L'HOMME A L'OREILLE CASSEE
Paris: Librarie Hachette et Cie. 1885. Hardcover. Satirical proto-science fiction novel concerning a Napoleonic cavalry officer who is experimentally desiccated in 1813 and accidentally rehydrated and brought back to life 46 years later. Tall octavo: [iv], 309, [1, blank], [1], [1, blank] pp. with the frontispiece, 18 full-page plates, title page vignette, and 41 textual vignettes, all wood engravings, by Charles Barbant, Hildibrand, after Eugéne Courboin. The title page is printed in red and black. In the publisher's red dashed rubbed and star-grain cloth binding designed by Auguste D. Souze fils, with beveled boards; gilt-stamped ruled borders, black, brown, and gilt-stamped full-cover tabernacle design with floral decorations, torches, cherubs with torches, floral urns, lion’s head, scrollwork titling panel, and publisher’s monogram device, and gilt-stamped titling on the front panel; black and gilt-stamped ornamental bands, black, brown, and gilt-stamped floral and torch panels, and gilt-stamped titling on the spine; and black-stamped ruled borders with ruled infill on the rear panel. All edges gilt, with forest green endpapers. The contents are clean and bright. The binding is also quite vibrant, with just a hint of wear to the corners and tips. Near fine. Provenance: from the Publishers' Bookbindings collection of Ellen K. Morris and Edward S. Levin. Item #80948
Price: $100.00