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Tue 25 Jun

LEROY (René) - Regional guide to prehistory. Pierres curieuses des cantons d'Athis-de-l'Orne et de Putanges. Flers, Imprimerie Folloppe, 1940; in-8, XVI-219 pp. paperback, printed cover. Envoi de l'auteur. Consultant : M. Philippe HENRY

Thu 20 Jun

Boucher de Perthes, (Jacques) - Voyage en Danemarck, en Suède, en Norwège, par la Belgique et la Hollande, retour par les villes anséatiques, le Mecklembourg, la Saxe, la Bavière, le Wurtemberg et le grand-duché de Bade, séjour à Bade, en 1854. Paris, Treuttel et Wurz 1858. In-12°, half blue basane, 2 ff. 634 pp. 1 ff. First edition of this journey to the northern countries by one of the founders of prehistory. Ex-libris "Le Proux". Bookplate Villard. Good condition, a few brown spots.

Wed 26 Jun

MORET (Alexandre). Histoire ancienne.Première partie Histoire de l'Orient. Tome I Prehistory Ive and III millennia - Egypt-Elam-Sumer and Akkad - Babylon TII. 2nd and 1st millennia, Empires, rivalry between Egyptians, Semites, Indo-Europeans. P.U.F, 1942 and 1936, 2 volumes in one vol. in-8, red half-chagrin with corners, spine ribbed, author and title edged with gilt fillet, boards "au tampon" combed endpapers, original cover boards preserved, black speckled edges, XXI-479-VIIIpp, 481-868pp, qqs. plans. Superb copy.

Thu 20 Jun

Boucher de Perthes, (Jacques) - Nouvelles. Paris, Treuttel et Wurtz 1832. In-12° modern half chagrin, title page preserved and pasted on a modern blue folio, 2 ff., 388 pp. First edition. "Boucher de Perthes published his only collection of short stories in 1832, at the zenith of Romanticism in France. [...] The ten tales in the collection are peopled by subterraneans, dreams and vampires, unsettling shadows and ghosts. "Paola" was undoubtedly born of the reminiscence of a Genoese adventure, perhaps mingled with the memory of Paola-Maria Bonaparte, and transfigured by the feverish imagination of the young Romantic. Paola is a woman-vampire with a strange gaze, who comes at night in the form of a black bird to prey on those she has chosen. Specters, ghosts, coffins, torn bodies, icy kisses on a grave at night - nothing is missing. [...] Other short stories in the Spanish, oriental and medieval vein are part of the moral inspiration that shrouds the shadows and mysteries of the dream. (Cohen and Hublin) Mazular is the story of a journey to the moon. C. Cohen and J.-J. Hublin, the romantic origins of prehistory. Versins, Encyclopédie de la science-fiction et de l'utopie, p. 124. Engraved bookplate M. and H. Hocquette. Uncommon. Scattered foxing.

Alexandre LEVRAT (1896-1986). Adam and Eve, circa 1960. 4 watercolor drawings, 20.8 x 26 8 cm. Signed with monograms, lower left. Art brut at the Beaux-Arts? Impossible: absolute nonsense. The definition of Art brut definitively closes the door on any school. "Spontaneous and inventive production of works that escape cultural norms. Unlike "learned" art, Art Brut is based on complete instinctive freedom, and is the work of self-taught artists". Larousse emphasizes. Art brut cannot be taught. Not every art school student can create Art brut. A fortiori, Alexandre Levrat (1896-1986), a renowned architect. Levrat studied at L'ENSBA - École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts - which takes in a few painters and mostly architects. The average person might almost think that there's a contradiction here, between the training of artists and that of engineers who have to master the construction of buildings. Remember the buildings of Edifis, the Asterix and Cleopatra character created by Goscinny and Uderzo to caricature what an architect should not be? Let's take a closer look. Most of an architect's training is based on fine arts, drawing and sculpture, not on learned calculations. Everyone learns drawing with application and masters it perfectly. This was particularly true before 1968, when the term "drawing" was understood to mean academicism, spearheaded by the "pompier style". However, it has to be said that the work revealed here is a far cry from the visions of Antiquity by Jean-Léon Gérôme or Prehistory by Fernand Cormon, both famous studio bosses. So, what is it? Is Levrat challenging the definition of Art Brut? For Levrat was chief architect of Bâtiments civils et palais nationaux*, and of the Comité des H.B.M. de la Seine, chief architect at the M.R.U., expert before the Civil Court of the Seine and the Court of Appeal, professor at the École des Travaux Publics, member of the S.A.D.G., Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1960, Croix de Guerre, Officier d'Académie in 1937, Gold Medal of the Comité de Patronage des H.L.M. de la Seine, among others... His calling card was impressive. He also exhibited at the Salon des artistes français in Paris in 1926, and regularly thereafter at the Salon des Indépendants. In these spare moments, he still found time to conceive this secret work, which has remained buried in his drawers to this day. * https://agorha.inha.fr/recherche?terms=Levrat

Fri 28 Jun

BOUCHER DE PERTHES (Jacques). Celtic and antediluvian antiquities. Mémoire sur l'industrie primitive et les arts à leur origine. Paris: Treuttel et Wurtz, Derache, Dumoulin, Victor Didron, 1847-1864. - 3 volumes in-8, 233 x 149: (2 ff.), XII, 628 pp. 80 plates; (2 ff.), XVI, 511 pp. 24 plates; (2 ff.), XXIV, 178 pp. (1 f.), pp. (179)-681, 10 plates. Demi-basane, spine ribbed and decorated, speckled edges (modern binding). In French in the text, no. 266. First edition of this key text "for the history of archaeology as a discipline, but also for the history of ideas and science". In fact, as Grégoire Meylan, head of the library at the Musée d'Archéologie Nationale, points out: "Jacques Boucher de Perthes is considered today as one of the 'fathers of prehistory', his Antiquités celtiques et antédiluviennes being one of its founding works. A customs director in Abbeville, he was nevertheless a man of letters, and the author of numerous literary works, as well as President of the Société d'émulation d'Abbeville. He was neither an archaeologist nor a geologist, but was particularly interested in man's origins and evolution. To this end, he wrote and published a metaphysical essay, De la création, essai sur l'origine et la progression des êtres in 1838, in which he hypothesized that traces of "antediluvian man" would one day be found. In 1838, he presented to the Académie des Sciences the first lithic elements extracted from the sandpits of the Somme, whose stratigraphic position enabled him to assert that "antediluvian man" had indeed existed at the time of the large mammals. But for many years, he came up against the skepticism and fierce opposition of a certain intellectual elite, convinced that man's antiquity could not predate the Celtic and Gallic periods. In 1842, the discovery of a mammoth jaw associated with a flint tool in the same stratigraphic layer enabled him to demonstrate the contemporaneity of man and extinct species. This hypothesis was definitively validated in 1859 when English scholars J. Prestwich, J. Evans, J.W. Flower, R. Godwin-Austen, R.W. Hylne and C. Lyell, who attested to the authenticity of his discoveries. In these works, Boucher de Perthes presents his research and demonstrates his theory to convince even the most skeptical. Les Antiquités celtiques et antédiluviennes was published in three volumes, each one providing new answers and enabling the author to assert his position by presenting his latest discoveries and, above all, by listing the new scholars and scientists around the world who had rallied to his cause" (Source: Grégoire Meylan, in: site du Musée d'Archéologie Nationale, domaine de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Les collections, Bibliothèque, Antiquités celtiques et antédiluviennes). The edition comprises 114 plates, 80 in the first volume, 24 in the second (numbered I to XXVI), and 10 in the last (numbered III to XII, with the figures numbered I and II being full-page, and therefore included in the pagination). Together, these plates comprise more than 2,200 figures. A good copy in 20th-century binding. Spine slightly faded, a few scratches. Scattered foxing in the first volume. Provenance: Henri Millerioux, with bookplate bearing the motto "Semper transformare".

Fri 28 Jun

[Autographs]. [Sciences]. Set of 8 autograph letters from scientists, mostly addressed to Antonio Machado y Núñez (1815-1896), Spanish anthropologist, zoologist and geologist, professor in Cadiz, Seville and Madrid, who was one of the main introducers and defenders of Darwinism in Spain. (Minor wear, the main ones mentioned). - LARTET, Louis (1840-1899), geologist and prehistorian. Three autograph letters signed: - 1 L.A.S., to "Très honoré Monsieur". Paris, September 18, 1864. 2 pages in-4, Muséum d'Histoire naturelle letterhead. Acknowledges receipt of copies of "l'intéressante note sur le terrain quaternaire de Cordoue" sent by his correspondent, indicates that he will forward them to Daubrée, Verneuil, d'Archiac, Collomb, the Geological Society and others; in a P.S. he refers to the Carte géologique d'Espagne "enfin terminée" that Verneuil has just presented to the Académie des Sciences. - 1 L.A.S., to "Mon cher Monsieur Machado". S.l., January 13, 1866. 4 pages in-4. Interesting letter on prehistory with some drawings of pottery. - 1 L.A.S., to a friend and colleague. Paris, November 5, 1867. 2 pages in-8. Evokes his feelings following the Universal Exhibition, the destruction of the buildings, and regrets: "... this improvised temple of peace and industry will be succeeded [...] by a maneuvering ground for warlike evolutions...". Then refers to the proceedings volume of the last geological and prehistoric congress, regretting that his correspondent was absent (fold marks). - VERNEUIL, Édouard de (1805-1873), geologist and paleontologist. 1 L.A.S. addressed to "Monsieur". Paris, January 31. "Monsieur Lartet told me yesterday that you had written to him that there was some danger in traveling to Andalusia at present.... "He refers to his previous study trip to the region, and to their mutual friends Casiano de Prado and Lartet. He insists: "Please tell me if there really are brigands forming gangs, if they have already committed any crimes [...]", and considers postponing his trip if necessary. Finally, for his forthcoming new edition of the geological map of Spain, he warns his correspondent that he will be seeking his collaboration. - DAUBRÉE, Gabriel-Auguste (1814-1896), geologist. 1 L.A.S., addressed to Dr. Machado, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Seville. Paris, August 5, 1864. 1 page in-4, Muséum d'Histoire naturelle letterhead. He thanks his correspondent who has offered and sent to the Galerie de Zoologie samples and fossils from Spain, "... these rare and curious specimens will immediately be exhibited in our Museum with [...] the name of their generous donor". - PRADO, Casiano de (1797-1866), Spanish geologist. 1 L.A.S., in Spanish, addressed to S. D. Ant[oni]o Machado. Madrid, April 8, 1866. 1 page in-8 (light stains on verso). - 1 L.A.S. in Portuguese or Spanish, by an unidentified writer, addressed to D. Antonio Machado, his "estimado collego". Lisboa, January 9, 1867. 4 pages in-8 - 1 L.A.S., in French, from an unidentified Polish writer (Pavoinski?). Addressed to "Monsieur". Warsaw, February 25, 1882. 4 pages in-8. He has published a book on his trip to Spain, which he has dedicated to the addressee, and must have sent to him; evokes their mutual friend Juan Vilanova, and the memory of his stay in Seville; he has sent several publications and other documents to his correspondent, and worries that he has received no reply from him. Provenance: José Pérez de Barradas y Alvarez de Eulate (Cadiz, October 3, 1897 - Madrid, January 30, 1981), Spanish prehistorian and anthropologist, by descent.