Letters From The Count De Las Cases: Consisting of a Second Letter to Prince Lucien Bonaparte, in Which is Contained an Account of the Circumstances Attending His Arrest and Removal from St. Helena; and a Letter to Sir Hudson Lowe, Comprising an Historical Detail of the Whole of that Officers Government at St. Helena, and his Oppressive Conduct Towards Napoleon and his Suite. [Cosway].

EMMANUEL, Comte de las Cases. [Napoleon Bonaparte. [Cosway].

Item Number: 122635

London: Printed for James Ridgway, 1891.

First edition of Napoleon’s biographer, Emmanuel, Comte de las Cases’ collected letters. Octavo, bound in full morocco by Bayntun-Riviere in an elaborate Cosway-style binding with hand painted miniature ivorene portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte and Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma set under glass within a gilt borders to the front panel and rear panels, gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, elaborate gilt ruling to the panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, marbled doublures and endpapers, all edges gilt. In fine condition. Exceptionally rare.

Cosway bindings (named for renowned 19th-century English miniaturist Richard Cosway) were popularized, if not invented, in the early 1900s by the renowned London bookselling firm of Henry Sotheran. The earliest Cosway bindings were created by Miss C.B. Currie who faithfully imitated Cosway's detailed watercolor style of portraiture from designs by J.H. Stonehouse, Sotheran’s manager. These delicate miniature paintings, often on ivory, were set into the covers or doublures of richly-tooled bindings and protected by a thin pane of glass.