S panning the period from the 16th to the 21st century, this sale brings together an outstanding variety of books and manuscripts, mixing literature, bindings, seminal works on science, correspondence, literary manuscripts, modern illustrated books, photographs and drawings.
The sale features some twenty works devoted to gardens from the library of Didier Wirth, which offer a beautiful panorama of the diversity of this art, from French gardens, garden labyrinths, English gardens and Anglo-Chinese gardens, all adorning the most beautiful houses in Europe.
An avid bibliophile, Dr. Jacques Lacan assembled an eclectic and fascinating library, which we have the great privilege to present in this sale. Alongside books on science (Bernoulli) and medicine (such as the extraordinary photographs by Duchenne de Boulogne, showing faces as they react to electric shocks), one discovers works of literature and philosophy with inscriptions to the psychoanalyst: Louis Aragon, Marguerite Duras, James Joyce, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault and Martin Heidegger.
Because André Masson was his brother-in-law, Lacan was able to obtain an exceptional copy of Le Con d'Irène enriched with a beautiful erotic drawing by Masson, with an inscription from Aragon to his mistress Nancy Cunard, and another from Masson to Éluard.
Two magnificent lacquered bindings by Jean Dunand adorn unique copies of Schmied’s Le cantique des cantiques and his Faust, each including original gouaches and additional suites of prints, which are accompanied by a magnificent copy of the Kashbas by Majorelle with an inscription from General Lyautey to the Comte de Paris.
Then we have the surrealist artists: Joan Miró (for example Parler seul coming from René Char, including a large original drawing, or two copies of L'Anti-Platon.
Also, a rare copy of Lichtenstein's La Nouvelle chute de l’Amérique, Éditions du Solstice, a beautiful set of books by Zao Wou-Ki and a book in braille by Barceló.
Among the science books is a first edition of Descartes Discours de la Méthode, a flagship work in the history of Western philosophy, from the library assembled by Edmond and Paul Raphaël at the Château de Frénouville, as well as two rare first editions of Pascal’s: the Lettres de A. Dettonville and the Traité du triangle arithmétique.
