Hardcover volume 129 x 84 mm boards, 123 x 76 mm block, full contemporary lavalier-glazed calf, signed DUCASTIN at spine tail, panels framed with a gold fillet and a blind frieze, flat spine decorated with gilt fillets and fleurons, roulettes at the head and tail, garnet red calf title label with gilt lettering, gilt dotted lines on the edges, interior dentelle, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, “GERARD NORDMANN EX-LIBRIS” bookplate to front pastedown.
Collation 18mo: A-O6 P5 (i.e. 89 leaves); pp.: [i-v] vi-viii [9] 10-178, plus 5 plates with tissue guards, incl. frontispiece, and one flyleaf at the front and one at the rear.
Plates: It is believed the edition had only 3 plates, including the frontispiece, and two plates were added, one signed “C. p. Marillier, inv. — E. De Ghendt sculp.”
Title-page: ELÉONORE, | OU | L’HEUREUSE PERSONNE. | Deuxième Édition. | — | A PARIS, | Chez les Marchands de nouveautés. |— | AN VIII. ||
Catalogue raisonné: Dutel № A-314, p. 109 ; Nordmann II №188, p. 93.
Provenance: Gustave Lehec (French, 1841 – 1922); Gérard Nordmann (Swiss, 1930 – 1992).
Contributors:
Clément Pierre Marillier (French, 1740–1808) – artist
Emmanuel Jean Nepomucène de Ghendt (Flemish, worked in France, 1738–1815) – engraver
Alexis Pierre Ducastin [Ducastaing] (French, 1785 – 1860) – binder
Nordmann’s description: In-18 écu (124 x 78 mm). 178 pp. A frontispiece and 2 free figures. 2 added figures, one signed after Marillier and engraved by de Ghendt. Contemporary binding signed by Ducastin. Glazed lavallière calf, double frame of the covers with a gold fillet and a blind frieze, spine decorated with gilt fillets and fleurons, roulettes at the head and tail, garnet calf title piece, gilt title, dotted lines on the edges, interior lace, marbled guards, gilt edges (some minor foxing). The second edition (very likely a fictitious mention) is of great rarity. It is decorated with a frontispiece and has engraved figures, to which two additional plates have been added. The story is the reverse of that of Tiresias: a woman is endowed by a sylph with the power to be alternately a man and a woman and to taste the pleasures of each of the two sexes. “This results in numerous and very piquant adventures; easy and graceful style” (Galitzin). MAGNIFICENT COPY, RARE IN ITS FULL STRICTLY CONTEMPORARY BINDING and signed on the back by one of the great bookbinders of the time, Pierre Alexis Ducastin (1785-1860), member of a dynasty of printers and bookbinders dating back to Henri IV. Lehec cites this copy in his Galitzin catalogue (no. 546): “…charming copy; lavalier calf stamped very rare, admirable conservation”. Pia Enfer, 412; B.N. Enfer, 634.
