Chansonnier dédié aux Demoiselles.
Blanche Marguerite.
Paris: Louis Janet, [c.1828-30] Stock Code: 133875
In a fine glass binding
A beautifully preserved, finely bound French songbook from the Janet workshop.The British Library's Database of Bookbindings notes that the Janets (both father, Pierre-Étienne, and son, Louis) were well-known engravers and publishers of ephemera in deluxe and gift bindings, particularly women's almanacs; Louis moved to rue St Jacques 59 - the location of the imprint - in 1819. The BL holds two examples in a similar casing style to ours (shelfmark c108bb8), both from the Petit souvenir des dames series c. 1821, and the Bodleian holds another, Le berceau de lys (shelfmark Broxb. 1.33). Of the Blanche Marguerite verse collection specifically, Library Hub traces just one copy, at the Juliette K. and Leonard S. Rakow Library in New York, part of the Corning Museum of Glass, the world's most comprehensive collection of materials on the art and history of glass and glassmaking. The Rakow copy has the same contents and collation but differs in having a folded calendar for 1829 tipped in at the rear and a variant illustration to the front. WorldCat adds a copy of Blanche Marguerite at the National Trust (Sissinghurst Castle), noting that it has a 12-page calendar at the rear dated 1828. Commercially, a copy is recorded as having sold at Thierry de Maigret on 6 April 2012 (lot 93).
Description
Sextodecimo (101 x 62 mm). Contemporary gilt metal casing, raised leaf decoration to spine and raised dot decoration to board borders, thin glass sides over grey and white marbled paper boards, hand-coloured engraved illustration beneath front panel depicting a winged woman posing in front of a looking glass, her attendant in the background, title above lettered in black, blue moire endpapers, all edges gilt. Housed in a contemporary yellow plain card slipcase.
Illustrations
Engraved title page with pastoral vignette, 4 engraved plates with tissue guards, 1 double-sided folding plate to rear with the calendar for 1830 (Janvier with the misprint 1850, Juillet dated 1830) glued in at rear, decorated with a seasonal headpiece of
Condition
Gilt casing notably bright and untarnished, the gilt flaked along rear joint but joint itself firm, a little minor flaking and cockling to marbling of front board, tiny closed tear to pp. 27-8, contents occasionally tanned and spotted, calendar partly split along fold. Overall in very good condition.
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