Memoires de Casanova (1955, unique leather binding & signed bookplates)

With 32 colour plates by Brunelleschi, and two signed bookplates for Gordon Smith by David Bekker

Author

Publisher

Printing Details

First edition thus. Limited to 3000 copies, this being number 348. Two volumes (complete), rebound in full red leather with a unique design: the front has the form of a naked lady reclining in gilt outline, and the rear board is the gilt outline of a pair of buttocks. Housed in a thick card slipcase, with central division. Fore edge untrimmed. Silk endpapers. Each book is 27 × 20.5cm, the slipcase is 28 × 20.5 × 9cm. 346pp & 337pp. French text.

From the library of noted collector Gordon R Smith, with two different Ex Libris bookplates by David Bekker, one to each volume. Volume one's bookplate is full page shows naked ladies with cats, signed lower right and numbered lower left (36/60), whilst volume two is smaller and shows three dancing ladies, again signed and numbered. The bookplates are printed in colour.

The memoirs of Casanova, the eighteenth century Venetian gambler, eroticist and spy. The volumes cover the years 1734 to 1755 & 1755 to 1772. This set illustrated with 32 full page colour plates with tissue guards, and 79 smaller illustrations within the text, fleurons and tailpieces by Umberto Brunelleschi, printed on velin de Condat paper.

Condition

A very good set. There is a hint of fading and a little marking to the spine, and the slipcase has a bump to the lower rear right corner. The contents of the books are in very good condition, with clean pages and secure binding, and with all plates present.