ROUSSEAU (Jean-Jacques)

Lot 143
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Estimation :
600 - 800 EUR
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Result : 5 263EUR
ROUSSEAU (Jean-Jacques)
Confessions. With a preface by Marc-Monnier. Paris, Librairie des bibliophiles, Jouaust, 1881. 4 volumes in-8 of 2 ff.n.ch., XXXVIII pp., 1 ff.n.ch., 207 pp.; 2 ff.n.ch., 231 pp.; 2 ff.n.ch., 346 pp. and 1 ff.n.ch, 273 pp. and 1 f.n.ch.: olive morocco, Du Seuil decoration, ornate spine, interior lace, gilded edges on witnesses, cover (Chambolle-Duru). Portrait of the author after a pastel by Quentin de La Tour, and 12 figures, all engraved with etching by Jules Hédouin. This edition was printed in 220 copies in large paper, in in-8 format: this is one of the 20 on Whatman paper including the engravings in double state. The copy served as a shield for its owner during the Russian revolution of 1917: two of the volumes bear the mark of the bullets they stopped. This is indicated by an unsigned note (one in-8 page folded in two) attached to the copy, whose anecdote, which is a miracle, is confirmed by Carteret in the Trésor du bibliophile (I, p. 31): "Shortly before his death, the park of this rich collector was invaded by a group of revolutionaries who agreed with his people. They approached the castle and shot the Count, whom they saw behind the window of his library. Anticipating this shooting, the Count seized at random two of the four volumes bound in morocco, forming the Jouaust edition of the Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau which were on his table. He opened them mechanically and placed them in front of him in order to preserve his heart and his abdomen; he thus avoided death. I have in my hands these sad pieces of evidence [...] the text was pierced by two bullets which, after passing through the entire thickness of the paper making a hole similar to that which would be left by a large punch, perforated the cardboard of the binding and stopped just at the morocco, which was hardly damaged". The survivor in question was Count Auguste Zakrzewski: Carteret, who advised him in the formation of his library - which was dispersed during the
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