Details
CLAUDIN, Anatole (1833-1906). Histoire de l'Imprimerie en France au XVe et au XVIe siècle. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1910-1914.
4 volumes, large 2o (425 x 319 mm). 33 plates, 32 in color, approximately 3,000 reproductions, many full-page and printed in gold and color. Uniformly bound in 4 volumes, the first three signed by H. Zucker, Philadelphia, the fourth by Morrell, London (ca 1975): olive green crushed levant morocco, spines gilt-decorated and -letterered, top edges gilt, others uncut.
LIMITED EDITION, one of the few copies printed on Imperial Japanese vellum from an edition of 500 copies, of Claudin's monumental work which is, at the same time, one of the most magnificent productions of the Imprimerie Nationale since its inception in 1640. As Arthur Christian, its director, wrote in 1904, when the first two volumes had already appeared: "...l'Imprimerie Nationale a voulu ... élever un monument à la typographie française, universellement renommée, et produire un livre vraiment national, tel qu'il n'en existe encore dans aucun pays" (Débuts de l'Imprimerie en France, pp. 149-153). It was printed in Garamond's Caractère de l'Université, freshly recast from the old punches. Provenance: John B. Stetson (his sale Parke Bernet, 1953, Part II, lot 45); Francis Kettaneh (bookplates).
[With:] Tables alphabetiques, rédigées...par Paul Lacombe. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1915 [reprint, Nendeln: Kraus-Thomson, 1971]. Small 2o. Original blue buckram.
Claudin died before he could see vol. IV through the press, although the first 460 pages were already printed or existed in proof; Paul Lacombe edited the remaining pages. Although printed in 1914, the volume was only published in 1920, but without Lacombe's Index which only survived in page proof; it was from that page proof that the reduced Kraus reprint was made in 1971. In 1926 De Ricci was unaware of its existence. Claudin's work was originally planned in six volumes; the first four only cover Paris and Lyon, the other two were to deal with some forty French sixteenth century printing places, for which he had already accumulated a vast quantity of material, including over 700 line-blocks for the illustrations. Seymour De Ricci rescued these blocks and printed them, together with their identifications, in 1926. They are preceded with De Ricci's bibliography of Claudin, inclusive of his bookseller's catalogues, and the sale catalogues compiled by him. The present four-volume set of the main work is very fine: the first three volumes were bound for the Philadelphia collector John B. Stetson who, however, never had volume IV bound; they later belonged to Francis Kettaneh. (5)
4 volumes, large 2
LIMITED EDITION, one of the few copies printed on Imperial Japanese vellum from an edition of 500 copies, of Claudin's monumental work which is, at the same time, one of the most magnificent productions of the Imprimerie Nationale since its inception in 1640. As Arthur Christian, its director, wrote in 1904, when the first two volumes had already appeared: "...l'Imprimerie Nationale a voulu ... élever un monument à la typographie française, universellement renommée, et produire un livre vraiment national, tel qu'il n'en existe encore dans aucun pays" (Débuts de l'Imprimerie en France, pp. 149-153). It was printed in Garamond's Caractère de l'Université, freshly recast from the old punches. Provenance: John B. Stetson (his sale Parke Bernet, 1953, Part II, lot 45); Francis Kettaneh (bookplates).
[With:] Tables alphabetiques, rédigées...par Paul Lacombe. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1915 [reprint, Nendeln: Kraus-Thomson, 1971]. Small 2
Claudin died before he could see vol. IV through the press, although the first 460 pages were already printed or existed in proof; Paul Lacombe edited the remaining pages. Although printed in 1914, the volume was only published in 1920, but without Lacombe's Index which only survived in page proof; it was from that page proof that the reduced Kraus reprint was made in 1971. In 1926 De Ricci was unaware of its existence. Claudin's work was originally planned in six volumes; the first four only cover Paris and Lyon, the other two were to deal with some forty French sixteenth century printing places, for which he had already accumulated a vast quantity of material, including over 700 line-blocks for the illustrations. Seymour De Ricci rescued these blocks and printed them, together with their identifications, in 1926. They are preceded with De Ricci's bibliography of Claudin, inclusive of his bookseller's catalogues, and the sale catalogues compiled by him. The present four-volume set of the main work is very fine: the first three volumes were bound for the Philadelphia collector John B. Stetson who, however, never had volume IV bound; they later belonged to Francis Kettaneh. (5)