FLAUBERT (Gustave). Salammbô. Paris, Michel... - Lot 207 - Kâ-Mondo

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Lot n° 207
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FLAUBERT (Gustave). Salammbô. Paris, Michel... - Lot 207 - Kâ-Mondo
FLAUBERT (Gustave). Salammbô. Paris, Michel Lévy, 1863. In-8, [2] f., 474 p., [1] f., original Japanese leather binding, patterned brown embossed, smooth spine, cold-stamped title, silk lining and endpapers embroidered with oriental-style floral motifs, gilt head, untrimmed, skilful restoration of spines and corners. First edition: one of 25 copies on Hollande paper. An exceptional copy: it is the one that Gustave Flaubert offered to the Goncourt brothers, with this autograph letter at the head of the false title: "To my very dear Jules and Edmond de Goncourt, G[usta]ve Flaubert". Also in Flaubert's hand, one can read at the foot of the same page: "un des vingt-cinq exemplaires tirés sur papier de Hollande". On the flyleaf, above the bookplate of the Goncourts, this autograph note in red ink: "Binding not badly Carthaginian [the expression is underlined], made with one of these sheets of Japanese leather paper that I believe to have been the first to use for the binding of books dealing with the Far East. signed:] de Goncourt". There is no doubt that the Goncourts were the initiators of the use of this Japanese leather paper for bookbinding, and that they launched a taste that would seduce the great contemporary bibliophiles, such as Édouard Rouveyre, and Octave Uzanne. The latter, without quoting them, alluded to the Goncourts when he wrote in 1887: "The amateur artist generally shows a weakness for Japanese bookbindings, and, for fifteen years, under the inspiration of a few tasteful writers, a great many original bindings have been made with this kind of stamped paper made from the bark of the kozo tree []" (Uzanne, La reliure moderne, artistique et fantaisiste, Paris, 1887). All margins have been preserved (h=232mm). This copy, quoted by Carteret, sold for 712 fr. at the Goncourt sale, is described as "bound in Japanese leather paper, embossed with cold drawings, lined and endpapers in Japanese silk woven with gold threads, untrimmed"; it later reappeared at the Parran sale (23 November 1921) where it fetched 6.180 fr. Attached is the description of this copy at the Goncourt sale of 1897, annotated by the buyer (Parran, most certainly): "This is the first time, I think, that this book reaches such a price at public sale, but how many copies of this capital work still exist in such condition, with a signed consignment from the master? I did not hesitate to acquire it". Corrections in the text in pencil p.373, 449; brown trace caused by a bookmark in the margin p.418-419. Provenance: Goncourt (sale, 1897); Parran (sale 1921, n°317). (Carteret I, 266).
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