[Rarebooks] FS: 19th-century Louvre Museum catalogue of enamels

[Robin Bledsoe]

 A unique offering for the decorative arts scholars among us:
Laborde [LéonEmmanuel Simon Joseph], comte de.   Noticedes émaux exposés dans le galleries du Musée du Louvre [and] Notice des émaux, bijoux et objets divers,exposés [etc.].  Paris: Vinchon 1852,1853.  2 vols.  Vol. 1 (Histoireet description): 348 pp., several  examples of artist signatures or marks.  Vol. 2 (Documentset glossaire): 556 pp. (interleaved),  some small mounted ills.   as is (see below),  $400 + s/h.   Usualtrade terms. Vol. 1 catalogues over 500 enamels in the Louvre, arrangedby regional origin or artist.  Vol. 2 isan extensive and detailed glossary of hundreds of terms relating to enamels,jewelry, and like arts.  The terms areoften documented with locations of collections and examples.  Lebord was curator of the Louvre collections of the MiddleAges, Renaissance, and modern sculpture. This set belonged to historian and archivist Anatole de Montaiglon(1824-95), with his bookplate and signature. Volume 2 is interleaved and heavily amended by Montaiglonwith hundreds of ink corrections and notations in his small quick hand, and supplementedwith mounted texts  and illustrations fromvarious printed sources. Ex-public library, with usual marks.  Bindings poor: board-and-leather coversdetached, spine of vol. 2 half detached but book block soundly sewn.  Opening pages of vol. 2 worn and detached. Not a pretty set, but a unique source of information for thededicated student of enamels and other small decorative arts. 
Robin Bledsoe, Bookseller (ABAA)
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