Kolbe & Fanning
Auction 159 6 Mar 2021
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A Portrait of Paris in 1807
Prudhomme, L. MIROIR HISTORIQUE, POLITIQUE ET CRITIQUE DE L'ANCIEN ET DE NOUVEAU PARIS, ET DU DÉPARTEMENT DE LA SEINE ... SUIVI DES NOMS DES HOMMES CÉLÈBRES NÉS À PARIS; TERMINÉ PAR UN VOYAGE DANS LE DÉPARTEMENT DE SEINE-ET-OISE. Paris: Prudhomme, Debray, Pichard, 1807. Six volumes, complete. 16mo, contemporary matching mottled tan calf; sides paneled in gilt; marbled endpapers; all page edges marbled; professionally rebacked in tan calf, ruled and decorated in gilt with black spine labels lettered in gilt. xvi, 334 + (4), vii, (1), 360 + (4), 314 + (4), 281, (1) + (4), 378 + (4), 537, (1) pages; folding map of Paris in first volume; folding plan of the département de la Seine in the second volume; 11 + 30 + 58 + 15 plates in the third through sixth volumes, respectively. Final volume with both boards detached (but present). Library numbers inscribed on the spines in gilt ink. Very good, overall. A remarkable portrait of Paris at the turn of the nineteenth century. As listed in the extended title, the Miroir covered a number of topics, "Contenant tous ce qui a rapport aux Sciences, aux Arts et au Commerce; des Prophéties, des Anecdotes et des particularités curieuses; les opinions de Fénelon, de Bossuet, du cardinal Mazarin, de Voltaire, etc. du grand Frédéric, de Louis XV, de Louis XVI et autres Souverains, sur les courtisans, sur les Ecrivains qui avilissent leur plume, sur les Pamphlets, et sur les moyens de connaître la vérité." Volume Two includes commentary on industry and commerce, merchants and money. The table des matières in the first volume claims a total of 116 plates, which is correct if one includes the two folding maps. Louis-Marie Prudhomme (1752–1830) was a writer, printer and bookseller who frequently found himself in trouble for his criticism of various regimes, before, during, and following the revolutionary period. The first two editions of the Miroir consist only of two volumes, and this much-expanded six-volume edition is preferred. Ex Edward Nicholas Hurt Library, with his armorial bookplate; ex library of the French Institute in the United States, with their ink stamps, and with their book label generally affixed over Hurt's plate.
Prudhomme, L. MIROIR HISTORIQUE, POLITIQUE ET CRITIQUE DE L'ANCIEN ET DE NOUVEAU PARIS, ET DU DÉPARTEMENT DE LA SEINE ... SUIVI DES NOMS DES HOMMES CÉLÈBRES NÉS À PARIS; TERMINÉ PAR UN VOYAGE DANS LE DÉPARTEMENT DE SEINE-ET-OISE. Paris: Prudhomme, Debray, Pichard, 1807. Six volumes, complete. 16mo, contemporary matching mottled tan calf; sides paneled in gilt; marbled endpapers; all page edges marbled; professionally rebacked in tan calf, ruled and decorated in gilt with black spine labels lettered in gilt. xvi, 334 + (4), vii, (1), 360 + (4), 314 + (4), 281, (1) + (4), 378 + (4), 537, (1) pages; folding map of Paris in first volume; folding plan of the département de la Seine in the second volume; 11 + 30 + 58 + 15 plates in the third through sixth volumes, respectively. Final volume with both boards detached (but present). Library numbers inscribed on the spines in gilt ink. Very good, overall. A remarkable portrait of Paris at the turn of the nineteenth century. As listed in the extended title, the Miroir covered a number of topics, "Contenant tous ce qui a rapport aux Sciences, aux Arts et au Commerce; des Prophéties, des Anecdotes et des particularités curieuses; les opinions de Fénelon, de Bossuet, du cardinal Mazarin, de Voltaire, etc. du grand Frédéric, de Louis XV, de Louis XVI et autres Souverains, sur les courtisans, sur les Ecrivains qui avilissent leur plume, sur les Pamphlets, et sur les moyens de connaître la vérité." Volume Two includes commentary on industry and commerce, merchants and money. The table des matières in the first volume claims a total of 116 plates, which is correct if one includes the two folding maps. Louis-Marie Prudhomme (1752–1830) was a writer, printer and bookseller who frequently found himself in trouble for his criticism of various regimes, before, during, and following the revolutionary period. The first two editions of the Miroir consist only of two volumes, and this much-expanded six-volume edition is preferred. Ex Edward Nicholas Hurt Library, with his armorial bookplate; ex library of the French Institute in the United States, with their ink stamps, and with their book label generally affixed over Hurt's plate.