Théophile Gautier [ex-libris Victorien Sardou] - Fortunio [enrichi d'une lettre autographe signée de Théophile Gautier] - 1839-1839

A pristine exemplar of the original edition of Fortunio by Théophile Gautier, one of Gautier’s rarest titles, published by Desessart in 1838, in a half-mrown leather binding with corners signed R. Petit, from the library of Victorien Sardou (ex-libris of the Bibliothèque de Marly) and enriched with an autograph letter signed by Gautier concerning “Une larme du diable.”

THÉOPHILE GAUTIER.
Fortunio.
Paris, Desessart, editor, 15 rue des Beaux-Arts, 1838.
In-8 (13.5 cm x 22.5 cm), 2 pages (half-title and title), 315 pp
First printing copy, with the printing error on page 134, line 4: "plus longue que la droite" for "plus longue que la gauche"
Binding of the late XIXth century in chocolate half-mrown with corners, back with 5 nerves and compartments, author and title gilded, compartments with gilded tooling (open bloom and sprinkling of stars) surrounded by a gold rule, date “1838” and the binder’s name "R. Petit" at the tail, gold fillets at corners and joint of boards, boards and paste-downs in marbled paper with feather decorations, gilt head, red silk bookmark. Covers not preserved.
Binding signed R. Petit at the tail of the spine. This Paris workshop is that of Petit, successor to Simier, who operated in the mid-19th century. It is part of the great Simier–Petit–Thierry–Yseux lineage, one of the most renowned Parisian binding workshops of the XIXth century. R. Petit bindings are recognized by their sober elegance: half-mrown with corners, back with raised bands and richly gilt compartments, date at the tail, marbled paper. This is exactly the type of binding of this exemplar.

First edition under the title Fortunio: the novel had appeared in 1837 under the title L’Eldorado (Publications du Figaro), printed in small numbers and without an illustrated cover. Desessart reissued it in 1838 with a new title and a preface (Vicaire, III, 890-893; Carteret; Clouzot).

Provenance: ex-libris of Victorien Sardou pasted on the paste-down, “Bibliothèque de Marly – Ex libris Victorien Sardou,” with monogrammed engraving L.O.M (likely Luc-Olivier Merson) in a decor of an Ionic capital, a rose garland and antique profiles among foliage.
Sardou (1831–1908), author of La Tosca, Fedora and Madame Sans-Gêne, academicien in 1877, was a passionate bibliophile, a binder provenance collector. His Marly-le-Roi library was dispersed after his death (sales of 1909 and 1910).

About the work: Fortunio features a mysterious dandy of fabulous wealth, raised in the East, who overturns bourgeois Paris with his oriental splendor. It is one of the most brilliant novels of Romantic fantasy. On the verso of the half-title, the list of Gautier’s works announces Le Capitaine Fracasse “in press” as early as 1838, though it would not appear until 1863.
Fortunio is one of Théophile Gautier’s most singular texts. Gautier, who claimed to have missed his true vocation as a painter and spent his life producing transpositions of art in compensation, wrote to Sainte-Beuve in 1863 that it was “the last work in which I freely expressed my true thought; After that, the invasion of Cant and the necessity to submit to the conventions of newspapers plunged me into purely physical description; I did not formulate any doctrine and kept my secret idea” (in Correspondance générale, vol. VIII, pp. 202–203).

About the publisher: Desessart, Parisian editor of Gautier in the late 1830s (Fortunio, La Comédie de la mort, Une larme du diable).

Condition: binding in good condition, clean back with bright gilding, slight rubbing at the heads, corners and joints, small clear stain on one board. Interior: foxing on the half-title and title that disappear thereafter, inventory number in pencil on the guard. Ex-libris in good condition.

Leaf: autograph letter signed by Théophile Gautier (1811–1872)
No place or date, presumably 1839. A sheet of 12 cm x 16 cm, written on the recto only, on thin paper. 8 lines in black ink, with a rapid and legible hand. Greeting, courteous closing, and a beautiful signature. No envelope.
Recipient: a certain “Level,” unidentified.
“Dear Level, / I believe you owe me a small comedy titled Une larme du diable; if you would be so kind as to hand it over to my servant, you would oblige me greatly; I shall have it printed with Cleopatra and other tales & I only have an unreadable draft. / Yours truly / Théophile Gautier”
Gautier asks for the manuscript of his play, of which he only possesses an illegible draft, in order to publish it with Une nuit de Cléopâtre and other tales. It is the volume Une larme du diable, published by Desessart in 1839, i.e., with the Fortunio publisher.

Condition: good, thin paper. Fold marks, creases, light stains, remains of adhesive tape on the verso, old pencil shelf mark at top left.
A coherent whole: an 1838 novel published by Desessart, passed through the library of a great dramatist-bibliophile, accompanied by a Gautier letter about a collection published by the same publisher the following year.