BALZAC (Honoré de).

Lot 7
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Estimation :
6000 - 8000 EUR
BALZAC (Honoré de).
Les contes drolatiques, colligez ez abbayes de Touraine et mis en lumière par le sieur de Balzac pour l'esbattement des pantagruelistes et non aultres. Fifth edition illustrated with 425 drawings by Gustave Doré. Paris, Bureaux de la Société générale de Librairie, 1855. Small in-8, red morocco, triple gilt fillet on the boards, finely decorated ribbed spine, interior framed with gilt roulettes, gilt head, untrimmed (Capé-Masson- Debonelle sr.) First illustrated edition and first printing of the 425 woodcut illustrations by Gustave Doré. Doré's masterpiece and one of the leading illustrated books of the 19th century: "If there is only one left, it will be this one" (H. Beraldi. (H. Beraldi. Les Graveurs du 19e siècle). One of the very rare copies on China paper. "There have been a few copies on China paper, very probably 25, which have not been put on the market, and which are of great rarity" (Carteret). A perfect copy, without the foxing almost always present on the chine copies. Fine binding with a very delicately decorated spine, executed around 1867, date of the death of Charles-François Capé and the resumption of the workshop by his collaborators Germain Masson and Charles Debonelle. It is enriched, mounted at the head, with a photographic portrait of Gustave Doré as well as an autograph letter signed by the artist (one page in-8), addressed to his publisher to whom he sent woodcuts that he had engraved again, not being satisfied with the rendering: "the progress this engraver has shown me this year assures me of a good result this time".
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