Details
[CATHERINE II, Empress of Russia (1729-1796), attributed to]. The Antidote; or an Enquiry into the Merits of a Book, Entitled A Journey into Siberia, Made in MDCCLXI in Obedience to an Order of the French King... Published by the Abbé Chappe d'Auteroche. London: S. Leacroft, 1772.
8o (230 x 140 mm). Contemporary English mottled calf, sides with wide gilt-floral border, spine gilt, brown morocco lettering piece (joints weak, front cover with small section at corner peeled). Provenance: K. Hamilton (presentation inscription from the translator); James Hewitt (1709-1789), Viscount Lifford, lord chancellor to Ireland (bookplate; inscription beneath the presentation inscription: "Hewitt given by his Aunt Hamilton").
FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, PRESENTATION COPY FROM THE TRANSLATOR, inscribed on the verso of the front free endpaper: "K. Hamilton from the translatress"). This English edition translates Antidote, ou, Examen du mauvais livre ... intitulé, Voyage on Sibérie, fait par ordre du roi en 1761, par M. l'abbé Chappe d'Auteroche, first published at St. Petersburg, 1770, and variously attributed to Catherine II of Russia, to the Princess Dashkova, and to Andrei Petrovich Shuvalov. (See lot 103 for Chappe d'Auteroche's work.) Quérard II:129. See Barbier I:212.
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FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, PRESENTATION COPY FROM THE TRANSLATOR, inscribed on the verso of the front free endpaper: "K. Hamilton from the translatress"). This English edition translates Antidote, ou, Examen du mauvais livre ... intitulé, Voyage on Sibérie, fait par ordre du roi en 1761, par M. l'abbé Chappe d'Auteroche, first published at St. Petersburg, 1770, and variously attributed to Catherine II of Russia, to the Princess Dashkova, and to Andrei Petrovich Shuvalov. (See lot 103 for Chappe d'Auteroche's work.) Quérard II:129. See Barbier I:212.