(AUCTION CATALOGUE: [GIRARDOT DE PRÉFOND]). Catalogue des Livres du Cabinet de Mr. G...D...P...
Par Guillaume-Franç. De Bure, le jeune. 3 p.l., lv, [1], 241 pp. 8vo, early 19th-cent. sheep-backed marbled boards (some faint dampstaining), flat spine nicely gilt, red leather lettering pieces on spine. Paris: G.F. De Bure, 1757. One of the choicest and most celebrated collections formed in France during the 18th century, this copy has been priced throughout in a contemporary hand. Girardot, a timber merchant, on his retirement from business, became depressed, as Bogeng relates; his doctor, Hyacinthe Baron, himself an important collector, advised him to cure his melancholia by forming a library. The result is recorded in De Bure's excellently compiled catalogue. Many of the books and MSS. in the collection were bound by Padeloup in the most luxurious fashion. 1428 lots with nine scientific instruments also sold at the end. One of the principal buyers was the Duc de La Vallière. Immediately upon having sold this collection, Girardot embarked upon forming a second, which he sold in 1769 for 50,000 francs to Count Mac-Carthy, displaying both great taste and business acumen. Nice copy. Bookplate of Anselmi vanden Bogaerde. Grolier Club, Printed Catalogues of French Books Auctions...1643-1830, 135. Guigard, II, p. 235"Ce catalogue est très estimé." Peignot, p. 100"Catalogue très estimé." Pollard & Ehrman no. 287. Taylor, Book Catalogues, p. 256.
$US2500
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