Jean Cocteau, My Journey Round the World

Cocteau, Jean. My Journey Round the World. First Edition, First Printing. 1958. Book and dust jacket are both in very good minus condition.

Cocteau once said, “Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.” In this lyrical account of a journey around the world, that idea is very much in evidence. His voyage is as deeply rooted in the mind as it is on the earth. Egypt, India, China, San Francisco, Hollywood, New York—he makes all the stops one might expect a Twentieth Century traveler to make. Yet what he sees and observes is altogether different.

$100.00 (SOLD)

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Original Bemelmans Drawing, Ex Libris Elsa Schiaparelli with Her Signature

[Signed with Drawing; Ex Libris Elsa Schiaparelli, with Her Signature] Bemelmans, Ludwig. How to Travel Incognito.

First American Edition. 1952. Book is in very good condition; dust jacket is in good plus condition—jacket shows a small tear to the front cover, and the back cover shows creasing, small tears, and discoloration. On the blank page opposite the title page, Bemelmans has drawn a champagne glass and signed underneath. Also, this copy is ex libris Elsa Schiaparelli and is so noted in her typical fashion, which is her signature in blue ink (on the same page as the Bemelmans drawing).

Bemelmans’ supposedly truthful account of a romp through France is enhanced with generous amounts of romantic fantasy. The plot is thus. A poverty-stricken French nobleman convinces Bemelmans to adopt the title of a forgotten German prince, and the pair travel from Paris to the Riviera, trading in on the grandeur of their fading nobility. Along the way, they encounter maharajahs, American tourists, and other such characters one used to read about in Elsa Maxwell columns.

$900.00 (SOLD)

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Manners for the Metropolis

Crowninshield, Francis W. Manners for the Metropolis, An Entrance Key to the Fantastic Life of the 400. First Edition. 1908. Book is in good condition—covers show moderate wear, and pages show some foxing. Decorations by Louis Fancher.

No magazine did more to popularize café society than did Frank Crowninshield’s Vanity Fair. It is therefore appropriate that a half decade before assuming its helm, he penned this sardonic primer that paved its way. The premise is that behavior once considered boorish now made one a bright young thing. The book both edifies and amuses, with advice on how to behave in the age of the telephone, women’s rights, motorcars, and millionaires. Not entirely an anachronism, some of the book’s maneuvers continue to be practiced today. Rare.

$350.00

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The Peggy Guggenheim Collection of Modern Art, Signed by Peggy Guggenheim

[Signed by Peggy Guggenheim] Calas, Nicolas and Elena. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection of Modern Art. Book is in very good condition; dust jacket is in good plus condition. It is inscribed by Peggy Guggenheim on the title-page, “For Howard Hussey, with so many thanks, Peggy Guggenheim, Sept 11, 1976.”

This impressive folio-sized book is a catalogue raisonné of the renowned art collection that Peggy Guggenheim housed at her Venetian palazzo. Each of the one hundred eighty-nine items is depicted in a full-page plate (forty in full color). The collection includes works by a virtual Who’s Who of Modernism, including Picasso, de Kooning, Miró, Giacometti, Francis Bacon, Joseph Cornell, and Jackson Pollock. Howard Hussey, the person to whom this book was inscribed, was an artist and writer who once worked as Joseph Cornell’s studio assistant.

$750.00 (SOLD)

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Reno (Rare in Dust Jacket)

Vanderbilt, Cornelius, Jr. Reno. First Edition, Second Printing. 1929. Book is in good plus condition; dust jacket is in good condition—there is a small tear to one page; jacket has several repaired tears and some creasing.

Cary Grant said, “Divorce is a game played by lawyers.” It was not always that way. It once resembled a luxe version of summer camp. In the first half of the Twentieth Century, society divorced just so they could spend some time in  (then) glamorous Reno. The author, a Vanderbilt scion, was intimately familiar with the process and was inspired to write this novel about it. Written in the last moments of pre-Depression high society, the mise-en-scène is as important as the plot. Vanderbilt paints a picture of Reno as a satellite of New York, not unlike the Hamptons today. Rare in dust jacket.

$425.00 (SOLD)

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La Leopolda, Signed by Lily Safra

[Signed] Safra, Lily. La Leopolda. Privately Printed. 2004. Hardcover with green linen boards in a matching slipcase. Book and slipcase are both in very good condition. Book is inscribed, “To my dear friend ***, a souvenir of La Leopolda, with love, Lily, September 2004.”

This rare monograph contains over one hundred pages of color images depicting the interiors and exteriors of La Leopolda, the grand French Riviera home of Lily Safra. She privately published the book, distributing copies to friends, but it was never sold at retail. The book took NHL by storm when we listed it last year, becoming the most requested book in NHL history, but alas, we only had the one copy (which had taken us several years to find). After despairing of ever locating another, this one, warmly inscribed by Lily Safra, emerged.

$750.00 (SOLD)

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Elsie de Wolfe, After All, in Rare DJ

de Wolfe, Elsie. After All. First Edition. 1935. Book is in very good minus condition; dust jacket is in good condition—jacket shows light fraying, minor chipping, and a few small tears.

In this, her autobiography, the great American decorator writes that her story can be told by the homes in which she lived. They are featured prominently here. However, at the heart of her book is how an unattractive, middle class New York girl’s zest for living and love of beauty catapulted her to the pinnacle of international society. Uncommon, even more so in its original dust jacket. In fact, many assume it was issued without one. A great find.

$650.00 (SOLD)

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Elizabeth Takes Off, Signed by Elizabeth Taylor

[Signed] Taylor, Elizabeth. Elizabeth Takes Off, On Weight Gain, Weight Loss, Self-Image, and Self-Esteem. First Edition, First Printing. 1987. Book is very good condition; dust jacket is in very good minus condition—jacket shows edgewear and mild rubbing. 

Honesty and glamour are sometimes sworn enemies, but in the case of Elizabeth Taylor, each reinforced the other. That made her a great star, and it makes this an exceptional self-help book. The first half is actually memoir, anyway. The focus is mid-life and the challenges it brings, but there is also much on the roller coaster ride that took her there. She concludes triumphantly, explaining that after a dramatic life of black and white, it was time to cultivate the gray, “a very attractive color . . . not dull at all.”

$275.00

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The Basset Hound

Johnston, George. The Basset Hound. First Edition. 1968. Book is in very good condition; dust jacket is in very good minus condition.

Part of the Popular Dogs series, published only in the United Kingdom, this mid-Twentieth Century look at the Basset Hound covers the origins, behavior, and physical attributes of the breed. With their short legs, long body, and impossibly long ears, basset hounds invite much debate on how and for what purpose they originated. One fascinating theory floated in this book is that serfs intentionally bred them that way, to assure overzealous game wardens that they were physically incapable of poaching deer from the royal estates.

$45.00

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Maxims of Marquis

Ambler, C. Gifford. Maxims of Marquis. First Edition. 1937. Book and dust jacket are both in very good minus condition.

In this charming, clever book an elder foxhound teaches a litter of pups the rules for their sport and for sensible living. Each maxim is accompanied by two-pages of illustration featuring hound pups interacting with hound masters, horses, foxes, or each other. The drawings are marvelous, a tribute to all that’s best about the English countryside. 

$150.00

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Cecil Aldin, Dogs of Character

Aldin, Cecil. Dogs of Character. First Edition. 1927. Hardcover with pictorial pastedown on the front cover and gilt titles. It is in very good condition.

Early Twentieth Century sporting artist Cecil Aldin added something indefinable to his portraits of dogs. He not only understood but respected them, and it shows in his work. This book includes many color and duotone illustrations as well as text, also by Aldin, in which he advises on how to select and train dogs, etc.  Many breeds are depicted, including bull terriers, Irish wolfhounds, beagles, and even a few mongrels. Though this book saw later editions, this first edition is the most attractive. 

$120.00

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How to Live with a Calculating Cat

Gurney, Eric. How to Live with a Calculating Cat. First Edition. 1962. Book is in very good minus condition; dust jacket is good condition—previous owner’s bookplate is attached to the flyleaf and jacket shows rubbing and a minor fraying to the spine ends.

With text and delicate b & w cartoon-style illustration, Eric Gurney ponders what it means to be a cat and also to own one (though from the satirical nature of the book, it is unclear whether human or cat is in the dominant role). It is an overview of all matters feline, with sections on their idolization by ancient Egyptians, rivalry with dogs, exceptional personal hygiene, discriminating taste in cuisine, etc. Equally appropriate for the longtime cat lover or for someone who has just recently adopted one.

$60.00

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