Second edition with some parts in first edition as expanded with two new pieces: "L'occasion" and "Le carrosse du Saint Sacrement".
Half red straight-grained morocco binding with corners signed Blanchetière at the top of the first endpaper. Smooth spine decorated with a large mirror tool and roulettes. Separating fillets on the boards. Very fresh copy, uncut, however some brown spots on Le carrosse du saint sacrement.
Very handsome copy.
Provenance: from the library of Jacques Crépineau, famous collector of Romantic books, with his bookplate. Theater historian and director of the Michodière theater.
This is Prosper Mérimée's first work composed
Autograph letter dated and signed (25 lines in black ink) from the illustrator and caricaturist Sennep, addressed to his friend the Provençal writer, caricaturist and filmmaker Carlo Rim, thanking him while teasing him after having been decorated with the Legion of Honor: "Merci, gros jaloux ! mais, d'abord, je n'ai pas les cheveux aussi blancs ! ensuite, ma cravate est d'un bleu de ciel, qui évoque le ruban des "Enfants de Marie", beaucoup plus que l'ordre du Saint-Esprit..." ["Thank you, big jealous one! but, first, I don't have hair that white! then, my tie is sky blue, which evokes the ribbon of the "Children of Mary", much more than the order of the Holy Spirit..."]<
The second édition originale on ordinary paper. Fifteen hundred copies had been printed, plus 4 copies on chine paper, and a few other copies on hollande and on vélin.
Half brown morocco, slightly sunned spine with five raised bands, marbled paper boards double ruled in gilt, mould made paper pastedowns and endpapers, gilt top edge. Foxing. Complete with the portrait of the author by Félix Bracquemond (often missing), here in second state on papier chine pasted on the page.
Mistakenly considered as “partly original”, this edition was entirely revised by the author, with 35 newly composed poems and 55 “deeply rewritten” poems [profondément remani
