Histoires ou contes du tems passé

12mo of (4) ll and 137 pp.
Red morocco, ribbed spine with the title in gilt, morocco lining edged with gold fillet and featuring a gold motif at the corners depicting chat botté, gilt edges. Trautz-Bauzonnet.

152 x 95 mm.

Perrault, Charles. Histoires ou contes du tems passé avec des moralités ; par M. Perrault. Nouvelle édition augmentée d’une nouvelle, à la fin.
La Haye, s.n. (Paris, Coustelier), 1742.

The most attractive copy described by Cohen (col. 789) of this edition of Perrault’s Fairy Tales including for the first tilme these pretty 8 thumbnails.

A lovely edition of Contes, printed in Paris by Coustellier. It includes a ninth tale, L’Adroite princesse, ou les avantures de Finette (The Clever Princess, or the Adventures of Finette), written by Marie-Jeanne L’Héritier de Villandon (1664–1734), Charles Perrault’s niece. This tale appears on pages 93 through 137.

Remarkable illustrations, in the first printing, including a frontispiece and 9 vignettes at the beginning of each tale, engraved in intaglio by Simon Fokke after compositions by Jacques de Sève. The vignettes are unsigned, with the exception of those for the first two tales: Little Red Riding Hood and The Fairies. They would be reused by the bookseller Lamy for his Parisian edition of Contes de fées in 1781. 

“Of all that Perrault wrote, nothing contributed more to his fame than a tiny little book to which he himself probably attached little importance. The idea came to him to collect the tales that children love so much to hear from their mothers and nannies when they have been good. He published them in January 1697 under the name of his son, Perrault d’Armancourt. Here is how Sainte-Beuve describes this little book: ‘Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Riquet with the Tuft, Tom Thumb—what more can be added to the mere titles of these little masterpieces? There has been much debate over whether Perrault is the true author. It is quite certain that for the material of these Tales, Perrault must have drawn from a wealth of popular tradition, and that he merely put into writing what, since time immemorial, all grandmothers have told. But his writing is simple, colloquial, marked by a naive sincerity, yet somewhat mischievous and lighthearted; it is such that everyone repeats it and believes they have invented it. The little moral lessons at the end, written in verse, clearly bear the mark of Quinault’s friend and La Fontaine’s Gallic contemporary, but they are only relevant to the story if one chooses to see them that way; they serve as its hallmark.”

It was Charles Nodier (1844) who first recognized it as “one of the most enchanting works of French prose” and placed it among the great works of French literature. Its fame grew throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, fueled by the enduring admiration that Perrault’s work has inspired in the United States.

The number of commentaries and studies devoted to it, the number of its reprints, illustrations, and varied film adaptations attest to its enduring success and immense international audience, placing this work among the great texts of world literature.

A charming binding by Trautz-Bauzonnet in red morocco with morocco lining with the design of Puss in Boots.

From the libraries of comte de Lignerolles (1894, n°1918), who chose this specific Puss in boots stamp to decorate several editions of Perrault tales he owned.

The most precious copy mentionned by Cohen : « in red Morocco with Morocco lining by Trautz, Lignerolles sale (n. 1918), sold 605 fr., sale Montgermont (1911, n. 161) ».