Manuscripts, Autographs, and Books (starting September 1, 2026)

BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS

ONLINE AUCTION COMING SOON

LANDRE is preparing its next “Books and Manuscripts” sale, featuring antique and modern books, French manuscripts, first editions, fine bindings, illustrated books, autographs, correspondence, archives, and historical documents.

We are particularly interested in:

ANTIQUE BOOKS

Incunabula, works from the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries; Gothic-type prints, illustrated books, rare editions, works in Latin, French, Greek, Italian, German, and other European languages.

Bibles, books of hours, religious, theological, and philosophical works; literature, poetry, theater, history, memoirs, genealogy, heraldry, law, science, medicine, botany, zoology, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, fine arts, music, travel, geography, and cartography.

Printers and publishers sought: Aldus Manutius, Christoffel Plantin, Robert Estienne, Henri Estienne, Simon de Colines, Sébastien Gryphe, Josse Bade, Antoine Vérard, Simon Vostre, Geoffroy Tory, Jean de Tournes, Elzévir, Didot, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, Léon Curmer, Lemerre, and Édouard Pelletan.

Authors of interest: Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Virgil, Ovid, Dante, Petrarch, Rabelais, Montaigne, Ronsard, Corneille, Racine, Molière, La Fontaine, Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, Madame de Sévigné, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Buffon, Chateaubriand, and Goethe.

BEAUTIFUL BINDINGS AND BIBLIOPHILIA

Antique bindings in calfskin, morocco, sheepskin, vellum, or sowhide; bindings bearing coats of arms—royal, imperial, or those of prominent families; decorations featuring fanfare, lace, cathedral motifs, mosaics, or fine gold lettering.

Bindings signed or attributed to Le Gascon, Padeloup, Derome, Boyet, Thouvenin, Simier, Bauzonnet-Trautz, Duru, Lortic, Marius Michel, Gruel, Charles Meunier, Pierre Legrain, Rose Adler, Paul Bonet, Georges Cretté, Henri Mercher, Jean de Gonet, and Monique Mathieu.

Ex-libris, prestigious provenance, collectors’ libraries, award-winning books, authors’ autographed copies, copies on large-format paper, Chinese, Japanese, and Dutch paper, vellum, and first editions

MODERN BOOKS AND FIRST EDITIONS

First editions and major works from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries; French and foreign literature, poetry, theater, essays, philosophy, history, humanities, art books, and bibliophile editions.

Sought-after authors: Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac, Stendhal, Gustave Flaubert, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé, Marcel Proust, Guillaume Apollinaire, André Gide, Paul Valéry, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Jean Cocteau, André Breton, Antonin Artaud, Colette, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Marguerite Yourcenar, Julien Gracq, René Char, Georges Bataille, Samuel Beckett, Marguerite Duras, Romain Gary, Saint-John Perse, and Michel Houellebecq.

We are particularly interested in: *Les Fleurs du mal*, *Une saison en enfer*, *Les Illuminations*, *In Search of Lost Time*, *Alcools*, *Nadja*, *Journey to the End of the Night*, *The Stranger*, *The Little Prince*, *Memoirs of Hadrian*, and the major works of Surrealism.

ILLUSTRATED BOOKS AND ARTISTS’ BOOKS

Books illustrated by Gustave Doré, Grandville, Daumier, Gavarni, Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Raoul Dufy, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, Fernand Léger, Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Hans Bellmer, Alberto Giacometti, Alexander Calder, Zao Wou-Ki, and Pierre Soulages.

Éditions Ambroise Vollard, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Albert Skira, Tériade, Maeght, Pierre André Benoit, Iliazd, GLM, Guy Lévis Mano, Au Sans Pareil, Éditions de la Pléiade, Gallimard, NRF, and Éditions de Minuit

FRENCH MANUSCRIPTS

Medieval and modern manuscripts; books of hours, illuminated manuscripts, antiphonaries, psalters, charters, land registers, cartularies, notarial deeds, documents on parchment, letters patent, genealogies, armorials, account books, and family archives.

Literary manuscripts, drafts, notebooks, diaries, memoirs, working notes, poems, musical scores, drawings, speeches, and preparatory documents.

Autograph letters and signed manuscripts by monarchs, statesmen, writers, artists, scientists, military figures, musicians, and historical figures.

We are seeking documents related to Francis I, Henry IV, Louis XIII, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Napoleon I, Joséphine de Beauharnais, Talleyrand, Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo, Balzac, George Sand, Gustave Flaubert, Charles Baudelaire, Émile Zola, Marcel Proust, Guillaume Apollinaire, Colette, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Charles de Gaulle, Jean Cocteau, Albert Camus, and Louis-Ferdinand Céline.

HISTORY, TRAVEL, AND SCIENCE

Travelogues, atlases, antique maps, and books on the Orient, Africa, the Americas, Asia, Russia, the poles, and major explorations.

Works by Ptolemy, Ortelius, Mercator, Blaeu, Sanson, Jaillot, Cassini, Cook, La Pérouse, Bougainville,

TO INCLUDE BOOKS, MANUSCRIPTS, OR ARCHIVAL MATERIALS IN OUR NEXT AUCTION, PLEASE CONTACT US.

Free and confidential estimates based on photographs. On-site visits and inventories are available for libraries, archives, estates, and significant collections.

Contact

Phone: 07 49 27 13 88

Email: ivanbirr@alexandrelandre.com