An Unusually Fine Copy in an Elegant Binding of "One of the Masterpieces of the Illustrated Book"

LE DECAMERON DE JEAN BOCCACE.

(FRENCH ILLUSTRATED BOOKS). BOCCACCIO, GIOVANNI.

(Londres [i.e., Paris: Prault], 1757-61). 205 x 132 mm. (8 x 5 1/4"). Five volumes. Translated by Antoine Jean Le Maçon.

LOVELY INDIGO CRUSHED MOROCCO, GILT, BY DAVID (stamp-signed on front turn-in), covers with French fillet border, raised bands, spine compartments with intricate central fleuron and scrolling cornerpieces, gilt lettering, turn-ins with multiple decorative rolls, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Housed in a maroon buckram chemise in a matching morocco-backed slipcase. Engraved illustrated title page in each volume, 110 engraved chapter headings, and 205 ENGRAVED ILLUSTRATIONS BY GRAVELOT AND OTHERS, 110 of these plates and 95 tailpiece vignettes. A Large Paper Copy. Cohen-de Ricci 160-61; Ray 15; Furstenberg 26. A couple of boards with trivial chafing, isolated faint foxing, occasional minor marginal smudges (touching text on a couple of pages), but A VERY FINE SET, clean and fresh internally with spacious margins, and in sparkling bindings with virtually no signs of wear.

This is an elegantly bound and unusually well-preserved copy of one of the most famous and charming illustrated books of the 18th century, a work frequently regarded as the supreme example of refined libertine illustration of the period. Owen Holloway calls it one of the four masterpieces of book illustration at the end of the Rococo period. Ray, too, is expansive in his praise, calling the work simply "one of the masterpieces of the illustrated book." The publisher first released this work in Italian in 1757, with the present edition following later the same year. Although he had as collaborators on this work some of the outstanding French artists of the 18th century, Gravelot (born Hubert-François-Bourguignon, 1699-1773) was chiefly responsible for its production, designing 89 of its 111 plates and all 97 of its immensely delightful tailpieces. In this, the most ambitious undertaking of his career, Gravelot gave Boccaccio's narrative the settings and costumes of 18th century France, and this transposition, Ray tells us, "made it possible for him to exercise his special talent for depicting the social world around him. For the most part, his figures are young, the women graceful and pretty, the men lithe and handsome." But "all levels of life are presented, from the peasant in his hovel to the king in his palace. Every variety of interior is there, from boudoirs and bedrooms to dining rooms and salons. Animated street scenes alternate with glimpses of gardens and farms, forests and river banks. The human condition has rarely been so attractively displayed." Our copy is particularly pleasing: it is in fine condition, with wide, generous margins, and was bound in rich indigo morocco by David. Parisian binder Bernard David (1824-95) worked under Pfister, Dompierre, Lortic, and Gruel before striking out on his own to establish a very high reputation in the trade. His bindery was taken over by his son Salvador in 1890. (ST20210)

Price: $6,800.00