Description

FIRST EDITION. The first American catalogue, with marked prices, from the "prince of Parisian booksellers".
The New York branch of the Pierre Berès bookshop, run by Lucien Goldschmidt, opened in June 1937. This first catalogue featured 120 works and autographs: letters from the "surrealist poet"Apollinaire ($6.50) or the "celebrated author"Dumas père ($3.00), binding byone of the foremost living bookbinders, Paul Bonet of Paris"...

The most valuable work in the catalogue, a Napoleonic code printed in Milan in 1806, bound in the arms of Napoleon King of Italy, is said to have cost a client at the time $400. Also on offer is the 2nd known manuscript of Proust's questionnaire, marked $220 (it was sold to Gérard Darel in 2003).
The catalogue is also illustrated with a black reproduction of No. 87, an autograph letter from Kipling to Clémenceau.

The New York branch of the Pierre Berès bookshop published 19 catalogues between 1938 and 1948 at least (the latest are undated), not counting the more than 53 "periodical lists".

RARE.