Marottes a Vendre ou Triboulet Tabletier

London: Harding and Wright. [1812].

First 12mo. pp. [vi], 288 [2]. Bound without half title. The title page gives the jocular imprint "Au Parnasse Burlesquè: Ex Officinâ de la Banque du Bel Esprit, a l'Enseigne de la Facéciosité. L'an premier de la nouvelle ère" with the colophon providing the London imprint. Very handsomely bound in red calf, lavishly decorated wide gilt border and gilt spine, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Binders stamp of C. Lewis so almost certainly Charles Lewis who was, with Kalthoeber, one of William Beckford's favoured binders. He also worked for Earl Spencer on his library and this is a lovely example of his work in near fine condition. Rare in commerce, only four copies appearing at auction in the last hundred years.
A marotte is jester's stick or bauble and this little book is a collection of French jokes, verses, anecdotes, riddles and burlesques with a satirical, Rabelaisian flavour. Robert Triphook was a well known London publisher of such jollities and this book is usually attributed to him.