NEW TALES TO LAUGH, AND PLEASANT PRELUDES OR FRENCH RECREATIONS. Twentieth edition. Cologne : Roger Bontemps, 1722. - 2 volumes in-8, 148 x 93 : (4 ff.), 374 pp., (6 ff.) ; (2 ff.), 354 pp., (6 ff.). Red morocco, triple gilt fillet framing the boards, ornate spine, gilt border inside, gilt edges (period binding). Cohen 757 (erroneously indicates an in-12 format and 63 vignettes). New edition of this collection of several hundred pleasant, facetious and bantering tales, first published in 1699, which was intended to be a sequel to Boccaccio (Contes et nouvelles 1797), the Cent nouvelles nouvelles (1701) and the Heptameron (1698). The mention of "twentieth edition" on the title is here totally fanciful. This edition, with that of 1699, is the most sought-after of this collection. It is illustrated with two identical frontispieces drawn and engraved by Gysbert Schouten, and 65 mid-page vignettes in the style of Romein de Hooghe and Jacques Harrewyn. They are reinterpretations of the illustrations that appeared in the previous editions, and are also the work of Gysbert Schouten whose signature appears on the vignette on page 300 of the second volume. EXAMPLE OF CHARLES NODIER, with his bookplate in both volumes. A very fine copy in contemporary red morocco, perfectly preserved. In the catalog of the Nodier sale, this binding is attributed to Duseuil. At the end of the second volume, there is a handwritten note: "Acheté 15 francs, Le 6 8bre 1811"; it was sold for 60 francs at the sale of Charles Nodier's library in 1844. The engraving on page 167 in the first volume has been slightly cut by the binder . Provenance: Charles Nodier, with ex-libris (cat. 1844, no. 831).