[Rarebooks] fa: DE LAMARTINE - LA CHUTE D'UN ANGE 1840 - Superb Canape Bindings w/ morocco inlays

[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

Alphonse de Lamartine: La Chute d'un Ange. Paris: Charles Gosselin, Furne et Cie., 1840. First edition thus. Two volumes, 8vo (24 cm), bound by Canape in full navy blue straight-grained morocco, with gilt-tooled borders, elaborate gilt tooling to the spines and turn-ins, an with floral designs on front and rear covers and spines inlaid with yellow and pink morocco; all page edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Original publisher's printed wraps (front and rear covers  and spines) bound in. Vols. 11 & 12 of the Oeuvres Complètes. Carteret Livres illustres, p. 366.

First illustrated edition of Lamartine's epic poem inspired by his travels in Lebanon, first published in 1838. With numerous handsome engravings by Meissonier. Contents with just a very few small scattered spots, toning to the first and last leaf in each volume from the bound-in-wraps, else Fine in Fine, exquisitely crafted bindings by Canape with just a touch of light rubbing/wear to the extremities and joints, some sunning to the spines. Georges Canape (1864-1940), was a maitre relieur (master binder) and founding member of a number of bibliographical societies, including La Societe du Livre Contemporain. Taking over the family business from his father in 1894, he turned its focus from bindings for liturgical works and libraries to de luxe bindings, of which the present volumes are superior examples. His name is stamped in gilt near the foot of each spine. Front paste-downs with the engraved armorial bookplates of Ross Ambler Curran, early twentieth-century West Coast society figure and bibliophile.