Robert Frew LTD
BALZAC, Honoré de & DORÉ, Gustave (illustrator). 
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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. Cinquiesme édition. Illustrée de 425 dessins par Gustave Doré. Paris: Bureaux de la Société générale de librairie,1855.
FIRST EDITION THUS. PRINTED ON PAPIER VÉLIN SATINÉ. 8vo. (20 x 12.5 cm). pp.xxxi+[1]+614+[1]. Contemporary full crushed red morocco signed by David, sides richly tooled in gilt with inlaid green morocco border and flowers, four gilt cherubs to corners reflecting “la victime de l’amour” vignette to covers and title-page, spine with raised bands and gilt-decorated compartments, green morocco doublures stamped with gilt cherubic motifs, decorative silk endpapers and additional marbled endpapers, all edges gilt (some pages uncut), with the original wrappers dated 1856 bound in. 425 illustrations by Gustave Doré engraved on wood by Lavieille, Rouget, Pisan, Brévière and Piaud. An extremely fine copy printed on immaculate papier vélin satiné and with particularly fine impressions throughout. First illustrated edition of the Contes drolatiques with 425 illustrations by Gustave Dore, praised by Ray (”Doré’s early masterpiece”), Carteret ( “le chef-d’œuvre d’illustrations de Gustave Doré”), and Beraldi who though it the most likely to endure of all Doré’s books - “S'il n'en reste qu'un seul, ce sera celui-là !” (Béraldi). Although the title refers to this edition as the “cinquiesme édition”, it is actually the fourth edition of Les contes drolatiques, which was first published between 1832-1837. It is well recorded that Balzac’s widow granted permission for the illustrated edition only on the condition: “that no artist but Doré should be allowed to illustrate her husband’s works” (Anthony North-Peat, Gossip from Paris 1864-69, p. 324). According to Carteret there were probably 25 copies printed on chine, of which he lists 7 copies to have appeared in commerce. It is likely that copies printed on vélin are equally rare, with Carteret again citing just 7 copies. Carteret, III, pp. 48-53; Bulletin de la Librairie Morgand et Fatout, II, 6445; Berny, Livres anciens, romantiques et modernes, III, 92; Rahir, VI, 1875; Ray, 244.
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