[BEAUHARNAIS Fanny de (1737-1813)]

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Lot n° 152
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[BEAUHARNAIS Fanny de (1737-1813)]
The Blind by love. Amsterdam, Et se trouve à Paris, Gueffier, 1781. In-8, red morocco, double framed with bold and thin fillets crossing at the corners, boards decorated with a bee seeded compartmented with dotted lines, coat of arms in the center, interior roulette, lining and endpapers of blue moire, roulette on the edges, gilt edges (Meslant). First edition of this novel by Fanny de Beauharnais, published anonymously. Gay-Lemonnyer, t. I, col. 2-3. Fanny de BEAUHARNAIS, born Marie-Anne-Françoise Mouchard de Chaban, married the brother-in-law of the future empress Joséphine. Very early attracted by literature, she composed verses which were collected in Mélanges de poésies fugitives et de prose sans conséquence (1772). L'Aveugle par amour is one of her charming fantasies on the theme of love, like Les Lettres de Stéphanie (1778) or Les Amants d'autrefois (1787). The academician and bibliophile Arthur DINAUX (1795-1864), who was one of the owners of this volume, detailed its provenance in a scholarly note, written and signed by his hand, dated from his property in Montataire in 1861, on the first leaf : Very remarkable volume, as much by its author, the Countess Fanny de Beauharnais, linked with Voltaire, the great Frederic, Buffon, J.J. Rousseau and Dorat, as well as by the characters through whose hands this book passed until it reached our modest collection. This work, having been composed by the aunt of the Empress Josephine and the godmother of Queen Hortense, it is not surprising to see it enter the private library of the Emperor Napoleon who had it covered with a very luxurious binding for the time, enriched with a multitude of imperial bees, in the center of which shines the plate of the Empire's arms. The bookbinder of the palace, Meslant, outdid himself on this occasion. From the Emperor's house, this volume passed to the granddaughter of its author, the Dowager Grand Duchess Stephanie of Baden, born on August 26, 1789, who became for a time the adopted daughter of Napoleon, who married her on April 7, 1806 to the hereditary prince of Baden. On the title of the book, and on page 9, a capital S, surmounted by a closed crown, mark of the particular library of the grand duchess, born Beauharnais. This princess died in the spring of [1860, the date is not written]. Her books were sold in 1861, in Manheim, the place of her residence, and it was at this auction that a German bookseller was able to buy, for my benefit, this volume which sums up in itself so many memories. Montataire, 1861. - A. Dinaux A charming copy in a decorated binding by Meslant, with the arms of Napoleon. It then belonged to the grand duchess Stéphanie de Bade, née Beauharnais, whose stamp it bears. The decoration with bees in compartments drawn by undulating dotted lines is to be compared with that of another binding signed by Meslant, also covering a work by Fanny de Beauharnais, L'Abailard supposé (1780); this volume, now in the BnF reserves, was acquired from the Anne Lamort bookstore (cf. catalog XXIII, May 2011, n°8). Endpapers slightly torn at the hinge. Some foxing, stains due to the return of the skin on the paper endpapers.
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