DUMAS (Alexandre). - Lot 71

DUMAS (Alexandre). Louis quinze. Paris: Alexandre Cadot, 1849. - 5 volumes in-8, 219x138: (2 ff.), 327 pp.; (2 ff.), 312 pp. 8 pp. of catalogue; (2 ff.), 334 pp.; (2 ff.), 320 pp.; (2 ff.), 296 pp. Garnet half-calf with corners, gilt fillets, smooth spine decorated with gilt and mosaic motifs in green morocco, gilt head, untrimmed (Semet et Plumelle). Talvart et Place, V, 98. - Vicaire, III, 386. Very rare first edition of this historical narrative set between 1710 and 1774, in which Alexandre Dumas mainly evokes the king's love affairs. This is a rare edition, and Vicaire does not appear to have seen it, as he describes only four of the five volumes. Talvart and Place give an erroneous collation for the fifth volume, listing 145 pages instead of 296. This edition was also missing from the collection of Geneviève and Jean-Paul Kahn. A very fine copy bound by Semet et Plumelle, complete with Alexandre Cadot's catalog at the end of the second volume. The first volume includes a non-autograph manuscript thought by the author on the false title: "Doutez de tout enfin, mais non de mon amour. Alex. Dumas." Spines faded. Some scattered foxing, not serious.