Grolier style binding.- Dictys Cretensis De Bello Troiano libri VI, collation: A6 B-N8 O4, final leaf with woodcut device, woodcut initials, contemporary calf, gilt in Grolier style, vellum endpapers, rebacked, corners slightly rubbed, 8vo (162 x 90mm.), Basel, [A. Cratander], 1529. ⁂ Curious 'Grolier style' binding. This work is included in the inventory of Grolier's private library. In his The Library of Jean Grolier's Library(1971) Austin refers to the binding as 'supposititious' (p. 55, no. 160). The Dictys Cretensis binding is also mentioned in the 'old' census by A. Le Roux de Lincy (Recherches sur Jean Grolier, 1866, no. 96). The title is however not included by Anthony Hobson in his Renaissance Book Collecting(1999), in the Appendix I. "Grolier's bindings classified by H.M. Nixon, edited and with additions by A. Hobson", because - as he states - "volumes ... rebound, spurious, fakes, or forgeries... have been excluded". The binding was once owned by Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838-1917; see both the ex libris in the copy), and was already in his ownership in 1898, when the volume was exhibited at the London Society of Arts, on occasion of the "Exhibition of Foreign and English Bookbinding at the Society of Arts", 24 January-7 February 1898. The Catalogue of this exhibition was published as an appendix to the Cantor Lectures on Decorative Bookbindingby Cyril Davenport, and the related description reads:(p. 29, no. 28, in the section "French Bindings"): "Brown calf; an early Italian [???] example from Grolier's library before he adopted his ordinary style".The expression 'Italian example' may simply be a mistake - the binding was exhibited among the French ones, and Grolier had lived in Italy until 1525. A previous owner of the copy might also have been Guglielmo Libri. In his sale catalogue of 1859 there are two entries of this Basel edition, and both are linked to Grolier. The binding of the first copy is described as an 'original' Grolier (no. 830), while the second one (no. 831) is defined as "in the same style". Hobson however states that in both cases the attribution is uncertain (see A. Hobson, "A Central Italian Bookseller and Bookbinder", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, 2010, p. 216, note 3). Provenance: contemporary and later ink annotations to front pastedown; 20th century pencil annotations stating this is a Grolier copy; Henry B. Wheatley (2 bookplates to rear endpapers). Literature: Adams D432.
Grolier style binding.- Dictys Cretensis De Bello Troiano libri VI, collation: A6 B-N8 O4, final leaf with woodcut device, woodcut initials, contemporary calf, gilt in Grolier style, vellum endpapers, rebacked, corners slightly rubbed, 8vo (162 x 90mm.), Basel, [A. Cratander], 1529. ⁂ Curious 'Grolier style' binding. This work is included in the inventory of Grolier's private library. In his The Library of Jean Grolier's Library(1971) Austin refers to the binding as 'supposititious' (p. 55, no. 160). The Dictys Cretensis binding is also mentioned in the 'old' census by A. Le Roux de Lincy (Recherches sur Jean Grolier, 1866, no. 96). The title is however not included by Anthony Hobson in his Renaissance Book Collecting(1999), in the Appendix I. "Grolier's bindings classified by H.M. Nixon, edited and with additions by A. Hobson", because - as he states - "volumes ... rebound, spurious, fakes, or forgeries... have been excluded". The binding was once owned by Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838-1917; see both the ex libris in the copy), and was already in his ownership in 1898, when the volume was exhibited at the London Society of Arts, on occasion of the "Exhibition of Foreign and English Bookbinding at the Society of Arts", 24 January-7 February 1898. The Catalogue of this exhibition was published as an appendix to the Cantor Lectures on Decorative Bookbindingby Cyril Davenport, and the related description reads:(p. 29, no. 28, in the section "French Bindings"): "Brown calf; an early Italian [???] example from Grolier's library before he adopted his ordinary style".The expression 'Italian example' may simply be a mistake - the binding was exhibited among the French ones, and Grolier had lived in Italy until 1525. A previous owner of the copy might also have been Guglielmo Libri. In his sale catalogue of 1859 there are two entries of this Basel edition, and both are linked to Grolier. The binding of the first copy is described as an 'original' Grolier (no. 830), while the second one (no. 831) is defined as "in the same style". Hobson however states that in both cases the attribution is uncertain (see A. Hobson, "A Central Italian Bookseller and Bookbinder", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, 2010, p. 216, note 3). Provenance: contemporary and later ink annotations to front pastedown; 20th century pencil annotations stating this is a Grolier copy; Henry B. Wheatley (2 bookplates to rear endpapers). Literature: Adams D432.
Try LotSearch and its premium features for 7 days - without any costs!
Be notified automatically about new items in upcoming auctions.
Create an alert
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
