RUF [pseud. for Ruf Sozonovich ANANIN] (artist)
Kharbin v krivom zerkale [Harbin in a crooked mirror]
Witty depictions of the Russian diaspora in Harbin under Japanese occupation. A complete set of these fine postcards, within the printed wrappers: very rare so.
MARIN-DARBEL, Gustave Efranor, Mikhail MARKUS, Dr. JAEHNICHEN, Vasilii ZUBKOV and Christian LODER
A Sammelband of Five Works on the Cholera in Russia
Very rare pamphlets, all on the cholera in Moscow, bound together at the time: a lovely volume bringing together French, German and Russian, and witnessing the activity of the international medical community in Moscow in front of this new deadly threat.
BLIOKH, Ivan Stanislavovich [also Jan Gotlib BLOCH]
Sravnenie materialnogo byta i nravstvennogo sostoianiia naseleniia v cherte osedlosti evreev i vne ee: tsifrovyia dannyia i izsledovaniia po otnosheniiu k evreiskomu voprosu [Comparison of the Living Standards and Moral State of the Population within the Pale of Settlement and Outside: Digital Data and Research in Relation to the Jewish Question]
The condition of the Jewish settlements in the Russian empire: a fascinating analysis -and defence- through a wealth of data and their visual representation. An exceptionally rare Russian book of statistics with a political angle.
[BOUND WITH:]
Lateinisch-Rußisch und Teutsches Vocabularium. Latino-rossiiskaia i nemetskaia slovesnaia kniga.
[BOUND WITH:]
Poshlinnoi Tarif […]. Zoll-Tarif […]
An exceptional sammelband for Russo-German sea trade under the Germanophile Tsarina Anna Ivanovna, containing three rare and early Russian publications: the first bilingual editions of the new duty statute and of the customs tariff, together with a trilingual dictionary. A lovely, fresh example in contemporary binding.
Very rare fiist editoion of this travel to areas "almost completely closed to Europeans" (Vigasin): the first significant Russian publication on Central Asia, "the first geographic exploration of Uzbekistan" (Lebedev) with a detailed description of silk production, and most probably the first printed Russian-Persian vocabulary.
The first literary work wholly written in modern Ukrainian: a important edition of the main book written by "the father of modern Ukrainian literature" (Encycl. Britannica). This is the first edition authorised by the author and the first to include 4 parts, with a dictionnary of more than 1000 Ukrainian words. A very rare book: only two copies in WorldCat and no copy traced outside Russia and Ukraine in recent decades.
SHAFONSKII, Afanasiy Filimonovich
Opisanie morovoi iazvy… [Description of the Plague…in Moscow from 1770 to 1772]
A rare case of a Russian 18th-c. book in Mariia Fedorovna's library: the first Russian scientific work on the plague. An exceptional copy of a major work.
POE, Edgar Allan, and OUYDA [pseud. for Maria Louise RAME]
Izbrannye Razskazy [i] Dozhdlivyy Iyun [Selected Short Stories, and A Rainy June]
Very rare Poe curiosity, showing on the cover a portrait of....somebody completely different! Together with a short story by a female author.
An important and very rare work on superstitions and beliefs of the peoples of the Russian empire under Catherine the Great. With captivating paragraphs and descriptions. An attractive example of the first edition.
Very rare manuscript collection of theological and philosophical texts, including some forbidden by Catherine the Great's government in the 1780s. Very well preserved in its contemporary binding. With a poem authored most likely by the compiler of the manuscript and dedicated to the opening of the bronze horseman, the celebrated monument to Peter the Great inaugurated by Catherine in St. Petersburg.
HERVEY, James, and Elizaveta NILOVA (transl.)
Nadgrobnyia razmyshlenia [Meditations among the Tombs]
First Russian edition of an English 'graveyard' literary work: by a female translator, dedicated to a woman, and later confiscated by Catherine the Great. Very rare.
Very rare first Russian edition of Walter Scott's Paul's Letters to His Kinsfolk in Russian, published at the height of Pushkin's fame. No copy traced in the UK nor the USA.
PLATON [Petr LEVSHIN, later Metropolitan of Moscow]
Pravoslavnoe uchenie ili sokhrashchennaia khristianskaia bogosloviia, dlia Ego Imperatorskago Vysochestva … Tsesarevicha i Velikago Kniazia Pavla Petrovich.. [Orthodox Teaching, or Christian Theology Abridged, for His Imperial Highness…the Tsarevich and Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich].
First edition of this Catechism for Tsarevich Pavel, the "first textbook of Orthodox theology in Russia" by an important religious figure of 18th-c. Russia, whom Voltaire called "the Russian Plato". Very rare: no copy at auction and only 3 copies in libraries outside Russia.
IAZVINSKII, Aleksandr [actually Anton] Feliksovich
Sinkhronicheskiie tablitsy vseobshchei istorii, ukrashennyie 1500 portretami, sniatymi s medalei, sluzhashchiie k Khronograficheskomu atlasu A. Iazvinskogo [Synchronous Tables of the World History, decorated with 1,500 portraits copied from medals. A supplement to the chronographic atlas by A.Iazvinskii]
Very rare 'atlas' teaching world history without words, purely with images and visual memory: a very innovative teaching method in 19th-c. Russia, Poland, and Europe.
Six languages with 5 different fonts: a rare introduction to biblical story for children, printed on blue paper a lovely copy.
LORENS, D. G. [D. H. LAWRENCE] and Tatiana LESHCHENKO (transl.)
Liubovnik ledi Chatterlei [Lady Chatterley's Lover]
First edition in Russian of Lawrence's famous scandalous work, banned in the UK, USA and Soviet Union. An early translation by a talented Russian woman who went from Moscow to New York and to the GULAG (in that order), and inspired Solzhenitsyn. A lovely example, and very rare: no copy in Russian libraries, none in the UK, only two traced in WorldCat (Princeton and Syracuse).
Charming early Soviet ABC by a noted artist of natural history, in excellent condition and very rare: we could trace only one copy at auction (in Russia) and one in a public library (in Russia too).