
Lot 56•
VIDOCQ (EUGÈNE-FRANCOIS) Le paravoleur, our l'art de se conduire prudemment en tout pays, notamment à Paris, et d'éviter les pièges de toute espèce que tendent aux personnes honnêtes et faciles les charlatans, escrocs, filous et voleurs qui infestent la capitale, ouvrage... par Vidocq, ancien chef de brigade de la Police de Sureté, FIRST EDITION, Paris, Roy-Terry, 1830
14 June 2017, 13:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge£600 - £800
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VIDOCQ (EUGÈNE-FRANCOIS)
Le paravoleur, our l'art de se conduire prudemment en tout pays, notamment à Paris, et d'éviter les pièges de toute espèce que tendent aux personnes honnêtes et faciles les charlatans, escrocs, filous et voleurs qui infestent la capitale, ouvrage... par Vidocq, ancien chef de brigade de la Police de Sureté, FIRST EDITION, engraved frontispiece comprising 2 hand-coloured scenes (pick-pockets; conjuror with cards and three cup trick), spotting, contemporary plain yellow wrappers (frayed with some loss of spine, upper cover near detached), 8vo, Paris, Roy-Terry, 1830
Footnotes
Scarce first edition of a work devoted to the workings of the Paris underworld, attributed on the title-page to the celebrated crime fighter Eugene Francois Vidocq but seemingly just based upon his Memoirs. It was "a warning to country and suburban bumpkins of the dangers of city life. It was little more than erotica" (James Morton, The First Detective, 2013). Only 2 copies on Worldcat.