GUEULLETTE, Thomas-Simon.
The Thousand and One Quarters of an Hour (Tartarian Tales).
GUEULLETTE, Thomas-Simon.
The Thousand and One Quarters of an Hour (Tartarian Tales).
Originally published in 1715 as Mille et un quarts d’heure, contes tartares. The anonymous translation is that of Thomas Flloyd, first published as Tartarian Tales: or, a Thousand and One Quarters of Hours (London: Tonson, 1759).
Matches its companion volume in all respects. Both volumes with the armorial bookplate of John Gretton of Stapleford (1867-1947), CBE in 1914 and baronetcy in 1944. House of Commons for Derbyshire South 1895-1906. In 1900, won two Olympic gold metals in yachting. Both volumes have the tiny birds-egg blue sticker of [Frank] Murray Moray House Derby, in Gretton’s district. This suggests an interesting early link between Smithers and Nichols as clandestine publishers in London, and Murray in the provinces, who handled an odd mixture of his own clandestine publications and tedious local histories and topographical studies.
Copies in the extremely delicate bindings, which were surely intended to be replaced by sumptuous full crushed morocco with inch-deep dentelles, would not have survived in great numbers. Parchment wrappers are uniformly darkened and foxed.
