New illustrated edition with a portrait as frontispiece, 3 title vignettes, and 41 folding plates. According to Brunet, the first octavo edition following the original quarto published in 1769 of these Commentaries. Title pages printed in red and black.
Contemporary full mottled calf binding. Spine with raised bands, gilt-tooled. Beige morocco title-piece, black basane volume label. Head of volume 2 restored. Surface abrasions on the boards, polished with wax. Traces of rubbing. A handsome copy, the paper of remarkable freshness.
Ex libris with 18th-century armorial bookplate of Biel D. de Lislemont.
One of the most magnificent letters by Fernand Léger
A fabulous handwritten letter by the painter Fernand Léger, written on the front line during the Battle of Argonne, addressed to the Parisian art trader Adolphe Basler.
92 lines in black ink, four pages on a double leaf, dated 28 May 1915 by Léger.
The handwritten letter is presented with a half forest green morocco chemise, green paper boards with a stylised motif, endpapers lined with green lamb, slip case lined with the same morocco, the piece is signed by Goy & Vilaine.
The letter was chosen for Cécile Guilbert's anthology, Les Plus Belles Lettres manuscrites de Voltaire à Édith Piaf, Robert Laffont, 2014.
Second edition, a reprint of the first folio edition published in 1756 by the same publisher. A rare edition, illustrated with 40 plates including 4 folding and 16 double-page (arms, costumes, plans, manoeuvres...). Large vignette with coat of arms on the title-page, and 41 ornaments (headpieces, tailpieces). Title-page printed in red and black. At the end, Supplement aux Reveries, with its own title-page; this short addition, spanning only a few pages, contains the corrections made to the original. A two-volume quarto edition appeared in Paris in 1757.
Bound in later full marbled brown calf; a skilful early 20th-century pastiche signed Saingy at foot. Spine with raised bands richly decorated, gilt rolls at head and tail. Red morocco lettering-piece, black morocco date-piece gilt. Rubbing to head- and tailcaps, edges, corners, and lower board. Plate XXXIV has been refolded, having been badly folded. An exceptionally fresh copy, the paper only slightly toned. One leaf misbound among the preliminary pages. A handsome copy.
