Essai sur la restauration des anciennes estampes et des livres rares ou traite sur les meilleurs procedes a suivre pour reparer, detacher, decolorier et conserver les gravures, dessins et livres. Ouvrages specialement utile aux artistes, aux collectionneurs, aux marchands d'estampes, aux bibliophiles, etc.

Bonnardot, Alfred (1808-84). Essai sur la restauration des anciennes estampes et des livres rares . . . [4], 80pp. [Paris:] Chez Deflorenne neveu . . . et chez Vignères, 1846. With: Supplément a l'Essai sur la restauration des vielles estampes, etc. . . . contenant des corrections, notes, éclaircissements, et addition d'un chapitre sur la relieure des livres rares [caption title]. 31pp. Paris: Imprimerie de Guiraudet et Jouaust, n.d.

Together 2 works in 1. 206 x 131 mm. 20th century quarter morocco, paste paper boards. Fine.

First Edition of the first book on the restoration of rare books and their bindings. Bonnardot was a Parisian bookbinder and restorer; his work also covered the cleaning and repair of prints and other works of art on paper, and was intended for artists, collectors, print dealers and bibliophiles. The fourteen chapters in the work cover such topics as bleaching, spot removal, repair of tears and holes, restoring the blackness of an impression, print conservation and the particular issues associated with works printed on parchment, satin and other unusual materials. The Essai was printed in a small edition of 400 copies and quickly went out of print. Some time afterwards Bonnardot issued a supplement to the Essai containing 15 pages of revisions to his original text and a fifteenth chapter on "The restoration and provisional binding of rare books"; this supplement is included here. In 1858 Bonnardot published a revised and greatly enlarged second edition of the Essai, portions of which were translated into English in Alfred Buck's Book Repair and Restoration (1918).