Rare - Lot 226

Rare [LASSUS (Marie Marc de) baron] Une Ascension Manquée. Souvenirs de la vingtième année par Marc de L. Paris, Martinet, 1856. In-8 (text in-12 reprinted): 2f., 222pp. Edition of 50 copies (25 on vellum, 25 on laid paper), this one on vellum (no. 21). Author's autograph letter to Count Pillet-Will. Long-grained English green morocco signed POUGET, in the style of Bozérian or Simier, richly decorated ribbed spine, wide garland of gilt scrolls and small flowers at the corners framing the boards, double gilt fillet on the edges, triple fillet inside, publisher's salmon cover preserved, gilt edges. A superb copy. Absent from the great Pyrenean libraries that have come up for sale in recent decades. This failed ascent, of "exquisite Pyreneanism" says Beraldi, is that of Mont Vallier in September 1850 in the company of isard hunter J. C. d'Ustou and guide Paoulet Rumatch. Considered a "rarity in Pyrenean bibliography", "one of the rarest pieces of Pyrenean bibliophily". In the de LASSUS family, do not confuse Marc (the father) and Bertrand (the son), author of "Minuit et Aurore au sommet du grand Vignemale" (Midnight and Dawn at the summit of the great Vignemale) and organizer of those lavish "camps" whose memory is preserved in the history of the Pyrenees (Labarère 869). Provenance: Copy from the library of Count Pillet-Will, probably Alexis, his father-in-law. This is one of the few first copies of these works that the Barons de Lassus had dressed in the same binding, the only variation being the color of the morocco. A similar copy, once in the possession of Henri Beraldi, is kept at the Bibliothèque Municipale de Toulouse and featured in the Trésors des Bibliothèques Pyrénéennes exhibition.