Paris, Veuve Panckoucke, An 8 (1800).
3 volumes large 8vo [225 x 141 mm] of : I/ (3) ll. including 1 portrait of the author, viii pp., cviii pp., 276 pp. 7 engravings out of pagination; II/ (2) ff. 526 pp. 18 engravings; III/ (2) ff. 340 pp. 4 engravings out of pagination and 1 folding map. A total of 1 portrait, 15 engravings after Stothard, 14 engravings after Picart and 1 folded map.
Straight grained cherry morocco, gilt borders and fillets around the covers, flat spines decorated with gilt borders and special alternate tools depicting boats, gilt fillet on the edges, inner gilt roulette, gilt edges. Rich contemporary bindings decorated with the signature in gold letters at the bottom of the first volume “Bound by Bozérian”.
First issue of the most beautiful old edition of the Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
The bibliographers underline the quality of the edition and the beauty of the illustration.
“The edition is very beautiful” (Cohen, Guide de l’amateur de livres illustrés du XVIIIe siècle).
The illustration includes 3 engraved titles with various fleurons, a portrait of Daniel Defoe engraved by Delvaux and 15 beautiful engravings on copper by Delvaux, Delignon and Dupréel from drawings by Stothard and a mappemonde of the two oriental and western hemispheres showing the itinerary of robinson’s journey, engraved by P. F. Tardieu.
The large map is rarely found in large paper copies.
Although the title announces 19 figures after Stothard, the copies encountered have only 15 as here, numbered 1 to 15.
An additional set of 14 figures mounted on large paper after B. Picart has been added at the time, from the edition printed in Paris in 1720.
A sumptuous copy, very fresh and without any foxing, one of the few printed on large vellum paper, of one of the most famous books in literature, beautifully bound by Bozerian in red morocco with the spines decorated with special irons depicting ships.
The special gilt irons on the spines of the volumes, a sailing ship sailing towards a fort and a three-masted ship, have not been listed by Paul Culot in Jean-Claude Bozérian, 1979.
It comes from the prestigious Bourg de Bozas library with ex libris (June 1990, n°32).
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