NAPOLEON.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

"Monograph Copy: The Life and Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte". An extraordinary extra-illustrated set, produced at the turn of the 20th century in Napoleonic splendour, including the autographs of Napoleon and 33 other luminaries of the age, and 800 plates.The autographs are bound into a single volume and comprise letters, documents, and military orders. The Napoleon autograph is his bold "N" on a commercial license. Other autographs are those of his family members Lucien and Joseph, his marshals Soult and Ney, his nemesis Wellington, and the financier Necker, among many other military and civil figures.Extra-illustrating was a hobby of wealthy collectors and a profitable market for bookdealers - fill a prominent work with additional historic material, and have it finely bound, expanded to far more volumes than the original. The set was composed and bound by the Anglo-American Authors Association, a dealership who specialized in such productions. It is styled as the "Monograph Copy" on the manuscript titles pages - such sets were often given such grandiose titles. This set merges Hazlitt's biography of Napoleon with the memoirs of Napoleon's contemporaries de Bourriene and Junot. The plates, which date from across the 19th century, comprise portraits of Napoleonic figures and views of prominent buildings and historical events.

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