MAIRET (François-Amboise). Notice sur la Lithographie suivie d'un Essai sur la Reliure et le Blanchiment des Livres et Gravures.1824

Chatillon-sur-Seine: C. Cornillac, Second Edition, 8vo (178 x 110 mm), 228pp., with half-title, wide margin copy, frontispiece and 4 lithographed plates, some light spotting prelims and plates, orig. publishers printed boards, uncut, a very nice copy. 'Notice sur la Lithographie' was first published in 1818 without the 'Essai sur la Reliure', which first appeared in this second edition. "The lithographic matter extends over 68 pages. In the preface it is stated that the previous edition had been quickly sold off, and the author had been solicited to issue a second. In complying with this request he added the matter relating to bookbinding... The new edition was printed in a far superior manner to the old one, and the plates are much better executed, marking the progress which had been made in the interval between the two publications. Copies are now seldom met with..."—Bigmore & Wyman. "Manuals on bookbinding and its sister arts published throughout the nineteenth century also contained instructions on marbling so the French binders could learn to decorate their books' edges. The earliest of these was the second edition of François-Amboise Mairet's 'Notice sur la lithographie'... with eight of its pages devoted to 'Tranche marbrée'."—Wolfe. Provenance: Engraved circular bookplate of Bibliothèque de L. Loireau. Twyman, Lithography, p. 92-93; Bigmore & Wyman II, p. 14; Pollard & Potter, Early Bookbinding Manuals. 52; Wolfe, Marbled Paper. p. 117.