Lettres d'un oncle à son neveu sur le gouvernement des Etats-Unis. Pouvoir législatif. - Pouvoir exécutif. - Pouvoir judiciaire des Etats.- Constitution des Etats-Unis

First edition (cf. Sabin 23192).

Contemporary half brown shagreen, spine with four raised bands decorated with blind-stamped compartments, slight rubbing to the spine, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.

A few small spots of foxing, with several imperial colportage stamps at the foot of certain leaves.

The sole edition of this commemorative text, apparently composed directly in French for the author’s nephew.

The physician Thomas Wiltberger Evans (1823-1897) had practised as a dentist in Maryland until 1847, before moving to Paris at the invitation of a fellow American, Dr Cyrus Starr Brewster (1799-1870), who had been practising there since 1833.

Renowned for his scientific expertise and technical skill, particularly in the use of gold foil, Evans became dentist to eminent figures such as President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte and the Countess Eugénie de Montijo, the future Emperor and Empress of the French.

Employed as an unofficial adviser by Napoleon III, who sent him on a diplomatic mission to President Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward in 1864, Evans helped dissuade the Emperor from intervening on behalf of the South during the American Civil War.