Wrightsman, Jayne (1919-2019) Gabriel Saint-Aubin's Placets de l'Officier Desbans.
New York: [Printed and bound in Spain by Santiago Saavedra Ediciones of Madrid] Privately Printed for Members of the Roxburghe Club by Wrightsman, 2007.
Large folio, a facsimile edition of the 1775 illustrated manuscript in French; one of seventy-five copies printed; preface by Neil MacGregor; bound in full red morocco, a facsimile of the original Louis XVI style binding, tooled in gilt with Marie-Antoinette's arms, housed in original custom folding box, 14 1/4 x 9 1/4 in.
The original manuscript was in the possession of Baron Pichon in the late nineteenth century. It then passed into the collection Baron Maurice de Rothschild and was acquired by Wrightsman in 1963.
"This little book, made in Paris in 1775, was intended for two readers only: Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI. It is an astonishing hybrid, at once a traditional celebration of the virtues of the young monarchs, a short novel with memorable wish-fulfillment sequence, a record of two key public events, an appeal for administrative justice, and an attempt to secure a good marriage for a provincial soldier's daughter. It is an epitome of fashionable thought, feeling, and taste in Paris of the mid-1770s. Above all, it contains [...] two of the absolute mater-pieces of Gabriel de Saint-Aubin." (Quoted from MacGregor's preface.)
The bibliophilic Roxburghe Club requires each of its members to sponsor the publication of a "rare or curious" book, as it has since 1814. Copies of these bespoke volumes are presented to all Club members.
