The Private Life Of Catherine The Great Of Russia

Princesse Lucien Murat; Translated by Garnet Saffery

Published by Louis Carrier & Co., New York, 1928

About this Item

Probable First Edition (NAP). Although there are a number of other copies of this title published by Louis Carrier & Co. in 1928 that are for sale on the Internet, none of the others appear to be part of a Limited Edition. At least one of these others references a black and white frontispiece. The frontispiece illustration in my copy is in color. From the Limitation Page: 'This collectors' edition of the Private Life Of Catherine The Great, printed on utopian laid paper, for distribution in fine bindings, is limited to five hundred copies, of which this is number265.' So, this appears to be the Only limited edition for sale anywhere on the Internet. True to their description, the binding is quite 'fine'. It's a half-binding with a textured maroon leather on the spine and four corners. The covers are very clean. The leather is in very nice condition. There are small spots of rub-through at the four corners. The six edges are in nice shape, with just perhaps a tiny bit of light surface rubbing in a few spots on the bottom edge. The spine looks particularly good. Its gilt lettering and design is very bright. There's a little's rubbing at the top edge of the spine. There is also rubbing at the juncture of the spine and rear cover. Most of the binding there is very solid. However there's a 1 1/4 " long crack coming up from the bottom edge of the juncture and there is a 1/4" crack off the top edge of the juncture. Again the binding is quite solid and there isn't any give when you pull at the rear cover from the side. The front cover is not as solidly bound. It has a thin crack coming up from the bottom edge of its juncture that runs 2 3/4". You can also see a little space between the front cover and the spine going down from the top edge a couple of inches, and while that space or crack is not present at the juncture between the front inside cover and front illustrated first end paper, it is between the blank verso of the front end paper and the blank second end paper. The binding of the pages appears to be quite solid. I scrolled through and didn't find any instances of cracks or spaces between facing pages. The front cover doesn't appear to have any give either which suggests that it is still pretty solidly bound, but I would imagine a buyer might want to do a little bit of reinforcing repair. The top page edge is gilt, the middle and bottom page edges are deckled. There are condition issues with regard to the interior of the book which I'll outline. Some silly person pasted a thin strip of paper on the front inside cover with a short description of, I think, a different edition of this book and maybe a second book (this one?) that eight bookseller created. I'm kind of confused. Anyway, it's pasted down pretty hard and removing it would likely damage the inside cover. There's already a small scuff on both sides of this. I'll provide a photograph. There also appears to be a small scuff on the facing first front end paper. On the next few page, all blank end papers, there is a light water stain off the bottom edges. After that, I don't really see the outline of the stain, but the paper there is slightly ruffled or a bit wavy and that continues to be the case for a few pages. It's not very conspicuous. Another condition issue to be aware of comes from the cutting of the bottom page edges. I've found one instance where two consecutive pages have a small loss off there bottom edge, and another instance where four consecutive pages have either small losses or (and) smallish tears. All of these are far from the print. The pages are generally clean. Scrolling through I saw 6 or so small spots. There may be a few more in total. I also saw 6 consecutive pages with a light top corner crease and around a half a dozen more of the same scattered through the book. There's also a light bottom corner crease on the Index pages and blank rear end papers. So it's a singularly unique book with very attractive covers and the various condition issues. Seller Inventory # 003082

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Private Life Of Catherine The Great Of ...

Publisher: Louis Carrier & Co., New York

Publication Date: 1928

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Edition: Limited Edition