LESNÉ Mathurin Marie Lettre d’un relieur français à un bibliographe anglais.

Fléty, 112.

First edition. Copy of the large paper issue, printed in an edition of only 32 copies (according to a note in the Huntington Library copy).

The bookbinder Lesné practised his trade in Paris between 1809 and 1841, the year of his death. This letter is an acerbic reply to the one written by the bibliographer Thomas Frognal Dibdin. The bookbinder defends the skill of his colleagues, whom Dibdin did not deign to visit for long enough. “… But you are English, and by that fact alone exempt no doubt from that politeness which so happily distinguishes our nation from yours… I will therefore say very little about bookbinding. During your stay in Paris, you say you spent several hours examining it; in other words, you saw it as the crow flies. You even admit that you did not visit any bookbinders. If you had taken the trouble to visit the workshops of our famous artists, such as Thouvenin and Simier…”. Some overall foxing.

Provenance: S. Pirie (bookplate, sale of his collection in New York, 2015).