The beginning of Soviet female champions

VONZBLEIN, Iu. and M. SHAMANOVA

Legkaia atletika dlia zheshchin [Athletics for Women]
Fizkultura i Sport, Moskva, Skt. Peterburg, 1930. £375

Lovely booklet on Soviet female athletes, written by a 22-y old champion, the first Soviet woman to obtain international success. Very rare first edition, with no copies traced in the Americas nor Europe.

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Dali's copy - with all copper plates and the book's maquette

[DALI] – ARRABAL, Fernando and Julius BALTAZAR [pseud. for Hervé LAMBION] (artist)

Cinco sonetos
Imprimerie Moderne de la Presse for André Biren, Paris, 1980. £4,250

Excellent, unique copy of this rare livre d'artiste, warmly inscribed to Dali, with much added material and in a fine Leroux binding. "Let us suppress all the excesses / murderers tyrants and alligators" (colophon)

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Manuscript copy of a hellish, banned satire

ASMODEUS [pseud. for Abbé Pierre QUESNEL]

Almanach du Diable contenant de prédictions tres curieuses et absolument infaillibles pour l'année 1737
Aux Enfers, 1737. £5,000

A lovely object, the holograph copy of a blasphemous text written by a priest and suppressed in France upon publication in the late 1730s. The Devil's Almanac!

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The first Russian steamboat - produced by a Scotsman

[BAIRD, Charles] – SUHR, Peter (artist, attrib. to)

Das St. Petersburger Dampfschiff [in pencil] [The St. Petersburg Steamboat]
[possibly Arnz, Düsseldorf, 1830s]. £1,500

Large representation of this innovative boat, one of the first passengers steamboats in the world with regular sea voyages. Very rare lithograph, before the letter and with contemporary hand-colouring, with no other copies traced in institutions.

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Read to Paul I at the French Academy in Paris

LAGARP and SEN-LAMBERT [LA HARPE, Jean-François de, and Jean-François de SAINT-LAMBERT]

Poslanie Lagarpa k grafu Andreiu Petrovichu Shuvalovu, o deistviiakh selskoi prirody i o poezii opisatelnoi. S prisovokupleniem razsuzhdenii o sem rode poezii.. [La Harpe's Epistle to Count Andrei Petrovich Shuvalov, about the Effects of Rural Nature and about Descriptive Poetry. With the Addition of Reflections on this Kind of Poetry]
Vsevolozhskii, Moskva, 1817. £1,150

Fine example, uncut, with wrappers, and with bibliophile provenance, of this text of literary criticism written for, and dedicated to, Count Shuvalov by one of the major French writers of the time. Rare, with no copy traced on the market in recent decades (including in Russia).

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With a fine artistic cover

ALAJALOV, Constantin (artist)

Fortune Magazine. Issue num. 5, vol. 5
Time Inc., New York, May 1932. £250

Fine issue of this famous large-format magazine, here in appealing condition with its artistic cover by the Armenian-American artist. Covering many various subjects in 1932, from Mussolini and US construction workers to horse racing and Toscanini in NYC.

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No amputations of hands anymore please

[ROMANIA]

Regulamentul organik [Organic Regulation]
Bucuresti, [Ion Eliade Radulescu], 1832. £2,950

Pleasant, crisp copy of this important legal text of modern Romania, published by a major literary figure. First edition, scarce.

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Chinese tea in Pushkin's Russia

[GASTRONOMY]

Preis-courant neuerhaltener, ausgesuchter, bester Chinesischer Thee die zu haben sind in den Magazinen der Kaufmanns Gregorius Marinin, in St. Petersburg
[Skt. Peterburg], 1843. £2,750

Extremely rare broadside boasting "the all-best" teas from China available at a merchant's in St. Petersburg. The poster contains much interesting information and is illustrated with many Asian scenes. Very fragile but in very good condition.

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Famous portraits luxuriously bound and with provenance

SORINE, Savely [Savelii Abramovich SORIN] (artist) and André SALMON

Portraits
Edition Ganymed, Berlin, 1929. £5,950

A large, famous publication showing the rich and famous of the roaring twenties: an attractive example of this uncommon publication, coming from a descendant of some of the people portrayed. With the maximum number of plates.

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Faience craze in imperial Russia

DZHUNKOVSKII, Vasilii Iakovlevich

Nastavleniie o delanii faiansovoi posudy, po preporucheniiu Volnago Ekonomicheskogo obshchestva, iz dostovernykh opytnykh sochinenii [Instruction on Making Faience Ware, by Assignment of the Free Economic Society, from Reliable Experimental Works, Collected by a Member of the Society]
Imperatorsk. tip., Skt Peterburg, 1814. £3,950

Extremely rare work, with no copy traced outside Russia. The first Russian book on faience, with an overview of the internatial state of knowledge in the field. Illustrated with a plate of an English oven. An attractive example, with contemporary provenance.

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Saint Petersburg's new palm house

FISCHER, Friedrich Ernst Ludwig von, and Carl Anton von MEYER

Sertum Petropolitanum seu icones et descriptiones plantarum, quae in horto botanico Petropolitano floruerunt Jardin de Saint-Pétersbourg
I. Fischer, St. Pétersbourg, and II. Typis Academiae Caesareae Scientiarum, 1846 and 1852. £4,500

Unusual work of Russian natural history, finely produced in Saint Petersburg and focusing on the Botanical Garden's Palm House there. In large format and with hand-coloured plates. First edition, rare.

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Important Indian text printed in Nova Goa

VASCONCELOS GUEDES DE CARVALHO, José de (translator and editor)

Leis de Manú, primeiro legislador da India [Laws of Manu, India's First Legislator]
Nova-Goa, Na Imprensa Nacional, 1859. £2,250

Scarce first edition of this major legal text of ancient India, here in its first Portuguese edition, printed in Nova Goa.

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From Sanskrit and Chinese, to Samaritan and Coptic

[TYPOGRAPHY]

Caratteri Orientali Esistenti nella Tipografia della R. Accad. dei Lincei
R. Accademia dei Lincei, Roma, 1889. £1,250

Extremely rare catalogue of oriental types used by the press of one of the most important scientific academy. In great condition - and only one other copy traced (in California).

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From the Tsarskoe-Selo palace library

DEL., C. F. P. [Charles-François-Paul DELANGLARD or Charlotte de LATOUR]

Oracles de Flore
Paris, Janet, 1825. £1,950

A fine example of this lovely edition, here in fresh, attractive condition with Russian imperial provenance. With 36 flowers on 6 plates, with original hand-colour.

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On one of the longest rivers in the world

BRINDLEY, Harold Hulme

Notes on the Boats of Siberia
Reprinted from 'The Mariner's Mirror', [London], [1920]. £395

Fine essay on Siberian boats, their history, construction, use etc., with illustrations. Very rare offprint.

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One of the great art collections in the world

BOTKIN, Mikhail Petrovich

Sobranie M.P. Botkina [The Collection of M.P. Botkin]
Skt. Peterburg, Golike i Vilborg, [1911]. £3,950

Lavish catalogue of this amazing art collection, now in the best museums of Russia. With more than 100 plates showing items from Byzantine, French, Italian, Caucasian cultures among others. A pleasant example of this volume, now very rarely seen on the market.

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By the first major Russian scholar of Turkey and the Ottoman empire

SMIRNOV, Vasilii

Turetskie legendy o sviatoi Sofii i o drugikh vizantiiskikh drevnostiakh [The Turkish Legends of St. Sophia and Other Byzantine Antiquities]
Boraganskii, Skt. Peterburg, 1897. £950

Fine copy of this large-format scholarly publication, bringing to the public for the first time an Ottoman manuscript kept in the then British Museum, especially remarkable for its detailed account of Constantinople.

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Fun, absurd, art and sport in the first years of the URSS

BABKIN K., M. NEKRASOV, A. ALEKSANDROV, V. SVETLISHIN and others

Nash Vestnik. Literaturno-sportivnyi zhurnal Kruzhka Fizicheskogo Razvitiia KFR [Our Newsletter. Literary and Sports Magazine of the Physical Development Club]
Vyshnii Volochek, Kruzhok Fizicheskogo Razvitiia KFR, 1921-23. £13,500

Exceptional manuscript describing sporting and other recreative activities in a small town of Russia immediately after the Civil War. A very entertaining read, mixing much information with humour and many illustrations.

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