About this Item
CURRIE, Miss C.B., [artist]. RIVIÈRE & SON, [binder]. Journal of my Life During the French Revolution. By Grace Dalrymple Elliott. London: Richard Bentley, 1859. Full Description: [COSWAY BINDING]. CURRIE, Miss C.B., [artist]. RIVIÈRE & SON, [binder]. Journal of my Life During the French Revolution. By Grace Dalrymple Elliott. London: Richard Bentley, 1859. Octavo (8 5/8 x 5 3/8 inches; 218 x 137 mm). [2, colophon], [i]-206, [1, printer's imprint], [1, blank], [28, publisher's ads] pp. With half-title. With frontispiece portrait and one other engraved plate. All pages within a printed red border. Bound by Rivière & Son in full red morocco ornately tooled in gilt. Font cover with two oval miniature paintings on ivory under glass by Miss C.B. Currie. Paintings are surrounded by gilt tooling. Boards ruled and tooled in gilt, with floral corner devices. Spine decoratively gilt-tooled in compartments, and lettered in gilt. Board edges and turn-ins tooled in gilt. With gray watered silk endleaves. Top edge gilt, others uncut. With gilt stamp-signed by binder on front turn-in. The front board fore-edge gilt stamped with "Cosway-Binding", and on board edge fore-edge gilt-stamped "Invented by J.H. Stonehouse." The colophon page states that "This is No. 900 of the Cosway bindings invented by J.H. Stonehouse, with Miniatures on Ivory by Miss Currie." Colophon is signed by Stonehouse and Miss. Curry. Housed in a red cloth, velvet-lined clamshell case with brown morocco spine labels. A lovely and charming copy in fine condition. The top oblong oval miniature painting, is the profiles of the family of Louis XVI including Marie Antoinette and measures (2 1/2 x 2 inches; 62 x 50 mm). The lower oval miniature is of the young Dauphin and measures (1 1/2 x 1 7/8 inches; 47 x 38 mm). These two miniatures by Miss C.B. Currie exemplify her exquisite skill and elegance in the art of miniature painting. "Grace Dalrymple Elliot was a Scottish courtesan, writer and spy resident in Paris during the French Revolution. She was an eyewitness to events detailed in her memoirs, Journal of my life during the French Revolution (Ma Vie sous la Révolution) published posthumously in 1859. She was mistress to the Duke of Orléans and to the future George IV, by whom she is said to have borne an illegitimate daughter. Elliott trafficked correspondence and hid French aristocrats escaping from the French Revolution. She was arrested several times but managed to avoid the guillotine, and was released after the death of Robespierre." (Wikipedia). HBS 68817. $15,000.
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