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La Fontaine (Jean de) Contes et Nouvelles

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2 vol., 'Fermiers généraux' edition, half-titles, 2 engraved portrait frontispieces by Ficquet after Rigault and Vispré, 80 engraved plates by Aliamet, Baquoy, Choffard &c. after Eisen, 'Cas de Conscience' and 'Diable de Papefiguières' both in découvert state, 4 engraved vignettes and head- and tail-pieces, discreet ink stamps to title of vol.1, 5 ink library stamps, 3 marginal, 2 to versos of titles, these feint, occasional marginal browning, contemporary red morocco, skilfully rebacked, original spines with rich floral gilt decorations and double olive morocco labels laid down, triple gilt filet borders to covers, vol.1 spine cracked, both spines slightly faded, a little minor scuffing, modern buckram slip-case, [Brunet III, p.759; Cohen de Ricci 558; Ray 26], 8vo, Amsterdam [Paris, Barbou], 1762.

***Provenance: Ink stamp of Robert Balmanno to title, ?19th century writer and critic; Lady Emilia Francis Strong Dilke, with her ink inscriptions in both volumes. She was an historian of French art and passionate scholar of literature and modern languages, especially French. She married Mark Pattison, rector of Lincoln's College, Oxford and there formed something a literary salon. Her circle included Robert Browning, Richard Congreve and most importantly to her George Eliot (Marian Lewes). It is certain that the character of Dorothea in Middlemarch was based on Dilke and that of Casaubon on her husband. She discusses the present edition of La Fontaine in her French Engravers and Draughtsmen of the Eighteenth Century, 1902. .

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