ALBUM DE LA COMÉDIE FRANÇAISE: Dedié à son Altesse Royale le Price de Galles, Par Autorisation Spéciale
London: Viard, [1879]. First Edition. Hardcover. Lavish presentation of portraits and biographies of Sarah Bernhardt, Louis-Arsène Delaunay, Benoît-Constant Coquelin, and other leading figures associated with the Comédie-Française in 1879, when the theatre company was a cornerstone of Parisian cultural life. Text in English and French. Folio: xxvi, [4], 56 pp. with 23 full-page portrait plates, all steel engravings printed on papier de Chine, laid down, with red-printed captioned tissue guards, as well as a full-page steel engraving, a full-page facsimile letter on blue laid paper, and engraved page decorations. In the publisher's red morocco spine over red pebble-grain cloth-covered boards, with coated purple, green, black, and yellow paper onlays, black and gilt-stamped ruled borders, black and gilt-stamped and gilt over-stamped ruled frame with floral ornamental panels, entwined foliate field with ornamental cartouche corners, ruled frame with scallop shell devices and arabesque and foliate spandrels, and lobed ruled frame with floral ornamental infill, and gilt-stamped titling on the front panels; five raised bands, gilt-stamped ruled head and tail bands, gilt-stamped and over-stamped ruled and floral ornamental compartments with stippled infill, abd gilt-stamped ruled compartment for onlay with gilt over-stamped titling on the spine; and a repetition of the front panel on the rear, save for the titling. All edges gilt, with white coated endpapers marbled in crimson, orange, and blue. Some occasional mild foxing, with a very light bump to the top corner of the text block. The binding remains quite vibrant. Provenance: from the Publishers' Bookbindings collection of Ellen K. Morris and Edward S. Levin. Very good. Item #80518
Price: $500.00