This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/21/2024
Cabinet des Fées, Le, ou Collection Choisie des Contes des Fées, et Autres Contes Merveilleux. Edited by Charles-Joseph de Mayer. 41 volumes. Geneva and Paris: Barde, Manget and Cuchet, 1785-89. 12mos. A total of 20,472 pages, plus prefatory material and tables. 41 volumes. Approximately 6 ½ x 3 ¾”. Contemporary red morocco backed marbled boards; illustrated with 120 copperplate engravings by Pierre-Clement Marillier. Some light to moderate wear and rubbing, otherwise a nice set. FIRST EDITION THUS (perhaps a pirated printing of the Amsterdam edition of the same year.) THE FIRST ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FAIRY TALES, CONTAINING THE WORKS OF MANY OF THE KNOWN AUTHORS OF THE PERIOD FROM THE LATE 17TH CENTURY TO THE MID 18TH CENTURY. Volume one contains the works of Charles Perrault and Madame Murat; volumes two to four and six contain the works Madame d’Aulnoy; volumes seven to eleven contain the Arabian Nights; volumes twenty nine and thirty contain the Tales of the Genii; volume thirty two contains the work of Madame Lintot; the last four volumes contain the Contes Arabes des Fees, taken from the Arabian Nights; volume thirty seven is the index containing “notice des auteurs” and “liste complète des ouvrages le Cabinet des Fées”; volumes twenty six and thirty five contain very early printed versions of the tale Beauty and the Beast - the first is by Madame Villeneuve; the second by Madame Le Prince de Beaumont. The Cabinet of fairies, or Select Collection of fairy tales and other fairy tales, is a collection of stories compiled by Charles Joseph Mayer (1751-1825) which appears in Amsterdam and Geneva between 1785 and 1789. It includes forty-one volumes, presenting the texts of forty storytellers, including Charles Perrault, Madame d’Aulnoy, Mademoiselle Leprince de Beaumont, Mademoiselle de La Force, Miss L’Heritier, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the knight Mailly, and more. Each volume is illustrated with copperplates, drawn by Mr. Marillier and engraved under the direction of Nicolas Delaunay. The Cabinet of Fairies brings together tales of the 17th century, in order to preserve them from oblivion at a time when these tales which were told verbally in salons, fell out of fashion. The editor, like the Grimm Brothers, collected tales irrespective of geographical origin: French tales alongside Oriental tales, Arab, Turkish, Indian and Chinese. Mayer seemingly made a number of choices, such as not including salacious tales, including many little known authors, yet attaching importance to popular authors such as Charles Perrault and Madame d’Aulnoy. Most of the French authors are women, who were members of the salons, which were fashionable in Paris in the mid to late 17th century. It was in these salons that the modern fairy tale was born; Madame d’Aulnoy is credited with telling the first of these tales, which were published.