BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE (Jacques-Henri). - Lot 21

BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE (Jacques-Henri). Paul et Virginie. Paris, Léon Curmer, 1838. Fort in-8, edition preceded by a preface by Sainte-Beuve and illustrated with 29 hors-texte plates on China paper, including the frontispiece, 7 steel-engraved portraits by Cousin, Pelée, Pigeot and Revel after Lafitte, Johannot and Meissonier, a colored map of the Île de France (now Mauritius) engraved by Dyonnet and 450 vignettes in the text drawn by Tony Johannot, Français, Meissonier, Paul Huet, Isabey, Marville, Steinheil,.... and woodcuts by Lavoignat, Brévière, Porret, O. Smith, Hart,... This celebrated edition, preceded by a preface by Sainte-Beuve, is considered one of the finest editions of the Romantic period, described as "extraordinary" by Brunet. This copy includes the captioned serpents, with, as is often the case, first edition marks and corrections from later editions, namely the portrait of the author with a sphere, the notice on Bernardin de Saint Pierre signed b and numbered IX to XVI, and the correction "Tous les dessins des grandes lettres de la Flore sont de M. Français" at the end of the table of illustrators. However, the cul-de-lampe of the table of large vignettes includes a representation of the engraver's tools. A copy in a superb state of freshness, probably washed at the time of binding, virtually free of freckles, with only one freckle on page 80 and one freckle on the second leaf of the Indian cottage. Superb later binding in full blue morocco, spine with 4 nerves decorated with a central mosaic ornament, title, author and date gilt, long fillet ending with a repetition of vertical fillets on the edges, tan morocco lining decorated with a triple gilt fillet frame, the spandrels mosaic in brown and pink morocco, silk endpapers featuring a monkey amidst branching birds in the Indo-Persian taste, all edges gilt, signed G. Levitzki. In protective slipcase. "The pearl of 19th-century illustrated books" (Brivois).