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GOUTTARD (d.1779) -- Guillaume DEBURE, l'aîné (1734-1820). Catalogue des livres rares et précieux de feu M. Gouttard. Paris: Guillaume Debure, fils aîné, 1780, sale 5 March 1781.
8o (208 x 123 mm). (Small marginal loss on final leaf touching a few letters.) Bound circa 1781 by Nicolas-Denis Derome, le Jeune, for Simon-Pierre Mérard de Saint Just in green morocco, triple gilt fillets on sides, smooth spine richly gilt with floral, star and leaf tools, marbled endpapers, edges gilt; green cloth folding case.
Provenance: Simon-Pierre Mérard de Saint Just (1749-1812, binding, notes, described in the private catalogue of his library, 1783, no. 494: "grand papier fort, mar. vert, reliure de de Rome, le jeune, 18 liv"); René-Charles Guilebert de Pixéricourt (sale, 1838, lot 2,206 [see lot 564], bookplate removed); E. Solacroup (initials "SS" in gilt on verso of front free endpaper); Maurice Escoffier (bookplate, no. 199 in his Description, 1935); A.L. McLaughlin (bookplate, his sale, Sotheby's Monaco, 7 October 1980, lot 1,391).
THE VERY FINE MÉRARD DE SAINT JUST COPY IN A DEROME BINDING
LARGE-PAPER COPY. PRICED and with some buyers' names and notes in the hand of Mérard de Saint-Just. In Renouard's word's, Gouttard was "un des amateurs françois qui a mis le plus séverité dans son goût pour les livres, et dans le choix des exemplaires." The highlight of the collection was the number of first and early editions of the Greek and Latin classics, some on vellum. The sale, according to the full-page manuscript note by Mérard de Saint-Just, dated soon after the sale on 24 March 1781: "doit faire époque dans l'histoire de la Bibliographie. Les livres ont été porté [sic] à un tel prix par les acquéreurs, qu'il n'y a pas encore eu d'exemples d'une pareille folie dans ce genre de luxe." Nevertheless, he attended all sessions and acquired twenty-seven lots. He also added to certain lots the names of those buyers whom he knew personally, such as the Comte d'Artois, d'Hangard, Le Camus de Limaire, Loliée, Gouttard de Le Veville, "héritier du mort, dont on vendait cette bibliothèque" (lot 313, against Mérard), Anisson Du Perron fils, Naigeon, le Président de Saint-Fargeau, Pâris de Préfond, and the booksellers Bailli, Henri, Janetus, Tillard and Ysquerdo (buying for the King of Spain).
Mérard identifies the author of the introductory "Précis sur la Vie et la Bibliothèque de M. Gouttard" as "M. Naigéon, compagnon de la Boutique philosophique de Mr. Diderot", i.e. the philosopher and book collector Jacques-André Naigéon (1738-1810), who bought several lots at the Gouttard sale. Mérard also adds several notes to Naigéon's article, disparaging Gouttard's knowledge of the ancient languages. Very little is known about Gouttard, not even his first name, apart from Naigéon's statement that he had inherited wealth and died at the age of fifty-four from a disease of the chest. Blogie II, col. 14; Graesse II, p.70; North 291; Peignot, p.101; Pollard & Ehrman 296 (ordinary copy without prices); Taylor, p.243; BBB Wittockiana 17.
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Provenance: Simon-Pierre Mérard de Saint Just (1749-1812, binding, notes, described in the private catalogue of his library, 1783, no. 494: "grand papier fort, mar. vert, reliure de de Rome, le jeune, 18 liv"); René-Charles Guilebert de Pixéricourt (sale, 1838, lot 2,206 [see lot 564], bookplate removed); E. Solacroup (initials "SS" in gilt on verso of front free endpaper); Maurice Escoffier (bookplate, no. 199 in his Description, 1935); A.L. McLaughlin (bookplate, his sale, Sotheby's Monaco, 7 October 1980, lot 1,391).
THE VERY FINE MÉRARD DE SAINT JUST COPY IN A DEROME BINDING
LARGE-PAPER COPY. PRICED and with some buyers' names and notes in the hand of Mérard de Saint-Just. In Renouard's word's, Gouttard was "un des amateurs françois qui a mis le plus séverité dans son goût pour les livres, et dans le choix des exemplaires." The highlight of the collection was the number of first and early editions of the Greek and Latin classics, some on vellum. The sale, according to the full-page manuscript note by Mérard de Saint-Just, dated soon after the sale on 24 March 1781: "doit faire époque dans l'histoire de la Bibliographie. Les livres ont été porté [sic] à un tel prix par les acquéreurs, qu'il n'y a pas encore eu d'exemples d'une pareille folie dans ce genre de luxe." Nevertheless, he attended all sessions and acquired twenty-seven lots. He also added to certain lots the names of those buyers whom he knew personally, such as the Comte d'Artois, d'Hangard, Le Camus de Limaire, Loliée, Gouttard de Le Veville, "héritier du mort, dont on vendait cette bibliothèque" (lot 313, against Mérard), Anisson Du Perron fils, Naigeon, le Président de Saint-Fargeau, Pâris de Préfond, and the booksellers Bailli, Henri, Janetus, Tillard and Ysquerdo (buying for the King of Spain).
Mérard identifies the author of the introductory "Précis sur la Vie et la Bibliothèque de M. Gouttard" as "M. Naigéon, compagnon de la Boutique philosophique de Mr. Diderot", i.e. the philosopher and book collector Jacques-André Naigéon (1738-1810), who bought several lots at the Gouttard sale. Mérard also adds several notes to Naigéon's article, disparaging Gouttard's knowledge of the ancient languages. Very little is known about Gouttard, not even his first name, apart from Naigéon's statement that he had inherited wealth and died at the age of fifty-four from a disease of the chest. Blogie II, col. 14; Graesse II, p.70; North 291; Peignot, p.101; Pollard & Ehrman 296 (ordinary copy without prices); Taylor, p.243; BBB Wittockiana 17.