First edition, rare.
Half blond sheep bindings. Smooth spines decorated in the grotesque style. Red morocco title labels and beige morocco volume labels. Library labels at foot. Two small wormholes along the lower joint of volume I. A split with loss at the lower joint of volume II. A good, decorative copy.
First edition of these 102 plates heightened in colors.
Modern cream-colored paper boards with gilt floral motif by Thomas Boichot, black morocco title label to spine. Ex libris of the "Fashion Group of Paris" on pastedown.
A little worming to first plate, the other plates very fresh.
A nicely bound copy.
First collected edition.
Contemporary full blonde sprinkled sheep binding. Smooth spine decorated with two tools and two compartments with grotesque designs, rouletted. Title and volume labels in red morocco. One wormhole to head of the first three volumes. Spines slightly faded. Fine copy, very fresh.
Most of the comedies given by the author quickly met with success, and even under the Revolution and the Terror, the author was not troubled, donning the uniform of commander of the national guard and providing verses for civic festivals. His works bring together 11 plays carried by a lively and alert style, precise, but with weak and loose plots. The fugitive poems are pieces often close to his comedies. The editorial project was carefully revised by the author, and we owe him some notes and prefaces and the variants of his first plays, the latter died the following year in 1806.
In fine, Les querelles des deux frères, ou la famille bretonne. Chez Duminil Lesueur. 1808. On the verso of the title page, a note from the publisher: "cet ouvrage termine le quatrième volume du théâtre complet de Collin d'Harleville ; il est placé immédiatement après les Poésies fugitives." ["this work completes the fourth volume of the complete theater of Collin d'Harleville; it is placed immediately after the Fugitive Poems."]
Second edition, after the original of 1644; illustrated with a frontispiece portrait; a headpiece and handsome initial letter on the first page of text, as well as tailpieces. Good impression.
Copy with quartered arms on the 5 compartments, with baron's helmet and mantling. The charges are relatively illegible, though one can distinguish the cross of Lorraine.
Contemporary full speckled sheep binding. Raised band spine decorated with arms. Gilt title. Double fillet frame on boards. Two corners rubbed. Small lacks along joints. A brown stain in margin on several leaves p. 446. Some worming. Good wide-margined copy (except top margin).
The preface mentions the author's age (91 years) and his manuscripts which he entrusted to a person to whom he was obligated, and who wished to publish them. The work thus brings together unpublished pieces by the author: Le Romain - De la Conversation des Romains - Consolation au Cardinal de La Valette - Réponse à deux questions ou Du caractère & l'instruction de la Comédie - Mécenas - Paraphrase ou De la grande Eloquence - Dissertation sur une Tragédie intitulée Herodes Infanticida - De la Gloire...
First edition of these three well-illustrated physiologies; for example, the first physiology contains 65 vignettes. Only the Physiologie du flaneur bears a date.
Physiologie du flaneur. Vignettes by Alophe, Daumier and Maurisset.
Physiologie de l'employé. Vignettes by Trimollet.
Physiologie de la femme la plus malheureuse... Vignettes by Valentin.
Contemporary half black sheep binding. Smooth spine decorated with fillets. Gilt titles. Rubbing. Occasional light foxing, on paper that has remained quite white.
First edition. Half-titles and title pages in red and black.
Contemporary binding in full marbled blonde sheep. Smooth spine decorated with four compartmentalized fleurons. Red morocco title-label. Triple fillet frame on boards. Red edges. A lack to the lower joint extending onto the spine. Rubbing to headcaps, joints and corners.
Armorial copy with unidentified arms at tail, argent, a chevron gules accompanied by three stars.
Good copy.
Pastiche of a Greek novel attributed by the author to Philidor, philosopher, who supposedly wrote it during his journey to Egypt. Story of the thwarted pastoral loves of Alzidor and Charizée who were raised together, the beauty disappearing when the shepherd discovers her naked. The whole is tinged with eroticism. One would have difficulty counting, at this period, the quantity of Greco-Latin novels that were written on the model of Daphnis and Chloe or the Aethiopica, it was a literary fashion to which numerous writers succumbed for the satisfaction of the public.
Engraved bookplate of Henri Pichot, President of Veterans during the interwar period.
New edition, illustrated with two frontispieces and 12 figures before letters, unsigned. A title vignette repeated on both volumes. Title pages in red and black.
Contemporary full glazed blonde calf bindings. Spines with raised bands decorated with small repeated fleurons in compartments. Red morocco title and volume labels. Decorative gilt board-edges and on leading edges. Edges gilt. The figures are slightly shorter at the outer margin. Joints partially restored. Fine copy, in good binding.
Son of the illustrious actor Montfleury, and like him attached to the Hôtel de Bourgogne, his first plays were farces around 1660, then producing about one play per year, he evolved toward satire and social criticism. He was a rival of Molière, who had mocked his father in L'Impromptu de Versailles (to which he responded with L'Impromptu de l'Hôtel de Condé), but while Molière drew his manner from Italian theater, Montfleury freely drew inspiration from Spanish theater; his comic theater is not a comedy of characters but a satire of contemporary society.
Engraved armorial bookplate of the 19th century Ph. L. de Bordes de Fortage.
