Charles Delort; Antoine Hamilton - ‎Mémoires du Comte de Grammont [reliure de Marcel Gambette] - 1888

Splendid binding signed by Marcel Gambette, perfectly executed in full midnight blue morocco leather.
Pages adorned with a sumptuous decoration of ironwork (scrolls, wheat ears, stars) and gilded borders, with four roses at the corners. The back with a decorated nerve panel of panels and gilded ironwork (shells and scrolls), title, date, and place stamped in gilded initials. Mosaicked endpapers in red morocco, with a roulette and rich floral border decoration, the binder's name stamped at the bottom of the first endpaper, the gilders' name (Chevalet) at the last. Guards lined with embroidered silk. Gilded edges.
Covers preserved (without the back).

Under a blue half-chagrin slipcase and a matching bordered case.

Luxurious edition of the Memoirs of the Count of Grammont illustrated with the portrait of Hamilton on the frontispiece and 33 engravings by Charles Delort, engraved in burin and etching by L. Boisson, including 11 plates outside the text, 11 headpieces, and 11 tailpieces.

Limited to 700 copies, this one being number 220 out of 500 on Marais vellum, hand-numbered and initialed by the publisher.

Condition: In excellent condition. Magnificent binding, very well preserved. Scuffs on the cover and slipcase. Interior fresh and clean, with a few rare scattered foxing spots, without severity. A fine copy.

One can legitimately wonder if there are any Memoirs more published than those of Philibert de Grammont (1621-1707), given by his brother-in-law Antony Hamilton (1646-1720): since 1713, this chronicle (mainly gallant) of the Court of Charles II Stuart has experienced an impressive number of editions. Vicaire IV, 20-21. Cf. Brunet III, 30 (for editions prior to 1859).

Charles Delort; Antoine Hamilton
Memoirs of the Count of Grammont
Paris, Conquet, 1888
in-4 (28 x 19 cm); xv-371pp.

Subject: Superb maroquin binding by Delort Hamilton, Mémoires Grammont, numbered 1888, for bibliophiles.