[Rarebooks] fa: JEAN RACINE - OEUVRES 1768 - 7 vols. First ed. thus w/ commentaries & plates

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, January 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/jd7vk5m

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain

Jean Racine: Oeuvres de Jean Racine, avec des commentaires, par M. Luneau de Boisjermain. Paris: l'Imprimerie de Louis Cellot, 1768 [vols. VI-VII with the imprint, "à Londres" and no publisher's name]. First edition thus. Seven volumes, 8vo (20.5 cm), in full early/period calf with gilt-decorated spines, page edges dyed red, marbled endpapers; with the half-titles, list of subscribers, engraved portrait and 12 engraved plates after Gravelot (complete). Cohen-De Ricci 847.

An important and handsomely produced edition of the works of the great French playwright Jean Racine (1639-1699) best known for his neoclassical tragedies (Phèdre, etc.), but who also wrote at least one comedy (Les Plaideurs), all of which are included here, along with letters and prose works. The elegant plates are designed by Gravelot; the extensive commentary, credited to Luneau de Boisjermain, is sometimes attributed to Adrien-Michel-Hyacinthe Blin de Sainmore. The 17-page list of subscribers includes Voltaire, King Louis XV (down for 200 copies), and many other nobles and notables of the period.

Spines somewhat darkened and dried, wear to the spine ends, one spine with abrasions/chipping to the leather; several joints cracking at the ends but all boards are secure; modest rubbing and soiling to the boards, some bumping to the extremities; contents with occasional mild toning, scattered small spots and stains, some offsetting from the plates, otherwise quite clean and crisp. Front paste-downs with the early (ca. 1808-1810) bookseller's label of Mme. Ve. [Veuve] Villier, Libraire, rue des Mathurins, no. 15. Later engraved armorial bookplate of Ross Ambler Curran, early twentieth-century West Coast society figure and bibliophile.