Olympia-2015

In his Preface Dutens, who spent much of his adult life in England, speaks of thegrowing estimation of England and the English in France since the mid eighteenthcentury, and describes how the country has changed in the last 25 years to betteraccommodate foreigners – though don’t expect them to speak French.Chapters dealing with English society (and clubs), and laws and government arefollowed by a detailed enumeration of London’s points of interest, from Poet’sCorner to the British Museum; there are chapters on bridges, palaces, pleasuregardens and London’s surroundings.ESTC shows five copies only: British Library, Polish Academy of Sciences, Cornell,Stanford, and Catholic Institute of Sydney.THE OFFICIAL FOLIO37. [ELGIN MARBLES.] Report from the select Committee on the Earl of Elgin’sCollection of sculptured Marbles; &c. Ordered, by the House of Commons, to bePrinted, 25 March 1816.Folio, pp. 77, [3, blank]; paper watermarked 1815; a very good copy in recentboards, with the original blue printed paper wrappers laid down (slightly worn andscraped); inscribed on the front cover to ‘Earl Grosvenor with Mr BankesComp[liments]’. £650First edition, the House of Commons parlimentary paper (no. 161) on the ElginMarbles – a published edition in octavo followed later in the year, printed by JohnMurray. This is a presentation copy from Henry Bankes, chairman of thecommittee, to Robert Grosvenor, later first Marquess of Westminster.In 1801, as British ambassador to Turkey, Lord Elgin had obtained access to thesculptured friezes of the Parthenon, then at risk of damage by both the Turkishgarrison and growing numbers of tourists. Excavation and removal continued forseveral years at great expense; after a period under French arrest, Elgin, and themarbles, came to London where he began negotiations to sell them to the nation.The British government purchased the marbles (at a loss to Elgin) for £35,000 inJune 1816, and they were put on display in the British Museum, though thedebate about legality still periodically raises its head today.Unlike the Murray octavo, the present folio edition is scarce: COPAC and OCLCtogether show copies at Tate, BL, Southampton; Princeton, Northwestern, Texas,Boalt Hall; and Bibliothèque nationale.38. ÉMÉRIGON, Balthazard-Marie. Traité des assurances et des contrats à lagrosse. Marseilles, Jean Mossy, 1783.Two vols, 4to, pp. [8], xvi, 686; [4], 680, [1] errata, [3] publisher’s advertisements;without the engraved frontispiece portrait sometimes found; early ink ownershipinscription to the front pastedown; a few gatherings browned and a little lightoffsetting from the binding, but a nice, crisp copy in contemporary tree calf, red