[CARACCIOLI Louis-Antoine de]. - Lot 12

[CARACCIOLI Louis-Antoine de]. Le Livre à la mode. A Verte-feuille : De l'imprimerie du Printems, [1759]. [Followed by]: Le Livre à la mode. Nouvelle édition, Marquetée, polie & vernissée. En Europe : chez les libraires, 1000700509 [1759]. - 2 works in one volume in-12, 148 x 90 : XXII, 86 pp. ; XXXVIII, 88 pp. Marbled calf, triple gilt fillet framing the boards, ornate ribbed spine, red edges (period binding). Catalog des livres composant la bibliothèque poétique de M. Viollet Le Duc, 1847, p. 188. - Didier Travier, "Louis-Antoine Caraccioli ou les amusements typographiques d'un moraliste mondain", L'Écrivain et l'Imprimeur, under the dir. of Alain Riffaud, Rennes, PUR, pp. 175-192. First editions of these two famous facéties, printed entirely in color. The first work, dedicated "à messeigneurs les petits-maîtres et mesdames les petites-maîtresses", is printed entirely in green ink (which has turned brown/gold here). Following the whims of fashion, a second volume, entirely new and printed in red ink, saw the light of day the same year: "the color green having lasted only eight days, as have all fashions, I offer you the most beautiful of vermillons, as it finally shines on your magnificently & furiously illuminated faces..." (extract from the preface). Attributed to the prolific Marquis de Caraccioli (1719-1803), these two works form a "satire against the customs, mores and fashions of his time. [...] In reading these trivia, which are not lacking in a certain wit, one can make very curious studies of manners" (Viollet-le-Duc). These monochrome prints, the first to date in the history of the book according to the author, were published anonymously and at fictitious addresses; they were printed in Liège by Bassompierre and not in Paris by Duchesne, as has long been believed. Didier Travier has identified two editions of Le Livre à la mode imprimé en vert, one in in-8 format, the other in-12, both of which circulated in early 1759. Similarly, there are three editions of the Livre à la mode printed in red, only one bearing the date 1759 (the other two, in-8 and in-12, with the date 1760). A fine copy in contemporary binding. The author and date have been added in ink on the title. A note on the last blank page indicates that the work was sold by Ancelin, Toulouse. Joints cracked at head, covers and corners skilfully restored. Provenance: L. Guars, with autograph signature on the first white endpaper, dated 1860.