Exceptional catalogues:
Livres Anciens and Livres Precieux
- By Bruce McKinney
Livres Precieux offered by Bernard & Stephane Clavreuil
By Bruce McKinney
When you cut into a superb fillet you know, before your taste confirms, that something special is at hand. Quality has a feel to it. In the book trade there is a certain magic that many dealers aspire to and a few actually provide. In London, stepping through the front door of Maggs Bros. is stepping into the history of exceptional printed material. So many important books have passed this way and you know it at a glance.
In Paris there is Chamonal which is short for Rodolphe Chamonal, heir and current proprietor, of the shop his father built following WWII. Located in the shadows of Paris's book auction bourse, the scale and airiness of the shop suggest a location that has been there since Gertrude Stein, James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway drank and dined nearby. The inventory is extensive and eclectic. In other words you'll find something of interest but it may be a book you haven't heard of before. A French volume about San Francisco printed in 1856 with all the images in color is something I bought there years ago. For the lucky few there is a small room in the back where subject, condition and provenance rarities are displayed, discussed and negotiated. A trip to the inner sanctum a few years ago brought me face-to-face with a large bound volume of "Guerre D'independence American" manuscripts that today sit a few feet away from my desk.
A fifteen minute walk away is Libraire Thomas-Scheler, the family business of Bernard & Stephane Clavreuil located at 19, rue de Tournon. Here the shop is smaller but a portion of the material is very exceptional. The Clavreuils are very French and the standards strictly double A. For them the example must be superb and the book important. One can only wonder where they find such material. Here too I have purchased. On one trip I purchased a copy of Ferdinandi Cortesii, Von dem Newen Hispanien,...printed in 1550 in German and containing, according to Harisse, a translation of the second and third letters from the Latin edition of the Cortes Letters, with extracts from Peter Martyr's fourth decade, from Oviedo, and other extracts relating to the Canary Islands, Venezuela, and American discoveries down to the year 1543. This copy is from the library of Henri Ternaux-Compans, the extraordinary bibliographer of the 19th century and has his library mark, a ram and his initials on the cover. It is an absolute gem, a collector's book.
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Exceptional catalogues:
Livres Anciens and Livres Precieux
- By Bruce McKinney
Rodolphe Chamonal: A catalogue of collecting ambitions.
I also purchased from the Clavreuils a copy of the Calendrier Francais Pour L'Annee 1781 that has the following imprint:
A Newport
De L'Imprimerie Royale de l'Efcadre, pres le Parc de la Marine
During the American Revolution France came in on the colonists' side. A French fleet was anchored off of Newport, Rhode Island in 1781 and this is an example of a Calendrier Francais printed on board there.
Recently both firms issued catalogues. These are not the kind of catalogues you have often seen. These are hard bound and in color. In the case of Chamonal there is a printer's limitation: "Tire a petit nombre." If you receive this catalogue you are deemed serious about books. There are 164 items from which to choose. For the Chavreuils no expense has been spared to present material of utmost quality and rarity in their catalogue: Livres Precieux. Sixty items are offered for five million five hundred thousand dollars +/- . This is serious material indeed. And yes the paper is thick and tinted, the images are in color, the typography is exceptional and the design is flawless. The Chamonal catalogue, Livres Anciens, can be requested from them by email at chamonal2@wanadoo.fr. The Chavreuil's catalogue is available here in its entirety.
Chamonal is offering an interesting assortment of five centuries of printing. A few have already been sold and are marked Vendu while others are so expensive that the proprietor requires that you directly inquire for the price.
Here are a few examples:
No. 22 There is a copy of Voyage en Californie... by Chappe D'Auteroche [Jean-Baptiste]. It is the very rare first edition described as a "tres agreeable exemplaire, dans une reliure allemande de l'epoque." [a fine German binding of the period] 10,000 euros.
No. 32 For those who collect all things California, west coast or Pacific region here is something to think about. Duflot de Mofras authored the three volume Exploration du Territoire De L'Oregon that was issued in 1844. Here is a grace note to accompany this important set.
[Duflot de Mofras]. Album Amicorum de Emilia de Botella. This elegant volume includes keepsakes from various accomplished men of the period [1843-1848] including an excerpt from Exploration du Territoire in Duflot de Mofras' own hand. 18,500 euros
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Exceptional catalogues:
Livres Anciens and Livres Precieux
- By Bruce McKinney
Chamonal: Lot 32 [Duflot de Mofras]. Album Amicorum de Emilia de Botella.
No. 50 For those who lack space but have an appetite for books there is Gastronomie - Miniscule. Printed in Paris in 1810 this is a small book. Look at your thumb. This book is half the size. The good news is you aren't going to need to build any shelves. This volume and a hundred more like it will fit comfortably in a shoe box. 6,000 euros without the shoebox.
No. 162 For those who have been waiting for Waldseemuller's 1507 Cosmographie Introductio Chamonal offers a nice copy. The price has been omitted to allow you to lie to your spouse. If pinned down by your better half you can point out this book will probably be the cover item at auction when your collection goes on the block. That is unless you are also hiding a Columbus Letter. [P.O.R.]
These are a few of the many, many interesting items offered. The Chamonal perspective is international.
The Clavreuils' effort is different. Here the most obsessive book-collector meets the charming but equally determined book dealer across the pages of a presentation that makes statements at many levels. This is not a catalogue. It is a declaration of quality. To me it says "we sell the greatest books to the greatest collectors. Bring your collecting ambition, your determination and intelligence to a discussion with us and you will take home books that will remain satisfying to own for the rest of your life." I've done that and many of the books I've bought from them remain, after many years, unrivaled for quality, provenance and importance. Investigate all the lots using the search box provided at the end of this article. Did I mention that the catalogue is in French?
In case you find yourself reaching for your checkbook the entire contents of this catalogue will cost $5.5 million. Here are some of the items.
Item no. 1 is a 1482 Cosmographia by Ptolemaeus. It was issued during the last days of pre-Columbian understanding of the world. This copy will deserve its own first class seat on the airplane home. It is priced at 800,000 euros. Figure that a euro is worth about $1.30.
No. 8 is a Bible printed in Paris in 1537 by Simon de Colines. It is Libri Prophetarum....Relie avec : Machabaeorum Libri Duo. A President taking the oath of office in January would garner a bit of extra attention [and strengthen our national bonds with France] by taking the oath on this book. The price is 18,000 euros.
For 80,000 euros you can buy no. 14, one of the earliest new world imprints. This one is Alonso de Veracruz' Speculum Coniugiorum aeditum...printed in Vera Cruz, Mexico in 1556. That's right. The first books printed in the new world were in Latin. Today they speak Spanish and you can pay in euros.
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Exceptional catalogues:
Livres Anciens and Livres Precieux
- By Bruce McKinney
Many fine book dealers are located near Librairie Thomas-Scheler.
Those beginning Florida collections will be interested in the Laudonniere's 1586 L'Histoire notable de la Floride situee es Indes Occidentales...[Item no. 23] You might as well start at the top. Of the early Florida books this one comes up very occasionally. Here is what the Servies have to say about this title:
"A compilation of the narratives of four different French expeditions: Ribaut's voyage in 1562, Laudonniere's in 1564, Ribaut's second voyage in 1565, and that of Gourges in 1567. The first three are described by letters of Laudonniere; the last is an anonymous account, perhaps by Basanier, the editor of the collection. The dedication to Sir Walter Raleigh (containing of the earliest mentions of Virginia in any printed book) is dated Paris, March 1st, 1586...." No. 52 in A Bibliography of Florida by James A and Lana D. Servies. Vol. 1. This important, and very rare book, is 100,000 euros.
For those who collect the early circumnavigations of the globe here is the second Dutch success at what was then a very hazardous enterprise: Speculum Oriententalisque Indiae navigationum... by Joris van Spilbergen, Leyde, 1619 [lot 30]. This exploration accomplished the discovery of a passage at the tip of South America that was named Le Maire in honor of another Dutch explorer. This copy is 45,000 euros.
And then there are two copies of Champlain's Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France occidentale,...one printed in 1632 and the other in 1640. These books contain important maps. Collectors of the New World and in particular Canada can count these books as highly important. They are each priced at 280,000 euros.
Of course there is more. There are 60 lots in all.
Such catalogues offer the opportunity to acquire specific examples of important and collectible books that now become forever linked to these exceptional catalogue presentations. Dealer provenance matters. In the years ahead, assuming the dealer history is carefully maintained, these copies will fetch premiums to whatever market pricing then prevails.
Congratulations to both firms and thank you to the Clavreuil family for permitting us to add this catalogue to the AED.
Here is the search box to the entire Chavreuil catalogue.
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