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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Extremely rare - with Russian America and its islands

EINERLING, Ivan Fedorovich

Uchebnyi atlas drevnei i novoi Rossii [Atlas of the Ancient and Modern Russia for Schools]
Voenno-tip. depo, Skt. Peterburg, [1838-1844]. £6,750

Very rare small-format school atlas showing the development of the Russian Empire during 1000 years, and its extent at its height. With original hand-colour. No other physical copies traced, including in Russia.

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The American Civil War for a Russian audience

VIGO ROUSSILLON, Francois-Paul, trans. Stankevich and Vitmer

Voennye sily Severo-Amerikanskikh Shtatov. Voina za nerazdelnost Soiuza (1861 - 1865) [The Military Forces of the North American States. War for the Integrity of the Union 1861-1865]
Skt. Peterburg, [Published with the support of the Military-Scientific Committee of the General Staff], 1868. £2,950

Exceedingly rare first book in Russian dealing with the American Civil War, illustrated with large folding maps. Apparently no copy in the USA of this first edition, only one outside Russia (in Rome).

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Russian verses at the Swedish court - in transliteration

[SPARWENFELD, Johan Gabriel]

Placzewnaja recz na pogrebenie […] ghossudarja Karolusa odinatsetogho [Oration in Russian on the Occasion of the Death of Charles XI of Sweden]
Stokoln [Stockholm], 1697. £4,750

An extremely rare and very intriguing publication, mixing Russian language, Latin types and Swedish political agenda at the end of the 17th century - just before the wars of Peter the Great and Charles XII. Apparently no copy in Russia; this being the second or third copy traced. A fine example.

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Rare children book - with "Cossacks regiments for the British army"

KITTLE, Samuel

A Concise History of the Cossacks: Including a Sketch of the Customs of the Greek Church
Lawrie & Co. Printers, Edinburgh, for Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh, W. Baynes and W. Kent, London, T. Johnson, Dublin, 1814. £750

A very rare and unusual publication during the Cossack enthusiasm in the UK following Napoleon's failure in Russia. Apparently no copies in America, only 3 in the British Isles and none at auction in the past 50 years.

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The ideal dacha on the Black Sea coast

GOLITSYN, V

Tsikhis-Dziri. Dachnoe mesto bliz Batumi [Tsikhis-Dziri: A Place for Summer Homes Near Batumi]
Tavartkiladze, Batumi, 1911. £750

A detailed publication advertising the dacha-lifestyle on the Georgian coast, a relatively recently conquered region - richly illustrated, with the folding map and much practical information. Very rare, with no copied traced in the West.

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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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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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Very rare poetry in Civil War – twice inscribed

EVANGULOV, Gerogii, G. A[STAKHOV], Liudmila BERIDZE, Riurik IVNEV, Konst. IUST, and Ivan IVANOV (artist)

Koster. Stikhi [Bonfire. Poems]
Vladikavkaz, Terkavtsentropechat, 1920. £2,250

Extremely rare provincial publication in the aftermath of the Civil War - a choice copy with the striking cover coloured and a double inscription to its artist.

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Avant-garde children book in post-revolutionary Petrograd

TUROVA, E[katerina] (artist) and Aleksei REMIZOV

Snezhok [Snowball]
Segodnia, Petrograd, [1918]. £2,500

Fine example of this rare, fragile edition of the Russian avant-garde, in the preferred version with original hand-colouring.

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Western (and Russian!) conquests with unexpected comments

RAZIN, Aleksei

Otkrytie Ameriki, Kamchatki i Aleutskikh ostrovov: Rasskazy dlia detei [Discovery of America, Kamchatka and the Aleutian Islands: Stories for Children]
Volf, Sankt. Peterburg, 1868. £2,500

Very rare and fascinating children book on the discovery of America and North Pacific, illustrated, with great comments on the conquest of America and other parts of the world. A lovely copy in original publisher's boards.

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Patriotic marches in 1920s Western Ukraine

YAROSLAVENKO, Ya[roslav]

Ukrainski marshi na trubnu orkhestru. Marsh Sichovykiv. Pershi Zaporozhtsi [Ukrainian Marches for Trumpet Orchestra. March of the Sich Riflemen. The First Zaporozhian Cossacks]
Muzychna Nakladnia "Torban", Lviv, [ca. 1927]. £450

Exceedingly rare edition, with no other copies found. An interesting production from a music publisher in early 20th-century Western Ukraine, then in Poland.

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How to fight various invaders

[UKRAINE]

Vporiad. Peredruk vydannia U.P.A. 1943 [The Drill. A Reprint of Publications by the UPA. 1943]
[Germany], 1946. £750

Extremely rare book explaining Ukrainian nationalists how to fight in the 1940s. Only one other copy traced.

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Pre-Soviet nationalists in post-Soviet Ukraine

[SHANKOVSKY, Lev]

Istoriia UPA [History of the UPA]
[Ukrainian SSR or Ukraine, early 1990s]. £475

Rare 'publication' -or samizdat- focusing on the history of its now famous Ukrainian resistance group. No other copy traced outside Ukraine.

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Avant-garde poetry just after the Revolution

KHLEBNIKOV, Velimir, R. IVNEV, S. SPASSKIY and others

Bez Muz: khudozhestvennoe periodicheskoe izdanie [Without Muses: Literary Magazine]
Nizhnii Novgorod, Krasnoe Znamia, [June] 1918. £850

Large-format poetry collection published in Nizhnii-Novgorod and including a first appearance of Khlebnikov, together with many avant-gardist poets. Very rare outside Russia.

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Extremely rare work on the Russian fleet, in an even rarer binding

NOS, Andrei

Nachalo dobrovolnago flota [The Beginning of the Voluntary Fleet]
Moskva, Rikhter, 1890. £2,750

A diplomatic gift from Nikolay II to the French President Felix Faure, in a great, striking binidng boasting the Russian flag. First edition of this fine illustrated work, very rare as only one other copy traced worldwide.

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Very rare production of a Ukrainian rotaprint

KOFF-LAIF, Rakhil Iosifovna

English penmanship. Angliiskaia kalligrafiia
Moskva, 1959, but Ukr. zaochnyi industrialn. tekhnikum, [Ukr. SSR, early 1960s]. £750

How to write English in the USSR, by a Jewish American teacher, produced in Ukraine and very rare such.

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Praised for its quality

SHEKSPIR [William SHAKESPEARE] and Apollon GRIGORIEV (translator)

Sheilok, Venetsianskii zhid [Shylock, The Merchant of Venice [or in this case] The Jew of Venice]
F. Stellovskii, Skt. Peterburg, 1860. £1,950

Very rare translation into Russian of Shakespeare 'Merchant of Venice'. An appealing example.

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