LE PORTEFEUILLE DES AMANS, ~ ou le Carquois epistolaire de l’amour... Paris: [Limoges: L. Bargeas fils for] Masson et Yonet, 1831.
12mo (145 × 86 mm), pp. [4], 221, [1], plus two final blank leaves, complete with half-title and folding engraved frontispiece, typographical ornaments. Uncut in the original printed blue wrappers, publisher’s adverts to the lower cover. A few minor waterstains, wrapper slightly creased, minor loss to foot of spine. An attractive unsophisticated copy
A popular guide to writing love letters, intended for the use of young men and women. Presented in pairs, there are numerous letter samples, usually from the the man to the woman, with her response. There is a useful synoptic table of the several types of love, together with a description of several invisible inks or ‘encres sympathiques’. Cf. Gay, III, 821 (editions of 1825 and 1842, attributed to Cuisin). The Bibliothèque nationale catalogue lists editions of 1825 and 1837 (but not our edition). All editions appear very rare.