; leaves: 31.5 x 23.5 cm. Provenance: Bishop, Cortlandt Field (American, 1870 – 1935) – bookplate. Mary S. Collins – bookplate by J. H. Fincken. Robin F. Satinsky (American, 1919 – 2008) – Robin Collection bookplate. Catalogue raisonné: Ray (French): 133-137; Cohen-DeRicci 573-582 ; Lewine : 281-282. CONTRIBUTORS: Jean de La Fontaine (French, 1621–1695) – author. Pierre Didot (French, 1761–1853) – publisher, printer. Artists: Jean-Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806) Jean Baptiste Mallet (French, 1759–1835) Jacques Louis François Touzé (French, 1747–1807) Charles Monnet (French, 1732–after 1808) Engravers: Jacques Aliamet (French, 1726–1788) Jean Dambrun (French, 1741–about 1808) Jean Louis Delignon (French, 1755–about 1804) Jean Baptiste Michel Dupréel (French, active 1787–1817) Louis Michel Halbou (French, 1730–1809) Charles Louis Lingée (French, 1748–1819) Charles Emmanuel Jean Baptiste Patas (French, 1744–1802) Jean Baptiste Simonet (French, 1742–1813) Jean Baptiste Tilliard (French, 1740–1823) Philippe Trière (French, 1756–about 1815) Pierre-Philippe Choffard (French, 1730–1809) – t.p. vignette PLATES (collation order): №8: Fragonard / Trière – La Gageure des trois Commères №1*: Fragonard / Lingée – Joconde №1**: Mallet / Trière – Joconde №2: Fragonard / Delignon – Le Cocu battu et content №3: Fragonard / Tilliard – Le Mari confesseur №4: Fragonard / Dambrun – Le Savetier №5: Fragonard / Lingée – Le Paysan qui avait offensé son Seigneur №9: Fragonard / Dambrun – Le Calendrier des Vieillards №10: Fragonard / Aliamet – A Femme avare galant Escroc №12: Fragonard / Halbou – Le Gascon puni №11: Fragonard / Patas – On ne s’avise jamais de tout №13: Monnet / Tilliard – La Fiancée du roi de Garbe №14: Fragonard / Dupréel – La Coupe enchantée №15: Fragonard / Tilliard – Le Faucon №17: Fragonard / Patas – Le Pâté d’Anguilles №18: Fragonard / Tilliard – Le Magnifique №19: Fragonard / Delignon – La Matrone d’Ephèse №20: Fragonard / Patas – Belphégor №22: Touzé / Simonet – Le Glouton №26: Touzé / Lingée – Le Baiser rendu
  • Softcover, pictorial wrappers, square 21 x 21 cm, 40 leaves, unpaginated, with illustrations in colour, 77 entries, with price list laid in; limited edition of 700 copies. Contributor: Israel Goldman Prints in this collection:
    Isoda Koryūsai . Prosperous Flowers of the Elegant Twelve Seasons: young couple making love while older man sleeps. [Shunga]. 1773

    SVJP-0039.2015: Isoda Koryūsai. Kikuzuki (the ninth month) from the series Furyu juniki no eiga (Prosperous flowers of the elegant twelve months) / Chuban, early 1770s; #7 in the catalogue.

    SVJP-0180.2014: Torii Kiyomitsu II. Kintaro with a boar, rabbit, and tanuki / Oban, c. 1805; # 15 in the catalogue.

  • Softcover volume, 33 x 26 cm, collated in folio, not bound, in publisher’s French flapped pictorial wrappers, lettering to spine; printed on thick wove Arches paper watermarked “MBM”, upper edge trimmed, owner’s blind stamp to h.t. “Ex Libris Comte Tony de Vibraye”, glassine dust jacket, in a slipcase. Collation: π2 1-262, total 54 leaves, plus 4 leaves in wrappers, plus 10 plates, incl. frontispiece; coloured aquatints after Sylvain Sauvage; coloured etched vignette to front wrapper, gilt woodcut to back wrapper, woodcut title-page and woodcut headpiece after the same. Pp.: [4] [1] 2-102 [2]. Front wrapper (gilt and black): LA NUIT & LE MOMENT | {vignette} | OU | LES MATINÉES DE CYTHÈRE | PAR | MONSIEUR DE CRÉBILLON LE FILS | || Title-page (woodcut): CRÉBILLON LE FILS | | LA NUIT ET LE MOMENT | OU | LES MATINÉES | DE CYTHÈRE | {vignette} | A PARIS | AUX DEPENS D'UN AMATEUR | | M CM XXIV || Limitation: De cette édition il a été tiré un exemplaire unique sur japon impérial comportant dix aquarelles originales, deux cents trente exemplaires sur vélin d' Arches numérotés 1 à 230, dont les dix premiers avec une suite de hors texte sur japon. N° 1 [Print run limited to 230 copies on Arches plus a unique copy on Japon with original watercolours, this is copy № 1 on wove paper]. Seller’s description: La Nuit et le moment ou Les Matinées de Cythère. Paris, Au dépens d'un amateur, 1924. In-4, en feuilles, non rogné, couverture illustrée et étui. Ouvrage illustré de 4 gravures sur bois et de 10 eaux-fortes libres en couleurs hors texte de Sylvain Sauvage. Tirage à 231 exemplaires, celui-ci le n°1 sur vélin d'Arches. Manque la suite de hors texte sur japon. De la bibliothèque du Comte Tony de Vibraye, avec cachet à froid. Dutel, n°2062. Catalogue raisonné: honesterotica.com; Dutel III 2062. Contributors: Claude-Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon [Crébillon fils] (French, 1707 – 1777) – author. Sylvain Sauvage [Félix Roy] (French, 1888 – 1948) – artist. Provenance: Antoine Henri Gaston Hurault de Vibraye [Comte Tony de Vibraye] (French, 1893 – 1951)
  • Description: Quarter red buckram over paper boards with fleur-de-lis diaper, 25.9 x 17.2 cm, gilt lettering to spine, in a cardboard slipcase, bookplate to front pastedown “EX LIBRIS | William Farrell Smith || Title-page: FRANÇOIS MARIE AROUET DE VOLTAIRE | Candide | OR | OPTIMISM | — | Translated from the French by Richard Aldington | With an Introduction by Paul Morand | and twenty illustrations in colour | by Sylvain Sauvage | — | LONDON 1939 | The Nonesuch Press || Pagination: [i-vi] (h.t., frontis., t.p.) vii-xix [xx] [1-2] 3-147 [148], ils. within colation, total 168 pages. Colophon: "This edition of Candide has been composed in Monotype Cochin at the Fanfare Press London to the design of Francis Meynell. It was printed by the Imprimerie Prolat Frères at Mâcon in France on paper especially made at the Rives mills, and the illustrations by Sylvain Sauvage were reproduced by G. Duval and the Imprimerie Beaufumé in Paris". Illustrations: 10 full-page plates and 10 in-text stencil-coloured collotype reproductions by Georges Duval after drawings by Sylvain Sauvage. Contributors: François-Marie Arouet [Voltaire] (French, 1694 – 1778) – author. Richard Aldington (British, 1892 – 1962) – translator. Paul Morand (French, 1888 – 1976) – author (introduction). Sylvain Sauvage [Félix Roy] (French, 1888 – 1948) – artist. Fanfare Press (London) – printer. Francis Meynell (British, 1891 – 1975) – book designer. Imprimerie Protat Frères (Mâcon) – printer. Imprimerie Beaufumé (Paris) – printer (ils.) Georges Duval (active mid-20th century) – printer (ils.) Nonesuch Press – publisher. Provenance: William Farrell Smith (American, 1932 – 2009)
  • Hardcover, 31 x 24 cm, red paper with black and white lettering to front cover and spine, pictorial endpapers, pictorial dust jacket; pp.: [1-8] 9-336, profusely illustrated in colour. Title-page (black and red): Japanese | woodblock prints | ARTISTS, PUBLISHERS AND MASTERWORKS | 1680 – 1900 | Andreas Marks {|} Foreword by Stephen Addiss | TUTTLE PUBLISHING | Tokyo • Rutland, Vermont • Singapore ||
  • Pictorial cloth boards, spiral-bound, pp.: 3 leaves: h.t., frontis., t.p., 1-326; 123 black & white plates within the pagination.

  • Softcover, in pictorial wrappers, 28 x 21.7 cm, 25 entries, with colour illustrations, some folding. Catalogue of the sales exhibition on March 28 -April 7, 2006, in NY; pagination: [2] 3-61 [62 blank [2], ils. Contributor: Sebastian Izzard
  • Hardcover, 26.2 x 20.3 cm, quarter blue cloth over pictorial boards, pictorial endpapers, collated in-8vo, 1-58 64, pp.: [2] 3-87 [88], total 44 leaves with in-text woodcuts plus 8 leaves of colour plates (14 illustrations printed on both sides) and colour frontispiece (blank recto) after Gustave Doré. The story was written by Rudolf Erich Raspe in English and published anonymously in book form in Oxford in 1786 under the title Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his marvellous travels and campaigns in Russia, etc. The French translation from German of Gottfried August Bürger was performed by Théophile Gautier and published by Charles Furne in Paris in 1862 with illustrations after Gustave Doré – 158 wood engravings, including a frontispiece, 1 vignette on the title, 31 full-page plates and 125 vignettes in the text). Korney Chukovsky retold the Raspe story in Russian using the Būrger-Gautier version of the text, changing the order, time, and location of events. In addition, artist Yuri Syrnev (Ю. А. Сырнев) coloured Dore's woodcuts, and the book was born (first edition in 1928). Title-page (black and yellow earth): Э. РАСПЭ | ПРИКЛЮЧЕНИЯ | {vignette} | МЮНХАУЗЕНА | С ИЛЛЮСТРАЦИЯМИ | ГУСТАВА | ДОРЭ |  • | ДЛЯ | ДЕТЕЙ | ПЕРЕСКАЗАЛ К.ЧУКОВСКИЙ | • | ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО ДЕТСКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ | НАРКОМПРОСА РСФСР | Москва 1945 Ленинград || Colophon: Для младшего возраста | РАСКРАСКА ВКЛЕЕК, ТИТУЛ И ОБЛОЖКА | худ. Ю. Сырнева | Издание десятое || Edition: 10th Russian edition thus. Print run: 11,000 copies. Contributors: Rudolf Erich Raspe (German, 1736 – 1794) – author. Korney Chukovsky [Корней Иванович Чуковский, Николай Корнейчуков] (Russian, 1882 – 1969) – translator. Gustave Doré (French, 1832 – 1883) – artist. Юрий Аркадьевич Сырнев (Russian, 1905 – 1943) – artist. Fictional author: Baron Munchausen [Baron Münchhausen] / Karl Friedrich Hieronymus von Münchhausen (German, 1720 – 1797).  
  • Two volumes, 168 x 106 mm each, uniformly bound in faux mottled calf ruled in gilt, marbled endpapers. Vol. 1: 3 blank leaves of wove paper, 3 blank leaves of laid paper, half-title/blank, blank/frontispiece, ‘engraved’ t.p./blank, both printed on laid paper watermarked “ARCHES A LA | MAIN”; ‘letterpress’ t.p.,/blank, pp.: [1] 2-115 [116 blank], 3 blank leaves of laid paper, 3 blank leaves of wove paper; collated 12mo: π2 A-I6 K4; total 60 leaves plus 16 ‘engraved’ plates, incl. t.p. and frontis. Vol. 2: 3 blank leaves of wove paper, 3 blank leaves of laid paper, half-title/blank, blank/frontispiece, ‘engraved’ t.p./blank, no watermark, ‘letterpress’ t.p.,/blank, pp.: 1-77 [78 blank], 2 blank leaves of laid paper, 3 blank leaves of wove paper; collated 12mo: π2 A-F6 G3; total 41 leaves plus 24 ‘engraved’ plates, incl. t.p. and frontis. Dutel (I): A-1089, p. 325: in-8 (probably by size only, no formula suggested), pagination 115 and 77 as here, 2 frontispieces, 2 engraved titles dated 1873, “et 36 belles gravures de Binet”. Cohen-DeRicci: p. 734 bottom: in-12, no pagination, no formula. "Thérèse" was offered by a French seller user-75d14f4 on the online auction platform CATAWIKI in December 2021. The seller's description of this two-volume set was: "Re-edition, the date of which I was unable to determine. (London, no name, 1782) 2 duodecimo volumes of 115 and 77 pp., very lovely marbled sheepskin pastiche bindings, gilded triple fillets, adorned spines, black title labels. This classic of 18th-century clandestine erotica was written in 1748 by an author who has remained anonymous, attributed at the time to Montigny, which led to his internment in the Bastille. It is now attributed to the Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens. Edition illustrated with 37 very unrestrained figures, engraved in intaglio after Borel, unsigned." I should have paid more attention to the first phase, about the re-edition, but I didn't. After a few bidding rounds, I won the book when the hammer price was 2,200 Euros. On the 28th of December, 2021, I paid for this little beauty $2,760. The book arrived a few days later.  The paper's quality and texture, the watermark, the absence of the platemark, and the lack of embossing on the back (text and plates) made me suspect it was a fake. The pages were absolutely flat to the touch!  I established clear evidence of a high-resolution 'xerox' copy using Celestron Micro Capture Pro micro-photography.  I wrote to the seller and the auction platform, explaining my doubts regarding its authenticity. To prove my point, I include a few micro photos of the "Thérèse" and some books printed at the end of the 18th century. I explained why I considered it a fake and requested a return/refund. After two months of email exchanges, the seller and the platform refused to pay me back. Today is the 2nd anniversary of the purchase. I still have the book. To celebrate my carelessness, I included it in my library to warn fellow book collectors about buying from an unknown dealer via certain online auction platforms. Ref.: Bamber Gascoigne. How to Identify Prints: A Complete Guide to Manual and Mechanical Processes from Woodcut to Ink. — Thames and Hudson, 1995.

    Thérèse philosophe, 1783.

    Late 18th century books

    Books used for comparison: [LIB-2743.2021] Restif de la Bretonne. Les parisiennes, ou XL caractères généraux pris dans les mœurs actuelles, propres à servir à l’instruction des personnes-du-sexe / 4 vol. — Neufchâtel, et Paris: Guillot, 1787. [LIB-3027.2022] [Héliodore d’Emèse]. Amours de Théagènes et Chariclée: Histoire Éthiopique / 2 vol. — Londres [i.e. Paris]: [s.n.], 1743. [LIB-3252.2023] [Nicolas Chorier.] Le Meursius françois, ou entretiens galans d’Aloysia, orné de figures. — Cythere [i.e. Paris: Cazin], 1782. Below is a Xerox copy for comparison.