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DORAT (Claude-Joseph). Les Baisers, précédés du Mois de mai,…
See original version (French)
DORAT (Claude-Joseph). Les Baisers, précédés du Mois de mai,…
See original version (French)
Lot no. 40
DORAT (Claude-Joseph).
Les Baisers, précédés du Mois de mai, poëme.
La Haye, Paris: Lambert, Delalain, 1770. - 2 parts in one volume in-8, 234 x 143: frontispiece, 119 pp. 1 plate; 47 pp. Plum morocco, wide gilt lace on covers, ornate ribbed spine, lemon morocco lining decorated with a rich floral design, plum silk endpapers, slipcase (S. David - Renard).
Cohen, 308-311.
First edition of this famous collection of 20 poems by the poet and playwright Claude-Joseph Dorat (1734-1780), preceded by the long poem entitled Le Mois de mai, inspired by Jean Second's collection Basia published in Lyon in 1539.
According to Cohen, this edition is one of the masterpieces of the 18th century. It is illustrated "with perfect taste and grace" (Cohen), and includes a frontispiece, a title vignette, a plate, 22 chapter headings and 22 culs-de-lampe, all engraved by Aliamet, Baquoy, Binet, Delaunay, Lingée, de Longueil, Masquelier, Massard, Née and Ponce, after drawings by Charles EISEN (1720-1778) and Clément-Pierre MARILLIER (1740-1808).
One of the copies on large paper, with the titles in red and black. It contains pagination errors that Cohen interprets as signs of a first printing. However, this statement needs to be qualified. Pages 29-30 (paginated 5-6) and 35-36 (numbered 11-12) are in fact inserts. Their pagination corresponds to that of the book without the Réflexions préliminaires, which suggests that the work was composed without any provision being made for the insertion of this preliminary text. During the printing, the poet had these two leaves reprinted in order to make, no doubt, a minor change, providing the corrected text on a proof showing the original pagination. The printer religiously reproduced the numbers 5-6 and 11-12, and this error escaped the author's vigilance.
The copy is also complete with the 47-page supplement entitled Imitations de poëtes latins, which appeared after the Baisers and which is not always included.
A superb copy in a lined binding by Salvador David, son of Bernard David whom he succeeded in 1890. He died in 1929. The gilding is by a certain Renard. This luxurious binding was produced for the German banker Jean Furstenberg (1890-1982), best known as a bibliophile, who had assembled one of the most important private collections of precious books and bindings.
A perfectly preserved copy, despite some foxing to the frontispiece and very light wetness to the top of the plate opposite page 27. Pagination errors have been corrected in ink.
Provenance: Jean Furstenberg, with bookplate. - Otto Schäfer (Sotheby's sale, 7 December 1995, no. 174).
See original version (French)
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