Pierre-Marcelin Lortic

Rare first edition printed on laid paper.

Full binding green shagreen, back with five nerves decorated with a grotesque decor, back with five nerves decorated with a grotesque decor, triple net gilded framing boards, double net gilded on the cuts, domestic gold lace all edges gilt, contemporary binding signed Lortic father.

Signed autograph from the author: "To His Excellency the Minister of State and the home of the Emperor's very obliged and grateful H. Barbet de Jouy".

Bookplate engraved (J. Pelletier).

Very nice and valuable copy in a binder perfectly established time Lortic, bookbinder Charles Baudelaire.

Fine minuscule typographic edition, with commentary distributed around the text. Text within a red frame. Engraved title, with Renaissance-style border.
Edition illustrated with 27 albumen photographs mounted as vignettes at chapter heads, when the albumen photographic process had just been invented in 1850. One of the first books illustrated with photographs.
Binding in full black morocco signed by Lortic on the pastedown, 1871. Spine with raised bands decorated with 4 tools. Boards hot-stamped with a rich central roundel and corner tools; blind-ruled frame. Wide decorative gilt board-edges. Edges gilt. Light rubbing to upper joint at head (with a tiny floating piece), at foot, and to corners. Foxing on title page, scattered throughout the volume.
Very handsome copy, perfectly established in a full binding signed by Baudelaire's binder, Pierre-Marcelin Lortic.