Bidspirit auction | Louise Cortambert

Louise Cortambert - Lote 101 - Le Langage des Fleurs, 7ª Edição - Louise Cortambert, 1858. Published in 1858 in Paris by the bookseller-publisher Audot, this esteemed 7th Edition (Septième Édition) of ”Le Langage des Fleurs, ” written under the pseudonym Charlotte de la Tour by author Louise Cortambert, is one of the most celebrated, poetic, and influential nineteenth-century works dedicated to floriography (the language and symbolism of flowers), guiding the reader through the seasons by attributing specific feelings, legends, and meanings to each flower, functioning as a refined conversational dictionary inspired by Eastern traditions. This octavo copy, with 308 pages, is bound in an absolutely stunning and luxurious romantic editorial binding of the period in green percaline, displaying a spine and both covers richly ornamented with an identical and extraordinary gilded and polychrome plate (with gilded reliefs and details painted in shades of blue, red and white with floral motifs and volutes), with all the edges of the leaves entirely gilded. The interior stands out for its excellent state of preservation, containing a perfectly clean and firm text block, profusely enhanced by a set of twelve superb hors-texte engravings, finely hand-colored and protected by their respective serpentine leaves, which depict with remarkable botanical accuracy and artistic delicacy various floral compositions (such as lilies, roses and forget-me-nots). The pedigree of this copy is exceptional and documents a common provenance with the preceding lots from the same private library, bearing on the front flyleaf the handwritten ownership signature in black ink of the prestigious collector Valdemar Cordeiro, accompanied by meticulous handwritten notes in pencil that detail the collation of the work (”7th Edition”, ”12 engravings”, ”Audot Paris”), establishing itself as a piece of the highest level and rare aesthetic presence for collectors of illustrated books of Romanticism.