[Rarebooks] fa: HISTOIRE DU ROI HENRI-LE-GRAND 1816 - Unusual CALF/MOROCCO BINDING

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, February 21. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/znfbceo

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain

Hardoux de Perefixe: Histoire du Roi Henri-le Grand. Paris: chez Antoine-Augustin Renouard, 1816. Bound in full polished calf, both covers with elaborate gilt-tooled borders and large straight-grained morocco inlays tooled in blind, spine with raised morocco bands and gilt-lettered spine label; all page edges gilt, marbled endpapers; 8vo (21 cm); x, [2], 468 pp.; engraved frontispiece portrait.

A bold and unusual binding of indeterminate origin, with its large crimson diamond-shaped morocco inlays and crimson spine bands providing a striking (some might even say garish) contrast with the brown polished  calf. Of additional interest, the front free-endpaper bears the large engraved period bookseller's label of Carnevillier Libraire, Palais Royal, Galerie des Offices, no.4. In addition to carrying an "assortment complet des Livres Elementaires, Francais et Etrangers," Carnevillier promises to procure, "dans le plus court delai, tous les Livres qu'on peut desirer..." Binding with modest wear to the corners and edges, front joint professionally repaired; contents mildly toned with scattered spotting and small stains. Front paste-down with the engraved armorial bookplate of Ross Ambler Curran, early twentieth-century West Coast society figure and bibliophile.