LESNÉ [(Mathurin Marie)]. La Reliure, Poëme Didactique en Six Chants... Paris: Chez Lesné,1820. First edition, [6], 246pp., half-title signed by the author. [Bound with:] ----. Épitre a Thouvenin.1823

Paris: Imprimerie de Firmin Didot, First edition, [4], 20pp., with half-title. 2 vols., bound in one, 8vo (193 x 120 mm), cont. calf backed marbled boards, spine tooled in gilt and blind, matching slip-case, an excellent copy, possibly bound by Lesné, whose style is similar to that of Thouvenin. (1) First Edition of this epic poem, written in heroic couplets and divided into six cantos, is dedicated to his son who was also a bookbinder. The long poem is preceded by a short history of bookbinding and is annotated extensively at the end giving details of contemporary binding practices. This is followed by two short essays on bookbinding. "whatever its value as poetry it is an invaluable guide to the French binders and the binding practice of the first quarter of the nineteenth century". — Ramsden. (2) Part of the ongoing row started by Dibdin when he compared current French bookbinding unfavourably with English (in the thirtieth letter of his A Bibliographical, Antiquarian, and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Vol. II, 1821). The Epistle to Thouvenin (a leading Paris bookbinder of the day) was in response to Dibdin's suggestion that some English bookbinders might come to Paris to teach the French a few useful points. Lesné (1777-1841) was a self taught binder with an enthusiasm for conservation, who took up binding at the age of 27, and worked in Paris from 1804 until his death. Pollard & Potter, 49 & 51; Ramsden, p.129; Jackson, 61; Windle & Pippin, D12.