1822 "Repertoire general du theatre francais" book [French]

A small French book with two centuries behind it. The volume is full calf leather in warm tobacco brown, banded in gilt with little starburst rosettes in each panel — still bright where the light hits. The boards have faded and rubbed to a soft, tortoiseshell look, and the page edges are a worn marbled blue-grey. Open it, and the endpapers are beautiful: deep indigo marbled paper, swirled and veined like stone. A thin green silk ribbon still sits in the gutter, right where a reader left it.

Inside is Tome 27 of the Répertoire Général du Théâtre Français — the comedies of Jean-François Regnard, one of the great French comic playwrights after Molière. Printed in Paris in 1822 by Madame Veuve Dabo at the Librairie Stéréotype on rue Hautefeuille, with a nice engraved printer's device on the title page. The paper has gone cream with age and scattered foxing.

The spine ends are chipped, the front board slightly detached (loose from the spine but still attached at the binding threads), and the leather is rubbed at the corners — the kind of honest wear that makes a stack on a nightstand or a small shelf look like it was collected, not bought.

Dimensions: 5 1/2" H x 3 1/2" W

Medium: Letterpress on laid paper; full calf leather, gilt-tooled spine, marbled endpapers, marbled edges, green silk ribbon marker

Age: 1822

Origin: Paris, France — Chez Mme Veuve Dabo, à la Librairie Stéréotype, rue Hautefeuille, No. 16

Signature/mark: None

Disclosures: Sold as-is in antique condition, 200+ years old; ne volume only (Tome 27 / Regnard Tome IV) — not a complete set; binding is holding but shows real age, and the front board is slightly detached; chipping and loss to the leather at the spine head and tail, rubbing and wear along the joints and corners, and fading to the boards; interior pages are clean and readable with scattered foxing and light toning throughout (see photos)