LE DUC DE BERRY. OU VERTUS ET BELLES ACTIONS D'UN BOURBON.
Paris: de L'Imprimerie de Didiot le Jeune, 1820.
4to. 72p, Illustrated with 13 full-page engraved plates after Fragonard, Colin, Chasselat, Pecheux, Martinet, Desenne, and Lordon . Bound by Joseph Thouvenin (not signed, but in his style and with his tools). Binding of full scarlet straight-grained morocco, sides and spine elaborately gilt, the spine in six uneven compartments heavily gilt including built-up pointelle areas, the upper cover with a series on ornamental frames in gilt and blind with a central window design in blind, the lower covers with elaborate gilt cornerpieces and ornamental ruled frames, the center section with a window and palmette cornerpieces inlaid in citron, red, green, black, dentelles, marbled endpapers, a.e.g. Binding has very slight edge wear, contents with foxing concentrated around the plates. Item #21091
Berry, Charles-Ferdinand de Bourbon, duc de, 1778-1820.
"[Joseph] Thouvenin (1790-1834) was the outstanding binder of the French Restoration period. His fame was so universal that both Blazac and Stendhal mentioned him in their novels; it persists to the present day. Among his clientele he also counted English and Russian collectors. Although he did not invent the style 'a la cathedrale', as is often claimed on his behalf (the London binder Whitaker was its originator), he brought it to perfection, and became its principal practitioner in France." (Breslauer. Historic & Artistic Bookibindings from the Bibliotheca Bibliographia Breslaueriana. p. 66, entry 27). See also Miner. The History of Bookbinding 525 -1950 A.D., no. 584).
Price: $2,750.00