Lot n° 5
Estimation :
1500 - 2000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 1 769EUR
Xavier FORNERET.
Caressa. Paris, Veuve Vincent et Bourselet, 1858.
In-8 : aubergine chagrin, spine with four false nerves decorated with gilt filets, five gilt filets framing the plates with gilt arms in the centre, gilt roulette on the edges, inner lace, lining and endpapers of white moire, gilt edges (period binding).
First edition.
The only novel by the author presented as a manuscript allegedly found during a stroll in the Champs-Élysées, it tells the story of the torments of a young unmarried girl, desperate to find love.
Copy in contemporary binding with the arms of François d'Assise de Bourbon (1822-1902).
The latter had been forced, for dynastic reasons, to marry his first cousin Queen
Isabella II of Spain - an unhappy marriage, the king consort being openly homosexual, which earned him the nickname "Paquita".
One of the three known copies of the original edition of Caressa bound in a strictly identical manner, with the same arms. Was it out of passion for this story of mismatched loves that the unhappy husband of the Queen of Spain ordered three identical bindings or was it to send a message to the friends - better still, lovers - to whom he was offering a copy?
From the Charles Vander Helst library, with bookplate.
The other two copies were, for the first one, in the library of Bernard Loliée (catalogue R. & B. L., 2017, no. 183) and, for the second, in the library of Hubert Heilbronn (2021, no. 100). Some foxing.
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