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Hardcover volume, collated 18mo, 130 x 85 mm (2 parts in one). Contemporary burgundy morocco outlined with gilt triple fillet, flat spine gilt in compartments, brown morocco label gilt, all edges gilt, gilt dentelle, text printed on slightly blue laid paper with illegible watermark; dark blue endpapers, Tony Fekete (T. F.) bookplate by Wahorn to front pastedown. Frontispiece and 14 engraved plates by Elluin after Borel, with guard tissue. Graphite ms to h.t.: "Figures de Borrel. | Gravées pr. Elluin." Title-page: NOUVELLE TRADUCTION | DE | WOMAN OF PLEASUR, | OU | FILLE DE JOIE. | PAR M. CLELAND, | CONTENANT les Mémoires | de Mademoiselle FANNY, | écrits par elle – même. | AVEC FIGURES | — | PREMIERE (SECONDE) PARTIE. | — | ~ | A LONDRES; | Chez G. FENTON, dans le Strand; | — | M. DCC. LXXVI. || Collation: 18mo throughout A-O12/6, total 126 leaves plus 15 plates, incl. frontispiece. Pagination: separate for each part [1-5] 6-119 [120 blank], [1-3] 4-132, total 252 pages. Provenance: Tony Fekete (Christie’s 2014, № 54, p. 37; Price realized GBP 11,875): “[CLELAND, John (1709-1789).] Nouvelle traduction de Woman of Pleasur [sic] ou Fille de Joie. Contenant les Mémoires de Mademoiselle Fanny, écrits par elle-même. London [but Paris]: G. Fenton [Cazin], 1776. 2 volumes in one, duodecimo (128 x 80 mm). Printed on blue tinted paper. Frontispiece and 14 engraved plates on thick white paper by Elluin after Borel. (Short tear repaired in the margin of one plate, another plate with a faint dampstain touching the facing leaf of text.) Contemporary burgundy morocco, flat spine gilt in compartments, morocco label gilt, covers with a gilt triple fillet border, gilt edges, blue endpapers. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL 18TH-CENTURY ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF THIS CELEBRATED EROTIC NOVEL. An excellent copy bound in contemporary morocco. It is the second translation into French, but the first to include the exquisite plates by Elluin after Borel. These are some of the best illustrations by this remarkable partnership responsible for a number of important 18th-century libertine texts. Cohen-DeRicci 242-3; Dutel A-407 ; Gay-Lemonnyer II, 304; Pia Enfer, 915.” Catalogue raisonné: Dutel (I) A-407, p. 134; Cohen-DeRicci 242-3; Fekete (Christie's) 54, p. 37. Contributors: John Cleland (British, c. 1709 – 1789). François-Rolland Elluin (French, 1745 – c. 1822) Antoine Borel (French, 1743 – 1810) Hubert-Martin Cazin (French, 1724 – 1795) András Wahorn (Hungarian, b. 1953) Fekete, Tony Laszlo (Hungarian, b. 1972) -
Two volumes in-16o, 16.3 x 10.3 cm, uniformly bound in marbled calf with gilt triple-fillet border, flat spine with gilt lozenges in compartments, two crimson labels with gilt lettering, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, with engraved title, 2 title vignettes, 11 copper plate engravings, incl. title/frontispiece in vol. 1, and 10 headpieces (two of them similar), printed on laid paper. Vol. 1: Livres 1 – 5. Engraved title-page: Cartouche with the title "Les | Amours de | THEAGENES | & | CHARICLÉE", with a Cupid holding a torch on top and a defeated winged dragon at the bottom; Cupid's quivers with bows and arrows beside. Collation: 8vo; a5 (t.p., preface), A-N8 O4 (O4 blank), total 113 leaves plus 6 unsigned engraved plates, incl. engraved title as frontispiece, unsigned; 5 different headpieces, unsigned. Pagination: [i, ii] iii-x, [1] 2-213 [3] (blank), total 226 pages, ils. Vol. 2: Livres 6 – 10. Collation: 8vo; π1 (t.p.), A-M8, total 97 leaves plus 6 unsigned plates, incl. the Conclusion, no frontispiece; 5 headpieces, the headpiece for Livre 7 similar to Livre 4. Pagination: [2] [1] 2-190 [2] (blank), total 194 pages, ils. Letterpress title-page (red and black) in each volume: AMOURS | DE | THEAGÉNES | ET | CHARICLÉE• | HISTOIRE ETHIOPIQUE. | PREMIERE (SECONDE) PARTIE. | {vignette} | A LONDRES, | — | M. DCC. XLIII. || According to Cohen-DeRicci, this is the first anonymous edition with 9 different headpieces; the second edition in the same 1743 was published by Antoine Urban Coustelier (French, 1714 – 1763) in Paris with less provocative headpiece vignettes. The original text belongs to Héliodore d'Emèse, i.e. Heliodorus [Ἡλιόδωρος] (Greek, 3rd – 4th century AD). The earliest translation into French was performed by Jacques Amyot (French, 1513 – 1593) and published by J. Longis in Paris in 1547. The new translation is credited by Lewine to Jean de Montlyard (French/Swiss, 17th century), first published in Paris in 1620. However, most scholars attribute it to Louis François de Fontenu (French, 1667 – 1759), Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (French, 1657 – 1757) or Germain François Poullain de Saint-Foix (French, 1698 – 1776), first published in 1727 by Herman Uytwerf (Dutch, 1698 – 1754) in Amsterdam. Catalogue raisonné : J. Lewine, 236; Cohen-DeRicci, 478. Information about the story can be found here: Aethiopica. -
Title-page: IDYLLES | DE BION | ET | DE MOSCHUS, | TRADUITES EN FRANÇAIS | Par J. B. Gail, Professeur de littéra- | ture grecque au collège de France. | Ouvrage orné de Figures dessinées par le Barbier. | DE L’IMPRIMERIE DE DIDOT JEUNE. | A PARIS, | Chez Gail, au Collège de France, place | Cambrai. | L’AN TROISIEME. || Small volume in-12mo, 14.7 x 10 cm, bound in tree calf with gilt ornamental border, flat spine with gilt lozenges in compartments, lacking upper label and half of the lower label, gilt dentelle inside, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Collation: 1st and last leaves blank, [1]-96, total 54 leaves and 9 engraved plates, incl. frontispiece. Pagination: [1-5] 6-106 [2] (notice), total 108 pages, ils. Illustrations: (1) Frontispiece bust portrait of Jean-Baptiste Gail in two states, one proof before letters signed Le Barbier del., — C. S. Gaucher inc. a. ƒ., the other in finished state lettered « J. B. Gail | Professeur de littérature grecque | au collège de France » signed Le Barbier del. — C. S. Gaucher incid. (2) Le tombeau d’Adonis in two states, the first unsigned, the second signed by Le Barbier and Gaucher in Greek Λε Βαρβιερ εγραφε — Γαυχερ εχαλχενε, with tissue guard. (3) Enlèvement d’Europe in two states, the first signed Baquoy fecit., the second Le Barbier inv. — Delignon Sculp. (4) Amour du fleuve Alphée pour la fontaine Aréthuse in two states, the first unsigned, the second signed Le Barbier inv. — Dambrun. (5) Daphnis et Naïs only in final state signed by Le Barbier and Gaucher in Greek Λε Βαρβιερ εγρφε — Γαυχερ εχαλχενε. (sic.) Catalogue raisonné: Cohen-DeRicci 151-2, attributes to 1895, in-18, Daphnis et Naïs without the proof state; Lewine 64, "very scarce, particularly that of the portrait, a fancy price". Contributors: Bion [Βίων] (fl. late 2nd century BCE, Phlossa near Smyrna) – author. Moschus [Μόσχος] (fl. mid 2nd century BCE, Syracuse) – author. Jean-Baptiste Gail (French, 1755 – 1829) – translator. Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier (French, 1738 – 1826) – artist. Charles-Étienne Gaucher (French, 1740 – 1804) – engraver. Jean-Louis Delignon (French, 1755 – 1820) – engraver. Jean Dambrun (1741 – 1808/14) – engraver. Pierre François Didot, Le Jeune (French, 1732 – 1795) – publisher.
