Les Costumes du peuple polonais suivis d'une description exacte de ses moeurs de ses usages et de ses habitudes. Ouvrage pittoresque
ZIENKOWICZ, Leon Józef, Les Costumes du peuple polonais suivis d'une description exacte de ses moeurs de ses usages et de ses habitudes. Ouvrage pittoresque,G. Silbermann for Librairie Polonaise, Paris and Strasbourg, and Brockhaus, Leipzig , 1841.
Celebrated book on Polish (and Ukrainian, Lithuanian etc.) costumes, especially interesting for its political text and context, often overlooked. Plates with attractive hand-colour - a fine example of the first edition. Read More
FIDLER, Konstantin [also FIEDLER]
Slovo pokhvalnoe velikomu gosudariu Borisu Fedorovichu Godunovu
FIDLER, Konstantin [also FIEDLER], Slovo pokhvalnoe velikomu gosudariu Borisu Fedorovichu Godunovu,[Akad. Nauk], Sanktpeterburg , 1773.
Very rare first edition in Russian of this praise of Boris Godunov, with great and unusual provenance: Catherine the Great and Smirdin's famous lending library. A lovely example. Read More
ESENIN, Sergei, with Boris PASTERNAK, Andrei BELII et al
Iav. Stikhi
ESENIN, Sergei, with Boris PASTERNAK, Andrei BELII et al, Iav. Stikhi,[Iav, Moskva,] , 1919.
Exceptional association copy of these scandalous Russian imaginist poems, extensively inscribed by three co-authors – including Esenin - to a fourth one, Alexander Olenin. With Aristarkh Lentulov's striking cover bound in a very unusual cloth-and-wicker binding of the time. One of the best, if not the best example of this famous book of Russian poetry. Read More
Letopisets v litsakh o Tevtonstey brani na sloveni
USPENSKII, Vasilii Ivanovich, Letopisets v litsakh o Tevtonstey brani na sloveni,Bussel, Petrograd , [1915-16].
Complete set of this unusual war satire, written and illustrated in ancient Russian style. Rare when handcoloured, as here. Read More
BELZEN, Ia. Ia. (artist), Geroi Smutnogo Vremeni,Golos Rossiii, Berlin , 1921.
Very rare album of full-page satirical illustrations of the situation in Russia during the turbulent years of the Civil War. Published in Berlin in 1921, and particularly remarkbale for its even-handed swipe at all participants in the War. Only three copies traced in Western public institutions. Read More
MALTUS [Thomas Robert MALTHUS]
Opyt o zakone narodonaseleniya ili izlozhenie proshedshago i nastoyashchago deystviya etogo zakona na blagodenstvie chelovecheskago roda […]
MALTUS [Thomas Robert MALTHUS], Opyt o zakone narodonaseleniya ili izlozhenie proshedshago i nastoyashchago deystviya etogo zakona na blagodenstvie chelovecheskago roda […],Glazunov, Skt. Peterburg , 1868.
Scarce first Russian edition of a major landmark of economic literature, the Essay on the Principle of Population, first published in English in 1798. An interesting edition with much material added by the translator Bibikov. Read More
[DECEMBRISTS], Donesenie Varshavskogo komiteta,[Warsaw or St. Petersburg: probably at the Press of His Imperial Majesty's General Staff] , 1826.
Very rare first edition of this important report on the Decembrists' revoltof the end of 1825. A lovely copy with contemporary provenance. Only one example traced outside Russia. Read More
Sobranie stikhotvorenii, otnosiashchikhsia k nezabvennomu 1812 godu
[KUGUSHEV, Nikolai (ed.)] - Anna BUNINA, Gavrila DERZHAVIN, Nikolai KARAMZIN, Vasilii ZHUKOVSKII and others, Sobranie stikhotvorenii, otnosiashchikhsia k nezabvennomu 1812 godu,Moskva, Univ. Tip. , 1814.
A "most important monument of Russian culture and literature": one of the - if not the - first thematic anthologies of Russian poetry at the dawn of its Golden Age. An exceptional example, uncut in its original pink printed wrappers, of these very rare two volumes. Read More
[D'AGOULT, Charles (Attrib.)], Akh, kak vy glupy gospoda frantsuzy,Reshetnikov, Moskva , 1793.
Attractive example of this scarce anti-revolutionary tract, published when Catherine the Great was distancing herself from some consequences of the French philosophers' thoughts. In contemporary binding ith zig-zag Russian endpapers. Read More