GRUEL (Léon). - Lot 73

GRUEL (Léon). Manuel historique et bibliographique de l'amateur de reliures. Paris: Gruel & Engelmann, 1887; Paris: Léon Gruel, Henri Leclerc, 1905. - 2 volumes in-4, 294 x 234 and 298 x 240: (2 ff.), 186 pp., (1 f.), 68 plates; frontispiece, (2 ff.), 186 pp., (1 f.), 71 plates, illustrated cover. Dark blue morocco, framed in gilt roulettes and fillets on the boards, gilt coat of arms in the center of the front cover, ornate ribbed spine, gilt roulettes and fillets inside, double endpapers, gilt edges (volume 1) ; burgundy chagrin, framed cold-stamped fillets and gilded irons at corners and center of boards, ornate ribbed spine, inner gilt roulette, gilt head, untrimmed, cover retained (volume 2) (Birdsall & son in Northampton (vol. 1) - Marc Ollivers (vol. 2)). First edition of this reference work on bookbinding. The two volumes were published more than twenty years apart. There were 1,000 copies of the first and 700 of the second. Each is illustrated with numerous in-text and out-of-text reproductions. One of 700 copies on fine Rives vellum paper for the first volume, and one of 600 on the same paper for the second. Superb copies. The first volume is in a contemporary English binding with the coat of arms of the English politician and bibliophile George Guy Greville, 4th Earl of Warwick, 4th Earl of Brooke (1818-1893). The second volume is in a modern pastiche binding by Marc Ollivier. Very well preserved copies. Also included: - La Reliure ancienne et moderne. Collection of 116 plates of artistic bindings from the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, belonging to Grolier, Henri II, François I, Diane de Poitiers, Marguerite de Valois, Louis XIII, Mazarin, etc., and executed by Le Gascon, Clovis et Nicolas Eve, Hardy Mennil, Bauzonnet, Belz-Niédrée, etc. Introduction by Gustave Brunet accompanied by an explanatory table with descriptive notes on 31 of the most remarkable bindings. Paris: Éd. Rouveyre et G. Blond, 1884. - In-4, 255 x 200. Havana calf decorated on the boards with a Du Seuil-style decoration of gilded fillets, brown morocco bands and gilded motifs at the corners, decorated ribbed spine, gilt head, untrimmed, cover preserved (Marc Ollivier). First edition. One of 800 copies on laid paper, in a beautiful pastiche binding by Marc Ollivier in the style of a 16th-century binding.