Karl Gottlieb von Windisch | Lettres sur le joueur d'echecs..., 1783, authorial presentation copy, bound with 2 further works, nineteenth-century armorial red morocco gilt

Sammelband, containing:

(i) Karl Gottlieb von Windisch. Lettres.... sur le joueur d'echecs de M. de Kempelen. Traduction libre de l'Allemand. Basel: for the editor, 1783. Half-title, 3 engraved folding plates by G. Pintz after W. de Kempelen, plates very lightly spotted

AUTHORIAL PRESENTATION COPY ("Donné par M de Kempelen le 22 Aout [sic] 1783"), WITH THREE FOLDING ENGRAVED PLATES OF THE AUTOMATIC CHESS PLAYER. Scarce at auction.

(ii) Règles du jeu de piquet, En 28 Chapitres et 76 Articles... Nouvelle et dernière édition. Paris: Bonneville, 1803

(iii) Cointeraux. Nouveau jeu de Billard, avec la manière d'arranger les vieux billards pour çe nouveau jeu. Paris: P. Nouhaud for the author, 1805. Folding engraved plate.

8vo (202 x 126 mm), nineteenth-century armorial red morocco gilt, spine with raised bands in six compartments, second and third gilt-lettered, the rest gilt-tooled; gilt edges, inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, endleaves renewed, very light wear to upper joint, extremities slightly bumped

Karl Gottlieb von Windisch (1725-93) was a close friend of Wolfgang von Kempelen, inventor of the automaton chess player. His Lettres (published in English under the title Inanimate Reason) seem to have been part of a promotional push for the automaton that was orchestrated by von Kempelen, and is particularly valuable as the closest thing to a description of the automaton by its inventor. The detailed engravings of the automaton found in this work are based on von Kempelen's drawings. See also lot 2.

PROVENANCE:

Given by Wolfgang von Kempelen: inscription reading "Donné par M de Kempelen le 22 Aout [sic] 1783"; bound for a nineteenth-century owner with the Latin motto "orbe fracto spes illaesa"