WARWICK, Guy de

by Guy de Warwick

£75,000 · Offered by Sokol Books

A wonderful, most beautiful copy, with remarkable provenance, of this extraordinarily rare chivalric romance concerning the English knight Guy de Warwick, almost certainly the only surviving copy in private hands and one of three known copies; the other two are held at the Bibliotheque National de France (one of which is substantially damaged).This copy of this work epitomises all the elements of bibliophilic desirability; it is beautifully printed with wonderful illustration, it was exceptionally bound by the Royal binder for a group of the most discerning bibliophiles, it has exceptional royal provenance, and is of the utmost rarity. The work was bound by Luc-Antoine Boyet (who would shortly after become the Royal binder in 1698) for a member of a very select group of bibliophiles known as Les Curieux made up of at least four members, Duvivier, Leriche, La Vieuville, and an as yet unidentified Grand Curieux . Isabelle de Conihout and Pascal Ract-Madoux describe them in detail, for the first time as a group, in the Reliures Francaises du XVII. Chefs-D Oeuvres du Mus ée Cond é pp 64-110. The books bound for this group were exclusively important and extremely rare works in French or works translated into French and were bound by Luc-Antoine Boyet in what they describe as an archa√Øsantes style. The identical gilt shield with a date between 1695-6 (here Janvier 1696) occurs on many of these binding, see Conihout Ract-Madoux page 65 figure 1. The tools on this binding also corre

• Binding: Hardcover

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