Beschreibung:

The Earl of Talbot's Copies - Collection des Auteurs Classiques, Francois et Latins, Imprimé Par Ordre du Roi Pour l'Éducation de Monseigneur le Dauphin: Fénélon [François], Les Adventures de Télémaque, two-volume set, one of 200 copies printed on papier vélin, L'Imprimerie de Franç. Ambr. Didot L'Ainé, Paris 1783, pp: [viii], 312; [iv], 313-613, contemporary English armorial binding of Spanish calf gilt, each cover centred by an earl's crest within the collar of the Order of St. Patrick and surmounted by a coronet, within a double-fillet border, six-compartment flat spines gilt-tooled with flowers and scrolls, fragmentary leather pieces, all edges marbled, large 4to, (2); Oeuvres de J.B. Poquelin de Molière, six-volume set, one of 250 copies, L'Imprimerie de P. Didot L'Ainé, Paris 1791-1794, pp: xxiv, 480; [iv], 525, [1]; [iv], 585, [1]; [iv], 586, [1]; [iv], 548, [1]; [iv], 532, bound en suite to the latter, this set also with the slightly later crested bookplates of Ingestre Hall to each recto pastedown, large 4to, (6), [8] Each of the works were printed as part of the series, composed of the best editions of the Ancient and Modern French Classics, edited and intended for the education of the Dauphin, Louis XVI's heir. Interestingly Fénélon's Telemaque printed by the Royal Order in 1783, six years before the storming of the Bastille, incorporated an engraved title-page vignette of the crowned Bourbon armorial bearings; by 1791, when the set of Molière's works were printed, regal dedications and devices have been dropped by the conscientious citizen-printer. Provenance: Charles Chetwynd Chetwynd-Talbot, 2nd Earl of Talbot, 2nd Viscount of Ingestre, 2nd Baron Dynevor KG, PC, FRS (1777-1849), styled Viscount of Ingestre between 1784 and 1793, was a British politician who served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland between 1817 and 1821, armorial binding to each volume; Ingestre Hall, Staffordshire, armorial bookplates to each Molière volume.