RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE. LE PORNOGRAPHE, ou idées d'un honnête - Lot 165

RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE. LE PORNOGRAPHE, ou idées d'un honnête-homme sur un projet de règlement pour les prostituées... Londres, chez Jean Nourse, et se trouve à Paris, chez Delalain, 1769. In-8 of [4] and 7-368 pages, marbled calf, triple gilt fillet, ornate smooth spine, red edges (Arnaud, rel.). ORIGINAL EDITION of 2000 copies. It includes the faux-title with "Idées singulières. Première partie", which has almost always been removed from these volumes, which are sold separately. It is in this book that Restif proposes to establish prostitution as a public institution. UNIQUE EXEMPLAIRE ENRICHED WITH THE ORIGINAL DRAWING signed by Chauvet with a suite of 9 states of the frontispiece from the Gay et Doucé edition of 1879. Conforms to the collation given by Rives-Childs (pp. 5 and 6 are missing). A fine copy bound by Arnaud, a Parisian bookbinder until around 1870. Provenance: Léon Rattier Library (Ex-libris). Léon Rattier, born in 1824, was a wealthy bibliophile who collected over 3,400 works, all carefully selected and sold in 1920 and 1922 for a considerable sum at the time.