BARBEY D'AUREVILLY (Jules) - Lot 114

BARBEY D'AUREVILLY (Jules) [Poésies]. Caen, Hardel, 1854. Small square in-8, blue half-basin, blue chagrined percaline boards, spine decorated with gilt fillets and chain, gilt PC initials on tail, untrimmed (Lamy). Very rare first edition of the author's first booklet of poems. It was published without title or author's name by Trebutien, and includes 12 pieces in verse. The print run is estimated at 36 copies hors-commerce on hollande, plus a few copies on colored paper. Handsome signed letter from Trebutien: à Monsieur Ph. de Chennevières, souvenir d'un ami qui garde le silence mais qui n'oublie pas. Marquis Philippe de Chennevières-Pointel (1820-1899) was a great collector and art historian, and held the positions of inspector of provincial museums and director of the Beaux-Arts administration. He rubbed shoulders with the great writers and artists of his time, and figured in the first Académie Goncourt project alongside Barbey d'Aurevilly, Flaubert, Zola and Daudet. With Guillaume-Stanislas Trebutien, he published an edition of Alain Chartier's poetry in 1820. A copy with full margins, in a small square in-8 format rather than the usual square in-16 format. According to an indication in pencil on a flyleaf, it was bound in Nogent le Rotrou by Lamy 1871. Some spotting, covers rubbed.