CHODERLOS DE LACLOS (Pierre-Ambroise-François). - Lot 33

CHODERLOS DE LACLOS (Pierre-Ambroise-François). Les Liaisons dangereuses. Lettres recueillies dans une société, Et publiées pour l'instruction de quelques autres. Londres [Paris], 1796. - 2 volumes in-8, 195 x 123: frontispiece, 415 pp. 7 plates; frontispiece, (2 ff.), 398 pp. 6 plates. Red morocco, gilt roulette framing the boards, ornate smooth spine, gilt edges, slipcase (period binding, later slipcase). Sought-after edition illustrated in the first print run with two frontispieces and 13 plates, engraved on copper after Monnet, Mademoiselle Gérard and Fragonard fils. It is much rarer than its 1812 reprint. Exemplaire sur papier vergé fin, en maroquin rouge de l'époque, rare condition. It came from the library of German banker Jean Furstenberg (1890-1982). A member of a Berlin banking family and a banker himself, Jean Fürstenberg fled to France in 1938, Frenchifying his name at the time. As soon as he settled in Paris, he donated his collection of German first editions from the pre-Classical and Classical eras to the Bibliothèque nationale, a collection of 696 volumes kept in the Réserve des livres rares [...] Jean Furstenberg was also a well-informed collector, showing a particular interest in incunabula, French illustrated books and bindings from an early age, a collection he always made accessible through the publication of works and the organization of exhibitions (with catalogs). In 1981, Jean Furstenberg established a foundation at his château in Beaumesnil, Eure, where he opened a bookbinding museum. Part of his collection was sold to Dr. Otto Schäfer in 1974 and put back on the market when his library was sold in December 1995. Part of the foundation's collection of prints, drawings, incunabula and antiquarian books was sold at Drouot on November 16 and 17, 1983. In 1959, along with Julien Cain (1887-1974), administrator of the Bibliothèque nationale, he founded the Association internationale de bibliophilie." (Notice de la BNF, site reliures.bnf.fr). Tear without lack to the plate on page 207 in the first volume, without damage to the engraving. The third plate in the same volume has been brought back. Angular tear to folio D4 in the second volume, with no damage to the text. Provenance: Signature A.R. Boucht dated 1820 on endpapers. - Jean Furstenberg, with bookplate. - Otto Schäfer (Sotheby's sale, December 7, 1995, no. 352).