SCOTT (Walter). — Ivanhoe. Paris, Librairie de Firmin-Didot - Lot 263

SCOTT (Walter). — Ivanhoe. Paris, Librairie de Firmin-Didot et Cie, 1880. Large 8vo, 568 pp., translated by P. Louisy, lavishly illustrated with woodcuts by Lix, Adrien Marie, Riou, and H. Scott, both in the text and as separate plates. The BnF specifically describes this edition as a single volume of 568 pages, with illustrations and plates outside the text, in a 28-cm format, as part of the “Walter Scott Illustré” collection. A beautiful illustrated edition of Ivanhoe, part of the major Walter Scott collection published by Firmin-Didot beginning in 1880. At the time, the publisher advertised volumes of 550 to 600 pages “luxuriously printed on fine paper” and adorned with numerous woodcuts. The illustrations are particularly abundant: 153 woodcuts, both in the text and as inserts, including the frontispiece, numerous full-page compositions, vignettes, initials, and end-paper illustrations. A copy of this same edition and collation is described in a recent bookstore catalog. Very elegant contemporary binding in red half-shagreen with corner pieces, marbled paper covers, a five-ribbed spine richly decorated with gilded panels featuring floral motifs, the title and author’s name in gold, gold fillets, and endpapers and inner covers in polychrome marbled paper. The binding is signed on the tail: “Firmin Didot & Cie.” This presentation appears to correspond to a deluxe publisher’s binding: another copy of this edition is described as having a very similar binding—in red half-shagreen with corner caps, a five-rib spine richly gilded, and marbled paper—attributed to the publisher. Some minor wear from handling on the fore-edges, ridges, and corners; the interior is generally fresh, with a few scattered foxing spots. A beautiful, decorative, and well-bound copy.