Two volumes in one, 131 x 89 mm, bound in full burgundy morocco, panels ruled with triple gilt fillet, gilt filleted edges, interior gilt dentelle, flat spine with double gilt fillet bands, gilt fleurons in compartments, gilt title label and date at the foot to spine (modern pastiche binding); all edges gilt, marbled endpapers, two bookplates to front pastedown: “MK” and “Ex-libris Yves Refoulé”, the latter drawn by Georges Leone and engraved by Picard. Laid paper with a hardly legible watermark resembles Van Gelder’s beehive. Letterpress head- and tailpieces.
Collation 6to: (24mo) t. 1: π3 A-L6 M5; t. 2: χ3 N-Z6 2A6, 2B5, 2 blanks, 100 plates (pl. 32 and 33 is one) within collation, but extraneous to pagination, thus uncounted — pp.: t. 1: [4] 1-48, t. 2: [4] 49-100, total 155 leaves or 310 pages, incl. plates and everything but two binder’s flyleaves at the front and two at the rear. Vigesimo-quarto, 24mo (13 x 9 cm) – typical Cazin’s book format.
Title-page: LE | CABINET | DE | LAMPSAQUE, | OU | Choix d’Épigrammes érotiques des plus célebres | Poëtes François. | (in rules) TOME PREMIER/SECOND). | {fleuron putto 1/2} | A PAPHOS. | — | 1784. ||
One hundred figures are executed by burin on a copper plate and attributed to Claude Louis Desrais (French, 1746 – 1816) or some Leclerc, who is unlikely to be Sébastien Leclerc (1637 – 1714), living 100 years earlier. The author of the text is unknown.
Catalogue raisonné: Cohen p.197 – provides for 16mo; Dutel № A-171 – provides for 12mo, pagination as 1-50 and 51-100, and mentions the 1st edition in 1744, but does not provide a description of the latter.
“Lampsacus was also notable for its worship of Priapus, who was said to have been born there”.
