[Rarebooks] fa: FRENCH HISTORY in SIGNED BINDINGS - Mme. de Maintenon + de Pompadour + Secret History

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, May 1. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/jsf6oej

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA



Four works in five volumes on France and French history:

Dr. [Annie Emma] Challice: The Secret History of the Court of France under Louis XV. Edited from Rare and Unpublished Documents. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1861. FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, 8vo, rebound in three-quarter polished calf by Morrell, top page edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Bindings with light wear, sunning to the spines and edges, some offsetting and toning to the title-pages, else clean and sound, firmly bound. Surprisingly uncommon in the first edition.

Walter Bennett: Madame de Maintenon. A Memoir. London: Remington and Co., 1880. FIRST EDITION, 8vo, bound in three-quarter polished calf and marbled boards by Spurr & Swift of London, top page edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Spine a bit darkened and scuffed, rubbing to the edges and joints, mild toning to the contents, else clean and sound, firmly bound. Another surprisingly uncommon first edition.

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour; J.B.H.R. Capefigue, trans.: Madame de Pompadour. London: Arthur L. Humphreys, 1908. First edition thus. Small 8vo bound in full crushed morocco by the Rowfant Bindery with gilt-tooled borders and turn-ins, top page edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Light rubbing to the corners and joints, spine sunned to a mellow brown, offsetting to the endpapers from the turn-ins, modest toning to the edges of the text block, else very clean and bright, firmly bound. One of the Royal Library Belles Lettres Series, rather elegantly printed on laid paper. The Rowfant Bindery was a reincarnation of the Club Bindery first established by the Grolier Club in 1895 and, like its predecessor, was headed by the gifted but "temperamental" French master binder Léon Maillard. The Rowfant enjoyed a brief (1909-1913) but illustrious existence in Cleveland before shutting down due to financial difficulties. "Maillard was reduced to selling carpet sweepers, and in 1921 he committed suicide" ("Hand Bookbindings", Princeton University Library).

E. V. Lucas: A Wanderer in Paris. New York: Macmillan, 1913. Fourth impression, 8vo, bound in three-quarter morocco, top page edges gilt. Illustrated in color and black&white. Wear to the corners, sunning and crazing to the spine with some chipping at the foot, joints rubbed and cracking at the ends but the boards are secure, contents clean and sound, firmly bound.