Napoleon I's copy—Madgett | Histoire de Jean, duc de Marlborough, Paris, 1808

Napoleon I (association)—Madgett

Histoire de Jean Churchill, duc de Marlborough... imprimee par ordre de Sa Majeste Imperiale. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1808

FIRST EDITION, 3 volumes, 8vo, half-titles, engraved portrait and 5 large folding maps and battle plans, contemporary calf gilt, bindings rubbed

[with, loosely inserted:]

1 page letter of 25 April 1870, from booksellers Williams & Norgate to Sir Willoughby Jones, identifying Napoleon's library stamp ("Our Paris agent... thinks that the books, having the said stamp, must have proceeded from the Bibliothèque de la Malmaison")

A REMARKABLE ASSOCIATION COPY: A BIOGRAPHY OF ENGLAND'S PRE-EMINENT MILITARY LEADER OWNED BY FRANCE'S GREATEST MILITARY COMMANDER, WITH NAPOLEON'S MALMAISON LIBRARY STAMP. Napoleon had ordered the publication of this and may well have read the present volumes. The volumes were later acquired by Sir John Jones, a noted Napoleonic era General, who befriended Wellington during the Peninsular Campaign (later becoming a baronet upon Wellington's recommendation).

PROVENANCE:

Napoleon I (1769–1821), his red Malmaison stamp to titles; Major General Sir John Thomas Jones, 1st Baronet (1783–1843, noted British Army officer who served in the Napoleonic Wars), gilt stamps to upper covers ("JOHN T. JONES | R^L ENG^R"), by direct descent to Sir Willoughby Jones, 3rd Baronet (1820–1884), armorial bookplate; sale, Christie's, 16 March 2006, lot 417