PYRB AT FIRSTS-LONDON-26 | PY Rare Books

Image for A. GRIBOEDOV. Gore ot Uma [Woe from Wit]. St. Petersburg, 1854. Rare small-format edition. #2

Wit in your pocket - with wrappers

Gore ot uma. Komediia v chetyrekh deistviiakh, v stikhakh [Woe from Wit. A Comedy in Four Acts in Verse]

Tip. Shtaba Voenno-Uchebn. Zaved., Skt Peterburg, 1854. £2,500

Rare small-format edition of this famous masterpiece of Russian theatre, a lovely copy with its original wrappers. No copy traced in WorldCat.

Image for LEIMAN. Panorama of Tuapse. Photographic panels, 1911. #2

Extremely rare and very long view of a Black Sea port

[LEIMAN (attributed to)]

Panorama of Tuapse

[Southern Russia, ca. 1911]. £1,950

A small Russian port on the Black Sea with railway works and development: an informative and very rare photographic panorama, impressively long: almost 1.9 metre!

Image for H. BRINDLEY. Notes on the Boats of Siberia. First edition (offprint), London 1920. #2

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.

Image for P. RYCHKOV. Essay on the History of Kazan. First edition, in original Russian, St. Petersburg, 1767. #2

First edition of a groundbreaking work on one of Russia's major regions

RYCHKOV, Petr

Opyt kazanskoi istorii drevnikh i srednikh vremian [Essay on the History of Kazan in Ancient Times and the Middle Ages]

Akad. Nauk, Skt. Peterburg, 1767. £10,000

A major work in Catherine the Great's active discovery of her empire: the first printed book on Kazan, its history and the Tatar region. First edition, in contemporary binding. Rare: the last copy at auction in the West was 50 years ago.

Image for SARYKULOVA. Grafika Kazakhstana. First edition, Antoshchenko-Olenev's copy. Alma-Ata, 1967. #2

Kazakh art by a woman art historian - with provenance

SARYKULOVA, Gul-Chara [Abutalipovna]

Grafika Kazakhstana [Graphic art of Kazakhstan]

Izd. 'Nauka' Kaz. SSR ['Nauka' publishing house of the Kazakh SSR], Alma-Ata, 1967. £1,750

A groundbreaking work on art from Kazakhstan, written by a major female figure of Kazakh art history - this copy with great artistic provenance. First edition, uncommon, a choice copy.

Image for S. COLLINS. Present State of Russia. First edition, London, 1671. #2

Drunk "very unhandsome" Circassian ladies and Russian mushrooms

[COLLINS, Samuel]

The Present State of Russia, in a Letter to a Friend at London, written by an eminent person residing at the great czars court at Mosco [sic] for the space of nine years

John Winter for Dorman Newman, London, 1671. £3,000

Great (if often negative) early account of pre-petrine Russia, with an important portrait of Tsar Alexei and a famous chapter on mushrooms - among many other remarks and anecdotes. Attractive example of the first edition.

Image for V. SMIRNOV. Turkish Legends... First edition in the original Russian. St. Petersburg, 1897. #2

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.

Image for Th. GAUTIER. Russia. Philadelphia, 1905. #2

A striking copy

GAUTIER, Théophile

Russia

The John C. Winston Co., Philadelphia, 1905. £850

Impressive American publication, here in fantastic condition, bringing to the English-speaking reader an account of Russia by one of the great French authors.

Image for P. SVININ. Ezhedn. zapiski v Londone. First edition, Skt. Peterburg, 1817. #2

The first Russian book on the UK and its capital, and the start of Russian anglomania

SVININ, Pavel Petrovich

Ezhednevnyia zapiski v Londone [A Daily London Notebook]

Sanktpeterburg, V tipografii Imperatorskago Vospititel'nago doma, 1817. £4,750

Rare first edition of this little book giving the London impressions of a keen Russian observer, just after Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign. A fascinating read on many various themes. With interesting aristocratic provenance.

Image for F. DOSTOEVSKY, Zapiski iz mertvago doma. First edition, in Russian, St. Petersburg, 1862. #2

An "unsurpassed work of Russian and world literature" (Lenin)

DOSTOEVSKY, Fedor

Zapiski iz mertvago doma [Memoirs from the House of the Dead]

Iosafat Ogrizko, Skt. Peterburg, 1862. £6,750

First complete edition of Dostoevsky's famous work, here in a contemporary Russian binding and good condition.

Image for E. ZICHY. Travels to the Caucasus and Central Asia. First edition, in French and Hungarian. Budapest, 1897. #2

Extensive ethnography of the peoples of the Caucasus

ZICHY, Eugene [Jenő], Dr. Jean [Janos] JANKO and Dr. Bela POSTA

Kaukaìzuri eìs Közeìpaìzsiai utazaìsai. Voyages au Caucase et en Asie Centrale : La Migration de la race Hongroise [et] La Description des collections

V. Hornyanszky for G. Ranschburg, Budapest, 1897. £1,950

Fine copy of this great scholarly work on the population of the Caucasus, richly illustrated. First edition.

Image for HERBERSTEIN, ODERBORN and others. Rerum Moscoviticarum. Francfort, 1600. In contemporary binding. #3

Russia in the 16th century Russia - with the three maps

HERBERSTEIN, Sigismund von, Paulo GIOVIO, Paul ODERBORN and others

Rerum Moscoviticarum auctores varii, unum in corpus nunc primum congesti

Francofurti, Cl. Marnius & Ioann. Aubrius, 1600. £6,500

Important edition gathering Herberstein's famous description of early Russia together with other related works, to give a wide-ranging understanding of Muscovy. With aristocratic provenance, in contemporary binding, and complete with its famous illustrations and maps, including Moscow's first printed plan.

Image for WEYDEMEYER. Tableaux...de l'Empire de Russie. First edition, St. Petersburg, 1828. #2

Mapping Russia's history and development for an international audience

WEYDEMEYER, Alexandre de

Tableaux historiques, chronologiques, geographiques et statistiques de l'Empire de Russie, avec une carte généalogique

Pluchart for Bellizard and others, St. Petersbourg, 1828. £3,250

First edition of this impressive wide-ranging work, finely printed by Pluchart in St. Petersburg. A scarce publication, with a wealth of information on the Russian empire up to Pushkin's time.

Image for RAFFET and DEMIDOFF. Voyage dans la Russie méridionale... First edition, Paris, 1840. #2

Southeastern Europe in a signed full-morocco binding

DEMIDOFF, Anatole de, and Auguste RAFFET (artist)

Voyage dans la Russie méridionale et la Crimée par la Hongrie, la Valachie et la Moldavie exécutée en 1837

Paris, E. Bourdin, 1840. £2,500

Appealing copy of this classic travel account, here in first edition.

Image for Gd Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich ROMANOV. Musical Sketches, Potpurri. Manuscript, 1888. #2

La Marseillaise, European operas, and romantic Russian songs

[ROMANOV, Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich] – TSVETKOV M. and Vasilii KITAEV (artist)

Muzykalnyia stsenki. Popuri [Musical Sketches. Potpourri]

Skt. Peterburg, [8 November] 1888. £8,750

An interesting compilation of various international and Russian music, all manuscript, with a lovely watercolour title page and all kept in a refined master binding: a very attractive imperial portfolio made for the Grand Duke. Very rare.

From amber mining to sable hunting on ski

BRAND, Johann Arnold von

Reysen durch die Marck Brandenburg, Preussen, Churland, Liefland, Peßcovien, Groß-Naugardien, Tweerien und Moskovien […] anbey Eine Seltsame und sehr Anmerckliche Beschreibung von Siberien […]

Duisburg, Johannes Sas, for Jacob von Wesel, Wesel, 1702. £4,250

A very rich and overlooked 17th-c. travel account, with quantity of original material on Lithuania, Latvia, Russia and Siberia, including music and songs in the vernacular, as well as many engraved plates, especially on amber mining, sable hunting on ski and Easter celebrations in Moscow. A rare Rossica.

Image for C. de PEYSSONEL. Traité sur le commerce de la Mer Noire. First edition, Paris, 1787. #2

Production, trade and customs in Southern Eastern Europe

PEYSSONEL, Charles de

Traité sur le commerce de la Mer Noire

Laporte for Cuchet, Paris, 1787. £1,950

Fascinating account of the trade and business in Southern Russia and the Black Sea in the 18th century - with a wealth of details and personal comments. First edition, not common.

Image for GOGOL. Mertvie dushi [Dead Souls]. First edition. Moscow, 1842 #2

Gogol's masterpiece with "All of Russia"

GOGOL, Nikolai

Pokhozhdeniia Chichikova, ili Mertvyia dushi. Poema [The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls. A Poem]

Universit. Tip., Moskva, 1842. £39,500

A pinacle of humour and Russia's second great novel (after Lermontov's 'Hero of our Times'), here in a fine example of the first edition, with the very rare and famous upper wrapper.

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