185. BECQUE (Maurice de, ill.), MONTESQUIEU. Lettres persane - Lot 185

EXPERTS: Jean-Luc Boisseau and Lou Axmann

Off-catalogue lots will be sold on the morning of the sale, December 3 at 11 a.m.

Fine antiquarian books include a Parisian incunabula edition of Cassiodorus rubricated in red and blue; a book of hours, Hortulus animae, illustrated with 63 fully colored woodcuts, most by Hans Springinklee, a pupil of Dürer; Les Lettres héroïques aux princes de sang by Rangouze, in morocco livery with arms; a luxurious and rare 18th-century atlas of Germany by Courtalon, with watercolor maps; a composite collection of 107 intaglio prints by Thomas de Leu circa 1606; natural science works illustrated with plates;

Dodart's Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des plantes (1679), with EAS, the founding work of botanical science in France. Remarkable books decorated by the greatest European illustrators of the early 20th century: Alastair, Bauer, Beardsley, Becque, Bilibine, Detmold, Doré, Dulac, Russel Flint, Jessie M. King, Nielsen, Evelyn Paul, Willy Pogany, Rackham, Sangorsdki, Tenggren, Wülfing, Zworykine and others. Of particular note is the precious Cid illustrated and engraved by Maurice L'Hoir, printed in an edition of 38 copies, with all the original drawings; the breathtaking Wagnerian trilogy entirely designed by Willy Pogany; the rare collection of 26 albums by the enigmatic German illustrator Sulamith Wülfing; and the albums of Russian fairy tales illustrated by Bilibine in E.O.

The sale also includes lots of 17th and 18th-century works, books on heraldry, militaria, children's literature, hunting, horticulture, agriculture, ornithology, Pyrenean or Bordeaux regionalism, including a History of Bordeaux by Dom Devienne in morocco with arms, autograph letters signed by George Sand, Barbey d'Aurevilly or Agatha Christie, manuscripts, Michelin guides, Pléiade albums, illustrated Art-Déco architecture magazines, albums of chromos, CPA, artistic drawings and engravings, etc.

Off-catalogue lots will be sold on the morning of the sale, December 3 at 11am.