Morgand & Fatout (latterly, Librairie Damascène Morgand) (Paris)

Four volumes (25 cm), I (nos. 1-8, 1876-October 1878): (8) xii, 880 (2) pp., 7 colour plates (inserted after pp.598, 618, 652, 686, 714, 794, 816), illustrations. Items 1-4562; priced. Publisher’s printed wrappers bound-in. II (nos. 9-13, June 1879-June 1881): (2) xl, 930 (2) pp., 6 full-page and 2 folding colour plates (after pp.xxviii, xxxiv (2), xxxvii (2), 78, 89, 247), illustrations (some in 2 colours). Items 4563-7880; priced. Publisher’s printed wrappers bound-in. III (nos. 14-19, March 1883-December 1886): (2) 911 (1) pp., leaf of text inserted (after p.1), plate (inserted after p.796), 2 folding colour plates (after pp.52, 100), illustrations (some in 2 colours). Items 7881-11725; priced. Publisher’s printed wrappers bound-in. IV (nos. 20-24, February 1887-January 1889): (2) 1120 pp., 2 leaves of text (inserted after pp.1, 480), 9 plates (inserted after pp.48, 70, 80, 94, 110, 142, 388, 412, 436), illustrations (some in 2 colours). Items 11726-16804. Publisher’s printed wrapper (upper only) bound-in. Uniformly bound in brown buckram, top edges gilt. - The first four volumes (issues 1-24) of a work of enduring utility, seldom found complete (another six volumes were published, describing item nos. 16805-46593). The business was founded by Damascène Morgand and Charles Fatout in 1875. After the death in 1882 of Fatout, the Société Morgand & Fatout was dissolved, and Morgand continued under his name alone, until 1897, when he entered into partnership with Édouard Rahir. The “Bulletin Mensuel No. 8” dated October 1878 apparently is the second bookseller’s catalogue to be illustrated by colour (chromotypographie) plates, following a Librairie Bachelin-Deflorenne catalogue for an auction conducted earlier the same year. Included in volume I are two essays on “Le Marot-Guiffrey”, by E. Schnerb and Paul de Saint-Victor; “Reliures anciennes: reliures modernes”, unsigned; “Variétés bibliographiques: Les Farces de Georges Alione d’Asti”, by Émile Picot. Printed in volume II are essays on “Le Patissier françois des Elzevier”, by L. Potier and Ernest Quentin-Bauchart; a memoir of Trautz-Bauzonnet (1808-1879), unsigned; “Les reliures en mosaïque du XVIIIe siècle”, by “Un Bibliophile” (reprinted from Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1 October 1879); “Deux reliures en mosaïque du XVIII siècle de la Bibliothèque de Comte d’Hoym” by Baron J. Pichon; “Les Daphnis et Chloé du Régent: reliés en mosaïque”, unsigned. A printed leaf inserted before “Bulletin Mensuel No. 20” announces that all the books described therein are from Henri Beraldi’s catalogue Bibliothèque d’un bibliophile (1885), i.e. the library of Eugène Paillet. A similar notice inserted before “Bulletin Mensuel No. 22” announces that the books described therein are all from the library of Baron Gonzagues de St. Geniès. ¶ Paper occasionally brittle; a clean tear in II, pp.853-854, has caused no loss.