PRINCE LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE: HIS LIFE, CAPTIVITY AND ESCAPE FROM THE FORTRESS OF HAM. [IE:BEFORE HIS TIME AS PRESIDENT, AND THEN AS EMPEROR NAPOLEON III]

First Edition Thus. Hardback. 8vo. xi, 388 pp, with a frontis portrait, two plates, one folding plan, and 3 folding facsimile letters. Originally published in 1846 as The Prisoner of Ham. The last 50pp consist of printed notes. The title page and portrait are a little stained and soiled, and damage to the bottom margins up to p.4 has been professionally made good: contents clean. An attractive handwritten family tree on a large folded sheet has been accommodated in a pocket inside the back cover, and the same early owner's extensive notes on the original rear free endpaper have been bound in. Also laid in is a twist of silken baby hair, which seems likely to have the same provenance. In a recent binding of dark brown half calf with marbled boards, gilt ruled spine with a black lettering-piece. Scarce.