1902 First Edition Bayntun Binding - BLUEBEARD An Account of Comorre, the Cursed and Gilles de Rais.
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Author: Ernest Alfred Vizetelly.
Title: Bluebeard: An Account of Comorre, the Cursed and Gilles de Rais with Summaries of Various Tales and Traditions.
Publisher: London, Chatto & Windus, 1902. First edition.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 9 " X 6 ".
Pages: xii-418 pages.
Binding: Attractive and fine binding, finely bound by Bayntun-Riviere in half red morocco leather (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed) under a protective removable mylar cover. Upper edge gilt.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean - as shown, rare light foxing - as shown)
Illustrations: Complete with the 9 full-page illustrations.
The book: Rare, attractive and nicely bound by Bayntun-Riviere First edition of BLUEBEARD An Account of Comorre, the Cursed and Gilles de Rais. Gilles de Rais (date of birth unknown, not earlier than 1405 – 26 October 1440), Baron de Rais (French: [də ʁɛ]), was a knight and lord from Brittany, Anjou and Poitou, a leader in the French army, and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He is best known for his reputation and later conviction as a confessed serial killer of children. Rais is believed to be the inspiration for the French folktale "Bluebeard" ("Barbe bleue"), which is earliest recorded in 1697.
The author: Ernest Alfred Vizetelly (1853–1922) was an English journalist and author. He was a son of the English publisher Henry Vizetelly, by his first marriage to Ellen Elizabeth Pollard. He was known as a war correspondent.
Ernest republished some of his father's works by Émile Zola but modified them. Ernest was present with his father at the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War and wrote a memoir of his experiences My Days of Adventure; the Fall of France, 1870-71 which also contains an autobiographical introduction.
When Zola fled France for England during the Dreyfus Affair in 1898 Vizetelly supported and advised Zola.
The binder: George Bayntun was born in 1873 in Bath, England. After an apprenticeship, he began his own bookbinding business in Bath in 1894, binding books by hand with great craftsmanship. Although many binders were using machines in their process, Bayntun refused to use modern techniques.
In 1920, George Baynton purchased the business of George Gregory, Bookseller. The shop was frequently visited by Queen Mary throughout his final years.
In 1939, the George Bayntun firm acquired the Rivière Bindery, and Bayntun passed away the following year. The firm has continued throughout the years under different managers through the family line and was granted the appointment of Bookseller to Her Majesty in 1950. The Bayntun-Rivière Bindery firm has been in residence on Manvers Street in Bath since 1939. Their books are still bound by hand, and the firm is world-famous for its fine bindings, restoration, and conservation work.