Details
AUGUSTE VITU
Archéologie Moliéresque: Le Jeu de Paume des Mestayers. Paris: Charles Unsinger for Alphonse Lemerre, 1883. 8°, woodcut plans and typographical facsimile, brown morocco by Thomas Alcott, 1951, top edge gilt, others uncut. Provenance: purchased from Leo Baer, Paris, 28 December 1937, for 18 shillings.
LIMITED TO 515 COPIES, this one of 500 copies on papier de Hollande of this scarce monograph on the location of the Mestayers court, famous as the first site used by Molière and the comedians of the "Illustre Théâtre" who opened it for performances on 31 December 1643. Correcting the statements made by earlier historians, including Edouard Fournier, Vitu locates the court in an area subsequently occupied by nos. 10, 12-14 on the rue Mazarine, and nos. 11 and 13 on the rue de Seine. He examines its changing ownership, quotes descriptions from early deeds of sale, reconstructs the size and appearance of the court, and describes how only vestiges of its great wall remain. Despite the almost complete destruction of the court, he triumphantly reproduces the bill of a mercer in the rue de Seine which retains the heading "Au Jeu de Paume".
Archéologie Moliéresque: Le Jeu de Paume des Mestayers. Paris: Charles Unsinger for Alphonse Lemerre, 1883. 8°, woodcut plans and typographical facsimile, brown morocco by Thomas Alcott, 1951, top edge gilt, others uncut. Provenance: purchased from Leo Baer, Paris, 28 December 1937, for 18 shillings.
LIMITED TO 515 COPIES, this one of 500 copies on papier de Hollande of this scarce monograph on the location of the Mestayers court, famous as the first site used by Molière and the comedians of the "Illustre Théâtre" who opened it for performances on 31 December 1643. Correcting the statements made by earlier historians, including Edouard Fournier, Vitu locates the court in an area subsequently occupied by nos. 10, 12-14 on the rue Mazarine, and nos. 11 and 13 on the rue de Seine. He examines its changing ownership, quotes descriptions from early deeds of sale, reconstructs the size and appearance of the court, and describes how only vestiges of its great wall remain. Despite the almost complete destruction of the court, he triumphantly reproduces the bill of a mercer in the rue de Seine which retains the heading "Au Jeu de Paume".
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