Du Bellay, Les memoires, Paris, 1572, contemporary armorial binding for Charles de Bourbon-Condé, the Holford–van-der-Elst–Esmerian copy

large paper copy, folio (382 x 237 mm). Roman type, 36 lines plus headline. collation: ā⁶ 2ā⁶ 2ē⁴ a-y⁶ z⁴ A-Nn⁶, [2]O⁶: 368 leaves. Woodcut printer's device on title-page, woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces, ruled in red throughout. (Large ink stain on Aa2v, 100mm repaired tear to lower margin of H5 affecting a couple of letters, small marginal stain to o6, 40mm ink stains to S1v and S2r at fore-edge, minimal marginal worming from quire Mm to end.)

binding: Near-contemporary olive brown morocco (388 x 245 mm), wide gilt border of double fillets containing fleur-de-lys and intertwined double-C's within oval wreaths, panel containing a repeated patter of fleur-de-lys and intertwined double-C's surrounding central wreath containing arms of Charles de Bourbon-Condé, flat spine with similar gilt decoration, 2-line title lettered towards head, edges gilt, in a brown half morocco over beige cloth box. (Expert repairs to corners, spine ends, and joints, spine slightly and uniformly darkened, ink stain to fore-edge, small wormholes to head of lower pastedown.)

provenance: Charles de Bourbon-Condé, premier comte de Soissons (1566-1612), arms on binding—inked-over ownership inscription to title-page, dated 1731—George John Venables Vernon, 5th Baron Vernon (1803 -1866), sold part collection to—Robert Stayner Holford (1808-1892), by descent to—Sir George Holford (1860-1926), manuscript note in brown ink affixed to upper pastedown, his sale, Sotheby's, 5 December 1927, lot 281 ("from the collection of Lord Vernon"), sold to—Raphaël Esmerian (1903-1976), ex-libris, his sale, Tajan, 6 June 1972, lot 57—bookplate of Charles van der Elst (1904-1982)—Ader Picard Tajan & Claude Guérin with Dominique Courvoisier, Précieux livres anciens, Monte Carlo, 13 May 1985, lot 80 (upper cover illustrated), to H.P. Kraus, New York—their Catalogue 174 (New York, [1986]), item 50—Jean A. Bonna (b. 1945), ex-libris, his sale, Christie's, London, 16 June 2015, lot 74. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: USTC 7039. exhibition: Dorothy Miner, The history of bookbinding 525-1950 A.D., catalogue of an exhibition in cooperation with the Baltimore Museum of Art, 12 November 1957-12 January 1958 (Baltimore, 1957), no. 376 and Pl. 77; Grolier Club, Bookbinding styles during the Renaissance in France from the collection of Raphael Esmerian (New York, 1966), no. 48