BARBEY D'AUREVILLY (Jules)

Le Chevalier des Touches. Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1879. In-12, lemon chagrin, gilt fillets framing the boards, large fleur-de-lis at the corners, in the center of the first midnight-blue morocco mosaic shield charged with three fleurs-de-lis and surmounted by a crown, ornate spine, midnight-blue title-piece, the caissons decorated with small fleurs-de-lis and a gilt mosaic umbilicus, interior lace, gilt edges and painted with black lines (Gayler-Hirou). A precious copy bound for Barbey d'Aurevilly by Gayler-Hirou, his favorite bookbinder, with the royal coat of arms evoking his hero's commitment, and decorated edges (here, two-tone). We know that the writer had copies of his books bound as he wished, as gifts for his friends and family, as he himself pointed out in a letter to Madame de Bouglon dated February 15, 1882: Je lui répondrai quand j'envoierai mon Prêtre marié (relié à ma fantaisie) à sa femme. We're working on it at the bookbinder's [...] I'm not sending you the Prêtre marié, because you already have one (Correspondance générale, IX, 1882/8, p. 16). The copy bears this autograph letter signed by Barbey, in green, violet and red inks, with a Sagittarius arrow and dusted with gold: à Mademoiselle Mathilde Biéli, son respectueux Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly. The copy was included in the exhibition organized for the centenary of the writer's death at the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris in 1989 (cf. cat. Barbey d'Aurevilly, n°115; error in the name and surname of the addressee). There are 3 handwritten corrections in the text, probably in Barbey's hand (pp. 25, 53 and 208). Bookplate bearing the initials J and M undetermined. Upper hinge fragile.