[BARRIÉRA].
[Russia?], late XVIII [towards 1785?]. An exquisite manuscript in a delicately ornate contemporary binding, listing the main dates of the Russian history, starting from the year 839, the first mentioning of Russia, and finishing with the treaty of 1784 of the Russian Empire with the Ottoman Porte, validating the Russian cession of Crimea and the Kuban region. Spanning these 10 centuries, the landmark dates mostly cover military events, territorial conquests and lives of the Russian rulers, but also include religious, cultural and political themes, such as the 1649 publication of the famous Ulozhenie, Russia's first comprehensive code of laws, the foundation of St. Petersburg in 1703 and of its University and Academy in 1724. Some unusual and not-very-well known dates are also included, such as the year 1684 marking a "guerre entre les Russes et les Chinois", perhaps implying the Sino-Russian border conflict in 1652-1689 and culminating with the siege of fort Albazin on the Amur river in 1686 after which Russia gave up the disputed land to China. The first leaf has an inscription in ink, indicating that these tables with historic dates were written by some Barriéra, a tutor of Nicholas I, originally from the French city of Poitiers. Manuscript note on the first blanc leaf, indicating that this manuscript was written by ?Barriéra; From the estate of Geoffrey Elliott (1939-2021), banker of Russian descent, author of books on 20th-c. history. Acquired from Rodolphe Chamonal. Geoffrey and his wife Fay were noted collectors, especially of Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh and other literary figures. Russia, and Wars were also important themes: Geoffrey's grandparents were interned in a Siberian tsarist prison camp before the October Revolution, and he focused most of his published works on the Cold War. The Elliotts donated a significant part of their collection to the library of Leeds University in 2002, but kept the Russia-related items and continued to acquire a few works too, which we subsequently acquired. Sextodecimo (10.9 x 7.8 cm). Manuscript in brown ink, [2] blank, [18] text, [12] with empty ink frames and [10] blank leaves: in total [42] ll. Contemporary full olive morocco, covers with gilt rules, rollwork and fleurons, including fleurs-de-lys, flat spine with fleurons, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Spine extremities restored and discoloured to brown, some staining on boards and occasional rubbing; minor corner tear to a leaf without affecting the text, otherwise very fresh. Spine extremities restored and discoloured to brown, some staining on boards and occasional rubbing; minor corner tear to a leaf without affecting the text, otherwise very fresh. Contemporary full olive morocco, covers with gilt rules, rollwork and fleurons, including fleurs-de-lys, flat spine with fleurons, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers.
[MARBAULT, M. de, also MARBEAU].
[Rey?], Amsterdam, 1777. "Extremely detailed and worthy of study" (Lada-Mocarski): an early work on Russian commerce, containing a folding map depicting Alaskan islands, with the Russians' discoveries in the East Sea and America, including regions between the Kamchatka Peninsula and Alaska. Although approximate, it identifies Yakutia, the Kurils, 'Ile alakcha' and the Aleutians. Published anonymously and very likely written by M. de Marbault (also Marbeau, d. 1781), a secret diplomat (member of the "Secret du Roi") in the 1770s, this work "pays considerable attention to discoveries and trade between Kamschatka and America" (Howes). Giving a historic insight into the Russian expansion into Siberia and farther East and North, Marbault curiously notes that "until the present day, Russians kept in secret their discoveries to the east of Kamchatka" (our translation). He lists eight most significant islands from the Archipel du nord and briefly discusses their geographic details, populations and resources. Marbault not only focuses on Siberia and American Russia, but also includes important observations about the Russian trade through the Caspian, Black, White and Baltic Seas, the Chinese, Persian and French trade with Russia, the internal trade between regions, including Ukraine, "le paradis de l'empire" (Siberia being its "enfer"). He makes detailed comments on most Russian goods exported in 1767-69, including caviar, silk, fur and of course vodka, noting that it had been the government's main source of revenue in the internal trade: "Les eaux-de-vie sont la partie la plus lucrative & la plus considérable de tout le commerce intérieur de l'empire" (p. 54). Marbault illustrates his text with noteworthy tables giving export figures for each goods, followed by detailed calculations of expenses for merchants importing their goods to Russia. Being well aware of the differences between the customs on the European and Russian markets, Marbault writes about the local changes in business relations from the time of Peter the Great to Catherine II and thus offers his book as a guide to avoid fraudery and establish productive collaboration. He finally suggests that France would be an ideal trading partner for Russia, a position much defended by the French ambassador to Russia, Durand de Distroff, to whom Marbault was the secretary. A fine, fresh example of the first edition, with German royal provenance. "Rouen 1777"(small stamp to p. 1 with illegible contemporary signature); Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and King of Hannover (1771-1851; versos of half-title and title with stamp in red ink: "Suscipere et finire. Ex bibliotheca Ernesti Aug. Hannov. Regis"); From the estate of Geoffrey Elliott (1939-2021), banker of Russian descent, author of books on 20th-c. history. Geoffrey and his wife Fay were noted collectors, especially of Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh and other literary figures. Russia was also an important theme: Geoffrey's grandparents were interned in a Siberian tsarist prison camp before the October Revolution, and he focused most of his published works on the Cold War. The Elliotts donated a significant part of their collection to the library of Leeds University in 2002, but kept the Russia-related items, which we consequently acquired. Octavo (19.1 x 12.3 cm). Half-title, title, 299 pp., [1] p. t.o.c, with a folding map (17 x 10.3 cm) engraved by Croisey after Gerardin. Near contemporary marbled brown paper imitating tree calf, flat spine with gilt lines and orange paper label with gilt lettering. Slightly rubbed at extremities, minor closed tear to lower part of upper hinge, one corner a bit bumped; a marginal closed tear to map fold, very occasional light foxing, a crisp, fresh example. Lada-Mocarski 26, Howes M 270, Wickersham 1775. Mezin & Rjeoutski, Dictionnaire des Francais, Suisses, Wallons et autres francophones en Russie, II, 293 and 570. Slightly rubbed at extremities, minor closed tear to lower part of upper hinge, one corner a bit bumped; a marginal closed tear to map fold, very occasional light foxing, a crisp, fresh example. Near contemporary marbled brown paper imitating tree calf, flat spine with gilt lines and orange paper label with gilt lettering.
LISIANSKII, Yurii Feodorevich.
Morskaia Tip. [Naval Printing Office], Skt Peterburg, 1812. The very rare atlas to the first edition of Lisianskii's voyage, "a very important and rare work on the history of Alaska in general and Sitka in particular" (Lada-Mocarski). Lisianskii, commanding the Neva, participated in the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe under the command of Kruzenshtern. They sailed together until Hawaii (reached in June 1804) and then separated: while Kruzenshtern on his ship Nadezhda spent most of his time in Kamchatka and Japan, Lisianskii with Neva crossed to Sitka and Kodiak, and played an important role in Baranov's reoccupying the original Russian fort and settlement there. It had been previously overrun by Kolosh indians, who had massacred the entire garrison of the Russian-American Company. Lisianskiii was back to Kronstadt on July 22, 1806, nearly one month before Kruzenshtern (back on August 19); he became therefore the first Russian to complete a circumnavigation of the globe. This large atlas includes a double-page world map showing the route followed by both ships, but also previous Russian explorations, such as Chirikov's and Bering's. The detailed maps of the regions visited are printed on single or double-page, and three plates show local artefacts, including boats and dress, each with a figure indicating the scale of reduction - sometimes up to 16 times. The Neva arrived at Hawaii on June 8th, 1804. The atlas contains a map of Hawaii showing the whole island group, with the route of the ship showing that it coasted along the Kau coast of Hawaii, anchored in Kealakekua Bay, then continued along the Kona coast before heading to Waimea, Kauai, where it anchored. Hawaiian artefacts are also illustrated in one of the plates. Several maps give details of islands and bays of the Northern Pacific, including a double-page map of the coast of Russian America. Artefacts used by inhabitants of these regions are also reproduced. Rarity We could trace only two examples of the atlas at auction in the last half-century, including one in Russia. Forbes gives two locations: University of Hawaii and Yale University; to which we could add only five other ones outside Russia: the Rasmuson Library in Alaska, the Bancroft Library in California, the NY Public Library and the Bizzell Memorial Library in Oklahoma, together with an example at the BnF, apparently the only copy outside the United States. The Harvard copy lacks the atlas. We handled two other copies, which are both in private hands. We are not aware of any other example having come through the market in the last 15 years. Content This copy follows the list of maps and plates detailed by Lada-Mocarski and Forbes: twelve maps (plus three plates), with the maps of Easter Islands and of the Port of the Three Saints on a single sheet, and with the map of the Marquesas and Washington Islands on a single sheet. Obolianinov describes a variant, which we handled once: the same maps indeed, but with the maps of Easter Islands and of the Port of the Three Saints on two separate single sheets (his #5 and #11), and the map of the Marquesas and Washington Islands on a double spread. Lada-M. was aware of Obolianinov's description, but hadn't seen a copy. The maps and plates are: × Karta zemnago shara [Map of the World, double spread] × Karta [.] proliv, otdeliaiushchiy ostrov Sv. Ekateriny ot materago berega Brazili [Map of the Strait between the Island of St. Catherine and the Mainland of Brazil, single sheet] × Ostrov Rogeven ili Sv. Paskhi [Map of Easter Islands, here on a single sheet together with the following map, like Lada-M. and Forbes, unlike Obolianinov] × Gavan Trekh Svyatiteley [Map of the Port of the Three Saints, here on a single sheet together with the previous map] × Ostrova Markezskie i Vashingtonovy [Map of the Marquesas and Washington Islands, on a single sheet like Lada-M., unlike Obolianinov, where it is on a double-spread] × Ostrova Sandvichevy. Gubi Karekekui [Map of the Sandwich Islands, single sheet] × Karta Rossiyskikh Vladeniy v Severozapadnoy chasti Ameriki [Map of the Russian Possessions on the Northwest Coast of America, double spread] × Kadiak s okruzhaiushchimi ego ostrovami [Map of Kodiak and Surrounding Islands, double spread] × Zaliv Chiniatskoy i gavan Pavlovskaia [Map of Chiniat Bay, single sheet] × Zaliv Sitka [.] Novoarkhangelsk [Map of Sitka Bay, double spread; we handled another, ?earlier version without the two coast profiles in the lower left] × Ostrov Lisianskago [Map of Lisianskii Island, single sheet] × Karta proliva Zondskago [Map of Zond Strait, single sheet] × Karta prolivov Gasparskago i Bilintona [Map of Gaspar and Bilinton Straits, single sheet] × plate I: Veshchi, upotrebliamyia zhiteliami ostrovov Vashingtonovykh [Artifacts used by the inhabitants of Washington Islands, single sheet] × plate II: Veshchi, prinadlezhashchiia zhiteliam ostrovov Sandvichevykh; Veshchi, zhiteley Sintkenskikh; Veshchi, prinadlezhashchiia zhiteliam Ostrova Kadiaka [Artifacts and clothing used by the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands; of Sitka; of Kodiak, single sheet] × plate III: Objects (baidars, etc.), also picture of a flying fish, a bird, etc., taken from various points on this voyage. The flying fish is here represented in full scale. Single sheet. Lada-Mocarski and Forbes list an engraved portrait of Lisianskii after the title page. This portrait is not listed in Obolianinov (although he mentions it) and is not present here. Among the seven copies of the atlas in public libraries, only the copy of the University of Hawaii includes the portrait. In the case of Yale University, neither the atlas nor the text volumes include the portrait. In the other cases, the portrait was included in the text volumes rather than the atlas, which is consistent with the habit of early 19th-century Russian publishing to place a portrait as frontispiece to text volumes. Both other copies of the atlas we handled did not have this portra
ALTMAN, Natan.
Nar. Kom. po Prosveshcheniiu, Peterburg, 1921. In 1920, Altman was invited to the Kremlin to create a bronze portrait of Vladimir Lenin. To complete this task, he spent about six weeks with the Bolsheviks' leader, sketching his face and daily routine movements, such as sitting at the desk, reading, speaking on the phone and during meetings - apparently, Lenin did not have time or patience to deliberately pose for the portrait otherwise. The best sketches in preparation of the bronze bust eventually formed this booklet in which Lenin's facsimile signature is followed by ten reproductions of Altman's sketches: nine portraits and a view seen from the window of Lenin's office; each drawing is signed and dated "Nat. Altman, Moscow Kremlin, May 1920". All the sketches are rendered in realist style, unusual for Altman's 1920s art which manifests itself in his design of the suprematist cover - a fine example of Soviet avant-garde book art. Born in nowadays Ukraine to a Jewish family, Natan Altman (1889-1970) was a Soviet avant-garde artist, sculptor and book illustrator, who experimented in various modernist styles, significantly inspired by Jewish folk art. An ardent supporter of the Bolshevik revolution, he was a member of the main Soviet modernist art groups, including IZO-Narkompros (the Department of Fine Arts of the People's Commissariat for Education) and Kom-Fut (Communist Futurists), creating agitprop art and stage set designs. In 1928, Altman went on a tour in Europe with the Moscow State Jewish Theatre (GOSET) and remained in Paris until 1935. After his return to Russia in 1936, he was based in Leningrad, working mainly as a graphic designer and book illustrator, and trying to adhere to the party's new line, favouring socialist realism instead of modernism. Quarto (22.3 × 18.5 cm). Title, [2] ll., 10 plates, [2] ll. Original publisher's printed wrappers by Altman. Very slightly soiled and bumped at extremities, spine minimally restored; internally in very good condition. Moma 331. Very slightly soiled and bumped at extremities, spine minimally restored; internally in very good condition. Original publisher's printed wrappers by Altman.
French school of the 19th century.
Tiflis, 30 January 1852 An important and very unusual watercolour: the portrait of one of the most famous Caucasian leaders against Russia, drawn from life three months before his death, with a close connection to one of the most famous plates of Gagarin's Caucase Pittoresque. Indeed the ink inscription reads: "chez le Prince Gregoire Gagar[ine] / Hadji Mourad généralissime des armées de Chamyl / à Tiflis le 30 Janvier 1852 / dessiné d'après nature. [illegible signature]". The portrait is a full length depiction of a seated man wearing a heavy brown cherkeska coat, a long sword and a dagger hang down from his hip, on his head is a papakha woollen hat. Across his breast are the characteristic gazyrs, holding bullets or charge for a firearm. The pose is a near perfect match to that in which Hadji Murat is depicted by Prince Gagarine in plate LXVI of his monumental visual record of the region, Le Caucase Pittoresque. Though clearly in a less accomplished hand, there is also just a very slight perspective shift, as if this sketch was made just a step or two to the right of Gagarine's viewpoint. This, added to the inscription, places the image tangibly within the Prince's immediate circle of companions for this significant meeting with the famed Dagestani freedom fighter. By 1852 Murat was both a captive and a legend in the ongoing territorial campaigns of the Caucasian wars. Ethnically of the Avar tribe, he had achieved notoriety in his various rebel allegiances, most significantly with Imam Shamil, unifying many mountain tribes against Russian imperialism. His relationship with Shamil was not stable however, and once internal struggles of succession from within Shamil's camp made it no longer safe for Murat to remain, he defected to the Russian forces under the captaincy of General Vorontsov. Expecting to be immediately armed and dispatched against his former ally, Murat was rather held captive at Tbilisi, considered a trophy of the Russian campaign. Mere months after this portrait was painted, on May 5th 1852, Murat would be killed whilst attempting an escape. The romance of this captive warrior did not elude Prince Gagarine. In the textual accompaniment to his engraving for Caucase Pittoresque he describes Murat as: "sombre, pensif, recherchant la solitude, se reprochant de vivre sous l'égide des Giaours". This image of the brooding and subdued rebel would certainly inform the literary depictions of Murat which would propel him to such fame at the turn of the twentieth century. The caged animal of Tolstoi and Mordovcev's novels comes to embody all resistance to Russian imperialism, making this intimate field sketch of the man behind the myth all the more important. Gagarine was not innocent of embellishment however, and the present work highlights this when compared to the lithographed plate. Gagarin placed Murat on a mountainside overlooking the town of Ghmiri, a settlement in Dagestan near the coast of the Caspian Sea. The inscription to our sketch however indicates that the drawing was made miles away, at Tbilisi, showing that Gagarine's decision to situate the subject in his mountain environs rather than his more metropolitan site of incarceration is one deliberately imbued with meaning. The desire to show Hadji Murat as a wild rebel rather than a gunless captive plays again into his construction as a revered and untameable figure. Watercolour on a sheet of wove paper (29 x 21.5 cm). Sepia ink inscription to lower right hand corner. Recently mounted under passepartout. Two small paper repairs and light evidence of restoration to remove soiling, as a result inscription a bit blurred; corner creased. Two small paper repairs and light evidence of restoration to remove soiling, as a result inscription a bit blurred; corner creased.
MONTESKE - MONTESQUIEU, Charles Louis de.
Shnor, Sankt Peterburg, 1792. A masterpiece of French Enlightenment in Catherine's Russia: very rare early translation of Montesquieu, the first illustrated. Completed in 1721, this important piece of French literature recounts in 161 letters the experiences of two Persian noblemen, Usbek and Rica, as they travel through France between 1712 and 1720. The two protagonists write to friends and mullahs commenting on numerous aspects of western Christian society, particularly French politics and the Moors, ending with a biting satire of the system of John Law. The work therefore provides a subtle critique of the Ancien Régime, disguised as the observations of naive foreigners. The Lettres persanes was an immediate success and has since been frequently reedited and imitated. In Russia, the text circulated widely among upper classes, but it was available only in the original French or in other western European languages. The first complete Russian translation, by Fiodor Pospelov, was published in 1789, without any illustration, after a few extracts had appeared in 1782. This was followed closely by the present edition, with the text newly translated by the retired collegiate councillor Efim Roznotovskiy (173792). It is illustrated, on the title page, by an interpretation of Dassier's famous profile of Montesquieu, captioned with the author's name in Russian. It was engraved by Johann Christoph Nabholz (1752-c. 1796), a German artist who then lived in St. Petersburg and produced many portraits of the aristocracy. This portrait was not included in the extensive study Portraits de Montesquieu. Répertoire analytique by A. Ehrard (Presses universitaires Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, 2014). Very rare. WorldCat locates only two copies, in the libraries of Harvard and Cambridge Universities. Two parts in 1 vol. Small 8vo (19 x 11.5 cm). Title with portrait of Montesquieu engraved by I.K. Nabholz, pp. 563; some small marginal repairs, small loss of text (1-2 letters) partly restored in contemporary writing on pp. 131-132, 134, 511-514, corners of pp. 497-498 and 563-564 torn off not affecting text, occasional contemporary inscriptions, one in different hand from 1935 to upper fly leaf. Contemporary calf, black and red morocco label to spine lettered in blind; rubbed, block shaken but holding Obolyan. p.632, #264 ("Persidskiya pesni"!!); Sopikov 6303; Svod. Kat. XVIII 4334; the portrait not mentioned in Rovinskii, Slovar Russ. Graverov, 461-64
BONAPARTE-WYSE, William Charles.
L. W. N. Keys, Plymouth, 1881. An inscribed copy of this rare and unusual provincial publication, in original wrappers and with wide margins, the half-title bearing "With the author's compliments". The poem was written on the setting up of the Transylvanian principalities as an independent kingdom at the Treaty of Berlin, and the coronation of Carol the First in May 1881. OCLC gives only three copies (NYPL, Dublin and BL), to which the CCFr adds only one copy in France (Montpellier). William Charles Bonaparte-Wyse (182692), son of the Politician Thomas Wyse and Letizia Bonaparte, and grandson of Lucien Bonaparte, was a curious mixture of many cultures: the only Irish member of the Felibrige, he wrote in Provencal, as well as in English. Born in Waterford, he became a captain in the Waterford Artillery and spent much of his working life in the army. As a young man he travelled in the south of Europe, and while at Avignon was inspired by the work of the Félibres, who claim descent from the ancient troubadours of Provence. He joined the society and became an impassioned student of the language, and remained the only Irish, and indeed the only foreign-born member of the society. He befriended Frederic Mistral, poet and lexicographer of Occitan, and later recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Bonaparte-Wyse wrote a series of lyrics and sonnets in French, English, and the Provençal branch of Occitan. Perhaps his most well-received work was 'Li Parpaioun Blu', published in 1868, with a foreword by Mistral. He presided over the great félibréennes festivals of Forcalquier in 1882, and published numerous plays in Occitan. Interestingly, Constant Hennion, who provided the French version present in this volume, was also a prominent scholar of Provencal language and literature. Another point of interest the wife of Carlos I of Romania, Elizabeth of Wied, was a well-known poet, writing in German, French, English and Romanian under the penname 'Carmen Sylva'. The friendship between Frederic Mistral and Elizabeth gained her the epithet 'the Queen of the Felibras'. Quarto (27.7 x 21.2 cm). 12 pp. incl. half-title and title. In original printed wrappers.
SHALAMOV, Varlam Tikhonovich.
London, Overseas Publications Interchange, 1978. First edition of this important collection of stories on Soviet labour camps, which Shalamov (1907-82), a poet and man of letters on the wrong side of the Soviet authorities, experienced repeatedly during the entire reign of Stalin, from 1929 to the early 50s. Kolyma, where Shalamov spent most of his sentences, is a remote, sub-arctic region of north-eastern Siberia, where gold and platinum were discovered shortly before the Russian revolution. During the intensive industrialisation under Stalin, Kolyma became the most notorious region for the Gulag labour camps: a "pole of cold and cruelty" in the Gulag system as Solzhenitsyn described it. The celebrated poet Osip Mandelshtam died in 1938 on the way there, in a transit camp where Shalamov had been about a year earlier: the latter wrote Sherry Brandy, a short story of this tragic end, which was included in these Kolyma Tales. A "collection of brief sketches, vignettes, and short stories, [Kolyma Tales] chronicles the degradation and dehumanization of prison-camp life. Written in understated and straightforward documentary style, the tales contain almost no philosophical or political nuances." (Encycl. Brit.) The work, written during almost 20 years in the 1950s and 60s, is based on two areas: personal experiences and fictional accounts of stories heard. Shalamov attempted to mix fact and fiction, which leads to the book being something of a historical novel. The style used is similar to Chekhov's, in which a story is told objectively and leaves the readers to make their own interpretations. Often brutal and shocking, the matter-of-fact style makes them appear more hard-hitting than using a sensationalist style. The stories are based around the life of the prisoners (political or professional) in the camp and their relations with the officials. Shalamov managed to smuggle manuscripts out of the USSR, and a few stories were first published in émigré journals such as Grani in the early 1970s. This is the first edition of the collection, publishing some stories for the first time. It mentions also that it was published without the author's consent, to protect Shalamov, who had been forced to write a public letter denouncing publication of his work abroad. With an introduction by Michael Heller. Publication was banned in the Soviet Union until 1988. A very good example, with provenance: from the library of Aleksandr Dolberg, aka David Burg, who spent most of his life in the UK after having emigrated from the USSR in the 1950s. A man of letters, he wrote many literary articles and presented various radio programmes in the West, usually linked with literature, émigrés and the USSR. He published the first English translation of Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward and fought constantly against the accusation of being a Soviet agent. He co-authored (with George Feifer) Solzhenitsyn: A Biography (1972). Among his friends were dissidents Andrei Sinyavsky and Igor Golomstock. Aleksandr Dolberg, aka David Burg. Thick 8vo (18.5 x 12 cm). Portrait frontispiece and 895 pp. Binding Original publisher's printed green boards. Outer edges of block a bit discoloured, edges a bit rubbed; without the printed dust-jacket. Sesliavinskii, TamIzdat 94. Outer edges of block a bit discoloured, edges a bit rubbed; without the printed dust-jacket.
[BAKST] - LEVINSON, André.
Selle, Berlin for Brentano's, New York and A. Kogan, Berlin, 1923. COPY NUMBER 1 (out of 315 for the UK) of the first edition of this celebrated work, especially remarkable for presenting also Bakst's drawings, sketches, paintings, portraits and theatre settings next to his famous costumes for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Uncut example, with the striking fragile vellum publisher's binding in very good condition. Folio (37.5 x 29 cm). Leaf with publisher's mark, 240 pp. incl. half-title, title and 68 plates, [1] leaf with tipped-in colour illustration, most plates in colour, numerous engravings and illustrations in text. Publisher's full vellum by Hoyer, large brown lettering to upper cover, spine with raised bands lettered and decorated in brown. Binding minimally soiled or rubbed, very rare internal light stains too; overall a fine example. Binding minimally soiled or rubbed, very rare internal light stains too; overall a fine example. Publisher's full vellum by Hoyer, large brown lettering to upper cover, spine with raised bands lettered and decorated in brown.
BLOK, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich.
Otto Elsner for Skify, Berlin, 1920. Pleasant example of this uncommon work, which grew out of the play 'The King on the Square' (1907) and first appeared the same year in the magazine 'Pereval'. It reflects Blok's personal crisis, as well as his observations on the Russian society and the 1905 Revolution. Small 8vo (20 x 13.5 cm). 18 pp. incl. titles in German and Russian, [2] pp. Original publisher's wrappers, stapled as issued. Paper a bit browned, the odd pencil mark; original staples rusting, as a result block loose, minor creases to edges. Paper a bit browned, the odd pencil mark; original staples rusting, as a result block loose, minor creases to edges.
ONCHUKOV, Nikolai Evgenevich
Suvorin, Skt.Peterburg, 1908. A fine example of the first edition of these folk tales from the White Sea region, edited by Nikolai Onchukov (1872-1942), with the participation of the linguist Aleksei Shakhmatov and the prose writer Mikhail Prishvin among others. Onchukov spent the years 1900-08 working in the Far North under the auspices of the Russian Geographical Society collecting ethnographic and folkloric materials. This volume contains a portion of Onchukov's collection, and features 303 tales from Arkhangelsk and Olonetsk provinces. The tales are organised by narrators, and some information about the storytellers is provided. All the tales are written in northern Russian dialects, which makes the work a valuable linguistic source on language which barely exists today. This is the volume XXXIII of the Zapiski Imperatorskogo russkogo geograficheskogo obshchestva po otdeleniiu etnografii [Notes of the Imperial Geographical Society; Etnography]. Avenir Nizoff (émigré, pianist, who lived in Edmonton, Canada, in the second half of the 20th century, and gathered a large, wide-ranging library of Russian works, especially covering art, history and literature). Large 8vo (25 x 18 cm). xlviii, 646 pp. Binding Contemporary cloth binding, blind stamped decorations and ornaments to covers and spine, spine with lettering embossed in colour. Occasional marks in text, otherwise an excellent example. Occasional marks in text, otherwise an excellent example.
II, . [CATHERINE II, the Great].
Imp. Akad. Nauk, Skt. Peterburg, 1770 "The best and most luxurious edition" of Catherine's famous 'Great Instructions', such described by Count M.A. Korf, then director of the Imperial Library. First published and "signé de la propre main de Sa Majesté Impériale" in 1768; this edition however is the only in several languages and illustrated. These instructions were "largely compiled and adapted by Catherine personally from the texts of Montesquieu and Beccaria. Although the project was never brought to fruition, the impulse behind it stands as one of the nobler concepts of Catherine's reign" (Fekula 2013, for a later edition). A major document of the Enlightenment, it condemned torture and capital punishment and endorsed such principles as the equality of all before the law. The illustration consists of two detailed symbolic engravings, each repeated once, by Roth (d. 1798), an engraver from Nuremberg who mostly worked in Russia. "The most magnificent and desirable of the more than 40 editions of the Nakaz" (Widener) of "one of the most remarkable political treatises ever compiled and published by a reigning sovereign in modern times" (I. de Madariaga, Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great (1981), p. 151). Some great scholarly publications have taken place among these numerous editions, especially published in St. Petersburg in 1893 (using the French text from this edition) and 1907, as well as the more recent The Nakaz of Catherine the Great: Collected Texts (2010), with a bibliography of the 43 editions, edited by Butler and Tomsinov. Quarto (26.3 x 20.5 cm). Title pages in Russian, Latin, German and French, 403 pp. with 4 allegorical head- and tailpieces engraved by Christopher Melhior Roth after Jacob Shtelin; just a couple of leaves with light spotting. Contemporary full Russian calf, spine with raised bands stamped in bling, label lettered in Russian, handprinted endpapers, red edges; fully covered with clear adhesive film, dampstain to back cover. Drage 208; Fekula 2013; Sopikov 6456 ('best edition'); SK 2151; Widener M., Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library, on their copy, exhibited in 2012.
PUSHKIN, A[leksandr Sergeevich].
Avgust Semen, Moskva 1827. Pushkin on one sheet: an excellent copy preserved as a single folded broadsheet, unstitched and unopened, including the printed wrappers. This is the second edition, published the same year as the first. This unfinished narrative poem, written in 1822, had appeared in 'Polarania zvezda' [Pole Star] for 1825; it was inspired by the Russian folk play 'The Boat'. "The Boat is clearly a dramatic version of the songs celebrating the seventeenth-century outlaw Stepan Razin. Its cast features a band of outlaws on a boat on the Volga. A stranger appears and tells his story: he and his brother were highwaymen; they were caught and put in prison; his brother died there but he escaped, having killed a prison guard. The stranger is welcomed with open arms. The next scene shows the outlaws sacking the estate of a rich landowner. The action is repeatedly interrupted by the singing of robber songs. The main stage effect is created by the actors' sitting on the floor and making the motions of rowing a boat. "The Boat", like the epic songs on the same subject, is explicit in its sympathy for the outlaws and in its hatred for landowners and government authorities" (Victor Terras). Robert Eden Martin (b. 1940; American lawyer and noted collector of Russian, British and American literature works). Octavo (24 x 14 cm approx.). 16 pp. printed on one single, uncut and unopened sheet, including title and printed wrappers; minor spotting and pencil mark to lower wrapper. Kilgour 881; Smirnov-Sok., Pushkin 10
HARDING, E[dward] (publisher) [and William ALEXANDER].
T. Bensley for Stockdale, London, 1811 Fine example, attractively bound. The costumes were drawn after Georgi and Mueller, the English text was written by William Alexander, after the main texts available at the time on Russia: Pallas, Chappe d'Auteroche, Krashenenikov, Sauer. Publishing the first issue of his work in 1803, Harding had probably to compete with Miller, who published at the same time a very similar work as part of his series of costume books. The present edition has one costume plate fewer but includes an engraved title, longer explanatory text and more decorative plates enriched with background. As the introduction puts it, "to conclude: no pains nor expense have been spared to render this Volume worthy of public attention; and without depreciating the merit of other performances of similar nature, the Publisher flatters himself that it will be found the most complete work of the kind that has hitherto appeared in this or in any country"! Large 4to (36.5 x 27.5 cm). Hand-coloured aquatint English half-title, [6] ll. including French and English title pages, dedications, prefaces and tables of contents, and 72 hand-coloured aquatint plates numbered 1-70 with two bis numbers, each with two pages of accompanying text in both English and French except pl. 14 accompanying pl. 12, text watermarked Edmeads 1809 and plates Whatman 1808. Contemporary dark blue morocco, covers with large gilt floral borders, recent spine blind-stamped in compartments, gilt lettering to two, gilt roulette to boards edges, marbled endpapers. A bit foxed, binding minimally rubbed. A bit foxed, binding minimally rubbed. Contemporary dark blue morocco, covers with large gilt floral borders, recent spine blind-stamped in compartments, gilt lettering to two, gilt roulette to boards edges, marbled endpapers.
GEYROT, A.F.
Imper. Akad. Nauk, Skt Peterburg, 1868. An extensive illustrated description of the Peter the Great's favoured residence compiled by the Russian general, historian and publisher Geyrot (181782). The work comprises two parts: the first one provides a historical overview of the Peterhof area from 1500 until 1868 when the imperial residence received the bride of the future Alexander III, Princess Dagmar of Denmark; the second, larger part serves as a guide to the Peterhof complex. The work is based on the extensice research of archives, memoirs and accounts of the Russian and foreign travellers and is nicely illustrated with views of the residence after drawings by Karl Osipovich Brozh and two plans - of Pererhof and of the environs of Saint Petersburg. A quality production issued from the presses of the celebrated Academy of Sciences of Saint Petersburg, with the plates and plans issued from various other high-quality presses of the capital. Interestingly, the frontispiece portrait of Peter the Great was engraved in London (but printed in St. Petersburg) and is captioned in English. Biblioteka moskovskoi dukhovnoi akademii [Library of the Moscow Theological Academy] (stamps to half-title, title, some pages and verso of all plates); Avenir Nizoff (a pianist in the second half of the 20th century, living in Edmonton, Canada, who gathered a large library of Russian works of all kinds; "Printed in Soviet Union" ink stamp to half-title). Octavo (26 x 17 cm), two parts in one volume. Half-title, steel-engr. frontispiece, title, [4], iv, [2], 131, vi pp., with 35 woodengr. plates and two folding engr. plans. Binding Contemporary sheep over brown cloth boards, decorative ornament blindstamped to covers, lettering and decorative ornament stamped in blind to spine. Spine rubbed and chipped, upper hinge starting, corners bumped; creases to plans, very occasional small spotting, light offsetting of the frontispiece onto the title page, overall however fresh internally. Spine rubbed and chipped, upper hinge starting, corners bumped; creases to plans, very occasional small spotting, light offsetting of the frontispiece onto the title page, overall however fresh internally.
TSVETAEVA, Marina Ivanovna, et al.
Musaget, Moskva, 1911. First edition: an anthology of poetry, including pieces by Solovyov, Blok, Bely, Voloshin, Gorodetskii, Gumilev, Viacheslav Ivanov, Kuzmin, and Tsvetaeva, whose contribution are the poems 'Devochka-smert' and 'Na bulvare', both of which were later included in her second collection Volshebnyi Fonar (The Magic Lantern), in 1912. These two poems represent the young Tsvetaeva's second appearance in print. Eden Martin, prominent American collector (acquired from Bernard Quaritch). Octavo. [V] including title, 271 pp. including contents leaf, plus a 10-page publisher's catalogue. Binding Later decorated cloth over boards. The original illustrated front wrapper trimmed and mounted on half-title, one corner torn away; minor staining to edges. The original illustrated front wrapper trimmed and mounted on half-title, one corner torn away; minor staining to edges.
MORNAY.
Howlett and Brimmer, and Dove for Edward Orme, London 1815 FIRST EDITION OF THE BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK ON SAINT-PETERSBURG, FULLY HAND-COLOURED. Published at six guineas coloured, this is a superb record of the city of Peter the Great - captured in the wake of the Napoleonic wars - and divided into two sections; the first 12 plates represent the months of the year through characteristic views of the city; the other eight illustrate different modes of transport, various types of sledges and carriages, but include excellent character studies, showing diverse types of costume by class and by season. The 26-page introduction entitled "The present state of St. Petersburgh," includes a brief historical survey and a few statistics, along with descriptions of the main sites and monuments. "Though unsigned, [the letterpress] was chiefly compiled from Robert Ker Porter's Travelling Sketches [in Russia and Sweden during the years 18051808], as many sections repeat his text verbatim" (Giroud). Mornay, the artist responsible for the original sketches upon which Clark and Dubourg's aquatints were based, eludes identification and does not appear in Thieme-Becker's extensive dictionary of artists. Martin Hardie, in characteristically waspish fashion, describes the plates as "lurid in colouring, very much in the style of toy theatre scenery" (English Coloured Books, 1906, p. 138); this is entirely unfair, the colouring in the present copy is certainly not "lurid" and the "toy theatre" quality of the views only lends them a most appealing charm: many of the views are composed in such a way that they resemble vues d'optiques - symmetrical and theatrical middle-distance perspectives - which combine well with the small, scaling figures (staffage) adding splashes of bright colour, against backgrounds of snowy streets, grey skies, and yellowish-brown buildings of this "city of stone", forming a satisfyingly picturesque effect. Two of the buildings shown - the Exchange (1809) and the Kazan Cathedral (1811) - had only recently been completed. Other views include the Imperial Bank, the Marble Palace, the Square with the Grand Theatre, The Imperial Palace, and the Great Bridge. Edward Orme - "Publisher to His Majesty and HRH the Prince Regent" - was "after Rudolph Ackermann, the most important publisher of illustrated books during the short golden age of the coloured aquatint" (ODNB). He would have had a prudent eye on the visit of the Allied sovereigns to London in June 1814, which celebrated the Treaty of Fontainebleau (11 April 1814) and the peace following the defeat and abdication of Napoleon. Amongst them was Tsar Alexander I (who stayed with his sister, the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg, at the Pulteney Hotel on Piccadilly). "In 1809 Edward Orme had begun buying land and property in Bayswater, London. He exploited the gravel deposits, built houses, and in 1818 added a chapel of ease. Orme Square, developed between 1823 and 1826, was named after him, and Moscow Road and St Petersburgh Place nearby may have commemorated the state visit of Tsar Alexander I in June 1814. In the following year he published a volume of twenty coloured aquatint views of St Petersburg, and the reference in his will to jewellery presented to him by the emperor of Russia may be connected with these events" (ibid.). This is a marvellous survey of one of the world's great cities, captured at the time when it served as the backdrop for Tolstoy's War and Peace. Folio. Additional engraved title page incorporating a large double-headed Russian eagle, bound as frontispiece, title, iv, 34 pp. and 20 hand-coloured aquatint plates engraved by Clark and Dubourgh after Mornay, captions in English and French, text in English, early issue with text watermarked 1815 and plates 1811. Binding Recent half red morocco over grey paper boards, upper cover with red morocco label, flat spine lettered in gilt, gilt rollwork to covers. Occasional spotting and soiling, sometimes heavier, light offsetting of the plates as usual, marginal closed tears repaired. Abbey Travel 226 (first edition 1815); Giroud, St. Petersburg: A Portrait of a Great City, 72; Martin Hardie, 138; Prideaux 345; Tooley (1954), 355. Occasional spotting and soiling, sometimes heavier, light offsetting of the plates as usual, marginal closed tears repaired.
[MOSCOW] -
Moscow, [early 1890s]. Rare collection of original architectural designs for a charity housing project in Moscow; from the Coburg Bibliothek collection. In the 1820s the land between the Meshchanskaya Street (In 1957 renamed into Prospekt Mira) and Protopopovskiy pereulok was purchased by the successful merchants Vasiliy and Fedor Nabilkovy, who subsequently donated it to the Moscow Trustee Society for Helping the Poor. In the 1830s 1840s with the funds provided by the Nabilkovy brothers and other donors, the Society managed to build here a large almshouse along with a hospital and home church. Buildings in the quarter were rapidly multiplying as well as the number of charities involved in the project. These drawings show the site in the 1890s, at the beginning of the second wave of expansion ensured by the active participation of the Brotherly Society for Providing Apartments ( ). This charity was established in 1861 by Princess N.V. Trubetskaya to build cheap housing for the poor in different parts of Moscow. The general plan of the site shows that the Brotherly Society was planning to construct twelve wooden buildings in addition to the already existing two. One of the drawings shows a facade and interior of the public housing constructed by the charity earlier that had a capacity to house 30 40 people. The two other drawings are the proposed designs for a public building to serve as a school or hospital, and a shed with a cellar. It is known that most of the buildings commissioned by the Brotherly Society were designed by Ivan Mashkov in 1899 1903. The offered drawings are signed by an architect A.A. Vetlitskiy [ . . ], which could possibly mean that the designs for wooden buildings were eventually turned down in favour of the Mashkov's brick constructions. In the 1920s the complex in the Protopopovskiy Lane was gradually closed down; some of the houses were rebuilt to house various governmental organisations and still survive today. The portfolio likely came to Veste Coburg with Grand Duchess Maria Aleksandrovna (1853-1920), eldest daughter of Tsar Alexander II, who married Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. She moved to Coburg with her husband after he inherited the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from his uncle in 1893. Provenance: Coburg Bibliothek (ex-libris to upper fly-leaf). Portfolio of four original architectural designs, pen and black ink, watercolour, traces of graphite, each with ruled border and captioned in Cyrillic, on thick gilt-edged paper, each sheet c.34 x 48 cm, gilt edges, some recent manuscript notes inserted; light marginal soiling. Kept loose in contemporary yellow paper-covered portfolio lined with moiré silk by F. Nieckels, Moscow; worn with some staining.
SOLZHENITSYN, Aleksandr Isaevich.
Flegon Press, London, [1962]. The rare first edition of Solzhenitsyn's first published book; a celebrated "pirate" edition published abroad. A fine example of the rarer issue with a watchtower on the cover, probably the first published, before the "bearded-man" cover. The plot of Solzhenitsyn's very first published novel is set in a Soviet labour camp in the 1950s and describes a single day of an ordinary prisoner, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. The novel first appeared in print in November 1962 in the Soviet literary magazine Noviy Mir (New World). It was an extraordinary event in Soviet literary history since never before had an account of Stalinist repression been openly distributed. The editor of Novy Mir, Aleksandr Tvardovskiy, wrote in a short introduction for the issue, titled "Instead of a Foreword": The author chose an ordinary day in the life of a labour camp prisoner from a reveille until lock up. Still, this "ordinary" day can't but touch the hearts of the readers and let them feel overwhelming sorrow and pain for the fate of the people, who become so close and familiar through the pages of this novel. Even though the characters are fictional the novel has a very personal feel. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) had first-hand experience of the Gulag, having been imprisoned from 1945 to 1953 for writing a derogatory comment in a letter to a fellow officer about the conduct of the war by Joseph Stalin, whom he called "the whiskered one". The novel was specifically mentioned in the Nobel Prize presentation speech when the Nobel Committee awarded Solzhenitsyn the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970. After more than half a century since its publication the significance and influence of the deceptively simple story remains unsurpassed. With Eric Korn, bookseller in London; Private collection, London. Octavo (24.2 x 16 cm). 67 pp., original printed wrappers Wrappers very slightly soiled and rubbed; owner's neat highlighting in pen to first 8 pp. T. Mathew, "A guide to the Russian editions of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's major works", Rare Book Review. Wrappers very slightly soiled and rubbed; owner's neat highlighting in pen to first 8 pp.
Kaiserl. Akad. der Wissenschaften, St Petersburg, 1855 Unusual atlas of the celebrated German communities of the Russian empire - 'Nemtsii' [German] possibly coming from 'nemyi' [mute] because these communities would speak only German, and hence not Russian with natives. The atlas shows a general map, and more detailed maps of the regions of St. Petersburg, Saratov and Samara, and southern Ukraine (Odessa to Crimea). Uncommon: apparently no copy in the New York Public Library nor the Library of Congress, only one copy in the UK public institutions (BL) and two in Germany's (Berlin and Halle). Oblong folio (46 x 54 cm). Title and contents printed on upper blue wrappers, V pp. notes and tables, five lithograph maps hand-coloured in outline and numbered; only half of lower wrapper present, occasional light marginal dampstaining and spotting, vertical fold in the middle.
[ARMENIAN BIBLE] - ZOHRAPIAN, Hovhannes (editor).
San Lazzaro, Venëtik [Venice], 1805. The first critical edition of the Bible in Armenian, its "principal edition" (Cox), almost 140 years after the first Armenian Bible, printed in Amsterdam in 1666. Giovanni Zohrab (Hovhannes Zohrapean, or Zohrapian, 1756-1829) was a Benedictine monk at the celebrated Armenian monastery on the island of San Lazzaro near Venice. He chose as basis for his edition the oldest complete, dated Armenian Bible at his disposal, the Venetian manuscript MS V1508 of 1319, against which he collated 8 other manuscripts of the whole Bible and 20 of the New Testament kept in Venice's Mxit'arist collection. The result of these comparisons can be seen in Zohrab's footnotes, which quote major variations in the manuscripts he examined (which are however usually identified in general terms such as 'some witnesses,' 'one example,' 'many' etc). Zohrab's remarkable and long-lasting achievement was published in two variants, both finely illustrated: a quarto volume and these four duodecimo volumes. The first volume includes the Genesis through Ruth; volume 2 - Kings through Maccabees II; volume 3 - Psalms through Ezekiel; and volume 4 contains the whole New Testament. Zohrab's edition was reproduced in facsimile in 1984, with an extensive introduction by the scholar Claude Cox, who notes: 'The principal edition of the Armenian Bible is that of Zohrapian, published in 1805 [.] His edition stands head and shoulders above many editions of texts in his day because he does not tamper with the text: it is a faithful copy of his base manuscript'. This is a lovely example of this important edition, rarely found complete and in contemporary bindings. Four volumes 12mo (19 x 12.2 cm). Frontispiece, pp. 32, including title, 527, with an engraved plate; title, pp. [2], 687, with an engr. plate; title, pp. [2], 805, with an engr. plate; title, pp. [2], 587, 92, with an engr. plate. Binding Contemporary brown calf. Vol. 4 different, possibly from another set; slightly rubbed; some light marginal waterstaining at end of vol 3. and at beginning and end of vol 4. Darlow & Moule 1787; Mr. Bart D. Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis, Brill, 2013, p. 255; Armin Lange ed., Textual History of the Bible, Brill, 2016, p.10; Cox, The Zohrab Bible, in Studies in Classical Armenian Literature, ed. John Greppin, Delmar, Caravan Books, 1994, pp. 227-261 (which is an updated reprint of the 1984 Introduction); Cox, Biblical Studies and the Armenian Bible, 1980-2002, in Revue Biblique, Vol. 112, No.3, July 2003, pp. 355-368, p.361 for the quote in our heading. Vol. 4 different, possibly from another set; slightly rubbed; some light marginal waterstaining at end of vol 3. and at beginning and end of vol 4.
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