“PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT LANDMARK IN DORÉ’S CAREER”: HIS GREAT BIBLE, WITH 220 FULL-PAGE WOOD-ENGRAVINGS, IN ORIGINAL FULL MOROCCO-GILT

(DORÉ, Gustave). The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments, According to the Authorised Version. With Illustrations by Gustave Doré. London, Paris, and New York: Cassell Peter and Galpin, circa 1884. Two volumes. Large quarto (9-1/2 by 12 inches), original full black morocco, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, patterned endpapers, all edges gilt. $6000.

Later edition of Gustave Doré’s great illustrated Bible, splendidly illustrated by him with 220 full-page wood-engravings and beautifully bound in contemporary, elaborate morocco-gilt. A lovely copy.

"In the 1870s, The Doré Bible was perhaps the most treasured (and expensive) book in the world" (Malan, 81). Certainly, it proved a milestone in Doré's career. "Whereas he had to hawk round to publishers his drawings for the Rabelais [part of his intended series of volumes illustrating the masterpieces of literature], only to see them ruined by the cheap-jack who eventually took them on, the Bible was enthusiastically sponsored by one of the greatest French publishers of illustrated books of the day, Mame of Tours… Its original reception was truly remarkable… A second edition of the Bible was called for almost at once… Editions appeared in almost every European country… One of the first off the mark was an English edition from Cassell, Petter and Galpin, 1867. This caused an even greater sensation than the French edition, and the demand among collectors for any and everything by Doré was clamorous" (Muir, 224). With Apocrypha. This is a later edition of Doré's Holy Bible printed in a slightly more manageable quarto format rather than the earlier folio format (9-1/2 by 12 inches rather than 12 by 15 inches) first published in 1867. This edition also contains 220 large engraved plates rather than the 238 plates found in the earliest editions. Malan, 239. Herbert 1977.

Scattered foxing. A near-fine copy.