Les mille et une nuits, contes arabes

First printing edition, one of the rare copies on heavy vellum, which considerably increases the thickness of the volumes. Illustrated with 3 half-titles, abundantly illustrated with ornaments and in-text vignettes, as well as 14 plates by Andrew Best Leloir, Levilly. Edition produced from the 1704 text corrected with a dissertation by Baron Silvestre de Sacy. The three frontispieces of the ordinary printing were not printed on vellum, for technical or cost reasons.
Bindings in contemporary half red shagreen signed A. Bertrand (at the top of the first endpaper). Spine with Jansenist raised bands. A slight depression to the lower joint at the head of volume 1. Restoration to the lower joint at the head of volume 2. Occasional pale foxing.
Armorial bookplate: Bibliothèque de Mouchy, with shelf label. Antoine de Noailles (1841-1909), Duc de Mouchy, château de Mouchy.
One of the finest illustrated works of the Romantic period and of wood engraving, both for its ornaments and for its prodigious invention in design. The books turn like an album of inexhaustible images, and contain numerous engravings with latent eroticism.