MARMONTEL, Jean-François. ~ Contes Moraux ‘À Londres’ [with the first printed title giving ‘À Liège’, but actually Paris: Valade], 1780.
18mo (119 × 65 mm), pp. xx, 321, [1]; [iv], 351, [1]; [iv], 293, [1], half-titles, letterpress titles and engraved titles to each volume, plus engraved portrait (by Dupin after Cochin) and 22 plates, typogrpahic ornaments. Contemporary red morocco, gilt, triple gilt fillets to sides, panelled spines with floral tools, green morocco labels, gilt edges, green silk markers. Very slightly rubbed and darkened, two minute worm-holes to upper joint of vol. 3. A very pretty copy.
A delightful edition in ‘petit format’ by Valade, who pioneered the format before it was made ubiquitous by his successor Cazin. The Londres and Liège imprints, of course, are false (Le petit format, Paris, 1878). The Contes moraux had first appeared individually in the Mercure, with a collected edition of 1761. The plates in our Valade edition are well-executed reductions of the Gravelot plates found in the first illustrated edition of 1763. Gay I, 709-10.