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190 - BOUCHER DE PERTHES (Jacques). Celtic and antediluvian antiqu…
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Estimate €800 - €1,000
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Description
BOUCHER DE PERTHES (Jacques). Celtic and antediluvian antiquities. Mémoire sur l'industrie primitive et les arts à leur origine. Paris, Treuttel et Wurtz, 1847-1864. 3 volumes large in-8, bottle-green half-chagrin, spine decorated, speckled edges (period binding). First edition of this major work marking the birth of prehistoric science. The illustrations consist of 118 plates comprising some 2,200 lithographed figures produced by Vitoux in Abbeville. This work was published following systematic excavations organised by the author in the high terraces of the Somme valley. Challenging the dogma of the Académie des Sciences and Cuvier, who denied the possibility of the existence of fossil hominids, Boucher de Perthes asserts that man, thought to be four thousand years old, was the contemporary of the mammoths. Although the Celtic Antiquities were repeatedly criticised, the momentum was there: the first chair in prehistory was created in Toulouse in 1890, and Abbé Breuil inaugurated the chair at the Collège de France in 1929. Minor spotting, bindings a little dusty, minimal brown spots. In French in the text, n°266 - Printing and the Mind of Man, n°325.
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About the sale Antiquarian books from the 15th to the 19th century - Astronomy
Auction location
Auction time 06/24/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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